very matters, he reiterated as late as 1872: “Ever since I sat in this House, I have always endeavoured to maintain and cherish relations of cordiality and confidence between the United Kingdom and the United States. I have felt that between those two great countries the material interests were so vast, _were likely so greatly to increase_, and were in their character so mutually beneficial to both countries, that they alone formed bonds of union.... But I could not forget that, in the relations between the United States and England, _there was an element also of sentiment_, which ought never to be despised in politics, and without which there can be no enduring alliance. When the unhappy Civil War occurred, I endeavoured, therefore, so far as I could, to maintain ... a strict neutrality between the Northern and the Southern states.... There were some at a particular time ... who were anxious to obtain the recognition of the Southern states by this country. I never could share that opinion.... We were of opinion that, had that recognition occurred, it would not have averted the final catastrophe, ... and it would, at the same time, have necessarily involved this country in a war with the Northern states, _while there were circumstances then existing in Europe which made us believe that the war might not have been limited to America_.” I must now consider Fenianism. Every one now knows that Fenianism, at its inception in 1865, though its pretext was Ireland and its rallying centre America, was really an _international_ ruffianism for the disruption of the foundations of social order--was, in fact, an alliance of anarchists with soldiers of misfortune. Disraeli discerned this from the first. Plots and conspiracies of all kinds piqued at once his curiosity, his skill, and his fancy. I was told, more than thirty years ago, by an old gentleman who was a schoolfellow of Disraeli, that he remembered a boyish mutiny. Disraeli headed the conspiracy, and the head-master himself listened at the keyhole, spellbound by the eloquence that controlled it. He loved to unravel their machinations, to contrast their underground conclaves with their open appearance. Conspiracies abound in _Vivian Grey_, _Alroy_, _Iskander_, _Contarini Fleming_, _Sybil_, and _Tancred_; these very secret societies, together with those of Jesuitry, pervade _Lothair_. “Mirandola” and “Captain Bruges” are drawn from life. When Fenianism raged in Ireland, Disraeli himself crossed the Channel and attended their meetings. He spoke about what he knew; and if secret societies were his hobby, he was yet undoubtedly right in ascribing most of the unforeseen abroad to their initiation.