liberty is the rightful heritage of every soul.

_Question_. Were you an admirer of Lord Beaconsfield?

_Answer_. In some respects. He was on our side during the war,
and gave it as his opinion that the Union would be preserved. Mr.
Gladstone congratulated Jefferson Davis on having founded a new
nation. I shall never forget Beaconsfield for his kindness, nor
Gladstone for his malice. Beaconsfield was an intellectual gymnast,
a political athlete, one of the most adroit men in the world. He
had the persistence of his race. In spite of the prejudices of
eighteen hundred years, he rose to the highest position that can
be occupied by a citizen. During his administration England again
became a Continental power and played her game of European chess.
I have never regarded Beaconsfield as a man controlled by principle,
or by his heart. He was strictly a politician. He always acted
as though he thought the clubs were looking at him. He knew all
the arts belonging to his trade. He would have succeeded anywhere,
if by "succeeding" is meant the attainment of position and power.
But after all, such men are splendid failures. They give themselves
and others a great deal of trouble--they wear the tinsel crown of
temporary success and then fade from public view. They astonish
the pit, they gain the applause of the galleries, but when the
curtain falls there is nothing left to benefit mankind. Beaconsfield
held convictions somewhat in contempt. He had the imagination of
the East united with the ambition of an Englishman. With him, to
succeed was to have done right.

_Question_. What do you think of him as an author?

_Answer_. Most of his characters are like himself--puppets moved
by the string of self-interest. The men are adroit, the women
mostly heartless. They catch each other with false bait. They
have great worldly wisdom. Their virtue and vice are mechanical.
They have hearts like clocks--filled with wheels and springs. The
author winds them up. In his novels Disraeli allows us to enter
the greenroom of his heart. We see the ropes, the pulleys and the
old masks. In all things, in politics and in literature, he was
cold, cunning, accurate, able and successful. His books will, in
a little while, follow their author to their grave. After all,
the good will live longest.

--Washington correspondent, _Brooklyn Eagle_, April 24, 1881.

ANSWERING THE NEW YORK MINISTERS.*

[* Ever since Colonel In