t it right to
sacrifice that opinion to the interests of his party. The fact
is, if Peel had imparted his sentiments to his party he might
have prevented their dividing on this question with the greatest
ease. There is nothing they are not ready to do at his bidding,
but his coldness and reserve are so impenetrable that nobody can
ascertain his sentiments or divine his intentions, and thus he
leaves his party in the lurch without vouchsafing to give them
any reason or explanation of his conduct. In the meantime the
other party (as if each was destined to suffer more from the
folly of its friends than the hostility of its foes) has been
thrown into great confusion by Lord Milton's notice to propose an
alteration in the franchise, and a meeting was called of all the
friends of Government at Althorp, when Milton made a speech just
such as any opponent of the Bill might make in the House of
Commons, going over the old ground of Fox, Pitt, Burke, and
others having sat for rotten boroughs. They were annoyed to the
last degree, and the more provoked when reflecting that it was
for him Althorp had been led to spend an immense sum of money,
and compromise his character besides in the Northamptonshire
election. His obstinacy and impracticability are so extreme that
nobody can move him, and Sefton told me that nothing could be
more unsatisfactory than the termination of the meeting. I guess,
however, that they will find some means or other of quieting him.

The Opposition divided last night 187 against 284 on the question
of hearing counsel for the condemned boroughs--not so good a
division for the minority as they expected, and after a very
powerful speech of Attwood's, to which nobody listened.

There is a fresh access of alarm on account of the cholera, which
has broken out at St. Petersburg, and will probably spread over
Germany. The cordon of troops which kept it off last year from
St. Petersburg appears to have been withdrawn, which is no doubt
the cause of its appearance there. We have constant reports of
supposed cases of disease and death, but up to this period it
does not appear to have shown itself here, though a case was
transmitted to us from Glasgow exceedingly like it. The sick man
had not come from any infected place. The Board of Health are,
however, in great alarm, and the authorities generally think we
shall have it. From all I can observe from the facts of the case
I am convinced that the liability to conta