§ THE LORD PRIVY SEAL AND SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA. (THE EARL OF CREWE)My Lords, I feel certain that your Lordships will not desire to proceed to the business of the day without some reference being made to the sad event which we have all noticed in the newspapers of this afternoon. The long struggle which Lord Cawdor carried on against a fatal illness, carried on, as we were told, with the patience of a gallant spirit, has terminated. The career of Lord Cawdor was in some respects a unique one. There have been instances—there are some among men prominent in public life to-day—of those who have achieved high office without having climbed up any of the rungs of the official ladder, but I cannot recall any other instance of a man who, after a career of nine years in the House of Commons, hardworking and creditable, but not, I think, specially distinguished, then left active politics for a period of some twenty years, during which he devoted himself to local affairs and to the presidency of a great railway company, a post filled by him with the utmost distinction—who at the end of that time was called to one of the highest and most responsible offices under the Crown—who only held that office for a short time, but held it long enough to impress upon it his personality and to cause all those who were associated with him to regard him as one of the most capable Ministers who had ever been at the Admiralty. 67 Since then, and after that brief period of office, Lord Cawdor has held a position in the Party of noble Lords opposite and in the public esteem only very short of the highest. My Lords, that is a very remarkable career. We on this side have always recognised Lord Cawdor as a most formidable antagonist, but though his weapons were sharp, they were never barbed; in short, we recognised throughout his public career those same qualities of courage, straightforwardness, and invincible good humour which so endeared him to his friends in private life. I have one special qualification in speaking of Lord Cawdor. I was associated with him during the long days of the Constitutional Conference, and the noble Marquess opposite is the only other man in this House who can say the same. The noble Marquess can speak, and doubtless will speak, of the ability and of the originality of mind which Lord Cawdor showed during the progress of those negotiations, as on other occasions; but I am able to speak from a different standpoint of his breadth of view and that receptive quality of his mind which caused him to examine closely and even sympathetically all propositions that were set before him, even by those to whom he was at the time being opposed. So while we offer to noble Lords opposite our most sincere condolences upon the, as I hold, irreparable loss which they have sustained, we claim for ourselves also a share in the general sorrow which I know the House feels without exception at the bereavement which it has suffered in the death of Lord Cawdor.
§ THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNEMy Lords, I am glad that it should have fallen to the lot of the noble Earl who leads the House to bring this sad subject before us, because he is able to address himself to it, not as we might have done as political allies of the late Lord Cawdor, but as the leader of the whole House. In that capacity he is able to bear witness to the extent of the loss which we have all sustained, and, as he has truly said, it is an irreparable loss. I do not think there is any member of your Lordships' House who has not during the last few weeks followed anxiously, amidst hopes and fears, the progress of that illness which Lord Cawdor resisted with peculiar and indomitable courage, but to which he has succumbed at last. As to Lord Cawdor's position in this House, I think it would be true to say that if any of us, no matter in what part of the House we sit, 68 had been called upon to draw up a list, a very short list, of the most able and conspicuous members of this Assembly, not one of these lists would have been found to have omitted Lord Cawdor's name. Lord Cawdor was an admirable debater—ready, fearless, eloquent: a hard fighter who never was happier than when he was in the fighting line, but a fighter who, as the noble Earl truly said, always fought fairly. He had business abilities of no ordinary description. My noble and learned friend behind me (Lord Halsbury) would, I believe, be ready to testify to the manner in which he devoted himself at one period of his career to the business of his own county. In the management of his own great estates he showed the same thorough and businesslike disposition; and when lie undertook the affairs of that great railway company to which reference has been made it was by his businesslike ability that its position was so greatly improved. At the Admiralty he showed what he was able to do as the administrator of one of the most onerous Departments in the public service. I listened with interest and pleasure to the words which fell from the noble Earl in that part of his speech which dealt with the part taken by Lord Cawdor in the discussions of the Constitutional Conference. I gladly bear out every word that the noble Earl said upon that subject. But while we think of Lord Cawdor's many public qualities we also cannot help at this moment thinking of some of those personal qualities to which he owed so much of his popularity. Those who knew him intimately will, I am sure, agree with me when I say that there never was a more delightful companion or a more invaluable friend and counsellor. In all capacities of life he discovered the secret of attracting to himself the respect and affection of those with whom he came in contact; and perhaps my testimony on this point is worth something, for my acquaintance with Lord Cawdor dates from the time when we were boys together at school. Looking back upon t hat long vista of years I can recall no moment when Lord Cawdor was not surrounded by devoted friends, and when it would not have been true of him to say that he did not know how to make an enemy. To us who sit upon this Bench, Lord Cawdor's death is indeed a calamity. "We loved him; peace be with him; he is dead"; and we offer our sympathy to all those, to his family above all, but to all those who are mourning his loss at this sad hour.
THE EARL OF HALSRURYMy Lords, the only ground on which I can associate myself with this small testimony to Lord Cawdor's memory is the fact that I had with him a lifelong friendship. I sat with him for thirteen years as a member of the same County Bench, and then, as always, he appeared to me a true type of the English gentleman.