When Birmingham was a town it had a national reputation for Liberalism.
At present I prefer to call myself a "townsman" rather than a "citizen."
The old pride of owning to being a Birmingham man is merged into the
admission of being born in Warwickshire. Some of the political scenes in
its town days may be instructive to its present-day citizens.
The famous Birmingham Political Union of 1832 was "hung up like a clean
gun" on G. F. Muntz's suggestion and never taken down. Many years later
a new Union was projected. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain was in the chair. I
was on the platform, and the only person present who was a member of the
former Union. I had no opportunity of speaking--nor indeed had anybody,
save movers and seconders of motions. There was nothing radical
about the proceedings. Nobody's opinion was asked. No opportunity of
discussion was given. The meeting was a mere instrument for registering
the business of the chair. The impression that afternoon made upon me
has never left me. Nothing afterwards surprised me in the performances
of the "quick-change artiste" of the Parliamentary music-hall.
Mr. John Morley wrote an article in the _Fortnightly_ on Mr.
Chamberlain, which first gave him a position before the public. Not even
in Birmingham could any one see adequate justification for it. But Mr.
Morley proved right, and had discerned a capacity which had not then
unfolded itself.
About that time Mr. Chamberlain made some remark on Mr. Disraeli in the
Birmingham Town Council, which did not amount to much. Mr. Disraeli did
the municipal speaker the honour to call him to account. Had any one in
like case called Mr. Disraeli to account he would have said in his airy
and evasive way: "Every public speaker is liable to the misconstruction
of unheeding and ill-hearing reporters, and he could not be expected to
answer for them." Mr. Chamberlain gave no sign of any such adroitness
which was ready to his hand, but wrote what read like an abject apology.
He did not dare to say to Mr. Disraeli "What I have said I have said."
Mr. Jesse Collings was one of the minor merchants of Birmingham. He came
originally from Exeter, and was held in great respect for his earnest
Liberalism, and for promoting the education of the people--though he was
himself a sectarian pure and simple, with little, if any, secularity
in him. When he came to be Mayor, the Tories of Birmingham--who had not
then and never had any man of mark or genius among them--were capable of
outrage. It was the only art they knew. When Mr. Collings presided one
day at a public meeting in the town hall, they drew an ass's head on a
large sheet of pasteboard, and hung it over the clock in front of the
chair labelled--the "Portrait of the Mayor." For two hours they made all
business impossible by shouting "Mr. Mayor, look at your portrait." At
length the Mayor took courage and ordered the Chief Constable--Major
Bond--to remove the picture placard and the ringleader of the
disturbance. This was construed as an insult, which Mr. Kynersley, the
principal Tory magistrate, supported. I was one who urged Mr. Collings
to apply to the bench for a case, that it might be determined in the
higher courts whether a mayor had legal power to preserve order at a
public meeting. The case was refused by Mr. Kynersley. This was the
treatment of the Right Honourable Jesse Collings for being a Liberal. Is
there a stranger sight in England than seeing this Liberal mayor dressed
in Tory livery, fetching and carrying in Parliament for the intolerant
party which treated him with such ostentatious indignity? What must be
his sense of humiliation under his new convictions? Equally tragic and
unforeseen must be the humiliation of the Tory party in Parliament who
used to boast of their pride, their dignity, and self-respect at having
to accept as a leader the great "caucus-monger," as they called Mr.
Chamberlain, who was the object of their epithets and hatred during so
many sessions. The tragedy of political convictions can no further go.
Far be it from me to deny that Mr. Collings and Mr. Chamberlain have not
honest reasons for their strange professions, though I do not
understand them. Like gravitation, I admit the fact, though its cause
is inscrutable. In politics motives are as though they were not. They
cannot be taken into account. If alleged, they admit of no proof.
Resentment rages among the partisans of the accused and the tendency
of their principles, which it is alone instructive to discuss, is lost
sight of. It is common for partisans to disparage those who have left
their ranks--forgetting that conviction depends upon evidence. Those who
leave a party may be as honest as those who remain. Whoever has rendered
aid to liberty and gone over to the other side should be honoured
for what he has done. He who has once stood upon the side of humanity
deserves more respectful treatment than he who never took the part of
the right. Mr. Collings and Mr. Chamberlain rendered important service
to the cause of public progress, and their abandonment of it was a loss.
For the rest, the career of Joseph Chamberlain, like that of Joseph
Cowen, has its explanation in the passion for paramountcy.