=Source.=--_The Greville Memoirs_, edited by Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L.,
vol. viii., p. 164. (Longmans, Green and Co., 1888.)
_February 14 [1858]._--Last week saw the debates in the House of
Commons about the Conspiracy Bill, and the first act of the India Bill.
The first is very unpopular, but it will be carried nevertheless.
John Russell has taken it up with extraordinary vehemence and anger.
His opposition to it is furious on high constitutional grounds, which
appear to me absurd and uncalled for. If I were in Parliament I should
be puzzled how to vote, for there is much to be said against the Bill,
and much against voting against it, particularly against leave to
bring it in. Almost all the Tories voted with the Government, and John
Russell carried very few with him, and neither of his own nephews.
He is more than ever exasperated against Palmerston for bringing it
in. The apology tended by the Emperor, which was read to the House,
reconciled a great many to the Bill, but I have no notion that it will
do any good, or that the French Government will be satisfied with it.
After such a Bill, which will certainly be carried, the British lion
must put his tail between his legs, and, “Civis Romanus,” give up
swaggering so loftily. If Aberdeen had attempted such a measure when
Louis Philippe was King and Guizot minister, what would Palmerston have
said? and what would not have been the indignant outcry throughout the
country?
[NOTE.--On February 19 the Government were defeated on the Conspiracy
Bill in the House of Commons by a majority of 234 to 215. The majority
consisted of 146 Conservatives and 84 Liberals. Mr. Gladstone, Lord
John Russell, Sir James Graham, and Mr. Sidney Herbert voted against
the Bill. Lord Palmerston immediately resigned.]