e said so much.
The committee began to sit yesterday; it was not a secret
committee, but they agreed to request members not to come in;
however, the tail would go in, and they found it would be a
difficult matter to exclude them, for which reason, and because
Sheil had no friend on the committee, they unanimously agreed
that the House should be invited to add O'Connell to it, and
after some difficulty raised by John Russell, this was consented
to.

February 14th, 1834 {p.058}

Last night at Miss Berry's met Mrs. Somerville, the great
mathematician. I had been reading in the morning Sedgwick's
sermon on education, in which he talks of Whewell, Airy, and Mrs.
Somerville, mentioning her as one of the great luminaries of the
present day. The subject of astronomy is so sublime that one
shrinks into a sense of nothingness in contemplating it, and
can't help regarding those who have mastered the mighty process
and advanced the limits of the science as beings of another
order. I could not then take my eyes off this woman, with a
feeling of surprise and something like incredulity, all
involuntary and very foolish; but to see a mincing, smirking
person, fan in hand, gliding about the room, talking nothings and
nonsense, and to know that La Place was her plaything and Newton
her acquaintance, was too striking a contrast not to torment the
brain. It was Newton's mantle trimmed and flounced by Maradan.

February 17th, 1834 {p.058}

In the House of Commons the Sheil committee came to a sudden
termination. It was a silly and discreditable business, and
people were glad it ended. The course adopted was this: they took
the 'Examiner' newspaper, containing the paragraph inculpatory of
Sheil, and they called on Hill to prove his case. Hill called
witnesses, one of whom, Macaulay, refused to speak. He said he
would not repeat what had passed in private conversation. The
committee approved, and Hill threw up his case, held out his hand
'with strong emotion' to Sheil, made ample apologies, and Sheil
was acquitted. Then came the apologies in the House of Commons.
Peel told me that he was convinced Sheil really had never said
what was imputed to him; but that he said something tantamount,
though very loosely, is probable, and the people who had told
Althorp would not come forward to bear him out, so that he was
forced to apologise too, but he did it very reluctantly. The
Irishmen, however, had not done, and O'Dwyer (formerly a
rep