Crisis in the City--The Chancellor of the Exchequer--A Journey to Paris--Lord Lyndhurst in Paris--Princess Lieven--Parties in France--Berryer--The Strasburg Conspirators--Rotten state of France--Presentation at the Tuileries--Ball at the Tuileries-- Bal Musard--Lord Granville--The Duc de Broglie--Position of the Duc d'Orleans--Return to England--Conservative reaction-- Sheil's tirade against Lord Lyndhurst--Lyndhurst as a Tory leader--Angry Debates on Church Rates--The Government on the brink of resignation--Sir R. Peel's prospects--The King and Lord Aylmer--Death of Mrs. Fitzherbert--Ministerial Compromise--Westminster Election--Majority of the Princess Victoria--The King's illness--The King's letter to the Princess--Preparations for the Council--Sir R. Peel on the prospects of the New Reign--Prayers ordered for the King's Recovery--Affairs of Lord Ponsonby--Death of King William IV.-- First Council of Queen Victoria--The Queen proclaimed-- Character of William IV. * * * * * 1837. January 6th, 1837 {p.376} [Page Head: FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES.] I met Robarts at dinner yesterday, who gave me an account of the alarm which has recently pervaded the City about monetary matters, from the low state of the exchanges, the efflux of gold, and the confusion produced by the embarrassments of the Great Northern and Central Bank. These financial details are not peculiarly interesting in themselves, and are only worth noticing from the light they throw upon the capacity of our rulers, and the estimation in which the Chancellor of the Exchequer is held among the great moneyed authorities.[1] Nothing can in fact be lower than it is. Robarts, a staunch Whig and thick and thin supporter of Government, told me that he was quite unequal to the situation he held; that these embarrassments had been predicted to him, and the remedy pointed out long ago by practical men; that the most eminent bankers in the City--Patterson the Governor of the Bank, Grote, Glyn, himself, and others--had successively been consulted by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and they had all expressed the same opinion and given the same advice; but that he had met their conclusions with a long chain of reasoning founded upon the most fallacious premises, columns of prices of stocks and exchequer-bills in former years, and calculations and conjectures upon these data, which the keen view and sagacious foresight of these men (whose wits are sharpened by the magnitude of their immediate interest in the results, and whose long habits make them so familiar with the details) detected and exposed, not without some feelings both of resentment and contempt for the Minister who clung to his own theories in preference to their practical conclusions. What they originally advised Rice to do was to raise the interest on exchequer-bills, which he refused, and afterwards was compelled to do.