_February 26th_.--Dined with the Apponyis, now Austrian ambassador; Duchess
of Wellington, Clarendon, Lewis, Lady Westmorland, and Mme. de Bury, who
was in great favour at Vienna.

_To Lord Brougham_

_62 Rutland Gate, March 1st_.--Never was a session opened with so little
interest. I believe it is quite true that the Tories are resolved to
_menager_ Palmerston as much as possible, and to enter into no hostile
combinations against him with the Radicals. In fact, Palmerston is gaining
ground with the Conservatives, and losing it with some sections of the
Liberals. He has exasperated the Irish Catholics to the last degree; and
for my own part, I think his language and conduct about Mr. Turnbull's
resignation highly discreditable. It is another specimen of the unhappy
influence of Shaftesbury's ignorance and bigotry. However, the practical
result is that the Government have lost Cork by a large majority, and that
at the next election there will hardly be a ministerial candidate returned
in Ireland.

It is impossible not to see that the general tendency of the public mind in
this country is rather towards conservatism than reform. Even the reformers
are compelled to haul down their bill; and if the Tories had better men to
fill the offices, I think they would, in two or three years, have a fair
chance of regaining power and keeping it.

At the present moment, the bishops seem to be the most eager combatants; in
France they are denouncing the Emperor [Footnote: In January 1860 Reeve was
told in Paris that the Pope spoke of him as the beast of the Apocalypse.]
as Pontius Pilate; in England they are thirsting for the blood of a few