ally, but to put a duty of
five or six shillings on corn. I heard him pretty much in silence,
but with an intense sense of relief; feeling that if he had put
protection in abeyance, I might have had a most difficult question
to decide, whereas now I had no question at all. I thought,
however, it might be well that I should still see Lord Aberdeen
before giving him an answer; and told him I would do so. I asked
him also what was his intention with respect to papal aggression.
He said that this measure was hasty and intemperate as well as
ineffective; and that he thought something much better might result
from a comprehensive and deliberate inquiry. I told him I was
utterly against all penal legislation and against the ministerial
bill, but that I did not on principle object to inquiry; that, on
general as well as on personal grounds, I wished well to his
undertakings; and that I would see Lord Aberdeen, but that what he
had told me about corn constituted, I must not conceal from him,
'an enormous difficulty.' I used this expression for the purpose of
preparing him to receive the answer it was plain I must give; he
told me his persevering would probably depend on me.

DECLINES OFFICE

Mr. Gladstone next hastened to Lord Aberdeen, and learned what had been
going on during his absence abroad. He learned also the clear opinions
held by Aberdeen and Graham against No Popery legislation, and noticed
it as remarkable that so many minds should arrive independently at the
same conclusion on a new question, and in opposition to the overwhelming
majority. 'I then,' he continues, 'went on to the levee, saw Lord
Normanby and others, and began to bruit abroad the fame of the
Neapolitan government. Immediately after leaving the levee (where I also
saw Canning, told him what I meant to do, and gathered that he would do
the like), I changed my clothes and went to give Lord Stanley my answer,
at which he did not show the least surprise. He said he would still
persevere, though with little hope. I think I told him it seemed to me
he ought to do so. I was not five minutes with him this second
time.'[257]

The protectionists having failed, and the Peelites standing aside, the
whigs came back, most of them well aware that they could not go on for
long. The events of the late crisis had given Mr. Gladstone the hope
that Gra