now dying away.  Very few at present know that you were in any way concerned about it.  To you, therefore, all that results will be new matter for the public discussion and censure.  And, after reading Benjamin’s agreement of the 3rd August, 1825, and your letters to Murray on him and the business, of the 27th September, the 29th September, and the 9th October, my sincere opinion is that you cannot, with a due regard to your own reputation, write or publish anything about it.  I send you hastily my immediate thoughts, that he whom I have always respected may not, by publishing what will be immediately contradicted, diminish or destroy in others that respect which at present he possesses, and which I hope he will continue to enjoy.”

Mr. D’Israeli did not write his proposed pamphlet.  What Mr. Murray thought of his intention may be inferred from the following extract from his letter to Mr. Sharon Turner: 

John Murray to Mr. Sharon Turner.

October 16, 1826.

“Mr. D’Israeli is totally wrong in supposing that my indignation against his son arises in the smallest degree from the sum which I have lost by yielding to that son’s unrelenting excitement and importunity; this loss, whilst it was in weekly operation, may be supposed, and naturally enough, to have been sufficiently painful, [Footnote:  See note at the end of the chapter.] but now that it has ceased, I solemnly declare that I neither care nor think about it, more than one does of the long-suffered agonies of an aching tooth the day after we have summoned resolution enough to have it extracted.  On the contrary, I am disposed to consider this apparent misfortune as one of that chastening class which, if suffered wisely, may be productive of greater good, and I feel confidently that, as it has re-kindled my ancient ardour in business, a very few months will enable me to replace this temporary loss, and make me infinitely the gainer, if I profit by the prudential lesson which this whole affair is calculated to teach....  From me his son had received nothing but the most unbounded confidence and parental attachment; my fault was in having loved, not wisely, but too well.”

To conclude the story, as far as Mr. Disraeli was concerned, we may print here a letter written some time later.  Mr. Powles had availed himself of Disraeli’s literary skill to recommend his mining speculations to the public.  In March 1825, Mr. Murray had published, on commission, “American Mining Companies,” and the same year “Present State of Mexico,” and “Lawyers and Legislators,” all of them written by, or under the superintendence of, Mr. Disraeli.  Mr. Powles, however, again proved faithless, and although the money for the printing had been due for some time, he paid nothing; and at length Mr. Disraeli addressed Mr. Murray in the following letter: 

Mr. Benjamin Disraeli to John Murray.

6 BLOOMSBURY SQUARE, March 19, 1827.