I mentioned this to Lord Bathurst. He thought not.
However, when he replied, Lord Anglesey treated the contradiction as absolute, and Lord Bathurst told the Duke he must give some explanation, which the Duke did, saying he did not mean to accuse Lord Anglesey of declaring he had the King's permission when he had not, but only that he had reason to think he had not. In fact, the King, as we always thought, told the Duke one thing and Lord Anglesey another; and the only result of the debate is that the King is proved to have told a lie.
Lord Wharncliffe, who overtook me as I was riding home, considered Lord
Anglesey to be blown out of water.
At Lady Brownlow's ball I talked with Lord Farnborough, Longford, and Beresford. All thought the reading of the letters should have been stopped, and that the Duke did wrong to read anything. We could not stop the reading of the letters when the King's permission to read them was stated distinctly by Lord Anglesey. The misery is that we have a lying master.
May 5.
I called at the Treasury and saw the Duke. On the subject of what took place yesterday he said, that having received the King's commands to declare Lord Anglesey had not his permission to read the letters, he could not do otherwise than make the observations he did. The gravamen of the charge against Lord Anglesey as arising out of those letters is that in the last he declares his intention of using them as public documents; and this being the ground upon which the King had acquiesced in his being relieved, for the King to have afterwards permitted the reading of those letters would have been a withdrawal of confidence from his Ministers.
I met Lord Ravensworth and talked to him upon the subject. He seemed to be in a sort of alarm as to what took place yesterday. This is superfluous. The Duke's explanation that he did not mean to say Lord Anglesey had reason to think he was permitted to read those letters was quite sufficient. The Duke added that he had understood the contrary.
Lord Ravensworth seemed to think his Royal master came the worst off—which is true.
He told me the Duke of Cumberland had been abusing every one at Lady Brownlow's last night, and had declared, as he has before, that he would not go away till he had us out.
Lord Anglesey is reported to be very ill to-day.