Year: 1877




L saw several notabiIities in thu


House Gladstone, Fawcett, the


blind member; Sir Charles Dixie


Claiborne Hardy, Major OGorman


and many others-Whom in some


future letter / may find room Il


sketch. | pass them for the pres


ent in order to notice more famous


character than all of second


to none in Europe IN statecraft un-
less it be Bismarck-the lately-crea.


ted Earl Beaconsfield, better known,


however, as Disraeli Hearing that


the Prime Minister was to speak,


left the House of Commons, and


upon the order of a noble lord, was


finally admitted, along with a select


few, into the strangers gallery y


of the House of Lords. The hell


employed by the Lords is substanti-


ally like that of the Commons in its


shape and furniture. The news that


Disraeli was to speak filed all the


seats belonging to the members, and


all other points where he could be


seen and heard were crowded by


members from the other house.


/ did not need to be told which of


all the men below me was the IA


NOUS Prime Minister. On the front
bench, in nearly the center of the


hall, sat a figure in black in whose
mOtionless attitude, swart face and


Hebrew cast of countenance / at
once recognized the famous Tory
leader. He was the most marked
and striking figure in the house.
His features are large, his face
smoothly shaven and dark his eX-
preston a dull, sullen immobility.
This sullennesS of his swarthy feat
ures was intensified by his raven
black hair, worn long and cut
squarely around the neck. His fore
head is wide and high; his percep-
tive organs prominent, giving
him a strong intellectual appear
ance, and which is added to rather
than detracted from by his broad,
massive jaws-indicating intellect
backed or re-enfOreed by enormous
physical powers. For a long time
he sat on the bench with one leg
crossed over the other, head bowed
a little forward, and motionless as if
cast in bronze, save a twisting in





shapely, slender hands. l may eX-
cept another motion, but which was
so slight as to escape notice, unless
one like myself were watching him
with close attention. This was in
his eyelids. They are very large,
and drop over his eyes like two great
curtains. Ordinarily they were
down, cOncealing the whole eye;
but now and then they would rise
quickly for a short distance, and a
thin background of intense black
would flash out upon the audience.
Until he rose to speak, had it not
been for this nervous twisting and
untwisting of his fingers, and the
occasional raising of his eyelids, he
might have passed for a chiseled
marble, or a casting Of stenest
bronze. s-ir ..a D. s.. sa n


Whether he were posing or not, l
can not say; but even if he were,
he shows himself an artist of the
highest power. Nothing could have
been arranged more striking, moth
ing which so bristled with salient
points and mysterious suggestions.
He sat there displaying power in his
physique and unbrOllen repOse. One
who saw him saw not only suggeS-
tions of power, but of secrecy, dark
and unyielding as that of the grave.
Not only these, but cunning,
thoughtfulness, endurance, obsti- |
macy; and everywhere a mysterious
something which defies reading,
which makes the face enigmatical,
sphinX-like and render abOrtiye all
attempts to penetrate through the
swart and sullen mask, and read
what lies beneath. When he arose
to speak he seemed to be a powerful
figure, little above the medium
stature. He wore frock coat, but
toned about his waist, and which
displayed to good advantage strong
rather than a graceful figure. There
was a table in front of him, and to |
this he walked, so that he stood
with .half-face to the speaker. He
commenced his address in q low, but !
yet not indistinct, and withal musi-
cal voice. His head was thrown |
forward, his eyes We're fixed on the |
table, and his manner was singular |
ly heSitating. He appeared laboring |





voice had a tremOr in it; he seemed I
to stumble over a word here, and to |
catch at some other one there. His |
hands and arms were incessant in a |
species of nervous shifting. The |
fingers would rest for q moment on |
the table. Then the arms would be !
behind his back, only to re-
main there a second before swinging |
by his side, or being moved forward |
again to rest upon the table. |


He was as uneasy with his feet |
and legs as with his hands. He
moved at first incessantly-now for
ward, now back, then poised upon |
the other. He was so uneasy; he |
so twisted, and swung, and rocked
his utterance was SO broken and so
hesitating that one might almost |
fancy that he was about to break |
down.


Nevertheless, all this time it was
the eye and ear which took in these |
Beneath the senses
was a conviction that all this was of |
no account, and that despite them
he was moving forward swiftly and |
And such was the case.
His ideas were clear, logical in their
and his words fitted /
to each other like the Jewels i'm a di-
anlond cluster. BY degrees, the ap-
parent nervousness, hesitancy and
indecision disappeared. The feet
immOvahle; the shifting mo-
ton of the arms gradually grew into
quiet but graceful gestures the
twisting of the body into a swaying
motion, full of power, Difference, yet
dignified and elegant. The heavy
head was thrown back the sullen,
features became lighted
up and permeated by a flexible mo-
bility; the broad eyellds rolled up,
and the great eyes flashed out with
a somber brilliancy.


He spoke for nearly an hour. 1t
was only upon some unimpOrtant |
matter-a vote of censure by the
Commons upon an appointment he
had made of a Mr.. PigOtt to the
head of some minor department.
Nevertheless, he held his auditory
intact. If he can do so well upon so
insignificant a topic, what can he
not do when handling any of great
er importance?


To-day he Is one of the shrewdest, |
most unscrupulOus, most ambitious,
and most powerful men in Europe. !
Despite his age-he is now about 20