A DISRAELI-BROWNING INCIDENT.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 3648, 26 January 1899, Page 2

A DISRAELI-BROWNING INCIDENT.

Canon McColl, in the " Observer/’ gives what he claims to be the true account of a Disraeli-Browning incident in connection with the Academy Exhibition of 1876. At one of Mr, Gladstone’s breakfast parties in Harley street, in 1878, the Canon was a guest. He; says;—"Someone happening to refer to the then music-hall song ■'We don’t : want to fight,’ etc.. Browning exclaimed, "I’m dead sick of that doggerel. Besides, ! have composed a much better version of my own.’ • Asked; what it was, he recited three, verses, of. which only the first has stuck to my memory. Here it is :

‘ I don’t want to fight; But, by Jingo, if X do. The man whoso head I’d like to jiunch lei Beaconsfield the Jew.’ Browning declared emphatically : that he regarded Lord.Beaconsfield as ' the greatest liar living/ and then proceeded to tell a story by way of illustration: 'Two years ago/ said Browning, ‘I was at the Academy dinner. Mr Disraeli made the speech of the evening, and his theme was the extraordinary display of the imaginative faculty in the pictures of the year. After dinner he came up to me and said, " How do you do, Mr Browning ?” I was taken aback, for we had never been introduced, and .1 had never spoken to. him. - So I replied': "Very'.well, thank you, Mr Disraeli; but I think you mistake me for somebody else.” " Oh, ho,” said he, "it is impossible to mistake Mr Browning. • What do you-think of the pictures of this year’s exhibition?” I was so taken aback by his addressing me at all that, like a fool, instead of giving my: opinion, I asked, "What do you think of them, Mr Disreali?” forgetting that it was only half an hour before that I heard him give his he replied, " Well, Mr Browning, if I had to make any special criticism, it would be to say how wofully lacking the pictures of this year are in the imaginative faculty." I stood dumb and rooted to the spot. It was only half an hour before that I heard this man say that what particularly struck him in the pictures was the extraordinary display of the imaginative- faculty. 1 repeat’—with tremendous energy—'he is the greatest liar ■-living/ ” ' Mr Gladstone' is then reported by Canon McColl to have said laughingly that Browning had taken Disraeli too seriously. :At the same time he remarked that Disraeli was addicted to making false statements. "I sometimes debate with myself whether lie ever had in his mind a clear line of demarcation between .truth and falsehood; but if he had, I am sure that for years past his mind has been in a state of baptismal innocence with regard to the difference. Men tell lies to serve a purpose; but I have known Lord Beaconsnel d make false statements which. could be of no manner of use to him, but rather tho contrary." Tlfe recollection of Canon McColl (an ardent Gladstoneite, with no liking for Disraeli) may pass. If Disraeli, just after praising the Academy exhibition, in carefully framed words, said just the opposite half an hour rater to Browning, he was either indulging in light paradox or serious jest. The incident

makes us think less of Browning-; who need not have got angry, without thinking worse of Disraeli. The Academy, speech, of 187 G, by the way, startled the critics and leaderwriters not a little, but if wo remember aright, what Disraeli praised <Le imaginative qualities of the British school, and not any particular exhibition.