THE PARADOX OF BOTTOMLEY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3128, 31 July 1922, Page 8

THE PARADOX OF BOTTOMLEY.

\ (By Dr Ellis F. Powell.) Horatio Bottomley was one or the most conspicuous offshoots of the iconoclastic movement of forty years ago which had Charles Bradlaiugh for its centre and inspiration. Bottomley himself was intellectually the son of Bradllaugh, and he never hesitated 1 to acknowledge the paternity. He collected and treasured portraits of Bradlaugh so that ho might he reminded of his model at every turn. Moreover, Bottomley was a paradox like his master. He inherited his crusading spirit, his absolute fearlessness, his willingness to take risks of any magnitude. fcuch as would have terrified the ordinary humdrum citizen. Both men were conspicuously lacking in reverence for the conventions and! traditions to which humanity never tires of rendering homage. Bottomley was, in fact, the queerest mixture of inconsistency. He would move a vast audience to tears) by lofty and impassioned declamation, in his wonderful silky voice, on some sacred or patriotic subject. Half an hour later, behind the scenes, he would declare Ins scepticism about hie own avowals, and express amusement at the susceptibility of his hearers. Even in his personal habits' and surroundings Bottomley was the same puzzling amalgam of incompatible characteristics. Busts and pictures of the leaders of humanity adorned the niches and walls of bis offices and house; but behind you (7 had the experience myself in bis drawing-room) a> profane parrot shouted. “D your eyes!”—and did not stop at a single utterance, either. The parrot’s owner has been known to begin the day with a pair of kippers and a bottle of champagne—surely the inost extraordinary assortment of plebeian and patrician nourishment that ever decorated a breakfast table. His fondness for champagne grew with the years, so that the huge purchase of it (€llOO worth at a time), recorded m the evidence in the recent ease, astonished nobody. He would not, as a rule, go beyond the middle of the morning without a bottle of champagne, and the only occasion when I myself have ever touched it before lunch occurred when I bad half a glass out of his second bottle as the noontide hour was striking on the office clock. Speaking with Bottomley and Ben Tilled at an Albert Hall demonstration. I was barred, on my arrival before Hie meeting, from access to the speakers’ parlor, I was informed that “Mr Bottomley was engaged in important private business, and could not on any account be disturbed.” As the moment approached for opening the proceedings, f insisted upon interrupting his privacy, in order to sec the agenda, and discover whether I was to speak first or last. f found that the “important private business” was a magnum of champagne, which Bottomley was discussing with the la It’ “Charlie” Palmer. M.P.. then assistant editor of .John Bull. Let me add. in all candor, that I had a glass of the “fizz” myself, though Tillett went “dry” as far as I know. In earlier years Bottomley had no regular religious belief. Since the war be professed that his opinions had undergone a change, and certainly many of his articles supported that view. And from the very beginning of his career he believed that he had a guardian spirit who would always stand between him and disaster. Unfortunately, that belief bred a characteristic recklessness oi personal and financial policy. He would take up big and expensive schemes at a. moment's notice, financing them by the iirijt means that came to his hand, without any reflection upon the ultimate responsibilities he was incurring. He believed that “money has no earmark,” and the principle was like a malignant will-o’-the-wisp to him. Content with the enjoyment and the excitement of to-day, he never thought of to-morrow. He left the future to his guardian spirit. So it was that latterly, and particularly in his dealing with the Victory Bond Club moneys, he developed a financial improvidence, wliich seemed to border upon recklessness, and at length’landed him in irretrievable disaster. in recent years he would question me, with an'earnest wistfulness that was almost pathetic, about man s survival of death. Did I really believe in it, as mv speeches and writings indicated-' Was I sure I had not been fooled!-' More than once have 1 asked Turn whether, after thirty years of personal intimacy, lie thought I was a fikelv person to be fooled with regard to a subject of such traascendant importance. Ho would express his satisfaction —and then assure me that the matter was of no immediate moment, since he was good for another twenty years at least, So much he told mo less than twelve months ago. If he had gone to the Bar in his early days Bottomley would have been herd Chancellor. Among professional lawyers there was none who could stand against him. At one stage of his career he decided to become a barrister, but it was hinted to him by the Benchers of the Inns of Court that there might bo difficulties about the call, and lie abandoned the idea. Ihe Benchers are not compellable to “call anybody, even il he has passed his examinations. But even as a layman Bottonilev’s skill with the jury was colossal. His keen legal vision was not limited to a knowledge of his own capacity. He knew promise where be saw it. At the very beginning of Mr F. E. Smith's career. Bottomley recognised Ids talents, and gave him the briefs which formed the foundation stone of one of the most conspicuous successes in the legal history of our time. Indirectly, Bottomley also intliicnccd another distinguished legal career. In tlie Hansard Union he was prominently associated with the late Sir Henry I Mines and the late Mr “dim” Isaacs—the lenner the uncle, the latter the father, of the present Lord Reading. When the Isaacs brothers and Bottomley himself appeared at the Old Bailey as defendants in the Hansard Union conspiracy case. BottomleyV successful Conduct of the defence won a warm encomium from the late Mr Justice Hawkins. who tried the ease. In (act, as a mark of In's admiration, ho bequeathed to Bottomley the wig he wore when lie tried the case. Brought into intimate association with the Isaacs family by community of interest in the Hansard Union aflair. Rottoniley was aide to give many ;i bint and many an encouraging word in Rufus Isaacs in bis early days as an unknown junior. Among those wlio will experience a regretful sympathy at (lie finish of BottomleyV career the present Viceroy of India will certainly be numbered. i have known both men very well indeed and 1 speak with knowledge.