Editing H. H. Asquith (section)

==Early professional career: 1874–1886==
=== After Oxford ===
{{Quote box|width=30%|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|align=right|quoted=y | quote= Perhaps because of his stark beginnings, Asquith was always attracted to the comforts and accoutrements that money can buy. He was personally extravagant, always enjoying the good life—good food, good companions, good conversation and attractive women. |salign = right|source=Naomi Levine, in a 1991 biography{{sfn|Levine|p=76}}}}

After his graduation in 1874, Asquith spent several months coaching [[Newton Wallop, 6th Earl of Portsmouth|Viscount Lymington]], the 18-year-old son and heir of the [[Earl of Portsmouth]]. He found the experience of aristocratic country-house life agreeable.{{sfn|Bates|p=12}}{{sfn|Jenkins|p=25}} He liked less the austere side of the nonconformist Liberal tradition, with its strong [[temperance movement]]. He was proud of ridding himself of "the [[Puritanism]] in which I was bred".{{sfn|Rintala|p=111}} His fondness for fine wines and spirits, which began at this period, eventually earned him the sobriquet "[[wikt:squiffy|Squiffy]]".{{sfn|Rintala|p=118}}

Returning to Oxford, Asquith spent the first year of his seven-year fellowship in residence there. But he had no wish to pursue a career as a [[University don|don]]; the traditional route for politically ambitious but unmoneyed young men was through the law.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=25}} While still at Oxford Asquith had already entered [[Lincoln's Inn]] to train as a [[barrister]], and in 1875 he served a [[pupillage]] under [[Charles Bowen, 1st Baron Bowen|Charles Bowen]].{{sfn|Jenkins|p=27}} He was [[called to the bar]] in June 1876.{{sfn|Alderson|p=36}}

=== Marriage and children ===
There followed what Jenkins calls "seven extremely lean years".{{sfn|Jenkins|p=27}} Asquith set up a legal practice with two other junior barristers. With no personal contacts with solicitors, he received few [[Brief (law)|briefs]].{{efn|The English legal profession is split into two branches. At that time, any member of the public needing legal representation in the High Court or Court of Appeal had to engage a solicitor – who would in turn "instruct" or "brief" a barrister – who had the sole right to appear before the higher courts, but was not permitted to take work direct from the public without a solicitor as intermediary. A barrister without good contacts with solicitors would therefore go short of work. The distinctions between the two branches of the profession have been relaxed to some extent since Asquith's time, but to a considerable degree barristers remain dependent on solicitors for work. See {{harvnb|Terrill|p=58}}.}} Those that came his way he argued capably, but he was too fastidious to learn the wilier tricks of the legal trade: "he was constitutionally incapable of making a discreet fog&nbsp;... nor could he prevail on himself to dispense the conventional patter".<ref name=times2/> He did not allow his lack of money to stop him from marrying. His bride, Helen Kelsall Melland (1854–1891), was the daughter of Frederick Melland, a physician in Manchester. She and Asquith had met through friends of his mother's.<ref name=times2>Spender, J. A. and Cyril Asquith. "Lord Oxford", ''The Times'', 13 September 1932, p. 13</ref> The two had been in love for several years, but it was not until 1877 that Asquith sought her father's consent to their marriage. Despite Asquith's limited income—practically nothing from the bar and a small stipend from his fellowship—Melland consented after making inquiries about the young man's potential. Helen had a private income of several hundred pounds a year, and the couple lived in modest comfort in [[Hampstead]]. They had five children:
* [[Raymond Asquith]] (6 November 1878 – 15 September 1916), who married [[Katharine Asquith|Katharine Horner]] (daughter of [[John Francis Fortescue Horner|Sir John Horner]]) on 25 July 1907. They had three children.
* [[Herbert Asquith (poet)|Herbert Asquith]] (11 March 1881 – 5 August 1947), who married [[Lady Cynthia Charteris]] (daughter of [[Hugo Charteris, 11th Earl of Wemyss|Hugo Richard Charteris, 11th Earl of Wemyss and 7th Earl of March]]) on 28 July 1910. They had three children.
* [[Arthur Asquith]] (24 April 1883 – 25 August 1939), who married Betty Constance Manners (daughter of [[John Manners-Sutton, 3rd Baron Manners]]) on 30 April 1918. They had four daughters.
* [[Violet Asquith]] (15 April 1887 – 19 February 1969), who married Sir [[Maurice Bonham Carter]] on 30 November 1915. They had four children.
* [[Cyril Asquith, Baron Asquith of Bishopstone]] (5 February 1890 – 24 August 1954),<ref name=dnb/> who married Anne Pollock (daughter of Sir [[Adrian Donald Wilde Pollock]]) on 12 February 1918. They had four children.

=== ''The Spectator'' and politics ===
[[File:H-H-Asquith-1876.jpg|thumb|upright|Asquith in 1876]]

Between 1876 and 1884, Asquith supplemented his income by writing regularly for ''[[The Spectator]]'', which at that time had a broadly Liberal outlook. Matthew comments that the articles Asquith wrote for the magazine give a good overview of his political views as a young man. He was staunchly radical, but as unconvinced by extreme left-wing views as by [[Toryism]]. Among the topics that caused debate among Liberals were British imperialism, the union of Great Britain and Ireland, and female suffrage. Asquith was a strong, though not jingoistic, proponent of the Empire, and, after initial caution, came to support home rule for Ireland. He opposed votes for women for most of his political career.{{efn|According to the official biography by J. A. Spender and Cyril Asquith, "he had a profound respect for the mind and intelligence of women{{space}}... But he considered politics to be peculiarly the male sphere, and it offended his sense of decorum and chivalry to think of them as engaged in the rough and tumble of this masculine business and exposed to its publicity. He always vehemently denied that the question had any relation to democratic theory or that the exclusion of women from the franchises was any reflection on their sex." See {{harvnb|Spender & Asquith|p=360}}.}} There was also an element of party interest: Asquith believed that votes for women would disproportionately benefit the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]]. In a 2001 study of the extension of the franchise between 1832 and 1931, Bob Whitfield concluded that Asquith's surmise about the electoral impact was correct.{{sfn|Whitfield|p=228}} In addition to his work for ''The Spectator'', he was retained as a [[editorial|leader]] writer by ''[[The Economist]]'', taught at evening classes, and marked examination papers.{{sfn|Jenkins|pp=31–32}}

Asquith's career as a barrister began to flourish in 1883 when [[Robert Samuel Wright|R. S. Wright]] invited him to join his chambers at the [[Inner Temple]]. Wright was the Junior Counsel to the Treasury, a post often known as "the [[Law Officers of the Crown#England and Wales|Attorney General]]'s [[Treasury devil|devil]]",<ref name=wright>"Death of Mr. Justice Wright", ''The Times'', 15 May 1904, p. 2</ref> whose function included giving legal advice to ministers and government departments.<ref name=wright/> One of Asquith's first jobs in working for Wright was to prepare a memorandum for the prime minister, [[W. E. Gladstone]], on the status of the parliamentary oath in the wake of the [[Charles Bradlaugh|Bradlaugh case]]. Both Gladstone and the [[Attorney General for England and Wales|Attorney General]], [[Henry James, 1st Baron James of Hereford|Sir Henry James]], were impressed. This raised Asquith's profile, though not greatly enhancing his finances. Much more remunerative were his new contacts with solicitors who regularly instructed Wright and now also began to instruct Asquith.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=37}}