The Prime Minister has refused the gold laurel-wreath which Mr.
Tracy Turnerelli has taken such pains to obtain for him, by collecting tributary pence from upwards of 50,000 of the English people,--.--pains on which, according to Mr. Tracy Turnerelli'e own words, he had spent "immense labour, and never-yet-exampled efforts." And Lord Beaconsfield has not only refused the wreath, but has directed his pri- vate secretary to accompany his refusal with some rather
disagreeable remarks on Mr. Tracy Turnerelli. Lord Beaconsfield's secretary is directed to remark that Lord Beaconsfield has had before him the correspondence addressed to him during five years by Mr. Tracy Turnerelli, in which com- plaints are reiterated that Mr. Tracy Turnerelli's services have received no recognition from the leaders of the Conservative party, and hopes are expressed that "sooner or later they will meet with reward:" Taking this correspondence into account, Lord Beaconsfield intimates that he cannot accept, as a per- fectly spontaneous gift from his fellow-countrymen, a testi- monial obtained for a Minister " intimately connected with honours and rewards," at so ostentatious an expendi- ture of Mr. Tracy Turnerelli's time and labour, and therefore he declines it. Mr. Tracy Turnerelli, on his side, angrily repudi- ates the assertion that he has ever hoped or asked for any -reward from the Conservative leaders. And this knotty point we must leave Lord Beaconsfield and Mr. Turnerelli to settle between them. Lord Beaconsfield, it is clear, knows how to avoid being made ridiculous by fussy adorers, and has no more scruple in trampling on these adorers, when that is needful, than he would have in accepting, under more favourable circum- stances, their proffered adulation.
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