nion,' he tells Mr.
Gladstone, 'that nothing could save the conservative party except
electing you for their leader.' The same talk was reported from the
clubs. 'The difficulty was Disraeli, not so much for any damage that his
hostility could do the party, as because Lord Derby had contracted
relations with him which it would perhaps be impossible for him to
disown.'

Meanwhile the sagacious man in the tents of the tories, whose course was
so neatly chalked out for him by sulky followers not relishing his lead,
was, we may be sure, entirely wide-awake, watching currents, gales, and
puffs of wind without haste, without rest. Disraeli made a bold stroke
for party consolidation by inviting to his official dinner at the
opening of the session of 1857, General Peel, the favourite brother of
the great minister and his best accredited representative. Peel
consulted Mr. Gladstone on the reply to Disraeli's invitation, and found
him strongly adverse. The public, said Mr. Gladstone, views with much
jealousy every change of political position not founded on previous
parliamentary co-operation for some national object. Mr. Gladstone might
have put it on the narrower ground that attendance at the dinner would
be an explicit condonation of Disraeli's misdeeds ten years before, and
a direct acceptance of his leadership henceforth.

Elwin believed that he had the direct sanction of Lord Derby for a
message from him to Mr. Gladstone suggesting communication. After much
ruminating and consulting, Mr. Gladstone wrote (Dec. 13, 1856) in
sufficiently circuitous language to Elwin, that though he should not be
justified in communicating with Lord Derby, considered simply as a
political leader with whom he was not in relations of party, yet, he
proceeds, 'remembering that I was once his colleague, and placing entire
reliance on his honour, I am ready to speak to him in confidence and
without reserve on the subject of public affairs, should it be his
desire.' His three friends, Graham, Aberdeen, and Herbert, still viewed
the proceeding with entire disfavour, and no counsels were ever dictated
by sincerer affection and solicitude. Your financial scheme, says
Graham, is conceived in the very spirit of Peel; it would be most
conducive to national welfare; you alone and in high office can carry
it; but it must be grafted on a pacific policy and on a moderate scale
of public expenditure; it is not under Palmerston that such blessings
are to be ant