CHAPTER XII.

Lord Clarendon's favourable View of the Peace--General Evans' Proposal

to embark after the Battle of Inkerman--Sir E. Lyons defends Lord

Raglan--Peace concluded--Sir J. Graham's gloomy View of Affairs--Edward

Ellice's Plan--Favourable Reception of the Peace--A Lull in Politics--A

Sabbatarian Question--The Trial of Palmer for Murder--Defeat of

the Opposition--Danger of War with the United States--Ristori as

an Actress--Defeat of the Appellate Jurisdiction Bill--Return

of the Guards--Baron Parke on the Life Peerage--Close of the

Session--O'Donnell and Espartero in Spain--Chances of War--Coronation

of the Czar--Apathy of the Nation--Expense of the Coronation at

Moscow--Interference at Naples--Foreign Relations--Progress of

Democracy in England--Russia, France, England, and Naples--Russian

Intrigues with France--The Bolgrad Question--The Quarrel with

Naples--The Formation of Lord Palmerston's Government in 1855--Death of

Sir John Jervis--Sir Alexander Cockburn's Appointment--James Wortley

Solicitor-General--Conference on the Treaty of Paris--Low Church

Bishops--Leadership of the Opposition--Coolness in Paris--Dictatorial

Policy to Brazil.

[Sidenote: RETURN TO ENGLAND.]

_London, March 21st, Good Friday._--I left Paris on Wednesday morning

with Mr. and Mrs. Reeve, dined at Boulogne, crossed over in the

evening, and arrived in London yesterday morning at eleven o'clock.

When near Folkestone we were caught in a fog, lost our way, and were

very near having to anchor and pass the night at sea. After a vast deal

of whistling and bellowing, stopping and going on, the fog cleared a

little, lights became visible, and we entered the harbour with no other

inconvenience than having made a long _détour_, and being an hour later

than our proper time. I regretted leaving Paris, where I was treated

with so much affection and hospitality, and on the whole very well

amused. On Monday, I dined with the Duchesse de Mouchy; on Tuesday

night Clarendon came after dinner to see me before my departure, and we

had some talk about the peace and the terms. He spoke very cheerfully

about it and seems not at all dissatisfied, nor to feel any alarm about

its reception. As it is, without at all acknowledging that he has made

any sacrifices, he considers that the influence he has acquired for

England, particularly with Austria and Turkey, is far more valuable

than any items of concession from Russia would have been. Buol told him

that he was now quite convinced that England was the Power to which

Austria must really look with confidence and reliance on her honour and

friendship, and the Turk was still more warm and vehement in assurances

of the same kind. This was elicited from the Austrians by the fact of

England having supported the condition of the Bessarabian cession,

while France took part with Russia and threw Austria over. Moreover,

Clarendon does not, like Cowley, complain of the Emperor Napoleon, but

speaks with great satisfaction of His Majesty's conduct to him, and the

renewed cordiality with which he has recently expressed himself towards

England, and for the maintenance of his alliance with us. In short, he

evidently thinks, and not without reason, that he will return, having

obtained a sufficiently good peace, and having placed England in a very

fine position. He said that he had been able to accomplish his task

by being ready to incur responsibility at home, and by being able to

act unfettered, and taking on himself to disregard any instructions

or recommendations from home that he did not approve of. Yesterday I

saw George Lewis and had a talk with him and his wife about Clarendon

and the peace. He said he thought the peace quite sufficient, and he

did not understand what it was Cowley found fault with, nor why he is

dissatisfied. He denies that we have given up anything that it would

have been just and reasonable to stand out upon, and will not hear of

taking an apologetic tone, but that Clarendon should defend the peace

on its own merits. He thinks it will be well enough received in the

House of Commons and by the country, and he is in good spirits about

the Government. He says Palmerston has been moderate and reasonable,

and that he is not aware of Clarendon's having been harassed with any

instructions, but left entirely to his own discretion. They all think

he has done exceedingly well.

[Sidenote: SIR EDMUND LYONS' NARRATIVE.]

_March 29th._--I went to Hatchford on Saturday last; on Wednesday to

Althorp. I met Sir Edmund Lyons at Hatchford, who talked incessantly

about the incidents of the war and the conduct of the people concerned

in it, and very interesting his talk was, for besides having been one

of the most conspicuous and important actors in it, he was completely

in the confidence of the Commanders-in-Chief, and consulted by them on

every occasion and with regard to all operations. He told us what had

passed between Evans and Raglan and between Evans and himself on a most

important occasion, to this effect: Evans went to Raglan immediately

after the battle of Inkerman, and proposed to him to embark the army

immediately, leaving their guns, and (Lyons says he is almost certain)

their sick and wounded to the enemy. Raglan said, 'But you forget the

French: would you have us abandon them to their fate?' He replied,

'You are Commander-in-Chief of the _English_ army, and it is your

business to provide for _its_ safety....' Raglan would not hear of the

proposal. Almost immediately after Evans met Sir Edmund Lyons and told

him what had passed with Raglan, and urged him to suggest the same

course. Lyons made the same observation about the French that Raglan

had done, and said one of two things would happen: either the French

would take Sebastopol alone, when we should be covered with shame and

dishonour; or they would fail and probably suffer some great disaster.

The expression of _'perfide Albion'_ had long been current in France,

and then indeed it would be well deserved and would become a perpetual

term of reproach against us. These rebuffs did not prevent Evans going

on board ship and there giving out that the army would in a few days

be obliged to embark, and Captain Dacres came to Lyons and told him

he heard this was going to happen. Lyons asked him where he had heard

this, and he said Evans had announced it, and talked of it unreservedly

as certain to happen. Lyons said, 'It is false; the army will not go

away, and Sebastopol will be taken. It is very mischievous that such

reports should circulate, and I order you not to allow such a thing to

be said by anybody on board your ship, and to contradict it in the most

positive manner.'

Everything that Lyons said, and it may be added all one hears in

every way, tends to the honour and the credit of Raglan, and I am

glad to record this because I have always had an impression that much

of the difficulty and distress of the army in 1854 was owing to his

want of energy and management. He was not a Wellington certainly, and

probably he might have done more and better than he did, but he was

unquestionably, on the whole, the first man in the army, and if he had

not been continually thwarted by the French, would have done more.

While many here were crying out for placing our army under the command

of French generals, and recalling Raglan (and I must confess I had

myself a considerable leaning that way), he was struggling against the

shortcomings or the inactivity of Canrobert and Pélissier. Canrobert

acknowledged that he had not nerves sufficient for the duties of his

station, and he never could be got to agree to adopt the bold offensive

movements which Raglan was continually urging upon him, especially

after the battle of Inkerman, when Raglan entreated him to follow up

the discomfited Russians, his whole army being ready and not above

1,500 of them having been engaged. With Pélissier, Raglan had very

little to do, for his death occurred soon after Pélissier took the

command.

[Sidenote: LYONS DEFENDS LORD RAGLAN.]

Lyons gave us an interesting account of Raglan's last illness. He

seemed to have no idea that he was in serious danger, nor had the

people about him. At last, when he was so rapidly sinking that the

doctors saw his end was approaching, and it was deemed necessary to

apprise him thereof, he would not believe it, and he insisted to his

aide-de-camp who told him of his state that he was better, and he fell

into a state of insensibility without ever having been conscious of

his dying condition. One of the best authenticated charges against

Raglan was that of his not showing himself to his soldiers, and it was

said many believed that he had quitted the camp; at last this idea

became so prevalent that his own staff felt the necessity of something

being said to him about it, but none dared, for it seems they were all

exceedingly afraid of him. At last they asked Lyons if he would speak

to him and tell him what was said. Lyons said he had no scruple or

difficulty in so doing, and told him plainly the truth. Raglan not only

took it in good part, but thanked him very much, and said his reason

for not riding round all the divisions was that he could not prevent

the soldiers turning out to salute him, and he could not bear to see

this ceremony done by the men who had been all night in the trenches or

otherwise exposed to fatigue, and that this was the sole reason why he

had abstained, but henceforward he would make a point of riding round

every day, and so he ever after did; so that the main fact as reported

by 'correspondents' was not devoid of truth. I wish I could recollect

all the various anecdotes Lyons told us, but I neglected to put them

down at the time, and now they have faded from my memory. He discussed

the qualities of the English generals with reference to the command

of the army after Raglan's death. He never had well understood why it

was that Colin Campbell was always considered out of the question, and

his own opinion seemed to be that he was the fittest man. The French

thought so, and one of the alleged reasons against him, viz., that

he could not speak French, was certainly not true. Simpson was very

reluctant to take the command at first, and wrote home to say so, but

after he had received certain flattering encouragements his opposition

waxed fainter, and by the time it was taken from him he became anxious

to retain it. Raglan was not at all annoyed at Simpson's being sent

there, and did what he pleased with him. Simpson never attempted to

interfere with him or to control him in any way, but on the contrary

was entirely subservient to Raglan.

_April 1st._--News of peace reached London on Sunday evening, and was

received joyfully by the populace, not from any desire to see an end of

the war, but merely because it is a great event to make a noise about.

The newspapers have been reasonable enough, except the 'Sun,' which

appeared in deep mourning and with a violent tirade against peace.

[Sidenote: SIR JAMES GRAHAM ON THE STATE OF PARTIES.]

_April 3rd._--Yesterday I met Graham at the Council Office, where he

had come to attend a committee. Since the formation of Aberdeen's

Government three years ago I have hardly ever seen him, and have never

had any conversation with him. Yesterday he sat down and began talking

over the state of affairs generally, and the prospects of the country,

which he considers very gloomy and full of danger, more particularly

from the outrageous license of the press, which has now arrived at a

pitch perfectly intolerable, but which it is impossible to check or

control. Then the total destruction of parties and of party ties and

connexions, to say nothing of the antipathies and disagreements of such

public men as these are. He says there is not one man in the House

of Commons who has ten followers, neither Gladstone, nor Disraeli,

nor Palmerston. The Government goes on because there is no organized

opposition prepared and able to take its place, and the Government

receives a sufficiency of independent support, because all feel that

the business of the country must be carried on, and hitherto Palmerston

has been supported as a War Minister, and the best man to carry on the

war; but Graham is very doubtful what will happen when the discussions

on the peace and all matters relating to the war are over, and other

questions (principally of domestic policy) come into play. Palmerston,

always sanguine, fancies he can stand, but it is very doubtful, for

he is not backed by a party constituting a majority; the Treasury

Bench is very weak, and Palmerston himself a poor and inefficient

conductor of the Government in the House. John Russell has taken up the

question of education, which he hopes to render popular, and through

it means again to recover his former influence and authority. He said

that John Russell is (in spite of all that happened last year) more

looked up to by the Whig party than Palmerston, and that they would

rather have him for their leader, as, notwithstanding the faults he

has committed, he is by far the ablest man, has a much greater grasp

of intellect, more foresight, and is much more of a statesman, and has

fixed principles. Palmerston (Graham thinks) has a passionate love of

office and power, and will cling to it with tenacity to the last, and

never resign it but on compulsion, not caring with whom he acts, nor

on what principles. This, I think, is partly true and partly false. I

do not think he cares whom he acts with, but I do not believe he is

quite indifferent as to the principles. He says Lewis has done well,

and is liked in the House of Commons, and Gladstone likes him and

gives him a cordial support; that Baines is a good man, and those two

are the most respected and considered of all the men on the Treasury

Bench, the House accepting their sterling qualities in place of greater

brilliancy such as Gladstone can command; that Gladstone is certainly

the ablest man there, though it is still doubtful whether his talents

are equal to such an emergency as the present to master public opinion,

enlist it on his side, and to administer the Government on certain

principles of administrative reform, which Graham himself considers

necessary. His religious opinions, in which he is zealous and sincere,

enter so largely into his political conduct as to form a very serious

obstacle to his success, for they are abhorrent to the majority of this

Protestant country, and (I was rather surprised to hear him say) Graham

thinks approach very nearly to Rome. Gladstone would have nothing to

do with any Government unless he were leader in the House of Commons,

and when that Government is formed, there should be previously a clear

and distinct understanding on what principles it was founded and what

their course of action should be. His tone is now that of disclaiming

party connexions, and being ready to join with any men who are able and

willing to combine in carrying out such measures as are indispensably

necessary for the good government of the country, such a system as

he briefly shadowed out in his speech at the Mansion House the other

day. Graham's idea is, that in the event of this Government breaking

down, the best chance of another being formed would be by Clarendon

undertaking it, whom on the whole he regards as the man best fitted by

his experience and ability to be at the head of affairs; that he and

Gladstone might be brought together, but would Lord John consent to go

to the Lords, and to serve under Clarendon as President of the Council

and Head of the Education Department? This opens questions full of

doubt and difficulty. Derby, he thinks, has no desire to form another

Government, and would prefer to go on as he is now, leader of a large

party of Peers who are willing to follow him and to make the House of

Lords one of the scenes and instruments of his amusements as usual,

provided it supplies him with occupation and excitement, indifferent

to the consequences and to the mischief he may do. Disraeli appears to

be endeavouring to approach Gladstone, and a confederacy between those

two and young Stanley by no means an improbability. What Stanley is

disposed to do and capable of doing is still an enigma, and although

his speeches are not devoid of matter, they are without a particle of

the spirit and stirring eloquence of his father.

The change which has taken place in the country presents to Graham a

most alarming prospect. Hitherto it has been governed by parties, and

patronage has been the great instrument of keeping parties together;

whereas Sir Robert Peel has destroyed party, which had now entirely

ceased to exist; and between the press, the public opinion which the

press had made, and the views of certain people in Parliament, of whom

Gladstone is the most eminent and strenuous, patronage was either

destroyed or going rapidly to destruction. The only hope of escaping

from great perils was in that broad stratum of good sense and firmness

which still existed in the country, and of which manifestations had

been recently given. He admires the resolute and unflinching spirit

with which the war had been entered into, carried on, and the country

was quite willing to persist in; and not less the sensible and

reasonable manner in which the peace, by which they were mortified and

disappointed, had been acquiesced in, for he says that it is beyond

all question that there is throughout the country a strong feeling of

mortification and regret that we have not played a more brilliant part,

and that our share of glory has been less than that of our ally, and

there would have been a general feeling of exultation and satisfaction

if we had fought another campaign in order to end the war with greater

_éclat_. But this sentiment has been sufficiently mastered by prudent

considerations and a just appreciation of the circumstances of Europe

generally, and of our relations with other Powers, to check all

ebullitions of mortified pride, and to induce a prudent reserve and

acquiesce in the management of the Government, and in a spirit like

this there appears some hope for the future. We had a very long talk

about these and other matters, the substance of which I record as it

recurs to my mind.

[Sidenote: EDWARD ELLICE ON THE STATE OF PARTIES.]

A day or two before I met Ellice at Hillingdon, where we interchanged

our thoughts, and a good deal that he said was much in Graham's sense:

that this Government could not stand but by being remodelled, and his

notion is that half of it should be got rid of, the Peelites taken in,

and Lord John to go to the House of Lords as President of the Council,

Granville taking Cowley's place as ambassador at Paris, and Cowley

replacing Stratford Canning at Constantinople. _À propos_ of Stratford

Canning, Graham thinks the Opposition will attack the Government and

not the ambassador on the case of Kars, and that it is not impossible

they may carry a vote of censure against them, which I told him I

did not believe was possible, or that they could be able to carry

any resolution affecting the Government so much as to compel their

resignation, and I suggested to him how fatal this would be to his

scheme of reorganizing a Government under Clarendon, as such censure

would more especially touch him, and this would make it impossible for

the Queen to entrust the formation of another Government to his hands.

_April 7th._--Since my conversation with Graham, I have learnt from

the Duke of Bedford that Lord John is not very much disinclined to

go to the House of Lords, particularly as his position in reference

to his seat for the City is so embarrassing. The Dissenters, always

unreasonable and ungrateful, will not forgive his speech upon Church

Rates the other night, and his general popularity is gone. Then it

is probably a consideration with him to secure to his family the

settlement his brother will make on him if he takes the peerage.

_London, May 4th._--For nearly a month I have let this journal fall

into arrear, during which period the most interesting occurrences have

been the return of Clarendon, the publication of the conditions of

peace with the accompanying protocols, and the debate upon Kars. With

regard to the peace, Clarendon comes very well out of his mission, and

no fault is found with the peace. The Kars debate was a great error

on the part of the Opposition, and ended with a great triumph for

the Government. Just before it, Palmerston called a meeting of his

supporters, where he harangued them with great success, and managed

to rally them round him with more of zeal and cordiality than they

have hitherto shown. His position is certainly improved, and according

to present appearances he will get through the session without much

difficulty. All agree that he has been doing well in the House of

Commons; his assiduity, his punctual attendance, and his popular

manners make him agreeable to the House, and he has exhibited greater

facility and resource in dealing with all sorts of miscellaneous

subjects than anybody gave him credit for. There is not the smallest

danger of the peace proving dangerous to him, and it is evident that

the House of Commons, however independent and undisciplined it may be,

will not allow him to be placed in any danger, and is determined not to

have any change of Government at present. The Peelites and John Russell

supported him and had nothing else to do, for they are neither of them

in a condition to attempt to play a game of their own.

_May 14th._--Every day my disinclination to continue this work (which

is neither a journal nor anything else) increases, but I have at the

same time a reluctance to discontinue entirely an occupation which has

engaged me for forty years, and in which I may still find from time to

time something to record which may hereafter be deemed worth reading,

and so at long intervals, and for short periods, I resume my reluctant

pen.

We are now in the Whitsuntide holidays, in a profound political and

parliamentary calm, the Government perfectly secure, Palmerston very

popular, the Opposition disheartened and disunited, and having managed

their matters as awkwardly and stupidly as possible, attacking the

Government on questions and points on which the assailants were sure to

be beaten, and strengthening instead of weakening it by their abortive

attempts. There was great difference of opinion amongst them about

fighting battles, on Kars, and on the peace; Lyndhurst and Derby were

against, Disraeli was for. Roebuck, whom I fell in with on Sunday in

a railway train, told me that if they had laid hold of the one point

of the protocol in the Belgian press, and worked this well, they might

have put the Government in a minority, but they missed this obvious

opportunity.[1] I called on Lyndhurst yesterday, who said they had

unaccountably overlooked this plausible topic. He is going to make a

speech on Italy when Parliament meets, and we agreed entirely that

either too much or too little was done at Paris on this question, and

that either it ought not to have been entertained and discussed at all,

or some more decided measures ought to have been adopted with regard to

it. To stir up such delicate questions, and leave them in their present

unhappy condition, is an egregious error.

[Sidenote: A SABBATARIAN QUESTION.]

The questions of war and of peace having now ceased to interest and

excite the public mind, a religious question has sprung up to take

their place for the moment, which though not at present of much

importance, will in all probability lead to more serious consequences

hereafter. Sir Benjamin Hall having bethought himself of providing

innocent amusement for the Londoners on Sunday, established a Sunday

playing of military bands in Kensington Gardens and in the other parks

and gardens about the metropolis, which has been carried on, with the

sanction of the Government, with great success for several Sundays.

Some murmurs were heard from the puritanical and Sabbatarian party,

but Palmerston having declared himself favourable to the practice in

the House of Commons, the opposition appeared to cease. The puritans,

however, continued to agitate against it in meetings and in the press,

though the best part of the latter was favourable to the bands, and

at last, when a motion in Parliament was threatened to insist on the

discontinuance of the music, the Cabinet thought it necessary to

reconsider the subject. They were informed that if the Government

resisted the motion they would be beaten, and moreover that no man

could support them in opposition to it without great danger of losing

his seat at the next election. It is stated that the Sabbatarians are

so united and numerous, and their organisation so complete, that all

over the country they would be able to influence and probably carry

any election, and that this influence would be brought to bear against

every man who maintained by his vote this 'desecration of the Sabbath.'

Accordingly it was resolved by the Cabinet to give way, and the only

question was how to do so with anything like consistency and dignity.

The Archbishop of Canterbury was made the '_Deus ex machinâ_' to effect

this object. He was made to write a letter to the Premier representing

the feelings of the people and begging the bands might be silenced. To

this Palmerston wrote a reply in which he repeated his own opinion in

favour of the music, but that in deference to the public sentiment he

would put an end to their playing. All this has excited a good deal of

interest and discussion. For the present, the only question is whether

the angry public will not vent its indignation and resentment to-morrow

in acts of uproar and violence; but though these acts will not be

serious or lasting if they do take place, it may be expected that the

Sabbatarians will not rest satisfied with their triumph, but will

endeavour to make fresh encroachments on our free will and our habits

and pursuits, and that fresh and more serious contests will arise out

of this beginning.

Footnote 1: [An attempt had been made at the Congress of Paris by

Count Walewski to bring forward some measure or resolution reflecting

on the independence of the press in Belgium. It led to nothing, but

Lord Clarendon was accused of not having protested against it with

sufficient energy.]

_May 28th (day of the Derby)._--Yesterday on Epsom racecourse arrived

the news of Palmer's being found guilty of the murder of Cook. This

case and the trial have excited an interest almost unprecedented,

unlike anything since the case of Thurtell about twenty years ago or

more. People who never heard of either of the men took the deepest

interest in it, the women particularly, though there was nothing

peculiar in it or of a nature to excite them particularly. The

trial lasted a fortnight, all the details of it were read with the

greatest avidity, half the town went one day or other to hear it,

and the anxiety that the man should be convicted was passionate.

Cockburn gained great applause by the manner in which he conducted the

prosecution.

[Sidenote: DEFEAT OF THE OPPOSITION.]

This trial has proved more attractive and interesting than anything

in the political world, though there has been a pitched battle in the

Lords on the question of Maritime Law and Right of Search given up in

the recent Treaty. Derby made a violent onslaught on the Government,

and was at first very confident of a majority. He soon found these

hopes were fallacious, when he got angry and was more violent than

he has ever been before this session. The Government got a majority

of above fifty, which puts an end to any further contest there.

The Government have now nothing to fear, the Opposition are routed

and dispirited, and one can see nothing to alter the present state

of affairs. The minor questions which have occupied attention are

settling quietly. The Chelsea Commission is over, and the result will

be harmless, on the whole rather good than bad, because it will prove

that the violent attacks on the military authorities during the war

have been exaggerated and in many cases unfounded. A sort of compromise

has been made about the Wensleydale peerage, not a very happy one, and

it remains to be seen whether the House of Commons is sufficiently

acquiescent as to sanction it by agreeing to the 12,000_l._ a year

to be paid to two new judges and peers for life. The Government have

virtually abandoned the principle they contended for, and have yielded

to the adverse vote and Committee. When they appeal to Parliament and

limit the number of life peerages, they abandon the prerogative of the

Crown.

_June 1st._--The state of affairs with America becomes more and more

alarming.[1] Grey told me the other night that he had had a long

conversation with Dallas, whose tone was anything but reassuring as

to the prospect of peace; and yesterday I met Thackeray, who is just

returned from the United States. He thinks there is every probability

of the quarrel leading to war, for there is a very hostile spirit,

constantly increasing, throughout the States, and an evident desire

to quarrel with us. He says he has never met with a single man who

is not persuaded that they are entirely in the right and we in the

wrong, and they are equally persuaded if war ensues that they will

give us a great thrashing; they don't care for the consequences, their

riches are immense, and 200,000 men would appear in arms at a moment's

notice. Here, however, though there is a great deal of anxiety, there

is still a very general belief that war cannot take place on grounds

so trifling between two countries which have so great and so equal

an interest in remaining at peace with each other. But in a country

where the statesmen, if there are any, have so little influence, and

where the national policy is subject to the passions and caprices of

an ignorant and unreasoning mob, there is no security that good sense

and moderation will prevail. Many imagine that matters will proceed to

the length of a diplomatic rupture, that Crampton will be sent away and

Dallas retire in consequence, and that then by degrees the present heat

will cool down, and matters be amicably arranged without a shot being

fired. I feel no such confidence, for if diplomatic intercourse ceases

numerous causes of complaint will arise, and as there will be no means

left for mutual and friendly explanation and adjustment, such causes

will be constantly exaggerated and inflamed into an irreconcileable

quarrel. Matters cannot long go on as they now are without the public

here becoming excited and angry, and the press on both sides insolent,

violent, and provoking, and at last, going on from one step to another,

we shall find ourselves drifted into this odious and on both parts

suicidal contest, for there is not a blow we can strike at America and

her interests that will not recoil on us and our own. It has often been

remarked that civil wars are of all wars the most furious, and a war

between America and England would have all the characteristics of a

civil and an international contest; nor, though I have no doubt that

America is in the wrong, can I persuade myself that we are entirely in

the right on either of the principal points in dispute. We have reason

to congratulate ourselves that the Russian war is over, for if it had

gone on and all our ships had been in the Baltic, and all our soldiers

in the Crimea, nothing would have prevented the Americans from seizing

the opportunity of our hands being full to bring their dispute with us

to a crisis.

Footnote 1: [In consequence of the dispute with the American Government

on the subject of Foreign Enlistment, Mr. Crampton, the British

Minister, was ordered to leave Washington on May 28th. He arrived

in England on June 15th; but Lord Palmerston stated in the House of

Commons that the dismissal of Mr. Crampton did not break off diplomatic

relations with the United States, as Mr. Dallas remained in this

country. It is remarkable that within a few months or even weeks two

British Ministers received their passports from foreign governments and

were sent away--a very uncommon occurrence!]

[Sidenote: MADAME RISTORI.]

_June 7th._--I went last night to see the celebrated Ristori in a very

bad play called 'Medea,' being a translation into Italian from a French

tragedy by a M. Legouvé. This play was written for Madame Rachel, who

refused to act the part, which refusal led to a lawsuit, in which the

actress was (I think) defeated. Ristori is certainly a fine actress,

but she did not appear to me equal to Pasta in the same part, or to

other great actresses I have seen. However, my inability to hear well

and want of familiarity with Italian acting and imperfect knowledge of

the language disqualify me from being a competent judge.

The American horizon is rather less dark. Nothing is yet known as

to Crampton's dismissal, and Dallas does not believe it. The Danish

Minister at Washington writes over here that he thinks the clouds will

disperse and there will be no serious quarrel.

_London, July 12th._--After the lapse of a month and more, during

which I could not bring myself to record anything, or to comment upon

passing events, I am at last roused from my apathy, and am induced

to take up my pen and say a word upon the defeat of the Appellate

Jurisdiction Bill in the House of Commons the other night, which gave

me the greatest satisfaction, because I regard it as a just punishment

for the stupid obstinacy with which the Government have blundered on

from one fault to another throughout this whole business. It has been

a complete comedy of errors, and every one who has taken a part in it

has been in the wrong. I told Granville how it would be in the first

instance, and urged him, after the House of Lords had refused to let

in Parke as a life peer, to accept the defeat quietly by making him

an hereditary peer and thus give the go-by to the main question. This

nothing would induce them to do, and they fancied that they could

avoid the mortification of appearing to knock under, and save their

own consistency, by the contrivance of this bill. Every mischief that

it was possible to do they have managed to accomplish, and the leaders

of the opposite parties, who all felt themselves in a scrape, came to

a sort of compromise in the Lords' Committee, the result of which was

this unpopular bill. Amongst them they have assailed the prerogative

of the Crown, they have damaged the judicial authority of the House of

Lords, they have deeply offended many of their own friends by tendering

to them such a measure, and they have behaved most unkindly and

unhandsomely to Baron Parke, who thinks he has great reason to complain.

I have been at Knowsley for the last three days, and so missed the

march of the Guards into London on Wednesday. Lord Hardinge was struck

down by paralysis as he was speaking to the Queen at Aldershot on

Tuesday last. It is supposed that the Duke of Cambridge will succeed

him, and that Jim Macdonald will be his Military Secretary. The

American question is still undecided, but everybody appears to be very

easy about it.

[Sidenote: BARON PARKE ON THE LIFE PEERAGE.]

_July 20th._--I met Baron Parke the other day, who talked over

his affair, complained of the treatment he had received from the

Government, but said he gathered from what the Chancellor had said to

him that they meant now to make him an hereditary peer, declared there

was not a shadow of doubt about the legality, and that Campbell had as

little doubt as he himself had, but finding the measure was unpopular

with certain lawyers, he had suddenly turned against his own recorded

opinion and opposed it. The Baron said the Government were greatly

to blame for not having ventilated the question, and ascertained

whether they could carry it or not, and if he had had an idea of all

the bother it had made, he never would have had anything to do with

it. George Lewis told me that the life peerage had never been brought

before the Cabinet, and he knew nothing of it till he saw it in the

Gazette, nor did Clarendon; in fact it was confined to the Chancellor,

Granville, and Palmerston. They none of them, however, know with whom

it originated. Now that the measure turns out to be so unpopular and

is so scouted, and the transaction has been attended with so many

blunders and defeats, no one is willing to accept the responsibility of

it, or to acknowledge having had anything to do with it. It is strange

that Palmerston should ever have consented to it, but he knew nothing

and cared nothing about it; he was probably assured it would go down

without any difficulty, and in this _poco curante_ way he suffered

himself to be committed to it, not seeing the storm it would cause.

He allowed Granville to manage it all his own way, and at last he had

the good luck to be beaten upon it in the House of Commons, for the

scrape would have been more serious if he had earned it there. These

last days of the session have been as usual marked by the withdrawal

and abandonment of various bills that were for the most part introduced

at the beginning of it, and which were found to be quite worthless,

especially the Law Reform Bill.

_London, July 27th._--Parliament has finished its debates, and will

be prorogued on Tuesday. Dizzy wound up by a 'review of the session,'

a species of entertainment which used to be given annually some years

ago by Lord Lyndhurst with great skill and effect, but which on the

present occasion, and in Disraeli's hands, was singularly inopportune

and ineffective. Lord Wensleydale has at last taken his seat as an

hereditary Peer; the Government, after various abortive attempts to

wriggle out of their absurd position, having done at last what they

ought to have done at first--knocked under and endured what could not

be cured. The Government go into summer and winter quarters in a very

healthy and prosperous state, with nothing apparently to apprehend,

and with every probability of meeting Parliament next year in the

same condition, and, barring accidents, going through next session as

successfully as they have gone through this.

_August 4th._--I was at Goodwood all last week; the Prince of Prussia

came there. Not a word of news; the Queen still engaged in reviewing

the troops, and complimentary _fêtes_ are still going on to Sir

W. Williams of Kars, and Charles Wyndham 'the hero of the Redan.'

The disturbances in Spain seem to be over, and O'Donnell remains

victorious. My first impression was (the common one) that Espartero

had been ousted by an intrigue, and that it was a reactionary _coup

d'état_, but I now hear that it is no such thing, and that we ought to

desire the success of the present Government. Espartero and O'Donnell

could not agree, as was not unlikely in a coalition Government the two

chiefs of which were men of such different opinions and antecedents.

After many abortive attempts to reconcile their differences, it was

agreed that a Council of Ministers should be held which the Queen

herself should preside over, and when a final attempt should be made.

A long discussion took place, and the Queen did all she could to

reconcile the two generals, and to enable the Government to go on

unchanged. Finding it impossible to effect this, she ended by saying,

'Well, gentlemen, since I cannot prevail on you to go on together,

I must needs choose between you, and as I think Marshal O'Donnell

will be the best able to carry on the Government, I appoint him.'

Then the National Guards began an insurrection which was put down,

but no violent measures seem to have been adopted, and O'Donnell has

declared that Spain can only be successfully governed on constitutional

principles, and that he means to retain the Cortes in its integrity.

How far his acts will correspond with his professions remains to be

seen. Narvaez was recommended to go to France, and Queen Christina

appears not to have been allowed to return to Spain, which are good

signs. It is a good thing for Spain that Espartero should have retired,

for though probably the honestest Spaniard, he is at the same time the

weakest and the most wanting in moral courage and decision.

[Sidenote: CHANCES OF WAR.]

History is full of examples of the slight and accidental causes on

which the greatest events turn, and of such examples the last war seems

very full. Charles Wyndham told me that nothing but a very thick fog

which happened on the morning of Inkerman prevented the English army

being swept from their position and totally discomfited. The Russians

could see nothing, lost their own way, and mistook the position of

the British troops. Had the weather been clear so that they had been

able to execute their plans, we could not have resisted them; a defeat

instead of the victory we gained would have changed the destiny of the

world, and have produced effects which it is impossible to contemplate

or calculate.

On the other hand, nothing but miscalculation and bad management

prevented the capture of Sebastopol immediately after Alma. My nephew

is just returned from a voyage with Lord Lyons to the Crimea, where

he went all over the scenes of the late contest, all the positions,

and the ruins of Sebastopol as well as the northern forts. He was

well treated by the Russians, who showed him everything, and talked

over the events of the war with great frankness. They told him that

if the allies had marched at once after the battle on the north side,

no resistance could have been made, and the other side must have

fallen. We had long known that the north side would have fallen if

we had attacked it at once. Frank asked the Russian officer whether

there was any bad feeling on the part of the Russian army towards

the French or English, and he said none whatever, but a great deal

towards the Austrians, and that they desired nothing more than an

opportunity of fighting them. He also said that they had been misled

by our newspapers, from which they obtained all their information, and

thinking that the announcements there of an intended invasion of the

Crimea were made for the purpose of deceiving them, they had withdrawn

a great many troops from the Crimea, so that while Sebastopol had

been emptied of the garrison to increase the army of Menschikoff, the

Russians had not more than 30,000 or 35,000 men at the Alma.

_Hillingdon, August 17th._--It is impossible to find anything of the

least interest to write about, and my journal is in danger of dying of

starvation or of atrophy. The causes of discontent we have had with

Russia are disappearing, and the Emperor's coronation will not be

clouded by fresh _doléances_ on our part. Bulwer is just gone to the

Principalities, where the commissioners are to endeavour to ascertain

what are the wishes of the people as to the union. France and England

are in favour of it, Turkey and Austria against it, while Russia

professes to be indifferent and neutral. Spain is settling down into

submission to the Government of O'Donnell. Naples is relieved from her

fears of English intervention, and there seems some chance that she

may relax the rigour of her Government now that she may do so _salvo

honore_ and not under compulsion. This country is profoundly tranquil

and generally prosperous; everybody seems satisfied with Palmerston

and his administration. I myself, who for so many years regarded him

politically with the greatest aversion and distrust, have come to think

him the best minister we can have, and to wish him well.

[Sidenote: THE CORONATION AT MOSCOW.]

_September 15th._--Another month has passed away, and still I have

had nothing to record. The coronation at Moscow appears to have gone

off with great _éclat_, and to have been a spectacle of extraordinary

magnificence, the prodigious cost of which betrays no sign of

exhaustion or impoverishment by the late war.[1] We were probably

mistaken, as we were in so many other things, in fancying that the

power and resources of Russia were very greatly impaired, but during

the war, whatever we wished we were ready to believe.

The state of affairs at home and abroad is curious: abroad there is

uneasiness and uncertainty as to the future, the elements of future

disturbances being in a sort of abeyance; at home the fever and

excitement which prevailed during the war having been succeeded by a

torpor and an apathy such as I never remember to have seen before. All

party politics seem to be extinct, the country cares about nobody,

desires no changes, and only wishes to go on and prosper. There is not

a public man to whom public opinion turns, and no great questions are

afloat to agitate and divide the country, or around the standards of

which different opinions, principles, or passions can flock. Palmerston

may remain minister as long as he lives, if he does not commit any

gross faults either of commission or of omission, or unless something

may occur, which nobody can foresee or imagine, to rouse the nation

from its apathy.

Footnote 1: [The Emperor Alexander II. of Russia was crowned with great

pomp in Moscow on September 7; the ceremony was attended by special

ambassadors from all the great Powers; Lord Granville, accompanied by

Lady Granville and a brilliant suite, was the representative of Great

Britain on this occasion.]

_September 21st._--The old Crimean correspondent of the 'Times' has

despatched a very interesting and graphic account of the coronation

at Moscow, and Granville writes word that whereas he had estimated

the cost of it at a million sterling, he was now led to believe it

would be not much less than three. The coronation of George IV. cost

240,000_l._, which was considered an enormous sum and a monstrous

extravagance. Our two last coronations cost from 30,000_l._ to

50,000_l._

The quarrel with the King of Naples appears to be coming to a crisis,

and though it will not produce any serious consequences now, the

precedent of interference we are establishing may have very important

ones at some future time, and though philanthropy may make us rejoice

at some coercion being applied to put an end to such a cruel and

oppressive government as that of King Bomba (as they call Ferdinand),

it may be doubted whether it would not be sounder policy to abstain

from interference with what only indirectly and remotely concerns us,

and from enforcing a better and more humane system of government in a

country where the people do not seem to care much about its tyranny and

inhumanity. And then there is the great objection of dictating to and

interfering with weak governments while we do not venture to deal in

the same way with the equally flagrant abominations of stronger ones,

to say nothing of a host of difficulties and objections which suggest

themselves as possible, if not probable, results of our interference.

It will afford to other Powers an excuse if not a right to interfere

in like manner, whenever they require a pretext, and they consider it

their interest to do so; and if such cases occur, the peace of the

world will be largely endangered. As it is, I strongly suspect (for I

know nothing) that the agreement on the Neapolitan question between

France and ourselves is by no means cordial and complete. Mrs. Craven

writes me word she has been in a house in the country with Walewski,

who talked very openly (and no doubt imprudently) to her, telling her

that Palmerston was very difficult to go on with. I know not what

Palmerston has been doing, nor what his present policy may be, but I

thought he had either abandoned or greatly modified that old policy

of meddling and bullying to which he used to be so addicted, and at

all events that while the foreign policy of England is directed by

Clarendon, we should abstain from anything very arbitrary and violent.

It is, however, whispered that Walewski is no longer in the good graces

of the Emperor, and what I heard long ago about Her Majesty's opinion

of him renders it not unlikely.

_September 23rd._--All the little I hear tends to confirm the notion

that there is an antagonism growing up between French and English

policy, and that France and Russia are becoming more and more intimate

every day. The points of the Treaty on which there are still some

differences, and on which we appear to be making a great fuss, the

French seem to care very little about, perhaps being rather disposed

to side with Russia. These differences are very inconsiderable in

themselves, but if they lead to coolness and estrangement between us

and the French, and to an alliance between France and Russia, they may

hereafter be very important.

Nothing can be more perplexed and unintelligible (at least to those who

are not behind the curtain) than the international relations of the

Great Powers and of their dispositions towards the smaller ones, and in

such a chaos no little tact, discretion, and firmness are required to

shape our foreign policy.

[Sidenote: M. GUIZOT ON DEMOCRACY IN ENGLAND.]

_September 25th._--The void which the march of events fails to fill up

cannot be better occupied than by the following extract from Guizot's

notice on Sir Robert Peel in the _'Revue des Deux-Mondes'_ (1856). He

is speaking of democracy in England:--_'M. de Talleyrand disait dans la

Chambre des Pairs, il y a quelqu'un qui a plus d'esprit que Napoléon

ou que Voltaire, c'est tout le monde. On peut dire aujourd'hui même à

propos de L'Angleterre il y a quelqu'un qui a plus de pouvoir que la

couronne, plus de pouvoir que l'aristocratie, c'est tout le monde, et

tout le monde c'est la démocratie. Où commence-t-elle? où finit-elle?

à quels signes visibles se distingue-t-elle des autres éléments de la

société? Personne ne pourrait le dire, mais peu importe: pour être

difficile à définir, le fait n'en est ni moins certain, ni moins

puissant, les éléments les plus divers entrent dans la composition

de la démocratie moderne, des classes riches et des classes pauvres,

des classes savantes et des classes ignorantes, des maîtres et des

ouvriers, des conservateurs et des novateurs, des amis du pouvoir et

des enthousiastes de liberté, bien des aristocrates mêmes, détachés

de leur origine par leurs moeurs, par leur aversion des gênes et des

devoirs que l'aristocratie impose. Et la position de la démocratie

anglaise n'est pas moins changée que sa composition; elle ne se borne

pas comme jadis à défendre au besoin ses libertés, elle regarde les

affaires publiques comme les siennes, surveille assidûment ceux qui les

font, et si elle ne gouverne pas l'état, elle domine le gouvernement.'_

All this seems to me perfectly true, and the best definition of the

English democracy, its nature, and its position that could possibly

be given, and that the nature of things admits of. Guizot evidently

saw clearly a truth which might be elaborated into a very interesting

essay, and which has often suggested itself to me, namely, that without

any violence or ostensible disturbances or any change in external

forms, this country has undergone as great a revolution as France

itself, or any of the continental nations which have been torn to

pieces by civil discords and contests. If we compare the condition of

England at any two not very distant periods, and the manner in which

power and influence have been distributed at one and at the other, this

will be very apparent, and nobody can doubt that this process is still

going on. We are, as Guizot says, _'dans une époque de transition ...

sous l'empire des principes et des sentiments encore confus, perplexes

et obscurs, mais essentiellement démocratiques, qui fermentent en

Europe depuis quinze siècles et y remportent de nos jours des victoires

dont personne ne saurait dire encore quel sera le vrai et dernier

résultat.'_

[Sidenote: THE QUARREL WITH NAPLES.]

_October 3rd._--There appears to be a general feeling of uneasiness,

almost of alarm, as if something was impending to disturb the peace of

the world and interrupt the prosperity of nations, though nobody can

very well tell what it is they dread. The apprehension is vague, but

it is general. The only political question of any consequence in which

we are concerned is that of Naples, and some fancy that the Russian

manifesto prognosticates a renewal of the contest with that Empire. I

have no such idea, but I am quite unable to comprehend what it is the

different Powers are about; there is a general impression, probably

not unfounded, that France and Russia are meditating a close alliance,

and if this be the truth, it is not likely that Russia should have put

forth a State paper offensive to France. It is by no means impossible

that Gortschakoff may have ascertained that the declaration of his

Emperor's opinion would not be distasteful to the Emperor Napoleon, who

probably does not enter _con amore_ into this contest with Naples and

merely does it to please us.[1]

When Baudin took leave of him at Paris the other day on his going

to Russia, he said to him, 'Is it your Majesty's wish that I should

cultivate the most friendly relations with the English Ministers at

Moscow and Petersburg?' to which the Emperor replied 'Certainly,' and

_'L'Angleterre avant tout.'_ In this there can be little doubt of his

personal sincerity, but probably his personal disposition and the

policy of his Government and the sentiments of the French people do not

altogether coincide, and this places him in a somewhat false position,

and will most likely lead to apparent vacillation and inconsistency in

his conduct.

Madame de Lieven writes to me that the Neapolitan Minister at Paris

affirms that his King will not give way at the dictation of the allied

Powers. We do not, however, as yet know what it is that is required of

him. If it be true that he should govern his people more mildly and

liberally, nothing can be more vague, and our greatest difficulties

would begin when we had extorted from him promises and engagements to

act according to _our_ notions of justice and humanity. He would be

more than mortal if he was disposed honestly to act up to engagements

and promises extorted from him by fear, and it would be impossible

for us to superintend and secure their due performance without taking

upon ourselves virtually the government of his kingdom and superseding

the King's authority. We never should get France to concur in this,

and on the whole it appears more probable that differences will arise

in the course of this joint action between us and France than that we

should succeed in ameliorating the condition of Naples. I fear the

rage for interfering in the internal affairs of other countries will

never be extinguished here. I see in the papers to-day an address to

Clarendon from the Protestant Society, requesting he will interpose

with the Spanish Government in favour of some Spanish subject who has

got into trouble in consequence of having turned Protestant, and being

engaged in diffusing the Scriptures, and trying to convert others to

Protestantism, which is an offence against the laws of Spain.

Footnote 1: [The British and French Governments had on more than

one occasion remonstrated with the King of Naples on the cruel and

arbitrary policy of his Government, which led eventually to his own

destruction; but the King received these remonstrances very ill, and on

October 28 the differences between these Courts had become so serious

that the British and French Ministers were withdrawn from Naples, and

a naval squadron appeared off the city. The Russian Government at this

time issued a circular despatch complaining of these proceedings of the

Western Powers, and denying their right to interfere for the purpose of

extorting concessions from the King of Naples to his own subjects.]

_October 7th._--I have seen Clarendon and asked him about the affair

of Naples. He was not very communicative, and I suspect he is not very

easy about the course we are pursuing and the part he has to play. He

first said that it was impossible for us to tolerate the conduct of the

King to us, and the impertinence of his note. I asked what it was he

said; Clarendon replied it amounted to this, 'Mind your own business.'

Then he alluded to the atrocities of the Government, which ought not to

be endured; that no man was safe for a minute, or could tell when he

went to bed at night that he might not be arrested in the morning, all

which was done by the King's personal orders; that there was continual

danger of an outbreak or insurrection, particularly of a Muratist

revolution. I told him my opinion of the very questionable policy

of interference, either as a matter of right or of expediency, and

nothing could be more lame than the case he made out. He said the ships

were not to act any hostile part, or to coerce the King, which makes

the case worse in my opinion. It is doing neither one thing nor the

other, violating a sound principle, and incurring great future risks

without any present object, or effecting any good, or benefiting the

people in whom we take an interest. He says the Emperor Napoleon has

a great horror of a Muratist movement, the Prince Murat, his cousin,

being a most worthless blackguard; but his son, who married Berthier's

granddaughter and heiress, is a young man full of merit of every sort.

[Sidenote: RUSSIAN INTRIGUE WITH FRANCE.]

_London, October 10th._--I met Clarendon again at the Travellers', and

had some conversation with him, but was interrupted by Azeglio, or I

might probably have learnt more about the present state of affairs. He

told me that we had been squabbling with the French Government, and

that the persevering attempts of Russia to disturb the harmony between

us and them had not been unsuccessful. Nothing in the way of cajolery

had been omitted at Moscow to captivate the French, while on one

occasion the Emperor had been so uncivil that Granville felt himself

obliged to go to Gortschakoff and make a formal complaint, which was

met by all sorts of assurances and protestations in order to mollify

him, and after this everything went on smoothly. It is a curious state

of things, for as far as I can make it out, the policy of the French

Government appears to be to become intimate with Russia and to be cool

with us; but all the time the Emperor (who is the Government) shrinks

from anything like a breach with England, and clings to the intimacy

established between the two Courts, and has a profound respect for the

Queen and value for her good opinion. I asked him how he reconciled the

offensive Circular of Gortschakoff with the anxiety of Russia to please

France, when he said that he had no doubt they had told the French that

it was aimed exclusively at _us_, and had come to an understanding with

Morny about it, so that France was not to take offence at it. We are

now, he said, on the best terms with Austria, and Austria on the worst

with Russia. Russia knows that the article of the treaty compelling

her to surrender a part of Bessarabia was the work of Austria, and

this was an injury and an insult (for she had never before disgorged

territory) which she never would forgive. The Russian Circular would

have the effect of complicating the Neapolitan question, as it made the

King more resolved not to yield to the demands of the two Powers. He

told me that Palmerston had resolved to take up in earnest the question

of Law Reform next year, and that he (Clarendon) had strongly urged

him to do so as the best way of procuring both strength and credit

for his Government; that Palmerston had readily come into it, and was

resolved to carry out those measures which have so long been under

discussion, and which for various reasons have hitherto failed of their

accomplishment.

_November 10th._--I went to The Grove on Saturday and had a good deal

of comfortable talk with Clarendon about foreign affairs, especially

the Bolgrad question and Naples. He described the former very clearly,

and satisfied me that we are entirely in the right. It was settled,

he said, at Paris mainly between him and Orloff. He drew the line on

the map as the boundary had been agreed upon, and as he was doing so,

Orloff said, 'I wish you would draw it a little more to the south; it

will make no sort of difference to you, and by this means it includes

within our line a strip of territory which the Emperor wishes to retain

because it forms a part of a military colony which he is anxious to

keep intact;' and Clarendon agreed to draw the line accordingly and to

accomplish the Emperor's wishes. They have since attempted to quibble

about another Bolgrad which was not even marked at all on their map,

and it turns out that the story of the military colony was a mere

pretence, as they have themselves given that up without making any

difficulty. The state of the case and the difference which has since

arisen with Russia and with France is this: the Emperor Napoleon, who

is very indolent and abhors the trouble of examining details, and

consequently remains often ignorant of what it behoves him to know,

suffered himself to be bamboozled by Brunnow and misled by Walewski

into giving his assent to the Russian interpretation of the boundary

line, and to giving a promise of his support in the controversy.

Recently at Compiègne Cowley, in a long audience, went through the

whole question with him and minutely explained the case against Russia.

The Emperor said he had never really understood it before, acknowledged

that our case was good, regretted that he had committed himself, but

said that having pledged his word he did not know how to break that

pledge and to withdraw the support he had promised to give to Russia in

the dispute, and this is the fix in which the question now is. While

the foolish and ignorant newspapers here (except the 'Times') are

endeavouring to separate the Emperor from his ministers, and to make

out that he is one with our Government, and that the difficulties and

obstructions proceed from other parties, the truth is that they now

proceed entirely from himself, worked upon and deceived certainly by

Russian agents and pro-Russian ministers; but if he really was in the

disposition which our press attributes to him, he might break through

such obligations as he suffered himself to be entangled in and settle

the question at once; nor is it very easy to see why he does not, for

there is good reason to believe he is sincerely desirous of remaining

on good terms with us. I asked Clarendon why the question could not be

again referred to a Conference of the Powers parties to the Treaty,

and he said we could not consent to this, because we should be in

a minority, for Sardinia, partly cajoled by Russia and partly from

antipathy to Austria, would go against us.

[Sidenote: DISMISSAL OF NEAPOLITAN MINISTER.]

I asked him about Naples, of which affair he could give but a very

unsatisfactory account and a lame story. He said France had acted

with us very steadily, but that it was she who had started this hare,

and he had engaged in it in the belief that the Emperor would never

have mooted the question unless he had been assured that the King

of Naples would yield to the remonstrances of the two Courts, and

but for that conviction he would never have meddled in it, which he

now very much regretted. He had given Carini notice to quit, and at

their parting interview he had entreated him to persuade the King if

possible to change his system, and, now that he was relieved from all

interference, menace, or coercion, and his dignity could not suffer,

to give satisfaction to all Europe by putting an end to the inhuman

and impolitic system, which had occasioned our interference and had

drawn upon him remonstrances and advice from every Sovereign in Europe.

Very good advice, and I hope it may be followed, but it is a lame and

impotent conclusion to the menacing demonstrations with which we began

to quarrel. Clarendon talked of the various atrocities of the King of

Naples, but with an evident consciousness that the fact, even if it be

true, and not, as is probable, exaggerated, affords no excuse for our

policy in the matter. As the subject could not be agreeable I did not

press it, and abstained from telling him how general the opinion is

that he has committed a great blunder. He will probably hear enough of

it before the chapter is closed; even Granville, who never says much,

said to me yesterday that 'it was a very foolish affair.'

Clarendon talked to me of Palmerston, and told me (what I think I had

heard, and have very likely noted before) that on Aberdeen's fall

Palmerston was quite ready to join Derby when Derby tried to form a

Government, and that it was Clarendon's refusal which frustrated that

attempt. Palmerston endeavoured to persuade Clarendon to join, but when

Clarendon put to him all the reasons why they had both of them better

refuse, Palmerston saw them all very clearly, and rather imprudently

said on leaving him, 'We are _both_ agreed that it will not do to have

anything to do with Derby and his Government.' When Clarendon went to

the Queen and explained his own conduct to her, and she expressed to

him the embarrassment which she felt, and asked him what she could do,

he at once said, 'Send for Lord Palmerston, who is the only man, in

the present temper of the people and state of affairs, who can form a

Government that has a chance of standing. Send for him at once, place

yourself entirely in his hands, give him your entire confidence, and I

will answer for his conduct being all that you can desire.' The Queen

took the advice, and has had no reason to repent of it, and Clarendon

told me he had done everything in his power, and seized every available

opportunity to reconcile them to each other, to promote a good feeling

and understanding, and to soften any little asperities which might

have made their intercourse less smooth, and the consequence is that

Palmerston gets on with her very well, and his good sense as well as

Clarendon's exhortations make him see of what importance it is to him

for the easy working of his Government and his own ease to be on good

and cordial terms with the Queen. It is therefore really to Clarendon

that Palmerston is indebted in great measure, if not entirely, for

being in his present position, but Clarendon has too much tact ever to

remind him of it, or of what he was himself inclined to do in 1855.

[Sidenote: LEGAL APPOINTMENTS.]

_November 19th._--The death of Jervis made the office of Chief Justice

of Common Pleas vacant.[1] According to established (but as I think

bad) usage, the Attorney-General, Cockburn, had a right to take the

place, and for the last fortnight nothing occupied public attention

more than the question whether he would take it or not. He was much

averse to take it, but everybody pressed him to accept it, and after

much hesitation and consultation he agreed to be Chief Justice, and

now it is said he regrets his determination and thinks he has made a

mistake. He gives up Parliament, for which he is well adapted, where

he acts a conspicuous part, being a capital speaker, and which he

likes, and feels that it is his element. He gives up the highest place

at the bar, where he is a successful advocate, and makes 15,000_l._

or 16,000_l._ a year, and he sees that he shall be obliged to give up

in great measure his loose habits and assume more decorous behaviour,

which will be a great sacrifice to him, and he becomes a judge with

6,000_l._ a year for life, not being a good lawyer, and conscious

that he will be inferior to his colleagues and to the Puisne Judge in

his own court. As soon as he had consented to the promotion a fresh

difficulty presented itself as to the office of Solicitor-General, for

such is the penury of legal ability at this time that Westminster Hall

cannot furnish any men of unquestionable fitness for the office, and

the difficulty is increased by the choice being necessarily restricted

to men holding the opinions of the present Government, and being able

to command a seat in Parliament. They have offered the place to the

Recorder, James Wortley, but up to this moment I know not if it has

been accepted.[2]

Footnote 1: [Right Hon. Sir John Jervis, Chief Justice of the Common

Pleas, died on November 1, 1856, at the age of fifty-four.]

Footnote 2: [Right Hon. James Stuart Wortley, a younger son of Lord

Wharncliffe, who then filled the office of Recorder of London, which he

surrendered for that of Solicitor-General.]

_November 23rd._--After long delay and apparently much hesitation James

Wortley has accepted the Solicitor-Generalship. He consulted Gladstone

and Sidney Herbert, neither of them very eligible advisers on such a

question. Gladstone is said to have replied that he would run a great

risk as to his pecuniary interests, but if he could support the foreign

policy of the Government, there was no reason why he should not accept.

He retains his rank of Privy Councillor, of which I doubt the fitness,

as it places him at all events in a very anomalous position, for the

law officers are the official advisers of the Privy Council and are

often called upon to sit there as assessors. However, the Judges are

said to have pronounced an opinion that there is no reason why he

should not plead in any of the courts. It is said, and I believe truly,

that now Cockburn has taken the irretrievable step he is very sorry for

it, and is more struck by the necessary consequences of his promotion

than he was at first. He has all his life been a very debauched fellow,

but he is clever, good-natured, and of a liberal disposition and much

liked by his friends. A story is told of him that he was in the habit

of going down on Sundays to Richmond or elsewhere with a woman, and

generally with a different one, and the landlady of the inn he went to

remembered that Sir A. Cockburn always brought Lady Cockburn with him,

but that she never saw any woman who looked so different on different

days, and this gave rise to another story. When Lord Campbell went

to some such place with Lady Stratheden (who had been raised to the

peerage before her husband), the mistress of the house said that Sir A.

Cockburn always brought _Lady Cockburn_ with him, but that the Chief

Justice brought another lady and not _Lady Campbell_.

While we have meetings perpetually held and innumerable writings put

forth to promote education and raise the moral standard of the people,

we are horrified and alarmed day after day by accounts of the most

frightful murders, colossal frauds, and crimes of every description.

War has ceased, though the Temple of Janus seems only to be ajar; but

the world is still in commotion, in alarm, and visited by every sort of

calamity, moral and material, in the midst of which it is difficult to

discover any signs of the improvement of the human race, even of those

portions of it which are supposed to be the most civilised and the most

progressive.

[Sidenote: A DIPLOMATIC IMBROGLIO.]

_December 7th._--At Wrotham and at Ossington last week. The news of the

day is that we are to have another 'Conference' at Paris, to settle the

Bolgrad affair, our Government having given way to what Clarendon told

me he certainly would not consent; but we had managed to get matters

into such a fix, and it was so necessary to extricate all the several

parties from the embarrassed positions in which they were placed by

their own or by each other's faults, that no alternative remained.

This arrangement, which is not very consistent with Palmerston's

recent declarations at Manchester and in London, is proclaimed by the

Government papers, and generally understood to be a means of enabling

Russia to concede our demands with as little loss of dignity and credit

as possible, and to terminate the difference between us and France by

our making an apparent concession to France, while she makes a real

one to us. Everything has evidently been carefully arranged for the

playing out of this diplomatic farce, and Cowley, who is to be our

sole representative, is to be accommodating and not quarrelsome; but

_reste à savoir_ whether the manoeuvres of some of the others may not

provoke his temper and bring about angry collisions. Between this

matter and the _bévue_ we have made of our Neapolitan interference,

never was there such a deplorable exhibition as our foreign policy

displays; but nobody seems to care much about it, and though there

will in all probability be a good deal of sparring, and taunts and

sneers in Parliament, Palmerston's Government will incur no danger

of any adverse vote, for everybody is conscious that in the actual

state of parties and the dearth of parliamentary leaders, every man of

sufficient ability being disqualified for one reason or another, no

man but Palmerston can conduct a Government or command a majority in

Parliament; nor does there appear in the distance any man likely to

be able to fill his place in the event of his death or his breaking

down, events which must be contemplated as not very remote when he

is seventy-three years old, although his wonderful constitution and

superhuman vigour of mind and body make everybody forget his age and

regard the possibility of his demise with the sort of incredulity which

made the courtier of Louis XIV. exclaim on the death of that monarch,

_'Après la mort du Roi on peut tout croire.'_

Great astonishment has been excited by the appointment of a Mr.

Bickersteth as Bishop of Ripon, against whom nothing can be said, nor

anything for him, except that he is a very Low Churchman. All the

vacant sees have now been filled with clergymen of this colour, which

is not very fair or prudent, as it will exasperate the moderate High

Churchmen and set them strongly against a Government which appears

determined to shut the door of ecclesiastical preferment against all

but the Lowest Churchmen, and such a policy will most likely have the

effect of encouraging the advocates of those extreme measures of an

anti-Catholic or a puritanical character which always give so much

trouble and embarrassment when they are brought forward in Parliament.

_December 12th._--The Conference to which Clarendon told me he would

not agree is going to take place after all, but everybody is ridiculing

what is notoriously a got-up comedy with a foregone conclusion, devised

to solve the difficulty into which all the great actors had got

themselves, but it is not yet quite clear what the _modus operandi_ is

to be. From what I have picked up here and there I gather that Sardinia

is to be induced to give a casting vote against Russia, leaving France

still at liberty to fulfil her original engagement and vote with her,

while we obtain the object for which we have stood out, and by such a

_dodge_ to bring the dispute to an end. When Parliament meets there

will be plenty to be said about this affair and about Naples, and no

doubt the Opposition or the malcontents will be able to bombard the

Government and vent their spleen, but that will be all, for Palmerston

is perfectly invulnerable and may commit any blunders with impunity.

[Sidenote: LEADERSHIP OF THE OPPOSITION.]

A report has been lately current that Gladstone will become the leader

of the Opposition _vice_ Disraeli, a report I thought quite wild and

improbable, but I heard the other day something which looks as if it

was not so much out of the question as I had imagined. George Byng told

me he had met Sir William Jolliffe, who is the Derbyite whipper-in, at

Wrotham, and having asked him whether there was any foundation for the

above report, he replied that it certainly was not true at present,

that he could not say what might or might not happen hereafter, but

that he could not at once be accepted as _leader_, and must in any

case first serve in the ranks. I do not know what may be the value of

Jolliffe's opinions, or what he knows of the intentions of his chief,

but he may probably be more or less acquainted with the sentiments of

his party, and may be aware that their necessities have modified their

extreme repugnance to Gladstone, and that they may now be willing

to accept him as leader (eventually), though two years ago they so

peremptorily insisted on his entire exclusion from their political

society. Meanwhile there is no combination amongst them. Derby is at

Knowsley amusing himself, and Disraeli at Paris, doing nobody knows

what.

There is talk of Lord Granville's resigning the lead and his office

and going to Ireland instead of Carlisle, or to Paris instead of

Cowley, but he has never intimated the least intention of doing either.

Ireland he certainly will not go to; Paris is not so impossible.

There seems some doubt whether his health will admit of his going on

in the House of Lords, and if they knew how to get Cowley away from

Paris without doing him an injustice or an unkindness, I think they

would not be sorry, for his position there is unsatisfactory. It is

a serious inconvenience to be on such terms with Walewski that they

never converse at all except when business obliges them to meet, and

the consequence of their relations is that all affairs between the two

countries are carried on between Clarendon and Persigny in London,

and as little as possible at Paris, because the Emperor now fights

rather shy of Cowley, and is by no means on the same terms with him

as heretofore, though always very civil and cordial enough when they

meet; and His Majesty will not part with Walewski, who, although of

a moderate capacity, is clever enough to know how to deal with his

master, and make himself agreeable to him, and the Emperor knows

that if he were to change his Minister for Foreign Affairs, it would

be attributed to the influence of England and be on that account

unpopular. The English press has rendered Walewski the incalculable

service of making him popular in France, and rendering it impossible

for the Emperor to dismiss him, even if he had a mind to do so, which

he has not.

[Sidenote: DICTATORIAL POLICY TO BRAZIL.]

_December 17th._--There was an article in the 'Times' the day before

yesterday commenting in severe terms upon a transaction of our Foreign

Office, as set forth in a Blue Book, in relation to Brazil. It was

the old subject of the slave trade, and the old method of arrogant

overbearing meddling and dictation, a case as odious and unjust as any

one of those by which Palmerston's foreign administration has ever been

disgraced. I really no longer recognise my old friend Clarendon, in

whose good sense and moderation I used to place implicit confidence,

and believed that he would inaugurate a system at the Foreign Office

very different from that of Palmerston, and which would tend to relieve

us from the excessive odium and universal unpopularity which Palmerston

had drawn upon us. It appears that I was mistaken. I told Granville

yesterday morning what I thought of this case, and asked him if it was

correctly stated. He said he regarded it just as I did, and that it was

quite true, every word of it. I then expressed my astonishment that

Clarendon should have acted in this way, and he replied, 'The fault of

Clarendon is that he is always thinking of the effect to be produced

by Blue Books, and he looks after popularity, and is influenced by

those he acts with. Under Aberdeen he was very moderate, but he saw

that the moderation of Aberdeen made him unpopular, while Palmerston's

popularity in great measure arose from his very different manner

towards other Powers, so when Palmerston became Prime Minister instead

of Aberdeen, he fell readily into the Palmerstonian method.' I dare say

this is the truth, and besides the contagion of Palmerston himself, he

is surrounded by men at the Foreign Office who are prodigious admirers

of Palmerston and of his slashing ways, and who no doubt constantly

urge Clarendon to adopt a similar style. All this is to me matter of

great regret personally, and it is revolting as to good taste, and, as

I believe, to our national interests. It is, however, a consolation

to see that the most powerful and influential of our journals has the

courage, independence, and good sense to protest publicly against such

violent and unjustifiable proceedings.