Malmesbury hopes and believes that much of the
excitement that prevailed on the _other_ side the water is subsiding.
All his letters from _private_ sources, and the account of Colonel
Claremont, agree on this point. In this country, if our differences
with France are settled, it is probable that the popular jealousy of
foreign interference will be killed; but at least for some time it
will show foreign Courts how dangerous it is _even to criticise_ our
_domestic_ Institutions. Lord Malmesbury has carefully abstained from
giving Lord Cowley or M. de Persigny the slightest hope that we could
alter the law, but has confined himself to saying that the law was
itself as much on its trial as the prisoners Bernard and Truelove.[13]
If, therefore, the law should prove to be a phantom of justice, or
anomalous in its action, whatever measures your Majesty's Government
may hereafter take to reform it, it will be received by France as an
unexpected boon and a proof of good faith and amity.

In attending to the idea referred to by your Majesty that the Emperor
took the oath of the Assassins' Society, Lord Malmesbury can almost
assure your Majesty that such is not the case.[14] Lord Malmesbury
first made His Majesty's acquaintance in Italy when they were both
very young men (twenty years of age). They were _both_ under the
influence of those romantic feelings which the former history and
the present degradation of Italy may naturally inspire even at a more
advanced time of life--and the Prince Louis Napoleon, to the knowledge
of Lord Malmesbury, certainly engaged himself in the conspiracies of
the time--but it was with the higher class of the Carbonari, men like
General Sercognani and General Pepe. The Prince used to talk to Lord
Malmesbury upon these men and their ideas and plans with all the
openness that exists between two youths, and Lord Malmesbury has many
times heard him condemn with disgust the societies of villains which
hung on the flank of the conspirators, and which deterred many of the
best families and ablest gentlemen in Romagna from joining them. Lord
Malmesbury believes the report therefore to be a fable, and at some
future period will, if it should interest your Majesty, relate to
your Majesty some details respecting the Emperor's share in the
conspiracies of 1828-1829....

[Footnote 12: This was a letter from the Prince de Chimay to
the King of the Belgians in reference to the Orsini plot.]

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