Earl of Shaftesbury_, by Edwin
Hodder, pp. 429-435.

[23] _Lord Beaconsfield's Correspondence with his Sister_ (1832-1852),
p. 249. London: John Murray.

[24] _History of Our Own Times_, by Justin McCarthy, M.P. vol. ii. pp.
85, 86.

[25] _Life of Lord John Russell_, by Spencer Walpole, vol. ii p. 143.

CHAPTER IX

COALITION BUT NOT UNION

1852-1853

The Aberdeen Ministry--Warring elements--Mr. Gladstone's
position--Lord John at the Foreign Office and Leader of the
House--Lady Russell's criticism of Lord Macaulay's statement--A
small cloud in the East--Lord Shaftesbury has his doubts

THERE is no need to linger over the history of the next few months, for
in a political sense they were barren and unfruitful. The first Derby
Administration possessed no elements of strength, and quickly proved a
mere stop-gap Cabinet. Its tenure of power was not only brief but
inglorious. The new Ministers took office in February, and they left it
in December. Lord Palmerston may be said to have given them their
chance, and Mr. Gladstone gave them their _coup de grace_. The Derby
Administration was summoned into existence because Lord Palmerston
carried his amendment on the Militia Bill, and it refused to lag
superfluous on the stage after the crushing defeat which followed Mr.
Gladstone's brilliant attack on the Budget of Mr. Disraeli. The chief
legislative achievement of this short-lived Government was an extension
of the Bribery Act, which Lord John Russell had introduced in 1841. A
measure was now passed providing for a searching investigation of
corrupt practices by commissioners appointed by the Crown. The affairs
of New Zealand were also placed on a sound political basis. A General
Election occurred in the summer, but before the new Parliament met in
the autumn the nation was called to mourn the death of the Duke of
Wellington. The old soldier had won the crowning victory of Waterloo
four years before the Queen's birth, and yet he survived long enough to
grace with his presence the opening ceremony of the Great
Exhibition--that magnificent triumph of the arts of peace which was held
in London in the summer of 1851. The remarkable personal ascendency
which the Duke of Wellington achieved because of his splendid record as
a soldier, though backed by high personal character, was not thrown on
the side of either liberty or progress when the hero transferred his
services from the camp to the cabin