In order to obtain some result from this long debate I summed up what might be considered as agreed upon, viz. That there was tabula rasa, and for the new Coalition a free choice of men and measures, to which they assented, Lord John merely stating that he could not take office without part of his friends, and could not sacrifice his personal declarations. Dinnertime having approached, and Lord Aberdeen having written that he would be with us after nine o'clock, we adjourned the further discussion till then, when they would return.
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON
Whilst the Queen dressed I had an interview with the Duke of Wellington, who had come to dine here, in which I informed him of the nature of our crisis. He expressed his regret and his dread of a Protectionist Government with a Dissolution, which might lead to civil commotion. He could not forgive, he said, the high Tory Party for their having stayed away the other night on Mr Locke King's Motion, and thus abandoned their own principles; he had no feeling for Lord John Russell's Cabinet, measures, or principles, but he felt that the Crown and the country were only safe in these days by having the Liberals in office, else they would be driven to join the Radical agitation against the institutions of the country.
After dinner we resumed our adjourned debate in my room, at a quarter to ten, with Lord Aberdeen, and were soon joined by Lord John and Sir James Graham. We went over the same ground with him. Lord Stanley's letter was read and discussed. Lord Aberdeen declared his inability to join in a Protectionist Ministry; he did not pretend to understand the question of Free Trade, but it was a point of honour with him not to abandon it, and now, since Sir R. Peel's death, a matter of piety. He thought the danger of a Dissolution on a question of food by the Crown, for the purpose of imposing a tax upon bread, of the utmost danger for the safety of the country. He disapproved the Papal Bill, the abolition of the Lieutenancy, he had no difficulty upon the Franchise, for though he was called a despot, he felt a good deal of the Radical in him sometimes.
Lord John put it to Lord Aberdeen, whether he would not undertake to form a Government, to which Lord Aberdeen gave no distinct reply.
As Sir James Graham raised nothing but difficulties, though professing the greatest readiness to be of use, and as it was getting on towards midnight, we broke up, with the Queen's injunction that one of the three gentlemen must form a Government, to which Lord Aberdeen laughingly replied: "I see your Majesty has come into6 the Président de la République." Lord John was to see Lord Lansdowne to-day at three o'clock, and would report progress to the Queen at five o'clock. On one point we were agreed, viz. that the Government to be formed must not be for the moment, but with a view to strength and stability.
Albert.
Footnote 6: Sic.
Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell.
COMPLICATIONS