Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/76

 hooting and roars of laughter with which Mr. Disraeli's first attempts at parliamentary oratory were received disheartened him to such a degree that he would have abandoned the attempt to speak in the House, had he not been dissuaded from such a course by a member of the House of some parliamentary experience. The individual alluded to, who related the circumstance to a friend of mine, said that one day he met Mr. Disraeli in the city accompanied by a lady, his wife, to whom he said: "Allow me to introduce you to this gentleman to whose advice I am indebted for my parliamentary career, since, but for his advice that I should not be disheartened, I should have abandoned the attempt of being a speaker in Parliament."

General Thompson seemed to have been much interested by his journey to Scotland as one of the Free Trade delegates. He often referred to it, and was fond of relating little anecdotes connected with it; or I should rather say relating some of the observations he had made in the course of his journey. It might be inferred too from some of the slight incidents he mentioned that in his addresses to the citizens of the Scotch towns with their Provosts and Bailies, he evinced a degree of