Page:The council of seven.djvu/265

 ever misgoverned the country, but at its head was a man of great abilities. And this man, faced with a terrible menace to the world's peace, was bent upon the only remedy. Come what might, Saul Hartz, "the secret power behind the throne of antichrist," in the picturesque phrase of John Endor—the prime minister himself preferred the saponaceous to the picturesque—must at all costs be broken.

To this end Mr. Williams, with discreet assistance from the Crown lawyers, set himself to devise a Bill. His task was not light, for directly or indirectly almost every salaried official, not to say every wage-earning person in the Island, was now affiliated to the Ring. The measure was on lines long familiar in America, but in "free" Britain it was something new.

The Wilberforce Williams Anti-Trust Law was designed for the castration of the U. P. For that reason it was doubtful if it would ever find its way to the statute book. But as its sponsor mildly said, "There is no harm in trying." From the first, the prime minister was extremely modest about this measure. For one thing, personal modesty was the prime minister's long suit. On the Front Bench, on the platform, at the dinner table, on the golf course, at an evening party, he had always been so modest as to seem apologetic, not to say deprecatory. "Really, my dear sir—to think that I—of all people—should be asked to form a government—why, my dear sir—you know as well as I do—that the idea is positively—ah—ludicrous."