The Tories felt that Mr.Asquith would not make war whole-heartedly: they looked about for a scapegoat; Lord Haldane was chosen for this purpose by the stupidest of the Tory leaders; and the bewildered Prime Minister, with no mind of his own, and turning first to this counsellor and then to that, sacrificed the most intellectual of modern War Ministers, called Sir Edward Carson, to his side, and left the British war machine to Lord Kitchener.
We must make allowance for the time.

No minister in our lifetime was confronted by such a gigantic menace.

Moreover, the Cabinet was not united.

Mr.Asquith came out of that tremendous ordeal creditably, but not, I think, as a great national hero.

As for his conduct of the war, it was dutiful, painstaking, dignified, wise; but it lacked the impression of a creative original mind.