_March 20th._--The complication of foreign affairs is not a little increased by the bad humour into which we have thrown the Emperor of Russia by our proceedings at Constantinople. Brunnow, generally so _couleur de rose_ and such a fast friend of Palmerston, holds language quite unusual with him. Graham told me he met him at a great dinner of diplomats and politicians at Aberdeen's last Wednesday, when he talked to him with much vehemence and in a very menacing tone. The case is this:--By the treaty of Ackerman the Hospodars in the provinces are elected for seven years, by that of Adrianople the election is for life. The Emperor desired to revert to this former mode, and proposed it to the Turks. They were disposed to consent, when Stratford Canning interposed, prevailed on them to refuse, and so excited them that they assumed a military attitude and began to arm. This is Brunnow's version of the affair; at the same time intimating that he attributed it more to Stratford Canning than to Palmerston himself. It is well known that Stratford Canning is strongly anti-Russian, both politically and personally, but I don't believe he would take any serious course without being assured of Palmerston's concurrence; and Eddisbury[93] told me he had done quite right. We suppose that Russia and Austria have a perfect understanding, and if it be so, this is the result of Palmerston's having quarrelled with Austria. While clouds are gathering in that quarter, and the Hungarian war seems far from its termination, the Danes have denounced their armistice, and the King of Sardinia his, the Sicilians seem resolved to reject the King of Naples' terms, and war is about to break again with fresh fury over half of Europe, France and England alone remaining at peace within themselves, with each other, and with all the world. [Footnote 93: [The Right Hon. Edward John Stanley was called up to the House of Lords on May 12, 1848, by the title of Baron Eddisbury. He succeeded his father as second Baron Stanley of Alderley in 1850. Lord Eddisbury was at this time Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.]]