New-York tribune., 1921-12-25
By Willis Fletcher Johnson

by Wills I lCtCICt JCiltiSou
LIFE OF ROBERT MARQUIS OF SAILS
BURY Ry HIS papshtss, tea ss ksdy va, sven n
isss-'se. Published by Hodder & stonyh-
ton, London. and the George II. poran
Company. New York. sI2.
1T Is not necessary to be ar atavis-
tic faddist to perceive in Lord
Salisbury statesman OF the
Elizabethan age living and serv-
ing in the reign of Queen Victoria. In
religious faith, in scholarship, poll
tics, in diplomacy, he was as truly and
rs markedly modern edition OF the
great Burghley as Hatfield House was
a monument of Tudor architecture.
This fact. which was increasingly ap-
parent in following his career as the
third of his illustrious line in direct
succession to be the Prime Minister OF
the British Crown, is again impress
sively confirmed by pcrusal. of the
sineularly opulent volumes which his
daughter has prepared. II is an in
structive demonstration OF the inn
mutability of human nature and the
perpetuitv of principles. Lowell
called Lincoln zone of Plutarch's men"
appropriately. The identical qualities
which made men good and great or
the reverse in the Augustan age made
them the same in the Elizabethan age,
and again In the Victorian age. But
beyond that Lord Salisbury retained,
or. rather, revived, an unmistakable
measure of the characteristic quality
of his seventeenth century ancestors
which would have made q man of less
fexibilty and humor seem almost an
anachronism.
Biographies written by the children
o. other close relatives of their sub
jects are too often over-eulogistic and
even fulsome. But this is an error
which has been most successfully and
happily avoided in the present case.
The family affection of the Cecils is
strong, they have at times been re-
preached with being "clannish"; but
stronger still has been their devotion
to principle and truth. Lady Gwen
dolen tells a straightforward, impair
tial story. which she intersperses with
a multitude of excerpts from her
fathers own writings. so that, in fact
The work is half biography and half
autobiography, the two elements blend
ing most congruously in a harmonious
whole.
AS Journalist
In the last half century of Lord
Sahsbury's life, which these volumes
cover, there we're three salient features
toward which attention instnctively
tusns. The first was his early career
as a journalist. He was a young man
and younger son" when he began
writing for his brother-in-law's slash
ing and fearless Saturday Review"
For seven or eight years he was regu-
lar member of its staff, writing on a
great range of topics, but paying spe-
clal attention strange as it may seem
to critical consideration of German
literaturel Near the end of his career
IS Journalist he was widely charged
With writing series of articles for
tho Saturday" bitterly attacking Dis
raeI and other public men, but fol-
these he disclaimed responsibility. He
old, however, write several antiDis-
raeli articles for the short-lived "Bent-
ey's Quarterly" persisting in them
despite the remonstrances of his
iathcr. Most important of all was his
work for "The Quarterly Review" to
which he contributed regularly from
the spring of 1860 to the fall of 1866
Of the twenty-six numbers in that time
all but three contained articles by him
The vigor, lucidity and grace of his
literary style and the sanity and clar-
'ty of his intellectual processes indi-
cate that if he had devoted his life to
letters he would easily have ranked
among the foremost writers of his age
The second feature of his career was
his relationship with Disraeli. At first
and for many years he was-inevitably
of course-not only antipathetic but
PNo'ti'Ciy dHtdSOiii5tlC 10 LEdC P%-
traordinary genius. | have already re-
ferred to his "Quarterly Review" arti-
cles. 81 certainly" he once wrote tic
his father, "have never said or done
anything to express trust in Mr.. Dis
raeli." The tactics of Disraeli in ally
ing himself with Radicals in order to
beat the Wings he stigmatized as
shameful" Later he wrote to his
father: 81 have ceased to blame Mr.
Disraeli because he has ceased to de-
serve it." And finally he wrote to Lord
Carnarvon: Dizzy, converted from evil
ways, has since behaved like an angel
so that l am beginning to incline to
the belief that he really has been
baptized" incidentally, but most per-
tinently, | must recall that it was Lord
Salisbury's creed that Baptism
worthily received, conveys remission of
all past sin"D
Disraeli from the first professed I'd
think highly of Lord Robert-as he was
then known. Not improbably this was
In part for the sake of ingratiatng
himself with the second MARQUIS, to
whom he wrote of his sons first ap-
pearance in the House of Commons:
His voice is good and he showed de-
batting power. | have no hesita-