Memoirs of Sir Wemyss Reid 1842-1885 | Page 5

by them, and, if I may venture a criticism, he gave them
too free a hand. Contemporary politics were discussed amongst others
by Mr. Morley, Mr. Bryce, Mr. J. A. Spender, and Mr. Herbert Paul.
Literary criticism, economic questions, and other phases of public
affairs, were handled by Sir Alfred Lyall, Mr. Birrell, Mr. Frederic
Harrison, Mr. James Payn, Mr. Henry James, Mr. J.M. Barrie, Mr.
Quiller-Couch, Mr. Sidney Webb, Mr. L. F. Austin, Mr. A. B. Walkley,
and a score of young writers; whilst men like the late Lord Acton and
Principal Fairbairn, and occasionally Mr. Gladstone himself, lent
further distinction to its pages. No one worked harder in those days for
the Speaker than my brother's ever loyal assistant in its direction, Mr.
Barry O'Brien, whose intimate knowledge of the trend in Irish politics
was invaluable. I shall not anticipate by any comments of my own the
vivid and always genial pen-and-ink pictures which are given of the
chief members of the Speaker staff in that part of the Memoirs which
yet remains unprinted.
I prefer to fall back in this connection on a little bit of reminiscence,
printed in one of the daily papers on the morrow of my brother's death.
It was written by Mr. L. F. Austin, who alas! has so quickly followed
him to the grave. "Some months ago, feeling himself under sentence of
death, Sir Wemyss Reid applied his leisure to the task of completing
his Memoirs. 'Here is a chapter that may interest you,' he said to me one
day, producing a roll of manuscript. It did interest me very much, and
when it comes to be published it will be read with no little emotion by
the men who formed the regular staff of the Speaker under Sir Wemyss
Reid's editorship. He deals with us all in turn in a spirit of the kindliest
remembrance and simple goodwill; and as I read those pages, I felt they
were his farewell to some of the men who have good reason to think of
him as the staunchest of friends." I was in very close association with

my brother during the whole of the ten years in which he retained
control of the _Speaker_, and took my full share of the work. They
were for him years of strenuous and unremitting toil, but he used to say
that there were few greater rewards for a man of his temperament than
to be in the thick of the political movement, and to be in the front rank
of the fighters. He adopted as his motto in life "Onwards"--the
watchword of his old school at Newcastle, emblazoned on the back of
the prizes which he took in far-off days; and from first to last he lived
up to it. Brusque he sometimes was, decisive always; perhaps he was
too easily ruffled in little affairs, but he was magnanimous to the point
of self-sacrifice in great. After quitting, under circumstances entirely
honourable to himself, the editorial chair of the _Speaker_, my brother,
who for years previously had been an occasional contributor to the
pages of the _Nineteenth Century_, contributed regularly to that review
a political survey of the month. Some of his best work was put into
these articles, and the last of them was written under great physical
stress, and appeared almost simultaneously with the announcement of
his death. It was the last task to which he put his hand, and the wish of
his life was granted: he died in harness.
It is not too much to say that neither his interest nor his influence in
political affairs suffered the least abatement in the six closing years of
his life, which bridged the distance between his relinquishment of the
Speaker and the hour when he finally laid down his pen. The withheld
portion of this Autobiography makes that abundantly clear, for, as in a
mirror, it reflects the secret history of the Liberal party. His relations
with Lord Rosebery, both during and after that statesman's brilliant but
difficult Administration, were singularly intimate and cordial--a
circumstance which invests with peculiar interest the final chapters
which he wrote. They throw a dry light on the political intrigues which
occurred after Mr. Gladstone's retirement; they reveal the
difficulties--both open and unsuspected--which beset his successor.
Lord Rosebery has written me a letter, and I have his permission to
quote from it:--"I can only dwell on the sterling notes of courage and
friendship. As to the first, he had taken part in many controversies,
which it is now unnecessary to revive, and borne himself gallantly in
them. But before his life ended he was to display a rarer quality. In
September, 1903, he wrote to me that he could only count on a few

weeks longer of life--that he was condemned