effect it. He had
a curious talent of making speeches with which everyone must agree,
and which at the same time were never commonplace. Their secret lay in
the habit of mind that led him always to seek out the common grounds
of principle or fact that underlie every controversy, and which in the
heat of the conflict the disputants had often failed to recognise.

It was not difficult to forecast the place which a statesman of this
kind was likely to fill in English politics. He was plainly wanting in
many of the qualities of a party leader, and in most of the qualities
of a parliamentary gladiator, and he was not likely to succeed in all
forms of statesmanship. He would certainly not prove

A daring pilot in extremity,
Pleased with the danger when the waves went high.

His clear perception of the objections to any course, combined with a
very deep sense of responsibility, not unfrequently enfeebled his will
in moments when bold and decisive action was required, and there were
times when the love of compromise which was so useful an element in
his character seemed to his best friends too closely allied to
weakness. But he probably saved every party with which he acted from
many mistakes. He brought to every Government which he joined a very
eminent administrative capacity. He defended every policy that he
espoused with a persuasive reasoning that few men could equal. He was
a supremely skilful detector of false weights and of false measures.
Every fad, every new-born enthusiasm, every crude ill-digested theory,
found in him the calmest and most penetrating of critics, and he
inspired the great body of moderate men of all parties with a deep
confidence in his patriotism and in his judgment.

His political position was marked out by the fact that his father had
recently broken away from the Whig connection which had hitherto been
that of his family, and was now the leader of the Conservative party.
The son naturally took his place under his father's banner, but I much
question whether he would have done so if no family influence had
interfered. It was not that he at any time changed considerably his
views. As Macaulay has truly said--while the extremes of the two
English parties are separated by a wide chasm, there is a frontier
line where they almost blend; and Lord Derby when a Conservative
always represented the Liberal, and when a Liberal the Conservative
wing of his party. But his mind had much of the