The Washington times., 1901-09-01
SOME BRITISH STATESMEN
Habits Of the Men Who Compose
England's Parliament.
Anecdotes of the Leaders OF the OPP
position In the House of Commons.
Campbell Zimmerman n Great wit,
While A=auith Is<p Great Golfer.

4
| position In the House of Commons.
While A=snith Is<p Great Golfer.
| Sir Henry Campbell -Bannerman is a
most delightful man when you meet him
| In conversation, but you must first catch
| him. At the House of Commons Capt John
| Sinclair. NJ. p, estwhile private secrs-
| tary to the Liberal leader and now OFF,
| cfally known as the Scotch whip, alone
| stands between the eager lobbyist and C..
B.: but Captain Sinclair counts for great
| deal.
| When Secretary OF State for War Sir
| Henry was stockaded by successive Sec
| retaries. He was himself his own cita-
del, but the difficulty was to pentrate the
| succession of ravelips and parallels which
| separated the man at the door knocker
| from the object of his quest. One secre-
tary consulted his senior in rank, and by
| the time the enquirer had reached the
| first secretary the great Minister had left
| the building by another door before he
| could be consulted upon the main and
vital question-would he receive his caller
| or not? In fact, to reach C. B. in those
| days amounted almost to a surgical oper-
| alton, and corresponded nicely to the le-
| gendary method by which only can joke
| be got into Scotchman's head. Sir
| Henry is Scotchman, and both take and
| make joke. Heckled once upon a Scotch
| election platform, he wGs asked II he
| did not think s25, coo too much to pay Sir
| Garnet Wolseley for sitting on a horse
| and looking through a spyglass at the
| battle of Tel-el-Kebir. AT any rate"
replied the candidate, "Sir Garnet used
his spyglass to good purpose, for he won
the battle. And it was a glorious VIC
tory"
When Sir Henry was made chief secre-
tary some said it was Mr.. Gladstone's in
tention to govern Ireland with Scoth
jokes" At best this is a tribute to C.
BIS .'pawky wut" but very soon other
work was found for the new chief secre-
tary to do.
Sir Henry enjoys great wealth. which
he uses intelligently. He likes to own
castles, and to live in them: and he dis
tils a pleasant comfort for his depend
ents, his tenantry his laborers. and all
that is theirs. His personal tastes favor
riding, shooting, golf, the immortal game
of curling" and a residence in Dover
during the Easter and Whitsuntide hoii-
days.
Two jests may stand forever to the
fame of Sir William Harcoart as a hui
morist. Mr.. Gladstone one day was ener-
geticaIly insisting upon the necessity of
appointing only the best men as knights.
when Sir William put in with the ques-
ton, why don't you begin the improve
ment by knighting yourself. sir? After
being defeated in the fifties on his candi-
dalure for Kirkcaldy, Mr.. Harcourt. as
he then was, received a consolation gift
of plate from his sympathetic friends.
which caused him to remark that he was
the first Englishman who had ever
brought bullion out of Scotland.
Sir Henry Fowler lives in chronic dread
of fresh air. His dread of fresh air is
not, however, to be confounded with the
aversion of some nations to cold water
He loves it for itself, but fees from it
when it narrows its energies into a
draught. Sir Henry is constitutionally. or
should l say morally, or would it not be
better to say he is really afraid of catch
ing cold? The result, any way, Is that
this brilliant speaker and delightful rhet-
orician practically lives in dodging chiils.
He usually sits in an open air carriage
with his back to the ho-res tails, and
takes kindly in the balmiest of the sea-
sons to those overcoats and wraps which
Mrs Gladstone found it difficult to SUBJ
init her iIlustrious husband to. Even in
the sixties of his life Sir Henry Fowler
is the first to don an overcoat and the
last to leave one off. But he derives at
least the compensation of being able to
trace his affiiction to quarter open to
few only. He attributes most of mis- Ills.
as he says, Ito that cold l caught at
Marlborough House"
Recently a well-known member of the
House of Commons was thrown from his
ir,I Ir-Ia Do rlr htrt = ba nd
incident OF the fail TO the victims mind,
as he sat dazed on the ground, was that
it occurred in Rotten Row. Thus, the
theatre of the disaster may ennoble the
most humiliating mishap For to be
thrown in Rotten ow surely unites
commonplace indignity with a social right
not common to all mankind.
But let us back to Sir William Harcourt-
AS Squire of Malwood, he is the greatest
pers"nality in the New Forest. Itere he
cultivates roses as MIR. Chamberlain cul-
tivates orchids. Seen --on the loose
dressed in leggings. short jacket, and
seedy bowler hat-he might be Farmer
Wurzel himself. In the winter, before his
family grew to mans estate, he would
hold charades in the hall. I'LL himself the
big chair of the squire, and rule the rev.
els. But whilst he truculently eschewed
politics on these occasions, he had no OBJ
lection to pose as speaker at mir. Caus-
toms postprandial trials for privilege
arising out of some point during dinner.
The third Liberal Whip is very fond of
linking an entertainment Of this kind to
his political dinner parties. As utility
speaker ''Historicus is just splendid
Sir Walter Foster may be directly men
toned as the author of the epigrem, Il
should like Harcourt more if he liked Joe
less" But the social relations between
the two front benches are of the warmest.
Sir William Earcourt and Mr.. Chamber
lain have. in spite Of all temptation to
fight, maintained private intimacy. In
this intimacy Mr. John Morley has place
which has been extended even to fore
gathering of the two Liberal leaders under
the roof-tree of the chancellor of the eX-
cheduer himself. Magnificent hatreds are.
of course figures of Parliamentary his
tory. If permitted to do So | would quote
those of MIR. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli.
But Sir William Harcourt, Mr.. Morley.
and Mr.. Chamberlain would rather dine
win each other than with their col
leagues. cpce heard the chancellor of
the exchequer privately congratulate Sir
William Hareourt upon the speech IN
which he himself had been the victim OF
a veritable triumph of banter.> Perhaps
we are less noble in our wrath. f3rnaps
We live too rapidly. Perhaps memory iS-
shorter.
Mr. Asquith golfs. but not very sue
cessfully His heart is not in the game.
The member for East Fife is a lawyer
with his heart inundated in his cham
bers and his briefs. AT dinner table
he takes doSraatic line in conversation
and is positivist. At Oxford he was the
Plancus of his university. and his pres;-
dency of the union is still remembered as
a model of debating rectitude, skill, and
artistic phrasing. But Mr.. Asquith lacks
that mellOwnesS which We md IN Sir
William Harcourt and iri Sir Henry
Campbell Bannerman. In his youth MIR.
John Morley attended the dances which
thirty-five years ago made Wills Rooms
the social Mecca OF the believers In some
thing or another. JohE Morley. the
friend of the Republican Mayor of Bir-
mingham (Mr. Chamberiain) and the Re