The Greville Memoirs, Part 2 (of 3), Volume 3 (of 3): A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852Greville, Charles
History
The Greville Memoirs, Part 2 (of 3), Volume 3 (of 3): A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852
Greville, Charles
Great Britain -- History -- Victoria, 1837-1901
At night to the Opera, where I met Thiers and was introduced to MolÈ. I
am to call on Thiers to-morrow afternoon. MolÈ told Normanby that he was
very uneasy about two things,--the arrest of Olozaga in Spain, and the
intervention of the Austrians in Italy, which he expected to take place.
MolÈ, by Normanby's account, speaks very disparagingly of Guizot, and,
by Madame de Lieven's, very contemptuously of Normanby. It is amusing
enough to hear all the stories the people here tell and the opinions
they express of one another.
[Sidenote: DISCUSSION WITH M. GUIZOT.]
_At night._--This morning I called on Madame de St. Aulaire, whom I
found, and Madame de Gontaut, whom I did not; then, Madame de Lieven.
Much talk on the old subject, and the fire of my tongue extinguished the
fire of hers, for, without the least convincing her, I reduced her to
silence. The great gun I brought to bear on her was Aberdeen's despatch
to the Duke de Sotomayor, which proved that Palmerston had in no way
departed from the system of conduct pursued by Aberdeen. From her I went
to Guizot, and was with him for an hour and a half. We began with an
agreement that we should be mutually frank and sincere. He went through
the whole case and exhibited all his causes of complaint and suspicion
against Palmerston, that when he came into office he never said a word
(in public or private) expressive of a desire to be on good terms with
France, neither in his speech at Tiverton, nor in the House of Commons,
nor to Jarnac; that he never alluded to the Spanish question nor sought
to establish or confirm an understanding thereupon with France; that the
despatch he wrote to Bulwer (19th), which contained instructions for his
conduct, was not imparted to the French Government; and that when Jarnac
spoke to him, and Palmerston showed him the despatch, it was already
gone. All this apparent reserve and uncommunicativeness excited
suspicions that he was not well disposed and, above all, not going to
tread in the footsteps of Aberdeen. I defended him by saying that he
ought to have considered Palmerston's situation--just come into office,
encumbered with business, occupied with questions of much more urgent
importance in the House of Commons. Nothing new having occurred about
Spain, he contented himself with desiring Bulwer to abide by his
predecessor's instructions, and really had nothing to say on the
subject; that it was his habit to write in a rather familiar, offhand
style, and his despatch to Bulwer, which was not intended to be
published or communicated, was of that description, but that it meant
nothing; and when asked, and the objection urged to the obnoxious
passage, he gave the most positive assurance that no change of policy
was contemplated. Guizot insisted that it did not signify what he meant;
that the question was, what impression it was calculated to convey. Then
he went into the various delays, and the impossibility of getting an
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