The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-15

taken g foremost part In the eventssv men
he chronioled. On every page there Is a
sense of great issues and lofty purposes SO
gravely does the ~biographer consider the
p~ersonagee in hfs drama that they might
have been ancient Romans or the SUBJECTS
OF a despotic Doge. Yet, sternly political
though 1t be, the biography Is always dra-
matte, and the two chief actors In the drama,
Lord George Bentinck and Sir Robert Peel,
are brilliantly d~isengaged from the dingy
background Of the House OF Commons. OF
these protagoniste Disraeli writes in the
true spirit OF romance. The picture Of Peel
on the evening Of his defeat, sitting nnmoved
and unconscious in the deserted House,
is not one to be easily forgotten TN
benches had become empty thus runs the
passage. The lights were about to be e&-
tinguished; It is the duty Of the clerk OF the
House to examine the Chamber before the
doors are closed, and tonight it was also
the strange lot Of this gentleman to disturb
the r~everies Of a statesman .
One OF the special motives prompting the
republication Of this book was Mr.. Whib-
ley's desire to refute the current notion
that Disraeli was an snti-imperialist. 1t
has long been the fashion to say that Dis
raeli had no interest in Britain's empire
oversee. Those who bring this charge
rely on a hasty phrase in a private letter,
as though a statesman were on oath when
he airs a grievance to a friend. The SEN
tence referred to may be found in q letter
addressed on August 10, 1882, to" Lord
Malmesbury. "These wretcbed colonies"
he wrote, will be independent in a Few
years and are a millstone round our neck
Against this one petulant expression, not
meant to be published, Mr.. whitley sets
the constant policy Of many years. He
points out that as early as 1913 Disraeli
struck the note Of imperialism, which,
familiar to-day, was then rarely heard.
Il, for one,' he said, sam not prepared to
sit under the power Of a third class II l
can be q citizen OF a FIRST class empire
He saw clearly that Peel and his supporters
were losing the chance Of binding the col
onies to the mother country. You turn
up your nosesat East India cotton. he told
the House Of Commons, sas you a done
at everything colonial or imperial Not
only in his speeches but in his policy.
whether he was in Office or in opposition.
he was a consistent champion OF colonial
interests. Already in 1868 he ~prophesied
that Canada would become the Russia OF
the New World, and he declared that IL
Britain were to quit the possessions that she
has in North America she might then pre-
pare for the invasion Of her soil and the sub
lection Of her people. In 1872 he wa still
more definite in his opinions, still nearer
to the policy favored by the Unionists OF to-
day. "The two great objects Of the Tory
party he declared, "are to maintain the
institutions Of the country and to uphold
the empire OF England" In the same
speech he advocated an imperial tariff
insisted that the people Of England should
enjoy the unappropriated lands, which
belonged to the sovereign as their trustee,
and urged that a military code hould pre-
cisely define the means by which the col
onies should be defended and by which
the country should call for aid from the
colonies themselves. Thus Disraeli antici-
pated all that a generation, keenly alive
to the Importance Of consolidating the
British Empire, has hoped or thought.
1t was natural that in the course OF this
political biography Disraeli, who had wit
messed the exclusion Of Jews from the House
of Commons and who had found n was
still finding his own f~sraelite descent an
! almost insuperable bar to advancement,
/ should diverge for a moment from the
main current of his narration to consider
the grounds Of the disabilities to which the
Hebrew race had been 80 long subjected in
Christian Europe. He begins by remind
ing us that the Saxon, the Slav and the Celt
have adopted most Of the laws and many
of the customs of the Jews, together with
all the ~latter's literature and all their
religion. The former are, therefore, in
debted to the Israelites for much that regu-
lates, much that charms and much that
~solaces existence. The toiling multitude
rest every seventh day by virtue OF a Jewish
law; they are perpetually reading, that
they may be taught by example, the records
of Jewish history; they are continually
singing the odes and elegies Of Jewish poets;
and they daily acknowledge IN their knees
with reverent gratitude that the only
medium Of communication between the
Creator and themselves is the Jewish re-
ligion. Yet, at the hour when Disraeli
wrote, the Saxon, the Slav and the Celt
we're accustomed to treat that race as the
vilest of generations; and, instead OF look
ing upon them logically as the human family
that has contributed most to human happi-
ness, they were wont to infiict upon them
every term Of obloquy and every form Of
persecution.
Disraeli proceeds to try TO penetrate
the social anomaly that has harrassed
and perplexed centuries. At the outset
he dismissee as neither historically true
nor dogmatically sound the allegation
that the dispersion Of the Jewish race
is a penalty incurred for the commission
of a great crime, namely, the crucifixion
o. Jesus by the Romans at Jerusalem, at
the i~nstigation Of some Jews, in the reign
Of Augustus Cesar. Disraeli submits that
the assertion lie not historically true, be-
cause, at the time Of the advent OF jesus,
the Jewish race was as much dispersed
Throughout the world as it is at the pres
emit time and had been so for many hun
dreds Of years. Europe, with the excep-
ton Of the shores which are bayed by the
midland seas, was then a primeval forest,
but in every city Of the great Eastern
monarchies and in every province Of the
Roman Empire the jew had long been
settled. He does not claim to lave pre-
else authority for averring that at the
1900 49,. r1x TA--.