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Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 146, 22 June 1915, Page 6

It is not often that Mr. Asquith, who is one of the coolest and most selfrestrained of men, sounds a personal note. There is a certain reserve and detachment about him which make him the antithesis of the politician who wears his heart on his sleeve. Sir John Findlay, who had excellent opportunities of studying the British Prime Minister at close quarters during the Imperial Conference of 1911, has described him admirably. "He cannot," writes Sir John, "be called a popular figure. He owes his success to the qualities of his brain, not to those of bis heart. He seems never to divest himself of a mantle of mental aloofness. . . He to all men best seems the thing he is. A strong intellectual character untouched, by— or at least betraying none of— the emotions and feelings of the common heart of our humanity — a fine mental gymnast who in his best turns seems to feel neither inspiration nor perspiration." When so imperturbable a character condescends for a moment, to the personal not© of which we get more than enough from the ordinary politician, he inevitably compels attention. Such a note there was in the references to the reconstruction of the Ministry which Mr. Asquith made a, few days ago. " For a moment," according to the cabled report, "he would say a. word about his own position. Some people might think that, having had the privilege of serving, in confidential responsibility and relations, three successive Sovereigns, he had not satisfied his ambitions. They were welcome to the&r opinions, but they little knew the trttfh. lake other people, he had tried to; do bis best." When so impersonal aiid imperturbable a statesman talks in this vein, it is impossible to resist the iolerence that he is at last feeling both, tho strain of his colossal responsibilities and the force of tho hostile criticL&m to which through a long career he hats previously been able to present a mei»t enviable indifference. It

which he speaks was satisfied long ago. Mr. Asquith's is certainly not ono of those masterful natures to which the mere exercise of power is in itself a delight, and which would rather die in harness than consent to be superseded. And he has the intellectual tastes to which a life of leisure would be jusfc as full of absorbing interest as the strenuous life that he has hitherto led. More than once during the two or three years preceding the war Mr. Asquith's retirement had been rumoured as probable. But one crisis trod so closely on the heels of another that his party has been unable to spare him. It was under Sir Henry Campbell-Banner-man that the Liberals won that wonderful majority at the General Election of 1906— a majority which, with the aid of their allies in the Labour and Nationalist camps, amounted to 358 in a House of 670 members. The majority was, however, too large to be convenient, or even safe. Its unwieldy size and hetei'Ogeneous character had already begun to tell their tale when, on the death of Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman in April, 1908, Mr." Asquith, with the practically unanimous approval of his party, succeeded to the Premiership. That he has kept his composite team together ever since is of itself a remarkable testimony to his qualifications as a leader. He refers to the fact that he has now held office under three successive Sovereigns. That, of course, is due to the unfortunate accident which shortened the reign of King Edward, but Mr. Asquith's Premiership breaks the record in a less fortuitous fashion. The longest consecutive tenure of the office since the Reform Bill had been that of Lord Salisbury, which lasted about a fortnight more than seven years (1885-1892). Mr. Asquith has surpassed this maximum, and his term of office has been distinguished even more by its arduous character than by its length. Since Pitt died broken-hearted from the shock of Austerlitz, no British Minister has had to face a heavier tack. The great struggle with the Lords, tho passing of Home Rule, Welsh Disestablishment, the coal strike, the railway strike, two hairs-breadth escapes from war with Germany, and finally the Armageddon in which the Empire is now engaged — these are some of the great events of Mr. Asquith's Premiership. The last and greatest of them has made his Premiership unique in another respect, for it has given us a National Cabinet, which Has formally abolished party for the period of the war. As to the criticism to which Mr. Asquith refers, the gravest of the specific charges against him 13 that he has failed to exercise a strict enough control over his colleagues in the late Cabinet. Mr. Asquith has failed to control Mr Churchill, just as Lord Salisbury failed to control his father, but history will surely be indulgent in its judgment of statesmen who have failed where success was impossible. V