“Even his supporters appeared astounded by this declaration.
“‘How do you know?’ shouted an elector.
“‘I have read it,’ replied Mr. Disraeli.
“‘Oh, oh!’ exclaimed the elector.
“‘I know it,’ retorted Disraeli, ‘because I have read, and you’ (looking daggers at his questioner) ‘have not.’
“This was considered a very happy rejoinder by the friends of the candidate, and was loudly cheered by the Blues.
“‘Didn’t you write a novel?’ again asked the importunate elector, not very much frightened even by Mr. Disraeli’s oratorical thunder and the sardonical expression on his face.
“‘I have certainly written a novel,’ Mr. Disraeli replied; ‘but I hope there is no disgrace in being connected with literature.’
“‘You are a curiosity of literature, you are,’ said the humorous elector.
“‘I hope,’ said Mr. Disraeli, with great indignation, ‘there is no disgrace in having written that which has been read by hundreds of thousands of my fellow-countrymen, and which has been translated into every European language. I trust that one who is an author by the gift of nature may be as good a man as one who is Master of the Mint by the gift of Lord Melbourne.’ Great applause then burst forth from the Blues. Mr. Disraeli continued, ‘I am not, however, the puppet of the Duke of Buckingham, as one newspaper has described me; while a fellow laborer in the same vineyard designated me the next morning, “the Marleybone Radical.” If there is anything on which I figure myself it is my consistency.’