ality, is at this moment playing golf. I sometimes see his smiling face as he rushes past in a motor car, and I always think of another trip he took along the same road somewhat more than a year ago, on the most desperate man hunt that any automobilist ever undertook.

This man is more powerful than King George of England. He is more powerful than the Right Honorable Mr. Asquith, Premier of Great Britain. He is more powerful than the House of Commons, the Mother of Parliaments, as it is called, and he is naturally much more powerful than the House of Lords, recently hamstrung by himself, and this potent, temporary neighbor of mine is David Lloyd-George, Chancellor of the British Exchequer.

A hasty person might jump at the conclusion that if what I have written is true, David is the most influential man in the British Empire, but a reflective. reader, well up on Bible history, which David loves to quote when he makes his exciting speeches at Whitefield's Tabernacle, will remember that in the olden days the David of that time had his Jonathan. They were friends and equal, but our David's Jonathan is as much more potent than Lloyd-George, as Lloyd-George is more potent than King George. This Jonathan is John Redmond, leader of the Irish Nationalists. The first governor of England, therefore, is an Irishman; the second is a Welshman; the third, nominal leader of the party, is member for a Scotch constituency. So "here's a state of things," as Sir W. S. Gilbert remarked, a state of things, indeed, to be equalled only in the regions of his own topsy-turvey drama. The Liberal Party is in the minority, yet the Liberal Party is in power, while the Irish Nationalists rule. Of the political groups in the House of Commons today, the Conservative Party stands first in point of numbers; the Liberal Party, even with the extreme Radicals added, comes second, while the Irish Nationalists come a long way behind for the third place, yet actual power in a country supposed to be governed by a majority, rests with the smallest group; the nominal power is held by the largest minority section, while the Conservative Party, which possesses

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a plurality of votes in the House of Commons and in the country, is helpless as a smoker lost in the desert, with a good cigar and no matches. England, the most conservative of countries, is in the hands of the most radical of governments, and Lloyd-George, by kind permission of Mr. Redmond, is king. Well might that bewildered country sing the Jacobite song prevalent when the first George, also a foreigner, came to the throne:

"Wha th' Deevil hav' we gotten fur a King?

A wee bit German Lairdie, An' they hav' found this fearsome thing Digging in his Kail-yairdie."

England, that depends for its existence. on manufacturing, on shipping and on business generally, has, for Chancellor of the Exchequer, a man who a few years ago was a no-account cross-roads lawyer in Wales; a man who knows nothing of finance, of shipping, of manufacturing; one distrusted by every business man in the country; who is raising taxation to a height never before known in English history; who has created more offices than any five of his predecessors, filling them with his own partisans; who has promised the working-man an immediate Paradise, and now that the workingman finds himself still upon earth, has created a state of industrial unrest that appals a thinking citizen. How came a sober-minded country to do such a thing?

She didn't do it, or perhaps it would be more correct to say she did it inadvertently. They called the South African contest the "absent-minded war," parodying Kipling. An absent-minded election gave Lloyd-George his opportunity. Previous to 1906, politics in England. had come to a sort of dead centre: there was nothing doing. When President Kruger hurled his ultimatum at Great Britain, he inaugurated an unpleasantness, the seriousness of which was understood by very few persons in the latter country. The Transvaal was prepared: England is never prepared for anything. The lackadaisical Tory Government mismanaged everything to the limit. When peace was declared the Tory Government should have been thrown out for its incompetence, but it dragged on a nerveless existence. It was led by one of the

most charming, cultured men in England, Arthur James Balfour; a man of so fair and philosophical a turn of mind that he never could answer definitely the simplest question. If you asked him whether or not two and two made four, he would reply that it all depended on how you looked at it. When his energetic henchman, Joe Chamberlain, unexpectedly sprang tariff reform on the country, feeling, as he did, that the Government was going to die of anaemia, his own preference being to die fighting, nobody in all the land knew exactly where Balfour stood on the question.

Arthur James was great on tactics, and his friends tell me that on this occasion his tactics. held the Tory Party together. Doubtless they did, but it held them together merely to lead them to the slaughter. The Man in the Street was tired of tactics: he thought two and two did make four, no matter how you looked at it. He was sick of inanity and dillydallying.

The Liberal Party was at that time apparently in

became the titular commander of a scattered host. Asquith, Sir Edward Grey and others were against home rule, which had twice wrecked the Liberal Party; another section, equally prominent in its counsels, were in favor of the measure. Winston Churchill, a deserter from the Tories, was trusted by nobody

in particular, and gave promise of being as erratic and spectacular as his father, Lord Randolph. LloydGeorge was regarded very generally as merely a demagogue with a great gift of the gab. These varying elements could not unite upon even so fair-minded and moderate a man as, for instance, John Morley, now the lord of that name. Still, they must have a leader of sorts, and so the colorless but honest old Scotsman was chosen.

Leaving aside the disintegration of the Liberals, and alos the fact that Chamberlain's unauthorized proclamation on the tariff, had momentarily at least, split the Conservative Party into two sections, let us consider the action of the leaders on the eve of the election, remembering that the English people are at heart free from subtilty. As a nation they like a plain answer to a plain question. To their own cost, as war after war has shown, they despise tactics, butting their stupid heads against stone walls, charging with brute force direct at the object, and taking it, if possible, at the point of the bayonet, rather than

a state of disintegration. It was headed by a man who had reached that elevation merely because of his child-like commonplaceness and general stupidity. The Liberal Party could agree on nothing; could unite on no question except hatred of the Tories, and so Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, a well-intentioned old Scotsman, was compromised upon, and

encouraging thought in the general's tent, and strategy that will save men's lives. This sort of thing has gone on for centuries, as for instance, when General Braddock, despite Washington's warning, led his men to annihilation, and when Captain Dalzell, with a whoop-hurrah, fell into the trap at Bloody Run, Detroit, losing life and following to the Indians, and so on, down to the time when General Buller threw away his cannon and his victory in South Africa, and again when the finest regiment of Scottish Highlanders was cut to pieces through stupid leadership during the Boer War. The English want yes or no, and they have small patience with the devious arts of diplomacy.

So here we come to the bluff old Scotsman, Campbell-Bannerman, confronted by the philosophical younger Scotsman, Balfour. The lead

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Party, for that party was in such a state of internicine warfare that any cabinet selected would be like a stick of dynamite thrown among this incohesive mass. The Liberal press at once realized the trap Balfour had placed for his opponent, and with unanimous voice they shouted: "Don't fall into it! He's got you defeated

was in Balfour's hands, and two methods of dealing were open to him, one being to dissolve Parliament, and put the matter squarely to the test; the other to resign, and craftily place the burden on his opponent. Balfour very cleverly chose the latter alternative. It was now up to Campbell-Bannerman. He also had two courses open to him; first, to accept responsibility and name his cabinet; second to refuse, and thus force Balfour to dissolve. A tactician would not have hesitated. He would have refused, considering the condition of the Liberal

before the battle begins."

"Oh, bless you, no," replied Campbell-Bannerman, jauntily, "it's the easiest thing in the world to form a cabinet. After all, the people must decide. I'll name the members within two days," and despite the clamor of his own party journals, Sir Henry hailed a passing hansom, jumped into it, and drove democratically

the

to residence of the King, paying his shilling fare, and a sixpence for the tip, just as any ordinary citizen might have done, instead of going to Buckingham Palace with his five thousand dollar motor car, as would have been the case with Balfour.

"First-rate!" cried England. "This is the sort of man we want; who knows his own mind, and doesn't give a hoot for journalistic clamor." That very evening the majority of the cabinet was announced: a splendid selection, most of them men in whom all England had confidence, men like John Morley, Asquith, Haldane and Sir Edward Grey; all friends of Gladstone, and men trusted by him and by the people.

For the first time in years a thrill of

confidence ran through the Liberal Party. Two offices were still vacant, but next day the bold Sir Henry filled them, and their occupants were David LloydGeorge and Winston Churchill. These names evoked no enthusiasm, yet one of those men has now charge of England's finances, and the other, like Sir Joseph Porter, controls the King's Navee, probably the two most important offices in the gift of a British Government. The debacle which followed for the Tory Party was the most decisive thing ever done by Britain. Sir Henry Campbell - Bannerman was Premier of Great Britain with a larger majority at his back than even the great Gladstone had ever received. When Sir Henry died, he left that majority intact to Mr. Asquith, the new Premier. Winston Churchill had acquitted himself remarkably well, and LloydGeorge in the minor office he held as head of the Board of Trade, had very completely won the confidence of England by his moderate, business-like common sense administration of that office. things followed.

Lords, "if the people really want it, but we must be assured on that point."

"All right," said Jack the Giant-killer, "I'll go to the people if I am forced to. but when I come back, I'll settle your hash, I'll promise you that. You'll never again throw out a Budget produced by the House of Commons."

The Lords accepted his his challenge, and kicked the Budget downstairs, and here we have a curious anomaly: the aristocrats demanding a poll of the people, while the chief of the plebeians fought against such an appeal. The result would have appalled any man less brave than LloydGeorge. If the Tories had possessed a capable leader, the Liberals would have been routed. The splendid majority achieved by Campbell Bannerman

had dissolved like a morning mist. Liberals and Conservatives came from the poll neck and neck, and the compact Irish party held the balance of power. All the Liberals were dismayed except Lloyd George. Terms were made with John Redmond, and the moment feared by Gladstone had at last arrived. Gladstone had

A readjustment of

In the re-shuffle Lloyd-George was made Chancellor of the Exchequer. England was not alarmed, but it opened its eyes when his first Budget was produced. Opposition to it arose all over the country. Capital, always timid, took fright, and a fierce discussion ensued.

"We'll accept this," said the House of

thought that no English statesman would accept office dependent on the Irish vote, but he counted without the only Liberal who had ever openly defied Gladstone in the House of Commons.

Lloyd-George braced up the quaking Asquith, and cheered the despondent hearts of his following, breathing ven