ately, that
Palmerston would have been the last person to approve of this _coup
d'etat_. Not a bit! He turns upon Normanby in the most flippant
manner; almost accuses him of a concealed knowledge of an Orleanist
plot--never whispered here, nor I believe, even imagined by the
Government of Paris, who would have been too glad to seize upon it
as an excuse; says he compromises the relations of the country by his
evident disapproval of Louis Napoleon--in short, it is a letter that
Morny might have written, and that it is quite impossible for Normanby
to bear. The curious thing is that it is a letter or rather letters
that would completely ruin Palmerston with _his_ Party. He treats all
the acts of the wholesale cruelties of the troops as a joke--in short,
it is the letter of a man half mad, I think, for to quarrel with
Normanby on this subject is cutting his own throat.... He has written
also to Lord John. Louis Napoleon knows perfectly well that Normanby
cannot approve the means he has taken; he talks to him confidentially,
and treats him as an honest, upright man, and he never showed him
more attention, or friendship even than last night when we were at the
Elysee, though Normanby said not one word in approval....

There is another question upon which Normanby has a right to complain,
which is, that two days before Palmerston sent his instructions here,
he expressed to Walewski his complete approval of the step taken by
Louis Napoleon, which was transmitted by Walewski in a despatch to
Turgot, and read by him to many members of the Corps Diplomatique a
day before Normanby heard a word from Palmerston. You will perhaps
think that there is not enough in all this to authorise the grave step
Normanby has taken, but the whole tone of his letters shows such a
want of confidence, is so impertinent--talk of "we hear this," and "we
are told that,"--bringing a sort of anonymous gossip against a man of
Normanby's character and standing, that respect for himself obliges
Normanby to take it up seriously.... In the meantime our Press in
England is, as usual, _too_ violent against Louis Napoleon. _We_
have no friends or true allies left, thanks to the policy of Lord
Palmerston; as soon as the peace of the country is restored the Army
_must_ be employed; it is the course of a Military Government; as
much as an absolute Government is destroyed by the people, and the
democracy again, when fallen into anarchy, is followed by Military
Gover