HOW MR. CHAMBERLAIN SPEAKS.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 947, 19 September 1901, Page 4

HOW MR. CHAMBERLAIN SPEAKS.

Mr. John Foster Fraser contiibutes to a magazine an entertaining article on " The ftew House of Commonß." with caricature portraits of more than a dozen wetlknown members of Parliament. He observes that no statesman is more feared than Mr. Chamberlain. " His very name is anathema to many members of the Opposition, He is hardly loved by some of the old fogeys on tho Government side. But every man knows his power. In talking, he is pertinent, dogmatic, now and then vicious, showing that he has passion, though under complete control. His words are olear, inclined to be mellow; there is never an involved sentence. At the beginning of speech he trifles with his notes, neatly written on notvpaper and placed on the brass bound chest at the corner of the table, and which bcare a hundred dents inflicted by Mr. Gladstone's ling. Mr. Chamberlain runs his lingers alDng the side of his notes, getting the edges straight. Then he runs his little linger along top and btotom, doing the same. As he unfolds a principle he taps his left hand with the fore-finger of his right. When explanatory, be taps his two hands together with the fingers slightly apart. Then, suddenly, like a flash of lightning—reaching a point involving bis personal honour—there is a quiver on the parchment face, a tightening of the lips, a narrowing of the eyes. He steps back an instant, grips the edge, of the chest as though holding bia pasßion in, and with a taunt that sometimes comes perilously near a sneer, he throws his bands from him as though he were casting aßlde his opponent in contempt. No man has receivea such hard blows as Mi. Chamberlain. No man can hit back so well, so witheringly, and make his foe on the opposite bench curl with vexation. Few care to ' stand np to Joe.' Only one man does so, and does it persistently. That is Mr. LloydGeorge, an excitable, gleaming-eyed little Welshman, who finds • joy in baiting Mr. Chamberlain very much as Lord Randolph Churchill found delight in baiting Mr. Gladstone.