"I am much flattered by your wish, and that of our Colonial friends;
but I fear that I must decline the important and honourable task to
which you invite me: partly from a valid personal reason; partly on
political grounds. With regard to the first, I am here for a course of
the Baths, in hopes to get rid of a troublesome lumbago, which has
harassed me all the winter, and appears to have been epidemical from
the number of victims it has cramped and racked this wet season. And I
fear I shall not be able to get away till the middle of May, unless it
be for some special vote. But apart from this consideration, I doubt
whether it would be prudent for any member of Lord Derby's late
Government, with the support of those leaders who might very soon form
another administration, to urge upon Parliament any new pecuniary
burthen, nay, any new loan, in the face of a deficit. Would not this
really play into Gladstone's hands, and furnish him with a plausible
retaliation in case of attack on the side in which he is most
vulnerable, viz., the dealing with a deficit as if it were a surplus?
And again, would it be quite prudent in the coming Conservative
Chancellor of the Exchequer and his future colleagues to commit
themselves to a measure they might find it inconvenient to carry out
when in power?
"These are doubts that occur to me; and would be well weighed by Mr.
Disraeli - who might, perhaps, agree with me, that, on the whole, it
would be better that this very important question should be brought
before the House by some one not in the late Cabinet - some great
merchant, perhaps - some one, in short, who could not be supposed to
compromise or commit the future administrative policy of the party.
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