Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/279

 a lofty, ardent nature like Maxse's; but it is salutary all the same. It does not alter, by a hair's breadth, one's sense of duty, while it teaches invaluable lessons of method and adaptation in relation to the social environment. Progress, though inevitable, is seldom to be obtained by a coup.

Frederick Augustus Maxse was born in London in the year 1833. He is now consequently in the full vigor of manhood, lithe of limb, and intrepid of carriage,—every inch an "officer and a gentleman." He is on the retired list; but in an emergency he might well become the Blake of a second commonwealth. Speculative, perhaps somewhat chimerical, in religion and politics, he is yet obviously a man of action, a born commander of men. His father, James Maxse, was a Tory squire of the old school, who had inherited immense wealth, honorably acquired by the Maxse family as merchants in Bristol. He was one of the best heavy-weight riders across country of his generation; and, as for his feats, have they not been duly recorded by Nimrod in connection with the famous Melton meets? On the mother's side the admiral is a Berkeley, his mother being Lady Caroline Maxse, daughter of the fifth Earl of Berkeley. The Berkeleys have for generations been noted for great physical toughness and consistent political Whiggery, the late "Ballot" Berkeley, M.P. for Bristol, being Maxse's uncle. Family politics, however, never influenced the admiral's opinions in the least. He left home too