either way, he said; either it would
be clinging to office, or it would be running away. To run away was in
every circumstance of politics the thing to Mr. Gladstone most unbearable.
According to Sir Robert Phillimore (Feb. 8) "Gladstone would have met
parliament but his colleagues objected, though it seems they would have
stood by him if he had pressed them to do so; but as he did not mean, or
was not going, to fight in the van of opposition, he thought it unfair to
press them."
_Feb. 16, '74._--Cabinet dinner 8-12. It went well. I did something
towards snapping the ties and winding out of the coil.
Conversation afterwards with Granville, on the flags up and down.
Then with Wolverton. To bed at 1-3/4, but lay three hours awake
(rare with me) with an overwrought brain. ... 17.--12-1/2-6. Went to
Windsor, and on behalf of the cabinet resigned. Took with me
_Merchant of Venice_ and _Thomas a Kempis_, each how admirable in
its way!(307) 20.--Went by 5.10 to Windsor, final audience and
kissed hands. Her Majesty very kind, the topics of conversation
were of course rather limited. 21.--I cleared my room in Downing
Street and bade it farewell, giving up my keys except the cabinet
key. 28.--Set aside about 300 vols. of pamphlets for the shambles.
_March 3._--I have given up all my keys; quitted Downing Street a
week ago; not an official box remains. But I have still the daily
visit of a kind private secretary; when that drops all is over.
5.--Hamilton paid me his last visit. To-morrow I encounter my own
correspondence single-handed.
The Queen repeated a former proposal of a peerage. In returning some
submissions for her approval, she wished "likewise to record her offer to
Mr. Gladstone of a mark of her recognition of his services which, however,
he declines from motives which she fully appreciates." Mr. Gladstone
writes to his brother Sir Thomas (Feb. 13):--
Accept my best thanks for your kind note of yesterday. My reply to
the Queen was first made twelve months ago when we proposed to
resign simply from the failure of a great measure in H. of C. I
repeated it this year with similar expressions of gratitude, but
with the remark that even if my mind had been open on the
question, I did not think I could have accepted anything while
under that national condemnation which has been emphatically
enough pronounced at the e
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