removed at this date was Mr. Gladstone from the glorified democracy
of the Mazzinian propaganda. He told Cobden that when he returned from
Corfu in the spring of 1859, he found in England not only a government
with strong Austrian leanings, but to his great disappointment not even
the House of Commons so alive as he could have wished upon the Italian
question. "It was in my opinion the authority and zeal of Lord Palmerston
and Lord John Russell in this question, that kindled the country."

While Europe was anxiously watching the prospects of war between France
and Austria, Mr. Gladstone spoke in debate (April 18, 1859) upon the
situation, to express his firm conviction that no plan of peace could be
durable which failed to effect some mitigation of the sore evils
afflicting the Italian peninsula. The course of events after the peace
speedily ripened both his opinions and the sentiment of the country, and
he was as angry as his neighbours at the unexpected preliminaries of
Villafranca. "I little thought," he wrote to Poerio (July 15, 1859), "to
have lived to see the day when the conclusion of a peace should in my own
mind cause disgust rather than impart relief. But that day has come. I
appreciate all the difficulties of the position both of the King of
Sardinia and of Count Cavour. It is hardly possible for me to pass a
judgment upon his resignation as a political step: but I think few will
doubt that the moral character of the act is high. The duties of England
in respect to the Italian question are limited by her powers, and these
are greatly confined. But her sentiments cannot change, because they are
founded upon a regard to the deepest among those principles which regulate
the intercourse of men and their formation into political societies." By
the end of the year, he softened his judgment of the proceedings of the
French Emperor.

(M5) The heavy load of his other concerns did not absolve him in his
conscience from duty to the Italian cause:--

_Jan. 3, 1860._--I sat up till 2 A.M. with my letter to Ld. J.
Russell about Italy, and had an almost sleepless night for it.
4.--2-1/2 hours with the Prince Consort, _a deux reprises_, about the
Italian question, which was largely stated on both sides. I
thought he admitted so much as to leave him no standing ground.
5.--Went down to Pembroke Lodge and passed the evening with Lord
John and his family. Lord John and I had much conversation on