June 26th, 1833 {p.381} [Page Head: IRISH CHURCH BILL.] This morning at six saw my mother and Henry start for the steamboat which is to take them abroad. I wish I was going with them, and was destined once more to see Rome and Naples, which I fear will never be. Last week was marked by a division in the House of Commons which made a great noise. It was on that clause of the Irish Church Bill which declared that the surplus should be appropriated by Parliament, and Stanley thought fit to leave out the clause. The Tories supported him; the Radicals and many of the Whigs--Abercromby and C. Russell among the number--opposed him. The minority was strong--148--but the fury it excited among many of the friends of Government is incredible, and the Tories were very triumphant without being at all conciliated. The Speaker said he should not be surprised to see the Bill thrown out by the junction of the Tories and Radicals on the third reading, which is not likely, and the suppression of this clause, which after all leaves the matter just as it was, will probably carry it through the House of Lords. It is, however, very questionable whether they were right in withdrawing it, and Tavistock told me that though he thought it was _right_ it was ill done, and had given great offence. Somehow or other Stanley, with all his talents, makes a mess of everything, but this comes of being (what the violent Whigs suspect him of being) half a Tory. Measures are concocted upon ultra principles in the Cabinet, and then as his influence is exerted, and his wishes are obliged to be consulted, they are modified and altered, and this gives a character of vacillation to the conduct of Government, and exhibits a degree of weakness and infirmity of purpose which prevents their being strong or popular or respectable. Nobody, however, can say that they are obstinate, for they are eternally giving way to somebody. In the House of Lords there was a sharp skirmish between Brougham and Lyndhurst, and high Parliamentary words passed between these 'noble friends' on the Local Courts Bill. The Tories did not go down to support Lyndhurst, which provoked him, and Brougham was nettled by his and old Eldon's attacks on the Bill. There is great talk of a letter which the King is said to have written to the bishops--that is, to the Archbishop for the edification of the episcopal bench. It is hardly credible that he and Taylor should have been guilty of this folly, after the letter which they wrote to the Peers a year and a half ago and the stir that it made.