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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3062, 20 April 1881, Page 2

The death of the Earl of Beaconsfield is announced in to-day's cablegram. The bulletins of his health that have been daily flashed to all parts of the world for the past fortnight in some measure prepared the public for the end that has overtaken his illness. Full of years and of honors the great leader of the Conservatives has passed away. And England will mourn his loss. Politicians of all shades, at tbe foot of the grave, will acknowledge tbe greatness of tbe deceased ; political animosities for the nonce will be forgotton while all pay homage Xo the memory of the man who in life, for so many years, directed the destinies of the British Empire. Rising from a comparatively obscure position, Beajamin D'lsraeli showed Englishmen that under free and liberal institutions the humblest might attain to the highest eminence. Born in December, 1805, the deceased nobleman entered Parliament in 1837 for Maidstone, having previously been defeated for Wycombe. By that time he had already taken the novel-reading public by surprise by numerous brilliant works of fiction. Iα Parliament his Jewish origin, and his want of connection with the "true blood" of England, combined with a jaunty mannerism, rendered him unpopular. Stung at his first speech by the refusal of the House to hear him, laughed at and compelled to sit down, he uttered that remarkable prediction—" I bave begun several times many things, and have often succeeded at last. I shall sit down now ; but the time will come when you will hear me." Not only the Houses of Parliament, but all Europe, since then on many occasions has been on the tip-toe of expectancy for the faintest indication of what he was about to say. A follower of Sir Robert Peel, until that Minister turned freetrader, Mr D'lsraeli became a staunch Conservative, and on the death of Lord George Bentinck he was the acknowledged leader of that party. In Lord Derby's three different Administrations D'lsraeli was Chancellor onttr Exchequer, and in 1868 he waa called by the Queen to" f o - r Qf a Ministry. He held office as Premier to the end of the year, and then resigned, being succeeded by Mr Gladstone. In 1874, after tbe general elections at which the ballot was for the first time employed in England, the Conservatives again came into power, Mr D'lsraeli once more being Premier. He held the reins of government till the last elections when he was again succeeded by Mr Gladstone. In 1868 D'lsraeli refused the honor of peerage, but in acknowledgement ofhis services his wife was created Viscountess Beaconsfield. This lady, to whom D'lsraeli attributed all his succees in life, was his senior by fifteen years ; she died in 1872, aged 83 years. In 1876 D'lsraeli accepted the honors the Queen had long desired to confer upon him ; he was raised to the Upper House with the title of Earl of Beaconsfield, and two years afterwards he was made a Knight of the Order of the Garter. He leaves no children, but though his titles die with him his name will be handed down in history as belonging to one of England's astutest statesmen.