The Sun.
London, England, 1852-06-07 00:00:00

LONDON, _AIOND A y EVENING, JUNE

shall come out I"), is not the least interesting among
the many similar anecdotes connected with the
English Parliament. Alreedy the time has arrived,
arid the neappreciated Member of Maidstone hat, by
his own Unaided abilities, come, at length, after fifteen
years' experience in legislation, to be recognised as
one of the most accomplished debaters living, to be
representative of the shire for which John Elnerinden
rat before the Cenamonwealth, to be a member of' the
Privy Council, the leader of the House of Commons,
and her Majesty's Chancellor of the Exchequer. As
he himself observes (" Tancred," B. IV., c. 11), " A
failure is nothing ; it may be deserved, or it may be
remedied: in the.first instance, it brings self-know-
ledge; in the second it develops a new combination,
usually triumphant." His failure being of the second
class produced accordingly a new combination, and
that combination, it must be admitted, has proved un-
usually triumphant.
A tragedy was the next literary effusion penned
by Disraeli, who selected as the theme of his "five
acts" the story narrated in the old Spanish ballad of
" The Count Alarcos and the Infanta Solisa." Pub-
lished in 1839, Count Alarcos was dedicated to Lord
Francis Egerton, 'now the Earl of Ellesmere. Fami-
liar though the ballad had been rendered, not merely
by the accurate version of Dr. Bowring, but by the
nervous acd impassioned paraphrase of ItireLockhart,
it was agreeable to remark the skilful employment in
a dramatic form of the materials analysed with so
much subtlety by Bouterwek in his "History of Spa-
nish Literature." Whatever vagueness there was in
the ballad became necessarily dissipated in the
tragedy. Time and place had alike to be
selected—the time chosen was the thirteenth century,
the scene Burgos and its picturesque vicinity, Burgos
being at that period the capital of the kingdom of
Csstille. Among the characters introduced it is
amusing to obterve the name of Sidonia, a name after-
wards rendered euffieiently famous by the pen of
Disraeli as that of a Hebrew Crichton with the
wealth of a Rothschild, the knowledge of a Hum-
boldt, and the capacity for languages of a Mezzofante.
Distinguished as the' year which witnessed the'
appearance of his tragedy,lB39 was rendered more
agreeably remarkable to the dramatist by witnessing
his marriage with Mary Anne, daughter of J. Evans,
Esquire, and relict of that Wyndham Lewis whom
we have already mentioned as his Parliamentary col-
league. His happiness from this union he has him-
self gracefully celebrated by that tribute to 44 A per-
fect wife," which constitutes one of his most charming
dedications. e -
Returned for Shrewsbury in 1841, the author
became more than ever assiduous in his application to
Parliamentary buSinest, but fortunately the M.P.
did not altogether absorb the energies of the man
of letters. Having thoroughly acquainted himself
(by practice) with the qualities most acceptable in a
novelist, Disraeli, nineteen years after the
ep-
pearance of " Vivian Grey," and consequent 4 when
his faculties had been matured by his having doubled
he age at which he first adventured into the literary
arena, issued a work from the press, which, by its
immediate and sustained popularity, reduced
all his previous successes to insignificance.
Ha had already written Henrietta Temple, a love
story; he had written Venetia, in which the genius
of two ideal personages of the last great age of Eng-
lish poetry had been again idealized ; and, in addition
to this, he had written The Young Duke, the fore-
shadow, one might fancy it, of a subsequent and
more popular production. But the happiest; of all
these efforts was surpassed in 1844, on the publication
of Coningsby, designated, by an aftetaticle, "The
New tieneration." Within three months from the
'day of its appearance, three considerable editions
an exten-
swi veer were
ei
rxchual ua
tsitoend 'oani 1 d
the bceoenidtienee neta,tht hinea wa secureddoirleg for
itself the exportation of ne lesi than 50,000 copies to the
United States exclusively. It must be allowed that what
obtained for " Coningsby" its almost instant reputation
was the fact of its pages being crowded with sketches
9f well-known characters not less unmistakable than
nithougtl the an..
the caricatures of 11. 8., with as much eccentricity
and as little exaggeration. Nor were the individuals
ttihour:iptsceulfrtrwasysedernsiimnepnlytlypopliotilcitiiaonosl,
initstendency.
Lucian Gay, whom " Naiure had, intended for a
i scholar and a wit," but "Necessity had made a scrib-
bler and a buffoon," was no less true to the life than
Messrs. Taper and Tadpole, and the rest of the mob
of placehunters frequenting the lobbies at West.
minster. But the merit of " Coningsby" is far from
being restricted to that of mere exactitude in the
resemblance traceable through these singularly cun-
ning delineations. People laughed heartily, of course, at
that silhouette of the Right Hon. Nicholas Rigby,
burnt in, so to speak, with lunar caustic—the pencil
of your more unmerciful satirist. They were no less
amused with his " harsh voice and arrogant manner"
than with the courtly selfishness of that patrician
sybarite the Marquess of Monmouth. Pleasantest of
all the pleasant scenes in his new work, however,
were those in which Disraeli described Coningsby
and his stripling contemporaries at Eton—peopling
the playgrounds and the green haunts of 'Windsor
with such beings as Buckhurst, or as Lord Henry
Sydney, or as Oswald Millbank, who is not sin-
gular, by the way, in regarding Harry Coningsby
with a passionate and affectionate admira-
tion. The brief but animated account of their
school days, terminates with a description of Montem,
a description which, in its turn, closes with a warning
.of evil days to the new generation. Several
amusing interviews are at once prepared for Co-
ningsby, perhaps the most suggestive of which is the
one accidentally held at the Adel hi Hotel, Man-
chester, with a gentleman whose train goes at Dad—
extraordinar Peculi"
Mr. G. 0. A. Head, of Staleybridge. The meeting,
however, between Coningsby and Sidonia must be
e"hecenvmenet
afterwards
ofatrhdasnbe t
taenr
acquainted; dignified
incident. withNv
but i
tt
hh e name
from
rom
Sidonia
theowf
moment of his reining
in the "Daughter of the Star," at the forest tavern,
arities of his character.
it is not difficult to detect the
His preferencYe at the
frugal repast for perry and crusts, the corn and wine
of England, gives the first inkling of h• originality.
Corn and wine, he reminds c •
is
have
been deified but the
haveChineseolllDgaby,
never
raised temples to tea, nor the Irish otatoes.
Then his declamation Upon the text__
" Genustop when
young is divine"—deriving the illustrations of 'ts
1-
accuracy from the careers of such
Youthful heroes as
Hannibal or Napoleon, as G;ssto
t 1 de Ftex or Gus-
tevus Adolphus! And last of ail the
announcement
ef his religion at the porch of the farm-house when
departing—" I am of the faith that the Apostles pro-
fessed before they followed their mast a, All are
indications consonant with the nature ea..
• .
of Sidonia, as
later ou revealed—in Sequin Court as the realest
financier in Europe, and in Carlton Gardengs as the
luxurious but not eft urinated lie
Inii--"lr Clever as
the political sketches in " Coningte 0, . . ,
a are with the
cleverness of what usually degenerates into a heartless
experience, the love passages have about them all the
freshness of youth and the animation of romance.
We remember few more exquisite Ece
nos expressive of
the master-passion than that in the fishi t ,
in the
Hellingsley, where,deliciousness ng cottrge at
of the sylvan
solitude and in the midst of the....
"Sound of vernal showers
On the twinkling grassaen
the hero reveals his
_devotien to the heroine—Edith
Millbank. The droll
embarrassment barrasatnent
ensuing on
their return, having kept
the dinner
waiting un-
only impartsconscionably, an additional and by no
means disagreeable piquancy to that
Pion of' the
narrative. Among the
he startlingt occurrentes which
lend their attraction to the story, oil.y, 111°8e depicted with
the liveliest spirit are—the tssappohatrnents caused
by the marriage of the Marquessi of I\i-
--ulrunout with
the Princess Lucretia Co mutt : the thunder-storm
driving Oswald with Harry to the castle,
eta ,eh ere they
are discovered, regaling themselves, by' M
Rb
the misapprehended interview et,'
Edith -g
ayiar
Sidonia during , the ball in the Paubour
St. Germain : and, above all, the nag..
dent immediately preceding that festi477
' when
Lady Monmouth is thrown from her carriage
Avenue MarignY• Nothing can be nl,-, in the
more admirably
finished than the last-mentioned description--
Marquess
the
Marquess preeerving his courtly self-/308,43'16n
1 with
wonderful equaninaiten while Lucretia is
a"vving her
tender sentiments towards `Sidonia. Altogether the
Marquess of Monmouth is in the whole work the
most , ingeniously elaborated delineation. Every
g every attitude, every syllable is scru-
pulously,y but without an effort, characteristic. A
selfish voluptuary from the commencement
princely withal in bis but
manners of
the "grande seigneur," habits, he has the
and the temperament of
an
epicurean. He receives his grandson for the first
time with the bow of Louis Quatorze : and if he is
assisted up a flight of steps at Paris by " La Petite,"
it is with an acknowledgment of no less punc-
tilious courtesy. Hence, to the unravelment of the
plot, the reader suspects
an not for an instant
i
that Mademoiselle Flora s no other than Lord
Monmouth's natural daughter by M
the Theatre 1
,rancario Estelle
Mstfeau, an actress of.
is eie—the
impression throng
bout being teat she the child of
Once only the heart of the
perceptiblythe In an
seems to throb somewhat
lt is when Harry, robe
of the luxurious patrician.
the having.
arrived arrived at Coningsby Castle, greetsdistinguished Marquessin
the midst of a crowded and d
oudo, assembly,rande
with the inquiry—" How
author with with gsubtle sense
?"
a
Yet even then, says the
portraiture, "It would be
of truthfulness in the
rd Monmouth's heart was
that Lo
exaggeration to say
totiched—his good nature 'effervesced and his fine
Proud of the handsome
taste was deeply gratified."
firms round Coningsby with
st4ling, he places his 11-
ld haveu become the
44 a dignity of affection" that would
onboth ‘
"Grande Monarque," kissing rim St. G • cheeks
with unwonted cordiality. It is at
Benevieve, the
residence of Eustacelyle, situated near eatunanoir,
>
and in the thick of the revels at Christ-
mas, when ' be is bearing the boar's hero
through the hall to the chautipg of the old

Latin versiclee, that Coningeby receives a letter an-
nouncing the death of his grandsather. Thereupon
ensues the reading of that extraordinary will the
original of which not many years
isn back
was
" the
"r
talk" of all Mayfair and the side of Bsl-
thorn a th
gravia. Deprived of his expected inheritance,
ningeby is consoled by the reflection that he Cnaas-
vlsuggested
neithsr lost aa arm nor a front tooth, as
Sidopia. Utterly ,iti iii by
down in the world, his name
erased from the clubs, his horses sold by auction
himself a student in the Temple, and—cut b auncigbta
—a ray of light suddenly dawns upon the riero one
Rigby
evening through a " third edition" of The Sun,
wherein he finds that Mr. Millbank has proposed him
as Member for Dartford. Ultimately the unfortu-
nate Rigby is defeated, and Coningsby shortly after-
wards, having hurried down with Oswald, enter. the
town ea •the successful candidate, "like Paulus
Emilius returning from Macedon." The narrative
terminates with his marriage with Edith,' and Flora,
dying almost before the honeymoon has elapsed,
leaves the whole of her wealth to the young Mereber
of Parliament. " Coningsbv" was followed, in 1845,
by Sybil, or " The Two Nations," a fiction of a
loftier purpose, illustrative not only of the diversities
of party, but of the civic agonies of the poor, and of
the social privations and political miseries of an entire
population. Beginning as the story does, with the
gambling at the West-end, in the spring of 1837, im-
mediately before the winning of the Derby bY Poos-
phorus, the reader is startled by the motley scenes of
wretchedness afterwards opened up to examination.
Almost every phase of society finds in "Sybil" its
appropriate representative. Almost every moral
Wain in the community is laid bare to our abhorrence.
Guided by the novelist, we penetrate the drawiug
rooms of Mowbray Castle, where Altamont Belvidere
Fitz-warene flsurhdies with his two sandy daughters,
the Ladies Mewl and Joan, the - latter
ugly and doctrinal, the former rather pretty
but inquisitive : or wander into the Cat
And Fiddle, where Chaffing Jack, the Landlord,
has manufactured the Temple of th©, Muses out of
stucco, plate glass, gilding, and veneer. We wander
under the same spell—a spell more powerful than that
of a romanoist, the spell of a minute delineator of
reality—through the squalor of the rural town of
Marney, hard by the Abbey ruins, where the priors of
another century had withstood the encroachments of
pauperism by their blending of thrift and munifi-
cence. We travel into the mining districts even as
far as the heathenish town of Wodgate, where surely
it were infinitely better to send missionaries than to
the wilds of Patagonia. We behold the selfishness of
the " batty" or middleman, the knaveries of the
" doggy" or manager, and the, sordid influence of the
" tommy" or truck-shop, where the scanty wages are
doled out in goods cf the worst imaginable descrip-
tion. .We inspect the mills; we attend a
torchlight meeting ; we take part in the trades'
union; we are involved at one moment
in a street row, and at another in a
general insurrection. The manifold wants and the
multiform woes of the industrious are here enumerated
with the eloquence of one who has observed with no
superficial glance the aspirations of the age and the
peculiarities of the existing generation. What
Disraeli unsuccessfully attempted iu his "Epick" he ac-
complished in "Sybil"—he therein depicted not merely
" the age and body of the time" in vivid colours, but
described with occesionelly almost painful distinctness
"its form and pressure." With all its tragic elements,
the fiction was nevertheless as remarkable far vivacity
as its predecessor—possibly, on occasion, more remark-
able. The denizens of Belgravia moved its gaily
though in a more sombre atmosphere : and the epi-
grammatic wit with which each person was sketched
iu a sentence, or an epithet, rendered the work no
less acceptable than . " Coningsby" to the admirers
of what is merely sparkling in light literature.
WaltelaGerard, the father of Sybil, although an
humble workman at Mr. Trafford's factory, is
recognised from the first as one of nature's
gentlemen : but not so Lord Marney, "a man who
was conscious you were trying to take him in, and
rather respected you for it, but the working of
whose cold unkind eye defied you," and from, whom
accordingly you shrink instinctively, notwithstanding
the allurements of the ermine and the coronet !
Disagreeable though several of the patrician cha-
racters are represented as being, others of course are
proportionably delightful—from Alfred Mountches-
ney " the Cupid of Mayfair," to Captain Grouse,
strutting over the product of the looms of Axminster
"in very tight pantaloons to show his very celebrated
legs;" from Kremlin "who had only one idea—and
that was wrong," to Wriggle "who went with the
times, but took particular good care to ascertain their
complexion ;" from Floatwell who swore by Lord
Dunderhead, to Mr. Ormsby, demurely observing, as
a diplomatist moves past highly starred and rib-
boned, " The only stars I have got are
four stars in India stock." Several of the
plebeian characters introduced are scarcely
less attractive. Poor Devilsdust, "dark and
melancholy," at once secures our interest, while
Dandy Mick Radley, "as brilliant as his com-
plexion," on the instant of his appearance commands
our sympathy. About the most original creation in
the three volumes, is unquestionably Baptist Hatton,
the heraldic antiquary of the Inner Temple, who—
strange to tell—can accept as his guiding principle,
the old maxim of the Church, " Qui laborat, °rat,"
even when munching his devilled biscuit at his
favourite table in the Athenaeum. As unquestion-
ably, the most detestable personage in the woik is
Stephen Morley, the Secretary of the Mowbray Tee-
total Association, and editor of the local newspaper.
His infamy towards the conclusion of the narrative,
when betraying his intimate friend in a kind of impish
vengeance for the rejection of his suit by the
daughter is almost too painful for contemplation.
Even the minor characters introduced, such as
Mother Carey the costermonger, or as Mr. St. Lys
the good vicar of Mowbray, or as Harriet the
child of the handloom weaver, are ocecasion-
ally sketched with a singularly nice discri-
minetion. Among these, is pleasantly conspicuous
Sir Vavaseur Firebrace, ever enthusiastic in his ad-
vocacy of the rights of baronets', and ever babbling
about his badge, his collar of SS, his sword, his gilt
spurs, and his plume of white feathers. Pre-
eminently distinguis'aable, however, in the midst of
all the motley figures crowded in artistic groupes into
the canvass are—the younger brother of Lord Maruey,
the gentle-hearted and chivalric Charles Egremont,
and Sybil (with whom he is of course ultimately
united), queen-like in beauty, and angelic in benefi-
cence, wandering through regions of crime and squa-
lor, attended only by Harold the bloodhound. Al-
though the writer discourses at times, as the nature
of his undertaking required, about twaddlers like
Bembaetes Rip, and about such themes of tedium as
debates in the House, when " Wislay is up, and
Washy follows," the narrative repeatedly becomes in-
vested with an absorbing interest, rising at inter,
vals into a strain of solemn and pathetic
eloquence. • The closing passage of the first
book, relating to the young Queen's accession is, in
this manner, elevated to the dignity of a noble and
affecting peroration. Enthralling though other in-
cidents in the fiction undoubtedly are, such, for ex-
ample, as the quarrel between Lord Marney and his
brother Egremont, or es the frightful scene in the
Tommy shop kept by Diggs, where an unfortunate
boy falls a victim to Master Joseph's tyranny, or as
the yet more frightful scene where this same Tommy
shop and its keepers are burnt in a spirit of hideous
retribution, the most powerfully described of all is
that relating to the crowning misfortunes of Sybil
(B. IV., c. 4), beginning " The clock of St. John's
Church struck three, and the clock of St. John's
Church struck four; and the fifth hour sounded from
St. Joan's Church; and the clock of St. John's was
sounding six—and Gerard had not yet returned."
His daughter is waiting for him in their
lodgings in Westminster, panic-stricken lest
some calamity may have befallen the leader
of the popular movement. After an odious
interview with Morley, followed by the consequences
already mentioned, Sybil, maddened with fear for
her father, goes in search of him to warn him against
some impending calamity. Accompanying her in
her midnight expedition through the streets of London,
the reader watches the course pursued by Sybil with
a feeling of breathless p
tre idation. Every
s circum-
stance in her progress appears at first environed
with impassable and insurmountable difficulties,
from the impertinence of the waiter in the
Coffee-house kept by Tanner, where she
tis
at length reluctantly directed to " 22, ucnb
street going out of Silver-street," or thefrota ast
wheel flying off in the centre cf one of the
most
abandoned rookeries, to the proposition made b
y Solin-
t
terlegs and and Hell-fire Dick to carry her
ay
ts.
Mother Poppy's, until her despairing ejaoul
tion, " 0 holy virgin aid me!" secures for her
whose
the assistance of a poor Irishman
heart warms on discovering in her a eistersCatholic.
The passionate interest of the whole adventure is ab-
sorbing, up to the arrest of 11Saclast, Wilkins, and
Gerard, and their conveyance, together
to the with Sybil,
to the Bow street Police-station. As a climax
tragic occurrences
in the story, comes the general
riot leading to the incursion of the mob into Mow-
tack upon Mowbray Castle,
at
Mow-
bray-park and their
where Morley is killed in the muniment room, and
Lord Mainey stoned to death at the head of his
yeomanry. While the building is still roaring and
Sybil
rescued by Egre-
is
crackling in the flames,
Egre-
mont. Such are the romantic and yet homely ele-
ments of which the fiction is composed—a fiction
which has legibly stamped upon it the imprint of an
age the matrix of which
.was a revolution. There
was a wonderful felicity in the very motto affixed to
the tatlepage of Sybil, a sentence culled from old
Bishop Latimer, "The Communalty murmured, and
said, There never were,, so many Gentlemen, and
so little Gentleness.' It was one among the
bitterest evils of the time, and one therefore
to which the novelist did wisely, as well as
generously, in giving utterance, Instead of effecting

7, 1852.

this, moreover, by setting class against class, he ac•
complished hispurpo4s more effectuelly by imparting
simultaneously to the poor and the rich a better ap •
preciation of each ether—revelling the pure in the
midst cf the sordid and the heart under the ermine,
Returned to the House of Commons, at the general
election of 1847, as knight of the shire for Bucking-
ham, Disreeii, in the same year, published his novel
of Tancred, otherwise celled " The ISL,w Crusade," a
work expressing some of his most cheriehed views
upon religion and some of the loftiest among his po-
litical aspirations. Incongruous though its materitls
were, and though they were in some measure COl4-
necte3 somewhat inartistically, the work nevertheless
commanded attention by its singularity; while it won
respect by its enthusiasm. Beginning with the
" chefs de cuisine" of Mayfaii, with PapaPrevost and
his Pupil Leander, the story wanders off to such
einDutkhee
annliaghlityatahnadiapu,istshanet
DpeurscohneatsgesofasßG6ieloarruguentth,
person .of whose only son is discovered the hero
Tancred, Marquess of . Mentacute. Thereupon, rov-
ing into the high circles, where we are again intro-
dam' to severel of our favourites in " Sybil" awl
inetO3tribiel*rsebmYo'it'ente6L-lohfr-E'thadooAf.eiteetc narrstiva
strays off
among the '" fie flier faces" seen before our
departure for Palestine, is that of Eclit-h—. steareeely
transmuted into a sarcastic lady, who can "-desjihe
in a rentenee and pers-ofrolilfdyeainpacait he " s
employment of this two -P aetichesatirist, tthhe
author bieutelf proves in Tancred thaYt h 8
more than ever a proficient. Speakiete‘ s'o; Z.lndye
Valentine, for example, 'he depicts her epee
amusing fashion, as a personage " who had one:,btel2elri
a beauty, with the reputation of a wit, and now set
up for being a wit on the reputation of having been at
laauty ;" while of Lady Hampshire he contents" him
self wi:h remarking thet she s' spoke in a sawn...
voice of factitious eet'ausiasm.' As a cout;lYe
of titled "parvenue," Lord and Lady Mount-
joy are is like manner branded as persons
" who, with a largo fortune, lived in a
wrong square, and asked to their house everybody,
who was nobody."
~ Colonel Brace is humorously de-
lineated as " robust, a little portly, hut, well-buckled,
still presenting' a grand military figure," while the
clever and beautiful Lady Constance Rawleig-b, who is
said to have "guanoed her mind with French novels.," is
described as having possessed the reputation of •
" breathing scorpions as well as brilliants and roses."
Even ilillel Besso, although an Asiatic, and, what is
more, a Caucasian, does not escape the accusation of
" uttering common-places, as if they were poignant
originalities." It is in the more serious portions of
the romance, however, that its principal attraction is
discoverable, where the writer illustrates anew with
an impassioned and persuasive rhetoric his sympathies
for that sacred tied ancient race of whose descendants
he had already mournfully asserted that they had too
long " lalocured under the odium end stigma of me-,
diseval malevolence." His veneration for the
memory of his forefathers way surely be compre-
hended by those who, like the Gentile nations
of Christendom, are indebted to the Hebrew
prophets for tee light, and the music, end
the poetry of so many august revelations. Renaiud-
ing his readers how profoundly they are under obli-
gations to the children of the Chaldean Abraham,
the author, himself a descendant of the Sephardim,
conducts his hero to the tomb where the Prince of the
house of David has for eighteen centuries been adored
by nilgrirns from the remotest quarters of the earth,
in Jerusalem. Tancred adventures upon his "new
crusade," impelled by a sense of those lofty Asian
principles which Disraeli had already designated as
"of divine origin and of universal and eternal ap-
plication." His exploits carry him not only into the.
desert but into Damascus, bringing him into contact
with the I)ruse, and the Bedoueen, and the Moronity,
besides conducting him to the mountain palaces of the
Lebanon, and at lest even as far as the see:uded
cities of the Ansayrii. By a singular coincidence,
almost.. immediately after the appearance of " Tan_
creel," a young officer in the British Navy, the Hon.
Frederick Walpole, penetrated for the first time those
regions which had been hitherto inexorably closed
against an European. Describing the Aeseeell
principally, therefore, if not altogether, from
conjecture, the novelist ' acquitted himself
of the task with ea amity. Sometimes, however, his
guesses at the reality have proved, of course, erro-
neous; as, for instance, in reftrence to the theology
of the Syrian Chinese. The worship of the Ansayrii
appears unhappily to be somewhat more obscene than
that which would have induced them to adore, ac-
cording to the graceful supposition of Disraeli, the
beautiful and majestic divinities of Olympus.
As an episode to the main story, the his-
tory of the Family of Baroni is eminently
ingenious, developing at once the idea of Sidonia's
character and of the importance of the Hebrew race-,
übiquitous in spite of persecution, and flourishing al-
though expatriated—that venerable race, out of which
grew originally, like the leaves, and the flowers, and
the fruit of a tree, the virtues, and the precepts, and
the beneficence of Christianity.
" Nulla Silva talem profert
Fronde,'flore, germine!"

Principally because of its earnest advocacy of the
race of his progenitors, " Tancred" may be said to
have confirmed rather than extended its author's
reputation. Its abrupt conclusion destroyed the interest
it might otherwise have retained; insomuch that, in
spite of their beauty, little is cared, on closing the last
volume, for either Eva or Astarte, the destinies of the
heroines being left altogether in a state of indecieion.
In 1849 a Life of Isaac Disraeli appeared as on hi-
troductory chapter to his delightful "Curiosities of
Literature." Although of course necessarily brief,
restricted, indeed, within the compass of a moderate
Pamphlet (pp. 63), it constitutes one of the most
charming of all our author's compositions. As
a tribute to the memory of a father, declared to have
been without" a single passion or prejudice," it se-
cures a respect which, before the concluding passages
are read, has become heightened into admiration.
At the commencement of this literary biography, the
memorialist has written, among others, two golden
sentences, true in significance and beautiful in ex-
pre,,ion_e The pen is a weapon as puissant
as the sword "—" A book may be as
great a thing
es a battle"—reminding us
that the life of
Shekspere, for example, would
not be less interesting or less valuable than that of
Alexander. After recounting hew his father, before
the age of fifteen, had dipped in Boyle and Voltaire,
remaining for an interval at Amsterdam, under a
to or, who was e a great impostor," the biographer
records the retain of Isaac Disraeli to England, where
eighteen—a disciple of Rousseau. Here, moreover,
is mentioned that teuchin,,,, incident so simply. and
yet so exquisitely told, of the poem submitted to
the judgme )t of Dr. Johnson by the future author
of the " Curiosities of Literature." It occurred after
his return in 1788 from his travels in France—
when he left the manuscript himself, at Bolt-court,
in the bands of Mr. Francis Barber, the Doctor's
black servant, and on calling a week later for -the
reply, had the packet returned unopened. Isaac
Disraeli was informed that the Doctor was too ill
to read any communication. He paeeed out into Fleet-
street, anxious and doubtful. "Alas !" exclaims .
his son in recounting the circumstance, " the cause
was too true ; and a few weeks after, on
that bed beside which the voice of Mr. Burke fal-
tered, and the tender spirit of Bennett Langton
was ever vigilant, the great soul of Johnson quitted
' earth." By Leis graceful memorial of Disraeli the
Elder, Disraeli the Younger proved himself emi-
nently qualified in a literary sense, to produce in 1851
his latest work, entitled Lord George Bentinck: a
political biography. During several years previously
he had qualified himself, in other respects, to compile
a volume censiAiog chh fly of the record of events in
which he himself bad prominently participated
• A sup-
porter of Sir Robert Peel's Government for some time,
he ultimately withdrew from the encouragement of
Cabinet which he boldly. reprobated as 4 t a
au orEanized
hypocrisy." It was not so much the policy
com-
menced in 1842 which estranged him from those who
still owned allegiance to that illustrious statesman, as
D
it was the very method, according to which, '
111
by his celebrated Tamworth Manifesto, Siro
that it
i
111834'
may be said to have created the systemfisrael
Robert
Conser-
vatism. Alluding to that document,
observed in Coningsby (Book 11., e. 5
46 an attempt to construct a party without was
its basis, therefore, was necessarily _principles ;
Latitudina-
rianism ; and its inevitable consequence
Political Infidelity." Instead of a has been
experiment like that, he
declared himself to
he enamoured with the
Toryism " breathed in
the
intrepid eloquence and patriot
reathed in
William. Wyndham," the Toryism soul of
believed to be " vindicated • Which he
tenc " es by the "fervent arguments
golden sen-
tences" by
of Bolingbroke. Smitten with and
impassioned
ideal of his political day-dreams
with love for this
be, by the very sense of the brilla'rld incited, it may
his enterprize, the Member fur y and daring of
menced
in
mu
those
memorable r ackingham come
Prime Minister which eventuallyattacks upon the
from the administration. For the
led to his retirement
the acerbity of these
attacks, in which every sentence" had the point of an
epigram, Disraeli has
since the death of his magnanimously compensated
groat antagonist by a generous
tribute to his genius,r
Yet—as , •
expressed in the language of ad-
miration.— Wilmot stays in the Comedy—
" 'Gad, if I were a c statesman' I'd rather, instead,
Have the epitaph
living— the epigram dead.„
Howbeit, thosepolitical biography of
passages iu the
Lord George Bentin k in character of Sir
Robert Peel is discriminated are
theseiacei7less
ad.
mirable than the portions of the same work relating
to the gallant •heerted and chivalrous leader of the
Protectionists. If there is one peculiarity, however,
more cen
~ ----sPi;
cuous than another in the tempera-
iner" of the present Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, it is that of a magnanimous ap-
preciation. of his ParlianaGutary antagonists.

Witness this, not merely his panegyric cn Sir Robert
Peel, but his noble eulogium on Lord Palmerston in
one of the chapters of " Tancrecl," and his graceful
hat earnest encomium on Mr. Hume in the earlier pages
of his latest coinpa,‘.ition. As the utterance of friend.
ship for one prematurely snatched from lifo,this vo-
lume must he regarded in the literature of politics,
as not less touchingly commemorative than, in poetry,
were the " Lycida.s" of Milton, the " Adonais " of
Shelley, or the " In Memoriam" of Tennyson.
Among the miscellaneous productions of Disraeli—
besides the opening number of a daily newspaper,
under his editorship, entitled The Representative—.
must be enumerated, of course, his electioneering
Addresses to his Constituents, and those Speeches deli-

vered in the House of Commons which were subse-
quently revised for separate publication. From these,
hardly less frequently than from his more pretentious
effusions, might be culled evidences of his genius as a
wit, and his ability as a satirist. Several of his ready
phrases—nicknames, some of them as humorous as
those of O'Connell, without revealing the slightest
tincture cf vulgarity—have stuck like burrs in the
popular remembrance. In this manner his allu-
sion to Lord Melbourne as " The Arch• Me-
3iocrity," hs.s not been forgotter, tiny more
than his mock respectful reference to a wellhknown
ennalist—(according to some more vosluminous then
ltuninous)—as "Mr. Wordy the Historian." Neither
is his epithet for Italicised Writers, that of "The
Forcible Feebles," lost to recollection, any more than
his calling the Derby " The Blue Ribbon of the
Turf," or his designating Honsard "The Duncisd of
Politics." Not unacqueetly, moreover, the sparkling
sentence will he found accompanied by come
other of a more sober - complexion
thoughtful and sententious. What can be finer
in this respect, than that remark in " Coningeby"
(13, VII , c. 2.), " Life is too short to be little," or
then that passage in " Sybil," where he terms the
youth posterity ? " If
we yve:-)ef, areieTutii°reud;h‘ "the trustees
adduceof a crowning
that Lon;ion, with
testimony or our author's capacitytas a wit—we
should et once refer to that suggestion " Tancred "
(8- ne c 10) with which he follows up his lamenta-
tionvoid of the attribute of- -
" great city is the type or architecture!. It grandeur,
either
topographical
its vastness, is wholly de-
occurs after a reflection some-
what similar to his mark in a previous work, that
Tv,, 1), as Paris
of of seine great idea" (Con.
Faith. Whereupon, alluudsinof
Rome of Conquest.
even now investing our
Athae"&", London of Commerce,
writes—_" Art, end Jerusalem of
nut: to
rthe possibility of
ofromboatshteed dNepaoss-iy-
tmoifoitaiismtnr9afitiositn:;-:
coelfebsetijuelsdti.ce
Even
ntes with an aspect
wilepushreostt
an
aadd.-
ne
never achieved a great victory uuntril
inspirationect
w
ereaswe
tmi
oi ad-
miral. a. . Terror Suppose
flay
e ins
r cas compette
hanged ?" Than
this we know scarcely any more delightful
of wit—an example perfect of its kind, bet:Ramp,Ple
ductive of precisely that surprise which is declared forts();
essential by the more subtle among our metaphysicians.
In addition to the various writings already enume-
rated, there are others which, from internal evidence,
tend to prove that Disraeli has given play to his
industry under the shadow of the anonymous. He
has long been regstded as the reputed author of The
Letters of Runnymede, of The Gallomania, and of
The Spirit of IVhiggism, together with other papers,
which would seem to reveal his skill as a pam-
phleteer. Any further development of these
politico-litsrery capacities, it is to be feared,
is hopeless, now that the writer of fiction for
the people has been nominated a Privy Councillor by
his Sovereign.. The novelist has thrown aside the
pen which was the wand of hiss divination, and has
tsken up instead the red box of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer. And while his literary admirers may
leave been remitting Rith Horace—
" Car ponder, tnci;a tistule cum Iva?"
his Parliamentary followers were listening on the
30th of ApciJ, 1852—the year in which Benjamin
Disraeli became a Cabinet Minister, and in
which he was thereupon elected for the second time
representative of the county of Buokiogham—to his
first, and, in many respects, masterly Financial State-
ment. Leader of the Howse of Commons, under the
Derby Administration, the Right Hon. Gentleman is
one of the most popular membeee in that the popular
branch of Parliament. His interest is with the tyro
and his sympathy with the aspirant. As he has written
of his own Sidonia—" he Eked to give ability of all
kinds its scope : nothing was more apt to make him
melancholy than to beer cf persons of talent dying
without baying their chance"—he might have written
of himself with truth, if not altogether without arro-
gance, according to the feeling generally entertained
in the Lower House of the Legislature,
Beginning life as the son of a secladedscholar, Ben-
jamin Disraeli has already in the bloom of his maturity,
by his own unassisted abilities, rendered himself so
far distinguished among the public men of our gene-
ration as to become Leader of the English House of
GAIIMOTIS and, in many respects, the presiding Intel-
lect in the councils of the British Government. To
the superficial this might appear to be the crowning
epoch of a career, marked throughout rather by its
successes than by its vicissitudes. The discerning,
however, must view it, on the contrary, as a com-
mencement instead of a consummation. The man of
letters who has fixed the attention of his contempo-
raries may now secure to himself the grateful re-
membrance of posterity—by revealing sagacity as a
statesman end patriotism as an administrator.
Master of his position, he has at this moment within
his grasp a rare end golden opportunity. r.
HAYMARKET THEATRE.

--
A piece of unadulterated, extravagant, screaming fun
was produced on Saturday evening under the extraordinary
appellation of Keeley worried by
being testified by continuous
roars of laughter from beginning to end. The intense comi-
cality of the thing resulted from the oddity of Keeley and
Buckstone personating themselves, appearing in their own
individualities on the stage. The former is the victim, the
latter the tormentor. The victim being aggrieved -by the
imposition of a fine, for politely inquiriug how muck the
prompter—a great authority, in the French sense of the,
word, behind the scenes—would charge for being called a muff
secedes from a theatre, and gives himself up to the enjoy..
ment of a species of pastoral and semi-hermitical solitude in
Brompton-square. Where Mrs. Keeley is we do not for a
moment dare to inquire; but if she does not appear, Mr.
,
Buckstone does, and dire is the uproar he contrives; making
love to a lady out of Mr.
flKinegeilneyg'sthwiningdsovroust—,
of Window,
which what is Mrs. Keeley possibly to think ?—altering the
principal
whole disposition of Mr. Keeley's furniture in the moat
to be summoned by a
bwrhoilecehr'se-ainusean;l..ilier. fashion;Keeley
vigilant
police ; causing that small but intrel.id comedian to think
that he hits been struck deaf—" a poor deaf devil'" I,
making believe to speak'and not utter a word ; and, finally,---5'
b-ing challenged by the jastly-indignant Keeley to
duel—place Weybridge—means of conveyance, laght a
which one is to ride outside, the other in—and
the ap
witness to be, a noted old cock-pheasant I
artists, with the addition of Mr. Clerk as j Ilow these
servant, sustain themselves let the rest' -
nob Keeley's
glorious stage frolic, which we believe has'er ullagille' This
Mr. Mark Lemon and Mr. Webster,been concocted by
must
predated, and is sure to attract be sees to be -
to the Haymarket. crowds for m ap-
any an e__
..........„—____ Ferring

HER MAJESTY'S I'IIEATRE.—Her RoTel Highness
the Duchess of Kent, attended by Lad Suffield, Lady
Fanny Howard, Sir George Couper, and Lordy J es Murray,
honoured the performances at her Majesty'a Theatre, on
Saturday evening, with her presence. 11 r Royal Hi hnese
ness the Princess Mary
the Duchess of Cambridge, accompanied bye ber'Royalgifigh-
theatre with her presence on thi4 ge'
' 'n
Their Royal
Royal Highness the Duke of Cambrid nattended by
Highnesses were attended by the
of Camb-id alq hoioured the
tcacraosiorLesebeck. His
the Hon. James Macdonald, individuals
also pgeer 'sent. Amongst the
noble and distinguished individuals also visiting the theatre
were the following a---Ilis Grace the Duke of wellington an_d,
the Marquis of Ailesbury, the Eight Hon. the Chancellor 01
Donegal, the Marchioness the Exchequer and Mrs. 13. Disraeli. the Duke "d
Duke of
of Bedford, the Duke and Duchess of Leinster, the of
Cleveland, the Mauis a Clanricarde, the Marquis
the Earl and
Major
-.. dale, the Earl
Countess of Stamford, the Earl of Lolaseibunie, the Earl
and Countess of Glen gall, the Earl n
ofShelburne,
Hon. the Secre-
Mountcharles, Viscount Anson, the Bightq, of Malmesbury,
tary for Foreign Affairs, and the Countess
Lord Ward, &c. of Go` nvnhgam, —e
.ENT'S-PATIK.--
The second exhibition of American
ROYAL BOTANICAL GArLD----
.. t
REG
took
nence of the unfavourable
p
gardens on Saturday. In nu„,ae
—'
rem" days of exhibition, the
flowers place at these
state of the weather on the
- better attended than is usually
gardens on this occasion weredays. The great attraction of
the case upon the Americans
though
the collection of rhododen-
dronsh not yet fully blown, were
the day, in respect
vrofhtlicr.
flowers,
and azaleas, fragrance of the different flowers
beautiful. The
exceedingly beau Amongst the company present ware
in bloom was delicious. e
h Duke of Beaufort, the Earl of Stam-
the Duke of Norfolk, t_
I Murchiscra Major-General Bourchier,
ieuteuant-General Sir John Doveton,
hester, Lord Blaney, Lady Desert, Lady
the Bishop
°I edShelburne, Sir Charles Slingsby, Lieute-
Adela Norton, Lo.,
fLoarddyanmd
aNtirsnifteit _L.
Bowater, Hon. Lady Hislop, Sir James
Lnshington, ike.
MR. ROtBUCK...— Our readers will
ILarass or
measure of regret which cannot exceed that
learn with. a emake the melancholy announcemen—that
with which v.,.
so seriously ill as to create no small anxiety
Mr. Roebuck is
on the part of friends kis f • ds. Under the most
favourableresult on
it is to be feared that there is little
nant-General Sir E.
as to the
probability me the active duties of Parliamentary. or public
able to resume
we are sorry to say, been visited
with a para-
lyticaffection,l"ilas, which, at any rate for the present, entirely
life.
rfe the Honourable. Gentleman ever again being
a
unfits
THE GREAT EXHIBITION.--
SELOUS' PICTURE OF . .
deserved well a vivid reproduction.
The opening ceremony .
him for attending to business of any kind.—Advertiser.
by the
of Messrs. Lloyd, Brothers,Co.,and Co. all is accomplished
in-
stance
• linmer's art, and in this picture, painted. at the
persons is set before us as palpably as on the memorable Ist
that could be desired., A group of nearly 100 illustrious
Of May. As a painting, few will deny their weed of appro-
bation; but probably more will look critically at the por-
traits, and these, we venture to affirm, will bear their strict-
est scrutiny. All have been taken at sittings kindly given,
from her Majesty downward:, and the result is not alone a
fine work of art, but a memorial valuable because truthful.
The Master and Wardens of the Mercers' Company
have invited General Sir Harry Smith to dine with them, at
their hall, early ir. the ensuieg month.
APPEOACHING MARRIAGE IN HIGH LIFE—We
We are enabled to anneonce that the preliminaries are
arranged for a matrimonial al:iance between the Right Hon.
H. Labouchere, ALP., and the amiable and accomplished
Lady Mary Hward,
1 Sutherland Young,6t sister of the Duchess of