Live and let live is, of course, a very good and proper
maxim, but it finds no place in the copy-book of sharp,
smart, successful men of business. It is their
aim and purpose to get money—without harm
to others, if they can, if not, others must look out
for themselves—that is all. In one
sense at all events Mr. Chamberlain’s tactics
were justified. They were successful.
And his brethren.
Mr. Chamberlain having obtained such distinction in
public life, it was perhaps only natural that some
of his brothers should be tempted or induced to follow
his shining star. Possibly they had no strong
inclination to distinguish themselves in public, and
were rather pressed to come forward on account of
the influential name they bore. Anyway, some
of them did appear in various offices and capacities,
but without meaning any disrespect to them or any
reflection upon their abilities, it may perhaps be
said that they found their fires so pale and ineffectual
compared with the brilliant light of their eldest brother—or
it may be that they found public work comparatively
uncongenial to them—that, most of them
soon preferred to efface themselves and leave one of
their family and his son to take all the honours and
have all the court cards.
Mr. Richard Chamberlain took the most prominent position,
and made the highest mark of all Mr. Chamberlain’s
brothers. He was Mayor of Birmingham in the years
1879 and 1880. During his years of office he was
public-spirited and popular, and in the way of civic
hospitality he made things lively and gay. He
kept the Council House warm with his entertainments,
and lavished so much money in hospitalities of one
kind or another that he made it difficult for his
immediate successors to follow in his wake, and none
of them tried to do so. So far as I could judge
of his character, Mr. Richard Chamberlain did not spend
his money so freely for the sake of purchasing popularity,
and certainly not for the sake of making ostentatious
displays of his wealth. He was naturally generous
and genial, and as Mayor of a large and important town
he found many ways of humouring his bent, and he did
not mind paying the piper pretty handsomely for his
pleasure. As is well known, he was afterwards
M.P. for one of the Islington divisions for some years.
Ill-health however overtook him, and he died much
regretted on the 2nd of April, 1899.
Another brother, Mr. Arthur Chamberlain, was a town
councillor of Birmingham for a limited period, and
owing to his business capacity he became a useful
member of the Corporation. He did not apparently
go into the Council to make a long stay, or if he
did he changed his mind, and soon retired from municipal
work. He has since spent his time in minding
his own business; in strengthening, mending, and making
certain public companies; in giving fatherly advice
to company shareholders; and in dispensing justice,
sometimes with pertinent observations, on the local
magisterial bench.
