The Runnymede Letters Author:Benjamin Disraeli General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1885 Original Publisher: R. Bentley Subjects: Great Britain History / Europe / Great Britain Political Science / General Political Science / Government / Legislative Branch Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there m... more »ay be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: LETTER II. SIR JOHN CAMPBELL January 19, 1836 LETTER II. [' Plain John Campbell' is perhaps the pleasantest figure in the crowd of mediocrities who came to the front after the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832. He was a Scotchman of the best type -- shrewd, conscientious, and of unflagging industry. So much did this last quality impress his contemporaries that it is told of two of the most distinguished of them that meeting in Court on the day of his euthanasia -- for surely no man ever had a happier ending to his life-one said to the other, ' So poor Campbell's gone! Well, we shall meet him at the Day of Judgment.' ' Yes,' replied the other, ' and you may take your affidavit that he will be offering to assist the business of the Court by taking the short causes.' In the cataclysm of 1835 he gave great offence by accepting the post of Attorney-General, which he probably did because, with the proverbial shrewdness of his nation, he foresaw the speedy downfall of Lord Melbourne's second administration, and did not care to relinquish a very lucrative practice at the bar for the barren honour of a chancellorship which might be brought to an end at any moment and leave him stranded in the Upper House with a pension, it is true, but without any chance of that work which we may fairly believe was dearer to him than its pecuniary rewards. He had held the post of Attorney-General in the first Melbourne administration, with a somewhat inex...« less