“. . . I agree in your view of the high importance of this session. Lord [illegible], who is here, holds that it will be one of expedients and shifts, and that the grand breakdown won’t happen yet. I don’t much differ from him; but still, it will be the session, for their shifts and struggles and agonies will be the very time for work. The illustrious Regent meantime has been suffering in the flesh as well as the spirit, and I rejoice to find that his last defeat (which was a total one) has greatly annoyed him. I suppose you are aware of the secret history of it, and of Mother P. having miraculously been found fit for service once more. However, this time I must say she was rather a name than anything else, and little P. in reality bore the brunt of the day. I rejoice to say that Lord Grey views the divorce question in its true light, as do the party generally, i.e. in its connection with little P. and upon more general grounds. Both Carlton House and Hertford House now say the matter is finally at rest. . . . There are too many of the party abroad this session. Lord Lansdowne is here and remains all the winter in Italy, unless some very imperious call should take him home. The Jerseys and Cowpers come in a few days with the same plans. . . . Lady Jersey’s absence is very bad for the party. She alone had the right notion of the thing, and her great influence in society was always honestly and heartily exerted with her usual excellence
| 260 | THE CREEVEY PAPERS | [Ch XI. |
