A GENERAL ELECTION
Pembroke Lodge, 5th August 1847.
Lord John Russell presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and has the honour to state that he considers the elections which have taken place since he last addressed your Majesty as satisfactory.
The Liberal gains, upon the whole, have been upwards of thirty, and when the elections are concluded will probably be upwards of forty.
The rejection of so distinguished a man as Mr Macaulay7 is the most disgraceful act in the whole election. It has only a parallel in the rejection of Mr Burke by the city of Bristol.
The result of the whole elections will be, even if Sir George Grey is defeated in Northumberland, that neither Lord John Russell or any other Minister will have the command of a regular party majority.
But it is probable that Government will be sufficiently strong to resist both a reaction against free trade, and any democratic movement against the Church or the aristocracy.
Footnote 7: In consequence of his vote on Maynooth. The poem he wrote on the present occasion will be remembered.
Lord John Russell to Queen Victoria.
THE IRISH ELECTIONS