THE POET LAUREATE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 125, 19 July 1911, Page 6

THE POET LAUREATE.

Most of those who laugh at the Poet .hamcate's poems, do uot know that Ue lias (tone a good many otner 'Lungs besides wi iie verso, and done tlieiii well. In reviewing nis autooiogiapay, publisiietl the otner day, . the '’•Jdaiiy lelegrapn” points out tii.it oesides ocmg a maker of verse, he writes impressive prose, he is a man ■of aif airs, has travelled much, lias acted as war correspondent, lias done ii great deal of journalistic work, and •has long been an acknowledged authority on foreign politics. Indeed, the -opinion is expressed that no previous poet Laureate lived so full and varied h career. Mr. Allied Austin is now 7G. He was favoured by fortune, for he started life coaifoi taoly olf, and at first tried to cultivate poetry m a country retreat. Looking round tor Work and move money, he found them in literature, and journalism. rci thirty years he was leader-writer on the. ‘‘Standard,” resigning the post when he succeeded Tennyson m Lie laureateship. He was on terms ox friendship ‘with many of the groat fi mires of his time. Lord Salisbury honoured him with “exceptional conhdenco,” which Mr. Austin attributes to hio having observed ‘’that, as tai hs political questions were concerned, our minds, if 1 may venture without vanity to say so, were cast m somewhat* the same mould, and that, like him, mv concern in politics was tor the welfare of the State, not my personal advantage.” An irreverent reviewer’s comment on tins is that it reminds one of Cromwell and MiLon. Mr Austin describes how he persuaded Mr. Goschsn to take the Chancellorship of the Exchequer when Lord Randolph, resigned it, ana how Lord Salisbury occasionally took his advice Twice he tried to enter Parliament, but failed. On the second occasion the party Whips gave him ioOO for his expenses, but when the contest was over lie returned it, a thing a Inch the Whips said had never been done before. Mr. Austin is an ultra-con-servative; he has little opinion of the House of Commons. ‘ I. will do uhat little I can, outside the House of Commons, to discredit its authority, and to curtail its functions. loa m a man to enter it, in order to serve us country, is to ask him to waste las life, and break his heart, over an impossible undertaking. ' His hesustoiy is that of Lord Salisbury saying diplomacy was more in Ms lino than pootrv The point lies m the fact that it was Lord Salisbury who made Mr. Austin Poet Laureate. .His de m>s been hamiy, prosperous, and In sy. with practical affairs, as well as things of the imagination ; on the whole, very unlike the traditional poet s eaieer‘ His greatest disaster happened when he became Poet Laureate.