linquished an impossible
task, and the Queen sent for Lord Palmerston.

[Sidenote: PALMERSTON'S MIXED MULTITUDE]

In the earlier years of Lord John's retirement from office after the
Vienna Conference his relations with some of his old colleagues, and
more particularly with Lord Clarendon and Lord Palmerston, were somewhat
strained. The blunders of the Derby Government, the jeopardy in India,
the menacing condition of foreign politics, and, still more, the
patriotism and right feeling of both men, gradually drew Palmerston and
Russell into more intimate association, with the result that in the
early summer of 1859 the frank intercourse of former years was renewed.
More than twelve years had elapsed since Lord John had attained the
highest rank possible to an English statesman. In the interval he had
consented, under strong pressure from the most exalted quarters, to
waive his claims by consenting to serve under Lord Aberdeen; and the
outcome of that experiment had been humiliating to himself, as well as
disastrous to the country. He might fairly have stood on his dignity--a
fool's pedestal at the best, and one which Lord John was too sensible
ever to mount--at the present juncture, and have declined to return to
the responsibilities of office, except as Prime Minister. The leaders
of the democracy, Mr. Bright and Mr. Cobden, were much more friendly to
him than to Lord Palmerston. Apart from published records, Lady
Russell's diary shows that at the beginning of this year Mr. Bright was
in close communication with her husband. Lord John good-humouredly
protested that Mr. Bright alarmed timid people by his speeches;
whereupon the latter replied that he had been much misrepresented, and
declared that he was more willing to be lieutenant than general in the
approaching struggle for Reform. He explained his scheme, and Lord John
found that it had much in common with his own, from which it differed
only in degree, except on the question of the ballot. 'There has been a
meeting between Bright and Lord John,' was Lord Houghton's comment, 'but
I don't know that it has led to anything except a more temperate tone in
Bright's last speeches.' Mr. Cobden, it is an open secret, would not
have refused to serve under Lord John, but his hostility to Lord
Palmerston's policy was too pronounced for him now to accept the offer
of a seat in the new Cabinet. He assured Lord John that if he had been
at the head of the Administration the res