432 POLITICAL CAREER. 



upon to take his seat on the front Opposition bench. 

 It required some management to get him into that 

 position. Repeatedly he had told his followers that 

 they must not look to him as their head that he 

 would do what he could for a time, but it would 

 only be for a time. Apparently, however, Mr 

 Disraeli persuaded him to take the usual place 

 assigned to the Opposition leader. Throughout 

 that session he worked on with great steadfastness 

 and courage. As an orator he might never have 

 made a brilliant reputation ; but if no dazzling 

 flights of eloquence marked his brief career, he 

 greatly stirred curiosity, delivered many effective 

 speeches, and sometimes roused his supporters to 

 genuine enthusiasm." 



Perhaps the most remarkable letters of those 

 written by Lord George Bentinck to Mr Croker 

 are, first, the one bearing the date of " Welbeck, 

 27th September 1847," on the export and import 

 trade of this country ; secondly, that written two 

 days later, on the question of Jewish disabilities, 

 for the removal of which Lord George had always 

 voted ; thirdly, that from Welbeck on October 5, 

 1847, in which he dilated upon his own disquali- 

 fications for the post of leader of the Opposi- 

 tion ; and, fourthly, that from Harcourt House, 

 London, November 3, 1847, on the Bank Charter 

 Act of 1844. 



These four letters, showing, I venture to think, 



