led, and he soon taught sedition-mongers, Irish and English,
that he did not bear this sword in vain. Though murderous threats
were rife, he showed an absolute disregard for personal danger, and
ruled Ireland with a strong and dexterous hand. His administration
was marred by want of human sympathy, and by some failure to
discriminate between crime and disorder. The fate of John Mandeville
is a black blot on the record of Irish government; and it did not
stand alone.

Lord Morley, who had better reasons than most people to dread Mr.
Balfour's prowess, thus described it:

"He made no experiments in judicious mixture, hard blows and soft
speech, but held steadily to force and tear.... In the dialectic of
senate and platform he displayed a strength of wrist, a rapidity,
an instant readiness for combat, that took his foes by surprise, and
roused in his friends a delight hardly surpassed in the politics
of our day."

It is not my business to attack or defend. I only record the fact
that Mr. Balfour's work in Ireland established his position as
the most important member of the Conservative party. In 1891 he
resigned the Chief Secretaryship, and became Leader of the House;
was an eminently successful Leader of Opposition between 1892 and
1895; and, as I said before, was the obvious and unquestioned heir
to the Premiership which Lord Salisbury laid down in 1902.

As Prime Minister Mr. Balfour had no opportunity for exercising
his peculiar gift of practical administration, and only too much
opportunity for dialectical ingenuity. His faults as a debater
had always been that he loved to "score," even though the score
might be obtained by a sacrifice of candour, and that he seemed
often to argue merely for arguing's sake. It was said of the great
Lord Holland that he always put his opponent's case better than the
opponent put it for himself. No one ever said this of Mr. Balfour;
and his tendency to sophistication led Mr. Humphrey Paul to predict
that his name "would always be had in honour wherever hairs were
split." His manner and address (except when he was debating) were
always courteous and conciliatory; those who were brought into
close contact with him liked him, and those who worked under him
loved him. Socially, he was by no means as expansive as the leader
of a party should be. He was surrounded by an adoring clique, and
reminded one of the dignitaries satirized by Sydney Smith: "They
live in high places with high peo