I learn to my great astonishment that all the Queen's former attachment to Louis Philippe and the French Royal Family has revived in greater force than ever; she says the marriages are not to be thought of any more. Nothing but the extraordinary good sense of Prince Albert and the boundless influence he has over her keeps her affectionate feelings under due restraint; but for him she would have made all her household go to Claremont, and when the French Royal Family have come to visit her she has received them as King and Queen, and one day one of the children went up to Louis Philippe and called him 'Your Majesty,' which had no doubt been done by the Queen's commands. I take for granted that they have persuaded the Queen that their ruin has been the work of Palmerston, for this is what they always say, and possibly they believe it. [Sidenote: THE WEST INDIA COMMITTEE.] _June 3rd._--Yesterday morning I saw Graham. He said matters were going on worse and worse; the Government seemed to be paralysed, and to have lost their understandings. They had such a night on Tuesday in the House of Commons as he never witnessed. He then enumerated their defeats and their blunders and mismanagement, without bitterness but with great contempt. They sustained a defeat on Bowring's motion about the collection of taxes, a very important matter, not having got their people down. I found out afterwards that they did not expect a division, and thought to prevent one by counting out the House, and to aid this Sir George Grey told people who were waiting there they had better go away. This was blundering. Then they made a great mistake in fighting the Derby writ, in which they, in conjunction with the Protectionists, got beaten by the Liberals and the Peelites. On Anstey's Roman Catholic Relief Bill none of the Government were present. On Thursday night Lord John came down with two very foolish notices, one for our alteration of the Oath (which is only a new Jew bill in a fresh form), and another to relieve voters from disqualification on account of non-payment of the assessed taxes, which was intended as a sop to Hume before his Reform motion. Both these Graham denounced as weak and unwise. I asked him what they thought of the resolution of the West India Committee.[55] He said it was very awkward. He was as strong as ever against the proposition, and the best reason he gave was that it would be of no service to the West Indians if it was carried; that if all foreign sugar was prohibited they would be as much swamped by Mauritius and the East as by Cuba and Brazil. He will, therefore, oppose it; but he is not sure the Government may not be in a minority, and I told him if Lord John was defeated on it I really believed he would resign. He said he thought the Protectionists were prepared to form a Government if they carried the resolution. I do not, however, believe any such thing, and I reminded him that such a