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.[144] No 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 heretofore with 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 that la franchise was 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 his procédés. 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 the coup d'état gave 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 his coup 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 done much 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 his animus and 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 the personnel of 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—a partie carrée—himself, Thiers, Mrs. Grote, and myself.[145] It was very amusing. The little man was intarissable, 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 the coup d'état which 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 intended coup d'état for 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 Thiers a 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. It was 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 Palmerston à son insu; but this was a mistake. Lord John did communicate to her immediately the letter he wrote to Palmerston, containing not an 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 fact recalled, though it is agreed that he is to resign so 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 he talks 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 the jactance of 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 great coup was 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 was irresistible. 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 Government[147] I 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 partially remedied 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.