Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/441

 1 859-1 Resignation of Aberdeen to Dissolution in 1859. 427 The Houses reassembled on the 4th of February, 1858, and it was not long before a catastrophe, striking both from its character and the means by which it was brought about, fell upon the strong Government of Lord Palmerston. The noble lord had always posed as the special defender of Liberalism in Europe, and the great champion of English honour and dignity. He had more than once reproached some of the Radicals with being ready to accept humiliation for the sake of peace. He was now to appear as a minister ready to limit the right of asylum in England, and willing to alter the laws of this country, at the dictation of a foreign despot and his mili- tary supporters. To make the transaction still more dramatic, he was to be rebuked and punished at the instigation of some of the very men whom he had been in the habit of accusing of cowardice or unpatriotic folly. The attempt on the life of the French Emperor, made by Orsini and others on the I4th of January, had been arranged, and the bombs made use of had been prepared, in this country. This gave rise to some absurd and threaten- ing declarations by certain colonels and other officers in the French army, who, amongst other wild words, talked of their "indignation and wrath against those who become the accomplices of those sanguinary anarchists, by giving them an asylum ; " and, alluding to this country, said, in an address to the Emperor, " If your Majesty wants soldiers to get at these men, even in the recesses of their den, we humbly beseech you to choose the 82nd Regiment as part of the advanced guard of that army." * This sort of language was only made important because it was officially inserted in the Government paper. The colonels could not be expected to know much about international law or the modes of communication between governments ; but a more serious matter was a request for an alteration in the English law, conveyed in a despatch from Count Walweski on the 2Oth of January. To this no distinct or written refusal was given, but on the 8th of February Lord Palmerston moved for
 * "Annual Register," 1858, p. 221.