e foregoing statement.

Lord Aberdeen agreed with Mr. Gladstone that on the whole the balance
inclined to _no_.

Graham, in an admirable letter, truly worthy of a wise, affectionate,
and faithful friend, said, 'My judgment is, on this occasion, balanced
like your own.' He ran through the catalogue of Mr. Gladstone's most
intimate political friends; the result was that he stood alone. Fixed
party ties and active official duties would conduce to his present
happiness and his future fame. He might form an intimate alliance with
Lord Derby with perfect honour. His natural affinities were strong, and
his 'honest liberal tendencies' would soon leaven the whole lump and
bring it into conformity with the shape and body of the times. As for
the leadership in the Commons, Graham had once thought that for
Gladstone to sit on the treasury bench with Disraeli for his leader
would be humiliation and dishonour. Later events had qualified this
opinion. Of course, the abdication of Disraeli could not be made a
condition precedent, but the concession would somehow be made, and in
the Commons pre-eminence would be Gladstone's, be the conditions what
they might. In fine, time was wearing fast away, Gladstone had reached
the utmost vigour of his powers, and present opportunities were not to
be neglected in vain expectation of better.

III

LETTER FROM MR. DISRAELI

Before this letter of Graham's arrived, an unexpected thing happened,
and Mr. Disraeli himself advanced to the front of the stage. His
communication, which opens and closes without the usual epistolary
forms, just as it is reproduced here, marks a curious episode, and sheds
a strange light on that perplexing figure:--

_Mr. Disraeli to Mr. Gladstone._

_Confidential._

I think it of such paramount importance to the public interests,
that you should assume at this time a commanding position in the
administration of affairs, that I feel it a solemn duty to lay
before you some facts, that you may not decide under a
misapprehension.

Our mutual relations have formed the great difficulty in
accomplishing a result, which I have always anxiously desired.

Listen, without prejudice, to this brief narrative.

In 1850, when the balanced state of parties in the House of Commons
indicated the future, I endeavoured, through the medium of the late