LORD JOHN RUSSELL IN OPPOSITION.
When Parliament meets I shall be surprised if there is not before long a great storm in both Houses, and if Palmerston means to rest upon his popularity, and to endeavour to conjure it by his habitual offhand manner and assurances that they have done all they could, expecting that such assurances will be accepted as a matter of course, I think he will be greatly mistaken. In spite of all that has been said to John Russell, and his not unfriendly disposition during the short autumnal session, his patience and prudence are evidently well-nigh exhausted, and we may soon expect to see him in vehement opposition. He writes to his brother that 'he is appalled at the part he may be obliged to take in the coming session,' and he seems to be under the influence of a fresh feeling of antipathy to Palmerston. It is not unlikely that he thinks it not worth his while to wait for the chance of Palmerston's being withdrawn from the field, and that he may as well gratify his inclination by going into Opposition, and it is likely enough that he fancies he has more influence in the House of Commons and the country than he really possesses, and may collect a party of his own, instead of being grudgingly accepted by the present Government as a matter of necessity, rather than one of choice. If this is his view, I believe he is egregiously mistaken. Lowe, whom I met at The Grange, and who knows something of both Parliamentary and public opinion, told me that John Russell would find no support in the House of Commons where his influence was extinct, and that so far from forming a party of his own, he did not believe if Palmerston were to die to-morrow, and Lord John take his place at the head of the Government, that the Government itself would stand.
Woburn Abbey, January 19th.—Yesterday morning we were astounded by the receipt of a telegraphic message informing Granville that the Duke of Devonshire had been found dead in his bed.[1] Nothing could be more sudden and unexpected, and the immediate cause of his death is not known. At different periods of my life I have lived in great intimacy with him, but he was capricious, so the intervals, were long and frequent during which we were almost strangers to each other. Spoiled by his mother as a boy, and becoming Duke of Devonshire with a colossal fortune at twenty-one years old, and besides afflicted with incurable deafness, his existence was manqu�, and he was a disappointed and unhappy man. His abilities were of a very high order, and if he had not been relieved by his position and wealth from the necessity of exertion and disqualified by his infirmities from taking an active part in public life, he might have been a considerable and important as well as a far happier man; but as he had unfortunately no positive tastes or active pursuits, no domestic ties to engage his affections, and no public duties to occupy his mind, he was reduced to fill up the vacuum of his existence by capricious engouements and frivolous society. He was very clever and very comical, with a keen sense of humour, frequently very droll with his intimate friends, and his letters were always very amusing. The Duke lived very much like a grand seigneur, hospitable and magnificent; he was very fond of his family, and very kind to them, as he was also to those of his friends whom he took into favour, many of the poorer of whom will have great reason to regret the loss of a benefactor. There was for a long time a vague notion that some mystery attached to his birth, and that he was not really the son, or at all events not the legitimate son, of his reputed father. The idea was that Lady Elizabeth Foster (whom the Duke afterwards married as his second wife) and the Duchess had been confined at the same time at Paris, and that the latter having a girl and the former a boy, the children had been changed, the Duke being the father of both children. I always treated this story as a myth, and this opinion has been confirmed by the deposition of the woman who had received the child in her arms upon his birth, which was conclusive evidence of his legitimacy. It is remarkable that the whole of the vast property of the late Duke was in his own power. The entail was cut off upon his majority, and his father died before the estates were resettled.
[1] [William Spencer, sixth Duke of Devonshire, born May 21, 1790, died January 17, 1858. He was Mr. Greville's second cousin, the Duchess of Portland, mother of Lady Charlotte Greville, having been the daughter of the fourth Duke of Devonshire.]
January 20th.—The more I hear from India and about Indian affairs, and the more I read and reflect upon the subject, the more desponding I become as to our future prospects there; first, as to our means of bringing the war to a successful issue, and secondly, as to our power to govern the country and keep it quiet and contented when the first object has been accomplished.
DISRAELI'S OVERTURE TO THE WHIGS.
January 23rd.—On arriving in town yesterday, I received a visit from Disraeli, who said he had come to consult me in confidence, and to ask my opinion, by which his own course would be very much influenced. I was not a little surprised at this exordium, but told him I should be glad to hear what his object was, and that he was welcome to any opinion he wished for from me. He then began a rather hazy discourse, from which I gathered, or at least thought I gathered, that he thinks the present state of affairs very serious, and the position of the Government very precarious; that he is meditating on the possible chances there may be for him and his party in the event of Palmerston's fall, and knowing that some sort of coalition with some other party would be indispensable to form any other Government, an idea had crossed his mind that this might be practicable with some of the most moderate of the Whigs, especially with the younger ones, such as Granville and Argyll, and he wished to know if I thought this would be possible, and whether I could be in any way instrumental in promoting it, and if I did not think so what my ideas were as to the most advisable course in order to avert the threatened Reform, and to give the country a better Government than this. This, with a great deal of verbiage and mixed with digressions about the leading men of the present day, seemed to me to be the substance and object of his talk. He professed to speak to me of his own sentiments without disguise, and with entire confidence about everything, but I cannot call to mind that he imparted to me anything of the slightest interest or importance. It would be difficult and not very interesting to write down our somewhat vague and d�cousu conversation, but I told him that I knew very little of the dispositions of any of the men he alluded to, but I did not believe they any of them would be parties to any such combination as he looked to, or separate from their present colleagues.
January 25th.—We are still without any advices from India. The petition to Parliament of the East India Company, which is very able, and was written by John Mill, has produced a considerable effect in the world, and doubts are expressed in all quarters whether Government will be able to carry their Bill.
January 26th.—The Princess Royal's wedding went off yesterday with amazing �clat, and it is rather ludicrous to contrast the vehement articles with which the Press teemed (the 'Times' in particular) against the alliance two years ago with the popularity of it and the enthusiasm displayed now. The whole thing seems to have been very successful. At the breakfast after the wedding, to which none but the Royalties were invited, the French Princes were present, which was amiable and becoming on the part of the Queen.
January 28th.—As the day approaches for the re-assembling of Parliament there is an increasing impression that this Government is very likely not to get through the session, and the 'Times,' which is always ready to assist in the discomfiture of a losing party, is now showing unmistakeable symptoms of its own doubts whether the Government is any longer worth supporting, and Delane told me yesterday he thought they would not remain long in office, and that it is time they should go, and he ridiculed the idea of its not being practicable to form another Government. It is absurd, but nevertheless true, that nothing has damaged Palmerston so much as his making Clanricarde Privy Seal. It was an unwise appointment, but the fault of it is grossly exaggerated. Everybody agrees that from one end of the country to another there is a feeling of universal indignation against it. Then there is a great turn in the public mind in favour of the East India Company, or rather against the Government measure, of which nothing is known, but that the result of it will be to place the Indian Empire in the hands of Vernon Smith.