Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/423

1 85 5.] Death of Peel to Resignation of Aberdeen. 409 moved for the special committee. He was unable from ill health to make his speech ; but no speaking was really required. The nation demanded an inquiry, and it had to be undertaken. The debate was adjourned to the 29th, when, on a division, the resolution was carried by 305 to 148, and Lord Aberdeen's Ministry ceased to exist. Whatever other result the war was to accomplish, it had now destroyed an English Ministry, one which contained Liberal elements, and which might have been mildly progressive in its domestic policy if the foreign catastrophe had not occurred. Mild, however, its progress must inevitably have been. A coali- tion is not likely to originate and carry a thorough scheme of reform of any kind. There are so many interests to be con- ciliated, so many opinions to qualify the original proposition, that a simple and definite plan has no chance of adoption. That Russell was genuinely desirous to effect improvements is certain now, and was felt at the time ; but his processes, even if he had not been hampered by unwilling colleagues, were always tentative and timorous. Mr. Gladstone, as we have since learnt, was growing in that substantial Liberalism which is not afraid to apply great principles when they have once been accepted ; but at that time his attention was mainly directed to reforms in the financial department, to which he was invited by his official duties, and the Radicals had not yet found in him a hearty friend, much less a great leader. The Aberdeen Ministry neither promised great reforms itself nor prepared the way for a more adventurous Administration. It existed because there was no strong party in Parliament, and the causes which created it were to exercise for some time longer the deadening influence which, like the frost of winter, was destined to precede the stronger birth of a new and vigorous spring.