minds of England, he was associated with Cobden and Bright in the Manchester School. Again and again he found himself the mark of the bitterest criticism from Disraeli. Later Goldwin Smith, resigning his professorship at Oxford, came to Canada. At that time Disraeli's novel, "Lothair," appeared in which he attacked Smith—of course, without using his name—as a social parasite. It stung Smith to the depths of his soul, but as it was an anonymous book there was nothing he could do but sit down and write this note personally to Disraeli:
"You well know that if you had ventured openly to
accuse me of any social baseness, you would have had to
answer for your words; but when sheltering yourself under
the literary forms of a work of fiction, you seek to traduce
with impunity the social character of a political opponent,
your expressions can touch no man's honour—they are the
stingless insults of a coward."
That was all he did. And yet, at that very
moment, Goldwin Smith had in his possession
letters of Disraeli, with which he could have
crushed him. Openly in Parliament Disraeli
had said that he had never asked Peel for any
position. But among Peel's papers which had
been placed in his hands Smith had a letter in
which Disraeli had abjectly begged Peel to give
him office. All that Smith needed to do was to
publish Disraeli's own letter to Peel and it would
