The Treaty, the Budget, and the Reform Bill had thrown foreign affairs into the background, but the interest in them was suddenly aroused, and speedily absorbed every other, by the Emperor's speech and M. Thouvenel's despatches, all so mortifying and provoking to us. Up to this moment Palmerston had been highly elated, and he and Lord John had been exulting in the fancied glory of being the Liberators of Italy, and of having procured the complete success of their own objects. As Clarendon wrote to me, 'The Emperor must greatly enjoy the helplessness of Europe, and in feeling that he may do just what he likes with perfect impunity. Russia is crippled, Austria rotten, Germany disunited, and England, though growling, occupied in gnawing the Treaty bone he has tossed to her. All must submit to the laws made known to them through the "Moniteur."' If it were not so melancholy to see the miserable figure which England cuts in all this, it would be amusing to see it happen regnante Palmerston, and after all his incurable meddling and blustering to see him obliged to eat so much dirt. He may (though probably he does not) think he has lived too long to be reserved at the last period of his political career for such mortification. The Emperor said to somebody, 'L'Europe boudera, mais ne fera rien,' and he is quite right. We seem to have arrived at the last act of the Italian drama, but it is still very uncertain how the d�nouement will be worked out and what the Emperor's final will and pleasure will be. The Romagna seems to present the greatest difficulty; all the rest will find a tolerably easy solution. France will take what she wants of Savoy and give the rest to Switzerland, who upon those conditions is desirous of annexation, and Piedmont does not seem to care much about it. In this way the question of Savoy will be settled, if not by general consent, at least with general acquiescence and without any opposition.
March 9th.—After all it is not improbable that Palmerston will have the gratification of seeing Tuscany annexed to Sardinia. Cavour has taken the line which Clarendon and I agreed that he would very likely do, and sets France and Austria at defiance. We have seen France and Sardinia joined in making war upon Austria, and now we have France and Austria joined in diplomacy against Sardinia. Nothing can be more curious than to see the unravelling of this web. Next week the Italian States will severally vote their annexation to Sardinia, or their separate existence. If, as is almost certain, the former is their decision, the King will accept their resolution, and Piedmontese troops will march into Tuscany. Then we shall see what the Emperor Napoleon will do, and what he will permit Austria to do.
Savernake, March 18th.—The affair of Savoy has been summarily settled by the will of the Emperor and the connivance of Cavour. The whole affair now appears to have been a concerted villainy between these worthies, which as the plot has been developed excites here the most intense disgust and indignation. The feeling is the stronger because we have no choice but that of sulky and grumbling acquiescence. The one redeeming point in the French act of violence was the apparent respect paid to Treaties and to the claims of Switzerland, Thouvenel having only the other day said that Faucigny and Chablais should be ceded at once to Switzerland; and now we hear that nothing of the kind is to be done, and that France seizes everything.[1] It is in vain that the Houses of Parliament are advised to cease barking, as they certainly do not mean to bite, and that the 'Times' recommends silence and moderation; such enormities as are unblushingly exhibited to the world excite an indignation which breaks through every restraint, and people will not hold their peace, happen what may. The Opposition have turned the current of their wrath upon our Government, and have proved clearly enough that they had ample and timely notice of the Emperor's intentions, and that nevertheless they continued to urge with all their might that policy which was certain to lead to the annexation of Savoy. That the Emperor and Cavour have been plotting together seems now quite certain, but we are still ignorant, and may perhaps ever remain so, of the details of their delusive operations.
[1] [It is within my own knowledge that M. Thouvenel expressed at that time the desire of the Emperor to do anything he could to help Lord Palmerston, and accordingly he proposed, unofficially, to surrender and annex a considerable portion of the Faucigny district, down to the Fort de l'Ecluse, in the Jura, to the Canton of Geneva, provided the British Government would assent to the acquisition by France of the rest of Savoy. Lord Palmerston rejected the proposal, saying to the person who conveyed it to him, 'We shall shame them out of it.'—H. R.]
THE TREATY, THE BUDGET, AND THE BILL.
The three great subjects which have occupied public attention all this year have been the Italian and its branches, Gladstone's Treaty and Budget, and the Reform Bill. Up to the present time the two first have absorbed all interest, and the new Reform Bill has been received with almost complete apathy, nobody appearing to know or care what its effects would be, and most people misled by an apparent show of moderation and harmlessness in its details. But in the course of the last week the 'Times' set to work, in a series of very able articles, to show the mischievous and dangerous effects that the proposed franchise will produce, and these warnings, supported by ample statistical details, have begun to arouse people from their indifference and to create some apprehensions. I am informed that John Russell framed his Bill in utter ignorance of these important details, and, with the mixture of levity and obstinacy which has always distinguished him, has plunged the country into this dilemma for the sake of his own selfish and ambitious objects. But what is incomprehensible is that in such a numerous Cabinet as the present, and containing many men who certainly once had strong Conservative opinions, he should not have met with a more strenuous opposition, and have been forced to alter his most obnoxious propositions, and I think those who were better informed than Lord John, and saw whither his plan of Reform was leading them, are more to blame than himself. It is impossible to meet with any man who approves of this Bill, and who does not abhor the idea of any Reform whatever. All say that if the members voted by ballot there would be almost unanimity against it, and yet such is the disorganised state of the Conservative party, and such the want of moral courage and independence generally, that this Bill will most likely pass unaltered.
The prevailing hope is that the House of Lords will amend it, but Derby told somebody (I think it was Clarendon) that if those who dreaded the mischief of the measure in the House of Commons had not the courage and honesty to oppose it there and correct it, the House of Lords should not, so far as his influence went, incur the odium of doing the work which, the House of Commons ought itself to do. Lyndhurst told me the other day that Derby had told Lady Lyndhurst he was so disgusted with the state of affairs at home and abroad, that he had serious thoughts of withdrawing from public life, and Clarendon told me that an eminent Conservative, who had begged not to be quoted, had said that he knew Derby was violently discontented with Disraeli, and prepared to dissolve their political connexion.
Wells, March 21st.—I came here from Savernake on Monday. On Friday last in the House of Lords the Commercial Treaty and Budget, but the latter especially, were powerfully assailed by Grey, Overstone, and Derby, and very considerably damaged in argument, but probably in nothing else. The Government are as weak in the Lords as the Opposition are in the Commons, where, however, Disraeli seems to have made a very good speech against the Reform Bill on Monday night.
LORD JOHN DENOUNCES NAPOLEON.