the founder
of what has in later days been called Tory democracy, winning over a
large section of the humbler classes to the banner under which the
majority of the wealthy and the holders of vested interests already
stood arrayed. He saved for the Turkish Empire a part of its
territories, yet in doing so merely prolonged for a little the death
agony of Turkish power. Though it cannot be said that he conferred any
benefit on India or the Colonies, he certainly stimulated the imperial
instincts of Englishmen. He had occasional flashes of insight, as when
in 1843 he perceived exactly what Ireland needed, and at least one
brilliant flash of foresight when he predicted that a wide extension
of the suffrage would bring no evil to the Tory party. Yet in the case
of Ireland he did nothing, when the chance came to him, to give effect
to the judgment which he had formed, while in the case of the suffrage
he did but follow up and carry into effect an impulse given by others.
The Franchise Act of 1867 is perhaps the only part of his policy which
has, by hastening a change that induced other changes, permanently
affected the course of events; and it remains the chief monument of
his parliamentary skill. There was nothing in his career to set the
example of a lofty soul or a noble purpose. He did not raise, he may
even have lowered, the tone of English public life.

Yet history will not leave him without a meed of admiration. When all
possible explanations of his success have been given, what a wonderful
career! An adventurer foreign in race, in ideas, in temper, without
money or family connections, climbs, by patient and unaided efforts,
to lead a great party, master a powerful aristocracy, sway a vast
empire, and make himself one of the four or five greatest personal
forces in the world. His head is not turned by his elevation. He never
becomes a demagogue; he never stoops to beguile the multitude by
appealing to sordid instincts. He retains through life a certain
amplitude of view, a due sense of the dignity of his position, a due
regard for the traditions of the ancient assembly which he leads, and
when at last the destinies of England fall into his hands, he feels
the grandeur of the charge, and seeks to secure what he believes to be
her imperial place in the world. Whatever judgment history may
ultimately pass upon him, she will find in the long annals of the
English Parliament no more striking figure.

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[1] No "a