sake of the change which he sorely needed, he carried his wife and four of his own children with him to North Wales. Lady John shall tell the story :

September 15.-We, and four of our children, set out for a little tour in Wales. First day to Bangor: after which our restingplaces were Llanberis, Beddgelert, Tan-y-bwlch, and Capel Curig, a few days being spent at each, then [Sept. 30] beautiful drive to Llanrwst, where we changed horses: there found great crowd, bells ringing, and loud hurrahs, which gave me a good opinion of the Llanrwstians. Got here [Rhyl] at six; found an evergreen arch erected for us at the inn gate. Next day we drove to Penywern to call on Lord Mostyn, one of John's staunchest supporters; stopping on the way to see Rhuddlan Castle; also saw the remains of the house in which Edward I. passed the Statute of Rhuddlan, securing to the Welsh their judicial rights and independence. Lord Mostyn and about twenty gentlemen came with addresses to John from Rhyl and St. Asaph. Next day we went to St. Asaph to lunch with the Bishop [Short], who took us a lovely drive to Denbigh, where we got out to see the castle, and John was received with ringing of bells and loud cheers. Oct. 11 we arrived at Pembroke Lodge. So happy to be here again, with all our old interests and the new one of the school, that I no longer regret Snowdon and the sea.

Lord John, however, was already meditating a more important journey. Years had passed since he had visited Paris, which had once been such familiar ground to him; and in the course of October he decided on crossing to France and paying a short visit to Lord Normanby. Lord Palmerston, writing to him on October 21, urged him to put off his excursion, or, at any rate, to ask Louis Napoleon whether such a visit would be inconvenient, and whether he would prefer the Prime Minister coming at some quieter time. Lord John took the latter course; and the President sent him, on October 30, á message through Lord Normanby to say that he would be very glad to see him. Things, however, moved rapidly in Paris : the Chamber declared 'open war,' to use Lord Normanby's phrase, against the President; and Lord John, fearing to mix himself up in the internal politics of France, wrote to Lord

Normanby and put off his visit. The state of affairs in Paris amply justified his decision, which a new crisis in the Cabinet at home would in any circumstances have necessitated.

For a few weeks after the issue of the Queen's memorandum in August 1850, the relations between the Foreign Office and the Court had been a little happier. But the autumn had not far advanced before the old difficulty recurred. Lord Palmerston sent an unauthorised despatch to Baron Koller, the Austrian Ambassador; and was forced by Lord John, after a sharp and disagreeable controversy, in which Lord Palmerston threatened to resign, to withdraw his letter. The Queen watched this controversy with the more anxiety because Prince Albert differed radically from Lord Palmerston's policy on the dispute which had arisen between Germany and Denmark respecting Schleswig-Holstein. It is necessary to defer to a later chapter the history of this complicated negotiation. It is sufficient here to say that the Queen, throughout the controversy, condemned the conduct of Denmark and disapproved the policy which Lord Palmerston pursued.

It is needless, therefore, to say that throughout the autumn of 1850 and the whole of 1851 the difficulty which had only been temporarily terminated in the former year was constantly recurring. On Thursday, October 23, 1851, M. Kossuth, who had been the soul of the Hungarian uprising, landed at Southampton; and it was demi-officially announced, to the Queen's intense but natural annoyance, that Lord Palmerston intended to receive him. Lord John urged Lord Palmerston not to do so, and, failing to prevail with him, wrote as follows:

PEMBROKE LODGE, October 30, 1851.

MY DEAR PALMERSTON,-I must once more press upon you my views concerning an interview with Kossuth.

I wrote to you some time ago that I hoped you would not see him.

I wrote to you afterwards from Windsor Castle that I thought your seeing him would be improper and unnecessary.

I wrote to you again yesterday to say that I thought that, if upon his first arrival he had asked to see you to express through

you his thanks to the Queen's Government for the efforts made by them for his safety and liberation, and you had at once seen him, it might have been thought a natural proceeding. But that, after his denunciations of two sovereigns with whom the Queen is on terms of peace and amity, an interview with you would have a very different complexion.

The more I think on the matter, the more I am confirmed in this view.

It might have been right-although we did not think so-to interfere in the war waged by Russia in Hungary. But it cannot be right that any member of the Administration should give an implied sanction to an agitation, commenced by a foreign refugee, against sovereigns in alliance with her Majesty.

I must therefore positively request that you will not receive Kossuth, and that, if you have appointed him to come to you, you will inform him that any communication must be in writing, and that you must decline to see him.—Yours faithfully,

Lord Palmerston replied

J. RUSSELL.

PANSHANGER, October 30, 1851, 6 P.M. MY DEAR JOHn Russell,—I have just received your letter of to-day, and am told your messenger waits for an answer. My reply, then, is immediate, and is, that there are limits to all things; that I do not choose to be dictated to as to who I may or may not receive in my own house; and that I shall use my own discretion on this matter. You will, of course, use yours as to the composition of your Government. I have not detained your messenger five minutes.-Yours sincerely,

PALMERSTON.

Lord John, after sending these letters to the Queen, replied

PEMBROKE LODGE, November 1, 1851. MY DEAR PALMERSTON,—I received your answer to my letter yesterday morning.

The question between us is one regarding the public welfare and must be decided by argument and not by passion.

If my letter was too peremptory, yours was, I think, quite unjustifiable.

I do not see how it is possible for you either in your private house or elsewhere to be other than the organ of the Queen towards all foreign powers.

It is possible that the Austrian Minister at our Court may be

directed to take his leave upon your receiving Kossuth, and rumours to that effect are circulated, though perhaps not authentic.

The question, therefore, is a public one, and as such I have summoned a Cabinet to consider it on Monday at two o'clock.

I trust you will be there, and I shall be perfectly willing to hear your reasons for thinking the matter ought to be left to your discretion.

Above all, let us endeavour to come to a fair and impartial decision. I remain, yours faithfully, J. RUSSELL.

When the Cabinet met on the Monday, Lord John thus put the matter before his colleagues :

I have called the Cabinet together with a view, not to any collective resolution, but in order to gather the expression of their opinions on a subject which appears to me one of considerable importance.

As some members of the Cabinet have lately joined us,1 I wish to state the circumstances which have led more immediately to our present meeting. When the leaders of the Hungarian insurrection, defeated by the forces of Austria and Russia, fled into Turkey, a demand was made upon the Sultan to deliver them up, no doubt for trial and execution. The Sultan refused, and appealed to us and to France for support. The Cabinet unanimously resolved to give that support. The Emperor of Russia soon perceived that he had made a false step; retreated very skilfully; allowed the Polish refugees to leave Turkey; and the question, as regarded him, was at an end. The Austrian Government behaved very differently. Circumstances of a suspicious nature, reported by Sir S. Canning, indicated an attempt to waylay the Hungarian refugees by Croat soldiers, and their lives did not appear safe.2 Palmerston then urged the Sultan to allow them to depart. After various communications, and the most able re

1 Lord Seymour and Lord Granville had been lately admitted to the Cabinet.

2 In the summer of 1850, Lord John wrote, on this subject, to the Queen, 'Lord John Russell presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and has the honour to transmit some drafts from Lord Palmerston. One of them relates to the supposed plot of the Austrian police to inveigle Hungarian refugees, with respect to which your Majesty has intimated that no further inquiry ought to be made by order from here. Lord John Russell concurs with your Majesty, although he thinks the evidence of a plot of some kind very strong, and hitherto Lincontradicted.'

monstrances on the part of Sir S. Canning, the Sultan fixed the 1st of September in the present year for their departure. He kept his word. It appears to me that our duty ended here. We had supported the Sultan against a barbarous and unusual demand on the part of two great powers. We had further, after saving their lives, procured the liberty of the refugees, thus rescuing them from death or from perpetual imprisonment. We had done this, without war. Our policy had been creditable and successful. We had nothing to do with the Hungarian cause. We had seen in the Hungarians the defeated parties in a civil war. Kossuth determined to come to England. I thought it best that no member of the Government should see him. Palmerston thought otherwise. Although I differed from him, there was something plausible in his opinion.

If Kossuth, upon landing in England, had asked to see Palmerston in order to convey to the Queen his thanks for his life and liberty, and to express his acknowledgments to Palmerston as the organ of the Government, the course might have been natural and defensible. Kossuth has not chosen to do so. He has chosen to make speeches at Southampton and Winchester, exciting the people of England to a crusade against the Emperor of Russia and the Emperor of Austria, the Queen's allies. He has done so with very great ability—no one can deny that. But it appears to me that, after this unusual conduct of his, it would not be right that the Foreign Secretary should receive him. I make no distinction between a reception at the Foreign Office or in Carlton Terrace. Palmerston cannot divest himself of the character of the Queen's Secretary of State. Mr. Canning lived at the Foreign Office; it would have been absurd to say that by going from his Office through a door into his dining-room he changed his character. It is said I know not with what truth-that, if Kossuth is received, the Austrian Minister will be withdrawn. I believe there has been no intimation of this kind. Nor should I mind his being withdrawn if we were in the right. But, if we were in the wrong, and a debate were to arise on the subject, I should feel very differently. I again say I call for no resolution of the Cabinet. I beg pardon for having made so long a speech.

The Cabinet was unanimous in agreeing with Lord John, and Lord Palmerston gave way. But unfortunately, while abandoning his intention of seeing M. Kossuth, he consented to receive some deputations at the Foreign Office who pre