as sending for you anew." I replied that I did
not regard the Queen's reference of this intelligence to me, as
her calling upon me anew to undertake the work of government; that
none of my obligations to the sovereign were cancelled or impaired
by the resignation tendered and accepted; that I was still the
minister for the purpose of rendering any service she might be
pleased to call for in the matter on which she is engaged, exactly
as before, until she has a new minister, when my official
obligations will come to an end. That I felt there was great
inconvenience and danger of misapprehension out of doors in
proceeding over-rapidly with a matter of such gravity, and that
each step in it required to be well measured and ascertained
before proceeding to consider of the next following step. That I
had great difficulty in gathering any precise idea of Mr.
Disraeli's account of what he could not do, and what he either
could or did not say that he could not. That as this account was
to present to me the state of facts on which I was commanded to
advise, it was quite necessary for me to have an accurate idea of
it, in order that I might do justice to her Majesty's commands. I
would therefore humbly suggest that Mr. Disraeli might with great
propriety be requested to put his reply into writing. That I
presumed I might receive this reply, if it were her Majesty's
pleasure to make it known to me, at some not late hour to-morrow,
when I would at once place myself in a condition to tender my
humble advice. This is an account of what Colonel Ponsonby might
fairly consider as my answer to her Majesty's communication. I
enlarged the conversation, however, by observing that the division
which overthrew us was a party division. It bore the express
authentic symbol of its character in having party tellers on the
opposition as well as on the government side; that we were aware
of the great, even more than ordinary, efforts of Colonel Taylor,
with Mr. Disraeli's countenance, to bring members to London and to
the House; that all this seemed to impose great obligations on the
opposition; and if so, that it would be the duty of the leader of
the opposition to use every exertion of consultation with his
friends and otherwise before declining the task, or in any manner
advising the Queen to look elsewh