"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. "I remain, however, of the same opinion, that aid to intercolonial communication can be defended on Imperial grounds--and would in itself, if not opposed on purely fiscal reasons, be a wise as well as generous policy. "I regret much that my absence from town prevents, my seeing Mr. Watkin and profiting by the information, he could give me. I fear he will have left London before I return to it. But I should be very glad if he would write to me and acquaint me with the exact state of the case at present--and the exact wishes and requests of the Colonists. "Is it a renewal of the former proposition or what? 'The whole question of intercolonial communication' is a vast one. But I suppose practically it would limit itself before Parliament to the Railway before submitted to us--according to the pamphlet you sent me. "Believe me, "Yours very truly and obliged, "E. B. LYTTON." The following letter was addressed to me:-- "BUXTON, "_May_ 3,1862. "DEAR SIR,