The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-08-19 00:00:00

1
MR. DISRAELI'S ELEVATION TO THE i THE LATE MR. E. W. LANE.
PEERAGE. I (From the Daily News)
The Times, in a leader remarking upon the elevation A great scholar has been taken from the world. On
of Mr. Disraeli to the peerage, says : the morning of the 10th instant Mr. Lane, the
For a time we may indulge in the pleasant surprise in. I Orientalist, closed a life of which the last fifty-one years
tended, we must suppose, by the sudden trensformetion that had been devoted to unremitting_ labour, not for
• winds up the Session. Confessedly the interest of the play worldly honour or gain, but in the noble field of -_
' e. as ee,aerg out, and the actors thennelees were almost e- scie4tific research. Of Buell a life it is our duty
!waisted, when all at once, in a glory of historealissceeistiens,: give a record.
-1. Benjamin Disraeli" ilisapnears to give plesee to the "Esti t
of Beaconsfield." The brilliant novellit, the gentle satirist, - Edward 'William, third son of the Reveres
:
the man of letters, and the son of a man of letters, Theophilus Lane, LL.D., Prebendary of Herefori
the adventurer as he once Seemed whom Sir Rot ert was born at that city on September 17, 1801. Havin
Peel" spurned as a supporter, but lived to find a power- lost his father in 1814, his education was theno
ml antagenist and a succeasful rival, stends before U 4 easily forward directed by his mother, a niece of Gain
and gracefully assumlng the highest p.sscinle reward of public
virtue—that coronet which of all others is dearest to English borough the painter, a lady to whose energy an
sentiment. Nothing beats an Eerl The best form of Eog- sweetness of character Mr. Lane traced much of It
11th nobility is the old Earldom, Saxon a':d Denten as well as Success in after life. After some years at the gra=
IkTorinan. That stage reached,
.the rest is superfluity. This schools of Bath and 'Hereford he went to Cambridgi
is the proud title which, incredible as it would have been but changed his purpose of entering from a dislike t
thirty years ago, the Premier takes so appropriately that a the society in which he found himself, and havinj
lower rank would hardly have fitted him. satisfied himself of his ability to take the highes
It will be replied with no little warmth that a coronet is mathematical honours he. came to London, an
a trifle, the House of Lords a blnishment, a title an eclipse of studied engraving with his brother, the artist, Mr. Rj
honour, and the whole apotheosis a funereal pageant. The
statesmen who will be remembered by the names they bore G. Lanc. afterwards A.R.A.
"in the bettle of life were wiser and happier, we shall be told, In 1825 Mr. Lane's life took a decided bent. Ai
than the man who hastens to forget what he has been. A, that time the discoveries of Belzoni and others iii
it happens, Mr. Disraeli shows a very sound estimate of him. Egypt, and the researches of Champollion, had excite
self and of his position. He will make a capital Peer. It le strong interest in a country where hitherto the in
a stage he was bound to ripen Into. He appreciatei
scribed monuments had been a sealed book. Sharing
the dignity, and it is the proper complemen4
of individuality. From his earliest years he ha; this interest, and advised on account of delicate healt
lived in the Peerage—that is, his spirit has. Fashions i to visit a warmer climate, Mr. Lane sailed for Egypt
fancies, manias, fevers, rages, come and go; Par, This voyage, made long before the days of steaul
ties rise and fall, changing their names and their political routes, was made in a merchant brig. Tile vessel, ill
creeds; bat the Peerage holds its own. Certainly it is pare manned and inefficiently commanded, was nearly los
and parcel not only of this Constitution, but of this coun.
in .
try, people, race, and religion. But there is a more commone
a storm off Cape Bon. The heaviest compas
place reason why Mr. Disraeli should step into the House being unshipped, at the captain's earnest entreaty,
of L )rds when it seems to invite him. He has attained the young passenger, notwithstanding his weal 4
that age beyond which all men, more or less, find their health, took the helm, and in a starless night,;
strength but labour and sorrow. The work of a British Premier steered the ship by the lightning, of which he
becomes every year more laborious, more multifarious, more had observed the bearings. Landing at Alex= ,
continually urgent, more momentous and critical, for it is the
hourly charge of an Empire comprising a fifth of the human andria Mr. Lane found that it was necessary to
- race. The world, too, it must be remembered, is always make a thorough stndy of the spoken Arabic, as a pre=
young, for it is always bringing to the occasion new condi- paration for the examination of the country. At the
tions and circumstances, which have to be apprehended same time he bekan to acquire the classical Arabic, in
accurately, however out of the range of experience or which he was afterwards to gain his greatest distinc-
routine. This requires an amount of youth which few pos. tion. He was thus able to obtain a thorough know.
sees to a late period of life. The work, then, which may be
said to accumulate, to grow, and even to spring into ledge of the people of Egypt, who were as yet un-
existence to the hands of a Premier, can only be borne by touched by western influences. Twice ascending the
the exercise of rare faculties, not always possessed even by Nile fo the Second Cataract, he carefully examined the
very able politicians. Lord Palmerston was coefessedly the ancient monuments of Egypt and Lower Nubia. On
Minister of an interregnum. He could diminish, divide.,
tide over, postpone, and reduce to any perspective or his return hone in 1,828 he brought with him a des.
shade of colour he pleased matters which to less cription of these countries and their inhabitants, thus.
gifted men seemed to stare them in the face and impend trated by maps and plans, and more than a hundred
with instant downfall. Other Ministers have had their ways singularly beautiful sepia drawings. This work was
of going through work, impossible to ordinary men. But never published, on account of the Cost of reproducing
Lora Beaconsfield, as we have now to style him, had no the illustrations. The loss to the world is great, as
initiation into official work tilliong after the age when habits in the " Notes and Drawings in Egypt and
are supposed to be formed. Instead of passing through each
office, and each grade of office, so as to learn the details and Nubia" there is the same extraordinary faculty of
the genius of each department, he was delighting the world accurate description and representation as characd
'and himself with works of imagination, an employment usually tenses the "Modern Egyptiars." The work just
thought the most repugnant to business-like habits. ... . , mentioned is indeed a chapter of the larger composi-1
-.. • ' tion expanded by Mr. Lane on Lord Brougham's re-,
• The Dail Telegraph. remarks ;.7104.44.4f44, -ed t 4 4441. 1 commendation for the Society for the Diffusion of
To most public men a lordly title is ad undotibletenhance Useful linowledge. For this purpose Mr. Lane again!
went of dignity, but, in the present instance, everybody, lee visited Egypt in the years 1833 to 1835, and passed,
eluding the new Earl, must feel that to relinquish Disraeli nearly the whole time' at Cairo. This long residence!
for Beaconsfield constitutes in a certain sense a sacrifice. It among the people enabled him to write the " Moderni
was another great Commoner who said that plain Mr. Pitt Egyptians," published in 1836, by which his name is
was a name good enough to be known by, and the Premier
1 best known in England, • Six editions attest the popu-
'bad already shown by his graceful act in the case of Lady
't ri yof this work, and its exactness has been the
Beaconsfield that he knew how to be contented with a patroe la
nymic which his abilities had sufficiently ennobled. Time, marvel of later visitors to Egypt. Its merits can best
however, had once more placed him in the position of peer- be judged by comparing it with any book of a like
maker, and there is no one of any party who will deny i nature. -; •-i.
that the conspicuous Parliamentary cervices of the Premier; In 1838 Mr. Late undertook a translation of the
are most modestly signalised by an earl's coronet. There lsi
no peer too proud of Norman or Saxon blood to recognise
the last and most eloquent of many tributes to British testi-course In the "Thousandan
of
One Nights," iygehiwts
." wphiicsohaardpiopegartehdeifndßarea_ots.f
tutions in the self-bestowed patent, whereby Benj.minl Galland, that the Oriental tales should be European-
-Disraeli takes his seat among hereditary legislators. He who ised, he endeavoured to render them as if they had
wrote so deferentially upon the sustained splendour of their been written in English by an Eastern. The result is I
stately lives comes at once with the grace of an anoly
and the- glory of a leader to merge his lemons
family name in the roll of the Eaglish Peerage, .
tel
latacoiolnoiwiriinlie
ultimately
yy
bteruoeutro tohnelyE
recognisedas East, an dth this
form trans.o fcontriving with his accustomed skill to crown his
own career in the accepted British manner, to , 1
the "Arabian Nights." The notes are peculiarly
' valuable, as a series of essays on al the chief features
flatter Tory sentiment, and wind up the Session with ' of Arab life, not unlike the "Modern Egyptian," but
dazzling effect. We cannot help admiring in the time, ,
mode,, and circumstances of his elevation, the old consum— covering larger ground.
Mr. Lane's life work, a far greater enterprise than
mate tact and measured patience of the statesman. Mr.
Disraeli's biography has been a triumphal progress of self- those he had already achieved, was begun in 1842.
conscious capacity, self-reliant, self-con' el an . d unyield-
-- • . Algernon, Duke of Northumbperultsanudf, who hadivliosnedg

mmat

—attained,
fag. His coronet may point a moral in future as well as
the conventionel Marshal's Won or Lord Mayor's chair, for
even Bri ish pluck may learn new gifts from a Parliamentary
story which began with abortive orations in a derisive House,
and ends in the consecutive leadership of both chambers.
For Mr. Disraeli's brilliant career does not terminate in
this last honour. It is only, all may hipe, the afternoon
glory of the luminary verging in gold and purple to the west.
The new Peer will still be leader of the Tory party and hold
the reins of Government from another place. Strange will it
be to hear those well-known accents from crimson cushions,
and to miss them from the more sombre benches so long
associated with the rhetorical successes of the right honour-
able gentleman; the transformation for the new Peer himself
will be singular, but foe the world in general nothing less
than bewildering. Constant practice alone can familiarise
us with that foremost figure of Canumons debate referred
to M "the noble Earl," and rising to address the Woalsack
instead of Mr. Speaker. It is no compliment to say that the
Upper Chamber will be enriched in debuting power by the
entry of its youngest Peer, who was never, perhaps, an
orator of the first class, because lacking the indispensable
qualities of emotion and earnestness. Mr. Disraeli's un-
rivalled polemical gifts of rhetoric, sarcasm, invective, orna-
ment, and governed passion have mellowed into a rare Par-
liamentary style, and none among his peers can dispute pre-
cedence with the stew corner as a dialectical expositor... ..
. . . With all the great statesman's faults, which we
held it unbecoming to identify and analyse at the hour when
he accepts the historical prize of his wonderful
career, no one can possibly deny him the possession
of a quality which, above all others, refines and harmonises
politics, lie bus always displayed a sweet and serene tem-
per, and this none the less for being an acknowledged
master of invective, which he charaeteristically styled an
ornament of debate Passion, animosity, and hard words
have ever been for heat equable genius rhetorical weapons to
be sheathed with a smile and an easy trope of peace whin
battle was over. Lie who has borne . through a thou-
sand wordy frays the light heart, high manner, ant bright
kindliness of Air. Disraeli, will, like him, conquer his enemies
as well as dominate his friends, and deserves that when his
euthanasia arrives as a Statesman we should speak of him as
hikhappiest gifts impel us Nobody has done more than the
departing leader of the House, of Commons, especially in
these latter years, to support the honour, dignity, and grace
of Parliamentary debate, and to keep the fins line plainly
drawn which reserves in lithe invaluable spirit of political
etiquette. Nobody has done more to sweeten our soniewhat
rough Eng ish• frankness with finesse, and to irradiate our
often sombre national habit with the gaiety of a lighter
and livelier way of regarding- men and affairs. It is,
than, both inevitable and just to postpone poli-
tical to individual reflections when an event so notable occurs
as the departure of the Premier from his familiar place, and
the truest Liberalism bids us join in the respectful cougratetla-
Mons offered to the new Peer by his party, while we hope, as
his countrymen rather than as his political antagonists, that
he may long wear his richly-earned coronet in comparative
repose from Imperial toils, still moderating by his pleasant
arts and by his masterly persuasion, the passion and the
lethargy of the Tory party. Of this renowned statesman, as
of one of the greatest among his old opponents, it may be
truly said, in spite of abatements here and these, "We are
i all proud of him."

sympathised with the scholar's its, then ad.
the carrying out of a project long confided to him—
the construction of an Arabic English lexicon of the
classical language. Accordingly Mr. Lane a third
time
there
visited
nt
he
collectionEgyptin alnB4d2,a
rainadn
gpealasesnedt osefvemnateyreiaarlss
and the composition of the work. He was accompanied
in this visit by his wife, a Greek lady, whom he had
married in 1840; his sister Mrs. Poole, the author of
the "Eagliehwoman in Egypt ; " and her two sons.
Had Mr. Lane known the vastness of his enter-
prise even his steady energy mjght haye been dis-
mayed. He found the Arab' lexicons from which he
was to draw his materials not only more numerous but
far larger than he had anticipated; yet he did not
turn aside. He, not only grappled with the task he
had set before him, but he did so in Trecisely the most
difficult form. Determined to achieve a final work
from materials which were actually perishing as he
used them, vast manuscripts in lootie sheets, worm-
eaten and even partly devoured by rats, he appended
the authority to every signification of a word, and never
gave his own opinion except between brackets. Thus he
worked from many manuscripts for every article in
the Lexicon, embodying their statements instead of
giving his own conclusions.
Having gathered the necessary native meterials, Mr.
Lane returned to EngUnd in 1849. He soon settled
at Worthing, where he continued his unremitting
labour until the sth instant. The first volume of the
Lexicon appeared in 1863, and was followed at intervals
by four others, containing over two thousand pages of
imperial quarto in small type, three columns in the
page. The sixthlYolume Is now in the press, and the
work will be conepleted from Mr. Lane'll manuscript
in two more volumes. It is difficult to speak to the
outside world bf the merits of this vast work. It can
only be said that it is the fullest lexicon of the most
difficult and copious of languages, and the only lexicon
of that language reproducing the original authoriths.
Unlike all other famous lexicons, it is wholly indepen-
dent of its European predecessors, which it has once
for all superseded, whilst it can never have a successor,
though many dictionaries may be founded upon it.
To the fourth Duke of Northumberland is due the
distinction of having first encouraged Mr. Lane's great
enterprise, and borne the main expenses, until they
passed to his widow, the Dowager Duchess, who has
carried out a project dear to her generous and public-
spirited husband. Earl Russell, with his true literary
sympathies, first gave official support to the work, a
support which ultimately took the form of a pension
on the Civil List for its accomplished author.
Of the details of a life devoted to self-denying study
it would not be becoming to speak to the world at
large, except to say that whatever Mr. Lane did was
done with all his might, and that the same unselfish-
ness and devotion which produced his public work
endeared him to his family and to the few friends'
whom he could see in his scanty leisure moments.
The grace of his youth was never effaced by work or
by the delicate health in spite of which that work was
done, but it was rather refined in a face that would
have been all intellect had it not been sweetened by
tender affection and dignified by a piety no less modest
than earnest.
Soon after the appearance of the first volume of Mr.
Lane's Lexicon he was elected a correspondent of the
Institute of France by unanimous vote, and the
University of Leyden, on its tercentenary in 1875,
conferred on him an honorary doctor's degree.