Brooks [q. v.] But Disraeli himself continued to be the inspiring spirit of the paper down to 1858. He kept it constantly supplied with the best political information; and on Thursday aftemoons he might often be seen coming out of Mr. Coulton's house in Little Queen Anne Street with the stealthy step and furtive glance of one who is on secret service. But governments are not to be written down any more than individuals, except by themselves; and what neither the logic nor the satire of the 'Press' could perhaps have done for Lord Aberdeen, was done for him effectually by his 'good friend' the emperor of Russia.
During all the negotiations which preceded the Crimean war, and during the progress of the siege of Sebastopol, it has been allowed that the attitude of Disraeli as leader of the opposition was honourable and patriotic. He gave the government the support which it required, and it was not till after the fall of the coalition and the capture of Sebastopol that he again became a hostile censor. He was at this time smarting under a great disappointment. On the resignation of Lord Aberdeen, Lord Derby declined to take office without the assistance of Lord Palmerston or Mr. Gladstone, thereby casting a slur upon his own supporters which some of them felt very acutely. They had been turned out of office, as they thought, by an unscrupulous combination, after having administered public affairs with recognised efficiency. The country, thought Disraeli, was prepared to welcome them; and to the last hour of his life he deplored the timidity of Lord Derby which threw away the best chance he ever had. It was not, however, merely timidity which made Lord Derby pause. Lord Derby had a very strong sense of duty; and he probably thought that a government formed by Lord Palmerston and supported by the conservative opposition would be a stronger government than his own. Disraeli thought he was mistaken. Had Lord Derby taken office, he used to say, he would have had at his back little short of three hundred followers, which a dissolution of parliament would, it might reasonably be supposed, have converted into a majority of the house. The conservative party never had such a chance again for many years. They had outlived the taint of protection. A vigorous prosecution of the war and the negotiation of an honourable peace were the two objects on which the whole mind of the nation was concentrated. An appeal to the people to strengthen the hands of Lord Derby for these purposes would almost certainly have been successful. The Peelites were still hovering between liberalism and conservatism, with a decided bias towards the latter. In the 'Life of Bishop Wilberforce' may be found sufficient proof of this assertion. All that they wanted was some kind of guarantee that in joining Lord Derby they would not be on the losing side; and a general election in 1855 or 1856 would have afforded it. This was Disraeli's own view of the situation, and that the immediate result would have been what he foresaw may be regarded as certain. This was probably the greatest disappointment which Disraeli ever encountered. He was then just forty-five, and might have looked forward to a long career of usefulness and greatness. When next the conservatives appealed to the country, the reform question had become the question of the day; foreign affairs had gone against them; and when after the short-lived ministry of 1858 they returned to the opposition benches their prospects had never looked more hopeless.
In the meantime, however, important events had taken place—the Peace of Paris, the Chinese war, the Indian mutiny; while the Conspiracy to Murder Bill, the Government of India Bill, and the first conservative Reform Bill had greatly affected the position of parties in parliament. Disraeli's relations with his own party were not improved by the part which he took in some of these affairs. It was thought, for instance, by many conservatives that the support given to Mr. Milner Gibson's vote of censure on the government for upholding the action of Sir John Bowring in China was a great mistake; and it certainly turned out badly, for Lord Palmerston, appealing to the country on the ground that public servants must be supported, carried all before him, and came back with a triumphant majority. In the following year Disraeli, in the opinion of many persons, made a similar mistake in combining to attack the government on the Conspiracy to Murder Bill, which they had brought in without first sending a proper reply to the peremptory despatch written by Count Walewski. But this time the attack was at all events successful. The country had been justly irritated by the language of the French colonels, and Lord Palmerston's followers deserting him, he was defeated by a majority of nineteen, and at once resigned. Lord Derby formed a new government, and Disraeli was again chancellor of the exchequer and leader of the House of Commons.
The first thing which demanded the attention of the new government was the suppression of the Indian mutiny and the reconstruction of the Indian government, and on 26 March 1858 Disraeli introduced the India Bill (No. 1), which, however, never
