views with those of the Foreign Secretary. Instead of encouraging him to lay his opinions freely before them in frequent interviews and direct intercourse, they treated him with distrust and appeared to shun his society. The interposition of Lord John Russell was invoked, the arrangement being that "the despatches submitted for (the Queen's) approval must pass through the hands of Lord John Russell, who, if he should think that they required any material change, should accompany them with a statement of his reasons." To the transmission through the Prime Minister Lord Palmerston agreed; and the fact says volumes for his generous and loyal disposition. For if the arrangement had been carried. out to the letter, the result would have been, that while the Foreign Secretary prepared the drafts, they would have been discussed and settled between the Prime Minister and the Sovereign.* He would thus have been reduced from a confidential servant of the Crown, to the position of a mere clerk, indeed his position would have become almost intolerable for a man of any self-respect. Even with the most delicate treatment, the system could hardly fail to create and perpetuate a feeling of antagonism between the Prime Minister and the head of the Foreign Department, and it should certainly never have been proposed to Lord Palmerston as a law of conduct. Though approved by Lord John, it seems to have been almost entirely the work of Stockmar, and expressive of the feelings of the Court. Fresh suspicion and confusion was the inevitable result; and Lord Palmerston's admirers might fairly have advanced as an excuse for some of his escapades, that he was proscribed and subordinated to another, in a place where he had every right to play the part of a familiar friend.

Mr. Gladstone's Gleanings of Past Years, vol. i. p. 87.

"There was a Palmerston," said Mr. Disraeli; and Guizot, himself in exile, raised a Nunc dimittis when he heard of his enemy's overthrow. The member for Tiverton bore his temporary adversity with that entire absence of rancour which is perhaps the most delightful trait in his fine nature. "Ah, how are you, Granville?" he said to his successor; "Well, you have got a very interesting office, but you will find it very laborious," and proceeded to give him every assistance in his power. There was no ill-feeling in his mind against the Court, though he imagined that they had been influenced by foreign, especially Orleanist, influences in his dismissal. This view he communicated to his brother without circumlocution, together with a curious story about a contemplated descent upon the French coast by the Orleanist princes, the Duc d'Aumale and the Prince de Joinville, which he believed to have precipitated Napoleon's coup d'état, and which induced him to express his warm approval of that measure. Nor did he bear any unworthy resentment against Lord John Russell. According to Lord Shaftesbury, he never alluded to him but with a laugh, and "Oh, he's a foolish fellow, but we shall go on very well now."

It is only fair then to consider that Palmerston was not influenced by personal motives in his attack upon Lord John's Militia Bill, by which, within a very short space of time, he so signally avenged his own dismissal from office. "I have had my tit-for-tat with John Russell," he wrote to his brother, "and I turned him out on Friday last "; but he hastened to add that his only object was to persuade the House to reject the feeble plan of the Government. Indeed, few statesmen of the day had taken more honourable interest in the state of

our defences, or had spoken more frequently on the subject. A memorandum which he addressed to Lord Melbourne, set forth the liability of England to invasion with a fulness of knowledge that a military authority might envy. During Peel's ministry he had examined the Government on harbours and fortifications with a persistency which aroused the wrath of Cobden, and which calls forth the mirth of Cobden's biographer, Mr. John Morley. Nor can it be questioned that Palmerston's amendment, which made the militia generally instead of "locally" available, was a vast improvement to the measure. It might have been accepted by the ministry without loss of honour, and he suspected them of incurring the defeat because they were anxious to escape the responsibility of carrying on the Government any longer. A passage in Lord John Russell's Reminiscences proves that the guess was correct.

from

The tit-for-tat naturally drew attention once more to Palmerston's political isolation. In spite of his long service in the Whig ranks, he was still a political free lance; and Lord Derby, to whom fell the formation of a ministry, thrice made overtures for his services; in February 1852, again in July, and for a third time in December. All proposals were, however, declined, chiefly because of the Protectionist colour of the administration, though Palmerston gave valuable support to their Militia Bill, and even prolonged their existence at the opening of the new Parliament by bringing forward an amendment to Mr. Charles Villiers' free trade resolution which they were able to accept without loss of dignity. Conscious of his own strength, he was but little troubled by the gloomy looks of his former colleagues, whom from time to time he treated rather unkindly. When at the Tiverton hustings, the local orator

come.

the butcher, Rowcliffe, attempted to rally him on his position, Palmerston blandly replied that whatever Government he meant to join, he would never join a Government called a Rowcliffe Administration. His letters show that he was equally determined not to serve again under" Johnny "; and the admission which he went on to make, that Johnny was not likely to serve under him, proves that he felt that his own hour was not yet There happened at this time to be a movement on foot among the Whigs for uniting the Liberal party under the eminently prudent leadership of Lord Lansdowne; and though it was not initiated in any way by Palmerston, he gave it his cordial support. Age and ill-health, however, compelled Lord Lansdowne to determine upon a nolo episcopari; and on the retirement of the Derby Ministry, Lord Aberdeen constructed a cabinet of Peelites and Whigs, with Sir William Molesworth as the representative of Philosophic Radicalism.

CHAPTER IX.

THE ABERDEEN MINISTRY.

1852-1855.

Lord Palmerston at the Home Office-Legislation and DeputationsThe Reform Bill-Temporary Resignation of Palmerston-Beginnings of the Eastern Question-The Menschikoff missionLord Palmerston's policy-His popularity with the nation-The Vienna note-The Concert of the Powers-Palmerston's description of the objects at issue-Declaration of war by Turkey-The Sinope disaster-Beginning of the war-The Napier banquet and its consequences-Proposal to make Palmerston Secretary at War--The Crimean expedition-Fall of the Ministry.

IN the Coalition Ministry Lord Palmerston, rather to the general surprise, was persuaded to take the Home Office. He did not yield until after considerable pressure had been put upon him, conscious, perhaps, that he was open to a charge of inconsistency if he served under a premier whose continental policy he had criticized so mercilessly. But the co-operation which he refused to Aberdeen was conceded to the solicitations of Lord Lansdowne, especially when he found that foreign affairs were to be in sound Whig hands. Palmerston chose the Home Office because it would bring him in contact with his fellow-countrymen, and would give him influence with regard to the militia and the