Ym) pgYERVIEW WITH LORD PALMERSTON. 697
hat having run the gauntlet of my friends in Lancashire,
"ho had kindly pressed the matter on me, and having
"Solved to act in opposition to their views, which nothing
but the strongest convictions of the propriety of my course
“ould have induced me to do, my mind was irrevocably made
"P. And so I rose to depart, expressing the hope that our
Personal and political relations might be in future the same
%if I were in his Government.
“As I left the room he said, Lady Palmerston receives
o-morrow evening at ten?’ To which I instantly replied,
1 shall be happy to be allowed to present myself to her.’
I shall pe very glad if you will,” was his answer, and go we
Parteq,
} “The next evening I was at Cambridge House for the first
me, and found myself among a crowd of fashionables and
Politicians, and was the lion of the party. The women came
"nd stared with their glasses at me, and then brought their
Trends to stare also. As I came away, Jacob Omnium and
{ werg squeezed into a corner together, and he remarked,
Yon are the greatest political monster that ever was seen
0 this house, There never was before seen such a curiosity
"8 a man who refused a Cabinet office from Lord Palmerston,
"0d then came to visit him here. Why, there are not half-adozen
 men in all that crowd that would not jump at the
"fer, and believe themselves quite as fit as you to be Presilent
 of the Board of Trade.’
“I never had before so much snnoyance to my feelings
in this matter. To be pressed by nearly all my friends
t take a course which I felt from the first moment to be
Wpossible, was a most painful ordeal to go through. I don’t
member any political oceurrence which ever before made
Me ill, This has really upset my physical health. Howver,
 I hope my friends will on reflection do me justice, and
selisve that I acted ccopscientionsly, Certainly all the

1889.
=r BE.