This very broad hit at the House of Lords and
hint at the future,—which, on the high conventional theory of life, teems to us much more questionable than the more famous ." indiscretion" of Mr. Bright,—elicited from Mr. Disraeli, who was called upon to answer for "the Honorary Brethren," a very decorous and almost demure rebuke which was not worthy of his 'usual caustic readiness. Indeed it came to very little more than the "I'm really very much shocked, my dears," of the conven- tional mamma when her girls play the hoyden. He spoke of the anxieties which the Chancellor of the Exchequer had, "with so much tact and taste, recalled to our recollection," and said he thought the Deputy Master would feel sure that in the transac- tions of public life, "there is no wise rule that it is more sedulously our duty to obey than this,—that it is unwise to introduce difficult tubjects on which men may differ when it is not necessary to obtrude them on public notice." Highly decorous, but for Mr. Disraeli a little dull. When he respectfully hoped at the Lord Mayor's dinner last November that the Lord Mayor would be thrown out for Lambeth, he himself was hardly so staid as he is now. This time it is Mr. Lowe's turn to be skittish -and his to be prim. However, we really regret to see Mr. Disraeli losing heart. It will be a fatal sign for him if he ever falls off in his ancient skill in the use of the goad to political competitors.
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