February 9th.—The debate in the House of Lords on the Wensleydale Peerage was interesting but inconclusive. Lyndhurst made, as usual, a wonderful speech for his age. He contrived with much dexterity to avoid the question of legality, which he evidently thought he could not disprove; Campbell and St. Leonards boldly pronounced it illegal; Brougham admitted the legality; all the lawyers but the Chancellor are dead against the Life Peerage. Out of the House, Lushington is clear for it; Pemberton Leigh against; both of them have been offered and have refused peerages. The result appears to be that the patent is not illegal, but that there was no sufficient cause, and therefore that it was a great folly to deviate from the usual course in Parke's case. It is awkward, and both the Opposition and the Government seem very much puzzled what to do. The best course on the whole seems to be (and it probably will so end) to confer on the Baron an hereditary peerage, and let the question of life peers stand over for the present, to be better considered and discussed hereafter when circumstances may require such a measure.
Palmerston made a very good speech last night on the American questions, judicious and becoming, and it was very well received. According to present appearances the Government is in no danger of being turned out, and if they make a peace which satisfies, and bring in and pass some good measures, they may actually become strong.
February 15th.—While the world is waiting with tolerable patience for the opening of the negotiations, it has got two subjects to occupy and interest it, and to give rise to plenty of discussion and dispute. The first is the Life Peerage question, which is become very embarrassing to its opponents and its advocates. There is a great majority of the lawyers against it, but more on the score of its being improper and inexpedient, perhaps unconstitutional, than that it is absolutely illegal. The highest authority in favour of it seems to be Dr. Lushington, who refused to be made a peer when a peerage was pressed upon him. The Government are determined to fight it out, and on no account to give way. Nobody knows with whom the project originated, but there is a very general idea that it was with the Prince. General Grey, however, told his brother, the Earl, that the Prince had nothing to do with it, and that His Royal Highness knew nothing of the matter till after it had been settled. I cannot see how it can be illegal, and neither the danger nor the inexpediency of making Life Peers is quite apparent to me; but I think it has been a blunder, and that so great a novelty ought not to have been suddenly sprung upon the world without any attempt to ascertain how it would be regarded, and Derby's argument it is very difficult to meet. He says that when a certain prerogative has not been exercised for 400 years, such long disuse of it, if it does not amount to an abrogation of it, at all events throws such a doubt upon it as to make the exercise of it now exceedingly questionable, and it appears by the precedents that in every case of a Life Peerage it was done consensu procerum, or consensu procerum et communitatis, that is, by consent of the Lords, or by Act of Parliament. The whole question is so obscure and uncertain, that it is impossible to come to any satisfactory conclusion drawn from precedents and usage. In spite of the resolution of the Government, I doubt whether they will not be compelled to give way in some manner, for the Opposition appear to be equally resolved not to let Baron Parke take his seat.
The other subject is Sir John McNeill's report,[1] which has already elicited violent articles in the papers, and will occasion hot debates in the House of Commons, perhaps in both Houses. The report furnishes a strong prim� facie case against Airey and Gordon, Q.M. and A.Q.M. Generals, and par ricochet against Hardinge himself, also against Lucan and Cardigan. The accused parties vehemently complain, and insist upon being allowed to vindicate themselves. Probably in the course of the discussions a good deal of the truth, but not all, will come out. It may be doubted whether there is any part of our military administration, as well as of our military operations during this war, on which it is possible to reveal and explain everything without showing up the French, and this has been the reason why all investigations and explanations have had such imperfect and unsatisfactory results. If the charges of McNeill are true, it seems to me that the man most to blame was Raglan, who was supreme, omnipotent, and responsible, and who ought not to have allowed the evils, which were notorious, to go on accumulating, without applying those effectual remedies which, according to the report, were abundantly at his disposal; but of course everybody will shrink from casting the blame posthumously upon him. The 'Times' has now found that the losses and sufferings of the army were erroneously and wrongfully attributed to the Government at home. McNeill has brought back with him notes of conversations with Raglan, in which Raglan told him that most if not all of the things he had been so bitterly reproached for were all owing to the opposition and contradiction he met with from the French, Canrobert especially.
[1] [Sir John McNeill had been sent to the Crimea and Constantinople to investigate the causes of the sufferings of the troops in the winter 1854-55.]
Cowley, who called on me the day before yesterday, said he should be very glad to have peace concluded, in order that our intimate connexion and dependence on each other might be at an end, for the difficulties arising therefrom, and the impossibility of placing any reliance on the French Ministers, were a perpetual source of annoyance. He thinks the Emperor honest and true, but that he is surrounded by a parcel of men every one of whom is dishonest and false. The Emperor knows this, and knows what is thought of his ministers, but he says 'What am I to do? and where can I find better men who will enter my service?'
Clarendon came here to-day to take leave of me on going to the Conference in Paris. He talks despondingly, but less about making peace than about making one that will be acceptable here. He augurs well from the choice of Russian Plenipotentiaries who are both personally agreeable to him, for he knows Orloff very intimately. When he took leave of Brunnow three years ago he said to him, 'If ever you see a good chance of peace, let me know,' and now Brunnow has sent him a message reminding him of what he had said, and telling him he now saw it. It was Clarendon who fixed on Paris for the Conference, everybody else being against it, especially the Emperor Napoleon and Palmerston, but Clarendon thought the advantage of having personal communication with the Emperor himself outweighed every other consideration, and he is right. Louis Napoleon will be the arbiter, and the struggle will be between England and Russia to get possession of him. Brunnow arrived at Paris to-day, the first arrival of the Plenipotentiaries, and he was received with great acclamations and manifestations of joy. Clarendon is dissatisfied at Brunnow's having got there first as if to steal a march on him, but this is unreasonable, as no particular day was fixed for their coming at once, and Clarendon might have been the first if he had chosen it, and Cavour is to be there to-day or to-morrow.
February 21st.—A week has passed since most of the Plenipotentiaries arrived at Paris, and we hear nothing of what has been going on amongst them; at least I hear nothing except that Clarendon writes word he is quite satisfied with the Emperor—the Hollands, that all sorts of intrigues are rife, Brunnow, Morny, and Madame de Lieven closeted together for hours, and Madame de Lieven writes to me in melancholy mood, saying she anticipates many difficulties, and complaining of the exigeances which she hears of as probable, and how ungenerous as well as impolitic it is to make no allowance for the difficulty of the Emperor's position vis � vis of his own people, and to bear so hard upon him. From all this I infer that the Russians have been informed that the Emperor Napoleon has engaged to back us up in our exigeances, the principal of which is probably the dismantling of Nicolaieff; this may be inferred from what has appeared in the French press. The 'Journal des D�bats' published an article saying we had no right to demand this, to which the 'Si�cle' replied asserting we had a right, and the article in the 'Si�cle' was copied into the 'Moniteur,' which was tantamount to a recognition and approval of it. There are rumours afloat here that matters are not going on satisfactorily at Paris, and, taking all these things together, it looks as if the horizon was a little overcast, but as Orloff was only to arrive at Paris last night nothing essential can as yet have passed. Meanwhile this country remains in the same passive and expectant state, so far behaving very well that there is not the least stir or any attempt to make peace more difficult, not a word said in Parliament, no meetings or petitions, the 'Times' nearly silent, and only an undergrowl from time to time from the Radical or malignant journals. But all who have had any opportunity of testing the state of public feeling agree that the peace, be it what it may, will be taken with regret, and that if Clarendon were to return having broken off the negotiations, and to announce that the war would go on, he would be hailed with the greatest enthusiasm, and the ardour for war would break out with redoubled force.
While this lull has been going on upon the great question, the world has been less passionately moved and interested by the affair of the Wensleydale Peerage, and nobody has talked of anything else for the last ten days but this and the Crimean Report. The general feeling amongst the lawyers and in society is against the Life Peerage, but the Government are very reluctant to give way and to own themselves beaten upon it. To-night is the great, and, it may be hoped, final struggle in the House of Lords upon it, when nobody doubts that the Government will be beaten.
Last night the Evangelical and Sabbatarian interest had a great victory in the House of Commons, routing those who endeavoured to effect the opening of the National Gallery and British Museum on Sunday. The only man of importance who sustained this unequal and imprudent contest was Lord Stanley. At this moment cant and Puritanism are in the ascendant, and so far from effecting any anti-sabbatarian reform, it will be very well if we escape some of the more stringent measures against Sunday occupations and amusements with which Exeter Hall and the prevailing spirit threaten us.
February 24th.—A letter from Lady Clarendon, who says 'the report about things going ill is false, and as yet things have hardly begun. The Emperor in feelings and opinions is everything that Clarendon could desire.' Madame de Lieven received Clarendon � bras ouverts, but said very little to him. This morning I called on George Lewis, and had a long talk about the prospects of peace. He said Palmerston, according to his ancient custom, was doing all he could to extort as much as possible from Russia, writing to Clarendon in this strain constantly and urging him to insist on more and more concessions; but Lewis thinks notwithstanding this that Palmerston has quite made up his mind for peace, and that he makes demands very often with the expectation of being refused, and the intention of not insisting on them if he finds a very determined resistance. One point of difference is Kars; the Russians not unfairly wish to have some equivalent for surrendering it, and Palmerston insists that they are not entitled to any. In the preliminaries it was settled that we were to restore all our conquests, and they were in return to give up part of Bessarabia. At that time Kars was not taken, and now they say the relative positions of the parties are altered, and 'if we are to restore Kars, that ought to be set against the restoration of Kinburn, the part of the Crimea you occupy, &c., and having got an equivalent in Kars, you ought to relax your demand for Bessarabia.' To this Palmerston replies that the Russians are to guarantee the integrity of the Turkish dominions, of which Kars is a part, and therefore their restoration of it is a matter of course for which no equivalent is necessary. This argument is not logical, and no arbitrator would admit it. It is a good point to wrangle upon, and if the Russians knock under it will be because they are resolved to submit to any terms rather than not have peace.
It is much the same thing about Nicolaieff, as to which the Emperor appears at present disposed to back us up. Lewis disapproves of our exigeances and Palmerston's tone. He thinks on both points the Russians have good cases, and that Palmerston and Clarendon are only fighting for them in order to have a more plausible and showy peace to set before the country. He says we never thought of demanding the destruction of the docks of Nicolaieff at first, and that our demanding it now is a mere afterthought, and in pursuance of the plan of starting as many demands as we can to take the chance of what we can get. Lewis disapproves of this course, and urged me to encourage Clarendon not to lend himself to exigencies unjust in themselves, but to do what he really thinks right and necessary without fear of the consequences.
When we had done talking of this matter he said he wanted to speak to me about the Peerage question, which had assumed a shape which he thought menaced great embarrassment, if not danger. The Government, he said, would not give way, and he was himself opposed to their doing so; but what was to be done? I said I did not see what the Government could do, nor why they should not give way when they had resolved to fight and had been fairly beaten; but he thought they should stultify themselves by acknowledging they had been wrong, and that such a course would oblige the Chancellor to resign. I controverted these propositions and said they would stultify themselves much more, if from motives of vanity and pride they chose to let the House of Lords remain without that assistance to obtain which was the pretext for Parke's creation. On the whole, Lewis seemed to think the least objectionable course would be to pass a bill enabling the Crown to make a certain number of Life Peers, but he overlooked the fact that this would be as much a confession of error, and an acknowledgement that the Queen had no such prerogative, as to make Lord Wensleydale an hereditary Peer. My advice was to make him an hereditary Viscount. I was obliged to go away and had not time to talk it out. In the afternoon, I spoke to Campbell and Lyndhurst about it, and asked what they proposed, and how the difficulty was to be got over. They naturally want the Government to knock under and give up the hereditary peerage; they both scouted the idea of Parke coming down to the House of Lords and insisting on being admitted and making a scene. Lyndhurst to-night is to give notice of motion for a Committee to consider the Appellate Jurisdiction.
February 27th.—The debate in the Lords on Monday night affords a prospect of an amicable termination of the Peerage case, but the Government still have a lingering hope that by some management and contrivance they may avoid the necessity of submitting to their defeat and acting accordingly. There is to be a Committee on the Appellate Jurisdiction, and they think they may obtain some report which may enable them to get out of their scrape, but the only way I can make out by which they think of doing this is to lay the foundation of a bill to enable the Crown to make a limited number of Life Peers. This would, however, be a more formal acknowledgement of error, and that the Queen does not possess the prerogative, than any other course. I expect they will at last be driven to adopt the course I recommended, that of making Parke a Viscount, hereditary of course.
Last night, Disraeli made a bitter attack on the Government, to which Labouchere replied with a spirit for which nobody gave him credit. The Opposition displayed great warmth, and a disposition to show serious fight on any occasion they could find. Certainly the Government cuts a very poor figure, and it is difficult not to think that as soon as the all absorbing question of peace or war is decided, they will be much put to it to defend themselves, unless they conduct affairs much better for the future than they have done up to the present time. Hitherto they have presented a series of blunders, failures, and exposures. First of all the Peerage question; then, much worse, in the House of Commons, Lowe's Bill on Shipping Dues, which Palmerston was obliged to withdraw last night, not at all creditably, and the failure of which was in a great measure attributable to Lowe's very injudicious speech, which, as he is the organ of the Board of Trade in the House of Commons, was in itself a great evil and misfortune. George Grey's Bill on County Police meets with such opposition that though it is a very good measure he will probably not be able to carry it. But still worse than these are the case of the Crimean Report with all its incidents, one blunder after another, and the wretched exhibition of Monsell in moving the Ordnance Estimates, amounting to a complete break-down. All these things, one after another, place the Government in a very weak and contemptible position, and show that in spite of Palmerston's having recovered a good deal of his personal popularity in the House of Commons, his Government has no strength, and his being able to go on at all is only owing to the peculiar circumstances in which the country is placed, and the extreme difficulty of any other Government being formed which would be palateable to the country, more efficient, and therefore stronger and more durable than the present.
To-morrow I purpose going to Paris to see and hear what is going on at this interesting moment.
Paris, March 1st, 1856.—I left London on Thursday with M. de Flahault and my brother. We slept at Boulogne, and after a prosperous journey in all its stages, found myself in my old quarters at the Embassy yesterday evening at seven o'clock. I had hardly arrived before a card came from Morny, who gave a great evening party with two petites pi�ces and music. I went there with Lady Cowley. The crowd was so great that I saw nothing whatever of the spectacle, but was pretty well amused, for I met some old acquaintance, made some new ones, and was presented to some of the celebrities of the day. I was much struck with the ugliness of the women, and the extreme recherche of their costumes. Nature has done nothing for them, their modistes all that is possible. The old friends I met were La Marre and Bourqueney, whom I have not seen since he was Secretary of Embassy to Guizot, when we had so much to do together about the affairs of the East. I made acquaintance with Fleury, the Empress's Grand �cuyer, renewed it with Bacciochi, and I was presented to Cavour and the Grand Vizier, as little like the beau id�al of a Grand Vizier as can well be imagined, but by all accounts a Turk comme il y en a peu. He is a very little, dark, spare, mild-looking man, speaks French perfectly, and exceedingly clever, well-informed, enlightened, and honourable. He was Grand Vizier once before, and owes his present elevation to his great personal merit. He accepted the post with reluctance, feeling sure Stratford would torment him to death and get him turned out again, but it seems as if his high qualities, and the general respect with which he is regarded, would enable him to maintain himself against all intrigues, and even against Stratford's predominance. I met Clarendon, but had hardly any opportunity of talking to him, as he was every moment interrupted by people come up to do civilities to him. He had just time to tell me that matters are going on very slowly, and that he sees no reason why he should not be kept here for the next six months. Orloff had met him � bras ouverts and renewed their old Petersburg friendship. Brunnow he is disgusted with, and says he has made a bad impression here. He told me he had said to Brunnow: 'You were in England long enough to know what a special pleader is; well, if all other trades should fail you, take to that.'
Orloff spoke very frankly about the war, and the conduct of the late Emperor, which he had always regarded as insane in sending Menschikoff to Constantinople. If he had sent him, Orloff, instead, he would answer for it, there would have been no war. Then marching into the Principalities, and finally not accepting the modifications of the Vienna Note. After this, Orloff said, he had declined to have anything more to do with those affairs, and had retired in disgust. He thought Nicholas's mind had undergone a change after he had reached sixty years of age.
Clarendon said he was delighted with the Emperor and liked him better and better every time he saw him. I met Walewski, who said he wanted to talk to me, when he expressed great anxiety to know the state of opinion in England, and talked of the chances of peace, and particularly wished to know if I thought Palmerston really and sincerely desired peace. I told him the exact truth as to opinion in England, and said I believed Palmerston was now sincere in wishing to make peace, but that it was in his nature to be exigeant, and he thought it necessary to be so now because it was of great moment to him to present to the country a peace with as many concessions as possible from Russia. I said it depended on France after all, and then I found that while they thought Bomarsund ought to be an indispensable condition, Nicolaieff ought not; and so we parted, and I promised to dine with him on Monday.
This morning after breakfast I had a long conversation with Cowley. He did not speak despondingly of the peace, but he dilated on the difficulty of coming to satisfactory terms, and such as Clarendon could consent to, which he attributes principally to the French, who, having gained all the glory they want for the satisfaction of their national vanity, have no longer any desire to go on with the war, and we are placed by them in a fix. 'If,' he said, 'our army was in Asia Minor he should not care, because then we might say to them, do just what you please, make peace if it suits you, we shall not resent it or have any quarrel with you, but we will carry on the war on our own account. As it is, if we insist on renewing the war, the French cannot, and would not abandon us, and leave us to be attacked by superior Russian armies; they would therefore very reluctantly go on with the war, but it would be well known that we were dragging them on with us, and the exasperation against us would be great and general, and, say what we might, a quarrel between France and England would infallibly ensue.' He said all the objections he had entertained against Paris being the place of conference had been more than realised, and that the thing to have done would have been to have it in some dull German town, where there would have been no amusements and occupations, and no intrigues, and where they would have applied themselves vigorously to their work in order to get it done as quickly as possible. I have not, however, as yet made out what intrigues there are, but there is of course a vast deal of comm�rage going on.
The conferences take place every other day, beginning at one, and they generally last about four hours. Walewski presides, and, they say, does it pretty well; M. Benedetti, the Chef de D�partement in the Foreign Office, is the Protocollist and R�dacteur; the manner of it is conversational, but they occasionally make speeches, Walewski told me. I asked Clarendon in the evening how they were going on, and he said he thought they were making a little progress, but that the French did all they could to render it impossible.
I called on Madame de Lieven in the morning, who did not seem to know much beyond what lies on the surface. She is craving for news and eager for peace. Orloff has kept aloof from her, to her great mortification, and rather to the malicious satisfaction of her enemies, but he went to see her at last the day before yesterday, and, I suppose, accounted for the delay, for she spoke of him as if they were friends, though of course she would take care not to say a word of complaint or to have it supposed, if she could help it, that he had neglected her. She complained that in our exigeance we did not make allowance enough for the difficulties of the Emperor of Russia's position, for, however necessary peace might be to Russia, there is a very great party there who from pride and obstinacy would carry on the war at all risks and hazards. She talked much of the enormous faults that had been committed throughout the whole of the Eastern Question, and of the severe retribution the pride of the late Emperor had drawn down on his country, and remarked, which is quite true, that this would be the first time in the history of Russia in which she had made a disadvantageous peace; for even in her wars against Napoleon, when she had suffered defeat after defeat, she had still concluded peace with a gain of territory. I saw the Hollands, Guizot at Madame de Lieven's door, called on Lady Clarendon, and then went to ride with Lady Cowley in the Bois, and so the evening and the morning were the first day. The weather is cold and gloomy, and I don't think I shall stay here long.
March 3rd.—Went about visiting yesterday, and at night to the Tuileries, an evening party and play, two small pieces; the Emperor was very civil to me as usual, came up to me and shook hands; he talked to Orloff and to Clarendon, then the Grande Ma�tresse told him the Empress was ready, when he went out and came back with her on his arm, Mathilde, Princess Murat, and Plon Plon following. As the Emperor passed before me, he stopped and presented me to the Empress. I was introduced to Orloff, and in the course of the evening had a long talk with Brunnow, who said they had made all the advances and concessions they could, and it was for us to move towards peace, and not to advance one step and then retreat two.
This morning I went to see the opening of the legislative bodies, and hear the Emperor's Speech. It was a gay and pretty sight, so full of splendour and various colours, but rather theatrical. He read his speech very well and the substance of it gave satisfaction; it was not easy to compose it, but he did it exceedingly well, and steered clear of the ticklish points with great adroitness and tact. It sounded odd to English ears to hear a Royal Speech applauded at the end of each paragraph, and the shouts of 'Vive l'Empereur' from the Senators and Deputies.
After Cowley came home he began talking over the state of affairs, and the peace we are going to make, about which his grief and disappointment are overflowing. He says the Emperor had the best intentions, but has been beset with men who were determined on peace for their own ends, and whom he could not resist. What he blames him for is not having at once said that he would go so far with us and no further, and not have allowed us to delude ourselves with expectations of support from him that were not to be realised. He says it is now all over, the matter decided, it will proceed rapidly, and all be finished by Easter.
At night.—I have been dining with Walewski, a very handsome dinner to the Sardinians, and a party afterwards. Knowing none of the people, it was a bore; I found nobody to converse with but Cavour and Flahault; talked over the state of affairs with the latter and our discontents. He said the Emperor could not refuse, and when Clarendon came over and found His Majesty's conversation so satisfactory, he was misled by it and fancied he should obtain his support to all our demands; he owned that it would have been better if the Emperor had been more explicit. When I got home I found Cowley, who was engaged in drawing up a statement of the comparative state of Russia, as to her aggressive power against Turkey before the war and now, after peace has been made. He is doing this for Clarendon and to assist him in making his case good in Parliament when the peace is attacked, as he says it is quite certain it will be. I asked him what were the points on which the Russians made the most difficulty. He said on all except Bomarsund. He is quite convinced that Walewski has played false, and that he has made known to Orloff exactly what he must give up, and when he may be stout.
March 5th.—Little to record; Cowley continues talking to me of the state of affairs as it is and as it might have been, and is excessively dejected and disgusted at the idea of the peace he is about to sign; he thinks it neither creditable nor likely to be durable, but we start from such different points of view that it is impossible for us to agree. He harps upon the evil done by having the Conference here, and certainly the advantage Clarendon promised himself from having it here has proved null, for the Emperor does not send for him, having no mind to talk to him, and he will not ask an audience of the Emperor, though Cowley urges him very much to do it. He acknowledges, however, that it would be now too late, and that nothing more can be done; he thinks Clarendon will bring himself with great reluctance to sign such a Treaty; but he must swallow the pill, however bitter. The bitterness proceeds from having had such vast pretensions and having encouraged, if not held, such lofty language.
It is no wonder that this Government want to get their army home when typhus is raging there, and they have by their own account 22,000 men in hospital, while ours is quite healthy. We took all sorts of precautions, and strongly advised the French to do the same, and to adopt a sanitary plan we imparted to them; they held it cheap, did nothing, and here are the consequences. It is said that while those who have been in the Crimea and have distinguished themselves are eager for peace, those who have not yet earned medals are averse to peace, and that there will be a good deal of jealousy between the regiments.
March 6th.—We talked yesterday morning about the origin of the Austrian proposals, and Cowley said he had never been able exactly to make out whether the scheme had originated at Vienna or here, but he was inclined to believe that the first hint was given by Austria, and that Walewski then put the thing on paper, which was sent to Vienna and returned thence in the shape of a proposal. Bourqueney first brought it from Vienna, Buol having obtained his Emperor's consent to it. Cowley told me Buol had been all along willing to join us in the war, but the Emperor never would consent to it. Cowley's notions are that we never ought to have listened to any intervention, nor to any proposals for peace but from Russia herself, that we should have made her sue for peace. He would have had our demands from the first stated distinctly, and have allowed of nothing but acceptance or refusal; he would never have agreed to the article for the cession of Bessarabia, nor have asked for territory at all. If it could have been managed he would have preferred giving the Principalities to Austria, who should for them give up Lombardy to Sardinia. Not a bad idea. By the by, it is much noticed that in the Emperor's Speech he calls the King of Sardinia the King of Piedmont, probably without any particular meaning or intention, but they say he never does anything without a meaning. I rode to the new racecourse yesterday, near the Bois de Boulogne, and went to the Opera last night to see a beautiful new ballet, 'Le Corsaire.' Went to Passy to see the Delesserts, who were out.
In this head quarter of gossip every trifle makes a noise, a little scene in society excites interest and shows the continued violence of party feeling. A party dined at Lord Holland's and more came in the evening, mostly, as it happened, Orleanists, for the Hollands live with all parties indiscriminately. There were Mesdames de R�musat, d'Haussonville, and several others of that colour, when the door opened and MM. de Flahault and Morny were announced, on which the women all jumped up like a covey of partridges and walked out of the room, without taking any notice of the men. It is said that the Orleanist party entertain a peculiar rancour against M. de Flahault for having seen behind a door or a curtain the arrest of General Changarnier on the 2nd of December, which he afterwards had the folly to avow.
At night.—Just before dinner came an invitation to go to the Tuileries to-night, which with much reluctance I was forced to do. Two petites pi�ces as on Sunday. I did not attempt to get into the gallery, and sat in the next room, first with Brunnow, then with the Grand Vizier, who is become a great friend of mine. The Emperor did nothing but take off one Plenipotentiary after another: first Clarendon, next Buol, then Orloff, and lastly Walewski, and probably more was done there than at the Conference in the morning. Brunnow and Walewski both told me the affair was progressing, and Cowley seemed very low coming home. His dejection is extreme, and he said this morning that he could not recover from his extreme disappointment at the conduct of the Emperor, that he had always had a bad opinion of Walewski, and no reliance on him or any of the ministers, but he would have staked his life on the Emperor's remaining true to us, that he had always assured our Government that they might depend implicitly on him, and it was a bitter mortification to him to have been deceived himself and to deceive them. I asked him how Clarendon felt all this, and he said Clarendon had never spoken to him about it, and preserved a calmness which astonished him. 'What,' I asked, 'did the Cabinet at home say?' He said, 'They seemed to place entire confidence in Clarendon, and to leave all power and responsibility to him.'
March 8th.—Called on M. de Greffuhle yesterday, whom I had not seen for years. He is eighty, enormously rich, full of activity and intelligence, Orleanist by social habits, but well affected towards this Government and not hostile to the Emperor, though despising his Government. He said that he was compelled to make peace, and that it would cost him his Crown if he did not; that something would happen and then he would be upset, so great would be the consequences of his running counter to the universal desire for peace here; that the finances are in a very difficult state and there must be another loan, but it would not be contracted like the last, which was a piece of absurd charlatanerie.
I went in the afternoon to see the Imperial stables, a wonderful establishment; and then the stallions, near Passy. In the evening to Madame Baudon's, where I was presented to General Cavaignac, but had no conversation with him. He is a tall, gentlemanlike man with a very military air. I was surprised to see him there in the midst of the Legitimists, he, a republican, but it seems he was once near marrying Madame Baudon, who was sous-gouvernante des Enfants de France when Madame de Gontaut was Gouvernante.
March 9th.—Went about visiting as usual. Called on Achille Fould, who introduced me to Magne, Minister of Finance, said to be a great rogue. Everything here is intrigue and jobbery, and I am told there is a sort of gang, of which Morny is the chief, who all combine for their own purpose and advantage: Morny, Tould, Magne, and Rouher, Minister of Commerce. They now want to get out Billault, Minister of the Interior, whom they cannot entirely manage, and that ministry is necessary to them, on account of the railroads, which are under his management. Fould was full of civilities and offers of services, and he told me the Emperor has a mind to talk to me; whether anything will come of it I know not. I went thence to Madame de Galliera's, where I met Thiers and made a rendez-vous with him for to-day; then to Madame de Lieven who had had Orloff with her; lastly to Madame de Girardin and renewed our old acquaintance, dined with Delmar, and came home to a great party here.
March 10th.—I called on Thiers yesterday, and had a long talk with him; he declared he was happier unemployed and quite free than he had ever been; he had been all for the war, and was now as much for peace—like every other Frenchman he considered it a necessity; anxious as ever for the English alliance, and ridiculed the idea that we had not accomplished everything that our honour and glory required; bitter against this Government, and maintained that the Emperor might very safely relax the severity of it without giving up anything; indignant with the peculation and corruption that prevailed, and the abominable acts of injustice committed, one of which he mentioned towards his own family. Very pleasant as usual.
The news of the day was the dangerous illness of King Jerome, whose life hangs on a thread. This morning I went to St. Germains to see a stag hunt in the forest—a curious sight, with the old-fashioned meute; the officers, and those privileged to wear the uniform, in embroidered coats, jackboots, and cocked hats; piqueurs on horseback and foot with vast horns wound round their bodies; the costume and the sport exactly as in the time of Louis XIV., rather tiresome after a time. The old chateau is a melancholy d�labr� building, sad as the finishing career of its last Royal inhabitant. These recollections come thick upon one—Anne of Austria and the Fronde, Louis XIV. and Mademoiselle de la Valli�re—for here their lives began. When the Queen was here she insisted on being taken up to see Mademoiselle de la Valli�re's apartment, to mark which some slight ornaments remain. Here too James II. held his dismal Court and came to his unhappy and bigoted end. After it ceased to be a palace, it became successively a prison, a school, and a barrack, and now the Emperor has a fancy to restore it. I went at night to a great concert at Walewski's, where I fell in with Clarendon, and found he was quite prepared to make peace even on such terms as he can get, in which I encouraged him, and to my surprise he said he did not think it would be a bad peace, though it was not so good as we might have got if the generals had done all they might, or if we had had another campaign. He asked me how I thought people would look on it in England, and I told him from all I heard I thought now the wish was for peace, and that the peace would be well enough taken. This he now thinks himself, and he said peace would certainly be concluded before the end of the month.
March 15th.—From Cowley's account the Conferences appear to be drawing to an end, as a committee has been formed to draw up the Treaty. It consists of Cowley, Bourqueney, Brunnow, Cavour, Buol, and the Grand Vizier. Cowley is still bemoaning the insufficiency of the terms, and while he admits the necessity of peace here, maintains that if the Emperor would only have joined us in insisting upon the terms we wished to impose, it is certain the Russians would have consented to everything, for he says they now know from unquestionable information that the Russians expected much harder terms. The Emperor was, however, so beset by his entourage, and so afraid of running the slightest risk of the Russians breaking off the negotiations, that he would not insist on anything which he was not certain the Russians would agree to, and Cowley says he thinks Clarendon was not so firm as he might have been, and if he had pressed the Emperor more strongly, that the latter would have yielded and told Orloff that, though anxious to make peace, he was still more anxious to continue on good terms with us, and that if the Russian Government wanted peace, they would only have it on such and such terms. All this may be true, and I am myself inclined to think the Russians would have agreed to our terms, if those terms had been heartily backed up by the Emperor; but except to give something more of a triumph to the English public, I am not of opinion that the difference between what we required and what we shall get is worth much. When the d�nouement is before the world, it will appear how insane it was to plunge into such a war, and that the confusion and unsettled state of affairs which will be the result of it are more dangerous to the stability of the Turkish Empire than the ambitious designs of Russia ever were. Whether the Emperor Nicholas was premature or not in his idea of 'the sick man,' it will soon appear how sick the man will be left by the doctors who have stepped in to save him, and I believe the bouleversement of the old Turkish dominion will have been greatly accelerated by the war and the consequences which will flow from the successes of the allies.
What Cowley particularly laments over is having failed to dismantle Nicolaieff and to stop the outlet from the Bug to the Black Sea, and having got no satisfactory arrangement with regard to the Circassian coast and the contiguous provinces which were ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Adrianople. We wanted that Russia should acknowledge the independence of these provinces or of some part of them; but I cannot see of what use this would have been, and it would have been a matter of the greatest difficulty how to secure their independence and under what Government. There is a sort of sympathy with the Circassians in England, which would have made some stipulations with regard to them popular; but the independence would be illusory, Russia would soon reassert her authority, and our stipulations would become a dead letter, or we should be involved in endless disputes without any satisfactory results. As to forming another coalition for the sake of semi-barbarous nationalities on the coasts of the Caspian, nothing would be more impossible. England herself, who will soon recover from her madness, would not hear of it, and France still less. The war was founded in delusion and error, and carried on by a factitious and ignorant enthusiasm, and we richly deserve to reap nothing but mortification and disappointment in return for all the blood and treasure we have spent.
March 16th.—We passed the day in momentary expectation of hearing of the Empress's confinement. No news arrived, but at six in the morning we were awakened from our beds by the sound of the cannon of the Invalides, which gave notice of a son. Will his fortune be more prosperous than that of the other Royal and Imperial heirs to the throne whom similar salvoes have proclaimed? It is a remarkable coincidence that the confinement was as difficult and dangerous as that of Marie Louise, with the same symptoms and circumstances, and that the doctor accoucheur (Dubois) in this instance was the son of the Dubois who attended the other Empress. From all I hear the event was received here with good will, but without the least enthusiasm, though with some curiosity, and the Tuileries Gardens were crowded. People were invited by the police to illuminate.
CHAPTER XII.
Lord Clarendon's favourable View of the Peace—General Evans' Proposal to embark after the Battle of Inkerman—Sir E. Lyons defends Lord Raglan—Peace concluded—Sir J. Graham's gloomy View of Affairs—Edward Ellice's Plan—Favourable Reception of the Peace—A Lull in Politics—A Sabbatarian Question—The Trial of Palmer for Murder—Defeat of the Opposition—Danger of War with the United States—Ristori as an Actress—Defeat of the Appellate Jurisdiction Bill—Return of the Guards—Baron Parke on the Life Peerage—Close of the Session—O'Donnell and Espartero in Spain—Chances of War—Coronation of the Czar—Apathy of the Nation—Expense of the Coronation at Moscow—Interference at Naples—Foreign Relations—Progress of Democracy in England—Russia, France, England, and Naples—Russian Intrigues with France—The Bolgrad Question—The Quarrel with Naples—The Formation of Lord Palmerston's Government in 1855—Death of Sir John Jervis—Sir Alexander Cockburn's Appointment—James Wortley Solicitor-General—Conference on the Treaty of Paris—Low Church Bishops—Leadership of the Opposition—Coolness in Paris—Dictatorial Policy to Brazil.
London, March 21st, Good Friday.—I left Paris on Wednesday morning with Mr. and Mrs. Reeve, dined at Boulogne, crossed over in the evening, and arrived in London yesterday morning at eleven o'clock. When near Folkestone we were caught in a fog, lost our way, and were very near having to anchor and pass the night at sea. After a vast deal of whistling and bellowing, stopping and going on, the fog cleared a little, lights became visible, and we entered the harbour with no other inconvenience than having made a long d�tour, and being an hour later than our proper time. I regretted leaving Paris, where I was treated with so much affection and hospitality, and on the whole very well amused. On Monday, I dined with the Duchesse de Mouchy; on Tuesday night Clarendon came after dinner to see me before my departure, and we had some talk about the peace and the terms. He spoke very cheerfully about it and seems not at all dissatisfied, nor to feel any alarm about its reception. As it is, without at all acknowledging that he has made any sacrifices, he considers that the influence he has acquired for England, particularly with Austria and Turkey, is far more valuable than any items of concession from Russia would have been. Buol told him that he was now quite convinced that England was the Power to which Austria must really look with confidence and reliance on her honour and friendship, and the Turk was still more warm and vehement in assurances of the same kind. This was elicited from the Austrians by the fact of England having supported the condition of the Bessarabian cession, while France took part with Russia and threw Austria over. Moreover, Clarendon does not, like Cowley, complain of the Emperor Napoleon, but speaks with great satisfaction of His Majesty's conduct to him, and the renewed cordiality with which he has recently expressed himself towards England, and for the maintenance of his alliance with us. In short, he evidently thinks, and not without reason, that he will return, having obtained a sufficiently good peace, and having placed England in a very fine position. He said that he had been able to accomplish his task by being ready to incur responsibility at home, and by being able to act unfettered, and taking on himself to disregard any instructions or recommendations from home that he did not approve of. Yesterday I saw George Lewis and had a talk with him and his wife about Clarendon and the peace. He said he thought the peace quite sufficient, and he did not understand what it was Cowley found fault with, nor why he is dissatisfied. He denies that we have given up anything that it would have been just and reasonable to stand out upon, and will not hear of taking an apologetic tone, but that Clarendon should defend the peace on its own merits. He thinks it will be well enough received in the House of Commons and by the country, and he is in good spirits about the Government. He says Palmerston has been moderate and reasonable, and that he is not aware of Clarendon's having been harassed with any instructions, but left entirely to his own discretion. They all think he has done exceedingly well.