_March 15th._--Cowley arrived from Vienna on Saturday. I have not yet seen him, but Clarendon told me yesterday that he brings back the most satisfactory assurances on the part of Austria, who is ready to give every pledge of her pacific intentions, and to come to any agreement with France upon the withdrawal of both their forces from the Papal States, but that she will make no concessions inconsistent with her rights and her dignity, or which could seem to damp the enthusiasm now prevailing in Germany in her favour; in fact, that she has no concessions to make. Within the last few days the symptoms from France have been more menacing. At Paris the conviction is general that war is meant, and I am obliged to believe it likewise. The resignation of Prince Napoleon seems to have been a mere sham, and his intimacy with the Emperor as close as ever. There is no reason to believe that the military preparations in France are suspended, and in Piedmont they are certainly going on actively. [Sidenote: LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S RESOLUTIONS.] The other great topic of interest, viz. the Reform Bill and John Russell's Resolutions, does not look in a more satisfactory state. While many sensible people deprecate this move of John Russell's, and lament that Palmerston should have consented to support it, the probability seems that it will be carried, but the greatest uncertainty prevails as to the course which the Government will adopt, and whether they will try to go on, dropping their Bill altogether, or continue the fight with its remaining clauses, or whether they will take the chance of a dissolution. It is now clear enough that Derby made a great blunder in undertaking to deal with the question of Reform at all, and that a consistent Conservative course would have been the most honourable and the wisest, and have afforded him the best chance of staying in office. By bringing forward a measure to the principle of which it is well known that he and his whole Government and party are in their hearts adverse, and then trying to vitiate the principle by certain contrivances in the details, by which the scruples of his own party may be obviated, he exposes himself to the charge of producing a dishonest measure, and this is what the Whigs urge as their ground for attacking it in front and at once. This is what Lewis said to me, 'We are bound to defeat a measure which is so dishonest that it is not susceptible of such improvement in Committee as would warrant our passing it.' The conduct of the Whigs, however, is not a whit more honest. Their allegation is a mere pretext, and their real motive is that they think they see their way back to office through an attack upon the Government Bill; they are indifferent to the consequences, and all they want is to get the coast clear for themselves, and take the chance of settling the difficult questions which will arise as to the formation of a Government and the conditions on which it can be formed.