Lord Kimberley, who died on Tuesday in his seventy- seventh
year, was an extremely able, hard-working, and high. minded statesman of a type which the country can ill afford to lose. In the course of a public life which began just fifty years ago he gave the most complete answer to the familiar gibe of the satirist against his order,—he did practically everything, and did it very well. The mere record of the offices held by him is remarkable, and though occasionally associated with a policy subsequently discredited, he was one of the least vulnerable members of the successive Cabinets to which he belonged. As to his attitude in Opposition, we have no hesitation in saying that in the last years of his life his speeches on the war were excelled by those of no other Liberal leader for their union of patriotic feeling with sagacious criticism. It is said that his efficiency as an administrator was impaired by his power of talk. On the other hand, no politician of his time and of such distinction contrived to be less talked about. In the matter of self-advertisement he showed an inactivity that was wholly admirable.
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