_Foxholes, October 28th_--I am much obliged to you for your note. We might elect three new members of The Club, because there remain two vacancies caused by the honorary list, besides the death of Houghton. I should very much like to see Edward Stanhope and Harry Holland in The Club. They are among the most rising men of the day--accomplished and agreeable--and their fathers were respectively two of our most faithful members. We should, I think, choose men from the younger generation, for many of us are frightfully old. It is more difficult to point out eligible men in the literary or scientific world. To say the truth, there is a remarkable dearth of distinguished authors. Violent politicians are objectionable. I am very much gratified by what you say of the new volumes of Greville's Journals. Your estimate of their value exactly coincides with my own. I am happy to say that I have not yet heard that anyone is annoyed or offended. I sent a copy to Henry Ponsonby, who laid it before the Queen, but I have not heard what sentence Her Majesty has passed upon me. There is a great deal of political noise, but very little light. In the south of England I think the Conservatives will carry a good many seats. If I were to venture on a prognostic, I should say that the opposition will have a majority in Great Britain, though by no means so large a one as the Radicals expect. The effect of this would be that the Irish can turn the scale, and I think Mr. Parnell would refuse, for the present, to turn out the present Government in order to bring in Mr. Gladstone. In that case, the existence of the present ministry may be prolonged for some time, but it would be on sufferance and by Irish support. On the other hand, if a Liberal Government were formed, it could only exist with the support of the Irish vote. Eventually, I hope, this anomalous state of things may bring the moderate men of both the British parties together, and throw both extremes into opposition. That, I am convinced, is the real wish of the country, and the obstacles to such a combination are chiefly personal. I fancy the next parliaments will be very impracticable and probably shortlived. _From the Comte de Paris_ 22 _novembre._--Je vous remercie de ce que vous me dites a propos des Memoires de M. Greville. [Footnote: Sc. that there were passages in it not complimentary to the Orleans family.] Je comprends parfaitement que vous ne pouviez supprimer certains passages dont vous ne voulez cependant pas assumer la solidarite. Ces passages ne m'empecheront pas de lire avec interet la suite des oeuvres de cet observateur peu bien-veillant, mais fin et spirituel. Ne croyez pas que je vous ecrive avec d'autre pensee que de faire part de mes vues a un etranger qui connait, comprend et aime la France.