and bitter about, because Palmerston will not retract this
nomination, and he has the mortification of finding in this
instance his own want of power. However, as there have been no
discussions on it lately, the Princess still hopes it may blow
over, and that some other mission may be found for Canning. At
all events it appears a most curious piece of diplomacy to insist
upon thrusting upon a Court a man personally obnoxious to the
Sovereign and his Minister, and not the best way of preserving
harmonious relations or obtaining political advantages. She says,
however (and with all her anger she is no bad judge), that
Palmerston 'est un tres-petit esprit--lourd, obstine,' &c., and
she is astonished how Lady C. with her _finesse_ can be so taken
with him.

Lady Cowper has since told me that Madame de Lieven has been to
blame in all this business, that Palmerston was provoked with her
interference, that her temper had got the better of her, and she
had thought to carry it with a high hand, having been used to
have her own way, and that he had thought both _she_ and her
_Court_ wanted to be taken down a peg; that she had told
Nesselrode she could prevent this appointment, and, what had done
more harm than anything, she had appealed to Grey against
Palmerston, and employed Durham to make a great clamour about it.
All this made Palmerston angry, and determined him to punish her,
who he thought had meddled more than she ought, and had made the
matter personally embarrassing and disagreeable to him.

[Page Head: LORD GREY'S COERCION BILL.]

Last night Lord Grey introduced his coercive measures in an
excellent speech, though there are some people who doubt his being
able to carry them through the House of Commons. If he can't, he
goes of course; and what next? The measures are sufficiently
strong, it must be owned--a _consomme_ of insurrection-gagging
Acts, suspension of Habeas Corpus, martial law, and one or two
other little hards and sharps.[1]

[1] [In the debate on the Address O'Connell had denounced
the coercive measures announced in the Speech from the
Throne as 'brutal, bloody, and unconstitutional.' But
the state of Ireland was so dreadful that it demanded
and justified the severest remedies. Lord Grey stated
in the House of Lords that between January 1st and
December 31st 9,000 crimes had been committed--homicides
242, robberies 1,179, bur