rges against the Ministers and his failure to
substantiate his charges against Godfrey's company record may have
done more to hinder than help the cause of clean government. But his
courage remains: and, if one has to choose, one prefers the
immoderate man who said more than he knew to the careful men who said
so much less. Gilbert giving evidence at the trial had said that he
envied his brother the dignity of his present position. And with the
Isaacs brothers in mind, one sees the point.

IV. AFTER THOUGHTS

Four days after the verdict against Cecil Chesterton, the
Parliamentary Committee produced its report. There had been a draft
report somewhat critical of the Marconi-buying Ministers by the
Chairman, Sir Albert Spicer; and another considerably more critical
by Lord Robert Cecil. Lord Robert's report said that Rufus Isaacs had
committed "grave impropriety in making an advantageous purchase of
shares . . . upon advice and information not yet fully available to
the public. . . . By doing so he placed himself, however unwittingly,
in a position in which his private interests or sense of obligation
might easily have been in conflict with his public duty. . . ." Of
his silence in the House, Lord Robert said: "We regard that reticence
as a grave error of judgment and as wanting in frankness and in
respect for the House of Commons."

Upon this Rufus Isaacs' son comments: "The vehemence of this language
was not calculated to commend the draft to the majority of the
Committee." Vehemence seems hardly the word; but at any rate the
Committee did not adopt either Lord Robert's report or Sir Albert
Spicer's.

By the usual party vote of 8 to 6, it adopted a report prepared by
Mr. Falconer (one of the two whom Rufus Isaacs had approached
privately) which simply took the line that the Ministers had acted in
good faith and refrained from criticising them.

Parliament debated the matter a few days later on a Conservative
motion: "That this House regrets the transactions of certain of its
Ministers in the shares of the Marconi Company of America, and the
want of frankness displayed by Ministers in their communications on
the subject to the House." Rufus Isaacs' son speaks of the certain
ruin of his father's career if "by some unpredictable misadventure"
the motion had been carried. It would indeed have had to be an
"unpredictable misadventure" for the voting was on the strictest
party lines: which means that the House did not e