The Government continues to go on very well; the Opposition got up a debate on the legacy duties in the House of Lords the other night, which only served to prove how entirely Derby's influence has declined even there. They had thought themselves sure of beating the Government, but not only were they defeated, but accident alone (people shut out and absent) prevented their being defeated by a considerable majority. The Cabinet is going on in the greatest harmony, and the men who were strangers up to the time of its formation have taken to each other prodigiously. Aberdeen unfortunately wants the qualities which made Lord Lansdowne so good a leader, and is rather deficient in tact and temper in the House of Lords as he used to be formerly, when he attacked Lord Grey's Government and Palmerston's administration of foreign affairs always with too much asperity; but in spite of these defects he has not done ill even there, and in the Cabinet he is both liked and respected, being honest, straightforward, and firm, very fair, candid, and unassuming. Granville tells me that of the whole Cabinet he thinks Aberdeen has the most pluck, Gladstone a great deal, and Graham the one who has the least. He speaks very well of Molesworth, sensible, courageous, and conciliatory, but quite independent and plain spoken in his opinions. _June 1st._--John Russell made an imprudent speech the night before last on the Irish Church, giving great offence to the Irish and the Catholics. He could not help, as leader of the Government, opposing a proposition having for its object the destruction of the Irish Church, but he might have done it with more tact and discretion, and not in a way to elicit the cheers of the Tories. The Tail will pay him off for this whenever they can. _Quantum mutatus ab illo_, who broke up a Government for the sake of an appropriation clause. Last night Macaulay reappeared in the House of Commons, and in a speech of extraordinary power and eloquence threw out the Judges' Exclusion Bill.[1] It was the first time he had spoken, and though his physical strength is impaired he showed that his mental powers are undiminished. UNPOPULARITY OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT.