ENGLISH    SAGA
defence of established religion presented itself to Mr. Gladstone.
And it presented itself as a sacred duty and one which it was
impossible for him to refuse* It entailed the disestablishment of
the Irish Church. It did more: it justified it.
For in 1868, on the retirement of Lord Derby, Mr. Disraeli had
become Prime Minister. And if there was one thing more detest-
able to Mr. Gladstone than another, and more symptomatic of
the existence of evil, it was that this man should become Prime
Minister. For in Gladstone's eyes, his enigmatic rival was the
embodiment of everything that was sinister. He was flashy,
he was a Jew—not that Gladstone, the champion of tolerance,
had the least objection to a Jew in his proper place—he was
a writer of the lighter kind of fiction, he uttered cynical epigrams,
he wore diamonds on his person and was known to have had
recourse to moneylenders. All this might have been forgiven by
a broadminded Christian, but there was worse. For Mr, D'lsraeU
—and that was what his father's name had been—had been guilty
of the vilest political tergiversation. He was completely unscrupu-
lous. He had changed his opinions, and not like Mr. Gladstone for
the highest but for the basest motives. In order to advance himself
he had brazenly championed stupid and harmful causes: such, for
instance, as protection for which it was obviously impossible
for any intelligent man—and no one could deny Disraeli's intel-
ligence—to fed the least sympathy. And the fellow was diabolic-
ally clever. He had just, by a feat of cynical legerdermain unpar-
alleled in parliamentary history, carried, in the face of a superior
if divided opposition, a measure of electoral reform only slightly
dissimilar to that which Gladstone himself had-vainly endeav-
oured to carry when leading the Commons a few months before
and which nothing but evil mesmeric powers could possibly
have made acceptable to the stupid and reactionary Tories.
Like the good Sir Robert Ped whom he had cynically attacked
for doing so, Disraeli had caught the Liberals bathing and run
away with their dothes. And as a result he had established
himself in 10 Downing Street
There was only one course open for a good man who loved
the fair name of his country and its reputation for political
purity: to get the trickster out with the least possible delay.
Aad as God had given )Ar. Gladstone, in a humble way^ the
power of leadership, it was plainly Mr. Gladstone's business/ He
did not shirk it. Reform of the franchise—hitherto the Liberal