The Greville Memoirs, Part 2 (of 3), Volume 1 (of 3): A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852Greville, Charles
History
The Greville Memoirs, Part 2 (of 3), Volume 1 (of 3): A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852
Greville, Charles
Great Britain -- History -- Victoria, 1837-1901
Brougham. It is a curious and an interesting study to examine and
compare their powers, faculties, attainments, the moral and
intellectual constitutions of the men, their respective careers,
their results, and the judgement of the world upon them.
Yesterday morning I met Macaulay,[16] and walked with him for
some time. He talked of the necessity of a coalition between the
Parliamentary leaders, which might be effected, provided they
would lay aside personal feelings and jealousies; that Lyndhurst
might be the greatest obstacle; he thought a strong Government
ought to be formed, one that should not live as this does from
hand to mouth, and by no means but by a coalition could this be
effected. The Radicals, he said, were clearly extinct, being
reduced, as far as he could learn, 'to Grote and his wife;' that
he had not been prepared for the tranquillity and contentment
that he found on his return to England; that he was as great a
Radical as anybody, that is, that if ever the voice of the nation
should be as clearly and universally pronounced for reform of the
House of Lords, or any other great change, as it had been for the
Reform Bill, he should be for it too, but that now he did not
think it worth while to give such projects a thought, and it no
more occurred to him to entertain them in this country than it
would to advocate the establishment of a representative
government in Turkey, or a monarchy and hereditary peerage in
America. I told him that I did not see how a coalition was
feasible, or how conflicting pretensions could be adjusted. He
said it seemed to be a matter of course that Peel must lead the
House of Commons. I said that the other alternative the
Government had was to get rid of some of its lumber, and take in
him, Morpeth, and Sir George Grey, and so present a more
respectable front--to which he said nothing.
[16] [Mr. Macaulay returned to England from his official
residence in India, in June 1838.]
[Page Head: THE RECEPTION OF MARSHAL SOULT.]
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