us
enjoyment, to tear to shreds despatches of European importance.

Above the bow room was our mother's bedroom; the view from here was
exceedingly beautiful, both near and far, and she was never tired of
standing at the open window looking at the loveliness around her, and
listening to the happy chorus of birds--and to the nightingales answering
each other, and singing day and night, apparently never weary of trying to
gladden the world with their glorious melody.

It was indeed impossible to have a happier or more perfect home; the
freedom, the outdoor life, the games and fun, in which our father and
mother joined in their rare moments of leisure; the hours of reading and
talk with them on the high and deep things of life--all this, and much more
that cannot be expressed, forms a background in the memory of life deeply
treasured and ineffaceable.

CHAPTER VII

1852-55

Although the Russell Ministry had been defeated upon the Militia Bill ("my
tit-for-tat with John Russell," as Palmerston called it), the victors were
very unlikely to hold office for long. In spite of Disraeli's praise of
Free Trade during the General Election, a right-about surprising and
disconcerting to his colleagues, the returns left the strength of parties
much as they had been before. The Conservatives did not lose ground, but
they did not gain it; they remained stronger than any other single party,
but much weaker than Whigs, Peelites, and Irish combined. When Parliament
met it was obvious that they would soon be replaced in office by some kind
of coalition. Defeat came on Disraeli's Budget. The question remained, who
could now undertake to amalgamate the various political groups, which,
except in Opposition, had shown so little stable cohesion? Since the
downfall of the Derby Government had been the work of a temporary alliance
between Peelites and Whigs, the Queen sent for representatives of both
parties; for Lord Aberdeen as the leader of Peel's followers and for Lord
Lansdowne as the representative of the Whigs. Naturally she did not wish to
summon Palmerston after what had happened; and to have charged Lord John,
the other Whig leader, with the formation of a Ministry would have widened
the discrepancies within the Whig party itself; for Lord John was unpopular
with the Protestant Nonconformist section of the party, who were indignant
with him for not strictly enforcing the Ecclesiastical Titles Act, and he
had alienated the nume