Footnote 1: [William Spencer, sixth Duke of Devonshire, born May 21, 1790, died January 17, 1858. He was Mr. Greville's second cousin, the Duchess of Portland, mother of Lady Charlotte Greville, having been the daughter of the fourth Duke of Devonshire.]
_January 20th._--The more I hear from India and about Indian affairs, and the more I read and reflect upon the subject, the more desponding I become as to our future prospects there; first, as to our means of bringing the war to a successful issue, and secondly, as to our power to govern the country and keep it quiet and contented when the first object has been accomplished.
[Sidenote: DISRAELI'S OVERTURE TO THE WHIGS.]
_January 23rd._--On arriving in town yesterday, I received a visit from Disraeli, who said he had come to consult me _in confidence_, and to ask my opinion, by which his own course would be very much influenced. I was not a little surprised at this _exordium_, but told him I should be glad to hear what his object was, and that he was welcome to any opinion he wished for from me. He then began a rather hazy discourse, from which I gathered, or at least thought I gathered, that he thinks the present state of affairs very serious, and the position of the Government very precarious; that he is meditating on the possible chances there may be for him and his party in the event of Palmerston's fall, and knowing that some sort of coalition with some other party would be indispensable to form any other Government, an idea had crossed his mind that this might be practicable with some of the most moderate of the Whigs, especially with the younger ones, such as Granville and Argyll, and he wished to know if I thought this would be possible, and whether I could be in any way instrumental in promoting it, and if I did not think so what my ideas were as to the most advisable course in order to avert the threatened Reform, and to give the country a better Government than this. This, with a great deal of verbiage and mixed with digressions about the leading men of the present day, seemed to me to be the substance and object of his talk. He professed to speak to me of his own sentiments without disguise, and with entire confidence about everything, but I cannot call to mind that he imparted to me anything of the slightest interest or importance. It would be difficult and not very interesting to write down our somewhat vague and _décousu_ conversation, but I told him that I knew very little of the dispositions of any of the men he alluded to, but I did not believe they any of them would be parties to any such combination as he looked to, or separate from their present colleagues.