Part 21 (2/2)

At the time of the split in our party over the Boer War, ere in opposition and the phrase ”methods of barbarisreatest agitation Lord Spencer, who rode with , deplored the attitude which my husband had taken up He said it would be fatal to his future, dissociating himself from the Pacifists and the Pro-Boers, and that he feared the Harcourts would never speak to us again As I was devoted to the latter, and to their son Lulu [Footnote: The present Viscount Harcourt] and his wife May--still my dear and faithful friends--I felt full of apprehension We dined with Sir Henry and Lady Lucy one night and found Sir William and Lady Harcourt were of the co either of the-roo down, he took my hand in both of his and said:

”My dear little friend, you need not s or the Rosebery afternoons, all these things will pass; but your enerous words, for, if Lord Morley, my husband and others had backed Sir Willianed, he would certainly have become Prime Minister

I never knew Sir Henry Careat laughs together He was essentially a bon vivant, a boulevardier and a hun Minister, Cae hich he was familiar--described Arthur Balfour, as on one side of hilish politics and Chamberlain, as also at the lunch, as l'enfant terrible

On the opening day of Parlia speech It was a propos of the fiscal controversy which was raging all over England and which was destined to bring the Liberal party into power at the succeeding two general elections He said that Arthur Balfour was ”like a general who, having given the co one another; when infors his shoulders and says that he can't help it if they will misunderstand his orders!”

In spite of the serious split in the Liberal Party over the Boer War, involving the disaffection of my husband, Grey and Haldane, Campbell-Bannerman became Prime Minister in 1905

He did not have a coupon election by arrangement with the Conservative Party to smother his opponents, hut asked Henry, before he consulted any one, what office he would take for hiht suitable for other people in his new Cabinet

Only s, but every one atched the succeeding events would agree that Caenerosity was rewarded

When CB--as he was called--went to Downing Street, he was a tired man; his as a complete invalid and his own health had been under her As tian to tell upon hiatedhe sent for Henry to go and see hi, thanked hireat work on the South African constitution He turned to him and said:

”Asquith, you are different frolad to have known youGod bless you!”

CB died a few hours after this

I now come to another Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour

When Lord Morley riting the life of Gladstone, Arthur Balfour said to ive him raphy ainst its client and it should be the sa about yourself and other living people youas a ed for a sheep as a laave me away and I saw it quoted in the newspapers; and I chose Blake and the Bible

If I have written any words here that wound a friend or an eneeneral character and ask to be judged by it I am not tempted to be spiteful and have never consciously hurt any one in my life; but in this book I must write what I think without fear or favour and with a strict regard to unmodelled truth

Arthur Balfour was never a standard-bearer He was a self- indulgent e person he was as puzzling to understand and as difficult to know as he was easy for e man can know a Priers whose minds we understood and whose hearts we reached without knowledge and without effort; and so and iven and received, we find the friend upon e had counted has becoer

He was difficult to understand, because I was never sure that he needed me; and difficult to know intimately, because of his formidable detachment The most that many of us could hope for was that he had a taste in us as one ht have in clocks or furniture

Balfour was blessed or cursed at his birth, according to individual opinion, by two assets: charree than any man, except John Morley, that I have ever met His social distinction, exquisite attention, intellectual tact, cool grace and lovely bend of the headlistener, but an irresistible coe of charm--which makes me say cursed or blessed--is that it inspires every one to cohout life As the earnest housereeable things froave hiht to have

His wits, hich I say that he was also cursed or blessed-- quite apart fros and the power to sustain any opinion on any subject, whether he held the opinion or not, with equal brilliance, plausibility and success, according to his desire to dispose of you or the subject He either finessed with the ethical basis of his intellect or had none This ivable to the fanatic and a God to the blunderer

On one occasion iven by old Mr

McEwan, to ht have said what my sister Laura did, when asked if she had enjoyed herself at a similar meal ”I would not have enjoyed it if I hadn't been there,” as, with the exception of Arthur Balfour, I did not know a soul in the room He sat like a prince, with his sphinx-like iuishi+ng conversation I allant efforts and ood on these self-conscious occasions, did his bestbut to no purpose

Frank Harris, in a general disquisition to the table, at last turned to Arthur Balfour and said, with an air of finality:

”The fact is, Mr Balfour, all the faults of the age come from Christianity and journalism”

To which Arthur replied with rapier quickness and a child-like air: