GREY AND PALMERSTON
Windsor Castle, 20th December 1845.
(12 o'clock.)
We just saw Lord John Russell, who came in order to explain why he had to give up the task of forming a Government. He had written to all his former colleagues to join him in his attempt, amongst others to Lord Grey, who answered, "that he could only belong to a Government which pledged itself to the principle of absolute free trade and abolition of all protection; that he had his own views upon the sugar question (as to which he advocated the admission of slave labour) and upon the Irish question (as to which his principle was to establish entire religious equality); that he hoped that in the formation of a new Government no personal considerations should stand in the way of a full attention to public Duty."
Lord John replied that he advocated free trade, but as the immediate question before them was the Corn Laws, he thought it wiser not to complicate this by other declarations which would produce a good deal of animosity; that the sugar question and Ireland might be discussed in Cabinet when circumstances required it; that he agreed entirely in the last sentence.
After this Lord Grey declared himself quite satisfied. Lord John considered now with his colleagues the peculiar measure to be proposed, and Mr Baring thought he could arrange a financial scheme which would satisfy Lord Lansdowne's demands for relief to the landed interest. They all felt it their duty to answer the Queen's call upon them, though they very much disliked taking office under such peculiar difficulties. Now Lord John undertook to apportion the different offices. He saw Lord Palmerston, and told him that the Queen had some apprehension that his return to the Foreign Office might cause great alarm in other countries, and particularly in France, and that this feeling was still more strongly manifested in the city; whether under these circumstances he would prefer some other office—for instance, the Colonies? Lord Palmerston declared that he was not at all anxious for office, and should much regret that his accession should in any way embarrass Lord John; that he was quite prepared to support him out of office, but that his taking another department than his former one would be a public recognition of the most unjust accusations that had been brought against him; that he had evinced throughout a long official life his disposition for peace, and only in one instance broke with France;36 that that matter was gone by, and that nobody had stronger conviction of the necessity to keep in amity with that Power than himself. Upon this Lord John said that he could not form a Government without him, and showed himself quite satisfied with Lord Palmerston's declaration.
Footnote 36: In reference to affairs in Syria in 1840.
Suddenly Lord Grey, who had heard of this, cried out: "This was an infringement of their compact"; that no personal consideration should interfere with the discharge of public duty, and that he must decline entering the Government, as he considered Lord Palmerston's return to the Foreign Office as fraught with danger to the peace of Europe. Lord John could not, under these circumstances, form a Government. He read to us a long letter from Lord Grey, written with the intention that it should be seen by the Queen, in which Lord Grey enters more fully into his motives, and finishes by saying that therefore he was not answerable for the failure to form an Administration.37
Footnote 37: Lord Grey's attitude was condemned by Macaulay in a letter to a Mr Macfarlan, who unwisely communicated it to the Press.
Lord John gave the Queen a written statement38 of the causes which induced him to relinquish the Government, and of the position he means to assume in Parliament. (He is most anxious that Sir R. Peel should re-enter and successfully carry his measures.)