conclusion,
and that as I could not resist inquiry--by giving the only assurances
which I thought sufficient to prevent it--my duty was not to remain any
longer a member of the Government.' In the course of a powerful speech
Lord John added that he would always look back with pride on his
association with many measures of the Aberdeen Government, and more
particularly with the great financial scheme which Mr. Gladstone brought
forward in 1853.

[Sidenote: OPEN CONFESSION]

He refused to admit that the Whigs were an exclusive party, and he
thought that such an idea was refuted by the fact that they had
consented to serve in a Coalition Government. 'I believe that opinion to
have been unjust, and I think that the Whig party during the last two
years have fully justified the opinion I entertained. I will venture to
say that no set of men ever behaved with greater honour or with more
disinterested patriotism than those who have supported the Government
of the Earl of Aberdeen. It is my pride, and it will ever be my pride to
the last day of my life, to have belonged to a party which, as I
consider, upholds the true principles of freedom; and it will ever be my
constant endeavour to preserve the principles and to tread in the paths
which the Whig party have laid down for the guidance of their conduct.'
Lord John made no attempt to disguise the gravity of the crisis, and the
following admission might almost be said to have sealed the fate of the
Ministry: 'Sir, I must say that there is something, with all the
official knowledge to which I have had access, that to me is
inexplicable in the state of our army. If I had been told, as a reason
against the expedition to the Crimea last year, that your troops would
be seven miles from the sea, and that--at that seven miles'
distance--they would be in want of food, of clothing, and of shelter to
such a degree that they would perish at the rate of from ninety to a
hundred a day, I should have considered such a prediction as utterly
preposterous, and such a picture of the expedition as entirely fanciful
and absurd. We are all, however, forced to confess the notoriety of that
melancholy state of things.' Three days later, after a protracted and
heated debate, Mr. Roebuck's motion was carried in a House of 453
members by the sweeping majority of 157. 'The division was curious,'
wrote Greville. 'Some seventy or eighty Whigs, ordinary supporters of
Government, voted against them, and al