³¹⁷ Cairns invited Carnarvon to dinner on 7 February, the eve of the meeting of Parliament, to discuss his successor (Cairns to Carnarvon, 3 February 1870: CP, BL 60768, fos 16–17).

³¹⁸ Henry Charles Cadogan (1810–1873), 4th Earl Cadogan (1864).

³¹⁹ William Drogo Montagu (1823–1890), 7th Duke of Manchester (1855), MP for Bewdley (1848–1852) and for Huntingdonshire (1852–1855).

³²⁰ Hansard, CXCIX, 3 February 1870, cols 16–40.

³²¹ Dr Isaac Earl Featherstone (1813–1876) and Francis Dillon Bell (1826–1898) were sent to London to negotiate the retention of two British regiments and a loan of two million pounds towards public works. They went back to New Zealand with a loan of only one million pounds.

³²² Lord Cowley, who had been staying at Highclere, wrote to Lady Derby, ‘Lord Carnarvon seems low and dispirited about politics. He evidently wants Cranborne [sic] to make it up with Dizzy, but despairs of bringing about a reconciliation. He is afraid that Dizzy will give the lead in the Lords to the Duke of Buckingham or Marlborough, I forget which, but it is pretty much the same’ (W.A.H.C. Gardner, Baroness Burghclere (ed.), A Great Lady's Friendships: letters to Mary, Marchioness of Salisbury, Countess of Derby, 1862–1890 (London, 1933), p. 238).

³²³ See Carnarvon to Cairns, 16 February 1870: Cairns Papers, TNA, PRO 30/51/8, fo. 65.

³²⁴ Carnarvon wrote afterwards to Salisbury, ‘I am, as you know, sorry that matters cannot be so arranged as to admit of your taking the lead: be as it may, it may do after all perhaps best as it is’ (Carnarvon to Salisbury, 16 February 1870: Hatfield House Papers, 3M/E).

³²⁵ Frederick Thesiger (1794–1878), 1st Baron Chelmsford (1858), Lord Chancellor (1858–1859).

³²⁶ Derby set out at length for his own consideration ‘Reasons for accepting’ and ‘Reasons against accepting’ (Vincent, Derby, I, p. 50).

³²⁷ With the changing situation, Carnarvon told Salisbury, ‘There would be no reason why you should not take the lead in the House if Disraeli were out of the way’ (Carnarvon to Salisbury, 21 February 1870: Hatfield House Papers, 3M/E).

³²⁸ Carnarvon was disappointed at Salisbury's decision: ‘I admit all the weight of your argument whilst I cannot avoid regretting your conclusion’ (Carnarvon to Salisbury, 2 March 1870: Hatfield House Papers, 3 M/E).

³²⁹ The Irish Land Bill (Hansard, CCII, 28 June 1870, cols 1052–1088).

³³⁰ Ibid., CCIII, cols 703–729, on the Canadian frontier volunteer militia.

³³¹ Count Albrecht von Bernstorff (1809–1873), Prussian Foreign Minister (1861–1862), ambassador at London (1871–1873).

³³² Henry Mayhew (1812–1877), joint first editor of Punch (1841), author of London Labour and the London Poor (London, 1851; reissued with additions 1861, 1862, 1864, 1865).