ster the desirability of putting his proposal
into practice. He demurred; but she was not to be baulked; and in 1876,
in spite of his own unwillingness and that of his entire Cabinet, he
found himself obliged to add to the troubles of a stormy session
by introducing a bill for the alteration of the Royal Title. His
compliance, however, finally conquered the Faery's heart. The measure
was angrily attacked in both Houses, and Victoria was deeply touched by
the untiring energy with which Disraeli defended it. She was, she said,
much grieved by "the worry and annoyance" to which he was subjected; she
feared she was the cause of it; and she would never forget what she owed
to "her kind, good, and considerate friend." At the same time, her wrath
fell on the Opposition. Their conduct, she declared, was "extraordinary,
incomprehensible, and mistaken," and, in an emphatic sentence which
seemed to contradict both itself and all her former proceedings, she
protested that she "would be glad if it were more generally known that
it was HER wish, as people WILL have it, that it has been FORCED UPON
HER!" When the affair was successfully over, the imperial triumph was
celebrated in a suitable manner. On the day of the Delhi Proclamation,
the new Earl of Beaconsfield went to Windsor to dine with the new
Empress of India. That night the Faery, usually so homely in her attire,
appeared in a glittering panoply of enormous uncut jewels, which had
been presented to her by the reigning Princes of her Raj. At the end of
the meal the Prime Minister, breaking through the rules of
etiquette, arose, and in a flowery oration proposed the health of
the Queen-Empress. His audacity was well received, and his speech was
rewarded by a smiling curtsey.

These were significant episodes; but a still more serious manifestation
of Victoria's temper occurred in the following year, during the crowning
crisis of Beaconsfield's life. His growing imperialism, his desire
to magnify the power and prestige of England, his insistence upon a
"spirited foreign policy," had brought him into collision with Russia;
the terrible Eastern Question loomed up; and when war broke out between
Russia and Turkey, the gravity of the situation became extreme.
The Prime Minister's policy was fraught with difficulty and danger.
Realising perfectly the appalling implications of an Anglo-Russian war,
he was yet prepared to face even that eventuality if he could obtain
his ends by no oth