New Britain herald., 1930-09-30
LORD BIRKENHEAD
 j DIES IN ENGLAND
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government in 1924, and held it un- til MacDonald's return to power in ls2s.
 Lord Birkenhead was taken ill Hast August when q chill developed into bronchial pneumonia. Arter a shard struggle with his malady typi- cal of his determined character he seemed to have conquered and was pronounced on the road to recovery. although, as natural, it was expected he would take some time to regain his strength.
 Hope of fairly early restoration 10 shealth passed Monday when medl- cal bulletin was issued stating that there had been recurrence of lung congestion in one lung and that the earl had a rising temperature. Thls caused anxiety. which increased last night with announcement that the chest trouble was extending.
 III Since April
 Lord Birkenhead had not been very well man since last April when he broke a blood vessel while spend- ing a golfing holiday at Biarritz' Lady Birkenhead and her daughter, Eleanor Smith, were summoned from London to Biarritz, but Lord 'Birkenhead shortly recovered sCtfi- ,ciently to return home.
 Addenda to the death announce ment said There had been a fur- ther increase in the pneumonia in lection and the heart muscles, feel ing the effect of this dilatcd and failed"
 The Earl of Birkenhead is sue .ceeded in the earldom by the 7" .year-old Viscount Furneaux, whose courtesy title was a subsidiary hon. or which accompanied the earldom when it was conferred in 1922.
 Lady Birkenhead and other mem bers of the family were at the bed side when Lord Birkenhead died.
 King Sends Consultations
 King George, on hearing or the passing of the great statesman. sent message of sympathy 10 Lady Birkenhead.
 In the death of the Earl of Erik enhead England loses not only one of her most picturesque personah- ties but a man who by common son. sent possessed one of the most bril- liant minds in the country Brilliance was the keynote Of ms career. It was not that he could not work as hard as any six normal men when he felt so inclined-for long wears during his early struggles at the bar his industry was proverblai but there was nothing Of the steady plodder about him.
 He was simply a genius with the ability of a genius to plunge to the heart of knotty point, whether law or in politics, while merely clever men still were nibbling at its edges, and with also the wayward- ness of genius who is law unto hlih- self and who fights his battles more easily alone than in cooperation with other men.
 Career Disappointment
 Yet with all his brilliance Lord tRirkenhead's career was something of a ointment-possibly dls- appointment to himself and certain ,Jv a disappointment to other men, TO suggest this of man who held ,}hree important cabinet posts and attained to the dignity of lord chan celIor-a place second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury in those offices to which commoner may aspire-may seem ridiculous. With any other man it would be so, but when young Frederick Edwin Smith first flashed like comet into the legal world dazzled with ms .eIouuence and astounded men twice his age with his extraordinary grasp of the most abstruse legal points It was felt that there had arrived new phenomenon in public life and that the entire course of English history might be altered by this one man.
 Perhaps it nearly was. When Eng land was on the verge of civil war over the Irish question in early 1914, no name was more frequently on mems lips than that of "Galloper Smith" the redoubtable aide-de camp of the Ulster leader, Lord Car son.
 Finds Other Outlet
 But revolver fired in the Bal kans settled all of that and Galloper found another outlet for his adven turous temperament in France and Flanders. That too passed away. Galloper became a baronet and Lord Birkenhead and his majesty's secre- tary of state for India. Then the luck of politics and failing constitu- ton conspired together and the great lawyer politician withdrew not indeed from the public mind but from the front pages of the news papers.
 Few men in British history had more fervent admirers than he, and few have aroused more bitter ani- mostly. A poem by G. K. Chesterton Of which each verse ends Chuck it, Smith," probably will remain known for a long time as one of the most bitter invectiycs ever petrated by a major poet.
 There will be some who will quote it today. But generally friends and enemies alike will join in regret at the passing of a great fighter, a law yer of almost superhuman ability and one of the most colorful personali- ties that has ever appeared on the British political stage.