30 MARCH 1974, Page 5

Disraeli and Oxford

Sir: I have just read with great interest Christine Pemberton's article on the Oxford Union in your issue of January 15. Unfortunately. however. she includes Disraeli in her list of politicians whom the Union fostered. She is quite mistaken; Disraeli never attended the University. For, as he wrote of himself in "Vivian Gray" in 1824:— "This stripling who was going to begin his education had all the experience of a mature mind — of an experienced man; was already a cunning judge of human hearts and felt conscious from experience that his was a tongue which was born to guide human beings. The thought of Oxford to such an individual was an insult."

Stephen Schick Stephen Schick

Basement Flat, 34 Tite Street, London SW3.