mankind. I
have found him the least anxious and always the most self-possessed
observer of events. Quiet, patient, practical, and imaginative, inspired
too by humane motives, he cherishes the unshakable faith that Great
Britain is destined to lead civilization into the future as far as human
eye can see. He places his faith in British character. Rivalry on the
part of powerful nations, even when it is directed against our key
industries, does not disturb him in the least. While others are crying,
"How shall we save ourselves?" he is pushing the fortunes of the British
race in every quarter of the world. And where British trade goes, on the
whole there goes too the highest civilizing power in the world--British
character. It is significant of his faith that he has ever worked to get
the British mercantile marine manned by men of the British race, and to
this end has led the way in improving the conditions of the British
seaman's life.

"All the fallacies and wild theories of revolutionary minds," he once
said to me, "break ultimately on the rock of industrial fact. The more
freely nations trade together the more clearly will it be seen that
humanity must work out its salvation within the limits of economic law.
And the way to a smooth working out of that salvation is by recognizing
the claims of the moral law. We are men before we are merchants. There
is no reason why mistrust should exist between management and labour.
The economic law by no means excludes, but rather demands, humaneness. I
believe that a system of profit sharing can be devised which will bring
management and labour into a sensible partnership. Selfishness on the
part of capital is as bad as selfishness on the part of labour. Both
must be unselfish, both must think of the general community, and both
must work hard. The two chief enemies of mankind are moral slackness and
physical slackness."

There is no man living who would make a better Chancellor of the
Exchequer than this merchant prince who, however, has had enough of
politics and is going back very gladly to his desk in the City. He is
not in the least soured by the public ingratitude, and rightly judges it
to be rather the voice of unscrupulous and stunt-seeking journalism than
the considered judgment of the nation. But he has a very poor opinion of
the way in which the Government of the country conducts its business.

LORD LEVERHULME

LORD LEVERHULME, 1ST BARON (WILLIAM HESKETH