After Cowley came home he began talking over the state of affairs, and the peace we are going to make, about which his grief and disappointment are overflowing. He says the Emperor had the best intentions, but has been beset with men who were determined on peace for their own ends, and whom he could not resist. What he blames him for is not having at once said that he would go so far with us and no further, and not have allowed us to delude ourselves with expectations of support from him that were not to be realised. He says it is now all over, the matter decided, it will proceed rapidly, and all be finished by Easter.
A DINNER AT COUNT WALEWSKI'S.
At night.—I have been dining with Walewski, a very handsome dinner to the Sardinians, and a party afterwards. Knowing none of the people, it was a bore; I found nobody to converse with but Cavour and Flahault; talked over the state of affairs with the latter and our discontents. He said the Emperor could not refuse, and when Clarendon came over and found His Majesty's conversation so satisfactory, he was misled by it and fancied he should obtain his support to all our demands; he owned that it would have been better if the Emperor had been more explicit. When I got home I found Cowley, who was engaged in drawing up a statement of the comparative state of Russia, as to her aggressive power against Turkey before the war and now, after peace has been made. He is doing this for Clarendon and to assist him in making his case good in Parliament when the peace is attacked, as he says it is quite certain it will be. I asked him what were the points on which the Russians made the most difficulty. He said on all except Bomarsund. He is quite convinced that Walewski has played false, and that he has made known to Orloff exactly what he must give up, and when he may be stout.
March 5th.—Little to record; Cowley continues talking to me of the state of affairs as it is and as it might have been, and is excessively dejected and disgusted at the idea of the peace he is about to sign; he thinks it neither creditable nor likely to be durable, but we start from such different points of view that it is impossible for us to agree. He harps upon the evil done by having the Conference here, and certainly the advantage Clarendon promised himself from having it here has proved null, for the Emperor does not send for him, having no mind to talk to him, and he will not ask an audience of the Emperor, though Cowley urges him very much to do it. He acknowledges, however, that it would be now too late, and that nothing more can be done; he thinks Clarendon will bring himself with great reluctance to sign such a Treaty; but he must swallow the pill, however bitter. The bitterness proceeds from having had such vast pretensions and having encouraged, if not held, such lofty language.
It is no wonder that this Government want to get their army home when typhus is raging there, and they have by their own account 22,000 men in hospital, while ours is quite healthy. We took all sorts of precautions, and strongly advised the French to do the same, and to adopt a sanitary plan we imparted to them; they held it cheap, did nothing, and here are the consequences. It is said that while those who have been in the Crimea and have distinguished themselves are eager for peace, those who have not yet earned medals are averse to peace, and that there will be a good deal of jealousy between the regiments.
March 6th.—We talked yesterday morning about the origin of the Austrian proposals, and Cowley said he had never been able exactly to make out whether the scheme had originated at Vienna or here, but he was inclined to believe that the first hint was given by Austria, and that Walewski then put the thing on paper, which was sent to Vienna and returned thence in the shape of a proposal. Bourqueney first brought it from Vienna, Buol having obtained his Emperor's consent to it. Cowley told me Buol had been all along willing to join us in the war, but the Emperor never would consent to it. Cowley's notions are that we never ought to have listened to any intervention, nor to any proposals for peace but from Russia herself, that we should have made her sue for peace. He would have had our demands from the first stated distinctly, and have allowed of nothing but acceptance or refusal; he would never have agreed to the article for the cession of Bessarabia, nor have asked for territory at all. If it could have been managed he would have preferred giving the Principalities to Austria, who should for them give up Lombardy to Sardinia. Not a bad idea. By the by, it is much noticed that in the Emperor's Speech he calls the King of Sardinia the King of Piedmont, probably without any particular meaning or intention, but they say he never does anything without a meaning. I rode to the new racecourse yesterday, near the Bois de Boulogne, and went to the Opera last night to see a beautiful new ballet, 'Le Corsaire.' Went to Passy to see the Delesserts, who were out.
BITTERNESS IN FRENCH SOCIETY.
In this head quarter of gossip every trifle makes a noise, a little scene in society excites interest and shows the continued violence of party feeling. A party dined at Lord Holland's and more came in the evening, mostly, as it happened, Orleanists, for the Hollands live with all parties indiscriminately. There were Mesdames de R�musat, d'Haussonville, and several others of that colour, when the door opened and MM. de Flahault and Morny were announced, on which the women all jumped up like a covey of partridges and walked out of the room, without taking any notice of the men. It is said that the Orleanist party entertain a peculiar rancour against M. de Flahault for having seen behind a door or a curtain the arrest of General Changarnier on the 2nd of December, which he afterwards had the folly to avow.
At night.—Just before dinner came an invitation to go to the Tuileries to-night, which with much reluctance I was forced to do. Two petites pi�ces as on Sunday. I did not attempt to get into the gallery, and sat in the next room, first with Brunnow, then with the Grand Vizier, who is become a great friend of mine. The Emperor did nothing but take off one Plenipotentiary after another: first Clarendon, next Buol, then Orloff, and lastly Walewski, and probably more was done there than at the Conference in the morning. Brunnow and Walewski both told me the affair was progressing, and Cowley seemed very low coming home. His dejection is extreme, and he said this morning that he could not recover from his extreme disappointment at the conduct of the Emperor, that he had always had a bad opinion of Walewski, and no reliance on him or any of the ministers, but he would have staked his life on the Emperor's remaining true to us, that he had always assured our Government that they might depend implicitly on him, and it was a bitter mortification to him to have been deceived himself and to deceive them. I asked him how Clarendon felt all this, and he said Clarendon had never spoken to him about it, and preserved a calmness which astonished him. 'What,' I asked, 'did the Cabinet at home say?' He said, 'They seemed to place entire confidence in Clarendon, and to leave all power and responsibility to him.'
March 8th.—Called on M. de Greffuhle yesterday, whom I had not seen for years. He is eighty, enormously rich, full of activity and intelligence, Orleanist by social habits, but well affected towards this Government and not hostile to the Emperor, though despising his Government. He said that he was compelled to make peace, and that it would cost him his Crown if he did not; that something would happen and then he would be upset, so great would be the consequences of his running counter to the universal desire for peace here; that the finances are in a very difficult state and there must be another loan, but it would not be contracted like the last, which was a piece of absurd charlatanerie.