PRIME MINISTERS AND THEIR RACE-HORSES 



than a race across the Flat. Disraeli deplored 

 his Chief's indifference. In a letter to a corres- 

 pondent, he wrote of him as " a confederate always 

 at Newmarket and Doncaster when Europe — nay 

 the world — is in the throes of immense changes, 

 and all the elements of power at home in a state 

 of dissolution." ^ On occasions, nevertheless, Derby 

 fiercely arraigned the foreign policy of Palmerston, 

 alleging, in the language of his taste, that he liked 

 " to give the Lords a gallop when they had been 

 on the easy list for some time." Whether in office 

 or in Opposition, Derby rarely allowed public 

 business to interfere with the claims of the race- 

 course. In the Session of 1854 it became necessary 

 to pass the Universities Bill through the Upper 

 House in one night because the Chancellor of 

 Oxford University was engaged to attend the races 

 at Liverpool. 



Derby was at Newmarket at the date of the 

 Vienna Conference. The famous four points had 

 been rejected by Russia. On his return to London, 

 Malmesbury met him in much agitation and told 

 him that the British proposals had failed. " What 

 proposals ? " said Derby. On the occasion of the 

 great debate on the seizure of the Arrow by the 

 Chinese and the bombardment of Canton, which 

 led to the defeat of Lord Palmerston's Government, 

 Derby made one of his finest speeches, showing 

 himself master of a complicated subject and speak- 

 ing with an air of complete absorption in the 

 issue involved. The debate over, he stroUed out 

 of the House of Lords arm-in-arm with a friend, 

 and was overheard in earnest conversation on the 



' Life of Disraeli, Buckle, vol. iii. p. 547. 



33 c 



