JET. 44.] CANNING. 455 



much the reverse. He was very good-humoured and 

 agreeable, as he always is when you put him on the 

 right subjects namely, anecdotes. I kept him as 

 much as possible on old Court stories, English and 

 German, and he went on with the history of them all 

 really in a very entertaining way. By the way, he 

 seemed to dread the Duke of York and his old Tory 

 party a great deal more than anything else at this 

 juncture, and considered the being obliged to take 

 Canning in as a material defeat to that set. 



" Before this can reach you (which I reckon will be 

 Wednesday), you must have heard with certainty as to 

 Canning. Indeed, already it seems all but settled; so 

 far your original prediction is verified. Possibly, too, 

 you may prove right in your expectation that the 

 Chancellor and he will go on, from his (Canning's) fear 

 of being again turned adriffc, and no India to retreat 

 upon. Yet still I see so many great difficulties in the 

 way, that until the new concern is fairly under way 

 I can't quite believe in it. I well know the infinite 

 subtleties and wiles of that old serpent the Chancellor, 

 and that, next to going out, Canning is the thing he 

 most hates. Nor will anything make him submit but 

 necessity. Up to the last moment there is a chance 

 of its all going off. If Canning does come in, and 

 upon anything like his own terms, I shall draw one 

 only conclusion, that they were desperate, and that 

 Peel and Co. had positively refused to undertake the 

 management upon any terms. But where I differ 

 most with you is on the prospect before them with 

 Canning. I cannot imagine them going on smoothly 

 together ; the King hating him the Chancellor hat- 

 ing him more deeply and steadily almost all his other 



