ounter-petitions of
Oxford and Cambridge and the medical bodies. The assemblage was
rather curious, considering the relative political position of
some of the parties. All the Cabinet Ministers were summoned;
Lords Grey and Holland were there, the Chancellor, Denman,
Lyndhurst, Eldon, the two Archbishops, and the Bishop of London.
Old Eldon got a fall as he came into the house and hurt his head.
Brougham and the rest were full of civilities and tenderness, but
he said 'it was of no consequence, for the _brains_ had been
knocked out long ago.' Wetherell made an amusing speech, and did
not conclude. It is seldom that the sounds of merriment are heard
within those walls, but he made the Lords laugh and the gallery
too. There were Allen of Holland House and Phillpotts sitting
cheek by jowl to hear the discussion.

May 11th, 1834 {p.080}

More than three weeks, and _rebus Newmarketianis versatus_, I
have written nothing. The debate on the repeal of the Union was
more remarkable for the length than the excellence of the
speeches, except Spring Rice's, which was both long and good, and
Peel's, the latter supereminently so. O'Connell spoke for five
hours and a quarter, and Rice for six hours; each occupied a
night, after the manner of American orators. The minority was
much smaller than was expected. Since that the only question of
consequence in the House of Commons has been the Pension List, on
which Government got a larger majority than they had hoped for,
and such an one as to set the matter at rest for some time. Peel
again spoke very well, and old Byng made a very independent,
gentlemanlike speech. Independence now-a-days relates more to
constituents than to the governing power. Nobody is suspected of
being dependent on the Crown or the Minister, and the question is
if a man be independent of the popular cry or of his own
constituency.

The King has been exhibiting some symptoms of a disordered mind,
not, however, amounting to anything like actual derangement, only
morbid irritability and activity--reviewing the Guards and
_blowing up_ people at Court. He made the Guards, both horse and
foot, perform their evolutions before him; he examined their
barracks, clothes, arms, and accoutrements, and had a musket
brought to him, that he might show them the way to use it in some
new sort of exercise he wanted to introduce; in short, he gave a
great deal of trouble and made a fool of himself. He was very
angry with Lord d