ith Bingham Baring[13] yesterday, and met Whateley,
Archbishop of Dublin, a very ordinary man in appearance and
conversation, with something of pretension in his talk, and
telling stories without point, which smelt of the Common room;
nevertheless he is a very able man, and they told me that when he
is with such men as Senior, and those with whom he is very
intimate, he shines. I was greatly disappointed with what I saw
and heard of him. The Church Bill has been in the House of Commons
these two nights. Peel introduced his motion for dividing the Bill
in a very able speech, well adapted to the purpose, if anything
was to be gained in such a House of Commons; but the fact is, both
parties look beyond the immediate question: one wants to bolster
up the present system, the other to overthrow it, and though I go
along with Peel on his _point_, I go along with his opponents on
their _principle_. He stated, however, very forcibly the dilemma
in which his opponents are placed, and said, 'Why don't you make
the Establishment Catholic at once, openly and avowedly, or
abstain from doing what has that inevitable tendency?' Melbourne
said there was no escape from this, and I replied that I would
take him at his word, and that it must come to this, and he might
immortalise himself by settling the question. It certainly would
be a glorious field for a statesman to enter upon to brush away
all the obstacles which deeply rooted prejudices and chimerical
fears founded on false reasoning throw in his way, and bend all
his energies to a direct and vigorous course of policy, at once
firm and determined, looking the real evil in the face, and
applying the real remedy to it. If I were Prime Minister I would
rather fall in the attempt than work on through a succession of
expedients none of which were satisfactory to myself, to hold
language at variance with my opinions, and to truckle to
difficulties which it is now time boldly to face. I am as
satisfied as of my existence that if the heart's core of Peel
could be laid open, it would be found that he thinks so himself.
His is not the conduct of conviction, and he has been led into
contradictions and inconsistencies which must ever beset and
entangle those who persist in the attempt to maintain positions
which have ceased to be tenable.

[13] [Afterwards the second Lord Ashburton.]

Goodwood, July 29th, 1835 {p.281}

To Petworth on Saturday and here on Monday; a smaller party than