FATHER AND SON.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1025, 14 January 1911, Page 13

FATHER AND SON.

THE NEW COLONIAL SECRETARY. Mr. Lewis Harcourt's long delayed promotion in' Cabinet and political rank has como at a critical moment (writes Mr. Georgo W. Smalley in the "Now York Tribune"). But tho first thing it recalls is the memory of his father, Sir. William Harcourt. One cannot but think how Sir William would have rejoiced in his son's success. Never, I should think,' had there been a moro beautiful relation of father and sou than between these two. The affection of'each for tho other was deep; 1 their devotion without stint or •limit. They wero much m'oro together than is usual. Tho son was sent to Eton, but never to a university. Upon his return from Eton he ga'vo up his life to his father; becamo his private secretary; lived with him and for him. Tho father, in turn, taught the boy politics, statesmanship and tho world. Thero could liavo been no inoro competent master. Said tho father: 1

"I can never repay Lulu for what he has done. He has done everything. He has sacrificcd everything; at any rate, ho has postponed his entrance into public lifo till much later than ho ought; and adjourned' his chances for distinction. All this gild much nioro ho has dono that lie might ho of uso to mo." This was said at Malwood in 1899. I had been asked to Malwood for a. short visit. Tho day. before I was to liavo gone came a telegram putting mo off till the next week. When I arrived Sir William said: "You have heard,of Lulu's engagement, and you can guess why wo asked you to como later." And after somo other explanation came tho sentences above quoted. . They show you tho other side of a man who has been thought in public a little austere, peremptory and masterful. Tho real Harcourt was kind-hearted and affectionate, generous in character, with a strong naturo capablo of being strongly moved. Mr. Smalley, in tho samo article, describes tho Harcourt's family seat at Malwood as a very pleasant place to go to. Not a great property. Sir William had bought ten or twelve acres in the New Forest and had built himself a good and interesting house, and there was content to live. It was much later that he camo unexpectedly, by the death of tho direct- heir, into Nuneliarn, a line estate near Oxford. jit Malwood everything but the trees aiuc! tho soil and tho heavens above was new. Ho was not. often suspected of sentiment by those who knew him.as a Parliamentary gladiator; matching himself from time to timo against Disraeli and against Gladstone, and coming out of theso encounters, whether victorious or beaten,, with honour. He was over a fighter. But ho had a warm heart for his friends, and there was a Garden of Friends near the house, whether belonging to tho father or tho son I forget, in which each, plant or shrub had been given by a friend, and served as a memento, an inscription on each.' It did not matter who It was—

you could not bo a friend of one without being a friend of tho other. A pleasant notion, with perhaps an Elizabethan air, and pleasantly carried out.