TENDER FEELINGS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20330, 1 September 1931, Page 15

TENDER FEELINGS.

POLITICIANS AND CRITICISM.

WISDOM OP SELF-CONTROL.

(By J. B. Pirth in the London "Daily Telegraph.") Mr Baldwin the other day disclaimed the possession of "tender feelings." As a public man, of course. He suggested that he does not wear his heart on his sleevo for daws to peck at. And yet I seem to remember that not so many months ago, when provoked to slow but just wrath at some particularly malicious pecking, he drove off the daws, which have kept their distance since.

He had been saying that one of the conditions to which those who enter public life must submit is the constant criticism of their fellows, and, what is harder to bear, a continual imputation of motive. That being so, it behoves them for their peace to grow a protective tegument, a defensive skin, thick enough to turn either arrowhead or sword edge. Yet even more effectual is a protective habit of mind.

Advocates aro perhaps best equipped in this respect. A drenching of vituperativo abuse leaves them unmoved. Sir John Simon sat calmly through Mr Lloyd George's recent tirade, as though he knew that his opponent was only further ruining his reputation by the violence of his abuse, and that the delirious applause of the Socialists across the floor of the House was like the screaming approval of the groundlings at a vulgar jest which just fits the measuro of their comprehension. Public men, indeed, aro like Sir Peter in the play. At all times they know that when they leave the room they "leave their characters behind them," for candid friends and open foes to tear to pieces. It is part of the political game.

Gladstone's Control. I aai not commending the brazen image of a man—"embrowned in native bronze"—who has shed.the last vestige of sensibility. I only mean that the wise man in public life schools himself not to show when he is hurt, and acquires a large disdain of mean and petty attack. Illi robur et tes triplex. Yet if he loses sensibility, he becomes soulless, and then is lost indeed. Somo touch of the Stoic, though it be on tho surface only, is required. Even that most pitiful of Victorian prodigals, the last Marquis of Hastings, compelled the momentary respect of his contemporaries when they, heard how ho bore himself when ho had staked and lost his last estate, and tho unfeeling crowded round to see how he would take the blow. "I didn't show it, did It" ho asked a friend anxiously. sion which a man in public life should set himself to acquire—so that he may uot show whon tho shrewd blow has gone home. But not to let the blow strike homo implies an even more remarkable degree of self-control. It is recorded of Mr Gladstone—whoso most distinguishing characteristic was that he always lived at fever heat, yet always kopt that heat, as energy, in strict control—that only oncO in his long Parliamentary career was he carried away by passion so ungovernable that his utterance was choked and tho voice, in the old Latin phrase, stuck to his jaws. Disraeli's Scorn.

It was when he rose to reply to Disraeli on the night that the Derby Government crashed in 1852. A viqlent thunderstorm had raged without, the peals of which wero heard within the Chamber, whilo Disraeli delivered one of his most vehement onslaughts upon the Coalition which had gathered to defeat him. Gladstone had been so stung by his mocking invective that he could hardly frame the reproving sentences in which he told his rival , that, "though he had learned much, he had not learned the limits of discretion, of moderation, and of forbearance that ought to restrain the conduct and language of every member of this House, tho disregard of which is an offence in the meanest amongst us, but is of tenfold weight when committed by the Loader of the House of Commons."

Disraeli's protective covering was a great scorn if the attacking party were of sufficient consequence to demand notice; others he treated with silent and frigid contempt. Yet no man was a better hater, or kept his hatreds in better repair. To the outward world it might soem that his heart had grown tough as leather. To his lady confidantes he revealed that the tragedy of growing old was when the heart would persist in keeping young. But no one can ever be quite sure about Disraeli. Ho was capable of wearing a mask even when he studied his cvvn face in the mirror.

Some Bad Losers. Some public men just pretend that nothing is ever allowed to got through their outer defences, though the pretence is patent. Lord Morley, in his "Recollections," presents himself to the reader as calm, philosophic, unruffled in adversity, unperturbed by defeat, and treating "those two Imposters"—success and failure—"just the same." Yet, Lord Rosebery once described him to the genial Campbell-Bannerman as "a petulant spinster," and "C.8." took care to repeat the phrase to all their mutual frionds.

When John Morley was defeated at Nowcastle-on-Tyne after a brave last stand for the old Liberal Individualist faith against the Eight Hours Day men, he called at Hawarden on his way back to London, and says that while he found the G.O.M. fuming at the discomfiture of his lieutenant, he himself took the rebuff with a much serener front. Yet I have been told that when the poll was declared he left Newcastle in a rage, like Naaman, by the next train, but not till he had remembered to cancel his subscription to the local Liberal paper. Lord Rosebery was another bad loser. Not for him the cheery acceptance ■ of defeat which rendered the "incomparable Charlie" of an earlier day so dear to his friends. The elegant aristocrat who, as a boy, had coveted the palm without the dust—in his tutor's searching phrase—retired to a corner and sulked. No politician of his time was so temperamental, so capricious, so touchy, so changeable, so much of the play*a,ctor. Harcoyrt, on the contrary, liis particular foe, was given to great /ages, when he was crossed or thwarted, which passed off like thunderstorms and cleared the air.

Joseph Chamberlain. Joseph Chamberlain had the trol or tjie man who has fought his way through one obstacle after another to the top. No man was more sure of himself or cared less for what others said of him. Nona was better endowed with the quality which seems to be most lacking in the democratic politicians of today—resolution. It is one of the ironies of our Parliamentary system that with two men like Balfour and Chamberlain in the sam& Party and the same Government, the Head should have been Balfour. Balfour's was the finer brain, but he was no Leader. Yet in Parliamentary self-control Balfour himself was surpassed by few. By general consent he withstood better than any other Chief Secretary the full blast