Here I was interrupted, and broke off yesterday morning. At twelve o'clock yesterday everything was settled but the Great Seal, and in the afternoon the great news transpired that Brougham had accepted it. Great was the surprise, greater still the joy at a charm having been found potent enough to lay the unquiet spirit, a bait rich enough to tempt his restless ambition. I confess I had no idea he would have accepted the Chancellorship after his declarations in the House of Commons and the whole tenor of his conduct. I was persuaded that he had made to himself a political existence the like of which no man had ever before possessed, and that to have refused the Great Seal would have appeared more glorious than to take it; intoxicated with his Yorkshire honours, swollen with his own importance, and holding in his hands questions which he could employ to thwart, embarrass, and ruin any Ministry, I thought that he meant to domineer in the House of Commons and to gather popularity throughout the country by enforcing popular measures of which he would have all the credit, and thus establish a sort of individual power and authority, which would ensure his being dreaded, courted, and consulted by all parties. He could then have gratified his vanity, ambition, and turbulence; the Bar would have supplied fortune, and events would have supplied enjoyments suited to his temperament; it would have been a sort of madness, mischievous but splendid. As it is the joy is great and universal; all men feel that he is emasculated and drops on the Woolsack as on his political death-bed; once in the House of Lords, there is an end of him, and he may rant storm and thunder without hurting anybody.[18] [18] [Lord Grey's Administration was thus composed:-- First Lord of the Treasury Earl Grey. Lord Chancellor Lord Brougham. Lord President Marquis of Lansdowne. Lord Privy Seal Lord Ripon (in 1833). Chancellor of the Exchequer Viscount Althorp. Home Secretary Viscount Melbourne. Foreign Secretary Viscount Palmerston. Colonial Secretary Viscount Goderich, and afterwards Mr. Stanley. Board of Control Mr. Charles Grant. Board of Trade Lord Auckland. Admiralty Sir James Graham. Postmaster-General Duke of Richmond. Paymaster-General Lord John Russell. Irish Secretary Mr. Stanley.] [Page Head: LORD GREY'S ADMINISTRATION.]