f any Government
that may succeed them.

To speculate upon probabilities is impossible; the new Government at
present consists of the Duke, Lyndhurst, and Peel, and till it shall
be seen of what materials the complete structure is composed, and
what principles they enunciate, it is idle to discuss the matter.
Lyndhurst and I agreed cordially that all the evils of the last four
years--the breaking up of their Government, and the Reform Bill that
was the consequence of that catastrophe--were attributable to the
High Tories. Whatever may be their wishes now, they can hardly play
the same game over again; they must support this Government, even
though it shall not act upon the highflying principles which they so
fondly and obstinately cherish. Their salvation and that of all the
institutions to which they cling require that they should support
the Duke and Peel in carrying on the government upon those
principles on which, from the circumstances of the times and the
events which have occurred, an Administration _must_ act in order to
have a shadow of a chance of being tolerated by the House of Commons
and the country. Lyndhurst is sensible of this; I wish Peel may be
so likewise. If they both are I have little fear for the Duke.

November 19th, 1834 {p.154}

[Page Head: DUKE OF WELLINGTON IN OFFICE.]

Laid up these two days with the gout in my knee, so could not go
out to hear what is going on. The Duke, I find, after the Council
on Monday (losing no time), repaired to the Home Office and
ordered the Irish papers to be brought to him, then to the Foreign
Office, where he asked for the last despatches from Spain and
Portugal, and so on to the Colonial Office, where he required
information as to the state of their department. I have no doubt
he liked this, to play the part of Richelieu for a brief period,
to exercise all the functions of administration. They complain,
however, and not without reason, of the unceremonious and somewhat
uncourteous mode in which without previous notice he entered into
the vacant offices, taking actual possession, without any of the
usual preliminary civilities to the old occupants. Duncannon, who
had been in the Home Office up to the time of the Council on
Monday, and whose papers were unremoved, if he had returned after
it, would have found the Duke seated in his still warm chair,
issuing directions to Phillips, the under-secretary, while
Macdonald, Duncannon's private secretary, was sti