he uttermost; he holds a
stiffish tone to the minister, and tries balm for the _savant_ by
propitiatory reminder of "a most interesting fact made known to me when I
had the pleasure and advantage of seeing you at Kew, namely the
possibility of saving for purposes of food a portion of the substance of
the diseased potato. The rescue of a sensible percentage of this valuable
esculent will be a noble service rendered by scientific knowledge and
skill to the general community." But science is touchy, and wounds are
sometimes too deep to be healed by words.

(M139) A point worth noting is his strict limitation of his own rights as
head of a government. "Hope you will not think," he wrote to a colleague,
"I am evading my duties, but while it is my duty to deal with all
difficulties arising between members of the government, it is wholly
beyond my power, and in no way belongs to my province, to examine and
settle the controversies which may arise between them and civil servants
who are employed under them." He is careful to distinguish his own words
from the words of the cabinet; careful both to lean upon, and to defer to,
the judgment of that body; and when the decision is taken, it is in their
name that he writes to the vexatious colleague (July 24, 1872): "The
cabinet have come to their conclusion, and directed me to make it known to
you.... If you think proper to make the announcement of these intentions
of the government, they are quite willing that you should do so. If
otherwise, Mr. Bruce will do it as home minister. Thus far as to making
known what will be done. As to the doing of it, the rules will have to be
cancelled at once by you."

The reader of an authoritarian or arbitrary cast of mind may ask why he
did not throw a handful of dust upon the angry combatants. "It is easy,"
he wrote to Cardwell (Nov. 20, 1871) "to talk of uprooting X., but even if
it were just, it will, as Glyn [the party whip] would tell you, be very
difficult. But Y. perhaps proceeds more like Moloch, and X. in the manner
of Belial. Why cannot they follow the good example of those worthies, who
co-operated in pandemonium? If you thought you could manage Y., I would
try to tackle X. I commend this subject to your meditations." Sulphureous
whiffs from this pandemonium were pretty copiously scented both by
parliament and the public, and did the ministry some harm.

Of a peer of much renown in points of procedure, private business, and the
like,