A WORD PICTURE.

Northern Advocate, 9 December 1916, Page 1

A WORD PICTURE.

OF THE LATE BRITISH PREMIER

As I look on Mr Asquith, I often recall the figure of Mr Gladstone; there could not be two figures more unlike (so writes T. P. O'Connor in "Reynolds"). Mr Gladstone was not onty volcanic in temperament, but was volcanic in look, in physique, and volcanic even when he seemed to be in repose. Of course, a man so exuberant was at once the greatest and the most disturbing leader the House of Commons could have. A personality so vivid, so dominating and so restless, absolutely commanded the whole plane. Coming to Mr Asquith, he has none of the special gifts of Mr Gladstone— .dther physically or intellectually. Yet his physique is remarkable. He has a constitution of iron. After ten minutes' read in his bed at night he •an sleep his regular eight hours, even n the most critical times; never seems tired; never seems excited, just goes phlegmatically on. He is not a man who seems to love ■.peaking for speaking's sake; words do lot come from his lips in a great torrent as in the case of Mr Gladstone; 'ie never seemed auxious to take the inswering of questions or other work nit of the hands of his subordinates. And yet —daring as it may seem—l egard him in many respects as a more effective leader in the House of Comnons than even Gladstone was. This s mainly due to an incomparable >ower of a certain style of speech. I lave heard th:it Mr Balfour says never hue the days of Demosthenes was here a speaker who had such an unerring power of using exactly the right vord, and, I might add, saying tho •ight thing. He is no more like Gladstone in speech than Cicero was like Demosthenes. It may be partly his devotion "0 the Greek classics, but probably it s more largely because of his own naural tendencies and gifts that the ttyle of Mr Asquith is in the stern ■ad chaste simplicity of a Greek peaker or of a French -"lassie. You take time to discover the splcn(id art that < om-eals the art so consummately. He seems to be. using the anguage of everyday life, the short uid simple words and the blunt and unadorned phrase. It is only when he sits iown that you realise that he has put his case with such simplicity and such 'ucidity, that it appears to be so reasonable and so simple as to be unanswerable; it looks as if there were nothing more to be said. There is no impression of dominating physical energy as in the case of Mr Gladstone. Mr Asquith speaks very often, indeed, as if he were physically tired, and rarely, if ever, does he raise his voice.