" His accession to the premiership
evoked fresh testimony to his popularity. Mr. Froude makes no
concealment of the attacks which were made upon him by open foes,
or the disguised contempt of members of the aristocracy whose
pride of birth had nevertheless allowed them to avail themselves
of his talent for leadership. "Yet," says the same biographer,
"when he went down to Parliament for the first time in his new
capacity, he was wildly cheered by the crowds in Palace Yard. The
shouts were echoed along Westminster Hall and through the
lobbies, and were taken up again warmly and heartily in the House
itself, which had been the scene of so many conflicts-the same
House in which he had been hooted down when he first arose to
speak."
When Gladstone's first administration (1868-74) had exhausted its
volcanic energies, Disraeli for a second time became the chief
minister of the Queen, this time not to finish out a weakened
term, but with a clear majority at his back, and with the
confidence of the Crown and the nation. Internal reforms had gone
far enough for the time, and foreign affairs for which Mr.
Gladstone had shown less aptitude needed attention from some one
who could reproduce the spirit of a Canning, a Palmerston, or a
John Bull.
The statesmen who had directed the affairs of the nation for the
past thirty years, had seen little to be thankful for in the
extensive colonial possessions of England.
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