332

LIFE OF QOBDEN.

{oral

i845. treat the matter as very confidential. I have so MALY
Ar 41. vigilant foes, that a whisper about my credit would Pe
exaggerated a thousandfold,”
“June 19.~—Your letters keep me on the tenter-hooks, for
I know not in what extremity you may be placed. Iam i®
the same predicament as ever. The committeo will in 2.
probability last a week more. To-day we have been rested
to a three hours’ speech by a counsel upon a mere fractiol
of the group. What makes it more difficult to escape *®
that the cornmittee does not give a decision on any Po
until we have heard the whole, and consequently nobody
not acquainted with the evidence already taken could step
in to fill my place. Sir Benjamin Hall, very luckily for bi
was pitched from his horse on his head the second day of
our meeting, and he was excused from further attendances
and as we have nobody else in his place and as four 8%
the quorum, we can’t proceed to business in the absence of
one.”
“ June 24.~1 will try to put off any meeting of the co
mittee on Saturday, so as to be able to come down on Friday
night, but I shall be obliged to be in town again on Monday
morning by twelve. I see no end to this tedious sf
We have an appointment for another branch to begin an
Monday. The trath is, the rival schemes fight for time, I
order to delay the passing of the bills during the presen’
session. But I will at all risks come down on Friday after
noon by the express train which will land me in Manchester 8
ten o’clock, and I should like to have a bed at your lodging?
and there I must see John Brooks privately on the Saturday
morning. I have turned the subject over in every way, and
I see no other solution of it than in absolutely withdrawing
myself from public life, first having secured such a promise
of support from some of ny friends as shall secure me fro
the sifscta of the shock. I have meds np my mind to hid