MR. CHAMBERLAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9154, 8 September 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

MR. CHAMBERLAIN.

The London correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald says : —Mr. Chamberlain, the once stern, uncompromising Radical, is becoming quite a leader of society. The hospitality he dispenses at his house in the Prince's Gardens is of the most sumptuous description, and such is the formidable array of titled personages who flock to his entertainments that his house has been dubbed the "Dukeries," and its owner the " Lord High" Chamberlain. His footmen, too, have grown so accustomed to the widening of their master's acquaintance amongst the upper ten, that whenever a guest with whom they are not familiar enters the house they at once address him as " my lord," so as to be on the safe side. Mr. Chamberlain's social rise has, indeed, beep well nigh as remarkable as his political success. When he first got into Parliament, and was known as a rich, pushing Radical, society, thinking that like most rich Radicals he would make frantic efforts to gain admission within its sacred portals, resolved to sternly snub him. But he fairly astonished society by pursuing the even tenor of his way just as if society had no existence. The " smart people," finding that be made no attempt to court their notice, were inclined to think he must be somebody extraordinary, and began to take him up. Mr. Chamberlain, though he had no objection to being taken up, nevertheless astutely displayed no over-eagerness on this score, and by this means additionally increased his value in the eyes of the fashionable world. When, thanks to the friendship of Sir Charles Dilke, a place was found for him in Mr. Gladstone's ISSO-18S5 Cabinet, he had so far established his position that he could not be overlooked ; and when, two years ago, he quitted Mr. Gladstone's side and threw in his lot with Lord Hartington, his conquest of society was complete. He at once became the darling of the duchess, and the pet of the aristocracy, and now he is, socially speaking, as influential as any man in London.