The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-02-08
m the Chicago Times-Herald.

From the Chicago Times-Herald.
For the moment the most conspicu-
Gus man in British political life-always
excepting Lord Salisbury. the respon-
sible minister of sovereign who reigns
but does not GOVERNS Joseph Cham
beriain. 1t is not the premier but the
secretary of state for the colonies who
is handling the Transvaal squabbie and
the Venezuelan imbroglio. Both of
these affairs are as yet within the pur-
view of the colonial office, as incidents
of colonial administration. The inter-
vention of the United States and of the
German emperor have brought Lord
Salisbury into nominal relation to
both controversies; but the actual work
of negotiation and settlement is left,
under the well-established schedule of
division Of labor In the British cabinet.
to the resourceful. aspiring. combative
and not too punctllious statesman who
leads the Liberal Unionist party in the
house of commons.
During the last eight or nine years
Mr.. Chamberlain has been the subject
of as much hostile criticism as any
other public man In Great Britain.
After the defeat of the Gladstone min
istry IN 1856 and the rejection of the
home rule bill by the so-cailed union
ist" coalition, he was singled out by the
Irish Nationalists as chiefly to blame
for the failure of their plans. At that
time, and for several years after-even
down to lsS2-there was no adjective of
abuse tCo violent to be hurled at him
from the Irish benches in parliament,
and the active animosity of his oppo-
nents inside the house helped to spread
outside of il and outside of England the
belief that he was monster of political
faithlessness and ingratitude compared
with whom Benedict Arnold was par
agon of honor. His enemies dubbed
him Judas" and prophesied his speedy
political extinction.
The epithet has stuck; but the pre-
diction has not been fulfilled. Mr..
Chamberlain is today one of the two
commoners in the big four" who form
a cabinet within the cabinet of the
strongest government which Great
Britain has known since the first ad-
ministration of Disraell.
Freely Carricatured in London.
The London cartoonists are fond of
caricaturing him In the familiar atti-
tudes of that celebrated Jew. Those
who would criticise him without going
to the length of the Judas" gibe style
him Dizzy the Second" There Is
much in its methods to suggest those
of Disraeli. If Salisbury is the embodi-
ment Of English pluck, Chamberlain is
the embodiment of English chicane.
There is strain of Machiavelli in the
blood Of the colonial secretary which
Is never left out of the calculations by
those who in any given set of circum-
stances would estimate the value of an
action or the probable direction of a
movement done or projected under his
authority or inspiration. Where Sails
bury plays the lions role Chamberlain
plays the foX's. The element Of craft
is strongly pronounced in both animals,
but IL is not difficult to recognize dis
tinction and difference. Chamberlain
will fight. He will fight as fiercely as
Salisbury; but he prefers, If possible,
to get his foe into ambush before the
struggle begins. He has all of Disrae-
lis outward aspect of frankness, but
even his warmest admirers-and he
has admirers-do not affect to regard
his displays of candor as genuine.
Chamberlain is now in his sixtieth
year. When the writer last saw him
In the summer of 1S93-he did not look
a day over forty; certainly not thirty
two years the senior of the fair AmeIi-
can wife who was assisting him to
welcome to Highbury. his elegant
home in Birmingham, some of the most
distinguished men and women of Eng
land. representatives of both political
parties and of all shades of religious
belief. Time has dealt very gently
with the birmingham dictator" the
"Brummagem statesman" the second
Disraeli'' and the British political Ju-
das." His jocund air of aggressive
boyishness has done as much as his
imperturbability to exasperate his op-
ponents. A singularly able politician
who will neither get mad nor old, Mr.,
Chamberlain has in his physical ana
temperamental equipment qualifica-
tions for the special demands of public
life in England such as are possessed
by no other Englishman, perhaps, Of
his day.