APPENDIX. 399 why Lord Aberdeen did not, however, insist on its adoptioD is thus stated by him in writing to Mr Gladstone (October 20):— ' Reasonable as it was, I have not thought it prudent to ' adhere to it. I found that Palmerston and Lord John ' were both determined to resist it to the utmost extremity ; ' and I had to consider how far I should bo justified in ' creating a breach on such grounds ; for the practical question at issue would have been, whether we should ' impose on the Turks the necessity of making no alteration ' whatever in a Note which was to be signed by them and ' delivered in their name. To those who did not know all ' that had passed, such a condition would have appeared ' harsh and unjust ; and I felt that it could not properly be ' made the ground of such an irreconcilable difference in the • Cabinet.' Lord Clarendon wrote to you that the declaration was abandoned, and you replied, October 22: 'Your note has ' given me great satisfaction. I understand from it that a ' power of modification is to be left to Rescind Pasha.' Loth at the time, and ever after, until his death, Lord Aberdeen's impression certainly was that the views taken by you of the differences between the Porte and Russia made it impossible for you conscientiously to support him in his efforts for peace ; and that had it been otherwise, war might have been avoided. I find that, just previously to its commencement (Feb. 28, 1854), he expressed this feeling to you in the following terms. After stating his entire concurrence with you on the Reform question, he says :— ' I wish that I could feel as much at ease on the subject ' of the unhappy war in which we are about to be engaged. 1 The abstract justice of the cause, although indisputable, is ' but a poor consolation for the inevitable calamities of all ' war, or for a decision which I am not without fear may
