nse,
and trusted that she should not be given over into the hands of those
"who are the least fit to govern." Without any positive and final
declaration, I intimated to each that I did not think I could bring my
mind to acquiesce in the proposition for an inquiry by a select
committee into the state of the army in the Crimea.'

Time did not remove difficulties. Mr. Gladstone and Graham fought with
extreme tenacity, and the first of them with an ingenuity for which the
situation gave boundless scope. To the argument that they accepted
office on reconstruction with the decision of the House for a committee
staring them in the face, he replied: 'Before we were _out_, we were
_in_. Why did we go out? Because of that very decision by the House of
Commons. Our language was: The appointment of such a committee is
incompatible with the functions of the executive, therefore it is a
censure on the executive; therefore we resign! But it is not a whit
_more_ compatible with the functions of the executive now than it was
then; therefore it is not one whit less a censure; and the question
arises, (1) whether any government ought to allow its (now) principal
duty to be delegated to a committee or other body, especially to one not
under the control of the crown? (2) whether _that_ government ought to
allow it, the members of which (except one) have already resigned rather
than allow it? In what way can the first resignation be justified on
grounds which do not require a second?' He dwelt mainly on these two
points--That the proposed transfer of the functions of the executive to
a select committee of the House of Commons, with respect to an army in
the face of the enemy and operating by the side of our French allies,
and the recognition of this transfer by the executive government, was an
evil greater than any that could arise from a total or partial
resignation. Second, that it was clear that they did not, as things
stood, possess the confidence of a majority of the House. 'I said that
the committee was itself a censure on the government. They had a right
to believe that parliament would not inflict this committee on a
government which had its confidence. I also,' he says, 'recited my
having ascertained from Palmerston (upon this recital we were agreed) on
the 6th, before our decision was declared, his intention to oppose the
committee....'

PEELITES RESIGN

Graham did not feel disposed to govern without the