o enter into this agreement.

On the question how the Foreign Office should be filled, Lord John
said that he thought his father-in-law, Lord Minto, ought to take
the Foreign Office.... As the Queen was somewhat startled by this
announcement, I said I thought that would not go down with the public.
After Lord Palmerston's removal (who was considered one of the ablest
men in the country) he ought not to be replaced but by an equally able
statesman; the Office was of _enormous_ importance, and ought not to
be entrusted to any one but Lord John himself or Lord Clarendon. On
the Queen's enquiry why Lord Clarendon had not been proposed for it,
Lord John said he was most anxious that the change of the Minister
should not produce a change in the general line of policy which he
considered to have been quite right, and that Lord Clarendon did
not approve of it; somehow or other he never could agree with
Lord Clarendon on Foreign Affairs; he thought Lord Clarendon very
anti-French and for an alliance with Austria and Russia. The Queen
replied she knew Lord Clarendon's bad opinion of the mode in which the
Foreign Affairs had been conducted, and thought that a merit in him,
but did not think him Austrian or Russian, but merely disapproving
of Lord Palmerston's behaviour. I urged Lord John to take the Foreign
Affairs himself, which he said would have to be done if the Queen did
not wish Lord Minto to take them; he himself would be able to do the
business when in the House of Lords, although he would undertake it
unwillingly; with the business in the House of Commons it would have
been impossible for him.

The Queen insisted on his trying it with a seat in the House of Lords,
adding that, if he found it too much for him, he could at a later
period perhaps make the Department over to Lord Clarendon.

I could not help remarking that it was a serious risk to entrust Lord
Palmerston with the lead in the House of Commons, that it might be
that the Government were defeated and, if once in opposition, Lord
Palmerston might take a different line as leader of the Opposition
from that which Lord John would like, and might so easily force
himself back into office as Prime Minister. Lord John, however,
although admitting that danger, thought Lord Palmerston too old to do
much in the future (having passed his sixty-fifth year); he admitted
that Sir George Grey was the natural leader of the Commons, but
expected that a little later the lead wou