._--Went down to Windsor at midday; 3/4 hour
with the Queen on the resignation, the statement tomorrow, the
Duke of Edinburgh's marriage, royal precedence, Tennyson's honour;
also she mentioned railway accidents and an assault on a soldier,
and on luxury in food and dress. Dined with the Duke of Cambridge.
Speaker's levee, saw Mr. Fawcett [who had been active in fomenting
hostility] and other members. Then Mrs. Glyn's party.

_Thursday, March 20._--H. of C. Made my explanation. Advisedly let
pass Mr. Disraeli's speech without notice.

Mr. Gladstone said among other things:--

I felt reluctance personally from a desire for rest, the title to
which had possibly been ... earned by labour. Also politically,
because I do not think that as a general rule the experience we
have had in former years of what may be called returning or
resuming governments, has been very favourable in its
character.... The subsequent fortunes of such governments lead to
the belief that upon the whole, though such a return may be the
lesser of two evils, yet it is not a thing in itself to be
desired. It reminds me of that which was described by the Roman
general according to the noble ode of Horace:--

... Neque amissos colores
Lana refert medicata fuco,
Nec vera virtus cum semel excidit
Curat reponi deterioribus.(288)

Mr. Disraeli made a lengthy statement, covering a much wider field. The
substance of the whole case after all was this. The minister could not
dissolve for the reason that the defeat had strengthened all the forces
against the bill and against the government, and the constituencies who
had never looked on it with much favour after its rejection by the Irish
to satisfy whom it had been invented, now regarded it with energetic
disfavour. The leader of the opposition, on the other hand, produced a
long string of ingenious reasons for not abiding by the result of what was
his own act: as, for example, that dissolution could not be instant; to
form a government would take time; financial business must be arranged; a
policy could not be shaped without access to official information; in this
interval motions would be made and carried on plausible questions, and
when the election came, his friends would go to the country as discredited
ministers, instead of being a triumphant opposition. In writing to his
brother Robertson, Mr. Gladston