JET. 36.] AND THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE. 179 



defy her father to surpass, accomplished as he is in 

 such walks. You will be less surprised to hear of her 

 being quite violent against peace and Bonaparte, and 

 for war till the Bourbons are restored. Luckily all 

 this will not depend on her or her father either. She 

 is to dine again on the 7th with her mother. 



" The debates of late, at least in the Commons, seem 

 queer kind of things. I have no confidence ivhatever 

 in ministers and their professions of peace, and regret 

 that Whitbread should say so much on this score ; for 

 though I hope it is only reculer pour mieux sauter, 

 and taking a stronger ground for after operations 

 against them, such admissions are always dangerous, 

 and scarcely ever do good. Mackintosh's speech seems 

 (like all he says and writes) to have been dreadfully 

 deficient in closeness, with no object, no argument, a 

 sort of preaching or lecturing of a very unbusiness- 

 like and inefficient nature. I should suppose Romilly's 

 to have been far better.* But it is very painful to me 

 to see nobody there on your behalf, and I really wish 

 Tierney had in the course of the session said some- 

 thing, as people look to him for your sentiments. A 

 great number of things would have been most neces- 

 sary, in order to correct misrepresentations very pre- 

 valent, especially as to Spain and the successes of the 

 war. I have more than once been tempted by hearing 

 of these to try something, but I am too much jaded 

 to write a pamphlet, even if I could get over the 

 injury such a step would do me ; and as for public 

 meetings, besides the same reason, I might do more 



* Debate, on 20th December 1813, on the adjournment of Parliament 

 during the critical negotiations of the Allied Powers with Napoleon on 

 the Rhine. 



