Mr. Disraeli's reply to Mr. Grant Duff was of course
entirely beside the mark, and of course also caustic. He called Mr. Grant Duff's speech "the exhibition to which we have just listened," said the report of his criticism on the Liberal manage- ment of Foreign Affairs was "substantially correct," but dis- avowed any attack on Lord Clarendon, saying that Lord Clarendon had only been a few months in office when the Ministry broke up, (he had been nine months in the Foreign Office and in the Cabinet much longer), but that Lord Russell's management of Foreign Affairs had been unparalleled since " the accession of the House of Hanover," and had bequeathed to Lord Clarendon difficulties which he in his turn bequeathed to his successors. Mr. Gladstone, however, pointed out that on one recent occasion Mr. Disraeli had made a very bitter personal attack on Lord Clarendon—which makes it probable that Mr. Disraeli did intend not only the Liberal Ministry, but Lord Clarendon personally to feel the taunt flung at them at the Mer- chant Taylors' dinner. However, as Mr. Gladstone said, it is a sort of fling which has a knack of recoiling on the flinger. Mr. Dis- raeli's sarcasms are apt to prove boomerangs, and to enter into his own feet on their return.
