Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 120, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1903 — Untitled [ARTICLE]

miership was within his grasp in 1880, when Queen Victoria called him to form a ministry on Lord Bpaconsfleld’B defeat. As Lord Hartington he was elected leader of the Liberal party, and led for five years while Gladstone nominally rested iu bis tent. Lord Hartington was born to greatness, and did not covet honors; ambitions are without his sphere. And so with rare self-denial be called from the tent and handed to him the wreath and the party power he had built up. Six years later, when the home rule split came, he became by consent the leader of the Liberal Unionists who seceded. Lord Salisbury offered to serve under him if he would take the premiership. Again he refused. Whether he was considered last year when Mr. Balfour was chosen to succeed Lord Salisbury is not known. Probably he was not, for three years before he spoke of retiring from political life, and it was not generally believed that his lay in the direction of party headship. An Idea prevails that “the noble Duke,” ns the lords call him, is indolent and indifferent. He may be Indifferent ns to his own advancement, for he hns always been assured of more than apparently he craves for—great wealth, high social position, seven mansions, an honored name in the peerage. He Is careless of his personal appearance, careless of the form and manner of his speech, hut he matter Is always good and the judgment sound.

He Is what people call a safe man. As to actual work In the field of politics, he has done as much as most men, while at the same time guiding important business interests nt Barrow, Eastbourne and elsewhere. He is now TO years of pge, and hns been In Parliament since he was 24.