front bench, and in 1862, when an opportunity occurred of defeating the government, on Lord Palmerston declaring that he would make it a cabinet question, Mr. Walpole, who had charge of the hostile resolution, positively refused to go on with it. Disraeli's imperturbability under every kind of attack or disappointment has often been remarked; but it was sometimes more apparent than real. And men who sat exactly opposite to him at this period of his life used to say that they could tell when he was moved by the darkening of his whole face. Not a muscle moved; but gradually his pale complexion assumed a swarthier hue, and it was plain that he was struggling with emotions which he was anxious to avoid betraying. At this particular stage of his career he had perhaps some reason for despondency. He had begun well. He had completely lived down the ill effects of his first appearance and his early eccentricities. He had reconstructed the conservative party, and made it once more as powerful an opposition as it had been under Sir Robert Peel. Down to 1855 all had gone on favourably, but since that time his fortune seemed to have deserted him. The party for which he had done so much were insubordinate and suspicious, and talked of finding another leader. This was eminently unjust to Disraeli, since it was impossible in those days to make head against the popularity of Lord Palmerston, and no other leader whom the party could have chosen was likely to have shown more courage and confidence in adversity. But there is no doubt that this feeling of dissatisfaction prevailed widely in the conservative ranks, and that Disraeli at times felt it deeply.
It was at this very time, however, that he made some of his best speeches. Two of them, delivered on 24 Feb. 1860 and 7 April 1862 respectively, contain a criticism of Mr. Gladstone's financial system, on which the last word has not yet been spoken, and are well worth studying at the present day; while his annual surveys of Lord John Russell's foreign policy are among the ablest, as well as the most humorous, speeches which he ever made. Lord Palmerston, however, was 'in for his life;' his personal influence was unrivalled, and, fortified by Mr. Gladstone's budgets, his position was impregnable. The opposition was condemned to the dreary occupation of waiting for dead men's shoes. And no wonder they grew restless and dissatisfied. The general election of 1865 did nothing to improve their temper. They lost some twenty seats, and had Lord Palmerston been a younger man they would have had another six or seven years of the cold shade to look forward to.
The prime minister, however, died in October 1865, and a new chapter in the life of Disraeli was opened. Lord Palmerston was succeeded by Earl Russell, Mr. Gladstone leading the House of Commons. A reform bill was introduced by the government, divided into two parts, and the house was invited to consent to the extension of the franchise before it was made acquainted with the scheme for the distribution of seats. In opposition to this proposal a considerable section of the liberal party made common cause with the conservatives, and acquired thereby the title of 'the Cave' bestowed on them by Mr. Bright. The government were compelled to bring in an entire measure, but this did not save them from ultimate discomfiture. They fixed the borough occupation franchise at 7l., and the question arose whether it should be a rental or a rating franchise; that is to say, whether the 7l. should be what the tenant actually paid to his landlord, or what he was assessed at to the poor rate. If he was assessed at 7l., his actual rent would be a trifle higher. The government adopted the former of these two views, Disraeli and his new allies the latter, and the result was that, on a resolution moved by Lord Dunkellin, the ministers were defeated by a majority of eleven, and Lord Russell immediately resigned. It was not to the amount of the qualification that Disraeli objected so much as to the inferiority of a rental to a rating franchise, and his reasons for thinking so, for 'making the rate-book the register,' were explained by himself, even in 1859, when he thought the practical difliculties in the way of it were too great to be overcome. It is important to remember this, because of the discussions that ensued in the following year when he brought in his own Reform bill, and endeavoured to base the franchise on the personal payment of rates. This was the old constitutional qualification; the ratepayer was simply the old scot-and-lot voter, and though the franchise might be limited to men who paid a certain amount of rates, it should be the payment of rates and not the payment of rent which entitled him to a vote. This was the position contended for by Lord Dunkellin, Sir Hugh Cairns, and other speakers; and it is an entire mistake to suppose that the objection to the government proposal was that a 7l. qualification was too low. Lord Dunkellin was in favour of a lower one, and it was admitted by the whole opposition that this was a question of detail. The principle at issue was that the right to the franchise should rest on the contribution to the poor rate. Thus when in the following year Disraeli proposed to give the franchise to all
