October 29th.—All last week at Newmarket, and probably very nearly for the last time as an owner of racehorses, for I have now got rid of them all, and am almost off the turf, after being on it more or less for about forty years. I am sorry that I have never kept any memoranda of my turf life, which might have been curious and amusing; for I have known many odd characters, and lived with men of whom it would have been interesting to preserve some record. Perhaps I may one day rake together my old recollections and trace the changes that have taken place in this racing life since I first knew it and entered into it, but I cannot do so now.
Since I last wrote, the war has proceeded without any great events, but with the same progress and success on the side of the Allies which have marked the contest throughout and have excited my wonder. The most important of these successes has been the defeat of Mouravieff at Kars by the Turks under English officers, which, after what Clarendon told me, was the very last thing I expected. The death of Molesworth has made a difficulty for Palmerston; I knew so little of him that I cannot pretend to say anything about him. That of Lord Wharncliffe touches me more nearly; but this is more matter of private regret than of public concern, as the part he played in life was never important, though very honourable. The appointment of Codrington seems to be well taken, more perhaps because nobody can suggest a better choice than from any peculiar merits of the new Commander-in-Chief.[1]
[1] [The Right Hon. Sir William Molesworth, Secretary of State for the Colonial Department, died on October 22, 1855, aged 45. John, 2nd Baron Wharncliffe, also died on the 22nd. General Sir William Codrington had been appointed to the command of the British forces in the Crimea, on the resignation of General Simpson.]
LORD STANLEY.
London, November 7th.—The event of the last few days has been the offer of the Colonial Office to Lord Stanley and his refusal to take it. When Palmerston proposed it to him he said that he could not give an answer without consulting his father, which implied that he would accept if his father gave his consent. He posted down to Knowsley, from whence he had just come, and entered the room where Derby was playing at billiards, and much to his astonishment saw his son suddenly return. 'What on earth,' he cried out, 'has brought you back so soon? Are you going to be married, or what has happened to you?' Stanley said he wanted to speak to him, and carried him off. What passed is not known, but of course he advised his son to refuse office. He wrote to Palmerston in very becoming terms, and, I hear, a very good letter. He had, if not consulted, certainly imparted to Disraeli what passed, for Disraeli told me so. I think he judged wisely in declining, for it would have been an awkward thing to pass at once from the Opposition side of the House to the Treasury Bench, and take high office in a Cabinet without having any political or personal connexion with a single member of it, and to which he has hitherto been opposed generally, although upon many subjects his opinions have much more coincided with theirs than with those of the party to which he still nominally belongs. He is young and can afford to wait, and his position and abilities are certain before long to make him conspicuous and to enable him to play a very considerable part. He is exceedingly ambitious, of an independent turn of mind, very industrious, and has acquired a vast amount of information. Not long ago, Disraeli gave me an account of him and of his curious opinions—exceedingly curious in a man in his condition of life and with his prospects. Last night Lord Strangford (George Smythe) talked to me about him, expressed the highest opinion of his capacity and acquirements, and confirmed what Disraeli had told me of his notions and views even more, for he says that he is a real and sincere democrat, and that he would like if he could to prove his sincerity by divesting himself of his aristocratic character and even of the wealth he is heir to. How far this may be true I know not: if it be true, it may possibly be ascribed in some degree to his own consciousness that the realisation of his ideology is impossible, and at all events time will show whether these extreme theories will not be modified by circumstances and reflexions. Nothing appears to me certain but that he will play a considerable part for good or for evil, but I cannot pretend to guess what it will be. At present he seems to be more allied with Bright than with any other public man; and, as his disposition about the war and its continuance is very much that of Bright, it would have been difficult for him to take office with Palmerston, whose whole political existence, or at least his power, rests on the cry for war and its active and energetic prosecution.
London, November 12th.—I saw John Russell on Saturday morning to have a talk with him about the state of affairs and the questions of peace and war. There still exists a great deal of bitterness between him and Clarendon, he thinking that he has been very ill used by Clarendon and others of his former colleagues. He is particularly sore about their allowing so many things to be said to his disadvantage concerning the Vienna negotiations which they know to be untrue, without saying a word to contradict them and cause justice to be done to him, particularly in reference to the matter of Austria having engaged to join if Russia refused her last proposals. George Grey denied that Austria had so engaged, and none of the others ever admitted it, whereas it was perfectly true. Lord John and I do not agree as to the earlier part of the question, because he was originally a party to the war while I was always against it. He was, however, rather against it quite at first, being, as he told me, with Aberdeen, and against Clarendon and Palmerston, who were all along inclined to go to war. He had been at the Mansion House dinner the night before, where he was very ill received, though he would not allow it; he prefers to flatter himself that the signs of his unpopularity were not so strong and marked as everybody else who was present thought them.
I likewise saw Disraeli and had some talk with him. He told me that he had now nothing whatever to do with the 'Press,' and that the series of articles in that paper on the war and in favour of peace were all written by Stanley. He said he had received a letter from Stanley to this effect: 'My dear Disraeli,—I write to you in confidence to tell you that I have been offered and have refused the Colonial Office. As it is due to Lord Palmerston to keep his offer secret, I have told nobody of it but yourself and my father, and I beg you not to mention it to anybody.' On receiving this he said he began to concoct an answer in his mind of rather a sentimental kind, and conveying his approbation of the course he had taken, but before he put pen to paper he got the 'Times' with Stanley's letter to Sir ——, which was tantamount to a disclosure of the whole thing, on which he wrote instead, 'Dear Stanley,—I thank you for your letter, but I had already received your confidential communication through your letter to Sir ——.'
I have occasion to see Disraeli very often about ——'s affairs, about which he has been wonderfully kind and serviceable, and on these occasions he always enters on some political talk, and in this way we have got into a sort of intimacy such as I never thought could have taken place between us.
MR. LABOUCHERE TAKES OFFICE.