THIS WEEK'S ANNIVERSARY

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 91, 29 November 1928, Page 3

THIS WEEK'S ANNIVERSARY

HEBREW SPELL-BINDER

CARLYLE ON DISRAELI. Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beacoiisfield, relinquished fixe P'rem.iersbip of England on December 2nd. IS6B, the electorates having returned a large Liberal majority. His tenure of the post had been short, lie having succeeded Lord De;)by. Oarlyle, .speaking to J. A. Fronde, the historian, of parliamentary government as Ik; had observed the working of it in England, said that under that system not the fittest men we.ro chosen to administer the country's affairs, but the. uniittest. Carlyle scornfully mentioned Disraeli'as an illustration, hut added: "Well, well, poor fellow, T dare say if we knew all about him we should have to think differently." HEBREW CONJUROR.

; In his "Shooting Niagara," Carlyle refers this to Disraeli: "A superlative Hebrew conjuror spell-bind-ing all the great lords, great parties, great interests of /England to his hand in this maimer, and leading .them, by the nose like helpless mesmerised somnambulist cattle to such ,issue! Did the world ever /3ee. a. fuebile lucligrun of such magnitude before?" Without wealth, says Eroude, without connection, Disraeli had made himself the ruler of the j British Empire. He had not stooped to the common arts of flattery. He had achieved no marked successes in the service of \ the country. He had won his way by parliamentary ability and resolution to succeed. Whether it be for the interest of the nation in the long run to commit its destinies to men of such qualifications is a question which it vill by,and by consider. If a time comes when party becomes faction, and the interests of the Empire are sacrificed visibly in contention for office, when the wise and the honest I hold aloof from politics as a game lin which they can n 0 longer take pa,rt, Parliamentary government will fall into the contempt which Disraeli himself already secretly felt for it. The system will collapse, and I other methods will be tried.

] COURAGE AND GENIUS. | With his accession to the Premie.r- ---! ship Disraeli became; an object of marked and general regard. When ho went down to Parliament for the first time in his new capacity he was wildly cheered by the crowds in . Palace Yard 1 . And the tribute, was 'to himself personally. He was not | the representative of any great, or popular cause. Even In carrying his Reform Bill he had not stooped to inflated rhetoric, or* held out promises of visionary milleniums. Eto was regarded merely as a man ol i courage and genius, not less honest than other? politician)* because his professions were few.