eading actors.

_Sunday, Feb. 4._--Herbert came to me soon after I left him, and
told me Palmerston had at last got the commission. He considered
that this disposed of Lord Lansdowne; and seemed himself to be
disposed to join. He said _we_ must take care what we were about,
and that we should be looked upon by the country as too nice if we
declined to join Palmerston; who he believed (and in this I
inclined to agree), would probably form a government. He argued
that Lord Aberdeen was out of the question; that the vote of Monday
night was against him; that the country would not stand him.

No new coalition ought to be formed, I said, without a prospect of
stability; and joining Lord Palmerston's cabinet would be a new
coalition. He said he rather applied that phrase to a junction with
Derby. I quite agreed we could not join Derby except under
conditions which might not be realised; but if we _did_ it, it
would be a reunion, not a coalition. In coalition the separate
existence is retained. I referred to the great instances of change
of party in our time; Palmerston himself, and Stanley with Graham.
But these took place when parties were divided by great questions
of principle; there were none such now, and no one could say that
the two sides of the House were divided by anything more than this,
that one was rather more stationary, the other more movable. He
said, 'True, the differences are on the back benches.'

I said I had now for two years been holding my mind in suspense
upon the question I used to debate with Newcastle, who used to
argue that we should grow into the natural leaders of the liberal
party. I said, it is now plain this will not be; we get on very
well with the independent liberals, but the whigs stand as an
opaque body between us and them, and moreover, there they will
stand and ought to stand.

Lord Palmerston came a little after two, and remained perhaps an
hour. Lord Lansdowne had promised to join him if he formed an
administration on a basis sufficiently broad. He wished me to
retain my office; and dwelt on the satisfactory nature of my
relations with the liberal party. He argued that Lord Aberdeen was
excluded by the vote on Monday night; and that there was now no
other government in view. My argument was adverse, thoug