To take a
concrete example, he, no more than Lord Cromer, would have intoxicated
his mind with a fantastic idea like that of the Cape to Cairo railway as
did Mr. Rhodes. That was at its best only a symbol and at worst the
caprice of an Imperial egoist. Though Mr. Chamberlain had gained from
his training and business success some of the best qualities of the
statesman, that is, confidence in himself, and his sound practical
sense, he was not, as I think his greatest admirers would agree, a deep
political thinker.
He was, however, a great orator and a great parliamentary advocate, and,
if properly briefed, there was no man who could state a case better or
more persuasively than he did. This gift of advocacy, though an advocacy
quite untouched by cynicism, was apt to raise doubts in the public mind
as to his sincerity,--doubts which were due to ignorance of the man and
to nothing else. It is true that he argued as the most convinced and
most happy exponent of Free Trade during the first half of his political
life and later as a convinced Protectionist. Yet I am certain that on
both occasions he was perfectly sincere. In each case, though he did not
realise it, he was speaking from a brief, but from a brief that for the
time had thoroughly converted him and made him think of the policy
advocated in the spirit of a missionary.
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