with Lady Brownlow. Yesterday half
the people went to Belton; it was nearly impossible to get any
talk with the Duke. He told me that the Russians were in no hurry
to do any overt act in Turkey, and that their policy was as it
had always been--to work very gradually. I asked him if he
thought they really intended a permanent occupation of Turkey. He
said certainly not; that they could not bear the expense of a
war, which in that case would ensue; that the difference of the
expense between their own and a foreign country was as between
10d. and 4s. a man.

To-day I have been all over this Castle; the arrangements are
admirable, and the order and cleanliness of every part of the
offices and the magnitude of the establishment are very
remarkable, and such as I have never seen elsewhere. This
afternoon Gosh [Mr. Arbuthnot] came and sat with me, and talked
over all matters, which I have heard from him before, though he
has forgotten it, which he well may, for his intellect, never
very bright, seems to be almost entirely obscured. I daresay I
have put down these things before, but as they are curious scraps
of history they may as well go down again. It all relates to the
break-up of Lord Grey's Government in '32, and the abortive
attempts of the Duke to form an administration.

The King had given his word that he had never promised to make a
single peer. Doubts arose whether he had not told a lie; they
pressed him on this point (Wellington and Lyndhurst); he
persisted in his denial, upon which they requested Taylor might
be sent for, and all the correspondence produced, when they found
he was pledged up to the throat, and without reserve. The King
then attempted to get out of it by saying he had consented to
call up the sons of Scotch peers and give to Irish peers English
peerages, which he did not consider a creation of peers!

[Page Head: DUKE OF WELLINGTON AND MR. PEEL.]

When the Duke accepted the commission to form a Government, it
was resolved to prorogue Parliament, and Lyndhurst was desired by
the King to go to Lord Grey and tell him such was his pleasure.
Lyndhurst forgot it! In after times, those who write the history
of these days will probably discuss the conduct of the great
actors, and it will not fail to be matter of surprise that such
an obvious expedient was not resorted to, in order to suspend
violent discussions. Among the various reasons that will be
imagined and suggested, I doubt if it will occur