UNPOPULARITY OF THE WAR.
Granville is just come from Paris, where he spent a week; he saw and conversed with everybody, beginning with the Emperor and ending with Thiers. All the Ministers he talked to, Walewski, Fould, and Rouher, are dead against war, Morny the same, Baroche said to be for it, and Fleury, who wants to distinguish himself in the field. The Emperor talked over the whole question and assured him he had not committed himself to the King of Sardinia, but on the contrary had told him he would not support him if he committed any imprudence towards Austria. Granville's impression is that the question is adjourned for the present, owing to the clear manifestation in France, but much more to the unanimous tone of the German and English Press. He is, however, waiting in great anxiety for the debates in our Parliament, and still hopes for some anti-Austrian expression which may favour his own views. He has such a contempt for his own nation and for the opinions of the French people that these last do not weigh much with him, and he fancies that they may be at any moment changed and run in a warlike current. Granville thinks our Government have acted properly throughout these transactions, so far as he can judge.
February 5th.—Parliament opened on Thursday with, as everybody owned, a very good speech, and the discussions in both Houses were in a very good tone, and all that could be desired as to foreign policy. It will be impossible for the Emperor to derive from what passed a single word from any quarter favourable to his projects. The disappointment of his expectations in this respect may be very annoying to him, and possibly induce him still to defer his final resolution, but it is too much to hope that the language of our Parliament will turn him altogether from his design. Indeed it has now become equally difficult for him to advance without danger or to retreat without discredit, and in his position discredit is in itself fraught with danger.
February 12th.—The Emperor Napoleon's speech, looked for with so much anxiety here, arrived a few hours after its delivery on Monday last, and was on the whole regarded as rather pacific than the contrary, but still so reserved and ambiguous that it might mean anything or lead to anything or nothing. The general opinion seems to be that nothing will take place for the present. The Government have begun their campaign so quietly, and with so little disturbance or threatening of any, that if such calm appearances were not often fallacious, one should predict their passing smoothly through the session; but when one thinks of this time last year, of the apparent strength and security of Palmerston's Government, and of the suddenness of his fall, it is impossible to rely upon the continuance of this unclouded sky.
February 19th.—The general complaint is that nothing is done in Parliament, and that there is a general apathy, under the continuance of which the Government gets on without hindrance, while their faults or blunders pass unchecked. The Chancellor incurred a momentary odium by his attempt at perpetrating a very shameless job, by making his son-in-law a Judge in Lunacy without having any qualifications for such an office; but after a little spurt in the House of Commons, the result of which was the appointment being rescinded, the matter quietly dropped. Gladstone's extravagant proceedings at Corfu[1] have elicited something like an attack led on by Lord Grey, but although this subject will probably be more seriously and warmly discussed after he comes home, it does not seem likely to lead to much at present, and Derby will probably parry Grey's attack on Monday next.
[1] [Mr. Gladstone had accepted, temporarily, the office of Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, under Lord Derby's Government. His proceedings there excited great surprise in England. The eventual result of his mission was the surrender of the Protectorate of the Ionian Islands to the Kingdom of Greece.]
LORD COWLEY'S MISSION TO VIENNA.
February 27th.—Derby prevailed on Grey to defer his Ionian motion till Gladstone's return, which he said would be in a fortnight at least. Palmerston had given notice of his intention to call the attention of the House of Commons to the present state of Europe, and to ask if the Government could give the country any information on the subject. The Government tried to persuade him to defer his intention, but without effect, and he persisted in his course. In the meanwhile Cowley suddenly arrived in England, sent for by the Government, as it was said, for the purpose of receiving instructions in respect to the conferences expected at Paris on the Danubian affairs. On Thursday morning the world was electrified at reading an article in the 'Times' stating that Cowley was going on a special mission to Vienna for the purpose of making matters up, if possible, between France and Austria. The day before I had been apprised of the fact by Granville, who had heard it from Clarendon, to whom Cowley had imparted the secret of his mission. The mission was in fact rather one from the Emperor than from our Government, who had really done nothing whatever, but were too happy to allow Cowley to go and try his hand in patching matters up. He has done it all off his own bat. Seeing how day after day war appeared to be becoming more imminent, he resolved to see if he could not do something to arrest the evil; he found the French Ministers quite agreed with him, and the Emperor in a state of mingled rage, disappointment, and perplexity, clinging with his characteristic tenacity to the designs on which his mind has been so long fixed, and to which he probably stands committed more than we are aware of, by his own professions, and by his cousin, who no doubt gave Cavour to understand he might certainly count upon the Emperor's aid. This course also he is the more reluctant to abandon, as he has certainly persuaded himself, or has been persuaded by others, that in no other way can he secure himself from the attempts of Italian conspirators and assassins, so that it is personal fear which is the real ground of what is called his policy. On the other hand, he is intensely disgusted and enraged at finding the whole feeling and opinion of England so decidedly pronounced against him, and that in no quarter whatever, neither in Parliament nor the Press, which represents the mind of the whole country, nor in any public men, can he find the slightest sympathy or encouragment, or anything but the most indignant disapprobation.[1]
[1] [The war of 1859 is now judged of more favourably than it was at the time of its inception, and the result obtained—the independence and unification of Italy—has led men to condone the tortuous and deceitful policy by which it was arrived at. The object of M. de Cavour was a noble one, although the means he employed were unscrupulous. The chief motive of the Emperor Napoleon was the fear of his old allies the Carbonari. Orsini's attempt on his life had powerfully affected him.