MR ASQUITH'S ART.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13312, 14 June 1907, Page 2

MR ASQUITH'S ART.

\ GFXIUS FOR FIGUUF.S AND < 'PHRASES'. Mr Asquith, Chancellor <;f ilie Exche-. quer, is a clean-shaven, young-looking man of fifty-five with- a genius for figures and phrases. •' With this striking generalisation "An Admirer" prefixes a character sketch of the man■.■•vvho said "No", to the preferenceseeking Premiers'. This sketch appears in the " Daily Maili' and it tells- us that Mr Asquith is one of the dominant personalities in the House of Commons. He compels attention. With the silver hair, surmounting hi. s mobile, youthful laee. with his strong, full voice "and his air of invincible confidence. he impresses his hearers at once with a i-eii'-e of power and intellectuality. One feels his facts are inevitable, and that to contradict him. would be an audacity. One of the secrets of Mr Asquith's sudor ss is his tremendous capacity for work. Six hours a day in the House of Commons, is enough to sap the, vita'ity from even giants o"f intellect, Mr Asquith has thriven °' 1 ' 1 "" LAURELS EARLY WON. • His career may be said to have begun in the CYty of London School, where, he once, told us, though he '* failed to grapple with the elements of mathematics." he nevertheless managed to acquire "the habit of articulate enunciation." From this time onwards lie won such laurels as are held out to those wlio aspire to high scholarship and statecraft. At Balliol, under Jowett, he gained a. first-class in the claries, the Craven Scholarship, and finally became a Fellow of his college; then, for a couple of years, he took pupils white himself leading' law, aiid at the age of twenty-four was catted to the Bar. ' . / From that time onwards .his record has shown, an unbroken line of successes both parliamentary and forensic. His political louiidatioiis were laid in the Eighty Club/ of which he was an oiiginal member; and it was the energy and ability which'he,displayed in this sphere that first attracted the. notice of Mr Gladstone. He was always a. correct and*co]>iou.s speaker, thus combining two qualities of oratory, whose conjunction is.-excellent and rare. . He had always the gift of phrase-finding, and many of his ".mots" are now accepted as current coin at', the Bank of Political Conversation Limited. And he was always infalLble, with a good deal of commiseration for. those whose self-confidence was less than his? own ; it might we]l haye' been into his mouth that the late Dr. Wallace' put the words, "You say nobody is infallible. Ulha-t is a mistake. I am infallible—on the multiplication table." And all the.-e qualities have he!ped"liim. : , HIS QUIET SELF-TRUST.

A ( fc the Bar and in. the House of Commons his inexhaustible vocabulary and scbolarly/mind soon brought, hini to tlie front as a grateful and forcible speaker; his power of phra're-making and of trenchant invective won for him early a foremost place, among the favourites of- the platform; -..''his quiet, self-trust Has preserved him from shirking ■ any-,.-case,, however, difficult .and—how valuable and precious is this faculty! —has enabled him always to appear at "the top of his form" whenever called upon. Perhaps, h.''' greatest law ease was the great Parnell Commission;. in which he appeared as junior to Sir Charles 'Russell. Since then '.his-' many victories-have been gained, in Courts of Appeal, and" upon subjects with which the lay mind dare not grapple. For long we have known him from afar as a lawyer of great eminence and learning,; he is more, familiar to. us as a Liberal leader since the day when Mr Gladstone singled liini out from among his henchmen in 1892 to move the Amendment to the "Address which proved fatal to Lord Salisbury's. Administration.'---'•,'- .'

It is'saicljthat Mr Gladstone had some qualms about' entrusting s;o great a taak to so young a parlwmeiitary hand, for he knew that; if the venture proved successful high office; must by custom be given to the hero of the occasion. ' But he never had cause to.regvet his choice either of the spokesman v on that day or of the Home Secretan' in the succeeding Parliament, UNPOPULAR- WITH LABOUR LEADERS. In 1892 he became Home Secretary, and, being a firm administrator, did nob always meet with ' the approval of the Labour leaders. Determined and inflexible, he was to be neither fiightened nor cajoled. He sprang to the front as a debater of the first rank as the Home Rule Bill forced its way through the House of Commons; he fought for. Welsh disestablishment and Local .Veto with all the ardour' of a teetotal pirate; he made more speeches up and down.the country than any other member of the Government, praising the loyalty of "our liish allies" and uttering terrible th/.ngs against the House of Lords. But at a later period, a chrfnge came over him, and he joined the. little band led by Lord Rosebery, whose apparent intention it, was to draw the party away from Home Rule and pro-Boerism. Afterwards Mr Asquith became a protagonist in the great fiscal controversy, following Mr-Chamber-lain about the country, throwing himself into the battle with all the zest of a skilled combatant, IN LIGHTER MOOD. Mr Asquith cannot endure bores, and some of liis political friends complain that he is occasionally rather "superior" in his manner. In .reality he is a genial man, with a sense of'humour and a ready wit. 11 was in the famous anti-Gainbling League case, when he was arguing, the possibilities ;i certain spot- being'**a place".'.within the meaning of the l Act," that Mr Justice Wright put to him a question. "Suppose," said the judge, '*! were to give you an : aiea marked by the meridans of longitude, would that constitute a place in your opinion. Mr Asquith-?" "That, my lord," wa>- Mr Asquith's imina :iate ie:-ponse, " would be inertly a marU-r of degree." The lighter skle of Mr Asquith's character is from time to time made manifest to his private acquaintances. It was in j the summer of 1894 that, .in company with his political foe and personal friend, Mr Balfour, he set off for a little amusement at Earl's Court, Mr Balfour had previously been down the water-chute, so lie took Mr Asiquith and gave him the sensat'on of a. ckscent. Their swoop into the water raised a wave which drenched them both. The future Prime "Minister* and the future Chancellor of the Exchequer roared with laughter ;at the little adventure. Among other enterprises, of the day was a trip on the switchback railway. But these are only diversions by the way. Mr Asquith is above all things a man of brains. He is a master of debate. He can juggle "with complicated figures in. a way which makts the mind of the ordinary man stagger. He can put his own case so clearly that he may for the moment make even his opponents doubt the strength of their position. Invective, scorn, the biting phrase, the sudd m thrilling shout of anger, are but a few of his weapon.*. He uses them with great effect.