Note 314 — Chapter XIII

[Footnote 314: It is known, from two letters from Lord Palmerston to the Queen, published in the "Life of the Prince Consort," v., 100—in one, written before the debate in the House of Lords, he expresses a hope that the smallness of the majority in the House of Commons will encourage the Lords to throw it out, and he "is bound in duty to say that, if they do so, they will perform a good public service;" and in another, the day after the division in the Lords, he writes again "that they have done a right and useful thing," adding that the feeling of the public was so strong against the measure, that those in the gallery of the House are said to have joined in the cheers which broke out when the numbers were announced.]