to its perfect inutility if we did. We might degrade
ourselves, weaken our own cause, but we should neither strengthen
Guizot nor satisfy the cravings of French vanity and insolence,
still less silence that revolutionary spirit which, not strong
enough in itself, seeks to become formidable by stimulating the
passions and allying itself with all the vanity, pride, and
restlessness, besides desire for plunder, which are largely
scattered throughout the country.

It is curious that Austria, hitherto so timid, should all of a
sudden become so bold, for besides this notification to Neumann,
Metternich has said that, though we have instructed Ponsonby to
move the Sultan to restore Mehemet Ali to Egypt, he has not given
the same instructions to Stuermer, and that he wants to see the
progress of events and the conduct of the Pasha before he does
so.

[Page Head: LORD PALMERSTON'S IRRITATING LANGUAGE.]

Events have so befriended Palmerston that he is now in the right,
and has got his colleagues with him; but where he is and always
has been wrong is in his neglect of forms; the more _fortiter_ he
is _in re_, the more _suaviter_ he ought to be _in modo_. But
while defending his policy or attacking that of France, he has
never said what he might have done to conciliate, to soften, and
to destroy those impressions of intended affronts and secret
designs which have produced such violent effects on the French
public. On the contrary, he has constantly, in his State papers,
and still more in his newspapers, said what is calculated to
irritate and provoke them to the greatest degree; but Dedel says
this has always been his fault, in all times and in all his
diplomatic dealings, and this is the reason he is so detested by
all the Corps Diplomatique, and has made such enemies all over
Europe. Guizot will now be cast on his own resources, and must
try whether the language of truth and reason will be listened to
in France; whether he can, by plain statements of facts, and
reasonable deductions therefrom, dissipate those senseless
prejudices and extravagant delusions which have excited such a
tempest in the public mind. It is clear enough to me that if he
cannot, if vanity and resentment are too strong for sober reason
and sound policy, no concessions we could make would save him
from downfall, or save Europe from the consequences of this moral
deluge.

November 15th, 1840 {p.353}

Two days ago, Lord John Russell called on me. We