The Days of a Man 



Lloyd war politics. Lloyd George, warm-hearted, eloquent, 



George appeared even then to lack both principle and fore- 

 sight and to be the most adroit of all living politicians, 

 dodging from issue to issue with unfailing if short- 

 sighted sagacity. Sir Edward Grey, an able, scholarly 

 man as sincere as the traditions of his office would 

 permit, seemed totally unacquainted with common 

 folk and with currents of feeling on the Continent. 

 . For all information on these matters he apparently 

 trusted to diplomatic agents, some of whom, 

 especially as concerned the Balkans, were grossly 

 blind or incompetent. Balfour is a mental cynic 

 with a keen, logical mind and little feeling for reali- 

 ties. To him right and wrong, truth and falsehood, 

 seem rather as different phases of the human land- 

 scape. 1 



Churchill Winston Churchill, "with a sword in one hand 

 and withered olive branch in the other/' was to me a 

 brilliant, irresponsible boy, speaking on each side of 

 most questions with equal cheerfulness, and as ad- 

 ministrator reckless in his waste of men and money. 

 Originally a Conservative, he became a Liberal just 

 in time to be included in the Asquith ministry, 

 though in 1913 he showed signs of returning to his 

 original party allegiance. Referring to this matter an 

 indignant Conservative said to me: "No one can 

 ' rat 'twice!" 



Cecil Lord Robert Cecil I respect as a man of broad 



vision who sees how things ought to be but is never 

 likely to get down into the dust to make them right. 

 Sir Edward Carson seemed a very "Lord of Mis- 

 rule," hard, cold, and cruel. About him I once wrote 

 the following couplet : 



1 See Chapter xxxvi, page 294. 



482 3 



