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CHAPTER XIX. 



POLITICAL CAREER OF LORD GEORGE BENTINCK. 



ALTHOUGH it was my original intention to confine 

 myself in these pages solely to the " Racing Life 

 of Lord George Bentinck," I cannot, with justice to 

 him or to myself, omit to point out that his politi- 

 cal career was very closely associated with, and in 

 some sense sprang out of, his love for the Turf. 

 There can be little doubt that he was warmly 

 encouraged by his intimate friend, the Right 

 Honourable Benjamin Disraeli, to take a more 

 active part in politics than he had ever attempted 

 between 1826, when he first entered the House of 

 Commons, and 1846, when Sir Robert Peel, then 

 the acknowledged head of the Conservative party, 

 rent it in twain by abolishing the import duty upon 

 foreign corn. It is evident, from Lord George's 

 letter to Mr Croker, from which I have already 

 quoted, that he would never have given himself up 

 body and soul to politics if it had not been his rooted 

 and conscientious conviction that the Conservative 



