_November 4th._--At The Grove from Wednesday to Saturday; the Walewskis, Lavradios, Granvilles, Azeglio, and Panizzi were there, a pleasant party enough. Walewski told me a curious thing which he said he knew to be true. We were talking of Nesselrode, and I asked if he knew what his present position was with his Emperor. He said he had been out of favour, but latterly had resumed all his influence and was very well at Court; that although in the beginning of the quarrel he had done his best to moderate the Emperor and to preserve peace, it was nevertheless true that he was perhaps the immediate cause of the war, which had turned upon the acceptance or refusal of the Turkish modifications of the Vienna Note; that when they arrived the Emperor was inclined to accept them, and that Nesselrode dissuaded him from doing so, advising him to adhere to the unaltered Note, not to listen to the modifications, and insisting that, if he did so, the allies would compel the Turks to waive their demands and to accept the Note in its original shape. Walewski also said that the Emperor was exceedingly incensed when the fatal circular, which made the Vienna Note an impossibility, was published. He said it was never intended for publication, and he found great fault with the document itself, insisted on knowing by whom it had been composed, and ordered the author to be brought before him. The man (whose name I forget) was not to be found, and events which pressed on drove it out of His Majesty's mind. In the 'Times' of yesterday appeared a very able letter of Bright's with his view of the war, and the faults committed by our Government in respect to it, which letter as nearly as possible expresses my own opinion on the subject. I have never agreed with those who fancy that by mere bluster we might have averted the war, but I think by more firmness towards not only Russia but towards Turkey, and still more towards the press and the public excitement here, together with a judicious employment of the resources of diplomacy, we might have prevented it. However, we are in for it, and I not only see no chance of getting soon out of it, but I do not feel the same confidence that everybody else does, that we are certain to carry it to a successful end. SEBASTOPOL BESIEGED.