Lloyd George

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God bless the squire and his relations,
And keep us in our proper stations.

Worldly knowledge and bookish knowledge were acquired by Lloyd George
during the next few years while he was going through his law course in
the office of a firm of solicitors in the neighboring little town of
Portmadoc. While there he had further opportunity for developing his
natural powers of oratory, for he became a member of a local debating
society which regularly had set battles on all kinds of
topics--political, literary, and social. At twenty-one his
preliminaries ended and he became an admitted solicitor competent to
practise law and to appear as an advocate in the local civil and
criminal courts. He was penniless, he had no friends likely to help
him in his profession. But he had confidence in himself. Hidden fires
were burning behind those steady dark-blue eyes of his. The office
work which he undertook to secure the money to buy his official robe
was accomplished with a run. Then he put up a little brass plate
announcing to all and sundry in the locality that he was prepared to
practise law. Though he had no rich friends, he possessed certain
assets in the reputation he had made among the residents of the
district by his sparkling good humor, his ready sympathy with distress,
and his vivacious wit in debate. Individuals of the humbler class soon
began to come to the young solicitor for advice and assistance. He
found himself engaged to defend people charged with small offenses
before the local magistrates and to fight cases connected with small
money transactions before the county court--which was the civil
tribunal. Clients found in the young fellow not only a shrewd lawyer,
but a friend who entered into their cases with ardor.

He differed from other lawyers of the country towns, men who had grown
prosperous in their profession, in so far as he always put up a
tremendous fight, whatever the chances of success. He was, moreover,
never hampered by deference for the bench. It was the practice of the
magistrates, most of them local land-owners and all of them belonging
to the propertied classes, to browbeat any local solicitors who showed
signs of presumption--that is to say, of independence and lack of what
was regarded as proper respect in their conduct of cases before the
court. Lloyd George said things and did things which the most
experienced and successful solicitors of the district would have shrunk
from as ruinous to their business. He made it a practice never to
waste a word in any subservience to magistrates who showed an
overbearing disposition. The magistrates, to their amazement, found
they could not overawe the young upstart. When one realizes the
unchallenged caste rule of those local bigwigs and the extraordinary
respect which was paid to them by advocates and litigants alike, it is
easy to understand the amazement and the shock which came upon them
when young Lloyd George not only refused to submit to their bullying,
but stood up to them and even thrust wounding words at them. It was an
unheard-of proceeding. Some of these magistrates, lifelong supporters
of Church and state, must sometimes have wondered why the presumptuous
youth was not struck dead by Providence for his temerity. He, on his
part, was never so happy as when he was shocking them. Clients quickly
grew in number. The farmers found him an enthusiastic defender of
their rights, the shopkeepers trusted him with their small business
worries, and if there were any poachers to be defended where was there
to be found so able, so sympathetic, and so fearless an advocate as
young Lloyd George? All this time it must be remembered he was but
early in the twenties, little more than a boy.

Many instances might be given of his audacity in the face of the lordly
magistrates before whom he appeared. Here is one that is typical.
Lloyd George was retained to defend four men who were charged with
illegally taking fish from prohibited waters--in other words, accused
of poaching, the most deadly sin of all to the owners of the land. The
case was tried before a big bench of magistrates, all of them local
celebrities. Early in the proceedings Lloyd George put in a plea that
the court had no jurisdiction in the matter. In response the
chairman--the presiding magistrate--replied grandiloquently that such a
point must be decided by a higher court.

"Yes, sir," said Lloyd George, "and in a perfectly just and unbiased
court."

The magistrate stared open-eyed at this impudence, and promptly
proceeded to put Lloyd George in his place. "If," said he, "that
remark is intended as a reflection on any magistrate sitting on this
bench I hope Mr. George will name him. A more insulting and
ungentlemanly remark to the bench I have never heard during my
experience as a magistrate."

"Yes," replied Lloyd George, "and a more true remark was never made in
any court of justice."

This was more than flesh and blood could stand. In admonitory tone the
chairman said: "Tell me to whom you are referring. I must insist upon
your stating if you are referring to any magistrate sitting in this
court."

"I refer to you in particular, sir," said Lloyd George.

"Then I retire from the bench," said the chairman, rising from his
place. He turned to his fellow-magistrates. "This is the first time I
have ever been insulted in a court of justice."

In company with a colleague he left the court. A third magistrate
remarked that he could not proceed with the case until Lloyd George had
apologized.

"I am glad to hear it," said Lloyd George, imperturbably. Promptly
another magistrate went out. One of the few justices remaining
repeated the demand for an apology. Instead of apologizing Lloyd
George made the following reply; "I say this, that at least two or
three magistrates of this court are bent upon securing a conviction
whether there is a fair case or not. I am sorry the chairman left the
court, because I am in a position to prove what I have said. I shall
not withdraw anything, because every word I have spoken is true."

This was really too much. All the lot of the magistrates went out,
their departure being accompanied by the few barbed words from the
young advocate. What happened when the magistrates got together
outside the courtroom can only be guessed. They must have had a
painful discussion among themselves, because presently four of them
came in and rather meekly said they would try the case, though they
again made a protest to the effect that Lloyd George really ought to
apologize. Of course he did not do so.

It was when Lloyd George was twenty-five and was already a highly
popular figure throughout a large part of Wales that he sprang suddenly
into a wider notice and may be said to have had for the first time the
eyes of the whole country centered on him. Wales is a country of
Nonconformists who attend religious services in their own chapels and
do not--at least the great majority of them--belong to the Established
Church of England. The state Church, however, is implanted throughout
the country, and it is only to be expected that local friction should
sometimes arise.

In a village at the foot of Snowdon an old quarryman died, and before
he passed away expressed the wish that he should be laid by the side of
his daughter, who was buried in the graveyard of the Church of England.
The Church clergyman would not consent to the Nonconformist rites being
performed if the old man were buried where he desired to be. The old
man, he said, could not be placed by the side of his daughter, but must
be buried in a remote portion of the graveyard reserved for unknown
people and for suicides. The Nonconformists of the village were
outraged at the suggestion. They went to young Lloyd George and asked
his advice about the matter. Lloyd George plunged deep into legal
enactments, into the local conditions, and all the facts pertaining to
the case. Then he delivered a characteristic judgment. "You have the
right," he said, "to bury this man by the side of his daughter in the
churchyard. If the clergyman refuses you permission proceed with the
body to the graveyard. Take the coffin in by force, if necessary. If
the churchyard gates are locked against you, break them down." The
villagers faithfully followed the suggestion of the young lawyer. They
took the body to the churchyard--I believe Lloyd George accompanied
them--and they broke down the locked churchyard gates, dug a grave for
the old man by the side of his daughter, and buried him there. The
Church authorities were scandalized and an action at law was the
result. It was heard in the local county court before a judge and
jury. Lloyd George defended the villagers, and the jury, influenced by
his speech, returned a verdict in their favor. The judge, however,
said that Lloyd George was wrong on a point of law and decided the case
on the side of the Church. Lloyd George instantly said that the matter
could not rest, and on behalf of the villagers he appealed against the
decision to the Lord Chief Justice in London. The case was heard by
the Lord Chief and another judge, and they came to the conclusion that
the jury's decision was right, that the county-court judge was wrong,
and that Lloyd George was perfectly correct on the point of law in
connection with which he had been overruled.

Lloyd George was twenty-five when he secured this triumph. All the
public were interested in the case, and in the Welsh townships and
villages his name flamed out like a beacon.

III

FIGHTING THE LONE HAND

Lloyd George was twenty-five when his fight for the burial of the old
quarryman lifted him to the public notice of the country at large. The
year was a fateful one for him in other respects. For two or three
years before this he had been speaking at public meetings, securing
more and more confidence as he realized his powers. He became the
banner-bearer for the allied causes of democracy, a free Church, and
the rights of Wales as a nation. His compatriots rallied round him as
their forefathers had rallied round Owen Glendower centuries before.

Working early and late, Lloyd George united his professional
engagements with appearances on the public platform. He was already
rousing those eddies of hatred and that personal devotion on which he
has been borne to fame. Furiously he flung himself into attacks on the
classes from which his political opponents were drawn. He adopted new
methods, he heeded not convention, made always for the thickest of the
fray. All the time there was mixed with his fervor an element of
shrewdness. It was this shrewdness, for instance, which sent him to a
big gathering of his political opponents, where he sat quietly in a
back seat in order to learn what they had to say about him, and
listened to their abuse with keen satisfaction. Gleams of ambition
must have been shooting in upon him by this time. It was impossible
that he had not thoughts of a bigger future for himself, and yet it
came as a thunderclap to him when he heard that he, a youthful
free-lance, had been adopted by the Liberal associations of the
district to be their candidate for Parliament at the next election. It
may be imagined with what zest under this stimulation he carried on his
preparations for the contest whenever it should arise. The
constituency--Carnarvon Boroughs--comprised a group of towns and a
large number of villages. It included castles and mansions and great
estates; a considerable portion of the general body voters were
associated with the landowners and aristocrats. Lloyd George must have
felt it was a pretty hopeless fight, but a fight, nevertheless, which
he would enjoy.

There is one other event to chronicle during this year when he reached
the age of twenty-five. Upon the mountain slopes beyond Llanystumdwy
was a spacious old farm-house, the home of a sweetly pretty Welsh girl
named Maggie Owen. How or when Lloyd George first met her is not
recorded, but in the course of his diary we come across a significant
entry just before this time. The diary refers to a meeting of a
debating society in which he had taken part, and goes on to relate
"Took Maggie Owen home." It is hard to imagine young Lloyd George
anything but an impetuous lover. His suit progressed, and in this same
fateful year of 1888 he was married. It may be said in passing that
never was a happier union, and that in the hard and adventurous life
that lay before the young politician he found in Mrs. George a true
companion. Marriage seemed to strengthen his ambition, and his vision
began to spread over the general field of politics instead of remaining
exclusively, as hitherto, fixed upon projects of special, if not of
exclusive, interest to Wales. Nevertheless he continued the leading
figure in the fight for reforms in his native country. A good deal of
his enthusiasm, for example, was expended on Church disestablishment in
Wales--that is to say, the separation of the English Church from state
support and state endowment, in view of the fact that the majority of
the people were Nonconformists, and that it was unfair to impose upon
them an unwanted and costly church which they had to help support even
though they were Nonconformist enthusiasts. There is nothing like a
religious controversy to stir feelings strongly, and the conflicts in
the campaign for disestablishment were very bitter. Lloyd George's
chief opponent on the other side was the Bishop of St. Asaph, a prelate
of the Church of England, himself a Welshman and a very able man. He
gave the promoters of disestablishment some hard knocks, and it is
related of him that he was particularly effective in one of the
districts. Accordingly, the Nonconformists there brought down Lloyd
George to speak at a public meeting in order to counteract the bishop's
influence. Lloyd George himself tells the story of how he was
introduced at that meeting by the chairman, a leading deacon of the
village. "We have suffered much of late from misrepresentations," he
said. "The Bishop of St. Asaph has been speaking against us and we all
know that he is a very great liar. Thank God we have a match for him
here to-night in Mr. Lloyd George." In later years when Lloyd George
and the bishop became good friends in spite of their differences of
opinion, it was hard to decide which of them enjoyed this story most.

Lloyd George began to speak everywhere, at street corners, in
conventicles, in the market-places, at mass-meetings in the public
buildings, and his peculiar oratory secured him larger and larger
audiences and aroused attention, sympathetic or hostile, all over the
constituency. Many who were lukewarm and went to hear him out of
curiosity were swung by his personality into being supporters. He had
always his own natural style of talk. Possessing a musical and clear
voice, he never strained for effect, rarely used a rotund sentence, but
talked to his audiences in a red-hot conversational kind of way, his
heightened feelings finding expression in a sibilance which always
touched the nerves of his hearers. He seldom interrupted interrupters,
finding it more effective to let them speak and then to deal with them
in his own special manner when they had finished. There were
occasionally exceptions to this, however. In the course of one of his
speeches he exclaimed, "What do my opponents really want?" A husky,
hostile voice from the crowd broke in, "What I want is a change of
government." "No," said Lloyd George; "what you really want is a
change of drink." Another time he had begun a sentence with the words
"I am here," when an opponent in the crowd shouted, "So am I." "Yes,"
said Lloyd George, "but you are not all there." One of his best
retorts in his early days was to a Conservative who came to a Liberal
meeting determined to stand no nonsense. "We must give home rule,"
declared Lloyd George, "not only to Ireland, but to Scotland as well,
and to Wales." "And home rule for hell," shouted a man in the
audience. "Quite right," said Lloyd George; "let every person stick up
for his own country."

A hard-working young professional man, Lloyd George was in for a heavy
fight and, in the opinion of many, a hopeless fight, when the election
came two years later. It was a dramatic chance that selected for his
Conservative opponent the squire of his native village, the dignitary
to whom Lloyd George as a village lad used to touch his hat. Fierce
excitement ranged throughout the election fight. In the result Lloyd
George snatched victory by just a handful of votes, his poll being one
thousand nine hundred sixty-three against the Conservative total of one
thousand nine hundred forty-five. Lloyd George was twenty-seven at the
time of this triumph and became known as "the boy politician." There
were many sneers among his opponents, who pointed out that this fluent
young demagogue had now reached the end of his tether. In the
environment of the House of Commons, among really clever men, he would
sink to the natural inconsequence from which a series of fortunate
accidents had lifted him. And indeed it was not unnatural for even the
sympathetic observer to feel that perhaps this was the end of Lloyd
George, that the ability which he undoubtedly possessed and which had
carried him a considerable distance was not the ability which could do
any more for him. He had projected himself out of the congenial
surroundings wherein his talents had proved of avail, but, like a spent
rocket, he would now rapidly come to earth.

It would have been inconceivable to many of his friends and to all of
his opponents that this twenty-seven-year-old M. P. should have
regarded himself as but on the threshold of his work, should have
looked upon what he had achieved merely as preliminaries to his rarely
serious efforts in life. They would have smiled indulgently or
ironically if they had been told at this period the story of Lloyd
George's diary entry after his first visit to the House of Commons at
seventeen. Probably no person on earth but his wife knew the steely
determination behind her husband's impetuosity.

The young M.P. took his seat in the House of Commons on April 17, 1890.
A Liberal Government was in power. Gladstone, over eighty years of
age, was at the head of it. Political giants whose reputation had
reached young Lloyd George through the newspapers were scattered along
the two front benches. He sat himself down on one of the back seats
and proceeded to look at these men in action and to weigh them up. He
formed some judgments about them. Here is what he wrote about Mr.
Asquith in the course of some work for a Welsh newspaper a little later
on: "A short, thick-set, rather round-shouldered man with a face as
clean shaven as that of the most advanced curate, keen eyes and a
broad, intellectual forehead--he speaks clearly and emphatically. He
sets out his arguments with great brilliancy and force." Little did
the young M. P. think that in the years to come he would be supplanting
this man as Prime Minister of the country.

Right from the start Lloyd George set himself to acquire the methods
and fashions of the House of Commons, with all the involved procedure.
He wanted to avoid the obvious pitfalls. Presently he essayed a
speech, and though he confessed himself as nervous, he did well, and
members spoke highly of his first effort. It is as well to say here
that the House of Commons quickly cuts short the ambitions and hopes of
many young men who on the strength of platform popularity look for
triumph at Westminster. The House of Commons, whatever may be its
drawbacks, has some human qualities, is kindly to beginners, has a
respect for sincerity, an undisguised yawn for bores, and a cold
contempt for swollen-headed young members who try to impress it with
their capacity. When once a member has passed the stage of initial
forbearance due to a new-comer, there grows upon him the fact that the
House of Commons is indeed the most critical assembly in the world.
There are always within it many who have secured their places by money
or influence, but they are in the minority, and the House, as a whole,
including even these rich men, has never any respect for moneyed men as
such, pays no special deference to the person of lordly birth within
its walls. A member is judged absolutely on what he is himself. The
two most popular and respected members in the strangely mixed House of
Commons I watched for years were Mr. Thomas Burt, the father of the
House, who had been a working miner, and that ardent and lovable Irish
Nationalist, Mr. Willie Redmond--both men having secured in
extraordinary measure the personal affection of the whole House. In
some respects, therefore, the House is like a big public school, and
Conservatives and Liberals, notwithstanding their political
differences, are welded together by a common instinct so far as the
domestic character of the Chamber is concerned.

The peculiar atmosphere was not lost upon Lloyd George, and he
diligently attuned himself to the new medium. This would have been
unavailing if there had been nothing in his speeches, but it was soon
realized that here was an interesting new member, a man inexperienced
in some directions, but with bold thoughts, apt phrases, and an almost
unpleasant sincerity. He did not take the House by storm, but still he
was listened to. He quickly developed. Within a year his name was
frequently in the newspapers as one of the guerrilla fighters below the
gangway who gave the Government no peace.

Lloyd George had made up his mind about the statesmen in the House and
had come to a decision that not even the strongest of them was
unassailable. Gladstone led the Government and Lloyd George was his
nominal follower, but on individual matters the young M. P. opposed his
chief. It was rather like a fox-terrier standing up to a lion.
Gladstone had an incomparable prestige, the result of a continuous
half-century of work for his country, including four periods as Prime
Minister. Probably three-quarters of the six hundred and seventy
members of the House of Commons, many of them old politicians, would
have been nervous about tackling Gladstone, who, despite his eighty
years, was still a terrific force in debate, possessing an eagle mien
which subdued opponent and recalcitrant supporters alike. Young Lloyd
George refused to be cowed even by Gladstone.

Wales was pressing for the disestablishment of the English Church
within its borders, and Lloyd George with two or three other Liberal
members bitterly protested about the postponement of this reform.
Difficulties of immediate parliamentary action, the urgency of other
legislation, the opposition from powerful sections of the House, all
these things were nothing to Lloyd George; what he wanted was the
disestablishment of the Church in Wales. Frequently the Prime Minister
in the British Parliament ignores the attacks of the lesser men.
Gladstone could not ignore Lloyd George. He had to answer him.
Sometimes he condescended to berate him, much to the enjoyment of the
assembly. Lloyd George always came up unhurt, alert, and persistent.

In 1892 Mr. Gladstone retired, and his place at the head of the Liberal
Government was taken by Lord Rosebery. Lloyd George, in his efforts to
secure the early passage of the Welsh disestablishment bill, continued
to strike hard at his nominal chief until in 1894 came the end of this
particular sphere of his operations, for the Liberal Government was
turned out and a Conservative Government put in its place. This,
however, was Lloyd George's real opportunity. Independent as he had
been in the ranks of his own party, he now found far greater scope as a
foe in opposition to Ministers in power. He went for them, tooth and
nail, making a dead set at Chamberlain, who had taken Gladstone's place
as the leading figure in the House of Commons. Chamberlain himself had
fought his way up. Those who have seen Chamberlain will never forget
him--the long, strong face, the steady, hard eyes, the straight-cut
mouth, the rigidly erect, slim body, the unfailing single eyeglass, and
the orchid in his buttonhole making a picture which can never be
disassociated from will-power, a mind cold and clear, a lucid gift of
speech, unflinching courage, and a savage contempt for weakness or
inefficiency. He had against him in the House of Commons some able
critics, but not more than two or three could really stand up to him in
argument. I believe there was not a single one even of these who dared
to take off the gloves to him in real fighting earnest. Lloyd George
went into opposition with his eyes fixed on Chamberlain.

From that time onward Lloyd George deliberately fought the Birmingham
statesman on every possible opportunity. In committee, during question
time, at set debate, he pursued him unremittingly. Chamberlain tried
at first to shake him off with a scornful word or two. But Lloyd
George was not to be dismissed as so many others had been. He returned
to the attack like a hornet. He was never appeased, never in doubt,
never content. Chamberlain had presently to take real notice of him.
He turned on the Welshman and with ferocity held him up to scorn and
ridicule--not a difficult task for such a man as Chamberlain,
especially as the majority of the House of Commons were his followers.
Lloyd George certainly had his bad times then. Sometimes his facts
would be proved awry and his arguments fallacious and he would be
harried with merciless sarcasm. He would, in effect, be smashed to
pieces. To the amazement of every one he refused to understand that he
was smashed. After any and every attack he would be swiftly on his
feet, hurling forth fresh accusatory words and ignoring the punishment
he had just received--would be himself the scourger of sin. Sometimes
he even took to imitating Chamberlain's own methods, and pointing a
finger at his distinguished victim, would hiss out his charges word by
word with a vibrant slowness. Even the impassive Chamberlain used
sometimes to color a little under this mimicry. If ever a man went
thoroughly out of his way to be hated it was Lloyd George. But he
gained way. Once under an unsparing attack by Lloyd George,
Chamberlain winced, leaped to his feet, and asked permission to make a
second speech in reply. That was the first occasion which caused
members to say among themselves that Chamberlain, gladiator that he
was, had met his match in Lloyd George.

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