In spite of the risk that such a Congress might involve a revision of existing treaties, such as the Treaty of Paris, the desire for peace induced the great Powers of Europe to consent to its being summoned. But there were still great difficulties in its way. Austria, not wholly averse to war, and determined that if the Congress was called her own position should not be injured by it, insisted upon two points, -that Sardinia should disarm, and that the representatives of the Italian States should be excluded. Cavour rejected the suggestion made to him by England to disband his troops on these terms; and, when a proposal of a general disarmament was made, France only accepted it upon the condition that the Italian States should send their plenipotentiaries to the Congress. At length England arrived at a compromise which it was thought might be acceptable: that there should be "a previous, immediate, effective, and simultaneous disarmament" on the part of Austria, France, and Sardinia, the carrying out of which should be intrusted to certain commissioners; that immediately on the commissioners beginning their work Congress. the Congress should be convened, and the Italian States invited to send representatives. As far as the disarmament went, the great Powers agreed to these terms, and, as the suggestion came backed by the universal voice of Europe, Cavour yielded. But on the other point, the admission of Italian representatives, Austria was unmoved. As, therefore, the Congress appeared impossible, on the very day on which Cavour had announced his assent to disarmament the Austrian Court took the matter into its own hands, and despatched a peremptory summons demanding the immediate disbandment of the Sardinian troops. As a matter of course Cavour refused the Failure of the War breaks out. April 1859. demand, and ten days later the Austrian army crossed the Ticino. Napoleon's hope was fulfilled, Austria had saved him from his awkward predicament; he was free to assist an ally thus attacked, and on the 30th of April the French troops entered Turin. The hasty conduct of the Austrian Court immediately changed the current of public opinion; and it was to the belief that the late Conservative Government had been playing into the hands of Austria, that the success of the Liberals in the election completed the last day of May must be largely attributed; yet the charge was ill-founded. In the midst of the extraordinary confusion Lord Derby's Government had followed a consistent and not unwise course. The policy of Louis Napoleon was so tortuous, the mistrust in his ulterior designs so reasonable, and the danger to be apprehended from a great Euro 1859] OBJECTS OF THE WAR the war. 347 pean war so terrible, that no Government can be blamed for using all its endeavours to preserve untouched those treaties which, broken though they had been, still formed the only groundwork Real object of for the settlement of Europe. If the Ministry is open to any blame they must share it with English statesmen of all parties, and with most of the leaders of public opinion in every European question which has arisen of late years. They miscomprehended the forces actually at work in Europe, and devoted their energies to a well-meaning but erroneous effort to force back that spirit of nationality which they should have recognised as the moving spring of foreign politics. In April 1864, Mr. Cardwell became Colonial Secretary, and Lord Clarendon Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. THE Character of HE consolidation of the Liberal Party produced a ministry of most unusual strength, if strength is to be estimated by the ability of the individual ministers. It is possible, however, that this very ability may be a source of weakness rather than of strength. Able men have wills and opinions of their own, and for the passage of great measures a Cabinet ready to acknowledge the complete supremacy of a great Premier is ston's Ministry. 1859] CHARACTER OF THE MINISTRY 349 likely to be more effective than one in which each individual feels a right to uphold his own particular view. The head of such a ministry should be a man of unusual tact and readiness of resource, so to mould the measures brought before the Cabinet as to attract support rather than to afford room for criticism and opposition. Of necessity the work of such a Cabinet under such a leader will be somewhat conservative and somewhat colourless, and its excellences show themselves rather in good administration than in striking legislation. It is thus that the duration of this last Cabinet of Lord Palmerston's long life was distinctly a time of domestic quiet, during which national desires were allowed to grow, but their execution was kept in abeyance till the death of the popular and skilful manager broke the chain which bound together the somewhat discordant elements of the Ministry, and allowed, after a short interval of Opposition, a reconstituted Liberal Party to take possession of the Government and give vigorous expression to the silent growths of the preceding period. The most important member of the Ministry, setting aside the Premier, was Lord John Russell, whose long and consistent career as an advanced Whig gave great weight to his counsels. His name was so indissolubly connected with parliamentary reform, that although he had at one time declared his belief in the final character of the Reform Bill of 1832, his position in the Ministry seemed to afford security that the constantly recurring claims of the reformers would not be neglected. He was, however, essentially a Whig, and not a Radical. The more advanced party looked for the support of their objects to Mr. Gladstone, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Originally a Conservative, he had formed one of the small band of able men who had followed Sir Robert Peel, and was now devoting himself to the development of the financial schemes of his teacher. His unrivalled mastery of details, and a commanding eloquence which could invest even dry financial statements with interest, peculiarly fitted him for this work. But it was not in the sphere of finance alone that the progressive character of his mind, and the unflagging power of growth which characterised it, made itself felt. Already it was clear that upon many important points he was inclining to accept the Radical creed. It was perhaps his deeply sympathetic character, his rapid comprehension and appreciation of the various points of view from which a question may be regarded, which were the chief source of Mr. Gladstone's influence. He possessed in an extraordinary degree the power of returning to his audience, elaborated and beautified. their own ideas,-and the press rendered that audience co-extensive with the nation. It was this gift which made him a great democratic statesman. The immature and formless will of the people constantly found in him an exponent of unequalled power, and received from his genius and earnestness the form and life which was necessary for its realisation. But as yet, sitting as he did as the representative of the University of Oxford, somewhat hampered by his old connections and his former utterances, it was only in his financial measures, and in the occasional expression of opinion not reduced to action, that his democratic fire was visible. Thus it happened that the conservative element in the Cabinet, with its determined policy of inaction, was entirely predominant. The acquiescence of the nation in the temporary cessation of active progress was caused in a great degree by the peculiar feeling with which Lord Palmerston was regarded. His courage and light-heartedness, his good-humoured readiness to receive and return the blows of his political enemies, even his very failings, his prejudices, his selfassertion, were so thoroughly English that they rendered him the most popular of Ministers. The mingled respect and liking with which the veteran statesman was regarded induced even ardent reformers to submit to his quiet authority, and to postpone more active measures till age, which was rapidly creeping on him, should compel him to retire from political life. Interest absorbed in Perhaps an even more efficient reason for the comparative immobility of domestic legislation is to be found in the great interest of the events which were happening outside the foreign affairs. country, attracting of necessity the popular attention away from the country itself, and in the remarkable series of financial measures, which seemed, in their success and in the constant increase of revenue which accompanied them, to set even the most untoward conditions at defiance. Absorbed in the great events going on around it, satisfied with its own growth in material prosperity, the nation was for a time willing to let well alone. But it must not be supposed that the life of progress was checked because it did not show itself in public acts. On all the great subjects which were subsequently to make their appearance as the critical questions of the time— national education, the position of the Church, the relation between capital and labour, compulsory temperance, the rights and wrongs of Ireland, and Parliamentary reform,-public opinion was gradually forming; and the spirit of improvement, checked for a while, was becoming only the stronger from its temporary repression, and was |