a Governor what establishment he
intended to have. Then Durham might as well have laid aside his
ostentation and grandeur, and have shown a determination to apply
himself manfully to the work entrusted to him without any desire
for pomp and expense. He would have gone out more effectively,
have acquired more reputation, and have avoided the odium and the
ridicule which now in no small degree attach to his mission. On
the other hand, the Opposition had no business to take the matter
up in this way. In such a momentous affair it is immaterial
whether there is a secretary more or less, and whether an
establishment, which is only to exist for one year, costs L2,000
or L3,000 more or less, and to declare that the sum actually
spent by Lord Gosford shall be the maximum of Lord Durham's
expenditure, is so manifestly absurd that it proves the pitiful
and spiteful spirit in which the motion was conceived. Suppose
they had succeeded, and that after such a vote Durham (as he well
might) had resigned the appointment. This must have been an
enormous embarrassment to the public service, incurred without
any object of commensurate importance. It is not the least
curious part of this matter that the Government were not at all
sorry that the question of Durham's expenses was mooted in the
House of Commons in order that his extravagance might be checked;
while the Opposition had no expectation, and probably no desire,
to carry a vote upon it against the Ministers.

[21] [Lord Chandos moved, on the 3rd of April, that the
expenditure on Lord Durham's mission should be limited
to L12,000, the sum allowed to Lord Gosford. The
resolution was rejected by 160 to 158 votes.]

April 8th, 1838 {p.088}

It would have been well for Durham if he had started for Canada
the day after he made his speech in the House of Lords, for he
made upon that occasion a very favourable impression, and the
world was disposed to praise the appointment. Since this his
manifestation of a desire for pomp and grandeur and an expensive
display has drawn ridicule and odium upon him. His temper has
been soured by the attacks both in Parliament and in the press;
he has been stung, goaded, and tormented by the diurnal articles
in the 'Times,' and he has now made himself obnoxious to
universal reproach and ridicule by an act which, trifling in
itself, exhibits an _animus_ the very reverse of that which is
required in the pacificator a