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deliberate and cruel vigilance to discover what point will be tenderest, and what weapon will be sharpest. There is also the same absence of any strong convictions or fixed opinions; the same merging of principles in personalities; the same reduction of the great game of politics to a mere fencing match, where the object is not to pass a law, but to wound an adversary. Mr. Disraeli is not a statesman; he is not even a politician; he is simply a gladiator. No invective is too savage for his cold and artificial indignation; no sarcasm too bitter for his petty spite; no allusions too indecorous for his taste; no character pure enough to be sacred from his charges and insinuations. From the day when he endeavoured to obtain access to the same Parliament, first as a Radical, and then as a Tory; from the day when, under the signature of "Runnymede," he addressed a series of letters to the public men of England, of which it is difficult to say whether the adulation or the abuse is the most repellent; from the day when he repaid the scurrility of O'Connell with Billingsgate like his own, as vulgar, but far less effective; from the day when he fastened upon Peel, as the glutton fastens on the noble stag, and baited and worried him with the gusto of the torturers of old-to the day when he received the reward of his achievements in the leadership of his party, and a residence in Downing Street, and indulged first in the insolence of the triumphant official, and then in the impotent fury of the defeated and discarded minister,—Mr. Disraeli has been consistent and unique; he has never once deviated into right; he has never once, so far as we remember, been surprised into an unseemly fit of generosity or candour; he has never for a moment sacrificed personal gratification or a party triumph to a political object or a moral principle; during a public life of nearly twenty years, he has never belied his antecedents, or stained his reputation by one noble sentiment, or one disinterested deed. That such a man should have been the chosen chief of a great, and once a not ignoble party; that he should have been not only tolerated but cheered on in his gladiatorial displays, by so large a section of the gentry and nobility of England; that he should have been able to make himself Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons, over the heads of all his rivals, by the simple influence of a bitterer temper and a sharper tongue-these things constitute, we were about to say, the most disgraceful fact in the modern history of our country; but unhappily we can remember one in some respects analogous, but still more discreditable: the generation which witnessed the worship paid to Mr. Hudson need scarcely blush at the elevation decreed to Mr. Disraeli. The statue designed for the one is a fit pendant to the pedestal erected for the other.

Mr. Disraeli's "Gems."

585

This is language which we seldom use, and it is painful to have to use it when speaking of contemporaries; but no one who reads the "Amenities of Political Literature," collected by Mr. Disraeli's biographer, will charge us with employing one epithet of unwarranted severity. We must, in justice to ourselves, give a specimen or two of the mode in which the late Chancellor of the Exchequer, at different periods of his career, thought it decent to speak of his opponent. To Mr. O'Connell's son he writes,"I wished to express the utter scorn in which I hold your father's character, and the disgust with which his conduct inspires me. I shall take every opportunity of holding up his name to public contempt; and I fervently pray that son, or some one of his blood, may attempt to avenge the unextinguishable hatred with which I shall pursue his existence."-The Globe had criticised him, and it is thus the future Leader of the House of Commons shows his fitness for the post." The editor of the Globe must have a more contracted mind, and a paltrier spirit, than even I imagined, if he can suppose for a moment, that an ignoble controversy with an obscure animal like himself, can gratify the passion for notoriety of one whose works, at least, have been translated into the languages of civilized Europe, and circulated by thousands in the New World. It is not then my passion for notoriety that has induced me to tweak the editor of the Globe by the nose, and inflict sundry kicks on the baser part of his base body-to make him eat dirt, and his own words, fouler than any filth; but because I wished to show to the world what a miserable poltroon, what a craven dullard, what a literary scarecrow, what a mere thing stuffed with straw, is this soi-disant director of public opinion, and official organ of Whig politics."-Lord John Russell is "born with a strong ambition, but a feeble intellect,

...

a propensity to degrade everything to your own mean level, and to measure everything by your malignant standard; . . . he is a miniature Mokanna, exhaling upon the constitution of your country all the long hoarded venom, and those distempers that have for years accumulated in your petty heart, and tainted the current of your mortified existence."-Lord William Bentinck is told that his address to the electors is "admirably characteristic of a perplexed intellect and a profligate ambition; . . . an indication of your weak and perplexed mind, and your base and grovelling spirit."-Lord Palmerston is "the great apostle of aspiring understrappers, . . . blessed with a dexterity which seems a happy compound of the smartness of an attorney's clerk and the intrigues of a Greek of the lower empire." He is "your crimping Lordship," and is told that "your Lordship's career is as insignificant as your intellect."-We need not disfigure our pages with any more extracts. More recent expressions are fresh

VOL. XXI. NO. XLII.

2 P

in the memory of all. We can all remember how he described Sir Robert Peel's career as a course of petty larceny on a grand scale," and charged that eminent statesman with "a suppressio veri on a scale unprecedented in debate." We all know that he indulges in similar personalities to the present hour; and those who hear what we only read, describe his manner as even more insolent and indecorous than his words. Happily his star is on the wane, and his example may, therefore, be of less importance. He is beginning to weary the attention, as much as he has long offended the taste, of the House.

Happily the ministry which thus revived all our worst traditions, and trampled on our amended habits, was of short duration, and has been succeeded by one in all respects its opposite. The destinies of the country are again committed to the hands of men of whose character it can be proud. The change is far greater than usually belongs to the retirement of one set of politicians and the advent of another. Its significance and its consequences stretch far beyond a mere transfer of the Seals of office from " Her Majesty's Ministers" to "Her Majesty's Opposition." It is not simply that better political opinions have come into power, that reforming doctrines are again in a majority, that liberal views have a greater chance of being carried out; it is that the councils of the nation are once more guided by statesmen who have earnest convictions, and noble aims, to whom power is not a possession to be grasped, but a trust to be fulfilled, and who are as incapable of forming mean projects as of pursuing them through miry ways. And those who believe with Mackintosh, that "there can be no scheme or measure as beneficial to the State as the mere existence of men who would not do a base act for any public advantage," who hold with us, that a nation can possess no richer patrimony, and no purer wealth, than the stainless honour of its public men,-will not deem the metamorphosis a small one. And though some prophets may imagine that our greatest days are over, that our British spirit has grown tame and feeble, that material interests are "too much with us," that a low, calculating, and commercial temper has become perilously prevalent, that wealth and luxury are sapping our energies, and lowering the tone of national sentiment, and that all these things are indications of our proximate "Decline and Fall;" yet, so long as the standard of political morality is growing more elevated, and the statesmen who conform to it more numerous, with each successive generation, we can point to a feature in our condition which never yet, since history began, belonged to a decaying empire.

INDEX

TO THE

TWENTY-FIRST VOLUME OF THE NORTH BRITISH REVIEW.

Achaean League, account of, 444.
Allegory, illustrations of, in Dante's Poems,
456.

Allen, Mr., on the rise and progress of the
royal prerogative, 377, 391.
Americans, striving, restless, progressive
life of, 48, 54.

Andersen, Hans, notice of his Danish Le-
gends, 416.

Angling in Scandinavian rivers, 233.
Anglo-Saxon race, restless energy of, 53.
Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, his character
and conduct towards the church, 106.
Arabian Nights as a book for children,
420.

Architecture. See Ruskin.

Argyle family, virtual viceroyalty of, in
Scotland from 1714 to 1748, 86.
Arnold, Matthew, review of his poems, 493
-natural and artistic poets, 493-Sohrab
and Rustum, reproduction of Homer, 495
-worth of classic imitations, 497-The
Scholar Gipsy, 498-his lyrics and son-
nets, 500-difference between poetic gifts
and the poet's heart, 503-choice of a
subject, 504.

Atmosphere in the planets, 3.

Bear-hunting in Scandinavia, 238.
Becket controversy, 382.

Belhaven, Lord, his speech on the Union,
80.

Binary systems of stars, 29.

Bonnechose's Quatre Conquêtes de l'Angle-
terre, notice of, 398.

Books for Children, 399-recollections of
childhood, 400-characteristics of boy-
hood and girlhood, 402-objectivity in
children, 404-relish for the beauties of
nature, poetry, 405-comedy, 406-reli-
gious feelings, hero worship, 407-seed
sown in the minds of children by books,
410-" writing down" for children, 411-
Mrs. Sherwood's style of writing for chil-
dren, 412-faults of "Amy Herbert," 413
-the argumentative, the narrative, and
allegorical styles of writing, 414-Pil.
grim's Progress, 415-Mr. Adams' Tales,
415 De la Motte Fouque's "Four Sea-
sons," Hans Andersen's Danish Legends,
416-positive teaching better than nega-
tive, 417-books of mere amusement,
418-" Arabian Nights," 420-culture of
the imagination, 421-errors in the edu-
cation of children, 423.

Brooksbank's translation of Dante, 452,
465.

Burton, J. H., notice of his History of
Scotland, 69.

Cary's translation of Dante, character of
452, seq.

Celtic race, their love of repose, 48.
Centralization compared with local self-
government, 99.

Characteristics, British and Continental, 45
-merits of M. Emile Souvestre's "Attic
Philosopher," 45-extremes of character
in civilized man, 48-Mussulman and
Celtic contentment, 48-Life in Norway,
50 in Auvergne, Switzerland, and South-
ern Germany, 51-in France, 52-rest-
less energy contrasted with contented
repose, 53-Anglo-Saxon character, 53-
Mill's beau-ideal of social life, 54-the
progressive and the stationary state, 55-
juster and more rational estimate of life
needed, 57-evangel of Work and evan-
gel of Leisure, 58-comparative amount
of squalid poverty in Britain and on the
Continent, 59-what does this state of
things indicate 61-intemperance of the
English labourer, 62-taste and imagina-
tion of the French poor, 63-amusements
of French and English artisans, 65-
struggles of an old French soldier, 66.
Church and State, theory of Arnold con-
trasted with that of Vinet, 303.
Coal, want of, in Russia, 527.

Cockburn's Life of Jeffrey noticed, 88.
Continental life contrasted with British,
45, seq.

Comte, Auguste, and Positivism, 247-ge-
neral view of his labours, 247-his philo-
sophy overlooked by the profound minds
of the age, 249-plan of discussing the
general theory of Positivism, 250-de-
clared aim of its author, 252-unity of
the scheme, 253-the term Positive, 253
-Positivism a system of pure pheno-
menalism, 255-law of the intellectual
progress of mankind, 257-the theolo-
gical era, 257-the metaphysical era, 260
-the positive or scientific era, 261-
"law of the three states" untenable, 262
-its origin, 263-law of the classification
of the sciences, 264-contradicts history,
267-inversion of the order of the "social
sciences," 268-parallelism of the cos-
mical and sociological sciences, 271-the
law of classification erroneous and defec-
tive, 272-the system a mixture of high
philosophy with dreamy reveries, 276-
much borrowed from other philosophers,
277-union of the inductive and deduc-
tive processes, 279-Comte's religion a
parody of Christianity, 283-his religion
of humanity a mere shadow of media
Christianity, 284-its priesthood
function of phrenology, 237-1).

statics, 290-general spirit and prospects
of Positivism, 292.

Creasy, E. S., notice of his Rise and Pro-
gress of the English Constitution, 392.

Dante, merits of various translations, 451-
difficulties of the task, 453-Dante's idea
of the principles of poetic art, 456-illus-
tration of his allegory, 459-his imagery
taken from mythology and the Vulgate,
460-the dialects of Italy, 461-Dante's
language truly his own, 466-his learn-
ing, his earnestness, 468-object of the
Divina Commedia, 469-journeys to the
invisible world, 473-Beatrice and the
Vita Nuova, 474-the three beasts in the
Inferno, 476-the nine circles, 478-re-
lation of the various punishments to
crimes, 481-inference as to the moral
nature of the poet, 483-analogies with
external nature, 486-the Purgatory, 488
-site of the terrestrial paradise, 489-
history of the Divine Comedy illustrates
the fortunes of poetry, 492.
De Lolme, account of, 390.
Democracy, at Athens and under the

Achaean League, 442, 444.

Disraeli, Benjamin, political morality of, 583.
Disruption of Scottish Establishment, a pro-
minent example of English statesmanship
in Scotch matters, 91.

Dove, P. E., notice of his statement of Scot-
tish Grievances, 94.
Drawing, method of teaching, 161.
Dundas, dynasty in Scotland, 88.

Education, art of, 137-systems of educa-
tion always akin to the co-existing social
states, 137-multiplication of schemes
tend to evolve a rational system, 139
methods in course of abandonment, 140
-methods in course of adoption, 142—
all methods ought to be conformable to
nature, 144-doctrine of Pestalozzi, 145
-the best system requires the best
teachers, 147-full realization of the Pes-
talozzian principle yet to be achieved,
148-right sequence of subjects in edu-
cation, 150-we should proceed from the
empirical to the rational, 151-self-de-
velopment should be encouraged, 152-
pleasurable excitement in the pupils
should be aimed at, 153, 170-culture of
the senses, 154-object-lessons, intellec-
tual sympathy, 157-continuous discip-
line of the observing faculties, 158—im-
portance of a knowledge of the laws of
life, 160-early practice in drawing, 161
--elementary drawing-book by John Bell,
162-Mr. Wyse's plan of giving primary
conceptions in geometry, 164-empirical
geometry, 166-self-evolution the great
desideratum, 168--ultimate results of the
normal method, 171.
Evidences (Christian) and history, 101--
importance of books of evidence being
historical, 102-fate of the Church under

Marcus Aurelius, 104-estimate of his
character, 105-Stoical estimate of Chris-
tianity, 107-martyrdom of Justin Mar-
tyr and Polycarp, 109-nature and im-
portance of the attestations of the early
martyrs, 111-jealousy and alarm of
the heathen prove the great progress of
Christianity, 112-proof of important
points from Pliny's letter to Trajan, 114
-and from Trajan's answer, 118-change
in the position of Christians produced by
it, 121-trial and death of Ignatius, 123
-Hadrian's character, 125-his rescript
to Fendanus, 128-letter to Servianus,
129-Jewish revolt under Barchobeb,
131--change in the Church of Jerusalem,
133-the Church under Antoninus Pius,
134-substance of early Christian teach-
ing, 135.

Fetichism, Comte's system of, 281.
Forbes, Duncan, character of, 87.
Forbes' (Prof. J. D.) Norway and its Gla-

ciers, 201-resemblance between Nor-
way and the west and north of Scotland,
203-summit of Snee-hätten, discomfort
of half-melted snow, 205-character of
the peasantry, 206-salmon-fishing, mos-
quitoes, 207-Swedish turnips, 208-fa-
mily of Lapps, 209-notice of the beaver,
210-eclipse of the sun, 212-features of
the inland fiords, 215-the fields or fjelds,
216-abundance of waterfalls,217-theory
of glacier motion confirmed, 219.
Forsyth's history of trial by jury, 384.
Fouque, De la Motte, notice of his "Four
Seasons," 416.

Freeman, E. A., on Gothic tracery, 198.

Geologists, distinguished Scottish, 507.
Geology, argument from, against a Plura-
lity of Worlds considered, 18.
Geometry, method of communicating pri-
Gold, discovery of, in Australia, 530—in
mary conceptions in, 164.
California, 535.

Gothic architecture, 179, seq.
Grammar, its proper place in education, 142.
Greece during the Macedonian period, 425
-neglect of this portion of history, and
its causes, 426-differing views of Niebuhr
and Grote, 428-merits and defects of
Niebuhr's treatment, 430-compared with
Thirlwall's, 433-comparative interest of
Grecce and Medieval Italy, 435-char-
acter of Alexander's successors, 436-the
Achaean league, 439-former pure demo-
cracy of Athens, 442-modified democracy
in the league, 444-character and position
of Macedonia, 448.
Grote compared with Niebuhr, 428.

Hadrian, character of, 125-conduct to-
History, early English, 375-merits of re-
wards the Jews and Christians, 127.
cent contributions, 376-modern histo-
rians of England belong to Ranke's school,

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