blic policy, all things considered, it was best in the
actual position of affairs that I should come out. It cannot be
made a matter of ceremonial, as by gentlemen waiving a precedence,
or a matter of feeling, as by men of high and delicate honour
determined to throw their bias against themselves. They have no
right to throw their bias against themselves--they have no right to
look at anything but public policy; and this I am sure will be
their conviction. Nothing else can possibly absolve them from
their presumptive obligation as standing at the head of the party
which for the time represents the country.

As a matter of fact, I find no evidence that the two leaders ever did
express a conviction that public policy required that he should stand
forth as a pretender for the post of prime minister. On the contrary, when
Lord Wolverton says that they "did not quite realise the position" on the
12th, this can only mean that they hardly felt that conviction about the
requirements of public policy, which Mr. Gladstone demanded as the
foundation of his own decision.

III

The last meeting of the outgoing cabinet was held on April 21. What next
took place has been described by Mr. Gladstone himself in memoranda
written during the days on which the events occurred.

_Interview with Lord Hartington._

_April 22, 1880._ At 7 P.M. Hartington came to see me at
Wolverton's house and reported on his journey to Windsor.

The Queen stood with her back to the window--which _used_ not to be
her custom. On the whole I gathered that her manner was more or
less embarrassed but towards him not otherwise than gracious and
confiding. She told him that she desired him to form an
administration, and pressed upon him strongly his duty to assist
her as a responsible leader of the party now in a large majority.
I could not find that she expressed clearly her reason for
appealing to him as _a_ responsible leader of the party, and yet
going past _the_ leader of the party, namely Granville, whom no
one except himself has a title to displace. She however indicated
to him her confidence in his moderation, the phrase under which he
is daily commended in the _Daily Telegraph_, at this moment I
think, Beaconsfield's personal organ and the recipient of his
inspirations. By this moderation, the Queen intimated that
Hartington was dist