_January 20th._--It is only by degrees one can unravel the truth in political affairs. John Russell told me last night that Austria has never given in her adhesion to our condition of making the destruction of Sebastopol a _sine quâ non_ of peace. She joins us in insisting on the '_faire cesser la prépotence_,' but the means of accomplishing this remain to be discussed. This is very different from what I had imagined, and makes it anything but certain that she will join her forces to our's, if the negotiations fail in consequence of our demands. We are now endeavouring to bring the Court of Vienna into an agreement with us as to the conditions to be required, and it is no easy matter to get the Cabinet to agree upon the wording of the communications we make to her. This arises from the necessity of looking to the effect of what will appear in the Blue Books. Blue Books, Parliamentary discussions, and the Press tie up the hands of a Government, fetter its discretion and deliberate policy, and render diplomatic transactions (especially with Governments whose hands are more free) excessively difficult. Granville told me yesterday morning that the course of Russia had been more straightforward than that of England and France, and this morning he reminded me of having said so, and added that we were in a great diplomatic mess, France always finessing and playing a game of her own; and I infer from what he said that, having got all she can out of us, she is now coquetting with Austria, and disposed to defer to her wishes and objects, and to be less _exigeante_ towards Russia. This is only of a piece with what Clarendon has often said to me about France and her way of dealing with us; however, if France will only insist on making peace on plausible terms, and with the semblance of its being an honourable and consistent peace, we cannot do otherwise than acquiesce in her determination, and if we only follow the lead she takes the public here must needs be satisfied. This is Granville's own idea, as it is mine, and God grant that affairs may take this turn, and so we may get out of the tremendous scrape we are in, the escape from which will be cheaply purchased by the fall of the Government--a consequence that is almost certain if it does not happen before anything can be done.