Today is Primrose Day, the anniversary of the death of that great political figure Benjamin Disraeli, the Earl of Beaconsfield. It is a fascinating piece of reading to watch how the maker of probably the most inept maiden speech in the House of Commons, wound up by telling his hearers that, though they would not then listen to him, a time would come when they would, proceeded through a long career to prove these words, and become one of the finest statesmen Britain has ever had. He was reputed to be inordinately fond of the primrose, a somewhat singular taste in a man of such flamboyant parts. The authority for the statement rests upon a letter sent by Princess Christian accompanying a box of primroses which she seht Dis-radi on behalf of Queen Victoria:
Mama desires me to send you the accompanying flowers in her name for Mr. Disraeli. She heard him say one day that he was so fond of May and of all those lovely spring flowers that she has ventured to send him these, as they will make his rooms look bright.
And again, if memory serves right the Queen's wreath of primroses sent to his funeral bore the legend "His favourite flower." It is now fifty-seven years ago since Disraeli died. Sufficient time has passed to permit of an estimate being made of the effect of the career of the "Hebrew mountebank." for that is what he was once called at its commencement, had upon the development of the British Empire. There is now no doubt that his wide conception of a British Empire did much to impress upon the British people a proper understanding of their greatness. His idea of empire has undergone some modification, for it now consists of a widely flung commonwealth of nations combined under the acceptance of a common loyalty. Disraeli did not achieve all this himself. though it is undeniable that he set British feet upon the right path, along which others led the nations. In himself and in his policies he showed what could be done in a cold hostile universe by a long youthfulness of heart.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.