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diff --git a/31711-tei/31711-tei.tei b/31711-tei/31711-tei.tei new file mode 100644 index 0000000..57506e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/31711-tei/31711-tei.tei @@ -0,0 +1,31485 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> + +<!DOCTYPE TEI.2 SYSTEM "http://www.gutenberg.org/tei/marcello/0.4/dtd/pgtei.dtd" [ + +<!ENTITY u5 "http://www.tei-c.org/Lite/"> + +]> + +<TEI.2 lang="en"> +<teiHeader> + <fileDesc> + <titleStmt> + <title>The Life of William Ewart Gladstone (Vol 3 of 3)</title> + <author><name reg="Morley, John">John Morley</name></author> + </titleStmt> + <editionStmt> + <edition n="1">Edition 1</edition> + </editionStmt> + <publicationStmt> + <publisher>Project Gutenberg</publisher> + <date>March 20, 2010</date> + <idno type="etext-no">31711</idno> + <availability> + <p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and + with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it + away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg + License online at www.gutenberg.org/license</p> + </availability> + </publicationStmt> + <sourceDesc> + <bibl> + Created electronically. + </bibl> + </sourceDesc> + </fileDesc> + <encodingDesc> + </encodingDesc> + <profileDesc> + <langUsage> + <language id="en"></language> + </langUsage> + </profileDesc> + <revisionDesc> + <change> + <date value="2010-03-20">March 20, 2010</date> + <respStmt> + <name> + Produced by Paul Murray, David King, and the Online + Distributed Proofreading Team at <http://www.pgdp.net/>. + </name> + </respStmt> + <item>Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1</item> + </change> + </revisionDesc> +</teiHeader> + +<pgExtensions> + <pgStyleSheet> + .boxed { x-class: boxed } + .shaded { x-class: shaded } + .rules { x-class: rules; rules: all } + .indent { margin-left: 2 } + .bold { font-weight: bold } + .italic { font-style: italic } + .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps } + </pgStyleSheet> + + <pgCharMap formats="txt.iso-8859-1"> + <char id="U0x2014"> + <charName>mdash</charName> + <desc>EM DASH</desc> + <mapping>--</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x2003"> + <charName>emsp</charName> + <desc>EM SPACE</desc> + <mapping> </mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x2026"> + <charName>hellip</charName> + <desc>HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS</desc> + <mapping>...</mapping> + </char> + </pgCharMap> +</pgExtensions> + +<text lang="en"> + <front> + <div> + <divGen type="pgheader" /> + </div> + <div> + <divGen type="encodingDesc" /> + </div> + + <div rend="page-break-before: always"> + <p rend="font-size: xx-large; text-align: center">The Life Of</p> + <p rend="font-size: xx-large; text-align: center">William Ewart Gladstone</p> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">By</p> + <p rend="font-size: x-large; text-align: center">John Morley</p> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">In Three Volumes—Vol. III.</p> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">(1890-1898)</p> + <p rend="text-align: center">Toronto</p> + <p rend="text-align: center">George N. Morang & Company, Limited</p> + <p rend="text-align: center">Copyright, 1903</p> + <p rend="text-align: center">By The Macmillan Company</p> + </div> + <div rend="page-break-before: always"> + <head>Contents</head> + <divGen type="toc" /> + </div> + + </front> +<body> + +<pb n='001'/><anchor id='Pg001'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Book VIII. 1880-1885</head> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter I. Opening Days Of The New Parliament. (1880)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l>Il y a bien du factice dans le classement politique des hommes.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 48'>—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Guizot.</hi></l> +</lg> + +<p> +There is plenty of what is purely artificial in the political classification +of men. +</p> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +On May 20, after eight-and-forty years of strenuous public +life, Mr. Gladstone met his twelfth parliament, and the second +in which he had been chief minister of the crown. <q>At 4.15,</q> +he records, <q>I went down to the House with Herbert. There +was a great and fervent crowd in Palace Yard, and much +feeling in the House. It almost overpowered me, as I +thought by what deep and hidden agencies I have been +brought back into the midst of the vortex of political action +and contention. It has not been in my power during these +last six months to have made notes, as I would have wished, +of my own thoughts and observations from time to time; of +the new access of strength which in some important respects +has been administered to me in my old age; and of the +remarkable manner in which Holy Scripture has been +applied to me for admonition and for comfort. Looking +calmly on this course of experience, I do believe that the +Almighty has employed me for His purposes in a manner +larger or more special than before, and has strengthened me +and led me on accordingly, though I must not forget the +<pb n='002'/><anchor id='Pg002'/> +admirable saying of Hooker, that even ministers of good +things are like torches, a light to others, waste and destruction +to themselves.</q> +</p> + +<p> +One who approached his task in such a spirit as this was at +least impregnable to ordinary mortifications, and it was well; +for before many days were over it became perceptible that the +new parliament and the new majority would be no docile +instrument of ministerial will. An acute chill followed the +discovery that there was to be no recall of Frere or Layard. +Very early in its history Speaker Brand, surveying his flock +from the august altitude of the Chair with an acute, experienced, +and friendly eye, made up his mind that the liberal +party were <q>not only strong, but determined to have their +own way in spite of Mr. Gladstone. He has a difficult team +to drive.</q> Two men of striking character on the benches +opposite quickly became formidable. Lord Randolph +Churchill headed a little group of four tories, and Mr. +Parnell a resolute band of five and thirty Irishmen, with +momentous results both for ministers and for the House +of Commons. +</p> + +<p> +No more capable set of ruling men were ever got together +than the cabinet of 1880; no men who better represented +the leading elements in the country, in all their variety and +strength. The great possessors of land were there, and the +heirs of long governing tradition were there; the industrious +and the sedate of the middle classes found their men seated +at the council board, by the side of others whose keen-sighted +ambition sought sources of power in the ranks of +manual toil; the church saw one of the most ardent of her +sons upon the woolsack, and the most illustrious of them in +the highest place of all; the people of the chapel beheld with +complacency the rising man of the future in one who publicly +boasted an unbroken line of nonconformist descent. They +were all men well trained in the habits of business, of large +affairs, and in experience of English life; they were all in +spite of difference of shade genuinely liberal; and they all +professed a devoted loyalty to their chief. The incident of +the resolutions on the eastern question<note place='foot'>Above, vol. ii. pp. +563-8.</note> was effaced from all +<pb n='003'/><anchor id='Pg003'/> +<note place='margin'>The Cabinet A Coalition</note> +memories, and men who in those days had assured themselves +that there was no return from Elba, became faithful marshals +of the conquering hero. Mediocrity in a long-lived cabinet +in the earlier part of the century was the object of Disraeli's +keenest mockery. Still a slight ballast of mediocrity in a +government steadies the ship and makes for unity—a truth, +by the way, that Mr. Disraeli himself, in forming governments, +sometimes conspicuously put in practice. +</p> + +<p> +In fact Mr. Gladstone found that the ministry of which he +stood at the head was a coalition, and what was more, a +coalition of that vexatious kind, where those who happened +not to agree sometimes seemed to be almost as well pleased +with contention as with harmony. The two sections were not +always divided by differences of class or station, for some of +the peers in the cabinet often showed as bold a liberalism as +any of the commoners. This notwithstanding, it happened +on more than one critical occasion, that all the peers <emph>plus</emph> +Lord Hartington were on one side, and all the commoners on +the other. Lord Hartington was in many respects the lineal +successor of Palmerston in his coolness on parliamentary +reform, in his inclination to stand in the old ways, in his +extreme suspicion of what savoured of sentiment or idealism +or high-flown profession. But he was a Palmerston who respected +Mr. Gladstone, and desired to work faithfully under +him, instead of being a Palmerston who always intended to +keep the upper hand of him. Confronting Lord Hartington +was Mr. Chamberlain, eager, intrepid, self-reliant, alert, daring, +with notions about property, taxation, land, schools, +popular rights, that he expressed with a plainness and pungency +of speech that had never been heard from a privy councillor +and cabinet minister before, that exasperated opponents, +startled the whigs, and brought him hosts of adherents among +radicals out of doors. It was at a very early stage in the +existence of the government, that this important man said to +an ally in the cabinet, <q>I don't see how we are to get on, if +Mr. Gladstone goes.</q> And here was the key to many leading +incidents, both during the life of this administration and +for the eventful year in Mr. Gladstone's career that followed +its demise. +</p> + +<pb n='004'/><anchor id='Pg004'/> + +<p> +The Duke of Argyll, who resigned very early, wrote to Mr. +Gladstone after the government was overthrown (Dec. 18, +1885), urging him in effect to side definitely with the whigs +against the radicals:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +From the moment our government was fairly under way, I saw +and felt that speeches <emph>outside</emph> were allowed to affect opinion, and +politically to commit the cabinet in a direction which was not +determined by you deliberately, or by the government as a whole, +but by the audacity ... of our new associates. Month by +month I became more and more uncomfortable, feeling that there +was no paramount direction—nothing but <emph>slip</emph> and <emph>slide</emph>, +what the Scotch call <q>slithering.</q> The outside world, knowing your great +gifts and powers, assume that you are dictator in your own cabinet. +And in one sense you are so, that is to say, that when you +choose to put your foot down, others will give way. But your +amiability to colleagues, your even extreme gentleness towards +them, whilst it has always endeared you to them personally, has +enabled men playing their own game ... to take out of your +hands the <emph>formation</emph> of opinion. +</quote> + +<p> +On a connected aspect of the same thing, Mr. Gladstone +wrote to Lord Rosebery (Sept. 16, 1880):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +... All this is too long to bore people with—and yet it is not +so long, nor so interesting, as one at least of the subjects which we +just touched in conversation at Mentmore; the future of politics, +and the food they offer to the mind. What is outside parliament +seems to me to be fast mounting, nay to have already mounted, to +an importance much exceeding what is inside. Parliament deals +with laws, and branches of the social tree, not with the root. I +always admired Mrs. Grote's saying that politics and theology +were the only two really great subjects; it was wonderful considering +the atmosphere in which she had lived. I do not doubt +which of the two she would have put in the first place; and to +theology I have no doubt she would have given a wide sense, as +including everything that touches the relation between the seen +and the unseen. +</quote> + +<p> +What is curious to note is that, though Mr. Gladstone in +making his cabinet had thrown the main weight against +<pb n='005'/><anchor id='Pg005'/> +<note place='margin'>Character As Head Of The Cabinet</note> +the radicals, yet when they got to work, it was with them he +found himself more often than not in energetic agreement. +In common talk and in partisan speeches, the prime +minister was regarded as dictatorial and imperious. The +complaint of some at least among his colleagues in the +cabinet of 1880 was rather that he was not imperious +enough. Almost from the first he too frequently allowed +himself to be over-ruled; often in secondary matters, it is +true, but sometimes also in matters on the uncertain frontier +between secondary and primary. Then he adopted a +practice of taking votes and counting numbers, of which +more than one old hand complained as an innovation. +Lord Granville said to him in 1886, <q>I think you too often +counted noses in your last cabinet.</q> +</p> + +<p> +What Mr. Gladstone described as the severest fight that +he had ever known in any cabinet occurred in 1883, upon the +removal of the Duke of Wellington's statue from Hyde +Park Corner. A vote took place, and three times over he +took down the names. He was against removal, but was +unable to have his own way over the majority. Members of +the government thought themselves curiously free to walk +out from divisions. On a Transvaal division two members +of the cabinet abstained, and so did two other ministers out +of the cabinet. In other cases, the same thing happened, +not only breaking discipline, but breeding much trouble with +the Queen. Then an unusual number of men of ability and +of a degree of self-esteem not below their ability, had been +left out of the inner circle; and they and their backers were +sometimes apt to bring their pretensions rather fretfully +forward. These were the things that to Mr. Gladstone's +temperament proved more harassing than graver concerns. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +All through the first two months of its business, the +House showed signs of independence that almost broke the +spirit of the ministerial whips. A bill about hares and +rabbits produced lively excitement, ministerialists moved +amendments upon the measure of their own leaders, and the +minister in charge boldly taxed the mutineers with insincerity. +<pb n='006'/><anchor id='Pg006'/> +A motion for local option was carried by 229 to +203, both Mr. Gladstone and Lord Hartington in the minority. +On a motion about clerical restrictions, only a strong and +conciliatory appeal from the prime minister averted defeat. +A more remarkable demonstration soon followed. The +Prince Imperial, unfortunate son of unfortunate sire, who +had undergone his famous baptism of fire in the first +reverses among the Vosges in the Franco-German war of +1870, was killed in our war in Zululand. Parliament was +asked to sanction a vote of money for a memorial of him in +the Abbey. A radical member brought forward a motion +against it. Both Mr. Gladstone and Sir Stafford Northcote +resisted him, yet by a considerable majority the radical carried +his point. The feeling was so strong among the ministerialists, +that notwithstanding Mr. Gladstone's earnest exhortation, +they voted almost to a man against him, and he only +carried into the lobby ten official votes on the treasury bench. +</p> + +<p> +The great case in which the government were taken to +have missed the import of the election was the failure to +recall Sir Bartle Frere from South Africa. Of this I shall +have enough to say by and by. Meanwhile it gave an +undoubted shock to the confidence of the party, and their +energetic remonstrance on this head strained Mr. Gladstone's +authority to the uttermost. The Queen complained of the +tendency of the House of Commons to trench upon the +business of the executive. Mr. Gladstone said in reply +generally, that no doubt within the half century <q>there +had been considerable invasion by the House of Commons +of the province assigned by the constitution to the executive,</q> +but he perceived no increase in recent times or in the present +House. Then he proceeded (June 8, 1880):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +... Your Majesty may possibly have in view the pressure which +has been exercised on the present government in the case of Sir +Bartle Frere. But apart from the fact that this pressure represents +a feeling which extends far beyond the walls of parliament, your +Majesty may probably remember that, in the early part of 1835, +the House of Commons addressed the crown against the appointment +of Lord Londonderry to be ambassador at St. Petersburg, on +<pb n='007'/><anchor id='Pg007'/> +<note place='margin'>An Independent House Of Commons</note> +account, if Mr. Gladstone remembers rightly, of a general antecedent +disapproval. This was an exercise of power going far +beyond what has happened now; nor does it seem easy in +principle to place the conduct of Sir B. Frere beyond that general +right of challenge and censure which is unquestionably within the +function of parliament and especially of the House of Commons. +</quote> + +<p> +In the field where mastery had never failed him, Mr. Gladstone +achieved an early success, and he lost no time in justifying +his assumption of the exchequer. The budget (June +10) was marked by the boldness of former days, and was +explained and defended in one of those statements of which +he alone possessed the secret. Even unfriendly witnesses +agreed that it was many years since the House of Commons +had the opportunity of enjoying so extraordinary an intellectual +treat, where <q>novelties assumed the air of indisputable +truths, and complicated figures were woven into the thread +of intelligible and animated narrative.</q> He converted the +malt tax into a beer duty, reduced the duties on light +foreign wines, added a penny to the income tax, and adjusted +the licence duties for the sale of alcoholic liquors. Everybody +said that <q>none but a <foreign rend='italic'>cordon bleu</foreign> could have made +such a sauce with so few materials.</q> The dish was excellently +received, and the ministerial party were in high +spirits. The conservatives stood angry and amazed that +their own leaders had found no device for the repeal of +the malt duty. The farmer's friends, they cried, had been +in office for six years and had done nothing; no sooner +is Gladstone at the exchequer than with magic wand he +effects a transformation, and the long-suffering agriculturist +has justice and relief. +</p> + +<p> +In the course of an effort that seemed to show full vigour +of body and mind, Mr. Gladstone incidentally mentioned that +when a new member he recollected hearing a speech upon the +malt tax in the old House of Commons in the year 1833. Yet +the lapse of nearly half a century of life in that great arena +had not relaxed his stringent sense of parliamentary duty. +During most of the course of this first session, he was always +early in his place and always left late. In every discussion +<pb n='008'/><anchor id='Pg008'/> +he came to the front, and though an under-secretary made +the official reply, it was the prime minister who wound up. +One night he made no fewer than six speeches, touching all +the questions raised in a miscellaneous night's sitting. +</p> + +<p> +In the middle of the summer Mr. Gladstone fell ill. +Consternation reigned in London. It even exceeded the +dismay caused by the defeat at Maiwand. A friend went to +see him as he lay in bed. <q>He talked most of the time, not +on politics, but on Shakespeare's Henry viii., and the decay +of theological study at Oxford. He never intended his +reform measure to produce this result.</q> After his recovery, +he went for a cruise in the <hi rend='italic'>Grantully Castle</hi>, not returning +to parliament until September 4, three days before the +session ended, when he spoke with all his force on the +eastern question. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +In the electoral campaign Mr. Gladstone had used expressions +about Austria that gave some offence at Vienna. On +coming into power he volunteered an assurance to the +Austrian ambassador that he would willingly withdraw his +language if he understood that he had misapprehended the +circumstances. The ambassador said that Austria meant +strictly to observe the treaty of Berlin. Mr. Gladstone then +expressed his regret for the words <q>of a painful and wounding +character</q> that had fallen from him. At the time, he explained, +he was <q>in a position of greater freedom and less +responsibility.</q> +</p> + +<p> +At the close of the session of 1880, ministers went to work +upon the unfulfilled portions of the Berlin treaty relating to +Greece and Montenegro. Those stipulations were positive in +the case of Montenegro; as to Greece they were less definite, +but they absolutely implied a cession of more or less territory +by Turkey. They formed the basis of Lord Salisbury's correspondence, +but his arguments and representations were +without effect. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues went further. They proposed +and obtained a demonstration off the Albanian coast +on behalf of Montenegro. Each great Power sent a man-of-war, +but the concert of Europe instantly became what +<pb n='009'/><anchor id='Pg009'/> +<note place='margin'>Naval Demonstration</note> +Mr. Gladstone called a farce, for Austria and Germany made +known that under no circumstances would they fire a shot. +France rather less prominently took the same course. This +defection, which was almost boastful on the part of Austria +and Germany, convinced the British cabinet that Turkish +obduracy would only be overcome by force, and the question +was how to apply force effectually with the least risk to +peace. As it happened, the port of Smyrna received an +amount of customs' duties too considerable for the Porte to +spare it. The idea was that the united fleet at Cattaro should +straightway sail to Smyrna and lay hold upon it. The +cabinet, with experts from the two fighting departments, +weighed carefully all the military responsibilities, and considered +the sequestration of the customs' dues at Smyrna to +be practicable. Russia and Italy were friendly. France had +in a certain way assumed special cognisance of the Greek +case, but did nothing particular. From Austria and Germany +nothing was to be hoped. On October 4, the Sultan +refused the joint European request for the fulfilment of +the engagements entered into at Berlin. This refusal was +despatched in ignorance of the intention to coerce. The +British government had only resolved upon coercion in +concert with Europe. Full concert was now out of the +question. But on the morning of Sunday, the 10th, Mr. +Gladstone and Lord Granville learned with as much surprise +as delight from Mr. Goschen, then ambassador extraordinary +at Constantinople, that the Sultan had heard of the British +proposal of force, and apparently had not heard of the two +refusals. On learning how far England had gone, he determined +to give way on both the territorial questions. As Mr. +Gladstone enters in his diary, <q>a faint tinge of doubt +remained.</q> That is to say, the Sultan might find out the +rift in the concert and retract. Russia, however, had actually +agreed to force. On Tuesday, the 12th, Mr. Gladstone, meeting +Lord Granville and another colleague, was <q>under the +circumstances prepared to proceed <foreign rend='italic'>en trois</foreign>.</q> +The other two <q>rather differed.</q> Of course it would have been for the +whole cabinet to decide. But between eleven and twelve +Lord Granville came in with the news that the note had +arrived and all was well. <q>The whole of this extraordinary +<pb n='010'/><anchor id='Pg010'/> +volte-face,</q> as Mr. Gladstone said with some complacency, +<q>had been effected within six days; and it was entirely due +not to a threat of coercion from Europe, but to the knowledge +that Great Britain had asked Europe to coerce.</q> +Dulcigno was ceded by the Porte to Montenegro. On the +Greek side of the case, the minister for once was less +ardent than for the complete triumph of his heroic Montenegrins, +but after tedious negotiations Mr. Gladstone had +the satisfaction of seeing an important rectification of the +Greek frontier, almost restoring his Homeric Greece. The +eastern question looked as if it might fall into one of +its fitful slumbers once more, but we shall soon see that +this was illusory. Mr. Goschen left Constantinople in May, +and the prime minister said to him (June 3, 1881):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I write principally for the purpose of offering you my hearty +congratulations on the place you have taken in diplomacy by force +of mind and character, and on the services which, in thus far serving +the most honourable aims a man can have, you have rendered +to liberty and humanity. +</quote> + +<p> +Only in Afghanistan was there a direct reversal of the +policy of the fallen government. The new cabinet were not +long in deciding on a return to the older policy in respect +of the north-west frontier of India. All that had happened +since it had been abandoned, strengthened the case against +the new departure. The policy that had been pursued +amid so many lamentable and untoward circumstances, +including the destruction of a very gallant agent of England +at Cabul, had involved the incorporation of Candahar +within the sphere of the Indian system. Mr. Gladstone +and his cabinet determined on the evacuation of Candahar. +The decision was made public in the royal speech of the +following January (1881). Lord Hartington stated the case +of the government with masterly and crushing force, in a +speech,<note place='foot'>March 25-6, 1881.</note> which is no less than a strong +text-book of the whole argument, if any reader should now desire to comprehend +it. The evacuation was censured in the Lords by 165 +against 79; in the Commons ministers carried the day by a +majority of 120. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='011'/><anchor id='Pg011'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter II. An Episode In Toleration. (1880-1883)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +The state, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their +opinions; if they be willing faithfully to serve it, that satisfies. +... Take heed of being sharp, or too easily sharpened by others, +against those to whom you can object little but that they square +not with you in every opinion concerning matters of religion. +</p> + +<p> +—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Oliver Cromwell</hi>. +</p> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +One discordant refrain rang hoarsely throughout the five +years of this administration, and its first notes were heard +even before Mr. Gladstone had taken his seat. It drew him +into a controversy that was probably more distasteful to him +than any other of the myriad contentions, small and great, +with which his life was encumbered. Whether or not he +threaded his way with his usual skill through a labyrinth +of parliamentary tactics incomparably intricate, experts may +dispute, but in an ordeal beyond the region of tactics he +never swerved from the path alike of liberty and common-sense. +It was a question of exacting the oath of allegiance +before a member could take his seat. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Bradlaugh, the new member for Northampton, who +now forced the question forward, as O'Connell had forced +forward the civil equality of catholics, and Rothschild and +others the civil equality of Jews, was a free-thinker of a +daring and defiant type. Blank negation could go no +further. He had abundant and genuine public spirit, and a +strong love of truth according to his own lights, and he +was both a brave and a disinterested man. This hard-grit +secularism of his was not the worst of his offences in the +view of the new majority and their constituents. He had +published an impeachment of the House of Brunswick, +<pb n='012'/><anchor id='Pg012'/> +which few members of parliament had ever heard of or +looked at. But even abstract republicanism was not the +worst. What placed him at extreme disadvantage in +fighting the battle in which he was now engaged, was his +republication of a pamphlet by an American doctor on that +impracticable question of population, which though too +rigorously excluded from public discussion, confessedly lies +among the roots of most other social questions. For this he +had some years before been indicted in the courts, and had +only escaped conviction and punishment by a technicality. +It was Mr. Bradlaugh's refusal to take the oath in a court of +justice that led to the law of 1869, enabling a witness to +affirm instead of swearing. He now carried the principle a +step further. +</p> + +<p> +When the time came, the Speaker (April 29) received a +letter from the iconoclast, claiming to make an affirmation, +instead of taking the oath of allegiance.<note place='foot'>Bradlaugh, +who was a little vain +of his legal skill, founded this claim +upon the Evidence Amendment Act, +taken in connection with the Parliamentary +Oaths and other Acts.</note> He consulted his +legal advisers, and they gave an opinion strongly adverse to +the claim. On this the Speaker wrote to Mr. Gladstone and +to Sir Stafford Northcote, stating his concurrence in the +opinion of the lawyers, and telling them that he should leave +the question to the House. His practical suggestion was +that on his statement being made, a motion should be +proposed for a select committee. The committee was duly +appointed, and it reported by a majority of one, against +a minority that contained names so weighty as Sir Henry +James, Herschell, Whitbread, and Bright, that the claim to +affirm was not a good claim. So opened a series of incidents +that went on as long as the parliament, clouded the radiance +of the party triumph, threw the new government at once +into a minority, dimmed the ascendency of the great +minister, and what was more, showed human nature at its +worst. The incidents themselves are in detail not worth +recalling here, but they are a striking episode in the history +of toleration, as well as a landmark in Mr. Gladstone's +journey from the day five-and-forty years before when, in +<pb n='013'/><anchor id='Pg013'/> +<note place='margin'>The Bradlaugh Case</note> +reference to Molesworth as candidate for Leeds, he had told +his friends at Newark that men who had no belief in divine +revelation were not the men to govern this nation whether +they be whigs or radicals.<note place='foot'>See vol. i. p. 138.</note> +</p> + +<p> +His claim to affirm having been rejected, Bradlaugh next +desired to swear. The ministerial whip reported that the +feeling against him in the House was uncontrollable. The +Speaker held a council in his library with Mr. Gladstone, +the law officers, the whip, and two or three other persons of +authority and sense. He told them that if Bradlaugh had +in the first instance come to take the oath, he should have +allowed no intervention, but that the case was altered by the +claimant's open declaration that an oath was not binding on +his conscience. A hostile motion was expected when Bradlaugh +came to the table to be sworn, and the Speaker +suggested that it should be met by the previous question, to +be moved by Mr. Gladstone. Then the whip broke in with +the assurance that the usual supporters of the government +could not be relied upon. The Speaker went upstairs to +dress, and on his return found that they had agreed on +moving another select committee. He told them that he +thought this a weak course, but if the previous question +would be defeated, perhaps a committee could not be helped. +Bradlaugh came to the table, and the hostile motion was +made. Mr. Gladstone proposed his committee, and carried it +by a good majority against the motion that Bradlaugh, being +without religious belief, could not take an oath. The debate +was warm, and the attacks on Bradlaugh were often gross. +The Speaker honourably pointed out that such attacks on +an elected member whose absence was enforced by their own +order, were unfair and unbecoming, but the feelings of the +House were too strong for him and too strong for chivalry. +The opposition turned affairs to ignoble party account, and +were not ashamed in their prints and elsewhere to level the +charge of <q>open patronage of unbelief and Malthusianism, +Bradlaugh and Blasphemy,</q> against a government that +contained Gladstone, Bright, and Selborne, three of the most +conspicuously devout men to be found in all England. One +<pb n='014'/><anchor id='Pg014'/> +expression of faith used by a leader in the attack on Bradlaugh +lived in Mr. Gladstone's memory to the end of his +days. <q>You know, Mr. Speaker,</q> cried the champion of +orthodox creeds, <q>we all of us believe in a God of some sort +or another.</q> That a man should consent to clothe the naked +human soul in this truly singular and scanty remnant of +spiritual apparel, was held to be the unalterable condition +of fitness for a seat in parliament and the company of +decent people. Well might Mr. Gladstone point out how +vast a disparagement of Christianity, and of orthodox theism +also, was here involved:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +They say this, that you may go any length you please in the +denial of religion, provided only you do not reject the name of the +Deity. They tear religion into shreds, so to speak, and say that +there is one particular shred with which nothing will ever induce +them to part. They divide religion into the dispensable and the +indispensable, and among that kind which can be dispensed with—I +am not now speaking of those who declare, or are admitted, +under a special law, I am not speaking of Jews or those who make +a declaration, I am speaking solely of those for whom no provision +is made except the provision of oath—they divide, I say, religion +into what can and what cannot be dispensed with. There is something, +however, that cannot be dispensed with. I am not willing, +Sir, that Christianity, if the appeal is made to us as a Christian +legislature, shall stand in any rank lower than that which is indispensable. +I may illustrate what I mean. Suppose a commander +has to despatch a small body of men on an expedition on which it +is necessary for them to carry on their backs all that they can take +with them; the men will part with everything that is unnecessary, +and take only that which is essential. That is the course you +ask us to take in drawing us upon theological ground; you require +us to distinguish between superfluities and necessaries, and you +tell us that Christianity is one of the superfluities, one of the +excrescences, and has nothing to do with the vital substance, the +name of the Deity, which is indispensable. I say that the adoption +of such a proposition as that, which is in reality at the very +root of your contention, is disparaging in the very highest degree +to the Christian faith....<note place='foot'>Speech +on second reading of Affirmation bill, 1883.</note> +</quote> + +<pb n='015'/><anchor id='Pg015'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>On Theistic Tests</note> +Even viewed as a theistic test, he contended, this oath +embraced no acknowledgment of Providence, of divine +government, of responsibility, or retribution; it involved +nothing but a bare and abstract admission, a form void of +all practical meaning and concern. +</p> + +<p> +The House, however, speedily showed how inaccessible +were most of its members to reason and argument of this +kind or any kind. On June 21, Mr. Gladstone thus described +the proceedings to the Queen. <q>With the renewal of the +discussion,</q> he wrote, <q>the temper of the House does not +improve, both excitement and suspicion appearing to prevail +in different quarters.</q> A motion made by Mr. Bradlaugh's +colleague that he should be permitted to affirm, was met +by a motion that he should not be allowed either to affirm +or to swear. +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To the Queen.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +Many warm speeches were made by the opposition in the name +of religion; to those Mr. Bright has warmly replied in the name of +religious liberty. The contention on the other side really is that +as to a certain ill-defined fragment of truth the House is still, +under the Oaths Act, the guardian of religion. The primary +question, whether the House has jurisdiction under the statute, is +almost hopelessly mixed with the question whether an atheist, who +has declared himself an atheist, ought to sit in parliament. Mr. +Gladstone's own view is that the House has no jurisdiction for the +purpose of excluding any one willing to qualify when he has been +duly elected; but he is very uncertain how the House will vote or +what will be the end of the business, if the House undertakes the +business of exclusion. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>June 22.</hi>—The House of Commons has been occupied from the +commencement of the evening until a late hour with the adjourned +debate on the case of Mr. Bradlaugh. The divided state of +opinion in the House made itself manifest throughout the evening. +Mr. Newdegate made a speech which turned almost wholly upon +the respective merits of theism and atheism. Mr. Gladstone +thought it his duty to advise the House to beware of entangling +itself in difficulties possibly of a serious character, by assuming a +jurisdiction in cases of this class. +</p> + +<pb n='016'/><anchor id='Pg016'/> + +<p> +At one o'clock in the morning, the first great division +was taken, and the House resolved by 275 votes against 230 +that Mr. Bradlaugh should neither affirm nor swear. The +excitement at this result was tremendous. Some minutes +elapsed before the Speaker could declare the numbers. +<q>Indeed,</q> wrote Mr. Gladstone to the Queen, <q>it was an +ecstatic transport, and exceeded anything which Mr. Gladstone +remembers to have witnessed. He read in it only a +witness to the dangers of the course on which the House has +entered, and to its unfitness for the office which it has rashly +chosen to assume.</q> He might also have read in it, if he had +liked, the exquisite delight of the first stroke of revenge for +Midlothian. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +The next day (June 23) the matter entered on a more +violent phase. +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To the Queen.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +This day, when the Speaker took the chair at a quarter past +twelve, Mr. Bradlaugh came to the table and claimed to take the +oath. The Speaker read to him the resolution of the House +which forbids it. Mr. Bradlaugh asked to be heard, and no objection +was taken. He then addressed the House from the bar. +His address was that of a consummate speaker. But it was an +address which could not have any effect unless the House had +undergone a complete revolution of mind. He challenged the +legality of the act of the House, expressing hereby an opinion in +which Mr. Gladstone himself, going beyond some other members +of the minority, has the misfortune to lean towards agreeing with +him.... The Speaker now again announced to Mr. Bradlaugh +the resolution of the House. Only a small minority voted against +enforcing it. Mr. Bradlaugh declining to withdraw, was removed +by the serjeant-at-arms. Having suffered this removal, he again +came beyond the bar, and entered into what was almost a corporal +struggle with the serjeant. Hereupon Sir S. Northcote moved +that Mr. Bradlaugh be committed for his offence. Mr. Gladstone +said that while he thought it did not belong to him, under the +circumstances of the case, to advise the House, he could take no +objection to the advice thus given. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +The Speaker, it may be said, thought this view of +<pb n='017'/><anchor id='Pg017'/> +<note place='margin'>The Bradlaugh Case</note> +Mr. Gladstone's a mistake, and that when Bradlaugh refused +to withdraw, the leader of the House ought, as a matter of +policy, to have been the person to move first the order to +withdraw, next the committal to the custody of the serjeant-at-arms. +<q>I was placed in a false position,</q> says the Speaker, +<q>and so was the House, in having to follow the lead of the +leader of the opposition, while the leader of the House and +the great majority were passive spectators.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Lord +Hampden's Diaries.</hi></note> As Mr. Gladstone +and other members of the government voted for +Bradlaugh's committal, on the ground that his resistance +to the serjeant had nothing to do with the establishment of +his rights before either a court or his constituency, it would +seem that the Speaker's complaint is not unjust. To this +position, however, Mr. Gladstone adhered, in entire conformity +apparently to the wishes of the keenest members +of his cabinet and the leading men of his party. +</p> + +<p> +The Speaker wrote to Sir Stafford Northcote urging on +him the propriety of allowing Bradlaugh to take the oath +without question. But Northcote was forced on against his +better judgment by his more ardent supporters. It was a +strange and painful situation, and the party system assuredly +did not work at its best—one leading man forced on +to mischief by the least responsible of his sections, the other +held back from providing a cure by the narrowest of the +other sections. In the April of 1881 Mr. Gladstone gave +notice of a bill providing for affirmation, but it was +immediately apparent that the opposition would make the +most of every obstacle to a settlement, and the proposal fell +through. In August of this year the Speaker notes, <q>The +difficulties in the way of settling this question satisfactorily +are great, and in the present temper of the House almost +insuperable.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +It is not necessary to recount all the stages of this protracted +struggle: what devices and expedients and motions, +how many odious scenes of physical violence, how many +hard-fought actions in the lawcourts, how many conflicts +<pb n='018'/><anchor id='Pg018'/> +between the House of Commons and the constituency, what +glee and rubbing of hands in the camp of the opposition at +having thrust their rivals deep into a quagmire so unpleasant. +The scandal was intolerable, but ministers were +helpless, as a marked incident now demonstrated. It was +not until 1883 that a serious attempt was made to change +the law. The Affirmation bill of that year has a biographic +place, because it marks in a definite way how far Mr. Gladstone's +mind—perhaps not, as I have said before, by nature +or by instinct peculiarly tolerant—had travelled along one +of the grand highroads of human progress. The occasion +was for many reasons one of great anxiety. Here are one or +two short entries, the reader remembering that by this time +the question was two years old:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>April 24, Tuesday.</hi>—On Sunday night a gap of three hours in +my sleep was rather ominous; but it was not repeated.... Saw +the Archbishop of Canterbury, with whom I had a very long conversation +on the Affirmation bill and on <hi rend='italic'>Church and State</hi>. Policy +generally as well as on special subjects.... Globe Theatre in +the evening; excellent acting.... 25.... Worked on Oaths +question.... 26.... Made a long and +<foreign rend='italic'>begeistert</foreign><note place='foot'>Perhaps the +best equivalent for <foreign rend='italic'>begeistert</foreign> here is +<q><emph>daemonic.</emph></q></note> speech on the +Affirmation bill, taking the bull by the horns. +</quote> + +<p> +His speech upon this measure was a noble effort. It +was delivered under circumstances of unsurpassed difficulty, +for there was revolt in the party, the client was repugnant, +the opinions brought into issue were to Mr. Gladstone +hateful. Yet the speech proved one of his greatest. Imposing, +lofty, persuasive, sage it would have been, from +whatever lips it might have fallen; it was signal indeed as +coming from one so fervid, so definite, so unfaltering in a +faith of his own, one who had started from the opposite pole +to that great civil principle of which he now displayed a +grasp invincible. If it be true of a writer that the best +style is that which most directly flows from living qualities +in the writer's own mind and is a pattern of their actual +working, so is the same thing to be said of oratory. These +high themes of Faith, on the one hand, and Freedom on the +<pb n='019'/><anchor id='Pg019'/> +<note place='margin'>Speech On Affirmation Bill</note> +other, exactly fitted the range of the thoughts in which Mr. +Gladstone habitually lived. <q>I have no fear of Atheism in +this House,</q> he said; <q>Truth is the expression of the Divine +mind, and however little our feeble vision may be able to +discern the means by which God may provide for its preservation, +we may leave the matter in His hands, and we may +be sure that a firm and courageous application of every +principle of equity and of justice is the best method we can +adopt for the preservation and influence of Truth.</q> This +was Mr. Gladstone at his sincerest and his highest. I +wonder, too, if there has been a leader in parliament +since the seventeenth century, who could venture to address +it in the strain of the memorable passage now to be +transcribed:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +You draw your line at the point where the abstract denial of +God is severed from the abstract admission of the Deity. My proposition +is that the line thus drawn is worthless, and that much on +your side of the line is as objectionable as the atheism on the other. +If you call upon us to make distinctions, let them at least be +rational; I do not say let them be Christian distinctions, but let +them be rational. I can understand one rational distinction, that +you should frame the oath in such a way as to recognise not only the +existence of the Deity, but the providence of the Deity, and man's +responsibility to the Deity; and in such a way as to indicate the +knowledge in a man's own mind that he must answer to the Deity for +what he does, and is able to do. But is that your present rule? +No, Sir, you know very well that from ancient times there have been +sects and schools that have admitted in the abstract as freely as +Christians the existence of a Deity, but have held that of practical +relations between Him and man there can be none. Many of the +members of this House will recollect the majestic and noble lines— +</p> + +<lg> +<l>Omnis enim per se divom natura necesse est</l> +<l>Immortali ævo summa cum pace fruatur,</l> +<l>Semota a nostris rebus sejunctaque longe.</l> +<l>Nam privata dolore omni, privata periclis,</l> +<l>Ipsa suis pollens opibus, nihil indiga nostri,</l> +<l>Nec bene promeritis capitur, nec tangitur ira.<note place='foot'>Lucretius, +ii. 646. <q>For the +nature of the gods must ever of itself +enjoy repose supreme through endless +time, far withdrawn from all concerns +of ours; free from all our pains, free +from all our perils, strong in resources +of its own, needing nought from us, +no favours win it, no anger moves.</q></note></l> +</lg> + +<pb n='020'/><anchor id='Pg020'/> + +<p> +<q>Divinity exists</q>—according to these, I must say, magnificent +lines—<q>in remote and inaccessible recesses; but with, us it has +no dealing, of us it has no need, with us it has no relation.</q> +I do not hesitate to say that the specific evil, the specific form of +irreligion, with which in the educated society of this country you +have to contend, and with respect to which you ought to be on +your guard, is not blank atheism. That is a rare opinion very +seldom met with; but what is frequently met with is that form +of opinion which would teach us that, whatever may be beyond +the visible things of this world, whatever there may be beyond +this short span of life, you know and you can know nothing of it, +and that it is a bootless undertaking to attempt to establish relations +with it. That is the mischief of the age, and that mischief you do +not attempt to touch. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +The House, though but few perhaps recollected their Lucretius +or had ever even read him, sat, as I well remember, with +reverential stillness, hearkening from this born master of +moving cadence and high sustained modulation to <q>the rise +and long roll of the hexameter,</q>—to the plangent lines that +have come down across the night of time to us from great +Rome. But all these impressions of sublime feeling and +strong reasoning were soon effaced by honest bigotry, by +narrow and selfish calculation, by flat cowardice. The relieving +bill was cast out by a majority of three. The catholics +in the main voted against it, and many nonconformists, +hereditary champions of all the rights of private judgment, +either voted against it or did not vote at all. So soon in these +affairs, as the world has long ago found out, do bodies of men +forget in a day of power the maxims that they held sacred and +inviolable in days when they were weak. +</p> + +<p> +The drama did not end here. In that parliament Bradlaugh +was never allowed to discharge his duty as a member, +but when after the general election of 1885, being once more +chosen by Northampton, he went to the table to take the oath, +as in former days Mill and others of like non-theologic complexion +had taken it, the Speaker would suffer no intervention +against him. Then in 1888, though the majority was conservative, +Bradlaugh himself secured the passing of an affirmation +<pb n='021'/><anchor id='Pg021'/> +<note place='margin'>End Of The Struggle</note> +law. Finally, in the beginning of 1891, upon the motion of +a Scotch member, supported by Mr. Gladstone, the House +formally struck out from its records the resolution of June +22, 1881, that had been passed, as we have seen, amid <q>ecstatic +transports.</q> Bradlaugh then lay upon his deathbed, and was +unconscious of what had been done. Mr. Gladstone a few +days later, in moving a bill of his own to discard a lingering +case of civil disability attached to religious profession, made a +last reference to Mr. Bradlaugh:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +A distinguished man, he said, and admirable member of this +House, was laid yesterday in his mother-earth. He was the subject +of a long controversy in this House—a controversy the beginning +of which we recollect, and the ending of which we recollect. We +remember with what zeal it was prosecuted; we remember how +summarily it was dropped; we remember also what reparation +has been done within the last few days to the distinguished man +who was the immediate object of that controversy. But does +anybody who hears me believe that that controversy, so prosecuted +and so abandoned, was beneficial to the Christian religion?<note place='foot'>Religious +Disabilities Removal bill, Feb. 4, 1891.</note> +</quote> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='022'/><anchor id='Pg022'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter III. Majuba. (1880-1881)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +εἰς ἀπέραντον δίκτυον ἄτης<lb/> +ἐμπλεχθήσεσθ᾽ ὑπ᾽ ἀνοίας. +</p> + +<p> +—Æsch. <hi rend='italic'>Prom.</hi> 1078. +</p> + +<p> +In a boundless coil of mischief pure senselessness will entangle you. +</p> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +It would almost need the pen of Tacitus or Dante to tell the +story of European power in South Africa. For forty years, +said Mr. Gladstone in 1881, <q>I have always regarded the +South African question as the one great unsolved and perhaps +insoluble problem of our colonial system.</q> Among the other +legacies of the forward policy that the constituencies had +decisively condemned in 1880, this insoluble problem rapidly +became acute and formidable. +</p> + +<p> +One of the great heads of impeachment in Midlothian had +been a war undertaken in 1878-9 against a fierce tribe on the +borders of the colony of Natal. The author and instrument +of the Zulu war was Sir Bartle Frere, a man of tenacious +character and grave and lofty if ill-calculated aims. The +conservative government, as I have already said,<note place='foot'>Vol. ii. +p. 583.</note> without +enthusiasm assented, and at one stage they even formally +censured him. When Mr. Gladstone acceded to office, the +expectation was universal that Sir Bartle would be at once +recalled. At the first meeting of the new cabinet (May 3) it +was decided to retain him. The prime minister at first was +his marked protector. The substantial reason against recall +was that his presence was needed to carry out the policy +of confederation, and towards confederation it was hoped +that the Cape parliament was immediately about to take +<pb n='023'/><anchor id='Pg023'/> +<note place='margin'>Recall Of Sir Bartle Frere</note> +a long preliminary step. <q>Confederation,</q> Mr. Gladstone +said, <q>is the pole-star of the present action of our government.</q> +In a few weeks, for a reason that will be mentioned +in treating the second episode of this chapter, confederation +broke down. A less substantial but still not wholly inoperative +reason was the strong feeling of the Queen for the +high commissioner. The royal prepossessions notwithstanding, +and in spite of the former leanings of Mr. Gladstone, +the cabinet determined, at the end of July, that Sir Bartle +should be recalled. The whole state of the case is made +sufficiently clear in the two following communications from +the prime minister to the Queen:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To the Queen.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>May 28, 1880.</hi>—Mr. Gladstone presents his humble duty, and +has had the honour to receive your Majesty's telegram respecting +Sir B. Frere. Mr. Gladstone used on Saturday his best efforts to +avert a movement for his dismissal, which it was intended by a +powerful body of members on the liberal side to promote by a +memorial to Mr. Gladstone, and by a motion in the House. He +hopes that he has in some degree succeeded, and he understands +that it is to be decided on Monday whether they will at present +desist or persevere. Of course no sign will be given by your +Majesty's advisers which could tend to promote perseverance, at +the same time Mr. Gladstone does not conceal from himself two +things: the first, that the only chance of Sir B. Frere's remaining +seems to depend upon his ability to make progress in the matter of +confederation; the second, that if the agitation respecting him in +the House, the press, and the country should continue, confidence +in him may be so paralysed as to render his situation intolerable +to a high-minded man and to weaken his hands fatally for any +purpose of good. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>July 29, 1880.</hi>—It was not without some differences of opinion +among themselves that, upon their accession to office, the cabinet +arrived at the conclusion that, if there was a prospect of progress +in the great matter of confederation, this might afford a ground +of co-operation between them and Sir B. Frere, notwithstanding +the strong censures which many of them in opposition had pronounced +<pb n='024'/><anchor id='Pg024'/> +upon his policy. This conclusion gave the liveliest satisfaction +to a large portion, perhaps to the majority, of the House +of Commons; but they embraced it with the more satisfaction +because of your Majesty's warm regard for Sir B. Frere, a +sentiment which some among them personally share. +</p> + +<p> +It was evident, however, and it was perhaps in the nature of +the case, that a confidence thus restricted was far from agreeable +to Sir B. Frere, who, in the opinion of Mr. Gladstone, has only +been held back by a commendable self-restraint and sense of duty, +from declaring himself aggrieved. Thus, though the cabinet have +done the best they could, his standing ground was not firm, nor +could they make it so. But the total failure of the effort made to +induce the Cape parliament to move, has put confederation wholly +out of view, for a time quite indefinite, and almost certainly considerable. +Mr. Gladstone has therefore the painful duty of submitting +to your Majesty, on behalf of the Cabinet, the enclosed +copy of a ciphered telegram of recall. +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +The breaking of the military power of the Zulus was +destined to prove much less important than another proceeding +closely related to it, though not drawing the same +attention at the moment. I advise the reader not to grudge +a rather strict regard to the main details of transactions that, +owing to unhappy events of later date, have to this day held +a conspicuous place in the general controversy as to the +great minister's statesmanship. +</p> + +<p> +For some time past, powerful native tribes had been +slowly but steadily pushing the Boers of the Transvaal +back, and the inability to resist was now dangerously plain. +In 1876 the Boers had been worsted in one of their incessant +struggles with the native races, and this time they had +barely been able to hold their own against an insignificant +tribe of one of the least warlike branches. It was thought +certain by English officials on the ground, that the example +would not be lost on fiercer warriors, and that a native conflagration +might any day burst into blaze in other regions of +the immense territory. The British government despatched +an agent of great local experience; he found the Boer +<pb n='025'/><anchor id='Pg025'/> +<note place='margin'>Annexation Of The Transvaal</note> +government, which was loosely organised even at its best, +now completely paralysed, without money, without internal +authority, without defensive power against external foes. In +alarm at the possible result of such a situation on the peace +of the European domain in South Africa, he proclaimed the +sovereignty of the Queen, and set up an administration. +This he was empowered by secret instructions to do, if he +should think fit. Here was the initial error. The secretary +of state in Downing Street approved (June 21, 1877), on +the express assumption that a sufficient number of the +inhabitants desired to become the Queen's subjects. Some +have thought that if he had waited the Boers would have +sought annexation, but this seems to be highly improbable. +In the annexation proclamation promises were made to the +Boers of 'the fullest legislative privileges compatible with +the circumstances of the country and the intelligence of the +people.' An assembly was also promised. +</p> + +<p> +The soundness of the assumption was immediately disputed. +The Boer government protested against annexation. +Two delegates—one of them Mr. Kruger—repaired to England, +assured Lord Carnarvon that their fellow-Boers were +vehemently opposed to annexation, and earnestly besought its +reversal. The minister insisted that he was right and they +were wrong. They went back, and in order to convince the +government of the true strength of feeling for independence, +petitions were prepared seeking the restoration of independence. +The signatures were those of qualified electors of +the old republic. The government were informed by Sir +Garnet Wolseley that there were about 8000 persons of the +age to be electors, of whom rather fewer than 7000 were +Boers. To the petitions were appended almost exactly 7000 +names. The colonial office recognised that the opposition +of the Boers to annexation was practically unanimous. The +comparatively insignificant addresses on the other side came +from the town and digging population, which was as strong +in favour of the suppression of the old republic, as the rural +population was strong against it. +</p> + +<p> +For many months the Boers persevered. They again sent +Kruger and Joubert to England; they held huge mass meetings; +<pb n='026'/><anchor id='Pg026'/> +they poured out prayers to the high commissioner to +give back their independence; they sent memorial after +memorial to the secretary of state. In the autumn of 1879 +Sir Garnet Wolseley assumed the administration of the +Transvaal, and issued a proclamation setting forth the will +and determination of the government of the Queen that +this Transvaal territory should be, and should continue to +be for ever, an integral part of her dominions in South +Africa. In the closing days of 1879 the secretary of state, +Sir Michael Hicks Beach, who had succeeded Carnarvon (Jan. +1878), received from the same eminent soldier a comprehensive +despatch, warning him that the meetings of protest +against annexation, attended by thousands of armed men in +angry mood, would be likely to end in a serious explosion. +While putting all sides of the question before his government, +Sir Garnet inserted one paragraph of momentous import. +<q>The Transvaal,</q> he said, <q>is rich in minerals; gold has already +been found in quantities, and there can be little doubt that +larger and still more valuable goldfields will sooner or later +be discovered. Any such discovery would soon bring a +large British population here. The time must eventually +arrive when the Boers will be in a small minority, as the +country is very sparsely peopled, and would it not therefore +be a very near-sighted policy to recede now from the position +we have taken up here, simply because for some years to +come, the retention of 2000 or 3000 troops may be necessary +to reconsolidate our power?</q><note place='foot'>Sir Garnet +Wolseley to Sir M. Hicks Beach, Nov. 13, 1879.</note> This pregnant and far-sighted +warning seems to have been little considered by English +statesmen of either party at this critical time or afterwards, +though it proved a vital element in any far-sighted decision. +</p> + +<p> +On March 9—the day, as it happened, on which the intention +to dissolve parliament was made public—Sir Garnet +telegraphed for a renewed expression of the determination +of the government to retain the country, and he received +the assurance that he sought. The Vaal river, he told the +Boers, would flow backwards through the Drakensberg sooner +than the British would be withdrawn from the Transvaal. +The picturesque figure did not soften the Boer heart. +<pb n='027'/><anchor id='Pg027'/> +<note place='margin'>Decision Of The Government</note> +This was the final share of the conservative cabinet in the +unfortunate enterprise on which they had allowed the +country to be launched. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +When the question of annexation had originally come +before parliament, Mr. Gladstone was silent. He was averse +to it; he believed that it would involve us in unmixed +mischief; but he felt that to make this judgment known +at that period would not have had any effect towards +reversing what had been done, while it might impede +the chances of a good issue, slender as these might be.<note place='foot'>In +H. of C, Jan. 21, 1881.</note> +In the discussion at the opening of the final session of the +old parliament, Lord Hartington as leader of the opposition, +enforcing the general doctrine that it behoved us to +concentrate our resources, and to limit instead of extending +the empire, took the Transvaal for an illustration. It was +now conclusively proved, he said, that a large majority of +the Boers were bitterly against annexation. That being so, +it ought not to be considered a settled question merely +because annexation had taken place; and if we should find +that the balance of advantage was in favour of the restoration +of independence, no false sense of dignity should stand +in the way. Mr. Gladstone in Midlothian had been more +reserved. In that indictment, there are only two or three +references, and those comparatively fugitive and secondary, +to this article of charge. There is a sentence in one of the +Midlothian speeches about bringing a territory inhabited by +a free European Christian republic within the limits of +a monarchy, though out of 8000 persons qualified to vote, +6500 voted against it. In another sentence he speaks of the +Transvaal as a country <q>where we have chosen most +unwisely, I am tempted to say insanely, to place ourselves in +the strange predicament of the free subjects of a monarchy +going to coerce the free subjects of a republic, and to compel +them to accept a citizenship which they decline and +refuse; but if that is to be done, it must be done by +force.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Speeches in Scotland</hi>, i. pp. +48, 63.</note> +A third sentence completes the tale: <q>If Cyprus and the +<pb n='028'/><anchor id='Pg028'/> +Transvaal were as valuable as they are valueless, I would +repudiate them because they are obtained by means dishonourable +to the character of the country.</q> These utterances +of the mighty unofficial chief and the responsible official +leader of the opposition were all. The Boer republicans +thought that they were enough. +</p> + +<p> +On coming into power, the Gladstone government found +the official evidence all to the effect that the political aspect +of the Transvaal was decidedly improving. The commissioners, +the administrators, the agents, were unanimous. +Even those among them who insisted on the rooted dislike +of the main body of the Boers to British authority, still +thought that they were acquiescing, exactly as the Boers in +the Cape Colony had acquiesced. Could ministers justify +abandonment, without far stronger evidence than they then +possessed that they could not govern the Transvaal peaceably? +Among other things, they were assured that +abandonment would be fatal to the prospects of confederation, +and might besides entail a civil war. On May 7, Sir +Bartle Frere pressed the new ministers for an early announcement +of their policy, in order to prevent the mischiefs +of agitation. The cabinet decided the question on May 12, +and agreed upon the terms of a telegram<note place='foot'>C, 2586, +No. 3.</note> by which Lord +Kimberley was to inform Frere that the sovereignty of the +Queen over the Transvaal could not be relinquished, but +that he hoped the speedy accomplishment of confederation +would enable free institutions to be conferred with promptitude. +In other words, in spite of all that had been defiantly +said by Lord Hartington, and more cautiously implied by +Mr. Gladstone, the new government at once placed themselves +exactly in the position of the old one.<note place='foot'>Mr. Grant Duff, then colonial +under-secretary, said in the House of +Commons, May 21, 1880, <q>Under the +very difficult circumstances of the +case, the plan which seemed likely +best to conciliate the interests at once +of the Boers, the natives and the English +population, was that the Transvaal +should receive, and receive with +promptitude, as a portion of confederation, +the largest possible measure +of local liberties that could be granted, +and that was the direction in which +her Majesty's present advisers meant +to move.</q></note> +</p> + +<p> +The case was stated in his usual nervous language by Mr. +Chamberlain a few months later.<note place='foot'>At Birmingham, June 1881.</note> +<q>When we came into +<pb n='029'/><anchor id='Pg029'/> +office,</q> +<note place='margin'>Decision Of The Government</note> +he said, <q>we were all agreed that the original annexation +was a mistake, that it ought never to have been made; +and there arose the question could it then be undone? We +were in possession of information to the effect that the great +majority of the people of the Transvaal were reconciled to +annexation; we were told that if we reversed the decision of +the late government, there would be a great probability +of civil war and anarchy; and acting upon these representations, +we decided that we could not recommend the Queen +to relinquish her sovereignty. But we assured the Boers +that we would take the earliest opportunity of granting to +them the freest and most complete local institutions compatible +with the welfare of South Africa. It is easy to be +wise after the event. It is easy to see now that we were +wrong in so deciding. I frankly admit we made a mistake. +Whatever the risk was, and I believe it was a great risk, of +civil war and anarchy in the Transvaal, it was not so great +a danger as that we actually incurred by maintaining the +wrong of our predecessors.</q> Such was the language used +by Mr. Chamberlain after special consultation with Lord +Kimberley. With characteristic tenacity and that aversion +ever to yield even the smallest point, which comes to a man +saturated with the habit of a lifetime of debate, Mr. Gladstone +wrote to Mr. Chamberlain (June 8, 1881): <q>I have read +with pleasure what you say of the Transvaal. Yet I am not +prepared, for myself, to concede that we made a mistake +in not advising a revocation of the annexation when we +came in.</q> +</p> + +<p> +At this instant a letter reached Mr. Gladstone from Kruger +and Joubert (May 10, 1880), telling him that there was +a firm belief among their people that truth prevailed. <q>They +were confident that one day or another, by the mercy of the +Lord, the reins of the imperial government would be +entrusted again to men who look out for the honour and glory +of England, not by acts of injustice and crushing force, but +by the way of justice and good faith. And, indeed, this belief +has proven to be a good belief.</q> It would have been well +for the Boers and well for us, if that had indeed been so. +Unluckily the reply sent in Mr. Gladstone's name (June 15), +<pb n='030'/><anchor id='Pg030'/> +informed them that obligations had now been contracted, +especially towards the natives, that could not be set aside, +but that consistently with the maintenance of the Queen's +sovereignty over the Transvaal, ministers desired that the +white inhabitants should enjoy the fullest liberty to manage +their local affairs. <q>We believe that this liberty may be most +easily and promptly conceded to the Transvaal, as a member +of a South African confederation.</q> Solemn and deliberate +as this sounds, no step whatever was effectively taken +towards conferring this full liberty, or any liberty at all. +</p> + +<p> +It is worth while, on this material point, to look back. The +original proclamation had promised the people the fullest +legislative privileges compatible with the circumstances of +the country and the intelligence of the people. Then, at a later +date (April 1877), Sir Bartle Frere met a great assemblage +of Boers, and told them that they should receive, as soon as +circumstances rendered it practicable, as large a measure +of self-government as was enjoyed by any colony in South +Africa.<note place='foot'>C, 2367, p. 55.</note> +The secretary of state had also spoken to the same +effect. During the short period in which Sir Bartle Frere +was connected with the administration of the Transvaal, he +earnestly pressed upon the government the necessity for +redeeming the promises made at the time of annexation, <q>of +the same measure of perfect self-government now enjoyed +by Cape Colony,</q> always, of course, under the authority +of the crown.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Afghanistan and S. Africa:</hi> A +letter to Mr. Gladstone by Sir Bartle +Frere. Murray, 1891, pp. 24-6. +Frere, on his return to England, once +more impressed on the colonial office +the necessity of speedily granting the +Boers a constitution, otherwise there +would be serious trouble. (<hi rend='italic'>Life</hi>, ii. +p. 408.)</note> As the months went on, no attempt was +made to fulfil all these solemn pledges, and the Boers naturally +began to look on them as so much mockery. Their anger +in turn increased the timidity of government, and it was +argued that the first use that the Boers would make of a free +constitution would be to stop the supplies. So a thing +called an Assembly was set up (November 9, 1879), composed +partly of British officers and partly of nominated members. +This was a complete falsification of a whole set of our national +promises. Still annexation might conceivably have been +<pb n='031'/><anchor id='Pg031'/> +<note place='margin'>Boer Rising</note> +accepted, even the sting might have been partially taken +out of the delay of the promised free institutions, if only +the administration had been considerate, judicious, and +adapted to the ways and habits of the people. Instead of +being all these things it was stiff, headstrong, and intensely +stupid.<note place='foot'>Sir George Colley pressed Lord +Kimberley in his correspondence with +the reality of this grievance, and the +urgency of trying to remove it. This +was after the Boers had taken to +arms at the end of 1880.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The value of the official assurances from agents on the +spot that restoration of independence would destroy the +chances of confederation, and would give fuel to the fires of +agitation, was speedily tested. It was precisely these results +that flowed from the denial of independence. The incensed +Boer leaders worked so successfully on the Cape parliament +against confederation, that this favourite panacea was indefinitely +hung up. Here, again, it is puzzling to know why +ministers did not retrace their steps. Here, again, their +blind guides in the Transvaal persisted that they knew the +road; persisted that with the exception of a turbulent handful, +the Boers of the Transvaal only sighed for the enjoyment +of the <hi rend='italic'>pax britannica</hi>, or, if even that should happen to be +not quite true, at any rate they were incapable of united +action, were mortal cowards, and could never make a stand +in the field. While folly of this kind was finding its way by +every mail to Downing Street, violent disturbances broke +out in the collection of taxes. Still Sir Owen Lanyon—who +had been placed in control in the Transvaal in March +1879—assured Lord Kimberley that no serious trouble +would arise (November 14). At the end of the month he +still denies that there is much or any cause for anxiety. +In December several thousands of Boers assembled at +Paardekraal, declared for the restoration of their republic, +and a general rising followed. Colley, who had succeeded +General Wolseley as governor of Natal and high commissioner +for south-east Africa, had been so little prepared for +this, that at the end of August he had recommended a +reduction of the Transvaal garrisons,<note place='foot'>Before the Gladstone government +came into office, between August +1879 and April 1880, whilst General +Wolseley was in command, the force +in Natal and the Transvaal had been +reduced by six batteries of artillery, +three companies of engineers, one +cavalry regiment, eleven battalions +of infantry, and five companies of +army service corps. The force at the +time of the outbreak was: in Natal +1772, and in the Transvaal 1759—a +total of 3531. As soon as the news +of the insurrection reached London, +large reinforcements were at once +despatched to Colley, the first of +them leaving Gibraltar on Dec. 27, +1880.</note> and even now he +<pb n='032'/><anchor id='Pg032'/> +thought the case so little serious that he contented himself +(December 4) with ordering four companies to march for +the Transvaal. Then he and Lanyon began to get alarmed, +and with good reason. The whole country, except three or +four beleaguered British posts, fell into the hands of the Boers. +</p> + +<p> +The pleas for failure to take measures to conciliate the +Boers in the interval between Frere's recall and the outbreak, +were that Sir Hercules Robinson had not arrived;<note place='foot'>Sir +B. Frere was recalled on +August 1, 1880, and sailed for England +September 15. Sir Hercules +Robinson, his successor, did not reach +the Cape until the end of January +1881. In the interval Sir George +Strahan was acting governor.</note> +that confederation was not yet wholly given up; that resistance +to annexation was said to be abating; that time was +in our favour; that the one thing indispensable to conciliate +the Boers was a railway to Delagoa Bay; that this needed +a treaty, and we hoped soon to get Portugal to ratify a +treaty, and then we might tell the Boers that we should +soon make a survey, with a view at some early date to +proceed with the project, and thus all would in the end +come right. So a fresh page was turned in the story of +loitering unwisdom. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +On December 6, Mr. Brand, the sagacious president of +the Orange Free State, sent a message of anxious warning +to the acting governor at Cape Town, urging that means +should be devised to avert an imminent collision. That +message, which might possibly have wakened up the colonial +office to the real state of the case, did not reach London +until December 30. Excuses for this fatal delay were +abundant: a wire was broken; the governor did not think +himself concerned with Transvaal affairs; he sent the +message on to the general, supposing that the general +would send it on home; and so forth. For a whole string +of the very best reasons in the world the message that +<pb n='033'/><anchor id='Pg033'/> +<note place='margin'>Paragraph In The Royal Speech</note> +might have prevented the outbreak, arrived through the slow +post at Whitehall just eleven days after the outbreak had +begun. Members of the legislature at the Cape urged the +British government to send a special commissioner to inquire +and report. The policy of giving consideration to the counsels +of the Cape legislature had usually been pursued by the +wiser heads concerned in South African affairs, and when +the counsels of the chief of the Free State were urgent in +the same direction, their weight should perhaps have been +decisive. Lord Kimberley, however, did not think the +moment opportune (Dec. 30).<note place='foot'>Lord Kimberley justified this decision +on the ground that it was +impossible to send a commissioner to +inquire and report, at a moment +when our garrisons were besieged, +and we had collected no troops to +relieve them, and when we had just +received the news that the detachment +of the 94th had been cut off on +the march from Lydenberg to Pretoria. +<q>Is it not practically certain,</q> +he wrote, <q>that the Boers would have +refused at that time to listen to any +reasonable terms, and would have +simply insisted that we should withdraw +our troops and quit the +country?</q> Of course, the Boer overture, +some six weeks after the rejection +by Lord Kimberley of the Cape +proposal, and after continued military +success on the side of the Boers, +showed that this supposed practical +certainty was the exact reverse of +certain.</note> Before many weeks, as it +happened, a commission was indeed sent, but unfortunately +not until after the mischief had been done. Meanwhile in +the Queen's speech a week later an emphatic paragraph +announced that the duty of vindicating her Majesty's +authority had set aside for the time any plan for securing +to European settlers in the Transvaal full control over their +own local affairs. Seldom has the sovereign been made the +mouthpiece of an utterance more shortsighted. +</p> + +<p> +Again the curtain rose upon a new and memorable act. +Four days after the Queen's speech, President Brand a +second time appeared upon the scene (Jan. 10, 1881), with a +message hoping that an effort would be made without the +least delay to prevent further bloodshed. Lord Kimberley +replied that provided the Boers would desist from their +armed opposition, the government did not despair of making +a satisfactory settlement. Two days later (Jan. 12) the +president told the government that not a moment should +be lost, and some one (say Chief Justice de Villiers) should +be sent to the Transvaal burghers by the government, to +stop further collision and with a clear and definite proposal +<pb n='034'/><anchor id='Pg034'/> +for a settlement. <q>Moments,</q> he said, <q>are precious.</q> For +twelve days these precious moments passed. On Jan. 26 +the secretary of state informed the high commissioner at +Cape Town, now Sir Hercules Robinson, that President Brand +pressed for the offer of terms and conditions to the Boers +through Robinson, <q>provided they cease from armed opposition, +making it clear to them how this is to be understood.</q> +On this suggestion he instructed Robinson to inform Brand +that if armed opposition should at once cease, the government +<q>would thereupon endeavour to frame such a scheme +as in their belief would satisfy all friends of the Transvaal +community.</q> Brand promptly advised that the Boers should +be told of this forthwith, before the satisfactory arrangements +proposed had been made more difficult by further collision. +This was on Jan. 29. Unhappily on the very day before, the +British force had been repulsed at Laing's Nek. Colley, on +Jan. 23, had written to Joubert, calling on the Boer leaders +to disperse, informing them that large forces were already +arriving from England and India, and assuring them that if +they would dismiss their followers, he would forward to +London any statement of their grievances. It would have +been a great deal more sensible to wait for an answer. +Instead of waiting for an answer Colley attacked (Jan. 28) +and was beaten back—the whole proceeding a rehearsal of +a still more disastrous error a month later. +</p> + +<p> +Brand was now more importunate than ever, earnestly +urging on General Colley that the nature of the scheme +should be made known to the Boers, and a guarantee undertaken +that if they submitted they would not be treated +as rebels. <q>I have replied,</q> Colley tells Lord Kimberley, +<q>that I can give no such assurance, and can add nothing +to your words.</q> In other correspondence he uses grim +language about the deserts of some of the leaders. On this +Mr. Gladstone, writing to Lord Kimberley (Feb. 5), says truly +enough, <q>Colley with a vengeance counts his chickens before +they are hatched, and his curious letter throws some light +backward on the proceedings in India. His line is singularly +wide of ours.</q> The secretary of state, finding barrack-room +rigidity out of place, directs Colley (Feb. 8) to inform Brand +<pb n='035'/><anchor id='Pg035'/> +<note place='margin'>Boer Overtures</note> +that the government would be ready to give all reasonable +guarantees as to treatment of Boers after submission, +if they ceased from armed opposition, and a scheme would +be framed for permanent friendly settlement. As it happened, +on the day on which this was despatched from +Downing Street, Colley suffered a second check at the +Ingogo River (Feb. 8). Let us note that he was always eager +in his recognition of the readiness and promptitude of the +military support from the government at home.<note place='foot'><q>I +do not know whether I am +indebted to you or to Mr. Childers +or to both, for the continuance of +H.M.'s confidence, but I shall always +feel more deeply grateful than I can +express; and can never forget H.M.'s +gracious message of encouragement +at a time of great trouble.</q>—Colley +to Kimberley, Jan. 31, 1881.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Then an important move took place from the other +quarter. The Boers made their first overture. It came +in a letter from Kruger to Colley (Feb. 12). Its purport +was fairly summarised by Colley in a telegram to +the colonial secretary, and the pith of it was that Kruger +and his Boers were so certain of the English government +being on their side if the truth only reached them, that they +would not fear the result of inquiry by a royal commission, +and were ready, if troops were ordered to withdraw from the +Transvaal, to retire from their position, and give such a +commission a free passage. This telegram reached London +on Feb. 13th, and on the 15th it was brought before the +cabinet. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone immediately informed the Queen (Feb. 15) +that viewing the likelihood of early and sanguinary actions, +Lord Kimberley thought that the receipt of such an overture +at such a juncture, although its terms were inadmissible, +made it a duty to examine whether it afforded any hope of +settlement. The cabinet were still more strongly inclined +towards coming to terms. Any other decision would have +broken up the government, for on at least one division in the +House on Transvaal affairs Mr. Bright and Mr. Chamberlain, +along with three other ministers not in the cabinet, had +abstained from voting. Colley was directed (Feb. 16) +to inform the Boers that on their desisting from armed +opposition, the government would be ready to send commissioners +<pb n='036'/><anchor id='Pg036'/> +to develop a scheme of settlement, and that meanwhile +if this proposal were accepted, the English general +was authorised to agree to the suspension of hostilities. +This was in substance a conditional acceptance of the Boer +overture.<note place='foot'><q>The directions to Colley,</q> says +Mr. Bright in a cabinet minute, <q>intended +to convey the offer of a suspension +of hostilities on both sides, +with a proposal that a commissioner +should be appointed to enter into +negotiations and arrangements with +a view to peace.</q></note> On the same day the general was told from the +war office that, as respected the interval before receiving a +reply from Mr. Kruger, the government did not bind his +discretion, but <q>we are anxious for your making arrangements +to avoid effusion of blood.</q> The spirit of these instructions +was clear. A week later (Feb. 23) the general showed +that he understood this, for he wrote to Mr. Childers that +<q>he would not without strong reason undertake any operation +likely to bring on another engagement, until Kruger's +reply was received.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Life +of Childers</hi>, ii. p. 24.</note> If he had only stood firm to this, a +tragedy would have been averted. +</p> + +<p> +On receiving the telegram of Feb. 16, Colley was puzzled +to know what was the meaning of suspending hostilities if +armed opposition were abandoned by the Boers, and he asked +the plain question (Feb. 19) whether he was to leave Laing's +Nek (which was in Natal territory) in Boer occupation, and +our garrisons isolated and short of provisions, or was he +to occupy Laing's Nek and relieve the garrisons. Colley's inquiries +were instantly considered by the cabinet, and the reply +settled. The garrisons were to be free to provision themselves +and peaceful intercourse allowed; <q>but,</q> Kimberley +tells Colley, <q>we do not mean that you should march to +the relief of garrisons or occupy Laing's Nek, if the arrangement +proceeds. <hi rend='italic'>Fix reasonable time within which answer +must be sent by Boers.</hi></q> +</p> + +<p> +On Feb. 21 Colley despatched a letter to Kruger, stating +that on the Boers ceasing from armed opposition, the Queen +would appoint a commission. He added that <q>upon this +proposal being accepted <hi rend='italic'>within forty-eight hours from the +receipt of this letter</hi>,</q> he was authorised to agree to a suspension +of hostilities on the part of the British. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='037'/><anchor id='Pg037'/> + +<div> +<head>V</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Repulse On Majuba Hill</note> +In this interval a calamity, destined to be historic, occurred, +trivial in a military sense, but formidable for many +years to come in the issues moral and political that it raised, +and in the passions for which it became a burning watchword. +On the night of Feb. 26, Colley with a force of 359 +men all told, made up of three different corps, marched +out of his camp and occupied Majuba Hill. The general's +motives for this precipitancy are obscure. The best explanation +seems to be that he observed the Boers to be +pushing gradually forward on to advanced ground, and +thought it well, without waiting for Kruger's reply, to seize +a height lying between the Nek and his own little camp, +the possession of which would make Laing's Nek untenable. +He probably did not expect that his move would necessarily +lead to fighting, and in fact when they saw the height +occupied, the Boers did at first for a little time actually begin +to retire from the Nek, though they soon changed their +minds.<note place='foot'>Colley's letter to Childers, +Feb. 23, <hi rend='italic'>Life of Childers</hi>, ii. p. 24.</note> +The British operation is held by military experts to +have been rash; proper steps were not taken by the general to +protect himself upon Majuba, the men were not well handled, +and the Boers showed determined intrepidity as they climbed +steadily up the hill from platform to platform, taking from +seven in the morning (Feb. 27) up to half-past eleven to +advance some three thousand yards and not losing a man, +until at last they scaled the crest and poured a deadly fire +upon the small British force, driving them headlong from +the summit, seasoned soldiers though most of them were. +The general who was responsible for the disaster paid the +penalty with his life. Some ninety others fell and sixty +were taken prisoners. +</p> + +<p> +At home the sensation was profound. The hysterical +complaints about our men and officers, General Wood wrote +to Childers, <q>are more like French character than English +used to be.</q> Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues had a political +question to consider. Colley could not be technically accused +of want of good faith in moving forward on the 26th, as the +<pb n='038'/><anchor id='Pg038'/> +time that he had appointed had expired. But though +Majuba is just inside Natal—some four miles over the border—his +advance was, under the circumstances of the moment, +essentially an aggressive movement. Could his defeat +justify us in withdrawing our previous proposals to the +Boers? Was a military miscarriage, of no magnitude in +itself, to be turned into a plea for abandoning a policy +deliberately adopted for what were thought powerful and +decisive reasons? <q>Suppose, for argument's sake,</q> Mr. +Gladstone wrote to Lord Kimberley when the sinister +news arrived (Mar. 2), <q>that at the moment when Colley +made the unhappy attack on Majuba Hill, there shall +turn out to have been decided on, and possibly on its way, +a satisfactory or friendly reply from the Boer government +to your telegram? I fear the chances may be against +this; but if it prove to be the case, we could not because we +had failed on Sunday last, insist on shedding more blood.</q> +As it happened, the Boer answer was decided on before the +attack at Majuba, and was sent to Colley by Kruger at +Heidelberg in ignorance of the event, the day after the ill-fated +general's death. The members of the Transvaal +government set out their gratitude for the declaration that +under certain conditions the government of the Queen was +inclined to cease hostilities; and expressed their opinion +that a meeting of representatives from both sides would +probably lead with all speed to a satisfactory result. This +reply was despatched by Kruger on the day on which +Colley's letter of the 21st came into his hands (Feb. 28), +and it reached Colley's successor on March 7. +</p> + +<p> +Sir Evelyn Wood, now after the death of Colley in chief +command, throughout recommended military action. Considering +the disasters we had sustained, he thought the +happiest result would be that after a successful battle, which +he hoped to fight in about a fortnight, the Boers would +disperse without any guarantee, and many now in the field +against their will would readily settle down. He explained +that by happy result, he did not mean that a series of +actions fought by any six companies could affect our military +prestige, but that a British victory would enable the Boer +<pb n='039'/><anchor id='Pg039'/> +<note place='margin'>Sir Evelyn Wood's View</note> +leaders to quench a fire that had got beyond their control. +The next day after this recommendation to fight (March 6), +he, of his own motion, accepted a proposal telegraphed from +Joubert at the instigation of the indefatigable Brand, for a +suspension of hostilities for eight days, for the purpose of +receiving Kruger's reply. There was a military reason +behind. General Wood knew that the garrison in Potchefstrom +must surrender unless the place were revictualled, +and three other beleaguered garrisons were in almost equal +danger. The government at once told him that his armistice +was approved. This armistice, though Wood's reasons +were military rather than diplomatic, virtually put a stop +to suggestions for further fighting, for it implied, and could +in truth mean nothing else, that if Kruger's reply were +promising, the next step would not be a fight, but the continuance +of negotiation. Sir Evelyn Wood had not advised +a fight for the sake of restoring military prestige, but to +make it easier for the Boer leaders to break up bands that +were getting beyond their control. There was also present +in his mind the intention, if the government would sanction +it, of driving the Boers out of Natal, as soon as ever he had +got his men up across the swollen river. So far from +sanctioning it, the government expressly forbade him to +take offensive action. On March 8, General Wood telegraphed +home: <q>Do not imagine I wish to fight. I know +the attending misery too well. But now you have so many +troops coming, I recommend decisive though lenient action; +and I can, humanly speaking, promise victory. Sir G. +Colley never engaged more than six companies. I shall use +twenty and two regiments of cavalry in direction known to +myself only, and undertake to enforce dispersion.</q> This then +was General Wood's view. On the day before he sent this +telegram, the general already had received Kruger's reply +to the effect that they were anxious to negotiate, and it +would be best for commissioners from the two sides to meet. +It is important to add that the government were at the +same time receiving urgent warnings from President Brand +that Dutch sympathy, both in the Cape Colony and in the +Orange Free State, with the Dutch in the Transvaal was +<pb n='040'/><anchor id='Pg040'/> +growing dangerous, and that the prolongation of hostilities +would end in a formidable extension of their area.<note place='foot'>See +Selborne's <hi rend='italic'>Memorials</hi>, ii. p. 3, +and also a speech by Lord Kimberley +at Newcastle, Nov. 14, 1899.</note> Even in +January Lanyon had told Colley that men from the Free +State were in the field against him. Three days before +Majuba, Lord Kimberley had written to Colley (February 24), +<q>My great fear has been lest the Free State should take +part against us, or even some movement take place in the +Cape Colony. If our willingness to come to terms has +avoided such a calamity, I shall consider it will have been +a most important point gained.</q><note place='foot'>In a speech at Edinburgh (Sept. +1, 1884), Mr. Gladstone put the same +argument—<q>The people of the Transvaal, +few in number, were in close +and strong sympathy with their +brethren in race, language, and +religion. Throughout South Africa +these men, partly British subjects +and partly not, were as one man +associated in feeling with the people +of the Transvaal; and had we persisted +in that dishonourable attempt, +against all our own interests, to +coerce the Transvaal as we attempted +to coerce Afghanistan, we should +have had the whole mass of the +Dutch population at the Cape and +throughout South Africa rising in +arms against us.</q></note> +</p> + +<p> +Two memoranda for the Queen show the views of the +cabinet on the new position of affairs:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To the Queen.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>March 8, 1881.</hi>—The cabinet considered with much care the +terms of the reply to Sir Evelyn Wood's telegram reporting +(not textually) the answer of the Boer leaders to the proposals +which Sir George Colley had sent to them. They felt justified +in construing the Boer answer as leaving the way open to +the appointment of commissioners, according to the telegram +previously seen and approved by your Majesty. They were +anxious to keep the question moving in this direction, and under +the extreme urgency of the circumstances as to time, they +have despatched a telegram to Sir Evelyn Wood accordingly. Mr. +Gladstone has always urged, and still feels, that the proposal of +the Boers for the appointment of commissioners was fortunate on +this among other grounds, that it involved a recognition of your +Majesty's <hi rend='italic'>de facto</hi> authority in the Transvaal. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>March 12.</hi>—The cabinet determined, in order to obviate +misapprehension +or suspicion, to desire Sir E. Wood to inform the +government from what quarter the suggestion of an armistice +<pb n='041'/><anchor id='Pg041'/> +actually proceeded. They agreed that the proper persons to be +appointed as commissioners were Sir H. Robinson, Sir E. Wood, +and Mr. De Villiers, chief justice of the Cape; together with Mr. +Brand of the Free State as <hi rend='italic'>amicus curiæ</hi>, should he be willing to +lend his good offices in the spirit in which he has hitherto acted. +The cabinet then considered fully the terms of the communication +to be made to the Boers by Sir E. Wood. In this, which is matter +of extreme urgency, they prescribe a time for the reply of the +Boers not later than the 18th; renew the promise of amnesty; +require the dispersion of the Boers to their own homes; and state +the general outlines of the permanent arrangement which they +would propose for the territory.... The cabinet believe that in +requiring the dispersion of the Boers to their homes, they will have +made the necessary provision for the vindication of your Majesty's +authority, so as to open the way for considering terms of pacific +settlement. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +On March 22, under instructions from home, the general +concluded an agreement for peace. The Boers made some +preliminary requests to which the government declined to +assent. Their proposal that the commission should be joint +was rejected; its members were named exclusively by the +crown. They agreed to withdraw from the Nek and disperse +to their homes; we agreed not to occupy the Nek, and not +to follow them up with troops, though General Roberts with +a large force had sailed for the Cape on March 6. Then the +political negotiation went forward. Would it have been wise, +as the question was well put by the Duke of Argyll (not then +a member of the government), <q>to stop the negotiation for +the sake of defeating a body of farmers who had succeeded +under accidental circumstances and by great rashness on +the part of our commanders, in gaining a victory over us?</q> +This was the true point. +</p> + +<p> +The parliamentary attack was severe. The galling +argument was that government had conceded to three +defeats what they had refused to ten times as many +petitions, memorials, remonstrances; and we had given to +men with arms in their hands what we refused to their +peaceful prayers. A great lawyer in the House of Lords made +<pb n='042'/><anchor id='Pg042'/> +the speech that is expected from a great lawyer who is +also a conspicuous party leader; and ministers undoubtedly +exposed an extent of surface that was not easy to defend, +not because they had made a peace, but because they had +failed to prevent the rising. High military authorities +found a curious plea for going on, in the fact that this was +our first contest with Europeans since the breech-loader +came in, and it was desirable to give our troops confidence +in the new-fashioned weapon. Reasons of a very different +sort from this were needed to overthrow the case for peace. +How could the miscarriage at Majuba, brought on by our +own action, warrant us in drawing back from an engagement +already deliberately proffered? Would not such a +proceeding, asked Lord Kimberley, have been little short +of an act of bad faith? Or were we, in Mr. Gladstone's +language, to say to the Boers, <q>Although we might have +treated with you before these military miscarriages, we +cannot do so now, until we offer up a certain number of +victims in expiation of the blood that has been shed. Until +that has been done, the very things which we believed +before to be reasonable, which we were ready to discuss +with you, we refuse to discuss now, and we must wait until +Moloch has been appeased</q>? We had opened a door for +negotiation; were we to close it again, because a handful +of our forces had rashly seized a post they could not hold? +The action of the Boers had been defensive of the <hi rend='italic'>status quo</hi>, +for if we had established ourselves on Majuba, their camp +at Laing's Nek would have been untenable. The minister +protested in the face of the House of Commons that <q>it would +have been most unjust and cruel, it would have been cowardly +and mean, if on account of these defensive operations we +had refused to go forward with the negotiations which, before +the first of these miscarriages had occurred, we had already +declared that we were willing to promote and undertake.</q><note place='foot'>July +25, 1881.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The policy of the reversal of annexation is likely to remain +a topic of endless dispute.<note place='foot'>One of the most determined +enemies of the government in 1881, +ten years later, in a visit to South +Africa, changed his mind. <q>The +Dutch sentiment in the Cape Colony, +wrote Lord Randolph Churchill, 'had +been so exasperated by what it considered the unjust, faithless, and +arbitrary policy pursued towards the +free Dutchmen of the Transvaal by +Frere, Shepstone, and Lanyon, that +the final triumph of the British arms, +mainly by brute force, would have +permanently and hopelessly alienated +it from Great Britain.... On the +whole, I find myself free to confess, +and without reluctance to admit, +that the English escaped from a +wretched and discreditable muddle, +not without harm and damage, but +perhaps in the best possible manner.</q></note> As Sir Hercules Robinson put +<pb n='043'/><anchor id='Pg043'/> +<note place='margin'>Case Considered</note> +it in a letter to Lord Kimberley, written a week before +Majuba (Feb. 21), no possible course was free from grave +objection. If you determine, he said, to hold by the annexation +of the Transvaal, the country would have to be conquered +and held in subjection for many years by a large +force. Free institutions and self-government under British +rule would be an impossibility. The only palliative would +be to dilute Dutch feeling by extensive English immigration, +like that of 1820 to the Eastern Province. But that +would take time, and need careful watching; and in the +meantime the result of holding the Transvaal as a conquered +colony would undoubtedly be to excite bitter hatred +between the English and Dutch throughout the Free State +and this colony, which would be a constant source of discomfort +and danger. On the other hand, he believed that +if they were, after a series of reverses and before any success, +to yield all the Boers asked for, they would be so overbearing +and quarrelsome that we should soon be at war with them +again. On the whole, Sir Hercules was disposed to think—extraordinary +as such a view must appear—that the best plan +would be to re-establish the supremacy of our arms, and +then let the malcontents go. He thought no middle course +any longer practicable. Yet surely this course was open to +all the objections. To hold on to annexation at any cost was +intelligible. But to face all the cost and all the risks of a +prolonged and a widely extended conflict, with the deliberate +intention of allowing the enemy to have his own way after +the conflict had been brought to an end, was not intelligible +and was not defensible. +</p> + +<p> +Some have argued that we ought to have brought up an +overwhelming force, to demonstrate that we were able to +beat them, before we made peace. Unfortunately demonstrations +of this species easily turn into provocations, and +talk of this kind mostly comes from those who believe, not +<pb n='044'/><anchor id='Pg044'/> +that peace was made in the wrong way, but that a peace +giving their country back to the Boers ought never to +have been made at all, on any terms or in any way. +This was not the point from which either cabinet or +parliament started. The government had decided that +annexation had been an error. The Boers had proposed +inquiry. The government assented on condition that the +Boers dispersed. Without waiting a reasonable time for a +reply, our general was worsted in a rash and trivial attack. +Did this cancel our proffered bargain? The point was simple +and unmistakable, though party heat at home, race passion +in the colony, and our everlasting human proneness to mix +up different questions, and to answer one point by arguments +that belong to another, all combined to produce a confusion +of mind that a certain school of partisans have traded upon +ever since. Strange in mighty nations is moral cowardice, +disguised as a Roman pride. All the more may we admire +the moral courage of the minister. For moral courage may +be needed even where aversion to bloodshed fortunately +happens to coincide with high prudence and sound policy +of state. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>VI</head> + +<p> +The negotiations proceeded, if negotiation be the right +word. The Boers disbanded, a powerful British force was +encamped on the frontier, no Boer representative sat on the +commission, and the terms of final agreement were in fact, +as the Boers afterwards alleged, dictated and imposed. Mr. +Gladstone watched with a closeness that, considering the +tremendous load of Ireland, parliamentary procedure, and +the incessant general business of a prime minister, is +amazing. When the Boers were over-pressing, he warned +them that it was only <q>the unshorn strength</q> of the +administration that enabled the English cabinet, rather to +the surprise of the world, to spare them the sufferings of +a war. <q>We could not,</q> he said to Lord Kimberley, <q>have +carried our Transvaal policy, unless we had here a strong +government, and we spent some, if not much, of our strength +in carrying it.</q> A convention was concluded at Pretoria in +<pb n='045'/><anchor id='Pg045'/> +<note place='margin'>The Sequel</note> +August, recognising the quasi-independence of the Transvaal, +subject to the suzerainty of the Queen, and with +certain specified reservations. The Pretoria convention of +1881 did not work smoothly. Transvaal affairs were discussed +from time to time in the cabinet, and Mr. Chamberlain became +the spokesman of the government on a business where +he was destined many years after to make so conspicuous +and irreparable a mark. The Boers again sent Kruger +to London, and he made out a good enough case in the +opinion of Lord Derby, then secretary of state, to justify +a fresh arrangement. By the London convention of 1884, +the Transvaal state was restored to its old title of the South +African Republic; the assertion of suzerainty in the preamble +of the old convention did not appear in the new one;<note place='foot'><q>I +apprehend, whether you call +it a Protectorate, or a Suzerainty, or +the recognition of England as a Paramount +Power, the fact is that a certain +controlling power is retained when the +state which exercises this suzerainty +has a right to veto any negotiations +into which the dependent state may +enter with foreign powers. Whatever +suzerainty meant in the Convention +of Pretoria, the condition of +things which it implied still remains; +although the word is not actually employed, +we have kept the substance. +We have abstained from using the +word because it was not capable +of legal definition, and because it +seemed to be a word which was likely +to lead to misconception and misunderstanding.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Lord +Derby in the +House of Lords</hi>, March 17, 1884. I +do not desire to multiply points of +controversy, but the ill-starred raising +of the ghost of suzerainty in 1897-9 +calls for the twofold remark that the +preamble was struck out by Lord +Derby's own hand, and that alike +when Lord Knutsford and Lord Ripon +were at the colonial office, answers +were given in the House of Commons +practically admitting that no claim +of suzerainty could be put forward.</note> and +various other modifications were introduced—the most +important of them, in the light of later events, being a +provision for white men to have full liberty to reside in any +part of the republic, to trade in it, and to be liable to the +same taxes only as those exacted from citizens of the +republic. +</p> + +<p> +Whether we look at the Sand River Convention in 1852, +which conferred independence; or at Shepstone's proclamation +in 1877, which took independence away; or at the convention +of Pretoria in 1881, which in a qualified shape gave +it back; or at the convention of London in 1884, which qualified +the qualification over again, till independence, subject to +two or three specified conditions, was restored,—we can but +recall the caustic apologue of sage Selden in his table-talk on +<pb n='046'/><anchor id='Pg046'/> +contracts. <q>Lady Kent,</q> he says, <q>articled with Sir Edward +Herbert that he should come to her when she sent for him, +and stay with her as long as she would have him; to which +he set his hand. Then he articled with her that he should +go away when he pleased, and stay away as long as he +pleased; to which she set her hand. This is the epitome +of all the contracts in the world, betwixt man and man, +betwixt prince and subject.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='047'/><anchor id='Pg047'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter IV. New Phases Of The Irish Revolution. (1880-1882)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +The agitation of the Irish land league strikes at the roots of all contract, +and therefore at the very foundations of modern society; but +if we would effectually withstand it, we must cease to insist on +maintaining the forms of free contract where the reality is +impossible.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>T. H. +Green.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Works of T. H. Green</hi>, iii. +382.</note></hi> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +On the day in 1880 when Lord Beaconsfield was finally +quitting the official house in Downing Street, one who had +been the ablest and most zealous supporter of his policy in +the press, called to bid him good-bye. The visitor talked +gloomily of the national prospect; of difficulties with Austria, +with Russia, with the Turk; of the confusions to come upon +Europe from the doctrines of Midlothian. The fallen minister +listened. Then looking at his friend, he uttered in deep +tones a single word. <q><hi rend='italic'>Ireland!</hi></q> he said. +</p> + +<p> +In a speech made in 1882 Mr. Gladstone put the case to +the House of Commons:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +The government had to deal with a state of things in Ireland +entirely different from any that had been known there for fifty +years.... With a political revolution we have ample strength +to cope. There is no reason why our cheeks should grow pale, +or why our hearts should sink, at the idea of grappling with a +political revolution. The strength of this country is tenfold what +is required for such a purpose. But a social revolution is a very +different matter.... The seat and source of the movement was +not to be found during the time the government was in power. +It is to be looked for in the foundation of the land league.<note place='foot'>House +of Commons, April 4, 1882. +</note> +</quote> + +<p> +Two years later he said at Edinburgh:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I frankly admit I had had much upon my hands connected with +<pb n='048'/><anchor id='Pg048'/> +the doings of the Beaconsfield government in almost every quarter +of the world, and I did not know, no one knew, the severity of +the crisis that was already swelling upon the horizon, and that +shortly after rushed upon us like a flood.<note place='foot'>Edinburgh, +Sept. 1, 1884.</note> +</quote> + +<p> +So came upon them by degrees the predominance of Irish +affairs and Irish activity in the parliament of 1880, which +had been chosen without much reference to Ireland. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +A social revolution with the land league for its organ in +Ireland, and Mr. Parnell and his party for its organ in parliament, +now, in Mr. Gladstone's words, rushed upon him and +his government like a flood. The mind of the country was +violently drawn from Dulcigno and Thessaly, from Batoum +and Erzeroum, from the wild squalor of Macedonia and +Armenia to squalor not less wild in Connaught and Munster, +in Mayo, Galway, Sligo, Kerry. Agrarian agitation on the +one hand, parliamentary violence on the other, were the two +potent weapons by which the Irish revolutionary leader +assailed the misrule of the British garrison as the agents +of the British parliament in his country. This formidable +movement slowly unmasked itself. The Irish government, +represented by Mr. Forster in the cabinet, began by allowing +the law conferring exceptional powers upon the executive +to lapse. The main reason was want of time to pass a fresh +Act. In view of the undoubted distress in some parts of +Ireland, and of the harshness of certain evictions, the government +further persuaded the House of Commons to pass a +bill for compensating an evicted tenant on certain conditions, +if the landlord turned him out of his holding. The bill was +no easy dose either for the cabinet or its friends. Lord +Lansdowne stirred much commotion by retiring from the +government, and landowners and capitalists were full of consternation. +At least one member of the cabinet was profoundly +uneasy. It is impossible to read the letters of +the Duke of Argyll to Mr. Gladstone on land, church +establishment, the Zulu war, without wondering on what +theory a cabinet was formed that included him, able and +<pb n='049'/><anchor id='Pg049'/> +<note place='margin'>Action Of The Lords</note> +upright as he was, along with radicals like Mr. Chamberlain. +Before the cabinet was six months old the duke was plucking +Mr. Gladstone's sleeve with some vivacity at the Birmingham +language on Irish land. Mr. Parnell in the committee +stage abstained from supporting the measure, sixteen liberals +voted against the third reading, and the House of Lords, in +which nationalist Ireland had not a single representative, +threw out the bill by a majority of 282 against 51. It was +said that if all the opposition peers had stayed away, still +ministers would have been beaten by their own supporters. +</p> + +<p> +Looking back upon these events, Mr. Gladstone set out +in a memorandum of later years, that during the session +of 1880 the details of the budget gave him a good deal +to do, while the absorbing nature of foreign questions before +and after his accession to office had withdrawn his attention +from his own Land Act of 1870:<note place='foot'>See vol. ii. +book vi. chap. II.</note>— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +Late in the session came the decisive and disastrous rejection +by the House of Lords of the bill by means of which the government +had hoped to arrest the progress of disorder, and avert the +necessity for measures in the direction of coercion. The rapid and +vast extension of agrarian disturbance followed, as was to be expected, +this wild excess of landlordism, and the Irish government +proceeded to warn the cabinet that coercive legislation would be +necessary. +</p> + +<p> +Forster allowed himself to be persuaded by the governmental +agents in Ireland that the root of the evil lay within small compass; +that there were in the several parishes a certain limited +number of unreasonable and mischievous men, that these men were +known to the police, and that if summary powers were confided +to the Irish government, by the exercise of which these objectionable +persons might be removed, the evil would die out of itself. +I must say I never fell into this extraordinary illusion of Forster's +about his 'village ruffian.' But he was a very impracticable man +placed in a position of great responsibility. He was set upon a +method of legislation adapted to the erroneous belief that the +mischief lay only with a very limited number of well-known +individuals, that is to say, the suspension of the Habeas Corpus +<pb n='050'/><anchor id='Pg050'/> +Act.... Two points of difference arose: first, as to the nature of +the coercion to be used; secondly, as to its time. I insisted that +we were bound to try what we could do against Parnell under +the existing law, before asking for extraordinary powers. Both +Bright and Chamberlain, if I remember right, did very good +service in protesting against haste, and resisting Forster's desire +to anticipate the ordinary session for the purpose of obtaining +coercive powers. When, however, the argument of time was +exhausted by the Parnell trial<note place='foot'>Proceedings had been instituted +in the Dublin courts against Parnell +and others for seditious conspiracy. +The jury were unable to agree on a +verdict.</note> and otherwise, I obtained no +support from them in regard to the kind of coercion we were to +ask. I considered it should be done by giving stringency to the +existing law, but not by abolishing the right to be tried before +being imprisoned. I felt the pulse of various members of the +cabinet, among whom I seem to recollect Kimberley and Carlingford, +but I could obtain no sympathy, and to my dismay both +Chamberlain and Bright arrived at the conclusion that if there +was to be coercion at all, which they lamented, there was something +simple and effective in the suspension of the Habeas Corpus +Act which made such a method preferable to others.<note place='foot'>Tried +by Lord Spencer in Westmeath +in 1871, it had been successful, +but the area of disturbance was there +comparatively insignificant.</note> I finally +acquiesced. It may be asked why? My resistance would have +broken up the government or involved my own retirement. My +reason for acquiescence was that I bore in mind the special commission +under which the government had taken office. It related +to the foreign policy of the country, the whole spirit and effect of +which we were to reconstruct. This work had not yet been fully +accomplished, and it seemed to me that the effective prosecution +of it was our first and highest duty. I therefore submitted. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +By the end of November Mr. Gladstone explained to the +Queen that the state of Ireland was menacing; its distinctive +character was not so much that of general insecurity of life, as +that of a widespread conspiracy against property. The worst +of it was, he said, that the leaders, unlike O'Connell, failed to +denounce crime. The outbreak was not comparable to that +of 1832. In 1879 homicides were 64 against 242 for the +earlier year of disturbance. But things were bad enough. +<pb n='051'/><anchor id='Pg051'/> +<note place='margin'>Disturbances In Ireland</note> +In Galway they had a policeman for every forty-seven adult +males, and a soldier for every ninety-seven. Yet dangerous +terrorism was rampant. <q>During more than thirty-seven +years since I first entered a cabinet,</q> Mr. Gladstone told the +Speaker (November 25), <q>I have hardly known so difficult +a question of administration, as that of the immediate duty +of the government in the present state of Ireland. The +multitude of circumstances to be taken into account must +strike every observer. Among these stand the novelty of +the suspension of Habeas Corpus in a case of agrarian crime +stimulated by a public society, and the rather serious +difficulty of obtaining it; but more important than these +is the grave doubt whether it would really reach the great +characteristic evil of the time, namely, the paralysis of most +important civil and proprietary rights, and whether the +immediate proposal of a remedy, probably ineffective and +even in a coercive sense partial, would not seriously damage +the prospects of that arduous and comprehensive task which +without doubt we must undertake when parliament is +summoned.</q> In view of considerations of this kind, the +awkwardness of directing an Act of parliament virtually +against leaders who were at the moment the object of indictment +in the Irish law courts; difficulties of time; doubts +as to the case being really made out; doubts as to the +efficacy of the proposed remedy, Mr. Forster did not carry +the cabinet, but agreed to continue the experiment of the +ordinary law. The experiment was no success, and coercion +accompanied by land reform became the urgent policy. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +The opening of the session of 1881 at once brought obstruction +into full view. The Irish took up their position as a +party of action. They spoke incessantly; as Mr. Gladstone put +it, <q>sometimes rising to the level of mediocrity, and more +often grovelling amidst mere trash in unbounded profusion.</q> +Obstruction is obstruction all the world over. It was not +quite new at Westminster, but it was new on this scale. +Closure proposals sprang up like mushrooms. Liberal members +with a historical bent ran privately to the Speaker with +<pb n='052'/><anchor id='Pg052'/> +ancient precedents of dictatorial powers asserted by his +official ancestors, and they exhorted him to revive them. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Forster brought in his bill. Its scope may be described +in a sentence. It practically enabled the viceroy +to lock up anybody he pleased, and to detain him as long as +he pleased, while the Act remained in force.<note place='foot'>For a +plain and precise description of the Coercion Act of 1881, see +Dicey's <hi rend='italic'>Law of the Constitution</hi>, pp. 243-8.</note> The debate for +leave to introduce the bill lasted several days, without any +sign of coming to an end. Here is the Speaker's account +of his own memorable act in forcing a close:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Monday, Jan. 31.</hi>—The House was boiling over with indignation +at the apparent triumph of obstruction, and Mr. <hi rend='italic'>G</hi>., yielding to +the pressure of his friends, committed himself unwisely, as I +thought, to a continuous sitting on this day in order to force the +bill through its first stage. +</p> + +<p> +On Tuesday, after a sitting of twenty-four hours, I saw plainly +that this attempt to carry the bill by continuous sitting would +fail, the Parnell party being strong in numbers, discipline, and +organisation, and with great gifts of speech. I reflected on the +situation, and came to the conclusion that it was my duty to +extricate the House from the difficulty by closing the debate of my +own authority, and so asserting the undoubted will of the House +against a rebellious minority. I sent for Mr. G. on Tuesday +(Feb. 1), about noon, and told him that I should be prepared +to put the question in spite of obstruction on the following +conditions: 1. That the debate should be carried on until the +following morning, my object in this delay being to mark distinctly +to the outside world the extreme gravity of the situation, +and the necessity of the step which I was about to take. 2. That +he should reconsider the regulation of business, either by giving +more authority to the House, or by conferring authority on the +Speaker. +</p> + +<p> +He agreed to these conditions, and summoned a meeting of the +cabinet, which assembled in my library at four <hi rend='smallcaps'>p.m.</hi> on Tuesday +while the House was sitting, and I was in the chair. At that +meeting the resolution as to business assumed the shape in which +it finally appeared on the following Thursday, it having been previously +<pb n='053'/><anchor id='Pg053'/> +considered at former meetings of the cabinet. I arranged +with Playfair to take the chair on Tuesday night about midnight, +engaging to resume it on Wednesday morning at nine. Accordingly +at nine I took the chair, Biggar being in possession of the +House. I rose, and he resumed his seat. I proceeded with my +address as concerted with May, and when I had concluded I put +the question. The scene was most dramatic; but all passed off +without disturbance, the Irish party on the second division retiring +under protest. +</p> + +<p> +I had communicated, with Mr. G.'s approval, my intention to +close the debate to Northcote, but to no one else, except May, +from whom I received much assistance. Northcote was startled, +but expressed no disapproval of the course proposed. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +So ended the memorable sitting of January 31. At noon, +on February 2, the House assembled in much excitement. +The question was put challenging the Speaker's conduct. +<q>I answered,</q> he says, <q>on the spur of the moment that I had +acted on my own responsibility, and from a sense of duty to +the House. I never heard such loud and protracted cheering, +none cheering more loudly than Gladstone.</q> <q>The +Speaker's firmness in mind,</q> Mr. Gladstone reported to the +Queen, <q>his suavity in manner, his unwearied patience, his +incomparable temper, under a thousand provocations, have +rendered possible a really important result.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +After coercion came a land bill, and here Mr. Gladstone +once more displayed his unequalled mastery of legislative +skill and power. He had to explain and be ready to +explain again and again, what he told Lord Selborne was +<q>the most difficult measure he had ever known to come +under the detailed consideration of a cabinet.</q> It was +no affair this time of speeches out of a railway carriage, +or addressed to excited multitudes in vast halls. That +might be, if you so pleased, <q>the empty verbosity of exuberant +rhetoric</q>; but nobody could say that of the contest +over the complexities of Irish tenure, against the clever and +indomitable Irish experts who fought under the banner of +Mr. Parnell. Northcote was not far wrong when he said +<pb n='054'/><anchor id='Pg054'/> +that though the bill was carried by two to one, there was +hardly a man in the House beyond the Irish ranks who +cared a straw about it. Another critic said that if the +prime minister had asked the House to pass the <hi rend='italic'>Koran</hi> or +the <hi rend='italic'>Nautical Almanac</hi> as a land bill, he would have met no +difficulty. +</p> + +<p> +The history of the session was described as the carriage +of a single measure by a single man. Few British members +understood it, none mastered it. The whigs were disaffected +about it, the radicals doubted it, the tories thought that +property as a principle was ruined by it, the Irishmen, when +the humour seized them, bade him send the bill to line +trunks. Mr. Gladstone, as one observer truly says, <q>faced +difficulties such as no other bill of this country has ever +encountered, difficulties of politics and difficulties of law, +difficulties of principle and difficulties of detail, difficulties +of party and difficulties of personnel, difficulties of race and +difficulties of class, and he has never once failed, or even +seemed to fail, in his clear command of the question, in his +dignity and authority of demeanour, in his impartiality in +accepting amending suggestions, in his firmness in resisting +destructive suggestions, in his clear perception of his aim, +and his strong grasp of the fitting means. And yet it is +hardly possible to appreciate adequately the embarrassments +of the situation.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Enough has already been said of the legislation of 1870, +and its establishment of the principle that Irish land is not +the subject of an undivided ownership, but a partnership.<note place='foot'>See +vol. ii. p. 284.</note> +The act of 1870 failed because it had too many exceptions +and limitations; because in administration the compensation +to the tenant for disturbance was inadequate; and because it +did not fix the cultivator in his holding. Things had now +ripened. The Richmond Commission shortly before had +pointed to a court for fixing rents; that is, for settling the +terms of the partnership. A commission nominated by +Mr. Gladstone and presided over by Lord Bessborough had +reported early in 1881 in favour not only of fair rents to be +settled by a tribunal, but of fixity of tenure or the right of +<pb n='055'/><anchor id='Pg055'/> +<note place='margin'>Great Agrarian Law</note> +the tenant to remain in his holding if he paid his rent, and +of free sale; that is, his right to part with his interest. These +<q>three F's</q> were the substance of the legislation of 1881. +</p> + +<p> +Rents could not be paid, and landlords either would not +or could not reduce them. In the deepest interests of social +order, and in confirmation of the tenant's equitable and +customary ownership, the only course open to the imperial +legislature was to erect machinery for fixing fair rents. +The alternative to what became matter of much objurgation +as dual ownership, was a single ownership that was only a +short name for allowing the landlord to deal as he liked +with the equitable interest of the tenant. Without the +machinery set up by Mr. Gladstone, there could be no +security for the protection of the cultivator's interest. +What is more, even in view of a wide and general extension +of the policy of buying out the landlord and turning the +tenant into single owner, still a process of valuation for +purposes of fair price would have been just as indispensable, +as under the existing system was the tiresome and costly +process of valuation for purposes of fair rent. It is true +that if the policy of purchase had been adopted, this process +would have been performed once for all. But opinion was +not nearly ready either in England or Ireland for general +purchase. And as Mr. Gladstone had put it to Bright in +1870, to turn a little handful of occupiers into owners would +not have touched the fringe of the case of the bulk of the +Irish cultivators, then undergoing acute mischief and urgently +crying for prompt relief. Mr. Bright's idea of purchase, +moreover, assumed that the buyer would come with at least +a quarter of the price in his hand,—an assumption not consistent +with the practical possibilities of the case. +</p> + +<p> +The legislation of 1881 no doubt encountered angry +criticism from the English conservative, and little more +than frigid approval from the Irish nationalist. It offended +the fundamental principle of the landlords; its administration +and the construction of some of its leading provisions +by the courts disappointed and irritated the tenant party. +Nevertheless any attempt in later times to impair the +authority of the Land Act of 1881 brought the fact instantly +<pb n='056'/><anchor id='Pg056'/> +to light, that the tenant knew it to be the fundamental +charter of his redemption from worse than Egyptian bondage. +In measuring this great agrarian law, not only by parliamentary +force and legislative skill and power, but by the vast +and abiding depth of its social results, both direct and still +more indirect, many will be disposed to give it the highest +place among Mr. Gladstone's achievements as lawmaker. +</p> + +<p> +Fault has sometimes been found with Mr. Gladstone for +not introducing his bill in the session of 1880. If this had +been done, it is argued, Ireland would have been appeased, +no coercion would have been necessary, and we should have +been spared disastrous parliamentary exasperations and all +the other mischiefs and perils of the quarrel between England +and Ireland that followed. Criticism of this kind overlooks +three facts. Neither Mr. Gladstone nor Forster nor the +new House of Commons was at all ready in 1880 to accept +the Three F's. Second, the Bessborough commission had not +taken its evidence, and made its momentous report. Third, +this argument assumes motives in Mr. Parnell, that probably +do not at all cover the whole ground of his policy. As it +happened, I called on Mr. Gladstone one morning early in +1881. <q>You have heard,</q> I asked, <q>that the Bessborough commission +are to report for the Three F's?</q> <q>I have not heard,</q> +he said; <q>it is incredible!</q> As so often comes to pass in +politics, it was only a step from the incredible to the indispensable. +But in 1880 the indispensable was also the +impossible. It was the cruel winter of 1880-1 that made +much difference. +</p> + +<p> +In point of endurance the session was one of the most +remarkable on record. The House of Commons sat 154 +days and for 1400 hours; some 240 of these hours were after +midnight. Only three times since the Reform bill had the +House sat for more days; only once, in 1847, had the total +number of hours been exceeded and that only by seven, and +never before had the House sat so many hours after midnight. +On the Coercion bill the House sat continuously +once for 22 hours, and once for 41. The debates on the +Land bill took up 58 sittings, and the Coercion bill 22. No +such length of discussion, Mr. Gladstone told the Queen, +<pb n='057'/><anchor id='Pg057'/> +<note place='margin'>Its Reception In Ireland</note> +was recorded on any measure since the committee on the +first Reform bill. The Reform bill of 1867 was the only +measure since 1843 that took as many as 35 days of debate. +The Irish Church bill took 21 days and the Land bill of +1870 took 25. Of the 14,836 speeches delivered, 6315 were +made by Irish members. The Speaker and chairman of +committees interposed on points of order nearly 2000 times +during the session. Mr. Parnell, the Speaker notes, <q>with +his minority of 24 dominates the House. When will the +House take courage and reform its procedure?</q> After all, +the suspension of <hi rend='italic'>habeas corpus</hi> is a thing that men may well +think it worth while to fight about, and a revolution in a +country's land-system might be expected to take up a good +deal of time. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>V</head> + +<p> +It soon appeared that no miracle had been wrought by +either Coercion Act or Land Act. Mr. Parnell drew up test +cases for submission to the new land court. His advice to +the army of tenants would depend, he said, on the fate of +these cases. In September Mr. Forster visited Hawarden, +and gave a bad account of the real meaning of Mr. Parnell's +plausible propositions for sending test cases to the newly +established land commission, as well as of other ugly circumstances. +<q>It is quite clear as you said,</q> wrote Mr. Gladstone +to Forster in Ireland, <q>that Parnell means to present cases +which the commission must refuse, and then to treat their +refusal as showing that they cannot be trusted, and that the +bill has failed.</q> As he interpreted it afterwards, there was +no doubt that in one sense the Land Act tended to accelerate +a crisis in Ireland, for it brought to a head the affairs of the +party connected with the land league. It made it almost a +necessity for that party either to advance or to recede. They +chose the desperate course. At the same date, he wrote in a +letter to Lord Granville:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +With respect to Parnellism, I should not propose to do more +than a severe and strong denunciation of it by severing him +altogether from the Irish people and the mass of the Irish +members, and by saying that home rule has for one of its aims +<pb n='058'/><anchor id='Pg058'/> +local government—an excellent thing to which I would affix no +limits except the supremacy of the imperial parliament, and the +rights of all parts of the country to claim whatever might be +accorded to Ireland. This is only a repetition of what I have +often said before, and I have nothing to add or enlarge. But I +have the fear that when the occasion for action comes, which will +not be in my time, many liberals may perhaps hang back and +may cause further trouble. +</quote> + +<p> +In view of what was to come four years later, one of his +letters to Forster is interesting (April 12, 1882), among +other reasons as illustrating the depth to which the essence +of political liberalism had now penetrated Mr. Gladstone's +mind:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +1. About local government for Ireland, the ideas which more +and more establish themselves in my mind are such as these. +</p> + +<p> +(1.) Until we have seriously responsible bodies to deal with us +in Ireland, every plan we frame comes to Irishmen, say what we +may, as an English plan. As such it is probably condemned. At +best it is a one-sided bargain, which binds us, not them. +</p> + +<p> +(2.) If your excellent plans for obtaining local aid towards the +execution of the law break down, it will be on account of this +miserable and almost total want of the sense of responsibility for +the public good and public peace in Ireland; and this responsibility +we cannot create except through local self-government. +</p> + +<p> +(3.) If we say we must postpone the question till the state of the +country is more fit for it, I should answer that the least danger is +in going forward at once. It is liberty alone which fits men for +liberty. This proposition, like every other in politics, has its +bounds; but it is far safer than the counter doctrine, wait till +they are fit. +</p> + +<p> +(4.) In truth I should say (differing perhaps from many), that +for the Ireland of to-day, the first question is the rectification of +the relations between landlord and tenant, which happily is going +on; the next is to relieve Great Britain from the enormous weight +of the government of Ireland unaided by the people, and from the +hopeless contradiction in which we stand while we give a parliamentary +representation, hardly effective for anything but mischief +<pb n='059'/><anchor id='Pg059'/> +without the local institutions of self-government which it presupposes, +and on which alone it can have a sound and healthy +basis. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +We have before us in administration, he wrote to Forster +in September— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +a problem not less delicate and arduous than the problem of +legislation with which we have lately had to deal in parliament. +Of the leaders, the officials, the skeleton of the land league I have +no hope whatever. The better the prospects of the Land Act +with their adherents outside the circle of wire-pullers, and with +the Irish people, the more bitter will be their hatred, and the +more sure they will be to go as far as fear of the people will allow +them in keeping up the agitation, which they cannot afford to part +with on account of their ulterior ends. All we can do is to turn +more and more the masses of their followers, to fine them down by +good laws and good government, and it is in this view that the +question of judicious releases from prison, should improving +statistics of crime encourage it, may become one of early +importance. +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>VI</head> + +<p> +It was in the autumn of 1881 that Mr. Gladstone visited +Leeds, in payment of the debt of gratitude due for his +triumphant return in the general election of the year before. +This progress extended over four days, and almost surpassed in +magnitude and fervour any of his experiences in other parts +of the kingdom. We have an interesting glimpse of the +physical effort of such experiences in a couple of his letters +written to Mr. Kitson, who with immense labour and spirit +had organized this severe if glorious enterprise:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Hawarden Castle, Sept. 28, 1881.</hi>—I thank you for the very +clear and careful account of the proposed proceedings at Leeds. It lacks +as yet that <emph>rough</emph> statement of numbers at each meeting, which is +requisite to enable me to understand what I shall have to do. This +will be fixed by the scale of the meeting. I see no difficulty but +one—a procession through the principal thoroughfares is one of +the most exhausting processes I know as a <emph>preliminary</emph> to addressing +a mass meeting. A mass meeting requires the physical powers +<pb n='060'/><anchor id='Pg060'/> +to be in their best and freshest state, as far as anything can be +fresh in a man near seventy-two; and I have on one or more +former occasions felt them wofully contracted. In Midlothian I +never had anything of the kind before a great physical effort in +speaking; and the lapse even of a couple of years is something. +It would certainly be most desirable to have the mass meeting +first, and then I have not any fear at all of the procession through +whatever thoroughfares you think fit. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Oct. 2, 1881.</hi>—I should be very sorry to put aside any of the +opportunities of vision at Leeds which the public may care to use; +but what I had hoped was that these might come <emph>after</emph> any speeches +of considerable effort and not <emph>before</emph> them. To understand what a +physical drain, and what a reaction from tension of the senses is +caused by a <q>progress</q> before addressing a great audience, a person +must probably have gone through it, and gone through it at my +time of life. When I went to Midlothian, I begged that this +might never happen; and it was avoided throughout. Since that +time I have myself been sensible for the first time of a diminished +power of voice in the House of Commons, and others also for the +first time have remarked it. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +Vast torchlight processions, addresses from the corporation, +four score addresses from political bodies, a giant banquet in +the Cloth Hall Yard covered in for the purpose, on one day; +on another, more addresses, a public luncheon followed by a +mass meeting of over five-and-twenty thousand persons, then +a long journey through dense throngs vociferous with an exultation +that knew no limits, a large dinner party, and at the +end of all a night train. The only concessions that the veteran +asked to weakness of the flesh, were that at the banquet he +should not appear until the eating and drinking were over, +and that at the mass meeting some preliminary speakers +should intervene to give him time to take breath after his +long and serious exercises of the morning. When the time +came his voice was heard like the note of a clear and deep-toned +bell. So much had vital energy, hardly less rare than +his mental power, to do with the varied exploits of this +spacious career. +</p> + +<p> +The topics of his Leeds speeches I need not travel over. +<pb n='061'/><anchor id='Pg061'/> +<note place='margin'>Arrest Of Mr. Parnell</note> +What attracted most attention and perhaps drew most applause +was his warning to Mr. Parnell. <q>He desires,</q> said +the minister, <q>to arrest the operation of the Land Act; to +stand as Moses stood between the living and the dead; to +stand there not as Moses stood, to arrest, but to spread the +plague.</q> The menace that followed became a catchword of +the day: <q>If it shall appear that there is still to be fought +a final conflict in Ireland between law on the one side and +sheer lawlessness upon the other, if the law purged from +defect and from any taint of injustice is still to be repelled +and refused, and the first conditions of political society to +remain unfulfilled, then I say, gentlemen, without hesitation, +the resources of civilisation against its enemies are not yet +exhausted.</q><note place='foot'>At the Cloth Hall banquet, Leeds, Oct. 8, 1881.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Nor was the pageant all excitement. The long speech, +which by way of prelusion to the great mass meeting he +addressed to the chamber of commerce, was devoted to the +destruction of the economic sophisters who tried to persuade +us that <q>the vampire of free-trade was insidiously sucking +the life-blood of the country.</q> In large survey of broad social +facts, exposition of diligently assorted figures, power of +scientific analysis, sustained chain of reasoning, he was never +better. The consummate mastery of this argumentative +performance did not slay a heresy that has nine lives, but +it drove the thing out of sight in Yorkshire for some time +to come.<note place='foot'>Speech to the Leeds Chamber of Commerce, Oct. 8, 1881.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>VII</head> + +<p> +On Wednesday October 12, the cabinet met, and after five +hours of deliberation decided that Mr. Parnell should be +sent to prison under the Coercion Act. The Irish leader +was arrested at his hotel the next morning, and carried +off to Kilmainham, where he remained for some six +months. The same day Mr. Gladstone was presented with +an address from the Common Council of London, and in his +speech at the Guildhall gave them the news:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Our determination has been that to the best of our power, our +words should be carried into acts [referring to what he had said +<pb n='062'/><anchor id='Pg062'/> +at Leeds], and even within these few moments I have been +informed that towards the vindication of law and order, of the +rights of property, of the freedom of the land, of the first elements +of political life and civilisation, the first step has been taken in +the arrest of the man who unhappily from motives which I do +not challenge, which I cannot examine and with which I have +nothing to do, has made himself beyond all others prominent in +the attempt to destroy the authority of the law, and to substitute +what would end in being nothing more or less than anarchical +oppression exercised upon the people of Ireland. +</quote> + +<p> +The arrest of Mr. Parnell was no doubt a pretty considerable +strain upon powers conferred by parliament to put +down village ruffians; but times were revolutionary, and +though the Act of parliament was not a wise one, but +altogether the reverse of wise, it was no wonder that having +got the instrument, ministers thought they might as well +use it. Still executive violence did not seem to work, and +Mr. Gladstone looked in a natural direction for help in the +milder way of persuasion. He wrote (December 17th) to +Cardinal Newman:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +I will begin with defining strictly the limits of this appeal. I +ask you to read the inclosed papers; and to consider whether you +will write anything to Rome upon them. I do not ask you to +write, nor to tell me whether you write, nor to make any reply +to this letter, beyond returning the inclosures in an envelope to +me in Downing Street. I will state briefly the grounds of my +request, thus limited. In 1844, when I was young as a cabinet +minister, and the government of Sir R. Peel was troubled with +the O'Connell manifestations, they made what I think was an +appeal to Pope Gregory XVI. for his intervention to discourage +agitation in Ireland. I should be very loath now to tender such a +request at Rome. But now a different case arises. Some members +of the Roman catholic priesthood in Ireland deliver certain sermons +and otherwise express themselves in the way which my inclosures +exhibit. I doubt whether if they were laymen we should not +have settled their cases by putting them into gaol. I need not +describe the sentiments uttered. Your eminence will feel them +and judge them as strongly as I do. But now as to the Supreme +<pb n='063'/><anchor id='Pg063'/> +Pontiff. You will hardly be surprised when I say that I regard +him, if apprised of the facts, as responsible for the conduct of +these priests. For I know perfectly well that he has the means +of silencing them; and that, if any one of them were in public to +dispute the decrees of the council of 1870 as plainly as he has +denounced law and order, he would be silenced. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Errington, who is at Rome, will I believe have seen these +papers, and will I hope have brought the facts as far as he is able +to the knowledge of his holiness. But I do not know how far he is +able; nor how he may use his discretion. He is not our official servant, +but an independent Roman catholic gentleman and a volunteer. +</p> + +<p> +My wish is as regards Ireland, in this hour of her peril and her +hope, to leave nothing undone by which to give heart and +strength to the hope and to abate the peril. But my wish as +regards the Pope is that he should have the means of bringing +those for whom he is responsible to fulfil the elementary duties of +citizenship. I say of citizenship; of Christianity, of priesthood, it +is not for me to speak. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +The cardinal replied that he would gladly find himself +able to be of service, however slight it might be, in a +political crisis which must be felt as of grave anxiety by all +who understand the blessing of national unity and peace. +He thought Mr. Gladstone overrated the pope's power +in political and social matters. Absolute in questions of +theology, it was not so in political matters. If the contest +in Ireland were whether <q>rebellion</q> or whether <q>robbery</q> +was a sin, we might expect him to anathematise its denial. +But his action in concrete matters, as whether a political +party is censurable or not, was not direct, and only in the +long run effective. Local power and influence was often +a match for Roman right. The pope's right keeps things +together, it checks extravagances, and at length prevails, +but not without a fight. Its exercise is a matter of great +prudence, and depends upon times and circumstances. As +for the intemperate dangerous words of priests and curates, +surely such persons belonged to their respective bishops, +and scarcely required the introduction of the Supreme +Authority. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='064'/><anchor id='Pg064'/> + +<div> +<head>VIII</head> + +<p> +We have now arrived at April 1882. The reports +brought to the cabinet by Mr. Forster were of the +gloomiest. The Land Act had brought no improvement. +In the south-west and many of the midland counties lawlessness +and intimidation were worse than ever. Returns of +agrarian crime were presented in every shape, and comparisons +framed by weeks, by months, by quarters; do what +the statisticians would, and in spite of fluctuations, murders +and other serious outrages had increased. The policy of +arbitrary arrest had completely failed, and the officials and +crown lawyers at the Castle were at their wits' end. +</p> + +<p> +While the cabinet was face to face with this ugly prospect, +Mr. Gladstone received a communication volunteered by an +Irish member, as to the new attitude of Mr. Parnell and the +possibility of turning it to good account. Mr. Gladstone sent +this letter on to Forster, replying meanwhile <q>in the sense of +not shutting the door.</q> When the thing came before the +cabinet, Mr. Chamberlain—who had previously told Mr. +Gladstone that he thought the time opportune for something +like a reconciliation with the Irish party—with characteristic +courage took his life in his hands, as he put it, and set to +work to ascertain through the emissary what use for the +public good could be made of Mr. Parnell's changed frame of +mind. On April 25th, the cabinet heard what Mr. Chamberlain +had to tell them, and it came to this, that Mr. Parnell +was desirous to use his influence on behalf of peace, but his +influence for good depended on the settlement of the question +of arrears. Ministers decided that they could enter +into no agreement and would give no pledge. They would +act on their own responsibility in the light of the knowledge +they had gained of Mr. Parnell's views. Mr. Gladstone was +always impatient of any reference to <q>reciprocal assurances</q> +or <q>tacit understanding</q> in respect of the dealings with the +prisoner in Kilmainham. Still the nature of the proceedings +was plain enough. The object of the communications to +which the government were invited by Mr. Parnell through +his emissary, was, supposing him to be anxious to do what +<pb n='065'/><anchor id='Pg065'/> +<note place='margin'>Mr. Forster's Resignation</note> +he could for law and order, to find out what action on the +part of the government would enable him to adopt this line. +</p> + +<p> +Events then moved rapidly. Rumours that something +was going on got abroad, and questions began to be put in +parliament. A stout tory gave notice of a motion aiming at +the release of the suspects. As Mr. Gladstone informed the +Queen, there was no doubt that the general opinion of the +public was moving in a direction adverse to arbitrary +imprisonment, though the question was a nice one for +consideration whether the recent surrender by the no-rent +party of its extreme and most subversive contentions, +amounted to anything like a guarantee for their future +conduct in respect of peace and order. The rising excitement +was swelled by the retirement of Lord Cowper from +the viceroyalty, and the appointment as his successor of Lord +Spencer, who had filled that post in Mr. Gladstone's first +government. On May 2nd, Mr. Gladstone read a memorandum +to the cabinet to which they agreed:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +The cabinet are of opinion that the time has now arrived when +with a view to the interests of law and order in Ireland, the three +members of parliament who have been imprisoned on suspicion +since last October, should be immediately released; and that the +list of suspects should be examined with a view to the release of +all persons not believed to be associated with crimes. They +propose at once to announce to parliament their intention to +propose, as soon as necessary business will permit, a bill to +strengthen the ordinary law in Ireland for the security of life +and property, while reserving their discretion with regard to the +Life and Property Protection Act [of 1881], which however they +do not at present think it will be possible to renew, if a favourable +state of affairs shall prevail in Ireland. +</quote> + +<p> +From this proceeding Mr. Forster dissented, and he +resigned his office. His point seems to have been that no +suspect should be released until the new Coercion Act had +been fashioned, whereas the rest of the cabinet held that there +was no excuse for the continued detention under arbitrary +warrant of men as to whom the ground for the <q>reasonable +suspicion</q> required by the law had now disappeared. He +<pb n='066'/><anchor id='Pg066'/> +probably felt that the appointment of a viceroy of cabinet rank +and with successful Irish experience was in fact his own supersession. +<q>I have received your letter,</q> Mr. Gladstone wrote +to him (May 2), <q>with much grief, but on this it would be +selfish to expatiate. I have no choice; followed or not followed +I must go on. There are portions of the subject which touch +you personally, and which seem to me to deserve <emph>much</emph> +attention. But I have such an interest in the main issue, +that I could not be deemed impartial; so I had better not +enter on them. One thing, however, I wish to say. You +wish to minimise in any further statement the cause of your +retreat. In my opinion—<emph>and I speak from experience</emph>—viewing +the nature of that course, you will find this hardly +possible. For a justification you, I fear, will have to found +upon the doctrine of <q>a new departure.</q> We must protest +against it, and deny it with heart and soul.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The way in which Mr. Gladstone chose to put things +was stated in a letter to the Queen (May 3): <q>In his +judgment there had been two, and only two, vital powers +of commanding efficacy in Ireland, the Land Act, and the +land league; they had been locked in a combat of life and +death; and the cardinal question was which of the two +would win. From the serious effort to amend the Land Act +by the Arrears bill of the nationalists,<note place='foot'>Introduced +by Mr. Redmond.</note> from the speeches +made in support of it, and from information voluntarily +tendered to the government as to the views of the leaders of +the league, the cabinet believed that those who governed +the land league were now conscious of having been defeated +by the Land Act on the main question, that of paying +rent.</q> +</p> + +<p> +For the office of Irish secretary Mr. Gladstone selected +Lord Frederick Cavendish, who was the husband of a niece of +Mrs. Gladstone's, and one of the most devoted of his friends +and adherents. The special reason for the choice of this +capable and high-minded man, was that Lord Frederick had +framed a plan of finance at the treasury for a new scheme +of land purchase. The two freshly appointed Irish ministers +at once crossed over to a country seething in disorder. The +<pb n='067'/><anchor id='Pg067'/> +<note place='margin'>The Murders In The Phœnix Park</note> +afternoon of the fatal sixth of May was passed by the +new viceroy and Lord Frederick in that grim apartment in +Dublin Castle, where successive secretaries spend unshining +hours in saying No to impossible demands, and hunting +for plausible answers to insoluble riddles. Never did so +dreadful a shadow overhang it as on that day. The task +on which the two ministers were engaged was the consideration +of the new provisions for coping with disorder, which +had been prepared in London. The under-secretary, Mr. +Burke, and one of the lawyers, were present. Lord Spencer +rode out to the park about five o'clock, and Lord Frederick +followed him an hour later. He was overtaken by the +under-secretary walking homewards, and as the two strolled +on together, they were both brutally murdered in front +of the vice-regal residence. The assassins did not know who +Lord Frederick was. Well has it been said that Ireland +seems the sport of a destiny that is aimless.<note place='foot'>It had +been Mr. Burke's practice +to drive from the Castle to the Park +gate, then to descend and walk home, +followed by two detectives. On this +occasion he found at the gate that +the chief secretary had passed, and +drove forward to overtake him. The +detectives did not follow him as usual. +If they had followed, he would have +been saved.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The official world of London was on that Saturday night +in the full round of its pleasures. The Gladstones were +dining at the Austrian embassy. So, too, was Sir William +Harcourt, and to him as home secretary the black tidings +were sent from Dublin late in the evening. Mr. and Mrs. +Gladstone had already left, she for a party at the admiralty, +he walking home to Downing Street. At the admiralty +they told her of bad news from Ireland and hurried her +away. Mr. Gladstone arrived at home a few minutes after +her. When his secretary in the hall told him of the +horrible thing that had been done, it was as if he had +been felled to the ground. Then they hastened to bear +what solace they could, to the anguish-stricken home where +solace would be so sorely needed. +</p> + +<p> +The effect of this blind and hideous crime was at once to +arrest the spirit and the policy of conciliation. While the +Irish leaders were locked up, a secret murder club had +taken matters in hand in their own way, and ripened plots +<pb n='068'/><anchor id='Pg068'/> +within a stone's throw of the Castle. No worse blow could +have been struck at Mr. Parnell's policy. It has been said +that the nineteenth century had seen the course of its history +twenty-five times diverted by actual or attempted crime. +In that sinister list the murders in the Phoenix Park have a +tragic place. +</p> + +<p> +The voice of party was for the moment hushed. Sir +Stafford Northcote wrote a letter of admirable feeling, saying +that if there was any way in which Mr. Gladstone thought +they could serve the government, he would of course let +them know. The Prince of Wales wrote of his own horror +and indignation at the crime, and of his sympathy with +Mr. Gladstone in the loss of one who was not only a colleague +of many merits, but a near connection and devoted friend. +With one or two scandalous exceptions, the tone of the +English press was sober, sensible, and self-possessed. <q>If a +nation,</q> said a leading journal in Paris, <q>should be judged +by the way in which it acts on grave occasions, the spectacle +offered by England is calculated to produce a high opinion +of the political character and spirit of the British people.</q> +Things of the baser sort were not quite absent, but they did not +matter. An appeal confronted the electors of the North-West +Riding as they went to the poll at a bye-election a few days +later, to <q>Vote for ——, and avenge the death of Lord +Frederick Cavendish!</q> They responded by placing ——'s +opponent at the head of the poll by a majority of two +thousand. +</p> + +<p> +The scene in the House had all the air of tragedy, and +Mr. Gladstone summoned courage enough to do his part +with impressive composure. A colleague was doing some +business with him in his room before the solemnity began. +When it was over, they resumed it, Mr. Gladstone making +no word of reference to the sombre interlude, before or after. +<q>Went reluctantly to the House,</q> he says in his diary, <q>and +by the help of God forced out what was needful on the +question of the adjournment.</q> His words were not many, +when after commemorating the marked qualities of Mr. +Burke, he went on in laboured tones and slow speech and +hardly repressed emotion:— +</p> + +<pb n='069'/><anchor id='Pg069'/> + +<quote rend='display'> +The hand of the assassin has come nearer home; and though +I feel it difficult to say a word, yet I must say that one of the very +noblest hearts in England has ceased to beat, and has ceased at the +very moment when it was just devoted to the service of Ireland, +full of love for that country, full of hope for her future, full of +capacity to render her service. +</quote> + +<p> +Writing to Lady Frederick on a later day, he mentions a +public reference to some pathetic words of hers (May 19):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Sexton just now returned to the subject, with much approval +from the House. You will find it near the middle of a long +speech. Nothing could be better either in feeling or in grace +(the man is little short of a master), and I think it will warm +your heart. You have made a mark deeper than any wound. +</quote> + +<p> +To Lord Ripon in India, he wrote (June 1):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +The black act brought indeed a great personal grief to my wife +and me; but we are bound to merge our own sorrow in the larger +and deeper affliction of the widow and the father, in the sense of +the public loss of a life so valuable to the nation, and in the consideration +of the great and varied effects it may have on immediate +and vital interests. Since the death of this dearly loved son, we +have heard much good of the Duke, whom indeed we saw at Chatsworth +after the funeral, and we have seen much of Lady Frederick, +who has been good even beyond what we could have hoped. I +have no doubt you have heard in India the echo of words spoken +by Spencer from a letter of hers, in which she said she could give +up even him if his death were to work good to his fellow-men, +which indeed was the whole object of his life. These words have +had a tender effect, as remarkable as the horror excited by the +slaughter. Spencer wrote to me that a priest in Connemara read +them from the altar; when the whole congregation spontaneously +fell down upon their knees. In England, the national attitude has +been admirable. The general strain of language has been, <q>Do not +let this terrible and flagitious crime deter you from persevering +with the work of justice.</q> +</quote> + +<p> +Well did Dean Church say that no Roman or Florentine +lady ever uttered a more heroic thing than was said by this +<pb n='070'/><anchor id='Pg070'/> +English lady when on first seeing Mr. Gladstone that terrible +midnight she said, <q>You did right to send him to +Ireland.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Life of Dean Church</hi>, +p. 299.</note> +<q>The loss of F. Cavendish,</q> Mr. Gladstone wrote to his +eldest son, <q>will ever be to us all as an unhealed wound.</q> +</p> + +<p> +On the day after the murders Mr. Gladstone received a +note through the same channel by which Mr. Chamberlain +had carried on his communications: <q>I am authorised by +Mr. Parnell to state that if Mr. Gladstone considers it +necessary for the maintenance of his [Mr. G.'s] position and +for carrying out his views, that Mr. Parnell should resign his +seat, Mr. Parnell is prepared to do so immediately.</q> To this +Mr. Gladstone replied (May 7):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +My duty does not permit me for a moment to entertain Mr. +Parnell's proposal, just conveyed to me by you, that he should if I +think it needful resign his seat; but I am deeply sensible of the +honourable motives by which it has been prompted. +</quote> + +<p> +<q>My opinion is,</q> said Mr. Gladstone to Lord Granville, +<q>that if Parnell goes, no restraining influence will remain; +the scale of outrages will be again enlarged; and no repressive +bill can avail to put it down.</q> Those of the cabinet who +had the best chance of knowing, were convinced that Mr. +Parnell was <q>sincerely anxious for the pacification of Ireland.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The reaction produced by the murders in the Park made +perseverance in a milder policy impossible in face of English +opinion, and parliament eagerly passed the Coercion Act of +1882. I once asked an Irishman of consummate experience +and equitable mind, with no leanings that I know of to +political nationalism, whether the task of any later ruler of +Ireland was comparable to Lord Spencer's. <q>Assuredly not,</q> +he replied: <q>in 1882 Ireland seemed to be literally a society +on the eve of dissolution. The Invincibles still roved with +knives about the streets of Dublin. Discontent had been +stirred in the ranks of the Royal Irish Constabulary, and a +dangerous mutiny broke out in the metropolitan force. +Over half of the country the demoralisation of every class, +the terror, the fierce hatred, the universal distrust, had grown +to an incredible pitch. The moral cowardice of what ought +<pb n='071'/><anchor id='Pg071'/> +to have been the governing class was astounding. The landlords +would hold meetings and agree not to go beyond a certain +abatement, and then they would go individually and privately +offer to the tenant a greater abatement. Even the agents +of the law and the courts were shaken in their duty. The +power of random arrest and detention under the Coercion +Act of 1881 had not improved the <emph>moral</emph> of magistrates and +police. The sheriff would let the word get out that he was +coming to make a seizure, and profess surprise that the +cattle had vanished. The whole country-side turned out in +thousands in half the counties in Ireland to attend flaming +meetings, and if a man did not attend, angry neighbours +trooped up to know the reason why. The clergy hardly +stirred a finger to restrain the wildness of the storm; some +did their best to raise it. All that was what Lord Spencer +had to deal with; the very foundations of the social fabric +rocking.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The new viceroy attacked the formidable task before him +with resolution, minute assiduity, and an inexhaustible store +of that steady-eyed patience which is the sovereign requisite +of any man who, whether with coercion or without, takes in +hand the government of Ireland. He was seconded with high +ability and courage by Mr. Trevelyan, the new Irish secretary, +whose fortitude was subjected to a far severer trial than has +ever fallen to the lot of any Irish secretary before or since. +The coercion that Lord Spencer had to administer was at +least law. The coercion with which parliament entrusted +Mr. Forster the year before was the negation of the spirit of +law, and the substitution for it of naked and arbitrary +control over the liberty of the subject by executive power—a +system as unconstitutional in theory as it was infatuated +in policy and calamitous in result. Even before the end +of the parliament, Mr. Bright frankly told the House of +Commons of this Coercion Act: <q>I think that the legislation +of 1881 was unfortunately a great mistake, though I +was myself a member of the government concerned in it.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='072'/><anchor id='Pg072'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter V. Egypt. (1881-1882)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +I find many very ready to say what I ought to have done when +a battle is over; but I wish some of these persons would come +and tell me what to do before the battle.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Wellington.</hi> +</quote> + +<p> +In 1877 Mr. Gladstone penned words to which later events +gave an only too striking verification. <q>Territorial questions,</q> +he said, <q>are not to be disposed of by arbitrary limits; we +cannot enjoy the luxury of taking Egyptian soil by pinches. +We may seize an Aden and a Perim, where is no already +formed community of inhabitants, and circumscribe a tract +at will. But our first site in Egypt, be it by larceny or be it +by emption, will be the almost certain egg of a North African +empire, that will grow and grow until another Victoria and +another Albert, titles of the lake-sources of the White Nile, +come within our borders; and till we finally join hands +across the equator with Natal and Cape Town, to say nothing +of the Transvaal and the Orange River on the south, or of +Abyssinia or Zanzibar to be swallowed by way of viaticum on +our journey.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>, August, 1877; <hi rend='italic'>Gleanings</hi>, iv. p. +357.</note> It was one of the ironies in which every +active statesman's life abounds, that the author of that forecast +should have been fated to take his country over its first +marches towards this uncoveted destination. +</p> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +For many months after Mr. Gladstone formed his second +ministry, there was no reason to suppose that the Egyptian +branch of the eastern question, which for ever casts its +<pb n='073'/><anchor id='Pg073'/> +<note place='margin'>Anti-European Rising</note> +perplexing shadow over Europe, was likely to give trouble. +The new Khedive held a regularly defined position, alike +towards his titular sovereign at Constantinople, towards +reforming ministers at Cairo, towards the creditors of his +state, and towards the two strong European Powers who for +different reasons had the supervision of Egyptian affairs +in charge. The oppression common to oriental governments +seemed to be yielding before western standards. The load of +interest on a profligate debt was heavy, but it was not unskilfully +adjusted. The rate of village usury was falling, and the +value of land was rising. Unluckily the Khedive and his +ministers neglected the grievances of the army, and in +January 1881 its leaders broke out in revolt. The Khedive, +without an armed force on whose fidelity he could rely, gave +way to the mutineers, and a situation was created, familiar +enough in all oriental states, and not unlike that in our own +country between Charles I., or in later days the parliament, and +the roundhead troopers: anger and revenge in the breast of +the affronted civil ruler, distrust and dread of punishment in +the mind of the soldiery. During the autumn (1881) the crisis +grew more alarming. The Khedive showed neither energy +nor tact; he neither calmed the terror of the mutineers nor +crushed them. Insubordination in the army began to affect +the civil population, and a national party came into open +existence in the chamber of notables. The soldiers found a +head in Arabi, a native Egyptian, sprung of fellah origin. +Want either of stern resolution or of politic vision in the +Khedive and his minister had transferred the reality of +power to the insurgents. The Sultan of Turkey here saw his +chance; he made a series of diplomatic endeavours to reestablish +a shattered sovereignty over his nominal feudatory +on the Nile. This pretension, and the spreading tide of +disorder, brought England and France actively upon the +scene. We can see now, what expert observers on the spot +saw then, that the two Powers mistook the nature of the +Arabist movement. They perceived in it no more than a +military rising. It was in truth national as well as military; +it was anti-European, and above all, it was in its objects +anti-Turk. +</p> + +<pb n='074'/><anchor id='Pg074'/> + +<p> +In 1879 the two governments had insisted on imposing +over Egypt two controllers, with limited functions but irremovable. +This, as Mr. Gladstone argued later, was to bring +foreign intervention into the heart of the country, and to +establish in the strictest sense a political control.<note place='foot'>July +27, 1882.</note> As a +matter of fact, not then well known, in September 1879 +Lord Salisbury had come to a definite understanding with +the French ambassador in London, that the two governments +would not tolerate the establishment in Egypt of +political influence by any competing European Power; and +what was more important, that they were prepared to take +action to any extent that might be found necessary to give +effect to their views in this respect. The notable acquisition +by Lord Beaconsfield of an interest in the Suez Canal, always +regarded by Mr. Gladstone as a politically ill-advised and +hazardous transaction, had tied the English knot in Egypt +still tighter. +</p> + +<p> +The policy of the Gladstone cabinet was defined in general +words in a despatch from the foreign minister to the British +agent at Cairo. Lord Granville (November 1881) disclaimed +any self-aggrandising designs on the part of either England +or France. He proclaimed the desire of the cabinet to +uphold in Egypt the administrative independence secured to +her by the decrees of the sovereign power on the Bosphorus. +Finally he set forth that the only circumstances likely to +force the government of the Queen to depart from this +course of conduct, would be the occurrence in Egypt of a +state of anarchy.<note place='foot'>Granville and Malet, November 4, +1881.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Justly averse to a joint occupation of Egypt by England +and France, as the most perilous of all possible courses, the +London cabinet looked to the Sultan as the best instrument +for restoring order. Here they were confronted by two +insurmountable obstacles: first, the steadfast hostility of +France to any form of Turkish intervention, and second, that +strong current of antipathy to the Sultan which had been set +flowing over British opinion in the days of Midlothian.<note place='foot'>Before +Midlothian, however, Mr. +Gladstone had in 1877 drawn an important +distinction: <q>If I find the +Turk incapable of establishing a good, +just, and well-proportioned government over civilised and Christian +races, it does not follow that he is +under a similar incapacity when his +task shall only be to hold empire +over populations wholly or principally +Orientals and Mahomedans. +On this head I do not know that any +verdict of guilty has yet been found +by a competent tribunal.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Gleanings</hi>, +iv. p. 364.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='075'/><anchor id='Pg075'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Policy Of England And France</note> +In December (1881) the puissant genius of Gambetta +acquired supremacy for a season, and he without delay +pressed upon the British cabinet the necessity of preparing +for joint and immediate action. Gambetta prevailed. +The Turk was ruled out, and the two Powers of the west +determined on action of their own. The particular mode +of common action, however, in case action should become +necessary, was left entirely open. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile the British cabinet was induced to agree to +Gambetta's proposal to send instructions to Cairo, assuring +the Khedive that England and France were closely associated +in the resolve to guard by their united efforts against +all causes of complaint, internal or external, which might +menace the existing order of things in Egypt. This was a +memorable starting-point in what proved an amazing journey. +This Joint Note (January 6, 1881) was the first link in a +chain of proceedings that brought each of the two governments +who were its authors, into the very position that they +were most strenuously bent on averting; France eventually +ousted herself from Egypt, and England was eventually +landed in plenary and permanent occupation. So extraordinary +a result only shows how impenetrable were the windings +of the labyrinth. The foremost statesmen of England +and France were in their conning towers, and England at any +rate employed some of the ablest of her agents. Yet each +was driven out of an appointed course to an unforeseen +and an unwelcome termination. Circumstances like these +might teach moderation both to the French partisans who +curse the vacillations of M. de Freycinet, and to the English +partisans who, while rejoicing in the ultimate result, curse +the vacillations of the cabinet of Mr. Gladstone, in wisely +striving to unravel a knot instead of at all risks cutting it. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +The present writer described the effect of the Joint Note in the following +words written at the time<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Fortnightly Review</hi>, +July 1882.</note>: <q>At Cairo the +<pb n='076'/><anchor id='Pg076'/> +Note fell like a bombshell. Nobody there had expected any +such declaration, and nobody was aware of any reason why +it should have been launched. What was felt was that so +serious a step on such delicate ground could not have been +adopted without deliberate calculation, nor without some +grave intention. The Note was, therefore, taken to mean +that the Sultan was to be thrust still further in the background; +that the Khedive was to become more plainly the +puppet of England and France; and that Egypt would sooner +or later in some shape or other be made to share the fate +of Tunis. The general effect was, therefore, mischievous in +the highest degree. The Khedive was encouraged in his +opposition to the sentiments of his Chamber. The military, +national, or popular party was alarmed. The Sultan was +irritated. The other European Powers were made uneasy. +Every element of disturbance was roused into activity.</q> +</p> + +<p> +It is true that even if no Joint Note had ever been despatched, +the prospects of order were unpromising. The +most careful analysis of the various elements of society in +Egypt by those best acquainted at first hand with all those +elements, whether internal or external, whether Egyptian or +European, and with all the roots of antagonism thriving +among them, exhibited no promise of stability. If Egypt +had been a simple case of an oriental government in revolutionary +commotion, the ferment might have been left to +work itself out. Unfortunately Egypt, in spite of the maps, +lies in Europe. So far from being a simple case, it was +indescribably entangled, and even the desperate questions +that rise in our minds at the mention of the Balkan peninsula, +of Armenia, of Constantinople, offer no such complex +of difficulties as the Egyptian riddle in 1881-2. The law of +liquidation<note place='foot'>Defining the claims of the +European bondholder on revenue.</note>—whatever +else we may think of it—at least +made the policy of Egypt for the Egyptians unworkable. +Yet the British cabinet were not wrong in thinking that +this was no reason for sliding into the competing policy of +Egypt for the English <emph>and</emph> the French, which would have +been more unworkable still. +</p> + +<p> +England strove manfully to hold the ground that she +<pb n='077'/><anchor id='Pg077'/> +<note place='margin'>Gambetta</note> +had taken in November. Lord Granville told the British +ambassador in Paris that his government disliked intervention +either by themselves or anybody else as much as ever; +that they looked upon the experiment of the Chamber with +favourable eyes; that they wished to keep the connection +of the Porte with Egypt so far as it was compatible with +Egyptian liberties; and that the object of the Joint Note was +to strengthen the existing government of Egypt. Gambetta, +on the other hand, was convinced that all explanations of this +sort would only serve further to inflate the enemies of France +and England in the Egyptian community, and would encourage +their designs upon the law of liquidation. Lord Granville +was honourably and consistently anxious to confine himself +within the letter of international right, while Gambetta was +equally anxious to intervene in Egyptian administration, +within right or without it, and to force forward that Anglo-French +occupation in which Lord Granville so justly saw +nothing but danger and mischief. Once more Lord +Granville, at the end of the month which had opened with +the Joint Note, in a despatch to the ambassador at Paris +(January 30), defined the position of the British cabinet. +What measures should be taken to meet Egyptian disorders? +The Queen's government had <q>a strong objection +to the occupation of Egypt by themselves.</q> Egypt and +Turkey would oppose; it would arouse the jealousy of other +Powers, who would, as there was even already good reason to +believe, make counter demonstrations; and, finally, such an +occupation would be as distasteful to the French nation as +the sole occupation of Egypt by the French would be to ourselves. +Joint occupation by England and France, in short, +might lessen some difficulties, but it would seriously aggravate +others. Turkish occupation would be a great evil, but it +would not entail political dangers as great as those attending +the other two courses. As for the French objections to the +farther admission of the other European Powers to intervene +in Egyptian affairs, the cabinet agreed that England and +France had an exceptional position in Egypt, but might it +not be desirable to enter into some communication with the +other Powers, as to the best way of dealing with a state of +<pb n='078'/><anchor id='Pg078'/> +things that appeared likely to interfere both with the Sultan's +firmans and with Egypt's international engagements? +</p> + +<p> +At this critical moment Gambetta fell from power. The +mark that he had set upon western policy in Egypt remained. +Good observers on the spot, trained in the great +school of India, thought that even if there were no more +than a chance of working with the national party, the +chance was well worth trying. As the case was put at the +time, <q>It is impossible to conceive a situation that more +imperatively called for caution, circumspection, and deference +to the knowledge of observers on the scene, or one +that was actually handled with greater rashness and hurry. +Gambetta had made up his mind that the military movement +was leading to the abyss, and that it must be +peremptorily arrested. It may be that he was right in +supposing that the army, which had first found its power +in the time of Ismail, would go from bad to worse. But +everything turned upon the possibility of pulling up the +army, without arousing other elements more dangerous still. +M. Gambetta's impatient policy was worked out in his own +head without reference to the conditions on the scene, and the result +was what might have been expected.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Fortnightly +Review</hi>, July 1882.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +The dual control, the system of carrying on the Egyptian +government under the advice of an English and a French +agent, came to an end. The rude administration in the provinces +fell to pieces. The Khedive was helplessly involved +in struggle after struggle with the military insurgents. +The army became as undisputed masters of the government, +as the Cromwellian army at some moments in our +civil war. Meanwhile the British government, true to Mr. +Gladstone's constant principle, endeavoured to turn the question +from being purely Anglo-French, into an international +question. The Powers were not unfavourable, but nothing +came of it. Both from Paris and from London somewhat +bewildered suggestions proceeded by way of evading the +central enigma, whether the intervention should be Turkish +<pb n='079'/><anchor id='Pg079'/> +<note place='margin'>Diplomatic Labyrinth</note> +or Anglo-French. It was decided at any rate to send powerful +Anglo-French fleets to Alexandria, and Mr. Gladstone +only regretted that the other Powers (including Turkey) +had not been invited to have their flags represented. To +this the French objected, with the evil result that the other +Powers were displeased, and the good effect that the appearance +of the Sultan in the field might have had upon the +revolutionary parties in Egypt was lost. On May 21, 1882, +M. de Freycinet went so far as to say that, though he +was still opposed to Turkish intervention, he would not +regard as intervention a case in which Turkish forces were +summoned by England and France to operate under Anglo-French +control, upon conditions specified by the two +Powers. If it became advisable to land troops, recourse +should be had on these terms to Turkish troops and them +only. Lord Granville acceded. He proposed (May 24) to +address the Powers, to procure international sanction for the +possible despatch of Turkish troops to Egypt. M. Freycinet +insisted that no such step was necessary. At the same +time (June 1), M. de Freycinet told the Chamber that there +were various courses to which they might be led, but he +excluded one, and this was a French military intervention. +That declaration narrowed the case to a choice between +English intervention, or Turkish, or Anglo-Turkish, all of +them known to be profoundly unpalatable to French sentiment. +Such was the end of Lord Granville's prudent and +loyal endeavour to move in step with France. +</p> + +<p> +The next proposal from M. de Freycinet was a European +conference, as Prince Bismarck presumed, to cover the admissibility +of Turkish intervention. A conference was too much +in accord with the ideas of the British cabinet, not to be +welcomed by them. The Turk, however, who now might +have had the game in his own hands, after a curious exhibition +of duplicity and folly, declined to join, and the conference +at first met without him (June 23). Then, pursuing +tactics well known at all times at Constantinople, the Sultan +made one of his attempts to divide the Powers, by sending a +telegram to London (June 25), conferring upon England +rights of exclusive control in the administration of Egypt. +</p> + +<pb n='080'/><anchor id='Pg080'/> + +<p> +This Mr. Gladstone and Lord Granville declined without even +consulting the cabinet, as too violent an infraction, I suppose, +of the cardinal principle of European concert. The Queen, +anxious for an undivided English control at any price, complained +that the question was settled without reference to the +cabinet, and here the Queen was clearly not wrong, on doctrines +of cabinet authority and cabinet responsibility that +were usually held by nobody more strongly than by the prime +minister himself. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone and his cabinet fought as hard as they +could, and for good reasons, against single-handed intervention +by Great Britain. When they saw that order could +not be re-established without the exercise of force from +without, they insisted that this force should be applied by the +Sultan as sovereign of Egypt. They proposed this solution +to the conference, and Lord Dufferin urged it upon the Sultan. +With curious infatuation (repeated a few years later) the +Sultan stood aside. When it became necessary to make +immediate provision for the safety of the Suez Canal, +England proposed to undertake this duty conjointly with +France, and solicited the co-operation of any other Power. +Italy was specially invited to join. Then when the progress +of the rebellion had broken the Khedive's authority and +brought Egypt to anarchy, England invited France and Italy +to act with her in putting the rebellion down. France and +Italy declined. England still urged the Porte to send troops, +insisting only on such conditions as were indispensable to +secure united action. The Porte again held back, and +before it carried out an agreement to sign a military convention, +events had moved too fast.<note place='foot'>Lord Granville to Lord Dufferin. +Oct. 5, 1882.</note> Thus, by the Sultan's +perversities and the fluctuations of purpose and temper in +France, single-handed intervention was inexorably forced +upon the one Power that had most consistently striven to +avoid it. Bismarck, it is true, judged that Arabi was now +a power to be reckoned with; the Austrian representatives +used language of like purport; and Freycinet also inclined +to coming to terms with Arabi. The British cabinet had +persuaded themselves that the overthrow of the military +<pb n='081'/><anchor id='Pg081'/> +<note place='margin'>Bombardment Of Alexandria</note> +party was an indispensable precedent to any return of +decently stable order. +</p> + +<p> +The situation in Egypt can hardly be adequately understood +without a multiplicity of details for which this is no +place, and in such cases details are everything. Diplomacy +in which the Sultan of Turkey plays a part is always complicated, +and at the Conference of Constantinople the cobwebs +were spun and brushed away and spun again with +diligence unexampled. The proceedings were without any +effect upon the course of events. The Egyptian revolution +ran its course. The moral support of Turkish commissioners +sent by the Sultan to Cairo came to nothing, and the +moral influence of the Anglo-French squadron at Alexandria +came to nothing, and in truth it did more harm than good. +The Khedive's throne and life were alike in danger. The +Christians flocked down from the interior. The residents +in Alexandria were trembling for their lives. At the end +of May our agent at Cairo informed his government that a +collision between Moslems and Christians might occur at +any moment. On June 11 some fifty Europeans were +massacred by a riotous mob at Alexandria. The British +consul was severely wounded, and some sailors of the +French fleet were among the killed. Greeks and Jews were +murdered in other places. At last a decisive blow was +struck. For several weeks the Egyptians had been at work +upon the fortifications of Alexandria, and upon batteries +commanding the British fleet. The British admiral was +instructed (July 3) that if this operation were continued, +he should immediately destroy the earthworks and silence +the batteries. After due formalities he (July 11) opened +fire at seven in the morning, and by half-past five in the +evening the Alexandria guns were silenced. Incendiaries +set the town on fire, the mob pillaged it, and some +murders were committed. The French ships had sailed +away, their government having previously informed the +British ambassador in Paris that the proposed operation +would be an act of war against Egypt, and such an act +of war without the express consent of the Chamber would +violate the constitution. +</p> + +<pb n='082'/><anchor id='Pg082'/> + +<p> +The new situation in which England, now found herself +was quickly described by the prime minister to the House +of Commons. On July 22, he said: <q>We should not fully +discharge our duty, if we did not endeavour to convert the +present interior state of Egypt from anarchy and conflict +to peace and order. We shall look during the time that +remains to us to the co-operation of the Powers of civilised +Europe, if it be in any case open to us. But if every chance +of obtaining co-operation is exhausted, the work will be +undertaken by the single power of England.</q> As for the +position of the Powers it may be described in this way. +Germany and Austria were cordial and respectful; France +anxious to retain a completely friendly understanding, but +wanting some equivalent for the inevitable decline of her +power in Egypt; Italy jealous of our renewing close relations +with France; Russia still sore, and on the lookout +for some plausible excuse for getting the Berlin arrangement +of 1878 revised in her favour, without getting into +difficulties with Berlin itself. +</p> + +<p> +France was not unwilling to take joint action with +England for the defence of the canal, but would not join +England in intervention beyond that object. At the same +time Freycinet wished it to be understood that France had +no objection to our advance, if we decided to make an +advance. This was more than once repeated. Gambetta +in vehement wrath declared his dread lest the refusal to +co-operate with England should shake an alliance of priceless +value; and lest besides that immense catastrophe, it +should hand over to the possession of England for ever, +territories, rivers, and ports where the French right to +live and trade was as good as hers. The mighty orator +declaimed in vain. Suspicion of the craft of Bismarck was in +France more lively than suspicion of aggressive designs in +the cabinet of Mr. Gladstone, and the Chamber was reminded +how extremely well it would suit Germany that France +should lock up her military force in Tunis yesterday, in +Egypt to-day. Ingenious speakers, pointing to Europe +covered with camps of armed men; pointing to the artful +statesmanship that had pushed Austria into Bosnia and +<pb n='083'/><anchor id='Pg083'/> +<note place='margin'>Tel-El-Kebir</note> +Herzegovina, and encouraged France herself to occupy +Tunis; pointing to the expectant nations reserving their +liberty for future occasions—all urgently exhorted France +now to reserve her own liberty of action too. Under the +influence of such ideas as these, and by the working of +rival personalities and parties, the Chamber by an immense +majority turned the Freycinet government out of office +(July 29) rather than sanction even such a degree of intervention +as concerned the protection of the Suez Canal. +</p> + +<p> +Nine days after the bombardment of Alexandria, the +British cabinet decided on the despatch of what was mildly +called an expeditionary force to the Mediterranean, under +the command of Sir Garnet Wolseley. The general's alertness, +energy, and prescient calculation brought him up to +Arabi at Tel-el-Kebir (Sept. 13), and there at one rapid and +decisive blow he crushed the military insurrection.<note place='foot'>A share +of the credit of success +is due to the admirable efficiency of +Mr. Childers at the War Office. See +Sir Garnet's letter to him, <hi rend='italic'>Life of +Childers</hi>, ii. p. 117.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +The bombardment of Alexandria cost Mr. Gladstone the +British colleague who in fundamentals stood closest to him +of them all. In the opening days of July, amid differences of +opinion that revealed themselves in frequent and protracted +meetings of the cabinet, it was thought probable that Mr. +Gladstone and Bright would resign rather than be parties +to despatching troops to the Mediterranean; and the two +representative radicals were expected to join them. Then +came the bombardment, but only Bright went—not until +after earnest protestations from the prime minister. As +Mr. Gladstone described things later to the Queen, Bright's +letters and conversation consisted very much more of references +to his past career and strong statements of feeling, +than of attempts to reason on the existing facts of the case, +with the obligations that they appeared to entail. Not +satisfied with his own efforts, Mr. Gladstone turned to Lord +Granville, who had been a stout friend in old days when +Bright's was a name of reproach and obloquy:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>July 12.</hi>—Here is the apprehended letter from dear old John +<pb n='084'/><anchor id='Pg084'/> +Bright, which turns a white day into a black one. It would not +be fair in me to beg an interview. His kindness would make him +reluctant to decline; but he would come laden with an apprehension, +that I by impetuosity and tenacity should endeavour to overbear +him. But pray consider whether you could do it. He would +not have the same fear of your dealings with him. I do not think +you could get a <emph>reversal</emph>, but perhaps he would give you another +short delay, and at the end of this the sky might be further +settled. +</quote> + +<p> +Two days later Mr. Gladstone and Bright had a long, and +we may be sure that it was an earnest, conversation. The +former of them the same day put his remarks into the shape +of a letter, which the reader may care to have, as a statement +of the case for the first act of armed intervention, +which led up by a direct line to the English occupation of +Egypt, Soudan wars, and to some other events from which +the veil is not even yet lifted:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +The act of Tuesday [the bombardment of Alexandria] was a +solemn and painful one, for which I feel myself to be highly +responsible, and it is my earnest desire that we should all view +it now, as we shall wish at the last that we had viewed it. +Subject to this testing rule, I address you as one whom I suppose +not to believe all use whatever of military force to be unlawful; +as one who detests war in general and believes most wars to have +been sad errors (in which I greatly agree with you), but who in +regard to any particular use of force would look upon it for a +justifying cause, and after it would endeavour to appreciate its +actual effect. +</p> + +<p> +The general situation in Egypt had latterly become one in +which everything was governed by sheer military violence. +Every legitimate authority—the Khedive, the Sultan, the notables, +and the best men of the country, such as Cherif and Sultan +pashas—had been put down, and a situation, of <emph>force</emph> had been +created, which could only be met by force. This being so, we had +laboured to the uttermost, almost alone but not without success, +to secure that if force were employed against the violence of +Arabi, it should be force armed with the highest sanction of law; +that it should be the force of the sovereign, authorised and +<pb n='085'/><anchor id='Pg085'/> +restrained by the united Powers of Europe, who in such a case +represent the civilised world. +</p> + +<p> +While this is going on, a by-question arises. The British fleet, +lawfully present in the waters of Alexandria, had the right and +duty of self-defence. It demanded the discontinuance of attempts +made to strengthen the armament of the fortifications.... Met +by fraud and falsehood in its demand, it required surrender with +a view to immediate dismantling, and this being refused, it proceeded +to destroy.... The conflagration which followed, the +pillage and any other outrages effected by the released convicts, +these are not due to us, but to the seemingly wanton wickedness +of Arabi.... +</p> + +<p> +Such being the amount of our act, what has been its reception +and its effect? As to its reception, we have not received nor heard +of a word of disapproval from any Power great or small, or from +any source having the slightest authority. As to its effect, it has +taught many lessons, struck a heavy, perhaps a deadly, blow at +the reign of violence, brought again into light the beginnings of +legitimate rule, shown the fanaticism of the East that massacre +of Europeans is not likely to be perpetrated with impunity, and +greatly advanced the Egyptian question towards a permanent and +peaceable solution. I feel that in being party to this work I have +been a labourer in the cause of peace. Your co-operation in that +cause, with reference to preceding and collateral points, has been +of the utmost value, and has enabled me to hold my ground, +when without you it might have been difficult. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +The correspondence closed with a wish from Mr. Gladstone: +<q>Believe in the sore sense of practical loss, and the +(I trust) unalterable friendship and regard with which I +remain, etc.</q> When Bright came to explain his resignation in +parliament, he said something about the moral law, which +led to a sharp retort from the prime minister, but still their +friendship did appear to remain unalterable, as Mr. Gladstone +trusted that it would. +</p> + +<p> +When the question by and by arose whether Arabi should +be put to death, Bright wrote to the prime minister on +behalf of clemency. Mr. Gladstone in replying took a severe +line: <q>I am sorry to say the inquiry is too likely to show +<pb n='086'/><anchor id='Pg086'/> +that Arabi is very much more than a rebel. Crimes of the +gravest kind have been committed; and with most of them +he stands, I fear, in <emph>presumptive</emph> (that is, unproved) connection. +In truth I must say that, having begun with no +prejudice against him, and with the strong desire that he +should be saved, I am almost driven to the conclusion that +he is a bad man, and that it will not be an injustice if he +goes the road which thousands of his innocent countrymen +through him have trodden.</q> It is a great mistake to suppose +that Mr. Gladstone was all leniency, or that when he +thought ill of men, he stayed either at palliating words or at +half-measures. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='087'/><anchor id='Pg087'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter VI. Political Jubilee. (1882-1883)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +ἀγωνίζεται γὰρ ὥσπερ ἀθλητὴς κατὰ τὸν βίον, ὅταν δὲ διαγωνίσηται, τότε +τυγχάνει τῶν προσηκόντων.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Plutarch</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>Moralia</hi>, c. 18. +</p> + +<p> +He strives like an athlete all his life long, and then when he comes +to the end of his striving, he has what is meet. +</p> + +<lg> +<l>ἐπάμεροι: τί δέ τις; τί δ᾽ οὔ τις; σκιᾶς ὄναρ</l> +<l>ἄνθρωπος. ἀλλ᾽ ὅταν αἴγλα διόσδοτος ἔλθῃ,</l> +<l>λαμπρὸν φέγγος ἔπεστιν ἀνδρῶν καὶ μείλικος αἰών.</l> +<l>—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Pindar</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Pyth.</hi> viii. 135.</l> +</lg> + +<p> +Things of a day! What is a man? What, when he is not? A +dream of shadow is mankind. Yet when there comes down glory imparted +from God, radiant light shines among men and genial days. +</p> + +<p> +θανεῖν δ᾽ οἷσιν ἀνάγκα, τί κέ τις ἀνώνυμον +γῆρας ὲν σκότῳ καθήμενος ἔψοι μάταν;—<hi rend='italic'>Ol.</hi> i. 131. +</p> + +<p> +Die since we must, wherefore should a man sit idle and nurse in +the gloom days of long life without aim, without name? +</p> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +The words from <q>antique books</q> that I have just translated +and transcribed, were written out by Mr. Gladstone inside +the cover of the little diary for 1882-3. To what the old +world had to say, he added Dante's majestic commonplace: +<q>You were not to live like brutes, but to pursue virtue and +knowledge.</q><note place='foot'>Considerate la vostra semenza:<lb/> +Fatti non foste a viver come bruti,<lb/> +Ma per seguir virtute e conoscenza.<lb/> +—<hi rend='italic'>Inferno</hi>, xxvi. 118.</note> +These meditations on the human lot, on the +mingling of our great hopes with the implacable realities, +made the vital air in which all through his life he drew +<pb n='088'/><anchor id='Pg088'/> +deep breath. Adjusted to his ever vivid religious creed, +amid all the turbid business of the worldly elements, they +were the sedative and the restorer. Yet here and always +the last word was Effort. The moods that in less strenuous +natures ended in melancholy, philosophic or poetic, to him +were fresh incentives to redeem the time. +</p> + +<p> +The middle of December 1882 marked his political +jubilee. It was now half a century since he had entered +public life, and the youthful graduate from Oxford had +grown to be the foremost man in his country. Yet these +fifty courses of the sun and all the pageant of the world +had in some ways made but little difference in him. In +some ways, it seemed as if time had rolled over him in vain. +He had learned many lessons. He had changed his party, +his horizons were far wider, new social truths had made +their way into his impressionable mind, he recognised new +social forces. His aims for the church, that he loved as +ardently as he gloried in a powerful and beneficent state, had +undergone a revolution. Since 1866 he had come into +contact with democracy at close quarters; the Bulgarian +campaign and Midlothian lighting up his early faith in liberty, +had inflamed him with new feeling for the voice of the +people. As much as in the early time when he had prayed +to be allowed to go into orders, he was moved by a dominating +sense of the common claims and interests of mankind. +'The contagion of the world's slow stain' had not +infected him; the lustre and long continuity of his public +performances still left all his innermost ideals constant and +undimmed. +</p> + +<p> +His fifty years of public life had wrought his early habits +of severe toil, method, exactness, concentration, into cast-iron. +Whether they had sharpened what is called knowledge +of the world, or taught him insight into men and +skill in discrimination among men, it is hard to say. He +always talked as if he found the world pretty much what he +had expected. Man, he used often to say, is the least comprehensible +of creatures, and of men the most incomprehensible +are the politicians. Yet nobody was less of the +cynic. As for Weltschmerz, world-weariness, ennui, tedium +<pb n='089'/><anchor id='Pg089'/> +<note place='margin'>After Fifty Years</note> +vitæ—that enervating family were no acquaintances of his, +now nor at any time. None of the vicissitudes of long +experience ever tempted him either into the shallow satire +on life that is so often the solace of the little and the weak; +or on the other hand into the <hi rend='italic'>saeva indignatio</hi>, the sombre +brooding reprobation, that has haunted some strong souls +from Tacitus and Dante to Pascal, Butler, Swift, Turgot. +We may, indeed, be sure that neither of these two moods +can ever hold a place in the breast of a commanding orator. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +I have spoken of his new feeling for democracy. At the +point of time at which we have arrived, it was heartily +reciprocated. The many difficulties in the course of public +affairs that confronted parliament and the nation for two +years or more after Mr. Gladstone's second accession to +power, did little to weaken either his personal popularity or +his hold upon the confidence of the constituencies. For +many years he and Mr. Disraeli had stood out above the +level of their adherents; they were the centre of every +political storm. Disraeli was gone (April 19, 1881), commemorated +by Mr. Gladstone in a parliamentary tribute that +cost him much searching of heart beforehand, and was a +masterpiece of grace and good feeling. Mr. Gladstone +stood alone, concentrating upon himself by his personal +ascendency and public history the bitter antagonism of his +opponents, only matched by the enthusiasm and devotion of +his followers. The rage of faction had seldom been more +unbridled. The Irish and the young fourth party were +rivals in malicious vituperation; of the two, the Irish on the +whole observed the better manners. Once Mr. Gladstone +was wounded to the quick, as letters show, when a member +of the fourth party denounced as <q>a government of infamy</q> +the ministry with whose head he had long been on terms +of more than friendship alike as host and guest. He could +not fell his trees, he could not read the lessons in Hawarden +church, without finding these innocent habits turned into +material for platform mockery. <q>In the eyes of the opposition, +as indeed of the country,</q> said a great print that was +<pb n='090'/><anchor id='Pg090'/> +never much his friend, <q>he is the government and he is the +liberal party,</q> and the writer went on to scold Lord Salisbury +for wasting his time in the concoction of angry +epigrams and pungent phrases that were neither new nor +instructive.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Times</hi>, +Dec. 8, 1882.</note> They pierced no joint in the mail of the +warrior at whom they were levelled. The nation at large +knew nothing of difficulties at Windsor, nothing of awkward +passages in the cabinet, nothing of the trying egotisms +of gentlemen out of the cabinet who insisted that they +ought to be in. Nor would such things have made any +difference except in his favour, if the public had known all +about them. The Duke of Argyll and Lord Lansdowne +had left him; his Irish policy had cost him his Irish secretary, +and his Egyptian policy had cost him Mr. Bright. +They had got into a war, they had been baffled in legislation, +they had to raise the most unpopular of taxes, there +had been the frightful tragedy in Ireland. Yet all seemed +to have been completely overcome in the public mind by +the power of Mr. Gladstone in uniting his friends and +frustrating his foes, and the more bitterly he was hated by +society, the more warmly attached were the mass of the +people. Anybody who had foreseen all this would have +concluded that the government must be in extremity, but he +went to the Guildhall on the 9th of November 1882, and had +the best possible reception on that famous stage. One tory +newspaper felt bound to admit that Mr. Gladstone and his +colleagues had rehabilitated themselves in the public judgment +with astounding rapidity, and were now almost as +strong in popular and parliamentary support as when they +first took office.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Standard</hi>, +Nov. 16, 1882.</note> Another tory print declared Mr. Gladstone +to be stronger, more popular, more despotic, than at +any time since the policy to carry out which he was placed +in office was disclosed.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Morning +Post</hi>, Oct. 20, 1882.</note> The session of 1882 had only been +exceeded in duration by two sessions for fifty years. +</p> + +<p> +The reader has had pictures enough from friendly hands, +so here is one from a persistent foe, one of the most +brilliant journalists of that time, who listened to him from +<pb n='091'/><anchor id='Pg091'/> +<note place='margin'>Parliamentary Power Unbroken</note> +the gallery for years. The words are from an imaginary +dialogue, and are put into the mouth of a well-known whig +in parliament:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Sir, I can only tell you that, profoundly as I distrusted him, +and lightly as on the whole I valued the external qualities of his +eloquence, I have never listened to him even for a few minutes +without ceasing to marvel at his influence over men. That white-hot +face, stern as a Covenanter's yet mobile as a comedian's; +those restless, flashing eyes; that wondrous voice, whose richness +its northern burr enriched as the tang of the wood brings out the +mellowness of a rare old wine; the masterly cadence of his elocution; +the vivid energy of his attitudes; the fine animation of his +gestures;—sir, when I am assailed through eye and ear by this +compacted phalanx of assailants, what wonder that the stormed +outposts of the senses should spread the contagion of their own +surrender through the main encampment of the mind, and that +against my judgment, in contempt of my conscience, nay, in +defiance of my very will, I should exclaim, <q>This is indeed the +voice of truth and wisdom. This man is honest and sagacious +beyond his fellows. He must be believed, he must be +obeyed!</q><note place='foot'>Traill's <hi rend='italic'>New Lucian</hi>, +pp. 305-6,—in spite of politics, a book of admirable +wit, scholarship, and ingenious play of mind.</note> +</quote> + +<p> +On the day of his political jubilee (Dec. 13), the event +was celebrated in many parts of the country, and he received +congratulatory telegrams from all parts of the world; for +it was not only two hundred and forty liberal associations +who sent him joyful addresses. The Roumelians poured +out aloud their gratitude to him for the interest he constantly +manifested in their cause, and for his powerful and +persistent efforts for their emancipation. From Athens +came the news that they had subscribed for the erection +of his statue, and from the Greeks also came a splendid +casket. In his letter of thanks,<note place='foot'>To Mr. +Hazzopolo, Dec. 22, 1882.</note> after remonstrating against +its too great material value, he said:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I know not well how to accept it, yet I am still less able to +decline it, when I read the touching lines of the accompanying +address, in itself an ample token, in which you have so closely +<pb n='092'/><anchor id='Pg092'/> +associated my name with the history and destinies of your +country. I am not vain enough to think that I have deserved +any of the numerous acknowledgments which I have received, +especially from Greeks, on completing half a century of parliamentary +life. Your over-estimate of my deeds ought rather to +humble than to inflate me. But to have laboured within the +measure of justice for the Greece of the future, is one of my +happiest political recollections, and to have been trained in a partial +knowledge of the Greece of the past has largely contributed to +whatever slender faculties I possess for serving my own country +or my kind. I earnestly thank you for your indulgent judgment +and for your too costly gifts, and I have the honour to remain, etc. +</quote> + +<p> +What was deeper to him than statues or caskets was +found in letters from comparative newcomers into the +political arena thanking him not only for his long roll of +public service, but much more for the example and encouragement +that his life gave to younger men endeavouring +to do something for the public good. To one of these he +wrote (Dec. 15):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I thank you most sincerely for your kind and friendly letter. +As regards the prospective part of it, I can assure you that I +should be slow to plead the mere title to retirement which long +labour is supposed to earn. But I have always watched, and +worked according to what I felt to be the measure of my own +mental force. A monitor from within tells me that though I may +still be equal to some portions of my duties, or as little unequal as +heretofore, there are others which I cannot face. I fear therefore +I must keep in view an issue which cannot be evaded. +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +As it happened, this volume of testimony to the affection, +gratitude, and admiration thus ready to go out to him from +so many quarters coincided in point of time with one or two +extreme vexations in the conduct of his daily business as +head of the government. Some of them were aggravated +by the loss of a man whom he regarded as one of his two +or three most important friends. In September 1882 the +Dean of Windsor died, and in his death Mr. Gladstone +<pb n='093'/><anchor id='Pg093'/> +<note place='margin'>Dean Wellesley</note> +suffered a heavy blow. To the end he always spoke of +Dr. Wellesley's friendship, and the value of his sagacity and +honest service, with a warmth by this time given to few. +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Death of the Dean of Windsor.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Granville, Sept. 18, 1882.</hi>—My belief is that he has +been cognizant of every crown appointment in the church for +nearly a quarter of a century, and that the whole of his influence +has been exercised with a deep insight and a large heart for the +best interests of the crown and the church. If their character +during this period has been in the main more satisfactory to the +general mind of the country than at some former periods, it has +been in no small degree owing to him. +</p> + +<p> +It has been my duty to recommend I think for fully forty of the +higher appointments, including twelve which were episcopal. I +rejoice to say that every one of them has had his approval. But +I do not scruple to own that he has been in no small degree a help +and guide to me; and as to the Queen, whose heart I am sure is +at this moment bleeding, I do not believe she can possibly fill +his place as a friendly adviser either in ecclesiastical or other +matters. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To the Duchess of Wellington, Sept. 24.</hi>—He might, if he had +chosen, have been on his way to the Archbishopric of Canterbury. +Ten or eleven years ago, when the present primate was not expected +to recover, the question of the succession was considered, and I had +her Majesty's consent to the idea I have now mentioned. But, +governed I think by his great modesty, he at once refused. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Mrs. Wellesley, Nov. 19, 1882.</hi>—I have remained silent, at +least to you, on a subject which for no day has been absent from +my thoughts, because I felt that I could add nothing to your consolations +and could take away nothing from your grief under your +great calamity. But the time has perhaps come when I may +record my sense of a loss of which even a small share is so large. +The recollections of nearly sixty years are upon my mind, and +through all that period I have felt more and more the force and +value of your husband's simple and noble character. No less have +I entertained an ever-growing sense of his great sagacity and the +singularly true and just balance of his mind. We owe much +<pb n='094'/><anchor id='Pg094'/> +indeed to you both for your constantly renewed kindness, but +I have another debt to acknowledge in the invaluable assistance +which he afforded me in the discharge of one among the most +important and most delicate of my duties. This void never can be +filled, and it helps me in some degree to feel what must be the void +to you. Certainly he was happy in the enjoyment of love and +honour from all who knew him; yet these were few in comparison +with those whom he so wisely and so warmly served without their +knowing it; and the love and honour paid him, great as they were, +could not be as great as he deserved. His memory is blessed—may +his rest be deep and sweet, and may the memory and example +of him ever help you in your onward pilgrimage. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +The same week Dr. Pusey died—a name that filled so +large a space in the religious history of England for some +thirty years of the century. Between Mr. Gladstone and +him the old relations of affectionate friendship subsisted +unbroken, notwithstanding the emancipation, as we may +call it, of the statesman from maxims and principles, +though not, so far as I know, from any of the leading +dogmatic beliefs cherished by the divine. <q>I hope,</q> he +wrote to Phillimore (Sept. 20, 1882), <q>to attend Dr. Pusey's +funeral to-morrow at Oxford.... I shall have another +mournful office to discharge in attending the funeral +of the Dean of Windsor, more mournful than the first. +Dr. Pusey's death is the ingathering of a ripe shock, and +I go to his obsequies in token of deep respect and in +memory of much kindness from him early in my life. But +the death of Dean Wellesley is to my wife and me an +unexpected and very heavy blow, also to me an irreparable +loss. I had honoured and loved him from Eton days.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The loss of Dean Wellesley's counsels was especially felt +in ecclesiastical appointments, and the greatest of these was +made necessary by the death of the Archbishop of Canterbury +at the beginning of December. That the prime +minister should regard so sage, conciliatory, and large-minded +a steersman as Dr. Tait with esteem was certain, +and their relations were easy and manly. Still, Tait had +been an active liberal when Mr. Gladstone was a tory, and +<pb n='095'/><anchor id='Pg095'/> +<note place='margin'>Recommendation To Canterbury</note> +from the distant days of the <hi rend='italic'>Tracts for the Times</hi>, when Tait +had stood amongst the foremost in open dislike of the new +tenets, their paths in the region of theology lay wide apart. +<q>I well remember,</q> says Dean Lake, <q>a conversation with Mr. +Gladstone on Tait's appointment to London in 1856, when +he was much annoyed at Tait's being preferred to Bishop +Wilberforce, and of which he reminded me nearly thirty +years afterwards, at the time of the archbishop's death, by +saying, <q>Ah! I remember you maintaining to me at that +time that his σεμνότης and his judgment would make him +a great bishop.</q></q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Life +of Tait</hi>, i. p. 109.</note> And so, from the point of ecclesiastical +statesmanship, he unquestionably was. +</p> + +<p> +The recommendation of a successor in the historic see of +Canterbury, we may be very certain, was no common event +to Mr. Gladstone. Tait on his deathbed had given his +opinion that Dr. Harold Browne, the Bishop of Winchester, +would do more than any other man to keep the peace of the +church. The Queen was strong in the same sense, thinking +that the bishop might resign in a year or two, if he could +not do the work. He was now seventy-one years old, and +Mr. Gladstone judged this to be too advanced an age for the +metropolitan throne. He was himself now seventy-three, and +though his sense of humour was not always of the protective +kind, he felt the necessity of some explanatory reason, and +with him to seek a plea was to find one. He wrote to the +Bishop of Winchester:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +... It may seem strange that I, who in my own person +exhibit so conspicuously the anomaly of a disparate conjunction +between years and duties, should be thus forward in interpreting +the circumstances of another case certainly more mitigated in many +respects, yet differing from my own case in one vital point, the +newness of the duties of the English, or rather anglican or British, +primacy to a diocesan bishop, however able and experienced, and +the newness of mental attitude and action, which they would +require. Among the materials of judgment in such an instance, it +seems right to reckon precedents for what they are worth; and I +cannot find that from the time of Archbishop Sheldon any one has +<pb n='096'/><anchor id='Pg096'/> +assumed the primacy at so great an age as seventy. Juxon, the +predecessor of Sheldon, was much older; but his case was altogether +peculiar. I cannot say how pleasant it would have been to me +personally, but for the barrier I have named, to mark my respect +and affection for your lordship by making to you such a proposal. +What is more important is, that I am directly authorised by her +Majesty to state that this has been the single impediment to her +conferring the honour, and imposing the burden, upon you of such +an offer.<note place='foot'>Bishop Browne writes to a friend +(<hi rend='italic'>Life</hi>, p. 457): <q>Gladstone, I learned +both from himself and others, searched +into all precedents from the Commonwealth +to the present day for a +primate who began his work at +seventy, and found none but Juxon. +Curiously, I have been reading that +he himself, prompted by Bishop +Wilberforce, wanted Palmerston to +appoint Sumner (of Winchester) +when he was seventy-two. It was +when they feared they could not get +Longley (who was sixty-eight).</q></note> +</quote> + +<p> +The world made free with the honoured name of Church, +the Dean of Saint Paul's, and it has constantly been said +that he declined the august preferment to Canterbury on +this occasion. In that story there is no truth. <q>Formal +offer,</q> the Dean himself wrote to a friend, <q>there was none, +and could not be, for I had already on another occasion +told my mind to Gladstone, and said that reasons of health, +apart from other reasons, made it impossible for me to +think of anything, except a retirement altogether from +office.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Life and Letters of Dean Church</hi>, +p. 307.</note> +</p> + +<p> +When it was rumoured that Mr. Gladstone intended to +recommend Dr. Benson, then Bishop of Truro, to the archbishopric, +a political supporter came to remonstrate with +him. <q>The Bishop of Truro is a strong tory,</q> he said, <q>but +that is not all. He has joined Mr. Raikes's election committee +at Cambridge; and it was only last week that Raikes +made a violent personal attack on yourself.</q> <q>Do you know,</q> +replied Mr. Gladstone, <q>you have just supplied me with +a strong argument in Dr. Benson's favour? For if he had +been a worldly man or self-seeker, he would not have done +anything so imprudent.</q> Perhaps we cannot wonder that +whips and wirepullers deemed this to be somewhat over-ingenious, +a Christianity out of season. Even liberals who +took another point of view, still asked themselves how it was +<pb n='097'/><anchor id='Pg097'/> +<note place='margin'>Church Appointments</note> +that when church preferment came his way, the prime minister +so often found the best clergymen in the worst politicians. +They should have remembered that he was of those who +believed <q>no more glorious church in Christendom to +exist than the church of England</q>; and its official ordering +was in his eyes not any less, even if it was not infinitely +more, important in the highest interests of the nation +than the construction of a cabinet or the appointment +of permanent heads of departments. The church was at +this moment, moreover, in one of those angry and perilous +crises that came of the Elizabethan settlement and the +Act of Uniformity, and the anglican revival forty years +ago, and all the other things that mark the arrested progress +of the Reformation in England. The anti-ritualist +hunt was up. Civil courts were busy with the conscience +and conduct of the clergy. Harmless but contumacious +priests were under lock and key. It seemed as if more +might follow them, or else as if the shock of the great tractarian +catastrophe of the forties might in some new shape +recur. To recommend an archbishop in times like these +could to a churchman be no light responsibility. +</p> + +<p> +With such thoughts in his mind, however we may judge +them, it is not altogether surprising that in seeking an ecclesiastical +governor for an institution to him the most sacred +and beloved of all forms of human association, Mr. Gladstone +should have cared very little whether the personage best +fitted in spirituals was quite of the right shade as to state +temporals. The labour that he now expended on finding the +best man is attested by voluminous correspondence. Dean +Church, who was perhaps the most freely consulted by the +prime minister, says, <q>Of one thing I am quite certain, that +never for hundreds of years has so much honest disinterested +pains been taken to fill the primacy—such inquiry and +trouble resolutely followed out to find the really fittest man, +apart from every personal and political consideration, as in +this case.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Life and +Letters of Dean Church</hi>, p. 307.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Another ecclesiastical vacancy that led to volumes of +correspondence was the deanery of Westminster the year +<pb n='098'/><anchor id='Pg098'/> +before. In the summer of 1881 Dean Stanley died, and it +is interesting to note how easy Mr. Gladstone found it to do +full justice to one for whom as erastian and latitudinarian he +could in opinion have such moderate approval. In offering +to the Queen his <q>cordial sympathy</q> for the friend whom +she had lost, he told her how early in his own life and earlier +still in the dean's he had opportunities of watching the +development of his powers, for they had both been educated +at a small school near the home of Mr. Gladstone's boyhood.<note place='foot'>See +vol. i. p. 47.</note> +He went on to speak of Stanley's boundless generosity and +brilliant gifts, his genial and attaching disposition. <q>There +may be,</q> he said, <q>and must be much diversity as to parts of +the opinions of Dean Stanley, but he will be long remembered +as one who was capable of the deepest and widest love, +and who received it in return.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Far away from these regions of what he irreverently called +the shovel hat, about this time Carlyle died (Feb. 4, 1881), +a firm sympathiser with Mr. Gladstone in his views of the +unspeakable Turk, but in all else the rather boisterous +preacher of a gospel directly antipathetic. <q>Carlyle is at +least a great fact in the literature of his time; and has contributed +largely, in some respects too largely, towards forming +its characteristic habits of thought.</q> So Mr. Gladstone +wrote in 1876, in a highly interesting parallel between +Carlyle and Macaulay—both of them honest, he said, both +notwithstanding their honesty partisans; both of them, +though variously, poets using the vehicle of prose; both +having the power of painting portraits extraordinary for +vividness and strength; each of them vastly though diversely +powerful in expression, each more powerful in expression +than in thought; neither of them to be resorted to for +comprehensive disquisition, nor for balanced and impartial +judgments.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Gleanings</hi>, +ii. p. 287.</note> Perhaps it was too early in 1876 to speak of +Carlyle as forming the characteristic habits of thought of +his time, but undoubtedly now when he died, his influence +was beginning to tell heavily against the speculative liberalism +that had reigned in England for two generations, with +enormous advantage to the peace, prosperity and power of +<pb n='099'/><anchor id='Pg099'/> +<note place='margin'>Reconstruction</note> +the country and the two generations concerned. Half lights +and half truths are, as Mr. Gladstone implies, the utmost +that Carlyle's works were found to yield in philosophy and +history, but his half lights pointed in the direction in which +men for more material reasons thought that they desired +to go. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +A reconstruction of the ministry had become necessary by +his own abandonment of the exchequer. For one moment it +was thought that Lord Hartington might become chancellor, +leaving room for Lord Derby at the India office, but Lord +Derby was not yet ready to join. In inviting Mr. Childers to +take his place as chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. Gladstone +told him (Dec. 1, 1882): <q>The basis of my action is not +so much a desire to be relieved from labour, as an anxiety +to give the country a much better finance minister than +myself,—one whose eyes will be always ranging freely and +vigilantly over the whole area of the great establishments, +the public service and the laws connected with his office, +for the purposes of improvement and of good husbandry.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The claim of Sir Charles Dilke to a seat in the cabinet +had become irresistible alike by his good service as undersecretary +at the foreign office, and by his position out of +doors; and as the admission of a radical must be balanced +by a whig—so at least it was judged—Mr. Gladstone +succeeded in inducing Lord Derby to join, though he had +failed with him not long before.<note place='foot'>Lord Derby +had refused office in the previous May. +</note> +</p> + +<p> +Apart from general objections at court, difficulties arose +about the distribution of office. Mr. Chamberlain, who has +always had his full share of the virtues of staunch friendship, +agreed to give up to Sir C. Dilke his own office, which +he much liked, and take the duchy, which he did not like +at all. In acknowledging Mr. Chamberlain's letter (Dec. 14) +Mr. Gladstone wrote to him, <q>I shall be glad, if I can, to +avoid acting upon it. But I cannot refrain from at once +writing a hearty line to acknowledge the self-sacrificing +spirit in which it is written; and which, I am sure, you +will never see cause to repent or change.</q> This, however, +<pb n='100'/><anchor id='Pg100'/> +was found to be no improvement, for Mr. Chamberlain's +language about ransoms to be paid by possessors of property, +the offence of not toiling and spinning, and the +services rendered by courtiers to kings, was not much less +repugnant than rash assertions about the monarch evading +the income-tax. All contention on personal points +was a severe trial to Mr. Gladstone, and any conflict with +the wishes of the Queen tried him most of all. One of his +audiences upon these affairs Mr. Gladstone mentions in his +diary: <q>Dec. 11.—Off at 12.45 to Windsor in the frost and +fog. Audience of her Majesty at 3. Most difficult ground, +but aided by her beautiful manners, we got over it better +than might have been expected.</q> The dispute was stubborn, +but like all else it came to an end; colleagues were obliging, +holes and pegs were accommodated, and Lord Derby went +to the colonial office, and Sir C. Dilke to the local government +board. An officer of the court, who was in all the +secrets and had foreseen all the difficulties, wrote that the +actual result was due <q>to the judicious manner in which Mr. +Gladstone managed everything. He argued in a friendly +way, urging his views with moderation, and appealed to the +Queen's sense of courtesy.</q> +</p> + +<p> +In the course of his correspondence with the Queen, the +prime minister drew her attention (Dec. 18) to the fact that +when the cabinet was formed it included three ministers +reputed to belong to the radical section, Mr. Bright, Mr. +Forster, and Mr. Chamberlain, and of these only the last +remained. The addition of Lord Derby was an addition +drawn from the other wing of the party. Another point +presented itself. The cabinet originally contained eight +commoners and six peers. There were now seven peers +and six commoners. This made it requisite to add a +commoner. As for Mr. Chamberlain, the minister assured +the Queen that though he had not yet, like Mr. Bright, +undergone the mollifying influence of age and experience, +his leanings on foreign policy would be far more +acceptable to her Majesty than those of Mr. Bright, while +his views were not known to be any more democratic in +principle. He further expressed his firm opinion (Dec. 22) +<pb n='101'/><anchor id='Pg101'/> +<note place='margin'>Reconstruction</note> +that though Lord Derby might on questions of peace and +war be some shades nearer to the views of Mr. Bright than +the other members of the cabinet, yet he would never go +anything like the length of Mr. Bright in such matters. In +fact, said Mr. Gladstone, the cabinet must be deemed a little +less pacific now than it was at its first formation. This at +least was a consolatory reflection. +</p> + +<p> +Ministerial reconstruction is a trying moment for the +politician who thinks himself <q>not a favourite with his stars,</q> +and is in a hurry for a box seat before his time has come. +Mr. Gladstone was now harassed with some importunities +of this kind.<note place='foot'>The matter itself has no importance, +but a point of principle or etiquette +at one time connected with it +is perhaps worth mentioning. To a +colleague earlier in the year Mr. +Gladstone wrote: <q>I can affirm with +confidence that the notion of a title in +the cabinet to be consulted on the succession +to a cabinet office is absurd. +It is a title which cabinet ministers +do not possess. During thirty-eight +years since I first entered the cabinet, +I have never known more than a +friendly announcement before publicity, +and very partial consultation +perhaps with one or two, especially +the leaders in the second House.</q></note> +Personal collision with any who stood in the +place of friends was always terrible to him. His gift of sleep +deserted him. <q>It is disagreeable to talk of oneself,</q> he wrote +to Lord Granville (Jan. 2, 1883), <q>when there is so much +of more importance to think and speak about, but I am +sorry to say that the incessant strain and pressure of work, +and especially the multiplication of these personal questions, +is overdoing me, and for the first time my power of sleep is +seriously giving way. I dare say it would soon right itself if +I could offer it any other medicine than the medicine in +Hood's <q>Song of the Shirt.</q></q> And the next day he wrote: +<q>Last night I improved, 3-½-hours to 4-½, but this is different +from 7 and 8, my uniform standard through life.</q> And two +days later: <q>The matter of sleep is with me a very grave +one. I am afraid I may have to go up and consult Clark. +My habit has always been to reckon my hours rather exultingly, +and say how little I am awake. It is not impossible that +I may have to ask you to meet me in London, but I will not +do this except in necessity. I think that, to convey a clear +idea, I should say I attach no importance to the broken sleep +itself; it is the state of the brain, tested by my own sensations, +when I begin my work in the morning, which may +<pb n='102'/><anchor id='Pg102'/> +make me need higher assurance.</q> Sir Andrew Clark, <q>overflowing +with kindness, as always,</q> went down to Hawarden +(Jan. 7), examined, and listened to the tale of heavy wakeful +nights. While treating the case as one of temporary and +accidental derangement, he instantly forbade a projected +expedition to Midlothian, and urged change of air and scene. +</p> + +<p> +This prohibition eased some of the difficulties at Windsor, +where Midlothian was a name of dubious association, and in +announcing to the Queen the abandonment by Dr. Clark's +orders of the intended journey to the north, Mr. Gladstone +wrote (Jan. 8, 1883):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +In your Majesty's very kind reference on the 5th to his former +visits to Midlothian, and to his own observations on the 24th +April 1880, your Majesty remarked that he had said he did not +then think himself a responsible person. He prays leave to fill up +the outline which these words convey by saying he at that time +(to the best of his recollection) humbly submitted to your Majesty +his admission that he must personally bear the consequences of all +that he had said, and that he thought some things suitable to be +said by a person out of office which could not suitably be said by a +person in office; also that, as is intimated by your Majesty's words, +the responsibilities of the two positions severally were different. +With respect to the political changes named by your Majesty, Mr. +Gladstone considers that the very safe measure of extending to the +counties the franchise enjoyed by the boroughs stands in all likelihood +for early consideration; but he doubts whether there can be +any serious dealing of a general character with the land laws by +the present parliament, and so far as Scottish disestablishment +is concerned he does not conceive that that question has made +progress during recent years; and he may state that in making +arrangements recently for his expected visit to Midlothian, he had +received various overtures for deputations on this subject, which +he had been able to put aside. +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>V</head> + +<p> +On January 17, along with Mrs. Gladstone, at Charing +Cross he said good-bye to many friends, and at Dover to +Lord Granville, and the following afternoon he found himself +at Cannes, the guest of the Wolvertons at the Château +<pb n='103'/><anchor id='Pg103'/> +<note place='margin'>Holiday At Cannes</note> +Scott, <q>nobly situated, admirably planned, and the kindness +exceeded even the beauty and the comfort.</q> <q>Here,</q> he +says, <q>we fell in with the foreign hours, the snack early, +déjeuner at noon, dinner at seven, break-up at ten.... I am +stunned by this wonderful place, and so vast a change at a +moment's notice in the conditions of life.</q> He read steadily +through the <hi rend='italic'>Odyssey</hi>, Dixon's +<hi rend='italic'>History of the Church of +England</hi>, Scherer's <hi rend='italic'>Miscellanies</hi>, +and <hi rend='italic'>The Life of Clerk-Maxwell</hi>, +and every day he had long talks and walks with +Lord Acton on themes personal, political and religious—and +we may believe what a restorative he found in communion +with that deep and well-filled mind—that <q>most satisfactory +mind,</q> as Mr. Gladstone here one day calls it. He took drives +to gardens that struck him as fairyland. The Prince of Wales +paid him kindly attentions as always. He had long conversations +with the Comte de Paris, and with M. Clémenceau, and +with the Duke of Argyll, the oldest of his surviving friends. +In the evening he played whist. Home affairs he kept at +bay pretty successfully, though a speech of Lord Hartington's +about local government in Ireland drew from him a longish +letter to Lord Granville that the reader, if he likes, will find +elsewhere.<note place='foot'>See Appendix.</note> +His conversation with M. Clémenceau (whom +he found <q>decidedly pleasing</q>) was thought indiscreet, but +though the most circumspect of men, the buckram of a +spurious discretion was no favourite wear with Mr. Gladstone. +As for the report of his conversation with the French +radical, he wrote to Lord Granville, <q>It includes much which +Clémenceau did not say to me, and omits much which he +did, for our principal conversation was on Egypt, about +which he spoke in a most temperate and reasonable manner.</q> +He read the <q>harrowing details</q> of the terrible scene in the +court-house at Kilmainham, where the murderous Invincibles +were found out. <q>About Carey,</q> he said to Lord Granville, +<q>the spectacle is indeed loathsome, but I cannot doubt that +the Irish government are distinctly <emph>right</emph>. In accepting an +approver you do not incite him to do what is in itself wrong; +only his own bad mind can make it wrong to him. The +government looks for the truth. Approvers are, I suppose, +<pb n='104'/><anchor id='Pg104'/> +for the most part base, but I do not see how you could act +on a distinction of degree between them. Still, one would +have heard the hiss from the dock with sympathy.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Lord Granville wrote to him (Jan. 31, 1883) that the +Queen insisted much upon his diminishing the amount of +labour thrown upon him, and expressed her opinion that +his acceptance of a peerage would relieve him of the heavy +strain. Lord Granville told her that personally he should +be delighted to see him in the Lords, but that he had great +doubts whether Mr. Gladstone would be willing. From +Cannes Mr. Gladstone replied (Feb. 3):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +As to removal into the House of Lords, I think the reasons +against it of general application are conclusive. At least I cannot +see my way in regard to them. But at any rate it is obvious that +such a step is quite inapplicable to the circumstances created by +the present difficulty. It is really most kind of the Queen to +testify such an interest, and the question is how to answer her. +You would do this better and perhaps more easily than I. +</quote> + +<p> +Perhaps he remembered the case of Pulteney and of the +Great Commoner. +</p> + +<p> +He was not without remorse at the thought of his colleagues +in harness while he was lotus-eating. On the day +before the opening of the session he writes, <q>I feel dual: I +am at Cannes, and in Downing Street eating my parliamentary +dinner.</q> By February 21 he was able to write to +Lord Granville:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +As regards my health there is no excuse. It has got better and +better as I have stayed on, and is now, I think, on a higher level +than for a long time past. My sleep, for example, is now about as +good as it can be, and far better than it was during the autumn +sittings, <emph>after</emph> which it got so bad. The pleasure I have had in +staying does not make an argument at all; it is a mere expression +or anticipation of my desire to be turned out to grass for good.... +</quote> + +<p> +At last the end of the holiday came. <q>I part from Cannes +with a heavy heart,</q> he records on Feb. 26:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +Read the <hi rend='italic'>Iliad</hi>, copiously. Off by the 12.30 train. We +exchanged bright sun, splendid views, and a little dust at the +<pb n='105'/><anchor id='Pg105'/> +beginning of our journey, for frost and fog, which however hid no +scenery, at the end. +<hi rend='italic'>27th, Tuesday.</hi>—Reached Paris at 8, and drove +to the Embassy, where we had a most kind reception [from Lord +Lyons]. Wrote to Lord Granville, Lord Spencer, Sir W. Harcourt. +Went with Lord L. to see M. Grévy; also Challemel-Lacour +in his most palatial abode. Looked about among the shops; and +at the sad face of the Tuileries. An embassy party to dinner; +excellent company. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Granville.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Feb. 27th.</hi>—I have been with Lord Lyons to see Grévy and +Challemel-Lacour. Grevy's conversation consisted of civilities and +a mournful lecture on the political history of France, with many +compliments to the superiority of England. Challemel thought +the burdens of public life intolerable and greater here than in +England, which is rather strong. Neither made the smallest +allusion to present questions, and it was none of my business to +introduce them.... +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +After three days of bookstalls, ivory-hunting, and conversation, +by the evening of March 2 the travellers were once +more after a bright day and rapid passage safe in Downing +Street. +</p> + +<p> +Shortly after their return from the south of France the +Gladstones paid a visit to the Prince and Princess of +Wales:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>March 30, 1883.</hi>—Off at 11.30 to Sandringham. Reception kinder +if possible even than heretofore. Wrote.... Read and worked +on London municipality. <hi rend='italic'>31, Saturday</hi>.—Wrote. Root-cut a +small tree in the forenoon; then measured oaks in the park; one +of 30 feet. In the afternoon we drove to Houghton, a stately +house and place, but woe-begone. Conversation with Archbishop +of Canterbury, Prince of Wales and others. Read ... <hi rend='italic'>Life of +Hatherley</hi>, Law's account of Craig. +<hi rend='italic'>April 1.</hi>—Sandringham church, +morning. West Newton, evening. Good services and sermons +from the archbishop. The Prince bade me read the lessons. +Much conversation with the archbishop, also Duke of Cambridge. +Read <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi> on Revised Version; Manning on Education; +<hi rend='italic'>Life of Hatherley</hi>; +Craig's <hi rend='italic'>Catechism</hi>. Wrote, etc. 2.—Off +<pb n='106'/><anchor id='Pg106'/> +at 11. D. Street 3.15. Wrote to the Queen. Long conversation +with the archbishop in the train. +</quote> + +<p> +Here a short letter or two may find a place:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lady Jessel on her husband's death.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>March 30.</hi>—Though I am reluctant to intrude upon your sorrow +still so fresh, and while I beg of you on no account to acknowledge +this note, I cannot refrain from writing to assure you not only of +my sympathy with your grief, but of my profound sense of the loss +which the country and its judiciary have sustained by the death of +your distinguished husband. From the time of his first entrance +into parliament I followed his legal expositions with an ignorant +but fervid admiration, and could not help placing him in the first +rank, a rank held by few, of the many able and powerful lawyers +whom during half a century I have known and heard in parliament. +When I came to know him as a colleague, I found reason +to admire no less sincerely his superiority to considerations of +pecuniary interest, his strong and tenacious sense of the dignity +of his office, and his thoroughly frank, resolute, and manly +character. These few words, if they be a feeble, yet I assure you +are also a genuine, tribute to a memory which I trust will long be +cherished. Earnestly anxious that you may have every consolation +in your heavy bereavement. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Cardinal Manning.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>April 19.</hi>—I thank you much for your kind note, though I am +sorry to have given you the trouble of writing it. Both of us have +much to be thankful for in the way of health, but I should have, +hoped that your extremely spare living would have saved you +from the action of anything like gouty tendencies. As for myself, +I can in no way understand how it is that for a full half century +I have been permitted and enabled to resist a pressure of special +liabilities attaching to my path of life, to which so many have +given way. I am left as a solitary, surviving all his compeers. +But I trust it may not be long ere I escape into some position +better suited to declining years. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Sir W. V. Harcourt.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>April 27.</hi>—A separate line to thank you for your more than +kind words about my rather Alexandrine speech last night; as to +<pb n='107'/><anchor id='Pg107'/> +which I can only admit that it contained one fine passage—six +lines in length.<note place='foot'>The lines from Lucretius +(in his speech on the Affirmation bill). See +above, p. <ref target='Pg019'>19.</ref></note> Your <q>instincts</q> +of kindliness in all personal +matters are known to all the world. I should be glad, on selfish +grounds, if I could feel sure that they had not a little warped your +judicial faculty for the moment. But this misgiving abates +nothing from my grateful acknowledgment. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +An application was made to him on behalf of a member +of the opposite party for a political pension, and here is his +reply, to which it may be added that ten years later he had +come rather strongly to the view that political pensions +should be abolished, and he was only deterred from trying +to carry out his view by the reminder from younger +ministers, not themselves applicants nor ever likely to be, +that it would hardly be a gracious thing to cut off benefactions +at a time when the bestowal of them was passing away +from him, though he had used them freely while that +bestowal was within his reach. +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Political Pensions.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>July 4, 1883.</hi>—You are probably aware that during the fifty +years which have passed since the system of political and civil +pensions was essentially remodelled, no political pension has been +granted by any minister except to one of those with whom he +stood on terms of general confidence and co-operation. It is +needless to refer to older practice. +</p> + +<p> +This is not to be accounted for by the fact that after meeting +the just claims of political adherents, there has been nothing left +to bestow. For, although it has happened that the list of pensions +of the first class has usually been full, it has not been so with +political pensions of the other classes, which have, I think, rarely +if ever been granted to the fullest extent that the Acts have +allowed. At the present time, out of twelve pensions which may +legally be conferred, only seven have been actually given, if I +reckon rightly. I do not think that this state of facts can have +been due to the absence of cases entitled to consideration, and +I am quite certain that it is not to be accounted for by what +are commonly termed party motives. It was obvious to me that I +<pb n='108'/><anchor id='Pg108'/> +could not create a precedent of deviation from a course undeviatingly +pursued by my predecessors of all parties, without satisfying +myself that a new form of proceeding would be reasonable and +safe. The examination of private circumstances, such as I consider +the Act to require, is from its own nature difficult and invidious: +but the examination of competing cases in the ex-official corps is +a function that could not, I think, be discharged with the necessary +combination of free responsible action, and of exemption +from offence and suspicion. Such cases plainly may occur.<note place='foot'>In +a party sense, as he told the +cabinet, it might be wise enough to +grant it, as it would please the public, +displease the tories, and widen the +breach between the fourth party and +their front bench. Mr. Gladstone +had suffered an unpleasant experience +in another case, of the relations +brought about by the refusal of a +political pension after inquiry as to +the accuracy of the necessary statement +as to the applicant's need for it.</note> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To H.R.H. the Prince of Wales.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>August 14th.</hi>—I am much shocked at an omission which I +made last night in failing to ask your royal Highness's leave to +be the first to quit Lord Alcester's agreeable party, in order that +I might attend to my duties in the House of Commons. In my +early days not only did the whole company remain united, if a +member of the royal family were present, until the exalted personage +had departed; but I well recollect the application of the +same rule in the case of the Archbishop (Howley) of Canterbury. +I am sorry to say that I reached the House of Commons in time to +hear some outrageous speeches from the ultra Irish members. I +will not say that they were meant to encourage crime, but they +tended directly to teach the Irish people to withhold their confidence +from the law and its administrators; and they seemed to +exhibit Lord Spencer as the enemy to the mass of the community—a +sad and disgraceful fact, though I need not qualify what I +told your royal Highness, that they had for some time past not +been guilty of obstruction. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +Even in pieces that were in their nature more or less +official, he touched the occasions of life by a note that was +not merely official, or was official in its best form. To Mrs. +Garfield he wrote (July 21, 1881):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +You will, I am sure, excuse me, though a personal stranger, for +addressing you by letter, to convey to you the assurance of my +<pb n='109'/><anchor id='Pg109'/> +own feelings and those of my countrymen on the occasion of the +late horrible attempt to murder the President of the United +States, in a form more palpable at least than that of messages +conveyed by telegraph. Those feelings have been feelings in the +first instance of sympathy, and afterwards of joy and thankfulness, +almost comparable, and I venture to say only second to the strong +emotions of the great nation, of which he is the appointed head. +Individually I have, let me beg you to believe, had my full share +in the sentiments which have possessed the British nation. They +have been prompted and quickened largely by what I venture to +think is the ever-growing sense of harmony and mutual respect +and affection between the two countries, and of a relationship +which from year to year becomes more and more a practical bond +of union between us. But they have also drawn much of their +strength from a cordial admiration of the simple heroism which +has marked the personal conduct of the President, for we have not +yet wholly lost the capacity of appreciating such an example of +Christian faith and manly fortitude. This exemplary picture has +been made complete by your own contribution to its noble and +touching features, on which I only forbear to dwell because I am +directly addressing you. +</quote> + +<p> +Under all the conventional solemnities in Mr. Gladstone +on such occasions, we are conscious of a sincere feeling +that they were in real relation to human life and all its +chances and changes. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='110'/><anchor id='Pg110'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter VII. Colleagues—Northern Cruise—Egypt. (1883)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l>Parran faville della sua virtute</l> +<l>In non curar d'argento nè d'affanni.</l> +</lg> + +<p> +—<hi rend='italic'>Paradiso</hi>, xvii. 83. +</p> + +<p> +Sparks of his worth shall show in the little heed he gives either to +riches or to heavy toils. +</p> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +The session of 1883 was marked by one legislative performance +of the first order, the bill devised against corrupt +practices at elections. This invaluable measure was worked +through the House of Commons mainly by Sir Henry James, +the attorney general, whose skill and temper in a business +that was made none the easier by the fact of every man in the +House supposing himself to understand the subject, excited +Mr. Gladstone's cordial admiration; it strengthened that +peculiarly warm regard in which he held Sir Henry, not +only now but even when the evil days of political severance +came. The prime minister, though assiduous, as he always +was, in the discharge of those routine and secondary duties +which can never be neglected without damage to the House, +had, for the first session in his career as head of a government, +no burden in the shaping of a great bill. He insisted, in +spite of some opposition in the cabinet, on accepting a motion +pledging parliament to economy (April 3). In a debate on +the Congo, he was taken by some to have gone near to +giving up the treaty-making power of the crown. He had +to face more than one of those emergencies that were +naturally common for the leader of a party with a zealous +radical wing represented in his cabinet, and in some +measure these occasions beset Mr. Gladstone from 1869 +<pb n='111'/><anchor id='Pg111'/> +<note place='margin'>Mr. Bright And The Irishmen</note> +onwards. His loyalty and kindness to colleagues who got +themselves and him into scrapes by imprudent speeches, +and his activity and resource in inventing ways out of +scrapes, were always unfailing. Often the difficulty was +with the Queen, sometimes with the House of Lords, occasionally +with the Irish members. Birmingham, for instance, +held a grand celebration (June 13) on the twenty-fifth +anniversary of Mr. Bright's connection as its representative. +Mr. Bright used strong language about <q>Irish rebels,</q> and +then learned that he would be called to account. He consulted +Mr. Gladstone, and from him received a reply that +exhibits the use of logic as applied to inconvenient displays +of the sister art of rhetoric:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Mr. Bright.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>June 15, 1883.</hi>—I have received your note, and I am extremely +sorry either that you should have personal trouble after your +great exertions, or that anything should occur to cloud the +brilliancy or mar the satisfaction of your recent celebration in +Birmingham. I have looked at the extract from your speech, +which is to be alleged as the <hi rend='italic'>corpus delicti</hi>, with a jealous eye. +It seems well to be prepared for the worst. The points are, I +think, <emph>three</emph>:—1. <q>Not a few</q> tories are guilty of determined +obstruction. I cannot conceive it possible that this can be deemed +a breach of privilege. 2. These members are found 'in alliance' +with the Irish party. Alliance is often predicated by those who +disapprove, upon the ground that certain persons have been voting +together. This I think can hardly be a breach of privilege even in +cases where it may be disputable or untrue. +</p> + +<p> +But then: 3. This Irish party are <q>rebels</q> whose oath of allegiance +is broken by association with the enemies of the country. +Whether these allegations are true or not, the following questions +arise:—(a) Can they be proved; (b) Are they allegations which +would be allowed in debate? I suppose you would agree with me +that they cannot be proved; and I doubt whether they would be +allowed in debate. The question whether they are a breach of +privilege is for the House; but the Speaker would have to say, if +called upon, whether they were allowable in debate. My impression +<pb n='112'/><anchor id='Pg112'/> +is that he would say no; and I think you would not wish to +use elsewhere expressions that you could not repeat in the House +of Commons. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +The Speaker has a jotting in his diary which may end +this case of a great man's excess:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>June 18.</hi>—Exciting sitting. Bright's language about Irish +rebels. Certainly his language was very strong and quite inadmissible if +spoken within the House. In conversation with Northcote I +deprecated the taking notice of language outside the House, +though I could not deny that the House, if it thought fit, might +regard the words as a breach of privilege. But Northcote was no +doubt urged by his friends. +</quote> + +<p> +Mr. Chamberlain's was a heavier business, and led to +much correspondence and difficult conversation in high +places. A little of it, containing general principles, will +probably suffice here:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Sir Henry Ponsonby.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>June 22.—Re</hi> Chamberlain's speech. I am sorry to say I had +not read the report until I was warned by your letters to +Granville and to Hamilton, for my sight does not allow me +to read largely the small type of newspapers. I have now +read it, and I must at once say with deep regret. We had done +our best to keep the Bright celebration in harmony with the +general tone of opinion by the mission which Granville kindly +undertook. I am the more sorry about this speech, because Chamberlain +has this year in parliament shown both tact and talent in +the management of questions not polemical, such as the bankruptcy +bill. The speech is open to exception from three points of view, +as I think—first in relation to Bright, secondly in relation to the +cabinet, thirdly and most especially in relation to the crown, to +which the speech did not indicate the consciousness of his holding +any special relation. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>June. 26.</hi>—It appeared to me in considering the case of Mr. +Chamberlain's speech that by far the best correction would be found, if a +natural opportunity should offer, in a speech differently coloured +from himself. I found also that he was engaged to preside on +Saturday next at the dinner of the Cobden Club. I addressed myself +<pb n='113'/><anchor id='Pg113'/> +therefore to this point, and Mr. Chamberlain will revert, on +that occasion, to the same line of thought.... But, like Granville, +I consider that the offence does not consist in holding certain +opinions, of which in my judgment the political force and +effect are greatly exaggerated, but in the attitude assumed, and +the tone and colour given to the speech. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Granville.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>July 1, 1883.</hi>—I have read with care Chamberlain's speech of +last night [at the Cobden Club dinner].... Am I right or +wrong in understanding the speech as follows? He admits without +stint that in a cabinet concessions may be made as to action, +but he seems to claim an unlimited liberty of speech. Now I +should be as far as possible from asserting that under all circumstances +speech must be confined within the exact limits to which +action is tied down. But I think the dignity and authority, not +to say the honour and integrity, of government require that the +liberty of speaking beyond those limits should be exercised +sparingly, reluctantly, and with much modesty and reserve. +Whereas Chamberlain's Birmingham speech exceeded it largely, +gratuitously, and with a total absence of recognition of the fact +that he was not an individual but a member of a body. And the +claim made last night to liberty of speech must be read with the +practical illustration afforded by the Birmingham discourse, which +evidently now stands as an instance, a sort of moral instance, of +the mode in which liberty of speech is to be reconciled with limitation +of action.<note place='foot'>By an odd coincidence, on the +day after my selection of this letter, I +read that the French prime minister, +M. Combes, laid down the doctrine +that the government is never committed +by a minister's individual +declarations, but only by those of +the head of the government. He +alone has the power of making known +the direction given to policy, and +each minister individually has +authority only for the administration +of his department (September +25, 1902). Of course this is wholly +incompatible with Mr. Gladstone's +ideas of parliamentary responsibility +and the cabinet system.</note> +</p> + +<p> +In order to test the question, must we not bear in mind that the +liberty claimed in one wing of a cabinet may also be claimed in +another, and that while one minister says I support this measure, +though it does not go far enough, another may just as lawfully +say I support this measure, though it goes too far? For example, +Argyll agreed to the Disturbance Compensation bill in 1880, +<pb n='114'/><anchor id='Pg114'/> +mainly out of regard to his colleagues and their authority. What +if he had used in the House of Lords language like that I have +just supposed? Every extravagance of this kind puts weapons +into the hands of opponents, and weakens the authority of government, +which is hardly ever too strong, and is often too weak +already. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +In a letter written some years before when he was leader +of the House, Mr. Gladstone on the subject of the internal +discipline of a ministerial corps told one, who was at that +time and now his colleague, a little story:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +As the subject is one of interest, perhaps you will let me +mention the incident which first obliged me to reflect upon it. +Nearly thirty years ago, my leader, Sir R. Peel, agreed in the +Irish Tithes bills to give 25 per cent. of the tithe to the landlord +in return for that <q>Commutation.</q> Thinking this too much (you +see that twist was then already in me), I happened to say so in a +private letter to an Irish clergyman. Very shortly after I had a +note from Peel, which inclosed one from Shaw, his head man in +Ireland, complaining of my letter as making his work impossible +if such things were allowed to go on. Sir R. Peel indorsed the +remonstrance, and I had to sing small. The discipline was very +tight in those days (and we were in opposition, not in government). +But it worked well on the whole, and I must say it was +accompanied on Sir R. Peel's part with a most rigid regard to +rights of all kinds within the official or quasi-official corps, which +has somewhat declined in more recent times. +</quote> + +<p> +A minister had made some reference in a public speech, to +what happened in the cabinet of which he was a member. +<q>I am sure it cannot have occurred to you,</q> Mr. Gladstone +wrote, <q>that the cabinet is the operative part of the privy +council, that the privy councillor's oath is applicable to its +proceedings, that this is a very high obligation, and that no +one can dispense with it except the Queen. I may add that +I believe no one is entitled even to make a note of the proceedings +except the prime minister, who has to report its +proceedings on every occasion of its meeting to the Queen, +and who must by a few scraps assist his memory.</q> +</p> + +<p> +By the end of the session, although its labours had not +<pb n='115'/><anchor id='Pg115'/> +<note place='margin'>Official Discipline</note> +been on the level of either 1881 or 1882, Mr. Gladstone was +somewhat strained. On Aug. 22 he writes to Mrs. Gladstone +at Hawarden: <q>Yesterday at 4½ I entered the House hoping +to get out soon and write you a letter, when the Speaker +told me Northcote was going to raise a debate on the Appropriation +bill, and I had to wait, listen, and then to speak for +more than an hour, which tired me a good deal, finding me +weak after sitting till 2.30 the night before, and a long cabinet +in the interval. Rough work for 73!</q> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +In September he took a holiday in a shape that, though he +was no hearty sailor, was always a pleasure and a relief to +him. Three letters to the Queen tell the story, and give a +glimpse of court punctilio:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>On the North Sea, Sept. 15. Posted at Copenhagen, Sept. 16, +1883.</hi>—Mr. +Gladstone presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and +has to offer his humble apology for not having sought from your +Majesty the usual gracious permission before setting foot on +a foreign shore. He embarked on the 8th in a steamer of the +Castles Company under the auspices of Sir Donald Currie, with +no more ambitious expectation than that of a cruise among the +Western Isles. But the extraordinary solidity, so to call it, of a +very fine ship (the <hi rend='italic'>Pembroke Castle</hi>, 4000 tons, 410 feet long) on +the water, rendering her in no small degree independent of +weather, encouraged his fellow-voyagers, and even himself, though +a most indifferent sailor, to extend their views, and the vessel is +now on the North Sea running over to Christiansand in Norway, +from whence it is proposed to go to Copenhagen, with the expectation, +however, of again touching British soil in the middle +of next week. Mr. Gladstone humbly trusts that, under these +circumstances, his omission may be excused. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Tennyson, who is one of the party, is an excellent sailor, +and seems to enjoy himself much in the floating castle, as it may +be termed in a wider sense than that of its appellation on the +register. The weather has been variable with a heavy roll from +the Atlantic at the points not sheltered; but the stormy North +Sea has on the whole behaved extremely well as regards its two +besetting liabilities to storm and fog. +</p> + +<pb n='116'/><anchor id='Pg116'/> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Ship <q>Pembroke Castle,</q> Mouth of the +Thames. Sept. 20, 1883.</hi>—Mr. +Gladstone with his humble duty reports to your Majesty his +return this evening from Copenhagen to London. The passage +was very rapid, and the weather favourable. He had the +honour, with his wife and daughter and other companions of his +voyage, to receive an invitation to dine at Fredensborg on Monday. +He found there the entire circle of illustrious personages who +have been gathered for some time in a family party, with a very +few exceptions. The singularly domestic character of this remarkable +assemblage, and the affectionate intimacy which appeared to +pervade it, made an impression upon him not less deep than +the demeanour of all its members, which was so kindly and so +simple, that even the word condescending could hardly be applied +to it. Nor must Mr. Gladstone allow himself to omit another +striking feature of the remarkable picture, in the unrestrained and +unbounded happiness of the royal children, nineteen in number, +who appeared like a single family reared under a single roof. +</p> + +<p> +[<hi rend='italic'>The royal party, forty in number, visit the ship.</hi>] +</p> + +<p> +The Emperor of Russia proposed the health of your Majesty. +Mr. Gladstone by arrangement with your Majesty's minister at +this court, Mr. Vivian, proposed the health of the King and +Queen of Denmark, and the Emperor and Empress of Russia, +and the King and Queen of the Hellenes. The King of Denmark +did Mr. Gladstone the honour to propose his health; and +Mr. Gladstone in acknowledging this toast, thought he could not +do otherwise, though no speeches had been made, than express +the friendly feeling of Great Britain towards Denmark, and the +satisfaction with which the British people recognised the tie of +race which unites them with the inhabitants of the Scandinavian +countries. Perhaps the most vigorous and remarkable portion of +the British nation had, Mr. Gladstone said, been drawn from +these countries. After luncheon, the senior imperial and royal +personages crowded together into a small cabin on the deck to +hear Mr. Tennyson read two of his poems, several of the younger +branches clustering round the doors. Between 2 and 3, the illustrious +party left the <hi rend='italic'>Pembroke Castle</hi>, and in the midst of an +animated scene, went on board the King of Denmark's yacht, +which steamed towards Elsinore. +</p> + +<pb n='117'/><anchor id='Pg117'/> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone was much pleased to observe that the Emperor +of Russia appeared to be entirely released from the immediate +pressure of his anxieties supposed to weigh much upon his mind. +The Empress of Russia has the genial and gracious manners which +on this, and on every occasion, mark H.R.H. the Princess of Wales. +</p> + +<milestone unit='tb' rend='rule: 50%'/> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Sept. 22, 1883.</hi>—Mr. Gladstone presents his humble duty to +your Majesty, and has to acknowledge your Majesty's letter of the +20th <q>giving him full credit for not having reflected at the time</q> +when he decided, as your Majesty believes, to extend his recent +cruise to Norway and Denmark. +</p> + +<p> +He may humbly state that he had no desire or idea beyond a +glance, if only for a few hours, at a little of the fine and peculiar +scenery of Norway. But he is also responsible for having +acquiesced in the proposal (which originated with Mr. Tennyson) +to spend a day at Copenhagen, where he happens to have some +associations of literary interest; for having accepted an unexpected +invitation to dine with the king some thirty miles off; and +for having promoted the execution of a wish, again unexpectedly +communicated to him, that a visit of the illustrious party to the +<hi rend='italic'>Pembroke Castle</hi> should be arranged. Mr. Gladstone ought probably +to have foreseen all these things. With respect to the construction +put upon his act abroad, Mr. Gladstone ought again, perhaps, +to have foreseen that, in countries habituated to more important +personal meetings, which are uniformly declared to be held in the +interests of general peace, his momentary and unpremeditated contact +with the sovereigns at Fredensborg would be denounced, or +suspected of a mischievous design. He has, however, some consolation +in finding that, in England at least, such a suspicion +appears to have been confined to two secondary journals, neither +of which has ever found (so far as he is aware) in any act of his +anything but guilt and folly. +</p> + +<p> +Thus adopting, to a great extent, your Majesty's view, Mr. +Gladstone can confirm your Majesty's belief that (with the exception +of a sentence addressed by him to the King of the Hellenes +singly respecting Bulgaria), there was on all hands an absolute +silence in regard to public affairs.... +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +In proposing at Kirkwall the health of the poet who was +<pb n='118'/><anchor id='Pg118'/> +his fellow-guest on the cruise, Mr. Gladstone let fall a hint—a +significant and perhaps a just one—on the comparative +place of politics and letters, the difference between the +statesman and orator and the poet. <q>Mr. Tennyson's life +and labour,</q> he said, <q>correspond in point of time as nearly +as possible to my own; but he has worked in a higher field, +and his work will be more durable. We public men play +a part which places us much in view of our countrymen, +but the words which we speak have wings and fly away and +disappear.... But the Poet Laureate has written his own +song on the hearts of his countrymen that can never die.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +It was said in 1884 that the organisation of Egypt was a +subject, whether regarded from the English or the European +point of view, that was probably more complicated and more +fraught with possible dangers in the future, than any question +of foreign policy with which England had had to deal +for the last fifty years or more. +</p> + +<p> +The arguments against prolonged English occupation were +tolerably clear. It would freeze all cordiality between ourselves +and the French. It would make us a Mediterranean +military power. In case of war, the necessity of holding +Egypt would weaken us. In diplomacy it would expose +fresh surface to new and hostile combinations. Yet, giving +their full weight to every one of these considerations, a +British statesman was confronted by one of those intractable +dilemmas that make up the material of a good half of +human history. The Khedive could not stand by himself. +The Turk would not, and ought not to be endured for his +protector. Some other European power would step in and +block the English road. Would common prudence in such +a case suffer England to acquiesce and stand aside? Did +not subsisting obligations also confirm the precepts of policy +and self-interest? In many minds this reasoning was +clenched and clamped by the sacrifices that England had +made when she took, and took alone, the initial military +step. +</p> + +<p> +Egyptian affairs were one of the heaviest loads that +<pb n='119'/><anchor id='Pg119'/> +<note place='margin'>Occupation Of Egypt</note> +weighed upon Mr. Gladstone during the whole of 1884. +One day in the autumn of this year, towards the end of the +business before the cabinet, a minister asked if there was +anything else. <q>No,</q> said Mr. Gladstone with sombre irony +as he gathered up his papers, <q>we have done our Egyptian +business, and we are an Egyptian government.</q> His general +position was sketched in a letter to Lord Granville (Mar. 22, +1884): <q>In regard to the Egyptian question proper, I am +conscious of being moved by three powerful considerations. +(1) Respect for European law, and for the peace of eastern +Europe, essentially connected with its observance. (2) The +just claims of the Khedive, who has given us no case against +him, and his people as connected with him. (3) Indisposition +to extend the responsibilities of this country. On the +first two I feel very stiff. On the third I should have due +regard to my personal condition as a vanishing quantity.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The question of the continuance of the old dual control by +England and France was raised almost immediately after +the English occupation began, but English opinion supported +or stimulated the cabinet in refusing to restore a +form of co-operation that had worked well originally in the +hands of Baring and de Blignières, but had subsequently +betrayed its inherent weakness. France resumed what is +diplomatically styled liberty of action in Egypt; and many +months were passed in negotiations, the most entangled in +which a British government was ever engaged. Why did +not England, impatient critics of Mr. Gladstone and his +cabinet inquire, at once formally proclaim a protectorate? +Because it would have been a direct breach of her moral +obligations of good faith to Europe. These were undisputed +and indisputable. It would have brought her within instant +reach of a possible war with France, for which the sinister +and interested approval of Germany would have been small +compensation. +</p> + +<p> +The issue lay between annexation and withdrawal,—annexation +to be veiled and indirect, withdrawal to be +cautious and conditional. No member of the cabinet at +this time seems to have listened with any favour whatever +to the mention of annexation. Apart from other +<pb n='120'/><anchor id='Pg120'/> +objections, it would undeniably have been a flagrant breach +of solemn international engagements. The cabinet was +pledged up to the lips to withdrawal, and when Lord +Hartington talked to the House of Commons of the last +British soldier quitting Egypt in a few months, nobody ever +doubted then or since that he was declaring the sincere +intention of the cabinet. Nor was any doubt possible that +the intention of the cabinet entirely coincided at that time +with the opinion and wishes of the general public. The +operations in Egypt had not been popular,<note place='foot'>Many +indications of this could +be cited, if there were room. A +parade of the victors of Tel-el-Kebir +through the streets of London stirred +little excitement. Two ministers +went to make speeches at Liverpool, +and had to report on returning to +town that references to Egypt fell +altogether flat.</note> and the national +temper was still as hostile to all expansion as when it cast +out Lord Beaconsfield. Withdrawal, however, was beset with +inextricable difficulties. Either withdrawal or annexation +would have simplified the position and brought its own +advantages. Neither was possible. The British government +after Tel-el-Kebir vainly strove to steer a course that +would combine the advantages of both. Say what they +would, military occupation was taken to make them responsible +for everything that happened in Egypt. This +encouraged the view that they should give orders to Egypt, +and make Egypt obey. But then direct and continuous +interference with the Egyptian administration was advance +in a path that could only end in annexation. To govern +Egypt from London through a native ministry, was in fact +nothing but annexation, and annexation in its clumsiest +and most troublesome shape. Such a policy was least of +all to be reconciled with the avowed policy of withdrawal. +To treat native ministers as mere ciphers and puppets, +and then to hope to leave them at the end with authority +enough to govern the country by themselves, was pure +delusion. +</p> + +<p> +So much for our relations with Egypt internally. Then +came Europe and the Powers, and the regulation of a +financial situation of indescribable complexity. <q>I sometimes +fear,</q> Mr. Gladstone wrote to Lord Granville (Dec. 8, +<pb n='121'/><anchor id='Pg121'/> +<note place='margin'>Egyptian Finance</note> +1884), <q>that some of the foreign governments have the same +notion of me that Nicholas was supposed to have of Lord +Aberdeen. But there is no one in the cabinet less disposed +than I am to knuckle down to them in this Egyptian matter, +about which they, except Italy, behave so ill, some of them +without excuse.</q> <q>As to Bismarck,</q> he said, <q>it is a case +of sheer audacity, of which he has an unbounded stock.</q> +Two months before he had complained to Lord Granville of +the same powerful personage: <q>Ought not some notice to +be taken of Bismarck's impudent reference to the English +exchequer? Ought you to have such a remark in your +possession without protest? He coolly assumes in effect +that we are responsible for all the financial wants and +occasions of Egypt.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The sensible reader would resist any attempt to drag him +into the Serbonian bog of Egyptian finance. Nor need I +describe either the protracted conference of the European +Powers, or the mission of Lord Northbrook. To this able +colleague, Mr. Gladstone wrote on the eve of his departure +(Aug. 29, 1884):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I cannot let you quit our shores without a word of valediction. +Your colleagues are too deeply interested to be impartial judges +of your mission. But they certainly cannot be mistaken in their +appreciation of the generosity and courage which could alone have +induced you to undertake it. Our task in Egypt generally may +not unfairly be called an impossible task, and with the impossible +no man can successfully contend. But we are well satisfied that +whatever is possible, you will achieve; whatever judgment, experience, +firmness, gentleness can do, will be done. Our expectations +from the nature of the case must be moderate; but be +assured, they will not be the measure of our gratitude. All good +go with you. +</quote> + +<p> +Lord Northbrook's report when in due time it came, +engaged the prime minister's anxious consideration, but it +could not be carried further. What the Powers might agree +to, parliament would not look at. The situation was one of +the utmost delicacy and danger, as anybody who is aware +of the diplomatic embarrassments of it knows. An agreement +<pb n='122'/><anchor id='Pg122'/> +with France about the Suez Canal came to nothing. +A conference upon finance came to nothing. Bismarck was +out of humour with England, partly from his dislike of +certain exalted English personages and influences at his own +court, partly because it suited him that France and England +should be bad friends, partly because, as he complained, +whenever he tried to found a colony, we closed in upon him. +He preached a sermon on <hi rend='italic'>do ut des</hi>, and while scouting the +idea of any real differences with this country, he hinted +that if we could not accommodate him in colonial questions, +he might not find it in his power to accommodate us in +European questions. Mr. Gladstone declared for treating +every German claim in an equitable spirit, but said we had +our own colonial communities to consider. +</p> + +<p> +In March 1885, after negotiations that threatened to be +endless, the London Convention was signed and the riddle +of the financial sphinx was solved. This made possible the +coming years of beneficent reform. The wonder is, says a +competent observer, how in view of the indifference of most +of the Powers to the welfare of Egypt and the bitter annoyance +of France at our position in that country, the English +government ever succeeded in inducing all the parties concerned +to agree to so reasonable an arrangement.<note place='foot'>Milner's +<hi rend='italic'>England in Egypt</hi>, p. 185.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile, as we shall see all too soon, the question of +Egypt proper, as it was then called, had brought up the +question of the Soudan, and with it an incident that made +what Mr. Gladstone called <q>the blackest day since the +Phœnix Park.</q> In 1884 the government still seemed prosperous. +The ordinary human tendency to croak never dies, +especially in the politics of party. Men talked of humiliation +abroad, ruin at home, agricultural interests doomed, +trade at a standstill—calamities all obviously due to a +government without spirit, and a majority with no independence. +But then humiliation, to be sure, only meant jealousy +in other countries because we declined to put ourselves in +the wrong, and to be hoodwinked into unwise alliances. +Ruin only meant reform without revolution. Doom meant +an inappreciable falling off in the vast volume of our trade. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='123'/><anchor id='Pg123'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter VIII. Reform. (1884)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +Decision by majorities is as much an expedient as lighting by gas. +In adopting it as a rule, we are not realising perfection, but bowing +to an imperfection. It has the great merit of avoiding, and that by +a test perfectly definite, the last resort to violence; and of making +force itself the servant instead of the master of authority. But our +country rejoices in the belief that she does not decide all things by +majorities.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Gladstone (1858).</hi> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +<q>The word procedure,</q> said Mr. Gladstone to a club of young +political missionaries in 1884, <q>has in it something homely, +and it is difficult for any one, except those who pass their +lives within the walls of parliament, to understand how vital +and urgent a truth it is, that there is no more urgent demand, +there is no aim or purpose more absolutely essential to the +future victories and the future efficiency of the House of +Commons, than that it should effect, with the support of the +nation—for it can be effected in no other way—some great +reform in the matter of its procedure.</q> He spoke further +of the <q>absolute and daily-growing necessity of what I will +describe as a great internal reform of the House of Commons, +quite distinct from that reform beyond its doors on which +our hearts are at present especially set.</q> Reform from within +and reform from without were the two tasks, neither of +them other than difficult in themselves and both made +supremely difficult by the extraordinary spirit of faction at +that time animating the minority. The internal reform had +been made necessary, as Mr. Gladstone expressed it, by systematised +obstruction, based upon the abuse of ancient and +generous rules, under which system the House of Commons +<q>becomes more and more the slave of some of the poorest +<pb n='124'/><anchor id='Pg124'/> +and most insignificant among its members.</q> Forty years +before he told the provost of Oriel, <q>The forms of parliament +are little more than a mature expression of the principles of +justice in their application to the proceedings of deliberative +bodies, having it for their object to secure freedom and +reflection, and well fitted to attain that object.</q> These high +ideals had been gradually lowered, for Mr. Parnell had found +out that the rules which had for their object the security of +freedom and reflection, could be still more effectually wrested +to objects the very opposite. +</p> + +<p> +In Mr. Gladstone's first session (1833) 395 members (the +speaker excluded) spoke, and the total number of speeches +was 5765. Fifty years later, in the session of 1883, the total +number of speeches had risen to 21,160. The remedies proposed +from time to time in this parliament by Mr. Gladstone +were various, and were the occasion of many fierce and +stubborn conflicts. But the subject is in the highest degree +technical, and only intelligible to those who, as Mr. Gladstone +said, <q>pass their lives within the walls of parliament</q>—perhaps +not by any means to all even of them. His papers +contain nothing of interest or novelty upon the question +either of devolution or of the compulsory stoppage of debate. +We may as well, therefore, leave it alone, only observing that +the necessity for the closure was probably the most unpalatable +of all the changes forced on Mr. Gladstone by change +in social and political circumstance. To leave the subject +alone is not to ignore its extreme importance, either in the +effect of revolution in procedure upon the character of the +House, and its power of despatching and controlling national +business; or as an indication that the old order was yielding +in the political sphere as everywhere else to the conditions +of a new time. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +The question of extending to householders in the country +the franchise that in 1867 had been conferred on householders +in boroughs, had been first pressed with eloquence +and resolution by Mr. Trevelyan. In 1876 he introduced two +resolutions, one for extended franchise, the other for a new +<pb n='125'/><anchor id='Pg125'/> +<note place='margin'>County Franchise</note> +arrangement of seats, made necessary by the creation of the +new voters. In a tory parliament he had, of course, no +chance. Mr. Gladstone, not naturally any more ardent for +change in political machinery than Burke or Canning had +been, was in no hurry about it, but was well aware that the +triumphant parliament of 1880 could not be allowed to expire +without the effective adoption by the government of +proposals in principle such as those made by Mr. Trevelyan +in 1876. One wing of the cabinet hung back. Mr. Gladstone +himself, reading the signs in the political skies, felt +that the hour had struck; the cabinet followed, and the bill +was framed. Never, said Mr. Gladstone, was a bill so large +in respect of the numbers to have votes; so innocent in +point of principle, for it raised no new questions and sprang +from no new principles. It went, he contended and most +truly contended, to the extreme of consideration for opponents, +and avoided several points that had especial attractions for +friends. So likewise, the general principles on which redistribution +of seats would be governed, were admittedly framed +in a conservative spirit. +</p> + +<p> +The comparative magnitude of the operation was thus +described by Mr. Gladstone (Feb. 28, 1884):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +In 1832 there was passed what was considered a Magna Charta +of British liberties; but that Magna Charta of British liberties +added, according to the previous estimate of Lord John Russell, +500,000, while according to the results considerably less than +500,000 were added to the entire constituency of the three +countries. After 1832 we come to 1866. At that time the +total constituency of the United Kingdom reached 1,364,000. +By the bills which were passed between 1867 and 1869 that +number was raised to 2,448,000. Under the action of the +present law the constituency has reached in round numbers +what I would call 3,000,000. This bill, if it passes as presented, +will add to the English constituency over 1,300,000 +persons. It will add to the Scotch constituency, Scotland +being at present rather better provided in this respect than +either of the other countries, over 200,000, and to the Irish +constituency over 400,000; or in the main, to the present aggregate +<pb n='126'/><anchor id='Pg126'/> +constituency of the United Kingdom taken at 3,000,000 it +will add 2,000,000 more, nearly twice as much as was added +since 1867, and more than four times as much as was added in +1832. +</quote> + +<p> +The bill was read a second time (April 7) by the overwhelming +majority of 340 against 210. Even those who +most disliked the measure admitted that a majority of this +size could not be made light of, though they went on in +charity to say that it did not represent the honest opinion +of those who composed it. It was in fact, as such persons +argued, the strongest proof of the degradation brought into +our politics by the Act of 1867. <q>All the bribes of Danby or +of Walpole or of Pelham,</q> cried one excited critic, <q>all the +bullying of the Tudors, all the lobbying of George <hi rend='smallcaps'>iii.</hi>, would +have been powerless to secure it in the most corrupt or the +most servile days of the ancient House of +Commons.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Saturday Review</hi>, +April 12, 1884.</note> +</p> + +<p> +On the third reading the opposition disappeared from the +House, and on Mr. Gladstone's prompt initiative it was +placed on record in the journals that the bill had been +carried by a unanimous verdict. It went to the Lords, and +by a majority, first of 59 and then of 50, they put what Mr. +Gladstone mildly called <q>an effectual stoppage on the bill, or +in other words did practically reject it.</q> The plain issue, if +we can call it plain, was this. What the tories, with different +degrees of sincerity, professed to dread was that the election +might take place on the new franchise, but with an unaltered +disposition of parliamentary seats. At heart the bulk of +them were as little friendly to a lowered franchise in the +counties, as they had been in the case of the towns before Mr. +Disraeli educated them. But this was a secret dangerous +to let out, for the enfranchised workers in the towns would +never understand why workers in the villages should not +have a vote. Apart from this, the tory leaders believed that +unless the allotment of seats went with the addition of a +couple of million new voters, the prospect would be ruinously +unfavourable to their party, and they offered determined +resistance to the chance of a jockeying operation of this +<pb n='127'/><anchor id='Pg127'/> +<note place='margin'>Bill Rejected By The Lords</note> +kind. At least one very eminent man among them had +privately made up his mind that the proceeding supposed to +be designed by their opponents—their distinct professions +notwithstanding—would efface the tory party for thirty years +to come. Mr. Gladstone and his government on the other +hand agreed, on grounds of their own and for reasons of +their own, that the two changes should come into operation +together. What they contended was, that to tack redistribution +on to franchise, was to scotch or kill franchise. <q>I do +not hesitate to say,</q> Mr. Gladstone told his electors, <q>that +those who are opposing us, and making use of this topic of +redistribution of seats as a means for defeating the franchise +bill, know as well as we do that, had we been such idiots and +such dolts as to present to parliament a bill for the combined +purpose, or to bring in two bills for the two purposes as one +measure—I say, they know as well as we do, that a disgraceful +failure would have been the result of our folly, and that +we should have been traitors to you, and to the cause we +had in hand.</q><note place='foot'>Edinburgh, August 30, 1884.</note> +Disinterested onlookers thought there ought +to be no great difficulty in securing the result that both sides +desired. As the Duke of Argyll put it to Mr. Gladstone, if +in private business two men were to come to a breach, when +standing so near to one another in aim and profession, they +would be shut up in bedlam. This is just what the judicious +reader will think to-day. +</p> + +<p> +The controversy was transported from parliament to the +platform, and a vigorous agitation marked the autumn +recess. It was a double agitation. What began as a campaign +on behalf of the rural householder, threatened to end +as one against hereditary legislators. It is a well-known +advantage in movements of this sort to be not only for, +but also against, somebody or something; against a minister, +by preference, or if not an individual, then against a body. +A hereditary legislature in a community that has reached the +self-governing stage is an anachronism that makes the easiest +of all marks for mockery and attack, so long as it lasts. +Nobody can doubt that if Mr. Gladstone had been the +frantic demagogue or fretful revolutionist that his opponents +<pb n='128'/><anchor id='Pg128'/> +thought, he now had an excellent chance of bringing the +question of the House of Lords irresistibly to the front. +As it was, in the midst of the storm raised by his lieutenants +and supporters all over the country, he was the moderating +force, elaborately appealing, as he said, to the reason rather +than the fears of his opponents. +</p> + +<p> +One reproachful passage in his speeches this autumn +acquires a rather peculiar significance in the light of the +events that were in the coming years to follow. He is dealing +with the argument that the hereditary House protects the +nation against fleeting opinions:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +How is it with regard to the solid and permanent opinion of the +nation? We have had twelve parliaments since the Reform Act,—I +have a right to say so, as I have sat in every one of them,—and +the opinion, the national opinion, has been exhibited in the +following manner. Ten of those parliaments have had a liberal +majority. The eleventh parliament was the one that sat from +1841 to 1847. It was elected as a tory parliament; but in 1846 +it put out the conservative government of Sir Robert Peel, and +put in and supported till its dissolution, the liberal government of +Lord John Russell. That is the eleventh parliament. But then +there is the twelfth parliament, and that is one that you and I +know a good deal about [Lord Beaconsfield's parliament], for we +talked largely on the subject of its merits and demerits, whichever +they may be, at the time of the last election. That parliament +was, I admit, a tory parliament from the beginning to the end. +But I want to know, looking back for a period of more than fifty +years, which represented the solid permanent conviction of the +nation?—the ten parliaments that were elected upon ten out of +the twelve dissolutions, or the one parliament that chanced to be +elected from the disorganized state of the liberal party in the early +part of the year 1874? Well, here are ten parliaments on the one +side; here is one parliament on the other side.... The House of +Lords was in sympathy with the one parliament, and was in +opposition ... to the ten parliaments. And yet you are told, +when—we will say for forty-five years out of fifty—practically +the nation has manifested its liberal tendencies by the election of +liberal parliaments, and once only has chanced to elect a thoroughly +<pb n='129'/><anchor id='Pg129'/> +tory parliament, you are told that it is the thoroughly tory +parliament that represents the solid and permanent opinion of the +country.<note place='foot'>Corn Exchange, Edinburgh, August 30, 1884.</note> +</quote> + +<p> +In time a curious thing, not yet adequately explained, fell +out, for the extension of the franchise in 1867 and now in +1884 resulted in a reversal of the apparent law of things +that had ruled our political parties through the epoch that +Mr. Gladstone has just sketched. The five parliaments since +1884 have not followed the line of the ten parliaments preceding, +notwithstanding the enlargement of direct popular +power. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +In August Mr. Gladstone submitted to the Queen a +memorandum on the political situation. It was much more +elaborate than the ordinary official submissions. Lord +Granville was the only colleague who had seen it, and Mr. +Gladstone was alone responsible for laying it before the +sovereign. It is a masterly statement of the case, starting +from the assumption for the sake of argument that the tories +were right and the liberals wrong as to the two bills; then +proceeding on the basis of a strongly expressed desire to +keep back a movement for organic change; next urging the +signs that such a movement would go forward with irresistible +force if the bill were again rejected; and concluding thus:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I may say in conclusion that there is no personal act if it be compatible +with personal honour and likely to contribute to an end which +I hold very dear, that I would not gladly do for the purpose of +helping to close the present controversy, and in closing it to prevent +the growth of one probably more complex and more formidable. +</quote> + +<p> +This document, tempered, unrhetorical, almost dispassionate, +was the starting-point of proceedings that, after +enormous difficulties had been surmounted by patience and +perseverance, working through his power in parliament and +his authority in the country, ended in final pacification and +a sound political settlement. It was Mr. Gladstone's statesmanship +that brought this pacification into sight and within +reach. +</p> + +<pb n='130'/><anchor id='Pg130'/> + +<p> +The Queen was deeply struck both by the force of his +arguments and the earnest tone in which they were pressed. +Though doubting whether there was any strong desire for +a change in the position of the House of Lords, still she +<q>did not shut her eyes to the possible gravity of the situation</q> +(Aug. 31). She seemed inclined to take some steps for ascertaining +the opinion of the leaders of opposition, with a view +to inducing them to modify their programme. The Duke +of Richmond visited Balmoral (Sept. 13), but when Mr. +Gladstone, then himself on Deeside, heard what had passed +in the direction of compromise, he could only say, <q>Waste +of breath!</q> To all suggestions of a dissolution on the case +in issue, Mr. Gladstone said to a confidential emissary from +Balmoral:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Never will I be a party to dissolving in order to determine +whether the Lords or the Commons were right upon the Franchise +bill. If I have anything to do with dissolution, it will be a +dissolution upon organic change in the House of Lords. Should +this bill be again rejected in a definite manner, there will be only +two courses open to me, one to cut out of public life, which I shall +infinitely prefer; the other to become a supporter of organic change +in the House of Lords, which I hate and which I am making all +this fuss in order to avoid. We have a few weeks before us to try +and avert the mischief. After a second rejection it will be too +late. There is perhaps the alternative of advising a large creation +of peers; but to this there are great objections, even if the Queen +were willing. I am not at present sure that I could bring myself +to be a party to the adoption of a plan like that of 1832. +</quote> + +<p> +When people talked to him of dissolution as a means of +bringing the Lords to account, he replied in scorn: <q>A +marvellous conception! On such a dissolution, if the +country disapproved of the conduct of its representatives, +it would cashier them; but, if it disapproved of the conduct +of the peers, it would simply have to see them resume their +place of power, to employ it to the best of their ability as +opportunity might serve, in thwarting the desires of the +country expressed through its representatives.</q> +</p> + +<p> +It was reported to Mr. Gladstone that his speeches in +<pb n='131'/><anchor id='Pg131'/> +<note place='margin'>Negotiation</note> +Scotland (though they were marked by much restraint) +created some displeasure at Balmoral. He wrote to Lord +Granville (Sept. 26):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +The Queen does not know the facts. If she did, she would have +known that while I have been compelled to deviate from the +intention, of speaking only to constituents which (with much +difficulty) I kept until Aberdeen, I have thereby (and again with +much difficulty in handling the audiences, every one of which +would have wished a different course of proceeding) been enabled +to do much in the way of keeping the question of organic change +in the House of Lords out of the present stage of the controversy. +</quote> + +<p> +Sir Henry Ponsonby, of course at the Queen's instigation, +was indefatigable and infinitely ingenious in inventing +devices of possible compromise between Lords and Commons, +or between Lords and ministers, such as might secure the +passing of franchise and yet at the same time secure the +creation of new electoral areas before the extended franchise +should become operative. The Queen repeated to some +members of the opposition—she did not at this stage +communicate directly with Lord Salisbury—the essence of +Mr. Gladstone's memorandum of August, and no doubt +conveyed the impression that it had made upon her own +mind. Later correspondence between her secretary and +the Duke of Richmond set up a salutary ferment in what +had not been at first a very promising quarter. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile Mr. Gladstone was hard at work in other directions. +He was urgent (Oct. 2) that Lord Granville should +make every effort to bring more peers into the fold to save +the bill when it reappeared in the autumn session. He had +himself <q>garnered in a rich harvest</q> of bishops in July. +On previous occasions he had plied the episcopal bench +with political appeals, and this time he wrote to the Archbishop +of Canterbury:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>July 2, 1884.</hi>—I should have felt repugnance and scruple about +addressing your Grace at any time on any subject of a political +nature, if it were confined within the ordinary limits of such +subjects. But it seems impossible to refuse credit to the accounts, +which assure us that the peers of the opposition, under Lord +<pb n='132'/><anchor id='Pg132'/> +Salisbury and his coadjutors, are determined to use all their +strength and influence for the purpose of throwing out the +Franchise bill in the House of Lords; and thus of entering upon +a conflict with the House of Commons, from which at each step in +the proceeding it may probably become more difficult to retire, +and which, if left to its natural course, will probably develop itself +into a constitutional crisis of such an order, as has not occurred +since 1832.... +</quote> + +<p> +To Tennyson, the possessor of a spiritual power even more +than archiepiscopal, who had now a place among peers +temporal, he addressed a remonstrance (July 6):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +... Upon consideration I cannot help writing a line, for I +must hope you will reconsider your intention. The best mode in +which I can support a suggestion seemingly so audacious is by +informing you, that all sober-minded conservative peers are in +great dismay at this wild proceeding of Lord Salisbury; that the +ultra-radicals and Parnellites, on the other hand, are in a state of +glee, as they believe, and with good reason, that the battle once +begun will end in some great humiliation to the House of Lords, +or some important change in its composition. That (to my +knowledge) various bishops of conservative leanings are, on this +account, going to vote with the government—as may be the case +with lay peers also. That you are the <emph>only</emph> peer, so far as I know, +associated with liberal ideas or the liberal party, who hesitates to +vote against Lord Salisbury. +</quote> + +<p> +In the later stage of this controversy, Tennyson shot the +well-known lines at him— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l>Steersman, be not precipitate in thine act</l> +<l>Of steering, for the river here, my friend,</l> +<l>Parts in two channels, moving to one end—</l> +<l>This goes straight forward to the cataract:</l> +<l>That streams about the bend.</l> +<l>But tho' the cataract seems the nearer way,</l> +<l>Whate'er the crowd on either bank may say,</l> +<l>Take thou <q>the bend,</q> 'twill save thee many a day.</l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p> +To a poet who made to his generation such exquisite gifts +of beauty and pleasure, the hardest of party-men may +pardon unseasonable fears about franchise and one-horse +constituencies. As matter of fact and in plain prose, this +<pb n='133'/><anchor id='Pg133'/> +<note place='margin'>Negotiation And Persuasion</note> +taking of the bend was exactly what the steersman had been +doing, so as to keep other people out of cataracts. +</p> + +<p> +<q>Then why should not Lord Granville try his hand on +ambassadors, pressing them to save their order from a +tempest that must strain and might wreck it?</q> To Mr. +Chamberlain, who was in his element, or in one of his +elements, Mr. Gladstone wrote (Oct. 8):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I see that Salisbury by his declaration in the <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi> of Saturday, +that the Lords are to contend for the simultaneous passing of the +two bills, has given you an excellent subject for denunciation, +and you may safely denounce him to your heart's content. +But I earnestly hope that you will leave us all elbow room on +other questions which <emph>may</emph> arise. If you have seen my letters +(virtually) to the Queen, I do not think you will have found reason +for alarm in them. I am sorry that Hartington the other day +used the word compromise, a word which has never passed my +lips, though I believe he meant nothing wrong. If we could find +anything which, though surrendering nothing substantial, would +build a bridge for honourable and moderate men to retreat by, I +am sure you would not object to it. But I have a much stronger +plea for your reserve than any request of my own. It is this, that +the cabinet has postponed discussing the matter until Wednesday +simply in order that you may be present and take your share. +They meet at twelve. I shall venture to count on your doing +nothing to narrow the ground left open to us, which is indeed but +a stinted one. +</quote> + +<p> +Three days later (Oct. 11) the Queen writing to the prime +minister was able to mark a further stage:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Although the strong expressions used by ministers in their +recent speeches have made the task of conciliation undertaken by +the Queen a most difficult one, she is so much impressed with the +importance of the issue at stake, that she has persevered in her +endeavours, and has obtained from the leaders of the opposition +an expression of their readiness to negotiate on the basis of Lord +Hartington's speech at Hanley. In the hope that this <emph>may</emph> lead +to a compromise, the Queen has suggested that Lord Hartington +may enter into communication with Lord Salisbury, and she +trusts, from Mr. Gladstone's telegram received this morning, that +<pb n='134'/><anchor id='Pg134'/> +he will empower Lord Hartington to discuss the possibility of an +agreement with Lord Salisbury. +</quote> + +<p> +In acknowledgment, Mr. Gladstone offered his thanks for +all her Majesty's <q>well-timed efforts to bring about an +accommodation.</q> He could not, however, he proceeded, +feel sanguine as to obtaining any concession from the leaders, +but he is very glad that Lord Hartington should try. +</p> + +<p> +Happily, and as might have been expected by anybody +who remembered the action of the sensible peers who saved +the Reform bill in 1832, the rash and headstrong men in +high places in the tory party were not allowed to have their +own way. Before the autumn was over, prudent members +of the opposition became uneasy. They knew that in +substance the conclusion was foregone, but they knew also +that just as in their own body there was a division between +hothead and moderate, so in the cabinet they could count +upon a whig section, and probably upon the prime minister +as well. They noted his words spoken in July, <q>It is not +our desire to see the bill carried by storm and tempest. It +is our desire to see it win its way by persuasion and calm +discussion to the rational minds of men.</q><note place='foot'>Dinner +of the Eighty Club, July 11, 1884.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile Sir Michael Hicks Beach had already, with the +knowledge and without the disapproval of other leading +men on the tory side, suggested an exchange of views to +Lord Hartington, who was warmly encouraged by the +cabinet to carry on communications, as being a person +peculiarly fitted for the task, <q>enjoying full confidence on +one side,</q> as Mr. Gladstone said to the Queen, <q>and probably +more on the other side than any other minister could +enjoy.</q> These two cool and able men took the extension of +county franchise for granted, and their conferences turned +pretty exclusively on redistribution. Sir Michael pressed +the separation of urban from rural areas, and what was more +specifically important was his advocacy of single-member +or one-horse constituencies. His own long experience of a +scattered agricultural division had convinced him that such +areas with household suffrage would be unworkable. Lord +Hartington knew the advantage of two-member constituencies +<pb n='135'/><anchor id='Pg135'/> +<note place='margin'>The Queen's Suggestion</note> +for his party, because they made an opening for one whig +candidate and one radical. But he did not make this a +question of life or death, and the ground was thoroughly well +hoed and raked. Lord Salisbury, to whom the nature of these +communications had been made known by the colleague +concerned, told him of the suggestion from the Queen, and +said that he and Sir Stafford Northcote had unreservedly +accepted it. So far the cabinet had found the several views +in favour with their opponents as to electoral areas, rather +more sweeping and radical than their own had been, and +they hoped that on the basis thus informally laid, they +might proceed to the more developed conversation with the +two official leaders. Then the tory ultras interposed. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +On the last day of October the Queen wrote to Mr. +Gladstone from Balmoral:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +The Queen thinks that it would be a means of arriving at some +understanding if the leaders of the parties in both Houses could +exchange their views personally. The Duke of Argyll or any other +person unconnected for the present with the government or the +opposition might be employed in bringing about a meeting, and in +assisting to solve difficulties. The Queen thinks the government +should in any project forming the basis of resolutions on redistribution +to be proposed to the House, distinctly define their plans +at such a personal conference. The Queen believes that were +assurance given that the redistribution would not be wholly +inimical to the prospects of the conservative party, their concurrence +might be obtained. The Queen feels most strongly that +it is of the utmost importance that in this serious crisis such +means, even if unusual, should be tried, and knowing how fully +Mr. Gladstone recognises the great danger that might arise by +prolonging the conflict, the Queen <emph>earnestly</emph> trusts that he will +avail himself of such means to obviate it. +</quote> + +<p> +The Queen then wrote to Lord Salisbury in the same +sense in which she had written to the prime minister. Lord +Salisbury replied that it would give him great pleasure to +consult with anybody the Queen might desire, and that in +<pb n='136'/><anchor id='Pg136'/> +obedience to her commands he would do all that lay in him +to bring the controversy finally to a just and honourable +issue. He went on however to say, in the caustic vein that +was one of his ruling traits, that while cheerfully complying +with the Queen's wishes, he thought it right to add +that, so far as his information went, no danger attached +to the prolongation of the controversy for a considerable +time, nor did he believe that there was any real excitement +in the country about it. The Queen in replying (Nov. 5) +said that she would at once acquaint Mr. Gladstone with +what he had said. +</p> + +<p> +The autumn session began, and the Franchise bill was +introduced again. Three days later, in consequence of +a communication from the other camp, the debate on +the second reading was conciliatory, but the tories won a +bye-election, and the proceedings in committee became +menacing and clouded. Discrepancies abounded in the +views of the opposition upon redistribution. When the +third reading came (Nov. 11), important men on the tory +side insisted on the production of a Seats bill, and declared +there must be no communication with the enemy. Mr. +Gladstone was elaborately pacific. If he could not get +peace, he said, at least let it be recorded that he desired +peace. The parleys of Lord Hartington and Sir Michael +Hicks Beach came to an end. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone, late one night soon after this (Nov. 14), +had a long conversation with Sir Stafford Northcote at the +house of a friend. He had the authority of the cabinet (not +given for this special interview) to promise the introduction +of a Seats bill before the committee stage of the Franchise +bill in the Lords, provided he was assured that it could be +done without endangering or retarding franchise. Northcote +and Mr. Gladstone made good progress on the principles +of redistribution. Then came an awkward message from +Lord Salisbury that the Lords could not let the Franchise +bill through, until they got the Seats bill from the Commons. +So negotiations were again broken off. +</p> + +<p> +The only hope now was that a sufficient number of Lord +Salisbury's adherents would leave him in the lurch, if he +<pb n='137'/><anchor id='Pg137'/> +<note place='margin'>Conferences With Lord Salisbury</note> +did not close with what was understood to be Mr. Gladstone's +engagement, to procure and press a Seats bill as soon as ever +franchise was out of danger. So it happened, and the door +that had thus been shut, speedily opened. Indirect communication +reached the treasury bench that seemed to show +the leaders of opposition to be again alive. There were +many surmises, everybody was excited, and two great tory +leaders in the Lords called on Lord Granville one day, anxious +for a <hi rend='italic'>modus vivendi</hi>. Mr. Gladstone in the Commons, in +conformity with a previous decision of the cabinet, declared +the willingness of the government to produce a bill or +explain its provisions, on receiving a reasonable guarantee +that the Franchise bill would be passed before the end of +the sittings. The ultras of the opposition still insisted on +making bets all round that the Franchise bill would not +become law; besides betting, they declared they would die +on the floor of the House in resisting an accommodation. +A meeting of the party was summoned at the Carlton club +for the purpose of declaring war to the knife, and Lord +Salisbury was reported to hold to his determination. This +resolve, however, proved to have been shaken by Mr. Gladstone's +language on a previous day. The general principles +of redistribution had been sufficiently sifted, tested, and +compared to show that there was no insuperable discrepancy +of view. It was made clear to Lord Salisbury circuitously, +that though the government required adequate assurances +of the safety of franchise before presenting their scheme +upon seats, this did not preclude private and confidential +illumination. So the bill was read a second time. +</p> + +<p> +All went prosperously forward. On November 19, Lord +Salisbury and Sir S. Northcote came to Downing Street in +the afternoon, took tea with the prime minister, and had a +friendly conversation for an hour in which much ground +was covered. The heads of the government scheme were +discussed and handed to the opposition leaders. Mr. Gladstone +was well satisfied. He was much struck, he said after, +with the quickness of the tory leader, and found it a pleasure +to deal with so acute a man. Lord Salisbury, for his part, +was interested in the novelty of the proceeding, for no +<pb n='138'/><anchor id='Pg138'/> +precedent could be found in our political or party history +for the discussion of a measure before its introduction +between the leaders of the two sides. This novelty stirred +his curiosity, while he also kept a sharp eye on the main +party chance. He proved to be entirely devoid of respect for +tradition, and Mr. Gladstone declared himself to be a strong +conservative in comparison. The meetings went on for +several days through the various parts of the questions, Lord +Hartington, Lord Granville, and Sir Charles Dilke being also +taken into council—the last of the three being unrivalled +master of the intricate details. +</p> + +<p> +The operation was watched with jealous eyes by the +radicals, though they had their guardians in the cabinet. +To Mr. Bright who, having been all his life denounced as a +violent republican, was now in the view of the new school +hardly even so much as a sound radical, Mr. Gladstone +thought it well to write (Nov. 25) words of comfort, if +comfort were needed:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I wish to give you the assurance that in the private communications +which are now going on, liberal principles such as we +should conceive and term them, are in no danger. Those with +whom we confer are thinking without doubt of party interests, as +affected by this or that arrangement, but these are a distinct +matter, and I am not so good at them as some others; but the +general proposition which I have stated is I think one which I can +pronounce with some confidence.... The whole operation is +essentially delicate and slippery, and I can hardly conceive any +other circumstance in which it would be justified, but in the +present very peculiar case I think it is not only warranted, but +called for. +</quote> + +<p> +On November 27 all was well over; and Mr. Gladstone +was able to inform the Queen that <q>the delicate and novel +communications</q> between the two sets of leaders had been +brought to a happy termination. <q>His first duty,</q> he said, +<q>was to tender his grateful thanks to your Majesty for the +wise, gracious, and steady influence on your Majesty's part, +which has so powerfully contributed to bring about this +accommodation, and to avert a serious crisis of affairs.</q> He +<pb n='139'/><anchor id='Pg139'/> +<note place='margin'>The Question Settled</note> +adds that <q>his cordial acknowledgments are due to Lord +Salisbury and Sir Stafford Northcote for the manner in +which they have conducted their difficult communications.</q> +The Queen promptly replied: <q>I gladly and thankfully +return your telegrams. To be able to be of use is all I care +to live for now.</q> By way of winding up negotiations so +remarkable, Mr. Gladstone wrote to Lord Salisbury to thank +him for his kindness, and to say that he could have desired +nothing better in candour and equity. Their conversation +on the Seats bill would leave him none but the most agreeable +recollections. +</p> + +<p> +The Queen was in high good humour, as she had a right +to be. She gave Mr. Gladstone ample credit for his conciliatory +spirit. The last two months had been very trying +to her, she said, but she confessed herself repaid by the +thought that she had assisted in a settlement. Mr. Gladstone's +severest critics on the tory side confessed that <q>they +did not think he had it in him.</q> Some friends of his +in high places even suggested that this would be a good +moment for giving him the garter. He wrote to Sir Arthur +Gordon (Dec. 5): <q>The time of this government has been +on the whole the most stormy and difficult that I have known +in office, and the last six weeks have been perhaps the most +anxious and difficult of the government.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>V</head> + +<p> +One further episode deserves a section, if the reader will +turn back for a moment or two. The question whether +the extension of the parliamentary franchise to rural +householders should be limited to Great Britain or should +apply to the whole kingdom, had been finally discussed in +a couple of morning sittings in the month of May. Nobody +who heard it can forget the speech made against Irish +inclusion by Mr. Plunket, the eloquent grandson of the most +eloquent of all the orators whom Ireland has sent to the +imperial senate. He warned the House that to talk of +assimilating the franchise in Ireland to the franchise in +England, was to use language without meaning; that out of +seven hundred and sixty thousand inhabited houses in +<pb n='140'/><anchor id='Pg140'/> +Ireland, no fewer than four hundred and thirty-five thousand +were rated at one pound and under; that those whom the +bill would enfranchise would be taken from a class of whom +more than forty per cent. could neither read nor write; that +the measure would strengthen the hands of that disloyal +party who boasted of their entire indifference to English +opinion, and their undivided obligation to influences which +Englishmen were wholly unable to realise. Then in a lofty +strain Mr. Plunket foretold that the measure which they +were asked to pass would lead up to, and would precipitate, +the establishment of a separate Irish nationality. He reminded +his hearers that the empire had been reared not +more by the endurance of its soldiers and sailors than by +the sagacity and firmness, the common sense and patriotism, +of that ancient parliament; and he ended with a fervid +prayer that the historian of the future might not have to +tell that the union of these three kingdoms on which rested +all its honour and all its power—a union that could never +be broken by the force of domestic traitor or foreign foe—yielded +at last under the pressure of the political ambitions +and party exigencies of British statesmen. +</p> + +<p> +The orator's stately diction, his solemn tone, the depth of +his conviction, made a profound impression. Newer parliamentary +hands below the government gangway, as he went +on, asked one another by what arts of parliamentary defence +the veteran minister could possibly deal with this searching +appeal. Only a quarter of an hour remained. In two or three +minutes Mr. Gladstone had swept the solemn impression entirely +away. Contrary to his wont, he began at once upon the +top note. With high passion in his voice, and mastering gesture +in his uplifted arm, he dashed impetuously upon the foe. +What weighs upon my mind is this, he said, that when the +future historian speaks of the greatness of this empire, and +traces the manner in which it has grown through successive +generations, he will say that in that history there was one +chapter of disgrace, and that chapter of disgrace was the +treatment of Ireland. It is the scale of justice that will +determine the issue of the conflict with Ireland, if conflict +there is to be. There is nothing we can do, cried the orator, +<pb n='141'/><anchor id='Pg141'/> +<note place='margin'>Mr. Plunket's Speech</note> +turning to the Irish members, except the imprudence of +placing in your hands evidence that will show that we are +not acting on principles of justice towards you, that can +render you for a moment formidable in our eyes, should the +day unfortunately arise when you endeavour to lay hands +on this great structure of the British empire. Let us be as +strong in right as we are in population, in wealth, and in +historic traditions, and then we shall not fear to do justice +to Ireland. There is but one mode of making England weak +in the face of Ireland—that is by applying to her principles +of inequality and principles of injustice. +</p> + +<p> +As members sallied forth from the House to dine, they felt +that this vehement improvisation had put the true answer. +Mr. Plunket's fine appeal to those who had been comrades of +the Irish loyalists in guarding the union was well enough, yet +who but the Irish loyalists had held Ireland in the hollow +of their hands for generation upon generation, and who but +they were answerable for the odious and dishonouring failure, +so patent before all the world, to effect a true incorporation +of their country in a united realm? And if it should +happen that Irish loyalists should suffer from extension of +equal civil rights to Irishmen, what sort of reason was that +why the principle of exclusion and ascendency which had +worked such mischief in the past, should be persisted in +for a long and indefinite future? These views, it is important +to observe, were shared, not only by the minister's own +party, but by a powerful body among his opponents. Some +of the gentlemen who had been most furious against the government +for not stopping Irish meetings in the autumn of +1883, were now most indignant at the bare idea of refusing or +delaying a proposal for strengthening the hands of the very +people who promoted and attended such meetings. It is true +also that only two or three months before, Lord Hartington +had declared that it would be most unwise to deal with the +Irish franchise. Still more recently, Mr. W. H. Smith had +declared that any extension of the suffrage in Ireland would +draw after it <q>confiscation of property, ruin of industry, +withdrawal of capital,—misery, wretchedness, and war.</q> +The valour of the platform, however, often expires in the +<pb n='142'/><anchor id='Pg142'/> +keener air of cabinet and parliament. It became Lord +Hartington's duty now to move the second reading of provisions +which, he had just described as most unwise provisions, +and Mr. Smith found himself the object of brilliant +mockery from the daring leader below the gangway on his +own side. +</p> + +<p> +Lord Randolph produced a more serious, though events +soon showed it to be not any more solid an argument, when +he said that the man who lives in a mud cabin very often +has a decent holding, and has money in the savings' bank +besides, and more than that, he is often more fit to take an +interest in politics, and to form a sound view about them, +than the English agricultural labourer. The same speaker +proceeded to argue that the Fenian proclivities of the towns +would be more than counterbalanced by the increased power +given to the peasantry. The incidents of agricultural life, +he observed, are unfavourable to revolutionary movements, +and the peasant is much more under the proper and legitimate +influence of the Roman catholic priesthood than the +lower classes of the towns. On the whole, the extension of +the franchise to the peasantry of Ireland would not be unfavourable +to the landlord interest. Yet Lord Randolph, +who regaled the House with these chimerical speculations, +had had far better opportunities than almost any other Englishman +then in parliament of knowing something about +Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +What is certain is that English and Scotch members acted +with their eyes open. Irish tories and Irish nationalists +agreed in menacing predictions. The vast masses of Irish +people, said the former, had no sense of loyalty and no love +of order to which a government could appeal. In many +districts the only person who was unsafe was the peace +officer or the relatives of a murdered man. The effect of +the change would be the utter annihilation of the political +power of the most orderly, the most loyal, the most educated +classes of Ireland, and the swamping of one-fourth of the +community, representing two-thirds of its property. A +representative of the great house of Hamilton in the +Commons, amid a little cloud of the dishevelled prophecies +<pb n='143'/><anchor id='Pg143'/> +<note place='margin'>The Case Of Ireland</note> +too common in his class, assured the House that everybody +knew that if the franchise in Ireland were extended, the days +of home rule could not be far distant. The representative +of the great house of Beresford in the Lords, the resident +possessor of a noble domain, an able and determined man, +with large knowledge of his country, so far as large knowledge +can be acquired from a single point of view, expressed +his strong conviction that after the passage of this bill +the Irish outlook would be blacker than it had ever been +before.<note place='foot'>Lord Waterford, July 7, 1884.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Another person, far more powerful than any Hamilton or +Beresford, was equally explicit. With characteristic frigidity, +precision, and confidence, the Irish leader had defined his +policy and his expectations. <q>Beyond a shadow of doubt,</q> +he had said to a meeting in the Rotunda at Dublin, <q>it will +be for the Irish people in England—separated, isolated as +they are—and for your independent Irish members, to determine +at the next general election whether a tory or a liberal +English ministry shall rule England. This is a great force +and a great power. If we cannot rule ourselves, we can at +least cause them to be ruled as we choose. This force has +already gained for Ireland inclusion in the coming Franchise +bill. We have reason to be proud, hopeful, and energetic.</q><note place='foot'>December +11, 1883.</note> +In any case, he informed the House of Commons, even if +Ireland were not included in the bill, the national party +would come back seventy-five strong. If household suffrage +were conceded to Ireland, they would come back ninety +strong.<note place='foot'><q>I am not at all sure,</q> Mr. Forster +rashly said (March 31, 1884), <q>that +Mr. Parnell will increase his followers +by means of this bill.</q></note> That was the only difference. Therefore, though +he naturally supported inclusion,<note place='foot'>This was only the second occasion +on which his party in cardinal divisions +voted with the government.</note> it was not at all indispensable +to the success of his policy, and he watched the +proceedings in the committee as calmly as he might have +watched a battle of frogs and mice. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='144'/><anchor id='Pg144'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter IX. The Soudan. (1884-1885)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +You can only govern men by imagination: without imagination +they are brutes.... 'Tis by speaking to the soul that you electrify +men.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Napoleon.</hi> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +In the late summer of 1881 a certain native of Dongola, +proclaiming himself a heaven-inspired Mahdi, began to +rally to his banner the wild tribes of the southern Soudan. +His mission was to confound the wicked, the hypocrite, the +unbeliever, and to convert the world to the true faith in the one +God and his prophet. The fame of the Mahdi's eloquence, +his piety, his zeal, rapidly spread. At his ear he found a counsellor, +so well known to us after as the khalifa, and this man +soon taught the prophet politics. The misrule of the Soudan +by Egypt had been atrocious, and the combination of a +religious revival with the destruction of that hated yoke +swelled a cry that was irresistible. The rising rapidly +extended, for fanaticism in such regions soon takes fire, and +the Egyptian pashas had been sore oppressors, even judged +by the rude standards of oriental states. Never was insurrection +more amply justified. From the first, Mr. Gladstone's +curious instinct for liberty disclosed to him that here was a +case of <q>a people rightly struggling to be free.</q> The phrase +was mocked and derided then and down to the end of the +chapter. Yet it was the simple truth. <q>During all my +political life,</q> he said at a later stage of Soudanese affairs, +<q>I am thankful to say that I have never opened my lips in +favour of a domination such as that which has been exercised +upon certain countries by certain other countries, and +<pb n='145'/><anchor id='Pg145'/> +I am not going now to begin.</q> +<note place='margin'>The Mahdi</note> +<q>I look upon the possession +of the Soudan,</q> he proceeded, <q>as the calamity of Egypt. It +has been a drain on her treasury, it has been a drain on her +men. It is estimated that 100,000 Egyptians have laid +down their lives in endeavouring to maintain that barren +conquest.</q> Still stronger was the Soudanese side of the +case. The rule of the Mahdi was itself a tyranny, and +tribe fought with tribe, but that was deemed an easier +yoke than the sway of the pashas from Cairo. Every +vice of eastern rule flourished freely under Egyptian +hands. At Khartoum whole families of Coptic clerks kept +the accounts of plundering raids supported by Egyptian +soldiers, and <q>this was a government collecting its taxes.</q> +The function of the Egyptian soldiers <q>was that of honest +countrymen sharing in the villainy of the brigands from the +Levant and Asia Minor, who wrung money, women, and +drink from a miserable population.</q><note place='foot'>Wingate, pp. +50, 51.</note> Yet the railing against +Mr. Gladstone for saying that the <q>rebels</q> were rightly +struggling to be free could not have been more furious if +the Mahdi had been for dethroning Marcus Aurelius or +Saint Louis of France. +</p> + +<p> +The ministers at Cairo, however, naturally could not +find in their hearts to withdraw from territory that had +been theirs for over sixty years,<note place='foot'>The Soudan was conquered in +1819 by Ismail Pasha, the son of Mehemet +Ali, and from that date Egypt +had a more or less insecure hold over +the country. In 1870 Sir Samuel +Baker added the equatorial provinces +to the Egyptian Soudan.</note> although in the winter +of 1882-3 Colonel Stewart, an able British officer, had +reported that the Egyptian government was wholly unfit +to rule the Soudan; it had not money enough, nor +fighting men enough, nor administrative skill enough, +and abandonment at least of large portions of it was the +only reasonable course. Such counsels found no favour +with the khedive's advisers and agents, and General Hicks, +an Indian officer, appointed on the staff of the Egyptian +army in the spring of 1883, was now despatched by the +government of the khedive from Khartoum, for the recovery +of distant and formidable regions. If his operations +had been limited to the original intention of clearing Sennaar +<pb n='146'/><anchor id='Pg146'/> +of rebels and protecting Khartoum, all might have been +well. Unluckily some trivial successes over the Mahdi +encouraged the Cairo government to design an advance into +Kordofan, and the reconquest of all the vast wildernesses of +the Soudan. Lord Dufferin, Sir E. Malet, Colonel Stewart, +were all of them clear that to attempt any such task with an +empty chest and a worthless army was madness, and they +all argued for the abandonment of Kordofan and Darfur. +The cabinet in London, fixed in their resolve not to accept +responsibility for a Soudan war, and not to enter upon that +responsibility by giving advice for or against the advance of +Hicks, stood aloof.<note place='foot'>Mr. Gladstone said on Nov. 2, +1882: <q>It is no part of the duty incumbent +upon us to restore order in +the Soudan. It is politically connected +with Egypt in consequence of +its very recent conquest; but it has +not been included within the sphere +of our operations, and we are by no +means disposed to admit without +qualification that it is within the +sphere of our responsibility.</q> Lord +Granville, May 7, 1883: <q>H.M. government +are in no way responsible +for the operations in the Soudan, +which have been undertaken under +the authority of the Egyptian government, +or for the appointment or +actions of General Hicks.</q></note> In view of all that followed later, +and of their subsequent adoption of the policy of abandoning +the Soudan, British ministers would evidently +have been wiser if they had now forbidden an advance +so pregnant with disaster. Events showed this to have +been the capital miscalculation whence all else of misfortune +followed. The sounder the policy of abandonment, the +stronger the reasons for insisting that the Egyptian government +should not undertake operations inconsistent with +that policy. The Soudan was not within the sphere of our +responsibility, but Egypt was; and just because the separation +of Egypt from the Soudan was wise and necessary, it +might have been expected that England would peremptorily +interpose to prevent a departure from the path of separation. +What Hicks himself, a capable and dauntless man, +thought of the chances we do not positively know, but +he was certainly alive to the risks of such a march with +such material. On November 5 (1883) the whole force was +cut to pieces, the victorious dervishes were free to advance +northwards, and the loose fabric of Egyptian authority was +shattered to the ground. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='147'/><anchor id='Pg147'/> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Policy Of Evacuation</note> +The three British military officers in Cairo all agreed that +the Egyptian government could not hold Khartoum if the +Mahdi should draw down upon it; and unless a British, an +Indian, or a Turkish force came to the rescue, abandonment +of the Soudan was the only possible alternative. The +London cabinet decided that they would not employ British +or Indian troops in the Soudan, and though they had no +objection to the resort to the Turks by Egypt, if the Turks +would pay their own expenses (a condition fatal to any such +resort), they strongly recommended the khedive to abandon +all territory south of Assouan or Wady-Halfa. Sir Evelyn +Baring, who had now assumed his post upon a theatre where +he was for long years to come to play the commanding part, +concurred in thinking that the policy of complete abandonment +was the best admitted by the circumstances. It is the +way of the world to suppose that because a given course is +best, it must therefore be possible and ought to be simple. +Baring and his colleagues at Cairo were under no such +illusion, but it was the foundation of most of the criticism +that now broke forth in the English press. +</p> + +<p> +The unparalleled difficulties that ultimately attended the +evacuation of the Soudan naturally led inconsiderate critics,—and +such must ever be the majority,—to condemn the policy +and the cabinet who ordered it. So apt are men in their +rough judgments on great disputable things, to mistake a +mere impression for a real opinion; and we must patiently +admit that the Result—success or failure in the Event—is +the most that they have time for, and all that they can go by. +Yet two remarks are to be made upon this facile censure. +The first is that those who knew the Soudan best, approved +most. On January 22, 1884, Gordon wrote to Lord Granville +that the Soudan ever was and ever would be a useless +possession, and that he thought the Queen's ministers <q>fully +justified in recommending evacuation, inasmuch as the sacrifices +necessary towards securing good government would be +far too onerous to admit of such an attempt being made.</q> +Colonel Stewart quite agreed, and added the exclamation +<pb n='148'/><anchor id='Pg148'/> +that nobody who had ever visited the Soudan could escape +the reflection, <q>What a useless possession and what a huge +encumbrance on Egypt!</q> As we shall see, the time soon +came when Gordon accepted the policy of evacuation, +even with an emphasis of his own. The second remark +is that the reconquest of the Soudan and the holding +of Khartoum were for the Egyptian government, if left +to its own resources, neither more nor less than impossible; +these objects, whether they were good objects or +bad, not only meant recourse to British troops for the first +immense operations, but the retention of them in a huge +and most inhospitable region for an indefinite time. A third +consideration will certainly not be overlooked by anybody +who thinks on the course of the years of Egyptian reform +that have since elapsed, and constitute so remarkable a +chapter of British administration,—namely, that this beneficent +achievement would have been fatally clogged, if those +who conducted it had also had the Soudan on their hands. +The renovation or reconstruction of what is called Egypt +proper, its finances, its army, its civil rule, would have been +absolutely out of reach, if at the same time its guiding +statesmen had been charged with the responsibilities +recovering and holding that vaster tract which had been so +rashly acquired and so mercilessly misgoverned. This is fully +admitted by those who have had most to do with the result. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +The policy of evacuation was taken as carrying with it +the task of extricating the Egyptian garrisons. This aim +induced Mr. Gladstone's cabinet once more to play an active +military part, though Britain had no share in planting these +garrisons where they were. Wise men in Egypt were of the +same mind as General Gordon, that in the eastern Soudan +it would have been better for the British government to +keep quiet, and <q>let events work themselves out.</q> Unfortunately +the ready clamour of headlong philanthropists, political +party men, and the men who think England humiliated if +she ever lets slip an excuse for drawing her sword, drove the +cabinet on to the rocks. When the decision of the cabinet was +<pb n='149'/><anchor id='Pg149'/> +<note place='margin'>Despatch Of Gordon</note> +taken (Feb. 12, 1883) to send troops to Suakin, Mr. Gladstone +stood alone in objecting. Many thousands of savages were +slaughtered under humanitarian pressure, not a few English +lives were sacrificed, much treasure flowed, and yet Sinkat +fell, and Tokar fell, and our labours in the eastern Soudan +were practically fruitless.<note place='foot'>It was a general mistake at that +time to suppose that wherever a garrison +fell into the hands of the Mahdi, +they were massacred. At Tokar, for +instance, the soldiers were incorporated +by the victors. See Wingate, +p. 553.</note> The operations had no effect +upon the roll of the fierce mahdi wave over the Soudan. +</p> + +<p> +In England, excitement of the unsound sort that is +independent of knowledge, consideration, or deliberation; +independent of any weighing of the actual facts and any +forecast of latent possibilities, grew more and more vociferous. +Ministers quailed. Twice they inquired of their agent in +Egypt<note place='foot'>Granville to Baring, Dec. 1, 1883; +Jan. 10, 1884.</note> whether General Gordon might not be of use, and +twice they received an adverse reply, mainly on the ground +that the presence in authority of a Christian officer was a +dubious mode of confronting a sweeping outbreak of moslem +fanaticism, and would inevitably alienate tribes that were +still not caught by the Mahdi.<note place='foot'>Gordon had suppressed the Taiping +rising in China in 1863. In 1874 +he was appointed by the Egyptian +government governor-general of the +equatorial provinces of central Africa. +In 1876 he resigned owing to trouble +with the governor-general of the Soudan +upon the suppression of the slave +trade, but was appointed (1877) governor-general +of the Soudan, Darfur, +the equatorial provinces, and the Red +Sea littoral. He held this position +till the end of 1879, suppressing the +slave trade with a strong hand and +improving the means of communication +throughout the Soudan. He succeeded +in establishing comparative +order. Then the new Egyptian government +reversed Gordon's policy, +and the result of his six years' work +soon fell to pieces.</note> Unhappily a third application +from London at last prevailed, and Sir E. Baring, supported +by Nubar, by Sir Evelyn Wood, by Colonel Watson, +who had served with Gordon and knew him well, all agreed +that Gordon would be the best man if he would pledge +himself to carry out the policy of withdrawing from the +Soudan as quickly as possible. <q>Whoever goes,</q> said Sir E. +Baring in pregnant words to Lord Granville, will <q>undertake +a service of great difficulty and danger.</q> This was on January +16th. Two days later the die was cast. Mr. Gladstone +was at Hawarden. Lord Granville submitted the question +(Jan. 14, 1884) to him in this form: <q>If Gordon says he +<pb n='150'/><anchor id='Pg150'/> +believes he could by his personal influence excite the tribes +to escort the Khartoum garrison and inhabitants to Suakin, a +little pressure on Baring might be advisable. The destruction +of these poor people will be a great disaster.</q> Mr. Gladstone +telegraphed that to this and other parts of the same letter, +he agreed. Granville then sent him a copy of the telegram +putting <q>a little pressure on Baring.</q> To this Mr. Gladstone +replied (Jan. 16) in words that, if they had only been taken +to heart, would have made all the difference:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I can find no fault with your telegram to Baring <hi rend='italic'>re</hi> Chinese +Gordon, and the main point that strikes me is this: While his +opinion on the Soudan may be of great value, must we not be +very careful in any instruction we give, that he does not shift the +centre of gravity as to political and military responsibility for that +country? In brief, if he reports what should be done, he should not +be the judge <emph>who</emph> should do it, nor ought he to commit us on that +point by advice officially given. It would be extremely difficult +after sending him to reject such advice, and it should therefore, +I think, be made clear that he is not our agent for the purpose +of advising on that point. +</quote> + +<p> +On January 18, Lord Hartington (then secretary of state +for war), Lord Granville, Lord Northbrook, and Sir Charles +Dilke met at the war office in Pall Mall. The summons +was sudden. Lord Wolseley brought Gordon and left +him in the ante-room. After a conversation with the +ministers, he came out and said to Gordon, <q>Government +are determined to evacuate the Soudan, for they will not +guarantee the future government. Will you go and do it?</q> +<q><hi rend='italic'>I said</hi>, <q>Yes.</q> +<hi rend='italic'>He said</hi>, <q>Go in.</q> <hi rend='italic'>I went in and saw them. +They said</hi>, <q>Did Wolseley tell you our orders?</q> <hi rend='italic'>I said</hi>, +<q>Yes.</q> <hi rend='italic'>I said</hi>, <q>You will not guarantee future government +of the Soudan, and you wish me to go up and evacuate now.</q> <hi rend='italic'>They +said</hi>, <q>Yes,</q> <hi rend='italic'>and it was over, and I left at 8 p.m. for +Calais</hi>.</q><note place='foot'>Gordon's Letters to Barnes, 1885. +Lord Granville took his ticket, Lord +Wolseley carried the General's bag, +and the Duke of Cambridge held open +the carriage door.</note> +This graphic story does not pretend to be a full version of +all that passed, though it puts the essential point unmistakably +enough. Lord Granville seems to have drawn Gordon's +<pb n='151'/><anchor id='Pg151'/> +<note place='margin'>Character Of Gordon</note> +special attention to the measures to be taken for the security +of the Egyptian garrisons (plural) still holding positions in +the Soudan and to the best mode of evacuating the interior.<note place='foot'>Baring's +Instructions to Gordon +(Jan. 25, 1884).</note> +On the other hand, according to a very authentic account +that I have seen, Gordon on this occasion stated that the +danger at Khartoum was exaggerated, and that he would be +able to bring away the garrisons without difficulty. +</p> + +<p> +Thus in that conclave of sober statesmen a tragedy began. +The next day one of the four ministers met another; +<q>We were proud of ourselves yesterday—are you sure +we did not commit a gigantic folly?</q> The prime minister +had agreed at once on receiving the news of what was done +at the war office, and telegraphed assent the same night.<note place='foot'>Gladstone +to Granville, Jan. 19, +1884.—<q>I telegraphed last night my +concurrence in your proceedings +about Gordon: but Chester would +not awake and the message only went +on this morning.</q></note> +The whole cabinet met four days later, Mr. Gladstone among +them, and the decision was approved. There was hardly a +choice, for by that time Gordon was at Brindisi. Gordon, as +Mr. Gladstone said, was a hero of heroes. He was a soldier +of infinite personal courage and daring; of striking military +energy, initiative, and resource; a high, pure, and single +character, dwelling much in the region of the unseen. But +as all who knew him admit, and as his own records testify, +notwithstanding an under-current of shrewd common-sense, +he was the creature, almost the sport, of impulse; his impressions +and purposes changed with the speed of lightning; +anger often mastered him; he went very often by intuitions +and inspirations rather than by cool inference from carefully +surveyed fact: with many variations of mood he mixed, +as we often see in people less famous, an invincible +faith in his own rapid prepossessions while they lasted. +Everybody now discerns that to despatch a soldier of this +temperament on a piece of business that was not only +difficult and dangerous, as Sir E. Baring said, but profoundly +obscure, and needing vigilant sanity and self-control, was +little better than to call in a wizard with his magic. Mr. +Gladstone always professed perplexity in understanding why +the violent end of the gallant Cavagnari in Afghanistan, +<pb n='152'/><anchor id='Pg152'/> +stirred the world so little in comparison with the fate of +Gordon. The answer is that Gordon seized the imagination +of England, and seized it on its higher side. His religion +was eccentric, but it was religion; the Bible was the rock +on which he founded himself, both old dispensation and +new; he was known to hate forms, ceremonies, and all the +<q>solemn plausibilities</q>; his speech was sharp, pithy, rapid, +and ironic; above all, he knew the ways of war and would not +bear the sword for nought. All this was material enough to +make a popular ideal, and this is what Gordon in an ever-increasing +degree became, to the immense inconvenience +of the statesmen, otherwise so sensible and wary, who had +now improvidently let the genie forth from the jar. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +It has been sometimes contended that all the mischief +that followed was caused by the diversion of Gordon from +Suakin, his original destination. If he had gone to the +Red Sea, as originally intended, there to report on the state +and look of things in the Soudan, instead of being waylaid +and brought to Cairo, and thence despatched to Khartoum, +they say, no catastrophe would have happened. This is not +certain, for the dervishes in the eastern Soudan were in the +flush of open revolt, and Gordon might either have been +killed or taken prisoner, or else he would have come back +without performing any part of his mission. In fact, on his +way from London to Port Said, Gordon had suggested that +with a view to carrying out evacuation, the khedive should +make him governor-general of the Soudan. Lord Granville +authorised Baring to procure the nomination, and this Sir +Evelyn did, <q>for the time necessary to accomplish the +evacuation.</q> The instructions were thus changed, in an +important sense, but the change was suggested by Gordon +and sanctioned by Lord Granville.<note place='foot'>Dilke in House of Commons, Feb. +14, 1884. See also Lord Granville to +Sir E. Baring, March 28, 1884. In +recapitulating the instructions given +to General Gordon, Lord Granville +says: <q><emph>His</emph> (Gordon's) <emph>first proposal</emph> +was to proceed to Suakin with the +object of reporting from thence on +the best method of effecting the evacuation +of the Soudan.... His instructions, +<emph>drawn up in accordance +with his own views</emph>, were to report to +her Majesty's government on the military +situation in the Soudan,</q> etc.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='153'/><anchor id='Pg153'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Gordon's Instructions</note> +When Gordon left London his instructions, drafted in fact +by himself, were that he should <q>consider and report upon +the best mode of effecting the evacuation of the interior of +the Soudan.</q> He was also to perform such duties as the +Egyptian government might wish to entrust to him, and +as might be communicated to him by Sir E. Baring.<note place='foot'>For +the full text of these instructions, +see Appendix.</note> +At Cairo, Baring and Nubar, after discussion with Gordon, +altered the mission from one of advice and report to an +executive mission—a change that was doubtless authorised +and covered by the original reference to duties to be +entrusted to him by Egypt. But there was no change in +the policy either at Downing Street or Cairo. Whether +advisory or executive, the only policy charged upon the +mission was abandonment. When the draft of the new +instructions was read to Gordon at Cairo, Sir E. Baring +expressly asked him whether he entirely concurred in <q>the +policy of abandoning the Soudan,</q> and Gordon not only +concurred, but suggested the strengthening words, that he +thought <q>it should on no account be changed.</q><note place='foot'>Baring +to Granville, January 28, +1884.</note> This +despatch, along with the instructions to Gordon making +this vast alteration, was not received in London until +Feb. 7. By this time Gordon was crossing the desert, and +out of reach of the English foreign office. +</p> + +<p> +On his way from Brindisi, Gordon had prepared a memorandum +for Sir E. Baring, in which he set out his opinion +that the Soudan had better be restored to the different petty +sultans in existence before the Egyptian conquest, and an +attempt should be made to form them into some sort of +confederation. These petty rulers might be left to accept the +Mahdi for their sovereign or not, just as they pleased. But +in the same document he emphasised the policy of abandonment. +<q>I understand,</q> he says, <q>that H.M.'s government +have come to the irrevocable decision not to incur the very +onerous duty of granting to the peoples of the Soudan a just +future government.</q> Left to their independence, the sultans +<q>would doubtless fight among themselves.</q> As for future +good government, it was evident that <q>this we could not +<pb n='154'/><anchor id='Pg154'/> +secure them without an inordinate expenditure of men and +money. The Soudan is a useless possession; ever was so, +and ever will be so. No one who has ever lived in the +Soudan, can escape the reflection, What a useless possession +is this land.</q> Therefore—so he winds up—<q>I think H.M.'s +government are fully justified in recommending the evacuation, +inasmuch as the sacrifices necessary towards securing +a good government would be far too onerous to admit of any +such attempt being made. Indeed, one may say it is impracticable +at any cost. <emph>H.M.'s government will now leave them as +God has placed them.</emph></q><note place='foot'>Dated, +<hi rend='italic'>Steamship <q>Tanjore,</q> at Sea, Jan. 22, 1884</hi>.</note> +</p> + +<p> +It was, therefore, and it is, pure sophistry to contend that +Gordon's policy in undertaking his disastrous mission was +evacuation but not abandonment. To say that the Soudanese +should be left in the state in which God had placed them, +to fight it out among themselves, if they were so minded, +is as good a definition of abandonment as can be invented, +and this was the whole spirit of the instructions imposed by +the government of the Queen and accepted by Gordon. +</p> + +<p> +Gordon took with him instruments from the khedive into +which, along with definite and specific statements that +evacuation was the object of his mission, two or three loose +sentences are slipped about <q>establishing organised government +in the different provinces of the Soudan,</q> maintaining +order, and the like. It is true also that the British cabinet +sanctioned the extension of the area of evacuation from +Khartoum to the whole Soudan.<note place='foot'>Granville to Baring, +March 28.</note> Strictly construed, the +whole body of instructions, including firmans and khedive's +proclamations, is not technically compact nor coherent. But +this is only another way of saying that Gordon was to have +the widest discretionary powers as to the manner of carrying +out the policy, and the best time and mode of announcing +it. The policy itself, as well understood by Gordon as by +everybody else, was untouched, and it was: to leave the +Soudanese in the state in which God had placed them. +</p> + +<p> +The hot controversy on this point is idle and without +substance—the idlest controversies are always the hottest—for +<pb n='155'/><anchor id='Pg155'/> +<note place='margin'>Changes Of Policy</note> +not only was Gordon the last man in all the world +to hold himself bound by official instructions, but the +actual conditions of the case were too little known, too +shifting, too unstable, to permit of hard and fast directions +beforehand how to solve so desperate a problem. Two +things at any rate were clear—one, that Gordon should faithfully +adhere to the policy of evacuation and abandonment +which he had formally accepted; the other, that the British +government should leave him a free hand. Unhappily +neither of these two clear things was accepted by either +of the parties. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>V</head> + +<p> +Gordon's policies were many and very mutable. Viewing +the frightful embarrassments that enveloped him, we cannot +wonder. Still the same considerateness that is always +so bounteously and so justly extended to the soldier in the +field, is no less due in its measure to the councillor in the +cabinet. This is a bit of equity often much neglected both +by contemporaries and by history. +</p> + +<p> +He had undertaken his mission without any serious and +measured forecast, such as his comrade, Colonel Stewart, +was well fitted to supply. His first notion was that he could +restore the representatives of the old rulers, but when he got +into the country, he found that there were none; with one +by no means happy exception, they had all disappeared. +When he reached Berber, he learned more clearly how the +question of evacuation was interlaced with other questions. +Once at Khartoum, at first he thought himself welcome as +a deliverer, and then when new light as to the real feelings +of the Soudanese broke upon him, he flung the policy of his +mission overboard. Before the end of February, instead of the +suzerainty of Egypt, the British government should control +Soudanese administration, with Zobeir as their governor-general. +<q>When Gordon left this country,</q> said Mr. Gladstone, +<q>and when he arrived in Egypt, he declared it to be, +and I have not the smallest doubt that it was—a fixed +portion of his policy, that no British force should be +employed in aid of his mission.</q><note place='foot'>Feb. 23, +1885.</note> When March came, he +<pb n='156'/><anchor id='Pg156'/> +flung himself with ardour into the policy of <q>smashing +up</q> the Mahdi, with resort to British and Indian troops. +This was a violent reversal of all that had been either settled +or dreamed of, whether in London or at Cairo. A still more +vehement stride came next. He declared that to leave outlying +garrisons to their fate would be an <q>indelible disgrace.</q> +Yet, as Lord Hartington said, the government <q>were under +no moral obligation to use the military resources of this +empire for the relief of those garrisons.</q> As for Gordon's +opinion that <q>indelible disgrace</q> would attach to the British +government if they were not relieved, <q>I do not admit,</q> +said the minister very sensibly, <q>that General Gordon is on +this point a better authority than anybody else.</q><note place='foot'>May +13, 1884.</note> All this +illustrates the energy of Gordon's mental movements, and +also, what is more important, the distracting difficulties of +the case before him. In one view and one demand he +strenuously persevered, as we shall now see. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone at first, when Gordon set all instructions +at defiance, was for recalling him. A colleague also was +for recalling him on the first instant when he changed his +policy. Another important member of the cabinet was, on +the contrary, for an expedition. <q>I cannot admit,</q> wrote a +fourth leading minister, <q>that either generals or statesmen +who have accepted the offer of a man to lead a forlorn hope, +are in the least bound to risk the lives of thousands for the +uncertain chance of saving the forlorn hope.</q> Some think +that this was stern common sense, others call it ignoble. +The nation, at any rate, was in one of its high idealising +humours, though Gordon had roused some feeling against +himself in this country (unjustly enough) by his decree +formally sanctioning the holding of slaves. +</p> + +<p> +The general had not been many hours in Khartoum +(February 18) before he sent a telegram to Sir E. Baring, +proposing that on his withdrawal from Khartoum, Zobeir +Pasha should be named his successor as governor-general +of the Soudan: he should be made a K.C.M.G., and have +presents given to him. This request was strenuously +pressed by Gordon. Zobeir had been a prime actor in the +<pb n='157'/><anchor id='Pg157'/> +<note place='margin'>Zobeir</note> +devastations of the slave trade; it was he who had acquired +Darfur for Egypt; he was a first-rate fighting man, and +the ablest leader in the Soudan. He is described by the +English officer who knows the Soudan best, as a far-seeing, +thoughtful man of iron will—a born ruler of men.<note place='foot'>Wingate's +<hi rend='italic'>Mahdism</hi>, p. 109.</note> The +Egyptian government had desired to send him down to aid +in the operations at Suakin in 1883, but the government in +London vetoed him, as they were now to veto him a second +time. The Egyptian government was to act on its own +responsibility, but not to do what it thought best. So now +with Gordon. +</p> + +<p> +Gordon in other days had caused Zobeir's son to be shot, +and this was supposed to have set up an unquenchable blood-feud +between them. Before reaching Cairo, he had suggested +that Zobeir should be sent to Cyprus, and there kept out of +the way. This was not done. On Gordon's way through +Cairo, the two men met in what those present describe as +a highly dramatic interview. Zobeir bitterly upbraided +Gordon: <q>You killed my son, whom I entrusted to you. +He was as your son. You brought my wives and women +and children in chains to Khartoum.</q> Still even after that +incident, Gordon declared that he had <q>a mystical feeling</q> +that Zobeir and he were all right.<note place='foot'>Baring +to Granville, Jan. 28.—<q>I +had a good deal of conversation +with General Gordon as to the manner +in which Zobeir Pasha should be +treated. Gen. Gordon entertains a +high opinion of Zobeir Pasha's energy +and ability. He possesses great +influence in the Soudan, and General +Gordon is of opinion that <emph>circumstances +might arise which would render +it desirable that he should be sent +back to the Soudan</emph>.</q></note> What inspired his +reiterated demand for the immediate despatch of Zobeir +is surmised to have been the conviction forced upon him +during his journey to Khartoum, that his first idea of +leaving the various petty sultans to fight it out with the +Mahdi, would not work; that the Mahdi had got so strong +a hold that he could only be met by a man of Zobeir's +political capacity, military skill, and old authority. Sir E. +Baring, after a brief interval of hesitation, now supported +Gordon's request. So did the shrewd and expert Colonel +Stewart. Nubar too favoured the idea. The cabinet could +not at once assent; they were startled by the change of front +<pb n='158'/><anchor id='Pg158'/> +as to total withdrawal from the Soudan—the very object of +Gordon's mission, and accepted by him as such. On February +21 Mr. Gladstone reported to the Queen that the +cabinet were of opinion that there would be the gravest +objection to nominating by an assumption of British +authority a successor to General Gordon in the Soudan, nor +did they as yet see sufficient reasons for going beyond +Gordon's memorandum of January 25, by making special +provision for the government of that country. But at first +it looked as if ministers might yield, if Baring, Gordon, and +Nubar persisted. +</p> + +<p> +As ill-fortune had it, the Zobeir plan leaked out at home by +Gordon's indiscretion before the government decided. The +omnipotent though not omniscient divinity called public +opinion intervened. The very men who had most loudly +clamoured for the extrication of the Egyptian garrisons, who +had pressed with most importunity for the despatch of +Gordon, who had been most urgent for the necessity of +giving him a free hand, now declared that it would be a +national degradation and a European scandal to listen to +Gordon's very first request. He had himself unluckily given +them a capital text, having once said that Zobeir was alone +responsible for the slave trade of the previous ten years. +Gordon's idea was, as he explained, to put Zobeir into +a position like that of the Ameer of Afghanistan, as a buffer +between Egypt and the Mahdi, with a subsidy, moral support, +and all the rest of a buffer arrangement. The idea may +or may not have been a good one; nobody else had a better. +</p> + +<p> +It was not at all surprising that the cabinet should ask +what new reason had come to light why Zobeir should be +trusted; why he should oppose the Mahdi whom at first he +was believed to have supported; why he should turn the +friend of Egypt; why he should be relied upon as the faithful +ally of England. To these and other doubts Gordon had +excellent answers (March 8). Zobeir would run straight, +because it was his interest. If he would be dangerous, was +not the Mahdi dangerous, and whom save Zobeir could you +set up against the Mahdi? You talked of slave-holding +and slave-hunting, but would slave-holding and slave-hunting +<pb n='159'/><anchor id='Pg159'/> +<note place='margin'>Zobeir</note> +stop with your own policy of evacuation? Slave-holding +you cannot interfere with, and as for slave-hunting, that +depended on the equatorial provinces, where Zobeir could +be prevented from going, and besides he would have his +hands full in consolidating his power elsewhere. As for +good faith towards Egypt, Zobeir's stay in Cairo had taught +him our power, and being a great trader, he would rather +seek Egypt's close alliance. Anyhow, said Gordon, <q>if you +do not send Zobeir, you have no chance of getting the +garrisons away.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The matter was considered at two meetings of the cabinet, +but the prime minister was prevented by his physician from +attending.<note place='foot'>(<hi rend='italic'>From his diary.</hi>) +<hi rend='italic'>March 9.</hi>—... At +night recognised the fact of +a cold, and began to deal with it. +10th. Kept my bed all day. 11th. +The cabinet sat, and Granville came +to and fro with the communications, +Clark having prohibited my attendance. +Read <hi rend='italic'>Sybil</hi>. 12th. Bed as +yesterday. 13th. Got to my sitting-room +in the evening. It has, however, +taken longer this time to clear +the chest, and Clark reports the pulse +still too high by ten. Saw Granville. +Conclave, 7-½ to 8-½, on telegram to +Baring for Gordon. I was not allowed +to attend the cabinet.</note> A difference of opinion showed itself upon the +despatch of Zobeir; viewed as an abstract question, three +of the Commons members inclined to favour it, but on the +practical question, the Commons members were unanimous +that no government from either side of the House could +venture to sanction Zobeir. Mr. Gladstone had become a +strong convert to the plan of sending Zobeir. <q>I am better +in chest and generally,</q> he wrote to Lord Granville, <q>but unfortunately +not in throat and voice, and Clark interdicts my +appearance at cabinet; but I am available for any necessary +communication, say with you, or you and Hartington.</q> One +of the ministers went to see him in his bed, and they conversed +for two hours. The minister, on his return, reported +with some ironic amusement that Mr. Gladstone considered +it very likely that they could not bring parliament to swallow +Zobeir, but believed that he himself could. Whether his +confidence in this was right or wrong, he was unable to turn +his cabinet. The Queen telegraphed her agreement with +the prime minister. But this made no difference. <q>On +Saturday 15,</q> Mr. Gladstone notes, <q>it seemed as if by +my casting vote Zobier was to be sent to Gordon. But +<pb n='160'/><anchor id='Pg160'/> +on Sunday —— and —— receded from their ground, +and I gave way. The nature of the evidence on which +judgments are formed in this most strange of all cases, +precludes (in reason) pressing all conclusions, which are but +preferences, to extremes.</q> <q>It is well known,</q> said Mr. Gladstone +in the following year when the curtain had fallen on +the catastrophe, <q>that if, when the recommendation to send +Zobeir was made, we had complied with it, an address from +this House to the crown would have paralysed our action; +and though it was perfectly true that the decision arrived +at was the judgment of the cabinet, it was also no less +the judgment of parliament and the people.</q> So Gordon's +request was refused. +</p> + +<p> +It is true that, as a minister put it at the time, to send +Zobeir would have been a gambler's throw. But then what +was it but a gambler's throw to send Gordon himself? The +Soudanese chieftain might possibly have done all that +Gordon and Stewart, who knew the ground and were watching +the quick fluctuation of events with elastic minds, now +positively declared that he would have the strongest motives +not to do. Even then, could the issue have been worse? +To run all the risks involved in the despatch of Gordon, and +then immediately to refuse the request that he persistently +represented as furnishing him his only chance, was an incoherence +that the parliament and people of England have not +often surpassed.<note place='foot'>The case of the government was +stated with all the force and reason +of which it admitted, in Lord Granville's +despatch of March 28, 1884.</note> All through this critical month, from the +10th until the 30th, Mr. Gladstone was suffering more or less +from indisposition which he found it difficult to throw off. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>VI</head> + +<p> +The chance, whatever it may have been, passed like a +flash. Just as the proposal inflamed many in England, so +it did mischief in Cairo. Zobeir like other people got wind +of it; enemies of England at Cairo set to work with him; Sir +E. Baring might have found him hard to deal with. It was +Gordon's rashness that had made the design public. Gordon, +too, as it happened, had made a dire mistake on his way +up. At Berber he had shown the khedive's secret firman, +<pb n='161'/><anchor id='Pg161'/> +<note place='margin'>Condition Of The Soudan</note> +announcing the intended abandonment of the Soudan. The +news spread; it soon reached the Mahdi himself, and the +Mahdi made politic use of it. He issued a proclamation of +his own, asking all the sheikhs who stood aloof from him or +against him, what they had to gain by supporting a pasha +who was the next day going to give the Soudan up. Gordon's +argument for this unhappy proceeding was that, the object of +his mission being to get out of the country and leave them to +their independence, he could have put no sharper spur into +them to make them organise their own government. But +he spoke of it after as the fatal proclamation, and so it was.<note place='foot'><p>In +the light of this proceeding, +the following is curious: <q>There is +one subject which I cannot imagine +any one differing about. That is the +impolicy of announcing our intention +to evacuate Khartoum. Even if we +were bound to do so we should have +said nothing about it. The moment +it is known we have given up the +game, every man will go over to the +Mahdi. All men worship the rising +sun. The difficulties of evacuation +will be enormously increased, if, indeed, +the withdrawal of our garrison +is not rendered impossible.</q>—Interview +with General Gordon, <hi rend='italic'>Pall Mall +Gazette</hi>, Jan. 8, 1884. +</p> +<p> +... <q>In the afternoon of Feb. 13 +Gordon assembled all the influential +men of the province and showed +them the secret firman. The reading +of this document caused great excitement, +but at the same time its purport +was received evidently with +much gratification. It is worthy of +note that the whole of the notables +present at this meeting subsequently +threw in their cause with the Mahdi.</q>—Henry +William Gordon's <hi rend='italic'>Events in +the Life of Charles George Gordon</hi>, +p. 340.</p></note> +</p> + +<p> +What happened was that the tribes round Khartoum +almost at once began to waver. From the middle of March, +says a good observer, one searches in vain for a single +circumstance hopeful for Gordon. <q>When the eye wanders +over the huge and hostile Soudan, notes the little pin-point +garrisons, each smothered in a cloud of Arab spears, and +remembers that Gordon and Stewart proceeded to rule this +vast empire, already given away to others, one feels that the +Soudanese view was marked by common sense.</q><note place='foot'>Wingate, p. +110.</note> Gordon's +too sanguine prediction that the men who had beaten Hicks, +and the men who afterwards beat Baker, would never fight +beyond their tribal limits, did not come true. Wild forces +gathered round the Mahdi as he advanced northwards. The +tribes that had wavered joined them. Berber fell on May 26. +The pacific mission had failed, and Gordon and his comrade +Stewart—a more careful and clear-sighted man than himself—were +shut up in Khartoum. +</p> + +<pb n='162'/><anchor id='Pg162'/> + +<p> +Distractions grew thicker upon the cabinet, and a just +reader, now far away from the region of votes of censure, will +bear them in mind. The Queen, like many of her subjects, +grew impatient, but Mr. Gladstone was justified in reminding +her of the imperfect knowledge, and he might have +called it blank ignorance, with which the government was +required on the shortest notice to form conclusions on a +remote and more than half-barbarous region. +</p> + +<p> +Gordon had told them that he wanted to take his steam +vessels to Equatoria and serve the king of the Belgians. +This Sir Evelyn Baring refused to allow, not believing +Gordon to be in immediate danger (March 26). From +Gordon himself came a telegram (March 28), <q>I think we +are now safe, and that, as the Nile rises, we shall account +for the rebels.</q> Mr. Gladstone was still unwell and absent. +Through Lord Granville he told the cabinet (March 15) that, +with a view to speedy departure from Khartoum, he would +not even refuse absolutely to send cavalry to Berber, much +as he disliked it, provided the military authorities thought +it could be done, and provided also that it was declared +necessary for Gordon's safety, and was strictly confined to +that object. The cabinet decided against an immediate +expedition, one important member vowing that he would +resign if an expedition were not sent in the autumn, another +vowing that he would resign if it were. On April 7, the question +of an autumn expedition again came up. Six were +favourable, five the other way, including the prime minister. +</p> + +<p> +Almost by the end of March it was too probable that +no road of retreat was any longer open. If they could cut +no way out, either by land or water, what form of relief +was possible? A diversion from Suakin to Berber—one +of Gordon's own suggestions? But the soldiers differed. +Fierce summer heat and little water; an Indian force might +stand it; even they would find it tough. A dash by a +thousand cavalry across two hundred miles of desert—one +hundred of them without water; without communication +with its base, and with the certainty that whatever might +befall, no reinforcements could reach it for months? What +would be your feelings, and your language, asked Lord +<pb n='163'/><anchor id='Pg163'/> +<note place='margin'>Question Of An Expedition</note> +Hartington, if besides having Gordon and Stewart beleaguered +in Khartoum, we also knew that a small force of British +cavalry unable to take the offensive was shut up in the +town of Berber?<note place='foot'>Lord Hartington, House of Commons, +May 13, 1884. An admirable +speech, and the best defence of ministers +up to this date.</note> Then the government wondered whether +a move on Dongola might not be advantageous. Here again +the soldiers thought the torrid climate a fatal objection, and +the benefits doubtful. Could not Gordon, some have asked, +have made his retreat at an early date after reaching +Khartoum, by way of Berber? Answer—the Nile was too +low. All this it was that at a later day, when the time had +come to call his government to its account, justified Mr. +Gladstone in saying that in such enterprises as these in the +Soudan, mistakes and miscarriages were inevitable, for they +were the proper and certain consequences of undertakings +that lie beyond the scope of human means and of rational +and prudent human action, and are a war against nature.<note place='foot'>Address +to the electors of Midlothian, +September 17, 1885.</note> +If anybody now points to the victorious expedition to +Khartoum thirteen years later, as falsifying such language as +this, that experience so far from falsifying entirely justifies. +A war against nature demands years of study, observation, +preparation, and those who are best acquainted with the +conditions at first hand all agree that neither the tribes nor +the river nor the desert were well known enough in 1885, to +guarantee that overthrow in the case of the Mahdi, which +long afterwards destroyed his successor. +</p> + +<p> +On April 14 Sir E. Baring, while as keenly averse as +anybody in the world to an expedition for the relief of +Khartoum if such an expedition could be avoided, still +watching events with a clear and concentrated gaze, assured +the government that it was very likely to be unavoidable; +it would be well therefore, without loss of time, to prepare +for a move as soon as ever the Nile should rise. Six days +before, Lord Wolseley also had written to Lord Hartington +at the war office, recommending immediate and active +preparations for an exclusively British expedition to Khartoum. +Time, he said, is the most important element in this +<pb n='164'/><anchor id='Pg164'/> +question; and in truth it was, for time was flying, and so were +events. The cabinet were reported as feeling that Gordon, +<q>who was despatched on a mission essentially pacific, had +found himself, from whatever cause, unable to prosecute it +effectually, and now proposed the use of military means, +which might fail, and which, even if they should succeed, +might be found to mean a new subjugation of the Soudan—the +very consummation which it was the object of Gordon's +mission to avert.</q> On June 27 it was known in London that +Berber had fallen a month before. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>VII</head> + +<p> +Lord Hartington, as head of the war department, had a +stronger leaning towards the despatch of troops than some +of his colleagues, but, says Mr. Gladstone to Lord Granville +in a letter of 1888, <q>I don't think he ever came to any sharp +issue (like mine about Zobeir); rather that in the main he +got what he wanted.</q> Wherever the fault lay, the issue was +unfortunate. The generals in London fought the battle of +the routes with unabated tenacity for month after month. +One was for the approach to Khartoum by the Nile; another +by Suakin and Berber; a third by the Korosko desert. A +departmental committee reported in favour of the Nile as +the easiest, safest, and cheapest, but they did not report until +July 29. It was not until the beginning of August that +the House of Commons was asked for a vote of credit, and +Lord Hartington authorised General Stephenson at Cairo to +take measures for moving troops southward. In his +despatch of August 8, Lord Hartington still only speaks of +operations for the relief of Gordon, <q>should they become +necessary</q>; he says the government were still unconvinced +that Gordon could not secure the withdrawal of the garrison +from Khartoum; but <q>they are of opinion that the time had +arrived for obtaining accurate information as to his position,</q> +and, <q>if necessary, for rendering him assistance.</q><note place='foot'>See the +official <hi rend='italic'>History of the Soudan Campaign</hi>, by Colonel Colvile, +Part 1. pp. 45-9.</note> As soon as +the decision was taken, preparations were carried out with +rapidity and skill. In the same month Lord Wolseley was +<pb n='165'/><anchor id='Pg165'/> +<note place='margin'>The Expedition Starts</note> +appointed to command the expedition, and on September 9 +he reached Cairo. The difficulties of a military decision had +been great, said Lord Hartington, and there was besides, he +added, a difference of opinion among the military authorities.<note place='foot'>February +27, 1885.</note> +It was October 5 before Lord Wolseley reached Wady-Halfa, +and the Nile campaign began. +</p> + +<p> +Whatever decision military critics may ultimately form +upon the choice of the Nile route, or upon the question +whether the enterprise would have been any more successful +if the route had been by Suakin or Korosko, it is at +least certain that no position, whether strategically false +or no, has ever evoked more splendid qualities in face of +almost preterhuman difficulties, hardship, and labour. The +treacherous and unknown river, for it was then unknown, +with its rapids, its shifting sandbanks and tortuous channels +and rocky barriers and heart-breaking cataracts; the +Bayuda desert, haunted by fierce and stealthy enemies; the +trying climate, the heat, the thirst, all the wearisome +embarrassments of transport on camels emaciated by lack +of food and water—such scenes exacted toil, patience, and +courage as worthy of remark and admiration as if the +advance had successfully achieved its object. Nobody lost +heart. <q>Everything goes on swimmingly,</q> wrote Sir Herbert +Stewart to Lord Wolseley, <q><emph>except as to time</emph>.</q> This was on +January 14, 1885. Five days later, he was mortally wounded. +</p> + +<p> +The end of it all, in spite of the gallantry of Abu Klea and +Kirbekan, of desert column and river column, is only too +well known. Four of Gordon's small steamers coming down +from Khartoum met the British desert column at Gubat on +January 21. The general in command at once determined +to proceed to Khartoum, but delayed his start until the +morning of the 24th. The steamers needed repairs, and Sir +Charles Wilson deemed it necessary for the safety of his troops +to make a reconnaissance down the river towards Berber +before starting up to Khartoum. He took with him on two +of Gordon's steamers—described as of the dimensions of the +penny boats upon the Thames, but bullet proof—a force of +twenty-six British, and two hundred and forty Soudanese. +<pb n='166'/><anchor id='Pg166'/> +He had also in tow a nugger laden with dhura. This was +what, when Khartoum came in sight (Jan. 28) the <q>relief +force</q> actually amounted to. As the two steamers ran +slowly on, a solitary voice from the river-bank now and +again called out to them that Khartoum was taken, and +Gordon slain. Eagerly searching with their glasses, the +officers perceived that the government-house was a wreck, +and that no flag was flying. Gordon, in fact, had met his +death two days before. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone afterwards always spoke of the betrayal of +Khartoum. But Major Kitchener, who prepared the official +report, says that the accusations of treachery were all vague, +and to his mind, the outcome of mere supposition. <q>In my +opinion,</q> he says, <q>Khartoum fell from sudden assault, when +the garrison were too exhausted by privations to make +proper resistance.</q><note place='foot'>Colvile, +<hi rend='smallcaps'>II.</hi>, Appendix 47, p. 274. +Apart from the authority of Kitchener, +Gordon's own language shows +that he knew himself to be <hi rend='italic'>in extremis</hi> +by the end of December.</note> The idea that the relieving force was +only two days late is misleading. A nugger's load of dhura +would not have put an end to the privations of the fourteen +thousand people still in Khartoum; and even supposing that +the handful of troops at Gubat could have effected their +advance upon Khartoum many days earlier, it is hard to +believe that they were strong enough either to drive off the +Mahdi, or to hold him at bay until the river column had +come up. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>VIII</head> + +<p> +The prime minister was on a visit to the Duke of Devonshire +at Holker, where he had many long conversations with +Lord Hartington, and had to deal with heavy post-bags. +On Thursday, Feb. 5, after writing to the Queen and others, +he heard what had happened on the Nile ten days before. +<q>After 11 <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.m.</hi>,</q> he records, +<q>I learned the sad news of the +fall or betrayal of Khartoum. H[artington] and I, with C +[his wife], went off by the first train, and reached Downing +Street soon after 8.15. The circumstances are sad and trying. +It is one of the least points about them that they may put +an end to this government.</q><note place='foot'>The story that he went to the +theatre the same night is untrue.</note> The next day the cabinet met; +<pb n='167'/><anchor id='Pg167'/> +<note place='margin'>Mr. Gladstone's Vindication</note> +discussions <q>difficult but harmonious.</q> The Queen sent to +him and to Lord Hartington at Holker an angry telegram—blaming +her ministers for what had happened—a telegram +not in cipher as usual, but open. Mr. Gladstone addressed +to the Queen in reply (Feb. 5, 1885) a vindication of the +course taken by the cabinet; and it may be left to close an +unedifying and a tragic chapter:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To the Queen.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone has had the honour this day to receive your +Majesty's telegram <hi rend='italic'>en clair</hi>, relating to the deplorable +intelligence received this day from Lord Wolseley, and stating that it is too +fearful to consider that the fall of Khartoum might have been, +prevented and many precious lives saved by earlier action. Mr. +Gladstone does not presume to estimate the means of judgment +possessed by your Majesty, but so far as his information and +recollection at the moment go, he is not altogether able to +follow the conclusion which your Majesty has been pleased +thus to announce. Mr. Gladstone is under the impression that +Lord Wolseley's force might have been sufficiently advanced to +save Khartoum, had not a large portion of it been detached by a +circuitous route along the river, upon the express application of +General Gordon, to occupy Berber on the way to the final destination. +He speaks, however, with submission on a point of this +kind. There is indeed in some quarters a belief that the river +route ought to have been chosen at an earlier period, and had the +navigation of the Nile in its upper region been as well known as +that of the Thames, this might have been a just ground of reproach. +But when, on the first symptoms that the position of General +Gordon in Khartoum was not secure, your Majesty's advisers at +once sought from the most competent persons the best information +they could obtain respecting the Nile route, the balance of testimony +and authority was decidedly against it, and the idea of the +Suakin and Berber route, with all its formidable difficulties, was +entertained in preference; nor was it until a much later period +that the weight of opinion and information warranted the definitive +choice of the Nile route. Your Majesty's ministers were well +aware that climate and distance were far more formidable than the +sword of the enemy, and they deemed it right, while providing +<pb n='168'/><anchor id='Pg168'/> +adequate military means, never to lose from view what might +have proved to be the destruction of the gallant army in the +Soudan. It is probable that abundant wrath and indignation will +on this occasion be poured out upon them. Nor will they complain +if so it should be; but a partial consolation may be found +on reflecting that neither aggressive policy, nor military disaster, +nor any gross error in the application of means to ends, has marked +this series of difficult proceedings, which, indeed, have greatly +redounded to the honour of your Majesty's forces of all ranks +and arms. In these remarks which Mr. Gladstone submits with +his humble devotion, he has taken it for granted that Khartoum +has fallen through the exhaustion of its means of defence. +But your Majesty may observe from the telegram that +this is uncertain. Both the correspondent's account and that +of Major Wortley refer to the delivery of the town by treachery, +a contingency which on some previous occasions General Gordon +has treated as far from improbable; and which, if the notice +existed, was likely to operate quite independently of the particular +time at which a relieving force might arrive. The presence of +the enemy in force would naturally suggest the occasion, or perhaps +even the apprehension of the approach of the British army. +In pointing to these considerations, Mr. Gladstone is far from +assuming that they are conclusive upon the whole case; in dealing +with which the government has hardly ever at any of its stages +been furnished sufficiently with those means of judgment which +rational men usually require. It may be that, on a retrospect, +many errors will appear to have been committed. There are +many reproaches, from the most opposite quarters, to which it +might be difficult to supply a conclusive answer. Among them, and +perhaps among the most difficult, as far as Mr. Gladstone can judge, +would be the reproach of those who might argue that our proper +business was the protection of Egypt, that it never was in military +danger from the Mahdi, and that the most prudent course would +have been to provide it with adequate frontier defences, and to +assume no responsibility for the lands beyond the desert. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +One word more. Writing to one of his former colleagues +long after Mr. Gladstone says:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>Jan. 10, '90.</hi>—In the Gordon case we all, and I rather +prominently, +<pb n='169'/><anchor id='Pg169'/> +must continue to suffer in silence. Gordon was a hero, +and a hero of heroes; but we ought to have known that a hero of +heroes is not the proper person to give effect at a distant point, +and in most difficult circumstances, to the views of ordinary men. +It was unfortunate that he should claim the hero's privilege by +turning upside down and inside out every idea and intention with +which he had left England, and for which he had obtained our +approval. Had my views about Zobeir prevailed, it would not +have removed our difficulties, as Forster would certainly have +moved, and with the tories and the Irish have carried, a condemnatory +address. My own opinion is that it is harder to +justify our doing so much to rescue him, than our not doing more. +Had the party reached Khartoum in time, he would not have +come away (as I suppose), and the dilemma would have arisen in +another form. +</quote> + +<p> +In 1890 an application was made to Mr. Gladstone by +a certain foreign writer who had undertaken an article on +Gordon and his mission. Mr. Gladstone's reply (Jan. 11, '90) +runs to this effect:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I am much obliged by your kind letter and enclosure. I +hope you will not think it belies this expression when I say +that I feel myself precluded from supplying any material or +entering upon any communications for the purpose of self-defence +against the charges which are freely made and I believe widely +accepted against myself and against the cabinet of 1880-5 in connection +with General Gordon. It would be felt in this country, +by friends I think in many cases as well as adversaries, that General +Gordon's much-lamented death ought to secure him, so far as we +are concerned, against the counter-argument which we should have +to present on his language and proceedings. On this account you +will, I hope, excuse me from entering into the matter. I do not +doubt that a true and equitable judgment will eventually +prevail.<note place='foot'> +<hi rend='italic'>Belford's Magazine</hi> (New York), +Sept. 1890. A French translation of +this letter will be found in <hi rend='italic'>L'Égypte +et ses Provinces Perdues</hi>, by the recipient, +Colonel C. Chaillé-Long Bey +(1892), pp. 196-7. He was chief of +the staff to Gordon in the Soudan, +and consular-agent for the United +States at Alexandria. Another book +of his, published in 1884, is <hi rend='italic'>The +Three Prophets; Chinese Gordon, El +Mahdi, and Arabi Pasha</hi>. Burton reviewed +Gordon's Khartoum Journals, +<hi rend='italic'>Academy</hi>, June 11, 1885.</note> +</quote> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='170'/><anchor id='Pg170'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter X. Interior Of The Cabinet. (1895)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +I am aware that the age is not what we all wish, but I am sure that +the only means to check its degeneracy is heartily to concur in +whatever is best in our time.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Burke.</hi> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +The year 1885 must be counted as in some respects the +severest epoch of Mr. Gladstone's life. The previous twelve +months had not ended cheerfully. Sleep, the indispensable +restorer, and usually his constant friend, was playing him +false. The last entry in his diary was this:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +The year closed with a bad night, only one hour and a half of +sleep, which will hardly do to work upon. There is much that I +should like to have recorded.... But the pressure on me is too +great for the requisite recollection. It is indeed a time of <foreign rend='italic'>Sturm +und Drang</foreign>. What with the confusion of affairs, and the disturbance +of my daily life by the altered character of my nights, I +cannot think in calm, but can only trust and pray. +</quote> + +<p> +He was unable to be present at the dinner of the tenants, +and his eldest son in his absence dwelt once more on his +father's wish to retire, whenever occasion should come, from +the public service, or at least from that kind of service to the +public which imposed on him such arduous efforts. +</p> + +<p> +One great element of confusion was the sphinx's riddle of +Egyptian finance. On his birthday, among a dozen occupations, +he says: <q>A little woodcraft for helping sleep; wrote +mem. on Egyptian finance which I hope may help to clear +my brain and nerves.</q> And this was a characteristic way of +seeking a cure; for now and at every time, any task that +demanded close thought and firm expression was his surest +<pb n='171'/><anchor id='Pg171'/> +<note place='margin'>Party Prospects</note> +sedative. More perplexing even than the successive problems +of the hour, was the threatened disorganisation, not only +of his cabinet, but of the party and its future. On January 20 +he was forced to London for two Egyptian cabinets, but he +speedily returned to Hawarden, whence he immediately wrote +a letter to Lord Granville:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>January 22, 1885.</hi>—Here I am after a journey of 5-½ hours from +door to door, through the unsought and ill-deserved kindness of +the London and North-Western railway, which entirely spoils me +by special service. +</p> + +<p> +There was one part of my conversation of to-day with Hartington +which I should like not to leave in any case without record. +He referred to the difficulties he had had, and he <q>gratefully</q> +acknowledged the considerateness of the cabinet. He said the +point always urged upon him was, not to break up the liberal +party. But, he said, can we avoid its breaking up, within a very +short time after you retire, and ought this consideration therefore +to be regarded as of such very great force? I said, my reply is in +two sentences. First, I admit that from various symptoms it is +not improbable there may be a plan or intention to break up the +party. But if a rupture of that kind comes,—this is my second +sentence—it will come upon matters of principle, known and +understood by the whole country, and your duty will probably be +clear and your position unembarrassed. But I entreat you to use +your utmost endeavour to avoid bringing about the rupture on +one of the points of this Egyptian question, which lies outside +the proper business of a government and is beyond its powers, +which does not turn upon clear principles of politics, and about +which the country understands almost nothing, and cares, for the +most part, very little. All this he took without rejoinder. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>P.S.</hi>—We are going to Holker next week, and Hartington said +he would try to come and see me there. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +As we have already seen,<note place='foot'>Above, p. +<ref target='Pg166'>166</ref>.</note> Mr. Gladstone paid his visit to +Holker (January 30), where he found the Duke of Devonshire +<q>wonderfully well, and kind as ever,</q> where he was joined by +Lord Hartington, and where they together spelled out the +<pb n='172'/><anchor id='Pg172'/> +cipher telegram (on February 5) bringing the evil news of +the fall of Khartoum. +</p> + +<p> +It is not uninteresting to see how the notion of Mr. Gladstone's +retirement, now much talked of in his family, affected +a friendly, philosophic, and most observant onlooker. Lord +Acton wrote to him (February 2):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +You mean that the new parliament, the first of our democratic +constitution, shall begin its difficult and perilous course without +the services of a leader who has greater experience and authority +than any other man. You design to withdraw your assistance +when most urgently needed, at the moment of most conservative +apprehension and most popular excitement. By the choice of this +particular moment for retirement you increase the danger of the +critical transition, because nobody stands as you do between the +old order of things and the new, or inspires general confidence; +and the lieutenants of Alexander are not at their best. Next year's +change will appear vast and formidable to the suspicious foreigner, +who will be tempted to doubt our identity. It is in the national +interest to reduce the outer signs of change, to bridge the apparent +chasm, to maintain the traditional character of the state. The +unavoidable elements of weakness will be largely and voluntarily +aggravated by their untimely coincidence with an event which +must, at any time, be a blow to the position of England among the +Powers. Your absence just then must grievously diminish our +credit.... You alone inspire confidence that what is done for +the great masses shall be done with a full sense of economic responsibility.... A +divided liberal party and a weak conservative +party mean the supremacy of the revolutionary Irish.... +</quote> + +<p> +To this Mr. Gladstone replied:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>10 Downing Street, Feb. 11, 1885.</hi> Your argument against +letting the outworn hack go to grass, depends wholly on a certain +proposition, namely this, that there is about to be a crisis in the +history of the constitution, growing out of the extension of the +franchise, and that it is my duty to do what I can in aiding to +steer the ship through the boiling waters of this crisis. My answer +is simple. There is no crisis at all in view. There is a process +of slow modification and development mainly in directions which +<pb n='173'/><anchor id='Pg173'/> +I view with misgiving. <q>Tory democracy,</q> the favourite idea +on that side, is no more like the conservative party in which I was +bred, than it is like liberalism. In fact less. It is demagogism, +only a demagogism not ennobled by love and appreciation of +liberty, but applied in the worst way, to put down the pacific, law-respecting, +economic elements which ennobled the old conservatism, +living upon the fomentation of angry passions, and still in secret +as obstinately attached as ever to the evil principle of class +interests. The liberalism of to-day is better in what I have +described as ennobling the old conservatism; nay, much better, yet +far from being good. Its pet idea is what they call construction,—that +is to say, taking into the hands of the state the business +of the individual man. Both the one and the other have much +to estrange me, and have had for many, many years. But, with all +this, there is no crisis. I have even the hope that while the coming +change may give undue encouragement to <q>construction,</q> it will be +favourable to the economic, pacific, law-regarding elements; and +the sense of justice which abides tenaciously in the masses will +never knowingly join hands with the fiend of Jingoism. On the +whole, I do not abandon the hope that it may mitigate the chronic +distemper, and have not the smallest fear of its bringing about an +acute or convulsive action. You leave me therefore rooted in my +evil mind.... +</quote> + +<p> +The activity of the left wing, acute, perhaps, but not convulsive, +became much more embarrassing than the desire +of the right wing to be inactive. Mr. Chamberlain had been +rapidly advancing in public prominence, and he now showed +that the agitation against the House of Lords was to be only +the beginning and not the end. At Ipswich (January 14), +he said this country had been called the paradise of the rich, +and warned his audience no longer to allow it to remain +the purgatory of the poor. He told them that reform +of local government must be almost the first reform of the +next parliament, and spoke in favour of allotments, the +creation of small proprietors, the placing of a small tax on +the total property of the taxpayer, and of free education. +Mr. Gladstone's attention was drawn from Windsor to these +utterances, and he replied (January 22) that though he +<pb n='174'/><anchor id='Pg174'/> +thought some of them were <q>on various grounds open to +grave objection,</q> yet they seemed to raise no <q>definite point +on which, in his capacity of prime minister, he was entitled +to interfere and lecture the speaker.</q> A few days later, +more terrible things were said by Mr. Chamberlain at +Birmingham. He pronounced for the abolition of plural +voting, and in favour of payment of members, and manhood +suffrage. He also advocated a bill for enabling local +communities to acquire land, a graduated income-tax, and +the breaking up of the great estates as the first step in land +reform. This deliverance was described by not unfriendly +critics as <q>a little too much the speech of the agitator of the +future, rather than of the minister of the present.</q> Mr. +Gladstone made a lenient communication to the orator, to the +effect that <q>there had better be some explanations among +them when they met.</q> To Lord Granville he wrote (January +31):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Upon the whole, weak-kneed liberals have caused us more +trouble in the present parliament than radicals. But I think +these declarations by Chamberlain upon matters which cannot, +humanly speaking, become practical before the next parliament, +can hardly be construed otherwise than as having a remote and +(in that sense) far-sighted purpose which is ominous enough. +The opposition can hardly fail in their opportunity, I must add +in their duty, to make them matter of attack. Such things will +happen casually from time to time, and always with inconvenience—but +there is here a degree of method and system which seem to +give the matter a new character. +</quote> + +<p> +It will be seen from his tone that Mr. Gladstone, in all the +embarrassments arising from this source, showed complete +freedom from personal irritation. Like the lofty-minded man +he was, he imputed no low motives to a colleague because +the colleague gave him trouble. He recognised by now +that in his cabinet the battle was being fought between old +time and new. He did not allow his dislike of some of the +new methods of forming public opinion, to prevent him from +doing full justice to the energetic and sincere public spirit +behind them. He had, moreover, quite enough to do with +<pb n='175'/><anchor id='Pg175'/> +<note place='margin'>The Left Wing</note> +the demands of the present, apart from signs that were +ominous for the future. A year before, in a letter to Lord +Granville (March 24, 1884), he had attempted a definition that +will, perhaps, be of general interest to politicians of either +party complexion. It is, at any rate, characteristic of his +subtlety, if that be the right word, in drawing distinctions:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +What are divisions in a cabinet? In my opinion, differences +of views stated, and if need be argued, and then advisedly +surrendered with a view to a common conclusion are not <q>divisions +in a cabinet.</q> By that phrase I understand unaccommodated +differences on matters standing for immediate action. +</quote> + +<p> +It was unaccommodated differences of this kind that cost +Mr. Disraeli secessions on the Reform bill, and secessions no +less serious on his eastern policy, and it is one of the wonders +of his history that Mr. Gladstone prevented secession on +the matters now standing for immediate action before his +own cabinet. During the four months between the meeting +of parliament and the fall of the government, the two great +difficulties of the government—Egypt and Ireland—reached +their climax. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +The news of the fall of Khartoum reached England on +February 5. One of the least points, as Mr. Gladstone wrote +on the day, was that the grievous news would put an end +to the government, and so it very nearly did. As was to +be expected, Sir Stafford Northcote moved a vote of censure. +Mr. Gladstone informed the Queen, on the day before the +division, that the aspect of the House was <q>dubious and +equivocal.</q> If there was a chance of overthrowing the +ministry, he said, the nationalists were pretty sure to act +and vote as a body with Sir Stafford. Mr. Forster, Mr. +Goschen, and some members of the whig section of the +liberal party, were likely either to do the same, or else to +abstain. These circumstances looked towards an unfavourable +issue, if not in the shape of an adverse majority, yet +in the form of a majority too small to enable the government +<pb n='176'/><anchor id='Pg176'/> +to carry on with adequate authority and efficiency. +In the debate, said Mr. Gladstone, Lord Hartington re-stated +with measured force the position of the government, and +overthrew the contention that had taken a very forward +place in the indictment against ministers, that their great +offence was the failure to send forward General Graham's +force to relieve General Gordon. In the course of this +debate Mr. Goschen warned the government that if they +flinched from the policy of smashing the Mahdi at Khartoum, +he should vote against them. A radical below the gangway +upon this went to the party whip and declared, with equal +resolution, that if the government insisted on the policy, +then it would be for him and others to vote against them. +Sir William Harcourt, in a speech of great power, satisfied +the gentlemen below the gangway, and only a small handful +of the party went into the lobby with the opposition and +the Irish. The division was taken at four in the morning +(February 28), and the result was that the government which +had come in with morning radiance five years ago, was worn +down to an attenuated majority of fourteen.<note place='foot'>For +the censure, 288; against, 302.</note> +</p> + +<p> +When the numbers were declared, Mr. Gladstone said +to a colleague on the bench, <q><emph>That will do.</emph></q> Whether this +delphic utterance meant that the size of the majority +would justify resignation or retention, the colleague was +not sure. When the cabinet met at a more mellowed +hour in the day, the question between going out of office +and staying in, was fully discussed. Mere considerations +of ease all pointed one way, for, if they held on, they +would seem to be dependent on tory support; trouble +was brewing with Russia, and the Seats bill would not be +through in a hurry. On the other hand, fourteen was +majority enough to swear by, the party would be surprised +by resignation and discouraged, and retirement would +wear the look of a false position. In fact Mr. Gladstone, +in spite of his incessant sighs for a hermit's calm, was +always for fighting out every position to the last trench. +I can think of no exception, and even when the time came +ten years later, he thought his successors pusillanimous for +<pb n='177'/><anchor id='Pg177'/> +<note place='margin'>Narrow Escape In Parliament</note> +retiring on a small scratch defeat on cordite.<note place='foot'>I +often tried to persuade him that +our retreat was to be explained apart +from pusillanimity, but he would not +listen.</note> So now +he acted on the principle that with courage cabinets may +weather almost any storm. No actual vote was taken, but +the numbers for and against retirement were equal, until +Mr. Gladstone spoke. He thought that they should try +to go on, at least until the Seats bill was through. This was +the final decision. +</p> + +<p> +All this brought once more into his mind the general +consideration that now naturally much haunted him. He +wrote to the Queen (February 27):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Mr. Gladstone believes that circumstances independent of his +own will enable him to estimate, with some impartiality, future +political changes, and he is certainly under the impression that, +partly from the present composition and temper of the liberal +party, and still more, and even much more, from the changes +which the conservative party has been undergoing during the +last forty years (especially the last ten or fifteen of them), the +next change of government may possibly form the introduction to +a period presenting some new features, and may mean more than +what is usually implied in the transfer of power from one party +to another. +</quote> + +<p> +Mr. Bright has left a note of a meeting with him at this +time:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>March 2, 1885.</hi>—Dined with Mrs. Gladstone. After dinner, +sat for half an hour or more with Mr. Gladstone, who is ill with +cold and hoarseness. Long talk on Egypt. He said he had +suffered torment during the continuance of the difficulty in that +country. The sending Gordon out a great mistake,—a man +totally unsuited for the work he undertook. Mr. Gladstone never +saw Gordon. He was appointed by ministers in town, and +Gladstone concurred, but had never seen him. +</quote> + +<p> +At this moment clouds began to darken the remote +horizon on the north-west boundary of our great Indian +possessions. The entanglement in the deserts of the Soudan +was an obvious temptation to any other Power with policies +of its own, to disregard the susceptibilities or even the solid +<pb n='178'/><anchor id='Pg178'/> +interests of Great Britain. As we shall see, Mr. Gladstone +was as little disposed as Chatham or Palmerston to shrink +from the defence of the legitimate rights or obligations of +his country. But the action of Russia in Afghanistan became +an added and rather poignant anxiety. +</p> + +<p> +As early as March 12 the cabinet found it necessary to +consider the menacing look of things on the Afghan frontier. +Military necessities in India, as Mr. Gladstone described to +the Queen what was in the mind of her ministers, <q>might +conceivably at this juncture come to overrule the present +intentions as to the Soudan as part of them, and it would +consequently be imprudent to do anything which could +practically extend our obligations in that quarter; as it is the +entanglement of the British forces in Soudanese operations, +which would most powerfully tempt Russia to adopt aggressive +measures.</q> Three or four weeks later these considerations +came to a head. The question put by Mr. Gladstone to his +colleagues was this: <q>Apart from the defence of Egypt, +which no one would propose to abandon, does there appear +to be any obligation of honour or any inducement of policy +(for myself I should add, is there any moral warrant?) that +should lead us in the present state of the demands on the +empire, to waste a large portion of our army in fighting +against nature, and I fear also fighting against liberty (such +liberty as the case admits) in the Soudan?</q> The assumptions +on which the policy had been founded had all broken +down. Osman Digna, instead of being readily crushed, had +betaken himself to the mountains and could not be got at. +The railway from Suakin to Berber, instead of serving +the advance on Khartoum in the autumn, could not possibly +be ready in time. Berber, instead of being taken before +the hot season, could not be touched. Lord Wolseley, +instead of being able to proceed with his present forces +or a moderate addition, was already asking for twelve +more battalions of infantry, with a proportion of other +arms. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone's own view of this crisis is to be found in +a memorandum dated April 9, circulated to the cabinet three +or four days before the question came up for final settlement. +<pb n='179'/><anchor id='Pg179'/> +<note place='margin'>Change Of Soudan Policy</note> +It is long, but then the case was intricate and the +stages various. The reader may at least be satisfied to know +that he will have little more of it.<note place='foot'>See Appendix.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Three cabinets were held on three successive days (April +13-15). On the evening of the first day Mr. Gladstone sent +a telegram to the Queen, then abroad, informing her that +in the existing state of foreign affairs, her ministers felt +bound to examine the question of the abandonment of +offensive operations in the Soudan and the evacuation of +the territory. The Queen, in reply, was rather vehement +against withdrawal, partly on the ground that it would +seriously affect our position in India. The Queen had +throughout made a great point that the fullest powers +should be granted to those on the spot, both Wolseley and +Baring having been selected by the government for the +offices they held. No question cuts deeper in the art of +administering a vast system like that of Great Britain, than +the influence of the agent at a distant place; nowhere is the +balance of peril between too slack a rein from home and +a rein too tight, more delicate. Mr. Gladstone, perhaps +taught by the experience of the Crimean war, always +strongly inclined to the school of the tight rein, though +I never heard of any representative abroad with a right +to complain of insufficient support from a Gladstone +cabinet.<note place='foot'>For instance when Mr. Gladstone +fell from office in 1874, Lord Odo +Russell wrote to him, <q>how sorry +I feel at your retirement, and how +grateful I am to you for the great +advantage and encouragement I have +enjoyed while serving under your +great administration, in Rome and +Berlin.</q></note> On this aspect of matters, so raised by the Queen, +Mr. Gladstone had (March 15) expressed his view to Sir +Henry Ponsonby:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Sir Evelyn Baring was appointed to carry onwards a declared +and understood policy in Egypt, when all share in the management +of the Soudan was beyond our province. To Lord +Wolseley as general of the forces in Egypt, and on account +of the arduous character of the work before him, we are bound +to render in all military matters a firm and ungrudging support. +We have accordingly not scrupled to counsel, on his recommendation, +very heavy charges on the country, and military +<pb n='180'/><anchor id='Pg180'/> +operations of the highest importance. But we have no right to +cast on him any responsibility beyond what is strictly military. +It is not surely possible that he should decide policy, and that +we should adopt and answer for it, even where it is in conflict +with the announcements we have made in parliament. +</quote> + +<p> +By the time of these critical cabinets in April Sir Evelyn +Baring had spontaneously expressed his views, and with a +full discussion recommended abandonment of the expedition +to Khartoum. +</p> + +<p> +On the second day the matter was again probed and sifted +and weighed. +</p> + +<p> +At the third cabinet the decision was taken to retire +from the Soudan, and to fix the southern frontier of Egypt +at the line where it was left for twelve years, until apprehension +of designs of another European power on the +upper waters of the Nile was held to demand a new policy. +Meanwhile, the policy of Mr. Gladstone's cabinet was adopted +and followed by Lord Salisbury when he came into office. +He was sometimes pressed to reverse it, and to overthrow the +dervish power at Khartoum. To any importunity of this +kind, Lord Salisbury's answer was until 1896 unwavering.<note place='foot'><q>We +do not depart in any degree +from the policy of leaving the Soudan. +As to the civilisation which the noble +and gallant earl [Lord Dundonald] +would impose upon us the duty of +restoring, it could only be carried +out by a large and costly expedition, +entailing enormous sacrifice of blood +and treasure, and for the present a +continuous expenditure, which I do +not think the people of this country +would sanction.... The defence +of our retention of Suakin is that +it is a very serious obstacle to the +renewal and the conduct of that +slave trade which is always trying +to pass over from Africa into Asia. +I do not think that the retention +of Suakin is of any advantage to +the Egyptian government. If I +were to speak purely from the +point of view of that government's +own interest, I should say, <q>Abandon +Suakin at once.</q></q>—Lord Salisbury, +in the House of Lords, March 16, 1888.</note> +</p> + +<p> +It may be worth noting that, in the course of his correspondence +with the Queen on the change of policy in the +Soudan, Mr. Gladstone casually indulged in the luxury of a +historical parallel. <q>He must assure your Majesty,</q> he +wrote in a closing sentence (April 20), <q>that at least he has +never in any cabinet known any question more laboriously +or more conscientiously discussed; and he is confident that +the basis of action has not been the mere change in the +public view (which, however, is in some cases imperative, as +<pb n='181'/><anchor id='Pg181'/> +it was with King George <hi rend='smallcaps'>iii.</hi> in the case of the American +war), but a deep conviction of what the honour and interest +of the empire require them as faithful servants of your +Majesty to advise.</q> +<note place='margin'>A Historical Parallel</note> +The most harmless parallel is apt to +be a challenge to discussion, and the parenthesis seems to +have provoked some rejoinder from the Queen, for on April +28 Mr. Gladstone wrote to her secretary a letter which takes +him away from Khartoum to a famous piece of the world's +history:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Sir Henry Ponsonby.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +In further prosecution of my reply to your letter of the 25th, +I advert to your remarks upon Lord North. I made no reference +to his conduct, I believe, in writing to her Majesty. What I +endeavoured to show was that King George <hi rend='smallcaps'>iii.</hi>, without changing +his opinion of the justice of his war against the colonies, was +obliged to give it up on account of a change of public opinion, +and was not open to blame for so doing. +</p> + +<p> +You state to me that Lord North never flinched from his task +till it became hopeless, that he then resigned office, but did not +change his opinions to suit the popular cry. The implied contrast +to be drawn with the present is obvious. I admit none of your +three propositions. Lord North did not, as I read history, require +to change his opinions to suit the popular cry. They were already +in accordance with the popular cry; and it is a serious reproach +against him that without sharing his master's belief in the propriety +of the war, he long persisted in carrying it on, through +subserviency to that master. +</p> + +<p> +Lord North did not resign office for any reason but because +he could not help it, being driven from it by some adverse votes +of the House of Commons, to which he submitted with great +good humour, and probably with satisfaction. +</p> + +<p> +Lord North did not, so far as I know, state the cause to be +hopeless. Nor did those who were opposed to him. The movers +of the resolution that drove him out of office did not proceed +upon that ground. General Conway in his speech advised the +retention of the ground we held in the colonies, and the resolution, +which expressed the sense of the House as a body, bears a +singular resemblance to the announcement we have lately made, +<pb n='182'/><anchor id='Pg182'/> +as it declares, in its first clause, that the further prosecution of +offensive war (on the continent of America) <q>will be the means +of weakening the efforts of this country against her European +enemies,</q> February 27, 1782. This was followed, on March 4, by +an address on the same basis; and by a resolution declaring that +any ministers who should advise or attempt to frustrate it should +be considered <q>as enemies to his Majesty and to this country.</q> +I ought, perhaps, to add that I have never stated, and I do not +conceive, that a change in the public opinion of the country is +the ground on which the cabinet have founded the change in their +advice concerning the Soudan. +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +The reader has by this time perhaps forgotten how +Mr. Gladstone good-humouredly remonstrated with Lord +Palmerston for associating him as one of the same school +as Cobden and Bright.<note place='foot'>Above, vol. ii. p. +49.</note> The twenty intervening years had +brought him more and more into sympathy with those two +eminent comrades in good causes, but he was not any less +alive to the inconvenience of the label. Speaking in Midlothian +after the dissolution in 1880, he denied the cant +allegation that to instal the liberals in power would be to +hand over the destinies of the country to the Manchester +school.<note place='foot'>Edinburgh, March 17, 1880.</note> +<q>Abhorring all selfishness of policy,</q> he said, +<q>friendly to freedom in every country of the earth attached, +to the modes of reason, detesting the ways of force, this +Manchester school, this peace-party, has sprung prematurely +to the conclusion that wars may be considered as +having closed their melancholy and miserable history, and +that the affairs of the world may henceforth be conducted +by methods more adapted to the dignity of man, more +suited both to his strength and to his weakness, less likely +to lead him out of the ways of duty, to stimulate his evil +passions, to make him guilty before God for inflicting misery +on his fellow-creatures.</q> Such a view, he said, was a serious +error, though it was not only a respectable, it was even a +noble error. Then he went on, <q>However much you may +detest war—and you cannot detest it too much—there is +<pb n='183'/><anchor id='Pg183'/> +no war—except one, the war for liberty—that does not +contain in it elements of corruption, as well as of misery, +that are deplorable to recollect and to consider; but however +deplorable wars may be, they are among the necessities of +our condition; and there are times when justice, when faith, +when the welfare of mankind, require a man not to shrink +from the responsibility of undertaking them. And if you +undertake war, so also you are often obliged to undertake +measures that may lead to war.</q><note place='foot'>In the letter to Mr. Bright +(July 14, 1882) already given, Mr. +Gladstone went somewhat nearer to +the Manchester school, and expressed +his agreement with Bright in believing +most wars to have been sad +errors.</note> +</p> + +<p> +It is also, if not one of the necessities, at least one of +the natural probabilities of our imperfect condition, that +when a nation has its forces engaged in war, that is +the moment when other nations may press inconvenient +questions of their own. Accordingly, as I have already +mentioned, when Egyptian distractions were at their +height, a dangerous controversy arose with Russia in +regard to the frontier of Afghanistan. The question had +been first raised a dozen years before without effect, but +it was now sharpened into actuality by recent advances of +Russia in Central Asia, bringing her into close proximity +to the territory of the Ameer. The British and Russian +governments appointed a commission to lay down the precise +line of division between the Turcoman territory recently +annexed by Russia and Afghanistan. The question of instructions +to the commission led to infinite discussion, of +which no sane man not a biographer is now likely to read +one word. While the diplomatists were thus teasing one +another, Russian posts and Afghan pickets came closer +together, and one day (March 30, 1885) the Russians broke +in upon the Afghans at Penjdeh. The Afghans fought gallantly, +their losses were heavy, and Penjdeh was occupied +by the Russians. <q>Whose was the provocation,</q> as Mr. +Gladstone said later, <q>is a matter of the utmost consequence. +We only know that the attack was a Russian +attack. We know that the Afghans suffered in life, in +spirit, and in repute. We know that a blow was struck at +<pb n='184'/><anchor id='Pg184'/> +the credit and the authority of a sovereign—our protected +ally—who had committed no offence. All I say is, we +cannot in that state of things close this book and say, <q>We +will look into it no more.</q> We must do our best to have +right done in the matter.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Here those who were most adverse to the Soudan policy +stood firmly with their leader, and when Mr. Gladstone +proposed a vote of credit for eleven millions, of which six +and a half were demanded to meet <q>the case for preparation,</q> +raised by the collision at Penjdeh, he was supported +with much more than a mechanical loyalty, alike by the +regular opposition and by independent adherents below his +own gangway. The speech in which he moved this vote +of a war supply (April 27) was an admirable example both +of sustained force and lucidity in exposition, and of a combined +firmness, dignity, reserve, and right human feeling, +worthy of a great minister dealing with an international +situation of extreme delicacy and peril. Many anxious +moments followed; for the scene of quarrel was far off, +details were hard to clear up, diplomacy was sometimes +ambiguous, popular excitement was heated, and the language +of faction was unmeasured in its violence. The +preliminary resolution on the vote of credit had been received +with acclamation, but a hostile motion was made +from the front opposition bench (May 11), though discord +on a high imperial matter was obviously inconvenient +enough for the public interest. The mover declared the +government to have murdered so many thousand men and +to have arranged a sham arbitration, and this was the prelude +to other speeches in the same key. Sir S. Northcote +supported the motion—one to displace the ministers on a +bill that it was the declared intention not to oppose. The +division was taken at half-past two in the morning, after +a vigorous speech from the prime minister, and the government +only counted 290 against 260. In the minority were +42 followers of Mr. Parnell. This premature debate cleared +the air. Worked with patience and with vigorous preparations +at the back of conciliatory negotiation, the question was +prosecuted to a happy issue, and those who had done their +<pb n='185'/><anchor id='Pg185'/> +<note place='margin'>The Vote Of Credit</note> +best to denounce Mr. Gladstone and Lord Granville for +trampling the interests and honour of their country underfoot +thought themselves very lucky, when the time came +for them to take up the threads, in being able to complete +the business by adopting and continuing the selfsame line. +With justifiable triumph Mr. Gladstone asked how they +would have confronted Russia if <q>that insane policy—for so +I still must call it</q>—of Afghan occupation which he had +brought to an end in 1880, had been persevered in. In +such a case, when Russia came to advance her claim so to +adjust boundaries as to make her immediate neighbour +to Afghanistan, she would have found the country full +of friends and allies, ready to join her in opposing the +foreigner and the invader; and she would have been recognised +as the liberator.<note place='foot'>West Calder, November 17, 1885.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +In some respects Mr. Gladstone was never more wonderful +than in the few weeks that preceded the fall of his second +administration. Between the middle of April and the +middle of May, he jots down with half-rueful humour the +names of no fewer than nine members of the cabinet who +within that period, for one reason or another and at one +moment or another, appeared to contemplate resignation; +that is to say a majority. Of one meeting he said playfully +to a colleague, <q>A very fair cabinet to-day—only three resignations.</q> +The large packets of copious letters of this +date, written and received, show him a minister of unalterable +patience, unruffled self-command; inexhaustible in +resource, catching at every straw from the resource of +others, indefatigable in bringing men of divergent opinions +within friendly reach of one another; of tireless ingenuity +in minimising differences and convincing recalcitrants that +what they took for a yawning gulf was in fact no more +than a narrow trench that any decent political gymnast +ought to be ashamed not to be able to vault over. Though +he takes it all as being in the day's work, in the confidence +of the old jingle, that be the day short or never so long, +<pb n='186'/><anchor id='Pg186'/> +at length it ringeth to evensong, he does not conceal the +burden. To Mrs. Gladstone he writes from Downing Street +on May-day:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Rather oppressed and tired with the magnitude and the complication +of subjects on my mind, I did not think of writing by +the first post, but I will now supply the omission by making use +of the second. As to all the later history of this ministry, which +is now entering on its sixth year, it has been a wild romance of +politics, with a continual succession of hairbreadth escapes and +strange accidents pressing upon one another, and it is only from +the number of dangers we have passed through already, that one +can be bold enough to hope we may pass also through what yet +remain. Some time ago I told you that dark as the sky was with +many a thunder-cloud, there were the possibilities of an admirable +situation and result, and <emph>for me</emph> a wind-up better than at any time +I could have hoped. Russia and Ireland are the two <emph>great</emph> dangers +remaining. The <q>ray</q> I mentioned yesterday for the first is by +no means extinct to-day, but there is nothing new of a serious +character; what there is, is good. So also upon the Irish complications +there is more hope than there was yesterday, although +the odds may still be heavily against our getting forward unitedly +in a satisfactory manner. +</quote> + +<p> +On May 2, as he was looking at the pictures in the +Academy, Lord Granville brought him tidings of the +Russian answer, which meant peace. His short entries tell +a brave story:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>May 3, Sunday.</hi>—Dined at Marlborough House. They were +most kind and pleasant. But it is so unsundaylike and unrestful. I am much fatigued +in mind and body. Yet very happy. <hi rend='italic'>May 4.</hi>—Wrote +to Lord Spencer, Mr. Chamberlain, Sir C. Dilke, Lord +Granville. Conclave. H. of C., 4-¾-8-½ and 9-½-2-½. Spoke on +Russian question. A heavy day. Much knocked up. <hi rend='italic'>May +5.</hi>—... Another +anxious, very anxious day, and no clearing of the sky +as yet. But after all that has come, what may not come? <hi rend='italic'>May 14, +Ascension Day.</hi>—Most of the day was spent in anxious interviews, +and endeavours to bring and keep the members of the cabinet +together. <hi rend='italic'>May 15.</hi>—Cabinet 2-4-½. Again stiff. But I must not +lose heart. +</quote> + +<pb n='187'/><anchor id='Pg187'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>State Of Ireland</note> +Difference of opinion upon the budget at one time wore +a threatening look, for the radicals disliked the proposed +increase of the duty on beer; but Mr. Gladstone pointed out +in compensation that on the other hand the equalisation of +the death duties struck at the very height of class preference. +Mr. Childers was, as always, willing to accommodate +difficulties; and in the cabinet the rising storm blew +over. Ireland never blows over. +</p> + +<p> +The struggle had gone on for three years. Many murderers +had been hanged, though more remained undetected; +conspirators had fled; confidence was restored to public +officers; society in all its various grades returned externally +to the paths of comparative order; and the dire emergency +of three years before had been brought to an apparent close. +The gratitude in this country to the viceroy who had +achieved this seeming triumph over the forces of disorder +was such as is felt to a military commander after a hazardous +and successful campaign. The country was once more +half-conquered, but nothing was advanced, and the other +half of the conquest was not any nearer. The scene was not +hopeful. There lay Ireland,—squalid, dismal, sullen, dull, +expectant, sunk deep in hostile intent. A minority with +these misgivings and more felt that the minister's pregnant +phrase about the government <q>having no moral force behind +them</q> too exactly described a fatal truth. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='188'/><anchor id='Pg188'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter XI. Defeat Of Ministers. (May-June 1885)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l>Οὔπω</l> +<l>τὰν Διὸς ἁρμονίαν</l> +<l>θνατῶν παρεξίασι βουλαί.</l> +</lg> + +<p> +—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Æsch.</hi> +<hi rend='italic'>Prom.</hi> <hi rend='smallcaps'>v. 548</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Never do counsels of mortal men thwart the ordered purpose +of Zeus. +</p> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +What was to be the Irish policy? The Crimes Act would +expire in August, and the state of parties in parliament and +of sections within the cabinet, together with the approach +of the general election, made the question whether that Act +should be renewed, and if so on what terms, an issue of +crucial importance. There were good grounds for suspecting +that tories were even then intimating to the Irish that if +Lord Salisbury should come into office, they would drop +coercion, just as the liberals had dropped it when they +came into office in 1880, and like them would rely upon +the ordinary law. On May 15 Mr. Gladstone announced in +terms necessarily vague, because the new bill was not settled, +that they proposed to continue what he described as certain +clauses of a valuable and equitable description in the existing +Coercion Act. +</p> + +<p> +No parliamentary situation could be more tempting to an +astute opposition. The signs that the cabinet was not united +were unmistakable. The leader of the little group of four +clever men below the gangway on the tory side gave signs +that he espied an opportunity. This was one of the occasions +that disclosed the intrepidity of Lord Randolph Churchill. +He made a speech after Mr. Gladstone's announcement of a +<pb n='189'/><anchor id='Pg189'/> +<note place='margin'>Lord Randolph Churchill And The Irishmen</note> +renewal of portions of the Crimes Act, not in his place but +at a tory club. He declared himself profoundly shocked +that so grave an announcement should have been taken as a +matter of course. It was really a terrible piece of news. +Ireland must be in an awful state, or else the radical members +of the cabinet would never have assented to such +unanswerable evidence that the liberal party could not +govern Ireland without resort to that arbitrary force which +their greatest orators had so often declared to be no remedy. +It did not much matter whether the demand was for large +powers or for small. Why not put some kind thoughts +towards England in Irish minds, by using the last days of +this unlucky parliament to abrogate all that harsh legislation +which is so odious to England, and which undoubtedly +abridges the freedom and insults the dignity of a sensitive +and imaginative race? The tory party should be careful +beyond measure not to be committed to any act or policy +which should unnecessarily wound or injure the feelings of +our brothers on the other side of the channel of St. George.<note place='foot'>May +20, 1885.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The key to an operation that should at once, with the aid +of the disaffected liberals and the Irish, turn out Mr. Gladstone +and secure the English elections, was an understanding +with Mr. Parnell. The price of such an understanding was +to drop coercion, and that price the tory leaders resolved to +pay. The manœuvre was delicate. If too plainly disclosed, +it might outrage some of the tory rank and file who would +loathe an Irish alliance, and it was likely, moreover, to deter +some of the disaffected liberals from joining in any motion +for Mr. Gladstone's overthrow. Lord Salisbury and his +friends considered the subject with <q>immense deliberation +some weeks before the fall of the government.</q> They came +to the conclusion that in the absence of official information, +they could see nothing to warrant a government in applying +for a renewal of exceptional powers. That conclusion they +profess to have kept sacredly in their own bosoms. Why +they should give immense deliberation to a decision that in +their view must be worthless without official information, +and that was to remain for an indefinite time in mysterious +<pb n='190'/><anchor id='Pg190'/> +darkness, was never explained when this secret decision some +months later was revealed to the public.<note place='foot'>The story was told by Lord R. +Churchill in a speech at Sheffield, +Sept 4, 1885.</note> If there was no +intention of making the decision known to the Irishmen, +the purpose of so unusual a proceeding would be inscrutable. +Was it made known to them? Mr. McCarthy, at the time +acting for his leader, has described circumstantially how +the Irish were endeavouring to obtain a pledge against +coercion; how two members of the tory party, one of them +its recognised whip, came to him in succession declaring +that they came straight from Lord Salisbury with certain +propositions; how he found the assurance unsatisfactory, +and asked each of these gentlemen in turn on different +nights to go back to Lord Salisbury, and put further questions +to him; and how each of them professed to have gone +back to Lord Salisbury, to have conferred with him, and to +have brought back his personal assurance.<note place='foot'>Mr. McCarthy's speech at Hull, +Dec. 15, 1887.</note> On the other +hand, it has been uniformly denied by the tory leaders that +there was ever any compact whatever with the Irishmen at +this moment. We are not called upon here to decide in a +conflict of testimony which turns, after all, upon words so +notoriously slippery as pledge, compact, or understanding. +It is enough to mark what is not denied, that Lord Salisbury +and his confidential friends had resolved, subject to official +information, to drop coercion, and that the only visible +reason why they should form the resolution at that particular +moment was its probable effect upon Mr. Parnell. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +Let us now return to the ministerial camp. There the +whig wing of the cabinet, adhering to Lord Spencer, were +for a modified renewal of the Coercion Act, with the balm +of a land purchase bill and a limited extension of self-government +in local areas. The radical wing were averse +to coercion, and averse to a purchase bill, but they were +willing to yield a milder form of coercion, on condition that +the cabinet would agree not merely to small measures of +self-government in local areas, but to the erection of a +<pb n='191'/><anchor id='Pg191'/> +<note place='margin'>In The Ministerial Camp</note> +central board clothed with important administrative functions +for the whole of Ireland. In the House of Commons +it was certain that a fairly strong radical contingent would +resist coercion in any degree, and a liberal below the gangway, +who had not been long in parliament but who had been +in the press a strong opponent of the coercion policy of 1881, +at once gave notice that if proposals were made for the +renewal of exceptional law, he should move their rejection. +Mr. Gladstone had also to inform the Queen that in what +is considered the whig or moderate section of the House +there had been recent indications of great dislike to special +legislation, even of a mild character, for Ireland. These +proceedings are all of capital importance in an eventful +year, and bear pretty directly upon the better known crisis +of the year following. +</p> + +<p> +A memorandum by Mr. Gladstone of a conversation +between himself and Lord Granville (May 6) will best +show his own attitude at this opening of a momentous +controversy:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +... I told him [Granville] I had given no pledge or indication +of my future conduct to Mr. Chamberlain, who, however, knew +my opinions to be strong in favour of some plan for a Central +Board of Local Government in Ireland on something of an elective +basis.... Under the circumstances, while the duty of the hour +evidently was to study the means of possible accommodation, the +present aspect of affairs was that of a probable split, <emph>independently</emph> +of the question what course I might individually pursue. My +opinions, I said, were very strong and inveterate. I did not +calculate upon Parnell and his friends, nor upon Manning and his +bishops. Nor was I under any obligation to follow or act with +Chamberlain. But independently of all questions of party, of +support, and of success, I looked upon the extension of a strong +measure of local government like this to Ireland, now that the +question is effectually revived by the Crimes Act, as invaluable +itself, and as the only hopeful means of securing crown and state +from an ignominious surrender in the next parliament after a +mischievous and painful struggle. (I did not advert to the +difficulties which will in this session be experienced in carrying on +<pb n='192'/><anchor id='Pg192'/> +a great battle for the Crimes Act.) My difficulty would lie not in +my pledges or declarations (though these, of a public character, are +serious), but in my opinions. +</p> + +<p> +Under these circumstances, I said, I take into view the freedom +of my own position. My engagements to my colleagues are +fulfilled; the great Russian question is probably settled; if we +stand firm on the Soudan, we are now released from that embarrassment; +and the Egyptian question, if the financial convention be +safe, no longer presents any very serious difficulties. I am entitled +to lay down my office as having done my work. +</p> + +<p> +Consequently the very last thing I should contemplate is +opening the Irish difficulty in connection with my resignation, +should I resign. It would come antecedently to any parliamentary +treatment of that problem. If thereafter the secession of some +members should break up the cabinet, it would leave behind it an +excellent record at home and abroad. Lord Granville, while ready +to resign his office, was not much consoled by this presentation of +the case. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +Late in the month (May 23) Mr. Gladstone wrote a long +letter to the Queen, giving her <q>some idea of the shades of +opinion existing in the cabinet with reference to legislation for +Ireland.</q> He thought it desirable to supply an outline of +this kind, because the subject was sure to recur after a short +time, and was <q>likely to exercise a most important influence +in the coming parliament on the course of affairs.</q> The two +points on which there was considerable divergence of view +were the expiry of the Crimes Act, and the concession of +local government. The Irish viceroy was ready to drop a large +portion of what Mr. Gladstone called coercive provisions, +while retaining provisions special to Ireland, but favouring +the efficiency of the law. Other ministers were doubtful +whether any special legislation was needed for Irish criminal +law. Then on the point whether the new bill should be for +two years or one, some, including Mr. Gladstone and +Lord Spencer, were for the longer term, others, including +Mr. Chamberlain and Sir Charles Dilke, for the shorter. At +last the whole cabinet agreed to two years. Next for local +government,—some held that a liberal move in this region +<pb n='193'/><anchor id='Pg193'/> +<note place='margin'>Opinion In The Cabinet</note> +would possibly obviate all need for special criminal legislation, +and would at any rate take the sting out of it. To +this <q>vastly important subject</q> the prime minister presumed +to draw the Queen's special attention, as involving great +and far-reaching questions. He did not, he said, regard the +differences of leaning in the cabinet upon these matters +with either surprise or dismay. Such difficulties were due +to inherent difficulties in the matters themselves, and were +to be expected from the action of independent and energetic +minds in affairs so complex. +</p> + +<p> +There were two main opinions. One favoured the erection +of a system of representative county government in Ireland. +The other view was that besides the county boards, there +should be in addition a central board for all Ireland, +essentially municipal and not political; in the main executive +and administrative, but also with a power to make bye-laws, +raise funds, and pledge public credit in such modes as +parliament should provide. The central board would take +over education, primary, in part intermediate, and perhaps +even higher; poor law and sanitary administration; and +public works. The whole charge of justice, police, and +prisons would remain with the executive. This board would +not be directly elective by the whole Irish people; it would +be chosen by the representative county boards. Property, +moreover, should have a representation upon it distinct from +numbers. This plan, <q>first made known to Mr. Gladstone +by Mr. Chamberlain,</q> would, he believed, be supported by +six out of the eight Commons ministers. But a larger +number of ministers were not prepared to agree to any plan +involving the principle of an elective central board as the +policy of the cabinet. On account of this preliminary bar, +the particular provisions of the policy of a central board +were not discussed. +</p> + +<p> +All this, however, was for the moment retrospective and +historic, because a fortnight before the letter was written, +the policy of the central board, of which Mr. Gladstone +so decisively approved, had been killed. A committee +of the cabinet was appointed to consider it; some remained +stubbornly opposed; as the discussion went on, +<pb n='194'/><anchor id='Pg194'/> +some changed their minds and, having resisted, at last +inclined to acquiesce. Ministers were aware from the correspondence +of one of them with an eminent third person, that +Mr. Parnell approved the scheme, and in consideration of it +would even not oppose a very limited Crimes bill. This, +however, was no temptation to all of them; perhaps it had +the contrary effect. When it came to the full cabinet, it +could not be carried. All the peers except Lord Granville +were against it. All the Commoners except Lord Hartington +were for it. As the cabinet broke up (May 9), the prime +minister said to one colleague, <q>Ah, they will rue this +day</q>; and to another, <q>Within six years, if it please God to +spare their lives, they will be repenting in sackcloth and +ashes.</q> Later in the day he wrote to one of them, <q>The +division of opinion in the cabinet on the subject of local +government with a central board for Ireland was so marked, +and if I may use the expression, so diametrical, that I +dismissed the subject from my mind, and sorrowfully +accepted the negative of what was either a majority, or +a moiety of the entire cabinet.</q> +</p> + +<p> +This decision, more profoundly critical than anybody +excepting Mr. Gladstone and perhaps Mr. Chamberlain +seemed to be aware, left all existing difficulties as acute as +ever. In the middle of May things looked very black. +The scheme for a central board was dead, though, wrote +Mr. Gladstone to the viceroy, <q>for the present only. <emph>It will +quickly rise again, as I think, perhaps in larger dimensions.</emph></q> +Some members of the cabinet, he knew not how many, would +resign rather than demand from parliament, without a +Central Board bill, the new Coercion Act. If such resignations +took place, how was a Coercion bill to be fought +through the House, when some liberals had already declared +that they would resist it? +</p> + +<p> +On May 15 drafts not only of a Coercion bill, but of a bill +for land purchase, came before the cabinet. Much objection +was taken to land purchase, especially by the two radical +leaders, and it was agreed to forego such a bill for the +present session. The viceroy gravely lamented this decision, +and Mr. Gladstone entered into communication with Mr. +<pb n='195'/><anchor id='Pg195'/> +<note place='margin'>Opinion In The Cabinet</note> +Chamberlain and Sir C. Dilke. From them he understood +that their main anxiety sprang from a fear lest the future +handling of local government should be prejudiced by premature +disposal of the question of land purchase, but that +in the main they thought the question of local government +would not be prejudiced if the purchase bill only provided +funds for a year. Under this impression and with a full +belief that he was giving effect to the real desire of his +colleagues in general to meet the views of Lord Spencer, and +finding the prospects of such a bill favourable, Mr. Gladstone +proceeded (May 20) to give notice of its introduction. +Mr. Chamberlain and Sir C. Dilke took this to be a reversal of +the position to which they had agreed, and would not assent +to land purchase unless definitely coupled with assurances +as to local government. They immediately resigned. The +misapprehension was explained, and though the resignations +were not formally withdrawn, they were suspended. But +the two radical leaders did not conceal their view of the +general state of the case, and in very direct terms told Mr. +Gladstone that they differed so completely on the questions +that were to occupy parliament for the rest of the session, +as to feel the continuance of the government of doubtful +advantage to the country. In Mr. Chamberlain's words, +written to the prime minister at the time of the misunderstanding +(May 21)— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I feel there has been a serious misapprehension on both sides +with respect to the Land Purchase bill, and I take blame to myself +if I did not express myself with sufficient clearness.... I doubt +very much if it is wise or was right to cover over the serious +differences of principle that have lately disclosed themselves in the +cabinet. I think it is now certain that they will cause a split in +the new parliament, and it seems hardly fair to the constituencies +that this should only be admitted, after they have discharged their +function and are unable to influence the result. +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +Still the prime minister altogether declined, in his own +phrase, to lose heart, and new compromises were invented. +Meanwhile he cheerfully went for the Whitsuntide recess +<pb n='196'/><anchor id='Pg196'/> +to Hawarden, and dived into Lechler's <hi rend='italic'>Wycliffe</hi>, Walpole's +<hi rend='italic'>George III.</hi>, Conrad on German Union, Cooper on the +Atonement, and so forth. Among other guests at Hawarden +came Lord Wolverton, <q>with much conversation; we opened +rather a new view as to my retirement.</q> What the new +view was we do not know, but the conversation was resumed +and again resumed, until the unwelcome day (June 4) for +return to Downing Street. Before returning, however, Mr. +Gladstone set forth his view of the internal crisis in a letter +to Lord Hartington:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Hartington.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>May 30, 1885.</hi>—I am sorry but not surprised that your rather +remarkable strength should have given way under the pressure of +labour or anxiety or both. Almost the whole period of this +ministry, particularly the year and a half since the defeat of +Hicks, and most particularly of all, the four months since the +morning when you deciphered the Khartoum telegram at Holker, +have been without example in my experience, as to the gravity +and diversity of difficulties which they have presented. What I +hope is that they will not discourage you, or any of our colleagues, +in your anticipations of the future. It appears to me that there is +not one of them, viewed in the gross, which has been due to our +own action. By viewing in the gross, I mean taking the Egyptian +question as one. When we subdivide between Egypt proper and +the Soudan, I find what seem to me two grave errors in our +management of the Soudan business: the first our <emph>landing</emph> at +Suakin, the second the mission of Gordon, or rather the choice of +Gordon for that mission. But it sometimes happens that the +errors gravest in their consequences are also the most pardonable. +And these errors were surely pardonable enough in themselves, +without relying on the fact that they were approved by the public +opinion of the day and by the opposition. Plenty of other and +worse errors have been urged upon us which we have refused or +avoided. I do not remember a single good measure recommended +by opponents, which we have declined to adopt (or indeed any +good measure which they have recommended at all). We certainly +have worked hard. I believe that according to the measure of +human infirmity, we have done fairly well, but the duties we have +<pb n='197'/><anchor id='Pg197'/> +had to discharge have been duties, I mean in Egypt and the +Soudan, which it was impossible to discharge with the ordinary +measure of credit and satisfaction, which were beyond human +strength, and which it was very unwise of our predecessors to +saddle upon the country. +</p> + +<p> +At this moment we have but two great <hi rend='italic'>desiderata</hi>: the Egyptian +Convention and the Afghan settlement (the evacuation of the Soudan +being in principle a thing done). Were these accomplished, we +should have attained for the empire at home and abroad a +position in most respects unusually satisfactory, and both of them +<emph>ought</emph> to be near accomplishment. With the Egyptian Convention +fairly at work, I should consider the Egyptian question as within +a few comparatively easy stages of satisfactory solution. +</p> + +<p> +Now as regards the immediate subject. What if Chamberlain +and Dilke, as you seem to anticipate, raise the question of a prospective +declaration about local government in Ireland as a +condition of their remaining in the cabinet? I consider that +question as disposed of for the present (much against my will), +and I do not see that any of us, having accepted the decision, can +attempt to disturb it. Moreover, their ground will be very weak +and narrow; for their actual reason of going, if they go, will be +the really small question arising upon the Land Purchase bill. +</p> + +<p> +I think they will commit a great error if they take this course. +It will be straining at the gnat. No doubt it will weaken the +party at the election, but I entertain no fear of the immediate +effect. Their error will, however, in my view go beyond this. +Forgive me if I now speak with great frankness on a matter, one +of few, in which I agree with them, and not with you. I am +firmly convinced that on local government for Ireland they +hold a winning position; which by resignation now they will +greatly compromise. You will all, I am convinced, have to give +what they recommend; at the least what they recommend. +</p> + +<p> +There are two differences between them and me on this subject. +First as to the matter; I go rather further than they do; for I +would undoubtedly make a <emph>beginning</emph> with the Irish police. +Secondly as to the <emph>ground</emph>; here I differ seriously. I do not reckon +with any confidence upon Manning or Parnell; I have never +looked much in Irish matters at negotiation or the conciliation of +<pb n='198'/><anchor id='Pg198'/> +leaders. I look at the question in itself, and I am deeply convinced +that the measure in itself will (especially if accompanied +with similar measures elsewhere, <hi rend='italic'>e.g.</hi> in Scotland) be good for the +country and the empire; I do not say unmixedly good, but with +advantages enormously outweighing any drawbacks. +</p> + +<p> +Apart from these differences, and taking their point of view, I +think they ought to endeavour to fight the election with you; and +in the <emph>new state of affairs</emph> which will be presented after the dissolution, +try and see what effect may be produced upon your mind, and on +other minds, when you have to look at the matter <hi rend='italic'>cominus</hi> and not +<hi rend='italic'>eminus</hi>, as actual, and not as hypothetical. I gave Chamberlain a +brief hint of these speculations when endeavouring to work upon +him; otherwise I have not mentioned them to any one. +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +On the day of his return to London from Hawarden Mr. +Gladstone had an interview with the two ministers with +whom on the merits he was most disposed to agree, though +he differed strongly from them as to tactics. Resignations +were still only suspended, yet the prospects of compromise +were hopeful. At a cabinet held on the following day +(June 5) it was agreed that he should in the course of a +week give notice of a bill to take the place of the expiring +Crimes Act. The point left open was whether the operative +provisions of such an Act—agreed on some time before—should +not be brought into operation without some special +act of the executive government, by proclamation, order +in council, or otherwise. Local government was still left +open. Lord Spencer crossed over from Ireland on the night +of June 7, and the cabinet met next day. All differences +were narrowed down to the point whether the enactments +against intimidation should be inoperative unless and until +the lord lieutenant should waken them into life by proclamation. +As it happened, intimidation had been for a +considerable time upon the increase—from which it might +be inferred either, on the one side, that coercion failed in +its object, or, on the other, that more coercion was still +indispensable. The precise state in which matters were left +at the eleventh hour before the crisis, now swiftly advancing, +<pb n='199'/><anchor id='Pg199'/> +<note place='margin'>Final Deliberations</note> +was set out by Mr. Gladstone in a letter written by him to +the Queen in the autumn (October 5), when he was no +longer her Majesty's minister:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To the Queen.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +... He has perceived that in various quarters misapprehension +prevails as to the point at which the deliberations of the late +cabinet on the question of any renewal of, or substitution for, +the Crimes Act in Ireland had arrived when their financial defeat +on the 8th of June caused the tender of their resignation. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone prays your Majesty's gracious permission to +remove this misapprehension by simply stating that which +occurred in the cabinet at its latest meetings, with reference to +this particular question. Substantially it would be a repetition, +or little more (and without any mention of names), of his latest +reports to your Majesty, to the effect— +</p> + +<p> +1. That the cabinet had long before arrived at the conclusion +that the coercion clauses of the Act, properly so called, might be +safely abandoned. +</p> + +<p> +2. With regard to the other clauses, which might be generally +described as procedure clauses, they intended as a rule to advise, +not their absolute re-enactment, but that the viceroy should be +empowered to bring them into action, together or separately, as +and when he might see cause. +</p> + +<p> +3. But that, with respect to the intimidation or boycotting +provisions, it still remained for consideration whether they should +thus be left subject to executive discretion, or whether, as the +offence had not ceased, they should, as an effective instrument of +repression, remain in direct and full operation. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +It is worth noticing here as a signal instance of Mr. Gladstone's +tenacious and indomitable will after his defeat, that +in a communication to the Queen four days later (June 12), +he stated that the single outstanding point of difference on +the Crimes bill was probably in a fair way of settlement, but +that even if the dissent of the radical members of the cabinet +had become operative, it was his firm intention to make new +arrangements for filling the vacant offices and carrying on +<pb n='200'/><anchor id='Pg200'/> +the government. The overthrow came in a different way. +The deliberations thus summarised had been held under +the shadow of a possibility, mentioned to the Queen in the +report of this last cabinet, of a coalition between the tories +and the Irish nationalists, in order to put an end to the existence +of the government on their budget. This cloud at last +burst, though Mr. Gladstone at any rate with his usual +invincible adherence to the salutary rule never to bid good +morrow to the devil until you meet him, did not strongly +believe in the risk. The diary sheds no light on the state +of his expectations:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>June 6.</hi>... Read Amiel's +<hi rend='italic'>Journal Intime</hi>. Queen's birthday +dinner, 39; went very well. Much conversation with the Prince +of Wales, who was handy and pleasant even beyond his wont. +Also had some speech of his son, who was on my left. <hi rend='italic'>June 7, +Trinity Sunday.</hi>—Chapel Royal at noon and 5.30. Wrote.... Saw +Lord Granville; ditto <hi rend='italic'>cum</hi> Kimberley. Read Amiel. Edersheim +on Old Testament. <hi rend='italic'>June 8.</hi>—Wrote, etc.... Pitiless +rain. Cabinet, 2-3-¾.... Spoke on budget. Beaten by 264:252. +Adjourned the House. This is a considerable event. +</quote> + +<p> +The amendment that led to this <q>considerable event</q> was +moved by Sir Michael Hicks Beach. The two points raised +by the fatal motion were, first, the increased duty on beer +and spirits without a corresponding increase on wine; and, +second, the increase of the duty on real property while no +relief was given to rates. The fiscal issue is not material. +What was ominous was the alliance that brought about the +result. +</p> + +<p> +The defeat of the Gladstone government was the first +success of a combination between tories and Irish, that +proved of cardinal importance to policies and parties for +several critical months to come. By a coincidence that cut +too deep to be mere accident, divisions in the Gladstone +cabinet found their counterpart in insurrection among the +tory opposition. The same general forces of the hour, working +through the energy, ambition, and initiative of individuals, +produced the same effect in each of the two parties; the +radical programme of Mr. Chamberlain was matched by the +<pb n='201'/><anchor id='Pg201'/> +<note place='margin'>Budget Rejected</note> +tory democracy of Lord Randolph Churchill; each saw that +the final transfer of power from the ten-pound householder +to artisans and labourers would rouse new social demands; +each was aware that Ireland was the electoral pivot of the +day, and while one of them was wrestling with those whom +he stigmatised as whigs, the other by dexterity and resolution +overthrew his leaders as <q>the old gang.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='202'/><anchor id='Pg202'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter XII. Accession Of Lord Salisbury. (1885)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +Politics are not a drama where scenes follow one another according +to a methodical plan, where the actors exchange forms of +speech, settled beforehand: politics are a conflict of which chance +is incessantly modifying the whole course.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Sorel.</hi> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +In tendering his resignation to the Queen on the day following +his parliamentary defeat (June 9), and regretting that he had +been unable to prepare her for the result, Mr. Gladstone +explained that though the government had always been +able to cope with the combined tory and nationalist oppositions, +what had happened on this occasion was the silent +withdrawal, under the pressure of powerful trades, from the +government ranks of liberals who abstained from voting, +while six or seven actually voted with the majority. <q>There +was no previous notice,</q> he said, <q>and it was immediately +before the division that Mr. Gladstone was apprised for the +first time of the likelihood of a defeat.</q> The suspicions +hinted that ministers, or at least some of them, unobtrusively +contrived their own fall. Their supporters, it was afterwards +remarked, received none of those imperative adjurations to +return after dinner that are usual on solemn occasions; else +there could never have been seventy-six absentees. The +majority was composed of members of the tory party, six +liberals, and thirty-nine nationalists. Loud was the exultation +of the latter contingent at the prostration of the coercion +system. What was natural exultation in them, may have +taken the form of modest satisfaction among many liberals, +that they could go to the country without the obnoxious +label of coercion tied round their necks. As for ministers, +it was observed that if in the streets you saw a man coming +along with a particularly elastic step and a joyful frame of +<pb n='203'/><anchor id='Pg203'/> +<note place='margin'>Resignation Of Office</note> +countenance, ten to one on coming closer you would find +that it was a member of the late cabinet.<note place='foot'>Duke +of Argyll, July 10, 1885.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The ministerial crisis of 1885 was unusually prolonged, +and it was curious. The victory had been won by a coalition +with the Irish; its fruits could only be reaped with Irish +support; and Irish support was to the tory victors both +dangerous and compromising. The normal process of a +dissolution was thought to be legally impossible, because by +the redistribution bill the existing constituencies were for the +most part radically changed; and a new parliament chosen +on the old system of seats and franchise, even if it were +legally possible, would still be empty of all semblance of +moral authority. Under these circumstances, some in the +tory party argued that instead of taking office, it would be +far better for them to force Mr. Gladstone and his cabinet +to come back, and leave them to get rid of their internal +differences and their Irish embarrassments as they best could. +Events were soon to demonstrate the prudence of these wary +counsels. On the other hand, the bulk of the tory party +like the bulk of any other party was keen for power, because +power is the visible symbol of triumph over opponents, and +to shrink from office would discourage their friends in the +country in the electoral conflict now rapidly approaching. +</p> + +<p> +The Queen meanwhile was surprised (June 10) that Mr. +Gladstone should make his defeat a vital question, and asked +whether, in case Lord Salisbury should be unwilling to form +a government, the cabinet would remain. To this Mr. Gladstone +replied that to treat otherwise an attack on the budget, +made by an ex-cabinet minister with such breadth of front +and after all the previous occurrences of the session, would be +contrary to every precedent,—for instance, the notable case of +December 1852,—and it would undoubtedly tend to weaken +and lower parliamentary government.<note place='foot'>As +the reader will remember (vol. +i. pp. 436-440), on Dec. 16, 1852, +Mr. Disraeli's motion for imposing a +house duty of a shilling in the pound +was rejected by 305 to 286. Mr. +Gladstone also referred to the case of +the expulsion of the whigs by Peel. +On May 13, 1841, after eight nights' +debate, the government were defeated +by a majority of 36 on their budget +proposals in regard to sugar. Ministers +not resigning, Sir Robert Peel +moved a vote of want of confidence +on May 27, which was carried by +a majority of 1 (312-311), June 4, +1841. Parliament thereupon was dissolved.</note> If an opposition +<pb n='204'/><anchor id='Pg204'/> +defeated a government, they must be prepared to accept +the responsibility of their action. As to the second question, +he answered that a refusal by Lord Salisbury would obviously +change the situation. On this, the Queen accepted +the resignations (June 11), and summoned Lord Salisbury to +Balmoral. The resignations were announced to parliament +the next day. Remarks were made at the time, indeed by +the Queen herself, at the failure of Mr. Gladstone to seek the +royal presence. Mr. Gladstone's explanation was that, viewing +<q>the probably long reach of Lord Hartington's life into the +future,</q> he thought that he would be more useful in conversation +with her Majesty than <q>one whose ideas might be unconsciously +coloured by the limited range of the prospect before +him,</q> and Lord Hartington prepared to comply with the +request that he should repair to Balmoral. The visit was +eventually not thought necessary by the Queen. +</p> + +<p> +In his first audience Lord Salisbury stated that though he +and his friends were not desirous of taking office, he was +ready to form a government; but in view of the difficulties +in which a government formed by him would stand, confronted +by a hostile majority and unable to dissolve, he +recommended that Mr. Gladstone should be invited to reconsider +his resignation. Mr. Gladstone, however (June 13), +regarded the situation and the chain of facts that had led +up to it, as being so definite, when coupled with the readiness +of Lord Salisbury to undertake an administration, that it +would be a mere waste of valuable time for him to consult +his colleagues as to the resumption of office. Then Lord +Salisbury sought assurances of Mr. Gladstone's support, as +to finance, parliamentary time, and other points in the +working of executive government. These assurances neither +Mr. Gladstone's own temperament, nor the humour of his +friends and his party—for the embers of the quarrel with +the Lords upon the franchise bill were still hot—allowed him +to give, and he founded himself on the precedent of the +communications of December 1845 between Peel and Russell. +In this default of assurances, Lord Salisbury thought that he +should render the Queen no useful service by taking office. +So concluded the first stage. +</p> + +<pb n='205'/><anchor id='Pg205'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Ministerial Crisis</note> +Though declining specific pledges, Mr. Gladstone now +wrote to the Queen (June 17) that in the conduct of the +necessary business of the country, he believed there would +be no disposition to embarrass her ministers. Lord Salisbury, +however, and his colleagues were unanimous in thinking +this general language insufficient. The interregnum continued. +On the day following (June 18), Mr. Gladstone +had an audience at Windsor, whither the Queen had now +returned. It lasted over three-quarters of an hour. <q>The +Queen was most gracious and I thought most reasonable.</q> +(<hi rend='italic'>Diary.</hi>) He put down in her presence some heads of a +memorandum to assist her recollection, and the one to +which she rightly attached most value was this: <q>In my +opinion,</q> Mr. Gladstone wrote, <q>the whole value of any such +declaration as at the present circumstances permit, really +depends upon the spirit in which it is given and taken. +For myself and any friend of mine, I can only say that the +spirit in which we should endeavour to interpret and apply +the declaration I have made, would be the same spirit in +which we entered upon the recent conferences concerning +the Seats bill.</q> To this declaration his colleagues on his +return to London gave their entire and marked approval, +but they would not compromise the liberty of the House of +Commons by further and particular pledges. +</p> + +<p> +It was sometimes charged against Mr. Gladstone that he +neglected his duty to the crown, and abandoned the Queen +in a difficulty. This is wholly untrue. On June 20, Sir +Henry Ponsonby called and opened one or two aspects of +the position, among them these:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +1. Can the Queen do anything more? +</p> + +<p> +I answered, As you ask me, it occurs to me that it might help +Lord Salisbury's going on, were she to make reference to No. 2 of +my memorandum [the paragraph just quoted], and to say that in +her judgment he would be safe in receiving it in a spirit of trust. +</p> + +<p> +2. If Lord Salisbury fails, may the Queen rely on you? +</p> + +<p> +I answered that on a previous day I had said that if S. failed, +the situation would be altered. I hoped, and on the whole +thought, he would go on. But if he did not? I could not +<pb n='206'/><anchor id='Pg206'/> +promise or expect smooth water. The movement of questions +such as the Crimes Act and Irish Local Government might be +accelerated. But my desire would be to do my best to prevent +the Queen being left without a government.<note place='foot'>Memo. +by Mr. Gladstone, on a sheet of notepaper, June 20, 1885.</note> +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone's view of the position is lucidly stated in +the following memorandum, like the others, in his own hand, +(June 21):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +1. I have endeavoured in my letters (<hi rend='italic'>a</hi>) to avoid all controversial +matter; (<hi rend='italic'>b</hi>) to consider not what the incoming ministers +had a right to ask, but what it was possible for us in a spirit of +conciliation to give. +</p> + +<p> +2. In our opinion there was no right to demand from us +anything whatever. The declarations we have made represent +an extreme of concession. The conditions required, <hi rend='italic'>e.g.</hi> the first +of them [control of time], place in abeyance the liberties of parliament, +by leaving it solely and absolutely in the power of the +ministers to determine on what legislative or other questions +(except supply) it shall be permitted to give a judgment. The +House of Commons may and ought to be disposed to facilitate the +progress of all necessary business by all reasonable means as to +supply and otherwise, but would deeply resent any act of ours by +which we agreed beforehand to the extinction of its discretion. +</p> + +<p> +The difficulties pleaded by Lord Salisbury were all in view +when his political friend, Sir M. H. Beach, made the motion which, +as we apprised him, would if carried eject us from office, and are +simply the direct consequences of their own action. If it be true +that Lord Salisbury loses the legal power to advise and the crown +to grant a dissolution, that cannot be a reason for leaving in the +hands of the executive an absolute power to stop the action +(except as to supply) of the legislative and corrective power of the +House of Commons. At the same time these conditions do not +appear to me to attain the end proposed by Lord Salisbury, for it +would still be left in the power of the House to refuse supplies, +and thereby to bring about in its worst form the difficulty which +he apprehends. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +It looked for a couple of days as if he would be compelled +<pb n='207'/><anchor id='Pg207'/> +<note place='margin'>Crisis Prolonged</note> +to return, even though it would almost certainly lead to +disruption of the liberal cabinet and party.<note place='foot'>Mr. Gladstone +was reminded by +a colleague that when Sir Robert +Peel resumed office in 1845, at the +request of the Queen, he did so before +and without consultation with his +colleagues. In the end they all, excepting +Lord Stanley, supported him.</note> The Queen, +acting apparently on Mr. Gladstone's suggestion of June 20, +was ready to express her confidence in Mr. Gladstone's assurance +that there would be no disposition on the part of himself +or his friends to embarrass new ministers. By this +expression of confidence, the Queen would thus make herself +in some degree responsible as it were for the action of +the members of the defeated Gladstone government in the +two Houses. Still Lord Salisbury's difficulties—and some +difficulties are believed to have arisen pretty acutely within +the interior conclaves of his own party—remained for forty-eight +hours insuperable. His retreat to Hatfield was taken +to mark a second stage in the interregnum. +</p> + +<p> +June 22 is set down in the diary as <q>a day of much stir +and vicissitude.</q> Mr. Gladstone received no fewer than six +visits during the day from Sir Henry Ponsonby, whose +activity, judgment, and tact in these duties of infinite delicacy +were afterwards commemorated by Lord Granville in the +House of Lords.<note place='foot'>June 25, 1885.</note> +He brought up from Windsor the draft of a +letter that might be written by the Queen to Lord Salisbury, +testifying to her belief in the sincerity and loyalty of Mr. +Gladstone's words. Sir Henry showed the draft to Mr. Gladstone, +who said that he could not be party to certain passages +in it, though willing to agree to the rest. The draft so +altered was submitted to Lord Salisbury; he demanded +modification, placing a more definite interpretation on the +words of Mr. Gladstone's previous letters to the Queen. Mr. +Gladstone was immovable throughout the day in declining +to admit any modifications in the sense desired; nor would +he consent to be privy to any construction or interpretation +placed upon his words which Lord Salisbury, with no less +tenacity than his own, desired to extend. +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +At 5.40 [June 22] Sir H. Ponsonby returned for a fifth interview, +his infinite patience not yet exhausted.... He said the +Queen believed the late government did not wish to come back. +<pb n='208'/><anchor id='Pg208'/> +I simply reminded him of my previous replies, which, he remembered, +nearly as follows:—That if Lord Salisbury failed, the +situation would be altered. That I could not in such a case +promise her Majesty smooth water. That, however, a great duty +in such circumstances lay upon any one holding my situation, to +use his best efforts so as, <hi rend='italic'>quoad</hi> what depended upon him, not to +leave the Queen without a government. I think he will now go +to Windsor.—<hi rend='italic'>June 22, '85</hi>, 6 <hi rend='smallcaps'>p.m.</hi> +</quote> + +<p> +The next day (June 23), the Queen sent on to Lord +Salisbury the letter written by Mr. Gladstone on June 21, +containing his opinion that facilities of supply might reasonably +be provided, without placing the liberties of the House +of Commons in abeyance, and further, his declaration that +he felt sure there was no idea of withholding ways and +means, and that there was no danger to be apprehended on +that score. In forwarding this letter, the Queen expressed +to Lord Salisbury her earnest desire to bring to a close a +crisis calculated to endanger the best interests of the state; +and she felt no hesitation in further communicating to Lord +Salisbury her opinion that he might reasonably accept Mr. +Gladstone's assurances. In deference to these representations +from the Queen, Lord Salisbury felt it his duty to take office, +the crisis ended, and the tory party entered on the first +portion of a term of power that was destined, with two rather +brief interruptions, to be prolonged for many years.<note place='foot'>The +correspondence with the +Queen up to June 21 was read by +Mr. Gladstone in the House of Commons +on June 24, and Lord Salisbury +made his statement in the House of +Lords on the next day. Mr. Gladstone +told the House of Commons that +he omitted one or two sentences from +one of his letters, as having hardly +any bearing on the real points of the +correspondence. The omitted sentences +related to the Afghan frontier, +and the state of the negotiations with +Russia.</note> In +reviewing this interesting episode in the annals of the party +system, it is impossible not to observe the dignity in form, +the patriotism in substance, the common-sense in result, that +marked the proceedings alike of the sovereign and of her +two ministers. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +After accepting Mr. Gladstone's resignation the Queen, on +June 13, proffered him a peerage:— +</p> + +<pb n='209'/><anchor id='Pg209'/> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>The Queen to Mr. Gladstone.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone mentioned in his last letter but one, his intention +of proposing some honours. But before she considers these, she +wishes to offer him an Earldom, as a mark of her recognition of +his long and distinguished services, and she believes and thinks +he will thereby be enabled still to render great service to his +sovereign and country—which if he retired, as he has repeatedly +told her of late he intended to do shortly,—he could not. The +country would doubtless be pleased at any signal mark of recognition +of Mr. Gladstone's long and eminent services, and the Queen +believes that it would be beneficial to his health,—no longer +exposing him to the pressure from without, for more active work +than he ought to undertake. Only the other day—without reference +to the present events—the Queen mentioned to Mrs. Gladstone +at Windsor the advantage to Mr. Gladstone's health of a removal +from one House to the other, in which she seemed to agree. The +Queen trusts, therefore, that Mr. Gladstone will accept the offer +of an earldom, which would be very gratifying to her. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +The outgoing minister replied on the following day:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +Mr. Gladstone offers his humble apology to your Majesty. It +would not be easy for him to describe the feelings with which +he has read your Majesty's generous, most generous letter. He +prizes every word of it, for he is fully alive to all the circumstances +which give it value. It will be a precious possession to +him and to his children after him. All that could recommend +an earldom to him, it already has given him. He remains, +however, of the belief that he ought not to avail himself of this +most gracious offer. Any service that he can render, if small, +will, however, be greater in the House of Commons than in the +House of Lords; and it has never formed part of his views to +enter that historic chamber, although he does not share the +feeling which led Sir R. Peel to put upon record what seemed a +perpetual or almost a perpetual self-denying ordinance for his +family. +</p> + +<p> +When the circumstances of the state cease, as he hopes they +may ere long, to impose on him any special duty, he will greatly +covet that interval between an active career and death, which the +<pb n='210'/><anchor id='Pg210'/> +profession of politics has always appeared to him especially to +require. There are circumstances connected with the position +of his family, which he will not obtrude upon your Majesty, but +which, as he conceives, recommend in point of prudence the +personal intention from which he has never swerved. He might +hesitate to act upon the motives to which he has last adverted, +grave as they are, did he not feel rooted in the persuasion that +the small good he may hope hereafter to effect, can best be +prosecuted without the change in his position. He must beg +your Majesty to supply all that is lacking in his expression from +the heart of profound and lasting gratitude. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +To Lord Granville, the nearest of his friends, he wrote on +the same day:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I send you herewith a letter from the Queen which moves and +almost upsets me. It must have cost her much to write, and it +is really a pearl of great price. Such a letter makes the subject +of it secondary—but though it would take me long to set out my +reasons, I remain firm in the intention to accept nothing for +myself. +</quote> + +<p> +Lord Granville replied that he was not surprised at the +decision. <q>I should have greatly welcomed you,</q> he said, +<q>and under some circumstances it might be desirable, but I +think you are right now.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Here is Mr. Gladstone's letter to an invaluable occupant of +the all-important office of private secretary:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Mr. E. W. Hamilton.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>June 30, 1885.</hi>—Since you have in substance (and in form?) +received the appointment [at the Treasury], I am unmuzzled, and +may now express the unbounded pleasure which it gives me, +together with my strong sense (not disparaging any one else) of +your desert. The modesty of your letter is as remarkable as its +other qualities, and does you the highest honour. I can accept +no tribute from you, or from any one, with regard to the office of +private secretary under me except this, that it has always been +made by me a strict and severe office, and that this is really the +only favour I have ever done you, or any of your colleagues to +whom in their several places and measures I am similarly obliged. +</p> + +<pb n='211'/><anchor id='Pg211'/> + +<p> +As to your services to me they have been simply indescribable. +No one I think could dream, until by experience he knew, to +what an extent in these close personal relations devolution can be +carried, and how it strengthens the feeble knees and thus also +sustains the fainting heart. +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +The declaration of the Irish policy of the new government +was made to parliament by no less a personage than the +lord-lieutenant.<note place='foot'>This proceeding was so unusual +as to be almost without a precedent. +Lord Mulgrave had addressed the +House of Lords in 1837, and Lord +Clarendon in 1850. But on each of +these occasions the viceroy's administration +had been the object of +vigorous attack, and no one but the +viceroy himself was capable of making +an effective parliamentary defence.</note> +The prime minister had discoursed on frontiers +in Asia and frontiers in Africa, but on Ireland he was silent. +Lord Carnarvon, on the contrary, came forward voluntarily +with a statement of policy, and he opened it on the broadest +general lines. His speech deserves as close attention as any +deliverance of this memorable period. It laid down the principles +of that alternative system of government, with which +the new ministers formally challenged their predecessors. +Ought the Crimes Act to be re-enacted as it stood; or in +part; or ought it to be allowed to lapse? These were the +three courses. Nobody, he thought, would be for the first, +because some provisions had never been put in force; others +had been put in force but found useless; and others again +did nothing that might not be done just as well under the +ordinary law. The re-enactment of the whole statute, therefore, +was dismissed. But the powers for changing venue at +the discretion of the executive; for securing special juries at +the same discretion; for holding secret inquiry without an +accused person; for dealing summarily with charges of +intimidation—might they not be continued? They were +not unconstitutional, and they were not opposed to legal +instincts. No, all quite true; but then the Lords should +not conceal from themselves that their re-enactment would +be in the nature of special or exceptional legislation. +He had been looking through coercion Acts, he continued, +and had been astonished to find that ever since 1847, with +some very short intervals hardly worth mentioning, Ireland +<pb n='212'/><anchor id='Pg212'/> +had lived under exceptional and coercive legislation. +What sane man could admit this to be a satisfactory or a +wholesome state of things? Why should not they try to +extricate themselves from this miserable habit, and aim at +some better solution? <q>Just as I have seen in English colonies +across the sea a combination of English, Irish, and Scotch +settlers bound together in loyal obedience to the law and the +crown, and contributing to the general prosperity of the +country, so I cannot conceive that there is any irreconcilable +bar here in their native home and in England to the unity +and the amity of the two nations.</q> He went to his task +individually with a perfectly free, open, and unprejudiced +mind, to hear, to question, and, as far as might be, to understand. +<q>My Lords, I do not believe that with honesty and +single-mindedness of purpose on the one side, and with the +willingness of the Irish people on the other, it is hopeless to +look for some satisfactory solution of this terrible question. +My Lords, these I believe to be the opinions and the views +of my colleagues.</q><note place='foot'>July 6, 1885. +<hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 298, p. 1659.</note> +</p> + +<p> +This remarkable announcement, made in the presence of +the prime minister, in the name of the cabinet as a whole, +and by a man of known purity and sincerity of character, +was taken to be an express renunciation, not merely of the +policy of which notice had been given by the outgoing +administration, but of coercion as a final instrument of +imperial rule. It was an elaborate repudiation in advance +of that panacea of firm and resolute government, which +became so famous before twelve months were over. It was +the suggestion, almost in terms, that a solution should be +sought in that policy which had brought union both within +our colonies, and between the colonies and the mother +country, and men did not forget that this suggestion was being +made by a statesman who had carried federation in Canada, +and tried to carry it in South Africa. We cannot wonder +that upon leading members of the late government, and +especially upon the statesman who had been specially +responsible for Ireland, the impression was startling and +profound. Important members of the tory party hurried +<pb n='213'/><anchor id='Pg213'/> +<note place='margin'>The Maamtrasna Debate</note> +from Ireland to Arlington Street, and earnestly warned their +leader that he would never be able to carry on with the +ordinary law. They were coldly informed that Lord Salisbury +had received quite different counsel from persons well +acquainted with the country. +</p> + +<p> +The new government were not content with renouncing +coercion for the present. They cast off all responsibility for +its practice in the past. Ostentatiously they threw overboard +the viceroy with whom the only fault that they had +hitherto found, was that his sword was not sharp enough. +A motion was made by the Irish leader calling attention to +the maladministration of the criminal law by Lord Spencer. +Forty men had been condemned to death, and in twenty-one +of these cases the capital sentence had been carried out. Of +the twenty-one executions six were savagely impugned, and +Mr. Parnell's motion called for a strict inquiry into these +and some other convictions, with a view to the full +discovery of truth and the relief of innocent persons. The +debate soon became famous from the principal case adduced, +as the Maamtrasna debate. The topic had been so copiously +discussed as to occupy three full sittings of the House in the +previous October. The lawyer who had just been made +Irish chancellor, at that time pronounced against the +demand. In substance the new government made no fresh +concession. They said that if memorials or statements were +laid before him, the viceroy would carefully attend to them. +No minister could say less. But incidental remarks fell from +the government that created lively alarm in tories and deep +disgust in liberals. Sir Michael Hicks Beach, then leader of +the House, told them that while believing Lord Spencer to be +a man of perfect honour and sense of duty, <q>he must say very +frankly that there was much in the Irish policy of the late +government which, though in the absence of complete +information he did not condemn, he should be very sorry to +make himself responsible for.</q><note place='foot'>Sir M. H. +Beach, July 17, 1885. <hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 299, p. 1085.</note> +An even more important +minister emphasised the severance of the new policy from +the old. <q>I will tell you,</q> cried Lord Randolph Churchill, +<q>how the present government is foredoomed to failure. +<pb n='214'/><anchor id='Pg214'/> +They will be foredoomed to failure if they go out of their +way unnecessarily to assume one jot or tittle of the responsibility +for the acts of the late administration. It is only by +divesting ourselves of all responsibility for the acts of the +late government, that we can hope to arrive at a successful +issue.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 299, p. 1098.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Tory members got up in angry fright, to denounce this +practical acquiescence by the heads of their party in what +was a violent Irish attack not only upon the late viceroy, but +upon Irish judges, juries, and law officers. They remonstrated +against <q>the pusillanimous way</q> in which their two +leaders had thrown over Lord Spencer. <q>During the last +three years,</q> said one of these protesting tories, <q>Lord +Spencer has upheld respect for law at the risk of his life +from day to day, with the sanction, with the approval, and +with the acknowledgment inside and outside of this House, +of the country, and especially of the conservative party. +Therefore I for one will not consent to be dragged into any +implied, however slight, condemnation of Lord Spencer, +because it happens to suit the exigencies of party +warfare.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> p. 1119.</note> +This whole transaction disgusted plain men, tory and liberal +alike; it puzzled calculating men; and it had much to do +with the silent conversion of important and leading men. +</p> + +<p> +The general sentiment about the outgoing viceroy took +the form of a banquet in his honour (July 24), and some +three hundred members of the two Houses attended, including +Lord Hartington, who presided, and Mr. Bright. The +two younger leaders of the radical wing who had been in +the late cabinet neither signed the invitation nor were +present. But on the same evening in another place, Mr. +Chamberlain recognised the high qualities and great services +of Lord Spencer, though they had not always agreed upon +details. He expressed, however, his approval both of the +policy and of the arguments which had led the new government +to drop the Crimes Act. At the same time he denounced +the <q>astounding tergiversation</q> of ministers, and +energetically declared that <q>a strategic movement of that +kind, executed in opposition to the notorious convictions of +<pb n='215'/><anchor id='Pg215'/> +the men who effected it, carried out for party purposes and +party purposes alone, is the most flagrant instance of political +dishonesty this country has ever known.</q> +<note place='margin'>Change In Situation</note> +Lord Hartington +a few weeks later told his constituents that the conduct of +the government, in regard to Ireland, had dealt a heavy +blow <q>both at political morality, and at the cause of order in +Ireland.</q> The severity of such judgments from these two +weighty statesmen testifies to the grave importance of the +new departure. +</p> + +<p> +The enormous change arising from the line adopted by +the government was visible enough even to men of less keen +vision than Mr. Gladstone, and it was promptly indicated by +him in a few sentences in a letter to Lord Derby on the very +day of the Maamtrasna debate:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Within the last two or three weeks, he wrote, the situation +has undergone important changes. I am not fully informed, +but what I know looks as if the Irish party so-called in +parliament, excited by the high biddings of Lord Randolph, had +changed what was undoubtedly Parnell's ground until within +a very short time back. It is now said that a central board +will not suffice, and that there must be a parliament. This I +suppose may mean the repeal of the Act of Union, or may +mean an Austro-Hungarian scheme, or may mean that Ireland +is to be like a great colony such as Canada. Of all or any +of these schemes I will now only say that, of course, they constitute +an entirely new point of departure and raise questions of +an order totally different to any that are involved in a central +board appointed for local purposes. +</quote> + +<p> +Lord Derby recording his first impressions in reply (July +19) took the rather conventional objection made to most +schemes on all subjects, that it either went too far or did not +go far enough. Local government he understood, and home +rule he understood, but a quasi-parliament in Dublin, not +calling itself such though invested with most of the authority +of a parliament, seemed to him to lead to the demand for +fuller recognition. If we were forced, he said, to move beyond +local government as commonly understood, he would rather +have Ireland treated like Canada. <q>But the difficulties every +<pb n='216'/><anchor id='Pg216'/> +way are enormous.</q> On this Mr. Gladstone wrote a little +later to Lord Granville (Aug. 6):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +As far as I can learn, both you and Derby are on the same lines +as Parnell, in rejecting the smaller and repudiating the larger +scheme. It would not surprise me if he were to formulate something +on the subject. For my own part I have seen my way +pretty well as to the particulars of the minor and rejected plan, +but the idea of the wider one puzzles me much. At the same +time, <emph>if</emph> the election gives a return of a decisive character, the +sooner the subject is dealt with the better. +</quote> + +<p> +So little true is it to say that Mr. Gladstone only thought +of the possibility of Irish autonomy after the election. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +Apart from public and party cares, the bodily machinery +gave trouble, and the fine organ that had served him so +nobly for so long showed serious signs of disorder. +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Richard Grosvenor.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>July 14.</hi>—After two partial examinations, a thorough +examination of my throat (larynx <hi rend='italic'>versus</hi> pharynx) has been made +to-day by Dr. Semon in the presence of Sir A. Clark, and the result +is rather bigger than I had expected. It is, that I have a fair +chance of real recovery provided I keep silent almost like a +Trappist, but all treatment would be nugatory without this rest; +that the other alternative is nothing dangerous, but merely the +constant passage of the organ from bad to worse. He asked what +demands the H. of C. would make on me. I answered about +three speeches of about five minutes each, but he was not satisfied +and wished me to get rid of it altogether, which I must do, +perhaps saying instead a word by letter to some friend. Much +time has almost of necessity been lost, but I must be rigid for the +future, and even then I shall be well satisfied if I get back before +winter to a natural use of the voice in conversation. This imports +a considerable change in the course of my daily life. Here it is +difficult to organise it afresh. At Hawarden I can easily do it, +but there I am at a distance from the best aid. I am disposed to +<pb n='217'/><anchor id='Pg217'/> +<q><hi rend='italic'>top up</hi>,</q> with a sea voyage, +but this is No. 3—Nos. 1 and 2 being +rest and then treatment. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +The sea voyage that was to <q>top up</q> the rest of the treatment +began on August 8, when the Gladstones became the +guests of Sir Thomas and Lady Brassey on the <hi rend='italic'>Sunbeam</hi>. +They sailed from Greenhithe to Norway, and after a three +weeks' cruise, were set ashore at Fort George on September 1. +Mr. Gladstone made an excellent tourist; was full of interest +in all he saw; and, I dare say, drew some pleasure from the +demonstrations of curiosity and admiration that attended his +presence from the simple population wherever he moved. +Long expeditions with much climbing and scrambling were +his delight, and he let nothing beat him. One of these excursions, +the ascent to the Vöringfos, seems to deserve a word +of commemoration, in the interest either of physiology or of +philosophic musings after Cicero's manner upon old age. <q>I +am not sure,</q> says Lady Brassey in her most agreeable diary of +the cruise,<note place='foot'>In <hi rend='italic'>The +Contemporary Review</hi>, October 1885, p. 491.</note> +<q>that the descent did not seem rougher and longer +than our journey up had been, although, as a matter of fact, we +got over the ground much more quickly. As we crossed the +green pastures on the level ground near the village of Sæbö +we met several people taking their evening stroll, and also a +tourist apparently on his way up to spend the night near +the Vöringfos. The wind had gone down since the morning, +and we crossed the little lake with fair rapidity, admiring as +we went the glorious effects of the setting sun upon the tops +of the precipitous mountains, and the wonderful echo which +was aroused for our benefit by the boatmen. An extremely +jolty drive, in springless country carts, soon brought us to +the little inn at Vik, and by half-past eight we were once +more on board the <hi rend='italic'>Sunbeam</hi>, exactly ten hours after setting +out upon our expedition, which had included a ride or walk, +as the case might be, of eighteen miles, independently of the +journey by boat and cart—a hardish day's work for any one, +but really a wonderful undertaking for a man of seventy-five, +who disdained all proffered help, and insisted on walking the +whole distance. No one who saw Mr. Gladstone that evening +<pb n='218'/><anchor id='Pg218'/> +at dinner in the highest spirits, and discussing subjects both +grave and gay with the greatest animation, could fail to +admire his marvellous pluck and energy, or, knowing what +he had shown himself capable of doing in the way of physical +exertion, could feel much anxiety on the score of the failure +of his strength.</q> +</p> + +<p> +He was touched by a visit from the son of an old +farmer, who brought him as an offering from his father to +Mr. Gladstone a curiously carved Norwegian bowl three +hundred years old, with two horse-head handles. Strolling +about Aalesund, he was astonished to find in the bookshop of +the place a Norse translation of Mill's <hi rend='italic'>Logic</hi>. He was closely +observant of all religious services whenever he had the +chance, and noticed that at Laurvig all the tombstones had +prayers for the dead. He read perhaps a little less voraciously +than usual, and on one or two days, being unable to +read, he <q>meditated and reviewed</q>—always, I think, from +the same point of view—the point of view of Bunyan's <hi rend='italic'>Grace +Abounding</hi>, or his own letters to his father half a century +before. Not seldom a vision of the coming elections flitted +before the mind's eye, and he made notes for what he calls +an <hi rend='italic'>abbozzo</hi> or sketch of his address to Midlothian. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='219'/><anchor id='Pg219'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Book IX. 1885-1886</head> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter I. Leadership And The General Election. (1885)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +Our understanding of history is spoiled by our knowledge of the +event.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Helps.</hi> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone came back from his cruise in the <hi rend='italic'>Sunbeam</hi> +at the beginning of September; leaving the yacht at Fort +George and proceeding to Fasque to celebrate his elder +brother's golden wedding. From Fasque he wrote to Lord +Hartington (Sept. 3): <q>I have returned to terra firma extremely +well in general health, and with a better throat; in +full expectation of having to consider anxious and doubtful +matters, and now finding them rather more anxious and +doubtful than I had anticipated. As yet I am free to take a +share or not in the coming political issues, and I must weigh +many things before finally surrendering this freedom.</q> His +first business, he wrote to Sir W. Harcourt (Sept. 12), was to +throw his thoughts into order for an address to his constituents, +framed only for the dissolution, and <q>written with +my best care to avoid treading on the toes of either the right or +the left wing.</q> He had communicated, he said, with Granville, +Hartington, and Chamberlain; by both of the two latter he +had been a good deal buffeted; and having explained the +general idea with which he proposed to write, he asked each +of the pair whether upon the whole their wish was that he +should go on or cut out. <q>To this question I have not yet +got a clear affirmative answer from either of them.</q> +</p> + +<pb n='220'/><anchor id='Pg220'/> + +<p> +<q>The subject of Ireland,</q> he told Lord Hartington, <q>has +perplexed me much even on the North Sea,</q> and he expressed +some regret that in a recent speech his correspondent had +felt it necessary at this early period to join issue in so +pointed a manner with Mr. Parnell and his party. Parnell's +speech was, no doubt, he said, <q>as bad as bad could be, and +admitted of only one answer. But the whole question of +the position which Ireland will assume after the general +election is so new, so difficult, and as yet, I think, so little +understood, that it seems most important to reserve until +the proper time all possible liberty of examining it.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The address to his electors, of which he had begun to +think on board the <hi rend='italic'>Sunbeam</hi>, was given to the public on +September 17. It was, as he said, as long as a pamphlet, +and a considerable number of politicians doubtless passed +judgment upon it without reading it through. The whigs, +we are told, found it vague, the radicals cautious, the +tories crafty; but everybody admitted that it tended to +heal feuds. Mr. Goschen praised it, and Mr. Chamberlain, +though raising his own flag, was respectful to his leader's +manifesto.<note place='foot'>See <hi rend='italic'>Spectator</hi>, Sept. 26, 1885.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The surface was thus stilled for the moment, yet the +waters ran very deep. What were <q>the anxious and doubtful +matters,</q> what <q>the coming political issues,</q> of which Mr. +Gladstone had written to Lord Hartington? They were, in +a word, twofold: to prevent the right wing from breaking +with the left; and second, to make ready for an Irish crisis, +which as he knew could not be averted. These were the +two keys to all his thoughts, words, and deeds during the +important autumn of 1885—an Irish crisis, a solid party. +He was not the first great parliamentary leader whose +course lay between two impossibilities. +</p> + +<p> +All his letters during the interval between his return +from the cruise in the <hi rend='italic'>Sunbeam</hi> and the close of the general +election disclose with perfect clearness the channels in +which events and his judgment upon them were moving. +Whigs and radicals alike looked to him, and across him +fought their battle. The Duke of Argyll, for example, +<pb n='221'/><anchor id='Pg221'/> +<note place='margin'>Whigs And Radicals</note> +taking advantage of a lifelong friendship to deal faithfully +with him, warned him that the long fight with <q>Beaconsfieldism</q> +had thrown him into antagonism with many +political conceptions and sympathies that once had a steady +hold upon him. Yet they had certainly no less value and +truth than they ever had, and perhaps were more needed +than ever in face of the present chaos of opinion. To this +Mr. Gladstone replied at length:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To the Duke of Argyll.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Sept. 30, 1885.</hi>—I am very sensible of your kind and +sympathetic tone, and of your indulgent verdict upon my address. It was +written with a view to the election, and as a practical document, +aiming at the union of all, it propounds for immediate action what +all are supposed to be agreed on. This is necessarily somewhat +favourable to the moderate section of the liberal party. You will +feel that it would not have been quite fair to the advanced men +to add some special reproof to them. And reproof, if I had presumed +upon it, would have been two-sided. Now as to your suggestion +that I should say something in public to indicate that I am +not too sanguine as to the future. If I am unable to go in this +direction—and something I may do—it is not from want of +sympathy with much that you say. But my first and great cause +of anxiety is, believe me, the condition of the tory party. As at +present constituted, or at any rate moved, it is destitute of all the +effective qualities of a respectable conservatism.... For their +administrative spirit I point to the Beaconsfield finance. For their +foreign policy they have invented Jingoism, and at the same time +by their conduct <hi rend='italic'>re</hi> Lord Spencer and the Irish nationalists, they +have thrown over—and they formed their government only by +means of throwing over—those principles of executive order and +caution which have hitherto been common to all governments.... +</p> + +<p> +There are other chapters which I have not time to open. I +deeply deplore the oblivion into which public economy has fallen; +the prevailing disposition to make a luxury of panics, which multitudes +seem to enjoy as they would a sensational novel or a highly +seasoned cookery; and the leaning of both parties to socialism, +which I radically disapprove. I must lastly mention among my +causes of dissatisfaction the conduct of the timid or reactionary +<pb n='222'/><anchor id='Pg222'/> +whigs. They make it day by day more difficult to maintain that +most valuable characteristic of our history, which has always +exhibited a good proportion of our great houses at the head of the +liberal movement. If you have ever noted of late years a too +sanguine and high-coloured anticipation of our future, I should +like to be reminded of it. I remain, and I hope always to be, +your affectionate friend. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +The correspondence with Lord Granville sets out more +clearly than anything else could do Mr. Gladstone's general +view of the situation of the party and his own relation to +it, and the operative words in this correspondence, in view +of the maelstrom to which they were all drawing nearer, +will be accurately noted by any reader who cares to understand +one of the most interesting situations in the history +of party. To Lord Granville he says (September 9, 1885), +<q>The problem for me is to make if possible a statement +which will hold through the election and not to go into conflict +with either the right wing of the party for whom +Hartington has spoken, or the left wing for whom Chamberlain, +I suppose, spoke last night. I do not say they are to +be treated as on a footing, but I must do no act disparaging +to Chamberlain's wing.</q> And again to Lord Granville a +month later (Oct. 5):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +You hold a position of great impartiality in relation to any +divergent opinions among members of the late cabinet. No other +person occupies ground so thoroughly favourable. I turn to +myself for one moment. I remain at present in the leadership +of the party, first with a view to the election, and secondly with +a view to being, by a bare possibility, of use afterwards in the +Irish question if it should take a favourable turn; but as you +know, with the intention of taking no part in any schism of the +party should it arise, and of avoiding any and all official responsibility, +should the question be merely one of liberal <hi rend='italic'>v.</hi> conservative +and not one of commanding imperial necessity, such as that of +Irish government may come to be after the dissolution. +</quote> + +<p> +He goes on to say that the ground had now been +sufficiently laid for going to the election with a united front, +that ground being the common profession of a limited creed +<pb n='223'/><anchor id='Pg223'/> +<note place='margin'>Party Aspects</note> +or programme in the liberal sense, with an entire freedom +for those so inclined, to travel beyond it, but not to impose +their own sense upon all other people. No one, he thought, +was bound to determine at that moment on what conditions +he would join a liberal government. If the party and its +leaders were agreed as to immediate measures on local +government, land, and registration, were not these enough +to find a liberal administration plenty of work, especially +with procedure, for several years? If so, did they not supply +a ground broad enough to start a government, that would +hold over, until the proper time should come, all the +questions on which its members might not be agreed, just +as the government of Lord Grey held over, from 1830 to +1834, the question whether Irish church property might +or might not be applied to secular uses? +</p> + +<p> +As for himself, in the event of such a government +being formed (of which I suppose Lord Granville was to +be the head), <q>My desire would be,</q> he says, <q>to place myself +in your hands for all purposes, except that of taking +office; to be present or absent from the House, and to be +absent for a time or for good, as you might on consultation +and reflection think best.</q> In other words Mr. Gladstone +would take office to try to settle the Irish question, but for +nothing else. Lord Granville held to the view that this +was fatal to the chances of a liberal government. No liberal +cabinet could be constructed unless Mr. Gladstone were +at its head. The indispensable chief, however, remained +obdurate. +</p> + +<p> +An advance was made at this moment in the development +of a peculiar situation by important conversations with Mr. +Chamberlain. Two days later the redoubtable leader of the +left wing came to Hawarden for a couple of days, and +Mr. Gladstone wrote an extremely interesting account of +what passed to Lord Granville:<note place='foot'>Mr. Chamberlain has been good +enough to read these two letters, and he +assents to their substantial accuracy, +with a demurrer on two or three +points, justly observing that anybody +reporting a very long and varied conversation +is almost certain, however +scrupulous in intention, to insert in +places what were thoughts much in +his own mind, rather than words +actually spoken. In inserting these +two letters, it may tend to prevent +controversy if we print such corrective +hints as are desired.</note>— +</p> + +<pb n='224'/><anchor id='Pg224'/> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Granville.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Hawarden, Oct. 8, 1885.</hi>—Chamberlain came here yesterday +and I have had a great deal of conversation with him. He is a +good man to talk to, not only from his force and clearness, but +because he speaks with reflection, does not misapprehend or (I +think) suspect, or make unnecessary difficulties, or endeavour to +maintain pedantically the uniformity and consistency of his +argument throughout. +</p> + +<p> +As to the three points of which he was understood to say that +they were indispensable to the starting of a liberal government, I +gather that they stand as follows:— +</p> + +<p> +1. As to the authority of local authorities for compulsory +expropriation.<note place='foot'>In connection +with a local government bill for small holdings and allotments, +subsequently passed.</note> To this he adheres; though I have said I could +not see the justification for withholding countenance from the +formation of a government with considerable and intelligible +plans in view, because it would not at the first moment bind all +its members to this doctrine. He intimates, however, that the +form would be simple, the application of the principle mild; that +he does not expect wide results from it, and that Hartington, he +conceives, is not disposed wholly to object to everything of +the kind. +</p> + +<p> +2. As regards readjustment of taxation, he is contented with +the terms of my address, and indisposed to make any new terms. +</p> + +<p> +3. As regards free education, he does not ask that its principle +be adopted as part of the creed of a new cabinet. He said it +would be necessary to reserve his right individually to vote for +it. I urged that he and the new school of advanced liberals were +not sufficiently alive to the necessity of refraining when in government +from declaring by <emph>vote</emph> all their individual opinions; that a +vote founded upon time, and the engagements of the House at the +moment with other indispensable business, would imply no disparagement +to the principle, which might even be expressly saved +(<q>without prejudice</q>) by an amending resolution; that he could +hardly carry this point to the rank of a <hi rend='italic'>sine quâ non</hi>. +He said,—That +the sense of the country might bind the liberal majority +(presuming it to exist) to declare its opinion, even though unable +<pb n='225'/><anchor id='Pg225'/> +to give effect to it at the moment; that he looked to a single +declaration, not to the sustained support of a measure; and he +seemed to allow that if the liberal sense were so far divided as +not to show a unanimous front, in that case it might be a +question whether some plan other than, and short of, a direct +vote might be pursued.<note place='foot'>He suggested, for instance, the +appointment of a committee.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The question of the House of Lords and disestablishment he +regards as still lying in the remoter distance. +</p> + +<p> +All these subjects I separated entirely from the question of +Ireland, on which I may add that he and I are pretty well agreed; +unless upon a secondary point, namely, whether Parnell would be +satisfied to acquiesce in a County Government bill, good so far as +it went, maintaining on other matters his present general attitude.<note place='foot'>Mr. +Chamberlain puts it that he +proposed to exclude home rule as impossible, +and to offer a local government +bill which he thought that +Parnell might accept. Mr. Gladstone's +statement that he and his visitor +were <q>pretty well agreed</q> on Ireland, +cannot mean therefore that the visitor +was in favour of home rule.</note> +We agreed, I think, that a prolongation of the present +relations of the Irish party would be a national disgrace, and the +civilised world would scoff at the political genius of countries +which could not contrive so far to understand one another as to +bring their differences to an accommodation. +</p> + +<p> +All through Chamberlain spoke of reducing to an absolute +minimum his idea of necessary conditions, and this conversation +so far left untouched the question of men, he apparently assuming +(wrongly) that I was ready for another three or four years' +engagement. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Hawarden, Oct. 8, 1885.</hi>—In another <q>private,</q> +but less private +letter, I have touched on measures, and I have now to say what +passed in relation to men. +</p> + +<p> +He said the outline he had given depended on the supposition +of my being at the head of the government. He did not say he +could adhere to it on no other terms, but appeared to stipulate for +a new point of departure. +</p> + +<p> +I told him the question of my time of life had become such, that +in any case prudence bound him, and all who have a future, to +think of what is to follow me. That if a big Irish question should +arise, and arise in such a form as to promise a possibility of settlement, +<pb n='226'/><anchor id='Pg226'/> +that would be a crisis with a beginning and an end, and +perhaps one in which from age and circumstances I might be able +to supply aid and service such as could not be exactly had without +me.<note place='foot'>This is not remembered.</note> +Apart from an imperious demand of this kind the question +would be that of dealing with land laws, with local government, +and other matters, on which I could render <emph>no</emph> special +service, and which would require me to enter into a new contest +for several years, a demand that ought not to be made, and one +to which I could not accede. I did not think the adjustment of +personal relations, or the ordinary exigencies of party, constituted +a call upon me to continue my long life in a course of constant +pressure and constant contention with half my fellow-countrymen, +until nothing remained but to step into the grave. +</p> + +<p> +He agreed that the House of Lords was not an available resort. +He thought I might continue at the head of the government, and +leave the work of legislation to others.<note place='foot'><q>Some +misunderstanding here.</q></note> I told him that all my +life long I had had an essential and considerable share in the +legislative work of government, and to abandon it would be an +essential change, which the situation would not bear. +</p> + +<p> +He spoke of the constant conflicts of opinion with Hartington +in the late cabinet, but I reverted to the time when Hartington +used to summon and lead meetings of the leading commoners, in +which he was really the least antagonistic of men. +</p> + +<p> +He said Hartington might lead a whig government aided by the +tories, or might lead a radical government.... I recommended +his considering carefully the personal composition of the group of +leading men, apart from a single personality on which reliance +could hardly be placed, except in the single contingency to which +I have referred as one of a character probably brief. +</p> + +<p> +He said it might be right for him to look as a friend on the +formation of a liberal government, having (as I understood) +moderate but intelligible plans, without forming part of it. I +think this was the substance of what passed. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +Interesting as was this interview, it did not materially +alter Mr. Gladstone's disposition. After it had taken place +he wrote to Lord Granville (Nov. 10):— +</p> + +<pb n='227'/><anchor id='Pg227'/> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Granville.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +I quite understand how natural it is that at the present +juncture pressure, and even the whole pressure, should from both +quarters be brought to bear upon me. Well, if a special call of +imperial interest, such as I have described, should arise, I am ready +for the service it may entail, so far as my will is concerned. But +a very different question is raised. Let us see how matters stand. +</p> + +<p> +A course of action for the liberals, moderate but substantial, +has been sketched. The party in general have accepted it. After +the late conversations, there is no reason to anticipate a breach +upon any of the conditions laid down anywhere for immediate +adoption, between the less advanced and the more advanced among +the leaders. It must occupy several years, and it may occupy +the whole parliament. According to your view they will, unless +on a single condition [<hi rend='italic'>i.e.</hi> Mr. Gladstone's leadership], refuse to +combine in a cabinet, and to act, with a majority at their back; +and will make over the business voluntarily to the tories in a +minority, at the commencement of a parliament. Why? They +agree on the subjects before them. Other subjects, unknown as +yet, may arise to split them. But this is what may happen to +any government, and <emph>it</emph> can form no reason. +</p> + +<p> +But what <emph>is</emph> the condition demanded? It is that a man of +seventy-five,<note place='foot'>That is, in his seventy-sixth year.</note> +after fifty-three years' service, with <emph>no</emph> particular +qualification for the questions in view should enter into a fresh +contract of service in the House of Commons, reaching according +to all likelihood over three, four, or five years, and without the +smallest reasonable prospect of a break. And this is not to +solve a political difficulty, but to soothe and conjure down personal +misgivings and apprehensions. I have not said jealousies, +because I do <emph>not</emph> believe them to be the operative cause; perhaps +they do not exist at all. +</p> + +<p> +I firmly say this is not a reasonable condition, or a tenable +demand, in the circumstances supposed. Indeed no one has +endeavoured to show that it is. Further, abated action in the +House of Commons is out of the question. We cannot have, in +these times, a figurehead prime minister. I have gone a very +long way in what I have said, and I really cannot go further. +</p> + +<pb n='228'/><anchor id='Pg228'/> + +<p> +Lord Aberdeen, taking office at barely seventy in the House of +Lords, apologised in his opening speech for doing this at a time +when his mind ought rather to be given to <q>other thoughts.</q> +Lord Palmerston in 1859 did not speak thus. But he was bound +to no plan of any kind; and he was seventy-four, <hi rend='italic'>i.e.</hi> in his +seventy-fifth year. +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +It is high time to turn to the other deciding issue in +the case. Though thus stubborn against resuming the +burden of leadership merely to compose discords between +Chatsworth and Birmingham, Mr. Gladstone was ready to +be of use in the Irish question, <q>if it should take a favourable +turn.</q> As if the Irish question ever took a favourable +turn. We have seen in the opening of the present chapter, +how he spoke to Lord Hartington of a certain speech +of Mr. Parnell's in September, <q>as bad as bad could be.</q> +The secret of that speech was a certain fact that must be +counted a central hinge of these far-reaching transactions. +In July, a singular incident had occurred, nothing +less strange than an interview between the new lord-lieutenant +and the leader of the Irish party. To realise +its full significance, we have to recall the profound odium +that at this time enveloped Mr. Parnell's name in the +minds of nearly all Englishmen. For several years and at +that moment he figured in the public imagination for all +that is sinister, treasonable, dark, mysterious, and unholy. +He had stood his trial for a criminal conspiracy, and was +supposed only to have been acquitted by the corrupt connivance +of a Dublin jury. He had been flung into prison +and kept there for many months without trial, as a person +reasonably suspected of lawless practices. High treason was +the least dishonourable of the offences imputed to him and +commonly credited about him. He had been elaborately +accused before the House of Commons by one of the most +important men in it, of direct personal responsibility for +outrages and murders, and he left the accusation with scant +reply. He was constantly denounced as the apostle of +rapine and rebellion. That the viceroy of the Queen should +<pb n='229'/><anchor id='Pg229'/> +<note place='margin'>A Remarkable Interview</note> +without duress enter into friendly communication with such +a man, would have seemed to most people at that day +incredible and abhorrent. Yet the incredible thing happened, +and it was in its purpose one of the most sensible +things that any viceroy ever did.<note place='foot'>This episode was first mentioned +in the House of Commons, June 7, +1886. Lord Carnarvon explained in +the Lords, June 10. Mr. Parnell +replied in a letter to the <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi>, June +12. He revived the subject in the +House of Commons, Feb. 13, 1888, and +Lord Carnarvon explained a second +time in the Lords on May 3. On +Lord Carnarvon's first explanation, +the Duke of Argyll, while placing +the utmost reliance on his personal +honour and accuracy, <q>felt bound to +observe that the statement did not +appear to be complete, for he had +omitted to explain what the nature +of the communication [with Mr. Parnell] +absolutely was.</q> Neither then +nor two years later was the omission +made good. Curiously enough on the +first occasion Lord Carnarvon did not +even mention that Lord Salisbury in +any way shared his responsibility for +the interview, and in fact his language +pointed the other way. What +remains is his asseveration, supported +by Lord Salisbury, that he had made +no formal bargain with Mr. Parnell, +and gave him no sort of promise, +assurance, or pledge. This is not +only entirely credible, it is certain; +for the only body that could carry +out such a promise had not been consulted. +<q>I may at least say this of what +went on outside the cabinet—that I +had no communication on the subject, +<emph>no authorisation</emph>, and that I never +communicated to them even that +which I had done.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Hansard</hi>, 306, +p. 1258.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The interview took place in a London drawing-room. +Lord Carnarvon opened the conversation by informing Mr. +Parnell, first, that he was acting of himself and by himself, +on his own exclusive responsibility; second, that, he sought +information only, and that he had not come for the purpose +of arriving at any agreement or understanding however +shadowy; third, that he was there as the Queen's servant, +and would neither hear nor say one word that was inconsistent +with the union of the two countries. Exactly what +Mr. Parnell said, and what was said in reply, the public were never authentically told. +Mr. Parnell afterwards spoke<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>E.g.</hi> +<hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 306, pp. 1181, 1199.</note> as +if Lord Carnarvon had given him to understand that it was +the intention of the government to offer Ireland a statutory +legislature, with full control over taxation, and that a scheme +of land purchase was to be coupled with it. On this, the +viceroy denied that he had communicated any such intention. +Mr. Parnell's story was this:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Lord Carnarvon proceeded to say that he had sought the interview +for the purpose of ascertaining my views regarding—should +he call it?—a constitution for Ireland. But I soon found out that +<pb n='230'/><anchor id='Pg230'/> +he had brought me there in order that he might communicate his +own views upon the matter, as well as ascertain mine.... In +reply to an inquiry as to a proposal which had been made to build +up a central legislative body upon the foundation of county boards, +I told him I thought this would be working in the wrong direction, +and would not be accepted by Ireland; that the central legislative +body should be a parliament in name and in fact.... Lord Carnarvon +assured me that this was his own view also, and he strongly +appreciated the importance of giving due weight to the sentiment +of the Irish in this matter.... He had certain suggestions to this +end, taking the colonial model as a basis, which struck me as being +the result of much thought and knowledge of the subject.... At +the conclusion of the conversation, which lasted for more than an +hour, and to which Lord Carnarvon was very much the larger +contributor, I left him, believing that I was in complete accord +with him regarding the main outlines of a settlement conferring +a legislature upon Ireland.<note place='foot'>Letter to the +<hi rend='italic'>Times</hi>, June 12, 1886.</note> +</quote> + +<p> +It is certainly not for me to contend that Mr. Parnell was +always an infallible reporter, but if closely scrutinised the discrepancy +in the two stories as then told was less material than +is commonly supposed. To the passage just quoted, Lord +Carnarvon never at any time in public offered any real contradiction. +What he contradicted was something different. +He denied that he had ever stated to Mr. Parnell that it was +the intention of the government, if they were successful at +the polls, to establish the Irish legislature, with limited +powers and not independent of imperial control, which he +himself favoured. He did not deny, any more than he +admitted, that he had told Mr. Parnell that on opinion and +policy they were very much at one. How could he deny +it, after his speech when he first took office? Though the +cabinet was not cognisant of the nature of these proceedings, +the prime minister was. To take so remarkable a +step without the knowledge and assent of the head of the +government, would have been against the whole practice +and principles of our ministerial system. Lord Carnarvon +informed Lord Salisbury of his intention of meeting Mr. +<pb n='231'/><anchor id='Pg231'/> +<note place='margin'>A Remarkable Interview</note> +Parnell, and within twenty-four hours after the meeting, +both in writing and orally, he gave Lord Salisbury as +careful and accurate a statement as possible of what had +passed. We can well imagine the close attention with +which the prime minister followed so profoundly interesting +a report, and at the end of it he told the viceroy that +<q>he had conducted the conversation with Mr. Parnell with +perfect discretion.</q> The knowledge that the minister responsible +for the government of Ireland was looking in the +direction of home rule, and exchanging home rule views with +the great home rule leader, did not shake Lord Salisbury's +confidence in his fitness to be viceroy. +</p> + +<p> +This is no mere case of barren wrangle and verbal recrimination. +The transaction had consequences, and the +Carnarvon episode was a pivot. The effect upon the mind +of Mr. Parnell was easy to foresee. Was I not justified, he +asked long afterwards, in supposing that Lord Carnarvon, +holding the views that he now indicated, would not have +been made viceroy unless there was a considerable feeling +in the cabinet that his views were right?<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> +332, p. 336.</note> Could he imagine +that the viceroy would be allowed to talk home rule to +him—however shadowy and vague the words—unless the +prime minister considered such a solution to be at any rate +well worth discussing? Why should he not believe that +the alliance formed in June to turn Mr. Gladstone out of +office and eject Lord Spencer from Ireland, had really +blossomed from being a mere lobby manœuvre and election +expedient, into a serious policy adopted by serious statesmen? +Was it not certain that in such remarkable circumstances +Mr. Parnell would throughout the election confidently state +the national demand at its very highest? +</p> + +<p> +In 1882 and onwards up to the Reform Act of 1885, +Mr. Parnell had been ready to advocate the creation of a +central council at Dublin for administrative purposes merely. +This he thought would be a suitable achievement for a +party that numbered only thirty-five members. But the +assured increase of his strength at the coming election +made all the difference. When semi-official soundings were +<pb n='232'/><anchor id='Pg232'/> +taken from more than one liberal quarter after the fall of +the Gladstone government, it was found that Mr. Parnell no +longer countenanced provisional reforms. After the interview +with Lord Carnarvon, the mercury rose rapidly to the +top of the tube. Larger powers of administration were not +enough. The claim for legislative power must now be +brought boldly to the front. In unmistakable terms, the +Irish leader stated the Irish demand, and posed both +problem and solution. He now declared his conviction +that the great and sole work of himself and his friends in +the new parliament would be the restoration of a national +parliament of their own, to do the things which they had +been vainly asking the imperial parliament to do for +them.<note place='foot'>August 24, 1885.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +When politicians ruminate upon the disastrous schism +that followed Mr. Gladstone's attempt to deal with the Irish +question in 1886, they ought closely to study the general +election of 1885. In that election, though leading men foresaw +the approach of a marked Irish crisis, and awaited the +outcome of events with an overshadowing sense of pregnant +issues, there was nothing like general concentration on the +Irish prospect. The strife of programmes and the rivalries +of leaders were what engrossed the popular attention. +The main body of the British electors were thinking mainly +of promised agrarian booms, fair trade, the church in danger, +or some other of their own domestic affairs. +</p> + +<p> +Few forms of literature or history are so dull as the narrative +of political debates. With a few exceptions, a political +speech like the manna in the wilderness loses its savour on +the second day. Three or four marked utterances of this +critical autumn, following all that has been set forth already, +will enable the reader to understand the division of counsel +that prevailed immediately before the great change of +policy in 1886, and the various strategic evolutions, masked +movements, and play of mine, sap, and countermine, that +led to it. As has just been described, and with good reason, +<pb n='233'/><anchor id='Pg233'/> +<note place='margin'>Lord Hartington And Mr. Chamberlain</note> +for he believed that he had the Irish viceroy on his side, +Mr. Parnell stood inflexible. In his speech of August 24 +already mentioned, he had thrown down his gauntlet. +</p> + +<p> +Much the most important answer to the challenge, if we +regard the effect upon subsequent events, was that of Lord +Salisbury two months later. To this I shall have to return. +The two liberal statesmen, Lord Hartington and Mr. Chamberlain, +who were most active in this campaign, and whose +activity was well spiced and salted by a lively political +antagonism, agreed in a tolerably stiff negative to the +Irish demand. The whig leader with a slow mind, and +the radical leader with a quick mind, on this single +issue of the campaign spoke with one voice. The whig +leader<note place='foot'>Lord Hartington at Waterfoot, +August 29.</note> thought Mr. Parnell had made a mistake and +ensured his own defeat: he overestimated his power in +Ireland and his power in parliament; the Irish would not +for the sake of this impossible and impracticable undertaking, +forego without duress all the other objects which +parliament was ready to grant them; and it remained to be +seen whether he could enforce his iron discipline upon his +eighty or ninety adherents, even if Ireland gave him so +many. +</p> + +<p> +The radical leader was hardly less emphatic, and his +utterance was the more interesting of the two, because +until this time Mr. Chamberlain had been generally taken +throughout his parliamentary career as leaning strongly in +the nationalist direction. He had taken a bold and energetic +part in the proceedings that ended in the release of +Mr. Parnell from Kilmainham. He had with much difficulty +been persuaded to acquiesce in the renewal of any part of the +Coercion Act, and had absented himself from the banquet +in honour of Lord Spencer. Together with his most +intimate ally in the late government, he had projected a +political tour in Ireland with Mr. Parnell's approval and +under his auspices. Above all, he had actually opened his +electoral campaign with that famous declaration which was +so long remembered: <q>The pacification of Ireland at this +moment depends, I believe, on the concession to Ireland of +<pb n='234'/><anchor id='Pg234'/> +the right to govern itself in the matter of its purely domestic +business. Is it not discreditable to us that even now it +is only by unconstitutional means that we are able to secure +peace and order in one portion of her Majesty's dominions? +It is a system as completely centralised and bureaucratic as +that with which Russia governs Poland, or as that which +prevailed in Venice under the Austrian rule. An Irishman +at this moment cannot move a step—he cannot lift a finger +in any parochial, municipal, or educational work, without +being confronted with, interfered with, controlled by, an +English official, appointed by a foreign government, and +without a shade or shadow of representative authority. I +say the time has come to reform altogether the absurd and +irritating anachronism which is known as Dublin Castle. +That is the work to which the new parliament will be +called.</q><note place='foot'>June 17, 1885.</note> +Masters of incisive speech must pay the price of +their gifts, and the sentence about Poland and Venice was long +a favourite in many a debate. But when the Irish leader now +made his proposal for removing the Russian yoke and the +Austrian yoke from Ireland, the English leader drew back. +<q>If these,</q> he said, <q>are the terms on which Mr. Parnell's +support is to be obtained, I will not enter into the compact.</q> +This was Mr. Chamberlain's response.<note place='foot'>Warrington, September 8.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +The language used by Mr. Gladstone during this eventful +time was that of a statesman conscious of the magnitude of +the issue, impressed by the obscurity of the path along +which parties and leaders were travelling, and keenly alive +to the perils of a premature or unwary step. Nothing was +easier for the moment either for quick minds or slow minds, +than to face the Irish demand beforehand with a bare, +blank, wooden <hi rend='italic'>non possumus</hi>. Mr. Gladstone had pondered +the matter more deeply. His gift of political imagination, +his wider experience, and his personal share in some chapters +of the modern history of Europe and its changes, planted +him on a height whence he commanded a view of possibilities +<pb n='235'/><anchor id='Pg235'/> +<note place='margin'>Letter To Mr. Childers</note> +and necessities, of hopes and of risks, that were unseen by +politicians of the beaten track. Like a pilot amid wandering +icebergs, or in waters where familiar buoys had been taken +up and immemorial beacons put out, he scanned the scene +with keen eyes and a glass sweeping the horizon in every +direction. No wonder that his words seemed vague, and +vague they undoubtedly were. Suppose that Cavour had +been obliged to issue an election address on the eve of +the interview at Plombières, or Bismarck while he was on his +visit to Biarritz. Their language would hardly have been +pellucid. This was no moment for ultimatums. There +were too many unascertained elements. Yet some of those, +for instance, who most ardently admired President Lincoln +for the caution with which he advanced step by step to the +abolition proclamation, have most freely censured the English +statesman because he did not in the autumn of 1885 come +out with either a downright Yes or a point-blank No. The +point-blank is not for all occasions, and only a simpleton can +think otherwise. +</p> + +<p> +In September Mr. Childers—a most capable administrator, +a zealous colleague, wise in what the world regards as the +secondary sort of wisdom, and the last man to whom one +would have looked for a plunge—wrote to Mr. Gladstone to +seek his approval of a projected announcement to his constituents +at Pontefract, which amounted to a tolerably full-fledged +scheme of home rule.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Life of Childers</hi>, +ii. p. 230.</note> In view of the charitable +allegation that Mr. Gladstone picked up home rule after the +elections had placed it in the power of the Irish either to put +him into office or to keep him out of office, his reply to Mr. +Childers deserves attention:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Mr. Childers.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Sept. 28, 1885.</hi>—I have a decided sympathy with the general +scope and spirit of your proposed declaration about Ireland. If I +offer any observations, they are meant to be simply in furtherance +of your purpose. +</p> + +<p> +1. I would disclaim giving any exhaustive list of Imperial +subjects, and would not <q>put my foot down</q> as to revenue, but +<pb n='236'/><anchor id='Pg236'/> +would keep plenty of elbow-room to keep all customs and excise, +which would probably be found necessary. +</p> + +<p> +2. A general disclaimer of particulars as to the form of any +local legislature might suffice, without giving the Irish expressly +to know it might be decided mainly by their wish. +</p> + +<p> +3. I think there is no doubt Ulster would be able to take care +of itself in respect to education, but a question arises and forms, +I think, the most difficult part of the whole subject, whether some +defensive provisions for the owners of land and property should +not be considered. +</p> + +<p> +4. It is evident you have given the subject much thought, and +my sympathy goes largely to your details as well as your principle. +But considering the danger of placing confidence in the leaders of +the national party at the present moment, and the decided disposition +they have shown to raise their terms on any favourable +indication, I would beg you to consider further whether you +should <emph>bind</emph> yourself at present to any details, or go beyond general +indications. If you say in terms (and this I do not dissuade) that +you are ready to consider the question whether they can have a +legislature for all questions not Imperial, this will be a great step +in advance; and anything you may say beyond it, I should like to +see veiled in language not such as to commit you. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +The reader who is now acquainted with Mr. Gladstone's +strong support of the Chamberlain plan in 1885, and with +the bias already disclosed, knows in what direction the main +current of his thought must have been setting. The position +taken in 1885 was in entire harmony with all these premonitory +notes. Subject, said Mr. Gladstone, to the supremacy +of the crown, the unity of the empire, and all the authority +of parliament necessary for the conservation of that unity, +every grant to portions of the country of enlarged powers for +the management of their own affairs, was not a source of +danger, but a means of averting it. <q>As to the legislative +union, I believe history and posterity will consign to disgrace +the name and memory of every man, be he who he +may, and on whichever side of the Channel he may dwell, +that having the power to aid in an equitable settlement +between Ireland and Great Britain, shall use that power not to +<pb n='237'/><anchor id='Pg237'/> +aid, but to prevent or retard it.</q><note place='foot'>Sept. 18, +1885.</note> These and all the other +large and profuse sentences of the Midlothian address were +undoubtedly open to more than one construction, and they +either admitted or excluded home rule, as might happen. +The fact that, though it was running so freely in his own +mind, he did not put Irish autonomy into the forefront of his +address, has been made a common article of charge against +him. As if the view of Irish autonomy now running in his +mind were not dependent on a string of hypotheses. And who +can imagine a party leader's election address that should have +run thus?—<q> +If Mr. Parnell returns with a great majority of +members, and if the minority is not weighty enough, and if +the demand is constitutionally framed, and if the Parnellites +are unanimous, then we will try home rule. And this possibility +of a hypothetical experiment is to be the liberal cry +with which to go into battle against Lord Salisbury, who, so +far as I can see, is nursing the idea of the same experiment.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Some weeks later, in speaking to his electors in Midlothian, +Mr. Gladstone instead of minimising magnified the +Irish case, pushed it into the very forefront, not in one +speech, but in nearly all; warned his hearers of the gravity +of the questions soon to be raised by it, and assured them +that it would probably throw into the shade the other measures +that he had described as ripe for action. He elaborated a +declaration, of which much was heard for many months and +years afterwards. What Ireland, he said, may deliberately +and constitutionally demand, unless it infringes the principles +connected with the honourable maintenance of the unity of +the empire, will be a demand that we are bound at any rate +to treat with careful attention. To stint Ireland in power +which might be necessary or desirable for the management of +matters purely Irish, would be a great error; and if she was +so stinted, the end that any such measure might contemplate +could not be attained. Then came the memorable appeal: +<q>Apart from the term of whig and tory, there is one thing I +will say and will endeavour to impress upon you, and it is this. +It will be a vital danger to the country and to the empire, +if at a time when a demand from Ireland for larger powers +<pb n='238'/><anchor id='Pg238'/> +of self-government is to be dealt with, there is not in parliament +a party totally independent of the Irish vote.</q><note place='foot'>Nov. +9, 1885.</note> Loud +and long sustained have been the reverberations of this clanging +sentence. It was no mere passing dictum. Mr. Gladstone +himself insisted upon the same position again and again, that +<q>for a government in a minority to deal with the Irish question +would not be safe.</q> This view, propounded in his first speech, +was expanded in his second. There he deliberately set out +that the urgent expediency of a liberal majority independent +of Ireland did not foreshadow the advent of a liberal government +to power. He referred to the settlement of household +suffrage in 1867. How was the tory government enabled to +effect that settlement? Because there was in the House a +liberal majority which did not care to eject the existing +ministry.<note place='foot'>Midlothian Speeches, p. 49.</note> +He had already reminded his electors that tory +governments were sometimes able to carry important measures, +when once they had made up their minds to it, with +greater facility than liberal governments could. For instance, +if Peel had not been the person to propose the repeal of the +corn laws, Lord John would not have had fair consideration +from the tories; and no liberal government could have +carried the Maynooth Act.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> p. 39.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The plain English of the abundant references to Ireland in +the Midlothian speeches of this election is, that Mr. Gladstone +foresaw beyond all shadow of doubt that the Irish question +in its largest extent would at once demand the instant +attention of the new parliament; that the best hope of +settling it would be that the liberals should have a majority +of their own; that the second best hope lay in its settlement +by the tory government with the aid of the liberals; but +that, in any case, the worst of all conditions under which +a settlement could be attempted—an attempt that could +not be avoided—would be a situation in which Mr. Parnell +should hold the balance between parliamentary parties. +</p> + +<p> +The precise state of Mr. Gladstone's mind at this moment is +best shown in a very remarkable letter written by him to +Lord Rosebery, under whose roof at Talmeny he was staying +at the time:— +</p> + +<pb n='239'/><anchor id='Pg239'/> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Rosebery.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Dalmeny Park, 13th Nov. 1885.</hi>—You have called my attention +to the recent speech of Mr. Parnell, in which he expresses the +desire that I should frame a plan for giving to Ireland, without +prejudice to imperial unity and interests, the management of her +own affairs. The subject is so important that, though we are +together, I will put on paper my view of this proposal. For the +moment I assume that such a plan can be framed. Indeed, if I +had considered this to be hopeless, I should have been guilty of +great rashness in speaking of it as a contingency that should be +kept in view at the present election. I will first give reasons, +which I deem to be of great weight, against my producing a +scheme, reserving to the close one reason, which would be conclusive +in the absence of every other reason. +</p> + +<p> +1. It is not the province of the person leading the party in +opposition, to frame and produce before the public detailed +schemes of such a class. +</p> + +<p> +2. There are reasons of great weight, which make it desirable +that the party now in power should, if prepared to adopt the +principle, and if supported by an adequate proportion of the coming +House of Commons, undertake the construction and proposal +of the measure. +</p> + +<p> +3. The unfriendly relations between the party of nationalists +and the late government in the expiring parliament, have of necessity +left me and those with whom I act in great ignorance of +the interior mind of the party, which has in parliament systematically +confined itself to very general declarations. +</p> + +<p> +4. That the principle and basis of an admissible measure have +been clearly declared by myself, if not by others, before the +country; more clearly, I think, than was done in the case of the +Irish disestablishment; and that the particulars of such plans in +all cases have been, and probably must be, left to the discretion +of the legislature acting under the usual checks. +</p> + +<p> +But my final and paramount reason is, that the production at +this time of a plan by me would not only be injurious, but would +destroy all reasonable hope of its adoption. Such a plan, proposed +by the heads of the liberal party, is so certain to have the +<pb n='240'/><anchor id='Pg240'/> +opposition of the tories <hi rend='italic'>en bloc</hi>, that every computation must be +founded on this anticipation. This opposition, and the appeals +with which it will be accompanied, will render the carrying of the +measure difficult even by a united liberal party; hopeless or most +difficult, should there be serious defection. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Parnell is apprehensive of the opposition of the House of +Lords. That idea weighs little with me. I have to think of +something nearer, and more formidable. The idea of constituting +a legislature for Ireland, whenever seriously and responsibly proposed, +will cause a mighty heave in the body politic. It will be +as difficult to carry the liberal party and the two British nations +in favour of a legislature for Ireland, as it was easy to carry them +in the case of Irish disestablishment. I think that it may possibly +be done; but only by the full use of a great leverage. That +leverage can only be found in their equitable and mature consideration +of what is due to the fixed desire of a nation, clearly and +constitutionally expressed. Their prepossessions will not be altogether +favourable; and they cannot in this matter be bullied. +</p> + +<p> +I have therefore endeavoured to lay the ground by stating +largely the possibility and the gravity, even the solemnity, of that +demand. I am convinced that this is the only path which can lead +to success. With such a weapon, one might go hopefully into +action. But I well know, from a thousand indications past and +present, that a new project of mine launched into the air, would +have no <emph>momentum</emph> which could carry it to its aim. So, in my +mind, stands the case.... +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +Three days before this letter, Mr. Gladstone had replied to +one from Lord Hartington:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Hartington.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Dalmeny, Nov. 10, 1885.</hi>—I made a beginning yesterday in one +of my conversation speeches, so to call them, on the way, by laying +it down that I was particularly bound to prevent, if I could, +the domination of sectional opinion over the body and action of +the party. +</p> + +<p> +I wish to say something about the modern radicalism. But I +must include this, that if it is rampant and ambitious, the two +most prominent causes of its forwardness have been: 1. Tory +<pb n='241'/><anchor id='Pg241'/> +democracy. 2. The gradual disintegration of the liberal aristocracy. +On both these subjects my opinions are strong. I think +the conduct of the Duke of Bedford and others has been as +unjustifiable as it was foolish, especially after what we did +to save the House of Lords from itself in the business of the +franchise. +</p> + +<p> +Nor can I deny that the question of the House of Lords, of the +church, or both, will probably split the liberal party. But let it +split decently, honourably, and for cause. That it should split +now would, so far as I see, be ludicrous. +</p> + +<p> +So far I have been writing in great sympathy with you, but +now I touch a point where our lines have not been the same. +You have, I think, courted the hostility of Parnell. Salisbury +has carefully avoided doing this, and last night he simply confined +himself to two conditions, which you and I both think vital; +namely, the unity of the empire and an honourable regard to the +position of the <q>minority,</q> <hi rend='italic'>i.e.</hi> the landlords. You will see +in the newspapers what Parnell, <emph>making</emph> for himself an opportunity, is +reported to have said about the elections in Ulster now at hand. +You have opened a vista which appears to terminate in a possible +concession to Ireland of full power to manage her own local affairs. +But I own my leaning to the opinion that, if that consummation is +in any way to be contemplated, action at a stroke will be more +honourable, less unsafe, less uneasy, than the jolting process of a +series of partial measures. This is my opinion, but I have no +intention, as at present advised, of signifying it. I have all along +in public declarations avoided offering anything to the nationalists, +beyond describing the limiting rule which must govern the question. +It is for them to ask, and for us, as I think, to leave the space so +defined as open and unencumbered as possible. I am much struck +by the increased breadth of Salisbury's declaration last night; he +dropped the <q>I do not see how.</q> +</p> + +<p> +We shall see how these great and difficult matters develop themselves. +Meantime be assured that, with a good deal of misgiving +as to the future, I shall do what little I can towards enabling all +liberals at present to hold together with credit and good +conscience. +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<pb n='242'/><anchor id='Pg242'/> + +<div> +<head>V</head> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone's cardinal deliverance in November had been +preceded by an important event. On October 7, 1885, Lord +Salisbury made that speech at Newport, which is one of the +tallest and most striking landmarks in the shifting sands +of this controversy. It must be taken in relation to +Lord Carnarvon's declaration of policy on taking office, +and to his exchange of views with Mr. Parnell at the +end of July. Their first principle, said Lord Salisbury, +was to extend to Ireland, so far as they could, all the institutions +of this country. But one must remember that in +Ireland the population is on several subjects deeply divided, +and a government is bound 'on all matters of essential +justice' to protect a minority against a majority. Then +came remarkable sentences: <q>Local authorities are more +exposed to the temptation of enabling the majority to be +unjust to the minority when they obtain jurisdiction over a +small area, than is the case when the authority derives its +sanction and extends its jurisdiction over a wider area. In +a large central authority, the wisdom of several parts of the +country will correct the folly and mistakes of one. In a +local authority, that correction is to a much greater extent +wanting, and it would be impossible to leave that out of sight, +in any extension of any such local authority in Ireland.</q> +This principle was often used in the later controversy as a +recognition by Lord Salisbury that the creation of a great +central body would be a safer policy than the mere extension +of self-government in Irish counties. In another part of the +speech, it is true, the finger-post or weather-vane pointed in +the opposite direction. <q>With respect to the larger organic +questions connected with Ireland,</q> said Lord Salisbury, <q>I +cannot say much, though I can speak emphatically. I have +nothing to say but that the traditions of the party to which +we belong, are on this point clear and distinct, and you may +rely upon it our party will not depart from them.</q> Yet +this emphatic refusal to depart from the traditions of the +tory party did not prevent Lord Salisbury from retaining at +that moment in his cabinet an Irish viceroy, with whom he +<pb n='243'/><anchor id='Pg243'/> +<note place='margin'>Declarations From Lord Salisbury</note> +was in close personal relations, and whose active Irish policy +he must have known to be as wide a breach in tory tradition +as the mind of man can imagine. So hard is it in distracted +times, the reader may reflect, even for men of honourable +and lofty motive to be perfectly ingenuous. +</p> + +<p> +The speaker next referred to the marked way in which +Mr. Parnell, a day or two before, had mentioned the position +of Austro-Hungary. <q>I gathered that some notion of imperial +federation was floating in his mind. With respect to +Ireland, I am bound to say that I have never seen any plan +or any suggestion which gives me at present the slightest +ground for anticipating that it is in that direction that we +shall find any substantial solution of the difficulties of the +problem.</q> In an electric state of the political atmosphere, a +statesman who said that at present he did not think federal +home rule possible, was taken to imply that he might think +it possible, by-and-by. No door was closed. +</p> + +<p> +It was, however, Lord Salisbury's language upon social +order that gave most scandal to simple consciences in his +own ranks. You ask us, he said, why we did not renew the +Crimes Act. There are two answers: we could not, and +it would have done no good if we could. To follow the +extension of the franchise by coercion, would have been a +gross inconsistency. To show confidence by one act, and +the absence of confidence by a simultaneous act, would be +to stultify parliament. Your inconsistency would have provoked +such intense exasperation, that it would have led to +ten times more evil, ten times more resistance to the law, +than your Crimes Act could possibly have availed to check. +Then the audience was favoured with a philosophic view of +boycotting. This, said the minister, is an offence which +legislation has very great difficulty in reaching. The provisions +of the Crimes Act against it had a very small effect. +It grew up under that Act. And, after all, look at boycotting. +An unpopular man or his family go to mass. The +congregation with one accord get up and walk out. Are you +going to indict people for leaving church? The plain fact +is that boycotting <q>is more like the excommunication or +interdict of the middle ages, than anything that we know +<pb n='244'/><anchor id='Pg244'/> +now.</q> <q>The truth about boycotting is that it depends on the +passing humour of the population.</q> +</p> + +<p> +It is important to remember that in the month immediately +preceding this polished apologetic, there were +delivered some of the most violent boycotting speeches ever +made in Ireland.<note place='foot'>Some of them are set out in Special +Commission <hi rend='italic'>Report</hi>, pp. 99, 100.</note> +These speeches must have been known +to the Irish government, and their occurrence and the purport +of them must presumably have been known therefore +to the prime minister. Here was indeed a removal of +the ancient buoys and beacons that had hitherto guided +English navigation in Irish waters. There was even less of +a solid ultimatum at Newport, than in those utterances in +Midlothian which were at that time and long afterwards +found so culpably vague, blind, and elusive. Some of the +more astute of the minister's own colleagues were delighted +with his speech, as keeping the Irishmen steady to the tory +party. They began to hope that they might even come +within five-and-twenty of the liberals when the polling +began. +</p> + +<p> +The question on which side the Irish vote in Great +Britain should be thrown seems not to have been decided +until after Mr. Gladstone's speech. It was then speedily +settled. On Nov. 21 a manifesto was issued, handing over the +Irish vote in Great Britain solid to the orator of the Newport +speech. The tactics were obvious. It was Mr. Parnell's +interest to bring the two contending British parties as near +as might be to a level, and this he could only hope to do by +throwing his strength upon the weaker side. It was from +the weaker side, if they could be retained in office, that he +would get the best terms.<note place='foot'>See Mr. Gladstone upon these +tactics in his fifth Midlothian speech, +Nov. 24, 1885. Also in the seventh, +Nov. 28, pp. 159-60.</note> The document was composed with +vigour and astuteness. But the phrases of the manifesto were +the least important part of it. It was enough that the hard +word was passed. Some estimated the loss to the liberal +party in this island at twenty seats, others at forty. Whether +twenty or forty, these lost seats made a fatal difference in +the division on the Irish bill a few months later, and when +<pb n='245'/><anchor id='Pg245'/> +<note place='margin'>Irish Manifesto</note> +that day had come and gone, Mr. Parnell sometimes ruefully +asked himself whether the tactics of the electoral manifesto +were not on the whole a mistake. But this was not all and +was not the worst of it. The Irish manifesto became a fiery +element in a sharp electioneering war, and threw the liberals +in all constituencies where there was an Irish vote into a +direct and angry antagonism to the Irish cause and its +leaders; passions were roused, and things were said about +Irishmen that could not at once be forgotten; and the great +task of conversion in 1886, difficult in any case, was made +a thousand times more difficult still by the arguments and +antipathies of the electoral battle of 1885. Meanwhile it +was for the moment, and for the purposes of the moment, +a striking success. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='246'/><anchor id='Pg246'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter II. The Polls In 1885. (1885)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +I would say that civil liberty can have no security without political +power.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>C. J. Fox.</hi> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +The election ran a chequered course (Nov. 23-Dec. 19). +It was the first trial of the whole body of male householders, +and it was the first trial of the system of single-member +districts. This is not the place for a discussion of the change +of electoral area. As a scheme for securing representation of +minorities it proved of little efficacy, and many believe that +the substitution of a smaller constituency for a larger one has +tended to slacken political interest, and to narrow political +judgment. Meanwhile some of those who were most deeply +concerned in establishing the new plan, were confident that +an overwhelming liberal triumph would be the result. Many +of their opponents took the same view, and were in despair. +A liberal met a tory minister on the steps of a club in Pall +Mall, as they were both going to the country for their +elections. <q>I suppose,</q> said the tory, <q>we are out for twenty +years to come.</q> <foreign rend='italic'>O pectora cæca!</foreign> He has been in +office for nearly fifteen of the eighteen years since. In September one +of the most authoritative liberal experts did not see how the +tories were to have more than 210 out of the 670 seats, +including the tory contingent from Ireland. Two months +later the expert admitted that the tory chances were improving, +mainly owing to what in electioneering slang was called +the church scare. Fair trade, too, had made many converts +in Lancashire. On the very eve of the polls the estimate +at liberal headquarters was a majority of forty over tories +and Irishmen combined. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='247'/><anchor id='Pg247'/> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>In Midlothian</note> +As I should have told the reader on an earlier page, Mr. +Gladstone had proceeded to his own constituency on November +9. The previous month had found, as usual, endless other +interests to occupy him, quite apart from politics. These are +the ordinary entries. <q>Worked, say, five hours on books. Three +more hours reduced my books and rooms to apparent order, +but much detail remains. Worked mildly on books.</q> In this +region he would have said of disorder and disarray what Carlyle +said to dirt, <q>Thou shalt not abide with me.</q> As to the insides +of books, his reading was miscellaneous: Madame d'Arblay, +Bodley's <hi rend='italic'>Remains</hi>, Bachaumont's +<hi rend='italic'>Anecdotes</hi>, Cuvier's <hi rend='italic'>Theory +of the Earth</hi>, Whewell on <hi rend='italic'>Astronomy</hi>, +the <hi rend='italic'>Life of B. Gilpin</hi>, +Hennell's <hi rend='italic'>Inquiry</hi>, Schmidt's +<hi rend='italic'>Social Effects of Christianity</hi>, +Miss Martineau's <hi rend='italic'>Autobiography</hi>, +Anderson on <hi rend='italic'>Glory of the +Bible,</hi> Barrow's <hi rend='italic'>Towards the Truth</hi>, +and so on—many of the +books now stone-dead. Besides such reading as this, he +<q>made a beginning of a paper on Hermes, and read for it,</q> and +worked hard at a controversial article, in reply to M. Réville, +upon the Dawn of Creation and Worship. When he corrected +the proof, he found it ill-written, and in truth we may rather +marvel at, than admire, the hardihood that handled such +themes amid such distractions.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>, November 1885; reprinted in <hi rend='italic'>Later +Gleanings</hi>.</note> Much company arrived. +<q>Count Münster came to luncheon; long walk and talk with +him. The Derby-Bedford party came and went. I had an +hour's good conversation with Lord D. Tea in the open air. +<hi rend='italic'>Oct. 7.</hi>—Mr. Chamberlain came. Well, and much conversation. +<hi rend='italic'>Oct. 8.</hi>—Mr. Chamberlain. Three hours of conversation.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Before the end of the month the doctors reported excellently +of the condition of his vocal cords, and when he started for +Dalmeny and the scene of the exploits of 1880 once more, he +was in spirits to enjoy <q>an animated journey,</q> and the vast +enthusiasm with which Edinburgh again received him. His +speeches were marked by undiminished fire. He boldly +challenged a verdict on policy in the Soudan, while freely +admitting that in some points, not immaterial, his cabinet +had fallen into error, though in every case the error was +fostered by the party opposite; and he pointed to the vital +<pb n='248'/><anchor id='Pg248'/> +fact that though the party opposite were in good time, they +never dreamed of altering the policy. He asked triumphantly +how they would have fared in the Afghan dispute, if the +policy anterior to 1880 had not been repudiated. In his +address he took the same valiant line about South Africa. +<q>In the Transvaal,</q> he said, <q>we averted a war of European +and Christian races throughout South African states, which +would have been alike menacing to our power, and scandalous +in the face of civilisation and of Christendom. As this has +been with our opponents a favourite subject of unmeasured +denunciation, so I for one hail and reciprocate their challenge, +and I hope the nation will give a clear judgment on our +refusal to put down liberty by force, and on the measures +that have brought about the present tranquillity of South +Africa.</q> His first speech was on Ireland, and Ireland figured, +as we have seen, largely and emphatically to the last. Disestablishment +was his thorniest topic, for the scare of the +church in danger was working considerable havoc in England, +and every word on Scottish establishment was sure to be +translated to establishment elsewhere. On the day on which +he was to handle it, his entry is: <q>Much rumination, and +made notes which in speaking I could not manage to see. Off +to Edinburgh at 2.30. Back at 6. Spoke seventy minutes in +Free Kirk Hall: a difficult subject. The present agitation does +not strengthen in my mind the principle of establishment.</q> +His leading text was a favourite and a salutary maxim of +his, that <q>it is a very serious responsibility to take political +questions out of their proper time and their proper order,</q> +and the summary of his speech was that the party was agreed +upon certain large and complicated questions, such as were +enough for one parliament to settle, and that it would be an +error to attempt to thrust those questions aside, to cast them +into the shade and the darkness, <q>for the sake of a subject of +which I will not undervalue the importance, but of which I +utterly deny the maturity at the present moment.</q><note place='foot'>Speech +in the Free Assembly Hall, Nov. 11, 1885.</note> +</p> + +<p> +On Nov. 27 the poll was taken; 11,241 electors out of +12,924, or 87 per cent., recorded their votes, and of these +7879 voted for Mr. Gladstone, and 3248 for Mr. Dalrymple, +or a majority of 4631. So little impression had been made +<pb n='249'/><anchor id='Pg249'/> +<note place='margin'>First Days</note> +in Midlothian by Kilmainham, Majuba, Khartoum, Penjdeh, +and the other party cries of a later period. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +Let us turn to the general result, and the final composition +of Mr. Gladstone's thirteenth parliament. The +polls of the first three or four days were startling. It +looked, in the phrases of the time, as if there were conservative +reaction all round, as if the pendulum had swung +back to the point of tory triumph in 1874, and as if early +reverses would wind up in final rout. Where the tories did +not capture the seat, their numbers rose and the liberal +majorities fell. At the end of four days the liberals in +England and Wales had scored 86 against 109 for their +adversaries. When two-thirds of the House had been +elected, the liberals counted 196, the tories 179, and the +Irish nationalists 37. In spite of the early panic or exultation, +it was found that in boroughs of over 100,000 the +liberals had after all carried seventeen, against eight for +their opponents. But the tories were victorious in a solid +Liverpool, save one Irish seat; they won all the seats in +Manchester save one; and in London, where liberals had +been told by those who were believed to know, that they +would make a clean sweep, there were thirty-six tories +against twenty-six liberals. Two members of the late liberal +cabinet and three subordinate ministers were thrown out. +<q>The verdict of the English borough constituencies,</q> cried +the <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi>, <q>will be recorded more emphatically than was +even the case in 1874 in favour of the conservatives. The +opposition have to thank Mr. Chamberlain not only for +their defeat at the polls, but for the irremediable disruption +and hopeless disorganisation of the liberal party with its high +historic past and its high claims to national gratitude. His +achievement may give him such immortality as was won by +the man who burned down the temple of Diana at Ephesus.</q><note place='foot'>November +26, 1885.</note> +The same writers have ever since ascribed the irremediable +disruption to Mr. Gladstone and the Irish question. +</p> + +<p> +Now came the counties with their newly enfranchised +<pb n='250'/><anchor id='Pg250'/> +hosts. Here the tide flowed strong and steady. Squire and +parson were amazed to see the labourer, of whose stagnant +indifference to politics they had been so confident, trudging +four or five miles to a political meeting, listening without +asking for a glass of beer to political speeches, following +point upon-point, and then trudging back again dumbly +chewing the cud. Politicians with gifts of rhetoric began to +talk of the grand revolt of the peasants, and declared that it +was the most remarkable transformation since the conversion +of the Franks. Turned into prose, this meant that the +liberals had extended their area into large rural provinces +where hitherto tory supremacy had never been disputed. +Whether or no Mr. Chamberlain had broken the party in +the boroughs, his agrarian policy together with the natural +uprising of the labourer against the party of squire and +farmer, had saved it in the counties. The nominees of +such territorial magnates as the Northumberlands, the +Pembrokes, the Baths, the Bradfords, the Watkin Wynns, +were all routed, and the shock to territorial influence was +felt to be profound. An ardent agrarian reformer, who later +became a conspicuous unionist, writing to Mr. Gladstone in +July a description of a number of great rural gatherings, told +him, <q>One universal feature of these meetings is the joy, +affection, and unbounded applause with which your name is +received by these earnest men. Never in all your history had +you so strong a place in the hearts of the common people, +as you have to-day. It requires to be seen to be realised.</q> +</p> + +<p> +All was at last over. It then appeared that so far from +there being a second version of the great tory reaction +of 1874, the liberals had now in the new parliament a +majority over tories of 82, or thirty under the corresponding +majority in the year of marvel, 1880. In great Britain +they had a majority of 100, being 333 against +233.<note place='foot'><p><hi rend='italic'>Result of General Election of +1885</hi>:— +</p> +<p> +English and Welsh boroughs and universities, 93 L., 86 C., 1 P.<lb/> +Metropolis, 26, 36, 0<lb/> +English and Welsh counties, 152, 101, 0<lb/> +Scottish boroughs, 30, 3, 0<lb/> +Scottish counties, 32, 7, 0<lb/> +Ireland, 0, 18, 85<lb/> +Totals, 333 L., 251 C., 86 P.</p> +<p> +The following figures may also be found interesting:— +</p> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Election of 1868</hi>— +</p> +<p> +English and Welsh Liberals, 267<lb/> +Tories, 225<lb/> +Majority, 42 +</p> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>In 1880</hi>— +</p> +<p> +English and Welsh Liberals, 284<lb/> +Tories, 205<lb/> +Majority, 79 +</p> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>In 1885</hi>— +</p> +<p> +English and Welsh Liberals, 270<lb/> +Tories, 223<lb/> +Majority, 47 +</p></note> But +<pb n='251'/><anchor id='Pg251'/> +<note place='margin'>General Result</note> +they had no majority over tories and Irishmen combined. +That hopeful dream had glided away through the ivory gate. +</p> + +<p> +Shots between right wing and left of the liberal party +were exchanged to the very last moment. When the +borough elections were over, the Birmingham leader cried +that so far from the loss in the boroughs being all the +fault of the extreme liberals, it was just because the election +had not been fought on their programme, but was fought +instead on a manifesto that did not include one of the points +to which the extreme liberals attached the greatest importance. +For the sake of unity, they had put aside their +most cherished principles, disestablishment for instance, and +this, forsooth, was the result.<note place='foot'>Mr. Chamberlain +at Leicester, December 3, 1885.</note> The retort came as quickly +as thunder after the flash. Lord Hartington promptly protested +from Matlock, that the very crisis of the electoral +conflict was an ill-chosen moment for the public expression +of doubt by a prominent liberal as to the wisdom of a policy +accepted by the party, and announced by the acknowledged +leader of the whole party. When the party had found some +more tried, more trusted, more worthy leader, then might +perhaps be the time to impugn the policy. These reproachful +ironies of Lord Hartington boded ill for any prospect of +the heroes of this fratricidal war of the platform smoothing +their wrinkled fronts in a liberal cabinet. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +In Ireland the result shed a strong light on the debating +prophecies that the extension of the county franchise would +<pb n='252'/><anchor id='Pg252'/> +not be unfavourable to the landlord interest; that it would +enable the deep conservative interest of the peasantry to +vindicate itself against the nationalism of the towns; that it +would prove beyond all doubt that the Irish leader did not +really speak the mind of a decided majority of the people +of Ireland. Relying on the accuracy of these abstract +predictions, the Irish tories started candidates all over +the country. Even some of them who passed for shrewd +and candid actually persuaded themselves that they were +making an impression on the constituencies. The effect +of their ingenuous operations was to furnish such a measure +of nationalist strength, as would otherwise have seemed +incredible almost to the nationalists themselves. An instance +or two will suffice. In two divisions of Cork, the +tories polled 300 votes against nearly 10,000 for the +nationalists. In two divisions of Mayo, the tories polled +200 votes against nearly 10,000 for the nationalists. In +one division of Kilkenny there were 4000 nationalist votes +against 170 for the tory, and in another division 4000 +against 220. In a division of Kerry the nationalist had +over 3000 votes against 30 for the tory,—a hundred to +one. In prosperous counties with resident landlords and +a good class of gentry such as Carlow and Kildare, in one +case the popular vote was 4800 against 750, and in the other +3169 against 467. In some fifty constituencies the popular +majorities ranged in round numbers from 6500 the highest, +to 2400 the lowest. Besides these constituencies where a +contest was so futile, were those others in which no contest +was even attempted. +</p> + +<p> +In Ulster a remarkable thing happened. This favoured +province had in the last parliament returned nine liberals. +Lord Hartington attended a banquet at Belfast (Nov. 5) just +before the election. It was as unlucky an affair as the feast +of Belshazzar. His mission was compared by Orange wits +to that of the Greek hero who went forth to wrestle with +Death for the body of an old woman. The whole of the +liberal candidates in Ulster fell down as dead men. Orangemen +and catholics, the men who cried damnation to King +William and the men who cried <q>To hell with the Pope,</q> +joined hands against them. In Belfast itself, nationalists were +<pb n='253'/><anchor id='Pg253'/> +<note place='margin'>Extraordinary Results In Ireland</note> +seen walking to the booths with orange cards in their hats +to vote for orangemen against liberals.<note place='foot'>Macknight's +<hi rend='italic'>Ulster as it Is</hi>, ii. p. 108.</note> It is true that the +paradox did not last, and that the Pope and King William +were speedily on their old terms again. Within six months, +the two parties atoned for this temporary backsliding into +brotherly love, by one of the most furious and protracted +conflagrations that ever raged even in the holy places of +Belfast. Meanwhile nationalism had made its way in the +south of the province, partly by hopes of reduced rents, +partly by the energy of the catholic population, who had not +tasted political power for two centuries. The adhesion of +their bishops to the national movement in the Monaghan +election had given them the signal three years before. +Fermanagh, hitherto invariably Orange, now sent two +nationalists. Antrim was the single county out of the +thirty-two counties of Ireland that was solid against home +rule, and even in Antrim in one contest the nationalist was +beaten only by 35 votes. +</p> + +<p> +Not a single liberal was returned in the whole of Ireland. +To the last parliament she had sent fourteen. They were +all out bag and baggage. Ulster now sent eighteen nationalists +and seventeen tories. Out of the eighty-nine contests +in Ireland, Mr. Parnell's men won no fewer than eighty-five, +and in most of them they won by such overwhelming +majorities as I have described. It was noticed that twenty-two +of the persons elected, or more than one-fourth of the +triumphant party, had been put in prison under the Act of +1881. A species of purge, moreover, had been performed. +All half-hearted nationalists, the doubters and the faithless, +were dismissed, and their places taken by men pledged +either to obey or else go. +</p> + +<p> +The British public now found out on what illusions they +had for the last four years been fed. Those of them who +had memories, could recollect how the Irish secretary of +the day, on the third reading of the first Coercion bill in +1881, had boldly appealed from the Irish members to the +People of Ireland. <q>He was sure that he could appeal with +confidence from gentlemen sitting below the gangway +opposite to their constituents.</q><note place='foot'>Mr. +Forster, March 11, 1881.</note> They remembered all the +<pb n='254'/><anchor id='Pg254'/> +talk about Mr. Parnell and his followers being a mere handful +of men and not a political party at all, and the rest of it. +They had now a revelation what a fool's paradise it had been. +</p> + +<p> +As a supreme electoral demonstration, the Irish elections +of 1885 have never been surpassed in any country. They +showed that neither remedial measures nor repressive measures +had made even the fleeting shadow of an impression +on the tenacious sentiment of Ireland, or on the powerful +organisation that embodied and directed it. The Land Act +had made no impression. The two Coercion Acts had made +none. The imperial parliament had done its best for five +years. Some of the ablest of its ministers had set zealous +and intrepid hands to the task, and this was the end. +Whether you counted seats or counted votes, the result +could not be twisted into anything but what it was—the +vehement protest of one of the three kingdoms against the +whole system of its government, and a strenuous demand for +its reconstruction on new foundations. +</p> + +<p> +Endeavours were made to discredit so startling and unwelcome +a result. It was called <q>the carefully prepared +verdict of a shamefully packed jury.</q> Much was made of +the number of voters who declared themselves illiterate, +said to be compelled so to do in order that the priest or +other intimidatory person might see that they voted right. +As a matter of fact the percentage of illiterate voters +answered closely to the percentage of males over twenty-one +in the census returns, who could neither read nor write. +Only two petitions followed the general election, one at +Belfast against a nationalist, and the other at Derry against +a tory, and in neither of the two was undue influence or +intimidation alleged. The routed candidates in Ireland, like +the same unlucky species elsewhere, raised the usual chorus +of dolorous explanation. The register, they cried, was in +a shameful condition; the polling stations were too few or +too remote; the loyalists were afraid, and the poll did not +represent their real numbers; people did not believe that +the ballot was really secret; the percentage of illiterates was +monstrous; promises and pledges went for nothing. Such +are ever the too familiar voices of mortified electioneering. +</p> + +<pb n='255'/><anchor id='Pg255'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Mr. Parnell As Dictator</note> +There was also the best known of all the conclusive topics +from tory Ireland. It was all done, vowed the tories, by +the bishops and clergy; they were indefatigable; they +canvassed at the houses and presided at meetings; they +exhorted their flocks from the altar, and they drilled them +at the polling-booths. The spiritual screw of the priest and +the temporal screw of the league—there was the whole +secret. Such was the story, and it was not wholly devoid +of truth; but then what balm, what comfort, had even the +truth of it for British rulers? +</p> + +<p> +Some thousands of voters stayed away from the polls. +It was ingeniously explained that their confidence in +British rule had been destroyed by the Carnarvon +surrender; a shopkeeper would not offend his customers +for the sake of a Union Jack that no longer waved triumphant +in the breeze. They were like the Arab sheikhs at +Berber, who, when they found that the Egyptian pashas +were going to evacuate, went over to the Mahdi. The conventions +appointed to select the candidates were denounced +as the mere creatures of Mr. Parnell, the Grand Elector. +As if anything could have shown a more politic appreciation +of the circumstances. There are situations that require a +dictator, not to impose an opinion, but to kindle an aspiration; +not to shape a demand, but to be the effective organ of opinion +and demand. Now in the Irish view was one of those +situations. In the last parliament twenty-six seats were +held by persons designated nominal home rulers; in the +new parliament, not one. Every new nationalist member +pledged himself to resign whenever the parliamentary party +should call upon him. Such an instrument grasped in a +hand of iron was indispensable, first to compel the British +government to listen, and second, to satisfy any British +government disposed to listen, that in dealing with Mr. +Parnell they were dealing with nationalist Ireland, and with +a statesman who had the power to make his engagements +good. You need greater qualities, said Cardinal De Retz, +to be a good party leader than to be emperor of the +universe. Ireland is not that portion of the universe in which +this is least true. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='256'/><anchor id='Pg256'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter III. A Critical Month (December 1885)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +Whoever has held the post of minister for any considerable time +can never absolutely, unalterably maintain and carry out his +original opinions. He finds himself in the presence of situations +that are not always the same—of life and growth—in connection +with which he must take one course one day, and then, perhaps, +another on the next day. I could not always run straight ahead +like a cannon ball.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Bismarck.</hi> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +The month of December was passed by Mr. Gladstone at +Hawarden, in such depth of meditation as it is easy for us to +conjecture. The composition of his party, the new situation +in parliament, the mutual relations of important individuals, +the Irish case, his own share in respect of the Irish +case, the strange new departure in Irish policy announced +and acted upon by the subsisting cabinet—from all these +points of view it was now his business to survey the extraordinary +scene. The knot to be unravelled in 1886 was +hardly less entangled than that which engaged the powerful +genius of Pitt at the opening of the century. Stripped of +invidious innuendo, the words of Lord Salisbury a few weeks +later state with strength and truth the problem that now +confronted parliament and its chief men. <q>Up to the time,</q> +said the tory prime minister, <q>when Mr. Gladstone took +office, be it for good or evil, for many generations Ireland +had been governed through the influence and the action of +the landed gentry. I do not wish to defend that system. +There is a good deal to be said for it, and a good deal to be +said against it. What I wish to insist upon is, not that that +system was good, but that the statesman who undertook to +overthrow it, should have had something to put in its place. +<pb n='257'/><anchor id='Pg257'/> +He utterly destroyed it. By the Land Act of 1870, by the +Ballot Act of 1872, by the Land Act of 1881, and last of all +by the Reform bill of 1884, the power of the landed gentry +in Ireland is absolutely shattered; and he now stands before +the formidable problem of a country deprived of a system of +government under which it had existed for many generations, +and absolutely without even a sketch of a substitute +by which the ordinary functions of law and order can be +maintained. Those changes which he introduced into the +government of Ireland were changes that were admirable +from a parliamentary point of view. They were suited to +the dominant humour of the moment. But they were +barren of any institutions by which the country could be +governed and kept in prosperity for the future.</q><note place='foot'>Lord +Salisbury, at a dinner given +in London to the four conservative +members for Hertfordshire, February +17, 1886.</note> This is +a statement of the case that biographer and historian alike +should ponder. Particularly should they remember that +both parties had renounced coercion. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone has publicly explained the working of his +mind, and both his private letters at the time, and many a +conversation later, attest the hold which the new aspect, +however chimerical it may now seem to those who do not +take long views, had gained upon him. He could not be +blind to the fact that the action and the language of the +tory ministers during the last six months had shown an +unquestionable readiness to face the new necessities of a complex +situation with new methods. Why should not a solution +of the present difficulties be sought in the same co-operation +of parties, that had been as advantageous as it was indispensable +in other critical occasions of the century? He +recalled other leading precedents of national crisis. There +was the repeal of the Test Act in 1828; catholic emancipation +in 1829; the repeal of the corn law in 1846; the +extension of the franchise in 1867. In the history of these +memorable transactions, Mr. Gladstone perceived it to be +extremely doubtful whether any one of these measures, all +carried as they were by tory governments, could have become +law except under the peculiar conditions which secured for +<pb n='258'/><anchor id='Pg258'/> +each of them both the aid of the liberal vote in the House +of Commons, and the authority possessed by all tory governments +in the House of Lords. What was the situation? +The ministerial party just reached the figure of two hundred +and fifty-one. Mr. Gladstone had said in the course of +the election that for a government in a minority to deal +with the Irish question would not be safe, such an operation +could not but be attended by danger; but the tender of +his support to Lord Salisbury was a demonstration that he thought the operation +might still properly be undertaken.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Special +Aspects of the Irish Question</hi>, p. 18.</note> +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Herbert Gladstone.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>December 10, 1885.</hi>—1. The nationalists have run in political +alliance with the tories for years; more especially for six months; +most of all at the close during the elections, when <emph>they</emph> have made +us 335 (say) against 250 [conservatives] instead of 355 against 230. +This alliance is therefore at its zenith. 2. The question of Irish +government ought for the highest reasons to be settled at once, and +settled by the allied forces, (1) because they have the government, +(2) because their measure will have fair play from all, most, or many +of us, which a measure of ours would not have from the tories. 3. As +the allied forces are half the House, so that there is not a majority +against them, no constitutional principle is violated by allowing +the present cabinet to continue undisturbed for the purpose in +view. 4. The plan for Ireland ought to be produced by the +government of the day. Principles may be laid down by others, +but not the detailed interpretation of them in a measure. I have +publicly declared I produce no plan until the government has +arrived at some issue with the Irish, as I hope they will. 5. If +the moment ever came when a plan had to be considered with a +view to production on behalf of the liberal party, I do not at +present see how such a question could be dissociated from another +vital question, namely, who are to be the government. For a +government alone can carry a measure, though some outline of +essentials might be put out in a motion or resolution. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +Happening in these days to meet in the neighbouring +<pb n='259'/><anchor id='Pg259'/> +<note place='margin'>Proffer Of Support</note> +palace of a whig magnate, Mr. Balfour, a young but even +then an important member of the government, with whom +as a veteran with a junior of high promise he had long +been on terms of friendly intimacy, Mr. Gladstone began +an informal conversation with him upon the condition of +Ireland, on the stir that it was making in men's minds, +and on the urgency of the problem. The conversation he +followed up by a letter (Dec. 20). Every post, he said, bore +him testimony to the growing ferment. In urging how +great a calamity it would be if so vast a question should +fall into the lines of party conflict, he expressed his desire +to see it taken up by the government, and to be able, with +reserve of necessary freedom, to co-operate in their design. +Mr. Balfour replied with courteous scepticism, but promised +to inform Lord Salisbury. The tactical computation was +presumably this, that Lord Salisbury would lose the Orange +group from Ireland and the extreme tories in England, but +would keep the bulk of his party. On the other hand, Mr. +Gladstone in supporting a moderate home rule would drop +some of the old whigs and some of the extreme radicals, but +he too would keep the bulk of the liberal party. Therefore, +even if Mr. Parnell and his followers should find the scheme +too moderate to be endurable, still Lord Salisbury with Mr. +Gladstone's help would settle the Irish question as Peel +with the help of the whigs settled the question of corn. +</p> + +<p> +Both at the time and afterwards Mr. Gladstone was wont +to lay great stress upon the fact that he had opened this suggestion +and conveyed this proffer of support. For instance, +he writes to Lord Hartington (Dec. 20): <q>On Tuesday I +had a conversation with Balfour at Eaton, which in conformity +with my public statements, I think, conveyed informally +a hope that they would act, as the matter is so serious, and +as its becoming a party question would be a great national +calamity. I have written to him to say (without speaking +for others) that if they can make a proposal for the purpose +of settling definitely the question of Irish government, I +shall wish with proper reserves to treat it in the spirit in +which I have treated Afghanistan and the Balkan Peninsula.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The language of Lord Carnarvon when he took office and +<pb n='260'/><anchor id='Pg260'/> +of Lord Salisbury at Newport, coupled with the more substantial +fact of the alliance between tories and nationalists +before and during the election, no doubt warranted Mr. +Gladstone's assumption that the alliance might continue, +and that the talk of a new policy had been something more +than an electioneering manœuvre. Yet the importance that +he always attached to his offer of support for a definite +settlement, or in plainer English, some sort of home rule, +implies a certain simplicity. He forgot in his patriotic zeal +the party system. The tory leader, capable as his public +utterances show of piercing the exigencies of Irish government +to the quick, might possibly, in the course of responsible +consultations with opponents for a patriotic purpose, +have been drawn by argument and circumstance on to the +ground of Irish autonomy, which he had hitherto considered, +and considered with apparent favour, only in the dim distance +of abstract meditation or through the eyes of Lord +Carnarvon. The abstract and intellectual temperament is +sometimes apt to be dogged and stubborn; on the other +hand, it is often uncommonly elastic. Lord Salisbury's clear +and rationalising understanding might have been expected +to carry him to a thoroughgoing experiment to get rid of a +deep and inveterate disorder. If he thought it politic to +assent to communication with Mr. Parnell, why should he +not listen to overtures from Mr. Gladstone? On the other +hand, Lord Salisbury's hesitation in facing the perils of +an Irish settlement in reliance upon the co-operation of +political opponents is far from being unintelligible. His +inferior parliamentary strength would leave him at the +mercy of an extremely formidable ally. He may have +anticipated that, apart from the ordinary temptations of +every majority to overthrow a minority, all the strong +natural impulses of the liberal leader, his vehement sympathy +with the principle of nationality, the irresistible +attraction for him of all the grand and eternal commonplaces +of liberty and self-government, would inevitably +carry him much further on the Irish road than either Lord +Salisbury himself may have been disposed to travel, or than +he could be sure of persuading his party to follow. He may +<pb n='261'/><anchor id='Pg261'/> +<note place='margin'>Leaders At Hawarden</note> +well have seen grounds for pause before committing himself +to so delicate and precarious an enterprise. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +Early in December Lord Granville was at Hawarden, and +the two discussed the crucial perplexities of the hour, not +going further than agreement that responsibility lay with +the government, and that the best chance for settlement +lay in large concession. From Hawarden Lord Granville +went to Chatsworth, where he found Lord Spencer on his +way to visit Mr. Gladstone; but nothing important passed +among the three leaders thus brought together under the +roof of Lord Hartington. Lord Granville imparted to Lord +Spencer and Lord Hartington that Mr. Gladstone was full +of Ireland in the direction of some large concession of self-government. +The host discussed the thing dispassionately +without much expression of opinion. Proceeding to Hawarden, +Lord Spencer was there joined by Lord Rosebery. Their +chief repeated to them the propositions already stated +(p. <ref target='Pg258'>258</ref>). Mr. Gladstone wrote to Lord Granville (Dec. 9): +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +You have, I think, acted very prudently in not returning here. +It would have been violently canvassed. Your report is as +favourable as could be expected. I think my conversations with +Rosebery and Spencer have also been satisfactory. What I expect +is a healthful, slow fermentation in many minds, working towards +the final product. It is a case of between the devil and the deep +sea. But our position is a bed of roses, compared with that of +the government.... +</quote> + +<p> +Lord Spencer was hardly second in weight to Mr. Gladstone +himself. His unrivalled experience of Irish administration, +his powers of firm decision in difficult circumstances, and +the impression of high public spirit, uprightness, and fortitude, +which had stamped itself deep upon the public mind, +gave him a force of moral authority in an Irish crisis that +was unique. He knew the importance of a firm and continuous +system in Ireland. Such a system he had inflexibly +carried out. Extreme concessions had been extorted from +him by the radicals in the cabinet, and when the last moment +<pb n='262'/><anchor id='Pg262'/> +of the eleventh hour had arrived, it looked as if he would +break up the government by insisting. Then the government +was turned out, and the party of <q>law and order</q> came +in. He saw his firm and continuous system at the first +opportunity flouted and discarded. He was aware, as +officials and as the public were aware, that his successor +at Dublin Castle made little secret that he had come over +to reverse the policy. Lord Spencer, too, well knew in the +last months of his reign at Dublin that his own system, +in spite of outward success, had made no mark upon Irish +disaffection. It is no wonder that after his visit to Hawarden, +he laboured hard at consideration of the problem +that the strange action of government on the one hand, +and the speculations of a trusted leader on the other, had +forced upon him. On Mr. Gladstone he pressed the question +whether a general support should be given to Irish autonomy +as a principle, before particulars were matured. In any case +he perceived that the difficulty of governing Ireland might +well be increased by knowledge of the mere fact that Mr. +Gladstone and himself, whether in office or in opposition, +were looking in the direction of autonomy. Somebody said +to Mr. Gladstone, people talked about his turning Spencer +round his thumb. <q>It would be more true,</q> he replied, <q>that +he had turned me round his.</q> That is, I suppose, by the +lessons of Lord Spencer's experience. +</p> + +<p> +In the middle of the month Lord Hartington asked Mr. +Gladstone for information as to his views and intentions on +the Irish question as developed by the general election. The +rumours in the newspapers, he said, as well as in private +letters, were so persistent that it was hard to believe them +without foundation. Mr. Gladstone replied to Lord Hartington +in a letter of capital importance in its relation to the +prospects of party union (Dec. 17):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Hartington.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +The whole stream of public excitement is now turned upon me, +and I am pestered with incessant telegrams which I have no +defence against, but either suicide or Parnell's method of self-concealment. +The truth is, I have more or less of opinions and ideas, +<pb n='263'/><anchor id='Pg263'/> +but no intentions or negotiations. In these ideas and opinions +there is, I think, little that I have not more or less conveyed in +public declarations; in principle nothing. I will try to lay them +before you. I consider that Ireland has now spoken; and that an +effort ought to be made <emph>by the government</emph> without delay to meet +her demands for the management by an Irish legislative body of +Irish as distinct from imperial affairs. Only a government can +do it, and a tory government can do it more easily and safely than +any other. There is first a postulate that the state of Ireland +shall be such as to warrant it. The conditions of an admissible +plan are— +</p> + +<p> +1. Union of the empire and due supremacy of parliament. +</p> + +<p> +2. Protection for the minority—a difficult matter on which I +have talked much with Spencer, certain points, however, remaining +to be considered. +</p> + +<p> +3. Fair allocation of imperial charges. +</p> + +<p> +4. A statutory basis seems to me better and safer than the +revival of Grattan's parliament, but I wish to hear much more +upon this, as the minds of men are still in so crude a state on the +whole subject. +</p> + +<p> +5. Neither as opinions nor as instructions have I to any one +alive promulgated these ideas as decided on by me. +</p> + +<p> +6. As to intentions, I am determined to have none at present, to +leave space to the government—I should wish to encourage them +if I properly could—above all, on no account to say or do anything +which would enable the nationalists to establish rival biddings +between us. If this storm of rumours continues to rage, it may +be necessary for me to write some new letter to my constituents, +but I am desirous to do nothing, simply leaving the field open for +the government until time makes it necessary to decide. Of our +late colleagues I have had most communication with Granville, +Spencer, Rosebery. Would you kindly send this on to Granville? +</p> + +<p> +I think you will find this in conformity with my public +declarations, though some blanks are filled up. I have in truth +thought it my duty without in the least committing myself or +any one else, to think through the subject as well as I could, being +equally convinced of its urgency and bigness. If H. and N. are +with you, pray show them this letter, which is a very hasty one, +<pb n='264'/><anchor id='Pg264'/> +for I am so battered with telegrams that I hardly know whether +I stand on my head or my heels.... +</p> + +<p> +With regard to the letter I sent you, my opinion is that there +is a Parnell party and a separation or civil war party, and the +question which is to have the upper hand will have to be decided +in a limited time. My earnest recommendation to everybody is +not to commit himself. Upon this rule, under whatever pressure, +I shall act as long as I can. There shall be no private negotiation +carried on by me, but the time may come when I shall be obliged +to speak publicly. Meanwhile I hope you will keep in free and +full communication with old colleagues. Pray put questions if +this letter seems ambiguous.... +</p> + +<p> +Pray remember that I am at all times ready for personal communication, +should you think it desirable. +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +Before receiving this letter, Lord Hartington was startled, +as all the world was, to come on something in the newspapers +that instantly created a new situation. Certain prints +published on December 17 what was alleged to be Mr. +Gladstone's scheme for an Irish settlement.<note place='foot'>These +statements first appeared +in the <hi rend='italic'>Leeds Mercury</hi> and the <hi rend='italic'>Standard</hi> +on Dec. 17, and in a communication +from the National Press Agency issued +on the night of Dec. 16. They were +not published in the <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi> and other +London morning papers until Dec. 18. +Mr. Gladstone's telegram was printed +in the evening papers on Dec. 17.</note> It proposed in +terms the creation of an Irish parliament. Further particulars +were given in detail, but with these we need not concern +ourselves. The Irish parliament was enough. The public +mind, bewildered as it was by the situation that the +curious issue of the election had created, was thrown by +this announcement into extraordinary commotion. The +facts are these. Mr. Herbert Gladstone visited London at +this time (Dec. 14), partly in consequence of a speech made +a few days before by Sir C. Dilke, and of the club talk which +the speech had set going. It was taken to mean that he +and Mr. Chamberlain, the two radical leaders, thought that +such an Irish policy as might be concocted between Mr. +Gladstone and Mr. Parnell would receive no general support +from the liberal party, and that it would be much safer to +<pb n='265'/><anchor id='Pg265'/> +<note place='margin'>Reports From Hawarden</note> +leave the tories in power, in the expectation that some +moderate measures of reform might be got from them, and +that meanwhile they would become committed with the +Irishmen. Tactics of this kind were equivalent to the +exclusion of Mr. Gladstone, for in every letter that he wrote +he pronounced the Irish question urgent. Mr. Herbert +Gladstone had not been long in London before the impression +became strong upon him, that in the absence of a +guiding hint upon the Irish question, the party might be +drifting towards a split. Under this impression he had a +conversation with the chief of an important press agency, +who had previously warned him that the party was all at +sea. To this gentleman, in an interview at which no notes +were taken and nothing read from papers—so little formal +was it—he told his own opinions on the assumed opinions +of Mr. Gladstone, all in general terms, and only with the +negative view of preventing friendly writers from falling +into traps. Unluckily it would seem to need at least the +genius of a Bismarck, to perform with precision and success +the delicate office of inspiring a modern oracle on +the journalistic tripod. Here, what was intended to be a +blameless negative soon swelled, as the oracular fumes are +wont to do, into a giant positive. In conversations with +another journalist, who was also his private friend (Dec. 15), +he used language which the friend took to justify the pretty +unreserved announcement that Mr. Gladstone was about to +set to work in earnest on home rule. +</p> + +<p> +<q>With all these matters,</q> Mr. Herbert Gladstone wrote to a +near relative at the time, <q>my father had no more connection +than the man in the moon, and until each event occurred, he +knew no more of it than the man in the street.</q> Mr. Gladstone +on the same day (Dec. 17) told the world by telegraph +that the statement was not an accurate representation of +his views, but a speculation upon them; he added that it +had not been published with his knowledge or authority. +There can be no doubt, whatever else may be said, that +the publication was neither to his advantage, nor in conformity +with his view of the crisis. No statesman in our +history has ever been more careful of the golden rule of +<pb n='266'/><anchor id='Pg266'/> +political strategy—to neglect of which Frederick the Great +traced the failure of Joseph II.—not to take the second +step before you have taken the first. Neither scheme nor +intention had yet crystallised in his mind. Never was there +a moment when every consideration of political prudence +more imperatively counselled silence. Mr. Gladstone's denial +of all responsibility was not found to be an explicit contradiction; +it was a repudiation of the two newspapers, but it +was not a repudiation of an Irish parliament. Therefore +people believed the story the more. Friends and foes became +more than ever alert, excited, alarmed, and in not a +few cases vehemently angry. This unauthorised publication +with the qualified denial, placed Mr. Gladstone in the very +position which he declared that he would not take up; it +made him a trespasser on ground that belonged to the +government. Any action on his part would in his own +view not only be unnecessary; it would be unwarrantable; +it would be in the highest degree injurious and mischievous.<note place='foot'>Speech +on the Address, January 21, 1886.</note> +Yet whatever it amounted to, some of this very injury and +mischief followed. +</p> + +<p> +Lord Hartington no sooner saw what was then called the +Hawarden kite flying in the sky, than he felt its full significance. +He at once wrote to Mr. Gladstone, partly in reply +to the letter of the 17th already given, and pointed with +frankness to what would follow. No other subject would be +discussed until the meeting of parliament, and it would be +discussed with the knowledge, or what would pass for +knowledge, that in Mr. Gladstone's opinion the time for +concession to Ireland had arrived, and that concession was +practicable. In replying to his former letter Mr. Gladstone +had invited personal communication, and Lord Hartington +thought that he might in a few days avail himself of it, +though (December 18) he feared that little advantage would +follow. In spite of urgent arguments from wary friends, +Lord Hartington at once proceeded to write to his chairman +in Lancashire (December 20), informing the public that no +proposals of liberal policy on the Irish demand had been +communicated to him; for his own part he stood to what +<pb n='267'/><anchor id='Pg267'/> +<note place='margin'>Notes Of Conflict</note> +he said, at the election. This letter was the first bugle note +of an inevitable conflict between Mr. Gladstone and those +who by and by became the whig dissentients. +</p> + +<p> +To Lord Hartington resistance to any new Irish policy +came easily, alike by temperament and conviction. Mr. +Chamberlain was in a more embarrassing position; and his +first speech after the election showed it. <q>We are face to +face,</q> he said, <q>with a very remarkable demonstration by +the Irish people. They have shown that as far as regards +the great majority of them, they are earnestly in favour of +a change in the administration of their government, and of +some system which would give them a larger control of their +domestic affairs. Well, we ourselves by our public declarations +and by our liberal principles are pledged to acknowledge +the justice of this claim.</q> What was the important +point at the moment, Mr. Chamberlain declared that in his +judgment the time had hardly arrived when the liberal party +could interfere safely or with advantage to settle this great +question. <q>Mr. Parnell has appealed to the tories. Let +him settle accounts with his new friends. Let him test +their sincerity and goodwill; and if he finds that he has +been deceived, he will approach the liberal party in a spirit +of reason and conciliation.</q><note place='foot'>At the +Birmingham Reform Club, Dec. 17, 1885.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Translated into the language of parliamentary action, this +meant that the liberals, with a majority of eighty-two over +the tories, were to leave the tory minority undisturbed in +office, on the chance of their bringing in general measures +of which liberals could approve, and making Irish proposals +to which Mr. Parnell, in the absence of competition for his +support, might give at least provisional assent. In principle, +these tactics implied, whether right or wrong, the old-fashioned +union of the two British parties against the +Irish. Were the two hundred and fifty tories to be left +in power, to carry out all the promises of the general +election, and fulfil all the hopes of a new parliament chosen +on a new system? The Hawarden letter-bag was heavy +with remonstrances from newly elected liberals against any +such course. +</p> + +<pb n='268'/><anchor id='Pg268'/> + +<p> +Second only to Mr. Gladstone in experience of stirring +and perilous positions, Lord Granville described the situation +to one of his colleagues as nothing less than <q>thoroughly +appalling.</q> A great catastrophe, he said, might easily result +from any of the courses open: from the adoption of coercion +by either government or opposition; from the adoption by +either of concession; from the attempt to leave the state of +Ireland as it was. If, as some think, a great catastrophe +did in the end result from the course that Mr. Gladstone +was now revolving in his own mind at Hawarden, and that +he had commended to the meditations of his most important +colleagues, what alternative was feasible? +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +The following letters set out the various movements in a +drama that was now day by day, through much confusion +and bewilderment, approaching its climax. +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Granville.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>December 18, '85.</hi>—... Thinking incessantly about the matter, +speaking freely and not with finality to you, and to Rosebery and +Spencer—the only colleagues I have seen—I have trusted to +writing to Hartington (who had had Harcourt and Northbrook +with him) and to you for Derby. +</p> + +<p> +If I have made <emph>any</emph> step in advance at all, which I am not sure of, +it has most certainly been in the direction of leaving the field open +for the government, encouraging them to act, and steadily refusing +to say or do <emph>anything</emph> like negotiation on my own behalf. So +I think Derby will see that in the main I am certainly with him.... What +will Parnell do? What will the government do? +How can we decide without knowing or trying to know, both if +we can, but at any rate the second? This letter is at your discretion +to use in proper quarters. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>December 22.</hi>—In the midst of these troubles, I look to you as +the great feud-composer, and your note just received is just what +I should have hoped and expected. Hartington wrote to me on +Saturday that he was going up to see Goschen, but as I thought +inviting a letter from me, which I wrote [December 17, above], +and it was with no small surprise that I read him yesterday in +<pb n='269'/><anchor id='Pg269'/> +the <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi>. However, I repeated yesterday to R. Grosvenor all +that I have said to you about what seems to me the plain duty of +the <emph>party</emph>, in the event of a severance between nationalists and +tories. Meantime I care not who knows my anxiety to prevent that +severance, and for that reason among others to avoid all communications +of ideas and intentions which could tend to bring it about. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +On December 27, Lord Granville wrote to Mr. Gladstone +at Hawarden:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I have been asked to request you to call a cabinet of your late +colleagues to discuss the present state of affairs. I have declined, +giving my reasons, which appear to me to be good. At the same +time, I think it would calm some fussiness that exists, if you let +it be known to a few that you will be in town and ready for consultation, +before the actual meeting. +</quote> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone answered, as those acquainted with his +modes of mind might have been sure that he would:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>December 28.</hi>—Thank you for stopping the request to which +your letter of yesterday refers. A cabinet does not exist out of +office, and no one in his senses could covenant to call <emph>the late +cabinet</emph> together, I think, even if there were something on which +it was ready to take counsel, which at this moment there is not. +On the other hand, you will have seen from my letter that the +idea before me has been that of going unusual lengths in the way +of consulting beforehand, not only leading men but the party, or +undertaking some special obligation to be assured of their concurrence +generally, before undertaking new responsibilities. +</p> + +<p> +The one great difficulty in proceeding to consult now, I think, +is that we cannot define the situation for ourselves, as an essential +element of it is the relation between nationalists and tories, which +they—not we—have to settle. If we meet on Tuesday 12th to +choose a Speaker, so far as I can learn, regular business will not +begin before the 19th. By the 12th we shall have given ourselves +a much better chance of knowing how the two parties stand together; +and there will be plenty of time for our consultations. +Thus at least I map out the time; pray give me any comments +you think required. +</p> + +<pb n='270'/><anchor id='Pg270'/> + +<p> +I begged you to keep Derby informed; would you kindly do +the same with Harcourt? Rosebery goes to London to-morrow. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +Two days before this resistance to the request for a +meeting, he had written to Lord Granville with an important +enclosure:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>December 26, 1885.</hi>—I have put down on paper in a memorandum +as well as I can, the possible forms of the question which +may have to be decided at the opening of the session. I went +over the ground in conversation with you, and afterwards with +R. Grosvenor, and I requested R. Grosvenor, who was going to +London, to speak to Hartington in that sense. After his recent +act of publication, I should not like to challenge him by sending +him the written paper. Please, however, to send it on to Spencer, +who will send it back to me. +</quote> + +<p> +The memorandum itself must here be quoted, for it sets +out in form, succinct, definite, and exhaustive, the situation +as Mr. Gladstone at that time regarded it:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Secret.</hi> +<hi rend='italic'>Hawarden Castle, Chester, Dec. 26, 1885.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +1. Government should act. +</p> + +<p> +2. Nationalists should support them in acting. +</p> + +<p> +3. I have done what I can to bring about (1). I am confident +the nationalists know my desire. They also publicly know there +can be no plan from me in the present circumstances. +</p> + +<p> +4. If (1) and (2) come about, we, who are half the House of +Commons, may under the circumstances be justified in waiting for +the production of a plan. +</p> + +<p> +5. This would be in every sense the best situation. +</p> + +<p> +6. But if ministers refuse to take up the question—or if from +their not actually taking it up, or on any grounds, the nationalists +publicly dissolve their alliance with them, the government then +have a party of 250 in the face of 420, and in the face of 335 +who were elected to oppose them. +</p> + +<p> +7. The basis of our system is that the ministry shall have the +confidence of the House of Commons. The exception is, when it +is about to appeal to the people. The rule applies most strongly +when an election has just taken place. Witness 1835, 1841, 1859, +<pb n='271'/><anchor id='Pg271'/> +and the <emph>three</emph> last elections, after each of which, the rule has been +acted upon, silent inference standing instead of a vote. +</p> + +<p> +8. The present circumstances warrant, I think, an understanding +as above, between ministers and the nationalists; but not one +between us and the nationalists. +</p> + +<p> +9. If from any cause the alliance of the tories and nationalists +which did exist, and presumably does exist, should be known to +be dissolved, I do not see how it is possible for what would then +be the liberal majority to shrink from the duty appertaining to it +as such, and to leave the business of government to the 250 men +whom it was elected to oppose. +</p> + +<p> +10. This looks towards an amendment to the Address, praying +her Majesty to choose ministers possessed of the confidence of the +House of Commons. +</p> + +<p> +11. Which under the circumstances should, I think, have the +sanction of a previous meeting of the party. +</p> + +<p> +12. An attempt would probably be made to traverse the proceeding +by drawing me on the Irish question. +</p> + +<p> +13. It is impossible to justify the contention that as <emph>a condition +previous</emph> to asserting the right and duty of a parliamentary majority, +the party or the leaders should commit themselves on a measure +about which they can form no final judgment, until by becoming +the government they can hold all the necessary communications. +</p> + +<p> +14. But in all likelihood jealousy will be stronger than logic; +and to obviate such jealousy, it might be right for me [to go] to +the very farthest allowable point. +</p> + +<p> +15. The case supposed is, the motion made—carried—ministers +resign—Queen sends for me. +</p> + +<p> +Might I go so far as to say at the first meeting that in the case +supposed, I should only accept the trust if assured of the adequate, +that is of the general, support of the party to a plan of duly +guarded home rule? +</p> + +<p> +16. If that support were withheld, it would be my duty to +stand aside. +</p> + +<p> +17. In that event it would, I consider, become the duty of that +portion of the party, which was not prepared to support me in +an effort to frame a plan of duly guarded home rule, to form a +government itself if invited by the Queen to do so. +</p> + +<pb n='272'/><anchor id='Pg272'/> + +<p> +18. With me the Irish question would of course remain paramount; +but preferring a liberal government without an adequate +Irish measure to a tory government similarly lacking, such a +liberal government would be entitled to the best general support +I could give it. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +The reference of this memorandum to Lords Granville +and Spencer was regarded as one of the first informal +steps towards a consultation of leaders. On receiving Lord +Spencer's reply on the point of procedure Mr. Gladstone +wrote to him (December 30):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Spencer.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +I understand your idea to be that inasmuch as leaders of the +party are likely to be divided on the subject of a bold Irish +measure, and a divergence might be exhibited in a vote on the +Address, it may be better to allow the tory government, with +250 supporters in a house of 670, to assume the direction of the +session and continue the administration of imperial affairs. I do +not undervalue the dangers of the other course. But let us look +at this one— +</p> + +<p> +1. It is an absolute novelty. +</p> + +<p> +2. Is it not a novelty which strikes at the root of our parliamentary +government? under which the first duty of a majority +freshly elected, according to a uniform course of precedent and +a very clear principle, is to establish a government which has its +confidence. +</p> + +<p> +3. Will this abdication of primary duty avert or materially +postpone the (apprehended) disruption of the party? Who can +guarantee us against an Irish or independent amendment to the +Address? The government must in any case produce at once +their Irish plan. What will have been gained by waiting for it? +The Irish will know three things—(1) That I am conditionally in +favour of at least examining their demand. (2) That from the +nature of the case, I must hold this question paramount to every +interest of party. (3) That a part, to speak within bounds, of the +liberal party will follow me in this respect. Can it be supposed +that in these circumstances they will long refrain, or possibly +refrain at all? With their knowledge of possibilities behind them, +<pb n='273'/><anchor id='Pg273'/> +<emph>dare</emph> they long refrain? An immense loss of dignity in a great +crisis of the empire would attend the forcing of our hands by +the Irish or otherwise. There is no necessity for an instant +decision. My desire is thoroughly to shake up all the materials +of the question. The present leaning of my mind is to consider +the faults and dangers of abstention greater than those of a more +decided course. Hence, in part, my great anxiety that the present +government should move. Please send this on to Granville. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +Finding Mr. Gladstone immovable at Hawarden, four of +the members of the last liberal cabinet of both wings met at +Devonshire House on New Year's day. All, save one, found +themselves hopeless, especially after the Hawarden revelations, +as to the possibility of governing Ireland by mere +repression. Lord Hartington at once communicated the +desires of the conclave for information of his views and +designs. Mr. Gladstone replied (January 2, 1886):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +On the 17th December I communicated to you <emph>all</emph> the opinions +I had formed on the Irish question. But on the 21st you +published in the <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi> a re-affirmation of opposite opinions. +</p> + +<p> +On the Irish question, I have not a word to add to that letter. +I am indeed doing what little the pressure of correspondence +permits, to prepare myself by study and reflection. My object +was to facilitate study by you and others—I cannot say it was +wholly gained. But I have done nothing, and shall do nothing, +to convert those opinions into intentions, for I have not the +material before me. I do not know whether my <q>postulate</q> is +satisfied.... I have taken care by my letter of the 17th that +you should know my opinions <hi rend='italic'>en bloc</hi>. You are quite welcome to +show it, if you think fit, to those whom you met. But Harcourt +has, I believe, seen it, and the others, if I mistake not, know the +substance.... There is no doubt that a very grave situation is +upon us, a little sooner or a little later. All my desire and +thought was how to render it less grave, for next to the demands +of a question far higher than all or any party interests, is my duty +to labour for the consolidation of the party.... Pray show this +letter, if you think fit, to those on whose behalf you write. I +propose to be available in London about 4 <hi rend='smallcaps'>p.m.</hi>, for any who wish +to see me. +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<pb n='274'/><anchor id='Pg274'/> + +<div> +<head>V</head> + +<p> +Signals and intimations were not wholly wanting from +the Irish camp. It was known among the subalterns in that +rather impenetrable region, partly by the light of nature, +partly by the indiscretions of dubiously accredited ambassadors, +that Mr. Gladstone was not disposed on any terms to +meet the Irish demand by more coercion. For the liberal +party as a whole the Irish had a considerable aversion. The +violent scenes that attended the Coercion bill of 1881, the +interchange of hard words, the suspensions, the imprisonments—all +mechanically acquiesced in by the ministerial +majority—had engendered both bitterness and contempt. +The Irishmen did not conceal the satisfaction with which +they saw the defeat of some of those liberals who had +openly gloated over their arrests and all the rest of their +humiliations. Mr. Gladstone, it is true, had laid a heavy +and chastening hand upon them. Yet, even when the +struggle had been fiercest, with the quick intuition of a +people long oppressed, they detected a note of half-sympathetic +passion which convinced them that he would be +their friend if he could, and would help them when he might. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Parnell was not open to impressions of this order. He +had a long memory for injuries, and he had by no means +satisfied himself that the same injuries might not recur. +As soon as the general election was over, he had at once +set to work upon the result. Whatever might be right for +others, his line of tactics was plain—to ascertain from which +of the two English parties he was most likely to obtain the +response that he desired to the Irish demand, and then to +concert the procedure best fitted to place that party in +power. He was at first not sure whether Lord Salisbury +would renounce the Irish alliance after it had served the +double purpose of ousting the liberals from office, and then +reducing their numbers at the election. He seems also to +have counted upon further communications with Lord +Carnarvon, and this expectation was made known to Mr. +Gladstone, who expressed his satisfaction at the news, though +it was also made known to him that Mr. Parnell doubted +<pb n='275'/><anchor id='Pg275'/> +<note place='margin'>Views Of Mr. Parnell</note> +Lord Carnarvon's power to carry out his unquestionably +favourable dispositions. He at the same time very naturally +did his best to get some light as to Mr. Gladstone's own +frame of mind. If neither party would offer a solution of the +problem of Irish government, Mr. Parnell would prefer to +keep the tories in office, as they would at least work out +gradually a solution of the problems of Irish land. To all +these indirect communications Mr. Gladstone's consistent +reply was that Mr. Parnell's immediate business was with +the government of the day, first, because only the government +could handle the matter; second, because a tory +government with the aid that it would receive from liberals, +might most certainly, safely, and quickly settle it. He +declined to go beyond the ground already publicly taken by +him, unless by way of a further public declaration. On to +this new ground he would not go, until assured that the +government had had a fair opportunity given them. +</p> + +<p> +By the end of December Mr. Parnell decided that there +was not the slightest possibility of any settlement being +offered by the conservatives under the existing circumstances. +<q>Whatever chance there was,</q> he said, <q>disappeared +when the seemingly authoritative statements of Mr. Gladstone's +intention to deal with the question were published.</q> +He regarded it as quite probable that in spite of a direct +refusal from the tories, the Irish members might prefer to +pull along with them, rather than run the risk of fresh +coercion from the liberals, should the latter return to power. +<q>Supposing,</q> he argued, <q>that the liberals came into office, +and that they offered a settlement of so incomplete a character +that we could not accept it, or that owing to defections +they could not carry it, should we not, if any long interval +occurred before the proposal of a fresh settlement, incur considerable +risk of further coercion?</q> At any rate, they had +better keep the government in, rather than oust them in +order to admit Lord Hartington or Mr. Chamberlain with a +new coercion bill in their pockets. +</p> + +<p> +Foreseeing these embarrassments, Mr. Gladstone wrote in +a final memorandum (December 24) of this eventful year, +<q>I used every effort to obtain a clear majority at the election, +<pb n='276'/><anchor id='Pg276'/> +and failed. I am therefore at present a man in chains. Will +ministers bring in a measure? If <q>Aye,</q> I see my way. If +<q>No</q>: that I presume puts an end to all relations of confidence +between nationalists and tories. If that is done, I +have then upon me, as is evident, the responsibilities of +<emph>the leader of a majority</emph>. But what if neither Aye nor No can +be had—will the nationalists then continue their support +and thus relieve me from responsibility, or withdraw their +support [from the government] and thus change essentially +my position? Nothing but a public or published dissolution +of a relation of amity publicly sealed could be of any avail.</q> +</p> + +<p> +So the year ended. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='277'/><anchor id='Pg277'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter IV. Fall Of The First Salisbury Government. (January 1886)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +Historians coolly dissect a man's thoughts as they please; and +label them like specimens in a naturalist's cabinet. Such a thing, +they argue, was done for mere personal aggrandizement; such a +thing for national objects; such a thing from high religious motives. +In real life we may be sure it was not so.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Gardiner.</hi> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +Ministers meanwhile hesitated, balanced, doubted, and +wavered. Their party was in a minority, and so they had a +fair plea for resigning and not meeting the new parliament. +On the other hand, they had a fair plea for continuing in +office, for though they were in a minority, no other party had +a majority. Nobody knew what the Hartington whigs would +do, or what the Irish would do. There seemed to be many +chances for expert angling. Then with what policy were +they to meet the House of Commons? They might adhere +to the conciliatory policy of the summer and autumn, keep +clear of repressive legislation, and make a bold attempt in +the direction of self-government. Taking the same courageous +plunge as was taken by Wellington and Peel in +1829, by Peel in the winter of 1845, by Disraeli in 1867, +they might carry the declarations made by Lord Carnarvon +on behalf of the government in July to their only practical +conclusion. But then they would have broken up their +party, as Wellington and Peel broke it up; and Lord Salisbury +may have asked himself whether the national emergency +warranted the party risk. +</p> + +<p> +Resistance then to the Irish demand being assumed, +various tactics came under review. They might begin by +asking for a vote of confidence, saying plainly that if they +<pb n='278'/><anchor id='Pg278'/> +were turned out and Mr. Gladstone were put in, he would +propose home rule. In that case a majority was not wholly +impossible, for the whig wing might come over, nor was it +quite certain that the Irish would help to put the government +out. At any rate the debate would force Mr. Gladstone +into the open, and even if they did not have a majority, they +would be in a position to advise immediate dissolution on the +issue of home rule. +</p> + +<p> +The only other course open to the cabinet was to turn +their backs upon the professions of the summer; to throw +overboard the Carnarvon policy as a cargo for which there +was no longer a market; to abandon a great experiment +after a ludicrously short trial; and to pick up again the old +instrument of coercion, which not six months before they had +with such elaborate ostentation condemned and discarded. +This grand manœuvre was kept carefully in the background, +until there had been time for the whole chapter of accidents +to exhaust itself, and it had become certain that no trump +cards were falling to the ministerial hand. Not until this +was quite clear, did ministers reveal their poignant uneasiness +about the state of Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +In the middle of October (1885) Lord Randolph Churchill +visited the viceroy in Dublin, and found him, as he afterwards +said, extremely anxious and alarmed at the growing power +of the National League. Yet the viceroy was not so anxious +and alarmed as to prevent Lord Randolph from saying at +Birmingham a month after, on November 20, that up to the +present time their decision to preserve order by the same +laws as in England had been abundantly justified, and that +on the whole crime and outrage had greatly diminished. +This was curious, and shows how tortuous was the crisis. +Only a fortnight later the cabinet met (December 2), and +heard of the extraordinary development and unlimited resources +of the league. All the rest of the month of December,—so +the public were by and by informed,—the condition +of Ireland was the subject of the most anxious consideration. +With great deliberation, a decision was at length reached. +It was that ordinary law had broken down, and that exceptional +means of repression were indispensable. Then a +<pb n='279'/><anchor id='Pg279'/> +<note place='margin'>Changes And Rumours</note> +serious and embarrassing incident occurred. Lord Carnarvon +<q>threw up the government of Ireland,</q> and was +followed by Sir William Hart Dyke, the chief secretary.<note place='foot'>Correspondence +between Lord +Salisbury and Lord Carnarvon, <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi>, +Jan. 16, 1886.</note> A +measure of coercion was prepared, its provisions all drawn +in statutory form, but who was to warrant the necessity for +it to parliament?<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 302, pp. 1929-1993, March +4, 1886. See also Lord Randolph +Churchill at Paddington, Feb. 13, +1886.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Though the viceroy's retirement was not publicly known +until the middle of January, yet so early as December 17 the +prime minister had applied to Mr. Smith, then secretary of +state for war, to undertake the duties of Irish government.<note place='foot'>Maxwell's +<hi rend='italic'>Life of W. H. Smith</hi>, +ii. p. 163.</note> +This was one of the sacrifices that no man of public spirit can +ever refuse, and Mr. Smith, who had plenty of public spirit, +became Irish secretary. Still when parliament assembled +more than a month after Lord Salisbury's letter to his new +chief secretary, no policy was announced. Even on the +second night of the session Mr. Smith answered questions +for the war office. The parliamentary mystification was +complete. Who, where, and what was the Irish government? +</p> + +<p> +The parliamentary session was rapidly approaching, and +Mr. Gladstone had good information of the various quarters +whence the wind was blowing. Rumours reached him +(January 9) from the purlieus of Parliament Street, that +general words of confidence in the government would be +found in the Queen's Speech. Next he was told of the +report that an amendment would be moved by the ultras of +law and order,—the same who had mutinied on the Maamtrasna +debate,—censuring ministers for having failed to +uphold the authority of the Queen. The same correspondent +(January 15), who was well able to make his words +good, wrote to Mr. Gladstone that even though home +rule might perhaps not be in a parliamentary sense before +the House, it was in a most distinct manner before the +country, and no political party could avoid expressing an +opinion upon it. On the same day another colleague of +hardly less importance drew attention to an article in a +<pb n='280'/><anchor id='Pg280'/> +journal supposed to be inspired by Lord Randolph, to the +effect that conciliation in Ireland had totally failed, that +Lord Carnarvon had retired because that policy was to be +reversed and he was not the man for the rival policy of +vigour, and finally, that the new policy would probably be +announced in the Queen's Speech; in no circumstances +would it be possible to avoid a general action on the +Address. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +The current of domestic life at Hawarden, in the midst of all +these perplexities, flowed in its usual ordered channels. The +engagement of his second daughter stirred Mr. Gladstone's +deepest interest. He practised occasional woodcraft with +his sons, though ending his seventy-sixth year. He spends +a morning in reviewing his private money affairs, the first +time for three years. He never misses church. He corrects +the proofs of an article on Huxley; carries on tolerably profuse +correspondence, coming to very little; he works among +his books, and arranges his papers; reads Beaconsfield's +<hi rend='italic'>Home Letters</hi>, Lord Stanhope's +<hi rend='italic'>Pitt</hi>, Macaulay's <hi rend='italic'>Warren +Hastings</hi>, which he counts the most brilliant of all that +illustrious man's performances; Maine on <hi rend='italic'>Popular Government</hi>; +<hi rend='italic'>King Solomon's Mines</hi>; something of Tolstoy; Dicey's +<hi rend='italic'>Law of the Constitution</hi>, where a chapter on semi-sovereign +assemblies made a deep impression on him in regard to the +business that now absorbed his mind. Above all, he nearly +every day reads Burke: <q><hi rend='italic'>December 18.</hi>—Read Burke; what +a magazine of wisdom on Ireland and America. <hi rend='italic'>January 9.</hi>—Made +many extracts from Burke—<emph>sometimes almost +divine</emph>.</q><note place='foot'>If this seems hyperbole, let the +reader remember an entry in Macaulay's +diary: <q>I have now finished +reading again most of Burke's works. +Admirable! The greatest man since +Milton.</q> Trevelyan's <hi rend='italic'>Life</hi>, ii. p. 377.</note> +We may easily imagine how the heat from that +profound and glowing furnace still further inflamed strong +purposes and exalted resolution in Mr. Gladstone. The Duke +of Argyll wrote to say that he was sorry to hear of the study +of Burke: <q>Your <hi rend='italic'>perfervidum ingenium Scoti</hi> does not +need being touched with a live coal from that Irish altar. +Of course your reference to Burke indicates a tendency to +<pb n='281'/><anchor id='Pg281'/> +compare our position as regards Ireland to the position of +George <hi rend='smallcaps'>iii.</hi> towards the colonies. I deny that there is any +parallelism or even analogy.</q> +<note place='margin'>End Of Seventy-Sixth Year</note> +It was during these months +that he renewed his friendly intercourse with Cardinal +Manning, which had been suspended since the controversy +upon the Vatican pamphlets. In November Mr. Gladstone +sent Manning his article on the <q>Dawn of Creation.</q> The +cardinal thanked him for the paper—<q>still more for your +words, which revive the memories of old days. Fifty-five +years are a long reach of life in which to remember each other. +We have twice been parted, but as the path declines, as you +say, it narrows, and I am glad that we are again nearing each +other as we near our end.... If we cannot unite in the +realm where <q>the morning stars sang together</q> we should be +indeed far off.</q> Much correspondence followed on the +articles against Huxley. Then his birthday came:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Postal deliveries and other arrivals were seven hundred. +Immeasurable kindness almost overwhelmed us. There was also +the heavy and incessant weight of the Irish question, which +offers daily phases more or less new. It was a day for intense +thankfulness, but, alas, not for recollection and detachment. +When will that day come? Until then, why string together the +commonplaces and generalities of great things, really unfelt?... I +am certain there is one keen and deep desire to be extricated +from the life of contention in which a chain of incidents has +for the last four years detained me against all my will. Then, +indeed, I should reach an eminence from which I could look +before and after. But I know truly that I am not worthy of this +liberty with which Christ makes free his elect. In his own good +time, something, I trust, will for me too be mercifully devised. +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +At the end of this long travail, which anybody else would +have found all the sorer for the isolation and quietude that +it was ever Mr. Gladstone's fashion in moments of emergency +to seek, he reached London on January 11th; two days +later he took the oath in the new parliament, whose life was +destined to be so short; and then he found himself on the +<pb n='282'/><anchor id='Pg282'/> +edge of the whirlpool. Three days before formalities were +over, and the House assembled for the despatch of business, +he received a communication that much perturbed him, and +shed an ominous light on the prospect of liberal unity. This +communication he described to Lord Granville:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>21 Carlton House Terrace, Jan. 18, 1886.</hi>—Hartington writes to +me a letter indicating the possibility that on Thursday, while I +announce with reasons a policy of silence and reserve, he may feel +it his duty to declare his determination <q>to maintain the legislative +union,</q> that is to proclaim a policy (so I understand the +phrase) of absolute resistance without examination to the demand +made by Ireland through five-sixths of her members. This is to +play the tory game with a vengeance. They are now, most +rashly not to say more, working the Irish question to split the +liberal party. +</p> + +<p> +It seems to me that if a gratuitous declaration of this kind is +made, it must produce an explosion; and that in a week's time +Hartington will have to consider whether he will lead the liberal +party himself, or leave it to chaos. He will make my position +impossible. When, in conformity with the wishes expressed to +me, I changed my plans and became a candidate at the general +election, my motives were two. The <emph>first</emph>, a hope that I might be +able to contribute towards some pacific settlement of the Irish +question. The <emph>second</emph>, a desire to prevent the splitting of the +party, of which there appeared to be an immediate danger. The +second object has thus far been attained. But it may at any +moment be lost, and the most disastrous mode of losing it perhaps +would be that now brought into view. It would be certainly +opposed to my convictions and determination, to attempt +to lead anything like a home rule opposition, and to make this +subject—the strife of nations—the dividing line between parties. +This being so, I do not see how I could as leader survive a gratuitous +declaration of opposition to me such as Hartington appears +to meditate. If he still meditates it, ought not the party to be +previously informed? +</p> + +<p> +Pray, consider whether you can bring this subject before him, +less invidiously than I. I have explained to you and I believe to +him, and I believe you approve, my general idea, that we ought +<pb n='283'/><anchor id='Pg283'/> +not to join issue with the government on what is called home +rule (which indeed the social state of Ireland may effectually +thrust aside for the time); and that still less ought we to join +issue among ourselves, if we have a choice, unless and until we +are called upon to consider whether or not to take the government. +I for one will have nothing to do with ruining the party +if I can avoid it. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +This letter discloses with precision the critical state of +facts on the eve of action being taken. Issue was not +directly joined with ministers on home rule; no choice was +found to exist as to taking the government; and this +brought deep and long-standing diversities among the +liberal leaders to the issue that Mr. Gladstone had strenuously +laboured to avoid from the beginning of 1885 to +the end. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +The Irish paragraphs in the speech from the throne +(January 21, 1886) were abstract, hypothetical, and vague. +The sovereign was made to say that during the past year +there had been no marked increase of serious crime, but there +was in many places a concerted resistance to the enforcement +of legal obligations, and the practice of intimidation continued +to exist. <q>If,</q> the speech went on, <q>as my information leads +me to apprehend, the existing provisions of the law should +prove to be inadequate to cope with these growing evils, I +look with confidence to your willingness to invest my government +with all necessary powers.</q> There was also an abstract +paragraph about the legislative union between the two +islands. +</p> + +<p> +In a fragment composed in the autumn of 1897, Mr. Gladstone +has described the anxiety with which he watched the +course of proceedings on the Address:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +I had no means of forming an estimate how far the bulk of the +liberal party could be relied on to support a measure of home +rule, which should constitute an Irish parliament subject to the +supremacy of the parliament at Westminster. I was not sanguine +on this head. Even in the month of December, when rumours of +my intentions were afloat, I found how little I could reckon on a +<pb n='284'/><anchor id='Pg284'/> +general support. Under the circumstances I certainly took upon +myself a grave responsibility. I attached value to the acts and +language of Lord Carnarvon, and the other favourable manifestations. +Subsequently we had but too much evidence of a deliberate +intention to deceive the Irish, with a view to their support at the +election. But in the actual circumstances I thought it my duty +to encourage the government of Lord Salisbury to settle the +Irish question, so far as I could do this by promises of my personal +support. Hence my communication with Mr. Balfour, which has +long been in the hands of the public. +</p> + +<p> +It has been unreasonably imputed to me, that the proposal of +home rule was a bid for the Irish vote. But my desire for the +adjustment of the question by the tories is surely a conclusive +answer. The fact is that I could not rely upon the collective support +of the liberals; but I could and did rely upon the support of +so many of them as would make the success of the measure certain, +in the event of its being proposed by the tory administration. +It would have resembled in substance the liberal support +given to Roman catholic emancipation in 1829, and the repeal +of the corn laws in 1846. Before the meeting of parliament, I +had to encounter uncomfortable symptoms among my principal +friends, of which I think —— was the organ. +</p> + +<p> +I was, therefore, by no means eager for the dismissal of the tory +government, though it counted but 250 supporters out of 670, as +long as there were hopes of its taking up the question, or at all +events doing nothing to aggravate the situation. +</p> + +<p> +When we came to the debate on the Address I had to face a +night of extreme anxiety. The speech from the throne referred +in a menacing way to Irish disturbances, and contained a distinct +declaration in support of the legislative union. On referring to +the clerks at the table to learn in what terms the Address in reply +to the speech was couched, I found it was a <q>thanking</q> address, +which did not commit the House to an opinion. What I dreaded +was lest some one should have gone back to the precedent of +1833, when the Address in reply to the speech was virtually made +the vehicle of a solemn declaration in favour of the Act of Union.<note place='foot'>In +1833 the King's Speech represented +the state of Ireland in +words that might be used at the present +time, and expressed confidence +that parliament would entrust the +King with <q>such additional powers +as may be necessary for punishing the +disturbers of the public peace and for +preserving and strengthening the +legislative union between the two +countries, which with your support +and under the blessing of divine Providence +I am determined to maintain +by all the means in my power.</q> +The Address in answer assured his +Majesty that his confidence should +not be disappointed, and that <q>we +shall be ready to entrust to H.M. such +additional measures, etc., for preserving +and strengthening the legislative +union which we have determined,</q> +etc. This was the address that Mr. +O'Connell denounced as a <q>bloody +and brutal address,</q> and he moved as +an amendment that the House do +resolve itself into a committee of the +whole House to consider of an humble +address to his Majesty. Feb. 8. +Amendment negatived, Ayes being +428, Noes 40.—<hi rend='italic'>Memo.</hi> by Sir T. E. +May for Mr. Gladstone, Jan. 18, +1886. O'Connell, that is to say, did +not move an amendment in favour of +repeal, but proposed the consideration +of the Address in committee of +the whole House.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='285'/><anchor id='Pg285'/> + +<p> +Home rule, rightly understood, altered indeed the terms of the Act +of Union, but adhered to its principle, which was the supremacy +of the imperial parliament. Still [it] was pretty certain that any +declaration of a substantive character, at the epoch we had now +reached, would in its moral effect shut the doors of the existing +parliament against home rule. +</p> + +<p> +In a speech of pronounced clearness, Mr. Arthur Elliot endeavoured +to obtain a movement in this direction. I thought it would +be morally fatal if this tone were extensively adopted on the liberal +side; so I determined on an effort to secure reserve for the time, +that our freedom might not be compromised. I, therefore, ventured +upon describing myself as an <q>old parliamentary hand,</q> and +in that capacity strongly advised the party to keep its own +counsel, and await for a little the development of events. Happily +this counsel was taken; had it been otherwise, the early formation +of a government favourable to home rule would in all likelihood +have become an impossibility. For although our Home Rule bill +was eventually supported by more than 300 members, I doubt +whether, if the question had been prematurely raised on the night +of the Address, as many as 200 would have been disposed to act +in that sense. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +In the debate on the Address the draft Coercion bill +reposing in the secret box was not mentioned. Sir Michael +Hicks Beach, the leader of the House, described the mischiefs +then afoot, and went on to say that whether they could be +dealt with by ordinary law, or would require exceptional +powers, were questions that would receive the new chief +secretary's immediate attention,<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> +302, p. 128.</note> Parliament was told that +<pb n='286'/><anchor id='Pg286'/> +the minister had actually gone to Ireland to make anxious +inquiry into these questions. Mr. Smith arrived in Dublin +at six o'clock on the morning of January 24, and he quitted +it at six o'clock on the evening of the 26th. He was sworn +in at the Castle in the forenoon of that day.<note place='foot'>Lord +Carnarvon left Ireland on +Jan. 28, and Lord Justices were then +appointed. But the lawyers seem to +hold that there cannot be Lord Justices +without a viceroy, and Lord +Carnarvon was therefore technically +viceroy out of the kingdom (of Ireland), +until Lord Aberdeen was sworn +in upon Feb. 10, 1886. He must, +accordingly, have signed the minute +appointing Mr. Smith chief secretary, +though of course Mr. Smith had gone +over to reverse the Carnarvon policy.</note> His views +must have reached the cabinet in London not later than the +morning of the 26th. Not often can conclusions on such +a subject have been ripened with such electrifying precocity. +</p> + +<p> +<q>I intend to reserve my own freedom of action,</q> Mr. Gladstone +said; <q>there are many who have taken their seats for +the first time upon these benches, and I may avail myself +of the privilege of old age to offer a recommendation. I +would tell them of my own intention to keep my counsel +and reserve my own freedom, until I see the moment and +the occasion when there may be a prospect of public benefit +in endeavouring to make a movement forward, and I will +venture to recommend them, as an old parliamentary hand, +to do the same.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 302, +p. 112.</note> Something in this turn of phrase kindled +lively irritation, and it drew bitter reproaches from more +than one of the younger whigs. The angriest of these +remonstrances was listened to from beginning to end without +a solitary cheer from the liberal benches. The great +bulk of the party took their leader's advice. Of course the +reserve of his speech was as significant of Irish concession, +as the most open declaration would have been. Yet there +was no rebellion. This was felt by ministers to be a decisive +omen of the general support likely to be given to Mr. +Gladstone's supposed policy by his own party. Mr. Parnell +offered some complimentary remarks on the language of +Mr. Gladstone, but he made no move in the direction of +an amendment. The public outside looked on with +stupefaction. For two or three days all seemed to be +in suspense. But the two ministerial leaders in the +Commons knew how to read the signs. What Sir Michael +<pb n='287'/><anchor id='Pg287'/> +<note place='margin'>Coercion Bill Announced</note> +Hicks Beach and Lord Randolph foresaw, for one thing was +an understanding between Mr. Gladstone and the Irishmen, +and for another, they foresaw the acquiescence of the mass of +the liberals. This twofold discovery cleared the ground for +a decision. After the second night's debate ministers saw +that the only chance now was to propose coercion. Then it +was that the ephemeral chief secretary had started on his +voyage for the discovery of something that had already been +found. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>V</head> + +<p> +On the afternoon of the 26th, the leader of the House +gave notice that two days later the new Irish secretary +would ask leave to introduce a bill dealing with the National +League, with intimidation, and with the protection of life, +property, and public order. This would be followed by a bill +dealing with land, pursuing in a more extensive sense the +policy of the Ashbourne Act of the year before. The great +issue was thus at last brought suddenly and nakedly into +view. When the Irish secretary reached Euston Square +on the morning of the 27th, he found that his government +was out. +</p> + +<p> +The crucial announcement of the 26th of January compelled +a prompt determination, and Mr. Gladstone did not +shrink. A protest against a return to coercion as the answer +of the British parliament to the extraordinary demonstration +from Ireland, carried with it the responsibility of office, and +this responsibility Mr. Gladstone had resolved to undertake. +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +The determining event of these transactions,—he says in the +fragment already cited,—was the declaration of the government +that they would propose coercion for Ireland. This declaration +put an end to all the hopes and expectations associated with the +mission of Lord Carnarvon. Not perhaps in mere logic, but +practically, it was now plain that Ireland had no hope from the +tories. This being so, my rule of action was changed at once, and +I determined on taking any and every legitimate opportunity to +remove the existing government from office. Immediately on +making up my mind about the rejection of the government, I went +to call upon Sir William Harcourt and informed him as to my +<pb n='288'/><anchor id='Pg288'/> +intentions and the grounds of them. He said, <q>What! Are you +prepared to go forward without either Hartington or Chamberlain?</q> +I answered, <q>Yes.</q> I believe it was in my mind to say, if I did +not actually say it, that I was prepared to go forward without +anybody. That is to say without any known and positive assurance +of support. This was one of the great imperial occasions +which call for such resolutions. +</quote> + +<p> +An amendment stood upon the notice-paper in the name +of Mr. Collings, regretting the omission from the speech of +measures for benefiting the rural labourer; and on this +motion an immediate engagement was fought. Time was +important. An exasperating debate on coercion with obstruction, +disorder, suspensions, would have been a damning prologue +to any policy of accommodation. The true significance +of the motion was not concealed. On the agrarian aspect +of it, the only important feature was the adhesion of Mr. +Gladstone, now first formally declared, to the policy of +Mr. Chamberlain. The author of the agrarian policy +fought out once more on the floor of the House against +Lord Hartington and Mr. Goschen the battle of the platform. +It was left for Sir Michael Hicks Beach to remind the +House that, whatever the honest mover might mean, the +rural labourer had very little to do with the matter, and he +implored the gentlemen in front of him to think twice and +thrice before they committed the future of this country to +the gravest dangers that ever awaited it. +</p> + +<p> +The debate was not prolonged. The discussion opened +shortly before dinner, and by one o'clock the division was +taken. The government found itself in a minority of 79. +The majority numbered 331, composed of 257 liberals and +74 Irish nationalists. The ministerialist minority was 252, +made up of 234 tories and 18 liberals. Besides the fact that +Lord Hartington, Mr. Goschen, and Sir Henry James voted +with ministers, there was a still more ominous circumstance. +No fewer than 76 liberals were absent, including among +them the imposing personality of Mr. Bright. In a memorandum +written for submission to the Queen a few days +later, Mr. Gladstone said, <q>I must express my personal conviction +<pb n='289'/><anchor id='Pg289'/> +that had the late ministers remained in office and proceeded +with their proposed plan of repression, and even had +that plan received my support, it would have ended in a disastrous +parliamentary failure.</q><note place='foot'>Mr. Gladstone was often taunted +with having got in upon the question +of allotments, and then throwing +the agricultural labourer overboard. +<q>The proposition,</q> he said, <q>is +not only untrue but ridiculous. +If true, it would prove that Lord +Grey in 1830 came in upon the +pension list, and Lord Derby in 1852 +on the militia.... For myself, I +may say personally that I made my +public declaration on behalf of allotments +in 1832, when Mr. Jesse Collings +was just born.</q>—To Mr. C. A. +Fyffe, May 6, 1890.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The next day (Jan. 28) ministers of course determined to +resign. A liberal member of parliament was overtaken by +Lord Randolph on the parade ground, walking away from the +cabinet. <q>You look a little pensive,</q> said the liberal. <q>Yes; +I was thinking. I have plenty to think of. Well, we are +out, and you are in.</q> <q>I suppose so,</q> the liberal replied, <q>we +are in for six months; we dissolve; you are in for six years.</q> +<q>Not at all sure,</q> said Lord Randolph; <q>let me tell you one +thing most solemnly and most surely: the conservative party +are not going to be made the instrument of the Irish for +turning out Mr. Gladstone, if he refuses repeal.</q> <q>Nobody,</q> +observed the sententious liberal, <q>should so often as the politician +say the prayer not to be led into temptation. Remember +your doings last summer.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='290'/><anchor id='Pg290'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter V. The New Policy. (1886)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +In reason all government without the consent of the governed is +the very definition of slavery; but in fact eleven men well armed +will certainly subdue one single man in his shirt.... Those who +have used to cramp liberty have gone so far as to resent even +the liberty of complaining; although a man upon the rack was +never known to be refused the liberty of roaring as loud as he +thought fit.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Jonathan Swift.</hi> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +The tory government was defeated in the sitting of Tuesday +(Jan. 26). On Friday, <q>at a quarter after midnight, in +came Sir H. Ponsonby, with verbal commission from her +Majesty, which I at once +accepted.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Diary.</hi></note> The whole of Saturday +was spent in consultations with colleagues. On Sunday, Mr. +Gladstone records, <q>except church, my day from one to +eight was given to business. I got only fragmentary reading +of the life of the admirable Mr. Suckling and other +books. At night came a painful and harassing succession of +letters, and my sleep for once gave way; yet for the soul it +was profitable, driving me to the hope that the strength of +God might be made manifest in my weakness.</q> On Monday, +Feb. 1, he went to attend the Queen. <q>Off at 9.10 to Osborne. +Two audiences: an hour and half in all. Everything good +in the main points. Large discourse upon Ireland in particular. +Returned at 7-¾. I kissed hands and am thereby prime +minister for the third time. But, as I trust, for a brief time +only. Slept well, <hi rend='italic'>D.G.</hi></q> +</p> + +<p> +The first question was, how many of his colleagues in the +liberal cabinet that went out of office six months before, +would now embark with him in the voyage into stormy and +unexplored seas. I should suppose that no such difficulties +<pb n='291'/><anchor id='Pg291'/> +<note place='margin'>Again Prime Minister</note> +had ever confronted the attempt at making a cabinet since +Canning's in 1827. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone begins the fragment from which I have +already quoted with a sentence or two of retrospect, and then +proceeds:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +In 1885 (I think) Chamberlain had proposed a plan accepted +by Parnell (and supported by me) which, without establishing in +Ireland a national parliament, made very considerable advances +towards self-government. It was rejected by a small majority of +the cabinet—Granville said at the time he would rather take +home rule. Spencer thought it would introduce confusion into +executive duties. +</p> + +<p> +On the present occasion a full half of the former ministers +declined to march with me. Spencer and Granville were my main +supports. Chamberlain and Trevelyan went with me, their basis +being that we were to seek for some method of dealing with the +Irish case other than coercion. What Chamberlain's motive was I +do not clearly understand. It was stated that he coveted the Irish +secretaryship.... To have given him the office would at that time +have been held to be a declaration of war against the Irish party. +</p> + +<p> +Selborne nibbled at the offer, but I felt that it would not work, +and did not use great efforts to bring him in.<note place='foot'><q>When +the matter was finally adjusted +by Chamberlain's retirement, +we had against us—Derby, Northbrook, +Carlingford, Selborne, Dodson, +Chamberlain, Hartington, Trevelyan, +Bright; and for—Granville, Spencer, +Kimberley, Ripon, Rosebery, Harcourt, +Childers, Lefevre, Dilke (unavailable).</q> +Mr. Goschen was not in +the cabinet of 1880.</note> +</p> + +<p> +When I had accepted the commission, Ponsonby brought me a +message from the Queen that she hoped there would not be any +Separation in the cabinet. The word had not at that time acquired +the offensive meaning in which it has since been stereotyped +by the so-called unionists; and it was easy to frame a reply +in general but strong words. I am bound to say that at Osborne +in the course of a long conversation, the Queen was frank and free, +and showed none of the <q>armed neutrality,</q> which as far as I know +has been the best definition of her attitude in the more recent +years towards a liberal minister. Upon the whole, when I look +back upon 1886, and consider the inveterate sentiment of hostility +flavoured with contempt towards Ireland, which has from time +<pb n='292'/><anchor id='Pg292'/> +immemorial formed the basis of English, tradition, I am much +more disposed to be thankful for what we then and afterwards +accomplished, than to murmur or to wonder at what we did not. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +What Mr. Gladstone called the basis of his new government +was set out in a short memorandum, which he read to +each of those whom he hoped to include in his cabinet: +<q>I propose to examine whether it is or is not practicable +to comply with the desire widely prevalent in Ireland, and +testified by the return of eighty-five out of one hundred and +three representatives, for the establishment by statute of a +legislative body to sit in Dublin, and to deal with Irish +as distinguished from imperial affairs; in such a manner +as would be just to each of the three kingdoms, equitable +with reference to every class of the people of Ireland, conducive +to the social order and harmony of that country, +and calculated to support and consolidate the unity of the +empire on the continued basis of imperial authority and +mutual attachment.</q> +</p> + +<p> +No definite plan was propounded or foreshadowed, but only +the proposition that it was a duty to seek a plan. The +cynical version was that a cabinet was got together on the +chance of being able to agree. To Lord Hartington, Mr. +Gladstone applied as soon as he received the Queen's commission. +The invitation was declined on reasoned grounds +(January 30). Examination and inquiry, said Lord Hartington, +must mean a proposal. If no proposal followed inquiry, +the reaction of Irish disappointment would be severe, as it +would be natural. His adherence, moreover, would be of +little value. He had already, he observed, in the government +of 1880 made concessions on other subjects that might +be thought to have shaken public confidence in him; he +could go no further without destroying that confidence +altogether. However that might be, he could not depart +from the traditions of British statesmen, and he was opposed +to a separate Irish legislature. At the same time he concluded, +in a sentence afterwards pressed by Mr. Gladstone on +the notice of the Queen: <q>I am fully convinced that the alternative +policy of governing Ireland without large concessions +<pb n='293'/><anchor id='Pg293'/> +to the national sentiment, presents difficulties of a tremendous +character, which in my opinion could now only be +faced by the support of a nation united by the consciousness +that the fullest opportunity had been given for the production +and consideration of a conciliatory policy.</q> +</p> + +<p> +A few days later (February 5) Lord Hartington wrote: +<q>I have been told that I have been represented as having +been in general agreement with you on your Irish policy, +and having been prevented joining your government solely +by the declarations which I made to my constituents; and +as not intending to oppose the government even on home +rule. On looking over my letter I think that the general +intention is sufficiently clear, but there is part of one sentence +which, taken by itself, might be understood as committing me +beyond what I intended or wished. The words I refer to are +those in which I say that it may be possible for me as a +private member to prevent obstacles being placed in the way +of a fair trial being given to the policy of the new government. +But I think that the commencement of the sentence +in which these words occur sufficiently reserves my liberty, +and that the whole letter shows that what I desire is that the +somewhat undefined declarations which have hitherto been +made should now assume a practical shape.</q><note place='foot'>A few +weeks later, Lord Hartington +said on the point of Mr. Gladstone's +consistency: <q>When I look +back to the declarations that Mr. +Gladstone made in parliament, which +have not been infrequent; when I +look back to the increased definiteness +given to these declarations in +his address to the electors of Midlothian +and in his Midlothian speeches; +when I consider all these things, I +feel that I have not, and that no one +has, any right to complain of the +declaration that Mr. Gladstone has +recently made.</q>—Speech at the Eighty +Club, March 5, 1886.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The decision was persistently regarded by Mr. Gladstone as +an important event in English political history. With a small +number of distinguished individual exceptions, it marked +the withdrawal from the liberal party of the aristocratic +element. Up to a very recent date this had been its governing +element. Until 1868, the whig nobles and their connections +held the reins and shaped the policy. After the +accession of a leader from outside of the caste in 1868, when +Mr. Gladstone for the first time became prime minister, they +continued to hold more than their share of the offices, but +<pb n='294'/><anchor id='Pg294'/> +in cabinet they sank to the position of what is called a +moderating force. After 1880 it became every day more +clear that even this modest function was slipping away. +Lord Hartington found that the moderating force could +no longer moderate. If he went on, he must make up +his mind to go under the Caudine forks once a week. +The significant reference, among his reasons for not joining +the new ministry, to the concessions that he had made in +the last government for the sake of party unity, and to his +feeling that any further moves of the same kind for the same +purpose would destroy all public confidence in him, shows +just as the circumstances of the election had shown, and as +the recent debate on the Collings amendment had shown, +how small were the chances, quite apart from Irish policy, +of uniting whig and radical wings in any durable liberal +government. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Goschen, who had been a valuable member of the +great ministry of 1868, was invited to call, but without +hopes that he would rally to a cause so startling; the interview, +while courteous and pleasant, was over in a very few +minutes. Lord Derby, a man of still more cautious type, +and a rather recent addition to the officers of the liberal +staff, declined, not without good nature. Lord Northbrook +had no faith in a new Irish policy, and his confidence in his +late leader had been shaken by Egypt. Most lamented of +all the abstentions was the honoured and trusted name of +Mr. Bright. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Trevelyan agreed to join, in the entirely defensible +hope that they <q>would knock the measure about in the +cabinet, as cabinets do,</q> and mould it into accord with what had until now +been the opinion of most of its members.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> +304, p. 1106.</note> +Mr. Chamberlain, who was destined to play so singular +and versatile a part in the eventful years to come, entered +the cabinet with reluctance and misgiving. The Admiralty +was first proposed to him and was declined, partly on the +ground that the chief of the fighting and spending departments +was not the post for one who had just given to domestic +reforms the paramount place in his stirring addresses to +<pb n='295'/><anchor id='Pg295'/> +<note place='margin'>Position Of Mr. Chamberlain</note> +the country. Mr. Chamberlain, we may be sure, was not +much concerned about the particular office. Whatever its +place in the hierarchy, he knew that he could trust himself +to make it as important as he pleased, and that his weight +in the cabinet and the House would not depend upon the +accident of a department. Nobody's position was so difficult. +He was well aware how serious a thing it would be for his +prospects, if he were to join a confederacy of his arch +enemies, the whigs, against Mr. Gladstone, the commanding +idol of his friends, the radicals. If, on the other hand, by +refusing to enter the government he should either prevent +its formation or should cause its speedy overthrow, he would +be left planted with a comparatively ineffective group of his +own, and he would incur the deep resentment of the bulk of +those with whom he had hitherto been accustomed to act. +</p> + +<p> +All these were legitimate considerations in the mind of a +man with the instinct of party management. In the end he +joined his former chief. He made no concealment of his +position. He warned the prime minister that he did not +believe it to be possible to reconcile conditions as to the +security of the empire and the supremacy of parliament, +with the establishment of a legislative body in Dublin. He +declared his own preference for an attempt to come to terms +with the Irish members on the basis of a more limited scheme +of local government, coupled with proposals about land and +about education. At the same time, as the minister had +been good enough to leave him unlimited liberty of judgment +and rejection, he was ready to give unprejudiced +examination to more extensive proposals.<note place='foot'>January 30, +1886. <hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 304, p. 1185.</note> Such was Mr. +Chamberlain's excuse for joining. It is hardly so intelligible +as Lord Hartington's reasons for not joining. For the new +government could only subsist by Irish support. That +support notoriously depended on the concession of more +than a limited scheme of local government. The administration +would have been overthrown in a week, and to form +a cabinet on such a basis as was here proposed would be the +idlest experiment that ever was tried. +</p> + +<p> +The appointment of the writer of these pages to be Irish +<pb n='296'/><anchor id='Pg296'/> +secretary was at once generally regarded as decisive of Mr. +Gladstone's ultimate intention, for during the election and +afterwards I had spoken strongly in favour of a colonial type +of government for Ireland. It was rightly pressed upon Mr. +Gladstone by at least one of his most experienced advisers, +that such an appointment to this particular office would +be construed as a declaration in favour of an Irish parliament, +without any further examination at all.<note place='foot'>As for +the story of my being concerned +in Mr. Gladstone's conversion +to home rule, it is, of course, +pure moonshine. I only glance at it +because in politics people are ready +to believe anything. At the general +election of 1880, I had declined to +support home rule. In the press, +however, I had strenuously opposed +the Forster Coercion bill of the +following winter, as involving a +radical misapprehension of the nature +and magnitude of the case. In +the course of that controversy, arguments +pressed themselves forward +which led much further than mere +resistance to the policy of coercion. +Without having had the advantage +of any communication whatever +with Mr. Gladstone upon Irish +subjects for some years before, I had +still pointed out to my constituents +at Newcastle in the previous November, +that there was nothing in Mr. +Gladstone's electoral manifesto to +prevent him from proposing a colonial +plan for Ireland, and I had expressed +my own conviction that this was the +right direction in which to look. A +few days before the fall of the tory +government, I had advocated the +exclusion of Irish members from +Westminster, and the production of +measures dealing with the land.—Speech +at Chelmsford, January 7, +1886.</note> And so, in +fact, it was generally construed. +</p> + +<p> +Nobody was more active in aiding the formation of the +new ministry than Sir William Harcourt, in whose powerful +composition loyalty to party and conviction of the value of +party have ever been indestructible instincts. <q>I must not +let the week absolutely close,</q> Mr. Gladstone wrote to him +from Mentmore (February 6), <q>without emphatically thanking +you for the indefatigable and effective help which you +have rendered to me during its course, in the difficult work +now nearly accomplished.</q> +</p> + +<p> +At the close of the operation, he writes from Downing +Street to his son Henry, then in India:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>February 12, 1886.</hi> You see the old date has reappeared at the +head of my letter. The work last week was extremely hard from +the mixture of political discussions on the Irish question, by way +of preliminary condition, with the ordinary distribution of offices, +which while it lasts is of itself difficult enough. +</p> + +<p> +Upon the whole I am well satisfied with its composition. It is +<pb n='297'/><anchor id='Pg297'/> +not a bit more radical than the government of last year; perhaps +a little less. And we have got some good young hands, which +please me very much. Yet short as the Salisbury government has +been, it would not at all surprise me if this were to be shorter still, +such are the difficulties that bristle round the Irish question. But +the great thing is to be right; and as far as matters have yet +advanced, I see no reason to be apprehensive in this capital respect. +I have framed a plan for the land and for the finance of what must +be a very large transaction. It is necessary to see our way a little +on these at the outset, for, unless these portions of anything we +attempt are sound and well constructed, we cannot hope to succeed. +On the other hand, if we fail, as I believe the late ministers would +have failed even to pass their plan of repressive legislation, the +consequences will be deplorable in every way. There seems to be +no doubt that some, and notably Lord R. Churchill, fully reckoned +on my failing to form a government.<note place='foot'><p>The +cabinet was finally composed as follows:— +</p> +<p> +Mr. Gladstone, <hi rend='italic'>First lord of the treasury</hi>.<lb/> +Lord Herschell, <hi rend='italic'>Lord chancellor</hi>.<lb/> +Lord Spencer, <hi rend='italic'>President of council</hi>.<lb/> +Sir W. Harcourt, <hi rend='italic'>Chancellor of exchequer</hi>.<lb/> +Mr. Childers, <hi rend='italic'>Home secretary</hi>.<lb/> +Lord Rosebery, <hi rend='italic'>Foreign secretary</hi>.<lb/> +Lord Granville, <hi rend='italic'>Colonial secretary</hi>.<lb/> +Lord Kimberley, <hi rend='italic'>Indian secretary</hi>.<lb/> +Mr. Campbell-Bannerman, <hi rend='italic'>War secretary</hi>.<lb/> +Lord Ripon, <hi rend='italic'>Admiralty</hi>.<lb/> +Mr. Chamberlain, <hi rend='italic'>Local government</hi>.<lb/> +Mr. Morley, <hi rend='italic'>Irish secretary</hi>.<lb/> +Mr. Trevelyan, <hi rend='italic'>Scotch secretary</hi>.<lb/> +Mr. Mundella, <hi rend='italic'>Board of trade</hi>. +</p> +<p> +The Lord chancellor, Mr. C.-Bannerman, +Mr. Mundella, and myself +now sat in cabinet for the first time. +After the two resignations at the end +of March, Mr. Stansfeld came in as +head of the Local government board, +and we sat with the ominous number +of thirteen at table. +</p></note> +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +The work pressed, and time was terribly short. The new +ministers had barely gone through their re-elections before +the opposition began to harry them for their policy, and +went so far, before the government was five weeks old, as +to make the extreme motion for refusing supply. Even +if the opposition had been in more modest humour, no +considerable delay could be defended. Social order in +Ireland was in a profoundly unsatisfactory phase. That +<pb n='298'/><anchor id='Pg298'/> +fact was the starting-point of the reversal of policy which +the government had come into existence to carry out. You +cannot announce a grand revolution, and then beg the +world to wait. The very reason that justified the policy +commanded expedition. Anxiety and excitement were too +intense out of doors for anything but a speedy date, and +it was quite certain that if the new plan were not at once +propounded, no other public business would have much +chance. +</p> + +<p> +The new administration did not meet parliament until +after the middle of February, and the two Irish bills, in +which their policy was contained, were ready by the end of +the first week of April. Considering the enormous breadth +and intricacy of the subjects, the pressure of parliamentary +business all the time, the exigencies of administrative work +in the case of at least one of the ministers principally concerned, +and the distracting atmosphere of party perturbation +and disquiet that daily and hourly harassed the work, the +despatch of such a task within such limits of time was at +least not discreditable to the industry and concentration of +those who achieved it. I leave it still open to the hostile +critic to say, as Molière's Alceste says of the sonnet composed +in a quarter of an hour, that time has nothing to do with the +business. +</p> + +<p> +All through March Mr. Gladstone laboured in what he +called <q>stiff conclaves</q> about finance and land, attended +drawing rooms, and <q>observed the variations of H.M.'s +<hi rend='italic'>accueils</hi></q>; had an audience of the Queen, <q>very gracious, +but avoided serious subjects</q>; was laid up with cold, and +the weather made Sir Andrew Clark strict; then rose up +to fresh grapples with finance and land and untoward +colleagues, and all the <q>inexorable demands of my political +vocation.</q> His patience and self-control were as marvellous +as his tireless industry. Sorely tried by something or +another at a cabinet, he enters,—<q>Angry with myself for +not bearing it better. I ought to have been thankful for +it all the time.</q> On a similar occasion, a junior colleague +showed himself less thankful than he should have been for +purposeless antagonism. <q>Think of it as discipline,</q> said Mr. +<pb n='299'/><anchor id='Pg299'/> +<note place='margin'>On Procedure By Resolution</note> +Gladstone. <q>But why,</q> said the unregenerate junior, <q>should +we grudge the blessings of discipline to some other people?</q> +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone was often blamed even by Laodiceans +among his supporters, not wise but foolish after the event, +because he did not proceed by way of resolution, instead of +by bill. Resolutions, it was argued, would have smoothed the +way. General propositions would have found readier access +to men's minds. Having accepted the general proposition, +people would have found it harder to resist the particular +application. Devices that startled in the precision of a +clause, would in the vagueness of a broad and abstract +principle have soothed and persuaded. Mr. Gladstone was +perfectly alive to all this, but his answer to it was plain. +Those who eventually threw out the bill would insist on +unmasking the resolution. They would have exhausted all +the stereotyped vituperation of abstract motions. They +would have ridiculed any general proposition as mere platitude, +and pertinaciously clamoured for working details. +What would the resolution have affirmed? The expediency +of setting up a legislative authority in Ireland to deal with +exclusively Irish affairs. But such a resolution would +be consistent equally with a narrow scheme on the one +hand, such as a plan for national councils, and a broad +scheme on the other, giving to Ireland a separate exchequer, +separate control over customs and excise, and practically +an independent and co-ordinate legislature.<note place='foot'>See +Mr. Chamberlain's speech, +June 1, 1886. <hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 306, p. 677. +Also Lord Hartington at Bradford, +May 18, 1886.</note> How could the +government meet the challenge to say outright whether they +intended broad or narrow? Such a resolution could hardly +have outlived an evening's debate, and would not have postponed +the evil day of schism for a single week. +</p> + +<p> +Precedents lent no support. It is true that the way was +prepared for the Act of Union in the parliament of Great +Britain, by the string of resolutions moved by Mr. Pitt in +the beginning of 1799. But anybody who glances at them, +will at once perceive that if resolutions on their model had +been framed for the occasion of 1886, they would have covered +the whole ground of the actual bill, and would instantly have +<pb n='300'/><anchor id='Pg300'/> +raised all the formidable objections and difficulties exactly +as the bill itself raised them. The Bank Charter Act of +1833 was founded on eight resolutions, and they also set +forth in detail the points of the ministerial plan.<note place='foot'>June +1, 1833. <hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 18, p. 186.</note> The +renewal of the East India Company's charter in the same +year went on by way of resolutions, less abundant in particulars +than the Bank Act, but preceded by correspondence +and papers which had been exhaustively canvassed and discussed.<note place='foot'>June +13, 1833. <hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> p. 700.</note> +The question of Irish autonomy was in no position +of that sort. +</p> + +<p> +The most apt precedent in some respects is to be found +on a glorious occasion, also in the year 1833. Mr. Stanley +introduced the proposals of his government for the emancipation +of the West Indian slaves in five resolutions. They +furnished a key not only to policy and general principles, +but also to the plan by which these were to be carried out.<note place='foot'>May +14, 1833. <hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 17, p. 1230.</note> +Lord Howick followed the minister at once, raising directly +the whole question of the plan. Who could doubt that Lord +Hartington would now take precisely the same course towards +Irish resolutions of similar scope? The procedure on the +India bill of 1858 was just as little to the point. The general +disposition of the House was wholly friendly to a settlement +of the question of Indian government by the existing +ministry. No single section of the opposition wished to +take it out of their hands, for neither Lord Russell nor the +Peelites nor the Manchester men, and probably not even +Lord Palmerston himself, were anxious for the immediate +return of the last-named minister to power. Who will +pretend that in the House, of Commons in February 1886, +anything at all like the same state of facts prevailed? As +for the resolutions in the case of the Irish church, they +were moved by Mr. Gladstone in opposition, and he thought +it obvious that a policy proposed in opposition stands on a +totally different footing from a policy laid before parliament +on the responsibility of a government, and a government +bound by every necessity of the situation to prompt action.<note place='foot'>There +is also the case of the +Reform bill of 1867. Disraeli laid +thirteen resolutions on the table. +Lowe and Bright both agreed in +urging that the resolutions should be +dropped and the bill at once printed. +A meeting of liberal members at Mr. +Gladstone's house unanimously resolved +to support an amendment setting +aside the resolutions. Disraeli +at once abandoned them.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='301'/><anchor id='Pg301'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Two Branches Of The Policy</note> +At a later stage, as we shall see, it was actually proposed +that a vote for the second reading of the bill should be taken +to mean no more than a vote for its principle. Every one +of the objections that instantly sprang out of their ambush +against this proposal would have worked just as much +mischief against an initial resolution. In short, in opening +a policy of this difficulty and extent, the cabinet was bound +to produce to parliament not merely its policy but its plan +for carrying the policy out. By that course only could +parliament know what it was doing. Any other course +must have ended in a mystifying, irritating, and barren +confusion, alike in the House of Commons and in the +country.<note place='foot'>Lord Hartington's argument on +the second reading shows how a resolution +would have fared. <hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> +305, p. 610.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The same consideration that made procedure by resolution +unadvisable told with equal force within the cabinet. +Examination into the feasibility of some sort of plan was +most rapidly brought to a head by the test of a particular +plan. It is a mere fable of faction that a cast iron policy +was arbitrarily imposed upon the cabinet; as matter of +fact, the plan originally propounded did undergo large and +radical modifications. +</p> + +<p> +The policy as a whole shaped itself in two measures. +First, a scheme for creating a legislative body, and defining +its powers; second, a scheme for opening the way to a +settlement of the land question, in discharge of an obligation +of honour and policy, imposed upon this country by its +active share in all the mischiefs that the Irish land system +had produced. The introduction of a plan for dealing with +the land was not very popular even among ministers, but it +was pressed by Lord Spencer and the Irish secretary, on the +double ground that the land was too burning a question to be +left where it then stood, and next that it was unfair to a new +and untried legislature in Ireland to find itself confronted +by such a question on the very threshold. +</p> + +<p> +The plan was opened by Mr. Gladstone in cabinet on +<pb n='302'/><anchor id='Pg302'/> +March 13th, and Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Trevelyan at once +wished to resign. He remonstrated in a vigorous correspondence. +<q>I have seen many and many a resignation,</q> he said, +<q>but never one based upon the intentions, nay the immature +intentions, of the prime minister, and on a pure intuition of +what may happen. Bricks and rafters are prepared for a house, +but are not themselves a house.</q> The evil hour was postponed, +but not for long. The Cabinet met again a few days later +(March 26) and things came to a sharp issue. The question +was raised in a sufficiently definite form by the proposition +from the prime minister for the establishment of a statutory +body sitting in Dublin with legislative powers. No difficulty +was made about the bare proposition itself. Every one +seemed to go as far as that. It needed to be tested, and +tests were at once forthcoming. Mr. Trevelyan could not +assent to the control of the immediate machinery of law +and order being withdrawn from direct British authority, +among other reasons because it was this proposal that +created the necessity for buying out the Irish landlords, which he regarded as +raising a problem absolutely insoluble.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> +304, p. 1116.</note> +Mr. Chamberlain raised four points. He objected to the +cesser of Irish representation; he could not consent to the +grant of full rights of taxation to Ireland; he resisted the +surrender of the appointment of judges and magistrates; +and he argued strongly against proceeding by enumeration +of the things that an Irish government might not do, +instead of by a specific delegation of the things that it +might do.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 304, p. +1190.</note> That these four objections were not in themselves +incapable of accommodation was shown by subsequent +events. The second was very speedily, and the first was +ultimately allowed, while the fourth was held by good +authority to be little more than a question of drafting. +Even the third was not a point either way on which to +break up a government, destroy a policy, and split a party. +But everybody who is acquainted with either the great or +the small conflicts of human history, knows how little the +mere terms of a principle or of an objection are to be +trusted as a clue either to its practical significance, or +<pb n='303'/><anchor id='Pg303'/> +<note place='margin'>Important Resignations</note> +to the design with which it is in reality advanced. The +design here under all the four heads of objection, was the +dwarfing of the legislative body, the cramping and constriction +of its organs, its reduction to something which +the Irish could not have even pretended to accept, and +which they would have been no better than fools if they +had ever attempted to work. +</p> + +<p> +Some supposed then, and Mr. Chamberlain has said since, +that when he entered the cabinet room on this memorable +occasion, he intended to be conciliatory. Witnesses of the +scene thought that the prime minister made little attempt +in that direction. Yet where two men of clear mind and +firm will mean two essentially different things under the +same name, whether autonomy or anything else, and each +intends to stand by his own interpretation, it is childish to +suppose that arts of deportment will smother or attenuate +fundamental divergence, or make people who are quite +aware how vitally they differ, pretend that they entirely +agree. Mr. Gladstone knew the giant burden that he had +taken up, and when he went to the cabinet of March 26, his +mind was no doubt fixed that success, so hazardous at best, +would be hopeless in face of personal antagonisms and +bitterly divided counsels. This, in his view, and in his +own phrase, was one of the <q>great imperial occasions</q> that +call for imperial resolves. The two ministers accordingly +resigned. +</p> + +<p> +Besides these two important secessions, some ministers +out of the cabinet resigned, but they were of the whig +complexion.<note place='foot'>Faint hopes were nourished that +Mr. Bright might be induced to +join, but there was unfortunately +no ground for them. Mr. Whitbread +was invited, but preferred to +lend staunch and important support +outside. Lord Dalhousie, one of +the truest hearts that ever was +attracted to public life, too early +lost to his country, took the Scottish +secretaryship, not in the cabinet.</note> The new prospect of the whig schism extending +into the camp of the extreme radicals created natural +alarm but hardly produced a panic. So deep were the roots +of party, so immense the authority of a veteran leader. It +used to be said of the administration of 1880, that the world +would never really know Mr. Gladstone's strength in parliament +and the country, until every one of his colleagues +<pb n='304'/><anchor id='Pg304'/> +had in turn abandoned him to his own resources. Certainly +the secessions of the end of March 1886 left him undaunted. +Every consideration of duty and of policy bound him to +persevere. He felt, justly enough, that a minister who had +once deliberately invited his party and the people of the +three kingdoms to follow him on so arduous and bold a +march as this, had no right on any common plea to turn +back until he had exhausted every available device to +<q>bring the army of the faithful through.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +From the first the Irish leader was in free and constant +communication with the chief secretary. Proposals were +once or twice made, not I think at Mr. Parnell's desire, for +conversations to be held between Mr. Gladstone and himself, +but they were always discouraged by Mr. Gladstone, who was +never fond of direct personal contentions, or conversations +when the purpose could be as well served otherwise, and he +had a horror of what he called multiplying channels of communication. +<q>For the moment,</q> he replied, <q>I think we may +look to Mr. M. alone, and rely on all he says for accuracy as +well as fidelity. I have been hard at work, and to-day I +mean to have a further and full talk with Mr. M., who will +probably soon after wish for some renewed conversation +with Mr. Parnell.</q> Mr. Parnell showed himself acute, frank, +patient, closely attentive, and possessed of striking though +not rapid insight. He never slurred over difficulties, nor +tried to pretend that rough was smooth. On the other +hand, he had nothing in common with that desperate +species of counsellor, who takes all the small points, and +raises objections instead of helping to contrive expedients. +He measured the ground with a slow and careful eye, and +fixed tenaciously on the thing that was essential at the +moment. Of constructive faculty he never showed a trace. +He was a man of temperament, of will, of authority, of +power; not of ideas or ideals, or knowledge, or political +maxims, or even of the practical reason in any of its higher +senses, as Hamilton, Madison, and Jefferson had practical +reason. But he knew what he wanted. +</p> + +<pb n='305'/><anchor id='Pg305'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Mr. Parnell</note> +He was always perfectly ready at this period to acquiesce +in Irish exclusion from Westminster, on the ground that +they would want all the brains they had for their own +parliament. At the same time he would have liked a provision +for sending a delegation to Westminster on occasion, +with reference to some definite Irish questions such as might +be expected to arise. As to the composition of the upper +or protective order in the Irish parliament, he was wholly +unfamiliar with the various utopian plans that have been +advanced for the protection of minorities, and he declared +himself tolerably indifferent whether the object should be +sought in nomination by the crown, or through a special and +narrower elective body, or by any other scheme. To such +things he had given no thought. He was a party chief, not a +maker of constitutions. He liked the idea of both orders sitting +in one House. He made one significant suggestion: he +wished the bill to impose the same disqualification upon the +clergy as exists in our own parliament. But he would have +liked to see certain ecclesiastical dignitaries included by +virtue of their office in the upper or protective branch. All +questions of this kind, however, interested him much less +than finance. Into financial issues he threw himself with +extraordinary energy, and he fought for better terms with a +keenness and tenacity that almost baffled the mighty expert +with whom he was matched. They only met once during +the weeks of the preparation of the bill, though the indirect +communication was constant. Here is my scanty note of +the meeting:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>April 5.</hi>—Mr. Parnell came to my room at the House at 8.30, +and we talked for two hours. At 10.30 I went to Mr. Gladstone +next door, and told him how things stood. He asked me to open +the points of discussion, and into my room we went. He shook +hands cordially with Mr. Parnell, and sat down between him and +me. We at once got to work. P. extraordinarily close, tenacious, +and sharp. It was all finance. At midnight, Mr. Gladstone rose +in his chair and said, <q>I fear I must go; I cannot sit as late as +I used to do.</q> <q>Very clever, very clever,</q> he muttered to me as I +held open the door of his room for him. I returned to Parnell, +<pb n='306'/><anchor id='Pg306'/> +who went on repeating his points in his impenetrable way, until +the policeman mercifully came to say the House was up. +</quote> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone's own note must also be transcribed:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>April 5.</hi>—Wrote to Lord Spencer. The Queen and ministers. +Four hours on the matter for my speech. 1-½ hours with Welby +and Hamilton on the figures. Saw Lord Spencer, Mr. Morley, +Mr. A. M. H. of C., 5-8. Dined at Sir Thomas May's. +</p> + +<p> +1-½ hours with Morley and Parnell on the root of the matter; +rather too late for me, 10-½-12. A hard day. (<hi rend='italic'>Diary.</hi>) +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +On more than one financial point the conflict went +perilously near to breaking down the whole operation. <q>If +we do not get a right budget,</q> said Mr. Parnell, <q>all will go +wrong from the very first hour.</q> To the last he held out +that the just proportion of Irish contribution to the imperial +fund was not one-fourteenth or one-fifteenth, but a twentieth +or twenty-first part. He insisted all the more strongly on +his own more liberal fraction, as a partial compensation for +their surrender of fiscal liberty and the right to impose +customs duties. Even an hour or two before the bill was +actually to be unfolded to the House, he hurried to the Irish +office in what was for him rather an excited state, to make +one more appeal to me for his fraction. It is not at all +improbable that if the bill had gone forward into committee, +it would have been at the eleventh hour rejected by the +Irish on this department of it, and then all would have been +at an end. Mr. Parnell never concealed this danger ahead. +</p> + +<p> +In the cabinet things went forward with such ups and +downs as are usual when a difficult bill is on the anvil. In +a project of this magnitude, it was inevitable that some +minister should occasionally let fall the consecrated formula +that if this or that were done or not done, he must reconsider +his position. Financial arrangements, and the protection +of the minority, were two of the knottiest points,—the +first from the contention raised on the Irish side, the second +from misgiving in some minds as to the possibility of +satisfying protestant sentiment in England and Scotland. +Some kept the colonial type more strongly in view than +others, and the bill no doubt ultimately bore that cast. +</p> + +<pb n='307'/><anchor id='Pg307'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The Bill On The Anvil</note> +The draft project of surrendering complete taxing-power +to the Irish legislative body was eventually abandoned. It +was soon felt that the bare possibility of Ireland putting +duties on British goods—and it was not more than a bare +possibility in view of Britain's position as practically Ireland's +only market—would have destroyed the bill in every manufacturing +and commercial centre in the land. Mr. Parnell +agreed to give up the control of customs, and also to give +up direct and continuous representation at Westminster. +On this cardinal point of the cesser of Irish representation, +Mr. Gladstone to the last professed to keep an open mind, +though to most of the cabinet, including especially three +of its oldest hands and coolest heads, exclusion was at +this time almost vital. Exclusion was favoured not only +on its merits. Mr. Bright was known to regard it as +large compensation for what otherwise he viewed as pure +mischief, and it was expected to win support in other +quarters generally hostile. So in truth it did, but at the +cost of support in quarters that were friendly. On April 30, +Mr. Gladstone wrote to Lord Granville, <q>I scarcely see how +a cabinet could have been formed, if the inclusion of the +Irish members had been insisted on; and now I do not see +how the scheme and policy can be saved from shipwreck, if +the exclusion is insisted on.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The plan was bound to be extensive, as its objects were +extensive, and it took for granted in the case of Ireland +the fundamental probabilities of civil society. He who +looks with <q>indolent and kingly gaze</q> upon all projects +of written constitutions need not turn to the Appendix +unless he will. Two features of the plan were cardinal. +</p> + +<p> +The foundation of the scheme was the establishment +in Ireland of a domestic legislature to deal with Irish as +distinguished from imperial affairs. It followed from this +that if Irish members and representative peers remained at +Westminster at all, though they might claim a share in the +settlement of imperial affairs, they could not rightly control +English or Scotch affairs. This was from the first, and has +ever since remained, the Gordian knot. The cabinet on a +review of all the courses open determined to propose the +<pb n='308'/><anchor id='Pg308'/> +plan of total exclusion, save and unless for the purpose of +revising this organic statute. +</p> + +<p> +The next question was neither so hard nor so vital. +Ought the powers of the Irish legislature to be specifically +enumerated? Or was it better to enumerate the branches +of legislation from which the statutory parliament was to be +shut out? Should we enact the things that they might do, +or the things that they might not do, leaving them the +whole residue of law-making power outside of these exceptions +and exclusions? The latter was the plan adopted in +the bill. Disabilities were specified, and everything not so +specified was left within the scope of the Irish authority. +These disabilities comprehended all matters affecting the +crown. All questions of defence and armed force were +shut out; all foreign and colonial relations; the law of +trade and navigation, of coinage and legal tender. The +new legislature could not meddle with certain charters, nor +with certain contracts, nor could it establish or endow any +particular religion.<note place='foot'>See Appendix.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +Among his five spurious types of courage, Aristotle names +for one the man who seems to be brave, only because he +does not see his danger. This, at least, was not Mr. Gladstone's +case. No one knew better than the leader in the +enterprise, how formidable were the difficulties that lay in +his path. The giant mass of secular English prejudice +against Ireland frowned like a mountain chain across the +track. A strong and proud nation had trained itself for +long courses of time in habits of dislike for the history, the +political claims, the religion, the temperament, of a weaker +nation. The violence of the Irish members in the last +parliament, sporadic barbarities in some of the wilder portions +of the island, the hideous murders in the Park, had all +deepened and vivified the scowling impressions nursed by +large bodies of Englishmen for many ages past about unfortunate +Ireland. Then the practical operation of shaping +an Irish constitution, whether on colonial, federal, or any +<pb n='309'/><anchor id='Pg309'/> +<note place='margin'>Forces For And Against</note> +other lines, was in itself a task that, even if all external +circumstance had been as smiling as it was in fact the +opposite, still abounded in every kind of knotty, intricate, and +intractable matter. +</p> + +<p> +It is true that elements could be discovered on the other +side. First, was Mr. Gladstone's own high place in the confidence +of great masses of his countrymen, the result of a +lifetime of conspicuous service and achievement. Next, the +lacerating struggle with Ireland ever since 1880, and the +confusion into which it had brought our affairs, had bred +something like despair in many minds, and they were ready +to look in almost any direction for relief from an intolerable +burden. Third, the controversy had not gone very far before +opponents were astounded to find that the new policy, which +they angrily scouted as half insanity and half treason, gave +comparatively little shock to the new democracy. This was +at first imputed to mere ignorance and raw habits of political +judgment. Wider reflection might have warned them that +the plain people of this island, though quickly roused against +even the shadow of concession when the power or the greatness +of their country is openly assailed, seem at the same +time ready to turn to moral claims of fair play, of conciliation, +of pacific truce. With all these magnanimous sentiments +the Irish case was only too easily made to associate +itself. The results of the Irish elections and the force of the +constitutional demand sank deep in the popular mind. The +grim spectre of Coercion as the other alternative wore its +most repulsive look in the eyes of men, themselves but +newly admitted to full citizenship. Rash experiment in +politics has been defined as raising grave issues without +grave cause. Nobody of any party denied in this crisis the +gravity of the cause. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='310'/><anchor id='Pg310'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter VI. Introduction Of The Bill. (1886)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l>Much have I seen and known; cities of men</l> +<l>And manners, climates, councils, governments,</l> +<l>Myself not least, but honour'd of them all....</l> +<l>There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;</l> +<l>There gloom the dark broad seas.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 16'>—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Tennyson</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>Ulysses</hi>.</l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +It was not within the compass either of human effort or +human endurance even for the most practised and skilful +of orators to unfold the whole plan, both government and +land, in a single speech. Nor was public interest at all +equally divided. Irish land had devoured an immense +amount of parliamentary time in late years; it is one of the +most technical and repulsive of all political subjects; and to +many of the warmest friends of Irish self-government, any +special consideration for the owners of Irish land was bitterly +unpalatable. Expectation was centred upon the plan for +general government. This was introduced on April 8. Here +is the entry in the little diary:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +The message came to me this morning: <q>Hold thou up my +goings in thy path, that my footsteps slip not.</q> Settled finally my +figures with Welby and Hamilton; other points with Spencer and +Morley. Reflected much. Took a short drive. H. of C., 4-½-8-¼. +Extraordinary scenes outside the House and in. My speech, which +I have sometimes thought could never end, lasted nearly 3-½ hours. +Voice and strength and freedom were granted to me in a degree +beyond what I could have hoped. But many a prayer had gone +up for me, and not I believe in vain. +</quote> + +<p> +No such scene had ever been beheld in the House of +Commons. Members came down at break of day to secure +their places; before noon every seat was marked, and +<pb n='311'/><anchor id='Pg311'/> +<note place='margin'>Scene In Parliament</note> +crowded benches were even arrayed on the floor of the +House from the mace to the bar. Princes, ambassadors, +great peers, high prelates, thronged the lobbies. The fame +of the orator, the boldness of his exploit, curiosity as to the +plan, poignant anxiety as to the party result, wonder +whether a wizard had at last actually arisen with a spell +for casting out the baleful spirits that had for so many +ages made Ireland our torment and our dishonour, all these +things brought together such an assemblage as no minister +before had ever addressed within those world-renowned +walls. The parliament was new. Many of its members had +fought a hard battle for their seats, and trusted they were +safe in the haven for half a dozen good years to come. +Those who were moved by professional ambition, those +whose object was social advancement, those who thought +only of upright public service, the keen party men, the men +who aspired to office, the men with a past and the men who +looked for a future, all alike found themselves adrift on +dark and troubled waters. The secrets of the bill had been +well kept. To-day the disquieted host were first to learn +what was the great project to which they would have to say +that Aye or No on which for them and for the state so +much would hang. +</p> + +<p> +Of the chief comrades or rivals of the minister's own +generation, the strong administrators, the eager and accomplished +debaters, the sagacious leaders, the only survivor +now comparable to him in eloquence or in influence was +Mr. Bright. That illustrious man seldom came into the +House in those distracted days; and on this memorable +occasion his stern and noble head was to be seen in dim +obscurity. Various as were the emotions in other regions +of the House, in one quarter rejoicing was unmixed. +There, at least, was no doubt and no misgiving. There +pallid and tranquil sat the Irish leader, whose hard insight, +whose patience, energy, and spirit of command, had achieved +this astounding result, and done that which he had vowed +to his countrymen that he would assuredly be able to do. +On the benches round him, genial excitement rose almost to +tumult. Well it might. For the first time since the union, +<pb n='312'/><anchor id='Pg312'/> +the Irish case was at last to be pressed in all its force and +strength, in every aspect of policy and of conscience, by the +most powerful Englishman then alive. +</p> + +<p> +More striking than the audience was the man; more +striking than the multitude of eager onlookers from the +shore was the rescuer with deliberate valour facing the +floods ready to wash him down; the veteran Ulysses, who +after more than half a century of combat, service, toil, +thought it not too late to try a further <q>work of noble note.</q> +In the hands of such a master of the instrument, the theme +might easily have lent itself to one of those displays of +exalted passion which the House had marvelled at in more +than one of Mr. Gladstone's speeches on the Turkish question, +or heard with religious reverence in his speech on the +Affirmation bill in 1883. What the occasion now required +was that passion should burn low, and reasoned persuasion +hold up the guiding lamp. An elaborate scheme was to be +unfolded, an unfamiliar policy to be explained and vindicated. +Of that best kind of eloquence which dispenses with +declamation, this was a fine and sustained example. There +was a deep, rapid, steady, onflowing volume of argument, +exposition, exhortation. Every hard or bitter stroke was +avoided. Now and again a fervid note thrilled the ear and +lifted all hearts. But political oratory is action, not words,—action, +character, will, conviction, purpose, personality. +As this eager muster of men underwent the enchantment +of periods exquisite in their balance and modulation, the +compulsion of his flashing glance and animated gesture, +what stirred and commanded them was the recollection +of national service, the thought of the speaker's mastering +purpose, his unflagging resolution and strenuous will, +his strength of thew and sinew well tried in long years of +resounding war, his unquenched conviction that the just +cause can never fail. Few are the heroic moments in our +parliamentary politics, but this was one. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +The first reading of the bill was allowed to pass without +a division. To the second, Lord Hartington moved an +<pb n='313'/><anchor id='Pg313'/> +<note place='margin'>Character Of The Debate</note> +amendment in the ordinary form of simple rejection.<note place='foot'>First +reading, April 13. Motion made for second reading and amendment, +May 10. Land bill introduced and first reading, April 16.</note> His +two speeches<note place='foot'>April 9, May 10.</note> +present the case against the policy and the +bill in its most massive form. The direct and unsophisticated +nature of his antagonism, backed by a personal character +of uprightness and plain dealing beyond all suspicion, +gave a momentum to his attack that was beyond any effect +of dialectics. It was noticed that he had never during his +thirty years of parliamentary life spoken with anything like +the same power before. The debates on the two stages +occupied sixteen nights. They were not unworthy of the +gravity of the issue, nor of the fame of the House of Commons. +Only one speaker held the magic secret of Demosthenic +oratory. Several others showed themselves masters +of the higher arts of parliamentary discussion. One or two +transient spurts of fire in the encounters of orange and +green, served to reveal the intensity of the glow behind the +closed doors of the furnace. But the general temper was +good. The rule against irritating language was hardly ever +broken. Swords crossed according to the strict rules of +combat. The tone was rational and argumentative. There +was plenty of strong, close, and acute reasoning; there was +some learning, a considerable acquaintance both with historic +and contemporary, foreign and domestic fact, and when fact +and reasoning broke down, their place was abundantly filled +by eloquent prophecy of disaster on one side, or blessing on +the other. Neither prophecy was demonstrable; both could +be made plausible. +</p> + +<p> +Discussion was adorned by copious references to the +mighty shades who had been the glory of the House in a +great parliamentary age. We heard again the Virgilian +hexameters in which Pitt had described the spirit of his +policy at the union:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'><q rend='pre'>Paribus se legibus ambæ</q></l> +<l><q rend='post'>Invictæ gentes æterna in fœdera mittant.</q></l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p> +We heard once more how Grattan said that union of the +legislatures was severance of the nations; that the ocean +<pb n='314'/><anchor id='Pg314'/> +forbade union, the channel forbade separation; that England +in her government of Ireland had gone to hell for her principles +and to bedlam for her discretion. There was, above +all, a grand and copious anthology throughout the debate +from Burke, the greatest of Irishmen and the largest master +of civil wisdom in our tongue. +</p> + +<p> +The appearance of a certain measure of the common form +of all debates was inevitable. No bill is ever brought in of +which its opponents do not say that it either goes too far, or +else it does not go far enough; no bill of which its defenders +do not say as to some crucial flaw pounced upon and +paraded by the enemy, that after all it is a mere question of +drafting, or can be more appropriately discussed in committee. +There was the usual evasion of the strong points of +the adversary's case, the usual exaggeration of its weak ones. +That is debating. Perorations ran in a monotonous mould; +integrity of the empire on one side, a real, happy, and indissoluble +reconciliation between English and Irish on the +other. +</p> + +<p> +One side dwelt much on the recall of Lord Fitzwilliam in +1795, and the squalid corruption of the union; the other, on +the hopeless distraction left by the rebellion of 1798, and +the impotent confusion of the Irish parliament. One +speaker enumerated Mr. Pitt's arguments for the union—the +argument about the regency and about the commercial +treaty, the argument about foreign alliances and confederacies +and the army, about free trade and catholic emancipation; +he showed that under all these six heads the new +bill carefully respected and guarded the grounds taken by +the minister of the union. He was bluntly answered by +the exclamation that nobody cared a straw about what Mr. +Pitt said, or what Sir Ralph Abercromby said; what we had +to deal with were the facts of the case in the year 1886. +You show your mistrust of the Irish by inserting all these +safeguards in the bill, said the opposition. No, replied +ministers; the safeguards are to meet no mistrusts of ours, +but those entertained or feigned by other people. You had +no mandate for home rule, said the opposition. Still less, +ministers retorted, had you a mandate for coercion. +<pb n='315'/><anchor id='Pg315'/> +<note place='margin'>Stroke And Counter-Stroke</note> +Such a scheme as this, exclaimed the critics, with all +its checks and counterchecks, its truncated functions, its +vetoes, exceptions, and reservations, is degrading to Ireland, +and every Irish patriot with a spark of spirit in his bosom +must feel it so. As if, retorted the defenders, there were +no degradation to a free people in suffering twenty years of +your firm and resolute coercion. One side argued that the +interests of Ireland and Great Britain were much too closely +intertwined to permit a double legislature. The other +argued that this very interdependence was just what made +an Irish legislature safe, because it was incredible that they +should act as if they had no benefit to receive from us, and +no injury to suffer from injury inflicted upon us. Do you, +asked some, blot out of your minds the bitter, incendiary, +and rebellious speech of Irish members? But do you then, +the rejoinder followed, suppose that the language that came +from men's hearts when a boon was refused, is a clue to the +sentiment in their hearts when the boon shall have been +granted? Ministers were bombarded with reproachful +quotations from their old speeches. They answered the +fire by taunts about the dropping of coercion, and the +amazing manœuvres of the autumn of 1885. The device of +the two orders was denounced as inconsistent with the +democratic tendencies of the age. A very impressive argument +forsooth from you, was the reply, who are either +stout defenders of the House of Lords as it is, or else stout +advocates for some of the multifarious schemes for mixing +hereditary peers with fossil officials, all of them equally +alien to the democratic tendencies whether of this age or +any other. So, with stroke and counter-stroke, was the +ball kept flying. +</p> + +<p> +Much was made of foreign and colonial analogies; of the +union between Austria and Hungary, Norway and Sweden, +Denmark and Iceland; how in forcing legislative union on +North America we lost the colonies; how the union of legislatures +ended in the severance of Holland from Belgium. +All this carried little conviction. Most members of parliament +like to think with pretty large blinkers on, and though +it may make for narrowness, this is consistent with much +<pb n='316'/><anchor id='Pg316'/> +practical wisdom. Historical parallels in the actual politics +of the day are usually rather decorative than substantial. +</p> + +<p> +If people disbelieve premisses, nothing can be easier than +to ridicule conclusions; and what happened now was that +critics argued against this or that contrivance in the +machinery, because they insisted that no machinery was +needed at all, and that no contrivance could ever be made +to work, because the Irish mechanicians would infallibly +devote all their infatuated energy and perverse skill, not +to work it, but to break it in pieces. The Irish, in Mr. +Gladstone's ironical paraphrase of these singular opinions, +had a double dose of original sin; they belonged wholly to +the kingdoms of darkness, and therefore the rules of that +probability which wise men have made the guide of life can +have no bearing in any case of theirs. A more serious way +of stating the fundamental objection with which Mr. Gladstone +had to deal was this. Popular government is at the +best difficult to work. It is supremely difficult to work in +a statutory scheme with limits, reservations, and restrictions +lurking round every corner. Finally, owing to history and +circumstance, no people in all the world is less fitted to try +a supremely difficult experiment in government than the +people who live in Ireland. Your superstructure, they said, +is enormously heavy, yet you are going to raise it on foundations +that are a quaking bog of incapacity and discontent. +This may have been a good answer to the policy of the bill. +But to criticise its provisions from such a point of view was +as inevitably unfruitful as it would be to set a hardened +agnostic to revise the Thirty-nine articles or the mystic +theses of the Athanasian creed. +</p> + +<p> +On the first reading, Mr. Chamberlain astounded allies +and opponents alike by suddenly revealing his view, that +the true solution of the question was to be sought in some +form of federation. It was upon the line of federation, and +not upon the pattern of the self-governing colonies, that we +should find a way out of the difficulty.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> +304, pp. 1204-6.</note> Men could hardly +trust their ears. On the second reading, he startled us once +more by declaring that he was perfectly prepared, the very +<pb n='317'/><anchor id='Pg317'/> +<note place='margin'>Lord Salisbury</note> +next day if we pleased, to establish between this country +and Ireland the relations subsisting between the provincial legislatures and +the dominion parliament of Canada.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> +306, p. 697.</note> As +to the first proposal, anybody could see that federation was +a vastly more revolutionary operation than the delegation of +certain legislative powers to a local parliament. Moreover +before federating an Irish legislature, you must first create +it. As to the second proposal, anybody could see on turning +for a quarter of an hour to the Dominion Act of 1867, that +in some of the particulars deemed by Mr. Chamberlain to be +specially important, a provincial legislature in the Canadian +system had more unfettered powers than the Irish legislature +would have under the bill. Finally, he urged that inquiry +into the possibility of satisfying the Irish demand should +be carried on by a committee or commission representing +all sections of the House.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> +304, p. 1202.</note> In face of projects so strangely +fashioned as this, Mr. Gladstone had a right to declare that +just as the subject held the field in the public mind—for +never before had been seen such signs of public absorption +in the House and out of the House—so the ministerial plan +held the field in parliament. It had many enemies, but it +had not a single serious rival. +</p> + +<p> +The debate on the second reading had hardly begun when +Lord Salisbury placed in the hands of his adversaries a +weapon with which they took care to do much execution. +Ireland, he declared, is not one nation, but two nations. +There were races like the Hottentots, and even the Hindoos, +incapable of self-government. He would not place confidence +in people who had acquired the habit of using knives +and slugs. His policy was that parliament should enable +the government of England to govern Ireland. <q>Apply that +recipe honestly, consistently, and resolutely for twenty years, +and at the end of that time you will find that Ireland will +be fit to accept any gifts in the way of local government or +repeal of coercion laws that you may wish to give her.</q><note place='foot'>May +15, 1886.</note> In +the same genial vein, Lord Salisbury told his Hottentot +fellow-citizens—one of the two <foreign rend='italic'>invictæ +gentes</foreign> of Mr. Pitt's +famous quotation—that if some great store of imperial +<pb n='318'/><anchor id='Pg318'/> +treasure were going to be expended on Ireland, instead of +buying out landlords, it would be far more usefully employed +in providing for the emigration of a million Irishmen. +Explanations followed this inconvenient candour, but explanations +are apt to be clumsy, and the pungency of the +indiscretion kept it long alive. A humdrum speaker, who +was able to contribute nothing better to the animation of +debate, could always by insinuating a reference to Hottentots, +knives and slugs, the deportation of a million Irishmen, and +twenty years of continuous coercion, make sure of a roar +of angry protest from his opponents, followed by a lusty +counter-volley from his friends. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>V</head> + +<p> +The reception of the bill by the organs of Irish opinion +was easy to foretell. The nationalists accepted it in sober +and rational language, subject to amendments on the head +of finance and the constabulary clauses. The tories said it +was a bill for setting up an Irish republic. It is another +selfish English plan, said the moderates. Some Irishmen +who had played with home rule while it was a phrase, drew +back when they saw it in a bill. Others, while holding to +home rule, objected to being reduced to the status of +colonists. The body of home rulers who were protestant was +small, and even against them it was retorted that for every +protestant nationalist there were ten catholic unionists. +The Fenian organs across the Atlantic, while quarrelling +with such provisions as the two orders, <q>one of which +would be Irish and the other English,</q> did justice to the +bravery of the attempt, and to the new moral forces which +it would call out. The florid violence which the Fenians +abandoned was now with proper variations adopted by +Orangemen in the north. The General Assembly of the +presbyterian church in Ireland passed strong resolutions +against a parliament, in favour of a peasant proprietary, in +favour of loyalty, and of coercion. A few days later the +general synod of the protestant episcopal church followed +suit, and denounced a parliament. The Orange print in +Belfast drew up a Solemn League and Covenant for Ulster, +<pb n='319'/><anchor id='Pg319'/> +to ignore and resist an Irish national government. Unionist +prints in Dublin declared and indignantly repelled <q>the +selfish English design to get rid of the Irish nuisance from +Westminster, and reduce us to the position of a tributary +dependency.</q><note place='foot'>See for instance, <hi rend='italic'>Irish Times</hi>, +May 8, and <hi rend='italic'>Belfast Newsletter</hi>, May +17, 18, 21, 1886.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The pivot of the whole policy was the acceptance of the +bill by the representatives of Ireland. On the evening when +the bill was produced, Mr. Parnell made certain complaints +as to the reservation of the control of the constabulary, +as to the power of the first order to effect a deadlock, and as +to finance. He explicitly and publicly warned the government +from the first that, when the committee stage was +reached, he would claim a large decrease in the fraction +named for the imperial contribution. There was never any +dissembling as to this. In private discussion, he had always +held that the fair proportion of Irish contribution to imperial +charges was not a fifteenth but a twentieth, and he +said no more in the House than he had persistently said in +the Irish secretary's room. There too he had urged what +he also declared in the House: that he had always insisted +that due representation should be given to the minority; +that he should welcome any device for preventing ill-considered +legislation, but that the provision in the bill, for the +veto of the first order, would lead to prolonged obstruction +and delay. Subject to modification on these three heads, he +accepted the bill. <q>I am convinced,</q> he said in concluding, +<q>that if our views are fairly met in committee regarding the +defects to which I have briefly alluded,—the bill will be +cheerfully accepted by the Irish people, and by their representatives, +as a solution of the long-standing dispute between +the two countries.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> +304, p. 1134. Also 305, p. +1252.</note> +</p> + +<p> +It transpired at a later date that just before the introduction +of the bill, when Mr. Parnell had been made +acquainted with its main proposals, he called a meeting of +eight of his leading colleagues, told them what these proposals +were, and asked them whether they would take the +<pb n='320'/><anchor id='Pg320'/> +bill or leave it.<note place='foot'>When the bill was practically +settled, he asked if he might have +a draft of the main provisions, for +communication to half a dozen of his +confidential colleagues. After some +demur, the Irish secretary consented, +warning him of the damaging +consequences of any premature divulgation. +The draft was duly returned, +and not a word leaked out. Some +time afterwards Mr. Parnell recalled +the incident to me. <q>Three of the +men to whom I showed the draft +were newspaper men, and they were +poor men, and any newspaper would +have given them a thousand pounds +for it. No very wonderful virtue, +you may say. But how many of +your House of Commons would +believe it?</q></note> Some began to object to the absence of +certain provisions, such as the immediate control of the +constabulary, and the right over duties of customs. Mr. +Parnell rose from the table, and clenched the discussion by +informing them that if they declined the bill, the government +would go. They at once agreed <q>to accept it <foreign rend='italic'>pro +tanto</foreign>, reserving for committee the right of enforcing and, +if necessary, reconsidering their position with regard to +these important questions.</q> This is neither more nor less +than the form in which Mr. Parnell made his declaration in +parliament. There was complete consistency between the +terms of this declaration, and the terms of acceptance +agreed to by his colleagues, as disclosed in the black days +of December four years later. The charge of bad faith and +hypocrisy so freely made against the Irishmen is wholly +unwarranted by a single word in these proceedings. If the +whole transaction had been known to the House of Commons, +it could not have impaired by one jot or tittle the +value set by the supporters of the bill on the assurances of +the Irishmen that, in principle and subject to modification +on points named, they accepted the bill as a settlement of +the question, and would use their best endeavours to make +it work.<note place='foot'>For this point, see the <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi> +report of the famous proceedings in +Committee-room Fifteen, collected in +the volume entitled <hi rend='italic'>The Parnellite +Split</hi> (1891).</note> +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='321'/><anchor id='Pg321'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter VII. The Political Atmosphere. Defeat Of The Bill. (1886)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +Everything on every side was full of traps and mines.... It was +in the midst of this chaos of plots and counterplots ... that the +firmness of that noble person [Lord Rockingham] was put to the +proof. He never stirred from his ground; no, not an +inch.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Burke</hi> +(1766). +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +The atmosphere in London became thick and hot with +political passion. Veteran observers declared that our +generation had not seen anything like it. Distinguished +men of letters and, as it oddly happened, men who had won +some distinction either by denouncing the legislative union, +or by insisting on a decentralisation that should satisfy Irish +national aspirations, now choked with anger because they +were taken at their word. Just like irascible scholars of old +time who settled controversies about corrupt texts by imputing +to rival grammarians shameful crimes, so these writers +could find no other explanation for an opinion that was +not their own about Irish government, except moral turpitude +and personal degradation. One professor of urbanity +compared Mr. Gladstone to a desperate pirate burning his +ship, or a gambler doubling and trebling his stake as luck +goes against him. Such strange violence in calm natures, +such pharisaic pretension in a world where we are all fallen, +remains a riddle. Political differences were turned into +social proscription. Whigs who could not accept the new +policy were specially furious with whigs who could. Great +ladies purified their lists of the names of old intimates. +Amiable magnates excluded from their dinner-tables and +their country houses once familiar friends who had fallen +into the guilty heresy, and even harmless portraits of the +<pb n='322'/><anchor id='Pg322'/> +heresiarch were sternly removed from the walls. At some +of the political clubs it rained blackballs. It was a painful +demonstration how thin after all is our social veneer, even +when most highly polished. +</p> + +<p> +When a royal birthday was drawing near, the prime +minister wrote to Lord Granville, his unfailing counsellor in +every difficulty political and social: <q>I am becoming seriously +perplexed about my birthday dinner. Hardly any peers of +the higher ranks will be available, and not many of the lower. +Will the seceding colleagues come if they are asked? (Argyll, +to whom I applied privately on the score of old friendship, +has already <emph>refused</emph> me.) I am for asking them; but I expect +refusal. Lastly, it has become customary for the Prince +of Wales to dine with me on that day, and he brings his +eldest son now that the young Prince is of age. But his +position would be very awkward, if he comes and witnesses +a great nakedness of the land. What do you say to all this? +If you cannot help me, who can?</q> Most of the seceding +colleagues accepted, and the dinner came off well enough, +though as the host wrote to a friend beforehand, <q>If Hartington +were to get up and move a vote of want of confidence +after dinner, he would almost carry it.</q> The Prince was +unable to be present, and so the great nakedness was by him +unseen, but Prince Albert Victor, who was there instead, is +described by Mr. Gladstone as <q>most kind.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The conversion of Peel to free trade forty years before had +led to the same species of explosion, though Peel had the +court strongly with him. Both then and now it was the +case of a feud within the bosom of a party, and such feuds +like civil wars have ever been the fiercest. In each case +there was a sense of betrayal—at least as unreasonable in +1886 as it was in 1846. The provinces somehow took +things more rationally than the metropolis. Those who were +stunned by the fierce moans of London over the assured decline +in national honour and credit, the imminence of civil +war, and the ultimate destruction of British power, found +their acquaintances in the country excited and interested, +but still clothed and in their right minds. The gravity of the +question was fully understood, but in taking sides ordinary +<pb n='323'/><anchor id='Pg323'/> +<note place='margin'>Subterranean Activity</note> +men did not talk as if they were in for the battle of Armageddon. +The attempt to kindle the torch of religious fear +or hate was in Great Britain happily a failure. The mass of +liberal presbyterians in Scotland, and of nonconformists in +England and Wales, stood firm, though some of their most +eminent and able divines resisted the new project, less on +religious grounds than on what they took to be the balance +of political arguments. Mr. Gladstone was able to point to +the conclusive assurances he had received that the kindred +peoples in the colonies and America regarded with warm +and fraternal sympathy the present effort to settle the long-vexed +and troubled relations between Great Britain and +Ireland:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +We must not be discouraged if at home and particularly in the +upper ranks of society, we hear a variety of discordant notes, +notes alike discordant from our policy and from one another. +You have before you a cabinet determined in its purpose and an +intelligible plan. I own I see very little else in the political +arena that is determined or that is intelligible. +</quote> + +<p> +Inside the House subterranean activity was at its height +all through the month of May. This was the critical period. +The regular opposition spoke little and did little; with composed +interest they watched others do their work. On the +ministerial side men wavered and changed and changed +again, from day to day and almost from hour to hour. +Never were the motions of the pendulum so agitated and so +irregular. So novel and complex a problem was a terrible +burden for a new parliament. About half its members had +not sat in any parliament before. The whips were new, +some of the leaders on the front benches were new, and those +of them who were most in earnest about the policy were too +heavily engrossed in the business of the measure, to have +much time for the exercises of explanation, argument, and +persuasion with their adherents. One circumstance told +powerfully for ministers. The great central organisation of +the liberal party came decisively over to Mr. Gladstone +(May 5), and was followed by nearly all the local associations +in the country. Neither whig secession nor radical +<pb n='324'/><anchor id='Pg324'/> +dubitation shook the strength inherent in such machinery, +in a community where the principle of government by party +has solidly established itself. This was almost the single +consolidating and steadying element in that hour of dispersion. +A serious move in the opposite direction had taken +place three weeks earlier. A great meeting was held at the +Opera House, in the Haymarket, presided over by the accomplished +whig nobleman who had the misfortune to be Irish +viceroy in the two dismal years from 1880, and it was +attended both by Lord Salisbury on one side and Lord +Hartington on the other. This was the first broad public +mark of liberal secession, and of that practical fusion between +whig and tory which the new Irish policy had actually precipitated, +but to which all the signs in the political heavens +had been for three or four years unmistakably pointing. +</p> + +<p> +The strength of the friends of the bill was twofold: first, +it lay in the dislike of coercion as the only visible alternative; +and second, it lay in the hope of at last touching the firm +ground of a final settlement with Ireland. Their weakness +was also twofold: first, misgivings about the exclusion of the +Irish members; and second, repugnance to the scheme for +land purchase. There were not a few, indeed, who pronounced +the exclusion of Irish members to be the most +sensible part of the plan. Mr. Gladstone retained his impartiality, +but knew that if we proposed to keep the Irishmen, +we should be run in upon quite as fiercely from the other +side. Mr. Parnell stood to his original position. Any +regular and compulsory attendance at Westminster, he said, +would be highly objectionable to his friends. Further, the +right of Irish members to take part in purely English as +well as imperial business would be seized upon by English +politicians, whenever it should answer their purpose, as a +pretext for interfering in Irish affairs. In short, he foresaw, +as all did, the difficulties that would inevitably arise +from retention. But the tide ran more and more strongly +the other way. Scotland grew rather restive at a proposal +which, as she apprehended, would make a precedent for +herself when her turn for extension of local powers should +come, and Scotchmen had no intention of being shut out +<pb n='325'/><anchor id='Pg325'/> +<note place='margin'>Strength And Weakness</note> +from a voice in imperial affairs. In England, the catholics +professed alarm at the prospect of losing the only catholic +force in the House of Commons. <q>We cannot spare one of +you,</q> cried Cardinal Manning. Some partisans of imperial +federation took it into their heads that the plan for Ireland +would be fatal to a plan for the whole empire, though others +more rationally conceived that if there was to be a scheme +for the empire, schemes for its several parts must come first. +Some sages, while pretending infinite friendship to home +rule, insisted that the parliament at Westminster should +retain a direct and active veto upon legislation at Dublin, +and that Irish members should remain as they were in +London. That is to say, every precaution should be taken +to ensure a stiff fight at Westminster over every Irish +measure of any importance that had already been fought on +College Green. Speaking generally, the feeling against this +provision was due less to the anomaly of taxation without +representation, than to fears for the unity of the empire and +the supremacy of parliament. +</p> + +<p> +The Purchase bill proved from the first to be an almost +intolerable dose. Vivid pictures were drawn of a train of +railway trucks two miles long, loaded with millions of bright +sovereigns, all travelling from the pocket of the British son of +toil to the pocket of the idle Irish landlord. The nationalists +from the first urged that the scheme for home rule should +not be weighted with a land scheme, though they were willing +to accept it so long as it was not used to prejudice the larger +demand. On the other side the Irish landlords themselves +peremptorily rejected the plan that had been devised for +their protection. +</p> + +<p> +The air was thick with suggestions, devices, contrivances, +expedients, possible or madly impossible. Proposals or +embryonic notions of proposals floated like motes in a sunbeam. +Those to whom lobby diplomacy is as the breath of +their nostrils, were in their element. So were the worthy +persons who are always ready with ingenious schemes for +catching a vote or two here, at the cost of twenty votes elsewhere. +Intrigue may be too dark a word, but coaxing, bullying, +managing, and all the other arts of party emergency, went +<pb n='326'/><anchor id='Pg326'/> +on at an unprecedented rate. Of these arts, the supervising +angels will hardly record that any section had a monopoly. +The legerdemain that makes words pass for things, and +liquefies things into words, achieved many flashes of success. +But they were only momentary, and the solid obstacles +remained. The foundations of human character are much +the same in all historic ages, and every public crisis brings +out the same types. +</p> + +<p> +Much depended on Mr. Bright, the great citizen and noble +orator, who had in the last five-and-forty years fought and +helped to win more than one battle for wise and just government; +whose constancy had confronted storms of public +obloquy without yielding an inch of his ground; whose eye +for the highest questions of state had proved itself singularly +sure; and whose simplicity, love of right, and unsophisticated +purity of public and private conduct, commanded the +trust and the reverence of nearly all the better part of his +countrymen. To Mr. Bright the eyes of many thousands +were turned in these weeks of anxiety and doubt. He had +in public kept silence, though in private he made little +secret of his disapproval of the new policy. Before the bill +was produced he had a prolonged conversation (March 20) +with Mr. Gladstone at Downing Street. <q>Long and weighty</q> +are the words in the diary. The minister sketched his +general design, Mr. Bright stated his objections much in +the form in which, as we shall see, he stated them later. Of +the exclusion of the Irish members he approved. The Land +bill he thought quite wrong, for why should so enormous an +effort be made for one interest only? He expressed his +sympathy with Mr. Gladstone in his great difficulties, could +not but admire his ardour, and came away with the expectation +that the obstacles would be found invincible, and that +the minister would retire and leave others to approach the +task on other lines. Other important persons, it may be +observed, derived at this time a similar impression from +Mr. Gladstone's language to them: that he might discern +the impossibility of his policy, that he would admit it, and +would then hand the responsibility over to Lord Hartington, +or whoever else might be willing to face it. +</p> + +<pb n='327'/><anchor id='Pg327'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Correspondence With Mr. Bright</note> +On the other hand, Mr. Bright left the minister himself +not without hopes that as things went forward he might +count on this potent auxiliary. So late as the middle of +May, though he could not support, it was not certain that he +would actively oppose. The following letter to Mr. Gladstone +best describes his attitude at this time:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. Bright to Mr. Gladstone.</hi><lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>Rochdale, May 13th, 1886.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>My Dear Gladstone</hi>,—Your note just received has put me in +a great difficulty. To-day is the anniversary of the greatest sorrow +of my life, and I feel pressed to spend it at home. I sent a +message to Mr. Arnold Morley last evening to say that I did not +intend to return to town before Monday next—but I shall now +arrange to go to-morrow—although I do not see how I can be of +service in the great trouble which has arisen. +</p> + +<p> +I feel outside all the contending sections of the liberal party—for +I am not in favour of home rule, or the creation of a Dublin +parliament—nor can I believe in any scheme of federation as +shadowed forth by Mr. Chamberlain. +</p> + +<p> +I do not believe that with regard to the Irish question <q>the +resources of civilisation are exhausted</q>; and I think the plan of +your bill is full of complexity, and gives no hope of successful +working in Ireland or of harmony between Westminster and +Dublin. I may say that my regard for you and my sympathy +with you have made me silent in the discussion on the bills before +the House. I cannot consent to a measure which is so offensive +to the whole protestant population of Ireland, and to the whole +sentiment of the province of Ulster so far as its loyal and protestant +people are concerned. I cannot agree to exclude them +from the protection of the imperial parliament. I would do much +to clear the rebel party from Westminster, and I do not sympathise +with those who wish to retain them, but admit there is much +force in the arguments on this point which are opposed to my +views upon it. +</p> + +<p> +Up to this time I have not been able to bring myself to the point +of giving a vote in favour of your bills. I am grieved to have to +say this. As to the Land bill, if it comes to a second reading, I +fear I must vote against it. It may be that my hostility to the rebel +<pb n='328'/><anchor id='Pg328'/> +party, looking at their conduct since your government was formed +six years ago, disables me from taking an impartial view of this +great question. If I could believe them loyal, if they were +honourable and truthful men, I could yield them much; but I +suspect that your policy of surrender to them will only place more +power in their hands, to war with greater effect against the unity +of the three kingdoms with no increase of good to the Irish +people. +</p> + +<p> +How then can I be of service to you or to the real interests of +Ireland if I come up to town? I cannot venture to advise you, +so superior to me in party tactics and in experienced statesmanship, +and I am not so much in accord with Mr. Chamberlain as to +make it likely that I can say anything that will affect his course. +One thing I may remark, that it appears to me that measures of +the gravity of those now before parliament cannot and ought not +to be thrust through the House by force of a small majority. +The various reform bills, the Irish church bill, the two great land +bills, were passed by very large majorities. In the present case, +not only the whole tory party oppose, but a very important section +of the liberal party; and although numerous meetings of +clubs and associations have passed resolutions of confidence in +you, yet generally they have accepted your Irish government +bill as a 'basis' only, and have admitted the need of important +changes in the bill—changes which in reality would destroy the +bill. Under these circumstances it seems to me that more time +should be given for the consideration of the Irish question. +Parliament is not ready for it, and the intelligence of the country +is not ready for it. If it be possible, I should wish that no division +should be taken upon the bill. If the second reading should +be carried only by a <emph>small</emph> majority, it would not forward the bill; +but it would strengthen the rebel party in their future agitation, +and make it more difficult for another session or another parliament +to deal with the question with some sense of independence +of that party. In any case of a division, it is I suppose certain +that a considerable majority of British members will oppose the +bill. Thus, whilst it will have the support of the rebel members, +it will be opposed by a majority from Great Britain and by a most +hostile vote from all that is loyal in Ireland. The result will +<pb n='329'/><anchor id='Pg329'/> +be, if a majority supports you it will be one composed in effect +of the men who for six years past have insulted the Queen, have +torn down the national flag, have declared your lord lieutenant +guilty of deliberate murder, and have made the imperial parliament +an assembly totally unable to manage the legislative business +for which it annually assembles at Westminster. +</p> + +<p> +Pray forgive me for writing this long letter. I need not assure +you of my sympathy with you, or my sorrow at being unable to +support your present policy in the House or the country. The +more I consider the question, the more I am forced in a direction +contrary to my wishes. +</p> + +<p> +For thirty years I have preached justice to Ireland. I am as +much in her favour now as in past times, but I do not think it +justice or wisdom for Great Britain to consign her population, +including Ulster and all her protestant families, to what there is +of justice and wisdom in the Irish party now sitting in the parliament +in Westminster. +</p> + +<p> +Still, if you think I can be of service, a note to the Reform +Club will, I hope, find me there to-morrow evening.—Ever most +sincerely yours, <hi rend='smallcaps'>John Bright.</hi> +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +An old parliamentary friend, of great weight and authority, +went to Mr. Bright to urge him to support a proposal +to read the bill a second time, and then to hang it +up for six months. Bright suffered sore travail of spirit. +At the end of an hour the peacemaker rose to depart. +Bright pressed him to continue the wrestle. After three-quarters +of an hour more of it, the same performance +took place. It was not until a third hour of discussion +that Mr. Bright would let it come to an end, and at the +end he was still uncertain. The next day the friend met +him, looking worn and gloomy. <q>You may guess,</q> Mr. +Bright said, <q>what sort of a night I have had.</q> He had +decided to vote against the second reading. The same person +went to Lord Hartington. He took time to deliberate, +and then finally said, <q>No; Mr. Gladstone and I do not +mean the same thing.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='330'/><anchor id='Pg330'/> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +The centre of interest lay in the course that might be +finally taken by those who declared that they accepted the +principle of the bill, but demurred upon detail. It was +upon the group led from Birmingham that the issue hung. +<q>There are two principles in the bill,</q> said Mr. Chamberlain +at this time, <q>which I regard as vital. The first is the +principle of autonomy, to which I am able to give a hearty +assent. The second is involved in the method of giving +effect to this autonomy. In the bill the government have +proceeded on the lines of separation or of colonial independence, +whereas, in my humble judgment, they should have +adopted the principle of federation as the only one in accordance +with democratic aspirations and experience.</q><note place='foot'>Letter +to Mr. T. H. Bolton, M.P. <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi>, May 8, 1886.</note> He was +even so strong for autonomy, that he was ready to face all +the immense difficulties of federation, whether on the +Canadian or some other pattern, rather than lose autonomy. +Yet he was ready to slay the bill that made autonomy +possible. To kill the bill was to kill autonomy. To say that +they would go to the country on the plan, and not on the +principle, was idle. If the election were to go against the +government, that would destroy not only the plan which they +disliked, but the principle of which they declared that they +warmly approved. The new government that would in that +case come into existence, would certainly have nothing to +say either to plan or principle. +</p> + +<p> +Two things, said Mr. Chamberlain on the ninth night of +the debate, had become clear during the controversy. One +was that the British democracy had a passionate devotion to +the prime minister. The other was the display of a sentiment +out of doors, <q>the universality and completeness +of which, I dare say, has taken many of us by surprise, in +favour of some form of home rule to Ireland, which will +give to the Irish people some greater control over their own +affairs.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 306, p. +698.</note> It did not need so acute a strategist as Mr. +Chamberlain to perceive that the only hope of rallying any +<pb n='331'/><anchor id='Pg331'/> +<note place='margin'>Few Secondary Arguments</note> +considerable portion of the left wing of the party to the dissentient +flag, in face of this strong popular sentiment embodied +in a supereminent minister, was to avoid as much +as possible all irreconcilable language against either the +minister or the sentiment, even while taking energetic steps +to unhorse the one and to nullify the other. +</p> + +<p> +The prime minister meanwhile fought the battle as a +battle for a high public design once begun should be fought. +He took few secondary arguments, but laboured only to hold +up to men's imagination, and to burn into their understanding, +the lines of central policy, the shame and dishonour +from which it would relieve us, the new life with which it +would inspire Ireland, the ease that it would bring to parliament +in England. His tenacity, his force and resource, were +inexhaustible. He was harassed on every side. The Irish +leader pressed him hard upon finance. Old adherents urged +concession about exclusion. The radicals disliked the two +orders. Minor points for consideration in committee rained +in upon him, as being good reasons for altering the bill +before it came in sight of committee. Not a single constructive +proposal made any way in the course of the debate. +All was critical and negative. Mr. Gladstone's grasp was +unshaken, and though he saw remote bearings and interdependent +consequences where others supposed all to be plain +sailing, yet if the principle were only saved he professed +infinite pliancy. He protested that there ought to be no +stereotyping of our minds against modifications, and that +the widest possible variety of modes of action should be +kept open; and he <q>hammered hard at his head,</q> as he put +it, to see what could be worked out in the way of admitting +Irish members without danger, and without intolerable inconvenience. +If anybody considered, he continued to repeat +in endless forms, that there was another set of provisions by +which better and fuller effect could be given to the principle +of the bill, they were free to displace all the particulars that +hindered this better and fuller effect being given to the +principle.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 306, p. 1218.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='332'/><anchor id='Pg332'/> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +At the beginning of May the unionist computation was +that 119 on the ministerial side of the House had, with +or without qualification, promised to vote against the second +reading. Of these, 70 had publicly committed themselves, +and 23 more were supposed to be absolutely certain. If the +whole House voted, this estimate of 93 would give a +majority of 17 against the bill.<note place='foot'>In the +end exactly 93 liberals did vote against the bill.</note> The leader of the radical +wing, however, reckoned that 55 out of the 119 would vote +with him for the second reading, if he pronounced the +ministerial amendments of the bill satisfactory. The +amendments demanded were the retention of the Irish +members, a definite declaration of the supremacy of the +imperial parliament, a separate assembly for Ulster, and the +abolition of the restrictive devices for the representation of +minorities. Less than all this might have been taken in +committee, provided that the government would expressly +say before the second reading, that they would retain the +Irish representation on its existing footing. The repeated +offer by ministers to regard this as an open question was +derided, because it was contended that if the bill were once +safe through its second reading, Mr. Bright and the whigs +would probably vote with ministers against Irish inclusion. +</p> + +<p> +Even if this ultimatum had been accepted, there would +still have remained the difficulty of the Land bill, of which +Mr. Chamberlain had announced that he would move the +rejection. In the face of ever-growing embarrassments +and importunities, recourse was had to the usual device +of a meeting of the party at the foreign office (May 27). +The circular calling the meeting was addressed to those +liberals who, while retaining full freedom on all particulars +in the bill, were <q>in favour of the establishment of a +legislative body in Dublin for the management of affairs +specifically and exclusively Irish.</q> This was henceforth to +be the test of party membership. A man who was for an +Irish legislative body was expected to come to the party +meeting, and a man who was against it was expected to stay +<pb n='333'/><anchor id='Pg333'/> +<note place='margin'>Party Meeting</note> +away. Many thought this discrimination a mistake. Some +two hundred and twenty members attended. The pith of +the prime minister's speech, which lasted for an hour, came +to this: that the government would not consent to emasculate +the principle of the bill, or turn it into a mockery, a +delusion, and a snare; that members who did not wholly +agree with the bill, might still in accordance with the strict +spirit of parliamentary rules vote for the second reading +with a view to its amendment in committee; that such a +vote would not involve support of the Land bill; that he +was ready to consider any plan for the retention of the +Irish members, provided that it did not interfere with the +liberty of the Irish legislative body, and would not introduce +confusion into the imperial parliament. Finally, as to procedure—and +here his anxious audience fell almost breathless—they +could either after a second reading hang up the bill, +and defer committee until the autumn; or they could wind +up the session, prorogue, and introduce the bill afresh with +the proper amendments in October. The cabinet, he told +them, inclined to the later course. +</p> + +<p> +Before the meeting Mr. Parnell had done his best to +impress upon ministers the mischievous effect that would +be produced on Irish members and in Ireland, by any +promise to withdraw the bill after the second reading. On +the previous evening, I received from him a letter of unusual +length. <q>You of course,</q> he said, <q>are the best judges of what +the result may be in England, but if it be permitted me to +express an opinion, I should say that withdrawal could +scarcely fail to give great encouragement to those whom it +cannot conciliate, to depress and discourage those who are +now the strongest fighters for the measure, to produce doubt +and wonder in the country and to cool enthusiasm; and +finally, when the same bill is again produced in the autumn, +to disappoint and cause reaction among those who may +have been temporarily disarmed by withdrawal, and to +make them at once more hostile and less easy to appease.</q> +This letter I carried to Mr. Gladstone the next morning, and +read aloud to him a few minutes before he was to cross over +to the foreign office. For a single instant—the only occasion +<pb n='334'/><anchor id='Pg334'/> +that I can recall during all these severe weeks—his patience +broke. The recovery was as rapid as the flash, for he knew +the duty of the lieutenant of the watch to report the signs +of rock or shoal. He was quite as conscious of all that was +urged in Mr. Parnell's letter as was its writer, but perception +of risks on one side did not overcome risks on the other. +The same evening they met for a second time:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>May 27.</hi>—... Mr. Gladstone and Parnell had a conversation +in my room. Parnell courteous enough, but depressed and +gloomy. Mr. Gladstone worn and fagged.... When he was +gone, Parnell repeated moodily that he might not be able to vote +for the second reading, if it were understood that after the second +reading the bill was to be withdrawn. <q>Very well,</q> said I, <q>that +will of course destroy the government and the policy; but be that +as it may, the cabinet, I am positive, won't change their line.</q> +</quote> + +<p> +The proceedings at the foreign office brought to the +supporters of government a lively sense of relief. In the +course of the evening a score of the waverers were found +to have been satisfied, and were struck off the dissentient +lists. But the relief did not last for many hours. The +opposition instantly challenged ministers (May 28) to say +plainly which of the two courses they intended to adopt. +Though short, this was the most vivacious debate of all. +Was the bill to be withdrawn, or was it to be postponed? +If it was to be withdrawn, then, argued the tory leader +(Sir M.H. Beach) in angry tones, the vote on the second +reading would be a farce. If it was to be postponed, what +was that but to paralyse the forces of law and order in +Ireland in the meantime? Such things were trifling with +parliament, trifling with a vital constitutional question, and +trifling with the social order which the government professed +to be so anxious to restore. A bill read a second time on +such terms as these would be neither more nor less than +a Continuance-in-Office bill. +</p> + +<p> +This biting sally raised the temper of the House on both +sides, and Mr. Gladstone met it with that dignity which did +not often fail to quell even the harshest of his adversaries. +<q>You pronounce that obviously the motive of the government +<pb n='335'/><anchor id='Pg335'/> +is to ensure their own continuance in office. They +prefer that to all the considerations connected with the +great issue before them, and their minds in fact are of such +a mean and degraded order, that they can only be acted +upon, not by motives of honour and duty, but simply by +those of selfishness and personal interest. Sir, I do not +condescend to discuss that imputation. The dart aimed at +our shield, being such a dart as that, is <foreign rend='italic'>telum imbelle sine +ictu</foreign>.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 306, p. 322.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The speaker then got on to the more hazardous part of +the ground. He proceeded to criticise the observation of the +leader of the opposition that ministers had undertaken to +remodel the bill. <q>That happy word,</q> he said, <q>as applied +to the structure of the bill, is a pure invention.</q> Lord +Randolph interjected that the word used was not <q>remodelled,</q> +but <q>reconstructed.</q> <q>Does the noble lord dare +to say,</q> asked the minister, <q>that it was used in respect of +the bill?</q> <q>Yes,</q> said the noble lord. <q>Never, never,</q> cried +the minister, with a vehemence that shook the hearts of +doubting followers; <q>it was used with respect to one particular +clause, and one particular point of the bill, namely +so much of it as touches the future relation of the representatives +of Ireland to the imperial parliament.</q> Before +the exciting episode was over, it was stated definitely that if +the bill were read a second time, ministers would advise a +prorogation and re-introduce the bill with amendments. +The effect of this couple of hours was to convince the House +that the government had made up their minds that it was +easier and safer to go to the country with the plan as it +stood, than to agree to changes that would entangle them +in new embarrassments, and discredit their confidence in +their own handiwork. Ingenious negotiators perceived that +their toil had been fruitless. Every man now knew the +precise situation that he had to face, in respect alike of the +Irish bill and liberal unity. +</p> + +<p> +On the day following this decisive scene (May 29), under +the direction of the radical leader an invitation to a conference +was issued to those members <q>who being in favour +<pb n='336'/><anchor id='Pg336'/> +of some sort of autonomy for Ireland, disapproved of the +government bills in their present shape.</q> The form of the +invitation is remarkable in view of its ultimate effect on +Irish autonomy. The meeting was held on May 31, in the +same committee room upstairs that four years later became +associated with the most cruel of all phases of the Irish +controversy. Mr. Chamberlain presided, and some fifty-five +gentlemen attended. Not all of them had hitherto been +understood to be in favour either of some sort, or of any sort, +of autonomy for Ireland. The question was whether they +should content themselves with abstention from the division, +or should go into the lobby against the government. If they +abstained, the bill would pass, and an extension of the party +schism would be averted. The point was carried, as all +great parliamentary issues are, by considerations apart from +the nice and exact balance of argument on the merits. In +anxious and distracting moments like this, when so many +arguments tell in one way and so many tell in another, a +casting vote often belongs to the moral weight of some +particular person. The chairman opened in a neutral +sense. It seems to have been mainly the moral weight of +Mr. Bright that sent down the scale. He was not present, +but he sent a letter. He hoped that every man would use +his own mind, but for his part he must vote against the bill. +This letter was afterwards described as the death-warrant of +the bill and of the administration. The course of the men +who had been summoned because they were favourable to +some sort of home rule was decided by the illustrious +statesman who opposed every sort of home rule. Their +boat was driven straight upon the rocks of coercion by +the influence of the great orator who had never in all his +career been more eloquent than when he was denouncing +the mischief and futility of Irish coercion, and protesting +that force is no remedy. +</p> + +<p> +One of the best speakers in the House, though not at that +time in the cabinet, was making an admirably warm and +convinced defence alike of the policy and the bill while +these proceedings were going on. But Mr. Fowler was +listened to by men of pre-occupied minds. All knew what +<pb n='337'/><anchor id='Pg337'/> +<note place='margin'>Death-Warrant Of The Bill</note> +momentous business was on foot in another part of the +parliamentary precincts. Many in the ranks were confident +that abstention would carry the day. Others knew that the +meeting had been summoned for no such purpose, and they +made sure that the conveners would have their way. The +quiet inside the House was intense and unnatural. As +at last the news of the determination upstairs to vote +against the bill ran along the benches before the speaker +sat down, men knew that the ministerial day was lost. It +was estimated by the heads of the <q>Chamberlain group</q> +that if they abstained, the bill would pass by a majority +of five. Such a bill carried by such a majority could of +course not have proceeded much further. The principle of +autonomy would have been saved, and time would have +been secured for deliberation upon a new plan. More than +once Mr. Gladstone observed that no decision taken from +the beginning of the crisis to the end was either more +incomprehensible or more disastrous. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +The division was taken a little after one o'clock on the +morning of the 8th of June. The Irish leader made one +of the most masterly speeches that ever fell from him. +Whether agreeing with or differing from the policy, every unprejudiced +listener felt that this was not the mere dialectic +of a party debater, dealing smartly with abstract or verbal +or artificial arguments, but the utterance of a statesman +with his eye firmly fixed upon the actual circumstances of +the nation for whose government this bill would make him +responsible. As he dealt with Ulster, with finance, with the +supremacy of parliament, with the loyal minority, with the +settlement of education in an Irish legislature,—soberly, +steadily, deliberately, with that full, familiar, deep insight +into the facts of a country, which is only possible to a man +who belongs to it and has passed his life in it, the effect of +Mr. Parnell's speech was to make even able disputants on +either side look little better than amateurs. +</p> + +<p> +The debate was wound up for the regular opposition by +Sir Michael Hicks Beach, who was justly regarded throughout +<pb n='338'/><anchor id='Pg338'/> +the session as having led his party with remarkable skill +and judgment. Like the Irish leader, he seemed to be +inspired by the occasion to a performance beyond his usual +range, and he delivered the final charge with strong effect. +The bill, he said, was the concoction of the prime minister +and the Irish secretary, and the cabinet had no voice in the +matter. The government had delayed the progress of the +bill for a whole long and weary month, in order to give +party wirepullers plenty of time in which to frighten +waverers. To treat a vote on the second reading as a mere +vote on a principle, without reference to the possibility of +applying it, was a mischievous farce. Could anybody dream +that if he supported the second reading now, he would not +compromise his action in the autumn and would not be +appealed to as having made a virtual promise to Ireland, of +which it would be impossible to disappoint her? As for the +bill itself, whatever lawyers might say of the theoretic +maintenance of supremacy, in practice it would have gone. +All this side of the case was put by the speaker with the +straight and vigorous thrust that always works with strong +effect in this great arena of contest. +</p> + +<p> +Then came the unflagging veteran with the last of his five +speeches. He was almost as white as the flower in his coat, +but the splendid compass, the flexibility, the moving charm +and power of his voice, were never more wonderful. The +construction of the speech was a masterpiece, the temper of +it unbroken, its freedom from taunt and bitterness and small +personality incomparable. Even if Mr. Gladstone had been +in the prime of his days, instead of a man of seventy-six years +all struck; even if he had been at his ease for the last four +months, instead of labouring with indomitable toil at the two +bills, bearing all the multifarious burdens of the head of a +government, and all the weight of the business of the leader of +the House, undergoing all the hourly strain and contention +of a political situation of unprecedented difficulty,—much +of the contention being of that peculiarly trying and painful +sort which means the parting of colleagues and friends,—his +closing speech would still have been a surprising effort +of free, argumentative, and fervid appeal. With the fervid +<pb n='339'/><anchor id='Pg339'/> +<note place='margin'>End Of The Debate</note> +appeal was mingled more than one piece of piquant mockery. +Mr. Chamberlain had said that a dissolution had no terrors +for him. <q>I do not wonder at it. I do not see how a dissolution +can have any terrors for him. He has trimmed his +vessel, and he has touched his rudder in such a masterly +way, that in whichever direction the winds of heaven may +blow they must fill his sails. Supposing that at an election +public opinion should be very strong in favour of the bill, +my right hon. friend would then be perfectly prepared to +meet that public opinion, and tell it, <q>I declared strongly +that I adopted the principle of the bill.</q> On the other +hand, if public opinion were very adverse to the bill, he +again is in complete armour, because he says, <q>Yes, I voted +against the bill.</q> Supposing, again, public opinion is in +favour of a very large plan for Ireland, my right hon. friend +is perfectly provided for that case also. The government +plan was not large enough for him, and he proposed in his +speech on the introduction of the bill that we should have a +measure on the basis of federation, which goes beyond this +bill. Lastly—and now I have very nearly boxed the compass—supposing +that public opinion should take quite a +different turn, and instead of wanting very large measures +for Ireland, should demand very small measures for Ireland, +still the resources of my right hon. friend are not exhausted, +because he is then able to point out that the last of his plans +was for four provincial circuits controlled from London.</q> +All these alternatives and provisions were visibly <q>creations +of the vivid imagination, born of the hour and perishing +with the hour, totally unavailable for the solution of a great +and difficult problem.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Now, said the orator, was one of the golden moments of +our history, one of those opportunities which may come and +may go, but which rarely return, or if they return, return at +long intervals, and under circumstances which no man can +forecast. There was such a golden moment in 1795, on the +mission of Lord Fitzwilliam. At that moment the parliament +of Grattan was on the point of solving the Irish problem. +The cup was at Ireland's lips, and she was ready to +drink it, when the hand of England rudely and ruthlessly +<pb n='340'/><anchor id='Pg340'/> +dashed it to the ground in obedience to the wild and +dangerous intimations of an Irish faction. There had been +no great day of hope for Ireland since, no day when you +might completely and definitely hope to end the controversy +till now—more than ninety years. The long periodic time +had at last run out, and the star had again mounted into +the heavens. +</p> + +<p> +This strain of living passion was sustained with all its fire +and speed to the very close. <q>Ireland stands at your bar +expectant, hopeful, almost suppliant. Her words are the +words of truth and soberness. She asks a blessed oblivion +of the past, and in that oblivion our interest is deeper even +than hers. You have been asked to-night to abide by the +traditions of which we are the heirs. What traditions? By +the Irish traditions? Go into the length and breadth of the +world, ransack the literature of all countries, find if you +can a single voice, a single book, in which the conduct of +England towards Ireland is anywhere treated except with +profound and bitter condemnation. Are these the traditions +by which we are exhorted to stand? No, they are a sad +exception to the glory of our country. They are a broad +and black blot upon the pages of its history, and what we +want to do is to stand by the traditions of which we are the +heirs in all matters except our relations with Ireland, and +to make our relation with Ireland to conform to the other +traditions of our country. So we treat our traditions, so we +hail the demand of Ireland for what I call a blessed oblivion +of the past. She asks also a boon for the future; and that +boon for the future, unless we are much mistaken, will be a +boon to us in respect of honour, no less than a boon to her +in respect of happiness, prosperity and peace. Such, sir, is +her prayer. Think, I beseech you; think well, think wisely, +think, not for the moment, but for the years that are to +come, before you reject this bill.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The question was put, the sand glass was turned upon the +table, the division bells were set ringing. Even at this +moment, the ministerial whips believed that some were still +wavering. A reference made by Mr. Parnell to harmonious +communications in the previous summer with a tory minister, +<pb n='341'/><anchor id='Pg341'/> +<note place='margin'>Dissolution Of Parliament</note> +inclined them to vote for the bill. On the other hand, the +prospect of going to an election without a tory opponent was +no weak temptation to a weak man. A common impression +was that the bill would be beaten by ten or fifteen. Others +were sure that it would be twice as much as either figure. +Some on the treasury bench, perhaps including the prime +minister himself, hoped against hope that the hostile majority +might not be more than five or six. It proved to be thirty. +The numbers were 343 against 313. Ninety-three liberals +voted against the bill. These with the two tellers were +between one-third and one-fourth of the full liberal strength +from Great Britain. So ended the first engagement in this +long campaign. As I passed into his room at the House with +Mr. Gladstone that night, he seemed for the first time to +bend under the crushing weight of the burden that he had +taken up. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>V</head> + +<p> +When ministers went into the cabinet on the following +day, three of them inclined pretty strongly towards resignation +as a better course than dissolution; mainly on the +ground that the incoming government would then have to +go to the country with a policy of their own. Mr. Gladstone, +however, entirely composed though pallid, at once opened +the case with a list of twelve reasons for recommending +dissolution, and the reasons were so cogent that his opening +of the case was also its closing. They were entirely characteristic, +for they began with precedent and the key was +courage. He knew of no instance where a ministry defeated +under circumstances like ours, upon a great policy or on a +vote of confidence, failed to appeal to the country. Then +with a view to the enthusiasm of our friends in this country, +as well as to feeling in Ireland, it was essential that we +should not let the flag go down. We had been constantly +challenged to a dissolution, and not to take the challenge up +would be a proof of mistrust, weakness, and a faint heart. +<q>My conclusion is,</q> he said, <q>a dissolution is formidable, but +resignation would mean for the present juncture abandonment +of the cause.</q> His conclusion was accepted without +<pb n='342'/><anchor id='Pg342'/> +comment. The experts outside the cabinet were convinced +that a bold front was the best way of securing the full fighting +power of the party. The white feather on such an issue, +and with so many minds wavering, would be a sure provocative +of defeat. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone enumerated to the Queen what he took to +be the new elements in the case. There were on the side of +the government, 1. The transfer of the Irish vote from, +the tories, 2. The popular enthusiasm in the liberal masses +which he had never seen equalled. But what was the +electoral value of enthusiasm against (<hi rend='italic'>a</hi>) anti-Irish prejudices, +(<hi rend='italic'>b</hi>) the power +of rank, station, and wealth, (<hi rend='italic'>c</hi>) the kind +of influence exercised by the established clergy, 'perversely +applied as of course Mr. Gladstone thinks in politics, but +resting upon a very solid basis as founded on the generally +excellent and devoted work which they do in their parishes'? +This remained to be proved. On the other side there was +the whig defection, with the strange and unnatural addition +from Birmingham. <q>Mr. Gladstone himself has no skill in +these matters, and dare not lay an opinion before your +Majesty on the probable general result.</q> He thought there +was little chance, if any, of a tory majority in the new +parliament. Opinion taken as a whole seemed to point to a +majority not very large, whichever way it may be. +</p> + +<p> +No election was ever fought more keenly, and never did +so many powerful men fling themselves with livelier activity +into a great struggle. The heaviest and most telling attack +came from Mr. Bright, who had up to now in public been +studiously silent. Every word, as they said of Daniel +Webster, seemed to weigh a pound. His arguments were +mainly those of his letter already given, but they were +delivered with a gravity and force that told powerfully upon +the large phalanx of doubters all over the kingdom. On +the other side, Mr. Gladstone's plume waved in every part +of the field. He unhorsed an opponent as he flew past on +the road; his voice rang with calls as thrilling as were +ever heard in England; he appealed to the individual, to +his personal responsibility, to the best elements in him, to the +sense of justice, to the powers of hope and of sympathy; he +<pb n='343'/><anchor id='Pg343'/> +<note place='margin'>At Edinburgh</note> +displayed to the full that rare combination of qualities that +had always enabled him to view affairs in all their range, +at the same time from the high commanding eminence +and on the near and sober level. +</p> + +<p> +He left London on June 17 on his way to Edinburgh, and +found <q>wonderful demonstrations all along the road; many +little speeches; could not be helped.</q> <q>The feeling here,</q> +he wrote from Edinburgh (June 21), <q>is truly wonderful, +especially when, the detestable state of the press is considered.</q> +Even Mr. Goschen, whom he described as +<q>supplying in the main, soul, brains, and movement to the +dissentient body,</q> was handsomely beaten in one of the +Edinburgh divisions, so fatal was the proximity of Achilles. +<q><hi rend='italic'>June 22.</hi> Off to Glasgow, 12-¾. Meeting at 3. Spoke an +hour and twenty minutes. Off at 5.50. Reached Hawarden +at 12.30 or 40. Some speeches by the way; others I declined. +The whole a scene of triumph. God help us, His poor +creatures.</q> At Hawarden, he found chaos in his room, and +he set to work upon it, but he did not linger. On June 25, +<q>off to Manchester; great meeting in the Free Trade Hall. +Strain excessive. Five miles through the streets to Mr. +Agnew's; a wonderful spectacle half the way.</q> From Manchester +he wrote, <q>I have found the display of enthusiasm +far beyond all former measure,</q> and the torrid heat of the +meeting almost broke him down, but friends around him +heard him murmur, <q>I must do it,</q> and bracing himself with +tremendous effort he went on. Two days later (June 28) he +wound up the campaign in a speech at Liverpool, which +even old and practised political hands who were there, found +the most magnificent of them all. Staying at Courthey, the +residence of his nephews, in the morning he enters, <q>Worked +up the Irish question once more for my last function. Seven +or eight hours of processional uproar, and a speech of an +hour and forty minutes to five or six thousand people in +Hengler's Circus. Few buildings give so noble a presentation +of an audience. Once more my voice held out in a +marvellous manner. I went in bitterness, in the heat of my +spirit, but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me.</q> +</p> + +<p> +He had no sooner returned to Hawarden, than he wrote to +<pb n='344'/><anchor id='Pg344'/> +tell Mrs. Gladstone (July 2) of a stroke which was thought +to have a curiously dæmonic air about it:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +The Leith business will show you I have not been inactive here.—former +M.P. <emph>attended my meeting in the Music Hall</emph>, and was +greeted by me accordingly (he had voted against us after wobbling +about much). Hearing by late post yesterday that waiting to the +last he had then declared against us, I telegraphed down to Edinburgh +in much indignation, that they might if they liked put me +up against him, and I would go down again and speak if they +wished it. They seem to have acted with admirable pluck and +promptitude. Soon after mid-day to-day I received telegrams to +say I am elected for Midlothian,<note place='foot'>He +was returned without opposition.</note> and <emph>also for Leith</emph>,—having +retired rather than wait to be beaten. I told them instantly to +publish this, as it may do good. +</quote> + +<p> +The Queen, who had never relished these oratorical +crusades whether he was in opposition or in office, did +not approve of the first minister of the crown addressing +meetings outside of his own constituency. In reply to a +gracious and frank letter from Balmoral, Mr. Gladstone +wrote:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +He must state frankly what it is that has induced him thus to +yield [to importunity for speeches]. It is that since the death +of Lord Beaconsfield, in fact since 1880, the leaders of the opposition, +Lord Salisbury and Lord Iddesleigh (he has not observed the +same practice in the case of Sir M. H. Beach) have established +a rule of what may be called popular agitation, by addressing public +meetings from time to time at places with which they were not +connected. This method was peculiarly marked in the case of +Lord Salisbury as a peer, and this change on the part of the +leaders of opposition has induced Mr. Gladstone to deviate on +this critical occasion from the rule which he had (he believes) +generally or uniformly observed in former years. He is, +as he has previously apprised your Majesty, aware of the immense +responsibility he has assumed, and of the severity of just +condemnation which will be pronounced upon him, if he should +eventually prove to have been wrong. But your Majesty will be +<pb n='345'/><anchor id='Pg345'/> +the first to perceive that, even if it had been possible for him to +decline this great contest, it was not possible for him having +entered upon it, to conduct it in a half-hearted manner, or to omit +the use of any means requisite in order to place (what he thinks) +the true issue before the country. +</quote> + +<p> +Nature, however, served the royal purpose. Before his +speech at Liverpool, he was pressed to speak in the +metropolis:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +As to my going to London,—he wrote in reply,—I have twice had +my chest rather seriously strained, and I have at this moment a sense +of internal fatigue within it which is quite new to me, from the +effects of a bad arrangement in the hall at Manchester. Should anything +like it be repeated at Liverpool to-morrow I shall not be fit +physically to speak for a week, if then. Mentally I have never +undergone such an uninterrupted strain as since January 30 of +this year. The forming and reforming of the government, the +work of framing the bills, and <emph>studying the subject</emph> (which none of +the opponents would do), have left me almost stunned, and I have +the autumn in prospect with, perhaps, most of the work to do +over again if we succeed. +</quote> + +<p> +But this was not to be. The incomparable effort was in +vain. The sons of Zeruiah were too hard for him, and +England was unconvinced. +</p> + +<p> +The final result was that the ministerialists or liberals of +the main body were reduced from 235 to 196, the tories rose +from 251 to 316, the dissentient liberals fell to 74, and Mr. +Parnell remained at his former strength. In other words, +the opponents of the Irish policy of the government were +390, as against 280 in its favour; or a unionist majority of +110. Once more no single party possessed an independent +or absolute majority. An important member of the tory +party said to a liberal of his acquaintance (July 7), that he +was almost sorry the tories had not played the bold game +and fought independently of the dissentient liberals. <q>But +then,</q> he added, <q>we could not have beaten you on the bill, +without the compact to spare unionist seats.</q> +</p> + +<p> +England had returned opponents of the liberal policy in +<pb n='346'/><anchor id='Pg346'/> +the proportion of two and a half to one against its friends; +but Scotland approved in the proportion of three to two, +Wales approved by five to one, and Ireland by four and a +half to one. Another fact with a warning in it was that, +taking the total poll for Great Britain, the liberals had +1,344,000, the seceders 397,000, and the tories 1,041,000. +Therefore in contested constituencies the liberals of the +main body were only 76,000 behind the forces of tories +and seceders combined. Considering the magnitude and +the surprise of the issue laid before the electors, and in +view of the confident prophecies of even some peculiar +friends of the policy, that both policy and its authors +would be swept out of existence by a universal explosion +of national anger and disgust, there was certainly no final +and irrevocable verdict in a hostile British majority of no +more than four per cent, of the votes polled. Apart from +electoral figures, coercion loomed large and near at hand, +and coercion tried under the new political circumstances +that would for the first time attend it, might well be trusted +to do much more than wipe out the margin at the polls. +<q>There is nothing in the recent defeat,</q> said Mr. Gladstone, +<q>to abate the hopes or to modify the anticipations of those +who desire to meet the wants and wishes of Ireland.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>VI</head> + +<p> +The question now before Mr. Gladstone was whether to +meet the new parliament or at once to resign. For a short +time he wavered, along with an important colleague, and +then he and all the rest came round to resignation. The +considerations that guided him were these. It is best for +Ireland that the party strongest in the new parliament +should be at once confronted with its responsibilities. Again, +we were bound to consider what would most tend to reunite +the liberal party, and it was in opposition that the chances of +such reunion would be likely to stand highest, especially in +view of coercion which many of the dissidents had refused to +contemplate. If he could remodel the bill or frame a new +one, that might be a possible ground for endeavouring to +make up a majority, but he could not see his way to any +<pb n='347'/><anchor id='Pg347'/> +<note place='margin'>Cabinet Resign</note> +such process, though he was ready for certain amendments. +Finally, if we remained, an amendment would be moved +definitely committing the new House against home rule. +</p> + +<p> +The conclusion was for immediate resignation, and his +colleagues were unanimous in assent. The Irish view was +different and impossible. Returning from a visit to Ireland +I wrote to Mr. Gladstone (July 19):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +You may perhaps care to see what —— [not a secular politician] +thinks, so I enclose you a conversation between him and ——. He +does not show much strength of political judgment, and one can +understand why Parnell never takes him into counsel. Parnell, +of course, is anxious for us to hold on to the last moment. Our +fall will force him without delay to take up a new and difficult line. +But his letters to me, especially the last, show a desperate +willingness to blink the new parliamentary situation. +</quote> + +<p> +Mr. Parnell, in fact, pressed with some importunity that +we should meet the new parliament, on the strange view +that the result of the election was favourable on general +questions, and indecisive only on Irish policy. We were to +obtain the balance of supply in an autumn sitting, in +January to attack registration reform, and then to dissolve +upon that, without making any Irish proposition whatever. +This curious suggestion left altogether out of sight the certainty +that an amendment referring to Ireland would be at +once moved on the Address, such as must beyond all doubt +command the whole of the tories and a large part, if not all, +of the liberal dissentients. Only one course was possible +for the defeated ministers, and they resigned. +</p> + +<p> +On July 30, Mr. Gladstone had his final audience of the +Queen, of which he wrote the memorandum following:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Conversation with the Queen, August 2, 1886.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +The conversation at my closing audience on Friday was a +singular one, when regarded as the probable last word with the +sovereign after fifty-five years of political life, and a good quarter +of a century's service rendered to her in office. +</p> + +<p> +The Queen was in good spirits; her manners altogether +pleasant. She made me sit at once. Asked after my wife as we +<pb n='348'/><anchor id='Pg348'/> +began, and sent a kind message to her as we ended. About me +personally, I think, her single remark was that I should require +some rest. I remember that on a closing audience in 1874 she +said she felt sure I might be reckoned upon to support the +throne. She did not say anything of the sort to-day. Her mind +and opinions have since that day been seriously warped, and I +respect her for the scrupulous avoidance of anything which could +have seemed to indicate a desire on her part to claim anything in +common with me. +</p> + +<p> +Only at three points did the conversation touch upon anything +even faintly related to public affairs.... The second point +was the conclusion of some arrangement for appanages or +incomes on behalf of the third generation of the royal house. +I agreed that there ought at a suitable time to be a committee +on this subject, as had been settled some time back, she observing +that the recent circumstances had made the time unsuitable. +I did not offer any suggestion as to the grounds +of the affair, but said it seemed to me possible to try some plan +under which intended marriages should be communicated without +forcing a reply from the Houses. Also I agreed that the amounts +were not excessive. I did not pretend to have a solution ready: +but said it would, of course, be the duty of the government to +submit a plan to the committee. The third matter was trivial: a +question or two from her on the dates and proceedings connected +with the meeting. The rest of the conversation, not a very long +one, was filled up with nothings. It is rather melancholy. But +on neither side, given the conditions, could it well be helped. +</p> + +<p> +On the following day she wrote a letter, making it evident that, +so far as Ireland was concerned, she could not trust herself to say +what she wanted to say.... +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +Among the hundreds of letters that reached him every +week was one from an evangelical lady of known piety, +enclosing him a form of prayer that had been issued against +home rule. His acknowledgment (July 27) shows none of +the impatience of the baffled statesman:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I thank you much for your note; and though I greatly +deplored the issue, and the ideas of the prayer in question, yet, +from the moment when I heard it was your composition, I knew +<pb n='349'/><anchor id='Pg349'/> +perfectly well that it was written in entire good faith, and had no +relation to political controversy in the ordinary sense. I cannot +but think that, in bringing the subject of Irish intolerance before +the Almighty Father, we ought to have some regard to the fact +that down to the present day, as between the two religions, the +offence has been in the proportion of perhaps a hundred to one +on the protestant side, and the suffering by it on the Roman side. +At the present hour, I am pained to express my belief that there +is far more of intolerance in action from so-called protestants +against Roman catholics, than from Roman catholics against +protestants. It is a great satisfaction to agree with you, as I feel +confident that I must do, in the conviction that of prayers we +cannot possibly have too much in this great matter, and for my +own part I heartily desire that, unless the policy I am proposing +be for the honour of God and the good of His creatures, it may +be trampled under foot and broken into dust. Of your most +charitable thoughts and feelings towards me I am deeply sensible, +and I remain with hearty regard. +</quote> + +<p> +As he wrote at this time to R. H. Hutton (July 2), one of +the choice spirits of our age, <q>Rely upon it, I can never +quarrel with you or with Bright. What vexes me is when +differences disclose baseness, which sometimes happens.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='350'/><anchor id='Pg350'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Book X. 1886-1892</head> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter I. The Morrow Of Defeat. (1886-1887)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +Charity rendereth a man truly great, enlarging his mind into a +vast circumference, and to a capacity nearly infinite; so that it by +a general care doth reach all things, by an universal affection doth +embrace and grace the world.... Even a spark of it in generosity +of dealing breedeth admiration; a glimpse of it in formal courtesy +of behaviour procureth much esteem, being deemed to accomplish +and adorn a man.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Barrow</hi>. +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +After the rejection of his Irish policy in the summer of +1886, Mr. Gladstone had a period of six years before him, +the life of the new parliament. Strangely dramatic years +they were, in some respects unique in our later history. The +party schism among liberals grew deeper and wider. The +union between tories and seceders became consolidated and +final. The alternative policy of coercion was passed through +parliament in an extreme form and with violent strain on +the legislative machinery, and it was carried out in Ireland +in a fashion that pricked the consciences of many thousands +of voters who had resisted the proposals of 1886. A fierce +storm rent the Irish phalanx in two, and its leader vanished +from the field where for sixteen years he had fought so bold +and uncompromising a fight. During this period Mr. Gladstone +stood in the most trying of all the varied positions of +his life, and without flinching he confronted it in the strong +faith that the national honour as well as the assuagement +<pb n='351'/><anchor id='Pg351'/> +<note place='margin'>At Tegernsee</note> +of the inveterate Irish wound in the flank of his country, +were the issues at stake. +</p> + +<p> +This intense pre-occupation in the political struggle did +not for a single week impair his other interests, nor stay his +ceaseless activity in controversies that were not touched by +politics. Not even now, when the great cause to which he +had so daringly committed himself was in decisive issue, +could he allow it to dull or sever what had been the +standing concerns of life and thought to him for so long a +span of years. As from his youth up, so now behind the +man of public action was the diligent, eager, watchful +student, churchman, apologist, divine. And what is curious +and delightful is that he never set a more admirable example +of the tone and temper in which literary and religious controversy +should be conducted, than in these years when in +politics exasperation was at its worst. It was about this +time that he wrote: <q>Certainly one of the lessons life has +taught me is that where there is known to be a common +object, the pursuit of truth, there should also be a studious +desire to interpret the adversary in the best sense his words +will fairly bear; to avoid whatever widens the breach; and +to make the most of whatever tends to narrow it. These I +hold to be part of the laws of knightly tournament.</q> And to +these laws he sedulously conformed. Perhaps at some happy +time before the day of judgment they may be transferred +from the tournament to the battle-fields of philosophy, +criticism, and even politics. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +After the defeat in which his tremendous labours had for +the moment ended, he made his way to what was to him the +most congenial atmosphere in the world, to the company of +Döllinger and Acton, at Tegernsee in Bavaria. <q>Tegernsee,</q> +Lord Acton wrote to me (Sept. 7), <q>is an out-of-the-way +place, peaceful and silent, and as there is a good library in +the house, I have taken some care of his mind, leading in +the direction of little French comedies, and away from the +tragedy of existence. It has done him good, and he has +just started with Döllinger to climb a high mountain in the +neighbourhood.</q> +</p> + +<pb n='352'/><anchor id='Pg352'/> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Mrs. Gladstone.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Tegernsee, Aug. 28, 1886.</hi>—We found Döllinger reading in the +garden. The course of his life is quite unchanged. His constitution +does not appear at all to have given way. He beats +me utterly in standing, but that is not saying much, as it +never was one of my gifts; and he is not conscious (eighty-seven +last February) of any difficulty with the heart in going +up hill. His deafness has increased materially, but not so that +he cannot carry on very well conversation with a single person. +We have talked much together even on disestablishment which +he detests, and Ireland as to which he is very apprehensive, +but he never seems to shut up his mind by prejudice. I +had a good excuse for giving him my pamphlet,<note place='foot'>On the +Irish Question.—<q>The +History of an Idea and the Lesson of +the Elections,</q> a fifty-page pamphlet +prepared before leaving England.</note> but I do not +know whether he will tell us what he thinks of it. He was +reading it this morning. He rises at six and breakfasts alone. +Makes a <emph>good</emph> dinner at two and has nothing more till the next +morning. He does not appear after dark. On the whole one sees +no reason why he should not last for several years yet. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +<q>When Dr. Döllinger was eighty-seven,</q> Mr. Gladstone +wrote later, <q>he walked with me seven miles across the hill +that separates the Tegernsee from the next valley to the +eastward. At that time he began to find his sleep subject to +occasional interruptions, and he had armed himself against them by committing to +memory the first three books of the <hi rend='italic'>Odyssey</hi> for +recital.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Speaker</hi>, Jan. 1, 1890.</note> +Of Mr. Gladstone Döllinger had said in +1885, <q>I have known Gladstone for thirty years, and would +stand security for him any day; his character is a very fine +one, and he possesses a rare capability for work. I differ from +him in his political views on many points, and it is difficult to convince him, for +he is clad in triple steel.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Conversations of +Döllinger.</hi> By +L. von Köbell, pp. 100, 102.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Another high personage in the Roman catholic world sent +him letters through Acton, affectionately written and with +signs of serious as well as sympathising study of his Irish +policy. A little later (Sept. 21) Mr. Gladstone writes to his +wife at Hawarden:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Bishop Strossmayer may make a journey all the way to +<pb n='353'/><anchor id='Pg353'/> +Hawarden, and it seems that Acton may even accompany him, +which would make it much more manageable. His coming would +be a great compliment, and cannot be discouraged or refused. It +would, however, be a serious affair, for he speaks no language +with which as a spoken tongue we are familiar, his great cards +being Slavonic and Latin. Unfortunately I have a very great +increase of difficulty in <emph>hearing</emph> the words in foreign tongues, a +difficulty which I hope has hardly begun with you as yet. +</quote> + +<p> +Like a good host, Lord Acton kept politics out of his way +as well as he could, but some letter of mine <q>set him on fire, +and he is full of ——'s blunder and of Parnell's bill.</q> Parliamentary +duty was always a sting to him, and by September +20 he was back in the House of Commons, speaking on the +Tenants Relief (Ireland) bill. Then to the temple of peace +at Hawarden for the rest of the year, to read the <hi rend='italic'>Iliad</hi> <q>for +the twenty-fifth or thirtieth time, and every time richer and +more glorious than before</q>; to write elaborately on Homeric +topics; to receive a good many visitors; and to compose the +admirable article on Tennyson's second <hi rend='italic'>Locksley Hall</hi>. On +this last let us pause for an instant. The moment was hardly +one in which, from a man of nature less great and powerful +than Mr. Gladstone, we should have counted on a buoyant +vindication of the spirit of his time. He had just been +roughly repulsed in the boldest enterprise of his career; his +name was a target for infinite obloquy; his motives were +largely denounced as of the basest; the conflict into which he +had plunged and from which he could not withdraw was hard; +friends had turned away from him; he was old; the issue was +dubious and dark. Yet the personal, or even what to him +were the national discomfitures of the hour, were not allowed +to blot the sun out of the heavens. His whole soul rose in +challenge against the tragic tones of Tennyson's poem, as +he recalled the solid tale of the vast improvements, the +enormous mitigation of the sorrows and burdens of mankind, +that had been effected in the land by public opinion and +public authority, operative in the exhilarating sphere of self-government +during the sixty years between the first and +second <hi rend='italic'>Locksley Hall</hi>. +</p> + +<pb n='354'/><anchor id='Pg354'/> + +<quote rend='display'> +The sum of the matter seems to be that upon the whole, and +in a degree, we who lived fifty, sixty, seventy years back, and +are living now, have lived into a gentler time; that the public conscience +has grown more tender, as indeed was very needful; and +that in matters of practice, at sight of evils formerly regarded with +indifference or even connivance, it now not only winces but rebels; +that upon the whole the race has been reaping, and not scattering; +earning and not wasting; and that without its being said that the +old Prophet is wrong, it may be said that the young Prophet was +unquestionably right. +</quote> + +<p> +Here is the way in which a man of noble heart and high +vision as of a circling eagle, transcends his individual chagrins. +All this optimism was the natural vein of a statesman who +had lived a long life of effort in persuading opinion in so many +regions, in overcoming difficulty upon difficulty, in content +with a small reform where men would not let him achieve a +great one, in patching where he could not build anew, in unquenchable +faith, hope, patience, endeavour. Mr. Gladstone +knew as well as Tennyson that <q>every blessing has its drawbacks, +and every age its dangers</q>; he was as sensitive as +Tennyson or Ruskin or any of them, to the implacable +tragedy of industrial civilisation—the city children <q>blackening +soul and sense in city slime,</q> progress halting on palsied +feet <q>among the glooming alleys,</q> crime and hunger casting +maidens on the street, and all the other recesses of human +life depicted by the poetic prophet in his sombre hours. But +the triumphs of the past inspired confidence in victories for +the future, and meanwhile he thought it well to remind Englishmen +that <q>their country is still young as well as old, and that in these latest days it +has not been unworthy of itself.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>, January 1887. +See also speech at Hawarden, on the +Queen's Reign, August 30, 1887. The +reader will remember Mr. Gladstone's +contrast between poet and +active statesman at Kirkwall in 1883.</note> +</p> + +<p> +On his birthday he enters in his diary:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>Dec. 29, 1886.</hi>—This day in its outer experience recalls the +Scotch usage which would say, <q>terrible pleasant.</q> In spite of the +ruin of telegraph wires by snow, my letters and postal arrivals of +to-day have much exceeded those of last year. Even my share of +<pb n='355'/><anchor id='Pg355'/> +the reading was very heavy. The day was gone before it seemed +to have begun, all amidst stir and festivity. The estimate was +nine hundred arrivals. O for a birthday of recollection. It is +long since I have had one. There is so much to say on the soul's +history, but bracing is necessary to say it, as it is for reading +Dante. It has been a year of shock and strain. I think a year +of some progress; but of greater absorption in interests which, +though profoundly human, are quite off the line of an old man's +direct preparation for passing the River of Death. I have not +had a chance given me of creeping from this whirlpool, for I cannot +abandon a cause which is so evidently that of my fellow-men, and +in which a particular part seems to be assigned to me. Therefore +am I not disturbed <q>though the hills be carried into the middle +of the sea.</q> +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Acton.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Hawarden, Jan. 13, 1887.</hi>—It is with much pleasure that I read +your estimate of Chamberlain. His character is remarkable, as +are in a very high degree his talents. It is one of my common +sayings that to me characters of the political class are the most +mysterious of all I meet, so that I am obliged to travel the road of +life surrounded by an immense number of judgments more or less +in suspense, and getting on for practical purposes as well as I can. +</p> + +<p> +I have with a clear mind and conscience not only assented to +but promoted the present conferences, and I had laboured in that +sense long before Mr. Chamberlain made his speech at Birmingham. +It will surprise as well as grieve me if they do harm; if indeed +they do not do some little good. Large and final arrangements, +it would be rash I think to expect. +</p> + +<p> +The tide is flowing, though perhaps not rapidly, in our favour. +Without our lifting a finger, a crumbling process has begun in both +the opposite parties. <q>In quietness and in confidence shall be +your strength</q> is a blessed maxim, often applicable to temporals +as well as spirituals. I have indeed one temptation to haste, +namely, that the hour may come for me to say farewell and claim +my retirement; but inasmuch as I remain <foreign rend='italic'>in situ</foreign> +for the Irish question only, I cannot be so foolish as to allow myself to ruin by +precipitancy my own purpose. Though I am writing a paper +<pb n='356'/><anchor id='Pg356'/> +on the Irish question for Mr. Knowles, it is no trumpet-blast, +but is meant to fill and turn to account a season of comparative +quietude. +</p> + +<p> +The death of Iddesleigh has shocked and saddened us all. +He was full of excellent qualities, but had not the backbone +and strength of fibre necessary to restore the tone of a party +demoralised by his former leader. In gentleness, temper, sacrifice +of himself to the common purpose of his friends, knowledge, quickness +of perception, general integrity of intention, freedom from +personal aims, he was admirable.... I have been constantly +struggling to vindicate a portion of my time for the pursuits I +want to follow, but with very little success indeed. Some rudiments +of Olympian religion have partially taken shape. I have a +paper ready for Knowles probably in his March number on the +Poseidon of Homer, a most curious and exotic personage.... +Williams and Norgate got me the books I wanted, but alack for +the time to read them! In addition to want of time, I have to +deplore my slowness in reading, declining sight, and declining +memory; all very serious affairs for one who has such singular +reason to be thankful as to general health and strength. +</p> + +<p> +I wish I could acknowledge duly or pay even in part your unsparing, +untiring kindness in the discharge of your engagements +as <q>Cook.</q> Come early to England—and stay long. We will try +what we can to bind you. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +A few months later, he added to his multifarious exercises +in criticism and controversy, a performance that attracted +especial attention.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Robert Elsmere: the Battle of +Belief</hi> (1888). Republished from the +<hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi> in <hi rend='italic'>Later Gleanings</hi>, +1898.</note> <q>Mamma and I,</q> he wrote to Mrs. Drew, +<q>are each of us still separately engaged in a death-grapple +with <hi rend='italic'>Robert Elsmere</hi>. I complained of some of the novels +you gave me to read as too stiff, but they are nothing to +this. It is wholly out of the common order. At present +I regard with doubt and dread the idea of doing anything +on it, but cannot yet be sure whether your observations will +be verified or not. In any case it is a tremendous book.</q> +And on April 1 (1888), he wrote, <q>By hard work I have +finished and am correcting my article on <hi rend='italic'>Robert Elsmere</hi>. +<pb n='357'/><anchor id='Pg357'/> +It is rather stiff work. I have had two letters from her. +She is much to be liked personally, but is a fruit, I think, +of what must be called Arnoldism.</q> +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Acton.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Aston Clinton, Tring, Easter Day, April 1, '88.</hi>—I do not +like to let too long a time elapse without some note of intercourse, even +though that season approaches which brings you back to the shores +of your country. Were you here I should have much to say on +many things; but I will now speak, or first speak, of what is +uppermost, and would, if a mind is like a portmanteau, be taken +or tumble out first. +</p> + +<p> +You perhaps have not heard of <hi rend='italic'>Robert Elsmere</hi>, for I find without +surprise, that it makes its way slowly into public notice. It is +not far from twice the length of an ordinary novel; and the labour +and effort of reading it all, I should say, sixfold; while one could +no more stop in it than in reading Thucydides. The idea of the +book, perhaps of the writer, appears to be a movement of retreat +from Christianity upon Theism: a Theism with a Christ glorified, +always in the human sense, but beyond the ordinary measure. It +is worked out through the medium of a being—one ought to say +a character, but I withhold the word, for there is no sufficient substratum +of character to uphold the qualities—gifted with much +intellectual subtlety and readiness, and almost every conceivable +moral excellence. He finds vent in an energetic attempt to carry +his new gospel among the skilled artisans of London, whom the +writer apparently considers as supplying the <emph>norm</emph> for all right +human judgment. He has extraordinary success, establishes a new +church under the name of the new Christian brotherhood, kills +himself with overwork, but leaves his project flourishing in +a certain <q>Elgood Street.</q> It is in fact (like the Salvation Army), +a new Kirche der Zukunft. +</p> + +<p> +I am always inclined to consider this Theism as among the least +defensible of the positions alternative to Christianity. Robert +Elsmere who has been a parish clergyman, is upset entirely, as it +appears, by the difficulty of accepting miracles, and by the suggestion +that the existing Christianity grew up in an age specially +predisposed to them. +</p> + +<pb n='358'/><anchor id='Pg358'/> + +<p> +I want as usual to betray you into helping the lame dog over +the stile; and I should like to know whether you would think me +violently wrong in holding that the period of the Advent was +a period when the appetite for, or disposition to, the supernatural +was declining and decaying; that in the region of human thought, +speculation was strong and scepticism advancing; that if our Lord +were a mere man, armed only with human means, His whereabouts +was in this and many other ways misplaced by Providence; that +the gospels and the New Testament must have much else besides +miracle torn out of them, in order to get us down to the <foreign rend='italic'>caput +mortuum</foreign> of Elgood Street. This very remarkable work is in effect +identical with the poor, thin, ineffectual production published with +some arrogance by the Duke of Somerset, which found a quack +remedy for difficulties in what he considered the impregnable +citadel of belief in God. +</p> + +<p> +Knowles has brought this book before me, and being as strong +as it is strange, it cannot perish still-born. I am tossed about +with doubt as to writing upon it. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Acton.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Oxford, April 8, '88.</hi>—I am grateful for your most interesting +letter, which contains very valuable warnings. On the other side +is copied what I have written on two of the points raised by the +book. Have I said too much of the Academy? I have spoken +only of the first century. You refer to (apparently) about 250 +<hi rend='smallcaps'>a.d.</hi> as a time of great progress? But I was astonished on first +reading the census of Christian clergy in Rome <hi rend='italic'>temp.</hi> St. Cyprian, +it was so slender. I am not certain, but does not Beugnot estimate +the Christians, before Constantine's conversion, in the west at +one-tenth of the population? Mrs. T. Arnold died yesterday here. +Mrs. Ward had been summoned and she is coming to see me this +evening. It is a very singular phase of the controversy which she +has opened. When do you <emph>repatriate</emph>? +</p> + +<p> +I am afraid that my kindness to the Positivists amounts only to +a comparative approval of their not dropping the great human +tradition out of view; <emph>plus</emph> a very high appreciation of the +personal qualities of our friend ——. +</p> + +<pb n='359'/><anchor id='Pg359'/> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Acton.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Dollis Hill, May 13, '88.</hi>—Your last letter was one of extreme +interest. It raised such a multitude of points, after your perusal +of my article on R. Elsmere, as to stimulate in the highest degree +my curiosity to know how far you would carry into propositions, +the ideas which you for the most part obliquely put forward. +I gave the letter to Mary, who paid us a flying visit in London, +that she might take it to Hawarden for full digestion. For myself I +feed upon the hope that when (when ?) you come back to England +we may go over the points, and I may reap further benefits from +your knowledge. I will not now attempt anything of the kind. +But I will say this generally, that I am not so much oppressed +as you appear to be, with the notion that great difficulties have +been imported by the researches of scientists into the religious +and theological argument. As respects cosmogony and <hi rend='italic'>geogony</hi>, +the Scripture has, I think, taken much benefit from them. Whatever +be the date of the early books, Pentateuch or Hexateuch in +their present <emph>edition</emph>, the Assyriological investigations seem to me +to have fortified and accredited their substance by producing +similar traditions in variant forms inferior to the Mosaic forms, +and tending to throw them back to a higher antiquity, a fountainhead +nearer the source. Then there is the great chapter +of the Dispersal: which Renan (I think) treats as exhibiting the +marvellous genius (!) of the Jews. As to unbroken sequences in +the physical order, they do not trouble me, because we have to +do not with the natural but the moral order, and over this science, +or as I call it natural science, does not wave her sceptre. It is +no small matter, again (if so it be, as I suppose), that, after +warring for a century against miracle as unsustained by experience, +the assailants should now have to abandon that ground, +stand only upon sequence, and controvert the great facts of the +New Testament only by raising to an extravagant and unnatural +height the demands made under the law of testimony in order +to [justify] a rational belief. One admission has to be made, +that death did not come into the world by sin, namely the +sin of Adam, and this sits inconveniently by the declaration of +Saint Paul. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Ward wrote to thank me for the tone of my article. Her +<pb n='360'/><anchor id='Pg360'/> +first intention was to make some reply in the <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi> +itself. It appears that —— advised her not to do it. But +Knowles told me that he was labouring to bring her up to the +scratch again. There, I said, you show the cloven foot; you +want to keep the <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi> pot boiling. +</p> + +<p> +I own that your reasons for not being in England did not +appear to me cogent, but it would be impertinent to make myself +a judge of them. The worst of it was that you did not name +<emph>any</emph> date. But I must assume that you are coming; and surely +the time cannot now be far. Among other things, I want to +speak with you about French novels, a subject on which there +has for me been quite recently cast a most lurid light. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +Acton's letters in reply may have convinced Mr. Gladstone +that there were depths in this supreme controversy that he +had hardly sounded; and adversaria that he might have +mocked from a professor of the school or schools of unbelief, +he could not in his inner mind make light of, when coming +from the pen of a catholic believer. Before and after the +article on <hi rend='italic'>Robert Elsmere</hi> appeared, Acton, the student with +his vast historic knowledge and his deep penetrating gaze, +warned the impassioned critic of some historic point overstated +or understated, some dangerous breach left all unguarded, +some lack of nicety in definition. Acton's letters +will one day see the light, and the reader may then know +how candidly Mr. Gladstone was admonished as to the excess +of his description of the moral action of Christianity; as to +the risk of sending modern questions to ancient answers, for +the apologists of an age can only meet the difficulties of +their age; that there are leaps and bounds in the history of +thought; how well did Newman once say that in theology +you have to meet questions that the Fathers could hardly +have been made to understand; how if you go to St. Thomas +or Leibnitz or Paley for rescue from Hegel or Haeckel your +apologetics will be a record of disaster. You insist broadly, +says Acton, on belief in the divine nature of Christ as the +soul, substance, and creative force of Christian religion; you +assign to it very much of the good the church has done; all +this with little or no qualification or drawback from the +other side:— +</p> + +<pb n='361'/><anchor id='Pg361'/> + +<quote rend='display'> +Enter Martineau or Stephen or —— (unattached), and loq.:—Is +this the final judgment of the chief of liberals? the pontiff of +a church whose fathers are the later Milton and the later Penn, +Locke, Bayle, Toland, Franklin, Turgot, Adam Smith, Washington, +Jefferson, Bentham, Dugald Stewart, Romilly, Tocqueville, +Channing, Macaulay, Mill? These men and others like them +disbelieved that doctrine established freedom, and they undid the +work of orthodox Christianity, they swept away that appalling +edifice of intolerance, tyranny, cruelty, which believers in Christ +built up to perpetuate their belief. +</quote> + +<p> +The philosophy of liberal history, Acton proceeds, which +has to acknowledge the invaluable services of early +Christianity, feels the anti-liberal and anti-social action of +later Christianity, before the rise of the sects that rejected, +some of them the divinity of Christ; others, the institutions +of the church erected upon it. Liberalism if it admits these +things as indifferent, surrenders its own <hi rend='italic'>raison d'être</hi>, and +ceases to strive for an ethical cause. If the doctrine of +Torquemada make us condone his morality, there can be no +public right and no wrong, no political sin, no secular cause +to die for. So it might be said that— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +You do not work really from the principle of liberalism, but +from the cognate, though distinct principles of democracy, +nationality, progress, etc. To some extent, I fear, you will +estrange valued friends, not assuredly by any expression of +theological belief, but by seeming to ignore the great central +problem of Christian politics. If I had to put my own doubts, +instead of the average liberal's, I should state the case in other +words, but not altogether differently.<note place='foot'>May 2, 1888.</note> +</quote> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='362'/><anchor id='Pg362'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter II. The Alternative Policy In Act. (1886-1888)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +Those who come over hither to us from England, and some weak +people among ourselves, whenever in discourse we make mention of +liberty and property, shake their heads, and tell us that <q>Ireland is +a depending kingdom,</q> as if they would seem by this phrase to +intend, that the people of Ireland are in some state of slavery or +dependence different from those of +England.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Jonathan Swift.</hi> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +In the ministry that succeeded Mr. Gladstone in 1886, +Sir Michael Hicks Beach undertook for the second time the +office of Irish secretary, while Lord Randolph Churchill +filled his place at the exchequer and as leader of the House. +The new Irish policy was to open with the despatch of a +distinguished soldier to put down moonlighters in Kerry; +the creation of one royal commission under Lord Cowper, +to inquire into land rents and land purchase; and another +to inquire into the country's material resources. The two +commissions were well-established ways of marking time. +As for Irish industries and Irish resources, a committee of +the House of Commons had made a report in a blue book of +a thousand pages only a year before. On Irish land there +had been a grand commission in 1880, and a committee of +the House of Lords in 1882-3. The latest Purchase Act was +hardly yet a year old. Then to commission a general to hunt +down little handfuls of peasants who with blackened faces +and rude firearms crept stealthily in the dead of night +round lonely cabins in the remote hillsides and glens of +Kerry, was hardly more sensible than it would be to send +a squadron of life-guards to catch pickpockets in a London +slum. +</p> + +<p> +A question that exercised Mr. Gladstone at least as +sharply as the proceedings of ministers, was the attitude +<pb n='363'/><anchor id='Pg363'/> +<note place='margin'>Dissentient Position</note> +to be taken by those who had quitted him, ejected him in +the short parliament of 1886, and fought the election against +him. We have seen how much controversy arose long years +before as to the question whereabouts in the House of +Commons the Peelites should take their seats.<note place='foot'>See +vol. i. p. 423.</note> The same +perplexity now confronted the liberals who did not agree +with Mr. Gladstone upon Irish government. Lord Hartington +wrote to him, and here is his reply:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>August 2, 1886.</hi>—I fully appreciate the feeling which has +prompted your letter, and I admit the reality of the difficulties +you describe. It is also clear, I think, that so far as title to +places on the front opposition bench is concerned, your right to +them is identical with ours. I am afraid, however, that I cannot +materially contribute to relieve you from embarrassment. The +choice of a seat is more or less the choice of a symbol; and I have +no such acquaintance with your political views and intentions, as +could alone enable me to judge what materials I have before me +for making an answer to your inquiry. For my own part, I +earnestly desire, subject to the paramount exigencies of the Irish +question, to promote in every way the reunion of the liberal +party; a desire in which I earnestly trust that you participate. +And I certainly could not directly or indirectly dissuade you +from any step which you may be inclined to take, and which +may appear to you to have a tendency in any measure to promote +that end. +</quote> + +<p> +A singular event occurred at the end of the year (1886), +that produced an important change in the relations of this +group of liberals to the government that they had placed and +maintained in power. Lord Randolph, the young minister +who with such extraordinary rapidity had risen to ascendency +in the councils of the government, suddenly in a fatal moment +of miscalculation or caprice resigned (Dec. 23). Political +suicide is not easy to a man with energy and resolution, but +this was one of the rare cases. In a situation so strangely +unstable and irregular, with an administration resting on +the support of a section sitting on benches opposite, and +still declaring every day that they adhered to old liberal +<pb n='364'/><anchor id='Pg364'/> +principles and had no wish to sever old party ties, the +withdrawal of Lord Randolph Churchill created boundless +perturbation. It was one of those exquisite moments in +which excited politicians enjoy the ineffable sensation that +the end of the world has come. Everything seemed possible. +Lord Hartington was summoned from the shores of +the Mediterranean, but being by temperament incredulous of +all vast elemental convulsions, he took his time. On his +return he declined Lord Salisbury's offer to make way for +him as head of the government. The glitter of the prize +might have tempted a man of schoolboy ambition, but Lord +Hartington was too experienced in affairs not to know that +to be head of a group that held the balance was, under such +equivocal circumstances, far the more substantial and commanding +position of the two. Mr. Goschen's case was +different, and by taking the vacant post at the exchequer +he saved the prime minister from the necessity of going back +under Lord Randolph's yoke. As it happened, all this gave +a shake to both of the unionist wings. The ominous clouds +of coercion were sailing slowly but discernibly along the +horizon, and this made men in the unionist camp still more +restless and uneasy. Mr. Chamberlain, on the very day of +the announcement of the Churchill resignation, had made a +speech that was taken to hold out an olive branch to his old +friends. Sir William Harcourt, ever holding stoutly in fair +weather and in foul to the party ship, thought the break-up +of a great political combination to be so immense an evil, as +to call for almost any sacrifices to prevent it. He instantly +wrote to Birmingham to express his desire to co-operate in +re-union, and in the course of a few days five members of the +original liberal cabinet of 1886 met at his house in what was +known as the Round Table Conference.<note place='foot'>Sir +W. Harcourt, Mr. Chamberlain, Lord Herschell, Sir George Trevelyan, +and myself.</note> +</p> + +<p> +A letter of Mr. Gladstone's to me puts some of his +views on the situation created by the retirement of Lord +Randolph:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Hawarden, Christmas Day, 1886.</hi>—Between Christmas services, +a flood of cards and congratulations for the season, and many +<pb n='365'/><anchor id='Pg365'/> +interesting letters, I am drowned in work to-day, having just at +1-¼ <hi rend='smallcaps'>p.m.</hi> ascertained what my +letters <emph>are</emph>. So forgive me if, first +thanking you very much for yours, I deal with some points +rather abruptly. +</p> + +<p> +1. Churchill has committed an outrage as against the Queen, and +also the prime minister, in the method of resigning and making +known his resignation. This, of course, they will work against +him. 2. He is also entirely wrong in supposing that the finance +minister has any ruling authority on the great estimates of +defence. If he had, he would be the master of the country. +But although he has no right to demand the concurrence of his +colleagues in his view of the estimates, he has a rather special +right, because these do so much towards determining budget and +taxation, to indicate his own views by resignation. I have +repeatedly fought estimates to the extremity, with an intention +of resigning in <emph>case</emph>. But to send in a resignation makes it +impossible for his colleagues as men of honour to recede. 3. I +think one of his best points is that he had made before taking +office recent and formal declarations on behalf of economy, of +which his colleagues must be taken to have been cognisant, and +Salisbury in particular. He may plead that he could not reduce +these all at once to zero. 4. Cannot something be done, without +reference to the holes that may be picked, to give him some +support as a champion of economy? This talk about the continental +war, I for one regard as pure nonsense when aimed at +magnifying our estimates. +</p> + +<p> +5. With regard to Hartington. What he will do I know not, +and our wishes could have no weight with him.... The position +is one of such difficulty for H. that I am very sorry for him, +though it was never more true that he who makes his own bed +in a certain way must lie in it. Chamberlain's speech hits him +very hard in case of acceptance. I take it for granted that he +will not accept to sit among thirteen tories, but will have to +demand an entry by force, <hi rend='italic'>i.e.</hi> with three or four friends. To +accept upon that footing would, I think, be the logical consequence +of all he has said and done since April. In logic, he ought +to go forward, <emph>or</emph>, as Chamberlain has done, backward. The +Queen will, I have no doubt, be brought to bear upon him, and +<pb n='366'/><anchor id='Pg366'/> +the nine-tenths of his order. If the Irish question rules all others, +all he has to consider is whether he (properly flanked) can serve +his view of the Irish question. But with this logic we have +nothing to do. The question for us also is (I think), what is +best for our view of the Irish question? I am tempted to wish +that he should accept; it would clear the ground. But I do not +yet see my way with certainty. +</p> + +<p> +6. With regard to Chamberlain. From what has already passed +between us you know that, apart from the new situation and +from his declaration, I was very desirous that everything honourable +should be done to conciliate and soothe. Unquestionably his +speech is a new fact of great weight. He is again a liberal, <hi rend='italic'>quand +même</hi>, and will not on all points (as good old Joe Hume used to +say) swear black is white for the sake of his views on Ireland. +We ought not to waste this new fact, but take careful account of +it. On the other hand, I think he will see that the moment for +taking account of it has not come. Clearly the first thing is to +see who are the government. When we see this, we shall also +know something of its colour and intentions. I do not think +Randolph can go back. He would go back at a heavy discount. +If he wants to minimise, the only way I see is that he should +isolate his vote on the estimates, form no <hi rend='italic'>clique</hi>, and proclaim +strong support in Irish matters and general policy. Thus he +might pave a roundabout road of return.... In <emph>many</emph> things +Goschen is more of a liberal than Hartington, and he would carry +with him next to nobody. +</p> + +<p> +7. On the whole, I rejoice to think that, come what may, this +affair will really effect progress in the Irish question. +</p> + +<p> +A happy Christmas to you. It will be happier than that of the +ministers. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone gave the Round Table his blessing, his +<q>general idea being that he had better meddle as little as +possible with the conference, and retain a free hand.</q> Lord +Hartington would neither join the conference, nor deny that +he thought it premature. While negotiation was going on, +he said, somebody must stay at home, guard the position, +and keep a watch on the movements of the enemy, and this +duty was his. In truth, after encouraging or pressing Mr. +<pb n='367'/><anchor id='Pg367'/> +<note place='margin'>Round Table Conference</note> +Goschen to join the government, it was obviously impossible +to do anything that would look like desertion either of him +or of them. On the other side, both English liberals and +Irish nationalists were equally uneasy lest the unity of the +party should be bought by the sacrifice of fundamentals. The +conference was denounced from this quarter as an attempt to +find a compromise that would help a few men sitting on the +fence to salve <q>their consciences at the expense of a nation's +rights.</q> Such remarks are worth quoting, to illustrate the +temper of the rank and file. Mr. Parnell, though alive to the +truth that when people go into a conference it usually means +that they are ready to give up something, was thoroughly +awake to the satisfactory significance of the Birmingham +overtures. +</p> + +<p> +Things at the round table for some time went smoothly +enough. Mr. Chamberlain gradually advanced the whole +length. He publicly committed himself to the expediency of +establishing some kind of legislative authority in Dublin in +accordance with Mr. Gladstone's principle, with a preference +in his own mind for a plan on the lines of Canada. This he +followed up, also in public, by the admission that of course the +Irish legislature must be allowed to organise their own form +of executive government, either by an imitation on a small +scale of all that goes on at Westminster and Whitehall, or in +whatever other shape they might think proper.<note place='foot'>See +speeches at Hawick, Jan. 22, +and at Birmingham, Jan. 29, 1887.</note> To assent +to an Irish legislature for such affairs as parliament might +determine to be distinctively Irish, with an executive responsible +to it, was to accept the party credo on the subject. Then +the surface became mysteriously ruffled. Language was used +by some of the plenipotentiaries in public, of which each side +in turn complained as inconsistent with conciliatory negotiation +in private. At last on the very day on which the provisional +result of the conference was laid before Mr. Gladstone, there appeared in a print called +the <hi rend='italic'>Baptist</hi><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Baptist</hi> +article, in <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi>, Feb. 25, +1887.</note> an article from +Mr. Chamberlain, containing an ardent plea for the disestablishment +of the Welsh church, but warning the Welshmen +that they and the Scotch crofters and the English +<pb n='368'/><anchor id='Pg368'/> +labourers, thirty-two millions of people, must all go without +much-needed, legislation because three millions were disloyal, +while nearly six hundred members of parliament would be +reduced to forced inactivity, because some eighty delegates, +representing the policy and receiving the pay of the Chicago +convention, were determined to obstruct all business until +their demands had been conceded. Men naturally asked +what was the use of continuing a discussion, when one party +to it was attacking in this peremptory fashion the very +persons and the policy that in private he was supposed to +accept. Mr. Gladstone showed no implacability. Viewing +the actual character of the <hi rend='italic'>Baptist</hi> letter, he said to Sir W. +Harcourt, <q>I am inclined to think we can hardly do more +now, than to say we fear it has interposed an unexpected +obstacle in the way of any attempt at this moment to sum +up the result of your communications, which we should +otherwise hopefully have done; but on the other hand we +are unwilling that so much ground apparently gained should +be lost, that a little time may soften or remove the present +ruffling of the surface, and that we are quite willing that the +subject should stand over for resumption at a convenient +season.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The resumption never happened. Two or three weeks +later, Mr. Chamberlain announced that he did not intend to +return to the round table.<note place='foot'>If anybody should ever wish +further to disinter the history of this +fruitless episode, he will find all the +details in a speech by Sir William +Harcourt at Derby, Feb, 27, 1889. +See also Sir G. O. Trevelyan, <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi>, +July 26, 1887, Mr. Chamberlain's +letter to Mr. Evelyn Ashley, <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi>, +July 29, 1887, and a speech of my own +at Wolverhampton, April 19, 1887.</note> No other serious and formal +attempt was ever made on either side to prevent the liberal +unionists from hardening into a separate species. When +they became accomplices in coercion, they cut off the chances +of re-union. Coercion was the key to the new situation. +Just as at the beginning of 1886, the announcement of it by +the tory government marked the parting of the ways, so was +it now. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +We must now with reasonable cheerfulness turn our +faces back towards Ireland. On the day of his return from +<pb n='369'/><anchor id='Pg369'/> +<note place='margin'>State Of Ireland</note> +Ireland (August 17, 1886) Mr. Parnell told me that he +was quite sure that rents could not be paid in the +coming winter, and if the country was to be kept quiet, +the government would have to do something. He hoped +that they would do something; otherwise there would be +disturbance, and that he did not want. He had made up +his mind that his interests would be best served by a quiet +winter. For one thing he knew that disturbance would be +followed by coercion, and he knew and often said that of +course strong coercion must always in the long run win the +day, little as the victory might be worth. For another thing +he apprehended that disturbance might frighten away his new +political allies in Great Britain, and destroy the combination +which he had so dexterously built up. This was now a +dominant element with him. He desired definitely that the +next stage of his movement should be in the largest sense +political and not agrarian. He brought two or three sets of +proposals in this sense before the House, and finally produced +a Tenants Relief bill. It was not brilliantly framed. For in +truth it is not in human nature, either Irish or any other, to +labour the framing of a bill which has no chance of being +seriously considered. +</p> + +<p> +The golden secret of Irish government was always to begin +by trying to find all possible points for disagreement with +anything that Mr. Parnell said or proposed, instead of seeking +whether what he said or proposed might not furnish a basis +for agreement. The conciliatory tone was soon over, and the +Parnell bill was thrown out. The Irish secretary denounced +it as permanently upsetting the settlement of 1881, as giving +a death-blow to purchase, and as produced without the proof +of any real grounds for a general reduction in judicial rents. +Whatever else he did, said Sir Michael Hicks Beach, he would never agree to govern +Ireland by a policy of blackmail.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 309, +Sept. 21, 1886.</note> +</p> + +<p> +A serious movement followed the failure of the government +to grapple with arrears of rent. The policy known as the +plan of campaign was launched. The plan of campaign was +this. The tenants of a given estate agreed with one another +what abatement they thought just in the current half-year's +<pb n='370'/><anchor id='Pg370'/> +rent. This in a body they proffered to landlord or agent. If +it was refused as payment in full, they handed the money to +a managing committee, and the committee deposited it with +some person in whom they had confidence, to be used for the +purpose of the struggle.<note place='foot'>See <hi rend='italic'>United Ireland</hi>, +Oct. 23, 1886.</note> That such proceeding constituted +an unlawful conspiracy nobody doubts, any more than it can +be doubted that before the Act of 1875 every trade combination +of a like kind in this island was a conspiracy. +</p> + +<p> +At an early stage the Irish leader gave his opinion to the +present writer:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Dec. 7, 1886.</hi>—Mr. Parnell called, looking very ill and worn. +He wished to know what I thought of the effect of the plan of +campaign upon public opinion. <q>If you mean in Ireland,</q> I said, +<q>of course I have no view, and it would be worth nothing if I had. +In England, the effect is wholly bad; it offends almost more even +than outrages.</q> He said he had been very ill and had taken no +part, so that he stands free and uncommitted. He was anxious +to have it fully understood that the fixed point in his tactics is +to maintain the alliance with the English liberals. He referred +with much bitterness, and very justifiable too, to the fact that +when Ireland seemed to be quiet some short time back, the +government had at once begun to draw away from all their +promises of remedial legislation. If now rents were paid, meetings +abandoned, and newspapers moderated, the same thing would +happen over again as usual. However, he would send for a certain +one of his lieutenants, and would press for an immediate cessation +of the violent speeches. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>December 12.</hi>—Mr. Parnell came, and we had a prolonged +conversation. The lieutenant had come over, and had defended +the plan of campaign. Mr. Parnell persevered in his dissent and +disapproval, and they parted with the understanding that the +meetings should be dropped, and the movement calmed as much +as could be. I told him that I had heard from Mr. Gladstone, +and that he could not possibly show any tolerance for illegalities. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +That his opponents should call upon Mr. Gladstone to +denounce the plan of campaign and cut himself off from +its authors, was to be expected. They made the most of it. +<pb n='371'/><anchor id='Pg371'/> +<note place='margin'>Plan Of Campaign</note> +But he was the last man to be turned aside from the prosecution +of a policy that he deemed of overwhelming +moment, by any minor currents. Immediately after the +election, Mr. Parnell had been informed of his view that it +would be a mistake for English and Irish to aim at uniform +action in parliament. Motives could not be at all points the +same. Liberals were bound to keep in view (next to what +the Irish question might require) the reunion of the liberal +party. The Irish were bound to have special regard to the +opinion and circumstances of Ireland. Common action up +to a certain degree would arise from the necessities of the +position. Such was Mr. Gladstone's view. He was bent on +bringing a revolutionary movement to what he confidently +anticipated would be a good end; to allow a passing phase +of that movement to divert him, would be to abandon his +own foundations. No reformer is fit for his task who suffers +himself to be frightened off by the excesses of an extreme +wing. +</p> + +<p> +In reply to my account of the conversation with Mr. +Parnell, he wrote to me:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>Hawarden, December 8, 1886.</hi>—I have received your very clear +statement and reply in much haste for the post—making the same +request as yours for a return. I am glad to find the —— speech +is likely to be neutralised, I hope effectually. It was really very +bad. I am glad you write to ——. 2. As to the campaign in Ireland, +I do not at present feel the force of Hartington's appeal to +me to speak out. I do not recollect that he ever spoke out about +Churchill, of whom he is for the time the enthusiastic follower.<note place='foot'>Lord +Randolph had encouraged a plan of campaign in Ulster against +home rule.</note> +3. But all I say and do must be kept apart from the slightest +countenance direct or indirect to illegality. We too suffer under +the power of the landlord, but we cannot adopt this as a method +of breaking it. 4. I am glad you opened the question of intermediate +measures.... 5. Upon the whole I suppose he sees he +cannot have countenance from us in the plan of campaign. The +question rather is how much disavowal. I have contradicted +a tory figment in Glasgow that I had approved. +</quote> + +<p> +At a later date (September 16, 1887) he wrote to me as to +<pb n='372'/><anchor id='Pg372'/> +an intended speech at Newcastle: <q>You will, I have no +doubt, press even more earnestly than before on the Irish +people the duty and policy of maintaining order, and in +these instances I shall be very glad if you will associate me +with yourself.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q>The plan of campaign,</q> said Mr. Gladstone, <q>was one of +those devices that cannot be reconciled with the principles +of law and order in a civilised country. Yet we all know +that such devices are the certain result of misgovernment. +With respect to this particular instance, if the plan be +blameable (I cannot deny that I feel it difficult to acquit any +such plan) I feel its authors are not one-tenth part so blameable +as the government whose contemptuous refusal of what +they have now granted, was the parent and source of the +mischief.</q><note place='foot'>Speech at the Memorial Hall, +July 29, 1887.</note> This is worth looking at. +</p> + +<p> +The Cowper Commission, in February 1887, reported that +refusal by some landlords explained much that had occurred +in the way of combination, and that the growth of these +combinations had been facilitated by the fall in prices, +restriction of credit by the banks, and other circumstances +making the payment of rent impossible.<note place='foot'>Report, p. 8, +sect. 15.</note> Remarkable +evidence was given by Sir Redvers Buller. He thought +there should be some means of modifying and redressing the +grievance of rents being still higher than the people can pay. +<q>You have got a very ignorant poor people, and the law +should look after them, instead of which it has only looked +after the rich.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Freeman</hi>, +Jan. 1887.</note> This was exactly what Mr. Parnell had said. +In the House the government did not believe him; in Ireland +they admitted his case to be true. In one instance +General Buller wrote to the agents of the estate that he +believed it was impossible for the tenants to pay the rent +that was demanded; there might be five or six rogues +among them, but in his opinion the greater number of them +were nearer famine than paying rent.<note place='foot'>Questions 16, +473-5.</note> In this very case +ruthless evictions followed. The same scenes were enacted +elsewhere. The landlords were within their rights, the courts +were bound by the law, the police had no choice but to back +<pb n='373'/><anchor id='Pg373'/> +<note place='margin'>Ministerial Vacillations</note> +the courts. The legal ease was complete. The moral case +remained, and it was through these barbarous scenes that in +a rough and non-logical way the realities of the Irish land +system for the first time gained access to the minds of the +electors of Great Britain. Such devices as the plan of campaign +came to be regarded in England and Scotland as what +they were, incidents in a great social struggle. In a vast +majority of cases the mutineers succeeded in extorting +a reduction of rent, not any more immoderate than the +reduction voluntarily made by good landlords, or decreed in +the land-courts. No agrarian movement in Ireland was ever +so unstained by crime. +</p> + +<p> +Some who took part in these affairs made no secret of +political motives. Unlike Mr. Parnell, they deliberately +desired to make government difficult. Others feared that +complete inaction would give an opening to the Fenian +extremists. This section had already shown some signs both +of their temper and their influence in certain proceedings +of the Gaelic association at Thurles. But the main spring +was undoubtedly agrarian, and the force of the spring came +from mischiefs that ministers had refused to face in time. +<q>What they call a conspiracy now,</q> said one of the insurgent +leaders, <q>they will call an Act of parliament next year.</q> So +it turned out. +</p> + +<p> +The Commission felt themselves <q>constrained to recommend +an earlier revision of judicial rents, on account +of the straitened circumstances of Irish farmers.</q> What +the commissioners thus told ministers in the spring was +exactly what the Irish leader had told them in the previous +autumn. They found that there were <q>real grounds</q> +for some legislation of the kind that the chief secretary, +unconscious of what his cabinet was so rapidly to come to, +had stigmatised as the policy of blackmail. +</p> + +<p> +On the last day of March 1887, the government felt the +necessity of introducing a measure based on facts that they +had disputed, and on principles that they had repudiated. +Leaseholders were admitted, some hundred thousand of +them. That is, the more solemn of the forms of agrarian +contract were set aside. Other provisions we may pass over. +<pb n='374'/><anchor id='Pg374'/> +But this was not the bill to which the report of the Commission +pointed. The pith of that report was the revision +and abatement of judicial rents, and from the new bill this +vital point was omitted. It could hardly have been otherwise +after a curt declaration made by the prime minister in +the previous August. <q>We do not contemplate any revision +of judicial rents,</q> he said—immediately, by the way, after +appointing a commission to find out what it was that they +ought to contemplate. <q>We do not think it would be honest +in the first place, and we think it would be exceedingly +inexpedient.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> August +19, 1886.</note> He now repeated that to interfere with +judicial rents because prices had fallen, would be to <q>lay your axe to the root +of the fabric of civilised society.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> +313, March 22, 1887.</note> Before the +bill was introduced, Mr. Balfour, who had gone to the Irish +office on the retirement of Sir M. H. Beach in the month +of March, proclaimed in language even more fervid, that it +would be folly and madness to break these solemn +contracts.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> 312, April 22, 1887.</note> +</p> + +<p> +For that matter, the bill even as it first stood was in direct +contravention to all such high doctrine as this, inasmuch as +it clothed a court with power to vary solemn contracts by +fixing a composition for outstanding debt, and spreading the +payment of it over such a time as the judge might think fit. +That, however, was the least part of what finally overtook +the haughty language of the month of April. In May the +government accepted a proposal that the court should not +only settle the sum due by an applicant for relief for outstanding +debt, but should fix a reasonable rent for the rest +of the term. This was the very power of variation that +ministers had, as it were only the day before, so roundly +denounced. But then the tenants in Ulster were beginning +to growl. In June ministers withdrew the power of variation, +for now it was the landlords who were growling. Then +at last in July the prime minister called his party together, +and told them that if the bill were not altered, Ulster would +be lost to the unionist cause, and that after all he must put +into the bill a general revision of judicial rents for three +years. So finally, as it was put by a speaker of that time, +<pb n='375'/><anchor id='Pg375'/> +<note place='margin'>Singular Operations</note> +you have the prime minister rejecting in April the policy +which in May he accepts; rejecting in June the policy which +he had accepted in May; and then in July accepting the +policy which he had rejected in June, and which had been +within a few weeks declared by himself and his colleagues to +be inexpedient and dishonest, to be madness and folly, and +to be a laying of the axe to the very root of the fabric of +civilised society. The simplest recapitulation made the +bitterest satire. +</p> + +<p> +The law that finally emerged from these singular operations +dealt, it will be observed in passing, with nothing less +than the chief object of Irish industry and the chief form +of Irish property. No wonder that the landlords lifted up +angry voices. True, the minister the year before had laid it +down that if rectification of rents should be proved necessary, +the landlords ought to be compensated by the state. Of this +consolatory balm it is needless to say no more was ever +heard; it was only a graceful sentence in a speech, and +proved to have little relation to purpose or intention. At +the Kildare Street club in Dublin members moodily asked +one another whether they might not just as well have had +the policy of Mr. Parnell's bill adopted on College Green, as +adopted at Westminster. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +The moment had by this time once more come for +testing the proposition from which Mr. Gladstone's policy +had first started. The tory government had been turned +out at the beginning of 1886 upon coercion, and Mr. +Gladstone's government had in the summer of that year +been beaten upon conciliation. <q>I ventured to state in +1886,</q> said Mr. Gladstone a year later,<note place='foot'>Speech +on Criminal Law Amendment (Ireland) bill, March 29, 1887.</note> <q>that we had arrived +at the point where two roads met, or rather where two roads +parted; one of them the road that marked the endeavour to +govern Ireland according to its constitutionally expressed +wishes; the other the road principally marked by ultra-constitutional +measures, growing more and more pronounced +in character.</q> Others, he said, with whom we had +<pb n='376'/><anchor id='Pg376'/> +been in close alliance down to that date, considered that a +third course was open, namely liberal concession, stopping +short of autonomy, but upon a careful avoidance of coercion. +Now it became visible that this was a mistake, and that in +default of effective conciliation, coercion was the inevitable +alternative. So it happened. +</p> + +<p> +The government again unlocked the ancient armoury, and +brought out the well-worn engines. The new Crimes bill in +most particulars followed the old Act, but it contained one or +two serious extensions, including a clause afterwards dropped, +that gave to the crown a choice in cases of murder or certain +other aggravated offences of carrying the prisoner out of his +own country over to England and trying him before a +Middlesex jury at the Old Bailey—a puny imitation of the +heroic expedient suggested in 1769, of bringing American +rebels over for trial in England under a slumbering statute +of King Henry VIII. The most startling innovation of +all was that the new Act was henceforth to be the permanent +law of Ireland, and all its drastic provisions were +to be brought into force whenever the executive government +pleased.<note place='foot'>This vital feature of the bill +was discussed in the report stage, +on a motion limiting the operation of +the Act to three years. June 27, 1887. +<hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 316, p. 1013. The clause was +rejected by 180 to 119, or a majority +of 61.</note> This Act was not restricted as every former law of +the kind had been in point of time, to meet an emergency; +it was made a standing instrument of government. Criminal +law and procedure is one of the most important of all the +branches of civil rule, and certainly is one of the most important +of all its elements. This was now in Ireland to shift up +and down, to be one thing to-day and another thing to-morrow +at executive discretion. Acts would be innocent or would be +crimes, just as it pleased the Irish minister. Parliament did +not enact that given things were criminal, but only that they +should be criminal when an Irish minister should choose to +say so.<note place='foot'>See Palles, C. B., in Walsh's +case. <hi rend='italic'>Judgments of Superior Courts +in cases under the Criminal Law and +Procedure Amendment Act</hi>, 1887, p. +110.</note> Persons charged with them would have the benefit +of a jury or would be deprived of a jury, as the Irish minister +might think proper. +</p> + +<pb n='377'/><anchor id='Pg377'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>New Crimes Act</note> +Mr. Parnell was in bad health and took little part, but he +made more than one pulverising attack in that measured +and frigid style which, in a man who knows his case at first +hand, may be so much more awkward for a minister than +more florid onslaughts. He discouraged obstruction, and +advised his followers to select vital points and to leave others +alone. This is said to have been the first Coercion bill that +a majority of Irish members voting opposed. +</p> + +<p> +It was at this point that the government suddenly introduced +their historic proposal for closure by guillotine. +They carried (June 10) a resolution that at ten o'clock +on that day week the committee stage should be brought +compulsorily to an end, and that any clauses remaining +undisposed of should be put forthwith without amendment +or debate. The most remarkable innovation upon parliamentary +rule and practice since Cromwell and Colonel Pride, +was introduced by Mr. Smith in a characteristic speech, well +larded with phrases about duty, right, responsibility, business +of the country, and efficiency of the House. These solemnising +complacencies' did not hide the mortifying fact that if +it had really been one of the objects of Irish members for +ten years past to work a revolution in the parliament where +they were forced against their will to sit, they had at least, +be such a revolution good or bad, succeeded in their design. +</p> + +<p> +Perhaps looking forward with prophetic eye to a day +that actually arrived six years later, Mr. Gladstone, while +objecting to the proposal as unjustified, threw the responsibility +of it upon the government, and used none of +the flaming colours of defiance. The bulk of the liberals +abstained from the division. This practical accord between +the two sets of leading men made the parliamentary revolution +definite and finally clenched it. It was not without +something of a funereal pang that members with a sense of +the old traditions of the power, solemnity, and honour of +the House of Commons came down on the evening of the +seventeenth of June. Within a week they would be celebrating +the fiftieth year of the reign of the Queen, and +that night's business was the strange and unforeseen goal at +which a journey of little more than the same period of time +<pb n='378'/><anchor id='Pg378'/> +along the high, democratic road had brought the commonalty +of the realm since 1832. Among the provisions that went +into the bill without any discussion in committee were those +giving to the Irish executive the power of stamping an association +as unlawful; those dealing with special juries and +change of the place of trial; those specifying the various +important conditions attaching to proclamations, which lay at +the foundation of the Act; those dealing with rules, procedure, +and the limits of penalty. The report next fell under what +Burke calls the accursed slider. That stage had taken three +sittings, when the government moved (June 30) that it must +close in four days. So much grace, however, was not needed; +for after the motion had been carried the liberals withdrew +from the House, and the Irishmen betook themselves to the +galleries, whence they looked down upon the mechanical +proceedings below. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +In Ireland the battle now began in earnest. The Irish +minister went into it with intrepid logic. Though very +different men in the deeper parts of character, Macaulay's +account of Halifax would not be an ill-natured account of Mr. +Balfour. <q>His understanding was keen, sceptical, inexhaustibly +fertile in distinctions and objections, his taste refined, his +sense of the ludicrous exquisite; his temper placid and forgiving, +but fastidious, and by no means prone either to malevolence +or to enthusiastic admiration.</q> His business was to +show disaffected Ireland that parliament was her master. +Parliament had put the weapon into his hands, and it was +for him to smite his antagonists to the ground. He made +no experiments in judicious mixture, hard blows and soft +speech, but held steadily to force and fear. His apologists +argued that after all substantial justice was done even in +what seemed hard cases, and even if the spirit of law were +sometimes a trifle strained. Unluckily the peasant with the +blunderbuss, as he waits behind the hedge for the tyrant or +the traitor, says just the same. The forces of disorder were +infinitely less formidable than they had been a hundred +times before. The contest was child's play compared with +<pb n='379'/><anchor id='Pg379'/> +<note place='margin'>First Guillotine Closure</note> +the violence and confusion with which Mr. Forster or Lord +Spencer had to deal. On the other hand the alliance +between liberals and Irish gave to the struggle a parliamentary +complexion, by which no coercion struggle had ever +been marked hitherto. In the dialectic of senate and platform, +Mr. Balfour displayed a strength of wrist, a rapidity, +an instant readiness for combat, that took his foes by surprise, +and roused in his friends a delight hardly surpassed in +the politics of our day. +</p> + +<p> +There was another important novelty this time. To +England hitherto Irish coercion had been little more than +a word of common form, used without any thought what the +thing itself was like to the people coerced. Now it was +different. Coercion had for once become a flaming party +issue, and when that happens all the world awakes. Mr. +Gladstone had proclaimed that the choice lay between conciliation +and coercion. The country would have liked +conciliation, but did not trust his plan. When coercion +came, the two British parties rushed to their swords, and +the deciding body of neutrals looked on with anxiety and +concern. There has never been a more strenuously sustained +contest in the history of political campaigns. No effort was +spared to bring the realities of repression vividly home to +the judgment and feelings of men and women of our own +island. English visitors trooped over to Ireland, and brought +back stories of rapacious landlords, violent police, and +famishing folk cast out homeless upon the wintry roadside. +Irishmen became the most welcome speakers on British +platforms, and for the first time in all our history they got +a hearing for their lamentable tale. To English audiences +it was as new and interesting as the narrative of an African +explorer or a navigator in the Pacific. Our Irish instructors +even came to the curious conclusion that ordinary international +estimates must be revised, and that Englishmen +are in truth far more emotional than Irishmen. Ministerial +speakers, on the other hand, diligently exposed inaccuracy +here or over-colouring there. They appealed to the English +distaste for disorder, and to the English taste for mastery, +and they did not overlook the slumbering jealousy of popery +<pb n='380'/><anchor id='Pg380'/> +and priestcraft. But the course of affairs was too rapid for +them, the strong harsh doses to the Irish patient were too +incessant. The Irish convictions in cases where the land was +concerned rose to 2805, and of these rather over one-half +were in cases where in England the rights of the prisoner +would have been guarded by a jury. The tide of common +popular feeling in this island about the right to combine, the +right of public meeting, the frequent barbarities of eviction, +the jarring indignities of prison treatment, flowed stronger +and stronger. The general impression spread more and +more widely that the Irish did not have fair play, that they +were not being treated about speeches and combination and +meetings as Englishmen or Scotchmen would be treated. +Even in breasts that had been most incensed by the sudden +reversal of policy in 1886, the feeling slowly grew that it +was perhaps a pity after all that Mr. Gladstone had not +been allowed to persevere on the fair-shining path of +conciliation. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>V</head> + +<p> +The proceedings under exceptional law would make an instructive +chapter in the history of the union. Mr. Gladstone +followed them vigilantly, once or twice without his usual +exercise of critical faculty, but always bringing into effective +light the contrast between this squalid policy and his anticipations +of his own. Here we are only concerned with what +affected British opinion on the new policy. One set of distressing +incidents, not connected with the Crimes Act, created +disgust and even horror in the country and set Mr. Gladstone +on fire. A meeting of some six thousand persons assembled +in a large public square at Mitchelstown in the county of +Cork.<note place='foot'>On September 9, 1887.</note> +It was a good illustration of Mr. Gladstone's habitual +strategy in public movements, that he should have boldly +and promptly seized on the doings at Mitchelstown as an +incident well fitted to arrest the attention of the country. +<q>Remember Mitchelstown</q> became a watchword. The +chairman, speaking from a carriage that did duty for a +platform, opened the proceedings. Then a file of police +endeavoured to force a way through the densest part of the +<pb n='381'/><anchor id='Pg381'/> +<note place='margin'>Mitchelstown</note> +crowd for a government note-taker. Why they did not +choose an easier mode of approach from the rear, or by the +side; why they had not got their reporter on to the platform +before the business began; and why they had not beforehand +asked for accommodation as was the practice, were three +points never explained. The police unable to make a way +through the crowd retired to the outskirt. The meeting +went on. In a few minutes a larger body of police pressed +up through the thick of the throng to the platform. A +violent struggle began, the police fighting their way through +the crowd with batons and clubbed rifles. The crowd flung +stones and struck out with sticks, and after three or four +minutes the police fled to their barracks—some two hundred +and fifty yards away. So far there is no material discrepancy +in the various versions of this dismal story. What followed +is matter of conflicting testimony. One side alleged that a +furious throng rushed after the police, attacked the barrack, +and half murdered a constable outside, and that the constables +inside in order to save their comrade and to beat off +the assailing force, opened fire from an upper window. The +other side declared that no crowd followed the retreating +police at all, that the assault on the barrack was a myth, +and that the police fired without orders from any responsible +officer, in mere blind panic and confusion. One old man +was shot dead, two others were mortally wounded and died +within a week. +</p> + +<p> +Three days later the affray was brought before the House +of Commons. Any one could see from the various reports +that the conduct of the police, the resistance of the crowd, +and the guilt or justification of the bloodshed, were all +matters in the utmost doubt and demanding rigorous +inquiry. Mr. Balfour pronounced instant and peremptory +judgment. The thing had happened on the previous Friday. +The official report, however rapidly prepared, could not have +reached him until the morning of Sunday. His officers at +the Castle had had no opportunity of testing their official +report by cross-examination of the constables concerned, nor +by inspection of the barrack, the line of fire, and other +material elements of the case. Yet on the strength of this +<pb n='382'/><anchor id='Pg382'/> +hastily drawn and unsifted report received by him from +Ireland on Sunday, and without even waiting for any information +that eye-witnesses in the House might have to +lay before him in the course of the discussion, the Irish +minister actually told parliament once for all, on the afternoon +of Monday, that he was of opinion, <q>looking at the +matter in the most impartial spirit, that the police were in +no way to blame, and that no responsibility rested upon any +one except upon those who convened the meeting under +circumstances which they knew would lead to excitement +and might lead to outrage.</q><note place='foot'>Sept. 12, 1887. +<hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 321, p. 327.</note> The country was astounded to +see the most critical mind in all the House swallow an +untested police report whole; to hear one of the best judges +in all the country of the fallibility of human testimony, give +offhand, in what was really a charge of murder, a verdict of +Not Guilty, after he had read the untested evidence on one +side. +</p> + +<p> +The rest was all of a piece. The coroner's inquest was +held in due course. The proceedings were not more happily +conducted than was to be expected where each side followed +the counsels of ferocious exasperation. The jury, after some +seventeen days of it, returned a verdict of wilful murder +against the chief police officer and five of his men. This +inquisition was afterwards quashed (February 10, 1888) in +the Queen's bench, on the ground that the coroner had +perpetrated certain irregularities of form. Nobody has +doubted that the Queen's bench was right; it seemed as if +there had been a conspiracy of all the demons of human +stupidity in this tragic bungle, from the first forcing of the +reporter through the crowd, down to the inquest on the +three slain men and onwards. The coroner's inquest having +broken down, reasonable opinion demanded that some other +public inquiry should be held. Even supporters of the +government demanded it. If three men had been killed by +the police in connection with a public meeting in England +or Scotland, no home secretary would have dreamed for five +minutes of resisting such a demand. Instead of a public +inquiry, what the chief secretary did was to appoint a +<pb n='383'/><anchor id='Pg383'/> +<note place='margin'>Intervention From Rome</note> +confidential departmental committee of policemen privately +to examine, not whether the firing was justified by the +circumstances, but how it came about that the police were +so handled by their officers that a large force was put to +flight by a disorderly mob. The three deaths were treated +as mere accident and irrelevance. The committee was appointed +to correct the discipline of the force, said the Irish +minister, and in no sense to seek justification for actions +which, in his opinion, required no justification.<note place='foot'>Dec. +3, 1888. <hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 331, p. 916.</note> Endless +speeches were made in the House and out of it; members +went over to Mitchelstown to measure distances, calculate +angles, and fire imaginary rifles out of the barrack window; +all sorts of theories of ricochet shots were invented, photographs +and diagrams were taken. Some held the police to +be justified, others held them to be wholly unjustified. But +without a judicial inquiry, such as had been set up in the +case of Belfast in 1886, all these doings were futile. The +government remained stubborn. The slaughter of the three +men was finally left just as if it had been the slaughter of +three dogs. No other incident of Irish administration stirred +deeper feelings of disgust in Ireland, or of misgiving and +indignation in England. +</p> + +<p> +Here was, in a word, the key to the new policy. Every act +of Irish officials was to be defended. No constable could be +capable of excess. No magistrate could err. No prison rule +was over harsh. Every severity technically in order must be +politic. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>VI</head> + +<p> +Among other remarkable incidents, the Pope came to the +rescue, and sent an emissary to inquire into Irish affairs. +The government had lively hopes of the emissary, and while +they beat the Orange drum in Ulster with one hand, with +the other they stealthily twitched the sleeve of Monsignor +Persico. It came to little. The Congregation at Rome were +directed by the Pope to examine whether it was lawful to +resort to the plan of campaign. They answered that it was +contrary both to natural justice and Christian charity. The +papal rescript, embodying this conclusion, was received in +<pb n='384'/><anchor id='Pg384'/> +Ireland with little docility. Unwisely the cardinals had given +reasons, and the reasons, instead of springing in the mystic +region of faith and morals, turned upon issues of fact as to +fair rents. But then the Irish tenant thought himself a far +better judge of a fair rent, than all the cardinals that ever +wore red hats. If he had heard of such a thing as Jansenism, +he would have known that he was in his own rude way taking +up a position not unlike that of the famous teachers of Port +Royal two hundred and thirty years before, that the authority +of the Holy See is final as to doctrine, but may make a +mistake as to fact. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Parnell spoke tranquilly of <q>a document from a distant country,</q> and +publicly left the matter to his catholic countrymen.<note place='foot'>May 8, 1888.</note> +Forty catholic members of parliament met at the +Mansion House in Dublin, and signed a document in which +they flatly denied every one of the allegations and implications +about fair rents, free contract, the land commission +and all the rest, and roundly declared the Vatican circular to +be an instrument of the unscrupulous foes both of the Holy +See and of the people of Ireland. They told the Pope, that +while recognising unreservedly as catholics the spiritual +jurisdiction of the Holy See, they were bound solemnly to +affirm that Irish catholics recognise no rights in Rome to +interfere in their political affairs. A great meeting in the +Phœnix Park ratified the same position by acclamation. At +Cork, under the presidency of the mayor, and jealously +watched by forces of horse and foot, a great gathering in a +scene of indescribable excitement protested that they would +never allow the rack-renters of Ireland to grind them down +at the instigation of intriguers at Rome. Even in many +cities in the United States the same voice was heard. The +bishops knew well that the voice was strongly marked by the +harsh accent of their Fenian adversaries. They issued a +declaration of their own, protesting to their flocks that the +rescript was confined within the spiritual sphere, and that +his holiness was far from wishing to prejudice the nationalist +movement. In the closing week of the year, the Pope himself +judged that the time had come for him to make known +<pb n='385'/><anchor id='Pg385'/> +<note place='margin'>At Sandringham And Windsor</note> +that the action which had been <q>so sadly misunderstood,</q> +had been prompted by the desire to keep the cause in which +Ireland was struggling from being weakened by the introduction +of anything that could justly be brought in reproach +against it.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Tablet</hi>, Jan. 5, +1889.</note> The upshot of the intervention was that the +action condemned by the rescript was not materially affected +within the area already disturbed; but the rescript may have +done something to prevent its extension elsewhere. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>VII</head> + +<p> +Among the entries for 1887 there occur:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>Sandringham, Jan. 29.</hi>—A large party. We were received +with the usual delicacy and kindness. Much conversation with +the Prince of Wales.... Walk with ——, who charmed +me much. <hi rend='italic'>Jan. 31.</hi>—Off by 11 <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.m.</hi> +to Cambridge.... Dined +with the master of Trinity in hall. Went over the Newnham +buildings: greatly pleased. Saw Mr. Sidgwick. Evening service +at King's.... <hi rend='italic'>Feb. 2.</hi>—Hawarden at 5.30. Set to work on +papers. Finished Greville's Journals. <hi rend='italic'>Feb. 3.</hi>—Wrote +on Greville. <hi rend='italic'>Feb. 5.</hi>—Felled a chestnut. +<hi rend='italic'>Feb. 27.</hi>—Read Lord Shaftesbury's +<hi rend='italic'>Memoirs</hi>—an excellent discipline for me. +<hi rend='italic'>March 5.</hi>— Dollis Hill +[a house near Willesden often lent to him in these times by +Lord and Lady Aberdeen] a refuge from my timidity, unwilling +at 77 to begin a new London house. <hi rend='italic'>March 9.</hi>—Windsor +[to dine and sleep]. The Queen courteous as always; somewhat +embarrassed, as I thought. <hi rend='italic'>March 29.</hi>—Worked on +Homer, Apollo, etc. Then turned to the Irish business and +revolved much, with extreme difficulty in licking the question +into shape. Went to the House and spoke 1-½ hours as carefully +and with as much measure as I could. Conclave on +coming course of business. <hi rend='italic'>April 5.</hi>—Conversation with Mr. +Chamberlain—ambiguous result, but some ground made. <hi rend='italic'>April +18.</hi>—H. of C. 4-½-8-¼ and 10-2. Spoke 1-¼ h. My voice did its +duty but with great effort. <hi rend='italic'>April 25.</hi>—Spoke for an hour upon +the budget. R. Churchill excellent. Conclave on the forged +letters. <hi rend='italic'>May 4.</hi>—Read earlier speeches of yesterday with care, +and worked up the subject of Privilege. Spoke 1-¼ h. +</quote> + +<pb n='386'/><anchor id='Pg386'/> + +<p> +In June (1887) Mr. Gladstone started on a political campaign +in South Wales, where his reception was one of the +most triumphant in all his career. Ninety-nine hundredths +of the vast crowds who gave up wages for the sake of seeing +him and doing him honour were strong protestants, yet he +said to a correspondent, <q>they made this demonstration in +order to secure firstly and mainly justice to catholic Ireland. +It is not after all a bad country in which such things take +place.</q> +</p> + +<p> +It was at Swansea that he said what he had to say about +the Irish members. He had never at any time from the +hour when he formed his government, set up their exclusion +as a necessary condition of home rule. All that he ever +bargained for was that no proposal for inclusion should be +made a ground for impairing real and effective self-government. +Subject to this he was ready to adjourn the matter +and to leave things as they were, until experience should +show the extent of the difficulty and the best way of meeting +it. Provisional exclusion had been suggested by a member +of great weight in the party in 1886. The new formula was +provisional inclusion. This announcement restored one very +distinguished adherent to Mr. Gladstone, and it appeased the +clamour of the busy knot who called themselves imperial +federationists. Of course it opened just as many new difficulties +as it closed old ones, but both old difficulties and new +fell into the background before the struggle in Ireland. +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>June 2, 1887.</hi>—Off at 11.40. A tumultuous but interesting +journey to Swansea and Singleton, where we were landed at 7.30. +Half a dozen speeches on the way. A small party to dinner. 3.—A +<q>quiet day.</q> Wrote draft to the associations on the road, as model. +Spent the forenoon in settling plans and discussing the lines +of my meditated statement to-morrow with Sir Hussey Vivian, +Lord Aberdare, and Mr. Stuart Rendel. In the afternoon we went +to the cliffs and the Mumbles, and I gave some hours to writing +preliminary notes on a business where all depends on the manner +of handling. Small party to dinner. Read Cardiff and Swansea +guides. 4.—More study and notes. 12-4-½ the astonishing procession. +Sixty thousand! Then spoke for near an hour. Dinner at 8, +<pb n='387'/><anchor id='Pg387'/> +near an hundred, arrangements perfect. Spoke for nearly another +hour; got through a most difficult business as well as I could expect. +5.—Church 11 <hi rend='smallcaps'>a.m.</hi>, +notable sermon and H. C. (service long), +again 6-½ <hi rend='smallcaps'>p.m.</hi>, good sermon. Wrote to Sir W. Harcourt, Mr. +Morley, etc. Walked in the garden. Considered the question of +a non-political address <q>in council</q>; we all decided against it. 6.—Surveys +in the house, then 12-4 to Swansea for the freedom and +opening the town library. I was rather jealous of a non-political +affair at such a time, but could not do less than speak for thirty or +thirty-five minutes for the two occasions. 4-8 to Park Farm, the +beautiful vales, breezy common and the curious chambered cairn. +Small dinner-party. 7.—Off at 8.15 and a hard day to London, the +occasion of processions, hustles, and speeches; that at Newport in +the worst atmosphere known since the Black Hole. Poor C. too +was an invalid. Spoke near an hour to 3000 at Cardiff; about +¼ hour at Newport; more briefly at Gloucester and Swindon. +Much enthusiasm even in the English part of the journey. Our +party was reduced at Newport to the family, at Gloucester to our +two selves. C. H. Terrace at 6.20. Wrote to get off the House +of Commons. It has really been a <q>progress,</q> and an extraordinary +one. +</quote> + +<p> +In December 1887, under the pressing advice of his +physician, though <q>with a great lazy reluctance,</q> Mr. Gladstone +set his face with a family party towards Florence. He +found the weather more northern than at Hawarden, but it +was healthy. He was favourably impressed by all he saw of +Italian society (English being cultivated to a degree that +surprised him), but he did his best to observe Sir Andrew +Clark's injunction that he should practise the Trappist discipline +of silence, and the condition of his voice improved +in consequence. He read Scartazzini's book on Dante, and +found it fervid, generally judicial, and most unsparing in +labour; and he was much interested in Beugnot's <hi rend='italic'>Chute du +Paganisme</hi>. And as usual, he returned homeward as unwillingly +as he had departed. During the session he fought his +Irish battle with unsparing tenacity, and the most conspicuous +piece of his activity out of parliament was a pilgrimage +to Birmingham (November 1888). It was a great +<pb n='388'/><anchor id='Pg388'/> +gathering of lieutenants and leading supporters from, every +part of the country. Here is a note of mine:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +On the day of the great meeting in Bingley Hall, somebody +came to say that Mr. Gladstone wanted to know if I could supply +him with a certain passage from a speech of Lord Hartington's. +I found him in his dressing-gown, conning his notes and as lively +as youth. He jumped up and pressed point after point on me, +as if I had been a great public meeting. I offered to go down +to the public library and hunt for the passage; he deprecated +this, but off I went, and after some search unearthed the passage, +and copied it out. In the evening I went to dine with him before +the meeting. He had been out for a short walk to the Oratory +in the afternoon to call on Cardinal Newman. He was not +allowed, he told me, to see the cardinal, but he had had a long +talk with Father Neville. He found that Newman was in the +habit of reading with a reflector candle, but had not a good one. +<q>So I said I had a good one, and I sent it round to him.</q> He +was entirely disengaged in mind during dinner, ate and drank +his usual quantity, and talked at his best about all manner of +things. At the last moment he was telling us of John Hunter's +confirmation, from his own medical observation, of Homer's remark +about Dolon; a bad fellow, whose badness Homer explains +by the fact that he was a brother brought up among sisters +only:— +</p> + +<lg> +<l>αὐτὰρ δ᾽ μοῦνος ἔην μετὰ πέντε +κασιγνήτῃσιν.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Iliad</hi>, +<hi rend='smallcaps'>x.</hi> 317. See +<hi rend='italic'>Homer and Homeric Age</hi>, iii. 467 n.</note></l> +</lg> + +<p> +Oliver Cromwell, by the way, was an only surviving boy among +seven sisters, so we cannot take either poet or surgeon for gospel. +Time was up, and bore us away from Homer and Hunter. He +was perfectly silent in the carriage, as I remembered Bright had +been when years before I drove with him to the same hall. The +sight of the vast meeting was almost appalling, from fifteen to +seventeen thousand people. He spoke with great vigour and +freedom; the fine passages probably heard all over; many other +passages certainly not heard, but his gestures so strong and varied +as to be almost as interesting as the words would have been. The +speech lasted an hour and fifty minutes; and he was not at all +<pb n='389'/><anchor id='Pg389'/> +exhausted when he sat down. The scene at the close was absolutely +indescribable and incomparable, overwhelming like the sea. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +He took part in parliamentary business at the beginning +of December. On December 3rd he spoke on Ireland with +immense fervour and passion. He was roused violently by +the chairman's attempt to rule out strong language from +debate, and made a vehement passage on that point. The +substance of the speech was rather thin and not new, but +the delivery magnificent. The Irish minister rose to reply +at 7.50, and Mr. Gladstone reluctantly made up his mind +to dine in the House. A friend by his side said No, and +at 8.40 hurried him down the back-stairs to a hospitable +board in Carlton Gardens. He was nearly voiceless, until +it was time for the rest of us to go back. A speedy meal +revived him, and he was soon discoursing on O'Connell +and many other persons and things, with boundless force +and vivacity. +</p> + +<p> +A few days later he was carried off to Naples. Hereto, he +told Lord Acton, <q>we have been induced by three circumstances. +First, a warm invitation from the Dufferins to +Rome; as to which, however, there are +<hi rend='italic'>cons</hi> as well as <hi rend='italic'>pros</hi> +for a man who like me is neither Italian nor Curial in the +view of present policies. Secondly, our kind friend Mr. +Stuart Rendel has actually offered to be our conductor +thither and back, to perform for us the great service which +you rendered us in the trip to Munich and Saint Martin. +Thirdly, I have the hope that the stimulating climate of +Naples, together with an abstention from speech greater than +any I have before enjoyed, may act upon my <q>vocal cord,</q> +and partially at least restore it.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='390'/><anchor id='Pg390'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter III. The Special Commission. (1887-1890)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +My Lords, it appears to me that the measure is unfortunate in its +origin, unfortunate in its scope and object, and unfortunate in the +circumstances which accompanied its passage through the other +House. It appears to me to establish a precedent most novel, and +fraught with the utmost +danger.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Lord Herschell.</hi><note place='foot'>House of +Lords, August 10, 1888.</note> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone's ceaseless attention to the many phases of +the struggle that was now the centre of his public life, was +especially engaged on what remains the most amazing of +them. I wish it were possible to pass it over, or throw it +into a secondary place; but it is too closely connected with +the progress of Mr. Gladstone's Irish policy in British opinion +at a critical stage, and it is still the subject of too many +perversions that affect his name. Transactions are to be +found in our annals where wrong was done by government +to individuals on a greater scale, where a powerful majority +devised engines for the proscription of a weak minority +with deadlier aim, and where the omnipotence of parliament +was abused for the purpose of faction with more ruthless +result. But whether we look at the squalid fraud in which +the incident began, or at the tortuous parliamentary pretences +by which it was worked out, or at the perversion of +fundamental principles of legal administration involved in +sending men to answer the gravest charges before a tribunal +specially constituted at the absolute discretion of their +bitterest political opponents—at the moment engaged in +a fierce contest with them in another field—from whatever +point of view we approach, the erection of the Special Commission +of 1888 stands out as one of the ugliest things done +in the name and under the forms of law in this island during +the century. +</p> + +<pb n='391'/><anchor id='Pg391'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>The Facsimile Letter</note> +In the spring of 1887 the conductors of <hi rend='italic'>The Times</hi>, intending +to strengthen the hands of the government in their new +and doubtful struggle, published a series of articles, in +which old charges against the Irish leader and his men were +served up with fresh and fiery condiments. The allegations +of crime were almost all indefinite; the method was +by allusion, suggestion, innuendo, and the combination of +ingeniously selected pieces, to form a crude and hideous +mosaic. Partly from its extravagance, partly because it was +in substance stale, the thing missed fire. +</p> + +<p> +On the day on which the division was to be taken on the +second reading of the Coercion bill, a more formidable bolt +was shot. On that morning (April 18th, 1887), there appeared +in the newspaper, with all the fascination of facsimile, +a letter alleged to be written by Mr. Parnell. It was +dated nine days after the murders in the Phœnix Park, +and purported to be an apology, presumably to some violent +confederate, for having as a matter of expediency openly +condemned the murders, though in truth the writer thought +that one of the murdered men deserved his fate.<note place='foot'><p>Here +is the text of this once +famous piece:— +</p> +<p> +'15/5/82. +</p> +<p> +<q rend='pre'><hi rend='smallcaps'>Dear Sir</hi>,—I am not surprised at +your friend's anger, but he and you +should know that to denounce the +murders was the only course open to +us. To do that promptly was plainly +our best policy. But you can tell +him and all others concerned, that +though I regret the accident of Lord +F. Cavendish's death, I cannot refuse +to admit that Burke got no more than +his deserts. You are at liberty to +show him this, and others whom you +can trust also, but let not my address +be known. He can write to the House +of Commons.—Yours very truly,</q> +</p> +<p> +<hi rend='smallcaps'><q>Chas. S. Parnell.</q></hi> +</p></note> Special +point was given to the letter by a terrible charge, somewhat +obliquely but still unmistakably made, in an article five or +six weeks before, that Mr. Parnell closely consorted with +the leading Invincibles when he was released on parole in +April 1882; that he probably learned from them what they +were about; and that he recognised the murders in the +Phœnix Park as their handiwork.<note place='foot'>The three judges held this to be +a correct interpretation of the language +used in the article of March +10th, 1887. Report, pp. 57-8.</note> The significance of the +letter therefore was that, knowing the bloody deed to be +theirs, he wrote for his own safety to qualify, recall, and +make a humble apology for the condemnation which he had +thought it politic publicly to pronounce. The town was +<pb n='392'/><anchor id='Pg392'/> +thrown into a great ferment. At the political clubs and in +the lobbies, all was complacent jubilation on the one side, +and consternation on the other. Even people with whom +politics were a minor interest were shocked by such an +exposure of the grievous depravity of man. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Parnell did not speak until one o'clock in the morning, +immediately before the division on the second reading +of the bill. He began amid the deepest silence. His denial +was scornful but explicit. The letter, he said, was an audacious +fabrication. It is fair to admit that the ministerialists +were not without some excuse of a sort for the incredulous +laughter with which they received this repudiation. They +put their trust in the most serious, the most powerful, the +most responsible, newspaper in the world; greatest in resources, +in authority, in universal renown. Neglect of any +possible precaution against fraud and forgery in a document +to be used for the purpose of blasting a great political +opponent would be culpable in no common degree. Of this +neglect people can hardly be blamed for thinking that the +men of business, men of the world, and men of honour +who were masters of the <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi>, must be held absolutely +incapable. +</p> + +<p> +Those who took this view were encouraged in it by the +prime minister. Within four-and-twenty hours he publicly +took the truth of the story, with all its worst innuendoes, +entirely for granted. He went with rapid stride from possibility +to probability, and from probability to certainty. In +a speech, of which precipitate credulity was not the only +fault, Lord Salisbury let fall the sentence: <q>When men who +knew gentlemen who intimately knew Mr. Parnell murdered +Mr. Burke.</q> He denounced Mr. Gladstone for making a +trusted friend of such a man—one who had <q>mixed on +terms of intimacy with those whose advocacy of assassination +was well known.</q> Then he went further. <q>You may +go back,</q> he said, <q>to the beginning of British government, +you may go back from decade to decade, and from +leader to leader, but you will never find a man who has +accepted a position, in reference to an ally tainted with the +strong presumption of conniving at assassination, which +<pb n='393'/><anchor id='Pg393'/> +has been accepted by Mr. Gladstone at the present time.</q><note place='foot'>April +20, 1887.</note> +Seldom has party spirit led eminent personages to greater +lengths of dishonouring absurdity. +</p> + +<p> +Now and afterwards people asked why Mr. Parnell did +not promptly bring his libellers before a court of law. The +answer was simple. The case would naturally have been +tried in London. In other words, not only the plaintiff's +own character, but the whole movement that he represented, +would have been submitted to a Middlesex jury, with all the +national and political prejudices inevitable in such a body, +and with all the twelve chances of a disagreement, that +would be almost as disastrous to Mr. Parnell as an actual +verdict for his assailants. The issues were too great to be +exposed to the hazards of a cast of the die. Then, why not +lay the venue in Ireland? It was true that a favourable +verdict might just as reasonably be expected from the prepossessions +of Dublin, as an unfavourable one from the +prepossessions of London. But the moral effect of an Irish +verdict upon English opinion would be exactly as worthless, +as the effect of an English verdict in a political or international +case would be upon the judgment and feeling of +Ireland. To procure a condemnation of the <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi> at the +Four Courts, as a means of affecting English opinion, would +not be worth a single guinea. Undoubtedly the subsequent +course of this strange history fully justified the advice that +Mr. Parnell received in this matter from the three persons +in the House of Commons with whom on this point he took +counsel. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +The prudent decision against bringing a fierce political +controversy before an English judge and jury was in a few +months brought to nought, from motives that have remained +obscure, and with results that nobody could foresee. The +next act in the drama was the institution of proceedings +for libel against the <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi> in November 1887, by an Irishman +who had formerly sat in parliament as a political +follower of Mr. Parnell. The newspaper met him by denying +that the articles on <hi rend='italic'>Parnellism and Crime</hi> related to him. +<pb n='394'/><anchor id='Pg394'/> +It went on to plead that the statements in the articles were +true in substance and in fact. The action was tried before +Lord Coleridge in July 1888, and the newspaper was represented +by the advocate who happened to be the principal +law officer of the crown. The plaintiff's counsel picked out +certain passages, said that his client was one of the persons +intended to be libelled, and claimed damages. He was +held to have made an undoubted <hi rend='italic'>prima facie</hi> case on the +two libels in which he had been specifically named. This +gave the enemy his chance. The attorney general, speaking +for three days, opened the whole case for the newspaper; +repeated and enlarged upon the charges and allegations +in its articles; stated the facts which he proposed to give in +evidence; sought to establish that the fac-simile letter was +really signed by Mr. Parnell; and finally put forward other +letters, now produced for the first time, which carried complicity +and connivance to a further point. These charges he +said that he should prove. On the third day he entirely +changed his tack. Having launched this mass of criminating +imputation, he then suddenly bethought him, so he said, +of the hardships which his course would entail upon the +Irishmen, and asked that in that action he should not be +called upon to prove anything at all. The Irishmen and +their leader remained under a load of odium that the law +officer of the crown had cast upon them, and declined to +substantiate. +</p> + +<p> +The production of this further batch of letters stirred +Mr. Parnell from his usual impassiveness. His former determination +to sit still was shaken. The day after the +attorney general's speech, he came to the present writer to +say that he thought of sending a paragraph to the newspapers +that night, with an announcement of his intention +to bring an action against the <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi>, narrowed to the issue +of the letters. The old arguments against an action were +again pressed upon him. He insisted, on the other side, +that he was not afraid of cross-examination; that they +might cross-examine as much as ever they pleased, either +about the doings of the land league or the letters; that his +hands would be found to be clean, and the letters to be gross +<pb n='395'/><anchor id='Pg395'/> +<note place='margin'>Demand For A Committee</note> +forgeries. The question between us was adjourned; and +meanwhile he fell in with my suggestion that he should the +next day make a personal statement to the House. The +personal statement was made in his most frigid manner, and +it was as frigidly received. He went through the whole of +the letters, one by one; showed the palpable incredibility of +some of them upon their very face, and in respect of those +which purported to be written by himself, he declared, in +words free from all trace of evasion, that he had never +written them, never signed them, never directed nor authorised +them to be written. +</p> + +<p> +So the matter was left on the evening of Friday (July 6, +1888). On Monday Mr. Parnell came to the House with +the intention to ask for a select committee. The feeling of +the English friend to whom he announced his intention in the +lobby, still was that the matter might much better be left +where it stood. The new batch of letters had strengthened +his position, for the Kilmainham letter was a fraud upon the +face of it, and a story that he had given a hundred pounds to a +fugitive from justice after the murders, had been demolished. +The press throughout the country had treated the subject +very coolly. The government would pretty certainly refuse +a select committee, and what would be the advantage to him +in the minds of persons inclined to think him guilty, of +making a demand which he knew beforehand would be +declined? Such was the view now pressed upon Mr. +Parnell. This time he was not moved. He took his own +course, as he had a paramount right to do. He went +into the House and asked the ministers to grant a select +committee to inquire into the authenticity of the letters +read at the recent trial. Mr. Smith replied, as before, that +the House was absolutely incompetent to deal with the +charges. Mr. Parnell then gave notice that he would that +night put on the paper the motion for a committee, and on +Thursday demand a day for its discussion. +</p> + +<p> +When Thursday arrived, either because the hot passion +of the majority was irresistible, or from a cool calculation +of policy, or simply because the situation was becoming +intolerable, a new decision had been taken, itself +<pb n='396'/><anchor id='Pg396'/> +far more intolerable than the scandal that it was to dissipate. +The government met the Irish leader with a refusal +and an offer. They would not give a committee, but they +were willing to propose a commission to consist wholly +or mainly of judges, with statutory power to inquire into +<q>the allegations and charges made against members of +parliament by the defendants in the recent action.</q> If the +gentlemen from Ireland were prepared to accept the offer, +the government would at once put on the paper for the +following Monday, notice of motion for leave to bring in a +bill.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> July 12, 1888, p. 1102.</note> +</p> + +<p> +When the words of the notice of motion appeared in +print, it was found amid universal astonishment that the +special commission was to inquire into the charges and +allegations generally, not only against certain members of +parliament, but also against <q>other persons.</q> The enormity +of this sudden extension of the operation was palpable. A +certain member is charged with the authorship of incriminating +letters. To clear his character as a member of +parliament, he demands a select committee. We decline to +give a committee, says the minister, but we offer you a commission +of judges, and you may take our offer or refuse, as +you please; only the judges must inquire not merely into +your question of the letters, but into all the charges and +allegations made against all of you, and not these only, but +into the charges and allegations made against other people +as well. This was extraordinary enough, but it was not all. +</p> + +<p> +It is impossible to feel much surprise that Mr. Parnell +was ready to assent to any course, however unconstitutional +that course might be, if only it led to the exposure of an +insufferable wrong. The credit of parliament and the +sanctity of constitutional right were no supreme concern of +his. He was burning to get at any expedient, committee or +commission, which should enable him to unmask and smite +his hidden foes. Much of his private language at this time +was in some respects vague and ineffectual, but he was +naturally averse to any course that might, in his own words, +look like backing down. <q>Of course,</q> he said, <q>I am not +<pb n='397'/><anchor id='Pg397'/> +sure that we shall come off with flying colours. But I think +we shall. I am never sure of anything.</q> He was still confident +that he had the clue. +</p> + +<p> +On the second stage of the transaction, Mr. Smith, in +answer to various questions in the early part of the sitting, +made a singular declaration. The bill, he said, of which he +had given notice, was a bill to be introduced in accordance +with the offer already made. <q>I do not desire to debate the +proposal; and I have put it in this position on the Order +Book, in order that it may be rejected or accepted by the +honourable member in the form in which it stands.</q> Then +in the next sentence, he said, <q>If the motion is received and +accepted by the House, the bill will be printed and circulated, +and I will then name a day for the second reading. +But I may say frankly that I do not anticipate being able to +make provision for a debate on the second reading of a +measure of this kind. It was an offer made by the government +to the honourable gentleman and his friends, to +be either accepted or rejected.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> +July 16, p. 1410.</note> The minister treated his +bill as lightly as if it were some small proposal of ordinary +form and of even less than ordinary importance. It is not +inconceivable that there was design in this, for Mr. Smith +concealed under a surface of plain and homely worth a +very full share of parliamentary craft, and he knew well +enough that the more extraordinary the measure, the more +politic it always is to open with an air of humdrum. +</p> + +<p> +The bill came on at midnight July 16, in a House stirred +with intense excitement, closely suppressed. The leader of +the House made the motion for leave to introduce the most +curious innovation of the century, in a speech of half-a-minute. +It might have been a formal bill for a provisional +order, to be taken as of course. Mr. Parnell, his ordinary +pallor made deeper by anger, and with unusual though very +natural vehemence of demeanour, at once hit the absurdity +of asking him whether he accepted or rejected the bill, not +only before it was printed but without explanation of its +contents. He then pressed in two or three weighty sentences +the deeper absurdity of leaving him any option at +<pb n='398'/><anchor id='Pg398'/> +all. The attorney general had said of the story of the +fac-simile letter, that if it was not genuine, it was the worst +libel ever launched on a public man. If the first lord +believed his attorney, said Mr. Parnell, instead of talking +about making a bargain with me, he ought to have come +down and said, <q>The government are determined to have +this investigation, whether the honourable member, this +alleged criminal, likes it or not.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> +July 16, 1888, p. 1495.</note> +</p> + +<p> +That was in fact precisely what the government had +determined. The profession that the bill was a benevolent +device for enabling the alleged criminals to extricate themselves +was very soon dropped. The offer of a boon to be +accepted or declined at discretion was transformed into a +grand compulsory investigation into the connection of +the national and land leagues with agrarian crime, and +the members of parliament were virtually put into the +dock along with all sorts of other persons who chanced +to be members of those associations. The effect was +certain. Any facts showing criminality in this or that +member of the league would be taken to show criminality +in the organisation as a whole, and especially in the political +leaders. And the proceeding could only be vindicated by +the truly outrageous principle that where a counsel in a +suit finds it his duty as advocate to make grave charges +against members of parliament in court, then it becomes an +obligation on the government to ask for an Act to appoint a +judicial commission to examine those charges, if only they +are grave enough. +</p> + +<p> +The best chance of frustrating the device was lost when +the bill was allowed to pass its first reading unopposed. +Three of the leaders of the liberal opposition—two in the +Commons, one in the Lords—were for making a bold stand +against the bill from the first. Mr. Gladstone, on the contrary, +with his lively instinct for popular feeling out of +doors, disliked any action indicative of reluctance to face +inquiry; and though holding a strong view that no case +had been made out for putting aside the constitutional and +convenient organ of a committee, yet he thought that an +<pb n='399'/><anchor id='Pg399'/> +<note place='margin'>The Bill</note> +inquiry under thoroughly competent and impartial judges, +after the right and true method of proceeding had been +refused, was still better than no proceeding at all. This much +of assent, however, was qualified. <q>I think,</q> he said, <q>that +an inquiry under thoroughly competent and impartial judges +is better than none. But that inquiry must, I think, be put +into such a shape as shall correspond with the general law +and principles of justice.</q> As he believed, the first and most +indispensable conditions of an effective inquiry were wanting, +and without them he <q>certainly would have no responsibility +whatever.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 329, +July 23, 1888, p. 263.</note> +</p> + +<p> +For the first few days politicians were much adrift. They +had moments of compunction. Whether friends or foes of +the Irish, they were perplexed by the curious double aspect +of the measure. Mr. Parnell himself began to feel misgivings, +as he came to realise the magnitude of the inquiry, +its vast expense, its interminable length, its unfathomable +uncertainties. On the day appointed for the second reading +of the bill appointing the commission (July 23), some other +subject kept the business back until seven o'clock. Towards +six, Mr. Parnell who was to open the debate on his own side, +came to an English friend, to ask whether there would be +time for him to go away for an hour; he wished to examine +some new furnace for assaying purposes, the existence of +gold in Wicklow being one of his fixed ideas. So steady +was the composure of this extraordinary man. The English +friend grimly remarked to him that it would perhaps be +rather safer not to lose sight of the furnace in which at any +moment his own assaying might begin. His speech on this +critical occasion was not one of his best. Indifference to his +audience often made him meagre, though he was scarcely +ever other than clear, and in this debate there was only one +effective point which it was necessary for him to press. The +real issue was whether the reference to the judges should be +limited or unlimited; should be a fishing inquiry at large +into the history of an agrarian agitation ten years old, or +an examination into definite and specified charges against +named members of parliament. The minister, in moving +<pb n='400'/><anchor id='Pg400'/> +the second reading, no longer left it to the Irish members +to accept or reject; it now rested, he said, with the House +to decide. It became evident that the acuter members of +the majority, fully awakened to the opportunities for destroying +the Irishmen which an unlimited inquisition might +furnish, had made up their minds that no limit should be +set to the scope of the inquisition. Boldly they tramped +through a thick jungle of fallacy and inconsistency. They +had never ceased to insist, and they insisted now, that Mr. +Parnell ought to have gone into a court of law. Yet they +fought as hard as they could against every proposal for +making the procedure of the commission like the procedure +of a law court. In a court there would have been a specific +indictment. Here a specific indictment was what they +most positively refused, and for it they substituted a roving +inquiry, which is exactly what a court never undertakes. +They first argued that nothing but a commission was available +to test the charges against members of parliament. +Then, when they had bethought themselves of further +objects, they argued round that it was unheard of and +inconceivable to institute a royal commission for members +of parliament alone. +</p> + +<p> +All arguments, however unanswerable, were at this stage +idle, because Mr. Parnell had reverted to his original resolution +to accept the bill, and at his request the radicals sitting +below him abandoned their opposition. The bill passed the +second reading without a division. This circumstance permitted +the convenient assertion, made so freely afterwards, +that the bill, irregular, unconstitutional, violent, as it might +be, at any rate received the unanimous assent of the House +of Commons. +</p> + +<p> +Stormy scenes marked the progress of the bill through +committee. Seeing the exasperation produced by their +shifting of the ground, and the delay which it would +naturally entail, ministers resolved on a bold step. It was +now August. Government remembered the process by +which they had carried the Coercion bill, and they improved +upon it. After three days of committee, they moved +that at one o'clock in the morning on the fourth sitting the +<pb n='401'/><anchor id='Pg401'/> +<note place='margin'>The Tribunal Opened</note> +chairman should break off discussion, put forthwith the +question already proposed from the chair, then successively +put forthwith all the remaining clauses, and so report the +bill to the House. This process shut out all amendments +not reached at the fatal hour, and is the most drastic and +sweeping of all forms of closure. In the case of the Coercion +bill, resort to the guillotine was declared to be warranted by +the urgency of social order in Ireland. That plea was at +least plausible. No such plea of urgency could be invoked +for a measure, which only a few days before the government +had considered to be of such secondary importance, that +the simple rejection of it by Mr. Parnell was to be enough +to induce them to withdraw it. The bill that had been +proffered as a generous concession to Irish members, was +now violently forced upon them without debate. Well +might Mr. Gladstone speak of the most extraordinary series +of proceedings that he had ever known.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> +Aug. 2, 1888, p. 1282.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +The three judges first met on September 17, 1888, to settle +their procedure. They sat for one hundred and twenty-eight +days, and rose for the last time on November 22, 1889. +More than four hundred and fifty witnesses were examined. +One counsel spoke for five days, another for seven, and a +third for nearly twelve. The mammoth record of the proceedings +fills eleven folio volumes, making between seven +and eight thousand pages. The questions put to witnesses +numbered ninety-eight thousand. +</p> + +<p> +It was a strange and fantastic scene. Three judges were +trying a social and political revolution. The leading actors +in it were virtually in the dock. The tribunal had been +specially set up by their political opponents, without giving +them any effective voice either in its composition or upon +the character and scope of its powers. For the first time in +England since the Great Rebellion, men were practically put +upon their trial on a political charge, without giving them +the protection of a jury. For the first time in that period +judges were to find a verdict upon the facts of crime. The +<pb n='402'/><anchor id='Pg402'/> +charge placed in the forefront was a charge of conspiracy. +But to call a combination a conspiracy does not make it a +conspiracy or a guilty combination, unless the verdict of a +jury pronounces it to be one. A jury would have taken all +the large attendant circumstances into account. The three +judges felt themselves bound expressly to shut out those +circumstances. In words of vital importance, they said, <q>We +must leave it for politicians to discuss, and for statesmen to +determine, in what respects the present laws affecting land +in Ireland are capable of improvement. <emph>We have no commission +to consider whether the conduct of which they are +accused can be palliated by the circumstances of the time, or +whether it should be condoned in consideration of benefits alleged to have resulted +from their action.</emph></q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Report</hi>, +p. 5.</note> When the proceedings +were over, Lord Salisbury applauded the report as +<q>giving a very complete view of a very curious episode of our +internal history.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 342, p. +1357.</note> A very complete view of an agrarian +rising—though it left out all palliating circumstances and +the whole state of agrarian law! +</p> + +<p> +Instead of opening with the letters, as the country expected, +the accusers began by rearing a prodigious accumulation +of material, first for the Irish or agrarian branch of their +case, and then for the American branch. The government +helped them to find their witnesses, and so varied a host was +never seen in London before. There was the peasant from +Kerry in his frieze swallow-tail and knee-breeches, and the +woman in her scarlet petticoat who runs barefoot over the +bog in Galway. The convicted member of a murder club +was brought up in custody from Mountjoy prison or Maryborough. +One of the most popular of the Irish representatives +had been fetched from his dungeon, and was to be seen +wandering through the lobbies in search of his warders. +Men who had been shot by moonlighters limped into the +box, and poor women in their blue-hooded cloaks told pitiful +tales of midnight horror. The sharp spy was there, who disclosed +sinister secrets from cities across the Atlantic, and the +uncouth informer who betrayed or invented the history of +rude and ferocious plots hatched at the country cross-roads +<pb n='403'/><anchor id='Pg403'/> +<note place='margin'>Proceedings In Court</note> +or over the peat fire in desolate cabins in western Ireland. +Divisional commissioners with their ledgers of agrarian +offences, agents with bags full of figures and documents, +landlords, priests, prelates, magistrates, detectives, smart +members of that famous constabulary force which is the +arm, eye, and ear of the Irish government—all the characters +of the Irish melodrama were crowded into the corridors, and +in their turn brought out upon the stage of this surprising +theatre. +</p> + +<p> +The proceedings speedily settled down into the most +wearisome drone that was ever heard in a court of law. The +object of the accusers was to show the complicity of the +accused with crime by tracing crime to the league, and +making every member of the league constructively liable for +every act of which the league was constructively guilty. +Witnesses were produced in a series that seemed interminable, +to tell the story of five-and-twenty outrages in Mayo, +of as many in Cork, of forty-two in Galway, of sixty-five +in Kerry, one after another, and all with immeasurable +detail. Some of the witnesses spoke no English, and the +English of others was hardly more intelligible than Erse. +Long extracts were read out from four hundred and forty +speeches. The counsel on one side produced a passage that +made against the speaker, and then the counsel on the other +side found and read some qualifying passage that made as +strongly for him. The three judges groaned. They had +already, they said plaintively, ploughed through the speeches +in the solitude of their own rooms. Could they not be taken +as read? No, said the prosecuting counsel; we are building +up an argument, and it cannot be built up in a silent +manner. In truth it was designed for the public outside +the court,<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Evidence</hi>, iv. +p. 219.</note> and not a touch could be spared that might +deepen the odium. Week after week the ugly tale went on—a +squalid ogre let loose among a population demoralised +by ages of wicked neglect, misery, and oppression. One side +strove to show that the ogre had been wantonly raised by +the land league for political objects of their own; the +other, that it was the progeny of distress and wrong, that +<pb n='404'/><anchor id='Pg404'/> +the league had rather controlled than kindled its ferocity, +and that crime and outrage were due to local animosities +for which neither league nor parliamentary leaders were +answerable. +</p> + +<p> +On the forty-fourth day (February 5) came a lurid glimpse +from across the Atlantic. The Irish emigration had carried +with it to America the deadly passion for the secret society. +A spy was produced, not an Irishman this time for a +wonder, but an Englishman. He had been for eight-and-twenty +years in the United States, and for more than twenty +of them he had been in the pay of Scotland Yard, a military +spy, as he put it, in the service of his country. There is no +charge against him that he belonged to that foul species +who provoke others to crime and then for a bribe betray +them. He swore an oath of secrecy to his confederates in +the camps of the Clan-na-Gael, and then he broke his oath +by nearly every post that went from New York to London. +It is not a nice trade, but then the dynamiter's is not a +nice trade either.<note place='foot'>The common-sense view of the +employment of such a man seems +to be set out in the speech of Sir +Henry James (Cassell and Co.), pp. +149-51, and 494-5.</note> The man had risen high in the secret +brotherhood. Such an existence demanded nerves of steel; +a moment of forgetfulness, an accident with a letter, the slip +of a phrase in the two parts that he was playing, would have +doomed him in the twinkling of an eye. He now stood a +rigorous cross-examination like iron. There is no reason to +think that he told lies. He was perhaps a good deal less +trusted than he thought, for he does not appear on any +occasion to have forewarned the police at home of any +of the dynamite attempts that four or five years earlier had +startled the English capital. The pith of his week's evidence +was his account of an interview between himself and Mr. +Parnell in the corridors of the House of Commons in April +1881. In this interview, Mr. Parnell, he said, expressed his +desire to bring the Fenians in Ireland into line with his own +constitutional movement, and to that end requested the +spy to invite a notorious leader of the physical force party in +America to come over to Ireland, to arrange a harmonious +understanding. Mr. Parnell had no recollection of the interview, +<pb n='405'/><anchor id='Pg405'/> +<note place='margin'>The Letters Reached</note> +though he thought it very possible that an interview +might have taken place. It was undoubtedly odd that the +spy having once got his line over so big a fish, should never +afterwards have made any attempt to draw him on. The +judges, however, found upon a review of <q>the probabilities +of the case,</q> that the conversation in the corridor really took +place, that the spy's account was correct, and that it was not +impossible that in conversation with a supposed revolutionist, +Mr. Parnell may have used such language as to leave the +impression that he agreed with his interlocutor. Perhaps a +more exact way of putting it would be that the spy talked +the Fenian doctrine of physical force, and that Mr. Parnell +listened. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +At last, on the fiftieth day (February 14, 1889), and not +before, the court reached the business that had led to its +own creation. Three batches of letters had been produced +by the newspaper. The manager of the newspaper told his +story, and then the immediate purveyor of the letters told +his. Marvellous stories they were. +</p> + +<p> +The manager was convinced from the beginning, as he +ingenuously said, quite independently of handwriting, that +the letters were genuine. Why? he was asked. Because he +felt they were the sort of letters that Mr. Parnell would be +likely to write. He counted, not wholly without some +reason, on the public sharing this inspiration of his own indwelling +light. The day was approaching for the division on +the Coercion bill. Every journalist, said the manager, must +choose his moment. He now thought the moment suitable +for making the public acquainted with the character of the +Irishmen. So, with no better evidence of authority than his +firm faith that it was the sort of letter that Mr. Parnell +would be likely to write, on the morning of the second reading +of the Coercion bill, he launched the fac-simile letter. +In the early part of 1888 he received from the same hand +a second batch of letters, and a third batch a few days later. +His total payments amounted to over two thousand five +hundred pounds. He still asked no questions as to the +source of these expensive documents. On the contrary he +<pb n='406'/><anchor id='Pg406'/> +particularly avoided the subject. So much for the cautious +and experienced man of business. +</p> + +<p> +The natural course would have been now to carry the +inquiry on to the source of the letters. Instead of that, the +prosecutors called an expert in handwriting. The court +expostulated. Why should they not hear at once where the +letters came from; and then it might be proper enough to +hear what an expert had to say? After a final struggle the +prolonged tactics of deferring the evil day, and prejudicing +the case up to the eleventh hour, were at last put to shame. +The second of the two marvellous stories was now to be told. +</p> + +<p> +The personage who had handed the three batches of letters +to the newspaper, told the Court how he had in 1885 compiled +a pamphlet called <hi rend='italic'>Parnellism Unmasked</hi>, partly from +materials communicated to him by a certain broken-down +Irish journalist. To this unfortunate sinner, then in a state +of penury little short of destitution, he betook himself one +winter night in Dublin at the end of 1885. Long after, +when the game was up and the whole sordid tragi-comedy +laid bare, the poor wretch wrote: <q>I have been in difficulties +and great distress for want of money for the last twenty +years, and in order to find means of support for myself and +my large family, I have been guilty of many acts which must +for ever disgrace me.</q><note place='foot'>Feb. 24, +1889. <hi rend='italic'>Evidence</hi>, vi. p. 20.</note> He had now within reach a guinea +a day, and much besides, if he would endeavour to find any +documents that might be available to sustain the charges +made in the pamphlet. After some hesitation the bargain +was struck, a guinea a day, hotel and travelling expenses, and +a round price for documents. Within a few months the needy +man in clover pocketed many hundreds of pounds. Only +the author of the history of <hi rend='italic'>Jonathan Wild the Great</hi> could +do justice to such a story of the Vagabond in Luck—a jaunt +to Lausanne, a trip across the Atlantic, incessant journeys +backward and forward to Paris, the jingling of guineas, the +rustle of hundred-pound notes, and now and then perhaps +a humorous thought of simple and solemn people in newspaper +offices in London, or a moment's meditation on that +perplexing law of human affairs by which the weak things +<pb n='407'/><anchor id='Pg407'/> +<note place='margin'>The Forgeries Exploded</note> +of the world are chosen to confound the things that are +mighty. +</p> + +<p> +The moment came for delivering the documents in Paris, +and delivered they were with details more grotesque than +anything since the foolish baronet in Scott's novel was +taken by Dousterswivel to find the buried treasure in Saint +Ruth's. From first to last not a test or check was applied +by anybody to hinder the fabrication from running its course +without a hitch or a crease. When men have the demon of +a fixed idea in their cerebral convolutions, they easily fall +victims to a devastating credulity, and the victims were now +radiant as, with microscope and calligraphic expert by their +side, they fondly gazed upon their prize. About the time +when the judges were getting to work, clouds arose on +this smiling horizon. It is good, says the old Greek, that +men should carry a threatening shadow in their hearts +even under the full sunshine. Before this, the manager +learned for the first time, what was the source of the letters. +The blessed doctrine of intrinsic certainty, however, which +has before now done duty in far graver controversy, prevented +him from inquiring as to the purity of the source. +</p> + +<p> +The toils were rapidly enclosing both the impostor and the +dupes. He was put into the box at last (Feb. 21). By the +end of the second day, the torture had become more than +he could endure. Some miscalled the scene dramatic. That +is hardly the right name for the merciless hunt of an abject +fellow-creature through the doublings and windings of a +thousand lies. The breath of the hounds was on him, and +he could bear the chase no longer. After proceedings not +worth narrating, except that he made a confession and then +committed his last perjury, he disappeared. The police +traced him to Madrid. When they entered his room with +their warrant (March 1), he shot himself dead. They found +on his corpse the scapulary worn by devout catholics as a +visible badge and token of allegiance to the heavenly powers. +So in the ghastliest wreck of life, men still hope and seek for +some mysterious cleansing of the soul that shall repair all. +</p> + +<p> +This damning experience was a sharp mortification to +the government, who had been throughout energetic confederates +<pb n='408'/><anchor id='Pg408'/> +in the attack. Though it did not come at once +formally into debate, it exhilarated the opposition, and Mr. +Gladstone himself was in great spirits, mingled with intense +indignation and genuine sympathy for Mr. Parnell as a man +who had suffered an odious wrong. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>VI</head> + +<p> +The report of the commission was made to the crown on +February 13, 1890. It reached the House of Commons +about ten o'clock the same evening. The scene was curious,—the +various speakers droning away in a House otherwise +profoundly silent, and every member on every bench, including +high ministers of state, plunged deep and eager into +the blue-book. The general impression was that the findings +amounted to acquittal, and everybody went home in +considerable excitement at this final explosion of the +damaged blunderbuss. The next day Mr. Gladstone had +a meeting with the lawyers in the case, and was keen for +action in one form or another; but on the whole it was +agreed that the government should be left to take the +initiative. +</p> + +<p> +The report was discussed in both Houses, and strong +speeches were made on both sides. The government (Mar. 3) +proposed a motion that the House adopted the report, +thanked the judges for their just and impartial conduct, and +ordered the report to be entered on the journals. Mr. Gladstone +followed with an amendment, that the House deemed +it to be a duty to record its reprobation of the false charges +of the gravest and most odious description, based on calumny +and on forgery, that had been brought against members of +the House; and, while declaring its satisfaction at the exposure +of these calumnies, the House expressed its regret at +the wrong inflicted and the suffering and loss endured +through a protracted period by reason of these acts of +flagrant iniquity. After a handsome tribute to the honour +and good faith of the judges, he took the point that some of +the opinions in the report were in no sense and no degree +judicial. How, for instance, could three judges, sitting ten +years after the fact (1879-80), determine better than anybody +<pb n='409'/><anchor id='Pg409'/> +<note place='margin'>On The Report</note> +else that distress and extravagant rents had nothing +to do with crime? Why should the House of Commons +declare its adoption of this finding without question or +correction? Or of this, that the rejection of the Disturbance +bill by the Lords in 1880 had nothing to do with the increase +of crime? Mr. Forster had denounced the action of the +Lords with indignation, and was not he, the responsible +minister, a better witness than the three judges in no contact +with contemporary fact? How were the judges authorised to +affirm that the Land bill of 1881 had not been a great cause +in mitigating the condition of Ireland? Another conclusive +objection was that—on the declaration of the judges themselves, +rightly made by them—what we know to be essential +portions of the evidence were entirely excluded from their +view. +</p> + +<p> +He next turned to the findings, first of censure, then +of acquittal. The findings of censure were in substance +three. First, seven of the respondents had joined the league +with a view of separating Ireland from England. The idea +was dead, but Mr. Gladstone was compelled to say that in +his opinion to deny the moral authority of the Act of Union +was for an Irishman no moral offence whatever. Here the +law-officer sitting opposite to him busily took down a note. +<q>Yes, yes,</q> Mr. Gladstone exclaimed, <q>you may take my words +down. I heard you examine your witness from a pedestal, +as you felt, of the greatest elevation, endeavouring to press +home the monstrous guilt of an Irishman who did not allow +moral authority to the Act of Union. In my opinion the +Englishman has far more cause to blush for the means by +which that Act was obtained.</q> As it happened, on the only +occasion on which Mr. Gladstone paid the Commission a +visit, he had found the attorney general cross-examining a +leading Irish member, and this passage of arms on the Act +of Union between counsel and witness then occurred. +</p> + +<p> +The second finding of censure was that the Irish members +incited to intimidation by speeches, knowing that intimidation +led to crime. The third was that they never placed +themselves on the side of law and order; they did not assist +the administration, and did not denounce the party of +<pb n='410'/><anchor id='Pg410'/> +physical force. As if this, said Mr. Gladstone, had not +been the subject of incessant discussion and denunciation in +parliament at the time ten years ago, and yet no vote of +condemnation was passed upon the Irish members then. +On the contrary, the tory party, knowing all these charges, +associated with them for purposes of votes and divisions; +climbed into office on Mr. Parnell's shoulders; and through +the viceroy with the concurrence of the prime minister, took +Mr. Parnell into counsel upon the devising of a plan for Irish +government. Was parliament now to affirm and record a +finding that it had scrupulously abstained from ever making +its own, and without regard to the counter-allegation that +more crime and worse crime was prevented by agitation? +It was the duty of parliament to look at the whole of the +facts of the great crisis of 1880-1—to the distress, to the +rejection of the Compensation bill, to the growth of evictions, +to the prevalence of excessive rents. The judges expressly +shut out this comprehensive survey. But the House was +not a body with a limited commission; it was a body of +statesmen, legislators, politicians, bound to look at the whole +range of circumstances, and guilty of misprision of justice if +they failed so to do. <q>Suppose I am told,</q> he said in notable +and mournful words, <q>that without the agitation Ireland +would never have had the Land Act of 1881, are you prepared +to deny that? I hear no challenges upon that statement, +for I think it is generally and deeply felt that without the +agitation the Land Act would not have been passed. As the +man responsible more than any other for the Act of 1881—as +the man whose duty it was to consider that question day +and night during nearly the whole of that session—I must +record my firm opinion that it would not have become the +law of the land, if it had not been for the agitation with +which Irish society was convulsed.</q><note place='foot'>See above, vol. +iii. p. <ref target='Pg056'>56</ref>.</note> +</p> + +<p> +This bare table of his leading points does nothing to +convey the impression made by an extraordinarily fine +performance. When the speaker came to the findings of +acquittal, to the dismissal of the infamous charges of the +forged letters, of intimacy with the Invincibles, of being +<pb n='411'/><anchor id='Pg411'/> +<note place='margin'>On The Report</note> +accessory to the assassinations in the Park, glowing passion +in voice and gesture reached its most powerful pitch, and +the moral appeal at its close was long remembered among +the most searching words that he had ever spoken. It was +not forensic argument, it was not literature; it had every +note of true oratory—a fervid, direct and pressing call to his +hearers as <q>individuals, man by man, not with a responsibility +diffused and severed until it became inoperative and +worthless, to place himself in the position of the victim of +this frightful outrage; to give such a judgment as would +bear the scrutiny of the heart and of the conscience of +every man when he betook himself to his chamber and was +still.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The awe that impressed the House from this exhortation +to repair an enormous wrong soon passed away, and debate in +both Houses went on the regular lines of party. Everything +that was found not to be proved against the Irishmen, was +assumed against them. Not proven was treated as only an +evasive form of guilty. Though the three judges found that +there was no evidence that the accused had done this thing +or that, yet it was held legitimate to argue that evidence +must exist—if only it could be found. The public were to +nurse a sort of twilight conviction and keep their minds in +a limbo of beliefs that were substantial and alive—only the +light was bad. +</p> + +<p> +In truth, the public did what the judges declined to do. +They took circumstances into account. The general effect +of this transaction was to promote the progress of the +great unsettled controversy in Mr. Gladstone's sense. The +abstract merits of home rule were no doubt untouched, +but it made a difference to the concrete argument, whether +the future leader of an Irish parliament was a proved +accomplice of the Park murderers or not. It presented +moreover the chameleon Irish case in a new and singular +colour. A squalid insurrection awoke parliament to the +mischiefs and wrongs of the Irish cultivators. Reluctantly +it provided a remedy. Then in the fulness of time, ten +years after, it dealt with the men who had roused it to its +duty. And how? It brought them to trial before a special +<pb n='412'/><anchor id='Pg412'/> +tribunal, invented for the purpose, and with no jury; it +allowed them no voice in the constitution of the tribunal; +it exposed them to long and harassing proceedings; and it +thereby levied upon them a tremendous pecuniary fine. +The report produced a strong recoil against the flagrant +violence, passion, and calumny, that had given it birth; and +it affected that margin of men, on the edge of either of the +two great parties by whom electoral decisions are finally +settled. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='413'/><anchor id='Pg413'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter IV. An Interim. (1889-1891)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +The nobler a soul is, the more objects of compassion it hath. +</p> + +<p> +—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Bacon.</hi> +</p> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +At the end of 1888 Mr. Gladstone with his wife and others +of his house was carried off by Mr. Rendel's friendly care to +Naples. Hereto, he told Lord Acton, <q>we have been induced +by three circumstances. First, a warm invitation from the +Dufferins to Rome; as to which, however, there are <hi rend='italic'>cons</hi> as +well as <hi rend='italic'>pros</hi>, for a man who like me is neither Italian nor +Curial in the view of present policies. Secondly, our kind +friend Mr. Stuart Rendel has actually offered to be our conductor +thither and back, to perform for us the great service +which you rendered us in the trip to Munich and Saint-Martin. +Thirdly, I have the hope that the stimulating +climate of Naples, together with an abstention from speech +greater than any I have before enjoyed, might act upon my +<q>vocal cord,</q> and partially at least restore it.</q> +</p> + +<p> +At Naples he was much concerned with Italian policy. +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Granville.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Jan. 13, 1889.</hi>—My stay here where the people really seem +to regard me as not a foreigner, has brought Italian affairs +and policy very much home to me, and given additional force and +vividness to the belief I have always had, that it was sadly impolitic +for Italy to make enemies for herself beyond the Alps. Though +I might try and keep back this sentiment in Rome, even my silence +might betray it and I could not promise to keep silence altogether. +I think the impolicy amounts almost to madness especially for a +<pb n='414'/><anchor id='Pg414'/> +country which carries with her, nestling in her bosom, the <q>standing +menace</q> of the popedom.... +</p> + +<milestone unit='tb' rend='rule: 50%'/> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To J. Morley.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Jan. 10.</hi>—I hope you have had faith enough not to be troubled +about my supposed utterances on the temporal power.... I will not +trouble you with details, but you may rest assured I have never said +the question of the temporal power was anything except an Italian +question. I have a much greater anxiety than this about the +Italian alliance with Germany. It is in my opinion an awful error +and constitutes the great danger of the country. It may be asked, +<q>What have you to do with it?</q> More than people might suppose. +I find myself hardly regarded here as a foreigner. They look +upon me as having had a real though insignificant part in the +Liberation. It will hardly be possible for me to get through the +affair of this visit without making my mind known. On this +account mainly I am verging towards the conclusion that it +will be best for me not to visit Rome, and my wife as it happens +is not anxious to go there. If you happen to see Granville or +Rosebery please let them know this. +</p> + +<p> +We have had on the whole a good season here thus far. Many +of the days delicious. We have been subjected here as well as in +London to a course of social kindnesses as abundant as the waters +which the visitor has to drink at a watering place, and so enervating +from the abstraction of cares that I am continually thinking of +the historical Capuan writer. I am in fact totally demoralised, +and cannot wish not to continue so. Under the circumstances +Fortune has administered a slight, a very slight physical correction. +A land-slip, or rather a Tufo rock-slip of 50,000 tons, has come +down and blocked the proper road between us and Naples. +</p> + +<milestone unit='tb' rend='rule: 50%'/> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Acton.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Jan. 23, 1889.</hi>—Rome is I think definitely given up. I shall +be curious to know your reasons for approving this +<foreign rend='italic'>gran rifiuto</foreign>. +Meantime I will just glance at mine. I am not so much afraid of +the Pope as of the Italian government and court. My sentiments +are so very strong about the present foreign policy. The foreign +policy of the government but not I fear of the government only. +If I went to Rome, and saw the King and the minister, as I must, +<pb n='415'/><anchor id='Pg415'/> +I should be treading upon eggs all the time with them. I could +not speak out uninvited; and it is not satisfactory to be silent +in the presence of those interested, when the feelings are very +strong.... +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +These feelings broke out in time in at least one anonymous +article.<note place='foot'><q>The Triple Alliance and Italy's Place +in It.</q> By Outidanos. <hi rend='italic'>Contemporary +Review</hi>, October 1889. See Appendix.</note> He told Lord Granville how anxious he was +that no acknowledgment of authorship, direct or indirect, +should come from any of his friends. <q>Such an article of +necessity lectures the European states. As one of a public +of three hundred and more millions, I have a right to do +this, but not in my own person.</q> This strange simplicity +rather provoked his friends, for it ignored two things—first, +the certainty that the secret of authorship would get +out; second, if it did not get out, the certainty that the +European states would pay no attention to such a lecture +backed by no name of weight—perhaps even whether it +were so backed or not. Faith in lectures, sermons, articles, +even books, is one of the things most easily overdone. +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Most of my reading, he went on to Acton, has been about the Jews +and the Old Testament. I have not looked at the books you kindly +sent me, except a little before leaving Hawarden; but I want to get +a hold on the broader side of the Mosaic dispensation and the Jewish +history. The great historic features seem to me in a large degree +independent of the critical questions which have been raised about +the <emph>redaction</emph> of the Mosaic books. Setting aside Genesis, and the +Exodus proper, it seems difficult to understand how either Moses +or any one else could have advisedly published them in their +present form; and most of all difficult to believe that men going +to work deliberately after the captivity would not have managed +a more orderly execution. My thoughts are always running back +to the parallel question about Homer. In that case, those who +hold that Peisistratos or some one of his date was the compiler, +have at least this to say, that the poems in their present form are +such as a compiler, having liberty of action, might have aimed +at putting out from his workshop. Can that be said of the +Mosaic books? Again, are we not to believe in the second and +<pb n='416'/><anchor id='Pg416'/> +third Temples as centres of worship because there was a temple +at Leontopolis, as we are told? Out of the frying-pan, into the +fire. +</quote> + +<p> +When he left Amalfi (Feb. 14) for the north, he found +himself, he says, in a public procession, with great crowds at +the stations, including Crispi at Rome, who had once been +his guest at Hawarden. +</p> + +<p> +After his return home, he wrote again to Lord Acton:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>April 28, 1889.</hi>—I have long been wishing to write to you. +But as a rule I never can write any letters that I wish to write. +My volition of that kind is from day to day exhausted by the +worrying demand of letters that I do not wish to write. Every +year brings me, as I reckon, from three to five thousand new +correspondents, of whom I could gladly dispense with 99 per cent. +May you never be in a like plight. +</p> + +<p> +Mary showed me a letter of recent date from you, which referred +to the idea of my writing on the Old Testament. The +matter stands thus: An appeal was made to me to write something +on the general position and claims of the holy scriptures for the +working men. I gave no pledge but read (what was for me) a +good deal on the laws and history of the Jews with only two +results: first, deepened impressions of the vast interest and importance +attaching to them, and of their fitness to be made the +subject of a telling popular account; secondly, a discovery of the +necessity of reading much more. But I have never in this connection +thought much about what is called the criticism of the Old +Testament, only seeking to learn how far it impinged upon the +matters that I really was thinking of. It seems to me that it +does not impinge much.... It is the fact that among other +things I wish to make some sort of record of my life. You say +truly it has been very full. I add fearfully full. But it has +been in a most remarkable degree the reverse of self-guided and +self-suggested, with reference I mean to all its best known aims. +Under this surface, and in its daily habit no doubt it has been +selfish enough. Whether anything of this kind will ever come +off is most doubtful. Until I am released from politics by the +solution of the Irish problem, I cannot even survey the field. +</p> + +<pb n='417'/><anchor id='Pg417'/> + +<p> +I turn to the world of action. It has long been in my mind to +found something of which a library would be the nucleus. I +incline to begin with a temporary building here. Can you, who +have built a library, give me any advice? On account of fire I +have half a mind to corrugated iron, with felt sheets to regulate +the temperature. +</p> + +<p> +Have you read any of the works of Dr. Salmon? I have just +finished his volume on Infallibility, which fills me with admiration +of its easy movement, command of knowledge, singular faculty +of disentanglement, and great skill and point in argument; though +he does not quite make one love him. He touches much ground +trodden by Dr. Döllinger; almost invariably agreeing with him. +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +July 25, 1889, was the fiftieth anniversary of his marriage. +The Prince and Princess of Wales sent him what he calls a +beautiful and splendid gift. The humblest were as ready +as the highest with their tributes, and comparative strangers +as ready as the nearest. Among countless others who wrote +was Bishop Lightfoot, great master of so much learning:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I hope you will receive this tribute from one who regards your +private friendship as one of the great privileges of his life. +</quote> + +<p> +And Döllinger:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +If I were fifteen years younger than I am, how happy I would +be to come over to my beloved England once more, and see you +surrounded by your sons and daughters, loved, admired, I would +almost say worshipped, by a whole grateful nation. +</quote> + +<p> +On the other side, a clever lady having suggested to +Browning that he should write an inscription for her to +some gift for Mr. Gladstone, received an answer that has +interest, both by the genius and fame of its writer, and as +a sign of widespread feeling in certain circles in those +days:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Surely your kindness, even your sympathy, will be extended to +me when I say, with sorrow indeed, that I am unable now conscientiously +to do what, but a few years ago, I would have at +<pb n='418'/><anchor id='Pg418'/> +least attempted with such pleasure and pride as might almost +promise success. I have received much kindness from that extraordinary +personage, and what my admiration for his transcendent +abilities was and ever will be, there is no need to speak of. But +I am forced to altogether deplore his present attitude with respect +to the liberal party, of which I, the humblest unit, am still a +member, and as such grieved to the heart by every fresh utterance +of his which comes to my knowledge. Were I in a position +to explain publicly how much the personal feeling is independent +of the political aversion, all would be easy; but I am a mere man +of letters, and by the simple inscription which would truly testify +to what is enduring, unalterable in my esteem, I should lead +people—as well those who know me as those who do not—to +believe my approbation extended far beyond the bounds which +unfortunately circumscribe it now. All this—even more—was +on my mind as I sat, last evening, at the same table with the +brilliantly-gifted man whom once—but that <q>once</q> is too sad to +remember. +</quote> + +<p> +At a gathering at Spencer House in the summer of 1888, +when this year of felicitation opened, Lord Granville, on +behalf of a number of subscribers, presented Mr. and Mrs. +Gladstone with two portraits, and in his address spoke of +the long span of years through, which, they had enjoyed +<q>the unclouded blessings of the home.</q> The expression was +a just one. The extraordinary splendour and exalted joys +of an outer life so illustrious were matched in the inner +circle of the hearth by a happy order, affectionate reciprocal +attachments, a genial round of kindliness and duty, that +from year to year went on untarnished, unstrained, unbroken. +Visitors at Hawarden noticed that, though the two heads +of the house were now old, the whole atmosphere seemed +somehow to be alive with the freshness and vigour of youth; +it was one of the youngest of households in its interests and +activities. The constant tension of his mind never impaired +his tenderness and wise solicitude for family and kinsfolk, +and for all about him; and no man ever had such observance +of decorum with such entire freedom from pharisaism. +</p> + +<p> +Nor did the order and moral prosperity of his own home +<pb n='419'/><anchor id='Pg419'/> +<note place='margin'>Blessings Of The Home</note> +leave him complacently forgetful of fellow-creatures to whom +life's cup had been dealt in another measure. On his first +entry upon the field of responsible life, he had formed a +serious and solemn engagement with a friend—I suppose it +was Hope-Scott—that each would devote himself to active +service in some branch of religious work.<note place='foot'>See +above, vol. i. pp. 99, 568.</note> He could not, +without treason to his gifts, go forth like Selwyn or Patteson +to Melanesia to convert the savages. He sought a +missionary field at home, and he found it among the unfortunate +ministers to <q>the great sin of great cities.</q> In +these humane efforts at reclamation he persevered all +through his life, fearless of misconstruction, fearless of the +levity or baseness of men's tongues, regardless almost of the +possible mischiefs to the public policies that depended on +him. Greville<note place='foot'>Third Part, vol. i. p. 62.</note> +tells the story how in 1853 a man made an +attempt one night to extort money from Mr. Gladstone, then +in office as chancellor of the exchequer, by threats of exposure; +and how he instantly gave the offender into custody, +and met the case at the police office. Greville could not +complete the story. The man was committed for trial. Mr. +Gladstone directed his solicitors to see that the accused was +properly defended. He was convicted and sent to prison. +By and by Mr. Gladstone inquired from the governor of the +prison how the delinquent was conducting himself. The +report being satisfactory, he next wrote to Lord Palmerston, +then at the home office, asking that the prisoner should be +let out. There was no worldly wisdom in it, we all know. +But then what are people Christians for? +</p> + +<p> +We have already seen<note place='foot'>Vol. i. p. 206.</note> +his admonition to a son, and how +much importance he attached to the dedication of a certain +portion of our means to purposes of charity and religion. +His example backed his precept. He kept detailed accounts +under these heads from 1831 to 1897, and from these it +appears that from 1831 to the end of 1890 he had devoted +to objects of charity and religion upwards of seventy +thousand pounds, and in the remaining years of his life +the figure in this account stands at thirteen thousand five +<pb n='420'/><anchor id='Pg420'/> +hundred—this besides thirty thousand pounds for his +cherished object of founding the hostel and library at Saint +Deiniol's. His friend of early days, Henry Taylor, says in +one of his notes on life that if you know how a man deals +with money, how he gets it, spends it, keeps it, shares it, you +know some of the most important things about him. His +old chief at the colonial office in 1846 stands the test most +nobly. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +Near the end of 1889 among the visitors to Hawarden +was Mr. Parnell. His air of good breeding and easy composure +pleased everybody. Mr. Gladstone's own record is +simple enough, and contains the substance of the affair as +he told me of it later:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>Dec. 18, 1889.</hi>—Reviewed and threw into form all the points +of possible amendment or change in the plan of Irish government, +etc., for my meeting with Mr. Parnell. He arrived at 5.30, and +we had two hours of satisfactory conversation; but he put off the +<hi rend='italic'>gros</hi> of it. 19.—Two hours more with Mr. P. on points in Irish +government plans. He is certainly one of the very best people to +deal with that I have ever known. Took him to the old castle. +He seems to notice and appreciate everything. +</quote> + +<p> +Thinking of all that had gone before, and all that was so +soon to come after, anybody with a turn for imaginary +dialogue might easily upon this theme compose a striking +piece. +</p> + +<p> +In the spring of 1890 Mr. Gladstone spent a week at +Oxford of which he spoke with immense enthusiasm. He +was an honorary fellow of All Souls, and here he went into +residence in his own right with all the zest of a virtuous +freshman bent upon a first class. Though, I daresay, pretty +nearly unanimous against his recent policies, they were all +fascinated by his simplicity, his freedom from assumption +or parade, his eagerness to know how leading branches of +Oxford study fared, his naturalness and pleasant manners. +He wrote to Mrs. Gladstone (Feb. 1):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Here I am safe and sound, and launched anew on my university +<pb n='421'/><anchor id='Pg421'/> +career, all my days laid out and occupied until the morning of +this day week, when I am to return to London. They press me +to stay over the Sunday, but this cannot be thought of. I am +received with infinite kindness, and the rooms they have given +me are delightful. Weather dull, and light a medium between +London and Hawarden. I have seen many already, including +Liddon and Acland, who goes up to-morrow for a funeral early +on Monday. Actually I have engaged to give a kind of Homeric +lecture on Wednesday to the members of the union. The warden +and his sisters are courteous and hospitable to the last degree. +He is a unionist. The living here is very good, perhaps some put +on for a guest, but I like the tone of the college; the fellows are +men of a high class, and their conversation is that of men with +work to do. I had a most special purpose in coming here which +will be more than answered. It was to make myself safe so far as +might be, in the articles<note place='foot'>These +articles appeared in <hi rend='italic'>Good +Words</hi> (March-November 1900), and +were subsequently published in volume +form under the title of <hi rend='italic'>The +Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture</hi>.</note> which eighteen months ago I undertook +to write about the Old Testament. This, as you know perhaps, +is now far more than the New, the battle-ground of belief. There +are here most able and instructed men, and I am already deriving +great benefit. +</quote> + +<p> +Something that fell from him one morning at breakfast +in the common room led in due time to the election +of Lord Acton to be also an honorary member of this distinguished +society. <q>If my suggestion,</q> Mr. Gladstone wrote +to one of the fellows, <q>really contributed to this election, then +I feel that in the dregs of my life I have at least rendered +one service to the college. My ambition is to visit it and +Oxford in company with him.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +In 1890 both Newman and Döllinger died. +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I have been asked from many quarters, Mr. Gladstone said to +Acton, to write about the Cardinal. But I dare not. First, I do +not know enough. Secondly, I should be puzzled to use the little +knowledge that I have. I was not a friend of his, but only an +<pb n='422'/><anchor id='Pg422'/> +acquaintance treated with extraordinary kindness whom it would +ill become to note what he thinks defects, while the great powers +and qualities have been and will be described far better by others. +Ever since he published his University Sermons in 1843, I have +thought him unsafe in philosophy, and no Butlerian though a +warm admirer of Butler. No; it was before 1843, in 1841 when +he published Tract XC. The <emph>general</emph> argument of that tract was +unquestionable; but he put in sophistical matter without the +smallest necessity. What I recollect is about General Councils: +where in treating the declaration that they may err he virtually +says, <q>No doubt they may—unless the Holy Ghost prevents them.</q> +But he was a wonderful man, a holy man, a very refined man, and +(to me) a most kindly man. +</quote> + +<p> +Of Dr. Döllinger he contributed a charming account to a +weekly print,<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Speaker</hi>, Aug. +30, 1890.</note> and to Acton he wrote:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I have the fear that my Döllinger letters will disappoint you. +When I was with him, he spoke to me with the utmost freedom; +and so I think he wrote, but our correspondence was only occasional. +I think nine-tenths of my intercourse with him was oral; +with Cardinal Newman nothing like one-tenth. But with neither +was the mere <hi rend='italic'>corpus</hi> of my intercourse great, though in D.'s case +it was very precious, most of all the very first of it in 1845.... +With my inferior faculty and means of observation, I have long +adopted your main proposition. His attitude of mind was more +historical than theological. When I first knew him in 1845, and +he honoured me with very long and interesting conversations, they +turned very much upon theology, and I derived from him what +I thought very valuable and steadying knowledge. Again in 1874 +during a long walk, when we spoke of the shocks and agitation of +our time, he told me how the Vatican decrees had required him to +reperuse and retry the whole circle of his thought. He did not +make known to me any general result; but he had by that time +found himself wholly detached from the Council of Trent, which +was indeed a logical necessity from his preceding action. The +Bonn Conference appeared to show him nearly at the standing-point +of anglican theology. I thought him more liberal as a +<pb n='423'/><anchor id='Pg423'/> +theologian than as a politician. On the point of church establishment +he was as impenetrable as if he had been a Newdegate. He +would not see that there were two sides to the question. I long +earnestly to know what progress he had made at the last towards +redeeming the pledge given in one of his letters to me, that the +evening of his life was to be devoted to a great theological construction.... +I should have called him an anti-Jesuit, but in +<emph>no</emph> other sense, that is in no sense, a Jansenist. I never saw the +least sign of leaning in that direction. +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>V</head> + +<p> +Here the reader may care to have a note or two of talk +with him in these days:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>At Dollis Hill, Sunday, Feb. 22, 1891</hi>.... A few minutes after +eight Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone came in from church, and we +three sat down to dinner. A delightful talk, he was in full +force, plenty of energy without vehemence. The range of topics +was pretty wide, yet marvellous to say, we had not a single +word about Ireland. Certainly no harm in that. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—A friend set me on a hunt this morning through +Wordsworth for the words about France standing on the top +of golden hours. I did not find them, but I came across a good +line of Hartley Coleridge's about the Thames:— +</p> + +<p> +<q>And the thronged river toiling to the main.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Yes, a good line. Toiling to the main recalls +Dante:— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend='pre'>Su la marina, dove'l Po discende,</q></l> +<l><q rend='post'>Per aver pace co' seguaci +sui.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Inf.</hi> v. 98: <q>Where Po descends for rest with his tributary streams.</q></note></l> +</lg> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Have you seen Symonds's re-issued volume on Dante? +'Tis very good. Shall I lend it to you? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Sure to be good, but not in the session. I never look +at Dante unless I can have a great continuous draught of him. +He's too big, he seizes and masters you. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Oh, I like the picturesque bits, if +it's only for half-an-hour +before dinner; the bird looking out of its nest for the +<pb n='424'/><anchor id='Pg424'/> +dawn, the afternoon bell, the trembling of the water in the +morning light, and the rest that everybody knows. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—No, I cannot do it. By the way, ladies nowadays keep +question books, and among other things ask their friends for the +finest line in poetry. I think I'm divided between three, perhaps +the most glorious is Milton's—[<emph>Somehow this line slipped from +memory, but the reader might possibly do worse than turn over +Milton in search for his finest line.</emph>] Or else Wordsworth's—<q>Or +hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.</q> Yet what so +splendid as Penelope's about not rejoicing the heart of anybody +less than Odysseus? +</p> + +<lg> +<l>μηδέ τι χείρονος ἀνδρὸς εὐφραίνοιμι +νόημα.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Od.</hi> xx. 82.</note></l> +</lg> + +<p> +He talked a great deal to-night about Homer; very confident +that he had done something to drive away the idea that Homer +was an Asiatic Greek. Then we turned to Scott, whom he held to +be by far the greatest of his countrymen. I suggested John +Knox. No, the line must be drawn firm between the writer and +the man of action; no comparisons there. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Well, then, though I love Scott so much that if any man +chooses to put him first, I won't put him second, yet is there not +a vein of pure gold in Burns that gives you pause? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Burns very fine and true, no doubt; but to imagine a +whole group of characters, to marshal them, to set them to work, +to sustain the action—I must count that the test of highest and +most diversified quality. +</p> + +<p> +We spoke of the new Shakespeare coming out. I said I had been +taking the opportunity of reading vol. i., and should go over it all +in successive volumes. <hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—<q>Falstaff +is wonderful—one of +the most wonderful things in literature.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Full of interest in <hi rend='italic'>Hamlet</hi>, and enthusiasm for it—comes +closer than any other play to some of the strangest secrets of human +nature—what <emph>is</emph> the key to the mysterious hold of this play on +the world's mind? I produced my favourite proposition that +<hi rend='italic'>Measure for Measure</hi> is one of the most modern of all the plays; +the profound analysis of Angelo and his moral catastrophe, the +strange figure of the duke, the deep irony of our modern time in +it all. But I do not think he cared at all for this sort of criticism. +<pb n='425'/><anchor id='Pg425'/> +He is too healthy, too objective, too simple, for all the complexities +of modern morbid analysis. +</p> + +<p> +Talked of historians; Lecky's two last volumes he had not yet +read, but—had told him that, save for one or two blots due +to contemporary passion, they were perfectly honourable to Lecky +in every way. Lecky, said Mr. G., <q>has real insight into the +motives of statesmen. Now Carlyle, so mighty as he is in flash +and penetration, has no eye for motives. Macaulay, too, is so +caught by a picture, by colour, by surface, that he is seldom to be +counted on for just account of motive.</q> +</p> + +<p> +He had been reading with immense interest and satisfaction +Sainte-Beuve's <hi rend='italic'>History of Port Royal</hi>, which for that matter +deserves all his praise and more, though different parts of it are +written from antagonistic points of view. Vastly struck by Saint-Cyran. +When did the notion of the spiritual director make its +appearance in Europe? Had asked both Döllinger and Acton on +this curious point. For his own part, he doubted whether the +office existed before the Reformation. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Whom do you reckon the greatest Pope? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—I think on the whole, Innocent +<hi rend='smallcaps'>iii.</hi> But his greatness was +not for good. What did he do? He imposed the dogma of transubstantiation; +he is responsible for the Albigensian persecutions; +he is responsible for the crusade which ended in the conquest of +Byzantium. Have you ever realised what a deadly blow was the +ruin of Byzantium by the Latins, how wonderful a fabric the +Eastern Empire was? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Oh, yes, I used to know my Finlay better than most +books. Mill used to say a page of Finlay was worth a chapter of +Gibbon: he explains how decline and fall came about. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Of course. Finlay has it all. +</p> + +<p> +He tried then to make out that the eastern empire was more +wonderful than anything done by the Romans; it stood out for +eleven centuries, while Rome fell in three. I pointed out to him +that the whole solid framework of the eastern empire was after +all built up by the Romans. But he is philhellene all through +past and present. +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='426'/><anchor id='Pg426'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter V. Breach With Mr. Parnell. (1890-1891)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l>Fortuna vitrea est,—tum quum splendet +frangitur.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Publil. Syrus.</hi></l> +<l>Brittle like glass is fortune,—bright as light, and then the crash.</l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +It would have been a miracle if the sight of all the +methods of coercion, along with the ignominy of the forged +letters, had not worked with strong effect upon the public +mind. Distrust began to creep at a very rapid pace even +into the ministerial ranks. The tory member for a large +northern borough rose to resent <q>the inexpedient treatment +of the Irishmen from a party point of view,</q> to protest against +the 'straining and stretching of the law' by the resident +magistrates, to declare his opinion that these gentlemen were +not qualified to exercise the jurisdiction entrusted to them, +<q>and to denounce the folly of making English law unpopular +in Ireland, and provoking the leaders of the Irish people by +illegal and unconstitutional acts.</q><note place='foot'>Mr. Hanbury, August 1, 1889. +<hi rend='italic'>Hans.</hi> 339, p. 98.</note> These sentiments were +notoriously shared to the full by many who sat around him. +Nobody in those days, discredited as he was with his party, +had a keener scent for the drift of popular feeling than Lord +Randolph Churchill, and he publicly proclaimed that this +sending of Irish members of parliament to prison in such +numbers was a feature which he did not like. Further, he +said that the fact of the government not thinking it safe for +public meetings of any sort to be held, excited painful feelings +in English minds.<note place='foot'>At Birmingham, July 30, +1889.</note> All this was after the system had +been in operation for two years. Even strong unionist organs +in the Irish press could not stand it.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>E.g.</hi> +<hi rend='italic'>Northern Whig</hi>, February +21, 1889.</note> They declared that if +<pb n='427'/><anchor id='Pg427'/> +<note place='margin'>Advance Of Home Rule</note> +the Irish, government wished to make the coercive system +appear as odious as possible, they would act just as they were +acting. They could only explain all these doings, not by +<q>wrong-headedness or imbecility,</q> but by a strange theory +that there must be deliberate treachery among the government +agents. +</p> + +<p> +Before the end of the year 1889 the electoral signs +were unmistakable. Fifty-three bye-elections had been +contested since the beginning of the parliament. The net +result was the gain of one seat for ministers and of nine +to the opposition. The Irish secretary with characteristic +candour never denied the formidable extent of these +victories, though he mourned over the evils that such +temporary successes might entail, and was convinced that +they would prove to be dearly bought.<note place='foot'>Mr. Balfour +at Manchester. <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi>, October 21, 1889.</note> A year later the +tide still flowed on; the net gain of the opposition rose to +eleven. In 1886 seventy-seven constituencies were represented +by forty-seven unionists and thirty liberals. By +the beginning of October in 1890 the unionist members +in the same constituencies had sunk to thirty-six, and +the liberals had risen to forty-one. Then came the most +significant election of all. +</p> + +<p> +There had been for some months a lull in Ireland. +Government claimed the credit of it for coercion; their +adversaries set it down partly to the operation of the Land +Act, partly to the natural tendency in such agitations to +fluctuate or to wear themselves out, and most of all to the +strengthened reliance on the sincerity of the English liberals. +Suddenly the country was amazed towards the middle of +September by news that proceedings under the Coercion +Act had been instituted against two nationalist leaders, and +others. Even strong adherents of the government and their +policy were deeply dismayed, when they saw that after +three years of it, the dreary work was to begin over again. +The proceedings seemed to be stamped in every aspect as +impolitic. In a few days the two leaders would have been +on their way to America, leaving a half-empty war chest +behind them and the flame of agitation burning low. As +<pb n='428'/><anchor id='Pg428'/> +the offences charged had been going on for six months, +there was clearly no pressing emergency. +</p> + +<p> +A critical bye-election was close at hand at the moment +in the Eccles division of Lancashire. The polling took +place four days after a vehement defence of his policy by +Mr. Balfour at Newcastle. The liberal candidate at Eccles +expressly declared from his election address onwards, that +the great issue on which he fought was the alternative +between conciliation and coercion. Each candidate increased +the party vote, the tory by rather more than one hundred, +the liberal by nearly six hundred. For the first time the +seat was wrested from the tories, and the liberal triumphed +by a substantial majority.<note place='foot'>October 22, +1890.</note> This was the latest gauge of the +failure of the Irish policy to conquer public approval, the +last indication of the direction in which the currents of +public opinion were steadily moving.<note place='foot'>See Mr. Roby's speech at the +Manchester Reform Club, Oct. 24, +and articles in <hi rend='italic'>Manchester Guardian</hi>, +Oct. 16 and 25, 1890. The <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi> +(Oct. 23), while denying the inference +that the Irish question was the +question most prominent in the +minds of large numbers of the electors, +admitted that this was the vital +question really before the constituency, +and says generally, <q>The election, +like so many other bye-elections, +has been decided by the return to +their party allegiance of numbers of +Gladstonians who in 1886 absented +themselves from the polling booths.</q></note> Then all at once a +blinding sandstorm swept the ground. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +One of those events now occurred that with their stern +irony so mock the statesman's foresight, and shatter political +designs in their most prosperous hour. As a mightier figure +than Mr. Parnell remorsefully said on a grander stage, a +hundred years before, cases sometimes befall in the history +of nations where private fault is public disaster. +</p> + +<p> +At the end of 1889, the Irish leader had been made +a party in a suit for divorce. He betrayed no trace in +his demeanour, either to his friends or to the House, +of embarrassment at the position. His earliest appearance +after the evil news, was in the debate on the first +night of the session (February 11, '90), upon a motion +about the publication of the forged letter. Some twenty of +<pb n='429'/><anchor id='Pg429'/> +<note place='margin'>The Catastrophe</note> +his followers being absent, he wished the discussion to be +prolonged into another sitting. Closely as it might be +supposed to concern him, he listened to none of the debate. +He had a sincere contempt for speeches in themselves, and +was wont to set down most of them to vanity. A message +was sent that he should come upstairs and speak. After +some indolent remonstrance, he came. His speech was +admirable; firm without emphasis, penetrating, dignified, +freezing, and unanswerable. Neither now nor on any later +occasion did his air of composure in public or in private +give way. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone was at Hawarden, wide awake to the possibility +of peril. To Mr. Arnold Morley he wrote on November +4:—<q>I fear a thundercloud is about to burst over +Parnell's head, and I suppose it will end the career of a +man in many respects invaluable.</q> On the 13th he was +told by the present writer that there were grounds for an +impression that Mr. Parnell would emerge as triumphantly +from the new charge, as he had emerged from the obloquy +of the forged letters. The case was opened two days later, +and enough came out upon the first day of the proceedings +to point to an adverse result. A Sunday intervened, and +Mr. Gladstone's self-command under storm-clouds may be +seen in a letter written on that day to me:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>Nov. 16, 1890.</hi>—1. It is, after all, a thunder-clap about +Parnell. Will he ask for the Chiltern Hundreds? He cannot continue to +lead? What could he mean by his language to you? The Pope +has now clearly got a commandment under which to pull him up. +It surely cannot have been always thus; for he represented his +diocese in the church synod. 2. I thank you for your kind +scruple, but in the country my Sundays are habitually and largely +invaded. 3. Query, whether if a bye-seat were open and chanced +to have a large Irish vote W—— might not be a good man there. +4. I do not think my Mem. is worth circulating but perhaps you +would send it to Spencer. I sent a copy to Harcourt. 5. [A +small parliamentary point, not related to the Parnell affair, nor +otherwise significant.] 6. Most warmly do I agree with you +about the Scott <hi rend='italic'>Journal</hi>. How one loves him. 7. Some day I +<pb n='430'/><anchor id='Pg430'/> +hope to inflict on you a talk about Homer and Homerology (as I +call it). +</quote> + +<p> +The court pronounced a condemnatory decree on Monday, +November 17th. Parliament was appointed to meet on +Tuesday, the 25th. There was only a week for Irish and +English to resolve what effect this condemnation should +have upon Mr. Parnell's position as leader of one and ally +of the other. Mr. Parnell wrote the ordinary letter to his +parliamentary followers. The first impulses of Mr. Gladstone +are indicated in a letter to me on the day after the +decree:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>Nov. 18, 1890.</hi>—Many thanks for your letter. I had noticed +the Parnell circular, not without misgiving. I read in the <hi rend='italic'>P. M. G.</hi> +this morning a noteworthy article in the <hi rend='italic'>Daily +Telegraph</hi>,<note place='foot'><q>That the effect of this trial will +be to relegate Mr. Parnell for a time, +at any rate, to private life, must we +think be assumed.... Special exemptions +from penalties which should +apply to all public men alike cannot +possibly be made in favour of exceptionally +valuable politicians to suit +the convenience of their parties. He +must cease, for the present at any +rate, to lead the nationalist party; +and conscious as we are of the loss +our opponents will sustain by his +resignation, we trust that they will +believe us when we say that we are +in no mood to exult in it.... It +is no satisfaction to us to feel that a +political adversary whose abilities +and prowess it was impossible not +to respect, has been overthrown by +irrelevant accident, wholly unconnected +with the struggle in which +we are engaged.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Daily Telegraph</hi>, +Nov. 17, 1890.</note> or rather +from it, with which I very much agree. But I think it plain that +we have nothing to say and nothing to do in the matter. The +party is as distinct from us as that of Smith or Hartington. I +own to some surprise at the apparent facility with which the R. C. +bishops and clergy appear to take the continued leadership, but +they may have tried the ground and found it would not <emph>bear</emph>. It +is the Irish parliamentary party, and that alone to which we have +to look.... +</quote> + +<p> +Such were Mr. Gladstone's thoughts when the stroke first +fell. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +In England and Scotland loud voices were speedily +lifted up. Some treated the offence itself as an inexpiable +disqualification. Others argued that, even if the +offence could be passed over as lying outside of politics, it +<pb n='431'/><anchor id='Pg431'/> +<note place='margin'>Opinion In Ireland</note> +had been surrounded by incidents of squalor and deceit +that betrayed a character in which no trust could ever be +placed again. In some English quarters all this was expressed +with a strident arrogance that set Irishmen on fire. +It is ridiculous, if we remember what space Mr. Parnell +filled in Irish imagination and feeling, how popular, how +mysterious, how invincible he had been, to blame them +because in the first moment of shock and bewilderment +they did not instantly plant themselves in the judgment +seat, always so easily ascended by Englishmen with little +at stake. The politicians in Dublin did not hesitate. A +great meeting was held at Leinster Hall in Dublin on the +Thursday (November 20th). The result was easy to foresee. +Not a whisper of revolt was heard. The chief nationalist +newspaper stood firm for Mr. Parnell's continuance. At +least one ecclesiastic of commanding influence was supposed +to be among the journal's most ardent prompters. It has +since been stated that the bishops were in fact forging bolts +of commination. No lurid premonitory fork or sheet flashed +on the horizon, no rumble of the coming thunders reached +the public ear. +</p> + +<p> +Three days after the decree in the court, the great English +liberal organization chanced to hold its annual meeting at +Sheffield (November 20-21). In reply to a request of mine +as to his views upon our position, Mr. Gladstone wrote to +me as follows:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>Nov. 19, 1890.</hi>—Your appeal as to your meeting of to-morrow +gives matter for thought. I feel (1) that the Irish have +abstractedly a right to decide the question; (2) that on account +of Parnell's enormous services—he has done for home rule +something like what Cobden did for free trade, set the argument +on its legs—they are in a position of immense difficulty; (3) that +we, the liberal party as a whole, and especially we its leaders, +have for the moment nothing to say to it, that we must be passive, +must wait and watch. But I again and again say to myself, +I say I mean in the interior and silent forum, <q>It'll na dee.</q> +I should not be surprised if there were to be rather painful manifestations +in the House on Tuesday. It is yet to be seen what +<pb n='432'/><anchor id='Pg432'/> +our Nonconformist friends, such a man as ——, for example, or +such a man as —— will say.... If I recollect right, Southey's +<hi rend='italic'>Life of Nelson</hi> was in my early days published and circulated by +the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. It would be +curious to look back upon it and see how the biographer treats his +narrative at the tender points. What I have said under figure +3 applies to me beyond all others, and notwithstanding my prognostications +I shall maintain an extreme reserve in a position +where I can do no good (in the present tense), and might by +indiscretion do much harm. You will doubtless communicate +with Harcourt and confidential friends only as to anything in +this letter. The thing, one can see, is not a <hi rend='italic'>res judicata</hi>. It may +ripen fast. Thus far, there is a total want of moral support from +this side to the Irish judgment. +</quote> + +<p> +A fierce current was soon perceived to be running. +All the elements so powerful for high enthusiasm, but +hazardous where an occasion demands circumspection, were +in full blast. The deep instinct for domestic order was +awake. Many were even violently and irrationally impatient +that Mr. Gladstone had not peremptorily renounced +the alliance on the very morrow of the decree. As if, +Mr. Gladstone himself used to say, it could be the duty +of any party leader to take into his hands the intolerable +burden of exercising the rigours of inquisition and +private censorship over every man with whom what he +judged the highest public expediency might draw him to +co-operate. As if, moreover, it could be the duty of +Mr. Gladstone to hurry headlong into action, without giving +Mr. Parnell time or chance of taking such action of his +own as might make intervention unnecessary. Why was +it to be assumed that Mr. Parnell would not recognise the +facts of the situation? <q>I determined,</q> said Mr. Gladstone +<q>to watch the state of feeling in this country. I made no +public declaration, but the country made up its mind. I +was in some degree like the soothsayer Shakespeare introduces +into one of his plays. He says, <q>I do not make the +facts; I only foresee them.</q> I did not foresee the facts +even; they were present before me.</q><note place='foot'>Speech at +Retford, Dec. 11, 1890. <hi rend='italic'>Antony and Cleopatra</hi>, Act +<hi rend='smallcaps'>I.</hi> Sc. 2.</note> +</p> + +<pb n='433'/><anchor id='Pg433'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Judgments In Great Britain</note> +The facts were plain, and Mr. Gladstone was keenly alive +to the full purport of every one of them. Men, in whose +hearts religion and morals held the first place, were strongly +joined by men accustomed to settle political action by +political considerations. Platform-men united with pulpit-men +in swelling the whirlwind. Electoral calculation and +moral faithfulness were held for once to point the same way. +The report from every quarter, every letter to a member +from a constituent, all was in one sense. Some, as I have +said, pressed the point that the misconduct itself made +co-operation impossible; others urged the impossibility of +relying upon political understandings with one to whom +habitual duplicity was believed to have been brought home. +We may set what value we choose upon such arguments. +Undoubtedly they would have proscribed some of the most +important and admired figures in the supreme doings of +modern Europe. Undoubtedly some who have fallen into +shift and deceit in this particular relation, have yet been +true as steel in all else. For a man's character is a strangely +fitted mosaic, and it is unsafe to assume that all his traits +are of one piece, or inseparable in fact because they ought +to be inseparable by logic. But people were in no humour +for casuistry, and whether all this be sophistry or sense, +the volume of hostile judgment and obstinate intention +could neither be mistaken, nor be wisely breasted if home +rule was to be saved in Great Britain. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone remained at Hawarden during the week. +To Mr. Arnold Morley he wrote (Nov. 23): <q>I have a +bundle of letters every morning on the Parnell business, and +the bundles increase. My own opinion has been the same +from the first, and I conceive that the time for action has +now come. All my correspondents are in unison.</q> Every +post-bag was heavy with admonitions, of greater cogency +than such epistles sometimes possess; and a voluminous +bundle of letters still at Hawarden bears witness to the +emotions of the time. Sir William Harcourt and I, who +had taken part in the proceedings at Sheffield, made our +reports. The acute manager of the liberal party came to +announce that three of our candidates had bolted already, +<pb n='434'/><anchor id='Pg434'/> +that more were sure to follow, and that this indispensable +commodity in elections would become scarcer than ever. +Of the general party opinion, there could be no shadow of +doubt. It was no application of special rigour because Mr. +Parnell was an Irishman. Any English politician of his +rank would have fared the same or worse, and retirement, +temporary or for ever, would have been inevitable. Temporary +withdrawal, said some; permanent withdrawal, said +others; but for withdrawal of some sort, almost all were +inexorable. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone did not reach London until the afternoon +of Monday, November 24. Parliament was to assemble on +the next day. Three members of the cabinet of 1886, and +the chief whip of the party,<note place='foot'>Lord Granville, +Sir W. Harcourt, Mr. Arnold Morley, and myself.</note> met him in the library of +Lord Rendel's house at Carlton Gardens. The issue before +the liberal leaders was a plain one. It was no question of +the right of the nationalists to choose their own chief. +It was no question of inflicting political ostracism on a +particular kind of moral delinquency. The question was +whether the present continuance of the Irish leadership +with the silent assent of the British leaders, did not involve +decisive abstention at the polls on the day when Irish +policy could once more be submitted to the electors of +Great Britain? At the best the standing difficulties even +to sanguine eyes, and under circumstances that had seemed +so promising, were still formidable. What chance was +there if this new burden were superadded? Only one +conclusion was possible upon the state of facts, and even +those among persons responsible for this decision who were +most earnestly concerned in the success of the Irish policy, +reviewing all the circumstances of the dilemma, deliberately +hold to this day that though a catastrophe followed, a worse +catastrophe was avoided. It is one of the commonest of all +secrets of cheap misjudgment in human affairs, to start by +assuming that there is always some good way out of a bad +case. Alas for us all, this is not so. Situations arise alike +<pb n='435'/><anchor id='Pg435'/> +<note place='margin'>The Liberal Leaders</note> +for individuals, for parties, and for states, from which no +good way out exists, but only choice between bad way and +worse. Here was one of those situations. The mischiefs +that followed the course actually taken, we see; then, as is +the wont of human kind, we ignore the mischiefs that as +surely awaited any other. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone always steadfastly resisted every call to +express an opinion of his own that the delinquency itself had +made Mr. Parnell unfit and impossible. It was vain to tell +him that the party would expect such a declaration, or that +his reputation required that he should found his action on +moral censure all his own. <q>What!</q> he cried, <q>because a +man is what is called leader of a party, does that constitute +him a censor and a judge of faith and morals? I will not +accept it. It would make life intolerable.</q> He adhered +tenaciously to political ground. <q>I have been for four +years,</q> Mr. Gladstone justly argued, <q>endeavouring to persuade +voters to support Irish autonomy. Now the voter +says to me, <q>If a certain thing happens—namely, the retention +of the Irish leadership in its present hands—I will +not support Irish autonomy.</q> How can I go on with the +work? We laboriously rolled the great stone up to the +top of the hill, and now it topples down to the bottom +again, unless Mr. Parnell sees fit to go.</q> From the point +of view of Irish policy this was absolutely unanswerable. +It would have been just as unanswerable, even if all the +dire confusion that afterwards came to pass had then been +actually in sight. Its force was wholly independent, and +necessarily so, of any intention that might be formed by +Mr. Parnell. +</p> + +<p> +As for that intention, let us turn to him for a moment. +Who could dream that a man so resolute in facing facts as +Mr. Parnell, would expect all to go on as before? Substantial +people in Ireland who were preparing to come round +to home rule at the prospect of a liberal victory in Great +Britain, would assuredly be frightened back. Belfast would +be more resolute than ever. A man might estimate as he +pleased either the nonconformist conscience in England, or +the catholic conscience in Ireland. But the most cynical +<pb n='436'/><anchor id='Pg436'/> +of mere calculators,—and I should be slow to say that this +was Mr. Parnell,—could not fall a prey to such a hallucination +as to suppose that a scandal so frightfully public, so +impossible for even the most mild-eyed charity to pretend +not to see, and which political passion was so interested +in keeping in full blaze, would instantly drop out of the +mind of two of the most religious communities in the world; +or that either of these communities could tolerate without +effective protest so impenitent an affront as the unruffled +continuity of the stained leadership. All this was independent +of anything that Mr. Gladstone might do or might +not do. The liberal leaders had a right to assume that +the case must be as obvious to Mr. Parnell as it was to +everybody else, and unless loyalty and good faith have no +place in political alliances, they had a right to look for his +spontaneous action. Was unlimited consideration due from +them to him and none from him to them? +</p> + +<p> +The result of the consultation was the decisive letter +addressed to me by Mr. Gladstone, its purport to be +by me communicated to Mr. Parnell. As any one may +see, its language was courteous and considerate. Not +an accent was left that could touch the pride of one who +was known to be as proud a man as ever lived. It did +no more than state an unquestionable fact, with an inevitable +inference. It was not written in view of publication, +for that it was hoped would be unnecessary. It was written +with the expectation of finding the personage concerned in +his usual rational frame of mind, and with the intention of +informing him of what it was right that he should know. +The same evening Mr. McCarthy was placed in possession +of Mr. Gladstone's views, to be laid before Mr. Parnell at +the earliest moment. +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>1 Carlton Gardens, Nov. 24, 1890.</hi>—<hi rend='smallcaps'>My +dear Morley.</hi>—Having +arrived at a certain conclusion with regard to the continuance, at +the present moment, of Mr. Parnell's leadership of the Irish party, +I have seen Mr. McCarthy on my arrival in town, and have inquired +from him whether I was likely to receive from Mr. Parnell himself +any communication on the subject. Mr. McCarthy replied that he +<pb n='437'/><anchor id='Pg437'/> +was unable to give me any information on the subject. I mentioned +to him that in 1882, after the terrible murder in the Phœnix +Park, Mr. Parnell, although totally removed from any idea of +responsibility, had spontaneously written to me, and offered to +take the Chiltern Hundreds, an offer much to his honour but one +which I thought it my duty to decline. +</p> + +<p> +While clinging to the hope of a communication from Mr. +Parnell, to whomsoever addressed, I thought it necessary, viewing +the arrangements for the commencement of the session to-morrow, +to acquaint Mr. McCarthy with the conclusion at which, after using +all the means of observation and reflection in my power, I had myself +arrived. It was that notwithstanding the splendid services +rendered by Mr. Parnell to his country, his continuance at the +present moment in the leadership would be productive of consequences +disastrous in the highest degree to the cause of Ireland. +I think I may be warranted in asking you so far to expand the +conclusion I have given above, as to add that the continuance I +speak of would not only place many hearty and effective friends of +the Irish cause in a position of great embarrassment, but would +render my retention of the leadership of the liberal party, based as +it has been mainly upon the prosecution of the Irish cause, almost +a nullity. This explanation of my views I begged Mr. McCarthy +to regard as confidential, and not intended for his colleagues +generally, if he found that Mr. Parnell contemplated spontaneous +action; but I also begged that he would make known to the Irish +party, at their meeting to-morrow afternoon, that such was my +conclusion, if he should find that Mr. Parnell had not in contemplation +any step of the nature indicated. I now write to you, in case +Mr. McCarthy should be unable to communicate with Mr. Parnell, +as I understand you may possibly have an opening to-morrow +through another channel. Should you have such an opening, I beg +you to make known to Mr. Parnell the conclusion itself, which I +have stated in the earlier part of this letter. I have thought it +best to put it in terms simple and direct, much as I should have +desired had it lain within my power, to alleviate the painful nature +of the situation. As respects the manner of conveying what my +public duty has made it an obligation to say, I rely entirely on +your good feeling, tact, and judgment.—Believe me sincerely +yours, <hi rend='smallcaps'>W. E. Gladstone</hi>. +</p> +</quote> + +<pb n='438'/><anchor id='Pg438'/> + +<p> +No direct communication had been possible, though every +effort to open it was made. Indirect information had been +received. Mr. Parnell's purpose was reported to have shifted +during the week since the decree. On the Wednesday he +had been at his stiffest, proudest, and coldest, bent on holding +on at all cost. He thought he saw a way of getting something +done for Ireland; the Irish people had given him a +commission; he should stand to it, so long as ever they +asked him. On the Friday, however (Nov. 21), he appeared, +so I had been told, to be shaken in his resolution. He had +bethought him that the government might possibly seize +the moment for a dissolution; that if there were an immediate +election, the government would under the circumstances +be not unlikely to win; if so, Mr. Gladstone might +be thrown for four or five years into opposition; in other +words, that powerful man's part in the great international +transaction would be at an end. In this mood he declared +himself alive to the peril and the grave responsibility of +taking any course that could lead to consequences so +formidable. That was the last authentic news that reached +us. His Irish colleagues had no news at all. After this +glimpse the curtain had fallen, and all oracles fell dumb. +</p> + +<p> +If Mr. Gladstone's decision was to have the anticipated +effect, Mr. Parnell must be made aware of it before the +meeting of the Irish party (Nov. 25). This according to custom +was to be held at two o'clock in the afternoon, to choose +their chairman for the session. Before the choice was made, +both the leader and his political friends should know the +view and the purpose that prevailed in the camp of their +allies. Mr. Parnell kept himself invisible and inaccessible +alike to English and Irish friends until a few minutes +before the meeting. The Irish member who had seen Mr. +Gladstone the previous evening, at the last moment was +able to deliver the message that had been confided to him. +Mr. Parnell replied that he should stand to his guns. The +other members of the Irish party came together, and, wholly +ignorant of the attitude taken by Mr. Gladstone, promptly +and with hardly a word of discussion re-elected their leader +to his usual post. The gravity of the unfortunate error +<pb n='439'/><anchor id='Pg439'/> +<note place='margin'>The Irish Leader Obdurate</note> +committed in the failure to communicate the private message +to the whole of the nationalist members, with or without +Mr. Parnell's leave, lay in the fact that it magnified and +distorted Mr. Gladstone's later intervention into a humiliating +public ultimatum. The following note, made at the +time, describes the fortunes of Mr. Gladstone's letter:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Nov. 25.</hi>—I had taken the usual means of sending a message to +Mr. Parnell, to the effect that Mr. Gladstone was coming to town +on the following day, and that I should almost certainly have +a communication to make to Mr. Parnell on Tuesday morning. +It was agreed at my interview with his emissary on Sunday +night (November 23) that I should be informed by eleven on +Tuesday forenoon where I should see him. I laid special stress +on my seeing him before the party met. At half-past eleven, +or a little later, on that day I received a telegram from the +emissary that he could not reach his friend.<note place='foot'>If +anybody cares to follow all +this up, he may read a speech of Mr. +Parnell's at Kells, Aug. 16, 1891, +and a full reply of mine sent to the +press, Aug. 17.</note> I had no difficulty +in interpreting this. It meant that Mr. Parnell had made up +his mind to fight it out, whatever line we might adopt; that +he guessed that my wish to see him must from his point of +view mean mischief; and that he would secure his re-election as +chairman before the secret was out. Mr. McCarthy was at this +hour also entirely in the dark, and so were all the other members +of the Irish party supposed to be much in Mr. Parnell's +confidence. When I reached the House a little after three, the +lobby was alive with the bustle and animation usual at the +opening of a session, and Mr. Parnell was in the thick of it, +talking to a group of his friends. He came forward with much +cordiality. <q>I am very sorry,</q> he said, <q>that I could not make +an appointment, but the truth is I did not get your message +until I came down to the House, and then it was too late.</q> I +asked him to come round with me to Mr. Gladstone's room. As +we went along the corridor he informed me in a casual way that +the party had again elected him chairman. When we reached +the sunless little room, I told him I was sorry to hear that the +election was over, for I had a communication to make to him +which might, as I hoped, still make a difference. I then read out +<pb n='440'/><anchor id='Pg440'/> +to him Mr. Gladstone's letter. As he listened, I knew the look +on his face quite well enough to see that he was obdurate. The +conversation did not last long. He said the feeling against him +was a storm in a teacup, and would soon pass. I replied that +he might know Ireland, but he did not half know England; that +it was much more than a storm in a teacup; that if he set British +feeling at defiance and brazened it out, it would be ruin to home +rule at the election; that if he did not withdraw for a time, the +storm would not pass; that if he withdrew from the actual leadership +now as a concession due to public feeling in this country, +this need not prevent him from again taking the helm when +new circumstances might demand his presence; that he could +very well treat his re-election as a public vote of confidence by +his party; that, having secured this, he would suffer no loss of +dignity or authority by a longer or shorter period of retirement. +I reminded him that for two years he had been practically absent +from active leadership. He answered, in his slow dry way, that +he must look to the future; that he had made up his mind to +stick to the House of Commons and to his present position in his +party, until he was convinced, and he would not soon be convinced, +that it was impossible to obtain home rule from a British +parliament; that if he gave up the leadership for a time, he should +never return to it; that if he once let go, it was all over. There +was the usual iteration on both sides in a conversation of the +kind, but this is the substance of what passed. His manner +throughout was perfectly cool and quiet, and his unresonant voice +was unshaken. He was paler than usual, and now and then a +wintry smile passed over his face. I saw that nothing would be +gained by further parley, so I rose and he somewhat slowly did +the same. <q>Of course,</q> he said, as I held the door open for him +to leave, <q>Mr. Gladstone will have to attack me. I shall expect +that. He will have a right to do that.</q> So we parted. +</p> + +<p> +I waited for Mr. Gladstone, who arrived in a few minutes. +It was now four o'clock. <q>Well?</q> he asked eagerly the moment +the door was closed, and without taking off cape or hat. <q>Have +you seen him?</q> <q>He is obdurate,</q> said I. I told him shortly +what had passed. He stood at the table, dumb for some instants, +looking at me as if he could not believe what I had said. Then +<pb n='441'/><anchor id='Pg441'/> +he burst out that we must at once publish his letter to me; at +once, that very afternoon. I said, <q>'Tis too late now.</q> <q>Oh, no,</q> +said he, <q>the <hi rend='italic'>Pall Mall</hi> will bring it out in a special +edition.</q> <q>Well, but,</q> I persisted, <q>we ought really to consider it a +little.</q> Reluctantly he yielded, and we went into the House. Harcourt +presently joined us on the bench, and we told him the news. It +was by and by decided that the letter should be immediately published. +Mr. Gladstone thought that I should at once inform Mr. +Parnell of this. There he was at that moment, pleasant and +smiling, in his usual place on the Irish bench. I went into our +lobby, and sent somebody to bring him out. Out he came, and +we took three or four turns in the lobby. I told him that it was +thought right, under the new circumstances, to send the letter to +the press. <q>Yes,</q> he said amicably, as if it were no particular +concern of his, <q>I think Mr. Gladstone will be quite right to do +that; it will put him straight with his party.</q> +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +The debate on the address had meanwhile been running +its course. Mr. Gladstone had made his speech. One of +the newspapers afterwards described the liberals as wearing +pre-occupied countenances. <q>We were pre-occupied with a +vengeance,</q> said Mr. Gladstone, <q>and even while I was +speaking I could not help thinking to myself, Here am I +talking about Portugal and about Armenia, while every +single creature in the House is absorbed in one thing only, +and that is an uncommonly long distance from either +Armenia or Portugal.</q> News of the letter, which had been +sent to the reporters about eight o'clock, swiftly spread. +Members hurried to ex-ministers in the dining-room to ask +if the story of the letter were true. The lobbies were seized +by one of those strange and violent fevers to which on such +occasions the House of Commons is liable. Unlike the +clamour of the Stock Exchange or a continental Chamber, +there is little noise, but the perturbation is profound. Men +pace the corridors in couples and trios, or flit from one knot +to another, listening to an oracle of the moment modestly +retailing a rumour false on the face of it, or evolving +monstrous hypotheses to explain incredible occurrences. +This, however, was no common crisis of lobby or gallery. +</p> + +<pb n='442'/><anchor id='Pg442'/> + +<p> +One party quickly felt that, for them at least, it was an +affair of life or death. It was no wonder that the Irish +members were stirred to the very depths. For five years +they had worked on English platforms, made active friendships +with English and Scottish liberals in parliament and +out of it, been taught to expect from their aid and alliance +that deliverance which without allies must remain out of +reach and out of sight; above all, for nearly five years they +had been taught to count on the puissant voice and strong +right arm of the leader of all the forces of British liberalism. +</p> + +<p> +They suddenly learned that if they took a certain step in +respect of the leadership of their own party, the alliance +was broken off, the most powerful of Englishmen could +help them no more, and that all the dreary and desperate +marches since 1880 were to be faced once again in a blind +and endless campaign, against the very party to whose +friendship they had been taught to look for strength, +encouragement, and victory. Well might they recoil. More +astounded still, they learned at the same time that they +had already taken the momentous step in the dark, and +that the knowledge of what they were doing, the pregnant +meanings and the tremendous consequences of it, had been +carefully concealed from them. Never were consternation, +panic, distraction, and resentment better justified. +</p> + +<p> +The Irishmen were anxious to meet at once. Their leader +sat moodily in the smoking-room downstairs. His faculty +of concentrated vision had by this time revealed to him +the certainty of a struggle, and its intensity. He knew in +minute detail every element of peril both at Westminster +and in Ireland. A few days before, he mentioned to the +present writer his suspicion of designs on foot in ecclesiastical +quarters, though he declared that he had no fear of +them. He may have surmised that the demonstration at +the Leinster Hall was superficial and impulsive. On the +other hand, his confidence in the foundations of his +dictatorship was unshaken. This being so, if deliberate +calculation were the universal mainspring of every statesman's +action—as it assuredly is not nor can ever be—he +would have spontaneously withdrawn for a season, in the +<pb n='443'/><anchor id='Pg443'/> +<note place='margin'>Mr. Parnell's Decision</note> +assurance that if signs of disorganisation were to appear +among his followers, his prompt return from Elba would +be instantly demanded in Ireland, whether or no it were +acquiesced in by the leaders and main army of liberals +in England. That would have been both politic and decent, +even if we conceive his mind to have been working in +another direction. He may, for instance, have believed that +the scandal had destroyed the chances of a liberal victory +at the election, whether he stayed or withdrew. Why +should he surrender his position in Ireland and over contending +factions in America, in reliance upon an English +party to which, as he was well aware, he had just dealt a +smashing blow? These speculations, however, upon the +thoughts that may have been slowly moving through his +mind, are hardly worth pursuing. Unluckily, the stubborn +impulses of defiance that came naturally to his temperament +were aroused to their most violent pitch and swept all +calculations of policy aside. He now proceeded passionately +to dash into the dust the whole fabric of policy which he +had with such infinite sagacity, patience, skill, and energy +devised and reared. +</p> + +<p> +Two short private memoranda from his own hand on this +transaction, I find among Mr. Gladstone's papers. He read +them to me at the time, and they illustrate his habitual +practice of shaping and clearing his thought and recollection +by committal to black and white:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Nov. 26, 1890.</hi>—Since the month of December 1885 my whole +political life has been governed by a supreme regard to the Irish +question. For every day, I may say, of these five, we have been +engaged in laboriously rolling up hill the stone of Sisyphus. Mr. +Parnell's decision of yesterday means that the stone is to break +away from us and roll down again to the bottom of the hill. I +cannot recall the years which have elapsed. It was daring, perhaps, +to begin, at the age I had then attained, a process which it +was obvious must be a prolonged one. +</p> + +<p> +Simply to recommence it now, when I am within a very few +weeks of the age at which Lord Palmerston, the marvel of parliamentary +longevity, succumbed, and to contemplate my accompanying +<pb n='444'/><anchor id='Pg444'/> +the cause of home rule to its probable triumph a rather long +course of years hence, would be more than daring; it would be +presumptuous. My views must be guided by rational probabilities, +and they exclude any such anticipation. My statement, +therefore, that my leadership would, under the contemplated +decision of Mr. Parnell, be almost a nullity, is a moderate statement +of the case. I have been endeavouring during all these +years to reason with the voters of the kingdom, and when the +voter now tells me that he cannot give a vote for making the +Mr. Parnell of to-day the ruler of Irish affairs under British +sanction, I do not know how to answer him, and I have yet to ask +myself formally the question what under those circumstances is to +be done. I must claim entire and absolute liberty to answer that +question as I may think right. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Nov. 28, 1890.</hi>—The few following words afford a key to my +proceedings in the painful business of the Irish leadership. +</p> + +<p> +It was at first my expectation, and afterwards my desire, that +Mr. Parnell would retire by a perfectly spontaneous act. As the +likelihood of such a course became less and less, while time ran on, +and the evidences of coming disaster were accumulated, I thought +it would be best that he should be impelled to withdraw, but by +an influence conveyed to him, at least, from within the limits of +his own party. I therefore begged Mr. Justin McCarthy to +acquaint Mr. Parnell of what I thought as to the consequences of +his continuance; I also gave explanations of my meaning, including +a reference to myself; and I begged that my message to Mr. +Parnell might be made known to the Irish party, in the absence +of a spontaneous retirement. +</p> + +<p> +This was on Monday afternoon. But there was no certainty +either of finding Mr. Parnell, or of an impression on him through +one of his own followers. I therefore wrote the letter to Mr. +Morley, as a more delicate form of proceeding than a direct communication +from myself, but also as a stronger measure than that +taken through Mr. McCarthy, because it was more full, and because, +as it was in writing, it admitted of the ulterior step of +immediate publication. Mr. Morley could not find Mr. Parnell +until after the first meeting of the Irish party on Monday. +When we found that Mr. McCarthy's representation had had no +<pb n='445'/><anchor id='Pg445'/> +effect, that the Irish party had not been informed, and that Mr. +Morley's making known the material parts of my letter was likewise +without result, it at once was decided to publish the letter; +just too late for the <hi rend='italic'>Pall Mall Gazette</hi>, it was given for +publication to the morning papers, and during the evening it became known +in the lobbies of the House. +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>V</head> + +<p> +Mr. Parnell took up his new ground in a long manifesto +to the Irish people (November 29). It was free of rhetoric +and ornament, but the draught was skilfully brewed. He +charged Mr. Gladstone with having revealed to him during +his visit at Hawarden in the previous December, that in a +future scheme of home rule the Irish members would be +cut down from 103 to 32, land was to be withdrawn from +the competency of the Irish legislature, and the control +of the constabulary would be reserved to the Imperial +authority for an indefinite period, though Ireland would +have to find the money all the time. This perfidious truncation +of self-government by Mr. Gladstone was matched by +an attempt on my part as his lieutenant only a few days +before, to seduce the Irish party into accepting places in a +liberal government, and this gross bribe of mine was accompanied +by a despairing avowal that the hapless evicted +tenants must be flung overboard. In other words, the +English leaders intended to play Ireland false, and Mr. +Parnell stood between his country and betrayal. Such a +story was unluckily no new one in Irish history since the +union. On that theme Mr. Parnell played many adroit +variations during the eventful days that followed. Throw +me to the English wolves if you like, he said, but at any +rate make sure that real home rule and not its shadow is +to be your price, and that they mean to pay it. This was +to awaken the spectre of old suspicions, and to bring to life +again those forces of violence and desperation which it had +been the very crown of his policy to exorcise. +</p> + +<p> +The reply on the Hawarden episode was prompt. Mr. +Gladstone asserted that the whole discussion was one of +those informal exchanges of view which go to all political +<pb n='446'/><anchor id='Pg446'/> +action, and in which men feel the ground and discover the +leanings of one another's minds. No single proposal was +made, no proposition was mentioned to which a binding +assent was sought. Points of possible improvement in the +bill of 1886 were named as having arisen in Mr. Gladstone's +mind, or been suggested by others, but no positive conclusions +were asked for or were expected or were possible. +Mr. Parnell quite agreed that the real difficulty lay in finding +the best form in which Irish representation should be +retained at Westminster, but both saw the wisdom and +necessity of leaving deliberation free until the time should +come for taking practical steps. He offered no serious +objection on any point; much less did he say that they +augured any disappointment of Irish aspirations. Apart +from this denial, men asked themselves how it was that +if Mr. Parnell knew that the cause was already betrayed, +he yet for a year kept the black secret to himself, and +blew Mr. Gladstone's praise with as loud a trumpet as +before?<note place='foot'>On the day after leaving Hawarden +Mr. Parnell spoke at Liverpool, +calling on Lancashire to rally to their +<q>grand old leader.</q> <q>My countrymen +rejoice,</q> he said, <q>for we are on the +safe path to our legitimate freedom +and our future prosperity.</q> December +19, 1889.</note> As for my own guilty attempt at corruption in +proposing an absorption of the Irish party in English politics +by means of office and emolument, I denied it with reasonable +emphasis at the time, and it does not concern us here, +nor in fact anywhere else. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>VI</head> + +<p> +We now come to what was in its day the famous story +of Committee Room Fifteen, so called from the chamber +in which the next act of this dismal play went on.<note place='foot'>See +<hi rend='italic'>The Parnell Split</hi>, reprinted +from the <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi> in 1891. Especially +also <hi rend='italic'>The Story of Room 15</hi>, by Donal +Sullivan, M.P., the accuracy of which +seems not to have been challenged.</note> The +proceedings between the leader and his party were watched +with an eagerness that has never been surpassed in this +kingdom or in America. They were protracted, intense, +dramatic, and the issue for a time hung in poignant doubt. +The party interest of the scene was supreme, for if the +Irishmen should rally to their chief, then the English +alliance was at an end, Mr. Gladstone would virtually close +<pb n='447'/><anchor id='Pg447'/> +<note place='margin'>Committee Room Fifteen</note> +his illustrious career, the rent in the liberal ranks might +be repaired, and leading men and important sections would +all group themselves afresh. <q>Let us all keep quiet,</q> said +one important unionist, <q>we may now have to revise our +positions.</q> Either way, the serpent of faction would raise +its head in Ireland, and the strong life of organised and +concentrated nationalism would perish in its coils. The +personal interest was as vivid as the political,—the spectacle +of a man of infinite boldness, determination, astuteness, and +resource, with the will and pride of Lucifer, at bay with +fortune and challenging a malignant star. Some talked of +the famous Ninth Thermidor, when Robespierre fought inch +by inch the fierce struggle that ended in his ruin. Others +talked of the old mad discord of Zealot and Herodian in +face of the Roman before the walls of Jerusalem. The +great veteran of English politics looked on, wrathful and +astounded at a preternatural perversity for which sixty years +of public life could furnish him no parallel. The sage public +looked on, some with the same interest that would in ancient +days have made them relish a combat of gladiators; others +with glee at the mortification of political opponents; others +again with honest disgust at what threatened to be the +ignoble rout of a beneficent policy. +</p> + +<p> +It was the fashion for the moment in fastidious reactionary +quarters to speak of the actors in this ordeal as <q>a hustling +group of yelling rowdies.</q> Seldom have terms so censorious +been more misplaced. All depends upon the point of view. +Men on a raft in a boiling sea have something to think of +besides deportment and the graces of serenity. As a matter +of fact, even hostile judges then and since agreed that no +case was ever better opened within the walls of Westminster +than in the three speeches made on the first day by Mr. +Sexton and Mr. Healy on the one side, and Mr. Redmond +on the other. In gravity, dignity, acute perception, and +that good faith which is the soul of real as distinct from +spurious debate, the parliamentary critic recognises them +as all of the first order. So for the most part things continued. +It was not until a protracted game had gone +beyond limits of reason and patience, that words sometimes +<pb n='448'/><anchor id='Pg448'/> +flamed high. Experience of national assemblies gives no +reason to suppose that a body of French, German, Spanish, +Italian, or even of English, Scotch, Welsh, or American +politicians placed in circumstances of equal excitement, +arising from an incident in itself at once so squalid and so +provocative, would have borne the strain with any more +self-control. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Parnell presided, frigid, severe, and lofty, <q>as if,</q> said +one present, <q>it were we who had gone astray, and he were +sitting there to judge us.</q> Six members were absent in +America, including Mr. Dillon and Mr. O'Brien, two of the +most important of all after Mr. Parnell himself. The attitude +of this pair was felt to be a decisive element. At first, +under the same impulse as moved the Leinster Hall meeting, +they allowed their sense of past achievement to close +their eyes; they took for granted the impossible, that religious +Britain and religious Ireland would blot what had +happened out of their thoughts; and so they stood for Mr. +Parnell's leadership. The grim facts of the case were +rapidly borne in upon them. The defiant manifesto convinced +them that the leadership could not be continued. +Travelling from Cincinnati to Chicago, they read it, made +up their minds, and telegraphed to anxious colleagues in +London. They spoke with warmth of Mr. Parnell's services, +but protested against his unreasonable charges of servility +to liberal wirepullers; they described the <q>endeavours to +fasten the responsibility for what had happened upon Mr. +Gladstone and Mr. Morley</q> as reckless and unjust; and +they foresaw in the position of isolation, discredit, and international +ill-feeling which Mr. Parnell had now created, +nothing but ruin for the cause. This deliverance from +such a quarter (November 30) showed that either abdication +or deposition was inevitable. +</p> + +<p> +The day after Mr. Parnell's manifesto, the bishops came +out of their shells. Cardinal Manning had more than once +written most urgently to the Irish prelates the moment the +decree was known, that Parnell could not be upheld in +London, and that no political expediency could outweigh +the moral sense. He knew well enough that the bishops in +<pb n='449'/><anchor id='Pg449'/> +<note place='margin'>The Irish Bishops</note> +Ireland were in a very difficult strait, but insisted <q>that +plain and prompt speech was safest.</q> It was now a case, he +said to Mr. Gladstone (November 29), of <foreign rend='italic'>res ad triarios</foreign>, +and it was time for the Irish clergy to speak out from the housetops. +He had also written to Rome. <q>Did I not tell you,</q> +said Mr. Gladstone when he gave me this letter to read, +<q>that the Pope would now have one of the ten commandments +on his side?</q> <q>We have been slow to act,</q> Dr. Walsh +telegraphed to one of the Irish members (November 30), +<q>trusting that the party will act manfully. Our considerate +silence and reserve are being dishonestly misinterpreted.</q> +<q>All sorry for Parnell,</q> telegraphed Dr. Croke, the Archbishop +of Cashel—a manly and patriotic Irishman if ever +one was—<q>but still, in God's name, let him retire quietly +and with good grace from the leadership. If he does so, the +Irish party will be kept together, the honourable alliance +with Gladstonian liberals maintained, success at general +election secured, home rule certain. If he does not retire, +alliance will be dissolved, election lost, Irish party seriously +damaged if not wholly broken up, home rule indefinitely +postponed, coercion perpetuated, evicted tenants hopelessly +crushed, and the public conscience outraged. Manifesto flat +and otherwise discreditable.</q> This was emphatic enough, +but many of the flock had already committed themselves +before the pastors spoke. To Dr. Croke, Mr. Gladstone +wrote (Dec. 2): <q>We in England seem to have done our +part within our lines, and what remains is for Ireland itself. +I am as unwilling as Mr. Parnell himself could be, to offer +an interference from without, for no one stands more stoutly +than I do for the independence of the Irish national party as +well as for its unity.</q> +</p> + +<p> +A couple of days later (Dec. 2) a division was taken in +Room Fifteen upon a motion made in Mr. Parnell's interest, +to postpone the discussion until they could ascertain the +views of their constituents, and then meet in Dublin. It +was past midnight. The large room, dimly lighted by a few +lamps and candles placed upon the horse-shoe tables, was +more than half in shadow. Mr. Parnell, his features barely +discernible in the gloom, held a printed list of the party in +<pb n='450'/><anchor id='Pg450'/> +his hand, and he put the question in cold, unmoved tones. +The numbers were 29 for the motion—that is to say, for +him, and 44 against him. Of the majority, many had been +put on their trial with him in 1880; had passed months in +prison with him under the first Coercion Act and suffered +many imprisonments besides; they had faced storm, obloquy, +and hatred with him in the House of Commons, a place +where obloquy stings through tougher than Hibernian skins; +they had undergone with him the long ordeal of the three +judges; they had stood by his side with unswerving fidelity +from the moment when his band was first founded for its +mortal struggle down to to-day, when they saw the fruits of +the struggle flung recklessly away, and the policy that had +given to it all its reason and its only hope, wantonly brought +to utter foolishness by a suicidal demonstration that no +English party and no English leader could ever be trusted. +If we think of even the least imaginative of them as haunted +by such memories of the past, such distracting fears for the +future, it was little wonder that when they saw Mr. Parnell +slowly casting up the figures, and heard his voice through +the sombre room announcing the ominous result, they all +sat, both ayes and noes, in profound and painful stillness. +Not a sound was heard, until the chairman rose and said +without an accent of emotion that it would now be well for +them to adjourn until the next day. +</p> + +<p> +This was only the beginning. Though the ultimate +decision of the party was quite certain, every device of +strategy and tactics was meanwhile resolutely employed to +avert it. His supple and trenchant blade was still in the +hands of a consummate swordsman. It is not necessary to +recapitulate all the moves in Mr. Parnell's grand manœuvre +for turning the eyes of Ireland away from the question of +leadership to the question of liberal good faith and the +details of home rule. Mr. Gladstone finally announced +that only after the question of leadership had been disposed +of—one belonging entirely to the competence of the Irish +party—could he renew former relations, and once more +enter into confidential communications with any of them. +There was only one guarantee, he said, that could be of any +<pb n='451'/><anchor id='Pg451'/> +<note place='margin'>Break-Up Of The Irish Party</note> +value to Ireland, namely the assured and unalterable fact +that no English leader and no party could ever dream of +either proposing or carrying any scheme of home rule which +had not the full support of Irish representatives. This was +obvious to all the world. Mr. Parnell knew it well enough, +and the members knew it, but the members were bound to +convince their countrymen that they had exhausted compliance +with every hint from their falling leader, while Mr. +Parnell's only object was to gain time, to confuse issues, and +to carry the battle over from Westminster to the more +buoyant and dangerously charged atmosphere of Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +The majority resisted as long as they could the evidence +that Mr. Parnell was audaciously trifling with them and +openly abusing his position as chairman. On the evening +of Friday (December 5) Mr. Sexton and Mr. Healy went to +Mr. Parnell after the last communication from Mr. Gladstone. +They urged him to bend to the plain necessities of +the case. He replied that he would take the night to consider. +The next morning (December 6) they returned to +him. He informed them that his responsibility to Ireland +would not allow him to retire. They warned him that the +majority would not endure further obstruction beyond that +day, and would withdraw. As they left, Mr. Parnell wished +to shake hands, <q>if it is to be the last time.</q> They all +shook hands, and then went once more to the field of +action. +</p> + +<p> +It was not until after some twelve days of this excitement +and stress that the scene approached such disorder as has +often before and since been known in the House of Commons. +The tension at last had begun to tell upon the +impassive bronze of Mr. Parnell himself. He no longer +made any pretence of the neutrality of the chair. He +broke in upon one speaker more than forty times. In a +flash of rage he snatched a paper from another speaker's +hand. The hours wore away, confusion only became worse +confounded, and the conclusion on both sides was foregone. +Mr. McCarthy at last rose, and in a few moderate sentences +expressed his opinion that there was no use in continuing +a discussion that must be barren of anything but reproach, +<pb n='452'/><anchor id='Pg452'/> +bitterness, and indignity, and he would therefore suggest +that those who were of the same mind should withdraw. +Then he moved from the table, and his forty-four colleagues +stood up and silently followed him out of the room. In +silence they were watched by the minority who remained, in +number twenty-six.<note place='foot'>The case for the change of mind +which induced the majority who had +elected Mr. Parnell to the chair less +than a fortnight before, now to depose +him, was clearly put by Mr. Sexton +at a later date. To the considerations +adduced by him nobody has ever +made a serious political answer. The +reader will find Mr. Sexton's argument +in the reports of these proceedings +already referred to.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>VII</head> + +<p> +A vacancy at Bassetlaw gave Mr. Gladstone an opportunity +of describing the grounds on which he had acted. +His speech was measured and weighty, but the result +showed the effect of the disaster. The tide, that a few weeks +before had been running so steadily, now turned. The +unionist vote remained almost the same as in 1885; the +liberal vote showed a falling off of over 400 and the unionist +majority was increased from 295 to 728. +</p> + +<p> +About this time having to go to Ireland, on my way back +I stopped at Hawarden, and the following note gives a glimpse +of Mr. Gladstone at this evil moment (Dec. 17):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +I found him in his old corner in the <q>temple of peace.</q> He was +only half recovered from a bad cold, and looked in his worsted +jacket, and dark tippet over his shoulders, and with his white, +deep-furrowed face, like some strange Ancient of Days: so different +from the man whom I had seen off at King's Cross less than +a week before. He was cordial as always, but evidently in some +perturbation. I sat down and told him what I had heard from +different quarters about the approaching Kilkenny election. I +mentioned X. as a Parnellite authority. <q>What,</q> he flamed up +with passionate vehemence, <q>X. a Parnellite! Are they mad, +then? Are they clean demented?</q> etc. etc. +</p> + +<p> +I gave him my general impression as to the future. The bare +idea that Parnell might find no inconsiderable following came +upon him as if it had been a thunder-clap. He listened, and +catechised, and knit his brow. +</p> + +<pb n='453'/><anchor id='Pg453'/> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—What do you think we should do in case (1) of a +divided Ireland, (2) of a Parnellite Ireland? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—It is too soon to settle what to think. But, looking to +Irish interests, I think a Parnellite Ireland infinitely better than +a divided Ireland. Anything better than an Ireland divided, so +far as she is concerned. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Bassetlaw looks as if we were going back to 1886. +For me that is notice to quit. Another five years' agitation at +my age would be impossible—<emph>ludicrous</emph> (with much emphasis). +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—I cannot profess to be surprised that in face of these +precious dissensions men should have misgivings, or that even +those who were with us, should now make up their minds to wait +a little. +</p> + +<p> +I said what there was to be said for Parnell's point of view; +that, in his words to me of Nov. 25, he <q>must look to the future</q>; +that he was only five and forty; that he might well fear that +factions would spring up in Ireland if he were to go; that he +might have made up his mind, that whether he went or stayed, +we should lose the general election when it came. The last notion +seemed quite outrageous to Mr. G., and he could not suppose that +it had ever entered Parnell's head. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—You have no regrets at the course we took? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—None—none. It was inevitable. I have never +doubted. That does not prevent lamentation that it was inevitable. It is +the old story. English interference is always at the root of +mischief in Ireland. But how could we help what we did? We +had a right to count on Parnell's sanity and his sincerity.... +</p> + +<p> +Mr. G. then got up and fished out of a drawer the memorandum +of his talk with Parnell at Hawarden on Dec. 18, 1889, and also a +memorandum written for his own use on the general political +position at the time of the divorce trial. The former contained +not a word as to the constabulary, and in other matters only put +a number of points, alternative courses, etc., without a single final +or definite decision. While he was fishing in his drawer, he said, +as if speaking to himself, <q>It looks as if I should get my release +even sooner than I had expected.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q>That,</q> I said, <q>is a momentous matter which will need immense +deliberation.</q> So it will, indeed. +</p> + +<pb n='454'/><anchor id='Pg454'/> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Do you recall anything in history like the present +distracted scenes in Ireland? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Florence, Pisa, or some other Italian city, with the +French or the Emperor at the gates? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—I'll tell you what is the only thing that I can think +of as at all like it. Do you remember how it was at the siege of +Jerusalem—the internecine fury of the Jewish factions, the +Ζηλωταί, and the rest—while Titus and the legions were marching +on the city! +</p> + +<p> +We went in to luncheon. Something was said of our friend ——, and +the new found malady, Renault's disease. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Joseph de Maistre says that in the innocent primitive +ages men died of diseases without names. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Homer never mentions diseases at all. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Not many of them die a natural death in Homer. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Do you not recollect where Odysseus meets his mother +among the shades, and she says:— +</p> + +<lg> +<l>Οὔτε τις οὖν μοι νοῦσος ἐπήλυθεν ...</l> +<l>ἀλλά με σός τε πόθος σά τε μήδεα, φαίδιμ᾽ Ὀδυσσεῦ,</l> +<l>σή τ᾽ ἀγανοφροσύνη μελιηδέα θυμὸν ἀπηύρα.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Od.</hi> +xi. 200. <q>It was not sickness +that came upon me; it was wearying +for thee and thy lost counsels, glorious +Odysseus, and for all thy gentle +kindness, this it was that broke the +heart within me.</q></note></l> +</lg> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Beautiful lines. Πόθος such a tender word, and it is +untranslatable. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Oh, <hi rend='italic'>desiderium</hi>. +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend='pre'>Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus</q></l> +<l><q rend='post'>Tam cari capitis.</q><note place='foot'>Hor. +<hi rend='italic'>Carm.</hi> i. 24.</note></l> +</lg> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—The Scotch word +<q><hi rend='italic'>wearying</hi></q> for somebody. And +<hi rend='italic'>Sehnsucht</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Then Mr. G. went off to his library to hunt up the reference, +and when I followed him, I found the worn old <hi rend='italic'>Odyssey</hi> open at +the passage in the eleventh book. As he left the room, he looked +at me and said, <q>Ah, this is very different stuff for talking about, +from all the wretched work we were speaking of just now. +Homer's fellows would have cut a very different figure, and made +short work in that committee room last week!</q> We had a few +more words on politics.... So I bade him good-bye.... +#/ +</p> +</quote> + +<pb n='455'/><anchor id='Pg455'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Severe Ordeal</note> +In view of the horrors of dissension in Ireland, well-meaning +attempts were made at the beginning of the year +to bring about an understanding. The Irish members, +returning from America where the schism at home had +quenched all enthusiasm and killed their operations, made +their way to Boulogne, for the two most important among +them were liable to instant arrest if they were found in the +United Kingdom. They thought that Mr. Parnell was really +desirous to withdraw on such terms as would save his self-respect, +and if he could plead hereafter that before giving +way he had secured a genuine scheme of home rule. +Some suspicion may well have arisen in their minds when +a strange suggestion came from Mr. Parnell that the liberal +leaders should enter into a secret engagement about constabulary +and the other points. He had hardly given such +happy evidence of his measure of the sanctity of political +confidences, as to encourage further experiments. The proposal +was absurd on the face of it. These suspicions soon +became certainties, and the Boulogne negotiations came +to an end. I should conjecture that those days made the +severest ordeal through which Mr. Gladstone, with his extreme +sensibility and his abhorrence of personal contention, +ever passed. Yet his facility and versatility of mood was +unimpaired, as a casual note or two of mine may show:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +... Mr. G.'s confabulation [with an Irish member] proved to +have been sought for the purpose of warning him that Parnell was +about to issue a manifesto in which he would make all manner of +mischief. Mr. G. and I had a few moments in the room at the +back of the chair; he seemed considerably perturbed, pale, and +concentrated. We walked into the House together; he picked up +the points of the matter in hand (a motion for appropriating all +the time) and made one of the gayest, brightest, and most +delightful speeches in the world—the whole House enjoying it +consumedly. Who else could perform these magic transitions? +</p> + +<milestone unit='tb' rend='rule: 50%'/> + +<p> +Mr. G. came into the House, looking rather anxious; gave us +an account of his interview with the Irish deputation; and in the +midst of it got up to say his few sentences of condolence with the +Speaker on the death of Mrs. Peel—the closing phrases admirably +<pb n='456'/><anchor id='Pg456'/> +chosen, and the tones of his voice grave, sincere, sonorous, and +compassionate. When he sat down, he resumed his talk with +H. and me. He was so touched, he said, by those <q>poor wretches</q> +on the deputation, that he would fain, if he could, make some +announcement that would ease their unlucky position. +</p> + +<p> +[A question of a letter in reply to some application prompted +by Mr. Parnell. Mr. Gladstone asked two of us to try our hands +at a draft.] At last we got it ready for him and presently we +went to his room. It was now six o'clock. Mr. G. read aloud in +full deep voice the letter he had prepared on the base of our short +draft. We suggested this and that, and generally argued about +phrases for an hour, winding up with a terrific battle on two +prodigious points: (1) whether he ought to say, <q>after this statement +of my views,</q> or <q>I have now fully stated my views on +the points you raise</q>; (2) <q>You will <emph>doubtless</emph> concur,</q> +or <q><emph>probably</emph> +concur.</q> Most characteristic, most amazing. It was past seven +before the veteran would let go—and then I must say that he +looked his full years. Think what his day had been, in mere +intellectual strain, apart from what strains him far more than that—his +strife with persons and his compassion for the unlucky Irishmen. +I heard afterwards that when he got home, he was for once +in his life done up, and on the following morning he lay in bed. +All the same, in the evening he went to see <hi rend='italic'>Antony and Cleopatra</hi>, +and he had a little ovation. As he drove away the crowd +cheered him with cries of <q>Bravo, don't you mind Parnell!</q> +Plenty of race feeling left, in spite of union of hearts! +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +No leader ever set a finer example under reverse than +did Mr. Gladstone during these tedious and desperate proceedings. +He was steadfastly loyal, considerate, and sympathetic +towards the Irishmen who had trusted him; his +firm patience was not for a moment worn out; in vain a +boisterous wave now and again beat upon him from one +quarter or another. Not for a moment was he shaken; +even under these starless skies his faith never drooped. +<q>The public mischief,</q> he wrote to Lord Acton (Dec. 27, +1890), <q>ought to put out of view every private thought. +But the blow to me is very heavy—the heaviest I ever +<pb n='457'/><anchor id='Pg457'/> +have received. It is a great and high call to work by faith +and not by sight.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Occasion had already offered for testing the feeling of +Ireland. There was a vacancy in the representation of +Kilkenny, and the Parnellite candidate had been defeated. +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To J. Morley.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Hawarden, Dec. 23, 1890.</hi>—Since your letter arrived this +morning, the Kilkenny poll has brightened the sky. It will have a +great effect in Ireland, although it is said not to be a representative +constituency, but one too much for us. It is a great gain; +and yet sad enough to think that even here one-third of the voters +should be either rogues or fools. I suppose the ballot has largely +contributed to save Kilkenny. It will be most interesting to +learn how the tories voted. +</p> + +<p> +I return your enclosure.... I have ventured, without asking +your leave, on keeping a copy of a part. Only in one proposition +do I differ from you. I would rather see Ireland disunited than +see it Parnellite. +</p> + +<p> +I think that as the atmosphere is quiet for the moment we had +better give ourselves the benefit of a little further time for reflection. +Personally, I am hard hit. My course of life was daring +enough as matters stood six weeks ago. How it will shape in the +new situation I cannot tell. But this is the selfish part. Turning +for a moment to the larger outlook, I am extremely indisposed to +any harking back in the matter of home rule; we are now, I +think, freed from the enormous danger of seeing P. master in +Ireland; division and its consequences in diminishing force, are +the worst we have to fear. What my mind leans to in a way still +vague is to rally ourselves by some affirmative legislation taken up +by and on behalf of the party. Something of this kind would be +the best source to look to for reparative strength. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To Lord Acton.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Jan. 9, 1891.</hi>—To a greybeard in a hard winter the very name +of the south is musical, and the kind letters from you and Lord +Hampden make it harmony as well as melody. But I have been +and am chained to the spot by this Parnell business, and every +<pb n='458'/><anchor id='Pg458'/> +day have to consider in one shape or other what ought to be said +by myself or others.... I consider the Parnell chapter of politics +finally closed for us, the British liberals, at least during my time. +He has been even worse since the divorce court than he was in +it. The most astounding revelation of my lifetime. +</p> + +<milestone unit='tb' rend='rule: 50%'/> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>To J. Morley.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Hawarden, Dec. 30, 1890.</hi>—I must not longer delay thanking +you for your most kind and much valued letter on my birthday—a +birthday more formidable than usual, on account of the recent +disasters, which, however, may all come to good. If I am able to +effect in the world anything useful, be assured I know how much +of it is owed to the counsel and consort of my friends. +</p> + +<p> +It is not indeed the common lot of man to make serious +additions to the friendships which so greatly help us in this +pilgrimage, after seventy-six years old; but I rejoice to think +that in your case it has been accomplished for me. +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>VIII</head> + +<p> +A few more sentences will end this chapter in Mr. Gladstone's +life. As we have seen, an election took place in the +closing days of December 1890. Mr. Parnell flung himself +into the contest with frantic activity. A fierce conflict ended +in the defeat of his candidate by nearly two to one.<note place='foot'>December +23, 1890.</note> Three +months later a contest occurred in Sligo. Here again, though +he had strained every nerve in the interval as well as in the +immediate struggle, his candidate was beaten.<note place='foot'>April 3, +1891.</note> Another +three months, then a third election at Carlow,—with the +same result, the rejection of Mr. Parnell's man by a majority +of much more than two to one.<note place='foot'>July 8, +1891.</note> It was in vain that his +adherents denounced those who had left him as mutineers +and helots, and exalted him as <q>truer than Tone, abler than +Grattan, greater than O'Connell, full of love for Ireland as +Thomas Davis himself.</q> On the other side, he encountered +antagonism in every key, from pathetic remonstrance or +earnest reprobation, down to an unsparing fury that savoured +<pb n='459'/><anchor id='Pg459'/> +<note place='margin'>Death Of Mr. Parnell</note> +of the ruthless factions of the Seine. In America almost +every name of consideration was hostile. +</p> + +<p> +Yet undaunted by repulse upon repulse, he tore over from +England to Ireland and back again, week after week and +month after month, hoarse and haggard, seamed by sombre +passions, waving the shreds of a tattered flag. Ireland must +have been a hell on earth to him. To those Englishmen +who could not forget that they had for so long been his +fellow-workers, though they were now the mark of his +attack, these were dark and desolating days. No more +lamentable chapter is to be found in all the demented scroll +of aimless and untoward things, that seem as if they made +up the history of Ireland. It was not for very long. The +last speech that Mr. Parnell ever made in England was at +Newcastle-on-Tyne in July 1891, when he told the old story +about the liberal leaders, of whom he said that there was +but one whom he trusted. A few weeks later, not much +more than ten months after the miserable act had opened, +the Veiled Shadow stole upon the scene, and the world +learned that Parnell was no more.<note place='foot'>October +6. He was in his forty-sixth year (<hi rend='italic'>b.</hi> June 1846), and had been +sixteen years in parliament.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='460'/><anchor id='Pg460'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter VI. Biarritz. (1891-1892)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +Omnium autem ineptiarum, quæ sunt innumerabiles, haud sciam +an nulla sit major, quam, ut illi solent, quocunque in loco, +quoscunque inter homines visum est, de rebus aut difficillimis +aut non necessariis argutissime disputare.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Cicero.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +Of all the numberless sorts of bad taste and want of tact, perhaps +the worst is to insist, no matter where you are or with whom +you are, on arguing about the hardest subjects to the full pitch +of elaboration and detail. +</p> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +We have seen how in 1889 Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone celebrated +the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most devoted +and successful marriages that ever was made, and the +unbroken felicity of their home. In 1891, after the shadows +of approaching calamity had for many months hung doubtfully +over them, a heavy blow fell, and their eldest son died. +Not deeply concerned in ordinary politics, he was a man of +many virtues and some admirable gifts; he was an accomplished +musician, and I have seen letters of his to his father, +marked by a rare delicacy of feeling and true power of +expression. <q>I had known him for nearly thirty years,</q> one +friend wrote, <q>and there was no man, until his long illness, +who had changed so little, or retained so long the best +qualities of youth, and my first thought was that the greater +the loss to you, the greater would be the consolation.</q> +</p> + +<p> +To Archbishop Benson, Mr. Gladstone wrote (July 6):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +It is now forty-six years since we lost a child,<note place='foot'>Vol. +i. p. 387.</note> and he who +has now passed away from our eyes, leaves to us only blessed +recollections. I suppose all feel that those deaths which reverse +the order of nature have a sharpness of their own. But setting +<pb n='461'/><anchor id='Pg461'/> +this apart, there is nothing lacking to us in consolations human +or divine. I can only wish that I may become less unworthy to +have been his father. +</quote> + +<p> +To me he wrote (July 10):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +We feel deeply the kindness and tenderness of your letter. It +supplies one more link in a long chain of recollection which I +deeply prize. Yes, ours is a tribulation, and a sore one, but +yet we feel we ought to find ourselves carried out of ourselves +by sympathy with the wife whose noble and absorbing devotion +had become like an entire life of itself, and who is now face to face +with the void. The grief of children too, which passes, is very +sharp while it remains. The case has been very remarkable. +Though with abatement of some powers, my son has not been +without many among the signs and comforts of health during +a period of nearly two and a half years. All this time the +terrible enemy was lodged in the royal seat, and only his healthy +and unyielding constitution kept it at defiance, and maintained +his mental and inward life intact.... And most largely has +human, as well as divine compassion, flowed in upon us, from +none more conspicuously than from yourself, whom we hope +to count among near friends for the short remainder of our +lives. +</quote> + +<p> +To another correspondent who did not share his own +religious beliefs, he said (July 5):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +When I received your last kind note, I fully intended to write to +you with freedom on the subject of <hi rend='italic'>The Agnostic Island</hi>. But since +then I have been at close quarters, so to speak, with the dispensations +of God, for yesterday morning my dearly beloved eldest son +was taken from the sight of our eyes. At this moment of bleeding +hearts, I will only say what I hope you will in consideration of +the motives take without offence, namely this: I would from the +bottom of my heart that whenever the hour of bereavement shall +befall you or those whom you love, you and they may enjoy the +immeasurable consolation of believing, with all the mind and all +the heart, that the beloved one is gone into eternal rest, and that +those who remain behind may through the same mighty Deliverer +hope at their appointed time to rejoin him. +</p> + +<pb n='462'/><anchor id='Pg462'/> + +<p> +All this language on the great occasions of human life +was not with him the tone of convention. Whatever the +synthesis, as they call it,—whatever the form, whatever the +creed and faith may be, he was one of that high and favoured +household who, in Emerson's noble phrase, <q>live from a great +depth of being.</q> +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +Earlier in the year Lord Granville, who so long had been +his best friend, died. The loss by his death was severe. +As Acton, who knew of their relations well and from within, +wrote to Mr. Gladstone (April 1):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +There was an admirable fitness in your union, and I had been +able to watch how it became closer and easier, in spite of so much +to separate you, in mental habits, in early affinities, and even in +the form of fundamental convictions, since he came home from +your budget, overwhelmed, thirty-eight years ago. I saw all the +connections which had their root in social habit fade before the one +which took its rise from public life and proved more firm and more +enduring than the rest. +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +In September he paid a visit to his relatives at Fasque, +and thence he went to Glenalmond—spots that in his +tenacious memory must have awakened hosts of old and +dear associations. On October 1, he found himself after +a long and busy day, at Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he had +never stayed since his too memorable visit in 1862.<note place='foot'>See +above, vol. ii. p. 76.</note> Since +the defeat of the Irish policy in 1886, he had attended the +annual meeting of the chief liberal organisation at Nottingham +(1887), Birmingham (1888), and Manchester (1889). +This year it was the turn of Newcastle. On October 2, he +gave his blessing to various measures that afterwards came +to be known as the Newcastle programme. After the shock +caused by the Irish quarrel, every politician knew that it +would be necessary to balance home rule by reforms expected +in England and Scotland. No liberal, whatever his particular +shade, thought that it would be either honourable +or practical to throw the Irish policy overboard, and if there +<pb n='463'/><anchor id='Pg463'/> +<note place='margin'>At Newcastle</note> +were any who thought such a course honourable, they knew +it would not be safe. The principle and expediency of home +rule had taken a much deeper root in the party than it +suited some of the trimming tribe later to admit. On the +other hand, after five years of pretty exclusive devotion to +the Irish case, to pass by the British case and its various +demands for an indefinite time longer, would have been +absurd. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +In the eighties Mr. Gladstone grew into close friendship +with one who had for many years been his faithful supporter +in the House of Commons as member for Dundee. Nobody +ever showed him devotion more considerate, loyal, and +unselfish than did Mr. Armitstead, from about the close of +the parliament of 1880 down to the end of this story.<note place='foot'>Once +Mr. Gladstone presented +him with a piece of plate, and set +upon it one of those little Latin inscriptions +to which he was so much +addicted, and which must serve here +instead of further commemoration of +a remarkable friendship: Georgio +Armitstead, Armigero, D.D. Gul. E. +Gladstone. Amicitiæ Benevolentiæ +Beneficiorum delatorum Valde memor +Mense Augusti A.D., 1894.</note> In +the middle of December 1891 Mr. Armitstead planned a +foreign trip for his hero, and persuaded me to join. Biarritz +was to be our destination, and the expedition proved a +wonderful success. Some notes of mine, though intended +only for domestic consumption, may help to bring Mr. +Gladstone in his easiest moods before the reader's eye. +No new ideas struck fire, no particular contribution was +made to grand themes. But a great statesman on a holiday +may be forgiven for not trying to discover brand-new keys +to philosophy, history, and <q>all the mythologies.</q> As a +sketch from life of the veteran's buoyancy, vigour, genial +freshness of heart and brain, after four-score strenuous +years, these few pages may be found of interest. +</p> + +<milestone unit='tb' rend='rule: 50%'/> + +<p> +We left Paris at nine in the morning (Dec. 16), and were +listening to the swell of the mighty Bay resounding under +our windows at Biarritz soon after midnight. +</p> + +<p> +The long day's journey left no signs of fatigue on either +Mr. or Mrs. Gladstone, and his only regret was that we had +<pb n='464'/><anchor id='Pg464'/> +not come straight through instead of staying a night in +Paris. I'm always for going straight on, he said. For some +odd reason in spite of the late hour he was full of stories of +American humour, which he told with extraordinary verve +and enjoyment. I contributed one that amused him much, +of the Bostonian who, having read Shakespeare for the first +time, observed, <q>I call that a very clever book. Now, I +don't suppose there are twenty men in Boston to-day who +could have written that book!</q> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Thursday, Dec. 17.</hi>—Splendid morning for making +acquaintance with a new place. Saw the western spur +of the Pyrenees falling down to the Bidassoa and the first +glimpse of the giant wall, beyond which, according to +Michelet, Africa begins, and our first glimpse of Spain. +</p> + +<p> +After breakfast we all sallied forth to look into the shops +and to see the lie of the land. Mr. G. as interested as a +child in all the objects in the shops—many of them showing +that we are not far from Spain. The consul very polite, +showed us about, and told us the hundred trifles that bring +a place really into one's mind. Nothing is like a first +morning's stroll in a foreign town. By afternoon the spell +dissolves, and the mood comes of Dante's lines, <q><foreign rend='italic'>Era già +l'ora</foreign>,</q> etc.<note place='foot'><p> +Era già l'ora, che volge 'l disio<lb/> +A' naviganti, e 'ntenerisce 'l cuore<lb/> +Lo di ch' han detto a' dolci amici addio, etc. +</p> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Purg.</hi> viii. +</p> +<p> +Byron's rendering is well enough known. +</p></note> +</p> + +<p> +Some mention was made of Charles Austin, the famous +lawyer: it brought up the case of men who are suddenly +torn from lives of great activity to complete idleness. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—I don't know how to reconcile it with what I've +always regarded as the foundation of character—Bishop +Butler's view of habit. How comes it that during the +hundreds of years in which priests and fellows of Eton +College have retired from hard work to college livings and +leisure, not one of them has ever done anything whatever +for either scholarship or divinity—not one? +</p> + +<p> +Mr. G. did not know Mazzini, but Armellini, another of +the Roman triumvirs, taught him Italian in 1832. +<pb n='465'/><anchor id='Pg465'/> +<note place='margin'>Opinions On Statesmen</note> +I spoke a word for Gambetta, but he would not have it. +<q>Gambetta was <foreign rend='italic'>autoritaire</foreign>; I do not feel as if he were +a true liberal in the old and best sense. I cannot forget how +hostile he was to the movement for freedom in the Balkans.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Said he only once saw Lord Liverpool. He went to call +on Canning at Glos'ter House (close to our Glos'ter Road +Station), and there through a glass door he saw Canning +and Lord Liverpool talking together. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Peel.</hi>—Had a good deal of temper; not hot; but perhaps +sulky. Not a farsighted man, but fairly clear-sighted. <q>I +called upon him after the election in 1847. The Janissaries, +as Bentinck called us, that is the men who had stood by +Peel, had been 110 before the election; we came back only 50. +Peel said to me that what he looked forward to was a long +and fierce struggle on behalf of protection. I must say I +thought this foolish. If Bentinck had lived, with his strong +will and dogged industry, there might have been a wide +rally for protection, but everybody knew that Dizzy did not +care a straw about it, and Derby had not constancy and +force enough.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Mr. G. said Disraeli's performances against Peel were +quite as wonderful as report makes them. Peel altogether +helpless in reply. Dealt with them with a kind of <q>righteous +dulness.</q> The Protectionist secession due to three +men: Derby contributed prestige; Bentinck backbone; and +Dizzy parliamentary brains. +</p> + +<p> +The golden age of administrative reform was from 1832 +to the Crimean War; Peel was always keenly interested in +the progress of these reforms. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Northcote.</hi>—<q>He was my private secretary; and one of +the very best imaginable; pliant, ready, diligent, quick, +acute, with plenty of humour, and a temper simply perfect. +But as a leader, I think ill of him; you had a conversation; +he saw the reason of your case; and when he left, you +supposed all was right. But at the second interview, you +always found that he had been unable to persuade his +friends. What could be weaker than his conduct on the +Bradlaugh affair! You could not wonder that the rank +and file of his men should be caught by the proposition +<pb n='466'/><anchor id='Pg466'/> +that an atheist ought not to sit in parliament. But what +is a leader good for, if he dare not tell his party that in +a matter like this they are wrong, and of course nobody +knew better than N. that they were wrong. A clever, quick +man with fine temper. By the way, how is it that we have +no word, no respectable word, for backbone?</q> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Character? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Well, character; yes; but that's vague. It +means will, I suppose. (I ought to have thought of +Novalis's well-known definition of character as <q>a completely +fashioned will.</q>) +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Our inferiority to the Greeks in discriminations +of language shown by our lack of precise equivalents for +φρόνησις, σοφία, σωφροσύνη, etc., of which we used to hear +so much when coached in the <hi rend='italic'>Ethics</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. G. went on to argue that because the Greeks drew +these fine distinctions in words, they were superior in +conduct. <q>You cannot beat the Greeks in noble qualities.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—I admit there is no Greek word of good credit +for the virtue of humility. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—ταπεινότης? But that has an association of +meanness. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Yes; a shabby sort of humility. Humility as a +sovereign grace is the creation of Christianity. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Friday, December 18.</hi>—Brilliant sunshine, but bitterly +cold; an east wind blowing straight from the Maritime Alps. +Walking, reading, talking. Mr. G. after breakfast took me +into his room, where he is reading Heine, Butcher on +Greek genius, and Marbot. Thought Thiers's well-known +remark on Heine's death capital,—<q>To-day the wittiest +Frenchman alive has died.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—We have talked about the best line in poetry, etc. +How do you answer this question—Which century of English +history produced the greatest men? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—What do you say to the sixteenth? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Yes, I think so. Gardiner was a great man. +Henry <hi rend='smallcaps'>viii.</hi> was great. But bad. Poor Cranmer. Like +Northcote, he'd no backbone. Do you remember Jeremy +Collier's sentence about his bravery at the stake, which +<pb n='467'/><anchor id='Pg467'/> +<note place='margin'>Table-Talk</note> +I count one of the grandest in English prose—<q>He seemed +to repel the force of the fire and to overlook the torture, +by strength of thought.</q><note place='foot'>On some other occasion he set +this against Macaulay's praise of a +passage in Barrow mentioned above, +ii. p. 536.</note> Thucydides could not beat +that. +</p> + +<p> +The old man twice declaimed the sentence with deep +sonorous voice, and his usual incomparable modulation. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. G. talked of a certain General ——. He was thought +to be a first-rate man; neglected nothing, looked to things +himself, conceived admirable plans, and at last got an +important command. Then to the universal surprise, +nothing came of it; —— they said, <q>could do everything that +a commander should do, except say, <emph>Quick march</emph>.</q> There +are plenty of politicians of that stamp, but Mr. G. decidedly +not one of them. I mentioned a farewell dinner given to —— in +the spring, by some rich man or other. It cost +£560 for forty-eight guests! Flowers alone £150. Mr. G. +on this enormity, recalled a dinner to Talfourd about copyright +at the old Clarendon Hotel in Bond Street, and the +price was £2, 17s. 6d. a head. The old East India Company +used to give dinners at a cost of seven guineas a head. He +has a wonderfully lively interest for these matters, and his +curiosity as to the prices of things in the shop-windows is +inexhaustible. We got round to Goethe. Goethe, he said, +never gave prominence to duty. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Surely, surely in that fine psalm of life, +<hi rend='italic'>Das +Göttliche</hi>? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Döllinger used to confront me with the +<hi rend='italic'>Iphigenie</hi> +as a great drama of duty. +</p> + +<p> +He wished that I had known Döllinger—<q>a man thoroughly +from beginning to end of his life <emph>purged of self</emph>.</q> Mistook +the nature of the Irish questions, from the erroneous view +that Irish Catholicism is ultramontane, which it certainly +is not. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Saturday, Dec. 19.</hi>— +</p> + +<p> +What is extraordinary is that all Mr. G.'s versatility, +buoyancy, and the rest goes with the most profound accuracy +and intense concentration when any point of public business +<pb n='468'/><anchor id='Pg468'/> +is raised. Something was said of the salaries of bishops. +He was ready in an instant with every figure and detail, and +every circumstance of the history of the foundation of the +Ecclesiastical Commission in 1835-6. Then his <hi rend='italic'>savoir faire</hi> +and wisdom of parliamentary conduct. <q>I always made it +a rule in the H. of C. to allow nobody to suppose that I did +not like him, and to say as little as I could to prevent anybody +from liking me. Considering the intense friction and +contention of public life, it is a saving of wear and tear that +as many as possible even among opponents should think +well of one.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Sunday, Dec. 20.</hi>—At table, a little discussion as to the +happiness and misery of animal creation. Outside of man +Mr. G. argued against Tennyson's description of Nature as +red in tooth and claw. Apart from man, he said, and the +action of man, sentient beings are happy and not miserable. +But Fear? we said. No; they are unaware of impending +doom; when hawk or kite pounces on its prey, the small +bird has little or no apprehension; 'tis death, but death by +appointed and unforeseen lot. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—There is Hunger. Is not the probability that most +creatures are always hungry, not excepting Man? +</p> + +<p> +To this he rather assented. Of course optimism like this +is indispensable as the basis of natural theology. +</p> + +<p> +Talked to Mr. G. about Michelet's Tableau de la France, +which I had just finished in vol. 2 of the history. A +brilliant tour de force, but strains the relations of soil to +character; compels words and facts to be the slaves of his +phantasy; the modicum of reality overlaid with violent paradox +and foregone conclusion. Mr. G. not very much interested—seems +only to care for political and church history. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Monday, Dec. 31.</hi>—Mr. G. did not appear at table to-day, +suffering from a surfeit of wild strawberries the day before. +But he dined in his dressing gown, and I had some chat +with him in his room after lunch. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—<q>'Tis a hard law of political things that if a man +shows special competence in a department, that is the very +thing most likely to keep him there, and prevent his +promotion.</q> +</p> + +<pb n='469'/><anchor id='Pg469'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Table-Talk</note> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—I consider Burke a tripartite man: America, +France, Ireland—right as to two, wrong in one. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Must you not add home affairs and India? His +<hi rend='italic'>Thoughts on the Discontents</hi> is a masterpiece of civil wisdom, +and the right defence in a great constitutional struggle. +Then he gave fourteen years of industry to Warren Hastings, +and teaching England the rights of the natives, princes +and people, and her own duties. So he was right in four out +of five. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Yes, yes—quite true. Those two ought to be +added to my three. There is a saying of Burke's from +which I must utterly dissent. <q>Property is sluggish and +inert.</q> Quite the contrary. Property is vigilant, active, +sleepless; if ever it seems to slumber, be sure that one +eye is open. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Marie Antoinette.</hi> I once read the three volumes of letters +from Mercy d'Argenteau to Maria Theresa. He seems to +have performed the duty imposed upon him with fidelity. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Don't you think the Empress comes out well in +the correspondence? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Yes, she shows always judgment and sagacity. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Ah, but besides sagacity, worth and as much +integrity as those slippery times allowed. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Yes (but rather reluctantly, I thought). As for +Marie Antoinette, she was not a striking character in any +senses she was horribly frivolous; and, I suppose, we must +say she was, what shall I call it—a very considerable flirt? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—The only case with real foundation seems to be +that of the <hi rend='italic'>beau Fersen</hi>, the Swedish secretary. He too +came to as tragic an end as the Queen. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Tuesday, Dec. 22.</hi>—Mr. G. still somewhat indisposed—but +reading away all day long. Full of Marbot. Delighted +with the story of the battle of Castiglione: how when +Napoleon held a council of war, and they all said they were +hemmed in, and that their only chance was to back out, +Augereau roughly cried that they might all do what they +liked, but he would attack the enemy cost what it might. +<q>Exactly like a place in the <hi rend='italic'>Iliad</hi>; when Agamemnon and +the rest sit sorrowful in the assembly arguing that it was +<pb n='470'/><anchor id='Pg470'/> +useless to withstand the sovereign will of Zeus, and that +they had better flee into their ships, Diomed bursts out that +whatever others think, in any event he and Sthenelus, his +squire, will hold firm, and never desist from the onslaught +until they have laid waste the walls of +Troy.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Iliad</hi>, ix. 32.</note> A large +dose of Diomed in Mr. G. himself. +</p> + +<p> +Talk about the dangerous isolation in which the monarchy +will find itself in England if the hereditary principle goes +down in the House of Lords; <q>it will stand bare, naked, +with no shelter or shield, only endured as the better of two +evils.</q> <q>I once asked,</q> he said, <q>who besides myself in the +party cares for the hereditary principle? The answer was, +That perhaps —— cared for it!!</q>—naming a member of +the party supposed to be rather sapient than sage. +</p> + +<p> +News in the paper that the Comte de Paris in his discouragement +was about to renounce his claims, and break +up his party. Somehow this brought us round to Tocqueville, +of whom Mr. G. spoke as the nearest French approach +to Burke. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—But pale and without passion. Who was it that +said of him that he was an aristocrat who accepted his +defeat? That is, he knew democracy to be the conqueror, +but he doubted how far it would be an improvement, he saw +its perils, etc. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—I have not much faith in these estimates, whether +in favour of progress or against it. I don't believe in comparisons +of age with age. How can a man strike a balance +between one government and another? How can he place +himself in such an attitude, and with such comprehensive +sureness of vision, as to say that the thirteenth century was +better or higher or worse or lower than the nineteenth? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Thursday, Dec. 24.</hi>—At lunch we had the news of the +Parnellite victory at Waterford. A disagreeable reverse for +us. Mr. G. did not say many words about it, only that it +would give heart to the mischief makers—only too certain. +But we said no more about it. He and I took a walk on +the sands in the afternoon, and had a curious talk (considering), +about the prospects of the church of England. He was +<pb n='471'/><anchor id='Pg471'/> +<note place='margin'>Ecclesiastical</note> +anxious to know about my talk some time ago with the +Bishop of —— whom I had met at a feast at Lincoln's Inn. +I gave him as good an account as I could of what had +passed. Mr. G. doubted that this prelate was fundamentally +an Erastian, as Tait was. Mr. G. is eager to read the signs +of the times as to the prospects of Anglican Christianity, to +which his heart is given; and he fears the peril of Erastianism +to the spiritual life of the church, which is naturally +the only thing worth caring about. Hence, he talked with +much interest of the question whether the clever fellows at +Oxford and Cambridge now take orders. He wants to know +what kind of defenders his church is likely to have in days +to come. Said that for the first time interest has moved +away both from politics and theology, towards the vague +something which they call social reform; and he thinks +they won't make much out of that in the way of permanent +results. The establishment he considers safer than it has +been for a long time. +</p> + +<p> +As to Welsh disestablishment, he said it was a pity that +where the national sentiment was so unanimous as it was in +Wales, the operation itself should not be as simple as +in Scotland. In Scotland sentiment is not unanimous, but +the operation is easy. In Wales sentiment is all one way, +but the operation difficult—a good deal more difficult than +people suppose, as they will find out when they come to +tackle it. +</p> + +<p> +[Perhaps it may be mentioned here that, though we +always talked freely and abundantly together upon ecclesiastical +affairs and persons, we never once exchanged a word +upon theology or religious creed, either at Biarritz or anywhere +else.] +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pitt.</hi>—A strong denunciation of Pitt for the French war. +People don't realise what the French war meant. In 1812 +wheat at Liverpool was 20s. (?) the imperial bushel of +65 pounds (?)! Think of that, when you bring it into +figures of the cost of a loaf. And that was the time when +Eaton, Eastnor, and other great palaces were built by the +landlords out of the high rents which the war and war prices +enabled them to exact. +</p> + +<pb n='472'/><anchor id='Pg472'/> + +<p> +Wished we knew more of Melbourne. He was in many +ways a very fine fellow. <q>In two of the most important of all +the relations of a prime minister, he was perfect; I mean +first, his relations to the Queen, second to his colleagues.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Somebody at dinner quoted a capital description of the +perverse fashion of talking that prevailed at Oxford soon +after my time, and prevails there now, I fancy—<q>hunting +for epigrammatic ways of saying what you don't think.</q> —— was +the father of this pestilent mode. +</p> + +<p> +Rather puzzled him by repeating a saying of mine that +used to amuse Fitzjames Stephen, that Love of Truth is more +often than we think only a fine name for Temper. I think +Mr. G. has a thorough dislike for anything that has a +cynical or sardonic flavour about it. I wish I had thought, +by the way, of asking him what he had to say of that piece of +Swift's, about all objects being insipid that do not come by +delusion, and everything being shrunken as it appears in the +glass of nature, so that if it were not for artificial mediums, +refracted angles, false lights, varnish and tinsel, there would +be pretty much of a level in the felicity of mortal man. +</p> + +<p> +Am always feeling how strong is his aversion to seeing +more than he can help of what is sordid, mean, ignoble. +He has not been in public life all these years without rubbing +shoulders with plenty of baseness on every scale, and plenty +of pettiness in every hue, but he has always kept his eyes +well above it. Never was a man more wholly free of the +starch of the censor, more ready to make allowance, nor +more indulgent even; he enters into human nature in all +its compass. But he won't linger a minute longer than he +must in the dingy places of life and character. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Christmas Day, 1891.</hi>—A divine day, brilliant sunshine, +and mild spring air. Mr. G. heard what he called an admirable +sermon from an English preacher, <q>with a great +command of his art.</q> A quietish day, Mr. G. no doubt +engaged in φρονεῖν τὰ ὅσια. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Saturday, Dec. 26.</hi>—Once more a noble day. We started +in a couple of carriages for the Négress station, a couple +of miles away or more, I with the G.'s. Occasion produced +the Greek epitaph of the nameless drowned sailor +<pb n='473'/><anchor id='Pg473'/> +<note place='margin'>Fuentarabia</note> +who wished for others kinder seas.<note place='foot'><p> +ναυτίλε, μὴ πεύθου τίνος ἐνθάδε τύμβος ὅδ᾽ εἰμί,<lb/> +ἀλλ αὐτὸς πόντου τύγχανε χρηστοτέρου. +</p> +<p> +<q>Ask not, mariner, whose tomb I am here, but be thine own fortune a +kinder sea.</q>—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Mackail.</hi> +</p></note> Mr. G. felt its pathos +and its noble charm—so direct and simple, such benignity, +such a good lesson to men to forget their own misdeeds and +mischance, and to pray for the passer-by a happier star. +He repaid me by two epigrams of a different vein, and one +admirable translation into Greek, of Tennyson on Sir John +Franklin, which I do not carry in my mind; another on a +boisterous Eton fellow— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l>Didactic, dry, declamatory, dull,</l> +<l>The bursar —— bellows like a bull.</l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p> +Just in the tone of Greek epigram, a sort of point, but not +too much point. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Parliamentary Wit.</hi>—Thought Disraeli had never been +surpassed, nor even equalled, in this line. He had a contest +with General Grey, who stood upon the general merits of +the whig government, after both Lord Grey and Stanley had +left it. D. drew a picture of a circus man who advertised +his show with its incomparable team of six grey horses. +One died, he replaced it by a mule. Another died, and he +put in a donkey, still he went on advertising his team of +greys all the same. Canning's wit not to be found conspicuously +in his speeches, but highly agreeable pleasantries, +though many of them in a vein which would jar horribly on +modern taste. +</p> + +<p> +Some English redcoats and a pack of hounds passed us +as we neared the station. They saluted Mr. G. with a +politeness that astonished him, but was pleasant. Took the +train for Irun, the fields and mountain slopes delightful +in the sun, and the sea on our right a superb blue such +as we never see in English waters. At Irun we found +carriages waiting to take us on to Fuentarabia. From the +balcony of the church had a beautiful view over the scene of +Wellington's operations when he crossed the Bidassoa, in the +presence of the astonished Soult. A lovely picture, made +none the worse by this excellent historic association. The +<pb n='474'/><anchor id='Pg474'/> +alcalde was extremely polite and intelligent. The consul +who was with us showed a board on the old tower, in which +<hi rend='italic'>v</hi> in some words was +<hi rend='italic'>b</hi>, and I noted that the alcalde spoke of +Viarritz. I reminded Mr. G. of Scaliger's epigram— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l>Haud temere antiquas mutat Vasconia voces,</l> +<l>Cui nihil est alind vivere quam bibere.</l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p> +Pretty cold driving home, but Mr. G. seemed not to care. +He found both the churches at St. Jean and at Fuentarabia +very noteworthy, though the latter very popish, but both, he +felt, <q>had a certain association with grandeur.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Sunday, Dec. 27.</hi>—After some quarter of an hour of +travellers' topics, we plunged into one of the most interesting +talks we have yet had. <hi rend='italic'>Apropos</hi> of I do not know +what, Mr. G. said that he had not advised his son to enter +public life. <q>No doubt there are some men to whom station, +wealth, and family traditions make it a duty. But I have +never advised any individual, as to whom I have been consulted, +to enter the H. of C.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—But isn't that rather to encourage self-indulgence? +Nobody who cares for ease or mental composure would seek +public life? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Ah, I don't know that. Surely politics open up +a great field for the natural man. Self-seeking, pride, +domination, power—all these passions are gratified in +politics. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—You cannot be sure of achievement in politics, +whether personal or public? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—No; to use Bacon's pregnant phrase, they are too +immersed in matter. Then as new matter, that is, new +details and particulars, come into view, men change their +judgment. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—You have spoken just now of somebody as a +thorough good tory. You know the saying that nobody is +worth much who has not been a bit of a radical in his +youth, and a bit of a tory in his fuller age. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi> (laughing)—Ah, I'm afraid that hits me rather +hard. But for myself, I think I can truly put up all the +change that has come into my politics into a sentence; I +<pb n='475'/><anchor id='Pg475'/> +<note place='margin'>Disenchantment A Mistake</note> +was brought up to distrust and dislike liberty, I learned to +believe in it. That is the key to all my changes. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—According to my observation, the change in my +own generation is different. They have ceased either to +trust or to distrust liberty, and have come to the mind that +it matters little either way. Men are disenchanted. They +have got what they wanted in the days of their youth, yet +what of it, they ask? France has thrown off the Empire, +but the statesmen of the republic are not a great breed. +Italy has gained her unity, yet unity has not been followed +by thrift, wisdom, or large increase of public virtue or +happiness. America has purged herself of slavery, yet life +in America is material, prosaic,—so say some of her own +rarest sons. Don't think that I say all these things. But +I know able and high-minded men who suffer from this +disenchantment. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Italy would have been very different if Cavour +had only lived—and even Ricasoli. Men ought not to +suffer from disenchantment. They ought to know that +<emph>ideals in politics are never realised</emph>. And don't let us +forget in eastern Europe the rescue in our time of some +ten millions of men from the harrowing domination of +the Turk. (On this he expatiated, and very justly, with +much energy.) +</p> + +<p> +We turned to our own country. Here he insisted that +democracy had certainly not saved us from a distinct +decline in the standard of public men.... Look at the +whole conduct of opposition from '80 to '85—every principle +was flung overboard, if they could manufacture a combination +against the government. For all this deterioration one man +and one man alone is responsible, Disraeli. He is the grand +corrupter. He it was who sowed the seed. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Ought not Palmerston to bear some share in this? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—No, no; Pam. had many strong and liberal convictions. +On one subject Dizzy had them too—the Jews. +There he was much more than rational, he was fanatical. +He said once that Providence would deal good or ill fortune +to nations, according as they dealt well or ill by the Jews. +I remember once sitting next to John Russell when D. was +<pb n='476'/><anchor id='Pg476'/> +making a speech on Jewish emancipation. <q>Look at him,</q> +said J. R., <q>how manfully he sticks to it, tho' he knows that +every word he says is gall and wormwood to every man who +sits around him and behind him.</q> A curious irony, was it +not, that it should have fallen to me to propose a motion +for a memorial both to Pam. and Dizzy? +</p> + +<p> +A superb scene upon the ocean, with a grand wind from +the west. Mr. G. and I walked on the shore; he has a +passion for tumultuous seas. I have never seen such huge +masses of water shattering themselves among the rocks. +</p> + +<p> +In the evening Mr. G. remarked on our debt to Macaulay, +for guarding the purity of the English tongue. I recalled +a favourite passage from Milton, that next to the man +who gives wise and intrepid counsels of government, he +places the man who cares for the purity of his mother +tongue. Mr. G. liked this. Said he only knew Bright once +slip into an error in this respect, when he used <q>transpire</q> +for <q>happen.</q> Macaulay of good example also in rigorously +abstaining from the inclusion of matter in footnotes. +Hallam an offender in this respect. I pointed out that he +offended in company with Gibbon. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Monday, Dec. 28.</hi>—We had an animated hour at breakfast. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Oxford and Cambridge.</hi>—Curious how, like two buckets, +whenever one was up, the other was down. Cambridge has +never produced four such men of action in successive ages +as Wolsey, Laud, Wesley, and Newman. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—In the region of thought Cambridge has produced +the greatest of all names, Newton. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—In the earlier times Oxford has it—with Wycliff, +Occam, above all Roger Bacon. And then in the eighteenth +century, Butler. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—But why not Locke, too, in the century before? +</p> + +<p> +This brought on a tremendous tussle, for Mr. G. was of +the same mind, and perhaps for the same sort of reason, as +Joseph de Maistre, that contempt for Locke is the beginning +of knowledge. All very well for De Maistre, but not for a +man in line with European liberalism. I pressed the very +obvious point that you must take into account not only a +man's intellectual product or his general stature, but also +<pb n='477'/><anchor id='Pg477'/> +<note place='margin'>Table-Talk</note> +his influence as a historic force. From the point of view of +influence Locke was the origin of the emancipatory movement +of the eighteenth century abroad, and laid the philosophic +foundations of liberalism in civil government at home. +Mr. G. insisted on a passage of Hume's which he believed +to be in the history, disparaging Locke as a metaphysical +thinker.<note place='foot'>I have not succeeded in hitting on the passage +in the <hi rend='italic'>History</hi>.</note> <q>That may be,</q> +said I, <q>though Hume in his +<hi rend='italic'>Essays</hi> is not above paying many compliments to <q>the +great reasoner,</q> etc., to whom, for that matter, I fancy that +he stood in pretty direct relation. But far be it from me to +deny that Hume saw deeper than Locke into the metaphysical +millstone. That is not the point. I'm only +thinking of his historic place, and, after all, the history of +philosophy is itself a philosophy.</q> To minds nursed in +dogmatic schools, all this is both unpalatable and incredible. +</p> + +<p> +Somehow we slid into the freedom of the will and +Jonathan Edwards. I told him that Mill had often told +us how Edwards argued the necessarian or determinist case +as keenly as any modern. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Tuesday, Dec. 29.</hi>—Mr. G. 82 to-day. I gave him Mackail's +Greek Epigrams, and if it affords him half as much pleasure +as it has given me, he will be very grateful. Various people +brought Mr. G. bouquets and addresses. Mr. G. went to +church in the morning, and in the afternoon took a walk +with me.... <hi rend='italic'>Land Question.</hi> As you go through France +you see the soil cultivated by the population. In our little +dash into Spain the other day, we saw again the soil cultivated +by the population. In England it is cultivated by +the capitalist, for the farmer is capitalist. Some astonishing +views recently propounded by D. of Argyll on this matter. +Unearned increment—so terribly difficult to catch it. +Perhaps best try to get at it through the death duties. +Physical condition of our people—always a subject of great +anxiety—their stature, colour, and so on. Feared the +atmosphere of cotton factories, etc., very deleterious. As +against bad air, I said, you must set good food; the Lancashire +operative in decent times lives uncommonly well, as he +deserves to do. He agreed there might be something in this. +</p> + +<pb n='478'/><anchor id='Pg478'/> + +<p> +The day was humid and muggy, but the tumult of the sea +was most majestic. Mr. G. delighted in it. He has a passion +for the sound of the sea; would like to have it in his ear all +day and all night. Again and again he recurred to this. +</p> + +<p> +After dinner, long talk about Mazzini, of whom Mr. G. +thought poorly in comparison with Poerio and the others +who for freedom sacrificed their lives. I stood up for +Mazzini, as one of the most morally impressive men I had +ever known, or that his age knew; he breathed a soul into +democracy. +</p> + +<p> +Then we fell into a discussion as to the eastern and +western churches. He thought the western popes by their +proffered alliance with the mahometans, etc., had betrayed +Christianity in the east. I offered De Maistre's view. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. G. strongly assented to old Chatham's dictum that +vacancy is worse than even the most anxious work. He has +less to reproach himself with than most men under that head. +</p> + +<p> +He repeated an observation that I have heard him make +before, that he thought politicians are more <emph>rapid</emph> than other +people. I told him that Bowen once said to me on this that +he did not agree; that he thought rapidity the mark of all +successful men in the practical line of life, merchants and +stockbrokers, etc. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Wednesday, Dec. 30.</hi>—A very muggy day. A divine +sunset, with the loveliest pink and opal tints in the sky. +Mr. G. reading Gleig's <hi rend='italic'>Subaltern</hi>. Not a very entertaining +book in itself, but the incidents belong to Wellington's +Pyrenean campaign, and, for my own part, I rather enjoyed +it on the principle on which one likes reading <hi rend='italic'>Romola</hi> at +Florence, <hi rend='italic'>Transformation</hi> at +Rome, <hi rend='italic'>Sylvia's Lovers</hi> at +Whitby, and <hi rend='italic'>Hurrish</hi> on the northern edge of Clare. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Thursday, Dec. 31.</hi>—Down to the pier, and found all the +party watching the breakers, and superb they were. Mr. G. +exulting in the huge force of the Atlantic swell and the beat +of the rollers on the shore, like a Titanic pulse. +</p> + +<p> +After dinner Mr. G. raised the question of payment +of members. He had been asked by somebody whether +he meant at Newcastle to indicate that everybody should +be paid, or only those who chose to take it or to ask +<pb n='479'/><anchor id='Pg479'/> +<note place='margin'>Payment Of Members</note> +for it. He produced the same extraordinary plan as he +had described to me on the morning of his Newcastle +speech—<hi rend='italic'>i.e.</hi> that the Inland Revenue should ascertain from +their own books the income of every M.P., and if they +found any below the limit of exemption, should notify the +same to the Speaker, and the Speaker should thereupon +send to the said M.P. below the limit an annual cheque for, +say, £300, the name to appear in an annual return to Parliament +of all the M.P.'s in receipt of public money on any +grounds whatever. I demurred to this altogether, as +drawing an invidious distinction between paid and unpaid +members; said it was idle to ignore the theory on which the +demand for paid members is based, namely, that it is desirable +in the public interest that poor men should have access +to the H. of C.; and that the poor man should stand there +on the same footing as anybody else. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Friday, Jan. 1, 1892.</hi>—After breakfast Mrs. Gladstone +came to my room and said how glad she was that I had not +scrupled to put unpleasant points; that Mr. G. must not be +shielded and sheltered as some great people are, who hear +all the pleasant things and none of the unpleasant; that the +perturbation from what is disagreeable only lasts an hour. I +said I hoped that I was faithful with him, but of course +I could not be always putting myself in an attitude of +perpetual controversy. She said, <q>He is never made angry +by what you say.</q> And so she went away, and —— and +I had a good and most useful set-to about Irish finance. +</p> + +<p> +At luncheon Mr. G. asked what we had made out of our +morning's work. When we told him he showed a good deal +of impatience and vehemence, and, to my dismay, he came +upon union finance and the general subject of the treatment +of Ireland by England.... +</p> + +<p> +In the afternoon we took a walk, he and I, afterwards +joined by the rest. He was as delighted as ever with the +swell of the waves, as they bounded over one another, with +every variety of grace and tumultuous power. He wondered +if we had not more and better words for the sea than the +French—<q>breaker,</q> <q>billow,</q> <q>roller,</q> +as against <q>flot,</q> <q>vague,</q> +<q>onde,</q> <q>lame,</q> etc. +</p> + +<pb n='480'/><anchor id='Pg480'/> + +<p> +At dinner he asked me whether I had made up my mind +on the burning question of compulsory Greek for a university +degree. I said, No, that as then advised I was half inclined +to be against compulsory Greek, but it is so important +that I would not decide before I was obliged. <q>So with +me,</q> he said, <q>the question is one with many subtle and +deep-reaching consequences.</q> He dwelt on the folly of +striking Italian out of the course of modern education, +thus cutting European history in two, and setting an artificial +gulf between the ancient and modern worlds. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Saturday, Jan. 2.</hi>—Superb morning, and all the better +for being much cooler. At breakfast somebody started the +idle topic of quill pens. When they came to the length of +time that so-and-so made a quill serve, <q>De Retz,</q> said I, +<q>made up his mind that Cardinal Chigi was a poor creature, +<foreign rend='italic'>maximus in minimis</foreign>, because at their first interview +Chigi boasted that he had used one pen for three years.</q> That +recalled another saying of Retz's about Cromwell's famous +dictum, that nobody goes so far as the man who does not +know where he is going. Mr. G. gave his deep and eager +Ah! to this. He could not recall that Cromwell had +produced many dicta of such quality. <q>I don't love him, +but he was a mighty big fellow. But he was intolerant. +He was intolerant of the episcopalians.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Do you know whom I find the most tolerant +churchman of that time? <hi rend='italic'>Laud!</hi> Laud got Davenant made +Bishop of Salisbury, and he zealously befriended Chillingworth +and Hales. (There was some other case, which I forget.) +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>The execution of Charles.</hi>—I told him of Gardiner's new +volume which I had just been reading. <q>Charles,</q> he +said, <q>was no doubt a dreadful liar; Cromwell perhaps did +not always tell the truth; Elizabeth was a tremendous +liar.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Charles was not wholly inexcusable, being what he +was, for thinking that he had a good game in his hands, by +playing off the parliament against the army, etc. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—There was less excuse for cutting off his head than +in the case of poor Louis <hi rend='smallcaps'>xvi.</hi>, for Louis was the excuse for +foreign invasion. +</p> + +<pb n='481'/><anchor id='Pg481'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>At Bayonne</note> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Could you call foreign invasion the intervention +of the Scotch? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Well, not quite. I suppose it is certain that it was +Cromwell who cut off Charles's head? Not one in a hundred +in the nation desired it. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—No, nor one in twenty in the parliament. But then, +ninety-nine in a hundred in the army. +</p> + +<p> +In the afternoon we all drove towards Bayonne to watch +the ships struggle over the bar at high water. As it +happened we only saw one pass out, a countryman for +Cardiff. A string of others were waiting to go, but a little +steamer from Nantes came first, and having secured her +station, found she had not force enough to make the bar, +and the others remained swearing impatiently behind her. +The Nantes steamer was like Ireland. The scene was very +fresh and fine, and the cold most exhilarating after the +mugginess of the last two or three days. Mr. G., who has +a dizzy head, did not venture on the jetty, but watched +things from the sands. He and I drove home together, +at a good pace. <q>I am inclined,</q> he said laughingly, <q>to +agree with Dr. Johnson that there is no pleasure greater than +sitting behind four fast-going horses.</q><note place='foot'>Boswell, March 21, 1776. +Repeated, with a very remarkable qualification, +Sept. 19, 1777. Birkbeck +Hill's edition, iii. p. 162.</note> Talking of Johnson +generally, <q>I suppose we may take him as the best product +of the eighteenth century.</q> Perhaps so, but is he its +most characteristic product? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Wellington.</hi>—Curious that there should be no general +estimate of W.'s character; his character not merely as a +general but as a man. No love of freedom. His sense of +duty very strong, but military rather than civil. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Montalembert.</hi>—Had often come into contact with him. +A very amiable and attractive man. But less remarkable +than Rio. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Latin Poets.</hi>—Would you place Virgil first? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—Oh, no, Lucretius much the first for the greatest +and sublimest of poetic qualities. Mr. G. seemed to assent to +this, though disposed to make a fight for the second <hi rend='italic'>Aeneid</hi> +as equal to anything. He expressed his admiration for +<pb n='482'/><anchor id='Pg482'/> +Catullus, and then he was strong that Horace would run +anybody else very hard, breaking out with the lines about +Regulus— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l><q rend='pre'>Atqui sciebat quæ sibi barbarus</q></l> +<l><q rend='post'>Tortor pararet;</q> +etc.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Carm.</hi> iii. 5.</note></l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Blunders in Government.</hi>—How right Napoleon was when +he said, reflecting on all the vast complexities of government, +that the best to be said of a statesman is that he has +avoided the biggest blunders. +</p> + +<p> +It is not easy to define the charm of these conversations. +Is charm the right word? They are in the highest degree +stimulating, bracing, widening. That is certain. I return +to my room with the sensations of a man who has taken +delightful exercise in fresh air. He is so wholly free from the +<hi rend='italic'>ergoteur</hi>. There's all the difference +between the <hi rend='italic'>ergoteur</hi> +and the great debater. He fits his tone to the thing; he can +be as playful as anybody. In truth I have many a time +seen him in London and at Hawarden not far from trivial. +But here at Biarritz all is appropriate, and though, as I +say, he can be playful and gay as youth, he cannot resist +rising in an instant to the general point of view—to grasp +the elemental considerations of character, history, belief, +conduct, affairs. There he is at home, there he is most +himself. I never knew anybody less guilty of the tiresome +sin of arguing for victory. It is not his knowledge that +attracts; it is not his ethical tests and standards; it is not +that dialectical strength of arm which, as Mark Pattison +said of him, could twist a bar of iron to its purpose. It is +the combination of these with elevation, with true sincerity, +with extraordinary mental force. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Sunday, Jan. 3.</hi>—Vauvenargues is right when he says +that to carry through great undertakings, one must act as +though one could never die. My wonderful companion is +a wonderful illustration. He is like M. Angelo, who, just +before he died on the very edge of ninety, made an allegorical +figure, and inscribed upon it, <hi rend='italic'>ancora impara</hi>, <q>still +learning.</q> +</p> + +<p> +At dinner he showed in full force. +</p> + +<pb n='483'/><anchor id='Pg483'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Table-Talk</note> +<hi rend='italic'>Heroes of the Old Testament.</hi>—He could not honestly say +that he thought there was any figure in the O. T. comparable +to the heroes of Homer. Moses was a fine fellow. But the +others were of secondary quality—not great high personages, +of commanding nature. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Thinkers.</hi>—Rather an absurd word—to call a man a +thinker (and he repeated the word with gay mockery in his +tone). When did it come into use? Not until quite our +own times, eh? I said, I believed both Hobbes and Locke +spoke of thinkers, and was pretty sure that <foreign rend='italic'>penseur</foreign>, as +in <foreign rend='italic'>libre penseur</foreign>, had established itself in the last +century. [Quite true; Voltaire used it, but it was not common.] +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Dr. Arnold.</hi>—A high, large, impressive figure—perhaps +more important by his character and personality than his +actual work. I mentioned M. A.'s poem on his father, <hi rend='italic'>Rugby +Chapel</hi>, with admiration. Rather to my surprise, Mr. G. +knew the poem well, and shared my admiration to the full. +This brought us on to poetry generally, and he expatiated +with much eloquence and sincerity for the rest of the talk. +The wonderful continuity of fine poetry in England for +five whole centuries, stretching from Chaucer to Tennyson, +always a proof to his mind of the soundness, the sap, and +the vitality of our nation and its character. What people, +beginning with such a poet as Chaucer 500 years ago, could +have burst forth into such astonishing production of poetry +as marked the first quarter of the century, Byron, Wordsworth, +Shelley, etc. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—It is true that Germany has nothing, save Goethe, +Schiller, Heine, that's her whole list. But I should say a +word for the poetic movement in France: Hugo, Gautier, +etc. Mr. G. evidently knew but little, or even nothing, of +modern French poetry. He spoke up for Leopardi, on whom +he had written an article first introducing him to the British +public, ever so many years ago—in the <hi rend='italic'>Quarterly</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Wordsworth used occasionally to dine with me +when I lived in the Albany. A most agreeable man. I +always found him amiable, polite, and sympathetic. Only +once did he jar upon me, when he spoke slightingly of +Tennyson's first performance. +</p> + +<pb n='484'/><anchor id='Pg484'/> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—But he was not so wrong as he would be now. +Tennyson's Juvenilia are terribly artificial. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Yes, perhaps. Tennyson has himself withdrawn +some of them. I remember W., when he dined with me, +used on leaving to change his silk stockings in the anteroom +and put on grey worsted. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>J. M.</hi>—I once said to M. Arnold that I'd rather have been +Wordsworth than anybody [not exactly a modest ambition]; +and Arnold, who knew him well in the Grasmere country, +said, <q>Oh no, you would not; you would wish you were +dining with me at the Athenæum. He was too much of +the peasant for you.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—No, I never felt that; I always thought him a +polite and an amiable man. +</p> + +<p> +Mentioned Macaulay's strange judgment in a note in the +<hi rend='italic'>History</hi>, that Dryden's famous lines, +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l><q rend='pre'>... Fool'd with hope, men favour the deceit;</q></l> +<l>Trust on, and think to-morrow will repay.</l> +<l>To-morrow's falser than the former day;</l> +<l>Lies worse, and while it says we shall be blest</l> +<l>With some new joys, cuts off what we possest.</l> +<l><q rend='post'>Strange cozenage!...</q></l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p> +are as fine as any eight lines in Lucretius. Told him of +an excellent remark of —— on this, that Dryden's passage +wholly lacks the mystery and great superhuman air of +Lucretius. Mr. G. warmly agreed. +</p> + +<p> +He regards it as a remarkable sign of the closeness of the +church of England to the roots of life and feeling in the +country, that so many clergymen should have written so +much good poetry. Who, for instance? I asked. He +named Heber, Moultrie, Newman (<hi rend='italic'>Dream of Gerontius</hi>), and +Faber in at least one good poem, <q>The poor Labourer</q> (or +some such title), Charles Tennyson. I doubt if this thesis +has much body in it. He was for Shelley as the most +musical of all our poets. I told him that I had once asked +M. to get Tennyson to write an autograph line for a friend +of mine, and Tennyson had sent this:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l><q>Coldly on the dead volcano sleeps the gleam of dying day.</q></l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p> +So I suppose the poet must think well of it himself. 'Tis +<pb n='485'/><anchor id='Pg485'/> +<note place='margin'>Table-Talk</note> +from the second <hi rend='italic'>Locksley Hall</hi>, and describes a man after +passions have gone cool. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Yes, in melody, in the picturesque, and as apt +simile, a fine line. +</p> + +<p> +Had been trying his hand at a translation of his favourite +lines of Penelope about Odysseus. Said that, of course, you +could translate similes and set passages, but to translate +Homer as a whole, impossible. He was inclined, when +all is said, to think Scott the nearest approach to a +model. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Monday, Jan. 4.</hi>—At luncheon, Mr. Gladstone recalled the +well-known story of Talleyrand on the death of Napoleon. +The news was brought when T. chanced to be dining with +Wellington. <q>Quel événement!</q> they all cried. <q>Non, +ce n'est pas un événement,</q> said Talleyrand, <q>c'est une +nouvelle</q>—'Tis no event, 'tis a piece of news. <q>Imagine +such a way,</q> said Mr. G., <q>of taking the disappearance of +that colossal man! Compare it with the opening of Manzoni's +ode, which makes the whole earth stand still. Yet +both points of view are right. In one sense, the giant's +death was only news; in another, when we think of his +history, it was enough to shake the world.</q> At the moment, +he could not recall Manzoni's words, but at dinner he told +me that he had succeeded in piecing them together, and +after dinner he went to his room and wrote them down for +me on a piece of paper. Curiously enough, he could not +recall the passage in his own splendid +translation.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Translations by Lyttelton and Gladstone</hi>, p. 166.</note> +</p> + +<p> +Talk about handsome men of the past; Sidney Herbert +one of the handsomest and most attractive. But the +Duke of Hamilton bore away the palm, as glorious as a +Greek god. <q>One day in Rotten Row, I said this to the +Duchess of C. She set up James Hope-Scott against my +Duke. No doubt he had an intellectual element which the +Duke lacked.</q> Then we discussed the best-looking man in +the H. of C. to-day.... +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Duke of Wellington.</hi>—Somebody was expatiating on the +incomparable position of the Duke; his popularity with +kings, with nobles, with common people. Mr. G. remembered +<pb n='486'/><anchor id='Pg486'/> +that immediately after the formation of Canning's +government in 1827, when it was generally thought that +he had been most unfairly and factiously treated (as +Mr. G. still thinks, always saving Peel) by the Duke +and his friends, the Duke made an expedition to the +north of England, and had an overwhelming reception. +Of course, he was then only twelve years from Waterloo, +and yet only four or five years later he had to put up his +iron shutters. +</p> + +<p> +Approved a remark that a friend of ours was not simple +enough, not ready enough to take things as they come. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. G.</hi>—Unless a man has a considerable gift for taking +things as they come, he may make up his mind that +political life will be sheer torment to him. He must meet +fortune in all its moods. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Tuesday, Jan. 5.</hi>—After dinner to-day, Mr. G. extraordinarily +gay. He had bought a present of silver for his wife. +She tried to guess the price, and after the manner of wives +in such a case, put the figure provokingly low. Mr. G. then +put on the deprecating air of the tradesman with wounded +feelings—and it was as capital fun as we could desire. That +over, he fell to his backgammon with our host. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Wednesday, Jan. 6.</hi>—Mrs. Gladstone eighty to-day! What +a marvel.... +</p> + +<p> +Léon Say called to see Mr. G. Long and most interesting +conversation about all sorts of aspects of French politics, the +concordat, the schools, and all the rest of it. +</p> + +<p> +He illustrated the ignorance of French peasantry as to +current affairs. Thiers, long after he had become famous, +went on a visit to his native region; and there met a friend +of his youth. <q>Eh bien,</q> said his friend, <q>tu as fait ton +chemin.</q> <q>Mais oui, j'ai fait un peu mon chemin. J'ai été +ministre même.</q> <q>Ah, tiens! je ne savais pas que tu étais +protestant.</q> +</p> + +<p> +I am constantly struck by his solicitude for the well-being +and right doing of Oxford and Cambridge—<q>the two eyes of +the country.</q> This connection between the higher education +and the general movement of the national mind engages his +profound attention, and no doubt deserves such attention +<pb n='487'/><anchor id='Pg487'/> +<note place='margin'>Table-Talk</note> +in any statesman who looks beyond the mere surface problems +of the day. To perceive the bearings of such matters +as these, makes Mr. G. a statesman of the highest class, as +distinguished from men of clever expedients. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. G. had been reading the Greek epigrams on religion +in Mackail; quoted the last of them as illustrating the +description of the dead as the inhabitants of the more +populous world:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l>τῶν ἄπο κὴν ζωοῖσιν ἀκηδέα, κευτ᾽ ἄν ἵκηαι</l> +<l>ὲς πλεόνων, ἕξεις θυμὸν ἐλαφρότερον.<note place='foot'>Thou shalt possess thy soul +without care among the living, and lighter +when thou goest to the place where +most are.</note></l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p> +A more impressive epigram contains the same thought, +where the old man, leaning on his staff, likens himself to the +withered vine on its dry pole, and goes on to ask himself what +advantage it would be to warm himself for three or four more +years in the sun; and on that reflection without heroics put +off his life, and changed his home to the greater company, +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l>κὴς πλεόνων ἦλθε μετοικεσίην.</l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p> +All the rest of the evening he kept us alive by a stock of +infinite drolleries. A scene of a dish of over-boiled tea at +West Calder after a meeting, would have made the fortune +of a comedian. +</p> + +<p> +I said that in the all-important quality of co-operation, —— was +only good on condition of being in front. Mr. G. +read him in the same sense. Reminded of a mare he once +had—admirable, provided you kept off spur, curb, or whip; +show her one of these things, and she would do nothing. +Mr. G. more of a judge of men than is commonly thought. +</p> + +<p> +Told us of a Chinese despatch which came under his notice +when he was at the board of trade, and gave him food for +reflection. A ship laden with grain came to Canton. The +administrator wrote to the central government at Pekin to +know whether the ship was to pay duty and land its cargo. +The answer was to the effect that the central government of +the Flowery Land was quite indifferent as a rule to the goings +and comings of the Barbarians; whether they brought a cargo +or brought no cargo was a thing of supreme unconcern. <q>But +this cargo, you say, is food for the people. There ought to be +<pb n='488'/><anchor id='Pg488'/> +no obstacle to the entry of food for the people. So let it in. +Your Younger Brother commends himself to you, etc. etc.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Friday, Jan. 8.</hi>—A quiet evening. We were all rather +piano at the end of an episode which had been thoroughly +delightful. When Mr. G. bade me good-night, he said with +real feeling, <q>More sorry than I can say that this is our last +evening together at Biarritz.</q> He is painfully grieved to +lose the sound of the sea in his ears. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Saturday, Jan. 9.</hi>—Strolled about all the forenoon. <q>What +a time of blessed composure it has been,</q> said Mr. G. with a +heavy sigh. The distant hills covered with snow, and the +voice of the storm gradually swelling. Still the savage fury +of the sea was yet some hours off, so we had to leave Biarritz +without the spectacle of Atlantic rage at its fiercest. +</p> + +<p> +Found comfortable saloon awaiting us at Bayonne, and so +under weeping skies we made our way to Pau. The landscape +must be pretty, weather permitting. As it was, we +saw but little. Mr. G. dozed and read Max Müller's book on +Anthropological Religions. +</p> + +<p> +Arrived at Pau towards 5.30; drenching rain: nothing to +be seen. +</p> + +<p> +At tea time, a good little discussion raised by a protest +against Dante being praised for a complete survey of human +nature and the many phases of human lot. Intensity he +has, but insight over the whole field of character and life? +Mr. G. did not make any stand against this, and made the +curious admission that Dante was too optimist to be placed +on a level with Shakespeare, or even with Homer. +</p> + +<p> +Then we turned to lighter themes. He had once said to +Henry Taylor, <q>I should have thought he was the sort of +man to have a good strong grasp of a subject,</q> speaking of +Lord Grey, who had been one of Taylor's many chiefs at the +Colonial Office. <q>I should have thought,</q> replied Taylor +slowly and with a dreamy look, <q>he was the sort of man to +have a good strong <emph>nip</emph> of a subject.</q> Witty, and very +applicable to many men. +</p> + +<p> +Wordsworth once gave Mr. G. with much complacency, +as an example of his own readiness and resource, this story. +A man came up to him at Rydal and said, <q>Do you happen +<pb n='489'/><anchor id='Pg489'/> +to have seen my wife.</q> <q>Why,</q> replied the Sage, <q>I did not +know you had a wife!</q> This peculiarly modest attempt +at pointed repartee much tickled Mr. G., as well it might. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Tuesday, Jan. 12.</hi>—Mr. G. completely recovered from two +days of indisposition. We had about an hour's talk on things +in general, including policy in the approaching session. He +did not expect a dissolution, at the same time a dissolution +would not surprise him. +</p> + +<p> +At noon they started for Périgord and Carcassonne, Nismes, +Arles, and so on to the Riviera full of kind things at our +parting. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='490'/><anchor id='Pg490'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter VII. The Fourth Administration. (1892-1894)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l>Τῷ δ᾽ ἤδη δύο μὲν γενεαὶ μερόπων ἀνθρώπων</l> +<l>ἐφθίαθ, οἷ οἱ πρόσθεν ἅμα τράφεν ἠδὲ γένοντο</l> +<l>ἐν Πύλῳ ἠγαθέῃ, μετὰ δὲ τριτάτοισιν ἄνασσεν.</l> +</lg> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Iliad</hi>, i. 250. +</p> + +<p> +Two generations of mortal men had he already seen pass away, who +with him of old had been born and bred in sacred Pylos, and among +the third generation he held rule. +</p> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +In 1892 the general election came, after a session that was +not very long nor at all remarkable. Everybody knew that +we should soon be dismissed, and everybody knew that the +liberals would have a majority, but the size of it was beyond +prognostication. Mr. Gladstone did not talk much about it, +but in fact he reckoned on winning by eighty or a hundred. +A leading liberal-unionist at whose table we met (May 24) +gave us forty. That afternoon by the way the House had +heard a speech of great power and splendour. An Irish tory +peer in the gallery said afterwards, <q>That old hero of yours +is a miracle. When he set off in that high pitch, I said that +won't last. Yet he kept it up all through as grand as ever, +and came in fresher and stronger than when he began.</q> His +sight failed him in reading an extract, and he asked me to +read it for him, so he sat down amid sympathetic cheers +while it was read out from the box. +</p> + +<p> +After listening to a strong and undaunted reply from Mr. +Balfour, he asked me to go with him into the tea-room; +he was fresh, unperturbed, and in high spirits. He told +me he had once sat at table with Lord Melbourne, but +regretted that he had never known him. Said that of the +sixty men or so who had been his colleagues in cabinet, the +<pb n='491'/><anchor id='Pg491'/> +<note place='margin'>Conversations</note> +very easiest and most attractive was Clarendon. Constantly +regretted that he had never met nor known Sir Walter +Scott, as of course he might have done. Thought the effect +of diplomacy to be bad on the character; to train yourself +to practise the airs of genial friendship towards men from +whom you are doing your best to hide yourself, and out of +whom you are striving to worm that which they wish to +conceal. Said that he was often asked for advice by young +men as to objects of study. He bade them study and ponder, +first, the history and working of freedom in America; second, +the history of absolutism in France from Louis <hi rend='smallcaps'>xiv.</hi> to +the Revolution. It was suggested that if the great thing +with the young is to attract them to fine types of character, +the Huguenots had some grave, free, heroic figures, and in +the eighteenth century Turgot was the one inspiring example: +when Mill was in low spirits, he restored himself by +Condorcet's life of Turgot. This reminded him that Canning +had once praised Turgot in the House of Commons, +though most likely nobody but himself knew anything at +all about Turgot. Talking of the great centuries, the thirteenth, +and the sixteenth, and the seventeenth, Mr. Gladstone +let drop what for him seems the remarkable judgment +that <q>Man as a type has not improved since those great +times; he is not so big, so grand, so heroic as he has +been.</q> This, the reader will agree, demands a good deal +of consideration. +</p> + +<p> +Then he began to talk about offices, in view of what were +now pretty obvious possibilities. After discussing more +important people, he asked whether, after a recent conversation, +I had thought more of my own office, and I told him +that I fancied like Regulus I had better go back to the Irish +department. <q>Yes,</q> he answered with a flash of his eye, <q>I +think so. The truth is that we're both chained to the oar; +I am chained to the oar; you are chained.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +The electoral period, when it arrived, he passed once more +at Dalmeny. In a conversation the morning after I was +<pb n='492'/><anchor id='Pg492'/> +allowed to join him there, he seemed already to have a grand +majority of three figures, to have kissed hands, and to be +installed in Downing Street. This confidence was indispensable +to him. At the end of his talk he went up to prepare +some notes for the speech that he was to make in the afternoon +at Glasgow. Just before the carriage came to take him +to the train, I heard him calling from the library. In I +went, and found him hurriedly thumbing the leaves of a +Horace. <q>Tell me,</q> he cried, <q>can you put your finger on the +passage about Castor and Pollux? I've just thought of +something; Castor and Pollux will finish my speech at Glasgow.</q> +<q>Isn't it in the Third Book?</q> said I. <q>No, no; I'm +pretty sure it is in the First Book</q>—busily turning over +the pages. <q>Ah, here it is,</q> and then he read out the noble +lines with animated modulation, shut the book with a bang, +and rushed off exultant to the carriage. This became one of +the finest of his perorations.<note place='foot'>See Appendix, +Hor. <hi rend='italic'>Carm.</hi> i. 12, 25.</note> His delivery of it that afternoon, +they said, was most majestic—the picture of the wreck, +and then the calm that gradually brought down the towering +billows to the surface of the deep, entrancing the audience +like magic. +</p> + +<p> +Then came a depressing week. The polls flowed in, all +day long, day after day. The illusory hopes of many months +faded into night. The three-figure majority by the end of +the week had vanished so completely, that one wondered +how it could ever have been thought of. On July 13 his +own Midlothian poll was declared, and instead of his old +majority of 4000, or the 3000 on which he counted, he was +only in by 690. His chagrin was undoubtedly intense, for +he had put forth every atom of his strength in the campaign. +But with that splendid suppression of vexation which is one +of the good lessons that men learn in public life, he put a +brave face on it, was perfectly cheery all through the +luncheon, and afterwards took me to the music-room, where +instead of constructing a triumphant cabinet with a majority +of a hundred, he had to try to adjust an Irish policy to a +parliament with hardly a majority at all. These topics +exhausted, with a curiously quiet gravity of tone he told me +<pb n='493'/><anchor id='Pg493'/> +<note place='margin'>Question Of Undertaking Government</note> +that cataract had formed over one eye, that its sight was +gone, and that in the other eye he was infested with a white +speck. <q>One white speck,</q> he said, almost laughing, <q>I can +do with, but if the one becomes many, it will be a bad business. +They tell me that perhaps the fresh air of Braemar +will do me good.</q> To Braemar the ever loyal Mr. Armitstead +piloted them, in company with Lord Acton of whose society +Mr. Gladstone could never have too much. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +It has sometimes been made a matter of blame by friends +no less than foes, that he should have undertaken the task +of government, depending on a majority not large enough to +coerce the House of Lords. One or two short observations +on this would seem to be enough. How could he refuse to +try to work his Irish policy through parliament, after the +bulk of the Irish members had quitted their own leader four +years before in absolute reliance on the sincerity and good +faith of Mr. Gladstone and his party? After all the confidence +that Ireland had shown in him at the end of 1890, how +could he in honour throw up the attempt that had been the +only object of his public life since 1886? To do this would +have been to justify indeed the embittered warnings of Mr. +Parnell in his most reckless hour. How could either refusal +of office or the postponement of an Irish bill after taking +office, be made intelligible in Ireland itself? Again, the path +of honour in Ireland was equally the path of honour and of +safety in Great Britain. Were British liberals, who had +given him a majority, partly from disgust at Irish coercion, +partly from faith that he could produce a working plan of +Irish government, and partly from hopes of reforms of their +own—were they to learn that their leaders could do nothing +for any of their special objects? +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone found some consolation in a precedent. In +1835, he argued, <q>the Melbourne government came in with a +British minority, swelled into a majority hardly touching +thirty by the O'Connell contingent of forty. And they staid +<pb n='494'/><anchor id='Pg494'/> +in for six years and a half, the longest lived government +since Lord Liverpool's.<note place='foot'>Lord Palmerston's +government of 1859 was shorter by only a few days.</note> +But the Irish were under the command +of a master; and Ireland, scarcely beginning her +political life, had to be content with small mercies. Lastly, +that government was rather slack, and on this ground perhaps +could not well be taken as a pattern.</q> In the present +case, the attitude of the Parnellite group who continued the +schism that began in the events of the winter of 1890, was +not likely to prove a grave difficulty in parliament, and in +fact it did not. The mischief here was in the effect of Irish +feuds upon public opinion in the country. As Mr. Gladstone +put it in the course of a letter that he had occasion to write +to me (November 26, 1892):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Until the schism arose, we had every prospect of a majority +approaching those of 1868 and 1880. With the death of Mr. +Parnell it was supposed that it must perforce close. But this +expectation has been disappointed. The existence and working +of it have to no small extent puzzled and bewildered the English +people. They cannot comprehend how a quarrel, to them utterly +unintelligible (some even think it discreditable), should be allowed +to divide the host in the face of the enemy; and their unity and +zeal have been deadened in proportion. Herein we see the main +cause why our majority is not more than double what it actually +numbers, and the difference between these two scales of majority +represents, as I apprehend, the difference between power to carry +the bill as the Church and Land bills were carried into law, and +the default of such power. The main mischief has already been +done; but it receives additional confirmation with the lapse of +every week or month. +</quote> + +<p> +In forming his fourth administration Mr. Gladstone found +one or two obstacles on which he had not reckoned, and +perhaps could not have been expected to reckon. By +that forbearance of which he was a master, they were +in good time surmounted. New men, of a promise soon +amply fulfilled, were taken in, including, to Mr. Gladstone's +own particular satisfaction, the son of the oldest +<pb n='495'/><anchor id='Pg495'/> +<note place='margin'>The Cabinet</note> +of all the surviving friends of his youth, Sir Thomas +Acland.<note place='foot'><p>Here is the Fourth Cabinet:— +</p> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>First lord of the treasury and privy seal</hi>, W. E. Gladstone.<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>Lord chancellor</hi>, Lord Herschell.<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>President of the council and Indian secretary</hi>, Earl of Kimberley.<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>Chancellor of the exchequer</hi>, Sir W. V. Harcourt.<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>Home secretary</hi>, H. H. Asquith.<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>Foreign secretary</hi>, Earl of Rosebery.<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>Colonial secretary</hi>, Marquis of Ripon.<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>Secretary for war</hi>, H. Campbell-Bannerman.<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>First lord of the admiralty</hi>, Earl Spencer.<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>Chief secretary for Ireland</hi>, John Morley.<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>Secretary for Scotland</hi>, Sir G. O. Trevelyan.<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>President of the board of trade</hi>, A. J. Mundella.<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>President of the local government board</hi>, H. H. Fowler.<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>Chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster</hi>, James Bryce.<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>Postmaster-general</hi>, Arnold Morley.<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>First commissioner of works</hi>, J. G. Shaw Lefevre.<lb/> +<hi rend='italic'>Vice-president of the council</hi>, A. H. D. Acland. +</p></note> +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone remained as head of the government for a +year and a few months (Aug. 1892 to March 3, 1894). In +that time several decisions of pith and moment were taken, +one measure of high importance became law, operations began +against the Welsh establishment, but far the most conspicuous +biographic element of this short period was his own +incomparable display of power of every kind in carrying the +new bill for the better government of Ireland through the +House of Commons. +</p> + +<p> +In foreign affairs it was impossible that he should forget +the case of Egypt. Lord Salisbury in 1887 had pressed forward +an arrangement by which the British occupation was +under definite conditions and at a definite date to come to +an end. If this convention had been accepted by the Sultan, +the British troops would probably have been home by the +time of the change of government in this country. French +diplomacy, however, at Constantinople, working as it might +seem against its own professed aims, hindered the ratification +of the convention, and Lord Salisbury's policy was frustrated. +Negotiations did not entirely drop, and they had not passed +out of existence when Lord Salisbury resigned. In the +autumn of 1892 the French ambassador addressed a friendly +inquiry to the new government as to the reception likely to +be given to overtures for re-opening the negotiations. The +<pb n='496'/><anchor id='Pg496'/> +answer was that if France had suggestions to offer, they +would be received in the same friendly spirit in which they +were tendered. When any communications were received, +Mr. Gladstone said in the House of Commons, there would +be no indisposition on our part to extend to them our +friendly consideration. Of all this nothing came. A rather +serious ministerial crisis in Egypt in January 1893, followed +by a ministerial crisis in Paris in April, arrested whatever +projects of negotiation France may have entertained.<note place='foot'>See +Mr. Gladstone's speeches and +answers to questions in the House of +Commons, Jan. 1, Feb. 3, and May +1, 1893. See also the French Yellow +Book for 1893, for M. Waddington's +despatches of Nov. 1, 1892, May 5, +1893, and Feb. 1, 1893.</note> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +In December (1892), at Hawarden, Mr. Gladstone said to +me one day after we had been working for five or six hours +at the heads of the new Home Rule bill, that his general +health was good and sound, but his sight and his hearing were +so rapidly declining, that he thought he might almost any +day have to retire from office. It was no moment for banal +deprecation. He sat silently pondering this vision in his +own mind, of coming fate. It seemed like Tennyson's famous +simile— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l>So dark a forethought rolled about his brain,</l> +<l>As on a dull day in an ocean cave</l> +<l>The blind wave feeling round his long sea-hall</l> +<l>In silence.</l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p> +It would have been preternatural if he had shown the +same overwhelming interest that had animated him when +the Irish policy was fresh in 1886. Yet the instinct of a +strong mind and the lifelong habit of ardent industry +carried him through his Sisyphean toil. The routine +business of head of a government he attended to, with all +his usual assiduity, and in cabinet he was clear, careful, +methodical, as always. +</p> + +<p> +The preparation of the bill was carefully and elaborately +worked by Mr. Gladstone through an excellent committee +<pb n='497'/><anchor id='Pg497'/> +<note place='margin'>Preparation Of The Bill</note> +of the cabinet.<note place='foot'>I hope I am not betraying a cabinet +secret if I mention that this committee +was composed of Mr. Gladstone, +Lord Spencer, Lord Herschell, Mr. +Campbell-Bannermann, Mr. Bryce, +and myself.</note> Here he was acute, adroit, patient, full of +device, expedient, and the art of construction; now and then +vehement and bearing down like a three-decker upon craft +of more modest tonnage. But the vehemence was rare, +and here as everywhere else he was eager to do justice to all +the points and arguments of other people. He sought +opportunities of deliberation in order to deliberate, and not +under that excellent name to cultivate the art of the +harangue, or to overwork secondary points, least of all to +treat the many as made for one. That is to say, he went +into counsel for the sake of counsel, and not to cajole, or +bully, or insist on his own way because it was his own way. +In the high article of finance, he would wrestle like a tiger. +It was an intricate and difficult business by the necessity +of the case, and among the aggravations of it was the +discovery at one point that a wrong figure had been +furnished to him by some department. He declared this +truly heinous crime to be without a precedent in his huge +experience. +</p> + +<p> +The crucial difficulty was the Irish representation at +Westminster. In the first bill of 1886, the Irish members +were to come no more to the imperial parliament, except for +one or two special purposes. The two alternatives to the +policy of exclusion were either inclusion of the Irish members +for all purposes, or else their inclusion for imperial +purposes only. In his speech at Swansea in 1887, Mr. Gladstone +favoured provisional inclusion, without prejudice to +a return to the earlier plan of exclusion if that should +be recommended by subsequent experience.<note place='foot'>See above, p. +<ref target='Pg386'>386</ref>.</note> In the bill +now introduced (Feb. 13, 1893), eighty representatives from +Ireland were to have seats at Westminster, but they were +not to vote upon motions or bills expressly confined to England +or Scotland, and there were other limitations. This +plan was soon found to be wholly intolerable to the House +of Commons. Exclusion having failed, and inclusion of reduced +numbers for limited purposes having failed, the only +<pb n='498'/><anchor id='Pg498'/> +course left open was what was called <foreign rend='italic'>omnes omnia</foreign>, or +rather the inclusion of eighty Irish members, with power of voting +on all purposes. +</p> + +<p> +Each of the three courses was open to at least one +single, but very direct, objection. Exclusion, along with +the exaction of revenue from Ireland by the parliament at +Westminster, was taxation without representation. Inclusion +for all purposes was to allow the Irish to meddle in our +affairs, while we were no longer to meddle in theirs. Inclusion +for limited purposes still left them invested with the +power of turning out a British government by a vote against +it on an imperial question. Each plan, therefore, ended in +a paradox. There was a fourth paradox, namely, that whenever +the British supporters of a government did not suffice to +build up a decisive majority, then the Irish vote descending +into one or other scale of the parliamentary balance might +decide who should be our rulers. This paradox—the most +glaring of them all—habit and custom have made familiar, +and familiarity might almost seem to have actually endeared +it to us. In 1893 Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues thought +themselves compelled to change clause 9 of the new bill, +just as they had thought themselves forced to drop clause 24 +of the old bill. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>V</head> + +<p> +It was Mr. Gladstone's performances in the days of committee +on the bill, that stirred the wonder and admiration +of the House. If he had been fifty they would have been +astonishing; at eighty-four they were indeed a marvel. He +made speeches of powerful argument, of high constitutional +reasoning, of trenchant debating force. No emergency arose +for which he was not ready, no demand that his versatility +was not adequate to meet. His energy never flagged. +When the bill came on, he would put on his glasses, pick up +the paper of amendments, and running through them like +lightning, would say, <q>Of course, that's absurd—that will +never do—we can never accept that—is there any harm in +this?</q> Too many concessions made on the spur of the +<pb n='499'/><anchor id='Pg499'/> +<note place='margin'>Achievements In Debate</note> +moment to the unionists stirred resentment in the nationalists, +and once or twice they exploded. These rapid +splendours of his had their perils. I pointed out to him the +pretty obvious drawbacks of settling delicate questions as +we went along with no chance of sounding the Irishmen, +and asked him to spare me quarter of an hour before +luncheon, when the draftsman and I, having threshed out +the amendments of the day, could put the bare points for +his consideration. He was horrified at the very thought. +<q>Out of the question. Do you want to kill me? I must +have the whole of the morning for general government +business. Don't ask me.</q><note place='foot'>One poor biographic item perhaps +the tolerant reader will not grudge +me leave to copy from Mr. Gladstone's +diary:—<q><hi rend='italic'>October 6, 1892.</hi> +Saw J. Morley and made him envoy to +——. He is on the whole ... about +the best stay I have.</q></note> +</p> + +<p> +Obstruction was freely practised and without remorse. +The chief fighting debater against the government made +a long second-reading speech, on the motion that the clause +stand part of the bill. A little before eight o'clock when +the fighting debater was winding up, Mr. Gladstone was +undecided about speaking. <q>What do you advise?</q> he asked +of a friend. <q>I am afraid it will take too much out of you,</q> +the friend replied; <q>but still, speak for twenty minutes and +no more.</q> Up he rose, and for half an hour a delighted +House was treated to one of the most remarkable performances +that ever was known. <q>I have never seen Mr. +Gladstone,</q> says one observer, <q>so dramatic, so prolific of all +the resources of the actor's art. The courage, the audacity, +and the melodrama of it were irresistible</q> (May 11). +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +For ten minutes, writes another chronicler, Mr. Gladstone +spoke, holding his audience spell-bound by his force. Then came +a sudden change, and it seemed that he was about to collapse +from sheer physical exhaustion. His voice failed, huskiness and +indistinctness took the place of clearness and lucidity. Then +pulling himself together for a great effort, Mr. Gladstone pointing +the deprecatory finger at Mr. Chamberlain, warned the Irishmen +to beware of him; to watch the fowler who would inveigle +them in his snare. Loud and long rang the liberal cheers. +<pb n='500'/><anchor id='Pg500'/> +In plain words he told the unionists that Mr. Chamberlain's +purpose was none other than obstruction, and he conveyed the +intimation with a delicate expressiveness, a superabundant good +feeling, a dramatic action and a marvellous music of voice that +conspired in their various qualities to produce a <hi rend='italic'>tour de force</hi>. +By sheer strength of enthusiasm and an overflowing wealth of +eloquence, Mr. Gladstone literally conquered every physical weakness +and secured an effect electric in its influence even on seasoned +<q>old hands.</q> Amidst high excitement and the sound of cheering +that promised never to die away the House gradually melted into +the lobbies. Mr. Gladstone, exhausted with his effort, chatted +to Mr. Morley on the treasury bench. Except for these two +the government side was deserted, and the conservatives had +already disappeared. The nationalists sat shoulder to shoulder, +a solid phalanx. They eyed the prime minister with eager intent, +and as soon as the venerable statesman rose to walk out of the +House, they sprang to their feet and rent the air with wild +hurrahs. +</quote> + +<p> +No wonder if the talk downstairs at dinner among his +colleagues that night, all turned upon their chief, his art and +power, his union of the highest qualities of brain and heart +with extraordinary practical penetration, and close watchfulness +of incident and trait and personality, disclosed in many +a racy aside and pungent sally. The orator was fatigued, +but full of keen enjoyment. This was one of the three or +four occasions when he was induced not to return to the +House after dinner. It had always been his habit in taking +charge of bills to work the ship himself. No wonder that +he held to this habit in this case. +</p> + +<p> +On another occasion ministers had taken ground that, as +the debate went on, everybody saw they could not hold. An +official spokesman for the bill had expressed an opinion, or +intention, that, as very speedily appeared, Irish opposition +would not allow to be maintained. There was no great +substance in the point, but even a small dose of humiliation +will make a parliamentary dish as bitter to one side as it is +savoury to the other. The opposition grew more and more +radiant, as it grew more certain that the official spokesman +<pb n='501'/><anchor id='Pg501'/> +<note place='margin'>Obstruction</note> +must be thrown over. The discomfiture of the ministerialists +at the prospect of the public mortification of their leaders +was extreme in the same degree. <q>I suppose we must give +it up,</q> said Mr. Gladstone. This was clear; and when he +rose, he was greeted with mocking cheers from the enemy, +though the enemy's chief men who had long experience of +his Protean resources were less confident. Beginning in a +tone of easy gravity and candour, he went on to points of +pleasant banter, got his audience interested and amused and +a little bewildered; carried men with him in graceful arguments +on the merits; and finally, with bye-play of consummate +sport, showed in triumph that the concession that +we consented to make was so right and natural, that it must +have been inevitable from the very first. Never were tables +more effectively turned; the opposition watched first with +amazement, then with excitement and delight as children +watch a wizard; and he sat down victorious. Not another +word was said or could be said. <q>Never in all my parliamentary +years,</q> said a powerful veteran on the front bench +opposite, as he passed behind the Speaker's chair, <q>never have +I seen so wonderful a thing done as that.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The state of the county of Clare was a godsend to the +obstructive. Clare was not at that moment quite as innocent +as the garden of Eden before the fall, but the condition +was not serious; it had been twenty times worse before without +occupying the House of Commons five minutes. Now +an evening a week was not thought too much for a hollow +debate on disorder in Clare. It was described as a definite +matter of urgent importance, though it had slept for years, +and though three times in succession the judge of assize +(travelling entirely out of his proper business) had denounced +the state of things. It was made to support five votes of +censure in eight weeks. +</p> + +<p> +On one of these votes of censure on Irish administration, +moved by Mr. Balfour (March 27), Mr. Gladstone listened to +the debate. At 8 we begged him not to stay and not to take +the trouble to speak, so trumpery was the whole affair. He +said he must, if only for five minutes, to show that he +identified himself with his Irish minister. He left to dine, +<pb n='502'/><anchor id='Pg502'/> +and then before ten was on his feet, making what Lord +Randolph Churchill rightly called <q>a most impressive and +entrancing speech.</q> He talked of Pat this and Michael that, +and Father the other, as if he had pondered their cases for a +month, clenching every point with extraordinary strength +as well as consummate ease and grace, and winding up with +some phrases of wonderful simplicity and concentration. +</p> + +<p> +A distinguished member made a motion for the exclusion +of Irish cabinet ministers from their chamber. Mr. Gladstone +was reminded on the bench just before he rose, that the same +proposal had been inserted in the Act of Settlement, and +repealed in 1705. He wove this into his speech with a skill, +and amplified confidence, that must have made everybody +suppose that it was a historic fact present every day to his +mind. The attention of a law-officer sitting by was called to +this rapid amplification. <q>I never saw anything like it in +all my whole life,</q> said the law-officer; and he was a man +who had been accustomed to deal with some of the strongest +and quickest minds of the day as judges and advocates. +</p> + +<p> +One day when a tremendous afternoon of obstruction had +almost worn him down, the adjournment came at seven +o'clock. He was haggard and depressed. On returning at +ten we found him making a most lively and amusing speech +upon procedure. He sat down as blithe as dawn. <q>To +make a speech of that sort,</q> he said in deprecation of compliment, +<q>a man does best to dine out; 'tis no use to lie +on a sofa and think about it.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Undoubtedly Mr. Gladstone's method in this long committee +carried with it some disadvantages. His discursive +treatment exposed an enormous surface. His abundance of +illustration multiplied points for debate. His fertility in +improvised arguments encouraged improvisation in disputants +without the gift. Mr. Gladstone always supposed +that a great theme needs to be copiously handled, which is +perhaps doubtful, and indeed is often an exact inversion of +the true state of things. However that may be, copiousness +is a game at which two can play, as a patriotic opposition +now and at other times has effectually disclosed. Some +thought in these days that a man like Lord Althorp, for +<pb n='503'/><anchor id='Pg503'/> +<note place='margin'>The Guillotine</note> +instance, would have given the obstructives much more +trouble in their pursuits than did Mr. Gladstone. +</p> + +<p> +That Mr. Gladstone's supporters should become restive at +the slow motion of business was natural enough. They came +to ministers, calling out for a drastic closure, as simple tribes +might clamour to a rain-maker. It was the end of June, and +with a reasonable opposition conducted in decent good faith, +it was computed that the bill might be through committee +in nineteen days. But the hypothesis of reason and good +faith was not thought to be substantial, and the cabinet +resolved on resort to closure on a scale like that on which it +had been used by the late government in the case of the +Crimes Act of 1887, and of the Special Commission. It has +been said since on excellent authority, that without speaking +of their good faith, Mr. Gladstone's principal opponents were +now running absolutely short of new ammunition, and having +used the same arguments and made the same speeches for +so many weeks, they were so worn out that the guillotine +was superfluous. Of these straits, however, there was little +evidence. Mr. Gladstone entered into the operation with +a good deal of chagrin. He saw that the House of Commons +in which he did his work and rose to glory was swiftly fading +out of sight, and a new institution of different habits of responsibility +and practice taking its place. +</p> + +<p> +The stage of committee lasted for sixty-three sittings. The +whole proceedings occupied eighty-two. It is not necessary +to hold that the time was too long for the size of the task, if +it had been well spent. The spirit of the debate was aptly +illustrated by the plea of a brilliant tory, that he voted +for a certain motion against a principle that he approved, +because he thought the carrying of the motion <q>would make +the bill more detestable.</q> Opposition rested on a view of +Irish character and Irish feeling about England, that can +hardly have been very deeply thought out, because ten years +later the most bitter opponents of the Irish claim launched +a policy, that was to make Irish peasants direct debtors to +the hated England to the tune of one hundred million +pounds, and was to dislodge by imperial cash those who were +persistently called the only friends of the imperial connection. +<pb n='504'/><anchor id='Pg504'/> +The bill passed its second reading by 347 against 304, or +a majority of 43. In some critical divisions, the majority +ran down to 27. The third reading was carried by 301 +against 267, or a majority of 34. It was estimated that +excluding the Irish, there was a majority against the bill +of 23. If we counted England and Wales alone, the adverse +majority was 48. When it reached them, the Lords incontinently +threw it out. The roll of the Lords held 560 +names, beyond the peers of the royal house. Of this body +of 560, no fewer than 419 voted against the bill, and only 41 +voted for it. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>VI</head> + +<p> +The session was protracted until it became the longest in +the history of parliament. The House was sitting when Mr. +Gladstone's eighty-fourth birthday arrived. <q>Before putting +a question,</q> said Mr. Balfour in a tone that, after the heat and +exasperations of so many months, was refreshing to hear, <q>perhaps +the right honourable gentleman will allow me, on my own +part and on that of my friends, to offer him our most sincere +congratulations.</q> <q>Allow me to thank him,</q> said Mr. Gladstone, +<q>for his great courtesy and kindness.</q> The government +pressed forward and carried through the House of +Commons a measure dealing with the liability of employers +for accidents, and a more important measure setting up +elective bodies for certain purposes in parishes. Into the +first the Lords introduced such changes as were taken to +nullify all the advantages of the bill, and the cabinet +approved of its abandonment. Into the second they forced +back certain provisions that the Commons had with full +deliberation decisively rejected. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone was at Biarritz, he records, when this happened +in January of 1894. He had gone there to recruit +after the incomparable exertions of the session, and also to +consider at a cool distance and in changed scenes other topics +that had for some weeks caused him some agitation. He +now thought that there was a decisive case against the +House of Lords. Apart from the Irish bill to which the +<pb n='505'/><anchor id='Pg505'/> +<note place='margin'>Question Of Dissolution</note> +Commons had given eighty-two days, the Lords had maimed +the bill for parish councils, to which had gone the labour of +forty-one days. Other bills they had mutilated or defeated. +Upon the whole, he argued, it was not too much to say that +for practical purposes the Lords had destroyed the work of +the House of Commons, unexampled as that work was in the +time and pains bestowed upon it. <q>I suggested dissolution +to my colleagues in London, where half, or more than half, +the cabinet were found at the moment. I received by telegraph +a hopelessly adverse reply.</q> Reluctantly he let the +idea drop, always maintaining, however, that a signal opportunity +had been lost. Even in my last conversation with +him in 1897, he held to his text that we ought to have +dissolved at this moment. The case, he said, was clear, +thorough, and complete. As has been already mentioned, +there were four occasions on which he believed that he +had divined the right moment for a searching appeal to +public opinion on a great question.<note place='foot'>See above, ii. +p. 241.</note> The renewal of the +income tax in 1853 was the first; the proposal of religious +equality for Ireland in 1868 was the second; home rule +was the third, and here he was justified by the astonishing +and real progress that he had made up to the catastrophe +at the end of 1890. The fourth case was this, of a dissolution +upon the question of the relations of the two Houses. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='506'/><anchor id='Pg506'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter VIII. Retirement From Public Life. (1894)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l>O, 'tis a burden, Cromwell, 'tis a burden</l> +<l>Too heavy for a man that hopes for heaven.</l> +</lg> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Henry VIII.</hi> iii. 2. +</p> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +<q>Politics,</q> wrote Mr. Gladstone in one of his private memoranda +in March 1894, <q>are like a labyrinth, from the inner +intricacies of which it is even more difficult to find the way +of escape, than it was to find the way into them. My age +did something but not enough. The deterioration of my +hearing helped, but insufficiently. It is the state of my +sight which has supplied me with effectual aid in exchanging +my imperious public obligations for what seems to be a free +place on <q>the breezy common of humanity.</q> And it has +only been within the last eight months, or thereabouts, that +the decay of working sight has advanced at such a pace as +to present the likelihood of its becoming stringently operative +at an early date. It would have been very difficult to +fix that date at this or that precise point, without the appearance +of making an arbitrary choice; but then the closing +of the parliamentary session (1893-4) offered a natural break +between the cessation and renewal of engagements, which +was admirably suited to the design. And yet I think it, if +not certain, yet very highly probable at the least, that any +disposition of mine to profit by this break would—but for the +naval scheme of my colleagues in the naval estimates—have +been frustrated by their desire to avoid the inconveniences +of a change, and by the pressure which they would have +brought to bear upon me in consequence. The effect of that +<pb n='507'/><anchor id='Pg507'/> +scheme was not to bring about the construction of an artificial +cause, or pretext rather, of resignation, but to compel +me to act upon one that was rational, sufficient, and ready +to hand.</q> +</p> + +<p> +This is the short, plain, and intelligible truth as to what +now happened. There can be no reason to-day for not stating +what was for a long time matter of common surmise, if not +of common knowledge, that Mr. Gladstone did not regard +the naval estimates, opened but not settled in December +1893, as justified by the circumstances of the time. He +made a speech that month in parliament in reply to a +motion from the front bench opposite, and there he took a +position undoubtedly antagonistic to the new scheme that +found favour with his cabinet, though not with all its +members. The present writer is of course not free to go +into details, beyond those that anybody else not a member +of the cabinet would discover from Mr. Gladstone's papers. +Nor does the public lose anything of real interest by this +necessary reserve. Mr. Gladstone said he wished to make +me <q>his depositary</q> as things gradually moved on, and he +wrote me a series of short letters from day to day. If they +could be read aloud in Westminster Hall, no harm would be +done either to surviving colleagues or to others; they would +furnish no new reason for thinking either better or worse of +anybody; and no one with a decent sense of the value of time +would concern himself in all the minor detail of an ineffectual +controversy. The central facts were simple. Two things +weighed with him, first his infirmities, and second his disapproval +of the policy. How, he asked himself, could he turn +his back on his former self by becoming a party to swollen expenditure? +True he had changed from conservative to liberal +in general politics, but when he was conservative, that party +was the economic party, <q>Peel its leader being a Cobdenite.</q> +To assent to this new outlay in time of peace was to revolutionise +policy. Then he would go on—<q>Owing to the part +which I was drawn to take, first in Italy, then as to Greece, +then on the eastern question, I have come to be considered +not only an English but a European statesman. My name +stands in Europe as a symbol of the policy of peace, moderation, +<pb n='508'/><anchor id='Pg508'/> +and non-aggression. What would be said of my active +participation in a policy that will be taken as plunging +England into the whirlpool of militarism? Third, I have +been in active public life for a period nearly as long as the +time between the beginning of Mr. Pitt's first ministry and +the close of Sir Robert Peel's; between 1783 and 1846—sixty-two +years and a half. During that time I have +uniformly opposed militarism.</q> Thus he would put his +case. +</p> + +<p> +After the naval estimates were brought forward, attempts +were naturally made at accommodation, for whether he +availed himself of the end of the session as a proper occasion +of retirement or not, he was bound to try to get the +estimates down if he could. He laboured hard at the task +of conversion, and though some of his colleagues needed no +conversion, with the majority he did not prevail. He +admitted that he had made limited concessions to scares in +1860 and in 1884, and that he had besides been repeatedly +responsible for extraordinary financial provisions having +reference to some crisis of the day:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I did this, (1) By a preliminary budget in 1854; (2) By the final +budget of July 1859; by the vote of credit in July 1870; and +again by the vote of credit in 1884. Every one of these was +special, and was shown in each case respectively to be special by +the sequel: no one of them had reference to the notion of establishing +dominant military or even naval power in Europe. Their +amounts were various, but were adapted to the view taken, at +least by me, of the exigency actually present.<note place='foot'>See +Appendix for further elucidation.</note> +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +While the House after so many months of toil was still +labouring manfully upon English bills, two of them of no +secondary importance, it was decided by his family and their +advisers that Mr. Gladstone should again try the effects of +Biarritz, and thither they went on January 13. Distance, +however, could not efface from his mind all thought of the +decision that the end of the session would exact from him. +<pb n='509'/><anchor id='Pg509'/> +<note place='margin'>Again At Biarritz</note> +Rumours began to fly about in London that the prime +minister upon his return intended to resign, and they were +naturally clad with intrinsic probability. From Biarritz a +communication was made to the press with his authority. +It was to this effect, that the statement that Mr. Gladstone +had definitely decided, or had decided at all, on resigning +office was untrue. It was true that for many months past +his age and the condition of his sight and hearing had in his +judgment made relief from public cares desirable, and that +accordingly his tenure of office had been at any moment +liable to interruption from these causes, in their nature permanent. +</p> + +<p> +Nature meanwhile could not set back the shadow on the +dial. On his coming back from Biarritz (February 10) neither +eyes nor ears were better. How should they be at eighty-five? +The session was ending, the prorogation speech was to be +composed, and the time had come for that <q>natural break</q> +between the cessation and renewal of his official obligations, +of which we have already heard him speak. His colleagues +carried almost to importunity their appeals to him to stay; +to postpone what one of them called, and many of them +truly felt to be, this <q>moment of anguish.</q> The division of +opinion on estimates remained, but even if that could have +been bridged, his sight and hearing could not be made +whole. The rational and sufficient cause of resignation, as +he only too justly described it, was strong as ever. Whether +if the cabinet had come to his view on estimates, he would in +spite of his great age and infirmities have come to their view +of the importance of his remaining, we cannot tell. According +to his wont, he avoided decision until the time had +come when decision was necessary, and then he made up his +mind, <q>without the appearance of an arbitrary choice,</q> that +the time had come for accepting the natural break, and +quitting office. +</p> + +<p> +On Feb. 27, arriving in the evening at Euston from Ireland, +I found a messenger with a note from Mr. Gladstone +begging me to call on my way home. I found him busy as +usual at his table in Downing Street. <q>I suppose 'tis the +long habit of a life,</q> he said cheerily, <q>but even in the midst +<pb n='510'/><anchor id='Pg510'/> +of these passages, if ever I have half or quarter of an hour +to spare, I find myself turning to my Horace translation.</q> +He said the prorogation speech would be settled on Thursday; +the Queen would consider it on Friday; the council +would be held on Saturday, and on that evening or afternoon +he should send in his letter of resignation. +</p> + +<p> +The next day he had an audience at Buckingham Palace, +and indirectly conveyed to the Queen what she might soon +expect to learn from him. His rigorous sense of loyalty to +colleagues made it improper and impossible to bring either +before the Queen or the public his difference of judgment on +matters for which his colleagues, not he, would be responsible, +and on which they, not he, would have to take action. He +derived certain impressions at his audience, he told me, one +of them being that the Sovereign would not seek his advice +as to a successor. +</p> + +<p> +He wrote to inform the Prince of Wales of the approaching +event:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +In thus making it known to your royal Highness, he concluded, +I desire to convey, on my own and my wife's part our fervent +thanks for the unbounded kindness which we have at all times +received from your royal Highness and not less from the beloved +Princess of Wales. The devotion of an old man is little worth; +but if at any time there be the smallest service which by information +or suggestion your royal Highness may believe me capable +of rendering, I shall remain as much at your command as if I had +continued to be an active and responsible servant of the Queen. I +remain with heartfelt loyalty and gratitude, etc. +</quote> + +<p> +The Prince expressed his sincere regret, said how deeply +the Princess and he were touched by the kind words about +them, and how greatly for a long number of years they had +valued his friendship and that of Mrs. Gladstone. Mr. +Balfour, to whom he also confidentially told the news, communicated +among other graceful words, <q>the special debt of +gratitude that was due to him for the immense public service +he had performed in fostering and keeping alive the great +traditions of the House of Commons.</q> The day after that +(March 1) was his last cabinet council, and a painful day it +<pb n='511'/><anchor id='Pg511'/> +<note place='margin'>Last Cabinet</note> +was. The business of the speech and other matters were +discussed as usual, then came the end. In his report to the +Queen—his last—he said:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Looking forward to the likelihood that this might be the last +occasion on which Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues might meet in +the cabinet, Lord Kimberley and Sir William Harcourt on their +own part and on that of the ministers generally, used words undeservedly +kind of acknowledgment and farewell. Lord Kimberley +will pray your Majesty to appoint a council for Saturday, at as +early an hour as may be convenient. +</quote> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone sat composed and still as marble, and the +emotion of the cabinet did not gain him for an instant. He +followed the <q>words of acknowledgment and farewell</q> in a +little speech of four or five minutes, his voice unbroken and +serene, the tone low, grave, and steady. He was glad to know +that he had justification in the condition of his senses. He +was glad to think that notwithstanding difference upon a +public question, private friendships would remain unaltered +and unimpaired. Then hardly above a breath, but every +accent heard, he said <q>God bless you all.</q> He rose slowly +and went out of one door, while his colleagues with minds +oppressed filed out by the other. In his diary he enters—<q>A +really moving scene.</q> +</p> + +<p> +A little later in the afternoon he made his last speech in +the House of Commons. It was a vigorous assault upon the +House of Lords. His mind had changed since the day in +September 1884 when he had declared to an emissary from +the court that he hated organic change in the House of +Lords, and would do much to avert that mischief.<note place='foot'>Above, p. +<ref target='Pg130'>130</ref>.</note> Circumstances +had now altered the case; we had come to a more +acute stage. Were they to accept the changes made by the +Lords in the bill for parish councils, or were they to drop +it? The question, he said, is whether the work of the House +of Lords is not merely to modify, but to annihilate the whole +work of the House of Commons, work which has been performed +at an amount of sacrifice—of time, of labour, of convenience, +and perhaps of health—but at any rate an amount +<pb n='512'/><anchor id='Pg512'/> +of sacrifice totally unknown to the House of Lords. The +government had resolved that great as were the objections +to acceptance of the changes made by the Lords, the arguments +against rejection were still weightier. Then he struck +a note of passion, and spoke with rising fire:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +We are compelled to accompany that acceptance with the sorrowful +declaration that the differences, not of a temporary or casual +nature merely, but differences of conviction, differences of prepossession, +differences of mental habit, and differences of fundamental +tendency, between the House of Lords and the House of Commons, +appear to have reached a development in the present year such as +to create a state of things of which we are compelled to say that, +in our judgment, it cannot continue. Sir, I do not wish to use +hard words, which are easily employed and as easily retorted—it +is a game that two can play at—but without using hard words, +without presuming to judge of motives, without desiring or venturing +to allege imputations, I have felt it a duty to state what +appeared to me to be indisputable facts. The issue which is raised +between a deliberative assembly, elected by the votes of more than +6,000,000 people, and a deliberative assembly occupied by many +men of virtue, by many men of talent, of course with considerable +diversities and varieties, is a controversy which, when once raised, +must go forward to an issue. +</quote> + +<p> +Men did not know that they were listening to his last +speech, but his words fell in with the eager humour of his +followers around him, and he sat down amid vehement +plaudits. Then when the business was at an end, he rose, +and for the last time walked away from the House of +Commons. He had first addressed it sixty-one years before. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +The following day (March 2) he busied himself in packing +his papers, and working at intervals on his translation of +Horace. He told me that he had now reason to suppose +that the Queen might ask him for advice as to his successor. +After some talk, he said that if asked he should advise her +to send for Lord Spencer. As it happened, his advice was +not sought. That evening he went to Windsor to dine and +<pb n='513'/><anchor id='Pg513'/> +<note place='margin'>Last Audience</note> +sleep. The next day was to be the council. Here is his +memorandum of the last audience on Saturday, March 3<note place='foot'>Written +down, March 5.</note>:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +As I crossed the quadrangle at 10.20 on my way to St. George's +Chapel, I met Sir H. Ponsonby, who said he was anxious to speak +to me about the future. He was much impressed with the movement +among a body of members of parliament against having any +peer for prime minister. I signified briefly that I did not think +there should be too ready a submission to such a movement. There +was not time to say a great deal, and I had something serious to +say, so we adjourned the conversation till half past eleven, when I +should return from St. George's. +</p> + +<p> +He came at that time and opened on the same lines, desiring to +obtain from me whatever I thought proper to say as to persons in +the arrangements for the future. I replied to him that this was +in my view a most serious matter. All my thoughts on it were +absolutely at the command of the Queen. And I should be equally +at his command, if he inquired of me from her and in her name; +but that otherwise my lips must be sealed. I knew from him that +he was in search of information to report to the Queen, but this +was a totally different matter. +</p> + +<p> +I entered, however, freely on the general question of the movement +among a section of the House of Commons. I thought it +impossible to say at the moment, but I should not take for granted +that it would be formidable or regard it as <hi rend='italic'>in limine</hi> disposing of +the question. Up to a certain point, I thought it a duty to +strengthen the hands of our small minority and little knot of +ministers in the Lords, by providing these ministers with such +weight as attaches to high office. All this, or rather all that +touched the main point, namely the point of a peer prime minister, +he without doubt reported. +</p> + +<p> +The council train came down and I joined the ministers in the +drawing-room. I received various messages as to the time when I +was to see the Queen, and when it would be most convenient to +me. I interpret this variety as showing that she was nervous. It +ended in fixing the time after the council and before luncheon. I +carried with me a box containing my resignation, and, the council +being over, handed it to her immediately, and told her that it contained +<pb n='514'/><anchor id='Pg514'/> +my tender of resignation. She asked whether she ought +then to read it. I said there was nothing in the letter to require it. +It repeated my former letter of notice, with the requisite additions. +</p> + +<p> +I must notice what, though slight, supplied the only incident of +any interest in this perhaps rather memorable audience, which +closed a service that would reach to fifty-three years on September +3, when I was sworn privy councillor before the Queen at Claremont. +When I came into the room and came near to take the seat she +has now for some time courteously commanded, I did think she +was going to <q>break down.</q> If I was not mistaken, at any rate +she rallied herself, as I thought, by a prompt effort, and remained +collected and at her ease. Then came the conversation, which may +be called neither here nor there. Its only material feature was negative. +There was not one syllable on the past, except a repetition, +an emphatic repetition, of the thanks she had long ago amply +rendered for what I had done, a service of no great merit, in the +matter of the Duke of Coburg, and which I assured her would +not now escape my notice if occasion should arise. There was the +question of eyes and ears, of German <hi rend='italic'>versus</hi> English oculists, she +believing in the German as decidedly superior. Some reference +to my wife, with whom, she had had an interview and had ended it +affectionately,—and various nothings. No touch on the subject of +the last Ponsonby conversation. Was I wrong in not tendering +orally my best wishes? I was afraid that anything said by me +should have the appearance of <emph>touting</emph>. A departing servant has +some title to offer his hopes and prayers for the future; but a +servant is one who has done, or tried to do, service in the past. +There is in all this a great sincerity. There also seems to be some +little mystery as to my own case with her. I saw no sign of +embarrassment or preoccupation. The Empress Frederick was +outside in the corridor. She bade me a most kind and warm farewell, +which I had done nothing to deserve. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +The letter tendered to the Queen in the box was this:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Mr. Gladstone presents his most humble duty to your Majesty. +The close of the session and the approach of a new one have +offered Mr. Gladstone a suitable opportunity for considering the +condition of his sight and hearing, both of them impaired, in relation +to his official obligations. As they now place serious and +also growing obstacles in the way of the efficient discharge of +<pb n='515'/><anchor id='Pg515'/> +those obligations, the result has been that he has found it his +duty humbly to tender to your Majesty his resignation of the +high offices which your Majesty has been pleased to intrust to +him. His desire to make this surrender is accompanied with a +grateful sense of the condescending kindnesses, which your +Majesty has graciously shown him on so many occasions during +the various periods for which he has had the honour to serve your +Majesty. Mr. Gladstone will not needlessly burden your Majesty +with a recital of particulars. He may, however, say that although +at eighty-four years of age he is sensible of a diminished capacity +for prolonged labour, this is not of itself such as would justify his +praying to be relieved from the restraints and exigencies of official +life. But his deafness has become in parliament, and even in the +cabinet, a serious inconvenience, of which he must reckon on more +progressive increase. More grave than this, and more rapid in +its growth, is the obstruction of vision which arises from cataract +in both his eyes. It has cut him off in substance from the newspapers, +and from all except the best types in the best lights, while +even as to these he cannot master them with that ordinary facility +and despatch which he deems absolutely required for the due +despatch of his public duties. In other respects than reading +the operation of the complaint is not as yet so serious, but this +one he deems to be vital. Accordingly he brings together these +two facts, the condition of his sight and hearing, and the break in +the course of public affairs brought about in the ordinary way +by the close of the session. He has therefore felt that this is the +fitting opportunity for the resignation which by this letter he +humbly prays your Majesty to accept. +</quote> + +<p> +In the course of the day the Queen wrote what I take to +be her last letter to him:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Windsor Castle, March 3, 1894.</hi>—Though the Queen has already +accepted Mr. Gladstone's resignation, and has taken leave of him, +she does not like to leave his letter tendering his resignation +unanswered. She therefore writes these few lines to say that she +thinks that after so many years of arduous labour and responsibility +he is right in wishing to be relieved at his age of these arduous +duties. And she trusts he will be able to enjoy peace and quiet +with his excellent and devoted wife in health and happiness, and +that his eyesight may improve. +</p> + +<pb n='516'/><anchor id='Pg516'/> + +<p> +The Queen would gladly have conferred a peerage on Mr. Gladstone, +but she knows he would not accept it. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +His last act in relation to this closing scene of the great +official drama was a letter to General Ponsonby (March 5):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +The first entrance of a man to Windsor Castle in a responsible +character, is a great event in his life; and his last departure +from it is not less moving. But in and during the process +which led up to this transaction on Saturday, my action has +been in the strictest sense sole, and it has required me in +circumstances partly known to harden my heart into a flint. +However, it is not even now so hard, but that I can feel +what you have most kindly written; nor do I fail to observe +with pleasure that you do not speak absolutely in the singular. +If there were feelings that made the occasion sad, such feelings do +not die with the occasion. But this letter must not be wholly one +of egotism. I have known and have liked and admired all the +men who have served the Queen in your delicate and responsible +office; and have liked most, probably because I knew him most, +the last of them, that most true-hearted man, General Grey. +But forgive me for saying you are <q>to the manner born</q>; and +such a combination of tact and temper with loyalty, intelligence, +and truth I cannot expect to see again. Pray remember these +are words which can only pass from an old man to one much +younger, though trained in a long experience. +</quote> + +<p> +It is hardly in human nature, in spite of Charles <hi rend='smallcaps'>v.</hi>, Sulla, +and some other historic persons, to lay down power beyond +recall, without a secret pang. In Prior's lines that came to +the mind of brave Sir Walter Scott, as he saw the curtain +falling on his days,— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l>The man in graver tragic known,</l> +<l>(Though his best part long since was done,)</l> +<l>Still on the stage desires to tarry....</l> +<l>Unwilling to retire, though weary.</l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p> +Whether the departing minister had a lingering thought +that in the dispensations of the world, purposes and services +would still arise to which even yet he might one day be +summoned, we do not know. Those who were nearest to +him believe not, and assuredly he made no outer sign. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='517'/><anchor id='Pg517'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter IX. The Close. (1894-1898)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +Natural death is as it were a haven and a rest to us after long navigation. +And the noble Soul is like a good mariner; for he, when +he draws near the port, lowers his sails and enters it softly with +gentle steerage.... And herein we have from our own nature a +great lesson of suavity; for in such a death as this there is no grief +nor any bitterness: but as a ripe apple is lightly and without violence +loosened from its branch, so our soul without grieving departs from +the body in which it hath +been.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Dante</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>Convito</hi>.<note place='foot'>Dr. Carlyle's translation.</note> +</quote> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +After the first wrench was over, and an end had come to +the demands, pursuits, duties, glories, of powerful and active +station held for a long lifetime, Mr. Gladstone soon settled +to the new conditions of his existence, knowing that for him +all that could be left was, in the figure of his great Italian poet,<q>to lower +sails and gather in his ropes.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Inferno</hi>, +xxvii. 81.</note> He was not much +in London, and when he came he stayed in the pleasant +retreat to which his affectionate and ever-attached friends, +Lord and Lady Aberdeen, so often invited him at Dollis Hill. +Much against his will, he did not resign his seat in the +House, and he held it until the dissolution of 1895.<note place='foot'>On +July 1, 1895, he announced +his formal withdrawal in a letter to +Sir John Cowan, so long the loyal +chairman of his electoral committee.</note> In +June (1895) he took a final cruise in one of Sir Donald Currie's +ships, visiting Hamburg, the new North Sea canal, and +Copenhagen once more. His injured sight was a far deadlier +breach in the habit of his days than withdrawal from office +or from parliament. His own tranquil words written in the +year in which he laid down his part in the shows of the +world's huge stage, tell the story:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>July 25, 1894.</hi>—For the first time in my life there has been +given +<pb n='518'/><anchor id='Pg518'/> +to me by the providence of God a period of comparative leisure, +reckoning at the present date to four and a half months. Such a +period drives the mind in upon itself, and invites, almost constrains, +to recollection, and the rendering at least internally an account of +life; further it lays the basis of a habit of meditation, to the formation +of which the course of my existence, packed and crammed +with occupation outwards, never stagnant, oft-times overdriven, has +been extremely hostile. As there is no life which in its detail +does not seem to afford intervals of brief leisure, or what is termed +<q>waiting</q> for others engaged with us in some common action, +these are commonly spent in murmurs and in petulant desire for +their termination. But in reality they supply excellent opportunities +for brief or ejaculatory prayer. +</p> + +<p> +As this new period of my life has brought with it my retirement +from active business in the world, it affords a good opportunity +for breaking off the commonly dry daily journal, or ledger as it +might almost be called, in which for seventy years I have recorded +the chief details of my outward life. If life be continued I propose +to note in it henceforward only principal events or occupations. +This first breach since the latter part of May in this year has been +involuntary. When the operation on my eye for cataract came, it +was necessary for a time to suspend all use of vision. Before +that, from the beginning of March, it was only my out-of-door +activity or intercourse that had been paralysed.... For my +own part, <foreign rend='italic'>suave mari magno</foreign> +steals upon me; or at any rate, an inexpressible +sense of relief from an exhausting life of incessant +contention. A great revolution has been operated in my correspondence, +which had for many years been a serious burden, and +at times one almost intolerable. During the last months of partial +incapacity I have not written with my own hand probably so +much as one letter per day. Few people have had a smaller +number of <emph>otiose</emph> conversations probably than I in the last fifty +years; but I have of late seen more friends and more freely, +though without practical objects in view. Many kind friends +have read books to me; I must place Lady Sarah Spencer at the +head of the proficients in that difficult art; in distinctness of +articulation, with low clear voice, she is supreme. Dearest +Catherine has been my chaplain from morning to morning. My +<pb n='519'/><anchor id='Pg519'/> +church-going has been almost confined to mid-day communions, +which have not required my abandonment of the reclining posture +for long periods of time. Authorship has not been quite in +abeyance; I have been able to write what I was not allowed to +read, and have composed two theological articles for the <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi> of August and September respectively.<note place='foot'><q>The +Place of Heresy and Schism +in the Modern Christian Church</q> +and <q>The True and False Conception +of the Atonement.</q></note> +</p> + +<p> +Independently of the days of blindness after the operation, the +visits of doctors have become a noticeable item of demand upon +time. Of physic I incline to believe I have had as much, in +1894 as in my whole previous life. I have learned for the first +time the extraordinary comfort of the aid which the attendance of +a nurse can give. My health will now be matter of little interest +except to myself. But I have not yet abandoned the hope that I +may be permitted to grapple with that considerable armful of +work, which had been long marked out for my old age; the question +of my recovering sight being for the present in abeyance. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Sept. 13.</hi>—I am not yet thoroughly accustomed to my new stage +of existence, in part because the remains of my influenza have not +yet allowed me wholly to resume the habits of health. But I am +thoroughly content with my retirement; and I cast no longing, +lingering look behind. I pass onward from it <foreign rend='italic'>oculo +irretorto</foreign>. +There is plenty of work before me, peaceful work and work +directed to the supreme, <hi rend='italic'>i.e.</hi> the spiritual cultivation of mankind, +if it pleases God to give me time and vision to perform it. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Oct. 1.</hi>—As far as I can at present judge, all the signs of +the eye being favourable, the new form of vision will enable me to get +through in a given time about half the amount of work which +would have been practicable under the old. I speak of reading +and writing work, which have been principal with me when I had +the option. In conversation there is no difference, although there +are various drawbacks in what we call society. On the 20th of +last month when I had gone through my crises of trials, Mr. +Nettleship, [the oculist], at once declared that any further operation +would be superfluous. +</p> + +<p> +I am unable to continue attendance at the daily morning service, +not on account of the eyesight but because I may not rise before +<pb n='520'/><anchor id='Pg520'/> +ten at the earliest. And so a Hawarden practice of over fifty +years is interrupted; not without some degree of hope that it +may be resumed. Two evening services, one at 5 <hi rend='smallcaps'>p.m.</hi> and the +other at 7, afford me a limited consolation. I drive almost every +day, and thus grow to my dissatisfaction more burdensome. My +walking powers are limited; once I have exceeded two miles by +a little. A large part of the day remains available at my table; +daylight is especially precious; my correspondence is still a weary +weight, though I have admirable help from children. Upon the +whole the change is considerable. In early and mature life a man +walks to his daily work with a sense of the duty and capacity of +self-provision, a certain αὐτάρκεια [independence] (which the +Greeks carried into the moral world). Now that sense is reversed; +it seems as if I must, God knows how reluctantly, lay +burdens upon others; and as if capacity were, so to speak, dealt +out to me mercifully—but by armfuls. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +Old age until the very end brought no grave changes in +physical conditions. He missed sorely his devoted friend, +Sir Andrew Clark, to whose worth as man and skill as +healer he had borne public testimony in May 1894. But +for physician's service there was no special need. His +ordinary life, though of diminished power, suffered little +interruption. <q>The attitude,</q> he wrote, <q>in which I endeavoured +to fix myself was that of a soldier on parade, in a +line of men drawn up ready to march and waiting for the +word of command. I sought to be in preparation for prompt +obedience, feeling no desire to go, but on the other hand +without reluctance because firmly convinced that whatever +He ordains for us is best, best both for us and for all.</q> +</p> + +<p> +He worked with all his old zest at his edition of Bishop +Butler, and his volume of studies subsidiary to Butler. He +wrote to the Duke of Argyll (Dec. 5, 1895):— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +I find my Butler a weighty undertaking, but I hope it will be +useful at least for the important improvements of form which I +am making. +</p> + +<p> +It is very difficult to keep one's temper in dealing with M. +Arnold when he touches on religious matters. His patronage of +a Christianity fashioned by himself is to me more offensive and +<pb n='521'/><anchor id='Pg521'/> +trying than rank unbelief. But I try, or seem to myself to try, to +shrink from controversy of which I have had so much. Organic +evolution sounds to me a Butlerish idea, but I doubt if he ever +employed either term, certainly he has not the phrase, and I +cannot as yet identify the passage to which you may refer. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Dec. 9.</hi>—Many thanks for your letter. The idea of evolution is +without doubt deeply ingrained in Butler. The case of the animal +creation had a charm for him, and in his first chapter he opens, +without committing himself, the idea of their possible elevation to +a much higher state. I have always been struck by the glee with +which negative writers strive to get rid of <q>special creation,</q> as if +by that method they got the idea of God out of their way, whereas +I know not what right they have to say that the small increments +effected by the divine workman are not as truly special as the +large. It is remarkable that Butler has taken such hold both on +nonconformists in England and outside of England, especially on +those bodies in America which are descended from English non-conformists. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +He made progress with his writings on the Olympian +Religion, without regard to Acton's warnings and exhortations +to read a score of volumes by learned explorers with +uncouth names. He collected a new series of his <hi rend='italic'>Gleanings</hi>. +By 1896 he had got his cherished project of hostel and +library at St. Deiniol's in Hawarden village, near to its +launch. He was drawn into a discussion on the validity of +anglican orders, and even wrote a letter to Cardinal Rampolla, +in his effort to realise the dream of Christian unity. +The Vatican replied in such language as might have been +expected by anybody with less than Mr. Gladstone's inextinguishable +faith in the virtues of argumentative persuasion. +Soon he saw the effects of Christian disunion +upon a bloodier stage. In the autumn of this year he was +roused to one more vehement protest like that twenty years +before against the abominations of Turkish rule, this time +in Armenia. He had been induced to address a meeting in +Chester in August 1895, and now a year later he travelled to +Liverpool (Sept. 24) to a non-party gathering at Hengler's +Circus. He always described this as the place most agreeable +to the speaker of all those with which he was acquainted. +<pb n='522'/><anchor id='Pg522'/> +<q>Had I the years of 1876 upon me,</q> he said to one of his sons, +<q>gladly would I start another campaign, even if as long as that.</q> +</p> + +<p> +To discuss, almost even to describe, the course of his +policy and proceedings in the matter of Armenia, would +bring us into a mixed controversy affecting statesmen now +living, who played an unexpected part, and that controversy +may well stand over for another, and let us hope a very +distant, day. Whether we had a right to interfere single-handed; +whether we were bound as a duty to interfere +under the Cyprus Convention; whether our intervention +would provoke hostilities on the part of other Powers and +even kindle a general conflagration in Europe; whether our +severance of diplomatic relations with the Sultan or our +withdrawal from the concert of Europe would do any good; +what possible form armed intervention could take—all +these are questions on which both liberals and tories +vehemently differed from one another then, and will +vehemently differ again. Mr. Gladstone was bold and firm +in his replies. As to the idea, he said, that all independent +action on the part of this great country was to be made +chargeable for producing war in Europe, <q>that is in my +opinion a mistake almost more deplorable than almost any +committed in the history of diplomacy.</q> We had a right +under the convention. We had a duty under the responsibilities +incurred at Paris in 1856, at Berlin in 1878. The +upshot of his arguments at Liverpool was that we should +break off relations with the Sultan; that we should undertake +not to turn hostilities to our private advantage; that +we should limit our proceedings to the suppression of +mischief in its aggravated form; and if Europe threatened +us with war it might be necessary to recede, as France had +receded under parallel circumstances from her individual +policy on the eastern question in 1840,—receded without +loss either of honour or power, believing that she had been +right and wise and others wrong and unwise. +</p> + +<p> +If Mr. Gladstone had still had, as he puts it, <q>the years of +1876,</q> he might have made as deep a mark. As it was, his +speech at Liverpool was his last great deliverance to a public +audience. As the year ended this was his birthday entry:— +</p> + +<pb n='523'/><anchor id='Pg523'/> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>Dec. 29, 1896.</hi>—My long and tangled life this day concludes +its 87th year. My father died four days short of that term. I know +of no other life so long in the Gladstone family, and my profession +has been that of politician, or, more strictly, minister of state, an +extremely short-lived race when their scene of action has been in +the House of Commons, Lord Palmerston being the only complete +exception. In the last twelve months eyes and ears may have +declined, but not materially. The occasional contraction of the +chest is the only inconvenience that can be called new. I am not +without hope that Cannes may have a [illegible] to act upon it. +The blessings of family life continue to be poured in the largest +measure upon my unworthy head. Even my temporal affairs have +thriven. Still old age is appointed for the gradual loosening and +succeeding snapping of the threads. I visited Lord Stratford +when he was, say, 90 or 91 or thereabouts. He said to me, <q>It is +not a blessing.</q> As to politics, I think the basis of my mind is +laid principally in finance and philanthropy. The prospects of +the first are darker than I have ever known them. Those of the +second are black also, but with more hope of some early dawn. I +do not enter on interior matters. It is so easy to write, but to +write honestly nearly impossible. Lady Grosvenor gave me +to-day a delightful present of a small crucifix. I am rather too +independent of symbol. +</quote> + +<p> +This is the last entry in the diaries of seventy years. +</p> + +<p> +At the end of January 1897, the Gladstones betook themselves +once more to Lord Rendel's <hi rend='italic'>palazzetto</hi>, as they called +it, at Cannes. +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I had hoped during this excursion, he journalises, to make +much way with my autobiographica. But this was in a large +degree frustrated, first by invalidism, next by the eastern +question, on which I was finally obliged to write +something.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Letter to the Duke +of Westminster.</hi></note> +Lastly, and not least, by a growing sense of decline in my daily +amount of brain force available for serious work. My power to +read (but to read very slowly indeed since the cataract came) for a +considerable number of hours daily, thank God, continues. This +is a great mercy. While on my outing, I may have read, of one +kind and another, twenty volumes. Novels enter into this list +<pb n='524'/><anchor id='Pg524'/> +rather considerably. I have begun seriously to ask myself +whether I shall ever be able to face <q>The Olympian Religion.</q> +</quote> + +<p> +The Queen happened to be resident at Cimiez at this time, +and Mr. Gladstone wrote about their last meeting:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +A message came down to us inviting us to go into the hotel and +take tea with the Princess Louise. We repaired to the hotel, and +had our tea with Miss Paget, who was in attendance. The +Princess soon came in, and after a short delay we were summoned +into the Queen's presence. No other English people were on the +ground. We were shown into a room tolerably, but not brilliantly +lighted, much of which was populated by a copious supply of +Hanoverian royalties. The Queen was in the inner part of the +room, and behind her stood the Prince of Wales and the Duke of +Cambridge. Notwithstanding my enfeebled sight, my vision is not +much impaired for practical purposes in cases such as this, where I +am thoroughly familiar with the countenance and whole contour +of any person to be seen. My wife preceded, and Mary followed +me. The Queen's manner did not show the old and usual vitality. +It was still, but at the same time very decidedly kind, such as I +had not seen it for a good while before my final resignation. She +gave me her hand, a thing which is, I apprehended, rather rare +with men, and which had never happened with me during all my +life, though that life, be it remembered, had included some periods +of rather decided favour. Catherine sat down near her, and I at a +little distance. For a good many years she had habitually asked +me to sit. My wife spoke freely and a good deal to the Queen, +but the answers appeared to me to be very slight. As to myself, I +expressed satisfaction at the favourable accounts I had heard of +the accommodation at Cimiez, and perhaps a few more words of +routine. To speak frankly, it seemed to me that the Queen's +peculiar faculty and habit of conversation had disappeared. It was +a faculty, not so much the free offspring of a rich and powerful +mind, as the fruit of assiduous care with long practice and much +opportunity. After about ten minutes, it was signified to us that +we had to be presented to all the other royalties, and so passed +the remainder of this meeting. +</quote> + +<p> +In the early autumn of 1897 he found himself affected by +<pb n='525'/><anchor id='Pg525'/> +<note place='margin'>Last Meeting With The Queen</note> +what was supposed to be a peculiar form of catarrh. He +went to stay with Mr. Armitstead at Butterstone in Perthshire. +I saw him on several occasions afterwards, but this +was the last time when I found him with all the freedom, +full self-possession, and kind geniality of old days. He was +keenly interested at my telling him that I had seen James +Martineau a few days before, in his cottage further north in +Inverness-shire; that Martineau, though he had now passed +his ninety-second milestone on life's road, was able to walk +five or six hundred feet up his hillside every day, was at his +desk at eight each morning, and read theology a good many +hours before he went to bed at night. Mr. Gladstone's conversation +was varied, glowing, full of reminiscence. He had +written me in the previous May, hoping among other kind +things that <q>we may live more and more in sympathy and +communion.</q> I never saw him more attractive than in the +short pleasant talks of these three or four days. He discussed +some of the sixty or seventy men with whom he had been +associated in cabinet life,<note place='foot'>For the list see +Appendix.</note> freely but charitably, though he +named two whom he thought to have behaved worse to him +than others. He repeated his expression of enormous admiration +for Graham. Talked about his own voice. After he had +made his long budget speech in 1860, a certain member, supposed +to be an operatic expert, came to him and said, <q>You +must take great care, or else you will destroy the <emph>colour</emph> in +your voice.</q> He had kept a watch on general affairs. The +speech of a foreign ruler upon divine right much incensed him. +He thought that Lord Salisbury had managed to set the Turk +up higher than he had reached since the Crimean war; and +his policy had weakened Greece, the most liberal of the +eastern communities. We fought over again some old +battles of 1886 and 1892-4. Mr. Armitstead had said to +him—<q>Oh, sir, you'll live ten years to come.</q> <q>I do trust,</q> +he answered as he told me this, <q>that God in his mercy +will spare me that.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +Then came months of distress. The facial annoyance +grew into acute and continued pain, and to pain he proved +<pb n='526'/><anchor id='Pg526'/> +to be exceedingly sensitive. It did not master him, but +there were moments that seemed almost of collapse and +defeat. At last the night was gathering +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l rend='margin-left: 8'>About the burning crest</l> +<l>Of the old, feeble, and day-wearied sun.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>King +John.</hi></note></l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p> +They took him at the end of November (1897) to Cannes, +to the house of Lord Rendel. +</p> + +<p> +Sometimes at dinner he talked with his host, with Lord +Welby, or Lord Acton, with his usual force, but most of the +time he lay in extreme suffering and weariness, only glad +when they soothed him with music. It was decided that he +had better return, and in hope that change of air might even +yet be some palliative, he went to Bournemouth, which he +reached on February 22. For weeks past he had not written +nor read, save one letter that he wrote in his journey home to +Lady Salisbury upon a rather narrow escape of her husband's +in a carriage accident. On March 18 his malady was pronounced +incurable, and he learned that it was likely to end +in a few weeks. He received the verdict with perfect +serenity and with a sense of unutterable relief, for his sufferings +had been cruel. Four days later he started home to +die. On leaving Bournemouth before stepping into the +train, he turned round, and to those who were waiting on the +platform to see him off, he said with quiet gravity, <q>God +bless you and this place, and the land you love.</q> At +Hawarden he bore the dreadful burden of his pain with +fortitude, supported by the ritual ordinances of his church +and faith. Music soothed him, the old composers being +those he liked best to hear. Messages of sympathy were +read to him, and he listened silently or with a word of +thanks. +</p> + +<p> +<q>The retinue of the whole world's good wishes</q> flowed to +the <q>large upper chamber looking to the sunrising, where the +aged pilgrim lay.</q> Men and women of every communion +offered up earnest prayers for him. Those who were of no +communion thought with pity, sympathy, and sorrow of +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l>A Power passing from the earth</l> +<l>To breathless Nature's dark abyss.</l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<pb n='527'/><anchor id='Pg527'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Last Illness</note> +From every rank in social life came outpourings in every +key of reverence and admiration. People appeared—as +is the way when death comes—to see his life and character +as a whole, and to gather up in his personality, +thus transfigured by the descending shades, all the best +hopes and aspirations of their own best hours. A certain +grandeur overspread the moving scene. Nothing was there +for tears. It was <q>no importunate and heavy load.</q> The +force was spent, but it had been nobly spent in devoted and +effective service for his country and his fellow-men. +</p> + +<p> +From the Prince of the Black Mountain came a telegram: +<q>Many years ago, when Montenegro, my beloved country, +was in difficulties and in danger, your eloquent voice and +powerful pen successfully pleaded and worked on her behalf. +At this time vigorous and prosperous, with a bright future +before her, she turns with sympathetic eye to the great +English statesman to whom she owes so much, and for whose +present sufferings she feels so deeply.</q> And he answered by +a message that <q>his interest in Montenegro had always been +profound, and he prayed that it might prosper and be blessed +in all its undertakings.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Of the thousand salutations of pity and hope none went +so much to his heart as one from Oxford—an expression of +true feeling, in language worthy of her fame:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +At yesterday's meeting of the hebdomadal council, wrote the +vice-chancellor, an unanimous wish was expressed that I should +convey to you the message of our profound sorrow and affection at +the sore trouble and distress which you are called upon to endure. +While we join in the universal regret with which the nation +watches the dark cloud which has fallen upon the evening of a +great and impressive life, we believe that Oxford may lay claim to +a deeper and more intimate share in this sorrow. Your brilliant +career in our university, your long political connection with it, +and your fine scholarship, kindled in this place of ancient learning, +have linked you to Oxford by no ordinary bond, and we cannot +but hope that you will receive with satisfaction this expression of +deep-seated kindliness and sympathy from us. +</p> + +<p> +We pray that the Almighty may support you and those near +<pb n='528'/><anchor id='Pg528'/> +and dear to you in this trial, and may lighten the load of suffering +which you bear with such heroic resignation. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +To this he listened more attentively and over it he brooded +long, then he dictated to his youngest daughter sentence by +sentence at intervals his reply:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +There is no expression of Christian sympathy that I value more +than that of the ancient university of Oxford, the God-fearing and +God-sustaining university of Oxford. I served her, perhaps mistakenly, +but to the best of my ability. My most earnest prayers +are hers to the uttermost and to the last. +</quote> + +<p> +When May opened, it was evident that the end was drawing +near. On the 13th he was allowed to receive visits of +farewell from Lord Rosebery and from myself, the last +persons beyond his household to see him. He was hardly +conscious. On the early morning of the 19th, his family +all kneeling around the bed on which he lay in the stupor +of coming death, without a struggle he ceased to breathe. +Nature outside—wood and wide lawn and cloudless far-off +sky—shone at her fairest. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +On the day after his death, in each of the two Houses the +leader made the motion, identical in language in both cases +save the few final words about financial provision in the +resolution of the Commons:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +That an humble Address be presented to her Majesty praying +that her Majesty will be graciously pleased to give directions that +the remains of the Right Hon. William Ewart Gladstone be interred +at the public charge, and that a monument be erected in +the Collegiate Church of St. Peter, Westminster, with an inscription +expressive of the public admiration and attachment and of +the high sense entertained of his rare and splendid gifts, and of +his devoted labours to parliament and in great offices of state, +and to assure her Majesty that this House will make good the +expenses attending the same. +</quote> + +<p> +The language of the movers was worthy of the British +parliament at its best, worthy of the station of those who +<pb n='529'/><anchor id='Pg529'/> +<note place='margin'>Parliamentary Tributes</note> +used it, and worthy of the figure commemorated. Lord +Salisbury was thought by most to go nearest to the core of +the solemnity:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +What is the cause of this unanimous feeling? Of course, he +had qualities that distinguished him from all other men; and +you may say that it was his transcendent intellect, his astonishing +power of attaching men to him, and the great influence he +was able to exert upon the thought and convictions of his contemporaries. +But these things, which explain the attachment, the +adoration of those whose ideas he represented, would not explain +why it is that sentiments almost as fervent are felt and expressed +by those whose ideas were not carried out by his policy. My +Lords, I do not think the reason is to be found in anything so +far removed from the common feelings of mankind as the abstruse +and controversial questions of the policy of the day. They had +nothing to do with it. Whether he was right, or whether he +was wrong, in all the measures, or in most of the measures +which he proposed—those are matters of which the discussion +has passed by, and would certainly be singularly inappropriate +here; they are really remitted to the judgment of future generations, +who will securely judge from experience what we can only +decide by forecast. It was on account of considerations more +common to the masses of human beings, to the general working +of the human mind, than any controversial questions of policy +that men recognised in him a man guided—whether under mistaken +impressions or not, it matters not—but guided in all the +steps he took, in all the efforts that he made, by a high moral +ideal. What he sought were the attainments of great ideals, +and, whether they were based on sound convictions or not, they +could have issued from nothing but the greatest and the purest +moral aspirations; and he is honoured by his countrymen, because +through so many years, across so many vicissitudes and +conflicts, they had recognised this one characteristic of his action, +which has never ceased to be felt. He will leave behind him, +especially to those who have followed with deep interest the +history of the later years—I might almost say the later months +of his life—he will leave behind him the memory of a great +Christian statesman. Set up necessarily on high—the sight of +<pb n='530'/><anchor id='Pg530'/> +his character, his motives, and his intentions would strike all the +world. They will have left a deep and most salutary influence +on the political thought and the social thought of the generation +in which he lived, and he will be long remembered not so +much for the causes in which he was engaged or the political +projects which he favoured, but as a great example, to which +history hardly furnishes a parallel, of a great Christian man. +</quote> + +<p> +Mr. Balfour, the leader in the Commons, specially spoke +of him as <q>the greatest member of the greatest deliberative +assembly that the world has seen,</q> and most aptly pointed +to Mr. Gladstone's special service in respect of that +assembly. +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +One service he did, in my opinion incalculable, which is altogether +apart from the judgment that we may be disposed to pass +upon particular opinions, or particular lines of policy which Mr. +Gladstone may from time to time have advocated. Sir, he added +a dignity, as he added a weight, to the deliberations of this House +by his genius, which I think it is impossible adequately to replace. +It is not enough for us to keep up simply a level, though it be a +high level, of probity and of patriotism. The mere average of +civic virtue is not sufficient to preserve this Assembly from the fate +that has overcome so many other Assemblies, products of democratic +forces. More than this is required; more than this was +given to us by Mr. Gladstone. He brought to our debates a +genius which compelled attention, he raised in the public estimation +the whole level of our proceedings, and they will be most +ready to admit the infinite value of his service who realise how +much of public prosperity is involved in the maintenance of the +worth of public life, and how perilously difficult most democracies +apparently feel it to be to avoid the opposite dangers into which +so many of them have fallen. +</quote> + +<p> +Sir William Harcourt spoke of him as friend and official +colleague:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +I have heard men who knew him not at all, who have asserted +that the supremacy of his genius and the weight of his authority +oppressed and overbore those who lived with him and those who +worked under him. Nothing could be more untrue. Of all +<pb n='531'/><anchor id='Pg531'/> +chiefs he was the least exacting. He was the most kind, the most +tolerant, he was the most placable. How seldom in this House +was the voice of personal anger heard from his lips. These are +the true marks of greatness. +</quote> + +<p> +Lord Rosebery described his gifts and powers, his concentration, +the multiplicity of his interests, his labour of +every day, and almost of every hour of every day, in fashioning +an intellect that was mighty by nature. And besides +this panegyric on the departed warrior, he touched with +felicity and sincerity a note of true feeling in recalling to his +hearers +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +the solitary and pathetic figure, who for sixty years, shared all +the sorrows and all the joys of Mr. Gladstone's life, who received +his confidence and every aspiration, who shared his triumphs with +him and cheered him under his defeats; who by her tender vigilance, +I firmly believe, sustained and prolonged his years. +</quote> + +<p> +When the memorial speeches were over the House +of Commons adjourned. The Queen, when the day of +the funeral came, telegraphed to Mrs. Gladstone from +Balmoral:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +My thoughts are much with you to-day, when your dear +husband is laid to rest. To-day's ceremony will be most trying +and painful for you, but it will be at the same time gratifying +to you to see the respect and regret evinced by the nation for the +memory of one whose character and intellectual abilities marked +him as one of the most distinguished statesmen of my reign. I +shall ever gratefully remember his devotion and zeal in all that +concerned my personal welfare and that of my family. +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +It was not at Westminster only that his praise went forth. +Famous men, in the immortal words of Pericles to his +Athenians, have the whole world for their tomb; they are +commemorated not only by columns and inscriptions in their +own land; in foreign lands too a memorial of them is graven +in the hearts of men. So it was here. No other statesman +on our famous roll has touched the imagination of so wide a +world. +</p> + +<pb n='532'/><anchor id='Pg532'/> + +<p> +The colonies through their officers or more directly, sent +to Mrs. Gladstone their expression of trust that the worldwide +admiration and esteem of her honoured and illustrious +husband would help her to sustain her burden of sorrow. The +ambassador of the United States reverently congratulated +her and the English race everywhere, upon the glorious +completion of a life filled with splendid achievements and +consecrated to the noblest purposes. The President followed +in the same vein, and in Congress words were found to +celebrate a splendid life and character. The President of +the French republic wished to be among the first to associate +himself with Mrs. Gladstone's grief: <q>By the high liberality +of his character,</q> he said, <q>and by the nobility of his political +ideal, Mr. Gladstone had worthily served his country and +humanity.</q> The entire French government requested the +British ambassador in Paris to convey the expression of their +sympathy and assurance of their appreciation, admiration, +and respect for the character of the illustrious departed. +The Czar of Russia telegraphed to Mrs. Gladstone: <q>I +have just received the painful news of Mr. Gladstone's +decease, and consider it my duty to express to you my feelings +of sincere sympathy on the occasion of the cruel and +irreparable bereavement which has befallen you, as well as +the deep regret which this sad event has given me. The +whole of the civilised world will beweep the loss of a great +statesman, whose political views were so widely humane and +peaceable.</q> +</p> + +<p> +In Italy the sensation was said to be as great as when +Victor Emmanuel or Garibaldi died. The Italian parliament +and the prime minister telegraphed to the effect that <q>the +cruel loss which had just struck England, was a grief +sincerely shared by all who are devoted to liberty. Italy +has not forgotten, and will never forget, the interest and +sympathy of Mr. Gladstone in events that led to its independence.</q> +In the same key, Greece: the King, the first +minister, the university, the chamber, declared that he was +entitled to the gratitude of the Greek people, and his name +would be by them for ever venerated. From Roumania, +Macedonia, Norway, Denmark, tributes came <q>to the great +<pb n='533'/><anchor id='Pg533'/> +memory of Gladstone, one of the glories of mankind.</q> Never +has so wide and honourable a pomp all over the globe followed +an English statesman to the grave. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +On May 25, the remains were brought from Hawarden, +and in the middle of the night the sealed coffin was placed +in Westminster Hall, watched until the funeral by the piety +of relays of friends. For long hours each day great multitudes +filed past the bier. It was a striking demonstration +of national feeling, for the procession contained every rank, +and contingents came from every part of the kingdom. On +Saturday, May 28, the body was committed to the grave in +Westminster Abbey. No sign of high honour was absent. +The heir to the throne and his son were among those who +bore the pall. So were the prime minister and the two +leaders of the parties in both Houses. The other pall-bearers +were Lord Rosebery who had succeeded him as prime +minister, the Duke of Rutland who had half a century +before been Mr. Gladstone's colleague at Newark, and Mr. +Armitstead and Lord Rendel, who were his private friends. +Foreign sovereigns sent their representatives, the Speaker of +the House of Commons was there in state, and those were +there who had done stout battle against him for long years; +those also who had sat with him in council and stood by +his side in frowning hours. At the head of the grave was +<q>the solitary and pathetic figure</q> of his wife. Even men +most averse to all pomps and shows on the occasions and +scenes that declare so audibly their nothingness, here were +only conscious of a deep and moving simplicity, befitting a +great citizen now laid among the kings and heroes. Two +years later, the tomb was opened to receive the faithful and +devoted companion of his life. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='534'/><anchor id='Pg534'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chapter X. Final.</head> + +<p> +Anybody can see the host of general and speculative +questions raised by a career so extraordinary. How would +his fame have stood if his political life had ended in +1854, or 1874, or 1881, or 1885? What light does it +shed upon the working of the parliamentary system; +on the weakness and strength of popular government; on +the good and bad of political party; on the superiority of +rule by cabinet or by an elected president; on the relations +of opinion to law? Here is material for a volume of +disquisition, and nobody can ever discuss such speculations +without reference to power as it was exercised by Mr. Gladstone. +Those thronged halls, those vast progresses, those +strenuous orations—what did they amount to? Did they +mean a real moulding of opinion, an actual impression, +whether by argument or temper or personality or all three, +on the minds of hearers? Or was it no more than the +same kind of interest that takes men to stage-plays with +a favourite performer? This could hardly be, for his hearers +gave him long spells of power and a practical authority that +was unique and supreme. What thoughts does his career +suggest on the relations of Christianity to patriotism, or to +empire, or to what has been called neo-paganism? How +many points arise as to the dependence of ethics on dogma? +These are deep and living and perhaps burning issues, not +to be discussed at the end of what the reader may well have +found a long journey. They offer themselves for his independent +consideration. +</p> + +<div> +<head>I</head> + +<p> +Mr. Gladstone's own summary of the period in which he +<pb n='535'/><anchor id='Pg535'/> +<note place='margin'>His Summary Of The Period</note> +had been so conspicuous a figure was this, when for him the +drama was at an end:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +Of his own career, he says, it is a career certainly chargeable +with many errors of judgment, but I hope on the whole, governed +at least by uprightness of intention and by a desire to learn. +The personal aspect may now readily be dismissed as it concerns +the past. But the public aspect of the period which closes for me +with the fourteen years (so I love to reckon them) of my formal +connection with Midlothian is too important to pass without a +word. I consider it as beginning with the Reform Act of Lord +Grey's government. That great Act was for England improvement +and extension, for Scotland it was political birth, the +beginning of a duty and a power, neither of which had attached +to the Scottish nation in the preceding period. I rejoice to think +how the solemnity of that duty has been recognised, and how that +power has been used. The three-score years offer us the pictures +of what the historian will recognise as a great legislative and +administrative period—perhaps, on the whole, the greatest in our +annals. It has been predominantly a history of emancipation—that +is of enabling man to do his work of emancipation, political, +economical, social, moral, intellectual. Not numerous merely, but +almost numberless, have been the causes brought to issue, and in +every one of them I rejoice to think that, so far as my knowledge +goes, Scotland has done battle for the right. +</p> + +<p> +Another period has opened and is opening still—a period +possibly of yet greater moral dangers, certainly a great ordeal for +those classes which are now becoming largely conscious of power, +and never heretofore subject to its deteriorating influences. These +have been confined in their actions to the classes above them, +because they were its sole possessors. Now is the time for the +true friend of his country to remind the masses that their present +political elevation is owing to no principles less broad and noble +than these—the love of liberty, of liberty for all without distinction +of class, creed or country, and the resolute preference of the +interests of the whole to any interest, be it what it may, of a +narrower scope.<note place='foot'>Letter to Sir John Cowan, March 17, 1894.</note> +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +A year later, in bidding farewell to his constituents <q>with +<pb n='536'/><anchor id='Pg536'/> +sentiments of gratitude and attachment that can never be +effaced,</q> he proceeds:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Though in regard to public affairs many things are disputable, +there are some which belong to history and which have passed out +of the region of contention. It is, for example as I conceive, beyond +question that the century now expiring has exhibited since +the close of its first quarter a period of unexampled activity both +in legislative and administrative changes; that these changes, +taken in the mass, have been in the direction of true and most +beneficial progress; that both the conditions and the franchises of +the people have made in relation to the former state of things, an +extraordinary advance; that of these reforms an overwhelming +proportion have been effected by direct action of the liberal party, +or of statesmen such as Peel and Canning, ready to meet odium +or to forfeit power for the public good; and that in every one of +the fifteen parliaments the people of Scotland have decisively expressed +their convictions in favour of this wise, temperate, and +in every way remarkable policy.<note place='foot'>July 1, 1895.</note> +</quote> + +<p> +To charge him with habitually rousing popular forces into +dangerous excitement, is to ignore or misread his action in +some of the most critical of his movements. <q>Here is +a man,</q> said Huxley, <q>with the greatest intellect in Europe, +and yet he debases it by simply following majorities and +the crowd.</q> He was called a mere mirror of the passing +humours and intellectual confusions of the popular mind. +He had nothing, said his detractors, but a sort of clever +pilot's eye for winds and currents, and the rising of the +tide to the exact height that would float him and his +cargo over the bar. All this is the exact opposite of +the truth. What he thought was that the statesman's gift +consisted in insight into the facts of a particular era, disclosing +the existence of material for forming public opinion +and directing public opinion to a given purpose. In every +one of his achievements of high mark—even in his last +marked failure of achievement—he expressly formed, or +endeavoured to form and create, the public opinion upon +which he knew that in the last resort he must depend. +</p> + +<pb n='537'/><anchor id='Pg537'/> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Leader, Not Follower</note> +We have seen the triumph of 1853.<note place='foot'>See vol. i. p. +457.</note> Did he, in renewing +the most hated of taxes, run about anxiously feeling the +pulse of public opinion? On the contrary, he grappled with +the facts with infinite labour—and half his genius was labour—he +built up a great plan; he carried it to the cabinet; +they warned him that the House of Commons would be +against him; the officials of the treasury told him the Bank +would be against him; that a strong press of commercial +interests would be against him. Like the bold and sinewy +athlete that he always was, he stood to his plan; he carried +the cabinet; he persuaded the House of Commons; he +vanquished the Bank and the hostile interests; and in the +words of Sir Stafford Northcote, he changed and turned for +many years to come, a current of public opinion that seemed +far too powerful for any minister to resist. In the tempestuous +discussions during the seventies on the policy of +this country in respect of the Christian races of the Balkan +Peninsula, he with his own voice created, moulded, inspired, +and kindled with resistless flame the whole of the public +opinion that eventually guided the policy of the nation with +such admirable effect both for its own fame, and for the good +of the world. Take again the Land Act of 1881, in some ways +the most deep-reaching of all his legislative achievements. +Here he had no flowing tide, every current was against him. +He carried his scheme against the ignorance of the country, +against the prejudice of the country, and against the standing +prejudices of both branches of the legislature, who were +steeped from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot in +the strictest doctrines of contract. +</p> + +<p> +Then his passion for economy, his ceaseless war against +public profusion, his insistence upon rigorous keeping of the +national accounts—in this great department of affairs he led +and did not follow. In no sphere of his activities was he +more strenuous, and in no sphere, as he must well have +known, was he less likely to win popularity. For democracy +is spendthrift; if, to be sure, we may not say that most forms +of government are apt to be the same. +</p> + +<p> +In a survey of Mr. Gladstone's performances, some would +<pb n='538'/><anchor id='Pg538'/> +place this of which I have last spoken, as foremost among +his services to the country. Others would call him greatest +in the associated service of a skilful handling and adjustment +of the burden of taxation; or the strengthening of the +foundations of national prosperity and well-being by his +reformation of the tariff. Yet others again choose to remember +him for his share in guiding the successive extensions +of popular power, and simplifying and purifying +electoral machinery. Irishmen at least, and others so far +as they are able to comprehend the history and vile wrongs +and sharp needs of Ireland, will have no doubt what rank in +legislation they will assign to the establishment of religious +equality and agrarian justice in that portion of the realm. +Not a few will count first the vigour with which he repaired +what had been an erroneous judgment of his own and of vast +hosts of his countrymen, by his courage in carrying through +the submission of the Alabama claims to arbitration. Still +more, looking from west to east, in this comparison among +his achievements, will judge alike in its result and in the +effort that produced it, nothing equal to the valour and +insight with which he burst the chains of a mischievous and +degrading policy as to the Ottoman empire. When we look +at this exploit, how in face of an opponent of genius and +authority and a tenacity not inferior to his own, in face of +strongly rooted tradition on behalf of the Turk, and an easily +roused antipathy against the Russian, by his own energy +and strength of arm he wrested the rudder from the hand of +the helmsman and put about the course of the ship, and held +England back from the enormity of trying to keep several +millions of men and women under the yoke of barbaric +oppression and misrule,—we may say that this great feat +alone was fame enough for one statesman. Let us make +what choice we will of this or that particular achievement, +how splendid a list it is of benefits conferred and public +work effectually performed. Was he a good parliamentary +tactician, they ask? Was his eye sure, his hand firm, his +measurement of forces, distances, and possibilities of change +in wind and tide accurate? Did he usually hit the proper +moment for a magisterial intervention? Experts did not +<pb n='539'/><anchor id='Pg539'/> +<note place='margin'>Achievements Compared</note> +always agree on his quality as tactician. At least he was +pilot enough to bring many valuable cargoes safely home. +</p> + +<p> +He was one of the three statesmen in the House of +Commons of his own generation who had the gift of large +and spacious conception of the place and power of England +in the world, and of the policies by which she could maintain +it. Cobden and Disraeli were the other two. Wide as the +poles asunder in genius, in character, and in the mark they +made upon the nation, yet each of these three was capable +of wide surveys from high eminence. But Mr. Gladstone's +performances in the sphere of active government were +beyond comparison. +</p> + +<p> +Again he was often harshly judged by that tenacious class +who insist that if a general principle be sound, there can never +be a reason why it should not be applied forthwith, and that +a rule subject to exceptions is not worth calling a rule; and +the worst of it is that these people are mostly the salt of the +earth. In their impatient moments they dismissed him as +an opportunist, but whenever there was a chance of getting +anything done, they mostly found that he was the only man +with courage and resolution enough to attempt to do it. In +thinking about him we have constantly to remember, as Sir +George Lewis said, that government is a very rough affair +at best, a huge rough machine, not the delicate springs, +wheels, and balances of a chronometer, and those concerned +in working it have to be satisfied with what is far below the +best. <q>Men have no business to talk of disenchantment,</q> +Mr. Gladstone said; <q>ideals are never realised.</q> That is no +reason, he meant, why men should not persist and toil and +hope, and this is plainly the true temper for the politician. +Yet he did not feed upon illusions. <q>The history of nations,</q> +he wrote in 1876, <q>is a melancholy chapter; that is, the +history of governments is one of the most immoral parts of +human history.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>II</head> + +<p> +It might well be said that Mr. Gladstone took too little, +rather than too much trouble to be popular. His religious +conservatism puzzled and irritated those who admired and +<pb n='540'/><anchor id='Pg540'/> +shared his political liberalism, just as churchmen watched +with uneasiness and suspicion his radical alliances. Neither +those who were churchmen first, nor those whose interests +were keenest in politics, could comprehend the union of what +seemed incompatibles, and because they could not comprehend +they sometimes in their shallower humours doubted +his sincerity. Mr. Gladstone was never, after say 1850, really +afraid of disestablishment; on the contrary he was much +more afraid of the perils of establishment for the integrity of +the faith. Yet political disestablishers often doubted him, +because they had not logic enough to see that a man may +be a fervent believer in anglican institutions and what he +thinks catholic tradition, and yet be as ready as Cavour for +the principle of free church in free state. +</p> + +<p> +It is curious that some of the things that made men +suspicious, were in fact the liveliest tokens of his sincerity +and simplicity. With all his power of political imagination, +yet his mind was an intensely literal mind. He did not +look at an act or a decision from the point of view at which +it might be regarded by other people. Ewelme, the mission +to the Ionian Islands, the royal warrant, the affair of the +judicial committee, vaticanism, and all the other things that +gave offence, and stirred misgivings even in friends, showed +that the very last question he ever asked himself was how +his action would look; what construction might be put +upon it, or even would pretty certainly be put upon it; +whom it would encourage, whom it would estrange, whom +it would perplex. Is the given end right, he seemed to ask; +what are the surest means; are the means as right as the +end, as right as they are sure? But right—on strict and +literal construction. What he sometimes forgot was that in +political action, construction is part of the act, nay, may +even be its most important part.<note place='foot'>See +<hi rend='italic'>Guardian</hi>, Feb. 25, 1874.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The more you make of his errors, the more is the need to +explain his vast renown, the long reign of his authority, the +substance and reality of his powers. We call men great for +many reasons apart from service wrought or eminence of +intellect or even from force and depth of character. To +<pb n='541'/><anchor id='Pg541'/> +<note place='margin'>Attitude To Church Parties</note> +have taken a leading part in transactions of decisive +moment; to have proved himself able to meet demands +on which high issues hung; to combine intellectual +qualities, though moderate yet adequate and sufficient, with +the moral qualities needed for the given circumstance—with +daring, circumspection, energy, intrepid initiative; to have +fallen in with one of those occasions in the world that +impart their own greatness even to a mediocre actor, and +surround his name with a halo not radiating from within +but shed upon him from without—in all these and many +other ways men come to be counted great. Mr. Gladstone +belongs to the rarer class who acquired authority and fame +by transcendent qualities of genius within, in half independence +of any occasions beyond those they create for themselves. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>III</head> + +<p> +Of his attitude in respect of church parties, it is not for +me to speak. He has himself described at least one aspect +of it in a letter to an inquirer, which would be a very noble +piece by whomsoever written, and in the name of whatsoever +creed or no-creed, whether Christian or Rationalist +or Nathan the Wise Jew's creed. It was addressed to a +clergyman who seems to have asked of what section Mr. +Gladstone considered himself an adherent:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>Feb. 4, 1865.</hi>—It is impossible to misinterpret either the +intention or the terms of your letter; and I thank you for it sincerely. +But I cannot answer the question which you put to me, and +I think I can even satisfy you that with my convictions I should +do wrong in replying to it in any manner. Whatever reason +I may have for being painfully and daily conscious of every kind +of unworthiness, yet I am sufficiently aware of the dignity of +religious belief to have been throughout a political life, now in its +thirty-third year, steadily resolved never by my own voluntary +act to make it the subject of any compact or assurance with a +view to a political object. You think (and pray do not suppose +I make this matter of complaint) that I have been associated with +one party in the church of England, and that I may now lean +rather towards another.... There is no one about whom information +<pb n='542'/><anchor id='Pg542'/> +can be more easily had than myself. I have had and +have friends of many colours, churchmen high and low, presbyterians, +Greeks, Roman catholics, dissenters, who can speak +abundantly, though perhaps not very well of me. And further, +as member for the university, I have honestly endeavoured at all +times to put my constituents in possession of all I could convey +to them that could be considered as in the nature of a fact, by +answering as explicitly as I was able all questions relating to the +matters, and they are numerous enough, on which I have had to +act or speak. Perhaps I shall surprise you by what I have yet +further to say. I have never by any conscious act yielded my +allegiance to any person or party in matters of religion. You and +others may have called me (without the least offence) a churchman +of some particular kind, and I have more than once seen +announced in print my own secession from the church of England. +These things I have not commonly contradicted, for the atmosphere +of religious controversy and contradiction is as odious as +the atmosphere of mental freedom is precious, to me; and I have +feared to lose the one and be drawn into the other, by heat and +bitterness creeping into the mind. If another chooses to call himself, +or to call me, a member of this or that party, I am not to +complain. But I respectfully claim the right not to call myself +so, and on this claim, I have I believe acted throughout my life, +without a single exception; and I feel that were I to waive it, +I should at once put in hazard that allegiance to Truth, which is +at once the supreme duty and the supreme joy of life. I have +only to add the expression of my hope that in what I have said +there is nothing to hurt or to offend you; and, if there be, very +heartily to wish it unsaid. +</quote> + +<p> +Yet there was never the shadow of mistake about his own +fervent faith. As he said to another correspondent:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<hi rend='italic'>Feb. 5, 1876.</hi>—I am in principle a strong denominationalist. +<q>One fold and one shepherd</q> was the note of early Christendom. +The shepherd is still one and knows his sheep; but the folds are +many; and, without condemning any others, I am of opinion that +it is best for us all that we should all of us be jealous for the +honour of whatever we have and hold as positive truth, appertaining +to the Divine Word and the foundation and history of +<pb n='543'/><anchor id='Pg543'/> +the Christian community. I admit that this question becomes +one of circumstance and degree, but I take it as I find it defined +for myself by and in my own position. +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>IV</head> + +<p> +Of Mr. Gladstone as orator and improvisatore, enough has +been said and seen. Besides being orator and statesman he +was scholar and critic. Perhaps scholar in his interests, +not in abiding contribution. The most copious of his productions +in this delightful but arduous field was the three +large volumes on <hi rend='italic'>Homer and the Homeric Age</hi>, given to the +world in 1858. Into what has been well called the whirlpool +of Homeric controversies, the reader shall not here be +dragged. Mr. Gladstone himself gave them the go-by, with +an indifference and disdain such as might have been well +enough in the economic field if exhibited towards a protectionist +farmer, or a partisan of retaliatory duties on manufactured +goods, but that were hardly to the point in dealing +with profound and original critics. What he too contemptuously +dismissed as Homeric <q>bubble-schemes,</q> were +in truth centres of scientific illumination. At the end of +the eighteenth century Wolf's famous <hi rend='italic'>Prolegomena</hi> appeared, +in which he advanced the theory that Homer was no single +poet, nor a name for two poets, nor an individual at all; +the <hi rend='italic'>Iliad</hi> and <hi rend='italic'>Odyssey</hi> were collections of +independent lays, folk-lore and folk-songs connected by a common set of +themes, and edited, redacted, or compacted about the middle +of the sixth century before Christ. A learned man of our +own day has said that F. A. Wolf ought to be counted one +of the half dozen writers that within the last three centuries +have most influenced thought. This would bring Wolf into +line with Descartes, Newton, Locke, Kant, Rousseau, or whatever +other five master-spirits of thought from then to now +the judicious reader may select. The present writer has +assuredly no competence to assign Wolf's place in the +history of modern criticism, but straying aside for a season +from the green pastures of Hansard, and turning over again +the slim volume of a hundred and fifty pages in which Wolf +discusses his theme, one may easily discern a fountain of +<pb n='544'/><anchor id='Pg544'/> +broad streams of modern thought (apart from the particular +thesis) that to Mr. Gladstone, by the force of all his education +and his deepest prepossessions, were in the highest +degree chimerical and dangerous. +</p> + +<p> +He once wrote to Lord Acton (1889) about the Old +Testament and Mosaic legislation:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Now I think that the most important parts of the argument +have in a great degree a solid standing ground apart from the +destructive criticism on dates and on the text: and I am sufficiently +aware of my own rawness and ignorance in the matter not +to allow myself to judge definitely, or condemn. I feel also that +I have a prepossession derived from the criticisms in the case of +Homer. Of them I have a very bad opinion, not only in themselves, +but as to the levity, precipitancy, and shallowness of mind +which they display; and here I do venture to speak, because I +believe myself to have done a great deal more than any of the +destructives in the examination of the text, which is the true +source of the materials of judgment. They are a soulless lot; +but there was a time when they had possession of the public ear +as much I suppose as the Old Testament destructives now have, +within their own precinct. It is only the constructive part of +their work on which I feel tempted to judge; and I must own +that it seems to me sadly wanting in the elements of rational +probability. +</quote> + +<p> +This unpromising method is sufficiently set out when he +says: <q>I find in the plot of the <hi rend='italic'>Iliad</hi> enough of beauty, +order, and structure, not merely to sustain the supposition +of its own unity, but to bear an independent testimony, +should it be still needed, to the existence of a personal and +individual Homer as its author.</q><note place='foot'>iii. p. +396.</note> From such a method no +permanent contribution could come. +</p> + +<p> +Yet scholars allow that Mr. Gladstone in these three +volumes, as well as in <hi rend='italic'>Juventus Mundi</hi> and his +<hi rend='italic'>Homeric +Primer</hi>, has added not a little to our scientific knowledge +of the Homeric poems,<note place='foot'>For instance, Geddes, +<hi rend='italic'>Problem of the Homeric Poems</hi>, 1878, p. 16.</note> +by his extraordinary mastery of the +text, the result of unwearied and prolonged industry, aided +<pb n='545'/><anchor id='Pg545'/> +<note place='margin'>On Homer</note> +by a memory both tenacious and ready. Taking his own +point of view, moreover, anybody who wishes to have his +feeling about the <hi rend='italic'>Iliad</hi> and <hi rend='italic'>Odyssey</hi> as +delightful poetry refreshed and quickened, will find inspiring elements in the +profusion, the eager array of Homer's own lines, the diligent +exploration of aspects and bearings hitherto unthought +of. The <q>theo-mythology</q> is commonly judged fantastic, +and has been compared by sage critics to Warburton's +<hi rend='italic'>Divine Legation</hi>—the same comprehensive general reading, +the same heroic industry in marshalling the particulars of +proof, the same dialectical strength of arm, and all brought +to prove an unsound proposition.<note place='foot'>Pattison, ii. +p. 166.</note> Yet the comprehensive +reading and the particulars of proof are by no means without +an interest of their own, whatever we may think of the proposition; +and here, as in all his literary writing distinguished +from polemics, he abounds in the ethical elements. Here +perhaps more than anywhere else he impresses us by his +love of beauty in all its aspects and relations, in the +human form, in landscape, in the affections, in animals, +including above all else that sense of beauty which made his +Greeks take it as one of the names for nobility in conduct. +Conington, one of the finest of scholars, then lecturing at +Oxford on Latin poets and deep in his own Virgilian studies, +which afterwards bore such admirable fruit, writes at length +(Feb. 14, 1857) to say how grateful he is to Mr. Gladstone +for the care with which he has pursued into details a view +of Virgil that they hold substantially in common, and proceeds +with care and point to analyse the quality of the +Roman poet's art, as some years later he defended against +Munro the questionable proposition of the superiority in +poetic style of the graceful, melodious, and pathetic Virgil +to Lucretius's mighty muse. +</p> + +<p> +No field has been more industriously worked for the last +forty years than this of the relations of paganism to the +historic religion that followed it in Europe. The knowledge +and the speculations into which Mr. Gladstone was thus +initiated in the sixties may now seem crude enough; but he +deserves some credit in English, though not in view of +<pb n='546'/><anchor id='Pg546'/> +German, speculation for an early perception of an unfamiliar +region of comparative science, whence many a product +most unwelcome to him and alien to his own beliefs has +been since extracted. When all is said, however, Mr. +Gladstone's place is not in literary or critical history, but +elsewhere. +</p> + +<p> +His style is sometimes called Johnsonian, but surely without +good ground. Johnson was not involved and he was +clear, and neither of these things can always be said of Mr. +Gladstone. Some critic charged him in 1840 with <q>prolix +clearness.</q> The old charge, says Mr. Gladstone upon this, was +<q>obscure compression. I do not doubt that both may be true, +and the former may have been the result of a well-meant +effort to escape from the latter.</q> He was fond of abstract +words, or the nearer to abstract the better, and the more +general the better. One effect of this was undoubtedly to +give an indirect, almost a shifty, air that exasperated plain +people. Why does he beat about the bush, they asked; why +cannot he say what he means? A reader might have to +think twice or thrice or twenty times before he could be +sure that he interpreted correctly. But then people are so +apt to think once, or half of once; to take the meaning that +suits their own wish or purpose best, and then to treat that +as the only meaning. Hence their perplexity and wrath +when they found that other doors were open, and they +thought a mistake due to their own hurry was the result of +a juggler's trick. On the other hand a good writer takes all +the pains he can to keep his reader out of such scrapes. +</p> + +<p> +His critical essays on Tennyson and Macaulay are excellent. +They are acute, discriminating, generous. His estimate of +Macaulay, apart from a piece of polemical church history at +the end, is perhaps the best we have. <q>You make a very +just remark,</q> said Acton to him, <q>that Macaulay was afraid +of contradicting his former self, and remembered all he had +written since 1825. At that time his mind was formed, and +so it remained. What literary influences acted on the formation +of his political opinions, what were his religious +sympathies, and what is his exact place among historians, +you have rather avoided discussing. There is still something +<pb n='547'/><anchor id='Pg547'/> +to say on these points.</q> To Tennyson Mr. Gladstone +believed himself to have been unjust, especially in the passages +of <hi rend='italic'>Maud</hi> devoted to the war-frenzy, and when he came +to reprint the article he admitted that he had not sufficiently +remembered that he was dealing with a dramatic and imaginative +composition.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Gleanings</hi>, +ii. p. 147.</note> As he frankly said of himself, he +was not strong in the faculties of the artist, but perhaps +Tennyson himself in these passages was prompted much +more by politics than by art. Of this piece of retractation +the poet truly said, <q>Nobody but a noble-minded man would +have done that.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Life</hi>, +i. p. 398.</note> Mr. Gladstone would most likely have +chosen to call his words a qualification rather than a recantation. +In either case, it does not affect passages that give +the finest expression to one of the very deepest convictions +of his life,—that war, whatever else we may choose to say +of it, is no antidote for Mammon-worship and can never be a +cure for moral evils:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +It is, indeed, true that peace has its moral perils and temptations +for degenerate man, as has every other blessing, without +exception, that he can receive from the hand of God. It is moreover +not less true that, amidst the clash of arms, the noblest forms +of character may be reared, and the highest acts of duty done; +that these great and precious results may be due to war as their +cause; and that one high form of sentiment in particular, the love +of country, receives a powerful and general stimulus from the +bloody strife. But this is as the furious cruelty of Pharaoh made +place for the benign virtue of his daughter; as the butchering +sentence of Herod raised without doubt many a mother's love +into heroic sublimity; as plague, as famine, as fire, as flood, as +every curse and every scourge that is wielded by an angry Providence +for the chastisement of man, is an appointed instrument for +tempering human souls in the seven-times heated furnace of affliction, +up to the standard of angelic and archangelic virtue. +</p> + +<p> +War, indeed, has the property of exciting much generous and +noble feeling on a large scale; but with this special recommendation +it has, in its modern forms especially, peculiar and unequalled +evils. As it has a wider sweep of desolating power than the rest, +<pb n='548'/><anchor id='Pg548'/> +so it has the peculiar quality that it is more susceptible of being +decked in gaudy trappings, and of fascinating the imagination of +those whose proud and angry passions it inflames. But it is, on +this very account, a perilous delusion to teach that war is a cure +for moral evil, in any other sense than as the sister tribulations +are. The eulogies of the frantic hero in <hi rend='italic'>Maud</hi>, however, deviate +into grosser folly. It is natural that such vagaries should overlook +the fixed laws of Providence. Under these laws the mass +of mankind is composed of men, women, and children who can +but just ward off hunger, cold, and nakedness; whose whole ideas +of Mammon-worship are comprised in the search for their daily +food, clothing, shelter, fuel; whom any casualty reduces to positive +want; and whose already low estate is yet further lowered and +ground down, when <q>the blood-red blossom of war flames with its +heart of fire.</q>... +</p> + +<p> +Still war had, in times now gone by, ennobling elements and +tendencies of the less sordid kind. But one inevitable characteristic +of modern war is, that it is associated throughout, in all +particulars, with a vast and most irregular formation of commercial +enterprise. There is no incentive to Mammon-worship so +remarkable as that which it affords. The political economy of +war is now one of its most commanding aspects. Every farthing, +with the smallest exceptions conceivable, of the scores or hundreds +of millions which a war may cost, goes directly, and very violently, +to stimulate production, though it is intended ultimately for waste +or for destruction. Even apart from the fact that war suspends, +<hi rend='italic'>ipso facto</hi>, every rule of public thrift, and tends to sap honesty +itself in the use of the public treasure for which it makes such +unbounded calls, it therefore is the greatest feeder of that lust of +gold which we are told is the essence of commerce, though we had +hoped it was only its occasional besetting sin. It is, however, +more than this; for the regular commerce of peace is tameness +itself compared with the gambling spirit which war, through the +rapid shiftings and high prices which it brings, always introduces +into trade. In its moral operation it more resembles, perhaps the +finding of a new gold-field, than anything else. +</p> +</quote> + +<p> +More remarkable than either of these two is his piece on +Leopardi (1850), the Italian poet, whose philosophy and +<pb n='549'/><anchor id='Pg549'/> +<note place='margin'>Leopardi Translations</note> +frame of mind, said Mr. Gladstone, <q>present more than any +other that we know, more even than that of Shelley, the +character of unrelieved, unredeemed desolation—the very +qualities in it which attract pitying sympathy, depriving it +of all seductive power.</q> It is curious that he should have +selected one whose life lay along a course like Leopardi's for +commemoration, as a man who in almost every branch of +mental exertion seems to have had the capacity for attaining, +and generally at a single bound, the very highest excellence. +<q>There are many things,</q> he adds, <q>in which Christians +would do well to follow him: in the warmth of his attachments; +in the moderation of his wants; in his noble freedom +from the love of money; in his all-conquering +assiduity.</q><note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Gleanings</hi>, ii. p. 129.</note> +Perhaps the most remarkable sentence of all is this: <q>... what +is not needful, and is commonly wrong, namely, is to pass +a judgment on our fellow-creatures. Never let it be forgotten +that there is scarcely a single moral action of a single man +of which other men can have such a knowledge, in its +ultimate grounds, its surrounding incidents, and the real +determining causes of its merits, as to warrant their pronouncing +a conclusive judgment upon it.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The translation of poetry into poetry, as Coleridge said, is +difficult because the translator must give brilliancy without +the warmth of original conception, from which such brilliancy +would follow of its own accord. But we must not +judge Mr. Gladstone's translation either of Horace's odes or +of detached pieces from Greek or Italian, as we should judge +the professed man of letters or poet like Coleridge himself. +His pieces are the diversions of the man of affairs, with +educated tastes and interest in good literature. Perhaps the +best single piece is his really noble rendering of Manzoni's +noble ode on the death of Napoleon; for instance:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>From Alp to farthest Pyramid,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 6'>From Rhine to Mansanar,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>How sure his lightning's flash foretold</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 6'>His thunderbolts of war!</l> +<l>To Don from Scilla's height they roar,</l> +<l>From North to Southern shore.</l> +<pb n='550'/><anchor id='Pg550'/> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>And this was glory? After-men,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 6'>Judge the dark problem. Low</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>We to the Mighty Maker bend</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 6'>The while, Who planned to show</l> +<l>What vaster mould Creative Will</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>With him could fill.</l> +</lg> + +<milestone unit='tb' rend='rule: 50%'/> + +<lg> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>As on the shipwrecked mariner</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 6'>The weltering wave's descent—</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>The wave, o'er which, a moment since,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 6'>For distant shores he bent</l> +<l>And bent in vain, his eager eye;</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>So on that stricken head</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>Came whelming down the mighty Past.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 6'>How often did his pen</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>Essay to tell the wondrous tale</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 6'>For after times and men,</l> +<l>And o'er the lines that could not die</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>His hand lay dead.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>How often, as the listless day</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>In silence died away,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>He stood with lightning eye deprest,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>And arms across his breast,</l> +<l>And bygone years, in rushing train,</l> +<l>Smote on his soul amain:</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>The breezy tents he seemed to see,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>And the battering cannon's course,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>And the flashing of the infantry,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>And the torrent of the horse,</l> +<l>And, obeyed as soon as heard,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Th' ecstatic word.</l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p> +Always let us remember that his literary life was part +of the rest of his life, as literature ought to be. He was +no mere reader of many books, used to relieve the strain +of mental anxiety or to slake the thirst of literary or intellectual +curiosity. Reading with him in the days of his +full vigour was a habitual communing with the master +spirits of mankind, as a vivifying and nourishing part of life. +As we have seen, he would not read Dante in the session, +nor unless he could have a large draught. Here as elsewhere +in the ordering of his days he was methodical, +systematic, full. +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='551'/><anchor id='Pg551'/> + +<div> +<head>V</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>A Golden Lamp</note> +Though man of action, yet Mr. Gladstone too has a place +by character and influences among what we may call the +abstract, moral, spiritual forces that stamped the realm of +Britain in his age. In a new time, marked in an incomparable +degree by the progress of science and invention, by +vast mechanical, industrial, and commercial development, he +accepted it all, he adjusted his statesmanship to it all, nay, +he revelled in it all, as tending to ameliorate the lot of the +<q>mass of men, women, and children who can just ward off +hunger, cold, and nakedness.</q> He did not rail at his age, he +strove to help it. Following Walpole and Cobden and Peel +in the policies of peace, he knew how to augment the material +resources on which our people depend. When was Britain +stronger, richer, more honoured among the nations—I do +not say always among the diplomatic chanceries and +governments—than in the years when Mr. Gladstone was +at the zenith of his authority among us? When were her +armed forces by sea and land more adequate for defence of +every interest? When was her material resource sounder? +When was her moral credit higher? Besides all this, he +upheld a golden lamp. +</p> + +<p> +The unending revolutions of the world are for ever bringing +old phases uppermost again. Events from season to +season are taken to teach sinister lessons, that the Real is +the only Rational, force is the test of right and wrong, the +state has nothing to do with restraints of morals, the ruler +is emancipated. Speculations in physical science were distorted +for alien purposes, and survival of the fittest was taken +to give brutality a more decent name. Even new conceptions +and systems of history may be twisted into release of +statesmen from the conscience of Bishop Butler's plain man. +This gospel it was Mr. Gladstone's felicity to hold at bay. +Without bringing back the cosmopolitanism of the eighteenth +century, without sharing all the idealisms of the middle of +the nineteenth, he resisted with his whole might the odious +contention that moral progress in the relations of nations +and states to one another is an illusion and a dream. +</p> + +<pb n='552'/><anchor id='Pg552'/> + +<p> +This vein perhaps brings us too near to the regions of +dissertation. Let us rather leave off with thoughts and +memories of one who was a vivid example of public duty +and of private faithfulness; of a long career that with every +circumstance of splendour, amid all the mire and all the +poisons of the world, lighted up in practice even for those +who have none of his genius and none of his power his +own precept, <q>Be inspired with the belief that life is a +great and noble calling; not a mean and grovelling thing, +that we are to shuffle through as we can, but an elevated +and lofty destiny.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='553'/><anchor id='Pg553'/> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Appendix</head> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<head>Irish Local Government, 1883. (Page 103)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Mr. Gladstone to Lord Granville</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Cannes, Jan. 22, 1883.</hi>—Today I have been a good deal +distressed by a passage as reported in Hartington's very strong and +able speech, for which I am at a loss to account, so far does it travel +out into the open, and so awkward are the intimations it seems to +convey. I felt that I could not do otherwise than telegraph to you +in cipher on the subject. But I used words intended to show that, +while I thought an immediate notification needful, I was far from +wishing to hasten the reply, and desired to leave altogether in +your hands the mode of touching a delicate matter. Pray use +the widest discretion. +</p> + +<p> +I console myself with thinking it is hardly possible that Hartington +can have meant to say what nevertheless both <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi> and +<hi rend='italic'>Daily News</hi> make him seem to say, namely, that we recede from, or +throw into abeyance, the declarations we have constantly made +about our desire to extend local government, properly so called, to +Ireland on the first opportunity which the state of business in +parliament would permit. We announced our intention to do +this at the very moment when we were preparing to suspend the +Habeas Corpus Act. Since that time we have seen our position in +Ireland immensely strengthened, and the leader of the agitation +has even thought it wise, and has dared, to pursue a somewhat +conciliatory course. Many of his coadjutors are still as vicious, it +may be, as ever, but how can we say (for instance) to the Ulster +men, you shall remain with shortened liberties and without +local government, because Biggar & Co. are hostile to British +connection? +</p> + +<p> +There has also come prominently into view a new and powerful +set of motives which, in my deliberate judgment, require us, for +the sake of the United Kingdom even more than for the sake +of Ireland, to push forward this question. Under the present +highly centralised system of government, every demand which +can be started on behalf of a poor and ill-organised country, comes +directly on the British government and treasury; if refused it +becomes at once a head of grievance, if granted not only a new +drain but a certain source of political complication and embarrassment. +<pb n='554'/><anchor id='Pg554'/> +The peasant proprietary, the winter's distress, the state of +the labourers, the loans to farmers, the promotion of public works, +the encouragement of fisheries, the promotion of emigration, each +and every one of these questions has a sting, and the sting can +only be taken out of it by our treating it in correspondence with a +popular and responsible Irish body, competent to act for its own +portion of the country. +</p> + +<p> +Every consideration which prompted our pledges, prompts the +recognition of them, and their extension, rather than curtailment. +The Irish government have in preparation a Local Government +bill. Such a bill may even be an economy of time. By no other +means that I can see shall we be able to ward off most critical and +questionable discussions on questions of the class I have mentioned. +The argument that we cannot yet trust Irishmen with popular local +institutions is the mischievous argument by which the conservative +opposition to the Melbourne government resisted, and finally +crippled, the reform of municipal corporations in Ireland. By +acting on principles diametrically opposite, we have broken down +to thirty-five or forty what would have been a party, in this +parliament, of sixty-five home rulers, and have thus arrested (or +at the very least postponed) the perilous crisis, which no man has +as yet looked in the face; the crisis which will arise when a large +and united majority of Irish members demand some fundamental +change in the legislative relations of the two countries. I can ill +convey to you how dear are my thoughts, or how earnest my +convictions, on this important subject.... +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<head>General Gordon's Instructions. (Page 153)</head> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>The following is the text of General Gordon's Instructions +(Jan. 18, 1884)</hi>:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +Her Majesty's government are desirous that you should proceed +at once to Egypt, to report to them on the military situation in +the Soudan, and on the measures it may be advisable to take for +the security of the Egyptian garrisons still holding positions in +that country, and for the safety of the European population in +Khartoum. You are also desired to consider and report upon the +best mode of effecting the evacuation of the interior of the Soudan, +and upon the manner in which the safety and good administration +by the Egyptian government of the ports on the sea coast can +best be secured. In connection with this subject you should pay +especial consideration to the question of the steps that may usefully +be taken to counteract the stimulus which it is feared may +possibly be given to the slave trade by the present insurrectionary +movement, and by the withdrawal of the Egyptian authority from +the interior. You will be under the instructions of Her Majesty's +<pb n='555'/><anchor id='Pg555'/> +agent and consul-general at Cairo, through whom your reports to +Her Majesty's government should be sent under flying seal. You +will consider yourself authorised and instructed to perform such +other duties as the Egyptian government may desire to entrust to +you, and as may be communicated to you by Sir E. Baring. You +will be accompanied by Colonel Stewart, who will assist you in +the duties thus confided to you. On your arrival in Egypt you +will at once communicate with Sir E. Baring, who will arrange to +meet you and will settle with you whether you should proceed +direct to Suakin or should go yourself or despatch Colonel Stewart +<hi rend='italic'>viâ</hi> the Nile. +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<head>The Military Position In The Soudan, April 1885. (Page 179)</head> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>This Memorandum, dated April 9, 1885, was prepared by Mr. +Gladstone for the cabinet</hi>:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +The commencement of the hot season appears, with other circumstances, +to mark the time for considering at large our position +in the Soudan. Also a declaration of policy is now demanded +from us in nearly all quarters.... When the betrayal of +Khartoum had been announced, the desire and intention of the +cabinet were to reserve for a later decision the question of an +eventual advance upon that place, should no immediate movement +on it be found possible. The objects they had immediately in +view were to ascertain the fate of Gordon, to make every effort +on his behalf, and to prevent the extension of the area of +disturbance. +</p> + +<p> +But Lord Wolseley at once impressed upon the cabinet that he +required, in order to determine his immediate military movements, +to know whether they were to be based upon the plan of +an eventual advance on Khartoum, or whether the intention of +such an advance was to be abandoned altogether. If the first +plan were adopted, Lord Wolseley declared his power and intention +to take Berber, and even gave a possible date for it, in the +middle of March. The cabinet, adopting the phrase which Lord +Wolseley had used, decided upon the facts as they then stood +before it: (<hi rend='italic'>a</hi>) Lord Wolseley was to calculate upon proceeding +to Khartoum after the hot season, to overthrow the power of the +Mahdi there; (<hi rend='italic'>b</hi>) and, consequently, on this decision, they were +to commence the construction of a railway from Suakin to +Berber, in aid of the contemplated expedition; (<hi rend='italic'>c</hi>) an expedition +was also to be sent against Osman Digna, which would open the +road to Berber; but Lord Wolseley's demand for this expedition +applied alike to each of the two military alternatives which he +had laid before the cabinet. +</p> + +<p> +There was no absolute decision to proceed to Khartoum at any +time; and the declarations of ministers in parliament have +<pb n='556'/><anchor id='Pg556'/> +treated it as a matter to be further weighed; but all steps have +thus far been taken to prepare for it, and it has been regarded +as at least probable. In approaching the question whether we +are still to proceed on the same lines, it is necessary to refer to +the motives which under the directions of the cabinet were stated +by Lord Granville and by me, on the 19th of February, as having +contributed to the decision, I copy out a part of the note from +which he and I spoke:— +</p> + +<p> +Objects in the Soudan which we have always deemed fit for consideration +as far as circumstances might allow:— +</p> + +<p> +1. The case of those to whom Gordon held himself bound in honour. +</p> + +<p> +2. The possibility of establishing an orderly government at Khartoum. +</p> + +<p> +3. Check to the slave trade. +</p> + +<p> +4. The case of the garrisons. +</p> + +<p> +A negative decision would probably have involved the abandonment at +a stroke of all these objects. And also (we had to consider) whatever +dangers, proximate or remote, in Egypt or in the East might follow from +the triumphant position of the Mahdi; hard to estimate, but they may be +very serious. +</p> + +<p> +Two months, which have passed since the decision of the +government (Feb. 5), have thrown light, more or less, upon the +several points brought into view on the 19th February. 1. We +have now no sufficient reason to assume that any of the population +of Khartoum felt themselves bound to Gordon, or to have +suffered on his account; or even that any large numbers of men +in arms perished in the betrayal of the town, or took his part +after the enemy were admitted into it. 2. We have had no +tidings of anarchy at Khartoum, and we do not know that it is +governed worse, or that the population is suffering more, than +it would be under a Turkish or Egyptian ruler. 3. It is not +believed that the possession of Khartoum is of any great value +as regards the slave trade. 4. Or, after the failure of Gordon +with respect to the garrisons, that the possession of Khartoum +would, without further and formidable extensions of plan, avail +for the purpose of relieving them. But further, what knowledge +have we that these garrisons are unable to relieve themselves? +There seems some reason to believe that the army of Hicks, when +the action ceased, fraternised with the Mahdi's army, and that +the same thing happened at Khartoum. Is there ground to suppose +that they are hateful unless as representatives of Egyptian +power? and ought they not to be released from any obligation to +present themselves in that capacity? +</p> + +<p> +With regard to the larger question of eventual consequences in +Egypt or the East from the Mahdi's success at Khartoum, it is +open to many views, and cannot be completely disposed of. But +it may be observed—1. That the Mahdi made a trial of marching +down the Nile and speedily abandoned it, even in the first flush +of his success. 2. That cessation of operations in the Soudan +does not at this moment mean our military inaction in the East. +3. That the question is one of conflict, not with the arms of an +<pb n='557'/><anchor id='Pg557'/> +enemy, but with Nature in respect of climate and supply. +4. There remains also a grave question of justice, to which I +shall revert. +</p> + +<p> +Should the idea of proceeding to Khartoum be abandoned, the +railway from Suakin, as now projected, would fall with it, since +it was adopted as a military measure, subsidiary to the advance +on Khartoum. The prosecution of it as a civil or commercial +enterprise would be a new proposal, to be examined on its merits. +</p> + +<p> +The military situation appears in some respects favourable to +the re-examination of the whole subject. The general has found +himself unable to execute his intention of taking Berber, and this +failure alters the basis on which the cabinet proceeded in February, +and greatly increases the difficulty of the autumn enterprise. On +the one hand Wolseley's and Graham's forces have had five or six +considerable actions, and have been uniformly victorious. On the +other hand, the Mahdi has voluntarily retired from Khartoum, +and Osman Digna has been driven from the field, but cannot, as +Graham says, be followed into the mountains.<note place='foot'>Telegram +of April 4.</note> While the present +situation may thus seem opportune, the future of more extended +operations is dark. In at least one of his telegrams, Wolseley has +expressed a very keen desire to get the British army out of the +Soudan.<note place='foot'>Despatch, March 9.</note> +He has now made very large demands for the autumn +expedition, which, judging from previous experience and from +general likelihood, are almost certain to grow larger, as he comes +more closely to confront the very formidable task before him; +while in his letter to Lord Hartington he describes this affair to +be <hi rend='italic'>the greatest <q>since 1815,</q></hi> +and expresses his hope that all the +members of the cabinet clearly understand this to be the case. He +also names a period of between two or three years for the completion +of the railway, while he expresses an absolute confidence in +the power and resources of this country with vast effort to insure +success. He means without doubt military success. Political +success appears much more problematical. +</p> + +<p> +There remains, however, to be considered a question which I +take to be of extreme importance. I mean the moral basis of the +projected military operations. I have from the first regarded the +rising of the Soudanese against Egypt as a justifiable and honourable +revolt. The cabinet have, I think, never taken an opposite +view. Mr. Power, in his letter from Khartoum before Gordon's +arrival, is decided and even fervent in the same sense. +</p> + +<p> +We sent Gordon on a mission of peace and liberation. From +such information as alone we have possessed, we found this +missionary of peace menaced and besieged, finally betrayed by +some of his troops, and slaughtered by those whom he came to set +free. This information, however, was fragmentary, and was also +one-sided. We have now the advantage of reviewing it as a whole, +of reading it in the light of events, and of some auxiliary evidence +such as that of Mr. Power. +</p> + +<p> +I never understood how it was that Gordon's mission of peace +<pb n='558'/><anchor id='Pg558'/> +became one of war. But we knew the nobleness of his philanthropy, +and we trusted him to the uttermost, as it was our duty +to do. He never informed us that he had himself changed the +character of the mission. It seemed strange that one who bore +in his hands a charter of liberation should be besieged and threatened; +but we took everything for granted in his favour, and +against his enemies; and we could hardly do otherwise. Our +obligations in this respect were greatly enhanced by the long interruption +of telegraphic communication. It was our duty to believe +that, if we could only know what he was prevented from saying +to us, contradictions would be reconciled, and language of excess +accounted for. We now know from the letters of Mr. Power that +when he was at Khartoum with Colonel de Coetlogon before +Gordon's arrival, a retreat on Berber had been actually ordered; +it was regarded no doubt as a serious work of time, because it involved +the removal of an Egyptian population;<note place='foot'>Power, p. 73 +A.</note> but it was deemed +feasible, and Power expresses no doubt of its +accomplishment.<note place='foot'><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> 75 B.</note> +As far as, amidst its inconsistencies, a construction can be put +on Gordon's language, it is to the effect that there was a population +and a force attached to him, which he could not remove and would +not leave.<note place='foot'>Egypt, No. 18, p. 34, +1884 (April); Egypt, No. 35, p. 122 (July 30).</note> +But De Coetlogon did not regard this removal as +impracticable, and was actually setting about it. Why Gordon did +not prosecute it, why we hear no more of it from Power after +Gordon's arrival, is a mystery. Instructed by results we now +perceive that Gordon's title as governor-general might naturally be +interpreted by the tribes in the light of much of the language used +by him, which did not savour of liberation and evacuation, but of +powers of government over the Soudan; powers to be used benevolently, +but still powers of government. Why the Mahdi did not +accept him is not hard to understand, but why was he not accepted +by those local sultans, whom it was the basis of his declared policy +to re-invest with their ancient powers, in spite of Egypt and of the +Mahdi alike? Was he not in short interpreted as associated with +the work of Hicks, and did he not himself give probable colour to +this interpretation? It must be borne in mind that on other matters +of the gravest importance—on the use of Turkish force—on +the use of British force—on the employment of Zobeir—Gordon +announced within a very short time contradictory views, and never +seemed to feel that there was any need of explanation, in order to +account for the contradictions. There is every presumption, as +well as every sign, that like fluctuation and inconsistency crept +into his words and acts as to the liberation of the country; and +this, if it was so, could not but produce ruinous effects. Upon the +whole, it seems probable that Gordon, perhaps insensibly to himself, +and certainly without our concurrence, altered the character +of his mission, and worked in a considerable degree against our +intentions and instructions. +</p> + +<p> +There does not appear to be any question now of the security +<pb n='559'/><anchor id='Pg559'/> +of the army, but a most grave question whether we can demonstrate +a necessity (nothing less will suffice) for making war on a +people who are struggling against a foreign and armed yoke, not +for the rescue of our own countrymen, not for the rescue <emph>so far as +we know</emph> of an Egyptian population, but with very heavy cost of +British life as well as treasure, with a serious strain on our +military resources at a most critical time, and with the most +serious fear that if we persist, we shall find ourselves engaged in +an odious work of subjugation. The discontinuance of these +military operations would, I presume, take the form of a suspension +<hi rend='italic'>sine die,</hi> leaving the future open; would require attention to be +paid to defence on the recognised southern frontier of Egypt, and +need not involve any precipitate abandonment of Suakin. +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<head>Home Rule Bill, 1886. (Page 308)</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Home Rule Bill, 1886</note> +<hi rend='italic'>The following summary of the provisions of the Home Rule bill of +1886 supplements the description of the bill given in Chapter V. +Book X.</hi>:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +One of the cardinal difficulties of all free government is to make +it hard for majorities to act unjustly to minorities. You cannot +make this injustice impossible but you may set up obstacles. In +this case, there was no novelty in the device adopted. The legislative +body was to be composed of two orders. The first order was +to consist of the twenty-eight representative peers, together with +seventy-five members elected by certain scheduled constituencies +on an occupation franchise of twenty-five pounds and upwards. +To be eligible for the first order, a person must have a property +qualification, either in realty of two hundred pounds a year, or in +personalty of the same amount, or a capital value of four thousand +pounds. The representative peers now existing would sit for life, +and, as they dropped off, the crown would nominate persons to +take their place up to a certain date, and on the exhaustion of the +twenty-eight existing peers, then the whole of the first order would +become elective under the same conditions as the seventy-five +other members. +</p> + +<p> +The second order would consist of 206 members, chosen by +existing counties and towns under the machinery now operative. +The two orders were to sit and deliberate together, but either +order could demand a separate vote. This right would enable a +majority of one order to veto the proposal of the other. But the +veto was only to operate until a dissolution, or for three years, +whichever might be the longer interval of the two. +</p> + +<p> +The executive transition was to be gradual. The office of +viceroy would remain, but he would not be the minister of a party, +nor quit office with an outgoing government. He would have a +privy council; within that council would be formed an executive +<pb n='560'/><anchor id='Pg560'/> +body of ministers like the British cabinet. This executive would +be responsible to the Irish legislature, just as the executive government +here is responsible to the legislature of this country. If any +clause of a bill seemed to the viceroy to be <hi rend='italic'>ultra vires</hi>, he could +refer it to the judicial committee of the privy council in London. +The same reference, in respect of a section of an Irish Act, lay +open either to the English secretary of state, or to a suitor, +defendant, or other person concerned. +</p> + +<p> +Future judges were to hold the same place in the Irish system +as English judges in the English system; their office was to be +during good behaviour; they were to be appointed on the advice +of the Irish government, removable only on the joint address of +the two orders, and their salaries charged on the Irish consolidated +fund. The burning question of the royal Irish constabulary was +dealt with provisionally. Until a local force was created by the +new government, they were to remain at the orders of the lord +lieutenant. Ultimately the Irish police were to come under the +control of the legislative body. For two years from the passing +of the Act, the legislative body was to fix the charge for the whole +constabulary of Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +In national as in domestic housekeeping, the figure of available +income is the vital question. The total receipts of the Irish +exchequer would be £8,350,000, from customs, excise, stamps, +income-tax, and non-tax revenue. On a general comparison of the +taxable revenues of Ireland and Great Britain, as tested more +especially by the property passing under the death duties, the fair +proportion due as Ireland's share for imperial purposes, such as +interest on the debt, defence, and civil charge, was fixed at one-fifteenth. +This would bring the total charge properly imperial up +to £3,242,000. Civil charges in Ireland were put at £2,510,000, +and the constabulary charge on Ireland was not to exceed +£1,000,000, any excess over that sum being debited to England. +The Irish government would be left with a surplus of £404,000. +This may seem a ludicrously meagre amount, but, compared with +the total revenue, it is equivalent to a surplus on our own budget +of that date of something like five millions. +</p> + +<p> +The true payment to imperial charges was to be £1,842,000 +because of the gross revenue above stated of £1,400,000 though +paid in Ireland in the first instance was really paid by British +consumers of whisky, porter, and tobacco. This sum, deducted +from £3,342,000, leaves the real Irish contribution, namely +£1,842,000. +</p> + +<p> +A further sum of uncertain, but substantial amount, would go +to the Irish exchequer from another source, to which we have +now to turn. With the proposals for self-government were +coupled proposals for a settlement of the land question. The +ground-work was an option offered to the landlords of being +bought out under the terms of the Act. The purchaser was +to be an Irish state authority, as the organ representing the +legislative body. The occupier was to become the proprietor, +<pb n='561'/><anchor id='Pg561'/> +except in the congested districts, where the state authority +was to be the proprietor. The normal price was to be twenty +years' purchase of the net rental. The most important provision, +in one sense, was that which recognised the salutary principle +that the public credit should not be resorted to on such a scale +as this merely for the benefit of a limited number of existing +cultivators of the soil, without any direct advantage to the government +as representing the community at large. That was effected +by making the tenant pay an annual instalment, calculated on the +gross rental, while the state authority would repay to the imperial +treasury a percentage calculated on the net rental, and the state +authority would pocket the difference, estimated to be about +18 per cent. on the sum payable to the selling landlord. How +was all this to be secured? Principally, on the annuities paid by +the tenants who had purchased their holdings, and if the holdings +did not satisfy the charge, then on the revenues of Ireland. All +public revenues whatever were to be collected by persons appointed +by the Irish government, but these collectors were to pay over all +sums that came into their hands to an imperial officer, to be styled +a receiver-general. Through him all rents and Irish revenues +whatever were to pass, and not a shilling was to be let out for +Irish purposes until their obligations to the imperial exchequer +had been discharged. +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<head>On The Place Of Italy. (Page 415)</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +By the provisions of nature, Italy was marked out for a conservative +force in Europe. As England is cut off by the channel, +so is Italy by the mountains, from the continental mass.... If +England commits follies they are the follies of a strong man who +can afford to waste a portion of his resources without greatly +affecting the sum total.... She has a huge free margin, on which +she might scrawl a long list of follies and even crimes without +damaging the letterpress. But where and what is the free margin +in the case of Italy, a country which has contrived in less than a +quarter of a century of peace, from the date of her restored independence, +to treble (or something near it) the taxation of her people, +to raise the charge of her debt to a point higher than that of +England, and to arrive within one or two short paces of national +bankruptcy?... +</p> + +<p> +Italy by nature stands in alliance neither with anarchy nor with +Caesarism, but with the cause and advocates of national liberty and +progress throughout Europe. Never had a nation greater advantages +from soil and climate, from the talents and dispositions of the +people, never was there a more smiling prospect (if we may fall +back upon the graceful fiction) from the Alpine tops, even down +to the Sicilian promontories, than that which for the moment has +been darkly blurred. It is the heart's desire of those, who are +<pb n='562'/><anchor id='Pg562'/> +not indeed her teachers, but her friends, that she may rouse herself +to dispel once and for ever the evil dream of what is not so much +ambition as affectation, may acknowledge the true conditions under +which she lives, and it perhaps may not yet be too late for her to +disappoint the malevolent hopes of the foes of freedom, and to +fulfil every bright and glowing prediction which its votaries have +ever uttered on her behalf.—<hi rend='italic'><q>The +Triple Alliance and Italy's Place +in it</q> (Contemporary Review, Oct. 1889).</hi> +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<head>The Glasgow Peroration. (Page 492)</head> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>After describing the past history of Ireland as being for more than +five hundred years 'one almost unbroken succession of political storm +and swollen tempest, except when those tempests were for a time interrupted +by a period of servitude and by the stillness of death,' +Mr. Gladstone went on</hi>:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +Those storms are in strong contrast with the future, with +the present. The condition of the Irish mind justifies us in +anticipating. It recalls to my mind a beautiful legend of ancient +paganism—for that ancient paganism, amongst many legends false +and many foul, had also some that were beautiful. There were +two Lacedæmonian heroes known as Castor and Pollux, honoured +in their life and more honoured in their death, when a star was +called after them, and upon that star the fond imagination of the +people fastened lively conceptions; for they thought that when a +ship at sea was caught in a storm, when dread began to possess +the minds of the crew, and peril thickened round them, and even +alarm was giving place to despair, that if then in the high heavens +this star appeared, gradually and gently but effectually the clouds +disappeared, the winds abated, the towering billows fell down +to the surface of the deep, calm came where there had been +uproar, safety came where there had been danger, and under the +beneficent influence of this heavenly body the terrified and despairing +crew came safely to port. The proposal which the liberal party +of this country made in 1886, which they still cherish in their mind +and heart, and which we trust and believe, they are about now to +carry forward, that proposal has been to Ireland and the political +relations of the two countries what the happy star was believed to +be to the seamen of antiquity. It has produced already anticipations +of love and good will, which are the first fruits of what is to +come. It has already changed the whole tone and temper of the +relations, I cannot say yet between the laws, but between the +peoples and inhabitants of these two great islands. It has filled +our hearts with hope and with joy, and it promises to give us in +lieu of the terrible disturbances of other times, with their increasing, +intolerable burdens and insoluble problems, the promise of a +brotherhood exhibiting harmony and strength at home, and a +<pb n='563'/><anchor id='Pg563'/> +brotherhood which before the world shall, instead of being as it +hitherto has been for the most part, a scandal, be a model and an +example, and shall show that we whose political wisdom is for so +many purposes recognised by the nations of civilised Europe and +America have at length found the means of meeting this oldest +and worst of all our difficulties, and of substituting for disorder, +for misery, for contention, the actual arrival and the yet riper +promise of a reign of +peace.—<hi rend='italic'>Theatre Royal, Glasgow, July 2, 1892.</hi> +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<head>The Naval Estimates Of 1894.</head> + +<p> +<note place='margin'>Naval Estimates Of 1894</note> +<hi rend='italic'>The first paragraph of this memorandum will be found on +p. 508</hi>:— +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<p> +This might be taken for granted as to 1854, 1870, and 1884. +That it was equally true in my mind of 1859 may be seen by any +one who reads my budget speech of July 18, 1859. I defended +the provision as required by and for the time, and for the time +only. The occasion in that year was the state of the continent. +It was immediately followed by the China war (No. 3) and by the +French affair (1861-2), but when these had been disposed of +economy began; and, by 1863-4, the bulk of the new charge had +been got rid of. +</p> + +<p> +There is also the case of the fortifications in 1860, which would +take me too long to state fully. But I will state briefly (1) my +conduct in that matter was mainly or wholly governed by regard +to peace, for I believed, and believe now, that in 1860 there were +only two alternatives; one of them, the French treaty, and the +other, war with France. And I also believed in July 1860 that +the French treaty must break down, unless I held my office. (2) +The demand was reduced from nine millions to about five (has +this been done now?) (3) I acted in concert with my old friend +and colleague, Sir James Graham. We were entirely agreed. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Terse figures of new estimates</hi> +</p> + +<p> +The <q>approximate figure</q> of charge involved in the new plan of +the admiralty is £4,240,000, say 4-½ millions. Being an increase +(subject probably to some further increase in becoming an act) +</p> + +<p> +1. On the normal navy estimate 1888-9 (<hi rend='italic'>i.e.</hi> before the Naval +Defence Act) of, in round numbers, 4-¼ millions +</p> + +<p> +2. On the first year's total charge under the +Naval Defence Act of (1,979,000), 2 millions +</p> + +<p> +3. On the estimates of last year 1893-94 of 3 millions +</p> + +<p> +4. On the total charge of 1893-4 of (1,571,000), 1-½ million +</p> + +<p> +5. On the highest amount ever defrayed from +the year's revenue (1892-3), 1-½ million +</p> + +<p> +6. On the highest expenditure of any year +under the Naval Defence Act which included +1,150,000 of borrowed money, 359,000 +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<pb n='564'/><anchor id='Pg564'/> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<head>Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet Colleagues. (Page 525)</head> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>The following is the list of the seventy ministers who served in +cabinets of which Mr. Gladstone was a member</hi>:— +</p> + +<lg> +<l>1843-45. Peel.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Wellington.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Lyndhurst.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Wharncliffe.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Haddington.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Buccleuch.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Aberdeen.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Graham.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Stanley.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Ripon.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Hardinge.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Goulburn.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Knatchbull.</l> +<l>1846. Ellenborough.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>S. Herbert.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Granville Somerset.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Lincoln.</l> +<l>1852-55. Cranworth.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Granville.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Argyll.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Palmerston.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Clarendon.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>C. Wood.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Molesworth.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Lansdowne.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Russell.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>G. Grey.</l> +<l>1855. Panmure.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Carlisle.</l> +<l>1859-65. Campbell.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>G. C. Lewis.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Duke of Somerset.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Milner Gibson.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Elgin.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>C. Villiers.</l> +<l>1859-65. Cardwell.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Westbury.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Ripon.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Stanley of Alderley.</l> +<l>1865-66. Hartington.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Goschen.</l> +<l>1868-74. Hatherley.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Kimberley.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Bruce.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Lowe.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Childers.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Bright.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>C. Fortescue.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Stansfeld.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Selborne.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Forster.</l> +<l>1880-85. Spencer.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Harcourt.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Northbrook.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Chamberlain.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Dodson.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Dilke.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Derby.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Trevelyan.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Lefevre.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Rosebery.</l> +<l>1886. Herschell.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>C. Bannerman.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Mundella.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>John Morley.</l> +<l>1892. Asquith.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Fowler.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Acland.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>Bryce.</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 10'>A. Morley.</l> +</lg> + +</div> + +</div> + +<pb n='565'/><anchor id='Pg565'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Chronology</head> + +<p> +All speeches unless otherwise stated were made in the House of Commons. +</p> + +<p> +1880. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. <q>Free trade, railways and the growth of commerce,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 27. At St. Pancras on obstruction, liberal unity and +errors of government. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 27. On rules dealing with obstruction. +</p> + +<p> +March <q>Russia and England,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +March 5. On motion in favour of local option. +</p> + +<p> +March 11. Issues address to electors of Midlothian. +</p> + +<p> +March 15. Criticises budget. +</p> + +<p> +March 17. At Music Hall, Edinburgh, on government's eastern +policy. +</p> + +<p> +March 18. At Corstorphine on Anglo-Turkish convention. +</p> + +<p> +March 18. At Ratho on neglect of domestic legislation. +</p> + +<p> +March 19. At Davidson's Mains on indictment of the government. +At Dalkeith on the government and class interests. +</p> + +<p> +March 20. At Juniper Green, and at Balerno, replies to tory +criticism of liberal party. At Midcalder on abridgment +of rights of parliament. +</p> + +<p> +March 22. At Gilmerton on church disestablishment. At +Loanhead on the eastern policy of liberal and +tory parties. +</p> + +<p> +March 23. At Gorebridge and at Pathhead. +</p> + +<p> +March 25. At Penicuik on Cyprus. +</p> + +<p> +March 30. At Stow on finance. +</p> + +<p> +April <q>Religion, Achaian and Semitic,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +April 2. At West Calder on liberal record and shortcomings +of the government. +</p> + +<p> +April 5. Elected for Midlothian: Mr. Gladstone, 1579; +Lord Dalkeith, 1368. +</p> + +<p> +April 7. Returns to Hawarden. +</p> + +<p> +April 28. Second administration formed. +</p> + +<p> +May. Anonymous article, <q>The Conservative Collapse,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>Fortnightly Review</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +May 8. Returned unopposed for Midlothian. +</p> + +<p> +May 11. Publication of correspondence with Count +Karolyi, Austrian ambassador. +</p> + +<p> +May 16. Receives deputation of farmers on agricultural +reform. +</p> + +<p> +May 20. On government's Turkish policy. +</p> + +<p> +May 21. Moves reference to committee of Mr. Bradlaugh's +claim to take his seat in parliament. +</p> + +<p> +May 25. On South African federation. +</p> + +<p> +June 1. On government's policy regarding Cyprus. +</p> + +<p> +June 10. Introduces supplementary budget. +</p> + +<p> +June 16. On reduction of European armaments. +</p> + +<p> +June 18. On resolution in favour of local option. Moves second +reading of Savings Banks bill. +</p> + +<p> +June 22. On resolution that Mr. Bradlaugh be allowed to +make a declaration. +</p> + +<p> +July 1. On Mr. Bradlaugh's case. +</p> + +<p> +July 5, 26. On Compensation for Disturbances (Ireland) +bill. +</p> + +<p> +July 23. Explains government's policy regarding Armenia. +</p> + +<p> +July 30-Aug. 9. Confined to room by serious illness. +</p> + +<pb n='566'/><anchor id='Pg566'/> + +<p> +Aug. 26-Sept. 4. Makes sea trip in +the <hi rend='italic'>Grantully Castle</hi> +round England and +Scotland. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 4. On government's Turkish +policy. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 9. At lord mayor's banquet +on Ireland and foreign +and colonial questions. +</p> + +<p> +1881. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 6. On Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 21. On annexation of Transvaal. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 28. On Irish Protection of +Person and Property bill. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 3. Brings in closure resolution. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 23. Falls in garden at Downing Street. +</p> + +<p> +March 15. Moves vote of condolence +on assassination of +Alexander II. +</p> + +<p> +March 16. On grant in aid of India +for expenses of Afghan +war. +</p> + +<p> +March 28. On county government +and local taxation. +</p> + +<p> +April 4. Introduces budget. +</p> + +<p> +April 7. Brings in Land Law (Ireland) +bill. +</p> + +<p> +April 26 and 27. On Mr. Bradlaugh's +case. +</p> + +<p> +May 2. Resigns personal trusteeship +of British Museum. +</p> + +<p> +May 4. Supports Welsh Sunday +Closing bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 5. Supports vote of thanks +on military operations +in Afghanistan. +</p> + +<p> +May 9. Tribute to Lord Beaconsfield. +</p> + +<p> +May 16. On second reading of Irish +Land bill. +</p> + +<p> +June 10. On the law of entail. +</p> + +<p> +June 24. On Anglo Turkish convention. +</p> + +<p> +July 25. On vote of censure on +Transvaal. +</p> + +<p> +July 29. On third reading of Irish +Land bill. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 6. At Mansion House on +fifteen months' administration. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 18. On Mr. Parnell's vote of +censure on the Irish +executive. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 7. Presented with an address +by corporation of Leeds: +on land and <q>fair trade.</q> +At banquet in Old Cloth +Hall on Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 8. Presented with address by +Leeds Chamber of Commerce: +on free trade. +Mass meeting of 25,000 +persons in Old Cloth +Hall on foreign and +colonial policy. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 13. Presented with address +by city corporation at +Guildhall: on Ireland +and arrest of Mr. Parnell. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 27. At Knowsley on the aims +of the Irish policy. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 9. At lord mayor's banquet +on government's Irish +policy and parliamentary +procedure. +</p> + +<p> +1882. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 12. At Hawarden on agriculture. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 31. On local taxation to deputation +from chambers of +agriculture. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 7. On Mr. Bradlaugh's claim. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 9. On home rule amendment +to address. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 16. On the Irish demand for +home rule. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 20. Moves first of new procedure +rules. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 21. On local taxation. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 21 and 22. On Mr. Bradlaugh's +case. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 27. Meeting of liberal party +at Downing Street. On +House of Lords' committee +to inquire into +Irish Land Act. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 27. Moves resolution declaring +parliamentary inquiry +into Land Act injurious +to interests of good +government. +</p> + +<p> +March 3. On persecution of Jews in +Russia. +</p> + +<p> +March 6. Supports resolution for +legislation on parliamentary +oaths. +</p> + +<p> +March 10. On proposed state acquisition +of Irish railways. +</p> + +<p> +March 17. On British North Borneo +Company's charter. +</p> + +<p> +March 21. On parliamentary reform. +</p> + +<p> +March 23. On grant to Duke of +Albany. +</p> + +<p> +March 30. On closure resolution. +</p> + +<pb n='567'/><anchor id='Pg567'/> + +<p> +March 31. On inquiry into ecclesiastical +commission. +</p> + +<p> +April 17. Opposes motion for release +of Cetewayo. +</p> + +<p> +April 18. On diplomatic communications +with Vatican. +</p> + +<p> +April 24. Introduces budget. +</p> + +<p> +April 26. On the Irish Land Act +Amendment bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 2. Statement of Irish policy, +announces release of +<q>suspects,</q> and resignation +of Mr. Forster. +</p> + +<p> +May 4. On Mr. Forster's resignation. +</p> + +<p> +May 8. Moves adjournment of the +House on assassination +of Lord F. Cavendish +and Mr. Burke. +</p> + +<p> +May 15. Brings in Arrears of Rent +(Ireland) bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 19. On second reading of Prevention +of Crime (Ireland) +bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 22. On Arrears bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 24. On Prevention of Crime bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 26-June 1. On government's +Egyptian policy. +</p> + +<p> +June 14. On Egyptian crisis. +</p> + +<p> +June 17. On Mr. Bright's resignation. +</p> + +<p> +July 12. On bombardment of Alexandria. +</p> + +<p> +July 21. On third reading of +Arrears bill. +</p> + +<p> +July 24. Asks for vote of credit for +£2,300,000. +</p> + +<p> +July 27. Concludes debate on vote +of credit. +</p> + +<p> +July 28. On national expenditure. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 8. On Lords' amendments to +Arrears bill. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 9. On suspension of Irish +members, July 1. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 16. On events leading to +Egyptian war. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 25-31, and Dec. 1. On twelve +new rules of procedure. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 26. Moves vote of thanks +to forces engaged in +Egyptian campaign. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 24. Opposes demand for select +committee on release of +Mr. Parnell. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 13. Celebrates political jubilee. +</p> + +<p> +1883. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 6-16. Suffers from sleeplessness +at Hawarden. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 17. Leaves England for south +of France. +</p> + +<p> +March 2. Returns to London. +</p> + +<p> +March 14. On Irish Land Law (1881) +Amendment bill. +</p> + +<p> +March 16. On Boer invasion of +Bechuanaland. +</p> + +<p> +April 3. On Channel tunnel. +</p> + +<p> +April 6. On increase in national +expenditure. +</p> + +<p> +April 17. On local taxation. +</p> + +<p> +April 19. On Lords Alcester and +Wolseley's annuity bills. +</p> + +<p> +April 26. On Parliamentary Oaths +Act (1866) Amendment +bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 2. At National Liberal club +on conservative legacy +of 1880 and work of +liberal administration, +1880-1883. +</p> + +<p> +May 7. On Contagious Diseases +Acts. +</p> + +<p> +May 25. On reforms in Turkey. +</p> + +<p> +May 29. Meeting of liberal party +at foreign office: on +state of public business. +</p> + +<p> +June 2. At Stafford House: tribute +to Garibaldi. +</p> + +<p> +June 12. On revision of purchase +clauses of Land Act. +</p> + +<p> +June 23. On withdrawal of provisional +agreement for +second Suez canal. +</p> + +<p> +July 27. On India and payment for +Egyptian campaign. +</p> + +<p> +July 30. On future negotiations +with Suez canal company. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 6. On government's Transvaal +and Zululand policies. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 6-7. On British occupation of +Egypt. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 18. Protests against violent +speeches of Irish members. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 21. On work of the session. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. Italian translation of +Cowper's hymn: <q>Hark +my soul! It is the +Lord,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 8-21. In <hi rend='italic'>Pembroke Castle</hi> +round coast of Scotland +to Norway and Copenhagen. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 13. At Kirkwall: on changes +during half century of +his political life. +</p> + +<pb n='568'/><anchor id='Pg568'/> + +<p> +Sept. 18. Entertains the Emperor +and Empress of Russia, +the King and Queen of +Denmark, at dinner on +board <hi rend='italic'>Pembroke Castle</hi> +in Copenhagen harbour. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 22. At Hawarden, to deputation +of liberal working +men on reform of the +franchise. +</p> + +<p> +1884. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 5. At Hawarden on condition +of agriculture. +</p> + +<p> +Jan 31. Receives deputations from +Leeds conference, etc., +on Franchise bill. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 11 and 21. On Mr. Bradlaugh's +attempt to take the oath. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 12. On Egyptian and Soudan +policy in reply to vote +of censure. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 13. On re-establishment of +grand committees. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 25. Moves resolution of thanks +to Speaker Brand on his +retirement. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 28. Explains provisions of +Representation of the +People (Franchise) bill. +</p> + +<p> +March 3. In defence of retention of +Suakin. +</p> + +<p> +March 6. On government's Egyptian +policy. +</p> + +<p> +March 10-19. Confined to his room +by a chill. +</p> + +<p> +March 19 to April 7. Recuperates at +Coombe Warren. +</p> + +<p> +March 31. On death of Duke of +Albany. +</p> + +<p> +April 3. On General Gordon's +mission in Soudan. +</p> + +<p> +April 7. On second reading of +Franchise bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 12. On vote of censure regarding +General Gordon. +</p> + +<p> +May 27. On Egyptian financial +affairs. +</p> + +<p> +June 10. Opposes amendment to +Franchise bill granting +suffrage to women. +</p> + +<p> +June 23. On terms of agreement +with France on Egypt. +</p> + +<p> +June 26. On third reading of Franchise +bill. +</p> + +<p> +July 8. On second reading of London +Government bill. +</p> + +<p> +July 10. Meeting of the liberal +party: on rejection of +Franchise bill by House +of Lords. +</p> + +<p> +July 11. On negotiations with Lord +Cairns on Franchise bill. +</p> + +<p> +July 18. At Eighty club on relation +of politics of the past to +politics of the future. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 2. On failure of conference +on Egyptian finance. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 11. On Lord Northbrook's +mission to Egypt. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 30. At Corn Exchange, Edinburgh, +on Lords and +Franchise bill. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 1. At Corn Exchange, Edinburgh, +in defence of his +administration. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 2. In Waverley Market on +demand of Lords for +dissolution. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 26. Returns to Hawarden. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 16. Cuts first sod on Wirral +railway: on railway +enterprise. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 23. On Franchise bill. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 28. Defends Lord Spencer's +Irish administration. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 4. Lays foundation stone of +National Liberal club: +on liberal administrations +of past half century. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 6 and 10. On second reading +of Franchise bill. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 21. On Mr. Labouchere's motion +for reform of House +of Lords. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 1. Brings in Redistribution +bill. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 4. On second reading of Redistribution +bill. +</p> + +<p> +1885. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 23. On vote of censure on +Soudan policy. +</p> + +<p> +March 26. Moves ratification of +Egyptian financial +agreement. +</p> + +<p> +April 9. Announces occupation of +Penjdeh by Russians. +</p> + +<p> +April 16. In defence of Egyptian +Loan bill. +</p> + +<p> +April 21. Asks for vote of credit for +war preparations. +</p> + +<p> +April 27. On Soudan and Afghanistan. +</p> + +<p> +May 4. Announces agreement +with Russia on Afghan +boundary dispute. +</p> + +<pb n='569'/><anchor id='Pg569'/> + +<p> +May 14. On Princess Beatrice's +dowry. +</p> + +<p> +June 8. Defends increase of duties +on beer and spirits. +</p> + +<p> +June 9. Resignation of government. +</p> + +<p> +June 24. Reads correspondence on +crisis. +</p> + +<p> +July 6. On legislation on parliamentary +oaths. +</p> + +<p> +July 7. On intentions of the new +government. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 8-Sept. 1. In Norway. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 17. Issues address to Midlothian +electors. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. <q>Dawn of Creation and of +Worship,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 9. At Albert Hall, Edinburgh, +on proposals of +Irish party. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 11. At Free Assembly Hall, +Edinburgh, on disestablishment. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 17. At West Calder on Ireland, +foreign policy, and free +trade. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 21. At Dalkeith on finance +and land reform. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 23. At inauguration of Market +Cross, Edinburgh: on +history of the cross. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 24. At Music Hall, Edinburgh, +on tory tactics +and Mr. Parnell's +charges. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 27. Elected for Midlothian: +Mr. Gladstone, 7879; +Mr. Dalrymple, 3248. +</p> + +<p> +1886. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. <q>Proem to Genesis: a Plea +for a Fair Trial,</q> in +<hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 21. On government's policy in +India, the Near East +and Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 26. In support of amendment +for allotments. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 3. Third administration +formed. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 4. Issues address to electors +of Midlothian. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 10. Returned unopposed for +Midlothian. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 22. On comparative taxation +of England and Ireland. +On annexation of Burmah. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 23. On Ireland's contribution +to imperial revenue. +</p> + +<p> +March 4. On condition of Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +March 6-12. Confined to his room by +a cold. +</p> + +<p> +April 6. On death of Mr. W. E. +Forster. +</p> + +<p> +April 8. Brings in Government of +Ireland (Home Rule) +bill. +</p> + +<p> +April 13. On first reading of Home +Rule bill. +</p> + +<p> +April 16. Explains provisions of +Irish Land Purchase +bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 1. Issues address to electors +of Midlothian on Home +Rule bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 10. Moves second reading of +Home Rule bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 27. Meeting of liberal party at +the foreign office: on +the Home Rule bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 28. Explains intentions regarding +the Home Rule +bill. +</p> + +<p> +June 7-8. Concludes debate on +Home Rule bill. +</p> + +<p> +June 10. Announces dissolution of +parliament. +</p> + +<p> +June 14. Issues address to electors +of Midlothian. +</p> + +<p> +June 18. At Music Hall, Edinburgh, +on home rule. +</p> + +<p> +June 21. At Music Hall, Edinburgh, +on home rule. +</p> + +<p> +June 22. At Glasgow on home rule. +</p> + +<p> +June 25. At Free Trade Hall, Manchester, +on home rule. +</p> + +<p> +June 28. At Liverpool on Ulster +and home rule. +</p> + +<p> +July 2. Returned unopposed for +Midlothian and Leith. +</p> + +<p> +July 20. Resignation of third administration. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 19-24. On government's Irish, +policy. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 25. Leaves England for +Bavaria. +</p> + +<p> +Aug 28. <q><hi rend='italic'>The Irish Question: (1) +History of an Idea; (2) +Lessons of the Election</hi>,</q> +published. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 19. Returns to London. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 20. On Tenants Relief (Ireland) +bill. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 4. At Hawarden. Receives +address signed by +400,000 women of Ireland: +on home rule. +</p> + +<pb n='570'/><anchor id='Pg570'/> + +<p> +1887. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. <q><hi rend='italic'>Locksley Hall</hi> and the +Jubilee,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 27. Tribute to memory of +Lord Iddesleigh. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 27. On Lord Randolph +Churchill's retirement +and Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. <q>Notes and Queries on the +Irish Demand,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +March <q>The Greater Gods of +Olympus: (1) Poseidon,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Match 17. To the liberal members for +Yorkshire: on home +rule. +</p> + +<p> +March 24. On the exaction of excessive +rents. +</p> + +<p> +March 29. On Criminal Law Amendment +(Ireland) bill. +</p> + +<p> +April <q>The History of 1852-60 +and Greville's Latest +Journals,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>English +Historical Review</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +April 18. On second reading of +Criminal Law Amendment +bill. +</p> + +<p> +April 19. At Eighty club on liberal +unionist grammar of +dissent. +</p> + +<p> +April 25. Criticise Mr. Goschen's +budget. +</p> + +<p> +May <q>The Greater Gods of +Olympus: (2) Apollo,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +May 5. Moves for select committee +to inquire into the <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi> +articles on <q>Parnellism +and Crime.</q> +</p> + +<p> +May 11. At Dr. Parker's house on +Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +May 31. On Crimes bill at Hawarden. +</p> + +<p> +June Reviews Mr. Lecky's <hi rend='italic'>History +of England in the +Eighteenth Century</hi> in +<hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +June <q>The Great Olympian +Sedition,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Contemporary +Review</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +June 4. At Swansea, on Welsh +nationality, Welsh +grievances, and the Irish +Crimes bill. +</p> + +<p> +June 6. At Singleton Abbey on +home rule and retention +of Irish members. +</p> + +<p> +June 7. At Cardiff on home rule. +</p> + +<p> +July <q>The Greater Gods of +Olympus: (3) Athene,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +June 2. To the liberal members for +Durham on Lord Hartington's +Irish record. +</p> + +<p> +June 7. Moves rejection of Irish +Criminal Law Amendment +bill. +</p> + +<p> +June 9. Presented at Dollis Hill +with address signed by +10,689 citizens of New +York. +</p> + +<p> +June 14. On second reading of the +Irish Land bill. +</p> + +<p> +June 16. At National Liberal club: +on Ireland and home +rule movement in Scotland +and Wales. +</p> + +<p> +June 29. At Memorial Hall on the +lessons of bye-elections. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. <q>Mr. Lecky and Political +Morality,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 16. Lays first cylinder of railway +bridge over the Dee: +on railway enterprise +and the Channel tunnel. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 25. On proclamation of Irish +land league. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 30. At Hawarden on Queen +Victoria's reign. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. <q>Electoral Facts of 1887,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 12. On riot at Mitchelstown, +Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. <q>Ingram's History of the +Irish Union,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 4. At Hawarden on the absolutist +methods of +government. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 18. At National Liberal Federation, +Nottingham, on +conduct of Irish police. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 19. At Skating Rink, Nottingham, +on home rule. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 20. At Drill Hall, Derby, on +Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. <q>An Olive Branch from +America,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 27. At Dover on free trade +and Irish Crimes Act. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 28. Leaves England for Italy. +</p> + +<p> +1888. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. <q>A reply to Dr. Ingram,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>Westminster Review</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. <q>The Homeric Herê,</q> in +<hi rend='italic'>Contemporary Review</hi>. +</p> + +<pb n='578'/><anchor id='Pg578'/> + +<p> +Feb. 8. Returns to London. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 17. On coercion in Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +March <q>Further Notes and Queries +on the Irish Demand,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>Contemporary Review</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +March 23. On perpetual pensions. +</p> + +<p> +April 9. On the budget. +</p> + +<p> +April 11. At National Liberal club +on the budget and Local +Government bill. +</p> + +<p> +April 23. Moves an amendment in +favour of equalising the +death duties on real and +personal property. +</p> + +<p> +April 25. On second reading of +County Government (Ireland) bill. +</p> + +<p> +May. <q>Robert Elsmere, and the +Battle of Belief,</q> in +<hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +May. A reply to Colonel Ingersoll +on <q>Christianity,</q> in +<hi rend='italic'>North American Review</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +May 1. On government control of +railways. +</p> + +<p> +May 2. Opens Gladstone library at +National Liberal club: +on books. +</p> + +<p> +May 9. At Memorial Hall on Irish +question. +</p> + +<p> +May 26. At Hawarden condemns +licensing clauses of Local +Government bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 30. Receives deputation of +1500 Lancashire liberals +at Hawarden. +</p> + +<p> +June 18. On death of German Emperor. +</p> + +<p> +June 26. Condemns administration +of Irish criminal law. +</p> + +<p> +June 27. On Channel Tunnel bill. +</p> + +<p> +June 30. At Hampstead on Ireland +and the bye-elections. +</p> + +<p> +July <q>The Elizabethan Settlement +of Religion,</q> in +<hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +July 6. On payment of members. +</p> + +<p> +July 18. To liberal members for +Northumberland and +Cumberland on Parnell +commission and retention +of Irish members. +</p> + +<p> +July 23. On second reading of Parnell +Commission bill. +</p> + +<p> +July 25. Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone +presented with their +portraits on entering on +fiftieth year of married +life. +</p> + +<p> +July 30. On composition of Parnell +commission. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 20. Receives deputation of +1500 liberals at Hawarden: +on conservative +government of Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 23. At Hawarden on spade +husbandry and the cultivation +of fruit. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. <q>Mr. Forster and Ireland,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 4. At Wrexham on Irish and +Welsh home rule. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 4. At the Eisteddfod on English +feeling towards +Wales. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. <q>Queen Elizabeth and the +Church of England,</q> in +<hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 5. At Town Hall, Birmingham, +on liberal unionists +and one man one vote. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 6. To deputation at Birmingham +on labour representation +and payment of +members. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 7. At Bingley Hall, Birmingham, +on Irish question. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 8. To deputation of Birmingham +Irish National club +on Irish grievances. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 19. On Irish Land Purchase +bill. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 3. On Mr. Balfour's administration +of Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 15. At Limehouse Town Hall +on necessary English +reforms and the Irish +question. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 17. On English occupation of +Suakin. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 19. Leaves England for Naples. +</p> + +<p> +1889. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. <q>Daniel O'Connell,</q> in +<hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. Reviews <hi rend='italic'>Divorce</hi> by Margaret +Lee in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 20. Returns to London. +</p> + +<p> +March 1. On conciliatory measures +in administration of +Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +March 29. On death of John Bright. +</p> + +<p> +April Reviews <hi rend='italic'>For the Right</hi> in +<hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +April 4. On £21,000,000 for naval +defence. +</p> + +<p> +April 9. On Scotch home rule. +</p> + +<pb n='572'/><anchor id='Pg572'/> + +<p> +May <q>Italy in 1888-89,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +May 15. On second reading of +Welsh Education bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 16. Moves amendment to Mr. +Goschen's proposed +death duties on estates +above £10,000. +</p> + +<p> +June 5. At Southampton on lessons +of the bye-elections. +</p> + +<p> +June 7. At Romsey on Lord Palmerston. +</p> + +<p> +June 8. At Weymouth on shorter +parliaments and Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +June 10. At Torquay on Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +June 11. At Falmouth and Redruth +on Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +June 12. At Truro, St. Austell, and +Bodmin on Ireland, one +man one vote, the death +duties, etc. +</p> + +<p> +June 14. At Launceston on dissentient +liberals. +</p> + +<p> +June 14. At Drill Hall, Plymouth, +on home rule. +</p> + +<p> +June 17. At Shaftesbury and Gillingham +on the agricultural +labourer. +</p> + +<p> +July <q>Plain Speaking on the +Irish Union,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +July 6. Presented with freedom of +Cardiff; on free trade; +on foreign opinion of +English rule in Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +July 25. Golden wedding celebrated +in London. +</p> + +<p> +July 25. Speech on royal grants. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. <q>Phœnician Affinities of +Ithaca,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 22. At Hawarden on cottage +gardens and fruit culture. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 26. Celebration of golden wedding +at Hawarden. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 7. Entertained in Paris by +Society of Political +Economy. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 23. At Hawarden on dock +strike and bimetallism. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. <q>The Triple Alliance and +Italy's Place in it,</q> by +Outidanos, in <hi rend='italic'>Contemporary +Review</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. Reviews <hi rend='italic'>Journal de Marie +Bashkirtseff</hi> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 23. At Southport on Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 26. Opens literary institute at +Saltney, Chester. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. <q>The English Church under +Henry the Eighth,</q> in +<hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. <q>The Question of Divorce,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>North American Review</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. Reviews <hi rend='italic'>Memorials of a +Southern Planter</hi> in +<hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 2. At Free Trade Hall, Manchester, +on liberal unionists +and foreign policy. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 3. In Free Trade Hall on +government of Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 4. At luncheon at Town Hall +on city of Manchester. +</p> + +<p> +1890. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. <q>A Defence of Free Trade,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>North American Review</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. <q>The Melbourne Government: +its Acts and Persons,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 9. At Hawarden on the effect +of free trade on agriculture. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 22. At Chester on Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 5. At Oxford Union on +vestiges of Assyrian +mythology in Homer. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 11. On motion declaring publication +by <hi rend='italic'>Times</hi> of +forged Parnell letter to +be breach of privilege. +</p> + +<p> +March <q>On Books and the Housing +of Them,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +March 3. On report of Parnell commission. +</p> + +<p> +March 24. At National Liberal club +on report of Parnell +commission. +</p> + +<p> +March 26. At Guy's Hospital on the +medical profession. +</p> + +<p> +April 24. On second reading of Purchase +of Land (Ireland) +bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 2. On disestablishment of +church of Scotland. +</p> + +<p> +May 12. On free trade at Prince's +Hall, Piccadilly. +</p> + +<p> +May 15. On Local Taxation Duties +bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 16. At Norwich on Parnell +commission, land purchase +and licensing +question. +</p> + +<p> +May 17. At Lowestoft on Siberian +<pb n='573'/><anchor id='Pg573'/> +atrocities and the agricultural +labourer. +</p> + +<p> +April 27. Receives 10,000 liberals at +Hawarden: on Mitchelstown, +Irish Land bill, +and Licensing bill. +</p> + +<p> +June 5. On Channel Tunnel bill. +</p> + +<p> +June 13. On Local Taxation Duties +bill. +</p> + +<p> +June 18. To depositors in railways' +savings banks: on thrift. +</p> + +<p> +July 17. At Burlington School, +London, on the education +of women. +</p> + +<p> +July 24. On Anglo-German Agreement +bill. +</p> + +<p> +July 30. To Wesleyans at National +Liberal club on Maltese +marriage question, and +Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 21. At Hawarden on cottage +gardening and fruit +farming. +</p> + +<p> +July 30. <q>Dr. Döllinger's Posthumous +Remains,</q> in the +<hi rend='italic'>Speaker</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 12. At Dee iron works on industrial +progress. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 21. At Corn Exchange, Edinburgh, +on government's +Irish administration. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 23. At West Calder on condition +of working classes +and Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 25. At Dalkeith on home rule +for Scotland and Ireland. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 27. At Music Hall, Edinburgh, +on retention of Irish +members, procedure and +obstruction. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 29. At Dundee on free trade +and the McKinley tariff. +Opens Victorian Art +Gallery: on appreciation +of beauty. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. <q>Mr. Carnegie's Gospel of +Wealth,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 24. Letter to Mr. Morley on +Mr. Parnell and leadership +of Irish party. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 1. Publishes reply to Mr. +Parnell's manifesto to +Irish people. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 2. On Purchase of Land (Ireland) +bill. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 11. At Retford on Mr. Parnell +and the home rule +cause. +</p> + +<p> +Publishes <hi rend='italic'>The Impregnable +Rock of Holy +Scripture</hi>, a reprint of +articles in <hi rend='italic'>Good Words</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Landmarks of Homeric +Study, together with an +Essay on the Points of +Contact between the +Assyrian Tablets and +the Homeric Text.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +1891. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 27. Supports motion to expunge +from journals of +the House the Bradlaugh +resolution (1881). +</p> + +<p> +Feb. <q>Professor Huxley and the +Swine-Miracle,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 4. Moves second reading of +Religious Disabilities +Removal bill. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 13. Opens free library in St. +Martin's Lane: on free +libraries. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 16. Condemns action of Irish +executive in Tipperary +trials. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 20. On disestablishment of +church in Wales. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 27. On taxation of land. +</p> + +<p> +March 3. On registration reform. +</p> + +<p> +March 14. At Eton College on +Homeric Artemis. +</p> + +<p> +March 17. At Hastings on Mr. +Goschen's finance, Irish +policy, and the career +of Mr. Parnell. +</p> + +<p> +May <q>A Memoir of John Murray,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>Murray's Magazine</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +June 19. At St. James's Hall, at +jubilee of Colonial +Bishoprics Fund, on development +of colonial +church. +</p> + +<p> +July 4. Death of W. H. Gladstone. +</p> + +<p> +July 15. At Hawarden on fifty +years of progress. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. <q>Electoral Facts, No. III.,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. <q>On the Ancient Beliefs in +a Future State,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 1. At jubilee of Glenalmond +College on study of +nature and the clerical +profession. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 2. At Newcastle on the +liberal programme. +</p> + +<pb n='574'/><anchor id='Pg574'/> + +<p> +Nov. 3. At Newcastle on local self-government +and freedom +of trade. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 28. At Wirral on home rule. +At Sunlight Soap works +on profit-sharing and cooperation. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 11. At Holborn Restaurant to +conference of labourers +on rural reforms. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 15. Leaves London for Biarritz. +</p> + +<p> +1892. +</p> + +<p> +Feb.-May <q>On the Olympian Religion,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>North American +Review</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 29. Returns to London. +</p> + +<p> +March 3. Opposes grant of £20,000 +for survey of Uganda +railway. +</p> + +<p> +March 16. On Welsh Land Tenure +bill. +</p> + +<p> +March 24. On Small Agricultural +Holdings bill. +</p> + +<p> +March 28. On Indian Councils Act +(1861) Amendment bill. +</p> + +<p> +April Reviews <hi rend='italic'>The Platform, its +Rise and Progress</hi>, in +<hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +April 28. On Church Discipline (Immorality) +bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 24. On Local Government (Ireland) +bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 31. At Memorial Hall on London +government. +</p> + +<p> +June <q>Did Dante Study in Oxford?</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +June 5. At Dalkeith on Scotch home +rule and disestablishment. +</p> + +<p> +June 16. Receives deputation from +London trades council +on Eight Hours bill. +</p> + +<p> +June 18. To nonconformists at +Clapham on Ulster and +home rule. +</p> + +<p> +June 21. Issues address to electors +of Midlothian. +</p> + +<p> +June 25. Struck in the eye by piece +of gingerbread in Chester. +At Liberal club on +the general election, the +appeal to religious bigotry, +and disestablishment. +</p> + +<p> +June 30. At Edinburgh Music Hall +on Lord Salisbury's +manifesto, home rule, +and retention of Irish +members. +</p> + +<p> +July 2. At Glasgow on Orangeism +and home rule. +</p> + +<p> +July 4. At Gorebridge on labour +questions. +</p> + +<p> +July 6. At Corstorphine on government's +record. +</p> + +<p> +July 7. At West Calder on protection, +the hours of +labour and home rule. +</p> + +<p> +July 11. At Penicuik on conservative +responsibility for +recent wars, finance, +disestablishment, and +Irish question. +</p> + +<p> +July 13. Elected for Midlothian: +Mr. Gladstone, 5845; +Colonel Wauchope, 5155. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 9. On vote of want of confidence. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 15. Fourth administration +formed. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 24. Returned unopposed for +Midlothian. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 29. Knocked down by heifer +in Hawarden Park. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 5. A paper on Archaic Greece +and the East read before +Congress of Orientalists. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 12. At Carnarvon on case of +Wales. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. <q>A Vindication of Home +Rule: a Reply to the +Duke of Argyll,</q> in +<hi rend='italic'>North American Review</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 22. Cuts first sod of the new +Cheshire railway: on +migration of population +and mineral produce of +Wales. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 24. Delivers Romanes lecture +at Oxford on history of +universities. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 3. Presented with freedom of +Liverpool: on history +of Liverpool and Manchester +ship canal. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 21. Leaves England for +Biarritz. +</p> + +<p> +1893. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 10. Returns to England. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 31. Replies to Mr. Balfour's +criticisms on the address. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 3. On Mr. Labouchere's +amendment in favour of +evacuation of Uganda. +</p> + +<pb n='575'/><anchor id='Pg575'/> + +<p> +Feb. 8. On amendment praying for +immediate legislation for +agricultural labourers. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 11. On motion for restriction +of alien immigration. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 13. Brings in Government of +Ireland (Home Rule) +bill. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 28. On motion for international +monetary conference. +</p> + +<p> +March 3. Receives deputation from +the miners' federation +on Eight Hours bill. +</p> + +<p> +March 20. On Sir Gerald Portal's +mission to Uganda. +</p> + +<p> +March 27. Meeting of the liberal +party at foreign office: +on programme for session. +</p> + +<p> +March 27. On Mr. Balfour's motion +censuring action of Irish +executive. +</p> + +<p> +March 28. Receives deputations from +Belfast manufacturers +and city of London merchants +protesting against +home rule. +</p> + +<p> +April 6. Moves second reading of +Home Rule bill. +</p> + +<p> +April 19. Receives a deputation from +the miners' National +Union on Eight Hours +bill. +</p> + +<p> +April 21. Replies to criticisms on +Home Rule bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 1. On the occupation of +Egypt. +</p> + +<p> +May 2. Receives a deputation of +the Mining Association +in opposition to Eight +Hours bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 3. On second reading of +Miners' Eight Hours bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 11. Replies to Mr. Chamberlain's +speech on first +clause of Home Rule +bill. +</p> + +<p> +May 23. Opens Hawarden institute: +on the working classes. +</p> + +<p> +May 29. At Chester on Home Rule +bill. +</p> + +<p> +June <q>Some Eton Translations,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>Contemporary Review</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +June 16. On arbitration between +England and United +States. +</p> + +<p> +June 22. Statement regarding the +financial clauses of Home +Rule bill. +</p> + +<p> +June 28. Moves resolution for closing +debate on committee +stage of Home Rule bill. +</p> + +<p> +July 12. Announces government's +decision regarding the +retention of Irish members +at Westminster. +</p> + +<p> +July 14. Moves address of congratulation +on marriage of +Duke of York. +</p> + +<p> +July 21. Moves a new clause to +Home Rule bill regulating +financial relations. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 5. At Agricultural Hall, Islington, +on industry and +art. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 30. Moves third reading of +Home Rule bill. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 27. At Edinburgh on House +of Lords and the Home +Rule bill. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 9. On Matabeleland and the +chartered company. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 19. On naval policy of the +government. +</p> + +<p> +1894. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 13. Leaves England for +Biarritz. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 10. Returns to England. +</p> + +<p> +March 1. On the Lords' amendments +to Parish Councils bill. +</p> + +<p> +March 3. Resigns the premiership. +</p> + +<p> +March 7. Confined to bed by severe +cold. +</p> + +<p> +March 17. At Brighton. Letter to +Sir John Cowan—his +farewell to parliamentary +life. +</p> + +<p> +May <q>The Love Odes of Horace—five +specimens,</q> in +<hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +May 3. At Prince's Hall on life +and work of Sir Andrew +Clark. +</p> + +<p> +May 24. Right eye operated on for +cataract. +</p> + +<p> +July 7. Announces decision not to +seek re-election to parliament. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. <q>The Place of Heresy and +Schism in the Modern +Christian Church,</q> in +<hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 14. On cottage gardening at +Hawarden. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 16. Receives deputation of +1500 liberals from Torquay +at Hawarden. +</p> + +<pb n='576'/><anchor id='Pg576'/> + +<p> +Sept. <q>The True and False Conception +of the Atonement,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 29. Receives deputation from +the Armenian national +church at Hawarden. +</p> + +<p> +1895. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 7. Presented with an album +by Irish-Americans: in +favour of Irish unity. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 8. Leaves England for south +of France. +</p> + +<p> +March Publishes <hi rend='italic'>The Psalter with +a concordance</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. <q>The Lord's Day,</q> in +<hi rend='italic'>Church Monthly</hi>; concluded +in April number. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 23. Returns to England from +France. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 15. At Hawarden to a deputation +of Leeds and Huddersfield +liberal clubs: +on English people and +political power, and on +advantages of libraries. +</p> + +<p> +June 12-24. Cruise in <hi rend='italic'>Tantallon +Castle</hi> to Hamburg, +Copenhagen, and Kiel. +</p> + +<p> +July 1. Farewell letter to Midlothian +constituents. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 5. At Hawarden on small +holdings and his old +age. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 6. At Chester on Armenian +question. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. <q>Bishop Butler and his +Censors,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>; concluded in +December number. +</p> + +<p> +Dec. 28. Leaves England for +Biarritz and Cannes. +</p> + +<p> +1896. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. Publishes <hi rend='italic'>The Works of +Bishop Butler</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +March 10. Returns to England from +Cannes. +</p> + +<p> +March 28. At Liverpool on the development +of the English +railway system. +</p> + +<p> +April <q>The Future Life and the +Condition of Man Therein,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>North American +Review</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +April Contributes an article on +<q>The Scriptures and +Modern Criticism</q> to +the <hi rend='italic'>People's Bible</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +May <hi rend='italic'>Soliloquium and Postscript</hi>—a +letter to the Archbishop +of York, published. +</p> + +<p> +June <q>Sheridan,</q> in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth +Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +June 1. Letter on Anglican Orders +published. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 3. At Hawarden horticultural +show on rural life. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 1. At fête in aid of Hawarden +Institute on progress of +music. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 2. At Hawarden fête on +Welsh music. +</p> + +<p> +Sept. 24. At Hengler's circus, Liverpool, +on Armenian +question. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. <q>The Massacres in Turkey,</q> +in <hi rend='italic'>Nineteenth Century</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Oct. 16. At Penmaenmawr in praise +of seaside resorts. +</p> + +<p> +1897. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 29. Leaves England for +Cannes. +</p> + +<p> +March 19. Letter to the Duke of +Westminster on the +Cretan question published. +</p> + +<p> +March 30. Returns to England from +Cannes. +</p> + +<p> +May 4. At Hawarden on the condition +of the clergy. +</p> + +<p> +June 2. Opens Victoria jubilee +bridge over the Dee at +Queensferry. +</p> + +<p> +Aug. 2. At Hawarden horticultural +show on small culture. +</p> + +<p> +Nov. 26. Leaves England for +Cannes. +</p> + +<p> +1898. +</p> + +<p> +Jan. 5. <q>Personal Recollections of +Arthur H. Hallam,</q> in +<hi rend='italic'>Daily Telegraph</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 18. Returns to London from +Cannes. +</p> + +<p> +Feb. 22. Goes to Bournemouth. +</p> + +<p> +March 22. Returns to Hawarden. +</p> + +<p> +May 19. Death of Mr. Gladstone. +</p> + +<p> +May 26, 27. Lying in state in Westminster +Hall. +</p> + +<p> +May 28. Burial in Westminster +Abbey. +</p> +</div> +</body> +<back rend="page-break-before: right"> + <div id="footnotes"> + <index index="toc" /> + <index index="pdf" /> + <head>Footnotes</head> + <divGen type="footnotes"/> + </div> + <div rend="page-break-before: right"> + <divGen type="pgfooter" /> + </div> +</back> +</text> +</TEI.2> |