nd in reply to my reminding him that the
old military system of India had entirely broken down, he said
he contemplated terminating the independent authority of the
Commander-in-Chief at the inferior Presidencies, and of
establishing the absolute and complete authority of Her Majesty's
Commander-in-Chief in India. He did not seem to see his way to any
further step at present, and I did not think it judicious on this
occasion to press the subject further.

Throughout this interview, Lord Stanley's manner was candid, very
conciliatory, and, for him, even soft. He was pleased to say that it
was a source of great satisfaction to him that your Royal Highness had
deigned to confer confidentially with me on the subject, and make me,
as it were, a "Mediator" on matters which, he assured me with great
emphasis, had occasioned him an amount of anxiety almost intolerable.

He had recurred, in the course of this interview, to a suggestion
which he had thrown out on Tuesday, viz. that the difficulties of the
position might be removed, or greatly mitigated, by his retirement
from the office, and accepting, if his continuance in the Government
was desirable, another post. I therefore thought it best at once to
point out to him that such a course of proceeding would only aggravate
all the inconveniences and annoyances at present existing; that his
retirement would be the signal for exaggerated rumours and factious
machinations, and would have the most baneful effect on the discussion
in Parliament generally of all those military topics with which we
were threatened; that, far from being satisfactory to Her Majesty and
your Royal Highness, I was convinced that the Queen and yourself would
hear of such an intention with regret.

Lord Stanley ultimately adopted entirely this view of his position,
and he parted from me with an earnest expression of his hope that the
painful misconceptions which had prevailed might at once, or at least
in due course, entirely disappear.

This, Sir, is a very imperfect report of an important interview, but,
as I collected from Lord Stanley, that nothing was really settled in
his conference on Tuesday with Lord Derby and the Lord Chancellor, I
have thought it my duty, without loss of time, to forward it to your
Royal Highness, and have the honour to remain, ever, Sir, your most
obedient and sincerely obliged Servant,

B. DISRAELI.

_The Prince Albert to Mr Disraeli._

WINDSOR CASTLE, _18th Nove