st
Napoleon, by his conquering march over Europe and his threatened descent
on the English shores, had established, and, as a consequence, though
with diminished force, the old consternation suddenly revived.

[Sidenote: PALMERSTON'S 'TIT-FOR-TAT']

Lord John Russell had no more real fear of Napoleon than he had of the
Pope, but he rose to the occasion and brought before Parliament a
measure for the reorganisation of the local Militia. He believed that
such a force, with national enthusiasm at its back, was sufficient to
repel invasion--a contingency which, in common with other responsible
statesmen, he did not regard as more than remote. Lord Palmerston,
however, posing as the candid friend of the nation, and the
exceptionally well-informed ex-Foreign Minister, professed to see rocks
ahead, and there were--at all events for the Russell Administration. In
England, any appeal to the Jingo instincts of the populace is certain to
meet with a more or less hysterical welcome, and Palmerston more than
once took advantage of the fact. He expressed his dissatisfaction with
Lord John's Militia Bill, and by a majority of eleven carried an
amendment to it. Lord John met the hostile demonstration by resignation,
and, though Palmerston professed to be surprised at such a result, his
real opinion leaps to light in the historic sentence which he wrote to
his brother on February 24: 'I have had my tit-for-tat with John
Russell, and I turned him out on Friday last.' One hitherto unpublished
reminiscence of that crisis deserves to be recorded, especially as it
throws into passing relief Lord John's generosity of temper: 'I
remember,' states his brother-in-law and at one time private secretary,
the Hon. George Elliot, 'being indignant with Lord Palmerston, after he
had been dismissed by Lord John, bringing forward a verbal amendment on
the Militia Bill in 1852--a mere pretext by which the Government was
overthrown. But Lord John would not at all enter into my feelings, and
said, "It's all fair. I dealt him a blow, and he has given me one in
return."'

Lord John's interest in the question of Parliamentary Reform was
life-long. It was one of the subjects on which his views were in
complete divergence with those of Lord Palmerston. Just before the
'tit-for-tat' amendment, the Premier brought forward a new scheme on the
subject which he had reluctantly waived in 1849 in deference to the
wishes of the majority of his colleagues, who then