MR JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14903, 17 February 1914, Page 10

MR JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN.

RETIREMENT PROM POLITICS.

A WARM TRIBUTE. (jTROM Ol'R OWN CORRESPONDENT,) LONDON. January 9. No finer tribute to the work and character of Mr Chamberlain has been uttered than that of the brilliant young Unionist. Mr F. E. Smith. Speaking to his Liverpool constituents Mr Smith _>aid that during the thirty-five years Mr Chamberlain had represented West Birmingham changes certaiuly prodigious-—-pornaps as yet incalculable—bad affected English life. Among thooe eltaugos in greatly varying loies, ho played a part always influential, sometimes decisive. He was among the first who taught how fruitful in achievement a municipal career

in a great city might prove to powers oi tne iiignes. 01 _c.'. V* nen his commanding taieuts uemaw'od a wider scope no brougtit to the House of (Jominims a direct and uncompromising uueuigence, a roou.t tauli in democratic u.otitutions. and an intelligence which, h in his early career a iiuio cold, wa.s very _-earcning, very logical, ai.d very practical. "I have spoken ot his faith in democracy,'' proceeded Mr Sniitii. "It might. 1 think, ho described in a wellknown saying of Dr. Johnson, which I cpiote from memory: •'Where the people, tninks long, it commonly attains to think right.' It is at this point that in a life of superficial inconsistency, we detect a principle to which ho was as constant as tlie Northern Star. Ho Wi_s always the well-wisher, and, within tho compass of his powers and his opportunities, the helper, of very humble folk. It is true that os nis outlook upon affairs widened his conception of methods underwent corresponding modification : but it it- equally true that he understood a« few wealthy meu have understood the trials, tho vicissitudes, and the anxieties of those whose earthly voyage only a single plane divides from most cruel shipwreck.

"In this c-onne..ion 1 have often lamented that Randolph Churchill and Chamberlain wore never associated in one party when both were in the full maturity of their powers. As I understand the careers of these distinguished men. they agreed upon those elements in politics which aro important, because they aro either permanent or recurrent, and they differed only about those things which are infinitely unimportant, because they aro merely phrases or because they are conventional stock-in-trade under which every party staggers. Wens they, I wonder, in principle moro or less aereed than Mr Lloyd Georgo and Lord Randolph's son? SPECIAL QUALITIES. "If I had to select tho special qualities in tne career of Mr Chamberlain which more than others marked him out from his rivals, I think 1 shoujd pick out his courage and his directno-s. In his vocabulary fear wa_ as little known as in Nelson's, ambiguity as unknown as in Macaulay's. He reinforced nerves of steel with'an iron will, and never was so completely cool a.s when matters were completely critical. In his later development ho forced his way, if the Con 7 temporary may. dare to say so, into that select society of really 'great Englishmen who are not embellished by office, because they embellish it. Ha hecamo more than a Prime Minister: lie was Joseph Chamberlain. And at this period, of his career he dominated tho whole field of politics as, since Pitt, • only one Englishman, Beaconsfield, has dominated it.

"It is possible to differ, as a friend of mine differs, from every economic argument underlying Mx Chamberlain's tariff campaign, and yet say, as ray friend says, that the soeeche_ delivered in that campaign embody the most superb message delivered "to the English people since Chatham cried, 'Be one people; I sot you the example.' W© have lost the active guidance of this personality, _o strenuous and -so brilliant. We cannot lose, except through our own indifference, the inspiration which is perhaps his pormanent contribution to "Unionist politics. Let us each in the measure of his capacity act as we think he would have acted had he still been directing and controlling our fortunes, had h« still been r>ointing, as I at least like to think of him pointing, the road to victory." (Cheers.)