least too strong
to be stayed with our bill of last year. I do not envy Lord Derby
and his friends their reflections this autumn on the course they
have pursued. Meanwhile I wish that our press, as far as we may be
said to have one, would write on this text: _that a bill from
them, to be accepted by the people, must be larger, and not
smaller, than would have been, or even would be, accepted from
us_. For confidence, or credit, stands in politics in lieu of
ready money. If, indeed, your enemy is stronger than you are, you
must take what he gives you. But in this case he is weaker, and
not stronger. A good bill from them would save us much trouble and
anxiety. A straightforward bill, such an L8 franchise without
tricks, would be easily dealt with. But their bill will be neither
good nor straightforward. The mind of Disraeli, as leader of the
House of Commons, and standing as he does among his compeers, will
predominate in its formation. Now he has made in his lifetime
three attempts at legislation--the budget of 1852, the India bill
of 1858, the Reform bill of 1859. All have been thoroughly
tortuous measures. And the Ethiopian will not change his skin. His
Reform bill of 1867 will be tortuous too. But if you have to drive
a man out of a wood, you must yourself go into the wood to drive
him. We may have to meet a tortuous bill by a tortuous motion.
This is what I am afraid of, and what I am, for one, above all
things anxious to avoid. In 1859 the liberal party had to play the
obstructive, and with evil consequences. It would be most
unfortunate if they should be put into such a position again. Pray
consider this. I do not like what I see of Bright's speeches. We
have no claim upon him, more than the government have on us; and I
imagine he will part company the moment he sees his way to more
than we would give him.

II

(M65) The general character of the operations of 1867, certainly one of
the most curious in our parliamentary history, was described by Mr.
Gladstone in a fragment written thirty years after. Time had extinguished
the volcanic fires, and the little outline is sketched with temper and a
sort of neutrality:--

When the parliament reassembled in 1867, parties and groups were
curiously distributed. The two great bodies were the regular
supporters of the Tory ministry, and