, 1878-06-21
The Character Of Lord BeaeonSheld.

An article in the current number Of The
FOrtHightly Resice contains the rather
severe, but on the whole not unjust es,i.
mate Of the present Premier's character,
and the causes Of his success.
The circumstances of his birth, the
legislation and social temper of the coun-
try To which his ancestry transferred
themselves a century aud a quarter since,
the inherited qualities Of race whose
habits of mind aud character have been
formed by nearly two Thousand years OF
persecution aud social slight, have hin.
dered Lord Beaconsdeld from cultvating
that subOrdination of mere personal
greed, whether of fame, or wealth, or
power, TO the well-beiug of a sect, u
party, class, nation, without which Il
genuine community is impossible. 1t
is scarcely Lord Beaconsfelds fault, all
things considered, that his career has not
been in its main features that of an Eng
lish statesman, but rather that of for
eign political adyenturer. The
hatred of the Wing oligarchy which runs
through the letters of Runnymede, and
which has inspired many agibe and scott
from Lord Beaconsfield's lips and pen
during half century, is probably as
genuine sentiment as either he or any
one else has ever entertained. 1t springs
from the same root as his administration
of Bolingbroke. A personal rule, the
monarchy of patriot king holding him
self above the strife of party, and there
fore beyond its control, gives the adyen-
turer and the favorite opportunities which
it is not easy to find under any other sys'
tenn. 1t opens doors which an oligarchy,
Venetian or Wing, tries to keep closed.
Lord Beaconstield has not only defended
Bolingbroke's doctrines in his Letters to
noble and learned Lord in vindication
OF the English Constitution, and else
where, but he has striven in later years to
give effect to them. He has done so, it
5 true, by the instrumentality Of that
very system Of government by party,
which in his more candid moments he
decries, and of that aristocratic class for
which he every now and then intimates
sort of good. natured contempt. Circum-
stances made Lord Beaconsheld q politi.
cal soldier of fortune. In the reign of
Queen Anne he would probably have
been the pamphleteer of faction. Under
George III. he would have been the de-
pendant and parliamentary spokesman of
a great noble, as Barre was of Lord Shell
burne, whom Lord Beaconstield admires
only less than he admires Bolingbroke,
and in part for the same reasons. Under
the reiun of Oueen Victoria he has Dassed
through both these embryo stages, as is
the law with fully developed animals.
He has been the pampheteer of party,
and the parliamentary spokesman Of aris-
tocratic chiefs. He was the Barre of
Lord George Bentinck and of Lord Der.
by. But he has brought the art Of politi
cal adventure to a higher point than it
has reached in England since the full
development of parliamentary institutions.
Probably two things were needed for this
perfect and final success. The formation
under the personal and hereditary intlu-
ences which we have endeavored to trace
of typical advepturer was one of these
conditions. The reign of female sove-
reign was the other. 1t was Queen Anne
who made Boingbroke possible. Queen
Victoria has been as essential to Lord
Beaconsfield. The faint parody of Bo-
lingbroke's career and doctrine which
Lord Beaconstield has been able to ex-
hibit has required state of things re-
sembling, though but distantly, that
which prevailed under the latest preced-
ing Queen Regnant.