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Page 19
I lament this self-absorption of Mr. Balfour as much as I lament in his
cousin Lord Robert Cecil the lack of the fighting qualities of
leadership. To no man of the Unionist Party after the death of Lord
Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury have more hopeful opportunities
presented themselves for creative statesmanship. He might have settled
the Irish Question. He might have avoided the Boer War, in the conduct
of which he behaved with real nobleness at the beginning. He might have
saved Germany from her own war-mongers. In any case he might have led
the Unionist Party towards construction and so have prevented the
slap-dash methods at reform set going by Mr. Lloyd George after a long
and irritating period of Tory pottering. For few men in modern times
have exercised so great a fascination over that curious and easily
satisfied body, the House of Commons, and no man in the public life of
our times has enjoyed a more powerful prestige in the constituencies.
Indeed, he stood for many years as the most dignified and honourable
figure in the public life of Great Britain, and his influence in
politics during the first part of that period was without serious
rivalry.
It must not be forgotten, too, that in the days of "bloody Balfour" he
was not merely chivalrous, but even Quixotic, in taking upon himself the
mistakes and misdoings of his subordinates in Ireland. He certainly had
the makings of a chivalrous figure, and perhaps even a great man. One
thinks that he began his descent unconsciously, and that carelessness
rather than any inherent badness led gradually to an egoism which has
proved fatal to his powers and to his character.
To the self-absorbed, vision is impossible. Mr. Balfour, unable to
penetrate the future, has lived from day to day, enjoying the game of
politics for the fun of confounding critics and managing colleagues,
enjoying too the privilege and dignity of power, but never once feeling
the call of the future, or experiencing one genuine desire to leave the
world better than he found it. And now he ends his political career
clinging to a decorative office under the leadership of Mr. Lloyd
George.
At the end of his Gifford Lectures, after an argument which induced one
of his listeners to say that he had _a stammer in his thoughts_, Mr.
Balfour announced his faith in God. One may recall Pascal's exclamation,
"How far it is from believing in God to loving Him!"
I have always thought it significant of his true nature that Mr.
Balfour should be one of the worst offenders in that unlovely Front
Bench habit of putting his feet up on the Clerk's table. The last time I
was in the House of Commons Mr. J.H. Thomas was lying back on the
Opposition Front Bench with his legs in the air and his muddy boots
crossed on the table. The boorishness of this attitude struck my
companion very sharply. But I pointed out to him that the difference
between Mr. Thomas, the Labour member, and Mr. Balfour, the great
gentleman, was merely a size in boots.
LORD KITCHENER
LORD KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM
Born, 1846; entered Army, 1866; Colonel, 1899; Burmah Campaign,
1891; Viscount, 1914; Baron, 1914; Earl, 1914; Sec'y for War, 1914;
died, 1917.
[Illustration: LORD KITCHENER]
CHAPTER VII
LORD KITCHENER
_"I never knew a man so fixed upon doing what he considered his
duty."_--CROKER PAPERS.
Soon after he had taken his chair at the War Office, Lord Kitchener
received a call from Mr. Lloyd George. The politician had come to urge
the appointment of denominational chaplains for all the various sects
represented in the British Army.
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