_Six o'clock._--Lyndhurst has just been here; he had seen the Duke, who had already opened a negotiation with Barnes through Scarlett. I offered to get any statement inserted of the _causes_ of the late break-up, and he will again see the Duke and consider the propriety of inserting one. He said, 'Why Barnes is the most powerful man in the country.' The 'Standard' has sent to offer its support; the Duke said he should be very happy, but they must understand that the Government was not yet formed. November 21st, 1834 {p.156} To-day there was a Council at St. James's, at which Lyndhurst was sworn in Chancellor. Brougham took leave of the Bar this morning, and I hear did it well. The King speechified as usual, and gave them a couple of harangues; he said it was just four years since he had very unwillingly taken the Seal from Lord Lyndhurst, and he now had great pleasure in restoring it to him. He was all King to-day--talked of having 'commanded the ex-Ministers to retire;' 'desired Lord Brougham to give up the Seal,' which is true, for the Duke wrote to him for it, and instead of surrendering it in person Brougham sent it to Sir Henry Taylor. The King compared this crisis with that which befell his father in 1784, when he had placed the government in the hands of the Marquis of Rockingham; he said that the present was only a provisional arrangement, but that there was this difference, that the country was now in a state of excitement and disquiet, which it was free from then, but that he had full reliance on the great firmness of the Duke (here the Duke bowed); that the Administration which was then formed had lasted seventeen years (of course he meant that of Pitt, which succeeded the coalition), and he hoped that this which was about to be formed would last as long, although at his time of life if it did he could not expect to see the end of it. November 22nd, 1834 {p.157} I read Brougham's speech on quitting the Court of Chancery this morning, and admirable it is--not a syllable about himself, but with reference to the appointment of Pepys, brief, dignified, and appropriate. _Si sic omnia_, what a man he would be. November 23rd, 1834 {p.157}