He talked of the war and its conduct, of the faults committed, and of the characters and talents of the generals engaged, comparing them, much to their disadvantage, with the generals of the Empire. I asked him which were the best, and he said all the African generals were much of the same calibre: Changarnier, Lamoricière, St. Arnaud, Canrobert, Pélissier--very little difference between them. The war they waged in Africa was of a peculiar character, and did not render them more capable of conducting great strategical operations in Europe. He talked of Thiers and Odilon Barrot, and described scenes with the latter in Council when Barrot was his Minister; of the 'Times' and its influence; of Spain; in short, of a vast variety of subjects; of the Exhibition here, and with some appearance of disappointment that the people will not go to it. His simplicity and absence of all _faste_ were remarkable; thus, I asked him what he thought of the Hango affair, when he said it was not so bad as had been reported. 'I have had an account of it from Admiral Penaud to-day; should you like to see it?' I said 'Yes,' when he got up, went into his cabinet, and came back with the letter in his hand; and a little while after, when we were talking of the siege of Sebastopol, he asked if I had ever seen a very good engineer's map of the whole thing; and when I said I had not, he said, 'Then I will show you one;' and he again went into his cabinet and brought it out. After this long palaver he took leave of me, shaking hands with much apparent cordiality. _June 27th._--Bosquet has written to the Emperor that these assaults on the Russian works are only a useless waste of time. Marshal Vaillant has told Cowley that they agree in this, but they must either recall their general or let him go on in his own way, and if they interfere, the blame of any disaster will inevitably fall on them, no matter what might be the cause. I dined with Flahaut yesterday; in the morning rode round all the boulevards, a grand promenade by which Paris is well seen; and I met Guizot at Madame de Lieven's, who talked of the war and asked how it was ever to end. 'People go to war,' he said, 'to make conquests or to make peace; you profess not to intend the first, how do you propose to effect the second? By reducing Russia to accept your terms--can you do so? will she yield? If not, what then?--you may wound her, but you can't strike her in a vital part; and the more barbarous she is, the more she will consent to suffer and the less she will be disposed to yield.' He gave me an account (in short) of the bother about the Academy and the Emperor's interference. They do not mean to give way, but they think he will; if he does not, he will have to dissolve them. DEATH OF LORD RAGLAN.