ad in point of law.[19]

[19] [The main question in the celebrated case of Small _v_.
Attwood was whether the sale of certain ironworks in
Staffordshire, by Mr. Attwood, to the British Iron
Company, should be set aside for what, in the Courts of
Equity, is termed fraud. Lord Lyndhurst, as Chief Baron
of the Exchequer, held that an amount of
misrepresentation had been practised by the vendor,
which annulled the sale. The House of Lords was of
opinion that if the purchasers had paid too much for
the property, it was their own fault. This decision
rested, of course, on the special circumstances of the
case. It was argued with great ability by Serjeant
Wilde and Mr. Sugden, who received fees in this case to
an amount previously unknown to the Bar. It is
remarkable that Lord Lyndhurst sat on the appeal from
his own judgement and supported it; the fifth vote,
which decided the case, was that of Lord Devon, who had
never held a judicial office.]

March 25th, 1838 {p.081}

[Page Head: THE QUEEN'S ATTACHMENT TO WILLIAM IV.]

Lady Cowper told me yesterday that the Queen said to Lord
Melbourne, 'the first thing which had convinced her he was worthy
of her confidence was his conduct in the disputes at Kensington
last year about her proposed allowance,' in which, though he knew
that the King's life was closing, he had taken his part. She
considered this to be a proof of his honesty and determination to
do what he thought right. Though she took no part, and never
declared herself, it is evident that she, in her heart, sided
with the King on that occasion. It is difficult to attribute to
timidity that command over herself and passive obedience which
she showed in her whole conduct up to the moment when she learnt
that she was Queen; and from that instant, as if inspired with
the genius and the spirit of Sixtus V., she at once asserted her
dignity and her will. She now evinces in all she does an
attachment to the memory of her uncle, and it is not to be
doubted that, in the disputes which took place between him and
her mother, her secret sympathies were with the King; and in that
celebrated scene at Windsor, when the King made so fierce an
attack upon the Duchess's advisers, and expressed his earnest
hope that he might live to see the majority of his niec