Character Sketches. 



561 



who can make a presentable case for Tariff Reform 

 in tlie House of Commons. 



PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 



"He presents a type by himself on the front 

 Opposition bench," says one who has watched his 

 ParHamentary progress. "Deep sunk eyes, a big 

 square jaw, an upright forehead, a straight mouth, 

 covered by a somewhat drooping moustache, give at 

 the first glance an impression of a man deeply reflec- 

 tive, touched with melancholy, but dominated by the 

 recognition of the necessity for strong and forcible 

 action . . . Here is no fervid prophet who runs to 

 words. Here is rather the man who, having con- 

 vinced himself that a certain course of action is 

 necessary, will work without jjersonal ostentation but 

 with a certain grim ruthlessness until his object is 

 attained." 



When he was defeated in igo6, in the great days 

 of Liberal victory, he sought and found a safe seat at 

 Dulwich. This, however, he relinquished in order to 

 try to win the seat for North West Manchester. He 

 failed, and for a brief season was outside Parliament. 

 Mr. Balfour showed no great an.xiety to find hmi a 

 seat, Init ultimately a vacancy in Bootle enabled him 

 to return to the House; of Commons. He was loyal 

 to his leader while others were intriguing with Lord 

 Halsbury to carry out the programme of " H. M. C." ; 

 but it is safe to say that down to the moment that 

 .\lr. Palfour went no one dreamed that Mr. Bonar 

 Law would be his successor. 



HIS STYLE OF SPEAKING. 



He IS a dour man-at-arms who fights hard and 

 spares not. 'I'he I)tn7y Mail " politician " says of 

 bun : — 



'l;ill ami spare, lie stands erect when speaking, witli one 

 hand by his side— lypically Scotch in appearance and with a 

 slight and pleasant Scotch accent. lie has no [gestures, thonyh 

 now and then he will dive into one of his niimcrons pockets 

 for a reference, and he is always cool and unenibatrassed. 

 I'arlly because of this perfect mastery of himself, which is 

 invaluable to a leader, though il postulates an absence of the 

 emotion that gives to oratory its most overwhelmini; force, he 

 has never been obliged to explain anything away. He has 

 never coine-l an epi:.;rain and never indulged in " purple 

 passages." Hut he is lucid and trenchant, and behind what he 

 says is earnest conviciiim. The very quietness with which he 

 speaks adils to the force of his words. There is iron in his 

 character. 



Yet witlial he is no Die-hard. Not being an idiot, 

 but a canny Scot, he realises the need of keeping liis 

 party tog(;tlier. "We desire," he said in 1907, "to 

 keep, if we jwssibly can, everyone who agrees with 

 us on other questions, to make it as ea.sy as (lossible 

 for him to be with us, and not against us on this 

 great question also." The " great question " was the 

 question of Free Trade. 



.Another observer says of him :— 



~ While Mr. Balfour hningei, Mr. Law sits erect. Slim and 

 straight in figure, hi-, head i» set high and stiff above his 

 shouldcis. He has a thin face and Scottish cheekbones, anil 



eyes with an anxious, wondering expression. His speech is not 

 st'iggesiive of a full mind, like Mr. Balfour's ; neither so incisive 

 ns Mr. Chamberlain's; nor so compact as Mr. Afquith's :■ it is 

 fluent and clear, if rather shallow. His voice has a mournful 

 Highland cadence, not unpleasant : he stands rather rigi<lly at 

 the table, holding one arm at his side, and occasionally moving 

 the other in .an automatic, marionette manner. There is no 

 humovir in his style, but his arguments arc pointed by gibes, 

 and he reads from a little notebook, taken from his pocket, 

 inconvenient quotations of old opinions by opponents. 



Mr. Bonar Law made his debut as leader of the 

 party at the Unionist Caucus held at Leeds on 

 November 12th. His speech sent Mr. Garvin into 

 ecstasies ; but that mercurial gentleman is ever ready 

 to gyrate like a dancing Dervish in adoration of the 

 Tin God of his party for the time being. Still, 

 hysterics and ditliyrambics beingallowed for, ^Ir. Law's 

 speech was not unworthy of the Ol'sc-n-er's eulogy. 

 As the Leeds oration was the first utterance of the 

 new L'oionist leader, a man who may be our next 

 Prime Minister, I think it well to place on record for 

 reference here the salient passages of that historical 

 deliverance. 



THE GOAL OF HIS POLICY. 



After repudiating the assumption that a new leader 

 must have a new policy, Mr. Bonar Law said : — 



Mv only hope of being of service to our party is by urging 

 that party to move straight forward without h,xste, but without 

 rest, to the goal towards which wc aim. (Loud cheers.) 

 That goal is, in the first place, to get rid of a Guvcrnment 

 which has from the first been a danger to the country, .and 

 which is now tearing down the destructive path with ever- 

 increasing velocity. When that is accomplished it will be our 

 duty to face the new problems which the new conditions and a 

 new age have brought, by new but by Conservative methods. 

 No Government ol which I am a mendjer will ever l)e purely a 

 ( Jovcrnment of reaction. Jt is quite po-sible, I think it even 

 probable, that, without regard to our merits or demeiits, we 

 might be reUirned to ofiice when the present Government h.ave 

 had a little more rope. (Laughter and cheers.) Under such 

 tiicumstances there might be a temptation to form a 

 (lovernmcnt purely of resistance, but what would be the 

 result ? It weuld be merely to build a dam against which 

 the waters would be pile I up in eve. -increasing volume Sooner 

 or later the dam would burst, and" the floods would break forth 

 with a destructive violence which would spread devastation and 

 ruin over the land. Hurke once said, " .\ disposition to 

 preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be 

 my standard of a statesman." If our countrymen ever entrust 

 us with power it is in that spirit that we shall undertake tin- 

 trust. 



AUAI.NST WF.Lsn DISENDOWMICNT. 

 Tarliament is now asked to intervene to cause the weakening 

 of a great Church by depriving it of its endowments, and in an 

 age of materialism, when, ii^ anyone chooses to go to Hyile 

 V.vxV, for instance, he will find many or.itors, but will find 

 always that the orator with the largest audience is he that 

 preaches the doctrine that there is no CJod. 1 cannot under- 

 stand how anvone can willingly impair, if not destroy, the use- 

 fulness of a Church which is .admittedly iloing a great work and 

 doing it with ever-increasing eflectivcness, a work which is 

 indeed in the interests of Christianity, but is also in the interests 

 of humanity. 



AGAINST IKISII NATIONALIST DOMINATION. 

 If Nationalist members judged British questions and voted on 

 British questions on their merits, they would be just as much 

 entitled .as any other members of the House to make iheir 

 influence felt. They do nothing of the kind, anil they pretend 

 to do nothing of the kind. 1 myself heard the Leader of the 



