rous believers in Palmerston by having forced him to
resign. Lord Lansdowne was universally respected, and since he belonged to
the rear-guard of the Whig party there seemed a better chance of his
coalescing with the Conservatives. When he declined, pleading gout and old
age, the task devolved upon Lord Aberdeen, who accepted the Queen's
commission knowing that Palmerston was willing to take office and work
_with_, though never again (he said) _under_, [39] Lord John. It
was most important that both the leaders of the Whig party, Palmerston and
Russell, should come into the Cabinet; for if either stayed outside a
coalition, which by its Conservative tendencies already excluded Radicals
of influence like Cobden and Bright, it could not have counted upon steady
Whig support. Would Lord John consent to take office? Upon his decision
depended, in Lord Aberdeen's opinion, the success or failure of the
coalition. He had some talk with Lord John before accepting the Queen's
commission, which persuaded him that he could rely upon Lord John's
consent; but it is clear that at that time Lord John did not consider the
matter decided.

[39] Although he asserted at the time that he would never serve under Lord
John again, yet it appears that he was the only one of Lord John's
colleagues who was willing to serve under him, when Lord John attempted to
succeed Lord Aberdeen. Morley's "Life of Gladstone," vol. i, p. 531.

_Lady John Russell to Lady Mary Abercromby_

LONDON, _December_ 24, 1852

God grant our present good accounts may continue. [Lady Minto had
been and was then alarmingly ill.] The two last letters have made
me as little unhappy as is possible, considering how much there is
still to dread.

Whenever my thoughts are not with Mama, they are wearying
themselves to no purpose in threading the maze of ravelled
politics, or rather political arrangements, in which we are living.
Since I have been in _public life_, I never spent a week of
such painful _public anxiety_. When I say that the possibility
of John taking office under Lord Aberdeen was always an odious one
to me, and one which seemed next to an impossibility, don't for one
moment suppose that I say so on the ground of personal claims and
personal ambition, which I hold to be as wrong and selfish in
politics as in everything else. And I shall feel a positive
pleasure, far above that of seeing him _f