At the Cabinet dinner the day before yesterday, Palmerston announced that 'everything was going on well, everybody satisfied,' and as this rose-coloured aspect of affairs was so inconsistent with the gloom and discontent of Bourqueney and Buelow, and the account given me by Dedel, I resolved to call on Bourqueney, and find out from him in what position the affair stood. I did so, and the result proved with what caution one ought to listen to the reports of persons the best informed, and who relate what they have heard with the most veracious intentions. Instead of correcting or expunging what I have said above, I shall put down the substance of what Bourqueney said to me, which agrees with much of Dedel's account, but differs in some very important particulars. I told him that I had (as he would be sure) no desire to _fourrer_ myself into his affairs, but that I thought a little conversation between us might be useful in promoting the object we had in common--that of restoring amicable relations between the two countries; and having seen how annoyed he was on Sunday last, and knowing what had passed, I wished to know if he was not _now_ better satisfied than he was _then_; and that as I, and those with whom I communicated, only knew what passed between him and Palmerston, or at the conferences, from Palmerston's own reports, when he told his colleagues just what he pleased and no more, and as I had heard from other quarters an account of his interview on Sunday with Palmerston, I wished to know what had really passed. He had, he said, been extremely annoyed and disappointed, after being told that he was to have the Protocol (by Buelow and Esterhazy, of course), when Palmerston told him this was out of the question, as Chekib refused to sign it without orders. He then gave me the conversation between himself and Palmerston, which does not appear to have been acrimonious, and instead of Palmerston's having made that insolent speech which was put in his mouth when Bourqueney said, 'Mais nous ne sommes pas presses,' he only said, 'Ni nous non plus, c'est l'Autriche et la Prusse qui sont pressees;' so that all the offensive part was a fabricated addition, and I have no doubt of this by Bourqueney's way of speaking of it. He said, moreover, 'Il faut rendre justice a Lord Palmerston, son ton a ete excellent, et jamais il n'a prononce le mot de desarmement;' that if he had, or had attempted to impose any condition, he should at once have rejected all overtures; but nothing of the kind had been attempted, and he admitted that every respect had been shown to France, and a sincere desire evinced to renew relations with her. He said, 'Enfin vous etes triomphants, et nous sommes humilies,' and you can well afford to treat us 'avec des egards;' but he seemed to think that in point of fact the Conference was already practically dissolved, for both Buelow and Esterhazy had declared (in their anxiety for the _cloture_, as an indispensable