Beaconsfield Author:George Makepeace Towle Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: the stepping-stone to fame and power. It rested now with him whether he should rise or fall forever out of the chances of politics. Meanwhile it is worth noti... more »ng that Queen Victoria and he who, of all living statesmen, is her favorite and enjoys her completest confidence, began their public career together. VIII. Diskaeli was in hot haste to display his eloquence in " the greatest debating society in the world." Lady Blcssington and his other friends encouraged him to look for a brilliant triumph. They were sure he would produce a great sensation, and that he would leap at a bound to a national reputation as an orator. He had not been in the House a year before he prepared to make his maiden speech, by which, he frankly let it be known, he expected to make a profound impression. It became the talk of the clubs, and the members of the House looked forward to the d'ebiit of one whom they were half amused and half shocked to find at their side with almost as much impatience as did he himself. When the debate on the Spottiswoode combination came up, Disraeli made this the pretext of his first harangue. " How the names of the parliamentary chiefs who took part in this discussion," says Mark Rochester, "recall to mind a legislative epoch long since faded out of the recollection of the generality ! Every name upon the list of the debaters of that evening is famous, historical—the name more or less of a celebrity. More than half the number—the elders among this group of actors—have long since been swept away into their graves. The rest, then inspirited by the earlier and halcyon visions of a youth kindling with ambition, still survive—one alone among them soured and disappointed, the others with many, at least, of their more golden hopes realized—statesmen at this moment ...« less