PUBLIC LIFE AND RETURN TO PARLIAMENT
1886-1894
Pathways of return to political life soon began to open to Sir Charles
Dilke. In November, 1886, Mr. Labouchere wrote:
'It looks as though Chamberlain will be the scapegoat. At present
his going over bag and baggage to the Whigs has utterly disgusted
the Radicals. As long as Gladstone lives things will go on fairly
with us, but after--the deluge. The Radical M.P.'s are regretting
your not being in, as they would have accepted you as the leader.'
In the autumn of 1886 the Council of the Chelsea Liberal Association
unanimously asked him to be their candidate (for Parliament), but he
replied that he could not serve the borough to his own satisfaction
while so large a section of the public still attached weight to the
'gross calumnies' with which he had been assailed. He was, however, from
the autumn of 1887, increasingly active in local affairs, both on the
Vestry and the Board of Guardians, [Footnote: In the winter of 1888, Sir
Charles was unanimously elected Chairman of the Board of Guardians, as
also of the Vestry ('as was the case in subsequent years'). He wrote to
Mr. Chamberlain: 'I've taken the chairmanship of the Chelsea Board of
Guardians, so am keeping my hand in on the prevention of obstruction. I
am forced to begin gradually with them, and have only as yet ruled that
I cannot _let two speak at once_.'] and also on the newly formed Library
Committee, on which he served for three years, till both the local
libraries were established and opened.
To M. Joseph Reinach he wrote in April, 1887: 'I have a splendid
position as a writer, and writing projects which will occupy me for
three years at least; and if any great calamity should occur which would
force me back into public life--such as war with Russia, for example--I
do not know that I should like the change.' Nor was the political scene
attractive at this moment. His friends were tearing each other asunder;
and not only his political friends--both parties were rent with faction.
'On October 1st, 1886, Chamberlain called and gave me an interesting
picture of the political state. He seemed to think that he could
keep Mr. Gladstone out for life, and was persuaded that Randolph
would give him all he wanted and leave Hartington and Salisbury in
the lurch. Randolph had promised him to have an anti-Jingo foreign
policy, leaving Turkey to her fate, and to pacify Ireland with the
National Councils scheme, modified into two Councils, or into
Provincial Councils, to suit Ulster; and Churchill had also promised
him procedure reform--that is, a sharper closure--and a three-acres-
and-a-cow policy for England.
'There was an article in the _Morning Post_, October 2nd,
representing Churchill's democratic views, but in the later autumn
(while Chamberlain was away abroad) Churchill was beaten in the
Cabinet both on his Irish scheme and also on the amendments which he
proposed to make in the Local Government (England) Bill in the
three-acres-and-a-cow direction. On December 17th Chamberlain, who
had returned from abroad, came to lunch with me, furious at the
defeat of Randolph Churchill. He found no fault with the Irish
policy' (which was strongly coercionist), 'or with the foreign
policy of the Cabinet; but he was anxious to defeat them on their
Local Government (England) Bill, if it was not altered back again to
suit his policy. Ultimately a compromise on this matter was
arranged.'
For a moment it seemed as if Chamberlain's anger with the Tory party was
going to drive him back into his old associations. On December 31st,
'Chamberlain and John Morley came in together to lunch, Chamberlain
having been asked and Morley not, and it was somewhat startling.
"Chamberlain thinks that he can get Mr. Gladstone by the bait of
'Four times Prime Minister' to accept his terms. On the other hand,
Mr. Gladstone thinks that he can detach Chamberlain from Hartington.
Conferences are sitting: Harcourt, Herschell, and Morley, meeting
Chamberlain and Trevelyan. Hartington is crusty at this. Chamberlain
has threatened Hartington with the consequences if he, as he wants
to, supports a reactionary Local Government Bill of Salisbury's.
Chamberlain has written to Salisbury as to this Local Government
Bill, and received a dilatory reply." He told me the whole long
history of Randolph's troubles with the Cabinet which preceded his
resignation; first on procedure, as to which he finally obtained his
own way, secondly as to foreign affairs, thirdly as to allotments,
fourthly as to Local Government, and fifthly as to finance.
Churchill always stood absolutely alone, and, being in a minority of
one, could only get his way at all by continually tendering his
resignation. At last he resigned once too often, as it was of course
on the wrong subject; Salisbury jumped at it, and accepted it in a
cool letter when Churchill did not mean it in the least. It was only
the classical annual resignation of a Chancellor of the Exchequer
against his colleagues of the army and navy. The Budget always
involves the resignation either of the Secretary of State for War
and First Lord of the Admiralty, or else of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, but hitherto they have always managed to make it up.'
Within a fortnight Sir Charles 'was hearing from all sides about the
Round Table Conferences which were intended to reunite the Liberal
party.... From Chamberlain I heard that his view was to bring about a
_modus vivendi_ only, under which the Conservative Government was to be
turned out on some side-issue. Mr. Gladstone would become Prime Minister
for the fourth time, if the Irish would consent to take Local Government
and a Land Bill first, and to leave Home Rule over. He thought that Mr.
Gladstone was not unwilling, but that there would be difficulty in
getting the Irish to consent. Morley and Harcourt were, according to
Chamberlain, friendly to his suggestions, and Hartington hostile, not
trusting Mr. Gladstone.'
On January 15th, 1887, Sir Charles wrote to Mr. Chesson [Footnote: See
note, p. 273.] that
'Chamberlain and Morley were both going to make conciliatory
speeches, but that nothing had really been done at Harcourt's house,
every difficulty having been "reserved." There could be no doubt
that several of the five who were there meeting were anxious to keep
things open, on the chance of Mr. Gladstone not remaining in
sufficiently good health to continue to lead the party. The
independent Liberals were vexed at the Conferences. Willy Bright
called on me, and said that obviously the great difficulty of the
moment was "to keep Mr. Gladstone in the Gladstonian party." Morley,
who also called on me, casually observed, "Harcourt was never a Home
Ruler. The only Home Rulers in the last Cabinet were Lord Granville
and Spencer, in addition to myself and Mr. Gladstone." When we
remember the views of Spencer in May, 1885, his violent Home Rule,
which dates from July, 1885, is laughable.'
'On the 15th I had a long and curious conversation with Chamberlain
about the matter. He said that the articles which had been appearing
in the _Birmingham Post_ about his own position were inspired by
him--that he and the other members of the Conference were telling
the newspapers that everything was going on swimmingly, but that the
whole thing was in reality a sham on both sides. Parnell was
frightened at Mr. Gladstone's declining health, and Mr. Gladstone
did not wish to end his life by having smashed his party, so that
the Conference was willingly continued, although it was doing
nothing. It was the wish of all concerned in it to be at the point
of an apparent reconciliation whenever Mr. Gladstone might become
incapacitated, but he, Chamberlain, was firmly decided not to take
office under Mr. Gladstone.
'Chamberlain said that Randolph Churchill on the previous night had
asked him, "Shall I come over?" but that he, Chamberlain, had
replied that he advised him not to, being afraid that Randolph would
play for the lead of the party, and not liking the notion of having
him for leader. He had advised Randolph to simulate moderation
towards Lord Salisbury, in spite of his anger at the Duke of Norfolk
and the members of the Conservative party who, since his quarrel
with the Government, had been "attacking his private character."'
'On February 4th, 1887, Chamberlain again came to see me, and I
noted in my diary that he was "very sore against Labouchere and
others."
'On February 13th, Morley called and said that the Round Table
Conference was hopeless, although they were to meet at dinner on the
14th, and once again after that. He said, "Both sides are very
cross, and each side asks, 'What is to become of the other?'"
'On the same day Chance, M.P., told me, he being the attorney of the
Nationalist party, that O'Shea was going forward with his divorce
case against Parnell, and that Parnell had no defence possible. I
have never known what was the reason of the immense delays which
afterwards occurred.'
Parties now began to settle into their new groupings.
'On March 2nd, 1887, Chamberlain came to lunch, and told me a good
deal about the failure of the Round Table Conference, but it was not
till April 3rd that he told me the whole story. On this latter day
Deakin, the Chief Secretary of Victoria, and most interesting of
Colonists, was with me; and Chamberlain came in before Deakin had
gone, and, talking with his customary frankness, discussed the whole
matter before the astonished Victorian. There had been a sad split
caused by a letter which he had written, and which he admitted was
an indiscreet one, to the _Baptist_, as to Welsh Disestablishment. A
hint was then let fall that the Gladstonians were going to negotiate
with Hartington direct. On this Chamberlain went off to Hartington
and got from him a letter to say that Hartington would not negotiate
himself, but that Chamberlain was in possession of his views.
Efforts were then made to get Chamberlain to meet Mr. Gladstone.
Chamberlain agreed to do so, but not to ask for the meeting. At
length a meeting was fixed at Mr. Gladstone's request for the
morrow, Monday, April 4th. It was settled that at this Mr. Gladstone
would ask what Chamberlain had to propose. Chamberlain was going to
reply that Mr. Gladstone knew his views, and to then ask whether
they were accepted, and he knew perfectly that nothing would come of
it. He had on the same day, April 3rd, met Randolph at Mrs. Jeune's
at lunch. They had walked away together, when Randolph had proposed
a Chamberlain-Hartington-Randolph league against both parties. This
had tempted Chamberlain, but was an idle suggestion, as Hartington
and Randolph could never work together.'
In the autumn of 1887 Sir Charles and Lady Dilke went to Constantinople,
and he writes:
'I had received at this time a letter from James, in which he said
that Mr. Gladstone had sent for him to talk to him about me in the
friendliest way, and, Mr. Gladstone having called, I wrote to him,
and transmitted some messages from the Sultan, in the following
letter:
"Athens,
"_October 14th_.
'"I have never thanked you except verbally through James for a kind
and pleasant message which I had from you by James and Chamberlain
last session.
'"At Constantinople last Friday, and again to Lady Dilke last
Monday, the Sultan said that he wished complimentary messages
conveyed to you. The Greek Patriarch said the same thing to us on
Tuesday and Wednesday. My wife told both that she hardly knew you,
and I replied that I was unlikely to see you for some time, but
would see that the messages reached you.
'"The Greeks on the one hand, and the Bulgarians on the other, are
now very friendly with the Sultan, but I regret to find that the
dislike between the Greeks and the Bulgarians is as strong as ever.
The common preference of both for the Sultan over Russia has not
sufficed to draw them together. The split between the Bulgarian
Government and the Exarch of Bulgaria will, however, probably draw
Bulgaria closer to the Phanar."'
Mr. Gladstone replied, on October 24th, that his message to Sir Charles
expressed his real feeling, which he should have been glad to find other
modes of expressing. He added that if the Sultan spoke sincerely in the
message which Sir Charles transmitted,
'he must be acting as a good Christian: for Hobart Pasha when here,
as a spy on Fehmi, told me the Sultan believed I was his greatest
enemy. I have never been so great an enemy to him as he to himself.
I have never had extreme views about Turkey. Had I the settling of
the affair, I should be disposed to keep the Turks in
Constantinople, and not to let Home Rule when freely and honestly
given mean total severance. But the materials of convulsion are, I
fear, slowly gathering in that quarter, and Russia, shut out from
her just claim to the passage of the Straits, means to have the
mastery of them. I always grieve over the feud of Hellene and Slav,
out of which much mischief may come. The situation here is
favourable to those who view the Irish Question as you do. The
relations with Chamberlain have been rather painful. I think he has
developed since the schism of March, 1886, even greater speaking and
debating talents than he had shown before. I think also that the
organization of dissentient Liberalism, in which he has borne so
large a part, has been enormously favourable to his general creed as
an advanced Radical, whereas Hartington with his weak-kneed men has
been utterly hoodwinked, and hoodwinked by himself. On the other
hand, I own myself amazed at Chamberlain's proceedings during the
last month. Everyone took a favourable view of his accepting the
American mission; [Footnote: Mr. Chamberlain was corresponding with
Sir Charles in regard to his mission, for which he started on
October 29th, 1887. It had for its object the negotiation of a
treaty with America on several outstanding questions.] but a man of
one-tenth of his talent ought to have seen the folly of widening
breaches and exasperating all passions as a preliminary to charging
himself with a business that eminently requires a serene atmosphere.
'We witnessed at Nottingham an enthusiasm literally the greatest I
have ever seen.'
'On my return to England before the middle of November, 1887, I
received a letter from the Cinderford Liberal Association, in the
Forest of Dean, in which they referred to an attempt which had been
made to induce me to stand for the Forest of Dean when Blake retired
in July, 1887, and went on to press me to go there to speak....
After the completion of the army articles and of the book, I
intended to set to work on a new version of my _Greater Britain_.
This afterwards became the book published under the title of
_Problems of Greater Britain_.'
On October 28th, 1887, 'Chamberlain wrote ... "Mr. Gladstone's last
speech shows distinct signs of old age. I think matters cannot long
remain in their present state, and the whole policy of England--both
foreign and domestic--may be greatly altered."'
On reaching Washington, Chamberlain wrote: 'I do not find the "civilized
world" so much pro-Irish as Mr. Gladstone would have us believe. On the
contrary, I have as yet only met two Americans who have expressed
themselves favourable to Mr. Gladstone's policy. They are, generally
speaking, inclined to some concession in the direction of State rights,
but they are entirely opposed to anything in the nature of a self-
governing colony, and they have no personal liking for the Irish. Above
all, they are horrified at Mr. Gladstone's recent utterances about law
and order, and say openly that he must have lost his head.'
'On January 4th, 1888, I made a speech in which I laid down my
position as regarded Parliamentary candidature. It was made in
presiding at the first dinner of the Hammersmith Central Liberal
Club. About the same time I received requests to stand as candidate
for Merthyr and for the northern division of the borough of West
Ham, which I declined, pointing to my Hammersmith speech without
giving further reasons.'
'About this time, my son being now at Rugby, we went down to see him
and lunched with the Percivals.'
In the new session of 1888 Mr. Ritchie introduced his Local Government
Bill, which (as Sir Charles had predicted to the Chelsea electors in
1885) was much influenced by the Liberal scheme that lay accessible in
an official pigeonhole. The outline given by the new President of the
Local Government Board in introducing the measure showed, however, that
it fell short of expectation, and Sir Charles immediately criticized the
project in an evening paper without waiting for publication of the text.
When the Bill was published, he issued notes upon it, in concert with
Mr. Cobb, M.P. for the Rugby Division, condemning the absence of any
attempt to 'reform and revivify the parish.'
'My main objection to Mr. Ritchie's scheme was that, whereas in my
scheme the District Councils had been more highly organized than the
County Councils, in his scheme the reverse was the case. [Footnote:
The allusion is here, apparently, to the Bill which Mr. Chamberlain
prepared in 1886, but with considerable help from Sir Charles.]
There was no building up out of the smaller districts, giving the
work as far as possible to the smallest, where the people were at
their homes; but Mr. Ritchie's unit was the county, and the smaller
bodies were neglected.
'The Liberal leaders took a short-sighted course in recommending
their friends to allow the Bill to pass almost without discussion.'
[Footnote: In 1892 he again notes his intervention on this question.
'On November 9th, 1892, I had a long interview at the Local
Government Board with Henry Fowler, the President, at his request,
before I went down to the Chelsea Board of Guardians for the last
time. He consulted me as to all his Bills, especially as to that on
Local Government.']
There were, however, friends who considered that the new institutions
established by Mr. Ritchie's Act opened a way back into public life for
Sir Charles. Among these was Mr. Chamberlain. He was, as usual,
corresponding with Sir Charles, during his absence abroad, on all
matters, and an interesting letter is noted here.
'In, I think, May, 1888, while we were at Royal, I received a letter
from Chamberlain in which he indicated a change in his views upon
the South Africa question. Ultimately he completely turned round
from his old position, which was violently anti-Dutch, and, like
everyone else, fell into line upon the principle of the fusion of
race interests in South Africa.'
'On our return Chamberlain came down to Dockett and spent the
afternoon, bringing Austen with him, and very strongly urged that
the time had now come when I should stand for Parliament. I said
that I thought that the time would come, but that, after India, I
had _Problems of Greater Britain_ to write before I thought about
it. He then urged that I should stand for the County Council in my
absence in India, and as to this point a great difference of opinion
arose, I being inclined to accept his advice, which was also very
strongly pressed upon me by my former colleague Firth; my wife and
G. W. Osborn strongly took the opposite view, to which I yielded. I
afterwards came to think it had been the right view. Chamberlain
pressed his opinion very hotly to the last. I received a deputation
from Fulham which represented the entire Liberal and a portion of
the Conservative party, and the seat would certainly have been won;
but I declined, and Chamberlain then wrote: "You must be the judge,
and are probably the best one. But I yield reluctantly."'
This decision was made public in answer to the Fulham deputation just
before Sir Charles started on a journey to India.
In February, 1889, after his return to England, he was confronted with a
new proposal. The Progressive party now in power on the London County
Council desired to put him forward as one of the first Aldermen. Sir
Charles refused; but a preliminary circular in reference to his
candidature had been issued, and a protest was immediately organized by
the section which desired his permanent ostracism. This opposition was
then formidable in its proportions, and it never wholly disappeared. It
was, however, increasingly clear that a much stronger body of public
opinion desired his return to public and Parliamentary life.
In March, 1889, he was elected Honorary President of the Liberal Four
Hundred in the Forest of Dean. The election did not pass without
challenge, and one of the objectors was the Rector of Newent (Canon
Wood). Sir Charles sent this clergyman the papers in the divorce case,
which had been collected by Mr. Chesson [Footnote: Mr. Chesson had died
earlier in this year; and the token of Sir Charles Dilke's gratitude to
this defender of unpopular causes is commemorated in the High-Altar of
Holy Trinity Church, Upper Chelsea, which he presented in memory of his
friend. Sir Charles wrote: 'He had been for many years a useful man in
politics, and he was to me at this period a very precious friend; one of
the best and truest men I ever knew; he had been the most helpful man in
England to the anti-slavery cause of the Northern Abolitionists, the
working man of the Jamaica Committee, and, many years afterwards, of the
Eastern Question Association, and of the Greek Committee; and since his
death no one has taken his place.'] and his associates, and a study of
them turned the Rector of Newent into a strong supporter of the man whom
he had at first denounced.
Dilke's first visit to the Forest of Dean took place in May, 1889. By
this time it was clear that his absence from Parliament could be
terminated at his own pleasure. Mr. Gladstone had intervened almost
officially in the matter. In June, 1889, he again sent for Sir Henry
James, who transmitted the purport of his talk: which was that, while
Mr. Gladstone was most anxious to see Sir Charles back, his opinion was
that steps should not be too quickly taken. Sir Henry thought that Mr.
Gladstone would willingly give his opinion and advice if Sir Charles
thought that would be of any value to him. A few weeks later Mr.
Gladstone called at 76, Sloane Street, but missed Sir Charles.
'In August he wrote to me in regard to his correspondence with
James. The most important passage in the letter was:
'"I deeply feel the loss we sustain in your absence from public
life, after you had given such varied and conclusive proof of high
capacity to serve your country; and I have almost taken it for
granted that with the end of this Parliament, after anything
approaching the usual full term, the ostracism could die a kind of
natural death. And I heartily wish and hope that you may have lying
before you a happy period of public usefulness."'
Sir Charles was in no hurry. Another invitation had reached him, from
Dundee, and 'on November 4th a unanimous request to contest the borough
of Fulham.'
But his determination was to let nothing interrupt the work on his book;
after that, various promises both of writing and speaking had to be
redeemed.
Meanwhile he remained in touch with the political world. 'I carried on a
controversy with Labouchere about his views in favour of reforming the
House of Lords, to which I was bitterly opposed, preferring, if we could
not get rid of it, to go on as we are.' All Labouchere's letters were
full of references to the position of Chamberlain, and Chamberlain
himself came from time to time to discuss that point.
'On December 2nd, 1889, I saw Chamberlain. On October 10th he had
told me that he was clear that ultimately he should join the
Conservatives, unless Mr. Gladstone were soon to go and a
Rosebery-Harcourt combination would come to terms with him about
Ulster. On December 2nd I found a little change back from his
general attitude, and in face of the probable break-up of the
Parnellite party over the O'Shea case, which was beginning to be
talked of in detail, Chamberlain was undecided, he said, and no
doubt thought, between the two parties. But I noted in my diary:
"Labouchere sets him against the Liberals, and Balfour attracts him
to the Tories." It was clear that I thought that the change was but
a temporary one, and that he was certain to return to his attitude
of October, as in fact he did.'
_Problems of Greater Britain_ appeared at the end of January, 1890, and
within a month the edition was exhausted. In America, Sir Charles,
expecting censure, had arranged to reply in the _North American Review_
to his censors; but there was so little adverse comment that he chose
another subject.
Discussion of military problems abounded in the book, but the 'Problems'
treated were by no means only those which concerned military experts.
Mr. Deakin wrote:
'It will not merely be the one book treating authoritatively of the
Empire, and the one book making it known to Britons in Europe, but
it will also be the first book enabling the various groups of
colonies to understand each other, and their individual relation to
the whole of which they form a part.... Knowing some of the
difficulties you encountered ... I have been completely amazed at
the skill or the intuition with which you have caught the right tone
of local colours and the true tendency of our political and social
life.'
'On July 23rd, 1890, I lunched with McArthur [Footnote: Mr. W. A.
McArthur, Liberal Whip and member of Parliament, who had made Sir
Charles's acquaintance in 1886, and become a warm personal friend.]
to meet Schnadhorst, who had returned from South Africa, and who
warmly pressed my standing at the General Election, and I allowed
myself to be persuaded so far as to promise that I would consider
the matter in connection with the offer of any first-rate seat.'
Different constituencies were mentioned; but in the following October,
when it became known that the then member for the Forest of Dean would
not stand again, Mr. Schnadhorst wrote at once to Sir Charles urging him
to let his name be put forward. He added, as an indication of the
general feeling, that the adjacent constituency of South Monmouthshire
had also sent in a request for Sir Charles's services--'which should
assure you that popular support will overwhelm any other influence.'
Accordingly, at the end of this year Sir Charles saw a deputation of
leading men from the Forest, and fixed a date on which he would give a
reply to a formal invitation. Having spent Christmas in his house at
Toulon, he returned thence in February, 1891, met a further deputation,
and agreed to give his public reply in the Forest in March.
In December, 1890, Chamberlain had concurred in the decision that,
before Dilke accepted any candidature, there should be published a
digest of the case with annotation and with the new evidence, 'which had
grown up out of Chesson's notes, and which was largely the work of Howel
Thomas, Clarence Smith, Steavenson, and McArthur. This was published in
February, 1891, on my return.' [Footnote: In 1886 he had written: 'In
the course of this winter a committee of friends of mine, got together
by Chesson, and containing Steavenson (afterwards Judge Steavenson), and
Howel Thomas of the Local Government Board, but also containing W. A.
McArthur, M.P., Clarence Smith, ex-Sheriff of London and Middlesex,
afterwards M.P., and Canon MacColl, who were mere acquaintances, or
less, had begun to investigate my case with a view of getting further
evidence.']
'The Cinderford meeting (the central town of the Forest) on March
9th, 1891, was unanimous, and after it we remained chiefly in the
Forest of Dean for a long time. I had promised to give my final
reply in June. At the meeting of March I had only stated that if,
after all the attacks which might be made upon me, they should
remain in the same mind, I would accept.'
Sir Charles was fortunate in his new constituency. Throughout England
there was no other so suited to him; he desired contact with large
bodies of labouring men, and the Forest made him a representative of
that great and typical British Labour group, the miners. He loved 'each
simple joy the country yields,' and, whereas almost everywhere else a
mining district is scarred, defaced, and blackened, here pit-shafts were
sunk into glades as beautiful as any park could show, forest stretches
of oak and beech enveloped that ugliness in green and gold, and from
many a rising ground you might look over the broad vale where the wide
Severn sweeps round a horseshoe curve and the little, unspoilt town of
Newnham stands set in beauty, winter or summer.
Newnham was dear to Sir Charles, and there he stayed for visits in
winter. But the place of his most frequent and prolonged abode in his
constituency was the Speech House, built in the very heart of the
woodland, remote from any town, yet at a centre of the communal life;
for outside it, on a wide space of sward, the Forest miners held their
yearly meeting, their 'speech-day.' The miners' interest, which he
represented, was not of recent growth, nor arising out of some great
enterprise of capital; it linked itself with those rights of commonage
of which he had always been a chief champion, and appealed not only to
the radical but to the antiquarian in him. The 'free miners' privileges
marked only one of many ancient customs in that Crown domain which he
studied and guarded.
As in 1867 and 1868 he had made it his business to be sure that the
electors whose votes he sought should know his opinions, so far as
possible, not on one subject, but on all, so now in 1891, at his
meetings throughout the constituency, he unfolded the whole of his
political faith.
He developed in speech after speech the views which he had put forward
in _A Radical Programme_, published in 1890, and in a great speech at
Glasgow on March 11th of that year. His views on Housing, as given in
his Glasgow speech and afterwards dealt with in his Forest campaign,
show how far he was in advance of the recommendations made in the Report
of the Royal Commission on Housing of the Poor.
'As chairman of that Commission, I had to instruct the secretary
working with myself to draw such a report as would at least obtain a
majority upon the Commission, and we succeeded in drawing a report
that obtained a unanimity of votes; but, of course, to do so we had
to put forward the points in which we felt that many would concur,
and to keep out our most extreme suggestions. I personally would go
much farther, and would allow towns to build or hire or buy, and
would encourage them to solve the problem for themselves, and not
ask the State to help them, except by setting free their hands and
allowing them to obtain land cheaply and to tax themselves freely
for the purpose.... Gladly would I see towns armed with the powers
to destroy, without compensation, in extreme cases, filthy
dwellings, where it is proved to the satisfaction of the magistrates
that the owners are in fault, and the sites of such dwellings might
be obtained by a cheap process. In all cases we ought to give powers
to public bodies to take land for public purposes at a fair price
... and by the adoption of the principle of betterment ... owners
would be called upon to make special contribution towards schemes
which would improve their property at large.'
He dwelt on the sufferings of the working classes owing to improvements
which ejected them from their dwellings, and urged that the Local
Authority should in all cases come to terms as to rehousing before
granting any facilities for improvements.
For land he advocated taxation of unearned increment and fixity of
tenure under fair rents fixed by judicial courts, with power to the
community to buy up land at its real price.
He also advocated, not only the limitation of hours of work, a principle
to which he had been converted by the Industrial Remuneration Conference
of 1885, but that the workers should be qualified for the enjoyment of
their leisure by educational opportunities. He urged the example of
Switzerland in making education compulsory up to sixteen years of age,
and that of Ontario in granting free education up to the age of
twenty-one.
He advocated municipal Socialism, by giving to municipalities the widest
possible power to deal with local needs, and, passing from local
expenditure to that of the State, he dealt with the need for graduation
of Imperial taxation, and urged the equalization of the death duties (as
between real and personal estate) and making these duties progressive.
He would raise them gradually to 25 per cent. By such means we should
attain the double purpose of raising money and discouraging the
possession of large estates, which are the cause of the existence of a
too numerous idle class.
Adult suffrage and one man or woman, one vote, was always a part of his
programme.
In his utterances the change from individualism to collectivism is
marked. 'We were all Tory anarchists once,' he used to say in reviewing
economic theories of the sixties, and the change which had come over the
attitude of economists to social questions. His own conversion was so
thorough that in industrial questions he acted often as a pioneer, and
his constituency adopted his views on the limitation of hours by
legislation as in the demand for a legal eight-hour day. [Footnote:
Speeches in Forest of Dean and elsewhere (1890-1891). _Radical
Programme_, 1890.]
He had laid it down as a condition of acceptance of the candidature for
the Forest that there must be 'full and absolute belief' in him and in
his word. Time was given for the personal attack to develop, and it was
made by pamphlet propaganda with unsparing virulence, but entirely
without result. Not a dozen Liberals in the division declared themselves
affected by it; and 'on June 11th, 1891, I gave my consent to stand for
Parliament at a meeting held at Lydney, which was extraordinarily
successful and unanimous.'
The chair was taken by Mr. Thomas Blake, who had been member for the
division, and who in the darkest hour of Sir Charles's political life
had come forward with a proposal to resign and make way for him. He was
there now to say that, if Sir Charles would stand, he himself would act
as unpaid election agent. On the platform were all the leading Liberals
of the Forest, among them Canon Wood of Newent, whose opposition had
been turned into strenuous advocacy. There also was 'Mabon' to speak for
himself and the Welsh miners, and from the outside world Mr. Reginald
McKenna, an inseparable friend. Sir Charles's speech, which he counted
to have been the best of his life, dealt briefly with the leading
political topics of the day--Home Rule and the Radical programme--but
soon passed to the personal issue. He recalled the change from the murky
dreariness of March to the height of summer loveliness which reigned
about them, and the change no less great in the moral atmosphere. He
reviewed the history of the attacks that had been made, the avowed
determination to prevent his being their member; and at the close he
declared himself satisfied that their trust was fully his. 'My
conditions have been fulfilled. I accept the confidence you have reposed
in me. I trust that strength may be given to me to justify that
confidence, and I reply--not for a day, nor for a year, but from this
day forward, for better for worse; and thereto I plight my troth.
To-morrow we go forth from among you and commit our honour to your
charge.'
He was justified in the confidence which he reposed in them. One attempt
was made to raise the personal issue against him; and its result showed
that any man would be imprudent who sought to oppose Sir Charles Dilke
in the Forest of Dean except on strictly political grounds. First and
last no member of Parliament ever got more loyal support; but no man
ever trusted less to personal popularity. He carefully developed the
whole electoral machinery. The month which he spent every autumn in the
Forest was very largely a month of work on the detail of registration,
and the register as he caused it to be kept might be put forward as an
example of perfection unapproached elsewhere in Great Britain.
'A day or two afterwards I received at a public meeting at Chelsea
Town Hall an address signed by 11,000 inhabitants of Chelsea,
congratulating me on my return to public life. It was signed by
persons on both sides of politics. In reply, I made another good
speech; but it was a great occasion.'
Among the letters which reached him from all quarters was one from Sir
Henry Parkes, who wrote:
'Chief Secretary, New South Wales,
'Sydney, _March 9th_, 1891.
'I still hold the belief that few men have before them a broader
path of honourable usefulness than you. May you succeed in nobly
serving the dear old country!'
He received now and henceforward many invitations to address labouring
men, especially from the miners of Great Britain.
At Cannock Chase, in August, 1890, he attended his first miners'
meeting. How rapidly the list increased may be judged by the fact that,
speaking in July, 1891, at Ilkeston, he alluded to his conferences with
miners of Yorkshire, of Lancashire, of Cheshire, Somerset,
Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire, Staffordshire, and the Swansea and Neath
districts in England and Wales, and of Fife and Ayrshire in Scotland.
Attempts had not been wanting to stimulate against him the strong
puritanism of these people, especially in South Wales; the answer had
come from men like Tom Ellis, [Footnote: Mr. Thomas E. Ellis was a
Liberal Whip at this time.] who brought him to address the quarrymen of
Blaenau Festiniog, or like Mabon--William Abraham--miner, bard, and
orator, who organized a gigantic torchlight procession of his own
constituents in the Rhondda Valley to welcome Sir Charles and Lady
Dilke, and who, at Lydney, when Sir Charles finally accepted their
invitation, congratulated the Forest of Dean on having secured the
services of 'one who was not only a political leader, but a real Labour
leader.'
Parliamentary action in favour of an Eight Hours Bill formed the burden
of Sir Charles's discourse at all these meetings. Accepting a special
invitation to the annual conference of miners in the beginning of 1892,
he dealt with the proposal, then strongly advocated, of a general
international strike, pointing out that this measure 'should not be even
talked about until they had seen the exhaustion of all other means of
obtaining what they wanted.' It meant civil war; would 'disorganize the
whole economic condition of the country and the trade of the Empire, and
produce also a great feeling of exasperation between classes.' He
pressed them to consider whether, in the event of such an international
conflict, the whole brunt would not fall on Great Britain. In Belgium
and in France there was no such strength of organization as among them;
and a general strike succeeding in Great Britain, but failing on the
Continent, would be a national danger. He proposed, as an alternative,
co-operation with the British representatives of other trades, for whom
also Parliamentary interference was demanded. In the discussion which
followed, the weight of his argument was fully recognized, and a
resolution favouring the international strike was amended into one
calling for Parliamentary action.
In the following June Sir Charles Dilke attended the Miners'
International Congress, and spoke at the banquet given to foreign
delegates. A month later, when the General Election came on, 'thousands
of handbills and posters,' says Mr. Thomas Ashton, 'were sent to the
Forest of Dean by our federation recommending the workers to vote for
the working man's candidate.'
Nor were his public utterances on Labour questions limited to Great
Britain; request came from a society of the Belgian economists for a
lecture on some subject connected with Greater Britain, and he chose the
Australian strike and the position of Labour in the Colonies. This
discourse was delivered by Sir Charles in Brussels on his way back from
France at the beginning of 1891, and he then, he says, 'made the
acquaintance of all the leading people on both sides in that city.'
As early as May, 1891, Dilke had made up his mind (and stated it in a
letter to Count Herbert Bismarck) that the Liberal party would win the
next election. The question of the Leadership was raised at the end of
the session in a letter from Chamberlain:
'I am told that Mr. Gladstone is much shaken by his late illness,
and I cannot see how he can ever lead the House again, though his
name will always be a tower of strength in the constituencies.'
But in December Mr. Chamberlain said that he did not think the prospects
of a General Election were so good for Mr. Gladstone as they had been
six months ago.
'James, dining at my house, had said a long time before this that
the prospects of the Liberals might look rosy, but that they had not
realized the extent to which the Liberal Unionists intended to spend
their money upon Labour candidates;' and this danger 'began to show
itself more clearly about this time.' On December 28th 'I had an
amusing letter from Cyril Flower:
'"Surely for a real good muddle in political affairs, Welsh, Irish,
Scotch, and English, there has never been a bigger, and what with
Pamellites and anti-Parnellites (Christian and anti-Christian)
Whigs, Labour candidates, Radicals, Tories, Jacobites, and Liberal
Unionists, the next House will be as rum a kettle of fish as ever
stewed since George III. The worst of it is, as the House gets more
and more divided (like the French Chambers) into sets, it also
becomes more and more incapable of getting through its business, and
the littleness of the individual members becomes daily more
apparent."'
The real difficulty for the Liberals was, however, the question of
leadership; and Sir Charles wrote an article in the _Speaker_ [Footnote:
September 5th, 1891.] in support of one of his few paradoxes--that Great
Britain would be better off without a Second Chamber, but that, given a
House of Lords, the Prime Minister should be a member of it. For this
reason he urged that though, 'when the moment has come for Mr. Gladstone
to think that he has earned a change into the position of adviser from
that of military chief, Sir William Harcourt will occupy the place he
pleases to assume--he will be able to make himself Prime Minister if he
chooses'--yet 'the party would be strongest with Mr. Gladstone for
adviser, Sir William Harcourt, as fighting chief, sharing the
responsibility with the leader in the Lords more fully than he would if
he were Prime Minister in the Lower House'; and he named Lord Spencer as
possible Prime Minister, since Lord Rosebery should be Foreign
Secretary, and the Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister should not be
the same man, 'so heavy is the work of each of these two offices.'
With the opening of 1892 Parliament entered on its sixth, and last,
session, and 'on April 1st I received a letter from Chamberlain, in
which he said:
'"My own firm conviction is that parties will be nearly divided, and
if Mr. G. has a majority nothing will be done either in regard to
Ireland or to social questions in Great Britain.
'"I do not _expect_ the election till late in the autumn, and,
judging from appearances, the Opposition are much divided and rather
depressed in spirit. My prediction is that, unless the Gladstonians
give up the idea of a separate Parliament (I do not say extended
local government), they will not obtain power--though they may
obtain office--for this generation.
'"This is a bold prophecy for you, but it is my sincere opinion."'
Right essentially--for there was a very small Liberal majority--Mr.
Chamberlain was wrong on the point of date: the election came in July,
1892.
In the Forest proper, the local war-chant, 'Yaller for iver, an' Blue in
the river!' was shouted everywhere. But the constituency, 'a microcosm
of England, industrial and agricultural,' as Sir Charles had called it,
had districts where support of the 'working man's candidate' could only
be whispered; where closed hands were furtively opened to show a
marigold clasped in them; where perhaps, as a farmer's trap drove by
carrying voters to the poll, the voters, outwardly blue-ribboned, would
open their coats a little and show where the yellow was pinned. Lady
Dilke on polling-day took charge of these districts. Yellow flowers from
every garden were heaped into her carriage as she passed; and when votes
came to be counted, more than one had been spoilt by too enthusiastic
votaries who wrote across their paper, 'For Lady Dilke.' Her courage and
devotion had touched the loyalty of the Forest people, and she received
from them a tribute of genuine love. One who accompanied her tells of a
later day when, after a terrible mine accident, Lady Dilke came down to
visit the homes on which that blow had fallen. In one a young widow sat
staring dry-eyed at the fire or turning tearless looks on the child that
played near her. But when Lady Dilke entered, the woman rose from her
chair, and, running to her visitor, put her arms about her neck, and as
the two held each other, tears came at last.
Sir Charles Dilke was returned by a majority of two to one, and, he
writes laconically, 'in August was well received in the House of
Commons.'
In 1891 Sir Charles had expressed some surprise at hostile comment in
the _Times_ and other important organs on his selection as candidate for
the Forest of Dean, and Mr. Chamberlain told him candidly that opinion
in society and in the House itself was hostile to his candidature, and
that he must look forward to a 'mauvais quart d'heure.' But it was
otherwise. After his election there appears to have been a general
expectation that he would be silent, and keep out of the range of
hostile criticism. As a fact, he fell directly into his old habit of
raising every subject which interested him. Parliament met again on
January 31st, 1893, and as soon as notice of questions could be given,
Sir Charles was reviving interest in a subject familiar to him of old,
by asking the new Liberal Government to issue papers which had been
omitted from the official publications of France and Great Britain, but
had been published in the Madagascar Red Book.
Amongst congratulations on his election came one from the Prime Minister
at Antananarivo, rejoicing that the threatened freedom of Madagascar
would again have his support, and transmitting the Red Book just named.
Within the first week of the session Sir Charles had questioned
Government about the arbitration as to the Newfoundland fisheries; and
concerning a vacancy in the Bombay command, with inquiry as to whether
amalgamation of the Indian armies would be considered [Footnote: The
amalgamation of the Indian armies was achieved by abolition, in 1894, of
the separate military commands of the Presidencies.]--a change which he
had long advocated. He also reappeared in a different field, but one
familiar to him, by introducing a Bill to amend the system of voting in
local elections. Then, on February 11th, while the Address to the Crown
was still under discussion, he took part in a full-dress debate.
Mr. James Lowther, the leading Protectionist of days when Protection was
not a fashionable creed, proposed an amendment seeking to restrict the
immigration of destitute aliens; and he found a seconder in a trade-
unionist, Mr. Havelock Wilson, who spoke for the seamen. After Mr.
Gladstone had argued strongly against the proposal, but had shown his
perception of the widespread support which it received by expressing
willingness to appoint a committee of inquiry, Sir Charles Dilke rose,
and, claiming to speak for a small minority, opposed legislation and
committee alike.
The force of his appeal to the House lay in the description which he
gave of persecution directed against the Jews in Russia, coupled with
citation of many previous instances in which England had afforded
asylum, and had gained both advantage and respect by so doing. First-
hand knowledge of Russian conditions and detailed mastery of the
historical case were combined in what one of the more important speakers
for the motion (Sir William Marriott) called a 'magnificent speech'; and
Sir Charles himself observes that it turned many votes. Mr. Mundella
wrote to him after the debate: 'I think it was the best I ever heard
from you, and, moreover, was courageous and just.'
Mr. Mundella was no doubt struck by the fact that a man coming in, as
Sir Charles did, specially dependent on the support of organized Labour,
had in his first speech combated the view of Labour interests which was
put forward by trade-unionists. Sir Charles's reply to the trade-
unionists ran thus: If these aliens come to England, they very often
join trade-unions, and so accept the higher standard; if they do not,
the products of their work come in and compete even more disastrously.
From this there lay an argument against Free Trade, and this he
characteristically admitted. Free Trade was only a balance of
advantages, and Labour politicians, he pointed out, considered that the
arguments against it were outweighed by countervailing considerations.
To exclude the immigrants and not to exclude the products of their
labour would be inconsistent, and also it would lower the nation's
standard of humanity.
Early in the session he spoke again on the qualifications for membership
of local elective bodies, and incidentally condemned the proposed
Ministry of Labour as 'a sham remedy.' [Footnote: See "Labour," Chapter
LII., pp. 347, 348.] Not to create new Ministries, but to reorganize and
redistribute their work, was his policy, advocated repeatedly both in
the House of Commons and from the chair of the Statistical Society. He
spoke also on redistribution in this session, and these speeches were
'successful in their business way. Thus I regained influence of a quiet
sort.'
'For the first time' (1893) 'I dined at the Speaker's third dinner,
or "dinner of the discontented." The first dinner each year is to
the Government, the second to the late Government, and the third to
the Privy Councillors who were not of either of the others, and to a
few other leading members. Little Northcote was on the Speaker's
left, parted only by the Speaker from Randolph. I was opposite,
reflecting, whenever Jim Lowther would leave off slapping me on the
back.'
On January 29th, 1893, Sir Charles noted in his diary:
'There is a league between Harcourt and Labouchere against the
Rosebery-Asquith combination. Labouchere showed me a letter from
Harcourt: "Hell would be pleasant compared to the present
situation."'
'On my return to the House of Commons,' notes Sir Charles, 'I found
Chamberlain's debating power marvellous, but, while his method has
improved, it ... no longer carries the conviction of conviction with
it, which, to me, is everything.
'Asquith is the only new man who is "any good"--a bold, strong man,
of great intellectual power. Sir E. Grey is able, but terribly
Whiggish. Hanbury has improved, and so has Harcourt. The others are
where they were.'
Mr. Asquith he had met for the first time in 1891, at Mr. Chamberlain's
house, and found him 'much more intelligent than the ordinary run of
politicians.'
Dilke and Chamberlain, once closely united through a long period of
public life, had now been working apart for more than seven years.
Strong minds, that in the collaboration of their earlier policy mutually
influenced each other, had by a turn of personal fortune combining with
a great political change followed divided destinies; and their evolution
carried them far apart. They had met in private, had maintained the
personal bond, [Footnote: 'At this time I was searching for a secretary,
and Chamberlain found me Hudson, who, as he said, "fulfils all your
requirements."' The connection between the secretary and his chief ended
only with Sir Charles's death.] and in so meeting must inevitably have
been prompted by a desire to minimize differences. But now they stood
both again in the public arena--the one returning after the lapse of
years, the other sustained by an unbroken continuance of Parliamentary
activity--and the situation became difficult.
There were not many men who could work with Mr. Chamberlain in equal
alliance. For that a man was needed, confident enough in his own weight
not to fear being overbalanced in the combination; great enough in
nature to be devoid of jealousy; and wise enough to understand that
restless activity was the law of his ally's being. Upon those conditions
only was it possible for a cooler, more temperate, and, on some
subjects, better instructed politician to steer the tremendous motive
power which Mr. Chamberlain's personal force afforded. What was lost to
the world when the crippling of Sir Charles disjointed that alliance can
never be reckoned. Not only the alliance, but the personal intimacy, was
broken when their political ways sundered on the Home Rule division.
Friendship remained; but it was not possible that men of that mark, who
had met incessantly in the closest confederacy, could meet easily when
the very groundwork of their intimacy was gone.
Sir Charles worked hard for a Bill specially interesting now to his
constituents.
On April 18th, 1893, 'I wrote to Chamberlain and to Randolph Churchill
as to the Miners Bill, as its authors had asked me to lay plans for the
debate. From both I had replies favourable to local option, and on my
writing again to Chamberlain he answered: "The sentence about the Labour
leaders escaped me because I am, I confess, impatient of their extremely
unpractical policy, and also because I believe their real influence is
immensely exaggerated. A political leader having genuine sympathy with
the working classes and a practical programme could, in my opinion,
afford to set them aside. Mr. Gladstone has no real sympathy with the
working classes, and a perfect hatred for all forms of Socialism. His
concessions are extorted from him, and are the price paid for votes, and
therefore I do not wonder at the pressure put upon him."'
In the first week in May, 1893, 'I brought forward my Egypt motion,
spoke for the Miners Bill, and carried a resolution, drawn for us by the
Lord Chancellor himself, as to the appointment of the magistrates for
counties. From this time forward I shall not name my speeches and
ordinary action in the House, as I had now regained the position which I
had held in it up to 1878, though not my position of 1878-1880, nor that
of 1884-85.'
No Parliament is exactly like its predecessor, and changed conditions
had also changed the character of Sir Charles Dilke's Parliamentary
personal surroundings; but they were drawn now, as of old, from neither
party exclusively. The group comprised several young supporters of the
Government, like Mr. McKenna, who, having failed in Clapham, wrote to
Sir Charles on July 7th, 1892, of his regret at not being near him in
the House of Commons 'to go on learning from you--I don't mean
information, but patience and judgment and steadfastness.' Mr. McKenna
had now been returned for South Monmouthshire, one of the constituencies
which had been anxious to secure Sir Charles himself. Here Sir Charles
had many devoted friends, who gave introductions to Mr. McKenna, which
led to his adoption as candidate, and he wrote again to Sir Charles on
his election: 'I am glad to owe it to you.' Old friends--as, for
example, Mr. Morley--remained, and from the ranks of the Opposition at
least one rarely interesting figure stands out, that of H. O.
Arnold-Forster, who with Mrs. Arnold-Forster came to rank among the
nearest friends of Sir Charles and Lady Dilke. The political tie was
here due to common advocacy of army reform, and it took shape in a kind
of formal alliance.
'In November, 1893, in the debates on the Local Government Bill, I
carried a good deal of weight, and was able greatly to improve the
measure. I also in December made a speech in a naval debate which
was as successful as my Zulu speech--with as little reason, except
its opportuneness.'
In the Home Rule portion of the session of 1893, Sir Charles was mostly
silent, being, in his own words, inclined to 'keep still' on the main
issue. His only contributions to the long debates were made during the
Committee stage, and concerned the electoral arrangements--a matter upon
which Mr. Gladstone was quick to acknowledge his high competence. When
at last, in 1894, the Bill reached the Lords, it was rejected; and then
the foreseen change of leadership came to pass, and Lord Rosebery was
'popped into Mr. Gladstone's place by an intrigue.' Sir Charles
discussed in the _North American Review_ the result, which his Memoir
describes thus. Admitting that the choice, which 'came as a surprise to
the Liberal party in the country,' would strengthen the Government in
Scotland and in London by Lord Rosebery's personal prestige, he none the
less foresaw that the new leader would come into conflict 'with all that
is active in the Liberal party,' unless he could renounce 'his personal
wishes in favour of a reformed but a strong and indeed strengthened
Second Chamber.' His chance of success lay in putting himself as a peer
at the head of a movement against the veto of the House of Lords. 'The
chance is before him, but he is a cautious Scotchman who seldom makes up
his mind too soon, and who may possibly make it up too late.'
Meanwhile 'I was pressed to join Labouchere and Storey in opposing him,
which I declined to do, on the ground that I was concerned with the
measures proposed, but not with the men.'
Speaking in the Potteries on November 22nd, 'to a big audience which
took it well,' he 'attacked Rosebery about the Lords.'
'He would like to see Lord Rosebery in the popular House in which he
had never sat, and he would like to see Lord Salisbury back again.
Their ideas would undergo a change. The reform of the Upper House
was now not a Liberal but a Conservative nostrum.... It would be
necessary for the Radicals to fight even against their Liberal
leaders to prevent lengthening the life of the Parliamentary sick
man.... The Liberal party was still hampered by men who wanted
peerages for themselves and their sons, and he should not believe
that the leaders were in earnest until the Liberal party gave over
making peers. Moderate men must be warned by the example of what had
recently happened in Belgium, where the moderate Liberals had been
promptly suffocated between the two opposing forces of Toryism and
Socialism, as they were too pretentious to submit to Tory discipline
and too slavish to become frankly democratic.'