XII.

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT. At the present moment the House of Commons teems with lawyers. Great is the company of authentic “gentlemen of the long robe;" and numerous also are the specimens of that inferior animal – the solicitor There are, of course, lawyers and lawyers. There are lawyers who never get on their legs except to make manifest to the meanest intelligence to what craft they belong; to lead the expectant listener by more or less toilsome and intricate paths into the dismal and unknown region of Nisi Prius. But, on the other hand, there have been lawyers who have soared above the dim and dingy atmosphere of the forum to breathe "an ampler ether, a diviner air ;" who have shown themselves eminent statesmen and dazzling orators – at the very least, brilliant parlimentary advocates. Such were Brougham and Lyndhurst, Scarlet and Follett, Cockburn and Fitzroy Kelly, Whiteside and Cairns. There were giants in those days ; but, for the time being, men of ordinary stature seem to have succeeded to the sons of Anak. Both the Treasury and the Opposition benches number among their occupants, able and painstaking lawyers, like the Attorney-General, the SolicitorGeneral, and Sir Henry James, all of whom are likewise strong in debate and clear in speech ; but, at the same time, on none of these learned gentlemen does the mantle of any one of their illustrious predecessors seem to have fallen. No one, owever, who has been in the habit of attending the debates of the House of Commons, could have failed to remark that Sir William Harcourt, at any rate, would fain be recognised and accepted as something infinitely superior to the mere legal luminary. He is quite conscious that he is an authority on questions of International and Constitutional Law, and he is never backward in giving an opinion or advice when such questions arise; but nevertheless he constantly flies at higher game, and clearly wishes that the lawyer should be forgotten, and that he should be numbered amongst the statesmen and orators of the House.

The learned member for Oxford is one of the tallest men in the House of Commons; and if height, a generally large and stately presence, and a bearing considerably self-sufficient, and which sometimes suggests pomposity, were the only qualifications requisite to enrol a man among the Di majores, Sir William Harcourt would at once be admitted to the blissful seats. But, perhaps, something more is needed. He who would persuade others that he possesses the mind of a statesman must indicate it by the views he takes of questions of Imperial interest and magnitude. Surely there has never been a more crucial question of the kind than what it is customary to style the Eastern Question ? Towards the end of the session of 1876, on the last night which saw Mr. Disraeli a member of the House of Commons, Sir William Harcourt delivered a long, carefully-prepared, and what was intended to be a very moving speech on the great topic of the day. Mr.

a

Disraeli followed, and almost the first thing he did was sarcastically lo comment on the wonderful views of the learned gentleman “who, of course, looked forward to being ranked among the Liberal statesmen of the future.” “The great question of the hour," said Mr. Disraeli,

can never be treated in the way that the honourable gentleman and his friends would have us treat it, unless, indeed, we resolve ourselves into one of those revolutionary committees which can settle everything." It must be confessed that the taunt was deserved. We ourselves listened to the speech in question, and so far from being characterised by statesman-like breadth and impartiality, it seemed, to us, simply, on the one hand, a wild aud uncompromising tirade against the “unspeakable Turk;" and, on the other hand, a lachrymose effusion of sentimentalism over the sorrows of Bulgaria ; while, at the same time, the cooker of the dish had not been altogether able to keep his hands oft the legal pepper-box. Apart from its views, however, the speech was poor as an oratorical performance, though it was clear the orator had done his utmost to conceive it in a vein of the loftiest eloquence. His elaborate description of the Turk spreading desolation and misery, whereever his impure hoof happened to tread was not really passionate nor even picturesque, but only flowery. His invective against the crimes and follies of the Government was meant to be terrible, but was only wearisome, and a certain lack of imagination in the selection of vituperative language was apparent in the “ damnable iteration” of the phrase - "political and diplomatic incapacity of Her Majesty's Government.”

When Sir William Harcourt dons his full regimentals, and buckles on his sword for one of these oratorical field-days, his manner of rising in his place always appears to be charged with tremendous import. His whole air, one might fancy, was meant to announce that the orator was a second Herod, and that the assembled Commons were about to listen to “the voice of a god, and not of a man.” His voice has about it a sonorousness commensurate with the physical magnitude of the speaker, and as it proceeds to declaim, in tones of awful solemnity that suggestion of a supernatural presence gains an additional emphasis. But the actual effect of such orations scarcely corresponds to the intended. The hollowness and unreality are too transparent. That laboured solemnity of voice does not impress--those thrills of artificial emotion do not move. The whole thing smacks too much of that forensic trickery which may beguile unsophisticated jurymen, but which can hardly impose on an experienced assemblage of legislators. Nevertheless, it must be owned that these efforts to cast occasionally the slough of the stereotyped lawyer, though not always successful, are in the highest degree creditable. That which tends to free the mind from the mere professional groove, must always be a tendency in the right direction.

When Sir William Harcourt does not come forth in full oratorical court-dress, he is fond of assuming an easy and jocular character, and the Hous: is then enlivened by badinage and jests whic', however, are

sometimes a little ponderous, and almost suggest the elephant trying to gambol like the gazelle. This friskiness, if nothing else, is, at any rate, always good-humoured, and the learned member for Oxford is certainly not in bad favour with the House. Of all the actually practising lawyers—and there are many members who have long ago merged the lawyer in the politician-which the House of Commons at present contains, Sir William Harcourt has probably the most defined personality; and, therefore, we have thought that he might most appropriately be chosen as the representative specimen of the species.

XII

MR. W. H. SMITH, The career of the present First Lord of the Admiralty is certainly not an illustration of Dr. Johnson's melancholy line--

“ Slow rises worth by poverty oppressed." We should imagine that, if Mr. W. H. Smith be oppressed at all, it must be by an cinbarras de richesses, rather than by a scantiness of them. His worth all will admit; and, we suppose, it will be equally allowed that his merit was of that kind which, if it was given a fair opportunity, could scarcely avoid rising. As a matter of fact, so far as Mr. Smith's political history is concerned, that opportunity was afforded at the dissolution of Parliament, in 1868, when he was returned for the important constituency of Westminster. There is nothing uncomplimentary in saying that, if Mr. Smith's worth had at that period been oppressed by poverty, it might not have succeeded in obtaining the same vantage-ground for rising that it did. During the election to which we have referred, Mr. Smith was by far the most popular candidate, though he had pitted against him the late Mr. John Stuart Mill, the prestige of whose literary and philosophical character was, of course, greatly in his favour, and who, moreover, had been previously elected for Westminster free of expense.

Mr. Smith was known to be the worthy and industrious son of one of thai commercial band who are usually styled " self-made men;" a class of individuals who, by their persevering energy and great business capacities, have contributed no small share to the character and material prosperity of their country. It may be said with perfect truth that, once in the House of Commons, the new M.P. for Westminster soon became as popular there as he was with his constituency. He was just the sort of man to gain the ear and the favour of the House at the very first blush, not by any exhibition of brilliant talents, but by his direct and business-like method of handling the subjects which he took in hand, and by the practical tact which he showed in the choice of those subjects. He was not the “transcendental man of business," like Clough, but the man of business pur et simple, with a fine, clear, and fearless way of telling the House what, on a certain point, he wanted to see done, and how he thought it ought to be done. At the same time, Mr. W. Smith was no crotchet-monger, nor hobbyist, nor

doctrinaire. His aims were invariably practical, and usually attainable. On one occasion, we know, he had the fortune to inflict a defeat on the Gladstone Government, and to wrench from them an unwilling concession on a matter affecting the popular welfare upon the settlement of which he had set his heart. Considering that the enemy had a nominal majority of 120, this was no slight victory, and spoke volumes for the tact and ability of the man who gained it. Moreover, Mr. Smith's way of comporting himself was agreeable to the House. His manner was never pretentious, but was characterised by a pleasing modesty which argued solid abilities ; and he never dogmatised, and never lectured. In a word, when Mr. Gladstone's dissolution of his Parliament came like a thunder-clar, and honourable members ran helter-skelter to their constituencies from all quarters of the wind, Mr. Smith's parliamentary reputation was irreversibly established, and he had become a distinct and favourite personality of the House.

Mr. Disraeli, in the meantime, with his characteristic vigilance, must have had his eye on the member for Westminster, for in the list of the new ministry, Mr. Smith's name appeared as Financial Secretary to the Treasury. All parties, we believe, were at one in their approval of the excellence of this appointment. The ability which Mr. Smith displayed in the conduct of his department served only to confirm the sagacity of him who made the selection ; and it was no surprise to any one that, when Mr. Ward Hunt was untimely snatched away, Lord Beaconsfield should promote Mr. W. H. Smith to be First Lord of the of the Admiralty and a Cabinet Minister.

In this most important post Mr. Smith is obviously the round man in the round hole. He coinbines the necessary energy and business habits with that faculty of clear exposition which is fitted to make him an adequate representative of the Board in Parliament ; and being possessed, at the same time, of a healthy breadth of mental vision, he is not likely ever to cherish pedantic notions about the navy.

Mr. Smith would be the first person to deprecate the title of a parliamentary orator being attached to him; but there can be no doubt that he is a highly forcibly and agreeable speaker. His genial English face, and his sturdy energetic figure, always suggest the idea of a man who, above all things, loves promptitude and despatch in the conduct of business; and, as his speaking is usually characterised by conciseness, we presume he loves despatch in that also. If so, it is a quality to be commended, for terseness of language is “as excellent a thing" in a business-man as “ a voice ever low, gentle, and sweet” is in woman. It is to be hoped that Mr. Sinith's worth may rise to greater heights yet; and he is to be congratulated on the fact that, at any rate, its advancement has never been impeded by that dreary oppression of poverty which the great moralist so pathetically lamented In the rapid elevation which Mr. W. H Smith has attained, Lord Beaconsfield has paid an honourable tribute to the spirit of self-help and enlightened anbition which pervades the higher section of the representatives of the commercial energy of England.

MOTLIY.

MAUD LINDEN'S LOVERS.
BY GEORGE W. GARRETT,

Author of "The Belle of Belgravia," "Squire Harrington's Secret," &c.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

SIR JASPER ACTS.

THERE were not many people of position or in any way noteworthy in London who were not known-at least, by sight-to Mr. Styles. Accordingly, when on the evening he started upon his second expedition into Kent, he was lounging in London Bridge Station, and waiting for the Dover evening mail, he at once recognised the tall, middle-aged gentleman who was inquiring for the Croydon train as no other than Sir Jasper Estcourt.

Mr. Styles was ever chatty and disposed to be communicative, so far, at least, as was compatible with professional discretion, which the little gentleman would not have transgressed for the world. He was talking to an old lady in spectacles and large coal-scuttlebonnet, and sympathising with her upon alarming attacks of asthma with which she was chronically afflicted.

"I should strongly advise you, madam," he observed, "to smoke stromonium, which I have understood is an excellent remedy for the complaint."'

"To smoke, sir! Bless the man, do you take me for a kitchin' chimney?" exclaimed the old lady, indignantly holding up her hands.

Mr. Styles was about to explain, when at this moment he recognised Sir Jasper Estcourt upon the platform.

He pointed out the baronet to the old lady, mentioning him by name.

"That tall gentleman! Bless my heart, is he a baronet?" said the old lady, whispering with awe as she inspected Sir Jasper through her spectacles minutely. "Dear me dear me! He is exactly like the curate of our church! And who, sir, pray, is that other fine-looking gentleman in the cloak who is following him?"

Mr. Styles glanced in the direction indicated. He was startled. He rose from his seat and crossed the platform, in order that he might meet "the other fine-looking gentleman" face to face. When he returned to his asthmatical companion, he seemed quite scared,