am one who will not be insulted even by a yahoo without chastising it.

I admire your scurrilous allusion to my

origin; it is clear the hereditary bondsman has already forgotten the clank of his fetters. I had nothing to appeal to but the good sense of the people. No threatening skeleton canvassed for me. A death's-head and cross-bones were not blazoned on my banners; my pecuniary resources too were limited. I am not one of those public beggars that we see swarming with their obtrusive boxes in the chapels of your creed, nor am I in possession of a princely revenue from a starving race of fanatical slaves.'

He expected, he said in conclusion, to be a representative of the people before the repeal of the Union. 'We shall meet at Philippi.'

Disraeli waited at home till the night of the day on which the letter appeared for the effect of his missive. No notice being taken of it, 'he dressed and went to the opera.' When Peel had challenged O'Connell some years before, the police interfered; on this occasion the same thing had happened. As I was lying in bed this morning,' Disraeli wrote on May 9 to his sister, 'the police officers from Marylebone rushed into my chamber and took me into custody. I am now bound to keep the peace in 500l. sureties—a most unnecessary precaution, as if all the O'Connells were to challenge me I could not think of meeting them now. The X general effect is the thing, and that is that all men agree I have shown pluck.'

If Disraeli gained nothing by this encounter he at least lost nothing. He was more than ever talked about, and he had won approval from a high authority at any rate. 'You have no idea,' said Lord Strangford to him, of the sensation produced at Strathfieldsaye. The Duke said at dinner

it was the most manly thing done yet.' On one side only his outlook was unfavourable. The Taunton election had been a fresh expense. He had again to borrow, and his creditors. became pressing. Judgments were out against him for more debts than he could meet. About this time-the date cannot be fixed exactly, but the fact is certain-a sheriff's officer appeared at Wycombe on the way to Bradenham to arrest him. Dr. Rose,1 a medical man in the town, heard of the arrival, and sent on an express with a warning 'to hide Ben in the well.' Affairs were again smoothed over for the moment. 'Ben,' undaunted as ever, worked on upon his own lines. He completed his 'Vindication of the British Constitution '-vindication rather of Democratic Toryism amidst the harassing of duns. It was dedicated to Lyndhurst, and Lyndhurst paid him a visit at his father's house. He had a smart quarrel with the 'Globe' over a revival of the O'Connell business. In the spring of 1836 appeared the Runnymede letters in the 'Times,' philippics against the Whig leaders after the manner of Junius. He was elected at the Carlton Club, to his great satisfaction, and when the newspapers abused him he quoted a saying of Swift, 'that the appearance of a man of genius in the world may be always known by the virulence of dunces.' To assist his finances a proposal was made to him 'to edit the "Arabian Nights" with notes and an additional tale by the author of "Vivian Grey." He described it as 'a job which would not take up more than a month of his time' and by which he might make 'twelve or fifteen hundred pounds.' Happily for his literary reputation this adventure was not prosecuted. Some one in the City introduced him

Father of Sir Philip Rose, who was afterwards Disraeli's

executor.

to a speculation connected with a Dutch loan, which took him twice to the Hague and taught him the mysteries of finance. More legitimately in the midst of embarrassments and platform speeches he wrote Henrietta Temple' and 'Venetia,' the first a pretty love-story which offered no opportunities for his peculiar gifts, the second an attempt to exhibit in a novel the characters of Byron and Shelley. They would have made a reputation for an ordinary writer. They sustained the public interest in Disraeli. Of his speeches there was one at Wycombe in which he said that there would be no tranquillity in Ireland 'till the Irish people enjoyed the right to which the people of all countries were entitled, to be maintained by the soil which they cultivated with their labour.' In another there is a prophetic passage. 'I cannot force from my mind the conviction that a House of Commons concentrating in itself the whole powers of the State might-I should say would-constitute a despotism of the most formidable and dangerous description.' A third was the celebrated Ducrow speechthe Whig Premier as Ducrow first riding six horses at once, and as they foundered one by one left at last riding a jackass, which showed what Disraeli could do as a mob orator when he chose to condescend to it.

Bulwer said of one of these speeches that it was the finest in the world, and of one of the novels that it was the very worst. The criticism was smartly worded, and on both sides exaggerated; but it was true that, if Disraeli had been undistinguished as a speaker, his early novels would have been as the 'flowers of the field,' charming for the day that was passing over them and then forgotten. His political apprenticeship was at last over; the object of his ambition, the so deeply coveted seat in the House of Commons, was

F

within his reach, and he was to pass into his proper sphere

-to pass into it too while still young, for after all that he had done and experienced he was still only thirty-three. Few men, with the odds so heavy against them, had risen so high in so short a time.

CHAPTER V

Returned to Parliament for Maidstone-Takes his place behind Sir R. Peel-Maiden speech - Silenced by violence-Peel's opinion of it-Advice of Shiel-Second speech on Copyright completely successful-State of politics - England in a state of change Break-up of ancient institutions-Land and its duties-Political Economy and Free Trade-Struggle on the Corn Laws.

THE acquaintance with Mr. and Mrs. Wyndham Lewis had grown into a close friendship. Mr. Lewis, as has been said, was member for Maidstone, and had large local influence in the borough. The death of William IV., in the summer of 1837, dissolved Parliament; and Disraeli, being adopted by Mr. Lewis as his colleague, was returned by an easy majority. The election again gave the Whigs a majority, but not a large one. The tide was fast ebbing, and the time was near when the Conservatives, as the Tories now called themselves, were to see the balance turn in their favour. Lord Melbourne meanwhile remained Minister, but a Minister who desired to be able to do nothing. Ministers with a powerful party behind them are driven occasionally into measures which they would have preferred to avoid. The electors who have given them power require them to use it. Whigs and Tories alike know that their time will be short unless by some sensational policy they can gratify public expectation. Nothing was expected of Lord Melbourne, and persons who dreaded change of any kind, from