he had determined, at once, to secure himself from the storm, and to make preparations for putting out, on his own account, into the troubled waters which their destruction should leave open. His design was seen through, and so universally despised, that when Lord Aberdeen resigned a few days afterwards, upon the defeat of the ministry on Mr. Roebuck's motion, Lord John Russell found himself in a state of complete isolation. No one would join with a man who had deserted his comrades under the very fire of an enemy; and when, amid the uncertainties of the ministerial interregnum that followed, he was applied to by the Queen to form a government, he could not obtain the assistance of a single friend or follower.

The appointment of the Committee of Inquiry was resisted by the ministers, and by a small section of the press in their interest, upon the grounds that it would be virtually a transfer of the executive power into the hands of the House of Commons; that it would weaken the discipline of the army; and that, by the disclosures it might lead to, it would impair the cordiality of our alliance with France. It produced none of these effects, being, in truth, so conducted as to be made a mere farce and blind, in so far as its ostensible purpose was concerned. Persons who could have given important testimony were not called upon; the examinations were carried on in the loosest and most desultory manner, and yet were stopped short in every case in which they seemed likely to elicit disclosures that might be damaging to the higher officials; and in the end, the enormous mass of evidence accumulated was nothing more than a muddled dilution of the statements of the newspaper correspondents, the truth of which no one doubted and it was impossible to refute. Nevertheless, the motion of Mr. Roebuck did good service to the country, and the resistance offered to it by the ministers showed in a remarkable manner the thick ignorance of public opinion which blinded the majority of the members of the Coalition. Nor were their eyes more than partially opened by that extraordinary majority of 305 to 148, which drove them in a body from office.

The

operation did not prevent the Peelite section from courting another humi

To

liation, when, making the rescinding of the resolution for the appointment of the committee a condition of their remaining in the revivified cabinet, they found themselves obliged to secede, and they did so with the full accord of the entire body of the people. In the course of a close observation of public events, now not of the shortest, we remember no vote of the House of Commons more entirely in unison with the general feeling than that which drove Lord Aberdeen from office; and certainly no retirement of a statesman from the public service was ever more universally satisfactory than that of Messrs. Gladstone, and Sidney Herbert, and Sir James Graham. every man who went into society of any class, public or private, or who spoke for five minutes with a casual acquaintance at the corner of a street, it was known, that among civilians, soldiers, farmers, artisans, men and women, rich and poor, the common sentiment had been, for many months distrust in those men's honesty and patriotism; the common desire, a wish for their removal from the confidential service of the Crown. Yet, strange to say, it was not until their own presumption forced the conclusion upon the mind of Lord Palmerston, that he, their colleague, discovered that their co-operation was not necessary to the formation of an adminis tration-stranger still, that the leader of the Opposition, Lord Derby, did not even sooner know, that to urge a stern and relentless war upon them and their policy was the only course by which it was possible for him to conciliate popular support sufficient to warrant his acceptance of office. To our mind nothing has ever appeared more remarkable than the general ignorance of what is passing around, and most concerns them, in which our public men are commonly enveloped. Wrapped in the fog and smoke of London, their mental vision seems incapable of perceiving any object but as it looms through that dense mist, which often converts pigmies into giants, or shows some harmless or contemptible reptile in the likeness of a formidable monster. Many instances in point might be adduced; but we doubt if we could cite one more striking than the illusion under the influence of which Lord Derby frustrated what we must suppose to be his own ambition, and seat

tered his party, by requesting Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Sidney Herbert to accept seats in a cabinet of his formation. Had he no friend at hand to tell him what was said in any drawing-room, or at any dinner-table, outside the charmed circle of placemen, actual or possible no secretary or barber from whom he could hear the gossip of a club or pot-house? Were his own ears stopped, that he heard no murmur of the general voice? We must imagine that he was thus isolated from the common world, before we can approach to a comprehension of the posbility of a man of his acuteness committing so obvious a mistake as that to which we have referred. The mistake, however, he did fall into, and thus brought to a short ending "those abortive negotiations which (to use the language of the Times) made known, in so signal a manner, the weakness and incompetency of the Opposition in the eyes of its own chosen leader." From that moment Lord Palmerston became, if not the master of the situation, at all events the sole occupant of it. Yet, upon his mind, also, the cloud of ignorance seems still to have lain heavily, obscuring all that was passing around. Before the lucky insolence of the Peelites had relieved him of the opprobrium of their companionship, he had rehabilitated the sham of the Vienna conferences, by commissioning Lord John Russell to take part in them as minister plenipotentiary, for the special purpose of considering Austrian proposals of peace. No sooner had he got rid of his peace-at-anyprice colleagues, and begun to rise proportionately in the public estima tion, than he promulgated a sort of confession of faith in the pending negociation, by placing his peace-plenipotentiary in his cabinet, and entrusting him with the seals of the Colonial Office. Yet, all this time the whole country thought and said (as they had thought and said for many months), that the road to peace lay through Sebastopol, and that the way of Vienna could lead only to more extended and more disastrous war. acting upon that opinion, the people had broken up the Aberdeen ministry, and it was by virtue of its influence that Lord Palmerston became First Lord of the Treasury; yet he appears to have had no clear perception of the strength of the popular feeling, or he

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was, perhaps, confounded by the noise and fury of the Manchester clique; for upon no other hypothesis can we explain his persistence in a policy. which had already produced such calamitous results, and which was in opposition to every known inclination of his mind. Fortunately for the honour of England this error was countervailed by the presumptuous confidence in the vanity and folly of the English and French diplomatists entertained by the Russian Court. The offer to accept a paper guarantee for the limitation of the naval power of Russia in the Black Sea, accompanied though it was by a special salvo for the honour of the Czar, and by a concession of the status quo in regard to territorial arrangements, was refused. Lord Palmerston got another chance: and Lord John Russell, in his extreme anxiety to make a good stroke, again over-reached himself. When the proposal for a paper limitation of the Russian fleet failed, the Austrian minister, probably with a view to procrastinate, rather than with any hope of its acceptance, proposed "a system of counterpoise "that the allies should be formally permitted by the Czar to maintain ships in a certain numerical proportion to his own in the Black Sea, which they now sweep from shore to shore, without asking his leave, and upon whose waters a Russian cockboat dare not venture. Such an arrangement would have been a chronic war, yet Lord John Russell strongly urged its acceptance upon the Cabinet. The light of public opinion was, however, beginning to break through the clouds that darkened the vision of Lord Palmerston, and the new proposal was sternly and peremptorily rejected in a dispatch bearing Lord Clarendon's name, in which the bubble of the Austrian treaty of offence and defence, of the 2nd of December, was burst, and the British Government declared that "they would prefer the continuation of war to a peace that would not be honourable, nor likely to last." This despatch was dated upon the 8th of May, Lord John Russell having returned to London in the end of April, and occupied the interval in advocating his views by personal communications with his colleagues. Of all these proceedings not a particle was made known to the nation; but a good deal of suspicion having been excited by the sudden dismissal of the French minister, M.

the 24th of May, Mr. Disraeli moved a resolution in the House of Commons, expressing "dissatisfaction with the ambiguous language, and uncertain conduct of her Majesty's Government in reference to the great question of peace or war;" and thereupon Lord John Russell got up in his place, and having solemnly denounced the ambition of Russia, declared, "in the words of a high authority, that if she objected to reduce her navy, it would be a proof she intended aggression." She had not merely objected, but contemptuously refused to make any such reduction, to this very lord; and, but a short three weeks before, he had urged his colleagues to admit her objection, to abandon their demand for limitation, and adopting the "principle of counterpoise," to conclude a peace which they pronounced would not be honourable nor likely to last." But of this latter feature in the case the public, as we have said, then knew nothing, and all ambiguity being purged out of the language of her Majesty's Government by the ex-Plenipotentary's lucid explanations, Mr. Roebuck and some other members were converted, and the vote of censure was negatived by a majority of 100 in a large house. Out of doors also the tide of opinion turned and began to set strongly in favour of LITTLE JOHN RUSSELL who, with all his tricks, was re-discovered to be a true Englishman at heart. But, a sad marplot is that outspoken press of ours! Upon this occasion, its mischievous activity carried to the ear of Count Buol words spoken in the strictest confidence to the English people, and forthwith there issued from Vienna a circular in which the whole tale we have briefed above was narrated to the world with the cruelest candour. Short-sighted Count Buol who could not see that his noble friend spoke only for the ear of John Bull, and in a strictly parliamentary sense, when he talked of those servants of German princes among whom "the Russian court distributes rewards, orders, distinctions, and by whom, in some cases, the receipt of money to pay debts will be accepted, and has been

liberally given to them to corrupt the independence and undermine the vital strength of Germany." Thin-skinned Count Buol! who, yielding to the impulse of passion, cast down, in a moment, his chance of getting another order, and perhaps another bribe, by the services of that same friend in hoodwinking and betraying the British nation. The fatal circular did its work, and Lord John Russell stood convicted out of his own mouth of having paltered with the honour and safety of his country at Vienna, and of having deliberately deceived Parliament and people at home. The result was his expulsion from office for the second time within six months. Upon this occasion, Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton performed the part before sustained by Mr. Roebuck. On the 10th of July, Sir Edward gave notice that on the earliest opportunity that might present itself, he should move a resolution to the effect, "that the conduct of the minister charged with the negotiations at Vienna, and his continuance in office as a responsible adviser of the Crown, have shaken the confidence which the country should place in those to whom the administration of public affairs is intrusted." On the 16th of July this motion was ripe for hearing, but the accused man did not await his condemnation. A number of subordinate members of the Government, being less ignorant of the state of public opinion than their chiefs, had intimated that their support could not be counted upon in the approaching conflict, and Lord John Russell, signalising the occasion by a pathetic lament over the instability of fortune and the fragility of party friendships, resigned. The motion for a vote of censure was then withdrawn; and a few days afterwards (July 19) another indictment, preferred by Mr. Roebuck against the Aberdeen Government, including such of the present ministers as were members of it, and founded upon the Report of the Sebastopol Inquiry Committee, was set aside on the previous question," by a majority of 107.

Lord Palmerston had now baffled his open opponents, and he had also gained a still greater advantage by getting rid of seeming friends, but real and most dangerous rivals. He stood not, indeed, as the minister chosen by the nation to guide it through a perilous crisis, but as the only man whom a succession of storms and accidents

had left at the helm. The confidence felt in his nationality of spirit and hatred of despotism, at the beginning of the session, had been much abated. He was no longer reckoned upon as the statesman who was the minister, not of Austria, nor of Prussia, nor of Russia, but of England. Men are judged of by their companionships; and he had consorted, with too much apparent harmony, with Gladstone, and Herbert, and Graham, and Russell, to escape damage in his political reputation. He was indebted to the folly of the leaders of the Opposition for another chance of retrieving his position. On the 29th of July, Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Walpole joined with Messrs. Gladstone, Cardwell, Cobden, Ricardo, and Co., in opposing a resolution authorising the Crown to guarantee the Turkish loan; and the House being surprised into a division, the ministers were only saved from defeat by a bare majority of three. The result of a different decision would have been the nullification of a convention concluded with France, and virtually a declaration by the Parlia ment of England that they no longer sanctioned the Western alliance. It was fortunately prevented by the prudence of some Conservative members, among whom we feel satisfaction in being able to specify the representatives of our own city and the honourable and learned member for Youghal, This ill-timed enterprise, undertaken in the very recklessness of party spirit, and in utter ignorance of the state of public opinion, gave a new impulse to the popular feeling. Another small section of party politicians was included among the objects of the popular indignation against philo-Russianism, and Lord Palmerston was again brought out into prominence as the champion of England, and the representative of her determination stoutly to fight her way to an honourable and permanent peace. Enjoying the advantage of the prevalence of that sentiment throughout the country, and strengthening it by his latest words, the minister closed the session on the 14th of August, proroguing Parliament to the 23rd of October. Whether or not he shall then meet it under favourable auspices, must depend upon the course of circumstances, upon the conduct of other public men, but most of all upon his own firmness and fidelity to the

national cause. He has risen to his present elevation upon the blunders and faults of others; he can scarcely be cast down from it except by blunders or faults of his own. Ă plain course is before him, and the simplest policy will guide him safely to the goal. The common sense of the nation has, in fact, now determined that but one division of parties shall exist. The mass of the people, without distinction between Conservative and Liberal, Whig and Tory, farmer and manufacturer, English, Irish, and Scotch, stand for England and an honourable peace. On the opposite side is a small gang of partisans, bound together by no common sympathies disunited from old allies in the popular ranks by the anti-national sentiment, which is the single bond of their new association. Lord Palmerston has but to stand with the united nation openly and honestly, and no party leader now apparent will be preferred to him.

Meanwhile, the time has arrived when it is necessary for those Whigs, Radicals, and Conservatives, who have been following their respective Willso'-the-wisp during the past session, to examine their position, and to take thought lest, upon the opening of a new one, they should find themselves pledged by a name to the support of views which they must condemn, and, what to some of them may perhaps seem worse, bound to an unpopular and sinking cause. To the two former classes it is, perhaps, little necessary to offer this caution: your small Whig is a wary animal; and there is no great danger that any of the species will run himself to death, following Lord John Russell in a course which manifestly does not lead towards the treasury benches. Of the Radicals we may say, with more respect, that in reference to the great question of the day they have already very generally manfully discharged themselves from any allegiance they might have been supposed to owe to their crazy leaders. Many of the Conservatives, however, do seem to us to require to be warned of the prudence of examining the colours of the banners under which they have been fighting. We

have carefully looked into the speeches and motions of the regular Opposition in both Houses of Parliament for a definite pledge to an active prosecution of the war, with a view to the hu

miliation of Russia and the substantial curtailment of her power of aggression, and we confess we have found none. We have seen Mr. Disraeli joining with Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Cobden in a truly Russian opposition to the Turkish loan; and the language of the Conservative leader's chief party-manifesto of the session was as ambiguous as any words it proposed to censure. Nay, we have heard and believe, that at a party-meeting, at which the terms of that motion were considered, a right honourable gentleman, formerly a colleague of Mr. Disraeli's, objected to it as going too far; and recommended that a paraphrase of Mr. Milner Gibson's amendment, censuring the Government for not concluding peace with Russia on the Vienna terms, should be proposed, as the Derbyite counter-proposition, in its stead.

There are many Conservative followers who know that this is true, and further, that upon the same occasion, a noble earl, the representative of a dukedom, and known as a staunch partisan, adopted the right hon. gentleman's sentiments, and declared his participation in his views. Surely, then, it is time the body of the party should inquire whither it is following the head. It would be awkward to find oneself in a conclave of the Peace Congress at Manchester, or in a Puseyite combinationroom at Oxford, when the desired end of our journey lies in a direction very different. The question of, where are we going, and in what company, certainly deserves consideration; and we hope the hasty summary we have given of some remarkable events of the session may be found to aid in its solution. The most extraordinary pe

culiarity of the times is, in truth, the absolute ignorance of what is thought and said by those, around them, in which our public men seem to be plunged. Had Lord Aberdeen known the estimation in which his policy was held throughout the land, we cannot think that, as a statesman, he would have persevered in it; or that, as a man of honour, he would have continued to occupy a position in which he was the object of general distrust. Had the chivalrous Lord Derby had any conception of the contempt in which the Russian members of the Coalition cabinet were held by the nation, would he have insulted his followers, and damaged his own character, by soliciting their help? Gladstone, Graham, and Herbert could not have been aware of the extent to which they were seen through, or they would scarcely have abandoned positions of great advantage for the furtherance of their designs, to which we trust they will never be permitted to return. Lord Palmerston did not know how perilously he tempted his own fate when he soiled himself by associating John Russell in his administration. subordinate Conservatives moved in a palpable obscure when they separated themselves from the country by their votes upon the Turkish loan. Scarcely less strange is the quietude in which the people beheld this ignorance and its effects; and yet such calmness and forbearance have been ever the habit of this nation, in seasons of great peril. To try, or to count upon, their long-suffering, ever so small a shade too much, would be a more fatal blunder than any that has yet been committed in this tragedy of errors.

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