ord Glenelg, the colonial minister;
that is, he selected a single member of the cabinet for condemnation, on
the ground of acts for which all the other ministers were collectively
just as responsible. For this discrimination the only precedent seems to
be Fox's motion against Lord Sandwich in 1779. Mr. Gladstone's
memorandum[77] completes or modifies the account of the dilemma of the
conservative leader, already known from Sir Robert Peel's papers,[78]
and the reader will find it elsewhere. It was the right of a
conservative opposition to challenge a whig ministry; yet to fight under
radical colours was odious and intolerable. On the other hand he could
not vote for Molesworth, because he thought him unjust; but he could not
vote against him, because that would imply confidence in the Canadian
policy of ministers. A certain conservative contingent would not
acquiesce in support of ministers against Molesworth, or in tame resort
to the previous question. Again, Peel felt or feigned an apprehension
that if by aggressive action they beat the government, a conservative
ministry must come in, and he did not think that such a ministry could
last. Even at this risk, it became clear that the only way of avoiding
the difficulty was an amendment to Molesworth's motion from the official
opposition. Mr. Gladstone spoke (Mar. 7), and was described as making
his points with admirable precision and force, though 'with something of
a provincial manner, like the rust to a piece of powerful steel
machinery that has not worked into polish.' The debate, on which such
mighty issues were thought to hang, lasted a couple of nights with not
more than moderate spirit. At the close the amendment was thrown out by
a majority of twenty-nine for ministers. The general result was to
moderate the impatience of the Carlton Club men, who wished to see their
party in, on the one hand; and of the radical men, who did not object to
having the whigs out, on the other. It showed that neither
administration nor opposition was in a station of supreme command.

III

At the end of March Mr. Gladstone produced the strongest impression that
he had yet made in parliament, and he now definitely took his place in
the front rank. It was on the old embarrassment of slavery. Reports from
the colonies showed that in some at least, and more particularly in
Jamaica, the apprenticeship system had led to harsher treatment of the
negroes