Orders of the Day as if nothing particular had happened. But the House was in no mood for business. Cries for the adjournment filled the House, and Mr. Gladstone, still holding his letter in one hand and the pen in the other, moved the adjournment, and the crowd surged through the doorway, the Conservatives still tumultuously cheering.”[212] On the following day (9th of June) Mr. Gladstone told the House that the defeat of the previous evening had caused the Cabinet to submit “a dutiful communication” to the Queen, then at Balmoral, but as an answer to it must take some time to reach London, he moved an adjournment till Friday (12th of June). Strangely enough, the resignation of the Ministry was unattended by any popular excitement. It was perfectly well known that the new Cabinet would be merely a stopgap Government, powerless to do anything except wind up the business of Parliament before the General Election. On the 12th of June the House was in quite a cheerful humour when it met to hear from Mr. Gladstone that the Queen had accepted the resignation of his Cabinet. It was curious that even this last act of his Ministerial life in the Parliament of 1880-85 was not free from blunder. “Her Majesty’s gracious reply,” said Mr. Gladstone, “was made upon the 11th accepting the resignation of _Lord Salisbury_” a slip of the tongue which the Premier had to correct amidst shouts of laughter. At first the Queen was unwilling to accept the resignation of the Government. She could not admit that Ministers were free to throw the State into confusion because of a defeat on an Amendment to a Budget. In fact, it is not quite Constitutional to coerce the free judgment of the Commons on the financial proposals of Government by threatening Ministerial resignation if these are not slavishly accepted in detail. Such a practice virtually ties the hands of the House of Commons as guardians of the public purse. The Queen, therefore, sought a personal interview with Mr. Gladstone, to hear his full justification for the course he had adopted, but on his instructing Lord Hartington to proceed to Balmoral, her Majesty’s request was withdrawn. It now became apparent to her that the crisis was too serious to be dealt with from Balmoral. In the last weeks of the Session Parliamentary time was so valuable that it could not prudently be wasted over a stagnant interregnum protracted by the journeyings to and fro of Royal couriers between Aberdeenshire and London. It was accordingly announced that the Queen would return to Windsor at once--following the course she adopted in 1866, when confronted with a similar inconvenience. Her Majesty arrived at Windsor on the 17th of June, when Lord Salisbury had an interview with her. On the following day he and Mr. Gladstone both waited on the Sovereign--Mr. Gladstone delivering up the seals of office. There was, however, a difficulty to be overcome in the transfer of power