Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/58

 28 CAUSES INVOLVIXG FRANCE AND ENGLAND C 11 A P. reverse a decision already taken. Noiwitlistand- ' ing Lord Pabnerston's subsequently expressed assent to the decision of the 22d of December,* there is room, as I think, for surmising that, if his tenure of office had remained uninterrupted, our Cabinet would have stood by its former resolve, and refused to break up the negotiations then almost ripe for agreement by an act which had the strange quality of being even more offensive than war. At all events, it is certain that, if only for his power of controlling the French Emperor, and maintaining with him that kind of concert which English statesmen might ap- prove, Lord Palmerston had been a great source of strength to the Government, On the other hand, it seemed plain that if Lord Palmerston were to be undergoing political banishment at a time when his late colleagues could be accused of flinching from the task of avenging Sinope, the support of an indignant people, connecting every symptom of ]Iinisterial tamcness with his exclu- sion from office, would make him more powerful than the Queen's Government. Now unfortunately it happened, though for rea- sons which cannot yet be disclosed, that some days before the ill-omened Thursday, Lord Pal- merston was driven from office. Of the justice or propriety of the measure thus taken against him no one yet can be invited to judge, because its most interesting Look.
 * In a letter to his brother, published in llr Evelyn Ashley's,