seem an affliction to
ordinary men. Indeed, the desire to sit on one of the front benches may
be regarded as the root of all evil in Parliamentary nature--the desire
to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge which is as fatal to nature
born without original political sin as that disastrous episode in the
annals of our first parents.

[Sidenote: A recollection of Disraeli.]

One of the most curious episodes in the career of Disraeli was that he
insisted on sitting on the front Opposition bench before he had ever
held office--an act of unprecedented and unjustifiable daring which
throws a significant light on that habit of self-assertion to which he
owed a good deal of his success in life. For what a seat on the front
Opposition bench means is, that the holder thereof has once held office
in an administration, and so is justified for the remainder of his days
in regarding himself as above the common herd. But Jimmy isn't as
ordinary men. A place on the front Opposition bench, with all its
advantages, has the countervailing disadvantages of binding to a certain
decency and decorum of behaviour, and nothing could be more galling to
the free and full soul of the distinguished steward of the Jockey Club.
It is said that in the same way his colleagues on the front Opposition
bench would prefer Jimmy's room to his company. In Parliamentary
politics, as in diplomacy, there is such a thing as having an agent whom
you can profit by, and at the same time disavow--just as it may suit
you. That is one of the many guileful methods of these crafty men who
sit on front benches on both sides of the House. Obstruction is a thing
too horrible to be practised by any man who has ever held responsible
position, and it is delightful to see how Mr. Balfour repudiates the
very idea of anything of the kind. It would, therefore, have suited Mr.
Balfour a good deal better if Jimmy could have obstructed from some
quarter of the House where his closeness of association would not so
largely commit his more responsible colleagues to participation in his
iniquities. However, it was not to be managed; and the leaders of the
Opposition are bound to put up with the closeness of Jimmy's
companionship.

[Sidenote: Mr. Lowther's intellect.]

Again I repeat, obstruction is a matter not of intellect, but
temperament. Intellectually, I should put Jimmy in a very low place,
even in the ranks of the stupid party. Temperamentally he stands very
high. A brie