CHAMBERLAIN: A STUDY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2671, 24 May 1905, Page 76

CHAMBERLAIN : A STUDY.

By Johv M. Robertson. London: Watts and Co. (6d).

Under tho title of "Chamberlain: A Study," Messrs Watts and Go., London, I have published, in popular sixpenny form, ; a searching criticism of the great tariff reformer's career, from the pen of Mr John M. Robertson, author of "An Introduction to English Politics," "Patriotism and Empire," "Ibe Case for Freetrade," etc. While pursuing his task of sketching the ' eminent political opportunist's ascents and descents from Republican, Radical, and Freetrade propaganda to Liberalism, Toryism, and veiled Protection, Mr Robertson . has unearthed a great deal of piquant history that the subject of his "study" would doubtless have been happier to i have had let alone. That this re-telling of ! the life-story of Joseph should carry with it a somewhat merciless dissection of its ' subject's aims and methods is nothing very wonderful. What is much more wonderful is that, as presented, the history makes exceedingly live and interesting reading. Whatever we may think about his sincerity in connection with matters political, there is no recent or living contemporary whose life has been half as picturesque as that of Mr Joseph Chamberlain. While he does by no means ignore such good points as have become visible dining his researches, the maker of this "study" lays bare the opposing kind with the clearest comp'eteness and determination. • Upon the Irish question, the Education question, the episode of tihe Boer war, and, ' indeed, all through his political career, the wan of Birmingham is followed with close persistence; his speeches quoted from to prove him a demoralised demagogue, whose "return to power is now the one thing impossible in politics." The facile Joseph, piince of political lightning-change artists, followed thus through a maze of his own making, is found at last in a state of collapse, stripped of his discreditably got prestige, a foiled trickster at the end of a pernicious career. That the end of the Chamberlain tether is already reached is not, perhaps, certain, but Mr Robertson is strongly of the opinion that "to-day Mr Chamberlain is the most hopelessly discredited statesman of modern times."

In the course of some interesting remarks upon episodes in the youth and early mamhood of his subject, Mr Robertson says that '"anecdotes of the childhood of celebrities are open to a general suspicion," but that those told of the boy Chamberlain are tolerably appropriate. At school he was "masterful," high-spirited, pertinacious, and inquisitive, wanting to "know the reason of everything," and bent on being captain when the boys played at soldiers. A story is told of his beating his sister in a game of toy soldiers, fry glueing his to the table; but this, though significant, is to be taken with reserve. There is a. record (vouched for by his schoolmistress) of his founding a Small Boys' Peace Society at the age of 8, and fighting for the office of president. His schooling, which was good, extended from 1844 to 1852. In the latter yeai*, aged 16, he began i industrial life in his father's shop, working at tho shoemaker's bench. Many notable men have spent more or less of their lives working in leather, but two years was the limit of Joseph's industry in this direc- ■ tion. His father was a well-to-do manufacturer, a Radical in politics, and when be sent his son. at 18, to Birmingham to rid up the affairs of a screw-nail business there in which be was interested, the future eminency was well established in democratic opinion. A zealous worker at his daily vocations he had abundanf enererv to svare for debates, teaching, and self-im-Trovement in stu&v during the evening. He was successful in the business that had called him to Birmingham. It is good to bo told of him that "as soon as he was in a position of authority he began so to improve the conditions of work for the girls and women empV>v©d in the Nettlefold establishment that tiheir way of life was rapidly raised to a level of comfors and decency before unknown in that industry." Of his conduct as an employer in goneral. indeed, there are none but srood accounts : he was always popular wifh his men. Of how ho lectured on scientific subjects — obiect 'essons on flowers, reason and instinct in animals and birds, etc., to the town lads ; of how he was for four years a teacher in a Unitarian Sunday School, where "he rarely used the Bible as a class hook." Kit was fond of telling his boys that li's religion "consisted in doincr his diitv to his fellow-men ati<l in alleviating 1 th.6 lot of the r>oor," with a crreat deal more showing forth the gradual evolution of this remarkable man — all will be found set down in this easily accessible and cleverly-written book. DINOKNIS. — Standing jokes are common enoueh, but who ever heard of a sitting one? What about the young man who sat down on his sweetheart's new hat and warbled: "I'm ! sitting on the style, Mary" ? I FLORmNE !— -Fob the Tketh: and Breath A. few drops of the liquid "Floriline" sprinkled on a wet tooth brush produces a I pleasant lather, which thoroughly cleanses the teeth from all parasites or impurities, hardens the gums, prevents tartar, stops decay, gives J to the teeth a peculiar pearly-whiteness, and a delightful fragrance to the breath. It removes all unpleasant cdour arising from decayed teeth ox tobacco smoke. " The Fragrant Floriline," being composed in parts of Honey and sweet herbs, is delicious to the taste, and the greatest toilet discovery of th« age. Of all Chemists and Perfumers. Wholesale depot, 39 Farringdon road, London, EnglanA i