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New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4425, 3 August 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

It is interesting to speculate on the Feasibilities if Hr Chamberlain had been at the Treasury instead of Sir Michael HicksBeach. The Colonial Secretary was at least once "in the running’ for the Chancellorship of the Exchequer. It-was the post which the late Baron Pollock predicted for him after hearing him one day as a witness, and in 1886, in the first Home Rule Cabinet, Mr Chamberlain seems to have been considered as a possible Chancellor. Mr Gladstone had thought of him at the Treasury, but, in discussing the matter with a friend, he expressed the ouinion that the "City" would bo terrified by the appointment because of Mr Chamberlain’s famous “ransom.” What ransom, Mr Chamberlain had asked, would property pay for the security it enjoyed?. And the sentence, which immediately became famous, was discussed for days in every paper in England. "The ‘Times’ did me the honour to misrepresent me,” said Mr Chamberlain; "Lord Salisbury denouncecr"iTie. Mr Goschen lectured me-; the Duke of Argyll scolded me, and the ‘Spectator’ newspaper preached at me.”