Palmerston's was, of course, the deciding opinion, whenever he
cared to express it, but this he did but rarely. His great concern was
to keep his all-star associates running smoothly together and thus to
give no occasion for parliamentary criticism and attack. It followed
that Russell, eight years the junior of Palmerston, was in foreign
affairs more powerful and independent than is customary. Indeed the
Government was at times spoken of as the "Palmerston-Russell Ministry."
These two were the leaders of the team; next came Gladstone and
Cornewall Lewis, rivals of the younger generation, and each eager to
lead when their elders should retire from harness. Gladstone's great
ability was already recognized, but his personal political faith was not
yet clear. Lewis, lacking his rival's magnetic and emotional qualities,
cold, scholarly, and accurate in performance, was regarded as a
statesman of high promise[127]. Other Cabinet members, as is the custom
of coalitions, were more free in opinion and action than in a strict
party ministry where one dominating personality imposes his will upon
his colleagues.

Lord John Russell, then, in foreign policy, was more than the main voice
of the Government; rather, save in times of extreme crisis, governmental
foreign policy was Russell's policy. This was even more true as regards
American than European affairs, for the former were little understood,
and dependence was necessarily placed upon the man whose business it was
to be familiar with them. Indeed there was little actual parliamentary
or governmental interest, before midsummer of 1861, in the American
question, attention in foreign affairs being directed toward Italian
expansion, to the difficulties related to the control of the Ionian
islands, and to the developing Danish troubles in Schleswig-Holstein.
Neither did the opposition party venture to express a policy as regards
America. Lord Derby, able but indolent, occasionally indulged in caustic
criticism, but made no attempt to push his attack home. Malmesbury, his
former Foreign Secretary, was active and alert in French affairs, but
gave no thought to relations across the Atlantic[128]. Disraeli, Tory
leader in the Commons, skilfully led a strong minority in attacks on the
Government's policy, but never on the American question, though
frequently urged to do so by the friends of the South. In short for the
first year of the Civil War, 1861, the policy of Great Britain toward