last week. I mean as compared with what he
usually is. I observed that he slept during much of Lord
Palmerston's speech, that he spoke with little physical energy, and
next day, Saturday, in the forenoon I thought he looked very ill at
a meeting which, in common with him, I had to attend. This is all
that I know and that is worth telling on a subject which is one of
deep interest to all classes, from the Queen downwards. I was at
the palace last night and she spoke to me with great earnestness
about it. As to the division I shall say little; it is an
unsatisfactory subject. The majority of the government was made up
out of our ranks, partly by people staying away and partly by some
twenty who actually voted with the government. By far the greater
portion, I am sorry to say, of both sets of persons were what are
called Peelites, and not protectionists. The fact is, that if all
calling themselves liberal be put on one side, and all calling
themselves conservatives on the other, the House of Commons is as
nearly as possible _equally_ divided.

QUESTIONS OF LEADERSHIP

I have already described how Mr. Gladstone thought it a great mistake in
Peel to resist any step that might put upon the protectionists the
responsibilities of office. In a note composed a quarter of a century
later (1876), he says: 'This I think was not only a safe experiment
(after 1848) but a vital necessity. I do not, therefore, think, and I
did not think, that the death of Sir R. Peel at the time when it
occurred was a great calamity so far as the chief question of our
internal politics was concerned. In other respects it was indeed great;
in some of them it may almost be called immeasurable. The moral
atmosphere of the House of Commons has never since his death been quite
the same, and is now widely different. He had a kind of authority there
that was possessed by no one else. Lord John might in some respects
compete with, in some even excel, him; but to him, as leader of the
liberals, the loss of such an opponent was immense. It is sad to think
what, with his high mental force and noble moral sense, he might have
done for us in after years. Even the afterthought of knowledge of such a
man and of intercourse with him, is a high privilege and a precious
possession.'

An interesting word or two upon his own position at this season occur in
a letter