The mere division of the House between Free-traders and Protectionists had already ceased; there were breakers ahead, and it was not difficult from this night to perceive that the course of the government would not be so summary as they had once expected.
From his political biography of Lord George Bentinck, Disraeli describes the shifting political landscape in Parliament regarding trade and government policy.
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They baffle the forethought of statesmen, and control even the apparently inflexible laws of national development and decay.
All the fruits of his laborious investigations were always at the service of his friends without reserve or self-consideration.
But it was in the dark-brown eye, which flashed with piercing scrutiny, that all the character of the man came forth: a brilliant glance, not soft, but ardent, acute, imperious, incapable of deception or of being deceived.
Lord George Bentinck lived to have the West-India interest and the shipping interest on their knees to him, to defend their perilled or to restore their ruined fortunes; and with characteristic generosity and proud consistency, he…
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