assume the qualities of
some lofty masonic symbol--to be the ornate and glittering vehicle of
verities unrealised by the profane.

Such tributes were delightful, but they remained in the nebulous region
of words, and Disraeli had determined to give his blandishments a more
significant solidity. He deliberately encouraged those high views of
her own position which had always been native to Victoria's mind and
had been reinforced by the principles of Albert and the doctrines of
Stockmar. He professed to a belief in a theory of the Constitution which
gave the Sovereign a leading place in the councils of government;
but his pronouncements upon the subject were indistinct; and when he
emphatically declared that there ought to be "a real Throne," it was
probably with the mental addition that that throne would be a very
unreal one indeed whose occupant was unamenable to his cajoleries.
But the vagueness of his language was in itself an added stimulant to
Victoria. Skilfully confusing the woman and the Queen, he threw, with a
grandiose gesture, the government of England at her feet, as if in doing
so he were performing an act of personal homage. In his first audience
after returning to power, he assured her that "whatever she wished
should be done." When the intricate Public Worship Regulation Bill was
being discussed by the Cabinet, he told the Faery that his "only object"
was "to further your Majesty's wishes in this matter." When he brought
off his great coup over the Suez Canal, he used expressions which
implied that the only gainer by the transaction was Victoria. "It is
just settled," he wrote in triumph; "you have it, Madam... Four millions
sterling! and almost immediately. There was only one firm that could
do it--Rothschilds. They behaved admirably; advanced the money at a low
rate, and the entire interest of the Khedive is now yours, Madam." Nor
did he limit himself to highly-spiced insinuations. Writing with all
the authority of his office, he advised the Queen that she had the
constitutional right to dismiss a Ministry which was supported by a
large majority in the House of Commons, he even urged her to do so, if,
in her opinion, "your Majesty's Government have from wilfulness, or even
from weakness, deceived your Majesty." To the horror of Mr. Gladstone,
he not only kept the Queen informed as to the general course of business
in the Cabinet, but revealed to her the part taken in its discussions by
individual membe