4H DEFENCE OF QUEEN CAROLINE. [1820. 



to consider some matter of importance respecting the 

 order of proceeding, and when I said, " You know to 

 a certain extent you and we are in the same boat;" 

 he answered, " So cursed a boat I never was in before, 

 and never shall be a^ain." We knew his indignation 



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at Leach, whom he accused, not without reason, of 

 having been the great promoter of the measure, he hav- 

 ing unquestionably been the King's chief counsellor, 

 and taken a most active part in the preliminary pro- 

 ceedings. Eldon's delight was unbounded at Denman's 



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quotation, referring to Leach, "some cogging, cozen- 

 ing knave, to get some office " (the Great Seal being 

 manifestly Leach's object) ; and he was, if possible, still 

 more delighted with the reception which this passage 

 in Shakespeare had at the theatre the night after, when 

 that play was given, and the audience instantly took 

 it up, applauding loudly. On one occasion Eldon said, 

 with one of his oaths, " he'd have him hanged before 

 he had done with him." Another indication of the 

 feeling against the bill we had, when one day during 

 the trial I happened to go into one of the rooms, where 

 I found Sir Walter Scott and the Duke of Clarence. I 

 immediately drew back, having mistaken the room for 

 our consultation chamber ; but the Duke called me in ; 

 and good-humoured as he always was, having been 

 somewhat severely attacked by us for the part he took 

 in the secret committee on the papers, he said, "Of 

 one thing I am quite sure; whatever your client may 

 be in other respects, she is not what you have repre- 

 sented her, a defenceless woman : " in which Sir 

 Walter Scott very courteously agreed, and added how 

 much he wished he had never heard anything of the 

 bill. The Duke having asked him some question 



