BULGARIAN ATROCITIES. 65 



leading Liberal Dissenter, who was Chairman of his 

 Committee. Sir Nathaniel remarked, in reference to 

 Lord Beaconsfield's Bulgarian speech, that it was but 

 seldom he made a mistake in public speaking, but that 

 in this instance he made a very great and important one. 

 On my asking what it was, he said, " I was not present ; 

 but I read the report of the speech in TJie Times the 

 next morning, in which he said, ' We are aware that on 

 this question we, the Ministry, are not in accord with 

 the views of the majority in the kingdom.' This was 

 a serious statement, and fraught with serious conse- 

 quences ; " to which Sir Nathaniel's great supporter 

 said, " Well, but it was quite true." " No," said Sir 

 Nathaniel, " it was not true ; it is only the voice of a 

 noisy minority, who chatter about the country without 

 contradiction, and make out that they are the spokes- 

 men for the nation. Now,'' he continued, " see the effect 

 of this statement : I happen to know that these w^ords 

 were brought to the attention of the Czar and his 

 ministers, and have encouraged him in his Eastern 

 policy, and proved a great trouble to the English 

 Ministry and. their Turkish allies." 



I hope my readers w^ill pardon this rather lengthy 

 account of Lord Beaconsfield's first public appearance 

 in the County after he had ceased to represent it in the 

 House of Commons, but it is my greatest pride that I 

 had the distinguished honour to have nominated him as 

 a candidate on the last two occasions on which he stood 

 for the County of Buckingham, and even the details of 

 Disraeli's career are to me, and I think to many besides 



myself, of peculiar charm and interest. 



F 



