morable audience, which
closed a service that would reach to fifty-three years on
September 3, when I was sworn privy councillor before the Queen at
Claremont. When I came into the room and came near to take the
seat she has now for some time courteously commanded, I did think
she was going to "break down." If I was not mistaken, at any rate
she rallied herself, as I thought, by a prompt effort, and
remained collected and at her ease. Then came the conversation,
which may be called neither here nor there. Its only material
feature was negative. There was not one syllable on the past,
except a repetition, an emphatic repetition, of the thanks she had
long ago amply rendered for what I had done, a service of no great
merit, in the matter of the Duke of Coburg, and which I assured
her would not now escape my notice if occasion should arise. There
was the question of eyes and ears, of German _versus_ English
oculists, she believing in the German as decidedly superior. Some
reference to my wife, with whom, she had had an interview and had
ended it affectionately,--and various nothings. No touch on the
subject of the last Ponsonby conversation. Was I wrong in not
tendering orally my best wishes? I was afraid that anything said
by me should have the appearance of _touting_. A departing servant
has some title to offer his hopes and prayers for the future; but
a servant is one who has done, or tried to do, service in the
past. There is in all this a great sincerity. There also seems to
be some little mystery as to my own case with her. I saw no sign
of embarrassment or preoccupation. The Empress Frederick was
outside in the corridor. She bade me a most kind and warm
farewell, which I had done nothing to deserve.

The letter tendered to the Queen in the box was this:--

Mr. Gladstone presents his most humble duty to your Majesty. The
close of the session and the approach of a new one have offered
Mr. Gladstone a suitable opportunity for considering the condition
of his sight and hearing, both of them impaired, in relation to
his official obligations. As they now place serious and also
growing obstacles in the way of the efficient discharge of those
obligations, the result has been that he has found it his duty
humbly to tender to your Majesty his resignation of the high
offices whic