l{evicw of Be views, 119113. 



LEADING ARTICLES. 



705 



capital for the Ottoman Empire comes for its consolidation. Thus the Balkan 



to be determined on, the Von der Goltz War, so far from settling anything 



proposition is the one that will prevail, exrei:)t the subtraction of territory from 



tmless the influences working for its dis- the sovereignty of the Sultan, has raised 



ruption are stronger than those striving new questions of far greater moment. 



NOTES ON NOTABILITIES. 



MR. HERBERT SAMUEL AS AUTOMATON. 

 In the Pc7ll Mall Magazine T. P. 

 O'Connor gives a sketch of the Right 

 Hon. Herbert L. Samuel, P.C, M.P., and 

 manages to suggest a somewhat me- 

 chanical figure which, wound up to go, 

 persists in the e.xact direction intended, 

 without those devious ups and downs 

 \vhich mark the ordinary man in his 

 journey towards his goal. Of Mr. 

 Samuel's early development Mr. O'Con- 

 nor gives an amusing instance: — 



When he first made up his mind that 

 politics were going to be his career, it would 

 fje perhaps impossible even for him to tell ; 

 liut it must have been very early. Left an 

 orphan at six years of age, he was sdb- 

 jected to somewhat conflicting currents of 

 political tliought : for while his mother, like 

 her late husband, had .somewhat Conservative 

 leanings, his uncle and guardian, Samuel 

 Montagu — afterwards Lord Swaythling — was 

 a life-long and very tenacious Liberal. It 

 perhaps marked the contrast in the child.'s 

 environment that a portrait of Benjamin 

 Disraeli hung over his bed through many 

 years; and it also revealed his already well- 

 developed tendency that, when he was eight, 

 the portrait was displaced at his suggestijn, 

 tind went down to the kitchen. 



Of Mr. Samuel's career in Parliament 

 the chronicler says : — 



There is one thing which above all others 

 appeals to the House of Commons—above 

 •eloquence, above administrative ability^- 

 above personal po])ularity; and that is 

 knowledge. Let a man show that he knows 

 what he is talking al)out, thoroughly, and 

 whatever the subject, whoever the man, what- 

 ever his powers of speech, the House of Com- 

 mons listens and is influenced. And thus 

 it was that when, by a fortunate coinci- 

 dence, Mr. Samuel first entered the House 

 of Commons and when at that particular 

 moment African subjects came to demand 

 attention, his speeches, packed full of know- 

 ledge, immediatel.y commanded the attention 

 of the House, and pointed him out .at onc«, 

 speaking though he was from a back bench, 

 as one of the future rulers of the assem])ly. 



GLIMPSES OP^ THOMAS CARLYLK. 

 Percy Fitzgerald writes in reminiscent 

 mood, and pictures for us, in the Con- 

 temporary, the ever whimsical Carlyle 



in private life. The writer recalls one 

 incident showing the sage in a kindly 

 mood :^ 



All familiar with Carlyle's letters will 

 recall his vehemently expressed detesta- 

 tion of those who suggested his sitting 

 to them for his portrait. He would 

 spurn the idea with his most contemp- 

 tuous expressions. Not many weeks be- 

 fore his death I had begun to entertain 

 myself by modelling — -or striving to 

 model —his noble head, partly from re- 

 collection, partly from a photograph 

 It occurred to me : " What if I ask him 

 to let me bring with me my apparatus, 

 clay, etc., and try to do my best with 

 him in this direction?" To my literal 

 amazement, his niece, Mary Carlyle 

 Aitken — then in careful charge of him — 

 wrote to me saying that her uncle would 

 be pleased to sit ! How gracious this 

 was of him, and how good-natured ! I 

 can call up the whole scene of that not- 

 able day : the quaint old house for 

 background, the panelled walls, the cab 

 laden with clay, my trusty man carrying 

 uo the sacred head in its moist wrap- 

 pings ; I following the whole, rather 

 tremulous, as the procession entered the 

 solemn chamber. Here was the grim 

 sage, waiting — solemn and expectant — ■ 

 the excelleni niece standing watchful. 

 He greeted me in kindly fashion. Alas ! 

 that day must be at least thirty years 

 ago. I see him now, wrapped in his 

 Scotch plaid by the fire, and clearly in 

 some sort of anticipation. 



At first he disposed himself with a 

 sort of alacrity. 



" Noo, of course, I may talk freely?" 

 "Well." I said doubtfully. "I 



really " 



"Oh, T may talk —and smoke too." 

 His niece, who seemed to supervise, 

 supported my hesitation, but I inter- 

 posed, and so' set to work. I forget now 

 the manv things he touched upon — 



