things are
talked of.

Dined yesterday with General Macdonald to meet the Kembles. Miss
Fanny is near being very handsome from the extraordinary
expression of her countenance and fine eyes, but her figure is
not good. She is short, hands and feet large, arms handsome, skin
dark and coarse, and her manner wants ease and repose. Her mother
is a very agreeable woman. I did not sit next to Fanny, and had
no talk with her afterwards.

March 18th, 1831 {p.130}

Met Robert Clive yesterday morning; very low about the Bill,
which he thinks so sure to be carried that he questions the
expediency of dividing on the second reading; complained bitterly
of the bad tactics and want of union of the party, and especially
of Peel's inactivity and backwardness in not having rallied and
taken the lead more than he has; he is in fact so cold,
phlegmatic, and calculating that he disgusts those who can't do
without him as a leader; he will always have political but never
personal influence.

March 20th, 1831 {p.130}

On Friday night, after not a long but an angry and noisy debate,
there was a division on the timber duties, and Government was
beaten by forty-three, all the Saints, West Indians, and
anti-Free-traders voting with the great body of Opposition. Their
satisfaction was tumultuous. They have long been desirous of
bringing Ministers to a trial of strength, and they did not care
much upon what; they wanted to let the world see the weakness of
Government, and besides on this occasion they hoped that a defeat
might be prejudicial to the Reform Bill, so that this matter of
commercial and fiscal policy is not decided on its own merits,
but is influenced by passion, violence, party tactics, and its
remote bearing upon another question with which it has no
immediate relation. Althorp was obliged to abandon his original
proposition of taking off 5s. from the duty on Baltic timber,
which is 55s. (and 45s. on deals), and adding 10s. to the
Canadian, which is already 10s. He proposed instead to take off
6s. from the former this year, 6s. next, and 3s. next, so as to
give plenty of time for the withdrawal of capital, and to meet
all contingencies. The proposal was not unfair, and in other
times would have been carried. Poulett Thomson made a very good
speech, clear and satisfactory. Peel was what is called very
factious--that is, in opposition--just what the others were,
violent and unreasonable as far as the question is concerned,