_April 1st._--News of peace reached London on Sunday evening, and was received joyfully by the populace, not from any desire to see an end of the war, but merely because it is a great event to make a noise about. The newspapers have been reasonable enough, except the 'Sun,' which appeared in deep mourning and with a violent tirade against peace.
[Sidenote: SIR JAMES GRAHAM ON THE STATE OF PARTIES.]
_April 3rd._--Yesterday I met Graham at the Council Office, where he had come to attend a committee. Since the formation of Aberdeen's Government three years ago I have hardly ever seen him, and have never had any conversation with him. Yesterday he sat down and began talking over the state of affairs generally, and the prospects of the country, which he considers very gloomy and full of danger, more particularly from the outrageous license of the press, which has now arrived at a pitch perfectly intolerable, but which it is impossible to check or control. Then the total destruction of parties and of party ties and connexions, to say nothing of the antipathies and disagreements of such public men as these are. He says there is not one man in the House of Commons who has ten followers, neither Gladstone, nor Disraeli, nor Palmerston. The Government goes on because there is no organized opposition prepared and able to take its place, and the Government receives a sufficiency of independent support, because all feel that the business of the country must be carried on, and hitherto Palmerston has been supported as a War Minister, and the best man to carry on the war; but Graham is very doubtful what will happen when the discussions on the peace and all matters relating to the war are over, and other questions (principally of domestic policy) come into play. Palmerston, always sanguine, fancies he can stand, but it is very doubtful, for he is not backed by a party constituting a majority; the Treasury Bench is very weak, and Palmerston himself a poor and inefficient conductor of the Government in the House. John Russell has taken up the question of education, which he hopes to render popular, and through it means again to recover his former influence and authority. He said that John Russell is (in spite of all that happened last year) more looked up to by the Whig party than Palmerston, and that they would rather have him for their leader, as, notwithstanding the faults he has committed, he is by far the ablest man, has a much greater grasp of intellect, more foresight, and is much more of a statesman, and has fixed principles. Palmerston (Graham thinks) has a passionate love of office and power, and will cling to it with tenacity to the last, and never resign it but on compulsion, not caring with whom he acts, nor on what principles. This, I think, is partly true and partly false. I do not think he cares whom he acts with, but I do not believe he is quite indifferent as to the principles. He says Lewis has done well, and is liked in the House of Commons, and Gladstone likes him and gives him a cordial support; that Baines is a good man, and those two are the most respected and considered of all the men on the Treasury Bench, the House accepting their sterling qualities in place of greater brilliancy such as Gladstone can command; that Gladstone is certainly the ablest man there, though it is still doubtful whether his talents are equal to such an emergency as the present to master public opinion, enlist it on his side, and to administer the Government on certain principles of administrative reform, which Graham himself considers necessary. His religious opinions, in which he is zealous and sincere, enter so largely into his political conduct as to form a very serious obstacle to his success, for they are abhorrent to the majority of this Protestant country, and (I was rather surprised to hear him say) Graham thinks approach very nearly to Rome. Gladstone would have nothing to do with any Government unless he were leader in the House of Commons, and when that Government is formed, there should be previously a clear and distinct understanding on what principles it was founded and what their course of action should be. His tone is now that of disclaiming party connexions, and being ready to join with any men who are able and willing to combine in carrying out such measures as are indispensably necessary for the good government of the country, such a system as he briefly shadowed out in his speech at the Mansion House the other day.