John Russell and I left Balmoral, and travelled together as far as Perth on Friday morning. We discussed Palmerston, his policy, his character, and his conduct, fully and freely. Lord John endeavoured to argue the Spanish and Sicilian cases, but he really had nothing to say in defence of Palmerston, or in opposition to my charges and assertions; and by degrees, as we talked on, he came to admit that Palmerston was justly chargeable with the faults that I had imputed to him. He told me, moreover, of a case in which he had been obliged to interfere not long ago. When the question of the Piedmontese indemnity was in discussion, our Government, as well as the French, endeavoured to persuade that of Austria to reduce the amount they at first demanded. With this object Palmerston wrote a despatch; but he thought fit to put into it, that the Austrians were the more bound to do this, as the war itself was their own fault, for if they had sent ambassadors to the Congress that was to have met at Brussels, as they ought to have done, it would never have taken place. Lord John said he thought this very useless and inexpedient, and insisted on its being struck out. Palmerston maintained that it was true. Lord John said, true or not, there was no use in saying it, and it was struck out, much to Palmerston's dislike. [Sidenote: DRUMMOND CASTLE.] In the course of our conversation Lord John told me something about the famous despatch of July 19,[103] curiously illustrative of his _laisser aller_ way of doing business. After acknowledging it was very injudicious, he said, 'I remember the despatch was brought to me on a Sunday morning, just as I was going to church. I read it over in a hurry; it did not strike me at the moment that there was anything objectionable in it, and I sent it back. If I had not gone to church, and had paid more attention to it, it would not have gone;' and upon this despatch, thus carelessly read and permitted to go, hinged the quarrels with France and with Spain, the Montpensier marriage, and not impossibly, though indirectly, the French Revolution itself. [Footnote 103: [This was the celebrated despatch with reference to the marriage of the Queen of Spain, in which Lord Palmerston named the Coburg Prince as one of the candidates for her hand.]]