It was at first believed that Lord Beaconsfield would have
been buried with a State funeral in Westminster Abbey. His .career had earned that crowning honour at the hands of Englishmen, and it was not believed that he who, most of all things, perhaps, loved stately pomp and ordered pageantry, would have declined the ceremonial tribute. Immediately on receipt of the news, Mr. Gladstone telegraphed an offer of a publicjuneral, and he followed it with a feeling letter, in which he spoke of his 'sad surprise," and the" mournful interest that would he felt throughout the country and beyond its limits," and repeated the offer of his telegram. The executors, however, Sir Philip Rose and Sir Nathaniel Rothschild, while expressing "their sdeep sense of Mr. Gladstone's generous motives," declined the honour, Lord Beaconsfield having in his will expressed a wish to be buried at Hughenden, in "the same vault as my dear wife, Mary Anne Disraeli, created, in her own right, Viscountess Beaconsfield." It was supposed that the Queen would over- ride this decision, as was done in the case of Lord Palmerston, and Lord Rowton was summoned to her Majesty ; but on Thursday afternoon it was announced that the Earl's body would be conveyed by road to Hughendeu, and on Tuesday buried in the parish church.
