Footnote 1: [It is within my own knowledge that M. Thouvenel expressed at that time the desire of the Emperor to do anything he could _to help Lord Palmerston_, and accordingly he proposed, unofficially, to surrender and annex a considerable portion of the Faucigny district, down to the Fort de l'Ecluse, in the Jura, to the Canton of Geneva, provided the British Government would assent to the acquisition by France of the rest of Savoy. Lord Palmerston rejected the proposal, saying to the person who conveyed it to him, 'We shall shame them out of it.'--H. R.] _Wells, March 21st._--I came here from Savernake on Monday. On Friday last in the House of Lords the Commercial Treaty and Budget, but the latter especially, were powerfully assailed by Grey, Overstone, and Derby, and very considerably damaged _in argument_, but probably in nothing else. The Government are as weak in the Lords as the Opposition are in the Commons, where, however, Disraeli seems to have made a very good speech against the Reform Bill on Monday night. [Sidenote: LORD JOHN DENOUNCES NAPOLEON.] _Torquay, March 28th._--The past week has been remarkable for the speech in which John Russell denounced in strong language the conduct of France, declared that we could no longer trust her, and that we must renew our intimacies with the other Powers. Whether all this was sincere and meant all it seems to do is yet to be discovered. The week was near being still more remarkable, for the Reform Bill was within an ace of falling to the ground by the House being counted out in the midst of a debate. This would have been very ridiculous, but would have been hailed with delight by the House of Commons, and without dissatisfaction by the country. Clarendon writes to me in a strain of bitter hostility to the Bill and disgust at everything, complains of the general apathy and the impossibility of rousing any spirit of opposition to what all abhor. Derby told him that if twenty-five or even twenty Liberals would _take the lead_ in opposing this Bill, the whole Conservative party would support them. Clarendon wrote to me when I was at Bath that the time would probably come when Gladstone would propose a graduated Income Tax, and lo! it has nearly come, for Gladstone gave notice the other night to people to be prepared for it. The Triumvirate of Palmerston, John Russell, and Gladstone, who have it all their own way, dragging after them the Cabinet, the House of Commons, and the country, will probably be the ruin of this country. They are playing into the Emperor Napoleon's hands, who has only to be patient and bide his time, and he will be able to treat all Europe, England included, in any way he pleases. Nothing but some speedy change of Government and of system can avert the impending ruin.