was ready to form a government; but
in view of the difficulties in which a government formed by him would
stand, confronted by a hostile majority and unable to dissolve, he
recommended that Mr. Gladstone should be invited to reconsider his
resignation. Mr. Gladstone, however (June 13), regarded the situation and
the chain of facts that had led up to it, as being so definite, when
coupled with the readiness of Lord Salisbury to undertake an
administration, that it would be a mere waste of valuable time for him to
consult his colleagues as to the resumption of office. Then Lord Salisbury
sought assurances of Mr. Gladstone's support, as to finance, parliamentary
time, and other points in the working of executive government. These
assurances neither Mr. Gladstone's own temperament, nor the humour of his
friends and his party--for the embers of the quarrel with the Lords upon
the franchise bill were still hot--allowed him to give, and he founded
himself on the precedent of the communications of December 1845 between
Peel and Russell. In this default of assurances, Lord Salisbury thought
that he should render the Queen no useful service by taking office. So
concluded the first stage.

(M81) Though declining specific pledges, Mr. Gladstone now wrote to the
Queen (June 17) that in the conduct of the necessary business of the
country, he believed there would be no disposition to embarrass her
ministers. Lord Salisbury, however, and his colleagues were unanimous in
thinking this general language insufficient. The interregnum continued. On
the day following (June 18), Mr. Gladstone had an audience at Windsor,
whither the Queen had now returned. It lasted over three-quarters of an
hour. "The Queen was most gracious and I thought most reasonable."
(_Diary._) He put down in her presence some heads of a memorandum to
assist her recollection, and the one to which she rightly attached most
value was this: "In my opinion," Mr. Gladstone wrote, "the whole value of
any such declaration as at the present circumstances permit, really
depends upon the spirit in which it is given and taken. For myself and any
friend of mine, I can only say that the spirit in which we should
endeavour to interpret and apply the declaration I have made, would be the
same spirit in which we entered upon the recent conferences concerning the
Seats bill." To this declaration his colleagues on his return to London
gave their entire and marked approval, but they woul