Notable Books of the Month. 



581 



the first revolt occurred. A Liberal candidate 

 was proposed, seconded by a tenant farmer and 

 duly nominated ; but the man who had seconded 

 the nomination did not remain tenant of that 

 farm for long. Though a man of the highest 

 attainments, exceedingly cultured, of high 

 character, and one of the pioneers of scientific 

 farming in that part of the country, he was 

 ejected, and all those who dared to vote for the 

 Liberal candidate were also ejected from their 

 holdings. Of course, the same sort of thing 

 was happening in England, but that which 

 occurs in our own neighbourhood impresses us 

 most, and the fact that many of his schoolfellows 

 had to leave the school and the village because 

 their fathers had voted contrary to the direction 

 of the squire made an impression, deepened 

 doubtless by the home discussions which took 

 place. 



He was not yet eighteen when his first contri- 

 bution to a local paper was published. He had 

 studied politics as a matter of course, and had 

 been very diligent at a Debating Society ; it was 

 characteristic of him that the only political 

 speeches which gave him delight were those of 

 Burke. His article in the North Wales Express 

 was on Lord Salisbury, and it presents a curious 

 example of the way in which speeches delivered 

 in the interests of one party can be utilised by a 

 simple change of names in the interests of the 

 other side. I remember mv own vouthful 

 astonishment when I found in French story 

 books that the arguments which we always used 

 in our English stories to show how wicked 

 Roman Catholics, and especially Jesuits, were, 

 were used in the French story books against the 

 Protestants who, in them, represented the evil 

 influence. So, in the same way Mr. Lloyd 

 George's diatribe against Lord Salisbury would 

 easily fit the attitude of the Liberal Part\- 

 towards Woman's Suffrage. 



Among the amusing accounts in the book is 

 the squabble between the judge and Mr. George 

 in a County Court case. He had now been for- 

 mally admitted to the roll of solicitors and had 

 established himself in a little office at Criccieth, 

 and from that time ranged himself on the side of 

 the oppressed. One of the famous actions of the 

 time referred to the refusal of the Rector of the 

 Parish of Llanfrothen to permit the burial of a 

 Nonconformist in the family grave in the church- 

 yard. The verdict was given against Mr. George 

 locally, and he therefore made an appeal. 

 Through his cleverness in catching a point intro- 

 duced by Mr. Jeune, who was against him, a 

 chance was given to put in some shorthand 

 notes. 



Coleridge read out slowly, with emphasis, the whole 

 of the squabble between " the Judge and Mr. George." 

 The whole Court laughed at mj' cheeky retorts upon his 



Honour and at his Honour's futile answers. Sudde 'y 

 someone clapped my back and said, " Well done, 

 machgen! " It was E. J. Griffiths. Shepheard and 

 Scrutton were overjoyed. After reading the report of 

 this interesting altercation, and pointing out for Mr. 

 Jeune's special edification the passages in it which con- 

 tradicted Vincent's statement, he turned his head, with 

 disgust imprinted upon his face, and said : " It is high 

 time County Court Judges should be taught that they 

 have someone to look after them. I shall simply send 

 this paper and these shorthand notes to the Lord Chan- 

 cellor without any comment, and if he does not take some 

 steps I shall be surprised. As to this paper, I shall 

 ignore the Judge's note of the verdict and treat this as 

 the genuine verdict ! " Consternation of Jeune, Vincent 

 and Vincent ; delight of Lloyd George and George, 

 Scrutton, Bompas, Shepheard, and the whole Court. 



The notice he obtained on this occasion was 

 probably the first step to his giving up the 

 practice of the Law with its chances of emolu- 

 ment, and his standing for Carnarvon Boroughs, 

 and in April, 1890, he took the oath and his 

 seat. 



He made his first public speech in London at 

 the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and his maiden 

 speech in the House concerned a clause in the 

 Local Taxation Bill, in which he obtained the 

 insertion of Wales and a share for her in the 

 grant in that Bill. 



A PROLOGUE— AD INFINITUM.* 



Sarah Grand has kept us waiting for a long 

 time for a new story from her pen, and now 

 these six hundred and forty pages are but the 

 prologue. But what a prologue ! True, we 

 have only the preliminaries of a plot, and the 

 first impression of the reader is that her people 

 have only been created as a vehicle for their 

 creator's opinions upon social subjects. No 

 serious reader will continue to think this, how- 

 ever, for Sarah Grand has added largely to her 

 wonderful gallery of portraits. 



It will perhaps be better to introduce them one 

 or two at a time than to bewilder the reader by 

 presenting them too rapidly. 



First comes Ardnam's mother and father ; he a 

 substantial yeoman with a long line of ancestors, 

 and his wife, a tall, fragile woman of forty-five, 

 slenderly proportioned, with delicate, regular 

 features, dark grey eyes, a transparent skin, 

 and abundant light hair, with an old-world air 

 of grace and dignity and an unmistakable habit 

 of command. Mrs. Pratt had married her 

 farmer husband from the ducal castle where she 

 had been governess and remained the friend of 

 the Duke and Duchess. Of high birth, she was 

 as much in love with her husband as he with 

 her, whom he called his Lady to the day of his 

 death. Mr. Pratt had had one son by a former 



* Ardnam's Orchard. By Sarah Grand. 

 (Heinemann. 6s.) 



