“. . . Well, here is Ld.
Carlisle Privy Seal after all, but only as a makeshift, he
himself having the greatest possible objection to it. When Sefton told me that either Radnor or Dacre was to have it, and asked me what I thought of the
appointment, I said that, as far as I was concerned, I would not trust either
of them with half a crown; not from any distrust of their honesty, but from
their being a couple of wrongheaded fellows you could never be safe with.
Witness, in Radnor’s case, the mess he got into with
Mrs. Clarke, and his letters to her
in the Duke of York’s case. His having
identified himself to the extent he has done with Cobbett, and his childish consultation with me about bringing
him into Parliament, &c., &c. Then Dacre is a
conceited prig—a generalising, soi-disant German philosopher. Do you remember Mrs. Sheridan asking me how he spoke, and how
Sheridan enjoyed it when I said
‘like a Druid from the top of Snowdon.’
Radnor would give a more Radical character to the Government, and Dacre a
Presbyterian one, having a very strong personal resemblance to that community.
. . . Well; the Government having elected Radnor of the
two as their Privy Seal, with much importunity from Brougham, on Wednesday night he accepted; but yesterday morning
brought his stipulation, without which being acceded to he was off—‘an equitable adjustment, the
duration of Parliament shortened, and the repeal of the Corn
Laws!’ What a modest
| 1834.] | OXFORD DECLINES TALLEYRAND. | 279 |
