heir offices, which they deemed to be
the step most conformable to their duty. Mr. Gladstone does not
clearly comprehend the bearing of Mr. Disraeli's closing words; as
he could not tender advice to your Majesty either affirmatively or
negatively on dissolution, without first becoming your Majesty's
adviser. Founding himself upon the memorandum, Mr. Gladstone is
unable to say to what extent the apparent meaning of the one
paragraph is modified or altered by the other; and he is obliged
to trouble your Majesty, however reluctantly, with this
representation, inasmuch as a perfectly clear idea of the tenor of
the reply is a necessary preliminary to his offering any remark or
advice upon it; which, had it been a simple negative, he would
have felt it his duty to do.

Between six and seven in the evening Colonel Ponsonby came with a letter
from the Queen to the effect that Mr. Disraeli had unconditionally
declined to undertake the formation of a government. In obedience to the
Queen's commands Mr. Gladstone proceeded to give his view of the position
in which her Majesty was placed:--

_March 15._--Not being aware that there can be a question of any
intermediate party or combination of parties which would be
available at the present juncture, he presumes that your Majesty,
if denied the assistance of the conservative or opposition party,
might be disposed to recur to the services of a liberal
government. He is of opinion, however, that either his late
colleagues, or any statesman or statesmen of the liberal party on
whom your Majesty might call, would with propriety at once observe
that it is still for the consideration of your Majesty whether the
proceeding which has taken place between your Majesty and Mr.
Disraeli can as yet be regarded as complete. The vote of the House
of Commons on Wednesday morning was due to the deliberate and
concerted action of the opposition, with a limited amount of
adventitious numerical aid. The division was a party division, and
carried the well-known symbol of such divisions in the appointment
of tellers of the opposition and government respectively. The vote
was given in the full knowledge, avowed in the speech of the
leader of the opposition, that the government had formally
declared the measure on which the vote was impending to be vital
to its existence. Mr.