For many the question was not if Gladstone would serve with his friends, but whether he might ever go into government with those he detested on both sides of the House. Few doubted that Gladstone had a visceral, personal dislike of both Palmerston and Disraeli. He had remained in government with Palmerston for a matter of weeks before private distaste made him quit. Three times now he had refused to work with Disraeli. He was, suggested the Spectator, on his way to becoming ‘a mere Bedouin of parliament, a noble being full of spirit and power, but not to be tamed into the ordinary ways of
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