[23] [It was on October 25 that the Government authorised the Bank of England to issue paper in excess of the limit imposed by the Act of 1844. This measure led to the immediate meeting of Parliament to pass a Bill of Indemnity, though the power was revoked on November 23.]
[24] [The Hon. Edward Harcourt, Archbishop of York, died on November 5, in his ninety-first year.]
[25] [William Fox had entered life as a Unitarian Minister, and he continued to preach for several years at the Finsbury Chapel of that persuasion. But he subsequently quitted the pulpit, and was returned to Parliament for the borough of Oldham in 1847. He became an active member of the Radical Party, but his eloquence was less admired in the House of Commons than it had been in his chapel.]
[26] [Lord Minto, then Lord Privy Seal, had been sent in the course of this autumn on a roving mission to Italy. Pius IX. had been elected Pope in June 1846.]
[27] [Dr. Hampden, who was accused of heterodox opinions, and whose appointment to a Canonry at Oxford had already occasioned an explosion of bigotry and intolerance in the Church, was raised to the See of Hereford by Lord John Russell, chiefly, as it would seem, as an act of defiance to the Clerical party. Hampden was a dull, heavy man, who made more noise in the world than he deserved, but he was not a bad bishop.]
[28] [Victor, Duc de Broglie, was at this time French Ambassador in London.]
[29] Dudley, second Baron and first Earl of Harrowby, born December 22, 1782; died December 26, 1847.
[30] [On December 11 an attempt was made to arrest the confirmation of Dr. Hampden as Bishop of Hereford in the church of St. Mary-le-Bow. But this was overruled by the Commissioners. On December 24 the Attorney-General showed cause against a rule nisi granted on the 14th by the Court of Queen's Bench, for a mandamus against the Archbishop of Canterbury. Judgement was given on February 1. Mr. Justice Coleridge and Mr. Justice Erle were in favour of granting the mandamus; Lord Denman, C. J., and Mr. Justice Patteson against it. The Court being equally divided, no mandamus was issued.]
[31] [Sir Arthur Aston was Secretary of Legation in Spain.]
[32] [Sir John Jervis was at this time Attorney-General, afterwards Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Sir David Dundas was Solicitor-General.]