Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1900-01-18
PEN PICTURE OF CHAMBERLAIN

New York Evening Post
About 1880 Mr.. Joseph Chamberlain
was emerging from Birmingham mu-
picipal politics. making his appearance
in the larger imperial arena, caucus in
hand, and calling ON the rich to pay
ransom to the EOor. ! was naturally
curious about his personality, and |
wrote to friend in England to ask
what kind of man be was. My friend
consulted high authority who told
him, among othor things, that Cham
berhin was the first politician OF the
American type that they had had in
England, and would give great deal
of trouble.
I have been deeply impressed ever
since with the aouteness OF this OBJ
seryatiop. What this gentleman meant
by the american type" was I'M
doubtedly the kind of man who con.
siders public questions with his ear to
the ground, makes up his mind about
them with strict reference to the next
election, and changes that mind as he
would change clothes, according to the
season. 1t was evident almost from the
first year of Chamberlain's political
career that he was ION the make, )" as
We say in America-not, of course, for
money, since he did not need that, but
in respect to his personal political
fortune. He at once took uE the Irish
business, hich then seemed the most
promising nne. Home rule had not yet
made its appearance, but the Irish
under Parnell were threatening trouble.
So they, as well as the poor, became in
| Chamberlain's eyes the most wronged
| of mankind. 1t was then that he made
that famous POLAND speech" which
bothered him SO much afterwards, in
which he compared the let of the un-
happy Irish to that of the Poles,
q ound down by Russian Tyranny. He
cast in his lot thoroughly with the
Irish, as well as with the poor. 1t was
current gossip in Liberal circles at that
Iime that he wanted to be Irish Secre-
thry, and that it was the bestowal of
the place on Lord Frederic Cavendish
| which implanted in Mr.. Chamberlain
that dislike of Mr.. Gladstone which
buried brightly in him long before
Home Rule, and satisfied him that this
bad old man was not man for him to
| tic to. Mr.. Chamberlain, however,
soon showed himself to be too adroit a
| politician and too powerful debater
to be ignored, and Gladstone had to
give him something equally as
| good" This was the presidency of
| the Board of Trade. | remember read
| ing a speech of his at that period re-
specting the failure of a shipping bill
| introduced by him, which failure he
ascribed to the then wicked Lord
Salisbury. / read one later, after he
had Joined the Conservatives, in which
he ascribed ii to the doubly wicked
Mr.. Gladstone. 1 dare say there exist
some means of reoonciling the two
statements, but it is not within my
reach.
|. Every one remembers how Home
Rule carried Mr.. Chamberlain over to
the Conservatives. | was in the House
of Commons the night he made his
final speech about this atrocious at
tempt to tear to pieces his beloved
empire. His peroration, showing how
much it all cost him internally, had a
falsetto note, which, observed, ex-
cited the smiles of my neighbors in
the Speakers Gallery. But he was
now at the goal of his striving. He
was in the best society OF England,
and had no longer any dealings with
the wicked old Gladstone or the low
Irish, and when the Conservatives
should come in, he was sure of some
thing. He got the Colonial Secretary
ship. .
am recalling these events, not SC
much for the purpose of discreditine
Mr.. Chamberlain as for that of illus
trating the moral government of the
world. President Lincoln was moi
wrong in his second message in point
ing out how nations and men are sure
to atone some day for great errors oil
great crimes Since Peel's day thu
English Tories have never been con
tent with statesman OF their owl
order, taken from their own ranks. Nc
one familiar with the character ant
prejudices and history of English
gentlemen would have believed for {
moment beforehand that Jewish
literary adventurer, however clever o.
speech, living by his wits, would have
the slightest chance of a politica
. career among them. But Disraeli hat
a most successful one, and rose SO higf
in English social and political life tina
he had narrow escape from being pu
in ''orders'' and made Archbishop o
Canterbury. His antics amused them
and his cleverness saved them trouble
Nevertheless, it seemed unlikely tina
he would soon have successor. lju
he was hardly dead when his successo
, turned up. For literary adventures
, was substituted dealer in screws, I
powerful debater, with no convictions
to speak OF, and vaulting ambition
Home Rule, which turned so man.
English heads and made the most dis
F., tinguished public man they have hat
, since Pitt q favorite object of TIN
billingsgate of the upper classes, CAV,
, them chamberlain as their man of all
, work, aud Lord Salisbury, able ms h
|, is, succumbed to him, just as no sue
oumbed to Disraeli He does not seen
J to have checke6 him once in his Graz.
i; colonial policy.
Who will say now that Providence
. has not in this way, dark and mys
, ferrous though it be. avenged thu
: ! famous wrongs OF Irelands" Coul'
! there he a more grateful topic of con
: versation, oven among the chiefs AM
! ladies' bright in 1.-The Halls of Tara,
than the manner in which the grea
anti Home Rule Colonial Secretary ha'
boen ''euchred" by Dutch farme
into q bloody war, for which he wa
: not prepared, and in which the on
9 neglected estate" which he ha
3 undertaken to cultivate proved t
be a nest of ten-pound hornets? Verify
the mills of God grind slowly, but the
: grind exceeding small. e. L. G.