A LIFE OF MR. LLOYD GEORGE.* IT is right to

say at the beginning of this notice that Mr. Lloyd George, according to a statement issued by the author, has had nothing whatever to do with the production of this Life. The present volume is the first of four. A good deal is quoted from Mr. Lloyd George's diaries and letters, and we must suppose that his relations and friends thought that they were doing him a service in placing these private materials in the hands of Mr. du Parcq. On the whole we do not fancy that Mr. Lloyd George will be embarrassed by their publication, but, on the other band, we cannot believe that the uninspired and scrambling work of the author will convey to his readers any suggestion of the exhilaration or the hulyi (to use a Welsh word meaning " swing " that occurs in the diaries) which undoubtedly marks such a career as Mr. Lloyd George's. The author calls the style of Burke "turgid." His own style may be judged from the following passage in the preface

"Popular notions of him [Mr. Lloyd George] have varied, but the most persistent view of him is that his power is based upon a phenomenal possession and mastery of certain brilliant qualities. There is a danger that these qualities, which he obviously possesses, may by their brilliancy obscure their solid foundations."

The more one examines this sentence the less it seems to mean. Literally it means that Mr. Lloyd George's power has for its base certain brilliant qualities, and that this base, by its brilliance, may obscure its foundations. When we get down to the foundations of the base we confess that we are lost. This sort of analysis of character is obviously worthless.

We should have thought that an ex-President of the Oxford Union—we learn from a statement by the publishers that Mr. du Parcq held this position—would have been more precise in the use of language. The emergence of Mr. Lloyd George from circumstances of poverty and disadvantage is a record of strong endeavour, self-confidence, and courage of which any man might be proud.

• The Lifo of David Lloyd George. By Herbert du Pang, M.A., B.C.L. London: Caxton Publishing Company. [9s. net].

We can only regret that his political philosophy should not contain more of the lessons rightly to be drawn from his own experience. He lost his father when he was a child ; and the affectionate and loyal support of his uncle, Mr. Richard Lloyd, a shoemaker, who became a father to him, pinched himself in order to educate him, and joined in his studies even to the extent of learning French, so as to share the boy's enthusiasm, makes a beautiful and touching story of devotion. "Our bread was home-made," said Mr. Lloyd George once, in describing life in his

uncle's home, "we scarcely ate fresh meat, and I remember that our greatest luxury was half an egg for each child on

Sunday morning." The boy was brought up in that state of mind which is perfectly described by the answer of the Radical old lady to the child who asked whether Tories were born bad or grew bad: "My dear, they are born bad and they grow worse." His uncle was a preacher in a local chapel; the boy preached too—at an appallingly early age.

A cousin remembers him when not much more than two years old standing upon the stairs and "preaching." "While he preached 'he used to thump on the stairs with a stick' to hold the attention of his listeners, and to drive home his points." His early education was received in a Church school; there was no other school in the village of Llanystumdwy. The young "preacher" became in due course a ringleader in a revolt of Nonconformist children—the majority were Nonconformists—against the practice of march-

ing the whole school to church on Ash Wednesday. He also led a revolt against learning the catechism. We suspect that the clergyman might with advantage have made his Scripture lessons less dogmatic than they were, yet it is admitted that the teaching might be described on the whole as "simple Bible teaching." Nothing is said by the author, and nothing is quoted from Mr. Lloyd George's lips to the effect that the Church had built the school and supplied a very good educa- tion, while neither the State nor the other religious bodies bad done anything. The smithy and the shoemaker's shop were centres of political debate, and Mr. Lloyd George had no sooner mastered an elementary education than he began to

think and dream of nothing but politics.

Mr. Lloyd George's first efforts in journalism were published

in a local paper. They are often strange in expression and raw in judgment, yet they have undoubted force. English was to him, it is to be remembered, almost a foreign language. His determination to educate himself sufficiently to pass his examinations and become a solicitor was finely shaped and finely accomplished. On his first visit to London he wrote in his diary :—

" Went to Houses of Parliament. Very much disappointed with them. Grand buildings outside, but inside they are crabbed, small, and suffocating, especially the House of Commons. I will not say but that I eyed the assembly in a spirit similar to that in which William the Conqueror eyed England on his visit to Edward the Confessor, as the region of his future domain. Oh, vanity I"

In 1885 his diary contained many notes on his public speaking. For example :— "March 28th.—Second Liberation meeting. Spoke between forty and forty-five minutes with much ease, and in the end with much fire ; getting into the hwyl without knowing it when declaiming about liberty."

In 1890 he recorded his first great success on a London plat- form. It was at a Welsh Dieestablishment meeting presided over by Mr. Campbell-Bannerman, and he spoke "under most incalculable difficulties."

" Stuck at the very end, after three or four weary and dreary speakers and a collection had depleted the building of a consider- able part of its audience and of all but one or two of the reporters. Not a man moved whilst I spoke. They were all attention. The cheering and laughter which greeted my remarks drove me on from point to point, until, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, and my fixed determination not to speak for more than five or ten minutes, I must have occupied at least twenty-five minutes. And what was strange was that when I sat down the audience seemed surprised. They evidently thought that I ought to have gone on. . . ."

He wrote in a letter of his maiden speech in the House of Commons :—

" I have just spoken for the first time in the House, and, if I am to judge by the cheers I got during the progress of my speech and immediately after I sat down, and also the congratulations I received, must have succeeded beyond my very highest expecta- tions. T. W. Russell got up immediately after me and congratulated me upon my man speech, with which I had charmed the House.' The House cheered again at this. There was a very good audience, and although at first they appeared to be indifferent, as they generally are when insignificant members speak, they soon—both sides—listened intently."

His most interesting word of self-criticism is the following :— " I cannot gain much in this House by my speech, on the con- trary I may lose much influence—these M.P.'s are so frightfully decorous and respectable. My audience is the country."

What do we really learn from this volume as to the political character of Mr. Lloyd George P The author bestows a dull and almost uniform praise on his subject. It is useless to expect any reasoned judgment from him. Our own impression

is that Mr. Lloyd George's Celtic passion might lead him as easily to an extreme of harsh Imperialism as to one of demagogy. He will be the sport of circumstance more than he imagines. In any case he is likely to have a large following. The fury of some Welsh Radicals has a quality akin to Jacobinism ; for their excessive violence of feeling is capable of being exactly reversed. It is alike capable of entering the ecstatic spiritual states of revivalism and of brutally assaulting suffragettes. In one of his journalistic writings Mr. Lloyd George (in 1898) attacked Lord Salisbury

for yielding so often to his enemies. The passage is worth quoting:—

" When he had only to deal with the weak little Republic of Venezuela, Lord Salisbury was firm in his claim and in his refusal to refer the matter to arbitration: but when another and more powerful Republic declared that it would not have the little one bullied, what did Lord Salisbury reply ? In effect he said, 'Well, I would not be so rude as to contradict you ; therefore I will arbitrate.' Then there came the Cretan question. When tyranny had produced an uprising, and Greece intervened, Russia objected to the island belonging to Greece, and Lord Salisbury said, I quite agree with you.' Then somebody said—perhaps Germany- ' We had better turn the Greeks out.' Lord Salisbury observed Quite so.' Then Russia or France suggested that the Turks should go as well, and Lord Salisbury said, Yes, I think it would be better.' But the Turks said, We will not go,' on which Lord Salisbury said, Well, if you won't, it cannot be helped.' The Greeks said if the Turks would not go they would not either, so Lord Salisbury merely said, 'Well, if you decline to go, I suppose you must remain.' They suggested a governor for Crete, and our Foreign Minister said Yes.' Russia named somebody, and Lord Salisbury said, 'Just the man !'—but Germany interposed with, 'We object to him,' so Lord Salisbury said, won't do.' Then they said they would have a governor, and Lord Salisbury assented with Yes, we must' ; but when it was mooted, Supposing we do without a governor ? ' his reply was, That is exactly what I think.' That is the statesman with a mind of his own—a strong, clear-minded man."

It is very amusing ; but when one remembers that Lord Salisbury was one of the greatest lovers of peace in our time one wonders what, except a genuine absence of political prin-

ciple in Mr. Lloyd George, can have been his excuse for preaching peace himself one day and laughing at a peace- maker the next. Again, our suspicion and bewilderment are provoked by the speech which Mr. Lloyd George made in the House of Commons on May 12th, 1896. He then advocated a Zollverein, and was answered by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach,

who pointed out that if Mr. Lloyd George did not want Protection he, at all events, had preached very reactionary economic doctrines. Mr. Lloyd George was obviously talking against time when he made the speech, and the House was much amused by his effort. Mr. du Parcq implies that the amuse- ment was caused entirely by Mr. Lloyd George's essay in irony. We are not sure of this. He may be right, but we are rather doubtful. Admiration for Napoleon and a thirst for renown (which excited the sallies of local wit in Mr. Lloyd George's youth) may perhaps be not entirely dead in the

subject of this biography. And if they are not, who shall prophesy how such characteristics of the mind will work out in the long run in conjunction with a liberal faculty for

hwyl?