n
of supporting the second reading.' This is certainly a great
victory, and I do believe mainly attributable to our exertions,
to the spirit we have infused into Melbourne himself, and the use
we have made of Wharncliffe and Verulam, and the different little
circumstances we have brought to bear upon the discussion. What
now remains is the most difficult, but I shall do all I can to
engage Peers to take a moderate determination and to declare it.
Lamb told me that the King has an aversion to making _a few_
Peers, that he has said he would rather make twenty-five than
five, that whatever he must make he should like to make at once,
and not to have to return to it. Anyhow, time is gained, and a
victory for the moment.

London, January 20th, 1832 {p.233}

[Page Head: WHARNCLIFFE'S INTERVIEW WITH THE KING.]

Came up on Monday last. I have been changing my house, and so
occupied that I have not had time to write. Wharncliffe came to
town on Wednesday, and came straight to my office to give me an
account of his interview with the King, in which it appears as if
he had said much about what he ought, and no more. He told his
Majesty that the reports which had been circulated as to the
disposition and intentions of himself and his friends, and the
argument for the necessity of making Peers, which he understood
to have been founded on these reports, had compelled him to ask
for this audience, that he wished to explain to his Majesty that
he (Lord Wharncliffe) had no intention of opposing the second
reading of the Reform Bill as he had done before, that he had
reason to believe that many others would adopt the same course,
and if Ministers showed a moderate and conciliating disposition
in the House of Commons, he was persuaded they would have no
difficulty in carrying the second reading in the House of Lords.
He then implored the King well to consider the consequences of
such a _coup d'etat_ as this creation of Peers would be; to look
at what had happened in France, and to bear in mind that if this
was done for one purpose, and by one Government, the necessity
would infallibly arise of repeating it again by others, or for
other objects. He was with the King an hour dilating upon this
theme. The King was extremely kind, heard him with great
patience, and paid him many compliments, and when he took leave
told him that he was extremely glad to have had this conversation
with him. Sir Herbert Taylor gave Lord Wharncliffe to un