The Mirrors of Downing Street / Some Political Reflections by a Gentleman with a Duster

rive after affect, and that he can speak interestingly on many su

s given it in behaviour. No man so basely deserted by his colleagues and so scandalously tr

he proposed doing with the two sacks crammed full of abusive letters addressed to him there by correspondents who thus obeyed a vulgar editor's suggestion, Lord Hal

nting in sensibility, almost inhuman in his serenity. Newspaper articles which made most of us either wince or explode with anger did nothing more to the subject of their vilification than to set him off laughing-a comfortable, soft-sounding, and enjoying laughte

thout a grimace. He has not only studied philosophy, he has become a philosopher, and not merely a philosopher in theory but a philosopher in soul-a practising philosopher. He might stagger for a moment under the shock of a trem

f politicians. It is now acknowledged in all circles outside of Bedlam that Lord Haldane prepared a perfect instrument of war which, shot like an arrow from its bow, saved the world from a German victory, and among the i

whom many of our greatest men have a deep affection, came of a sudden to be the target o

, that he should go down to the War Office, where he was still well known and very popular with the intellectual genera

rce. Some of the generals were alarmed. War was not yet declared. The cost of mobilization ran into millions. Suppose war did not come after all, how were those millions

opped by a certain soldier who asked him how many divisions he was sending to France. Lord Haldane very naturally rebuked this person f

oof more fatal to him

e same false news to one of the most violent anti-German publicists in London, a frenzied person who enjoys nevertheless a certain power in Unionist circles. In a few hours it was al

rvour of his utterly untrained and utterly intemperate mind; but what I cannot bring myself to believe for a moment is that the Unionist statesman to whom this story was taken, and who

ism. Lord Haldane, against whom his friend Lord Morley now brings the sorrowful charge that he was responsible for the war; Lord Haldane, against whom all the German writers have brought charge

e, would never have stooped to such dishonour; but among the leaders of the Unionist Party t

unt up any arguments. The newspaper reporter will not leave a dust-bin unsearched. One word, nay, the merest hint is suffic

fashion that Lo

lives. But you will be disappointed. There are others to convict you, accusers whom I held back whe

ent which will leave an indelible stain on the reputation of some who with a guilty conscience now sun them

work but, first, the friends of Lord Haldane who kept silence, and, second, the democracy of th

g over the abhorrent prospect of European slaughter and striving to the point of a nervous colla

this country for the first time in its history a coherent and brilliantly efficient weapon for this very purp

hey had grudged Lord Haldane his Army estimates, and that they had even suggested another and less expensi

e hoped to escape hanging on a lamp-post? Is it not true to say that in saving France from an overwhelming and almost immediate destruction the British Expeditionary Force also saved his neck, the neck of Mr. W

culties and interests that will engage and distract mankind on the morrow." Long ago he foresaw the need in our industrial life of the scientific spirit, and in our democracy of a deeper and more profitable education. "Look at Scotland, the best educated nation; and at Ireland, the worst!" For these things he prepared. Long ago, too, he thought out a better and a c

d George's talent for oratory had been employed to explain that reasoned policy to the less educated sections of the p

ho did prepare for it, and whose work did save the whole world, is cast out of office. And when the war is won, and Lord Haldane's position has been publicly and nobly vindicated by Lord Haig, Mr. Lloyd Geor

life a profound mind and a trained vision. His search after truth has destroyed in him all pettiness of personal ambition. He desires, because he regards it as the highest kind of life, to further the work of creative evolution,

gy. He is too much a thinker, too little a warrior. Unhappily he is not an effective speaker, and his

part in a philosophical discussion. He is the friend of philosophers, theologians, men of science, men of letters, and many a humble working man. He was never privately deserted in the long months of his martyrdom. His charming London house, so refined and so dignified in its simplicity, was the frequent meeting-place of many even in those bad days

s well as to follow him. No statesman is safe from the calumny of newspapers, and no statesman violently and persisten

TNO

again for the manner in which Lord Haldane organized the military forces of Great Britain for a war on the Continent. Lord French has said: "He got nothing but ca

RHO

ANWERN (DAVID ALFR

ter at Caius College, Cambridge; Scholar also, of Jesus; President South Wales Liberal Fede