difficulties. Encouraged by a meeting of twenty-three leading Conservatives, held at his house, Lord Derby formed the following Cabinet:--Lord Chancellor, Lord Chelmsford; President of the Council, Duke of Buckingham; Privy Seal, Lord Malmesbury; Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr. Walpole; Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Lord Stanley;[243] Secretary for War, General Peel; Secretary for Colonies, Lord Carnarvon; Secretary for India, Lord Cranborne; Poor Law Board, Mr. Hardy; Board of Trade, Sir S. Northcote; Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Disraeli; Secretary for Ireland, Lord Naas; Board of Works, Lord John Manners; Admiralty, Sir John Pakington.”[244] Lord Derby himself personally objected to take office because he could not feel confident of commanding a majority. Some of his friends, like the Marquis of Bath, were indeed angry that he had consented to serve again as Premier without definite pledges of support from the Whigs, whose hostility to Reform had shattered the last Cabinet. Up to the time when the change of Ministry took place very little business had been done. A Bill dealing with the cattle plague had been introduced by the Home Secretary. It empowered local authorities to kill infected herds and stop all movement of cattle and all fairs in infected areas. For cattle thus sacrificed the owners were to receive from local authorities compensation to the extent of two-thirds of the value, but in no case was this to exceed £20 a head. The money was to be raised, one-third by a rate on the counties, one-third by a rate on the towns, and one-third by the cattle trade itself. The Radical Party admitted the principle of compensation. But Mr. J. S. Mill contended that if the infected animal was shown not to be worth two-thirds of what it would fetch in the market if healthy, the compensation given by the Government was excessive. The Bill, he also complained, compensated the landed interest for a loss some share of which the rest of the community, who were not indemnified, bore in the form of enhanced prices. Then, as the rate was to be purely local, those who suffered least would pay least, whereas the burden of recompense would fall heaviest on districts which suffered most. There could be no doubt that his proposal for a general rate on the land instead of a local rate was just. Mr. Gladstone, impressed by these arguments, agreed to limit the compensation to one-half instead of two-thirds of the value of the slaughtered animals, and the compromise was grudgingly accepted.