About 1.30 P.M. I was summoned to the Chancellor. He wished me to call attention to the difficulties of the King of Holland with regard to a new Ministry, and to point to this as the result of a purely Parliamentary system under which the advisers of the Crown must retire, whatever the condition of affairs may be, when a majority of the representatives is opposed to them on any question. He observed: “I remember when I became Minister that there had been twenty or twenty-one Ministries since the introduction of the constitutional system. If the principle of Ministers retiring before a hostile majority be too strictly enforced, far too many politicians will be used up. Then mediocrities will have to be taken for the post, and finally there will be no one left who will care to devote himself to such a trade. The moral is that either the advantages of a Minister’s position must be increased, or the Parliamentary system must be applied less stringently.” The Chief went out for a drive at 3 o’clock, after Russell had again called upon him. He talked after dinner about his negotiations with Russell and the demands of Gortschakoff. He said amongst other things: “They do not want in London to give an unqualified approval to the proposal that the Black Sea shall be again given up to Russia and the Turks with full sovereignty over its coast. They are afraid of public opinion in England, and Russell returns again and again to the idea that some equivalent might possibly be found. He asked, for instance, whether it would not be possible for us to join in the agreement of the 16th of April, 1856. I replied that Germany had no real interest in the matter. Or whether we would bind ourselves to observe neutrality in case of a conflict some day breaking out there. I told him I was not in favour of a conjectural policy, such as his suggestion involved. It would depend altogether on circumstances. For the present we saw no reason why we should take any part in the matter. That ought to suffice for him. Besides I did not believe that gratitude had no place in politics. The present Tsar had always acted in a friendly and benevolent manner towards us. Austria, on the other hand, was up to the present little to be trusted and took up at times a very dubious attitude. Of course he knew himself how far we were indebted to England. The friendship of the Tsar was the legacy of old relations, based partly on family connections, but partly also on the recognition that our interests are not opposed to his. We did not know what those relations would be in future, and therefore it was impossible to speak about them.... Our position would now be different to what it was formerly. We should be the only Power that had reason to be satisfied; we had no call to oblige any one of whose willingness to reciprocate our services we could not altogether feel sure.... He returned again and again to the suggestion as to an equivalent, and at length asked me if I could not