THE LATE LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH. [To THE EDITOR OF
THE " STECTATOR."]
Sm,—With the death of Lord Balfour of Burleigh a notable figure has passed from our stage—notable in politics, in busi- ness, in Society, in the street. "B. of B." was well known in many circles, and will be missed in all, for his was a command- ing personality. Physically he was large, and mentally he represented the typical British public man at his very best. He held strong views and could express them with energy, yet he made few enemies, and though, at a time when feeling ran high, he separated himself from many political friends, he never lost his personal position among them or in the public eye, nor the universal respect which he had won for himself by his self- sacrificing industry and unfailing common sense.
It was, of course, as a chairman that he excelled, and few men of our time have been in so great a demand for that arduous and sometimes thankless post. His treatment of men, and, in particular "difficult" men, was superb; but it would be a mistake to picture him as merely suavifer in modo. He had the natural good manners of his generation, but with regard to him one does not think of the word "courteous "; rather be was a "friendly" man. The whole -atmosphere in which he moved was one of friendliness, encouraging to the timid, and disarming to the critic; those who were privileged to see him in his home, and still 'bore, perhaps, the younger men who worked for or with him, were the most conscious of this. Be laved when business was done to exchange a joke, or to relate the last good story he had heard. Though no one could fail to realize that he had many other things to turn to, yet ho never seemed to be the one who at the end of an interview made the move. It was at some such time that he told the writer of hie pride in the thought that he bad served four generations of the Royal Family in a confidential capacity; or, again, after a long business talk, he would recall how he and his father hail together owned Kennet since 1809, or how, as a young man, he had shot rabbits with a neighbour over the heads of young tree, and had later shot pheasants from the same covert with that neighbour's great grandson. These, and similar reminis- cences, helped to lubricate business, to placate an injured critic, or win over to reason an obstinate opponent. For a man of no more than average natural patience he was wonderfully .long-suffering in a difficult situation, but his obvious sincerity and anxiety to do the right thing, and to see fair play, gave confidence to all who had dealings with him and brought many to accept his lead who would otherwise have taken the bit between their teeth.
The catalogue of his activities in obituary notices was neces- sarily incomplete, and mention may hero be made of the London Fever Hospital's chairmanship, of his work in connexion with the Queen Alexandra Sanatorium at Davos. Latterly, too, his position as chairman of the Oxford University Endowment Fund brought him into close touch with modern Oxford's pro- gress and her difficulties and enabled him to renew old friend- ships and to make new ones, while his close connexion with the administration of the Carnegie benefactions for the Scottish Universities commemorated the important part he had played in directing the channels into which those princely gifts should flow. But it was probably his labour for his Church, and in particular for Church Union in Scotland, that lay nearest to his heart, and therein lies the secret of his strength and his power. He was a good man—quite clearly to all who knew him —a good man; not a soft man, very human, but at bottom very simple with a pious and unwavering faith, having all the power and force which comes with the best Presbyterianism moderated by his instinctive sympathy with all human interests.—I am,
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