New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-08-20
Anglo-American Memories
CXXXIII.
Mr.. CHAMBERLAIN.
Copyright. 1911. George W. smaley)


leader ought to have except the gift Of
leadership. Like Lord Rosebery, he Is
a diplomatist. skilled in every art Of
evading or compromising great issues;
great debater. and much else. But he
is not a man whom men follow In
stinctively. inevitably. because they
must. There is no must. He asks you
to choose. He appeals to reason; he
philosophers: he thinks men are led by
the subtleties OF a metaphysical argu-
ment. What they are led by is a trum-
pet note, such as you used 10 hear from
Mr.. Chamberlain, and before him from
Lord Palmerston. and before Palmerston
but 1 will come to that presently. Mr..
Balfour understands logic; Mr.. Cham
berlain understood men. The unhappy
peers who are asked TO choose between
the executioner and suicide are. after
all, men. They are loyal to ideas cen
turtles old. Huxley said.
II am a pebeian. and I stand by my
order"
May not even a duke say:
Il am an aristocrat. and I stand by
my order?
Plebeian or aristocrat. the cry comes
from the heart of man, and that is
what Dir. Chamberlain would have seen
Byrons line is on the lips of many an
Englshman:
"Oh, for one hour Of blind old Dan
dolo."
The longing Of the country FOR Mr.
Chamberlain as the one man who could
deal with the crises of to-day is per
haps the best tribute ever offered him.
Think imperially." That is one of Mr.
Chamberlains phrases; perhaps the
finest Of all in its simplicity and in its
breadth. There was no counsel Of which
England stood in greater need. none
which condensed into two words a pur-
pose more vital He has always had
that art. He could always put into a
phrase, sometimes into a word. a policy
meant to encircle the globe. If you think
il an easy thing TO do. try il. But you
must first have the policy. In politics.
a policy based on an idea and not on
eXpedience is, in Emerson's phrase
mathematically measurable by its depth
Of thought
In great moments his has been the
voice of England. I will ask you 10 re-
call the moment when. alone among pub
lie men of the first rank he took up the
German challenge which long had
echoed through Europe as we'll as Eng
land He spoke as no other man had
spoken. Of German arrogance. Of Ger
man hostility 10 England considered
hostility with q clear purpose, i'm the
Press in the Reichstag and in the I'm
perial Court.--of the constant German
menace 70 the peace Of Europe. of the
peril that lay half hid in Imperial pur-
poses. Prince Bulow. then Chancellor Of
the Empire, undertook 10 answer him. TO
rebuke him, to denounce him as a mis-
chief maker between two friendly peo-
pies. Mr. Chamberlain. then a Minister
Of the Crown. replied to Prince Bulow
from his place in Parliament thus:
What I have said. 1 have said.
have nothing to retract. nothing 70 de-
fend nothing 10 explain. I have no
wish 70 read q lesson 70 the Chancellor
Of the German Empire. nor will l ac-
cept any al his hands. What I thought
It my duty 10 say may well have been
unpleasing TO him and to his master,
and perhaps to the German people. But
as I read English history I know If no
English Minister who has served his
Sovereign and his country Loyalty and at
the same time found means 70 be pOpu-
lar abroad
Since Chatham. who has uttered SEN
fences like those Who has spoken in
that spirit? Who has put diplomacy be
hind him and told sixty millions of
more or less hostile people the plain
truth in plain words? II was the day Of
bitter party strife and Of deep divisions
between not only parties but classes: and
Mr.. Chamberlain was the Minister most
hated by his political opponents But to
this retort 10 the Imperial Chancellor all
England said Amen. Nor did Prince
BUlow carry the contest further. He
had no answer but silence. And TO this
da- Mr.. Chamberlain's assertion Of the
dignity Of England and Of the indie
pendence Of a Minister Of the Crown
lives in the memory Of the English peo-
pie. ~ w =