Palmerston moved the
amendment which defeated the attack, but he did this at the express
request of S. Herbert and mine, and we carried the amendment to him at
his house. He did not recommend any particular plan of action, and he
willingly acquiesced in and adopted ours.' He said he would convey it to
Disraeli, 'with whom,' he said, 'I have had communications from time to
time.'

In the debate (Nov. 26) upon the two rival amendments--that of Mr.
Villiers, which the ministers could not accept, and that of Palmerston,
which they could--Sidney Herbert paid off some old scores in a speech
full of fire and jubilation; Mr. Gladstone, on the other hand, was
elaborately pacific. He earnestly deprecated the language of severity
and exasperation, or anything that would tend to embitter party warfare.
His illustrious leader Peel, he said, did indeed look for his revenge;
but for what revenge did he look? Assuredly not for stinging speeches,
assuredly not for motions made in favour of his policy, if they carried
pain and degradation to the minds of honourable men. Were they not
celebrating the obsequies of an obnoxious policy? Let them cherish no
desire to trample on those who had fought manfully and been defeated
fairly. Rather let them rejoice in the great public good that had been
achieved; let them take courage from the attainment of that good, for
the performance of their public duty in future. All this was inspired by
the strong hope of conservative reunion. 'Nervous excitement kept me
very wakeful after speaking,' says Mr. Gladstone, 'the first time for
many years.' (_Diary._)

Villiers's motion was rejected by 336 to 256, the Peelites and Graham
voting with ministers in the majority. The Peelite amendment in
moderated terms, for which Palmerston stood sponsor, was then carried
against the radicals by 468 to 53. For the moment the government was
saved.

This evening, Mr. Gladstone writes on the next day, Nov. 27, I went
to Lady Derby's evening party, where Lord Derby took me a little
aside and said he must take the opportunity of thanking me for the
tone of my speech last night, which he thought tended to place the
discussion on its right footing. It was evident from his manner,
and Lady Derby's too, that they were highly pleased with the issue
of it. I simply made my acknowledgments in terms of the common
kind, upon which he went on to ask me what in my view was to happen
ne