486 STATE OF PARTIES. [1827. 



agreed to support the leader of the House of Commons, 

 whoever he may be, unconnected with Government by 

 office of any kind. I have taken this resolution upon 

 the intimate persuasion of my help being very essen- 

 tial, if not necessary, to the continuance of a Govern- 

 ment the principles of which I entirely approve as far 

 as they go, and hope to see go farther, and prove still 

 better. I do so, allow me to add, wholly disinterest- 

 edly. From the Government I have received only 

 slight and annoyance in my profession. My only 

 prayer was rejected viz., that all promotion should 

 be deh^ed a year, lest I might lose. I have lost mate- 

 rially on this circuit by the refusal of that reojuest; and 

 in point of honour and personal civility, a man has 

 been put over my head, both in professional rank and 

 as Attorney-General of the Duchy, for no other merit 

 but writing a No-Popery pamphlet. As for my real 

 individual interest, I believe no one can doubt that 

 it is clearly, in the present state of the House of Com- 

 mons, my game to see a weak Government, with only 

 Peel, whom I never found very invincible, and myself 

 at the. head of the Liberal party. But I really do 

 think I do the right thing by preferring the anomal- 

 ous and awkward position on the Hill-Fort; and on this 

 ground I have resolved. Believe me ever yours truly, 



" H. BROUGHAM/' 



EARL GREY. 



"LYXKIIAM, NEAR PiA'MTOx, August 19, 1827. 



" MY DEAF, BUOUUHAM, Your letter, having come 

 round by London, only reached me yesterday. 



"The recollections of the last session are indeed 

 most painful, and the more so as the causes of them 



