LORD GEORGE BENTINCK
A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
By Benjamin Disraeli
‘He left us the legacy of heroes:
the memory of his great name
and the inspiration of his great example.’
Contents
TO
LORD HENRY BENTINCK,
IS INSCRIBED This Political Biography ONE FOR WHOM HE ENTERTAINED A DEEP AFFECTION, AND WHOSE TALENTS AND VIRTUES HE SHARES.
LORD GEORGE BENTINCK
A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
CHAPTER I.
The Man
THE political career of Lord George Bentinck was peculiar. He had, to use his own expression, ‘sate in eight Parliaments without having taken part in any great debate,’ when remarkable events suddenly impelled him to advance and occupy not only a considerable but a leading position in our public affairs. During three years, under circumstances of great difficulty, he displayed some of the highest qualities of political life: courage and a lofty spirit; a mastery of details which experience usually alone confers; a quick apprehension and a clear intelligence; indomitable firmness; promptness, punctuality, and perseverance which never failed; an energy seldom surpassed; and a capacity for labour which was perhaps never equalled. At the very moment when he had overcome many contrarieties and prejudices; when he had been most successful in the House of Commons, and, sustained only by his own resources, had considerably modified the legislation of the government which he opposed on a measure of paramount importance; when the nation, which had long watched him with interest, began to congratulate itself on the devotion of such a man to the