[1] [M. Achille Fould, who had made a large fortune as a banker in Paris, was one of the ablest and most honourable of the Ministers of Napoleon III. He was much attached to this country, where he had many friends, and he encouraged the Emperor in that Free Trade policy which led to the Commercial Treaty of 1860, and strengthened the ties between England and France.]
THE QUEEN AND LORD PALMERSTON.
I met Clarendon in the Park a day or two ago, and had some talk with him in the friendly and intimate tone of former times, which rejoiced my heart, because it proved that though circumstances and accidental habits had impeded our intercourse, there exist still the same feelings of regard towards me in his mind, and if our intercourse was restored again, he would probably fall into the same habit of confidence and communication which formerly existed, but which has lately been completely interrupted. He talked of Palmerston, his position and his health, and his rapports with the Queen, who is now entirely reconciled to him. She treats him with unreserved confidence, and he treats her with a deference and attention which have produced a very favourable change in her sentiments towards him. Clarendon told me that Palmerston had lately been ailing in a way to cause some uneasiness. He had had a bad leg with a sore that it had been found difficult to heal, but he appears to have got over it. This might have been very serious. Clarendon talked one day to the Queen about Palmerston's health, concerning which she expressed her anxiety, when Clarendon said she might indeed be anxious, for it was of the greatest importance to her, and if anything happened to him he did not know where she could look for a successor to him, that she had often expressed her great desire to have a strong Government, and that she had now got one, Palmerston being a really strong Minister. She admitted the truth of it. Clarendon said he was always very earnest with her to bestow her whole confidence on Palmerston, and not even to talk to others on any subjects which properly belonged to him, and he had more than once (when, according to her custom, she began to talk to him on certain things) said to her,'Madam, that concerns Lord Palmerston, and I think your Majesty had better reserve it for your communications with him.' He referred to the wonderful change in his own relations with Palmerston, that seven or eight years ago Palmerston was full of hatred and suspicion of him, and now they were the best of friends, with mutual confidence and good will, and lately when he was talking to Palmerston of the satisfactory state of his relations with the Queen and of the utility it was to his Government that it should be so, Palmerston said, 'And it is likewise a very good thing that she has such boundless confidence in her Secretary for Foreign Affairs, when after all there is nothing she cares about so much.'
June 28th.—I went last Saturday week to Strawberry Hill.[1] A large party of people, the Persignys, the Speaker and Lady Charlotte, etc.; it is an enjoyable villa, with its vast expanse of grass, profusion of flowers, and fine trees affording ample shade. Horace Walpole's ridiculous house is unaltered, but furbished up and made comfortable. I regret to hear that Denison does not make a very good Speaker, and that the Government think they made a mistake in putting him into the Chair. It was Palmerston's doing, who would hear of nobody else. There are several men among the Opposition who would probably have been fitter, but with the great majority the Government have they were in a manner compelled to take a man from their own party. Denison says it is owing to the laxity of Palmerston himself if things do not go on so well as they might in the House of Commons.
At Hatchford the past week, and when I got to town I was apprised of the disastrous news from India,[2] the most serious occurrence that has ever been in that quarter, not only from the magnitude of the events themselves as the telegraph conveys them, but because it is quite impossible to estimate the gravity of the case, nor what the extent of it may be. Till we receive the details it is idle to speculate upon it.
[1] [Strawberry Hill was the residence of the Countess of Waldegrave, to whom it had passed on the death of her second husband, the Earl of Waldegrave. It was then, and continued to be until her death in 1879, the most hospitable villa in the neighbourhood, and the constant resort of all that was distinguished in politics and in letters.]
[2] [The Indian mutiny broke out at Meerut on Sunday, 10th May, but the details were not known in England till nearly six weeks later. General Anson died at Kurnaul on the 27th May.]
The Queen has made Prince Albert 'Prince Consort' by a patent ordered in Council, but as this act confers on him neither title, dignity, nor privileges, I cannot see the use of it. He was already as high in England as he can be, assuming the Crown Matrimonial to be out of the question, and it will give him no higher rank abroad, where our acts have no validity.
THE MUTINY IN INDIA.
July 15th.—For the last three weeks or more all public interest and curiosity have been absorbed in the affairs of India and the great Mutiny that has broken out there, and which has now assumed such an alarming character. I had intended to take some notice of this, and of other matters which time and the hour have brought forth; but, according to my bad custom, I kept putting it off, till at last all other things were driven out of my mind by the news which so unexpectedly reached us on Saturday last of the death of George Anson from a sudden attack of cholera. He was the oldest and most intimate friend I had, and almost the last surviving associate of my youth. I reserve for another moment to say a word or two of a man who, without great abilities or a great career, was too conspicuous a member of society to be passed over without some notice.