ANECDOTES OF DISRAELI

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5474, 31 December 1904, Page 11

ANECDOTES OF DISRAELI

Perhaps there was no figure in the Victorian era around which so much romance has been woven as that of Benjamin Disraeli. Earl of Beaconsfield. This is not unnatural when his career is remembered. It is a great achievement for any man to rise to be Prime Minister of the British Empire. But it is an event unprecedented in the annuals of Parliament that, at a time (writes Lewis Melville in the "Sc. James’s Gazette”) when England was one of the most aristocratic of countries, the House of Commons practically a preserve for the sons of patricians families, a man without social position, without wealth, solely by force of character and personal qualifications, should have secured the blue ribbon of political life. DISRAELI'S PERSONAL CHARM was great and his tact immense; if he could not convert his enemies, at least ho contrived to win over lukewarm friends. Por instance, he was anxious to secure a great majority for the tnird reading of the Empress of India Bill. The whips told him Dr O’Leary's vote was doubtful. Later in the day in the lobby he found himself behind the doctor. Ho caught him up and placing a hand on his shoulders, said: —‘‘My dear doctor, you gave me quite a start. When 1 saw you I thought for a moment it was my old friend Tom Moore.” Dr O’Leary voted for the bill! It seems so natural for even the fiercest political antagonists to be friends in private life, that it is surprising to learn that Disraeli and Gladstone maintained no social, relations outside the House of Commons. Gladstone thought Disraeli "devilish,” and did no't hesitate to express his opinion; indeed, recently there have been published letters that passed on this very subject between these great Parliamentarians. Disraeli uo doubt often DELIBERATELY ANGERED GLADSTONE; and once, when, the latter had made a very passionate reply, thumping the table in front of him, Disraeli thanked the powers that he that the substantial piece of furniture lay between him and Iris redoubtable foe. Someone once asked Disraeli—‘‘What is the difference between a misfortune and a calamity!” only to receive '■the apparently serious reply—"lf Gladstone fell into the Thames that would be a misfortune, but if anyone pulled him out I think that would be a calamity.” Disraeli was not above a pun, and when Gladstone was staying as the guest of Lady Cowper at Wrest Park, ho remarked —"Doubtless he thinks that I, the wicked, will cease from troubling while he, the weary, is at Wrest." Who shall deny the wit of Disraeli whether in the House of Commons or in private life? Some of his remarks have become historic, as when, in. a debate on the Com Laws when Peel had made his volte face—" The right non. gentleman has caught the Whigs bathing, and has walked away with their clothes”; or when he called Lord Derby “the Prince Rupert of Parliamentary discussions”: “Hia charge is resistless, but when he returns from the pursuit ho alway finds his camp in the possession of the enemy”; or speaking of an Irish bill—" This is a mea. sure of necessity, conceived in a spirit of conciliation.” "When I meet a man whose name I cannot remember," he said, "I always give myself two minutes. Then, if it is a hopeless case. I always ask—‘And how is the old complaint?”’ "In these days neilther wealth, nor a pedigree • avail," he remarked, "‘for the former the world is too rich, for the latter too knowing." AMBIGUOUS REPLY. A man whose qualities as a friend were greater than as a writer sent Disraeli one of hia books. ‘T will lose no time in reading your book,” the Minister assured him. This ambiguous reply is matched by that of an, American author, the recipient of a presentation copy under similar conditions. He wrote a letter ho tho author praising the work, but justified himself by his concluding sentence—"l am lying under a sense of obligation." The Disraeli of early days was no less witty. He had quarrelled with his father —lsaac Disraeli of "Curiosities of Literature” fame—whom tho late Lord Dufferin’s mother was anxious to meet. One fine day Disraeli arrived with his father in his right hand, so to speak. Setting him down in a chair, and looking at him as if ho were some object of vertu of which he wanted to dispose, the younger man said in a somewhat sententious manner —"Mrs Blackwood, I have brought my father. I have become reconciled to my father on two. conditions; the first was that he should come and see you; tho second that he should pay my debts.” This is an admirable example of the IMPUDENCE AND NONCHALANCE of the man who announced that’he stood for Parliament "on his head,” and is- a worthy companion of the story told of the day when, as a young man, he was driving with Sir Philip Rose to Shrewsbury, where at the general election, he had been nominated as the Conservative candidate. As they neared the borough. Sir Philip noticed a large poster, stopped the carriage, and, calling his friend’s attention to it, remarked—"lt is something about you.” Disraeli read the words printed in large letters —"Judgment Debts of Benjamin Disraeli, Tory Candidate for Shrewsbury.” Underneath was a list o, debts upon which judgment had been signed. This he perused carefully. Then he turned to Sir Philip and said placidly —"How accurate it is! Now let us go on or we shall be late." He won the election ! Disraeli had a

TENDER REGARD FOR ALL WOMEN, but this feeling never led him into discretions. At a time when the Government was hourly expected to make a move against 'Russia, he was seated at dinner next to an impulsively patriotic Princess, who said to him: —"I cannot imagine what you are waiting for?" His reply, was. in a way, to the point: toes, at this moment, madam." His relations with Queen Victoria in the end were as satisfactory as could be desired. She disliked him at first. "Gladstone addresses tho Queen as if she were a public department; I like a woman,” he once replied. The secret of his influence with his Sovereign lay in the fact that in trifles he never forgot her sex, and in. great affairs never appeared to remember it.