Nothing particular was said by Mr. Disraeli at the banquet,
except that he had now led the Tory party for twenty-five years,—longer, he believed, than any other party leader in Parliamentary history,--and he declared that so far from there being any wish in the party to get rid of his leadership, whenever he had desired to relinquish it, the party had always insisted on his retaining the lead, "and the only difference to me has been that they were the more indulgent and the more kind." That is, of course, true, as Mr. Disraeli says so ; but it may be also quite true that a leadership which no one would wish him to surrender, since any other leader would be impos- sible in competition with him, is yet a misfortune for the party. The fact is, Mr. Disraeli is like that intellectual crane which used to lead the oxen on a certain German farm. He makes every allowance he can for the bovine nature, but he cannot under- stand it. A Conservative leader who has nothing bovine in him, cannot but be a misfortune of vivacity and fancifulness.
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