_February 7th_.--Dinner at Dicey's, to meet Mr. Welch, the U.S. minister. John Bright, Hayward, Chandos Leigh, Mme. Van de Weyer there. _8th_.--To Foxholes, for three days only. _13th_.--The fleet went up the Sea of Marmora, the Russians having approached Constantinople. _28th_.--Marriage of Ellinor Locker to Lionel Tennyson in Westminster Abbey. All the literary world there. Imposing aspect of Alfred Tennyson, who looked round the Abbey as if he felt the Immortals were his compeers. The Journal mentions:-- _March 28th_.--Lord Derby resigned the Foreign Office. _From Lord Derby_ _March 29th_.--What has happened is disagreeable, as all political separations are; but it did not seem to me that there was any choice. As to discussion in Parliament, I suppose I cannot altogether help myself; but it will be a business unwillingly gone into, and not at all unless there seems some chance of being of use. And the Journal:-- _April 3rd_.--Dinner at Longman's. Froude, Trevelyan, Walpoles, Quain. This was the last of the pleasant literary dinners which Longman used to give. _4th_.--Great sale of the Novar collection. Fetched over 70,000L. Kirkman Hodgson gave 20,000L. for three Turners. _April 13th_.--To Foxholes. From Lord Lytton [Footnote: Governor-General of India.] Government House, Simla, April 29th. My dear Mr. Reeve,--I think you in nowise overestimate the value of Meadows Taylor's life and work in India, and I cordially recognise the exceptional claims of the two ladies, on whose behalf you have written to me, to the grant which I regret to hear they require. Their case is rather a difficult one to deal with, owing to the fact that nearly the whole work of Meadows Taylor's life was performed, not in the service of the Government of India, but in that of the Nizam's Government; and we are precluded, by rules as inflexible as the laws of the Medes and Persians, from granting public money to the distressed survivors of our own public servants on purely compassionate grounds. In my own opinion, however, the claim of these ladies may be fairly admitted on other grounds furnished by their father's eminence, not only as a literary man, but also as an administrator, and the fact that his work, though not performed in the service of the Government of India, has been, and is, in various ways, unquestionably beneficial to India. I am glad to say that I have obtained the concurrence of my council in this view of the case, and we propose to grant 100L. a year to each of these ladies from the Indian revenues. Our proposal, however, cannot be acted on without the sanction of the Secretary of State, to whom it will probably be submitted by this mail; and, as it is of a financial character, I think Lord Staplehurst [Footnote: Viscount Cranbrook is meant. The patent of his peerage was not dated till May 4th; but it had been previously understood, and telegraphed to India, that he would take his title from