e composition of their own. Thus
there is a reasonable expectation that from the balance of party
power moderate counsels may prevail, and that Conservative
principle may extend and consolidate its influence.

The Queen was very nervous at the possibility there seemed to be
that the Ministers might be beaten, for Lord John Russell had
told her that he could not count upon a majority of more than
fifteen, and she looked yesterday as cheerful as anybody else
around her. With regard to the measure on the part of the Tories
and the case of Canada, they were wholly unjustifiable in moving
such a vote of censure, and there is nothing in the case (however
in its details objections may be urged against Lord Glenelg's
conduct) to demand so strong a proceeding. The best speeches were
Sir George Grey's on one side, and Peel's on the other. The
casualties in the division were, on the whole, unfavourable to
the Tories; fifteen of their people were unavoidably absent, not
above half as many of the Government. They contrived to delay the
report of the Belfast Committee, unseating both the sitting
members, till yesterday morning, by which means the Government
got both their votes in the division; and one of them being
paired off with Lord Ramsay, who was not there, the pair
cancelled by the call of the House, this alone made a difference
of five votes.

March 11th, 1838 {p.077}

[Page Head: A DINNER AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE.]

I dined yesterday at the Palace, much to my surprise, for I had
no expectation of an invitation. There was a very numerous
party:--the Hanoverian Minister Baron Muenchhausen, Lord and Lady
Grey, the Chancellor, the Roseberys, Ossulston, Mahon, &c. We
assembled in the round room next the gallery, and just before the
dinner was ready the Queen entered with the Duchess of Kent,
preceded by the Chamberlain, and followed by her six ladies. She
shook hands with the women, and made a sweeping bow to the men,
and directly went in to dinner, conducted by Muenchhausen, who sat
next to her, and Lord Conyngham on the other side. The dinner was
like any other great dinner. After the eating was over, the
Queen's health was given by Cavendish, who sat at one end of the
table, and everybody got up to drink it: a vile, vulgar custom,
and, however proper it may be to drink her health elsewhere, it
is bad taste to have it given by her own officer at her own
table, which, in fact, is the only private table it is ever drunk
at.