The Mirrors of Downing Street

The Mirrors of Downing Street

Project Gutenberg's The Mirrors of Downing Street, by Harold Begbie
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Mirrors of Downing Street Some Political Reflections by a
Gentleman with a Duster
Author: Harold Begbie
Release Date: March 9, 2005 [EBook #15306]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
MIRRORS OF DOWNING STREET ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.

[Illustration: RT. HON. DAVID LLOYD GEORGE]

THE MIRRORS OF DOWNING STREET
SOME POLITICAL REFLECTIONS
BY A GENTLEMAN WITH A DUSTER (Harold Begbie)
"_Right and wrong are in the nature of things. They are not words and
phrases. They are in the nature of things, and if you transgress the laws
laid down, imposed by the nature of things, depend upon it you will
pay the penalty_."

JOHN MORLEY.
ILLUSTRATED G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND
LONDON The Knickerbocker Press 1921

COPYRIGHT, 1921
BY
G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS
Printed in the United States of America
PUBLISHERS' NOTE
America and England have worked and fought together and have
brought to a successful conclusion the great war in defence of
civilization against a military imperialism which was threatening to
dominate the world. They have now responsibilities together in
connection with the measures needed to assure the continued peace of
the world and to secure, particularly for the smaller states and for
communities not in a position to become independent nations, the
protection of their liberties, to which they have as assured a right as that
asserted by a state of first importance which can support its claims with
great armies.
In this work of helping to adjust the present urgent problems of the
world, England is demanding cooperation from America. America
could not if she would, and would not if she could, escape her
responsibilities, as the strongest nation in the world, a nation standing
for the rights of men, for leadership in the family of nations. With these
joint responsibilities resting upon England and America, the
personalities of the men who have during the past few years had in their
hands the direction of the affairs of the United Kingdom and of the
great British Commonwealth must possess an assured interest for every
intelligent American.
The clever author of The Mirrors of Downing Street has brought
together a series of critical and biographical studies, presented as
"reflections" from the mirror in the Imperial council chamber, of

thirteen typical Britons who have done noteworthy work during the
years of the war and who are now grappling with the problems of the
peace. The name of the author is not given, but he is evidently one who
has had intimate personal association with the statesmen and
administrators whose characters he presents. These analyses are not
always sympathetic, and we are not prepared to say that they will be
accepted as final. They are, however, based upon full knowledge of the
conditions and a close personal study of the men. Intelligent Americans
will be interested in the opinions held by a clear-headed, capable
English writer of the characters of leaders like Mr. Asquith, Lloyd
George, Mr. Balfour, Lord Robert Cecil, Winston Churchill, and others,
and they will find in these pages first-hand information and clever and
incisive studies of noteworthy men whose influence has counted, and is
still to count, in shaping the history of Britain and of the world.
G.H.P.
NEW YORK, December, 1920.

INTRODUCTION
Let me say that I hope I have not betrayed any confidences in these
sketches.
Public men must expect criticism, and no criticism is so good for them,
and therefore for the State, as criticism of character; but their position is
difficult, and they may justly complain when those to whom they have
spoken in the candour of private conversation make use of such
confidences for a public purpose.
If here and there I have in any degree approached this offence, let me
urge two excuses. First, inspired by a pure purpose I might very easily
have said far more than I have said: and, second, my purpose is neither
to grind my own axe (as witness my anonymity) nor to inflict personal
pain (as witness my effort to be just in all cases), but truly to raise the
tone of our public life.
It is the conviction that the tone of our public life is low, and that this
low tone is reacting disastrously in many directions, which has set me
about these studies in political personality.

There is too