Identifier: mirrorsofdowning00begb (find matches)
Title: The mirrors of Downing street; some political reflections
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors: Begbie, Harold, 1871-1929
Subjects: Statesmen -- Great Britain Great Britain -- Politics and government 1910-1936
Publisher: New York and London : G. P. Putnam's sons
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Text Appearing Before Image:
can be devised which will bring management and
labour into a sensible partnership. Selfishness on the
part of capital is as bad as selfishness on the part of

LORD INVERFORTH 149

labour. Both must be unselfish, both must think of
the general community, and ooth must work hard.
The two chief enemies of mankind are moral slackness
and physical slackness.
There is no man living who would make a better
Chancellor of the Exchequer than this merchant prince
who, however, has had enough of politics and is going
back very gladly to his desk in the City. He is not in
the least soured by the public ingratitude, and rightly
judges it to be rather the voice of unscrupulous and
stunt-seeking journalism than the considered judgment
of the nation. But he has a very poor opinion of the
way in which the Government of the country conducts
its business.


LORD LEVERHULME

LORD LEVERHULME, 1ST BARON
(WILLIAM HESKETH LEVER)

Born 1851, Lancashire. Educ: Bolton Church Institute; Chairman
of Lever Bros., Port Sunlight; High Sheriff, Lancaster, 1917.
Text Appearing After Image:
© U. & U.
LORD LEVERHULME
CHAPTER XIII
LORD LEVERHULME

" Dullness is so much stronger than genius because there is so much more
of it, and it is better organized and more naturally cohesive inter se. So
the Arctic volcano can do nothing against Arctic ice."—
SAMUEL BUTLER.

The reader may properly wonder to find the figure of
Lord Leverhulme brought before the mirrors of Down-
ing Street. But let me explain why I introduce this industrial
Triton into the society of our political minnows.
Lord Leverhulme rejected politics only when politics
rejected him. He is of that distinguished company to
whom the House of Commons has turned both a deaf
ear and a cold shoulder. He failed where Mr. Walter
Long succeeded, and fell where Dr. Macnamara rose.
I once asked a Cabinet Minister how it was that a
man of such conspicuous quality had failed to win office.
" 1 really cannot tell you," he replied with complacency,
" but I remember very well that the House of Commons
never took to him. It is curious how many men who
do well outside the House of Commons fail to make good
inside."

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