of the Opposition, the untiring opponent of Lord John Russell, Lord Palmerston, and later, Mr. Gladstone.

The secession was quickly organized, and the seceders prepared for revenge. The Corn Bill of course passed, but the Coercion Bill for Ireland which followed was thrown out. Some eighty of the Protectionists, headed by Bentinck and Disraeli, walked into the same lobby with the Whigs, the Free-traders and the Irish, and Peel's Ministry fell to the ground-slain by Protection. Lord John Russell naturally succeeded, with a Cabinet principally composed of Lord Palmerston and Mr. Macaulay. There could be very little opposition at first, for the Protectionists and the Peelites were at daggers drawn, and neither cared for the responsibility of turning out a Government which neither could venture as yet to succeed.

L

CHAPTER XXI.

LORD PALMERSTON.

ORD JOHN RUSSELL'S Ministry was but the dying embers of the fire which had destroyed the old system of personal government; it lingered on merely until some one felt strong enough to blow it out. The dismissal of Lord Palmerston 1 for insubordination in the management of the Foreign Office, precipitated the crisis before any one was ready. Lord Palmerston, who had seemed so utterly extinguished by his dismissal that Disraeli spoke of him as a man of the past, revived with unexpected alacrity in the spring of 1852, carried an adverse vote against his late leader, and puffed the last faint flicker of the Ministry completely out. But there was no one really able to take Russell's place as yet. Lord Derby and his skilful lieutenant, Disraeli, attempted the experiment of governing with a minority without much success. Next Lord Aberdeen formed a coalition of Whigs, Peelites, and Radicals, which lasted till the crisis of the Crimean war, and then fell to pieces quite naturally amid the disasters of the terrible winter of 1854-5. Its contribution to the annals of Parliament consisted mainly in Mr. Gladstone's wonderful Budget-speeches, which showed that it was possible to invest what was usually regarded as rather a dry and tough subject with so much of the sparkle of genius, as to transform it from a mere dull financial statement into a brilliant and fascinating discourse, which brought him at once into the foremost rank of parliamentary orators. Much of his extraordinary success in attracting and charming the ears of the House was due to the exquisite tone of his voice, the perfect ease of his delivery, and the energetic action with which he italicised his words. Much, no doubt, was forgiven him on this account which would have

V. pp. 310-11,

been severely criticised in a speaker less favoured by nature: for even as early as the first Budget-speech of April, 1853, many of the blemishes had become visible which time was to develop at last into positive defects-the long-involved sentences which at times almost bewildered the brain of the listener, the copious flow of words, by which the orator seemed himself to be carried entirely away, the extraordinary redundancy of language without which he appeared to be unable to express the simplest thought. But in spite of all he was recognised, then and ever after, as one of the greatest parliamentary speakers of his day, second perhaps only to Mr. Bright. During the Reform debates it almost seemed at one time as if Mr. Lowe were about to make good his supremacy over Mr. Gladstone; but whereas Mr. Lowe waned almost immediately after he had attained his zenith, and sank rapidly into obscurity, Mr. Gladstone remained steadily at the same high level, recognised by all not only as a brilliant speaker, but a consummate master of the art of debate; an opponent whose retorts were withering in their intensity, whose invective was crushing in its tremendous vehemence.

The downfall of Lord Aberdeen's Government brought Lord Palmerston to the head of affairs, for it seemed to be agreed by unanimous consent that he alone could carry England through the crisis of the war; he alone could satisfy the national desire for vigorous action. At first there were few changes in the Cabinet; the Premier and the Minister of War, Lord Panmure, were the only new figures. Very shortly, however, the Peelites retired in a body, and Palmerston became the head of a purely Whig Government.

Lord Palmerston was essentially an Englishman, and this must account for the extraordinary fascination which he exercised for so many years over the mass of his contemporaries. In all his foreign escapades, when he was lecturing or bullying foreign Governments, coercing and trampling on the "insolent barbarian" in different parts of the world, interfering generally in everybody's business, it was thoroughly understood by his country. men that all this was for the sake of "British interests"; and there was a general feeling that England was a greater nation, that Englishmen were far more feared and respected by the foreigner,

and that the nation got on much better in the world at large when Lord Palmerston had the control of the Foreign Office than when our international relations fell to less vigorous hands. All this was very pleasing to the average Englishman of the day, who was still closely enveloped in a thick crust of insular Philistinism, and who regarded foreign nations as the natural enemies of England, ever on the look-out to do her an ill turn. There was something, too, in Palmerston's method of oratory which exercised an extraordinary influence over his generation. It was brilliant and telling, but it was also extremely practical and opportune. He appeared to have the knack of always striking the right chord at once, and putting himself in complete harmony with the feelings and prejudices of his audience. The most remarkable instance of his success in this respect is to be found in what is known as the Don Pacifico debate. Don Pacifico was a naturalised British subject resident at Athens. He had suffered considerable illusage at the hands of an Athenian mob in 1847 without any provocation, and his claims of redress had been enforced by Palmerston against the Greek Government with a very high hand. Many members thought that the Foreign Minister had acted in the matter with undue violence. They said as much in Parliament, and Palmerston found himself practically on his defence. His reply was a masterly appeal to the passions and prejudices of his hearers. He declined to discuss the accusations of knavery brought against Pacifico himself, the charges of dishonest dealing in the estimation of the damages he had sustained, the exposure of the mean and miserable character of his life, so utterly at variance with his extravagant assertions; still less whether the occasion was worthy of the extreme measures which had been used, whether the question of compensation might not with greater courtesy have been left to the good faith of the Greek Government, or whether the tone adopted towards the latter was one which it was feasible or desirable to sustain towards foreign Governments in general. No; he took his stand on clearer grounds than these. They might be true, but that was not the question. The question was one solely of British interests. Other men might raise shouts of laughter from an unthinking House, by jests "at the poverty of one man, or the miserable habitation of

another; at the nationality of one man, or the religion of another;" but he would have no share in it. He would never acknowledge that "because a man was poor, he might be bastinadoed and tortured with impunity; or that a man who was born in Scotland, might be robbed without redress; or that because a man was of the Jewish persuasion, he was a fair mark for any outrage." In a peroration of thrilling power, he declared that the House must decide between such men and the interests of their country ; must decide "whether, as the Roman in the days of old held himself free from any indignity when he could say 'Civis Romanus Sum,' so also a British subject, in whatever land he may be, shall feel confident that the watchful eye and the strong arm of England will protect him against injustice and wrong." This remarkable effort is said to have lasted for five hours, during the whole of which period Palmerston continued to speak with the utmost fluency, with all the passion of a man moved to the very soul by generous indignation, and without the help of a single note. The success of his appeal was striking and irresistible. The Ministry came out triumphant, and from that day Palmerston was recognised in the country as the "patriotic Minister," the unswerving champion of England.

The death of Peel made Palmerston beyond doubt the foremost man in English politics, though several years were to elapse before this fact was recognised by his contemporaries. His aspiring spirit ill brooked the orders of another, and that other his true' inferior, and it was his constant delight to make "strokes off his own bat," his ill-disguised insubordination to Lord John Russell's opinions, which caused his dismissal from the Cabinet. Sunk irremediably as he seemed, he came to the surface again almost directly, and on the break-up of the Aberdeen Cabinet the full direction of affairs passed to his hands. From this date a period of active foreign policy ensues, during which the question of Reform was suffered to languish and almost die of sheer neglect. The opinion of the country supported his "patriotic policy" to the full. It seems singular, by the light of modern Imperialism, to come across in old volumes of Punch the figure of Mr. Disraeli oddly attired now as "the bear-leader," anon as the "Chinamerchant," later the "unhorsed jockey scrambling out of the