s invectives and ribaldry, there is no
proposition which can be extracted from it except that of giving
universal suffrage, for, although he does not say so, his
argument cannot be arrested short of such a consummation. It is a
bitter, brilliant, wayward satire and philippic, and, as Johnson
said of Junius, 'if you extract from its wit the vivacity of
impudence, and withdraw from its efficacy the sympathetic favour
of plebeian malignity, if you leave it only its merit, I know not
what will be its praise.' It is, however, marvellously
characteristic of the man, and illustrative of the state of his
mind. His present political conduct, if political it can be
called, is curious enough, for he is doing all he can to keep up
his connexion with the Radicals, and at the same time courting
the Tories, his only fixed idea being to worry the Government. It
is clear to me that he was jealous and displeased at the notion
of Durham's being put at the head of the Radical party, and it
was with evident glee that he told me on Monday how grievously
Durham had offended them by his reply to the Westminster
Association, which they very correctly took to themselves.
Brougham called on Leader on Sunday, where he found Trelawny, and
one or two more Radicals whose names I have forgotten, when
Leader expressed these sentiments to him: he said there was no
sort of necessity for Durham's writing them such a letter, and
that he had evidently seized the opportunity of addressing _them_
in that shape, and of course there was an end of any possibility
of a connexion between him and them. This is very true, for the
fact is that Durham--who since his arrival has had time and
opportunity to find out in what a miserable position he has
placed himself, how feeble and inefficient the Radical party is
as a party, and how entirely he would destroy himself by becoming
their leader, and who moreover has been exceedingly disgusted at
the way in which he was taken up by Molesworth, and provoked to
death at being taken under his protection at Devonport--desires
earnestly to retrace his steps and to disavow the alliance they
have offered him, and which they have so prematurely and
ostentatiously proclaimed. He now wants to put himself in a
neutral and, if he can, a dignified position. Yesterday he had an
interview with Lord Wellesley, whom he asked leave to call upon,
and it is not at all unlikely that it will end in his meeting
Brougham at Lord Wellesley's as t