be filled up, and a saving
would be made. My predecessors Cottrell and Fawkener always
acted, their successors Bailer and Chetwynd were incompetent, and
Lack, the Chancellor's Clerk, was made Assistant-Secretary, and
did the work. Huskisson and Hume, his director, made the business
a science; new Presidents and Vice-Presidents succeeded one
another in different Ministerial revolutions; they and Lack were
incompetent, and Hume was made Assistant-Secretary, and it is he
who advises, directs, legislates. I believe he is one of the
ablest practical men who have ever served, more like an American
statesman than an English official. I am anxious to begin my
Trade education under him.

Parliament is going to adjourn directly for three or four weeks,
to give the Ministers time to make their arrangements and get rid
of the load of business which besets them; although there is
every disposition to give them credit for good intentions, and to
let them have a fair trial, there are not wanting causes of
discontent in many quarters.

[Page Head: LORD GREY AND LORD LYNDHURST.]

All the Russells are dissatisfied that Lord John has not a seat
in the Cabinet, and that Graham should be preferred to him, and
the more so because they know or believe that his preference is
owing to Lambton, who does what he likes with Lord Grey. My mind
has always misgiven me about Lord Grey, and what I have lately
heard of him satisfies me that a more overrated man never lived,
or one whose speaking was so far above his general abilities, or
who owed so much to his oratorical plausibility. His tall,
commanding, and dignified appearance, his flow of language,
graceful action, well rounded periods, and an exhibition of
classical taste united with legal knowledge, render him the most
finished orator of his day; but his conduct has shown him to be
influenced by pride, still more by vanity, personal antipathies,
caprice, indecision, and a thousand weaknesses generated by these
passions and defects. Anybody who is constantly with him and who
can avail themselves of his vanity can govern him. There was a
time when Sir Robert Wilson was his 'magnus Apollo' (and
Codrington), till they quarrelled. Now Lambton is all in all with
him. Lambton dislikes the Russells, and hence Lord John's
exclusion and the preference of Graham. Everybody remembers how
Lord Grey refused to lead the Whig party when Canning formed his
junction with the Whigs, and declared that he abd