_February 17th._--Palmerston presented himself to the House of Commons last night for the first time as Minister, and not apparently with a very brilliant prospect of success. He made a tolerable speech, giving a rather meagre account of the formation of his Government, with the usual promises of vigour. The great point he had to handle was the disposal of Roebuck's Committee, which he is determined, if he can, to get rid of. The success of this, his first great operation, seems very doubtful. One man after another got up and declared he should vote for its going on. Roebuck insists on it; and Disraeli announced his determined opposition to any attempt to quash it. If Palmerston fights the battle and is beaten, he must try what a dissolution will do for him; and I think the success of it would be very doubtful, for, in spite of all the clamour that was raised by his name, and his apparently vast popularity in the country, it looks as if it was of a very shadowy, unsubstantial kind, and would very likely be found wanting at a general election. The temper of the House seems to be anything but good, and unless we are very soon cheered and encouraged by much better accounts from the Crimea, this Government will not fare much better than the last. The 'Times' is going into furious opposition, and Palmerston will soon find the whole press against him except his own paper, the 'Morning Post,' and the 'Morning Chronicle,' neither of which have any circulation or any influence in the country. The whole conduct of the 'Times' is a source of great vexation to me, for I am to the last degree shocked and disgusted at its conduct and the enormous mischief that it is endeavouring to do; and I have for many years had intimate personal relations with its editor, which I do not well know how to let drop, and I am at the same time not satisfied that their unbroken maintenance is consistent with the feelings I entertain, and which ought to be entertained, towards the paper. ROEBUCK'S COMMITTEE ACCEPTED.