umstances so delicate, and in which
one false step, any hasty measure, or even incautious expression,
may be attended with consequences of immense importance. I feel
justified in this view of his political fitness by contemplating
the whole course of his career, and the signal failure which has
marked all his foreign policy. If Canning were now alive we might
hope to steer through these difficulties, but if he had lived we
should probably never have been in them. He was the only statesman
who had sagacity to enter into and comprehend the spirit of the
times, and to put himself at the head of that movement which was
no longer to be arrested. The march of Liberalism (as it is
called) would not be stopped, and this he knew, and he resolved to
govern and lead instead of opposing it. The idiots who so rejoiced
at the removal of this master mind (which alone could have saved
them from the effects of their own folly) thought to stem the
torrent in its course, and it has overwhelmed them. It is
unquestionable that the Duke has too much participated in their
sentiments and passions, and, though he never mixed himself with
their proceedings, regarded them with a favourable eye, nor does
he ever seem to have been aware of the immensity of the peril
which they were incurring. The urgency of the danger will
unquestionably increase the impatience of those who already think
the present Government incapable of carrying on the public
business, and now that we are placed in a situation the most
intricate (since the French Revolution) it is by no means
agreeable to think that such enormous interests are at the mercy
of the Duke's awkward squad.

Sefton gave me an account of the dinner in St. George's Hall on
the King's birthday, which was magnificent--excellent and well
served. Bridge[3] came down with the plate, and was hid during
the dinner behind the great wine-cooler, which weighs 7,000
ounces, and he told Sefton afterwards that the plate in the room
was worth L200,000. There is another service of gold plate, which
was not used at all. The King has made it all over to the Crown.
All this plate was ordered by the late King, and never used; his
delight was ordering what the public had to pay for.

[3] [Of the house of Rundell and Bridge, the great
silversmiths and jewellers of the day.]

September 9th, 1830 {p.043}

[Page Head: GLOOMY FOREBODINGS.]

Came from Stoke the day after the Egham races, and went to Bro