The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sybil, by Benjamin Disraeli

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Title: Sybil
or the Two Nations

Author: Benjamin Disraeli

Release Date: February, 2003 [Etext #3760]
Posting Date: January 27, 2010

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SYBIL ***

Produced by David G. Johnson

SYBIL, OR THE TWO NATIONS

By Benjamin Disraeli

I would inscribe these volumes to one whose noble spirit and gentle
nature ever prompt her to sympathise with the suffering; to one whose
sweet voice has often encouraged, and whose taste and judgment have ever
guided, their pages; the most severe of critics, but--a perfect Wife!

Advertisement

The general reader whose attention has not been specially drawn to the
subject which these volumes aim to illustrate, the Condition of
the People, might suspect that the Writer had been tempted to some
exaggeration in the scenes which he has drawn and the impressions which
he has wished to convey. He thinks it therefore due to himself to state
that he believes there is not a trait in this work for which he has not
the authority of his own observation, or the authentic evidence which
has been received by Royal Commissions and Parliamentary Committees. But
while he hopes he has alleged nothing which is not true, he has found
the absolute necessity of suppressing much that is genuine. For so
little do we know of the state of our own country that the air of
improbability that the whole truth would inevitably throw over these
pages, might deter many from their perusal.

Grosvenor-Gate, May Day, 1845.

BOOK I

Book 1 Chapter 1

"I'll take the odds against Caravan."

"In poneys?"

"Done."

And Lord Milford, a young noble, entered in his book the bet which he
had just made with Mr Latour, a grey headed member of the Jockey Club.

It was the eve of the Derby of 1837. In a vast and golden saloon, that
in its decorations would have become, and in its splendour would not
have disgraced, Versailles in the days of the grand monarch, were
assembled many whose hearts beat at the thought of the morrow, and whose
brains still laboured to control its fortune