'On April 9th I left for France for Easter, and had long and pleasant breakfasts at the Palais Bourbon with Gambetta, varied by a grand dinner on April 16th, at which I met many of those who afterwards held office--Ferry, afterwards Prime Minister; Rouvier, afterwards Prime Minister; Spuller, afterwards Minister for Foreign Affairs; Constans, afterwards Minister of the Interior; and Freycinet, afterwards Prime Minister--all of them dull men enough. Spuller, a kindly and pleasant dull man; Constans, a red-faced Burgundy drinker; Freycinet, a little white intriguer--on the whole a sorry crew, Gambetta towering above them in ability, in joviality, and even in reading.' In a scrap of an old letter, dated Wednesday, April 16th, Sir Charles says: "I've spent nearly all my time with Gambetta. He said that he thinks Sella 'le premier homme politique de l'Italie, mais enragé protectionniste.' He says he told him that if he were not so violent a Protectionist he would be 'l'homme absolument nécessaire.'" On this follows later the observation: 'If Gambetta was anything, he was anti-Russian and a Free Trader, and his friends, professing to continue his work, became, after about 1887, rabid Russians and fierce Protectionists.' He speaks of Gambetta's 'contempt for Sella because Sella was a Protectionist,' and adds: 'I suppose Gambetta would have become one had he lived.' While Dilke was in Paris he received a letter from Chamberlain referring to a motion about 'the interference of the Crown in politics,' of which Mr. Dillwyn had given notice. Mr. Chamberlain thought the subject "certainly a popular one, but very difficult to treat in the House of Commons."