im a
yard," he said to me on one occasion laughing very good-naturedly; "but
there is not a man in the Government who can hold a candle to him for
courage and inspiration. I know very well that I could never have done
what he has done. More than any man in the country he has pulled us
through the critical days of the war. He is wonderful--nothing short of
wonderful--and sometimes I feel almost fond of him, for he has many
likeable sides to his character; all the same, I know very well he is
not to be trusted. I took office on certain conditions, not one of which
has he observed. He is one of those men with whom you cannot deal
confidently."

This was the bitterest thing I ever heard him say of his former enemy.
As regards the old days in the House of Commons, he told me that there
was room for only one leader in Wales, and that, while Mr. Lloyd George
could speak, he couldn't, and so Mr. Lloyd George, who was consumed by
personal ambition, had won the battle. In saying this he smiled like a
boy, and only grew serious when he added of those wasted years, "The
bother is I had a lot of useful things I wanted to do for the country."

He was convinced that he could have paid off the whole of the National
Debt during those years.

A good judge of statesmen said of Lord Rhondda that he would have made
the greatest Chancellor of the Exchequer these islands had ever
possessed. I do not think there can be any doubt of this, for his genius
lay in figures and he had extraordinary swiftness in seeing his way
through expensive chaos to economical order. His mind was constructive,
if not positively creative. He was never happier--except when
birds'-nesting or romping with young people--than when he was in an
arm-chair working out with pencil and paper some problem of
administration which involved enormous figures. He would sit up to the
small hours of the morning over his work, and would come down to
breakfast radiant with happiness, bursting with energy, exclaiming, "I
had a glorious time last night!" Certainly he would have brought to the
Treasury an original mind, and a mind, moreover, profoundly acquainted
with the activities of trade and commerce--those important factors in
national finance which appear to cut so small a figure in the minds of
bankers and officials.

Although a rather dull speaker, few men of my acquaintance were more
lucid and convincing in conversation, particularly when he addressed a
sympathetic mind. Th