The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-09-25
A CHARACTER SKETCH
OF A BRITISH LORD
4 Well Drawn Pen Picture
Of Lord Rosebery By MIR.
TIP. O'Connor in a Sunday
Letter to the Chicago Trib-
une---Of All His Gifts Per-
haps His Oratory is the
Most Remarkable---Is Eng
lands Greatest Speaker.

Lord Rosebery is one of the men
born with a kink. Endowed with many
great gifts, with high position, with
vast wealth, with much personal
charm, and praised, helped, even en-
Enthusiastically acclaimed by hosts Of
friends and supporters, he has missed
his mark, and now lies stranded on the
political shore, one Of the most pitiful
and disastrous wrecks in English po-
litical history, writes T.. P. O'Conncr
in last Sundays Chicago Tribune.
1t is difficult to say how he could
have managed to wreck himself so
completely. Everything, everybody,
fought in his favor. A peer of ancient
descent, he belonged to a country which
still dearly loves a lord; and it was
also an additional advantage that he
was born in Scotland, for that placed
behind him whole country which is
traditionally attached to her own sons
and would have stood by him to the
death if he had only given it half q
chance; and apart from his gifts, he
made this additional appeal to Scot
land-the history of his family belongs
to the historic and romantic records
Of Scotland; an ancestor is one of the
prominent figures in one Of Sir Walter
Scott's novels.
Of all his gifts, perhaps his oratory
is the most remarkable. Today un-
doubtedly he is England's greatest
speaker. His voice is beautiful, strong,
resonant, and melodious; it is handled
with great skill, and it can reach all
most any length Of hall. In addition he
has vivid imagination; great power
of coming fine phrases; sometimes even
he can rise to heights of poetic feeling
and expression which would be worthy
of a poet in a moment of ardent in
spiration.
There was passage in one of his
speeches describing his emotions as he
looked out on q moonlight night on
the vast bridge which stretches along
the waters Of the Forth from the
grounds Of his beautiful castle in Dali
meny, near Edinburgh, that would be
worthy of Robert Louis Stevenson
when that, supreme master of style
was writing of the capital of his ma
tive land.
In all ceremonial occasions Rose
berry is instinctively chosen to be the
mouthpiece of England; and there was
truth as we'll as gibe in the suggestion
made by one critic of his career that
he should be elected to the position of
public orator of England, the public
orator being a we'll known official in
the universities, whose duty it is to
pronounce the set Grafton on great oc-
casions.
Part of the charm of his oratory is
also due to his command of all the
arts Of the actor. Sometimes, indeed,
he is almost too artistic. The deep
voice hushed to a whisper and then
raised to something like shout sug-
gests an impression of acting rather
than Of feeling. But with every pos
sible drawback he remains the greatest
of platform speakers in the world of
British politics today.
Nor are his gifts the comparatively
superficial ones of oratory. He has q
fine mind and he has trained himself
laboriously in the arts of government.
Taught to speak French from his in
fancy, he can converse with every
statesman of Europe in that language
as though it were the language of his
own country.
He has travelled almost over the
whole world. He knows the United
States intimately; he has been to Aus
tralia and India and almost every other
part of the British dominions; and he
has held several offices, beginning
with the comparatively small office of
undersecretary Of the home depart
ment and graduating through it to the
great office of foreign secretary and
then to the highest of all-the premier
ship.
1t was not altogether Rosebery's
fault that his premiership was fail
ure. He never got real chance. Sir
William Harcourt was entitled to the
highest office by his long years of