On arriving in town yesterday found the news of Smith O'Brien's capture, which some think a good thing and some a bad one; some say he is mad, some are for hanging him, some for transporting, others for letting him go; in short, _quot homines tot sententiÊ_. He is a good-for-nothing, conceited, contemptible fellow, who has done a great deal of mischief and deserves to be hung, but it will probably be very difficult to convict him. _August 10th._--On Tuesday evening Stanley made a brisk attack on the Government for their Sicilian policy; Lord Lansdowne made a moderate defence.[65] They refused to say whether they had or had not instructed Admiral Parker to prevent the Neapolitan fleet from attacking Sicily, from which it is of course inferred that such instructions have been given him in violation of the principle of non-intervention and the law of nations. The man in the Cabinet who has been most strenuous for intervention, after Palmerston, has been Grey. [Footnote 65: [An insurrection broke out in Naples on May 16, and soon afterwards the people of Sicily declared their independence. This movement was much favoured and indirectly aided by the British Government.]] _August 16th._--Went on Saturday with Lord Lansdowne and Granville to Stowe:[66] it was worth seeing, but a sorry sight; a dull, undesirable place, not without magnificence. The garden front is very stately and palatial; the house full of trash mixed with some fine things; altogether a painful monument of human vanity, folly, and, it may be added, wickedness, for wickedness it is thus recklessly to ruin a great house and wife and children. [Footnote 66: [The Duke of Buckingham being ruined, all the contents of the great house of the Grenvilles at Stowe were sold by auction. All London went to see the place, the furniture, and the curiosities. Even the deer in the park were for sale.]] [Sidenote: LORD CLARENDON'S POLICY IN IRELAND.]