Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/425

i859] Resignation of Aberdeen to Dissolution in 1859. 411 probable consequences were absorbing all attention. The people in the country, and the Radicals who directly repre- sented them in Parliament, had already begun to see that the object which induced them to support the war the reduction of the power and influence of Russia in Europe was not the end which the Government had in view. To prop up the decaying empire of the Turk was the ultimately impossible task which the English Cabinet had set before itself. There was, however, a general opinion that, of all the ministers 3 Palmerston was the one who shared with the people the desire to promote the cause of Liberalism abroad, and to promote it by weakening, if not humiliating, Russia. There was thus, for a time, the curious spectacle of the least Liberal of the Whigs receiving Radical support at the expense of some of his colleagues, who were genuinely in favour of domestic reform. It is one of the curses of war that it distorts the national view not only of events, but of men. The minister, who was thus welcomed to office, deliberately and of set purpose prevented any political advance, and for years restrained the desire for those constitutional changes which were the indispensable precursors of social progress. The key-note of his policy was struck when, on the i6th of February, the Prime Minister announced what was to be the future conduct of his Govern- ' ment. Of domestic concerns, he referred only to the questions of administrative reforms, which had been raised in so serious a manner by the vote in favour of Roebuck's motion for a committee of inquiry. Palmerston offered that, if the com- mittee were abandoned, its functions should be undertaken by the Cabinet, which had already instituted the preliminary provisions not only for inquiry, but for actual reform. He would honestly endeavour to obtain peace, and had induced Lord John Russell to proceed to Vienna as the English representative at a congress, to show the importance attached to the negotiations and the sincerity of our desire for their success. Whilst the country was thus disturbed by the conduct of the war and the instability of governments, there passed from