"AGAG."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7766, 25 July 1903, Page 2

"AGAG."

P.fra Sketch «f ©?orf c Wy&g&am, Agag, King of th.© Amalekites, who was j spared by Saul, fcut liewji tp pieces by the Prophet Samuel, has always been Regarded ! as the "dagdy " ~ #f jthe' (Old ~ T£Jstfljnjens i (writes " JEj-A^tachjc"" i'nTjk'e 'New Qrleans \ " Thnes^pejfnpcra£ ■"). For w$ §?$ tpi4 tjj,as "he wal'k&d Idel^tely.'' Jfc is bgcau/?p George Wyndham, $ie jfejbher of Jthe. s^ Irish Land »BjU ; -which is to' brijig peace and a large measure of conientm£ns jtp Iceland, •" walks .delicately," possesses & g«at air pjf djetincjipn, and' refinement, and is always wpncl.e'rfuijy welj. grpjomed and £Qurs£g#s, ith&t he has been known by the njeknam'ft flf " Agag," ever since he -was at JStpn, ampng his friends and acquaintances, jfpfc yet forty, he has, aftpr a JJriJJjjWt ,car,eer in subordinate offices of the adjnjnistratjon, swung himself during the past few wp.eks by big wonderfully clever Irish L.as 4 Bi}J info the very forefront of English etatesjnajn.ship, .a"4 l??s come to be Jp.oked upon as the m.ost /striking individuality #nd as the most powerful f prc£ in tjie Cab/net, yrith the e£r ceptipn .of Joseph GhamferlaJH. Ind.e>ed, rumours are. already jn ejr,eul,atipn tptheefr feet fhafc he niay bfi .oftereid the sucj&essipn to the Premiership on the retirement of Arthur JJaj.four, jylrteh is regarded in mflny quarters as imminent. The Colonial fiepre'r tary, in spjfce pf his popularity thraughpufc the {Jnjte4' Kingdom, " and the personal triumph pf Jijjs South African jtpur, 4oeg not eoinjnan4 ja a sijfijcj£nt 4 e gree the gpp4will aud the confi4eii.ee of the .Conservatives. jn Parliament, *yho constitute the backbone pf the Ministerial majprjty, tp admit of their consenting to accept him as Premier. They favour his cojonial policy and his Imperial? istic ideas, but are afraid pf his LIBERAL, AND EVEN BA3HCAL, |DEAS "*" in the matter of domestic legislation. In one wprd, while jthe Tory j*arty willingly wprks with tJje. LiberaJ "Unionist faction, it wpujd npfc consent to suprojt to t.h§ yule of a, Ljberai Unipn}st Premier, Qeprge Wyndbam, however, is Conservative, like his father, the gpi?, Percy Wysdh?.m, ai?4 since by his suecepgfful treatment pf" the Irish questipn, which ii.ois t>een the bugbear pf every successive administration in Dpwnr ing Street for the past hundred year.s pr more, he has prpvefl hiingelf tp be a #tates; nian of the fprpmost rank, it 19 exceedipgly probable thAt he \yiU be (jalhid upon tp tjjke the place «i"6 long pf Balfpur a§ Prinas of th§ Britiah Empire. He has achieyed whaj; ljas yntil now' been rer garded as the injppssible task pf reconciling the conflicting interests of Irish landlord andi Irish tenant in such a maunsr as to command the goodwill and the approval of Englishmen of eyery shade pf politieai opinion, and this fea;t in itself is looked upon as one which demonstrates bis qualifications for the assumption pf the Ipln} pf the British shjp of State. " Agag " has a strong 6j;rai|i pf fine old Irish blbp4 in lua ypiim, a circumstance which goes, far to Recount for }}i$ versatjje brilliancy. For he is a greaivgramdson of that Lord Edward Fitzgerald, son of the first Duke of Leinster, who sacrificed his life at the end of the eighteenth centurjs to the Irish cause. Qn his father's side the Hon George Wyndhqm is the grandson of the first Lord Leconfield, and among his sisters, are Lady Elcho, Mrs Charles Adeane and Mrs G, P. TenaMt, whose triple portrait by Sergeant tfvag described by King Edward at the Royal Academy banquet a few years agp as "the three groces.'' Henry Labouchere, M.P., the genial pror prietor of London " Truth," on one occasion divided the apple of beauty, as far as the House of Commons is concerned, between the late Lord Russell of ISSllpwen, who had not at that time been raise| tG; the peerage, and George Wyndham. A^ :: to tlj'e justice ef this award there can bfi no qiieetipq. For the Irish Secretary is : ' A REMAHKABI.Y HANDgOM? MAX, tall, slight, with wejfceut featiires, finp eyes, to which long lashes give aji air of gentle^ ne»3, and dark bair, now slightly Euvere<l with premature grey, which, however, mere* ly serves to emphasise the youth and the distinction of the face. He is sympafchetir cally courteous, top, and has, besides, th,at sincerity of speeiih which usually acoompapies good Brains. There was some danger in his early boyhood pf his growing up into a prig, fpp^l.. according to gossip, he was, when quite 'ai small child, co learned that all conversation at his father's dinner table would be silenced by the announcement : " Hush,i George is going to say something aboiflS Shajtespeaie." . But any apprehengjpns felt oil this scpre have not been realised. ' $JLe i? not the least bit sen» tentious, and that his boyish remarks on Shakespeare may have- been worthy of the attention of his father's guests is demonstrated by the fact that the "Life of Shakespeare " that he ( contributed since he has been in public life to an edition, pf the •illustrious bard's poems^ has excited the ad* munition of men who have devoted more, years of study to the works of Shakespeare than George Wyndham has spent in the world altogether. He started life a? * sol* dier, and as an officer of the Coldsbream Guards took part in the Suakim campaign against the Dervishes, receiving both the English medal and the Khedivial star for his services. He left the Army to become private secretary to his close friend, Arthur Balf our, when the latter was in charge of the Irish Department, and ATTRACTED PUBLIC ATTBKTIOJW by the controversial letters which he published in the 'London daily papers in, defence of his chief and of the latter s policy. The ''mastery of fact which they showed was so great, and the hitting so hard and so neatly placed, that the public at first imagined that they came from the pen of Mr Baifour himself. Nor was it until the Tory leaders nominated him as the Conservative candidate for Dover, and he entere'd the House : of Commons as member for that constituency, that the public realised that he was fully capable of having written the letters jn question himself. He sopp. made a ma,rk for himself at Westminster, and ere long was appointed to the financial secretaryship of the Wax Department. The period which the Conservatives were out of office, namely from 1892 to 1895, he devoted to travel in South Africa, and after thoroughly mastering the problems connected .with that, portion of the world, attached himself to : tho fortune, of Cecil Bhodes, acting as the eemi-official represent tative of the latter in the IJouse o f Commons, and likewise championing his cause on the South African Parliamentary Committee APPOINTED TO INVESTIGATE THE JAMgSON RAID and the affairs pf his chartered company. It was while thus representing Cecil Bhpdes that he founded the " Outlook," one of the brightest of the London papers, wbioh, during tha lifotiins of Cecil ithodes, was popularly supposed to be maintained at his expense, while its policy, at any rate at first, was directed and controlled by Georce Wyndham. ,■ On Lord Curzon being promoted) to th« Viceroyalty of India, and St John Brodrick being selected to take hir plaoe as aseietant to Lord Salisbury at the Foreign Office, Wyndham was appointed to the Un-der-SeoFetaryship of State for War, and during the earlier stage* of. thj Bo«r *var performed in a wonderfully clever manner the difficult and ungrateful task of explaining to a terribly disappointed people how it had- happened that an army on which

they had for yeais been spending almost as. much money as is devoted annually by Germany to military expenses should have met with the most humiliating reverses on the first occasion that it wns called upon to encounter white men instead of Asiatics and Africans. Not only did he succeed in doing this to such an estenit that popular confidence was restored in the defeated troops and outmanoeuvred generals, bufc he likewise, by his eloquence, called forth a burst of patriotism sufficiently strong to silence to a grsajb estenf party lifferfftcej?, and to lead mea of rival political factions to resolve to support the Goverjiment in its efforts to carry flip war ip a issue* On the next Ministerial reorganisation, Lord Saliebury a?sigijed the post .of Irislj Secretary to George Wyndt^m', and so weil did he fulfil 'popular expectations in connection with his management of this most difficult and arduous task .of the entire administration, -that when Arthur Bajfour became Premier, Ggprge Wyndhain, Tfas ad? mitted to the Cabinet, in wljich h§ is Im.--land's chief representative. Although Wyndhara's official titjg is thajof phief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant and Viceroy of "Ireland, yet he i«f virtur ally th,e latier's superior office?, For the present Viceroy * Lord Dudley, does not have a seat in the o^bjnet ? an.d is merely the titujar £x«cu£ive of measures decided upon by the Garnet on the fecommenda.tion aiid isuggestipn of Geiorge Wya{ilia.m ? who is tg a far greater extent flia-a the Via&Foy the real administrator and ruler of the Emerald Jsk. Wyndhani, aLtjiough" pn the sunny sjde of fprty, ?a§ boast hf bejng 4, grapdfath|aE.-jriihat is & sjy, ha |as §i«p.-grarid.Ghi)4ren, for his wife has a eon a'frd two daughters pj he*? former maifiagg t«? the fot« Eml ©-Fpsyenor, -who have all three mai#?ji and hfltye phjl&sea.Tli? sou is *hp Buke of' Wfisjmin^er ; »ne of ths daughters i§ the j^jjatess of Sfeaftesr bury and jflie otlier fh& Oflynt*Ss o| Bfaa? champ- The IrisJi Secretary ahjo baa & boy of his own, now jspm© sixfe6fin years of age, who ejyes propose, of mh#ri|jng hjs fetb.&r'? g.opi look^, his fejjlliancy and his passion for fpx-hunfcijjg :