482 STATE OF PARTIES. [1827. 



that all the nobility were gifted with wisdom and 

 understanding. 



Some of our best friends, without opposing or even 

 disapproving the Junction ministry, as it was called, 

 kept aloof. Of these, Althorpe and Tavistock (now 

 Duke of Bedford) were the principal. They said they 

 must take time and watch the Government. They 

 acted as watchers therefore, preventing attacks in 

 general, and for the most part satisfied with the mea- 

 sures of the ministers. I took my place in what was 

 called the Hill-Fort (an East Indian term), on the 

 third bench behind the ministerial, in the corner where 

 Pitt used to sit while supporting the Addington min- 

 istry ; nor did any occasion but one occur to make me 

 differ with Canning, and that was on the disfranchise- 

 ment of Grampound for corruption, when he was de- 

 feated by a large majority. 



Among those who, out of doors, were against the 

 Junction, was Sydney Smith, who wrote violent let- 

 ters abusing it, and lauding the Duke of Bedford for 

 going against it. But this did not prevent him from 

 writing to me, on Goderich succeeding Canning, to 

 desire promotion. He stated his unquestionable claims 

 upon the Liberal party, and added that what he de- 

 sired was a living of a considerably larger amount than 



O Jo 



Foston, which he then held, or a prebend, the confer- 

 ring of which would be beneficial to us as well as to 

 himself, for it would acquit our debt to him, while any- 

 thing higher in the Church would neither be good for 

 us nor for himself. My answer was, that he showed 

 his usual good sense in preferring i\\c smtynesses to the 

 fastnesses of the Church ; and I promised to do my best 

 for him, but the ministry did not last long enough to 



