nted with
them, as they naturally take care she should be. Of the probable
changes, one of the most important is the defeat of Sir James
Graham in Cumberland, an event which the Whigs hail with extreme
satisfaction, for they hate him rancorously. I am under personal
obligations to Graham, and therefore regret that this feeling
exists; but it is not unnatural, and his political conduct is
certainly neither creditable nor consistent. He is now little
better than a Tory, a very high Churchman, and one of the least
liberal of the Conservative leaders. In Lord Grey's Government he
was one of the most violent, and for going to greater lengths
than the majority of his colleagues. When the Reform Bill was
concocted by a committee consisting of John Russell, Duncannon,
Durham, and Graham, Graham earnestly advocated the Ballot, and
Lord Durham says he has in his possession many letters of
Graham's, in which he presses for a larger measure of reform than
they actually brought forward. In his address he says he has not
changed, and talks of 'having belonged to the Whig Government
before they had made the compact by which they are now bound to
O'Connell.' Tavistock[4] said to me yesterday that this was too
bad, because he knew very well that the only understanding the
Government had with O'Connell was one of mutual support in the
Irish elections, the same which existed when he was in office;
and, moreover, that at that time the majority of the Cabinet
(Graham included) wanted to confer office upon O'Connell, and
that they were only induced to forego that design by the
remonstrances of Lord Lansdowne and the Duke of Richmond, who
insisted upon a further probation before they did so. O'Connell
got nothing, and soon after took to agitating and making violent
speeches. This exasperated Lord Grey, who, in his turn, denounced
him in the King's Speech, and hence that feud between O'Connell
and the Whigs, which was only terminated by the attempt of the
Tories to retake office in 1835. This led to the imperfect
alliance between them, half denied by the Whigs, which exposed
the Government to as much obloquy as if they had concluded an
open and avowed alliance with him, and perhaps to greater
inconvenience. It was a great blunder not securing O'Connell in
the first instance, and certainly a curious thing that such men
as Lord Lansdowne, and still more the Duke of Richmond, should
have influenced so important a matter and have overborne the