Lord. Beaconsfield is prudently determined to have as little to
do with the golden wreath as he can,—to repudiate it indeed, even though it be not offered to him by the hands of Mr. Tracy Turnerelli. This gentleman suggested to the Oldham People's Tribute Committee that they should offer it to Lord Beacons- field, as the Premier would have nothing to say to a wreath that came from Mr. Tracy Turnerelli. And accordingly the Oldham People's Tribute Committee sounded Lord Beacons- field on the subject; but Lord Beaconsfield was inexorable. "It is admitted," wrote Lord Beaconsfield's private secretary, "that the idea of the wreath originated with, a single indi- vidual, not a member of the working-class himself, nor deputed by any body of workiug-men to .represout them, and these circumstances alone deprive the affair of the spoutaneous and re- preseutative character which has been claimed. for it. The accept- ance of the gift now would be open to misconception." Lord Bea- consfield is quite right. The wreath has become ludicrous,—so ludicrous that it Is even unpleasant for him to have to repeat hia I rejection of it. f he had accepted it, it would be a sort of political fool's-cap for evermore. But struggle as he may, the just Fates, acting by the hand. of Mr. 'I racy Turnerelli,— to whom much human gratitude is due,—have for ever en- circled the noble brow of Lord Beaconsfield, as it lives in the popular fancy,with the visionary form of this unhappy wreath, —a visionary form which no melting-pot will ever manage to melt down,—and from the invisible but tenacious clasp of which, he will never successfully wriggle out.
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