FIVE BRITISH STATESMEN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 137, 2 August 1911, Page 8

FIVE BRITISH STATESMEN.

Mr. Sydney Brooks gives some vivid glimpses of “Sonic English Statesmen'’ in “McClure’s Magazine” : The Prime Minisie?. “Asquith is one of those men whoso successes never surprise those who know them best, v rom the moment no entered ids teens, ho lias been not merely distinguished, but supreme among his contemporaries. As a boy lie took all the sciiool prizes. As a youth iio won the blue riband of classical scholarship, tho Dallied,, became president of tne Oxford Union—tho ianions debating society of the University— took a double first,’ carried olf tiio Craven scholarship, and so impressed ids professors' ami fellow-grad-uates) from. Dr. Jowett downwards, that perhaps no man ever left Oxford amid so many'’ or such confident predictions of a brilliant future.

“Asquith has made his own way in life. A Yorkshiraman of Puritan stick, born in moderate circumstances, ho started out with none of those advantages of family influences and connections and high social position that in England, more pernaps than in any other country, smooth tiie path of professional and political ambition. Ho had his full share of the ordinary anxieties and difficulties of the briefless barrister, and ho alleviated them, as 'do most briefless barristers, by journalism and lecturing. “The monotony of his hard, high, and constant success is almost too metallic for human nature’s daily food. Just as one misses in his oratory the touch and tone that would fuse and elevate the whole, so in the man one sighs, at times, for the glow and mellow streak that would temper and relievo his unvarying self-eontiuuence.” £V3 i". Balfour. ‘Air. Balfour, his principal antagonist and closest friend, ana the Eead,or of the Opposition in the house of Commons, is a very different type of man. it is thirtyrseven years since he entered Parliament. Even then lie was a marked man. Not only was ho Lord Salisbury’s nephew, hut he had made a reputation mu his own account, .lijfvas not, to he sure, a reputation of thei kind that every'; young man of six-and-twonty would care to have. Mr. Balfour was suspected of being something of a, dandy and a good deal of a dilettante. Tales of the enormous hours ho would He in bed, of his passion for blue china, Burne-Jones, and golf, and of tho various nicknames bo had earned among the robust undergraduates of Cambridge, used to float about .the lobbies of the House. His perfect courtesy ,fto opponents, those little touches of chivalry that count for iso much in am excitable and disputatious assembly, Ids disdain for more personalities and the instant elevation of. tone that his disdain engenders, have done more even than liis gifts of mind and speech to establish him in tho first place in tho sentiments not onl,y of iuT. own party, hut of tho whole House. If lie is not a great leader, ho is an irresistible critic, a fine intellect, an engaging, even a fascinating. character, and a great gentleman,” Mr. Llcyd-Cccrso. “Two men could hardly differ more completely ih opinions, up-bringing, and instinctive ways of looking at things than do Mr. Balfour and Mr. Lloyd-George. The former is an aristocrat, a Scotchman, a member by light of birth of the governing class, a man of wealth who has never had to worn for a living, a product, and an exceptionally' fine one, of tho best education that Britain lias to offer. The latter is a Welshman, born in humble circumstances, a ‘man of tho people’ in every sense, whose life has boon a constant, and triumphant battle, and who has picked up for himself such knowledge as ho possesses of tho things that no amount of contact with life can touch. Twenty-odd years ago an obscure lawyer in a small vVclsli country town ; to-day Chancellor of tho Exchequer, the idol of his countrymen, and one of the most powerful, in somo ways tho most powerful, influence in British public life—tho: bare record of his career from the village groan to Downing Street _ is enough by itself to arrest one’s instantaneous attention and to proclaim a man far removed from tlio common run. “Tiie glow and Host and responsiveness of ids nature, his candid, pouncing mind, tho wholesome boyish streak that runs through all he says and does, the infectious freshness of his talk and outlook, his whole air of blithe comradeship, combine to make, him, if not tho greatest, at any rate tho most remarkable personality n British politics to-day. “If Mr. Lloyd-Gcorge may be taken as representative of the newer Eng-land-—the England that judges men by what they' are and do, and not by tiie non-essentials of birth or position or wealth—Lord Lansdowiio, tho Leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Lords, may stand equally’ well for a type of the older and more aristae!atic England. Lord Lansdowr.o. “In himself as in Ids career Lord Lancdowno is an excellent type oi tho great English seigneur. A prudent, polished, naturally' dignified man, of cultivated tastes, load oi sport, with a lucid though in no ways a profound mind, of a reserved disposition that nothing has yet been known to ruttic, of a line instinctive courtesy, always pertinent and pointed in ids speeches, magnificently sell-possessed, with the saving grace ul humour, and altogether contemptuous oi the arts of advci tiring—his right to a foremost place iu that ‘governing classs’ which is now tottering to its’l all is beyond impeachment. W hde not in the least a great man Ids abilities are thoroughly respectable, anil lor more than forty years, in spite ol every inducement to a life of easy h '.sure, they have boon | bleed, with hardly a thought of sell, at the service ol the Slats! ?/r J 3-.TJI-?. “Over against Lord Lansdowue, and in sharp contrast to him, one may put

tho redoubtable figure of Mr. John Burns. 'Two decades ago England rarg with tiio terror of ids. mime. Today mode rate men give thanks that so steady and conservative a man should ha at* tho head of tho Local Government Board. He used to stand in tho public mind for all that was incendiary, visionary, and revolutionary. To nay men look upon him as a firm brake on tiio runaway’ coach of Labour. “'Hie working men know him and love him. They recognise in him tho biggest man that their class in Eng- >■’:(! Ims yet produced. And John Burns knows them and loves them in return, and uses both Ids knowledge and affection to rehulfb, chastise them and shame them into elevating themselves.”