whether there is a secretary more or less, and whether an establishment, which is only to exist for one year, costs L2,000 or L3,000 more or less, and to declare that the sum actually spent by Lord Gosford shall be the maximum of Lord Durham's expenditure, is so manifestly absurd that it proves the pitiful and spiteful spirit in which the motion was conceived. Suppose they had succeeded, and that after such a vote Durham (as he well might) had resigned the appointment. This must have been an enormous embarrassment to the public service, incurred without any object of commensurate importance. It is not the least curious part of this matter that the Government were not at all sorry that the question of Durham's expenses was mooted in the House of Commons in order that his extravagance might be checked; while the Opposition had no expectation, and probably no desire, to carry a vote upon it against the Ministers. [21] [Lord Chandos moved, on the 3rd of April, that the expenditure on Lord Durham's mission should be limited to L12,000, the sum allowed to Lord Gosford. The resolution was rejected by 160 to 158 votes.] April 8th, 1838 {p.088} It would have been well for Durham if he had started for Canada the day after he made his speech in the House of Lords, for he made upon that occasion a very favourable impression, and the world was disposed to praise the appointment. Since this his manifestation of a desire for pomp and grandeur and an expensive display has drawn ridicule and odium upon him. His temper has been soured by the attacks both in Parliament and in the press; he has been stung, goaded, and tormented by the diurnal articles in the 'Times,' and he has now made himself obnoxious to universal reproach and ridicule by an act which, trifling in itself, exhibits an _animus_ the very reverse of that which is required in the pacificator and legislator of Canada. He was engaged to dine with Bingham Baring on Friday last, but in consequence of his having voted in the minority the other night, on Chandos's motion, Durham chose to construe this vote into a personal offence towards himself, and sent an excuse saying that 'he had no alternative.' He wrote to Lady Harriet Baring a very civil note, and conveyed his motive by implication, but quite clearly. The note was, of course, handed about for the amusement of the company, and the story, subsequently, for that of the town. April 12th, 1838 {p.088} [Page Head: WOLFF THE MISSIONARY.]