7 OCTOBER 1876, Page 3

Curiously enough, a lively biography of Lord Beaconsfield, which is

now appearing in parts, quotes from Mr. N. P. Willis's " Pencil- lings by the Way" an account of Mr. Disraeli's conversation as a young man, the subject of which was "an impalement he had seen in Upper Egypt." Mr. Willis evidently did not attach any great authenticity to the account, but whether the vision of the impale- ment were subjective or objective, it would appear to show that in those days, when he was fresh from the East, Mr. Disraeli did not regard the Orientals as so very " expeditious" in their mode of "terminating their connection with prisoners." But even then he made light of such things. "The circumstantiality of the account," says Mr. Willis, "was equally horrible and amusing."