'I made my maiden speech last night,' he tells his sister, 'rising very late after O'Connell, but at the request of my party and with the full sanction of Sir Robert Peel. I state at once that my _début_ was a failure--not by my breaking down or incompetency on my part, but from the physical power of my adversaries. It was like my first _début_ at Aylesbury, and perhaps in that sense may be auspicious of ultimate triumph in the same scene. I fought through all with undaunted pluck and unruffled temper, made occasionally good isolated hits when there was silence, and finished with spirit when I found a formal display was ineffectual. My party backed me well, and no one with more zeal and kindness than Peel, cheering me repeatedly, which is not his custom. The uproar was all organised by the Rads and the Repealers. In the lobby, at the division, Chandos, who was not near me in speaking, came up and congratulated me. I replied I thought there was no cause for congratulation, and muttered "Failure." "No such thing," said Chandos; "you are quite wrong. I have just seen Peel, and I said to him, 'Now tell me exactly what you think of Disraeli.' Peel replied, 'Some of my party were disappointed and talk of failure; I say just the reverse. He did all that he could under the circumstances; I say anything but failure: he must make his way.'" The Attorney-General (Campbell), to whom I never spoke in my life, came up to me in the lobby and spoke to me with great cordiality. He said, "Now, Mr. Disraeli, could you just tell me how you finished one sentence in your speech? We are anxious to know. 'In one hand the keys of St. Peter and in the other ----'" "In the other the cap of Liberty, Sir John." He smiled and said, "A good picture." I replied, "But your friends would not allow me to finish my picture." "I assure you," he said, "there was the liveliest desire to hear you from us. It was a party at the bar, over whom we have no control; but you have nothing to be afraid of." Now I have told you all.--Yours, D., in very good spirits.' Disraeli's collapse was the next day's delight at the clubs. Shiel, though an Irish leader, declined to join in it. 'I have heard what you say,' he answered to the wits who appealed to him, 'and what is more, I heard this same speech of Mr. Disraeli; and I tell you this: If ever the spirit of oratory was in a man it is that man. Nothing can prevent him from being one of the first speakers of the House of Commons.'