MR CHAMBERLAIN IN THE COMMONS

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4313, 23 March 1901, Page 3 (Supplement)

MR CHAMBERLAIN IN THE COMMONS

A recent visitor to Westminster says that Mr, J. Chamberlain’s personality dominates the Chamber. You see the effect of it on the stray visitors to the House. Mr Balfour, Sir William Harcourt. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman emerge from the shadow of the Speaker’s chair, walk along to their places, sit ' down, enter into conversation with their colleagues. The Strangers’ Gallery makes no sign of recognition. But when Mr Chamberlain steps from behind me chair, and with head-jerked forward and just a slight frown on his brow, quickly picks a way to the side of Mr Balfour, then the Strangers’ Gallery rustles.' Mr Chamberlain seizes from the table one of the order papers for the day before he sits down. Having sat down, he holds it to his face for about fifteen seconds, reading it intently. With impatient gesture he then throws it from him. He refixes his eyeglass, gives a side look at the clock over the door, puts his feet straight out in front of him, nurses his elbows, and there sits, motionless, Sphinx-like, until called upon to answer a question. . There are no orators in- the House now, except, perhaps, Mr John Redmond, but among the debaters Mr Chamberlain is pre-eminent. He is never in a hurry; he is always thoroughly acquainted with his brief; he never leaves anything to chance. Among the many well dressed men in the House he- is among the best dressed. Besides a taste in orchids—of which he receives , two blooms a day from his conservatories at Highbury—ho has an excellent taste in waistcoats and ties. As to his buttonholes, sometimes the orchid is like an enormous purple foxglove ; at other times it is like a crimson starfish. Tho flower is always big, and it is always bright. No statesman is more feared than Mr Chamberlain. His very name is ana-thema-to many members of the Opposition. Hd is hardly loved by some of the old fogeys on the Government side. But every man knows his power. In talking he is pertinent, dogmatic, now and then vicious, showing that he has passion, although under complete control. His words are clear, .inclined to hd mellow; there is never an involved sentence. _At the beginning of a speech he trifles with his notes, neatly writteta. on notepaper and placed on the brass bound chest at the corner of the table, and which bears a hundred dents inflicted by Mr Gladstone’s ring. Mr Chamberlain runs his fingers along the side of his notes, getting the edges straight. Then he runs his little finger along top and bottom, doing the same. As he unfolds aprinoiplehe taps his left hand with 'the forefinger of 1 >s fight. When explanatory, he taps his two, hands together with the fingers sliglitly apart. ■

Then suddenly, like a flash of lightning —reaching a point involving his 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 his passion in, and with a taunt, that sometimes comes perilously ndar a sneer, he throws his hands from liim as though he were casting aside his opponent in contempt. No man has received such hard blows as Mr Chamberlain. No man can hit back so well, so withcringly, and make his foe on the opposite bench curl with vexation. Few card to “stand up to Joe.” Only one man does so, and docs 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*. ,