264

LIFE OF (CUBDEN.

ToHAT

1843. on his legs, clearly showed (and they cannot escape from the
wr.39, unpleasant reflection) that they were unconscious of 82Y
grievance being felt by the latter, and that they considered
the personality to refer to the former. They now feel the
selves convicted of having taken the cue from Peel and
joined en masse (without a conviction in their own minds
sanction the course they took), in hunting me down as 82
assassin, They will hear more of it. But the best parb of
the whole affair is that everybody of every shade of politic®
has read my speech carefully, in order to be able to judg?
of Peel’s grounds of attack upon me. The consequence is
that all the Tories of Oxford, as I learn, have been criticizing
every word of it, and the result, I am told, is unfavourable
to Peel. . . . He is looking twenty per cent. worse since I
came into the House, and if I had orly Bright with m%
we could worry him out of office before the close of the
session.’
“The thing is on its last legs. The wholesale admissions
of our principles by the Government must prove destructive
bo the system in no very long time. The whole matter turn?
upon the possibility of their finding a man fo fill the office
of executioner for them, and when Peel bolts or betrays ther
the game is up. It is this conviction in my mind which ipduced
 me after some deliberation to throw the responsibility
upon Peel, and he is not only alarmed at it, but indiscreet
enough to let everybody know that he is so. . . . Our meet”
ing last night was a wonderful exhibition. In the course of
a couple of months we will have entire possession of th
metropolis. Nothing will alarm Peel so much as e*
hibitions of strength and feeling at his own door. I a2

7 Mr. Bright, as it happened, was returned to Parliament before the end
of the session. He contested Durham in April, 1843, and was beaten by
Lord Dungsnnon. The new member was unseated on petition, on the
ground of bribery. bir. Bright again offered himself, and was elected
(July, 1343).