The Bishop of Exeter got a heavy fall in the House of Lords the other night on the St. Sulpice question.[14] He brought it forward in an elaborate speech the week before, with his usual ability and cunning; and he took the Duke of Wellington in; for, after hearing the Bishop protest, and apparently make out, that 'a great blow had been struck at the Reformation,' he got up, and, in total ignorance of the subject, committed his potential voice and opinion to an agreement with the Bishop's dictum. The truth, however, was that there was no case at all; the Government had not only done what they were justified in doing, but they had acted in precise conformity with the conduct held by all their Tory predecessors, colonial secretaries, and with that of the Duke of Wellington himself, who had forgotten all that had occurred and the part he had previously taken. The consequence was that the Tories resolved to throw the Bishop over, and so they did, greatly to his rage and disgust and to the satisfaction of all the bigots; not even a solitary Bishop or high Tory had a word to say in his favour. He was detected in the course of the debate of having sent a report to the 'Times' of his former speech containing a very essential paragraph which he had omitted in the speech itself. He tried to back out of it, and brought the 'Times' reporter as his witness; but he stood convicted in general opinion. [14] [This related to the Catholic foundation of St. Sulpice in Canada.] Reeve is gone to Paris. He saw Guizot on his arrival, who announced to him what he meant to do. He waits till the Four Powers have settled the Eastern Question, in which he will not meddle in the slightest degree; and when it is settled, he will be ready to join in the Convention. Bourqueney has signed the document _de bene esse_; this is his wisest and most dignified course. March 30th, 1841 {p.388} Nothing new for the last fortnight, the Eastern Question apparently progressing to a settlement through some not very important obstacles, and, what is of much greater consequence, a fair prospect of an amicable arrangement with America. The new President's inaugural speech, pedantic and ridiculous as it was, had the merit of being temperate; and Webster had already written to Evelyn Denison, desiring him not to judge of the real sentiments of America by the trash spoken and the violence exhibited in Congress, or by the mob of New York. John Bull, too, who had begun to put himself into a superfine passion, and to bluster a good deal in the French vein, is getting more tranquil, and begins to see the propriety of going to work moderately and without insisting on having everything his own way. [Page Head: DEBATE ON THE POOR LAW.]