was distinctly approved, Graham was distinctly rejected,
Newcastle was mentioned without any distinct opinion expressed. We
[Aberdeen and Gladstone] were both alike at a loss to know whether Lord
John had changed his mind, or had all along since his resignation been
acting with this view. All his proceedings certainly seem to require an
opposite construction, and to contemplate his own leadership.'[278]

Lord Palmerston was determined not to serve again under a minister who
had with his own hand turned him out of office, and of whose unfitness
for the first post he was at the moment profoundly convinced. He told a
Peelite friend that Lord John's love of popularity would always lead him
into scrapes, and that his way of suddenly announcing new policies
(Durham letter and Edinburgh letter) without consulting colleagues,
could not be acquiesced in. Besides the hostility of Palmerston and his
friends, any government with the writer of the Durham letter at its head
must have the hostility of the Irishmen to encounter. The liberal
attitude of the Peelites on the still smouldering question of papal
aggression gave Aberdeen a hold on the Irish such as nobody else could
have.

A HARASSED WEEK

Another man of great eminence in the whig party might have taken the
helm, but Lord Lansdowne was seventy-two, and was supposed to have
formally retired from office for ever. The leader of the Peelites
visited the patrician whig at Lansdowne House, and each begged the other
to undertake the uncoveted post. Lord Aberdeen gave a slow assent.
Previously understanding from Lord John that he would join, Aberdeen
accepted the Queen's commission to form a government. He had a harassed
week. At first the sun shone. 'Lord John consents,' wrote Mr. Gladstone
to his wife at Hawarden, 'and has behaved very well. Palmerston refuses,
which is a serious blow. To-morrow I think we shall get to detailed
arrangements, about which I do not expect extraordinary difficulty. But
I suppose Palmerston is looking to become the leader of a Derby
opposition; and without him, or rather with him between us and the
conservatives, I cannot but say the game will be a very difficult one to
play. It is uncertain whether I shall be chancellor of the exchequer or
secretary for the colonies; one of the two I think certainly; and the
exchequer will certainly come to Graham or me.'

Within a few hours angry squalls all but capsized the boat. Lord