Once there was a little Victorian boy whose father wanted him to become a great statesman. He was sent to Rugby, to aristocratic Trinity College, Cambridge. Then, in order that he might meet statesmen who really mattered, he went to Germany. He became almost intimate with Bismarck, a great feat for a stripling. The Kaiser himself was reported to have listened without displeasure to the conversation of young Austen Chamberlain.
All this pleased mightily Austen's father, the late beloved "Joe" Chamberlain, Lord Salisbury's great Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs. All this training...