Sir Wemyss Reid said that in the House of Commons his fellow-members had literally seen his hair whiten during those two years of patriotic martyrdom in Ireland, and I always feel that the inner life of this reticent, commanding statesman would have made a wonderful human document.  His capacity, if not his forbearance, has been inherited by his adopted son, Mr. Arnold Forster, the present Secretary for War, who acted as his private secretary in the latter years of his life.

When I read Lord Rosebery’s speech advocating a Cabinet of business men, I instinctively thought of the late Mr. W.E.  Forster, and it is his heir who is the first illustration of the Liberal Peer’s theory.  Since Cromwell cleared out the House of Commons, no one has done so much as Mr. Arnold Forster, for he upset the seats of the mighty in the War Office three months after he kissed hands.  I wonder how he would have dealt with Parnellism and crime.

Mr. Forster’s predecessor, Mr. James Lowther, was an uncommonly capable man, and gifted with a fund of humour which prevented him from taking the Irish too seriously.  In 1879 I heard the Irish members in the House of Commons vituperating him after a manner that subsequently became unpleasantly familiar, but was then regarded as a gross breach of the conventions of debate.  ‘Jim’ lay back on the Treasury bench with his hat over his eyes, and to all appearance sound asleep.  Never once did he show sign of hearing their verbal tornado; but eventually he sprang to his feet, and with infectious gaiety literally chaffed them to madness.  I have often thought that the long-limbed Tory member for Hertford, who was then private secretary to his uncle, Lord Salisbury, must have taken note of the methods of Mr. Lowther in dealing with the Irish party, for it was absolutely on the same lines that he subsequently developed that superb flow of sarcasm which made him, Mr. A.J.  Balfour, the popular idol ten years later.

It has been a practice for many years to appoint a man Chief Secretary for Ireland in order to see if he is fit for anything else.  This plan turned out well in the case of Mr. A.J.  Balfour, for he knew Ireland better than any other Chief Secretary, and when he came to know it properly he was removed.

His brother did as much harm in Ireland as Mr. Arthur Balfour did good.  Indeed, in the whole nineteenth century no other incompetent Chief Secretary misunderstood Ireland with such complete complacency, and if it had not been for the supervision which ‘A.J.’ undoubtedly gave, Mr. Gerald Balfour would have a still worse record.

There was a poem, not particularly brilliant, which may be quoted because it is not widely known:—­

  ’If I had a Balfour who wrong would go,
   Do you think I’d tolerate him?—­No, no, no! 
   I’d give him coercion in Kilmainham jail,
   And return him to Arthur, who’d laugh at his wail.’

In fact the impression prevailed that Ireland was then sacrificed to the nepotism of Lord Salisbury, who had inflicted the least capable of the House of Cecil on the distressful country.