tween Premier and Sovereign, published by Sir Theodore Martin, without coming to the conclusion that at the outset he undervalued the danger very considerably, and that it was fortunate for the nation that Prince Albert was at hand to point out the perils of a jaunty optimism. However, when he was fully awake to the greatness of the occasion, his proceedings were characterised by his usual dash and promptitude, while his cheeriness upheld the spirit of the nation. He pitched on the right man, when Sir Colin Campbell was sent out to India and to take the vacant place of Commander-in-Chief; when, as the Premier subsequently informed a delighted House of Commons, upon being asked when he would be able to start, the gallant officer, with his ordinary promptitude, replied "To-morrow." And the sentiments which dictated Lord Palmerston to refuse the proffered assistance from Belgium, under full confidence that England could "win off her own bat," were thoroughly English and great; as also was his intimation at the Mansion House to any foreign nation" that "it would not be a safe game to play to take advantage of that which is erroneously imagined to be the moment of our weakness."

66

Even the overthrow of Lord Palmerston in the fol

lowing year on the Conspiracy to Murder Bill, introduced on the occasion of the Orsini attempt on Napoleon III., was not followed by a withdrawal of popular favour, and was probably due simply to mismanagement. The opinion naturally prevailed in the House of Commons that the author of the civis Romanus sum speech was not seen at his best when modifying the criminal law of England at the bidding of a foreign potentate; and the measure was never particularly popular. But the first reading was carried by 299 to

99, and it is certain that had it not been for the violence of the language across the water, and the unfortunate neglect of Lord Clarendon to send a formal reply to Count Walewski's hectoring despatch, the subsequent course of the measure would have been equally prosperous. Even under the circumstances, defeat might have been avoided if the Government whips had been alive to the critical nature of the division; and if Lord Palmerston had consented to adjourn the debate in order to allow passions to cool and the necessary explanations to be made-explanations which, when they were eventually forthcoming, were acknowledged by Lord Derby to be perfectly satisfactory. So unlike Palmerston's usual tactics was the lack of resource he displayed on the occasion, that many observers thought that the whole affair was a fausse sortie; and that he preferred to resign on the Conspiracy to Murder Bill rather than on the impending question of the extremely unpopular appointment of Lord Clanricarde to the Privy Seal, an appointment which Lord Brougham had forewarned Lady Palmerston would "damn the Ministry." Mr. Greville, however, rejects that explanation; and as Sir George Cornewall Lewis never hinted at it in his conversations with the Clerk of the Council, it is pretty certain that he was right in his conclusions, and that Lord Palmerston fell through one of those errors of judgment to which all mortals are prone. In any case, he was quite right to abstain from retaining power after the discredit of a defeat. For the Conservative party took little by entering into office; and the period of opposition to which the Liberal party was condemned, was of infinite value in the healing of internal dissensions.

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CHAPTER XII.

LORD PALMERSTON AND ITALY.

1848-1861.

The Willis's Rooms meeting-Defeat of Lord Derby's ministry-Lord Palmerston and Azeglio-The Sardinian Contingent-The Congress of Paris-The mission of Kossuth-The treaty of Villafranca-Policy of the English Cabinet-The cession of Nice and Savoy-Lord Palmerston's efforts on behalf of Italy-His speech on the death of Cavour.

WHILE the second Derby administration kept in power through the divisions of their opponents and the supreme skill with which they were led by Mr. Disraeli, the most important debates as far as the Liberal party was concerned were, not those heard in the House of Commons, but those in the aristocratic halls of Woburn Abbey and Broadlands. The main objects of the negotiators were to effect a reconciliation between. the two kings of Brentwood, Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston, and at the same time to frame a programme sufficiently large to secure the support of the Radical and Peelite groups. The reader must consult the pages of Greville if he wishes to obtain a detailed knowledge of the moves and counter-moves of the Whig party managers, male and female; and it is enough to say here, that although the dissolution of 1859 gave a considerable accession of strength to the Conservatives,

it was not enough to counterbalance the effect of the reunion of the Liberal party accomplished at the Willis's Rooms meeting of June 6th. There Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell announced that each was willing to serve under the other in the event of either being sent for, and the course of conduct agreed upon received the support of men of such varied shades of opinion as Lord Palmerston, Lord John Russell, Mr. Milner Gibson, and Mr. Sidney Herbert.

The amendment to the Address moved by Lord Hartington, upon which Ministers were defeated by a majority of thirteen, was a general vote of want of confidence. But the debate turned almost entirely on the war of Italian Liberation; and Lord Malmesbury had no doubt whatever that the overthrow of the Conservative Ministry might have been postponed, if Mr. Disraeli had not omitted to lay on the table of the House the Blue Book containing the Italian and French correspondence with the Foreign Office. Not only was the future of Italy the question of the hour, but it was the question which divided the Liberals the least. The three most powerful men of the reunited party, Lord John Russell, Lord Palmerston, and Mr. Gladstone, were all definitely anti-Austrian in their views; and the decidedly pronounced Italian sympathies of the first and second of the trio caused Lady William Russell to bestow upon them the happy sobriquet of the "old Italian masters."

Lord Palmerston had, in truth, been consistently faithful to the Italians ever since the temporary overthrow of their aspirations in 1848. He early recognised the genius of Cavour; and both he and Lady Palmerston were on terms of the warmest intimacy with the Marquis Emanuel d'Azeglio, the astute

diplomatist who represented Sardinian interests in London with such striking ability during the important decade from 1851 to 1861. That friendship was of considerable importance to the Italian cause, and the value of his services can be traced in the series of highly interesting letters from Cavour to Azeglio, recently published by M. Nicomède Bianchi under the title of La Politique du Comte Camille de Cavour. The machinations of the Machiavellian Piedmontese seem, indeed, to have embraced the whole of the family circle of Broadlands. Not only were "private" despatches doctored for the purpose of being laid on the table of Milady, but Lord Shaftesbury was favoured with stories of Jesuitical atrocities, which were reproduced with great effect in Exeter Hall, as Victor Emmanuel discovered when in 1856 the English people received him with the honours of a Protestant hero. It is probable, however, that both Lord Palmerston and his agent, Sir James Hudson, the British Minister at Turin, were too well acquainted with the rules of diplomacy not to be able to distinguish grain from chaff. Both men were Italianissimi; and both were simply acting in agreement with their inclinations in advocating the despatch of the Sardinian contingent to the Crimea on the understanding that the representatives of the monarchy should be allowed to discuss "Sardinian interests" at the peace negotiations, and both were fully aware that by so doing they were giving a great access of importance to Sardinia. Lord Palmerston even went so far as to adopt a plan hatched by Napoleon during the Congress of Paris for the acquisition of the Duchy of Parma by Sardinia through a process of shuffling the

* 66 Ménagez toujours ce bon Shaft," wrote Cavour to Azeglio and his letters are full of similar admonitions.