_April 20th_.--Interesting day at Versailles with Feuillet de Conches and Soulie; took the Dempsters and Hamiltons of Dalziel. My father's old friend Dr. de Roches died at Geneva on April 18th. On the 23rd, Christine and I went to Geneva on a visit to the Binets. Saw Mme. de Roches, who also died a few days afterwards. Returned by Lausanne and Neufchatel to Paris, and home on May 1st. _From Lord Brougham_ _Paris, May 15th_.--I have been reading the new number of the 'E. R.,' and have been greatly interested in it. The review [Footnote: Sc. of Renan's _Life of Jesus_.] is most ably and learnedly done, though in one or two places a little obscure. But the subject was most difficult to handle, and I think no one can complain of Renan being unfairly treated; indeed he is lavishly praised, though he is rejected--but rejected most candidly. I have also read the first article, [Footnote: _Diaries of a Lady of Quality._] on Miss Wynn's book. I am convinced that the facts must be taken with large allowance; some of them are to my personal knowledge erroneously given--from no intention to deceive, but from hasty belief. But there is one story which on the face of it is not only untrue, but impossible; which she appears to have had from a Mrs. Kemble, and to have swallowed whole. How could any being believe in Lord Loughborough's telling such a tale? Mrs. K. may have, from ignorance, supposed that a prisoner on trial for his life can be examined by the prosecutor's counsel; but can anyone suppose that such a story as Davison's murder of his old companion could have happened, and no one even heard of it, or of his being hanged, as he must have been, on his own confession? I knew intimately those friends of Miss Baillie who are said to have been present, and I never heard a word of it from them--probably because they regarded the story as ridiculous. _From the Comte de Paris_ Claremont, le 23 mai.