Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and he and Lady Palmerston will have the honour of waiting upon your Majesty as soon as he is able to move. He is, however, at present on crutches, and can hardly expect to be in marching order for some few days to come. With regard to the matters that are likely to be discussed when Parliament meets, Viscount Palmerston would beg to submit that the one which has for some months past occupied the attention of all Europe, namely, the execution of the Treaty of Paris, has been settled in a manner satisfactory to all parties; and this is not only a great relief to the Government, but is also a security for the continuance of the Anglo-French Alliance, which would have been greatly endangered by the discussions and explanations that might otherwise have been forced on.
The various questions of difference between your Majesty's Government, and that of the United States, have also been settled, and the diplomatic relations between the two countries are about to be replaced upon their usual footing. This result will have given great satisfaction to the commercial and manufacturing interests.
Some discussion will take place as to the Expedition to the coast of Persia, and some persons will, of course, find fault with the whole policy pursued on that matter; but people in general will understand that Herat is an advanced post of attack against British India, and that whatever belongs nominally to Persia must be considered as belonging practically to Russia, whenever Russia may want to use it for her own purposes.
The outbreak of hostilities at Canton[2] was the result of the decision of your Majesty's officers on the spot, and not the consequence of orders from home. The first responsibility must therefore rest with the local authorities, but Viscount Palmerston cannot doubt that the Government will be deemed to have acted right in advising your Majesty to approve the proceedings, and to direct measures for obtaining from the Chinese Government concessions which are indispensable for the maintenance of friendly relations between China and the Governments of Europe.
Of domestic questions, that which will probably be the most agitated will be a large and immediate diminution of the Income Tax; but any such diminution would disturb the financial arrangements of the country, and it is to be hoped that Parliament will adopt the scheme which will be proposed by Sir G. C. Lewis, by which the Income Tax would be made equal in each of the next three years, the amount now fixed by Law for 1857 being diminished, but the amount now fixed by Law for 1858 and 1859 being increased....
Viscount Palmerston hears from persons likely to know, that the Conservative Party are not more united than they were last Session. That Mr Disraeli and the great bulk of his nominal followers are far from being on good terms together, and that there is no immediate junction to be expected between Mr Disraeli and Mr Gladstone.3
Mr Cobden has given it to be understood that he wishes at the next General Election to retire from the West Riding of Yorkshire. The real fact being that the line he took about the late war has made him so unpopular with his constituents that he would probably not be returned again.4
Viscount Palmerston has heard privately and confidentially that Lord John Russell wrote some little time ago to the Duke of Bedford to say that it had been intimated to him that an offer would be made to him if he were disposed to accept it, to go to the House of Lords and to become there the Leader of the Government. In case your Majesty may have heard this report, Viscount Palmerston thinks it right to say that no such communication to Lord John Russell was ever authorised by him, nor has been, so far as he is aware, ever made, and in truth Viscount Palmerston must candidly say that in the present state of public opinion about the course which Lord John has on several occasions pursued, he is not inclined to think that his accession to the Government would give the Government any additional strength.
[Footnote 2:] See Introductory Note, ante, [p. 223]. The difficulty with China had arisen out of her refusal to throw open the city of Canton to European trade in conformity with the Treaty of Nankin, ante, vol. i. p. [441]. Sir John Bowring, Chief Superintendent of Trade (and, in effect, British Plenipotentiary) at Hong-Kong, had resented this, and the feeling thus engendered had come to a crisis on the occasion of the seizure of the crew of the Arrow.