_March 21st, 1846._--Yesterday I went to Chiswick, where the Duke of Devonshire showed me his manuscripts, which he has got very well arranged. He gave me four boxes full of letters, written by his mother to her mother, Lady Spencer; the beginning of a long correspondence from the time of her marriage. These I am going to look over. He talked to me of Devonshire House in the old time, and the strange connexion that existed between the Duke, the Duchess, and Lady Elizabeth Foster.[127] Lady Elizabeth, without great talents or great beauty, seems to have been one of those women, of whom there are rare instances, who are gifted with an undefinable attraction--or perhaps attractiveness is the word--which none can resist. Everybody was in love with her, and she exercised an influence of one sort or another up to the end of her life. In youth she drew to her lovers and friends, and made _la pluie et le beau temps_ in society. In old age, Popes and Cardinals, savants and artists, attended her _levées_, rendered her an unceasing homage, and were obedient to all her wishes or commands. The Tariff was got through last night; George Bentinck making a speech of two hours and a quarter. From never having spoken, he never now does anything else, and he is completely overdoing it, and, like a beggar set on horseback, riding to the devil. Stanley, in the House of Lords, declared his intention to oppose the Bill; but he tells his friends he will neither lead an Opposition nor make a Government. As the time advances, the division in the House of Lords looks more promising for Government. The delay which the Protectionists have caused has been of great service to the measure, for the longer the debates continue, the more effect is produced by the speeches in Parliament, the statistics published, and the able articles in the press. On the other hand, the new Opposition have cut a poor figure in point of reasoning and argument. Abstracting their abuse and charges of treachery and perfidy, very little is left in their speeches. The Court seem now to be convinced that Peel will eventually be obliged to go out, and that Lord John must come in. [Footnote 127: [William, fifth Duke of Devonshire, born in 1748, married Georgiana, daughter of John, Earl Spencer, in 1774. Upon the death of this lady in 1806, his Grace married in 1809 Lady Elizabeth Foster, a daughter of the Earl of Bristol and widow of John Thomas Foster, Esq., to whom he had long been attached, and to whom, singularly enough, the late Duchess had been as much attached as the Duke, for she made her a bosom friend, and dreaded nothing so much as the loss of her society. This Duke died in 1811; the second Duchess lived till 1824, spending the latter years of her life in Rome, where she enjoyed an immense popularity and social influence.]] [Sidenote: STATE OF PARTIES.]