The career of Lord Randolph Churchill is for brilliancy and briefness hardly to be paralleled in mentary annals, Considering how Linge a space he filled in men's minds, what an overpowering personality he was, what an imposing. memory he left: behind him after his early death, it is hard for us to realise the shortness of tie time during which he trod the great stage. He firs: came to notice as the leader of a peculiar stoup of four independent men.- hers on the Conservative side, in the Par-lament of 1880 to 1885. It consisted of Mr. Arthur Balfour, of Mr. (now Sir John) Gorst und Sir H. D. Wolff, now Spanish Ambassador, besides himself, and was dub ed the Fourth Party. In' that eapacity he shewed figuratively a wondrous elasticity, enterprise: and agility. His audacity too was splendid; a young man actually, and in mien and ct ooking ill, h+ would chapei theo dest tw very Malbrouk to the 5 he his motto. As the Sessions rolled ori, he gradually showed himself to be not only a Rupert of Delnte but an oratorical gladiator ith a power of grappling close, an unfailing resource fulness and a perfect presence of mind. His knowledge, at first scanty, grew with every subject that he handled. In 1884 it was quite understood that, in the event of the Conservatives attaining power, some office in the second rank at least must be offered him. Soon afterwards it was stated that he would accept nothing save what he might himself choose, and that if his choice fell on any of the highest Ottices, some of his seniors must make way for him. When a Conservative Government formed in the summer of 1885 under difficulties, with the remnant. of a Session only before them to be followed by dissolution, there was surprise in some quarters when he was appointed a Principal Secretary of State, and when it was found that he had chosen India as his department, his imagination having evidently been excited by visions of the East. During the remain"er of that Session he conducted in the House much of the defence of the newly formed Government. In the autumn recess which followed he conducted the campaign in the constituencies, making Conservative political orations of the utmost. brillinney ind effectiveness. Tt was found that during his short stay in the India Office he had won golden opinions by his considerateness towards colleagues and to officials, by his deference to senior men, and by his quickness in learning matters previously unknown to him. "In the General Blection, he chose to contest a seat in Birminghatn in order to do battle with John Bright as a foeman worthy of his steel.
During the first Session of 1886 he sustained his parliamentary reputation, which had now become vast, by powerful speeches against' Mr. Gladstone's. first fame Rule Bill. When Parliament dissolved in the summer of that year he made orations more magnificent than ever during the campaign that followed—till special trains had to be run to carry his auditors to hear him speak. When shortly afterwards a Conservative Government had to be formed he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the Commons, thus becoming second in command
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.