LORD ROSEBERY: HIS STRIKING PERSONALITY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2664, 5 April 1905, Page 71

LORD ROSEBERY: HIS STRIKING PERSONALITY.

The family of Archibald Philip Primrose, Earl of Rosebery, Viscount Rosel cry, Viscount Inverkeithing, Lord Primrose and Dalmeny, an^ Lord Dalmeny and I'rimrose, and Baron Rosebery, for all its titles does not belong to a race ot great antiquity. As far as can be learnt, the founder of the family was a certain trader and owner of a small sloop, who lived in the reign of Queen Mary. In 1650, Charles II made one of the descendants a baronet, and the family since then, owing to a succession of fortunate marriages, have prospered so well that the present Earl, independently of the enormous fortune he inherited from his late wife, is the owner of 32,411 acres, yielding an income of £36,479 a year. Lord Rosebery was born May 7, 1847, in Charles street, Berkeley square. After roughing it at an Edinburgh school — where, according to Mr J. M. Barrie, a schoolmate, no one ever succeeded in getting him into a corner, either mentally physically- — ho moved on to Eton, and thence to Oxford, where he so failed to distinguish himself that, on succeeding to wi<_ title on the death of his grandfather in 1868, he quitted college, without attempting to take a degree, and just three months before reaching his majority.

Still, his lordship as a lad displayed

some of the qualities which have sine*, won him so great a reputation. He was only 14 when a speech he made at a volunteer gathering at Dalmeny, tha family seat, caused Mr Dundas to exclaim: "The speech which you ha\e just listened to has come from one of England's future Prime Ministers." The occabioii being a festive one, no importance need be attached to this prediction, especially as the success which attended his lordship when he rose in the House ot Lords, in 1871, in his favourite uniform of an archer of the Scottish Guard to second the Address-in-reply to the Queen's speech was anything but remarkable, for all the praise lavished on it by the press.

Much greater acumen seems to have been displayed by his future wife, Hannah Rethschild, who, meeting him for the first time in 1870. was so struck by the force and originality of his character that she sent him anonymously a curious old steel casket, of Italian workmanship, with a cunninglj' contrived lid. in wnich tc keep his papers when he became Prime Minister. It was not till after his marriage that his lordship learned who the fair prophetess was.

On leaving college, Lord Rosebery, in company with the millionaire Maremis ot i>ute, travelled abroad, the tour being so prolonged that there was hardly a country Me did not visit. On his return he took his seat in the Upper House, and began devoting himself to public affairs.

At first he made no great impression, which was not strange, for Lord Roseberji physically is not the man one would expect him to be from his portrait. He is below the medium height, his presence is not imposing, and his fine head is set on a body which inclines to stoutness.

Watch Lord Rosebery in repose, and it '■viJi never occur to you — as it did when you gazed at the late Lord Salisbury — that you are in the presence of a nobleman who has been x'rime ALinicter ol England. It is only when he rises to speak that the qualities reveal themselves, 'lhen,, with face aglow, eyes nasmng with either merriment or. steadfast resolve, the mobile li2)s all power and concentration, you see the difference between Lord Rosebery speaking and Lord Rosebery silent.

The Scots, as was aatural tney should, t&ok his measure much quicker than the English. An address to the members or tie Edinburgh Philosophical Society, in 1871 ; a wonderfully eloquent rectorial address to the students of the University ot Aberdeen, November 5, 1880 ; followed by one to the University of Edinburgh in 1882, led. after his unveiling of the twelfth statue to Robert Burns, to his admirers dubbing him the "Uncrowned King of Scotland."

Subsequent to these efforts his qualities rapi-.y asserted themselves. In the transaction of the duties attaching to the onerous ofiices he speedily filled. Lord Rosebery showed himself to be a veritable glutton for work. At the Foreign Office he used to toil sometimes 18 hours a day, and as chairman of the London County Council he presided over, during x 4 months, 44 public meetings, 280 regular assemblies of the committees, besides innumerable fixtures for the settlement ot points of policy and so forth.

In 1890 he experienced the greatest sorrow of his life. His wife, Hannah, daughter and heiress of Meyer- Amschel Rothschild, of Austria — whom he had married hi 1878, Lord Beaconsfield giving tho biide away — died of typhoid fever, leaving two sons and two daughters. The detp affection she bore her husband was shown in her will. She not only left him the whole of her large fortune, exceeding £700,000, but she bequeathed him some 18,000 acres of land, as well 33 her Norfolk seat and the stately Mentmore. Bucks, which contained works of art worth considerably over a million.

To assuage the poignancy of his giief. Lord Roseberv betook himself to literature, and wrote a work on William Pitt, which the historian of the future is likely to pronounce the best life of tnat eminent statesman. Although the grace and refinement of the style remind the reader ot Mr John Morlcy, Lord Rosebery is no plagiarist. Indeed, one has only to read some of his Foreign Office despatches to see that he inherits all the literary distinction of his mother, Lady Dalmeny, afterwards Duchess of Cleveland, an authoress of conspicuous ability.

His tact enabled him to contract semipolitical alliances which would be fatal to most statesmen. The brewers and distillers, for instance, believed him to be their best friend, and they confidently predicted that he would be dead against anything which would injure their trade. For all that, he succeeded in impressing the followers of Sir Wilfrid Lawson that at heart he was with thorn, and that it he did not openly advocate their views and denounce their opponents, it was oniy because he could further their objects Vest by working quietly. Capitalists were "told to trust him, because, having a great stake in the country, it was very unlikely he would do anything rash or revolutionary. In fact, his lordship was such a \ cry multiplex personality in those days that many professed to see in him no fewer than seven distinct Lord Roseberys!

He has a lovely seat in Dalmeny Park. When the late Queen Victoria and Prince Consort visited his grandfather in 1842, her Majesty wrote in her private journal : — "The park is very beautiful, with the trees growing down to the sea. It commands a fine view of the Bass Rock, of Edinburgh, and of the Firth. The Ijouse is quite modern, and is very pretty and comfortable."

Lord Roscbery, for all the magnificent spa view at Dalmenv, is never so happy as when at his Surrey seat. The Durdans, close to Epsom. It is rather curious howhe came to purchase this domain. In 1872 he was negotiating for Burwood, a lovely, place near Weybridge, when a friend took him to see The Durdans, then in tha market. The story runs that he was admiring the repose of the sylvan glades when a wood pigeon flew out of the wood

and alighted on a neighbouring tree. Presently its soft, clear note broke the silence. "That decides me," said his Lordship. "To hear wood pigeons cooing within 15 miles of Hyde Park Corner is in itself a sufficient recommendation.'' So next day he sent a cheque to the solicitor of the estate for £125,000, and the place became his. The Earl's racing friends, however, utterly discredit this story. They declare that his Lordship was drawn to purchase directly he caught sight of the Epsom grand stand, which is plainly visible through the ancient trees of Lord Rosebery's admirable estate. — Leeds Mercury.