Went to the House at 4. Found a good many peers there. By mere mistake a
Bill, slightly and necessarily amended by the Lords, was not sent down to
the Commons, although directions to that effect were given, and it by
accident was placed amongst the Bills ready for the Royal assent. So it
received the Royal assent. It became necessary to pass a Bill to make this
Bill valid in law. Lord Shaftesbury thought our House ought to inform the
Commons we had discovered the error; but the Speaker, [Footnote: C. Manners
Sutton, afterwards Lord Canterbury.] to make a flourish, insisted on
announcing it first to the House of Commons. All the steps to be taken were
settled between the Speaker, Lord Shaftesbury, and Courtenay. When I went
down I found it had not been settled that anything should be done first by
us. I suggested that Lord Shaftesbury should acquaint the House with the
circumstance, and that we should appoint a Committee to inquire before the
message from the Commons came up. This was done.

We ordered a message to be sent, but before our messengers left the House
we heard the Commons would not receive a message, so I moved that the order
we had just made should be rescinded, and we had a second conference. The
Commons were well satisfied with our reply. The last sentence had been,
'The Lords hope the Commons will be satisfied with this explanation.' As we
in the first paragraph expressed our desire to preserve a good
understanding between the two Houses, and in the second one regret that
this mistake had taken place, I thought it was going too far to express _a
hope_ only that our explanation would be satisfactory.

We inserted 'the Lords _doubt not_,' instead of 'the Lords _hope_.'

At night received a letter from the Duke of Wellington, saying he thought
we might get Courtenay to resign at once and get in Lord Chandos. I am to