Balmoral, at which Mr. Gladstone, Lord Fife, and Sir H. Ponsonby were present, Mr. Gladstone afterwards dining with her Majesty. Lord Ripon having resigned office as Viceroy of India, his successor, Lord Dufferin, visited the Queen at Balmoral in October. One by one the Royal guests fled southwards, and finally the Queen and Princess Beatrice left the Highlands for Windsor on the 20th of November--her Majesty’s return being hastened by grave political anxieties caused by the threatened collision between the two Houses of Parliament. Mr. Gladstone had at Balmoral so earnestly deprecated the obstinacy of the Peers, and so clearly pointed out to the Queen the difficulty of avoiding this collision whilst they persisted in their anti-Reform policy, that her Majesty subsequently used all her influence to bring about a compromise. It was with a view to renew her efforts in this direction that she returned to Windsor at the time when Lord Granville was offering to submit a draft Redistribution Bill for friendly but private inspection by the Tory leaders, provided the Peers would give a pledge to pass the Franchise Bill during the autumn Session. The appearance of Mrs. Gladstone’s name among the list of those who were at Lady Salisbury’s reception in Arlington Street on the 19th of November, was taken as an auspicious omen, and as indicating that the Conservative chiefs had not been insensible to the advice which the Queen had given to the Duke of Richmond in the Highlands. The supreme difficulty of bringing about the Reform compromise lay in breaking down the resistance of Lord Salisbury and the Tory Peers, who were resolved to force a dissolution on the basis of the old franchise. This resistance gradually weakened after Mr. Gladstone’s visit to Balmoral. That it finally disappeared was mainly due to the firm but gentle pressure which the Queen put on the Duke of Richmond in order to induce him and his colleagues to accept a compromise. The actual details of the Treaty between Mr. Gladstone and the Peers were settled in London. But the preliminaries of Peace were really negotiated by the Queen and the Duke of Richmond in Aberdeenshire, after the memorable “gathering of the clans” at Braemar in the autumn of 1884. After the return of the Court from Scotland many guests were received at Windsor, among whom Lord Sydney--who audits her Majesty’s private accounts, and, since the death of the Prince Consort, has been her confidential adviser--was one of the most favoured. On the 17th of December the Court removed to Osborne. CHAPTER XXVIII. THE NEW DEPARTURE.