Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/59

 the Liberals have had, his Government will be reasonable.

From a Party and Strategical point of view, I believe it madness to have adopted the Fiscal Reform programme, after the unquestionable reverse it had in the hands of the people at the last Election. I never believed myself in Protection, and think Mr Chamberlain in his saner moments was more correct in his diagnosis than he is now, when he remarked that "Protection, if ever brought in, would make the rich richer, and the poor poorer."

Once and once only during his parliamentary career H. H. crossed swords with the War Office, and succeeded in hacking his way through the barricades of red-tape until he reached head-quarters, where the enemy capitulated. The facts were these. A lady wrote to H. H. to tell him that her son at Harrow had been ploughed for the Army, and asking him to use his influence on his behalf. The boy in question was captain of the cricket eleven at Harrow and devoted to all sport, a born leader and one of the most popular boys in the school. The sole fact that R. was captain of the Harrow eleven was sufficient for H. H.—as undoubtedly it would have been for the Duke of Wellington!

The correspondence between H. H. and the War Office, were it permissible to publish it, would make good reading. There could only be one end to such a combat and R. is now a major in the—Hussars. In the course of championing the claims of his young friend, H. H. had an interview with a very important bigwig:

"Look here, Henniker Heaton," said General C