Evening star., 1928-03-04
AsQuith Was Last of Old School

- VERY one In England feels today
l. that the death OF the Earl OF
Oxford and Asquith has severed
IL the link binding us to the past.
II Is not only man who has
gone: but a generation. For Lord AS
quith has left no successor. We are
new men.
He stood for the type of public
servant and party leader which the
swirling tides and hectic business OF
our time have discarded. He never
yielded TO the mad pace which our
public life has assumed. TO its sleepless
agitations and never-ending concerns
which have invaded the repose OF the
mind and the leisure OF work. He be-
lon9ed to the days when our statesmen
their proper tongues and spent their
week ends in leisurcly fashion and
spoke In rounded sonorous periods.
had been In the House of Commons
with him since 1906. and with the ex-
ception of one home rule issue and
its consequent parliamentary moves
Ike the Parliament act---l rarely agreed
with him. Only once did l sit by his
side. That was when the opposition
was divided between the Liberals and
ourselves In the short Parliament OF
1929.
But there was bigness about the
man which made strong political df-
fercnces appear insignificant and which
always commanded homage and re-
spect His mighty intellect seemed cold
and formal Ones heart was never
warmed at his fires But his steadied
head and invigorated solid faculties
divided the truth from error and cloth
1Aga 1f nd In
ton OF Roman demeanor.
Asking myself now what II was that
marked him out among our public men.
and reviewing the years ] have been
with him for All answer. there can be no
doubt about the reply. II was the dig
nifty Of his mind.
They say~-~and indeed. facts prove 1t
that those who were admitted To the
privacy OF his life were bound to him
by Royalties that defied both time and
fortune. His wealth of conversation,
his good h,imor, his genial humanity
that dwelt beneath the mask he wore.
his easy-going tolerance. his catholicity,
made him one ot those rare heings~~a
genial and enduring friend.
He was shy man. however man
whose doors were not wide open to any
one who cared To enter them~+a man
who was not one OF those hail fellow.
well met" creatures. whose smile means
nothing and whose hand is no bond. lie
was ever u man who met strangers with
chilling greeting that frequently
seemed like rough growl or 4 snap,
And as a result few came to sit ON his
easy chairs, where amid the whirling
smoke, they could find and enjoy the
real man
One night ! sat beside him at the
table of rich young man whom he
had taken to his bosom. II had been a
troublesome day for him In the House
OF Commons, Andrew Honar Law had
been rudely inhulting. II was 1T the
time Of the parliament bill, aaw that
he was disturbed. but not one word of
what had happened crossed his lips,
One would have thought he was Il pleas
ant man Of the world. without II care
running his mind, Often have ! won~
deted why II was that the man who re-
vealed himself To me that night was so
little known among those who ahared
his parliamentary life. who fought with
him III hls daily battles,
For. indeed, like all men who cared
for the Joys ot the cultured life, who
live IN tradltion and who value the spa
eio,,s nonorous harmonlcs, he was what
II called a man Of the world, whose eye
spatkled with n merry. Knowing twinkle
and whose laugh revealed the deep wells
of enjoyment within,
Hut IN public he was apart lilo often
went through the division lobbies with
out turning tn The right or To ihe LETT,
Win short, rapid step. he went down