France and Prussia--The Emperor's Speech--Faint Hopes of Peace--Favourable View of the Policy of Russia--Progress of the Negotiations--Russia accepts the Terms of Peace--The Acceptance explained--Popular Feeling in Favour of the War--Lord Stratford and General Williams--Mr. Disraeli's Prospects--Meeting of Parliament--Baron Parke's Life Peerage--The Debate on the Address--Debate on Life Peerages--Report on the Sufferings of the Army--Strained Relations with France--Lord Clarendon goes to the Congress at Paris--Opening of the Conference--Sabbatarianism--Progress of the Negotiations--Kars--Nicolaieff--The Life Peerage Question--Blunders and Weakness of the Government--A Visit to Paris--Count Orloff's View of the War--Lord Cowley on the Negotiations--Princess Lieven on the War--An Evening at the Tuileries--Opening of the Legislative Chamber--Lord Cowley's Desponding Views--The Austrian Proposals--Bitterness in French Society--Necessity of Peace to France--Conversation with M. Thiers--A Stag Hunt at St. Germains--The Emperor yields to the Russians--Birth of the Prince Imperial. _January 1st_, 1856.--Intelligence arrived yesterday that Esterhazy had presented the Austrian proposal to Nesselrode on the 28th, who had received it _in profound silence_. Yesterday morning the 'Morning Post,' in communicating this fact, put forth an article indecently violent and menacing against Prussia; and as it contained a statement of what the Emperor Napoleon had said to Baron Seebach, which was exactly what Persigny had told Clarendon, this alone would prove, if any proof were required, that the article was inserted either by Palmerston or by Persigny. The 'Morning Post' derives its only importance from being the Gazette of Palmerston and of the French Government, and it is not very easy to determine which of the two is guilty of this article. These are the sort of manifestos which make us so odious all over the world. [Sidenote: MISCHIEVOUS RESULTS OF THE WAR.]