Master Politician
RICHARD AUSTEN BUTLER. By Francis Boyd. (Rockliff, 15s.) POLI'T'ICS WITHOUT PREJUDICE. By Ralph Harris. (Staples, 20s.) THE dangers and difficulties of contemporary biography are obvious enough, and I cannot help feeling that living politicians are much more suitably treated in an extended essay than in a book which is given the form of a serious and objective historical study. Hazlitt's portraits in The Spirit of the Age and Bagehot's collection in his Studies are almost perfect models, and I cannot understand why the form has not been revived. It is the merit of Mr. Boyd's book that although it does not have the form it is written in the manner of an essay. Neither he nor his publishers— who describe the series as one of political monographs—make the pretence that 'this is a biography. It is a study, and, as such, it succeeds because Mr. Boyd brings to his task the craftsmanship which has made him a most acute political correspondent of the Manchester Guardian.
The journalist is well equipped for this task of providing a contemporary portrait. He rarely has the time to sit back and look at things in perspective; equally rarely can he follow a line of inquiry to the end. But he does see men and events closely and vividly; he sees them in the making and in a very real sense participates in them. The result is that, if he is a good journalist, he cannot so much portray a man or write his biography as throw a sudden light on some aspect of his character or some action which he has performed. This Mr. Boyd does extraordinarily well. He is a writer who likes to make his points by understatement and by implication; he invites one to read between the lines and sits back smiling to see if the point goes home. His first chapter, which offers a sketch of Mr. Butler, is full of illuminating points. I think Mr. Boyd, who is the only man I know who can forge irony into a sledge-hammer, would be a little disappointed if one saw all the points at the first reading. But this does not matter because the chapter amply rewards a second reading.
Mr. Boyd's knowledge of the House emerges in his description of Mr. Butler's manner and in a score of other points which crop up throughout the book. His knowledge of politics emerges especially in the chapter discussing the reformation of the Con- servative Party and policy after 1945. Mr. Butler's contribution to this reformation was large; but it has been exaggerated, and it has never, to my knowledge, been accurately or fully described. Mr. Boyd pins down the nature of Mr, Butler's contribution both fully and fairly. He strips the legend from the facts—`The list of the "back-room boys" has been stretched to include, for example, Mr. Angus Maude, who never was one'—and, incidentally, gives a clear picture of the working of the various Conservative organisations during this period. This chapter is a valuable con- tribution to political knowledge.
What, in the end, does Mr. Boyd find in Mr. Butler? He finds' first
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a master politician. He is a trained man. I use this Por`01 in preference to the words 'a professional' because the le:c `professional politician' has become to be regarded as abto,, . . . Mr. Butler once observed, when the activities of a eli,c,,11 young man were being discussed, 'Ah, yes! He knows all '– economics, but I know all about politics.' Mr. Boyd, after making this 'important point, then asks Whether Mr. Butler is also a statesman, and he puts the issue justly, ,„ nas mind, by questioning whether Mr. Butler would do anything it radical as Peel's repeal of the Corn Laws, if, like Peel's action,ir, meant splitting his party and ending his own political career. ,. 1 0 Boyd says that he does not know the answer to this question, makes two interesting points : first, that Mr. Butler has presented himself as a promoter and Pr.es„etil of party unity. He has, throughout his career, always Ner touch with the central block of Conservative opinion;
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Lerlo and secondly, that judgement has to be withheld because 11',,-.,41 Mr. Butler has been mainly concerned to apply policies of w"Ive the Conservative Party has approved and which, in general, 113 benefited the nation. Like Mr. Boyd; none of us knows the answer'r. but he provokes some interesting thoughts.
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Politics Without Prejudice is also a life of Mr. Butler. It Very for almost all the dangers of contemporary biography, the dangers which Mr. Boyd has avoided and so been able to PO°du
HENRY FAI-
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