Downing Street, whilst for the moment men
of superior ability like Palmerston and Russell found their advice
unheeded. More than any other man, Sir James Graham, now almost a
forgotten statesman, was Lord Aberdeen's trusted colleague, and the
wisdom of his advice was by no means always conspicuous; for rashness
and timidity were oddly blended in his nature. 'The defeat of the Turks
at Sinope upon our element, the sea,' wrote the Prince Consort to Baron
Stockmar, 'has made the people furious; it is ascribed to Aberdeen
having been bought over by Russia.'[34] The rumour which the Prince
mentions about Lord Aberdeen was, of course, absurd, and everyone who
knew the lofty personal character of the Prime Minister laughed it at
once to scorn. Nevertheless, the fact that the Prince Consort should
have thought such a statement worth chronicling is in itself
significant; and though no man of brains in the country held such a
view, at least two-thirds of the educated opinion of the nation
regarded the Prime Minister with increasing disfavour, as a man who had
dragged England, through humiliating negotiations, to the verge of war.

[Sidenote: ENGLAND RESENTS SINOPE]

The destruction of the Turkish squadron at Sinope under the shadow of
our fleet touched the pride of England to the quick. The nation lost all
patience--as the contemptuous cartoons of 'Punch' show--with the endless
parleyings of Aberdeen, and a loud and passionate cry for war filled the
country. Lord Stanmore thinks that too much was made in the excitement
of the 'massacre' of the Turkish sailors, and perhaps he is right.
However that may be, the fact remains that the Russians at Sinope
continued to storm with shot and shell the Turkish ships when those on
board were no longer able to act on the defensive--a naval engagement
which cannot be described as distinguished for valour. Perhaps the
indignation might not have been so deep and widespread if the English
people had not recognised that the Coalition Government had strained
concession to the breaking point in the vain attempt to propitiate the
Czar. All through the early autumn Lord Palmerston was aware that those
in the Cabinet who were jealous of Russia had to reckon with 'private
and verbal communications, given in all honesty, but tinctured by the
personal bias of the Prime Minister,' to Baron Brunnow, which were doing
'irreparable mischief' at St. Petersburg.[35] The nation did not relish
Lord Aberdeen's