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sey.' 1 Queen and Minister knew what Parliament and English society had not sufficient imagination to realise, that by the measure of the last session, translated into act at that day's Durbar, the British raj in India had received a significant accession of internal and external strength; that a new and durable link had been forged between the crowned democracy of the West and the immemorial Empire of the Middle East.

1 Article on The Character of Queen Victoria,' Quarterly Review, April, 1901.

CHAPTER XIII

FROM THE COMMONS TO THE LORDS

1876-1877.

On Friday, August 11, 1876, a day or two before the prorogation of Parliament, Disraeli replied, late in the evening, to an attack on the Government for their inaction over Bulgarian atrocities.1 The speech was not specially remarkable, though it contained a sly hit at the Rhodian, or (according to some reports) Herodian, oratory of his friendly opponent Harcourt, and though it closed upon a thoroughly Disraelian note: What our duty is at this critical moment is to maintain the Empire of England.' The debate over, Disraeli walked slowly down the House to the bar; there turned, and stood for a minute carefully surveying the familiar scene, galleries and all; and then, re tracing his steps, passed the Treasury bench and went quietly out behind the Speaker's chair,2 pausing to chat with Lord George Hamilton on the prospects of a Liberal' atrocity' campaign in the autumn. He was noticed afterwards in the lobby, in a long white overcoat and dandified lavender kid gloves, leaning on his secretary's arm,' and shaking hands with a good many people. After that night, he never entered the House of Commons again, save as a visitor to the gallery. Unknown to all but one or two present, he had made his last appearance in the theatre of the labours and triumphs of nearly forty years. The next morning it was announced that the Queen had been pleased to create her Prime Minister an Earl. Some critics, notably Fraser,

1 See Vol. VI., ch. 2.

2 For these details I am indebted to the Right Hon. T. Burt, who was present, and noted Disraeli's unusual procedure.

3 See Dilke's Life, Vol. I.,

p. 211.

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have expressed surprise that the supreme artist on the po litical stage should not have contrived a more spectacular exit. But here surely Disraeli showed a truer taste and a finer instinct than his critics. No formal leavetaking could have been more impressive than this silent withdrawal, which, without warning and without advertisement, transferred at a stroke the centre of political interest from the Commons to the Lords.

Disraeli's action was determined, of course, by considerations of health. Though during 1875 he had been on the whole free from the serious illnesses which had so frequently prostrated him in 1874, the respite proved to be only temporary. He spent the second week of January, 1876, at Weston, and on his return to town and work had an acute seizure. A pencil note from Whitehall Gardens to Lady Bradford, dated January 18, 12.30, says: 'I have had a very sharp attack, and nothing but remedies as sharp cd. have brought me to time as I hope they have, for in an hour and I must be at the Cab. It wd. not do to hold it here, it wd. be such a bad start; and the day is bland, and one must run risks in life, or else it wd. be as dull as death.' At half-past four the same afternoon, he reports, in ink: 'I have just come from the Cabinet. I have been, and illness of a month

am, a great sufferer. I have had the crammed and compressed into 8 and 40 hours.' His colleagues found him greatly pulled down: 'I judge,' he wrote two days later, 'from their expression and general mien, that they thought the Burials Bill, wh. we were discussing, was rather a fitting subject for their chief.'

This was a bad introduction to a session of worry and late hours. I wish the H. of C. was counted out oftener,' he wrote pathetically to Lady Bradford on March 1, 'that I might sometimes dine in the family circle. I think I shall retreat to the Elysian fields, where Bradford listened yesterday to Sandhurst and Cadogan, and then I might a little. more enjoy the society of my dear friends.' The factious opposition to the Royal Titles Bill, and the increasing grav

ity of the situation in the Near East, once more strained the Minister's health almost to breaking-point in the middle of May.

To Lady Bradford.

2, WHITEHALL GARDENS, [? May 16].-I could not call yesterday and was very unwell with my throat. . . . I sate through the debate in great suffering, scarcely mitigated by our triumphant majority, and went home very late and rather hopeless: but a compress has worked wonders, and if I cd. have stayed at home, I shd. have been all right. But that is impossible. Af

fairs are very grave. . . .

May 18.- The medico said I had a feverish catarrh -the old story; and the remedies have already done me some good, so far as the fever is concerned - but I am dreadfully weak and out of cue. . . . The Faery keeps telegraphing for bulletins with injunctions to see Jenner, who is going down to Windsor, and will tell her exactly how I am, etc., etc. She is very anxious.' . . . [? May 19].- I shan't go into the City to-day, or to the H. of Commons - but I ought to drive a little, or I shall become a confirmed invalid. . . . I shd. like to know whether I might call. . . .

6

May 25.-... Of all the duties and occupations wh. devolve on me, letter-writing is that for wh. the sort of attack I am now suffering from most unfits me. One can read, and one can listen, and judge, and talk; but writing requires a degree of energy and precision of wh. I am now quite incapable. I am out of all pain this morning, and shd. have publicly appeared — and may even yet but the N.E. blast has returned, and this is my direst foe.

...

I was obliged to hold the Cabinet yesterday under this roof. May 26.- I can't give a good account of myself, as I had a fresh attack last night.

...

May 27.- The Cabinet is just over and under this roof! I have had a good night and am quite free from pain.

...

HUGHENDEN MANOR, June 3.- A senseless line from the solitary you cannot expect much. This place is bright with bloom; thorns pink and white, and lilac and chestnut; soft showers in the night and the grass growing all day. Nothing wrong except they steal the swans' eggs, so that family does not increase. I had hoped by this time they might have rivalled the peacocks.

This attack convinced Disraeli that action could no longer

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be postponed. The Queen herself gave him an opening by a spontaneous offer to call him to the House of Lords.

From Queen Victoria.

BALMORAL, June 5, 1876.— The Queen hopes Mr. Disraeli is feeling rested and better.

She was sorry to hear from General Ponsonby that he was feeling the fatigue of his work.

She knows how valuable he is to herself and the country. Should he still feel this, and that the fatigue of the House of Commons is too great, she would be happy to call him up to the other House, where the fatigue would be far less and where he would be able to direct everything. No one, no doubt, can replace him in the House of Commons; still if he felt it too much for his health something must be done, and he has some excellent men - especially Sir S. Northcote who could no

doubt work under him.

The Queen throws this out, as she feels the immense importance he is to the Throne and country and how more than ever now - she wishes and hopes his Govt. may be long maintained. Everyone agrees that it has gained in strength since the beginning of the Session, as he himself assured her.

Disraeli told the Queen that his physical condition would not permit him to carry on the Government, as Prime Minister in the Commons, after the existing session; but he demurred to Her Majesty's suggestion, and expressed a preference for retirement. He has himself placed on record, in a communication addressed in nearly identical terms to his principal colleagues, the negotiations which followed.

To the Duke of Richmond.

Confidential. 10, DOWNING STREET, July 24, 1876.- Some little time ago, when we had extricated ourselves from our difficulties, and the Government was not less popular and strong than at present, I was obliged to inform the Queen, that it would not be possible for me to carry on Her Majesty's affairs after the present Session.

Although, being well acquainted with the Queen's sensitiveness, or perhaps I ought to say Constitutional convictions, on the subject, I did not presume to recommend my successor, I ventured to observe, that, if Her Majesty wished to retain her present