The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-05-02

EoAAll AlAAnuEL a Lat lEABA lC AAEAAEA NN find table; and started to write either letter. or the dispatch to the queen in which he nightly recounted the events of the parliamentary sitting. On this oc- casion there was no doubt of his being asleep. Members paused for moment as they passed. It was dark hour in the fortunes of the Liberal leader, for his government was breaking up, and he himself was within few weeks Of his everlasting farewell to public life. His followers were touched as they saw in the strangely pallid face. in the drawn lines and in the slumber of utter fatigue the signs of coming disaster and final fall.
 MT. Balfour is not an early riser. Until he took seriously to golf he was a man who took very little exercise, and who seemed as if his chief desire in life was to take it easily. I remember hearing from poor Bret Harte most amusing description of a day he had spent with MT. Balfour at the country house of Lord Cowper. It was in sum mer, and the day was beautiful and sunny. Other guests employed them selves in different ways, but MT. Bal four steadily stuck to one simple meth cd of passing the time and enjoying the air. He lay down on the broad of his back, never stirred even when people came to speak to him, and Bret Harte took keen delight in giving picture of this strange method of carrying on conversation-the company standing up and talking-each in turn, and MT. Bal four calmly lying down and liteninS and replying, but never moving from the position he had chosen, and gazing in the intervals of conversation in silent enjoyment of philosophic reverie on the cloudless blue sky But, on the other hand, Mr. Balfour does not take those snatches of rest which were so useful to MT. Gladstone. He rarely sleeps or dozes in the house of commons unless there has been an all-night sitting the night before; and curiously enough, un- like many members of the house, he is always very bright and very quick. and absolutely master of his highest re- sources after dinner. Never once have I seen that keen mind of his show any of the slowness which overcomes even ready and brilliant men when they are in the throes of digesting a hearty meal. Though he is a slight man and apparently a delicate one, MT. Balfour eeems to have wonderful staying pow tr, and perhaps this is partly because he takes things a little easier, and spares his strength in the mornings so as to be fresh for his work from after noon to midnight.
 READS IN BED.
 MT. Chamberlain is also late riser. He reads his newspapers and some of- ficial documents, I believe, before he thinks of leaving his bed. But when he does start work, there are few men like him. In the colonial office they speak of never having had chief like him for work. He is also thoroughly business-like and orderly. He can put his hand on every one of his papers; every thing in his room is in apple-pie order. Moreover, he works even when he is away from his room in Parliament street. It is remarked by those who are familiar with the house of commons that, in spite of his extraordinary
 
 the ministers who spends least time Tn the house. He is in his seat at ques- ton time, of course-that he is bound to be; but the moment he has answered the questions on the paper-which he always does as briefly as possible, and in the acid, cold voice that is so char acteristic-he slides out, and is never seen again unless he has to speak or when he is called in to give his vote in a division. But he is not idle. All this time he is in his room with papers from the colonial office before him; and, with a long, black cigar in his mouth, he losses off paper after paper, and so keeps we'll abreast of his work, and as acquainted with all the multiforn1 and multitudinous problems which arise ill a world wide empire. Mir. Chamberlain seldom sleeps in the house, though at one period of the war, when doubtless he was overworked and perhaps some what worried. he used occasionally to drop off at five o'clock-which is the great hour for the parliamentarian's si- esta-and it was remarked at that epoch that his face used to look very pallid and very drawn. This afternoon siesta has ended with the end of the war.
 Great lawyers are notoriously early risers-at least in the years when they are making their positions, Lord Sel- borne, I have heard, used to take only four hours sleep during those years when he was in full practice. Lord Cairns also had to do with similarly small allowance of sleep, and possibly that was one of the reasons why after his rise to the lord chancellorship he was always pursued by i'll health, and looked a pallid skeleton as he sat on the Woolsack. He died at an age which we consider early, and so paid the pen altyO On the other hand, the present lord chancellor gets the credit of having gained all his success in life without ef- fort; he was counted one of the laziest men at the bar in his professional years. On the other hand the lord was never in bed after six o'clock when he was at the bar, which was possibly one of the reasons why he had such an unequaled command of all the facts and figures in his cases. There is a story of young barrister being given an appointment by his great leader to discuss a case in which they were both employed. So Sir Richard Webster, as la then WAS lived the consl1lta finn for