I must say that when he told me particulars of the letters that had been written to him, to the Queen, etc.--particulars he did not wish to have repeated--and of the organised conspiracy it has been to try the prerogative of the Crown, he is quite justified in any _twitness_ of letters himself. It is a great pity that some of Dean Merewether’s letters,[531] and of Lord John’s begging him to withdraw them, were not published. He wrote to say that if he might have Hereford, or, as he expressed it in a post-boy fashion, “If the Government gives me this turn, which is my due, there would be no objection raised to their giving Doctor Hampden the next Bishopric.” So it shows the Bampton Lectures had not much to do with it.[532] As for the Bishop of Oxford,[533] the odd intrigue he has been carrying on would have been hardly credible in Louis XIII.’s time in a Cardinal who hoped to be Prime Minister himself. However, I won’t say what I was told not to say. But there is that to be said for our Queen and Prince, that their straightforwardness is a very great trait in their characters, and that they never deceive or join in any deceit against their Minister, but always are frank and true, and repel all intrigue against him. George thought the Prince very clever and well-informed at Windsor; and his character always comes out _honest_. I take it that he governs us really, in everything. Somebody said to Lord John, “The Bishop of Oxford could be brought around immediately if you would only say a few words to him,” and he answered, “I suppose he would, if the three words were ‘Archbishop of Canterbury.’” He did not seem at all bitter against him yesterday, but said he had been made a bishop too young for such an ambitious man, and that he had taken to court intrigues in consequence.