_July 4th._--Cobden has declined to take office, though he was advised by his friends to accept, and he approves of Milner Gibson and Charles Villiers having joined the Government. The reasons he gives are that he has always been a strenuous opponent of Palmerston, and that his conduct will be liable to reproach in taking office under him, that he has been the advocate of economy and low establishments, and would find himself obliged to act very inconsistently, or to oppose his colleagues in a policy respecting which popular opinion would be against him; but he expresses great satisfaction with Palmerston, who he says is a much better fellow than he was aware of, and he means to give the Government all the support in his power. These reasons do not seem sufficient for his not joining, which he had better have done. Granville laments Clarendon's having declined to take office as a Secretary of State, and that he will not be in the Cabinet to throw into the scale of foreign policy his political weight. I said I knew nothing of his motives, but assuming that he did not see foreign affairs in the same light as Palmerston and John Russell, he would be placed in an awkward position before long. Granville said this might be true, but he thought before very long he would be at the Foreign Office again. What he meant by that I do not know. _July 12th._--On Friday morning the world was electrified by reading in the 'Times' that an armistice had been agreed upon between the belligerent Emperors in Italy, and the subsequent announcement that they were to have a personal meeting yesterday morning, and the armistice to last for five weeks (till August 15), led to a pretty general conclusion that peace would be the result.[1] The Stock Exchange take the same view, for everywhere and in all securities there has been a great rise. I saw George Lewis on Sunday and asked him if the Government had any intelligence, when he told me that the only thing, besides what had appeared in the papers, was that France had proposed to us to interpose our mediation on the basis of Austria giving up everything, and Prussia had made the same proposal on the basis of Austria giving up nothing, both which proposals we had very naturally declined. Footnote 1: [The battle of Solferino was fought on June 24, and an armistice between the Emperors of France and Austria was signed at Villafranca on July 7.] [Sidenote: THE ARMISTICE OF VILLAFRANCA.]