ABSTRACT
Aberdeen tried to maintain friendly relations with France through his friend Princess Lieven, who had the ear and the heart of Guizot. The difficulty of reconciling political with personal friendships was there strikingly revealed; but, paradoxically enough, the revelation came when Aberdeen had ceased to be Foreign Minister. Aberdeen had sharply criticized Palmerston during 1849 for his attitude towards Naples and for his attempts to prevent its King from indulging in barbarous and savage reprisals towards his subjects. In 1851 Aberdeen was suddenly confronted with an indictment of Naples more severe than any that even Palmerston had made. Gladstone waited for a reply for seven weeks, then became impatient and published his first letter to Lord Aberdeen, together with a second. The Neapolitan Minister in London asked that copies of the Official Reply should likewise be circulated. Palmerston grasped the chance of telling a Neapolitan official something of what England thought of his Government.
