subject.  John said this morning of his own accord that he feared he had been wrong in ever joining this Ministry.  I wake every morning with the fear of some terrible national disaster before night, of disasters which could be borne if they were unavoidable, but will be unbearable if they could have been avoided.  Do not, pray, think me a croaker without good reason for croaking.  The greatness of the occasion is not understood.

    Ever, my dearest Papa,

    Your affectionate child,

    F.R.

Matters were coming to a crisis in the Cabinet.  The autumn and early winter of 1854 brought the victories of Alma, Balaclava, and Inkerman.  As the country grew prouder of its soldiers its indignation at the way the civil side of the war had been organized increased.  The incompetence of the War Office made the Government extremely unpopular, and a motion was brought forward in the House of Commons charging them with the mismanagement of the war.  Directly after Mr. Roebuck had given notice of a motion for a Committee of Inquiry, Lord John wrote to Lord Aberdeen that since he could not conscientiously oppose the motion, he must resign his office.  The view which most historians have taken of this step is that it was an act of cowardly desertion on his part.  As a member of the Government, he was as responsible as his colleagues for what had been done, and by resigning he was admitting that they deserved disgrace.  Quotations from two important historical books will show the view which has been generally taken of his action.

Lord Morley, in his “Life of Gladstone,” says: 

...  When Parliament assembled on January 23, 1855, Mr. Roebuck on the first night of the session gave notice of a motion for a Committee of Inquiry.  Lord John Russell attended to the formal business, and when the House was up went home, accompanied by Sir Charles Wood.  Nothing of consequence passed between the two colleagues, and no word was said to Wood in the direction of withdrawal.  The same evening, as the Prime Minister was sitting in his drawing-room, a red box was brought in to him by his son, containing Lord John Russell’s resignation.  He was as much amazed as Lord Newcastle, smoking his evening pipe of tobacco in his coach, was amazed by the news that the battle of Marston Moor had begun.  Nothing has come to light since to set aside the severe judgment pronounced upon this proceeding by the universal opinion of contemporaries, including Lord John’s own closest political allies.  That a Minister should run away from a hostile motion upon affairs for which responsibility was collective, and this without a word of consultation with a single colleague, is a transaction happily without precedent in the history of modern English Cabinets. [43]

[43] Morley’s “Life of Gladstone,” vol. i, p. 521.  See also Lord Stanmore’s “Earl of Aberdeen,” chap.  X.

Mr. Herbert Paul, in his brilliant “History of Modern England,” gives a version of this occurrence, which, on the whole, is hardly less harsh towards Lord John.