et Minister who has shown
anything like a faculty to support Peel. It was rather amusing to
see the attempt of Peel to take the dogs off the scent of
Londonderry and throw them on that of Knatchbull; but they were
soon whipped off, and put again upon the right track. There was
one good hit. A Sir George Strickland, attacking Knatchbull, said,
'Talk of the Right Honourable Baronet as a Reformer, indeed, when
_I remember_ his coming down night after night during the Reform
Bill, and opposing every part and particle of it, clause after
clause,' when Knatchbull took his hat off and said, 'I was not a
member of that Parliament.'

[3] [The Marquis of Londonderry had been appointed
Ambassador to St. Petersburg.]

March 15th, 1835 {p.226}

The Londonderry debate has made a great sensation, and is a
source of prodigious triumph and exultation to the Opposition. In
the morning I met Lady Peel, who was full of compassion for
Londonderry, and said, 'He had behaved very nobly about it.'
Nobody doubts that he cannot go, whether he resigns voluntarily
or not; but, end how it may, it is a disastrous occurrence. If
Government should persist in the appointment, they would be
beaten by a great majority, and the House of Commons would vote
him out; if it is given up, it is a monstrous concession to the
violence and power of the House of Commons, for however
objectionable the appointment may have been, it is not so
outrageous as to call for the interference of Parliament with the
King's undoubted prerogative, and on the whole the principle of
such interference may be considered more inconvenient than
submitting to the appointment itself. It will probably lead
before long to other encroachments upon the Executive power, and
we shall soon see the House of Commons interfering about
everything.

[Page Head: THE DUKE ON LORD LONDONDERRY.]

In the evening I met the Duke of Wellington at Lady Howe's, who
talked about the affair, and said that he was not particularly
partial to the man, nor ever had been; but that he was very fit
for that post, was an excellent Ambassador, procured more
information and obtained more insight into the affairs of a
foreign Court than anybody, and that he was the best relater of
what passed at a conference, and wrote the best account of a
conversation, of any man he knew. I said this might be all true,
but that though _he_ knew it, the generality of people did not,
and the public could only