The Irish standard., 1895-06-15

Portraying Him.
The Political Career Of the Unprin-
cipled Demagogue Is Epi-
| dramatically Told.
Justin Mccarthy contributes an arti-
Gle to. the June Forum on Joseph Cham
4 berlain, in which he gives realistic
portrait of that unprincipled British pol
Iitician, and frbm which the following is
taken:
He entered parliament in 1876, and his
fame had gone before him. He had
been known as most successful. mun1c-
| ipal administrator in Birmingham,
where he was one Of the partners in
4 great screw-making business; and in
deed Birmingham is even still, I think,
the best managed municipality in Eng
Hand. Mr.. Chamberlain, however, was
known as something more than sue
cessful municipal administrator. He
was known as Radical of the Radicals.
He was understood to be a man ready to
20 the fartnest that could be gone with
| Radical program. The Tories detest-
ed him, and he seemed to hetest them.
They talked about him as If he were ar
dent to overturn the throne and to streW
the Thames, as some democratic orator
had said, with the wrecks Of the painted
i cham berthe debating chamber OF the
/ house of lords They talked of him as
Iif he were Birmingham Jack Cade, pre-
1 pared with his fellows to march on Lon
don and smash things generally. A
fierce and very unjustidable, not to say
nnmannerly, attack which he made on
Disraeli served only to deepen the I'M
preston. . If I remember rightly, an
Iapology was made for the attack, anu
mention it here only as one OF the rea-
Mr.. Chamberlain
4 we'll remember Mr.. Chamberlain's
first speech in the house of commons
and the feeling of surprise created alike
by the speech and by the man among
| those to whom he was a stranger. The
expectation of the Tory squires was that
'Ithey were to see a sort Of Birmingham
Orson-:.a wild man. as Disraeli said OF
| another English Radical OF that time
and that they were to hear the "barbar1c
yawp' of a demagogue Boanerges. What
did theyssee? They saw instead an ele-
gantly dressed, dapper, slender man with
lclean-shaven face, with an eye-glass
fixed dandyishly in his eye and a gor-
eeous gardenia in his buttonhole. why,
It's a ladies' DOCTOR one Tory murmur-
led. and the saying passed down the
benches. What did they hear? They
heard a clear monotone voice, a quietly
penetrating voice, exactly, indeed, the
voice for a physician popular among
women. It was voice that bade alarm
be still and asked prejudice to listen to
soothing reason. Sensible men. espe-
ciaily If they had read anything OF his
| tory or romance, ought to have known
lithat Mr., Chamberlain would thus belle
expectation.
The house soon found. out that it had
4 got to do with strong and audaclous
man. Mr.. Chamberlain continued TOT
1 d long. time to be Radical OF the Rad
.|icals He was close friend and ally
i Of Mr., John Morley-Mr Morley was not
4 then in parliament-and he allied him
i self with Sir Charles Dixie inside the
khouse. Sir Charles Dixie was then re-
garded as the type Of the most extreme
democrat--I mean, OF course, IN purely
4 constitutional politics. do not know
i that Sir Charles Dixie has changed his
opinions much since those days, although
i he has outwardly conformed himself to
monarchial institutions. But Mr.. Cham
berlain went even farther than this, as
! it seemed to most people then: He be-
Il came an ally Of Mr.. Parnell. entered
i the house of commons not very long after
s|sMr. Chamberlain's introduction there,
i and I had close opportunities Of watching
4 his political career. I was great ad-
\ mirer Of him at that time, and for
.llnng time after. He professed himself,
both In public and in private, to be in
Il strong sympathy with Mr.. ParnelIs po-
5Ilitical methods He said as much In a
ldebate in the house of commons and
4 added that he Was sorry he had not sait'
Il "a before. He declared himself In full
IEsympathy with the policy which would
\ do Justice to Ireland, although he did
j not pledge himself to the principle OF
4. home rule quite so unreservedly as did
i Sir Charles Dixie: Both men were in
/ constant counsel and cooperation with
! the leaders Of the Irish Home Rule par
4 ty: d At this time, be it observed, Irish
4 obstruction was directed against the
j Tory government, and Mr.. Chamberlain
i detested the Tories and was detested by
4 them. Many days have passed since
/. those days. IS
i The liberal government resigned II
I1385. and the Tories came back to Office
q but the general elections followed almost
4 immemd diately, and the Liberals came ~
4 again with strong majority. In the
"a ~ tNk1 Sryn