[36] _Life of Edward Miall, M.P._, by A. Miall, p. 179. [37] _Life of Lord John Russell_, by Spencer Walpole, vol. ii. 232-235. CHAPTER XII THE VIENNA DIFFICULTY 1855 Blunders at home and abroad--Roebuck's motion--'General Fevrier turns traitor'--France and the Crimea--Lord John at Vienna--The pride of the nation is touched--Napoleon's visit to Windsor--Lord John's retirement--The fall of Sebastopol--The Treaty of Paris. PARLIAMENT met on January 23, and the general indignation at once found expression in Mr. Roebuck's motion--the notice of which was cheered by Radicals and Tories alike--to 'inquire into the condition of our Army before Sebastopol, and into the conduct of those Departments of the Government whose duty it has been to minister to the wants of that Army.' Lord John, in view of the blunders at home and abroad, did not see how such a motion was to be resisted, and at once tendered to Lord Aberdeen his resignation. His protests, pointed and energetic though they had been, had met with no practical response. Even the reasonable request that the War Minister should be in the Commons to defend his own department had passed unheeded. Peelites, like Sir James Graham and Mr. Sidney Herbert, might make the best of a bad case, but Lord John felt that he could not honestly defend in Parliament a course of action which he had again and again attacked in the Cabinet. Doubtless it would have been better both for himself and for his colleagues if he had adhered to his earlier intention of resigning; and his dramatic retreat at this juncture unquestionably gave a handle to his adversaries. Though prompted by conscientious motives, sudden flight, in the face of what was, to all intents and purposes, a vote of censure, was a grave mistake. Not unnaturally, such a step was regarded as a bid for personal power at the expense of his colleagues. It certainly placed the Cabinet in a most embarrassing position, and it is easy to understand the irritation which it awakened. In fact, it led those who were determined to put the worst possible construction on Lord John's action to hint that he wished to rid himself of responsibility and to stand clear of his colleagues, so that when the nation grew tired of the war he might return to office and make peace. Nothing could well have been further from the truth. [Sidenote: ROEBUCK'S MOTION]