June 7th.—The meeting of the Opposition yesterday at Willis's Rooms went off as well as they could expect or desire. The two leaders gave the required assurances that each would serve under the other, in the event of either being sent for. There was a general concurrence in the plan of attacking the Government at once, in which even Bright and Ellice joined, the former disclaiming any desire for office in his own person, but claiming it for his friends. The result promised is that with very few exceptions all the opponents or quasi-opponents of the Government will unite in supporting the vote of want of confidence, and they are very confident of success. On the other hand, the Derbyites do not despair of having a majority, and they comfort themselves with the certainty that the division must be so close, that the successful Whigs will be able to form no Government which will have a certain working majority, and, not impossibly, that the majority itself may be turned into a minority by the events of the re-elections. This is not very probable, and it is rather more likely that if Palmerston forms a Government, he will have the support of a good many of those who will vote with the Government, as long as they remain in. There were, however, some rather ominous manifestations made at this meeting. It seemed to be agreed that the new Government should embrace not only Whigs and Peelites, but 'advanced Liberals,' i.e. the followers of Bright, and this, besides introducing the seeds of disunion, will probably frighten away the Liberal Conservatives, who would like to support Palmerston, inasmuch as a Government so formed would afford little security for the maintenance of Conservative measures. Then Palmerston in no ambiguous terms announced his pro-Gallican sympathies, and the neutrality he declared for in every possible case which he could contemplate, together with his desire for a cordial union with France, can mean nothing but that under his rule England should look quietly on while France crushes Austria, and accomplishes all her ambitious and revolutionary objects. That this policy will be hateful to many who will be his colleagues cannot be doubted, but what is doubtful is whether those who will object to it will have virtue and firmness enough to decline office rather than be parties to such a policy.
June 9th.—There is great excitement about this debate and the probable division, and equal confidence on both sides of a majority. The Opposition is the favourite, but their friends will not lay any odds. Everybody says it must be very close, and on either side the majority will not exceed ten. On the first night Disraeli made a capital speech, and nobody else on their side would speak at all. This was a sort of manœuvre and attempt to bring about a division that night, for they found out that seventeen of the Opposition had not taken their seats, which would have secured a majority to the Government. The Whigs therefore refused to divide, and put up one man after another to keep the debate open, and eventually obtained an adjournment. Palmerston's speech was in accordance with his declaration at Willis's, and with his ancient practice; it was violently pro-French and anti-Austrian, and it was full of gross falsehoods and misrepresentations, which he well knew to be such. In his seventy-fifth year, and playing the last act of his political life, he is just what he always was.
RESIGNATION OF LORD DERBY.
June 12th.—After a not very remarkable debate, the division yesterday morning gave a majority of thirteen to the Opposition, which was more than either side expected.[1] Derby resigned at eleven o'clock, and the Queen immediately after marked her sense of his conduct by sending him an extra Garter in an autograph letter. Much to his own surprise she sent for Granville (and for nobody else) and charged him with the formation of a Government. What passed between Her Majesty and him I know not, but he accepted the commission and has been busy about it ever since. How he is to deal with Palmerston and Lord John, and to make such a project palatable to them I cannot imagine. What the Queen has done is a very significant notice to them of her great reluctance to have either of them at the head of affairs, and it cannot but be very mortifying to them to be invited to accept office under a man they have raised from the ranks, and who is young enough to be son to either, and almost to be grandson of the elder of the two. Nor will the mortification be less, after they have both so publicly avowed their expectations that one or other of them must be sent for, and their having, in what they consider a spirit of self-sacrifice, consented to serve under each other, but without ever saying or dreaming that it could be necessary to say they would take office under any third party. Nobody, indeed, has ever thought of the possibility of any but one of them being called upon by Her Majesty, and the only question has been which it would be.
[1] [The Amendment to the Address, implying a want of confidence in Ministers, was moved by the Marquis of Hartington. The votes on the division were: For the amendment 323, against it 310.]
LORD PALMERSTON'S SECOND ADMINISTRATION.
June 13th.—Lord Granville told me yesterday evening what had passed, and that his mission was at an end, and Palmerston engaged in forming a Government. The account of it all appears in the 'Times' this morning quite correctly. Granville was rather disappointed, but took it gaily enough, and I think he must have been aware from the first of the extreme difficulty of his forming a Government which was to include these two old rival statesmen. Palmerston had the wisdom to accede at once to Granville's proposal, probably foreseeing that nothing would come of Granville's attempt, and that he would have all the credit of his complaisance and obtain the prize after all. The transaction has been a very advantageous one for Granville, and will inevitably lead sooner or later to his gaining the eminence which he has only just missed now, which would have been full of difficulties and future embarrassments at the present time, but will be comparatively easy hereafter. Lord John's conduct will not serve to ingratiate him with the Queen, nor increase his popularity with the country.[1]
[1] [It was the refusal of Lord John Russell to serve under Lord Granville which rendered the formation of a Cabinet by that statesman impossible. At the same time Lord John Russell expressed his willingness to serve under Lord Palmerston on condition of his taking the department of Foreign Affairs.]
June 26th.—All the time that the formation of the new Government was going on I was at a cottage near Windsor for the Ascot races, and consequently I heard nothing of the secret proceedings connected with the selection of those who come in, and the exclusion of those who belonged to Palmerston's last Government, nor have I as yet heard what passed on the subject.[1] The most remarkable of the exclusions is Clarendon's, who I was sure, when the Foreign Office was seized by John Russell, would take nothing else; and of the admissions, Gladstone's, who has never shown any good will towards Palmerston, and voted with Derby in the last division. This Government in its composition is curiously, and may prove fatally, like that which Aberdeen formed in 1852, of a very Peelite complexion, and only with a larger proportion of Radicals, though not enough, it is said, to satisfy their organs, and Bright is displeased that he has not been more consulted, and probably at office not having been more pressed upon him. It is still very doubtful whether Cobden will accept the place offered to him.
[1] [Lord Palmerston's second Administration consisted of the following members:—