After Lord John’s failure to form a Ministry, Peel returned to power; Gladstone replaced Stanley at the War and Colonial Office, and Stanley became the acknowledged leader of the protectionist Opposition.  Having Lord John’s assurance that the Whigs would support anti-Corn Law legislation, Peel set about preparing his famous measure.  But before it could be discussed in Parliament, the usual explanations with regard to resignation and resumption of office had to be gone through.  In his speech on this occasion, Lord John tried to shield Lord Grey as far as possible from the unpopularity which he had incurred by refusing to work with Palmerston in the same Cabinet.  Feeling on both sides of the House was against Lord Grey; for both Free Traders and Protectionists thought that Repeal ought to have come from the Whigs, and that it was Lord Grey who had made this impossible.

Lady John remained in Edinburgh, too ill to move.  While her husband was helping Peel at Westminster, the following letters passed between them: 

    Lord John to Lady John Russell

    LONDON, January 23, 1846

I did not write to you last night, as I thought I could give you a clearer account to-day.  Sir Robert Peel gave up Protection altogether on the ground that he had changed his opinion....  I dine with the Fox Club [to-day?] and at Lansdowne House to-morrow.  I have rather startled Lord Lansdowne this morning by some of my views about Ireland.

    Lady John to Lord John Russell

    EDINBURGH, January 25, 1846

I never doubted that you were as noble by nature as by name; and I am now more happily convinced of it than ever.  Your whole speech was plain and excellent, but the part that I dwell upon with the greatest pleasure is that about Lord Grey....  I generally think your speeches a curious contrast to Sir Robert’s, and it does not fail on this occasion.  His humble confession of former errors, his appeal to our sympathies, and his heroic tone at the close, all got rather the better of my reason while I read; but the more I think over his conduct, the less becomes the effect of his words.  Yours, on the contrary, as usual, only gain in force the more they are reflected on, simply because they are true.  And now, having congratulated you quite as much as is good for your vanity, I must praise myself a little for the way in which I have hitherto borne your absence.  What with its present pain, the uncertainty as to when it may end, and my varying and wearying state of health, I have many a time been inclined to lie and cry; and if ever I allowed myself to dwell in thought on the happy days which sad memory brings to light, I should lie and cry; those days when neither night nor day could take me from your side, and when it was as difficult to look forward to sickness or sorrow as it now is to believe that health and happiness—­such happiness as that—­are in store for