GREAT LIBERAL LEADER GONE

Evening Star, Issue 19792, 16 February 1928, Page 5

GREAT LIBERAL LEADER GONE

Death of Lord Asquith

Last of Great “Parliamentarians” Some Striking Tributes “ Never Maligned Foe or Deserted Friend ” Crushing Burden of War Decision THE EARL OF OXFORD AND ASQUITH IS DEAD. ■'As a parliamentary leader,” wrote a distinguished journalist many years ago, ‘‘he will rank with the highest. He has not the omnipotence of Pitt, nor the eagle flight of Gladstone, nor the Oriental magic of Disraeli, nor the fascination of Mr Balfour. But he has a rare combination of qualities that make him invaluable as a leader in these days. . . . His freedom from all paltry motives has made him a perfect instrument for the great reconstruction he has carried through. . . . There have been many greater political seers; there has been no greater political engineer.”

THE LAST HOURS VITALITY SURPRISES DOCTORS WIDOW'S LONG BEDSIDE VIGIL Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, February 15. (Received February 16, at 8.40 a.m.) The Earl of Oxford and Asquith’s vitality in his fight for life surprised the doctors, who expected the end any time on Monday. His death was most peaceful, and took place at 6.50 a.m. to-day. Lady Oxford maintained her bedside vigil till the end. The daughter and four sons were also present. Lady Oxford insisted on sending „. r her own telegraphed intimations to the King and Mr Baldwin. TRIBUTES FROM FRIEND AND FOE NEVER A MAN MORE LOVED FRANCE'S HOMAGE AND GRATITUDE LONDON, February 15. (Received February 16, at 9 a.m.) Viscount Cecil in bis tribute says: “He was a great and good man, and bis death has left a gap unfillablo by any man alivo to-day. He never claimed for himself the merit that belonged to another, and, indeed, not always the merit that belonged to himself. Thus in war time all the merits of his administration were attributed to others, and all the failures to himself; but he never complained. “ There may have been other men of grew position more admired, but I doubt if any has been more loved.” Mr MacDonald (tho Labor leader) states: “His death marks the closing of a chapter in our parliamentary life. He was the Inst of what the Victorians meant by ‘great parliamentarians’— men of leisure, culture, formality, dignity, and catholicity. He was a great figure.” Mr Clyncs says: “His memory will bo honored not only for his fine record of public work and high parliamentary achievement, but also for his rare attributes and personal character.” Tho Paris Press pays long tributes, with special emphasis on his dominating part in Britain’s entry into the war. “ Upon his shoulders fell the crushing responsibility of plunging the Empire into war,” says 1 Excelsior.’ “It was he who took the momentous decision, for which alone the French people should bow in respectful homage and gratitude.” Lord Reading states; “He was a great gentleman, an outstanding figure in great events. The dominating part he took in Britain’s entry into the war and the many measures pursuing it will never be forgotten. He was a singularly fine and noble character, with complete freedom from vanity, jealousy, pettiness, and all forms of self-seeking.” Mr Henderson says: “To know Lord Oxford was to have a profound admiration for the sterling qualities of an English gentleman, loyal to his colleagues and considerate to his opponents. Public life is certainly poorer by his passing.” Mr Thomas states; “The nation has lost a great servant. To Parliament he added dignity and lustre. He was a sincere, lovable friend. , .In good times and bad times he was always the same, incapable of a mean thing, always subordinating personal interest to public good.” Mr Godfrey Collins (Chief' Liberal Whip) says: “He never maligned a foe or deserted a friend.” Lord Derby: ” The nation has lost much by tho death of this singularly simple, upright English gentleman.”-

WORLD-WIDE MESSAGES THE KINS’S TELEGRAM " A VALUED FRIEND " WESTMINSTER OFFERED FOR TOMB 4 (British Official News.) Pre»* Association— By Wireless—Copyright. RUGBY, February 15. (Received February 16, at 11.50 a.m.) World-wide tributes to tho memory of Lord Oxford and Asquith tiro being paid to-day. The King has sent a telegram to Lady Oxford expressing his sympathy with her in her loss, and his grief at tho death of a valued friend and a great servant of tho State. The Belgian Government, in a message to its Ambassador in London, has paid a striking tribute to Lord Oxford. The message states: “ Belgium will never forget the brilliant services of this illustrious statesman, who directed the British Government with such loyalty and strength at the moment of the outbreak of the war. Belgium will always recall with gratitude tho momentous decision which he inspired with a view to ensuring respect for treaties and of helping Belgium to defend herself against the '-iolation of her neutrality ami independence.” Tho King of the Belgium has also sent a message of sympathy to King George and Lady Oxford. President Doumergue has addressed his condolences to Lady Oxford, and has telegraphed his profound regrets and those of the French Government. Lady Oxford has received an offer to bury Lord Oxford in Westminster Abbey, but has yet reached no decision. THE SOLEMN RESOLUTION BOTH HOUSES WILL ADJOURN Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, February 15. (Received February 16, at 11.10 a.m.) Mr Baldwin, after questions, gave notice that he would move a resolution relating to Lord Oxford’s death on Thursday, following the precedents in tho deaths of Gladstone and Chamberlain. After to-morrow’s tributes the Houses of Lords and Commons will adjourn. A GREAT CAREER “Lord Oxford tells his readers little about himself,” wrote a newspaper eulogist some time ago, “ but a great gentleman is revealed. In the front rank of politics for forty years, culminating in .the Great War, the subject inevitably of tho bitterest attacks, bis speeches may bo ransacked in vain lor a discourteous word of an opponent. Such magnanimity requires, in tho words of Mr Gladstone, ‘a noble and antique simplicity of mind.’ ” Herbert Henry Asquith was the younger son of Joseph Dixon Asquith, a woollen manufacturer, and was born on September 12, 1852, at Merely, Yorkshire. His father died in 1860, and the responsibility for the education of the two boys, and one girl devolved upon their maternal uncles. The future Lord Oxford showed great promise at school, and when only seventeen years of age Avon the Balliol Scholarship, and proceeded in 1870 to Oxford, where he came under the influence of Dr Jowett. “A sound Yorkshire stock gave him health, his first raarriaae help, his second fashion and societvWfiit Oxford made Mr Asquith what to has been and still is,” said a recent writer jn ‘ Tho Times ’ speaking of this formative period of his life. He was elected Fellow of Balliol in 1874, but he did not linger long at the University, and read for the bar. In 1877, the year after he received his call at Lincoln’s Inn, he married Helen Holland, of Manchester. He worked steadily as a barrister, his first important case being in connection with the defence of Mr John Burns and Mr Cunninghame Graham, who found themselves in the dock .as a sequel to tho Trafalgar Square riots. Many years later counsel and one of his clients sat side by side in the same Cabinet. EARLY POLITICAL CAREER. Mr. Asquith first entered Parliament in 1886, for East Fife, as a supporter of Gladstonian Home Rule. His first

speech in the House attracted very favorable notice. At that time he was a strong supporter of Home Rule, and ho ridiculed the Government’s Crimes Act in no unequivocal language. There was much virtue in democratic government, he said, and much might also bo claimed for powerful and wellequipped autocracy, but between tho two there was no logical or statesmanlike halting place. Ho characterised the plans of Mr Balfour as *•' political imposture.” When he sat down Mr Chamberlain, who followed, declared: ‘‘All who have heard him (Mr Asquith) will agree with me that his speech is a favorable augury of the position which ho is likely to fill in our parliamentary contests.” <Mr Asquith frequently returned to tho subject both inside and out of the House. Ho delivered a stinging attack on Mr Balfour’s Irish methods on March 1, 1889. “There is not a man among us,” ho declared, “whose heart is set on tho attainment of Home Rule for Ireland who ought not to pray devoutly for tho prolongation of the right hou. gentleman’s rule.” Sir Henry Lucy, commenting on that speech, said; “When Mr Asquith rose it was a quarter past. 10 and a dull night. But gradually, as the young barrister went forward and illumined with felicitous phrases tho benches rapidly Idled, and when ho sat down tlie House presented the eager, tumultuous appearance which marks it only two or throe times in a session.”

The name of Mr Asquith as a barrister was permanently established by

While he was at tiie Treasury he effected a great reduction in the National Debt, laid the foundation or the scheme of old age pensions, and differentiated for the first time between earned and unearned income for the purpose of income tax. He succeeded Campbell-Bannerman as Prime Minister in April, 1908, and held that office without a break until December, 1916, when the Coalition Ministry went out of office, and Mr Asquith was never again to hold a Cabinet position. He was Prime Minister lor more years in succession than any statesman of our time. It was easy to predict when bo took over from his late leader \ that he would not bo able to keep the discordant elements together lor long. Ho had always been inclined towards the Right, and there was an influential Radical section clamorous for a great variety of social reforms, whilst the House of Lords and Ireland were still to bo dealt with where Mr Gladstone had left off. The now Prime Minister showed the same tact and firmness in dealing with his colleagues that lie displayed in lacing the tremendous difficulties of his office during the passage- of such contentions measures aa the Parliament Bill and the Home Rule Bill.

It is generally agreed that the passing of the Parliament Bill was Hie dead statesman’s greatest achievement. The ancient conflict between the two Houses came to a head in 1909 with the rejection by the Lords of Mr Lloyd George’s Budget, Mr

his cross-examination of Mr Macdonald, of ‘ The Times,’ during the sitting of the Parnell Commission. Ho became a Q.C. irr 1890. In the following year bis first wife died, and bo subsequently married Emma Alice Margaret, daughter of Sir Charles Tennant, who many years later was to cause much fluttering in social and political circles with her ‘ Autobiography.’ Although bo had been a member in only one Parliament and had delivered not more than a dozen speeches, Mr Gladstone sclccled him as Home Secretary in tho Homo Rule Ministry of 1892. Sm;b a promotion was without precedent, and doubts were expressed about bis fitness tor the great post that had been thrust upon him, a section of the Press characterising tho appointment as “very audacious.” And no doubt it was; but the new Homo Secretary soon demonstrated, in the language of Mr Balfour, that lie was capable of “conducting tho business of his office in a courageous spirit.” Ho had many difficult problems to solve, particularly in connection with the Irish question. Much of his political life eddied round the Home Bulc controversy. In 1893 there was no more devoted adherent to Air Gladstone than he, and ho made a notable speech on the second reading of the Home Rule Bill that was introduced that year. Tho Liberal Party was routed at,the polls in 1895, and this fact and others temporarily weakened his faith in Gladstonian Homo Bnlc. The definite rupture between the Irish Party and the Liberals was emphasised by Mr Asquith in a speech to his constituents in Fifoshire in 1901. Ho declared that it was necessary to maintain the “ universal, absolute, and unimpaired supremacy of the Imperial Parliament, and subject to that condition the policy of giving as largo and as liberal a devolution of local powers and local responsibility as statesmanship can from time to time devise.” The Welsh Disestablishment Bill and the proposals to reform the House of Lords provoked bitter controversies, although on tho latter proposal he always took a moderate lino, suggesting tho suspension of tli? hereditary chamber's power ol vetoing Bills passed by tho Lower House rather Ilian its total abolition. To him also fell the task of moving the rejection of Conservative educational measures during the ton years of tho Liberal opposition from 1895 to 1905. He always urged the necessity of education, considering it to bo the supreme concern of the State.

Lord Oxford was later associated with the Imperialistic section of the Liberal Party captained by Lord Rosebery, and in foreign affairs generally was favorable to the Unionists. When the South African War broke out be associated himself heartily with tho Government, though he condemned the diplomacy ■ of Mr Chamberlain,_ lie accused the latter of being wanting in good faith to Kruger. He declared for equal rights for both Britisher and Boer at the termination of hostilities, but dissented strongly from the attitude of the Liberal Leader, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who had been denouncing abuses in connection with the conduct of the war. It appeared for some time that the party was hopelessly divided, but other questions emerged at the conclusion of peace—notably Tariff Reform and the Unionist Education Bill—which brought the mutually antagonistic forces 'together again. At the great demonstration against tho Education Bill the Liberal Leader and Mr Asquith were found on the same platform. At this time the one-time Freetrader, Air Chamberlain, started out on bis Protectionist campaign, but wherever and whenever he went forth on his missionary journeys he was followed by Air Asquith. A MEMOR ABLE PRIME MINISTERSHIP. When Campbell-Bannerman formed his Government in 1905 it was only to be expected that he would offer ( he position of Chancellor of the Exchequer to Air Asquith, the appointment being universally jvell received*

Lloyd George had proposed to impose a number of laud taxes and to enhance the liquor duties. It was claimed by the Unionists that the measure was not really a Money Bill, but merely a “tacking” proposal, and it was soon made clear that the House of Lords would not assent to it. The Government resigned, and were returned with a greatly reduced majority. The Budget then became the Finance Act, but the Lords were still adamant, and Lord Willoughby Do Broke declared that “if necessary a good deal of blood would have to How under Westminster Bridge before the Bill was placed on the Statute Bonk.” Fn the middle of the crisis King Edward died. “1 felt bewildered and stunned.” stated Lord Oxford in Jus ‘ Fifty Years of Parliament,’ in dealing with the matter. “At this most anxious moment in the fortunes of rho State,” he proceeded, “wo had lost, without warning or preparation, the Sovereign whose • ripe experience, trained sagacity, equitable judgment, and unvarying consideration counted for so much.” The Liberals persisted with their Budget, practically ad other legislation being held up; but the Lords wore as unyielding as ever. Jit November, 191(1, n secret conference was held between four Liberals and Tom- Unionists, but this failed to bring a. solution of the difficulties, ami_ Parliament was dissolved on the advice of Mr Asquith and Lord Crewe, who secured a promise from the Ivng to exercise his prerogative and create 500 new peers il necessary, “in the event ol the policy of the Government being approved by an adequate majority.” The Government was again returned, and in February, 191], .Mr -Asquith introduced the Parliament Bill into’ the blouse, and after a, protracted discussion it was sent on to the Upper House, which passed it by LU to ILL

No sootier wits tin's out of the uay than (be Irish question again roused politic;)! passions. The Homo Rule Hill wns fiercely assailed pi England, and in Ulster the Protestants formed a league and covenant. There were ominous preparations by both sides in Ireland, but it mas the threatened resignation of Army officers at the Cnrragh in the spring oj' 1914. that aroused the Prime Minister to action. Ho himself took over the responsibilities of the 'War Office, and he mas Secretary for War, as well ns Prime Minister, when Britain declared mar on Germany. THE WOULD WAR. In the midst of the Irish crisis Europe mas plunged into mar. “ The manner in which lie arrayed the nation behind him in taking a right (nit terrible decision mas beyond praise.” mroto John St. Leo Strachoy in tlie ‘Spectator’ more than twelve years after that fateful decision. “It was indeed a mercy,” he added, “that a Liberal Prime Minister mas at that time in office. A Unionist could (scarcely have hoped to command quite the same degree of assent.” On May 25, 1915, Mr _Asquith’s Government became a coalition. There mas a feeling that, as the mar- mas certain to be long and costly, a Coalition could ask the nation for the necessary sacrifices better than a merely party Administration. There had also been trouble in connection with the resignation of Lord Fisher and the shortage of shells. The Coalition Ministry resigned in December, 1916, Mr Asquith declining an honor offered by the King. His brilliant son Raymond was killed in the same year. Ho was defeated in the General Election held in December, 1918, but was elected for Paisley in February, 1920. Ho was re-elected three years later, hut was again defeated in Obtober, 1924, Ho visited Egypt in the later months of that year, and was raised to the Peerage as Earl of Oxford and Asquith m January, 1925. He was made a K. 6., June, 1925. He delivered his first speech in the House of Lords on March 3, 1925. /, Lord Oxford resigned the leadership of the Liberal Party ou October

15, 1926. This was the sequel to the bitter dispute between himself and Mr Lloyd George, who had greatly offended his leader in particular by his attitude to the General Strike of May of that year. At the time he left the control of the destinies of the party to others the Liberals were a mere shadow of the great party that twenty years previously swept into office with the biggest parliamentary majority in modern times.