He (Brunnow) had urged Aberdeen to send Granville there for the purpose, who, he thinks, would have done very well, and of whom he has a high opinion.
London, August 15th.—I returned to town from Petworth last Monday week, and on Tuesday a fit of gout came on, which has laid me up ever since, leaving me no energy to do anything, and least of all to execute the purpose I entertained of sketching the past session of Parliament, and the curious events which it evolved; the decline and fall of Palmerston and his Government, the advent of Derby, and the vicissitudes of his career, deserve a narrative which might, if well handled by some well-informed writer, be made very interesting: but I am conscious of my own unfitness and dare not attempt it. It is in truth time for me to leave off keeping a journal, for by degrees I have lost the habit of communicating with all the people from whom I have been in the habit of obtaining political information, and I know nothing worth recording.
[CHAPTER XVII.]
Lord John Russell and Lord Stanley—Lord Palmerston's Leadership—Dissensions in the Liberal Party—The Queen and her Ministers—Lord Stanley at the India Office—The Queen's Letter to the Prince of Wales—Reform Speeches and Projects—Lord Palmerston's Confidence—Prosecution of Count Montalembert in France—Lord Clarendon's Visit to Compi�gne—The Emperor's Designs on Italy—The Emperor and the pope—Approach of War—Lord Palmerston's prudent Language—Lord Palmerston's Italian Sympathies—The Electric Telegraph—Opposition in France to the War—The Emperor's Prevarication—Opening of Parliament—Debates on Foreign Affairs—Lord Cowley's Mission to Vienna—General Opposition to the War—A Reform Bill—Mr. Walpole and Mr. Henley resign—Duplicity of the Emperor—Mr. Disraeli's Reform Bill—The Emperor denies his Warlike Preparations—The Whigs oppose the Reform Bill—Anxiety to defeat the Government—Lord Cowley returns from Vienna—War impending—Dishonest Conduct of both Parties—Lord Cowley's Account of Cavour's Policy—His Mission to Vienna—A Congress proposed—Indifference to Reform—Debates on the Reform Bill—Defeat of the Reform Bill—An Emissary from Cavour.
LORD JOHN RUSSELL AND LORD STANLEY.
Hinchinbrook, September 5th.—At The Grove last week, and on Friday to Osborne for a Council. At the Grove I met Charles Villiers and the Duke of Bedford, and had much talk with both of them about affairs in general, particularly with the Duke about Lord John. He is busily employed in concocting a Reform Bill, which he had probably better leave alone. He seems to have shown his project to several people, and recently to Aberdeen, who wrote him word that he must take care not to make it too mild, so much so as to be inconsistent with what he has before proposed. It seems it is very mild, for it embraces no Schedule A, no disqualification, though a good deal of addition to the constituency. Lord John has recently struck up a great intimacy with Lord Stanley, and has had him repeatedly down to Pembroke Lodge. They take very kindly to each other, and Lord John is evidently anxious to cultivate him, for he asked the Duke to invite Stanley to go to Woburn, where Lord John and all his family are gone to stay. He has been talking a great deal to Stanley on past politics, but not on present, which would have been rather awkward in their relative positions, but he has told Stanley a great deal about the political affairs in which he has been engaged, especially with respect to the great Reform Bill, its history and incidents, which details no doubt were very interesting and useful to him, and I am not surprised at Stanley's being much pleased with Lord John's society and conversation, for Lord John is very agreeable and full of that sort of political information in which Stanley takes the greatest delight and interest. Although Lord John has abstained from making any attempt to establish political relations between them, it is highly probable that he should look forward to the possibility of some such relations being hereafter established, for in the present state of parties a fresh organisation and combination is almost inevitable, and he may very naturally look forward to a combination into which they may both enter, and with this view he may be very glad to cultivate a personal and social intimacy, and the Duke thinks he has some such view in his mind.
The Duke told me that he was at Lord Broughton's the other day, when Broughton said he had been applied to by some of Palmerston's former followers to make a representation to Palmerston of the present state of affairs and of the Liberal party, and to suggest to him the expediency of his abdication of the lead of it, and the impossibility of that party regaining its ascendency so long as he insisted on continuing its chief and retaining his pretensions of returning to office. To this request he sent a refusal. He said he entirely agreed with the people making it, but that it would have no effect whatever except that of making a personal quarrel between himself and the Palmerstons, with whom he had always been on very good terms. I did not learn the names of these Whig malcontents. Charles Villiers takes a similar view, but does not think that anything would induce Palmerston to retire, or that his former colleagues and immediate adherents would transfer their support to any one else as long as he continues to claim it from them. He thinks, moreover, and he has very good means of judging, that his position and that of John Russell and the impossibility of their reunion will effectually paralyse the Liberal party and secure the possession of office to the present Government, and that there is on the whole rather a preference for the continuation of the present state of things than any desire for a change which would bring the Whigs back again. He had recently been with George Lewis, and found him at length rather disposed to come into my view of the matter of their resignation, and to regret it. It is entirely the opinion of Charles Villiers himself, and he said there would have been no difficulty in obtaining from the House of Commons a vote of confidence, for there was no wish to turn them out, and having administered the rebuke which the Government so well merited, the majority would have seized with alacrity an occasion to make it up with them, and to show that they had no desire to quarrel with them outright.