394 APPENDIX. same sense as the Turks, rendered it impossible to press further for its signature in a different sense from that in which it was read both by the Power by which it was to be sent and the Power by which it was to be received. There aro probably few persons now living who have a fuller knowledge or a clearer recollection than nryself of all tbat passed during the long and complicated negotiations which preceded the Crimean war. My knowledge of all that passed, both abroad and at home, was ample ; for not only was I in possession of the most unreserved confidence of my father (whose private secretary I then was), but both Sir James Graham and Lord Clarendon, as well as Mr Gladstone, were in the habit of conversing with me with entire freedom on the course of public affairs. My recol- lection of that period is vivid and distinct. Though my subsequent life has not been inactive, nor I hope altogether a useless one, my acceptance of colonial employment has necessarily removed me from any part in transactions of similar magnitude; nor have I, like yourself and most of the other actors in those negotiations, been ever since engaged in great affairs, the increasing pressure of which, as well as the crowd of important events which have filled the last twenty years, must necessarily have more or less weakened the impressions of this bygone time in so far as concerns matters of detail. But it is not upon the strength of my own recollection, however vivid, or on that of my knowledge, however complete I may believe it to be, that I should have ventured to question the accuracy of any statement made by you, were it not that the ample documentary evidence in my possession completely confirms the correctness of my im- pressions. It is no doubt the case that in the first instance you, in common with the rest of the Cabinet, desired that the Vienna Note should be pressed upon the acceptance of the
