ANECDOTAL PHOTOGRAPHS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 157, 12 May 1879, Page 2

ANECDOTAL PHOTOGRAPHS.

LORD BEACONSFIELO.

Lord Beaconsfield lias always been as kind to his friends as ho lias been ugly to his foes; though, as to vindictivoness, it is fair to say lie has never hit anyone unless attacked. He has had two staunch friends, who may be said to have wonderfully smoothed his path-Lard Lyndliurst and the late Lord Derby. Both of these distinguished men believed in Disraeli, and liked him for his lovable qualities, which are many, Of these, it would best

beseem those who have had the pleasure of serving under him—and especially his private secretary—to speak. He never loses his temper, and nover utters a reproach when things go wrong. When Lord Londonderry committed suicide, ' a butler who deposed at the inquest was asked whether he had noticed anything unusual in tho deceased's behaviour on tho day of his death, "Yes," said he, " His Lordship spoke unkindly to one of us, and it was the first time he had ever done such a thing." A servant of Prince Talleyrand was, also, heard to remark once—" I have done wrong, and I wish the Prince would scold inc. I cannot bear the gentle reproof of his eyes." A similar tribute might be paid to Lord Beaconsfield, and it would bo mere meritorious in his case, for lie lias kept his good humour under all sorts of adverse circumstances, which would have liatl aroused the fury of the violent man, and the peevish spleen of a weak one. I think it is a sign of greatness in a man when, being visited with the " quips and sneers of fortune, the insolence of office, and so forth," he does not pay off his spite upon his subordinates, as that unlicked Tartar, General Ignatieff, does, for instance. Lord Beaconsfield has not only had to put up with the snubs of the great—ho was for a long time in most evil odour at the Court—be has had to cope with the sulkiness of his party, whom repeated defeats more thau once brought to the verge of mutiny. It was remarked, when his Lordship went to Vienna, that he had not left British soil for 25 years. My own belief is that he was afraid to leave it, lest his absence during a single month should leave a field open to intriguers, who were trying to get him supplanted. He has lived in a constant entaglement of business engagement and correspondence. During session he dined out several times a week for the purpose of cultivating social relations; in recess, he visited at country houses; in spare moments ho pored over blue-books or read history. His favorite author is Bolingbroke, and he has derived many of his ideas and strokes from him whom Macaulay styled "a brilliant knave," The " Patriot King," " Dissertation on Parties." " Study of History," are all known to Lord Beaconsfield, who re-reads them as often as the lata Lord Lytton used to peruso "Gill Bias." Visit Lard Beaconsfield at Hughenden, you find an amiable old gentleman, who converses with some interestaboutmusicandpainting,withsome animationaboutturnipsand cattle, whereof he is a connoisseur; and with no fire at all, rather demure composure, about politics and the spread of Catholicism in England, Sometimes, when sitting alone, he rests his hand on his brow, and gazes into the fire or out of the window upon fair Buckinghamshire scenery by the half-hour. His thoughts are far away from England then, and possibly roaming in some dream land, where a regenerate Jewish race holds the sceptre of the world. When Montague Corry comes in with despatches, the Premier shakes off his reverie, and proceeds to business with the subduod manner of one who touches earth again after having soared in tlio clouds.—Truth.