File:Pillars of empire, studies and impressions; (1918) (14577888649).jpg

Identifier: pillarsofempires00courrich (find matches)
Title: Pillars of empire, studies & impressions;
Year: 1918 (1910s)
Authors: Courtney, W. L. (William Leonard), 1850-1928 Courtney, Janet Elizabeth Hogarth, 1865-
Subjects: Statesmen -- Great Britain Imperialism Great Britain -- Biography Great Britain -- Politics and government 19th century
Publisher: London, Jarrolds
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ust suspicion that he is at heart aMachiavelU. Mr. Austen Chamberlain. It is the misfortune of the times in which we livethat our leading politicians are for the most part second-rate. Perhaps this phenomenon is not peculiar toGreat Britain : the whole of Europe seems to be sufferingfrom a want of that supreme leadership which winswars and moulds the destinies of. an epoch. Thetyranny of the second-rate is the worst of all tyranniesbecause it has no excuse for its dominion : its lack ofintelligence deprives it of the solitary reason why itshould extort submission. Under a benevolent andhighly inteUigent despotism we may sometimes groanbut we cannot protest. We acquiesce because we areso obviously in wise and safe hands. But when thesecond-rate rule, we are perpetually uneasy. We arenot persuaded that our fates are supervised withreasonable skill and prudence ; v/e rebel, if we can :and if we cannot, we grumble. That is our conditionunder the present regime, for mth all the good wishes
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INTRODUCTION 19 in the world for our pastors and masters we are notsatisfied as to their abihty or as to their farsightedness.And they, in their turn, not being first-class men,hesitate to act with masterful decision. They ponderand reflect and ask for advice from this quarter or that :and meanwhile through their hesitation the goodmoment goes. Our politicians have many virtues,especially of the domestic order. They are diligentand laborious and painstaking and, no doubt, con-scientious. But they have not that spark of geniuswhich solves problems, nor yet that electric fire ofpersonality which wins willing and instantaneousobedience. Here is Mr. Austen Chamberlain, for instance. Whatis the utmost that we can say of him ? That he isthe son of his father. We could say the same of LordGladstone : and his contemporaries might have saidthe same of Pitt. But with how vast a difference inthe two cases ! Of Pitts relation to Lord Chatham itmight be said of an able father a still abler son —

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