“... Now what was the consequence of that declaration? The present Government took an early opportunity soon after I had made that declaration, to express a contrary opinion. They said there was in Ireland an absence of crime and outrage, with a general sense of comfort and satisfaction.... I warned the constituencies that there was going on in Ireland a conspiracy which aimed at the disunion of the two countries, and probably at something more. I said that if they were not careful something might happen almost as bad as pestilence and famine.... My observations, of course, were treated with that ridicule which a successful election always secures....” We all know the rest. The country was only saved by a secession of the light and leading of the Liberal party from their rash and misguided leader. Wisdom has been justified of her child. In conclusion, let me say that none would have welcomed more gratefully than Disraeli the statesmanlike effort to settle the land question which has recently made England the landlord of Ireland. He might have descried in it elements of difficulty, and even of some danger for the future. But it would, in the main, I am confident, have received his unstinted support; for it is founded on the rock of conciliation--on Disraeli’s policy “_To create and not to destroy_.” CHAPTER VIII SOCIETY Macaulay observes of Frances Burney that “while still a girl she had laid up such a store of materials for fiction as few of those who mix much in the world are able to accumulate during a long life. She had watched and listened to people of every class, from princes and great officers of State, down to artists living in garrets and poets familiar with subterranean cook-shops. Hundreds of remarkable persons had passed in review before her--English, French, German, Italian, lords and fiddlers, deans of cathedrals and managers of theatres, travellers leading about newly caught savages, and singing women escorted by deputy husbands.”