PAGE Irish, The, Land Question. By HUGH DE F. MONTGOMERY Knox, John, and his Relations to Women. By ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON:- Tasso, Torquato: His Life and Works. By CATHERINE M. PHILLIMORE :- Yunnan, Exploring Expedition to Western, of 1868 and 1875. By JOHN ANDERSON, Zanzibar a Commercial Power. By the Right Hon. SIR H. BARTLE FRERE Zanzibar and its Sultan. By the Right Hon. SIR H. BARTLE FRERE Contributors to this Volume. ANDERSON, JOHN, M.D. CHESNEY, COLONEL CHARLES C., R.E. C. H. H. P. CLERMONT-GANNEAU, C. CREIGHTON, M. DANNREUTHER, EDWARD. EDWARDS, H. SUTHERLAND. ESCOTT, T. H. S. F. J. G. FREEMAN, E. A. FRERE, THE RIGHT HON. SIR H. BARTLE. HALES, J. W. HENDERSON, W. D. HENLEY, WILLIAM ERNEST. HILL, OCTAVIA. HILL, JOANNA M. HILLER, DR. FERDINAND. HOPKINS, JANE ELLICE. LEWIS, JOHN DELAWARE. MACDONELL, AGNES. MAHAFFY, J. P. MARSTON, PHILIP BOURKE. MONTGOMERY, HUGH DE F. NORTON, THE HON. MRS. OLIPHANT, MRS. PALGRAVE, W. G. PATTISON, MARK. PHILLIMORE, CATHERINE M. ROSS, JANET. ROUTLEDGE, JAMES. S. K. P. SMEDLEY, M. B. STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS. TUFNELL, REV. E. CARLETON. WESTMINSTER, THE DEAN OF. MACMILLAN'S MAGAZINE. VOLUMES I. To XXXII., COMPRISING NUMBERS 1—192, HANDSOMELY BOUND IN CLOTH, PRICE 78. 6d. EACH. Reading Cases for Monthly Numbers. One Shilling. Sold by all Booksellers in Town and Country. MACMILLAN'S MAGAZINE. MAY 1875. A YOUNG ENGLAND NOVEL. Ir is as natural in the present day to forget the raison d'être of the "Young England" party, as it is easy to satirize its principles and its programme. Romantic absurdity and picturesque extravagance notwithstanding, its mission becomes intelligible when examined by the light of historical facts. The writings and the speeches of the Coryphæi of "the New Generation" forty years ago were a protest against the prevailing régime, political and social, not without something of national significance. Young England essayed the patriotic task of interpreting the discontent of the older and the more prosaic England, and of supplementing these functions with a pseudo-philosophic statement of the cause of the evil, and the suggestion of a picturesquely impossible propaganda for its cure. The nation was thoroughly dissatisfied with the practical results that had fol lowed Earl Grey's measure of 1832. It had been led to anticipate a social regeneration as an immediate sequel: it found as a matter of fact that things continued pretty much as they were before; that the relations of labour and capital were not ameliorated; that the condition of the people was not improved. The commercial aristocracy, whom Pitt had created for the purpose of playing off in his political system against the aristocracy of birth, had the first place in the attentions of Peel. Parliamentary power was not exercised for the good of the masses, and the masses rushed to No. 187.-VOL. XXXII. the conclusion that popular representation was a delusion, and the Reform Bill itself nothing better than one vast legislative sham. The reformers were told that they had tricked the constituencies; the anti-reformers were accused of acquiescing passively in the deception. "No party," said Mr. Disraeli, in his preface to "Lothair," 66 was national: one was exclusive and odious, and the other liberal and cosmopolitan.” The French revolution had spread throughout Europe a vague desire to reconstruct society upon the lines of an ideal perfection; and the public faith which Young England elaborated was as much a product of the inspiration of the great drama enacted in Paris, as the project of Coleridge and Southey for reorganizing humanity upon a pantisocratic basis. No one denied that the times were out of joint; but no one could see how the mummeries and morris dances, the reversion to ancient rites and forgotten customs, which were essential ingredients in the political nostrum of Young England, would suffice to put it right. Just as the resuscitation of classic names, and an affectation of a primitive simplicity of habit, were integral parts in the system of the political philosophers of the French revolution, so Young England strove to create anew the traditions and the influences of that golden age which began with feudalism, and which B vanished when Charles I. became the "holocaust of direct taxation." At a time when the erewhile reputed leader of Young England is the Prime Minister of the British empire, it may be worth while to say something about the three politicians whose names are most prominently associated with the phrase. "Living much together," Mr. Disraeli has written of himself and his friends at this period, "without combination we acted together. Some of those who were then my companions have, like myself, since taken some part in the conduct of public affairs; two of them, and those who were not the least interested in my speculations, have departed. One was George Smythe, afterwards seventh Lord Strangford, a man of brilliant gifts, of dazzling, not definite, culture, and fascinating manners. His influence over youth was remarkable, and he could promulgate a new faith with graceful enthusiasm. Henry Hope, the eldest son of the author of 'Anastasius,' was of a different nature, but he was learned and accomplished, possessing a penetrating judgment and an inflexible will. Master of a vast fortune, his house naturally became our frequent rendezvous, and it was at Deepdene that he first urged the expediency of my treating in a literary form those views and subjects which were the matter of our frequent conversation." The outcome of this the world has before it in the history of "Coningsby," "Sybil," and "Tancred." Mr. Disraeli was the first who attempted to give anything like political consistency to the sentimental statesmanship which was discussed in "the glades and galleries of the Deepdene." It would indeed be a mistake to look to "Coningsby" for the political philosophy of Mr. Disraeli himself. Neither that nor any of his novels contains a political system to whose principles their author is prepared uniformly to adhere. Mr. Disraeli's statesmanship has always been empirical, and is therefore without a philosophy. But it is in "Coningsby that the chimerical aspirations of Smythe's "Historic Fancies" and "England's and "England's Trust "-Lord John Manners's volume of poems-are first expressed in a form which is precise, and which at least pretends to be practical. A critic of the day compared the members of the select little coterie-to the infant prodigy, of whom the fond mother exclaimed, "Dear baby, it has got a little of everything!" So, he said, it is with Young England: it has got a little of history, somewhat more of metaphysics, and a small portion of unintelligible theology. It is the mission of the hero of Mr. Disraeli's best known political fiction to rally the aristocracy round the Sovereign-to establish an alliance between Crown and Chartists, peer and peasant; to restore the original constitution in Church and State; or, if that be impossible, to relieve the Church of its alliance with the State, and of the 'indignity of having its bishops virtually appointed by the House of Commons, which is now a sectarian assembly." Mr. Disraeli had been four years in Parliament when Lord John Manners published his poems and his pamphlets, and seven years when George Smythe's "Historic Fancies" made their appearance. It is customary to speak of the exceptionally disadvantageous circumstances under which Mr. Disraeli commenced his political career; but Mr. Disraeli had opportunities denied to Burke, or Sheridan, or Canning. The distinction of his father, and the reputation which he had himself won as a novelist, had already combined to secure him recognition in society. At Lady Blessington's he had made the acquaintance of the most celebrated personages of the day. He was the friend of D'Orsay and of Duncombe. Introduced by Mr. Hope to Lord Granby, the present Duke of Rutland, he became a visitor at Belvoir, and gathered his initial experience of those scenes of high political life which are depicted in his novels. In joining, or rather in organizing, the Young England party, Mr. Disraeli was once placing himself at the head of a sentiment of distrust in the Conservative policy of the time, and was secur at |