An Interpretation of Disraeli
Disraeli. By 1). L. Murray. (Beim. 16s.) MR. MURRAY'S name has not been hitherto familiar to this reviewer, but will certainly not be forgotten by him, or by other readers. Disraeli is one of the choicest among the " Curiosities of Politics," and Mr. Murray has risen to the level of his subject in a masterly piece of interpretative biography.
This means first that the book has rhythm and movement ; the pace and the tone of the writing vary as the theme broadens or intensifies ; it is a composition having its own artistic
unity just as much as a good novel. It means, secondly, that after exhaustive reading Mr. Murray has known how to select
only such things as are necessary to build up his picture and his quotations arc sparingly used, but where they arc used act as Vivid illustration. It means, thirdly, that Mr. Murray's gift of interpretation extends to the persons with whom Disraeli was in contact ; and, lastly and chiefly, that this book, inspired, as the best biography should be, with the desire to celebrate, steers clear of hero worship throughout, yet, though it does not deny itself the use of irony, never abuses it. Not for one instant does Mr. Murray make us stop to think how clever he is being.
The book derives a special quality from being written by one of Disraeli's race. Probably only a few would have realized that only in England would the baptized Jew find himself among a people who " have taken the Hebrew Scrip- tures for their folk lore and their sagas." What British hero is so popular as David or Samson ? That made Disraeli possible as an English leader, and how hard it was to make bins
possible nobody sees better than Mr. Murray. A couple of touches show us the author of Vivian Grey. At Gibraltar, " had the fame of being the first that ever passed the Straits with two canes—a morning and an evening cane." So he wrote home. At Malta, having picked up a tennis ball, " observing a young rifleman exceedingly stiff, I humbly requested him to forward its passage into the court, as I really never had thrown a ball in my life."
Mr. Murray perhaps omits to point out that one thing which made Disraeli possible in English society was his elo- quence about the horse. That must have helped with the Bentineks, and after reading the Memoir of Lord Chaplin I am inclined to think there should have been a little more here about the Bentincks.
It is admitted throughout that Disraeli " lacked original inspiration"— -that lie " had no aptitude for the inner experi- ences of religion " (probably because he was severed froM that religion to which he belonged by heredity), that he " protected the Church of England languidly as a national institution that formed a breakwater against the menace of Rome, and the nuisance of fanatic sectarianism" ; but " as the protection was not inspired by deep respect, so the support claimed in return was not exacted with much delicacy." - - Again in criticism : " Towards tales of atrocity " (in Bul- garia and elsewhere) " Disraeli was by nature sceptical, a trifle hard, and, above all, uninterested. He saw politics in terms of drama, not of philanthropy."
But here is a different note :-
" As the last blooms were rubbed away, Disraeli's face appeared leas aged than antique, the symbol of a racial rather than a merely individual patience and inscrutability, a formidable as well as fantastic apparition on the sober scene of English politics."
Perhaps the most remarkable feature in a remarkable book is
the skill with which Mr. Murray, by preliminary description leading up to brief well-chosen quotation, conveys not only the quality of Disraeli's eloquence, but the effect of his inter- ventions in debate. This is a real triumph.
STEPHEN GWYNN.
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