cordial) and other well-known men in the Liberal party, he, in
conjunction with Sir John Brunner, founded the _Speaker_, a weekly
journal which was started on similar lines to the _Spectator_, but
devoted to the advocacy of the Home Rule cause, and broadly of the policy
of Mr. Gladstone. The first number was published on January 4th, 1890,
and from that time until October, 1899, he alone was responsible for its
editorial control. He gathered around him a brilliant staff of
contributors; he used laughingly to say that he was over-weighted by
them, and, if I may venture a criticism, he gave them too free a hand.
Contemporary politics were discussed amongst others by Mr. Morley, Mr.
Bryce, Mr. J. A. Spender, and Mr. Herbert Paul. Literary criticism,
economic questions, and other phases of public affairs, were handled by
Sir Alfred Lyall, Mr. Birrell, Mr. Frederic Harrison, Mr. James Payn, Mr.
Henry James, Mr. J.M. Barrie, Mr. Quiller-Couch, Mr. Sidney Webb, Mr. L.
F. Austin, Mr. A. B. Walkley, and a score of young writers; whilst men
like the late Lord Acton and Principal Fairbairn, and occasionally Mr.
Gladstone himself, lent further distinction to its pages. No one worked
harder in those days for the _Speaker_ than my brother's ever loyal
assistant in its direction, Mr. Barry O'Brien, whose intimate knowledge
of the trend in Irish politics was invaluable. I shall not anticipate by
any comments of my own the vivid and always genial pen-and-ink pictures
which are given of the chief members of the _Speaker_ staff in that
part of the Memoirs which yet remains unprinted.

I prefer to fall back in this connection on a little bit of reminiscence,
printed in one of the daily papers on the morrow of my brother's death.
It was written by Mr. L. F. Austin, who alas! has so quickly followed him
to the grave. "Some months ago, feeling himself under sentence of death,
Sir Wemyss Reid applied his leisure to the task of completing his
Memoirs. 'Here is a chapter that may interest you,' he said to me one