[19] In _The Press_ (1853-59)--which vies with Swift in the _Examiner_ and Bolingbroke in the _Craftsman_, and to which Lord Derby and Shirley Brooks also contributed--Disraeli finely characterises Chatham as “a forest oak in a suburban garden.” [20] Of this virtue, singled out with domestic purity by Gladstone for praise in Disraeli, the late Lady J. Manners wrote, “He feared nobody but God.” In my eighth chapter I shall quote Jowett’s verdict. [21] “The Later Years of Lord Beaconsfield,” by Janetta, Lady J. Manners, Blackwood, 1881. [22] In 1852 he sought and obtained a long interview with Feargus O’Connor, whose correspondence in the _Star_ he had utilised seven years before in _Sybil_. [23] “Thus, amid all the strange vicissitudes of life, we are ever, as it were, moving in a circle.” [24] In 1832. [25] His Edinburgh speech of 1867 and his Glasgow address of 1873--on “Representation” and “Equality” respectively rank among his best. [26] So also does another. Lady Beaconsfield, waiting up, as was her wont even in extreme age, for her husband’s return after a critical effort, entered the library in the small hours of the morning (and in _négligée_), and impetuously embraced what turned out to be Lord Cairns writing an important minute before Disraeli’s arrival. [27] When Lord Derby came in in 1852, “At last we have got a _status_,” he said; “I feel like a young girl going to her first ball.” [28] British Museum Add. MS. 34,645, f. 19. [29] In _The Press_ Disraeli illustrates this historical fact with infinite knowledge in a remarkable passage. [30] In 1850, 1852, 1855, and 1859. [31] Like most of the Peelites, Mr. Gladstone was not proof against a certain air of over-righteous condescension and patronage. Even in the ’sixties he notes in his diary that, meeting Disraeli at a time of trial, he extended his hand, which was “kindly accepted.” But he honestly admired his gifts, and in 1859 generously disdained to “bargain” him “out of the saddle.” [32] Not only convictions, but tactics also. Mr. Gladstone often blamed actions in others which he afterwards adopted; Disraeli never did. I subjoin a few instances. In 1852 he blamed Disraeli’s budget-proposal for repealing half the malt tax; he himself afterwards repealed the whole. In 1867 he blamed Disraeli’s first introduction of the Reform Act by resolutions; next year he did the same with his Irish Church Bill. In 1869 he severely blamed Disraeli for resigning without meeting Parliament; in 1874 he himself followed suit. [33] Some of the best in his earliest speeches are derived from “Don Quixote.” [34] Letters to the Whigs, _The Press_, May 7, 1853. [35] Letters to the Whigs, _The Press_, May 14, 1853.