ut to meet. Parties
are violent, Government weak, everybody wondering what will
happen, nobody seeing their way clearly before them. The general
opinion is, that the Opposition mean to take the Government if
they can by storm, and will assault every weak point. The
weakest, to my mind, is John Russell's appointment of Frost to
the magistracy, which, if skilfully handled, may be brought
against him with great effect. Frost was appointed in pursuance
of a system Lord John chose to establish, for the purpose of
defeating the intentions of Parliament; and he did it upon his
own responsibility in spite of warnings against it, and now we
see some of the fruits of this policy. I told Normanby this, and
he owned the truth of it, and moreover he told me that the system
he found established by Lord John had proved very embarrassing to
him, as it was very difficult for him to throw it over, and
unless he did so he should be compelled to make, or sanction,
objectionable appointments. Such have been the consequences of
Lord John's unstatesmanlike and perhaps unconstitutional conduct,
adopted under the influence of resentment.

[Page Head: LORD CLARENDON TAKES OFFICE.]

Lord Clarendon, who has just joined the Government with a lively
sense of the tottering character of the concern he has entered,
is resolved, as far as his influence may avail, to urge them to
cast aside all attempts to catch votes, and cajole supporters, by
partial concessions and half-and-half measures, to look the
condition of affairs steadily in the face, and act in all things
according to the best of their minds and consciences, as if they
were as strong a Government as Pitt's, and without any regard to
consequences, so that they may either live usefully or die
honourably. This is the true course, and that which I have urged
him to enforce with all his credit. We had some talk about
foreign affairs. He thinks there is danger of Palmerston's
getting too closely connected with Russia, while keeping France
in check upon the complicated Eastern Question. He also spoke of
a curious pamphlet, just published by Marliani, a Spaniard, who
went in 1838 with Zea Bermudez on a mission to Berlin and Vienna,
stating that a proposal had been made to Austria for a marriage
between the young Queen of Spain and a son of the Archduke
Charles, by which the Austrian alliance and influence would again
be substituted for the French, and the object of the Family
Compact defeated; a