Untitled

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 213, 17 December 1910, Page 9

THE PICTURESQUE YOUTH OP AN ENGLISH PRIME MINISTER. Mr. Monypenny's "Life of Disraeli" is one of the most amazing human documents one could read. From beginning to end this first volume, which only covers thirty-three years, teems with interest, and discovers to us—with many autobiographical touches—as picturesque a personality as one could imagine. Indeed, he would be a very clever novelist who could conceive such a character and put such brilliant talk into his mouth. A -GENIUS. The youth Disraeli was clearly a genius. He knew it, and said so. Others said it, too. Every reader of this book will say so. With a bearing and a display of dress quite impossible to-day, he carried all before him, because behind all this outward foppery there was a compelling personality which won its way by its own vivacity, wit, and charm. Born at what is now No. 22, Theobald's road, by Gray's Inn, Disraeli went to a dame's school at Islington—"to learn to speak," so ihe said. Then he was sent to Blackheath under an Independent minister, and after to Epping Forest to the school of a Unitarian minister. His brother Ralph says that he "was fond of playing at Parliament, and always reserved for himself the part of leader and spokesman of the Government, keeping the others in the cold shades of opposition." He was evidently a born Parliamentarian. And the wily spirit soon showed itself in another direction. BECOMES A SOLICITOR. On Sunday he <went with the Anglican boys to the church, but found that "they fared rather• badly at the mid-day dinner, which was usually half over by the time they got back. . . .Sto he solemnly threw out the suggestion to his Anglican companions that it might be as well if they all became Unitarians for the term of their life at school." At seventeen he wa,s articled to a firm of solicitors, and was "private secretary to the busiest partner. He dictated to me every day his correspondence, and when the clients arrived I did not leave the room, but I remained, not only to leara my business, but to become acquainted witih my future clients. . . . It gave me great facility with my pen, and no inconsiderable knowledge of human nature." Then tady number one appeared, who told him, "You have too much genius for Frederick's Place; it will never do." But he did not marry her. He says : "We were good friends. She married a Devonshire gentleman, and was the mother of tWo general officers of whom we heard a good deal of late (Zulu War, 1879), and whom I employed as a Minister! Such is life!" added Disraeli. •TRAVELS WITH HIS FATHER. He soon left the solicitor's office, and travelled over Europe with his father, and, though only twenty, tihe letters he wrote home to his sister, to whom he always showed a charming devotion, are extraordinary good, witty, well composed, and full of insight. Some of the references to his father are full of fun. "We were asleep when we entered the Prussian frontier," 'he writes, "and the governor mistook the officer for an innkeeper, and kindly informed hiin that he had taken refreshment at Limburg, The rest of the incident, which was exquisite, wihen we meet." From Bruges he writes: "The governor was most frisky on his landing, and was quite the lion of Ostend. . . My father, as usual emulous of saving postage, positively forbids our writing separate letters, and he has been, of course, the whole two hours and a-half writing his ihalf-page. I myself am extremely tired, and ha.ve not room enough to write you a letter as long as I could desire, but I trust that by next post my father will sicken of 'his Sevinge fit and resign the sheet in my favor. . . . The paper in this country is bad, the ink infamous, and the pens wusser. Love to Mere and and all." "Our affectionately slang appellation of governor, aided by ihis military appearance, has caused father to be lionised over a 'maison de .force' "with regular major-general's honors." At Aix he saw a picture of Christ which greatly impressed him. "The eyes, beaming with human beauty"—so writes this boy of twenty—"are nevertheless bright with the effulgence of celestial light. They seem looking on the world The nose is exquisitely formed, and ttLe flesh-tints seem immortal." Of the Rhine he writes: "I can only say that the most glowing descriptions do but imperfect justice to the magnificent scenery." And he savs: "I determined, when descending these magical ■waters, that I would not be a lawyer." SUGGESTS A NEWSAPER. Stoon after this he put to Murray, the publisher, the question: "Willy should it not be possible to establish a daily paper in the Conservative interest which should equal or even surpass the Times in influence? So influenced was Murray by the idea that he sent Disraeli at twentyone to see Sir Walter Sfcott and Lockhart

about the project. In bis letter to Lockhart Murrav said: "I never met with a young man of greater promise. . . . His knowledge of human nature and the practical tendency of all his ideas have often surprised me in a young man who has hardly passed his twentieth year." SCOTT AND DISRAELI. Sir Walter Scott, after his visit, wrote: "Here has been'a visitor- of Lockhart's, a sprig of the rod of Aaron, young iyisTaeli. In point of talents he reminds me of his father. ... A young coxcomb is like the old one who got him." "It is clear that the 'young coxcomb' made no small impression on both Scott and Loekhart." In later years Disraeli wrote: "I remember Sir Walter Scott quite well. A kind but rather stately person, with his pole of forehead, sagacious eye. whi f <> hair, and green shooting-coat. He was extremely hospitable." DRESSY, BUT CLEVER. Here is a picture of Disraeli at twentysix, written by his friend Meredith: "He came up to Regent-street when it was crowded in his blue surtout, a pair of military ligßt-blue trousers, black stockings with red stripes, and shoes! 'The people,' he said, 'quite made way for me as T passed. It was like the opening of the Red Sea, which I now perfectly believe from experience. Even well-dress-ed people stopped to look at me.'" Henry Bulwer tells us a similar story of a certain dinner. Disraeli, he says, "wore green velvet trousers, a canarycolored ■waistcoat, low shoes, silver buck- ] les, lace at his wrists, and hair in ringlets. . . . If on leaving the table we "had 'been severally taken aside and asked which was the cleverest of the party 'we should have been obliged to sav, 'the man in the green velvet trousers.' " Tt was dress which made Disraeli a Whig for a time. "Am I a Whig or a • Tory?" asks one of his characters. "I think lam a Torv. But then the Whigs give such good dinners, and are tihe most amusinsr. I think lam a Whig; but then the Tories are so moral, and morality is my forte. I must be a Tory. But tlie Whiars dms so much better: nnd nn ill-dressed party, like an ill-dressed man, must be wrong. Yes, lam a decided Whig!" SELF-REVELATIONS. Mr. Monypenny quotes the following lines from Disraeli's novel, "The Young Duke," as having autobiographical interest:

styles though spoiled, by that confounded puppyism; but then mine is the puppy age, and that will wear oil'. Then. too. there are my vanity, my conceit, my affectation, my arrogance, ami my egotism, all very heinous, and painfully contrasting with blie imperturbable propriety of my fellow scribblers." "But by far the most remarkable of these asides is the following truly astonishing bit of prescient impertinence," says Mr. .Monypenny: ,"A man may speak very well in the House of Commons and fail very completely in the House of Lords. There are two distinct styles requisite. I intend, in the course of my career, if I have time, to give a specimen of both. In the Lower House 'Don Juan'- may perhaps be our model; in the Upper House, 'Paradise Lost.'" MAKES THE GRAND TOUR. Disraeli in 1830 was again on the Continent, and this time he travelled to Athens, Constantinople, to Jerusalem and Cairo, and these journeys had an enormous influence on his mind. He was never the same again, and in this connection Lord Morley asks: "Was it Goethe who said a man, who had been amongst the palms is never the same again?" The letters ht> sent home on this occasion are much more vivid. They have a fine descriptive quality, and show a mind sometimes profound, always alert. The year before he wrote to a friend: "I advise you to take care of my letters, for if I become half as famous as I intend to be you may sell them for ten guineas apiece." His travelling companion was Meredith, who was engaged to his sister Sarah, but whose death at Cairo suddenly ended these travels. Before that disastei Disraeli had the time of his life. He went to Gibraltar and sent word to (his mother that he has "the fame of being the firßt who ever passed the ftWUs with two caries, a morning and an even-

ing cane. I change my cane as blip gun i fires, and hope to carry them both to Cairo!" From Cadiz he writes: "I am j sorry to say my hair is coming off, just at the moment it had attained the highest perfection and was universally mis- ' taken for a wig, so that I was obliged to , let the women pull it to satisfy their . curiosity. Let me know what my mother thinks." PRAISES MJRILLO AND SPANISH ! LADIES. | He falls in love with Murillo's paint- j ings, and makes friends with an English merchant who has married a Spanish , lady who has thirty of the finest Muril- , los and some of his original drawings." ( "Run, my dear fellow, to Seville," wrote Disraeli to a friend, "and for the first time in your life know what a great artist is—Murillo, Murillo, Murillo! No : man has painted more or oftener reached the ideal. He never fails. Where can 1 his bad pictures be?" l To his mother he writes: "Although you doubtless assist, as the French phrase it, at the reading of my despatches, you will, I am sure, be pleased to receive one direct from your absent son. It has just occurred to me that I have never yet mentioned the Spanish ladies, and I do not think that I can address anything that I have to say upon that agreeable subject to / anyone more suitable than yourself. . . . There are none of those serapihic countenances which strike you dumb and blind, but faces in abundance which will never pass without commanding a pleasing glance. Their charm consists in their sensibility; each incident, every person, every word ; touches the far eye of a 'Spanish lady, and her features are constantly confuting the creed of Mahomet and proving that she has a soul." To his sister Disraeli writes, and it gives a charming glimpse of his affection for her and for iliis home: "Write to me whenever you can. Do not let,the chain of domestic knowledge be broken for an instant. Write to me about dogs and horses, orchards, gardens, who calls, where you go. who my father sees in London, what is said —that is what T want. Never mind public news." ■ SPOOFS THE (GOVERNOR OF MALTA. The real Disraeli came out splendidly when he visited Malta. "He dined at a regimental mess in an Andalusian dress. He paid a round of visits in his majo jacket, white trousers, and a sash of the colors in the rainbow. In this wonderful costume he paraded all round Valetta, followed by one-half the population of the place." But who will not forgive this fooling when he reads of the way in which Dis.raeli bowled over the Governor of Malta —"reputed a very nonchalant personage, and exceedingly exclusive in his conduct of 'his subjects"? But Disraeli was undismayed, arjd gaily set out to visit Mm, and then wrote to his father: "Yesterday I called on Ponsonby, arid he was fortunately at home. I flatter myself that he passed through the most extraordinary quarter of an hour in his existence. I gave him no quarter,'and at last made our nonchalant Governor roll on the sofa from his risable convulsions. Then I jumped up. remem,bered that I must be breaking into his morning, and was off, making it a rule always to leave with a good impression. He pressed me not to go. I told him I had so much to do! When I arrived home I found an invitation for Tuesday." In this way did our future Prime Minister, when twenty-six, spoof the Governor of Malta! Then he went on to Athens and to Constantinople, where he stayed

a month, and to Jerusalem. In Egypt he experienced a sand-storm. At Cairo his travelling companion died, and he had to tell his sister of her loss. PLAYS TO BE PRIME MINISTER. Even at the age of twenty-eight Disraeli seems to have had an impression that he was to be Prime Minister. In one of his 'books he has these lines: "My father . . . placed his arm affectionately in mine and said, 'My son, you will be Prime Minister of perhaps something greater.'" And two years later (when "thirty) he met Lord' Melbourne, who "asked how he could advance me in life, and half proposed that I should be his private secretary, • enquiring what mv object in life might be. 'To be Prime ■Minister.' 'lt was then that Lord Melbourne, with a gravity not common with him, set to 'work to prove to me how vain and impossible to realise in those days was this ambition." FIRST ELECTION SPEECH. One day in 1833 Disraeli went to the House of Commons, and he says: "Heard Macaulav's best speech. Macaiilav admirable; but between, ourselves T could floor them all. This entre nous. I was never more confident of anything than T could carry everything before me in that House. The time will come. ... Grey spoke highly of my oratorical powers to Bulwer —said he never heard 'finer command of words.'" At this time 'his politics wre not fixed: "I am neither Whig nor Tory. . . My politics are described in one word, and that word is England. . . . Rid yourselves of that political jargon and factious slang of Whig and Tory, and unite in forming a great national party, whicih can alone save the country from impending ruin." His first election speech, when he put up Tor Wycombe (1'832) made a sensation. "Great was their surprise when this 'popinjay,' as a hostile newspaper called him, began to pour forth a torrent of eloquence with tremendous energy of action and in a voice that carried far along the Higfo-street." He spoke on the top of the porch of the Red Lion, beside the figure of the

be here,' he exclaimed, pointing "to the head of the lion, 'and my opponent will be there,' pointing to the tail." But this was more oratorical than true. The figures were: Grey 20, Disraeli 12. MEETS HIS FUTURE WIFE. It is interesting to note how Disraeli became a politician. '•During his sojourn in the East Disraeli had been a diligent reader of Galignani (a French newspaper), and he used in later life to say that it was in studying a file of that 'excellent publication' during his long detention in quarantine at Malta that he first began to thoroughly understand and was able to follow the fortunes of the Reform movement, and he followed it with the keenest interest." "What a confusion you are all in," he writes to a friend, and added the Disraelian touch—"What a capital pantomime it 'would make!" It was about this time that he first met the lady who was to be his wife— Mrs. Wyndham Lewis. His first impression was that she was "a pretty little woman," but "a flirt and a rattle, gifted with a volubility I should think unequalled, and of which I can convey no idea. She told me she liked "silent, melancholy men.' I answered that '1 had no doubt of it.'" When they married thev had an ideal life.