June 1st.—The state of affairs with America becomes more and more alarming.[1] Grey told me the other night that he had had a long conversation with Dallas, whose tone was anything but reassuring as to the prospect of peace; and yesterday I met Thackeray, who is just returned from the United States. He thinks there is every probability of the quarrel leading to war, for there is a very hostile spirit, constantly increasing, throughout the States, and an evident desire to quarrel with us. He says he has never met with a single man who is not persuaded that they are entirely in the right and we in the wrong, and they are equally persuaded if war ensues that they will give us a great thrashing; they don't care for the consequences, their riches are immense, and 200,000 men would appear in arms at a moment's notice. Here, however, though there is a great deal of anxiety, there is still a very general belief that war cannot take place on grounds so trifling between two countries which have so great and so equal an interest in remaining at peace with each other. But in a country where the statesmen, if there are any, have so little influence, and where the national policy is subject to the passions and caprices of an ignorant and unreasoning mob, there is no security that good sense and moderation will prevail. Many imagine that matters will proceed to the length of a diplomatic rupture, that Crampton will be sent away and Dallas retire in consequence, and that then by degrees the present heat will cool down, and matters be amicably arranged without a shot being fired. I feel no such confidence, for if diplomatic intercourse ceases numerous causes of complaint will arise, and as there will be no means left for mutual and friendly explanation and adjustment, such causes will be constantly exaggerated and inflamed into an irreconcileable quarrel. Matters cannot long go on as they now are without the public here becoming excited and angry, and the press on both sides insolent, violent, and provoking, and at last, going on from one step to another, we shall find ourselves drifted into this odious and on both parts suicidal contest, for there is not a blow we can strike at America and her interests that will not recoil on us and our own. It has often been remarked that civil wars are of all wars the most furious, and a war between America and England would have all the characteristics of a civil and an international contest; nor, though I have no doubt that America is in the wrong, can I persuade myself that we are entirely in the right on either of the principal points in dispute. We have reason to congratulate ourselves that the Russian war is over, for if it had gone on and all our ships had been in the Baltic, and all our soldiers in the Crimea, nothing would have prevented the Americans from seizing the opportunity of our hands being full to bring their dispute with us to a crisis.
[1] [In consequence of the dispute with the American Government on the subject of Foreign Enlistment, Mr. Crampton, the British Minister, was ordered to leave Washington on May 28th. He arrived in England on June 15th; but Lord Palmerston stated in the House of Commons that the dismissal of Mr. Crampton did not break off diplomatic relations with the United States, as Mr. Dallas remained in this country. It is remarkable that within a few months or even weeks two British Ministers received their passports from foreign governments and were sent away—a very uncommon occurrence!]
MADAME RISTORI.
June 7th.—I went last night to see the celebrated Ristori in a very bad play called 'Medea,' being a translation into Italian from a French tragedy by a M. Legouv�. This play was written for Madame Rachel, who refused to act the part, which refusal led to a lawsuit, in which the actress was (I think) defeated. Ristori is certainly a fine actress, but she did not appear to me equal to Pasta in the same part, or to other great actresses I have seen. However, my inability to hear well and want of familiarity with Italian acting and imperfect knowledge of the language disqualify me from being a competent judge.
The American horizon is rather less dark. Nothing is yet known as to Crampton's dismissal, and Dallas does not believe it. The Danish Minister at Washington writes over here that he thinks the clouds will disperse and there will be no serious quarrel.
London, July 12th.—After the lapse of a month and more, during which I could not bring myself to record anything, or to comment upon passing events, I am at last roused from my apathy, and am induced to take up my pen and say a word upon the defeat of the Appellate Jurisdiction Bill in the House of Commons the other night, which gave me the greatest satisfaction, because I regard it as a just punishment for the stupid obstinacy with which the Government have blundered on from one fault to another throughout this whole business. It has been a complete comedy of errors, and every one who has taken a part in it has been in the wrong. I told Granville how it would be in the first instance, and urged him, after the House of Lords had refused to let in Parke as a life peer, to accept the defeat quietly by making him an hereditary peer and thus give the go-by to the main question. This nothing would induce them to do, and they fancied that they could avoid the mortification of appearing to knock under, and save their own consistency, by the contrivance of this bill. Every mischief that it was possible to do they have managed to accomplish, and the leaders of the opposite parties, who all felt themselves in a scrape, came to a sort of compromise in the Lords' Committee, the result of which was this unpopular bill. Amongst them they have assailed the prerogative of the Crown, they have damaged the judicial authority of the House of Lords, they have deeply offended many of their own friends by tendering to them such a measure, and they have behaved most unkindly and unhandsomely to Baron Parke, who thinks he has great reason to complain.
I have been at Knowsley for the last three days, and so missed the march of the Guards into London on Wednesday. Lord Hardinge was struck down by paralysis as he was speaking to the Queen at Aldershot on Tuesday last. It is supposed that the Duke of Cambridge will succeed him, and that Jim Macdonald will be his Military Secretary. The American question is still undecided, but everybody appears to be very easy about it.
BARON PARKE ON THE LIFE PEERAGE.
July 20th.—I met Baron Parke the other day, who talked over his affair, complained of the treatment he had received from the Government, but said he gathered from what the Chancellor had said to him that they meant now to make him an hereditary peer, declared there was not a shadow of doubt about the legality, and that Campbell had as little doubt as he himself had, but finding the measure was unpopular with certain lawyers, he had suddenly turned against his own recorded opinion and opposed it. The Baron said the Government were greatly to blame for not having ventilated the question, and ascertained whether they could carry it or not, and if he had had an idea of all the bother it had made, he never would have had anything to do with it. George Lewis told me that the life peerage had never been brought before the Cabinet, and he knew nothing of it till he saw it in the Gazette, nor did Clarendon; in fact it was confined to the Chancellor, Granville, and Palmerston. They none of them, however, know with whom it originated. Now that the measure turns out to be so unpopular and is so scouted, and the transaction has been attended with so many blunders and defeats, no one is willing to accept the responsibility of it, or to acknowledge having had anything to do with it. It is strange that Palmerston should ever have consented to it, but he knew nothing and cared nothing about it; he was probably assured it would go down without any difficulty, and in this poco curante way he suffered himself to be committed to it, not seeing the storm it would cause. He allowed Granville to manage it all his own way, and at last he had the good luck to be beaten upon it in the House of Commons, for the scrape would have been more serious if he had earned it there. These last days of the session have been as usual marked by the withdrawal and abandonment of various bills that were for the most part introduced at the beginning of it, and which were found to be quite worthless, especially the Law Reform Bill.
London, July 27th.—Parliament has finished its debates, and will be prorogued on Tuesday. Dizzy wound up by a 'review of the session,' a species of entertainment which used to be given annually some years ago by Lord Lyndhurst with great skill and effect, but which on the present occasion, and in Disraeli's hands, was singularly inopportune and ineffective. Lord Wensleydale has at last taken his seat as an hereditary Peer; the Government, after various abortive attempts to wriggle out of their absurd position, having done at last what they ought to have done at first—knocked under and endured what could not be cured. The Government go into summer and winter quarters in a very healthy and prosperous state, with nothing apparently to apprehend, and with every probability of meeting Parliament next year in the same condition, and, barring accidents, going through next session as successfully as they have gone through this.