with Canning's explanations and the Outram correspondence, which was immediately published, and although Palmerston and his friends and newspapers pretended that they considered these documents favourable to their cause, the general impression was rather the other way. All this time the Government people found their cause improving, and their chances in the division mending, and though their enemies still pretended to be certain of success, and I was told on Thursday night that I might safely lay any odds on their having a majority, the best informed of them in the House of Commons began to see danger, and at last they confessed only to expect a bare majority, and the Speaker told somebody it was very likely he should have to give a casting vote. The Radicals, or those of them who professed to be adherents of the Whig Cabinet, strongly urged the withdrawal of Cardwell's motion, and at last on the Thursday seem to have made up their minds that defeat in some shape was inevitable, and that the best thing left for them to do was to get rid of the debate in any way they could. Henry Lennox called on me yesterday morning to tell me what had passed, to this effect: that on Friday Disraeli had received a letter from Cardwell, in which he asked if Disraeli would allow him to withdraw his motion, and subsequently Palmerston desired to confer with him, when he put the same question to him, to which (according to Henry Lennox's statement) Disraeli replied, in a very lofty tone, that he would hear of nothing which could possibly be construed into any admission on their part of their meriting any part of the censure which the Opposition had been labouring to cast upon them. The Government had by this time ascertained that the Opposition had made their minds up to back out of the motion as best they might, and their retreat was not very cleverly done, beginning with Cardwell's refusal to withdraw, and ending with Palmerston's recommendation to him to yield, which was a got up thing. The scene in the House was most extraordinary, and particularly mortifying to Palmerston, who saw himself involved in inevitable defeat, and without the power of rallying again for some time. If anybody could be excused for the impatience which brought him and his party into this dilemma, it was Palmerston, who in his seventy fourth year, and resolved to die in harness if he could, had no time to lose. This affair has been the battle of Marengo of political warfare. The Whigs appeared to be victorious, and carrying everything before them up to the eleventh hour, and then came a sudden turn of affairs, and the promise of victory was turned into rout and disaster. The campaign is lost, and for the rest of this session the Government have it all their own way. The Whigs are in the condition of a defeated army, who require to be completely reorganized and re-formed before they can take the field again. The general resentment and mortification are extreme. They