fell away from him, and he was unduly ruffled by their secession.  “It is time,” exclaimed the Liberal leader, “to have done with this fooling”; and though he was blamed by the Balfourites for his abruptness of speech, the country adopted his opinion.  Gradually it seemed to dawn on Mr. Balfour that his position was no longer tenable.  He slipped out of office as quietly as he had slipped into it; and the Liberal party entered on its ten years’ reign.

IX

HENRY CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN

“He put his country first, his party next, and himself last.”  This, the noblest eulogy which can be pronounced upon a politician, was strikingly applicable to my old and honoured friend whose name stands at the head of this page.  And yet, when applied to him, it might require a certain modification, for, in his view, the interests of his country and the interests of his party were almost synonymous terms—­so profoundly was he convinced that freedom is the best security for national welfare.  When he was entertained at dinner by the Reform Club on his accession to the Premiership, he happened to catch my eye while he was speaking, and he interjected this remark:  “I see George Russell there.  He is by birth, descent, and training a Whig; but he is a little more than a Whig.”  Thus describing me he described himself.  He was a Whig who had marched with the times from Whiggery to Liberalism; who had never lagged an inch behind his party, but who did not, as a rule, outstep it.  His place was, so to speak, in the front line of the main body, and every forward movement found him ready and eager to take his place in it.  His chosen form of patriotism was a quiet adhesion to the Liberal party, with a resolute and even contemptuous avoidance of sects and schisms.

He was born in 1836, of a mercantile family which had long flourished in Glasgow, and in 1872 he inherited additional wealth, which transformed his name from Campbell to Campbell-Bannerman—­the familiar “C.-B.” of more recent times.  Having graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, he entered Parliament as Member for the Stirling Burghs in 1868, and was returned by the same delightful constituency till his death, generally without a contest.  He began official life in Gladstone’s first Administration as Financial Secretary to the War Office, and returned to the same post after the Liberal victory of 1880.  One of the reasons for putting him there was that his tact, good sense, and lightness in hand enabled him to work harmoniously with the Duke of Cambridge—­a fiery chief who was not fond of Liberals, and abhorred prigs and pedants.  In 1884, when Sir George Trevelyan was promoted to the Cabinet, Campbell-Bannerman was made Chief Secretary for Ireland, and in that most difficult office acquitted himself with notable success.  Those were not the days of “the Union of Hearts,” and it was not thought necessary for a Liberal Chief Secretary