the event of Lord Grey's resignation he
looked to the King's sending for Peel to form a Government (much
as Canning did when Lord Liverpool died), principally composed of
course of the _purest_ materials, but not exclusively, and that
he did not think the great body of the Liberal party would make
any difficulty of accepting office under Peel; that Stanley would
not. He (Tavistock) thinks that Peel could not come into office
_with_ the Duke of Wellington; the Tories (Irvine, e.g.) think he
would not come in _without_ him.

December 18th, 1833 {p.044}

Went with Moore yesterday morning to the State Paper Office, and
introduced him to Lemon.[4] It was at the new office, where the
documents are in course of arrangement, and for the future they
will be accessible and useful. John Allen told Moore the other
day that he considered that the history of England had never
really been written, so much matter was there in public and
private collections, illustrative of it, that had never been made
use of. Lemon said he could in great measure confirm that
assertion, as his researches had afforded him the means of
throwing great light upon modern history, from the time of Henry
VIII. The fact is, that the whole thing is conventional; people
take the best evidence that has been produced, and give their
assent to a certain series of events, until more facts and better
evidence supplant the old statements and establish others in
their place. They are now printing Irish papers of the time of
Henry VIII., but from the folly of Henry Hobhouse, who would not
let the volume be indexed, it will be of little service. In the
evening dined with Moore at the Poodle's. He told a good story of
Sydney Smith and Leslie the Professor. Leslie had written upon
the North Pole; something he had said had been attacked in the
'Edinburgh Review' in a way that displeased him. He called on
Jeffrey just as he was getting on horseback, and in a great
hurry. Leslie began with a grave complaint on the subject, which
Jeffrey interrupted with 'O damn the North Pole.' Leslie went off
in high dudgeon, and soon after met Sydney, who, seeing him
disturbed, asked what was the matter. He told him what he had
been to Jeffrey about, and that he had in a very unpleasant way
said, 'Damn the North Pole.' 'It was very bad,' said Sydney;
'but, do you know, I am not surprised at it, for I have heard him
speak very disrespectfully of _the Equator_.'

[4] [Robert Lem