There is probably no statesman of whom such widely different estimates
have been formed as the present Prime Minister of Great Britain. I
have heard him compared with THEMISTOCLES, with MACCHIAVELLI, with
MIRABEAU (I think it was MIRABEAU, but it may have been one of those
other people beginning with "M" in French history. Almost everybody in
French history began with an "M," like the things that were drawn by
the three little girls in the well), and even with the younger PITT.
I have heard him spoken of as a charlatan, as a chameleon, as a
chatterbox, and, by a man who had hoped that the KAISER would be
hanged in Piccadilly Circus, as a chouser. Almost all of these
estimates are thoroughly fallacious. Let us take, for instance,
MACCHIAVELLI. It was the declared opinion of MACCHIAVELLI that for the
establishment and maintenance of authority all means may be resorted
to and that the worst and most treacherous acts of the ruler, however
unlawful in themselves, are justified by the wickedness and treachery
of the governed. Has Mr. LLOYD GEORGE ever said this? He may have
thought it, of course, but has he ever said it? No. When one considers
that besides this dictum MACCHIAVELLI wrote seven books on the art
of war, a highly improper comedy, a life of CASTRUCCIO CASTRACANI
(unfinished, and can you wonder?), and was very naturally put to the
torture in 1513, it will be seen how hopelessly the parallel with Mr.
LLOYD GEORGE breaks down.
Let us turn then to the younger PITT. I have read somewhere of the
younger PITT that he cared more for power than for measures, and
was ready to sacrifice great causes with which he had sincerely
sympathised rather than raise an opposition that might imperil his
ascendency. That is just the kind of nasty and long-winded thing that
anybody might say about anybody. It was by disregarding this kind of
criticism that the younger PITT kept on being younger. But apart from
this, does Mr. LLOYD GEORGE quote HORACE in the House? Never, thank
goodness. How many times did WILLIAM PITT cross the English Channel?
Only once in his whole life. That settles it.
The predominant note--I may almost say the keynote--of the PRIME
MINISTER'S character is rather a personal magnetism such as has never
been exercised by any statesman before or after. When he rises to
speak in the House all eyes are riveted on him as though with a
vice until he has finished speaking. Even when he has finished they
sometimes have to be removed by the Serjeant-at-Arms with a chisel.
His speeches have the moral fervour and intensity of one of the Minor
Prophets--NAHUM or AMOS, in the opinion of some critics, though I
personally incline to MALACHI or HABAKKUK. This personal magnetism
which Mr. LLOYD GEORGE radiates in the House he radiates no less in
10, Downing Street, where a special radiatorium has been added to the
breakfast-room to radiate it. Imagine an April morning, a kingfisher
on a woody stream, poplar-leaves in the wind, a shower of sugar shaken
suddenly from a sifter, and you have the man.
It has been said that Mr. LLOYD GEORGE has quarrelled with some of
his nearest friends; but this again is a thing that might happen to
anybody. Mr. LLOYD GEORGE may have had certain slight differences of
opinion with Lord NORTHCLIFFE, but what about HENRY VIII. and WOLSEY?
and HENRY V. and _Falstaff_? and HENRY II. and THOMAS À BECKET?
Talking of THOMAS À BECKET, rather a curious story has been told to
me, which I give for what it is worth. It is stated that some time ago
Mr. LLOYD GEORGE was so enraged by attacks in a certain section of the
Press that he shouted suddenly, after breakfast one morning in Downing
Street, "Will no one rid me of this turbulent scribe?" Whereupon
four knights in his secretarial retinue drew their swords and set out
immediately for Printing House Square. Fortunately there happened to
be a breakdown on the Metropolitan Railway that day, so that nothing
untoward occurred.
I sometimes think that if one can imagine the eloquence of SAVONAROLA
blended with the wiliness of ULYSSES and grafted on to the strength
and firmness of OLIVER CROMWELL, we have the best historical parallel
for Mr. LLOYD GEORGE. It ought to be remembered that the grandfather
of OLIVER CROMWELL came from Wales and that the PROTECTOR is somewhere
described as "Oliver Cromwell _alias_ Williams." Something of that old
power of dispensing with stupid Parliamentary opinion seems to have
descended to our present PRIME MINISTER. There is one difference,
however. OLIVER CROMWELL'S famous advice to his followers was to trust
in Divine Providence "and keep your powder dry." Mr. LLOYD GEORGE puts
his powder in jam.