HIS OPINION OF MR DISRAELl's ABILITIES. 429 



disappointed with Sir Robert Peel and Lord John 

 Russell, and concluded by saying that Disraeli is 

 the only man he had heard who at all came up to 

 his ideas of an orator. 



" Disraeli's speeches this session have been first- 

 rate. His last speech, altogether burked in the 

 ' Times,' but pretty well given in the ( Post,' was 

 admirable. He cuts Cobden to ribbons ; and Cob- 

 den writhes and quails under him just as Peel did 

 in 1846. And mark my words spite of Lord 

 Stanley, Major Beresford, Mr Phillips, and the 

 1 Herald,' it will end before two sessions are out in 

 Disraeli being the chosen leader of the party, but 

 not, I think, under Lord Stanley's banner, whether 

 the latter turns his coat on the Jew Bill or not. 

 Always most sincerely yours, G. BENTINCK." 



This was the last letter, so far as I know, that 

 Lord George ever wrote to Mr Croker, and to the 

 latter it must have been gall and wormwood, as 

 Mr Croker's detestation of Mr Disraeli, who had 

 ridiculed him in conversation and caricatured him 

 in his novel of ' Coningsby ' under the name of 

 "Mr Rigby," was well known. Referring to this 

 letter, the editor of Mr Croker's ' Correspondence 

 and Diaries' remarks that it was written in the 

 midst of a great pressure of business, as, in addition 

 to his usual parliamentary duties, Lord George 

 Bentinck was serving on two important committees 

 first, on .that to inquire into the state of the 



