MR JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1511, 14 February 1901, Page 16

MR JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN

Among the men who have risen to high positions in the Government of England, the career of the Right Honourable Oosep>h Chamberlain is almost unique. He enjoyed none of the advantages of rank or social position at the outset of his career; ho was not educated at one of the great public schools or at a university. At the age or sixteen he went to work in his father’s leather business in London; at 38 he retired to enjoy a great fortune made by bis own ability; when he was 44 he was a member of the Cabinet. To-day, at the age of 64, he is one of the most influential men in England, and his every word and action are watched and studied by the rulers of all civilised' nations. By his own energy he has attained that proud position. And he has won it against heavy odds, for the road “from log cabin to While House” J.s! not a 3 smooth in England as in. the L nited States.

Let us glance for a moment at the main incidents in the career of this remarkable man. He was born in Camberwell, London, on the Bth July, 1836, and alter being educated at the University College School, joined his father, who was a cordwainer, in 18-52. A brother-in-law of Mr Chamberlain, senior, was Mr Nettlefold, the famous wood screw maker of Birmingham. He had purchased an American patent that was calculated to revolutionise theindustry, and he want ed additional capital to develop its use. The cordwaim r entered into the scheme, and sent his son northward in 1854 with the money to secure a partnership in the concern. Mr Joseph learned the business very rapidly, and his commercial instincts found abundant scope.- The business under his direction was, much, enlarged, • competitors were bought up.’ and the present great concern of Nettlef old’s was placed on a broad and profitable basis. So handsome were the returns that Mr Chamberlain retired as I lift?® said, at the age of 38, in the year 1874. ? .. : ":m . •' :>'V.

From, early youth lie had been a voracrous rentier, with a partiality for social science and politics. In the public life of Birmingham he . found a field awaiting the hand of a reformer, and he turned to it with eagerness. He quickly made an impression, in the Town Council and was elected mayor three times in. succession, in 1874-5-6. It was objected on the third c ocas lon that he acted not only as mayor but as Town Council, too. During his reign important schemes for the municipalisation of gas. water, sewage farm, and other public works were carried through, and a vast area of slums was cleared cut at a cost of over a million and a half sterling to make wav for the present Corporati»n street. The appearance

of Birmingham was transformed in a few vears, ami it was largely through Mr Chamberlain’s invigorating influence that it came to be known as “the best governed c-ity in the world.” One of Mr Chamberlain's earliest e.forts to serve the public was the foundation of the National Education League, which fought a stern battle on behalf of secular education against Mr W. E. Forster during the passing of the School Boards Bill in 1870. Mr Chamberlain became president of this organisation in 1868, when he was 32. He was afterwards chairman of the Birmingham School Board from 1874 to 1876. Education has been one of the passions of his life. His maiden speech, in the House of Commons was made on an Education Bill; the burden of many of liis public addresses in the days of the Unauthorised Programme was the need for free Education; and at last he persuaded Lord Salisbury to confer that gi'eat boon on the nation.

In the same year as he retired from business Mr Chamberlain turned his eyes to the larger sphere of i>ublic work at Westminster. Sheffield narrowly missed having him as one of her representatives, for it was to Sheffield he first went for a seat. He opposed Mr Roebuck in 1874, and was defeated. He waited two years longer, and was returned as one of the members for Birmingham in 1876. He continued to sit for the city till 1885 when he was elected for the newlv-created West Division, and there lie has remained superior to all assaults. He was once opposed by a Mr Mahony, who only secured 31 votes. Mr Chamberlain began his Parliamentary career under some disadvantages. He was looked upon as a revolutionary. He had in a jocular mood confessed himself a Communist in 1874, and he was believed to be a Socialist at least. Members expected to see a very dreadful person, and were surprised when he came down immediately clad in frock coat, wearing an eyeglass, and speaking as perfect English as the highest born of them all. Very quickly he made himself known. He spoke in his first session, asked questions of Ministers, and was ever ready for the sport of ‘'•'baiting” them, where such tun was toward. He spoke only on subjects he thoroughly understood, and when lie had something of value to impart, and the House soon recognised liis power. He took care that he should not be forgotten in Parliament or in the country. He was President of the National Liberal Federation, which had its headquarters at Birmingham, and was supposed to command some sixty Liberal votes. So well had lie improved his position in the first four years he was in Parliament, under the leadership of Lord Hartington that when Mr Gladstone formed a Ministry in 1880 it was necessary to give Mr Chamberlain a seat in the Cabinet. Such rapid promotion was almost unprecedented. The young Member became President of the Board of Trade, in which capacity he carried some useful legislation on behalf of the seamen, reformed the bankruptcy laws and Patent Acts,

Mr Chamberlain was at the time delivering throughout the country the series of speeches which were afterwards known as the Unauthorised Programme. It was believed he was intended by Mr Gladstone to “set the pace” for the Party, and move the Whigs like Mr Goselieu and Lord Hartington put of their lethargy. He certainly kept them lively. Mr Goselieu described him and his associates as the “Salvation Army of Politics’’; to which Mr Chamberlain retorted that Mr Goschen filled in the Liberal Party the same function as “the skeleton at the Egyptian feasts.” Lord Hartington lie likened to “Rip Van Winkle come down from tlie mountain oil which-lie has been slumbering’’—a. shrewd hit. It was at this time that Lord Salisbury compared Mr Chamberlain to .Jack Cade. The Social programme was thrown into the background by the Irish question. Mr Chamberlain had been a consistent opponent of the Coercion policy, but he could not consent to Mr Gladstone’s Home Rule Bills. He provisionally joined the Government of 1886 in January, but retired in March, when be had seen the Bill. Into the problems of that time there is no need to enter now. Sufficient to say that Mr Chamberlain eventually joined Lord Hartington and the Liberal Unionists, and acted with the Conservative Party, in 1887 he was appointed to act as British Commissioner at the North American Fisheries Conv'ention at Washington. While there he became engaged to Miss Endicott, daughter of the Secretary of State for War, and they were married in the following year. Mr Chamberlain had previously been married twice —in 1880 and 1868, his second wife dving in 1875.

While acting with the Coservative Party in power and in opposition up till 1895, Mr Chamberlain’s capabilities were exercised to the full ou behalf of his allies and against his old friends. He was able, at the same time, to influence the passage of Home legislation on the lines of his old £>rogramme as, for instance, the small Holdings and Allotments Acts, the Free Education Act already mentioned, and the Local Government Act for London, England, Scotland, and Ireland. It was he who brought the subject of Old Age Pensions into the range of everyday politics; whether it be practical politics is doubtful. The credit for the Workmen’s Compensation Act is his also. He has always been an advocate of Church Disestablishment, and voted in favour of Mr Asquith’s Welsh Bill. That, however, was before he had taken office in a Conservative Government. Mr Chamberlain’s work as Colonial Secretary since 1895 is so fresh in the minds of all that it need not be recapitulated. His efforts have been directed to open up a new era for the Empire beyond the seas, and he has done much practical work in the way of developing the resources of the Colonies and bringing them into better trade relations with the home markets. Ill's conduct of the negotiations with the Transvaal Republic is still in the region of controversy. The gl-eatest task of his life now lies to liis hand —the settlement and development of the two Colonies that have been, added to the Empire. To that work he will bring ripe political experience allied to that fund of shrewd commonsense and business ability which has always characterised his public work.

As a debater, Mr Chamberlain is, perhaps, unrivalled in the present House of Commons. It would have been rare sport to see him matched against the Lord Robert. Cecil of old days. Mr Asquith is one of the few men who really annoy him in debate, ancl the tribute of irritation is the highest compliment one can look for from him. No man is more feared in polities inside or outside the House, for none command in such degree the power of demolishing, pulverising and ridiculing an opponent, and tlie desire to use that power. As an orator he adopts a simple and unadorned style. His argument is absolutely pellucid in its clearness. The dullest hearer cannot fail to understand and follow it through to tlie end. No interruption disturbs the flow of ideas, for he is always master of his argument before he rises. He rarely, adopts the persuasive method that so well fits Mr Arthur Balfour, and the defect of pugnacity is that it seldom attracts converts—“ Sheffield Telegraph.”