rue to her
nursling, suffered none such to appear.

Another favouring influence not understood outside England was to be
found in the character of the party he led. In his day the Tories,
being the party of the property-holders, and having not to advance but
to stand still, not to propose changes but to resist them, having
bonds of interest as well as of sentiment to draw them close together,
possessed a cohesion, a loyalty to their chiefs, a tenacious corporate
spirit, far exceeding what was to be found among their adversaries,
who were usually divided into a moderate or Whig and an advanced or
Radical section. He who established himself as the Tory leader was
presently followed by the rank and file with a devotion, an
unquestioning submission and confidence, which placed his character
and doctrines under the aegis of the party, and enforced loyalty upon
parliamentary malcontents. This corporate spirit was of infinite value
to Disraeli. The historical past of the great Tory party, its
associations, the social consideration which it enjoys, all went to
ennoble his position and efface the remembrance of the less creditable
parts of his career. And in the later days of his reign, when no one
disputed his supremacy, every Tory was, as a matter of course, his
advocate and admirer, and resented assaults on him as insults to the
party. When a man excites hatred by his words or deeds, attacks on his
character are an inevitable relief to overcharged feelings.
Technically regarded, they are not good politics. Misrepresentation
sometimes succeeds; vituperation seldom. Let a man be personally
untrustworthy or dangerous, still, it is only his own words that
damage him, at least in England and America. Even his own words,
however discrediting, even his acts, however culpable, may, if they
belong to a past unfamiliar to the voter of to-day, tell little,
perhaps too little, on the voter's mind when they are brought up
against him. The average citizen has a short memory, and thinks that
the dead may be allowed to bury their dead.

Let it be further noted that Disraeli's career coincided with a
significant change in English politics, a change partly in the temper
of the nation, partly in the balance of voting power. For thirty years
after the Reform Act of 1832, not only had the middle classes
constituted the majority of the electors, but the social influence of
the great Whig families and the intellectual influence of the economic
s