The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-07 00:00:00

JANUARY 7, 1854. Sittraturt, The Right Honourable Benjamin Disraeli. A Literary and Political Biography; addressed to the New Generation. 1 vol., Bvo., price 16s. London : Bentley. - - - A BIOGRAPHY of a man in the prime of life, extending to nearly seven hundred pages, and sold for no less a sum than sixteen shil lings, would argue that its subject was a very remarkable person. If a panegyric, he must have many friends ; if an attack, he must clearly be a formidable opponent. If we could suppose " the intelligent foreigner," so often quoted of late, to be quite ignorant of our world, we might fancy him, under the circum stances, exclaiming, " Who is this Benjamin Disraeli, whose deeds, while yet living, can fill so bulky a tome, and whose name is the text of so many articles in newspapers and reviews ?" It might be replied, in the first instance, that Mr. Disraeli is an individual who, sixteen or seventeen years ago, a trial of what is in a man, entered the House of Commons, unknown, we believe, to any in dividual in it, the humblest member of the Conservative party ; that he is now the leader of the Conservative party in that assembly , that ho has even been, for a time, leader of the House of Commons itself, and conducted its proceedings with dignity, temper, and general approbation. It might be added that, during the whole of this period, it has never been pretended that he ever forfeited a pledge or ever deserted his party, while, during the same interval, there is not one of his rivals who has not changed both his politics and his connections. But then it is urged by his assailants that there is a preceding period of his life when his conduct was not so staid, consistent, and methodical, but much the reverse. This period would extend, so far as we can collect, from his twentieth to approaching his thirtieth year. The researches of his assailants have made us all familiar with incidents which in any other man's life would have been for gotten, or have never emerged from their ob scurity. Everything in this man's life is ferreted up and mapped out. Who is not ac quainted with the newspapers, the novels, the wanderings of his youth ; of his fierce struggle to emerge from the crowd ; of his sharp corre spondence and his ready controversy ; of his fantastic politics and party schemes ; of his feud with O'Connell and his feud with the Whigs ; of his superfluous energy to get into Parliament, when, probably, had lie known a single human being, he might have entered it without difficulty, and been thanked for his pains ? All this has been described over and over again by malignant, but superficial, men, who fancy they are annihilating him, and is now reproduced in the ponderous tome before us, the avowed manifesto of the Puseyite party, as if all these wildnesses were circum stances which affected the moral eharacter of the individual they assail. We confess we have long looked upon all these strange adven tures in a very different spirit. We feel obliged to the detractors of a man of genius that they should have accumulated with so much industry these records of his early years. They might otherwise have been lost to us. With us the contemplation of this early life amazes the spirit and touches the heart. We perceive only the restlessness of a creative mind, the struggles of a strong and solitary will, the impatience of unrecognised power, the waste of enormous energy without a guide, all that turbulence of genius which is so strange and rare ; and we have no doubt that the day will arrive when this period of the life of Disraeli will be pondered over with as tender an interest as we now muse over the fitfil or fiery youth of a Rousseau or an Alfieri, THE PRESS. If a fairy had accumulated upon the cradle of a child every spell which would blast suc cess in life, it would seem she need only have collected the accessories of the life of the hero of this literary and political biography. He was the child of a recluse student without a friend or a connection : he was born of a race which was then considered infamous : he had nut what are esteemed the advantages of a conventional education : he was destined to a laborious and obscure profession. Out of this mess he comes forth a Minister of State, a transcendent orator, a writer of unexampled grace, a varied and accomplished scholar, and with a greater personal following than any man of the day. He has achieved even a greater triumph. His writings have absolutely changed not only the opinion of this country, but of Europe, respecting the Jewish race. The imputation which was considered infamous is now held to be honourable. There is no subject in which, in ten years, so great a revolution of sentiment has occurred. At the last contested election for Buckinghamshire, Baron Roths child voted against Mr. Disraeli. This appears to us to be the most flagrant act of ingratitude on record, and makes us individually repent the votes which we have in our time given fur Jewish emancipation. But then it is said that, in rising to this eminence, Mr. Disraeli has been an Ishmael, and that his hand has been against every man, and especially, according to this book, " every distinguished man." We once heard Mr. Dis raeli say that, throughout the many combats and controversies in which he had figured, he had never been the first assailant ; and, from the remarkable frankness which dis tinguishes his conversation, we believe him. For " all distinguished men," however, in the book before us, read " Sir Robert Peel." On this head we may perhaps have as much right to speak as the compilers of the biography, or any other libellers of Mr. Disraeli. The writer of the present article was a follower of Sir Robert Peel, and one of those who did not desert that great statesman in his fallen fortunes. It was unfortunate for Sir Robert Peel that Mr. Disraeli was not included in his arrangements in 1841, for, if so, Sir Robert would probably have died Prime Minister of England. The omission, how ever, was not unfortunate for Mr. Disraeli ; for, with that tenacity of purpose and fidelity to his friends which distinguish him, he would have devoted all his energies to his chief, and never, perhaps, have been a chief himself. The common opinion that Peel did not appreciate Disraeli is a mistake. The present writer is aware that Sir Robert wished to offer office to Mr. Disraeli in 1841. This was prevented by the political parasites by whom it was the weakness of the great Minister to be sur rounded, and we owe to this circumstance those immortal sketches of the Rigbys, the Tadpoles, and the Tapers, which Beaumar chais never surpassed. At the same time we must express our protest against the cant that a person who believes his claims impro perly slighted is not to make his power felt by the leader who slights him. One thing is quite certain, that every man under such cir cumstances will do so who can ; and if few succeed it is only because their inability proves the discrimination of the Minister. Notwith standing the fierce struggles of 1845 and 1848, Sir Robert Peel lived to appreciate Mr. Din raeli, and, strange to say, his last public act was to cheer, in the House of Commons, the author of his downfal. It was when Mr. Disraeli closed the debate on the famous Palmerston discussion. This is not rumour or hearsay, for the writer of this article sate next to Sir Robert Peel on that occasion. A few days after, when the horrible tragedy was over, amid a group of mourning disciples, we heard Mr. Gladstone urge a s a consolation, " Peel died at peace with all mankind. He even lived to cheer Disreeli." There is one great error into which public writers on Mr. Disraeli are apt to fall. They attribute his position solely to those qualities which are obvious to the multitude, and fancy they are making very shrewd observations when they inform the world " that he is used but not trusted; " that he is " a necessary instrument, " without whom his associates would du if 15 " they could ; " " that he is tolerated by them, " and not cherished." Now, having lived a long while in the House of Commons with Mr. Disraeli, though latterly in a hos tile camp, and also having had many social opportunities of formiugajust opinion on this subject, we must express our belief that the present influence of Mr. Disraeli is owing not so much to his public as to his private lite : If any of the mortifying vicissitudes which have occurred of late years to Lord Palmerston were to happen to Mr. Disraeli, we verily believe that, were he to re tire below the gangway, there would be seventy or eighty men of the best blood and the high est character in England who would accom pany him. Mr. Canning was famous for his following, which ho hardly deserved, for he once disbanded and deserted them, but still his personal friends ultimately carried him through. Mr. Canning never had half the pertional following of Mr. Disraeli. Lord Lyndhurst is considered not a mean judge of character. He was the first of our leading men who brought forward Mr. Dis raeli, and there has subsisted between them a confidential friendship of upwards of twenty years' duration. Lord George Bentinek was not a man who could be practised upon by a sycophant or an intriguer. His manly and somewhat blunt nature recoiled from glozing, and he detected in a moment, and never par doned, the man who was not straightforward. Yet it is well known that the feelings of Lord George Bentinek to Mr. Disraeli were those of entire devotion. Lord Derby is a very clever man—perhaps the clererest man in the coun try. His quickness of perception is unrivalled, and he is not embarrassed with any inconve nient degree of sensibility. He is said, too, to be very proud, and not a little prejudiced. He was just the sort of man who would be prejudiced against Mr. Disraeli, who had even attacked the Government of which he was a member. It was notorious in the House of Commons that this prejudice existed. Yet the moment that the untimely end of Lord George Ber,inck brought Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli together—what happened ? That which has happened with every first-rate man who has become acquainted with Mr. Disraeli, except, unhappily, Sir Robert Peel—complete confidence and cordial regard. It is the same with all his followers who are in his intimacy. They are bound to him by a sentiment of per sonal devotion. Now, this is not an effect to be produced by talents alone, however bril liant. Sheridan could never do this, nor even Mr. Burke. Mr. Canning had very great ad vantages. He was the hero of a then very powerful University, and the brother-in-law of a duke ; but we repeat lie had not the personal influence of the libelled hero of the "Literary and Political Biography." They are qualities superior to talents, and even genius, that pro duce such an influence a noble disposition which attaches men, and in which all men irresistibly confide. The " literary and political " libellers are very much alarmed at the enthusiasm of the Oxford undergraduates in favour of Mr. Dis raeli. The cheers of Christ Church Quad. ap pear to have disturbed the self-complacency of some of their prime patrons. Now, the under graduate enthusiasm seems to us to be the most natural thing in the world ; nor can we be surprised that youth should sympathise with one so capable of charming the imagina tion of the " new generation." We 'were not present at the Oxford triumph ; our fealty is pledged to another seat of learning not less renowned ; but of this we feel persuaded, that Camlnige must be very much changed since our time if the reception of Mr. Disraeli in the Senate-house were less fervent than in the Theatre, or if St. John's and Trinity were to yield in the enthusiasm so much deplored in the college of which Mr. Gladstone is a member. If the object of the " Literary and Political Biography," and the sermons simultaneously preached from its texts by the various Puseyite organs, be to detach the Conservative party from Mr. Disraeli, we predict an overwhelming failure. There are certain politicians who are, no doubt, in a false Ipositiou, and who would petters not be grieved to resume one more natural to them; but they will not be per. ~ . 0 _ 16 L I. I • • •