e to do
was to raise the interest on exchequer-bills, which he refused,
and afterwards was compelled to do. Robarts said he had no doubt
that if Peel had been in office he would have shown himself equal
to cope with the difficulty which Rice had proved himself so
incompetent to meet. The raising of the siege of Bilbao will have
given Palmerston a lift, but between our foreign and our
financial affairs the Ministers will not have an easy session of
the next.

[1] Mr. Spring Rice was Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord
Melbourne's second Administration until 1839, when he
was raised to the peerage under the title of Lord
Monteagle of Brandon.

Dover, January 12th, 1837 {p.377}

Having resolved, after many struggles, to go to Paris, here I am
on my way, and on arriving find that it blows a hurricane, and
there is little or no chance of being able to cross to-morrow;
for all I know I may be kept here for the next three days.

January 13th, 1837 {p.377}

I might have gone very well this morning, but was persuaded not
to start by the mate of the Government packet, and, like a fool,
I listened to him. It was a fine calm morning.

Paris, January 17th, 1837 {p.377}

Arrived here last night at five, having left Dover at a quarter
to one the day before; three hours to Boulogne, twenty-two to
Paris.

I made a very prosperous journey; went to the Embassy in the
evening, and found a heap of people--Mole, Montalivet, Lyndhurst,
Madame de Lieven, Madame de Dino, Talleyrand, &c.

Paris, January 19th, 1837 {p.378}

[Page Head: PRINCESS LIEVEN IN PARIS.]

On Tuesday went about visiting; found nobody but Madame Alfred de
Noailles and Raikes; was to have gone to the Chamber, but the
ticket did not arrive in time; dined at the Embassy. Wednesday, in
the morning, to the gallery of the Louvre; dined with Talleyrand;
to Madame de Lieven's and Madame Graham's. Talleyrand as well as
ever, except weaker on his legs; asked me to dine there whenever I
was not engaged. In the morning called at the Tuileries, and left
a note for the Duke of Orleans's aide-de-camp, asking to be
presented to his Royal Highness; and at night my mother went to
Court, and begged leave to bring me there to present me to the
Royal family. Lyndhurst sets off to London this morning, and I had
only an opportunity of exchanging a few words with him. He told me
he had never passed such an agreeable time as the last four