to Lady Canning, saying it would give him great pleasure
to introduce her son into public life, and that he should be glad
to treat him with confidence, and do all that lay in him to
promote his success. Lady Canning wrote a very gracious answer,
saying that she preferred his being in Parliament some time
before he took office, but neither he nor she was indisposed to
support him and his Government. At this dinner the Duke talked to
me about Spain, and said that the affair at the Post Office at
Madrid, in which Canterac was killed, was the most lamentable
thing that had happened, and the most discreditable to the
Government; that if the Carlists did not rise upon it all over
Spain, it was clear there were none; that it was a most
extraordinary war, in which the Carlists had the superiority in
the field, but possessed no fortified and even no open town; and
that, notwithstanding all the plunder and devastation incidental
to such a state of things, all the farmers in the disturbed
provinces regularly paid their rents.

[7] [The Lord President's annual dinner to the Cabinet, at
which the Sheriffs for the ensuing year are selected,
to be appointed by the King at the next Council.]

[8] [Afterwards Viscount Canning and Governor-General of
India in 1856.]

Sandon is to move the address in the House of Commons, Lord
Carnarvon refused to move it in the House of Lords. I think the
Church Reform Commission, which was gazetted a few days ago, has
done good, especially as it is backed up by Peel's refusing to
fill up the vacant Prebendary of Westminster, and placing it at
the disposal of the Commissioners.

I went to Oatlands on Wednesday for two nights, and met the
Duchess, Countess, the Granvilles, and Pahlen. It was agreeable
enough. Lord Granville told us a curious story of an atrocity
very recently committed in France. The governor of a military
academy had objected to one of the officers, a professor,
bringing a woman who lived with him into the establishment. The
man persisted, and he finally ordered her to be ejected.
Resolving to be revenged, the officer took these means; he bribed
a servant of the governor's, who let him into the house at night;
when he got into the bedroom of his daughter, ravished her, and
then wounded her severely with some sharp instrument, but not
mortally. The girl is still alive, but in a state of frenzy; the
case is coming before the French tribuna