_March 22nd._--Yesterday the 'Times' announced that a Congress had been agreed upon, which was believed, so the funds rose and there was a general belief that a solution was at hand, but it turns out not to be true. The Emperor wishes for one as a means by which he may back out of his scrape, which Cowley writes is now his object, but it is impossible to believe that Austria will listen to it, and Clarendon thinks that she would do wrong to consent to it, and that we should get into a scrape by being a party to it, as no reliance whatever can be placed on the good faith or honesty of France, who would deceive us and Austria, as she has often done before. Yesterday the Neapolitan exiles arrived at an hotel in Dover Street in several hack cabs, decorated with laurels, and preceded by a band of music. I did not see the men, but saw the empty cabs; there was no crowd. Nothing could be more uninteresting than the first evening of the debate on John Russell's Resolutions last night. Lord March told me in the morning that the Government would certainly dissolve as soon as the Resolutions were carried. Every day makes the folly of Derby more apparent in bringing in any Reform Bill at all. [Sidenote: DEBATE ON REFORM BILL] _March 24th._--When I think of the Reform Bill of 1832, and compare the state of affairs at that time with that of the present time, nothing can be more extraordinary. Then the interest was intense, the whole country in a fever of excitement, the Press rabid, the clamour for Reform all but universal, party running tremendously high, no doubt or hesitation about individual wishes and opinions, and each camp perfectly united in itself, and full of energy and zeal. In this condition of the public mind and of politics the debates began and continued. This debate has begun and seems likely to continue, how differently! There are neither zeal nor union on one side or the other, everybody is dissatisfied with the state of affairs, and nobody can see a satisfactory issue from the general embarrassment. There have been two nights of debate, and as yet all the speaking has been one way, all on the anti-Reform side. John Russell was flat, and Stanley, who replied to him, actually read his speech, which, though it was much complimented by his own friends, seems to have been far from effective. Horsman made a very good speech the first night, and Bulwer Lytton spoke with great eloquence and effect on Tuesday, far better than anybody thought he could speak, and the Solicitor-General made a magnificent speech, in which he attacked John Russell with great vigour and complete success. The only tolerable speech on the Opposition side was Sidney Herbert's. Nobody has the least idea what course the Government will take of the three open to them, whether they will resign, dissolve, or go on with the second reading. The inference from Stanley's speech was that they will dissolve, but Lytton and