314 COURT POLITICS. [1816. 



rulers, by this substantial restriction on the great 

 right of petition. But a consideration of the conse- 

 quences which must follow in a reformed Parliament 

 from unlimited discussion, has led me to doubt the 

 soundness of my first opinion ; and the events, or 

 rather the talk without events, of recent sessions, has 

 strengthened these doubts. I must, however, observe 

 that the allowance of debate on petitions has a coun- 

 teracting or compensating tendency not to be left out 

 of view. Ellenborough strongly urged this upon my 

 attention after the charges which I made at the Glas- 

 gow Congress against the House of Commons for the 

 session spent in talk ; and his letter very powerfully 

 sets forth that side of the question. Possibly, without 

 repealing the general rule, it might be relaxed on cer- 

 tain specified occasions. 



TO LADY CHARLOTTE LINDSAY. 



"LANCASTER, Wednesday. 



" DEAR LADY CHARLOTTE, I have been prevented 

 from writing to you for some time by a bad kind 

 of accident which I had at Newcastle. I was over- 

 turned, the carriage tumbling twice head over heels 

 (or rather wheels), and about a quarter of my skull 

 laid bare by the glass.""" I bled like a pig, which was 

 probably advantageous; and a very skilful surgeon 

 being procured, he sewed, and cut, and tied at me for 

 about two hours, and then had me taken to a gentle- 

 man's in the neighbourhood, at whose house I had 

 been dining. I was kept there a week; but from 

 the bleeding and low regimen, and my good habit of 

 body, I recovered without the smallest fever or sup- 



* See above, p. 81. 



