Staplehurst.] cannot deal with it except through his council. It is therefore fortunate that you have secured their suffrages, for at present it seems to be the invariable practice of the 'wise men of the East' at the India Office to reject every proposal, however trivial or however important, which emanates from the Government of India. Yours, my dear Mr. Reeve, very faithfully, LYTTON. _Endorsed_--The pension was granted on June 30th. _From the Comte de Paris_ Chateau d'Eu, May 11th. ... I am glad to see that the hope of peace is stronger. A war between England and Russia would be the greatest catastrophe that could fall upon the world at present; it would be the cause of incalculable ruin everywhere. Since the wars of 1866 and 1870 the maintenance of the peace of Europe depends solely upon the relations between England and Russia. To France the preservation of peace is of the deepest interest, for the day it is broken she may expect to see her own frontiers threatened by Germany, either directly or by the moral subjection of Holland, Switzerland, and Belgium. We wish no evil either to England or to Russia; but, above all things, we wish that these two Powers should live in harmony. Here the Journal has:-- _May 13th_.--Returned to town. _May 28th_.--Gladstone dined at The Club. Six present; interesting. _June 3rd_.--Excursion to Greenwich to see the telegraph works. Great dinner at the Ship afterwards. _8th_.--All to Norwich, to stay with Dean Goulburn at the Deanery. I had scarcely been there for fifty years. Dr. Jessop, Canon Heaviside, and Canon Robinson to dinner--very pleasant. _9th_.--Communion in Norwich Cathedral. 10th, drove to Costessy (Lord Stafford's); 11th, to Spixworth; 12th, to Ely, on a visit to Dean Merivale; 13th, to Peterborough; 14th, back to town. _June_.--Very hot weather. 26th, dinner of the Antiquaries at Lord Carnarvon's. _July 5th_.--Lady Northcote's garden party. Helen Blackett there, looking ill. I never saw her again. [Footnote: See _post_. p. 265.] _July 13th_.--To Foxholes. Gout prevented me from going to Paris, where the exhibition was going on, and to La Celle. _To Mr. T. Longman_ _Foxholes, July 15th_.--I send just a line to say that _no part_ of the article on 'The Constitution and the Crown' is written by me. I thought it due to the writer to leave it untouched, and I don't think it is too severe.