He forefathers had cherished. So he would | lights, and had rehearsed a career. was intoxicated with youth, with genius, Now, if we keep this key-note steadily before us, I do not think that we shall find much difficulty in disposing of most of the worst charges that have been brought against Mr. Disraeli. 2. But, if he naturally gravitated to the Tories, as the only possible party to which he could ally himself, it must have been clear from the first that any cordial alliance between Sir Robert Peel and this brilliant dreamer was out of the question. It has been said that he was willing enough to serve under Peel, which is probably true enough. He knew the conditions of public life in England, and would have worked with Peel as with others. But it would have been against the grain; for the antagonism between the two men was vital. Disraeli was, in certain moods, as much a Bohemian as 1. The youthful affinity with Radical- Heine; and Peel was a Philistine of the ism may, on one side, as he has pointed Philistines. The rupture between the out in the letter already quoted, be traced timid Harley and the daring Bolingbroke to his antipathy to the Whigs. To the was, in the nature of things, not more hard, dry, unimaginative Whigs he had inevitable. Sooner or later, it must have no doubt a mortal dislike. Their solemn been war to the knife. How was agreefumbling with difficult questions had the ment possible between the pure naked same effect on him that the "somject "intellectual force of Disraeli and the timid and "omject" of poor old Coleridge had on Carlyle. The Whig nobles were to his mind a modern edition of the Venetian oligarchy in its decline, and their conceptions of the scope of national life were as bare, meagre, and barren. Nor to youthful enthusiasm does the civitas Dei, which Radicalism seeks to reach, appear so hopelessly far away; it is later in life that we discover that the holy city is far less accessible than we had fancied. But it is pretty clear that the moment Disraeli found out what economical Radicalism meant, as embodied in the persons of Joseph Hume and his friends, he beat a speedy retreat from their camp. That, at all events, was hot Jerusalem. It is not at all surprising, indeed, looking to his early schooling, or lack of schooling, that his first essays in practical politics should have been somewhat erratic. He was hardly a child of our prosaic England, either by temperament or by training. The public school and the university knew him not. Sole sitting by the shores of old romance at Venice, at Damascus, on the plain of Troy, in the desert - he had worked out the puzzles of life according to his own empiricism of Sir Robert? And Disraeli had his special grievance - Sir Robert had infected the party which he led with his own timidity. That party, as we have seen, was identified with the high spirit and the masterful traditions of England; but, under the manipulation of Peel, it had come to be only a weak reflection of the faction which it opposed. It resisted change; but only in a deprecatory, halfhearted way. It could not deny that Catholic Emancipation, Reform, Irish Disestablishment, were all good things in their way -- though not to be had just yet, or until the pressure was a little more severe. It was thus a negation of policy "a sort of humdrum hocus-pocus in which the order of the day was moved to take in a nation." The merciless severity of the attack on Sir Robert has been often reprobated; but, after all, it proceeded on intellectual and not on personal lines. It was the intellectual poverty of the policy which roused his scorn. A statesman? - why, a statesman was a man who connected himself with some great idea, not a man who trimmed his course according to the weather. Such a man was as much a great statesman as the man who got up 66 behind a carriage was a great whip. In | more, had misread the lessons of history. all the dreary pages of Sir Robert's inter- Nations do not live on bread alone, and minable talk reported in "Hansard," there the politicians who proclaimed that matewas not a single happy expression, nor a rial prosperity was better worth living for single original thought-his whole life, than heroic ideas were sapping the springs indeed, had been one great appropriation of national greatness. "I see no reason clause. And now, he had found the why you, too, should not fade like the Whigs bathing, and had run away with Tyrian dye, and moulder like the Venetheir clothes! Then look at his Parlia- tian palaces." mentary tactics. Whenever he had a big 4. That Mr. Disraeli should, by the measure to introduce, he was sure to rest Reform Bill of 1867, have introduced it on the smallest precedents; he was household suffrage, is sometimes considalways tracing the steam-engine back to ered the crowning proof of his want of the tea-kettle; in fact, all his precedents principle. We have seen that there was were tea-kettle" precedents. Of course no particular reason why Reform should the charge of betraying his friends was be considered the exclusive preserve of urged more than once; but even Sir Rob- the Whigs. Nor was there any reason ert's warmest admirers could not deny why the Tory party in 1867 should have that he had deserted his party. Like the been anxious to abide by the tentative Turkish admiral, who after being em- settlement of 1832. That settlement had braced by the sultan and prayed for by given the government to their rivals; the muftis, he had steered his fleet during the thirty-five years that had straight into the enemy's port. The Turk- elapsed they had not been in office for ish admiral, to be sure, had been much seven. Many of the ablest of the party, misunderstood and misrepresented. He, too, had been called a traitor. But he vindicated his conduct. He said: "True it is, I did place myself at the head of this valiant armada -true that my sovereign embraced me, and that all the muftis in the kingdom prayed for the success of the expedition. But I had an objection to war; I saw no use in prolonging the struggle; and the only reason for my accepting the leadership was, that I might terminate the contest by betraying my master." This is pungent and incisive criticism no doubt; but does it exceed the license of fair Parliamentary invective? Sir Robert was wounded to the quick: he winced visibly under the attacks, and spoke of them "in moments too testy for so great a man to indulge in." But the scorn was perfectly genuine; the satire, though direct and cutting, was entirely impersonal; and the mute reproach of a party which felt that it had been betrayed was sure to find expression sooner or later. Si tu oblitus es, at Dii meminerunt, meminit Fides. But it was certainly unlucky for Sir Robert that the greatest master of irony in our tongue should have been in Parliament at the time. 3. What has been already said will explain the attitude of Mr. Disraeli to the doctrines of the Manchester economists. Free trade might or might not be in accordance with the immutable laws which govern the universe; but it was quite clear to his mind that a school which ostentatiously aspired to make England the market-place of the world, and nothing moreover, had objected to Reform, not But to Mr. Disraeli such a change was acceptable on other grounds. The stolid ten-pounder, in whom the franchise had been vested, was of all classes in the | parson in such communities was nothing country the least accessible to ideas. more than an Irish or English gentleman There might be danger in the "leap in better educated, less fanatical, more the dark; but, to leave the future of the liberal-handed than his neighbors; and country in the hands of men who present the "Protestant ascendancy" meant only (in Mr. Arnold's words) "a defective type the natural ascendancy of skill and enof religion, a narrow range of intellect ergy and intelligence over ignorance and and knowledge, a stunted sense of beauty, indolence and superstition—the inevitaand a low standard of manners," was cer- ble ascendancy of strong, sensible, Godtain death. If it be true that political fearing men. At the same time the Cathinstitutions rest on national character, an olic Church itself was another bulwark institution resting on a character like that against the anarchy of barbarism; and its was obviously in a very hopeless condi- ministers should have been attached to tion. It is possible that Mr. Disraeli, the State by the ties of interest and gratiwith his immense conviction of the im- tude. "So, also, I looked then, as I look portance of character to a nation, may now, to a reconciliation between the Tory have entertained an undue contempt for party and the Roman Catholic subjects the working machinery of the Constitu- of the queen. I have never relinquished tion. Political arrangements and con- my purpose, and have now, I hope, nearly trivances were valuable in his eyes only accomplished it." It is a thousand pities in so far as they enabled the classes that he failed. For the rest, he would which were most accessible to the idea have sent a "lord high deputy" across of national greatness to wield political the Channel with "full powers," and inpower. In this sense he was the most radical of our statesmen; a £10 franchise, a £5 franchise, household suffrage, manhood suffrage-what did it matter, so long as the end was attained? structions to give every man justice, and justice only, justice meted out with inexorable impartiality,-justice that cordially encouraged virtue, sobriety, industry, thrift, justice that sternly repressed mendacity, anarchy, self-indulgence. 6. The foreign policy of Lord Beaconsfield between 1876 and 1880 was, in point of fact, the realization on a great scale of all his previous teaching. England had been effaced in Continental Europe; she was again to speak with the voice of Chatham and of Pitt. The stimulating inspiration of imperial duties and imperial responsibilities was again to appeal to the conscience of the people. 5. It has been said, indeed, that his policy towards Ireland was exceptionally feeble and colorless. On the contrary, it seems to me to have been the only policy that of late years has had any chance of success. We have been governing Ireland for some time according to "Irish ideas," and we are beginning to reap what we have sown. A very plentiful harvest of "Irish ideas" is now in the market. But according to Mr. Disraeli's view, Ireland was an imperfectly That Mr. Disraeli was "un-English " civilized country, in which every germ was the monotonous refrain of Mr. Grantof civilization needed to be vigilantly Duff's vacation soliloquies. "Mr. Disguarded. "What always strikes me as a raeli is an Englishman because he will, general principle with regard to Ireland not because he must. His outer life is is, that you should create and not de-identified with ours, but his inner life stroy." The logic of Lord Macaulay on belongs to another race and to another the Irish Church question, for instance, history. All English politics are to him might be absolutely unanswerable; but only a game." But, seriously speaking, there were deeper issues involved than the kind of talk which makes Mr. Disraeli logic would solve. If we destroyed the a sort of Bedouin sheik who has just Irish Church, we destroyed an organiza- stepped out of the desert into our drawtion which not only restrained the fanati-ing-rooms, scarcely deserves the name of cism, but stimulated the culture, of an criticism. The critic who fancies that a imperfectly developed society. "Reli- man whose father and grandfather were gious equality" was a plausible, if ambiguous, watchword; but religious equality in Ireland meant religious intemperance, religious anarchy, religious riot. The Irish Church, from the peculiarities of its position, had become in many districts simply a lay institution devoted to charitable and unsectarian purposes. The English citizens cannot be an Englishman because he has a dash of alien blood in his veins, must know little of ethnology. It is possible, indeed, that such a man may not be so insular in his prejudices as a Cumberland squire. He is by race, perhaps, more a citizen of the world. But it is clear, looking to his whole career, that Mr. Disraeli was inspired throughout by | ple of our race, "where kings and poets a sense of the greatness of England; that lie," ought not to have been entertained. the spectacle of this famous, historical The nice susceptibilities of Mr. Labouworld-wide dominion fascinated his imag- chere and his friends below the gangway ination; and that, in his foreign as in his should have been consulted. Well, it domestic policy, he was animated by no does not much matter to us, or to — him. mean or unworthy ambition, but by the He has a more lasting monument in the profound conviction that he was adding heart of England; and the memory of a to her security and her renown. great career will outlive the bronze and marble of the Abbey. His voice is silent in your council-hall From Blackwood's Magazine. MATTIE: THE HISTORY OF AN EVENING. A DULL and tiresome October afternoon was passing away in what was too plainly a fit of the sulks, to admit of hopes being entertained, even by the most sanguine, that it would have any pleasant or inspiriting termination. The imperial and the parochial types of character have always been sharply opposed; and, in the mean time, the former is under a cloud. The policy of "brag and bluster" has been succeeded by one which is supposed to be better adapted to the necessities of commerce. Whether the one or the other will best secure the ultimate well-being of the empire is a question that need not now be discussed. The opinion of Europe, indeed, has been already expressed in no measured terms. "Brag and bluster!" said the Regierungsrath of Sauerkraut to me a year ago, as we were sailing up the Königsee: "Brag and bluster! And why not? What is the good of appealing to a polar bear in honeyed accents? Brag and bluster, indeed! Don't you see, mein guter Freund, that these were the only Wednesday is not the worst day in the arguments the barbarians could under- week for events to happen upon. There stand? If the clamor of vindictive phi- is no possible reason why a startling lanthropy had not drowned and discred- piece of news should not reach one's ear ited the plain speaking of your prime on a Wednesday - why a budget of interminister, the czar would have thought once, twice, and thrice before he started for Constantinople. To philander with philanthropy may be a cheap amusement in quiet times; but when a hundred thousand lives are sacrificed to its cultivation, it becomes a costly and poisonous luxury. The sinister forces with which he had to contend may have proved too strong for Lord Beaconsfield; foreign foes and domestic faction may have prevented him from doing all that he designed; but in a great world-crisis he bore himself steadfastly, patiently, strenuously, heroically; and he imparted his own spirit to England. And more than that, mein Herr, much more if your people had but known it, your patriot minister, in his struggle with the barbarian, had all free Europe at his back." So far the Regierungsrath of Sauerkraut; but the Regierungsrath is only a German Liberal, and not an English Radical. The British Radical knows better; his animosity to imperialism is unappeased and unappeasable; and even in the grave his victims are not safe. At all events, the proposal to erect a monument to Benjamin Disraeli in that historic tem unex esting letters should not arrive by the the mistress of Castle Cairntree, a lonely_mansion on the Scottish coast. Mrs. Boscawen was an invalid, who, whatever she might have been in the bloom of her youth and health, was, with shattered nerves and impaired temper, susceptive of every outward influence, more especially when it was of a depressing or irritating nature. On the day in question she was so much tormented by the ceaseless drone of the wind, varied as it was merely by the rattle of the passing showers which drifted from time to time overhead, that by five o'clock she was only anxious to get rid of the remaining daylight, and try what closed shutters, large fires and candles could do towards restoring the aspect of things around her to that comfort which aided so materially her own cheerfulness. certain anxiety and agitation which she was endeavoring otherwise to conceal. Fortunately for the attempt she was not exposed to the scrutiny of a keen observer, for if Mattie's face had declared what was passing in Mattie's bosom, it would have been a sad piece of work. Mrs. Boscawen would have jumped off her sofa in surprise and bewilderment, and the letter and all it contained But never mind, let us confine ourselves to what really did happen, and not fritter away our time in idle conjectures.. The notion of comfort was certainly | face, and who betrayed by the varying somewhat at variance with the outward color in her cheek and by the nervous appearance of the thin grey tower with its clasping and unclasping of her hands, a modern wings, which, according to the fashion of the district, was dignified by the appellation of "Castle." There was little of grandeur, still less of beauty, in | its appearance; the site was poor, the country around barren, in short the former laird, who had prided himself on the handsome manner in which he had restored and enlarged the old place, would have done his successors better service by razing it to the ground, and building another in its stead. Draughty, troublesome, ill-constructed, however, as the mansion was, it was endeared to its present owner by association and possession; and consequently, by the aid of thick curtains, double doors, carpets, and endurance, his wife contrived to exist, and even to be satisfied with her home. Her standing grievance - namely, her being unable to accompany her daughters into society did not perhaps embitter her existence as much as she would fain have had it supposed that it did. To lie on her sofa in the little sitting-room which was the one really luxurious apartment in the house, to keep herself warm in winter and cool in summer, to trifle with her needlework, and dabble amongst her correspondence, with intervals of desultory chit-chat as her husband and children went in and out of the chamber, was the sort of routine which, to confess the truth, suited Mrs. Boscawen to a hair's breadth; and it was scarcely more from necessity than from predilection that she had softly, and by gentle gradations, sunk into it. this But then it was necessary to the preservation of her spirits and general equanimity, that the machinery of the family and household should work smoothly, that perplexities should not be allowed to embarrass, or vexations to annoy, whilst, at the same time, agreeable interruptions were especially valued, as giving a fillip to the languid hours. Whether the letter which was put into her hand as daylight waned on the day whose length and dreariness she had repeatedly bemoaned, was to prove a source of pleasure or of trouble, remained to be seen; but at the moment of receiving it, the lady was certainly roused to curiosity. More than curiosity, more than mere ordinary interest, was visible on the countenance of the tall girl by her side, whose eyes by turns regarded the sheet and perused the expression on her mother's The weather having been so depressing, and the day monotonous to both mother and daughter, a little event out of the common, a trifling incident of this. kind, was exactly the right thing, coming at the right time, - and at the first brush the parent appeared to be the more eager of the two in discovering its nature; but no sooner had the contents of the note been mastered, and its object understood, than she relapsed into her usual state of nervous indecision and querulousness. "I wish Adelaide or Julia were here," she said. "So tiresome of them to be out just when they are wanted. I knew something would be sure to happen when they were out of the way. It always does." Her companion was silent. 66 Nearly five, mamma." They will surely be here soon. But what is to be said?" You see what your aunt wants you to go there with the rest to-night, and take Douglas's place at the dinner-table. I suppose you will have to go. You would like to go?" "Yes, mamma." |