The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-10-01
Only His Wife Was With Sir
William HarcOurt
When the Political Gladiator
Passed Away.
HAD A SLIGHT CHILL
But Seemed Fairly Wcll Wher
He Retired.
News of His Death Causes q
Sensation in England.

London, October 1.-The death of Sir
William Vernon Harcourt, 1.-The finest
political gladiator of his age which
occurred very suddenly at Nuneham
park, near Oxford, the country seat
which he recently inherited from his
nephew, was attended only by his wife,
a daugter Of the late John Lothrop
Motley, the historian and former
American minister to Great Britain.
When Sir William went to bed last
night he seemed fairly well, though he
had been suffering from slight chill.
This morning when he was called he
replied cheerily: I'm short time" La
ter a servant entered the room and
found Sir William lying dead on his
bed. His son, Lewis Vernon Harcourt,
member of parliament for the Rossen-
dale division of Lancashire, was has
tily summoned from London.
Among all classes in the United King
dom regardless of party, the unexpected
news caused a sensation and genuine
regret. The somewhat pathetic an
nouncement in March last of his in
tended retirement had prepared the
public for Sir Williams eventual dis
appearance from the active arena of po-
litical strife, but there mad been no
whisper that his stalwart constitution
had been radically impaired by nearly
40 years of fierce parliamentary strife.
The evening edition of the Standard,
one of the deceaseds opponents, aptly
and generously says:
with the late Liberal leader there
has passed away one of the last of
those Titanic figures bound up with the
most brilliant traditions of the house of
commons. There are but few left of
those eminent statesmen who received
their political training at the hands of
Gladstone and Disraeli. The coincidence
of his death with the intended with
drawa1 of the distinguished statesman
int after a,
of hard work and political activity
gives added patnos to the event.
In similar vein the Pail Mall Ga
zette, out and out conservative in its
views, pays a tribute to one of the
most striking figures of the political
arena" while the Liberal afternoon
newspapers deplore the loss sustained
by their party, for in or out OF the
house of commons the deceased states
man would always have been power.
By the death of the father of the
front opposition BENCH the Liberals
lose says the Star, AN intrepid sue
cessfuI 'financier, the constant cham
pion of progressive causes and the stall
wart leader of many forlorn hopes"
Another conservative afternoon paper
says:
s'Sir William Vernon sHarcourt served
his generation and served it well. He
was bound to political fr1ends with
bonds of friendship which for his part
rarely if. ever were broken and ne
leaves a memory which will be honored
in the house of commons for many
years to come.
An underlying note in the column OF
obituary that appears is keen regret at
the disappearance of such strenuous
type as Harcourt from the ranks of
both parties. This "swashbuckler," as
his opponents used to call him IN ms
life time, was upheld even in the midst
of the recent political strife over free
trade as the type Of man who knew his
own mind and was not afraid to light
for it. His sledge hammer arguments.
his lengthy letters to the London Times
under the pen name of ''HiStOricuS'
one of his letters occupied eight col
umns-and his whole demeanor, whlch
he was proud to say himself, was that
of the eighteenth rather than or the
nineteenth century all combined to
make him not only a forceful but a PIC
tureSque figure. -
now Ssisn lose pt Something m of Of | its sting. But
those intimate with the inner feelings OF
the members of the house OF commons
where the huge figure of Sir William had
long grown to be familiar sight, VIII
be uncommonly hard to fill. Not since
Lord Salisbury died, and scarcely thea.
has the death of any statesman created
ters te 81 of both parties. The National Lib
eral club Immediately half-masted its flag
and sent message of sym sympathy pd,1 to Lady a,1.
1t was stated only few weeks ago that
King Edward had urged Harcourt once
peeraee. to accept some mark of distinc-
ton upon the close of his active career
In his last speech, delivered at the Ma
tiona1 Liberal club, July IS, Sir William
said somewhat pathetically:
1T is not because am weary of the
fight or am lukewarm in the cause that ]
intend to retire. 1t is because 1 do not
think it for the public advantage that
people should attempt to fulfill duties
that they are unable to perform
Yesterday evening during the last ses-
sion of parliament subsequent to an
M longer
perform his duties, Harcourt attacked Jo-
seph ChamberIain's finance proposals in a
lengthy speech, delivered in that homeric,
slashing style familiar for many a
year to all those connected with British