ieve it, and said she
knew him to be quite wanting in feeling. This turned out to mean
that his political enmities outlasted the good fortune of his
enemies. She said if he took the part of the revolutionists in some
countries he ought in all, and that while he pretended great
compassion for the oppressed Hungarians and Italians, he would not
care if the Schleswig-Holsteiners were all drowned. I said this was
too common a failing with us all, etc. I allowed that I wished his
faults were not laid on John's shoulders, and John's merits given
to him, as has often been the case--and that it was a pity he
sometimes used unnecessarily provoking language, but I would not
grant that England was despised and hated by all other European
countries.

The Kossuth incident was soon followed by a graver one. On December 1,
1851, Louis Napoleon carried out his _coup d'etat._ The Ministry
determined to maintain a strict neutrality in the matter, and a short
dispatch was sent to Lord Normanby instructing him "to make no change in
his relations to the French Government." When this dispatch was shown to
the French Minister, he replied, a little nettled no doubt by the
suggestion that England considered herself to be stretching a point in
recognising the Emperor, that he had already heard from their Ambassador in
London that Lord Palmerston fully approved of the change. In a later
dispatch to Lord Normanby, which had not been shown either to the Queen or
to the Prime Minister, Palmerston repeated his own opinion. Now this was
precisely the kind of conduct for which he had been reproved: in
consequence he was asked to resign. When it came to explanations before
Parliament, Palmerston, to the surprise of everybody, made a meek, halting
defence of his independent conduct. But he bided his time, and when the
Government brought in a Militia Bill, intended to quiet the invasion scare
which the appearance of another Napoleon on the throne of France had
started, he proposed an amendment which they could not accept, and carried
it against them. Lord John Russell resigned and Lord Derby undertook to
form a Government.

Lady John wrote afterwards the following recollections of this crisis:

The breach between John and Lord Palmerston was a calamity to the
country, to the Whig party, and to themselves. And although it had
for some months been a threatening danger on the horizon, I cannot