I met Clarendon in the Park a day or two ago, and had some talk with him in the friendly and intimate tone of former times, which rejoiced my heart, because it proved that though circumstances and accidental habits had impeded our intercourse, there exist still the same feelings of regard towards me in his mind, and if our intercourse was restored again, he would probably fall into the same habit of confidence and communication which formerly existed, but which has lately been completely interrupted. He talked of Palmerston, his position and his health, and his _rapports_ with the Queen, who is now entirely reconciled to him. She treats him with unreserved confidence, and he treats her with a deference and attention which have produced a very favourable change in her sentiments towards him. Clarendon told me that Palmerston had lately been ailing in a way to cause some uneasiness. He had had a bad leg with a sore that it had been found difficult to heal, but he appears to have got over it. This might have been very serious. Clarendon talked one day to the Queen about Palmerston's health, concerning which she expressed her anxiety, when Clarendon said she might indeed be anxious, for it was of the greatest importance to her, and if anything happened to him he did not know where she could look for a successor to him, that she had often expressed her great desire to have a _strong_ Government, and that she had now got one, Palmerston being a really strong Minister. She admitted the truth of it. Clarendon said he was always very earnest with her to bestow her whole confidence on Palmerston, and not even to talk to others on any subjects which properly belonged to him, and he had more than once (when, according to her custom, she began to talk to him on certain things) said to her, 'Madam, that concerns Lord Palmerston, and I think your Majesty had better reserve it for your communications with him.' He referred to the wonderful change in his own relations with Palmerston, that seven or eight years ago Palmerston was full of hatred and suspicion of him, and now they were the best of friends, with mutual confidence and good will, and lately when he was talking to Palmerston of the satisfactory state of his relations with the Queen and of the utility it was to his Government that it should be so, Palmerston said, 'And it is likewise a very good thing that she has such boundless confidence in her Secretary for Foreign Affairs, when after all there is nothing she cares about so much.' Footnote 1: [M. Achille Fould, who had made a large fortune as a banker in Paris, was one of the ablest and most honourable of the Ministers of Napoleon III. He was much attached to this country, where he had many friends, and he encouraged the Emperor in that Free Trade policy which led to the Commercial Treaty of 1860, and strengthened the ties between England and France.]