The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-12-21 00:00:00

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raz LATE LADY BEACONSFIELD.

Pin-
...a Beaconsfield, the eatinithle wife of Mr.
neaday lam, at Bugheaden, when for asecral
iad hem straggllag Milt the fatal malady to which
slte Tubed. The TifBGB gives the following memoir of
tile lamented lady :
nes closes, in the fulnees of years, a life which has
excited no inconsiderable influence on English politi s.
She stands out a etrikint: illuetratiou of the power the
most undbtrosivef women ruby exercise while keeping
herself strictly to • WOMAII'd sphere. Looking back on
the long and tender relationship which has been gently
dissolved in course of nature, we are inreaistibly 're-
minded of the feelings expressed by Mahound when the
Prophetrif the Faithful loot the hiving woman he had
married in drips of oomparative obscurity. "By God,"
I, exclaimed in an outburst of regretful gratitude, ache
raised her solemnly to the rank of the four perfect
women, "hl Gel, there never can be a better wife? She
believed in me when men despised me. She relieved
my wants when 1 WAS root and perste uteil by the
world ! " It won deep-seated, kindly sentiment of
the sort which made Mr. Dieraeli the devoted hus-
band Lady Beaconsfield found him, and once he
vented it with equally honest vehemence in reproof of
an indistreet acquaintance who ventured indelicately
on personal ground. His wife had ClElle to his help
when life threatened to be too short to impure
him the prospect he had dreamt of. At length he
hail taken his seat in Parliament. lie came
ti it ero A.i011.1 of the poireeseion of iii ordinary
p Bahl talents and the tare gifts which rhoulrl
make a great party leader. He hal always
lwlieved in himself, and hail never ',erupted to pro-
claim his faith nitentatiouely. Ile knew himself to
combine originality and versatility with absolute
iudependence of thought and a contemptuous indifs
I erence to party tradition. He had cast in his lot
with the Conservative.', and those were the very
qualities to enable a maii to rally a b. aten party
upon new ground, and t.. fight a lining battle in face
of the inevitable Liberal &ideation. But time was
everything to him, and the preolous titre- wax slip-
ping away fast. As yet he sat almost Rhine ;he bail
few frirrole and no hitimatis. Ancient as it was,
his birth WAS against him - the country eentlemen
would have been Plow to admit to companiottehip
it
lineal descendant even of the Maccabere- PO were his
drew and clemearemr, the style of his speech, and even
his somewhat eccentric literary reputation. More than
that, he bad already failed in the Howie, to the disap-
pointment of the political chief who had expected great
things of him. He felt, in short that he W Ski regarded
reskaue• as an unsuccessful adventurer. Had the leaden
of his party been in the secret of his a.pirations, they
would have 'sniffed at them 84 the insane ViSlooll of an
enthusiairt. Believing in himself more firmly than over,
his strong common series could only tend to discourage
hint on a nearer view of the difficulties before him.
With time and patience he mishit win, no doubt : but
who could say the time would be given hire? Life is
precari us;r anxiety and disappointment tell terribly
on a sanguine and ardent nature. A little of the
material prosperity that seemed the common lot if the
luckier into around him would make all the difference;
fur England then. more than now, incited 01c011
high property qualification as a matrrial guarantee
for the virtue of her stateemen. When he might well
have despaired had his nature been a despondent
rine, a fortunate marriage smoothed the path of his

ambition.
It is no fault of ours if we have to wtite rattler of the
husband thou the wife. From their wedding day till
now, tile existence of the cote was merged in that of
the other. It was their mutual happiness that the wife
lived only in the Intsbend ; the husband's extreordinary
career was the happy achievement of her life, sod it
was her pets to shine in the reflection of his fame.
She was the daughter of Mr. John Evans, of liatup-
ford Starke, Devon, but had inherited the bulk of her
fortune as heiress of her uncle, Sir James Viney, of
Taynton Manor, Glamorganthire. In 1915 she had mar-
ried Mr. Wyndham Lewis, Mr. Disraeli's predecessor in
the representation of Maidstone. Mr. Lewis died in
1838. are i n the following year his widow beesnie the wife
of Mr. Disraeli. Mrs. Disraeli was many years her
second husband's senior (when she died she hail resulted
the venerable age of 83) ; on the other hand, she had
the money he desired for something better thin sordid
motives. But Mr. Disraeli was too shrewd a man to
pay for name and power at the price of happiness. It
is certain he chose wisely every way, and seldom has a
marriage proved more of a love match than his. We
are glad to believe that the romaece of real life often
begins at the point where it invariably ends in fiction.
Practical considerations may arrange preliminaries, and
passion only awaken when the natures that have hidden
their softer and brighter qualities are brought for the first
time into familiar contact. It burns with a steadier
and purer flanae when it is fed oa esteem rather than
transports. Esteem, indeed, is the most genuine form
of love, and, as we have seen, Mr. Disraeli's esteem
for his wife was heightened by • most lively sense of
gratitude. His gratitude was characteristic of one who
was no ordinary man. It gave evidence of the nobler
qualities that secured hie political success. It flowed
in a current at once steady and calm and deep, and
flowed with a force and constancy of pnrposte not to be
diverted by the accidents of his career. Ite kept no close
debtor and ereiliter account with his conscience, while he
passed from triumph to triumph. How ni any husbands,
far less engrossed abroad, have considered a tithe of the
fame he won sufficient acquittal of so old a debt! How
many content themselves with leaving their wives to
enjoy prosperity in isolation ! Mr. Disraeli eitd no
such thing, although for that he would claim but
little credit. The fact is his wife made his home a
very happy one, and he turned to its peacefulness with
inteme relief in the midst of fierce politick' tur-
moil. We are apt to forget that most tneu lead a
double life; that those of the strongest natures and
sharpest individuality show themselves in the mast
marked contrasts. It was a pretty sight, that
of the remorselesa Parliatuentary eladiat .r, who
neither gave quarter nor asked for it, who fought
with venomed weapons although he striae;
and shot barbed darts which clung and itil
in the wean& -it was a pretty sight to see him in the
soft smishine of domestic life, anticipating the wishes
of his wife with feminine tenderness of considerae
tion, and receiving her ministering with the evident
enjoyment which is the most delicate flattery of all.
The secret of the spell she held him by was a simple
one. She loved with her whole heart and soul, she
believed in him above all men, and he appreciated at
its real worth that single-minded, self-sacrificing de-
votion. It is difficult to overrate the strength and
support given by unstinted love like that, and few,
we suspect, appreciate it more than those who would
seem to need it the least. It is neither counsel nor
sparkle, but observant, ready sympathy that a man
of energy and self reliatme bingo tor in n. merits ot
exhaustion and depression, and the more impassible the
ma ik he wears the greater the relief of being »hie to
damp it in private. Lady lieseteistielit was very far
from tieing a reserved woman. She must ham often
talked too fast and freely for her husband's liking;
occasionally the expreasiose of her arth as admiration
of him were caught up and coloured, to be circulated
as " good stories" at dinner tables; but the intuitive
instinct of her affectien set a seat on her lips in the
minutest matters where her talk might do hills an iujury.
She was very much in his confidence, and she NV:18 never
known to betray it. Except frir the subtle i fluences of
the home she made him, the help she brought was pas-
: sire rather thau active from first to last All he had
asked was fair play for his talents at the start ; her
fortune had giveu him that, and he did the rest himself.
So in utter years, while be led his party in the Lower
House, tar served the State SA Premier of England, she
Mel neither social talents nor fascination to place at Lis
disposal. It was not in her to make his salons s centre of
societT, to gather within the range of his influence emi-
nent Englishmen and influential foreigners, or to sway
by the reputation of brilliant re un i(1.13 the easy opinions
of liberaldninikd yoliticians. She was 110 hasty Pal-
merston to act as her husbanire must trust ad tally,
working for him in season and out of seeeon with
tact quickens iby love. Her death will leave no gap
behind her which bereaved society will find it hard to
till. 11 it perhaps her hushael will It se the th ire that
society will lose the less. Her lose for him Sr is won.
derful, "vesting the live of women." It W.. 3 shown
in trait, of unobtrusive heroism worthy the ne emus of
ltspublicau Rome. Few men can boaiit the cie.rageous
self-command which made her conceal, Marin a long
drive to Westminster, the pain of a finger cruel c .1 in the
carriage-door, lest she should agitate her his and on
the etc-eta great party debate. She knew ais it could
always bring her the sympathy that was her wettest
consolation, but to the last her one though was t
spare Lim. Surprised by a sudden flaw I blood
from an incurable cancer, knowing that li r doom
was certain, and that their happy wedded lie was
fast drawing to its end, she had the touchin resolu-
tion to preserve her secret; while, all I it' tints
knowing it as well as else, he uever for a moment
suffered her to guess his knowledge, or gave aer the
grief of seeing him suffer. It was the racefut
symbol of the chivalrous devotion which le Lever
wavered, it was an approptiate return for the
estimable services she had done him, when, in
November 1968, he could offer her the peel age be-
stowed in acknowledgment of • distinguished career.
The loss of his companion has snapped the tender
associations of a lifetime, and must have left a blank
whieh nothing can entirely fill. The sympathy of the
public can count for little when he misses that he has
so long been used to. Yet to a veteran in public life
there must be comfort in the thought that the public
you have served be feeling with you; that England,
irrespective of party, deplores even the timely termi-
nation of an essentially English union.