[1] [These apprehensions were unfounded. Mr. Buchanan did not seek to abrogate the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with reference to the eventual construction of a passage through the Isthmus of Central America, and the neutral character of that undertaking, which is now said to be in progress by the Canal of Panama, has remained unchanged to the present time.]
November 25th.—Last week I went to Ampthill from Wednesday till Saturday; on Saturday to The Grove, with the Duke of Bedford, the Lewises, Charles Villiers, and Ben Stanley. The Duke of Bedford told me he was very uneasy about his brother John, who seemed in an irritable frame of mind, and disposed to wage war against the Government when Parliament meets.[1] He told Sir George Grey the other day that they would not find him friendly. Clarendon told me of a conversation he had recently had with the Queen � propos of Palmerston's health, concerning which Her Majesty was very uneasy, and what could be done in the not impossible contingency of his breaking down. It is a curious change from what we saw a few years ago, that she is become almost affectionately anxious about the health of Palmerston, whose death might then have been an event to be hailed with satisfaction. Clarendon said she might well be solicitous about it, for if anything happened to Palmerston she would be placed in the greatest difficulty. She said that in such a case she should look to him, and expect him to replace Palmerston, on which Clarendon said he was glad she had broached the subject, as it gave him an opportunity of saying what he was very anxious to impress upon her mind, and that was the absolute impossibility of his undertaking such an office, against which he enumerated various objections. He told her that Derby could not form a Government, and if she had the misfortune to lose Palmerston, nothing remained for her to do but to send for John Russell and put him at the head of the Government. She expressed her great repugnance to this, and especially to make him Prime Minister. Clarendon then entreated her to conquer her repugnance, and to be persuaded that it would never do to offer him anything else, which he neither would nor could accept; that the necessity was to have a man who could lead the House of Commons, and there was no other but him; that Lord John had consented to take a subordinate office under Lord Aberdeen, who was his senior in age, and occupied a high position, but he would never consent to take office under him (Clarendon), and the proposal he would consider as an insult. For every reason, therefore, he urged her, if driven to apply to him at all, to do it handsomely, to place the whole thing in his hands, and to give him her full confidence and support. He appears to have convinced her that this is the proper course, and he gave me to understand that if Lord John acts with prudence and moderation all the present Government would accept him for their head, and Clarendon is so anxious that this should be the turn affairs should take, that he urged me to talk to the Duke of Bedford about it, and to get him to exert all his influence with Lord John to conduct himself in such a manner as shall conduce to his restoration to office at a future time. I had only time to exchange a few words with the Duke before we parted the next morning, and we agreed that I should write him a letter on the subject which he may show to Lord John if he sees fit to do so. I went to Wrotham on Monday, and yesterday penned an epistle to be shown to Lord John, in which I set forth his position, and dilated on the great importance to himself and to the country of his conducting himself with patience and forbearance, and of his abstaining from any such vexatious opposition to the Government as might render his future union with them impossible. It remains to be seen whether my remonstrance (which I tried to couch in terms that would not be disagreeable to Lord John) will produce any effect.[2]
[1] [Lord John Russell had taken office in Lord Palmerston's first Administration as Colonial Secretary, but he resigned on June 13, 1855, and remained out of office.]
[2] [These speculations are curious, but happily the apprehensions caused by the supposed state of Lord Palmerston's health were unfounded, for with the short interval of the second Derby Government in 1858 and 1859, he continued to hold office and to discharge the duties of Prime Minister with his accustomed vigour and success until his death in October 1865, when he was succeeded by Lord Russell. At this particular moment (1857) the latent danger of the Government lay, not in the failing health of Lord Palmerston, but in an unforeseen occurrence which caused the unexpected defeat of Lord Palmerston's Ministry within four months of this date, and the accession of Lord Derby and his friends to office.]
LORD JOHN RUSSELL IN OPPOSITION.
Hitchinbrook, November 28th.—I came here to-day from Riddlesworth, where I have now been for the first time for twenty years. I received there two letters from the Duke of Bedford, the first telling me he should show, and the second that he had shown, my letter to Lord John. He received it graciously, saying he agreed with almost all I said, but that it was easier to give than it was to take such advice, and that he had been blamed by certain persons for not having given more opposition to the Government last year on some questions than he had done, especially to the Persian War; but I rather infer on the whole that my letter made some impression on him, though it remains to be seen how much.
The last news from India is as good as could be expected, and the current there has evidently turned. I met Martin Smith (Indian Director) at Riddlesworth, and had much talk with him about Indian affairs. It is clear that the Company do not mean to submit to be summarily extinguished without a struggle. He told me that with regard to the great subject, the sending out troops by sailing vessels instead of by steamers, which is made matter of bitter reproach against the Directors, the fault lay entirely with the Government. The Directors wanted to send 10,000 men across Egypt, and the Government would not do it. They proposed it formally to the Board of Control, who referred it to the Foreign Office, and Clarendon said it could not be done on account of certain political considerations which rendered it inexpedient, so that if the Directors could have had their own way the thing would have been done. There may have been good grounds for the refusal of the Government, but in this instance the double Government was productive only of a sacrifice of Indian to Imperial interests, and it will not be easy to draw from this transaction any argument in favour of abolishing the East India Company and the Leadenhall Street Administration.
London, December 2nd.—Yesterday morning Lord Sydney received a letter from Lady Canning, who said that although undoubtedly many horrible things had happened in India, the exaggeration of them had been very great, and that she had read for the first time in the English newspapers stories of atrocities of which she had never heard at Calcutta, and that statements made in India had turned out to be pure inventions and falsehoods. Yet our papers publish everything that is sent to them without caring whether it may be true or false, and the credulous public swallow it all without the slightest hesitation and doubt. Shaftesbury too, who is a prodigious authority with the public, and who has all the religious and pseudo-religious people at his back, does his utmost to make the case out to be as bad as possible and to excite the rage and indignation of the masses to the highest pitch. He is not satisfied with the revolting details with which the Press has been teeming, but complains that more of them have not been detailed and described, and that the particulars of mutilation and violation have not been more copiously and circumstantially given to the world. I have never been able to comprehend what his motives are for talking in this strange and extravagant strain, but it is no doubt something connected with the grand plan of Christianizing India, in the furtherance of which the High Church and the Low Church appear to be bidding against each other; and as their united force will in all probability be irresistible, so they will succeed in making any Government in India impossible.
A QUEEN'S SPEECH.