enter into any thing approaching to the nature of a controversial argument on some discrepancy in the views, which have not prevented your Majesty from acquiescing ultimately in those submitted to your Majesty by the Cabinet. Earl Grey thinks it, therefore, his duty to confine himself to an expression of his gratitude for the continued confidence which your Majesty has been pleased to repose in your present servants; and to beg your Majesty to be assured, that though he and any other person is liable to be misled by the information he receives, nothing but a conviction that it was founded on the most certain of evidence could have induced him to submit to your Majesty the statement which he has made of the general condition and feeling of the country. Earl Grey will certainly, in obedience to your Majesty's commands, lay before his colleagues your Majesty's letter of the 17th, and also that of the 24th of April, which your Majesty has ordered him to recall to their recollection.

With respect to what the Duke of Buckingham has represented to your Majesty respecting the Unions, Earl Grey does not think it necessary to trouble your Majesty further than to refer to the opinions which he has repeatedly ventured to express to your Majesty with respect to these institutions. Earl Grey has never concealed his apprehension of their mischievous tendency. But he must be permitted to deny the utter insufficiency of your Majesty's proclamation, so strongly insisted on by the Duke, at the same time that he must express his decided objection to the violent course which his Grace seems to recommend in the present state of these associations.

The question of augmenting the Peerage has been too fully discussed between your Majesty and your servants to make it necessary for Earl Grey to offer any further remarks upon it, in consequence of the Duke of Buckingham's extraordinary appeal to your Majesty on this subject. As to the declaration of his determined opposition both to the principle and the details of the Bill now before Parliament, however inconsistent it may be with the communication made, as it appeared at the time with his Grace's concurrence, by Lord Chandos to Sir H. Taylor, Earl Grey will only say that he is not at all surprised at a determination which he has been long convinced has been long made, and has not been at all altered, by his Grace and by those to whom he alludes as perfectly capable of conducting with facility the affairs of your Majesty's Government. It must be needless to add, that your Majesty's answer, as expressive of your continued confidence in him, has been most gratifying to Earl Grey.

All which, &c.

GREY.

No. 324.

Earl Grey to Sir H. Taylor.

(Private.) Downing Street, Jan. 20, 1832. My dear Sir Herbert,-I have this morning received your letter of yesterday. It gives me great pleasure to hear that what I said upon the subject of the Unions has met with His Majesty's approbation. In Ireland I think it not improbable that some new law, to give

more power to the Government, and which may be more efficient than the Proclamation Act, which expired in consequence of the dissolution of Parliament, may be immediately required, and such a measure has been sent over for consideration. But all such measures ought to be carefully considered, and if possible avoided. In England I can have no doubt that it would be most impolitic to stir this matter at present, and I continue as sanguine as ever in my hope, that if the Reform Bill were passed, the general spring, of which there is every appearance, in the trade and commerce of the country, would render such measures unnecessary. We must always be prepared, however, for any exigency that may arise; and I entertain no opinion more strongly than this, that an evident reluctance in resorting to strong measures facilitates the means of carrying them, and adds to their efficiency when the necessity arrives.

But everything in this view depends upon the success, and in a great degree on the early success, of the Reform Bill; and here I am sorry to say that we receive fresh proofs of the determination of its implacable adversaries to avail themselves of any means, and to join even with those to whose views they are the most adverse, to defeat it. It is exactly the case of the Carlists and the Republicans in France. Yesterday Sheil had proposed to move an instruction to the Committee to make room for an addition of five Irish members. He communicated this as a thing he was obliged to do, in a friendly way, to the Ministers in the House of Commons. At first sight it appeared that it might have afforded the means of getting rid of the question at once. But it was

instantly discovered that the Tories were prepared, contrary to their own principles, to support it; that Wetherall had even spoken to Sheil to concert with him the terms of the motion; and Croker spoke in favour of it, and in five minutes afterwards told Stanley that there was not the least claim of Ireland to a larger share of members. I give this as a specimen of the sort of opposition we have to deal with. Sheil afterwards altered the form of his motion to that of proposing an addition of six boroughs to Schedule A., for the purpose of adding to Ireland. This, I think, the Tories cannot support; but in the form in which it was first proposed, their union with the Irish and Scotch members, who are also calling out for an addition to Scotland, would not improbably, aided by the Radicals, have carried the question. At least the danger was too great to be risked.

Lord Aberdeen has given notice of a motion for Thursday next, as you will see, on the Belgian Treaty, with the avowed purpose of obtaining a declaration of the House against it before the ratification. I make no comment on this. I am not at all sure that Government may not be beaten upon it.

I hear, as you do, of Peers likely to vote for the second reading, or to stay away; but the facts I have been stating show how little ground we have for confidence in any of these statements.

I have a note from Lord Lansdowne proposing the first Monday in February for the Council, if it suits His Majesty's convenience. I have desired him not to issue the notice sooner than is absolutely necessary.

I am, &c.

GREY.

(Private.)

No. 325.

Sir H. Taylor to Earl Grey.

Brighton, Jan. 21, 1832.

My dear Lord,-I have been favoured with your Lordship's letter of yesterday, which I have had the honour of submitting to the King.

His Majesty was not surprised to hear that you think that some new law will be required in Ireland, to give more power to the Government for the suppression of unlawful associations, and he is very sensible also of the importance of carefully considering those measures before they are promulgated: nor does His Majesty wish to hurry forward any proceeding in this country for the suppression of the Political Unions, being satisfied of your Lordship's earnest desire to effect it, whenever it can be done effectually, and without inconvenience. He sincerely hopes that, whenever the Reform Bill shall have passed, this and other matters may be fairly and fully entered into, and that those who are divided on that question will unite in resisting the designs and encroachments of the disaffected; and he quite agrees with you, that the apparent reluctance to resort to strong measures facilitates the means of carrying them, and renders them more efficient when the necessity becomes urgent.

His Majesty has learnt with great satisfaction, that the prospects of trade and commerce are brightening, and that this is not confined to the manufacturing towns in the North, but extends even to Spitalfields, as I hear from Mr. Ellice.