Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901; Statesmen -- Great Britain -- Biography
beautiful English counties.
Lord Rosebery is one of the most charming talkers whom it has ever been
my good fortune to meet. He has a keen sense of humor, a happy art of
light and delicate satire, and, in private conversation as well as in
Parliamentary debate, he has a singular facility for the invention of
expressive and successful phrases which tell their whole story in a
flash. One might well be inclined to ask what the kindly fates could
have done for Lord Rosebery that they have left undone. Nevertheless,
the truth has to be told, that up to this time Lord Rosebery has not
accomplished as much of greatness as most of us confidently expected
that he would achieve.
I have been, perhaps, somewhat too hasty in saying that no counteracting
spell had in any way marred the influence of the gifts which the fairies
had so lavishly bestowed on Lord Rosebery. One stroke of ill
fortune--ill fortune, that is, for an English political leader--was
certainly directed against him. Nature must have meant him to be a
successful Prime Minister, and yet fortune denied him a seat in the
House of Commons. He succeeded to his grandfather's peerage at an early
period of his life, and he had to begin his political career as a member
of the House of Lords. He therefore missed all that splendid training
for political warfare which is given in the House of Commons. It would
not, perhaps, be quite easy for an American reader to understand how
little the House of Lords counts for in the education of fighting
statesmen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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