AMERICAN PORTRAITS OF GLADSTONE and DISRAELI.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 29, 12 August 1871, Page 3

AMERICAN PORTRAITS OF GLADSTONE and DISRAELI.

An American correspondent sketches the two political leaders in the “ New York Times I met this afternoon Mr Disraeli and wife walking in Piccadily, near Green Park, and was struck with his general air of feeblenesss like to old age, although for England he cannot bo said to be but little over the meridian—sixty-three. Great numbers of peers of the upper classes attain ninety and odd, and I recall the fact that the average of six nobles, the only ones dying in a period of four months was ninely-two. Mr Disraeli’s tall figure was bent over, perhaps in some part to accommodate his wife, who is short, and that unconsciously, lie was, as it were, crouching a little, so that she could keep his arm. His hair is still curly and black, quite free from gray, and his eye has lost none of its fire and mischief of youth. As one of the most successful politicians of the day, and considering the prejudices of birth and caste he had to contend with, perhaps the most successful Mr Disraeli, would anywhere be a marked man ; but just now his extraordinary introduction to a new edition of his novels lends additional interest to a chance meeting with him. There is something amusing as well as paradoxical in the character of the man who is clever enough to win the leadership of the sober, steady-going Tories, boasting that his sentimental novels of forty four years ago have, in spite of his earnest endeavor to suppress them, been published and read in larger

numbers than any other books of this century. So he has written in the said introduction. Mrs Disraeli—Viscountess Beaconsfield, by the grace of Queen Victoria, as her husband declined a title—is no less than sixteen years older than he, and" yet would hardly be set down as an old woman, and might pass for smart seventy when seen on the promenade in full walking dress. She was a long time ago a successful milliner, and married a Mr Lewis, who, dying, left her a handsome estate, £4OOO per annum, which joined to the ex-Premier’s has enabled them to maintain town and country establishments commensurate with their pretensions and successes in the political arena. Rumor has it that theirs has been an especially happy life, and surely their devotion, as evidenced this afternoon when I met them, on his part marked by the genuine gallantry of a meucc beau , would affirm its truth. First in the councils of England, successful in literature, strong and always well of body, rich, and loved where he loves. Disraeli, jaclis dubbed by the opposition, that Jew Boy, is surely the darling of fortune. And his triumphs are not without teaching to those ambitious in the way he has trod, for he has said that there is not much difference in men save in energy. Mr Gladstone is not so often seen in the streets of London, yet I met him too, in Piccadilly, a few days ago, walkalone with great rapidity, his elbows and shoulders drawn back like a very walkist, going l at a rate not less than five miles the hour. He is much like to the photographs seen of him in all the shop windows in the' kingdom, but not so tall as one might suppose therefrom, for we judge something of a man’s height from the face and bust. In its way, Mr Gladstone’s political career is not less remarkable than his rival, Disraeli, although they have pursued different roads to the goal of their ambitions, and of a truth it may be said, equally inconsistent in those especially marked measures with which their names are mostly connected, The Prime Minister is, beyond all dispute, the greatest living orator, as he is not second as a scholar, being equally versed in the ancient as in modern lore. Once asked how he employed his mind when duty compelled him to sit on the bench of the Ministers while a Tory was delivering himself of a dull three hours’ harangue, he said: —“ Last evening, when Mr was speaking, I turned ‘ Rock of Ages’ into the Greek, and had half an hour to spare.” Mr Gladstone is accounted high authority iu bric-a-brac ; indeed, the highest in porcelain. The story goes that his passior? for collecting is out of proportion to his estate, and that his good wife frequently persuades the dealers to take back articles for which there is not money to pay. Many remarkable tales are told of eccentricities of the Premier in private life, which remind one of the saying that “ genius is akin to madness.” But, withal, he is extravagantly lauded, even to worship, by the Liberals, while,on the other hand, Disraeli is heartily hated by the Tories, who tolerate him for his talents, and because they have no other competent leader.