ABSTRACT
The Palmerston government of 1859-65 was reasonably harmonious. Palmerston and Russell sank their differences in old age. The few radicals in the government were held firmly in check. The only left-wing Liberal in the Cabinet was the aristocratic radical C. P Villiers, who was tucked impotently away at the Poor Law Board. Palmerston's many examples of personal kindness helped to keep the government working in good accord. Most importantly; Palmerston, never more than the mildest of reformers and ever a staunch upholder of aristocracy; ventured little. Derby and Disraeli, in a clear minority after the Liberal agreement of 1859 (Ch. 37), found few pretexts for an attempt to turn the government out. Derby was content to see in harness an administration which was Conservative in all but name and Disraeli, his 1850s radical flirtations behind him, was learning the vital parliamentary virtue of patience. Though he would be sixty in 1864, Palmerston would be eighty and Russell seventy-two. He could afford to wait for the inevitably much changed political world when the 'two dreadful old men' were no longer on the scene.
