my father's action seem to imply, if justified, that he ought to
have publicly defended the conduct of military affairs which he had
persistently and heartily condemned. It appears to me that not only
his candid nature, but the story of his life, refutes these
reproaches, as clearly as similar reproaches are refuted by the
life of Gladstone.

Yours faithfully,

ROLLO RUSSELL

CHAPTER VIII

1855

The debate upon Roebuck's motion of inquiry lasted two nights, and at its
close the Aberdeen Ministry fell, beaten by a majority of 157. Historians
have seen in this incident much more than the fall of a Ministry.

Behind the question whether the civil side of the Crimean campaign had been
mismanaged lay the wider issue whether the Executive should allow its
duties to be delegated to a committee of the House of Commons. "The
question which had to be answered," says Mr. Bright in his "History of
England," "was whether a great war could be carried to a successful
conclusion under the blaze of publicity, when every action was exposed not
only to the criticism and discussion of the Press, but also to the more
formidable and dangerous demands of party warfare within the walls of
Parliament."

After both Lord John and Lord Derby had failed to form a Government, the
Queen sent for Lord Palmerston.

Lady John, when her husband was summoned to form a Government, wrote to him
from Pembroke Lodge on February 3, 1855:

All the world must feel that the burden laid upon you, though a
very glorious, is a very heavy one.... Politics have never yet been
what they ought to be; men who would do nothing mean themselves do
not punish meanness in others when it can serve their party or
their country, and excuse their connivance on that ground. That
ground itself gives way when fairly tried. You are made for better
days than these. I know how much better you really are than me....
You have it in your power to purify and to reform much that is
morally wrong--much that you would not tolerate in your own
household.... "Whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are honest," on these things take your
stand--hold them fast, let them be your pride--let your Ministry,
as far as in you lies, be made of such men, that the more closely
its deeds are looked into, the more it will be admired.... Pray for
strength and wisdom fro