1903] My Opinion of Disraeli Ji 



least for a while. In fifteen years' time I shall leave politics for 

 good, the more one sees of them, the more futile they appear, and I 

 shall have had enough of them by the time I am fifty-five. Of course 

 I must be Prime Minister first, I am sure of that. I am constantly 

 approached already to lead the Party, and I can do so when I 

 please. I don't see who is to be my rival in it, George Curzon will- 

 be in the House of Lords, and I am younger than all the rest. It is 

 surprising how little ability there is, but I don't mean to go on for 

 ever with it. I have other things to do.' 



" yd Sept. — I asked George to-day about the King, and what 

 impression he had made on him during the visit to Ireland. He 

 said, ' The King is intelligent about political matters, and quick to 

 seize ideas, almost too quick. He is really interested in Ireland, 

 and the Irish have found out he is favourable to them. I don't 

 know how they knew about it, but they know.' 



" Jth Sept. to nth Sept. — I paid a visit with Anne to Ashley 

 Coombe where the Lovelaces are settled for the autumn. He very 

 busy cutting trees and attending to other improvements much needed. 

 I had not been there to stay since my honeymoon. We had a pleasant 

 time now riding every day through the oak woods, which are very 

 beautiful, and extend from the shore of the Bristol Channel to the 

 edge of Exmoor, with its open heaths a thousand feet above us. 



" Ralph has given me his ' Astarte ' revised to read. It is much im- 

 proved, though it still retains his attack on Murray. 



" 30th Sept. — Austin Lee writes from Paris that Berthe Wagram 

 who has long been ill is not expected to live many days. She has 

 received the last sacrament. Poor Wagram, he says, is in a terrible 

 state of despondency and nervous excitement. [Lee telegraphed again 

 two days later to tell me she was dead.] 



" Meynell has dedicated his new book on Disraeli, for whom he 

 has a great culte, to me. I have written to him as follows : 



" ' I have now read, the whole of your two volumes, and am 

 only sorry there are not two more. Your Dizzy is indeed a creature 

 of loveable qualities, and the human part of him you have brought 

 admirably out, his affection, his lightness in hand, his wit. This last 

 I place next in the world to Voltaire's, his intellectual father. Tancred, 

 Coningsby, Ixion, these have more wit in them than anything in litera- 

 ture since Candide. So far I go with you. 



" ' You must not, however, call me a " Dizzy-worshipper," as you 

 do in your dedication. I am a hundred miles away from thati. 

 vEsthetically our good Jew was a terrible Philistine ; and politically 

 (I say it with some timidity to you his apologist) a very complete 

 farceur. I don't like to call him anything worse than that. " Mounte- 

 bank " and charlatan are abusive terms which imply deception for an 



