experienced
in some directions, but with bold thoughts, apt phrases, and an almost
unpleasant sincerity. He did not take the House by storm, but still he
was listened to. He quickly developed. Within a year his name was
frequently in the newspapers as one of the guerrilla fighters below the
gangway who gave the Government no peace.

Lloyd George had made up his mind about the statesmen in the House and
had come to a decision that not even the strongest of them was
unassailable. Gladstone led the Government and Lloyd George was his
nominal follower, but on individual matters the young M. P. opposed his
chief. It was rather like a fox-terrier standing up to a lion.
Gladstone had an incomparable prestige, the result of a continuous
half-century of work for his country, including four periods as Prime
Minister. Probably three-quarters of the six hundred and seventy
members of the House of Commons, many of them old politicians, would
have been nervous about tackling Gladstone, who, despite his eighty
years, was still a terrific force in debate, possessing an eagle mien
which subdued opponent and recalcitrant supporters alike. Young Lloyd
George refused to be cowed even by Gladstone.

Wales was pressing for the disestablishment of the English Church
within its borders, and Lloyd George with two or three other Liberal
members bitterly protested about the postponement of this reform.
Difficulties of immediate parliamentary action, the urgency of other
legislation, the opposition from powerful sections of the House, all
these things were nothing to Lloyd George; what he wanted was the
disestablishment of the Church in Wales. Frequently the Prime Minister
in the British Parliament ignores the attacks of the lesser men.
Gladstone could not ignore Lloyd George. He had to answer him.
Sometimes he condescended to berate him, much to the enjoyment of the
assembly. Lloyd George always came up unhurt, alert, and persistent.

In 1892 Mr. Gladstone retired, and his place at the head of the Liberal
Government was taken by Lord Rosebery. Lloyd George, in his efforts to
secure the early passage of the Welsh disestablishment bill, continued
to strike hard at his nominal chief until in 1894 came the end of this
particular sphere of his operations, for the Liberal Government was
turned out and a Conservative Government put in its place. This,
however, was Lloyd George's real opportunity. Independent as he had
been in the ranks o