Part 27 (1/2)
I was on reat shaht on the Wiltshi+re dohen I heard of the Cabinet crisis I well remember that on a hill-top, which was finally carried by our side, I met the present Lord Middleton, then Mr St John Broderick, Secretary of State for War and learned froht I went hoot honed, but it is all right I rite an article in _The Spectator_ which, while perfectly sympathetic, will set forth the situation in a hich will be certain to bring the Duke out” The result was as I expected
I was interested some time afterwards to hear froely instru hination Almost the last time I saw the Duke of Devonshi+re affords another exaood-nature, of his plain-spokenness, of his humanity, and of his public spirit I had always been, and still a question We cannot be a really civilised nation unless we can get good houses and cheap houses for the working-classes Not being a philosopher, I had always supposed that one way of getting good and cheap houses was to find some improved form of construction I have been informed, however, by my Socialist friends that this is an entirethat this was possible, and hoping that it h I ood the other scheranted it is also adequate construction, must be a desirable premium upon any and every other scheood houses” Therefore, I advocated and carried out by the joint action of _The Spectator_ and another paper I then owned, _The County Gentlees, in which a prize was given for the best cottage The novelty of es, but were to be real cottages The Garden City were alround as I was to avail ement ere able, as it were, to endow the Garden City with so to put their hands into their pockets It was quite easy to guarantee to find purchasers or hirers of the cottages put up by competitors The competitor, therefore, could not lose his , and he was very likely able to win a prize in one of the various categories The greater nues were planned for competitions in which the cost was lie; and if a coet a prize either of L150, or L100, or L50, he was in clover But I aes Exhibition, but only to throw light on the character of the Duke of Devonshi+re I asked the Duke to open the Exhibition for ood sense He obeyed _ex animo_ my direction of ”No flowers by request” I re somewhat disconcerted as ent down in the special train by a remark which he made to one of the Directors of the Garden City, as saying, very properly, the usual things about how pleased the Company had been to help with h, replied as ood advertisement for your company you must have found it Ha! Ha!” The Director, as was perhaps not to be wondered at, looked soasted at this sally
Fortunately, I overheard it and was able to prevent any risk of wounded feelings by explaining how helping to spread infor done by the Garden City was a thing which I and those ere helping lad to do If we had been able to provide a useful advertisement for the Company we should feel almost as well pleased as by the success of our own venture The Duke at once fully assented, but I don't think he in the least realised that his original way of putting the ree If it had been said to him and not by him it would not have caused any annoyance and he no doubt assumed that other people would feel as simply and as naturally as he did
It would be iive any account of the Duke and his character and actions without noticing his devotion to the Turf It was that devotion which made Lord Salisbury once say with hu ”because it appears that Hartington must be at Newmarket on that day to see whether one quadruped could run a little faster than another” The Duke was quite sincere in his love of racing There was no pose about it He did not race because he thought it his duty to encourage the great sport, or because he thought it would make him popular, or for any other outside reason He kept racers and went to races because he loved to see his horses run, though oddly enough I don't think he was ever a greatand trainers He just liked racing and so he practised it and that is all that is to be said about it In this coh political seriousness he was extraordinarily English Pope described the Duke's attitude exactly in his celebrated character of Godolphin; the words fit the Duke of Devonshi+re absolutely They may well serve as a peroration to this chapter
Who would not praise Patricio's high desert, His hand unstained, his uncorrupted heart, His coh'd, All Europe sav'd, yet Britain not betray'd?
He thanks you not,--his pride is in piquet, New tootoo near the caricature view of the ive in little a true picture of a really great man, for that is what he in truth was
Instead of tracing the Duke's political actions and political opinions, I prefer to attempt an analysis of his political character The first and most obvious fact about the Duke was his independence, and what Ithe Duke's views on a particular subject, you could always tell in any given circumstance ould be his line of conduct With most politicians explanations have to be found at some point of their career for this or that action
Everything see a particular course, and yet they took another In the case of one man this was due to influence exerted over him by a friend In that of another it was due to hostility to soue or rival The personal element deflected the course of history In the case of the Duke of Devonshi+re such explanations are unthinkable It is iine him a Home-ruler out of devotion to Mr Gladstone, or a Free-trader out of jealousy or distrust of Mr Chamberlain The Duke had no dislikes or prejudices of this kind
Certainly he had none in the case of Mr Charaph-writers in the Press failed to produce the slightest sense of rivalry between the phrase, went exclusively on ave his contemporaries credit for the same public spirit which he himself showed
He was the last man in the world to think that he had a h-mindedness was, he assuue, and he never thought it possible that a colleague could think of betraying hihout his career he was never once the victiue or conspiracy
He kept his mind fixed always on questions and not on men, and just as he always endeavoured to solve the real problem at issue rather than secure a party triuain a victory over an opponent I should be the last to say that in this the Duke of Devonshi+re was unique What, however, was unique about his position was the fact that no one ever attributed to hi for his own hand If any one had ventured to do so, the country would si quality possessed by the Duke of Devonshi+re was his absolute straightforwardness of conduct and clearness of language No one ever felt that he had a ”card up his sleeve” He told the country straight out exactly what he thought, and his reticence--for reticent he was in a high degree--was due, not to the fact that he did not think it advisable at the , but simply and solely to the fact that he had not been able to co questions half-way, but waited till circumstances forced theyll once said of hientlemen, what a comfort it is to have a leader who says what he means and means you to understand what he says” Here in a nutshell was the quality which the country most admired in the Duke of Devonshi+re They always knew exactly what he stood for, and whether he was a Unionist or a Home-ruler, a Free-trader or a Protectionist He was never seeking for a safe point to rest on, one which, in the ilow Papers_, would leave him ”frontin' south by north”
In spite of the independence, straightforwardness, and clearness of the Duke's attitude, he often showed a curious diffidence, and seemed unable to realise that he had so absolutely the confidence of the country that no explanations were ever necessary in his case For example, after the secession of the Unionist Free-traders froht it necessary to explain--in his place in the House of Lords--hoas that he reer in the Cabinet than did his Unionist Free-trade colleagues I have reason to know that the Duke found such an explanation a painful and trying one to h on the day he spoke he was suffering fros of a severe attack of influenza It will be remembered that he then declared, with a sincerity which in one sense deeply touched, and in another sense ht almost be said to have aht to have been during his negotiations with Mr
Balfour, and that he had not at first corasped the situation
As a matter of fact, is it safe to say that no one, least of all his Unionist Free-trade colleagues, thought there was the slightest need for such an apology If the thought of the nation on that occasion could have been put into words, it would have run so like this:--”There was not the least reason for you to say what you have said Every one recognised that you would in the end do exactly what you did--that is, leave the Ministry--and the fact that you took four or five days longer than your colleagues to realise that this was inevitable was looked on as thein the world It was a proof to the British people as a whole that a Free-trader could do nothing else If you had acted as quickly as others, itnot absolutely necessary in your action”
The Duke of Devonshi+re was often spoken of as a great aristocrat and as a representative of the aristocratic interests in the country Nothing, however, could have been further froh no doubt the Duke was in a sense intensely proud of being a Cavendish, and though he felt in his heart of hearts very strongly the duty of _noblesse oblige_, he had nothing of that temperament which people usually mean when they use the word ”aristocrat” He was the last man in the world whom one could associate with the idea of the noble who springs upon a prancing war-steed, either real or metaphorical, and waves his sword in the air His represented rather what lish temperament, the possessors of which in effect say to the world:--”I'll mind my own business, and you mind yours You respect me, and I'll respect you You stand by me, and I'll stand by you; and e have both done our duty to ourselves and each other, for heaven's sake don't let us have any d----d nonsense about it”
But though this is true in a sense, one would lose touch altogether with the Duke's character if one insisted on it too ave the impression that the Duke's nature was one of surly defiance such as Goldsmith describes in the famous line on the Briton in _The Traveller_ No doubt one of his colleagues, Robert Lowe, once said of hiton is his 'you-be-da in the Duke's character, it did not in any way prevent hi at heart as kindly, as syhtforward, and plain- spoken
One may strive as one will to draw the character of the Duke, but in the end one coreat public servant,--one who served, not because he liked service for its own sake or for the rewards it brought in sympathy and public applause, but solely because he was mastered by the notion of duty and by the sense that, like every other Englishman, he owed the State a debt which must be paid Pope said of one of his ancestors that he cared not to be great except only in that he ht ”save and serve the State” That was exactly true of the late Duke of Devonshi+re
This tradition of public service is one which has long been associated with the house of Cavendish, and it is cause for national congratulation to think that there is no risk of that tradition being broken The present Duke possesses the high character and the sense of public duty which distinguished his predecessor It may safely be predicted of him that the ideals of public duty
Of the five great figures in England and America, ere known to reatest difficulty in writing about Theodore Roosevelt Though I saw very ret at his death was specially poignant
Mr Roosevelt was almost my exact contemporary Therefore, I could look forward, and did look forward, to enjoying his friendshi+p for many years to coh my intimacy with him was of the very closest, far closer than that which I enjoyed with Mr Roosevelt, I did not feel myself on the same plane with hied in most important and most responsible public hen I was little more than a child, and by the time I left Oxford he had already finished the first three or four years of his great task in Egypt Again, when Roosevelt's death ca I did not know that his health had in any way been failing
Roosevelt and I were always so h the post was of so intimate a kind that I am sometimes amazed when I think of the comparatively small number of days, or rather hours, that I actually passed in his company For several years before I saw hied constant letters with him, and so much did he reveal himself in them that, e did ed Naturally I wondered greatly whether this would be so, and took a strict inquisition of the i him face to face In similar cases, one almost always finds surprises in minor, if not inon the tablets of et my visit to the White House If I had slept under that roof alone, and without any guide or interpreter, I should have been deeply s hen I, who had read and thought so -room was the little sanctum upstairs into which Lincoln, in the crises of the war, used to retire for consultation with his Generals, Ministers, and intiround floor of the White House, other than the great ceremonial rooms, had been almost entirely absorbed by the various officials connected with the Presidency
Our train from New York was nearly an hour late, and, therefore, e arrived, we had only bare tiuests asseh it was through no fault of ours that ere late,down in tiht, and ere shaking hands with the President by five minutes to
I have already described how Lord Cro to telland to trust wholly to the discretion of his visitor Mr Roosevelt exhibited an equal confidence In the long talk which I had with hihout the Sunday and during a long ride on the Monday, in pouring rain on a darkish Nove under the sun, and had our talk out Mr Roosevelt was one of those very busy men who somehow contrive to have ti,--we did not ton, till late on the Monday,--Mr Roosevelt asked h his work I accepted with avidity Accordingly ent from the White House to the President's office, which had been built, under Mr Roosevelt's directions, in the garden and was just finished We first went into Mr Roosevelt's special room There he put me in aseat and said I was quite free to listen to the various discussions which he was about to have with Cabinet Ministers, Judges, Aressmen