THE CABINET DRIFT?

In his very deliberate vindication of the policy of the Crimean war
composed in 1887, Mr. Gladstone warmly denies either that the ship of
state drifted instead of being steered, or that the cabinet was in
continual conflict with itself at successive stages of the
negotiation.[313] He had witnessed, he declares, much more of sharp or
warm argument in every other of the seven cabinets to which he
belonged.[314] In 1881 he said to the present writer: 'As a member of
the Aberdeen cabinet I never can admit that divided opinions in that
cabinet led to hesitating action, or brought on the war. I do not mean
that all were always and on all points of the same mind. But I have
known much sharper divisions in a cabinet that has worked a great
question honourably and energetically, and I should confidently say,
whether the negotiations were well or ill conducted, that considering
their great difficulty they were worked with little and not much
conflict. It must be borne in mind that Lord Aberdeen subsequently
developed opinions that were widely severed from those that had guided
us, but these never appeared in the cabinet or at the time.' Still he
admits that this practical harmony could much less truly be affirmed of
the four ministers especially concerned with foreign affairs;[315] that
is to say, of the only ministers whose discussions mattered. It is
certainly impossible to contend that Aberdeen was not in pretty
continual conflict, strong and marked though not heated, with these
three main coadjutors. Whether it be true to say that the cabinet
drifted, depends on the precise meaning of a word. It is undoubtedly
true that it steered a course bringing the ship into waters that the
captain most eagerly wished to avoid, and each tack carried it farther
away from the expected haven. Winds and waves were too many for them. We
may perhaps agree with Mr. Gladstone that as it was feeling rather than
argument that raised the Crimean war into popularity, so it is feeling
and not argument that has plunged it into the 'abyss of odium.' When we
come to a period twenty years after this war was over, we shall see that
Mr. Gladstone found out how little had time changed the public temper,
how little had events taught their lesson.

FOOTNOTES:

[296] In 1772 Burke had said that he did not wish well to Turkey, for
any people but the Turks, situated as they are, would have been
cultivated in three hundred years; yet they g