_Stratton Street, 30th Jan., 1801._--A rumpus in the Cabinet, supposed about the Catholics. The opening of the Imperial Parliament[154] has been delayed already three times, and the day for which it is fixed at present is not the one it will, according to all expectation, meet upon. Various reasons are assigned for the delay, and the wise-heads are full of strange and curious speculations upon the occasion. Some imagine Ministers are negotiating, not to obtain peace, but to get a reply from Bonaparte declaring his intention of maintaining the demand of the Northern Confederacy with respect to neutral bottoms, by which they will succeed in making the Northern war popular with the country. Others, that great concessions have been made to Russia to withdraw her from the confederacy, even to the sacrifice of Hanover. Others, that the King is more in want of Dr. Willis[155] than of his Lords Temporal and Spiritual assembled in High Parliament. It is a curious circumstance to reflect upon, that in the course of a very few years France, whom we expected to crush and entered into a league against with half the powers of Europe, should now have so completely turned the tables upon us as to head triumphantly the most formidable combination that was ever undertaken. If the King of Prussia marches to Hamburg (which unquestionably is his object), and the French compel the Portuguese to renounce our alliance, we shall not have a friendly port from the North Pole to Africa. [Sidenote: SECESSION ABANDONED] Opposition mean to attend actively this session. Grey has renounced the errors of secession, and tho’ Fox still hangs back, I think a few strong divisions will be irresistible and make him return to the career in which he has outstripped every competitor. Ld. Darnley has attached himself with warmth to Opposition, and intends to bring on a motion upon the State of the Nation. To-day has brought another convert, Ld. Fitzwilliam,[156] who has expressed a wish of moving the amendment, one very hostile to Ministers and, strange to say, full of pacific wishes. His respectability, high name, and integrity of character carries great weight, and will add much to the slender forces of a disjointed, disbanded Opposition. The D. of Bedford pledges himself to nothing, but his inclination leads him to attend and would conquer, but for Ld. Lauderdale’s jokes, who is always telling him he delights in making a long prose to the House of Lords, for which he never indulges himself on any question but on those that would make Cicero or Fox prose, _scarcity_, poor laws, enclosures, etc., etc. Ld. Wycombe, who obtained passports to go through France in his way to Florence to get witnesses, was at Paris during the explosion of the _infernal car_, and within 220 paces of it at the moment of its blowing up.[157]