he could not take office
without part of his friends, and could not sacrifice his _personal_
declarations. Dinnertime having approached, and Lord Aberdeen having
written that he would be with us after nine o'clock, we adjourned the
further discussion till then, when they would return.

Whilst the Queen dressed I had an interview with the Duke of
Wellington, who had come to dine here, in which I informed him of
the nature of our crisis. He expressed his regret and his dread of a
Protectionist Government with a Dissolution, which might lead to civil
commotion. He could not forgive, he said, the high Tory Party for
their having stayed away the other night on Mr Locke King's Motion,
and thus abandoned their own principles; he had no feeling for Lord
John Russell's Cabinet, measures, or principles, but he felt that
the Crown and the country were only safe in these days by having the
Liberals in office, else they would be driven to join the Radical
agitation against the institutions of the country.

After dinner we resumed our adjourned debate in my room, at a quarter
to ten, with Lord Aberdeen, and were soon joined by Lord John and Sir
James Graham. We went over the same ground with him. Lord Stanley's
letter was read and discussed. Lord Aberdeen declared his inability to
join in a Protectionist Ministry; he did not pretend to understand the
question of Free Trade, but it was a point of honour with him not to
abandon it, and now, since Sir R. Peel's death, a matter of piety.
He thought the danger of a Dissolution on a question of food by the
Crown, for the purpose of imposing a tax upon bread, of the utmost
danger for the safety of the country. He disapproved the Papal Bill,
the abolition of the Lieutenancy, he had no difficulty upon the
Franchise, for though he was called a _despot_, he felt a good deal of
the Radical in him sometimes.

Lord John put it to Lord Aberdeen, whether _he_ would not undertake to
form a Government, to which Lord Aberdeen gave no distinct reply.

As Sir James Graham raised nothing but difficulties, though professing
the greatest readiness to be of use, and as it was getting on towards
midnight, we broke up, with the Queen's injunction that _one_ of
the three gentlemen _must_ form a Government, to which Lord Aberdeen
laughingly replied: "I see your Majesty has come into[6] the President
de la Republique." Lord John was to see Lord Lansdowne _to-day_ at
three o'clock, and would report progress