DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49382#0159
CHAPTER III.
BRITISH STATESMEN AT THE HELM DURING THE WAR.
I.
Mr. H. H. Asquith.
When the war began, Mr. Asquith was in his 62nd year. Born
at Morley (Yorkshire) on September 12, 1852, of the commercial
section of the middle class, his rise in life was due entirely to sheer
force of character, ability, industry, and sedulous self-help, and not at
all to outside influence or family connection.
At the City of London School, which he attended, he captured
erery available pri<e, among them a scholarship to BaUiol College,
Oxford. There he became one of Mr. Jowett’s favourite pupils and
achieved a long series of academic triumphs. Leaving Oxford in
1876, he joined Lincoln’s Inn. Not having any influential friends in
the legal profession, he had to serve many weary years of
apprenticeship, waiting for fortune to smile upon him. Success did
finally come, and he became the envy of the profession.
Mr. Asquith entered Parliament in 1886, as Member for East
Fife, a seat which ho held without interruption until he was defeated
at the “ Khaki election” of 1918. His early career in Parliament
was a quiet one, although everybody recognized his ability. No one
dreamt, in those days, that, at the end of six years, during which
he had made scarcely half a dozen speeches in the House of
Commons, he would be given so important an office as that of Home
Secretary.
Before Mr. Asquith had been long in office, he justified Mr.
Gladstone’s faith in him. One of his first acts was to make a
BRITISH STATESMEN AT THE HELM DURING THE WAR.
I.
Mr. H. H. Asquith.
When the war began, Mr. Asquith was in his 62nd year. Born
at Morley (Yorkshire) on September 12, 1852, of the commercial
section of the middle class, his rise in life was due entirely to sheer
force of character, ability, industry, and sedulous self-help, and not at
all to outside influence or family connection.
At the City of London School, which he attended, he captured
erery available pri<e, among them a scholarship to BaUiol College,
Oxford. There he became one of Mr. Jowett’s favourite pupils and
achieved a long series of academic triumphs. Leaving Oxford in
1876, he joined Lincoln’s Inn. Not having any influential friends in
the legal profession, he had to serve many weary years of
apprenticeship, waiting for fortune to smile upon him. Success did
finally come, and he became the envy of the profession.
Mr. Asquith entered Parliament in 1886, as Member for East
Fife, a seat which ho held without interruption until he was defeated
at the “ Khaki election” of 1918. His early career in Parliament
was a quiet one, although everybody recognized his ability. No one
dreamt, in those days, that, at the end of six years, during which
he had made scarcely half a dozen speeches in the House of
Commons, he would be given so important an office as that of Home
Secretary.
Before Mr. Asquith had been long in office, he justified Mr.
Gladstone’s faith in him. One of his first acts was to make a