His first speech was generally regarded as a singular, even a ridiculous, failure. Those who depend for their impression on its words as they appear in Hansard or in Lord Beaconsfield’s selected speeches, will hardly perceive in its fanciful flights the reasons for the outbursts of laughter and jeers with which it was greeted and finally brought to an end. It must have been the gaudiness of the speaker’s dress, and the violent and theatrical manner of his speech, quite as much as the irrelevancy of what he said, that threw the House into roars of laughter, and led them to suppress the speaker altogether. He did not, however, take his seat without thundering out the prophecy—which appeared at the time quite as much like a threat—that the time would come when they would hear him. It was long before he secured the ear of the House. Between 1840 and 1845 he was largely occupied with literary works, and during that period he published “Coningsby,” “Sybil,” and “Tancred,” a trio of really remarkable political novels, designed to present a picture of the forces at work in the nation and of the way in which they should be dealt with by Parliament. The conversations of Sidonia in “Coningsby” give a clear and probably correct notion of Disraeli’s political opinions. He advanced with great emphasis the doctrine that the Tory party was the party of the people, and that the welfare of the lower classes was only to be secured by the prevalence of Tory principles. Holding these views he attached himself firmly to the party led by Sir Robert Peel; and it was not until 1846, when the leader announced his determination to bring in a bill for the modification of the Corn Laws, that Disraeli deserted him. The eccentric young member was an ardent Protectionist. In the course of the ten years that had elapsed since his first sad experience he had become a master of argumentative fence, and in the years that followed he developed such extraordinary abilities in his assaults upon the government that he was universally recognized as a consummate master of parliamentary invective and the most powerful orator of the Opposition. The repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 was followed by a succession of poor harvests and by great suffering. In a series of speeches extending over the years from 1846 to 1852, Disraeli, with a skill and an eloquence that raised him to the front rank of British orators, attributed this suffering to the financial and economic policy of the government. These repeated and well-directed blows finally broke the power of the ministry, and when, in 1852, the Liberals went out of office, the Tories came in with Lord Derby as Prime-Minister and Mr. Disraeli as Chancellor of the Exchequer.