harles, and inspired him with a
sarcasm unlike his own serious and even dull tone of address. He
accused Mr. Disraeli with delivering a two hours' speech on fiscal
and economical subjects, from which a single proposition could not be
extracted, and concluding by trite reflections upon the necessity of
maintaining public credit, couched in highflown language about the
empire of the Caesars, with its triple crown, the mines of Golconda,
pillared palanquins, and other things having as little to do with the
question. These poetic fancies were very pleasing, but the house would
have better liked to hear arguments in support of a motion against
repealing taxes. The following passage from the speech of the chancellor
of the exchequer excited much mirth among the members, at the expense
of the protectionist leader:--"Mr. Disraeli would not jeopardize public
credit (by repealing taxes); but only six days after Mr. Hume's motion
(for continuing the income tax only one year) was carried, Mr. Cayley
moved the house to remit L5,000,000 by the repeal of the malt tax. If it
be wrong to jeopardize public credit, surely it was as much endangered
on the 8th of May (when Mr. Cayley proposed the remission of the malt
tax), as it was on the 30th of June (when the ministers proposed to
repeal duties which affected the whole community), yet on the division
list in favour of Mr. Cayley's motion I find the name of Benjamin
Disraeli! Can it be that there are two Benjamins in the field? One
Benjamin voting for the reduction of five millions of taxes, and another
Benjamin who is afraid to meddle with a surplus of L1,600,000."

The effect of this cutting and just satire upon the dishonest pretences
of Mr. Disraeli in refusing the repeal of taxes to the amount of
the surplus revenue, on the ground of maintaining public credit, was
exceedingly striking. The house was at first convulsed with laughter,
after which serious murmurs rolled along the benches to the right of
the speaker's chair, and the Conservatives, in sullen and moody silence,
showed their consciousness of the moral effect of this _expose_,
especially as the resolutions were lost by a very large majority.
The speech of Sir Charles Wood was much quoted out of doors, and Mr.
Disraeli became, for a considerable time, most unpopular throughout the
country. It was much mooted among the opposition whether he should not
be deposed from a leadership which his eloquence did not always serve,
and