The public life of the ... earl of Beaconsfield

By descent a Jew-The Sephardim-The Inquisition-The exodus from SpainThe settlement in England-The Disraeli family never poor-Benjamin Disraeli at Enfield-Isaac Disraeli-The "Curiosities of Literature "Brunet's opinion of them-Controversy with Bolton Corney-The "Genius of Judaism"-Never a Jew-Withdraws finally from the SynagogueBaptism of Benjamin Disraeli-Education-The "celebrated Dr. Cogan "— In the office of a firm of solicitors-The Representative-Lord Beaconsfield never connected with it-Mr. Macknight's attack-The Star Chamber-The "Dunciad of To-day "-" Vivian Grey "-Keys to the novel-Brougham upon it-Disraeli a personage in society-Lady Blessington-"Captain Popanilla " -Eastern Tour-"The Revolutionary Epick "-Analysis of the PoemReviews "The Young Duke," "Contarini Fleming," and "Alroy."

LORD BEACONSFIELD, as all the world knows, was by descent a Jew. Unlike the majority of Hebrews, however, he was at no time ashamed of the race from which he sprang, but always manifested a certain amount of pride in the fact that he belonged to the most ancient nation on earth. And well might he do so. In the graceful and touching memoir which he prefixed to the edition of his father's works published in 1849, he tells the tale of his family history, and it is one which has in it nothing for which the most sensitive need blush. The stock from which he sprang is that of the Sephardim, "children of Israel who had never quitted the shores of the Midland Ocean until Torquemada had driven them from their pleasant residences and rich estates in Aragon and Andalusia and Portugal to seek greater blessings even than a clear atmosphere and a glowing sun amid the marshes of Holland and the fogs of Britain." When the family of Disraeli migrated to Spain is not known, or, at all events, has never been told to the world; but they left the sunny Peninsula in the midst of the "ages of faith," somewhere about the year 1500. From Spain they went

to Venice, driven out by the terrors of the Inquisition which, as Lord Beaconsfield has told us in "Coningsby," had been "established in the Spanish kingdoms against the protests of the Cortes and amidst the terror of the populace." The crime against which the followers of St. Dominic directed their most vehement efforts was Judaism. The Moors of Spain had always treated their suffering kinsmen with as much gentleness and charity as could be expected by the sons of Jacob from the children of Ishmael. The Goths who succeeded them were at first as tender and considerate, but as they grew stronger they began to persecute. Such privileges as the Jews enjoyed were taken from them, and they were forced to conform outwardly to Christianity, receiving as their reward the title of Nuevos Christianos, and being universally understood to be Christians only in name.

The Inquisition, which had first been established in Seville, soon spread throughout Spain, and the fell institution, which as Lord Beaconsfield has said, "had exterminated the Albigenses and desolated Languedoc," obtained the supreme power in every Spanish kingdom. "The Cortes of Aragon appealed to the king and to the pope; they organised an extensive conspiracy; the Chief Inquisitor was assassinated in the Cathedral of Saragossa." But the spiritual power was too strong. "Those who were convicted of secret Judaism . . . were dragged to the stake; the sons of the noblest houses in whose veins the Hebrew taint could be traced, had to walk in solemn procession, singing psalms and confessing their faith in the fell religion of Torquemada." Before such a persecution it was impossible to stand. Sir Arthur Helps has somewhere remarked, in reply to the commonplace about the inutility of persecution, that if you will but persecute relentlessly enough you are certain to gain your end. This truth the Jews of Spain speedily discovered. The gloomy fanatic, Ferdinand, under the inspiration of his Dominican advisers, had determined that Judaism should be stamped out. The Hebrew race must either cease to be Hebrew or must go into exile. Here, however, the Jews outwitted the Inquisition. They conformed outwardly in many cases; but they were no sooner free than they resumed the profession of their ancient faith, like the brethren of Sidonia, "who were as good Catholics in Spain as Ferdinand and Isabella could have possibly desired, but who made an offering in the synagogue, in gratitude for their safe voyage, on their arrival in England." All were not quite so worldly wise. Some six hundred thousand-some authorities say more— -would not abandon the faith of their fathers. "For this they gave up the delightful land where they had lived for centuries, the beautiful cities they had raised, the universities from which Christendom drew for ages its most precious lore, the tombs of their ancestors, the temples where they had worshipped the God for whom they made this sacrifice." The new exodus went on for the greater part of two centuries. It was, of course, impossible wholly to

IN EXCITU ISRAEL DE HISPANA.

exterminate a race which had struck its roots so deeply into the soil as the Hebrews had into the Peninsula. The proudest nobles of Spain have Jewish blood in their veins, and the first persons summoned before the Inquisition in Seville were no less important than the Duke of Medina Sidonia, the Marquess of Cadiz, and the Count of Arcos. Many generations later it was intended to re-establish the Inquisition in Portugal, and the king had been talked into sanctioning the use of the yellow hat for the purpose of distinguishing the "new Christians," i.e., the baptised Jews. The astute minister, Pombal, presented himself on the following day wearing a yellow hat, and carrying with him two others—one for the king and the other for the Grand Inquisitor.

Early in the sixteenth century the exodus was at its height; and among the first of those who went out were the ancestors of Lord Beaconsfield's family, who flourished undisturbed and unmolested under the mild and tolerant rule of the Venetian Republic, for more than two hundred years. Towards the middle of the eighteenth century, the altered state of affairs in Venice, and the attractions held out by the English Government, induced many Jews to settle in this country. Amongst them was the grandfather of Lord Beaconsfield-Benjamin Disraeli the first. With his settlement in England began the gradual but steady and continued alienation of the family from the Hebrew faith. Always proud of their race, the Disraelis were never very scrupulous about the observances of the religion to which they nominally adhered, and for more than a hundred years they drifted ever farther from the old lines of Jewish tradition.

Benjamin Disraeli settled in England in 1748, he being then eighteen years of age. He was naturalized almost immediately, and at once entere l upon the mercantile pursuits which his fathers had carried on in Venice. With a sufficient command of capital, with great natural capacity, and as great industry, he throve wonderfully, and when, at the age of five-andthirty, he married, he was already a man of fortune-of how great a fortune will probably never be known. That it must have been considerable may be judged from the fact that when in 1815 Russia wished to raise an enormous loan, the contract for it was offered to him. He refused, and the offer was transferred to the house of Rothschild, who accepted it and laid the foundation of their European reputation-a fact to which Lord Beaconsfield alludes somewhat obscurely in one of his prefaces. Interesting in itself, this fact effectually disposes of the foolish tales with which successive writers have regaled their readers of Lord Beaconsfield's youthful poverty. The man whose grandfather was a rival of the Rothschilds in 1815, and who was, as appears from a recent letter in the Times, one of the founders of the Stock Exchange, could never have been "poor." His marriage was not wholly happy, though his wife was both beautiful and interesting. She, however, hated the name of Jew and everything of which it reminded her a fact which is hardly surprising when the extent

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