ngratulated him by letter on his various escapes from
assassination. She replied that it was not surprising that
Sovereigns and their families should be indisposed to send their
daughters to a country which they looked upon as always liable to
a revolution, and to marry them to a prince always in danger of
being expelled from France, and perhaps from Europe; and that the
Emperor (whom she did not excuse in this respect) could not bring
himself to write _Monsieur mon Frere_ to Louis Philippe, and for
that reason would never compliment him but through his ambassador;
_au reste_, that the Duke of Orleans would find a wife among the
German princesses. It is, however, very ridiculous that second and
third-rate royalties should give themselves all sorts of airs, and
affect to hold cheap the King of France's eldest son, and talk of
his alliance as a degradation. There are two Wuertemberg
princesses, daughters of the Duchess of Oldenburg, who talk in
this strain; one of them is good-looking, and the Duke of Orleans
in his recent expedition in Germany had the curiosity to travel
incognito out of his way to take a look at them. The King their
father, who heard of it, complained to Madame de Lieven of the
impertinence of such conduct; but the girls were enchanted, and
with all their pretended aversion and contempt for the Orleans
family, were in a flutter of excited vanity at his having come to
look at them, and in despair at not having seen him themselves.

London, February 7th, 1837 {p.388}

Left Paris on Friday at five o'clock, and got to Boulogne at
half-past one on Saturday; passed the day with my cousin Richard,
and walked all over Boulogne, the ramparts and the pier.

February 22nd, 1837 {p.388}

An unhappy business not to be recorded here has so completely
absorbed my attention that I could not think of politics or of
anything else that is passing in the world. The Session had
opened (before I arrived) with a reconciliation, as usual,
between the Whigs and Radicals, but with a general opinion that
the Government was nevertheless in considerable danger. In a long
correspondence which I had with Tavistock I urged that his
friends ought to give up the appropriation clause, and propose
poor laws and payment of the Catholic clergy. The first two they
have done, and the last probably they really cannot do. As I have
all along thought, it will be reserved for Peel to carry this
great measure into effect. Caring much for