Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1869-04-27
English Toryism and its Leaders,
DIsRAELI's UNscRUPULoUsNEss.

Dl6KAEl1 UNSCRUPUL ESS.
Three or four years ago, bitter, tactious
attack was made in the House of Commons
upon Mr.. Stansfeld, then holding office in
the Liberal government, because Ofhis open
and avOwed friendship for, and intimacy
with Mazzini. This wa. at time when
the French government were endeavoring
to connect Mazzini with plot to assassin
ate the Emperor Napoleon. Mr.. Disraeh
was very stern in his condemnation of Mr..
Stansfeld for his friendship with one who,
twenty odd years before, had encouraged a
young enthusiast { as the enthusiast said
in design to kill Charles Albert, King of
Sardinia. Mr.. Bright, in a moderate and
kindly speech, deprecated the idea of max
ing objectionable crimes out of the hot
headed follies of enthusiastic men in their
young days; and he added that he believ-
ed there would be found in certain poem,
written by Disreali himself some twenty
five or thirty years before, and called =" A
Revolutionary Epick," some lines of elo-
quent apOstrOphe in praise OF tyranniclde.
Up sprang Mr.. Disraeli, indignant and ex-
cited, and vehemently denied that any such
sentiment, any such line, could be found
in the poem. Mr.. Bright at once accepted
| the assurance; said he had never seen the
poem himself, but only heard that there
was such passage in it; apOlogized for
| the mistake-and there most people tho't
the matter would have ended. In truth,
the volume which DisraeH had published
generation before, with the grandilOquent
title, GA Revolutionary Epick" mot ''epic,"
in the common way, but dignitied, old
fashioned "epick,') was a piece of youth
full, bombastic folly, long out of print, and
almost wholly forgotten. But Disraeli
chose to attach great Importance to the
charge he supposed to be made against him !;
and he declared that he felt himself bound
to refute it utterly by more than mere de-
NAL. Accordingly, in few weeks, there
came out new edition of the Epick, with
a dedication to Lord Stanley, and preface
explaining that, as the first edition was out
of print, and as charge founded on pas
sage on it had been made against the au-
thor, said author felt bound to issue this
new edition, that all the world might see
how unfounded was the accusation. Sure
enough the publication did seem to dispose
of the charge effectively. There was only
one passage which in any way bore on the
subject of tyrannicide, and that certainly
did not express approval. What could be
more satisfactory? Unluckily, however,
the gentleman on whose hint Mr.. Bright
spoke, happened to possess one copy of the
original edition. He compared this, to
make assurance doubly sure, with the copy
at the British Museum, the only other copy
accessible to him, and he found that the
passage which contained the praise of ty-
rannicide had been partly altered, partly
suppressed in the new edition specially
issued by Mr.. Disraeli, in order to prove
to the world that he had not written line
in the poem to imply that he sanctioned
the Staying of tyrant. Now, this was a
small and trihing affair but just see how
significant and characteristic it was II
surely did not make much matter whether
Mr.. Disraeli, in his young, nonsensical
days, had or had not INDUCED in a burst
of enthusiasm about the Staying of tyrants
in poem so bombastical that no rational
man could think of it with any seriousness
But Mr.. Disraeli chose toregard his repu-
tation as seriously assailed ; and what did
he do to vindicate himself? He publish
ed new edition, which he trumpeted as
not merely authentic, but as issued for the
sole purpose of proving that he had not
praised tyrannicide, and he deliberately
excised the lines which contained the pas.
sage in question:! The controversy turned
on some two lines and half; and of these
Mr. Disraeli cut out all the dangerous
words and gave the garbled version to the
, world as his authoritative reply to the
, charge made against him This, too, after
the famous annexation" of one of Thiers's
speeches, and the delivery of it as pane
gyric on the memory of the Duke of Wei
lingtion, and after the appropriation of &
page or two cut out of an essay by Macau
, lay, and its introduction wholesale, as orig
inal, into one of Mr.. Disraeli's novels.
J, LORD ROBERT CECIL. T1
II One young man of brains there was or
the Tory side of the House of Commons
! who did not like Disraeli, and never pro
fessed to like him This was Lord Rober
4 Cecil, who subsequently became Viscoun
! Cranbourne, and now sits in the House of
Lords as Marquisof Salisbury. Lord Rob
ert Cecil'was by far the ablest scion of no
BILE Toryism in the House of Commons
Younger than Lord Stanley he had mo-
a -4s a-.g G. ta41-