He
was seldom out of my thoughts. He was in the habit of consulting me
freely in regard to public events and on other great matters, and we
either met and talked or else wrote to each other almost daily. I was a
much younger man than he, and I had not, as he had, come into personal
contact with the problems of practical administration at first hand, but
had been accustomed to see them and deal with them rather as
abstractions. It is true that the questions on which my opinion had to
be expressed in _The Spectator_ were often of vital importance and
that I had to advise my readers thereon. Still, I was never myself an
executant. I was, indeed, rather like the type of laboratory doctor who
has of late come into being. He does not himself come into contact with
the patient though he is asked to investigate special points. His
opinion may have great weight and influence, but he does not carry out
the physical cure of the patient.
Many of Lord Cromer's oldest and most intimate friends may perhaps be
surprised to hear that Lord Cromer consulted me so often and on so many
points. If so, I shall not be astonished at their astonishment. It would
be most natural in the case of a man so self-reliant, so able to judge
and balance things for himself--so little liable to be carried away by
personal feelings, as Lord Cromer.
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