berlain for Birmingham was the municipalization of the supply of gas
and water, and the improvement scheme by which slums were cleared away
and forty acres laid out in new streets and open spaces. The prosperity
of modern Birmingham dates from 1875 and 1876, when these admirably
administered reforms were initiated, and by his share in them Mr
Chamberlain became not only one of its most popular citizens but also a
man of mark outside. An orator of a business-like, straightforward type,
cool and hard-hitting, his spare figure, incisive features and single
eye-glass soon made him a favourite subject for the caricaturist; and in
later life his aggressive personality, and the peculiarly irritating
effect it had on his opponents, made his actions and speeches the object
of more controversy than was the lot of any other politician of his
time. His hobby for orchid-growing at his house "Highbury" near
Birmingham also became famous. In private life his loyalty to his
friends, and his "genius for friendship" (as John Morley said) made a
curious contrast to his capacity for arousing the bitterest political
hostility. It may be added here that the interest taken by him in
Birmingham remained undiminished during his life, and he was largely
instrumental in starting the Birmingham University (1900), of which he
became chancellor. His connexion with Birmingham University was indeed
peculiarly appropriate to his character as a man of business; but in
spite of his representing a departure among men of the front rank in
politics from the "Eton and Oxford" type, his general culture sometimes
surprised those who did not know him. In later life Oxford and Cambridge
gave him their doctors' degrees; and in 1897 he was made lord rector of
Glasgow University (delivering an address on "Patriotism" at his
installation).

In 1876 Mr Dixon resigned his seat in parliament, and Mr Chamberlain was
returned for Birmingham in his place unopposed, as John Bright's
colleague. He made his maiden speech in the House of Commons on the 4th
of August 1876, on Lord Sandon's Education Bill. At this period, too, he
paid much attention to the question of licensing reform, and in 1876 he
examined the Gothenburg system in Sweden, and advocated a solution of
the problem in England on similar lines. During 1877 the new federation
of Liberal Associations which became known as the "Caucus" was started
under Mr Chamberlain's influence in Birmingham--its secretary, Mr
Sch