tion,
and therefore that they ought not to sit opposite to them as
adversaries, but should sit below the gangway on the ministerial side.
Newcastle intimated dissent from both, looking to the formation of his
virtuous and enlightened third party, but where they should sit in the
meantime he did not seem to know. Mr. Gladstone expressed from the first
a decided opinion in favour of going below the gangway on the opposition
side. What they ought to desire was the promotion of a government
conservative in its personal composition and traditions, as soon as the
crisis of protection should be over. Taking a seat, he said, is an
external sign and pledge that ought to follow upon full conviction of
the thing it was understood to betoken; and to sit on the front
opposition bench would indicate division from the conservative
government as a party, while in fact they were not divided from them as
a party, but only on a single question. In the end, Graham sat above the
opposition gangway next to Lord John Russell and Cardwell. The Peelite
body as a whole determined on giving the new government what is called a
fair trial. 'Mr. Sidney Herbert and I,' says Mr. Gladstone, 'took pains
to bring them together, in the recognised modes. They sat on the
opposition side, but below the gangway, full, or about forty strong; and
Sir James Graham, I recollect, once complimented me on the excellent
appearance they had presented to him as he passed them in walking up the
House.' Considerable uneasiness was felt among some of them at finding
themselves neighbours on the benches to Cobden and Bright and Hume and
their friends on the one hand, and 'the Irish Brass Band' on the other.

It depended entirely on the Peelites whether the new government should
be permitted to conduct the business of the session (subject to
conditions or otherwise), or whether they should be open to an instant
attack as the enemies of free trade. The effect of such attack must have
been defeat, followed by dissolution forthwith, and by the ejection of
the Derby government in June (as happened in 1859) instead of in
December. The tactics of giving the ministers a fair trial prevailed and
were faithfully adhered to, Graham and Cardwell taking their own course.
As the result of this and other conditions, for ten months ministers,
greatly outnumbered, were maintained in power by the deliberate and
united action of about forty Peelites.

Lord Derby had opened his administratio