The unveiling of Mr. Noble's bronze statue of the late
Earl of Derby in Parliament Square this day week by the Prime Minister was a ceremonial of no little interest, and marked by. something like classical taste and terseness. Only Lord Hampton (who in the name of the Committee of Subscribers presented the statue to the nation)—Mr. Disraeli, who delivered a few pregnant sentences on the character of his late chief and predecessor—and Lord Malmesbury, who spoke as the early and intimate friend of the deceased statesman, spoke at all ; and each of them spoke with a brevity and intensity that was as impressive as, on such 'oecasions, it is apt to be rare. Mr. Disraeli described the late Earl of Derby as marked by "fiery eloquence, haughty courage, a rapidity of intellectual grasp which probably never was sur- passed," awl "a capacity for labour and detail -never sufficiently appreciated." "He combined the passion of politics with all the tenderness of domestic life," concluded Mr. Disraeli, "and we have raised this statue to him not only as a memorial, but as an .example, not merely to commemorate, but to inspire." Mr. Dis- raeli's summary of Lord Derby's claims to fame was not a little remarkable, as coming from a Conservative Prime Minister :— "He abolished slavery, he educated Ireland, and he reformed Parliament,"—all three the achievements of his Liberal youth, ex- cept indeed so far as we includein the last of these feats the supple- Mentary exploit by which he "dished the Whigs." Mr. Disraeli .did not include that manoeuvre, by name at least, in his liege. It would have been well if he could have done so ; for something was still wanting to convey the school-boy element never remote from the nature of Lard Derby, and one of the most genuine things in him. If he really had a great "capacity for detail," he had undoubtedly a still greater delight in dash, and the dash soften dissipated all trace of the detail.
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