Nothing can wear a gloomier aspect than affairs do at home and abroad--the Government weak, unpopular, dispirited, and divided, the army in the Crimea in a deplorable state, and the prospects of the war far from brilliant, no confidence in the commanding officers there, and no likelihood of finding more competent ones, everybody agreeing that till we have 150,000 men in the Crimea we cannot count on taking Sebastopol, and the difficulty of ever assembling such a force appearing very great. So far as I can collect, the violent articles which the 'Times' emits day after day have excited general resentment and disgust. They overdo everything and, while they are eternally changing their course, the one they follow for the moment they follow with an outrageous violence which shocks everybody. But as those who complain most of the 'Times' still go on reading it, the paper only gets more rampant and insolent, for as long as its circulation is undiminished it does not care what anybody thinks or says of it. _January 4th._--I wrote the Duke an answer with my opinion on Lord John's position and obligations, which has elicited another from him this morning. He says that it was a few weeks ago that John made a formal proposal to Aberdeen that Palmerston should replace Newcastle at the War Department. Aberdeen desired time to consider, and then refused. Subsequently the matter was renewed, when Palmerston himself objected, and then it necessarily ended. The Duke thinks that Lord John will not now stir it again, and will make up his mind to go on, and to defend his Government in the House of Commons. He consulted Sir George Grey, Lord Lansdowne, and Panmure, and they all advised him not to resign. It is strange that while this is imparted to me 'very confidentially,' and I had heard nothing of it before, it is currently reported, and stated positively in the 'Morning Herald,' that Lord John and others, mentioned by name, have insisted on Newcastle's being turned out. That some part of what has occurred has got out is clear, and I incline to think that some of his satellites have set to work, and that, by way of assisting Lord John's object, they have given notice of what was going on to some of the Derbyites. There is a mysterious allusion to some impending event in the 'Press' on Saturday last, which looks very like this. CENSURES OF LORD RAGLAN.