Mr Disraeli to Queen Victoria

DEBATE ON THE ADDRESS

House of Commons [? 7th June 1859.]
(Tuesday, quarter-past eight o'clock.)

The Chancellor of the Exchequer with his humble duty to your Majesty.

Lord Hartington spoke like a gentleman; was badly seconded.

Chancellor of Exchequer rose immediately at six o'clock, and is just down. The House very full, and very enthusiastic.

The Chancellor of Exchequer presumes to say he thinks he satisfied his friends.

Footnote 45: Lord Hartington, afterwards eighth Duke of Devonshire, moved an Amendment to the Address, expressing a want of confidence in the Ministry.

Footnote 46: He flung his taunts right and left at the now united Opposition, and was especially bitter against Sir James Graham. Referring to the Liberal meeting on the 6th, Mr Disraeli reminded the House that Willis's Rooms had, as Almack's, formerly been maintained by fashionable patronesses. "The distinguished assemblies that met within those walls were controlled by a due admixture of dowagers and youthful beauties—young reputations and worn celebrities—and it was the object of all social ambition to enter there. Now Willis's Rooms are under the direction of patrons, and there are two of these patrons below the gangway" (indicating Lord John Russell and Mr Sidney Herbert). In regard to its Foreign Policy, he said the Government should not be condemned without direct documentary evidence. Lord Malmesbury has since deplored Mr Disraeli's neglect to produce the Blue Book with the correspondence relating to the affairs of Italy and Austria, and stated that, had he laid it on the table, the debate would have ended differently (Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, vol. ii. p. 188).