King
approves) of seven sheets; what a mass of silly verbiage there
must have been to wade through.[1]

[1] [This is not just. The published correspondence of King
William IV. and Earl Grey proves that the King's
letters were written by Sir Herbert Taylor with the
greatest ability.]

July 3rd, 1833 {p.002}

Nothing to put down these last two days, unless I go back to my
old practice of recording what I read, and which I rather think I
left off because I read nothing, and had nothing to put down; but
in the last two days I have read a little of Cicero's 'Second
Philippic,' Voltaire's 'Siecle de Louis XIV.,' Coleridge's
'Journey to the West Indies;' bought some books, went to the opera
to hear Bellini's 'Norma,' and thought it heavy, Pasta's voice not
what it was. Everybody talking yesterday of Althorp's exhibition
in the House of Commons the night before (for particulars of which
see newspapers and Parliamentary debates). It is too ludicrous,
too melancholy, to think of the finances of this country being
_managed_ by such a man: what will not people endure? What a
strange medley politics produce: a wretched clerk in an office who
makes some unimportant blunder, some clerical error, or who
exhibits signs of incapacity for work, which it does not much
signify whether it be well or ill done, is got rid of, and here
this man, this good-natured, popular, liked-and-laughed-at good
fellow, more of a grazier than a statesman, blurts out his utter
ignorance before a Reformed Parliament, and people lift up their
eyes, shrug their shoulders, and laugh and chuckle, but still on
he goes.

July 4th, 1833 {p.003}

[Page Head: SALUTES TO THE ROYAL FAMILY.]

At Court yesterday, and Council for a foolish business. The King
has been (not unnaturally) disgusted at the Duchess of Kent's
progresses with her daughter through the kingdom, and amongst the
rest with her sailings at the Isle of Wight, and the continual
popping in the shape of salutes to Her Royal Highness. He did not
choose that this latter practice should go on, and he signified
his pleasure to Sir James Graham and Lord Hill, for salutes are
matter of general order, both to army and navy. They (and Lord
Grey) thought it better to make no order on the subject, and they
opened a negotiation with the Duchess of Kent, to induce her of
her own accord to waive the salutes, and when she went to the
Isle of Wight to send word that as sh