Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/96

60 CAUSKS INVOLVING FRANCE AND ENGLAND C 11 A P. VII. Lord Aberdef-n and Mr Gladstone remained u oUice. of liis virtues as tending to make him whimsical and unstaljle; and the practical politicians, con- ceiving that he was not to be depended upon for party purposes, and was bent upon none but lofty objects, used to look upon him as dangerous — used to call him behind his back a good man — a good man in the worst sense of the term. In 1853 it seemed only too probable that he might quit office upon an infinitel}^ slight suspicion of the warlike tendency of the Government ; but what appeared certain was, that if, upon the vital question of peace or war, the Government should depart by even a hair's-breadth from the riglit path, the Chancellor of the Exchequer would instantly re- fuse to be a partaker of their fault He, and he before all other men, stood charged to give the alarm of danger ; and there seemed to be no particle of ground for fearing that, like the Prime JMinister, he would drift. The known watchful- ness and alacrity of his conscience, and his power of detecting small germs of evil, led the world to think it impossible that he could be moving for months together in a wrong course without know- ing it. Xow, from the beginning of the negotiations until the final rupture. Lord Aberdeen continued to be the Prime ^linister, and ^Ir Gladstone the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The result was that, during the session of 1853, and the autumn which followed it, the presence of these two Ministers in the Cabinet was regarded as a guarantee of the peaceful tendency of the Government; and wlien,