To a critic, looking on at the play from outside, Mr. Asquith's oratory appeared to lack heart and the instinct for reality; his leadership, the qualities of vigilance, steadfastness, and authority. He did not prevail by personal force, but by adroit confutation. His debating, as distinguished from his political, courage would have been admitted with few reservations even by an opponent. {205} Few were so ready to meet their enemies in the gate of discussion. Few, if any, were so capable of retrieving the fortunes of their party--even when things looked blackest--if it were at all possible to accomplish this by the weapons of debate. But the medium must be debate--not action or counsel--if Mr. Asquith's pre-eminence was to assert itself. In debate he had all the confidence and valour of the _maître d'armes_, who knows himself to be the superior in skill of any fencer in his own school. [Sidenote: HIS CHARACTER] Next to Lord Rosebery he was the figure of most authority among the Liberal Imperialists, and yet this did not sustain his resolution when the Cabinet of 1905 proceeded to pare down the naval estimates. He was the champion of equal justice, as regards the status of Trades Unions, repelling the idea of exceptional and favouring legislation with an eloquent scorn. Yet he continued to hold his place when his principles were thrown overboard by his colleagues in 1906. Again when he met Parliament in February 1910 he announced his programme with an air of heroic firmness.[13] It is unnecessary to recall the particulars of this episode, and how he was upheld in his command only upon condition that he would alter his course to suit the wishes of mutineers. And in regard to the question of Home Rule, his treatment of it from first to last had been characterised by the virtues of patience and humility, rather than by those of prescience or courage. A 'stellar and undiminishable' something, around which the qualities and capacities of a man revolve obediently, and under harmonious restraint--like {206} the planetary bodies--is perhaps as near as we can get to a definition of human greatness. But in the case of Mr. Asquith, for some years prior to July 1914, the central force of his nature had seemed inadequate for imposing the law of its will upon those brilliant satellites his talents. As a result, the solar system of his character had fallen into confusion, and especially since the opening of that year had appeared to be swinging lop-sided across the political firmament hastening to inevitable disaster. [1] Cf. 'Russia and her Ideals,' _Round Table_, December 1914. [2] Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901. [3] Imperial Conference on Defence, summer of 1909. [4] 1904-1905. [5] 1911. [6] May 1902. [7] Parliament Act became law August 1911. [8] 1689. [9] Home Rule Bill became law August 1914. [10] Mr. Chamberlain died July 2, 1914; Mr. Balfour resigned the leadership of the Unionist party on November 8, 1911.