grands orateurs, et il desirait a
present entendre Monsieur Macaulay.'

February 7th, 1832 {p.247}

[Page Head: RELUCTANCE TO MAKE PEERS.]

Called on Melbourne. He said he had not meant Haddington to
understand that it was desirable the declaration should be
delayed; on the contrary, that it was desirable Ministers should
be informed as speedily as possible of the intentions of our
friends and of the force they can command, but that if only a few
declared themselves, they would certainly be liable to the
suspicion that they could not get adherents; he added that every
man in the Government (except one) was aware of the desperate
nature of the step they were about to take (that man of course
being Durham.) I told him that his communication to Haddington
had to a certain degree had the effect of paralysing my
exertions, and he owned it was imprudent. I was, however,
extremely surprised to hear what he said about the Cabinet, and I
asked him if it really was so, and that all the members of it
were _bona fide_ alarmed at, and averse to, the measure; that I
had always believed that, with the exception of those who were
intimate with him, they all wanted the pretext in order to
establish their power. He said no, they really all were conscious
of the violence of the measure, and desirous of avoiding it; that
Lord Grey had been so from the beginning, but that Durham was
always at him, and made him fall into his violent designs; that
it was 'a reign of terror,' but that Durham could do with him
what he pleased. What a picture of secret degradation and
imbecility in the towering and apparently haughty Lord Grey! I
told Melbourne that it was important to gain time, that there was
an appearance of a thaw among the 199, but that most of them were
in the country; communications by letter were difficult and
unsatisfactory; that many were averse to breaking up the party or
leaving the Duke--in short, from one cause or another doubtful
and wavering; that it was not to be expected they should at a
moment's warning take this new line, in opposition to the
opinions and conduct of their old leaders, and that when Lord
Harrowby was exerting himself indefatigably to bring them to
reason, and to render a measure unnecessary which in the opinion
of the Cabinet itself was fraught with evil, it was fair and just
to give him time to operate. He said this was very true, but that
time was likewise required to execute the measure of a creati