uld have dictated Lord John's
decision at this time, his behaviour in circumstances to be recounted in
the next chapter shows. Unpopular as his resignation made him with
politicians, it was nothing to the storm of abuse which he was forced to
endure when he chose, a few months later, to stand--now an imputed
trimmer--for the sake of preserving what was best in a policy he had not
originally approved.

The troubles and differences of the Coalition Ministry did not lessen Lord
John's regard for Lord Aberdeen, of whom he wrote in his last years: "I
believe no man has entered public life in my time more pure in his personal
views, and more free from grasping ambition or selfish consideration."

Mr. Rollo Russell, on the publication of Mr. John Morley's "Life of
Gladstone," wrote the following letter to the _Times_ in vindication
of his father's action with regard to Mr. Roebuck's motion:

DUNROZEL, HASLEMERE, SURREY, _November,_ 1903

SIR,--In his admirable biography of Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Morley has
given, no doubt without any intention of injury, an impression
which is not historically correct by his account of my father's
resignation in January, 1855, on the notice of Mr. Roebuck's motion
for a Committee of Inquiry. I do not wish to apply to his account
the same measure which he applies by quoting an ephemeral
observation of Mr. Greville to my father's speech, but I do
maintain that "the general effect is very untrue."

Before being judged a man is entitled to the consideration both of
his character and of the evidence on his side. In the chapter to
which I allude there is no reference to the records by which my
father's action has been largely justified. There is no mention, I
think, of these facts: that my father had again and again during
the Crimean War urged upon the Cabinet a redistribution of offices,
the more efficient prosecution of the war, the provision of proper
food and clothing for the Army, which was then undergoing terrible
privations and sufferings, a better concert between the different
Departments, and between the English and French camps, and,
especially, the appointment of a Minister of War of vigour and
authority. "As the welfare of the Empire and the success of the
present conflict are concerned," he wrote at the end of November to
the head of the Government, "the conduct of the war ought to be
place