1857] W. RUSSELL SENT TO INDIA

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have got an answer from the Queen-that we shall have a Council on Monday and that Parliament will meet fourteen days afterwards.

J. DELANE, Esq.

Yours sincerely,

PALMERSTON.

Although the suspension was necessary under the circumstances, the paper-currency mongers were ready to catch at the faintest indication of a misgiving as to the principles of the Act of 1844, and Delane, in accepting the temporary abrogation of Peel's scheme, was careful to qualify his approval in The Times with an expression of firm adherence to the principles of the original measure.

"I think the less the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street has to do with bill discounting the better," he told a friend, "and as for Scotland, I will be bound they never had a million sovereigns in the country before. No wonder they require extra troops there to prevent the people from scrambling for them!"

In December Delane, who was fully persuaded that the complete suppression of the Mutiny could only be accomplished after a protracted campaign, determined to send out W. H. Russell, his famous correspondent in the Crimea, to join Sir Colin Campbell's force.

Travelling by the overland route, across the desert by rail to Suez, he there joined the P. & O. steamer Nubia and reached Calcutta at the end of January 1858. In the same ship with him were Courtenay, Lord Dalhousie's ex-secretary, and Mr. (afterwards Sir Richard) Temple, Sir John Lawrence's "pet rising man," as Russell calls him in one of his letters to his chief. On arrival at Calcutta Russell went straight to Government House, where he was kindly received by Lord Canning. The Governor-General clearly

explained to him the actual position of affairs, showing him what had been effected by the troops and what yet remained to be done to re-establish British power and prestige. He also gave him a letter of recommendation to the Commander-in-Chief to show that there was no desire on the part of the Government to prevent his being attached to the camp.

When W. H. Russell joined Sir Colin at Cawnpore, the treatment which he received from the Commander-in-Chief was widely different from the suspicion with which the military authorities had regarded him on his arrival in the Crimea. The height to which he raised his profession in 1854-5 now ensured him a hearty greeting.

"Mr. Russell, you're welcome," said Sir Colin. "You have seen something of war. I am going to tell you everything. You shall see all my reports, and get every information that I have myself, on the condition that you do not mention it in camp, or let it be known in any way, except in your letters to England." And one of his staff-the future Lord Napier of Magdala-was instructed to show him all the plans and to render him every assistance in his power. He was present throughout the siege of Lucknow and the campaigns of Oude and Rohilcund, having on one occasion an extremely narrow escape of his life when a party of mutineers raided the camp where his dhooly was lying. His account in The Times of the famous night march to Lucknow equalled in descriptive power anything that he wrote from the Crimea. It is characteristic of his independence of character that, when the rebellion was subdued, he raised his voice in protest against what he felt to be the excessive severity of the punishment inflicted upon the captured mutineers.

1857]

DEATH OF HAVELOCK

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Just before Christmas England was gladdened by the receipt of the news of the relief of Lucknow, though, whilst the country still rang with the praises of Campbell, Outram, and Havelock, there came the sad tidings of the latter's death. Above every other leader in the war he had been generally recognised as the type of a military hero. His fame extended to more distant shores than our own, and it is pleasant to remember that when his death was reported at New York, vessels in the harbour lowered their flags in token of mourning for England's loss. Worn out with hardship and fatigue, the example of his death, almost in the hour of victory, has probably done more to inspire a spirit of heroism in the British Army than if his life had been prolonged. Like Nelson, he died before he could know how fully his services were appreciated by a grateful country.

At the close of the year Lord Harrowby desired to be relieved of the office of Lord Privy Seal, not from any political difference with the Government, but solely on account of the state of his health. To succeed him Palmerston chose Lord Clanricarde, "whose habits of business, official experience, and debating ability will render him a useful accession to the Government."1

Delane at once perceived that the appointment was one calculated to do the Ministry great harm, for Lord Clanricarde had a past, and the recollection of a scandal in which he had been concerned some two or three years previously was still fresh in the public mind.

When the news became generally known a howl of virtuous indignation was raised, and-such an uncertain thing is political popularity-the influence 1 Palmerston to Delane, December 27, 1857.

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of the Prime Minister was soon perceptibly weakened by what, after all, amounted to a mere tactical indiscretion. Some reflection of this rapid change in public opinion will be found in a passage in Greville's Diary for January 28, 1858:

Delane told me yesterday he thought the Government would not remain long in office, . . and he ridiculed the idea of its not being practicable to form another.

How speedily Delane's prediction was to be verified will be seen in dealing with 1858, when, like a bolt from the blue, a storm arose which cut short the life of Palmerston's first administration and brought Lord Derby and Disraeli back to office if not to power.

CHAPTER VIII

LORD DERBY'S SECOND ADMINISTRATION

Delane in Paris-Letters from Canton (Sherard Osborn and Laurence Oliphant)-Defeat of Lord Palmerston's Government on the Orsini question-Delane and the crisis of February 1858Arduous nature of his work at The Times office-Disraeli on the new Ministry-The session of 1858-The Cagliari dispute and Lord Malmesbury-Final suppression of the Indian Mutiny -Delane and the National Portrait Gallery-Purchase of the Ascot Heath property-Palmerston at Compiègne-Lord Granville's attempt to form an administration-Delane and the national defences-The Suez Canal-Conflicting views of Palmerston and Delane.

THE opening of the New Year found Delane once more in Paris, where he had gone to see Lord Cowley. He records in his diary having gone to the Opera with Lady Cowley, and, by himself, to a masked ball at the same place, but no letters which he wrote at this time have been found.

On January 5 he left Paris at eight o'clock in the morning and reached Serjeants' Inn at 9.30 p.m., or nearly double the time now occupied by the journey under favourable conditions.

On February 6 Lord Strangford (George Augustus Smythe), Monckton-Milnes, Sir Henry Storks, Robert Lowe, Venables, Mowbray Morris, and Higgins (Jacob Omnium) dined with him, and on the 17th he mentions "a very pleasant party" at Lord Alfred Paget's, consisting of Lord and Lady Stafford,' Lord Dufferin,

1 In later years, as Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, they became most intimate friends of Delane's, and scarcely a year passed without his visiting them at Dunrobin or at Trentham.

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