THE LATE MR WYNDHAM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1109, 14 June 1913, Page 4

THE LATE MR WYNDHAM.

The late Mr Wyndham whose death was cabled Irpm London this week, was born jn London jin 1863. Coming of a ,race of politicians, he lound the Parliamen tary path opened before him. But at first be sought to see life, and joined the Coldstream Guards as a. stripling just out>bf his teens Before he was 22 be toad faced the perils of war, having fought with the Suakiu expedition, and won medal an ! star. He was only 24 when he became private secretary to Mr Balfour in 'lreland. The next year he was elected to Parliament for Dover, and he rep; erented that constituency till bis death.

Like many another gifted ai d •ambitious man, he was disappointed to find that the House of Commons was not; eager to listen to him. An agreeable voice, scholarly and wfell-informed it rather florid oratory, polished perorations, and apt allussions horn the classics do not catch the ear of Parliament. Mr Wyndam took bi& rebuff quietly, and waited. His chance came .pne night when Cecil Rhodes was under the Radical barrow, and a speech made on the spur of the 'moment, full of fire and earnestness, captured attention. . The success was repeated, and improved upon.

When Lord Salisburj formed his Ministry in 1895, the young politician was forgotteu, but the' many changes three years latter’ paved the way for his advancement, and be became Chief Secretary for Ireland with a seat in the Cabinet in the Balfpur Government at the age of 39. In this position his unfailing good bujpour made him great friends ttith the Nationalists,

who styled him.‘‘The Smiling Assassin,” just as they spoke of •‘ Buckshot Forster,” and “Bloody Balfour,” bia predecessors in the office.

During the South African war, Mr Wyndham was Under-Secre-tary for War, then beginning to be the most unpopular office in the State. It has since easily displaced Dublin Castle from this unenviable pre-eminence. Mr Wyndham was often bard put to it to justify the blunders of his Department to an angry House of Commons. Many a night be would rise in a House seething with indignation over disasters and exposure® of inadequate preparations, and one could imagine the most experienced Minister failing in the task of justification. But the Under-Secretary had a talent for persuasion, the gift of setting disagreeable iacts in the best light, of, finding crumbs of comfort in disaster and on several occasions he turned aside the wrath of Parliament, and saved his party from defeat. Mr-Wyndham resigned his seat in the Cabinet in 1905, and since that date he had taken little active part in politics, his health being far from the best. In 1902 he was chosen JLotAfo-. -Rector of Glasgow Univeliira^kpd ; in 1908 he acted in a similar capacity for Edinburgh University. His death creates a vacancy ior Dover, where the deceased was re-elected on the last occasion unopposed.