GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1862, 21 December 1874, Page 3

GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI.

It is a study to watch the cat and thrust or the two parliamentary gladiators; Personally they are most courteous to | each other ;* Disraeli deferential, saluting hit rival as "the most eminent of Englishmen," and always showing him little attentions across th» table, as if he were still, as Mr Disraeli called him the other day by mistake, Prime Minister; but the whole game of English politics is now a game of chess between those two men and their retainers, with Power for their prize. And how that game is played! A. session is like a campaign. But Disraeli has one great advantage over Gladstone. He is a man of society—a man of wit—a man of letters. Gladstone is nothing but a statesman. With Gladstone distance lends enchantment to the view. But the more you know of Disraeli the more you like, admire, and love the man. The Lord Mayor expressed his feelings very well in his speech at the Mansion House; but it is a common experience. But Disraeli's forte, like Lord Palmerston's, is Parliament finesse. Gladstone's is eloquence. Disraeli is at home everywhere—in the House of Commons, in the Club-room— at a fancy dress ball—at the Mansion House—at a quiet dinner. Gladstone is at home nowhere but in the House of Commons; and yet if the business of the House is not in his'" hands, he must be thinking of Homer or Strauss, or poetry —of anything and everything-except the House of Commons. This trait is peculiar to .Gladstone. You never see it in Disraeli, Ldwe^ or Bright* But Gladstone brings books down to the House, or a packet of letter paper, and reads, with a pencil in his hand, to annotate the pages, or writes for hours together, pulling himself together for his speech about ten minutes before he rises. You never see a book or pen in the hands of Disraeli or although, like Gladstone, they are ••both literary men. Disraeli makes up for this in other ways—spending six or seven hours in the House 6f Common s—for instance on Wednesday disappearing from there at 6 o'clock to go home and dress, sitting down to dinner with the Lord Mayor in less than a couple of ours afterwards, and at 10, after a couple of speeches, asking permission to withdraw in order to go to the ball at Marlborough House. Yet with all this the man is always fresh, always genial, always piquant. ,