y night, Macaulay opposing him;
so yesterday morning he came down to the House and gave it up. It
is remarkable that he made an admirable speech in defence of his
clause, was unusually and enthusiastically cheered, Macaulay's
speech falling very flat, and to all appearance the whole House
with Stanley, yet upon division he only carried it by some seven
or eight votes. It is said that after the vote he could not do
otherwise than give it up, but that if he had taken a higher tone
in his speech, and treated it as a compact fixed and agreed upon,
which nothing could shake, and to which he was irrevocably
pledged, he would have carried the House with him, and have got a
larger majority. But the truth is that the House of Commons is in
such a state that it is next to impossible to say what Ministers
can or ought to do, or what the House will do. There is no such
thing as a great party knit together by community of opinion,
'idem sentientes de republica.' The Government conciliate no
attachment, command no esteem and respect, and have no following.
Althorp is liked, Stanley admired, but people devote themselves
to neither; every man is thinking of what he shall say to his
constituents, and how his vote will be taken, and everything goes
on (as it were) from hand to mouth; by fits and starts the House
of Commons seems rational and moderate, and then they appear one
day subservient to the Ministers, another riotous, unruly, and
fierce, ready to abolish the Bishops and crush the House of
Lords, and to vote anything that is violent. The Tories in the
House of Commons are lukewarm, angry, frightened: they say, Why
should we come and support a Government that won't support
itself? the Government from weakness or facility, or motives of
personal feeling and partiality, suffers itself to be bearded and
thwarted by its own people, and does nothing. Duncannon, on the
triennial motion the other night, stayed in the House of Lords
and would not vote, there are some half-dozen of them whose votes
the Ministerial bench cannot count upon. Then it is no small
aggravation to the present difficult state of things that Stanley
does not appear to be a man of much moral political firmness and
courage, a timid politician, _ignavus adversum lupos_. He is bold
and spirited against individuals, but timid against bodies, and
with respect to results. Labouchere went to him some time ago,
and told him that it was evident a feeling was growing up in the