ious
liberty. It was something, however, to find Mr. Gladstone, the greatest
living churchman, and Bright, the greatest living nonconformist, voting
in the same lobby. The fight was stiff, and was kept up until the end of
the summer. The weapon that had been forged in this blazing furnace by
these clumsy armourers proved blunt and worthless; the law was from the
first a dead letter, and it was struck out of the statute book in 1871
in Mr. Gladstone's own administration.[264]

III

FALL OF THE RUSSELL GOVERNMENT

In the autumn (1851) a committee of the whig cabinet, now reinforced by
the admission for the first time of Lord Granville, was named to prepare
a reform bill. Palmerston, no friend to reform, fell into restive
courses that finally upset the coach. The cabinet, early in November,
settled that he should not receive Kossuth, and he complied; but he
received a public deputation and an address complimenting him for his
exertions on Kossuth's behalf. The court at this proceeding took lively
offence, and the Queen requested the prime minister to ascertain the
opinion of the cabinet upon it. Such an appeal by the sovereign from the
minister to the cabinet was felt by them to be unconstitutional, and
though they did not conceal from Palmerston their general
dissatisfaction, they declined to adopt any resolution. Before the year
ended Palmerston persisted in taking an unauthorised line of his own
upon Napoleon's _coup d'etat_ (this time for once not on the side of
freedom against despotism), and Lord John closed a correspondence
between them by telling him that he could not advise the Queen to leave
the seals of the foreign department any longer in his hands. This
dismissal of Palmerston introduced a new element of disruption and
confusion, for the fallen minister had plenty of friends. Lord Lansdowne
was very uneasy about reform, and talked ominously about preferring to
be a supporter rather than a member of the government; and whig
dissensions, though less acute in type, threatened a perplexity as sharp
in the way of a stable administration, as the discords among
conservatives.

Lord John (Jan. 14, 1852) next asked his cabinet whether an offer should
be made to Graham. A long discussion followed; whether Graham alone
would do them any good; whether the Peelites, considering themselves as
a party, might join, but would not consent to be absorbed; whether an