DISRAELI'S CAREER.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 307, 28 December 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

DISRAELI'S CAREER.

CHEAP EDITION OF OFFICIAL "LIFE." In compressing the six volumes of the official ''Life" of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, into two, without reducing the text, the famous hffuso of Murray has done literature and politics a service. The full biography of one of the most remarkable figures in the whole range of English politics is now placed within reach of a much wider circle. It is a truly stupendous book, containing 3312 pages, more than enough probably to satisfy the appetite of the most eager delvers into the politics of two generations back. The authors of the book are two gentlemen who had a long and distinguished career on the "Times," and it is strange that their journalistic experience did not give them a better sense of proportion. The immense'length of the book is mainly owing to the enormous number of letters' that have been printed; most of them of purely ephemeral interest. The authors seem to have thought that -no word, however slight, of such a man should be forgotten. Few men could stand such an ordeal* and Disraeli was not one of them.

Indeed with all the authors' enthusiasm for their subject it is doubtful if they have rendered him a real service. They claim that his ideas inspire Conservative thinkers to-day. It may be so, but these thinkers will have some trouble in deciding which of hie ideas to follow. He was a man of immense intellectual power, gifted or troubled, whichever way we may regard it, with an exuberant imagination. Hie early novels display the imagination, and show also that fiction was not exactly his sphere, for with great qualities they contain some weakness and some nonsense. They did however, make it abundantly clear that hie real interest was in politics, and, as his biographers admit, in party politics. When he first entered the House of Commons, his chief or indeed his only claim to recognition was hie father's fame as a man of letters, a man highly appreciated by a cultivated minority, but not known to any wide public. When at last the repeal of the Corn Laws was proposed, Disraeli's opportunity came. The House was full of country gentlemen elected to support Peel, and they now found him proposing a measure which they fully expected would lower tlieir rents. They had no representative however to voice their grievances, and Disraeli sprang into the breach. Disraeli's action in inflaming the resentment of the country gentlemen ended in making him leader of. the party, but at the same time made the party entirely ineffective for the next twenty years. Disraeli spent the twenty years of his vigorous middle age in repairing the mistake due to his too eager ambition. His efforts in putting the party on its lege again were immense. It is to this period that his reputation as an orator belongs, and it would bo difficult to imagine anything more effective for a House of Commons audience than hie speeches. He succeeded in weakening more than one Government to an extent that brought about ite fall, without himself attaining office. Those who looked beneath the surface considered that he was the Conservative party and at the same time he was distrusted and disliked by a large part of his followers. This is not surprising. He was a Jew, who was so far from being ashamed of it that he thought everything good in the world was due to the Jews. At one time he was anything but friendly towards the colonies; at a later date he perceived the possibilities of Empire and became Imperial in outlook. In all his fluctuations of opinion he was steadfast in his devotion to the Conservative party. Disraeli's capacity for criticism, ridicule and invective was so great that we may well .feel grateful that he early abandoned his radical proclivities and devoted his powers to the maintenance of Throne and State. No greater intellect has ever taken part in British politics, but with his great intellect there were some drawbacks. In early life his ambition to lead was premature. In later life he learnt patience, but his strong party feeling led to his advocacy of conflicting ideas which weakened his influence. That he should have attained power and become Prime Minister is proof of the essentially democi'atic nature of the British Constitution, but his wonderful gifts were not inspired by adequate aims, and while his career was marvellous, its results were not commensurate with his opportunities.