secure the revenues of the Church, and to prevent future collision between the parochial clergy and the occupiers of land. From the accounts received from Lord Anglesey and Sir H. Vivian, I am not without fear that there will be much difficulty in the execution of such a measure, of the success of which there could be no hope, without the accompanying assurance of an intention to correct the present grievance.

Before a measure of this sort, however, can be completed, it will be necessary that the Committee should obtain much more extensive information. Stanley, who has just been here, informs me that they are proceeding in the same course in the Committee of the House of Commons.

I have just heard that Prince Lieven has this morning received dispatches from Petersburg, informing him that Count Orloff (an aide-de-camp of the Emperor) is to be sent immediately on a mission to the Hague, the object of which is to determine the King of the Netherlands to adopt the resolutions of the Conference, and to declare to him, if he does not, that the Emperor will abandon him entirely, and recognise the independence and neutrality of Belgium as established.

Count Orloff is to come from the Hague to London to give an account of his mission.

I am sorry to say that there can be no longer any doubt of the cholera at Rotherhithe and Limehouse, that there has been one case in Southwark, and another on board the Marine Hospital Ship (the Dreadnought) at Greenwich.

I am now obliged to go to the House of Lords, where I hope there will be nothing to call for any exertion on

my part, to which at this moment I am perfectly unequal. Once more excuse haste and inaccuracies. I am, &c.

GREY.

No. 355.

Sir H. Taylor to Earl Grey.

(Private.) Brighton, Feb. 14, 1832. My dear Lord, I have had the honour of receiving and of submitting your Lordship's letter of yesterday to the King, who has expressed his pleasure that I should reply to it by this night's post; his desire that no delay should take place being increased by the intimation of the intended meeting of his confidential servants tomorrow, when they would consider what advice they should submit to him.

The feeling that time was wearing on, and things ought not longer to be left dans le vague,' is that which had produced His Majesty's anxiety for a thorough understanding of what seemed to him to require explanation; and the instructions he gave me to enter minutely, as I did in my letter of the 12th inst., into all that had passed on the subject of the second reading of the Bill in the House of Lords, &c., as it seemed to bear on the more recent expression of your Lordship's feeling. His Majesty orders me to assure you that, however strong has been his regret, and the candid expression of it, that the disposition of the opponents of the Bill to vote for the second reading should now be considered of less value than it was at earlier periods, it was furthest from

his intention or thoughts to express anything like a feeling of disapprobation; and if such has unfortunately been the impression which my letter conveys, I take blame to myself for having ill-expressed His Majesty's sentiments, and for not having done justice to the spirit in which he has invariably viewed your proceedings and your opinions, even when they may not have accorded altogether with his own considerations of the questions at issue.

The King, however, does not regret that the correspondence which has recently passed, should have led to a statement of the grounds of what had appeared to him a change of opinion, as to the value of any support obtained towards bringing the Bill into Committee; and His Majesty admits that those which your Lordship has assigned are deserving of serious consideration, and fully justify a strong impression of the difficulty of your situation. But His Majesty thinks that you attach too little value to the various considerations vhich may influence those who would vote for the second reading, without any feeling or intention of ulterior hostility; or that you view with too much suspicion their motives for committing themselves to that extent. Of the Duke of Wellington's determined and uncompromising hostility the King is well aware; but he is aware also that it is carried to an extent which has alarmed and alienated many of those who had felt disposed to follow in his wake, and that communications have taken place which have tended to increase the difference of opinion and feeling. His Majesty has felt anxious that advantage should be taken of those divisions in the enemy's camp; and partaking, as

he does most cordially, of the 'aversion' to the measure of adding to the House of Lords which your Lordship has so strongly expressed, it has been his earnest wish, and he has omitted no opportunity of stating it, that nothing should be neglected which could have the effect of producing or improving any desire to conciliate and to accommodate, whether arising out of a friendly feeling, out of apprehension of the consequences of a second rejection, or out of differences existing among the opponents. His Majesty has never denied his apprehension of the difficulty of coming to any previous understanding; but it has been produced more from his sense of the suspicion entertained on both sides, and of the fear of committing themselves and appearing to show want of consistency, than from any sense of the impossibility of reconciling the points at issue, and of introducing such modifications as might secure the support of some of the opponents, without affecting the principle of the Bill, or reducing its efficiency in any essential degree. Hence appears to His Majesty to have arisen chiefly the failure of every attempt as yet made to come to an understanding; and it is natural that those who are called upon for something more explicit, and to pledge themselves to give their support upon explicit terms, should expect to be met on the same footing. And, after all, it appears to His Majesty, from your letter of yesterday, that the question is brought within a very narrow compass, or he has been very much misinformed as to the views of those who profess themselves to be friendly. Your Lordship's object is to secure, beyond the possibility of doubt, what you call the three cardinal points,-Sche

dule A., the extension of the elective franchise to large towns, and the 107. franchise. His Majesty considers the first to be conceded; that, as to the second, the only objection upon which any stress is laid, is the advantage of giving in each case two members; and the King is himself disposed to consider that this would be an improvement. Upon the third there appears to be much diversity of opinion among the opponents; and adverting to this circumstance, and the importance which some of them may attach to an amicable arrangement, His Majesty cannot but indulge a hope that, if it should prove the only essential obstacle, it will be removed. But what your Lordship has stated of your feeling with regard to other points, and of your readiness to abide, with respect to those of which you should deprecate the abandonment, the eventual result of conference with the House of Commons, appears to His Majesty to hold out a fairer hope than he had yet ventured to indulge, of the satisfactory issue of a further communication with Lord Harrowby. His Majesty has accordingly learnt with great pleasure, that you had made an appointment with him for this day, and that you intended to state to him distinctly your view of the present situation of affairs, and of the consequences involved in it; and to obtain from him, if possible, some data with respect to the amount and the extent of the support you may expect from him. This is the point to which it has long been His Majesty's desire to bring things, and he does not despair of a result which may relieve you and himself from the pressure of the present difficulty. But if this effort should unfortunately fail, the difficulty must be