DISRAELI'S EARLY CAREER. 53 



was a strong Whig journal, for it shows how baseless is 

 the charge that at the outset of his career he came 

 forward as a Radical. In allusion to his defeat at High 

 Wycombe, this same paper says — " The die is cast. 

 The Bradenham braggart is rejected, and the electors 

 of Wycombe have to congratulate themselves on the 

 glorious termination of a glorious struggle, and the 

 Hon. Colonel Grey has been elected. It must be ad- 

 mitted that Mr. D' Israeli's manner is imposing, his 

 voice powerful, and his action extraordinary ; but tlie 

 electors of Wycombe rejoice that he has bade them 

 adieu — to him they say, 'Farewell for ever.'" 



Lord Beaconsfield — whilst Mr. Disraeli, as M.P. for 

 Bucks — was always particularly anxious to pose as the 

 British farmer, and phrases in many of his speeches 

 have become household words. In one of his after- 

 dinner speeches, at which I was present, he had a 

 chance to show off his agricultural knowledge, and in 

 speaking of the advantages of farmers breeding their 

 own stock, he told them, as a great piece of original 

 discovery in sheep-breeding, " that they should cross 

 their Downs with Cotswolds." As this had been the 

 practice for many years with nearly three-fourths of his 

 hearers, there was not much valuable information in the 

 advice ; but our facetious contemporary, Mr. Punch, 

 seized upon the phrase, and recommended him to cross 

 his party with a dash of his bitterest opponents. On 

 another occasion, in the autumn, which was the time 

 when the agricultural meetings were held, there had 

 been a great drought, and the farmers were bitterly 

 complaining about the shortness of food for their cattle; 



