ing. 20.--Further and long conversations on
the Irish church question and its various branches with Granville,
the attorney-general for Ireland, and in the evening with Dean
Howson, also with Sir J. Acton. 21.--Wrote a brief abstract of the
intended bill. Woodcutting. 23.--Saw the Queen [at Osborne] on the
Irish church especially, and gave H.M. my paper with explanation,
which appeared to be well taken. She was altogether at ease. We
dined with H.M. afterwards. 24.--Saw her Majesty, who spoke very
kindly about Lord Clarendon, Mr. Bright, Mr. Lowe, the Spanish
crown, Prince Leopold, Mr. Mozley, and so forth, but not a word on
the Irish church. _Feb. 4._--A letter from H.M. to-day showed much
disturbance, which I tried to soothe.

In February Lord Granville thought that it might do good if the Queen were
to see Bishop Magee. Mr. Gladstone said to him in reply (Feb. 7, '69):--

The case is peculiar and not free from difficulty. On the whole I
think it would be wrong to place any limit upon the Queen's
communications to the Bishop of Peterborough except this, that
they would doubtless be made by H.M. to him for himself only, and
that no part of them would go beyond him to any person whatever.

(M78) On Feb. 12, the Queen wrote to Mr. Gladstone from Osborne:--

The Queen has seen the Bishop of Peterborough according to the
suggestion made by Lord Granville with the sanction of Mr.
Gladstone, and has communicated to him in the strictest confidence
the correspondence which had passed between herself and Mr.
Gladstone on the subject of the Irish church. She now sends Mr.
Gladstone a copy of the remarks made by the bishop on the papers
which she placed in his hands for perusal, and would earnestly
entreat Mr. Gladstone's careful and dispassionate consideration of
what he says. She would point especially to the suggestion which
the bishop throws out of the intervention of the bench of English
bishops. The country would feel that any negotiation conducted
under the direction of the Archbishop of Canterbury would be
perfectly safe, and from the concessions which the Bishop of
Peterborough expresses his own readiness to make, the Queen is
sanguine in her hope that such negotiations would result in a
settlement of the question on conditions which would entirely
redeem the pledges of the govern