Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

SAD PREVISIONS. 247
different methods, perhaps : and if, as I think it likely, the Grey
Reform Bill will ere long compel us both to be apparently
acting in concert with Peel and the Duke of W., I am sure we
shall both think the alliance is likely to be one of brief endur-
ance. The great Eadical blunder of the Currency, &c., will
remain.
From all I can gather, there is a very angry feud going on
between the Grey section of the Cabinet and the Althorp one.
SirH. Parnell and his set mean to declare themselves forthwith
in opposition in consequence of the Irish jobs, and this Deanery
given so disgracefully to the Premier's brother. Lord Althorp
is a fat outspoken grazier, and can't help babbling everything.
He has let out that they mean to give no compensation to the
lords of the English rotten boroughs (all of which are to be
disfranchised by the bill), or the existing country voters in
Scotland, who are to enjoy the franchise henceforth, it seems,
in common with any owner of £10 annual rent in land or house.
These propositions will unite all the Scotch gentry and most of
the English boroughmongers against the Government, and we
shall see the issue.
Thus we are brought to the brink of a crisis by the act of the
ultra Tories in turning out the Duke. Of this there can be no
doubt : he feels it, and they, I believe, repent it almost to a man.
They did not foresee the terrible risks of this reform as a Cabinet
proposition. They gratified their just resentment at the deep
hazard of everything. Such is my view of the case, such is
Southey's, such is Sadler's, such is Lord Chandos's. We are
among the breakers; let us see how much we can save.
It is well sometimes to see the dismal prognostica-
tions with which even wise men of that period regard
the changes under which even the oldest among us
have grown up, in complete unconsciousness of any
shipwreck. We too in our turn are often tempted
to indulge in the vaticinations of alarm and woe,
which it is an encouragement to the general mind to
believe may turn out quite as excessive.
Lockhart was again busy with a ' Noctes ' as late