_April 1st_.--Went to Draycott on a visit to the Cowleys. The Lavalettes there and the old Duchess of Cleveland. Went on to Bath to try the waters there. Bath, however, did no good to the gout, of which I had, all this spring, repeated attacks. Saw Wells Cathedral, Glastonbury, and Longleat. Over to Bristol, and then back to town on April 15th. No sooner was the siege of Paris ended and peace signed, than the frightful insurrection of the Commune broke out in Paris; the city was for many weeks in complete possession of the mob; Thiers and the army retired on Versailles, and recommenced the siege of Paris by French troops. The Archbishop and other hostages were murdered, and at last the city was set on fire. Nothing even in the First Revolution equalled the madness of this period. What a curious contrast to the even tenour of London life! I find in my diaries no trace of these tremendous catastrophes. _May 1st_.--International Art Exhibition opened. I went in my doctor's robes and orders; the only time I ever wore them. _From M. Guizot_ Val Richer, 4 juin. My dear Sir,--La destruction a atteint son terme, l'oeuvre de reconstruction commence. Elle sera tres difficile, mais je n'en desespere pas, et j'y prendrai quelque part sans sortir de ma cellule. Quelle vie que la mienne! Mon plus ancien souvenir politique est d'avoir vu de loin, du haut d'une terrasse de la petite maison de campagne ou ma mere s'etait refugiee pendant la Terreur, en 1794, les Jacobins poursuivis et assommes par la reaction contre Robespierre au 9 thermidor. La scene se passait sur les boulevards de Nismes. J'assiste en 1871, de la campagne aussi, a la chute des nouveaux Jacobins, vrais heritiers et eleves de la Terreur. Et que n'ai-je pas vu, en fait d'evenement, dans cet intervalle de 77 ans! Sur ce je vous dis adieu. Je me porte assez bien, malgre mes 83 ans et ces spectacles Shakspeariens. La France est, depuis 1789, une immense tragedie de Shakspeare. Tout a vous, GUIZOT. Reverting to the Journal:-- Mr. Grote died on June 18th. I attended the funeral in Westminster Abbey on the 24th. John Mill and Overstone were among the pall-bearers. At The Club dinner, on June 20th, the Duc d'Aumale took leave of us before returning to France. There were present: the Lord Chancellor (Hatherley), Master of the Rolls [Romilly], Duke of Cleveland, Lord Salisbury, Lord Derby, Sir H. Holland, Dean Stanley, W. Smith, and self. About this time I was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath. Lord Ripon, then Lord President, had asked them to make me a K.C.B., but Gladstone wrote me word that it was a rule that men should pass through the third grade to arrive at the second. [Footnote: That there was such a rule has been very fully proved by numerous exceptions.] Arthur Helps and William Stephenson were made C.B.'s at the same time, and afterwards K.C.B.'s. I was gazetted a C.B. on June 30th.