eemed to lack assurance that Lord Haldane was sacrificed. The Tories
felt that Mr. Asquith would not make war whole-heartedly: they looked
about for a scapegoat; Lord Haldane was chosen for this purpose by the
stupidest of the Tory leaders; and the bewildered Prime Minister, with
no mind of his own, and turning first to this counsellor and then to
that, sacrificed the most intellectual of modern War Ministers, called
Sir Edward Carson, to his side, and left the British war machine to Lord
Kitchener.

We must make allowance for the time. No minister in our lifetime was
confronted by such a gigantic menace. Moreover, the Cabinet was not
united. Mr. Asquith came out of that tremendous ordeal creditably, but
not, I think, as a great national hero. As for his conduct of the war,
it was dutiful, painstaking, dignified, wise; but it lacked the
impression of a creative original mind. He did not so much direct policy
and inspire a nation as keep a Cabinet together. One seemed to see in
him the decorative chairman of a board of directors rather than the
living spirit of the undertaking.

When the historian comes to inquire into the trivial consequences of Mr.
Asquith's fall from power he will be forced, I think, to lift that veil
which Mr. Asquith has so jealously drawn across the privacy of his
domestic life. For although he ever lacked the essentials of greatness,
Mr. Asquith once possessed nearly all those qualities which make for
powerful leadership. Indeed it was said in the early months of the war
by the most able of his political opponents that it passed the wit of
man to suggest any other statesman at that juncture for the office of
Prime Minister.

His judicial temperament helped him to compose differences and to find a
workable compromise. His personal character won the respect of men who
are easily influenced by manner. There was something about him superior
to a younger generation of politicians--a dignity, a reticence, a proud
and solid self-respect. With the one exception of Mr. Alfred Spender, a
man of honour and the noblest principles, he had no acquaintance with
journalism. He never gave anybody the impression of being an
office-seeker, and there was no one in Parliament who took less pains to
secure popularity. Above all things, he never plotted behind closed
doors; never descended to treason against a rival.

Search as men may among the records of his public life they will fail to
discover any adequate caus