“The Home Rule question, which has long distorted the public judgment and looms large at the present political moment, admirably illustrates the power of personality.  Its importance has been exaggerated; the grant of Home Rule will not save Ireland; its refusal will not shame England.  Its swollen proportions are wholly due to the passionate personal feelings which Mr. Gladstone alone among living statemen inspires.  ’He is so powerful that his thoughts are nearly acts,’ as some one has written of him; and at an age when most men would be wheeled into the chimney-corner, he is at the head of a precarious majority and still retains enough force to compel its undivided support.

“Mr. Chamberlain’s power springs from the concentration of a nature which is singularly free from complexity.  The range of his mind is narrow, but up to its horizon the whole is illuminated by the same strong and rather garish light.  The absoluteness of his convictions is never shaded or softened by any play of imagination or sympathetic insight.  It is not in virtue of any exceptionally fine or attractive quality, either of intellect or of character, that Mr. Chamberlain has become a dominant figure.  Strength of will, directness of purpose, an aggressive and contagious belief in himself:  these—­which are the notes of a compelling individuality—­made him what he is.  On the other hand, culture, intellectual versatility, sound and practised judgment, which was tried and rarely found wanting in delicate and even dangerous situations, did not suffice in the case of Mr. Matthews to redeem the shortcomings of a diffuse and ineffective personality.

“In a different way, Mr. Goschen’s remarkable endowments are neutralised by the same limitations.  He has infinite ingenuity, but he can neither initiate nor propel; an intrepid debater in council and in action, he is prey to an invincible indecision.

“If the fortunes of a Government depend not so much on its measures as upon the character of the men who compose it, the new Ministry starts with every chance of success.

“Lord Rosebery is one of our few statesmen whose individuality is distinctly recognised by the public, both at home and abroad.

“Lord Spencer, without a trace of genius, is a person.  Sir W. Harcourt, the most brilliant and witty of them all, is, perhaps, not more than a life-like imitation of a strong man.  Mr. John Morley has conviction, courage and tenacity; but an over-delicacy of nervous organisation and a certain lack of animal spirits disqualify him from being a leader of men.

“It is premature to criticise the new members of the Cabinet, of whom the most conspicuous is Mr. Asquith.  Beyond and above his abilities and eloquence, there is in him much quiet force and a certain vein of scornful austerity.  His supreme contempt for the superficial and his independence of mind might take him far.

“The future will not disclose its secrets, but personality still governs the world, and the avenue is open to the man, wherever he may be found, who can control and will not be controlled by fashions of opinion and the shifting movement of causes and cries.”