Review of Reviews, 20J2I06. 



Character Sketches. 



5J 



chief opponents may well be recalled at this mo- 

 ment. I had remarked many years ago to Mr. 

 Balfour that C.-B. was our ' W. H. Smith— the 

 sturdy, practical newsvendor, who for many years 

 was Leader of the Conservative party in the House. 

 " I quite agree," said Mr. Balfour, " but he is much 

 cleverer than \V. H. Smith." The other tribute was 

 paid him b\ Mr, Chamberlain a couple of years 

 ago. '" What nonsense." said Mr. Chamberlain, 

 " some people are talking about the next Prime 

 Minister. There is only one possible Liberal Pre- 

 mier. I detest C.-B.'s principles, but he is the only 

 one of the lot who always knows his own mind, 

 who has the courage of his convictions, who is 

 always ready to face the music, and never fails to 

 play the game." 



Sir Henry Oampbell-Bannerman has gone through 

 life without making a personal enemy. He is a 

 cheery, simple, unaffected, genial man, who has a 

 way with him of disarming hostility and of winning 

 the devotion of those who work with him. He 

 makes no great professions of any sort. His sober 

 but effective oratory never rises to the prophetic 

 strain. He is neither a platform moralist like Mr. 

 Morley, nor a skilful oratorical purveyor of pyro- 

 technics like others who need not be named. He 

 does not wield a rapier, nor does he delight in the 

 use of the bludgeon. His weapon is the plain, old- 

 fashioned, two-handed sword with which, like Hal 

 o' the Wynd, he has often done good execution 

 upon his foes. He is not a whit like Mr. Lloyd- 

 George, nor does he spend his strength in the 

 fashioning of epigrams. He is a clear-thinking, 

 plain-speaking, straightforward man, who never leaves 

 you in doubt as to where he stands, or what he 

 means, or whither he is going. But he is of canny 

 Scotch caution, all compact. In my " Album of 

 Notables of Britain " you will find his autograph. 

 I had asked him what passage, quotation, text, or 

 dictum had been most helpful to him in his political 

 career. His answer was, " All things are lawful 

 unto me, but all things are not expedient." But he 

 is no more a time-server than was the original 

 author of that saving. The quality which more than 

 any other has endeared him to the majority of the 

 electorate is his resolute courage. He has never 

 truckled to the howling mob or paltered with the 

 truth to gain the cheers of the gallery or to catch 

 votes at an election. During the bitter and dis- 

 graceful orgy of Jingoism through which we passed 

 a few years since, it was Sir Henry Campbell-Ban 

 nerman, and Sir Henry alone among all the front 

 benchmen in the House, who contributed to the 

 current controversy one true, pregnant and lasting 

 phrase. When he branded the policy of devasta- 

 tion deliberately adopted in South Africa as the 

 employment of "methods of barbarism," he uttered 

 the one true word of the situation. It brought 

 down upon him the execration of the barbarians 



Photograph by} Sir Henry Fowler [B. H Mills. 



Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. 



who exulted at a safe (distance in the horrors of the 

 concentration camps and the burning of homesteads, 

 but it won for him the respect of all sane men, and 

 has secured his reputation with posterity. In the 

 midst of the denunciation of his opponents and the 

 repudiation of men who are now only too keen to 

 accept place and salary from his hands, the sturdy. 

 Scot stood to his guns. He refused to withdraw the 

 phrase. He amplified, justified, and repeated it. 

 And as the result Sir Henrv is where he is to-day. 

 Prime Minister of the King and ruler of the Empire. 

 Sir Henry has not constructed a pro-Boer Cabi- 

 net. But Sir Henry's victory is as much a pro-Boer 

 triumph as Mr. Gladstone's triumph in Midlothian 

 in 1880 was the victory of the Bulgarian Atrocity 

 agitation. The pro-Boer cause has triumphed so 

 completely that even the stoutest pro-Boers feel 

 themselves strong enough to welcome the assistance 

 of the men who in the hour of stress and trial went 

 over to the enemy. We are warranted in assuming 

 that the Liberals who approved the war are now 

 so heartily ashamed of themselves that we do not 

 even need to ask them to wear sackcloth and ashes. 

 That they have accepted office under C.-B. is suffi- 

 cient. They are all standing on cutty stools, await- 

 ing the condemnation which the country is about 

 to pronounce upon the supreme Imperial crime of 

 our generation. The only condition that we in- 

 sisted upon is that they shall never, at their peril, 

 venture to say a word in vindication of or even in 

 excuse for their lamentable aberration, and that they 

 shall, to the uttermost of their ability, do what 

 they can to restore the liberty and self-government 



