_January 26th._--Yesterday morning the Cabinet met, and after some discussion they resolved unanimously not to resign, but to encounter Roebuck's motion. Aberdeen went down to Windsor, and there is another Cabinet this morning. I saw John Russell in the afternoon, and told him in very plain terms what I thought of his conduct, and how deeply I regretted that he had not gone on with his colleagues and met this attack with them. He looked astonished and put out, but said, 'I could not. It was impossible for me to oppose a motion which I think ought to be carried.' I argued the point with him, and in the middle of our talk the Duke of Bedford came in. I asked him if he did not think the remaining Ministers were right in the course they have taken, and he said he did. I then said, 'I have been telling John how much I regret that he did not do the same,' when John repeated what he had said before, and then went away. After he was gone the Duke said, 'I am very glad you said what you did to John.' The town was in a great state of excitement yesterday, and everybody speculating on what is to happen, and all making lists of a new Government according to their expectations or wishes; most people place Palmerston at the head. In the House of Lords Derby asked me what it all meant. Clarendon came up while we were talking, and gave Derby to understand that he would probably have to take office again, expressing his own eagerness to quit it. I now hear that Lord John has been leading the Cabinet a weary life for many months past, eternally making difficulties, and keeping them in a constant state of hot water, determined to upset them, and only doubting as to what was a fit opportunity, and at last taking the worst that could be well chosen for his own honour and character. He is not, however, without countenance and support from some of his adherents, or from those who were so impatient for the destruction of this Government that they are satisfied with its being accomplished, no matter how or by whom or under what circumstances; and as he has been long accustomed to sit attentive to his own applause from a little circle in Chesham Place, so he will now be told by the same set that he has acted a very fine and praiseworthy part, although such will not be the verdict of history, nor is it, as far as I can see, of the best and wisest of his own contemporaries. Nobody entertains a doubt of Roebuck's motion being carried by a large majority against the Government.