Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-04-20
LORD BEAcnNsEIELp.

{" that recollect with labor the GROWING
g incident of some grotesque dream" It
is only necessary to substitute the name
of BENJAMIN D;sraeli for that of William
Lamb in this sentence to arrive at the
sentiment with which large part OF the
nation over whom he ruled regarded the
singular being who has just died. The
career of Lord Beaconsfeld has been a
constant marvel and perplexity to his con-
temporaries. 1t has been practice for
the best part of half a century to speak OF
him as a charlatan, as mountebank, as a
! sphinx, as mixture of the most neon
gruous vices and merits. Nothing can be
palmer than the utter inability of the ma
jority of his critics to analyze his char
acter, while nine-tenths Of the philippics
poured upon him have been in effect con-
formations of that English nation which
has trusted and honored him so greatly.
1t has been said that he was IN English !;
that he was medieval in his ideas; that he
derived from his Semitic and Venetian
ancestry notions of government wholly at
variance with constitutional theories that
he possessed no convictions that he
merely played at believing in principles !;
that ne was, as one writer put it, some
chow or other outside the sphere OF moral
Judgment; come from another world,
''and to be judged by the law OF his
domicile, whatever that may De, rather
than by the rule according to which
50 Englishmen pass moral sentence upon
each other" All this, however, amounts
to little more than an admission that Lord
Beaeonsfield was difficult to understand,
and that his character was not cast in the
common mold. And undoubtedly his race
and hereditary associations accounted
largely for this exotic aspect. He was a
Jew and a Venetian. He believed all his
life in what he called the Semitic prin-
"ciple." There was a very distinct
leaven of Orientalism in his character.
He had no inherited enthusiasm for Anglo
Saxon institutions. Whatever of such en-.
thusiasm he exhibited was acquired not
born with him. Yet he did unquestion-
ably succeed in making himself believed in
by great party, in swaying the counsels
of an empire in whose traditions ne had no
personal possession, and in winning for
himself honors and triumphs such as have
! fallen to few men at any period of the
worlds history.
In his political and literary career there
is to be found no element of solid great
ness. His oratory was brilliant, incisive,
penetrating, caustic, but never profound.
His measures were gaudy, audacious,
meretricious, full of the love Of pomp and
circumstance. His policy resembled rather
that of an Asiatic Grand Vizjer than any
previously known to English statesmen. In
his novels, poems and essays the same
characteristics are found. From "Vivian
Grey" to " Endymion the list OF MS
novels keeps an even level OF graceful
superfciality. They abound with sharp
and sparkling epigrams, with ford in.
agery, with kind of politics which re-
sembles nothing in the heavens above or
the earth beneath or the waters undertake
earth. 1t is as though he had everywhere
SKINNED over the surface OF his subjects,
and had never grasped or even sought to
grasp any one Of them in its entirety. This
popularity is observable throughout his
literary work. There is abundant literary
art, much felicitous expression, refined
wit and. keen and biting irony. Bat
nothing is ever more than glanced at,
nothing is dealt VITA seriously or fully,
nothing is disposed Of satisfactorily.
But when all these defects have been
noted the fact remains that in spite OF
them this man succeeded in reaching the
highest political Office in his country, and
that his long career was substantially
triumph over the most formidable OBJ
stacles. What was the secret OF this sue.
cess. We think it has never been better
explained than in the following sentences
Lord Beaconslield has had enc steady
" and consistent purpose through life;
and, to use Burke's expression, he has
g varied his means in order to preserve the
: essential unity OF his end. To climb
&C. ever higher and higher, to fix more and
more steadily the public gaze, to WELD
"power, to receive and distribute honors,
g to be the talk OF his coterie, OF England,
"of Europe, OF the world, has been his
" aim, and in this lie has succeeded. No
career ever illustrated more remarkably
" the virtues, if they be such apart from
/" the ends to which they are directed, OF
STEADY and unbroken purpose, Of perse-
" versnce, patience and audac;ty, Of the
50 skill which knows when to wait and
t. when TO act" In word, lie mas owed
his successes to iudomitable will power,
guided by rare prescienee and tact. This
may not constitute genius It is certainly
no: the highest intellectual combination.
But i IS a combination which commands
@N*-N~~s1 o+iAGtS A-ASiis dLlu which bIlpES AL
the rewards, and not seldom more than all
the rewards, the highest intellectual power
can achieve for itself.
Lord Beaconsfeld has often been accused
Of political inconsistency. Certainly he
has nsver sacrificed his career Tor princi.
pies lie has used measures as means to
his personal ends; never has he allowed
measures to control him. In question OF
sacrificing himself TO his cause, or the
cause to himself, he would always and
necessarily have chosen the latter, and
this because his engrossing egotism, the
real cause of his steady success, rendered |
/. impossible for him to conceive of any
thing more important than his own desti-
MES. As type of mind he was almost the
aatithesis of Mr.. Gladstone. Wish the
latter the business of government has al /
ways been allowed to absorb personality. |
Lord Beaeonsfeld made the business sec
ondary to his ultimate aims continually.
He was self-eontained, cold, impasslve,