A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator,' 29 February 1868—Lord Derby resigned on Monday. . .. Mr. Disraeli thus attains the object towards which he has been work- ing for thirty-one long years. It is, we believe, thirty- four since he informed Lord Melbourne that he intended to be Prime Minister of England, and thirty since he sat down amid the sneers of the House of Commons with the remark that the time would come when they should hear him. Almost his first act on receipt of Her Majesty's instructions to form a Cabinet was to send Lord Chelmsford— whom, it is said, he has never forgiven for his opposition to the Jewish Emancipation Bill—a curt intimation that his name would not be included in the Ministry, and his next to offer the Woolsack to Lord Cairns, who has accepted it, let us hope not as a determined Orangeman. Mr. Disraeli appears at first to have intended to keep the Chan- cellorship of the Exchequer, but subsequently abandoned the idea, and offered either that post or the India House to Lord Cranborne.
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