If Bentinck had been reared for office, if, as Wilberforce recommends, he had been harnessed early to official duty, and if he had been sent into Parliament a platitudinous thing, made up of statistics, red tape and priggishness, like Mr. Disraeli's Tadpole and Taper, we could well understand his strong mind breaking the thralls of official conventionality, and forcing him to become the man he was, armed at all points, ever ready for attack or defence; but he was not bred up to office, he never liked it, and even whilst acting as the secretary of his uncle, George Canning, he seldom worked heartily at his duties; when we remember this, it increases our admiration of his talent and energy. At forty-three years of age, he saw that the country was about being handed over, through Peel's treachery and cowardice, to the selfish crew of Manchester politicians; he saw the landed proprietors unguided and uncertain in their courses, and then it was, that tearing himself from the manly sports he loved so well, he came, with the honest truth of his nature, and gave up all the short future of his life, to the support of that cause which he considered the most advantageous to his country's interests. And what a true man he proved himself! Night after night he was at his post, laying bare all the destructive falsehood of the renegade Premier. What cared he that at each division Peel's apostacy was triumphant, what mattered it to him that stupid inanity raised a laugh at his expense, by repeating some absurdity from "Punch;" stoutly and boldly he fought the battle of right and justice, and for the purpose of showing his real merit and great service to a good cause, Mr. Disraeli has written this Biography. It proves him to have been a man above all fear and beyond all corruption, it proves that he was not one of those " whose patriotism has been only the coquetry of political prostitution, and whose profligacy has taught governments to adopt the old maxim of the slave market, that it is cheaper to buy than to breed, to import defenders from our Opposition than to rear them in a Ministry;" it proves him to have been that wondrous thing, a patriot whom patronage could not buy, and whom ministerial displeasure could not intimidate.

William George Frederick Scott Bentinck, third son of the fourth Duke of Portland, by Henrietta, daughter of MajorGeneral Scott of Balcomie, county of Fife, and sister to the late Viscountess Canning, widow of the illustrious George Canning, was born on the 27th of February, 1802. He was

educated at Eton and Oxford, and although a younger son, he was, owing to his mother's large fortune, in possession of very considerable property. He entered the army and attained the rank of Major. His military life was like that of other young men not on active service, and is remembered but by one incident, the melancholy quarrel with poor Kerr. The latter was captain of the company in which Bentinck was subaltern, and owing to some negligence, or fancied negligence, of duty on his part, Kerr, the regiment being on parade, accused Bentinck of want of respect unbecoming a subaltern, and of carelessness in the performance of his regimental duty. This charge, made on parade, was certainly very provoking, and at once Bentinck retorted, that, "Captain Kerr had used language on parade, which he would not repeat off it." Unfortunately Kerr was induced by his own feelings, and by the advice of friends, to send a challenge to Bentinck, and the message not receiving, through the interposition of friends, the slightest notice, Kerr "posted" Bentinck. This act, of a captain, towards his inferior in military rank, could not possibly be overlooked at the Horse Guards, and Kerr, to save himself from more serious consequences, was forced to retire from the service. It was a most unhappy affair; of the courage of the parties there could be, not even the shadow of a doubt, and the whole mischief was owing to injudicious advice, of well meaning, but most mistaken friends. Poor Kerr had the heart of a hero in a very little body; he possessed all the courage which should belong to a British soldier, and all the genuine pluck which of right should distinguish a Yorkshireman. He died, if we recollect rightly, in 1832, of the cholera in Paris.

Bentinck finding the military profession a very stupid or very irksome one in those days of peace, sold his commission, and became, somewhat unwillingly, the private secretary of his uncle Canning. Canning entertained a very high opinion of his talents, but Bentinck, soon growing weary of the office, resigned, and in the year 1826 he succeeded his brother, the Marquess of Tichfield, as member for Lynn Regis, which constituency he represented for upwards of 20 years. In the House of Commons he was for a very long period almost a silent member: he had, as he himself said, "sat in eight Parliaments without having taken part in any great debate."

But although inactive in the house, he was, out of it, the most active and energetic of men. He was not as yet the

earnest, honest public man, acting as if the stern motto of his family, "Craignez honte," were continually before his mind, and being imbued with that love of manly sports, which every true English gentleman should cherish, he devoted all the power of his mind to the exciting interests of the Turf. He found the whole racing world a vast scene of disgraceful and dishonest scheming, he discovered that the "Ring" at Newmarket was but a common Hell, and by fearless energy, by noble perseverance, he did all that man could hope for in reducing "leggism" to something like the rules of ordinary honesty. Who is there that has seen him at Doncaster or Newmarket, can forget the tall, noble looking man, dressed in the brownish-red, double-breasted coat, cream-coloured cravat, and buckskin breeches, with betting book in hand, offering wagers at the amount of which the "legs" trembled? The same unflinching determination to do right himself, and to see that others did so likewise, which afterward marked his conduct in Parliament, distinguished his course of life in the sporting world. He perceived that amongst other rogueries practised by the jockeys at the more important races, one consisted of making a false start, that is, of not starting with the other horses when the word to "go" was given; and as the started horses very frequently ran a quarter of a mile before they could be recalled, and as the horse, the cause of all the delay, was of course fresh, it gave him an unfair advantage. Lord George resolved to remedy this if possible. Up to the period in question, the horses had been placed in line as well as could be done, and were started by the word "go;" but Lord George's plan was, to post a man bearing a flag directly in front of the horses, and in sight of all the jockeys, who were to start on seeing the flag fall; and if they failed in this, they were forced to pay a rather heavy fine. Having manoeuvred the horses into line, he took his stand on their flank, and with a flag in his hand, this, unseen by the jockeys, he lowered, at which signal the flag-bearer in front dropped his, and at once the horses bounded forward. The first time this experiment was tried it succeeded fully, and as a slight mark of gratitude for his services in this, and other respects, to the sporting world, and as a return for much money lost in its service as a reformer of abuses, its members presented him with a testimonial amounting to several thousand guineas. Not one farthing of this money was ever used for his own enjoyment-he placed

the whole in the hands of trustees, to form a fund for the support of distressed jockeys and their families, and this gift is now known as "The Bentinck Fund." He loved sporting for its own sake. Even after he had began to take an interest in politics, before Peel's apostacy, he did not suffer his attendance in the house to interfere with his devotion to field sports. He kept a very large stud of hunters at Andover for the purpose of hunting with Assheton Smith's fox hounds. After the latest debates, he rose from bed at six o'clock, and met the seven o'clock train, and at the conclusion of the day's hunting, would reach London by the South Western Railway, and throwing a blouse over his red coat, would, still in breeches, top boots and spurs, reach the House and sit out the debate, if necessary, until morning.

His friendship was unchanging, no stain was upon his honour, his charity was great, and during our year of famine he contributed more than £1,000 for the relief of our poor people. All this was he in private life, noble and trueand not the least noble or the least true in this, that he was ever mindful,

"Sweet Mercy is nobility's true badge."

Such was the man whose "Political Biography" Mr. Disraeli has written, and in all honesty we may say, that it is, as the author calls it, "the portraiture of an English worthy." Some political biographers are but the literary hacks of a party, others are but the apologists for the errors or the vices of a patron; this, blinded by "the pomp that loves to varnish guilt," can see no evil in the ways of him who forms the subject of his book, that, overawed by the guiding spirit of his master, can observe no merit in the opposition, and can detect no fault in the faction of which he is the unblushing flunkey. To neither of these classes does Mr. Disraeli belong. When he writes of an opponent he writes fairly-when the opponent deserves praise, praise is given-when he merits reprobation, reprobation is boldly and fearlessly expressed; and in this book, as in the House of Commons, when Mr. Disraeli strikes, he strikes strongly and fiercely, his sole anxiety is, that the blow shall be a home blow. This "Biography" is not the history of a party, or as the "Times" newspaper misrepresents it, an "overgrown pamphlet." It is the record of a great struggle between the landed and the manufacturing interest of the

kingdom, it shows the errors, and the failures, and the successes of the Protectionists; it explains the sources of the triumphs, and the causes of the failures, and proves how, by the energy and the courage of one man, a noble stand was made against the insane policy of the Minister, and against the destructive principles of Cobden and the cotton spinners. It does more than this; it shows us how we may yet obtain some protection for the agriculturists, for the Irish farmers in particular; and above all it proves, that as the Free Trade imposition was obtained in a great measure through Peel's cowardice, and through the baseless assumption of foreign reciprocity, and as the former is now of no moment, and as all hope of the latter has been long since dissipated by the acts of the French and American people, and by the jeering comments of their press, we may at length teach the Manchester economists, whether, to borrow Cobden's words, "it is the country party or the people who live in towns, that will govern this country.

When the Minister in 1845 found himself pressed by the powerful agitation carried on for the repeal of the Corn Laws, and when, amid the conflicting opinions of his cabinet, Peel received little help, and less counsel, and he was not the man to act with spirit or independeuce when opposed by his colleagues, when after four years, four anxious years, spent in the support of Protectionist principles, he fancied himself unable to cope with the demi-Gods of the League, he resolved to sacrifice the interest of the agriculturists of the kingdom, in the hope that, by this apostacy from all his former professions of policy, he might secure to himself a lengthened possession of place and power. With the wondrous, the almost superhuman facility of turning all events, however unforeseen, to his own purposes, which so distinctly marked the whole course of Peel's life, he very dexterously assumed all the exaggerated statements of the failure of the potato crop in Ireland as truths, and made them the chief, and in fact the only reasons, for his intended change of opinion. It is quite true that in November 1845, there were very serious fears and most reasonable doubts entertained for the safety of the crop in this, as Mr. Disraeli calls it, "the native region of the potato." But it is equally true that these fears were proved to be in a great measure groundless, and a temporary suspension of the acts regulating the admission of foreign corn was proposed. Lord Stanley, then Secretary of State, opposed the plans of the Premier. He

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