DISRAELI AND GLADSTONE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—You must not be too hard on Mrs. Elizabeth Humfrey and her not yet wholly defunct class of scissors-and-paste people. Exempli gratia—one of them can quote you from his treasures the exact account of the Gladstone-Disraeli incident referred to by Lady Frederick Cavendish. The Times report of the debate (on Parliamentary Reform, about June, 1867) thus gives it :—
The Chancellor of the Exchequer cannot endure any portion of the amendments proposed by me. He says they will entail all those public calamities which have been so skilfully drawn in vague outline by the right hon. gentleman and his satellites. . . . (Here Mr. Gladstone stopped for a moment to examine some papers on the table, and resumed)—Where was I?'
"The Chancellor of the Exchequer : Satellites was the last word.' (Loud laughter.) "Mr. Gladstone : Oh, I have done with satellites for the present, and go back to my hon. friend the member for Oldham,' &c."
Whether " Dizzy's " interpellation was simply "altruistic" in motive, as Lady Frederick suggests, is perhaps doubtful. Why
the "loud laughter "P—I am, Sir, &c., E. M. OAKELEY. 14 Lathbury Road, Oxford.
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