514 THE WELLINGTON GOVERNMENT. [1828. 



greatly increases the objections to it, insomuch that 

 many who were for it then are clearly against it now. 

 Nevertheless it would be a very alarming thing to take 

 upon one's self any part, however small, of the responsi- 

 bility of rejecting the emancipation, or what might be 

 substantially the emancipation, though coupled with 

 a measure of a most unconciliatory nature. If the 

 wing were kept separate from the main measure, the 

 course would be easy; but suppose it part of the bill, 

 and you oppose it in the committee, and then are 

 beaten, and then have to vote for or against both on 

 the report and third reading : that is the difficulty. 



" You have seen Denman's rank mentioned. The 

 Duke of Wellington behaved throughout most admir- 

 ably in it ; and to give the King his due, he behaved 

 as well as possible in the peculiar circumstances, 

 which were these : Denman was informed last sum- 

 mer that the King had been told and believed that 

 his speech (I suppose the quotation) was meant as 

 a personal charge against him. Denman felt natur- 

 ally very indignant at such an imputation as this gross 

 misconstruction conveyed against him (Denman), and 

 called on Copley to vindicate him from it he having 

 heard the speech. He found it necessary to state 

 what he had to say in a memorial in his own justifi- 

 cation ; and finding Copley much too slow in the 

 matter, he asked to see the Duke of "Wellington, who 

 undertook it in a very fair and handsome manner.* 

 This was late in July. The King's illness delayed the 

 settlement of it, and a further delay took place be- 



* The allusion here is to Denman quoting at length from Tacitus 

 (Annal. xiv. 23), the denunciation of the conduct of Nero to Octavia. 

 See the Proceedings in the Bill of Pains and Penalties, 24th October 

 1820 ; Hansard, 1088. 



