road to peace was still open, and could
hardly be missed. He said, it depended on us, and only entreated
that the communication we made to the French Government might be
full, cordial, and satisfactory, giving them all the assurances
they could require, setting their minds at rest as to Egypt, and
generally in a tone as conciliatory and moderate as theirs to us.
He earnestly deprecated the idea of any bargaining, and said that
if Palmerston hinted at such a thing with him he must make his
proposals directly to Paris, for he would listen to none such
here. On the whole, he is well satisfied at the prospect of the
preservation of peace, but very much dissatisfied, and even
disgusted, at the manner in which this consummation is likely to
be brought about; conscious and ashamed of the false position in
which the Government of France is placed, probably by their own
conduct from the beginning, but certainly by their violent and
declamatory language, so full of invective and menace, their
expensive and ostentatious preparations, and now their tame (and
if it were possible they could be afraid), pusillanimous
conclusion. He did not say a great deal, but what he did say was
with energy and strong feeling, and these I am certain are his
sentiments.

[Page Head: POLICY OF LOUIS PHILIPPE.]

The real truth I take to be that the King is the cause of the
whole thing. With that wonderful sagacity which renders him the
ablest man in France, and enables him sooner or later to carry
all his points, and that tact and discernment with which he knows
when to yield and when to stand, he allowed Thiers to have his
fall swing; and to commit himself with the nation, the King
himself all the time consenting to put the country in a
formidable attitude, but making no secret of his desire for
peace; and then at the decisive moment, when he found there was a
division in the Cabinet, throwing all his influence into the
pacific scale, and eventually reducing Thiers to the alternative
of making a very moderate overture or breaking up the Government.
The King in all probability knew that in the latter event Thiers
would no longer be so formidable, and that there would be the
same division in the party as in the Cabinet, and that he should
be able to turn the scale in the Chamber in favour of peace. It
is probable that His Majesty looks beyond the present crisis, and
sees in the transaction the means of emancipating himself from
the domination of T