December 16, 1886.
My dear R. C.,—I have been thinking a good deal over your letter of yesterday.
I am as much committed to economy as you are, but I cannot be the head of a great department in times like these and ask for less than the absolute minimum required for the safety of the country.
I will go into figures with you if you like—but it is out of the question for you to talk of retiring. If one of us goes, I shall claim the privilege; and you may rest assured that if a man can be found to take my place, I shall be delighted to give all the help in my power to a successor brave enough to assume responsibility which I am not prepared to bear.
I will speak to you after the Cabinet to-morrow.
Yours very sincerely,
W. H. Smith.
Bear in mind that in the House—if I am there—I do not ask you to defend my estimates or to excuse them.
‘You will shortly have to decide,’ wrote Lord Randolph in a good-humoured letter to the Prime Minister, December 15, ‘whose services you will retain—those of your War Minister or those of your Chancellor of Exchequer.
‘Smith informs me of his inability to make reductions in the Army Estimates; I have informed him of my absolute and unalterable inability to consent to any Army Estimates which do not show a marked and considerable reduction.
‘George Hamilton has made me a reduction in the Navy Estimates of over 700,000l. If these things can be done at the Admiralty, the attitude of the War Office becomes intolerable. Generally speaking, however, I am anxious to submit to you to-morrow the draft of a Treasury minute to the public departments calling their serious attention to their increasing expenditure and requiring marked and immediate economies.’