In this second coalition, Bonar Law, whose followers supplied the main body of the ministerial supporters, was partner rather than second-in-command of his chief. He was chancellor of the Exchequer and member of the War Cabinet, and also undertook the leadership of the House of Commons, so as to enable the prime minister to devote the whole of his energies to the prose cution of the war. The House was at first disposed to resent this arrangement ; but before long its respect and indeed affection were won by its new leader's business habits, his courtesy, his readiness to yield in non-essentials coupled with firmness in essentials, his exceptional clearness of head and of expression, and his extraordinary capacity for impromptu reply, without taking a note, at the close of a long debate on an intricate subject involv ing perhaps complicated figures.
It was his duty, as chancellor of the Exchequer, to find the money to meet the gigantic cost of the war, and this was done principally by means of two great loans and by numerous in creases of taxation. Consequently, it must have been with pecu liar gratification that Bonar Law announced in April 1917 that the Imperial War Cabinet had accepted the principle of im perial preference. Throughout the war he opposed a firm front both to pacifists and to pessimists, and never doubted that there could be no peace "until the Germans are beaten and know that they are beaten." As the general election of 1918 approached he responded heartily to Lloyd George's proposal that the Coalition should be con tinued to forward post-war reconstruction. The Coalition obtained an immense majority, and among the Coalitionists Bonar Law's special followers, the Unionists, predominated. When the ministry was reconstituted in Jan. 1919 the arrangement by which Bonar Law led the House was continued, as the prime minister would be much away at the Peace Conference; but he was relieved of the Exchequer, and took the sinecure office of Privy Seal. He was one of the British peace plenipotentiaries, though his duties at Westminster seldom permitted him to go to Paris; and he ap pended his signature to the Treaty of Versailles. During 1919 and 192o he handled post-war disorders and projects, and the passing of the Home Rule Act of 192o, constituting two subordinate Governments and Parliaments in Ireland.
Bonar Law's incessant labours during and after the war under mined his health, which suddenly broke down in March 1921 ; on the advice of his medical advisers, he resigned office at once, and went away to rest in the south of France. He returned in the autumn greatly restored, and took part in recommending the Irish treaty to the House of Commons. During the first half,
and more, of 1922 he only spoke occasionally, but he watched care fully the increasing reluctance of the Conservative party to sup port Lloyd George and the Coalition; a reluctance which had in deed resulted in the formation of a large group of independent "Die-hards" under Lord Salisbury's leadership. When the ques tion was brought to an issue at the Carlton Club meeting on Oct. 19, the decisive factor was Bonar Law's declaration that the only method of preserving the unity of the party was to come out of the Coalition and to appeal to the country as an independent body. Lloyd George at once resigned, and Bonar Law, after being unani mously elected to his old post of party leader, formed a purely Conservative Government, which did not include the most promi nent Conservative Coalitionists. His action was endorsed by the country at the general election in November, when the Conserva tives returned 344 strong, a majority of 74 over all other parties put together. He at once reduced the cabinet secretariat, and restored the Foreign Office to its former position in the official hierarchy; and he carried through Parliament the bill to estab lish the Irish Free State Constitution.
Though he proclaimed the policy of his Government to be one of tranquillity and stability, he found himself, in the winter, deeply involved in political troubles. Unemployment was rampant, with labour unrest and housing problems threatening; a European con ference at Lausanne proved impotent in face of the obstinacy of nationalist. Turkey; and M. Poincare, the French premier, insisted, in spite of Bonar Law's personal intervention at Paris, on despatching a French military expedition to the Ruhr to exact reparations from Germany. Baldwin, his chancellor of the Ex chequer, did indeed succeed in concluding in Jan. 1923 at Wash ington an arrangement to fund the British war debt to the United States; but the terms were so severe that the prime minister was at first reluctant to accept them. Af ter such an anxious winter it is not surprising that in the spring of 1923 his health once more gave way, and he resigned office on Whitsunday, May 20, after a ministry which only lasted 209 days. He survived for five months, dying on Oct. 3o, 1923. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, with every sign of general and genuine mourning, the pallbearers including the prince of Wales, and past, present and future holders of the office of prime minister. He married in 1891 Annie Pitcairn, daughter of Harrington Robley, of Glasgow, by whom he had a family ; but he was left a widower in 19°9. Two sons perished in the world war. (G. E. B.)