New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-12-05
pprvJFR AND ROyINCE-VRITER.

The statesman who began life as a romance-writer
cannot enjoy his literary recrcalons in his old age
without being suspected of fooling everybody.
Thousands of English readers who have bought his
last novel consider themselves the victims OF false
pretences They expected a serpent and they got
fish instead and not very fresh al that. romance
in which the satire is thin that 1t passes for dull
ness and which the portraits arc so dun that they
are recognized with difficulty is disagreeablc
prise Soon after VIVIAN Grey got into print much
ingenuity was shown IN the arrangement of ." Keys"
one of which passed through several editions
Endymion - furnishes little scope for guesswork
of that KIND One turns ITS pages in vain for fine
irony and giittering paradoxes, Tor prophetic lntu
tions and political mysteries. The Iaures OF Lord
Beaconsield's own romanticisn have suffered him
TO sleep only too comfortably. His literary ambi-
ton has shared the commonplace fate of what he
once termed his historic conscience" and is now
likewise at rest. His book goes ont 10 the world
without a touch of mysticism. 1t is published I'M
der lucrative contracts and translated in various
languages 1t enables him to buy new house in
London and his critics are ungencrous as to hint
that it was written merely as a "pot-boIler"
1t may be that Englishmsn Themselves are to
blame for expecting Lord B-aconsfield TO mystify
them as he has done before. Or late years The ten
dency has been TO exsggerate the political insight
of the author of Sybii" and "Coningsby." A
curious instance is the approval with which Herr
Brandes's biography of Lord Beaconsfeld was re-
Gently received in England. THIS was
studied effort to interpret tho statesman
through the romances OF Benjamin Disraeli. The
method is fully disclosed in such a passage IA
this "Tancred. In its relation to the East
ern politics OF Lord BeacOnslield, is a yertabe
palimpsest the book concealed for thirty years the
serious programme of this policy ard not until
Time the greatest of critics. has by degrees cor
roded the surface. other critics enabled to de-
clpher the concealed and instructive original writ
ing.v The tendency u carried to an extreme point
IN thus passage but II has become tho habit of p0ht
zeal criticism To associate the unique personality of
the romance writer with the public life If the Premier
and party leader During the six years of his event
fu admins ration, whether he was comforting
new ttleupon the Queen. buying the Suez shares.
obstructing the diplomacy of Europe, transporting
the Sepoys from India, making secret treaty with
the Porte. or entering upon wars of conquest in
Zhluland and A ghanistan IN the popular Judgment
Inc was invested with the charms and mage of an
ASIAN nccrOmancer rather than impelled by the
sober instincts of an English statesman. Dahzcd by
tho glitter Of his imperial devices, his followers
were content 10 regard him as wonder v orkerthe
first really imaginative statesman of the genera
tion.
Lord Bcaconsfeld, while making history hand over
hand as Premier. was viewed as "A romanco-maker
and n magician, mainly because he had entered upon
his public career as fantastic stOry-writer and
political satirst. This was not critical method