chman, Dr.
Bernard, who had manufactured Orsini's bombs. The Duc de Malakoff, whose
conduct in the Crimea made him a popular hero in England, replaced M.
Persigny at the French Embassy. His presence helped to remind Englishmen
that it was not many years since they had fought side by side with French
soldiers, and resentment against the Emperor's army died away.

PEMBROKE LODGE, _October_ 30, 1858

Dinner at Gunnersbury. Met Malakoffs, D'lsraelis, Azeglio. Never
before had opportunity for real conversation with D'lsraeli--a sad
flatterer and otherwise less agreeable than so able a man of such
varied pursuits ought to be.

Although these years of comparative leisure had been welcome to them both,
the issues at stake in Europe were so important that Lord John could not
help wishing he again had an opportunity of directly influencing events.

He writes to his wife on December 15, 1858:

When I reflect that a Reform Bill and the liberation of Italy are
"looming in the distance," it gives me no little wish to be in
office; but when I consider what colleagues I should have, I am
cured of any such wish. I can express my own opinions in my own
way.

He feared that he would not have hearty support from his colleagues in his
views on Italy and Reform, which accounts for the above allusion.

In March the Ministry were defeated on Disraeli's Reform Bill, and
Parliament was dissolved. Meanwhile Italy's struggle against Austria was
exciting much deeper interest than franchise questions. On June 24, 1859,
the battle of Solferino was fought. Although the Austrians were beaten, the
cost of victory to the Italians and French was very heavy. The fortunes of
the whole campaign, indeed, had hitherto been due more to the incompetence
of Austrian generalship than either to the strength of the allies or to the
weakness of the Austrian position. Though Solferino was the fifth victory,
the others had been also dearly bought, and the allies still remained
inferior in numbers. Besides, should Austria go on losing ground there was
more than a chance that Prussia would invade France, when the prospects of
Italy would have been at an end, and England too, in all probability,
involved in a general war. Napoleon, who knew the unsoundness of his own
army, dreaded this contingency himself; though the English Court
supposed--and continued to suppose, strangely enough--that to provoke a war
with Prussia was the