_To Mr. T. Longman_ _Foxholes, January 7th._--I know the authoress of the Russian letters very well. She is one of the boldest and keenest Russian agents in Europe, who was sent here three or four years ago to endeavour to prepare English society for the coming war, and she has returned here every winter. She has made repeated attempts to capture me, though, as you may suppose, without success. But on politicians of a sentimental cast her influence has been considerable, especially on Gladstone, who is singularly amenable to female flattery, and a perfect child in the hands of a clever _intrigante_ of this kind. But I am certainly sorry that Froude should have attached his name to her letters. To suppose that this great and dreadful war has been undertaken for the sole purpose of 'liberating' the Southern Slavs, and that the Russians hate the Turks because the Tartars conquered Russia some centuries back, are assumptions which can hardly impose on the most credulous of men. This is a war of conquest, and the spirit of the Crusades has been evoked to stimulate an ignorant and enthusiastic people. One of the points of the Russian party in England is to denounce and misrepresent the Crimean war. That war was carried on in defence of great principles of European law--not for the sake of the Turks--by the statesmen to whom we are particularly attached--Palmerston, Clarendon, Russell, Lewis, Panmure, &c. Mr. Carlyle, Froude, Freeman, Goldwin Smith, Bright, and at last Gladstone, were opposed to it. I adhere to the views of the statesmen, which the 'Review' defended in 1854 and 1855. I am, therefore, extremely glad, and think it highly proper and necessary that the Queen should defend the course taken by her ministers and by the nation at that time; and it would be the excess of inconsistency in the 'Review' not to maintain, as a matter of history, the same principles for which we have invariably contended. _C. O., January 12th_.--One of the first persons I met on coming to London yesterday was Lord Granville, and I had a long talk with him. He was less reserved than usual. I don't know that there is any difference in our view of the foreign question, except that he thinks the Government should have said and done even less than they have done. But the disposition of many of the moderate Whigs, such as Lord Morley, Duke of Bedford, Duke of Cleveland, &c., is to support the foreign policy of the Government. The Duke of Sutherland is to dine at Disraeli's dinner, out of hatred of Gladstone. I believe Dizzy is to have the Garter!