It is, at all times, difficult to say within what limits the novelist is entitled to resort to portraiture in order to build up the fabric of his romance.  Intention of offence was vehemently denied by the D’Israeli family, which, as the correspondence shows, rushed with one accord to the defence of the future Lord Beaconsfield.  It was really a storm in a teacup, and but for the future eminence of one of the friends concerned would call for no remark.  Mr. Disraeli’s bitter disappointment at the failure of his great journalistic combination sharpened the keen edge of his wit and perhaps magnified the irksomeness of the restraint which his older fellow-adventurer tried to put on his “unrelenting excitement,” and it is possible that his feelings found vent in the novel which he then was composing.  It is pleasing to remark that at a later date his confidence and esteem for his father’s old friend returned to him, and that the incident ended in a way honourable to all concerned.—­T.M.

CHAPTER XXV

MR. LOCKHART AS EDITOR OF THE “QUARTERLY”—­HALLAM—­WORDSWORTH—­DEATH OF CONSTABLE

The appointment of a new editor naturally excited much interest among the contributors and supporters of the Quarterly Review.  Comments were made, and drew from Scott the following letter: 

Sir Walter Scott to John Murray.

ABBOTSFORD, November 17, 1825.

My Dear Sir,

I was much surprised to-day to learn from Lockhart by letter that some scruples were in circulation among some of the respectable among the supporters of the Quarterly Review concerning his capacity to undertake that highly responsible task.  In most cases I might not be considered as a disinterested witness on behalf of so near a connection, but in the present instance I have some claim to call myself so.  The plan (I need not remind you) of calling Lockhart to this distinguished situation, far from being favoured by me, or in any respect advanced or furthered by such interest as I might have urged, was not communicated to me until it was formed; and as it involved the removal of my daughter and of her husband, who has always loved and honoured me as a son, from their native country and from my vicinity, my private wish and that of all the members of my family was that such a change should not take place.  But the advantages proposed were so considerable, that it removed all title on my part to state my own strong desire that he should remain in Scotland.  Now I do assure you that if in these circumstances I had seen anything in Lockhart’s habits, cast of mind, or mode of thinking or composition which made him unfit for the duty he had to undertake, I should have been the last man in the world to permit, without the strongest expostulation not with him alone but with you, his exchanging an easy and increasing income in his own country and amongst his own friends for