t O'Connell and his trial, and we have more
fears he will be acquitted than hopes that he will be convicted.
They still burn in the country, and I heard the other day that
the manufacturing districts, though quiet, are in a high state of
organisation.

January 25th, 1831 {p.108}

Met Colonel Napier[12] last night, and talked for an hour of the
state of the country. He gave me a curious account of the
organisation of the manufacturers in and about Manchester, who
are divided into four different classes, with different objects,
partly political, generally to better themselves, but with a
regular Government, the seat of which is in the Isle of Man. He
says that the agriculturists are likewise organised in Wiltshire,
and that there is a sort of free-masonry among them; he thinks a
revolution inevitable; and when I told him what Southey had
said--that if he had money enough he would transport his family
to America--he said he would not himself leave England in times
of danger, but that he should like to remove his family if he
could.

[12] [Sir William Napier, author of the 'History of the
Peninsular War.'.]

The King is ill. I hope he won't die; if he does, and the little
girl, we shall have Cumberland, and (though Lyndhurst said he
would make a very good King the other night) that would be a good
moment for dispensing with the regal office. It is reported that
they differ in the Cabinet about Reform; probably not true. What
a state of terror and confusion we are in, though it seems to
make no difference.

January 31st, 1831 {p.109}

At Roehampton on Saturday; Lord Robert Spencer and Sir G.
Robinson. Agar Ellis had just resigned the Woods, after asking to
be made a Peer, which they refused. All last week nobody thought
of anything but O'Connell, and great was the joy at the charge of
Judge Jebb, the unanimous opinion of the King's Bench, and the
finding of the Grand Jury. Whatever happens, Government are now
justified in the course they have taken; and now he has
traversed, which looks like weakness, and it is the general
opinion that he is beaten; but he is so astute, and so full of
resources, that I would never answer for his being beaten till I
see him in prison or find his popularity gone. The subscription
produced between L7,000 and L8,000. It is an extraordinary thing,
and the most wonderful effect I ever heard of the power of moral
causes over the human body, that Lord Anglesey, who has