es by them.

He agreed with me that in the present disruption of Parties, the
difficulty of obtaining any strong Government consists, not in the
paucity of men, but in the over-supply of Right Honourable gentlemen
produced by the many attempts to form a Government on a more extended
base. There were now at least three Ministers for each office, from
which the two excluded were always cried up as superior to the one
in power. He said this could not be amended until we got back to two
Parties--each of them capable of presenting to the Queen an efficient
Administration. Now the one Party did not support its Chief from
personal rivalry--and the other, from the very feeling of its own
incapacity, became reckless as to the course of its political actions.

He concluded by saying he felt it right to reserve his final
determination till the last moment at which it would become necessary.

ALBERT.

[Pageheading: RESIGNATION OF THE PEELITES]

_Viscount Palmerston to Queen Victoria._

DOWNING STREET, _21st February 1855_.

Viscount Palmerston presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and
feels extreme regret in having to state to your Majesty that Sir James
Graham, Mr Gladstone, and Mr Sidney Herbert announced at the Cabinet
Meeting to-day their determination to retire from the Government in
consequence of their inability to consent to the nomination of Mr
Roebuck's Committee.[38] _No other_ Member of the Government has
as yet intimated any intention to retire. Viscount Palmerston will
assemble the remaining Members of the Government to-morrow at twelve
to take into consideration the steps to be taken for supplying the
places of the retiring Members.[39]

An endeavour has been made to induce Mr Roebuck to postpone the
appointment of the Committee till Monday, but he will not consent to
delay it beyond to-morrow, and he will insert in the votes to-night,
to be printed to-morrow morning (in accordance with the rules of the
House), the proposed list of names which have been settled between the
Government and Mr Roebuck, and which seem to be unobjectionable, all
things considered....

[Footnote 38: The retirement of the Peelites in a body from
Lord Palmerston's Ministry is a curious instance of the
tenacity of Party ties, since the prosecution of the enquiry
into the conduct of the war affected the Whig as much as the
Peelite section of the Aberdeen Cabinet. In reference to their
reason for