THE WINDOWS OF WESTMINSTER—A Gentleman with a Duster—Putnam ($2.50).
Came, fortnight ago, a book by the gentleman with a duster. It analyzed, portrayed, epitomized British governmental character.
Excerpts:
Baldwin. CHARACTER: "Here is a plain, blunt, simple-hearted countryman. . . . For good or for evil, his personality entirely lacks the flick of a cocktail. He is genuine cider. The small pinched-up eyes, with their uplifted brows, have the shrewdness of the shepherd rather than the sharpness of the merchant; the deep, grave, kindly voice has no note of drawing-room or art coterie, but the tone of a slow, pondering, decisive country mind. He is a man of action, but his activity suggests the fields and not the city. He is quick with humour and not a sluggard in the matter of wit; but both his humour and his wit never suggest the smoking-room and the dinner-party, but rather the open sky and a prospect of shining hills. I think he has something of the peasant's obstinacy and is not altogether free from a certain obtuseness.
. . . "Also it is said of him that while his heart entitles him to the respect and even the affection of mankind, the quality of his intellect is such as constantly to flabbergast his best friends."
BELIEFS: "And he cherishes the hope that it may be in the destinies of Providence that he should win for an enlightened Conservatism this confidence of the self-respecting workers of the country, and that at the head of such a disciplined and self-respecting party he should be able to bring Capital and Labour to a good understanding, and live to see the prosperity of his country established on foundations which nothing can shake—the British Empire the greatest power in the world for peace, justice, and virtue."
Neville Chamberlain: "He holds that the working-classes of the country are responsive to the imperial sentiment. The imperial relationship, he will tell you, is as real to the poor man as to the rich. The poor man may not have the same exalted vision of the imperial destiny as the educated and the traveled man, but he does feel in his blood that the British Empire is something to be proud of. . . . He is a social reformer. He would call himself a Radical, and would not be greatly discomposed if someone called him a Socialist. He believes that every generation is an opportunity for making things better, and that there are conditions in this country crying aloud for reform."