[1] [The Administration formed by Lord Palmerston was composed as follows:—
| First Lord of the Treasury | Viscount Palmerston | |
| Lord Chancellor | Lord Cranworth | |
| Lord President | Earl Granville | |
| Lord Privy Seal | Duke of Argyll | |
| Home Secretary | Sir George Grey | |
| Foreign Secretary | Earl of Clarendon | |
| Colonial Secretary | Right Hon. Sidney Herbert (and, on his resignation, Lord John Russell) | |
| Secretary at War | Lord Panmure | |
| Chancellor of the Exchequer | Mr. Gladstone (and, on his resignation, Sir G. Cornewall Lewis) | |
| Board of Control | Sir Charles Wood | |
| First Lord of the Admiralty | Sir James Graham (and, on his resignation, Sir Charles Wood, who was replaced at the Board of Control by Mr. Vernon Smith) | |
| Board of Trade | Right Hon. E. Cardwell (and, on his resignation, Lord Stanley of Alderley) | |
| Postmaster General | Viscount Canning | |
| Lord Lieutenant of Ireland | Earl of Carlisle | |
| Woods and Forests | Sir Benjamin Hall.] |
February 8th.—Now that all is settled there is a momentary lull, and people are considering what sort of an arrangement it is, and how it is likely to succeed. Many of those who know better what Palmerston really is than the ignorant mob who shout at his heels, and who have humbugged themselves with the delusion that he is another Chatham, entertain grave apprehensions that the thing will prove a failure, and that Palmerston's real capacity will be exposed and his prestige destroyed. Some wish for a dissolution while his popularity is still undiminished, fancying it will give him a sure majority and will protect him against any change of opinion; but, unless the Derbyites give him an opportunity by some vexatious opposition, he can hardly dissolve, and if he did, though he would gain by it for a time, any change of opinion that might take place would be found no less in the House of Commons than in the country.
LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S MISSION TO VIENNA.
February 13th.—The political wheel turns rapidly round, and strange events occur, none more remarkable than John Russell's career during the last month, and the unexpected positions in which he successively appears. A few weeks ago breaking up his own Government, deeply offending colleagues and friends, and making himself generally odious, then trying to form a Government and finding nobody willing to act with him; he appeared to be in the most painful position of isolation, and everybody expected that his anomalous and unsatisfactory state would render him mischievous, and soon conduct him into a troublesome opposition to the Government. Very differently have matters turned out. He began by evincing a good and friendly spirit, and scarcely is the Government formed, when Clarendon proposes to him to go to Vienna as Plenipotentiary to treat for peace, and John at once accepts the offer, and yesterday morning his mission was publicly announced. It was a happy stroke of Clarendon's in all ways, and it was wise in Lord John to accept it, for it has all the appearance of a patriotic and unselfish act, will cause his recent misdeeds to be forgotten, and replace him in the high situation from which he was fallen. It is a very good thing for him to be thus withdrawn from Parliament for a time. There he is always in danger of saying and doing something foolish or rash, and it will leave his followers in a condition to attach themselves to the Government without abandoning their allegiance to him, which will relieve all parties from embarrassment.[1]
[1] [The Conference of the Great Powers which was to open at Vienna, to which Lord John Russell was sent as British Plenipotentiary, had been convoked for the purpose of negotiating on the basis of the four points which contained the demands of the belligerent Allies and had been accepted as
a basis of negotiation by the Emperor of Russia. These points were as
follows:—
1. That Russia should abandon all control over Moldavia, Wallachia, and Servia.
2. That Russia should relinquish her claims to control the mouths of the Danube.
3. That all Treaties calculated to give Russia a preponderance in the Black Sea should be abrogated.
4. That Russia should renounce the claim she made to an exclusive right to protect the Christians in the Ottoman Dominions.