Lord Lansdowne that he had better form a system of homogeneous whigs,
now finally to refuse Lord Palmerston, on no better ground than that
they could not have Lord Aberdeen, whom nobody save themselves would
consent on any terms to have? To propound such a question was to answer
it. Lord Aberdeen himself, with admirable freedom from egotism, pressed
the point that in addition to the argument of public necessity, they
owed much to their late whig colleagues, 'who behaved so nobly and so
generously towards us after Lord John's resignation.'

'I have heard club talk and society talk,' wrote an adherent to Mr.
Gladstone late one night (February 4), 'and I am sure that in the main
any government containing good names in the cabinet, provided Lord John
is not in it, will obtain general support. Lord Clarendon is
universally, or nearly so, looked on as essential. Next to him, I think
you are considered of vital importance in your present office. After
all, rightly or wrongly, Lord Palmerston is master of the situation in
the country; he is looked upon as the man. If the country sees you and
Sidney Herbert holding aloof from him, it will be said the Peelites are
selfish intriguers.' The same evening, another correspondent said to Mr.
Gladstone: 'Two or three people have come in since eleven o'clock with
the news of Brooks's and the Reform. Exultation prevails there, and the
certainty of Palmerston's success to-morrow. There is a sort of rumour
prevalent that Lord Palmerston may seek Lord J. Russell's aid.... This
would, of course, negative all idea of your joining in the concern.
Otherwise a refusal would be set down as sheer impracticability, or else
the selfish ambition of a clique which could not stand alone, and should
no longer attempt to do so. If the refusal to join Palmerston is to be a
going over to the other side, and a definite junction within a brief
space, that is clear and intelligible. But a refusal to join Lord
Palmerston and yet holding out to him a promise of support, is a
half-measure which no one will understand, and which, I own, I cannot
see the grounds to defend.'

PALMERSTON FORMS A MINISTRY

We shall now find how after long and strenuous dubitation, the Peelite
leaders refused to join on the fifth of February, and then on the sixth
they joined. Unpromising from the very first cabinet, the junction was
destined to a swift and sudden end. Here is the story told by one of the
two l