mely unpopular."

No letter from Canning has arrived; but this probably proceeds from
his directing to Maidenhead, which was the case with the last
letter he wrote to Lord G----.

Ever affectionately yours,

C. W. W.

What will my worthy colleagues in the Empire of the East do about
this _fracas_ at Canton? Must they not shut up shop? On this head I
have nothing to say to them. I am for sending out a detachment of
capital convicts from the Old Bailey Sessions, since, provided they
are allowed to hang a sufficient number, it is all the Chinese
Government requires.

Lord Eldon had not recovered his good humour, nor reconciled himself to
the new servants his sovereign had called to his counsels, and when he
could not express his dissatisfaction orally, he rarely failed to do so
in writing to his confidential friends--now and then, however, with
characteristic caution, denying the authorship of the bad jokes he took
pains to circulate.[81] The proceedings of the Legislature he regarded
with real alarm whenever their object was to alter what the public
voice pronounced capable of amendment, or prune what was judged
superfluous. The vote of the House of Commons on the 1st of March, for
discontinuing the services of one of the Lords of the Admiralty, and
that given on the 2nd of May for getting rid of one of the
Postmasters-General, his Lordship called "stripping the Crown naked,"
and represents the King as suffering from severe illness, occasioned by
these attacks, as he considers them, on the Royal prerogative.[82] His
acknowledged talent as a lawyer, however, joined to his earnest
advocacy of the cause of which he was one of the stoutest champions,
ought to suggest allowances for such harmless exaggerations.

[81] Twiss's "Life of Lord Eldon," vol. ii. p. 63.

[82] Ibid., p. 64.

The Catholic question having been put off in the House of Lords till
the 21st of June, other questions of a more popular character,
including Parliamentary Reform, the Importation of Corn, the
amelioration of the Criminal Code, the continuation of the Alien Act,
the state of the Currency, and the Tithe system in Ireland, the
influence of the Crown, and the suppression of the Slave Trade, came
under consideration in this month.

The ball referred to in Mr. Fremantle's note, was given for the benefit
of the suffering poor of Ireland at the King's Theatre, London, on the
30th of May