Arthur looked at Palmerston's serious face, knowing that they probably wouldn't make any substantial progress today.
Palmerston wanted Arthur to change his stance, not simply to punish him.
But this wasn't because Palmerston was large-hearted by nature, rather because behind Arthur stood Lord Brougham and the Earl of Dalmo, along with a group of Radical Party representatives from the Whig Party.
In the eyes of this Radical Liberal Party, supporting the Chechen mountain people against Tsarist Russia's tyranny wasn't a mistake; it even had a bit of Don Quixote's spirit of charging at windmills with courage and valor.
The Whig Party had already fallen into a fragmented state over the Irish Church issue, and everyone agreed to let Viscount Melbourne assume the position of Prime Minister precisely because he was a gentle and easy-going person; everyone pinned their hopes on him to reconcile the party's internal conflicts.
