vernment, and they think, by availing themselves of them
dexterously, they will be able to defeat the measure. They all
seem to think that the Oxford election has been attended with
most prejudicial effects to the cause. It has served for an
argument to the Cumberland faction with the King, and has
influenced his Majesty very much.

Huskisson made a speech last night which must put an end to any
hopes of assistance to the Opposition from him and his party,
which it is probable they looked to before, and I dare say the
Duke of Cumberland has held out such hopes to the King. The
correspondence between the Duke of Wellington and the Duke of
Cumberland was pretty violent, I believe, but the Duke of
Cumberland misrepresents what passed both in it and at their
interview. He declared to the Duke that he would not interfere in
any manner, but refused to leave the country; to Madame de Lieven
he said that the Duke had tried everything--entreaties, threats,
and bribes--but that he had told him he would not go away, and
would do all he could to defeat his measures, and that if he were
to offer him L100,000 to go to Calais he would not take it. The
degree of agitation, alternate hopes and fears, and excitement of
every kind cannot be conceived unless seen and mixed in as I see
and mix in it. Spring Rice said last night he thought those next
four days to come would be the most important in the history of
the country of any for ages past, and so they are. I was told
last night that Knighton has been co-operating with the Duke of
Cumberland, and done a great deal of mischief, and that he has
reason to think that K. is intriguing deeply, with the design of
expelling the Conyngham family from Windsor. This I do not
believe, and it seems quite inconsistent with what I am also
told--that the King's dislike of Knighton, and his desire of
getting rid of him, is just the same, and that no day passes that
he does not offer Mount Charles Knighton's place, and, what is
more, that Knighton presses him to take it.

March 5th, 1829 {p.182}

Great alarm again yesterday because the Duke, the Chancellor, and
Peel went down to Windsor again. Dined at Prince Lieven's. In the
evening we learned that everything was settled--that as soon as
the King found the Duke would really leave him unless he gave
way, he yielded directly, and that if the Duke had told him so at
first he would not have made all this bother. The Duke of
Cumberland was there (at