New-York tribune., 1911-04-09


Who'll tell me my secret
The ages have kept?
Sympathetic as he was. he stood aloof.
He has stood so ever since.
With her husband was Lady Grey:
since dead: and the memory Of her is a
pathetic memory. A stately figure in
black velvet; beautiful. attaching; like
her husband sympathetic, and like him
remote, yet surrounded by admiration.
That was the atmosphere in which she
lived. II was true nobility Of nature to
which this homage was paid. Upon him
her influence, if you may believe those
who knew them best, was constant and
always for good. 1t was Sir Edwards
way to take detached views. Lady Grey
came close to the things of real life:
understood them. and understood that no
man ever gains his full stature in seclu-
sion. Hers was the kind Of power worth
a hundred times the power a capable
woman can WELD by help of piece Of
printed paper called a ballot Character,
not the vote. is what tells.
Lady Grey, if l understood her at all.
had wise patience, rare in either man
or woman. She was content to use such
means as came TO her hand In herself
and through him in their closeness of
intellectual companionship she had an
authority which suffragists will never
get from the suffrage: nor from any
other source. The loss Of an influence
so benef1cent as hers is an irreparable
loss. Nor did the part she elected 10
play diminish her womanly charm. but
enhanced II. Never was it defiled by the
dust OF the arena: never debased by the
tumult Of the market place.
II was as a friend OF Lord Roseberys
that Sir Edward Grey finally accepted
the post OF Foreign Minister In Sir
Henry Campbell Bannerman's admins
tration of 1908. post he has ever since
retained. He was one Of Lord Rose
bery's ambassadors" To a Power. g.
ministry which to Lord Rosebery had
become foreign. The other. were Mr.. AS
duith--how strange that name I'm that
connection now seems,-Mr. Haldane,
and Sir Henry Fowler, afterward Lord
Wolverhampton; deceased only the other
day. Sir Edward then passed as a Mod
crate; strong. dry. useful man. What
else than a Moderate could a friend and
pupil Of Lord Rosebery be? Sir Henry
ampbell-Bannernan was not Mod
trate: then nor ever: 1t was not IN him
to be: and Sir Edward Grey's first re-
fusal Of the Foreign Off1ce as colleague
10 that shrewd Scot was understood to
be on account OF his Radicalism. II was
believed TO he upon the late Kings In
tervention that he accepted.
I know not, but what We all know
now IS that the effect Of Sir Edward
Grey's opinion on domestic affairs has
ceased 20 be a moderating effect. He
has become. since 1906, a Radical Of the
Radicals. His public speeches on the
Budget, on the Parliament bill. on Home
Ruls. are those Of 9 man prepared 70 go
al lengths. The conservatism which once
was his in English politics he now keeps
for affairs abroad; where no man with
knowledge and judgment can be any
thing but Conservative. Yet even IN
Foreign Affairs Sir Edward became at
one critical moment an extremist. II
was he who announced 10 Europe when
Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina
that annexation required the assent OF
the si9natory Powers TO the Treaty OF
Berlin. and that the act which Austria
had done OF her own motion could not
be held valid till ratified by Conference
Of these Powers. Alas! he had TO look
on while European Powers gave their
senara,e assent, each for reasons sum-
cient 10 each, and till the assent OF Eng
land no longer mattered. Count Aeren-
thai and not Sir Edward Grey, |as the
victor in that encounter.
SIR Henry Lucy. with his usual felicity
NJ Characterization, has labelled Sir Ed
ward The Yelled Prophet Of the Treas
urv Bench" It is a picturesque and ac-
curate description II limited TO the days
hefore he made his Radical speeches OF
last wear. Now the veil has been TORN
off and the prophecies are like otner
nronbecies. useful in debate because no.
body can contradict them.
Now. however, nothing matters but MS
tu,o arbitration speeches OF last week
and the settled policy OF which they were
the expression. IT may be true that 0ir
Edward chose that moment In Wnich 10
,oate q nartv move Mr.. Asquith. VINO
,,o,,,d otherwise have spoken in that de-
hate instead Of his Foreign Minister was
~ Switzerland, by his daughters ped
side. conflict was expected on the
go, .etinates. not only between the
o,orernn,ent and the Opposition, but be-
t,,,.en the two wings Of the Mnlster>ai
sorces of which one is known as the
rs,t,e Navy wing. II was On a"k"alu
or,s,s How is Minister TO race his
onero,es in front when half the army De-
,ind him is on the point OF mutiny--has'
IN fact. already mutinied?
with a rare gift of strategy sir ho-
ward turned the attention OF the iiouSe
and If the public away from the aues'io"
90 nreodnoughts TO Arbitration; Aroitra-
ton az a sudden, substantial prac'ioai
;ssue of international politics months
had passed since the President iau a."
,,.d his desire for an agreement
with some great nation" for an ArDi'ra' ~
Court 70 adjudicate on every ques.'o"
which cannot be settled by nesot'a''o",
,.o,rd,,p even territory and na''oha'
- The Foreign Minister of Engiaho
erssped that outstretched Pres'oen''a' m
Sa.d Then Mr. Balfour grasped IT,
. - ,.a cried ont 10 these TWO