of hyperbolic compliment.  “To-day Lord Beaconsfield ought fitly, perhaps, to congratulate a powerful Sovereign on her imperial sway, the vastness of her Empire, and the success and strength of her fleets and armies.  But he cannot, his mind is in another mood.  He can only think of the strangeness of his destiny that it has come to pass that he should be the servant of one so great, and whose infinite kindness, the brightness of whose intelligence and the firmness of whose will, have enabled him to undertake labours to which he otherwise would be quite unequal, and supported him in all things by a condescending sympathy, which in the hour of difficulty alike charms and inspires.  Upon the Sovereign of many lands and many hearts may an omnipotent Providence shed every blessing that the wise can desire and the virtuous deserve!” In those expert hands the trowel seemed to assume the qualities of some lofty masonic symbol—­to be the ornate and glittering vehicle of verities unrealised by the profane.

Such tributes were delightful, but they remained in the nebulous region of words, and Disraeli had determined to give his blandishments a more significant solidity.  He deliberately encouraged those high views of her own position which had always been native to Victoria’s mind and had been reinforced by the principles of Albert and the doctrines of Stockmar.  He professed to a belief in a theory of the Constitution which gave the Sovereign a leading place in the councils of government; but his pronouncements upon the subject were indistinct; and when he emphatically declared that there ought to be “a real Throne,” it was probably with the mental addition that that throne would be a very unreal one indeed whose occupant was unamenable to his cajoleries.  But the vagueness of his language was in itself an added stimulant to Victoria.  Skilfully confusing the woman and the Queen, he threw, with a grandiose gesture, the government of England at her feet, as if in doing so he were performing an act of personal homage.  In his first audience after returning to power, he assured her that “whatever she wished should be done.”  When the intricate Public Worship Regulation Bill was being discussed by the Cabinet, he told the Faery that his “only object” was “to further your Majesty’s wishes in this matter.”  When he brought off his great coup over the Suez Canal, he used expressions which implied that the only gainer by the transaction was Victoria.  “It is just settled,” he wrote in triumph; “you have it, Madam...  Four millions sterling! and almost immediately.  There was only one firm that could do it—­Rothschilds.  They behaved admirably; advanced the money at a low rate, and the entire interest of the Khedive is now yours, Madam.”  Nor did he limit himself to highly-spiced insinuations.  Writing with all the authority of his office, he advised the Queen that she had the constitutional right to dismiss a Ministry which was supported by a large majority in the House of Commons, he even urged her