numbers.  Besides, should Austria go on losing ground there was more than a chance that Prussia would invade France, when the prospects of Italy would have been at an end, and England too, in all probability, involved in a general war.  Napoleon, who knew the unsoundness of his own army, dreaded this contingency himself; though the English Court supposed—­and continued to suppose, strangely enough—­that to provoke a war with Prussia was the ultimate end of his policy.  Generally speaking, the English people were enthusiastically Italian, while the Court and aristocracy were pro-Austrian.  “I remarked,” wrote Lord Granville to Lord Canning at this time, “that in the Lords, whenever I said anything in favour of the Emperor or the Italians, the House became nearly sea-sick, while they cheered anything the other way, as if pearls were dropping from my lips.”

The elections did not strengthen Lord Derby sufficiently, and in June he resigned.

“Lord Derby’s Government was beaten this morning,” writes Lord Malmesbury, [52] “by a majority of 13....  The division took place at half-past two, and the result was received with tremendous cheers by the Opposition.  D’Azeglio (the Piedmontese Minister) and some other foreigners were waiting in the lobby outside, and when Lord Palmerston appeared redoubled their vociferations.  D’Azeglio is said to have thrown his hat in the air and himself in the arms of Jaucourt, the French attache, which probably no ambassador, or even Italian, ever did before in so public a place.”

[52] “Memoirs of an Ex-Minister.”

It was not easy to choose Lord Derby’s successor, since the Liberal party was divided; but its two leaders, Palmerston and Lord John, agreed to support each other in the event of either of them being charged with the formation of the new Government.  The Queen, either because she was reluctant to distinguish between two equally eminent statesmen, or because she did not know of their mutual agreement, or more likely because she did not wish the foreign policy of England to be in the hands of Ministers with professed Italian sympathies, commissioned Lord Granville to make the attempt, who, though he felt some sympathy for the patriots, considered the peace of Europe far more important than the better government of Italy.  After he had failed she sent for Palmerston, under whom Lord John became Foreign Secretary.  This change of Government had a happy and instant effect upon the prosperity of the Italian cause.  Technically, England still maintained her neutrality with regard to the struggle between Austria and Victor Emmanuel, backed by his French allies; but the change of Ministry meant that instead of being in the hands of a neutral Government with Austrian sympathies, the international negotiations upon which the union and freedom of Italy depended were now inspired by three men—­Palmerston, Russell, and Gladstone—­who did all in their power, and were prepared, perhaps, to risk war, in order to forward the policy of Victor Emmanuel and Cavour.