August 4th.—I was at Goodwood all last week; the Prince of Prussia came there. Not a word of news; the Queen still engaged in reviewing the troops, and complimentary f�tes are still going on to Sir W. Williams of Kars, and Charles Wyndham 'the hero of the Redan.' The disturbances in Spain seem to be over, and O'Donnell remains victorious. My first impression was (the common one) that Espartero had been ousted by an intrigue, and that it was a reactionary coup d'�tat, but I now hear that it is no such thing, and that we ought to desire the success of the present Government. Espartero and O'Donnell could not agree, as was not unlikely in a coalition Government the two chiefs of which were men of such different opinions and antecedents. After many abortive attempts to reconcile their differences, it was agreed that a Council of Ministers should be held which the Queen herself should preside over, and when a final attempt should be made. A long discussion took place, and the Queen did all she could to reconcile the two generals, and to enable the Government to go on unchanged. Finding it impossible to effect this, she ended by saying, 'Well, gentlemen, since I cannot prevail on you to go on together, I must needs choose between you, and as I think Marshal O'Donnell will be the best able to carry on the Government, I appoint him.' Then the National Guards began an insurrection which was put down, but no violent measures seem to have been adopted, and O'Donnell has declared that Spain can only be successfully governed on constitutional principles, and that he means to retain the Cortes in its integrity. How far his acts will correspond with his professions remains to be seen. Narvaez was recommended to go to France, and Queen Christina appears not to have been allowed to return to Spain, which are good signs. It is a good thing for Spain that Espartero should have retired, for though probably the honestest Spaniard, he is at the same time the weakest and the most wanting in moral courage and decision.
CHANCES OF WAR.
History is full of examples of the slight and accidental causes on which the greatest events turn, and of such examples the last war seems very full. Charles Wyndham told me that nothing but a very thick fog which happened on the morning of Inkerman prevented the English army being swept from their position and totally discomfited. The Russians could see nothing, lost their own way, and mistook the position of the British troops. Had the weather been clear so that they had been able to execute their plans, we could not have resisted them; a defeat instead of the victory we gained would have changed the destiny of the world, and have produced effects which it is impossible to contemplate or calculate.
On the other hand, nothing but miscalculation and bad management prevented the capture of Sebastopol immediately after Alma. My nephew is just returned from a voyage with Lord Lyons to the Crimea, where he went all over the scenes of the late contest, all the positions, and the ruins of Sebastopol as well as the northern forts. He was well treated by the Russians, who showed him everything, and talked over the events of the war with great frankness. They told him that if the allies had marched at once after the battle on the north side, no resistance could have been made, and the other side must have fallen. We had long known that the north side would have fallen if we had attacked it at once. Frank asked the Russian officer whether there was any bad feeling on the part of the Russian army towards the French or English, and he said none whatever, but a great deal towards the Austrians, and that they desired nothing more than an opportunity of fighting them. He also said that they had been misled by our newspapers, from which they obtained all their information, and thinking that the announcements there of an intended invasion of the Crimea were made for the purpose of deceiving them, they had withdrawn a great many troops from the Crimea, so that while Sebastopol had been emptied of the garrison to increase the army of Menschikoff, the Russians had not more than 30,000 or 35,000 men at the Alma.
Hillingdon, August 17th.—It is impossible to find anything of the least interest to write about, and my journal is in danger of dying of starvation or of atrophy. The causes of discontent we have had with Russia are disappearing, and the Emperor's coronation will not be clouded by fresh dol�ances on our part. Bulwer is just gone to the Principalities, where the commissioners are to endeavour to ascertain what are the wishes of the people as to the union. France and England are in favour of it, Turkey and Austria against it, while Russia professes to be indifferent and neutral. Spain is settling down into submission to the Government of O'Donnell. Naples is relieved from her fears of English intervention, and there seems some chance that she may relax the rigour of her Government now that she may do so salvo honore and not under compulsion. This country is profoundly tranquil and generally prosperous; everybody seems satisfied with Palmerston and his administration. I myself, who for so many years regarded him politically with the greatest aversion and distrust, have come to think him the best minister we can have, and to wish him well.
THE CORONATION AT MOSCOW.
September 15th.—Another month has passed away, and still I have had nothing to record. The coronation at Moscow appears to have gone off with great �clat, and to have been a spectacle of extraordinary magnificence, the prodigious cost of which betrays no sign of exhaustion or impoverishment by the late war.[1] We were probably mistaken, as we were in so many other things, in fancying that the power and resources of Russia were very greatly impaired, butduring the war, whatever we wished we were ready to believe.
[1] [The Emperor Alexander II. of Russia was crowned with great pomp in Moscow on September 7; the ceremony was attended by special ambassadors from all the great Powers; Lord Granville, accompanied by Lady Granville and a brilliant suite, was the representative of Great Britain on this occasion.]
The state of affairs at home and abroad is curious: abroad there is uneasiness and uncertainty as to the future, the elements of future disturbances being in a sort of abeyance; at home the fever and excitement which prevailed during the war having been succeeded by a torpor and an apathy such as I never remember to have seen before. All party politics seem to be extinct, the country cares about nobody, desires no changes, and only wishes to go on and prosper. There is not a public man to whom public opinion turns, and no great questions are afloat to agitate and divide the country, or around the standards of which different opinions, principles, or passions can flock. Palmerston may remain minister as long as he lives, if he does not commit any gross faults either of commission or of omission, or unless something may occur, which nobody can foresee or imagine, to rouse the nation from its apathy.