The Lord Mayor's dinner was not very eventful. Lord Derby
was not there, and Mr. Disraeli professed to feel coy. Lord Derby, he said, would, if he had been present, have "taken stock" of the general condition of affairs, but he himself could not " pre- sume " to do so. He only ventured to make a few remarks on his own department,—finance. Last year the City was suffering from a terrible collapse of credit. It had not even now recovered. Mr. Disraeli quoted the saying that -" confidence is a plant of slow growth," and remarked, without explaining his distinction, that slow as is the growth of confidence, the growth of credit is slower still,—which appears to mean, slow as men are to trust
each other on all matters, still slower are they to trust each other on money matters. Notwithstanding this collapse of credit, our commerce had been "steady and uniform, rich and regular, like one of those trade winds with which it is connected." The Exchequer was, "without o'erflowing, full." The whole sky "was grey, and wanted sunshine, but there were no clouds of a menacing character." The armaments were chiefly due not to the inten- tion, but the fear, of aggression. Her Majesty's Government, "assisted and aided by a patriotic Parliament, had carried a measure" which removed a "chronic source of irritation and feebleness to the State," and would establish "concord between all classes." If so, we wish it would begin to do it at once. There never seemed less concord than there is just now. Mr. Disraeli's speech was a perfect study in unmeaning, well-sounding words.
