MY DEAREST UNCLE,—I have the great pleasure in announcing to you a
piece of news which I know will give you as much satisfaction and
relief as it does to us, and will do to the whole of the world.
Lord Palmerston is no longer Foreign Secretary, and Lord Granville
is already named his successor!! He had become of late really quite
reckless, and in spite of the serious admonition and caution he
received only on the 29th of November, and again at the beginning
of December, he tells Walewsky that he _entirely_ approves Louis
Napoleon’s _coup d’état_, when he had written to Lord Normanby by
my and the Cabinet’s desire that he (Lord Normanby) was to continue
his diplomatic intercourse with the French Government, but to remain
perfectly passive, and give no opinion.
II.—=Source.=—_The Life of Lord Palmerston_, by the Hon. Evelyn
Ashley, vol. i., p. 316. (London: 1876.)
_Lord Palmerston to his Brother. January 22, 1852._
As to the main point, John Russell distinctly narrowed down the ground
of my dismissal to the fact of my having expressed an opinion on the
_coup d’état_ without reference to the nature of that opinion, Johnny
saying that that was not the question. Now, that opinion of mine was
expressed in conversation on Tuesday the 3rd; but on Wednesday the 4th,
we had a small evening party at our house. At that party John Russell
and Walewsky[4] were, and they had a conversation on the _coup d’état_
in which Johnny expressed his opinion, which Walewsky tells me was in
substance and result pretty nearly the same as what I had said the day
before, though, as he observed, John Russell is not so “expansif” as I
am; but further, on Friday the 6th, Walewsky dined at John Russell’s
and there met Lansdowne and Charles Wood; and in the course of that
evening John Russell, Lansdowne, and Charles Wood all expressed their
opinions on the _coup d’état_, and those opinions were, if anything,
rather more strongly favourable than mine had been.[5] Moreover,
Walewsky met Lord Grey riding in the Park, and Grey’s opinion was
likewise expressed, and was to the same effect. It is obvious that the
reason assigned for my dismissal was a mere pretext, eagerly caught
at for want of any good reason. The real ground was a weak truckling
to the hostile intrigues of the Orleans family, Austria, Russia,
Saxony, and Bavaria, and in some degree also of the present Prussian
Government. All these parties found their respective views and systems
of policy thwarted by the course pursued by the British Government, and
they thought that if they could remove the Minister they would change
the policy. They had for a long time past effectually poisoned the mind
of the Queen and the Prince against me, and John Russell giving way,
rather encouraged than discountenanced the desire of the Queen.
[4] The French Ambassador in London.
[5] Just before Lord Palmerston’s dismissal was discussed in
Parliament, Walewsky reminded Lord John Russell of these facts, and
added that, whereas he had only conveyed Palmerston’s opinion in a
private letter to M. Turgot, he had made Russell’s the subject of an
official despatch. Lord John Russell asked whether Lord Palmerston
knew all this, and meant to state it in the House of Commons (_Life of
Palmerston_, ii. 326).