The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1898-07-03

entered parliament at the age Of s. ass lie
vas that Of business man, and TO this
day hs thoughts and habits and instinct
I've way Of looking at things are founded
on The business spirit. Somebody once said
% Gladstone that he was Oxford above
and Liverpool below. Chamberlain Is LiF-
erpool ali through His education as
boy was strictly commercial: and ne
missed something By nor going TO either
Of the tw0 great English universities,
where his narroWress might have been
rubbed of and a certain degree OF toser-
ance forced into him. From The school
room n. went 20 the counting Office, and
there he remained for twenty years. build
ing I'D a large fortune By means that were
neither above nor below the morality OF
ordinary business men. Under these cir
carnstances the breadth OF View and
Imagination that is essential to the best
orato-y is very hard 70 obtain. and Mr..
Chamberlain did not obtain IL. His
speeches. Iirst and last, are those OF a
business man who knows what he Is talk
ing about and has 4 cons-mmate GIT Tor
lucid and concise expression AT times ne
can be frigidly. brutally sarcastic. but II
is not the sarcasm OF a polished cultured
nature The house likes 10 hear him be-
cause he mas always something TO say
worth hearing. ana never talks over the
heads Of his audience. Meu who We're
frightened by Giadstones earnesiness ana
involved sentences found II q relief 10 come
down 10 Chamberlain's pain, strd!gatior-
ward way Of putting things. Ills voice Is
as clear as bel. but cold and hard and
precise Every word. every syllable. is
heard and heard distinctly. but they leave
the listener unmoved. The gestures are
few, and neither natural nor dramatic;
they remind one ather OF the chronic
spasms OF a railroad signal His great
merit as debater is that he IL always
ready with an argument and always able
TO drive il home With point and directness.
Imagine q very clever president of a COM
mercial company. setting forth the results
OF the years business al an annual meet
ing and doing battle from time to time
with an inquisitive or disappointed share
holder and you get very fair idea OF
Cha mberlaiG's manner and method OF adj
dressing the house. No interruption can
furry him; no disorder drag him from his
point. He IS always. as he once remarked
in the house of commons. as cool as
cucumber To see Chamberlain with his
back 10 the wall in the pariiaments of five
or six years ago, hated by his old allies,
distrusted by his new ones, cutting and
slashing at the Gladstonians in the coolest
and most confident manner. knowing that
when he< sat down he would be over
whelmed with a storm Of abuse and con-
tempt. and what was far worse. quota
tons from his former speeches. was TO see
one of the finest parliamentary perform
ances OF the past half-century. The SUI
preme courage Of the man was patent and
admirable.
Chamberlain Limitations.
II should be added that there breaks out
in Mr.. Chamberlain from time to time a
vein that is not lovely to look upon HIS
cleverness and adaptabsl,ty keep him from
many mistakes that his instincts would
be likely 20 lead him into; but there are
situations that cannot he saved by mere
cleverness. situations which strip the na
ural man of his veneer and set him before
the world as he really is. On such occa-
sions Mr.. Chamberlain does not cut an
advantageous figure. 1t was not:cea be.
for instance. that Mr.. Chamberlain pro-
nounced 10 funeral Grafton over Mr.. Glad
stone Mr.. Baifour spoke and Sir William
Vernon Harcourt spoke, but the man who
was for ten years Mr.. Gladstones most
prominent colleague, and for another ten
years one of his foremost opponents. said
nothing. The fact Is Mr.. Chamberlain
simply cannot deliver a funeral grafton;
he has not the right instincts. He tried
to. once, when John Bright died. and he
made Il pitiahle mess of il. lie told the
house that Birmingham had never allowed
John Bright 10 pay his election expenses
ness of man who could drag In such a
reference on such an occasion. Mr. Cham
herlain has other qualities besides Il dull
ness OF artistic sense, which provoke hon
orable members against him. The house
finds him a little too humptious II was
remarked that when he became colonial
secretary he began TO speak about the
British empire as though he had created
II himself. Something of this arrogance
appears when things are going his way in
n debate. He has not the art Of taking
victory naodestly. A triumph Is no tri-
umph to him unless he can round it off
with the tomahawk and scalping knife:
and 1t has happened again and again that
his ferOcious and truculenr cleverness has
driven supporters away. Men walk into
the opposite lobby to vote agains. him
just for the pleasure of ''dishing Chamber
lain" 1t IS sad that in his younger days
M. Chamberlain once asked an old par
tamentary hand how best he might i'm
prove his position in the house Well
Mr., Chamberlain" said the veteran men,
Der IF | were you | should try 20 make i
failure now and then" He is A r::le. 90
'cocksure," and the house takes 50 un-
kindly to cocksureness az Il does 20 gen.
ius. But these defects are *. .iv explain
cd when Il Is remembered tina, Mr. Cham
ber.a'n is a man who has had 10 hcw out
his own success. With "A strong Self-as-
seriiYe character emphasi sized by his life IN
"A hard and narrow provincial town.
Most American Man in England.