MR. LLOYD GEORGE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1741, 5 May 1913, Page 8

MR. LLOYD GEORGE.

A MAN OF ACHIEVEMENT.

lIJS AMBITION TO CLIMB. London, March 21. A man may be excused a lillie natural \ unify- lie may he permitted lev-claim that I"' bus done big Iliing:-, and will do more '■on inn' coiulil Kill only. That lie can do I hem. On lliat grouml, no one would inipiiln if a i . a Ifiill Id Mr. l.lnyil-( ii urge II lie (Inc. .m:c a--loiially i .\lnliil lo In., uuolei mm Ins pride in lik jiiliieu'incnU. llih liiiiliener . ale proud ol' llieui, Inn; and He l.linu i il, I.el lliose lliraw Mone-s at him vim 1111\<■ .-ielii.'nil even hall a-, niiieli. As mi nlinii-l, nuti ii il ( tisiiii rllnr of 11n: E.x<ln i|Hr f, ;111■ ■i' a ye;ii .. Hurli along the <ni 11 ii ii i lines lie 11 i 1111111 astonislnd 1 lie lin-Il,pi eiiu;{ oounlry mill his liiliigel priipN":il<iue ilay; ret nliinil, Mllgl.'-llanil-ed, lo eouverl ii (Im n\\t; .m l. finally, ii 111-r a lii fee prol r.irli-i| iignl, that woual have brok'-n lie 1 ni-rvc-, ot mo-l: men, euiei'gnl Willi bis jii;)|,:,-ah- cairicd ii|io law. Within a little o\u- livo years lie had broken-the lliiiisi) of Lords; had csfabliilu.d laud f-a.vation, and drawn up a neiv liooli; olid was in the thick of a jKiiv slrugglo altogether.

Mr. 1.,10yd-(K"irge is, above everything, a lighter, aud in lighting his ureal quality is tlm tenacity with which no hang;, on during the latter stages of tlio struggle, when it looks inevitable that ho must be di.Tii down. All thc.-e lights come lo til.' ft.igo when somebody ii'.u.-t begin to slacken, nllicr Mr. idoyd-ljeorgu or the enemy; anil, as the enemy is usually vastly moro nuiiiirous, ami lepie.-ents the ideas by which the people uf England have held lor centuri,—, one generally expeels lo see them outlast this single opponent. Hut -they do not. h'acli time it lias been Air. Lhiyd-Ciecrgo that has outlasted tlieiu.

I saw him in tho middle of the Insurance Act campaign. His throat had already given way after the earlier pitched battles, and he had been forced to go to the South til l'Vancu to recover. His health seemed to be breaking down when the leal agitation against tlio Bill had scarcely begun. It grew fiercer and fiercer--they tried cven'to snow him under witli correspondence. Yet he did not shirk the light for a minute. He went straight for the "Daily JIail"; spoke out his mind, careless of consequences. Opposition became more formidable, servants, mistresses, clerks, friendly societies, doctors. Tile Government began to lose by-elections, and even his own supporters bceame down-hearted. Seeing Jiim then, in the middle of tho fight, one did not think he cou'kl possibly survive. His nerves or his health must break under tho strain. But they did not. At the end it was .only a remnant of the doctors that was left on the opposing side. And it was they who broke.

It may not be so always. One is inclined to wonder if any man can support for many years the tremendous strain which i"vlr. Lloyd-George puts upon himself. One who knows him/intimately lias told mo that ill the ordinary day he never takes any leisure at all. He has an engagement for every hour of it. That system of life may be tolerable for a tiino. It was Mr. Joseph Chamberlain's—and in the end it broke him. On tho other hand, Mr. Lloyd-George, like Mr. Balfour, and unlike Mr. Chamberlain, does undertake some outdoor recreations. And he believes in an occasional holiday. One who was with him on u recent motor trip on tho Continent has since told how, as they w:ere racing through the fresh air shortly, after starting, ho turned to raako somo remark to his companion about the scenery. Mr. Lloyd-George was asleep. 11.0 was drinking in, with every breath of the untainted breeze (hat rushed pas!: him, fresh health and strength for. coming battles. Mr. Lloyd-George, like Mr. F. E. Smith, set out in life with a■ determination to climb. His father was master of a elementary school in Manchester; his mother was the daughter of a. shoemaker, who was an intellectual and educated man. The Manchester schoolmaster had eventually to give up his leaching, owing to tho strain of it, and took a small farm in Wales, but soon afterwards ho died; and Mrs. Georgo was left with two young children. Her brother, also a. shoemaker, undertook the care of tho family, and brought them to live, almost under the shadow of Snowden, in tho small village of Llany6tumdwy, two miles from a certain little seaside resort, Criccieth. There, amidst the Welsh mountains, Drivid Lloyd-Gcorgo spent his boyhood. His restless, independent spirit showed itself even in thn earliest days in a somewhat rebellious attitude towards tho squire aud tho pareon.

It was very soon clear that David was a boy of exceptional ability. His uncla therefore decided that he should enter the law as a profession; aud tho old man himself set to work to study French aud the elements of law, in order to help tho boy with his work.

As a young lawyer, David Lloyd-George was especially marked by that, same characteristic which has since driven reform after reform through Parliament—unbending pertinacity. In one police court case, in which he believed that tho magistrates were biassed by certain interests against- his client, who had been caught fishing in what were claimed to be prohibited waters, he boldly told the Court that it was not unbiassed. The chairman objected, and asked to whom Mr. LloydGeorge referred. "I refer to you ill particular, sir," was the answer. The chairman said lie was insulted, and retired, and the rest of the magistrates intimated they would decline to go on with the case unless Mr. George apologised. "I aiu very glad to hear it," said tho young solicitor. When further pressed for an apology lie simply went on to mako his accusation of bias a little clearer. "I shall not withdraw anything," ho said, "because every word I have spoken is true."

The magistrates filed cut. Bu,t they presently came back and tried the ease. As in a hundred instances since, in Parliament and out of it, it was they, and not David Lloyd-George, who gave in. Mr. Lloyd-George was always ambitions to be the champion of his country in Parliament. His diary at a very early date shows an innocent and almost childish vanity in anticipating what he would do when'he reached tho Houso of Commons. His hopes were set, from the beginning, quite as high as those of Mr. iF. E. Smith. But there was this difference. Behind' Mr. Lloyd-George there was all the time the one overpowering conviction of the wrongs front which the people were sull'ering, and of his ability and indeed his mission to set them right. The one man who can be compared to him in recent polities is Mr. Joseph riiamliprlain. and if i>-u most .interestins: comparison. They both started with the same earnestness and convictions; their earlier speeches are in some ways exlraoidiiiirily alike. Whether there was really any dill'etence. save that Mr. ('haviiberlain was an earnest Englishman and Mr. Lloyd-George an earnest Welshman. future biographer.-; must, decide. Both men were Nonconformists; that r; piubablv why both set out to reform the, established order of things. Both managed in a wonderful way to leave behind them the pettier soil of sectarian controvm'sv. Both were sons of tho people. But Mr."'Lloyd George has always remained a I,lithe, light-hearleil son of (he Welsh mountain village, as fresh and natural as iiis native air. His sympathies are all with the people. It was in his famous i'.imehouse speech that he said: "Why should T put burdens on the neople? I nm one of the children of the neople. T was brought up amongst (hem. I know llieir trials. God forbid Ihnt' I should add one grain of trouble to the anxieties which tl'.ov bear with such patience iiml fortitude."

That cpoecli has lwcnmn proverbial for violence. It would occupy (on mucli space t(i give a reprosenfalivo -plod ion from his mosl famous del ivories; but an account of him would not J)o complete without nno quotation in lik fnniiliar style. ITo wo? speaking as to the! oiVcet of his Budget during llio lime of 111" campaign carried on against it by tho aristocracy. His altiludo was exactly tho same as that of (lie AYelsli village hoy—.lo years before—daring to laugh at I ho .squire. He said: — Only out 1 f-tnek lias gono Mown badly— there lias lii'cn a groat", slunip in dukes. (Lnugiilcr.) Tlicv used to sland rallier Jiijlli in the niaikol—(laughter)—hut (ha 'l'ory picsi has discovered Hint Uioy are of no value. They have boon making sppwlios lately. Oiio especially expensive duke mode a speeeli. and all tho Tory lireja said, "AVell, uow, really, is that

tlio sort of thins we nro spending ,£250,000 a year niion?'' Because a fullyequipped duke costs as much to keep up as two Dreadnoughts—(laughler)—and they are just as great a terror—(more laughter)—ami they last longer—(loud laughter). As long as they were contented to be mere idols on their pedestals, preserving that stately silenco which became their rank and their intelligencedaughter)—all went well. The British citizen rather looked up to them, and said to himself: "AVell, if the worst comes to the worst, we have always got the dukes to fall hack on." (Laughter.) But then came the Budget. They stepped oil' 1 heir perch. They have been scolding like omnibus drivers because the Budget curt lias knocked a little of the gilt oft their old stage coaclh—"Sydney Morning Herald" correspondence.