artisan is enlarged into the patriot.
Before it the lines of party sink into hazy obscurity; and the
horizon which bounds our view reaches on every side to the uttermost
verge of the great Republic. It is a spirit that exalts humanity,
and imbued with it the souls of men soar into the pure air of
unselfish devotion to the public welfare. It lighted with a smile
the cheek of Curtius as he rode into the gulf; it guided the hand of
Aristides as he sadly wrote upon the shell the sentence of his own
banishment; it dwelt in the frozen earthworks of Valley Forge; and
from time to time it has been an inmate of these halls of
legislation. I believe it is here to-day, and that the present
measure was born under its influence.

LORD BEACONSFIELD (BENJAMIN DISRAELI) (1804-1881)

When, at the age of thirty-three. Benjamin Disraeli entered the
House of Commons, he was flushed with his first literary successes
and inclined perhaps to take parliamentary popularity by storm. It
was the first year of Victoria's reign (1837) and the fashions of
the times allowed great latitude for the display of idiosyncracies
in dress. It seems that Disraeli pushed this advantage to the point
of license. We hear much of the amount of jewelry he wore and of the
gaudiness of his waistcoats. This may or may not have had a deciding
influence in determining the character of his reception by the
house, but at any rate it was a tempestuous one. He was repeatedly
interrupted, and when he attempted to proceed the uproar of cries
and laughter finally overpowered him and he abandoned for the time
being the attempt to speak--not, however, until he had served on
the house due notice of his great future, expressed in the memorable
words--thundered, we are told, at the top of his voice, and
audible still in English history--"You shall hear me!"

Not ten years later, the young man with the gaudy waistcoats had
become the leading Conservative orator of the campaign against the
Liberals on their Corn Law policy and so great was the impression
produced by his speeches that in 1852, when the Derby ministry was
formed, he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The secret of his success is the thorough-going way in which he
identified himself with the English aristocracy. Where others had
apologized for aristocracy as a method of government, he justified.
Instead of excusing and avoiding, he assumed that a government of
privilege rather than that based on r