TOPICS OF THE DAY.
DISRAELI'S BEAUTIES OF SUICIDE.
"NOBODY'S enemy but his own" may be applied without a para- dox to Benjamin Disraeli the Younger. Mr. Disraeli is invalu- able to all parties except to himself. He supplies a leader for a party that must otherwise put up with a Richmond or a Tyrell- the brightest spark of intellect to the agricultural mind. For the Free-trade mind, he puts Protectionist claims into a grotesque and entertaining form. To the Chancellor of the Exchequer he supplies that real blessing an antagonist formidable to look at and delicious to encounter. Mr. Disraeli's field-days are Sir Charles Wood's holydays.
The exercitation of last Monday was a characteristically beau- tiful performance. It consisted of innumerable leading articles for a first-class Opposition paper rolled into one. Disraeli recited how the Chancellor of the Exchequer had brought forward an untenable budget, with an imaginary surplus ; had abandoned the budget, but not the surplus ; had yielded to the prospective revision of the In- come-tax, without possessing a revenue independent of that im- post ; had wasted the House-tax, that great resource, upon a paltry necessity : in short, he made a triumphant critical career over the whole field of Wood finance, and succeeded in proving that he can show up Sir Charles and Whig administration at every turn.
But to what end was all that activity ? All that Mr. Disraeli told us we knew before ; so much as he proved was already the conviction of every adult male possessing a sound mind and un- tainted by officialism. Everybody was aware also that Mr. Dis- raeli can write and deliver any given amount of leading articles, of superior quality, on any given subject. If he had wanted a certificate to that effect, he might have had it from all the Mem- bers of the House without a two-hours oration. He has passed his examination before ' • or if, with singular conscientiousness, he must do it annually, at least once a session would suffice.
The one thing which Members would have been glad to see, was a finance scheme better than Sir Charles Wood's; a scheme less paltry, less unequal to the occasion, less discrediable to its own pretensions, less inconsequent to its own arguments, less tri- vial, less unworkable : but this is precisely the thing which he omits to produce. Low and worthless as Sir Charles Wood's schemes may have been, either the first or the second for this ses- sion, Mr. Disraeli's schemes have not displaced them in public favour. By the vote of the Commons, by the acclaim of the public, by the acquiescence of the agriculturists, Mr. Disraeli is pro- nounced not to have "taken down" Sir Charles Wood in class at financial schoolboy ; Benjamin must be content to rank second, under Charles, and his only success consists in showing that Charles himself ranks very low indeed. If we extend the consideration beyond finance to politics at large, Mr. Disraeli's maladroit dexterity becomes more apparent. The tactics in which he excels amount to outdoing the mistakes of his opponent. Seeing that Wood has been defeated, he rushes to the contest bent upon being more defeated. He meets Whig trivialities with ultra-refinements ; and rests the case of the rosy- cheeked full-waisted agriculturist on the nicest calculations of financial prosody. Seeing that Sir Charles Wood resorts to a cant- ing appropriation of the Window-tax cry, Mr. Disraeli seizes the cant in his own Jovian grasp, to knock himself down with its butt- end, and exhibit himself as the vanquished hinderer of a popular reform. Swift makes his juggler swell his catalogue of feats by a number of audacious exploits, such as the putting out of eyes or jumpina.° on to spikes, which " he permits any gentleman " to per- form. Mr. Disraeli gravely avails himself of the privilege ; with all his might and main he jumps on to Sir Charles Wood's spikes, and casting a triumphant smile around, declares that for the agony he endures Sir Charles Wood is responsible !
The truer that singular position is, the less likely is the pensive public to play at follow-my-leader with Benjamin Disraeli.
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