.

GLADSTONE AND LORD BEACONSFIELD.
I Lord Palmerston's laugh--a queer metallic "Ha! ha! ha!" with reverberations in it from the days of Pitt and the Congress of Vienna--was heard no more in Piccadilly; Lord John Russell dwindled into senility; Lord Derby tottered from the stage.

A new scene opened; and new protagonists--Mr.Gladstone and Mr.Disraeli--struggled together in the limelight.

Victoria, from her post of vantage, watched these developments with that passionate and personal interest which she invariably imported into politics.

Her prepossessions were of an unexpected kind.