DEATH OF A STATESMAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13731, 23 April 1908, Page 5

DEATH OF A STATESMAN.

SIR HENRY fJAMPBELL-BASNERMAN. END OF A STRENUOUS CAREER. WIDESPREAD EXPRESSIONS OF SYMPATHY By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright. (Received April 23, 12.47 a.m.) London, April 22. The death is announced to-day of Sir Henry Campbcll=Banner= man, the late Prime Minister, in his 73rd year. The announcement, though not unexpected, in view of his protracted illness, has caused widespread regret, and messages of sympathy have been received from all parts of the United Kingdom.

A STRIKING PERSONALITY. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. "THE MAN WHO NEVER WORRIED-" Born 72 years ago, Sir Henry CampbellBannerman represented, the Stirling Burghs in Parliament since 1868, having been returned at the last election unopposed for the ninth time: ' Sir Henry's name, as most people are aware, was not originally Bannerman, he being the son of the late Sir James Campbell, of Stracathro. But in 1872 a relative of his. who had amassed a very large fortune,' left the whole of it to his young kinsman on condition that heassumed his name along with his own. Rumour has it that when Mr, Campbell— as he then was—beard the terms of the will, he remarked humorously to the lawyer who , had expounded them: "Take another name ; at £100,000 a letter? Certainly 1 will, my : dear sir." From which remark may be in- i ferred the approximate amount of the for- . tune he inherited. Sir Henry's political career may be said to have commenced in 1871, when he received the appointment of Financial Secretary to the War Office, a. position which he also rilled in 1880. Afterwards he. held, amongst other offices, the posts of Secretary, to the Admiralty, Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Secretary for War. It was while acting in the latter capacity that he was entrusted with the difficult, as well as exceedingly unpleasant task, of securing the resignation of the Duke of Cambridge as Commander-in-Chief of the Army. He succeeded, and came down to the House elated, only to discover that the Government had been overthrown meanwhile on a vote affecting his own Department—the famous cordite motion" of Mr. Brodrick's. This happened in 1395. Three years later came the sudden and unexpected retirement of Sir William Hareourt from the leadership of the Liberal party in the House of Commons. . Sir Henry was elected as his successor, but under such circumstances as hardly made for cither efficiency or stability. However, by dint of tact, firmness, and unwearying exertion, he managed to rescue the party from the Slough of Despond into which '"'it had been plunged by the khaki" election of 1900, and to hold it together thereafter —in spite of many and serious differences with a powerful minority of his nominal adherents—until the present day.

a notice in th« window, " No second prices in this establishment." Hi» employer ridsculed the idea, but after continued representations he said to William Campbell: "If you wish to-start a place on these lines I will lend you £500 to enable you to make the trial.'"' William accepted this offer, went to the suppliers in England, got credit from them to a similar extent, opened his establishment with his brother James (Sir Henry's father) as partner, and in course- of time their success was so great that at' the time of the Disruption of the Church of Scotland, headed by Dr. Chalmers, William Campbell assisted the Free Church movement with a cheque for £10.000. The business has now grown to enormous proportions, centred in two gigantic warehouses in Glasgow, with a branch establishment in Leeds, and with a huge trade both at Home and abroad. The fortune irherited by Sir Henry Campbell- Bannerman, or, as he then was, Mr. Henry Campbell,' from his father, • was largely added to by the inheritance from a relation, which has been before alluded, to. BROTHERS AS POLITICAL OPPONENTS. James and William Campbell, the founders of the firm, were both keen politicians, but were members of opposing parties, and, by a strange coincidence, '* C.B'/s " brother, James Alexander Campbell, is a very staunch Conservative. Apart from the dif-

A GENIAL STATESMAN. "A man who never worrits," was the pithy Jescription once given of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannermaiv and a very true description it was. He. was the type of man who refused to be put out by trifles. If m opponent should "seem inclined to become unpleasantly truculent. Sir Henry's air of mild surprise thai, "anyone should really trouble themselves about anything," has been known to immediately give a. happy turn to the discussion. But at the same time he showed himself capable of hard work in each of the Departmental positions lie had held before assuming the Premiership. As Chief Secretary for Ireland he had to face a stream of sarcasm and raillery levelled at him by the Irish Nationalists on his appointment. He was the last of the Chief Secretaries for Ireland in Mr. Gladstone's second Government, and the Irish members made the mistake of supposing that they could dispose of the Scotsman as they had of his predecessors. Some of them suggested that the Government, like a beleaguered garrison, after having tried heavy guns, then smaller anus,' had resorted to the "sand-bag." But the "sand-bag" wi?3 quite unmoved by their sarcasm, and sat there so impassively that the Irishmen were batfkd. A QUIET RETORT. As an instance of his good-humoured acceptance of the situation, the story is told that on one occasion when an irate Irishman had poured forth a stormy speech lasting an hour and a quarter against- "C.8.," and a dozen other Irish members had supported the speaker, Sir Henry quietly rose, and smilingly remarked that he had already discovered that the position he held was an excellent test of moral self-discipline, for in view of the opinions expressed by the honourable members opposite, no man could possibly think too well of himself. His opponents were frankly amazed at his good temper, and began to appreciate the merits of the much-derided "sand-bag."

ferenoe in name, the relationship -between these two brothers was difficult to recognise, for they were physically very dissimilar. ■ "C.8." .was well above middle height, while his brother is much shorter, and altogether smaller. Mr. Campbell seems to love nothing better than to quietly sidle into his place, and the brothers were very rarely seen' talking together- in the House. GOOD SENSE AND TACT. " Thirteen years ago," wrote Mr, Sydney Brooks, in the London Daily Mail recently, " nothing could have seemed less likely than that 'C.B.' would ever rise to the Premiership. Thirteen years ago the Ilosebery Cabinet fell because 'C.8.,' as .Minister for War, had neglected, or, rather, was made, out to have neglected, to keep in hand a sufficient supply of cordite. It was a snap vote that pronounced against him, and on a purely departmental matter, but it was enough to turn the Government out, and to throw a certain shadow over 'C.B.V career. As a matter of fact, 'C.B.' had proved a capable and extremely popular Minister—popular, [ mean, in Pal! Mall. He rendered the country a great service in reorganising the higher posts in the army. and in his management of the Y\ ar Office he showed not, indeed, genius, or anything like it. but good sense, tact, and more decision than had been expected from a. man of his intense good humour. As a. colleague who v.-as ' always on the spot,' always cheerful, loyal, and lubricating, he extorted from Lord Ilosebery the memorable, tribute wonder, by-the-by. whether he would repeat it to-day—' I wish I had a dozen "C.B.'s" in my Cabinet.'

" The country generally both then and for many years after had no particular opinion of 'C.B.' It thought of him, when it thought of him at-all, as an average administrator, whose ding-dong, pachydermatous disposition and gift for .plodding had rained him to the FrontBench, and seemed likely to keep him there. He had achieved nothing that marked him out from the ruck. STUCK TO HIS POST. " His elevation was essentially an accident of an accident. He was elected in 1899 to the leadership of the Liberal party in the House of Commons—elected by a process of elimination. Sir William Harcourt had thrown up the task- in disgust and despair; there was nobody designated as his successor; and the party turned to 'C.B.' as the second or third best. He was never really the leader of the whole party : the Rosebery section gave him no more than a casual and halfhearted allegiance; and the Boer war accentuated and aggravated all internal divisions till they approached a cataclysm. ' C.B.' stuck to his post with unwavering stolidity. He was in a hopeless minority both in and out of the House; in Hank, rear, and front he was pelted with every missile of Parliamentary warfare; the Irish Nationalists formally broke oft' all relations with the Liberal party ; the country would scarcely allow a Liberal of proBoer opinions to open his mouth at any public meeting; and ' G.B.' roused the national resentment to white heat r by declaring that- the British Army was waging war in South Africa" by 'methods of barbarism.' All public men commit at least one blazing indiscretion. That was ' C.B.'s.'; but, so far as I can recall, it was, and it remains, his only one. His

But though this particular speech answered the -purpose, " C.8." was not a great speaker. Ha never "bold the House," and his voice, though pleasant, was not of sufficient compass to ring with the true orators tones. His speeches were, as a rule, neither eloquent nor lively, but, on the other hand, they never contained personal references which would wound an opponent, and Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman had the reputation of being a generous foe. His slow and somewhat precise way of speaking, with occasional halts for a, word, helped to give the impression that the .speech had been carefully prepared. A FORTUNATE VENTURE, . The history of the foundation and progress of the great warehousing firm, Messrs. .1. and W. Campbell, of which Sir Henry Campbeil-Banneranan's father was one of the original partners, and from which Sir Henry himself drew a fortune, is an interesting one, says M.A.P. 'the J. and W. Campbell were James and William Campbell, Sir 'Henry's father and uncle respectively. William Campbell, his uncle, was, in the earlier half of last century, a shopman in a draper's shop in Glasgow. At that time it was common to have two prices—e.g., an article might be ticketed at 12s 6d, but if someone came in and bargained, it might bo had for 10?. In course of lime Dr. Chalmers, of Disruption fame, delivered a series of lectures to business men in Glasgow on "Business Morality," in the course of which he condemned this system strongly *!.<! savouring of corruption. William Campbell was much impressed, and urged his employer to put.

leadership, it leadership it could be called, was otherwise free fromglaring error*. it had, indeed, some negative merits °* * not inconsiderable value. ' CB.V happy turn for insensibility never stood him in better stead. It kept.him from ever being, crushed in spirit by the most overwhelming defeats or the most depressing prospects. It enabled -him to keep on fighting and to pick himself up again as though nothing* in particular had happened. THE REACTION*. "The English people like pluck; and pluck, above all things, was. the quality 'C-B.' consistently displayed. _ A reaction in his favour began to set in. No man could be kicked so often and in fo many places and could take it so smilingly without winning the half-humorous attachment and admiration of the masses. Londoners, who have never been quite just to 'C-B' could not realise. that, whatever the clubs and the West End might think of him, he was building up for himself a posi- j tion in the country. When Literal unity became once more a fact, the leader* and the rank and file of the party were at one in agreement that 'C-B.' was the first to be entitled to profit .by it. In the dark days of schism and internal dissension he {tad kept the- party together when a man with more definite opinions and greater force of character might easily have wrecked it- . "So the industrious apprentice had his reward, and ' C-B.' became Premier. Nobody grudged him the honour, but few thought him equal to its responsibilities. Few thought he could sustain the double burden of the Premiership and the Leadership of the House. Two years ago it was on all bands quietly assumed that 'G-B.' -would repair to the seclusion of the House of Lords at the first cerement opportunity, taking the Premiership with him, but leaving the leadership in the Lower House in younger, firmer, and more dexterous hands. And it gives the measure of ' C-B. V, triumph that even if such a development had been politically possible, not a. single-one of his followers would have welcomed it. SECRET OF HIS POPULARITY. "What is the explanation of his popularity? it was to be found solely in the personality of the man.. 'C-B.' had pre-emi-nently the gift of smoothing things out and reconciling the most opposing views and dispositions. Himself a, monument of humorous common sense, he radiated an atmosphere that made for agreement and co-operation. There was nothing elusive or baffling about him. The (suspicion of, disiugenuousness was the last that would attach to him.. His,whole case was got up in" good plain black and white. A porkbutcher could .understand him. Ho / was, besides, a master of ■ the persuasive ; arte. He oiled the machinery of party management with a loving and imperturbable patience. No one could quarrel with him, because he simply declined to quarrel with anyone. He ruled without friction, and led, if the ' hull may be forgiven, by a series of gentle pushes. He was a centre of accommodation and of harmonising influences round which, a heterogeneous party could only revolve in gratitude."

A fortnight ago, .when his recovery was known to he hopeless, he resigned the Premiership.

LADY OAMPBELL-BANNERMAN.

At the age of 24 Sir Henry CaiiipbollBannerman, then plain Mr. ried the daughter of the late General Sir Charles Bruce, K.C.B. Lady Campbell- j Bannerman was a very accomplished woman, whose death last year caused general regret.'