I had a very brilliant Levee again yesterday, at which O'Connell and all his sons, son-in-law, nephew, etc., appeared.
I received him, as you may imagine, with a very smiling face; he has been behaving very well this year.[5] It was quite a treat for me to see him, as I had for long wished it.
We are going on most prosperously here, which will, I am sure, give you as much pleasure as it does me.

We have no fear for any of the questions.

Lord John Russell is much pleased with the temper of the House of Commons, which he says is remarkably good, and the Duke of Wellington is behaving uncommonly well, going _with Ministers_, and behaving like an honest man _should_ do....
[Footnote 5: Ever since the Accession, O'Connell's speeches had been full of expressions of loyalty, and he had been acting in concert with the Whigs.] [Pageheading: DEPARTMENTS OF STATE] [Pageheading: BUREAUCRACY] _Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._ STANHOPE STREET, _25th February 1838._ Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and with reference to your Majesty's question upon the subjects to which Lord William Russell's recent despatch relates, he has the honour to state: that in the Governments of the Continent, and more especially in those which have no representative Assemblies, the second class of persons in the public offices possess and exercise much more power and influence than the corresponding class of persons do in this country.

In England the Ministers who are at the head of the several departments of the State, are liable any day and every day to defend themselves in Parliament; in order to do this, they must be minutely acquainted with all the details of the business of their offices, and the only way of being constantly armed with such information is to conduct and direct those details themselves.
On the Continent, where Ministers of State are not liable so to be called to account for their conduct, the Ministers are tempted to leave the details of their business much more to their Under-Secretaries and to their chief clerks.

Thus it happens that all the routine of business is generally managed by these subordinate agents; and to such an extent is this carried, that Viscount Palmerston believes that the Ministers for Foreign Affairs, in France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, seldom take the trouble of writing their own despatches, except, perhaps, upon some very particular and important occasion.
Your Majesty will easily see how greatly such a system must place in the hands of the subordinate members of the public departments the power of directing the policy and the measures of the Government; because the value and tendency, and the consequences of a measure, frequently depend as much upon the manner in which that measure is worked out, as upon the intention and spirit with which it was planned.
Another circumstance tends also to give great power to these second-class men, and that is their permanence in office.
In England when, in consequence of some great political change, the Heads of Departments go out, the greater part of the Under-Secretaries go out also; thus the Under-Secretary (with two or three exceptions) having come in with his Chief, has probably no more experience than his Chief, and can seldom set up his own knowledge to overrule the opinion, or to guide the judgment, of his superior.
But on the Continent, changes of Ministers are oftener changes of individual men from personal causes, than changes of parties from political convulsions; and therefore when the Chief retires, the Under-Secretary remains.