A tremendous hurricane has been blowing all day, after two beautiful spring days. Algy Egerton came from London yesterday, and spoke in high terms of a speech made by William Gregory on Friday, in favour of our breaking the American blockade. It lasted two hours, and was listened to with deep attention, but the facts on which it was founded were upset by the Solicitor-General, Roundell Palmer, and the motion was withdrawn. Gregory is clever, and should be put into office.
In the French Chambers, the new Bill which is substituted for the one granting a dotation to Palikao is a bit of thimbleriggery. It is proposed that a sum of money shall be voted which is to be put at the disposal of the Emperor, with which he may reward the services of the army, from a marshal to a private, with or without reversibility, according to his pleasure. So that His Majesty gets even more than he originally asked for. In the meantime it is said Fould and Persigny cannot agree, and if Fould gets the upper hand Walewski will go to the wall, and it is suspected the Emperor has a new card to play, in Drouin de l'Huys. It was known that if the dotation of Palikao had been persisted in, Jules Favre and others of the Republican party had intended bringing up a lawsuit in which Montauban had played a very disgraceful part. Palikao, in Chinese, means 'cochon pourri.'
SOURCE: Alice Countess of Stratford, Leaves from the Diary of Henry Greville: 1861-1872, pp. 27-8
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