THE ROARING FORTIES 147 



seized an early opportunity to desert the cab 

 inet and effect its downfall. 



The overthrow of the Peel government coin 

 cided in time with the conclusion of the treaty 

 settling the Oregon dispute. Aberdeen an 

 nounced the agreement with the United States 

 to the House of Lords on the same day that his 

 retirement from office was announced. Though 

 Cobden and Bright, with their middle-class and 

 working-class followers, had played so large a 

 part in the politics that brought about the crisis, 

 it was not for them to take up the responsibil 

 ities of government. The Whigs, under Lord 

 John Russell, assumed the governmental power, 

 with Lord Palmerston at the Foreign Office, and 

 with little indication that the democracy of En 

 gland was becoming self-conscious and articulate. 



For the first two years of its life the Russell 

 administration was absorbed in dealing with 

 the terrible conditions due to the potato blight. 

 Famine effectually solved the problems of over 

 population in Ireland. At the same time it 

 brought confusion into the whole social and 

 political situation of the United Kingdom. 

 American interest in British conditions received 

 a great stimulus from the disaster in Ireland. 

 Generous sums of money and whole fleets of 



