The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-10-06
PRIME MINISTER ASQUTTH IS
FOREMOST MAN OF ENGLAND
His Life Story One Of Ability, Hard Work, Steadiness and
man in Last Six Years 0'"oeo-
Wenyon Samuel in New

The career of Herbert Henry An
auth, Prime Minister Of Great Brit !
ain. who mas become AT outstanding
world figure, has in each Of it's four
epochs been marked by strength and
success. without the aid of wealth
he won his way by scholarships to
oxford, where he proceeded from one
academic triumph to another; he won
his way into Parliament by his mag
~nifcent ~clearneSs in e~nunciating his
political principles of liberalism;
without influence he secured a COM
manding position at the English bar,
and. having proved himself Turing
the last six years the strongest states
man of modern times in England by
his overthrow of the House of Lords,
and by the final placing of the Irish
Home Rule bill IN the statute books,
he has now in foreign policy achieved
a new fame.
famous Spy in Vanity Fair in the
great days of that journal, the only
description underneath was the single
word Brains His unusual endow-
ment of abilities combined with great
moral strength explains a career that
is not by any means romantic, but
which will leave a permanent mark
on history.
Al Oxford he was regarded by the
famous Dr.. Jowett of Ballot as one Of
the most promising of all the men
who passed through his hands, and
he summed up his verdict by the
phrase, "Asquith will succeed, he is
go direct" He has won his triumphs
by his ability, his industry and his in
tegrity.
Won His Education by Hard Work.
His father died when he was a boy
Of ten, and. being only a small manu-
facturer, the means of the family
were so limited that entrance at Ox-
ford was only possible because he
swept the boards of prizes at the City
of London school, n won not merely
an open scholarship but also a leaving
exhibition. When he began at the
bar he was nknow to the powerful
solicitors pom whose favOrs the young
barrister must depend, and he helped
TO maintain himself by contributing
articles on economics to the Statist
and other leading ape His rise at
the bar was in no sense rhetoric, but
he did achieve a great triumph by his
brilliant and overwhelming cross-ex-
animation of Mr.. Macdonald, the
manager of the London Times, in the
historic case arising out of the PiggOtt
forgeries. You take him, AsQuith;
you will do it we'll enough said Sir
Charles Russell, who led for Parnel
against the Times. He did it wei
enough, and Mr.. Macdonald left the
witness box so utterly discredited in
journalistic circles that he had to re.
sign his position.
But although Asquith achieved +;
high place at the bar, and might wei
have risen to be Lord Chancellor, i
is not as a lawyer hat he will be re
membered, nor was there any belle
among his colleagues at the bar tina
he would spend his life in a legal ca
reer. AS l heard Lord Haldane say o
him at a timer given in his b.
the Eighty Club shortly after he be
came Premier: II have known GU
guest all the days of our working lives
and from the beginning of his caree
at the bar we always said hat on
day Asquith would be Prime Min
ister."
In his parliamentary speech he pos
SeSSeS one gift in an Incompatible de
gree, which is probably derived fror
his years of experience in the court.
He can represent the weakest of case
as though it were of Overwhelnln
strength, the most startling of innova
ions as though it were an every-da
procedure, the most ~disputable of pre-
positions as though it were an axio1
OF universal acceptance. And We. M
AsQuith has always had the parlis
Inentary manner and succeeded i
making the House of Commons fol
get the lawyer in the statesman. TIL
has contributed largely to his parlis
mentary success, for it is common
place at Westminster that the Hou:
OF Commons does not love lawyers.
Mr.. Gladstone took to him from tf
beginning, and when he formed h
last Government in 1892 took tt
young barrister from the Jack benc
IS TO a seat on the Treasury benz
ana made him a member Of the {;
plnet as Home Secretary without al
preliminary Ministerial training. +
administered that important office
q way that insured the success whi(
mr' Gladstone predicted for him a
Ter he had delivered his maid
speech in the House of Common
When he said: The speech we ha'
just listened to from the honorab
member for East Fife proves tn
mere has been made a valuabl ado
non to the debating strength of tt
house and augurs we'll for the d;
Nhen the honorable gentleman w