The fate of John Mandeville
is a black blot on the record of Irish government; and it did not
stand alone.
Lord Morley, who had better reasons than most people to dread Mr.
Balfour's prowess, thus described it:
"He made no experiments in judicious mixture, hard blows and soft
speech, but held steadily to force and tear.... In the dialectic of
senate and platform he displayed a strength of wrist, a rapidity,
an instant readiness for combat, that took his foes by surprise, and
roused in his friends a delight hardly surpassed in the politics
of our day."
It is not my business to attack or defend. I only record the fact
that Mr. Balfour's work in Ireland established his position as
the most important member of the Conservative party. In 1891 he
resigned the Chief Secretaryship, and became Leader of the House;
was an eminently successful Leader of Opposition between 1892 and
1895; and, as I said before, was the obvious and unquestioned heir
to the Premiership which Lord Salisbury laid down in 1902.
As Prime Minister Mr. Balfour had no opportunity for exercising
his peculiar gift of practical administration, and only too much
opportunity for dialectical ingenuity.
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