34 



Character Sketch. 



SIR EDWARD GREY. 



"Conceive a schoolniasler addressing a posthumous sermon to an audience composed of children into whom he has just been 

 c.ining the rudiments of arithmetic or geography, cind you will have before you a fair picture of the House of Commons listening 

 to Sir Edward Grey during a debate on foreign affairs." 



THIS description, by the Lobby correspondent of 

 the Westiiiirister Gazette^ is hardly an exaggera- 

 tion of the ascendency of Sir Edward Grey 

 'ii tlie present House of Commons. Whether it is 

 ileserved or not, this commanding position has been 

 won by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. It 

 may be that he owes it as much to the ignorance and 

 incompetence of his audience as to his own merits. 

 That is open to discussion. The essential and indis- 

 |nital)le fact is that in the House of Commons he is 

 Sir Oracle, and when he speaks no dog dares to 

 liark. 



THE LORD OF ALL HE SURVEYS. 



No one probably regarded with more philosophic 

 iiidifiference than himself the recent outcry against 

 htm by the malcontents of his own party Sir 

 lulward Grey is quite willing to go or to stay. Only 

 ii' lie stays it must be on his own terms. Those 

 terms are to-day, as they have been from the first, 

 that Sir Edward Grey in all foreign affairs is to be 

 allowed to have his own way. He and his satellites in 

 I )owning Street and his agents or masters at the 

 British embassies abroad, are " lords over us." Sir 

 Henry Campbell-Bannerman did not dare to interfere 

 with Sir Edward Grey, even when the latter was 

 opposing the policy he had publicly promised to 

 promote. Mr. Asquith is probably as subservient as 

 was C.-B. 



LIKE THE GREY MONU.MENT IN NEWCASTLE. 



In the heart of Newcastle-on-Tyne, at the head of 

 (iicy Street, there stands a grey column lifting high 

 into the grey northern sky the statue of Earl Grey, 

 -the hero of the Reform Bill of 1832. The Grey 

 monument, like Nelson's in Trafalgar Square, towers 

 so high that the passers-by can with difficulty discern 

 the sculptured features of the statesman on the 

 summit. 



As it is with the Grey monument on Tyneside, so 

 is it with Sir Edward Grey to-day. Alone, unap- 

 proachable, and unapproached, he towers aloft in the 

 midst of his fellows, but so far removed from them 

 they hardly know what manner of man he may be 

 whose utterances last month were watched for with 

 an.\ious silence by all the Governments of Europe and 

 ill the peoples of the world. 



" C.RKY, ONLY GREY." 



" What kind of a fellow is this Grey anyhow ? " 

 mipaticntly asks a free-spoken stranger. " Has he got 

 any blood in his veins, anything of the real old stingo, 

 ir is he as Grey by nature as in name ? " 



To which the reply is that the Right Hon. the 



Secretary for Foreign Affairs is as grey in nature af 

 his native county, grey and cold and aloof, reserved, 

 almost shy, but a Northumbrian at heart, which, 

 being interpreted, means that he is a staunch friend, 

 loyal and true-hearted, more anxious to do than to 

 make much show in the doing of things. 



The story goes that Sir George Otto Trevelyan 

 once replied to someone who asked him what 

 manner of man Sir Edward is : "Some think he is 

 as black as the devil ; others believe him to be as 

 white as an angel. In fact he is neither. He is just 

 Grey." 



He is grey in that he eschews purple patches in his 

 oratory, grey in the absence of lurid colours in his 

 despatches, grey in the impression he produces upon 

 the mind. A neutral balanced, judicially minded 

 man, without prejudices, without passions, without 



" Humanity, in short," bursts in an impatient 



Radical. " He is a man without the failings of 

 humanity, and therefore out of touch with the human 

 race." 



Witiiout accepting thi* verdict, there is no doubt 

 that Sir Edward Grey is out of touch with everybody 

 excepting those who from their physical propinquity 

 cannot be avoided. To begin with, he is the most 

 insular of men. No man has more carefully avoided 

 losing contact with the foreigner in foreign lands. 

 It has been said that he never set foot on the Con 

 tinent save once, when he paid a brief visit to Paris, \ 

 but this is probably an exaggeration. But he i.s 

 emphatically a stay-at-home politician. That possibly 

 was why he was made Foreign Secretary. This would 

 not matter so much if he were careful to surround 

 himself with the foreigners who are always to be 

 found within our gates, or even to cultivate the 

 acquaintance ot competent Englishmen who have 

 spent much time abroad. But he does neither of 

 these things. He is of a reserved and of a retiring 

 dis[)Osition — who does not easily make new acquaint- 

 ances. In the House Sir Edward Grey is a compara-- 

 tive stranger. He appears at question time — not 

 always — but after that the House sees little of 

 him. He keeps himself to himself, minds his own 

 business, and lets you understand that he will br 

 much obliged to you if you will mind yours and leave 

 him alone. 



A MODERN PITT? — 



Sir Edward Grey reminded a shrewd political critic. | 

 twenty years ago of the statesmen of the older school/ 

 of Pitt and Fox. He may resemble Pitt ; hq 

 certainly does not resemble Fox. He woulaj 

 perhaps be more at home at the Foreign U.iici 



