THE MIRRORS OF DOWNING STREET.*
TuM little book contains the very able, elaborate, and carefully laboured portraits which last week we compared with Mrs. Asquith's brilliant lightning sketches. If we may hazard a guess, we should say that "A Gentleman with a Duster" is a Lobby Correspondent for some London, American, or provincial paper, who has seen a great deal of politicians in the course of his professional work, and in one sense has known them intimately. Very seldom, however, can he say of the subject of the picture :— " Seen him I have, but in his happier hour Of social freedom, ill-exchanged for power, Seen him unencumbered by the venal tribe, Smile without art, and win without a bribe."
And hence the loss of vitality.
This does not mean, of course, that "A Gentleman with a Duster " was at all taken in by the puppets of the Parliamentary platform. He saw their pose and was disgusted. He knew from what his newspapers would have called "other sources" how the various leaders looked and acted off the stage. Be that as it may, the apology of "A Gentleman with a Duster" given in the Introduction is, we are sure, perfectly bona fide, and is also perfectly sound. Clearly he has betrayed no confidences. As he says, he is inspired by a pure purpose, and that purpose was neither to grind his own axe (as witness his anonymity) nor to inflict personal pain, but to try to raise the tone of public life. This ia how ho frames his plea :—
" It is the conviction that the tone of our public life is low, and that this low tone is reacting disastrously in many directions, which has set me about these studies in political personality. There is too much dust on the mirrors of Downing Street for our public men to see themselves as others see them. Some of that dust is from the war ; some of it is the -old-fashioned political dust intended for the eyes of the public ; but I think that the worst of all hindrances to true vision is breathed on the mirrors by those self-regarding public men in whom principle is crumbling and moral earnestness is beginning to moulder. One would wipe away those smears. My duster is honest cotton; the hand that holds it is at least clean ; and the energy of the rubbing is inspired solely by the hope that such labour may be of some benefit to my country. I think our statesmen may be better servants of the great nation they have the honour to serve if they see themselves as others see them—others who are not political adversaries, and who are more interested in the moral and intellectual condition of the State than in the fortunes of its parties. No man can ever be worthyof England; but we must be 811Xiollif when the heart and centre of public
service are not an earnest desire to be as worthy of her as possible."
All that is thoroughly useful, and we take off our hat to the man v.lo says it.
The study of Mr. Lloyd George is the most vivid and the best in the book, as it ought to be, for Mr. Lloyd George is one of those mon whom it is easy to get either with the pencil or with the pen. Here is a passage from it which is not only brilliantly worded but full of intuition. All the same, we feel it is criticism, not the result of a spell which brings before us a living man:— " But those days [i.e., the youthful days of pure political enthusiasm) have departed, and taken with them the fire of Mr. Lloyd George's passion. The laboured peroration about the hills of his ancestors, repeated to the point of the ridiculous, is all now left of that fervid period. He has ceased to be a prophet. Surrounded by second-rate people, and choosing for his intimate friends mainly the new rich, and now thoroughly • The Mirrors of Downing Street. By "A Gentleman with a Duster." London ; Mills and Boon. Ps. net.] liking the game of politics for its amusing adventure, he has retained little of his original genius except its quiclmess. His intuitions are amazing. He astonished great soldiers in the war by his premonstrations. Lord Milner, a cool 'critic, would sit by the sofa of the dying Dr. Jameson tellidk how Mr. Lloyd George was right again and again when all the soldiers were wrong. Lord Rhondda, who disliked him greatly and rather despised him, told me bow often Mr. Lloyd George put heart into a Cabinet that was really trembling on the edge of despair. It seems true that he never once doubted ultimate victory, and, what is much more remarkable, never once failed to read the German's mind. I think that the doom that has fallen upon him comes in some measure from the amusement he takes in his mental quickness, and the reliance he is sometimes apt to place upon it. A quick mind may easily be a disorderly mind. -Moreover, quickness is not one of the great qualities. It is, indeed, seldom a partner with virtue."
That is brilliant. Perhaps a good epigram on Mr. Lloyd George's character would be "A groat advocate, always briefed by his own ambition."
One of Mr. Lloyd George's worst peculiarities is, we are told, his impatience of Press criticism. Be bold with the Press, and never say that you have felt a paper bullet, and in the end the Press will respect you. Fear the Press or be annoyed by the Press, and it will never let you alone if you are a man in a great way of life. One word more : Was the hand, we wonder, of him who wrote the above excerpt the hand of a Welshman or of a Highlander ? It must have been that of a Celt.
We have left ourselves little time to speak of the other studies in tho book, but may mention that the characters of Lord Northcliffe, Mr. Arthur Balfour, and Mr. Churchill are all well done. Lighter and more amusing is the study of Lord Inverforth. Taken as a whole, the book is sane, healthy, and of good report. Clearly the writer is with the Spectator in his complaint that levity has been the chief crime of the Government. It is the offence of the Prime Minister and to some extent is also the offence of England, though hero we do not go as far as "A Gentleman with a Duster."
"Less flippancy in the world would lead to more seriousness, more seriousness would lead to greater intelligence, and greater intelligence would lead to nobler living. The cure for us,' said George Sand, ' is far more simple than we will believe. All the better natures amongst us see it and feel it. It is a good direction given by ourselves to our hearts and consciences.' Let each man ask himself, Is my direction worthy of men's past and hopeful for his future 7" Of course we must have, and indeed greatly need, cakes and ale—a comic relief. On jollity and good fellowship there must be no ban. The trouble is not in doing light things lightly, but in not doing serious things seriously. There is the danger.
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