alians--Death of the Prince
Consort--The 'Trent' affair--Lord John's remonstrance--The
'Alabama' difficulty--Lord Selborne's statement--The Cotton Famine.

FOREIGN politics claimed Lord John's undivided attention throughout the
four remaining years of the Palmerston Administration. It was well for
the nation that a statesman of so much courage and self-reliance, cool
sagacity, and wide experience, controlled the Foreign Office in years
when wars and rumours of war prevailed alike in Europe and in America.
He once declared that it had always been his aim to promote the cause of
civil and religious liberty, not merely in England, but in other parts
of the world, and events were now looming which were destined to justify
such an assertion. It is not possible to enter at length into the
complicated problems with which he had to deal during his tenure of the
Foreign Office, but the broad principles which animated his policy can,
in rough outline at least, be stated. It is well in this connection to
fall back upon his own words: 'In my time very difficult questions
arose. During the period I held the seals of the Foreign Office I had to
discuss the question of the independence of Italy, of a treaty
regarding Poland made by Lord Castlereagh, the treaty regarding Denmark
made by Lord Malmesbury, the injuries done to England by the republic of
Mexico, and, not to mention minor questions, the whole of the
transactions arising out of the civil war in America, embittered as they
were by the desire of a party in the United States to lay upon England
the whole blame of the insurrection, the "irrepressible conflict" of
their own fellow-citizens.' Both of these questions were far-reaching
and crucial, and in his attitude towards Italy and America, when they
were in the throes of revolution, Lord Russell's generous love of
liberty and vigour of judgment alike stand revealed.

Prince Metternich declared soon after the peace of 1815 that Italy was
'only a geographical expression.' The taunt was true at the time, but
even then there was a young dreamer living who was destined to render it
false. 'Great ideas,' declared Mazzini, 'create great nations,' and his
whole career was devoted to the attempt to bring about a united Italy.
The statesmanship of Cavour and the sword of Garibaldi were enlisted in
the same sacred cause. The petty governments of the Peninsula grew
suddenly impossible, and Italy was freed from native tyranny an