Note 22 — Chapter I · LORD DERBY’S SECOND ADMINISTRATION.

A few days after the formation of the Derby-Disraeli Ministry, De Persigny told Clarendon that the Tory Government “had prepared for themselves an héritage de rupture by the concurrence of their Party in the vote that had driven Lord Palmerston from power.”—Martin’s Life of the Prince Consort, Chap. LXXXIV. “The first time I met him (Persigny) at the Foreign Office,” writes Lord Malmesbury, “he literally raved, laying his hand on the hilt of his sword (he was in Court dress), and shouting ‘C’est la guerre! c’est la guerre!’ during which scene I sat perfectly silent and unmoved, till he was blown, which is the best way of meeting such explosions from foreigners.”—Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 106.