ch privation was met by
the suffering workpeople.

FOOTNOTES:

[39] _The Liberation of Italy_, 1815-1870, by the Countess Evelyn
Martinengo Cesaresco (Seeley and Co. 1895), p. 252.

[40] Second edition, 1892, chap. xcii.

CHAPTER XVI

SECOND PREMIERSHIP

1865-1866

The Polish Revolt--Bismarck's bid for power--The Schleswig-Holstein
difficulty--Death of Lord Palmerston--The Queen summons Lord
John--The second Russell Administration--Lord John's tribute to
Palmerston--Mr. Gladstone introduces Reform--The 'Cave of
Adullam'--Defeat of the Russell Government--The people accept
Lowe's challenge--The feeling in the country.

LORD JOHN, in his conduct of foreign affairs, acted with generosity
towards Italy and with mingled firmness and patience towards America. It
was a fortunate circumstance, for the great interests at stake on both
sides of the Atlantic, that a man of so much judgment and right feeling
was in power at a moment when prejudice was strong and passion ran high.
Grote, who was by no means consumed with enthusiasm for the Palmerston
Government, did not conceal his admiration of Lord John's sagacity at
this crisis. 'The perfect neutrality of England in the destructive civil
war now raging in America appears to me almost a phenomenon in political
history. No such forbearance has been shown during the political history
of the last two centuries. It is the single case in which the English
Government and public, generally so meddlesome, have displayed most
prudent and commendable forbearance in spite of great temptations to
the contrary.' Lord John had opinions, and the courage of them; but at
the same time he showed himself fully alive to the fact that no greater
calamity could possibly overtake the English-speaking race than a war
between England and the United States.

Europe was filled at the beginning of 1863 with tidings of a renewed
Polish revolt. Russia provoked the outbreak by the stern measures which
had been taken in the previous year to repress the growing discontent of
the people. The conspiracy was too widespread and too deep-rooted for
Alexander II. to deal with, except by concessions to national sentiment,
which he was not prepared to make, and, therefore, he fell back on
despotic use of power. All able-bodied men suspected of revolutionary
tendencies were marked out for service in the Russian army, and in this
way, in Lord John's words, the 'so-called co