1874] TRIUMPH OF ROMANCE — AND TRAGEDY

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rounded by a capable and unusually homogeneous band of colleagues. He was regarded with peculiar favour by his Sovereign; and he rapidly came to hold in society, strictly so called, a place of distinction such as few Prime Ministers have aspired to and fewer attained.

6

It was a triumph of romance, but it was also a tragedy. The hero had all that he had played for; but fruition had been delayed till he was in his seventieth year and had lost the partner of his life and of his ambition. Even on his first attainment of the Premiership in 1868, he had said to W. F. Haydon in reply to congratulations, 'For me it is twenty years too late. Give me your age and your health.' How much more fervently did he echo that cry of 'Too late to those who congratulated him six years afterwards! Power!' he was heard once to mutter in his triumphal year of 1878; it has come to me too late. There were days when, on waking, I felt I could move dynasties and governments; but that has passed away.' That youth was the period for action; that to be granted adequate scope for your genius when young was the supreme gift of Heaven, had always been his creed. Now, however much he might call in art to assist nature, he was indubitably becoming old; though he might still be fresh in spirit, he was not physically comparable to Palmerston when he reached the Premiership at a similar age in 1855, or to Gladstone when he took up the burden a second time at the age of seventy in 1880. Tough as Disraeli's fibre had proved through the struggles of nearly fifty years, he had never been really robust, and indeed in early manhood had undergone a prolonged period of grave debility. His intimate notes to his wife from the House of Commons form a constant record of indisposition, and of requests for pills and other remedies or prophylactics. Then in 1867 he had had a serious attack of gout, and he had suffered intermittently since, notably from bronchial trouble in 1870. The labours of the Premiership in the Commons almost immediately brought on renewed attacks; first in the spring and then in the autumn of 1874 he was

pursued by gout, gouty bronchitis, and asthma; and finally in 1876 he was driven to choose between definite retirement and a retreat to the House of Lords. Even the relief afforded by the conduct of business in the less laborious House, though great, was not sufficient; and the unwearied service which he rendered to his country was accompanied by a persistent undercurrent of pain and physical debility, down to his last illness in 1881.

Without the stimulus given not merely by his honourable ambition but by the intimate and endearing relations which he had established with Lady Bradford and Lady Chesterfield, he could hardly have borne the principal burden of government during years of difficulty and danger. But even the intimacy with his new friends could not dull the sense of loneliness and desolation caused by the absence of the wife to whom, as Hardy noted in his diary, the 'long reign' of 1874-1880 would have been a 'true joy.' Had Lady Chesterfield accepted him, or had it been possible for him to marry Lady Bradford, the vacancy by his hearth, which so keenly affected him, would have been filled. But, as things were, he experienced only too vividly through all his last eight years that melancholy which prompted the bitter cry of his friend the Duc d'Aumale, 'I am now alone in the world.' Sir William Fraser's fussy obtrusiveness and misplaced egotism often mar the effect of his Disraelian stories; but he was inspired by a true discernment in the message which he sent to his chief in the beginning of the 1874 Administration.

The only communication which I made to Disraeli at the time of his last Premiership was one which I was told he felt deeply. I asked a common friend to tell him that I was sure that the feeling in his heart which dominated all others was, that one who had believed in him from the first, whose whole life and soul had been devoted to him, who had longed and prayed for his ultimate success, was, now that his success had come, no more - his wife.1

1 Fraser, pp. 270, 271.

CHAPTER IX

POLITICAL SUCCESS AND PHYSICAL FAILURE

1874

'I am only truly great in action. If ever I am placed in a truly eminent position I shall prove this.' So in a moment of exaltation wrote Disraeli in his thirtieth year; now, in his seventieth, at long last, he was to show that he had not misjudged his own capacity. Social improvement at home and the enhancement and consolidation of our imperial position abroad were to be the task of the Ministry under his guidance; but in both respects Ministers proceeded with caution and deliberation, with the unexpected result that the interest of their first session was predominantly ecclesiastical. On the domestic side, in compliance with the general desire for a respite from incessant legislation, they determined to do no more than lay this year a foundation for their policy. They appointed a Royal Commission to investigate the subject of the relations of master and servant; and proposed to deal at once with only a few minor matters, including an amendment of the Factory Act and certain modifications of the new licensing law. On the imperial side, in order to show that the new Government hoped to infuse some spirit and dignity into foreign policy, Disraeli suggested to Derby the introduction into the Queen's Speech of a phrase which, without alarming, might a little mark out our policy from our unpopular predecessors'.' The phrase actually used was: 'I shall not fail to exercise the influence arising from these cordial relations [with foreign Powers] for the maintenance of European peace, and the faithful observance of international obligations.'

To Queen Victoria.

10, DOWNING STREET, March 14, 1874.- Mr. Disraeli with his humble duty to your Majesty:

He encloses a draft of the Royal Speech for your Majesty's consideration.

Your Majesty will observe, that he has somewhat deviated from the routine paragraph respecting foreign affairs. He thought the accession to office of a new Ministry was not a bad occasion to call the attention of Europe to that respect for treaties which your Majesty's present advisers, with your approbation, are resolved to observe.

In case news of the treaty being signed do not arrive, the paragraph respecting the Ashantee War will require modification. Parliament will open on Thursday the 19th. Whether your Majesty will be graciously pleased to open it, shall be a matter, always, for your Majesty alone to decide.

Mr. Disraeli has too high, and genuine, an opinion of your Majesty's judgment, and too sincere an appreciation of your Majesty's vast political experience, to doubt that, whatever your Majesty's decision on this important subject, it will be a correct one. He will not, therefore, presume to dwell [on], only to glance at, the peculiar circumstances of the present occasion: a new Parliament; a ballot Parliament; a new Ministry; a Ministry recommended to your Majesty by an extraordinary expression of Conservative opinion; the great and deep popularity of the Royal House at the present moment, and the especial, and even affectionate, reverence for your Majesty's person; the presence of illustrious strangers, at this moment, at your Majesty's Court, and the most interesting cause of that presence all these considerations, Mr. Disraeli feels sure, will be duly weighed by your Majesty, and decided upon with dignified discretion.

1.

Disraeli's insinuating pleading did not prevail to secure the Queen's presence at the opening of Parliament; and accordingly there was nothing dramatic about the first public appearance of his Ministry. He had the wisdom and magnanimity to suggest the re-election of the Liberal Speaker chosen towards the close of the last Parliament, Henry Brand. The depression of the beaten Liberals was augmented by Gladstone's announcement that he only pro

1 The recent marriage of the Duke of Edinburgh to a daughter of the Emperor of Russia.

1874]

OPENING OF PARLIAMENT

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posed to attend occasionally during the present session, and reserved to himself the right to resign absolutely the leadership of the Opposition in the following spring. It was, Disraeli said on one of the occasions when he met his rival on the neutral ground of Marlborough House, 'the wrath, the unappeasable wrath, of Achilles.'

To Anne Lady Chesterfield.

WHITEHALL, March 17, 1874.-. . . Yesterday we had a grand banquet at Marlboro' House, which was agreeable enough. I had not very lively neighbours at dinner. . . . However, I do not dislike what Macaulay called some 'flashes of silence,' and unless I sit next to you, or somebody as interesting and charming, I find a pleasant repose in a silent banquet, particularly with a good band.

After dinner we had conversation enough, and I could amuse you for hours, if we were walking together alone at Bretby, but alas! the pressure of business, wh. is now getting intense, can only spare time for a snatch.

The Dss. of Edinburgh was lively as a bird. She does not like our habit in England of all standing after dinner, and I must say I find it exhausting. In Russia the Court all sit.

She asked me who a certain person was, talking to a lady. I replied, 'That is my rival.' 'What a strange state society is in here,' she said. 'Wherever I go, there is a double. Two Prime Ministers, two Secretaries of State, two Lord Chamberlains, and two Lord Chancellors.' . . .

...

To Lady Bradford.

WHITEHALL, March 19, 1874.-. . . I had a very hard day yesterday. A great personage,1 a favourite of yours and of mine, was with me all the morning at this house with difficult and delicate affairs; then without luncheon, I had to run to D[owning] S[treet] to keep my appointments with the mover and seconder of the Address, each of whom I had to see separately; then a long Cabinet, and then the banquets! Mine was most successful, and I believe also Derby's. Everybody said they never saw a more brilliant table. I gave Gunter carte blanche, and he deserved it. He had a new service of plate. Baroness Rothschild sent me six large baskets of English strawberries, 200 head of gigantic Parisian asperge, and the largest Strasburg foie

1 The Prince of Wales.