n can
pretend; of the benefit to be derived from it, I am sure that all with
whom I can be likely to act would be deeply sensible. Would it be too
great an invasion of your independence to ask you to consider whether you
could afford it as a member of the cabinet without the weight of any other
responsibility?" Lord Russell replied in cordial terms, but said that the
servitude of a cabinet, whether with or without a special office, was what
he did not wish to encounter. "What I should have said," he added at a
later date (Dec. 28), "if the office of the president of the council or
the privy seal had been offered me, I do not know: at all events I am
personally very well satisfied to be free from all responsibility." Sir
George Grey also declined, on the ground of years: he was within one of
the threescore and ten allotted to mortal man. Lord Halifax, on whose
ability and experience both the Queen and Mr. Gladstone set special value,
declined the Irish viceroyalty, and stood good-naturedly aside until 1870
when he joined as privy seal. The inclusion in the same cabinet of Mr.
Bright, who had been the chief apostle of reform, with Mr. Lowe, its
fiercest persecutor, startled the country. As for Lowe, Lord Acton told me
that he once informed Mr. Gladstone that Lowe had written the review of
his _Financial Statements_ in the periodical of which Acton was editor.
"He told me at Grillion's that I thereby made him chancellor of the
exchequer." With Bright he had greater difficulties. He often described
how he wrestled with this admirable man from eleven o'clock until past
midnight, striving to overcome his repugnance to office. The next day
Bright wrote to him (Dec. 5): "Since I left you at midnight I have had no
sleep, from which you may imagine the mental disturbance I have suffered
from our long conversation last night. Nevertheless I am driven to the
conclusion to take the step to which you invite me, surrendering my
inclination and my judgment to your arguments and to the counsel of some
whom I have a right to consider my friends.... I am deeply grateful to you
for the confidence you are willing to place in me, and for the many kind
words you spoke to me yesterday." In the parched air of official politics
the relation of these two towards one another is a peculiar and a
refreshing element. In the case of Lord Clarendon, some difficulty was
intimated from Windsor before Mr. Gladstone began his task. Mr. Gladstone
says in one