All  as  they  listened  to  it  knew  tliat  the  man
entrusted   by   Gladstone   with  the  fateful   motion


THE   WAR  MINISTERS  145

which  was  to  send  the  Liberals  to  the  Treasury
bench  would  himself  receive  office.  There  was
surprise,  however,  when  by  a  single  stride,  at  a
time  less  venturesome  than  the  present,  the  lawyer
politician,  born,  as  he  said,  in  "a  humble  station  of
life "  and  without  powerful  social  connections,
entered  the  Cabinet  as  a  Secretary  of  State.  His
Conservative  predecessor  at  the  Home  Office  had
gone  straight  to  it  without  holding  a  subordinate
post,  but  whereas  Henry  Matthews  on  his  appoint-
ment was  sixty  and  a  leader  at  the  bar,  Mr.  Asquith
was  only  forty  and  had  taken  silk  only  two  years
previously.
I  think  the  chief  impression  produced  by  Mr.
Asquith  as  Home  Secretary  was  that  of  a  firm,
efficient  administrator.  He  was  then,  as  always,
a  quick,  clean  worker.  He  saw  things  clearly  and
when  he  made  up  his  mind  he  held  by  his  decision.
Although  the  Government  had  only  a  small  majority,
including  Nationalists,  he  would  not  give  way  to
pressure.  He  was  attacked  in  one  quarter  because
he  resisted  demands  for  an  unconditional  amnesty
to  dynamiters  and  he  incurred  odium  in  extreme
Labour  circles  by  authorizing  the  employment  of
troops  to  aid  the  Local  Authority  in  dealing  with
strike  disorder  in  Yorkshire.  For  his  staunchness
in  this  affair,  while  clearly  showing  that  the  forces
of  the  Crown  were  not  used  in  the  interests  of
employers,  he  was  much  praised  by  Conservatives.
