| First Lord of the Treasury | Viscount Melbourne. |
| Lord President of the Council | Marquis of Lansdowne. |
| First Lord of the Admiralty | Lord Auckland. |
| Lord Privy Seal | Viscount Duncannon. |
| Home Secretary | Lord John Russell. |
| Foreign Secretary | Viscount Palmerston. |
| Colonial Secretary | Lord Glenelg. |
| Board of Control | Sir John Cam Hobhouse. |
| Secretary at War | Viscount Howick. |
| Board of Trade | Mr. Poulett Thomson. |
| Chancellor of the Exchequer | Mr. Spring Rice. |
| Irish Secretary | Viscount Morpeth. |
The Earl of Mulgrave was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, The Great Seal was put in Commission.]
May 1st, 1835
Morpeth made an excellent speech on introducing his Irish Tithe Bill, and has raised himself considerably. Morpeth is (as it appears to me) ill selected for the difficult post he occupies; he has very fair ability of a showy kind, but I doubt the solidity and strength of his material for the rough work which is allotted to him.
The last day of Parliament was distinguished by a worse attack of O’Connell upon Alvanley for what he had said the day before in the House of Lords. Alvanley has sent him a message through Dawson Damer demanding an apology or satisfaction, and the result I don’t yet know.[4]
[4] [O’Connell had called Lord Alvanley a ‘bloated buffoon,’ and as usual took refuge in his vow never to fight another duel. Upon this his son, Morgan O’Connell, offered to meet Lord Alvanley in lieu of his father, which was accepted and the duel took place.]
London, May 17th, 1835
Newmarket and gout have between them produced an interval of unusual length in my scribblings, though I am not aware of having had anything particularly interesting to record. We had Stanley at Newmarket the second week as well as the first, taking a lively interest in John Russell’s defeat in Devonshire. This defeat was a great mortification to his party, and was not compensated by the easy victory which Morpeth obtained in Yorkshire. These elections and the affair between Alvanley LORD ALVANLEY’S DUEL. and O’Connell have been the chief objects of attention; all the newspapers are full of details, which I need not put down here. Alvanley seems to have behaved with great spirit and resolution. There was a meeting at De Ros’s house of De Ros, Damer, Lord Worcester, and Duncombe to consider what was to be done on the receipt of Morgan O’Connell’s letter, and whether Alvanley should fight him or not. Worcester and Duncombe were against fighting, the other two for it. Alvanley at once said that the boldest course was the best, and he would go out. It was agreed that no time should be lost, so Damer was despatched to Colonel Hodges, and said Alvanley was ready to meet Morgan O’Connell. ‘The next morning,’ Hodges suggested. ‘No, immediately.’ The parties joined in Arlington Street and went off in two hackney coaches; Duncombe, Worcester, and De Ros, with Dr. Hume, in a third. Only Hume went on the ground, for Damer had objected to the presence of some Irish friend of O’Connell’s, so that Alvanley’s friends could only look on from a distance. The only other persons who came near them were an old Irishwoman and a Methodist parson, the latter of whom exhorted the combatants in vain to forego their sinful purpose, and to whom Alvanley replied, ‘Pray, sir, go and mind your own affairs, for I have enough to do now to think of mine.’ ‘Think of your soul,’ he said. ‘Yes,’ said Alvanley, ‘but my body is now in the greatest danger.’ The Irishwoman would come and see the fighting, and asked for some money for her attendance. Damer seems to have been a very bad second, and probably lost his head; he ought not to have consented to the third shots upon any account. Alvanley says he execrated him in his heart when he found he had consented to it. Hodges acted like a ruffian, and had anything happened he would have been hanged. It is impossible to know whether the first shot was fired by mistake or not. The impression on the minds of Alvanley’s friends is that it was not, but it is difficult to believe that any man would endeavour to take such an advantage. However, no shot ought to have been fired after that. The affair made an amazing noise. As O’Connell had threatened to mention it in the House of Commons, Damer went to Peel to put him in possession of all the circumstances, but he said that he was sure O’Connell would not venture to stir the matter there.
Lord Wellesley’s resignation of the White Wand has set conjecture afloat as to his motives, and it is asserted on one side, but denied on the other, that disgust at O’Connell’s predominance is the reason, following disappointment at not having been himself reinstated. I do not know the truth of the matter. Lord John Russell takes his seat on Monday, after which business will begin again in earnest in the House of Commons. There is an impression that this Government will not be of long continuance, and that the Ministers are themselves aware that their tenure of office must be brief. They will at all events get through this session, for much remains to be done in the way of approximation and combination between different sections of public men before any satisfactory arrangement can be made for replacing the present Ministers. If it was not for the Irish question, and the apparent impossibility of bringing that to any final adjustment, I should not despair of the introduction of a better state of feeling and the mitigation of the bitterness and animosity which set men of different parties so irreconcilably against each other. At present there is certainly a great calm after the storm which raged so fiercely a little while ago. I have been so out of the world between Newmarket and the gout that I know but little of what has been passing, and merely throw in this brief notice to keep up the chain of my observations and remarks.