New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-01-13
LLOYD GEORGE: BY HIMSELF
TIE Autobiography of Schoolmsses Son Who Began ms Uee "
" Co,n,rv Solicitor and Ended as Minister of England

-. cIork in n solicitors ONCE nsu
passed the preliminary examination
| I. necessary before entering on the pi'i'
sion when I was fourteen. 49,,
oIt was not an easy matter for me " 'nu'
start studying for tho law small sums ms o.,
big TO small people. and the kSo 70 ii'v
had TO pay for my articles, tbs money ioi .ns
Government stamps the heavy prices OF ID"
hooks. tho EXPENSE Of the journey TO Liver
pooI for tho preliminary examination INV
s,iI greater expense Of the journey 10 Lon
don for the final examination-all theSe
things mounted up TO large sum.
81 was articled TO a solicitor at Portmadoc
and lived with a nice old couple whose
children had all gone out into tne WORM ~
search of livelihood. They were most KIM
10 me, and indeed treated me as tnough
49,, cbild Of their own. For five years
and n half I remained an apprentice. ~
tho end Of that time my uncle's small tort-
une was exhausted, and | had not money
enough left even to buy my robes. In wares
a solicitor has to appear in robes before he
cots audience. a thing. ! believe, unknown III
the English law courts in the case OF SOHO
itors. The robes cost, think, three gulneas
and If remember rightly had to wait tlll
I had got one or two cases before was aDle
to meet this outlay
"My first case was complicated equity
case in which no fewer than ten or eleven
solicitors were employed. | worked on, start
ing for NV office every morning at hslf-past
7 from Cricceth--then, and now, my home.
81 dare say | should have remained many
wears longer a country solicitor II my name
had not been brought into some public no
tice by what is known as the Llanirothah
burial case Il was one OF those peculiarly
harsh cases which excite passion and attract
pu5lic attention. The circumstances were
these: quarryman, in dying, had asked 70
be buried by the eide of daughter Wnom
he had greatly loved. The daughter was
buried in the parish churchyard, ana the
quarryman was Dssenter. The vicar az
first was ready TO comply with the prayer
hut being served with a notice under the
burials act passed by the late Mr.. osborne
Morgan notice which compelled the vicar
to give the body place in the burial ground
he became angry lie replied that he would
bury the body in the churchyard, but that
he would bury it where he liked, and he
chose as the spot for the poor 11arryman,
not the place he had asked beside his daugh-
ter's grave, but spot bleak and sinister,
in which we're buried the boGles Of the un-
known drowned that were washed up from
the sea in this region of shipwrecks, or OF
suicides, or Of the few Jews that died in
the district The people came to me; |
advised that the gates Of the churchyard
should be forced. They were forced There
were fines for trespass, and then long litiga-
ton. By the time the struggle had come to
an end my name was known all over the
principally.
"This is, perhaps, what led partly 20 my
selection to fight the Carnarvon Boroughs in
1889.
81 may mention, as the most agreeable in
cdent Of my political life, that ! spent a
couple of days in the society OF Mr.. Glad
stone in Sir Edward Watkins chalet on
Snowdon They were the most delightful
and instructive days Of my life. I had an
opportunity of seeing that wonderful versa
tiity and that extraordinary range Of knowl-
edge which was one of that great mans most
marked characteristics. | will give two in
stances that come back to my mind. The
chalet was rooted with zinc. Mr.. Gladstone
described to US all the processes through
which zinc passed in manufacture. Then ne
spoke Of sugar candy, of tho tax on sugar
which existed in the days Of his youth, and
described the surprise he felt when, on going
into shop at Nantwich, he found the vast
difference in the price of sugar candy now
and the price in his early days.
Here l end this brief record of my life'