508 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1810. 



Even Barlow lias more adherents and approvers.* It 

 would be a very pleasant thing to me if I could take 

 Ho wick in my way to town next week ; but the dis- 

 tance and the dreadful weather, with a bad deafness, 

 make it impossible, so I must forego it. Believe me 

 truly yours, H. BROUGHAM." 



On my return to London for Michaelmas term, I 

 wrote as follows to Lord Grey. 



TO EARL GREY. 



" TEMPLE, Nov. 4, 1810. 



" MY DEAR LORD GREY, I have little to say about 

 anything at present, for nobody talks of any subject 

 but one, and on that one the falsities and idle ru- 

 mours are so numerous that the safest rule an uncon- 

 cerned spectator can lay down for himself is, to believe 

 nothing at all. The idea of the king having had an 

 apoplectic attack seems pretty generally current ; and 

 if so, Haslam, I understand, says his other complaint 

 is incurable. 



" But one reason for my, at least, doubting the 

 whole story is, that at Michael Taylor's (where I 

 passed a day on my way to town) they had heard no- 

 thing of it. Another story, not inconsistent with the 



* Sir George Barlow, whose administration in India was an exciting 

 topic in its day. On the death of the Governor-General, Lord Corn- 

 wallis, in 1805, Barlow, in terms of a provision for such an event, was 

 appointed to the office provisionally, and next year he received a formal 

 commission as Governor-General. The mutiny of Vellore, and other 

 unpropitious events, occurred during his administration. 



