compromise of any sort with the Queen.

Adieu. You shall hear to-morrow.

Ever truly yours,

W. H. F.

In the months of October and November it became evident that the frenzy
outside the Houses of Parliament was exerting an influence within its
walls. Notwithstanding Lord Grenville's manly declaration in his place
in the House of Lords, on the 6th of November, that the proceedings
before that assembly had furnished a mass of evidence that, in nine
hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand, would have ensured a
conviction, several influential members of the Whig party as boldly
declared that nothing of the slightest importance had been brought
forward against the Queen.

The proceedings were drawing on, but the aspect of affairs looked
blacker every hour. "Matters here are in a critical state," writes Lord
Sidmouth to Mr. Bathurst, on the 27th of October. "Fear and faction are
actively and not unsuccessfully at work; and it is possible that we may
be in a minority, and that the fate of the Government may be decided in
a few days."[45] Plumer Ward, in his "Diary," has this entry under the
date of November 2nd:--

[45] Dean Pellew's "Life of Lord Sidmouth," vol. iii p. 333.

"Called upon [Wellesley] Pole. He was at breakfast, and we had a
long chat. He thought everything very bad--Ministers, Opposition,
King, Queen, Country--and what was more, no prospect of getting
right. All ties were loosened. Insolence and insubordination out of
doors; weakness and wickedness within. The Whigs, he said, were
already half Radicals, and would be entirely so if we did not give
way. I said his brother, the Duke [of Wellington], felt this too,
but would not give way, nevertheless. He replied that the issue
would soon be tried, for the Queen's question must determine it;
and asked how I calculated it would be. I said I could not hope for
a majority of more than thirty--so many friends of Government were
against us on the policy, though they had no doubt of the guilt."[46]

[46] "Memoirs," by Phipps, vol. ii. p. 70.

Under these untoward circumstances, sanguine members of the neutral
party were, as usual, speculating on a change in the Government. His
Majesty, according to some accounts, was taking the matter very
pleasantly. "The King," said Wellesley Pole, "to use his expression,
was as merry as a grig. At first he had been annoyed, but was now
e