the stress of the Budget fight,
when, if ever, he was at a tension, he went off for a week-end with the
Attorney-General and a distinguished journalist. They had a railway
compartment to themselves on the journey from London. Part of the time
was passed in singing popular songs, the choruses of which Lloyd George
trilled out enthusiastically. And yet Lloyd George is not a stranger
to the formalities. High office brought to him a marked care for those
little chivalries which are part of Parliamentary warfare. In the
height of the fight fatigue sometimes overwhelmed even his sturdy frame
and spirit, and he would snatch half an hour's respite from the
Treasury bench in his own room behind the Speaker's chair. But he
would break off this short indulgence instantly when the ticker
indicated that his principal opponents had begun to speak. Directly it
was shown that Mr. Austen Chamberlain, Mr. Balfour, or some other
leader was on his feet Lloyd George would hurry into the chamber to
listen, even though he might know perfectly well that they had nothing
to say that mattered at the moment. He regarded it as important to pay
them the courtesy of listening to any speech they made, however casual
or trivial.

One of the charges against Lloyd George during his public life has been
his inaccuracy in small things, his disregard of detail, and in some
ways this is a justifiable charge. And yet the man has a perfect
passion for detail when he is aroused and when he believes detail
necessary. In instituting the Department of Munitions he made himself
in the course of only a week or two a real expert in the hundred
intricacies connected with the manufacture of shells. Short of
handling the steel himself I doubt if there was any man in the country,
who knew more about the nature of all the deadly missiles, from the
small rifle bullet up to the great shell which weighs a ton and travels
some fifteen miles. Delicate chemical processes connected with high
explosives rapidly became an open book to him. As new discoveries were
made incidental difficulties connected with the filling of shells
occupied the concentered study of the manufacturers. Lloyd George
plunged into the new arrangements. One morning he had an appointment
in London with a group of half a dozen munition-makers from the north
of England and the Midlands for the purpose of investigating some
special difficulties in a new process. The matter was one of
importanc