LORD PALMERSTON'S VERSION.
Beauvale has had a long letter from Lady Palmerston with her version of the whole affair, which is true in the main, but as favourably coloured towards Pam as the case will admit of. She is in a high state of indignation and resentment, and bitter against Lord John and the colleagues who did not support Palmerston. They evidently expected when the Cabinet met the other day, that the colleagueswould have pronounced Lord John's ground of quarrel insufficient, and protested against his dismissal, and they are extremely mortified that nothing of the kind was done. She complained that Palmerston's best friends were absent. Not one person at the Cabinet said a word for him or made an effort to keep him, but this she does not know. Her account is as follows. On December 3rd Palmerston told Walewskiin conversationthat he thought the President was fully justified in hiscoup d'état, as plots were hatching against him. He says that he expressed his approbation in this conditional form. Walewski wrote to Turgot what Palmerston had said, and at the same time Palmerston wrote a very strong letter to Normanby, finding fault with his conduct, and advising him to hold language calculated to satisfy the President that he was not unfriendly to him, as he had reason to believe that the President did regard him as so inimical, that he was meditating an application to the British Government to recall him. Whatever Palmerston really did say to Walewski, we may safely assume that Walewski made the most of it to Turgot, and that he did convey to him the unqualified approbation of the English Government, and Turgot probably communicated Walewski's despatch to Normanby. Normanby was exceedingly annoyed at this communication, and wrote to John Russell, conveying to him what had passed, and complaining of the ill-usage he had received. Lord John shortly after wrote to Palmerston, sent him a Minute of the Queen's, in which Her Majesty expressed her displeasure at Palmerston's having committed her Government by an unqualified approbation of the President's measures, and he added from himself that he agreed with her, and thought Palmerston had acted with great indiscretion, that he was tired of these repeated difficulties and disputes, and he had to inform him that it was the wish of the Queen to transfer the Foreign Office to other hands. Palmerston wrote a reply, stating his readiness to give up the seals whenever his successor should be appointed. He defended his own conduct, denied that he had committed the Government, and said he had only expressed his ownindividual opinion, and that a qualified one, and then set forth the inconvenience there would be if a Minister could not hold friendly communication with an Ambassador in his own person, without being supposed to commit the whole Cabinet, in mere conversation. It did not appear to me that the excuses he made, according to Lady Palmerston's own account of them, were very good ones, and they were not likely to produce any effect upon Lord John, who had evidently already determined to get rid of him. What more passed I do not know, but from her letter they clearly entertained some hopes that Palmerston's position was still retrievable; that when the Cabinet met, his colleagues would make an effort to retain him; and that in spite of what Lord John had written to him he would have kept his post if he could. It seems incredible that any man of high spirit and with a spark of pride should consent to stay in office after being told by the Prime Minister that he had been indiscreet, that the Prime Minister was tired of his repeated misconduct, and that the Queen wished to get rid of him. But it seems by what Lady Palmerston says, that he would have swallowed all this if he could have made it up. She writes in a spirit of great bitterness and resentment, and intimates her belief that the ground taken by Lord John was merely a pretext, and not the real cause of what had been done. In this she was quite right. The case is cumulative, though the Paris communication is made the pretext of Lord John'scoup d'état. Beauvale thinks the last and ostensible cause is insufficient, and that Lord John would have done better to act at once on the matter of the Islington deputations. I am inclined to think it is sufficient, though far less strong than the other, and it would have been more straightforward as well as bold to have acted on the first occasion, and I believe it would have been quite as safe. Labouchere, a very honourable man, told me, when all was known, he thought Lord John's conduct would come out in a very favourable light. So probably there are circumstances which Lady Palmerston suppresses, which would not improve Palmerston's case. The most striking circumstancein all this affair is the conduct of John Russell. He took it up, and without imparting what he was about to any of his colleagues, leaving them all completely in the dark, he and the Queen settled the whole thing between them. For nearly three weeks a correspondence was going on between the Queen, Lord John, and Palmerston, of which not one word transpired, and which was known to nobody but the Duke of Bedford. None of the Ministers had the least idea why they were summoned. Lord Grey and Lord Lansdowne and Sir Francis Baring all came up together from the Grange, asking each other what it was about; nor was it till they were all assembled in the Cabinet room in Downing Street that they were apprised of the astounding fact that Palmerston had ceased to be their colleague. The secret was as well kept as Louis Napoleon's, and thecoup d'étatnearly as important and extraordinary.
LORD GRANVILLE FOREIGN SECRETARY.
London, December 27th.—A Council at Windsor. Palmerston did not come, but desired Lord Eddisbury to send the seals to Lord John. Nevertheless he was expected, and the Queen would wait for him above an hour. It now turns out that the Foreign Office was not offered to Clarendon at all. In his letter to me he says, It cannot be said that I refused what was never offered me. Lord John wrote him word on Sunday that it would be offered him; but the offer, which Granville told me on Monday afternoon was gone, never did go. All along the Queen and Lord John wished to have Granville instead of Clarendon. He tells me that when I know all that has passed between John Russell and himself, I shall see he could not possibly accept it. Lord Lansdowne was evidently put out by what he heard yesterday. He said to me, 'You know it was offered to Clarendon.' I said, 'He does not so consider it.' 'Oh! it certainly was. It was clearly so understood in the Cabinet, when I left it on Monday, and I wrote to him myself.' I said he had better enquire, and he would find no offer was sent. He then talked to John Russell and Grey, and I asked him afterwards, when he shrugged his shoulders and said I was right; but he did not understand it. The truth is oozing out by degrees. Greyand I had some talk about it, when I told him that I thought the former ground, the reception of the deputations, the stronger of the two, and I should have turned him out then, and he said he agreed with me. Madame de Lieven writes in transports of joy, and on the whole the satisfaction seems very general. Granville is very popular at Manchester and with the Free Traders, which is a great thing; and as he is more of a Reformer than Palmerston, he will not be attacked in that quarter. Brooks's and the ultra Whigs and Radicals are sulky, but don't quite know what to make of it. It seems Lord John struck the blow at last with great reluctance; but having made up his mind, he did it boldly.
Bunsen told Reeve a version of the story, which he got from Stockmar, and which came direct from the Court. Normanby wrote home for instructions. At a Cabinet (on the 8th) it was determined that he should be instructed to abstain from expressing any opinion, but to act with perfect civility and every expression of international amity towards the President, but with reserve. Lord John went down to Osborne on the 9th, and informed the Queen of the resolution of the Cabinet. If, as Lady Palmerston says, the conversation with Walewski had taken place before this, Palmerston did not tell the Cabinet what he had said to the Ambassador; but, be this as it may, they say he did not act in the spirit of the Cabinet resolution, but in that of his own communication, which was very different. I expect that it will not be easy to make a good case out of this, especially as the Queen's name must not be brought in. Palmerston, who is so adroit and unscrupulous, will deny half he said, and find plausible excuses for the other half, and will probably make it appear that the ostensiblecasus querelæwas not the real one. However, in matters of this sort, Lord John is tolerably dexterous too, and he may have better materials than I am aware of to employ.
LORD PALMERSTON AND HIS SUCCESSOR.
M. de Flahault arrived last night, and came here this morning to talk to Granville. He said that Palmerston's dismissal and the cause of it, as hinted at in the newspapers, had produced a disagreeable impression at the Elysée, especiallyafter all the violence of the press. He said he had told the President that what he had done could not fail to shock English feelings and prejudices, and the press was sure to hold such language. He received from Granville assurances as pacific as he could desire, and he will probably have little difficulty in satisfying the President and his Government that they will lose nothing by the change. I have seen to-day an admirable letter of Guizot's, full of a melancholy resignation to a state of things he abhors, commiserating and ashamed of the condition of his country. He says if he was disposed to triumph over his enemiesil a bien de quoi. Where, he asks, is Thiers, where is the Republic, where is Palmerston? France is now so frightened at Socialism, and so bent on averting the peril of anarchy, that she will submit to anything. But this panic will one day pass away, and the Government cannot be carried on for ever by soldiers and peasants, and in spite of all the intellect and all the elevated classes in the country.
Yesterday Granville was with Palmerston for three hours. He received him with the greatest cordiality and good humour. 'Ah, how are you, Granville? Well, you have got a very interesting office, but you will find it very laborious; seven or eight hours' work every day will be necessary for the current business, besides the extraordinary and Parliamentary, and with less than that you will fall into arrears.' He then entered into a complete history of our diplomacy, gave him every sort of information, and even advice; spoke of the Court without bitterness, and in strong terms of the Queen's 'sagacity;' ended by desiring Granville would apply to him when he pleased for any information or assistance he could give him. This is very creditable, and, whatever may come after it, very wise, gentlemanlike, becoming, and dignified.
London, January 2nd, 1852.—Though I have given the story of the late rupture in scraps, and have not made many mistakes, I can now state the case in a more clear and connected manner, and though this entails repetition I am going to do it. It is best to go back to the first Kossuthaffair. I need only say as to this, that when Lord John brought it before the Cabinet he was supported against Palmerston by every member of it except one, and that was Lord Lansdowne. It is clear enough why he took Palmerston's part. He had already committed himself by receiving Pulsky at Bowood, two years ago. This made some noise at the time, but it passed off. But he no doubt thought it would be inconsistent to find fault with Palmerston for doing what he had already done with regard to a refugee less celebrated, but not less obnoxious than Kossuth. Then came the Islington deputations and the speeches. Upon this, though very indignant, more than I was aware of, Lord John did not think it safe and therefore expedient to quarrel with him, but he had a correspondence with him, in which he expressed his opinion; and at the end of it he (in the language of the Duke of Bedford) 'drew a moral, which Palmerston accepted, as the rule for his future conduct.' That is, he gave him to understand that if he continued his separate and independent action without the knowledge, and often against the opinions, of his colleagues, it was impossible to go on. I do not know the words he employed, but am confident this was the sense. Palmerston acquiesced in his reply, and said what Lord John considered to be tantamount to a promise or engagement that the like should not happen again. It was about a week after, on December 3, that Walewski went to Palmerston and asked for an expression of his opinion upon the President'scoup d'état.143Palmerston gave his unqualified approbation, which, of course, Walewski instantly wrote off to Turgot. Very soon after, if not before, Normanby wrote home for instructions as to his conduct in the new state of things. The Cabinet met on the 8th, and there it was agreed that he should be instructed to adopt a friendly but reserved tone, and abstain from any expression of opinion one way or another on the acts of the President. On receipt of this he went to Turgot, and when he spoke to him in the prescribed tone the FrenchMinister said he was already acquainted with the sentiments of the British Government, and he produced Walewski's despatch informing him of Lord Palmerston's unqualified approval of all that had been done. Of course Normanby was thunderstruck at this communication, which revealed a complete difference between Palmerston's assurance to Walewski and his instructions to himself. Indignant at this, and smarting under Palmerston's rebukes, he wrote to John Russell and told him what had occurred. When the Queen learned what had passed, she was disposed to insist upon Lord John's taking this occasion to get rid of him; but Stockmar very wisely advised her to do nothing, and told her that the case was so flagrant, Lord John was almost sure to propose it to her, which was much better than her proposing it to him. She took this advice, and accordingly Lord John did come to her, and said this could not be endured, for it was besides a breach of faith, and he himself proposed to the Queen that Palmerston should be dismissed from the Foreign Office. About the same time, too (on the 12th), the Notes of the three Powers about the refugees had been presented to Palmerston, and he had never said a word about them. Then ensued the second correspondence, in which there seems to have been great asperity on both sides. Probably Palmerston never dreamt of any danger from his conversation with Walewski, and his surprise was, therefore, as great as his indignation. He defended himself, as I have already stated, and he refused somewhat scornfully the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland. He said that John Russell knew very well there were reasons why he could not accept it, and he endeavoured to turn the offer itself against Lord John, by saying that it was in itself a sufficient answer to his charge of indiscretion.
LORD PALMERSTON ON THE COUP D'ÉTAT.
January 8th.—Graham came to me last night (as I am laid up with the gout) at a quarter past nine, and went away at twenty minutes after one. In the course of these four hours we discussed every subject of interest that now engages attention and, as may be imagined, pretty fully. The Palmerston catastrophe, its circumstances, merits, bearingsand probable results, Disraeli, the 'Life of George Bentinck,' in the course of which he mentioned a great many things about Peel, and, lastly, the political circumstances of the Government, its condition and prospects, together with his own and those of the party with which he is connected, or rather some of the leading men of it. It would be impossible, even were I so disposed, to give even an outline of our long conversation. It will be sufficient to preserve its general features, and his views on the present state of things. I have never known him so confidential and unreserved, nor has he ever before in his previous communications with me spoken out so entirely. I gathered from him some things I only imperfectly knew before of John Russell's proceedings with a view to strengthen himself. What he has done has been with the Duke of Newcastle, first through the Duke of Bedford, and then by direct communication with himself. Newcastle came to Graham as soon as he arrived in town and told him all that had passed. Lord John had invited him to take office, which Newcastle declined, and he asked him to find out what Sidney Herbert's disposition was. With regard to Gladstone (whom Newcastle had alluded to), he had said that he was fully aware of his great abilities, and should be glad if it was in his power to offer him office, but he did not see how it could be done, intimating, with expressions of respect, his disinclination to any connexion in that quarter. With Cardwell it was different. He asked the Duke to make a communication to Cardwell, but he would only consent to convey to Cardwell that he might expect at some indefinite time an offer to be made to him. This communication, together with what was intended, seems rather strange; it was to this effect, that Lord Panmure would probably very soon die being very old and very ill, and when he died and Fox Maule must in consequence quit the War Office, Lord John would offer Cardwell that place and a seat in the Cabinet. Graham remarked that this was a strange proposal, considering that the life of Panmure (who has been continually dying and recovering for years past) is a better one than thelife of the Government, the latter being the more sick of the two.
THE GOVERNMENT AND THE PEELITES.
Then as to himself. The Duke said John Russell had asked him to find out what his (Graham's) disposition was. He could not say to 'sound him,' for he had made no use of such a term, though he would do so for shortness. To this Graham replied that the best answer he could make was to tell him what had passed in September last, and to show him the memorandum of Lord John to him, and his in return, which he had never mentioned before but to Lord Aberdeen and one other person, and that the sentiments he had then expressed he still retained. As the Duke of Newcastle went to Windsor yesterday, where he was to meet Lord John and Lord Lansdowne, he will no doubt have told them what passed, and to-day at the Cabinet Lord John will have to announce that his attempts to strengthen himself have failed.
Graham's opinions on the whole matter are pretty much the same as those which Ellice has been circulating amongst his friends. He thinks the present Government will not get through the next Session; that weak and unpopular as they are, and still further weakened by the loss of Palmerston, and surrounded by dangers and enemies on all sides, they must fall; and he does not think that his joining them, or some of the other Peelites doing so, with or without himself, would save them. It will not do to try and patch up the old garment. This Government must be broken up completely, there must be atabula rasa, and then an attempt made to construct another on a wider and more comprehensive plan. John Russell ought to go to the Queen and tell her he cannot go on, and then she ought to send for Aberdeen and Russell together, and desire them to set about the formation of a Government. I suggested it would never do to send for Aberdeen in this way; it would be taken as an insult to Palmerston, and exasperate one half of the Whigs and render them unmanageable. The Queen might indeed send for Aberdeen alone, and he might decline everything for himself, refuse to take office, as nodoubt he would, but advise her to send for Lord John and Graham, and bid them to form a Government. He agreed to my amendment; acknowledged the antagonism of Palmerston and Aberdeen would make a difficulty; but contended that they should be empowered to make a Government of men of Liberal-Conservative principles, of which John Russell must himself be the head; that it should be understood that they hadcarte blanche. Nobody was to have pretensions orquasiright to office on account of previous tenure, but that they were to make the best and strongest Administration they could, taking in any efficient men who might be ready to unite with them on the principles above mentioned. He thought the best thing for the country would be that thisbreak upshould happen now, before Parliament met, and the attempt at reconstruction made, while people were still free and uncommitted; but he owned that it would be very difficult for John Russell, after what had recently passed, to take such a course. He would not do so himself in his place, and could not expect him to do so. He might indeed have consistently given the thing up when he quarrelled with Palmerston, because he had always said, and repeated it a hundred times, that without Palmerston he could not go on. But after the Cabinet had agreed to go on, and to support him in what he had done, it was very difficult for him without any fresh incident to turn round on them, say he had changed his mind, and break up the Government. I suggested this last view, which he concurred in. The end of it was, he said, that Lord John would be obliged to meet Parliament, fight his battle as best he could, and he would die in the open field with harness on his back. This result, sooner or later, he considers certain. As to himself, besides his general objections to join the Government, he is deeply impressed with the difficulty of the new Reform Bill. He could not, he says, be a party to advising the Queen to announce in her Speech that the present system is all wrong, and must be amended, which he assumes must and will be done. He recurs again and again to the folly of having moved thismatter, 'set a stone rolling' which they have no power to stop. I differed from him considerably in what seemed to me the exaggerated view he takes of this question, and said I did not see why any such announcement need be made in the Queen's Speech. But he is evidently afraid to encounter and be mixed up with this matter, on which he feels deep displeasure, dislike, and much apprehension. He spoke amicably of John Russell, but was not pleased with his sending George Lewis down to him, and could not believe he ever seriously expected him to accept an invitation at that time, and, he contemptuously added, to such an office; and he rather complained of the formality and stiffness of Lord John's Memorandum on that occasion. But he appears to have been still more nettled at having been 'sounded' by Newcastle on the part of Lord John. 'Why,' he says, 'did not Lord John ask him to come to Chesham Place, and talk the whole matter over with him frankly?' They have had so many and such confidential and friendly communications at different times, that this would have been a most natural and becoming course, or Lord John might have spoken to me about it; but to get the Duke of Newcastle, with whom he was on no terms of intimacy or confidence, to 'sound him,' was not the way he might expect to be dealt with. I think this is a pretty faithful summary of the essential part of what passed between us on this the most important head. If other things occur to me of any interest, I will subjoin them.
PROJECTS FOR A COALITION.
January 11th.—Graham came to me again last night. He was more gloomy in his expectations, and saw nothing but dangers ahead. He had seen George Lewis and told him all he had said to me. George Lewis had seen John Russell, and of course repeated it all to him, and the result was at all events amicable, for he told me that Lord John had sent him a message by George Lewis to say if he would come to town a day or two before Parliament met he would tell him what he was going to do. He now thinks that if this Government is defeated and resigns, Lord John will refuse to have anything to do with the formation ofanother, and this might again bring about a fresh Protectionist attempt. He wavers between his apprehension of Palmerston joining the Protectionists, and his doubts of the possibility of such an alliance in the teeth too of the Queen's antipathy to Palmerston; but he is not at all sure the next election may not make the Protectionists numerically strong enough to undertake the task they failed in accomplishing last year. It is not worth while to record a conversation which was to a certain degree a repetition of the last, and without any novel matter. He shakes his head at the prospect of explanations, and thinks John Russell will have a good deal of difficulty in making out his case.
Then he is moved by the letters written by Lansdowne, Grey, and Charles Wood to Palmerston expressive of regret at parting with him. It is pretty evident, that however plausible may be the scheme of a comprehensive administration, the personal predilections and antipathies will create enormous difficulties. The Whigs generally hate the Peelites, and Graham especially. The Peelites hate the Whigs. Mutual dislike exists between Graham on one side, and Newcastle, Gladstone, and Sidney Herbert on the other. The three latter are High Churchmen of a deep colour, which makes it difficult to mix them up with any other party, so that the Peelite leaders are extremely divided, and the party is so scattered that it can hardly be called a party. The Whigs, who really are a party, and, though in a state of great insubordination, do generally consider themselves one army and under one chief, do not at all like the idea of treating with the Peelites on anything like equal terms. If ever the time comes I fully expect they will all resist any such basis of arrangement, and that John Russell will not be disposed to agree to a Government being formed by himselfandanybody else. These difficulties and causes of future bickering looming in the distance present themselves to me. I only hope they may prove visionary.
THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA AND LOUIS NAPOLEON.
There is certainly a great deal of sulky disapprobation at Palmerston's dismissal, and all sorts of stories, and as many lies are rife about it. The Palmerstons affect moderation,but their rage and resentment overflow in every direction. He puts a good face on it, and appears calm and cheerful; she holds different language to different people, but loses no opportunity of getting up all the steam she can against Lord John. Meanwhile Granville is doing well in his office, and the staff there, who have been so long accustomed to Palmerston, and are critical judges, think so. Cowley told me he had seen some of his papers, and they were very good, and he particularly mentioned one to Russia. The Emperor Nicholas has sent over to say that it is very possible Louis Napoleon may any day be proclaimed Emperor, and that all the Powers were bound by the Treaty of Vienna not to acknowledge any one of the family as such, and he begged, should this event arrive, that we would do nothing about it without previous communication with him, so that England and Russia might act in concert. Granville replied with great civility, and expressed a concurrence in the desire that England and Russia should act in concert, but declined to engage that this Government would wait till communication could be had with Russia, representing that the news of any change in France would reach London in an hour, and the official notification of it in a day, and that it might be necessary for us to come to some early decision, whereas a communication with Russia would take several weeks; and he also pointed out that we had a much greater and more immediate interest than Russia in what was passing in France, and must act for ourselves in certain cases which might occur.
January 13th.—Lord Normanby came to me yesterday to talk over his affairs.144No love is lost between him and Palmerston. I asked him to tell me frankly what he had ever said or done to provoke the enmity of Louis Napoleon, and he declared that he was not conscious of having done anything whatever; that he had continued to live as heretoforewith his old friends, and that was all. The President had always been as civil and cordial in his manner as ever, and if he had any enmity towards him he must be a great hypocrite, as he never testified any. When he last saw him he begged Louis Napoleon, if he heard anything of him that he thought he had a right to complain of, that he would tell it himself frankly. Louis Napoleon replied thatla franchisewas always best, and he would. Napoleon complained much of Palmerston, not only for this last affair but on various occasions, when he had given just offence to France by hisprocédés. Normanby laughs at the notion of a plot, and says the best proof that it was an after-thought is that when Turgot immediately after thecoup d'étatgave him the reasons for what the President had done, he never alluded to any plot; and whereas it has been supposed that the refusal of the Chamber to vote the revision of the Constitution was one of the causes, Turgot told him that one cause was their having ascertained that the revision would be carried, as the Reds were going to vote for it. They intended to take this course, because they believed that with universal suffrage another Assembly would be returned of their colour, and for the same reason therefore Louis Napoleon hurried on hiscoup d'état.
M. THIERS ON THE COUP D'ÉTAT.
January 14th.—Granville brought me yesterday a paper which by the Queen's desire, communicated through Lord John, he has been obliged to draw up. It is a developement of what the foreign policy of this country ought to be. He read it to me that I might criticise it. He has not yet had practice enough in composition to write well; but it is clear, sensible, and right. But after all it was a series of commonplaces, for the simple reason that there is nothing mysterious and abstruse in the foreign policy of this country, and in the substance of it there can be little or no difference between different governments or men. There was not a word in Granville's paper to which both Palmerston and Aberdeen might not subscribe. In diplomacy, above everything,c'est le ton qui fait la chanson, and it has been Palmerston's tone and manner which have donemuch more harm than his acts; they have undoubtedly been very often unjustifiable and offensive to a great degree; but they have been rendered ten times more so, and, therefore, ten times more mischievous than they would have been by hisanimusand his language. Besides laying down the rights and the duties of this country, which he very properly states may be resolved into the moral axiom of doing as we would be done by, Granville enters upon a new subject, and that is the improvement of thepersonnelof our diplomacy—the advancement of men of ability, and who display qualities which will fit them for high posts abroad. He tells me, too, that he meditates a system of examination, which will no doubt please the educational propensities of the Prince.
January 15th.—I dined with Ellice yesterday—apartie carrée—himself, Thiers, Mrs. Grote, and myself.145It was very amusing. The little man wasintarissable, and gave us an account of all that had happened to him from the moment of his arrest to that of his expulsion from Brussels—for such it really was, though he went voluntarily, and the Belgian Ministers told him they would not expel him if he chose to stay, and would refuse compliance with the demands of the French Government. He has some idea of writing a narrative of the last two months, and we encouraged him to do so. He positively denies not only that there was any plot whatever, but that there was any intention of taking active measures against the President; they only contemplated defensive measures, and their object was to surround themselves with a military force to protect the Assembly against thecoup d'étatwhich the President was meditating, and which he was enabled to execute because they were unprotected. The French troops will always obey their commanders, and this accounts for the complete success of Louis Napoleon; but 'les pantalons rouges' will not fire upon 'd'autres pantalons rouges;' and if the Assembly had had its guard,the troops under the order of the Minister at War would not have attacked their comrades. Thiers knew of this intendedcoup d'étatfor a long time before (in the beginning of October), and told us how it came to his knowledge. M. de Lariboissière, son of Napoleon's general, and a rich man, was sent for by the President about the end of September. He told him his project, asked him to join and take office. Lariboissière declined, and went back to his house in the country. Being a great friend of Thiers, he thought he could not leave him to get into the scrape that was preparing for him, and he accordingly employed a lady who was staying with him to go to Paris and give Thiersa hint, merely that he had better quit Paris, or he would get into trouble. Thiers knew perfectly well what this meant, and did all he could to make his friends aware of the danger that was impending over them, and to take precautions instead of being caught 'comme des nigauds,' as they eventually were. He spoke with prodigious contempt both of the character and the talents of Louis Napoleon.
January 28th.—I have had two long conversations with the Duke of Bedford, who has been very open and communicative, though I don't know that he told me much that I did not know before. He gave me some minute details, which were perhaps rather different from previous statements I had heard and noted, but not materially so. These corrigenda related principally to the communications between Lord John and Palmerston, and are hardly worth noticing except for the sake of circumstantial accuracy. He said that in the Kossuth question his first communication with Palmerston was personal, and at Windsor; and on Palmerston's persisting in his intention to see Kossuth, Lord John wrote him a letter, and then on getting his impertinent answer he summoned the Cabinet. After the Islington deputations he wrote again to Palmerston in excessively mild terms, but took that opportunity of remonstrating with him against his habit of separate and independent action, and it was then he received what he considered tantamount to an engagement that he would cease to pursue that course. Itwas a week after that, while he was at Woburn, that he received from Normanby the information which he conceived to be a violation on Palmerston's part of the engagement; and then he said to the Duke that he could stand it no longer, and would get rid of him. He accordingly wrote at once to Palmerston, recapitulated his subjects of complaint, and asked him to authorise him to lay his resignation before the Queen. His first step, therefore, was with Palmerston himself, and not with the Queen. Having received the authority (which Palmerston could not refuse), he proceeded to communicate with the Queen, and the reply expressed the great astonishment of both Her Majesty and the Prince, as they had taken it for granted that this difference, like all preceding ones, would be patched up. I told the Duke that I had reason to believe the Queen was displeased at the offer of Ireland being made to Palmerstonà son insu; but this was a mistake. Lord John did communicate to her immediately the letter he wrote to Palmerston, containing notan offer, but an intimation that he would propose it to Her Majesty if he was disposed to accept it. This was certainly the proper and constitutional course for him to take. He does, indeed, understand his duty in this respect, and is very different from Palmerston; he never conceals anything from the Queen, and invariably enters into her objections, admitting or refuting them, when she makes any. Palmerston's way was to make no answer whatever when she made objections; to take no notice of them; a practice which Lord John had himself blamed, and remonstrated with him upon. This, and the still more monstrous habit he had of treating with contempt alterations that had been prescribed to him, and sending despatches from which the Queen or Lord John had struck out certain passages with the same restored, had excited her resentment to a high pitch.
I find Normanby has been in factrecalled, though it is agreed that he is toresignso as to be let down easily. He puts a good face on it, but is very indignant, and thinks himself very ill-used. His vanity is very amusing, for hetalks of his great influence, and the respect and consideration in which he was universally held, when everybody knows that there never was an Ambassador so generally disliked and despised. It was intended to send Clanricarde there, but it was altered, I do not know why, and Cowley appointed, to his great delight and astonishment, and to mine. Cowley, who was at Windsor the other day, told me he saw a most curious and interesting paper there which Stockmar showed him. It was a report from Van de Weyer to King Leopold of his interviews with the President while he was at Paris. He complained very much of the English newspapers, as well as of our Queen's hostile feeling towards him. Van de Weyer told him he must not be surprised if in a Constitutional country like England the press spoke the language it did; and as to the Queen's friendship for the Orleans family, his own chivalrous feeling could only approve of her continuing to them in their adversity the friendship which had been formed in their prosperous days. It seems Louis Napoleon had promised to leave Leopold alone, and not meddle with Belgium, but held threatening language towards Switzerland and Piedmont.
EXPLANATIONS IN PARLIAMENT.
February 5th.146—I might have saved myself the trouble of writing down a scattered and imperfect notice of the Palmerstonian dismissal, since John Russell told the whole story on Tuesday night. The public interest and curiosity to hear the 'explanations' were intense. Up to almost the last moment the confidence and thejactanceof the Palmerston clique were boundless. At length the moment arrived. In all my experience I never recollect such a triumph as John Russell achieved, and such complete discomfiture as Palmerston's. Lord John made a very able speech, and disclosed as much as was necessary, and no more. Beyond all doubt his greatcoupwas the Queen's Minute in 1850, which was absolutely crushing. Some grave persons think the introduction of her name was going too far, but it wasirresistible. The effect was prodigious. Palmerston was weak and inefficient, and it is pretty certain that he was taken by surprise, and was unprepared for all that John Russell brought forward. Not a man of weight or influence said a word for him, nobody but Milnes and Dudley Stuart. The Queen's letter was decisive, for it was evident that his conduct must have been intolerable to elicit such charges and rebukes; and it cannot fail to strike everybody that no man of common spirit, and who felt a consciousness of innocence, would have brooked anything so insulting. Such a man would have indignantly resigned, and have demanded what John Russell meant by making himself the organ of such accusations; but he submitted to them.
London, March 26th.—I was taken ill before I had time to finish what I was writing, and have been laid up ever since with a violent attack of gout and fever, from which I am now slowly recovering. During all the time of the change of Government147I was in my bed, and not allowed to see anybody; but for the last few days I have been able to come into my drawing-room and receive visitors, who have come in great numbers, and of every imaginable variety, to see me, so that I have had enough of occupation and amusement. I cannot pretend to write any account of what has been passing, and not having recorded, as I heard them, the scraps of unknown matters, I am now unable to do so. The new Government is treated with great contempt, and many of the appointments are pitiable. But, while it is the fashion to exalt Derby himself, and treat with great scorn almost all his colleagues, I think Derby himself is quite as unfit for the post of Prime Minister as any of them can be for those they occupy. His extreme levity and incapacity for taking grave and serious views, though these defects may be partiallyremedied by the immensity of his responsibility, will ever weigh upon his character, and are too deeply rooted in it to be eradicated. His oratory is his forte, and without that he would be a very ordinary man. His speeches since he took office have been excellent, and in a very becoming tone and spirit; but the notion, which is generally entertained, of his being so high-minded and chivalrous, is a mistake. He is not so in private life—that is, in his transactions on the turf—and it is not likely that a man should be one thing in private, and another in public, life.
LORD DERBY'S ADMINISTRATION.
The great object of interest and curiosity this Session has been Palmerston; everybody anxious to see to which side he leaned. A short time ago he evinced a disposition towards reconciliation with John Russell. The latter invited him to his meeting at Chesham Place; Palmerston did not go, but was rather pleased at being invited; and soon after John Russell went to one of Lady Palmerston's parties, and talked to Palmerston a good while. But at this time his resentment was still unappeased, for he got Clarendon to hear all his complaints, and showed him all the correspondence. With his usual unfairness, he complained to everybody of John Russell's having so unexpectedly sprung upon him the Queen's Minute in the discussion on his dismissal, and he even did so to Clarendon; whereas, so far from any surprise, Lord John wrote him word three days before that he was going to read it in the House, and offered him any papers he might desire to have. Clarendon asked him if he had not received such a communication, and then he was forced to own he had. Clarendon, however, did his best to bring about a renewal of their intercourse, personal and political. Palmerston said John Russell had given him his independence, and he meant to avail himself of that advantage. The Whigs expect and desire that he will return to them, and, in the event of a change, come again into office, but not the Foreign Office, which he says himself he does not again wish for. Derby offered him office, which he at once refused, on hearing that Protection was not given up; but many think he will after all joinDerby, as soon as this question is finally disposed of. I doubt it, for he would not serve under Disraeli, and Disraeli would hardly give up the leadership having once enjoyed it. The Peelites sit together, all except Graham, who has regularly joined John Russell, and sits beside him. Nobody knows what they mean to do, nor which party they will eventually join. At present Gladstone's speeches do not look like a junction with Derby, but nothing is more possible than that, as soon as the great stumbling-block is removed, they will go over to this Government, and the leaders take office. They most of them hate the Whigs, and there is certainly no great, if any, difference of opinion between them and the Derbyites, except on the question of Free Trade. Graham rather expects this result. I asked him if he thought Disraeli would consent to resign the lead to anybody. He thought not, certainly not to Gladstone; possibly he might to Palmerston. There are great complaints of Disraeli in the House of Commons. They say he does not play his part as leader with tact and propriety, and treats his opponents impudently and uncourteously, which is egregiously foolish, and will end by exposing him to some great mortification; the House of Commons will not stand such behaviour from such a man.
London, May 2nd.—I have been for some time past so disgusted with politics and politicians, and have been driven to take such a gloomy view of affairs and of our prospects, that I could not bring myself to resume my task of noting down such matters as might appear not wholly unworthy of being recorded. At last I have resolved to run over the principal occurrences of the last few weeks. The Derby Government has been sinking more and more in public opinion. The shuffling and reserve of Derby in the House of Lords, coupled with the declarations on the hustings of his adherents, especially Kelly, Solicitor-General, and the extraordinary and still unexplained escapade of Walpole in the House of Commons about giving votes to the Militia,148have all tended to bring them into discredit and contempt. The Opposition were much elated at seeing the Government in this state, and in fact they had a very good game to play, when the petulance, obstinacy, and imprudence of John Russell brought upon them a disastrous defeat, and set up the Government completely. Without concert with his followers, and against the advice and remonstrances of those who were apprised of his intention, he came down to the House, and opposed the second reading of the Militia Bill. The fault was enormous, for the inconsistency was glaring. Palmerston instantly fell upon him with the greatest acrimony, and lashed him with excessive severity, carrying the House along with him, and evidently enjoying the opportunity of thus paying off old scores. Seymour spoke against Lord John, and many of his own friends and supporters voted against him, so that there was a majority of two to one in a full House.149Nothing could exceed the exultation of the Ministerialists, but the resentment and indignation of the Opposition, who saw all their hopes and prospects marred by this extraordinary blunder on the part of their chief. John Russell was denounced as unfit to lead a party; still more, again, to be at the head of a Government. His best friends could not defend him, and, while he has done irreparable damage to his own political character and influence, he has thrown the Opposition into such disorganisation and confusion, that it will be difficult for them to act any more with union or effect. The Peelites are of course disgusted, and, never liking John Russell, will be less than ever inclined to form a junction with him. Palmerston's conduct in this debate paves the way for his joining Derby if he chooses it, and it is by no means improbable that a large proportion of the Peelites will do the same. The probability of this is increased by Disraeli's speechthe night before last, on bringing on his Budget. This was a great performance, very able, and was received with great applause in the House. But the extraordinary part of it was the frank, full, and glowing panegyric he passed on the effect of the Free Trade measures of Sir Robert Peel, proving by elaborate statistics the marvellous benefits which had been derived from his tariffs and reduction of duties—not, however, alluding to Corn. All this was of course received with delight and vehemently cheered by the Whigs and Peelites, but in silence and discontent by his own side. It was neither more nor less than a magnificent funeral oration upon Peel's policy, and as such it was hailed, without any taunting, or triumphing, or reproaches, on account of his former conduct to Peel, except a few words from Hume and Wakley. It is difficult to say what may be the effect of this speech, but it seems impossible that Protection in any shape can be attempted after it; and it certainly opens a door to the admission of any Peelites who may be disposed to join a Conservative Government, for even their personal feelings against Dizzy will be mitigated by it. Graham has not been in the House all this time, being laid up with the gout at Netherby.150