mr. herod, whose death has just been announced by a telegram from lyons, was one of the most striking and forceful personalities of our time.
by birth he was a syrian jew, suffering from the prejudice attaching to such an origin, and apparently with little prospect of achieving the great place which he did achieve in the eager life of our generation.
but his indomitable energy and his vast comprehension of men permitted him before the close of his long and useful life to impress himself upon his contemporaries as very few even of the greatest have done.
our late beloved sovereign, tiberius, perhaps the keenest judge of men in the whole empire, is said to have remarked one evening in the smoking-room to his guests, when herod had[pg 321] but recently left the apartment: "gentlemen, that man is the corner-stone of my eastern policy," and the tone in which his majesty expressed this opinion was, we may be sure, that not only of considered judgment, but of equally considered reverence and praise.
it is a striking testimony to mr. herod's character that while he was still quite unknown (save, of course, as the heir of his father) he mastered the greek and latin tongues, and we find in his diary the shrewd remark that as the first was necessary to culture, so was the second to statesmanship.
it would have been impossible to choose a more difficult moment than that in which the then unknown oriental lad was entrusted by the imperial government with the task which he has so triumphantly accomplished. the levant, as our readers know, presents problems of peculiar difficulty, and though we can hardly doubt that the free and democratic genius of our country would at last have solved them, we owe it to the memory of this remarkable personality that[pg 322] the solution of them should have been so triumphantly successful.
we will not here recapitulate the obscure and often petty intrigues which have combined to give the politics of judæa and its neighbourhood a character of anarchy. it is enough to point out that when mr. herod was first entrusted with his mission the gravest doubts were entertained as to whether the cause of order could prevail. the finances of the province were in chaos, and that detestable masquerade of enthusiasm to which the levantines are so deplorably addicted, especially on their "religious" side, had baffled every attempt to re-establish order.
mr. herod's father (to whom it will be remembered the empire had entrusted the beginnings of this difficult business), though undoubtedly a great man, had incurred the hatred of all the worst and too powerful forces of disorder in the district. his stern sense of justice and his unflinching resolution in one of the last affairs of his life, when he had promulgated his[pg 323] epoch-making edict to regulate the infantile death-rate—a scientific measure grossly misunderstood and unfortunately resented by the populace—had left a peculiarly difficult inheritance to the son. the women of the lower classes (as is nearly always the case in these social reforms) proved the chief obstacle, and legends of the most fantastic character were—and still are—current in the slums of tiberias with regard to mr. herod senior. when, some years later, he was struggling with a painful disease which it needed all his magnificent strength of character to master, no sympathy was shown him by the provincials of the tetrarchy, and, to their shame be it said, the professional and landed classes treasonably lent the weight of their influence to the disloyal side.
it was therefore under difficulties of no common order that mr. a. herod, the son, took over the administration of that far border province which, we fear, will cause more trouble before its unruly inhabitants are absorbed in[pg 324] the mass of our beneficent and tolerant imperial system.
as though his public functions were not burden enough for such young shoulders to bear, the statesman's private life was assailed in the meanest and most despicable fashion. his marriage with mrs. herodias philip—to whose lifelong devotion and support mr. herod bore such beautiful witness in his dedication of stray leaves from galilee—was dragged into the glare of publicity by the less reputable demagogues of the region, causing infinite pain and doing irreparable injury to a most united and sensitive family circle. the hand of the law fell heavily upon more than one of the slanderers, but the evil was done, and mr. herod's authority, in the remote country districts, especially, was grievously affected for some years.
through all these manifold obstacles mr. herod found or drove a way, and finally achieved the position we all look back to with such gratitude and pride in the really dangerous[pg 325] crisis which will be fresh in our readers' memory. it required no ordinary skill to pilot the policy of the empire through those stormy three days in jerusalem, but mr. herod was equal to the task, and emerged from it permanently established in the respect and affection of the roman people. it is a sufficient testimony to his tact and firmness on this occasion that he earned in that moment of danger the lasting friendship and regard of sir pontius pilate, whose firmness of vision and judgment of men were inferior only to that of his lamented sovereign.
unlike most non-italians and natives generally, mr. herod was an excellent judge of horseflesh, and his stables upon mount carmel often carried to victory the colours—rose tendre—of "sir caius gracchus," the nom-de-guerre by which the statesman preferred to be known on the turf.
mr. herod's æsthetic side was more highly developed than is commonly discovered in level-headed men of action. he personally supervised the architectural work in the rebuilding[pg 326] of tiberias, and, of the lighter arts, was a judge of dramatic or "expressional" dancing.
during the earlier years of this eventful career mr. herod's life was greatly cheered and brightened by the companionship of his stepdaughter, miss salome philip (now lady caiaphas), whose brilliant salon so long adorned the quirinal, and who—we are exceedingly glad to hear—has been entrusted with that labour of love, the editing of her stepfather's life, letters, and verses; for mr. herod was no mean poet, and we may look forward with pleasurable expectation to his hitherto unpublished elegiacs on the beautiful scenery of his native land.
by the provisions of mr. herod's will he is to be cremated, and the ceremony will take place on a pyre of cedar-wood in the place bellecour at lyons.
