Wharncliffe was
apprehensive) rather leaning towards the Duke, but I endeavoured
to persuade him that Lyndhurst was quite sure to adopt upon
consideration the line which appeared most conducive to his own
interest and importance, that he had always a hankering after
being well with Lord Grey and the Whigs, and I well remembered
when the late Government was broken up he had expressed himself
in very unmeasured terms about the Duke's blunders, and the
impossibility of his ever again being Prime Minister; that with
him consistency, character, and high feelings of honour and
patriotism were secondary considerations; that he relied upon his
great talents and his capacity to render himself necessary to an
Administration; that it was not probable he would like to throw
himself (even to please the Duke) into an opposition to the
earnest desire which the great mass of the community felt to have
the question settled; and that both for him and themselves much
of the difficulty of separating themselves from the Duke might be
avoided by the manner in which it was done. I entreated him to
use towards the Duke every sort of frankness and candour, and to
express regret at the necessity of taking a different line,
together with an acknowledgment of the purity of the Duke's
motives; and if this is done, and if other people are made to
understand that they can separate from the Duke _on this
occasion_ without offending or quarrelling with him, or throwing
off the allegiance to him as their political leader, many will be
inclined to do so; besides, it is of vital importance, if they do
get the Bill into Committee, to secure the concurrence of the
Duke and his adherents in dealing with the details of it, which
can only be effected by keeping him in good humour. On the whole
the thing looks as well as such a thing can look.

CHAPTER XVII.

Measures for carrying the Second Reading of the Reform Bill in
the House of Lords--The Party of the Waverers--The Russo-Dutch
Loan--Resistance of the Tory Peers--Lord Melbourne's Views on
the Government--Macaulay at Holland House--Reluctance of the
Government to create Peers--Duke of Wellington intractable--
Peel's Despondency--Lord Grey on the Measures of Conciliation--
Lord Wharncliffe sees the King--Prospects of the Waverers--
Conversations with Lord Melbourne and Lord Palmerston--Duke of
Richmond on the Creation of Peers--Interview of Lord Grey with