New-York tribune., 1900-12-30
LIBRARY on EXHIBITION IN THE CITY HALL

his son. Mr.. Austen Chamberlain who had been
accused Of holding shares in the following con-
Germs for the manufacture Of war materials:
Tubes, Limited, Haskins & Co, the Birmingham
Trust Company and the Colombo Commercial
Company. Mr.. Lloyd George is an able lawyer,
and presented the case against the Chamber
lains with great force. He made the most of all
the evidence which has been produced by Mr..
Labouchere and other Radical newspaper own
ers, and placed Mr.. Chamberlain fairly on his
defence. The Secretary of State for the Colonies
not implicated much by his own business
investments by those of his relatives, and this
made his own defence more difficult for. like
Lord Salisbury, he is devoted to members Of
his own household, and stands by them, come
what may.
Mr. ChamberIain's speech was delivered in
excellent temper and created a favorable i'm
preston, at least on his own side Of the Com
mons where the Tories listened coldly at the
outset and ended by cheering him with the
greatest warmth. He made it plain that he
was guiltless Of everything except carelessness
IN keeping the run Of his business affairs, and
this was perhaps excusable in a Minister over
whelmed with affairs Of State. He dismissed
with contempt the charge that Boer prisoners
were sent to Ceylon because he had taken
small interest twenty-five years ago in a tea or
coffee company; he proved that his share in
amounted to f6O which was a successful re
ductio ad absurdum of a sweeping accusation
against him; and the other things, in which his
son and other relatives were concerned were
cleverly minimized. Once only did this cold,
proud spirited statesman show signs Of sup
pressed emotion 1t when he referred with
true middle class pride to his own family
one that had not inherited either wealth dis
tinction, and could put forward claims to
lofty descent; but had borne for two centuries
an untarnished record for commercial integrity
and common honesty. Mr. Chamberlain in that
passage spoke in a low tone. but thrilled the
House. Always confronted by the ghost of his
former self in a House where he was the first
Radical in Office, and is now cheek by jowl with
Tory Ministers, he is forced to remain on his
guard against charges of political inconsistency
and reproaches for having boxed the compass in
his public life; but there moments when he
rises to his full height and makes it clear that
the leader Of the Tory Democracy is the old time
lion Of Birmingham Radicalsm.
The elder Pitt, when harassed by the titled
figures Of the Cabinet, used to exclain with
naughty pride: 1T is the people who have sent
me here!" He knew that his title of the Great
Commoner was more potent than their heredi-
tary legends. for he represented the middle
class, which had made England what it was
Mr.. Chamberlain has sprung from the same
mercantile class, and is not ashamed of his orr
gin; and he knows that when he speaks in the
Commons he has behind him the largest con-
stituency which any English statesman ever
represented. If the elder Pitt was the Great
Commoner, Mr.. Chamberlain is the Great I'm
perialist; and his constituency extends from Bir-
mingham beyond the seas, and it is bound to-
gether by mercantile interests Of worldwide i'm
portance and by loyalty to the Empire. Not
long ago he announced in one of the old London
Guild Halls that his father, his grandfather
and his great-grandfather had been industrious
merchants. Now he takes the House of Com
mons into his confidence and tells it that the
Chamberlains have always been honest and have
taken pride in their good name. The great Eng
lish trading and mercantile communities
throughout the Empire in touch with their
middle class champion and Imperialist leader.