New-York tribune., 1903-04-12

llustrious bard's poems has excited the adm1ra-
ton of men who have devoted more years OF
study to the works of Shakespeare than George
Wyndham has spent in the world altogether,
He started life as a soldier, and as an officer
of the Coldstream Guards took part III 'he
Suakim campaign against the Dervishes. recelv-
ing both the English medal ana the hheuiEa
star for his services He left the army 10 pe-
come private secretary to his close friend, Ar
thur Balfour when the latter was in charge OF
the Irish Department, and attracted public at
tention by the controversial letters Whlch ne
published in the London daily papers in defence
of his chief and of the latter's policy. The mas
terry of fact which they showed was so great,
and the hitting so hard and so neatly placed
chat the public at first imagined that they came
rom the pen of Mr. Balfour himself Nor was
+ until the Tory leaders nominated him as the
Conservative candidate for Dover, and he en-
tered the House of Commons as member for that
constituency that the public realized that he
was fully capable Of having written the letters
in question He soon made a mark for him
self at Westminster. and ere long was appointed
to the financial secretaryship of the War De
Dartment.
The period which the Conservatives were out
of office-namely from 1892 to 1S95-he devoted
to travel in South Africa, and, after thoroughly
mastering the problems connected with that
portion of the world, attached himself to the
fortunes of Cecil Rhodes. acting as the semi
official representative Of the latter in the House
of Commons and likewise championing his
cause on the South African Parliamentary Com
rnittee, appointed to investigate the Jameson
raid and the affairs OF his chartered company
It was while thus representing Cecil Rhodes
that he founded THE Outlook. one of the
brightest of the London weekly papers. which,
during the lifetime Of Cecil Rhodes. was popu-
larly supposed to be maintained at his e1-
pense while its policy, at any rate at first, was
directed and controlled by George Wyndham
On Lord Curzon's being promoted to the VICE
royalty of India, and st. John Brodrick being
selected to take his place as assistant TO Loro
Salisbury at the Foreign Office, Mr. Wyndham
was appointed to the Under Secretarysh1p OF
State for War; and during the earlier stages
of the Boer War performed in a wonderfully
clever manner the difficult and ungrateful task
of explaining to terribly disappointed people
how it had happened that an army on which
they had for years been spending almost as
much money as is devoted annually by Ger
many to military expenses should have met
with the most humiitating reverses on the first
occasion that 1t was called upon to encounter
white men instead Of Asiatics and Africans.
Not only did he succeed in doing this to such
an extent that popular confidence was restored
in the defeated troops and outmaneuvred gen
erals but he likewise, by his eloquence. called
forth burst of patriotism sufficiently strong to
silence to a great extent party differences, and
to lead men Of rival political factions to re-
solve to support the government in its efforts
to carry the war to a successful issue On the
next ministerial reorganization Lord Salisbury
assigned the post of Irish Secretary to George
Wyndham, and well did he fulfil popular
expectations in connection with his manage
tnent of this most difficult and arduous post
Of the entire administration that, when Arthur
Balfour became Premier. George Wyndham was