had some talk,
but nothing very conclusive. He said the operations in Syria
could not go on much longer, and we are threatened with the
greatest of all evils, the hanging over of the question for
another year. This he thought the worst thing of all. It is
curious that he told me Stopford wrote word he must send his
ships into port, and all the authorities, military and naval, say
nothing can be done after the 20th. Palmerston keeps telling
Bourqueney they can go on all the winter, and that the operations
will not be suspended at all. I asked Lord John, if the campaign
did close, leaving the Pasha in possession of all the south-west
of Syria from Damascus to the Desert, and Acre unattacked,
whether on such a status an agreement could not be concluded,
terminating the contest by the concession of the original terms
of the treaty. He said Melbourne would like that very well, but
that there would be difficulties, and France would not come into
the treaty on those terms. I told him I was pretty sure France
would, though I did not tell him what had passed between
Bourqueney and me. However, I sent for Bourqueney, and told him
to propose nothing new, but to wait till the campaign was over,
and in the meantime to prepare the way for some specific
proposition which France might make in a spirit of amicable
intervention to put an end to the contest.

December 4th, 1840 {p.354}

[Page Head: DEBATE IN THE FRENCH CHAMBER.]

In the course of the last three weeks, and since I last wrote, a
mighty change has taken place; we have had the capture of St.
Jean d'Acre and the debate in the French Chambers.[13] Palmerston
is triumphant; everything has turned out well for him. He is
justified by the success of his operations and by the revelations
in the speeches of Thiers and Remusat. So, at least, the world
will consider it, which does not examine deeply and compare
curiously in order to form its judgements; and it must be
acknowledged that he has a fair right to plume himself on his
success. His colleagues have nothing more to say; and as Guizot
makes a sort of common cause with him in the Chamber, and Thiers
makes out a case for himself by declaring objects and designs
which justify Palmerston's policy and acts, and as the Pasha is
now reduced to the necessity of submission, the contest is at an
end. Guizot continued up to the eve of the discussion to press us
to do or say something to assist him; but when he found we could
or wo