release coming to him at
a moment when he was physically prostrate was rather eagerly seized, and
the world suddenly learnt at Christmas, with great astonishment, that
the renowned leader of the Protectionist party had relinquished his
trust.

The numerous communications which he received must have convinced
him that the assumed circumstances under which he acted had not been
accurately appreciated by him. He was implored to reconsider his course,
as one very detrimental to the cause to which he was devoted, and
which would probably tend to the triumph of those whose policy he
had attempted to defeat, and whose personal conduct he had at least
succeeded in punishing.

'The prophesied time has come,' he wrote to his friend Mr. Bankes, on
the 23rd of December, 1847, 'when I have ceased to be able to serve
the party, the great cause of Protection, or my country, by any longer
retaining the commission bestowed on me in the spring of 1846. You will
remember, however, that when unfeignedly and honestly, but in vain,
trying to escape from being raised to a position which I foresaw I must
fail to maintain with advantage to you or honour to myself, I at last
gave my consent, I only did so on the express understanding that my
advancement should be held to be merely a pro tempore appointment,
waiting till the country should have the opportunity of sending to
Parliament other men better fitted to lead the country gentlemen of
England. I have recalled these circumstances to your mind with no other
purpose than that the party may feel how entirely free they are, without
even the suspicion of doing an injustice to me or of showing me in
this any disrespect, to remodel their arrangements, and to supersede my
lieutenancy by the appointment of a superior and permanent commander.'

And again on Christmas-day, to the same gentleman, in reply to an
acknowledgment of the preceding, he says, while thanking Mr. Bankes
'for his warm-hearted letter as very grateful to his feelings,'--'
Confidentially I tell you, that far from feeling in the least annoyed,
I shall feel greatly relieved by a restoration to privacy and freedom. I
worked upon my spirit in '46 and '47; but I have learnt now that I have
shaken my constitution to the foundation, and I seriously doubt my being
able to work on much longer.'

He wrote on the 24th of December to one of his most intimate friends and
warmest supporters, Mr. Christopher, the member for Lincolnshire, who