“. . . Don’t be alarmed, but endeavour to receive with equanimity, and if possible with fortitude, the painful intelligence that your beloved Sovereign has been most dangerously ill, and is still in a very precarious state. He lost in all 120 ounces of the blood-Royal in the course of about ten days. The complaint was inflammation, I suppose of the bladder, for they say it was owing to some illness of the prostate gland. I am told he is very far indeed from rallying as he used to do when bled formerly, and that all the loyal subjects near his person are in much consternation.
“The Parlt. is likely to open in a very
‘unsatisfactory’ state—as our friend Castlereagh (God rest his soul) was wont to say. The chief
‘feature’—I mean Peel—will find it quite impossible to calculate on a majority
on any one question, except perhaps a motion for turning them out or reforming
the Parlt.; and how
| 1827-28.] | GENERAL DISTRESS IN THE COUNTRY. | 147 |
“I find that the worthy Laureate, Southey, is to move or second the resoln. that the distress is within the power of the Legislature; and a cousin of the family (H. Lowther), who holds one of their livings, is to move another. Meanwhile, the Beau stands firm and says ‘he will keep his position;’ meaning, of course, without any change. But unfortunately it is Peel whose position will be to keep; so then, they say, the Beau adds—‘he shall bring forward measures, and if the Parlt. won’t support him, he can’t help it.’ His strength is no doubt in the Ultras, whom no one can wish well to, and the Huskissons, whom few will trust, after what happened two years ago. But this feeling won’t carry the said Beau thro everything, and I am quite confident he reckons without his host if he counts on it to the extent I hear.”
