to separate himself from
Mr Gladstone and Sir James Graham, and the Peace Party, and to join
the present Government. Viscount Palmerston having well considered
the matter in concert with Sir Charles Wood and Sir George Grey, is
of opinion that it would be advantageous not only for the present, but
also with a view to the future, to detach Mr Herbert from the clique
with which accidental circumstances have for the moment apparently
associated him, and to fix him to better principles of action than
those by which Mr Gladstone and Sir James Graham appear to be guided.
For this purpose Viscount Palmerston proposes with your Majesty's
sanction to offer to Mr Herbert to return to the Colonial Office,
which he held on the formation of the present Government.

Mr Herbert is the most promising man of his standing in the House of
Commons, and is personally very popular in that House; he is a good
and an improving speaker, and his accession to the Government would
add a good speaker to the Treasury Bench, and take away a good speaker
from ranks that may become hostile.

He would also supply the place of Lord Canning as a kind of link
between the Government and some well-disposed members of both Houses
who belonged more or less to what is called the Peel Party. It would
be necessary, of course, to ascertain clearly that Mr Herbert's views
about the war and about conditions of peace are the same as they were
when he was a Member of the Government, and not such as those which Mr
Gladstone and Sir James Graham have of late adopted.

If Mr Herbert were to accept, Sir George Grey, who has a strong
disinclination for the Colonies, would remain at the Home Office; and
if Lord Harrowby would take the Post Office, which must be held by a
Peer, the Duchy of Lancaster, which may be held by a Commoner, might
be offered to Mr Baines[88] with a seat in the Cabinet, and Mr Baines
might perhaps, with reference to his health, prefer an office not
attended with much departmental business of detail, while he would be
thus more free to make himself master of general questions. Such an
arrangement would leave the Cabinet, as stated in the accompanying
paper, seven and seven; and if afterwards Lord Stanley of Alderley
were added in the Lords, and Sir Benjamin Hall in the Commons, which,
however, would be a matter entirely for future consideration, the
equality of division would still be preserved.[89]

Viscount Palmerston finds that Mr Herbert is go