ot come, but I wrote to beg him, and
he appeared. On hearing how we stood, he said his remaining in the
cabinet was quite out of the question; and that he had told
Palmerston so yesterday when he glanced at it. But he thought we
should incur great blame if we did not; which, indeed, was plainly
beyond all dispute.

THE PEELITES JOIN

At length, when I had written and read aloud the rough draft of an
answer, Lord Aberdeen said he must strongly advise our joining. I
said to him, 'Lord Aberdeen, when we have joined the Palmerston
cabinet, you standing aloof from it, will you rise in your place in
the House of Lords and say that you give that cabinet your
confidence with regard to the question of war and peace?' He
replied, 'I will express my hope that it will do right, but not my
confidence, which is a different thing.' 'Certainly,' I answered,
'and that which you have now said is my justification. The
unswerving honesty of your mind has saved us. Ninety-nine men out
of a hundred in your position at the moment would have said, "Oh
yes, I shall express my confidence." But you would not deviate an
inch to the right or to the left.'

Herbert and I went to my house and despatched our answers. Now
began the storm. Granville met us driving to Newcastle. Sorry
beyond expression; he almost looked displeased, which for him is
much. _Newcastle_: I incline to think you are wrong. _Canning_: My
impression is you are wrong. Various letters streaming in, all
portending condemnation and disaster. Herbert became more and more
uneasy.

_Feb. 6._--The last day I hope of these tangled records; in which
we have seen, to say nothing of the lesser sacrifice, one more
noble victim struck down, and we are set to feast over the remains.
The thing is bad and the mode worse.

Arthur Gordon came early in the day with a most urgent letter from
Lord Aberdeen addressed virtually to us, and urging us to join. He
had seen both Palmerston and Clarendon, and derived much
satisfaction from what they said. We met at the admiralty at
twelve, where Graham lay much knocked up with the fatigue and
anxiety of yesterday. I read to him and Lord Aberdeen Palmerston's
letter of to-day to me. Herbert came in and made arguments in his
sense. I told him I