One reason why Lord John should not have come to the Council Office was the embarrassment he will be sure to find himself in about questions of education, his reputation and his antecedents, as well as his political connexions, making him peculiarly unfit to be at the head of the Education Department; and I am inclined to agree with Vernon Smith, who said to me the other day that it would infallibly end in Lord John's bringing in next year an impracticable Education Bill and withdrawing it. George Grey's coming into office will be of use to the Government. Newcastle's being War Minister is sure to be attacked, and all the Palmerstonians are indignant that Palmerston is not in that place, which never was offered him, nor was he consulted about the arrangement. I think there is still a considerable opinion that he would make a good War Minister, though everybody is aware he makes a very bad Home one, and the _prestige_ about him and his popularity are greatly worn out. They have been obliged to go back to the reign of Henry VIII. to find a precedent for a commoner being President of the Council, when they say there was one, but I don't know who he was. [Footnote 1: Lord John Russell insisted on taking the office of Lord President of the Council, which has always been held by a peer, and to effect this change Earl Granville was removed from the higher office of Lord President to that of Chancellor of the Duchy. The Right Honourable Edward Strutt, who had been Chancellor of the Duchy with a seat in the Cabinet, was dismissed from office, but he was subsequently raised to the peerage with the title of Lord Belper. This transaction reflected no credit on the author of it, who consulted nothing but his own dignity and convenience.]