In this volume the story is told of the first entente
cordiale and of the circumstances which led to its
disruption. The questions which occupied the attention
of the French and the British governments at that
period have now passed into the domain of history.
The resentment evoked by the Egyptian crisis of 1840
and the controversies raised by the Spanish marriages
has died away. The attitude towards the Liberal
and national movements in Europe, adopted, on the
one side, by Louis Philippe and M. Guizot and, on
the other, by Lord Palmerston, can, at this distance
of time, be reviewed dispassionately. In the light of
the knowledge of to-day, the difficulties which beset
the Citizen King may be estimated, and the in-
justice of many of the attacks made upon the policy
of Palmerston can be demonstrated.

Researches in the diplomatic correspondence of the
period, both in London and in Paris, have enabled
me to place in print, for the first time, many docu-
ments bearing upon the part played by Talleyrand in
the Belgian question and upon the secret policy of
Louis Philippe in the same affair. In these pages
some new light has, I venture to think, been thrown
the situation in Spain during the regencies of
Christina and Espartero, and during the early years
of the rule of Isabella. In connection, also, with
Palmerston's Eastern policy, certain facts, hitherto
unpublished, are now presented for consideration.

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