home unobserved by any one, though a short time before I had been offered as a spectacle to the immense crowd which thronged all the streets through which the cavalcade had passed. Though Sir Francis Burdett's friends were disappointed and chagrined at his being second on the poll, and deferred his chairing to a future day, yet no symptom of dissatisfaction appeared in any part of the crowd; but I was everywhere hailed with shouts and congratulations.

Among the strange incidents which occurred Bentham. during the election, was the decided part which my excellent friend, Jeremy Bentham, took against me. He did not vote, indeed; but he wrote a handbill, avowed and signed by him, in which he represented me to be a most unfit Member for Westminster, as being a lawyer, a Whig, and a friend only to moderate reform. This hand-bill he sent to Burdett's Committee; but, as it did not reach them till after they had become sensible that they had injured their cause by their abuse of me, they refused to publish it. Some of my friends were very angry with Bentham for this hostile interference against me. For myself, I feel not the least resentment at it. Though a late, I know him to be a very sincere, convert to the expediency of universal suffrage; and he is too honest in his politics to suffer them to be influenced by any considerations of private friendship.

12th, Sun. Attended a meeting of the Opposition at Brookes's, at which it was determined to request Tierney to consider himself as their leader.

Creevey's letter on the Westminster election.

Dined the same day at the Duke of Sussex's, at Kensington Palace. It was a dinner which His Royal Highness was kind enough to give to celebrate my election.

19th, Sun. I took possession of a small cottage which I am to rent for a few weeks on Hampstead Heath. I shall only be able to get there in the evening, and must be in town early every morning to attend the Court of Chancery.

27th, Mon. I dined at Bentham's; a small but very pleasant party, consisting of the American Minister (Mr. Rush), Bentham, Brougham, Dumont, Mill, and Koe.

I have received numerous letters of congratulation from my friends, on the result of the Westminster election. The two which, from the view they take of the subject, are most worth preserving, are from my friend Creevey, at Brussels, and from Mr. Otter. Creevey's letter is as follows:

"I am quite sure there is not a man in all England who rejoices more sincerely in your late triumph at Westminster than myself; and I write you this line to tell you so. Considering your uniform conduct in Parliament, and, above all, considering that faithful and courageous picture which you drew of the late Parliament at the close of its existence, your triumph over the court, and within its own walls, is almost beyond belief. Your election, too, will be a just and lasting reproach to the Whig aristocracy, who had made no arrangement for securing your continuance in Parliament, and

who could never have anticipated this fortunate event*: and lastly, it is a great and signal triumph over the intemperate partizans of Burdett, who have been compelled for the first time in their lives to suspend their blackguard abuse and folly, from pure extorted deference to your own personal character; so that your election is perfect in all ways, and ought to be an eternal lesson for politicians of all descriptions in time to come."

To save myself the trouble of copying Mr. Mr. Otter's Otter's letter, I annex it at the end of the book.1

Aug. 7th, Fri. I gave up the cottage at Hampstead.

*This is certainly an unjust reproach. I had no claims on what Creevey calls the Whig aristocracy. The Duke of Bedford, however, as I afterwards learnt, had made an arrangement to provide a seat for me, if I were not returned for some other place.

■ The following is the letter from the Rev. William Otter (now Bishop of Chichester).

66

My dear Sir,

ED.

Kinlet, near Bewdley, July 6. 1818.

"I cannot deny myself the pleasure of congratulating you most heartily and sincerely upon the event of the anxious but glorious struggle in which you have been engaged. Nothing, indeed, could be more fitting or more honourable. You are placed precisely in the situation which your public services had merited; and the electors of Westminster have raised themselves mightily in the opinion of all wise and honourable men. In my own judgment, every thing has turned out exactly as it should have done. It was right that you should be called upon publicly to become a candidate still better that you should not be supported by the friends of Sir Francis Burdett - and best of all, that you should be at the head of the poll. It is an additional pleasure to infer, from the completeness of your success, that the Whigs are gaining ground in public opinion; for, although I most sincerely believe that no one but yourself could have achieved for them such a victory, yet I doubt whether even you could have done it a year or two ago. In this county almost all the gentlemen are Tories; but I have not seen one who did not express a hearty wish for your

success.

"I fear that the agitation of this scene has not been favourable to Lady Romilly's disorder; but joy is a good physician, and I hope it will prove so to her."

letter.

19th. Roget and William arrived, and Mr. Nash. Oct. 9th. Slept for the first time after many sleepless nights.

10th. Relapse of Anne.

Her

[Lady Romilly died on the 29th of Oct. 1818. husband survived but for three days the wife whom he had loved with a devotion to which her virtues, and her happy influence on the usefulness of his life, gave her so just a claim. His anxiety, during her illness, preyed upon his mind, and affected his health; and the shock occasioned sizi by her death led to that event which brought his life to a close, on the 2d of Nov. 1818, in the 62d year of his age.]

This and the following memoranda are written upon a loose sheet of paper, found in the last volume of this Diary. — Ed.

LETTERS TO C.

INTRODUCTION.

THE following portion of this work, which the Editors have entitled "Letters to C.," consists of four unfinished papers by Sir Samuel Romilly, which may be described in his own words as "Observations on his situation in life and future prospects, in the course of which he indulged himself in passing in review some projects for the public benefit." The two first, written in 1801, which are in the form of letters addressed by an imaginary friend to himself, and the third, in 1807, relate to the office of Lord Chancellor. The fourth, written in 1818, which is in the form of a letter addressed by himself to the same imaginary friend, refers to the course of conduct he ought to pursue as a representative for the city of Westminster. Connected with the three first of these letters is a series of papers on the duties of a Lord Chancellor in his character of a Legislator, a Minister, and a Judge. They do not form any regular or complete treatise, but are principally in the nature of sketches to be afterwards filled up, and occasionally little more than memoranda to recall former reflections. The following account of them may serve to show in what manner they are connected together, and what light they throw on the letters themselves :

One of them is entitled "Memoranda of things 1 Vol. II. p. 234.