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business, told me before we began any thing, that the Regent was full of admiration and full of regret. It was he who told me too, that you were invited not to quit the council (as I understood him) at the Prince's express desire. This last arrangement I think must be the more agreeable to you, because it must prove to the world what your true motive has been. To myself personally it is at least a consolation, but your leaving the office I shall never cease to deplore. Of the Duke we hear nothing, but that he will be here in the middle of next month. The news of the offer and his acceptance was first bruited from the people about him. Lord Beresford told Chapman yesterday, that he some time ago said to him the Ordnance was the only office he would accept, if ever it was vacant. The news of the actual arrangement came from his staff, and in particular was promulgated at Woolwich by Lord George Lennox. It is now nowhere a secret, though we do not talk of it."

After alluding to some official arrangements en attendant the Duke's arrival, he continues:

"While writing I learn that the Duke was to leave Paris for London yesterday, and not being to stop, may be expected the beginning of next week. This is in a letter from Sir John Campbell to his brother. You will be sorry to hear that Croker is most seriously taken down, and that Baillie has a very bad opinion of him.

"I am ever

"Your Lordship's affectionate and grateful,
"R. WARD."

It is fortunately at this interesting moment, and probably on that account, when the change in his department we have just noticed had brought him in contact with the hero of the day, that Mr. Ward recommenced his Diary. He was fond of relating that soon after the Duke's appointment, he was leaving his office at the usual hour, when, on coming out at the Park entrance, he perceived his new chef just in the act of getting on horseback. He went up to the Duke and mentioned that there were some matters connected with the department on which he would like to communicate with him when he had time. "No time like the present," said the Duke, and at once dismissing his horse, returned with Mr. Ward into the Ordnance Office. There, then, he remained closeted with the Duke till past eight, listening to and answering his pertinent queries upon manifold points connected with the department; from that moment the Duke appeared to be au fait of the business in hand, and ready to cope with the details as they from time to presented themselves.

CHAP. II.

TOUR OF INSPECTION TO NORTHERN DISTRICT.

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OF DIARY. - -CONVERSATION WITH LORD SIDMOUTH.-EXPECTED RIOTS. MEETING OF PARLIAMENT. — PRINCE REGENT INSULTED.

TOO GREAT RELIANCE ON THE

APATHY OF ENGLISH PEOPLEEXERTIONS OF THEIR GOVERNMENT.

In the year 1819, while the movements of the Radicals (as the Chartists of those days were called) were exciting considerable uneasiness in the Government, Mr. Ward was again sent on a tour of inspection to the northern parts of England. His duties were, of course, not to report upon them in a military point of view, but to inquire into the state of their stores, the additional votes that might be necessary for those that had been neglected, and the money that might be saved upon others. It was soon after his return from this tour, that he called at the Home Office, and held the interesting dialogue with Lord Sidmouth, with which the Diary is again resumed.

Oct. 27th, 1819.-Called upon Ld. Sidmouth. He admitted me directly, though up to the eyes in papers, thinking I had business, I told him I had none, and would leave him as he was so occupied; but he desired me to stay, and we immediately fell upon affairs. The designs of the Radicals of course. I told him I had just been through their country, as well as all over the north; which for the most part I found very

peaceable, and even civil, and very anti-Radical. He shook his head, and pointing to volumes of papers, said, if I knew their contents I would not say so, for the pictures were frightful. I told him what I had done at Carlisle Castle, and what I meant to propose for Hull and Chester. He said they were most important points; and from all I told him of the depôts in general, my tour must have been very useful as well as interesting. I said the spirit was good, except among the lowest mob; but that as to the measures for which Parliament was called, I thought there was a feeling against the Habeas Corpus suspension; not because, if necessary, it ought not to be carried, but because (though it would equally irritate) it would not accomplish the object which would require something stronger. He quickly replied, I was right, and that he was glad to tell me the measure was not in contemplation. I said I hoped the Seditious Meeting Bill of Mr. Pitt in 1795, was equally out of the question, for that it was mere milk and water. He said that was very true; and that such meetings, and the power to call them, must absolutely be put down.* What was doubtful must be put out of doubt; and what was not law, be made law. As to Mr. Pitt's Bill, having been Speaker at the time, he remembered all the violence of the debates upon it; and said we must expect something very wicked from the Whig opposition, who would so far join the Radicals as to make their resistance an instrument of party. This made

* The bill introduced required a requisition from seven householders, and forbade the attendance of persons not actually inhabiting the place. VOL. II.

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He seemed interested,

me observe upon Ld. Fitzwilliam's dismissal, which fuction to our own friends, as indicating proper vigour I told him seemed to me to have given great satisand with some solemnity of manner asked if he could on the part of Government. have done otherwise? I said I thought not; and that, not because the measure was one of punishment or intimidation, as is foolishly argued, but from the mere natural course of things, because in a situation where confidence was necessary, all confidence was destroyed. It was obvious, I added, that Ld. F. had a right to maintain what opinions he pleased; but if they militated against those measures of police, which he was bound to support, not destroy, the natural course was to resign or be dismissed. The head of the police in a county had in a perilous time done what all must agree might have endangered the of that county in an eminent degree. Ld. S. said, that was the true way of putting it, and was glad to think that Ld. F. had received the dismissal in a handsome manner-he had asked no reasons, and entered into no explanations, but said he received the intimation with proper submission. This brought us to the Manchester transaction; on which he said, I should be glad to hear that the Chancellor, and all the law-officers without exception, had, from the very first, been of the clearest opinion that all was legal, and that the assembly itself was unlawful. I asked if I was right in my understanding of the facts stated by the magistrates to Government, that the police could not execute the warrant, had called in the

peace

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