I sat next to Graham and had much talk. He said the Cabinet that morning had gone off easily, and he thought matters would proceed quietly now. Palmerston is quite at his ease and just as if nothing had happened, which was exactly like him. Graham thinks the Emperor of Russia is determined on war, and will not consent to negotiate; he said he had been as anxious as any man to maintain peace, but if we were driven to go to war, he was for waging it with the utmost vigour, and inflicting as much injury as we could on Russia, and that we might strike very severe blows. It was commonly supposed Sebastopol was unassailable by sea, but he was not satisfied of that, as they are not in possession of sufficient information to be at all sure about it, but that he did not know what a powerful fleet with the aid of steam could not accomplish. He was inclined to believe that such a fleet might force the entrance to the place and destroy the Russian fleets, but that it would probably cost many ships to effect such an operation. In discussing the probability of Russia and Turkey being brought to terms we agreed that the conditions accepted by the Turks should prove a sufficient basis. When I asked him whether this would not satisfy even Palmerston, and whether he would not be desirous of peace if it could be so brought about, he said he thought not, that Palmerston's politics were always personal, and that nothing would satisfy him now but to _humiliate_ the Emperor. Yesterday afternoon I saw Clarendon at the Foreign Office. He said the Cabinet went off smoothly enough, and Palmerston did not appear dissatisfied; confirmed what Graham said of his easy manner--no awkwardness or reserve. Aberdeen had written to him in answer to his letter recalling his resignation, saying he wondered he should have thought the matter of the Reform Bill _final_; and John Russell, when it was all over, called on him. The alterations in the Reform Bill were principally these: to extend somewhat the disfranchisement and to give more of the seats to the counties (which was what both Lord Lansdowne and Palmerston wished), and to reduce the county franchise from 20 to 10, taking Locke King's plan, the town franchise to be 6_l._, with three years' rating, as originally proposed. This is intended to admit the working classes; as Clarendon said, the _principle_ of the last Reform Bill having been to _exclude_ them, and this to _admit_ them. It seems now that Lansdowne and Palmerston will not dissent from this plan, though they do not like it. The various propositions were put to the vote _seriatim_ in the Cabinet and carried _nem. diss._, so that, instead of everything having been conceded to Palmerston (as the lying newspapers proclaimed), nothing has been; and he has, on the contrary, knocked under.