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Bought with the income of the
Alfred E. Perkins Fund,
191^ -

PARLIAMENTARY REMINISCENCES
AND REFLECTIONS
1868 TO 1885

Bv t>l.|03

PREFACE
I BEGAN to write these Reminiscences as a dis
traction from the ever-present anxieties of the
War. I had no intention whatever of formulat
ing any charges against any party or section of
political opinion, though I wrote as a Tory and
Free-trader. But the mere narrative of the events
of the seventeen years embraced by these reflec
tions forms a continuous and accumulating in
dictment of the Pacificist or Manchester School
of politicians. During this period their action
throughout, as is shown by indisputable facts,
has been harmful to the body politic. They have
promoted the very evils they tried to extirpate,
and they have at the same time drifted into
an attitude of antagonism to the cultivation of
patriotism and the self-sacrificing qualities associ
ated with that virtue. For ten years out of the
seventeen between 1868 and 1885, Gladstone
was in office, trying hard to base his policy abroad
on their theories — ^with what results these pages
show. After this War we must rehabilitate our
resources and reorganise our country as best we

vi PREFACE
can, and in this reorganisation it is to be hoped
that we shall permanently discard the fallacies
of a school which in the past has done us such
irrevocable damage. G, H.
17 Montagu Street,
PoRTMAN Square, W.,
April 1 9 16.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGS

Invitation to stand for Parliament — Interview with
Disraeli — Acceptance of offer — Election and its
incidents — Labouchere — ^My agent Pym — Dinner at
Disraeli's ...... i
CHAPTER II
First speech in Commons and impression of its Members —
House of Lords — ^Magee's great speech — Dominance
of Cobdenite theories in Commons — Delane : Secret
of his power — Lord Burnham — ^Match Tax — ^A5rrton , 13
CHAPTER III
Reduction of Navy and Army Estimates — Franco-German
War — Goschen at Admiralty — Rare debating power
— Marriage ...... 3S
CHAPTER IV
Ireland — Chichester Fortescue — Serjeant Dowse — In
cident in Disraeli's great speech — Education BiU —
So-called religious difiiculty — Late hours in Commons 41
CHAPTER V
Defeat of Government on Irish University Bill — Lothair —
Alabama Treaty — Motion in Commons and debate —
Gladstone's speech — Chairman of Ways and Means . 48
CHAPTER VI
Rehabilitation of Disraeli's influence — Crystal Palace and
Manchester speeches — ^White Brandy — ^Death of Lady

viii CONTENTS
PAGE
Beaconsfield — Dissolution in 1874 — Disraeli: his
accessibility and kindness — Gladstone : his amazing
Parliamentary gifts and sophistry — Effect of latter on
opponents ...... 54

CHAPTER VII
1874 election — Results — Why I became Under-Secretary
of State for India — India Council and 0£5ce — Speech
on Famine in 1874 — Congratulations — Lord Salisbury :
his charm as a Chief and wit — Procedure before supply
in 1 874 — W. H. Smith : his chivalrous character and
sense of duty — Butt and Home Rule Party — Church
Regulation BiU — Deposition of the Gaekwar of Baroda 65

CHAPTER VIII
Hartington, Leader of Liberals : his character — Tichborne
Bubble — Dr. Kenealy — Debate in Commons — ^Major
O'Gorman and Dr. O'Leary — Development of ob
struction ..,.., 86

CHAPTER IX
Purchase of Suez Canal shares — Plimsoll and Merchant
Shipping — Scene in Commons — ^Whitebait dinner at
Greenwich — Debating power in Lords — Lord Cairns , 94

CHAPTER X
Indian ofBcials — Sir Thomas Seccombe — " Royal Titles
BiU " : its wonderful success — Lowe's apology —
FaU in price of sUver: Goschen's report upon — Sir
George Clerk — Unique position in India — FareweU
and advice as to India's future . . .100

CHAPTER XI
Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland — Archbishop of Dublin —
Lord Strathnairn — Rumours of Bulgarian atrocities —
Disraeli's last day in Commons — Lord Lytton Viceroy
of India — Visit to and dinner at Windsor Castle

CONTENTS ix

CHAPTER XII
PAGE
Eastern Question — Peter the Great's wiU — Rapid Russian
advance — Trans-Siberian RaUway — Occupation of
Cabul in 1839 — Lord Lawrence — PoUcy of " masterly
inactivity "—Sir Bartle Frere — Shere AU and North-
brook — Gladstone on the stump — Bulgarian atrocity
agitation — Debates in Commons — Retirement of Lords
Derby and Carnarvon — Knightsbridge banquet —
Lytton's poUcy in India — Yacoob Khan — Guarantees
to Abdul Rahman . , , . ,122

CHAPTER XIII
Northcote as Leader — Gathorne Hardy — DisraeU's retire
ment much felt — Development of obstruction —
Chamberlain — RaUways versus Irrigation — Indian
Budget — Success in conciUating Gladstone . ,141

CHAPTER XIV
Vice-President of CouncU — Difference with Lord President
— Beaconsfield's solution of difficulty — Dinner at
Lord Arthur RusseU's — Froude — Origin of payment
by results in education — Apology from Commons to
Beaconsfield , , . ^ . . .150

CHAPTER XV
Carnarvon's resignation — Bartle Frere in South Africa —
His action-— SaUsbury and Derby at GrUlion's Club
— Obstruction development — Parnell — Combination
of bad luck against Government — Prediction of de
feat — Midlothian campaign — Fall of Beaconsfield's
Government . . . . , .161

CHAPTER XVI
Midlothian campaign — Success — Retribution — Fourth
Party — Compensation for Disturbance BUI — Rejec
tion of scheme for purchase of London Water Com
panies — FaUure of session — Mundella at Education
Office — Disorder and outrage in Ireland — Captain
Boycott . . , . . -171

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XVII
PAGE
Effect on Commons of NationaUst Party — Introduction of
Coercion BUls — Determined obstruction — Suspension
of the whole Irish Party — Closure regulation carried —
Outbreak in Transvaal — Defeat and death of CoUey
— Dispatch and recall of Roberts — Debate on evacua
tion of Kandahar — Last speech of Beaconsfield — His
death — Joint leadership of SaUsbury and Northcote —
ChurchiU — Tory democracy — Introduction and passage
of Irish Land BUI — Arrest of ParneU . . . 1 88
CHAPTER XVIII
Session of 1882 — Crime rampant in Ireland — The Brad-
laugh case — Rules of procedure in Commons — Their
futUity — Difficulty of reform — Changes made — In
trigue against Forster — His resignation — KUmainham
Treaty between Government and Parnell — His release
— Debate in Commons — Murder of Cavendish and
Burke — Frederick Lambton — Parnell's general atti
tude — Dynamite outrages .... 207
CHAPTER XIX
Egyptian trouble — Dilke — MUitary revolt — Gambetta's
fall — Bombardment of Alexandria — Victory of Tel-
el- Kebir — Government decline responsibUity for
government in Egypt — Consequences . . . 223
CHAPTER XX
Government in trouble all over the world — Forster's attack
— Parnell and his characteristic reply — Dynamite
outrages — Explosives BUI — Irish Land Act working
badly — Motion on Land Purchase — Its acceptance —
Arrest and trial of Irish Invincibles . . .228

CHAPTER XXI
Indecision of Government — Telegram to Cairo — Hicks
Pasha — AnnihUation of his army — ChurchUl to the
front — Corrupt Practices BUI — London Government
Bill — -Allegation against me of organising disturbance
— Select Committee — Bradlaugh's cross-examination . 240

CONTENTS xi
CHAPTER XXII
PAGE
New Franchise Bill — Gladstone on reduction of franchise
in Ireland — Refusal of Government to combine fran
chise and redistribution — CoUision vnth Lords — Visit
to Canada — RaUway politics in Chicago — Its growth
— Inspection by Lord Lansdowne of voyageurs —
Incidents arising out of it — Henry Matthews . 249
CHAPTER XXIII
Franchise and redistribution — Quarrel settled — Pall Mall
Gazette campaign for increase of Navy — Government
surrender — Serious trouble with Bismarck — Capture
of Khartoum and death of Gordon — General indigna
tion — Debates — Narrow majority for Government —
CoUision with Russia — Imminence of war — Vote of
Credit for eleven millions — Personal intervention of
Czar — My speech on Budget — Mrs. Gladstone in
Speaker's Gallery — Difficulty of renewing Coercion
BUls for Ireland — Government defeated on Budget —
Abstention from division of Radicals — Gladstone's
resignation . . . . . .261
CHAPTER XXIV
SaUsbury hesitates to accept office — Nature of difficulties
to be overcome — Message from Bismarck — SaUsbury
accepts office — Northcote becomes a Peer — I go to
Admiralty — Chaos in Admiralty — Success of new
Government — ChurchiU's intimacy with Irish Party
— Difficulty of maintaining authority in Ireland with
no coercive powers — ^Maanstrasna Murder — Review of
the case — Debates in ParUament — ChurchUl's per
turbation — Irish vote — How distributed — Certainty
in Radical mind of large majority — My forecast — Sir
Henry Maine — Result of election — Gladstone's in
stantaneous adoption of Home Rule . . .272
CHAPTER XXV
At the Admiralty — Reasons for entire change of Board —
Huge incomplete scheme of shipbuUding — Cause of
delay and disorganisation — Sir Nathaniel Barnaby —
His resignation, and appointment of White as sue-

xii CONTENTS
PAGE
cesser — White's success — Dockyard reorganisation —
Treasury obstruction and final defeat — Treasury
attitude on minor questions — Education Estimate —
Treasury's strength and weakness — India Office and
financial check: — ^Necessity for establishing new system
for supervision of expenditure — Sailors and soldiers as
heads of their respective Services . . . 289
CHAPTER XXVI
Reflections — " Conscientious Objector " — How created —
Origin, growth, and development of Manchester School
— Its mischievous influence on national questions —
InabUity to deal with modern international situation
— Contrast between our methods and those in Germany
— Our Pacificists largely responsible for this War —
Indication of some necessary changes for the future . 318
INDEX  337

PARLIAMENTARY
REMINISCENCES AND
REFLECTIONS CHAPTER I
Invitation to stand for Parliament — Interview with Disraeli —
Acceptance of offer — Election and its incidents — Labouchere
— ^My agent Pym — Dinner at Disraeli's.
In the autumn of 1868 I was doing duty in London
as junior ensign in the Coldstream Guards, into
which regiment I had exchanged from the Rifle
Brigade. A general election was impending, the
franchise having been lowered and a redistribution
of seats associated with the reduction of qualifica
tion. Mr. Disraeli was Prime Minister.
I received one afternoon at the Guards' Club
a resolution, signed by a number of influential
householders, asking me to come forward as
Conservative candidate for the county of Middle
sex. The county of Middlesex was the largest
double constituency in Great Britain, and, al
though its limits had been reduced by the recent
Redistribution Bill, it was looked upon as one
of the prize seats in Parliament. Its sitting
representatives were Lord Enfield — an admirable
representative of old-fashioned Whiggism — and
Mr, Henry Labouchere, at that time a cynical

2 INTERVIEW WITH DISRAELI
exponent of blatant Radicalism. The seat had in
the past been notoriously Radical, and only once
in the last century had Middlesex been represented
by a Conservative.
I treated the matter as a practical joke and
replied to the invitation in that tone. I then
received a visit from Colonel Taylor, the well-
known Tory Whip, who told me that the offer was
a serious one and that Disraeli wished me to fight
the seat.
The question before the constituencies was
the disendowment and the disestablishment of
the Irish Church, and as my father was Lord-
Lieutenant of Ireland at the time, and had taken
a strong part in opposing this policy, I was told
that I was sure to get. a big Protestant vote, there
being in Middlesex a strong Low Church element.
Accordingly, I went by appointment to see
Disraeli. He was sympathetic and encouraging.
He talked to me on various questions, and I felt all
the time that he was trying to find out whether
I had any wits or ideas. He then asked me
how old I was. I answered : " Twenty-two."
" Really ! you look about eighteen," he said in
reply. He then patted me on the cheek and said :
" All right, little David ; go in and kiU GoUath."
In the meantime, Labouchere heard that I
was a possible candidate and had recourse to
his usual tactics by showering abuse upon my
father, my family, and myself. This so annoyed
my father that he at once put down the sum
necessary to cover the cost of the election. The
big county elections in those days were ridiculously
expensive. The cost of my first three elections

ACCEPTANCE OF OFFER 3
in the aggregate amounted to £30,000. Every
voter polled cost about £1 a head. All kinds of
abuses prevailed ; a vast number of solicitors was
engaged at high fees as district agents ; all the
flies, buses, and carriages available were hired on
the pretext of conveying voters to the poll, and
travelling expenses from all parts of the king
dom were allowed. Sir Henry James' " Corrupt
Practices Act " in 1883 put an end to this orgy
of expenditure. The financial arrangements being made, I was
then interviewed by my Committee, who were
appalled at my boyish appearance. They strongly
urg^d that a second candidate of decent age
and venerable appearance should be associated
with me. I agreed, provided that he halved
the expenditure. This condition choked off all
aspirants, except one of seventy-eight years of age.
The contrast between us was so comical that my
Committee gave way, and I stood alone.
In the meantime, I had been preparing for the
fray. I had read a good deal of history and many
political biographies, so that I knew pretty well
the past history, both constitutional and actual,
of Great Britain. As regards current politics, I
set to work regularly, giving up so many hours a
day and obtaining from old Members of Parlia
ment — ^notably the late Lord Mayo — ^the ins-and-
outs of questions most attracting public interest.
After two or three weeks of this cramming, I felt
I could pass quite a decent examination in the
catch political topics of the moment.
I then turned my hand to the composition
of speeches. I found I could without much

4 . ELECTION AND ITS INCIDENTS
difficulty write out passable stuff, but then the
question arose — could I deliver it to a noisy or in
different audience ? I had never in my life spoken
to a public audience, except^ once after dinner,
I was advertised for nineteen meetings, and
I was uncertain as to how I could get through
such a novel ordeal. My bear-leaders, in order
to test me, took me to a big meeting at St. James's
Hall held on behalf of Mr, W. H, Smith's candi
dature for Westminster. It was a very noisy
meeting. Mr. Robert Grimston, the speaker who
preceded me, — a splendid specimen of the old
fighting Tory, — ^had a violent personal altercation
with Mr. Bradlaugh, which very nearly ended
in a physical fight. I was received by derisive
cheers, but I found out that I was free from stage-
fright and that noise and interruption rather
quickened than upset my wits when speaking.
So I embarked on my stumping campaign with
a certain amount of self-confidence, and I was very
lucky in having as an opponent Labouchere. He
had no idea of fighting except by recourse to
personalities. His career had up to that date been '
somewhat chequered, and in the year preceding
the election he had had a personal encounter with
a foreign Baron at Homburg in which he came
off second best. Of me he knew nothing. His
antecedents were a good target for me to fire at.
After a few days' interchange of personalities he
left me alone and proceeded to insult and quarrel
with his colleague, Lord Enfield.
I was tough and capable of attending and
speaking at several public meetings a day, and the
fun and humour of a good riotous meeting was

" A BLOATED ARISTOCRAT " 5
then to me very enjoyable. In those days the
candidate was generally allowed by his opponents
to speak, though subject to constant interruption
and questions, and physical encounters between
partisans at the meetings themselves were not
uncommon. But opposition, organised so as to
prevent a man from speaking or being heard, was
not common. This is the product of the caucus
system which was not then in existence. On one
occasion a very fat Radical orator denounced
me as " a bloated aristocrat fattening upon the
flesh and blood of the people." I was very slight
and dressed in a tight-fitting frock-coat. In those
days the candidate for Parliamentary honours
always addressed his constituents en grande
tenue. I got up and put myself alongside my
bulky opponent, and the roars of laughter which
greeted this personal application of his diatribe
completely upset him.
On another occasion I had a most amusing
encounter with Mr, Bradlaugh at Tottenham.
Bradlaugh lived there and was a considerable
power amongst the extremists. He had been
heavily beaten in a Parliamentary contest at
Northampton a day or two before our meeting.
This defeat did not improve his temper or that
of his followers. As soon as I had spoken, he came
from the far end of the hall, where his followers
were concentrated, close up to the platform, and he
began in a loud voice and hectoring manner to put
to me the catch Radical catechism. Suddenly a
man, as much bigger than Bradlaugh as Bradlaugh
was than myself, got up with a huge club and said :
" Give me the signal, my lord, and I will crack

6 A BRADLAUGH INCIDENT
this infernal scoundrel's skull." A perfect pan
demonium ensued. Bradlaugh's people tried to
come to their hero's rescue, my people keeping
them back. Bradlaugh and the big man both
remained immovable, but Bradlaugh was furtively
watching out of the corner of his eye the big
club over his head, and the holder of it was watch
ing intently for me to give the signal for an on
slaught. The tension was broken by a big Irish
parson who was Rector of Tottenham, and who
previously had had many an encounter with
Bradlaugh. He jumped up and began to exorcise
Bradlaugh both with tongue and fists as if he
were a devil. I was afraid that he would strike
Bradlaugh, so I got hold of one end of the very
long tails of the orthodox parson's frock-coat.
One of my uncles seized the end of the other tail,
and the result of our combined efforts was that
the coat split up right to the neck, leaving us
each with a coat-tail in our hands.
The scene now became so ludicrous that the
different disputants resumed their seats, and I
and my agents got out of the hall as best we
could to go to another meeting. My friend with
the club then forcibly took the chair and declared
a vote of confidence to be carried in my favour.
In the anteroom to the hall was a troupe of
French singers who had engaged the hall for a
concert after our meeting was over. They were
terrified, hiding their heads under cushions and
stopping up their ears, for they firmly believed
that a red and murderous revolution was about
to take place. We had some difficulty in re
assuring them.

RESULT OF THE ELECTION 7
Subsequently I came frequently in contact
with Bradlaugh and his would-be assailant. The
former was a perfectly straight and truthful
man with whom it was possible to have reliable
agreements. His early atheistical writings were
abominable, and I am sure that in his mature
years he was heartily ashamed of them. He had
an ethical creed of his own, purely secular, but to
which he religiously adhered. The big man who
wished to assail him was a very decent fellow,
Josiah Pascoe by name. He was a giant in
physique and strength, and a religious fanatic,
but otherwise a popular and kindly man. The
night before our meeting he had been personally
assaulted by a number of Bradlaugh's followers
and hurt, so he came to my meeting armed with
a stick, which made him, in his own words, " a
match for the whole pack of them."
I obtained unexpected support in many
quarters. My Committee worked with excep
tional energy and skill, and — ^to the amazement
of the outside public — I was returned at the
head of the poll by a majority of over 1400, the
figures being as follows :
Hamilton  8078
Enfield  6624
Labouchere , , , , . , 6502
In the days of open voting hourly returns
were made, and the conduct of the election was
not infrequently regulated by such information.
As soon as it was known that I was sure to be
returned, my supporters, who deeply resented
Labouchere's antics and general conduct, spht

8 " MILK FOR THE BABY "
their votes between me and Enfield, who other
wise would have been beaten.
In 1868 appearance on the hustings was still
a part of the ordeal through which candidates
had to pass. Brentford was the place wh^re
the Middlesex hustings were erected. It was a
very rowdy place, and on the day of nomination
there was a large number of bargees' wives below
the hustings with long poles, to which were
attached small bottles filled with white liquid.
As soon as I began to speak, they all advanced
with " Milk for the Baby " ; and they further
went through a number of gesticulations showing
how, if they got hold of me, they would put me
across their knee and chastise me in the way in
which they were accustomed to treat their chil
dren. On my second appearance at the hustings
I was the elected candidate, and a great change
was noticeable in their demeanour, for these
ladies were again there, and as soon as I came
down from the hustings there was a shout : " We
will now kiss the Baby," and I had to beat a
rapid retreat to my Committee-room to avoid
this punishment.
The hustings, with all their noise and tumult,
gave one an insight into life and presented a good
deal of the comical side of human nature. But as
the candidates always had to pay for the erection
of these hustings, and top price was always charged
them, their abolition was a considerable reduction
in the expenditure which previously had to be
incurred. Labouchere's behaviour throughout this con
test was very sUly. He annoyed various

LABOUCHERE 9
interests, and he insulted many people by
gratuitously offensive remarks. As the day of
reckoning approached, and he had to appear upon
the hustings, he became apprehensive that he
would be physically assaulted — by whom and
for what we never were able to ascertain. So
obsessed was he with this alarm that, to our
delight and the chagrin of his supporters, he
appeared, upon the declaration of the poll, so
muffled up in comforters and a slouch hat as to be
scarcely recognisable, and he was further escorted
by a gang of hired roughs from the east end of
London. This was the climax. One of his sup
porters was heard to say : "I don't know who is
going to hurt that little man, but if he's afeared
why don't he employ honest Brentford folk ? "
Amongst my agents in this election was one,
Wollaston Pym by name, who in after years
became a very staunch friend of mine, and who
was, in addition, an admirable political agent. He
was a handsome, strong man, who had spent a
good many years in our Colonies, and he had all
the quickness and resource of one habituated to
the difficulties attending life in wild and sparsely
populated regions. He was lineally descended
from the great Parliamentarian of Charles i.'s
time, and he was heir to the family property in
Bedfordshire. He showed such aptitude in this
election that he became the prominent political
agent for the Conservative Party in the whole
of Middlesex. The appointment was a novelty, as
up to that date solicitors had had the monopoly
of such work. They were not, generally speaking,
a success. They gave only secondary thoughts

10 MY AGENT PYM
to their political duties ; they were far too
stationary in their offices, and very expensive,
Pym founded a school of political agents, and
amongst those who were there trained was Captain
Middleton, afterwards the well-known and very
successful general manager of the Conservative
Party. Pym showed what could be done by daily
attention to the ins-and-outs of life in a big
constituency. He was ubiquitous, a born fighter
either with tongue or fists, and a thorough gentle
man. He was trusted and liked by all, and he
gave the whole-hearted service which can come
from conviction alone.
Our example was followed by many other
constituencies, and thus arose the modern class
of whole-time political agents whose work has
been so invaluable to our party, being far less
costly and much more efficient than the work
of the class whom they superseded. Pym never
lost an election, and when Middlesex was cut
up in 1885 into eight divisions we won every
seat by very large majorities. Statesmen may
formulate grandiloquent policies on the platform,
but efficient machinery to drive home the ideas
of that policy into the apathetic masses is as
essential to success as the conception of the
policy itself.
I thus found myself at the age of twenty-two,
mainly by luck and a chapter of chances. Member
of Parliament for a constituency, not only
important from its population, but one which
included all the freeholders of the Metropolitan
Boroughs north of the Thames. All these
boroughs, with the exception of one seat in

DINNER AT DISRAELI'S ii
Westminster, were represented by Radicals.
These freeholders in course of time came to look
upon me as their representative and, instead of
going to their Borough Members, came to me
to promote their grievances and listen to their
wants. I thus gained, from the accident of
representing such a constituency, a pretty wide
knowledge of the views, ideas, aspirations, and
prejudices of the well-to-do middle class.
My electoral success was due to the strange
chance of my being selected for a constituency
which, unknown to the wirepullers, had during
the past ten years been converted from Radicalism
to Conservatism. Rapid extension of suburban
railroads and the outpouring of professional
men, tradesmen, and clerical employees into the
rural outskirts of London had steadily changed
the tone and politics of the constituency. I
was merely the mouthpiece of this transforma
tion, but I got the whole credit of the victory.
A Parliamentary candidate during his election
is necessarily a person of importance in the area
which he is contesting. If successful, he is for
some time afterwards surrounded by a halo of
glory, and is very apt during that period to get
above himself. I must plead guilty to this
exaltation, but I soon had a lesson which cured
me from unduly inflating myself.
Shortly after this election, Disraeli asked some
few of the most prominent victorious candidates
to dinner. We were about ten in number, each
and all believing his victory to be the one feature
of the election. We all began and continued
to talk at once, and each of us was shocked to

12 THE PASSING CANDIDATE
find that silence from others did not at once
ensue. Each looked at the other in surprise, as
much as to say : " Who are you, that you should
question my right to talk and to be listened
to ? " Conversationally, the dinner was not a
success, but I went home that night conscious
that among the vanities of this life there is
none which evaporates more quickly than the
ephemeral distinction of a candidate who has
been successful in a bygone election.

CHAPTER II
First speech in Commons and impression of its Members —
House of Lords — Magee's great speech — Dominance of
Cobdenite theories in Commons — Delane : Secret of his
power — Lord Bumham — ^Match Tax — ^Ayrton.
But my luck did not end with this election. I
was even more fortunate with my first Parlia
mentary speech. The Irish Church Bill was the
big measure of the session, and it created extra
ordinary interest, not only from the great political
changes it indicated, but as constituting the first
political round between Disraeli as ex-Prime
Minister and Gladstone as Prime Minister. I
was told by Disraeli to be ready to speak on
the second reading, so I very carefully prepared
a speech. I found out early in my work upon the plat
form that I had the knack or trick — ^not un
common amongst public speakers — of being able
to commit a speech to memory without putting
a word of it upon paper. The process is simple
and quite rapid. You sit in a chair and get a
clear, consecutive line of thought, mentally clothe
it in words not spoken, and repeat the process
a few times. It is not the highest method of
preparing a speech, but it has this advantage in
debate, that it enables you to concentrate your
attention upon what your opponent is saying.

\ 14 FIRST SPEECH IN COMMONS
and to fit your reply to his argument into the
speech you have already got fixed in your mind.
It is more an effort of memory than anything
else ; but I quite lost this aptitude a few years
later after a tiresome attack of insomnia.
Having composed a speech in this fashion, I
asked Dr. Alexander, the late Primate of Ireland
and a born orator, whom I knew very intimately,
to let me recite it before him. He was very
kind and helpful, brushed up some of my points,
and suggested some ideas of his own.
Thus prepared and fortified, I sat through
five nights of debate, getting up whenever a
speech was finished, but waiting in vain for my
name to be called. During all this time I was
polishing up my speech by storing up replies to
weak arguments of opponents. On the last night
of the debate, just before ten o'clock, the House
being packed to hear the big guns on each side
sum up, I was called through someone on the
Speaker's list not putting in an appearance.
The House of Commons is always considerate
to a new Member, and especially to a young
Member, and I looked very young. I had
then a clear, carrying voice, and I delivered,
ore rotunda, my carefully prepared speech, into
which I inserted as I went along replies to
preceding speakers' arguments. To my amaze
ment the speech was a huge success. Disraeli,
who was in front of me, warmly shook me by
the hand, and Gladstone, in summing up the
debate, not only went out of his way to pay
me a compliment, but devoted part of his speech
to answering my attack.

IMPRESSION OF ITS MEMBERS 15
The next morning I awoke, not famous, but
in the category of " promising young men."
It was this combination of extraordinary good
luck that gave me a long start over many of my
political associates, who would have done just as
well if they had had the same chance. My father
and I received so many congratulations upon
this speech that it was decided that I should
give up the Army as a profession and devote
myself entirely to politics. Having thus become
a full-time politician, I worked hard for the
remainder of the session at blue books and
Parliamentary papers, and intervened occasionally
in debate. The reputation of the House of Commons
then stood, both individually and collectively, on
a very different pedestal from that which it now
occupies. In society it was assumed and not
disputed that there was much ability, integrity,
and public spirit within its doors, and on both
sides of the House. An influential Member of
Parliament was then, not only in his own circle,
but in the world at large, a person of real
importance. My attitude towards them at first
was one of deference and submission, but I found
little by little that reputations in the House
of Commons are not unfrequently based upon
fluency of speech, posing, and superficiality. Of
course, there are a good many exceptions to this
indictment, and frequently a Minister or a private
Member has to pass through an ordeal which is
a real test of ability, thoroughness, and staying
power. But very early in my Parliamentary life
I discovered, when I had carefully got up a case

i6 IMPRESSION OF ITS MEMBERS
and investigated it thoroughly, how superficial
was the knowledge of the Minister in reply, and
how empty and thin were the speeches of many
of those who spoke, A dexterous use of the
tongue, the introduction of the political shib
boleths of the moment, and a power of stringing
words together that meant little or nothing were
the stock-in-trade of a large proportion of Members
and even of Ministers. No man owes more to the
House of Commons than I do, and it seems un-.
gracious to belittle a benefactor ; but I have
often thought what my future career would have
been if I had remained in the Army. I am con
fident that I should never have attained to
anything like the prominence that I got in political
life and office. Yet no one can pretend that the
qualities a soldier should possess or the ordeals
through which a soldier has to pass before he can
obtain real eminence are not a truer test of
character, reliabiUty, and courage than those
associated with pohtical distinction. I therefore
arrived early in life at the conclusion, now fortified
by many years' experience, that fluency and
dexterity of speech rank far too high in the pubUc
life of England. They are very useful adjuncts
to a man of courage, principle, and high ideals,
but nothing more, and useless and dangerous
when dissociated from such attributes.
The House of Lords at this time had within
its numbers many first-rate speakers, and the
Bench of Bishops contained a number of men
of exceptionally high attainments. Tait, Wilber-
force. Thirl wall. Trench, Alexander, and Magee
represented, each of them, high though different

MAGEE 17
intellectual gifts and powers ; but unquestionably
the orator of this galaxy of talent was Magee.
He was Dean of the Chapel Royal, Dublin, in
1866-1868, when my father was Lord-Lieutenant
of Ireland. He astonished us by his first sermon,
and we assumed it was an exceptional effort to
welcome the advent of a new Viceroy ; but
Sunday after Sunday there were produced with
out effort, and almost as a matter of certainty,
discourses equally eloquent, equally close in their
reasoning, equally illustrated by flashes of wit
and satire. With the exception of Gladstone,
I never met anyone who so impressed one with
natural facility and promptitude of speech as
Magee. He was, however, much more concen
trated, and stuck more closely to his argument
than the other orator. His sermons were, in
every sense, orations, spoken not read — elocution,
voice, and gesture all equally good. He spoke
from the scantiest of notes — as a rule, they were
contained on a half-sheet of notepaper. There
was Scottish as well as Irish blood in his veins,
and his logical power and strict adherence to a
close sequence of thought were quite as remark
able as the torrent of eloquence and illustration
which he poured forth in the development of his
argument. In this sense he much resembled
Bright who, in contrasting his own speaking with
that of Gladstone, said : "I am like a voyager on
the sea going direct from coast-point to coast-
point. Gladstone, however, stops to investigate
every river to its source which happens to run
into the sea he is traversing." Towards the
close of 1868 Magee was made Bishop of Peter-

i8 MAGEE'S GREAT SPEECH
borough by Disraeli — an elevation entirely ob
tained by merit, as he had up to that time been
a consistent Liberal.
The second reading of the Irish Church Bill
in the House of Lords was the most sustained
exhibition of debating power I ever heard, and
Magee's oration was universally admitted to be
the gem of the whole debate. Magee was a small,
insignificant-looking man until he began to speak.
Then all was forgotten except that a born orator
was before you. I arrived in the House of Lords
after he had been speaking about ten minutes.
It was an extraordinary sight. The House was
packed from the floor to the highest of the
galleries, and in the midst of this magnificent
Chamber and this huge audience there was a plziin
pigmy of a man speaking at a table. But so com
pletely had he already dominated his audience
with his tongue that a large proportion ofJthem
was unconsciously listening to him with open
mouths, expressive of wonder and ddi^^. The
speech was a triumph of oratory, and the vibrant
earnestness of its delivery carried his convictions
home to his audience.
The close of his speech was the most daring
and powerful peroration that I ever heard, and
it must have been impromptu. It was made in
reply to the preceding speaker, who suggested
that the Lords should be careful how they con
ducted themselves, as they would some day be
called to account before the bar of public opinion.
Magee took up this piece of advice and twisted it
into a satirical litany : " What shall we say to
indignant democracy when we are thus put on our

AN EXCEPTIONAL TRIUMPH 19
trial ? Spare us, good people, that we may sit
on red benches and in a gilded chamber ! Spare
us, good people, that we may continue to play at
being legislators ! Oh ! spare us, good people,
because we have never failed to spare our
selves ! " Then, with the deftness and power
of an inspired orator, he drew in a few graphic
phrases a picture of the Last Day of Judgment
and of the tribunal before which we shall all
have to appear, and he ended by saying : " When
I think of the ordeal of that Great Day, I dare
not, I cannot, I would not, vote for this most
unhappy and ill-omened Bill."
As he sat down, the staid decorum of the
House of Lords vanished, and the House became
a pandemonium of enthusiasm, for nearly the
whole of the gallery rose up and cheered over
and over again, whilst the applause in the House
itself was so continuous that Lord Ripon, who
followed him, had to wait some minutes before
he could be heard.
Two veteran orators of the highest repute.
Lords Derby and EUenborough, were sitting side
by side and exchanged the following remarks :
" Did you ever hear anything equal to that ? "
" No, unless it was Plunket, and he was not half
so good." Magee had been very considerate to me in
Dublin, so when I met him by accident a few
days later I ventured to congratulate him upon
his splendid performance. He then told me that
he practically delivered the whole of his speech
without a note. He had lost his notes at the
beginning of his speech owing to a remark of Lord

20 A MAGEE STORY
Russell, In his opening sentences Magee fell
foul of certain Radical Peers who in their turn
interrupted him. Lord Russell, who was very
deaf and, like most deaf people, spoke much louder
than he intended, said in his clear staccato voice
to his neighbour : " Who is the Bishop who has
put his foot in it ? " This perturbed Magee, who
was about to quote an extract from some well-
known authority. When he had finished his
quotation and shut up the book, his notes had
disappeared, and he could not find them for the
remainder of his speech. When he sat down, of
course they tumbled out of the book on to his lap.
Magee was the most delightful of companions
and the most amusing of conversationalists.
Many are the stories told of his happy repartee,
of which I give one apt illustration.
He was for a short time rector of Inniskillen,
Fermanagh. He was naturally a very tolerant
and broad-minded man. The church of which
he was rector was the headquarters of the
Orangemen upon certain festivals. Orange flags
were brought into the church, and the service
became an Orange ritual. Magee did not like
this procedure, and he refused on one occasion to
preach. There was a fluent firebrand of a clergy
man beneficed in the neighbourhood, and he
wrote to Magee asking if he might preach in his
place. Magee had found out that this divine
had allowed his mother to become a recipient of
Poor Relief in the south of Ireland. He replied
to this request in the affirmative, provided that he
might choose the text. The other agreed to this
condition, and the text given him was : " And

THE NEW COMMONS 21
from that hour that disciple took [his mother]
unto his own home." The sermon was not
preached. All who saw Magee or heard him at work,
whether speaking, organising, examining, or cross-
examining, were struck with his extraordinary
forensic and legal aptitude. If he had become a
member of the Bar, he must have risen to the
top of his profession and realised a large fortune.
He did attain a great eminence in his calling, for
he became Archbishop of York, but died a few
months subsequently. His estate was valued at
his death at less than £2000. The holier calling
is certainly not the more profitable.
The House of Commons, of which I was a
Member, had been elected on a reformed qualifica
tion, namely, household suffrage in boroughs
and a higher qualification in counties. Though
a very large proportion of working men were thus
enfranchised, they had then no adequate organisa
tion or machinery by which they could return
their own class to Parliament, The cost of
elections was so extravagant that it effectively
shut out the vast majority of them from competing
with richer men. There were then only two
parties — Conservative and Liberal^ — ^though the
latter was a somewhat motley crew, composed of
Whigs, Radicals, and Irish Roman Catholics. In
combination they constituted a large majority.
The dominant tone and atmosphere of this House
of Commons was essentially middle class and
commercial. Their tenets were those of the
Manchester School, of which Gladstone and Bright
were eloquent exponents. Of foreign or colonial
3

22 DOMINANCE OF COBDENITE THEORIES
politics, national or imperial aspirations, they knew
little and cared less. Abroad cosmopolitan amity
promoted by the interchange of trade was to
bind the whole world together in lasting friendship
and peace. At home the abolition of every
institution and custom that made individuals
prominent or powerful was advocated to ensure
a dead level of uniform equality. Economy,
peace, and reform were the alpha and omega of
their creed. All national expenditure had to be
pared and cut down to the barest necessities.
The Army and Navy expenditure was arbitrarily
reduced by millions, and those who effected these
reductions were apparently utterly indifferent
to the fact that these reductions invalidated the
effective and fighting efficiency of the whole Army
and Navy, and consequently endangered the very
existence of the country. In debate it was
sufficient for any Minister to get up and say that
the proposal made was contrary to the first
principles of political economy for it to be sum
marily rejected. Political economy then meant
the extreme undiluted doctrines of Cobden and
the Manchester School. Supply and demand
were the only forces which could regulate or
expand civilisation, and — ^no matter how hardly
they might affect certain classes and interests
— ^their operation was to be left untouched
and uncontrolled. To interfere with them was
blasphemy. There was an excellent old gentleman, Mr.
Potter, Member of Parliament for Rochdale,
and known as " Bright's Trumpeter." He was
Sepretary tq th^ Cobden Qub^ and his delight

INFLUENCE OF GLADSTONE 23
was to scatter broadcast all over the world the
pamphlets and literature of that Club. They were
in his eyes the panacea for all evils, political,
national, racial, and religious. The Church of
Rome having enunciated a very high doctrine
as to the infallibility of the Pope, that august
personage received a large consignment of Cobden's
works to inculcate into him the folly of such a
pretension. It was under these influences that Government
employ in the lower grades of unskilled labour
got a bad name. As Prime Ministers usually,
and up to quite a recent date almost invariably,
held the post of First Lord of the Treasury, that
Department, instead of being a financial depart
ment ranking equally with the other great depart
ments of State, was considered by those in it to
be the Government. The influence and power
of Gladstone at that office had deeply imbued
the whole of the permanent officials at the
Treasury with the Cobdenite doctrines. Their
decisions on all questions of expenditure, small
and great, were final and irrevocable, and for
many years that office exercised its exceptional
position in cutting down without knowledge^ or
responsibility the expenditure of every department
save its own. I can remember when the Treasury
applied for tenders for the performance of certain
classes of work. The expenditure being mainly the
payment of labour, they issued a schedule of
prices as a guide to those tendering, and they
accepted a tender twenty-six per cent, below their
own schedule. This was €00 much even for the
House of Commons, and the debate which ensued

24 JOHN DELANE
destroyed for ever the further Treasury employ
ment of sweated labour.
Disraeli, speaking in 1872 at a great meeting
at Glasgow, said : " The aspirations of a great
people cannot be satisfied by the mere rattle of
the dry bones of political economy," and in the
coming election this sentence obtained a wide
spread and effective response.
During this period I not unfrequently met
Mr. Delane, the celebrated editor of the Times.
He was still in the plenitude of his power. His
position in politics and society was so exceptional
as to deserve more than a passing notice. He
was a remarkable personality, and his idiosyn
crasy just fitted into the epoch in which he was
born and moved. As an editor he showed great
acumen, courage, and indefatigable industry. In
addition to the discharge of his editorial work,
he made it part of his business to frequent smart
society ; but, unlike other professioucd men, he
never dropped his business when out socially.
On the contrary, he was always on the prowl to
pick up information, which he utilised no matter
how or from whom he got it. That this betrayal
of social convention did not exclude him from
the society he so exploited was a proof of his
audacity and power. He did not shine as a wit
or brilliant conversationalist, though he spoke
tersely and pertinently. His attitude was that
of the infallible oracle, the sole depository of
accurate information or of sure forecast. To
put it plainly, he gave himself intolerable airs,
but this was largely due to the fact that he was
terribly toadied by a certain section of society

TIMES CORRESPONDENTS 25
and particularly by the leading Whig ladies of
that period. He was fond of snubbing all who
ventured to differ from him, particularly if they
were young men.
The extreme power which the Times then
wielded, though largely due to the ability of
Delane as an editor, was assisted by a number
of contributing circumstances which, as they
changed, prevented any subsequent editor, no
matter what his ability might be, from putting
the Times in the same position which it occupied
during Delane's editorship. In prestige and
wealth thei Times then towered above all other
newspapers, and therefore it could with ease
command the services of the pick of journalistic
ability. Delane made his selections with great
judgment and discrimination, especially as re
gards his foreign correspondence. He further so
organised the transmission of news from abroad
as to give the Times priority of information
upon foreign questions over all Press competitors.
He also obtained much the same advantage in
home affairs, for he contrived with great adroit
ness always to have a tame Cabinet Minister
in his pocket — a most reprehensible practice. I
defy any Cabinet Minister to correspond daUy
with the editor of a great paper and at the same
time remain loyal to his colleagues. Consciously
or unconsciously, the oath of secrecy and the
sense of obligation to his brother Ministers become
little by little sapped until they disappear.
Delane's Life and Memoirs are full of incidents
where distinguished men, quite regardless of the
honourable understanding between colleagues

26 A POWER BEHIND PARLIAMENT
sharing collective responsibility, improperly sup
plied him with the most confidential information
which was used. I can perfectly appreciate Lord
Russell's sentiment in a letter which he wrote tq
a friend when he became Prime Minister in 1865,
namely :
" I am aware that Mr, Delane is very angry
that I did not ask to kiss his hand instead of the
Queen's, when I was appointed to succeed Pal-
merston, but I would rather be out of office than
hold it upon such humiliating conditions."
Between the Reform Bills of 1832 and 1868
politics were centred in London, and were confined
to a comparatively small circle. The fight was
then mainly between Whigs and Tories, the
Radical Party being an appendage to the Whigs,
though from time to time they gave them a
good deal of trouble. Parties were more evenly
balanced than at present, and for many years
the balance was held by the Peelites. It was,
therefore, possible for Delane with the Times
behind him to annoy and even upset Govern
ments dependent upon wavering majorities. To
utilise this Cabinet-destroying power fully, it was
necessary for Delane to be independent of all
party ties and leading principles. This Delane
appreciated, and he moulded his conduct accord
ingly. No one quite knew what he would do
next, or what use he would make of any unforeseen
eventuality. It was in the Whig houses that he
was generally to be found. In those days there
was still a number of Whigs who really believed
that they had a hereditary right to permanent
office. Here was a man who could either protect

FIRST MEETING WITH DELANE 27
or upset this their vested interest. Therefore,
said they, let us do everything we can socially
to keep him in good temper. Delane knew this,
and traded upon it ; but it required consummate
assurance effectively to play this role for the
time which he succeeded in doing.
The first time I met him was at a small dinner
party at Spencer House in the middle of the
general election of 1868. I had just issued my
address as a candidate for Middlesex. Delane
was then on the warpath against Disraeli. He
sat next but one to me at dinner. His conversa
tion was a diatribe against Disraeli and the con
duct and management of the Conservative Party,
He was particularly severe upon the absurdity of
putting up ignorant young aristocrats for populous
constituencies, and he more than once alluded to
the Middlesex constituency. This aroused my
ire, and I interrupted him by the trite remark
that as regards Middlesex he did not know what
he was talking about. An animated but not dis
courteous dialogue ensued. I stuck to my guns ;
I told Delane that I should get in, and I expressed
surprise as to the sources from which he derived
such erroneous information. After dinner my
delightful hostess chided me for my presumption,
sa5dng : " I really was afraid you would have had
a row with Mr. Delane." I in the innocence of
my heart replied : " Why not ? "
I went home that evening pleased but some
what uneasy. I had successfully bluffed the
redoubtable editor of the Times, but my conten
tion was pure bluff. Could I turn it into reality ?
By the chapter of lucky coincidences already

28 THE DESPOT OF POLITICS
described, I did so succeed, and the sequel was
amusing, A few weeks after I had taken my seat in
the House I went into the outer lobby, where I
encountered Delane, He greeted me warmly,
seized me by the arm, and made me stroll back
arm in arm with him into the inner lobby of the
House. I shall never forget the look of surprise
upon the faces of my associates when they saw
me, the youngest Member in the House, coming
into the lobby on such terms of equality with
the great despot of politics. I am sure that this
notice of me was kindly meant, but I was much
abashed by the patronage thus publicly displayed
towards me.
Delane's entrance into the lobby was a sight
worth witnessing. No pope or autocrat could
have shown a more lofty condescension to his
subordinates than he exhibited to the habitues
of the lobby, and what annoyed me was not so
much his assumption of superiority, but the grovel
ling sycophancy with which it was accepted.
But these days are gone, never to return.
With the reduction of the franchise, the increased
circulation of cheaper newspapers, especially in
the provinces, political influence was no longer
concentrated in London, but was disseminated
over the country, each great centre of population
being a miniature London in its dissemination
of political information and influence. The
general election of 1880 was the first indication
of the wane of the power of the Times. The
Times and the whole of the London Press, with
a few exceptions, were in favour of Disraeli's

TENDENCY TO DOMINEER 29
policy, yet the pohcy they so supported met with
a crushing defeat in the country. I think I am
correct in saying that in every preceding election
for many years past the Times' influence had
always been associated with the winning side.
Whatever Delane's faults might be — and he
wore most of them upon his sleeve — ^he was a
strong, big man and a patriot to the core of his
heart. Palmerston and he had much in common.
Both were very good specimens of the typical
John Bull of the period — capable, fearless men,
with a hatred of cant, hypocrisy, and humbug,
and ready at all times to fight for what they be
lieved to be right. We should aU have felt
happier during the troublous period of 1914, 1915,
and 1916 if we had had a few more men of this
stamp in our public life of to-day.
Delane made one uniform mistake through
out his editorship. He would write on foreign
politics and of foreign Governments in the same
domineering tone which he adopted upon home
politics. His intimacy with the Governments
of the day gave abroad to these hectoring utter
ances the authority and initiative of the British
Government itself. There was no country that
he was fonder of lecturing, with the exception of
the United States, than North Germany, and I
am sure that one of the causes which have tended
to the present intense animosity of Germans
against England is to be found in the tone, temper,
and language of the Times' leading articles upon
foreign affairs whilst Delane was Editor of that
newspaper. His example was followed in this
respect by some of his successors.

30 LORD BURNHAM
There was another remarkable pressman who
constantly frequented the inner lobby at this time
— Mr. Levy Lawson, afterwards Lord Burnham.
His methods and demeanour were very different
from those of Delane, but as a pressman I am not
sure that he was not the bigger man of the two if we
judge him from where he started and to what he
attained. He was in no sense obtrusive or ostenta
tious, but a most close and receptive'observer ; and
he had an absolute genius for picking up the class
of information and the writers who appealed to
the social strata just below Delane's clientele. As
Editor and owner he was engaged in the very
difficult task of building up and exploiting a news
paper with little or no reputation behind it, and
his work was not only extraordinarily successful,
but it has stood the test of time. The more
critical sections of society might laugh at the
flamboyant descriptive style of the correspond
ents of the Daily Telegraph, of whom the most
celebrated was a Mr. Whitehead, located in
Paris, and who from that capital gave racy
accounts of every class of rapid society under the
Empire. Or they might depreciate the high-
flown periods of the facile pen of Sir Edwin
Arnold ; but both were read and liked. Lawson
was very independent ; he never allowed his
personal likes or dislikes to influence the conduct
of his paper. In his earlier career he was an
enthusiastic supporter of Gladstone ; but when
that statesman in critical times took what Lawson
believed to be an unpatriotic attitude, the Daily
Telegraph became his most formidable and per
tinacious opponent. I can recollect no national

LOWE AND THE MATCH TAX 31
crisis in the last forty years in which this journal
did not advocate with consistent ability a patri
otic policy of self-sacrifice and self-reliance. The
paper thus became a centre of patriotic attraction.
Its circulation and influence grew, and its profits
correspondingly increased. It was the work of
Lord Burnham's long life to lay well and truly
the foundations of this great journalistic enter
prise ; and what it was when he first became
its Editor and what it was when he died are
the measure of his raie aptitude and prescience
as a pressman.
The Government of which Gladstone was
the head had no less than seven Cabinet
Ministers who had taken a first-class in Classics,
namely. Lord Hatherley, Lord Halifax, Lord
Kimberley, Gladstone, Mr. Cardwell, Mr. Lowe,
and Mr. Chichester Fortescue ; but they did
not pull well together. Lowe's sarcastic tongue
and biting wit were not much appreciated by
those of his colleagues from whom he differed.
The first ugly knock the Cabinet got was over a
proposal of Lowe to put a tax of a penny per
hundred upon matches. Bryant & May and other
similar establishments gave their young ladies a
day's holiday to protest by petitioning Parliament.
They promptly took possession of ParUament
Street and the approaches to the House of
Commons, and so tenacious and violent were
they that the police could not dislodge them at
the time Members were coming to the House.
They were waiting for Lowe. He, however, cleverly
avoided them by walking across to St. James's
Park Station, and from there he got to the House

32 AYRTON
of Commons by the tunnels between Westminster
Bridge Station and the House.
The tax was so unpopular that it had to be
withdrawn. The Cabinet, being classical, had
assented to the proposal to tax matches because it
was associated with a very clever Latin pun by
Lowe. On the stamp put upon matches was
imprinted : " Ex luce luceUum," i.e., " A little
gain from light — or Lucy." They were greatly
disappointed when they found that vote-catching
was a more powerful influence in the House of
Commons than appreciation of classical jokes.
Just outside the Cabinet, but equal in ability
to many in it, was a curious specimen of humanity,
by name A5n:ton, the First Commissioner of Works,
He had some Eastern blood in him, and his
manner and speech in public were the essence of
sajdonic impertinence. In private life he was not
a bad feUow and very amusing, but he did not
suffer scientists gladly, and in his official capacity
he came into collision with that cult, especially
Sir Joseph Hooker, the great botanist who was in
charge of Kew Gardens. Ayrton insisted upon
treating him as if he were a weekly hireling.
Though an able administrator, his caustic tongue
was always getting him into trouble ; but his
political extinction was due to a comical inad
vertence on the part of his friends. He was
Member of Parliament for the Tower Hamlets,
then an immense constituency. A big meeting of
his constituents was advertised at which he as a
protector of the public purse was to make a great
speech in reply to the allegations that were con
stantly made against him. Unfortunately for him.

SURPRISED AND DEFEATED 33
the conveners of the meeting forgot to advertise
a chairman, and this gave his opponents their
chance. As soon as Ayrton appeared on the plat
form a man got up and moved that Mr. Nosotti, a
real fighting publican, should take the chair. This
was seconded and put to the meeting, who thought
it was part of the arrangements, and voted ac
cordingly. Before Ayrton and his friends re
covered from their surprise, Nosotti was in the
chair and proposing from that eminence in a voice
of thunder the following resolution :
" That this meeting much regrets that Mr.
Ayrton has by his coarse and insolent demeanour
made the representation of the Tower Hamlets a
byword." An indescribable scene of confusion ensued,
lasting for more than an hour, degenerating
at times into a free fight. But Nosotti stuck
to his chair, though it was carried half round
the room by his opponents. Finally, Ayrton and
his friends retired and left a free field to their
assailants. In those days a big open public meeting was
assumed to be an accurate representation of the
feelings of the locality, and the ridicule caused
and damage done to Ayrton's reputation by these
disorderly proceedings largely contributed to his
subsequent defeat at the next election of 1874 by
Charles Ritchie, who afterwards became Chancellor
of the Exchequer.
London — and especially frequenters of the
Park — are greatly indebted to Ayrton, for in spite
of Radical protests he passed into law the Parks

34 AYRTON v. HARCOURT
Regulation Act, by which public meetings were
brought under the control and cognisance of the
police. His chief opponent in the debates upon
this Bill was Sir William Harcourt, no mean per
former in a personal altercation ; but in the
slanging matches between these two Harcourt
invariably found more than his match;
A57rton made himself very pleasant to me, and
on several occasions I got him to make improve
ments and concessions as to admission into Kew
Gardens which delighted my constituents. We
first met at the Brentford hustings.

CHAPTER III
Reduction of Navy and Army Estimates — Franco-German War
— Goschen at Admiralty — Rare debating power — Marriage.
The Estimates for the Army and Navy were
largely reduced in 1870, being the lowest presented
to Parliament for some years. Lord Granville,
who upon the death of Lord Clarendon succeeded
him as Foreign Minister, gave a most confident
and optimistic forecast upon the prospects and
general preservation of peace. Within a few
weeks of this unhappy prediction, war broke out
between France and Germany, and the result of
that war was that the map of Europe was largely
changed for the benefit of Germany. British
sympathies were greatly in favour of Germany.
There was a distrust of Napoleon iii., and Bis
marck, with his habitual skill, had got documents
in his portfolio which, when published, suggested
doubts as to the French intentions in respect of
the neutrality of Belgium ; but there were a good
many men in Parliament, including myself, to
whom a perusal of the papers published by the
German Government suggested doubts as to who
was the real aggressor and originator of this war.
The telegram published by the German Govern
ment, and which was known to be the cause of the
war, seemed to have no foundation or facts behind
it sufficient to justify a hostile collision between
?5

36 THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR
France and Germany. It was afterwards ad
mitted by Bismarck himself that he so altered the
original telegram as to give it a meaning which its
first phraseology did not bear. It was the first
public indication of the methods of the Prussian
Foreign Office of which we have since had such
cumulative evidence. It is now openly stated by
German publicists and professors that the gravest
responsibility rests upon those who attempt to
prevent war when the conditions are favourable
to Germany ; or, in other words, it is the duty of
German statesmen, regardless of treaty or obliga
tion, to make war on any nation whom it thinks it
can despoil. It is such an astonishing reversal of
our accepted national policy that war should, if
possible, be avoided, that we can hardly accept
this dogma except as emanating from criminals or
lunatics ; but, unfortunately, experience has now
taught us that war is the great national industry
of Prussia. In the next session the Naval and Military
Estimates were raised by three miUions, and
towards the close of the year Mr, Childers, whose
fussiness at the Admiralty had reduced both
that Office and the Navy to a general condition
of chaos, was replaced by Goschen. Though he
was a strong Free-trader and a most capable
financier, he had nothing in common with the
ideals of the Little Englander. In his Life there
are to be found two remarkable letters written
by him when he was quite a young man. The
first was a reply to Cobden, who in a paternal
but peremptory manner told him that his speeches
— ^particularly as regards landlords and land —

GOSCHEN AT THE ADMIRALTY 37
were not acceptable to the Cobdenite school and
must be modified. Gkschen, a bom fighter, made
such a reply that Cobden subsided and made no
further attempt to rope in so capable a con
troversialist. The other letter was a reply to Gladstone,
who shortly after Goschen's appointment to the
Admiralty wrote to him to say that he was
expected to reduce naval expenditure largely.
Goschen flatly but courteously declined to do
anj-thing of the kind, unless naval conditions
justified such a course. Looking back now at
our recent experience, it seems incredible that
there should ever have prevailed in our public
life a policy b}' which the requirements of the
Navy were regarded as being of so secondary a
character that ships and forts were built and
kept without guns, and guns were put on board
ships without ammunition ; yet for many years
of my Parliamentary hfe these views not only
were current but dominated our naval and
military estabhshments.
I have spoken of Goschen as a bom fighter ;
but when I came to know him well^-as I did
when he was my colleague — ^I became greatly
attached to him. He had a fine and chivalrous
character ; he was the truest of friends, though
an unfailing critic : reUabihty, knowledge, and
courage were shown in every phase of his life
and career. He obtained a high reputation as a
debater and speaker, yet he had great physical
difficulties to overcome : his voice was raucous,
his gestures ungainly, and he was so blind that
not only could he not see his audience, but
4

38 RARE DEBATING POWER
found difficulty in reading his notes. Yet the
intellectual grip he always had of his subject, his
extraordinary aptitude and quickness in analysing
to its very roots a new argument or contention,
his wide knowledge and his fearlessness, and a
terse and at times an epigrammatic diction, made
him a most effective speaker in party warfare.
The most remarkable instance of quick de
bating instinct which I can recollect occurred in
a discussion in Committee on the Parnell Com
mission Bill in 1888. Goschen was the hero of
the incident : he was then Chancellor of the
Exchequer. The Parnell Commission Bill was
bitterly fought through all its stages, and for
some reason great animus was shown by the
Radical Party against one of the three Com
missioners, Mr. Justice Day. He was a Roman
Catholic judge of the highest character, standing,
and legal ability. A motion was made to omit
his name from the Commission. Just before the
debate began, Morley came over to W. H. Smith
and showed him a letter which he had received
from a barrister in Dublin. This barrister had
been a colleague of Mr. Justice Day on a Com
mission appointed to inquire into riots in Belfast,
and he was also attached to the Freeman's Journal
staff. The letter was a very strong condemnation
of Mr. Justice Day, Hkening him to Torquemada,
and denying that he had a judicial temperament
or was in any way qualified for the task which
it was proposed he should undertake.
When Morley rose to speak in the debate, he
quoted the most violent extracts from this letter.
Our friends were much annoyed and surprised at

A SLIM MANOEUVRE 39
his action, for Morley, though a keen opponent,
was a punctilious fighter. Strong comments
were made upon the impropriety of using a
private letter to damage the reputation of a
judge, Gladstone rose in defence of Morley, and
in the specious and earnest manner which he
could always assume he informed the House that
he had only seen the letter a few minutes before
the debate began, that the matter to which it
referred was urgent, and in the opinion both of
himself and of Morley was of such a nature as
necessitated the contents of the letter being
brought to the notice of the Government at the
earliest possible moment. Goschen got up, and
in his clumsy but effective way pinned Gladstone
to this statement. He then said : " We have
had the substance of the letter ; but I should
like the date." An awkward pause ensued : then
the date was given. The letter was some days
old. The nature of the transaction was now apparent
to everybody. Morley had brought the letter
down in his pocket to the House. He had shown
it to Gladstone, who induced him to make use
of it, and then, forgetting the date on which the
letter was written, put forward the plea of urgency
as justification for this breach of tradition. The
debate subsided, and we had a satisfactory
division, Goschen being much congratulated by
his friends upon the quickness and thoroughness
with which he successfully countered a slim
Parliamentary manoeuvre.
Towards the close of this year (1871) I married.

40 MARRIAGE
As I was only a younger son in a family of thirteeii
and my wife also was one of thirteen, our aggregate
income was small if tested by the wants of the
present day. Some of my family and friends
thought that I had embarrassed my political
future by this union.
I have been lucky in many phases of life, but
this was my luckiest venture, for I can truly say
that if I attained a political eminence subse
quently far beyond my most sanguine early
expectations, one of the certain causes of that
rise was the sound judgment of my wife and her
power of making friends by her unfailing intelli
gence, amiability, and unselfishness.

CHAPTER IV
Ireland — Chichester Fortescue — Serjeant Dowse — Incident in
DisraeU's great speech — Education BUI — So-called religious
difficulty — Late hours in Commons.
During the greater part of this Parliament, not
withstanding the so-called remedial Irish legisla
tion, there was much crime and disturbance in
portions of that island. Chichester Fortescue
was Irish Secretary. Neither as an administrator
nor a speaker did he much Impress the world :
he had a slow, drawling delivery which was very
tiresome and ineffective. He once began the
introduction of a Coercion Bill in the following
terms and with the following pauses : " Sir, I
rise . . . for the purpose ... of introducing a
Bill which has ... for its purpose . . . the pro
tection of life and . . . above all of property.
[General titter.] But when I . . . say that I . . .
mean this." Disraeli, who did not like him, said
in an audible voice to his neighbour : "A not
unfavourable specimen of his rhetoric."
Associated with Chichester Fortescue in the
government of Ireland was Serjeant Dowse as
Solicitor-General. He had a wonderful flow of
ready if somewhat coarse humour. Mr. Bernal
Osborne posed as the wit of the House, and he
was very fond of attacking the Government,
\vhen he made the freest use of a very bitter

42 SERJEANT DOWSE
tongue. One night on an Irish Land Bill he
denounced the Government for excluding from
its operations leaseholders whose leases had seventy
years to run. " What," he said, " is a lease of
that period ? It is only a seventy years' notice
to quit." Dowse was put up to answer him,
which he did with great success, and he finally
floored him by saying : " My right hon. friend
says that a seventy years' lease is nothing but a
notice to quit. If that be his view, I wonder,
considering the warning given him by the Psalmist,
that my right hon. friend ever had the courage
to emerge from his mother's womb."
On another occasion he was put up to answer
a legal colleague, the future Lord Coleridge, who
in a very pompous and high-flown speech ad
vocated woman suffrage. Amongst other things,
he said that some judges were really old women.
Dowse flagellated him mercilessly, and ended up
by saying : " Because my right hon. friend has
the bad taste to think that certain judges are old
women, he maintains that every old woman
should be a judge." It was rumoured that
Coleridge subsequently requested Dowse to have
no personal communication with him except in
writing. Chichester Fortescue was a very good-looking
man of a certain type. Dowse was a very ugly
man with a huge head and a short beard. Some
one said to Disraeli : " They say Dowse is like
Socrates." Dizzy replied : " Dowse is as hke
Socrates as Chichester Fortescue is to Alcibiades."
Chichester Fortescue shortly afterwards be-
CE^me a peer, and Lord Hartington succeeded

INCIDENT IN DISRAELI'S SPEECH 43
him in Ireland. He had in that capacity to
bring in a second Coercion Bill, chiefly dealing
with the state of the county of West Meath, and
he made an extraordinary proposal to set up a
secret Parliamentary Committee to take evidence.
Disraeli got up as soon as Lord Hartington finished,
and he delivered a twenty minutes' speech of the
most scathing invective and ridicule I ever heard.
The House was worked up to a pitch of great
excitement by this performance, for the speech
was fuU of telling epigrams, namely : " You have
legalised confiscation . . . you have condoned
high treason . , , you have emptied the gaols of
Ireland . . . you cannot govern a single county
in that country . . , you are making Government
ridiculous." In the most effective part of his speech,
Disraeli suddenly put up his right hand, in which
was his handkerchief, to his mouth, and turning
round to his neighbour. Lord John Manners,
apparently asked him a question which he could
not hear. " What, what are you saying ? "
Disraeli then said sotte voce : " It is all right,"
and he took up his speech at the exact word
where he had left off, and finished it amidst up
roarious applause from the whole Tory benches.
The young men behind the Front Opposition
Bench could not make out the purpose of this
bit of by-play. Dining in the City two days after
wards, I sat next Alderman Lawrence, a well-
known Radical Member of Parliament, who sat
exactly opposite Disraeli in the House of Commons.
He said to me : " Your Chief is a wonderful
feUow." I replied : " I am glad you think so."

44 EDUCATION BILL
He in return said : " Would you like to know
what happened the other night when he turned
to John Manners ? " " Very much," said I,
"WeU," he added, "in the best part of his
speech and in the middle of a sentence his teeth
fell out, and he caught them up with extraordinary
rapidity in his right hand, turned round apparently
to ask a question of his neighbour, put them in,
and resumed his speech at the exact word where
he had left it off,"
The legislation of 1872 and 1873 can have
little interest at this lapse of time for the present
generation ; but these sessions were politically
noticeable for the growing unpopularity of the
Government and the widening cracks in the
solidarity of the Radical Party, The Education
Bill passed this session gave offence to the extreme
Nonconformists. It is now more than forty
years since the first thorough national scheme of
education was established, and it is a melancholy
reflection that from that time to now the over
whelming preponderance of discussion and legis
lation upon education has been connected with
so-called religious difficulty. If only a fraction Of
the energy, perseverance, and time which have
been wasted over a difficulty which only exists
on the platform and in the House of Commons
had been given to the secular reorganisation and
improvement of elementary education, we should
now have had a thoroughly efficient and pro
gressive system. The sad feature of this pro
longed wrangle is that, so far as teachers, parents,
and children are concerned, the religious difficulty
does not exist, A few intemperate clergy of the

SO-CALLED RELIGIOUS DIFFICULTY 45
Church of England may from time to time have
said or done illiberal things in connection with
Nonconformity, but it is the extreme section of
the latter body who are mainly to blame for the
prolongation of this futile strife. There can be
little doubt that the more extreme Disestablish
ment men thought that they could utilise National
Education to the detriment of the Church or, at
any rate, to deprive it of the educational ad
vantages which the erection and possession of so
many schools gave it.
There are well-known and prominent Noncon
formist divines in London who have recently
adopted an attitude of passive resistance by
refusing to pay the Educational Rate. The plea
on which they base their refusal is the pretext
that they cannot aUow dogma not accepted by
their denominations to be taught in National
schools ; yet these same divines have for many
years, without a word of protest, allowed Jewish
schools to be set up out of the rates, staffed by
Jewish teachers who daily teach a religious
syllabus approved by the Jewish Rabbi. The
conclusion is irresistibly forced upon one that
their objections are political rather than Christian,
social rather than religious ; but the impossible
attitude of political Nonconformists has given us
the most expensive and least efficient system of
elementary education of any big nation in Europe.
The House of Commons sat daily during this
period for intolerably long hours. Not only was
there no closure, but opposed business could be
taken at any hour of the night or morning.
Gladstone apparently was made of iron, and he

46 LATE HOURS IN COMMONS
remorselessly used his powers of endurance in
compelling the House of Commons to sit until
any hour in the morning, provided that by so
doing he could advance the legislation of his
Government. Opponents of Bills or movers of
amendments to clauses in Bills had to sit up
night after night until the cold hours of the
morning, or they risked losing their opportunity.
Towards the close of one session I had an im
portant amendment to move on a Government
Bill that might come on at any hour. For two
nights whilst watching over this amendment, the
Bill to which it related not being reached, I got
to bed at 4.30 a.m. The third night I was more
lucky : my amendment was discussed, and I got
to bed at five o'clock. Such a strain was un
endurable to the older men. The second reading
of a big Sanitary Scheme was moved by the
President of the Local Government Board at
2.30 a.m.
This misuse of power (for it was literally slave-
driving) was entirely due to Gladstone, and it led
to retaliations. Obstruction, or talking against
time, was started by that well-known Parlia
mentary character, James Lowther, and a small
group of his friends as a legitimate defence against
perpetual sittings and wholesale legislation. Glad
stone once said to Lord Enfield, in reply to a
query from him as to whether or not this practice,
if extended, would not upset all traditions and
usages of the House of Commons, after pointing
to those obstructing : " Oh, they are gentlemen;
they will never go that length."
The procedure thus initiated was followed by

MINISTERIAL OVERSTRAIN 47
others who had no such limitations, and with
results known to all who now follow House of
Commons debates and behaviour. Gladstone was
really proud and fond of the House of Commons,
of its conduct and procedure ; yet by overtaxing
its strength and endurance he brought into
existence practices which recently have robbed it
alike of reputation and efficiency. His original
Cabinet of 1868 was composed of men of excep
tional ability. Most of those who were in the
Commons broke down or faded away from public
life after 1874, and their collapse was unquestion
ably due to the overstrain of attendance in the
House of Commons. In those days, being at the
House meant for a Cabinet Minister being in
the House itself. There were no private rooms for
Ministers, except one for the Prime Minister and
a kind of small den which was reserved for the
Leader of the Opposition. Ministers, therefore,
had to do their official work out of House of
Commons hours, and though the House of Com
mons was full of Cabinet Ministers in attendance,
their offices seriously suffered from the lack of the
necessary initiative and supervision.

CHAPTER V
Defeat of Government on Irish University BiU — Lothair —
Alabama Treaty — ^Motion in Commons and debate — Glad
stone's speech — Chairman of Ways and Means.
In the session 1873 Government was beaten by
three on the second reading of the Irish University
Bill. Gladstone resigned, but his great opponent
declined to take office at that moment, and the
speech in which he justified that refusal was one
of the most prescient and statesmanlike to which
I ever listened.
Gladstone was beaten by the Irish Roman
Catholic vote. In the preceding Government
Disraeli had tried to bring them into his fold
and failed. Each statesman retaliated character
istically. Gladstone subsequently wrote the
pamphlet known as The Vatican, Disraeli the
novel Lothair.
Lothair is an excellent example of the strong
and weak sides of Disraeli's genius and literary
power. There is a great deal of tinsel and frippery
in the descriptive portions of this novel, and
many in reading it assumed that it was to record
the incidents and surroundings of the life of a
great ducal family that Disraeli took up his pen.
But inside and throughout the social narrative
ran an ethical and religious purpose, so subtly
interwoven with inflated descriptions of splendid

LOTHAIR 49
life that the superficial reader hardly grasps its
purport. It was a deadly exposure of the in
sidious methods and tricks by which the Roman
Catholic Church is occasionally recruited. I
heard Dean Stanley say — and he was very anti
pathetic to Disraeli — ^that the polemical argument
of that novel was the ablest and cleverest exposure
of Roman Catholic methods that he had ever
read, and he wondered how Disraeli had been
so intuitively able to master its subtleties.
The Vatican was coarse bludgeon work com
pared with the fine swordplay of Lothair, and
prominent Roman Catholics have on several
occasions told me that Lothair was felt by the
heads of their Church to be, of the two produc
tions, by far the more serious and effective
attack. Later on in this session I brought forward a
motion in connection with the arbitration treaty
made with the United States for the settlement of
the Alabama claims and certain other matters in
dispute between Great Britain and the United
States, Earl de Grey was Chairman of the
British Commissioners, and he was made a
Marquess for his management — or, to put it
frankly, his mismanagement — of the British case.
Sir Stafford Northcote was also a member of the
Commission, but he accepted that task without
consulting Disraeli, who was thoroughly annoyed
at his undertaking this invidious duty. The well-
known statesman. Sir John A, Macdonald, repre
sented Canada, the respective Commissions being
each five in number. Sir John is reported to
have said that though he felt capable of combat-

50 THE ALABAMA TREATY
ing five Americans, he could not, in addition, fight
with four British colleagues.
The terms of the clause relating to compensa
tion for the depredations of the Alabama were so
loosely drawn that they might be held to include
indirect or consequential damages, a claim which
could easily have been made to amount to hundreds
of millions of pounds. I was specially interested
in the arbitration of what was the proper interpre
tation to be placed upon the Treaty of Oregon,
so far as it defined the water boundary between
the United States main coast and Vancouver
Island. There were islands making three channels
between the two coasts, of which the island of
San Juan was the most important. I had a
little property in Vancouver Island, and thus I
became interested in this dispute, and I was well
coached by a very able ex-official of the Hudson
Bay Company.
Our case was disgracefully mismanaged. The
American Commissioners contrived to get the
British Commissioners to rule out certain inter
pretations of what was meant by the water
boundary. The British Commissioners did not
realise till too late that the interpretations thus
excluded from the cognisance of the arbitra
tion were the foundation of their claim as against
the American claim. But they and the Foreign
Office did something even more foolish. They
never found out until they were irretrievably
committed that, in consequence of these limita
tions upon the interpretation of the treaty, they
were forced to base their claims upon arguments
which the British Government had itself repudi-

A MOTION IN COMMONS 51
ated in bygone times ; and they made the further
incredible blunder of selecting as one of the re
presentatives of Great Britain, Captain Prevost,
who, in a similar capacity a few years back, had
officiaUy rejected the very contention he was
now asked officially to support. The decision was
a foregone conclusion, and the presentation and
rejection of such a case undoubtedly did impugn
the good faith of Great Britain as a consistent
and straightforward disputant.
I talked over the case with some friends —
the late Percy Wyndham, Baillie-Cochrane, and
Matthew Ridley — and they were unanimous that I
should bring the case forward. I went to consult
Disraeli, who was very much interested by the
statement I made, and he promised me Front
Bench support, but told me not to divide upon it.
The Government, he pointed out, were in a very
weak Parliamentary position, and were tumbling
to pieces, and he was very desirous of giving them
no opportunity of pulling themselves together by
giving them a majority upon anything that could
be made a party issue.
I put down as a second notice upon going into
supply the following motion :
" That this House, whilst approving of the
principle of arbitration, regrets that Her Majesty's
Government allowed, upon that part of the Oregon
Treaty referred to the Emperor of Germany for
decision, a limited interpretation to be placed
which was fatal to the just claims of the British
Empire." After stating my case, which lay in a nutshell.

52 GLADSTONE'S SPEECH
and which was quite incontestable, as shown by
extracts of statements published in the Govern
ment Blue Book, I ended up by sa5dng that my
object in making the notice was to elicit so strong
an expression of opinion as effectually to deter
this or any Government who, either from in
capacity or from holding opinions inconsistent
with the duties which they had to perform, might
feel disposed to enter into negotiations such as I
now described. The representative of the Govern
ment was Lord Enfield, Under-Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, my colleague in the repre
sentation of Middlesex. He was an excellent
speaker and a most upright gentleman, and he
knew what a bad case he had, and he did not
attempt to bolster it up by misrepresentation or
misquotation. Outside the Treasury Bench no
one on either side said a word on behalf of the
Government, and Gladstone, who was obviously
much nettled at the severe reflections made upon
the conduct of his administration, took away with
him to dinner the Blue Book, which up to that date
he had neither read nor known. He came back
after dinner, having made a most perfunctory
survey of the Blue Book, and upon the informa
tion which he had thus hastily obtained he made
an impassioned speech. It exhibited him quite
at his worst as an unfair and disingenuous dis
putant. He abstracted sentences from their
context, he quoted extracts so inaccurately that
it was hard to believe he did not do so intention
ally, and he placed the most distorted and im
possible interpretation upon the meaning of the
plainest of words. He was at times so extravagant

CHAIRMAN OF WAYS AND MEANS 53
in his misrepresentation that we could not help
laughing at him.
Disraeli was delighted with the result of the
debate. Even the Ministerial Press admitted
that the Government had handled their case
with singular maladroitness. As I had organised
the attack I was very pleased to receive from some
of the older and more experienced members of the
party some kindly congratulations upon my man
agement of the debate.
During this session an old and highly esteemed
Member of Parliament became Chairman of Ways
and Means. His elevation seemed to obliterate
all the savoir-faire and tact he was previously
supposed to possess. He could do nothing right,
either in maintaining order or giving rulings
or even in putting the simplest question. One
night, after having put every question wrongly,
he finally surpassed himself when directing a
division by saying, not " The Ayes to the Right,"
and " Noes to the Left," but " The Right to the
Left — The Ayes to the Noes." He did not long
officially survive this exhibition.

CHAPTER VI
RehabUitation of DisraeU's influence — Crystal Palace and Man-.
Chester speeches — White Brandy — Death of Lady Beacons
field — Dissolution in 1874 — Disraeh : his accessibUity and
kindness — Gladstone : his amazing ParUamentary gifts and
sophistry — Effect of latter on opponents.
Since the general election of 1868 Disraeli had
steadily improved his position, both inside and
outside the House of Commons. At the opening
of this Parliament he was unquestionably subject
to the distrust and dishke of a large section of the
older members of the Conservative Party. They
had reluctantly supported his Reform Act of 1867,
which was not in accord with their ideas of a re
stricted franchise. Many had done so in the vague
hope that beneficial results might subsequently
accrue to their party from its operations ; but the
heavy and general defeat in the boroughs of Con
servative candidates greatly annoyed them, and
they looked with resentment upon Disraeh as the
leader personally responsible for the double catas
trophe of an abandonment of their principles and
of a heavy party defeat in consequence. But as
session succeeded session this soreness evaporated
under DisraeU's skilful leadership and brilhant
oratory. The young men instinctively adhered
to him. Old as he was, they felt that there was a
juvenihty and expansion in his ideas and policy
which were more hopeful for the future than the
54

DISRAELI'S INFLUENCE 55
narrow and contracted beliefs of the middle-aged
ultra-Tories. Outside the House his prestige and
popularity had risen enormously.
In these days, when in the populous districts we
poll tens of thousands of Conservative working-
men's votes as a matter of course, it is hard to put
ourselves back to the period of which I am writing,
when one of the dominant beliefs of the Radical
Party was that no such individual as a Conserva
tive working-man existed. If a wage-earner voted
for a Conservative, it was because he was either
a sycophant or had been bribed or had been in
timidated. But that he should honestly prefer
a Conservative to a Radical candidate was in
credible — for what had he to conserve ? Disraeli,
on the other hand, always believed that the main
strength of the Radical and Nonconformist Party
(and Radicalism and Nonconformity were then
and are still almost convertible terms) was in the
lower grades of the middle-classes, and that if you
got below the £10 householder you would find
a less prejudiced and more, patriotic section of
society than when you went a little above that
figure. His colleagues had very great difficulty in
inducing Disraeli to take part in big gatherings of
the recently enfranchised electors. In those days
political meetings of thousands were few and far
between. They were big political events, and the
speakers were reported verbatim and expected to
say something new or at least worth hearing.
Speeches so made continued for some time after
their dehvery to be the subject of criticism and
approval in the leading articles of the big news-

56 CRYSTAL PALACE SPEECH
papers. It was therefore much more of an effort
for an ex-Prime Minister to go to such gatherings
then than it is now. The audience, both inside
and outside — if I may use such an Irishism —
was then much more expectant and much more
critical than it is now.
Disraeli had not been well himself, and his wife
was in bad health, and it was only under great
pressure that he undertook platform work. The
first of these meetings was in the Crystal Palace,
the audience being Westminster and London Con
servative working-men. My father was in the
chair. Disraeli made a fine speech, and amongst
other dicta said that he contemplated the future
with confidence, "as he relied on the sublime
instinct of an ancient people." Great fun was
made of this sentence. Punch had a cartoon
representing my father as a footman bringing in a
card from a deputation and asking what he should
say to them, and Disraeli giving him the above
message. We are now in the middle of the greatest war
this world has ever seen. Who would laugh at or
repudiate the truth of this prophecy ? For it is
upon the " sublime instinct of an ancient people "
that we are relying for our ultimate succesS) and it
is that instinct which supports the people of this
country in submitting to the hardship and priva
tions necessary to ensure success.
My father was a natural orator, though fbr
many years of his life he had never opened his lips
in public, and he spoke exceptionally well on this
occasion. Disraeli complimented me, as he was
going away, on his speech, and I said prosaically ;

MANCHESTER SPEECH 57
" Yes, he is a good speaker." "He is more than
that," was the reply ; " he has an eloquence which
should lead the House of Lords." The meeting
was a great success.
A year or two later Disraeli went to Man
chester. This meeting had an historical signifi
cance, for Disraeh there laid down that certain
principles should be the object of our home
and foreign policy. These were universally ac
cepted by the Conservative Party, and even the
Radicals, when in office, have been compelled re
luctantly to adopt them. The speech was a direct
challenge to Gladstone's recent propaganda of
disunion and demolition.
A funny little incident occurred in connection
with this meeting which is worth narrating. In
his latter days a long speech physically exhausted
Disraeli, and he required some stimulant whilst
speaking. In 1867 on a big debate upon the
Reform Bill he was ill and faint, and as he rose
to speak he told one of the Whips to bring in
brandy and water mixed strong. His request was
so amply complied with that Disraeli uncon
sciously drank a big tumbler of liquid, two-thirds
of which was brandy. The effect was, I am
afraid, apparent towards the end of his speech ;
his voice was husky and his peroration confused.
Ill-natured comment upon the close of his speech
and its cause was rife and got round to his ears ;
so when he came to Manchester he determined that
nothing he drank should in colour or appearance
give the enemy the opportunity again to blas
pheme. But he required his stimulant. He sent
for Monty Corry, who accompanied him to Man-

58 WHITE BRANDY
Chester, on the morning of his meeting, and said :
" There is such a thing as White Brandy ; you
must get me a bottle of it." Monty doubted if
there was such an article, but he did as he was told.
He went all over Manchester from wine merchant
to pubUc-house keeper in search of this hquid. He
was told by most of those he visited that such a
thing did not exist, but at last he came across
someone who told him there was both white and
dark brandy, and that some small wine merchant
would probably have both. He went to the
address indicated, bought a bottle of this precious
liquid, mixed it carefuUy with water, took it in a
flask to the meeting, and placed a big tumbler of
apparently pure water on the table before his
Chief. The speech was very lengthy and achieved
an immediate and far-reaching success.
Subsequently, in the year 1873, Disraeh was
elected for the year Rector of Glasgow University.
This was a great triumph for him, and he delivered
his rectorial address and subsequently remained
some days in Glasgow. His visit was a continuous
success. The address was admitted to be of a
very high literary standard, initiating principles
and ideas both original and sound, and he made a
series of other speeches, one on currency, one on
business, and one purely political, all of which
delighted his Glasgow audiences. He returned
to the Metropolis with a fresh reputation. In the
meantime, the authority and popularity of his
great rival had decreased year by year.
About this time Lady Beaconsfield died. Her
death was a terrible blow to Disraeli . On more than
one occasion he told me that he was thoroughly

DEATH OF LADY BEACONSFIELD 59
miserable. His devotion to his wife was admitted
by all. There thus sprang up a kindly sympathy
towards him which, together with the exceptional
ability and energy he had shown as leader, secured
him the unanimous support of his party. He was
therefore in a position, whenever the election
took place, to contest on more than equal terms
the political supremacy of Gladstone.
At the commencement of 1874 Mr. Gladstone
summoned Parliament to meet in February, but
a few days before that date, to the amazement of
the whole political world, he suddenly dissolved
Parliament. The reasons for this extraordinary
and imexplained change remained a mystery for
many years ; but the life of Lord Selbome, who
was then Mr. Gladstone's Lord Chancehor, ex
plained the cause of this pohtical somersault. Mr.
Gladstone was Member of Parliament for Green
wich, but owing to the closing of the Dockyard
there he was very unpopular, and he was very
likely to be beaten whenever a fresh election
occurred. Towards the end of 1873 he took over,
in addition to his original office of First Lord of
the Treasury, the post of the ChanceUor of the
Exchequer, but he did not offer himself for re
election, contending that he was not compelled
to do so, as he had already been elected for his
primary office. Lord Selborne took the reverse
view, and there is no doubt that his opinion was
legally correct. (Mr. Asquith in 1914 took the
office of War Minister, in addition to that of Prime
Minister, and he submitted himself for re-election.)
Gladstone was therefore in a quandary, out of
which he could only extricate himself by a general

6o DISRAELI : HIS ACCESSIBILITY
election, and the appeal he thus made placed him
in a substantial minority and reinstated Disraeli
as Prime Minister,
During the Parliament thus terminated, I had
made many friends, and Disraeli took constant
and kindly notice of me, praising me when he
thought I had done well, but snubbing me when I
was bumptious. One day I said to him : " You
see, Mr. Disraeli, that I was quite right in all I said
the other day." " Oh, were you," said he ; " then,
my dear boy, say it all over again."
He liked the young men of the party to come
and talk to him in the lobby during divisions. He
nearly always stood with his back to a fireplace,
and he was interested in any little piece of gossip
or rumour relating to current events, as he wished
to know what was going on outside Parliament.
Many were the terse and witty replies he would
make to our communications. From a literary
point of view, he greatly disliked the multiplica
tion of periodical magazines, and on my asking
him if he had seen the Nineteenth Century, then
just started, he said : " No, my dear boy ; I hate
your new magazines. You wiU. live to see the
time when everybody can scribble, and nobody
write." Disraeli was so complex a personality that
only those who knew him and whom he liked
came in contact with the fine and fascinating
traits of his inner self. He was much more
sensitive than was generally believed ; his im
movable and sphinx-like callousness in debate
was originally a pose, but it gradually became
second nature. He was profoundly conscious of

AND KINDNESS 6i
his unpopularity in certain quarters, and especi-
aUy amongst those with whom he was most
anxious to establish kindly relations. To those
whom he liked and who were intimate with him,
he revealed an extraordinarily kind and magnani
mous disposition. He was the staunchest of
friends and most brilliant and entertaining of
hosts. When I knew him, he was advanced in
years, and his health was indifferent, and he
suffered from a kind of gouty asthma which was
very difficult to relieve or counteract. It was
only when he was excited or spurred up that he
would exhibit his superlative conversational charms.
In 1869 I dined with Lord Stanhope, the his
torian. It was a small party, but it comprised
Disraeli, Charles Dickens, and Motley,the American
historian. There was no love lost between these
three. After dinner. Lord Stanhope started con
versation on various topics. In a few minutes
Disraeli entirely dominated the conversation,
and so brilliant and original were his remarks
that the other two magnates seemed to enjoy
them. To me Disraeli was not only a leader and
adviser, but in many ways he behaved more like
an elder relative than a political chief, ever ready
to listen to what one had to say, and, no matter
how occupied, ever ready to give his advice to
the matter placed before him. His mannerisms
and gait were, to a large extent, foibles, and they
disappeared with the generation to which he
belonged ; but the proofs of his prescience,
resource, sound judgment, and patriotism remain,
and his name and policy, as years roll on, wiU be

62 GLADSTONE'S PARLIAMENTARY GIFTS
more and more esteemed by the present generation
and those that are to come.
His great rival, Gladstone, was just as inter
esting a study. I doubt if there has ever been a
man in politics during the last two centuries who
combined such extraordinary physical and mental
gifts. His knowledge was varied and great.
His power of work and assimilation was amazing,
his capacity to stand fatigue and long hours
equally remarkable ; he was endowed with unusual
physical courage and unlimited assurance. For
Parliamentary purposes he was unquestionably
the most efficient and eloquent speaker of his
generation, his voice, elocution, and gestures
being almost faultless. Others might occasionally
strike a finer note or give a higher intellectual
flavour to a speech after careful preparation ;
but with or without preparation Gladstone always
spoke superbly well so far as the technique of
speaking was concerned, and with an apparent
conviction and a histrionic power that were most
impressive. Without an effort he could always
assume the attitude which most appealed to the
sympathies of his audience, and his general pose
was that of a very good man struggling with
wickedly minded opponents. When I first got
into the House of Commons, I was immensely
struck by his personality, and though I did not
agree with him it was a physical pleasure to me
to hear him speak and argue ; but, little by
little, a suspicion was awakened, which grew and
developed, as to how far all these protestations
had their origin in high motives or principles, or
were merely a part of his political baggage. As

AND SOPHISTRY 63
his Government became weaker his passionate
appeals became stronger and more exalted, and
then the conviction was slowly forced upon me
that the main inspiration of his transcendental
attitudes was to keep a majority in his lobby.
His power of twisting the plain meaning of words
and explaining away obvious facts was so extra
ordinary as to create the belief that whatever he
wished he really did believe. For instance, he
had two appointments to make under Statute —
one legal, one clerical. The Statute laid down
that the lawyer to be appointed must be a judge :
Gladstone appointed his Attorney-General. The
clerical Statute laid down that an Oxford graduate
must be appointed to the living of Ewelme :
Gladstone selected a Cambridge man. What
annoyed me was not the transgression of the
Statutes, but the defence made for these trans
gressions. The original offences were forgivable,
but the defence was unforgettable.
No statesman in my time possessed anything
approaching his marveUous histrionic power. It
is true that the pose was always the same vir
pietate gravis ; but the wonderful adaptation of
this pose to every Parliamentary difficulty and
contingency was an exhibition of the highest art,
and this pose so grew upon him that it became to
him second nature.
It is always reported that Parnell, on his one
solitary visit to Hawarden, was asked by one of
Gladstone's daughters whom he considered to be
the greatest actor that he had ever seen, and to
her perturbation he replied : " Without doubt,
your father."

64 EFFECT ON OPPONENTS
If you believed in him, he became to you a
Parhamentary Superman ; if you suspected him
or detected him in what you believed to be tricks,
then dislike rapidly hardened into repulsion and
wholesale distrust. So it came to pass that no
statesman had as supporters a more devoted
cUentele, or as antagonists more irreconcilable
opponents. The latter group was constantly
augmented by colleagues who left him on his not
unfrequent abandonment of his previous prin
ciples, and their place was filled by pohtical
recruits representing the recently enfranchised
and more advanced sections of political thought.

CHAPTER VII
1874 election — Results — Why I became Under-Secretary of
State for India — India CouncU and Office — Speech on
Famine in 1874 — Congratulations — Lord Salisbury : his
charm as a Chief and wit — Procedure before supply in
1874 — W. H. Smith : his chivalrous character and sense
of duty — Butt and Home Rule Party — Church Regulation
BUI — ^Deposition of the Gaekwar of Baroda.
The result of the general election in 1874 was a
great personal triumph for Disraeli. It was the
first time since 1841 that the Conservative Party
had a large majority in the House of Commons.
That majority could not have been obtained
under the old franchise. Our gains were chiefly
in towns, and notably in large towns ; but the
success was obtained on comparatively small
poUs. I have carefully watched the polls of general
elections for nearly fifty years, and this rule may
safely be laid down, that the Conservatives get
their Parliamentary majorities on comparatively
low poUs, their opponents on big polls. The
reason is obvious — the Conservative or Unionist
Party is by far the strongest and most homo
geneous single party in the country, but if every
body who is not a Conservative votes against it
the aggregate votes of all other parties will out
number the votes of the one party. Our party
can generally poll its full strength. If there be
abstentions and disunion amongst the motley
6s

66 RESULTS OF ELECTION
groups of our opponents, we are likely to win. In
1874, 1886, 1895, and 1900 there was this disunion
and this abstention, and we won. Now, those
who lead us ought always to have this truism
before their eyes. Recently a policy has been
started which, whatever may be its intrinsic
merits or defects, tends to split up the Unionist
Party and to consolidate all other parties in a
solid vote against it. The result has been that
the Radical Party have obtained a majority at
three successive general elections — a continued
electoral success unknown in this country since
the franchise has been popularised.
At this general election I was fortunate in
securing as a colleague Mr. Coope, who came for
ward as a second Conservative candidate for the
county of Middlesex. I had been very assiduous
during the late Parliament in starting new local
associations and in holding meetings in Middlesex,
and my exertions were more than rewarded by
a majority of over 5000. My political associa
tion with Mr. Coope lasted for eleven years. He
was an admirable specimen of a successful business
man, a good speaker, generous and full of fun and
courage — ^in fact, a pleasanter or more capable
colleague it would have been difficult to find.
All Tory feuds being settled by the success of
this election, Disraeli was enabled to constitute
a powerful Government, especially in the Lords,
where Lords Cairns, Derby, Carnarvon, and Sahs-
bury formed a quartette of exceptional ability.
The three latter became respectively Secretaries
of State for Foreign Affairs, the Colonies, and India.
I thought that I might be offered some minor

WHY I BECAME UNDER-SECRETARY 67
office, but I was very much surprised to see my
name mentioned in a newspaper as Under-Secre
tary for Foreign Affairs. I did not attach much
importance to this statement, as I believed it to
be only gossip, until I received a letter from a
Cabinet Minister asking me to appoint his son as
my private secretary. This Under-Secretaryship
is considered to be the blue ribbon of its grade.
I doubted if I could do the work, especially as my
French was most indifferent, so I went to see
Lord Derby, who told me that he had specially
asked for me. I stated to him my difficulties ;
he listened considerately, and then said : " I will
speak to Disraeli about you ; we are both anxious
that you should be in the Government." That
evening I received the following charming note :
"Dear G., — If you like you shall be Under-
Secretary of State for India. There is no neces
sity of speaking either Hindustanee or Persian,
so I hope this proposition may get you out of your
difficulties. — Yours sincerely, D.
"Feb. 23rd, 1874."
So I became installed at the India Office with
Lord Salisbury as my Chief and Sir Louis Mallet
as my colleague and Joint-Secretary. Again my
luck was in the ascendant, for it would have been
impossible for a young man to have two more
able and, in many senses, more diverse mentors
than these distinguished men.
At that time Indian finance and administra
tion attracted a great deal of Parliamentary
criticism, and discussion upon Indian affairs was
very frequent, Fawg^tt^ the weU-known econo-

68 INDIA COUNCIL
mist, was the leader of the Indian Opposition,
He was blind, and consequently at times sus
picious and narrow-minded ; but he was an
absolutely straight man and I soon got to be on
very good terms with him.
The great Indian Mutiny had only occurred
fifteen years before, and this tragedy and its sup
pression brought an exceptional number of first-
rate men to the front in India, and later on into
the Indian CouncU. Its composition at this time
and for one or two years afterwards was remark
able — Lord Salisbury, Secretary of State ; Sir
Louis Mallet, Permanent Under-Secretary of
State ; whilst amongst the CouncU could be found
the names of Sir Richard Strachey, Sir Bartle
Frere, Sir Henry Rawlinson, Sir George Clerk,
Sir Robert Montgomery, Sir Frederick HaUiday,
Sir Henry Maine, Sir Garnet Wolseley, and Sir
Alfred Wylde, a well-known Cavalry leader.
Few Cabinets have contained men of such world
wide reputation, intellect, and experience, and,
as a young man, it was to me a constant source
of delight to associate with these big men and to
get the advantage of their advice, which they
were ever ready to give.
Thus I found myself again more by good luck
than by my own merit the Parliamentary repre
sentative of one of the great Departments of State
the work of which, as I subsequently found out,
was pecuharly adapted to my bent of mind and
aptitude. The India Office is a miniature Govern
ment in itself. There is not a branch of adminis
trative or executive work connected with the
big Government which is not represented inside

INDIA OFFICE 69
the Office, and the great bulk of the questions
that come on from the Government of India are
not trivial or prosaic details of administration,
but questions either of importance or matters
upon which there is difference of opinion or con
troversy or connected with change and reform.
It is, therefore, a first-rate training for anyone
likely to hold a high administrative office later
on, provided he reads his papers and pa)^ attention
to his \\'ork. The papers are most voluminous,
not only from their variety and number, but
from the inordinately long Minutes in which the
Indian official mind revels. It is said to be a
tradition inherited from Warren Hastings, who
wielded a suj>erlatively facUe and vigorous pen.
Sir Louis Mallet and I made a division of the
work to be done, he giving me my fuU share. I
found out afterwards that, at the time of my
appointment, he complained to his friends of
DisraeU's practical joke in sending a yoimg
ex-Guardsman to look after Indian Finance in
the House of Commons, and I think he gave me
this mass of work to see if I was of an}- use.
I have always had a good memory, and I also
have a knack of reading very fast. In a httie
time I began to revel in these huge pUes of papers.
The satisfaction of improving or passing some
long or comphcated dispatch, and then adding
my initials to it, gave me a sense of real power
and the feeling that I was something more than
a mere fly on the wheel.
In 1874 there \\as a ^'er^^ exceptional drought
in parts of Bengal, where rain seldom faUed and
where consequentiy the population was very dense.
6

70 SPEECH ON FAMINE IN 1874
In a drought a few years back, owing to inertia and
mismanagement, more than a million persons had
died in Orissa alone. The Press and the public
were now on the qui vive, and numbers of corre
spondents were writing home sensational accounts
of the existing distress and of the indifference of
the Government. There was a general expectation
that Lord Salisbury, then in the prime of his vigour
and a prompt and daring administrator, would
infuse energy and success into the measures to
be taken. The mass of papers upon the subject
was appalhng. I tackled them as best I could,
working without interruption many hours a day.
The night Parliament met I was told that I must
bring in a Loan Bill next day for ten millions
and give a full account of the extent and nature
of the scarcity and of the various measures the
Government proposed for its alleviation. This
was a short notice for a task of such magnitude,
but I worked very hard next day, trjdng to get the
enormous mass of material with which I had to
deal into an intelligible and consecutive shape. It
was my first ministerial effort, and amongst the
older men on our side there was a natural jealousy
and dislike to my sudden promotion over their
heads, and the speech was of a very different
character from any that I had ever made before in
Parliament. I did not get up till eleven o'clock. I was
nervous, the House was tired, and the subject was
not one which elicited either applause or dissent.
However, I stumbled along, keeping to my sequence
of arrangement and distribution of figures and de
tails. I sat down conscious that I had got through

CONGRATULATIONS 71
my job, but done no more. Again, to my great
surprise, my speech was considered a success, for I
got the following letter from Lord Derby :
" Dear Hamilton, — Allow me, though rather
late, to congratulate you on the complete success
of your first ministerial speech. I hear of nothing
else. Disraeli says it is the best he remembers ;
and all our colleagues in the Commons hold the
same language.
" You see you need not have doubted as to
your fitness for that kind of work. — Very truly
yours, Derby."
This letter naturaUy elated me, though I felt he
had put my speech on much too high a pedestal ;
but a short time afterwards I received a letter
from a very intimate friend of Disraeli, to whom
he wrote describing my speech in the following
terms :
" But the great coup of the night was George
Hamilton's, who introduced our India Bill.
"He spoke under great disadvantages, at
eleven o'clock in a house somewhat wearied by
the previous debate, but he realised my warmest
hopes and anticipations. His aplomb was per
fect, his voice melodious ; his manner dignified
and without pomposity, and very graceful — and
nothing could be more clear than his narrative,
and considering that a month ago, he may have
heard of Bengal, but certainly not of Behar, it
was really marvellous with what picturesque
lucidity he described the Northern and Southern
Provinces of the Ganges. He obtained universal
applause, and seemed as much appreciated by

72 EFFECT OF ENCOURAGEMENT
those opposite as by his friends. This is a triumph
for me ! ! "
The last sentence explains Disraeh' s curious
personal interest in me. He apparently had per
sonally selected me, very young, quite unknown
and without repute or experience, as one likely to
get on in politics, and from that time up to the end
of his life he never failed to give me a lift when
ever he could — in fact, he was a political godfather
to me. It may seem egotistical and conceited to quote
approval of individual speeches from persons of
authority and good judgment, for one is conscious
that, in the course of one's life, one must have
made many indifferent and bad speeches about
which one's friends are silent ; but in this case
approval from such high authorities instilled into
me at the commencement of my political career a
confidence and self-reliance which helped me out
of a good many difficult positions in which during
the tenure of a long period of office I found myself
involved. Making a long speech in the House of
Commons upon an Indian question was a trying
ordeal, but admirable practice. In the vast
majority of cases the subject is non-party, the
audience small and generally critical if not hostile.
The cheers and interruptions, such as encourage a
speaker making a party speech or speaking upon
a controversial topic, are wholly wanting. An
atmosphere of chilling hostility or indifference
surrounds you, and it requires self-possession and
concentration to be able to pursue evenly and
uninterruptedly the tenor of your mapped-out

LORD SALISBURY'S CHARM AS CHIEF 73
speech. Yet you must persevere and be careful
in what you say, for every word of a speech which
may not interest those to whom it is addressed is
a subject of minute and often unfair criticism by
the Indian Press and educated classes in India. I
can say this with some experience, for I have intro
duced thirteen Indian Budgets.
Lord Salisbury was then Secretary of State
for India, He was in the zenith of his vigour.
Those only who served under him, and whom he
liked can have any idea of his charm as a Chief,
or the delight of working in subordination to
him. His extraordinary quickness of appre
hension spoUed one, for you rarely had to finish
a sentence before he intervened with a remark
anticipating your conclusion. He was a wonder
fully concise draftsman. Over and over again,
when I brought him an answer to an embarrassing
question which, with the aid of heads of depart
ments, we had contrived to boil down to, say,
two pages, he would reply, taking up his pen :
" A good answer ; still, it might be put thus,"
and reducing our long statement to two or three
sentences, he would cover the ground more effect
ively than we had done with the long answer.
He could transact an enormous amount of
business quickly and thoroughly, and he main
tained an extraordinarUy high literary level in all
his writings, dispatches, and speeches. Of all the
political speakers and writers of his generation,
he will in the future be regarded as the greatest
master of crisp, compact, and epigrammatic
English. Most courteous and considerate to his
subordinates, he exacted from them in return full

74 LORD SALISBURY'S WIT
measure. Never ruffled or perturbed, he would
give equally close attention to the most meticulous
matter as to a big question of policy. The kindly
relations now established between us lasted
throughout his life, and by his death I lost, not
only a noble Chief, but an old and proved friend.
On thinking over his career, let us hope that he
is not the last grand seigneur to hold the post of
Prime Minister of England.
The following incident occurred a good many
years ago at Hatfield ; but it is an excellent iUus-
tr ation of his quick wit. At a large dinner-party
there, a bumptious young man, very much up to
date, was teasing his neighbour, an old-fashioned
squire, whom Lord Salisbury highly appreciated.
The young man constantly referred to him as
" PhUistine." At last the old gentleman testily
replied : "I don't know what you mean by a
PhUistine." " Don't you ? " said Lord Salisbury.
" A Philistine is a gentleman who is annoyed by
the jawbone of an ass."
It is curious how often private life contradicts
and reverses the popular ideas of big public men.
In public life you could not find a trio of more
sarcastic and stinging speakers than Salisbury,
Disraeli, and William Harcourt. I was intimately
acquainted with all three, but, whatever they
might say in public, I never knew any one of the
three to do an unkind act intentionally, and, not
only to their friends and associates, but even to
their opponents when in trouble or distress, they
were ever considerate and helpful.
The big Conservative majority returned at this
election upon the enlarged franchise made Disraelj

PROCEDURE BEFORE SUPPLY IX 1S74 75
for the time being omnipotent. His prophecies
had been realised, his re\Tlers were for the time
being sUenced, he had command of the whole
inteUectual and social resources of the party,
and the Cabinet which out of these elections he
had constructed was one of exceptional strength
and authority. The underlings of the Govern
ment were naturaU}' imtried men, and the chief of
these were W. H. Smith, Secretary- to the Treasurj-,
Stanle\' (afterw£irds Lord Derby), Under-Secretary
at the War Office, James Lo^^iiler, and Robert
Bourke, representing respectively the Colonial
and Foreign Offices. These four were my constant
associates, and a joUy and united crew were we.
In those days the Under-Secretarv- representing
big departments had to face a great many more
debating motions affecting their departments
than is now the case. Tuesday throughout the
session was given to motions of private Members,
and on Fridays supply was taken ; but in those
da3"s before 3"Ou got into supply, any or aU of the
motions attached to the order of the da}- to go into
supply could be taken before supply was obtained.
You had, therefore, to be constantly read}" with
a speech on a multiphcit}* of questions, as it was
almost impossible to foresee what notice might be
brought forward. \Mien supply was reached,
it was rapidly and easUy obtained, whole classes
of votes being granted in a single sitting.
The modem practice is the reverse : the
House goes at once into supply and wastes many
days in desultory- talk, the main object of which
are attempts of individual Members to get on
behalf of their constituents a larger share of the

76 W. H. SMITH
public funds. On the other hand, there is now
little opportunity for private Members who are
specialists or authorities upon certain classes of
subjects to air their views. These Members,
though at times a bore, are a useful public search
light and, by constantly speaking on what they
understand and have studied, their names become
associated with such subjects, and a good lead is
given to the Prime Minister of the day as to the
eligibility of men for minor office.
But of all my contemporary colleagues there
was none who so attracted me, or for whom I
had such regard and admiration as W. H. Smith.
Though older than myself, he got into Parliament
at the same time — ^he as Member for the City of
Westminster, I as Member for Middlesex. We
were the only two Conservative Members repre
senting a vast population which was contained
in the whole county of Middlesex, and therefore
we were obliged to act a good deal in concert,
and I very soon got to know him very intimately.
He was a very remarkable man, quiet, unassuming,
with no special power of speech or expression,
and handicapped by a weak voice ; but he hid
under this modest exterior rare capacity, courage,
and judgment. In his private life he was the
highest-minded and most chivalrous man I ever
met. It was these latent qualities — the value of
which, in spite of his reluctance to push himself
forward, became more and more impressed upon
his colleagues — ^that led to his being forced up in
every political crisis to a higher position ; and in
all these crises this kindly, quiet-mannered man
was sent to the post of danger. Ultimately, he

AS LEADER OF THE HOUSE ^^
became, for a troublous five years, Leader of the
House of Commons. In that position he led,
with an unprecedented success, a coalition of
parties composed of almost irreconcilable ele
ments against the continuous attacks of two such
Parliamentary giants as Gladstone and Parnell.
Session after session he beat them on every point.
It is impossible to exaggerate the influence which
he had over his coUeagues, because how could
anyone refuse to do what he was asked when it
was known that the asker was, out of a sheer sense
of duty, discharging work which he greatly dis
liked, and the demands of which were slowly
but surely sapping away his life ? There was one
gesture of his which we all knew and to which
there was no denial. When asking you to under
take something you very much disliked, he would,
after listening to your objection, put his hand
on your shoulder, and say : "I must ask you to
do this." And do it we did.
His rare business aptitude and his sense of
justice soon became known to Disraeli, who,
whenever there was any departmental or other
difficulty of a business character which required
unravelling, simply said or wrote : " Refer it to
Mr. Smith for his decision;" and his decision
was always accepted without demur. Of all the
leaders of the House of Commons whom I have
known, I put W. H. Smith unquestionably the
first as regards success and results. The only
serious difficulty he got into was over " Parnellism
and Crime," and this was entirely due to two
prominent Unionist Members concocting after
dinner, over a second bottle of port, a foolish and

78 SMITH'S SENSE OF DUTY
thoughtless motion which they brought forward
on the plea of privilege before Smith could stop
them. Thus originated the whole of the sub
sequent trouble.
Smith disliked long speeches. He loved to
promote business. He was, in that sense, rather
a terror to his colleagues, for just as you got
to the best or most critical part of your speech
you would feel a gentle tug at your coat-
tails and a suggestion : " Have you not said
enough ? "
Whilst he was Leader nothing escaped his
attention ; he had his hand on everything and
everybody. He was indefatigable, working hard
all day, and he not only always dined in the
House of Commons himself, but he had covers
laid in his room for those of his colleagues who
on that day were in charge of Government work,
and he expected them to dine with him. Im
mense good resulted from these dinners, though
the only alternative bills of fare allowed —
" Mutton Cutlets " one day and " GriUed Chicken "
the next day — became rather monotonous towards
the end of the session.
The Baring crisis occurred during the time he
was First Lord of the Treasury. It was so quietly
overcome that until the crisis was passed few in
the Cabinet were aware of the magnitude of the
trouble. I saw Smith at the end of that week,
and I said to him : " How pale and seedy you
look." " Yes," replied he, " and so would you if
you had had upon you during the last week the
task of preventing Baring's shutters from being
put up." He then told me what he had done,

THE BARING CRISIS 79
and I repeat it, as it is a good iUustration of
Smith's promptitude, generosity, and modesty.
Goschen was then ChanceUor of the Exchequer.
He had a big speech to dehver at Dundee, so
Smith let him go, preferring to deal alone with
the threatened financial cataclysm. When the
fuU dimensions of the impending faUure became
known, panic-stricken City magnates told him
that nothing could save the situation but Govern
ment credit. This Smith steadily refused.
FinaUy, in an interview with the Governor of the
Bank, he insisted that it was only through private
guarantees that the credit of this great house
could be sustained. " But do you reaUse, Mr.
Smith," said the Governor, "what the amount
is which has to be guaranteed ? " " Perfectiy,"
rephed Smith ; " and though I have nothing to
do with the firm or the interests involved, you
can put my name down for £100,000." With
such a lead and admonition, the guarantee was
started, and it attained a figure which nearly
three times over covered the immense habihties
at stake. Few Coahtion Governments have in the last
two centuries been successful. They start weU,
but are poor finishers. Smith reversed this
experience. Upon Randolph ChurchiU's resigna
tion in January 1886, Smith was forced into the
leadership of a distracted party with httle debating
power behind him, with Churchill on his flank
and Gladstone and PameU on his front. The
two branches of the Unionist Party, when they
voted together, gave him a majority, but could
they be made to vote together ? Many of the

8o DEATH OF W. H. SMITH
Radical Unionists who followed Chamberlain had
never in their lives been in a Conservative lobby,
and the Conservatives had only a few months
back been fighting tooth and nail the unauthorised
programme of Chamberlain and his followers.
Yet Smith managed to make and to maintain for
Parliamentary purposes one solid uniform party
out of these unpromising materials ; and he not
only saved the Union and, thanks to Arthur
Balfour, restored law and order in Ireland, but
he put upon the Statute Book a large number of
useful and beneficial laws which have continuously
borne good fruit.
At the close of his leadership his firm and
gentle touch had so smoothed down and removed
friction, squabbles, and antipathies between all
branches of the Unionist Party, that from that
day till now they have remained a homogeneous
and consolidated organism.
But the work killed him. During the whole
of the earlier period of this Parliament he suffered
terribly from eczema. This disappeared in the
spring of 1891, but he had in its place a curious
form of gout which greatly debilitated him. At
the close of 1891 the Kaiser paid a visit to this
country, and he was entertained at Hatfield by
Lord Salisbury. Smith had so far recovered from
his indisposition as to be able to go down on the
second day of the visit ; but either on his arrival
or during the evening of that day he caught a
chill. The next night there was a scene of unusual
magnificence in the great Jacobean drawing-
room of this splendid mansion. The Emperor
and Empress's suite and entourage comprised the

BUTT AND HOME RULE PARTY 8i
elite of Germany, and England was represented
by many beautiful women and great magnates.
The huge room, with its blaze of electric light, was
a compact mass of jewels, orders, and decorations
and gorgeous gowns, the cream of the splendour
and ability of two great Empires. But in a
corner of this vast room sat poor Smith, huddled
up in evident pain and with the unmistakable
stamp of death upon his face. My wife persuaded
him to go to bed before the party broke up,
which he did ; but his colleagues in the House
of Commons saw him no more, for within a few
weeks he died, a broken and prematurely worn-
out man — a martyr to duty.
The changes in the composition of this Parlia
ment, as compared with its predecessor, so far as
the rank and fUe were concerned, mainly consisted
in a great reduction of the Radical section of our
opponents and the return as a separate party of
over forty Irish Members as Home Rulers under
the leadership of Isaac Butt. Butt was an old-
fashioned Tory, a very fine speaker of the florid
type, and whose mission was to re-establish en
Uoc the old Irish constitution abolished in 1800.
He had regard for the traditions of Parliament
and the decencies of public life. He soon began
to experience, after he had made a party, that
like Frankenstein he had raised up a monster
for himself which he could not control. On the
Address he moved an amendment in favour of
Home Rule. This amendment was strongly
opposed both by Disraeli and Gladstone. The
latter poured ridicule upon what he described
as a " ragged scheme," and I have often since

82 CHURCH REGULATION BILL
thought that if there were two words in the
English language which summarised the short
comings and impracticabilities of Gladstone's sub
sequent Home Rule BUls, they would be " ragged
schemes." Early in this session Gladstone published a
letter stating " that he could not contemplate
any unlimited extension of active political service
at his age — before 1875 he must retire " ; yet,
curiously enough, the " ragged schemes " kept
him in active politics for twenty years beyond
that age.
The legislation of this session was uninterest
ing, with the single exception of the Church
Regulation BUI. This was a BUI introduced by
Dr. Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury, to keep under
some sort of control the ritualistic vagaries of the
extreme High Churchmen. We had then repeated
ad nauseam the arguments always overlying any
such proposal. On the one hand, it is maintained
that the glory of the Established Church of
England is its comprehension and tolerance ; on
the other hand, that there is little use in keeping
up as a national establishment a Church which
cannot enforce its own doctrines and rubrics.
The High Churchmen in both Houses were in a
very small minority, but Gladstone took up the
cudgels for them. He revelled in these debates,
and he produced six resolutions which, to an
untutored layman, seemed to mean anything,
everything, or nothing. His superlative power
as an ecclesiastical controversialist was shown in
a personal encounter with Sir WUliam Harcourt,
whom in the preceding year he had appointed

ECCLESIASTICAL CONTROVERSIALIST 83
as Solicitor-General to his Government. The
latter thought that he had caught Gladstone
tripping on some points of canon and ecclesiastical
law. He took two or three days to labour these
points, and, without notice, came down with a
carefuUy prepared attack upon his late Chief.
The latter without an effort absolutely demolished
him. Whether he was correct in his facts or
quotations and information, I do not know ; but
it was a superb oratorical effort.
Having taken this action in the House of
Commons, he almost simultaneously published a
violent attack upon the Papal Episcopacy en
titled The Vatican. So popular was this effusion
that 100,000 copies of it were sold within a week.
The year 1874 was also noticeable for the first
agricultural labourers' strike, but for lack of funds
and organisation it faUed.
In India we had in this and the subsequent
year a very good illustration of the danger of
applying without full consideration Western
methods of jurisprudence in Oriental countries
when dealing with grave political misdemeanours
committed by native princes or persons high in
authority. During Gladstone's tenure of office
the Maharajah of Tonk, after repeated warnings,
was deposed for continuous misconduct by Lord
Lawrence, Governor-General, in the name of the
Supreme Government, and a successor nominated
in his place. This procedure was perfectly under
stood in India and gave little, if any, dissatisfaction.
I remember well the debate in the House of
Commons. There are always to be found some
Members of Parliament ready to take up a case

84 THE GAEKWAR OF BARODA
of this kind and to appeal to the British instinct
of fair play by demanding a public judicial inquiry.
Gladstone was annoyed by the action of the
Indian Government, as it did not afford him the
conventional Parliamentary defence. He there
fore impressed upon Lord Northbrook, whom he
shortly afterwards appointed Viceroy of India,
that if he had any similar case to deal with he
should institute a full, formal, judicial inquiry
before deposition.
Mulhah Rao, the Gaekwar of Baroda, being
in precedence and salute of guns one of the first
native princes in India, was half a lunatic, and
he had committed a series of outrages and
atrocities of which there was an authentic record,
culminating in an attempt in 1874 to poison the
British Resident at Baroda, Colonel Phajnre —
under the old regime a clear case for summary
deposition. Lord Northbrook, acting on the
opinion of his old leader, proposed a Commission
to try the Gaekwar. Lord Salisbury, not realising
that the Commission was to be half native,
agreed. The natives selected were princes and
nobles of the highest standing ; the rest of the
Commission and the Chairman were British.
Serjeant Ballantine, a well-known English criminal
Counsel, was retained by the Gaekwar. The
evidence was conclusive, but the native princes,
finding themselves placed in a most invidious
position, sent a private message to the Chairman
stating that they could not convict, which meant
the deposition of the Gaekwar, unless certain
conditions were agreed to as regards a successor.
There was nothing of corruption in the suggestion.

HIS DEPOSITION 85
which was only made in order to save their face
— ^using a colloquial expression — and to protect
them against the charge of betra5dng their own
order. To enter into such a negotiation meant
bargaining to obtain a verdict. The Chairman
was, as a matter of course, compelled to decline
any such discussion. The verdict therefore became
a racial one. All the British members found the
Gaekwar guilty, the natives that the offence was
not fully proven.
The Indian Government was therefore forced to
do, under the circumstances, what it ought to have
done in the first instance, namely, to depose the
Gaekwar upon their own paramount authority.
This was done, and did not raise a flicker of dis
satisfaction in India.
Mr. A. M. Sullivan, a well-known Irish Nation
alist Member, immediately put down a notice
calling attention to the conduct of the Indian
Government. Fortunately, we had an almost
unlimited record of atrocities in support of our
illogical action. This I most carefully prepared
and compressed into a speech of terrific denuncia
tion ; but,falas|! the Irishman never came up to
the scratch, and my speech is stUl within me.

CHAPTER VIII
Hartington, Leader of Liberals : his character — ^Tichborne
Bubble — Dr. Kenealy — Debate in Commons — Major
O'Gorman and Dr. O'Leary — ^Development of obstruction.
At the commencement of 1875, Gladstone resigned
the leadership of his party. Lord Hartington was
selected in preference to Forster to fUl his place,
and the support given him was strongest amongst
the Radical section of the party. This decision
was a great personal tribute to high character and
straightforwardness, and reflected credit on the
perception of the Radicals in preferring a ducal
Whig to an able but somewhat uncouth specimen
of their own class.
From this day forward, for more than thirty
years, Hartington took a strong and leading part
in the political work of the country. I knew him
for the first ten years of that period as an opponent,
for the next ten as an aUy, and for the remaining
ten as a colleague and friend. He was the stamp
of man representative of the best type of English
politicians and of the brightest and most patriotic
side of the party system. He was the embodiment
of truth, honour, and probity, with an intense sense
of duty, a sportsman, a lover of the country and
its pursuits, of racing, and with possessions and
an independence which enabled him to get the
best of everything he liked ; yet he never for an
S6

HARTINGTON 87
instant allowed the amusements or trivialities of
life to interfere with the serious work of -the role he
had voluntarily and almost reluctantly undertaken.
Though he cared little for office, he did not hesi
tate to accept its responsibility and limitations if
he thought he could be of public use.
For the last twenty years of his life he found
himself in constant opposition to Gladstone. He
once said — and that probably is the best explana
tion of this difference — ^that words had not the
same meaning for him as they had for Gladstone.
Inferior as he was to his great opponent in general
intellectual equipment, he had the advantage of
possessing a thoroughly sound judgment, both of
men and affairs, and unconquerable reluctance to
being wheedled by words into transactions the
ultimate consequence of which might bring him
into collision with his convictions. Though a
Whig, he was no time-server or opportunist ; his
mind was powerful and very concentrated, but it
worked very slowly. In Cabinet and in conference
I have heard him over and over again, after a
subject had been disposed of and another topic
had been well opened up, revert to the previous
decision arrived at, and state some new and, as
a rule, some forcible suggestion. From no one
else would so disorderly a proceeding have been
tolerated, but all submitted to it, annoying as it
sometimes was, on account of the respect felt for
the interrupter and the experience gained that
there was generally soinething of substance and
reason in the interruption.
He was Chairman of a Commission upon Army
and Navy administration, and, as First Lord of the

88 HARTINGTON AS A DEBATER
Admiralty, I was examined before him. There
were a number of able men upon the Commission,
but the only one whose examination I found it
difficult to sustain was Lord Hartington. He
would apparently hardly hear your answer, he
would then rub his nose, turn his back upon you,
scratch the back of his head, and after a long
pause turn round and hit with absolute precision
the weak spot in your statement.
He once complained that it had been his mis
fortune to have controversies with two Prime
Ministers, both of whom were Scottish and
very quick thinkers, with a remarkable liking for
dialectics, and he candidly admitted that he was
not equal to the ordeal. He was a very effective
speaker, but often dull and tedious to listen to, as
he had none of the grand and histrionic attributes
of the natural orator ; but he convinced those
supporting him, he had attractive influence with
the doubtful, and always gave his opponent a
difficult task in reply. Though his mind worked
slowly, its conclusions were generally con
vincing. I believe that, as a speaker, the slow
thinker gets advantages in not thinking quickly ;
his ideas are less likely to outpace his words. He
hammers out and elaborates his points and argu
ments, but, as a large proportion of those to whom
he is speaking are probably also slow thinkers, he
gets an affinity with a large number of his audience
which is helpful to both.
During the session the most extraordinary
bubble which I can ever recollect burst, after
having obtained phenomenal proportions. For
some years past, legal proceedings of various kinds

TICHBORNE BUBBLE 89
had been continuously going on in connection
with the claim to the large estates of the Tich
borne family. The heir to this property had
disappeared many years before, and it was uni
versally believed, though it was never actually
proved, that he had been drowned in a ship which
went down with aU hands on board. His mother
clung to the belief that her son was still alive,
and she finally welcomed and acknowledged as a
son an ex-butcher known as Arthur Orton. He
was twice the size of the heir he personated, and
in many ways, especially in habits, manners, and
language, his antithesis ; but he was very clever
and audacious, and, owing to a series of blunders
made by the Tichborne family and the dexterous
use he made of documents and information which
he obtained from the Dowager Lady Tichborne,
he was able, apart from his personal appearance,
to estabhsh something like a prima facie claim.
This slowly broke down under examination and
trial, and the final result of a long series of htiga-
tion was his conviction as a perjurer and forger.
A considerable proportion of the English people
still believed in him. Hostile demonstrations
were made against the judge and barristers associ
ated with his conviction, and the cry of this
large section of the community was : "It may be
he is a butcher, but that is no reason why he
should be deprived of his rights." The Une that
had been taken by Orton' s advisers and solicitors
in Court was such that most of the respectable
barristers declined to have anything more to do
with the case ; but Dr. Kenealy, a barrister of
some literary power and abihty, undertook his

90 DR. KENEALY
defence. He so grossly misconducted himself in
this position that his conduct led to his being
disbenched and removed from the list of Q.C.'s.
The fact that he was so punished inflamed the
agitation in favour of the claimant. So strong
was the feehng temporarily, that there is little
doubt that, if in the early part of 1875 a general
election had occurred, the claimant's party would
have been well represented in the House of
Commons. As it was, at a by-election in the
Potteries, Kenealy was returned, having polled the
large number of over 6000 votes.
It is the practice of the House of Commons
to require a new Member to be introduced by two
old Members. So bad was Kenealy's reputation,
and such offence had his wholesale slanders created,
that no one would on this occasion go sponsor for
him. Disraeli disposed of the difficulty by moving
that the House of Commons should on this occasion
dispense with the practice. After taking his seat,
Kenealy did little beyond putting a question or
two to establish the wholesale charges of corrup
tion, perjury, and fraud which he had made
broadcast outside the House of Commons against
the witnesses, counsel, and judges connected with
the case. Finally, he was forced to frame his
indictment. He spoke well ; but he had no case,
and he knew it, and the House was so icily cold
that no orator could have overcome its antipathy.
The debate was remarkable for two speeches
— one by Bright and the other by Disraeli.
Each was excellent in its way, and, in combina
tion, they pulverised the whole case. Bright
had been ill during the greater part of these trials,

MAJOR O'GORMAN AND DR. O'LEARY 91
and he occupied himself daily by reading the
evidence of this interminable case. With his
accustomed skill, he put his fingers on the weakest
points in the case, and, in his concise and in
imitable phraseology, drove every point home.
Disraeli was equally successful in his pecuhar
style. The Lord Chief Justice Cockbum, who
tried the criminal case, had been injudicious in
some private utterances, and he was ferociously
attacked by Dr. Kenealy. I remember one
sentence of the defence — it was so thoroughly
Disraelian : " The Lord Chief Justice of England
is not the man to enter a crowded and gilded
saloon with the countenance of Rhadamanthus."
When Kenealy divided, he had as teller Mr.
Whalley, who was hardly normal, and one
supporter. Major O'Gorman. Major O'Gorman
was one of the fattest men I ever saw. He was
very clever, with a witty tongue which late at
night was not always very distinct. He was an
old officer, and, curiously enough, when young,
was shm and one of the fastest runners of his day.
He was an amusing character and, in common
with other Irishmen, soon began to find out what
opportunities the rules and procedure of the
House of Commons gave him for self-advertise
ment and obstruction. In contrast with him
was Dr. O'Leary, Member of Parliament for
Drogheda. He was a surgeon, and he owed his
return to Parliament to his having declared that
a pohce officer shot by a Fenian died, not from
the bullet put into him, but from the unskilful
surgical attempt to extract it. He was a very
small man, with curly hair and a round face. He

92 DEVELOPMENT OF OBSTRUCTION
was sometimes in our lobby, and his ambition
was to be introduced to Disraeli, who was a great
attraction to the Irish, One day he was brought
up to Disraeh, who, looking over him, said :
" I am pleased to be acquainted with you — you
remind me of Tommy Moore," From that day
onwards, his presence in our lobby was frequent
and constant.
In this session, though it was humdrum as
regards legislation, certain questions were started,
and certain incidents occurred, which in their
subsequent development have stuck to us ever
since as a source of embarrassment. The Home
Rule Members, annoyed by the passage, after
very long debates, of a Peace Preservation BiU,
were beginning to find out that, though through
their votes they could not jeopardise the position
of the Government, yet, by utiUsing the wide
latitude which the slipshod rules and procedure
of the House of Commons gave them, they could
bring to a standstUl the legislative and executive
powers of the Government exercised through
Parliament. In those days there was no closure, no power
whatever of terminating a debate. The practice
of silencing by shouting " Divide," and thus
making the speaker reahse that the general sense
of the House was against him, had no effect what
ever upon the Irish Members. The more obnoxious
and unpopular an Irish Member made himself in
the House, the more popular he became with
the irreconcilables in Ireland. As a very distin
guished Member of Parliament said to me at this
time : " The House of Commons is the citadel of

TURKEY 93
the Constitution; now you have traitors in the
citadel who obtain popularity by advertising their
treachery." The Turkish Government repudiated this year
their external loan. It was an adroit move by
the enemies of that empire, and one which has
precipitated its decadence and downfall, though
its disintegration and disruption are not yet
completed.

CHAPTER IX
Purchase of Suez Canal shares — PUmsoU and Merchant Shipping
— Scene in Commons — Whitebait dinner at Greenwich —
Debating power in Lords — Lord Cairns.
In 1875 was held for the first time a South African
Conference, and much which has since happened
in that great region of the world is traceable to the
start thus made.
In this year, but after Parliament was pro
rogued, Disraeli bought for four million pounds
the ordinary shares in the Suez Canal held by
the Khedive. This purchase gave Great Britain
a substantial holding in Egypt, and contributed
to our present dominance in that country. This
coup of the Prime Minister so infuriated his old
and habitual opponents that, both in the House
of Commons in 1876 and on the platform, they
indulged in language of extreme folly and quite
devoid of prescience. Gladstone, after denounc
ing in violent phraseology the impolicy of the
transaction from a political standpoint, charac
terised it as a financial transaction of the most
ridiculous character. The purchase money was
four mUlions : the value of the shares so acquired
is now about forty mUlions.
Towards the end of the year we had an
extraordinary scene in the House of Commons,
initiating legislation which has saved many of the

PLIMSOLL 95
lives of our seafaring population engaged in the
tramp steamer business.
The Government, for lack of time, were com
pelled to curtail their programme of legislation,
and, amongst the measures dropped, was a
Merchant Shipping BiU, which, up to the date
of its excision from the Government programme,
had attracted little attention or support.
There was then in the House a whimsical
Radical — PUmsoU by name — a curious mixture
of phUanthropy and self-advertisement. He had
for some time been collecting and accumulating
evidence as to malpractices of certain ship
owners, who, he asserted, deliberately sent out
ships ill-found, unseaworthy, and risked and not
imfrequently lost the lives of their employees
and made money out of the transaction. The in
fluence of the shipowners in the House of Commons
was strong, for the vast majority were upright
and honourable men, though, as a body, they
were opposed to more severe measures of inspec
tion and loading. Plimsoll heard that the Merchant
Shipping BiU was to be withdrawn, and he seized
his opportunity with consummate skill and as
surance. As soon as the announcement was
made in the House by the Prime Minister, he
rushed into the gangway between the two sides
of the House, gesticulating and flourishing his
fists, and shouting out strong language. In vain
the Speaker caUed him to resume his seat and
obey the rules of order. He openly defied the
Chair, walked up to the Government Bench,
looked as if he was about to assault the Prime
Minister, and, finally yielding to the persuasions

96 MERCHANT SHIPPING BILL
of his friends, left the House shouting : " Scoun
drels, scoundrels, scoundrels ! "
On the motion that he be reprimanded, his friends
said that he had temporarily lost his head, but that
next day he would apologise. The whole scene
had been carefully thought out, and a near female
relative of Plimsoll in the Ladies' Gallery dropped
down printed circulars to the reporters as to what
he was about to do and say, so that next day
it might be fully advertised, and it was success
ful. Disraeli, with his extraordinary acumen, felt
that there was something amiss. He looked into
the matter, brought in a temporary Bill, and when
Plimsoll came up for censure, he let him down
easUy, and, I think, finally expunged the notice
of rebuke from the annals of the House.
To PlimsoU's credit must be put the course of
subsequent . protective legislation associated with
his load-mark, and many thousands of our mer
cantile marine had in after years good reason to
think gratefully of his name.
The old practice of dining at Greenwich on
the conclusion of the session was continued by
Disraeli's Government. Gladstone's Government
had given up this annual f^te, and it v/as assumed
that the cause of its abandonment was that
numbers of his Government were not on speaking
terms one with another. On the occasion in
question, Disraeli put me in the Chair. I had had
an intimation that I was likely to be so selected.
It was the Chairman's business to be as imper
tinent as possible and to play the fool as much
as was permissible, and the main speech of the
evening was made by him, in which he presented

WHITEBAIT DINNER AT GREENWICH 97
a wooden spoon to that member of the Govern
ment whom he considered the greatest duffer,
I made up my mind that I would give this spoon
to the Prime Minister. I went downstairs and
made friends with an intelligent still-room maid,
and told her what I proposed to do, and that I
wanted the biggest wooden spoon she could find
and a piece of dark blue ribbon to tie it round the
neck of the person to whom I presented it. She
was immensely tickled at the idea and went off,
and in a few minutes returned with a piece of
bright blue ribbon and a huge wooden spoon
about three feet long.
I took this up and concealed it under my
chair, and when the moment arrived for making
my speech I produced it, and at the close of my
chaff proceeded to put it round Lord Beacons
field's neck. He rose to the occasion, and in a
most humorous speech said his one object in life
had been to be decorated, that a spoon and
" spooning " were interests of the very highest
practical importance, that the world could not
go on without them, and therefore he was only
too pleased to be the latest addition to an order
without which the world would terminate.
In the House of Lords at that time there was
an exceptional array of first-rate speakers and
administrators. On the Government side were
to be found Lords Cairns, Derby, Salisbury, and
Carnarvon, and opposite to them the Duke of
Argyll, Lords Kimberley, Granville, and Selborne.
I used constantly to listen to the debates in
the Upper House, especially on Indian subjects.
The Duke of ArgyU and Lord Salisbury were

98 DEBATING POWER IN LORDS
beautifully matched. The first fiery, eloquent,
and a complete master of all the arts of rhetoric,
but apt to overstate his case : he had a huge
mane of light-coloured hair, a small figure, and
a splendid resonant voice. Cobden once likened
him to " a canary-bird firing off a big cannon."
Lord Salisbury was not an orator in the strict
sense of the word, but he had an unfaUing instinct
for spotting the weak point in his adversary's
argument, and possessed a pungent and concise
power of expression and sarcasm which never
faUed him. The literary construction of his
sentences was perfect.
But of all the speakers. Lord Cairns attracted
me most. His sentences were short, with no
effort at picturesque or rhetorical effect. He
would indulge in the most elementary truths and
make them part of his statement. At first you
would say : " Here is a man who is only a master
of elementary platitudes." In a littie while you
would feel that these platitudes were only a part
of a great encircUng movement, and, listening with
increasing interest, you would feel that his adver
sary's flank was beginning to be turned, and before
he sat down that he was hopelessly netted. The
ease, regularity, and certainty with which he would
expound his case misled one at first, and it was
only later on that you recognised the organised
power of the great brain which thus mechanically
devised and carried out the demolition of his
opponent's arguments. More than one of his
Cabinet colleagues assured me that in an emer
gency he was, intellectually and in resource, the
equal of Disraeli, Many lawyers told me that

LORD CAIRNS 99
if you once admitted Lord Cairns' premises you
were undone, but to upset or dispute them was
most difficult, for they were put in place and in
order with the ease and regularity of a master
mason building up a wall. He was one of the
first of Disraeli's Law Officers, and it was reported
that he so spoilt Disraeli as a Law Officer that he
was never afterwards satisfied with any of his
successors.

CHAPTER X
Indian officials — Sir Thomas Seccombe — " Royal Titles BUI " :
its wonderful success — ^Lowe's apology — FaU in price of
sUver: Goschen's report upon — Sir George Clerk — Unique
position in India — FareweU and advice as to India's future.
1876 was an eventful Parliamentary year, and one
which was very helpful to me personally. I had
by this time established very satisfactory relations
with all the officials at the India Office : I had
worked hard, for out of office hours from the time
of my appointment in 1874 I had read nothing
that was not connected with India. Amongst a
good deal of other literature, I read the whole of
James Mill's History of India — a very tedious and
overrated work. James Mill, like many literary
partisans, obtained a character for impartiaUty
by using judicial language as a cloak to cover
his bias against his own countrymen.
In the House of Commons I had been fortunate
enough to make no serious mistake, either in
debate or questions, and as Chairman I had steered
through Select Committees and safe into harbour
one or two outstanding Indian difficulties. If I
had been so far successful, this was largely due to
the exceptional ability of several of the permanent
staff at the India Office who were always ready to
go out of their way to draw upon their experience
and knowledge if such aid could be useful to me.

SIR THOMAS SECCOMBE loi
Several of the old East India Company's staff were
left, and almost without exception they were men
of unusual ability. When the India Office was
created, it was manned by officials partly from the
Board of Control and partly from the East India
Company. Lord Derby, who undertook this
task, told me that the East India Company
officials were so superior to those of the Board
of Control that it was very difficult to size them
together. As I had to manage Parliamentary Indian
finance, I came much in contact with Sir Thomas
Seccombe, the Financial Secretary. He was, from
a financial standpoint, the ablest official I ever
met, and he became my mentor in every branch
of finance. I feel greatly indebted to him, for
throughout my official Ufe I always found his
maxims and knowledge sound and practicable,
"Bad finance, my lord," was a not unfrequent
comment on some of my suggestions, and "bad
finance " he would in a few words prove them to
be. Sir Thomas was an official of the old style,
very quietly dressed, high collars and a long frock-
coat, and above it a pleasant but somewhat im
perturbable countenance. One day he came to
see me in a towering temper. I said to him :
" Something has put you out. Sir Thomas."
" Yes," he replied. " I have been at the Finance
Committee, and they have overruled me as regards
new taxation in India. That I did not mind, as
they had a perfect right to do so ; but Sir Louis
MaUet kept quoting Mr. John Stuart Mill's opinion
against me." His voice then became shriU with
indignation. " Mr. John Stuart MiU ! No one
8

102 ROYAL TITLES BILL
knew Mr. John Stuart MiU better than I did;
we were great friends ; we were working together
in the same room for many years. He was an
admirable writer, but I can truly say that anyone
who accepted Mr. John Stuart Mill's opinion on
a question of practical finance would justly be
esteemed an idiot."
This session was essentiaUy an Eastern session.
We had a Suez Canal Bill, a Royal Titles BiU, a
very heavy fall in the price of silver affecting all
Eastern exchange, necessitating debates on the
subject, and we had further the recrudescence in
a violent form of the political difficulties in the
Eastern portion of Europe.
In all these questions I took a somewhat pro
minent part. The opposition to the purchase of
the Suez Canal fizzled out ; it was mainly founded
on financial pedantry and personal dislike of
Disraeli. The Royal Titles Bill, by which the
titie of " Emperor of India " was added to the
dignities of the Crown of Great Britain, gave rise
to a more serious Parliamentary opposition. The
Radicals did their best to get up a war-cry against
a title which they declared was incompatible with
British freedom and the British Constitution.
But outside the House of Commons the agitation
was a total failure. Inside the House we had long
and acrimonious debates, in which, as my name
was on the back of the Bill, I took part. To my
delight I was one night put up to finish the debate
by repljdng to Gladstone, and as I knew my case
and he did not, I got the better of that redoubtable
old gentleman. To the great amusement of our
party the Radicals were furious. I was told that

OPPOSITION BY MANCHESTER SCHOOL 103
it was the height of impertinence to put up "an
unfledged magpie " to reply to the greatest man
of the century. Someone sent me afterwards in
a cage a very dilapidated specimen of that bird.
The poor beast died next day.
These debates confirmed my previous opinion
of the hopelessly narrow political horizon of the
average Radical and political Nonconformist.
Outside their special conventicle or their debating
or political clubs they seem to have no ideals,
no source of knowledge or inspiration. The
insularity of the country in which they reside
seems to conserve the dreary monotony of their
conceptions. To master and appreciate the
inside of a great national or imperial idea seems
to be contrary to their whole physical and mental
existence. A few do contrive to break away
from this environment, but you can almost count
them on your fingers.
Unfortunately, at the time of the transfer of
India from the East India Company to the Crown,
the ideas of the Manchester School of politics were
very powerful in the House of Commons. The
Act of 1858, though passed by a Conservative
Government, has stamped right throughout on
its face the doctrines of this school, A free
Press, unlimited competition for entrance into
the public services, the establishment of English
literary degrees at the High Schools and Uni
versities, and the abolition of all distinctions of
colour, creed, race, and position were the panaceas
for India's development. " As they worked well
in England, let us enforce them upon India."
Yet if the natives of education and high lineage

104 SUCCESS OF ROYAL TITLES BILL
in India had had their say, these principles would
be the very last they would themselves prescribe
as a foundation for the development and happiness
of their country. A Government in the East,
to be successful, must be personal or associated
with a title conveying the idea of a great person
ality. The title " Emperor of India " has done
more to consolidate and popularise our rule in
India than whole sheaves of purely utilitarian
legislation. Our Sovereign, as Emperor of India,
the de facto successor to the Great Mogul, attracts
and obtains an allegiance and reverence which
may have been latent, but which gave, previous to
the adoption of this title, no symptoms of exist
ence. The marvellous reception of our King in
191 1 in India, at a time when seditious organisa
tions were trying to murder his leading officials,
was a revelation to those unacquainted with the
reverence and veneration felt by India for its
crowned Emperor. The happy spark of loyalty
thus struck has burst out into a great flame when
Germany threatened by war to destroy the British
Empire, of which the Empire of India is so integral
a part ; and it was the prescience and imagination
of Disraeli which gave this additional bulwark to
the retention of our position in the East.
Imperial statesmanship consists in thinking
out and framing proposals which, from their
intrinsic suitability to the sentiments of the
localities they affect, without cost or charge>
elevate and consolidate the fabric of national
existence and defence. Such a measure has the
Royal Titles Bill proved itself to be.
Subsequent to the passing of this BUI, a very

LOWE'S APOLOGY 105
unpleasant incident occurred which I have never
forgotten. Between Disraeli and Lowe much
dislike existed. To discredit the former and
associate him with sycophancy to the Crown,
Lowe made a public speech in which, after
violently attacking the Royal Titles Bill, he
added that he knew for a fact that overtures had
been made by the Crown to two preceding Prime
Ministers to obtain for it this additional title, and
that both Prime Ministers had refused. It soon
became known in the lobbies that this allegation
was unfounded, and Sir Charles Lewis, Member
for Londonderry, a clever and adroit Parliamen
tarian, made a motion calling for the production
of the Oath of a Privy CounciUor ; and in making
this motion he accused Lowe of infringing the
spirit, if not the letter, of the Oath which he had
taken. Lowe was Ul-advised enough to make in
reply a very contemptuous speech, sustaining, or
at any rate declining to withdraw, his allegation,
whereupon Disraeli arose, and in a few sentences
infficted upon him the heaviest castigation that I
ever recollect a prominent Parliamentarian receiv
ing. He stated that he had the Queen's authority
to contradict Lowe's statement in its entirety,
and added that, although the circulation of false
statements could not be prevented, he could not
believe that calumnious gossip concerning the
Crown would have emanated from the lips of
an old Privy Councillor.
Two days later Lowe made an abject apology,
which, from its nature, was to him very humiliat
ing. I was sorry for him, for with all his faults he
wag an intellectual of the first rankj a fearless

io6 FALL IN PRICE OF SILVER
fighter, who under his saturnine exterior had a
kindly instinct, of which I had the benefit upon
several occasions.
For some years past there had been a heavy f aU
in the price of sUver, largely due to the improved
and cheaper methods of production. The standard
of value in India was sUver, and the rupee was
the monetary unit of the country. In the course
of comparatively few years, its exchange value in
gold feU from two shillings to nearly one shiUing.
The Indian Government has to make heavy annual
payments in gold in England to meet its obligations
as regards salaries, pensions, interest, and stores,
and this continuous fall in the exchange value of
the rupee made an increasingly heavy charge
upon its revenues : in fact, it began so to dis
organise Indian finance as to cause great appre
hension as to the ultimate solvency of the Indian
Government. I therefore moved the appointment of a Select
Committee to investigate the subject, and I was
fortunate enough to secure Goschen as Chairman.
The facts were plain enough, but the remedy, if
there was any available, involved gigantic conse
quences as regards exchange, finance, and currency.
It was therefore necessary at this stage of the
bi-metallic controversy to move warily and to
take care not to encourage empirical experiments.
This course could best be effected by la5dng down
broad and indisputable propositions, the self-
evident soundness of which disposed of certain
suggestions emanating from the currency-mongers.
Goschen's report admirably fulfilled these condi-
tiowg,

GOSCHEN'S REPORT 107
In presenting the Indian Budget I had to speak
at length upon this very complicated subject. I
largely took Goschen's Report as my text, and I
clothed his leading ideas in my own language.
This speech I felt was a real success : I was con
gratulated on both sides of the House, and especi
ally by Lowe. My usual luck had attended me.
Without the Committee's and the Chairman's
Report it would have been impossible for me to
have spoken as I did ; but, being imbued with
sound ideas on this question by one of the ablest
economists of the day, from that time forward I
always held the same views on bi-metallism, and
I had the satisfaction, more than twenty years
later, as Secretary of State, of giving a final blow
to that theory by establishing a gold circulation
in India. Amongst the remarkable group of Anglo-
Indians who were then upon the CouncU, to my
mind the most striking personality was Sir George
Clerk. When I first met him he was nearly eighty
years of age, and he retired this year from the
CouncU. He had a rare record of administrative
work. After a most distinguished career in India,
where he was the foremost civilian of his day, he
became twice Governor of Bombay ; he was also
Governor of South Africa and, in addition, the
Permanent Under-Secretary at the India Office.
He was the last of the great Anglo-Indian magnates
who, through their character and personality, were
a power in India far outside the sphere of their
immediate jurisdiction. Tall, very good-looking,
a splendid horseman and sportsman, a high-minded
gentleman to his finger-tips, he was the ideal of a

io8 SIR GEORGE CLERK
just and benevolent autocrat. There are many
exceUent stories current of what he by his mere
presence and force of wiU was able to achieve
under circumstances of stress and difficulty.
On one occasion, whUe he was enjoying at
Simla in the forties, before we had annexed the
Punjab, a well-earned holiday from his duties as
Political Agent for the native states of the then
north-west frontier, news reached him that two
of his Rajahs had quarrelled, that their respective
armies had come in collision, and that the victorious
army was besieging the capital of its antagonists.
Clerk was very angry ; he got down to the plains
with great celerity, and then he began to gaUop as
quickly as was possible to the scene of action.
He always rode in a short black coat.
In the meantime the besieging army had
battered a breach in the wall of the beleaguered
town, and an assault was arranged to be made
early next morning. As day was breaking, the
army was assembled. Someone, looking back,
saw, in the dim distance, a taU figure in
a black coat riding furiously. He got closer.
" Sahib Clerk, Sahib Clerk ! " went from rank to
rank. The figure got nearer. The ranks wavered,
then dispersed, and Clerk by his arrival alone saved
the town from assault and capture.
Clerk was a firm believer in Great Britain
governing India through her princes, nobles, and
upper classes. He considered that good adminis
tration could only be secured by constant contact
between our officials and these classes and by an
exchange of views between the two. He held
much the same opinion as Sir Henry Lawrence,

HIS FAREWELL 109
who in this respect differed from his distinguished
brother. Lord Lawrence, the latter being in favour
of working through and consulting the views and
interests of Indian democracy.
Sir George came to my room to say good-bye
to me, and he commenced his conversation by
saying :
" You are a young man, and you take a great
interest in India. I dare say some day you will
occupy a very high post in connection with India.
Now let me give you a little advice. If you
want India to be properly governed, you must
blow up the Suez Canal, you must cut all the
telegraph wires between England and India, and
you must reduce the white European army from
60,000 men to 20,000 men."
I said to him :
" Your remedies are very drastic. I think I
understand what you mean, but would you mind
just amplifying a Uttle more your ideas ? "
He said :
" Certainly ! When I went to India, India
was the home of the Anglo-Indian. He perhaps
came back to England once or, at the outside,
twice in his career. He occasionally went for a
change of air to South Africa, but India was to
him for the greater part of his life his home and
his country. Now," said he, " any man who has
three months' leave can get home to England any
year, and he will make use of his opportunities to
go to England. He will then, in all probability,
marry the first pretty face he comes across, and
he will take back with him to India a lady who
will have no interest whatsoever in Indian native

no ADVICE AS TO INDIA'S FUTURE
life or in India generally. The extension and
ramifications of the telegraph .have terribly
weakened individual authority and individual
initiative. When I went to India, as soon as I
had thoroughly mastered the vernaculars I was
sent from Bombay up country, and there was
not a European within forty miles of me. I had
to govern and keep my district in order without
European assistance, and in order to do so I had
to make friends with the native gentlemen and
the leading natives of the neighbourhood, and by
them and through them I and many others of
that date managed to keep order in our districts.
Now you send a highly educated young man — no
doubt much cleverer than I was — up country, but
he goes with the telegraph wire in one hand and
an elaborate book of regulations in the other to
meet all difficulties and contingencies. If he
makes a mess of it, which is not unUkelv, he
telegraphs to the Commissioner, who telegraphs
to the Governor, and down comes a battaUon
of troops. Any fool could govern under those
circumstances. Therefore, in my judgment, it is
essential, if you want to reproduce the old class
of administrator, that the white army should be
largely reduced in India."
He then said good-bye and left me pondering
over his remarks.
The weaknesses in our present system of
governing India which Sir George so vigorously
denounced are apparent and indisputable, but was
it, or could it be possible to govern upon his
ideas ? I doubt it. We do not nowadays get
the men of his stamp for India ; and even if we

" COMPETITION WALLAH " in
got them, they would soon lose, under the ener
vating influence of perpetual orders from head
quarters and the permanent location of a military
force close by, the magnetic instincts of autocratic
rule based upon a belief and confidence in self.
India for a long period was to Great Britain a
land of adventure and romance, and the daring
and adventurous spirits of those days were
attracted to its service. The product of unUmited
and competitive examination has many good
qualities, but adventure, originality, and daring
are not the attributes which this method of
appointment was intended to generate or to test.
So we must fall back and make the best use we
can of the humdrum and mediocre methods which
democracy imposes upon us.

CHAPTER XI
Lord-lieutenancy of Ireland — Archbishop of Dublin — ^Lord
Strathnairn — Rumours of Bulgarian atrocities — ^DisraeU's
last day in Commons — ^Lord L3rtton Viceroy of India —
Visit to and dinner at Windsor Castle.
In this year my father resigned the Lord-Lieu
tenancy of Ireland, which office in 1874 he had
accepted for the second time. Both he and
my mother found the climate of Dublin too
enervating for a continuance of office. I had,
therefore, two exceptional opportunities of
judging and testing the advantages and dis
advantages of maintaining this office, and it is
hard to give an opinion one way or another.
My father's first tenure of office was greatiy
enjoyed by the younger members of his family.
Three of my sisters and aU my brothers were
then unmarried. The novelty of our position
and the general geniality of our surroundings
made life very pleasant. We were the first Irish
f amUy for many years who had been at the Castie,
and this fact made the whole difference as to our
general reception. The smarter our equipages
and general establishments were, the better
pleased was Dublin : it showed what an Irish
man could do. This undercurrent of a sense of
affinity is stronger in Ireland than in any country
I know, and it pervades, so far as the Viceroy
and his famUy are concerned, both political friends

PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES 113
and opponents alike. In those days there were
many pleasant country houses near Dublin both
open and entertaining, and so we were surrounded
by a very congenial circle. There was, further,
the element of excitement in a Fenian rising
which might have assumed dangerous proportions
if it had not been promptly snuffed out.
Towards the close of the earlier tenure of
office of my father, the Prince and Princess of
Wales paid their first official visit to Ireland.
It was a bold step, as the Fenian rising had only
occurred a short time before ; but the visit,
which lasted nearly ten days, was a continuous
triumph. The Prince by his charming manners
and bonhomie, and the Princess by her beauty
and simplicity, captured all hearts. " Sure, such
a Princess was never seen save in a fairy-book ! "
exclaimed an enthusiastic admirer in fustian.
When we went back in 1874, my eldest brother
and I and all my sisters save one were married.
Our old friends had disappeared, in most of us
the more serious side of life had become de
veloped, and the artificiality of the semi-regal
atmosphere in which we moved was much more
apparent and much less endurable. In fact, the
gilt was off the gingerbread, and, though we had
many happy memories both of the Castle and
the Viceregal Lodge, we were all glad to be free
and to return to our more natural life.
The Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland ought to be
a post of such practical and political importance
as to ensure its being fiUed by a man of first-rate
ability and of high political standing ; but this
is just the class of public men who wiU not now

114 LORD-LIEUTENANCY OF IRELAND
accept the post. It is very costly, and as com
munication between Dublin and London is acceler
ated, so is the position of the Lord-Lieutenant
lowered and impaired, until he has become almost
a powerless figurehead. The abolition of the
office would be very unpopular in Dublin, for the
Viceregal Court is a social centre of attraction
to the provinces. But it is becoming more and
more difficult to induce the proper man to accept
a post entailing expense and little or no political
initiative or power.
A great Anglo-Indian ruler on his return to
England was congratulated by some of his friends
upon India being so quiet. " Yes," he replied,
" India is as quiet as a barrel of gunpowder."
This is equally true of Ireland. An inept and
partisan Lord-Lieutenant associated with a Chief
Secretary with simUar feelings are not unlikely
between them to produce an explosion, and when
that occurs the old feud between Red and Green
wUl break out in its fuU intensity. Therefore,
I think the balance of advantage would be in
favour of the abolition of the Lord-Lieutenancy
and the replacement by a Secretary of State,
upon whom the direct responsibility for the
administration of Ireland could be imposed, as
is the case in Scotland.
At this period there were two remarkable
men in Dublin — ^the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr.
Trench, and the Commander-in-Chief of the
Forces, Lord Strathnairn.
The former was a great scholar, and had
literary attainments of a very high order, both
as a prose-writer and a poet ; but he was the

ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN 115
most absent-minded man I ever saw, and with
no sense of give and take. He was utterly out
of his element in Dublin, and it was always to
us a wonder why he exchanged the Deanery of
Westminster — a. post most congenial to his tem
perament and hterary gifts — ^f or an Archbishopric,
where he was never at home or at ease.
His absent-mindedness culminated one evening
in the foUowing comical episode.
He was always fearful lest he should be
attacked by paralysis, and one night at a big
dinner-party he was sitting next my mother, who
thoughtthathewasbehavingveryoddly. Suddenly,
in a tone of agony, he exclaimed : "It has come
at last." "What has come ? " asked my mother.
" I am paralysed. I have been pinching my leg
for the last ten minutes, and I cannot feel any
sensation." " Excuse me, your Grace, but it is
my leg that you have been pinching."
Lord Stiathnaim was a very old and intimate
friend of my father and mother, who had known
him when he was simply Captain Rose, and he
was quite one of our family circle. He was a
very odd mixture — ^in society a dandy with a
foolish manner, in action the bravest of the brave.
We as boys regarded him as a combination of a
joke and a hero. He made his reputation in
India during the worst phases of the Mutiny
by his celebrated march through Central India,
where he achieved a series of astonishing successes
against great odds and serious chmatic difficulties.
He had seven sunstiokes during this march,
though none of them were severe enough to in
capacitate him for long. The decision he showed

ij6 lord STRATHNAIRN
and the punishment he inflicted upon the highest
rebels and malefactors establisihed for ever his
reputation as a fearless and stern soldier and
administrator. In society he was dreamy, inconsequent in
his remarks, and foppish in his dress — ^the last
individual you would associate with deeds of daring
and fortitude. One day, in telling a long story
to my wife, he ended by mixing up the two weU-
known adages in the foUowing way : " This was
the last feather in the camel's cap."
In his latter years he used to give four dinners
a season to old friends, each dinner consisting
of eight. By inadvertence he asked the whole
thirty- two on the same day. His house was a
very small one in a corner of Berkeley Square ;
but he was in no sense perturbed by the invasion.
He sent over to Gunter's, and in course of time
a dinner was commenced all over the house —
dining-room, drawing-room, hall, staircase, and
landing, each contributing a share of the accom
modation required. The entertainment was a
great success.
An abortive Fenian rising occurred whilst
Lord Strathnairn was in Ireland, which if it had
not been promptly stamped out might have been
dangerous. The loyalty of two regiments in
Dublin had been serioudy impaired. As soon
as this was known to Strathnairn, the regiments
without a moment's delay were dispatched off to
the West Indies. The rising occurred at Tallagh,
a small viUage a few miles from Dublin. Lord
Strathnairn rode there at once, and one of his
aide-de-camps described to me the astonishing

BULGARIAN ATROCITIES 117
change in his whole mien the moment serious
work had to be done : all the drawing-room
graces disappeared, and in the place of the dandy
was a stem, watchful, determined soldier. His
escort at Tallagh was small, and as it was the
rendezvous for the Fenians who came there from
all sides, in a short time the number of prisoners
made were too large to be adequately guarded.
The officer in charge asked for instructions.
" Take aU their braces and pocket-handkerchiefs
from them, and split up their trousers behind and
before," was the reply. It was a very cold night,
and the ridicule excited next morning in Dubhn
when hundreds of pale and disordered men
waddled through the muddy streets trying to
hold up their trousers in front and behind put
quite as much of an extinguisher upon the move
ment as the punishments infficted upon its chief
promoters. Towards the close of the session, the rumours
of wholesale Christian massacres in Bulgaria
became more and more rife and established, but
the information from our Ambassador at Con
stantinople, who was known to be somewhat of
a Turcophile, did not sustain these allegations.
He spoke of them as " coffee-house babble " —
words which Disraeli repeated, and for which he
was subsequently much attacked, it being asserted
that he had himself invented the phrase to mislead
the pubhc.
Several debates on the subject occurred, in
which Mr. Gladstone took part ; but on the last
night of the session upon a formal proceeding
WiUiam Harcourt delivered a powerful and
9

ii8 DISRAELI'S LAST DAY IN COMMONS
carefully prepared speech, and to which Disraeli
made an impromptu but successful reply.
This closed the session. I left the House by
the door at the back of the Speaker's chair, and
Disraeli was immediately behind me. There was
something in the manner and tone of the Liberals
— and especially of Sir William Harcourt — that
made me feel sure that we should have a violent
autumn agitation on these atrocities, and I said
so to Disraeh. He replied : "I think Burke's
answer and mine covered the ground, and we
shall not have much further trouble on the
subject." Two days later he was gazetted Earl of
Beaconsfield, and never again, except after a
twenty-six hours' sitting, when he came to view
the old scene of his successes, was he again seen
in the House of Commons. He, however, told
me more than once subsequently that if he had
known Gladstone was going to resume the leader
ship of his party, he would not have left the
House of Commons, but he was suffering from a
chronic gouty asthma which late and long hours
greatly aggravated. Moreover, he thought that
Stafford Northcote and Gathorne Hardy in com
bination would be a full match for the Opposition
leaders without Gladstone.
The moment the session was over the storm
burst, and every party agency which the Radicals
could command, plus Political Nonconformity
and a certain section of High Churchmen who
had a liking for the Greek Church, did their
best to associate the Government personally with
these atrocities, the extent and perpetration of

LORD LYTTON, VICEROY OF INDIA 119
which were subsequently fully established. But
the Eastern Question was then surrounded by
conditions so different from those now existing
that, in order to make clear the nature of the
influences against which the Government then
had to contend, I must give a separate chapter
to this subject.
Towards the close of the year. Lord North
brook, the Viceroy of India, resigned. He was a
strong and able administrator, but he and Lord
SaUsbury were not sympathetic. Lord North
brook was a thoroughbred Liberal, and had for
many years been a prominent member of Liberal
administrations, and his views upon the policy to
be pursued in Central Asia and Afghanistan were
too amorphous to suit the temperament of Lord
Salisbury. Moreover, he had become involved
in an awkward controversy as regards the duties
upon cotton in India in which, more by accident
than intention, he had through a piece of hasty
legislation at Simla traversed, whilst on their
way from England, some direct instructions sent
to him. He was succeeded by Lord Lytton, whose
appointment was largely due to the fact that he
was a rising diplomatist — full of abihty and
modern ideas, and therefore especially qualified
to deal with the strained and unpleasant relations
into which Calcutta and Cabul had drifted.
Towards the close of the year. Lord Salisbury
left England for Constantinople to endeavour, if
possible, to establish the Concert of the Great
Powers of Europe, so as to secure a unanimous
voice upon the solution of the latest phases of

120 WINDSOR CASTLE
Turkish misrule. This left me in charge of the
India Office. The Queen was declared Empress
of India on the ist January 1878 at Delhi, and
a great Durbar was held there in honour of the
event. In the absence of Lord Salisbury, I
received an invitation from Windsor to dine
on that date with the Queen. I accompanied
Disraeli to the Castie, and I found out it was
due to him that I was thus exceptionally honoured.
At the time of the transfer of the Indian
Government to the Crown in 1858, the Queen
received magnificent presents of jewellery from
almost all the reigning Princes of India. She
came that night to dinner a mass of Oriental
jewellery, mostly consisting of very large uncut
stones and pearls, few of them perfect in shape
or without some flaw in colour. Though effective
as a blaze of colour, they did not suit Her Majesty,
as they required a big and a dark woman to carry
them effectively.
At dinner Disraeli asked the Queen if her orna
ments comprised all the presents she had received
in 1858, and she said : " Oh no ; if you like I wiU
have the rest brought in after dinnerfor you to see."
So after dinner we had a series of small port
manteaux of jewels brought in, so large were
some of the designs. But, to my taste, by far the
handsomest of the gifts was a magnificent set of
rubies from Nepal, cut and set in European fashion.
The Queen was very cordial, and gave me a
large photograph of herself with her first signa
ture of " R. & I." This I still have as a valued
memento of my first interview with the Sovereign
from whom in after life I received much kindness

TELEGRAM TO VICEROY i2i
and consideration. She told me to send a telegram
to the Viceroy at Delhi stating that the only
ornaments she wore on that eventful evening were
presents from the native Princes of the Indian
Empire.

CHAPTER XII
Eastern Question — Peter the Great's wiU — Rapid Russian
advance — Trans-Siberian RaUway — Occupation of Cabul in
1839 — Lord Lawrence — PoUcy of " masterly inactivity " —
Sir Bartle Frere — Shere AU and Northbrook — Gladstone
on the stump — Bulgarian atrocity agitation — Debates in
Commons — Retirement of Lords Derby and Carnarvon —
Knightsbridge banquet — ^Lytton's policy in India — Yacoob
Khan — Guarantees to Abdul Rahman.
As a very young Member of Parhament, I in my
ignorance once asked an old Member : " What is
this Eastern Question ? And why are we, the most
Western power of Europe, so interested in it ? "
His reply was: "Did you ever hear of the Crimean
War ? That was its last warlike phase, and we
may at any moment become involved in an
even more serious war with Russia on the same
subject." This made me realise that the Crimean
War occurred httle more than twenty years ago.
I therefore determined, to the best of my abihty,
to try and master the details and underlying
currents of the subject so perilously connected
with the prospect of a great and exhausting war.
Our interest in the Eastern Question has its
origin in our Empire in India. There is a reported
will of Peter the Great of Russia which lays down
as a cardinal principle of the future national pohcy
of Russia the acquisition of India by marching
through Cential Asia, Persia, and Afghanistan.

PETER THE GREAT'S WILL 123
Whether this will ever existed is doubtful; but
Russian expansionists have exploited the idea
and flourished it in the face of Great Britain.
Between i860 and 1870 Russia established herself
on the eastern side of the Caspian Sea at Krasno-
vodst, and her subsequent steady and continuous
advance through Central Asia did alarm men of
stable judgment who knew Persia and the adjacent
districts. Sir Henry Rawlinson, a great Oriental
scholar and authority upon Persian questions,
constituted himself the mouthpiece of this section
of public opinion. He was strongly of opinion
that the increase of Russian influence in Persia
and her continual advance through the country
adjacent to the north of Afghanistan would, in
course of time, seriously undermine our authority
and rule in India. Merv, an isolated place located
in a desert, was supposed to command Herat, and
Herat was popularly said to be the key to India.
Prince Gortshakoff was the Russian Chancellor,
and the undertakings and understandings periodi
cally arranged with him were not always adhered
to ; at any rate, such was the view^ of our foreign
and Indian pohtical officers. Merv was elevated
into a place of capital importance — so much so
that the Duke of Argyll chaffed certain politicians
as permanently suffering from merveshness. The
three Khanates of Khiva, Bokhara, and Samar
kand were annexed by Russia, and became, for all
practical purposes, Russian territory. These an
nexations were in some cases mercilessly accom
plished, of which the massacre of the Turcomans
by General Scoboleff was a striking example.
Nearer Europe Georgia and the Caucasus had

124 RAPID RUSSIAN ADVANCE
previously undergone the same fate. Afghanistan
thus became the only quasi-independent place
between India and Russian territory, Afghan
istan was, on account of its peculiar geographical
and physical connection with India, admitted
by Russia to be outside the sphere of her influ
ence and within the legitimate zone of British
authority. This vast and constant advance of Russia
towards India on the one hand, and towards Con
stantinople on the other, caused a not unnatural
prejudice and suspicion as to what her ulterior
purposes really were. Was her object the im
provement of the government and condition of
the people in provinces abutting upon her own
territory ? If so, why did she not first improve
her own admittedly faulty administration ? More
over, I think it could be shown historically that
she was more concerned to absorb the territory
of her neighbours than to help them to reform
their system of administration. The repudiation
of the Turkish Debt and the massacres in Bulgaria,
to some extent, illustrate this proposition.
Count Ignatieff was at that time Russian
Ambassador in Constantinople. He was a very
able and not over-scrupulous advocate of this
forward policy. It was asserted at the time — and
I believe with some truth — that he had a good
deal to do with some misdeeds of the Ottoman
Government. He did not disapprove of the re
pudiation of the Turkish Debt, and he suggested
the withdrawal of the regular Turkish Army from
Bulgaria, and then when an abortive rising was
there made, the Pomaks of Circassian origin — a

TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY 125
kind of Bashi Bazouk located in Bulgaria — were
at once let loose upon the districts which were
supposed to have risen, and terrible widespread
outrages were committed.
Constantinople, the old Roum,~the centre of
authority and prestige of the old Eastern Empire,
was believed to be the object of Russian ambi
tion, and with its occupation Russian prestige and
material power would have been so enhanced as to
have made her the arbiter of those parts of Asia
and Europe which were contained in Alexander
the Great's Empire.
Behind these suspicions was the further fear
that an outbreak of racial trouble in south-east
Europe, unless it were localised and contracted
by the Great Powers of Europe, would precipitate
a war in which the Great Powers would find them
selves involved. The awful and gigantic war in
which we are now engaged arises from the an
tagonism between Slav and Teuton. Thirty years
ago the racial feud was entirely between Slav and
Turk. It is necessary to recapitulate these con
ditions, for it was with them that we had to deal
when the Eastern Question arose in 1876. The
more prominent of these conditions have passed
away, or at any rate have ceased to operate. The
Trans-Siberian Railway and the enormous wealth
which the territories thus opened out can produce
have vitally changed the ambition and policy of
Russia in Asia. No longer is there any talk of
Peter the Great's will, or of an attempt to utUise
Afghanistan to India's disadvantage. In Persia
— ^long the seat of contention between Russian and
British influence — a convenient arrangement has

126 OCCUPATION OF CABUL IN 1839
been arrived at which safeguards India's western
frontier and gives legitimate scope elsewhere to
Russian influence.
That part of the Eastern Question which
personally concerned me the most as the repre
sentative of the India Office was the relations
existing at this time between Shere Ah, the Ameer
of Afghanistan, and the Indian Government.
That they were most unsatisfactory, aU were
compeUed to admit. There were two schools of
thought, each headed by a distinguished Anglo-
Indian statesman, which had distinctive but
antagonistic poMcies for the rehef of the existing
tension. Many years ago, under the viceroyalty
of Lord Auckland, a vigorous interference in the
internal affairs of Afghanistan was made by an
attempt to oust Dost Mahomed, the de facto Ameer,
in favour of his rival. Shah Shuja. An army of
British and native troops was sent up to Cabul
for that purpose, and apparentiy a complete
success was achieved. Shah Shuja was placed
upon the throne, and the English forces were
comfortably cantoned around Cabul. A very
sudden and treacherous outbreak occurred. Our
tioops were mishandled, and ultimately the whole
of our expeditionary force was cut off and exter
minated. To wipe out this defeat, a fresh army
was sent up to Cabul. It totaUy defeated the
Afghans and brought away certain Englishwomen
who were in captivity, and, returning over the
frontier, it left Dost Mahomed in undisputed
possession of the throne of Cabul. He died some
years later on, and was succeeded by his son,
Shere Ah. His succession was disputed, and for

LORD LAWRENCE 127
some time with success, by a rival Afghan
candidate. The coUapse of Lord Auckland's ill-advised
interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan
made a great impression upon the next genera
tion of Anglo-Indian officials. A policy of non
interference, or of " masterly inactivity," was
strongly advocated by the Punjab officials, of
whom the most distinguished was Lord Lawrence.
In the interval between the expedition of Lord
Auckland and the viceroyalty of Lord Lawrence,
the Punjab had been annexed by the Indian
Government, and became the frontier province
bordering upon Afghanistan.
Lord Lawrence was for some years the head of
the Punjab Government. He held strongly that
we ought not to put a man or a horse anywhere
over our frontier, either into Afghanistan or the
districts south of it, namely, Baluchistan. He knew
Afghanistan to be a very difficult country, the
tribes to be cruel and treacherous by nature but
intensely proud of their independence. More
over, their institutions were democratic. They
were governed by a kind of parliament in which
there was always an opposition, and it was therefore
almost impossible to make permanent arrange
ments or treaties with them, and his policy may
be summed up in these words :
" The more you leave them alone, the less
they will dislike you. If they raid our territory,
then have recourse to punitive expeditions which,
after having done aU the mischief they can, should
at once return to our territory."
This policy was pursued for many years ; but

128 " MASTERLY INACTIVITY "
it had within it one serious flaw. It was necessary
to have dealings with whomsoever was in power
at Cabul, but, in order to carry out complete
abstinence from any kind of internal interference,
the Chief whom the British Government were
obliged to recognise was not the de jure ruler, but
the de facto possessor of Cabul, This undignified
method of recognition encouraged usurpations.
As soon as the usurper obtained a temporary
success, and got to Cabul, he became recognised
by the great Indian Raj as a legitimate ruler.
A successful rising against Shere Ali resulted in
the usurper being recognised by the Indian Govern
ment, and although this usurper was subsequentiy
dethroned by the military skUl which Shere All's
eldest son, Yacoob Khan, developed, Shere Ali
never forgot the indignity which the Indian
Government thus placed upon him.
The extreme western provinces of the Indian
Government were the Punjab and Scinde. Punjab
abutted upon Afghanistan, Scinde upon Baluch
istan, The Baluchis and their countiy were very
different from Afghanistan. They were governed
by hereditary chiefs who recognised the Khan of
Kelat as the head of their confederacy ; they were
ready to make treaties and to keep them ; they
were not fanatical ; they liked the British officers
and were very amenable to their influence and
advice. The Scinde frontier officials took an
opposite view from that held by the Punjabis.
They urged an advance all over the frontier, and
the establishment of a nominal suzerainty over
Baluchistan as agreeable to the natives and pro
ductive of permanent peace and progress. At the

SIR BARTLE FRERE 129
head of this school was Sir Bartle Frere, with a
reputation not inferior to that of Lord Lawrence.
Each of these distinguished men was right so far
as his personal acquaintance with the frontier
was concerned ; but each was wrong when he
attempted to apply his policy to the whole length
of the frontier, and especially to that part of it
of which he had no actual personal knowledge.
Afghanistan so dominated, geographically,
Upper India, and contained so large a number of
free-booting and fighting tribes, that permanently
bad relations with its ruler gave him an excep
tional opportunity of annoyance and disturbance
to India. If the ruler passed away from our
influence and got under the control of Russia, in
the state of conditions existing in 1876, an intoler
able situation would have been created, which
could only have been terminated by war with
Russia. Lord Mayo during his viceroyalty met Shere
Ali at Peshawar. The Viceroy's imposing pres
ence, geniality, and charm made a great impres
sion upon his Afghan guest ; but there was one
request put to him with which he could not
comply. Shere All's pet son, AbduUa Jan, was a
boy, his elder brother, Yacoob Khan — who had
by his mUitary prowess regained the throne for
his father — ^being in disgrace and in rigid confine
ment. Shere Ali pressed for the recognition of the
boy as his successor. This Lord Mayo declined to
do, but he gave Shere Ali both men and arms and
sent him away fairly well satisfied.
During Lord Northbrook's viceroyalty the
advance of Russia towards Afghanistan became

130 SHERE ALI AND NORTHBROOK
marked, and the territories which she annexed
were in close proximity to the Afghan frontier.
Shere Ali, becoming alarmed, sent a message to
the Viceroy asking for some kind of guarantee
from the British Government against Russian
aggression. Shere Ali was at that time in a bad
temper, as Lord Northbrook had given him a
friendly warning that he must treat his son,
Yacoob Khan, whom he kept in prison, with
more consideration. It was always reported that
Lord Northbrook was himself prepared to give
a conditional guarantee to Shere Ali against
Russian aggression ; but a thoroughly Gladston-
ian telegram from London, directing him "to
inform Shere Ali that His Majesty's Government
did not share his alarm and thought that there
was no cause for it," prevented him from giving
effect to such intentions; Shere Ali became per
manently alienated, and not unnaturaUy turned
his eyes towards Russia.
Lord L5^on's arrival in India was coincident
with the revival of the Eastern Question in its
most acute form in Europe, with the practical
establishment of Russian authority right up to
the north of Afghanistan, and with the estrange
ment of the ruler of .that country from the Indian
Government. The dispatch of Lord Salisbury in 1876 to
Constantinople as representative of Great Britain
at the conference of the Great Powers produced
no result. The conference faUed to induce Turkey
to accept certain changes under which the prin
ciples of self-government and autonomy would
have been extended to the Christian provinces

GLADSTONE ON THE STUMP 131
in European Turkey. Russia, in consequence of
the failure of the conference, shortly afterwards
declared war on Turkey,
In the meantime, the agitation against the
Government continued unabated, and in many
cases degenerated into the most extravagant
abuse of Disraeli and the grossest misrepre
sentation of the aims and objects of his govern
ment. Foremost amongst this class of speaker
was to be found Gladstone, who not only
broke all the traditions and circumspection which
had hitherto regulated an ex-Premier's public
utterances, but went so far, when travelling, as
to make the big railway stations through which
he passed platforms for his party diatribes.
Early in 1876, Sir Louis Mallet, with whom I
had established a close intimacy, came one day
into my room and said : "I have news of your
friend Mr. Gladstone." " What is it ? " I said.
He replied : "A great friend of mine and a
first-rate judge of men and affairs has just come
back from Hawarden. He says Gladstone is in
a most restless frame of mind — so much so, that
if he gets the opportunity he wUl become the
great demagogue of the century." Within a
few months of this utterance this prediction was
verified. As no Cabinet Minister would go this year to
the Cutlers' Feast at Sheffield, I was sent to
represent the Government. It was the first
ministerial speech made since the session. I was
able, whilst denouncing vigorously the per
petrators of the atrocities in Bulgaria, to prove
the extravagance and injustice of the charge

132 BULGARIAN ATROCITY AGITATION
made against the Government, and to point out
that the perpetrators of these political atrocities
in England were more concerned to murder the
reputation of the Prime Minister than to obtain
a peaceable and sound settlement of the Eastern
Question, My audience was greatly pleased, and
in consequence I received so many invitations
in the North that I became one of the leading
speakers for the Government. This brought me
in constant coUision with Gladstone, for though
I knew it was ridiculous for me to put myself
in competition with so great an orator, yet by
dint of a good memory and a careful study of
Gladstone's past and present speeches I was
constantly able to show up at public meetings
the unfairness, extravagance, and contradictions
of his present language as an agitator when con
trasted with his past attitude as a Minister.
Gladstone was now surrounded by a group
of wild Slavophiles and High Church clergy, for
whom no statement was too absurd or ex
travagant. As an illustration of the kind of
allegation made. Canons Liddon and M'Coll, when
travelling down the Danube, declared that the
Turks, to show their contempt and hatred for
Christianity, had at stated intervals crucified
Christians on their side of the river. Subsequent
inquiry proved that what they had seen were not
impaled Christians but the upright and cross
stakes upon which the fishermen of the Danube
put and kept their nets.
When Parliament met, Mr. Chaplin, in a speech
of great abUity and pitched in the tone of a
thorough gentleman, told Gladstone that he was

DEBATES IN COMMONS 133
bound "as a man of honour " to make good
or withdraw his accusations against the Govern
ment. The latter bounded up and, in one of
those melodramatic attitudes which he could
always assume at any moment, immediately
posed as an upright old man against whom an
offensive charge had been hurled by a youthful
swashbuckler. A noisy row ensued, in which
the Speaker ultimately ruled that the words
used exceeded the limits of Parliamentary debate
— to my mind, a ridiculous ruling, unless it be
held that it is permissible in Parliamentary life
to do publicly that which is not tolerated in
private life. However, the challenge had its
effect. Gladstone then formulated his policy in six
resolutions. They were worded with his charac
teristic ambiguity, but one did seem to amount
to an undertaking to join Russia in the war she
had just declared against Turkey. Thereupon a
revolt commenced in the Radical ranks. The
previous question — always the refuge of the
wavering — was moved as an amendment by a
prominent Liberal, and a long and animated
discussion took place upon the procedure. Ulti
mately, Gladstone withdrew three of his resolutions.
Never did he exhibit to greater perfection his
marveUous powers of speech than on this occasion.
On the question of procedure he spoke often and
at great length, and he did not get up to speak
on the main question till past seven o'clock.
Yet, in spite of these disadvantages, for three
hours he made a speech of the most sustained
eloquence I ever heard. In one passage where
10

134 AMUSING INCIDENT
he described the Bulgarians as " cowering more
and more under their brutal misgovemment,"
his histrionic faculty so asserted itself that he
almost disappeared behind the box in Ulustiation
of a cowering attitude. But behind this splendour
of speech there was no practical alternative
pohcy to that of the Government, except war
with Turkey, Russia being our aUy, and he was
defeated by a majority of 130, a figure far in
excess of the normal numbers of the Government.
This debate and division placed the Government,
right up to the period of the Berlin Conference, in
a position of undisputed dominance during the
continuance of the Eastern trouble in Europe.
In a subsequent debate, Gladstone gave a very
amusing instance of his extraordinary quickness
and unfairness in debate. WhUst he was speaking,
someone interrupted him on the ministerial side.
He thought that it was Lord Barrington who so
interrupted. Lord Barrington was sitting in an
immaculate costume on the Treasury Bench, so
he turned on him and said : " What does the
noble lord know of this question ? Has he given
it the fuU bent of his inteUigent mind so as to
justify him in thus interrupting me ? " — and a
good deal more of the same kind of language. At
last poor Barrington got up and said : "I beg
the right hon, gentleman's pardon — I never opened
my mouth," Instead of apologising, Gladstone
rephed : " Then why does the noble lord appro
priate to himself my observations ? "
The Russian operations against Turkey were
not, in the earher stages of the war, successful,
and so serious were the repulses they received

DERBY AND CARNARVON 135
before Plevna that they were forced to supersede
the Grand Dukes from their command of the
Russian army and bring in a veteran of the
Crimean War, General Todleben. They were
further compelled to invoke the co-operation of
the Roumanian army. These rearrangements
turned the tide of war in Russia's favour. They
crossed the Balkans and came within measurable
distance of Constantinople. A Vote of Credit
and the dispatch of our Fleet up the Dardanelles
followed as a counter-stroke.
During the Easter recess Indian troops were
brought up to Malta. These combined move
ments greatiy irritated the Radicals, and loud
were the denunciations of the impropriety, coward
ice, and unconstitutionality of those bringing an
Eastern army into the operations of a European
war. Great is the irony of events, for a generation
later the political descendants of Disraeli's assail
ants bring a far larger force of Indian troops to
operate in France, and for so doing pose before
the world as Imperial statesmen of the first order.
Lords Derby and Carnarvon then seceded
from the Government. The former, though
possessing a singularly clear intellect, was no
man of action ; the latter was, and in leaving
the Government bequeathed to it a serious legacy
in South Africa. The annexation of the Transvaal
and the war with the Zulus were the consequences
of the forward policy he had initiated, and over
which, up to the date of retirement, he had exer
cised almost exclusive control.
The Treaty of San Stefano and the conference

136 KNIGHTSBRIDGE BANQUET
under the presidency of Prince Bismarck at
Berlin were the next development of the Eastern
Question. At that Conference Beaconsfield was a leading
figure, and Prince Bismarck — at first disposed
to regard him contemptuously — took such a
liking for him that he aftersvards had his photo
graph in his room, and told more than one in
dividual that he was the ablest statesman he had
ever met.
The arrangements made by this Conference met
with general approval, and DisraeU's description
of them as " peace with honour " satisfied all but
unreasonable partisans.
A great banquet was given at the Knights
bridge Barracks to the English plenipotentiaries,
and the then Duke of Buccleuch was in the
chair. Almost immediately afterwards Gladstone
announced his intention of contesting the seat
of Midlothian held by Lord Dalkeith, the Duke's
eldest son. Gladstone had more than once
publicly said that there was no body of men to
whom the British public were more indebted
than those members of the Tory Party who,
by adhering to Sir Robert Peel, enabled him to
repeal the Corn Laws. He showed his gratitude
by selecting as his special political antagonist
at the next election the eldest son of the only
surviving coUeague, except himself, of Sir Robert
Peel. I now turn to the consequences, upon the
Indian side, of Russia's forward action in Central
Asia. Lord Lytton was a special friend of Lord

LYTTON'S POLICY IN INDIA 137
Beaconsfield. He had much in common with
him, and as the controversy over Lord Beacons
field's policy became more active and embittered,
upon Lord Lytton's shoulders fell much abuse
and misrepresentation. It was a common allega
tion of Radical speakers that he was specially
instructed to create a quarrel and war with
Afghanistan, and that he deliberately and with
intent executed this instruction. I knew him
intimately and was in close correspondence with
him during the whole of his viceroyalty. I can
truly say that he did his best to attain his ends
peaceably, but was foiled in this attempt by the
conditions brought into, existence through the
ineptitude and want of foresight of his predecessors
and political assailants. Almost his first act in
India was to estabhsh a protectorate over Balu
chistan, and he sent a small force to Quetta.
This forward move was bitterly denounced by
Lord Lawrence and the " masterly inactivity "
party. All their predictions were and have been
utterly falsified. The Baluchis have never given
us any trouble, the whole country has prospered
and advanced under our protectorate, and the
possession of Quetta as a great military station
and sanatorium has been of the greatest use in
deahng with and settling awkward Persian ques
tions and protecting that side of India from un
toward influences and advance.
His next step was to try and induce the Ameer
to receive a deputation at Cabul to discuss out
standing questions between India and Afghanistan.
As a preliminary, he nominated Sir Lewis Pelly
as his representative to meet Shere All's repre-

138 YACOOB KHAN
sentative at Peshawar. I have always been
doubtful if his choice was a happy one. Sir Lewis
had undoubted capacity, but it was more in the
sphere of action than diplomacy.
The Peshawar Conference came to nothing.
Shortly afterwards the Ameer received a Russian
embassy at Cabul. This reception was contrary
to the whole understanding governing the relations
of Russia and Great Britain in Central Asia, and
its effect was necessarily far-reaching. Afghanistan
has been admitted by both parties to be outside
Russian influence and within the sphere of British
influence. Up to that date all negotiations with
Russia and with the rulers of Cabul had been
carried on upon that assumption. Shere Ali's
conduct gave us a legitimate casus belli against
him, but Lord Lytton did not take that course.
He strove to solve peaceably the tangle thus
created by asking Shere Ali to receive a mission,
at the head of which he placed one of the most
distinguished Anglo-Indian officials. Sir Neville
Chamberlain. Shere Ali refused to receive the
mission and stopped its advance by force;
Lord Lytton was thus compelled to have
recourse to force, and in a series of masterly
manoeuvres, in which Lord Roberts established
his reputation as a strategist, the Afghans were
totally defeated and Cabul occupied. Shere Ali
fled and died shortly afterwards. Lord Lytton
then selected Yacoob Khan, Shere Ali's eldest son,
who for a long time had been imprisoned under
his father's displeasure, as his successor, and with
the approval of the Afghan tribal chiefs placed
hirn on the throne at Cabul, Sij- Louis Cavagnari,

GUARANTEES TO ABDUL RAHMAN 139
a well-known frontier official, was located as
resident in Cabul, and the British force vacated
Afghanistan. The choice of Yacoob Khan proved subse
quently to be a mistake. His long term of im
prisonment had impaired both his mind and
physique, and he was induced by some fanatics
to foster an outbreak against Sir Louis, in which
soldiers of the Afghan army participated. All
the members of the mission were murdered, the
British Army was forced to reoccupy Cabul, and
later on Lord Roberts made his celebrated march
from Cabul to Kandahar for the relief of the
garrison which was then surrounded by a large
Afghan army. The total rout of that force
placed Afghanistan at the mercy of the Indian
Government. Shere Ah's family being impossible, the
Government in 1880 (Mr. Gladstone then being
Prime Minister) found another claimant to the
throne in Abdul Rahman, at that time a refugee
at Tashkend. A subsidy and guarantees were
given to him far in excess of what Shere Ali
wanted. The arrangements then made have, on
the whole, worked well, though all officials behind
the scenes know well the difficulty of making
any conditions work smoothly between two
contracting parties so wholly different in ideas
and action as the Governments of Calcutta and
Cabul. The cause of the war of 1878-1880 was not
due to Lord Lytton but to those who, through
short-sightedness and obstinacy, created the im
possible conditions with which he had to contend.

I40 ORIGIN OF WAR IN 1878
This was the argument which Stanhope (who .
succeeded me as Under-Secretary of State for
India) and I continuously put forward in the
House of Commons between 1878 and 1880, and
we were able to traverse and destroy the whole
premises of Gladstone's attack, notwithstanding
his subtlety and powers of speech. " Masterly
inactivity" may, in certain phases of the de
velopment of a difficult question, be wise, especi
ally when opponents are by their own action
increasing and aggravating their initial difficulties.
But when success attends the action of your
opponents, to sit still and allow them to pile up
advantage upon advantage for themselves is
self-evidently a wrong attitude. No better iUus
tration can be found of the limitations which
a policy of " masterly inactivity " imposes upon
itself than a review of our relations with Afghan
istan from i860 to 1880.

CHAPTER XIII
Northcote as Leader — ^Gathorne Hardy — Disraeli's retirement
much felt — Development of obstruction — Chamberlain —
Railways versus Irrigation — Indian Budget — Success in con
ciUating Gladstone.
The elimination of the Eastern Question with
which I have dealt makes the record of the pro
ceedings of Parliament for the next three years
somewhat prosaic. On Disraeli's departure to
the House of Lords, Sir Stafford Northcote be
came the leader of the Ministry in the Commons.
As second under Disraeli, he was admirable —
adroit, knowledgeable, and ready. On the defen
sive side he was always excellent, but he had
no combative instincts, and was overshadowed
by Gladstone, whose Private Secretary he had
been, in almost everything except finance. I
once remember Mr. Gladstone elaborating on the
various methods by which indebtedness could
be reduced or paid off. Northcote in reply said
that, though he had listened with interest to the
right hon. gentleman's explanation of the multi
fold methods by which debt could be reduced, he
must point out that there was only one way of
achieving that object, and that was by living
within your income.
Gathorne Hardy was much better qualified
for the leadership. He was a born fighter, gifted

142 GATHORNE HARDY
with a ready flow of speech which often became
eloquence. He was an excellent administrator,
believed perfectly in his political creed, and was
absolutely reliable. On the other hand, he was
impetuous and somewhat lazy about details and
the management of the tiresome units of the
party. In after years. Lord Beaconsfield ad
mitted that he had made a mistake in put
ting Northcote over Hardy, but he had never
contemplated Gladstone's permanent return to
politics. Gathorne Hardy did not long remain in the
Commons, as with the title of Viscount Cran-
brook he went up to the House of Lords. I have
always had a strong suspicion as to the reason
of his sudden departure. Sir George Trevelyan,
in a singularly offensive speech made in Scotiand,
insinuated that the Ministerial Party had a per
sonal interest in promoting war, as it was only
during war that they could get their incompetent
relations commissions in the Army and Navy.
This speech excited, as might be expected, great
indignation on our side, and Gathorne Hardy
one night challenged Sir George Trevelyan to
make good his assertion or to let it go into that
" category of statements which it was not parlia
mentary to mention." This produced a great
uproar, but Gathorne Hardy stuck to his guns,
Northcote, in a subsequent speech, practically
threw him over by an explanation. A few days
later Gathorne Hardy was gazetted a peer.
Northcote was always exceptionally courteous
to the subordinate members of his Government,
especially those representing big departments.

DISRAELI'S RETIREMENT MUCH FELT 143
He was an excellent man of business, and he had
a good general knowledge of the working of large
offices. He was ever ready to come to the assist
ance of his colleagues if they were hard pressed
in debate, and he was dexterous and conciliatory.
He never could fill the gap made by Disraeli's
elevation to the Lords, nor could anyone exercise
upon antagonists the same influence and deterrent
control which was effected by the mere presence
of Disraeli on the Treasury Bench. Disraeli was
nearly always in the House, and he listened most
attentively to the Under-Secretaries doing their
work, and if you glided successfully over thin ice
or counteracted a difficult attack, a quiet " Hear,
hear " used to fall from his lips — a great encour
agement to a young official. Gladstone once
described him as the " greatest master of Parlia
mentary sarcasm and irony for the past two
centuries," and the knowledge that at any mo
ment, if provoked, he might have recourse to his
armoury of inimitable satire kept many turbulent
and self-advertising spirits quiet. Few people like
being made to look ridiculous, especially if the
ridicule becomes permanently plastered on their
persons. Disraeli's extraordinary perception of
human character made his phrases sting, because,
though they might be exaggerated, they were
largely founded on what was seen to be truth.
His description of Gladstone as coming down to
the House " with a countenance arranged for the
occasion," of Horsman as " a very superior per
son," of Beresford Hope as the " exponent of
Batavian grace," all clung to their victims,
because whenever you looked at them Disraeli's

144 DEVELOPMENT OF OBSTRUCTION
epigram came back to you as being truly descrip
tive. Obstruction was beginning seriously to de
velop itself just when Disraeli left the House of
Commons. I have often wondered, if Disraeli
had had to cope with it, whether his ironical power
would not have kept the Irish in order, as they
love epigrammatic smartness and hate being
laughed at. Disraeli, as Leader of the House of
Commons, stopped to an extraordinary extent
silly and nonsensical talk, for no one cared to have
his defects and shortcomings publicly advertised,
and this was what Disraeli's unerring instinct
enabled him to achieve.
The fact of his rival's retirement had a curious
effect upon Gladstone. So long as the former
was in the House, the latter never attempted a
joke or humour. As soon as he was gone, he
blossomed out, if not as a humorist, at least as
one who could not only understand a joke but
occasionally make one.
Our Treasury Bench now became very weak
in debating power. We had lost Ward Hunt in
the preceding year. He was a first-class debater
and full of courage. He was one of the biggest
men I ever saw, weighing over 26 stone, and he
ate proportionately to his size. Our Front Bench
now consisted of Stafford Northcote, Cross, Smith
and Stanley, John Manners and Michael Hicks
Beach ; but, with the exception of Northcote and
Beach, none of them were in the first rank of
Parliamentary debaters.
The Opposition had heavier guns in the per
sons of Gladstone, Lowe, Lord Hartington, and

CHAMBERLAIN 145
Sir William Harcourt ; but our men stuck gal
lantly to us, and though we were worried and
kept many nights out of bed, our majority rarely
failed us.
Mr. Joseph Chamberlain about this time
entered the House of Commons. He at once
made his mark. His close reasoning power, his
command of language and illustration, and his
delightful voice, all indicated Parliamentary power
of an exceptional quality. His imperious mind
expressed itself very early in debate, for Lord
Hartington having taken a line not congenial to
the extreme Radicals, Chamberlain began a speech
in reply by alluding to him as " the late Leader
of the Liberal Party."
In the winter of 1876 there was a very wide
spread failure of rain in India and every prospect
of distress and shortage of work. In connection
with this drought, Mr. Bright signalised himself
by making in elaborate speeches a violent attack
upon the Indian Government for building rail
roads : " Irrigation, not railroads " was what
India required. This curious outbreak was largely
due to a well-known engineer, Sir Arthur Cotton,
who was so elated at certain successes he had
achieved in districts specially suitable for irriga
tion that he had irrigation on the brain, and he
communicated his wild ideas to Mr. Bright. The
latter took the matter up, because he thought
railroads might be built for strategical purposes,
whereas irrigation works could not be utUised
for military transport. Bright spoke so extra
ordinarily well that any propositions he put
forward were sure to enlist considerable sympathy

146 RAILWAYS VERSUS IRRIGATION
and support, not only in the Press but in Parlia
ment. The Indian Government were so certain of
their case that I was directed to move for a
Select Committee to inquire into the matter.
Bright declined to serve, but I persuaded ChUders
to undertake the chairmanship of the Committee.
The Report was a triumphant vindication of the
policy of building railroads, and it is largely due
to the railway system so established, all of
which is or will be the property of the Govern
ment, that Indian finance is now so strong and
stable. This incident illustrates Bright's weakness as
a statesman. He was the slave of his early and
local environment. As a Quaker, he hated war.
During the great French war the price of food
rose, and the rents of the aristocracy and landed
proprietors rose also. " Therefore," argued
Bright, " the aristocracy are generally in favour
of war, as it improves their incomes. A railway,
as it could be utilised in time of war, might
encourage war. Let us stop war in India by
ceasing to build railways." But, with all his
prejudice, he was a real big man : his simple
and massive eloquence was extraordinarUy im
pressive. He largely relied upon monosyllabic
words. A celebrated passage in one of his speeches
on a Burials Bill began : " Take the case of one
of my own sect  " When Home Rule became
a Liberal cry, he opposed it, believing it to be
a fatal blow at our national integrity, and he
resolutely broke with old friends, party connec
tions, and traditions rather than assent to what

INDIAN BUDGET 147
he believed to be ruinous to his country. Peace
be to his ashes !
The resignations of Lord Derby and Lord
Carnarvon early in 1878 forced Lord Beaconsfield
to recast his Government. Lord Salisbury re
placed Lord Derby at the Foreign Office, and
Sir Michael Hicks Beach Lord Carnarvon at
the Colonial Office. Partly to keep the Stanley
influence in the north of England, and partly
because he was in himself an excellent official.
Colonel Stanley, Lord Derby's brother, went to
the War Office, and Gathorne Hardy fUled Lord
Salisbury's vacancy at the India Office, and a
few weeks later I was appointed to the post of
Vice-President of the CouncU, which I accepted,
as it was supposed to be political promotion.
Sir John Strachey was now Finance Minister
in India, and his Budget for this year was the
foundation of a thorough and masterly reform of
Indian taxation. He placed the Salt Tax upon
a proper basis by equalising its incidence through
out India and abolishing that relic of barbarism,
the Salt Hedge. He also readjusted taxation
with a view to encouraging the production of
certain raw material which India can supply
in unlimited quantities. This Budget was the
subject of a hostUe notice by Fawcett, who then
occupied the post of Leader of the Opposition in
the House of Commons upon Indian questions.
I further had information that he had enlisted
Gladstone's support on behalf of his motion.
These two had been working together on the
Eastern Question, and I felt sure that Gladstone's
participation in the debate would be more due

148 INDIAN SALT HEDGE
to this co-operation than to a real disapproval of
the proposed financial changes.
I had just been transferred to the Education
Office, but as no one except myself knew the past
history of the taxation affected or the details of
the Budget, I was told that I must speak for
the Government. To have Gladstone on the top
of one on controversial points of finance was
not a pleasant prospect. Moreover, I was afraid
that if he once undertook the role of a hostile
critic on Indian finance his influence, knowledge,
and reputation would make the position of the
representative of the India Office in the House of
Commons unpleasant if not untenable. Could 1
then frame a case which would induce him to
drop his intended speech ? It suddenly occurred
to me that the abolition of the Salt Hedge in
India might be compared to the repeal of the
Corn Laws in 1846 in this country, and the pro
posed new taxation to the laws by which Sir
Robert Peel proposed to make good the loss thus
created. I found that the analogy held good on
various points, so I prepared with the utmost care
a speech in which I drew a comparison between
Strachey and Peel, eulogising those who enabled
Peel to carry out his fiscal policy, and in doing
so implied that Gladstone was not the least of
these national benefactors. I further enlarged
upon the benefits which accrued to the working-
classes of Great Britain from the realisation of
this policy, and I then asked — ^was it fair that the
House of Commons, which had carried out these
changes in England, should decline to allow Ihdia
to participate in the benefits of a like policy ?

CONCILIATING GLADSTONE 149
I was not confident when I got Up to speak.
Gladstone was sitting opposite to me, preparing
to take notes and closely following every word I
uttered, and I knew that I should be annihilated
if I made a slip. When I got to the comparison,
he stopped taking notes. I went on elaborating
my case ; he listened more intently, A few
minutes later he tore up his notes, and as I sat
down he got up and walked to where Fawcett
sat, said something to him, and went out of the
House. He did not take part in the division.
Next day Sir Henry Maine, who, throughout
my official connection with him, was always most
encouraging, came into my room and said : "I
hear you achieved a triumph last night." And I
said : " What was it ? " " Your speech had
such an effect on Gladstone that he went up to
Fawcett and said, ' George Hamilton has made
such a good case for the changes that I cannot
speak against them.' "
I left the India Office with sincere regret.
The work, though heavy, was congenial, and my
relations with the Council and the staff were more
than friendly. In those days debates in the
House of Commons upon Indian questions were
far more frequent than they are now, and what
with Select Committees and discussioas I had as
much, if not more, Parliamentary work than any
of my colleagues of the same standing.

II

CHAPTER XIV
Vice-President of CouncU — Difference with Lord President—
Beaconsfield's solution of difficiUty — Dinner at Lord Arthur
RusseU's — Froude — Origin of payment by results in educa
tion — ^Apology from Commons to Beaconsfield.
My new post was officially designated : " The
Vice-President of the Committee of Council upon
Education " — a title which was a nondescript
evolution of an antiquated but originally very
powerful department. In old days the Privy
Council might be almost described as the Home
Government of the country. The Lord President
of that Department was an executive and ad
ministrative official of the highest importance.
He had jurisdiction over the Colonies, all trade
and agricultural questions, and many other
branches of administration, and he dealt with
aU these subjects by Orders in Council. Century
by century his powers became curtailed, and the
greater proportion of the powers and duties which
he performed was transferred to freshly created
Secretaries of State and to the new departments
which came into existence, such as the Board of
Trade, Local Government Board, and the Agri
cultural Board. Education had not, however,
been wholly separated from this office, though its
officials were in a separate department under the
control of the Vice-President . The Lord President,
ISO

VICE-PRESIDENT OF COUNCIL 151
therefore, as Chief of the whole Office, was techni
cally and legally head of the Education Board, but
in practice the Vice-President, both in Parliament
and in the country, was regarded as Education
Minister and was held responsible for all the
Education Department might do or fail to do.
In my address I had somewhat rashly described
myself as " Minister for Education," and rumours
reached me that the Lord President of the Council
resented the appellation that I had given to
myself. A few days later I received a request
from Lord Beaconsfield to come and see him, and
when I went into the room I saw lying on the
table beside him a book containing the Orders in
Council and the Educational Statute ; so I knew
at once what was the matter upon which he wished
to speak to me.
He told me that I had given myself a position
which I was not entitled to claim. I tried to
argue the point with him, but he said : "I have
looked in the Orders in Council and the Act of
Parliament, and you have not a leg to stand on."
I pointed out to him that it was no promotion
if I had to be in a position of an Under-Secretary
to the Lord President, who certainly was, in
abUity and standing, inferior to my late Chief,
Lord Salisbury. That he admitted, but said :
" Your relative positions are somewhat anomalous.
You are a man of the world. The Lord President,
though punctilious, is a high-minded and upright
gentleman, and you must get on with him as best
you can." This I undertook to do, but I pointed
out that, as I had ideas of my own and the House
of Commons was very exacting upon certain

152 THE LORD PRESIDENT
points of educational policy, it really was essential
that I should have a free hand in dealing with
the class of question that mainly concerned the
House of Commons. To that he agreed, and he
added : " Now, I rely upon your carr5nng on your
work without friction ; but if you have any real
trouble, come to me."
I got on very well with the Lord President,
who, though tenacious of his dignity and position,
had a kind and just mind behind a somewhat
tart manner. But early in 1880 a serious diffi
culty occuried between us. The Secretary of the
Education Department was Sir Francis Sand-
ford, an official of exceptional resource and tact-
fulness. The ChanceUor of the Exchequer was
very hard up, as a disastrous harvest and de
pression of trade had so curtailed the natura!l
growth of his revenue as to make it liifficult for
him to meet the expenditure of the prospective
year on existing taxation. I therefore, with
the assistance of Sir Francis Sandford, cut my
estimates down to the lowest point compatible with
efficiency, and I sent them on to the Treasury.
A few days afterwards. Sir Francis Sandford
wrote to me telling me that after a meeting of the
Cabinet the Chancellor of the Exchequer had
taken the Lord President on one side and told
him the reductions were not enough, and they
proceeded to play hanky-panky with my esti
mates by reducing just those parts of them which
it was most impolitic to touch, and amongst other
reductions they largely curtaUed the grant on
reading, writing, and arithmetic. A general elec
tion was impending, and this curtaUment of the

DIFFERENCE WITH HIM 153
grant would not only have been very detrimental
to education, but would have produced a political
uproar throughout the country, as the Church
schools mainly relied upon this part of the grant
for their maintenance.
As soon as I came to London, I went to the
Lord President and put before him this side of the
question. He was rather taken aback, but as he
considered himself pledged to the ChanceUor of
the Exchequer he declined to give way. I was
thus placed in an awkward position. Personally,
I should have been held responsible, both in
Parliament and in the constituency, for these
maladroit reductions ; on the other hand, to
resign would have embarrassed the Government,
which was, from various causes, losing its hold
on public opinion. I then remembered Lord
Beaconsfield's promise. I went to him and
described exactly what had occurred. He listened
intently, and after a minute's reflection said :
" Is there not a thing that you call the ' Committee
of Council upon Education ' ? " " Yes," I said,
" there is." " Am I on it ? " " Yes." " Very
well, then, tell the Lord President I wish it to be
summoned at once." It was summoned, and I
should think, for the first and last time in existence,
all the official members of this heterogeneous body
met. We sat in a semicircle. Lord Beaconsfield
in the centre, and I at the extreme outside.
" I understand," said Lord Beaconsfield, " that
the Vice-President has a statement to make to
us," I then proceeded to state my case as best I
could, letting down the Lord President and the
Chancellor of the Exchequer as much as possible.

154 BEACONSFIELD'S SOLUTION
When I had finished, there was a dead silence,
whereupon Lord Beaconsfield remarked : " I do
move that the Committee of Council upon
Education do agree with the Vice-President."
There was not a word of opposition to this motion,
both the ChanceUor of the Exchequer and the
Lord President looking rather foolish.
This story is a good illustration of Lord
Beaconsfield's extraordinary adroitness and re
source in personal difficulties, and it also showed
his overpowering influence with his coUeagues
when he chose to assert it. I must, in justice,
say that the Lord President, who at heart was a
most excellent fellow, never showed any resent
ment for the course I had adopted, and I am not
sure that in his innermost mind he was not pleased
to be thus extricated from the untenable position
in which he had placed himself.
A comical incident occurred on my first official
reception of a deputation at the Education De
partment. The London School Board had some
difference with the Department, and Mrs. Westlake,
an aesthetic lady always beautifuUy dressed, was
the head of the deputation. I was anxious to
receive them with appropriate grace and dignity.
Shortly before they arrived, in trying to light a
cigarette, the head of an exceptionally big lucifer
match feU off, and I could not find it. My chair
was a solid wooden one, and my trousers were of
a rough wooUen material. After the deputation
had been introduced, and I had risen from my
chair to welcome them, I resumed my seat, and
in doing so ignited the match-head, which burnt
a hole in my trousers and beyond. I bounded

DINNER AT LORD A. RUSSELL'S 155
up in the air, to the amusement of the deputation,
and a smell of burnt trouser and flesh pervaded
the room. The deputation was very human, and
after a momentary grin we settled down to work
and soon came to an amicable agreement, to
which the burnt match-head was an unconscious
contributor. In the spring of 1879, my wife and I were asked
by our cousins. Lord and Lady Arthur Russell,
to a dinner of exceptional political and historical
interest. The Crown Prince and Princess of
Germany were then in London on a visit, and the
latter expressed a great wish to meet those who
were supposed to have had an influence by their
writings upon our policy in Afghanistan and South
Africa. The Princess, in addition, wished to see
certain artistic and scientific luminaries. At this
dinner there were present the Crown Prince and
Princess, and young Prince William, who took my
wife in to dinner. The latter was then in his
twentieth year, but he was at that time so shy
and undeveloped as to give little sign of the
qualities and attributes which he has shown since
he became Emperor of Germany. There were
also present Sir Henry Rawlinson, Mr. Froude,
Sir Henry Maine, Sir Frederick Leighton, Sir
Louis Mallet, Professor Seeley and Professor
Huxley, and Sir Edward Poynter. I sat next
to Froude, who had just returned from South
Africa. He had, during his stay there, contributed
a number of articles to the public press upon the
condition and future of that country. He talked
delightfuUy, but he took an extraordinarUy
pessimistic view of the position of the white

156 FROUDE
races in South Africa. He pointed out to me that
there was a virile and intelligent race, physicaUy
stronger than the average European, who were
multiplying and increasing faster than white men
under the influence of civilisation, and that these
Zulus and Kaffirs would ultimately demolish the
white race. I asked him what was his policy,
and in a gloomy tone he informed me there was
no policy but to exterminate them. I pointed
out to him the extreme difficulty of such a policy
in these days of sentiment and humanitarianism.
He replied : "If you do not adopt that policy,
they will exterminate you."
A few months afterwards I noted that he was
giving a series of lectures at the Philosophical
Institute in Edinburgh on South Africa. My
curiosity was excited as to how he would put
his singularly bloodthirsty theories into a shape
which would be palatable to his audience. In
the meantime he had entirely changed his views,
and his method for settling the South African
problem was to treat the native races with firm
ness but perfect justice. Notwithstanding his
rare hterary ability, he did not impress me as a
reliable or far-seeing thinker.
The work of the Education Department was
terribly meticulous and dull after the India Office.
I had to administer about three Acts of Parlia
ment under a code. That code consisted of
one hundred and fifty regulations and seven
schedules. It dealt with the minutest detail con
nected with school life, and so tied the managers
and teachers with red-tape regulations that all in
dividuality or initiative was knocked out of them.

PAYMENT BY RESULTS IN EDUCATION 157
The Manchester theory of testing everything
by pecuniary results ran throughout the whole
administration of education. The teacher who
could make the individual child earn the most on
a system of payment by results was looked upon
as the best teacher, there being a regular scale
of so much for reading, writing, and arithmetic,
so much for every child in a class that was taught
a class subject, and so much for every child who
was taught a specific subject. The children were
taught far more subjects than it was possible for
them to digest during the limited period of their
education; but during the time they were at
school they were mere paying-machines, and the
more they earned under this pernicious system
of forcing, the better pleased were those in charge
of education. Lowe had the credit of starting this system
of payment by results. One day, when I was
sitting next to him on a Committee, I asked him
if he approved of the present methods of adminis
tration based on payment by results which were
then in force. To my amazement he replied : " If
you will move for its total abolition in the House
of Commons, I will second it." I said to him :
" You are aware that you are supposed to have
started and created the system?" "Yes," he
said, " I know the fools say so. What happened
was this : when I was at the Education Depart
ment, as my eyes hurt me a good deal, whenever
I went into the country I used to send to the
National School to ask them to let me have one
or two boys or girls who could read well, and they
used to come up and read to me in the evening.

158 ORIGIN OF EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
I found out that few, if any, of these boys or
girls could really read. They got over words of
three syUables, but five syllables completely
stumped them. I therefore came to the con
clusion that, as regards reading, writing, and
arithmetic, which are three subjects which can
be definitely tested, each child should either read
or write a passage, or do some simple sum of
arithmetic to show that they were entitled to the
grant which was given for reading, writing, and
arithmetic, and the idiots who succeeded me have
piled up on the top of the three R's a mass of class
and specific subjects which they propose to test
in the same way. The result is wholesale cram
ming and superficiality, for the great majority
of the children who pass through these class
and specific subjects lose all knowledge of them
a few months after they have left school."
In the science classes the evil reached serious
dimensions. One pound was paid for every child
who passed in certain branches of science. There
was a notable case of fraud in which the children
had been taught in advance the answers to the
questions in the examination papers. In the
inquiry which took place, it was there clearly
proved that, although this school had obtained
some ;f 600 or £700 a year for teaching science, there
was not one boy in ten who, a few months aft6r
he left school, could recollect anything of the
subject for teaching which the school had received
this sum. I did what little I could to lessen the
rigour of this system, and I am glad to say that
the Education Department have in recent years
broken away from it, but, for a generation to

VOTE OF CENSURE ON DISRAELI 159
come, I am afraid that the blighting effect of the
system of payment by results will affect our
whole system of National Education.
On the first occasion upon which I presented
the Educational Estimates, Gladstone and Forster
impressed upon me that the expenditure I pro
posed was as high as was permissible, and I ought
to take care in no sense to allow it to increase.
It was then 15s. per child. What it is now I do
not recoUect, but I expect I am correct in saying
that it is three times that amount. I should not
in the least grudge this expenditure, provided it
was associated with a corresponding benefit ; but
I am afraid all who have even partially con
sidered our system of education are obUged to
admit that, whilst it is the most expensive of any
elementary system in Europe, it is very unsatis
factory in its results.
In this session a curious incident occurred,
showing that even in the most rancorous phases
of Parliamentary controversy there lies at bottom
a latent sense of fair play and justice which comes
to the surface, no matter what its restraint may
be. Mr. Holmes, an advertising Radical Member
of Parhament, put down a vote of censure upon
the Prime Minister for appointing Mr. Pigott
ControUer of the Stationery Department. The
notice came on suddenly, and Northcote, as
Government spokesman, did not know the facts
of the case. It was alleged by Holmes that Pigott
was the son of a Hughenden rector, that the
Hughenden rector was an out-and-out political
supporter of Disraeli, and that, in consequence,
his son was appointed to this post without any

i6o APOLOGY FROM COMMONS
knowledge of his duties and contrary to the
recommendations of a Select Committee. North
cote allowed these statements to pass unchallenged,
and in the division which followed he was beaten
by a small majority, our men not liking the case
as it was presented to them. Lord Beaconsfield
was much annoyed. In a personal vindication
in the House of Lords he showed that it was more
than thirty years ago that Pigott pere was Rector
of Hughenden, that he was a Radical in politics,
and that he, Beaconsfield, never saw the son, and
that the appointment was made in accordance
with the special recommendations of a Com
mittee appointed to look into the management
of the Stationery Office. The Lords accepted the
statement, and in the Commons Mr. Holmes
admitted that he had been misled, and the notice
of censure was erased from the records of the House
nemine contradicente.

CHAPTER XV
Ccimarvon's resignation — Bartle Frere in South Africa — ^His
action — SaUsbury and Derby at GriUion's Club — Obstruc
tion development — PameU — Combination of bad luck against
Government — Prediction of defeat — ^Midlothian campaign
— FaU of Beaconsfield's Government.
Lord Carnarvon, some time before he resigned
his office of Colonial Secretary, appointed
Sir Bartle Frere High Commissioner of South
Africa. At the time of his appointment. Sir
Bartie Frere was a Member of the Council of
India. Lord SaUsbury was not consulted as
to the appointment.
The Transvaal had been annexed before Sir
Bartle Frere arrived in South Africa, and the chief
reason for this annexation was the behef that the
white man in the Transvaal woiUd be unable to
cope with a general native rising, of which there
were premonitory symptoms. The Treasury of
the Transvaal was bankrupt, for the goldfields
had not yet been discovered, and the armed forces
of the Repubhc had recently been beaten by
Secocoeni, a powerful Zulu chief to the north
of the Transvaal, and Cetewayo — a stUl more
powerful chief to the south-west of the Transvaal —
had a large and admirably organised Zulu army
on the native system which was burning to wet its
spears in European blood.
Sir Bartie Frere had many admirable quahties,
i6i

i62 BARTLE FRERE IN SOUTH AFRICA
but he was not at any time a believer in a policy
of " masterly inactivity." Under the softest of
manners and of voices there was in him an in
domitable spirit of action and expansion, and
he considered it necessary, though the tendency
of his instructions was in the contiary direction,
to present an ultimatum to Cetewayo, which it
was a foregone conclusion he would reject. The
disaster of Isandhlwana followed. Large rein
forcements had to be sent hastily to South Africa,
and the Zulu military machine was subsequently
smashed at the battle of Ulundi. These pro
ceedings provoked a vote of censure on the Govern
ment in the Commons, but there was no case, as
the tone and direction of the dispatches of the
Secretary of State for the Colonies were too clear
to admit of misrepresentation. With all my
admiration for Sir Bartle Frere, I always regretted
that he thus forced the pace. It was the military
strength of the Zulu troops and the supposed
inability of the Transvaal farmers to withstand
them that was the raison d'Stre of the annexation
of that territory. As soon as we had destroyed
the raison d'etre for the annexation, the Transvaal
State rose against us. If a more timely policy
had been adopted, it is clear that when the natives
did attack — as they were certain to do — the white
men, Briton and Boer, would have fought side
by side against the common danger overhanging
them, and much subsequent unrest, disquietude,
and bloodshed which have since occurred in
South Africa would, in my judgment, have been
obviated. There was in those days no telegraphic cable

" NEWS OF GREAT JOY " 163
to South Africa. This communication was com
pleted in 1881 in time to recall Lord Roberts before
he had employed his army in defeating the Boers
and wiping out all recollection of their victory of
Majuba Hill. Cable communication, or the lack
of it, thus played us a double trick ; it did not
prevent Sir Bartle Frere from departing from his
instructions, but it did prevent Lord Roberts from
executing his original orders.
Towards the close of 1879, Lord Salisbury
announced, as " news of great joy," the offensive
and defensive alliance just formed between
Germany and Austro-Hungary. The political
conditions of Europe since that date have indeed
changed. This alliance, which we then hoped
would permanently prevent the Great Powers of
Europe from becoming involved in a general war
arising from a recrudescence of the Eastern Ques
tion, has now deliberately utiUsed a regrettable
incident so as to provoke the greatest and bloodiest
war of which history has record, in the vain hope
that through its instrumentaUty Germany may
dominate and enslave the remainder of Europe.
In the discussion following the retirement of
Lord Derby from the Foreign Office, he twice in the
House of Lords broke the traditions of a Cabinet
Minister by publicly stating what he believed had
occurred in the discussion in the Cabinet. Accord
ing to the recoUection of all of his old colleagues,
the aUegations he made were contrary to what
did actuaUy occur. On the occasion of the second
offence, a scene occurred in the House of Lords.
All his old colleagues were infuriated at the repe
tition of this breach of confidence, and Lord

i64 SALISBURY & DERBY AT GRILLION'S
Salisbury as their spokesman likened him to Titus
Oates, and rather implied that Titus Oates might
take objection to the comparison.
Both Lord Derby and Lord Salisbury were
big men physically, and both very shy socially.
There is a well-known dining club called GriUion's,
at which on every Monday in the session a dinner
is ready for all who care to come to it. The late
Lord Morley and I left the Houses of Parliament
to dine at GriUion's. On arriving at the ante
room, we found two big, very confused figures
standing in the remotest corners of the room, and
each ignoring the other's presence. No one else
came to dinner, so we sat down four — Lord Salisbury
at the head of the table. Lord Morley next to him,
I on the other side of him, and Lord Derby
next to me. The conversation was at first some
what strained. Lord Morley and I contrived
to make some general remarks, and we then
both found out that if one of the two belligerents
addressed a question to a neutral, the other
belligerent would reply to it through the other
neutral. So we progressed. The ice of non-
recognition was broken between these two dis
tinguished men, and I think the work of the
neutrals that night did re-establish permanent
speaking conditions between two statesmen, to
both of whom I was personally much indebted.
From the time he entered the House of Commons
in 1876 up to the dissolution in 1880, Parnell made
his personality more and more felt. Of all the
many distinguished men in politics with whom I
came in contact, he was the most inscrutable and
original. There was a touch of unreason almost

OBSTRUCTION DEVELOPMENT 165
amounting to insanity on both sides of his parent
age. He had not a symptom of the attributes
usually associated with Irishmen — no geniality,
no sense of humour, no idea of give-and-take,
and no imagination. He was stern, concentrated,
inflexible, and unscrupulous. He won his way by
sheer determination and a total disregard of all the
amenities and obligations of Parliamentary life.
The flabby, illogical, and powerless procedure of
the House of Commons gave him his chance, and
he used it remorselessly.
The guiding principle of the House of Commons
procedure had its origin in the vast number of
placemen who dominated that assembly right up
to so late a period as 1750, or even later. To give
the fullest freedom of speech and interrogation
to a comparatively few independent Members on
all occasions and under all circumstances was the
original object of the rules of debate for the House
of Commons. There was no established machinery
for stopping debate, and so long as the free
Members were in a minority, and the debates were
not reported, and the House itself was the only
and final Court of Appeal to which a Member of
Parliament could address himself, the rules worked
tolerably well. But so soon as reports were
published the speakers began more and more to
appeal to public opinion outside. An English or
Scottish Member of Parliament who outraged
the House of Commons by gross and persistent
misuse of its rules generally knew that by such
misconduct he would imperil his seat at the next
election. Not so in Ireland. Amongst the ex
treme Nationalists the more their representative
12

i66 PARNELL
defied everybody and everything in the House of
Commons the better pleased they were, and the
more popular with this section of opinion became
the Parliamentary delinquent. ,
Parnell set himself early in his Parliamentary
career to defy all the traditions and rules ^
political life. He found out that a very limited
number of Members with unlimited assurance and
power of tongue could stop the whole executive
and legislative work of the country. To that end
he applied himself with unflinching resolution.
There was no closure in those days, no power of
finishing a debate, no power to check perpetual
motions for adjournment. Upon one stage of a
Bill to consolidate South African administration
which was practically unopposed, the House of
Commons was kept sitting continuously more
than twenty-six hours, and the obstructionists
only numbered from five to seven of the whole
House. The Speaker declined to move outside
the letter of the rules. Parnell thus became a
power, and he used his power to bully, browbeat,
and blackmail the Government,
We were then powerless, and in proportion as
obstruction became more and more potent in the
House of Commons, so did Parnell become more
popular and powerful in Ireland, ^^^len, after the
election of 1880, he became the Nationalist Leader,
he ruled his followers with an iron but disdainful
hand. His discipline was modelled on the Prussian
mUitary system : obedience — ^immediate, wholesale,
and perpetual. But it answered for a time. He
brought an absolutely disciplined and solid phalanx,
amounting ultimately to eighty votes, into the

BAD LUCK OF GOVERNMENT 167
House of Commons, and this body for years knew
no law save his own. On the other hand, it is only
fair to ParneU to say that it was with considerable
reluctance that he took up the " No rent " cry»
and in his latter years he showed a statesmanlike
instinct, both in his attempts to restrain the more
extreme Members of his party and in trying to get
the Irish Land Question into a workable shape.
Up to 1880 Parnell gave little indication of these
better qualities. On the contrary, in the House
of Commons he was a lawless rebel against all
authority and any attempts to establish reason
and order in debate.
InabUity to enforce authority always impresses
the general public with a sense of contempt for
those who so faU, and not the least of the causes
which contributed to the overthrow of Lord
Beaconsfield's Government on the general election
of 1880 was the idea that the Government itself
was largely to blame for the obstruction and dis
order which became so prevalent in the House of
Commons. We were very unlucky during the last eighteen
months of our tenure of office. Trade was de
pressed and the revenue lost aU expansion, and on
the top of this financial depression there came in
1879 the worst harvest of a generation. The re
crudescence of the Afghan trouble, due to the
murder at Cabul of Cavagnari and his mission, and
the ultimatum of Frere to Cetewayo, with its con
sequent fighting, gave colour to the accusation of
the Opposition that, so long as Lord Beaconsfield
was in office, there would be no peace. In Ireland,
owing to the faUure of the potato crop, there was

i68 PREDICTION OF DEFEAT
acute distress on the western coast, and Parnell
took prompt advantage of this distress to raise a
formidable organisation against the landlords which
ultimately became the " Land League."
Gladstone was exhibiting at the age of seventy
a superhuman energy as a stump orator. He
worked up with marvellous skill and eloquence an
ubiquitous and most unfair indictment against
everything said or done , by the Government of
Lord Beaconsfield. I more than once warned Lord
Beaconsfield that the forces operating against us
were so widespread in their origin and so plausibly
utilised that I was afraid we shoidd be beaten at
the impending election. He would not credit me,
as the party managers, misled by the results of the
two by-elections, told him the reverse. Upon the
last occasion on which I saw him before the
election, he was just recovering from a severe
attack of gouty asthma, and was in consequence
very weak. He asked me to give him an arm, as he
wished to see if he could walk. He was miserably
feeble, and I expressed concern, at which he
replied : " Yes, I am far from well, but I have a
clever doctor who cooks me up when I have any
thing public to do. I then manage to crawl to
the Treasury Bench, and when I get there I look
as fierce as I can." It was impossible not to
admire the dauntless spirit of this old man, con
trasted with the frail body in which it was en
shrined. The spirit so dominated the flesh that
Lord Beaconsfield at that moment, though the
subject of bitter hostility in his own country, was
looked upon outside as the foremost and most
successful statesman of the day, with the exception

MIDLOTHIAN CAMPAIGN 169
of Bismarck, and his influence and power through
out Europe were immense. Though he made no
public speech before or during the election of 1880,
his letter to the Duke of Marlborough (then Lord-
Lieutenant of Ireland) foretold with his usual
analytical skill the dangerous termination of the
Irish policy of his great rival. Upon every plat
form and in every speech up to 1885, that predic
tion was emphatically repudiated by Gladstone.
Then the mask was thrown up, and in 1886 he
appeared, as his rival had foreseen, an out-and-out
supporter of a separate Parliament for Ireland.
But the campaign for the moment was over
whelmingly successful, and Gladstone on the
termination of the election had an apparent
majority of 160 over the supporters of his rival.
The Nemesis, however, of the Midlothian cam
paign was prompt and overpowering, as is shown
by subsequent political history. From 1880 up
to the end of his political career, Gladstone never
again became his own master ; he was tied to,
and his reputation burned at, the very stakes
he had prepared for the auto-da-fi of his great
opponent. The thesis was very simple which
he had elaborated with such marvellous skill and
eloquence. Lord Beaconsfield was the cause of
all the difficulties and embarrassments affecting
national policy. " Get rid of him, and everything
now wrong will in due course of time gradually
right itself." But the difficulties adhered as
closely to Gladstone as Prime Minister as they
did to his predecessor, and in almost every case
he was ultimately compelled in self-defence to
have violent recourse to the very methods he had

170 BEACONSFIELD GOVERNMENT FALLS
so energeticaUy repudiated and denounced on the
platform. Thus feU the Beaconsfield Government. When
the dust and glamour of the election passed away,
it was generaUy felt that this Government had
left a creditable record behind it. Every attempt
to reverse its foreign and imperial pohcy ended
in failure and mishap, and the social legislation
placed upon the Statute Book was not only good
in itself, but has since become the basis of much
subsequent beneficial legislation.

CHAPTER XVI
Midlothian campaign — Success — Retribution — Fourth Party —
Compensation for Disturbance BUI — Rejection of scheme for
purchase of London Water Companies — FaUure of session —
MundeUa at Education Office — Disorder and outrage in
Ireland — Captain Boycott.
Gladstone had achieved his purpose. He had
ousted his opponent from office ; he had once
more become the undisputed leader of the whole
Radical and Liberal Party ; he had a vast majority
behind him in Parhament, and he had as coUeagues
a singularly able body of men. Like aU men
who beheve that a mission has been given to them
to execute, and who succeed in its execution, he
was in a state of high exaltation and beatitude
in the early stages of his apparent return to power.
In aU that relates to the mechanism of party
government there never was a leader in a better
position — unquestionable authority, most capable
coUeagues, and an admiring and huge majority.
But the next five years was the record of the most
complete and humihating failure to realise the
expectations and undertakings of his platform
oratory. So hopeless did his position ultimately
become that he was forced in 1885 to resign,
in order that his political opponents, though in a
large minority, might carry on the government
of the country until a new Reform Act came into
operation.

172 SPEECH AT EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY
I have before me a mass of literature relating
to the campaign in Midlothian, which ended in the
return of Gladstone with a majority of 215. As
brother-in-law to Lord Dalkeith, whose seat he was
contesting, I took an active part in that election,
both in speaking and otherwise. In an address
which I gave in January 1880 to the Conservative
Association of the University of Edinburgh, I de
scribed, and — as it seems to me after a long lapse
of time — with perfect fairness and accuracy, the
nature and consequence of Gladstone's crusade :
" In the months which have elapsed since I
accepted your invitation, a great electioneering
phenomenon has occurred. Mr. Gladstone has
visited Scotland, and Scotland has given him
a reception such as few public men had ever
received before. The duties of political life are
reciprocal, and if a country gives a distin
guished man a national reception, he should
endeavour in return to be national in his
utterances by sinking the partisan in the patriot,
the politician in the statesman. In one sense
Mr. Gladstone's repayment was unique. For I
find that, excluding minor addresses at railway
stations, or from railway bridges, railway car
riages, and other locomotive machines, he spoke
37 columns of the Times newspaper. Every
column has on the average 232 lines, and every
line 10 words ; multiplying the three together,
we get a grand total of 85,840 words. I have
read with care the whole of these 85,840 words,
and their substance can be summarised in a sen
tence : The infamy of Lord Beaconsfield's policy
is only equalled by the villainy with which he has
carried it out.
"This fecundity of speech is fortunately rare

GLADSTONE'S VERBOSITY 173
in our public life. Statesmen's words are sup
posed to derive influence, not from their volume,
but their weight. No one, least of all a man of
high-strung, nervous temperament, can speak in
a few days 85,840 words to excitable audiences
without himself unconsciously drifting towards
the line that divides fact from fiction, sense and
reason from rant and passion. But when the
orator is the foremost man of his party, when
the subjects upon which he speaks affect the
fortunes and destinies of nations, when the moral
generalisations and principles perpetually evolved
to meet every personal difficultj'^ are to form
the basis of legislation at home, and of foreign
pohcy abroad, then this verbosity becomes a
positive danger to the commonwealth. The pro
cess of degeneration is continuous and rapid.
The statesman becomes more and more merged
in the pohtician, the politician in the partisan,
the partisan in the election agent, reckless as to
the means by which he wins, provided only that
he does win. Mr. Gladstone was perfectly frank.
At aU risks and hazards, Lord Beaconsfield's
Government must be got rid of, was his ever-
recurring refrain. But the extent to which, in
order to attain this end, he himself is prepared
to go, both in mis-stating the case against his
rival and in catching votes, a calm perusal of
those 85,840 words alone reveals.
" For any Conservative to speak now in
Scotland without in some way noticing Mr.
Gladstone's indictment would be absurd ; it
would, however, be equally ridiculous for me in
any way to put myself in personal competition
with him. Fortunately, I need not adopt either
course. Mr. Gladstone appealed with confidence
from ' Philip drunk to Philip sober.' Adapting
the metaphor to modern requirements, I appeal

174 RETRIBUTION
with equal confidence from Mr, Gladstone on the
stump to Mr. Gladstone in office, — for the most
effective reply to his words in Mid-Lothian is to
recaU his deeds in Downing Street."
Subsequent to the date of my address, Glad
stone made speeches which were in volume
double what he had already said ; 250,000 words
is, therefore, a low estimate of his utterances in
Scotland. Like the centaur's shirt, they clung
to him, and do what he could he was never able
as Prime Minister to shake off their mortifjdng
contact. Within a few days of accepting office, he had
to make a pubhc and most humihating apology
to the Emperor of Austria for words used on the
platform. Whether what he said was true or
justifiable was immaterial : what was brought
home to the whole political world was that the
role of a partisan stump orator and that of Prime
Minister of Great Britain were absolutely incom
patible. The greater the success achieved in the
first sphere of action, the greater the penalty
paid by the nation when the stump orator became
the First Minister of the Crown.
But the immediate effect of these unfortunate
speeches was felt right throughout the whole
Empire. Lord Beaconsfield's policy was every
where to be reversed.
The Boers, without asking Gladstone's leave,
proceeded to reverse it in the Transvaal by a
revolt against the British suzerainty.
Ireland was in a most inflammatory and
dangerous condition . The precautionary measures

RETRIBUTION 175
of Peace Preservation and Arms Laws passed by
the late Government were aUowed to lapse in
accordance with the dicta of Midlothian politics,
and Ireland passed out of the control of the
executive Government.
In India Lord Ripon replaced Lord Lytton,
The latter's pohcy, both internal and external,
had been heavUy censured, and its reversal was
a prominent feature in the mUlennium about
to be established. Our external policy declined
to accommodate itself to the vagaries of the
hustings, and it so reasserted itself in Afghanistan,
as I have previously shown, that the assurances,
only asked for conditionaUy a few years back
and refused, had to be enlarged and uncondition-
aUy given to a new ruler in Afghanistan.
Lord L5rtton had passed two BUls — an Arms
Act and a Press Act. Both worked admirably
without any friction or popular resentment. Both
were repealed by Gladstone, though prominent
members of the Indian Government implored that
they might only be suspended. It is no exaggera
tion to say that the inabUity of the Indian Govern
ment, due to the repeal of these Acts, subsequently
to restrain the violence of certain native news
papers largely contributed to the unrest of a
certain section in India and to the repeated
assassination of officials. So much was this felt
that Lord Morley only recently as Secretary of
State for India re-enacted in a far more repressive
form than before the laws so thoughtlessly repealed
in 1880. In Central Asia events so shaped themselves
that precautiouEiry measures against Russia, far

176 POLLING ANOMALIES
exceeding in their cost and dimensions those
adopted by Lord Beaconsfield, had to be sum
marily taken by Gladstone.
In Egypt the same phenomena, were repeated.
Constant efforts to ignore our responsibilities there
only increased local disturbance and defeat. We
were at last forced to act, but our action was so
belated that we only succeeded in squandering
much treasure and many lives without rescuing
Gordon or rehabilitating our influence.
The Parliamentary history of the next five
years is the record of the failures and disasters
I have epitomised.
The Conservative Party was not only greatly
reduced in size, but was much depressed in
spirits by the heavy b6ating it had received at
the polls. The Radicals were somewhat lucky.
Though their majority was large in populous
districts, outside London and the home counties
they won a large number of smaU constituencies
by narrow majorities. It was calculated that a
turnover of 4000 votes properly distributed in
these closely contested constituencies would have
established an equilibrium between the parties
arrayed against one another. In the county
of Middlesex my coUeague and I were returned
by a majority of over 4000 votes, Herbert Glad
stone being our antagonist. Several political
optimists wrote to me pointing out what might
have happened if these superfluous votes in
Middlesex had been given elsewhere. All such
calculations are, in my judgment, purely moon
shine. You cannot eliminate one element in a
general election and make it entirely favoi^rable

FOURTH PARTY 177
to your interests without causing counteraction
and disturbance elsewhere. We were not only
solidly beaten, but the Government, being re
inforced by Chamberlain and William Harcourt,
was in debating powers far more than a match
for our Front Bench. It had been weak even
when it had the prestige and authority of the
Government behind it ; deprived of these ex
traneous influences it became, for the time being,
quite incapable of holding its own with the
Treasury Bench.
Lord Randolph ChurchUl at once stepped
into the fray, and associating Arthur Balfour, Sir
John Gorst, and Sir Henry Drummond Wolff with
him from the beginning of the session, carried
on with extraordinary brilliance and pertinacity
a guerilla warfare against the Government.
Parnell was now the acknowledged leader
of about 40 Irish Members, there being another
body of about 30 who were Moderate Home
Rulers, and about 8 Liberals who were not Home
Rulers. These in the aggregate, with about 25
Irish Conservatives, constituted the total repre
sentation of Ireland.
Within the ParneUite ranks was a group of
remarkably clever young men — Sexton, O'Brien,
DiUon, O'Connor, Power, Arthur O'Connor, T. P.
O'Connor, Healy, and the two Redmonds. All had
var5nng but great Parliamentary aptitude. Sexton,
though a self-educated man, was an extraordinarUy
fine speaker, his main fault being too great facility.
Nothing more clearly indicated Parnell's capacity
as a leader than that he should have selected and
brought into Parliament this combination of

178 DISTURBANCE BILL
unknown but very able men. From 1880 up to
now — a period of more than a generation — ^the
Irish Home Rule Party, with the single exception
of Mr. Devlin, have not produced anyone ap
proximating in individual ability the members of
this group. In the late Parliament, ParneU, with
a backing of only five or six supporters, perpetuaUy
defied the whole House of Commons ; now at
the head of a compact phalanx of 40 Members
he early showed his intention of making the
House of Commons unmanageable and Ireland
ungovernable. The Irish Secretary, Forster, was a rugged
Radical of considerable abUity and great courage,
and at the outset most considerately disposed
towards tenants as opposed to landlords ; but
his good intentions were pooh-poohed and sum-
marUy put on one side. A very advanced Land
Bill was introduced by the Parnellites. To con-
cUiate them Forster took certain of its clauses and
made them into a Government BiU designated
the " Compensation for Disturbance Bill." This
action was not liked by the Moderate Liberals,
and the Government had great difficulty, even
with the support of the Parnellites, in pushing
it through its various stages, Gladstone's main
argument was that 15,000 evictions were im
pending, many of which had already taken place,
that under those circumstances he could not be
responsible for the government of Ireland unless
something was done to stop these wholesale
evictions. He so reiterated the point that he
excited my suspicions. I made inquiries in
reliable quarters and found that he had con-

AND ITS REJECTION 179
fused applications for process of ejectment with
evictions. In many parts of Ireland a notice
of ejectment was the only effective means of
getting rents paid, and every Irishman knew
the difference between this preliminary process
and the final stage of eviction. I moved an
amendment in order to utilise the information I
had obtained, and I was able to show that in
the two counties with which I was most familiar
— ^Tyrone and Donegal — the notices of ejectment
were 40 and 156 respectively, but the evictions
were nil in the first county and only 18 in the
second. The Government were thunderstruck
and had nothing to say, and although they
managed to carry the Bill through the House of
Commons after this debate, it was a foregone
conclusion that the House of Lords would not
accept it.
Mr. Fowler (afterwards Lord Wolverhampton)
made his Parliamentary debut in this debate.
He boldly took the bull by the horns, ridiculed
all statistics, and said that if the Bill would only
remedy a single instance of injustice he would
vote for it. He subsequently developed into a
first-class Parliamentary speaker, solid and close
in his reasoning, and adorning his arguments
with just enough of sentiment and humour to
vary a fine but somewhat monotonous delivery.
He would have made a much bigger name for
himself if he could have mustered up courage to
come over and sit on our side, as for many years
of his life his views were much more in conson
ance with those whom he ostensibly opposed than
with those with whom he was supposed to ajct.

i8o LONDON WATER PURCHASE SCHEME
For some time previous to the overthrow of
the late Government, a strong movement de
veloped itself in London in favour of the acquisi
tion by a public authority of the water supply
of the Metropolis from private companies. The
great success which had attended similar move
ments in the provinces, notably in Birmingham,
made many Local Government reformers keen
on pressing this change. Sir Richard Cross, then
Secretary of State for the Home Department,
employed a very capable actuary and surveyor,
Mr. Smith by name, to negotiate with the Water
Companies as to the terms upon which they
would part with their enterprises. Smith con
ducted his negotiations with great abihty, and at
the commencement of 1880 he presented a scheme
to the Home Secretary by which he had obtained,
on certain conditions, the assent of the whole of
the Companies to the acquisition of their enter
prises by a public authority. Sir Richard Cross
was so pleased with the proposals made, which
were very advantageous, in his judgment, to the
pubhc and would result in a large saving to the
ratepayers, that he insisted on embod5iing these
propositions in a Bill which he presented to
Parhament very shortly before the general
election. The scheme was good, but the terms offered
to the Water Companies were hberal, and they
were liberal because it was found that great
economies would ensue from a unified system of
administration, and that the Companies were on
the eve of a great acquisition of income, having
laid water-mains through the greater part of the

AND ITS REJECTION 181
unoccupied parts of the Metropolitan Water
Board districts which were rapidly becoming
inhabited. Unfortunately, some Jew Radical
speculators on the Stock Exchange proceeded to
push the Water shares up to a very high figure.
This aroused popular suspicion. Any cry at that
time was good enough for the Radical Party,
provided it could damage Lord Beaconsfield and
his Government, and so the cry went out right
throughout London that the BiU was a gross job,
tending to benefit the Companies at the expense
of the ratepayers in London ; and the false state
ments and accusations so freely circulated on this
subject largely contributed to the wholesale
defeat of the Government candidates in the
Metropolis. Sir WiUiam Harcourt succeeded Sir Richard
Cross at the Home Office, and one of his first
performances was to appoint a Select Committee
to examine into the agreement made by his pre
decessor with the Water Companies. Sir Richard
Cross, Mr. Sclater Booth (afterwards Lord Basing),
and myself were appointed to represent the late
Government. I never was on a more unfair
Committee, or one the procedure of which was
so contrary to every principle of justice and fair
play. Harcourt, instead of acting in a judicial
capacity, led the opposition to the agreement
by a merciless cross-examination of Smith, and
brought all his great legal attainments to bear
in breaking down the statements made by that
gentleman. The Metropolitan Water Board and
the City of London were both hostile to the Bill,
so the able counsel that were employed by these
13

i82 RESULT OF REJECTION OF SCHEME
two bodies harried on both flanks the unfortunate
Smith. Sir Richard Cross was somewhat dazed
by the late defeat of the Government, and we
could not get him in any way to exercise his
faculties or to stand up against the onslaught
made upon his agreement. The Committee were
obviously appointed to kill the agreement, which
they did. Harcourt, with great skill, fastened
upon the one weak point in the general agreement
made with the Water Companies. It was very
essential to bring in all the Companies, and the
weakest Company, namely, the Chelsea Water
Company, held out and only could be induced to
come in by an offer of exceptionally good terms.
Upon these good terms Harcourt and the counsel
concentrated their attention, and practically they
never went outside this one particular part of
the agreement. The Committee reported against
the whole agreement.
When the report was under consideration I
was obliged to be away, but neither Sclater Booth
nor I could induce Cross to draw up a separate
report or to move the amendments which would
have vindicated our position. The agreement was
therefore repudiated.
Some twenty years later public pressure was
such that the Government was forced to bring in
a similar Bill. The difference between the price
which they then paid and the compensation to
which, under Smith's scheme, the Water Com
panies would have been entitled, showed the
cheapness and excellence of the proposed arrange
ment in 1880.
Few things in my pubhc life disgusted me

WILLIAM HARCOURT 183
more than the conduct of this Committee. I
have benefited more than most people by the
party system, yet at times its methods and results
are abominable, and this was an instance where
an excellent arrangement (as any fair-minded
man who looked at it as a whole would admit)
was deliberately pushed on one side in order that
a small party victory might be recorded ; and this
ephemeral party victory imposed upon the rate
payers of London a permanent fine of many
millions sterling.
The sequel of the proceedings of the Com
mittee was sad. Smith, who was in bad health
at the time of his examination, suddenly died.
Harcourt, who was a very kind man at heart,
was frightfully perturbed at the result of his
unfair treatment of Smith. He came over to
us in the Opposition in the House of Commons
almost with tears in his eyes, and stated he only
wished he had known that Smith was in bad
health when he was under cross-examination.
Harcourt, like so many prominent party
politicians, was a very two-sided character. In
public, when speaking, especially if interrupted or
annoyed, his manner was most aggressive. His
commanding physique emphasised his overbearing
demeanour. But in private life he was a kindly
personage, the refuge of his relations and friends
in trouble, and in society most amusing, and very
quick in repartee. Once, however, I recollect his
being utterly floored and left without reply. We
had a cheery dinner-party at the time he had
changed his views on Home Rule, and he was
also at this time becoming physically very heavy

i84 FAILURE OF SESSION
and large. Chaffing Charlie Beresford, who was
opposite him, he said : " Come, Charlie, you
don't look much like a statesman." "Come, old
man, anyhow I look more of a statesman than
you do a weathercock."
Harcourt was a great Parliamentarian and
loved the House of Commons, and to his credit
it must be said that both in and out of office he
always threw his influence against a misuse of
the rules and procedure of the House, even when
a misuse might have tended to the advantage of
his party.
Though the Government sat late into Septem
ber, the session, from a political point of view, was
a failure. A Hare and Rabbit BUI was carried,
and in the Budget the Malt Tax was abolished.
Gladstone, who had combined the two offices of
the First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of
the Exchequer, showed in the management of
that Bill his rare mastery of detail and finance
generally ; but measures of this kind did not
interest the constituency or satisfy the expecta
tions which had been aroused. The repeal of the
Malt Tax resulted in adulterated beer, as the
brewer in the place of malt was allowed to
substitute any sweet composition.
Outside Parliament affairs were not going well.
In Ireland, South Africa, on the north-west
frontier of India, and in attempts to give effect to
the provision of the Treaty of Berlin, all was amiss.
The strong man was gone, and the " sophistical
rhetorician " reigned in his place. An attempt
was made to transfer the blame for the faUure of
the session upon the garrulity and obstructive

MUNDELLA AT EDUCATION OFFICE 185
tactics of the Fourth Party. A full-dress debate
of indictment against this party was arranged ;
but Midlothian utterances intervened, and the
Fourth Party came out scathless.
During his electioneering campaign Gladstone
had written in the Nineteenth Century an article
justifying, if not eulogising, obstruction under
certain conditions. I carefully put this article on
one side, and before the debate gave it to Ran
dolph Churchill. He made such excellent use of
it as to confound his assaUants.
Towards the end of the session Gladstone
became ill, and almost simultaneously with his
illness Parnell threatened to stop all Government
estimates unless concessions of a far-reaching char
acter were made to Ireland, The session closed
in gloom for the Ministers and their following.
Mr. MundeUa had succeeded me at the Educa
tion Office. He was an ardent educationalist, but
of the type who looked more to the volume of the
expenditure incurred in education than to the
ultimate results achieved by it. I had two
schemes in embryo which I left behind me at the
Education Office. The first was the application
of compulsory attendance at school to all parts of
the country. To this he gave effect. The second
was an attempt further to grade primary educa
tion so as to ensure for the ordinary chUd a grip of
a few subjects, and for the cleverer chUdren schools
where the class and extra specific subjects now
perfunctorUy taught should be thoroughly taught,
I attached great importance to this scheme, though
I admit it required patience and firmness for its
realisation. Every sound educationalist knows

i86 DISORDER IN IRELAND
that the curriculum of the subjects taught to
chUdren should be regulated by the age at which
their education ceases. Of all forms of education
the worst for the chUdren of the industiial class
is an ambitious programme truncated by the
necessity of the chUdren going to work before they
have mastered the extra subjects taught. I got
the assent of the Government to the higher-grade
schools, and I was preparing for the lower-grade
schools a simpler and more compact cmriculum.
MundeUa took my higher-grade schools, and in
stead of simplifying the curriculum in the lower-
grade schools he added an extra standard to
those already in existence and additional specific
subjects. In my judgment, this was a fatal
blunder, and one which in no smaU degree has
contributed to the poor returns achieved by the
mongrel but expensive scheme of primary and
secondary education into which after this change
we subsequently drifted.
During the autumn and winter months the
agitation carried on by the Land League, and
supported by murder and outrage in many
counties, reduced the authoritative executive in
Ireland to zero. They had deliberately deprived
themselves of every particle of special authority
and legislation, preferring to trust to the good
wUl of the Irish people. ParneU promptly stepped
into their shoes, and in a number of speeches laid
down a plan of campaign which, supported by out
rage and boycotting, made him master of a large
part of Ireland.
The word " boycott," now in universal applica
tion, came into use under the following circum-

CAPTAIN BOYCOTT 187
stances. Captain Boycott, a large resident farmer
in Mayo, was agent to Lord Erne for his estate
in that county. He had a difference with the
tenants upon that estate, and they by pressure
and intimidation frightened away aU his labourers
and servants. He was whoUy isolated and un
able either to get in the harvest or to continue the
cultivation of his farm. A number of Protestant
labourers volunteered in the north of Ireland to
go to his help, and it was further proposed to
organise an armed force to travel with them
for their protection. The Government, however,
intervened and undertook this duty. So out of
hand had the agrarian population become in the
disaffected neighbourhood that the force protect
ing fifty labourers amounted to from 5000 to 7000.
Captain Boycott was relieved, his crops harvested,
and the northern labourers returned successfully
and without a scratch to their homes. " Boy
cotting " from that day onwards became a house
hold word.
The Government's last effort to rehabUitate
themselves under the ordinary law took the form
of a criminal indictment of Parnell and other
leaders of the Land League before a special jury
in Dublin. This essay, as everyone told them in
advance, ended in a fiasco.
The restoration of authority in Ireland now
became the burning question of the moment, and
it was under these disquieting conditions that
Gladstone, only eight months after his complete
electoral triumph, had to meet his supporters in
Parliament in January 1887.

CHAPTER XVII
Effect on Commons of Nationalist Party — Introduction of
Coercion BUls — Determined obstruction — Suspension of the
whole Irish Party — Closure regulation carried — Outbreak in
Transvaal — Defeat and death of CoUey — Dispatch and recall
of Roberts — ^Debate on evacuation of Kandahar — Last
speech of Beaconsfield — His death — Joint leadership of
Salisbury and Northcote — ChurchiU — Tory democracy —
Introduction and passage of Irish Land BiU — ^Arrest of
ParneU.
The session of 1881 raised momentous and far-
reaching issues, and the outcome of the legislation
and the changes effected in Parliamentary pro
cedure revolutionised both Ireland and the House
of Commons. Eminent Irish Home Rulers — men
of the stamp of Grattan, O' Council, and Parnell —
have been credited with the prediction that the
compulsory retention of Irishmen in the British
House of Commons would " play the devU " with
that institution. I use this slang phrase, as it best
expresses the process of debasement which must
occur where the main object of a large number
of the Members is to humiliate and degrade the
status and spirit of the institution to which they
belong. In a Parliament where such factiousness
prevails, its sinister effect can only be counteracted
by giving to the majority an inflexible and indis
putable procedure ; but these epithets are the
reverse of the easy-going, slopperty rules of
debate and interrogation in the House of Commons.

NATIONALIST PARTY IN COMMONS 189
In the opinion of many Members, their latitude
and tolerance are considered to tend to the
exaltation and glory of the House of Commons,
the theory being that all Members of Parliament
are gentlemen, and that if they do not behave as
such in Parliament they will lose their influence.
To put it plainly, the Irish Members of Parliament,
under Parnell's guidance, were specially selected
in order that they might upset this tradition,
and they all did so, some with regret, some with
delight. Gladstone faced the serious position so largely
created by his own thoughtiess words and acts
with commendable courage, dignity, and resource.
All the finer qualities of his complex personality
asserted themselves in the terrific Parliamentary
contest of the ensuing ten months, and at the end
of the session he emerged a temporary victor over
a rare combination of disorderly and dangerous
influences. His patience, endurance, and the
quickness and audacity with which he seized upon
every mistake made by his adversaries were a real
lesson in Parliamentary tactics, and the constant
exhibition of these great powers made one deplore
that prescience and sound judgment were not, to
an equal extent, a permanent part of his political
outfit. The Queen's Speech predicted a demand for
large coercive powers, and it was therefore debated
at interminable length. A rising in the Transvaal
added to the difficulties of the Government, and
the refusal of Turkey to give effect to the con
ditions accorded to Greece under the Treaty of
Berlin brought another unpleasant factor per-

190 INTRODUCTION OF COERCION BILL
manently into the political foreground. Force
and coercion were the sole and only remedies in
all the spheres of action affecting the House of
Commons, Ireland, the Transvaal, and Turkey.
An Irish Coercion Bill was introduced. Under
its operations the Habeas Corpus Act was to be
suspended, and there was also the introduction
of a number of changes and interference with the
ordinary law. Bitter and persistent obstruction
ensued. The first reading was obstructed night
after night, and finally on Monday, the 31st
January, a sitting continued without intermis
sion until nine o'clock on Wednesday morning —
a period of forty-one hours.
My experience of that debate was curious.
I sat up till four o'clock on Tuesday morning ; I
went home and had three hours' sleep ; I then went
into the country, where I had a first-rate day's
shooting with one of my brothers-in-law. I came
home, dined early, went back to the House of
Commons at nine o'clock, and remained there till
nine o'clock next morning. At nine o'clock the
Speaker interfered and, in spite of the Irish
Members of Parliament shouting " Privilege,
privilege," insisted upon putting the question,
which was carried by an overwhelming majority.
He acted quite outside his written authority, but
he only did so on the understanding that his
action should at once be legalised by the intro
duction and carrying through the House of a
resolution making his action legitimate and
creating a precedent for the future.
The House adjourned at 9.30 and met again
at twelve o'clock, it being a Wednesday and a

DETERMINED OBSTRUCTION 191
Private Members' day, Parnell was not in the
House when the debate was closed, but he was back
at twelve o'clock, and he tried by question and
suggestion to corner the Speaker for his inter
ference, which he characterised as "uncon
stitutional." The latter, with great skill and
dignity, pushed on one side all innuendoes and
queues, and Gladstone having given notice of
the closure resolution which he proposed to move
next day, the House lapsed into the transaction
of some humdrum business.
Next day the House reassembled in a state
of expectation and excitement. The resolution
proposed abolished the full liberty of debate
hitherto enjoyed by the House of Commons, and
from that point of view it was repugnant to old-
fashioned Members. On the other hand, without
some such restraint and contraction of debate, it
was clear that the House of Commons, as a legis
lative and administrative body, would practically
cease to exist. If the new rule was carried, it
would behead the elaborate system of perpetual
obstruction by which Parnell and his following
had obtained power to thwart the wishes of the
House and to bully the executive into concession
and submission. The issues at stake being so
vast, all anticipated that the fight would be
protracted and ferocious. By an unforeseen
coincidence which caused the Irish Party first
to lose its temper and then its gumption, the
resolution, with slight amendments, was carried
nemine contradicente in one sitting and came into
operation the following day. The incidents were
at once both dramatic and grotesque.

192 SUSPENSION OF WHOLE IRISH PARTY
The House was in a state of suppressed
excitement ; nerves were highly strung — so much
so that a resolute and combative look was almost
visible in the physiognomies of aU the leading
actors. At the close of question time, just as
Gladstone was about to get up to move his resolu
tion, DiUon interpolated a question about Michael
Davitt. Next to PameU, Davitt was perhaps the
most popular and powerful personahty in the
extreme Irish Party. He had been convicted some
time back as guilty of treason felony, and he was
out on ticket of leave. DUlon asked if the rumour
was true that Davitt had been rearrested. Har
court, then Home Secretary, in his most defiant
and disdainful manner, replied that the ticket-of-
leave man, Michael Davitt, had been rearrested.
DiUon, white with passion, bounded up with
another question which Harcourt whoUy ignored.
Gladstone was then caUed up by the Speaker,
but DiUon was so beside himself with fury that
he would not let Gladstone speak, and having
become involved in a disorderly wrangle with the
Speaker he was suspended for that sitting.
The epidemic of rage now seized PameU, who
also lost his head for the first — and I believe the
last — ^time in his Parliamentary career, and under
its influence insisted upon moving that Gladstone
be not heard. The Speaker firmly but courteously
declined to accept the motion. PameU thereupon
deliberately ignored and defied the Speaker's
injunctions, and he too was suspended. AU the
Irish Party who were present, seeing their leader
suspended by an authority of an alien and hateful
Parliament, rushed in to participate in a similar

CLOSURE REGULATION CARRIED 193
martyrdom. Under one pretext or another, all
broke the rules of the House and were similarly
punished ; but the folly did not end with them.
Outside the House of Commons the news spread
of what was going on inside, and every ParneUite
Member of Parliament in London who was not
present at the opening of the sitting rushed into
the House, eager to claim, and successful in
obtaining, a like expulsion. After two or three
hours of this somewhat comical performance,
there was not a ParneUite left to take any part
in the discussion on the resolution, and it
slipped through without serious or lengthy dis
cussion. Of all the multifarious subjects which may
come before the House of Commons, there is none
which so lends itself to discursive discussion and
criticism as a resolution proposing a serious
alteration in the rules and orders of the House.
For weeks, if not months, the ParneUites might,
if they had not aU lost their reason, have debated
and obstructed this resolution, and the Speaker
would have been very chary of again exceeding
his written authority.
The most momentous change in Parliamentary
procedure of the last two hundred years was thus
effected easUy and quickly, through an unforeseen
incident so affecting the Irish Party as to cause
them to behave like the Gadarene swine.
It was currently rumoured next day that
Parnell apologised to some of his colleagues for
his lapse of control. If he had left half a dozen
of his supporters behind in the House, they could
have retarded the resolution for that night, and

194 COERCION BILLS PASSED
next day his whole foUowing would have been
avaUable for persistent obstruction.
I doubt if in the constitutional history of any
country a Government were ever so helped when
tightening up authority and discipline as Glad
stone and his colleagues were by this comical
loss of temper on the part of the ParneUite
Members. After this conflict, the course of the Coercion
BUI ran on much the same lines as all measures
of this character obtain for themselves : great
waste of time by tedious repetition, much violent
personal abuse of the officials in charge of the
Bill, any amofint of irrelevant matter introduced
at all times and on any pretext into the discussion,
followed by violent protests and then the Closure.
After a few days' experience of this class of
Parliamentary procedure, interest wanes and the
House empties itself except to divide. The Closure
at that time was moved by the Speaker and
required a majority of three to one.
Two Coercive Bills were introduced, one by
Forster, which tightened up the law and in certain
cases dispensed with the Habeas Corpus Act, and
another by Harcourt, which placed prohibitions
upon the import, sale, and possession of arms.
The difference in the method and manner of the
two Ministers in the management of their two
respective Bills was very noticeable, Forster,
by his sincere but unpolished speech, seemed
perpetually to irritate and aggravate the Irish
Members. Harcourt, on the other hand, by his
control and command of the more polished
language of the practised advocate, contrived.

OUTBREAK IN TRANSVAAL 195
with one or two notable exceptions, to handle his
opponents very successfully. At last the two
measures were placed upon the Statute Book, and
then, in accordance with the recognised Whig
and Radical practice, a dose of sugar in the shape
of a new Land Bill was brought in to sweeten
the piU.
Affairs in the Transvaal in the meantime had
advanced to such a point that an open rebellion,
supported by organised force, against the authority
of Great Britain had assumed formidable pro
portions. Sir George CoUey was then Governor
of Natal. He was a soldier of exceptional ability
and audacity. He had such confidence in the
superiority of a trained force over untrained men
that he attempted with wholly insufficient forces
to engage the Boer army. He was so sure of
success that he would not wait for reinforce
ments, and his rashness subjected him, not only
to two reverses, but culminated in the collapse
at Majuba Hill, where he lost his life. These
three reverses had an immense influence upon
the Boer mind, and the impression made upon
them was accentuated by the fact that, after
Lord Roberts had been sent out with a sufficient
force to have vindicated our authority and reputa
tion, the Government suddenly recalled him and
entered into negotiations with the Boer leaders.
It was about that time that Gladstone bor
rowed the words " blood-guUtiness " from the
Psalms and utilised them as a vindication for
the withdrawal from further conflict with the
Boers. I believe that the telegram by which
Roberts' previous orders were cancelled was one

196 RECALL OF ROBERTS
of the first messages sent over the cable which
had recentiy been laid down between England
and the Cape. It is never safe to attach too
much importance to the lobby gossip of the
House of Commons, but unquestionably the
general opinion on both sides of the House was
that it was largely due to Chamberlain that
Roberts was recaUed. He was not at that time
an ImperiaUst : on the contrary, at the general
election of 1880 he told Birmingham that the
Gas and Water Bills which he passed for that
city were of more importance to them than any
Imperial question. Later on, no man realised
more bitterly than he did the aU-important effect
of this terrible blunder of Lord Roberts' recall.
Chamberlain was for many years a coUeague,
and I had the most sincere admiration for his
indomitable and continuous courage, his high
aspirations, his extraordinary capacity for work,
and his absolute absorption in any duty or task
which he undertook. This latter quality carried
with it a receptivity which made him aU through
his pohtical hfe very sensitive and responsive to
the influence of the particular environment in
which for the time being he found himself. He
had been Mayor of Birmingham, in which post
he showed such remarkable initiative and pre
science as to raise throughout the whole country
the tone and standing of municipal duty. Early
in hfe he had expressed opinions favourable to
Republicanism, and it was therefore very repug
nant to him to authorise action by which the re
presentatives of an ex-Republic should be crushed
by the military forces of monarchical Great

EVACUATION OF KANDAHAR 197
Britain. In everything he undertook Chamber
lain was thorough, and therefore it can easUy
be understood that when he was appointed
Secretary of State for the Colonies he became
the most successful and pronounced ImperiaUst
of modem days.
There were animated debates in the early
part of this session over Kandahar as to whether
it should be retained as part of British India or
be returned to the Ameer of Afghanistan whom
we recentiy had put upon the throne at Cabul.
Towards the end of March this question was
raised in the House of Lords. We flocked to the
Upper House, in the anticipation that Beacons
field would speak. He made a very concUiatory
speech as regards Russia, pointing out that there
was room enough in Asia for both England and
Russia, and ending up by saying : " The keys
to India are not at Herat,^ but in London." I
Ustened with intense dehght to this speech. It
gave utterance to what I had felt for some time
past. Russia was, is, and ought to be our per
manent aUy, for whatever difficulties may arise
where our Empires meet or are Ukely to meet
they are nothing compared with the common
interests which both have in the world-wide pohcy
to be pursued in unison for the future.
Coming back to the House of Commons,
I overtook the bhnd M.P., Fawcett, who was
then Postmaster-General. We were privately
very good friends, though we often had crossed
swords over Indian subjects, and he at once said
to me : "I was very sorry to see how ill Lord
Beaconsfield is." (BUnd people often sub-
14

198 BEACONSFIELD'S DEATH
stitute " see " for " hear.") I said in reply :
" How do you know this ? " He replied : " Oh,
through his voice : it is the voice of a sick man,
and what a beautiful voice it is — the finest I ever
heard." " Do you mean to say that he has a finer
voice than Gladstone, Bright, or the Duke of
Argyll ? " "Oh yes, no comparison ; you can
hear every syllable. John Stuart Mill told me
that one of the charms of the House of Commons
was Disraeli's voice, and I agree with him." I
was surprised, for Disraeli's voice, though strong,
always seemed to me to be somewhat harsh and
metallic in its inflexions, and wanting the warmth
and variation of intonation of the others. But
a blind man on such a question must be a better
judge. In a few days Fawcett's prediction was verified.
Beaconsfield became seriously ill, and after a
comparatively short attack of bronchitis he died.
His death evoked wide and universal sym
pathy. Rarely, if ever, in political history had
the disregarded warnings of a great statesman
been so suddenly verified. The thinking portion
of the electorate — no matter to what party they
belonged — now knew that the last election had
unjustly condemned Lord Beaconsfield and un
wisely swept his Government from office.
A short time before his death I had occasion
to see him in company with Sir Wilham Hart
Dyke. He gave us a short but very succinct
account of the peril's ahead and how they could
have been dealt with, and then he bitterly criti
cised the vanity of the one man who, in his
judgment, was the primary cause of our encircling

SALISBURY AND NORTHCOTE 199
difficulties. As usual, his wonderful prescience
was not at faidt, and the sessions of 1881 to 1885
confirmed his pessimistic predictions.
To me his death was an irremediable loss. No
one could take his place so far as I was concerned,
and though in subsequent Governments I had
much to be thankfiU for from the consideration and
kindness shown me by my Chief, we were never
on quite the same plane of relationship as that
on which Lord Beaconsfield had placed himself
and me.
To fiU the leadership thus vacated a curious
arrangement was made, Sahsbury and North
cote were combined in joint authority, each
being leader in his respective House, It was a
clumsy but, on the whole, the best arrangement
under the existing circumstances,
Northcote was then beginning to experience
the effects of a heart disease which a few years
later so tragically laid him dead on the threshold
of Lord SaUsbury's official room. This physical
weakness showed itself intermittentiy, and on
more than one occasion I have seen him, when
on the Front Bench in the House of Commons or
in coimcU, graduaUy turning greyer and greyer
until one feared a total collapse. He would then
slowly resume a more normal colour and appar
entiy be quite himself again in a few minutes.
But these intermittent attacks seemed to rob him
of much of his vitaUty and to deprive him of the
power of taking a bold initiative either in debate
or in tactics. This gave Randolph ChurchiU his
opportunity, of which he made the fuUest use, for
the virulence of his attacks upon the Government

200 CHURCHILL
was fully equalled by the impertinence with which
he treated Northcote,
Churchill was a curious compound of humanity,
I did not then know him as well as I subsequently
did. He was an amalgam. On the one side he
was a genius, on the other a spoilt and naughty
child ; but in either capacity he always trampled
on the weak and irresolute. His relations with
our Front Bench were far from pleasant, and as
he rose in popularity so he became more dictatorial
and unreasonable. Those who, like myself, were
anxious to keep the party together and had a
sense of loyalty and regard for Northcote found
ourselves not unfrequently in very difficult
positions. Provided he could embarrass the
Government, the after-effect of his action was of
little concern to him, and the problem almost
daily occurred of trying to combine effective
party action in the House of Commons without
subsequently damaging outside the House of
Commons the reputation and standing of the
attacking party,
" Tory democracy " just then became a
popular cry with some of our stalwart go-aheads,
but what it meant was never clear ; but it did
annoy and alienate a large proportion of our
best and, in ordinary circumstances, most reliable
supporters. Still, it must be admitted that
Churchill's actions and speeches, impolitic and
risky as they often were, did much to rehabilitate
the Tory Party as a fighting organisation and a
living force, and the full effect of his work and
of those acting with him was clearly shown in
the general election of 1885, when on the new

INTRODUCTION OF IRISH LAND BILL 201
register the Tory Party came back in numbers
wholly beyond the calculation of our opponents.
This unexpected exhibition of political strength
had, as I shall subsequently prove, no small
influence upon Gladstone and a section of the
Radical Party, by inducing them to become
Home Rulers,
The Irish Land Bill introduced by the Govern
ment was founded on the three " F's," which,
being interpreted, meant Fair Rents, Fixity of
Tenure, Free Sale. These demands had for some
time past been put forwai^d by the most advanced
Irish Land Reformers, and in the Land Bill of
1870 Mr. Gladstone on more than one occasion
went out of his way to denounce these demands
and to maintain that the legislation he was then
proposing would be a permanent barrier to their
enforcement. The ordinary Minister with such a record
around his neck would have felt some com
punction and shame at being thus publicly forced
to admit that in his previous diagnosis of the
question upon which he was now proposing
extreme legislation he had been whoUy wrong.
Not so Gladstone. In his most commanding
and confident tones he insinuated that \\hat he
was now proposing was the natural consequence
of what he repudiated before. It is only just to
him to say that he did try in subsequent debates
to be fair between the contending interests of
landlord and tenant, so far as it was possible to
be so, and at the same time to adhere to the
main principles of his BUI. It may be worth a word
or two to explain the genesis of the three " F'§."

202 " TENANT RIGHT " IN IRELAND
In Ireland, particularly on tiUage farms, the
majority of which are smaU in acreage, the great
proportion, if not the whole, of the improvements
are effected by the tenants. No estate could
stand the annual charge of such outgoings, and
from a rental point of view it would be better to
consolidate the holdings and thus secure less out
goings and a larger net rental. In Ulster, land
lord and tenant are in many localities of Scottish
extraction, for both came over together to Ireland,
and by joint action subsequently secured the
cultivation of the soU. In order to give a tenant
vacating a farm remuneration for his improve
ments, he was in Ulster allowed by his landlord
to seU the right of occupation upon his vacated
farm. The value of this right of occupation was
largely regulated by the amount of the rent and
the length of conditions of tenure. The demand
for free sale naturaUy associated itself with fair
rents and fixity of tenure, and a fair rent meant
fixing the rent by an outside authority and not by
bargaining between the landlord and tenant.
" Tenant right," as free sale in the north of
Ireland is called, attained in many places to very
large dimensions. I know estates where a sitting
tenant obtained for his tenant right from the
incoming tenant a sum equivalent to forty or
even fifty years' rent of the farm. These were
fancy prices, but they sent up the value of tenant
right everywhere.
The Government Bill, as originally prepared,
took the commercial value of the farm, that is,
its total letting value including improvements,
3,nd then deducted tenant right from itj, leaving

MEANING OF " TENANT RIGHT " 203
the balance to the landlord. In many cases this
would have been a minus quantity for the owner
of the land, especially in those estates where, in
consequence of rents being low and the con
ditions of tenure easy, tenant right was excep
tionally high.
I turned over in my mind what phrase or
words I could use to bring home to Gladstone,
who was in charge of the Bill, the palpable in
justice of such a legislative enactment, and it
occurred to me that the expression, " In Ireland
two halves do not equal but exceed the whole,"
would figuratively bring out in an unmistakable
manner the impracticability of the scheme.
Gladstone was greatly taken by my expression
that the two halves of the landlord's and tenant's
interests in a holding exceeded its whole value.
He thanked me for it, he withdrew that part of
the Bill to which I had objected, and he so subse
quently altered it as to meet this part of my
objection. The weak executive part of this legislation
was the stamp of man who, as Sub-Commissioner,
was appointed to fix, or rather to cut down, rents.
Few, if any, of them had any judicial training
or legal knowledge. The whole atmosphere and
environment of their courts were impregnated
with a partiality for the tenant. The Sub-Com
missioner was only appointed for a limited period ;
the more work he could create the greater the
likelihood of continuous employment, and the
more he reduced rents the more tenants would
apply to his court. Gladstone was not altogether
to blame for the status and qualifications of these

204 SUB-COMMISSIONERS
officials. Originally, he gave this work to the
County Court Judges, who, whatever may be their
failings, at least sit judicially and have some
knowledge of law. A prominent Irish landlord
in the House of Lords, whose County Court Judge
had a vendetta against him, persuaded that
assembly to substitute for the County Court
Judge Special Sub-Commissioners. From the
landlord point of view, this change was a fatal
mistake. Irishmen have many great and charm
ing attributes, but a judicial temperament is the
last thing they provide. Even with legal training,
they occasionally become partisans ; without it
they are as helpless as a mariner upon the wide
ocean without compasses or charts. The moment
the Legislature grasped the idea of divided owner
ship in land and endeavoured to give effect to
it by the so-called "judicial rents," such rents
ought to have been the stepping-stone leading
to schemes of wholesale purchase under which
a wholesome sense of undivided ownership could
once more be re-established. Wherever the con
trary idea prevails, divided or dual ownership
will result in the " two halves exceeding the
whole," and woe to the owner of the unpopular
half. This Bill, when it got to the Lords, was the
subject of much animadversion, and a large party
was there in favour of throwing it out. My
father, who had twice been Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland and was, in addition, a large Irish land
owner, exercised a somewhat exceptional influence
in Irish matters. He was strongly in favour of
passing the Bill with certain amendments. He

ARREST OF PARNELL 205
was a just and tolerant man, and, recognising the
exertions the Government were now making to
re-establish law and order and the authority of
the executive in Ireland, he did not like to
aggravate their task by throwing out a Bill
which, even if it did mulct the landlords, would
facilitate the restoration of order.
Gladstone showed exceptional skill in handling
the Lords' amendments, always keeping the Bill
alive even when refusing their amendments, and
he succeeded ultimately in placing the Bill on the
Statute Book without very material alterations
to the shape in which he had originally introduced
it. It was his own begotten legislative child, he
was very proud of it, and punishment awaited —
as Irish Members subsequently found out — anyone
who ventured to lay sacrilegious hands upon its
free working.
After the conclusion of the session, Parnell
continued his agitation in Ireland, and he and
other prominent members of the Land League
denounced the recent land legislation and tried to
aggravate the situation by preventing tenants from
having recourse to the provisions of the new
Land Act. This was too much for Gladstone.
He consented to the arrest of Parnell, defending
that action in a superb oratorical speech at Leeds,
in which he denounced him as " marching through
rapine to the dismemberment of the Empire."
The Land League was dissolved, and some
hundreds of its most prominent members were
imprisoned, including Parnell, Dillon, and O' Kelly.
Yet outrage did not cease, and though at the
close of the year the executive authority of th§

2o6 DISORDER IN IRELAND
Irish Government was re-established over the
greater part of Ireland, its inability in large
districts to protect private individuals and
property from murder and outrage was painfully
apparent.

CHAPTER XVIII
Session of 1882 — Crime rampant In Ireland — The Bradlaugh case
— Rules of procedure in Commons — Their futUity — ^Difficulty
of reform — Changes made — Intrigue against Forster — ^His
resignation — KUmainham Treaty between Government and
ParneU^ His release — Debate in Commons — Murder of
Cavendish and Burke — Frederick Lambton — ParneU's general
attitude — Dynamite outrages.
The session of 1882 opened under conditions of
faUure and depression for the Government.
Though nearly a thousand persons were im
prisoned in Ireland under the suspension of the
Habeas Corpus Act, murder and outrage had not
been restrained, and the existing coercive powers
terminated on 30th September.
In Egypt affairs were rapidly drifting to a
position where Great Britain must either assert
her responsibility by the exercise of force, or by
retirement subject all European residents in that
country to outrage and possibly massacre.
The rules of the House of Commons, though
stiengthened, had failed to prevent the outrageous
and continuous misuse of the so-called right of
free speech by ParneUite Members. At the last
election the most popular and highly applauded
dictum directed against Lord Beaconsfield's
Government was : " Force is no remedy." Unless
anarchy were to prevail, both at home and abroad,
a full and unprecedented exercise of this " hate
ful expedient " was urgently necessary. Yet the

2o8 THE BRADLAUGH CASE
mUlennium predicted in the Midlothian campaign
by the overthrow of Beaconsfield had only been
twenty months in existence. But right athwart
and in the middle of aU these troubles was a curious
Parhamentary difficulty that for some years aUke
embarrassed the House of Commons and made the
Government look ridiculous.
It arose out of a very smaU and simple question
— ^was Bradlaugh, the weU-known atheist, to be
aUowed to quahf y himself for ParUamentary duties
by taking the prescribed oath of aUegiance ?
For years this question dragged on under various
phases and changes, constantiy upsetting the
Government programme of work, cropping up
where it was least expected, and vdtimately so
operating as to subject the Government to defeat
and ignominy. The twists, turns, and ramifications
which enveloped this contioversy have now Uttie
interest for the pubhc. The two contributing
causes to the prolongation and acerbation of the
dispute were Bradlaugh's clumsy mismanagement
of his own case, and the skiU, abihty, and assurance
with which ChurchiU pounced upon every mistake
made by Bradlaugh and the Government. Brad
laugh, after having pubhcly asserted that the oath
was an absurd and meaningless formula, tried to
take it. If he had held his tongue, no one would
have objected to his thus quahf ying himself.
The Government later on brought in an Affirma
tion BUI to get him and them out of the difficulty,
but they were beaten by a smaU majority of three
on the second reading. Churchill's speech on
the occasion was admitted, even by his critics, to
be one of extraordinary brilhancy, research, and

RULES OF PROCEDURE IN COMMONS 209
accuracy. He after this performance established
a reputation of powers of speech and controversy
second only to Gladstone himself, and upon the
reputation he had thus made he became even
more contemptuous than before in his treatment
of his own Front Bench.
Bradlaugh, so soon as he became a full
blown Member of Parliament, also developed a
remarkable power of speech. On all subjects
disconnected with religion, he showed himself a
fair and able debater, and his premature demise
was a public misfortune, for no man took a sounder
or broader view than he did of the evils of the
modern industrial theories by which restrictions
were placed upon output and individual effort,
and no one could on such topics speak with greater
authority or knowledge.
The Government put in the forefront of their
programme the revision of the existing rules of
the House of Commons. These rules tightened
up the powers of terminating debate, but the
faUure hitherto of the Government to assert its
authority as an executive body, and distrust of
Gladstone's tdterior motives and policy, made
many reluctant to give to so unstable and unreli
able a Premier increased powers of silencing his
opponents in Parliament. Ultimately, the rules
were carried, but at the adjournment for Easter
only one clause of the first proposal had been
carried. When the rules were passed in the
autumn session, the Speaker was wholly dissoci
ated from initiating the Closure. That power was
given, as it should be, to the Government,
I have spent so many years of my life in the

210 FUTILITY OF RULES IN COMMONS
House of Commons that I may be pardoned if for
a short time I dissert upon what is the funda
mental difficulty of so revising the rules and pro
cedure of that assembly as to bring them in
accordance with common sense and the practice
of other legislative bodies.
The House of Commons is numericaUy far too
large for the purposes of debate or legislation.
The chamber of the House itself, including the
accommodation of the gaUeries, from which
Members cannot speak, wUl barely contain half
its number. The hours are far longer than those
prevaUing in any other assembly, yet the amount
of legislative business transacted in those longer
hours is comparatively smaU. Any Member can
put any number of questions to Ministers, no
matter how meticulous or unwise they may be.
Every opportunity is given to multiply the
powers of speech of individual Members, and to
such an extent has this multiplication of facUities
grown that on money BUls, independent of the
unUmited power of speaking in Committees, every
Member has the power of making, if he chooses,
on seven different occasions, the same speech over
and over again. On ordinary BUls a lesser but
simUar verbosity can be exercised. The brazen
faced advertiser, of whom there is always a number
in each Parliament, soon finds out that the House
of Commons is the best advertising-board in the
world. Men " on the make " remorselessly make
use of the opportunities thus afforded them. A very
large proportion of the questions put and motions
made are of no pubhc use whatever. They are
mere personal advertisements, I can truly say

DIFFICULTY OF REFORM 211
that for the last ten years of my Parliamentary
life a vast proportion of the hours which I spent
inside the Chamber was sheer waste of time.
There are many good speakers left, but on an
ordinary debate or on the Estimates you wUl hear
an immense deal of trash. All the abler and more
sensible Members of Parliament are fully aware of
this. Why, then, it may be asked, do they not
combine in so improving the procedure as to make
the House of Commons respected out of doors and
an institution entrance into which should be the
primary ambition of able and patriotic men ?
The almost unlimited power of talking which
the present procedure encourages must be associ
ated with another evil — ^the lack of a written
constitution, A favourite conclusion of a political
peroration is an aUusion to our " glorious con
stitution " ; but we have no constitution. There
was a vague misty idea that our constitution was
based upon a judicious blending of the authority
of King, Lords, and Commons. The power of the
Monarchy is now by usage so restricted that
although the humblest of his Ministers may
publicly talk by the yard about anything, he, the
King, must not say or do anything that has not
previously had the imprimatur of the Cabinet
upon it. The Parliament Act has practically
pushed the Lords, so far as legislation is con
cerned, into a position of permanent inferiority.
The Commons alone remain ; but even there in
dependence of thought and action is on the wane,
and with the caucus and the present system of
party discipline a temporary majority is often
absolute. They can, on their own authority and

212 DIFFICULTY OF REFORM
without appeal to the countiy, abolish every
thing and set up nothing or anything they choose
in its place. In all written constitutions there
are certain organic laws or institutions which
cannot be abolished by a bare majority, and
in many constitutions popular confirmation of
any important change is further required. It is
the knowledge of the absolute powerlessness of
a minority, and especiaUy of a Conservative
minority, in the House of Commons which makes
so many Members of Parhament loth to part with
existing rules of procedure. They admit that they
are abused, that they encourage self-advertise
ment, and at times make life in the Lower
Chamber almost unendurable ; but they think
and say : " We may each of us some day be
compelled to have recourse to these methods of
obstruction when some vital principle in which
we beheve is to be destroyed, or some necessary
protection is to be taken from us without adequate
discussion or an appeal to the electorate." There
is practical common sense based on past experience
in this attitude of opposition to drastic changes
of procedure in the House of Commons. The
popularity and hustling force of a democratic
Government rapidly wane. Over and over again
in my own experience BUls proposing great
changes have been introduced, talk has post
poned them from session to session, each session
has weakened the motive power behind them,
and they have ultimately died of inanition.
To give us a written constitution would be
a stupendous constructive performance. It can
only be effected by a pohtical genius utUising

CHANGES MADE 213
a political upheaval : both must synchronise.
I therefore fear that the House of Commons may
for long be debased and made to look ridiculous
by its unworkable procedure. In my judgment,
the reform of the rules and procedure of the
House of Commons is by far the most pressing
and urgent political question of the day. Men
of ability, understanding, and character will not
become candidates for a legislature where they
know that, under existing conditions, they will
have little to do but to loaf and vote. A well-
known Member of Parliament who has made
himself an authority upon personal questions of
this kind told me the result of his experience upon
this point. He said that he had not met a single
Member of Parliament who, having achieved
success outside politics, and being in consequence
induced to enter the House of Commons, did not
soon regret the political venture he had made.
When asked for the reason, he replied : " The
procedure and intolerable waste of time under it."
Under the present rules the aggregate ability
and capacity of the House of Commons must
continuously deteriorate, and it is a sad reflection
to know that the destiny of the British Empire is
in the hands of an authority which, so long as it
declines to alter its methods, will continue to be
on the downward grade.
The outcome of the long debates upon the
reformed procedure was the establishment of
Grand Committees to which Bills of importance
after a second reading could be sent, and a power
to conclude a debate by a motion made by a
Minister, supported subsequently by a majority
15

214 INTRIGUE AGAINST FORSTER
of three to one. The Speaker and the Chairman
also had power to suspend Members guilty of
continuous and violent obstruction. Dr. Play-
fair, the Chairman of Ways and Means, upon one
occasion after an all-night sitting, on resuming
the chair in the morning, was in such a hurry to
suspend Members that he read out a long list of
names in alphabetical order whom he accused
of obstruction during his absence ; but, unfortu
nately, one or two so named had not been in the
House during the whole night.
It became evident a few days after debates
began on the state of Ireland that Forster was not
supported by all his colleagues. He struggled
manfully against these intrigues, but the Pall
Mall newspaper (then under the trenchant editor
ship of John Morley) took every opportunity of
questioning the wisdom of his course of action.
These criticisms were approved by some of
Forster's colleagues, and it was open gossip in the
lobby that there was a cabal on the Ministerial
side against him. Up to Easter there was no
overt action taken by these dissentients, but soon
afterwards the political public were amazed to
hear of the resignation oi Lord Cowper, and
Forster, the Lord-Lieutenant and Secretary of
Ireland, and of their replacement by Lord Spencer
and Lord Frederick Cavendish.
A short time previously, Parnell had been let
out of prison for a few days on a kind of parole,
and he utilised his freedom to enter into a bargain
with the Government which has always since been
known as the " KUmainham Treaty."
The recent pubhqation of the book, Charles

KILMAINHAM TREATY 215
Stewart Parnell, by Mrs. O'Shea, throws a strong —
and I believe a correct— light upon the trans
actions which led to this extraordinary bargain ;
for although the lady's unsupported statements
have to be aecejUed with reserve, the letters to
and fro between Parnell and her are unquestioned.
These letters themselves confirm much of the talk
then i>re valent in the lobby. One of these letters
shows his real opinion upon the Land League
move ment, which he had originated, and suggests
the reasons why he agreed, wlu>n he came out
of prison, to the historical KUmainham Treaty.
He speaks with utter contempt of the movement
of which he was the head :
" I cannot describe to you the disgust I always
felt for these i^latforn\ meetings. I knew how
hollow e\-erything connected with the nunement
was. When I was anesti^l I did not think that
the movement could ha\'e survived a month, but
this wretched Government has managed to keep
things going in several of the counties up till
now. Next month, when the seeding season
comes, will probably see the end of all things
and our speeily release."
Throughout all his correspondence Parnell
remained certain that he wouUl soon be released.
Was the release to be conditional or uncon
ditional ? If unconditional, he undoubtedly
wcniKl gain in popularity with the extremists of
his party, but he was not in s\Mnpathy with them
and was afraiil of them. Those who ha\e closely
studied his career will accept as correct this state
ment :
" In his seeking for a weapon to use for the

2i6 KILMAINHAM TREATY
betterment of England's government of Ireland,
Parnell had discovered the undying force of hate,
and, using the influence of his personality, he
strove to direct it into the service of the Ireland
he loved. But he afterwards stood appalled at
the intensity of the passion he had loosed."
If, on the other hand, he accepted condi
tions from the Government, he might utilise the
conditions thus obtained in strengthening the
moderate section of his party, and thus impose
some check upon the extremists and their work of
outrage. Mrs. O'Shea threw the whole weight of her
influence upon the side of moderation, and she
won, but Parnell thus summarised his future
position towards the extremists :
" Yes, I hold them now with my back to the
wall, but if I turn to the Government I turn my
back on them, and then  ? "
It was noticed by habitu6s of the House of
Commons that after 1882 not only was Parnell
armed, but he at times wore a coat of mail.
The Treaty of KUmainham was bitterly
criticised at the time it became public property,
and the retirement of Lord Cowper and Forster
from the Government of Ireland accentuated
the censure. It was further negotiated under
such conditions that the Government were in
the awkward position of being unable to give a
true and full account of its genesis. Captain
O'Shea always claimed to be its author, and for
the rest of his life put forward on that ground
exorbitant claims for office and party recognition.

DEBATE IN COMMONS 217
When the correspondence between O'Shea
and ParneU was read out by the former in a
debate, he omitted a phrase at the end of a letter
in which Parnell undertook to support the Govern
ment if his conditions were complied with.
Forster, who had a full copy of his letter in
his hand, jumped up and pointed out that this
vital sentence had been omitted. A scene of
great excitement and confusion followed, which
deepened the general impression that the bargain
arrived at was a shady and disreputable political
transaction. There was another passage in the
letter in which ParneU stated that, if let out, he
would utUise a certain unnamed individual to
stop outrages in the west of Ireland. This was
at once fastened upon by Forster as indicating
the establishment of relations between the Govern
ment and those promoting crime and outrage, and
the utUisation of the latter for the purpose of
promoting law and order. An intensity of passion
and a dramatic interest was given to these debates
by the assassination of Lord Frederick Cavendish
and Mr. Burke in the Phoenix Park on the very
day on which Lord Spencer had made a trium
phant entry into Dublin.
There were two theories prevailing concerning
this assassination. The first was that the ex
treme men, disliking Parnell's negotiations with
the Government, had committed this outrage to
discredit him personally. But the other — and
I believe the correct — view, was that the assassi
nation of Burke had been planned a long time
back by a gang that were outside any organisation
connected with ParneU. They saw their oppor-

2i8 MURDER OF CAVENDISH AND BURKE
tunity on this eventful day to murder Burke,
and Lord Frederick Cavendish was assassinated
simply by the accident of his being in the com
pany of Burke. But, whatever may have been
the origin of this political assassination, it created
a widespread feeling of horror, and it gave a tragic
interest to the debates which ensued. Cavendish
was supposed to be Gladstone's favourite nephew,
A great deal of personal sympathy was thus
aroused for Gladstone, and I think it was due
to this feeling that his position as Prime Minister
was saved.
From a moral and ethical point of view the
Treaty was utterly indefensible. Only a few
months back ParneU had been publicly denounced
by Gladstone as a great political criminal, " march
ing through rapine to the dismemberment of the
Empire " ; yet the Prime Minister of Great
Britain and this political criminal were now the
two contracting parties to a treaty which was
negotiated, not because the executive and the
law in Ireland were supreme, but because they
had f aUed to assert themselves, and the fermenters
and organisers of disorder and crime were actuaUy
called in by Mr. Gladstone to participate in the
futine government of Ireland. In the debates
which constantiy ensued in one shape or another
upon these transactions, nothing but Gladstone's
marveUous power of speech and hold over the great
majority of his side prevented his Government from
tumbling to pieces. If it had been known at that
time that he was in direct personal communication
with Parnell's mistiess, with whom he discussed,
if not the treaty itself, at any rate the propositions

ARREARS BILL 219
arising out of it, nothing could have saved him.
The first part of the bargain was an undertaking
to introduce an Arrears BUI. This BiU passed
through Parhament with comparatively littie
opposition, though there was a good deal of contio
versy over certain amendments which the Lords
insisted upon intioducing into it. Associated
with it was a Coercion BUI to stiengthen the
legal machinery for dealing with crime. This
BUI, which in its early phases proposed to aboUsh
the jury S5;^tem, met with bitter obstruction from
the ParneUites.
ParneU's role throughout these transactions
was a very difficult one. He did not want entirely
to break with the extreme party, although he
knew they would not hesitate to have recoruse
to any crime or outrage to further their purpose.
On the other hand, for the purpose of conciUating
the Radical section of the House of Commons,
he was obliged to adopt on certain occasions a
somewhat negative attitude towards the ex-
tiemists. But right throughout his political life
he acted upon one theory, that it was for his
pohtical advantage to flout Enghsh pubhc opinion
whenever it came in contact with the views of
any section of the Irish Party of which he was the
chief. This, no doubt, was one of the reasons of
his extraordinary hold over the Irish people,
that they looked upon him as an Irish champion
who would defy British pubhc opinion, no matter
how stiong and concentrated it might be.
During the debates upon the Coercion BUI a
very remarkable ParUamentary incident occurred
in which a nephew of mine, Frederick Lambton,

220 FREDERICK LAMBTON
was the chief actor. All the Lambton famUy
are fearless, and they have associated with this
quality a singular power of curt and incisive speech.
The Government intended in their original BUI
to have power to make night searches, and they
proposed — ^for no reason except to concUiate the
Irishmen — to give up this power which, in the
opinion of the judicial and constabulary authori
ties, was most important for the detection and
prevention of crime. A number of Whigs, of
whom Lambton was one, met that day and
determined to oppose the proposal to exclude
these powers from the Bill. After one or two
of this dissentient body had spoken, Gladstone
arose, and in his most imperative Parliamentary
manner informed the recalcitrants that if they
did not take care they might force him to resign —
a threat which he considered, and which generally
was, sufficient to cow into submission anyone
sitting on the Liberal side. To his amazement,
a slim young gentleman arose immediately behind
the Treasury Bench and made a short speech
which had, I think, the most startling effect that
I can ever recollect any young member creating
in the House of Commons. The substance of the
speech was to this effect — that he had listened
with astonishment to the utterances of the Prime
Minister, he had been brought up all his life as
a Radical, he understood that the Ministry were
the servants and not the masters of the House of
Commons, and he added that if, as was clear from
the debate, there was not sufficient justification
for striking out these powers, then he hoped that
aU his friends would vote according to their

PARNELL'S GENERAL ATTITUDE 221
conscience, and if the Prime Minister did resign
it would be very easy to get someone else to take
his place.
I have never seen Gladstone so taken aback.
The Irishmen were then for some inscrutable
reason at loggerheads with the Government, and
they determined not to participate in the division
on this question ; but they were sitting up in the
gallery laughing at the rebuff which Gladstone got
from his young follower. It is only fair to Glad
stone to say that, when he recovered from his
astonishment, he showed, in subsequent days, no
particular animosity against the young man who
not only defied him in the House of Commons
but succeeded in defeating tiie Government by
a majority in the division which ensued.
Upon that division Gladstone did not resign.
Lambton has since on manj' occasions shown his
political courage and ability in adhering to what
ho believed to be right, regardless of the pressure
eitiier of wire-pullers or Whips.
ParneU's attitude towards the extremists of
his party became more defined after the passing
of the Coercion Bill in 1882. By breaking with
the Government and attacking them for tiieir
continued policy of coercion, he, to some extent,
rehabilitated himself with the more advanced
sections of his party. There ensued in tiie follow
ing two years a series of dynamite outrages.
Attacks were made on public buildings, and two
bombs were deposited in the House of Commons,
one of which did considerable damage inside the
Chamber, and the other made a hole in West
minster Hall. The Government at once brought

222 DYNAMITE OUTRAGES
in a Bill dealing with explosive substances of a
very strong character. The Irish Members did
not in any way oppose this legislation, which
passed through all its stages in one night.
I myself have always believed that Parnell
was disinclined to outrage and violence. Though
brave, he undoubtedly was afraid of assassination.
The extraordinary secrecy which surrounded his
movements, and the inability of anybody to
ascertain his address, justify this behef. His
policy was much more dictated by hatred of
England than love of Ireland. He was an aristo
crat by instinct, and the stronger he became the
more haughty and stand-off was his attitude
towards his followers. To those with whom he
came in personal pohtical contact he will always be
an enigma. He was the very essence of concen
tration and determination ; but I have always felt
that, although he was no doubt morally guilty of
an infraction of the Decalogue by his relations with
Mrs. O'Shea, his extraordinary affection for her,
the protection which he invariably gave her, and
the utter subordination of everything political to
what was for her benefit, show that there was an
element of great tenderness in his character.

CHAPTER XIX
Egyptian trouble — DUke — Mihtary revolt — Gambetta's fall
— Bombardment of Alexandria — Victory of Tel-el-Kebir —
Government decline responsibihty for government in Egypt
— Consequences.
In the meantime, Egyptian affairs were getting
into a terrible muddle. Sir Charles Dilke was
Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and he
exercised a much greater influence in his Depart
ment than an ordinary Under-Secretary, he being
a considerable political power outside. He came
into Parliament the same year as I did, and from
the first he posed as a very advanced Radical.
Though an able man, he was not in the first
flight of the intellectuals. He was very modern,
full of bustle and go, a born lobbyist, and he also
revelled in all the details of party wire-pulling.
He was most industrious, and he had a craze for
picking up masses of meticulous information,
which he used to parade with some pretension
when speaking. Though the substance of his
speeches was good and knowledgeable, his mono
tonous delivery and the total lack of brilliancy or
originality in his phraseology prevented him from
being an attractive or effective speaker.
Dilke had travelled much in France and was
desirous of establishing good relations between
the two countries. Moreover, he was a friend

224 MILITARY REVOLT IN EGYPT
of Gambetta. Gambetta became Prime Minister
of France, and in that position exercised for
the moment a supreme influence in France.
Grambetta's ideas incUned towards Free Trade,
and a commercial treaty between the two countries
on those Unes was then on the tapis, and Glad
stone and his Government were very anxious to
bring these negotiations to a successful conclusion.
Gambetta, on the other hand, was desirous of
bringing Great Britain into Egyptian affairs, so
that the two nations should exercise a joint con
trol over the country. By securing British co
operation, he beUeved he would protect France
against German or other outside influence, so a
kind of compromise was arranged. We agreed
to become part of the joint control, and in return
we were to get a commercial treaty on more or less
Free Trade Unes. As a result, and to give effect
to the first half of the agr^ment, the French and
British fleets cruised outside Alexandria.
Inside Egypt a mihtary revolution was being
developed. Arabi Pasha, an indigenous Egyptian
Colonel, was put forward by a chque of mUitary
officers as the head of a national and mUitary
movement against foreign tutelage and inter
ference. The movement rapidly grew, under
mining the Khedive's authority and that of the
Enghsh and French representatives. Just before
a chmax in the movement was reached, there was
a great mihtary review in Cairo, The Khedive
was present, and Arabi Pasha was in command
of the Egyptian troops. Our representative was
Sir Auckland Colvin, a distinguished member of
a weU-known Anglo-Indian family. He tried to

GAMBETTA'S FALL 225
persuade the Khedive, when Arabi Pasha came
up and saluted him in the face of the whole Army,
to take his sword from him and have him arrested
by members of the F^gyptian staff. Sir Auckland
beheved that any such indication of authority in
the face of the Army would have at once rehabUi-
tated the Khedive's authority and have effaced
Arabi. But the Khedive's nerves were unequal
to such an exhibition of determination. The op-
portunit}- was lost, and a short time afterwards
riots broke out throughout the country, those
occurring in Alexandria being of a most serious
character and resulting in the slaughter and
pUlage of many Europeans. Interference in
E^gypt for the protection of the hves of Europeans
and of the immense material and pecuniary
interests of the Great Powers became an imperative
necesaty. In the meantime, by one of those unaccount
able pohtical intrigues which have so recentiy
occurred in France, Gambetta had been driven
from office. He was succeeded by de Freycinet,
who was a timid man and averse to any external
enterprise which woiUd lock up any considerable
part of the French Army or Na\y. He withdrew
the French fleet from Eg^'ptian waters, and he
did not countenance further negotiations in con
nection with the commercial treaty.
Gladstone and Granville thus found them
selves in such a mess that, contrary as it was to
their character, poUcy, and instincts to embark
in any forcible foreign enterprise, they had no
alternative but to order the British fleet to bom
bard Alexandria, Gladstone attempted to justify

226 BOMBARDMENT OF ALEXANDRIA
the bombardment as an "act of self-defence";
but Bright declined to be thus humbugged, and
he left the Government.
The bombardment of Alexandria was only
the preliminary step in the warlike operations
which the British Government had to conduct
in Eg3^t. An expeditionary force was organised,
composed partly of British and partly of Indian
troops under Lord Wolseley, and a large vote of
credit had to be taken to defray the expenditure
of this expedition. The Conservative Party, in
assenting to this expedition and in supporting
the Government in a course which they did not
approve, could not help making a few references
to the Midlothian campaign, especiaUy as the
troops of the expeditionary force were, to a
large extent, composed of Indian troops, whose
employment a few years back by Lord Beacons
field was the subject of universal censure and con
demnation by the Radical poUticians and the
Radical Press,
The expedition under the able leadership of
Wolseley won the battle of Td-el-Kebir, and, in
consequence, the British Government became the
de facto Government of F^g5rpt. But Gladstone
and GranviUe would not face the responsibUities
of their position, and the former by every available
subterfuge of speech attempted to shift from his
Government the exercise of the duties thus en-
taUed upon them. This extiaordinary ineptitude
to face and provide for unpleasant resihties was
the primary cause, as I shaU subsequentiy show,
of the destruction of Hicks Pasha and his whole
army, the capture by the Mahdi of Khartoum,

GOVERNMENT'S INEPTITUDE 227
the death of Gordon, and the estabhshment for a
decade and a half of the intolerable tyranny of
the Mahdi over the inhabitants of the Soudan.
When ultimately freed by British arms from the
Mahdi's yoke, so pulverised and crushed had the
population of that vast territory become that it
only numbered one qujuter of its previous in
habitants some fifteen years back. This fact is
in itself a good comment on Mr. Gladstone's
contention that it would be " blood-guUtiness "
to interfere with a " people who were struggling
to be free."
Thus the year and the session of 1882 ended,
and another annual record brought home to the
minds of every thinking voter in the country the
irreconcUable difference between Gladstone's per
formances as a Minister and his election predic
tions not two years old.

CHAPTER XX
Government in trouble aU over the world — ^Forster's attack —
PameU and his characteristic reply — Dsmamite outrages —
Explosives BUl — Irish Land Act working badly — Motion on
Land Purchase — Its acceptance — ^Arrest and trial of Irish
Invincibles.
The year 1883 opened ominously for the adminis
tration. Gambetta suddenly succumbed to some
mysterious Ulness, and by his death the only
powerful supporter in France of united action with
England in Egypt disappeared. Egypt was rapidly
dropping into a condition of chaos owing to the
inabUity of the English Government to recognise
their responsibUity,
In the Transvaal unrest approaching almost
to armed resistance against any recognition of
British authority was developing and assuming
solidarity. Our relations with Foreign Powers were most
unsatisfactory, and Prince Bismarck was open-
mouthed as to the impossibUity of doing business
with party politicians such as Gladstone and
GranvUle. Gladstone was Ul in the South of France, and
the leadership devolved upon Hartington during
his absence. The Radical Party endeavoured to
distract pubhc attention from the fiasco of their
external pohcy by promising a number of internal
reforms. The county franchise wa§ to be reduced
3l8

FORSTER'S ATTACK 229
and a new legislative principle was to be intio*
duced as regards comjjensation to agricultural
tenants, and a complete reorganisation of the
administiative system in vogue in the Metropolis
was also announced. These new measures were
only dangled befcH-e Parliament and the pubUc,
as the " remanets " from previous sessions, in
addition to a Bankruptcy BUI, were more than
enough to take up the available time in the
session for l^;islatian.
Irdand again came to the front, and fresh
developments there occupied much time in the
House of Commons. On the Address, Forster, the
late Irish Secretary, made a very powerful and
effective personal attack on PameU. The speech
was carefuUy composed and indisputably proved
the complicity of the Land League (of which
PameU was the head) with the promotion and
perpetration of outrages and crime in Ireland.
Forster ended his indictment by saying that
until Parnell cleared himself from these charges
he declined to be associated in any way with
him, poUticaUy or otherwise. The speech, though
primarily directed against PameU, was inferenti-
aUy a most damaging arraignment of the KUmain
ham Treaty made by the Government in the year
l^eceding. PameU treated this attack on his probity and
honour with callous indifference. It was with
great difficulty he was induced to reply, but when
he did he made no attempt to disprove Forster's
all^ations. He started off by saying that he did
not care a stiaw about English opinion, that the
House of Commons was a packed jury hostile to
16

230 PARNELL'S CHARACTERISTIC REPLY
him, whose prejudices he would not even attempt
to counteract. He then indulged in a venomous
invective against his accuser, and sat down
amidst the cheers of his foUowers. It was a x-Tery
clever rejdy rmder the circumstances, though it
angered the Radical Members. It kept along
that indeterminate line between appwroval and
condemnation of crime to which PameU alwa%-s
adhered. His Ufe was in danger from the Irish
extremists, and he would not irritate them further
by a denunciation of their misdeeds. On the
other hand, he did not wish entirely to lose the
goodwnU of the Radicals, whose votes at times
were useful to him ; but he knew that the origin
and source of his ParUamentary strength came
from Ireland and the Irish in Great Britain, and
he would not say or do anything which would
in any way weaken his hold over their votes and
organisation, even when his personal character
was impugned.
About this time the Irish American anarchists
were much in evidence. Nitio-^ycerine and
other high explosives had given them new methods
of waging warfare upon the civU populations
with whom they were at variance. Bombs were
placed against the Local Government Board and
the Times office, two were brought by visitors to
the House of Commons; one exploded in West
minster HaU and another in the House itself
— ^fortunately when the Commons was not in
session. Attempts were also made to blow up
raUway stations and other places of public resort.
E\ddence was obtained of the existence of a
widespread organKation both for the manufacture

EXPLOSIVES BILL 231
of high explosives and their distribution and
allocation for outrage and murder.
The Home Office was thoroughly alarmed.
Cabinet Ministers moved about under protection,
and elaborate precautions were taken for the
defence of public buildings and high officials.
An " Explosives Bill," dealing drastically with all
who were connected with the manufacture or dis
tribution of certain explosives, was passed through
all its stages in one sitting and became operative
next day. This particular phase of outrage
collapsed almost as suddenly as it came into
existence, but a number of the miscreants con
nected with it were captured and sentenced to
heavy terms of imprisonment.
The ParneUite Members of Parliament did
not oppose the Explosives Bill. ParneU thus ex
pressed tacit disapproval of the bomb outrages,
but, on the other hand, by his speech on Forster's
motion, he maintained his hold over the Land
League and their actions by abstaining from any
public disapproval of their misdeeds. This deli
cate game of see-saw tactics he persistently
pursued. It required a man of the nicest per
ception, combined with absolute indifference to
the atmosphere of opinion around him so to
meander, though I believe that if he did, under
what he considered political expediency, con
done outrage, he personally disapproved of and
dreaded such methods of violence.
Later on in the session I had unexpected but
very clear evidence of Parnell's constructive fore
sight by his intervention in a debate which I
originated upon Land Purchase in Ireland,

232 IRISH LAND ACT
The Land Act of 1881 was not working fairly.
Its whole tendency was in the direction of spoli
ating the owners of land for the benefit of the
temporary occupiers. Rents were in certain
cases ruthlessly reduced by the Land Sub-Com
missioners, and there was an inequality in these
reductions between areas whose conditions were
practically the same which caused very great
discontent amongst landlords as well as tenants.
The whole atmosphere and surrounding of the
Land Commissioners Courts was one of partiality
to the occupiers. They stood in relation to the
landlords in the proportion of about a hundred
to one, and under the doctrine that the interests
of the majority must always be primarUy con
sidered, the landlord under this form of litigation
occupied a very secondary position. Attention
was caUed in Parliament to certain more flagrantly
unjust decisions, and a Committee of Enquiry
was appointed by the Lords.
When a question becomes one of antagonism
between political parties, and the subject in dis
pute is based on the results of a recent Act of
Parliament passed by the Government in office,
no judicial determination is likely or even possible.
In my judgment, the land question was and had
been the foundation of Irish discontent and dis
turbance. The disproportion of those owning
and occupying land was very great — in itself a
source of social and economic weakness. The
vast majority of the landowners were Protestants,
whilst the overwhelming number of the tenants
were Catholics. The Protestants were most, if
not aU, of Scottish or English extraction, the

WORKING BADLY 233
tenants Irish and in many counties pure Celts.
The title-deeds of a large proportion of the land
lords were derived from conquest and con
fiscation. Thus, in this so-called land question,
you have concentrated in the most acute and
intense form the unfathomable jealousy, friction,
and hatred arising out of conflict of race, religion,
and proprietary rights. Tbe dispute had in one
shape or another existed for centuries, and in
Ulster alone — or rather in those parts of it where
owner and occupier were of the same race and
religion— had quiet and good relations prevailed.
It was essential for the future peace and develop
ment of Ireland that some step should be taken
to terminate this internecine warfare, which was
carried on now under the veneer of legality, but
with much the same bitterness and mutual anti
pathy as had prevaUed previous to the recent
legislation. The remedy undoubtedly was pur
chase by the tenants, under which they became
owner as well as occupier.
Gladstone throughout his Irish legislation
always gave the cold shoulder to purchase. He
detested all legislation which in any way added to
the financial responsibUities of the Treasury. To
cut down all financiad expenditure and exclude
the State from entering into any financial obliga
tions outside the cost of indispensable administra
tion were the two primary objects of his financial
policy. National expenditure was devised, not to
benefit the nation, but to afford the ChanceUor
of the Exchequer an annual opportunity of self-
glorification by the reduction of taxation and
disbursements. Bright, on the other hand, tooH

234 MOTION ON LAND PURCHASE
a much more statesmanlike and wider view. The
purchase clauses in past Irish Land Acts were his
children, but being foster-chUdren they were not
well nourished by Gladstone.
My object was to frame a big scheme of land
purchase upon lines which would meet Gladstone's
objections. I tried to base my scheme on Irish
County Finance or deposits in Irish Banks. By
Banks I included all institutions accepting .and
paying interest on deposits. I consulted several
friends, including Arthur Balfour, and they aU
went so far as to say that my scheme might
legitimately be brought forward, as it was water
tight and would effectively withstand serious criti
cism. I thlerefore put down the foUowing notice :
" That, in the opinion of this House, an im
mediate revision of the Purchase Clauses of the
Irish Land Act, 1881, is necessary in order to give
effect to the intentions of Parliament contained
therein." The motion came forward at a convenient
sitting at nine o'clock on the 12th June. There
were few Members present when I got up to speak,
but a few minutes later, on turning round, I saw
Parnell surrounded by his foUowers closely listen
ing to my proposals. He took an early oppor
tunity of intervening in the debate, and without
pledging himself to the detaUs of my scheme gave
his hearty support to the principles of my speech.
In the debate which followed, no one, except
George Trevelyan — then Chief Secretary for Ire
land — and Gladstone, spoke against my motion.
The feeling in every part of the House was so
strong in its favour that Gladstone gave way

ITS ACCEPTANCE 235
and accepted my motion, substituting the word
" early " for " im.mediate." The Radical Press
accused me of coquetting with Home Rule and
Parnell by bringing this motion forward. As a
matter of fact, I had no communication whatso
ever with Parnell or his party before I spoke, I
was a consistent opponent of Home Rule, and
my father and family had also thrown aU their
strength and influence against it. Parnell sup
ported my motion simply because he foresaw that
the principle which it embodied would be beneficial
to Ireland, and substitute, so far as the tenure of
land was concerned, unity and peace in the place
of the perpetual discord and warfare of the past.
I looked upon this evening and its result as
my greatest Parliamentary success. Little notice
was taken either by the public or the Press of this
debate, but it was the foundation and main
spring of aU the subsequent development of land
purchase in Ireland, The Conservative Govern
ment two years later brought in what was called
" Ashbourne's Land Act " — a purchase scheme
which was accepted on aU sides ; and a suc
cession of larger Acts, culminating with the
Wyndham Act of 1904, have now established
right throughout Ireland on an immense scale
the salutary principle of undivided ownership of
land by the purchase of the landlords' rights.
I published my speech with a short epitome
as a preface. Without aspiring to be a prophet,
I think its prediction has been more than
realised, I said :
"It is too late now to draw back from or

236 RESULTS
ignore the consequences of the Land Act of 1881.
A dual ownership in property hitherto indivisible
has, by that law, been estabhshed throughout
Ireland ; and the State has undertaken every
fifteen years to revise and reconcUe the re
spective claims and rights of aU owners and
occupiers of land in Ireland, Such a task speaks
for itself ; risk, uncertainty, agitation, and ex
pense must ever surround it. Purchase through
State aid, or the fixing of rent through State
agency, are the only alternative methods which
the Act of 1881 contemplated for the settlement
of the Irish Land question. Let anyone investi
gate and weigh for himself the relative merit
and hazard of the two systems ; and, whatever
may be his conclusions, I do not think that he wiU
oppose the development of the purchase clauses
on the ground that it wUl be a source of increeised
danger to the State,"
After the debate was over, one or two of the
Irish landlords who were in the gaUery heartily
congratulated me, and stated that they beheved
the acceptance of that motion would do more to
settle the Irish Land question than the many
comphcated provisions of the Land Acts which,
during the past fifty years, had been passed into
law. Towards the close of this year sensational
rumours occurred in Dubhn which ultimately
resulted in the arrest and conviction of Caven
dish's and Burke's assassins, A number of
murders had recentiy occurred in Dubhn, and
some of those so murdered were beUeved to be
members of an inner ring of malefactors who had
been put out of the way by their coUeagues either

TRIAL OF IRISH INVINCIBLES 237
because they were unpopular or under suspicion
of being informers, A number of the Fenian
extiemists were arrested, some on information,
others on chance of evidence turning up against
tiiem after they were arrested. The most no
torious of these was a man named Carey, He
was placed in a cell between two of liis coUeagues.
One of the detectives came outside his ceU, and
in a loud voice asked the warder which was  's
ceU, as he had just sent for him in order that
he might give them certain information. Carey
heard this conversation, and, beheving that he
was about to be beti^ayed, in order to forestaU his
accomphce and save himself, asked the detective
to come at once into his ceU. He then made a
series of revelations which led to the arrest and
detention of a gang of murderers known as the " In
vincibles." They had over and over again made
elaborate plans for Forster's assassination, but
by luck and a sudden change in his movements
he on several occasions escaped almost miracu
lously. The assassination of Burke was planned
before the KUmainham Treaty, and it A^^ns
carried out on the day of Lord Spencer's pubhc
entrance into Dubhn, as Burke by an accident
got detached from his guards. Cavendish was
kiUed in his attempt to protect Burke, and his
murder was not premeditated.
The trial of the " Invincibles" caused a great
stir in England, Ireland, and America. The caU-
ousness of the witnesses and defendants, the
readiness and ease with which suspected persons
were put out of the way, and tiie pride of those
perpetrating tiiese atrocities proved the gang

238 THE " INVINCIBLES "
to be one of abnormaUy dangerous and hardened
criminals. It was broken up, some receiving
death sentences and others life periods of im
prisonment. The knives used in the Phoenix
Park murders were surgical instruments, and were
speciaUy brought over to Dubhn by a woman.
She escaped to New York, where she was soon
surrounded by a circle of admirers, one of whom
addressed to her a poem in her praise.
The Gk)vemment sent Carey out disguised and
under a pseudonym in a steamer to South Africa,
but his old associates got knowledge of his move
ments, and he was shot on board ship by a man
named O'DonneU.
The environment of the " Invincible " gang
was so squahd and repvUsive, and their personnel
so low down in the scale of criminality, that a
general feehng of disgust and fear was aroused,
which was not confined to Unionists, but permeated
aU the better-class Nationahsts. They reahsed
that, whUe a nation could be undone, it could
not be united or rehabUitated by a system of
such foul assassination.
In the autumn of this year a great subscription
was started in Ireland and America to enable
PameU to pay off some mortgages on his property'.
The sum subscribed came to the handsome amount
of £38,000. This was presented to PameU in
Dubhn by the Mayor of that city. It was a great
function, and a speech adequate to the occasion
was the least that was expected from PameU.
But that extiaordinary individual dechned to
do more than take the cheque, put it in his
pocket, and acknowledge its receipt in a few curt

SUBSCRIPTION TO PARNELL 239
and most ungracious words. But he knew his
audience and those behind them, and his im
passive acquisition of this subscription rather
added to than diminished his reputation and
power.

CHAPTER XXI
Indecision of Govemmait — ^Tel^ram to Cairo — ^Hicks Pasha —
Annihilation of his army — QmicbiU to the front — Cormpt
Practices BiU — ^London Government Bill — ^Allegation against
me of organising disturbance — Select Committee — Brad
laugh's cross-examination.
During the whole of this year the Government —
or rather, I should say, the Prime Minister and
the Foreign Office — pursued their pitiful pohcy of
decUning to face the facts which their own action
had so largely created in Egypt,
John Morley became a Member of the House
this session, and his jxiwerful influence was thrown
on the side of the immediate evacuation of Egjrpt
by our tioops. To govern "Egypt or to go were
the only two alternative courses open to the
British Government ; but to go meant a revival
of the disturbance and outrages which had forced
us to come : to stay and administer Egjrpt was
the pohcy which common sense, humanity, and
honesty dictated ; but this was a course hateful
to the Manchester School, and they had in sup
port of their opposition a cartload of the Prime
Minister's Midlothian speeches. So the miserable
haU-way-house expedient was adopted. We kept
temporarily our tioops in Egypt, but we left upon
the impotent native administration the responsi
bUity of governing.
As might have been anticipated, disaster en-
?4o

TELEGRAM TO CAIRO 541
sued. The Egyptian Government had in their
employ a distinguished Indian General, Hicks
Pasha. He was put in command of a considerable
force composed of the remnants of the old Egyptian
Army, and by luck and skill he managed, with the
help of a few British officers, to get to and occupy
Khartoum. He was then ordered by the Egyptian
Gk)vernment to advance into and reconquer
Kordofan, a huge territory which was in occupa
tion by and under the control of the Mahdi. The
task was quite beyond Hicks Pasha's strength,
and he knew it. He telegraphed to our agent in
Cairo asking him to represent this fact to the
British Government in the hope that they would
do one of two things — either direct the Egyp
tian Government to stop the expedition, or so
strengthen it with British officers and reinforce
ments as to render it equal to the task imposed
upon it. The reply of Downing Street was to
this effect : Report quickly decision of Egyptian
Government, taking care to give no advice.
The effect of this disgraceful telegram was to
send poor Hicks Pasha, his staff of English officers,
and his whole army to certain destruction. They
were annihUated, and the Mahdi's authority and
prestige became omnipotent in aU the huge terri
tories south and west of Khartoum over which
the Eg5^tian Government had attempted to re
assert their authority. It would be interesting to
cdculate what this pusiUanimous telegram cost
the British Government during the next fifteen
years in men, money, and reputation.
Major Baring shortiy after this disaster was
appointed Agent in Egypt, and it was mamly

242 CHURCHILL TO THE FRONT
due to his strong and vigorous personality that
Egypt was ultimately rescued from the aberra
tions of the fact-blind politicians.
Many opportunities for trenchant criticism
were thus given to the Opposition ; but North-
cote's faUing health and his natural reluctance
to assert himself threw away chances which, in
more daring hands, would have been more effectu-
aUy utilised for justifiable censure. ChurchiU's
fighting instincts fretted under this inadequate
leadership, and he became more aggressive and
insolent in his attitude towards Northcote and
his colleagues. As a sort of compromise. Sir
Michael Hicks Beach undertook to move a yote
of censure, and he framed in an able speech so
teUing an indictment against the Government
that Gladstone rose at once to reply to it. The
division was good, and the debate createdTeven
amongst the staunchest supporters of the Govern
ment a feeling of grave uneasiness as to where
we were drifting in Eg5rpt. This feeling was
accentuated by Lord Derby's feeble handling of
difficulties in the Transvaal. The Convention of
the Boers was so framed that on its vital clauses
each party put a different interpretation. Re
lations both with France and Germany were bad,
and in the latter country Bismarck was becoming
more and more incensed against the methods of
Gladstone and GranviUe,
An important change was made in the pro
cedure and expenditure of Parliamentary elections
by the introduction of a " Corrupt Practices
BiU." It effected important and salutary im
provements in the conduct of elections by elimi-

CORRUPT PRACTICES BILL 243
nating expenditure and punishing corniption, both
direct and indirect: The BUI was in the hands
of Sir Henry James, the Attorney-General. At
the last election he had been defeated in Taunton,
and, as Sir Henry believed, by indirect induce
ments or bribery. Being vindictive, he founded
his BiU more as a punishment for Taunton than
on broad, inteUigible, and adaptable principles.
The httie petty methods of inducement which
had prevaUed in a smaU provincial town like
Taunton were not only made iUegal, but un
seated the candidate on whose behalf they were
practised. Amongst other tiivial lapses, the
purchase of ribbon, the gratuitous supply of half
a dozen badges were made to vitiate an election.
The BUI was, to some extent, spoUt from this
cause, and on its subsequent interpretation most
confficting decisions have been given. Members
have been unseated for paltiy mistakes, whUst
much more serious offences have exempted their
perpetrators from this penalty. The pocket of
the candidate has thus been protected, but the
candidates, on the other hand, now frequentiy
have recourse to the pubhc pocket by their
promises, and the appaUing increase in public
expenditure is the coroUary of the check put
upon private expenditure and bribery during
election time. " It is so easy to be generous with
other people's money."
During this session the block of pubhc business
became even more pronoimced than in preceding
years. Rehef given by the estabhshment of
Grand Committees was evanescent, and it was
becoming self-evident that a fraction of the

244 LONDON GOVERNMENT BILL
House, if composed of unscrupulous and ad
vertising Members, had the power either of levy
ing political blackmail or of inconveniencing, if
not arresting, the whole business of the country.
The year and session of 1884 were subject to
the same untoward symptoms of vacUlation and
blindness in dealing with foreign and colonial
questions which had characterised Gladstone's
Government from its instaUation in office. Diffi
culties developed and embarrassments thickened
throughout the whole of this year by an adher
ence to indecision and equivocation, thus carry
ing over to the next year a burden of discredit
and disaster which ultimately culminated in the
voluntary resignation of the Government from
sheer inability to face the consequences of their
own lack of policy. But the story, to be told
effectively, of the cumulative series of blunders
should be consecutive, and belongs as much to the
next year as this. I therefore turn to the internal
legislation and proposals of the Government,
leaving foreign and colonial affairs for a subse
quent narrative.
It being advisable to cover up, as far as
practicable, external faUure by internal and
showy legislation, two large schemes of reform
were introduced, one dealing with the govern
ment of London and the other being an assimUa-
tion of the county to the borough franchise, and
associating this enlargement of the electorate
with a redistribution scheme of Parliamentary
representation. The London Bill fell flat. There was much
opposition to it from the existing Local Authori-

RATEPAYERS' ASSOCIATION 245
ties, and especially from the Corporation of the
City of London. It was clear that this question
would soon have to be dealt with, and it was
desirable that information should be obtained,
not only as to the wishes of those residing in the
area of the County of London (then known as the
Metropolitan Board of Works), but also as to how
the experience of existing administrative bodies
could be best utUised in the reformed Govern
ment. Foremost in opposition to the scheme was
the City of London, whose existence would have
been swamped and whose revenues would have
been absorbed by the new scheme. W. H.
Smith told me one day that it was proposed to
start a Ratepayers' Association to achieve these
two objects, that it was weU supported financi
ally, it was fairly representative, but it was
essential that it should have at its head a pro
minent Parliamentarian. He had been asked to
become chairman, but he was too busy to take
that post : would I undertake the duty ? I
agreed, and several public meetings were pro
moted by this body, which were fairly successful.
Offices were taken by it, which I visited and found
a number of clerks there engaged in the work of
the Association.
On the Unionists coming into office in 1885 I
was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty, and
being very busy the Association passed out of my
mind, I was informed a year afterwards that it
had been dissolved, as our advent to office had
dissipated the danger which it was formed to
combat. In the middle of the session of 1887, after
17

246 ALLEGATION AGAINST ME
question time, I was suddenly summoned back
to the House, as Mr. George HoweU, a working-
man, had without notice moved the adjournment
of the House in order to denounce me, as Chair
man of an organisation which, from indisputable
written evidence he had in his possession, he
maintained was solely formed to prevent by
organised rowdyism and violence the free ex
pression of public opinion at meetings. I was at
first taken aback by the charge, which was quite
uninteUigible. He did not mention the name
of the organisation. In reply to him I got up,
strongly repudiating the charge and pointing out
that it was brought forward by a Member of the
Radical Party in London which for some time
past had made an habitual practice of disturbing
and breaking up Conservative meetings all over
London, and to such an extent did this habit
prevail that it was only by taking extreme pre
cautions, either by ticket-meetings or by strong
bodies of stewards, that we were able to hold any
meetings over the greater part of London.
A wrangle ensued, and ultimately W. H.
Smith, who was then leading the House, granted
a Committee of Inquiry into the subject. Lord
Hartington was Chairman of this body. It then
came out that the Secretary of this Association, a
Mr. Johnson, had abstracted a number of papers
and correspondence from the ffies of the Associa'
tion, and when it was dissolved he sold them
to a Radical organisation; and amongst these
documents was a correspondence and data which
showed that he, Johnson, had out of the funds
Qf the organisation hired persons to go to

SELECT COMMITTEE 247
Radical meetings in connection with the reform
of the government of London to disturb and
break up such meetings, I think there is little
doubt that some of those who had been instru
mental in forming this organisation were cognis
ant of these proceedings. Fortunately, I had in
my possession correspondence with Johnson, in
which he repudiated aU allegations of this kind.
When, therefore, I was examined before the
Committee, I was enabled to produce this written
evidence, which completely upset the case which
certain Radical Members framed against me.
I was cross-examined by Bradlaugh. Brad
laugh was a very big man, and he had enormous
feet, which were encased in a gigantic pair of
WeUington boots. They attracted my attention,
as he was examining me, and after a few questions
I saw that I could always ascertain what the
effect of my answer upon him was by the wrigghng
and convulsive motion of these two gigantic
boots. So I kept my eyes fastened upon his
boots rather than on his face, and the boots soon
told me that he was nonplussed and could make
nothing of his brief.
The Committee were very fair and entirely
exonerated me from the aUegations ; but I should
undoubtedly have been in a difficulty if I had
not preserved the correspondence with the venal
secretary. I was at Oxford the same year, and I went
into one of the examination rooms, where a
number of undergraduates were under oral ex
amination, and I noticed that several of them,
when unable to give a satisfactory answer.

248 BRADLAUGH'S CROSS-EXAMINATION
wriggled their feet convulsively, just as Brad
laugh's elephantine boots did. It is a curious
but apparently not unusual method of expressing
mental disquietude, but it is not often observable
or feasible, as persons speaking or under examina
tion are generally upon their feet during the
ordeal. This attack and the subsequent examination
impressed upon me two cautions : firstly, it is
inadvisable to associate yourself hastily with
any political organisation, however unobjection
able its objects may seem to be, unless you knOw
the character and antecedents of those who
start the organisation ; and next, whenever you
come in contact with any political agent whose
antecedents are not fully known to you, it is wise
to keep intact all correspondence you may have
with him. It was neglect of the first precaution
that got me into this mess, and adherence to the
second which extricated me from the difficulty.

CHAPTER XXII
New Franchise BiU — Gladstone on reduction of franchise in
Ireland — Refusal of Government to combine franchise and
redistribution — CoUision with Lords — Visit to Canada —
RaUway poUtics in Chicago — Its growth — Inspection by
Lord Lansdowne of voyageurs — Incidents arising out of
it — Henry Matthews.
The Franchise Bill was not opposed on its second
reading by the Conservative Party. The dis
tinction between county and borough franchise
was based upon precedent and tradition rather
than reason and justice, and the rapid growth of
big viUages into towns in counties such as Lan
cashire and, Yorkshire brought populous places
with thelhigher county franchise into immediate
juxtaposition with boroughs with the lower
franchise, Around the Metropolis it was impos
sible to know when you were in or out of the
suburban districts, and a different franchise not
unfrequently existed on different sides of the
street. We therefore gave way to the change,
but many of us objected to the lowering of the
franchise in Ireland, which had so recently been
permeated by disorder and violence, and a large
portion of which was still under coercive measures.
W, H. Smith moved an amendment to that
effect, but it was mercilessly knocked about by
Randolph Churchill, who was then playing to
catch the Irish vote at the impending election.

250 FRANCHISE IN IRELAND
My objection to this reduction of the franchise
in Ireland was its probable after-effect upon the
demand for Home Rule which up to that time
had been emphatically repudiated, with few
exceptions, by the whole Liberal Party, Both
Plunket and I apprehended that Gladstone,
following his usual tactics of adhesion to the
wishes of the majority, would make the large
number of ParneUite Members who were certain
to be returned under this extended franchise an
excuse for becoming a Home , Ruler. At this
time there were seventy-one Home Rulers in the
House of Commons, and it was known that,
under the extended franchise] the Home Rulers
would be from eighty to eighty-four. It was
possible to calculate with 'mathematical pre
cision this increase in the f\iture voting of the
Parnellites. The addition wrS not much in itself,
but it would give Parnell, as^ the Moderate Home
Rule Party was sure t© be wip>:d out, at least four-
fifths of the representation of Ireland. Plunket,
in one of his b^^speeches, put this case forward
very eloauefmy and forcibly, and he appealed
to GJgrastone to say whether, under such con-
djJdlOTis, he would remain a Unionist. I backed
^im up strongly. Gladstone replied in one of
the plainest and most frank speeches I ever
heard him dehver. The whole purport of this
speech seemed to his audience to be that never,
never would he be guilty of such tergiversa
tion as to advocate Home Rule. Though
beaten on a division, we went away happy,
as we felt we had extracted from Gladstone
such a repudiation of Home Rule as would

FRANCHISE AND REDISTRIBUTION 251
effectively prevent him from ever becoming its
advocate. When some sixteen months later on he sud
denly hoisted the Home Rule flag, several of us
turned up Hansard for this speech. Though the
whole contention and argument were unmistak
ably against the abandonment of his Unionist
attitude, there was not a single sentence or any
combination of sentences which bound him to
that position. It was a perfect specimen of his
marveUous dialectical skill in making words
appear to mean what they really did not, and
of obtaining an ephemeral oratorical victory at
the ultimate expense of sincerity and straight
dealing. Memories are shorter in politics than
in most avocations, and, provided a temporary
victory in votes can be achieved, a large section
of politicians wiU always not only ignore but even
welcome the tergiversations and repudiations of
obligations by which this success is manoeuvred.
A serious conffict did ensue as regards the
redistribution of seats which this Reform Bill
necessitated. The Government wished to pass
the Franchise Bill by itself, leaving the Redistri
bution BiU to be brought in subsequently. We
strongly objected to this course. A Redistribu
tion BiU is of all legislative measures the most
difficult to get through the Commons if it stands
on its own bottom. The reduction of the fran
chise is popular out of doors, and the pressure
in its favour from outside overcomes opposi
tion inside the House. Not so a Redistribution
Scheme. Every Member whose constituency is
either altered or curtailed in its representation.

252 COLLISION WITH LORDS
or whose boundaries are altered, is against the
change. A big Redistribution BiU finds itself up
against an organised mass of hostUity on both
sides of the House, and with no corresponding
pressure outside in its favour. The Redistribution
BiUs of 1832 and 1868 were part and parcel of the
Reform BUls of those years. Now it was pro
posed to depart from that precedent. DUke,
who had become President of the Local Govern
ment Board, would from his official position have
control of the Redistribution Scheme. He was a
bom wire-puller, and under his tuition the scheme
was certain to be gerrymandered. The Con
servative Party was stiong in the counties which
were under-represented and weak in the boroughs
which, with the exception of the Metropohs and a
few big towns, were over-represented as a body.
The Lords dechned to pass the hmited BUI
unless redistribution was in it. The Government
took up the stock cry that the hereditary House
was trying illegitimately to interfere with the
franchise of the popular House, and a regular
deadlock ensued. FinaUy the Queen intervened,
and through her influence the heads of the two
parties conferred. Lord Salisbury was deter
mined that the Redistribution BUI should be
framed upon the idea of finality, and he carried
the single-member plan which is now in operation.
This idea was stiongly pressed upon him by Lord
St. Aldwyn, Churchill, Ritchie, and myself. My
constituency on the existing franchise had over
45,000 voters, and with the proposed increase
they would have numbered about 90,000 — an
impossible number for any two Members to

SINGLE-MEMBER SCHEME 253
handle. On the single-seat scheme Middlesex
was cut into eight separate constituencies, and I
was a proud man when these eight seats in 1885
all returned on the enlarged franchise Conservative
candidates by big majorities.
The dynamic forces behind the different
parties vary both in their origin and in their
application. The Radical Labour Party benefit
by sudden social storms and gusts which for
the moment sweep the board but subsequently
abate in violence if they do not altogether dis
appear. The larger the unit over whose area
they can operate, the greater the difficulty of
successfully withstanding their first onset. In
a single-member division based upon population
the constituency is generaUy not too big for an
inteUigent and assiduous Member to anchor him
self so as to have a good chance of successfully
encountering a sudden storm. Character, ad
hesion to principles, and reputable antecedents can
be felt and made an electioneering power through
out a moderately-sized constituency ; and these
are attributes more likely to be found in the
candidates of our side than the other.
For nearly twenty years the Unionists, through
the working of single-member constituencies,
dominated the House of Commons. The mal-
adventure of so-called Tariff Reform generated a
counter-blast of such ubiquity and duration that
for ten years past the previous dominant party
has been almost powerless, it having been defeated
at three general elections in succession — an unpre
cedented record of electioneering disaster.
There were two sessions in 1884, and in the

254 VISIT TO UNITED STATES & CANADA
interval between the two my brother Claud and
I visited the United States and Canada, my
brother-in-law. Lord Lansdowne, being then
Governor-General of Canada. We visited Chicago
before Canada, as my brother was then a director
of the Grand Trunk Railway. The directors of
that enterprise, through a railway franchise ob
tained in the States, had linked up Chicago and
New York and given through Canadian terri
tory an alternative route to the monopoly then
enjoyed by the New York Central. The New
York Central was in the hands of a very powerful
syndicate who made use of every weapon which
legal ingenuity or money could suggest to prevent
the Grand Trunk from establishing a passenger
terminus in Chicago. The municipality and
population of Chicago naturally favoured com
petition, and on this presumption the managers
of the Grand Trunk Railway and its branches
successfully planned and carried out the following
coup de main.
They had a goods station just outside Chicago,
but they could not obtain a site for a passenger
station inside, as their opponents always by law
or money prevented such a purchase. There was
a clause in a General Railway Bill of the State of
Illinois in which it is laid down that if once a
locomotive passed over a made railway track the
only question which could subsequentiy arise as
to the possession of the land so used was one of
price — the price to be assessed by a given tribunal.
The object of this clause was to facilitate the
extension of railroads in sparsely populated dis
tricts where the rights of proprietorship were

RAILWAY POLITICS IN CHICAGO 255
unsettled. The Grand Trunk determined to
utilise this clause and to apply it to the populated
districts of Chicago. They first squared the
municipality, who promised to wink at their
proceedings ; they went to the police, who under
took not to interfere if there was no riot, and if
the courts were open for an injunction ; they
next employed the ablest Counsel in the city
to obstruct and talk out any application that
might be made for an injunction; and finaUy
they got ready a huge gang of competent and
fighting navvies to whom they promised very
special remuneration if they completed the task
given them by a certain time.
Late on Friday night operations began, and an
attack was made on all the houses, obstacles, and
impedimenta which intervened between the goods
station and the proposed site for the passenger
dep6t. Where the houses were more than one
storey high a hole was cut in it sufficient for the
rails and the progress of a locomotive. Ample
compensation was promised to all those so dis
turbed, and the populace generaUy looked upon
these strange proceedings with approval.
The rival party got the alarm, but the munici
pality was not sitting, the police authorities
declined to interfere, and the law courts were not
open tiU ten o'clock on Saturday morning. The
mass of navvies working with redoubled energy
were too numerous and physically too powerful
to be interfered with, except by military force,
and none was available. In the court-house at
ten o'clock on Saturday morning the application
for an injunction was made, but the opposing

256 CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE
Counsel so spun out proceedings that it was not
obtained tiU after four o'clock and could not,
in consequence of some local enactment, be
brought into operation tiU eight o'clock on
Monday morning.
All Saturday night and Sunday and Sunday
night the work of demolition went on, and before
eight o'clock on Monday morning, when the in
junction became operative, the work was done.
This fihbustering feat met with high approval
in railway circles in Chicago, My brother was
congratulated on having been associated with
the smartest railway feat of modern times, and
I got some of his reflected glory,
I had paid a previous visit to Chicago in 1867,
Since then the town had been practicaUy burned
down, and its resurrection was one of the most
astonishing feats of modem civihsation. It was
an extraordinarily prosperous place at the time
we were there. There was a great comer in
wheat going on, and we went to the Board of
Trade (equivalent to a Produce Exchange),
where the excitement was intense. I noticed that
scarcely any of the brokers who were taking part
in this controversy were over thirty, and I was
told that the strain is so great that very few men
after that age can sustain it. The speculation
goes on in the big hotels after the Board of Trade
is closed for the day.
The most interesting person that we met in
Chicago was the agent of the Grand Trunk — a
Mr. Howe. He was sent for the purposes of health
when quite a boy to Chicago when it was a small
fishing village, and he himself had seen it rise to

INSPECTION OF VOYAGEURS 257
its present dimensions, he never having ceased
to be a resident in the locality. I asked him what
were the advantages which Chicago had over the
capitals or big towns of the neighbouring States,
and he told me that Chicago always must, so far
as the United States are concerned, be the head
quarters of the wheat trade, the meat trade, and
the lumber trade. I asked him why ; he said the
wheat zone could not for climatic reasons extend
much south of Chicago. Experience had shown
that St. Louis and other towns south of Chicago
were less favourably situated for cattle markets,
as the heat in the lairs was so great in summer-time
that the beasts rapidly deteriorated ; and as
regards the lumber trade Chicago was on one
of the big lakes where the finest lumber in the
world was to be found, and where extraordinary
natural facilities of transport by water existed.
So confident was he as regards the future of
Chicago that he predicted it must become the
biggest city in the world.
We returned from Chicago to Quebec, and
whilst there we took part in a very interesting
ceremony in connection with the farewell speech
given by the Governor-General to a large body
of boatmen or voyageurs who had been enlisted
for the expedition which under Lord Wolseley
was going to the relief of Gordon,
In going to this vessel on board of which was
this large number of boatmen. Lord Lansdowne
was accosted on the wharf by a pretty woman
with blue eyes and blonde hair, who asked him
if he would be kind enough to take her in his
boat, as it was her last chance of seeing her

258 INSPECTION INCIDENTS
husband. He came from the north-west, and had
left so suddenly that he had had no opportunity
of saying good-bye to her ; and she pleaded so
gentiy and nicely that Lord Lansdowne, with his
characteristic courtesy, at once assented. I looked
at the lady while in the boat, and there was a very
determined look in the lower part of her face,
and she kept her hand always inside her blouse,
in which she evidently had got something which
from its outward shape looked like a pistol. When
we got to the vessel I was the last of our party
to go up the gangway, and behind me came my
friend with the blue eyes. The moment the
sentries at the gangway saw her they stiffened
up, and as she tried to pass them put their rifles
across the gangway and said : " You know you
are not allowed here." A glint of concentrated
fury shot out from the blue eyes, and I thought
she was going to shoot one of the sentries ; but
the quartermaster seized her promptly by both
arms, took her down the gangway, and put her
in a boat and sent her ashore. I asked : " Who is
this lady ? and what does she want ? " In reply
they said : " Oh, that woman has been trying
for the last three days to shoot her husband : he
is perfectly terrified of her and is hiding in the
hold, and strict orders have been given on no
account whatever to admit her on this ship."
Lord Lansdowne was very much taken aback
when he found out that he had unconsciously
associated himself with this homicidal enterprise.
On board the vessel there was a wonderful
collection of tough, weather-beaten men, com
posed of Enghsh settiersfrom the Far West, French

INSPECTION INCIDENTS 259
Canadians, and Indian canoe-men. The idea of
utilising these men had occurred to Lord Wolseley,
as he believed they could be successfully used
upon the Nile, he having derived great benefits
from their employ in the Red River Expedition.
We often hear that each language not only
has its psychological idiosyncrasy, but that it has
an unconscious effect in regulating and prompting
the gestures and motions of the individual when
speaking it. Lansdowne can speak French as
weU as English. He gave an admirable address in
English to the British boatmen : it was kindly,
encouraging, full of sound patriotic sentiment,
and it was delivered in the strictest gubernatorial
style without gesture or motion. He then turned
round to the French Canadians. His speech was
in substance much the same, though the sentences
were shorter and terser ; but in less than two
minutes he spoke with aU the animation of a
born Frenchman, with aU the gesticulation and
vivacity of the race, and the staidness of his
demeanour entirely disappeared. The genius of
the French language had taken possession of
him, and he concluded an impassioned oration
in the most approved French style, both as
regards language and movements. I asked him
afterwards if he was conscious of any change.
He was very much surprised, and told me that
he was quite unconscious of any difference in
attitude or gestures in making the two speeches.
It is curious what an inherent dislike the
average Englishman has to gesticulation or to
what in the boxing ring would be known as
" foot movement " during a public speech.

26o HENRY MATTHEWS
Mr. Henry Matthews (Lord Uandaff) was certainly
one of the most eloquent and scholarly ParUa
mentary speakers of his time ; but he gesticulated
a great deal with his hands, and he wobbled
with his knees. The result was that he never
attained in the House of Commons the oratorical
fame which his undoubted great powers entitied
him to achieve. A lady who was an habituee
of the Speaker's GaUery and a good judge of
ParUamentary likes £ind disUkes, once said to me :
" If I could only bandage Mr, Matthews' knees
before he made his next big speech, he would
become and would be acknowledged to be one
of the great orators in the House of Commons,"

CHAPTER XXIII
Franchise and redistribution — Quarrel settled — Pall Mall Gaxetie
campaign for increase of Navy — Government surrender —
Serious trouble with Bismarck — Capture of Khartoum and
death of Gordon — General indignation — Debates — ^Narrow
majority for Government — Collision with Russia — Im
minence of war — Vote of Credit for eleven mUlions — Personal
intervention of Czar — ^My speech on Budget — Mrs. Gladstone
in Speaker's GaUery — ^Difficulty of renewing Coercion BiUs
for Ireland — Government defeated on Budget — Abstention
from division of Radicals — Gladstone's resignation.
On our return to England we found the fran
chise and redistribution controversy practicaUy
settled. A large scheme of redistribution was
by agreement between the two parties to be
associated with the reduction of the franchise,
and an influential Commission with Sub-Com
missions was to be appointed to give local effect
to the principles so accepted. The House of
Commons almost without criticism or division
took this settlement, which has been in force
now for more than a generation. The settlement
was based upon a partial recognition of the
principle of constituencies being regulated by
population. I am quite satisfied that this
principle ought to be adopted now in its entirety,
and equal electoral districts formed as the con
stituencies of the future. It is the only method
by which the undue preponderance given to
Irish representation and the outlying districts of
i8

262 FRANCHISE AND REDISTRIBUTION
Wales and Scotland can be rectified upon an
inteUigent and automatic basis, and gigantic
constituencies reduced to their proper proportions.
It is a fact that the patriotism and prescience
of the constituency seems to vary in proportion
as it is near to or remote from the MetropoUs.
The farther off it is, the less disposed it seems to
be to make common cause or to endure self-
sacrifice for the common end. In his latter days
Gladstone had almost a monopoly of support
from these remote and isolated constituencies,
and he therefore seriously argued that remote
ness from the Metropolis was a justification for
an over-representation to the constituencies so
situated. Two fresh difficulties had cropped up, both
traceable to the principles laid down in the
Midlothian campaign, and both unpleasant piUs
for the Government to swaUow. In no part of
his ubiquitous attack upon his rival's pohcy was
Gladstone more emphatic than in lajdng down
the" necessity of reducing the existing expenditure
upon the Army and Navy. He had brought his
great personal influence to bear upon the ex
penditure of both these departments since he
had been in office, with the result that he had
so weakened the effective strength of the Navy
that serious apprehension as to its capacity to
defend either the shores or commerce of Great
Britain had arisen in the minds of his own
supporters. The method by which the naval
expenditure had been curtaUed was truly
Gladstonian. Forts were in evidence, but they
had no guns ; coaling stations appeared on the

PALL MALL GAZETTE CAMPAIGN 263
Estimates, but they were undefended; a large
programme of shipbuUding was annually an
nounced, but provision for its advancement
was wholly insufficient ; ships were announced
as completed, though they were gunless; and
worst of all, girns were mounted on ships but
with no ammunition for the service of the guns.
The Pall Mall Gazette, under the editorship
of W. T. Stead, started a campaign against this
make-believe policy, and so vigorous was its
propaganda and so unanswerable the facts at
its command, that in a short time it had the
Government at its mercy. Gladstone was forced
to 5deld and to agree to an extra Vote of £3,100,000
in the middle of the financial year for the purpose
of increasing naval expenditure. This procedure
in time of peace was almost unknown, and was
in itself conclusive condemnation of the policy
which previously had been in force. I little
imagined at the time this Vote was proposed
that in less than a year I should find myself at
the Admiralty and, as First Lord, able to test
and verify the great indictment now formulated
against my predecessors.
The violent attacks made upon Imperialism,
or extension of the British Empire, which form
so large a portion of the Radical creed had an
effect upon foreign nations unforeseen by our
Little Englanders at home. Those attacks were a
direct encouragement to other European nations
to take what they coveted in Africa and else
where. Prince Bismarck took the lead in this
operation. He would blandly inquire of Lord
GranviUe, the Foreign Secretary, if Great Britain

264 SERIOUS TROUBLE WITH BISMARCK
had any sovereign rights over certain districts.
If the reply was in the negative — and, according
to Radical theories, the answer would almost
invariably be to that effect — he would announce
that Germany intended to annex the districts in
question. Then there was a flutter in the Radical
dovecot, and a dispatch contiadicting previous
utterances would be issued. For four years this
Uttie game went on, Bismarck becoming angrier
and more hostUe to Great Britain. FinaUy, after
declaring that no agreement could be arrived at
with a Government whose Foreign Secretary
amused himself by writing such contiadictoiy
dispatches, he annexed, in the teeth of these
protests, Angra Pequena and New Guinea, where
upon the Colcaiies affected became angry, and
Queensland sent a Pohce Officer with a boatioad
of men to annex such portions of New Guinea
as Germany had left.
Gladstone, GranviUe, and Derby were three
men of exceptional abUity, yet, weighted down
by and committed to the ultia-doctrine of the
Manchester School, they so managed the Imperial,
Colonial, and Foreign affairs of Great Britain
when given a free hand by Parhament, that at
the end of four years they had not a friend in
Europe and had caused the deepest dissatisfaction
to our Overseas Dominions.
In Egypt the pohcy of " Wait and see " was
foUowing its usual course ; responsibUity and the
provisions for its enforcement were ignored- or
explained away, action only taken when too late,
men and money wasted and misused, tUl the
crash came in Gordon's capture and death.

DEATH OF GORDON 265
Khartoum was stormed, and the Soudan for half
a generation was given over to an atrocious and
bloodthirsty regime.
All this is now history, and the exhaustive
record of the tergiversations, stupidity, and blihd-
ness of Gladstone's policy in Egypt has been
so well narrated by Lord Cromer that it would
be a waste of time again to traverse ground
already so thoroughly covered.
On the 5th February 1885 news arrived of
Gordon's death, and the indignation and disgust
at the news thus received were universal, and a
cry arose in certain quarters that it was im
perative upon the British Government to smash
the Mahdi. The Government endeavoured to
weather the storm by pretending that they were
moving forces up the Nile for some such purpose.
A vote of censure was moved in the House of
Commons and was defeated by fourteen votes
only — 302 to 288.
Bad as the division was for the Government,
the debate was worse. No man could under
stand what the Government policy was, and each
successive explanation from the Treasury Bench
made it still more unintelligible. Two things
saved the Government : first, that Hartington was
Secretary of State for War, and on him the burden
of defence fell. He rose, as he always did, to
the occasion, and there was a frank admission
of shortcomings and faUure on his part which
placated many of his foUowers. There was also
the serious practical difficulty that any general
election occurring at this moment must be super
seded by a further general election in Noyeml)§r

266 COLLISION WITH RUSSIA
on the enlarged franchise and redistribution
scheme. Neither side wished to undergo this
double ordeal. Thus the Government was saved
for the moment, as no one was wUling to take
their place under such conditions.
But misfortune and blundering stiU dogged
their steps. They were compeUed to withdraw
all troops from the great province of Dongola,
leaving that territory to the tender mercies of
the Mahdi, and even after that withdrawal an
Egyptian Army which they had raised was
severely defeated outside Suakin. But they
soon became involved in a yet more serious
imbroglio which brought them to the very edge
of a war with Russia,
For some time past negotiations had been
going on for the delimitation of the northern
and western boundaries of Afghanistan, and the
British and Russian Governments had agreed to
appoint a joint Commission for that purpose, on
which Afghans were also represented, A weU-
known British officer. Sir Peter Lumsden, was the
chief British representative on this body. The
Russians put forward claims to the possession of
certain territory as a preliminary to negotiation
instead of waiting for adjudication upon the
localities in question. This was represented to
Her Majesty's Government by Lumsden, and
they received from the Russian Government an
assurance that orders would be sent in restraint
of any such action by their representatives on
the spot. Whether any such instructions were
sent or ignored, or whether the authorities on
the spot acted on their own initiative^ wa§

IMMINENCE OF WAR 267
never clearly proved. A quarrel was, however,
deliberately provoked with the Afghan troops
occupying the territories under discussion, and
the Russians advanced, having defeated the
Afghans with heavy casualties and driving them
out of Penjdeh, which was within the recognised
Afghan border. They then occupied that place.
The transaction was so utterly unjustifiable,
and at first sight seemed such a deliberate breach
of faith, that the general belief was that the
Russian authorities had determined either to
insult Great Britain in the eyes of Asia under the
impression that she dared not take umbrage at
the act, or that they had settled on war. Under
these conditions there was nothing for Gladstone
to do but to adopt a determined attitude in the
face of such a menace, and he promptly came
down to the House and demanded a Vote of Credit
of eleven mUlions sterling, and directed both the
Admiralty and the War Office to take preparatory
steps for the mobilisation of the forces of the
Empire. His speech on this occasion was mag
nificent, both in tone and delivery, though to
many of us it seemed a cruel irony of fate that
the man who only seven years before had merci
lessly attacked Beaconsfield for asking for a Vote
of Credit to save Constantinople from Russia,
should now be asking for nearly double that
amount to protect an unknown hamlet in
Afghanistan from the same power.
By a curious but fortunate misunderstanding,
Gladstone got this Vote of Credit without discus
sion or division. A sense of unity and unanimity
was created, so far as Great Britain's attitude was

268 PERSONAL INTERVENTION OF CZAR
concerned, which was at the moment most
essential. But the discussion coUapsed — or rather,
I should say, was not started, by a pure accident,
ChurchiU had a great oration ready which,
however effective it wotdd have been from a
party view, would not have promoted pacifica
tion. He, however, beheved that Northcote, in
accordance with ParUamentary custom, would
have foUowed Gladstone, and he waited for him
to get up ; but Northcote was unweU and did not
wish to speak. The question was put quickly
and passed, and the almost unfaUing approval
shown next day both by the Press and the
public at the acquiescent attitude of the House
of Commons made it impolitic by any subse
quent diatiibes to upset the unanimity thus
estabhshed. Gladstone's enthusiasm infused a littie vitahty
into his foUowers, and the Government held
together for some months longer. During that
period they had daily to do aU that they had
denounced — ^pUe up taxation, take up tiansports,
mobUise the Fleet, and make what hasty prepara
tions they could for the conduct of a great war.
By the personal intervention of the Emperor
of Russia, a compromise was arrived at later
on under Lord Salisbury's regime, and an ex
planation offered which enabled the interrapted
delimitation to be continued and so brought
to a final and satisfactory conclusion. From
that day tUl now Russia has always recognised
the arrangements thus made, and although
opportunities have occurred which she might
have utUised for its upset, she has honourably

MY SPEECH ON BUDGET 269
and scrupulously adhered to her side of this
arrangement. So far as my experience of ar
rangements made with Russia as regards Central
Asia are concerned — and I speak with a long
personal experience — Russia has always respected
the conventions she then made. I lay stress
on this fact, as there is a disposition in certain
quarters to attribute to Russia a want of good
faith. No doubt, under their old system of
government, in which the War Office and Ad
miralty were practically independent of the
Foreign Office, there was not always unity between
understandings arrived at by the Foreign Office
and their execution by the Executive Depart
ments of the Russian Government ; but the estab
lishment of Constitutional Government in Russia
with a CouncU of Ministers has effectively counter
acted this administrative confusion.
There was a deficit in consequence of these
warlike preparations of eleven miUions sterling,
which in those days was looked upon as an un
paralleled financial catastrophe. On the second
reading of the Budget I was asked by Salisbury to
make a strong and general attack all down the
line, as I was supposed to be well up in the Mid
lothian speeches and therefore qualified to draw
unpleasant contrasts between promise and per
formance. All Members of the Opposition were
at that time greatly incensed against Gladstone,
for we regarded him as primarily responsible
for Gordon's death and the heavy and futUe loss
of life caused by our military failures in Egypt.
I therefore made a long and very strongly worded
speech, going deliberately as near as I could to the

270 MRS. GLADSTONE
limits aUowed to Parliamentary invective. My
wife was in the Speaker's GaUery, and so was Mrs.
Gladstone. After I had spoken for some time,
Mrs. Gladstone got up and said : " I can't stand
any more of this man." She went out, had tea,
and came back and unconsciously sat down next
to my wife, whom she had known for many years.
I had not finished, and she exclaimed : " That
horrid man stiU speaking ! " and then, seeing who
was next to her, she with her inimitable aplomb
said to my wife, patting the back of her hand :
" Never mind, my dear, he wiU soon have done."
No Prime Minister ever had a more devoted and,
in my judgment, a more capable helpmate. She
never showed in the most difficult and awkward
positions either want of dignity or resource, and
her inherent kindness of heart and good nature
were universaUy admitted by aU who knew her.
As the session drew on, nearer and nearer
came the critical question — ^were the Irish Coer
cion BiUs which lapsed this year to be renewed
or to be dropped ? Many were the discussions
and searchings of heart, the lobb5mig and in
trigues amongst the Radical Party over this very
simple question. If any attempt to renew these
BUls were made, it was certain that the National
ist vote in Great Britain would be poiUed against
those who renewed these BUls, The longer the
question was postponed the more difficult became
the renewal of these Acts, as time was becoming
curtaUed and their reimposition on the Statute
Book would necessarUy take much time. Then
a brUliant idea occurred to some Radical wire-
puUer ; " Let us be beaten on some other issue ;

GOVERNMENT DEFEATED 271
let us put our opponents in, and let them settle
the awkward job we leave them." There was an
important amendment on the Budget which was
moved by Hicks Beach. When a division on this
amendment was caUed, no less than seventy-six
unpaired Liberals were absent, and by a small
majority the Government was beaten. That
this defeat was not accidental was clear from
what followed. Although his foUowers proposed
to resuscitate Gladstone by a vote of confidence,
that astute old gentleman declined in any way to
be so rehabUitated. A political deadlock ensued.

CHAPTER XXIV
Salisbury hesitates to accept office — ^Nature of difficulties to be
overcome — Message from Bismarck — SaUsbury accepts office
— ^Northcote becomes a Peer — I go to Admiralty — C3iaos
in Admiralty — Success of new Government — QiurchiQ's in
timacy with Irish Party — Difficulty of maintaining authority
in Ireland with no coercive powers — Meianstrasna Murder —
Review of the case — Debates in Parliament — ChnichiU's
perturbation — Irish vote — How distributed — Certainty in
Radical mind of large majority — My forecast — Sir Henry
Msdne — ^Result of election — <xladstone's instantaneous adop
tion of Home Rule.
The Queen sent for Lord Salisbury, and though he
did not refuse off-hand to form a Ministry, he had
grave misgivings as to the wisdom or even possi-
bUity of undertaking such a task. Though the
late Government were utterly discredited, their
supporters, even without the ParneUite Members,
constituted a considerable majoritj'^ in the House
of Commons, and the vexation they felt at the
utter coUapse of their leader's pohcj'^ did not
premise a likehhood of abstention from inter
fering with and outvoting an administration of
pohtical opponents. The Budget had to be re
cast and the Estimates passed. This was impos
sible unless some guarantee coiUd be obtained
from Gladstone that he would restiain his foUowers
from opposition and factiousness. Though he
was jaded and physically unweU and anxious to
get rid of his responsibihties, he could not be

DIFFICULTIES TO BE OVERCOME 273
brought to do more than give vague promises of
abstention from interference or obstruction for
the remaining weeks of the session. There was
the difficult and burning question of a renewal of
the Coercion Acts in Ireland. If the Conservatives
took office, their reimposition was an impossibility,
as lack of time and a hostUe majority were insuper
able obstacles against such a policy. That being
so, could Salisbury and his colleagues undertake the
responsibility of administering Ireland between
now and a general election with no powers be
hind them except the ordinary law ? It was clear
also that if any idea of accepting office was enter
tained, the Commons leader must be strong, alert,
and physically capable of facing a severe ordeal.
Northcote' s failing health incapacitated him from
such a task. Yet both he and Lady Northcote
clung to the idea that he would be the next Prime
Minister. The assumption of office meant the
deposition of Northcote from the leadership of
the House of Commons.
These unpleasant but unavoidable exigencies
had to be admitted and faced if office was taken.
Would the rank and file of the party understand
these difficulties ? and even if they understood
them, would they support the apparent deviation
from orthodoxy which would necessarily follow ?
Dropping the Irish coercive measures would, for
the time being, placate the ParneUites and prob
ably induce them to support us in the House of
Commons. Would Conservatives tolerate even
such a temporary support from those whose actions
and aims were so detestable to them ? On the
other hand, strong, patriotic, and party reasons

274 MESSAGE FROM BISMARCK
could be given for not running away from respon
sibility. The late Government were thoroughly
unpopular and quite inept, as they hopelessly
failed both as administrators and statesmen.
Would it not be, both from a national and even
party standpoint, an advantage if fresh minds
took over the Government ? And might they not
be able between now and the general election so
to act and legislate as to extricate, to some extent,
the affairs of the country from the hopeless tangle
in which they were involved ? If this could be
done, there being a deep and general belief in
Salisbury's integrity and capacity, should not
we, under his leadership, so improve the national
position and strengthen our own party prpspects
as to obtain a larger vote at the general election
in November, and thus be more useful in the
future ?
In the midst of these ruminations I received one
morning a visit from an old friend of mine. Colonel
S  . At that moment he happened to be
Military Attach^ at Berlin. We had been officers
together in the Rifle Brigade, where we became
very intimate. S  began the conversation by
saying : "I want you to give me a letter to Lord
Sahsbury." "Certainly," I said. "But why do
you want to see him ? " "If you will not repeat
the reason, I will tell you, as I know that you are
in the inner circle of politics with Lord Salisbury.
The day before I left Berlin, Bismarck sent one of
his agents to see me and to tell me that he wished
me on my arrival in London to give to Lord
Salisbury the following message : That he, Bis
marck, h^d found it impossible to carry on busi-

SALISBURY ACCEPTS OFFICE 275
ness with Gladstone's Government. They never
knew their own mind or case, and at times they
would not even answer his letters. He therefore
hoped Sahsbury would take office, and if he did so
he would try to estabhsh better relations with
England, as he wanted Great Britain to be a
greater force in the councils of Europe than
she was at that time." Whether this message
decided Sahsbury or not, I cannot say, but a
short time after its reception he did accept
office. The story of S  is confirmed by another
which subsequently came to my ears. When later
on Sir Edward Malet was Ambassador at Berhn,
his wife was seriously ill in England. He hesi
tated to leave Berhn, as some special Anglo-
German business was on the tapis. Bismarck
sent him a message to say that, so long as Lord
Salisbury was Prime Minister of England, Malet
could leave Berlin without risk.
My experience of Bismarck's subsequent action
certainly endorses these stories. He liked Salis
bury, he worked with him, and he sent his son
Herbert over here to cultivate better relations
with England, and up to the end of his tenure of
office he was not unfriendly to us. It was upon
these manifestations of goodwill towards us that
we were induced to cede Heligoland to Germany.
But from the date of the cession of that island
our relations steadily deteriorated. Offensive and
aggressive language, both in official dispatches
and in the Press, began to characterise the German
attitude towards us, and the change in tone is
almost coincident with the Kaiser's dethronement

276 NORTHCOTE BECOMES A PEER
of Bismarck and the retention in his own hands of
the foreign policy of his country.
Upon Salisbury's forming his Government,
Northcote went up to the Upper House with the
titie of Earl, and he became Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs ; but he bitterly felt his de
position from the leadership of the House of
Commons, and Salisbury had some difficulty
in inducing him to agree to this arrangement.
Though it was the fashion to say that Randolph
Churchill had expelled him from the House of
Commons, it is only fair to add that Salisbury
did not make these proposals until after he had
consulted W. H. Smith, John Manners, and other
men in the House of Commons whose opinion he
valued, and they were unanimously of the opinion
that the physical condition of Northcote was
such as to render it impossible for him to under
take, under the trying conditions of the moment,
the leadership of a Government in a minority in
the House of Commons.
Hicks Beach had marked himself out as a
leader by a succession of excellent speeches, and
he became ChanceUor of the Exchequer, and
Churchill Secretary of State for India. The cir
cumstances in which I became First Lord of the
Admiralty are worth noting, as they exemplify
the extraordinary unselfishness and sense of duty
of W. H. Smith.
He and I had an appointment at the same time
with Salisbury, and on coming into the room
together, Sahsbury said in his incisive way :
" Smith, I want you to go back to the Admiralty,
and you, Hamilton, to the War Office." I was

I GO TO ADMIRALTY 277
taken aback at this proposal, and said : " If you
really wish it, I will try the office, but you know
the necessity for reform in that Department.
The Duke of Cambridge was Field Marshal at the
time I was Junior Ensign in the Guards. Shall
I not be in an impossible position if I attempt to
carry through necessary changes and reforms ?
And ought not the Secretary of State for War
to be an older man ? " Salisbury turned to
Smith : "I think there is force in what Hamilton
says. Will you undertake the War Office ? "
Smith hesitated for a moment, and then said :
" If you press it and really wish it, I will do so."
My usual luck had attended me, for in two
minutes I was transformed from the most difficult
and invidious post in the Cabinet to the blue
ribbon of office. That Smith without hesitation
should have given up to a younger colleague a
delightful office to which he had a personal claim
in exchange for a most unpleasant and unpalat
able post is only one iUustration of the extra
ordinary sense of duty and self-sacrifice he dis
played during the whole of his life. When later
on, as Leader of the House of Commons, he was
always calling upon the House to do their duty,
he was only repeating publicly his daily in
centive to himself. I left that room with my
admiration for and love of Smith greatly en
hanced, for I felt that there was not another man
in politics who in the same position would have
shown such chivalrous self-abnegation.
To our surprise the reception of the new
Government by the House of Commons was not
only sympathetic but cordial. It was generally
19

278 CHAOS IN ADMIRALTY
admitted that we were only a stop-gap Govern
ment ; but the absence of pretension and the
calm business-like demeanour of the new Leader's
speech generally pleased the House. His recast
of the Budget was simple but effective, and was
assented to by all parties.
ChurchUl began to develop his extraordinary
Parliamentary aptitude. His speech on the
Indian Budget was a remarkable performance,
though very scathing in its denunciation of the
policy of the ex- Viceroy, Lord Ripon.
Sahsbury in his post of Prime Minister was a
persona grata in all the Chancelleries of Europe,
and their confidence in him was promptly justified
by his coming at once .to terms with Russia for
the pacific delimitation of North- West Afghanistan.
We were also Able to pass certain minor adminis
trative Bills which gave general satisfaction ; in
fact, the House of Commons was tired of the old
lot and ready to welcome any change.
As I have before stated, I was First Lord of
the Admiralty, and associated with me was
Charles Ritchie, afterwards ChanceUor of the
Exchequer, who took the post of Parliamentary
Secretary to the Admiralty. We found the
Admiralty in a state of administrative chaos, and
one of the first blunders we unearthed was a
miscalculation of a million in the expenditure of
one branch of the Department alone. This revela
tion made a considerable sensation and greatly
annoyed Gladstone. He was cut to the quick
to be told that any department of the Govern
ment of which he was head should have incurred
such an expenditure without proper sanction.

SUCCESS OF NEW GOVERNMENT 279
I do not think I ever saw him more irritated
than he was when the Chancellor of the Exchequer
made public this default in clear and somewhat
caustic terms.
Amongst other Bills, a Land Purchase Bill,
known as Ashbourne's Act, was to my delight
brought in to facilitate land purchase in Ireland.
This was the first of a series of legislative Acts
which have done so much towards the pacification
and prosperity of Ireland. The ParneUite Party
were greatly pleased at the abandonment of the
Coercion Bill and the introduction of the Land
BiU, and they gave a somewhat too ostentatious
support to us to please many of our friends. There
were rumours of intrigues and understandings
between the Government and ParneU's foUowers,
and a certain substance was given to these
rumours from the intimate terms which Churchill
had established between himself and certain Irish
Members when sitting below the gangway. It
was freely asserted that we had secured the
Irish support by concessions not only as regards
the administration of law and order in Ireland,
but even to the extent of promising some form
of autonomous government. ChurchUl, whom I
had got to know intimately, always assured me
that the only understanding to which he had
ever been a party was his statement that if the
Conservatives did take office in this Parliament
they would not renew the existing Coercion BUI.
It was a very safe proposition to lay down,
because the mere fact of our taking office at the
end of a session In a House where we were
a comparatively small minority made the re-

28o CHURCHILL AND IRISH PARTY
imposition of such legislation an impossibility.
I am quite certain that ChurchiU's statement was
correct, for when later on he as Leader of the
Unionist Party in the House of Commons became
the most formidable opponent of the Nationalists,
though he was violently attacked, it was never
insinuated by any of his opponents that he had
broken any engagement with them or had induced
them to support him by advances or promises
which he had since broken. After his celebrated
speech in which he said at Belfast : " Ulster
will fight, and Ulster will be right," the animosity
against him amongst the Parnellites was ex
tremely bitter, and they would have fully utUised
any allegation of bad faith if it had had a shadow
of substance behind it.
There was at this time a wide divergence of
opinion as to the future policy to be pursued
in Ireland, and Chamberlain and DUke had
framed a somewhat shadowy scheme of Pro
vincial CouncUs ; but for some reason or other,
they were not in favour with the Nationalists,
who were disposed on aU occasions to give them
the cold shoulder. Lord Spencer, late Lord-
Lieutenant of Ireland, and his legal subordinates
had shown remarkable courage in suppressing
outrage and violence, and he had made a drastic
but very successful use of the strong extra
ordinary powers given to him, AU loyalists felt
deeply indebted to him for his fearless conduct,
but, as is always the case in dealing summarUy
with wholesale violence and crime, mistakes are
from time to time made which do caU for sub
sequent investigation and review.

NEW LORD-LlEUTENANT 281
Murders of a very deliberate and brutal
character had been committed at Maanstrasna in
the west of Ireland, and on such a scale as to
have necessitated the employment of a consider
able gang. This gang was hunted down, and
punishment was infficted upon various of its
members by hanging or imprisonment. The new
Lord-Lieutenant and Chief Secretary of Ireland
were Lord Carnarvon and Sir William Hart
Dyke. They had been most carefully selected
for those posts, and a better choice could not
have well been made. Lord Carnarvon, though
at times erratic, was a man of exceptional
abUity, with charming manners and an open and
receptive mind, and he was speciaUy qualified
to sustain an attitude of concUiation and im
partiality. Dyke was a man of great practical
experience, an excellent judge of character,
absolutely straight and frank, a fine sportsman,
and a very noted athlete. The task they had
to undertake was extraordinarUy difficult. For
reasons already stated, they had nothing behind
them but the ordinary law, and they had for
the maintenance of order largely to rely upon
the good behaviour of the Nationalists. It was
therefore advisable for them to give no oppor
tunity whatever in the administration of the
ordinary law for charges of unfairness or injustice ;
and, on the other hand, they had to keep down
and punish violence and outrage with nothing
but the ordinary law at their disposal.
Very shortly after the Government accepted
office, at some public function John Bright made
a violent attack on the Pamellites, flaying them

282 MAANSTRASNA MURDER
in the denunciatory language of which he was
so consummate a master, and at the same time
he highly eulogised Spencer. Attention was
called to this speech in Parliament. Bright,
though in bad health, came up to the House of
Commons and defended himself with courage
and skill ; but he unreservedly adhered to all
he had said. The debate though short was hot,
and the Leader of the House, naturaUy wishing
to bring it to a close, did use language which
might have seemed depreciatory of Spencer and
at variance with Bright's denunciations. This
little episode caused a good deal of annoyance
to Ulstermen, who assumed that Churchill had
prompted this speech. A few days later it was
announced that the Lord-Lieutenant would re
investigate the case of certain prisoners connected
with the Maanstrasna outrage. It was not un
usual for the Lord - Lieutenant so to exercise "
his powers ; but the fact that, in this instance,
the power was to be used in connection with
agrarian and political murders raised a storm of
indignation amongst our stalwarts which was
not abated by some caustic remarks by our
Solicitor-General upon the intolerance of the
malcontents. It was a bad evening. I drove home with
Churchill ; he was very much perturbed and
feared that this protest would seriously impair
the prestige of the Government and diminish
their chances of success at the forthcoming
election. Though unhappy at this contretemps
I told him that it would not materially affect us,
provided nothing further occurred to annoy or

IRISH VOTE 283
excite the suspicion of our stalwarts. A few
days later two of the Liverpool Members refused
to appear on the same platform with Churchill,
and though this refusal greatly incensed him it
had, in one sense, a salutary effect and made
him much more careful for the future.
In the elections which occurred a few months
later we did get, in certain constituencies, the
ParneUite vote, but the vote so given was
bestowed upon personal rather than general
grounds. In my famUy there were four of us
standing for different constituencies in England
and Ireland, and we were all returned. In each
of these constituencies the Parnellites to a man
voted against us. ParneU, in arranging his
British voting power, had two objects in view —
to get a political hold over the weaker Unionist
candidates, and next to exaggerate his voting
power in the minds of the Radicals by returning
as many Conservatives as possible. The support
so given to a section of our party and the circum
stances in which it was given were, I think, a
blot upon our political escutcheon ; but the
support was very ephemeral and vanished after
the next election, never to be renewed.
However unpleasant these divergencies of
opinion in our party were, they were nothing
compared with the dissensions in the opposite
camp. The main question before the new elec
torate was not Ireland — for the Radical Party
were then practically unanimous in their repudia
tions of Home Rule— but social and agricultural
reform. Chamberlain started his unauthorised
programme which contained some novel doctrines,

284 RADICAL CERTAINTY OF MAJORITY
both social and agricultural, "Three acres and
a cow " were dangled before the agricultural
labourers, and in industrial centres hints of ran
som from the well-to-do were freely promulgated.
Hartington and Goschen were strongly opposed
to this school of thought, and during the elec
tion the most exciting .incident on the platform
was the vigorous and continuous duel which was
carried on between these two antagonistic sections
of the Liberal Party,
But though there were differences of opinion
upon home and social questions, all our leading
opponents were united in one belief, namely, that
the result of the election would give them such a
majority as to make them independent of Con
servative and Home Rule alike. All their fore
casts of policy and all their speeches were based
on this assumption. Gladstone laid down that
it would not be safe or honourable to legislate
for Ireland unless they were independent of the
Irish votes. His chief lieutenant, Harcourt, went
further. His view of the situation was that the
Parnellites should be allowed to "stew in their
own juice."
At the election of 1880 I had attempted a fore
cast which came very nearly right, so I made a
more careful estimate upon the data available
as to what would be the probable result of the
present contest. Upon one point there was no
room for doubt : it was certain that the ParneUite
Party would not be less than eighty or more than
eighty-six. This was known to every political
tyro. Gladstone, Harcourt, and others who dur
ing the election took up so uncompromising an

MY FORECAST 285
attitude against Home Rule did so with a full
knowledge of this certainty. What they did not
know or accurately forecast was the number of
Conservatives to be returned. They became
Home Rulers, not because over eighty ParneUites
were returned, but because the Conservatives
came back so strong that they were unable to
obtain office except through the assistance of the
ParneUites. This assertion is confirmed by the
foUowing story.
Sir Henry Maine had always been very kind
to me, and we were on very intimate terms
ever since our association together at the India
Office. In the autumn of this year we each had
a house on the Surrey Downs, and there was only
a heath intervening between our two abodes,
Maine paid a series of visits to various political
friends, and when he came back he walked over
to see me. We discussed the impending election,
and he said : "I have been in contact with the
leading Radical wire-puUers, Harcourt, Trevelyan,
and others, and they all are confident that they
are going to give you a tremendous beating."
In reply I sadd : " We shall be heavily beaten,
but I think we shall come back about 250 strong."
Maine turned round in intense surprise : " You
are not serious?" "Yes," I said; "that is
my calculation." "Well," he said, "if you are
approximately right, you wiU see some very funny
things happen. They think that you wiU come
back about 140, but in no circumstances can you
reach the figure of 200." And again he repeated :
" If you are right, you will see some very queer
things ensue."

286 RESULT OF ELECTION
My estimate was a very accurate one, for we
came back 249 strong, Pamellites 86, making a
total of 335, and in combination we were an im
pregnable barrier to Gladstone's return to office.
Within less than three weeks of the election the
" queer things " which Maine predicted had
occurred. Gladstone sent a Home Rule mani
festo to the Leeds Mercury. When asked whether
it represented his views, he characteristically
replied : " It is not an accurate representation
but a speculation." He opened negotiations
with the ParneUites, he secured their support,
and in the early days of the new session
he ousted the Government from office on a
motion made by Jesse Colhngs. He reinstated
himself in office as an « out - and - out Home
Ruler. In thus taking one of the sharpest curves
known in political tergiversation, Gladstone was
influenced amongst other considerations by two
facts. In the preceding autumn Carnarvon had
a private interview with Parnell. It was a most
injudicious act on his part, as he found to his cost
in the garbled account which PameU afterwards
gave of this interview. He had, however, pre
viously received the assent of Lord Sahsbury,
though his action was unknown to the rest of
the Cabinet. Parnell took care that Gladstone
should know of this incident, and it was so reported
to him as to induce him to believe that the Con
servative Government were considering a scheme
for a Home Rule Parliament. Gladstone, accept
ing the theory that we were capable of such an
act of treachery, wished to forestaU any such

GLADSTONE BECOMES HOME RULER 287
possible move on the part of the Conservatives.
The remarkable difference between the estimates
given him by his electoral agents of the number
of Conservatives likely to be returned and the
actual number returned was explained away by
the assertion that the difference was mainly due
to the transfer of the Pamelhte vote to the Con
servatives. " The Irish vote can control eighty
seats in Great Britain " was a statement con
stantiy made by chagrined Radicals. " Only
secure the Nationalist vote in Ireland and Great
Britain, and office and power are for ever before
you." The estimate of the Irish vote was, of
course, grotesquely high.
From the beginning of the year 1886 Glad
stone opened out a new chapter in the political
history of Great Britain. From that day till now
much of our political energy and speech has been
expended over this question of Irish Home Rule.
It has dwarfed all other considerations, and it has
obliterated the recoUection of the ghastly failures
of Gladstone's Government from 1880 to 1885.
Those unhappy years demonstrated the inepti
tude and futility of the creed of the so-called
Manchester School. Tried and tested under the
existing conditions of modern international
pohcy, it utterly coUapsed, bringing disaster and
discredit upon its advocates and exponents. But
we did not then learn wisdom or thoroughly mend
our ways. For the last two years we have been
fighting for our existence, endangered as it has
been through adherence to this creed, and in this
struggle for our very lives we are by force of
circumstances compeUed steadily to denounce

288 SHALL WE LEARN WISDOM ?
and reverse its cardinal ideas one by one. Let
us pray that this repudiation may be quickened
and become permanent, ?ind that the only wonder
of succeeding generations will be — why were we
ever fools enough to adhere to the phantasies
of these delusions ?

CHAPTER XXV
At the Admiralty — Reasons for entire change of Board — Huge
incomplete scheme of shipbuUding — Cause of delay and dis
organisation — Sir Nathaniel Baxnaby — His resignation, and
appointment of White as successor — White's success —
Dockyard reorganisation — Treasury obstruction and final
defeat — Treasury attitude on minor questions — Education
Estimate — Treasury's strength and weakness — India Office
and financial check — Necessity for establishing new system
for supervision of expenditure-^-SaUors and soldiers as heads
of their respective Services.
My experience of the Admiralty was almost
unique, as between the years 1885 and 1892 I
was, with the exception of a few months, con
tinuously at the head of that Department . During
that long period of administration great and far-
reaching changes were made in almost every
branch of this great Service. What I am now
about to narrate refers, not only to the period of
my first tenure of office, but also embraces cer
tain incidents in the second period which termin
ated with the resignation of Lord Salisbury's
Government in 1892.
The changes which were made have been
accepted almost without exception by succeeding
Boards as sound, and have been made the founda
tion of further and greater reforms. I say this
in no boastful or egotistical sense, for I am deeply
conscious that the main merit for these changes
rests with the singularly able body of naval
389

290 REASONS FOR ENTIRE CHANGE
and civUian colleagues with whom I worked and
upon whose experience and whole-hearted assist
ance I could at all times rely. Smith was very
helpful to me at the outset.
As regards the composition of the new Board
of Admiralty, Smith was strongly of opinion, after
consultation with weU-known Naval Officers, that
the only safe course for me to pursue was to
make a clean sweep of the existing Naval Lords
and bring in a fresh group. There were at that
time several available administrators of first-
class ability outside the Admiralty, and who, in
addition to their personal qualifications, possessed
the confidence of the Navy. Smith was so just
and considerate and had such accurate knowledge
of the internal condition of the Admiralty, that I
was greatly influenced by his advice, though the
duty of getting rid of the existing naval occupants
of office was not a task which I faced with equa
nimity. The three officers in question were
Admirals Sir Cooper Key, Lord Alcester, and Sir
WiUiam Hewitt, and I proposed to replace them
by Admirals Sir Arthur Hood, Sir Anthony
Hoskins, and Captain Codrington, three tried
and capable administrators. I performed my
unpleasant duty with all the consideration I could
command, but two of the three officers in question
were bitterly hurt, and I felt great compunction
at being the instrument of their mortification.
Alcester, on the other hand, took the opposite
view, and when I told him the names of those I
proposed to bring in, he said, in his frank, jovial
manner : " You are perfectly right. Great
changes for the sake of the Navy are necessary.

THE NEW BOARD 291
and you can much more easily effect these changes
with men unconnected with the past. Your three
men are a really strong lot. I wish you aU suc
cess, and I will help you in every way I can," I
was greatly encouraged by these soothing words.
Our new Board consisted of myself, the three
Naval Officers above mentioned, and Mr. Charles
Ritchie and Mr. Ashmead-Bartlett as Secretary
and Civil Member. The ControUership remained
undianged. Admirals Hood and Hoskins, with whom I
was subsequently associated for several years,
were two men of first-class capacity, keen but
sagacious reformers, untiring in their industry,
and with great experience, both practical and
theoretical, behind them. Hood, from a purely
administrative point of view, was, I think, the
best man I ever worked with. He was very shy
and had a sarcastic manner which made him
unpopular with certain branches of the Service ;
but he was extraordinarily just and unbiased in
his judgment, selections, and promotions. Ritchie
also was a first-class administrator and man of
business. His powers of speech were not equal
to his powers of action, and he had at times a
curt and somewhat ungracious manner. He was,
therefore, not generally appraised at his proper
value. It was very fortunate that such great
changes were made in the composition of the
Board, for we found the general condition of the
material of the Navy most unsatisfactory, and the
Admiralty itself was in a very chaotic condition.
Sir Cooper Key, the late First Naval Lord, was
an indefatigable worker. Hi§ Chief, Lord North-

292 SCHEME OF SHIPBUILDING
brook, was constantly out of England on Govern
ment business, and he was so much taken up with
Indian and Eg5^tian affairs which were delegated
to him by the Government that he had not
adequate time to attend fully to Admiralty
business. Cooper Key, therefore, was both First
Lord and First Sea Lord, and in this double
capacity, with his omnivorous love of work, he
became the whole Board of Admiralty himself,
undertaking the supervision of practically all the
departments. This is far too wide and com
prehensive a task for any one man to undertake
even in time of peace. In war-time or in pre
paration for war it is an impossibility. The
excess expenditure of a million before referred
to in the Transport Department was due to two
officials giving, without co-operation, simultaneous
orders for the taking up of transports, but making
no provision for the payment of the officers and
crews necessary to man them.
Almost our first business was to draw up a
table for the distribution of work and responsi
bility amongst the various members of the Board,
each naval member becoming personaUy respon
sible to the First Lord for the administrative
work given to him. It is only by such a division
of work that the multifarious departments of the
Admiralty can be efficiently and concurrently
administered. Turning to the Construction side, we found
an almost inexplicable variety of battleships and
cruisers uncompleted or buUding. There were
four echelon-turret-ships with four heavy guns
in echelon and heavy armour amidships, but with

WANT OF HOMOGENEITY 293
no secondary armament. They were slow of
speed and very bad steer ers. There were six
battleships of the " Admiral " class, good
steamers with a large secondary armament, but
practically unarmoured. Though nearly com
pleted, their guns were not forthcoming, and in
one case the heavier armament had only been
settled after the ship was half -completed. There
were two big battleships with low freeboard and
with two -no guns forward but with no big guns
aft ; and there were two smaUer ships of the
same design and with guns of lesser calibre.
There were two big armoured cruisers with large
guns in a quadrilateral in the centre of the ship,
and there were five smaller armoured cruisers but
whose displacement at full draught was so deep
that the armour was under the water. Two big
battleships were to be laid down, designs un
known. Thus there was a huge programme in hand of
uncompleted ships, and the number was large, as
sufficient funds for their rapid and economical
completion had not for years past been voted.
All idea of homogeneity had vanished, and effective
or simultaneous manoeuvring was impossible with
such a variety of ships, differing so much as they
did in tonnage, speed, armament, and armour.
The duty of providing the guns, ammunition, and
reserves for the Fleet had been imposed upon the
Army, and as the Army could not get sufficient
funds for their primary wants it was not likely
they would subordinate such wants to the second
ary duty of ordnancing the Navy. What the
reserves were no one knew, and of the supply of
20

294 OMNIPOTENCE OF TREASURY
guns all that was known was that they were
deplorably behind the demands of the ships.
How our first fighting line had settied into such
a condition has always remained a puzzle to me.
My predecessor. Lord Northbrook, was an ex
perienced administrator, most upright and con
scientious. His First Naval Lord's capacity was
undoubted. The only explanation I can offer is
that the Admiralty pushed a large programme
of buUding upon the Treasury, and the Treasury
retaliated by cutting down the amount necessary
for its economical and rapid completion.
Lord Sahsbury once said to me : " I re
cognise the Treasury as a Department of the
Government, but not as the Government." In
this country the Premier has been, with scarcely
one exception, the First Lord of the Treasury,
and next to the Premier in rank and status comes
the ChanceUor of the Excehquer. Almost from
the days of Pitt to Gladstone this has been the
tradition, and consequently the Treasury becomes,
and certainly was under Gladstone, the Govern
ment. Northbrook, as we aU know, was at
variance with Gladstone between 1880 and 1885
on many foreign, Indian, and Egyptian questions,
and he probably gained concessions on these
matters. He may therefore have been less dis
posed, to fight the Treasury on certain questions,
for it is no use attempting to fight the Treasury
unless you are prepared to give up office if worsted,
and Northbrook, under the exceptional difficulties
of this period, may have hesitated to take this
extreme step.
Subsequently, we took strenuous steps to

SIR NATHANIEL BARNABY 295
obtain the transfer from War Office to Admiralty
votes for the sums necessary for the provision
of naval guns, gun mountings, and ammuni
tion. It took us two years' hard fighting to
achieve this obvious administrative reform, and
the change has made the whole difference as to
the expedition with which new ships could be
completed and commissioned.
Sir Nathaniel Barnaby was Chief Constructor
of the Navy, He was a cultivated, clever man,
and a high expert in his profession ; but he
belonged to and moved in a circle which so hated
war that they did not believe in its likelihood —
I might even say, in its possibUity. He seemed
to me to exercise his abUity more in showing the
great variety of combinations that could be ob
tained on a given displacement by a variation
in the proportion which speed, armour, and
armament bear one to another than in ascertain
ing what was best for the Navy and what the
Naval Officers required. At that time there was a
strong controversy going on as to whether armour
should be inside or outside battleships. The sup
porters of the former theory contended that internal
sloping armoured decks gave as efficient protec
tion as could be obtained from vertical armour on
the outside of the ship, and they further argued
that this defensive method saved a considerable
amount of weight, Barnaby apparentiy accepted
this theory. Almost the last word Northbrook
said to me in our various interviews (for he gener
ously placed his knowledge and experience un
reservedly at my disposal) was to the effect that
Barnaby wished to resign, but he advised me not

296 BARNABY'S RESIGNATION
to let him go. A few days afterwards I saw
Barnaby, and sure enough he tendered his resigna
tion. He did not seem to me to be weU, being
nervous and excited. I therefore asked him
to give me a few days to think over the matter,
reserving to myself the option of accepting his
resignation. I then consulted Hood in the matter.
Hood knew a great deal of the technical side of
design and construction of ships. He was also
a high gunnery expert. He was altogether
opposed to Barnaby's theories, and he stiongly
advised me to make an effort to bring back to
the Admiralty Mr. White, who had recently left
the Service to become head of Armstiong's ship
buUding yard, I made further inquiries and
found out that aU who knew White had a very
high opinion of his capacity. To bring a pubhc
servant back into the Service as head of a depart
ment over those who had remained was an un
usual procedure, and sure to lead to protest. If it
had to be done, it must be done quickly and irrev
ocably. I consulted the Permanent Secretary,
who had also a very high estimate of White,
and he undertook to go down by night to New-
castie to see White and to ascertain if he was
wiUing to come back on reasonable terms. He
saw White, and White was most reasonable, and
stated the terms upon which he was wiUing to
return to the Admiralty, provided Lord Arm
strong would aUow him to go,
I went over to the Treasury and got assent to
White's conditions. We had been so near war
that the Treasury made no difficulty about raising
the terms and the salary of the post of Chief Con-

WHITE'S APPOINTMENT 297
structor of the Navy. I then wrote to Armstrong,
who by return of post most patriotically gave up
White, provided that the Admiralty would aUow
him to take another officer from the Corps of
Naval Constructors. Both White and Armstrong
behaved with patriotism and promptitude. White
gave up a large income, and Armstrong sur
rendered a man whom he knew to be one of the
first naval architects of the time.
In pushing this arrangement through, I had
relied on Hood but had forgotten to consult the
Controller in whose department the Chief Con
structor was. The Controller was naturaUy much
annoyed, but he was a high-minded gentleman,
and he ultimately accepted my explanation that
it was from inadvertence rather than intention
that he was thus ignored. It was just as well that
I did not consult him, for the officials in his de
partment would have made such objections that
I should have had much difficulty in getting the
matter through. As it was, the two Senior Con
structors resigned, but as they were near the age
of retirement their loss was soon made good.
W. H. White completely justified the anticipa
tions expressed of his capacity. He was a man
of first-class ability, completely master of aU the
branches of his profession, always ready to hear
what Naval Officers had to say of his proposed
designs, and to meet, if he could, their require
ments. In addition to his great technical know
ledge, he had an extraordinary power of exposi
tion : in fact, I do not think I ever came across
anyone who could put with greater clearness
^iid force scientific propositions. It was largely

298 WHITE'S SUCCESS
due to his breadth of view and indefatigable
industry that the Naval Defence Act was a suc
cess. To give some idea of what a man of his
capacity loses pecuniarily by transferring his
services from private to public employ, he told
me that if he had remained in private employ his
commissions on the ships he designed under the
Naval Defence Act would have been over a quarter
of a milUon; sterhng. During the many years he
was Director of Naval Construction, he immensely
improved the British Fleet by the homogeneity
and thoroughness of his designs. This was uni
versaUy recognised by Naval Officers, who will
always have a grateful memory of White's
exertions and success.
The next question which we had to tackle
was the reorganisation and reform of the Dock
yards, and this task took three years of serious
labour and controversy. The Royal Dockyards
had been much criticised of late, and so general
was the opinion that as builders they were
inferior to private yards that a Committee not
long back had recommended that their work
should be confined to repairs and fittings, construc
tion being given to private yards. That the
Dockyards were dilatory and expensive in their
methods was clear, for no ironclad had been com
pleted in five years from the date of its being
laid down to the date of its being ready for com
mission. The estimates for construction had
also been greatly exceeded, and, taking the past
few years, the general excess of cost over esti^-
mate was about 45 per cent.
The tendency in certain political circles was

DOCKYARD REORGANISATION 299
to assert that these bad results were caused by
the Government and Naval Officers undertaking
work they did not understand. There were
masses of reports on the subject running back for
many years. The latest and most thorough of
these investigations was very scathing in some
of its comments upon Dockyard methods, but, on
the other hand, it estabhshed certain facts very
clearly. The material bought and suppUed to
the Dockyard was first-rate and advantageously
acquired. The Dockyard " maties " — as they
were caUed — were skiUed workmen of a high
order, and when untrammelled by red tape they
had shown exceptional aptitude and quickness
in their work. The delay in the completion of
ships and the heavy excesses over their estimates
were largely due to the Treasurj?^ decUning to give
the annual sums necessary for their rapid and
economical advancement. It is a maxim in
shipbuilding that to build cheaply you should
build expeditiously, that being a combination of
time and money which will give the most favour
able result. If that period of time is exceeded,
the cost of the building wUl necessarily go up.
The Treasury had not allowed their pohcy of
limiting expenditure to be sufficientiy influenced
by this indisputable proposition.
But inside the Dockyards the system of con
trol over labour employed was very faulty. The
accounts of the cost in connection with the labour
employed on shipbuilding were kept, not by the
shipwright in charge of the ship, but by an officer
of the Accountant-General's Department who
knew littie or nothing about shipbuilding. His

300 TREASURY OBSTRUCTION
accounts were always in arrear, so the shipwright
was compelled to keep unauthorised accounts of
his own. When the estimates were exceeded,
the Accountant said it was not his fault, as he
did not understand shipbuilding. If the ship
wright was blamed, he naturally rephed that it
was the Accountant and not he who was respon
sible. This system of checking outlay runs right
through most of our public departments, and the
Treasury attach great importance to it, having
an inherent dislike to trusting the control of
expenditure to anyone who understands it and
is not an accountant or connected with the
Treasury. There were a great many other weak
points in the Dockyard system, but by a close
investigation into the working of private yards
and adopting some of their methods we were
enabled to remedy most of these defects ; but the
pivot upon which most of these reforms depended
was a complete change in the control over the
labour employed upon the building of ships.
Our proposals were very simple. We under
took first to supply those in charge of buUding
operations with the fuU amount annually required
for the most economical advancement of the ship.
Assuming that a big ship takes three years to
build, in the first year the bulk of the cost would
be material, in the second year labour and
material are more equalised, in the third or finish
ing year the cost is mainly labour of a skiUed
character. In a big dockyard when working on a
large and continuous programme, rapidity and
efficiency of shipbuilding cannot be obtained
except by the most careful dovetailing of labour

DEADLOCK 301
and material, and a comparatively small curtail
ment of the funds, estimated to secure their
combination, throws the whole fabric of construc
tive arrangement out of gear. A big building
programme contained in an Act of Parliament
under a time limit has this great advantage :
the building authorities are sure in advance of
the money they require and at the time they
want it : under annual estimates they are always
subject to the vagaries of those for the time being
in control of the Treasury.
Our second proposition was that the ship
wright in charge of the labour connected with
buUding a ship should be responsible for the
expenditure he thus incurred. Accountants were
to be given him to keep his accounts, which subse
quently should be subject to rigid examination
by the Audit and Exchequer Department. The
Treasury objected to this change, not so much on
the ground that it would not be economical, but
because it conflicted with their theory that ex
penditure should be controUed only by account
ants under the supervison of themselves. Smith
and Goschen, who were then at the Treasury, were
disposed to take the view of their subordinates,
and a deadlock ensued. Sir Arthur Forwood, who
had succeeded Ritchie as Financial Secretary to
the Treasury and who possessed in a pre-eminent
degree business instincts, had, in combination
with the ControUer and myself, worked hard for
years past to get the Dockyards into efficient
working order. We were not disposed to allow
our scheme to be upset by Treasury pedantry,
and we were determined to resign if we were thus

302 FINAL DEFEAT OF TREASURY
thwarted. It was ultimately decided by Smith
to call in the Auditor and Controller-General and
to hear what he had to say upon this difference
between the Admiralty and the Treasury. We
met, the Treasury represented by Goschen and
Welby, the Admiralty by Forwood and myself.
The Controller-General, though an able man,
was a bit of a crank, and he considered himself
so purely a Parliamentary official that he did
not think it was right that he should outrun
his functions by giving an opinion upon any
departmental controversy. After some conversa
tion Smith said : " Then you wiU not give us
any opinion upon this matter ? " "In my public
capacity," he said, " no ; but if you ask me my
private opinion, as a private individual, I say that
from the administrative point of view the Ad
miralty are absolutely right, and that the checks
and accounts to which the Treasury attach so
much importance are absolutely worthless."
We were thus aUowed to introduce the scheme,
and the effect was electrical. We saved a very
large sum in the first year, and in a short time
Government establishments were converted from
being slow and expensive yards into the cheapest
and most expeditious building-yards in the world.
This was shown by the buUding programme of
the Naval Defence Act. The first ship of that
programme built under the new conditions was
the Royal Sovereign. She was the largest and
heaviest armoured ship that had ever been built
in a dockyard. She was commissioned in two
years and eight months from the date of her being
laid down, and she did not exceed the cost of her

TREASURY AND SMALL QUESTIONS 303
original estimate. Yet in carrying out this great
and lasting reform the department of the Govern
ment, whose primary duty it was to encourage
and expedite savings of unnecessary expenditure,
fought tooth and naU against it because it did
not fit in with their faulty and ineffective
methods. I had another curious experience of Treasury
views. There was a continuous and unnecessary
correspondence between the Admiralty and the
Treasury in connection with smaU changes, fresh
appointments, and the alterations inevitable in a
big department, but for which Treasury sanction
had to be obteuned. I suggested to the Chan
ceUor of the Exchequer that, in order to save
time and unnecessary scribbling, the Treasury
official who dealt with Admiralty business should
go over once a fortnight and discuss with the naval
officials the questions that were likely to be put
before the Treasury, that he could do so without
prejudice, but that this information would enable
him much more effectively to advise the Treasury
when the subject on which he had been thus
advised came on for their decision. The Chan
ceUor of the Exchequer thought well of the idea,
but said he must consult his officials. A few days
later he told me that he could not agree to this
proposal, as his officials were so averse to it. I
asked him — Welby being at that time Permanent
Secretary of the Treasury — ^if the objection was
not of this nature : that if a Treasury official
once came into personal contact with the Ad
miralty the technical knowledge of the Admiralty
officials would so override him that he would

304 EDUCATION ESTIMATE
be unable to hold his own. He admitted that
that was the objection.
On the resignation of Randolph ChurchiU as
Chancellor of the Exchequer, he laid down the
proposition that the only method by which the
Treasury could check expenditure was by re
ducing aggregates without going into detaUs.
Gladstone spoke after him and strongly sup
ported that proposition, and he gave precisely
the same reasons as did Welby in declining to
discuss these matters with the Admiralty.
I was twenty-two years Minister of the Crown,
and my time was divided into seven years at
the Admiralty, two years at the Education Depart
ment, and thirteen years at the India Office. My
experience at the Education Department was
much the same, so far as Treasury control was
concerned, as it was at the Admiralty. The first
year that I was Vice-President of the Council, being
anxious to cut down unnecessary expenditure,
I went very carefully through the education
estimates and considerably reduced them, and
I only sent on to the Treasury what I believed
to be absolutely necessary. I received a reply
from the Treasury to the effect that the estimates
must be reduced by £10,000. I wrote back point
ing out that I had already reduced them by more
than that amount, and I asked on what ground
this demand was made. In reply I was informed
that it always had been the practice of the Treasury
to cut down education estimates by ;fio,ooo,
and to that rule they intended to adhere. The
natural consequence was that next year my
estimates went into th^ Treasury as they were

TREASURY— STRENGTH & WEAKNESS 305
received from the Educational Authorities, and
the result was certainly not to the advantage of
the Exchequer.
In thus criticising Treasury methods for the
control of expenditure, it must not be assumed
that I in any way wish to depreciate the excep
tional abUity or sense of public duty of the
Treasury officials. That Department has but a
smaU staff, and it is composed of the very pick
of the public services. They have two different
sets of functions to perform as a body : first,
advising the ChanceUor of the Exchequer as
regards revenue and possible taxation ; and
secondly, checking expenditure of other depart
ments. The first duty is performed admirably
(and in " Treasury " I include the Inland Revenue
and Customs Departments). The care and accur
acy with which the forecasts of revenue and
of increased taxation are thought out pro
duce extraordinarUy accurate results. There is
no country in the world whose finance from this
point of view is so well managed as that of Great
Britain. The second duty that they have to
perform is to check expenditure generally. This
duty is whoUy beyond the powers of a limited
staff with little or no knowledge of the circum
stances or pohcies which induce or compel de
partments to put forward their estimates of
expenditure. In my day, the attitude of the
Treasury was one of suspicion if not hostUity to
the heads of the spending departments. Yet it
is only the heads of the spending departments
who can give to the Treasury the necessary
knowledge which enables them to decide whether

3o6 FUTILITY OF CABINET CHECK
or not the expenditure proposed is necessary or
unnecessary, or can reduce expenditure without
loss of efficiency. The Treasury is the mouth
piece of the ChanceUor of the Exchequer ; the
ChemceUor of the Exchequer is supposed to repre
sent the Cabinet. It would be difficult to con
ceive any body less weU constituted to check
expenditure than the Cabinet. It is a hodge
podge body, and the number and selection of its
members £u:e regulated not with a view to efficient
financial administiation, but maiiUy with regard
to the pohtical or party interests which the in
dividual members of the Cabinet represent. No
official record is kept of its proceedings, either
as to the decisions at which it arrives or the
discussion which led to that decision. The
Minister of the departments affected by the
discussion take away from the Cabinet the de
cision at which the Cabinet has arrived, and to
which, if necessary, he gives effect, and the reasons,
if any, for coming to a decision are only recorded
in the dispatches or letters of that department.
The eissent of the Cabinet to fresh expenditure
is not unfrequentiy obtained more by the person
ality and power of the Cabinet Minister who
proposes it than by exigency for the expenditure ;
and so it comes to pass that a large extent of ex
penditure is incurred which is not necessary, and,
on the other hand, retrenchments based on an
inteUigent supervision of existing expenditure are
rarely, if ever, made. As an executive and ad
ministiative body the Cabinet must necessarily,
from its composition and numbers, be a faUure,
unless the Prime Minister is a man of determina-

DEFENCE COMMITTEE 307
tion and strength and he constitutes himself the
Cabinet and its mouthpiece.
In recent years it has been found necessary -
to establish a Defence Committee, and this Com
mittee is composed not only of certain members
of the Cabinet but of the leading Navy and Army
officials. It also calls to its counsels Colonial
and Indian experts if the question under dis
cussion relates either to the Colonies or India.
This Committee has proved itself to be so useful
that the scope of its work is constantly increasing,
and it has for mUitary purposes dispossessed the
Cabinet. I believe it to be a fact that the only
financial mobilisation which at the commence
ment of the war was suggested and adopted
emanated from this body. But there is no body
under our existing political system which is
entrusted with the survey and revision of
expenditure, or which has authority to give
priority to those objects requiring expenditure
which most press for recognition, and there is
no record kept of the decisions to which, from
time to time, the Cabinet may come upon questions
of expenditure which are raised by individual
members of the Cabinet.
The Indian Council, which is a modern creation,
may be said to be the Cabinet for India. Its
functions are much the same as those of the
Imperial Cabinet, with this important exception,
that their procedure and their powers are defined
by an Act of Parliament. They have absolute
control over the expenditure of India. The most
important body inside that office is the Finance
Committee, Every proposal for increased ex-

3o8 INDIA OFFICE & FINANCIAL CHECKS
penditure coming home from India comes before
that Committee, and the argument also of the
department who urge that expenditure. There
is thus a continuous record of the reasons for
the expenditure so proposed and of the reasons
against it ; and the unquestionable result, in
my judgment, is that the business of checking
expenditure is far more efficaciously performed
by the India Office than it is by the Treasury,
and a better result is obtained from the expendi
ture sanctioned. After this war we shaU not have
merely to preach theoretical economy, but we
shall have to practise it rigidly both in Imperial,
local, and personal expenditure, and our first
duty, so far as Imperial expenditure is concerned,
is to set up machinery which can inculcate and
establish effective economy. This can only be
done by calling in those who have a personal
knowledge of the expenditure which is in question
or which has to be curtaUed. The continuance
of the policy of arbitrarUy cutting down aggre
gates by a few clerks or accountants who know
nothing either of the objects of that expenditure
or the policy which it represents, must come to
an end. During the past few years the Treasury is
becoming a spending department itself, and it
has set up two great establishments which it
administers, i.e. the Old Age Pensions and the
National Insurance. The appalling increase of
the expenditure of both these departments is
proof that the system of check over expenditure
by the Treasury is hopelessly futUe, and if they
cannot be successful as regards departments

TOO MANY ACCOUNTANTS 309
which are under their immediate control and
purview, how can they be successful in those
branches of administiation which are altogether
alien to them ? We have far too many account
ing checks. There are accountants in every
department ; there are accountants in the
Treasury ; there are accountants in the Audit
and Exchequer Department. The universaUy
accepted principle in aU pubhc companies and
big private undertakings is to place reUance on
the official who has knowledge of the objects of
the expenditure, and to make him responsible
for keeping contiol over it, and to subject the
expenditure so controUed to a searching and
rigid outside audit. This working, common-sense
principle should be enforced in the pubhc depart
ments. It is quite true that, from an axiomatic
point of view, poUcy controls expenditure, or,
reversing it, expenditure controls pohcy — the two
are inextricably mixed up. But the proposals
I put forward would, if effect were given to
them, greatiy improve the position of the Chan
ceUor of the Exchequer. He would not then
be struggling in a hopeless attempt to check
expenditure of which neither he nor his depart
ment has the necessary touch or knowledge,
and he would, under the S5?stem I suggest, be
able to rely upon the heads of the great spending
departments, whose knowledge would be at his
disposal, adopting not an antagonistic attitude
to the Treasury, but cordiaUy working with it
for a common, recognised object.
A permanent Finance Committee, composed
of members of the Cabinet \rith a special staff
21

310 NEED FOR FINANCE COMMITTEE
and kept records, working in accord with the
heads of departments, would be a real relief
both to the ChanceUor of the Exchequer and the
Treasury. Although the Treasury would nomin-
aUy cease to be the sole authority for the super
vision of expenditure, they would exercise a
dominant control over a reaUy effective instrument
for ensuring priority, supervision, and retrench
ment over our national expenditure. It cannot
be too plainly asserted that at present there is
no department, and there is no machinery, to
supervise and adjust expenditure or to take such
a general view of national wants and national
resources as to give priority to the expenditure
most urgently needed, or to retrench outlay where
it has ceased to be necessary.
The Treasury, therefore, being at present the
mouthpiece of Government control over expendi
ture, the question at once suggests itself — what
are the influences at work behind the Treasury
for the furtherance of this control ? Those
influences are unquestionably more political than
administrative, and their purport is the saving
of money regardless of efficiency. Moreover,
there is a fundamental difference of policy
between the two great political parties : the one
attaches far more importance than the other
to the maintenance of our naval and mUitary
establishments on an efficient basis. That differ
ence at once suggests another question — ^what
is an efficient basis ? I recollect a very dis
tinguished Admiral being cross-examined before
the Committee of the House of Commons who
was asked this question : "Is our Navy, in your

ABUSE OF LORD ROBERTS 311
judgment, adequate to protect the interests of
the British Empire ? " His reply was very simple
and to the point : "If you wUl teU me against
whom the Navy has to protect those interests,
I can give you an answer, but not otherwise."
For years past it has been the practice of one
pohtical party to pooh-pooh aU indications of
hostUity as sho\vn by Germany, and to denounce
violentiy £iny public personage who dared point
out that we were in a parlous and critical con
dition from the known antagonism to us of that
country. If there was any man to whose opinion
weight should have been attached, it was Lord
Roberts, He had served his country for more
than half a century ; he was a man of the very
highest and most chivalrous character ; he had
no personal object whatever to serve, as he had
attained the maximum of recognition and honour :
yet, when so distinguished a man, with such an
unimpeachable record behind him, warned his
country of a danger which is now admitted by
all to be real, he was tieated with contumely and
scorn. A prominent Member of the present
Government denounced his speech as " heUish "
or "devUish" — I forget which epithet it was —
and suggested that he should be made to apolo
gise to (iermany. Another Member of the same
party, even more zealous, suggested that he
shotUd be deprived of his pension. Now the
man who indulged in this attack on Lord
Roberts cannot pretend to be an ignoramus.
He occupied no less a post than that of Under-
Secretary to the Foreign Office. If there was
anybody except his Chief who might have been

312 SUGGESTED REMEDIES
supposed to know a littie of European politics and
something of the internal condition of Germany,
it would have been this young man. He is now
making what amends he can by sitting in the
House of Commons attired in khaki. I mention
this to show the uncontroUable bias that there
is amongst a large portion of the Radical Party
against precautions or the expenditure necessary
to make those precautions effective.
A number of remedies have been suggested.
As regards the Navy, one suggestion was that an
alteration should be made as regards the Orders
in CouncU. In 1869 a change was made by which
the coUective responsibility of the Admiralty for
work done by the AdmiraJty was abolished, and
the Naval Lords were placed in the position of
being individuaUy responsible to the First Lord
of the Admiralty for the different departments
and works assigned to them. Now it is assumed
by certain naval and other writers that if we
reverted to the practice which existed previous
to 1869, the First Lord of the Admiralty, who is
a civUian, would be dominated by the Naval
Lords who under that Order in CouncU exercised
coUective responsibility with him. I believe it to
be an entire delusion to assume that previous
to 1869 the First Lord of the Admiralty was not
just as dominant and just as powerful inside the
department as he was subsequently. CoUective
responsibility for the administration of an ex
ecutive department such as the Admiralty is
impracticable. No one can, as one of a collective
body, be responsible for things over which he
has no personal control. Collective responsibUity,

RELATIVE STATUS OF NAVAL LORDS 313
therefore, necessitates that every one of the col
lective body should have the power of controUing
and interfering in aU the business for which he
is assumed to be responsible. A Naval Officer of
standing and cheiracter would not accept the post
of First or Second Naval Lord under such con
ditions, if it would give junior officers on the
Board the power of interfering with him in the
administration of departments of which he is now
head and for which he is now personaUy re
sponsible. Whoever is First Lord of the Ad
miralty, be he a civUian or be he a naval man,
must be supreme in his department. If the
Board of Admiralty are to act in a coUective
capacity, I assume that where there is a difference
of opinion it wUl then be decided by a majority
of votes ; but the authority and position of the
individual members of Boards so differentiate that
it would be impossible to give to each member
equality of voting power. There is the First
Naval Lord, who is by far the most important
person on that Board. There is the Second
Naval Lord, who is responsible for the personnel ;
the Third Naval Lord, who is responsible for the
material ; the Fourth Naval Lord, who is the
maid-of-aU-work ; and a CivU Lord, who looks
after the civU establishments. If they were given
votes, the value of their respective voting would
be calculated somewhat as foUows :

First Naval Lord

. 45 per cent

Second Naval Lord .

. 20

Thhd Naval Lord

¦ 20

Fourth Naval Lord .

• 10

CivU Lord

¦ 5

314 SAILORS AND SOLDIERS AS HEADS
On a scale of voting such as that, the First
Naval Lord and the First Lord would be able to
rule the rest of the Board, and they ought to ;
and that is now the practice.
There is a great deal, however, to be said
for adopting in this country the principle, which
prevails largely abroad, of placing a saUor and
a soldier at the head of the Navy and the Army.
At the Admiralty, though the majority of the
Board changes whenever there is a fresh patent
taken out, the Controller or Third Naval Lord is
exempt from this rule and stays on for a period of
five years, it being assumed that it is necessary
there should be such a continuity in the adminis
tration of his department as to make it imperative
for him to hold office for a fixed period. It might
therefore be advisable to adopt the same principle
as regards the Navy and the Army, and to ap
point eminent Naval and Military Officers as
the respective heads of those two Services for a
fixed period. But to do this would require the
recognition of a principle which is supposed to
be wholly alien to that of popular representation.
At present, it is the constitutional practice, if it
is not the law of the constitution, that the head of
the Navy and Army should be a Member of one
of the two Houses of Parliament. To continue
that practice is to limit your selection as regards
future heads of the Navy and Army from the very
smaU number of naval and mUitary men who
have taken up politics and become Members of
the House of Commons or happen to be in the
House of Lords. Such a limitation of selection
woiUd make things worse than they are now.

OF THEIR RESPECTIVE SERVICES 315
There are, no doubt, certain exceptions, but, as a
rule, the naval or mUitary man who tak« to
poUtics makes his jwUtical career his first object,
and the best men in the Navy and the Army do
not come into the House of Commons. It is
thCTcfore essential, if ever the idea of having a
naval or mihtary man at the head of affairs be
adopted, that the whole Navy and Army should
be op>en for the selection of these aU-impwrtant
apf)ointments- If this were done, then I think it
not improbable that men of exceptional abUity,
both in the Navy and Army, knowing that there
was a possibUity at the close of their career of
occupying these most responsible posts, would
quaUfy themselves by a wider study of the ques
tions connected with their profession than at
present they feel necessary.
But, as I have said before, expenditure regu
lates |X)Ucy, or pohcy regulates expenditure —
I care not which way it is put — ^and it might seem
fundamentally contrary to our constitution that
we should bring into the Government individuals
who would be responsible and could press heavy
expenditure upon their coUeagues without them
selves being responsible to any constituency for
the expenditure they so advocated. This diffi
culty should easUy he got over by bringing in an
Act of Parliament to regulate the establishments
both of the Navy and the Army, say, for a period
of five years. There would be great obstruction,
in the first instance, to the passing of these Acts ;
but I beheve that if the principle was once adopted
it would be subsequently assented to readUy. It
has this very great advantage — ^that so soon as a

3i6 FIVE-YEAR ESTIMATES
definite policy is laid down as to what these
establishments should be, then it becomes the
duty of the Financial Authority to provide the
money necessary for the maintenance of those
establishments. The attention of those in charge
of these establishments would be concentrated on
obtaining the maximum efficiency from the sums
they could rely upon receiving for a period of
five years.
Under the present system, for a period of two
months or more in every year there is an animated
and very often an acrimonious discussion between
the Treasury and the Admiralty and the War
Office as to what the estimates should be, and in
this controversy each department is cilmost forced,
from the shape the controversy assumes, to try
and do the other's business. The Admiralty and
War Office become financiers, and the Treasury
attempts to master the mysteries of shipbuilding,
or the enigmas of recruiting, and the proportion
which guns should bear to the unit.
If any scheme of this kind ever assumes shape,
one of the first facts to which it will caU attention
is the very high salaries which are paid to poli
ticians who are placed in charge of the Navy and
Army as compared with the pay of the highest-
placed Naval and Military Officers. The emolu
ments of the War Minister and the First Lord
of the Admiralty are about double those of the
highest-placed sailor or soldier.
The general argument in favour of a civilian
being placed at the head of the fighting depart
ments as against the selection of sailors or soldiers
is that the training of the latter is circumscribed.

EXPANSION OF GENERAL STAFF 317
and that when you take them outside the dis
charge of duties clearly defined and bound round
with tradition and regulations they have not the
knowledge or necessary adaptabUity required for
poUtical forecasts or management of Parhament.
There is some practical force in this contention ;
but the recent establishment of a General Staff
both at the Admiralty and the War Office wUl do
much to mitigate this objection. The General
Staff of both these departments must grow in
numbers and authority, and its purview of ques
tions must embrace many subjects outside the
purely naval and mihtary sphere of driU, equip
ment, and tactics. The ablest men in both Services
wUl then obtain a widening and comprehensive
training ; international poUtics cannot be ig
nored ; scientific and industrial invention and
production must be carefuUy watched; the idio
syncrasies of those high in office, both at home
and abroad, wUl have to be noted — ^in fact, every
thing likely to promote a war or to affect war wUl
be made a part of their official curriculum. This
work ought to produce (and I am sure wUl pro
duce) saUors and soldiers capable of discharging
with prescience and efficiency the duty of ad
ministering both our Navy and our Army.

REFLECTIONS

CHAPTER XXVI
Reflections — " Conscientious Objector " — ^How created — Origin,
growth, and development of Manchester School — Its mis
chievous influence on national questions — InabiUty to deal
; with modem international situation — Contrast between ovur
methods and those in Germany — Our Pacificists largdy
responsible for this War — Indication of some necessary
changes for the future.
The " Conscientious Objector " just now looms
somewhat largely before the pubhc gaze. He is
an unhealthy tare, not entirely indigenous to this
country, but cultivated and multiphed here in a
poUtical atmosphere speciaUy conducive to his
development. His conscience has an intense
loathing of the horrors of war. Being so obsessed,
he declines to move a littie finger to protect the
women and chUdren of this country from the
horrors of the most abominable methods of
warfare ever recorded in history. In certain
cases his objection is not merely confined to a dis
inclination to fight, but also to doing any work,
even the succour and rehef of the sick and
wounded, provided that the sufferings of those
so affected are due to the service and defence
of their country. The Stiasburg goose has an
exuberant hver. This exuberance has been cul
tivated for generations by a special system of
318

" CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR " 319
feeding and daUy routine for the expansion of
thK organ ; but the expansion is obtained at the
sacrifice of the life of the animal itself. The
" conscientious objector " in Great Britain has
become exuberant under a simUar course of
political training and education, and what we
now have to do is to take such precautions
against this unhealthy development as will pre
vent it from destro5dng the healthy existence of
the nation.
In any other country in the world such
objectors would not be exempt from performing
the elementary duties of common citizenship, but
they would be subject to punishment or depriva
tion of civil rights for the attitude they had
assumed. How comes it to pass that in this
country this attitude of unpatriotic recalcitrance
is not only tolerated by special provisions in Acts
of Parliament, but it is even applauded in cer
tain political coteries ? Because in this country,
through the attitude of a certain political school,
the worship of self has been cultivated with
such persistent assiduity that the discharge of the
plainest duties to the State are subordinated to
the convenience and wishes of the individual.
" Civil and religious liberty " was a noble cry
when the principle itself was endangered, but it
has become inflated to such an extent as to have
become a stumbling-block to the safety of the
realm, a serious obstacle to the organisation of
the State resources and power, and absolutely
destructive of patriotism and self-sacrifice. Re
fusal to defend your country is the shape which
this conscienceless obstinacy now assumes ; but

320 ORIGIN AND GROWTH
it has its root and genesis in movements and
propaganda started long ago, which were organ
ised and given expression to by men of abUity
and high standing.
The Manchester School of pohtics was largely
founded and propagated by Bright and Cobden.
They were both men of exceptional capacity, and
unquestionably they had high ideals before them,
however much we may differ as to their prac-
ticabUity, They were both bom early in the
nineteenth century, and the childhood and early
surroundings of each were associated with the
general distiess and high prices of food which
prevaUed for many years after the termination
of the Napoleonic wars. Both were manufacturers
and belonged to the class of society from which
in those days manufacturers emanated. Both
in the course of their experience found that the
high prices of food contiacted their capacity to
give employment. In those da}^ of universal
protection Cobden made the discovery — ^let us
give him aU credit for it — ^that in those years
in which the price of food was low employment
increased, and as those prices rose, employment
feU, The object of protection being to increase
native industry, Cobden pointed out that by
artificially raising the price of food, protection
was artificiaUy reducing the amount of employ
ment. Therefore, he argued, reduce as low as
you can the price of food, and all employment
outside agriculture must improve, and agricul
ture itself (for various reasons I need not now
enumerate) wUl not be damaged. In his agitation
he came in contact with the agricultural interests.

OF MANCHESTER SCHOOL 321
As the agitation proceeded, the antagonism
between agricultural interests and those repre
sented by Bright and Cobden became more and
more bitter, and the animosity of both these
agitators being aroused by this antagonism
they proceeded to embark in a continuous and
venomous campaign against the landed interest
and aU connected with it. In the course of this
controversy they and their foUowers became so
incensed and blind to facts that they started
the monstrous and untenable theory that the
Napoleonic wars were entirely caused by British
aggressiveness, and that the bulk of the House of
Commons, being mainly composed of landlords,
encouraged this aggressiveness, as it raised their
rents and improved their position. Landlordism
and militarism were thus coupled together and
became in course of time an anathema to the
Manchester School, as it was implied, if not
asserted, by many of their speakers that the
joint object of both these influences was to
encourage war in order to benefit themselves and
to increase establishments to provide appoint
ments for their relatives. In my own time I
can recoUect a prominent and cultured member of
this school deliberately asserting in the House of
Commons, amidst the applause of his associates,
that the Army was composed of the froth and
dregs of society ; and the same individual in
another national crisis deliberately implied that
the Tory Party's object was to embark upon war
and so increase naval and mUitary establishments
as to enable their relatives to obtain commissions
who otherwise would be unable to pass the necessary

322 ATTACKS ON LANDOWNERS
examination. If a well-known Parliamentarian
with a good University education behind him
felt justified in using such language, it is easy
to imagine the class of " Billingsgate " in which
the less cultured and more unscrupulous of his
associates would indulge.
The movement, purely fiscal in its first
conception, left the track of dry economics and
embarked in a political vendetta against the
Land and the Army and all who supported these
two national institutions.
The prejudices of religious sectarians were
next attracted to and enlisted in this campaign,
for the landed party are the main supporters of
the National Church, the clerics of that establish
ment being friendly to the Army, as they are
acquainted with the advantages accruing from
military training and discipline. The Church of
England was then put under the ban of this
agitation. Nonconformity had little, if any, touch
with the Army. With the exception of the
Wesleyans, the numbers from other branches of
Nonconformity who enlist in the Army were almost
infinitesimal. Socially and financially, the great
mass of Nonconformists are below the status of
the officer and above that of the private. ' But
the legitimate dislike of war is very intense in
Nonconformist circles, and, ignorant of the true
feelings of the Army from want of personal
contact with it, they accepted and believed the
assertion that a standing army was a provocative
form of militarism, maintained not for defence
but aggression. Thus, one of their maxims
assumed the form that the more the Army was

AND ON THE CHURCH 323
cut down the better was the chance of maintaining
peace. Nonconformity is especially strong in the
lower strata of middle-class society, and these
strata wei-e, before the Reform Bill in 1868, in
proportion to their numbers very strongly repre
sented in the then electorate.
The natural antagonism between the Church
and Nonconformity was accentuated by the
prolonged controversy as to the policy to be
pursued in connection with Nationd Education,
The primary object of political Nonconformity
being the overthrow of the National Church, they
foresaw the tactical disadvantage of allowing the
Church to retain control ovei" a largo proportion
of elementary education. It therefore laecame
to them a political movement of the first import
ance to oust the Church from the possession and
management of the schools which they had buUt.
Thus, throe great national intorosts — Land, Army,
Churcli — ^became the subject of obloquy and mis
representation from an unceasing and ever-present
agitation. Yet, in most other countries, Land,
Religion, and the Army aro the bulwaiks of
national defence and national existence, and
though it may be possible by political manoeuv
ring to depose these influenoos from the vantage-
ground that they should naturally occupy, it is
utterly impossible to find any substitute efficientiy
to replace them or the sei'vices tlioy cim in com
bination render in time of stress and emergency.
This is the great and fundamental blundei' of
the Manchestei' School, Ignorantiy and hastily
they tried to sweep away a s}-stom w hich did not
fit in with their paitisan predUections, without

324 BELIEF IN UNIVERSAL AMITY
understanding or duly weighing the consequences
of their iconoclastic policy. It is only fair to
them to say that they started a theory in which
they implicitly believed that, if international
trade could be continuously encouraged, the
benefit would be so self-evident to the nations
participating in it that self-interest would prove
a more effective barrier to war itself than even a
strong army and navy. To this doctrine was
added the coroUary that as democratic ideas
were spreading more and more over the civUised
world, so would the inherent dislike of war increase,
democracy being in itself a lover and cultivator
of peace. This pleasant delusion for nearly three
generations has been a sacrament of the Man
chester School, and it has been more than half
accepted during that period by Radical Govern
ments so far as the principles of their foreign
policy were concerned.
For the last fifty years heavy and unremitting
pressure has been exercised both in the House
and outside upon aU fresh expenditure on mUitary
establishments. In fact, there is not a single
movement made during the last half-century to
increase the efficiency of our mUitary services
that has not met with violent opposition from a
large portion, if not from the majority, of the
Radical Party in Parliament. Towards the Navy
a less truculent attitude was adopted, for it was
impossible to deny that without a Navy England
was not safe from invasion ; but even in this
sphere of protective work every proposal for im
proving the Navy has, with scarcely an exception,
met with strong criticism and persistent opposi-

OPPOSITION TO EXPENDITURE 325
tion. Only a few days before the outbreak of war
in 1914, I presided over a meeting of the Political
Economy Club to hear a paper read by the very
able Editor of the Economist upon Naval Expendi
ture. He is an out-and-out supporter of the purest
and most undiluted doctrines of Cobdenism. His
paper was one continuous scoff at the absurdity
of our naval expenditure, which, in his judgment,
was three or four times in excess of the work it
could possibly be called upon to perform. If the
transmigration of souls were possible in this
material world, one would like this gentleman's
mind to be now put inside the body of the Com
mander-in-Chief of our Grand Fleet for, say, a
week. On its return to its original owner it would
make him a few degrees nearer sanity when in
the future he discants upon National Wealth and
National Insurance.
When such vUification of the Army has gone
on for so many years, when it has been the object
during this period of one of the great political
factions of the State to assert that a large portion
of their opponents has a criminal tendency to
involve their country in war, and that war in
itself is a most awful curse, can it be wondered at
that a certain proportion of those into whose ears
these denunciations have been so continuously
dinned accepts them as true and, with minds so
poisoned, objects to participate in the defensive
war in which we are now fighting for our exist
ence ? Have they not precedents ? Smallpox is
one of the most frightful of human diseases ; but
the conscientious objector to vaccination struts
with assurance amongst the population whom
22

326 ENCOURAGEMENT OF SELFISHNESS
he may contaminate, and even obtains in certain
quarters applause for his disregard of the law and
of the safety of those amongst whom he moves.
The Nonconformist crank, who scents sacer
dotalism in the teaching of the elements of Chris
tian faith in public elementary schools, becomes a
conscientious ob j ector to the payment of rates . At
once he becomes a martyr, but not for long, as his
mart5n:dom ends upon his rates and fines being paid
by others for him.
This refusal to comply with elementary ob
ligations of the law is largely due to the glorifica
tion of self and disregard of the relative positions
which self and the State should occupy one towards
the other. It strikes at the foundations of
patriotism and self-denial. It makes coUective
action impossible.
The tactics and teaching of the Manchester
School have unquestionably been the genesis of
this mischievous rot, for it endeavoured to estabhsh
the doctrine of laissez-faire at home, and that the
ciUtivation of cosmopolitan amity by profitable
trading was preferable to that of patriotic self-
denial. I recollect a most distinguished divine,
the first scholar and preacher of his time, whose
preferment in the Church was for years stopped
because, though Liberal, he preached a sermon
in which he pointed out that the wholesale denun
ciation of Jingoism was wrong, for Jingoism was
but a rough and crude form of patriotism, and
that patriotism ought not to be put under a ban.
Unfortunately, Gladstone was one of the congrega
tion, and for years to come inferior men were
promoted over the preacher's head, and when at

FUTURE TRADE POLICY 327
last an ecclesiastical offer was made to him it
was associated with a negligible income.
I have been a Free-trader all my life, because
it is clear that in times of general peace, from a
trade and profit point of view, the freer the
exchange of production the greater the benefit
from the exchange. But it is equally true that
a nation can in times of peace prosper rapidly
and continuously under a system of protection.
It is the industry of the individual and not the
fiscal system under which he works that is the
primary cause of national prosperity. Whether
a nation adopts a free-trade or protective system
is a matter of expediency and not of principle,
and is not governed by purely economic considera
tions. For the future, a nation must consider its
trade policy both from the war and peace stand
point. War smashes up all idea of free exchange :
free trade disappears upon the announcement of
war. Bright and Cobden were too shrewd not
to know this. Therefore, they argued, you must
keep off war. But you cannot keep out of war,
as we have recently learned, unless you are pre
pared to sacrifice honour and recognised obliga
tions with the certainty that if you begin by
these moral surrenders you will soon have to
give up material advantages both of trade and of
territory. In these days of piracy, to have the
greatest trade in the world and the biggest Over
sea Empire necessitates force for their protection ;
otherwise, both wiU be taken from you. Our
economic and financial position, after eighteen
months' war, is astoundingly strong, but this is
due, not so much to the fact that we have been

328 SAFETY BEFORE CHEAPNESS
for many years past a free-trade nation, but
because during this war we have the strongest
and most efficient Navy in the world. If the
phUosophic Radical Party had had their way our
fleet would not have been adequate to its present
task, and if it had f aUed we should now be starving,
wageless, and prostrate. But even with our naval
supremacy we are obliged now, as far as we can,
to curtaU our imports. Germany, on the other
hand, has found salvation in her system of pro
tection. Without it she could not have maintained
her position or supplied the necessary munitions
of war. Conditions of war, as weU as those of peace,
must, therefore, be taken into consideration in
framing our future fiscal policy. Cheapness must
not be aUowed to dbminate aU considerations of
safety and self-support, and the wishes, wants, and
capabUities of the great Oversea Dominions wUl
force themselves into a more dominant position
for consideration here. Laissez-faire, the most
insidious of political narcotics, must not only
cease to be the moving principle of our system,
but must be eradicated from it root and branch.
WhUst we have aUowed ourselves to be be-
guUed by these delusive theories, the pohcy of
North Germany has continuously and resolutely
propagated the antithesis of such principles.
Starting with the idea that the State is every
thing, it has utUised every* branch and detaU
of Imperial and local administration to incul
cate into the German from his birth to his
death his obligation and subordination to the
State. Education, mUitary training, literature.

GERMANY'S DRILLED PATRIOTISM 329
the Press, clergy. Parliaments — all vie one with
another in this work. A careful watch is kept
by the Government lest any influence of any
kind should attempt to intervene with any con
trary doctrines, and woe betide the recalcitrant
who attempts it. Germany has been driUed into
one solid mass of patriotism, ready to bear and
to brave for its Fatherland anything it is asked
to do. In our schools patriotism is untaught, com
memorations of great victories are unknown, the
Union Jack is unflown, the celebration of Empire
Day until recently was forbidden, and little or
nothing is taught to the rising generation of the
wonderful heritage in store for them — ^won by the
courage and fighting power of the British race.
An extreme prot6g6 of the Manchester School,
when he became a Minister and Commissioner of
Works, absolutely declined to fly the Union Jack
over the Houses of Parliament, To encourage
patriotism might promote mUitarism : therefore
patriotism, although it is the foundation and
mainspring of nationality, must be rebuffed and,
if possible, put underground. Everything con
nected with our military establishments has for
many years past been the butt and the subject
of ridicule of philosophic Radical writers and
speakers whose general ideas of naval and military
establishments and their relation to this country
are summed up in Bright's remark that England
is like " Issachar, a strong ass bowed between two
burdens." When Bismarck, with his pohcy of blood and
iron, unified and consohdated North Germany, he

330 COLLISION OF THE TWO SYSTEMS
determined that no ideas such as were taught by
the Cobdenite political economy should get into
the higher education of Germany, and he gave
strict injunctions that whatever economics were
taught should be associated with the primary
duties of developing the industrial and productive
resources of Germany, that a waU of protection
should be put around them, from behind which
Germany should emerge for the invasion of other
lands. He utterly repudiated the idea of culti
vating cosmopolitjui amity as a substitute for a
love of your own country.
The two systems have come in coUision, pro
ducing an explosion of the most terrible kind —
a universal Armageddon. For nearly two years
past our daily reading has been a narrative of the
most appalling destruction of property, the most
frightful carnage of humanity, and of the most
devUish scientific devices for the destruction of
both. We may rightly attribute to their school
ing the brutality and cruelty with which the
Germans are demonstrating their patriotism ; but
may we not also say that but for the views
so freely expressed by phUosophic Radicalism in
Great Britain this war would never have taken
place ? If Germany had known how little the
pacificists represented the general feeling of Great
Britain, she would not have deliberately chal
lenged her, and if the pacificists had, so far back
as two years ago, accepted instead of ridiculing
Lord Roberts* advice, we should — even in the
eventuality of war — ^have had an army large
enough to have established a striking supremacy
at the outset.

COBDEN— HUMAN NATURE 331
When Cobden ventured into the sphere of
international pohtics and the causes of past wars,
from his preconceived prejudice he went hope
lessly astiay. Impregnated with the notion that
the idea of war was a monarchical and aristo
cratic foible, supported only by permanent mUitary
establishments, he at last talked and wTote him
self into believing this fable. His adherents up
to two years ago were in the same dreamland.
Now that war has broken out, many of them
spend their time in discussing the undoubted
waste and muddle of our hastUy-improvised
methods. But to whom is the fault attribut
able that our preparatory arrangements were so
backward and our supervising organisation so
extravagant ? The fact is, that whenever the
Manchester School step outside their original
and limited fiscal object into general poUtics
they become befogged. They do not understand
human nature, and they base aU their ethics upon
arithmetic and balance of profit and loss. Psy
chology, human emotion, and passion are to them
a sealed book. Yet they attempt to predicate to
mankind the aspirations of the future.
The word " perfidious " is constantiy attached
to the poUcy and government of Great Britain
by foreign writers and historians, and these
or simUar epithets so frequentiy appear in their
writings that there must be some reason for this
constant reiteration of the same idea. Is it not
to be found in the fact that in ever}' national crisis
a deprecatory note has been heard of the foUy and
inutiUty of rel5dng on force — a note so insistent
as to mislead the Governments and nations abroad

332 \^T1Y .\RE WE " PERFIDIOUS " ?
as to the real determination of the countr\' ? In
the crisis of July 1914 it was the " Cocoa Press "
(as it is familiarly known) which misled Germany.
There are many persons of authority and know
ledge who beheve that if in the earher stages of
the Serbian difficulty Great Britain had plainly
declared her intention of standing b}- France if
she was attacked, and had been able to speak
with the authority of unanimity, the German
General Staff, desirous as it was for war, would
never have dared provoke this combination
against themselves. The Kaiser has over and
over again pubUch" declared that he did not
desire this war. As he himself declared war
against Russia and then against France, and
further ordered his army to invade Belgium, he
cannot pretend that he did not want any war.
What he must mean is that he did not want a war
with England ; or, in other words, if England
had made her intention clear early in the contio
versy, there would have been no war.
Reflection on past blunders is sorr\' thinking,
except to prevent their recurrence. We have
passed through an awful experience during the
last twenty months. Are we to benefit by that
experience ? Are we in the future to tolerate
in our midst as a pohtical element of influence
doctrines which have so nearly brought upon us.
dissolution and ruin ? Are they to be aUowed
for the future to cramp and arrest the acts and
pohcy necessary for the preservation and con
tinuance of our national life and of our Empire ?
What are these measures ? Let me shortiy state
some of them.

INDISPENSABLE REFORMS 333
First, we must reform the existing procedure
of the House of Commons and curtaU the duration
of the session. At present men of character and
abihty and accustomed to a bus}" life decline to
waste ten months of the calendar year in an atmo
sphere of self-advertising talk and lobby intrigue.
We must also revise our s^'stem of primary
education and training so as to inculcate as early
as possible into the 5"oung a love of countrj'^ and
a sense of duty for its service, and associate with
this sentiment of patriotism a less pretentious
and more practical time-table.
Next, we must take into consideration the
reform of higher education. This involves the
deposition of the Classics from its present omni
potent position in the universities and pubUc
and secondar}' schools. Modem languages,
history-, and literature must have their fuU re
cognition in the time-table and instruction of
the future. More and more attention must be
given in our educational curriculum to subjects
germane to and necessary for the development
of scientific manufacture, agriculture, and general
production. An industrial nation must tiain
its young for their future occupations. Work
rather than amusement must become the stan
dard and ideal of national effort, and this
doctrine must be enforced early in Ufe. Whilst
athletics and useful outdoor exercise must con
tinue to be encouraged amongst the rising genera
tion, baU games must cease to be the be-aU and
end-aU of life as they are at the present moment to
a large proportion of the population.
Universal military training for one year be-

334 INDISPENSABLE REFORMS
tween the ages of eighteen and twenty-three, based
on the Territorial system, with yearly subsequent
training of limited and diminishing periods.
The fixing of naval and military estabhsh
ments by quinquennial Acts of Parliament, thus
excluding the variations and reductions in
numbers caused by annual factious pressure or
agitation. In this Act might be added the power
of selecting as First Lord of the Admiralty or
Minister of War an officer from the ranks of the
Navy or the Army, and of giving to officers so
selected the right, if necessary, of attending and
speaking in either House of Parliament when
required.! Labour leaders must put their heads together
to frame methods for the improvement and pro
tection of the wage-earning class other than those
of imposing checks and limitation upon individual
effort and personal skUl.
A careful revision of the principles upon which
the Commercial Treaty with France was negoti
ated by Great Britain in i860, with a view to their
adaptation and expansion for future use, and the
abolition of the Best Favoured Nation Clause.
The imposition of a Customs tariff — ^first, for
purposes of revenue ; secondly, to secure the
self-contained manufacture of staple national
trades; and thirdly, to safeguard the production
of articles essential to our commercial independ
ence and national safety.
Special and closer commercial relations with
our Dominions over the Sea, to be framed by
variations in and departures from this Customs
tariff.

INDISPENSABLE REFORMS 335
No mineral concessions or sale of mineral pro
perty to be granted to foreigners in any part of the
British Dominions, except with the consent of the
Government of the territory in which the mining
property is situated.
Constitutional machinery to be established
between Great Britain and the Oversea
Dominions ensuring, so far as local conditions
wUl permit, coUective action by legislation or
otherwise upon questions of common interest
and danger.
These measures would, in combination, pro
duce out of the splendid latent quahties of our
race conditions which would greatiy add to the
inteUigence, industry, physique, and patriotism
of the people, and associate with these qualities
a self-elevating and inteUigent system of educa
tion, a permanent and attiactive mUitary service,
sensible and self-adjusting relations with foreign
nations, and closer mUitary and commercial
affinity with our kinsmen and feUow-subjects over
the sea. The British Empire would then become
a reahty in power, pohcy, and unity, bringing dis
ciplined and organised influence, both moral and
material, from aU quarters of the globe in support
of the principles of peace, progress, and Uberty.

INDEX

Abdul Rahman, 139.
AbduUa Jan, 129.
Abercom, ist Duke of, 2, 56,
112, 204.
Admiralty, 278, 289-304, 312-317.
Affirmation Bill, 208.
Afghanistan, 122, 124, 137, 140,
167, 197 ; Lord Aucldand's
interference in the internal
affairs of, 126, 127 ; Lord
Lawrence's policy in connection
with, 127, 128 ; differences
between it and Baluchistan,
128 ; a continued anxiety to
the Indian Government, 129,
130 ; a Russian embassy at,
138 ; English mission to,
stopped, 138 ; Yakoob Khan
selected as ruler of, 138, 139 ;
boundary Commission, 266, 267,
278.
Alcester, Lord, 290.
Alexander, Dr., Primate of Ire
land, 14, 16.
Alexandria, 224-226.
Angra Pequena, 264.
Arabi Pasha, 224, 225.
Argyll, Duke of, 97, 123, 198.
Armstrong, Lord, 296, 297.
Arnold, Sir Edwin, 30.
Arrears Bill, 219.
Ashmead-Bartlett, Mr., M.P., 291.
Asquith, Rt. Hon. H. H., 59.
Auckland, Lord, 126, 127.
Austro-Hungary, 163.
Ayrton, Mr., First Commissioner
of Works, 32-34.
Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J., 80, 177,
234-
Ballantine, Serjeant, 84.
Baluchistan, 127, 128, 137.

Baring crisis, the, 78, 79.
Baring, Major, 241.
Barnaby, Sir Nathaniel, 295, 296.
Baroda, Gaekwar of, 84, 85.
Barrington, Lord, 134.
Basing, ist Baron, 181, 182.
Beach, M. E. Hicks, afterwards
1st Viscount St. Aldwyn, 144,
147, 242, 252, 271, 276.
Beaconsfield, Lady, 56, 58, 59.
Beaconsfield, Earl of, see Disraeli.
Beresford, Lord Charles, 184.
Berlin Conference, 136.
Bismarck, Count Herbert, 275.
Bismarck, Prince, 35, 36, 136,
169, 228, 242, 263, 264, 274-276,
329-
Bourke, Robert, 75, 118.
Boycott, Captain, 187.
Bradlaugh, Charles, 4-7, 208, 209,
247.
Bright, Rt. Hon. John, 17, 21, 90,
145-147, 198, 226, 233, 281, 282,
320-321, 327.
Bryant & May, 31.
Buccleuch, Duke of, 136.
Bulgarian massacres, 117-119,
134, 131.
Burke, Mr., murder of, 217-218,
236, 237.
Burnham, Lord, 30, 31.
Butt, Isaac, 81.
Cairns, Earl of, 66, 97-99.
Cairo, 241.
Cambridge, Duke of, 277.
Cardwell, Edward, afterwards
Viscount, 31.
Carey, the informer in the Phoenix
Park murder case, 237-238,
Carnarvon, 4th Earl of, 66, 97,
135, 147, 161, 281, 286.

338

INDEX

Cavagnari, Sir Louis, 138, 139, 167.
Cavendish, Lord Frederick, 214,
217, 218, 236, 237.
Cetewayo, 161, 162, 167.
Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. Joseph,
80, 145, 177, 196, 197, 280.
Chamberlain, Sir Neville, 138.
Chaplin, Rt. Hon. Henry, 132.
Chicago, 254-257.
Childers, Rt. Hon. H. C. E,, 36,
146.
Church of England, attacks on,
322.
Church Regulation Bill, 82.
Churchill, Lord Randolph, 79,
249, 252, 268, 276, 304 ; and the
Fourth Party, 177, 185, 199,
208 ; his character as a politi
cian, 200 ; and the Coercion
Bill, 278, 280.
Clarendon, 4th Earl of, 35.
Clerk, Sir George, 68, 107-110.
Closure, introduction of, 190.
Closure, resolution to legalise,
191-194.
Closure, in operation, 209.
Cobden, Richard, 22, 36, 37, 98,
320, 321, 324, 327, 328, 330,
331-
Cochrane, BaiUie, 51.
Cockbum, Lord Chief Justice, 91.
Codrington, Captain, 290.
Coercion Bill, 219-221.
Coleridge, Lord, 42.
CoUey, General Sir George, 195,
Collings, Jesse, 286.
Colvin, Sir Auckland, 224, 225.
Compensation for Disturbance
Bill, 178.
Conscientious Objectors, 318-320.
Coope, Mr,, 66.
Cooper Key, Admiral Sir Astley,
290-292.
Corrupt Practices Bill, 242, 243.
Corry, Montagu, afterwards Lord
Rowton, 57, 58.
Cotton, Sir Arthur, 145.
Cowper, Lord, 214, 216.
Cross, R. A., afterwards ist Vis
count, 144, 180-182.
Dalkeith, Lord, 136, 172.
Davitt, Michael, 192.

Defence Committee, 307,
De Grey, Earl, 49.
Delane, J. T., of The Times, 24-
30-
Derby, 15th Earl of, 19, 66, 67,
71, 97, loi, I35i 147, 163, 164,
242, 264.
Devlin, J., 178.
Dickens, Charles, 61.
Dilke, Sir Charles, 223, 280.
Dillon, John, 177, 192, 205.
Disraeli, B., afterwards Earl of
Beaconsfield, 18, 24, 27, 51, 53,
69, 74, n, 81, 90-92, 102, 117,
131,135-136, 137, 159,160,167,
169, 172-174, 176, 181,208,226,
267 ; encourages the author in
his candidature of Middlesex,
2 ; gives a dinner to successful
candidates, 11 ; and Irish
Church Bill, 13, 14 ; his speech
on the Coercion Bill and an
accident with his teeth, 43, 44 ;
his Lothair, 48, 49 ; rehabili
tation of his influence, 54, 55 ;
his speech at the Crystal Palace,
56, and at Manchester, 57, 58 ;
Lord Rector of Glasgow Uni
versity, 58 ; loss of his wife, 58,
59 ; the author's estimate of
him, 60, 61 ; his return to
power in 1874, 65, 66 ; makes
the author Under-Secretary for
India, 67 ; his description of
the author's speech on the
Indian Budget, 71, 72 ; buys the
Khedive's Suez Canal shares,
94, 102 ; revives the Whitebait
dinners, 96, 97 ; his Royal
Titles Bill, 104, 105 ; gazetted
Earl of Beaconsfield, 1 18 ; the
gap caused by his elevation,
141-144 ; he solves the author's
difficulty with the Lord Presi
dent, 151-154; the fall of his
Government, 170; his last ill
ness and death, 197-199.
Dockyard reorganisation, 298-
300.
Dost Mahomed, 126.
Dowse, Serjeant, 41, 42.
Dublin, 112-117.
Dyke, Sir W. Hart, 198, 281.

INDEX

339

Eastern Question, the, 122-140,
»7S, 197, 266-269, 278.
Education Bill, 44, 45.
Education Office, 148, 150-154,
156-159, 185, 304.
Education, payment by results in,
157-159-
Egypt, 176, 207, 223-228, 240-242,
264-266,
EUenborough, Lord, 19.
Enfield, Lord, i, 4, 7, 8, 46, 52,
Erne, Lord, 187.
Estimates, Naval and Military,
35. 36,
Explosives Bill, 231.
Fawcett, Henry, 67, 68, 147, 149,
197, 198.
Forster, W. E., 86, 159, 178, 194,
214, 216, 217, 229, 231, 237,
Fortescue, Chichester, 31, 41, 42,
Forwood, Sir Arthur, 301, 302.
Fowler, Sir H.H., afterwards Vis
count Wolverhampton, 179.
France, 35, 36, 135, 223-225, 228,
242, 332, 334.
Franchise Bill, 249-251, 261.
Francis Joseph, Emperor of
Austria, 174.
Frederick, Crown Prince of
Germany, afterwards Emperor,
>5S-
Frere, Sir Bartle, 68, 129, 161-163,
167.
Freycinet, C. L. de S. de, 225.
Froude, J. A., 155, 156,
Gambetta, Leon M., 224, 225,
228.
Germany, 35, 36, 163, 228, 242,
264, 274-276, 311, 331, 332.
Gladstone, Herbert, afterwards
1st Viscount, 176.
Gladstone, Mrs. W. E., 270.
Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., 13,
14, 17, 21, 23, 31, 37, 39, 45-47,
57. n, 79, 84, 87, 102, 117, 118,
131-134, ^yi-^«A^ 147-149, 159,
168, 175, 176, 178, 184, 187, 191,
192, 19s, 198, 209, 218, 225-228,
242, 244, 267, 268, 270--272, 278,
284, 287, 294, 326 ; his Govern
ment beaten on the Irish

University Bill, he resigns and
writes TiU Vatican Decrees, 48,
49, 83 ; his reason for dissolving
Parliament before the date he
had fixed for its reassembling,
59 ; his parliamentary gifts and
sophistry, 62-64 ; his ridicule
of Butt's Home Rule scheme,
81 ; his knowledge of ecclesias
tical law, 82, 83 ; resigns his
leadership, 86 ; bis opinion of
the Suez Canal deal, 94 ; his
Midlothian Campaign, 169, 171-
174, 185, 226, 240, 262 ; his
courage, dignity, and resource
commended, 189 ; his Irish
Land Bill, 201-206, 233-236 ;
his dialectical skiU used to
mislead his auditors, 250, 251 ;
his reduction of expenditure on
Army and Navy, 262, 263 ; his
Colonial and Foreign policy
264, 265 ; his Home Rule
manifesto in Luds Mercury,
286.
Gordon, General, 176, 227, 257,
265, 269.
Gorst, Sir John, 177.
Gortschakoff, Prince, 123.
Goschen, Rt, Hon, G. J., after
wards Viscount, 36-39, 79, 106
107, 284, 301, 302.
Grand Trunk Railway, 254-256.
GranviUe, 2nd Earl, 35, 97, 225,
226, 228, 242, 263, 2B4I
Grattan, Henry, 188.
Greenwich, Parliamentary Din
ners at, 96, 97,
GriUion's, 164.
Grimston, Robert, 4,
Halifax, 2nd Viscount, 31.
HaUiday, Sir Frederick, 68,
Hamilton, Lady George, 270,
Hamilton, Lord Claud, 254,
Hamilton, Lord George, invited
to stand for Middlesex, i ; his
interview with Disraeli on the
subject, 2 ; adopted as candi
date, 3 ; he is returned at head
of the poll, 7 ; his first speech
in Parliament, 13, 14 ; gives up
the Army, 15; his dispute with

340

INDEX

Delane, 27 ; they meet in the
lobby, 28 ; he marries, 39, 40 ;
his motion on the Alabama
arbitration treaty, 49-53 ; again
returned for Middlesex, and his
colleague Mr. Coope, 66 ; sug
gested as Under-Secretary for
Foreign Affairs, but finally
appointed Under-Secretary for
India, 67 ; his work there, 68-
70, 100-102, 107, 109 ; his first
speech on Indian affairs, 70-
73 ; his difficulty in sustaining
examination by Lord Hartington
on a Commission, 88 ; acts as
Chairman at Greenwich Dinner,
96 ; presents the wooden spoon
to Disraeli, 97 ; constant listener
to debates in the House of
Lords, 97 ; put up to reply to
Gladstone on the Royal Titles
Bill, 102 ; his opinion of Radi
cals, 103 ; moves appointment
of Commission on Indian cur
rency, 107 ; his recollections of
life at Dublin Castle, 112-117 ;
invited to dine at Windsor
Castle, the Queen gives him
her photograph, the first signed
" R. & I.," 120 ; represents the
Government at the Cutlers'
Feast at Sheffield, 131 ; ap
pointed Vice-President of the
Council, 147 ; transferred from
India Office to Education
Office, 148, 150; wrongly de
scribes himself as Minister of
Education, Lord Beaconsfield
calls his attention to the matter,
151 ; has an accident whilst
receiving a deputation from the
London School Board, 1 54, 155 ;
he warns Lord Beaconsfield
that the party would lose the
1880 election, 168 ; his address
to the Conservative Association
of the University of Edinburgh,
172-174; again returned for
Middlesex, 176 ; he moves an
amendment on the Compensa
tion for Disturbance Bill, 179 ;
attends the House of Commons
till four in the morning, has

a day's shooting, and spends
twelve hours in the House dur
ing one sitting, 190 ; his speech
on Land Purchase for Ireland,
234-236 ; becomes Chairman
of the Ratepayers' Association,
appointed First Lord of the
Admiralty, 245 ; his visit to
Canada, 254-259 ; put up to
attack the Budget, 269 ; he is
offered the War Office, but
finally appointed First Lord of
the Admiralty, 276, 277 ; his
experiences during seven years
at the Admiralty, 289-304.
Harcourt, Rt. Hon. Sir WiUiam,
34, 74, 82, 117, 118, 145, 177,
181-183, 192, 194, 284, 285.
Hardy, Rt. Hon. G. Gathorne,
afterwards Earl of Cranbrook,
118, 141, 142, 147.
Hares and Rabbits Bill, 184.
Hartington, Marquis of, 42, 43,
86-88, 144, 145, 228, 265, 284.
Hatherley, Lord, 31.
Healy, T. M., 177.
Heligoland, 275.
Hewitt, Sir W., 290.
Hicks Pasha, 226, 241.
Holmes, Mr., M.P., 159, 160.
Home Rule, 81, 82, 92, 176-178,
188, 235, 250, 251, 283-287..
Hood, Admiral Sir Arthur, 290,
291, 296, 297.
Hooker, Sir Joseph, 32.
Hope, Rt. Hon. A. J. Beresford,
143-
Horsman, Mr., M.P., 143.
Hoskins, Sir Anthony, 290, 291.
House of Commons, rules and
procedure, 165, 210-214.
Howe, Mr., of Chicago, 256,
257.
Howell, George, M.P., 246.
Hunt, Rt. Hon. G. Ward, 144.
Huxley, Prof., 155.
Iddesleigh, Earl of, see North
cote, Sir Stafford.
Ignatieff, Count, 124.
India, 103, 104, 106-111, 119, 124,
126-131, 137, 145, 147, 175, 184,
197.

INDEX

341

India Office, 67-69, 100-102, 107,
109, 140, 147, 149, 304, 308.
Indian Council, 307.
Indian currency. Commission on,
106, 107.
Ireland, 2, 38, 81, 82, 91, 92, 112-
117, 165-168, 174, 175-179, 184-
195, 201-207, 214-222,229-239,
270, 273, 279-284.
Ireland, Land Purchase in, 231-
236.
Ireland, Lord-Lieutenancy of,
113, 114.
Irish Church, 2.
Irish Coercion Bill, 190, 194, 270,
273, 279-
Irish Land Acts, 195, 201-206,
232, 233-236, 279.
Ashbourne's, 235, 279.
Wyndham's, 235.
Isandhlwana, 162.
James, Sir Henry, 243.
Johnson, Mr., Secretary to the
Ratepayers' Association, 246,
247.
Kenealy, Dr., 89-91.
Khartoum, 226, 241.
Kilmainham Treaty, 2 1 4-2 1 6, 2 1 8,
229, 237.
Kimberley, ist Earl of, 31, 97.
Kordofan, 241.
Labouchere, Henry, i, 2, 4, 7, 8.
Lambton, Hon. Frederick, 219-
221.
Land League, 168, 186, 187, 205,
229, 231.
Landowners, attacks on, 322.
Lansdowne, Lord, 254, 257-259.
Lawrence, Alderman, 43, 44.
Lawrence, Lord, 83, 109, 127, 129,
137-
Lawrence, Sir Henry, 108.
Lawson, Levy, see Bumham,
Lord.
Leeds Mercury, 286.
Leighton, Sir Frederick, 155.
Lewis, Sir Charles, 105.
Liddon, Canon, 132.
London, Corporation of the City
of, 245. 23

London, govemment of, 244-247.
London, Ratepayers' Association
of, 245-247.
London School Board, 154.
Lowe, Robert, afterwards 1st
Viscount Sherbrooke, 31, 32,
105-107, 144, 157, 158.
Lowther, James, 46, 75.
Lumsden, Gen. Sir Peter, 266.
Lytton, 1st Earl of, 119, 121,
130, 136-139, 175.
Maanstrasna, 281, 282.
M'CoU, Canon, 132.
Macdonald, Sir J. A., 49, 50.
Magee, Archbishop, 16-21.
M^di (Mohammed Ahmed), the,
226, 227, 241, 265, 266.
Maine, Sir Henry, 68, 149, 155,
285, 286.
Majuba Hill, 163.
Malet, Sir Edward, 275.
MaUet, Sir Louis, 67-^59, loi, 131,
155-
Malt Tax abolished, 184.
Manchester School of Politics,
320-330.
Manners, Lord John, 43, 44, 144,
276. ^
Marlborough, Duke of, 169.
Match Tax, the, 31.
Matthews, Sir Henry, afterwards
Lord Liandaff, 260.
Mayo, 6th Earl of, 3, 129.
Merchant Shipping BiU, 95, 96.
Metropolitan Water Board, its
proposed creation, 180-182.
Middlesex, constituency of, 1-12,
27, 66, 76, 176.
Middleton, Captain, 10.
Midlothian Campaign, 169, 171-
174, 185, 226, 240, 262.
Mill, James, 100.
Mill, John Stuart, 101, 102, 198.
Montgomery, Sir Robert, 68.
Morley, John, afterwards ist
Viscount, 38, 39, 164, 175, 214,
240.
Modey, J. L., 61.
MundeUa, Rt. Hon. A. J., 185.
Napoleon ill., 35.
National Insiurance, 308.

342

INDEX

Naval Defience Act, 298, 302.
Kew Goinea, 364.
Nineteenth Century, 185.
KorthbrDok, Eail of, 84, 119, 139,
130. 291, 294, 295.
Northcote, Lady. :;73.
Northcote, Sir StafibnL afterwards
ist Earl of Iddeddgk, 49, 118,
159, 160, 300, 276 ; leader of
the House of Commons, 141-
144 ; ChanceUor of the Ex
chequer, 152-154; his failing
healA, 199, 242, 268, 273.
Nosotti, Mr., 33.
CBrien, William, 177.
Crconnen, Danid, 188.
O'Connor, Arthur, 1-7.
O'Connor, T. P., 177.
O'DonneU shoots Carey the in
former, 338.
CGorman, Major, M.F., 91.
O'KeUy, ilr., M.P., 205.
Old Age Pensions, 308.
O'Leary, Dr., MP., 91.
Orton, Arthur, 89.
Osborne, Bernal, 41, 42.
O'Shea, Captain, ri6, 217.
CShea, Mrs., 215-216, 218, 2:2.
O'Shea, Mrs., Charles Stewart
Parnell, 214-216.
Pall Mall Gazette, 214, 263.
Palmerston, Viscount, 26, 29.
ParUament Act, 211.
PameU, C. S., 77, 79, 185, 188,
189, 205, 2-1, 250, 279, 283, 286 ;
on Gladstone as an actor, 63 ;
his personality, 164, 165 ; defies
all traditions, 166, 167 ; or
ganises Land League, 168
leader of the Irish Party, 17/
178 ; his plan of campaign, 186
he is criminally indict«i, 187 ;
plays into the hands of the
Government over the closure
lesolubons, 1 91-193 ; his im
prisonment, 205 ; his treaty with
the Government, 214, 216, 21S.
229, 237 ; his real opinion of
the Land League, 215 : corre
spondence wiSi O'Shea, 217 ;
his difficult position, 319; dis

inclined to violence, 222 ;
Foister's personal attach on him
and his indif^e&ce, 239^ 330 ;
supports the author's motian
fbr revision of Pordiase Clauses
in Land Act, 251, 234, 235;
subscription to pay off mort
gage on his propoty, 238, 239.
Pascoe, Josiah, 7.
Peace Preservation BiU, 93,
Peel, Sir Rob«t, 136, 148.
PeUy, Sir Lewis, 137, i^
Penjdeh, 267.
Peraa, 122, 123, 125, 137.
Peter the Great, reported will of,
122, 125.
Phayie, Colonel, 84.
Phcenix Park mardas, 217. 21S,
236-258.
Pigott, Mr., Controller of Station
ery Department, 159, 160.
Playfeir, Dr., 214.
Plimsoll, S.. 95, 96.
Potter, M J». for Rochdale, 22.
Power, OX>>nnor, 177.
Poynter, Sir Edward, 155.
Prevost, Captain, 51.
Pym, WoUaston, 9, la
Quebec, 257-259.
Queensland, 264.
Rawlinson, Sir Henr\-, 68, 123,
15s-
Redistribution BiU, 251, 252,
261.
Redmond, J. E., 177.
Redmond, W. H. K, 177.
Reforms, indispensable, 333-335-
Pariiamentary Procedxire, 353.
Primary Education, 333. -
Higher Education, 333.
Military Training, 333.
War Office, 334.
Admiralty, 334.
Labour, 334.
Conmiercial Treaty with
France, 334.
Customs Tariff, 334.
Relations with Overseas Do
minions, 334, 335.
Mineral Concessions to For-
dgners, 334.

INDEX

343

Richmond, Duke of. Lord Presi
dent of the Council, 150-154.
Ridley, Rt. Hon. Sir M. W., after
wards 1st Viscount, 51.
Ripon, 1st Marquis of, 19, 175,
278.
Ritchie, Rt. Hon. Chas., afterwards
Lord, 33, 252, 278, 291, 301.
Roberts, Lord, 138, 139, 163, 195,
196,311,330-
Royal Titles BiU, 102-106.
Russell, Lady Alfred, 155.
Russell, Lord Alfred, 155.
RusseU, 2nd Earl, 20, 26.
Russia and the Eastern Question,
122-126, 129-131, 133-136, 138,
175, 197, 266-269, 278.
St. Aldwyn, Viscount, see Beach,
Sir M. E. Hicks.
Salisbury, 3rd Marquis of, 66, 70,
84, 97, 98, 151, 161, 163, 252,
268, 269, 286, 289, 294; at
India Office, 67 ; Secretary of
State, 68 ; characteristics of,
735 74 ; entertains the Kaiser,
80 ; goes to Constantinople to
Conference of the Powers, 1 19,
130 ; again Foreign Secretary,
147 ; at a dinner at GriUion's,
164 ; in joint leadership with
Sir Stafford Northcote, 199 ;
hesitates to accept office, 272 ;
Bismarck's message to, 274 ; he
accepts office, 275 ; wants the
author to go to the War Office,
276, but in the end appoints
him to the Admiralty, 277 ;
fersona grata in the Chancel
leries of Europe, 278.
San Stefano, Treaty of, 135.
Sandford, Sir Francis, 152.
Sclater-Booth, see Basing, Lord.
Scobeleff, General, 123.
Seccombe, Sir Thomas, loi, 102.
Secocoeni, 161.
Seeley, Prof., 155.
Selbome, Lord, 59, 97.
Serbia, 332.
Sexton, Mr., M.P., 177.
Shah Shuja, 126.
Shere Ali, 126, 128-130, 138, 139.
Silver, decrease in price of, 106.

Smith, Mr., surveyor and actu
ary, 180, 181, 183.
Smith, Rt. Hon. W. H., 4, 75-81,
144, 245, 246, 249, 276, 277, 290,
301, 302.
South Africa, 94, 135, 161, 162,
174, 184, 189, 190, 195, 196, 228,
242.
Spencer, Lord, 214, 217, 237, 280,
282.
Stanhope, 5th Earl, 61, 140.
Stanley, A. P., Dean, 49.
Stanley, Colonel, 147.
Stanley, Lord, afterwards Earl of
Derby, 75, 144.
Stead, W. T., 263.
Strachey, Sir John, 147, 148.
Strachey, Sir Richard, 68.
Strathnairn, Lord, 114-117.
Suakin, 266.
Suez Canal BiU, 102.
Suez Canal, purchase of shares, 94.
SuUivan, A. M., 85.
Tait, Archbishop, 16, 84.
Tariff Reform, 253.
Taunton, 243.
Taylor, Colonel, 2.
Tel-el-Kebir, 226.
Tewfik, Khedive of Egypt, 224,
225.
Thirlwall, Bishop, 16.
Tichborne, Lady, 89.
Tichborne trial, the, 89, 90.
Times newspaper, 24-27.
Todleben, General, 135.
Tonk, Maharajah of, 83.
Transvaal, the, 135, 161, 162, 189,
190, 195, 228.
Treasury, the, 294, 296, 299-306,
308-310, 316.
Trench, R. C, Archbishop of
Dublin, 16, 114, 115.
Trevelyan, Sir George, 142, 234,
285.
Turkey, 93, 124, 125, 130-134, 189,
190.
Turkey, repudiation of external
loan by, 93, 124.
Victoria, Crown Princess of Ger
many, afterwards Empress, 155.
Victoria, Queen, 120, 121,272.

344

INDEX

Wales, Prince (h, aftenraids King
Edwaid VII., 1 13.
Wales, Princess o^ aftorwaids
Queen Alexandra, 113.
Wdby, R. E., afterwards ist
Baron Welby, 30a, 303,
Westlake, Mrs-, 154.
\\TiaIley. Mr.. M.P., 91.
White, Sir WDliam, Chief Con-
stroctor of Xa^-v, 296-398.
Whitehead. Mr., of Hkt Times,
30-

WilbeifanXk Bishop, !&
Wilhdm II., Gennan Eiopenur,
80,155.33a.
WoUr, Sir H. Drummond, 177.
Wolseley, Sir Garnet, afterwaids
1st Viscount c<>, 220, 2s-, 2s9.
Wylde, Sir Alfred, 68.
W\-ndhim. Percy, 51.
Yakoob Khan, 12S-130, 13S, 139.
Zulu War, 135. 161-163

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