The “Brains” of the Country
The following extract is interesting if only to illustrate the “superior” education possessed by university men and graduates of all that is best in British scholastic circles—not to mention the French.
“The only one of the four British Ministers who speaks French fluently is Mr. Balfour. Mr. Asquith does not speak French, Sir Edward Grey has always required an interpreter when talking to the Foreign Ambassadors, and Mr. Lloyd George has been taking lessons in French recently. On the other hand, few, if any, of the French Ministers have a conversational knowledge of English.” “Daily Chronicle,” 18.11.15.
Still, humiliating though it be to have to rely on working-class intellect when out of their depth, “our” Ministers may be comforted by La Roche Foucauld’s truism : “It is good for a man to live where he can meet his betters, intellectual and social.”