ing statesman would have made a wonderful human
document. His capacity, if not his forbearance, has been inherited by
his adopted son, Mr. Arnold Forster, the present Secretary for War, who
acted as his private secretary in the latter years of his life.

When I read Lord Rosebery's speech advocating a Cabinet of business men,
I instinctively thought of the late Mr. W.E. Forster, and it is his heir
who is the first illustration of the Liberal Peer's theory. Since
Cromwell cleared out the House of Commons, no one has done so much as
Mr. Arnold Forster, for he upset the seats of the mighty in the War
Office three months after he kissed hands. I wonder how he would have
dealt with Parnellism and crime.

Mr. Forster's predecessor, Mr. James Lowther, was an uncommonly capable
man, and gifted with a fund of humour which prevented him from taking
the Irish too seriously. In 1879 I heard the Irish members in the House
of Commons vituperating him after a manner that subsequently became
unpleasantly familiar, but was then regarded as a gross breach of the
conventions of debate. 'Jim' lay back on the Treasury bench with his hat
over his eyes, and to all appearance sound asleep. Never once did he
show sign of hearing their verbal tornado; but eventually he sprang to
his feet, and with infectious gaiety literally chaffed them to madness.
I have often thought that the long-limbed Tory member for Hertford, who
was then private secretary to his uncle, Lord Salisbury, must have taken
note of the methods of Mr. Lowther in dealing with the Irish party, for
it was absolutely on the same lines that he subsequently developed that
superb flow of sarcasm which made him, Mr. A.J. Balfour, the popular
idol ten years later.

It has been a practice for many years to appoint a man Chief Secretary
for Ireland in order to see if he is fit for anything else. This plan
turned out well in the case of Mr. A.J. Balfour, for he knew Ireland
better than any other Chief Secretary, and when he came to know it
properly he was removed.

His brother did as much harm in Ireland as Mr. Arthur Balfour did good.
Indeed, in the whole nineteenth century no other incompetent Chief
Secretary misunderstood Ireland with such complete complacency, and if
it had not been for the supervision which 'A.J.' undoubtedly gave, Mr.
Gerald Balfour would have a still worse record.

There was a poem, not particularly brilliant, which may be quoted
because it is not widely known:-