xy |

RETURN TO PARIS. 743

‘ain the state of public opinion, for almost every person 1 1860
*ongulted differed from the one I had previously talked to. Zr. 66.
Sometimes I found members of the same household divided
m opinjon., Whilst talking to M. A., a banker, in his
Counting-house, who was using various reasons in favour
f annexation, his clerks, who were in an adjoining office,
%eparated by a glass partition, and who overheard his
"omarks, were expressing by signs and gestures their
dissent from his remarks. Again, on the same day, whilst
*alling on M. D., who was offering an opinion to the effect
that the population generally were in favour of the proposed
Change, he was contradicted very emphatically by a lady
who was present.”

| On the 22nd of March, Cobden found himself once more
0 Parig,
“ March 26.—Called on Lord Cowley. He appeared
harassed and worried. Since I last saw him, the Savoy
question had come to a crisis; and the correspondence had
all been published in a parliamentary blue book. He and
his Secretary of Legation complained of the practice of
Printing the despatches giving an account of the conversations
 held with foreign ministers or other personages,
remarking that these reports of what passes at a gossiping
interview may be very proper for the eye of a Secretary of
State, but become very inconvenient when exposed to the
8 of the whole world ; that their publication has the effect
of making ministers of state unwilling to hold oral communitations
 with diplomatic agents. Lord C. complained of the
conduct of the Emperor in the Savoy question; alleged
broadly that he had been deceived by him ; that for the first
time he had acted in such a way as to completely destroy all
tonfidence in future in him; he stated that he hed, in an
terview with the Emperor, told him frankly that he had not