sensation by its brilliance, audacity, and slightly veiled portraits of
living celebrities. After producing a _Vindication of the British
Constitution_, and some political pamphlets, he followed up his first
success by a series of novels, _The Young Duke_ (1831), _Contarini
Fleming_ (1832), _Alroy_ (1833), _Venetia and Henrietta Temple_ (1837).
During the same period he had also written _The Revolutionary Epic_ and
three burlesques, _Ixion_, _The Infernal Marriage_, and _Popanilla_.
These works had gained for him a brilliant, if not universally admitted,
place in literature. But his ambition was by no means confined to
literary achievement; he aimed also at fame as a man of action. After
various unsuccessful attempts to enter Parliament, in which he stood,
first as a Radical, and then as a Tory, he was in 1837 returned for
Maidstone, having for his colleague Mr. Wyndham Lewis, whose widow he
afterwards married. For some years after entering on his political
career, D. ceased to write, and devoted his energies to parliamentary
work. His first speech was a total failure, being received with shouts of
laughter, but with characteristic courage and perseverance he pursued his
course, gradually rose to a commanding position in parliament and in the
country, became leader of his party, was thrice Chancellor of the
Exchequer, 1852, 1858-59, and 1866-68, in which last year he became Prime
Minister, which office he again held from 1874 till 1880. To return to
his literary career, in 1844 he had _pub._ _Coningsby_, followed by
_Sybil_ (1845), and _Tancred_ (1847), and in 1848 he wrote a life of Lord
G. Bentinck, his predecessor in the leadership of the Protectionist
party. His last novels were _Lothair_ (1870), and _Endymion_ (1880). He
was raised to the peerage as Earl of Beaconsfield in 1876, and was a
Knight of the Garter. In his later years he was the intimate friend as
well as the trusted minister of Queen Victoria. The career of D. is one
of the most remarkable in English history. With no family or political
influence, and with some personal characteristics, and the then current