f the
Exchequer. Great, then, was the exultation of the Opposition when
it was found that no reductions would be made, and that the
measure of this Government only differed from that of the last in
the separation of the King's personal expenses from the other
charges and a _prospective_ reduction in the Pension List. There
was not much of a debate. Althorp did it ill by all accounts;
Graham spoke pretty well; and Calcraft, who could do nothing while
in office, found all his energies when he got back to the
Opposition benches, and made (everybody says) a capital speech.
There is certainly a great disappointment that the Civil List does
not produce some economical novelty, and to a certain degree the
popularity of the Government will be affected by it. But they have
taken the manliest course, and the truth is the Duke of Wellington
had already made all possible reductions, unless the King and the
Government were at once to hang out the flag of poverty and change
their whole system. After what Sefton had told me of the
intentions of Government about the Pension List, and my reply to
him, it was a satisfaction to me to find they could not act on
such a principle; and accordingly Lord Althorp at once declared
the opinion and intentions of Government about the Pensions,
instead of abandoning them to the rage of the House of Commons.
There is not even a surmise as to the intended measure of Reform,
the secret of which is well kept, but I suspect the confidence of
the Reformers will be shaken by their disappointment about the
Civil List. It is by no means clear, be it what it may, that the
Government will be able to carry it, for the Opposition promises
to be very formidable in point of numbers; and in speaking the two
parties are, as to the first class, pretty evenly divided--Palmerston,
the Grants, Graham, Stanley, John Russell, on one side; Peel,
Calcraft, Hardinge, Dawson, on the other; fewer in numbers, but
Peel immeasurably the best on either side--but in the second line,
and among the younger ones, the Opposition are far inferior.

February 9th, 1831 {p.111}

Just got into my new home--Poulett Thomson's house, which I have
taken for a year. The day before yesterday came the news that the
French had refused the nomination of the Duc de Nemours to the
throne of Belgium, the news of his being chosen having come on
Sunday. The Ministers were _rayonnants_; Lord Lansdowne came to
his office and told it me with prodigious