214 



DISRAELI, BENJAMIN. 



pounded to himself and to his political disci- 

 ples in tin- beginning tbe question, " What is 

 to be conserved ? " and throughout his career 

 he showed himself as radical in lopping off 

 outworn institutions to which even his Liberal 

 opponents still clung as he was conservative in 

 upholding ancient and enduring social prin- 

 ciples whirh woro ignored in the Liberal phi- 

 losophy. Disraeli's political ideal is unfolded 

 in his novels " Coningnby " and " Sibyl." His 

 intellectual method was not comprehended by 

 an age and a nation educated only in the short 

 and easy political logic of deduction from as- 

 sumed universal axioms. The underlying mo- 

 tive of his speculations was the need which he 

 felt of closer bonds of social interdependence, 

 such as those which the great revolution had 

 unloosed. Neither he nor the age was ripe for 

 constructive developments in that direction 

 even to commence. Disraeli was in advance 

 of the time in recognizing the fatuity of the 

 doctrine that unchecked selfishness is the main- 

 spring of progress. He bad the genius to dis- 

 cern the interior vitality of the ancient insti- 

 tutions, proclaimed effete, with which memo- 

 ries of social duties and hallowed relations 

 were associated ; and in revindicating the high 

 mission of the throne, the national church, and 

 the nobility, he struck a chord to which the 

 feelings of the higher and the lower classes 

 responded, and which did not leave the great 

 middle class unaffected. Disraeli was a lead- 

 ing spirit in the movement of moral regenera- 

 tion among the British aristocracy which oc- 

 curred at the period when he was by hard par- 

 liamentary work gaining the reluctant reliance 

 of the Tories upon his brilliant powers of de- 

 bate and astute party tactics. The confidence 

 and respect which, as a moral leader, be de- 

 served of the Tory party, was tardily meted to 

 him only on account of his political triumphs. 



In the field of foreign politics, in which he 

 won and lost his great battles, Disraeli's mo- 

 tives were of a lower order than his social 

 doctrines, which he could not carry out in 

 practical politics, but which actuated him to 

 accept democratic measures ; notably to take 

 the "leap in the dark" which extended the 

 franchise to the rural population. Disraeli's 

 foreign policy, loudly as it has been condemned 

 by doctrinaires, is the historical policy of Great 

 Britain. To strengthen the imperial authority 

 in India was a politic and exigent course. The 

 domination of Great Britain by the exercise of 

 military power over all the outlying weak and 

 barbarous nations of the world is an immo- 

 rality the blame for which attaches principally 

 to the mercantile community. They have ben- 

 efited by such exhibitions of tyranny, and are 

 only brought to condemn them when the cost 

 is not immediately returned to them in rich 

 profits. 



Disraeli's bold preparations for war with 

 Russia, which enabled him to reassert England's 

 authority in the councils of Europe, and to 

 return in triumph from Berlin bringing " peace 



with honor," was a course which, in spite of 

 subsequent defeat and depreciation, still claims 

 the praises of English patriots. The war with 

 Afghanistan grew directly out of the policy 

 taken toward Russia, and the Transvaal war 

 out of a situation of affairs for which Imth 

 parties w ere responsi ble. Th at both th ese w ars 

 might with more credit have been avoided was 

 the verdict of the people in the elections of 

 1880. Disraeli's precipitation from power im- 

 mediately after attaining the pinnacle of great- 

 ness was rather a manifestation of the jealous 

 ingratitude of republics than a condemnation 

 of his policy. The dramatic effect produced 

 by springing his political strokes upon the 

 country as surprises, and the outward pomp 

 and vainglorious flourish of titles in his Orien- 

 tal policy, were repugnant to the sober second 

 thought of Anglo-Saxon people. 



No Continental power was disposed to re- 

 strain Russia from acting her will with Turkey 

 after the hard- won conquest. But all the neu- 

 tral powers approved the spirited stand taken 

 by England, although the English themselves, 

 who had become thoroughly indoctrinated with 

 tbe theory of non-intervention, acquiesced very 

 reluctantly, until the slumbering martial pas- 

 sions were excited. The Russian version of 

 the " Bulgarian atrocities " was eloquently pre- 

 sented to the country by Gladstone and other 

 Liberal orators. Lord Derby and Lord Car- 

 narvon resigned from the Cabinet. With the 

 party thus crippled and public opinion waver- 

 ing and turning against him, Disraeli coura- 

 geously went forward in the course which he 

 deemed necessary to take in order to rescue 

 England's menaced Asiatic interests. A British 

 fleet forced the Dardanelles and anchored be- 

 fore Constantinople. Six million pounds were 

 voted by Parliament for military preparations, 

 and a contingent of native troops from India 

 was landed at Malta, as a signal that the re- 

 sources of the new empire of India would be 

 drawn upon to prevent tbe encroachments of 

 Russia upon British possessions in Asia, or her 

 approach toward the route of naval communi- 

 cations with India. Disraeli dictated to Russia 

 the terms of the Treaty of Berlin, and defeated 

 the pretensions of the Treaty of San Stefano. 

 By placing Bosnia and Herzegovina under the 

 domination of Austria, he interested another 

 power in the prevention of Russian aggression 

 beyond the Balkans. The acquisition of Cyprus 

 by England was of doubtful advantage. Upon 

 his return from Berlin he entered the House 

 of Lords with the title of Earl of Beaconsfield. 

 Upon the resignation of the Disraeli Cabinet 

 in 1868 he had been tendered a peerage, but 

 was unwilling at that tune to retire from the 

 House of Commons, and accepted the honor 

 for his wife instead, upon whom was conferred 

 the title of Viscountess Beaconsfield. There- 

 suit of the elections of the spring of 1880 was 

 a surprise to the victorious as well as to the de- 

 feated party. It was a bitter disappointment 

 to Disraeli to see his cherished plans brought 



