igs,
and he had none of the strength of that aristocratic tradition and its
organ, the Bedford sect. The landed interest was not with him. The
Manchester men detested him. The church in all its denominations was on
terms of cool and reciprocated indifference with one who was above all
else the man of this world. The press he knew how to manage. In every
art of parliamentary sleight of hand he was an expert, and he suited the
temper of the times, while old maxims of government and policy were
tardily expiring, and the forces of a new era were in their season
gathering to a head.

FOOTNOTES:

[337] On Bute's plan of superseding party by prerogative, in the
introduction to vol. iii. of the Bedford _Correspondence_.

[338] See Appendix.

[339] See Chap. x. of Lord Stanmore's _Earl of Aberdeen_.

[340] 'This _suppressio veri_ is shocking, and one of the very worst
things he ever did.'--_Greville_, iii. i. p. 232.

[341] At Lord Aberdeen's the question seems to have been discussed on
the assumption that the offer to Mr. Gladstone and Herbert was meant to
be independent of Palmerston's acceptance or refusal, and the impression
there was that Mr. Gladstone had been not wholly disinclined to consider
the offer.

[342] Malmesbury's _Memoirs of an Ex-Minister_, i. pp. 8, 37.

[343] On Feb. 23, he writes to Mr. Hayter, the government whip: 'We have
arranged to sit in the orthodox ex-ministers' place to-night, _i.e._
second bench immediately below the gangway. This avoids constructions
and comparisons which we could hardly otherwise have escaped; and Bright
and his friends agreed to give it us. Might I trust to your kindness to
have some cards put in the place for us before prayers?'

[344] While Lewis went to the exchequer, Sir Charles Wood succeeded
Graham at the admiralty, Lord John, then on his way to Vienna, agreed to
come hack to the cabinet and took the colonial office, which Sir George
Grey had left for the home office, where he succeeded Palmerston.

[345] This seems to contradict the proposition in the article on
Greville in the _Eng. Hist. Rev._ of 1887.

[346] _Greville_, III. i. p. 246.

[347] Mr. Gladstone projected and partly executed some public letters on
all this, to be addressed, like the Neapolitan letters, to Lord
Aberdeen.

CHAPTER VII

POLITICAL ISOLATION

(_1855-1856_)

[Greek: ekista gar polemos ep