follow Mr. Disraeli into any combination for turning out
the government. 'It thus appears, if we strike out the fifty
conservatives faintly favourable, that we have a government with 310
supporters, liable on occasions, which frequently arise, to heavy
deductions; with an opposition of 290 (Derbyites and brigaders), most of
them ready to go all lengths. Such a government cannot be said to
possess the confidence of the House of Commons in the full
constitutional sense.'

EARLY POSITION OF THE MINISTRY

The general course seemed smooth. Palmerston had gone to the harmless
department of home affairs. The international airs were still. But a
cabinet finally composed of six Peelites, six whigs, and a radical, was
evidently open to countless internal hazards. 'We shall all look
strangely at each other,' one of them said, 'when we first meet in
cabinet.' Graham describes them as a powerful team that would need good
driving. 'There are some odd tempers and queer ways among them; but on
the whole they are gentlemen, and they have a perfect gentleman at their
head, who is honest and direct, and who will not brook insincerity in
others.' The head of the new government described it to a friend as 'a
great experiment, hitherto unattempted, and of which the success must be
considered doubtful, but in the meantime the public had regarded it with
singular favour.' To the King of the Belgians, Aberdeen wrote: 'England
will occupy her true position in Europe as the constant advocate of
moderation and peace'; and to Guizot, that 'the position which we
desired so see England occupy among the nations of Europe, was to act
the part of a moderator, and by reconciling differences and removing
misunderstandings to preserve harmony and peace.'

I have seen no more concise analysis of the early position of the
coalition government than that by one of the ablest and most experienced
members of the whig party, not himself a candidate for office:--

'It is strong,' Sir Francis Baring wrote to his son, 'in personal
talent; none that I can remember stronger, though the head of the
government is untried. It is strong in one point of view: as to
public feeling. The country, I believe, wanted a moderate liberal
government, and a fusion of liberal conservatives and moderate
liberals. It is weak in the feelings of the component parts:
Palmerston is degraded, Gladstone will struggle for power, Lord