The Mirrors of Downing Street: Some Political Reflections by a Gentleman with a DusterBegbie, Harold
History
The Mirrors of Downing Street: Some Political Reflections by a Gentleman with a Duster
Begbie, Harold
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1910-1936; Statesmen -- Great Britain
The nation would have been in a healthier condition if Lord Haldane's
reasoned policy had been acted upon and Mr. Lloyd George's talent for
oratory had been employed to explain that reasoned policy to the less
educated sections of the public, instead of used to arouse an angry
opposition to the unreasoned and disconnected reforms of his own
conception.
But what a topsy-turvy world! Mr. Lloyd George is "the man who won the
war," he who did nothing to prepare for it, and suggested some things
that might have made it difficult to be won; while Lord Haldane, who did
prepare for it, and whose work did save the whole world, is cast out of
office. And when the war is won, and Lord Haldane's position has been
publicly and nobly vindicated by Lord Haig, Mr. Lloyd George as Prime
Minister of England has a portfolio for Mr. Austen Chamberlain and
another for Dr. Macnamara, but none for this man to whom more than to
any other politician he owes his place and perhaps his life.
Lord Haldane is not what Prodicus used to call "a Boundary Stone, half
philosopher and half practical statesman." His philosophy is his
statesmanship, and his statesmanship is his philosophy. He has brought
to the study of human life a profound mind and a trained vision. His
search after truth has destroyed in him all pettiness of personal
ambition. He desires, because he regards it as the highest kind of life,
to further the work of creative evolution, to be always on the side of
spiritual forces, and never to be deceived by transitory materialism.
Democracy has need of these qualities, and a great empire without such
qualities in its statesmen can hardly endure the test of time.
His faults are a too generous confidence in the good sense of democracy
and a lack of impassioned energy. He is too much a thinker, too little a
warrior. Unhappily he is not an effective speaker, and his writing is
not always as clear as his ideas. He is at his best in conversation with
men whom he likes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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