'But after all, nobody is so much to blame as Derby; why did he not take higher and surer ground. Why are you all turned out on--neither you nor anyone else can say what? You had not even hoisted a flag to rally round. You have been like some poor people I have read of in the late storm, buried under the ruins of your own edifice, but whether you were stifled or crushed, killed by a rafter or a brick, nobody can tell. You have died a death so ignoble that it has no name, and the Coroner's verdict is "Found Dead." 'Why did you not die in the Protestant cause; on something that some party could take an interest in? Why did you spare Cardinal Wiseman? Why butter Louis Buonaparte thicker than his own French cooks? Why did you lay the ground of the confiscation of landed property by a differential income tax and by hinting at taxing property by inheritance? "You have left undone the things you ought to have done, and you have done those things which you ought not to have done, and there is no help for you." 'My own grief is this, that Disraeli's vanity, or as he would say, his character, was committed by his electioneering speeches and addresses, and that you all, half generosity and half prudence, resolved to stand by him rather than break up the Government, which his resignation would have done. That's my solution of the greatest political riddle I ever encountered. 'I know not what to say about your going to sea, I fear observations on your resigning the ship abroad and taking one at home for the mere purpose of making up a little time. Pray think well of it. I daresay you would receive a civil answer, perhaps get a ship, but _cui bono_. What is your flag to you? [Footnote: He was promoted to the rank of Vice-Admiral in November 1858.] I wish you were on the Admiral's list for the sake of the country if we are to have a war, but I see no advantage in it if there is no prospect of distinguished service. 'Give my best love to all the dear people round you and, above all, to the dearest of all, whose solid good sense and natural sagacity, quite equal to her more charming qualities, will be your best guide in the topic last treated. Indeed, if I knew her opinion on any of those topics, it would have a prime chance of becoming my own. 'Ever most affectionately hers and yours, 'J. W. CROKER' * * * * * The Aberdeen Government will always be remembered as that of the period of the Crimean War, and it was in connection with that great struggle and his wish to serve his country afloat that Lord Hardwicke found just reason to complain of more than the mere belittling of his services at Genoa which had been his sole reward upon his return to England in 1849.