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diff --git a/40923-0.txt b/40923-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1172e97 --- /dev/null +++ b/40923-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6016 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40923 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 40923-h.htm or 40923-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40923/40923-h/40923-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40923/40923-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + http://archive.org/details/cu31924028287724 + + + + + +BRITISH POLITICAL LEADERS + + * * * * * + +_BY THE SAME AUTHOR._ + +IN THE + +"Story of the Nations" Series. + + Each volume large crown 8vo, cloth, fully Illustrated, 5s. + + MODERN ENGLAND BEFORE THE REFORM BILL. + + MODERN ENGLAND UNDER QUEEN VICTORIA. + + _IN PREPARATION._ + + PORTRAITS OF THE SIXTIES. + + Demy 8vo, cloth, Illustrated, 16s. + + +LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN. + + * * * * * + + +[Illustration: Photograph copyright by Elliott & Fry + +ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR] + + +BRITISH POLITICAL LEADERS + +by + +JUSTIN McCARTHY + +With Portraits + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + +London +T. Fisher Unwin +Paternoster Square +1903 + +[All rights reserved.] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + 1. ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR 1 + + 2. LORD SALISBURY 25 + + 3. LORD ROSEBERY 49 + + 4. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN 73 + + 5. HENRY LABOUCHERE 99 + + 6. JOHN MORLEY 125 + + 7. LORD ABERDEEN 151 + + 8. JOHN BURNS 177 + + 9. SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH 203 + + 10. JOHN E. REDMOND 229 + + 11. SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT 255 + + 12. JAMES BRYCE 281 + + 13. SIR HENRY CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 307 + + + + +ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR + + +My first acquaintance with Mr. Arthur J. Balfour, who recently became +Prime Minister of King Edward VII., was made in the earliest days of my +experience as a member of the House of Commons. The Fourth party, as it +was called, had just been formed under the inspiration of the late Lord +Randolph Churchill. The Fourth party was a new political enterprise. The +House of Commons up to that time contained three regular and recognized +political parties--the supporters of the Government, the supporters of +the Opposition, and the members of the Irish Nationalist party, of whom +I was one. Lord Randolph Churchill created a Fourth party, the business +of which was to act independently alike of the Government, the +Opposition, and the Irish Nationalists. At the time when I entered +Parliament the Conservatives were in power, and Conservative statesmen +occupied the Treasury Bench. The members of Lord Randolph's party were +all Conservatives so far as general political principles were concerned, +but Lord Randolph's idea was to lead a number of followers who should be +prepared and ready to speak and vote against any Government proposal +which they believed to be too conservative or not conservative enough; +to support the Liberal Opposition in the rare cases when they thought +the Opposition was in the right; and to support the Irish Nationalists +when they believed that these were unfairly dealt with, or when they +believed, which happened much more frequently, that to support the +Irishmen would be an annoyance to the party in power. + +The Fourth party was made up of numbers exactly corresponding with the +title which had been given to it. Four men, including the leader, +constituted the whole strength of this little army. These men were Lord +Randolph Churchill, Arthur J. Balfour, John Gorst (now Sir John Gorst), +and Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, who has during more recent years withdrawn +altogether from parliamentary life and given himself up to diplomacy, in +which he has won much honorable distinction. Sir John Gorst has recently +held office in the Government, and is believed to have given and felt +little satisfaction in his official career. He is a man of great ability +and acquirements, but these have been somewhat thrown away in the +business of administration. + +The Fourth Party certainly did much to make the House of Commons a +lively place. Its members were always in attendance--the whole four of +them--and no one ever knew where, metaphorically, to place them. They +professed and made manifest open scorn for the conventionalities of +party life, and the parliamentary whips never knew when they could be +regarded as supporters or opponents. They were all effective debaters, +all ready with sarcasm and invective, all sworn foes to dullness and +routine, all delighting in any opportunity for obstructing and +bewildering the party which happened to be in power. The members of the +Fourth party had each of them a distinct individuality, although they +invariably acted together and were never separated in the division +lobbies. A member of the House of Commons likened them once in a speech +to D'Artagnan and his Three Musketeers, as pictured in the immortal +pages of the elder Dumas. John Gorst he described as Porthos, Sir Henry +Drummond Wolff as Athos, and Arthur Balfour as the sleek and subtle +Aramis. When I entered Parliament I was brought much into companionship +with the members of this interesting Fourth party. One reason for this +habit of intercourse was that we sat very near to one another on the +benches of the House. The members of the Irish Nationalist party then, +as now, always sat on the side of the Opposition, no matter what +Government happened to be in power, for the principle of the Irish +Nationalists is to regard themselves as in perpetual opposition to every +Government so long as Ireland is deprived of her own national +legislature. Soon after I entered the House a Liberal Government was the +result of a general election, and the Fourth party, as habitually +conservative, sat on the Opposition benches. The Fourth party gave +frequent support to the Irish Nationalists in their endeavors to resist +and obstruct Government measures, and we therefore came into habitual +intercourse, and even comradeship, with Lord Randolph Churchill and his +small band of followers. + +Arthur Balfour bore little resemblance, in appearance, in manners, in +debating qualities, and apparently in mould of intellect, to any of the +three men with whom he was then constantly allied. He was tall, +slender, pale, graceful, with something of an almost feminine +attractiveness in his bearing, although he was as ready, resolute, and +stubborn a fighter as any one of his companions in arms. He had the +appearance and the ways of a thoughtful student and scholar, and one +would have associated him rather with a college library or a professor's +chair than with the rough and boisterous ways of the House of Commons. +He seemed to have come from another world of thought and feeling into +that eager, vehement, and sometimes rather uproarious political +assembly. Unlike his uncle, Lord Salisbury, he was known to enjoy social +life, but he was especially given to that select order of æsthetic +social life which was "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought," a +form of life which was rather fashionable in society just then. But it +must have been clear even to the most superficial observer that he had a +decided gift of parliamentary capacity. He was a fluent and a ready +speaker and could bear an effective part in any debate at a moment's +notice, but he never declaimed, never indulged in any flight of +eloquence, and seldom raised his clear and musical voice much above the +conversational pitch. His choice of language was always happy and +telling, and he often expressed himself in characteristic phrases which +lived in the memory and passed into familiar quotation. He had won some +distinction as a writer by his "Defense of Philosophic Doubt," by a +volume of "Essays and Addresses," and more lately by his work entitled +"The Foundations of Belief." The first and last of these books were +inspired by a graceful and easy skepticism which had in it nothing +particularly destructive to the faith of any believer, but aimed only at +the not difficult task of proving that a doubting ingenuity can raise +curious cavils from the practical and argumentative point of view +against one creed as well as against another. The world did not take +these skeptical ventures very seriously, and they were for the most part +regarded as the attempts of a clever young man to show how much more +clever he was than the ordinary run of believing mortals. Balfour's +style was clear and vigorous, and people read the essays because of the +writer's growing position in political life, and out of curiosity to see +how the rising young statesman could display himself as the avowed +advocate of philosophic skepticism. + +Arthur Balfour took a conspicuous part in the attack made upon the +Liberal Government in 1882 on the subject of the once famous Kilmainham +Treaty. The action which he took in this instance was avowedly inspired +by a desire to embarrass and oppose the Government because of the +compromise into which it had endeavored to enter with Charles Stewart +Parnell for some terms of agreement as to the manner in which +legislation in Ireland ought to be administered. The full history of +what was called the Kilmainham Treaty has not, so far as I know, been +ever correctly given to the public, and it is not necessary, when +surveying the political career of Mr. Balfour, to enter into any +lengthened explanation on the subject. Mr. Parnell was in prison at the +time when the arrangement was begun, and those who were in his +confidence were well aware that he was becoming greatly alarmed as to +the state of Ireland under the rule of the late W. E. Forster, who was +then Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, and under whose operations +leading Irishmen were thrown into prison on no definite charge, but +because their general conduct left them open in the mind of the Chief +Secretary to the suspicion that their public agitation was likely to +bring about a rebellious movement. Parnell began to fear that the state +of the country would become worse and worse if every popular movement +were to be forcibly repressed at the time when the leaders in whom the +Irish people had full confidence were kept in prison and their guidance, +control, and authority withdrawn from the work of pacification. The +proposed arrangement, whether begun by Mr. Parnell himself or suggested +to him by members of his own party or of the English Radical party, was +simply an understanding that if the leading Irishmen were allowed to +return to their public work the country might at least be kept in peace +while English Liberalism was devising some measures for the better +government of Ireland. The arrangement was in every sense creditable +alike to Parnell and to the English Liberals who were anxious to +cooperate with him in such a purpose. But it led to some disturbance in +Mr. Gladstone's government and to Mr. Forster's resignation of his +office. In 1885, when the Conservatives again came into power and formed +a government, Balfour was appointed President of the Local Government +Board and afterwards became Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant--in +other words, Chief Secretary for Ireland. He had to attempt a difficult, +or rather, it should be said, an impossible task, and he got through it +about as well as, or as badly as, any other man could have done whose +appointed mission was to govern Ireland on Tory principles for the +interests of the landlords and by the policy of coercion. + +Balfour, it should be said, was never, even at that time, actually +unpopular with the Irish National party. We all understood quite well +that his own heart did not go with the sort of administrative work which +was put upon him; his manners were always courteous, agreeable, and +graceful; he had a keen, quiet sense of humor, was on good terms +personally with the leading Irish members, and never showed any +inclination to make himself needlessly or wantonly offensive to his +opponents. He was always readily accessible to any political opponent +who had any suggestion to make, and his term of office as Chief +Secretary, although of necessity quite unsuccessful for any practical +good, left no memories of rancor behind it in the minds of those whom he +had to oppose and to confront. More lately he became First Lord of the +Treasury and Leader of the House of Commons, and the remainder of his +public career is too well known to call for any detailed description +here. My object in this article is rather to give a living picture of +the man himself as we all saw him in public life than to record in +historical detail the successive steps by which he ascended to his +present high position, or rather, it should be said, of the successive +events which brought that place within his reach and made it necessary +for him to accept it. For it is only fair to say that, so far as outer +observers could judge, Mr. Balfour never made his career a struggle for +high positions. So clever and gifted a man must naturally have had some +ambition in the public field to which he had devoted so absolutely his +time and his talents. But he seemed, so far as one could judge, to have +in him none of the self-seeking qualities which are commonly seen in the +man whose purpose is to make his parliamentary work the means of +arriving at the highest post in the government of the State. On the +contrary, his whole demeanor seemed to be rather that of one who is +devoting himself unwillingly to a career not quite congenial. He always +appeared to me to be essentially a man of literary, scholarly, and even +retiring tastes, who has a task forced upon him which he does not feel +quite free to decline, and who therefore strives to make the best of a +career which he has not chosen, but from which he does not feel at +liberty to turn away. Most men who have attained the same political +position give one the idea that they feel a positive delight in +parliamentary life and warfare, and that nature must have designed them +for that particular field and for none other. The joy in the strife +which men like Palmerston, like Disraeli, and like Gladstone evidently +felt never showed itself in the demeanor of Arthur Balfour. There was +always something in his manner which spoke of a shy and shrinking +disposition, and he never appeared to enter into debate for the mere +pleasure of debating. He gave the idea of one who would much rather not +make a speech were he altogether free to please himself in the matter, +and as if he were only constraining himself to undertake a duty which +most of those around him were but too glad to have an opportunity of +attempting. + +There are instances, no doubt, of men gifted with an absolute genius for +eloquent speech who have had no natural inclination for debate and would +rather have been free from any necessity for entering into the war of +words. I have heard John Bright say that he would never make a speech if +he did not feel it a duty imposed upon him, and that he would never +enter the House of Commons if he felt free to keep away from its +debates. Yet Bright was a born orator and was, on the whole, I think, +the greatest public and parliamentary orator I have ever heard in +England, not excluding even Gladstone himself. Bright had all the +physical qualities of the orator. He had a commanding presence and a +voice of the most marvelous intonation, capable of expressing in musical +sound every emotion which lends itself to eloquence--the impassioned, +the indignant, the pathetic, the appealing, and the humorous. Then I can +recall an instance of another man, not, indeed, endowed with Bright's +superb oratorical gifts, but who had to spend the greater part of his +life since he attained the age of manhood in the making of speeches +within and outside the House of Commons. I am thinking now of Charles +Stewart Parnell. I know well that Parnell would never have made a speech +if he could have avoided the task, and that he even felt a nervous +dislike to the mere putting of a question in the House. But no one +would have known from Bright's manner when he took part in a great +debate that he was not obeying in congenial mood the full instinct and +inclination of a born orator. Nor would a stranger have guessed from +Parnell's clear, self-possessed, and precise style of speaking that he +was putting a severe constraint upon himself when he made up his mind to +engage in parliamentary debate. There is something in Arthur Balfour's +manner as a speaker which occasionally reminds me of Parnell and his +style. The two men had the same quiet, easy, and unconcerned fashion of +utterance, always choosing the most appropriate word and finding it +without apparent difficulty; each man seemed, as I have already said of +Balfour, to be thinking aloud rather than trying to convince the +listeners; each man spoke as if resolved not to waste any words or to +indulge in any appeal to the mere emotions of the audience. But the +natural reluctance to take any part in debate was always more +conspicuous in the manner of Balfour than even in that of Parnell. + +Balfour is a man of many and varied tastes and pursuits. He is an +advocate of athleticism and is especially distinguished for his devotion +to the game of golf. He obtained at one time a certain reputation in +London society because of the interest he took in some peculiar phases +of fanciful intellectual inventiveness. He was for a while a leading +member, if not the actual inventor, of a certain order of psychical +research whose members were described as The Souls. More than one +novelist of the day made picturesque use of this singular order and +enlivened the pages of fiction by fancy portraits of its leading +members. Such facts as these did much to prevent Balfour from being +associated in the public mind with only the rivalries of political +parties and the incidents of parliamentary warfare. One sometimes came +into social circles where Balfour was regarded chiefly as the man of +literary tastes and somewhat eccentric intellectual developments. All +this cast a peculiar reflection over his career as a politician and +filled many observers with the idea that he was only playing at +parliamentary life, and that his other occupations were the genuine +realities for him. Even to this day there are some who persist in +believing that Balfour, despite his prolonged and unvarying attention to +his parliamentary duties, has never given his heart to the prosaic and +practical work of administrative office and the business of maintaining +his political party. Yet it has always had to be acknowledged that no +man attended more carefully and more closely to such work when he had to +do it, and that the most devoted worshiper of political success could +not have been more regular and constant in his attention to the business +of the House of Commons. People said that he was lazy by nature, that he +loved long hours of sleep and of general rest, and that he detested the +methodical and mechanical routine of official work. But I have not known +any Minister of State who was more easy of approach and more ready to +enter into the driest details of departmental business than Arthur +Balfour. I may say, too, that, whenever appeal was made to him to +forward any good work or to do any act of kindness, he was always to be +found at his post and was ever ready to lend a helping hand if he could. + +I remember one instance of this kind which I have no hesitation in +mentioning, although I am quite sure Mr. Balfour had little inclination +for its obtaining publicity. Not very many years ago it was brought to +my knowledge that an English literary woman who had won much and +deserved distinction as a novel-writer had been for some time sinking +into ill health, had been therefore prevented from going on with her +work, and had in the mean time been perplexed by worldly difficulties +and embarrassments which interfered sadly with her prospects and made +her a subject of well-merited sympathy. Some friends of the authoress +were naturally anxious, if possible, to give her a helping hand, and the +idea occurred to them that she would be a most fitting recipient of +assistance to be bestowed by a department of the State. One of her +friends, himself a distinguished novelist, who happened to be also a +friend of mine, spoke to me with this object, assuming that, as an old +parliamentary hand, I knew more than most writers of books would be +likely to know about the manner in which such help might be obtained. +There is in England a fund--a very small fund, truly--at the disposal of +the Government for the help of deserving authors who happen to be in +distress. This fund is at the disposal of the First Lord of the +Treasury, the office which was then, as now, held by Arthur Balfour. I +was still at that time a member of the House of Commons, and my friend +suggested that, as I knew something about the whole business, I might be +a suitable person to represent the case to the First Lord of the +Treasury and make appeal for his assistance. My friend's belief was that +the application might come with more effect from one who had been for a +long time a member of Parliament, and whose name would therefore be +known to the First Lord of the Treasury, than from a literary man who +had nothing to do with parliamentary life. Nothing could give me greater +pleasure than to become the medium through which the appeal might be +brought under the notice of the First Lord, but I felt some difficulty +and doubt because of the conditions of the time. England was then in the +most distracting period of the South African war. We were hearing every +day of fresh mishaps and disasters in the campaign. Arthur Balfour was +Leader of the House of Commons, and had to deal every day with +questions, with demands for explanation, with arguments and debates +turning on the events of the war. It seemed to me to be rather a +venturesome enterprise to attempt to gain the attention of a minister +thus perplexingly occupied for a matter of merely private and individual +concern. I feared that an overworked statesman might feel naturally +inclined to remit the subject to the care of some mere official, and +that time might thus be lost and the needed helping hand be long +delayed. I undertook the task, however, and I wrote to Mr. Balfour at +once. I received the very next day a reply written in Mr. Balfour's own +hand, expressing his cordial willingness to consider the subject, his +sympathy with the purpose of the appeal, and his hope that some help +might be given to the distressed novelist. Mr. Balfour promptly took the +matter in hand, and the result was that a grant was made from the State +fund to secure the novelist against any actual distress. Now, I do not +want to make too much of this act of ready kindness done by Mr. Balfour. +The appeal was made for a most deserving object; the fund from which +help was to be given was entirely at Mr. Balfour's disposal; and it is +probable that any other First Lord in the same circumstances would have +come to the same decision. But how easy it would have been for Mr. +Balfour to put the whole matter into the hands of some subordinate, and +not to add a new trouble to his own intensely busy life at such an +exciting crisis by entering into the close consideration of a mere +question of State beneficence! I certainly should not have been +surprised if I had not received an answer to my letter for several days +after I had sent it, and if even then it had come from some subordinate +in the Government department. But in the midst of all his incessant and +distracting occupations at a most exciting period of public business Mr. +Balfour found time to consider the question himself, to reply with his +own hand, and to see that the desired help was promptly accorded. I must +say that I think this short passage of personal history speaks highly +for the kindly nature and the sympathetic promptitude of Arthur Balfour. + +For a long time there had been much speculation in these countries +concerning the probable successor to Lord Salisbury, whenever Lord +Salisbury should make up his mind to resign the position of Prime +Minister. We all knew that that resignation was sure to come soon, +although very few of us had any idea that it was likely to come quite so +soon. The general opinion was that the country would not be expected, +for some time at least, to put up again with a Prime Minister in the +House of Lords. If, therefore, the new Prime Minister had to be found in +the House of Commons, there seemed to be only a choice between two men, +Arthur Balfour and Joseph Chamberlain. It would be hard to find two men +in the House of Commons more unlike each other in characteristic +qualities and in training than these two. They are both endowed with +remarkable capacity for political life and for parliamentary debate, +"but there," as Byron says concerning two of whom one was a Joseph, "I +doubt all likeness ends between the pair." Balfour is an aristocrat of +aristocrats; Chamberlain is essentially a man of the British middle +class--even what is generally called the lower middle class. Balfour has +gone through all the regular course of university education; Chamberlain +was for a short time at University College School in London, a popular +institution of modern origin which does most valuable educational work, +but is not largely patronized by the classes who claim aristocratic +position. Balfour is a constant reader and student of many literatures +and languages; "Mr. Chamberlain," according to a leading article in a +London daily newspaper, "to put it mildly, is not a bookworm." Balfour +loves open-air sports and is a votary of athleticism; Chamberlain never +takes any exercise, even walking exercise, when he can possibly avoid +the trouble. Balfour is an æsthetic lover of all the arts; Chamberlain +has never, so far as I know, given the slightest indication of interest +in any artistic subject. Balfour is by nature a modest and retiring man; +Chamberlain is always "Pushful Joe." The stamp and character of a +successful municipal politician are always evident in Chamberlain, while +Balfour seems to be above all other things the university scholar and +member of high society. I suppose it must have been a profound +disappointment to Chamberlain that he was not offered the place of Prime +Minister, but it would be hardly fair to expect that such a place would +not be offered to the First Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the House +of Commons, even if that First Lord did not happen to be a nephew of the +retiring Prime Minister. + +It would be idle just now to enter into any speculation as to whether +Mr. Arthur Balfour will long continue to hold the office. If he should +make up his mind, as was at one time thought possible by many observers, +to accept a peerage and become Prime Minister in the House of Lords, +such a step would undoubtedly be a means of pacifying the partisans of +Chamberlain, for Chamberlain would then become, almost as a matter of +course, the leader of the Conservative government in the House of +Commons, and this elevation might well satisfy his ambition and give his +pushful energy work enough to do. But the country has of late become +less and less satisfied with the practice of having a Prime Minister +removed from the centre of active life and hidden away in the enervating +atmosphere of the House of Lords. The friends of Mr. Balfour are +naturally inclined to hope and believe that he will not bury himself in +such a living tomb. His path will in any case be perplexed by many +difficulties and obstructions. My own impression is that the inevitable +reaction is destined to come before long. The next general election may +prove that the country at large is tired of a Conservative +administration. The public mind will soon get over the feverish +excitement created by the South African war, and people will begin to +remember that England had won battles and annexed territory before there +ever was a Transvaal Republic, and found then, as she will find now, +that successes abroad do not relieve her from the necessity of managing +successfully her business at home. It has to be borne in mind, too, that +the House of Commons does not really originate anything in the work of +important legislation. The best business of the Liberal party begins +outside the House of Commons--begins with the people and with those who +take an interest in the welfare of the people and have brains and +foresight enough to find out how it can be most thoroughly promoted. All +great reforms have their origin outside the House of Commons and are +only taken up by the House of Commons when it is felt that the popular +demand is so earnest that it must receive serious consideration. The +country will soon begin to realize the fact that, shamefully mismanaged +as the War Department may have been during the recent campaigns, the War +Department is not by any means the only national institution which needs +the strong hand of reform. The spirited foreign policy has had its +innings, and the condition of the people at home must have its turn very +soon. The Liberal party has its work cut out for it, and where there is +the work to be done a Liberal party will be found to do it. So far as I +can read the signs of the times, I am encouraged to hope that a great +opportunity is waiting for the Liberal party, and I cannot see the +slightest reason to doubt that a Liberal party will be found ready for +the opportunity and equal to it. A Tory Prime Minister has, indeed, +before now had the judgment and the energy to forestall the Liberal +party in the great work of domestic reform, but I do not believe that +even the warmest admirers of Mr. Balfour imagine that he is quite the +man to undertake such an enterprise. Arthur Balfour is, according to my +judgment, the best man for the place to be found in the Conservative +ranks at present, but I do not suppose that he is destined just now to +be anything more than a stop-gap. I admire his great and varied +abilities, I recognize his brilliant debating powers, and I have felt +the charm of his genial and graceful manners, but I do not believe him +capable of maintaining the present administration against the rising +force of a Liberal reaction. + + + + +[Illustration: From a painting by Hubert von Herkomer + +LORD SALISBURY] + + + + +LORD SALISBURY + + +The retirement of Lord Salisbury from the position of Prime Minister and +the leadership of the Conservative Government withdraws into comparative +obscurity the most interesting and even picturesque figure in the +English Parliamentary life of the present day. Even the most +uncompromising opponents of the Prime Minister and of his political +party felt a sincere respect for the character, the intellect, and the +bearing of the man himself. Every one gave Lord Salisbury full credit +for absolute sincerity of purpose, for superiority to any personal +ambitions or mere self-seeking, for an almost contemptuous disregard of +State honors and political fame. + +Yet it was not that Lord Salisbury was habitually careful and measured +in his speech, that he was never hurried into rash utterances, that he +was guided by any particular anxiety to avoid offending the +susceptibilities of others, or, indeed, that, as a rule, he preferred to +use soothing words in political controversy. He has, on the contrary, a +marvelous gift of sarcasm and of satirical phrase-making, and he was +only too ready to indulge occasionally this peculiar capacity at the +expense of political friend as well as of political foe. In his early +days of public life, when he sat in the House of Commons as a nominal +follower of Mr. Disraeli, he was once described in debate by his nominal +leader as "a master of flouts and jeers." On another occasion Disraeli +spoke of him, although not in Parliamentary debate, as a young man whose +head was on fire. In later days, and even when he had held high +administrative office, Lord Salisbury often indulged in sudden outbursts +of contemptuous humor which for a time seemed likely to provoke +indignant remonstrance even from his own followers. One illustration of +this unlucky tendency towards contemptuous utterance may be found in his +famous allusion several years ago to a native of Hindustan, who had been +elected to a seat in the House of Commons, as "a black man." That was a +time when every English public man recognized the great importance of +indulging in no expression which might seem calculated to wound the +susceptibilities of the many races who have been brought under the rule +of the Imperial system in the Indian dominions of the sovereign. The +member of Parliament thus scornfully alluded to was no more a black man +than Lord Salisbury himself. He was one of the Parsee races chiefly +found in the Bombay regions, almost European in the color of their skin, +and he looked more like a German scholar than a native of any sunburnt +land. No one defended Lord Salisbury's rash utterance, but many people +excused it on the ground that it was only Lord Salisbury's way; that he +never meant any harm, but could not resist the temptation of saying an +amusing and sarcastic thing when it came into his mind. The truth is +that Lord Salisbury's odd humor is a peculiarity without which he could +not be the complete Lord Salisbury, and an unlucky expression was easily +forgiven because of the many brilliant flashes of genuine and not unfair +sarcasm with which he was accustomed to illumine a dull debate. When he +succeeded to his father's title, and had, therefore, to leave the House +of Commons and take his place in the House of Lords, every one felt that +the representative chamber had lost one of its most attractive figures, +and that the hereditary chamber was not exactly the place in which such +a man could find his happiest hunting-ground. Yet even in the somber and +unimpressive House of Lords, Lord Salisbury was able, whenever the humor +took him, to brighten the debates by his apt illustrations and his witty +humor. + +Lord Salisbury resigns his position as Prime Minister at a time of life +when, according to the present standards of age, a man is still supposed +to have long years of good work before him. Lord Palmerston's career as +Prime Minister was cut short only by his death, an event which occurred +when Palmerston was in his eighty-first year. Gladstone was more than +ten years older than Lord Salisbury is now when he voluntarily gave up +his position as head of a Liberal administration. Lord Beaconsfield's +time of birth is somewhat uncertain, but he must have been some +seventy-seven years of age and had lost none of his powers as a debater +when his brilliant life came to its close. We may take it for granted +that Lord Salisbury had been for a long time growing tired of the +exalted political position which had of late become uncongenial with his +habits and his frame of mind. By the death of his wife he had lost the +most loved companion of his home, his intellectual tastes, and his +political career. A pair more thoroughly devoted to each other than Lord +and Lady Salisbury could hardly have been found even in the pages of +romance. The whole story of that marriage and that married life would +have supplied a touching and a telling chapter for romance. Early in his +public career Lord Salisbury fell in love with a charming, gifted, and +devoted woman, whom a happy chance had brought in his way. She was the +daughter of an eminent English judge, the late Baron Alderson; and +although such a wife might have been thought a suitable match even for a +great aristocrat, it appears that the Lord Salisbury of that time, the +father of the late Prime Minister, who was then only Lord Robert Cecil, +did not approve of the marriage, and the young pair had to take their +own way and become husband and wife without regard for the family +prejudices. Lord Robert Cecil was then only a younger brother with a +younger brother's allowance to live on, and the newly wedded pair had +not much of a prospect before them, in the conventional sense of the +words. Lord Robert Cecil accepted the situation with characteristic +courage and resolve. There seemed at that time no likelihood of his +ever succeeding to the title and the estates, for his elder brother was +living, and was, of course, heir to the ancestral title and property. +Lord Robert Cecil had been gifted with distinct literary capacity, and +he set himself down to work as a writer and a journalist. He became a +regular contributor to the "Saturday Review," then at the height of its +influence and fame, and he wrote articles for some of the ponderous +quarterly reviews of the time, brightening their pages by his animated +and forcible style. He took a small house in a modest quarter of London, +where artists and poets and authors of all kinds usually made a home +then, far removed from West End fashion and courtly splendor, and there +he lived a happy and productive life for many years. He had obtained a +seat in the House of Commons as a member of the Conservative party, but +he never pledged himself to support every policy and every measure +undertaken by the Conservative leaders, whether they happened to be in +or out of office. Lord Robert always acted as an independent member, +although he adhered conscientiously to the cardinal principles of that +Conservative doctrine which was his political faith throughout his life. +He soon won for himself a marked distinction in the House of Commons. +He was always a brilliant speaker, but was thoughtful and statesmanlike +as well as brilliant. He never became an orator in the higher sense of +the word. He never attempted any flights of exalted eloquence. His +speeches were like the utterances of a man who is thinking aloud and +whose principal object is to hold and convince his listeners by the +sheer force of argument set forth in clear and telling language. Many of +his happy phrases found acceptance as part of the ordinary language of +political and social life and became in their way immortal. Up to the +present day men are continually quoting happy phrases drawn from Lord +Robert Cecil's early speeches without remembering the source from which +they came. + +Such a capacity as that of Lord Robert Cecil could not long be +overlooked by the leaders of his party, and it soon became quite clear +that he must be invited to administrative office. I ought to say that, +after Lord Robert had completed his collegiate studies at Oxford, he +devoted himself for a considerable time to an extensive course of +travel, and he visited Australasia, then but little known to young +Englishmen of his rank, and he actually did much practical work as a +digger in the Australian gold mines, then newly discovered. He had +always a deep interest in foreign affairs, and it was greatly to the +advantage of his subsequent career that he could often support his +arguments on questions of foreign policy by experience drawn from a +personal study of the countries and States forming successive subjects +of debate. Suddenly his worldly prospects underwent a complete change. +The death of his elder brother made him heir to the family title and the +great estates. He became Viscount Cranborne in succession to his dead +brother. I may perhaps explain, for the benefit of some of my American +readers, that the heir to a peerage who bears what is called a courtesy +title has still a right to sit, if elected, in the House of Commons. It +is sometimes a source of wonder and puzzlement to foreign visitors when +they find so many men sitting in the House of Commons who actually bear +titles which would make it seem as if they ought to be in the House of +Lords. The eldest sons of all the higher order of peers bear such a +title, but it carries with it no disqualification for a seat in the +House of Commons, if the bearer of it be duly elected to a place in the +representative chamber. When the bearer of the courtesy title succeeds +to the actual title belonging to the house, he then, as a matter of +course, becomes a peer, has to enter the House of Lords, and would no +longer be legally eligible to sit in the representative chamber. Lord +Palmerston's presence in the House of Commons was often a matter of +wonder to foreign visitors, for in all the days to which my memory goes +back, Lord Palmerston seemed too old a man to have a father alive and in +the House of Lords. I have had to explain the matter to many a stranger, +and it only gives one other illustration of the peculiarities and +anomalies which belong to our Parliamentary system. Palmerston's was not +a courtesy title; the noble lord was a peer in his own right; but then +he was merely an Irish peer, and only a certain number of Irish peers +are entitled to sit in the House of Lords. The more fortunate, for so I +must describe them, of the Irish peers not thus entitled to sit in the +hereditary chamber are free to seek election for an English constituency +in the House of Commons and to obtain it, as Lord Palmerston did. Lord +Viscount Cranborne, therefore, continued for a time to hold the place in +the House of Commons which he had held as Lord Robert Cecil. In 1866 +Lord Cranborne entered office, for the first time, as Secretary of State +for India during the administration of Lord Derby. + +The year following brought about a sort of crisis in Lord Cranborne's +political career, and probably showed the general public of England, for +the first time, what manner of man he really was. Up to that period he +had been regarded by most persons, even among those who habitually gave +attention to Parliamentary affairs, as a brilliant, independent, and +somewhat audacious free-lance whose political conduct was usually +directed by the impulse of the moment, and who made no pretensions to +any fixed and ruling principles. That was the year 1867, when the +Conservative Government under Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli took it into +their heads to try the novel experiment, for a Conservative party, of +introducing a Reform Bill to improve and expand the conditions of the +Parliamentary suffrage. Disraeli was the author of this new scheme, and +it had been suggested to him by Mr. Gladstone's failure in the previous +year with his measure of reform. Gladstone's reform measure did not go +far enough to satisfy the genuine Radicals, while it went much too far +for a considerable number of doubtful and half-hearted Liberals, and it +was strongly opposed by the whole Tory party. As usually happens in the +case of every reform introduced by a Liberal administration, a secession +took place among the habitual followers of the Government. The secession +in this case was made famous by the name which Bright conferred upon it +as the "Cave of Adullam" party; and by the co-operation of the seceding +section with the Tory Opposition, the measure was defeated, and Mr. +Gladstone went out of office. Disraeli saw, with his usual sagacity, +that the vast mass of the population were in favor of some measure of +reform, and when Lord Derby and he came into office he made up his mind +that, as the thing had to be done, he and his colleagues might as well +have the advantage of doing it. The outlines of the measure prepared for +the purpose only shaped a very vague and moderate scheme of reform, but +Disraeli was quite determined to accept any manner of compromises in +order to carry some sort of scheme and to keep himself and his party in +power. But then arose a new difficulty on which, with all his sagacity, +he had not calculated. Lord Cranborne for the first time showed that he +was a man of clear and resolute political principle, and that he was not +willing to sacrifice any of his conscientious convictions for the sake +of maintaining his place in a Government. He was sincerely opposed to +every project for making the suffrage popular and for admitting the mass +of the workingmen of the country to any share in its government. I need +hardly say that I am entirely opposed to Lord Cranborne's political +theories, but I am none the less willing to render full justice to the +sincerity, not too common among rising public men, which refused to make +any compromise on a matter of political principle. Lord Cranborne was +then only at the opening of his administrative career, and he must have +had personal ambition enough to make him wish for a continuance of +office in a powerful administration. But he put all personal +considerations resolutely aside, and resigned his place in the +Government rather than have anything to do with a project which he +believed to be a surrender of constitutional principle to the demands of +the growing democracy. Lord Carnarvon and one or two other members of +the administration followed his lead and resigned their places in the +Government. I need not enter into much detail as to the progress of the +Disraeli reform measure. It is enough to say that Disraeli obtained the +support of many Radicals by the Liberal amendments which he accepted, +and the result was that a Tory Government carried to success a scheme of +reform which practically amounted to the introduction of household +suffrage. Lord Cranborne and those who acted with him held firmly to +their principles, and steadily opposed the measure introduced by those +who at the opening of the session were their official leaders and +colleagues. I am convinced that even the most advanced reformers were +ready to give a due meed of praise to the man who had thus made it +evident that he preferred what he believed to be a political principle, +even though he knew it to be the principle of a losing cause, to any +consideration of personal advancement. + +Some of us felt sure that we had then learned for the first time what +manner of man Lord Cranborne really was. We had taken him for a bold and +brilliant adventurer, and we found and were ready to acknowledge that he +was a man of deep, sincere, and self-sacrificing convictions. I have +never from that time changed my opinions with regard to Lord Cranborne's +personal character. His career interested me from the first moment that +I had an opportunity of observing it, and I may say that from an early +period of my manhood I had much opportunity of studying the ways and the +figures of Parliamentary life. But until Lord Cranborne had taken this +resolute position on the reform question, I had never given him credit +for any depth of political convictions. The impression I formed of him +up to that time was that he was merely a younger son of a great +aristocratic family, who had a natural aptitude alike for literature and +for politics, and that he was following in Parliament the guidance of +his own personal humors and argumentative impulses, and that he was +ready to sacrifice in debate not only his friends but his party for the +sake of saying a clever thing and startling his audience into reluctant +admiration. From those days of 1867 I knew him to be what all the world +now knows him to be, a man of deep and sincere convictions, ever +following the light of what he believes to be political wisdom and +justice. I can say this none the less readily because I suppose it has +hardly ever been my fortune to agree with any of Lord Salisbury's +utterances on questions of political importance. + +In 1868 the career of Lord Cranborne in the House of Commons came to an +end by the death of his father. He succeeded to the title of Marquis of +Salisbury, and became, as a matter of course, a member of the House of +Lords. He was thus withdrawn while still a comparatively young man from +that stirring field of splendid debate where his highest qualities as a +speaker could alone have found their fitting opportunity. I need not +trace out his subsequent public career with any sequence of detail. We +all know how from that time to this he has held high office, has come to +hold the highest offices in the State whenever his political party +happened to be in power. He has been Foreign Secretary; he has been +Prime Minister in three Conservative administrations. For a time he +actually combined the functions of Prime Minister and those of Foreign +Secretary. He was envoy to the great conference at Constantinople in +1876 and 1877, and he took part in the Congress of Berlin, that +conference which Lord Beaconsfield declared brought to England peace +with honor. Everything that a man could have to gratify his ambition +Lord Salisbury has had since the day when he succeeded to his father's +title and estates. His own intellectual force and his political +capacity must undoubtedly have made a way for him to Parliamentary +influence and success even if he had always remained Lord Robert Cecil, +and his elder brother had lived to succeed to the title. But from the +moment when Lord Robert Cecil became the heir, it was certain that his +party could not venture to overlook him. He might have made eccentric +speeches, he might have indulged in sarcastic and scornful allusions to +his political leaders, he might have allowed obtrusive scruples of +conscience to interfere with the interests of his party, but none the +less it became absolutely necessary that the Conservative politicians +should accept, when opportunity came, the leadership of the Marquis of +Salisbury. "Thou hast it all"--the words which Banquo applies to +Macbeth--might have been said of Lord Salisbury when he became for the +first time Prime Minister. + +Lord Salisbury certainly did not achieve his position by any of the +arts, even the less culpable arts, which for a time secured to Macbeth +the highest reach of his ambition. Lord Salisbury's leadership came to +him and was not sought by him. I cannot help thinking, however, that, +after he had once attained that supreme position in his party, the +remainder of his public career has been something in the nature of an +anticlimax. Was it that the chill and deadening influence of the House +of Lords proved too depressing for the energetic and vivacious spirit +which had won celebrity for Lord Robert Cecil in the House of Commons? +Was it that Lord Salisbury, when he had attained the height of his +ambition, became a victim to that mood of reaction which compels such a +man to ask himself whether, after all, the work of ascent was not much +better than the attained elevation? Lord Salisbury's years of high +office coming now thus suddenly to an end give to me at least the +melancholy impression of an unfulfilled career. The influence of the +Prime Minister, so far as mere outsiders can judge of it, has always +been exerted in foreign affairs for the promotion of peace. Even the +late war in South Africa is not understood to have been in any sense a +war of his seeking. The general belief is that the policy of war was +pressed upon him by influences which at the time he was not able to +control--influences which would only have become all the stronger if he +had refused to accept the responsibility of Prime Minister and had left +it to others to carry on the work of government. However this may be, +it can hardly be questioned that of late years Lord Salisbury had become +that which nobody in former days could ever suppose him likely to +become, the mere figurehead of an administration. Lord Salisbury's whole +nature seems to have been too sincere, too free from mere theatrical +arts, to allow him to play the part of leader where he had no heart in +the work of leadership. A statesman like Disraeli might have disapproved +of a certain policy and done his best to reason his colleagues out of +it, but nevertheless, when he found himself likely to be overborne, +would have immersed himself deliberately in all the new-born zeal of the +convert and would have behaved thenceforward as if his whole soul were +in the work which had been put upon him to do. Lord Salisbury is most +assuredly not a man of this order, and he never would or could put on an +enthusiasm which he did not feel in his heart. We can all remember how, +at the very zenith of British passion against China during the recent +political convulsions and the intervention of the foreign allies, Lord +Salisbury astonished and depressed some of his warmest admirers by a +speech which he made at Exeter Hall, a speech which, metaphorically at +least, threw the coldest of cold water on the popular British ardor for +forcing Western civilization on the Chinese people. + +Lord Salisbury's frame of mind was one which could never allow him to +become even for a moment a thorough Jingo, and through all the later +years of his power he held the office of Prime Minister at a time when +Jingoism was the order of the day among the outside supporters of the +Conservative Government. He never had a fair chance for the full +development of his intellectual faculties while he remained at the head +of a Conservative administration. Under happier conditions he might have +been a great Prime Minister and a leading force in political movement, +but his intellect, his tastes, and his habits of life did not allow him +to pay much deference to the prejudices and passions of those on whom he +was compelled to rely for support. There was too much in him of the +thinker, the scholar, and the recluse to make him a thoroughly effective +leader of the party who had to acknowledge his command. He loved +reading, he loved literature and art, and he took no delight in +the formal social functions which are in our days an important +part of successful political administration. He could not be +"hail-fellow-well-met" with every pushing follower who made it a pride +to be on terms of companionship with the leader of the party. I have +often heard that he had a singularly bad memory for faces, and that many +a devoted Tory follower found his enthusiasm chilled every now and then +by the obvious fact that the Prime Minister did not seem to remember +anything about the identity of his obtrusive admirer. Much the same +thing has been said over and over again about Mr. Gladstone, but then +Gladstone had the inborn genius of leadership, threw his soul into every +great political movement, and did not depend in the slightest degree on +his faculty for appreciating and conciliating every individual follower. +Lord Salisbury's tastes were for the society of his close personal +friends, and I believe no man could be a more genial host in the company +of those with whom he loved to associate; but he had no interest in the +ordinary ways of society and made no effort to conciliate those with +whom he found himself in no manner of companionship. He did not even +take any strong interest in the study of the most remarkable figures in +the political world around him, if he did not feel drawn into sympathy +with their ways and their opinions. On one occasion, when a report had +got about in the newspapers that Lord Salisbury was often seen in +friendly companionship with the late Mr. Parnell in the smoking-room of +the House of Commons, Lord Salisbury publicly stated that he had never, +to his knowledge, seen Parnell, and had never been once in the House of +Commons smoking-room. + +No man has been better known, so far as personal appearance was +concerned, to the general English public than Lord Salisbury. He has +been as well known as Mr. Gladstone himself, and one cannot say more +than that. He was a frequent walker in St. James's Park and other places +of common resort in the neighborhood of the Houses of Parliament. Every +one knew the tall, broad, stooping figure with the thick head of hair, +the bent brows, and the careless, shabby costume. No statesman of his +time was more indifferent than Lord Salisbury to the dictates of fashion +as regarded dress and deportment. He was undoubtedly one of the +worst-dressed men of his order in London. In this peculiarity he formed +a remarkable contrast to Lord Beaconsfield, who down to the very end of +his life took care to be always dressed according to the most recent +dictates of fashion. All this was strictly in keeping with Lord +Salisbury's character and temperament. The world had to take him as he +was--he could never bring himself to act any part for the sake of its +effect upon the public. My own impression is that when he was removed by +the decree of fate into the House of Lords and taken away from the +active, thrilling life of the House of Commons, he felt himself excluded +from his congenial field of political action and had but little interest +in the game of politics any more. He does not seem destined to a place +in the foremost rank of English Prime Ministers, even of English +Conservative Prime Ministers. But his is beyond all question a +picturesque, a deeply interesting, and even a commanding figure in +English political history, and the world will have reason to regret if +his voluntary retirement from the position of Prime Minister should mean +also his retirement from the field of political life. + + + + +[Illustration: Photograph copyright by Elliott & Fry + +THE EARL OF ROSEBERY] + + + + +LORD ROSEBERY + + +Lord Rosebery was for a prolonged season the man in English political +life upon whom the eyes of expectation were turned. He is a younger man +than most of his political colleagues and rivals, but it is not because +of his comparative youth that the eyes of expectation were and still are +turned upon him. Not one of those who stand in the front ranks of +Parliamentary life to-day could be called old, as we reckon age in our +modern estimate. Palmerston, Gladstone, and Disraeli won their highest +political triumphs after they had passed the age which Lord Salisbury +and Sir William Harcourt have now reached; Mr. Balfour is still regarded +in politics as quite a young man, and Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman has +but lately been elected leader of the Liberal party in the House of +Commons. Lord Rosebery has already held the highest political offices. +He has been Foreign Secretary and he has been Prime Minister. He has +been leader of the Liberal party. No other public man in England has so +many and so varied mental gifts, and no other public man has won success +in so many distinct fields. We live in days when, for the time at least, +the great political orator seems to have passed out of existence. The +last great English orator died at Hawarden a few short years ago. We +have, however, several brilliant and powerful Parliamentary debaters, +and among these Lord Rosebery stands with the foremost, if he is not, +indeed, absolutely the foremost. As an orator on what I may call great +ceremonial occasions he is, according to my judgment, the very foremost +we now have. As an after-dinner speaker--and after-dinner speaking +counts for a great deal in the success of an English public man--he has +never had an equal in England during my time. Then Lord Rosebery has +delivered lectures or addresses in commemoration of great poets and +philosophers and statesmen which may even already be regarded as certain +of an abiding place in literature. Lord Rosebery is a literary man, an +author as well as a statesman and an orator; he has written a life of +Pitt which is already becoming a sort of classic in our libraries. There +are profounder students, men more deeply read, than he, but I doubt if +there are many men living who have so wide an acquaintance with general +literature. He is a lover as well as a student and a connoisseur of art, +he is an accomplished yachtsman, has a thorough knowledge of horses, is +famous on the turf, and the owner of two horses which won the Derby. The +legendary fairy godmother seems to have showered upon him at his birth +all her richest and most various gifts, and no malign and jealous sprite +appears to have come in, as in the nursery stories, to spoil any of the +gifts by a counteracting spell. He was born of great family and born to +high estate; he married a daughter of the house of Rothschild; he has a +lordly home near Edinburgh in Scotland, a noble house in the finest West +End square of London, and a delightful residence in one of our most +beautiful English counties. + +Lord Rosebery is one of the most charming talkers whom it has ever been +my good fortune to meet. He has a keen sense of humor, a happy art of +light and delicate satire, and, in private conversation as well as in +Parliamentary debate, he has a singular facility for the invention of +expressive and successful phrases which tell their whole story in a +flash. One might well be inclined to ask what the kindly fates could +have done for Lord Rosebery that they have left undone. Nevertheless, +the truth has to be told, that up to this time Lord Rosebery has not +accomplished as much of greatness as most of us confidently expected +that he would achieve. + +I have been, perhaps, somewhat too hasty in saying that no counteracting +spell had in any way marred the influence of the gifts which the fairies +had so lavishly bestowed on Lord Rosebery. One stroke of ill +fortune--ill fortune, that is, for an English political leader--was +certainly directed against him. Nature must have meant him to be a +successful Prime Minister, and yet fortune denied him a seat in the +House of Commons. He succeeded to his grandfather's peerage at an early +period of his life, and he had to begin his political career as a member +of the House of Lords. He therefore missed all that splendid training +for political warfare which is given in the House of Commons. It would +not, perhaps, be quite easy for an American reader to understand how +little the House of Lords counts for in the education of fighting +statesmen. + +When Charles James Fox was told in his declining years that the King, as +a mark of royal favor, intended to make him a peer and thus remove him +from the House of Commons into the House of Lords, he struck his +forehead and exclaimed: "Good Heaven! he does not think it has come to +that with me, does he?" Fox had had all the training that his genius +needed in the House of Commons, and he was not condemned to pass into +the House of Lords. Nothing but the inborn consciousness of a genius for +political debate can stimulate a man to great effort in the House of +Lords. Nothing turns upon a debate in that House. If a majority in the +House of Lords were to pass a vote of censure three times a week on the +existing Government, that Government would continue to exist just as if +nothing had happened, and the public in general would hardly know that +the Lords had been expressing any opinion on the subject. An ordinary +sitting of the House of Lords is not expected to last for more than an +hour or so, and the whole assembly often consists of some half a dozen +peers. Now and again, during the course of a session, there is got up +what may be called a full-dress debate when some great question is +disturbing the country, and the peers think that they ought to put on +the appearance of being deeply concerned about it, and some noble lord +who has a repute for wisdom or for eloquence gives notice of a formal +motion, and then there is a lengthened discussion, and perhaps, on some +extraordinary occasion, the peers may sit to a late hour and even take a +division. But on such remarkable occasions the peer who induces the +House to come together and listen to his oration is almost sure to be +one who has had his training in the House of Commons and has made his +fame as an orator there. + +Now, I cannot but regard it as a striking evidence of Lord Rosebery's +inborn fitness to be an English political leader that he should have got +over the dreary discouragement of such a training-school, and should +have practiced the art of political oratory under conditions that might +have filled Demosthenes himself with a sense of the futility of trying +to make a great speech where nothing whatever was likely to come of it. +Lord Rosebery, however, did succeed in proving to the House of Lords +that they had among them a brilliant and powerful debater who had +qualified himself for success without any help from the school in which +Lord Brougham and the brilliant Lord Derby, Lord Cairns, and Lord +Salisbury had studied and mastered the art of Parliamentary eloquence. + +But, indeed, Lord Rosebery appears to have had a natural inclination to +seek and find a training-school for his abilities in places and pursuits +that might have seemed very much out of the ordinary British +aristocrat's way. Until a comparatively recent period, we had nothing +that could be called a really decent system of municipal government in +the greater part of London. We had, of course, the Lord Mayor and the +municipality of the City of London, but then the City of London is only +a very small patch in the great metropolis that holds more than five +millions of people. London, outside the City, was governed by the +old-fashioned parish vestries, and to some extent by a more recent +institution which was called the Metropolitan Board of Works. Now, the +Metropolitan Board of Works did not manage its affairs very well. There +were disagreeable rumors and stories about contracts and jobbing and +that sort of thing, and although matters were never supposed to have +been quite so bad as they were in New York during days which I can +remember well, the days of Boss Tweed, there was enough of public +complaint to induce Parliament, at the instigation of Lord Randolph +Churchill, to abolish the Board of Works altogether and set up the +London County Council, a thoroughly representative body elected by +popular suffrage and responsible to its constituents and the public. +Lord Rosebery threw himself heart and soul into the promotion of this +better system of London municipal government. He became a member of the +London County Council, was elected its first Chairman, and later on was +re-elected to the same office. Now, I think it would be hardly possible +for a man of Lord Rosebery's rank and culture and tastes to give a more +genuine proof of patriotic public spirit than he did when he threw +himself heart and soul into the work of a municipal council. + +Up to that time the business of a London municipality had been regarded +as something belonging entirely to the middle class or the lower middle +class, something with which peers and nobles could not possibly be +expected to have anything to do. A London Alderman had been from time +out of mind a sort of figure of fun, a vulgar, fussy kind of person, +who bedizened himself in gaudy robes on festive occasions, and was +noted for his love of the turtle in quite a different sense from that +which Byron gives to the words. Lord Rosebery set himself steadily to +the work of London municipal government at a most critical period in its +history; his example was followed by men of rank and culture, and some +of the most intellectual men of our day have been elected Aldermen of +the London County Council. Only think of Frederic Harrison, the +celebrated Positivist philosopher, the man of exquisite culture and +refinement, the man of almost fastidious ways, the scholar and the +writer, becoming an Alderman of the London County Council, and devoting +himself to the duties of his position! Lord Rosebery undoubtedly has the +honor of having done more than any other Englishman to raise the +municipal government of London to that position which it ought to have +in the public life of the State. + +All that time Lord Rosebery was not neglecting any of the other +functions and occupations which had been imposed upon him, or which he +had voluntarily taken upon himself. He held the office of First +Commissioner of Works in one of Mr. Gladstone's administrations, an +office involving the care of all the State buildings and monuments and +parks of the metropolis. He was always to be seen at the private views +of the Royal Academy and the other great picture galleries of the London +season. He was always starting some new movement for the improvement of +the breed of horses, and, indeed, there is a certain section of our +community among whom Lord Rosebery is regarded, not as a statesman, or a +London County Councilor, or a lover of literature, but simply and +altogether as a patron of the turf. Meanwhile we were hearing of him +every now and then as an adventurous yachtsman, and as the orator of +some great commemoration day when a statue was unveiled to a Burke or a +Burns. + +A more delightful host than Lord Rosebery it would not be possible to +meet or even to imagine. I have had the honor of enjoying his +hospitality at Dalmeny and in his London home, and I shall only say that +those were occasions which I may describe, in the words Carlyle employed +with a less gladsome significance, as not easily to be forgotten in this +world. No man can command a greater variety of topics of conversation. +Politics, travel, art, letters, the life of great cities, the growth of +commerce, the tendencies of civilizations, the art of living, the +philosophy of life, the way to enjoy life, the various characteristics +of foreign capitals--on all such topics Lord Rosebery can speak with the +clearness of one who knows his subject and the vivacity of one who can +put his thoughts into the most expressive words. I suppose there must be +some eminent authors with whose works Lord Rosebery is not familiar, but +I can only say that if there be any such, I have not yet discovered who +they are--and I have spent a good deal of my time in reading. I have +seen Lord Rosebery in companies where painters and sculptors and the +writers of books and the writers of plays formed the majority, where +political subjects were not touched upon, and I have observed that Lord +Rosebery could hold his own with each practitioner of art on the +artist's special subject. Lord Rosebery does not profess to be a +bookworm or a great scholar, but I do not know any man better acquainted +with general literature. Such a man must surely have got out of life all +the best that it has to give. + +Yet it is certain that the eyes of expectation are still turned upon +Lord Rosebery. There is a general conviction that he has something yet +to do--that, in fact, he has not yet given his measure. He has been +Prime Minister, and he has been leader of the English Liberal party, but +in neither case had he a chance of proving his strength. When Mr. +Gladstone made up his mind to retire finally from political life, the +Queen sent for Lord Rosebery and invited him to form an administration. +Now, it is no secret that at that time there were men in the Liberal +party whose friends and admirers believed that their length of service +gave them a precedence of claims over the claims of Lord Rosebery. There +were those who thought Sir William Harcourt had won for himself a right +to be chosen as the successor to Mr. Gladstone. On the other side--for +there was grumbling on both sides--there were members of the Liberal +administration who positively declined to continue in office if Sir +William Harcourt were made Prime Minister. These men did not object to +serve under Sir William Harcourt as leader of the House of Commons, but +they objected to his elevation to the supreme place of Prime Minister. +Also, there were Liberals of great influence, who, while they had the +fullest confidence in Lord Rosebery and were not fanatically devoted to +Sir William Harcourt, objected to the idea of having a Prime Minister +in the House of Lords, and a Prime Minister, too, who had never sat in +the House of Commons. Now, it would be idle to deny that there was some +practical reason for this objection. The House of Commons is the field +on which political battles are fought and won. The Commander-in-Chief +ought always to be within reach. A whole plan of campaign may have to be +changed at a quarter of an hour's notice. It must obviously often be +highly inconvenient to have a Prime Minister who cannot cross the +threshold of the House of Commons in order to get into instant +communication with the leading men of his own party who are fighting the +battle. + +At all events, I am now only concerned to say that these doubts and +difficulties and private disputations did arise, and that, although Lord +Rosebery did accept the position of Prime Minister, he must have done so +with some knowledge of the fact that certain of his colleagues were not +quite satisfied with the new conditions. Lord Rosebery had been most +successful as Foreign Secretary during each term when he held the +office, but it was well known, before Mr. Gladstone's retirement, that +there were some questions of foreign policy on which the old leader and +the new were not quite of one opinion. In English political life, and I +suppose in the political life of every self-governing country, there are +seasons of inevitable action and reaction which must be observed and +felt, although they cannot always be explained. + +To a distant observer the policy of the Liberal party might have seemed +just the same after Mr. Gladstone had retired from politics as it was +when he was in the front of political life. But just as the policy which +sustained him in his early days as Prime Minister was helped by the +reaction which had set in against the aggressive policy of Lord +Palmerston, so there came, with the close of Gladstone's Parliamentary +career, a kind of reaction against his counsel of peace and moderation. +Lord Rosebery was believed to have more of what is called the +Imperialist spirit in him than had ever guided the policy of his great +leader. Certainly some of Mr. Gladstone's former colleagues in the House +of Commons appear to have thought so, and there began to be signs of a +growing division in the party. Lord Rosebery's Prime Ministership lasted +but a short time. The Government sustained one or two Parliamentary +discomfitures, and there followed upon these a positive defeat in the +nature of a sort of vote of censure carried by a small majority against +a department of the administration, on the ground of an alleged +insufficiency in some of the supplies of ammunition for military +service. Many a Government would have professed to think little of such +a defeat, would have treated it only as a mere question of departmental +detail, and would have gone on as if nothing had happened. But Lord +Rosebery refused to take things so coolly and so carelessly. Probably he +was growing tired of his position under the peculiar circumstances. +Perhaps he thought the most manly course he could take was to give the +constituencies the opportunity of saying whether they were satisfied +with his administration or were not. The Government appealed to the +country. Parliament was dissolved, and a general election followed. Then +was seen the full force of the reaction which had begun to set in +against the Gladstone policy of peace, moderation, and justice. The +Conservatives came into power by a large majority. Lord Rosebery was now +merely the leader of the Liberal party in Opposition. Even this +position he did not long retain. Some of the most brilliant speeches he +ever made in the House of Lords were made during this time, but somehow +people began to think that his heart was not in the leadership, and +before long it was made known to the public that he had ceased to be the +Liberal Commander-in-Chief. + +Everybody, of course, was ready with an explanation as to this sudden +act, and perhaps, as sometimes happens in such cases, the less a man +really knew about the matter the more prompt he was with his +explanation. Two reasons, however, were given by observers who appeared +likely to know something of the real facts. One was that Lord Rosebery +did not see his way to go as far as some of his colleagues would have +gone in arousing the country to decided action against the Ottoman +Government because of the manner in which it was allowing its Christian +subjects to be treated. The other was that Lord Rosebery was too +Imperialistic in spirit for such men as Sir William Harcourt and Mr. +John Morley. No one could impugn Lord Rosebery's motives in either case. +He might well have thought that too forward a movement against Turkey +might only bring on a great European war or leave England isolated to +carry out her policy at her own risk, and in the other case he may have +thought that the policy bequeathed by Mr. Gladstone was tending to +weaken the supremacy of England in South Africa. + +Lord Rosebery then ceased to lead a Government or a party, and became +for the time merely a member of the House of Lords. I do not suppose his +leisure hung very heavy on his hands. I cannot imagine Lord Rosebery +finding any difficulty in passing his day. The only difficulty I should +think such a man must have is how to find time to give a fair chance to +all the pursuits that are dear to him. Lord Rosebery spent some part of +his leisure in yachting, gave his usual attention to the turf, was to be +seen at picture galleries, and occasionally addressed great public +meetings on important questions, and was a frequent visitor to the House +of Commons during each session of Parliament. The peers have a space in +the galleries of the House of Commons set apart for their own +convenience, and, although that space can hold but a small number of the +peers, yet on ordinary nights its benches are seldom fully occupied. But +when some great debate is coming on, then the peers make a rush for the +gallery space in the House of Commons, and those who do not arrive in +time to get a seat have to wait and take their chance, each in his turn, +of any vacancy which may possibly occur. I am not a great admirer of the +House of Lords as a legislative institution, and I must say that it has +sometimes soothed the rancor of my jealous feelings as a humble Commoner +to see a string of peers extending across the lobby of the House of +Commons, each waiting for his chance of filling some sudden vacancy in +the peers' gallery. + +Lord Rosebery continued to attend the debates when he had ceased to be +Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal party just as he had done +before. His fine, clearly cut, closely shaven face, with features that a +lady novelist of a past age would have called chiseled, and eyes lighted +with an animation that seemed to have perpetual youth in it, were often +objects of deep interest to the members of the House, and to the +visitors in the strangers' galleries, and no doubt in the ladies' +gallery as well. The appearance of Lord Rosebery in the peers' gallery +was sure to excite some talk among the members of the House of Commons +on the green benches below. We were always ready to indulge in +expectation and conjecture as to what Lord Rosebery was likely to do +next, for there seemed to be a general consent of opinion that he was +the last man in the world who could sit down and do nothing. But what +was there left for him to do? He had held various administrative +offices: he had twice been Foreign Secretary; he had twice been Chairman +of the London County Council; he had been Prime Minister; he had been +leader of the Liberal party; he had been President of all manner of +great institutions; he had been President of the Social Science +Congress; he had been Lord Rector of two great Universities; he had +twice won the Derby. What was there left for him to do which human +ambition in our times and in the dominions of Queen Victoria could care +to accomplish? Yet the general impression seemed to be that Lord +Rosebery had not yet done his appointed work, and that impression has +grown deeper and stronger with recent events. + +Since the day when Lord Rosebery withdrew from the leadership of the +Liberal party the division in that party has been growing wider and +deeper. The war in South Africa has done much to broaden the gulf of +separation. Lord Rosebery is an Imperialist, Sir William Harcourt and +Mr. John Morley are not Imperialists. The opponents of Sir William +Harcourt and Mr. Morley call them Little Englanders. The opponents of +Lord Rosebery and those who think with him would no doubt call them +Jingoes. The Imperialist, or, as his opponents prefer to call him, the +Jingo, accepts as the ruling principle of his faith the right and the +duty of England to spread her civilization and her supremacy as far as +she can over all those parts of the world which are still lying in +disorganization and in darkness. The Little Englander, as his opponents +delight to describe him, believes that England's noblest work for a long +time to come will be found in the endeavor to spread peace, education, +and happiness among the peoples who already acknowledge her supremacy. I +am not going to enter into any argument as to the relative claims of the +two political schools. It has been said that a man is born either of the +school of Aristotle or of the school of Plato. Perhaps an Englishman of +modern times is born a Jingo or a Little Englander. I am not an +Englishman, and therefore am not called upon to rank myself on either +side of the controversy, but I know full well which way my instincts +and sympathies would lead me if I were compelled to choose. I could not, +therefore, account myself a political follower of Lord Rosebery; and, +indeed, on the one great question which concerned me most as a member of +the House of Commons, that of Irish Home Rule, Lord Rosebery is not +quite so emphatic as I should wish him to be. I am therefore writing the +eulogy, not of Lord Rosebery the politician, but of Lord Rosebery the +orator, the scholar, the man of letters and arts and varied culture, the +man who has done so much for public life in so many ways, the helpful, +kindly, generous friend. + +The common impression everywhere is that the Conservative Government, as +it is now constituted, cannot last very long. The sands of the present +Parliament are running out; the next general election may be postponed +for some time yet, but it cannot be very far off. Are the Liberals to +come back to power with Lord Rosebery at their head? Can the Liberal +party become so thoroughly reunited again, Jingoes and Little +Englanders, as to make the formation of a Liberal Government a possible +event so soon? Or is it possible, as many observers believe, that Lord +Rosebery may find himself at the head of an administration composed of +Imperialist Liberals and the more enlightened and generally respected +members of the present Government? I shall not venture upon any +prediction, having seen the unexpected too often happen in politics to +have much faith in political prophecy. I note it as an evidence of the +position Lord Rosebery has won for himself that, although he became +Prime Minister only to be defeated, and leader of the Liberal party only +to resign, he is still one of the public men in England about whom +people are asking each other whether the time for him to take his real +position has not come at last. + + + + +[Illustration: Photograph copyright by Elliott & Fry + +JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN] + + + + +JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN + + + + + +Mr. Chamberlain was once described by an unfriendly critic as the +Rabagas of English political life. We all remember Rabagas, the hero of +Sardou's masterpiece of dramatic satire, who begins his public career +and wins fame among certain classes as a leveler and a demagogue of the +most advanced views, an unsparing enemy of the aristocracy, a man who +will make no terms with the privileged orders, and will bow to no +sovereign but the sovereign people. Now, I have said that it was an +unfriendly critic who likened Mr. Chamberlain to Sardou's creation, but +it was not in the earlier career of the real or the imaginary politician +that the resemblance was especially to be traced. Rabagas is brought by +tempting conditions under the influence of the privileged classes, the +aristocracy, and the reigning sovereign of the small state in which he +lives; and his leveling and revolutionary tendencies melt away under the +genial influence of his new associations. He becomes, before long, the +admirer of the aristocracy and the Prime Minister of the Prince, and is +ready to devote all his energies to the defense of the privileged +orders, to the repression of the vile democracy, and the silencing of +Radical orators. + +In this contrast between the earlier and the later parts of the +political career the malevolent critic, no doubt, found the materials +for his comparison between Rabagas and Mr. Chamberlain. For there can be +no denying that Mr. Chamberlain began his public life as an eloquent, an +unsparing, and apparently a convinced champion of democracy against the +aristocracy, the privileged orders, and the Conservative party, and that +he is now a leading member of a Conservative Government, and goes +further than most of his colleagues would be likely to go in his +hostility to Radical measures and to Radical men. + +Moreover, Mr. Chamberlain, who during the earlier part of his public +life belonged to the party most strenuously opposed to all unnecessary +wars, and especially wars which had annexation for their object, has +been the chief Ministerial promoter of the late war in South Africa, a +war which had for its object the subjugation of two independent +republics in order to bring them under the Imperial flag of England. No +one, therefore, could have been much surprised when the unfriendly +critic fancied that he could discover at least a certain superficial +resemblance between the career of Rabagas and the career of Mr. +Chamberlain. + +I have been a close observer of much of Mr. Chamberlain's public life, +and for some time we were thrown a good deal into Parliamentary and +political association. He came into the House of Commons not very long +before I had the honor of obtaining a seat there, and his fame had +preceded him so far that his entrance into Parliament was looked upon by +everybody as a coming event, in the days when he had not yet been +elected to represent the constituency of Birmingham. Birmingham was at +that time one of the most thoroughly Radical cities in England. John +Bright once said that as the sea, wherever you dip a cup into it, will +be found to be salt, so the constituency of Birmingham, wherever you +test it, will be found to be Radical. Birmingham could claim the merit +of being one of the best organized municipalities in England. Its +popular educational institutions were excellent; its free libraries +might have won the admiration of a citizen of Boston, Massachusetts; its +police arrangements were efficient; its sanitation might well have been +the envy of London, and the general intelligence of its citizens was of +the highest order. Now, it was in this enlightened, progressive, and +capable community that Mr. Chamberlain won his first fame. He is not a +Birmingham man by birth. He was, I believe, born and brought up on the +south side of London, and was educated at University College School, +London. But at an early age he settled in Birmingham, and became a +member of his father's manufacturing firm there. Very soon he rose to +great distinction as a public speaker and as a member of the local +corporation, and three times was elected chief magistrate of Birmingham. +We began soon to hear a great deal of him in London. It must have been +clear to anybody who knew anything of Birmingham that a man could not +have risen to such distinction in that city without great intelligence +and a marked capacity for public life. All this time he was known as a +Radical of the Radicals. The Liberal party in London began to look upon +him as a coming man, and as a coming man who was certain to take his +place, and that probably a leading place, in the advanced Radical +division of the Liberals. His political speeches showed him to be a +democrat of the leveling order--a democrat, that is to say, of views +much more extreme than had ever been professed by John Bright or Richard +Cobden. He was an unsparing assailant of the aristocracy and the +privileged classes, and, indeed, went so far in his Radicalism that the +Conservatives in general regarded him as a downright Republican. + +I can well remember the sensation which his first speech in the House of +Commons created among the ranks of the Tories after his election to +Parliament as one of the representatives of Birmingham. The good Tories +made no effort to conceal their astonishment at the difference between +the real Chamberlain as they saw and heard him and the Chamberlain of +their earlier imaginings. I talked with many of them at the time, and +was made acquainted with their emotions. Judging from his political +speeches, they had set him down as a wild Republican, and they expected +to see a rough and shaggy man, dressed with an uncouth disregard for the +ways of society, a sort of Birmingham Orson who would probably scowl +fiercely at his opponents in the House and would deliver his opinions +in tones of thunder. The man who rose to address the House was a pale, +slender, delicate looking, and closely shaven personage, very neatly +dressed, with short and carefully brushed hair, and wearing a dainty +eyeglass constantly fixed in his eye. "He looks like a ladies' doctor," +one stout Tory murmured. "Seems like the model of a head clerk at a West +End draper's," observed another. Certainly there was nothing of the +Orson about this well-dressed, well-groomed representative of the +Birmingham democracy. Mr. Chamberlain's speech made a distinct +impression on the House. It was admirably delivered, in quietly +modulated tones, the clear, penetrating voice never rising to the level +of declamation, but never failing to reach the ear of every listener. +The political opinions which it expressed were such as every one might +have expected to come from so resolute a democrat, but the quiet, +self-possessed delivery greatly astonished those who had expected to see +and hear a mob orator. Mr. Chamberlain's position in the House was +assured after that first speech. Even among the Tories everybody felt +satisfied that the new man was a man of great ability, gifted with a +remarkable capacity for maintaining his views with ingenious and +plausible argument, a man who could hold his own in debate with the +best, and for whom the clamors of a host of political opponents could +have no terrors. + +I may say at once that Mr. Chamberlain has, ever since that time, proved +himself to be one of the ablest debaters in the House of Commons. He is +not and never could be an orator in the higher sense, for he wants +altogether that gift of imagination necessary to the composition of an +orator, and he has not the culture and the command of ready illustration +which sometimes lift men who are not born orators above the mere +debater's highest level. But he has unfailing readiness, a wide +knowledge of public affairs, a keen eye for all the weak points of an +opponent's case, and a flow of clear and easy language which never fails +to give expression, at once full and precise, to all that is in his +mind. He was soon recognized, even by his extreme political opponents, +as one of the ablest men in the House of Commons, and it seemed plain to +every one that, when the chance came for the formation of a Liberal +Ministry, the country then being in the hands of a Tory Government, Mr. +Chamberlain would beyond question find a place on the Treasury Bench. + +Meanwhile Mr. Chamberlain's democratic views seemed to have undergone no +modification. He was as unsparing as ever in his denunciation of the +aristocracy and the privileged classes, and he was especially severe +upon the great landowners, and used to propound schemes for buying them +out by the State and converting their land into national property. His +closest ally and associate in Parliamentary politics was Sir Charles +Dilke, who had entered the House of Commons some years before Mr. +Chamberlain, and who was then, as he is now, an advanced and determined +Radical. Sir Charles Dilke, in fact, was at that time supposed to be +something very like a Republican, at least in theory, and he had been +exciting great commotion in several parts of the country by his +outspoken complaints about the vast sums of money voted every year for +the Royal Civil List. It was but natural that Sir Charles Dilke and Mr. +Chamberlain should become close associates, and there was a general +conviction that the more advanced section of the Liberal party was +destined to take the command in Liberal politics. + +Outside the range of strictly English politics there was a question +arising which threatened to make a new division in the Liberal party. +This was the question of Home Rule for Ireland as it presented itself +under the leadership of Charles Stewart Parnell. For years the subject +of Home Rule had been the occasion, under the leadership of Mr. Butt, of +nothing more formidable to the House of Commons than an annual debate +and division. Once in every session Mr. Butt brought forward a motion +calling for a measure of Home Rule for Ireland, and, after some eloquent +speeches made in favor of the motion by Irish members, a few speeches +were delivered on the other side by the opponents of Home Rule, Liberals +as well as Tories, and then some leading member of the Government went +through the form of explaining why the motion could not be accepted. A +division was taken, and Mr. Butt's motion was found to have the support +of the very small Irish Nationalist party, as it then was, and perhaps +half a dozen English or Scotch Radicals; and the whole House of Commons, +except for these, declared against Home Rule. About the time, however, +of Mr. Chamberlain's entrance on the field of politics a great change +had taken place in the conditions of the Home Rule question. Charles +Stewart Parnell had become in fact, although not yet in name, the leader +of the Irish National party, and Parnell's tactics were very different +indeed from those of his nominal leader, Mr. Butt. Butt was a man who +had great reverence for old constitutional forms and for the traditions +and ways of the House of Commons, and he had faith in the power of mere +argument to bring the House some time or other to see the justice of his +cause. Parnell was convinced that there was only one way of compelling +the House of Commons to pay any serious attention to the Irish demand, +and that was by making it clear to the Government and the House that +until they had turned their full attention to the Irish national claims, +they should not be allowed to turn their attention to any other business +whatever. Therefore he introduced that policy of obstruction which has +since become historical, and which for a time literally convulsed the +House of Commons. Now, I am not going again into the oft-told tale of +Home Rule and the obstruction policy, and I touch upon the subject here +only because of its direct connection with the career of Mr. +Chamberlain. Sir Charles Dilke and Mr. Chamberlain supported Mr. Parnell +in most of his assaults upon the Tory Government. It was Parnell's +policy to bring forward some motion, during the discussion of the +estimates for the army and navy or for the civil service, which should +raise some great and important question of controversy connected only in +a technical sense with the subject formally before the House, and thus +to raise a prolonged debate which had the effect of postponing to an +indefinite time the regular movement of business. Thus he succeeded in +stopping all the regular work of the House until the particular motion +in which he was concerned had been fully discussed and finally settled, +one way or the other. It was by action of this kind that he succeeded in +prevailing upon the House of Commons to condemn the barbarous system of +flogging in the army and the navy, and finally to obtain its abolition. +In this latter course he was warmly supported by Mr. Chamberlain and Sir +Charles Dilke, and by many other Liberal members. + +But it was not only in obstructive motions which concerned the common +interests of the country that Parnell obtained the support of Sir +Charles Dilke and Mr. Chamberlain. These two men boldly and vigorously +maintained him in his policy of obstruction when it only professed to +concern itself with Irish national questions. They identified themselves +so thoroughly with his Irish policy that it became a familiar joke in +the House of Commons to describe Dilke and Chamberlain as the +Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General of the Home Rule party. I was +then a member of the House, and had been elected Vice-President of the +Irish party, Parnell being, of course, the President. Naturally, I was +brought closely into association with Mr. Chamberlain, and I had for +many years been a personal friend of Sir Charles Dilke. Again and again +I heard Mr. Chamberlain express his entire approval of the obstructive +policy adopted by Parnell, and declare that that was the only way by +which Parnell could compel the House of Commons to give a hearing to the +Irish claims. Mr. Chamberlain, indeed, expressed, on more than one +occasion, in speeches delivered during a debate in the House, just the +same opinion as to Parnell's course which I had heard him utter in +private conversation. In one of these speeches I remember well his +generous declaration that he was sorry he had not had an opportunity of +expressing that opinion to the House of Commons long before. Now, of +course, I always thought, and still think, that all this was much to the +credit of Mr. Chamberlain's political intelligence, courage, and manly +feeling, and I regarded him as one of the truest English friends the +Home Rule cause had ever made. I had the opportunity, on more than one +occasion, of hearing Dilke and Chamberlain define their respective +positions on the subject of Home Rule. Dilke regarded Home Rule as an +essential part of a federal system, which he believed to be absolutely +necessary to the safety, strength, and prosperity of the British Empire. +He would have made it a Federal system, by virtue of which each member +of the Imperial organization governed its own domestic affairs in its +own way, while the common wishes and interests of the Empire were +represented, discussed, and arranged in a central Imperial Parliament. +Therefore, even if the Irish people had not been themselves awakened to +the necessity for a Home Rule Legislature in Ireland, Dilke would have +been in favor of urging on them the advantages of such an arrangement. +This, in point of fact, is the system which has made the Canadian and +the Australasian provinces what they are at this day, contented, loyal, +and prosperous members of the Imperial system. Chamberlain was not so +convinced an advocate of the general system of Home Rule as Dilke, but +he was always emphatic in his declarations that, if the large majority +of the Irish people desired Home Rule, their desire should be granted to +them by the Imperial Parliament. + +When I first entered the House of Commons, the Conservative party was in +office. About a year after, the general election of 1880 came on, almost +in the ordinary course of events, and the result of the appeal to the +country was that the Liberals came back to power with a large majority. +Mr. Gladstone was at the head of the Liberal party, and he became Prime +Minister. Everybody assumed that two such prominent Radicals as Dilke +and Chamberlain could not be overlooked by the new Prime Minister in his +arrangements to form an administration. I think I am entitled to say, as +a positive fact, that Dilke and Chamberlain entered into an +understanding between themselves that unless one at least of them was +offered a place in the Cabinet, neither would accept office of any kind. +Of course when a new Government is in process of formation all these +arrangements are matters of private discussion and negotiation with the +men at the head of affairs; and the result of interchange of ideas in +this instance was that Chamberlain became President of the Board of +Trade, with a seat in the Cabinet, and Dilke accepted the office of +Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, without a place in the inner +Ministerial circle. This was done, not only with Dilke's cordial +consent, but at his express wish, for it was his strong desire that the +higher place in the administration should be given to his friend. + +Now, at this time Mr. Gladstone was not a convinced Home Ruler. I know +that the importance of the question was entering his mind and was +absorbing much of his attention. I know that he was earnestly +considering the subject, and that his mind was open to conviction; but I +know also that he was not yet convinced. Chamberlain, therefore, would +apparently have had nothing to gain if he merely desired to conciliate +the favor of his leader by still putting himself forward as the friend +and the ally of the Home Rule party. But he continued, when in office, +to be just as openly our friend as he had been in the days when he was +only an ordinary member of the House of Commons. There were times when, +owing to the policy of coercion pursued in Ireland by the then Chief +Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant, the relations between the Liberal +Government and the Home Rule party were severely strained. We did battle +many a time as fiercely against Mr. Gladstone's Government as ever we +had done against the Government of his Tory predecessor. Yet Mr. +Chamberlain always remained our friend and our adviser, always stood by +us whenever he could fairly be expected to do so in public, and always +received our confidences in private. When Mr. Parnell and other members +of our party were thrown into Dublin prison, Mr. Chamberlain did his +best to obtain justice and fair treatment for them and for the Home Rule +cause and for the Irish people. + +Many American readers will probably have a recollection of what was +called the Kilmainham Treaty--the "Treaty" being an arrangement which it +was thought might be honorably agreed upon between Mr. Gladstone and the +leaders of the Irish party, and by virtue of which an improved system +of land-tenure legislation was to be given to Ireland, on the one hand, +and every effort was to be made to restore peace to Ireland on the +other. I do not intend to go into this old story at any length, my only +object being to record the fact that the whole arrangements were +conducted between Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Parnell, and that Chamberlain +was still understood to be the friend of Ireland and of Home Rule. These +negotiations led to the resignation of office by the late Mr. William +Edward Forster, Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; and +then came the important question, Who was likely to be put in Mr. +Forster's place? I believe that, as a matter of fact, the place was +offered, in the first instance, to Sir Charles Dilke, but was declined +by him on the ground that he was not also offered a seat in the Cabinet, +and Dilke was convinced that unless he had a seat in the Cabinet he +could have no chance of pressing successfully on the Government his +policy of Home Rule for Ireland. + +Mr. Chamberlain then had reason to believe that the office would be +tendered to him, and he was willing to accept it and to do the best he +could. I know that he believed that the place was likely to be offered +to him and that he was ready to undertake its duties, for he took the +very frank and straightforward course of holding a conference with +certain Irish Nationalist members to whom he made known his views on the +subject. The Irish members whom he consulted understood clearly from him +that if he went to Ireland in the capacity of Chief Secretary he would +go as a Home Ruler and would expect their co-operation and their +assistance. There was no secret about this conference. It was held +within the precincts of the House of Commons, and Mr. Chamberlain's +action in suggesting and conducting it was entirely becoming and proper +under the conditions. For some reason or other, which I at least have +never heard satisfactorily explained, the office of Chief Secretary was +given, after all, to the late Lord Frederick Cavendish. Then followed +the terrible tragedy of the Phoenix Park, Dublin, when Lord Frederick +and Mr. Thomas Burke, his official subordinate, were murdered in the +open day by a gang of assassins. When the news of this appalling deed +reached London, Mr. Parnell and I went at once, and as a matter of +course, to consult with Sir Charles Dilke and Mr. Chamberlain as to the +steps which ought to be taken in order to vindicate the Irish people +from any charge of sympathy with so wanton and so atrocious a crime. We +saw both Dilke and Chamberlain and consulted with them, and I can well +remember being greatly impressed by the firmness with which Mr. +Chamberlain declared that nothing which had happened would prevent him +from accepting the office of Chief Secretary in Ireland if the +opportunity were offered to him. I go into all this detail with the +object of making it clear to the reader that, up to this time, Mr. +Chamberlain had the full confidence of the Irish Nationalist party and +was understood by them to be in thorough sympathy with them as to +Ireland's demand for Home Rule. + +Mr. Chamberlain did not, however, become Irish Secretary, but retained +his position as President of the Board of Trade, and many foreign +troubles began in Egypt and other parts of the world which diverted the +attention of Parliament and the public for a while from questions of +purely domestic policy. Mr. Gladstone, however, succeeded in carrying +through Parliament a sort of new reform bill which reconstructed the +constituencies, expanded the electorate, and, in fact, set up in the +three countries something approaching nearly to the old Chartist idea of +equal electoral division and universal suffrage. The foreign troubles, +however, were very serious, the Government lost its popularity, and at +last was defeated on one of its financial proposals and resigned office. +The Tories came into power for a short time. Mr. Chamberlain stumped the +country in his old familiar capacity as a Radical politician of the +extreme school, and he started a scheme of policy which was commonly +described afterwards as the unauthorized programme, in which he +advocated, among other bold reforms, a peasant proprietary throughout +the country by the compulsory purchase of land, the effect of which +would be to endow every deserving peasant with at least three acres and +a cow. The Tories were not able to do anything in office, owing to the +combined attacks made upon them by the Radicals and the Irish Home +Rulers, and in 1886 another dissolution of Parliament took place and a +general election came on. The effect of the latest reform measure +introduced by Mr. Gladstone now told irresistibly in Mr. Gladstone's +favor, and the newly arranged constituencies sent him back into office +and into power. Mr. Chamberlain once again joined Mr. Gladstone's +Government, and became President of the Local Government Board. + +Then comes a sudden change in the story. The extension of the suffrage +gave, for the first time, a large voting power into the hands of the +majority of the Irish people, for in Ireland up to that date the right +to vote had been enjoyed only by the landlord class and the well-to-do +middle class; and the result of the new franchise was that Ireland sent +into Parliament an overwhelming number of Home Rule Representatives to +follow the leadership of Parnell. Gladstone then became thoroughly +satisfied that the vast majority of the Irish people were in favor of +Home Rule, and he determined to introduce a measure which should give to +Ireland a separate domestic Parliament. Thereupon Mr. Chamberlain +suddenly announced that he could not support such a measure of Home +Rule, and it presently came out that he could not support any measure of +Home Rule. He resigned his place in Mr. Gladstone's Government, and he +became from that time not only an opponent of Home Rule but a proclaimed +Conservative and anti-Radical. When a Tory Government was formed, after +the defeat of Mr. Gladstone's first Home Rule measure, Mr. Chamberlain +became a member of the Tory Government, and he is one of the leading +members of a Tory Government at this day. + +Now, it is for this reason, I suppose, that the unfriendly critic, of +whom I have already spoken more than once, thought himself justified in +describing Mr. Chamberlain as the Rabagas of English political life. It +is, indeed, hard for any of us to understand the meaning of Mr. +Chamberlain's sudden change. At the opening of 1886 he was, what he had +been during all his previous political life, a flaming democrat and +Radical. In the early months of 1886 he was a flaming Tory and +anti-Radical. During several years of frequent association with him in +the House of Commons I had always known him as an advocate of Home Rule +for Ireland, and all of a sudden he exhibited himself as an +uncompromising opponent of Home Rule. Many English Liberal members +objected to some of the provisions of Mr. Gladstone's first Home Rule +Bill, but when these objections were removed in Mr. Gladstone's second +Home Rule Bill they returned at once to their places under his +leadership. But Mr. Chamberlain would have nothing to do with any +manner of Home Rule measure, and when he visited the province of Ulster +in the north of Ireland he delighted all the Ulster Orangemen by the +fervor of his speeches against Home Rule. Moreover, it may fairly be +asked why an English Radical and democrat of extreme views must needs +become an advocate of Toryism all along the line simply because he has +ceased to be in favor of Home Rule for Ireland. These are questions +which I, at least, cannot pretend to answer. + +Of course we have in history many instances of conversions as sudden and +as complete, about the absolute sincerity of which even the worldly and +cynical critic has never ventured a doubt. There was the conversion of +Constantine the Great, and there was the sudden change brought about in +the feelings and the life of Ignatius of Loyola. But then somehow Mr. +Chamberlain does not seem to have impressed on his contemporaries, +either before or after his great change, the idea that he was a man cast +exactly in the mold of a Constantine or an Ignatius. Only of late years +has he been dubbed with the familiar nickname of "Pushful Joe," but he +was always set down as a man of personal ambition, determined to make +his way well on in the world. We had all made up our minds, somehow, +that he would be content to push his fortunes on that side of the +political field to which, up to that time, he had proclaimed himself to +belong, and it never occurred to us to think of him as the associate of +Tory dukes, as a leading member of a Tory Government, and as the +champion of Tory principles. Men have in all ages changed their +political faith without exciting the world's wonder. Mr. Gladstone began +as a Tory, and grew by slow degrees into a Radical. Two or three public +men in our own days who began as moderate Liberals have gradually turned +into moderate Tories. But Mr. Chamberlain's conversion was not like any +of these. It was accomplished with a suddenness that seemed to belong to +the days when miracles were yet worked upon the earth. Mr. Chamberlain +may well feel proud in the consciousness that the close attention of the +political world will follow with eager curiosity his further career. + + + + +[Illustration: Photograph copyright by Elliott & Fry + +HENRY LABOUCHERE] + + + + +HENRY LABOUCHERE + + +Henry Labouchere is the most amusing speaker in the House of Commons. +Eclipse is first and there is no second--to adopt the words once used by +Lord Macaulay--at least, if there be a second, I do not feel myself +qualified for the task of designating him. It is hardly necessary to say +that whenever Labouchere rises in the House of Commons--and he rises +very often in the course of a session--he is sure of an immediate +hearing. He seldom addresses himself to any subject with the outward +appearance of seriousness. He always puts his argument in jesting form; +sends a shower of sparkling words over the most solemn controversy; puts +on the manner of one who has plunged into the debate only for the mere +fun of the thing; and brings his display to an end just at the time when +the House hopes that he is only beginning to exert himself for its +amusement. I do not know that he has ever made what could be called a +long speech, and I think I may fairly assume that he has never made a +speech which his audience would not have wished to be a little longer. + +Now, I must say at once that it would be the most complete +misappreciation of Henry Labouchere's character and purpose to regard +him as a mere jester, or even a mere humorist endowed with the faculty +of uttering spontaneous witticisms. Labouchere is very much in earnest +even when he makes a joke, and his sharpest cynicism is inspired by a +love of justice and a desire to champion the cause of what he believes +to be the right. I heard him once make a speech in the House of Commons +on behalf of some suffering class or cause, and when coming to a close +he suddenly said: "I may be told that this is a sentimental view of the +case; but, Mr. Speaker, I am a man of sentiment." The House broke into a +perfect chorus of laughter at the idea thus presented of Labouchere as a +man of sentiment. Probably many, or most, of his listeners thought it +was only Labouchere's fun, and merely another illustration of his love +for droll paradox. I have no doubt that Labouchere knew very well in +advance what sort of reception was likely to be given to his +description of himself, and that he heartily enjoyed the effect it +produced. But, all the same, there was a good deal of truth in the +description. I have always regarded Labouchere as a man of intensely +strong opinions, whose peculiar humor it is to maintain these opinions +by sarcasm and witticism and seeming paradox. + +Certainly no public man in England has given clearer evidence of his +sincerity and disinterestedness in any cause that he advocates than +Labouchere has done again and again. I remember hearing it said many +years ago in New York of my old friend Horace Greeley that whereas some +other editors of great newspapers backed up their money with their +opinions, Greeley backed up his opinions with his money. The meaning, of +course, was that while some editors shaped their opinions in order to +make their journals profitable, Horace Greeley was ready to sacrifice +his money for the sake of maintaining the newspaper which expressed his +sincere convictions. Something of the same kind might fairly be said of +Henry Labouchere. He is the proprietor and editor of the weekly +newspaper "Truth," in which he expresses his own opinions without the +slightest regard for the commercial interests of the paper, or, indeed, +for the political interests of the party which he usually supports in +the House of Commons. I believe that, as a matter of fact, "Truth" is a +most successful enterprise, even as a commercial speculation, for +everybody wants to know what it is likely to say on this or that new and +exciting question, and nobody can tell in advance what view Labouchere's +organ may be likely to take. Labouchere has, however, given proof many +times that he keeps up his newspaper as the organ of his individual +opinions, and not merely as a means of making money or sustaining the +interests of a political party. He has again and again hunted out and +hunted down evil systems of various kinds, shams and quacks of many +orders, abuses affecting large masses of the poor and the lowly, and has +rendered himself liable to all manner of legal actions for the recovery +of damages. If, because of some technical or other failure in his +defense to one of those legal actions, Labouchere is cast in heavy +damages, he pays the amount, makes a jest or two about it, and goes to +work at the collection of better evidence and at the hunting out of +other shams with as cheery a countenance as if nothing particular had +happened. Fortunately for himself, and, I think, also very fortunately +for the public in general, Labouchere is personally a rich man, and is +able to meet without inconvenience any loss which may be brought upon +him now and then by his resolute endeavors to expose shams. + +Labouchere spent ten years of his earlier manhood in the diplomatic +service, and was attaché at various foreign courts and at Washington. He +had always a turn for active political life, and entered the House of +Commons in 1865, and in 1880 was elected as one of the representatives +for the constituency of Northampton. His colleague at that time in the +representation of the constituency was the once famous Charles +Bradlaugh. It would not be easy to find a greater contrast in appearance +and manners, in education and social bringing up, than that presented by +the two representatives of Northampton. Labouchere is a man of barely +medium stature; Bradlaugh's proportions approached almost to the +gigantic. One could not talk for five minutes with Labouchere and fail +to know, even if they had never met before, that Labouchere was a man +born and trained to the ways of what is called good society; Bradlaugh +was evidently a child of the people, who had led a hard and roughening +life, and had had to make his way by sheer toil and unceasing exertion. +Bradlaugh as a public speaker was powerful and commanding in his +peculiar style--the style of the workingman's platform and of the +open-air meetings in Hyde Park. He had tremendous lungs, a voice of +surprising power and volume, and his speeches were all attuned to the +tone of open-air declamation. Most observers, even among those who +thoroughly recognized his great intellectual power and his command of +language, would have taken it for granted beforehand that he never could +suit himself to the atmosphere of the House of Commons. Labouchere's +speeches, even when delivered to a large public meeting, were pitched in +a conversational key, and he never attempted a declamatory flight. His +speeches within the House of Commons and outside it always sparkled with +droll and humorous illustrations, and when he was most in earnest he +seemed to be making a joke of the whole business. Bradlaugh was always +terribly in earnest, and seemed as if he were determined to bear down +all opposition by the power of his arguments and the volume of his +voice. In Labouchere you always found the man accustomed to the polished +ways of diplomatic circles; in Bradlaugh one saw the typical champion of +the oppressed working class. Labouchere comes, as his name would +suggest, from a French Huguenot family of old standing; Bradlaugh was +thoroughly British in style even when he advocated opinions utterly +opposed to those of the average Briton. + +The House of Commons is, on the whole, a fair-minded assembly, and even +those who were most uncompromising in their hostility to some of +Bradlaugh's views came soon to recognize that by his election to +Parliament the House had obtained a new and powerful debater. Both men +soon won recognition from the House for their very different +characteristics as debaters, and at one time I think that the +college-bred country gentlemen of the Tory ranks were inclined, on the +whole, to find more fault with Labouchere than with Bradlaugh. They +seemed willing to make allowances for Bradlaugh which they would not +make for his colleague in the representation of Northampton. One can +imagine their reasoning out the matter somewhat in this way: This man +Bradlaugh comes from the working class, is not in any sense belonging to +our order, and we must take all that into account; while this other man, +Labouchere, is of our own class, has had his education at Eton, has been +trained among diplomatists in foreign courts, is in fact a gentleman, +and yet is constantly proclaiming his hostility to all the established +institutions of his native country. Even the Tory country gentlemen, +however, found it impossible wholly to resist the wit, the sarcasms, and +the droll humors of Labouchere, and whenever he spoke in the House he +was sure to have attentive listeners on all the rows of benches. + +Bradlaugh's actual Parliamentary career did not last very long. When he +was first elected for Northampton, he refused to take the oath of +allegiance, on the ground that he could not truthfully make that appeal +to the higher power with which the oath concludes. He was willing to +make an affirmation, but the majority of the House would not accept the +compromise. A considerable period of struggle intervened. The seat was +declared to be vacant, but Mr. Bradlaugh was promptly re-elected by the +constituents of Northampton, and then there set in a dispute between +the House and the constituency something like that which, in the days of +Daniel O'Connell, ended in Catholic emancipation. Bradlaugh was enabled +to enter the House in 1886, and he made himself very conspicuous in +debate. His manners were remarkably courteous, and he became popular +after a while even among those who held his political and religious +opinions in the utmost abhorrence. His career was closed in 1891 by +death. + +I can well remember my first meeting with Henry Labouchere. It was at a +dinner party given by my friend Sir John R. Robinson, then and until +quite lately manager of the London "Daily News." The dinner was given at +the Reform Club, and took place, I think, some time before Labouchere's +election for Northampton. I had never seen Labouchere before that time, +and had somehow failed to learn his name before we sat down to dinner. +We were not a large party, and the conversation was general. I was soon +impressed by the vivid and unstrained humor of Labouchere's talk and by +the peculiarity of his manner. He spoke his sentences in quiet, slow, +and even languid tones; there was nothing whatever of the "agreeable +rattle" in his demeanor; he had no appearance of any determination to be +amusing, or even consciousness of any power to amuse. He always spoke +without effort and with the air of one who would just as soon have +remained silent if he did not happen to have something to say, and +whatever he did say in his languorous tones was sure to hold the +attention and to delight the humorous faculties of every listener. My +curiosity was quickly aroused and promptly satisfied as to the identity +of this delightful talker, and thus began my acquaintanceship with +Labouchere, which has lasted ever since, and is, I hope, likely to last +for some time longer. Labouchere is a wonderful teller of stories drawn +from his various experiences in many parts of the world, and, unlike +most other story-tellers, he is never heard to repeat an anecdote, +unless when he was especially invited to do so for the benefit of some +one who had not had an opportunity of hearing it before. If he were only +a teller of good stories and an utterer of witty sayings, he would well +deserve a place in the social history of England during our times; but +Labouchere's skill as a talker is one of his least considerable claims +upon public attention. Nature endowed Labouchere with what might be +called a fighting spirit, and I believe that whenever he sees any +particular cause or body of men apparently put under conditions of +disadvantage, his first instinctive inclination is to make himself its +advocate, so far at least as to insist that the cause or the men must +have a fair hearing. + +In the House of Commons it could not have happened very often that Henry +Labouchere was found on the side of the strong battalions. I know that +during the heaviest and the fiercest struggles of the Irish National +party against coercive laws and in favor of Ireland's demand for Home +Rule, Henry Labouchere was always found voting with us in the division +lobby. Some of those days were very dark indeed. Before Gladstone had +become converted to the principle of Home Rule for Ireland, and before +the later changes in the system of Parliamentary representation had +given an extended popular suffrage to the Irish constituencies, the +number of Irish representatives who followed the leadership of Charles +Stewart Parnell was for many sessions not more than seven or eight. +There were some English members who always voted with us, and +conspicuous and constant among these were Sir Wilfred Lawson and Henry +Labouchere. Unquestionably neither Labouchere nor Lawson had anything +whatever to gain in Parliamentary or worldly sense by identifying +himself with our efforts in the House of Commons. As soon as Ireland got +her fair share of the popular franchise, Parnell was followed by some +eighty or ninety members out of the hundred and three who constitute the +whole Irish representation. This was the very fact which first brought +Gladstone, as I heard from his own lips, to see that the demand of +Ireland was in every sense a thoroughly national demand, and that the +whole principle of the British constitution claimed for it the +consideration of genuine statesmanship. Labouchere had identified +himself with the national cause in the days before that cause had yet +found anything like representation in the House of Commons. Through all +his political career he remained faithful to that principle of +nationality, and in the time--I hope not distant--when the Irish claim +for Home Rule is recognized and accepted by the British Parliament, +Ireland is not likely to forget that Henry Labouchere was one of the +very few English members who recognized and championed her claim in the +hour when almost every man's hand was against it. + +Perhaps the inborn spirit of adventure which makes itself so apparent in +Labouchere's temperament and career may have had something to do with +his championship of the oppressed. I do not say this with any intention +to disparage Labouchere's genuine desire to uphold what he believes to +be the right, but only to illustrate the peculiarities of his nature. +Certainly his love of adventure has made itself conspicuous and +impressive at many stages of his varied career. There is a legend to the +effect that Labouchere joined at one time the company of a traveling +circus in the United States for the novelty and amusement of the +enterprise. I do not know whether there is any truth in this story, but +I should certainly be quite prepared to believe it on anything like +authentic evidence. The adventure would seem quite in keeping with the +temper of the man. Most of us know what happened when the Germans were +besieging Paris during the war of 1870. It suddenly occurred to +Labouchere that it would be a most interesting chapter in a man's life +if he were to spend the winter in the besieged city. No sooner said, or +thought, than done. Labouchere was then one of the proprietors of the +London "Daily News," and he announced his determination to undertake the +task of representing that journal in Paris as long as the siege should +last. Of course he obtained full authority for the purpose, and he +contrived to make his way into Paris, and when there he relieved the +regular correspondent of the "Daily News" from his wearisome and +perilous work by sending him off, in a balloon, I believe, to Tours, +where he was out of the range of the German forces, and could continue +his daily survey of events in general. Then Labouchere set himself down +to enjoy all the hardships of the siege, to live on the flesh of horse +and donkey and even cat and rat, to endure the setting in of utter +darkness when once the sun had gone down, and to chronicle a daily +account of his strange experiences. This was accomplished in his "Diary +of a Besieged Resident," which appeared from day to day in the columns +of the "Daily News," and was afterwards published as a volume, and a +most entertaining, humorous, realistic, and delightful volume it made. +The very difficulties of its transmission by means of balloons and +pigeons and other such floating or flying agencies must have been a +constant source of amusement and excitement to the adventurous besieged +resident. + +Labouchere has always been in the habit of seeking excitement by +enterprises on the Stock Exchange. I do not believe that these ventures +have been made with the commonplace desire to make money, but I can +quite understand that they are prompted by the very same desire for new +experiences which prompted the residence in besieged Paris. I remember +meeting Labouchere one day many years ago in a West End London street, +and being told by him that he had just incurred a very heavy loss by one +of his financial ventures on the Stock Exchange. He told me in his usual +tones of almost apathetic languor the amount of his loss, and it seemed +to my modest experiences in money affairs to be a positive fortune +sacrificed. He was smiling blandly while recounting his adventure, and I +could not help asking him how he had felt when the loss was first made +known to him. "Well," he replied, in the same good-humored tone, "it was +an experience, like another." That, I think, is a fair illustration of +Labouchere's governing mood. The great thing was to get a new +sensation. At one time Labouchere became the founder and the owner of a +new theater in London, and he took part in many a newspaper enterprise. +He was, as I have said, for a long time one of the proprietors of the +"Daily News," and he entered into that proprietorship at the very time +when the "Daily News" was making itself most unpopular in capitalist +circles and in what is known as society, by its resolute and manly +adherence to the side of the Federal States during the great American +Civil War. It suited Labouchere's pluck and temper to join in such an +undertaking at the time when the odds seemed all against it; and it is +only fair to say that I am sure no love for a new sensation could induce +Labouchere to take up any cause which he did not believe to be the cause +of right. + +Labouchere was one of those who went in with the late Edmund Yates in +founding "The World," then quite a new venture as a society journal. +Labouchere, however, did not long remain a sharer in this enterprise. +Yates was the editor of the paper, and Yates went in altogether for +satirical or at least amusing pictures of West End life, and did not +care anything about politics and the struggles of this or that +political movement. Labouchere could not settle down to any interest in +a newspaper which dealt only with changes of fashion and the +whimsicalities of social life. His close interest in political questions +filled him with the resolve to start a journal which, while dealing with +the personages and the ways of society, should also be the organ of his +own views on graver subjects. He therefore withdrew from all concern in +Edmund Yates's "World" and started his own weekly newspaper, "Truth," +which has since enjoyed a life of vigor and success. There is room +enough for both papers apparently. The "World" has not lost its circle +of readers, while "Truth" is beyond question a great power in political +and financial as well as in social movements. + +One of Labouchere's special delights is to expose in "Truth" some +successful adventurer in pretentious financial schemes, some +hypocritical projector of sham philanthropic institutions, some +charlatan with whom, because of his temporary influence and success, +most other people are unwilling to try conclusions. Such an impostor is +just the sort of man whom Labouchere is delighted to encounter. +Labouchere's plan is simple and straightforward. He publishes an +article in "Truth" containing the most direct and explicit charges of +imposture and fraud against the man whom he has determined to expose, +and he invites this man to bring an action against him in a court of law +and obtain damages, if he can, for slander. Labouchere usually intimates +politely that he will not avail himself of any preliminary and technical +forms which might interpose unnecessary delay, and that he will do all +in his power as defendant to facilitate and hasten the trial of the +action. It happens in many or most cases that the personage thus invited +to appeal to a court of law cautiously refrains from accepting the +invitation. He knows that Labouchere has plenty of money, perceives that +he is not to be frightened out of his allegations, and probably thinks +the safest course is to treat "Truth" and its owner with silent +contempt. Sometimes, however, the accused man accepts battle in a court +of law, and the attention of the public is riveted on the hearing of the +case. Perhaps Labouchere fails to make out every one of his charges, and +then the result is formally against him and he may be cast in damages, +but he cares nothing for the cost and is probably well satisfied with +the knowledge that he has directed the full criticism of the public to +the general character of his opponent's doings and has made it +impossible for the opponent to work much harm in the future. Even the +strongest political antagonists of Labouchere have been found ready to +admit that he has rendered much service to the public by his resolute +efforts to expose shams and quackeries of various kinds at whatever +pecuniary risk or cost to himself. + +I do not know whether it would be quite consistent with the realities of +the situation if I were to describe Labouchere as a favorite in the +House of Commons. He has provoked so many enmities, he has made so many +enemies by his sharp sarcasms, his unsparing ridicule, and his sometimes +rather heedless personalities, that a great many members of the House +must be kept in a state of chronic indignation towards him. A man who +arouses a feeling of this kind and keeps it alive among a considerable +number of his brother members could hardly be described with strict +justice as a favorite in the House of Commons. Yet it is quite certain +that there is no man in the House whose sayings are listened to with a +keener interest, and whose presence would be more generally missed if +he were to retire from public life. + +One of the many stories which I have heard about Labouchere's peculiar +ways when he was in the diplomatic service is worth repeating here. It +has never been contradicted, so far as I know. When Labouchere was +attaché to the British Legation at Washington--it was then only a +Legation--his room was invaded one day by an indignant John Bull, fresh +from England, who had some grievance to bring under the notice of the +British Minister. That eminent personage was not then in the house, and +the man with the grievance was shown into Labouchere's room. Labouchere +was smoking a cigarette, according to his custom, and he received the +visitor blandly, but without any effusive welcome. John Bull declared +that he must see the Minister at once, and Labouchere mildly responded +that the British Minister was not in the Legation buildings. "When will +he return?" was the next demand, to which Labouchere could only make +answer that he really did not know. "Then," declared the resolute +British citizen, "I have only to say that I shall wait here until he +returns." Labouchere signified his full concurrence with this proposal, +and graciously invited his countryman to take a chair, and then went on +with his reading and noting of letters and his cigarette just as before. +Hours glided away, and no further word was exchanged. At last the hour +came for closing the official rooms, and Labouchere began to put on his +coat and make preparations for a speedy departure. The visitor thereupon +saw that the time had come for some decided movement on his part, and he +sternly put to Labouchere the question, "Can you tell me where the +British Minister is just now?" Labouchere replied, with his usual +unruffled composure, "I really cannot tell you exactly where he is just +now, but I should think he must be nearly halfway across the Atlantic, +as he left New York for England last Saturday." Up rose John Bull in +fierce indignation, and exclaimed, "You never told me that he had left +for England." "You never asked me the question," Labouchere made answer, +with undisturbed urbanity, and the visitor had nothing for it but to go +off in storm. + +Labouchere is the possessor of a beautiful and historic residence on the +banks of the Thames--Pope's famous villa at Twickenham. There he is in +the habit of entertaining his friends during the summer months, and +there one is sure to meet an interesting and amusing company. I have had +the pleasure of being his guest many times, and I need hardly say that I +have always found such visits delightful. Labouchere is a most charming +host, and although he is himself a wonderful talker, full of anecdote +and reminiscence, he never fails to see that the conversation is +thoroughly diffused, and that no guest is left out of the talk. In +London he always mixes freely with society, and his London home is ever +hospitable. Many of his friends were strongly of opinion that he ought +to have been invited to become a member of a Liberal administration. I +suppose, however, that most of the solid and steady personages who form +a Cabinet would have been rather alarmed at the idea of so daring and +damaging a free lance being appointed to a high place in the official +ranks of a Government, and it would have been out of the question to +think of offering any subordinate position to so brilliant a master of +Parliamentary debate. For myself I do not feel any regret that +Labouchere, so far, has not taken any place in an administration. He has +made his fame as a free lance, and has done efficient public work in +that capacity, such as he could hardly have accomplished if he had been +set down to the regular and routine duties of an official post. He has +made a name for himself by his independent support of every cause and +movement which he believed to have justice on its side, and I could not +think with any satisfaction of a so-called promotion which must submerge +his individuality in the measured counsels and compromises of a number +of administrative colleagues. I prefer still to think of him as Henry +Labouchere, and not as the Right Honorable Gentleman at the head of +this, that, or the other department of State. + + + + +[Illustration: Photograph copyright by London Stereoscopic Co. + +JOHN MORLEY] + + + + +JOHN MORLEY + + +No English public man of the present day has had a more remarkable +political career than that of John Morley. Almost everything that could +be against success in political life was against John Morley when he +arose from the student's desk to take his place on the political +platform. I am not now making any allusion to the difficulties set in a +man's way by those accidents which the first Lord Lytton described +grandiloquently as the "twin gaolers of the human heart, low birth and +iron fortune." I am not quite certain what iron fortune may be, but if I +assume it to be early poverty I do not regard it as a very formidable +obstruction to human genius in our times. We have many successful men in +public life just now who were born in humble station and had to struggle +hard for a long time against poverty. John Morley was not born in humble +life, as the phrase goes, and had not, so far as I know, to struggle +against early poverty. He had an Oxford University education and was +called to the bar, but did not make any effort after success in that +profession. The difficulties to which I have alluded as standing in his +way when he determined to seek a career in political and Parliamentary +life had nothing to do with birth and with poverty--they were of quite a +different order. + +Morley had taken to literature as a profession, and had made for himself +a distinguished name as a writer of books and an editor of reviews and +newspapers before he obtained a seat in the House of Commons. Now, there +is, or used to be, a sort of fixed belief in the British public mind +that a literary man is not, in the nature of things, qualified for +success in Parliamentary work. We are somewhat getting over this idea of +late, and indeed there were at all times living evidences enough to +shake such a faith. The generation which recognized the success won in +Parliamentary debate by a Macaulay, a Disraeli, and a Bulwer-Lytton +might well have got over the notion that literary men cannot succeed in +Parliament; but even up to the time of John Morley's election to the +House of Commons the idea found still a very general acceptation. +Another and much more serious difficulty in John Morley's way was the +fact that he was a proclaimed agnostic in questions of religious faith. +Now, the average Englishman can hardly be described as one imbued with +profound and exalted religious convictions, but it may be taken for +granted that he thinks every respectable person who is fit to be a +member of Parliament ought to conform to some recognized creed and to +attend some authorized place of worship. John Morley was at one time not +merely an agnostic, but an avowed and somewhat aggressive agnostic, and +his brilliant pen had often been employed to deal satirically with some +established doctrine. + +In England there is little or no general objection to freedom of opinion +so long as it is a question merely of opinion. We may know that a man +holds free-thinking opinions, but we feel no wish to inflict any manner +of punishment or deprivation on him so long as he keeps his opinions to +himself and does not endeavor to make them prevail with others. This, +however, was what John Morley had got into the way of doing. When he +felt a strong conviction on any subject which seemed to him important, +he always endeavored to justify his faith by argument and to bring +others round to his views of the question. + +I can well remember that many of Morley's admirers and friends were but +little gratified when it was first made known that he intended to seek +for a seat in the House of Commons. Their impression was that he was +just then doing in effective and admirable style the very kind of work +for which he was best qualified, and that it was a pity he should run +the risk of marring such a career for the sake of entering a political +field in which he might possibly win no success, and in which success, +even if won, would be poor compensation for the sacrifice of better +work. Morley, however, seems to have made up his mind, even at an early +period of his career, that he would try his chance in Parliament. So +long ago as 1865 he became a candidate for a constituency in the North +of England, but was not successful; and in 1880, after he had won +genuine celebrity by his biography of Edmund Burke, that of Voltaire, +that of Rousseau, and other books of the same order, he became a +candidate for the great metropolitan division of Westminster. Here +again he was unsuccessful, and it was only in 1883 that he first +obtained a seat in the House of Commons as the representative of +Newcastle-on-Tyne. I can well remember listening with the deepest +interest to his maiden speech in the House of Commons. The general +impression of the House was that the speech would prove a failure, for +only too many members had already made up their minds, according to the +usual fashion of the day, that a successful literary man was not likely +to become a Parliamentary success. There was a common impression also +that, despite his great gifts as a writer and his proved capacity as a +journalist and editor, John Morley must be an impracticable sort of +person. He had been at one time well known as an associate of the famous +Positivist order of thinkers--the order to which men like Frederic +Harrison and Richard Congreve belonged. The average member of Parliament +could see no chance for a disciple of that school, which this average +member regarded merely as a group of dreamers, to make any mark in a +practical assembly where the routine business of legislation had to be +carried on. Morley's speech was, however, a distinct and unmistakable +success. + +What first impressed the House of Commons was the ready, quiet force of +Morley's delivery. He had a fine, clear voice, he spoke without notes +and without any manifest evidence of preparation, every sentence +expressed without effort the precise meaning which he wished to convey, +and his style had an eloquence peculiarly its own. What most men +expected of him was the philosophical discourse of a student and a +thinker no longer in his fitting place, and what was least expected of +him was just that which he delivered, a ready, telling, and powerful +Parliamentary speech. He had some unexpected difficulties to encounter, +because he gave out his opinions so forcibly and so boldly that their +utterance called forth frequent interruptions--an unusual event in the +case of a maiden speech, which is generally regarded as a mere +introductory ceremonial and is taken politely as a necessary matter of +form. The House soon found, however, that John Morley's speech did not +by any means belong to the ordinary category of maiden performances, and +the very interruptions were therefore a positive tribute to the +importance of the new member's argument. The interruptions were in every +sense fortunate for Morley, because they enabled him at this very first +opportunity to prove his ready capacity for debate. He replied on the +spur of the moment to every interruption and every interjected question, +and he showed all the composure, all the promptitude and the command, of +a practiced Parliamentary debater. Every man in the House whose opinion +was worth having at once recognized the fact that a new force had come +up in Parliamentary debate, and when John Morley resumed his seat he +must have known that he had accomplished a complete success. From that +time onward John Morley has always been recognized as one of the most +powerful speakers in the House of Commons. His voice is clear, resonant, +and musical, the light of intellect gleams in his earnest eyes, his +argument is always well sustained and set off with varied and +appropriate illustration, and whenever he rises to speak he is sure to +have a deeply attentive audience. + +Morley is not in the highest sense one of the orators of Parliament. He +is not to be classed, and has never sought to be classed, with such men +as Gladstone and Bright. But, short of the highest gift of eloquence, he +has every quality needed to make a great Parliamentary debater. When he +addresses the House of Commons, one ceases to think of him merely as +the scholar and the author, and he becomes the man who can command the +House by the arguments and the eloquence which the House best +understands. There are many men of high intellectual capacity who +occasionally take part in a Parliamentary debate and who are always +regarded as in the House but not of it. John Morley proved from his very +first effort that he was of the House as well as in it. I have heard him +make great platform speeches, and I think he comes nearer to the highest +order of eloquence when addressing an ordinary political meeting than +even when addressing the House, but it is quite certain that at the +present time the House of Commons has no member who can more completely +command its attention. It must be said, too, that the character of the +man himself, his transparent sincerity, his absolute devotedness to +principle, his fearless and unselfish consistency, count for much in the +commanding position which he has obtained. The integrity of Morley's +career is absolutely beyond criticism or cavil. It never entered into +the mind of his bitterest opponent to suspect for a moment that Morley +could be influenced by any personal consideration in the course which he +took or the words which he uttered. Other men of high position in +Parliament are commonly set down as having taken this or that course, +modified or suppressed this or that opinion, for the sake of personal +advancement, or at least for the sake of maintaining the interests of a +party. But everybody knows that John Morley has never sought for office, +and could never be induced to make any compromise of political principle +even for the sake of maintaining in power the political party to which +he belongs. The universal recognition of that great quality in him has +added unspeakably to his influence in Parliament. He was not at any time +a frequent speaker in the House of Commons, and of course he never was a +mere talker. He speaks only when he has something to say which he +believes ought to be said and to be said by him, and he never seems to +have any temptation to enter into debate for the mere pleasure of taking +part in the controversy. If a man is really a good speaker, the House is +always ready to listen to him no matter how often he may speak, for the +plain reason that debate has to go on for a certain number of hours each +day, and it is more pleasant to listen to a member who talks well than +to one who talks badly. But, no matter how effective and eloquent a +speaker may be, it is quite certain that the House will give him a more +attentive ear if it knows beforehand that whenever he rises to take part +in debate it is sure to hear something which up to that moment has not +been spoken. John Morley, therefore, very soon became one of that small +body of men in the House of Commons whose rising to speak is always +regarded as an event of interest and importance. + +In the retrospect of John Morley's career one is brought up with +something approaching to a shock of surprise when he remembers that at +the opening of Morley's Parliamentary life he was closely associated +with Joseph Chamberlain. I remember having heard people say at the time +that Chamberlain took much credit to himself on the ground that he had +urged and prevailed upon John Morley to persevere in seeking a seat in +the House of Commons. Mr. Chamberlain was at that time an extreme and +uncompromising Radical. He was an avowed and constant supporter of the +Home Rule party; was in close alliance with Parnell; took a leading part +in the arrangement of the so-called Kilmainham Treaty, and delivered a +warm panegyric on Parnell himself and Parnell's policy to a crowded and +for the most part an indignant House of Commons. There was, therefore, +nothing surprising in the fact that Morley and Chamberlain were at that +time friends and allies in political affairs, nor had any one then the +faintest reason to believe that Chamberlain was ever destined to undergo +a sudden and miraculous conversion to ultra-Tory principles. When Mr. +Gladstone came into office in 1886 with what was known to be a Home Rule +administration, John Morley obtained the position of Chief Secretary to +the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, with a seat in the Cabinet. It is not by +any means a matter of course that the Irish Chief Secretary should be a +Cabinet Minister. Sometimes the Lord-Lieutenant himself has a place in +the Cabinet and the Chief Secretary is merely an ordinary member of the +Government; sometimes, when the Chief Secretary is regarded as a very +strong man, he is invited to a seat in the Cabinet and his official +master remains outside. John Morley was recognized from the first by +Gladstone as a man of the highest political capacity and character, and +when the new administration came to be formed Gladstone made evident +this estimate of Morley by offering him a place in the Cabinet. The +keenest interest was felt alike both by political friends and political +enemies in Morley's management of Irish affairs. The new Secretary for +Ireland was entering bravely on an enterprise the immediate success of +which was, under the conditions, absolutely impossible. I have no doubt +whatever that success could have been easily and completely accomplished +if John Morley had been allowed his own way in dealing with the whole +Irish question--if, for instance, he had been placed in such a position +of dictatorship as that which was given to Lord Durham when Durham was +sent out to deal with the rebellion in Canada. Durham saw but one remedy +for the long discontents and troubles of the Canadian populations, and +that remedy he found in the system of Home Rule which has since made +Canada peaceful, prosperous, and well content with the place she holds +in the British Empire. If John Morley could have been invested with such +powers as those given to Lord Durham, he might have made of Ireland +another prosperous and contented Canada. But Morley had to administer +the affairs of Ireland at a time when the opinion of the English +majority had not yet risen to the principle of Home Rule, at least so +far as Ireland was concerned, and without such recognition it was beyond +the reach of statesmanship to satisfy the national demands of the Irish +people. Every Irish Nationalist knew perfectly well that John Morley's +heart and intellect alike were with the cause of Irish Home Rule. All +that Morley could do to mitigate the troubles of the country and the +people he did bravely and steadfastly. Ireland was then the victim of an +accumulation of coercion laws which made almost every popular movement, +every attempt to maintain an oppressed tenant against an oppressive +landlord, every protest against despotic legislation, liable to be +treated as an offense calling for the interference of the police. John +Morley did all that could be done to mitigate the rigors of such a +system, and to administer Ireland on something like the principles of +civilization and freedom. He had in this task the full support, +encouragement, and sympathy of the statesman who was then +Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland--the Earl of Aberdeen, a man of the most +thoroughly Liberal principles and a sincere friend to Ireland. But, of +course, neither Lord Aberdeen nor John Morley could abolish at a word +of command a whole system of penal legislation, and all that could be +done was to take care that the laws should be administered in a +temperate and reasonable spirit, and that the rulers of Ireland should +show themselves to be at heart the friends of Ireland. + +There comes back to my memory a somewhat curious illustration of the +difficulties which then stood in the way of any cordial intercourse +between the representatives of English rule in Ireland and the +representatives of the Irish national cause, and I cannot resist the +temptation to tell the story here. During Morley's first term of office +as Chief Secretary I made some visits to Dublin. I had many meetings +with Morley, of course, and he invited me to dine with him at the Chief +Secretary's Lodge in Phoenix Park. Now, there had been during all my +time a rigorous rule among Irish Nationalists not to accept any of the +hospitalities of those who exercised imperial authority in Dublin. No +true Nationalist would make one at any social gathering in the official +residence of the Viceroy or the Chief Secretary. There were more than +merely sentimental reasons for such a principle. In former days the +Irish people had in several well-remembered instances seen some vehement +advocate of the Irish National cause won over by the promises and the +blandishments of Dublin Castle to take office under the Government and +to renounce the political faith the profession of which had won for him +his seat in Parliament. Therefore it was above all things necessary, in +order to maintain the confidence of the Irish people, that the national +representatives should show themselves determined not to be drawn into +any familiar social relations with the representatives of English rule +in Ireland. This was especially a part of Parnell's policy, and on it +Parnell laid much stress. John Morley came over to Ireland in a spirit +of full friendship towards the Irish people, and he had every reason to +believe that the Irish people thoroughly understood his feelings and his +hopes. He and I had known each other during many years in London, and +when we met in Dublin, he, being still new to the conditions of the +place, invited me to dine with him. I explained to him that, however +delighted I should be to dine with my friend John Morley, it was quite +impossible that I should dine with the Chief Secretary at his official +residence in Dublin. I assured him that if I were to accept such an +invitation the Tory papers of Dublin would be certain to make +characteristic comments on the fact that the Chief Secretary to the +Lord-Lieutenant and the Vice-Chairman of the Irish Parliamentary party +had been dining together in the Chief Secretary's official home, and +that we should both alike find ourselves the objects of something +approaching to a public scandal. Morley was surprised at first and then +a good deal amused, but he accepted my explanation, and thoroughly +understood that it was not any want of friendly feeling which led me to +decline his invitation. So we parted as good friends as ever. We still +met frequently and talked over questions relating to Irish +administration. One day Morley came to see me at the Shelburne Hotel, +which was then my home in Dublin. We had a long talk, and, as the hour +was growing late, I asked him to stay and dine with me, not remembering +at the time that the eye of the public was supposed to be on our +movements. One of Morley's happiest gifts is a delightful sense of +humor. He rose to the situation at once. Addressing me in solemn tones, +but with a gleam of the comic in his eyes, he informed me that if my +principles did not allow me to dine with the Chief Secretary in Dublin, +so neither did the Chief Secretary's principles allow him to dine there +with me. Thus, as some newspaper writers would say, the incident +terminated, and we made no further effort at convivial meetings in +Dublin. + +John Morley's quick sense of humor is not one of the qualities which a +stranger would naturally look for in him. Those who have not met him and +have known him only through his writings are apt to think of him as a +grave and even an austere man, a man wholly immersed in the serious +contemplation of life and history, and, if endowed with any sense of +humor, only with a sense of its more grim and saturnine aspects. The man +himself is altogether and curiously unlike the impression thus formed of +him very commonly by those to whom he is not personally known. John +Morley has a quick, keen, and delightful sense of humor. He can talk on +any subject from grave to gay, from lively to severe. He is one of the +most charming of companions, and he is a great favorite among women, +even among those who do not greatly concern themselves with the question +of woman's political emancipation. There is nothing of the stern +philosopher about his manner of comporting himself in social life. +Indeed, for all the clear composure of his philosophic contemplations, +he has a temperament far too quick and sensitive to allow of his meeting +all life's vexatious questions in the mood of stoical endurance. He is +by nature somewhat nervous, is decidedly quick in temper, frankly +acknowledges that he is rather impatient of contradiction, and is likely +to become overheated in the course of an eager argument. I feel the less +hesitation in noticing these little peculiarities on the part of my +friend because I have heard Morley himself speak of them with perfect +frankness as some of his troubles in political controversy. I must say +that, so far as I know, these unphilosophical qualities of Morley's +temperament only tend to make him all the more a charming friend to his +friends. We may admire the marble-like composure of the stern +philosopher who yields to no passing human weaknesses of temper, but it +must be very hard to keep always on friendly terms with so superhuman a +personage. + +Mr. Morley goes into society a good deal in London, is often to be seen +at the theaters on first nights, seems to enjoy a dinner party or an +evening party as well as the most commonplace among us might do, but I +do not believe that he has any liking for great shows and pompous +celebrations and the other formal demonstrations of Court festivity and +Ministerial display. In his quiet London home he leads the life of a man +of culture, a scholar and a writer, so far as his political and +Parliamentary engagements allow him leisure for such recreation, and he +neither seeks the madding crowd nor shuns it. It has always been a +wonder to me how such a man can find time for his many and diverse +studies and occupations, and should never either neglect the work of his +life or shut himself away from its reasonable enjoyments. John Morley is +indeed a rare and almost unique combination of the philosophical +thinker, the vivid biographer, the Parliamentary debater, and the +practical administrator. His life of Richard Cobden is one of the most +complete and characteristic pieces of biography accomplished during our +time. There would not seem to have been much that was congenial between +the temperament of Richard Cobden and that of John Morley. Cobden was +not a laborious student of the past; he had no widespread and varied +literary or artistic sympathies; he did not concern himself much with +any scientific studies except those which have to do with the actual +movements of man's working lifetime; he was a great practical reformer, +not a scholar, a philosopher, or even a devoted lover of books. I do not +know that John Morley was personally well acquainted with Cobden, and I +am rather inclined to believe that in his biography of the great +free-trader he relied mainly on Cobden's correspondence and on the +information given to him by members of Cobden's family. Yet he has +created a perfect living picture of Cobden as Cobden's friends all knew +him, and he has shown to coming generations, not merely what Cobden said +and did, what great reforms he accomplished, and what further reforms he +ever had in view, but he has shown what Cobden actually was, and made +the man himself a familiar figure to all who read the book. So far as I +can judge, he has achieved the same success when telling us of Burke, of +Voltaire, and of Rousseau, and has made us feel that with his guidance +we come to know the men themselves as well as the parts they performed +in politics or in literature. + +Morley has for a long time been engaged in preparing his life of +Gladstone, and the mind of England, which has lately been distracted by +the vicissitudes of war, is now free to turn to quieter thoughts, and to +look with eager expectation for the completion of the book. No other +living man could have anything like John Morley's qualifications as the +biographer of Gladstone. He is one of the greatest masters of lucid and +vigorous English prose. He has been what I may call a professional +student of the lives of great men; he is a profound political thinker; +and he has the faculty of describing to the life and making his subject +live again. In addition to all these claims to the position of +Gladstone's authorized biographer comes the fact that Morley was for +many years intrusted with Gladstone's fullest confidence. To no one did +Gladstone make his feelings and his purposes on all political questions +more fully known than to John Morley; and I think I am justified in +saying that at more than one critical period in his later political +history Gladstone chose Morley as his especial and, for the time, his +only confidant. I can say of my own knowledge that in the later years of +Gladstone's active political life there were momentous occasions when +John Morley acted as the one sole medium of private communication +between Gladstone and the leaders of the Irish party. I know, too, how +careful and methodical Morley showed himself on all such occasions, and +with what ample and accurate notes he preserved the exact record of +every day's intercommunications. This is, indeed, one of Morley's +characteristic peculiarities--the combination of exalted thought with +the most minute attention to the very routine of practical work. That +combination of qualities will display itself, I feel quite certain, with +complete success in Morley's history of Gladstone's life. John Morley +has still, we may well hope, a long political career before him. When +the Liberal party next comes into power, John Morley will unquestionably +have one of its most commanding offices placed at his disposal. +Meanwhile he has ample work on hand even for his energy and +perseverance. He is just finishing his life of Gladstone, and is to take +charge of the magnificent library which belonged to the late Lord Acton, +the greatest English scholar and book-lover of our time. Mr. Carnegie's +gift of this great library, lately bought by him, to John Morley, is an +act which does honor to the intellect as well as to the heart of the +generous donor. Whatever positions, honors, or responsibilities maybe +yet before John Morley, it may be taken for granted that he has already +won for himself a secure place in the literature and the political life +of his country, and that his name will live in its history. + + + + +[Illustration: Photograph by William Notman & Son + +THE EARL OF ABERDEEN] + + + + +THE EARL OF ABERDEEN + + +The Earl of Aberdeen will always be associated in my mind with a most +hopeful season of our political life, a season none the less cherished +in memory and none the less auspicious because its hopes were doomed to +temporary disappointment. That bright season was the time when Mr. +Gladstone was endeavoring to carry out his policy of Home Rule for +Ireland. I need hardly tell my American readers that Gladstone's policy +was condemned to failure, partly because of a secession of Liberals who +went over to the Conservative ranks for the purpose of opposing the +measure, and then because of the attitude taken by the House of Lords, +who, thus encouraged, rejected the bill after it had passed the House of +Commons. The season, therefore, which I am now recalling to memory was +that which came between Mr. Gladstone's promulgation of his Home Rule +policy and the rejection of his second measure of Home Rule. The +interval was one full of the brightest hopes for all true British +Liberals and all Irish Nationalists. For the first time during my +recollection, British Liberalism and Irish Nationalism were in true +companionship and concord. We fraternized as English and Irish +politicians had probably never fraternized before. On both sides we were +filled with the fond belief that the disunion of Great Britain and +Ireland was soon to come to an end, and that the true and lasting union +of the two peoples would be accomplished by Gladstone's policy of giving +to Ireland her national self-government. It was a season of much +festivity in London, and the Irish Nationalist members of Parliament +were welcome guests in all the great Liberals' houses. No figures are +more thoroughly associated in my memory with that time than those of +Lord Aberdeen and his gifted and noble-minded wife. + +Lord Aberdeen is the grandson of that Earl of Aberdeen whose coalition +ministry, a luckless effort at a temporary compromise between hostile +political forces, came to a disastrous end during the Crimean War. The +present Earl succeeded to the title in 1870. He was educated at the +University of St. Andrews, in Scotland, and afterwards at University +College, Oxford. Lord Aberdeen was a Conservative in his political +principles when he entered the House of Lords. But he had too much +intellect and too much independence of mind to remain long in +subserviency to the traditional creed of a mere party. He differed from +his leaders on several important questions before he had fully seen his +way to take up his position as a recognized member of the Liberal +organization. Most of us who had followed his career thus far with any +attention felt sure that the Conservatives would not long be able to +keep such a man among their slow-going and unenlightened ranks, and no +surprise was felt on either side when he took his natural place as a +follower of Mr. Gladstone. Lord Aberdeen became an earnest advocate of +the Home Rule policy, and all the noble influence that he and his wife +could bring to bear publicly and privately was exerted in support of the +cause. Then it was that I first came to know Lord and Lady Aberdeen. I +have before me just now a book called "Notables of Britain," described +on its title-page as "An Album of Portraits and Autographs of the Most +Eminent Subjects of Her Majesty in the Sixtieth Year of Her Reign." This +book was published at the office of the "Review of Reviews," and was +understood to be the production of Mr. W. T. Stead. It contains an +excellent full-length photograph of Lord Aberdeen, who, I may say, has a +face and figure well worthy to be preserved by painter and photographer +for the benefit of those who in coming days are interested in the +notables of Britain. The portrait, like all the other portraits in the +volume, is accompanied by an autograph line or two. Lord Aberdeen's +written words seem to me peculiarly characteristic of the writer's +bright and hopeful spirit. I quote his words--the writing is clear and +well formed:-- + + I think this is a good motto: + "_Transeunt nubes--manet cælum._" + ABERDEEN. + +The temper in which Lord Aberdeen conducted all his political +intercourse during this period of promise was one of unchanging courage +and hopefulness. He was one of the most active and ready among the +supporters of Mr. Gladstone, and he found an untiring and invaluable +companion in his charming wife. At that time we used to hold political +gatherings in private houses as well as in public halls, and I have +taken part in more than one Home Rule demonstration held in the private +dwellings of some of Mr. Gladstone's colleagues in office. We used to +have many social meetings for the purpose of bringing Englishmen and +Irishmen into close association. Even Parnell himself was prevailed upon +to abandon for the time his rule of seclusion from society, and to meet +Mr. Gladstone and Lord Spencer and other leading Englishmen at private +dinner parties. Lord Aberdeen was one of the most conspicuous and one of +the most attractive figures in these political and social gatherings, +and I could not, indeed, recall that period to memory for a moment +without finding his figure photographed prominently in it. It was an +interesting sight during all that time to see some of the most extreme +and most aggressive members of the Irish Parliamentary party mingling in +social life with British peers and magnates who only a few years before +would probably have regarded those Irish members as traitors to the +Queen and fitting inmates of the prison cell. On the other hand, too, it +must be said that only a very few years before the Irish Nationalist +member who was known to make his appearance in the London drawing-rooms +of English aristocracy would have been set down by the majority of his +countrymen as a flunkey in spirit and a traitor to his cause. There was +a time not long before when an Irish Nationalist member would have +needed some courage to enable him to meet his constituents on election +day if the local papers had made it known that he was in the habit of +showing himself in the drawing-rooms of English peers. All this sudden +and complete change had been brought about by the genius and policy of +Gladstone when he came to see the true meaning and the true claims of +the demand for Irish Home Rule. My memory goes back with a somewhat +melancholy pleasure to those days of hope and confidence when the true +union of Great Britain and Ireland seemed actually on the verge of +consummation. Nor have I the slightest doubt that the lessons taught +during that season will have their full influence once again when the +period of reaction is over, and that Gladstone's policy of 1886 will +come to life again before very long and will accomplish its work once +for all. + +In that year, 1886, Gladstone appointed Lord Aberdeen to the office of +Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. The position was given to Lord Aberdeen with +the frankly proclaimed purpose that he was to be the Lord-Lieutenant of +a Home Rule policy, and, indeed, on no other conditions would Lord +Aberdeen have consented to accept the office. Lord Aberdeen's short term +of rule in Ireland was a complete success. There was not much that the +most Liberal Lord-Lieutenant could do in the way of positive +administration for the benefit of the island. There was already in +existence a whole code of repressive legislation compiled during +successive ages of despotic government, and this existing code it was +not in the power of Lord Aberdeen or any other Viceroy to abolish or +even to modify. All that the new Lord-Lieutenant could do in the way of +political relief to the Irish people was to discourage as much as +possible the too frequent application of the coercive laws and to make +it known that the sympathies of the new Government were in favor of +political freedom for Ireland, as well as for England and Scotland. Lord +Aberdeen fulfilled this part of his public duty with a brave heart and +with all the success possible to the task. Every one who had any +acquaintance with the state of Ireland at the time must have known what +difficulties were likely to be set in the way of Lord Aberdeen's +endeavor to mitigate the severities of the coercion system. The most +serious of those difficulties would in all probability have come from +the permanent official staff in Dublin Castle. American readers in +general can have but little idea as to the peculiarities of that +singular institution Dublin Castle, the center and fortress of Irish +government. It has become, from generations of usage, a very bulwark +against the progress of Irish national sentiment. The fresh current of +feeling from the outside seems to make little impression on its stagnant +and moldy atmosphere. It is ruled by tradition, and to that tradition +belongs the rule of hostility to every popular feeling and every +national demand. Lord Aberdeen had to encounter all the resistance which +the dead weight of Dublin Castle's antiquated systems could bring to +bear against his liberal and enlightened efforts at the pacification of +the country. He carried out his purpose with unflinching resolve and +unruffled temper, and, so far as the existing laws allowed him, he +mitigated the harshnesses of the system under which Ireland had been +governed since the Act of Union. But there was, of course, much more +within Lord Aberdeen's capacity to accomplish than the mere mitigation +of existing laws which it was not in his power to abolish. His presence +and the entire conduct of his viceroyalty were as a proclamation to the +Irish people that the whole sympathies of the Gladstone Government went +with the national demands. + +Then, indeed, a strange sight was to be seen in Dublin--the sight of a +thoroughly popular welcome, a national welcome, given to the +representative of English rule in Ireland. A new chapter in Irish +history seemed to open, and the heart of Ireland was filled with hope. +It is told of Swift that when Carteret, Earl Granville, was appointed +Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland--Swift afterwards became one of Granville's +close friends--he exclaimed in his sarcastic fashion that he could not +understand why such a man should be appointed to such an office, and he +thought the Government ought to keep on sending its bullies and +blockheads just as before. A satirical Nationalist might have been +expected to break forth into a similar expression of wonder when a man +like Lord Aberdeen was sent to Ireland to carry on the rule of Dublin +Castle. Lord Aberdeen and his wife made themselves popular everywhere +among the Irish people, showed a living and a constant interest in +everything that concerned the welfare of the population, and did all +they could to break down the long-existing barricades which made England +and Ireland hostile nations. When Mr. Gladstone failed in carrying his +Home Rule Bill through the House of Commons and his Government came to +an end, Lord Aberdeen took his leave of Ireland amid demonstrations of +popular regard, affection, and regret which must have deeply touched his +generous heart. In 1893, when the Liberals were again in power, Lord +Aberdeen was made Governor-General of Canada, and he held that position +until 1898. His term of service in Canada was as successful as might +have been expected, and the French as well as the other provinces looked +up to him with admiration and gratitude. Then, for the time, his +official career came to an end. In the interval between the Irish and +the Canadian appointment Lord Aberdeen and his wife made a tour round +the world, visiting on their way India and most of the British colonies. +The name of Lady Aberdeen is associated with all great movements which +have to do with the education and the general advancement of women, and +with many good works undertaken for the benefit of the Irish peasantry. +Lady Aberdeen, it should be said, is the youngest daughter of the first +Lord Tweedmouth, and is sister of the Lord Tweedmouth who, as Edward +Marjoribanks, was so well known for a long time as one of the leading +Whips of the Liberal party. Lady Aberdeen's name is Ishbel Maria, and I +may ask my American readers not to make the mistake, sometimes made even +in England, of assuming her name to be the more familiar one of Isabel. +She has always been one of the most prominent, influential, and graceful +figures in English society, and every charitable association which +deserves her support has the advantage of her help, her protection, and +her guidance. I know from my own experience what valuable and untiring +service she has given to the promotion of the lace-making and the +cottage industries of Ireland. I had the great honor of being associated +with her in some of these efforts, and I never can forget her unsparing +devotion to the best interests of every such effort. I have among my +books a series of large and handsome volumes devoted to a record of the +proceedings which took place at the International Council of Women held +in London during July of 1899 and presided over by the Countess of +Aberdeen. This series, published by Mr. Fisher Unwin, is edited by Lady +Aberdeen and has an introduction written by her. I may quote the closing +paragraph of the introduction:-- + + It is a great inspiration to be bound together in the pursuance + of high ideals; it is also a grave responsibility--and during + our recent Council meeting both these thoughts have been made + very real to us. I pray God that they may abide within the + hearts of all who, in every country, are the guardians of the + honor of our Council, so that it may prove true to the lofty + profession it has made. + +The series contains seven volumes, every one of which has been carefully +edited by Lady Aberdeen, and is enriched with many commentaries of her +own. One can easily imagine the amount of time and trouble which such a +work must have imposed on a busy woman, and those who know anything of +her will know the thought and care and devotion which she must have +given to such a labor of love. + +Not a few persons are still apt to associate the idea of a woman +advocating the advancement of women with something unfeminine, +ungracious, self-assertive, and overbearing. When Lady Aberdeen first +began to be known in social movements, the memory of the late Mrs. Lynn +Linton's diatribes about "the Shrieking Sisterhood" was still fresh in +the public mind, and much prejudice yet lingered against the women who +publicly devoted themselves to the advancement of their sex. Lady +Aberdeen might have seemed as if she were specially created to be a +living refutation of all such absurd ideas. No fashionable woman given +up to social success and distinction in drawing-rooms, dining-rooms, +balls, and Court ceremonials could have been more feminine, graceful, +and charming in her ways and her demeanor than this noble-hearted woman, +who was not afraid to advocate the genuine rights of women, and who +stood by her husband's side in all his efforts for political reform. One +might adopt the words which Sheridan has made the opening of a song in +"The Duenna," and proclaim that a pair was never seen more justly formed +to meet by nature than Lord and Lady Aberdeen. Such an impression was +assuredly formed in Ireland and in Canada, and indeed in every place +where Lord and Lady Aberdeen were able to assert their unostentatious +and most beneficent influence. + +Lord Aberdeen succeeded to the title and its responsibilities at too +early an age to allow him any opportunity of proving his capacity for +Parliamentary life in the House of Commons. His elder brother was +drowned on a voyage from Boston to Melbourne, and the subject of this +article then became Earl of Aberdeen, with, as a matter of course, a +seat in the House of Lords. There is nothing like a real Parliamentary +career to be found in the House of Lords. A man of great natural gifts +can, of course, give evidence even there that he is born for +statesmanship and can command attention by his eloquence. Lord Aberdeen +made it certain even in the House of Lords that he was endowed with +these rare qualifications. But the House of Lords has no influence over +the country, unless, indeed, when it exerts itself to stay for the time +the progress of some great and popular measure. Even this is only for +the time, and if the measure be really one of national benefit and +deserving of public support, it is sure to be carried in the end, and +the Lords have to give in and to put up with their defeat. But the +hereditary chamber is not even a commanding platform from which an +eloquent speaker can address and can influence the whole country, and +the temptations there to apathy and indolence must often be found to be +almost irresistible. On rare occasions, two or three times in a session, +perhaps, there comes off what is popularly called a full-dress debate, +and then the red benches of the House, on which the peers have their +seats, are sure to be crowded, and the galleries where members of the +House of Commons are entitled to sit and the galleries allotted to +strangers are also well occupied. The Lords have even the inspiriting +advantage, denied to the House of Commons, of open galleries where +ladies can sit in the full glare of day or of gaslight, and can +encourage an orator by their presence and their attention. In the House +of Commons, as everybody knows, the small number of ladies for whom +seats are provided are secreted behind a thick grating, and thus become +an almost invisible influence, if, indeed, they can hope to be an +influence at all. Yet even this inspiration does not stir the peers to +anything more than the rarest attempts at a great debate. On ordinary +occasions--and these ordinary occasions constitute nearly the whole of a +session--the peers sit for only an hour or so every day, and then mutter +and mumble through some formal business, and the outer public does not +manifest the slightest interest in what they are doing or trying to do. +There are many men now in the House of Lords who proved their eloquence +again and again during some of the most important and exciting debates +in the representative chamber, and who now hardly open their lips in the +gilded chamber, as the House of Lords has been grandiloquently titled. A +rising member of the House of Commons succeeds to the family title and +estates, and as a matter of course he is transferred to the House of +Lords, and there, in most cases, is an end to his public career. Or +perhaps a rising member of the House of Commons has in some way or other +made himself inconvenient to his leading colleagues who have now come +into power and are forming an administration, and as they do not know +how to get rid of him gracefully in any other way, they induce the +Sovereign to confer on him a peerage, and so he straightway goes into +the House of Lords. Perhaps, as he had been an active and conspicuous +debater in the House of Commons, he cannot bring himself to settle down +into silence when he finds himself among the peers. So he delivers a +speech every now and then on what are conventionally regarded in the +House of Lords as great occasions, but his career is practically at an +end all the same. I have in my mind some striking instances of this +curious transition from Parliamentary prominence in the House of Commons +to Parliamentary nothingness in the House of Lords. I know of men who +were accounted powerful and brilliant debaters in the House of Commons, +where debates are sometimes great events, who, when, from one cause or +other, translated to the House of Lords, were hardly ever heard of as +debaters any more. Probably there seemed no motive for taking the +trouble to seek the opportunity of delivering a speech in the hereditary +assembly, where nothing particular could come of the speech when +delivered, and the new peer allows the charms of public speaking to lose +their hold over him, to pass with the days and the dreams of his youth. + +Lord Aberdeen would in all probability have made a deep mark as a +Parliamentary debater if the kindly fates had left to him the +possibility of a career in the House of Commons. He has a fine voice, an +attractive presence, and a fluent delivery; he has high intellectual +capacity, wide and varied culture, and much acquaintance with foreign +States and peoples. Probably the best services which Lord Aberdeen +could render to his country would be found in such offices as Ireland +and Canada gave him an opportunity of undertaking; viceroyalty of some +order, it would seem, must be the main business of his career. But I +must say that I should much like to see his great intellectual +qualities, his varied experience, and his noble humanitarian sympathies +provided with some opportunity of exercising themselves in the work of +domestic government. I may explain that I do not call the administration +of Ireland under the old conditions a work of domestic government in the +true sense. The vice-regal system in Ireland is a barbaric anachronism, +and the abilities and high purposes of a man like Lord Aberdeen were +wholly thrown away upon such work. There is much still in the social +condition of England which could give ample occupation to the +administrative abilities and the philanthropic energies of Lord +Aberdeen. The work of decentralization in England is rapidly going on. +The development of local self-government is becoming one of the most +remarkable phenomena of our times. Parliament is becoming more and more +the fount and origin of national rule, but it is wisely devoting its +energies to the creation of a system which shall leave the working out +of that national rule more and more to localities and municipalities. At +one time, and that not very long ago, it was believed even by many +social reformers that, while self-government might easily be developed +in the cities and towns, it would not be possible, during the present +generation at least, to infuse any such principle of vitality into the +country districts. + +Of late years, however, it is becoming more and more apparent that the +principle of local government is developing itself rapidly and +effectively in the rural districts, and that the good old times when the +squire and the rector could manage by divided despotism the whole +business of a parish are destined soon to become a curious historical +memory. The system of national education, established for the first time +in England by Gladstone's Government in 1870, has naturally had much to +do with the quickening of intelligent activity all over the British +Islands. A new generation has grown up, in which localities are no +longer content to have all their business managed for them by their +local magnates, and the recent statutes passed by Parliament for the +extension everywhere of the local government principle are a direct +result of the legislation which has made education compulsory in these +countries. All over the agricultural districts we now find county boards +and parish councils conducting by debates and divisions the common +business of each district, just as it is done in the great cities and +towns. It seems to me that this spread of the principle of local +self-government opens a most appropriate field for the intellect and the +energies of such statesmen as Lord Aberdeen. Only in recent times have +great noblemen condescended to trouble themselves much, so far at least +as their Parliamentary careers were concerned, with municipal or other +local affairs. A peer, if he happened to have any taste or gift for +Parliamentary and official work, was willing to become Foreign +Secretary, Viceroy of India, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, or Governor of +a Colony. Not infrequently, too, he consented to devote his energies to +the office of Postmaster-General. But he was not likely to see any scope +for a Parliamentary career in the management of local business. In his +own particular district, no doubt, he was accustomed to direct most of +the business in his own way and might be a local benefactor or a local +mis-manager, according as his tastes and judgment qualified him. But the +general business of localities did not create any Parliamentary +department which seemed likely to deserve his attention. The condition +of things is very different now, and Lord Aberdeen is one of the men to +whom the country is mainly indebted for that quickening and outspreading +of the local self-governing principle which is so remarkable and so +hopeful a phenomenon of our national existence at present. In every +movement which pretends to the development and the strengthening of that +principle Lord Aberdeen has always taken a foremost part. + +I am not myself an unqualified admirer of that part of the British +constitutional system which makes the House of Lords one of three great +ruling powers. I should very much doubt whether Lord Aberdeen himself, +if he were set to devise a constitutional system for these countries, +would make the House of Lords as at present arranged a component part of +our legislative system. But I am quite willing to admit that, since we +have a House of Lords and while we have a House of Lords, a man like the +Earl of Aberdeen does all that can be done to turn the existing +constitution to good account and make it in some degree worthy of +national toleration. While there exists an aristocracy of birth, even +the most uncompromising advocate of democracy and the equal rights of +men might freely admit that a career like the political and social +career of Lord Aberdeen does much to plead in defense of the system. +Lord Aberdeen has always proved that he thoroughly understands the +responsibilities as well as the advantages of his high position. Not one +of the Labor Members, as they are called, of the House of Commons--the +chosen representatives of the working classes--could have shown a deeper +and more constant sympathy with every measure and every movement which +tends to improve the condition and expand the opportunities of those who +have to make a living by actual toil. Lord Aberdeen has yet, I trust, a +long and fruitful career before him. The statesmanship of England will +soon again have to turn its attention to the social movements which +concern the interests of the lowly-born and the hard-working in these +islands. If a better time is coming for the statesmen of England, +whether in office or in opposition, who love peace and who yearn to +take a part in measures which lead to genuine national prosperity, we +may safely assume that in such a time Lord Aberdeen will renew his +active career, to the benefit of the people whom he has served so +faithfully and so well. + + + + +[Illustration: Photograph copyright by W. & D. Downey + +JOHN BURNS] + + + + +JOHN BURNS + + +John Burns stands out a distinct and peculiar figure in the House of +Commons. He is the foremost representative of that working class which +is becoming so great a power in the organization of English political +and industrial life. "Be not like dumb driven cattle," says Longfellow +in his often-quoted lines--"Be a hero in the strife." The British +workingmen were until very lately little better than dumb driven cattle; +in our days and under such leadership as that of John Burns they have +proved themselves capable of bearing heroic part in the struggle for +great reforms. I can remember the time when the House of Commons had not +in it any member actually belonging to the working classes. At that time +the working classes had no means of obtaining Parliamentary +representation, for it may be said with almost literal exactness that no +workingman had a vote, or the means of obtaining a vote, at a +Parliamentary election. The conditions of the franchise were too +limited in the constituencies to enable men who worked for small daily +or weekly wages to become voters at elections. In order to become a +voter a man must occupy a house rated at a certain yearly amount, and he +must have occupied it for a specified and considerable space of time, +and there were very few indeed of the working class who could hope to +obtain such legal qualifications. In more recent days the great +reformers of these islands have succeeded in establishing what may be +fairly described as manhood suffrage in these countries, and have also +secured a lodger franchise; have established the secret ballot as the +process of voting; and by these and other reforms have put the +workingman on a level with his fellow-citizens as a voter at +Parliamentary elections. My own recollection goes back to the time when +the law in Great Britain and Ireland insisted on what was called a +"property qualification" as an indispensable condition to a candidate's +obtaining a seat in the House of Commons. I have known scores of +instances in which clever and popular candidates got over this +difficulty by prevailing on some wealthy relative or friend to settle +legally on them an amount of landed property necessary to qualify them +for a seat in the House. It was perfectly well known to every one that +this settlement was purely a formal arrangement, and that the new and +nominal possessor of the property was no more its real owner than the +child who is allowed for a moment to hold his father's watch in his hand +becomes thereby the legal owner of the valuable timepiece. In our days +no property qualification of any kind is needed either for a vote at a +Parliamentary election or for a seat in the House of Commons, and +therefore the workingmen form an important proportion of the voters at +Parliamentary elections and are enabled in certain constituencies to +choose men of their own class to represent them in the House of Commons. + +I have thought it well to make the short explanation of the changes +which have taken place in the condition of the British workingmen during +recent years as a prelude to what I have to say concerning that foremost +of British workingmen, John Burns. It is only fair to say that the +workingmen of these countries have made judicious and praiseworthy use +of the new political powers confided to them, and have almost invariably +sent into Parliament as the representatives of their class men of +undoubted ability and of the highest character, men who win the respect +of all parties in the House of Commons. Of these men John Burns is the +most conspicuous. He has never, indeed, held a place in an +administration, as two, I think, of his order have already done; but +then John Burns is a man of resolutely independent character, and it +would not be easy thus far to form even a Liberal Government which +should be quite up to the level of his views on many questions of +domestic and foreign policy. + +John Burns would hardly be taken personally as a typical representative +of the British workingman. He is short in stature, very dark in +complexion and in the color of his hair, and a stranger seeing him for +the first time might take him for an Italian or a Spaniard. His physical +strength is something enormous, and I have seen him perform with the +greatest apparent ease some feats of athletic vigor which might have +seemed to demand the proportions of a giant. His whole frame is made up +of bone and muscle, and although he is broadly and stoutly built, he +does not appear to have any superfluous flesh. If I had to make my way +through a furious opposing crowd, I do not know of any leader whom I +should be more glad to follow than John Burns. But although Burns is +physically made for a fighting man, there is nothing pugnacious or +aggressive in his temperament. He is by nature kind, conciliatory, and +generous, tolerant of other men's opinions, and only anxious to advance +his own by fair argument and manly appeals to men's sense of humanity +and justice. I have seen him carry a great big elderly man who had +fainted at a public meeting and take him to a quiet spot with all the +ease and tenderness of a mother carrying her child. But if I were an +overbearing giant who was trying his strength upon a weaker mortal, I +should take good care not to make the experiment while John Burns was +anywhere within reach. He is an adept at all sorts of athletic sports +and games, skating, rowing, foot-racing, boxing, cricket, and I know not +what else. He is essentially a man of the working class, and has, I +believe, some Scottish blood in his veins, but he is a Londoner by +birth, and passed all his early life in a London district. He was born +to poverty, and received such education as he had to begin with at a +humble school in the Battersea region on the south side of London. + +Now, I should think that a boy born in humble life who had in him any +gift of imagination and any faculty for self-improvement could hardly +have begun life in a better place than Battersea. The Battersea region +lies south of the Thames, and is a strange combination of modern +squalidness and picturesque historical associations and memorials. The +homes of the working class poor stand under the very shadow of that +famous church in Old Battersea where Bolingbroke, the high-born, one of +the most eloquent orators known to English Parliamentary life, and one +of the most brilliant writers who adorn English literature, lies buried, +and where strangers from all parts of the world go to gaze upon his +tombstone. Everywhere throughout the little town or village one comes +upon places associated with the memory of Bolingbroke and of other men +famous in history. Cross the bridge that spans the Thames and you are in +the Chelsea region, which is suffused with historical and literary +associations from far-off days to those recent times when Thomas Carlyle +had his home in one of its quiet streets. To a boy with any turn for +reading and any taste for history and literature, all that quarter of +London on both sides of the Thames must have been filled with +inspiration. John Burns had always a love of reading, and I can easily +fancy that the memories of the place must have been a constant stimulant +and inspiration to his honorable ambition for self-culture. His school +days finished when he was hardly ten years old, and then he was set to +earn a living, first in a candle factory and afterwards in the works of +an engineer. Thus he toiled away until he had reached manhood's age, and +all the time he was steadily devoting his spare hours or moments to the +task of self-education. He read every book that came within his reach, +and studied with especial interest the works of men who set themselves +to the consideration of great social problems. + +Burns naturally became very soon impressed with the conviction that all +could not be quite right under a political and social system which made +the workingman a mere piece of living mechanism and gave him no share +whatever in the constitutional government of the country. At that time +there was no system of national education in England, and the child of +poor parents had to get his teaching through some charitable +institution, or to go without any teaching whatever. So far as the +education of the poorest classes was concerned, England was at that time +far below Scotland, below Germany and Holland, and below the United +States. + +As regards the political system, a man of the class to which John Burns +was born had little chance indeed of obtaining the right to vote at a +Parliamentary election, which was given only to men who had certain +qualifications of income and of residence not often to be found among +the working classes. The English system of national education is little +more than thirty years old, and the extension of the voting power which +makes it now practically a manhood suffrage is likewise of very modern +date. It was natural that an intelligent and thoughtful boy like John +Burns should, under such conditions, become filled with socialistic +doctrines and should find himself growing into a mood of impatience and +hostility towards the rule of aristocrats, landlords, and capitalists, +by which the country was then dominated. Soon after he had reached his +twenty-first year he obtained employment as a foreman engineer on the +Niger in Africa, and there he had his first experience of a climate and +a life totally unlike to anything that could be found in the Battersea +regions. I have often heard it said that during his employment in +English steamers on the Niger he was known among his British companions +as "Coffee-pot Burns," in jocular recognition of his devotion to total +abstinence principles. He spent about a year in his African occupation, +and during that time he had managed to save up a considerable amount of +his pay, a saving which we may be sure was in great measure due to his +practice of total abstinence from any drinks stronger than that which +was properly contained in the coffee-pot. When he left Africa, he +invested his savings in a manner which I cannot but regard as peculiarly +characteristic of him, and which must have given to such a man a +profitable return for his investment--he spent his savings, in fact, on +a tour of several months throughout Europe. Thus he acquired an +invaluable addition to his stock of practical observation and a fresh +impulse to his studies of life and of books. He settled down in England +as a working engineer, and he soon began to take a deep interest and an +active share in every movement which had for its object the welfare of +the classes who live by daily labor. + +Obviously, there are many improvements in the condition of such men +which could only be brought about by legislation, and John Burns +therefore became a political agitator. His voice was heard from the +platforms of great popular meetings held in and around London and in +many other parts of the country, and he was one of the leaders of the +great agitation which secured for the public the right of holding +open-air meetings in Trafalgar Square. John Burns was meant by nature to +be a popular orator. He has a physical frame which can stand any amount +of exertion, and his voice, at once powerful and musical, can make +itself heard to the farthest limit of the largest outdoor meeting in +Hyde Park or Trafalgar Square. But he is in no sense whatever a mere +declaimer. He argues every question out in a practical and reasonable +way, and although he has some views on political and industrial subjects +which many of his opponents would condemn as socialistic, there is +nothing in him of the revolutionist or the anarchist. His object is to +bring about by free and lawful public debate those reforms in the +political and industrial systems which he regards as essential to the +well-being of the whole community. The Conservative party in this +country used to have for a long time one particular phrase which was +understood to embody the heaviest accusation that could be brought +against a public man. To say that this or that public speaker was +endeavoring to "set class against class" was understood to mean his +utter condemnation in the minds of all well-behaved citizens. We do not +hear so much of this accusation in later days, partly because some of +the very measures demanded by those setters of class against class have +been adopted by Conservative Governments and carried into law by +Conservative votes. But there was a period in the life of John Burns +when he must have found himself denounced almost every day in speech or +newspaper article as one whose main endeavor was to set class against +class. John Burns does not seem to have troubled himself much about the +accusation. Perhaps he reasoned within himself that if the endeavor to +obtain for workingmen the right of voting at elections and the right to +form themselves into trades-unions for the purpose of bettering their +lives were the endeavor to set class against class, then there is +nothing for it but to go on setting class against class until the +beneficent result be obtained. So John Burns went on setting class +against class, with the result that he became recognized all over the +country as one of the most eloquent, capable, and judicious leaders whom +the workingmen could show, and his unselfishness and integrity were +never disparaged even by his most extreme political opponents. + +A remarkable evidence was soon to be given of the solid reputation which +he had won for himself in public life. A complete change was made by +Parliamentary legislation in the whole system of London's municipal +government. The vast metropolis which we call London was up to that time +under the control for municipal affairs of the various parish boards and +local vestries, each of them constructed on some representative system +peculiarly its own, and none of them, it may be justly said, under any +direct control from the great mass of the community. The greater part of +the West End of London was under the management of a body known as the +Metropolitan Board of Works; the City of London was dominated by its own +historic Corporation; each other district of the metropolis had its +governing vestry or some such institution. Apart from all other +objections to such a system, one of its obvious defects was that no +common principle was recognized in the municipal arrangements of the +metropolis; there were no common rules for their regulation of traffic, +for the levying of rates, for the management of public institutions, and +a Londoner who changed his residence from one part of the town to +another, or even from one side of a street to another, might find +himself suddenly brought under the control of a system of municipal +regulations with which he was totally unfamiliar. Appeals were +constantly made by enlightened Londoners for some uniform system of +London government, but for a long time nothing was done in the way of +reform. At last, however, it happened--luckily, in one sense, for the +community--that the Metropolitan Board of Works, which ruled the West +End districts, became the cause of much public scandal because of its +mistakes and mismanagement, not to use any harsher terms, in the dealing +with public contracts. The excitement caused by these discoveries made +it impossible for the old system to be maintained any longer, and the +result was the passing of an Act of Parliament which created an +entirely new governing body for the metropolis. This new governing body +was styled the London County Council, and it was to have control of the +whole metropolis, with the exception of that comparatively small extent +of municipal territory which we know as the City of London. The members +of the new County Council were to be chosen, for the most part, as are +the members of the House of Commons, by direct popular suffrage. Some of +the foremost men in England became members of the new County Council. +One of these was Lord Rosebery, another was Sir Thomas Farrer (who has +since become Lord Farrer), a third was Frederic Harrison, one of the +most eminent writers and thinkers of his time, and another was John +Burns, the working engineer. I mention this fact only to show how +thoroughly John Burns must have established his reputation as a man well +qualified to take a leading place in the municipal government of London. +Since that time he has been elected again and again to the same +position. + +When the great dispute broke out in London between the dock-laborers and +the ship-owners, John Burns took an active and untiring part in the +endeavor to obtain fair terms for the workers, and by his moderation +and judgment, as well as by his inexhaustible energy, he did inestimable +service in the bringing about of a satisfactory settlement. The late +Cardinal Manning took a conspicuous part in the effort to obtain good +terms for the workingmen, and he was recognized on both sides of the +dispute as a most acceptable mediator, and I remember that he expressed +himself more than once in the highest terms as to the services rendered +by John Burns during the whole of the crisis. Burns made one or two +unsuccessful attempts to obtain a seat in the House of Commons--or +perhaps, to put it more correctly, I should say that he consented, in +obedience to the pressure of his friends and followers, to become a +candidate for a seat. In 1892 he was elected to Parliament as the +representative of that Battersea district where his life began, and he +has held the seat ever since. In the House of Commons he has been a +decided success. It is only right to say that the workingmen +representatives, who now form a distinct and influential section in the +House, have fully vindicated their right to hold places there, and have, +with hardly any exception, done honor to the choice of their +constituents. John Burns is among the foremost, if not the very +foremost, of the working class representatives. He has won the good +opinions of all parties and classes in the House of Commons. He has won +especial merit which counts for much in the House--he never makes a +speech unless when he has something to say which has a direct bearing on +the debate in progress and which it is important that the House should +hear. He is never a mere declaimer, and he never speaks for the sake of +making a speech and having it reported in the newspapers. The House +always knows that when John Burns rises he has some solid argument to +offer, and that he will sit down as soon as he has said his say. + +The first time I had the honor of becoming personally acquainted with +John Burns was in the House of Commons, shortly after his first +election, and I was introduced to him by my friend Michael Davitt. I +could not help feeling at the time that it was a remarkable event in +one's life to be introduced to John Burns by Michael Davitt. Both these +men were then honored members of the House of Commons, and both had for +many years been regarded by most of what are called the ruling classes +as disturbers of the established order of things and enemies of the +British Constitution. Davitt had spent years in prison as a rebel, and +Burns had been at least once imprisoned, though but for a short time, as +a disturber of public order. Every one came to admit in the end that +each man was thoroughly devoted to a cause which he believed rightful, +and that the true and lasting prosperity of a State must depend largely +on men who are thus willing to make any sacrifice for the maintenance of +equal political rights in the community. I have had, since that time, +many opportunities of meeting with Burns in public and private and +exchanging ideas with him on all manner of subjects, and I can only say +that the better I have known him the higher has been my opinion of his +intelligence, his sincerity, and his capacity to do the State some +service. + +John Burns has made himself very useful in the committee work of the +House of Commons. The House hands over the manipulation and arrangement +of many of its measures on what I may call technical subjects--measures +concerning trade and industry, shipping and railways, and other such +affairs of business--to be discussed in detail and put into working +shape by small committees chosen from among the members; and these +measures, when they have passed through this process of examination, are +brought up for full and final settlement in the House itself. It will be +easily understood that there are many subjects of this order, on which +the practical experience and the varied observation of a man like Burns +must count for much in the shaping of legislation. Burns has genial, +unpretending manners, and although he was born with a fighting spirit, +he is not one of those who make it their effort to cram their opinions +down the throats of their opponents. Although his views are extreme on +most of the questions in which he takes a deep interest, he is always +willing to admit that there may be something to be said on the other +side of the controversy; he is ever ready to give a full consideration +to all the arguments of his fellow-members, and if any one in the +committee can show him that he is mistaken on this or that point, he +will yield to the force of argument, and has no hesitation about +acknowledging a change in his views. Fervent as he is in his devotion to +any of the great principles which have become a faith with him, there is +nothing of the fanatic about him, and I do not think his enemies would +ever have to fear persecution at his hands. There is no roughness in +his manners, although he has certainly not been brought up to the ways +of what is generally known as good society; and his smile is winning and +sweet. He has probably a certain consciousness of mental strength, as he +has of physical strength, which relieves him from any inclination +towards self-assertion. I should find it as difficult to believe that +John Burns countenanced a deed of oppression as I should find it to +believe that he sought by obsequiousness the favor of the great. + +John Burns was, it is almost needless to say, an opponent from the very +beginning of the policy which led to the war against the South African +Republics. When the general election came on, about midway in the course +of the war, the war passion had come upon the country like an epidemic, +and some of the most distinguished English representatives lost their +seats in the House of Commons because they refused to sanction the Jingo +policy. Many men who were rising rapidly into Parliamentary distinction +were defeated at the elections by Imperialist candidates. Nor were the +men thus shut out from Parliament for the time all members of the +Liberal party. In some instances, although few indeed, there were men +belonging to the Conservative, the Ministerial, side, who could not see +the justice of the war policy and would not conceal their opinions, and +who therefore had to forfeit their seats when some thoroughgoing Tory +Imperialists presented themselves as rivals for the favor of the local +voters. So great was the influence of the war passion that even among +the constituencies where the workingmen were strong there were examples +of an Imperialist victory over the true principles of liberty and +democracy. But the Battersea constituents of John Burns remained +faithful to their political creed and to him, and he was sent back in +triumph to the House of Commons to carry on the fight for every good +cause there. He took part in many debates during the continuance of the +campaign, and he never made a speech on the subject of the war which was +not listened to with interest even by those most opposed to his +opinions. He has the gift of debate as well as the gift of declamation, +and he knows his part in Parliamentary life far too well to substitute +declamation for debate. The typical demagogue, as he is pictured by +those who do not sympathize with democracy, would on such occasions +have merely relieved his mind by repeated denunciations of that war in +particular and of wars in general, and would soon have lost any hold on +the attention of the House, which is, to do it justice, highly practical +in its methods of discussion. John Burns spoke in each debate on the war +when he had something to say which could practically and precisely bear +on the subject then under immediate consideration--a question connected +with the administration of the campaign, with the manner in which the +War Office or the Colonial Office was conducting some particular part of +its administrative task, with the immediate effects of this or that +movement, and in this way he compelled attention and he challenged +reply. I remember, for instance, that when the spokesmen of the +Government were laying great stress on the severity and injustice of the +Boer State's dealings with the native populations of South Africa, John +Burns gave from his own experience and observation instances of the +manner in which African populations had been dealt with by British +authorities, and demanded whether such actions would not have justified +the intervention of some European State if the conduct of the Boer +Government, supposing it to be accurately described, was a +justification for England's invasion of the Boer territory. Whenever he +took part in the debate, he met his opponents on their own ground, and +he challenged their policy in practical detail, instead of wasting his +time in mere declamatory appeals to principles of liberty and justice +which would have fallen flat upon the minds of those who held it as +their creed that Imperial England was free to dictate her terms to all +peoples of inferior strength and less highly developed civilization. + +John Burns has fairly won for himself an honorable place in the history +of our time. If he had done nothing else, he would have accomplished +much by demonstrating in his own person the right of the workingman to +have a seat in Parliament. One finds it hard now to understand how the +English House of Commons could ever have been regarded as the +representative ruling body of England, when it held no members who were +authorized by position and by experience to speak for the working +populations of the country. I mean no disparagement to the other +representatives of the working classes when I say that I regard John +Burns as the most distinguished and the most influential among them. +Others of the same order have rendered valuable service, not merely to +their own class, but to the State in general since they came to hold +seats in the House of Commons; some have even held administrative office +in a Liberal Government, and have shown themselves well qualified for +the duties. Not any of them, so far as I can recollect, has ever shown +himself the mere declaimer and demagogue whom so many Conservative +observers and critics used to tell us we must expect to meet if the +workingmen were enabled to send their spokesmen into the House of +Commons. I do not know whether John Burns has any ambition to hold a +seat in some future Liberal Ministry, but I venture to think that if +such should be his fortune, he will prove himself more useful than ever +to the best interests of his country. He has never sought to obtain the +favor and the support of his own order by flattering their weaknesses, +by encouraging them in their errors, or by allowing them to believe that +the right must always be on their side and the wrong on the side of +their opponents. I fully believe that he has good and great work yet to +do. + + + + +[Illustration: Photograph copyright by W. & D. Downey + +SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH] + + + + +SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH + + +Sir Michael Hicks-Beach is now, as everybody knows, out of office. _Il +reviendra_, no doubt, and in a happier sense, we may trust, than fate +allowed to the once famous personage concerning whom the words I have +quoted were said and sung throughout France. _Il reviendra_ was the +burden of the chant composed to the honor of the late General Boulanger +and echoed through all the French music-halls at the time when Boulanger +got into trouble with the existing government. But Sir Michael +Hicks-Beach is a man of very different order from Boulanger, with whom +he has, so far as I know, nothing whatever in common except the fact +that they were both born in the same year, 1837. + +The admirers of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach may take it for granted that he +will some time or other return to a high position in an English +administration. Whether that administration is to be Liberal or +Conservative we must wait for events to show. One can imagine the +formation of a Conservative Government which might rise to the level of +Hicks-Beach; or one might imagine the formation of a Liberal Government +in which Hicks-Beach could see his way to take office; but I think it +would be hard to realize the idea of such a man being left out of office +or kept out of office for many years. He was, according to my judgment, +the most efficient and capable member of the Conservative Government now +in office, the Government from which he felt himself compelled to +withdraw, or in which, at all events, he was not pressed to continue. He +was not a brilliant figure in that Government. He had not the push and +the energy and the impressive debating powers of Mr. Chamberlain, and he +had not the culture, the grace, and the literary style of Mr. Arthur +Balfour. He made no pretensions whatever to the gift of oratory, +although he had some at least of the qualities which are needed for +oratorical success. His style of speaking is remarkably clear and +impressive. No question, however complex and difficult, seems hard to +understand when explained by Hicks-Beach. He compels attention rather +than attracts it. There are no alluring qualities in his eloquence, +there are no graces of manner or exquisite forms of expression; there is +a cold, almost harsh clearness enforcing itself in every speech. The +speaker seems to be telling his hearers that, whether they agree with +him or not, whether they like him or not, they must listen to what he +has to say. There is a certain quality of antagonism in his manner from +first to last, and he conveys the idea of one who feels a grim +satisfaction in the work of hammering his opinions into the heads of men +who would rather be thinking of something else if the choice were left +to them. "Black Michael" is the nickname familiarly applied to Sir +Michael Hicks-Beach in private conversation by the members of the House +of Commons, and the nickname has found its way into the columns of +"Punch" and other periodicals. The term "Black Michael" does not, we may +assume, refer merely to the complexion of Hicks-Beach, to the color of +his hair; but means to suggest a grim dark-someness about his whole +expression of countenance and bearing. Certainly any one who watches Sir +Michael Hicks-Beach as he sits during a debate in the House of Commons, +waiting for his turn to reply to the attacks on some measure of which he +is a supporter, will easily understand the significance of the +appellation. Hicks-Beach follows every sentence of the speaker then +addressing the House with a stern and ironical gaze of intensity which +seems already to foredoom the unlucky orator to a merciless castigation. +I must say that if I were a member of the House of Commons devoted to +the championship of some not quite orthodox financial theory, I should +not like to know that my exposition of the doctrine was to be publicly +analyzed by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach. + +Yet Hicks-Beach is not by any means an ungenial man, according to my +observation. Some of his colleagues say that he has a bad temper, or at +least a quick temper; and I must say that I can easily understand how a +man of vigorous intelligence and expansive views might occasionally be +brought into a mood of unphilosophic acrimony by the goings-on of the +present Conservative administration. During my many years of service in +the House of Commons I had opportunities of coming into personal +intercourse with Hicks-Beach, and I have always found him easy of +approach and genial in his manners. At different times while he was +holding office I had to make representations to him privately with +regard to some difficulty arising between an administrative department +and certain localities which felt themselves oppressed, or at least put +at a disadvantage, by the working of new regulations. I always found Sir +Michael Hicks-Beach ready to give a full and fair consideration to every +complaint and to exercise his authority for the removal of any genuine +grievance. But I can easily understand that observers who have not had +personal dealings with Hicks-Beach and have only observed him as he sits +silent, dark, and grim during some debate in the House of Commons, may +well have formed some very decided impressions as to his habitual moods +and tempers. A member of the House once asked me whether I was aware of +the fact that a certain line in one of Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient Rome" +was supposed to contain a prophetic description of Sir Michael +Hicks-Beach. I gave up the puzzle, and then my friend told me that the +description was contained in the lines describing the Roman trumpet-call +which tell that + + "The kite knows well the long stern swell." + +I hope my American readers will not have quite forgotten the meaning of +the term "swell," now somewhat falling into disuse, but at one time +very commonly employed in England to describe a member of what would now +be called "smart society." + +Sir Michael Hicks-Beach has held many offices. He has been +Under-Secretary for the Home Department, and Secretary to the Poor Law +Board; he has been twice Chief Secretary for Ireland, or, to speak more +strictly, Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; and he has +been twice Chancellor of the Exchequer. I need hardly say that he was +not able to accomplish much during the periods of his Irish +administration. I have said in preceding articles that it is not +possible for the Chief Secretary of a Conservative Government to +accomplish anything worth attempting in the work of Irish +administration. What Ireland demands is the right to manage her own +national affairs in her own domestic Parliament, and there is nothing +worth doing to be done by any government which will not take serious +account of her one predominant claim. No patronage of local charities, +local flower shows, and local racecourses, no amount of Dublin Castle +hospitalities, no vice-regal visits to public schools and municipal +institutions, can bring about any real improvement in the relations +between Great Britain and Ireland. I have no doubt that Hicks-Beach did +all in his power to see that the business of his department was +efficiently and honestly conducted in Dublin Castle, but under the +conditions imposed upon him by Conservative principles it was impossible +for him to accomplish any success in the administration of Irish +affairs. It has often come into my mind that a certain sense of his +limitations in this way was sometimes apparent in the bearing and manner +of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, when he had to take any prominent part in +the business of Dublin Castle. He has an active mind and a ready faculty +of initiative, and there was no place for such a man in the sort of +administrative work which mainly consists in the endeavor to keep things +going as they have been going, and striving after an impossible +compromise between despotic principles and a free constitutional system. + +Hicks-Beach, of course, was more in his place when at the head of the +financial department of the administration. He is admitted to have been +one of the most skillful and enlightened among modern Chancellors of the +Exchequer. His financial statements were always thoroughly clear, +symmetrical, and interesting from first to last. He never got into any +entanglement with his figures, and his array of facts was always +marshaled with something like dramatic skill. I do not profess to be +very strong upon financial questions, but I could always understand and +follow with the deepest interest any financial exposition made by +Hicks-Beach. He seemed to me to be distinctly above the level of his +party and his official colleagues on all such questions, and it has +often occurred to me that such a man was rather thrown away upon a +Conservative Government. Whatever else might be said against them, it +could not be said that his speeches at any time sank to the level of the +commonplace. There was something combative in his nature, and his style +of speaking, with its clear, strong, and sometimes almost harsh tones, +appeared as if it were designed in advance to confront and put down all +opposition. The House of Commons had for a long time got into the way of +regarding Hicks-Beach as a man in advance of his colleagues on all +subjects of financial administration. Every Tory in office, or likely to +be in office, now professes himself a free-trader, in the English sense +of the phrase, but Sir Michael Hicks-Beach was evidently a genuine +free-trader, and never could have been anything else since he first +turned his attention seriously and steadily to financial questions. I +should describe him as one of the foremost debaters in the House of +Commons among the men who made no pretensions to the higher order of +eloquence; and probably an additional attraction was given to his +speeches by that aggressive and combative tone which I have just +noticed. I have sometimes fancied that his combativeness of manner and +his dictatorial style were less intended for the discomfiture of his +recognized political opponents than for that of his own colleagues in +office. Long before there was any rumor of incompatibility between +Hicks-Beach and the members of the present Government, I have often +found myself wondering how the man who expressed such enlightened ideas +on so many financial and political questions could possibly get on with +a somewhat reactionary Conservative administration. Of course I have no +means of knowing anything beyond that which is known to the general +public concerning the causes which led to Hicks-Beach's withdrawal or +exclusion from his place in the present Government. Even those London +journals which profess to know everything about the inner councils of +the Cabinet did not, and do not, tell us anything more on this +particular subject than the news, impossible to be concealed, that Sir +Michael Hicks-Beach had ceased to be a member of the Conservative +administration. We were all left to make any conjectures we pleased as +to the cause of this remarkable change, and I feel, therefore, no +particular diffidence in expounding my own theory. During the long +debates on Hicks-Beach's latest Budget proposals, which I had to follow +only through the medium of the newspaper reports, I became possessed +with the idea that Hicks-Beach was performing reluctantly an uncongenial +and almost intolerable task. + +Let me recall to the minds of my readers some of the conditions amid +which Hicks-Beach found himself compelled of late to carry on his work. +It should be said, in the first instance, that he never showed himself, +and, as I believe, never could have been, a genuine Tory of the old +school. He never exhibited himself as an uncompromising partisan on any +of the great subjects which arouse political antagonism. He must have +had very little sympathy indeed with the dogmas and the watchwords and +the war-cries of old-fashioned militant Toryism. He never identified +himself with the cause of the Orangemen in Ireland or the principles of +the Jingoes in England. He seldom addressed the House of Commons on any +subjects but those which belonged to his own department, and these were +for the most part questions of finance. When, however, he had +occasionally to take part in debates on subjects connected with +England's foreign policy, he generally spoke with an enlightenment, a +moderation, and a conciliatory tone which would have done credit to any +statesman and seemed little in keeping with the policy and the temper of +modern Toryism. But Hicks-Beach had fallen upon evil days for a man of +his foresight, his intellect, and his temperament generally who had +found a place in a Conservative Cabinet. The policy which led to the +outbreak of the war in South Africa aroused a passion in the English +public mind which found its utmost fury among the partisans of Toryism. +Tory and Jingo became for the time synonymous terms. The man who did not +allow his heart and soul to be filled with the war spirit must have +seemed to most of his friends unworthy to be called a Conservative. Even +among certain sections of the Liberals it required much courage for any +man to condemn or even to criticise with severity the policy which had +led to the war. Any one who ventured on such a course, whether he were +Liberal or Conservative, was straightway branded with the opprobrious +epithet of pro-Boer, and that title was supposed to carry his complete +condemnation. England had come back suddenly to the same kind of +passionate temper which prevailed during the earlier part of the Crimean +War. "He who is not with us is against us," cried the professing +patriots at both times--he who does not glorify the war is a traitor to +his own country and a pro-Boer, or a pro-Russian, as the case might be. +This was the temper with which Hicks-Beach found that he had to deal +during the later years of his financial administration. + +It would be out of place to enter into any speculation as to what +Hicks-Beach's own views may have been with regard to the whole policy of +the war. It is now well known that Queen Victoria was entirely opposed +to that policy, although she did not feel that her position as a +constitutional sovereign gave her authority to overrule it by a decision +of her own. There is very good reason to believe that peace was brought +about at last by the resolute exercise of King Edward's influence. It is +at least not unlikely that a man of Hicks-Beach's intellect and +temperament may have been opposed at first to the policy which brought +on the war, but may have, nevertheless, believed that his most patriotic +course would be to remain in the Government and do the best he could for +the public benefit. He soon found himself compelled to perform as +disagreeable a task as an enlightened financial statesman could have to +undertake--the task of extracting from the already overburdened +taxpayers the means of carrying on a war of conquest with which he had +little sympathy. It was perfectly evident that the needed revenue could +not be extracted from the country without some violation of those +financial principles to which Hicks-Beach had long been attached. There +was no time for much meditation--the money had to be found somehow--and +a great part of it could only be found by the imposition of a duty on +foreign imports. We now know from public statements made by Sir Michael +Hicks-Beach himself that while the war was going on he became impressed +with the conviction that the whole administration of the military +department was grossly mismanaged, and that the money of the nation was +thrown away when the War Office came to spend it. The conviction thus +forced upon him could not have tended to make the task of providing +means for such further expenditure any the more agreeable to him. We may +assume that he saw no other course before him than to make the best of a +bad job and try to find in the least objectionable way the amount of +money necessary to carry on the business of the State. It was evident to +him that the principles of free trade must be put aside for the present, +and he found himself driven to the odious necessity of imposing a duty +on the importation of foreign corn, a duty which in fact amounted to a +tax on bread. Hicks-Beach well knew that no tax could be more odious to +the poorer classes of the British Islands; but we may presume that in +his emergency he could see no other way of raising the money, and he +accepted the situation with a dogged resolve which made no pretense at +any concealment of his personal dislike for the task. His manner of +delivering the speech in which he set forth his scheme of finance was +that of a man who has to discharge an odious duty, or what he finds +himself by the force of circumstances compelled to regard as a duty, +but will utter no word which might seem to make out that he has any +excuse other than that of hateful necessity. The substance of +Hicks-Beach's explanations on this part of his budget might be summed up +in such words as these: "We have got to pay for this war, and we have no +time to spare in finding the money; we must cast aside for the time the +principles of free trade; but do not let us further degrade ourselves by +hypocritical attempts to make out that what we are doing is in +accordance with the free-trade doctrine." I remember well that on +reading Hicks-Beach's budget speech I became deeply impressed with the +conviction that his task was becoming so intolerable to him that we +might expect before long to see a change in the composition of the +Government. But it appeared to me that, as the debate went on and the +days went on, the position of Hicks-Beach was becoming more and more +difficult. Some of the members of the Cabinet became to all appearance +suddenly possessed with an inspiration that the time had arrived for a +bold movement of reaction against the long-accepted doctrines of free +trade. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had already receded so far from +the established policy as to propose the imposition of a tax on the +imported materials for making bread; and why, therefore, should we not +take advantage--thus at least I construed their ideas--of this tempting +opportunity to introduce a system of preferential duties and an +imitation Zollverein for England and some of her colonies, and to break +away from the creed and dogmas of men like Gladstone, Cobden, and +Bright? These proposals must have opened to the eyes of Hicks-Beach a +vista of financial heresies into which he could not possibly enter. He +probably thought that he had gone far enough in the way of compromise +when he consented to meet immediate emergencies by the imposition of a +bread-tax. Is it possible that he may have felt some compunctious +visiting because of his having yielded so far to the necessities of the +moment? However that may be, I take it for granted, and took it for +granted at the time, that Hicks-Beach found the incompatibility between +his own views as to the raising of revenue and the views beginning to be +developed by some of his colleagues becoming more and more difficult to +reconcile. + +Let me venture on an illustration, although it be not by any means +photographic in its accuracy, of the difficulty with which the +Chancellor of the Exchequer found himself confronted. Let us suppose +Hicks-Beach to be the leader of a pledged society of total abstainers. +At a moment of sudden crisis he feels called upon to relax so far the +rigidity of the society's governing principle as to allow one of its +members who is threatened with utter physical prostration a few drops of +alcoholic stimulant. He finds his course cordially approved by some of +his most influential colleagues, and at first he is proud of their +support. But it presently turns out that they regard his reluctant +concession as the opening up of a new practice in their regulations, and +they press upon him all manner of propositions for the toleration and +even the encouragement of what my friend Sir Wilfrid Lawson, the great +English champion of total abstinence, would term "moderate drunkenness." +Fancy what the feelings of Sir Wilfrid Lawson would be if by some +temporary and apparently needful concession he found himself regarded by +those around him as an advocate of moderate drunkenness! Such, I cannot +help thinking, must have been, in its different way, the condition to +which Sir Michael Hicks-Beach felt himself brought down, when he +discovered that his introduction of an import duty on foreign grain was +believed by his principal colleagues to be but the opening of a +reactionary movement against the whole policy of free trade. + +The Government of Lord Salisbury seemed to be in the highest good +spirits at the prospects before them. Mr. Chamberlain in especial seemed +to believe that the time had come for him to develop an entirely new +system of his own for the adjustment of import and export duties. For +many weeks the English newspapers were filled with discussions on Mr. +Chamberlain's great project for the new British Imperial Zollverein, of +which England was to be the head. Numbers of Mr. Chamberlain's +Conservative admirers were filled with a fresh enthusiasm for the man +who thus proposed to reverse altogether the decisions of all modern +political economy laid down by Liberal statesmen and Radical writers. +Stout old Tory gentlemen representing county constituencies began to be +full of hope that the good old times were coming back. + +That was the crisis--so far at least as the official career of Sir +Michael Hicks-Beach was concerned for the time. What may have happened +in the private councils of the Government we of the outer world were not +and are not permitted to know. All that we actually do know is that Lord +Salisbury resigned his place as Prime Minister, that Arthur Balfour was +called to succeed him in office, and that a new administration was +formed in which the name of Hicks-Beach did not appear. There were other +changes also made in the administration, but with these I shall not for +the present concern myself. The important fact for this article is that +Sir Michael Hicks-Beach was no longer Chancellor of the Exchequer. All +manner of conjectures were made as to the reasons why Lord Salisbury so +suddenly withdrew from the position of Prime Minister, and why he could +not be prevailed upon to hold the place even nominally until after King +Edward's coronation. I do not suppose that the resignation of Lord +Salisbury had anything to do with the fact that Sir Michael Hicks-Beach +ceased to be Chancellor of the Exchequer. The vacancies were not made +simultaneously, nor did there appear any reason to believe that +Hicks-Beach was so closely identified with the political fortunes of +Lord Salisbury as to be unable to remain in office when his leader had +ceased to hold the place of command. So far as an outsider can judge, it +must have been that Hicks-Beach could not get on with the new +administration, or that the new administration could not get on with +him. My own theory, and I only offer it to my readers as the theory of a +mere observer from the outside, is that Hicks-Beach could not stand any +more of the reaction towards protection principles--thought he had gone +quite as far as any sense of duty to his party could exact from him, and +made up his mind that if his colleagues were anxious to go any farther +in what he believed to be the wrong direction they must do so without +any help or countenance from him. + +This theory has taken a firmer hold than ever of my mind since I read +the report of a speech lately made by Hicks-Beach weeks and weeks after +he had ceased to be Chancellor of the Exchequer. That recent speech +might have been made by a member of the Liberal Opposition. Certainly in +some of its most important and striking passages it enunciated opinions +and laid down doctrines which might have come from almost any of Sir +Henry Campbell-Bannerman's colleagues on the front Opposition bench. It +denounced extravagant war expenditure at a time when Imperialist +politicians were calling out for something very like military +conscription, and it insisted that the defense of England by the +strength of her navy ought to be the main consideration of English +statesmanship. That is a doctrine which used to be proclaimed in distant +days by such men as Cobden and Bright, which soon became an accepted +principle among all genuine Liberals, but has lately been repudiated by +all Imperialists, Liberal or Tory, who seem to think that the one great +business of English statesmanship is to turn England into a military +encampment. The natural and reasonable conclusion to be drawn from such +a speech is that during the last session or two of Parliament +Hicks-Beach found it impossible to put up any longer with the reign of +Jingo principles in the Cabinet, and made up his mind to set himself +free from such a domination. The Tory Government has lost its ablest +financial administrator, and Sir Michael Hicks-Beach has regained his +position of independence. + +The future must tell the story of Hicks-Beach's remaining career. That +he has yet an important career before him may be taken for granted if +only the fates allow him the ordinary length of man's life. Nothing but +absolute retirement from Parliamentary work could reduce such a man to a +position of complete neutrality, or could prevent him from having an +influence which the leaders of both political parties must take into +consideration. He is too strong in debate, too well trained in the +business of administration, and too quick in observing the real import +of growing political changes, and in distinguishing between them and the +mere displays of ephemeral emotion, not to make his influence felt at +any great crisis in the conditions of political parties. I hold, +therefore, to the hope expressed at the opening of this article, that +_il reviendra_--that Sir Michael Hicks-Beach will come back before long +to an important place in some administration. The House of Commons could +not afford just now to lose the services of such a man, and I take it +for granted that Hicks-Beach could not remain long in the House of +Commons without being called upon to accept an official position. He is +beyond question one of the very ablest men on the side of the Government +in that House, and his integrity, his moderation, his capacity to +understand the significance of new facts, and his disinterestedness +have won for him the respect of all parties in Parliament and outside +it. We are, to all appearance, on the eve of great changes in the +composition of our political parties. With the close of the war has come +to an end that season of Jingoism which brought so many weak-minded +Liberals into fascinated co-operation with the Tories. The reaction +against Toryism must come, and it will probably bring with it a +reconstitution of both parties on the principles which each may consider +essential to its character at a time when peace at home gives our +legislators a chance of studying the domestic welfare of the people in +these islands. It will not be enough then for a public man to proclaim +himself Imperialist in order to win the votes of a constituency, or to +denounce his rival as a pro-Boer in order to secure defeat for that +unlucky personage. The constituencies will begin to ask what each +candidate proposes to do for the domestic prosperity of our populations +at home, and to demand an explicit answer. Under such conditions, +whatever be the reconstitution of parties, I am strongly of opinion that +Sir Michael Hicks-Beach will before long begin a new administrative +career. + + + + +[Illustration: Photograph copyright by Elliott & Fry + +JOHN E. REDMOND] + + + + +JOHN E. REDMOND + + +John Edward Redmond is one of the leading men in the House of Commons +just now. He is one of the very few really eloquent speakers of whom the +House can boast at the present time. His eloquence is, indeed, of a kind +but rarely heard in either House of Parliament during recent years. The +ordinary style of debate in the House of Commons is becoming more and +more of the merely conversational order, and even when the speaker is +very much in earnest, even when he is carried away by the fervor of +debate, his emotion is apt to express itself rather in an elevation of +the voice than in an exaltation of the style. Among members of the House +who may be still regarded as having a career before them I do not think +there are more than three or four who are capable of making a really +eloquent speech--a speech which is worth hearing for its style and its +language as well as for its information and its argument. John Redmond +is one of these gifted few; Lloyd-George is another. I have heard some +critics depreciate John Redmond's eloquence on the ground that it is +rather old-fashioned. If it be old-fashioned to express one's meaning in +polished and well-balanced sentences, in brilliant phrasing, and with +melodious utterance, then I have to admit that John Redmond is not, in +his style of eloquence, quite up to the present fashion, and I can only +say that it is so much the worse for the present fashion. It is quite +certain that Redmond is accepted by the House of Commons in general as +one of its most eloquent speakers and one of its ablest party leaders. + +Redmond has already been some twenty years in the House of Commons. He +was a very young man when first chosen to represent an Irish +constituency in the House. I have noticed that our biographical +dictionaries of contemporary life do not agree as to the date of +Redmond's birth. Some of the books set him down as born in 1851, while +others give the year of his birth as 1856. I think I have good reason +for knowing that the latter date is the correct one. Perhaps it ought to +bring a sense of gratification to a public man when a dispute arises as +to the date of his birth. It may give him a complacent reminder of the +fact that certain cities disputed as to Homer's birthplace. + +John Redmond comes of a good family, and his father was for a long time +a member of the House of Commons. I can remember the elder Redmond very +well, and he was a man of the most courteous bearing and polished +manners, a man of education and capacity, who, whenever he spoke in +debate, spoke well and to the point, and was highly esteemed by all +parties in the House. John Redmond was educated at Trinity College, +Dublin, studied for the law and was called to the bar, but did not +practice in the profession. He was elected to the House of Commons in +1881, and became a member of that National party which had been formed +not long before under the guidance of Charles Stewart Parnell. From the +time when he first took part in a Parliamentary debate it was evident +that John Redmond had inherited his father's graceful manner of +speaking, and it was soon discovered that he possessed a faculty of +genuine eloquence which had not been displayed by the elder Redmond. +John Redmond had and still has a voice of remarkable strength, volume, +and variety of intonation, and he was soon afforded ample opportunity +of testing his capacity for public speech. It was a great part of +Parnell's policy that there should be a powerful Home Rule organization +extending itself over all parts of Great Britain, founding institutions +in all the principal cities and towns, and addressing audiences indoors +and out on the subject of Ireland's demand for domestic self-government. +John Redmond soon became one of the most effective organizers of this +new movement and one of the most powerful pleaders of the cause on +public platforms. The first time I ever heard him make a speech in +public was at a great open-air meeting held in Hyde Park. He had to +address a vast crowd, and I felt naturally anxious to know what his +success might be under such trying conditions for a young speaker. He +had then but a slender frame, and his somewhat delicately molded +features did not suggest the idea of great lung-power. After his first +sentence I felt no further doubt as to his physical capacity. He had a +magnificent voice, clear, resonant, and thrilling, which made itself +heard all over the crowd without the slightest apparent effort on the +part of the speaker. I could not help being struck at the time by the +seeming contrast between the boyish, delicate figure and the easy +strength of the resonant voice. + +During his earlier sessions in the House of Commons Redmond did not +speak very often, but when he did speak he made it clear that he had at +his command a gift of genuine eloquence. He held office as one of the +whips of the Irish National party--that is to say, as one of the chosen +officials whose duty it is to look after the arrangements of the party, +to see that its members are always in their places at the right time, to +settle as to the speakers who are to take part in each debate, and to +enter into any necessary communications with the whips of the other +parties in the House. Redmond was a man admirably suited for such work. +He had had an excellent education; he had the polished manners of good +society; he belonged to what I may call the country gentleman order, and +could ride to hounds with a horsemanship which must have won the respect +of the Tory squires from the hunting counties; and he had an excellent +capacity and memory for all matters of arrangement and detail. He +attended to his duties as one of the party whips with unfailing +regularity, and could exercise with equal skill and effect the +influence of persuasiveness and that of official command. + +In the early days of the Parnell party there was not, to be sure, any +great demand on the marshaling power of the whips over the rank and file +of the little army. For a considerable time the whole Parnellite party +did not consist of more than ten or a dozen members. These members, +however, were compelled to do constant duty, and to maintain the great +game of Parliamentary obstruction revived by Parnell at all hours of the +day and the night. It was quite a common thing for a member of the party +to deliver a dozen or fifteen speeches in the course of a single +sitting, and John Redmond had all his work to do in endeavoring to keep +exhausted colleagues up to their business and to see that they did not +leave the precincts of the House until Mr. Speaker should have formally +announced that the day's sitting was over. Redmond's services were of +inestimable value during such a period of trial. As the days went on, +the Irish constituencies became more and more aroused to the necessity +of increasing as far as possible the number of thoroughgoing Parnellites +in the House by getting rid, at every election, of the Irish +members--Irish Whigs as they were called--who did not go in thoroughly, +heart and soul, for the policy of Parnell. Under such conditions the +influence and the eloquence of John Redmond were of the most substantial +service to his party in the work of stirring up the national sentiment +among the Irish populations in the cities and towns of England and +Scotland. Before many years had passed, John Redmond was one of the +whips of an Irish National party in the House of Commons which numbered +nearly ninety members. The increase of official duties thus put upon him +and his brother whips did not seem to trouble him in the slightest +degree. He was always on duty in the House, unless when he had to be on +duty at some public meeting outside its precincts; he was ever in good +spirits; could always give his chief the fullest and most exact +information as to the conditions of each debate, and the best methods of +getting full use of the numbers and the debating strength of the Irish +party at any given moment. + +During the greater part of this time he had not had much opportunity of +cultivating his faculty as a debater, for the whip of a party is +understood to be occupied rather in putting other men up to speak than +in displaying eloquence of his own, and it was for several years not +quite understood by the party that John Redmond was qualified to be and +was destined to be one of its most commanding spokesmen. I ought to say +that among other duties discharged by John Redmond was the trying and +responsible task of traveling on more than one occasion over the United +States and Canada and Australia to preach the Home Rule gospel to the +Irish populations in those countries and to all others who would listen, +and thus to obtain the utmost possible support for the great movement at +home. For many sessions, however, John Redmond was regarded by his +colleagues in the House as a speaker best heard to advantage on some +great public platform outside the Parliamentary precincts, and very few +of them indeed had yet formed the idea that he was also qualified to +become one of the foremost orators in the representative chamber itself. + +I may mention here that Mr. Redmond's intimate knowledge of the rules +and practices of the House and his thorough acquaintance with its +business ways were, in great measure, due to his having held for a time +a place in one of the offices belonging to the House of Commons. He was +appointed, before he became a member of the House, a clerk in the Vote +Office, a department which has to do with the preparation of +Parliamentary documents, the distribution of Parliamentary papers, and +other such technical work. The clerkships in these offices are in the +gift of the Speaker, are an avenue towards the highest promotions in the +official staff of the House, and are usually given to young men who, in +addition to high education and a promise of capacity, can bring some +Parliamentary or family influence to bear on their behalf. John Redmond +had some experience in this Vote Office, and it made him a thorough +master of Parliamentary business. I had enjoyed his personal +acquaintance for some time before he came into the House as a member, +and I had been in the House myself some two years before his election. I +remember often seeing him and exchanging a word with him as he stood +within the House itself, but just below the line which marks the place +where the bar of the House is erected when there is occasion, for any +public purpose, to admit a stranger thus far and no farther, in order +that he may plead some cause before the House or present some petition. +Officials employed in any of the offices belonging to the House are +allowed the proud privilege of advancing up the floor of the chamber as +far as the chair occupied by the Sergeant-at-Arms, the point at which +the bar would be drawn across if occasion should require. Thus I had the +opportunity of conversing with John Redmond on the floor of the House +itself, before he had yet obtained the right of passing beyond the +sacred line of the bar. + +I am quite certain that Parnell himself did not, until the great crisis +came in the Irish National party, fully appreciate the political +capacity of John Redmond. Parnell always regarded him as both useful and +ornamental--useful in managing the business of the party, and ornamental +as a brilliant speaker on a public platform. But he did not appear to +know, and had indeed no means of knowing, that Redmond had in himself +the qualifications of a party leader and the debating power which could +make him an influence in the House of Commons. The speeches which +Redmond made, or rather was "put up" by his leader to make, in the +House, had often for their object merely to fill up time and keep a +debate going until the moment arrived when Parnell thought a division +ought to be taken. But when the great crisis came in the affairs of the +party, then Redmond was soon able to prove himself made of stronger +metal than even his leader had supposed. The crisis was, of course, when +the Parnell divorce case came on, and Gladstone and the Liberal leaders +generally became filled with the conviction that it would be impossible +to carry a measure of Home Rule if Parnell were to retain the leadership +of the Irish National party. I need not go over this old and painful +story again; it is enough to say that the great majority of Parnell's +own followers found themselves compelled to believe that it would be +better for Ireland if Parnell were to resign the leadership and retire +into private life for a certain time. This Parnell refused to do, and, +in opposition to the earnest wishes of the majority of his followers, he +published a sort of manifesto in denunciation of Gladstone. Then came +the famous meetings of the Irish party in Committee-Room No. 15--one of +the committee-rooms belonging to the House of Commons--and, after long +days of angry and sometimes even fierce debate, the great majority of +the party declared that they could no longer follow the leadership of +Parnell. The minority made up their minds to hold with Parnell for good +or evil. + +I am willing and always was willing to render full justice to the +motives which inspired the action of the minority. They did not feel +themselves called upon to justify every act of Parnell's private life, +but they took the position that his private life had nothing to do with +his political career, and that they could not abandon the leader who had +done such service to Ireland merely because his name had become +associated with a public scandal. On the other hand, the majority of the +party, of whom I was one, held that their first duty was to their +country, and that if the continued leadership of Parnell rendered it +impossible for Gladstone to carry his Home Rule measure, they had to +think only of their country and its national cause. During all these +debates in Committee-Room No. 15, John Redmond took the leading part on +the side of the minority. He became the foremost champion of Parnell's +leadership. This position seemed to come to him as if in the nature of +things. I well remember the ability and eloquence which he displayed in +these debates, and the telling manner in which he put his arguments and +his appeals. The course he took was all the more to his credit because +Parnell had never singled him out as an object of especial favors and, +indeed, in the opinion of many among us, had not done full justice to +his services in the House of Commons. Then came the formal division of +the party. The majority met together and reconstituted the party with a +new Chairman, while the minority associated themselves with Parnell as +their leader for the purpose of going over to Ireland and endeavoring to +organize the country in his support. When the end of the fierce open +controversy was brought about at last by Parnell's sudden death, John +Redmond was made the leader of the minority, and from that time forth he +began to give more and more distinct evidences of his capacity for a +Parliamentary leader's position. He and his group of followers kept +themselves in the House of Commons entirely apart from their former +colleagues. John Redmond had often to take a part in the debates of the +House, and every one could see that the serious responsibility imposed +on him was developing in him qualities of leadership, and even of +statesmanship, which very few indeed had previously believed to be among +his gifts. + +Meanwhile the state of things created in Ireland by the split and the +setting up of two opposing parties was becoming intolerable. Every man +of patriotic feeling on either side of the controversy was coming to see +more keenly every day that the maintenance of such a division must be +fatal to the cause, for at least another generation. Some efforts were +made by the leading men on both sides to bring about a process of +reconciliation. John Dillon on the one side, and John Redmond on the +other, lent every help they could to these patriotic efforts. John +Dillon had by this time become leader of the more numerous party, having +been chosen to that position when the leader elected after the severance +from Parnell had been compelled by ill health to resign the place. Every +reasonable man among the Irish Nationalists, inside and outside +Parliament, was coming more and more to see that there was no longer any +occasion whatever for further severance, and that the country demanded a +return to the old principle of union in the National ranks. John Dillon +became impressed with the conviction that it might tend to smooth +matters and to open a better chance for reconciliation if he, as one of +the most conspicuous anti-Parnellites, were to resign his position, and +to invite the whole party to come together again and elect a leader. +Dillon was strongly of opinion that, as all matter of controversy had +been buried in the early grave of Parnell, it would be better for the +cause of future union that the new leader should be chosen from among +the small number of men who had always adhered to Parnell's side. Dillon +prevailed upon most of his friends to adopt his views on this subject. +It was the custom of the Irish National party--indeed, of both the +parties--to elect their leader at the opening of each session, and John +Dillon had been re-elected more than once to the position of command in +his own party. Accordingly, at the close of a session Dillon announced +his intention to resign the place of leader, and he added to the +announcement that he would not then accept re-election, even if it +should be offered to him by a vote of his party. This patriotic course +of action was most happy in its results. The Irish National members met +together once again as a united party, and the leadership was conferred +on John Redmond as an evidence alike of the confidence which was felt in +his capacity and his sincerity, and a proof of the desire entertained by +the majority for a thorough and cordial reunion of the whole party. + +John Redmond was therefore the first leader of the whole party since the +events of Committee-Room No. 15. John Dillon and his immediate +predecessor had been only leaders of a majority, and now John Redmond +was chosen as the leader of the whole party representing the Irish +National cause in the House of Commons. He settled down at once to his +new position with a temper and spirit admirably suited to the work he +had to undertake. He seemed to have put away from his mind all memory of +disunion in the party, and he became once more the friend as well as the +leader of every member enrolled in its ranks. Many of those who formed +the majority had in the first instance only yielded to the persuasion of +John Dillon and others in the election of Redmond as leader merely +because they believed that by such a course the interests of the cause +could best be served just then. But I know that some of these men +accepted with personal reluctance what seemed to be the necessity of the +hour, and looked forward with anything but gratification to the prospect +of having to serve under the new chief. John Redmond, while defending +the cause of the still living Parnell, had shown in the service of his +chief an energy and a passion which few of us could have expected of +him, and was often utterly unsparing in his denunciation of the men who +maintained the other side of the controversy. It was not unnatural that +many of his former opponents should feel some doubt as to the +possibility of working harmoniously under the leadership of a man who +had been but lately so bitter an opponent. I had, at the time of the new +leadership, been compelled by ill health to give up all active part in +public life, but I talked with many members of the majority in the Irish +party who told me frankly that they feared it would not be possible to +get on under the leadership of John Redmond. Before long, however, these +same men spontaneously assured me that they had changed their opinions +on that subject, and were glad to find that they could work with Redmond +in perfect harmony, and that his manner and bearing showed no sign +whatever of any bitter memories belonging to the days of internal +dispute. Redmond devoted himself absolutely to the House of Commons and +the business of leadership, unless indeed when some pressing national +interests compelled him to leave his place in St. Stephen's in order to +see to the organization of the National cause in Ireland or in the +United States. At the time when I am writing this article he has but +lately returned from a visit of that kind to some of the great cities of +the American Republic. + +Fortunately for his country as well as for himself, John Redmond is a +man of private means, is not compelled to earn a living, and can devote +the whole of his time to the service of the National cause. He is always +to be found at his post while the House of Commons is sitting, and I +believe that his morning ride in Hyde Park with his wife every day is +one of the few recreations in which he allows himself to indulge. I had +not long ago a visit from a well-known member of the Irish Parliamentary +party who holds one of its official positions and was at the time of the +internal dispute an uncompromising opponent of Parnell's continued rule. +This friend of mine I know was decidedly opposed at first to the +election of John Redmond as leader, for the reason that he did not +believe such an arrangement could possibly work with smoothness and +satisfaction to the party. But when I saw him lately, he assured me that +he had entirely changed his opinions and that he did not believe any +party could possibly have a better leader than John Redmond had already +proved himself to be. He had nothing but praise for Redmond's bearing +and ways, for the manner in which he appeared to have banished from his +mind all memory of past disunion, and for the unremitting attention with +which he devoted himself to the work of the party inside and outside the +House of Commons. + +Since then I have heard and read nothing but good accounts of the manner +in which Redmond has reorganized the party. It has under his guidance +become once again a powerful force in political life. The House of +Commons, as a whole, has thoroughly recognized Redmond's position, +influence, and capacity. The Prime Minister has given many proofs of the +importance which he attaches to Redmond's decisions and movements. The +new leader of the Irish party has won a much higher rank as a +Parliamentary debater than he ever had attained to in the days before he +had become invested with a really grave responsibility. The newspaper +critics on all sides of political life are agreed in describing him as +one of the foremost living debaters. Indeed, there are but three or four +men in the House of Commons who could possibly be compared with him for +eloquence and skill in debate, and there is a quality of grace and +artistic form in his style of eloquence which often recalls the memories +of brighter days, when the art of oratory was still cultivated in +Parliament. The success with which he has conducted the movements of his +party has compelled Ministerialists and Opposition alike to take serious +account of Redmond and his followers when the chances of any great +political measure are under consideration. Only quite lately, during the +passage of the Education measure, he adopted a policy which at first +greatly puzzled his opponents, and at the last moment succeeded in +impressing the Government and the Ministerial party generally with the +conviction that Redmond understands when and how to strike a decisive +blow. + +Of course we hear sometimes, and of late rather often, about differences +in the Irish party itself, and about a threatened secession from John +Redmond's leadership. The Tory papers in England, and even some of the +journals which are professedly Liberal, made eager use of this supposed +dissension, and endeavored to persuade themselves and their readers that +Redmond has not a full hold over his followers and over the Irish +people. I may tell my American readers that they will do well not to +attach the slightest importance to these stories about a threatened +secession from the lately reunited Irish National party. In the first +place, I never heard of any political party which did not inclose in its +ranks some men who could not always be reckoned on as amenable to the +discipline which is found necessary in every political organization. +There is a considerable number of Liberal members who cannot be counted +on to follow at all times the guidance of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. +There are many Ministerialists, and some of them very clever men, who +have lately been proving that at times they would just as soon vote +against Arthur Balfour as with him. But in regard to the Irish party and +the members who do not always fall in with the wish of its leader, the +actual facts are peculiar. The only members of the party who have lately +been showing a tendency to mutiny are, with one exception, men of no +account whatever in Ireland's political life. I do not wish to name any +names, but I can state with deliberation that almost every one of the +mutinous members just now is a man who has not the slightest chance of +ever again being sent to represent an Irish constituency in the House of +Commons. These men have long since forfeited the confidence of their +constituents and their fellow-countrymen. They are perfectly aware of +this fact; they know quite well that the next general election will see +them put out of Parliamentary life; and, in despair of re-election, they +probably think that they might as well make the most of the opportunity +for rendering themselves conspicuous or for indulging in eccentricities +which now can do them no further harm. It may be taken for granted that +at the next general election the National constituencies of Ireland will +send to the House of Commons no men who are not prepared to work in +complete union with the National party, and to recognize the authority +of the leader who has the confidence of his people. I do not care to +waste many words on this subject, but I think it right to assure my +American readers that they need not attach any serious importance to the +doings of five or six men, most of whom are either mere "cranks" or are +driven to desperation by disappointed personal ambition. + +John Redmond has the confidence of his countrymen in England and +Scotland, as well as in Ireland, and we have seen that within the last +few months he has obtained full assurance that he enjoys the confidence +of his countrymen in the United States, in Canada, and in Australasia. I +feel all the more ready to bear my testimony to his merits and his +success because of the fact that I was, during a crisis which lasted for +some years, in direct opposition to the policy which he felt himself +conscientiously bound to adopt. The change of events has released him +from any obligation to adhere to such a policy, and I do him the justice +to believe that he accepted with the sincerest and most disinterested +good will the first genuine opportunity offered for a complete reunion +of Irish Nationalists. John Redmond is still young enough to have a +career before him, and I feel the fullest confidence in his future. + + + + +[Illustration: Photograph copyright by Elliott & Fry + +SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT] + + + + +SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT + + +Every friend and admirer of Sir William Harcourt must have been glad +when it was made known that the late leader of the Liberal party in the +House of Commons had declined to accept the King's offer of a peerage +and was determined to remain in that representative chamber where he had +made his political name and won his place of command. Sir William +Harcourt would have been thrown away in the House of Lords. He could not +have done anything to arouse that apathetic chamber to living importance +in the affairs of state, and the House of Commons would have lost its +most impressive figure. Sir William Harcourt's political fame was made +in the House of Commons, and he is even yet its most distinguished +member. I say "even yet" because Harcourt is growing old, and has passed +that age of threescore years and ten authoritatively set down as the +allotted space of man's life. But he shows no appearance of old age, +seems full of energy and vital power, and is as well able to command +the listening House of Commons by argumentative speech and impressive +declamation as he was twenty years ago. Harcourt's bearing is one of +superabundant physical resources, and he has a voice of resonant tone +which imposes no tax on the listening powers of the stranger in the +farthest gallery. He is a very tall man, would be one of the tallest men +in any political assembly, and his presence is stately and commanding. +After Gladstone's death he became the leader of the Liberal party in the +House of Commons, and he resigned that position only because he could +not cordially accept the policy and plans of action undertaken by his +leader in the House of Lords, Lord Rosebery. I do not propose to enter +at any length into the differences of opinion which separated these two +men, but it was generally understood that Lord Rosebery did not see his +way to carry out Gladstone's policy for the maintenance of Greece and +the Christian populations generally against the blood-stained domination +of the Ottoman power in the southeast of Europe. The result of these +differences was that Lord Rosebery applied himself to form a Liberal +party of his own, which should be what is called Imperialist in its +policy, and that Harcourt became merely a member of the Liberal +Opposition in the House of Commons. To have won the place of Liberal +leader in the representative chamber might well have satisfied the +ambition of any man, and to withdraw from that place rather than +contribute to any further disagreement in the party did not in any sense +detract from Harcourt's influence and fame. + +Sir William Harcourt won his earliest distinctions in law and literature +rather than in politics. He comes of a family which has a history of its +own and had members who won reputation during many generations. He was +educated at Cambridge University and obtained high honors there. He was +called to the bar in 1854, and became Queen's Counsel in 1866. In the +meantime he had accomplished some important literary work. He was a +writer for the "Saturday Review," then at the zenith of its reputation, +and under the title of "Historicus" he contributed a series of letters +on important public subjects to the "Times" newspaper which attracted +universal attention, were afterwards collected and published in a +volume, and found readers in every part of the world where men take +interest in the public life of England. He was a leading advocate in +some legal causes which excited the profound attention of the whole +country, and was already regarded as a man of mark, who might be safely +assumed to have a successful career before him. It was generally taken +for granted at the time that such a man was certain to seek and find a +place in the House of Commons, which of course offers an opening for +rising legal advocates as well as for rising politicians. I can remember +quite distinctly that to all of us who were watching the careers of +promising men it appeared quite certain that Harcourt was not likely to +content himself with professional distinction, and that when he entered +the House of Commons he would devote himself for the most part to the +business of political life. He made one unsuccessful attempt to obtain a +seat in the House of Commons as representative of a Scottish +constituency, and was more fortunate in his second endeavor, when he was +elected to Parliament by the city of Oxford as a Liberal in 1868. Then +for a while I personally lost sight of him, for towards the close of +that year I began a lengthened visit to the United States, and only +learned through the newspapers that he was already winning marked +distinction as a Parliamentary debater. When I returned to England in +1871, I found that Harcourt was already regarded as certain to hold high +office in a Liberal administration. His first step in that direction was +to obtain the office of Solicitor-General in Gladstone's Government. + +A story was told of Harcourt at the time--this was in 1873--which I +believe to be authentic and is worth repeating. Up to this time he was +merely Mr. William Vernon Harcourt, but the usage in Parliamentary life +is that the leading law officers of the Crown, the Attorney-General and +the Solicitor-General, shall receive the honor of knighthood. It was +therefore a matter of course that Mr. Harcourt should become Sir William +Harcourt, and bear the title by which he is still known everywhere. The +story goes, however, that Harcourt was not much delighted with the offer +of a distinction which is commonly conferred upon the mayors of English +cities and towns and other such personages of municipal position. +Harcourt, as I have said, came of a distinguished English family which +had contributed Lord Chancellors and other such exalted dignitaries to +the business of the State. He probably had also in his mind the fact +that rising men in his own profession who happened to be sons of peers +were specially exempted by constitutional usage from the necessity of +putting up with knighthood when accepting one of the two legal offices +under the Crown. The manner in which this very fact proclaimed the +comparative insignificance of the title may have still further +influenced Harcourt's objections. Anyhow, he did endeavor to impress +upon Gladstone his claim to be exempted from the proffered dignity. +Gladstone, however, assured him that it was the recognized +constitutional practice to confer a knighthood upon a new +Solicitor-General, and that there was no reason why Harcourt should seek +dispensation from the honor. "Then," demanded Harcourt--so at least the +story is told--"why don't you confer knighthoods on all the members of +your Cabinet, and see how some of them would receive the proposition?" I +cannot vouch for this story as historical truth, but I can vouch for the +fact that it was told everywhere at the time, and received, so far as I +know, no contradiction. + +Harcourt made his way almost at once to the front rank of Parliamentary +debaters. His style was somewhat rhetorical and declamatory, but it was +distinctly argumentative, and his speeches contained few passages of +mere declamation. He was a hard hitter, one of the hardest in the House, +but he hit straight from the shoulder and never gave an unfair blow. He +was often very happy in his sarcastic touches, and there was a certain +robust and self-satisfied good humor even in his severest attacks on his +Parliamentary opponents. The general impression of observers at first +was that Harcourt would go in merely for the reputation of a powerful +debater in the House of Commons, and would not show any ambition for the +steady and severe work of Ministerial office. The public had yet to +learn that the highest reputation of the man was to be made by his +success as the head of a great Ministerial department. Many observers +also formed the opinion that Harcourt had no clear political views of +his own, and was merely a sort of free lance ready to accept employment +under the most convenient leader. He had entered the House of Commons as +a Liberal, and even before he accepted office had always ranked himself +as a regular supporter of the Liberal party, but he often made speeches +in opposition to the views of extreme Liberals or Radicals--speeches +such as might well have been made by some eloquent member of the Tory +party. Many of the more advanced Liberals had for some time no +confidence whatever in Harcourt's Liberalism, and were often engaged in +sharp controversy with him. My own impression is that, up to a certain +period in his career, Harcourt had not formed, or troubled himself to +form, any very settled opinions on the rising political questions of the +day. Upon all the old subjects of political debate, on the controversies +which divided political parties in a former generation, his views were, +no doubt, quite settled, but then there were many new subjects coming up +for discussion, bringing with them new occasions for political division, +and it is quite probable that on some of these at least the new +Solicitor-General had not quite made up his mind. He had been a close +student at Cambridge, and had been elected professor of international +law by that University; he had practiced law as an advocate, and had +begun to make a reputation for himself as a writer. It is quite probable +that he had not yet given any special attention to some of the new +questions which the growing development of social and political +conditions was calling up for Parliamentary consideration. + +Harcourt appears to have accepted as a matter of course, when he entered +the House of Commons, the recognized principles inherited by the Liberal +party. But there was then, as at most other periods of England's +constitutional history, a new and advancing Liberal party beginning to +make its influence felt, and not satisfied to abide by the mere +traditions and established canons of the older Liberalism. Only a very +few even of the advanced Liberals were yet prepared to support and +encourage the Irish demand for Home Rule, and on such domestic +questions, for instance, as the regulation of the liquor traffic, the +Liberal party in general had not made up its mind to any policy other +than a policy of mere inaction. I mention these two subjects in +particular because they have an especial value in throwing light upon +the change which took place more lately in Harcourt's political +attitude. Probably at the time when he first entered the House of +Commons he had not concerned himself much with the Home Rule question, +and had allowed himself to take it for granted, as so many even among +Liberal politicians and newspapers would have told him, that the Irish +Home Rulers were aiming at the break-up of the Empire. In the same way +it is quite possible that he may have given little or no attention to +the demand for some new regulation of the liquor traffic, and dismissed +the whole subject as a crotchet of Sir Wilfrid Lawson. When, however, he +began to study the political life of the House of Commons as an active +and a rising member, and when he found that his inclinations and his +instincts were leading him into politics and away from law, we can +easily understand that he set himself to study with candid judgment the +new questions which were beginning to divide the Liberal party. I have +often heard Sir William Harcourt accused of inconsistency and even of +time-serving, because of his sudden conversion to the principle of some +political movement which was at last coming to be accepted by the great +Liberal leaders. I do not see any reason whatever to believe that +Harcourt can fairly be reproached with inconsistency, or justly accused +of any ignoble motive for his adoption of the newer and more advanced +opinions. The explanation seems to me quite clear. The university +student, the practicing advocate, the professor of international law, +adopted a new career and devoted himself to an active part in the work +of the House of Commons. Then it was that he studied for the first time +with earnestness and impartiality some great developing questions which +had previously been mere names and shadows to him, and thus he came to +form the conclusions which guided his subsequent career. If Harcourt had +been thinking chiefly of his own political advancement, he might have +done better for himself by following the example of Disraeli, and taking +a place among the Tories, where intellect and eloquence were more rare +than on the other side of the House, and where promotion was therefore +more easily to be won. + +Harcourt had probably not given much attention to great financial +questions until he came under the influence of Gladstone. Up to that +time he had, perhaps, not assumed that such subjects were likely to come +within the scope of his practical work; but when he had to study them, +he began to discover that he had within him the capacity for a thorough +comprehension of their real meaning and development, and as the result +of the study he became, when the opportunity offered itself, one of the +most successful and enlightened financial Ministers of his time. In the +same way he may never have given any serious thought to the question of +Irish Home Rule, and may have fallen quietly into the way of regarding +it, in accordance with the common opinion of most Englishmen just then, +as something naturally associated with a rebellious desire for the +breaking up of the Empire. When, however, he was led to study it as a +question of reasonable import, he grew to be a convinced and a hopeful +advocate of the cause. For a long time after he had taken office under +Gladstone he found himself brought into an incessant opposition and even +antagonism to the small group of Irish members, who then represented the +Irish national demand, and compelled to fight against the obstruction +which these Irish members were raising night after night, as their only +means of enforcing public attention to a serious consideration of +Ireland's national complaints and claims. He became converted to the +cause of Home Rule, just as Gladstone did, by having the question forced +upon his consideration, and thus being compelled to ask himself whether +there was not some real sense of justice inspiring the Irish agitation. + +I shall always remember a conversation I once had with Gladstone on +this subject of Irish Home Rule. It was in one of the inner lobbies of +the House of Commons, and Mr. Gladstone began it by asking me how I +could regard Home Rule as a national demand, seeing that only a very +small number of the Irish representatives in the House were actively in +favor of such a measure. Gladstone called my attention to the fact that +out of the whole body of Irish representatives elected by the +constituencies on the same basis of voting, less than a dozen members +declared themselves uncompromising advocates of Home Rule. I drew +Gladstone's attention to the fact that the suffrage in Ireland was so +high and so restricted that the whole bulk of the Irish population were +disqualified by law from giving a vote at any election. Gladstone +appealed to me to say whether he had not long been in favor of an +expanded suffrage for the whole Kingdom, and I told him that I cordially +recognized his sincere purpose, and that whenever we got a really fair +and popular suffrage he would then find ample proof that the great bulk +of the Irish people were united in their demands for Home Rule. Not long +after, it came about that Gladstone and his Government saw their way to +a measure of reform which gave the whole Kingdom an expanded and popular +suffrage, and at the next general election the great majority of Irish +members opposed to or lukewarm about Home Rule disappeared altogether +from Parliament, and their places were taken by avowed and +uncompromising Home Rulers elected mainly because they were earnest +advocates of Home Rule. Out of the hundred and three members who +constitute the Irish representation, we had then nearly ninety who were +proclaimed and consistent Home Rulers. This result did much of itself to +make Gladstone a convert to Home Rule, and it had naturally the same +effect on Harcourt, who was far too intelligent a man not to accept the +lesson taught by the Irish constituencies, and to admit that the demand +for Home Rule was a genuine national demand, and as such entitled to the +serious consideration of real statesmen. The conversion of Harcourt I +have always, therefore, regarded as sincere and statesmanlike, and of +the same order as the conversion of Gladstone himself. The first +business of statesmanship is to recognize established facts and to act +upon their evidence. Once the demand had been proved to be national, +neither Gladstone nor Harcourt was the man to deny it a full +consideration; and the same full consideration made the one man and the +other an advocate of Home Rule. + +In the days before the great constitutional change which I have +described, the change which resulted in the adoption of a popular +suffrage, in the days when our small band of Irish Nationalists was +still doing battle inch by inch against the Government, we had many +fierce struggles with Harcourt, then a leading member of the Liberal +administration. We had to admit that we found in him a powerful +antagonist. He was ready in reply, resolute in maintaining his position, +and he gave us, to say the least of it, as good as we brought. He was +ever alert, he could answer attack by attack, he could carry the battle +into the enemy's ranks, and the ablest of our debaters had his best work +to do when compelled to stand up in Parliamentary contest against +Harcourt. But I observed that in our private dealings with Harcourt, on +questions which came within the range of his administrative functions, +we always found him considerate, kind, and even generous. There were +frequent occasions when a Minister of the Crown had to be applied to by +an Irish member for justice in the dealings of his official department, +where individual questions of right and wrong having nothing to do with +the general subject of Home Rule came up for consideration. I am now +speaking of questions which were not to be settled by mere debate in the +House of Commons, but which belonged to the ordinary and practical +dealings of the department with this or that individual case. I can +remember many instances in which I had to make some such appeal to Sir +William Harcourt, and I ever found him most ready and willing to +consider fairly the nature of any individual grievance, and to prevent +the administration of the law from being perversely turned into an +engine of oppression. I know that many of my colleagues as well as +myself felt thankful to Harcourt for his prompt interference where a +real grievance had been brought under his notice, and for his resolve to +see that justice must be done to the obscure sufferer from official +tyranny. When the Liberal Government and the Irish National party came +to work together for Home Rule, we, the Irish National members, had +nothing on our memory which could prevent us from regarding Harcourt as +a genuine Liberal and a sincere friend who had never shown any +inclination to abuse his power when he was strong and we were at our +weakest. My recollection of the days when we were fighting against +Harcourt is tinged with no bitterness. He was always a formidable +fighter, but he fought fairly when he still had to fight against us. + +It is not surprising that Harcourt should have been for some time +regarded as a powerful debater and nothing more. He was one of the +foremost debaters in the House of Commons, even at a time when that +House had more commanding debaters in it than it can claim to have just +at present. He cannot be ranked among the great orators of the House. He +is wanting in imagination, and without the gift of imagination there +cannot be eloquence of the highest order. Even in the mere making of +phrases he has seldom shown originality, and it has often been remarked +of him, as it was remarked by Disraeli of Sir Robert Peel, that he never +ventures on any quotation which has not already well established its +popularity. Sir William Harcourt's best qualities as a speaker consist +in his clearness of exposition, his unfailing fluency, his masterly +array of forcible argument, and the fact that he never allows his +eloquence to soar over the heads of his audience. I should be inclined +to say of him that, although he is unquestionably a great Parliamentary +debater, yet his intellectual capacity, his faculty for balancing +evidence, acquiring and comparing facts, appreciating tendencies, and +coming to just conclusions, are greater even than his powers of speech. +I may say that one who listened to Sir William Harcourt during the +earlier stages of his Parliamentary career might very naturally have +been led to quite a different conclusion, and might have set him down as +a clever maker of speeches and not a statesman. But such an observer, +supposing him to be endowed with a fair amount of intelligence, would +have gradually changed his opinion as he followed Harcourt's political +career. Every time that Harcourt has been in office he has more and more +given proof that there is in him the true quality of statesmanship. He +served as Home Secretary under Gladstone, and was afterwards Chancellor +of the Exchequer, first in one of Gladstone's Administrations and +afterwards in the Government of Lord Rosebery. There can be no question +that he proved himself to be one of the greatest financial Ministers +England has had in recent times. His famous Death Duties budget, +introduced while Lord Rosebery was Prime Minister, created one of the +most vehement controversies known to the political life of the present +generation. Yet the great principle which Harcourt embodied in his +dealing with the question of death duties must now be regarded even by +his political opponents as resting on a basis of absolute morality and +justice. The principle merely was that the amount of taxation which any +individual pays to the State in consideration of his having obtained +property by bequest shall be greater in proportion according as the +acquired property is great in amount. In other words, Harcourt's policy +maintained that a man who comes in for a large property as a bequest +shall pay a larger proportion of taxation to the State than a man who +comes in for a small property, and that the same principle ought to +prevail through our other systems of direct taxation. The whole +controversy simply turns on the question whether the rich man ought or +ought not to pay a larger proportion of his income to defray the +national expenses than the poor man--whether the citizen who has only +income enough to enable him to maintain his family decently ought to be +called upon to pay towards the maintenance of the State on just the same +scale as that ordained for the man who can live in lavish luxury. The +boldness and originality of Sir William Harcourt's venture in his budget +of 1893, the energy and argumentative power with which he carried it to +success, have undoubtedly secured for him a place in the front rank of +England's financial Ministers. The later years of Harcourt's career +offer a strange commentary on the estimate generally formed of him when +he began to be conspicuous in Parliament. At the former period he was +commonly regarded as a clever but somewhat superficial man, as one whose +qualities were rather flashy than sound, as a ready maker of telling +speeches designed to produce an immediate effect and destined to be +utterly forgotten the day after to-morrow. Harcourt's later years of +public work have proved him to be a serious Parliamentary leader, a man +of strong and deep convictions, a man who thinks before he speaks and +speaks because he thinks. + +Indeed, the seriousness of Harcourt's convictions on some subjects of +national importance has brought him more than once into disfavor with +his constituents. He holds very strong and advanced views on the +subject of local option--that is to say, on the right of localities to +say whether they will or will not allow the sale of intoxicating drinks +within their confines, and to state what conditions are to be imposed on +the traffic if it is permitted at all. Sir William Harcourt went further +on this subject than some even among his colleagues who were in favor of +the general principle as a principle, but did not see the necessity for +pressing it to immediate action. One of those colleagues said to me that +in his opinion Harcourt might very well have allowed the question to +stand over for eight or ten years, and perhaps by the end of that time +the habits of the population would have improved so far as to render the +passing of any strong restrictive law unnecessary. I am quite certain +that Harcourt's earnest resolve to deal boldly with this subject if he +should be allowed the opportunity had much to do with the condition of +feeling in the Liberal party which led to his resignation of its +leadership. We may look forward with confidence to the formation of a +new Liberal Government in which Harcourt will have a commanding +position, and when that time comes we may take it for granted that, in +spite of whatever opposition on either side of the House of Commons, he +will once more attempt to deal with the question of local option. + +Most of my American readers know that Sir William Harcourt's second wife +was the daughter of Lothrop Motley, the famous historian who was for a +time Minister to Great Britain, and who died at Harcourt's country +residence in 1877. The eldest son, Louis Vernon Harcourt, who was born +in 1863, has also married an American lady. Louis Harcourt, whom I have +known since his boyish days, is endowed with much of his father's +talents, and I have always thought that if he had devoted himself +entirely to political life he might make for himself such a career as +his father has already accomplished. During contested elections I have +been more than once associated with Louis Harcourt in "stumping" some +parts of the country on behalf of the Liberal Government then engaged in +the cause of Home Rule, and I have the clearest memories of his +remarkable organizing capacity, his ready eloquence, and his skill in +replying to questions and arguments and in convincing skeptical voters. +I take it for granted that every one who has known Louis, or, as he is +commonly called, "Lulu" Harcourt, must have delightful recollections of +his bright companionship. We have all heard that Sir William Harcourt +studiously consulted his son when the offer of a peerage was made to him +by King Edward, and that "Lulu" was resolute in supporting his father's +desire to refuse the honor, even although his acceptance of it would +have made "Lulu" the heir to a peerage. Sir William Harcourt, we may +well hope, has yet good work to do in the House of Commons. There is +nothing about him which suggests the idea of advanced years or of +decaying powers, whether mental or physical. The curious attack of +weakness which lately came over so many members of the Liberal party +never touched his robust intellect and resolute character. No man could +render more valuable services than he may be expected to do in turning +to account for genuine Liberalism the reaction already beginning to set +in against the reign of the Tories and the Jingoes. I cherish the belief +that the best of Sir William Harcourt's work is yet to be done by +him. + + + + +[Illustration: Photograph copyright by London Stereoscopic Co. + +JAMES BRYCE] + + + + +JAMES BRYCE + + +James Bryce is universally recognized as one of the intellectual forces +in the British House of Commons. When he rises to make a speech, every +one listens with the deepest interest, feeling sure that some ideas and +some instruction are sure to come which no political party in the House +can well afford to lose. Some men in the House of Commons have been +orators and nothing else; some have been orators and instructors as +well; some have been Parliamentary debaters more or less capable; and a +good many have been bores. In every generation there have been a few who +are especially regarded as illuminating forces. The House does not think +of measuring their influence by any estimate of their greater or less +capacity for mere eloquence of expression. It values them because of the +lessons which they teach. To this small order of members James Bryce +undoubtedly belongs. Now, I do not mean to convey the idea that such men +as these are not usually endowed with the gift of eloquence, or that +they cannot deliver speeches which would entitle them to a high rank +among Parliamentary debaters, no matter what the import of the speeches +might be. My object is to describe a certain class of men whose +Parliamentary speeches are valued by members in general without any +special regard for their form, but only with regard to their substance, +for the thoughts they utter and not for the manner of the utterance. +James Bryce would be considered an effective and even a commanding +speaker in any public assembly, but nevertheless, when the House of +Commons and the public think of his speeches, these are thought of +mainly for the truths they tell and the lessons they convey, and not for +any quality of mere eloquence which adorns them. In a certain sense +James Bryce might be described as belonging to that Parliamentary order +in the front of which John Morley stands just now; but of course John +Morley has thus far had more administrative experience than James Bryce, +and has taken a more distinct place as a Parliamentary and popular +leader. Of both men, however, I should be inclined to say that their +public speeches lose something of the praise fairly due to them as mere +displays of eloquence, because of the importance we all attach to their +intellectual and educational influence. + +I may say also that James Bryce is not first and above all other things +a public man and a politician. He does not seem to have thought of a +Parliamentary career until after he had won for himself a high and +commanding position as a writer of history. Bryce is by birth an +Irishman and belongs to that northern province of Ireland which is +peopled to a large extent by Scottish immigrants. We are all rather too +apt to think of this Ulster province as essentially un-Irish, or even +anti-Irish in tone and feeling, although some of the most extreme among +Irish Nationalists, men like John Mitchell for instance, were born and +brought up in Ulster, and in more recent days some conspicuous Home +Rulers have sat in the House of Commons as representatives of Ulster +constituencies. James Bryce has always been an Irish Nationalist since +he came into public life, and has shown himself, whether in or out of +political office, a steady and consistent supporter of the demand for +Irish Home Rule. Indeed, I should be well inclined to believe that a +desire to render some personal service in promoting the just claims of +Ireland for a better system of government must have had much influence +over Bryce's decision to accept a seat in the House of Commons. + +Bryce began his education in the University of Glasgow, from which he +passed on to Oxford, where he won many honors and has left the memory of +a most successful career, not merely as student, but also as professor. +He studied for a while at Heidelberg, where he cultivated to the full +his previously acquired knowledge of German; and I have heard in later +years on good authority that while Bryce was a member of Mr. Gladstone's +Government he became a great favorite with Queen Victoria because of his +capacity for fluent speech in the language which the late Queen loved +especially to hear. Before he turned his attention to active political +life Bryce studied for the bar, became a member of the profession, and +actually practiced in the Law Courts for some years. Thus far, however, +he had hardly given indication of the gifts which were destined to +secure for him a high and enduring place in English literature. Thus far +his life may be regarded as that of a student and a scholar; he had yet +to give to the world the fruits of his scholarship. James Bryce is +probably above all things a scholar. He is, I may venture to say, the +most scholarly man in the House of Commons. I doubt whether there is in +England so widely read a man in all departments of literature, art, and +science as Bryce, now that Lord Acton has been removed from us by death. +Long before his entrance into Parliamentary life Bryce had obtained the +highest distinction as a writer of history. It is not too much to say +that his great historical work, "The Holy Roman Empire," is destined to +be an English classic and a book for all countries and all times. The +author could hardly add to the reputation he won by this masterpiece of +historical study, insight, and labor, but it is only mere justice to say +that every work of importance which he afterwards gave to the world has +maintained his position in literature. His turn of mind has been always +that which distinguishes the practical student--the student of +realities, not the visionary or the dreamer, the man who, according to +Goethe's phrase, is occupied more by the physical than by the +metaphysical. In 1877 he published a narrative of his travels in +Transcaucasia, with an account of his ascent of Mount Ararat. I believe +no other traveler has ever accomplished such a practical study of Mount +Ararat as that which was made by Mr. Bryce, and during a part of his +explorings he was absolutely alone, as he could not prevail upon the +guides belonging to that region to overcome their superstitious dread of +an intrusion on certain parts of the mountain. He was always fond of +travel, and was able to bring some fresh ideas out of places long +familiar to tourists, and he gave to the world in English periodicals +the results of his experiences as a traveler. His descriptions of +Icelandic scenery and of some rarely visited regions of Hungary and of +Poland have a genuine literary as well as a genuine geographical value. + +His most important work, after his great history of the Holy Roman +Empire, is undoubtedly his book on "The American Commonwealth," +published in 1888. This work has been read as generally and studied as +closely on the one side of the Atlantic as on the other. I have heard it +spoken of with as thorough appreciation in New York, Boston, and +Washington as in London, Manchester, and Liverpool. Many years have +passed since an eminent English public man, not now living, expressed +to me an earnest wish that some European writer would take up the story +of the great American Commonwealth just where De Tocqueville left it in +his "De la Démocratie en Amérique." I joined cordially in his ideas and +his wishes, and we discussed the qualifications of certain Englishmen +for the task if any of them could see his way to undertake it, but +neither of us seemed to be quite satisfied that we had named the right +man for the work. At the time it did not occur to either of us that the +historian of "The Holy Roman Empire" would be likely to turn his +attention to the story of the American Commonwealth. Indeed, the two +studies seemed to me so entirely different and uncongenial that if the +name of James Bryce had been suggested to me at the time I should +probably have put it aside without much hesitation. One could hardly +have looked for so much versatility even in Mr. Bryce as to favor the +expectation that he could accomplish, with something like equal success, +two historical works dealing with such totally different subjects and +requiring such different methods of analysis and contemplation. + +More lately still Mr. Bryce brought out his "Impressions of South +Africa." This book was published in 1897, and the time of its +publication was most appropriate. It appeared when the prospects of a +war with the Transvaal Republic were opening gloomily for the lovers of +peace and fair dealing in England. If Mr. Bryce's impressions of South +Africa could only have been appreciated, and allowed to have their just +influence with the leaders of the Conservative party at that critical +time, England might have been saved from a long and futile war, and from +much serious discredit in the general opinion of the civilized world. +But if Bryce had spoken with the tongue of an angel, he could not at +such a time have prevailed against the rising passion of Jingoism and +the overmastering influence of mining speculators. It is only right to +say that the book was in no sense a mere distended political pamphlet. +It was not meant as a counterblast to Jingoism, or as a glorification of +the Boer Republic. It was a fair and temperate statement of the author's +observations in South Africa, and of the general conclusions to which +his experience and his study had brought him. Bryce pointed out with +perfect frankness the defects and dangers he saw in the Boer system of +government, and even the most ferocious Jingo could hardly have felt +justified in describing the author by that most terrible epithet, a +"pro-Boer." The warning which Bryce gave, and gave in vain, to the +English Government and the English majority, was a warning against the +credulous acceptation of one-sided testimony, against the fond belief +that the proclamation of Imperialism carried with it the right to +intervene in the affairs of every foreign State, and against the theory +that troops and gold mines warrant any enterprise. + +The Parliamentary career of James Bryce began in 1880, when he was +elected as Liberal representative for a London constituency. He did +great work in the cause of national education, and took an important +part in two State Commissions appointed to conduct inquiries into the +working of the public schools. At a later period he was chosen to +represent a Scottish constituency, and when Mr. Gladstone came into +power as the head of a Government Bryce received the important office of +Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. At that time his chief, the +Secretary for Foreign Affairs, was a member of the House of Lords, and +therefore the whole work of representing the department in the House of +Commons, where alone any important debates on foreign questions are +conducted, fell on Mr. Bryce, who had the entire conduct of such +discussions on behalf of the administration. The department was one +which gave an effective opportunity for the display of Bryce's intimate +knowledge of foreign countries, and he acquitted himself with all the +success which might have been expected from one of his intellect, his +experience, and his enlightened views. Later still he became Chancellor +of the Duchy of Lancaster, and for the first time had a seat in the +Cabinet. The Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster is one of a small +order of English administrative offices which have comparatively +unimportant duties attached to their special administration, and leave +the man in possession ample time to lend his assistance, both in the +Cabinet and in the House of Commons, to all the great public questions +which occupy the attention of the Government. In 1894 he became +President of the Board of Trade, one of the most important positions in +any administration. Bryce's official career came to a close for the +present when the Liberal party lost their majority in the representative +chamber, and the Conservatives got into power and secured the +administrative position they are holding at the present day. Nothing can +be more certain than that the first really Liberal administration which +is again formed will assign to Mr. Bryce one of the highest places in +its Cabinet and in its work. Since he has come to sit on the benches of +Opposition he has taken part in many great debates, and is always +listened to with the most profound attention. He is one of the few +leaders of the Liberal party who were manful and outspoken in their +opposition to the policy which originated and carried on the late South +African war. He has taken a conspicuous part in every debate upon +subjects of foreign policy, of national education, and of political +advancement. He has never acted as a mere partisan, and his intervention +in debate is all the more influential as it is well understood that he +advocates a policy because he believes it to be right and not because of +any effect it may have in bringing himself and his Liberal colleagues +back again into power. + +I have often noticed the effect produced in the libraries and +committee-rooms, in the rooms assigned to those who dine and to those +who smoke, when the news is passed round that Mr. Bryce is on his feet. +A member who is reading up some subject in the library, or writing his +letters in one of the lobbies, or enjoying himself in a dining-hall or a +smoking-room, is not likely to hurry away from his occupation or his +enjoyment in order to rush into the debating chamber merely because he +is told that some leading member of the Government or the Opposition has +just begun to address the House. The man who is addressing an audience +in the debating chamber may hold an important office in the Government +or may have an important place on the Front Bench of Opposition, but +then he may be a personage who feels bound to take part in a debate +merely because of the position he holds, and every one knows in advance +what views he is certain to advocate and what line of argument he is +likely to adopt, and our reading or dining or smoking friend may not +think that there is any pressing necessity for his presence as a +listener in the House. But there are some leading men on both sides of +Mr. Speaker who are always sure to have something to say which +everybody wants to hear, and Mr. Bryce is unquestionably one of that +happily endowed order. When the word goes round that Bryce is up, +everybody knows that something will be said on which he cannot exactly +calculate beforehand, something to which it is important that he should +listen, and there is forthwith a rush of members into the debating +chamber. There can hardly be a higher tribute to a man's importance as a +debater than the fact that his rising to address the House creates such +an effect, and I have seen it created again and again whenever the news +went round that "Bryce is on his legs." I have many a time heard +Conservative members murmur, in tones not altogether expressing absolute +satisfaction at the disturbing information, "Bryce is up--I must go in +and hear what he has to say." The tribute is all the higher in this case +because Bryce is not one of the showy and fascinating debaters whom +everybody wants to listen to for the mere eloquence and fascination of +their oratorical displays. Everybody knows that when he speaks it is +because he has something to say which ought to be spoken and therefore +ought to be heard. It is known that Bryce will not make a speech merely +because he thinks the time has come when some leader of Opposition +ought to take part in the debate, if only to show that the Opposition is +attending to its business. + +This command over the House Bryce has always held since he became one of +its members, and no man can hold a more desirable and a more honorable +position. It is all the more to his credit because he does not aim at +mere originality and never makes it a part of his ambition to say +something astonishing and thus to excite and delight the mere curiosity +of his audience. There have been and still are many members of the House +who have made a reputation of this kind and are therefore always sure to +command a full attendance merely because everybody expects that when +they rise to their feet they are sure to make the House "sit up," if I +may use this somewhat colloquial, not to say vulgar, phrase. Take such a +man, for instance, as the late John Arthur Roebuck, a man of great +intellect, master of a peculiar style of eloquence, who made himself +only too often a splendid specimen of what might be called in American +phraseology "a crank." All that could be said with certainty beforehand +of Roebuck was that whenever he rose to speak he would say something +calculated to startle or to puzzle the House. There are men of the same +order, if not perhaps of quite the same debating qualifications, in the +House at present--men who always draw a rush of members when they rise +to speak because nobody can tell in advance what side they are likely to +advocate or what sort of bewildering paradox they may set up and make +interesting if not convincing by the force of their peculiar style of +eloquence. Bryce is emphatically not a man of this order. He is no lover +of paradox; he has no desire to create a sensation; he merely wants to +impress the House with what he believes to be the truth, and his great +quality is that of a beacon and not of a flashlight. His arguments +appeal to the intellect and the reasoning power; he speaks of what he +knows; he has large resources of thought, experience, and observation to +draw upon, and the listeners feel convinced beforehand that he will tell +them something they did not know already, or will put his case in some +new and striking light. + +The House of Commons well knows that it would lose one of its most +valuable instructors if Bryce were no longer to occupy a place on its +benches or were to condemn himself to habitual inactivity and silence. +When the Conservative Government under Lord Salisbury came into power, +and more especially after the late general election which brought them +back with added strength, many of the Liberal leaders seemed to have +grown weary of the political struggle. Something worse than mere apathy +appeared to have set in, something more than mere despondency and +disheartenment. Men on whom the Liberals of England had long been wont +to rely suddenly showed an apparent loss of faith in all the proclaimed +principles of the party, and either relapsed into utter silence or spoke +in language which suggested an inclination to cross over to the enemy's +camp. The two principal impulses to this mood of mind were the South +African war and the Irish Home Rule question. The majority in the +constituencies had become inflamed with the spirit of Jingoism, and +could think of nothing but the war and the Imperial glory of annexing +new territory. Feeble-hearted and weak-kneed Liberals began to think +that the party could never hope for a return to power unless it too +could blow the Imperial trumpet. Other Liberals made it manifest that +they were becoming alarmed by the unpopularity of the Home Rule +question, and were repenting the enthusiasm which had carried them too +far along the path marked out by the genius and the patriotic resolve of +Gladstone. A species of dry-rot appeared to have broken out in +Liberalism. Before long a new section of Liberalism was formed, the +principle of which appeared to be that its members should call +themselves Imperial Liberals, and at the same time should support the +Tories on the only important questions then under discussion--the policy +of the South African campaign and the Irish National claim for Home +Rule. Some of the men who had held high office when Gladstone was in +power, who had made themselves conspicuous by the ardor and the +eloquence with which they supported his policy of peace abroad and +justice to Ireland, now openly avowed their renunciation of his great +principles. There were others among the foremost Liberals in the House +of Commons who, if they did not thus openly take the renegade part, kept +themselves quietly out of the active political field and allowed the +movement of reaction to go on without a word of protest. Three at least +among the Liberal leaders took a very different course. Three of them, +at least, not merely nailed their colors to the mast, but stood +resolutely in fighting attitude beneath the colors and proved themselves +determined to maintain the struggle. These three men were Sir Henry +Campbell-Bannerman, John Morley, and James Bryce. There were others, +too, it must be said, who stood up manfully with these three in defense +of that losing cause of Liberalism which they could never be brought to +regard as a lost cause. But the dauntless three whom I have just +mentioned were the most prominent and the most influential who went +forth against that great array of Toryism and Jingoism. Bryce was in his +place as regularly as ever during the whole of that depressing time, and +he never failed to raise his voice when the occasion demanded his +intervention on behalf of the true principles and practices of +Liberalism. During that long, dreary, and disheartening season when +despondent men were often disposed to ask whether there was any longer a +Liberal party, Bryce made some of the ablest speeches he has ever +delivered in arraignment of the Jingo policy, of the War Office +maladministration, and the rule of renewed coercion in Ireland. The +Liberal cause in England owes a debt that never can be forgotten to the +three men whom I have named, for their unflinching resolve and activity +in the House of Commons; and of the three none did better service than +that which was rendered by James Bryce. + +Bryce has, in face and form, the characteristics of a stalwart fighter. +His forehead is high and broad, with strongly marked eyebrows, +straightly drawn over deep and penetrating eyes. The features are all +finely modeled, the nose is straight and statuesque, the hair is +becoming somewhat thinner and more gray than it was when I first knew +Mr. Bryce, but the mustache and beard, although they too show some +fading in color, are still thick and strong as in that past day. The +face does not look Irish; its expression is perhaps somewhat too sedate +and resolute; but on the other hand, it does not seem quite Scotch, for +there is at moments a suggestion of dreaminess about it which we do not +usually associate with the shrewd North Briton. Bryce is a man of the +most genial temperament, thoroughly companionable, and capable of +enjoying every influence that helps to brighten existence. Always a +student of books and of men, he is never a recluse, and I do not know of +any one who seems to get more out of life than does this philosophic +historian. Bryce's London home is noted for its hospitality, and his +dinner parties and evening parties give much delight to his large circle +of friends. Mr. and Mrs. Bryce are not lion-hunters, and do not rate +their friends according to the degree of celebrity each may have +obtained. But they have no need to engage in a hunt after lions, for the +celebrities seek them out as a matter of course, and I know of no London +house where one is more certain to meet distinguished men and women from +all parts of the civilized world. Bryce's travels have made him +acquainted with interesting and eminent persons everywhere, and an +admission to his circle is naturally sought by strangers who visit +London. Representatives of literature, science, and art, of scholarly +research, of political movement, and of traveled experience are sure to +be met with in the home of the Bryces. I had the good fortune to meet +there, for the first time, many distinguished men and women whose +acquaintance it was a high and memorable privilege to make. Among +Bryce's especial recreations is mountain-climbing, and he was at one +time President of the Alpine Club. He can converse upon all subjects, +can give to every topic some illustration from his own ideas and his own +experiences, and the intelligent listener always finds that he carries +away something new and worthy of remembrance from any talk with him. +Although his strong opinions and his earnest desire to maintain what he +believes to be the right side of every great controversy have naturally +brought him into frequent antagonism with the representatives of many an +important case, I do not know of any public man who has made fewer +enemies or who is more generally spoken of with respect and admiration. +A man must have very high conceit indeed of his own knowledge and his +own judgment who does not feel that he has a great deal to learn from +conversation with a master of so many subjects. Yet Bryce never +oppresses a listener, as some intellectual leaders are apt to do, with a +sense of the listener's inferiority, and the least gifted among us is +encouraged to express himself with frankness and freedom while +discoursing with Bryce on any question which happens to come up. I think +that among his many remarkable qualities is that sincere belief which +was characteristic of Mr. Gladstone, and for which Gladstone did not +always get due credit--the belief that every man, however moderate his +intellectual qualifications, has something to tell which the wisest +would be the better for knowing. We must all of us have met scholars and +thinkers and political leaders whose inborn sense of their own capacity +had an overbearing and even oppressive effect on the ordinary mortal, +and made him shy of expressing himself fully lest he should only be +displaying his ineptitude or his ignorance in such a presence. But there +is nothing of this to be observed in the genial ways of James Bryce, and +the listener finds himself unconsciously brought for the time to the +level of the master and emboldened to give free utterance to his own +ideas and opinions. + +Bryce has been made a member of most of the great intellectual and +educational institutions of the world, has held degrees and honors of +various kinds from the universities of Europe and the United States, and +could hardly travel anywhere abroad or at home without finding himself +in recognized association with some school of learning in every place +where he makes a stay. The freemasonry of intellect and education all +over the world gives him rank among its members, and receives him with a +welcome recognition wherever he goes. I presume that in the political +sphere of action he is henceforward likely to find his congenial +career, but he must always have the knowledge that, if for any reason he +should give up his political occupation, he can at any moment return to +some pursuit in which he has already won an established fame. There are +not many political leaders of our time about whom the same could fairly +be said. For myself I may frankly say that I hope James Bryce will +henceforward devote himself especially to that political career in which +he has accomplished such great things. English public life cannot well +afford to lose his services just now or for some time to come. A man who +can bring to political work such resources of thought and of experience, +who can look beneath the surface and above the mere phrases and +catchwords of political parties, who can see that Liberalism in its true +sense must mean progress, and who can at the same time see clearly for +himself what progress really means, and in what direction and by what +methods it is to be made--such a man could ill be spared by the +Liberalism of our generation. The historical work he has already done +is, in its way, complete and imperishable. But the Liberal party has yet +to recover its place and to regain the leadership of England's +political life. Every effort the Conservatives in office have lately +been making to hold their full mastery over the country has shown more +and more clearly that they have not kept up with the movements of +thought and are not able to understand the true requirements of the +time. On the other hand, the limp and shattered condition of the +existing Liberal party only shows the absolute necessity for the +recognized leadership of men who understand the difference between the +work of guiding the country and the ignoble function of competing for +power by imitation and by compromise. In the new effort now so sorely +needed to create once more a true Liberal party, the country requires, +above all things else, the constant service of such men as James +Bryce. + + + + +[Illustration: Photograph copyright by London Stereoscopic Co. + +SIR HENRY CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN] + + + + +HENRY CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN + + +Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman has but lately come to hold that position +in the House of Commons and in the political world which those who knew +him well always believed him destined to attain. He is now not merely +the nominal leader of the Liberal Opposition in the House of Commons, +but he is universally regarded as one of the very small number of men +who could possibly be chosen for the place. Sir William Harcourt and Mr. +John Morley are the only Liberal members of the House who could compare +with Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman for influence with the Liberal party, +the House of Commons, and the general public. Yet the time is not far +distant when he was commonly regarded in the House as a somewhat heavy, +not to say stolid, man, one of whom nothing better could be said than +that he would probably be capable of quiet, steady work in some +subordinate department. I remember well that when Campbell-Bannerman +was appointed Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1884, +a witty Irish member explained the appointment by the suggestion that +Gladstone had made use of Campbell-Bannerman on the principle +illustrated by the employment of a sand-bag as part of the defenses of a +military fort. Campbell-Bannerman has, in fact, none of the temperament +which makes a man anxious to display himself in debate, and whenever, +during his earlier years of Parliamentary life, he delivered a speech in +the House of Commons, his desire seemed to be to get through the task as +quickly as possible and be done with it. He appears to be a man of a +naturally reserved habit, with indeed something of shyness about him, +and a decided capacity for silence wherever there is no pressing +occasion for speech, whether in public or in private. + +Many whom I knew were at one time inclined to regard Campbell-Bannerman +as a typical specimen of his Scottish compatriots, who are facetiously +said to joke with difficulty. As a matter of fact, Campbell-Bannerman +has a keen and delightful sense of humor, and can illustrate the +weakness of an opponent's case, better than some recognized wits could +do, by a few happy touches of sarcasm. He is in every sense of the word +a strong man, and, like some other strong men, only seems to know his +own strength and to be capable of putting it into action when hard +fortune has brought him into political difficulties through which it +appears well-nigh impossible that he can make his way. Schiller's hero +declares that it must be night before his star can shine, and although +Campbell-Bannerman is not quite so poetic and picturesque a figure as +Wallenstein, yet I think he might fairly comfort himself by some such +encouraging reflection. He had gone through a long and hard-working +career in the House of Commons before the world came to know anything of +his strength, his judgment, and his courage. He got his education at the +University of Glasgow and afterwards at Trinity College, Cambridge, and +he obtained a seat in the House of Commons for a Scottish constituency +as a Liberal when he was still but a young man. He has held various +offices in Liberal administrations. He was Secretary to the Admiralty in +1882, and was Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland for a +short time a little later. There is not much to be said about his Irish +administration. He governed the country about as well as any English +Minister could have done under such conditions, for this was before +Gladstone and the Liberal party had been converted to the principle of +Home Rule for Ireland; and, at all events, he made himself agreeable to +those Irishmen with whom he came into contact by his unaffected manners +and his quiet good humor. When Gladstone took office in 1886, +Campbell-Bannerman became Secretary for War, and he held the same +important position in Gladstone's Ministry of 1892. + +The story of that administration tells of a most important epoch in the +career of Gladstone and the fortunes of the Liberal party. In 1893 +Gladstone brought in his second Home Rule measure for Ireland. His first +measure of Home Rule was introduced in 1886, and was defeated in the +House of Commons by means of a coalition between the Liberal +secessionists and the Conservative Opposition. The Liberal secessionists +in the House of Commons, as most of my readers will remember, were led +by Joseph Chamberlain. Then there came an interval of Conservative +government, and when Gladstone returned to power in 1892 he introduced +before long his second measure of Home Rule. The second measure was in +many ways a distinct improvement on the first, and in the meantime some +of the Liberal secessionists, including Sir George Trevelyan, whose +opposition was directed only against certain parts of the first measure, +had returned to their allegiance and were ready to give Gladstone all +the support in their power for his second attempt. The Home Rule measure +was carried through the House of Commons by what we call a substantial +although not a great majority, and then it had to go to the House of +Lords. Everybody knew in advance what its fate must be in the hereditary +chamber. Every great measure of genuine political reform is certain to +be rejected in the first instance by the House of Lords. This is the old +story, and is repeated again and again with monotonous iteration. The +House of Lords always gives way in the end, when the pressure of public +opinion from without makes it perilous for the hereditary legislators to +maintain their opposition. Therefore the Liberals in general were not +much disconcerted by the defeat of the Home Rule measure in the House of +Lords. Home Rule for Ireland had been sanctioned by the decisive vote +of the House of Commons, and the general impression was that it would +only have to be brought in again and perhaps again, according to the +usual process with all reform measures, until the opposition of the +Lords had been completely borne down. But before the introduction of the +second Home Rule measure, some events had taken place which made a great +change in the condition of Irish political affairs and put fresh +difficulties in the way of Gladstone's new administration. + +The Parnell divorce case came on, and led to a serious division in the +ranks of the Irish National party and in Irish public opinion. The great +majority of Parnell's followers refused to regard him as their leader +any longer, and those who determined to support him and to follow him +through thick and thin were but a very small minority. Gladstone was +firmly convinced, as were the majority of the Irish Nationalist members, +that Parnell ought to retire, for a time at least, from the leadership +of his party, if not indeed from public life, and keep aloof from active +politics until the scandal of the divorce court should have been atoned +for by him and should have passed to some extent from public memory. +Gladstone was convinced that if Parnell remained the leader of the +Irish party it would be almost impossible to arouse in the British +constituencies any enthusiasm in the cause of Home Rule strong enough to +bring back the Liberals to power and to carry a Home Rule measure. This +was a reasonable and practical view of the question, but Parnell and his +followers resented it as a positive insult, and Parnell issued a +manifesto denouncing Gladstone, the immediate result of which was that +break-up of the Home Rule party I have already mentioned. Not very long +after came Parnell's early death. It may well be supposed that such +events as these must have made a deep and discouraging impression on +Gladstone's hopes for the success of the second Home Rule measure. The +Irish National party had been broken up for the time, and some even of +Gladstone's colleagues in office had allowed themselves to be mastered +by the old familiar idea that as Irishmen could not be brought to agree +for long on any plan of action, it was futile for English Liberals to +put themselves to any inconvenience for the sake of an Irish National +cause. Such men might have found it difficult to point out any great +measure of political reform in England concerning which the English +people had always been in absolute agreement and about which there was +no conflict of angry emotion in any section of English representatives. +But the fact remained all the same that the dispute in the Irish party +had brought a chill to the zeal of many influential English Liberals for +the Home Rule cause, and we have had in much more recent days abundant +evidence that the chilling influence is with them still. + +Among Gladstone's official colleagues there were some who held that the +time had come when an appeal ought to be made to the country by means of +a dissolution and a general election against the domination of the House +of Lords. This appears to have been the opinion of Gladstone himself. +Others of his colleagues, however, held back from such an issue, and +contended that the moment did not seem favorable for an appeal to the +country on the distinct question of Irish Home Rule. The general +impression on the public mind was that the decision of the Cabinet was +certain to be in favor of an appeal to the country on the one issue or +the other, and much surprise was felt when it began to be more and more +evident that the Government intended to go on with the ordinary +business of the State, as if nothing had happened. The outer world has +as yet had no means of knowing what the reasons or the influences were +which induced Gladstone and his colleagues to come to this +determination. The whole truth will probably never be known until John +Morley's "Life of Gladstone" shall make its appearance. We may safely +assume in the meantime that Gladstone had the best of reasons for taking +the course which he adopted, and that he would have made an appeal to +the country against the decision of the House of Lords if he had +believed the conditions were favorable for such a challenge just then. +Probably Gladstone knew only too well that even among his own colleagues +there were some who were turning cold upon the question of Home Rule, +who had never accepted his views on that subject with whole-hearted +willingness, and could not have been relied upon as steadfast adherents +in the struggle. I think I shall be fully justified by any revelations +which history or biography has yet to make, when I say that +Campbell-Bannerman was among those who would have faithfully followed +the great leader to the very last in whatever struggle he had made up +his mind to engage. There were, of course, many others of Gladstone's +colleagues--men like Sir William Harcourt and John Morley and James +Bryce--on whom their leader could have safely reckoned for the same +unswerving fidelity and courage. But, whatever were the reasons, there +was no appeal made to the country, and the administration went on with +its ordinary work in a dull, mechanical fashion. The effect upon the +Liberal party was most depressing. Men could not understand why nothing +decisive had been done, and at the same time were haunted by a +foreboding that some great change was impending over the Liberal party. + +The foreboding soon came to be justified. On the 1st of March, 1894, +Gladstone delivered his last speech in the House of Commons. The speech +dealt with the action of the House of Lords on a subject of +comparatively slight importance. The Lords had rejected a measure +dealing with the constitution of parish councils, which had been passed +by the House of Commons. Gladstone spoke with severity in condemnation +of the course taken by the House of Lords. Towards the close of his +speech he said: "My duty terminates with calling the attention of this +House to a fact which it is really impossible to set aside, that we are +considering a part--an essential and inseparable part--of a question +enormously large, a question which has become profoundly a truth, a +question that will demand a settlement, and must at an early date +receive that settlement, from the highest authority." No one who was +present in the House when this declaration was made is ever likely to +lose the memory of the scene, although not all or even most of those +then present quite realized the full significance of Gladstone's words. +There were many in the House who did not at once understand that in the +words I have quoted the greatest Parliamentary leader of modern times +was speaking his farewell to public life. I remember well that a few +moments after Gladstone had finished his speech I met John Morley in one +of the lobbies, and I asked him if this was really to be taken as the +close of Gladstone's career, and he told me, with as much composure as +he could command, that in that speech we had heard the last of +Gladstone's Parliamentary utterances. That was indeed a memorable day in +the history of England, and a day at least equally memorable in the +history of Ireland. + +I have had to dwell for a while on these historical facts, facts of +course known already to all my readers, as a prelude to the most +important passages in the Parliamentary career of Campbell-Bannerman. +When Gladstone resigned office and withdrew from public life, the +question of reconstituting the Liberal administration had to be taken +into account. There could be no doubt whatever that the Liberal +administration had been much weakened and even discredited by the manner +in which it had put up with the domineering action of the House of +Lords. The effect on public opinion was all the greater and the more +disheartening because it was generally understood that the absence of +any such action must have been due to the fact that some of Gladstone's +leading colleagues were not prepared to sustain him in the policy he was +anxious to carry out. There was therefore a state of something like +apathy in the minds of advanced Radicals with regard to any arrangements +which seemed likely to be made for the reconstruction of the Ministry. +The new administration was formed under the leadership of Lord Rosebery, +as Prime Minister, in the House of Lords, and that of Sir William +Harcourt, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the House of Commons. There +can be little doubt that the composition of the new Ministry was +regarded as unsatisfactory by the more advanced Liberals in and outside +Parliament. The Liberal party is never of late years quite content with +an administration which has its Prime Minister in the House of Lords. +The real work must always be done in the House of Commons, and it is +obviously most inconvenient that the leader of the Government should be +one whose position will not allow him to have a seat in the +representative chamber. The condition of things is something like that +of an army whose Commander-in-Chief can never make his appearance in the +encampment or take part in any of the great battles. Even at that time +Lord Rosebery, although a most brilliant debater and a capable +administrator, was beginning to be regarded as one whose Liberalism +was somewhat losing color and whose whole heart was by no means in +the advanced policy of Gladstone. There was nothing better to be +done, however, at the time than to make the most of the altered +conditions, and the new Ministry went to work as well as it could. +Campbell-Bannerman, as Secretary for War, had an opportunity of proving +his genuine capacity for the duties of his important office. He +introduced a new and complete scheme of army reform, which, among other +and even more important changes, proposed to bring about the retirement +of the Duke of Cambridge from the post of Commander-in-Chief. The Duke +of Cambridge was even then a man far advanced in years, who had never in +his life shown any real capacity for the work of commanding an army, and +whose chief recommendation for so great a position must have been found +in the fact that he was a member of the royal family. The new measure +was making its way steadily enough through the House of Commons, and +every one was beginning to see that in Campbell-Bannerman the country +had found an administrator of a very high order. Suddenly, however, the +progress of the measure was interrupted by what seemed to be at first +only a trivial accident, of which the public in general were inclined to +take but little account. The army reform scheme had arrived at what is +known as the committee stage of its progress. + +I do not desire to occupy the attention of my readers more than is +actually necessary with the mere technical details of Parliamentary +procedure, and I shall only explain that when a Bill reaches the +committee stage its general principle must have been already accepted by +the majority in the House, and the House then forms itself into +Committee for the purpose of discussing the mere details of the proposed +arrangements. During one of the sittings a Conservative member proposed +a motion declaring that the Government, or at least the War Office, had +not made proper provision for the supply of the material of cordite to +the army. This was so purely a technical question, concerning which only +soldiers and scientific men could be supposed to have had any means of +forming an opinion, that the House troubled itself very little about the +whole discussion. But when the House came to take a division on the +proposal, the Government was defeated by a majority of seven. This +defeat produced at first only a very slight effect on the House in +general. During the committee stage of a measure it is quite a matter of +ordinary occurrence that a Ministry should be defeated on some question +of mere arrangement and detail, and very few in the House of Commons +suspected on that occasion that such a vote was likely to bring with it +an important Parliamentary crisis. Campbell-Bannerman, however, took a +very different view of the event. He appears to have made up his mind +that the decision of the House was a distinct vote of censure on his +administration, and that he could not continue to hold office after so +marked a declaration of disapproval. Now, it may be taken for granted +that Campbell-Bannerman was not merely actuated by any personal feeling, +by any sense of mere grievance to himself, when he made up his mind to +this resolve. He saw clearly that the Government had lost the confidence +and the support of the country, and that the sooner the whole futile +attempt at administration under such conditions came to an end the +better it would be for the business of the State. He knew perfectly well +that the Liberal administration was falling to pieces, that its leading +members were no longer inspired alike by one great policy, that some of +its leaders had ceased to be Liberals in the traditional meaning of the +word, and that sooner or later the catastrophe must come. Those of +Campbell-Bannerman's colleagues who were as genuine and stanch Liberals +as he soon came into agreement with him as to the course that ought to +be pursued, and it was known before long in the House of Commons that +the Liberal Ministers had resigned their offices and that the +long-postponed appeal to the country was to be made at last. Thus for +the first time it became known to the public that Campbell-Bannerman was +already a power in political life. + +Parliament was dissolved and the appeal to the country was made at the +general election which necessarily followed. Few Liberals had the +slightest doubt as to the result of the appeal. Some of the very +measures introduced by the fallen Government which had the strong +approval of many advanced Liberals had put certain powerful interests +and classes against those who represented this policy. Sir William +Harcourt's "death duties" had aroused the indignation of rich men here, +there, and everywhere. The measures which the same statesman had +endeavored to carry for putting the liquor trade under the control of +"local option" had turned the publicans into an organized opposition +against Liberal administrators. The result of the general election was +the defeat of the Liberal party, and the formation of a Conservative +Government with Lord Salisbury at its head holding office as Prime +Minister and Foreign Secretary at once, and with Arthur Balfour as First +Lord of the Treasury and leader of the House of Commons. The Liberals +were weakened in every sense, not merely by the fact that they had come +back to Parliament no longer as a Government but only as an Opposition. +They were rendered by their internal divisions too weak for effective +work as an Opposition. Lord Rosebery continued for the time to act as +leader of the Liberal party, while Sir William Harcourt of course became +leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons. It soon was quite +clear that the Liberal party could not work together so far as its +leaders were concerned. It was evident that men like Harcourt and John +Morley and Campbell-Bannerman could not act in any cordial union with +Lord Rosebery and those Liberals who accepted Lord Rosebery's policy. +The result of all this was that Lord Rosebery resigned the leadership of +the party and has ever since seemed inclined to start a Liberal party of +his own, and that Sir William Harcourt did not believe he was likely to +receive such a united support in the House of Commons as would enable +him to maintain the leadership of the party with any satisfaction to +himself or the country. Harcourt therefore ceased to hold that position; +and now came for the first time the opportunity for Campbell-Bannerman. +He was chosen leader of the Liberal party in the House of Commons, and +he had before him, under all the conditions, a task which might well +have seemed hopeless. Lord Rosebery has, from that time to this, +delivered speeches all over the country which could only be interpreted +as the expression of his desire to call into being a new Liberal party +professing a political creed differing in its main characteristics from +that which had been proclaimed and carried on by Gladstone. Rosebery +renounced Home Rule for Ireland, and refused to act on Gladstone's +principles with regard to the protection of Christians in the East +against the alternating tyranny and neglect of the Ottoman Government. + +Never within my recollection had any leader of a Liberal party in +the House of Commons come into a position of such difficulty and +disheartenment as that which Campbell-Bannerman had now to maintain. It +has often been the lot of the Liberal party to come into the House +of Commons with diminished numbers, and have to carry on as best +it could be done the battle against a Conservative Government of +overwhelming numerical strength. But the peculiar trouble which beset +Campbell-Bannerman was that he could not count upon the allegiance of +all his nominal followers. He knew that so long as he showed himself +determined to maintain the policy of Gladstone he could reckon without +fear on the support of such men as Harcourt and John Morley and Bryce. +But there were able men among those who occupied the front bench of +Opposition on whom he could not always count, men who were publicly +displaying themselves as the political associates or followers of Lord +Rosebery. Campbell-Bannerman went boldly and steadfastly on, never +faltering in the least. He upheld the time-honored creed of genuine +Liberalism, "never doubted clouds would break," and by his words and his +bearing inspired with fresh courage many a true Liberal whose faith was +not faltering, but whose hopes were sinking low. He proved himself quite +equal to the incessant work put upon him by his new position as leader +of the Liberal party in the House of Commons. He developed a capacity +for debate which only those who knew him well had ever before believed +him to possess. During all the wild excitement of Jingoism which +followed the movements of the war against the two South African +Republics, he never yielded to the temptation which overcame so many +other Liberals, the temptation to evade a passing unpopularity by +suppressing for the time his opinions on the policy of the war. He must +have been sorely tried again and again by the sayings and doings of some +who still professed to be members of the Liberal party in Parliament. A +new Liberal League was actually formed under the inspiration of Lord +Rosebery, and its object apparently was to create a new school of +Liberalism which should have nothing to do with the traditions of the +party and with the doctrines of men like Gladstone. + +Now, if all this had been done in open and avowed antagonism to the +existing Liberal party, Campbell-Bannerman might have had a +comparatively easy task to undertake. He could have braced himself to do +sturdy battle against the promoters of internal disunion; could have set +the whole question plainly and squarely before the Liberal public +opinion of the country, and demanded a decisive judgment. But the +promoters of the new Liberal League did nothing of the kind. They +disclaimed any intention to create disunion in the party. They declared +that they were the very best of Liberals, and that nothing could exceed +their loyalty to the elected leaders of the Liberal party, and protested +that in whatever they did they were only trying to help and not to +hinder the work of these leaders. When one of the seceders, or supposed +seceders, delivered a speech at some public meeting in which he appeared +to repudiate the main principles of the Liberal creed, and an open split +in the party seemed to be imminent, some other member of the Liberal +League hastened to explain that the meaning of his noble friend or his +right honorable colleague had been totally misunderstood. He insisted +that the only motive of the previous orator was to promote the cordial +union of the Liberal party, and, to paraphrase the words of the medical +student in "Pickwick" after his quarrel with a fellow-student, that he +rather preferred Campbell-Bannerman to his own brother. + +Campbell-Bannerman took all these performances with serene good humor. +As I have already said, those who know him are well aware that he has a +keen, quiet sense of humor, and I feel sure that he must often have +been much amused by the odd vagaries of those who would neither fall +into the ranks nor admit that they wanted to keep out of the ranks. He +has gone steadily on as he began since it became his duty to lead the +Liberal Opposition in the House of Commons. He has done the work of +leader honorably, patiently, consistently, and fearlessly, and he is +recognized as leader by all true Liberals, English, Scotch, and Welsh. +He has never fallen away in the slightest degree from the principles of +Gladstone where Home Rule and the other just claims of the Irish people +are concerned. He has kept the Liberal flag flying, and the whole +Liberalism of the country is already beginning to rally round him and to +recognize his leadership. Increasing responsibility has only developed +in him new capacity to maintain the responsible place. We may well +believe that he is destined to do great service yet to the Liberal +cause, and to win an honorable place in British history. When he first +became leader of the Liberal party in the House of Commons, he might +almost have seemed to be the leader of a lost cause, but he has fought +the fight bravely and will see the victory before long. + + + The Gresham Press, + UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, + WOKING AND LONDON + + + * * * * * + + + + +BOOKS FOR RECREATION AND STUDY + + + PUBLISHED BY + T. FISHER UNWIN, + 11, PATERNOSTER + BUILDINGS, LONDON + E.C. + + + + +F. C. GOULD'S FROISSART. + + +[Illustration: SIR BLUNDELL DE MAPLE PROTESTETH THAT TOWEL-HORSES WOULD +HAVE BETTER SERVED THE ARMY THAN THE HORSES THAT HAD BEEN BOUGHT IN +HUNGARY.] + +TWO VOLUMES. + + 1. FROISSART'S MODERN CHRONICLES, 1901. + + 2. FROISSART'S MODERN CHRONICLES, 1902. + +TOLD AND PICTURED BY F. C. GOULD. + +_Each volume Cloth, foolscap 4to, 3s. 6d._ + +_Also a Fine Edition of Vol. II., limited to 50 copies, on Japan Paper, +numbered and signed, 21s. net._ + + "The second volume of Mr. F. C. 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FISHER UNWIN, 11 PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, LONDON, E.C. + + + + +Recent Volumes in the + +STORY OF THE NATIONS + +A SERIES OF POPULAR HISTORIES. + + +_Each Volume complete with Maps, many Illustrations, and an Index. Large +crown 8vo, fancy cloth, gold lettered, or Library Edition, dark cloth, +burnished red top, 5s. each. Or may be had in half Persian, cloth sides, +gilt tops: Price on Application._ + + +49. Austria. By SIDNEY WHITMAN + +50. Modern England before the Reform Bill. By JUSTIN McCARTHY. + +51. China. With a New Chapter on Recent Events. By Prof. R. K. +DOUGLAS. + +52. Modern England under Queen Victoria. By JUSTIN McCARTHY. + +53. Modern Spain, 1878-1898. By MARTIN A. S. HUME, F.R.H.S., Author of +"Sir Walter Ralegh," &c. + +54. Modern Italy, 1758-1898. By PIETRO ORSI, Professor of History in +the R. Liceo Foscarini, Venice. With over 40 Illustrations and Maps. + +55. Norway. By Professor HJALMAR H. BOYESEN, Author of "Idylls of +Norway." + +56. Wales. By OWEN EDWARDS. + + +_IN PREPARATION._ + +The United States of America, 1783-1900. By A. C. M'LAUGHLIN. In 2 +Volumes. + +The Papal Monarchy: From Gregory the Great to Boniface VIII. By Rev. +W. BARRY. + +Mediæval Rome. By WILLIAM MILLER. + +Buddhist India. By T. W. RHYS DAVIDS. + +The Story of Greece (to the Roman Occupation). By E. S. SHUCKBURGH. + +The Story of Greece (from the Roman Occupation to A.D. 1453). By E. S. +SHUCKBURGH. + + + + +CLARA HOPGOOD + +BY MARK RUTHERFORD + +_Edited_ BY REUBEN SHAPCOTT + +_Second Edition. Crown 8vo., cloth_, 6s. + +(_The Third and Cheaper Edition is now ready, Crown 8vo, cloth_, 3s. +6d.) + + +"The writer who goes by the name of Mark Rutherford is not the most +popular novelist of his time by any means. There are writers with names +which that recluse genius has never heard of, probably, whose stories +give palpitations to thousands of gentle souls, while his own are +quietly read by no more than as many hundreds. Yet his publisher never +announces a new story by the Author of 'Mark Rutherford's +Autobiography,' and 'The Revolution in Tanner's Lane,'--which we believe +to be one of the most remarkable bits of writing that these times can +boast of--without strongly exciting the interest of many who know books +as precious stones are known in Hatton Garden.... 'Clara Hopgood' is +entirely out of the way of all existing schools of novel-writing.... Had +we to select a good illustration of 'Mark's way' as distinguished from +the way of modern storytellers in general, we should point to the +chapter in which Baruch visits his son Benjamin in this narration. +Nothing could be more simple, nothing more perfect."--_Pall Mall +Gazette._ + + + + +A FIRST FLEET FAMILY: BEING A HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED NARRATIVE OF CERTAIN +REMARKABLE ADVENTURES COMPILED FROM THE PAPERS OF SERGEANT WILLIAM DEW, +OF THE MARINES + +BY + +LOUIS BECKE and WALTER JEFFERY + +_Second Edition. Crown 8vo., cloth_, 6s. + + + "As convincingly real and vivid as a narrative can be."--_Sketch._ + + "No maker of plots could work out a better story of its kind, + nor balance it more neatly."--_Daily Chronicle._ + + "A book which describes a set of characters varied and so + attractive as the more prominent figures in this romance, and a + book so full of life, vicissitude, and peril, should be welcomed + by every discreet novel reader."--_Yorkshire Post._ + + "A very interesting tale, written in clear and vigorous + English."--_Globe._ + + "The novel is a happy blend of truth and fiction, with a purpose + that will be appreciated by many readers; it has also the most + exciting elements of the tale of adventure."--_Morning Post._ + + + + +THE TALES OF JOHN OLIVER HOBBES + +With a Frontispiece Portrait of the Author + +_Second Edition. Crown 8vo., cloth_, 6s. + + + "The cleverness of them all is extraordinary."--_Guardian._ + + "The volume proves how little and how great a thing it is to + write a 'Pseudonym.' Four whole 'Pseudonyms' ... are easily + contained within its not extravagant limits, and these four + little books have given John Oliver Hobbes a recognized position + as a master of epigram and narrative comedy."--_St. James's + Gazette._ + + "As her star has been sudden in its rise so may it stay long + with us! Some day she may give us something better than these + tingling, pulsing, mocking, epigrammatic morsels."--_Times._ + + "There are several literary ladies, of recent origin, who have + tried to come up to the society ideal; but John Oliver Hobbes is + by far the best writer of them all, by far the most capable + artist in fiction.... She is clever enough for + anything."--_Saturday Review._ + + + + +THE HERB MOON + +BY JOHN OLIVER HOBBES + +_Third Edition, Crown 8vo., cloth_, 6s. + + + "The jaded reader who needs sauce for his literary appetite + cannot do better than buy 'The Herb Moon.'"--_Literary World._ + + "A book to hail with more than common pleasure. The epigrammatic + quality, the power of rapid analysis and brilliant presentation + are there, and added to these a less definable quality, only to + be described as charm.... 'The Herb Moon' is as clever as most + of its predecessors, and far less artificial."--_Athenæum._ + + + + +THE STICKIT MINISTER AND SOME COMMON MEN + +BY S. R. CROCKETT + +_Eleventh Edition. Crown 8vo., cloth_, 6s. + + + "Here is one of the books which are at present coming singly and + at long intervals, like early swallows, to herald, it is to be + hoped, a larger flight. When the larger flight appears, the + winter of our discontent will have passed, and we shall be able + to boast that the short story can make a home east as well as + west of the Atlantic. There is plenty of human nature--of the + Scottish variety, which is a very good variety--in 'The Stickit + Minister' and its companion stories; plenty of humour, too, of + that dry, pawky kind which is a monopoly of 'Caledonia, stern + and wild'; and, most plentiful of all, a quiet perception and + reticent rendering of that underlying pathos of life which is to + be discovered, not in Scotland alone, but everywhere that a man + is found who can see with the heart and the imagination as well + as the brain. Mr. Crockett has given us a book that is not + merely good, it is what his countrymen would call 'by-ordinar + good,' which, being interpreted into a tongue understanded of + the southern herd, means that it is excellent, with a somewhat + exceptional kind of excellence."--_Daily Chronicle._ + + + + +THE LILAC SUN-BONNET + +BY S. R. CROCKETT + +_Sixth Edition. Crown 8vo., cloth_, 6s. + + + "Mr. Crockett's 'Lilac Sun-Bonnet' 'needs no bush.' Here is a + pretty love tale, and the landscape and rural descriptions carry + the exile back into the Kingdom of Galloway. Here, indeed, is + the scent of bog-myrtle and peat. After inquiries among the + fair, I learn that of all romances, they best love, not + 'sociology,' not 'theology,' still less, open manslaughter, for + a motive, but just love's young dream, chapter after chapter. + From Mr. Crockett they get what they want, 'hot with,' as + Thackeray admits that he liked it."--Mr. ANDREW LANG in + _Longman's Magazine_. + + + + +THE RAIDERS + +BY S. R. CROCKETT + +_Eighth Edition. Crown 8vo., cloth_, 6s. + + + "A thoroughly enjoyable novel, full of fresh, original, and + accurate pictures of life long gone by."--_Daily News._ + + "A strikingly realistic romance."--_Morning Post._ + + "A stirring story.... Mr. Crockett's style is charming. My + Baronite never knew how musical and picturesque is + Scottish-English till he read this book."--_Punch._ + + "The youngsters have their Stevenson, their Barrie, and now a + third writer has entered the circle, S. R. Crockett, with a + lively and jolly book of adventures, which the paterfamilias + pretends to buy for his eldest son, but reads greedily himself + and won't let go till he has turned over the last page.... Out + of such historical elements and numberless local traditions the + author has put together an exciting tale of adventures on land + and sea."--_Frankfurter Zeitung._ + + _SOME SCOTCH NOTICES._ + + "Galloway folk should be proud to rank 'The Raiders' among the + classics of the district."--_Scotsman._ + + "Mr. Crockett's 'The Raiders' is one of the great literary + successes of the season."--_Dundee Advertiser._ + + "Mr. Crockett has achieved the distinction of having produced + the book of the season."--_Dumfries and Galloway Standard._ + + "The story told in it is, as a story, nearly + perfect."--_Aberdeen Daily Free Press._ + + "'The Raiders' is one of the most brilliant efforts of recent + fiction."--_Kirkcudbrightshire Advertiser._ + + + + +TROOPER PETER HALKET OF MASHONALAND + +BY OLIVE SCHREINER + +Author of "Dreams," "Real Life and Dream Life," &c. + +_Crown 8vo., cloth_, 2s. 6d. + + + "We advise our readers to purchase and read Olive Schreiner's + new book 'Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland.' Miss Schreiner + is one of the few magicians of modern English literature, and + she has used the great moral, as well as the great literary, + force of her style to great effect."--_Daily Chronicle._ + + "The story is one that is certain to be widely read, and it is + well that it should be so, especially at this moment; it grips + the heart and haunts the imagination. To have written such a + book is to render a supreme service, for it is as well to know + what the rough work means of subjugating inferior + races."--_Daily News._ + + "Some of the imaginative passages are very fine.... The book is + powerfully written."--_Scotsman._ + + "Is well and impressively written."--_Pall Mall Gazette._ + + + + +THE MERMAID SERIES + +The Best Plays of the Old Dramatists. + +Literal Reproductions of the Old Text. + +_Post 8vo., each Volume containing about 500 pages, and an etched +Frontispiece, cloth_, 3s. 6d. _each_. + + +1. The Best Plays of Christopher Marlowe. Edited by HAVELOCK +ELLIS, and containing a General Introduction to the Series by JOHN +ADDINGTON SYMONDS. + +2. The Best Plays of Thomas Otway. Introduction by the HON. RODEN +NOEL. + +3. The Best Plays of John Ford.--Edited by HAVELOCK ELLIS. + +4 and 5. The Best Plays of Thomas Massinger. Essay and Notes by +ARTHUR SYMONS. + +6. The Best Plays of Thomas Heywood. Edited by A. W. VERITY. +Introduction by J. A. SYMONDS. + +7. The Complete Plays of William Wycherley. Edited by W. C. WARD. + +8. Nero, and other Plays. Edited by H. P. HORNE, ARTHUR SYMONS, +A. W. VERITY, and H. ELLIS. + +9 and 10. The Best Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher. Introduction +by J. ST. LOE STRACHEY. + +11. The Complete Plays of William Congreve. Edited by ALEX C. +EWALD. + +12. The Best Plays of Webster and Tourneur. Introduction by JOHN +ADDINGTON SYMONDS. + +13 and 14. The Best Plays of Thomas Middleton. Introduction by +ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE. + +15. The Best Plays of James Shirley. Introduction by EDMUND +GOSSE. + +16. The Best Plays of Thomas Dekker. Notes by ERNEST RHYS. + +17, 19, and 20. The Best Plays of Ben Jonson. Vol I. edited, with +Introduction and Notes, by BRINSLEY NICHOLSON and C. H. HERFORD. + +18. The Complete Plays of Richard Steele. Edited, with +Introduction and Notes, by G. A. AITKEN. + +21. The Best Plays of George Chapman. Edited by WILLIAM LYON +PHELPS, Instructor of English Literature at Yale College. + +22. The Select Plays of Sir John Vanbrugh. Edited, with an +Introduction and Notes, by A. E. H. SWAIN. + + + _PRESS OPINIONS._ + + "Even the professed scholar with a good library at his command + will find some texts here not otherwise easily accessible; while + the humbler student of slender resources, who knows the + bitterness of not being able to possess himself of the treasure + stored in expensive folios or quartos long out of print, will + assuredly rise up and thank Mr. Unwin."--_St. James's Gazette._ + + "Reissued under good auspices."--_Saturday Review._ + + "The issue is as good as it could be."--_British Weekly._ + + "At once scholarly and interesting."--_Leeds Mercury._ + + +11, Paternoster Buildings, London, E.C. + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Punctuation and spelling were made consistent. + +This book uses both 'story-tellers' and 'storytellers'. + +This book uses both 'mould' and 'mold'. + +Small decorative centerpiece illustrations in the Advertisements +are not indicated. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40923 *** |