for me, requested to be informed what were the other appointments you intended recommending to her Majesty. When informed of these I at once observed that there was one of them to which you must be aware that a strong objection was very generally entertained; you admitted such to be the case, and that you knew I alluded to the appointment of Lord Palmerston to the office of Secretary of State. for the Foreign Department. . . . It is always painful to state the grounds of such objections as these, but in my own justification I am compelled to do so. For Lord Palmerston I have much regard, and I have always been on the most amicable terms with him. . . . It was not therefore that I had on my own account any personal objection to Lord Palmerston, of whose abilities also I have a very high opinion. But I could not be blind to the notorious fact that, justly or unjustly, both friends and opponents regarded with considerable apprehension the prospect of his return to the Foreign Office, and the existence of such a feeling was, in my mind, no slight objection to the appointment. But further, when he formerly held this office, events occurred which are by no means yet forgotten, which have created feelings of apparent alienation between him and some of the chief statesmen and diplomatists of foreign countries, more especially of France. Hence there is now undeniably on their part a predisposition to view with jealousy whatever may be done by him; and conduct which may be perfectly proper in itself might when adopted by him give offence which it would not do coming from another person.

Considering, then, how often circumstances arise in which misunderstandings between nations are very easily created, and that in such cases it frequently depends very much upon the personally friendly or unfriendly feelings of those by whom such difficulties have to be arranged whether the discussions to which they give rise end well or ill, I could not but believe that the appointment to which I objected might very materially increase the danger of the country being involved in all the calamities of war, and so believing I could not in conscience agree to it. I did, therefore. strongly press upon you the importance of appointing Lord Palmerston to some other office rather than that which was proposed for him, and suggested the one you had intended for myself, namely, the Colonial Department, which I should have been most happy to give up to him. You told me that you had already proposed to him this arrangement, and that he had positively declined it, because, as I understood you, it would imply, in his opinion, some reflection upon him. I confess I do not think it would have done so. The office of Secretary for the Colonies is one of equal rank and importance with that which he

before held; and, admitting it to be one less agreeable to him, I think the sacrifice was one he might fairly be asked to make for the benefit of the public and of the Administration in which he was about to take part. . . .—Believe me, yours very truly,

Lord John replied —

GREY.

Chesham Place: December 21, 1845.

My dear Howick,—I am very sorry for what has occurred.

I am more particularly sorry that you did not mention to me on Monday your insuperable objection to Palmerston's holding the seals of the Foreign Department. In that case, I should not have asked you to come to my house again. For the general words you used never conveyed to my mind the impression that you objected to Lord Palmerston at the Foreign Office. I gave way to no personal preference in proposing that office to him. I think he is the person in the United Kingdom best fitted for that department. No doubt impressions, the result of unjust aspersions, deserve some consideration, but not to the extent of excluding a person against his will from the office for which he is fitted, and which alone he is willing to accept.

I trust we shall always continue private friends, whatever may happen in political affairs.-I remain, yours truly,

J. RUSSELL.

Lord John's first feeling was one of relief. He wrote to his wife on the 20th

I write to you with a great sense of relief on public affairs. Lord Grey's objection to sitting in a Cabinet in which Palmerston was to have the Foreign Office was invincible. I could not make a Cabinet without Lord Grey, and I have, therefore, been to Windsor this morning to resign my hard task. The Queen, as usual, was very gracious, and was angry with Lord Grey for his determination; she was, in short, convinced that I was right in wishing to retain Palmerston at the Foreign Office. I have left a paper with her in which I state that we were prepared to advise free trade in corn without gradation and without delay; but that I would support Sir Robert Peel in any measure which he should think more practicable.

On the same day he wrote to his father-in-law

Dear Lord Minto,-I hope to be at Minto on Tuesday next, having happily failed in forming a Ministry.

I think it was right to try; and I am not to blame for the failure.

I shall support Palmerston, who is so unjustly accused of wishing for war, and who has always behaved so gallantly and so well.-Ever yours,

J. RUSSELL.

But, though Lord John felt relief at his escape, he resented bitterly Lord Grey's conduct. He wrote to Lady John on the 21st

Howick is so much to blame that I am resolved never to act with him in public again. Only think of his advising us to accept office on Tuesday and Thursday, and making his objection on Friday. But the whole affair will, I fear, prove ridiculous.

Strongly, however, as he felt, he had the generosity to suppress all reference to Lord Grey in the official account which he gave the Queen of his failure.

Chesham Place: December 20, 1845.

Lord John Russell presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and has the honour to state that he has found it impossible to form an Administration.

Lord John Russell was aware, from the first moment when your Majesty was pleased to propose to him this commission, that there were very great difficulties in the way, which it required the most cordial co-operation on the part of his friends, and the firm support of a large portion of those who followed Sir Robert Peel, to sur

mount.

Lord John Russell has had solely in view the settlement of the question of the Corn Laws by which the country is so much agitated. Those who have served your Majesty and your royal predecessor in Cabinet offices during the Administrations of Lord Grey and Lord Melbourne, who were now in political connection with Lord John Russell, were consulted by him. They agreed on the principles by which they would be guided in framing a measure for the repeal of the Corn Laws. Thus one great difficulty was surmounted. But, as the party which acts with Lord John Russell is in a minority in both Houses of Parliament, it was necessary to ascertain how far they were likely to obtain the support of Sir Robert Peel.

Your Majesty is acquainted with all that has passed on this subject. Lord John Russell is quite ready to admit that Sir Robert Peel has been willing from the commencement to the end to diminish the difficulties in the course of a new Government prepared to attempt the settlement of the Corn Laws. But

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Sir Robert Peel could not, of course, rely on the support of his political friends should the proposed measure be in their eyes dangerous or otherwise.

In this uncertainty of obtaining a majority in the House of Commons it was absolutely necessary that all those who were prominent in the political party to which Lord J. Russell is attached should give their zealous aid, and act in concert in the new Administration. Lord John Russell has in one instance been unable to obtain this concert, and he must now consider that task as hopeless which has been from the beginning hazardous.

Lord John Russell is deeply sensible of the embarrassment caused by the present state of public affairs. He will be ready, therefore, to do all in his power as a member of Parliament to promote the settlement of that question which in present circumstances is the source of so much danger, especially to the welfare and the peace of Ireland.

Lord John Russell would have formed his Ministry on the basis of a complete free trade in corn, to be established at once without gradation or delay: he would have accompanied that proposal with measures of relief to a considerable extent of the occupiers of land from the burdens to which they are subjected; but he will be little disposed to insist as a member of Parliament on what may seem to your Majesty's advisers an impracticable course. The country requires above all things a peaceable settlement of a question which, if not so settled, may in an adverse state of affairs cause a fearful convulsion.

But Lord John's generosity did not stop at this point. The gravamen of his charge against Lord Grey was that Lord Grey had waited till the Friday, or till after the formation of a Whig Government had been decided on, to raise an objection which ought to have been stated on the previous Monday, before Lord John had resolved on making the attempt. But Lord Grey's brother-in-law, Mr. Wood, pointed out to Lord John that, if this point were stated, Lord Grey must necessarily make the best defence in his power; and an altercation must ensue which, whatever else came of it, could neither lead to peace nor to the welfare of the party. Lord John, sore as he was at the treatment which he had experienced, gave way, and deliberately omitted from his public explanation in Parliament what he himself considered the strongest feature in his whole case. What Mr.

Wood thought of this generosity will be seen from the following letter —

13 Wilton Street: Friday morning [January 22, 1846].

My dear Lord John,-I must, after a night's consideration, deliberately thank you most sincerely for the manner in which you made your explanation last night. It was above any praise I can give it; but what I most feel is the kind and considerate tone towards Howick. He feels it too very sincerely, and expressed himself very strongly when we got home.

It is, however, impossible fairly to appreciate your conduct without knowing what you felt as to abstaining from alluding to the late period of the objection. I think it is due to you that Howick should know that; and I hope, therefore, you will not think that I have improperly violated your confidence in having sent to him this morning the copy of one short sentence of your letter to me, to the effect that not alluding to the late period of the objection was taking blame upon yourself which you felt that you did not deserve.

This risk you have taken upon yourself, and it is not the less kind because I think it the wisest and best course as well as the most considerate.

It is miserably wrong as well as a public misfortune that a cloud should have intervened between two men with such great and high qualities; holding the same principles, and aiming at the same great objects; but I will not despair of their acting so far together as essentially to further the great public ends which both have in view. Believe me, yours very sincerely,

CHARLES WOOD.