ings, reproached him with
having kept him in town on account of this Bill in the summer,
'and thereby having been the cause of the death of his son.'
Richmond said in his life he never witnessed so painful a scene,
or one which excited such disgust and indignation in every member
of the Cabinet. Lord Grey was ready to burst into tears, said he
would much rather work in the coal-mines than be subject to such
attacks, on which the other muttered, 'and you might do worse,'
or some such words. After this Durham got up and left the room.
Lord Grey very soon retired too, when the other Ministers
discussed this extraordinary scene, and considered what steps
they ought to take. They thought at first that they should
require Durham to make a public apology (i.e. before all of them)
to Lord Grey for his impertinence, which they deemed due to
_them_ as he was _their_ head, and to _Althorp_ as having
occurred in his house, but as they thought it was quite certain
that Durham would resign the next morning, and that Lord Grey
might be pained at another scene, they forbore to exact this.
However, Durham did not resign; he absented himself for some days
from the Cabinet, at last returned as if nothing had happened,
and there he goes on as usual. But they are so thoroughly
disgusted, and resolved to oppose him, that his influence is
greatly impaired. Still, his power of mischief and annoyance is
considerable. Lord Grey succumbs to him, and they say in spite of
his behaviour is very much attached to him, though so incessantly
worried that his health visibly suffers by his presence. There is
nothing in which he does not meddle. The Reform Bill he had a
principal hand in concocting, and he fancies himself the only man
competent to manage our foreign relations. Melbourne, who was
present at this scene, said, 'If I had been Lord Grey, I would
have knocked him down.'

December 13th, 1831 {p.227}

Lord John Russell brought on his Bill last night in a very feeble
speech. A great change is apparent since the last Bill; the House
was less full, and a softened and subdued state of temper and
feeling was evinced. Peel made an able and a bitter speech,
though perhaps not a very judicious one. There are various
alterations in the Bill; enough to prove that it was at least
wise to throw out the last. Althorp, who answered Peel,
acknowledged that if the old Bill had been opposed in its
earliest stage it never could have been brought forward agai