to Mr. Disraeli's success with the Liberal electors was that he was mercilessly assailed by the Liberal,* and as strongly supported by the Tory,† organ.

Between the abilities of the two candidates no attempt at comparison was made. Colonel Grey, at that period of his career at all events, was not a speaker. He himself, on the day of his first appearance in the town, declared with great naïveté that this was the first time he had ever addressed a public meeting, and craved indulgence. This ample admission allows us to form a sufficiently humble estimate of the natural abilities of the gallant Colonel, though perhaps it did not justify the Tory organ in declaring that "a more perfect simpleton" never sought the representation of a constituency.

expressing my hope that he will not attempt to disturb the seats of two gentlemen who have given their aids to bring about that Reform for which the country has so long been in need.

"Hoping that you may neither of you suffer any inconvenience by the manner in which my name has been used,

"He intruded himself on the borough," said the Bucks Gazette decisively, "as a Reformer, but the electors saw reason to suspect that he was an impostor."-Ibid. June 30, 1832.

"We do not," wrote the Bucks Herald (June 16, 1832), "concur politically with either of the gentlemen, but we prefer most decidedly the independent and manly declaration of Mr. Disraeli to the puling protestations of Colonel Grey. Mr. Disraeli, moreover, is not a Whig. He is an independent, not tied to party, but, having talents and self-dependence, may cut out for himself a career of honour and distinction in the Senate which the Colonel cannot hope to aspire to. We weigh fairly the merits of the two, and the scale preponderates towards Mr. Disraeli most powerfully."

On the 13th of June the candidates made their public entry into the town. Colonel Grey stumbled through a short speech, winding up with the frank admission already quotod.

But not so Mr. Disraeli. He entered the town in an open carriage, drawn by four horses, and he was accompanied in his march by a crowd of admirers. This crowd was, either spontaneously or by arrangement, joined by another a mile outside the town, and so, escorted by a band, banners, and a troop of admirers, Mr. Disraeli made his triumphal appearance. "The candidate," wrote our contemporary and malicious chronicler of Mr. Disraeli at this great moment of his career-"the candidate. . . . kissed his hand or blew kisses, we cannot say which, to all the females who were at the windows, bowing profoundly at times to his friends.” *

Mr. Disraeli's next act was equally characteristic. The "Red Lion" was then the chief hostelry of the town, and the "Red Lion" had a porch before the door. Mr. Disraeli perched himself on the roof of this porch, and, in this commanding position, could be seen and heard by any crowd, however large. For a whole hour, at least, did the future Premier then pour forth his rhetoric, and, from the reports, meagre as they are, which come down to us, it is evident that in those days Mr. Disraeli was the model of a mob orator. A mob, above all things, likes hard blows and broad jokes, and Mr. Disraeli, in this speech * Bucks Gazette, June 16, 1832.

castigated the Whigs alternately with the bitterest vehemence and the broadest sarcasm, And all this was done with an energy and animation that must have been very effective.*

We have already seen that appearance was a matter to which Mr. Disraeli evidently paid a great deal of attention; and that other people repaid this, by founding their admiration or contempt for his abilities and character to some extent on their impressions of his exterior. The Liberal journal of the district, at all events, found a most convincing proof of Mr. Disraeli's unworthiness in his appearance.†

The nomination took place on the 26th June, and naturally excited Wycombe to its shallow depths. The occasion, apart altogether from the character of the candidates, was deeply interesting. On Thursday, June 7,—that is, about three weeks before this day,

* The estimates formed of the speech by the Liberal and the Tory journals, amid apparent difference, agree on the whole. "After this harlequinade," writes the chronicler already alluded to, "had been performed,”—meaning the kissing of hands, etc.,-"Mr. Disraeli addressed the populace . . . . . and, in a speech of some ability and much gesticulation, amused the gaping throng for a little more than an hour." "Mr. Disraeli," said the Tory journal, "concluded a speech replete with talent, delivered with great energy, and producing a powerful effect."

Having first characterised Mr. Disraeli as an "Adonis of the sable cheek," he "challenges attention to himself," continues the Bucks Gazette, "by adorning his wrists with cambric, his bosom with lace;" he "puts a blue hand round his hat, when the vulgar wears a black one;" he "carries a black cane with a gold head;" his coat is lined with pink silk," and "before he essays to speak on the hustings," he "formally adjusts his ringlets," whose "duty is assigned them on his brow." "Such a man,"-and here we must apologise for the indecorous language of our authority-" such a

-the Reform Bill had received the Royal assent. The Act had not yet come into operation; but this was at all events the last election under the old form.

The Mayor and Corporation, who had so long enjoyed the exclusive right of election, were about to exercise their power for the last time, and the townsfolk were about to witness the last scene in the oligarchical rule, which had been abolished for

ever.

Mr. Disraeli's speech was just such as one might expect from a Radical candidate; and many of its passages are paraphrases of the sentences in some of the letters of recommendation which he had presented from the Radical leaders.

The Radicals or Reformers, as I have said, complained of the existence of sinecures, and of the nepotism of the Premier. Mr. Disraeli said that "he had never received one shilling of public money," and that “he belonged to a family who never had." Then he spoke of the Reform Act, in almost the very words of Daniel O'Connell and Joseph Hume. He regarded it as "a means to a great end;" and, finally, he made the

man-we had said, such a popinjay-appears to deliver himself something as follows: 'Look on my antagonist, and look on me. See him, plain in his attire, plain in his speech. Behold me; will you not vote for a person of my blandishments? and the author of the novel?'" "The short fact is," says the same unfriendly critic, "that he is as artificial a speaker as he is a reformer; that his novel-his 'Vivian Grey-is as meretricious as are the ornaments with which he bedizens himself."-June 30, 1832.

truly Radical boast that he was

sprung from the people," and had "none of the blood of the Plantaganets or Tudors in his veins."

One other point in this memorable speech is worth notice. It has already been seen that the Radical candidate, as is so often the case, received a certain amount of Tory support. The plain reason of this circumstance, on the present occasion, has been stated in a passage of the Tory organ already quoted. It was not that the Tories loved Liberalism more, but that they hated Radicalism less than Whiggery. The explanation which Mr. Disraeli gives is pretty much the same. "The support he received from the Tories," he said, "was easily to be accounted for. The people supported him first, and the Tories, finding that it was useless to attempt to check their wishes, resolved to promote a general feeling of friendliness. It was to this he owed the support of his friends the Tories, and he trusted this union would be lasting. It would be, for the Tories must now lean on them: they need not lean on the Tories."

However, neither the support of the Radicals nor of the Tories was of any avail. Let me not spoil, by interpolating a word of my own, the splendid though unconscious humour of the paragraph in which the paper of the period announces the result of the election :

"The polling then commenced. At about five o'clock Mr. Disraeli retired. The poll at the close