ay the same
moderation, and his Notes continued to be as
acrimonious as ever.--H.R.]

I went almost immediately to Guizot, and told him that the
reception of his note had given a new turn to the discussion, but
that it had given the greatest satisfaction, and they were
certainly not prepared for such a moderate communication. He
laughed, shrugged his shoulders, and said, 'He should think they
were not,' any more than he was, that nothing could equal his
surprise at receiving it, that it was very ill written, ill
arranged, and he owned to me, in confidence, that he thought it
went even farther than it ought; farther than he (much as he
desired peace) could ever have consented to go. He did not
disguise from me, and almost said in terms, that he thought it
very discreditable, and strikingly inconsistent with their
previous language and ostentatious preparations. I said that I
could not comprehend how such a note could emanate from the same
quarter as all the denunciations and threats we had lately heard,
and that though Thiers had, as everybody knew, a great deal of
_savoir faire_, he would have some difficulty in defending both
the note and the preparations. He seemed by no means sorry at the
idea of Thiers having got into a scrape and dilemma, but not at
all satisfied at the figure which France is made to act in the
affair, and not much liking to play any part in the transaction.
It is for this reason that he gave Palmerston the note without
any remarks on its contents. When I asked him how it was all to
be accounted for, he told me that the truth was, it was owing to
the dissensions in the French Cabinet, and the determination of
the King; and that it was the only mode by which an entire
rupture in the Cabinet could be avoided. He said, however, that
he would have preferred the rupture rather than a violent
difference of opinion ending in such a measure. (At least as I
understood him, but I am not quite clear as to his meaning on
this point.) I told him that Palmerston would see him, and would
(or ought at least to) speak to him in a very conciliatory tone;
but that if he did not do so, if he was wanting in any proper
expression of the sense of our Government of the conduct of that
of France, and if he evinced any disposition to haggle and drive
a bargain, he was not to believe that he expressed the sentiments
of the Cabinet, but merely gave utterance to his own. We agreed
that at all events the