_June 20th._--At Chiswick yesterday morning a party for the Queen and Prince Albert, who wished to see the place. The Duke of Devonshire, who had resolved to give no entertainment on account of Lady Burlington's death last year, only invited his own relations, and Normanby and John Russell, the two Secretaries of State, were the only exceptional guests. It rained half the time and it was very formal. Duncannon told me that he could not believe in the great Tory gains, for his accounts represented matters as very favourable to his party, and he only wanted to know the truth and not be flattered into any false expectations: in fact, both sides are equally confident, and apparently one upon as good grounds as the other. _June 23rd._--Parliament was prorogued yesterday with a very short speech. Nothing new about the elections, but unabated confidence on both sides, though the Whigs cannot expect to counterbalance the loss of almost all the counties. They start with a loss of fifteen seats, given up without contest. Everybody is wondering at the numerous changes they are making, shuffling their cards at a great rate when the game is all but over, and the greatest disgust is expressed at the removal of Plunket and the appointment of Campbell.[5] Nobody would believe it at first, and when I told Clanricarde of it, he said if it were done and a vote of censure were moved upon it in the House of Lords, he would support the motion. But it is now said that he accepts the office with an engagement not to take the pension. He told Sheil so, but who will believe there is not some juggle in this, or that he would give up a business worth 10,000_l._ a-year to hold the Irish Seal for two months, and be left without any emolument at the end of that time? [Sidenote: EXCURSION TO NORTH WALES.] Prince Albert would not go to the Duke's Waterloo dinner. The Duke invited him when they met at Oxford, and the Prince said he would send an answer. He sent an excuse, which was a mistake, for the invitation was a great compliment, and this is a sort of national commemoration at which he might have felt a pride at being present. [Footnote 5: [The Ministry, being on the verge of dissolution, compelled Lord Plunket to resign the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland in order to bestow it, with a peerage, on Sir John Campbell, the English Attorney-General. He went to Ireland and sat in Court a few times and then retired without a pension. But this was justly considered as one of the most outrageous jobs which any Government ever sanctioned. Lord Campbell afterwards filled much higher offices in England, and he presided for several years in the Court of Queen's Bench, and died Lord Chancellor.]]