held was that of
Ambassador to Russia, where nobody knows but the Minister who
employed him whether he did well or ill. Now everybody says he is
the finest fellow imaginable, and that he alone can pacify
Canada. Nor do I mean to say he is unequal to the task he has
undertaken, but the opinion of the world seems oddly produced,
and to stand upon no very solid foundation. If he had continued
plain John Lambton I doubt if he ever would have been thought of
for Canada, or that the choice (if he had been sent there) would
have been so approved. Why on earth is it that an Earldom makes
_any_ difference?

[2] [The actual disturbances in Canada, which had broken
out in November of the preceding year, were terminated
in about a month, by the military operations of Sir
John Colborne and Sir Francis Head. The debates which
ensued in England related to the treatment of the
prisoners and the future government of the Canadian
provinces.]

To return to the Canadian discussions. The Ministers have on the
whole come out of them discreditably. Peel has worried and mauled
them sadly, and taken a tone of superiority, and displayed a real
superiority, which is very pernicious to a Government, as it
tends to deprive them of the respect and the confidence of the
country. Brougham's harangues in the House of Lords have not done
them half the mischief that Peel's speeches have done them in the
House of Commons, because Peel has a vast moral weight and
Brougham has none. In the conduct of the business and in their
Parliamentary proceedings they committed errors, especially in
the latter, and Peel availed himself of both with great dexterity
and power. The front Treasury Bench is in a deplorable state.
John Russell is without support; Rice is held cheap and is
ineffective; Palmerston never utters except on his own business;
Thomson and Hobhouse never on any business; and Howick alone
ventures to mix in the fight. The Tories render ample justice to
Lord John under these overwhelming difficulties. Francis Egerton
(one of the keenest of the party) writes to my brother an account
of their recent successes, full of scorn and triumph, and proud
comparisons between the Government and the Opposition, and he
says, 'John Russell is alone--a host in himself I admit; but Rice
and Howick, the only colleagues who did assist him, are gone down
in the Parliamentary estimation a hundred degree