Note 129 — Chapter XXI · THE REIGN OF JINGOISM.

Mr. Charles Greville dwells on one of these ebullitions of patrician rowdyism with much anger. (See Memoirs, Part III.). At the same time, it is but fair to say that the Peelites had given the Tories just provocation. Lord Aberdeen had led the Tory leaders to believe that, whenever they abandoned Protection, they (the Peelites) would return to the Tory fold, and reunite the Conservative Party. Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli did abandon Protection, incurring great obloquy from their followers. But the Peelites declined to fulfil their part of the implied bargain, and, having got all they wanted out of the Protectionists—a recantation of their principles—not only refused to join them, but attacked them with the Whigs. Mr. Gladstone was supposed to have inspired what Lord Hardwicke, in a letter to Mr. Croker, denounced as a “disgraceful” manœuvre due to “personal pique and hatred.”—See Croker Papers; also an article in the Observer, Feb. 13, 1887, p. 3.