Old Lady Keith is dead, at some prodigious age. She was the 'Queeny' of Dr. Johnson, Mrs. Hale's daughter, and was the last surviving link between those times and our own, and probably the only person surviving who could remember Johnson himself and his remarkable contemporaries, or who had lived in intimacy with them. CHAPTER XIV. Results of the Elections--Defeat of Cobden and Bright--The War with China--Death of Lady Ashburton--Lord Palmerston's Success--The Handel Concerts--M. Fould in London--The Queen and Lord Palmerston--The Indian Mutiny--The Prince Consort--Death of General Anson--The State of India--Royal Guests--The Government of India--Temper of the House of Commons--Debates on India--Royal Visits--The Divorce Bill--The Divorce Bill in the House of Lords--Close of the Session--A Dukedom offered to Lord Lansdowne--Death of Mr. Croker--History of the Life Peerages--The Indian Mutiny and the Russian War--The Struggle in India--Reinforcements for India--The Queen's Attention to Public Business--Attacks on Lord Canning--Big Ships and Big Bells--Lord Canning defended--Courteous Behaviour of Foreign Nations--The Capture of Delhi and Lucknow--Difficulties in India--Depression in the City--Speculations on the Contingency of a Change of Government--The East India Company and the Government--Exaggerated Reports from India--A Queen's Speech--The Bank Charter Act. _April 4th, 1857._--The elections are drawing to a close. It is strange that what ought to be a matter of fact is made matter of opinion, for while the Whigs of Brooks's and the Liberals generally claim an immense gain, the Conservatives and the Carlton Club and their organs only admit an inconsiderable loss. There can be no doubt, however, that a great many Conservatives have lost their seats, and a great many Radicals and Palmerstonians have been elected. At Brooks's they insist that it will be a very good Parliament, and they are throwing their caps up at the Government successes; but it seems to me that they are reckoning somewhat rashly, and counting as gains to the Government many men who will be found more troublesome and unmanageable than the moderate men over whose defeats they are exulting. But as to gains and losses, and all calculations, I agree with the late Speaker, Lord Eversley, who said to me the other day that nothing could be so fallacious as all such calculations, and that it is impossible to know the result till Parliament meets, and it is seen how the new members group themselves. The most striking and remarkable feature of this election is the complete rout of the Peelites and of the Manchester men, the Old Leaguers. For a long time past it has been absurd to talk of the Peelites as a Party. There were not a dozen men in the House of Commons who could by any possibility be so designated, and in fact only a few formerly members of Sir Robert Peel's Government or of Lord Aberdeen's, who still kept together, and were called Peelites,