The daily gazette., 1881-04-19
BEACONSFIELD DEAD !!
Full of Years the Tory
Leader Passes Away.
EARL. KNIGHT OF THE GARTER
EX.PREMIER OF ENGLAND.
STATESMAN AND NovELIsT-sToRY OF
THE MAN WHO CONTROLLED AN EN-
PRES DEsTINY-HIs FIGHT FOR


~~SN@~AAN
THE MAN WHO CONTROLLED AN EN-
PIRE's DEsTINY-HIs FIGHT FOR
FAME.
LONDON, April 1880 A. NJ.
Lord Beaconsfeld is dead. His
death was much more sudden than his
physicians expected. At five a. m.
the newspapers announced that his
symptoms had given grounds for more
grave anxieties than at any peri cd dur
ing his illness. The bulletins Of yes
terday morning had stated that he
had been more restless during the
last twenty-four hours and that there
was no material gain in his strength.
The news at ten p. m. was that he
was restless during the day and that his
strength had diminished. His death
took place at half-pasJ four a. m.
WONDERFUL cAREEH.
Earl, Knight of the Garter, ex-Pre-
mier of England, Benjamin Disraeli,
born Jew at time when Jews were
under civil disabilities, and in turn
student, dandy, litterateus and states
man, has passed away. Viewed in any
light his career was as extraordinary
as l. was brilliant, for his qualities
were not what are called solld ones,
and solidity is the one quality the
world looks for in the real ruler of
modern England To find such man
for six years the blindly trusted leader
of people at once SO intelligent and
SO Jealous of innovations as the Eng
lish would, no matter what his party
or what his steps TO power, argue the
possession of some most mastery quail
ties but to know that he was during
that period not merely the idol of the
Commons, but the chosen leader and
champion of the Lords the master
of the proudest dukes; the patron of
the aristoerats of the oldest lines in
England the special, personal adviser
of the Queen the chief, in word, OF
the conservatives of the British EN-
pire, is 10 recognize genius predes-
tined to sway. OF what that genius
was compounded should in the close
scrutiny of his seventy-six years of life
be we'll known. 1t has been analysed
brilliantly and unsparingly by friend
and foe, but all the explanations leave
something unexplained.
When the best and most mereiless
critics have written their lines they have
turned aside and declared there was a
residue Of mystery. He was an Oriental
sphinx, an Asian mystery; he was any
thing vague aud mystic that would cover
what lay beyond the critics reach OF
definition. The panegyrists made it
some luminous quality that God only
gives TO one man in hundred millions,
while the satirists called 1t a thing of
mere tricks and jugglery. 1t will require
the cold hand of history to draw forth
the inner details OF that remarkable life
and make the picture OF the man COM
plete, but the materials are now ut hand
by which he can be fully outlined. 1t is
a strange figure looked at in any phase
of his career, but it only becomes
grandiose toward the close. Benjamin
Disrasli, the boy, was gifted in no
ordinary way. Well educated to begin
with, easy in means, beautiful in person,
gay and polished IN manner, obserVant,
ready in conversation, mystical in one
vein. without illusions in another, fervid
and cynical, persevering and fippant, he
came into London society more than
fifty years ago.
Looked al within the past few years
you might see the wrinkles, the poor old
curls, the parchment hue, the stoop that
years had brought, but the geist, the
spirit OF the man was the same. Four
teen years ago his career, If ended, would
have been called brilliant disappoint-
ment, SO late did the grand fruItions of
his endeavors come to him. But at no
time In his life can il be SAID that Dis
raeli was inconsistent with himself. He
played battledoro with principles ; he
forsook and torsWore in the brilliant
game he used tactics that warrea with
his declarations, but he ever was true 10
himself, to the line he had marked out,
He would be novel writer, biographer.
traveller, as the event served. With
high ambitions, he was capable OF stern
resolves, and brought patience as great
as his persistence to his aid in making
for the goal. That goal, declared fifty
odd years ago, was the Premiership OF
England, Premier with coronet. Such
man may have belief in fatalities, but
he gives adverse destiny no chance. His
novel of "Vivian Grey" in which all
this was outlined, saw the light when
he was twenty-two' He was thirty two
when he entered Parliament, thirty-five
beio.e he would be listened to, forty
eight before he held Cabinet Office,
sixty-four before he was Premier and |
seventy-two before he put coronet on |
his brow. Up to 1874 he had in all his |
previous thirty-seven years In the House
of Commons been Minister for only |