2IO 



The Review of Reviews, 



February to, 1906. 



article, at an end. No power will make me lift 

 hand, or foot, or voice for the Tories, just as no 

 power would make me join the other side. All con- 

 firms me in my decision to have done with politics - 

 and try to make a little money lor the boys and for 

 ourselves. 1 expect 1 have made great mistakes . 

 but there lias been no consideration, no indul- 

 gence, no memory of gratitude --nothing but spite, 

 malice, and abuse. 1 am quite tired and dead-sick 

 of it all, and will not continue political life an) 

 lunger. Nevertheless, In- was no sooner luck in 

 England than he Hung himself heart and soul into 

 the political hurly-burly. He declared that it was 

 a matter of life and death to the Constitutional 

 Party to secure the majority of the votes of the 

 Labour Party, and in order to bus the Labour voti 

 he was pn pared to bid very high. 

 LORD ROSEBERY. 



At that time Lord Randolph was very fond of 

 Lord Rosebery, and was wry intimate with him. 

 and always looked forward to being in a Govern- 

 ment with him. He saw Prince Bismarck in iS 

 who described Lord RosebeT) as a good combina- 

 tion of will and caution. Prince Bismarck added 

 that of all statesman he was the one who was m 

 modest and quiet in his acts and attitude. 



Hut although Lord Randolph might indulge in 

 hopes of being in the Cabinet with Lord Rosebery, 

 his friends and relatives knew too well that his days 

 were numbered. His son says the great strain to 

 which he had subjected himself during the struggle 

 against Mr. Gladstone, the vexations and disappoint- 

 ments of later years, and. finally, the severe physical 

 exertions and exposure of South Africa, had pro 

 duced in a neurotic temperament anil delicate con- 

 stitution a very rare and ghastly disease. 



THE OOMING OF THE END. 

 During the winter of 1892 symptoms of vertigo, 

 palpitation, and numbness of the hands made them- 

 selves felt. His memory failed him. and when he 

 stood up in the House of Commons the Hous ■• was 

 astonished by his strange altered appearance, the) 

 hardly recognised their old Leader in this bald and 

 bearded man. with shaking hands, tremulous voice, 

 and white face drawn with pain, and deeply marked 

 with lines of care and illness. Nevertheless, al- 

 though he was dying on his feet, he struggled with 

 dauntless energy against the encroaching foe. Mer- 

 ciful Nature provided a mysterious anodyne, and an 

 all-embracing optimism was one of the symptoms of 

 his disease. While the days are swiftlv ebbing the 

 patient builds large plans for the future, and a rosy 

 glow of sunset conceals the approach of night. The 

 more his faculties were impaired the more his 

 determination to persevere was strengthened, and he 

 carried out, despite all advice, the whole programme 



of speeches he had arranged in the autumn of 1893. 

 But the crowds who were drawn by the old glamour 

 of his name departed sorrowful and shuddering at 

 the ^spectacle of a dying man. and those who loved 

 him were consumed with embarrassment and grief. 

 HIS LAST JOURNEY. 



At last even he saw that the hounds were hard 

 upon his track. He agreed to give up political lite 

 for a sear and undertook a journey round the world. 

 The light faded steadily. At intervals small blood- 

 vessels would break in the brain, producing tem- 

 porary coma, and leaving always a little less memory 

 or facult) behind. His physical strength held out 

 until he reached Burma, " which I annexed," and 

 which he had eamestl) desired to see. but when it 

 failed the change was sudden and complete. In 

 the last daw of 1894 he reached England as weak 

 and helpless in mind and bod) as a little child. 

 For a month at his mother's house he lingered piti- 

 fully, until very early in the morning of January 

 24th the numbing fingers of paralysis laid that 

 wear) brain to rest. 



He was only forty-six, and the work of his life 

 was practically crowded inn. the sewn years be- 

 tween 1880 and 1887. 



THE so\ s TBIBUTB. 



The following are the words in which Mr. Winston 

 Churchill concludes this touching tribute to the 

 memor) of his illustrious father: — 



■ All his pledges he faithfully fulfilled. The G 

 vernment changed. The vast preponderance of 

 power in the State passed from one great party to 

 the other. Lord Randolph Churchill remained ex 

 actl) the same. He thought and eaid the same 

 sort of things about foreign and domestic policy, 

 about armaments and expenditure, about Ireland, 

 about Egypt, while he was a Minister as he had 

 done before. He continued to repeat them after he 

 had left office for ever. . . . 



" Lord Randolph Churchill's name will not be 

 recorded upon the bead-foil of either party. . . . 

 The eulogies and censures of partisans are powerless 

 to affect his ultimate reputation. . . . 



" There is an England which stretches far beyond 

 the well-drilled masses who are assembled by party 

 machinery to salute with appropriate acclamation 

 the utterances of their recognised fuglemen; an 

 England of wise men, who gaze without self-decep- 

 tion at the failings and follies of both political par- 

 ties ; of brave and earnest men, who find in neither 

 faction fair scope for the effort that is in them ; of 

 ' poor men,' who increasingly doubt the sincerity of 

 party philanthropy. It was to that England that 

 Lord Randolph Churchill appealed ; it was that 

 England he so nearly won : it is by that England he 

 will be justly judged." 



