m office, and are
simply the direct consequences of their own action. If it be true
that Lord Salisbury loses the legal power to advise and the crown
to grant a dissolution, that cannot be a reason for leaving in the
hands of the executive an absolute power to stop the action
(except as to supply) of the legislative and corrective power of
the House of Commons. At the same time these conditions do not
appear to me to attain the end proposed by Lord Salisbury, for it
would still be left in the power of the House to refuse supplies,
and thereby to bring about in its worst form the difficulty which
he apprehends.

It looked for a couple of days as if he would be compelled (M82) to
return, even though it would almost certainly lead to disruption of the
liberal cabinet and party.(127) The Queen, acting apparently on Mr.
Gladstone's suggestion of June 20, was ready to express her confidence in
Mr. Gladstone's assurance that there would be no disposition on the part
of himself or his friends to embarrass new ministers. By this expression
of confidence, the Queen would thus make herself in some degree
responsible as it were for the action of the members of the defeated
Gladstone government in the two Houses. Still Lord Salisbury's
difficulties--and some difficulties are believed to have arisen pretty
acutely within the interior conclaves of his own party--remained for
forty-eight hours insuperable. His retreat to Hatfield was taken to mark a
second stage in the interregnum.

June 22 is set down in the diary as "a day of much stir and vicissitude."
Mr. Gladstone received no fewer than six visits during the day from Sir
Henry Ponsonby, whose activity, judgment, and tact in these duties of
infinite delicacy were afterwards commemorated by Lord Granville in the
House of Lords.(128) He brought up from Windsor the draft of a letter that
might be written by the Queen to Lord Salisbury, testifying to her belief
in the sincerity and loyalty of Mr. Gladstone's words. Sir Henry showed
the draft to Mr. Gladstone, who said that he could not be party to certain
passages in it, though willing to agree to the rest. The draft so altered
was submitted to Lord Salisbury; he demanded modification, placing a more
definite interpretation on the words of Mr. Gladstone's previous letters
to the Queen. Mr. Gladstone was immovable throughout the day in declining
to admit any modifications in the sense desired;