that the foolish Tory mob fall on me tooth and nail. Accordingly I heard yesterday that Lady Jersey refused to read 'such a blackguard book.' She said so to Bessborough, who told me, and Cecil Forester would not read it, because Lady Jersey told him it was 'abominable.' [Sidenote: THE MAYNOOTH GRANT.] _April 5th._--Peel brought on his Maynooth Bill on Thursday night.[95] Strong symptoms had already appeared of opposition brewing in different parts of the country, and there was a good deal of ill-humour here. He made an excellent and judicious speech, and had a majority of 102, but a queer one, for above 100 of his own people voted against him, and above 100 of the Whigs with him. Without them the division would have been nearly even. The Carlton Club was in a state of insurrection afterwards and full of sound and fury. Sandon made a strong bold speech; with him in the minority were Inglis, and the zealots, of course--Hastie and some of the Scotch, Tom Duncombe, Disraeli--a motley combination. It is a very odd state of things, and may be productive of great events before long. The disgust of the Conservatives and their hatred of Peel keep swelling every day, and what the Ministers expect is, that on some occasion or other they will play Peel a trick, stay away, and leave him to be beaten on some trumpery question. Indeed it is not impossible that they may become reckless, and grow to think that it does not signify to them whether _he_ is in power or the Whigs, and that they have as much to fear from the one as from the other. Some people in office did not vote on this occasion--for instance, Granby and Meynell.[96] [Footnote 95: [On April 3rd Sir Robert Peel brought in a Bill for granting 30,000_l._ a year to the Roman Catholic College of Maynooth. The measure was fiercely combated by the ultra-Protestants, and long remained to be a bone of contention.]] [Footnote 96: [It was in the course of this Session that Mr. Disraeli began his violent and sarcastic attacks on Sir Robert Peel, which assumed a tone of intense personal hostility.]]