was ready to resign his
seat. It then was evident he would go over to the Liberal Party. Some
thought he foresaw which way the tidal wave was coming, and to being
slapped down on the beach and buried in the sand, he preferred to be
swept forward on its crest. Others believed he left the Conservatives
because he could not honestly stomach the taxed food offered by Mr.
Chamberlain.

In any event, if he were to be blamed for changing from one party to
the other, he was only following the distinguished example set him by
Gladstone, Disraeli, Harcourt, and his own father.

It was at the time of this change that he was called "the best hated
man in England," but the Liberals welcomed him gladly, and the National
Liberal Club paid him the rare compliment of giving in his honor a
banquet. There were present two hundred members. Up to that time this
dinner was the most marked testimony to his importance in the political
world. It was about then, a year since, that he prophesied: "Within
nine months there will come such a tide and deluge as will sweep through
England and Scotland, and completely wash out and effect a much-needed
spring cleaning in Downing Street."

When the deluge came, at Manchester, Mr. Balfour was defeated, and
Churchill was victorious, and when the new Government was formed the
tidal wave landed Churchill in the office of Under-Secretary for the
Colonies.

While this is being written the English papers say that within a
month he again will be promoted. For this young man of thirty the only
promotion remaining is a position in the Cabinet, in which august body
men of fifty are considered young.

His is a picturesque career. Of any man of his few years speaking our
language, his career is probably the most picturesque. And that he is
half an American gives all of us an excuse to pretend we share in his
successes.

CAPTAIN PHILO NORTON McGIFFIN

IN the Chinese-Japanese War the battle of the Yalu was the first battle
fought between warships of modern make, and, except on paper, neither
the men who made them nor the men who fought them knew what the ships
could do, or what they might not do. For years every naval power had
been building these new engines of war, and in the battle which was to
test them the whole world was interested. But in this battle Americans
had a special interest, a human, family interest, for the reason that
one of the Chinese squadron, which was matched against some of the s