d reform of Mahometan
dominion there was never a beginning nor a sign. The vindication of the
standing European order proved so ineffectual that the Crimean war was
only the sanguinary prelude to a vast subversion of the whole system of
European states.

II

WORK ON HOMER

Other interests now came foremost in Mr. Gladstone's mind. The old
ground so constantly travelled over since the death of Peel was for
three years to come traversed again with fatiguing iteration. In the
spring of 1856 Lord Derby repeated the overtures that he had made in
specific form in 1851 and in 1855. The government was weak, as Mr.
Gladstone had predicted that it would be. Lord Derby told Sir William
Heathcote, through whom he and Mr. Gladstone communicated, that as
almost any day it might be overturned, and he might be sent for by the
Queen, he was bound to see what strength he might rely upon, and he was
anxious to know what were Mr. Gladstone's views on the possibility of
co-operation. What was the nature of his relations with other members of
the Peel government who had also been in the cabinet of Lord Aberdeen?
Did they systematically communicate? Were they a party? Did they intend
to hold and to act together? These questions were soon answered:--

On the first point, Mr. Gladstone said, you cannot better describe
my views for present purposes than by saying that they are much
like Lord Derby's own as I understand them--there was nothing in
them to prevent a further consideration of the subject, if public
affairs should assume such a shape as to recommend it. On the
second, I said Graham, Herbert, Cardwell, and I communicated
together habitually and confidentially; that we did not seek to
act, but rather eschewed acting, as a party; that our habits of
communication were founded upon long political association, general
agreement, and personal friendship; that they were not, however, a
covenant for the future, but a natural growth and result of the
past.

Then he proceeds to tell with a new and rather startling conclusion the
old story of the Peelite responsibility for the broken and disorganised
state of the House of Commons:--

We, the friends of Lord Aberdeen, were a main cause of disunion and
weakness in the executive government, and must be so, from
whichever side the government were formed, so