There seems to be every expectation of a new Ministry in Paris, and in the revolutionary sense.
I saw Aberdeen. He rather expects it.
Read the report of the Commission appointed to form the articles of accusation against the Ministers. It is a party speech, with little points and prettinesses, affecting moderation, and full of rancour. It is a nation which has no idea of justice.
September 28.
Cabinet room. Dispatches of the 24th and 25th from Sir Ch. Bagot; but none from Mr. Cartwright. When Sir Ch. Bagot wrote last thirty hours had elapsed without official intelligence, although the distance is only thirteen hours. It was known there had been hard fighting, that it was necessary to take in succession every house in the Rue Neuve Royale, that the troops were in possession of the upper part of the town, and a proposition had been made by the lower town for a cessation of hostilities, after which they had recommenced.
It is evident the resistance has been most serious. 20,000 French are in the town, and these probably direct the defence. All clubs, and councils of all sorts, had ceased to have power two days before the attack. There has been perfect anarchy. The troops behaved admirably. They were much exasperated. No assistance had been sent by the country.
Aberdeen is confident the King's troops have been driven out, because no official accounts were sent. The Duke, and all the military men, say the non-arrival of dispatches proves nothing but that the affair was not over. During an engagement a general can think of nothing but victory. The importance of the result is incalculable.
At Paris the National Guard have dispersed a meeting of lookers on, who were led by curiosity to crowd about a riding school in which the Society of Les Amis du Peuple met the day after they were denounced by Guizot in the Chamber as agitating France. Two officers of the National Guard entered the riding school, and warned the meeting of the danger they were bringing upon public tranquillity. On the representation of the second they adjourned.
At dinner at Lord Rosslyn's the Duke said the French Government could not go on as it was. The chief of the National Guard necessarily commanded everything. The National Guard might become janissaries. I think the Government may go on as it is in form, but it will vary in substance from day to day. Management, a little good fortune, and a few examples of determination may make it a fair Government; a single error may produce anarchy.
The Duke gave an excellent account of the feeling at Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham. At Manchester it was better than at Birmingham, but there they received very coldly Tennyson's speech about giving them members, and at last put an end to it by striking their glasses with their knives, which made such a ringing that Tennyson was obliged to sit down. He deserved this for his bad taste.