he Duke of Wellington has not yet
sent his promised Memorandum, and Lord Lansdowne was anxious to hear
his opinion, the Queen commissioned him to appoint Lord John Russell
to come at three o'clock, and to go himself to the Duke of Wellington.

Lord John Russell, who arrived at the appointed time, and had not seen
Lord Lansdowne's Memorandum yet, read it over, and expressed great
misgivings about the execution of the proposal. He said he saw in
fact, like Sir J. Graham, nothing but difficulties. He had ascertained
that his Party by no means liked the idea of a fusion, and had been
much relieved when the attempt to form a Coalition Ministry had
failed. He was afraid that in the interval between their resuming
office and giving it up again every possible surmise would be current
who were the Ministers to be displaced, and every possible intrigue
would spring up for and against particular members of the Cabinet. He
would prefer not to make any arrangements for the Coalition now, but
merely to engage to resign again after having carried the Papal
Bill, when the Queen could try the Coalition, and that failing, could
entrust Lord Aberdeen and Sir J. Graham with the carrying on of the
Government, whose chief difficulty would then be removed. I objected
to this--that his Party might feel justly aggrieved if after their
having carried him through the difficulty of the Papal Measure, he
were to throw them over and resign, and asked him whether his Cabinet
would not repent in the meantime and wish to stay in.

He answered that it would be entirely in his and Lord Lansdowne's
hands to carry out the proposed arrangements.

We asked him whether it would strengthen his hands if, instead of his
only _accepting_ the task of continuing the Government till the Papal
Measure had been passed, the Queen were to make it a _condition_
in _giving_ him the Commission, that it should terminate then. He
replied, "Certainly." He begged, however, to be understood not to have
given a decided opinion that the plan of "the open Question" proposed
in our Memorandum was not preferable, although he saw great objections
to that also, particularly as Sir J. Graham had reserved the statement
of his principal objections to the Papal Bill for the second reading.
He promised to draw up a Memorandum, which he would bring to-morrow
at twelve o'clock, after having consulted some of his colleagues,
and begged that it might not be considered that he had accepted th