m above, and God bless and prosper you,
dearest.

But Lord John failing to find sufficient support, Lord Palmerston became
Prime Minister. His first Cabinet was a coalition. It included, besides
some new Whig Ministers, all the members of the previous Cabinet with the
exception of Lord John, Lord Aberdeen, and the Duke of Newcastle. But on
Palmerston accepting the decision of the last Parliament in favour of a
Committee of Inquiry, Gladstone, Sidney Herbert, and Sir James Graham
resigned; their reason being that the admission of such a precedent for
subordinating the Executive to a committee of the House was a grave danger
to the Constitution.

It looked as though the Ministry would fall, when Lord John, who had
previously refused office, to the surprise and delight of the Whigs,
accepted the Colonies. His motives in taking office will be found in the
following letters. He had already accepted a mission as British
Plenipotentiary at the Conference of Vienna, summoned by Austria to
conclude terms of peace between the Allies and Russia. He did not therefore
return at once to take his place in the Cabinet, but continued on his
mission. Its consequences were destined to bring down on him such a storm
of abuse as the careers of statesmen seldom survive. When Gladstone and the
Peelites resigned, Palmerston's Ministry ceased to be a coalition and
became a Whig Cabinet. The fact that Lord John came to Palmerston's rescue,
that he accepted without hesitation a subordinate office and served under
Palmerston's leadership in the Commons, shows that Lord John's reluctance
to serve in the first instance under Lord Aberdeen could not have been due
to a scruple of pride; nor could his obstinate insistence upon his own way
inside the Cabinet, of which the Peelites had complained in the early days
of Lord Aberdeen's Ministry, have been caused by a desire to make the most
of his own importance.

_Lord John to Lady John Russell_

PARIS, _February_ 23, 1855

I have accepted office in the present Ministry. Whatever objections
you may feel to this decision, I have taken it on the ground that
the country is in great difficulty, and that every personal
consideration ought to be waived. I am sure I give a Liberal
Government the best chance of continuing by so acting. When I come
home, I shall have weight enough in the Cabinet through my
experience and position. In the meantime I go on to Vienna.... I