A VISIT TO PARIS.
Paris, March 1st, 1856.—I left London on Thursday with M. de Flahault and my brother. We slept at Boulogne, and after a prosperous journey in all its stages, found myself in my old quarters at the Embassy yesterday evening at seven o'clock. I had hardly arrived before a card came from Morny, who gave a great evening party with two petites pi�ces and music. I went there with Lady Cowley. The crowd was so great that I saw nothing whatever of the spectacle, but was pretty well amused, for I met some old acquaintance, made some new ones, and was presented to some of the celebrities of the day. I was much struck with the ugliness of the women, and the extreme recherche of their costumes. Nature has done nothing for them, their modistes all that is possible. The old friends I met were La Marre and Bourqueney, whom I have not seen since he was Secretary of Embassy to Guizot, when we had so much to do together about the affairs of the East. I made acquaintance with Fleury, the Empress's Grand �cuyer, renewed it with Bacciochi, and I was presented to Cavour and the Grand Vizier, as little like the beau id�al of a Grand Vizier as can well be imagined, but by all accounts a Turk comme il y en a peu. He is a very little, dark, spare, mild-looking man, speaks French perfectly, and exceedingly clever, well-informed, enlightened, and honourable. He was Grand Vizier once before, and owes his present elevation to his great personal merit. He accepted the post with reluctance, feeling sure Stratford would torment him to death and get him turned out again, but it seems as if his high qualities, and the general respect with which he is regarded, would enable him to maintain himself against all intrigues, and even against Stratford's predominance. I met Clarendon, but had hardly any opportunity of talking to him, as he was every moment interrupted by people come up to do civilities to him. He had just time to tell me that matters are going on very slowly, and that he sees no reason why he should not be kept here for the next six months. Orloff had met him � bras ouverts and renewed their old Petersburg friendship. Brunnow he is disgusted with, and says he has made a bad impression here. He told me he had said to Brunnow: 'You were in England long enough to know what a special pleader is; well, if all other trades should fail you, take to that.'
Orloff spoke very frankly about the war, and the conduct of the late Emperor, which he had always regarded as insane in sending Menschikoff to Constantinople. If he had sent him, Orloff, instead, he would answer for it, there would have been no war. Then marching into the Principalities, and finally not accepting the modifications of the Vienna Note. After this, Orloff said, he had declined to have anything more to do with those affairs, and had retired in disgust. He thought Nicholas's mind had undergone a change after he had reached sixty years of age.
Clarendon said he was delighted with the Emperor and liked him better and better every time he saw him. I met Walewski, who said he wanted to talk to me, when he expressed great anxiety to know the state of opinion in England, and talked of the chances of peace, and particularly wished to know if I thought Palmerston really and sincerely desired peace. I told him the exact truth as to opinion in England, and said I believed Palmerston was now sincere in wishing to make peace, but that it was in his nature to be exigeant, and he thought it necessary to be so now because it was of great moment to him to present to the country a peace with as many concessions as possible from Russia. I said it depended on France after all, and then I found that while they thought Bomarsund ought to be an indispensable condition, Nicolaieff ought not; and so we parted, and I promised to dine with him on Monday.
LORD COWLEY ON THE NEGOTIATIONS.
This morning after breakfast I had a long conversation with Cowley. He did not speak despondingly of the peace, but he dilated on the difficulty of coming to satisfactory terms, and such as Clarendon could consent to, which he attributes principally to the French, who, having gained all the glory they want for the satisfaction of their national vanity, have no longer any desire to go on with the war, and we are placed by them in a fix. 'If,' he said, 'our army was in Asia Minor he should not care, because then we might say to them, do just what you please, make peace if it suits you, we shall not resent it or have any quarrel with you, but we will carry on the war on our own account. As it is, if we insist on renewing the war, the French cannot, and would not abandon us, and leave us to be attacked by superior Russian armies; they would therefore very reluctantly go on with the war, but it would be well known that we were dragging them on with us, and the exasperation against us would be great and general, and, say what we might, a quarrel between France and England would infallibly ensue.' He said all the objections he had entertained against Paris being the place of conference had been more than realised, and that the thing to have done would have been to have it in some dull German town, where there would have been no amusements and occupations, and no intrigues, and where they would have applied themselves vigorously to their work in order to get it done as quickly as possible. I have not, however, as yet made out what intrigues there are, but there is of course a vast deal of comm�rage going on.
The conferences take place every other day, beginning at one, and they generally last about four hours. Walewski presides, and, they say, does it pretty well; M. Benedetti, the Chef de D�partement in the Foreign Office, is the Protocollist and R�dacteur; the manner of it is conversational, but they occasionally make speeches, Walewski told me. I asked Clarendon in the evening how they were going on, and he said he thought they were making a little progress, but that the French did all they could to render it impossible.
I called on Madame de Lieven in the morning, who did not seem to know much beyond what lies on the surface. She is craving for news and eager for peace. Orloff has kept aloof from her, to her great mortification, and rather to the malicious satisfaction of her enemies, but he went to see her at last the day before yesterday, and, I suppose, accounted for the delay, for she spoke of him as if they were friends, though of course she would take care not to say a word of complaint or to have it supposed, if she could help it, that he had neglected her. She complained that in our exigeance we did not make allowance enough for the difficulties of the Emperor of Russia's position, for, however necessary peace might be to Russia, there is a very great party there who from pride and obstinacy would carry on the war at all risks and hazards. She talked much of the enormous faults that had been committed throughout the whole of the Eastern Question, and of the severe retribution the pride of the late Emperor had drawn down on his country, and remarked, which is quite true, that this would be the first time in the history of Russia in which she had made a disadvantageous peace; for even in her wars against Napoleon, when she had suffered defeat after defeat, she had still concluded peace with a gain of territory. I saw the Hollands, Guizot at Madame de Lieven's door, called on Lady Clarendon, and then went to ride with Lady Cowley in the Bois, and so the evening and the morning were the first day. The weather is cold and gloomy, and I don't think I shall stay here long.
March 3rd.—Went about visiting yesterday, and at night to the Tuileries, an evening party and play, two small pieces; the Emperor was very civil to me as usual, came up to me and shook hands; he talked to Orloff and to Clarendon, then the Grande Ma�tresse told him the Empress was ready, when he went out and came back with her on his arm, Mathilde, Princess Murat, and Plon Plon following. As the Emperor passed before me, he stopped and presented me to the Empress. I was introduced to Orloff, and in the course of the evening had a long talk with Brunnow, who said they had made all the advances and concessions they could, and it was for us to move towards peace, and not to advance one step and then retreat two.
This morning I went to see the opening of the legislative bodies, and hear the Emperor's Speech. It was a gay and pretty sight, so full of splendour and various colours, but rather theatrical. He read his speech very well and the substance of it gave satisfaction; it was not easy to compose it, but he did it exceedingly well, and steered clear of the ticklish points with great adroitness and tact. It sounded odd to English ears to hear a Royal Speech applauded at the end of each paragraph, and the shouts of 'Vive l'Empereur' from the Senators and Deputies.