intercourse during this period of promise was one of unchanging courage
and hopefulness. He was one of the most active and ready among the
supporters of Mr. Gladstone, and he found an untiring and invaluable
companion in his charming wife. At that time we used to hold political
gatherings in private houses as well as in public halls, and I have
taken part in more than one Home Rule demonstration held in the private
dwellings of some of Mr. Gladstone's colleagues in office. We used to
have many social meetings for the purpose of bringing Englishmen and
Irishmen into close association. Even Parnell himself was prevailed upon
to abandon for the time his rule of seclusion from society, and to meet
Mr. Gladstone and Lord Spencer and other leading Englishmen at private
dinner parties. Lord Aberdeen was one of the most conspicuous and one of
the most attractive figures in these political and social gatherings,
and I could not, indeed, recall that period to memory for a moment
without finding his figure photographed prominently in it. It was an
interesting sight during all that time to see some of the most extreme
and most aggressive members of the Irish Parliamentary party mingling in
social life with British peers and magnates who only a few years before
would probably have regarded those Irish members as traitors to the
Queen and fitting inmates of the prison cell. On the other hand, too, it
must be said that only a very few years before the Irish Nationalist
member who was known to make his appearance in the London drawing-rooms
of English aristocracy would have been set down by the majority of his
countrymen as a flunkey in spirit and a traitor to his cause. There was
a time not long before when an Irish Nationalist member would have
needed some courage to enable him to meet his constituents on election
day if the local papers had made it known that he was in the habit of
showing himself in the drawing-rooms of English peers. All this sudden
and complete change had been brought about by the genius and policy of
Gladstone when he came to see the true meaning and the true claims of
the demand for Irish Home Rule. My memory goes back with a somewhat
melancholy pleasure to those days of hope and confidence when the true
union of Great Britain and Ireland seemed actually on the verge of
consummation. Nor have I the slightest doubt that the lessons taught
during that season will have their full influence once again when the
period of reaction is over, and that Gladstone's policy of 1886 will
come to life again before very long and will accomplish its work once
for all.
In that year, 1886, Gladstone appointed Lord Aberdeen to the office of
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. The position was given to Lord Aberdeen with
the frankly proclaimed purpose that he was to be the Lord-Lieutenant of
a Home Rule policy, and, indeed, on no other conditions would Lord
Aberdeen have consented to accept the office. Lord Aberdeen's short term
of rule in Ireland was a complete success. There was not much that the
most Liberal Lord-Lieutenant could do in the way of positive
administration for the benefit of the island. There was already in
existence a whole code of repressive legislation compiled during
successive ages of despotic government, and this existing code it was
not in the power of Lord Aberdeen or any other Viceroy to abolish or
even to modify. All that the new Lord-Lieutenant could do in the way of
political relief to the Irish people was to discourage as much as
possible the too frequent application of the coercive laws and to make
it known that the sympathies of the new Government were in favor of
political freedom for Ireland, as well as for England and Scotland. Lord
Aberdeen fulfilled this part of his public duty with a brave heart and
with all the success possible to the task. Every one who had any
acquaintance with the state of Ireland at the time must have known what
difficulties were likely to be set in the way of Lord Aberdeen's
endeavor to mitigate the severities of the coercion system. The most
serious of those difficulties would in all probability have come from
the permanent official staff in Dublin Castle. American readers in
general can have but little idea as to the peculiarities of that
singular institution Dublin Castle, the center and fortress of Irish
government. It has become, from generations of usage, a very bulwark
against the progress of Irish national sentiment. The fresh current of
feeling from the outside seems to make little impression on its stagnant
and moldy atmosphere. It is ruled by tradition, and to that tradition
belongs the rule of hostility to every popular feeling and every
national demand. Lord Aberdeen had to encounter all the resistance which
the dead weight of Dublin Castle's antiquated systems could bring to
bear against his liberal and enlightened efforts at the pacification of
the country. He carried out his purpose with unflinching resolve and
unruffled temper, and, so far as the existing laws allowed him, he
mitigated the harshnesses of the system under which Ireland had been
governed since the Act of Union. But there was, of course, much more
within Lord Aberdeen's capacity to accomplish than the mere mitigation
of existing laws which it was not in his power to abolish. His presence
and the entire conduct of his viceroyalty were as a proclamation to the
Irish people that the whole sympathies of the Gladstone Government went
with the national demands.
Then, indeed, a strange sight was to be seen in Dublin--the sight of a
thoroughly popular welcome, a national welcome, given to the
representative of English rule in Ireland. A new chapter in Irish
history seemed to open, and the heart of Ireland was filled with hope.
It is told of Swift that when Carteret, Earl Granville, was appointed
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland--Swift afterwards became one of Granville's
close friends--he exclaimed in his sarcastic fashion that he could not
understand why such a man should be appointed to such an office, and he
thought the Government ought to keep on sending its bullies and
blockheads just as before. A satirical Nationalist might have been
expected to break forth into a similar expression of wonder when a man
like Lord Aberdeen was sent to Ireland to carry on the rule of Dublin
Castle. Lord Aberdeen and his wife made themselves popular everywhere
among the Irish people, showed a living and a constant interest in
everything that concerned the welfare of the population, and did all
they could to break down the long-existing barricades which made England
and Ireland hostile nations. When Mr. Gladstone failed in carrying his
Home Rule Bill through the House of Commons and his Government came to
an end, Lord Aberdeen took his leave of Ireland amid demonstrations of
popular regard, affection, and regret which must have deeply touched his
generous heart. In 1893, when the Liberals were again in power, Lord
Aberdeen was made Governor-General of Canada, and he held that position
until 1898. His term of service in Canada was as successful as might
have been expected, and the French as well as the other provinces looked
up to him with admiration and gratitude. Then, for the time, his
official career came to an end. In the interval between the Irish and
the Canadian appointment Lord Aberdeen and his wife made a tour round
the world, visiting on their way India and most of the British colonies.
The name of Lady Aberdeen is associated with all great movements which
have to do with the education and the general advancement of women, and
with many good works undertaken for the benefit of the Irish peasantry.
Lady Aberdeen, it should be said, is the youngest daughter of the first
Lord Tweedmouth, and is sister of the Lord Tweedmouth who, as Edward
Marjoribanks, was so well known for a long time as one of the leading
Whips of the Liberal party. Lady Aberdeen's name is Ishbel Maria, and I
may ask my American readers not to make the mistake, sometimes made even
in England, of assuming her name to be the more familiar one of Isabel.
She has always been one of the most prominent, influential, and graceful
figures in English society, and every charitable association which
deserves her support has the advantage of her help, her protection, and
her guidance. I know from my own experience what valuable and untiring
service she has given to the promotion of the lace-making and the
cottage industries of Ireland. I had the great honor of being associated
with her in some of these efforts, and I never can forget her unsparing
devotion to the best interests of every such effort. I have among my
books a series of large and handsome volumes devoted to a record of the
proceedings which took place at the International Council of Women held
in London during July of 1899 and presided over by the Countess of
Aberdeen. This series, published by Mr. Fisher Unwin, is edited by Lady
Aberdeen and has an introduction written by her. I may quote the closing
paragraph of the introduction:--
It is a great inspiration to be bound together in the pursuance
of high ideals; it is also a grave responsibility--and during
our recent Council meeting both these thoughts have been made
very real to us. I pray God that they may abide within the
hearts of all who, in every country, are the guardians of the
honor of our Council, so that it may prove true to the lofty
profession it has made.
The series contains seven volumes, every one of which has been carefully
edited by Lady Aberdeen, and is enriched with many commentaries of her
own. One can easily imagine the amount of time and trouble which such a
work must have imposed on a busy woman, and those who know anything of
her will know the thought and care and devotion which she must have
given to such a labor of love.
Not a few persons are still apt to associate the idea of a woman
advocating the advancement of women with something unfeminine,
ungracious, self-assertive, and overbearing. When Lady Aberdeen first
began to be known in social movements, the memory of the late Mrs. Lynn
Linton's diatribes about "the Shrieking Sisterhood" was still fresh in
the public mind, and much prejudice yet lingered against the women who
publicly devoted themselves to the advancement of their sex. Lady
Aberdeen might have seemed as if she were specially created to be a
living refutation of all such absurd ideas. No fashionable woman given
up to social success and distinction in drawing-rooms, dining-rooms,
balls, and Court ceremonials could have been more feminine, graceful,
and charming in her ways and her demeanor than this noble-hearted woman,
who was not afraid to advocate the genuine rights of women, and who
stood by her husband's side in all his efforts for political reform. One
might adopt the words which Sheridan has made the opening of a song in
"The Duenna," and proclaim that a pair was never seen more justly formed
to meet by nature than Lord and Lady Aberdeen. Such an impression was
assuredly formed in Ireland and in Canada, and indeed in every place
where Lord and Lady Aberdeen were able to assert their unostentatious
and most beneficent influence.
Lord Aberdeen succeeded to the title and its responsibilities at too
early an age to allow him any opportunity of proving his capacity for
Parliamentary life in the House of Commons. His elder brother was
drowned on a voyage from Boston to Melbourne, and the subject of this
article then became Earl of Aberdeen, with, as a matter of course, a
seat in the House of Lords. There is nothing like a real Parliamentary
career to be found in the House of Lords. A man of great natural gifts
can, of course, give evidence even there that he is born for
statesmanship and can command attention by his eloquence. Lord Aberdeen
made it certain even in the House of Lords that he was endowed with
these rare qualifications. But the House of Lords has no influence over
the country, unless, indeed, when it exerts itself to stay for the time
the progress of some great and popular measure. Even this is only for
the time, and if the measure be really one of national benefit and
deserving of public support, it is sure to be carried in the end, and
the Lords have to give in and to put up with their defeat. But the
hereditary chamber is not even a commanding platform from which an
eloquent speaker can address and can influence the whole country, and
the temptations there to apathy and indolence must often be found to be
almost irresistible. On rare occasions, two or three times in a session,
perhaps, there comes off what is popularly called a full-dress debate,
and then the red benches of the House, on which the peers have their
seats, are sure to be crowded, and the galleries where members of the
House of Commons are entitled to sit and the galleries allotted to
strangers are also well occupied. The Lords have even the inspiriting
advantage, denied to the House of Commons, of open galleries where
ladies can sit in the full glare of day or of gaslight, and can
encourage an orator by their presence and their attention. In the House
of Commons, as everybody knows, the small number of ladies for whom
seats are provided are secreted behind a thick grating, and thus become
an almost invisible influence, if, indeed, they can hope to be an
influence at all. Yet even this inspiration does not stir the peers to
anything more than the rarest attempts at a great debate. On ordinary
occasions--and these ordinary occasions constitute nearly the whole of a
session--the peers sit for only an hour or so every day, and then mutter
and mumble through some formal business, and the outer public does not
manifest the slightest interest in what they are doing or trying to do.
There are many men now in the House of Lords who proved their eloquence
again and again during some of the most important and exciting debates
in the representative chamber, and who now hardly open their lips in the
gilded chamber, as the House of Lords has been grandiloquently titled. A
rising member of the House of Commons succeeds to the family title and
estates, and as a matter of course he is transferred to the House of
Lords, and there, in most cases, is an end to his public career. Or
perhaps a rising member of the House of Commons has in some way or other
made himself inconvenient to his leading colleagues who have now come
into power and are forming an administration, and as they do not know
how to get rid of him gracefully in any other way, they induce the
Sovereign to confer on him a peerage, and so he straightway goes into
the House of Lords. Perhaps, as he had been an active and conspicuous
debater in the House of Commons, he cannot bring himself to settle down
into silence when he finds himself among the peers. So he delivers a
speech every now and then on what are conventionally regarded in the
House of Lords as great occasions, but his career is practically at an
end all the same. I have in my mind some striking instances of this
curious transition from Parliamentary prominence in the House of Commons
to Parliamentary nothingness in the House of Lords. I know of men who
were accounted powerful and brilliant debaters in the House of Commons,
where debates are sometimes great events, who, when, from one cause or
other, translated to the House of Lords, were hardly ever heard of as
debaters any more. Probably there seemed no motive for taking the
trouble to seek the opportunity of delivering a speech in the hereditary
assembly, where nothing particular could come of the speech when
delivered, and the new peer allows the charms of public speaking to lose
their hold over him, to pass with the days and the dreams of his youth.
Lord Aberdeen would in all probability have made a deep mark as a
Parliamentary debater if the kindly fates had left to him the
possibility of a career in the House of Commons. He has a fine voice, an
attractive presence, and a fluent delivery; he has high intellectual
capacity, wide and varied culture, and much acquaintance with foreign
States and peoples. Probably the best services which Lord Aberdeen
could render to his country would be found in such offices as Ireland
and Canada gave him an opportunity of undertaking; viceroyalty of some
order, it would seem, must be the main business of his career. But I
must say that I should much like to see his great intellectual
qualities, his varied experience, and his noble humanitarian sympathies
provided with some opportunity of exercising themselves in the work of
domestic government. I may explain that I do not call the administration
of Ireland under the old conditions a work of domestic government in the
true sense. The vice-regal system in Ireland is a barbaric anachronism,
and the abilities and high purposes of a man like Lord Aberdeen were
wholly thrown away upon such work. There is much still in the social
condition of England which could give ample occupation to the
administrative abilities and the philanthropic energies of Lord
Aberdeen. The work of decentralization in England is rapidly going on.
The development of local self-government is becoming one of the most
remarkable phenomena of our times. Parliament is becoming more and more
the fount and origin of national rule, but it is wisely devoting its
energies to the creation of a system which shall leave the working out
of that national rule more and more to localities and municipalities. At
one time, and that not very long ago, it was believed even by many
social reformers that, while self-government might easily be developed
in the cities and towns, it would not be possible, during the present
generation at least, to infuse any such principle of vitality into the
country districts.
Of late years, however, it is becoming more and more apparent that the
principle of local government is developing itself rapidly and
effectively in the rural districts, and that the good old times when the
squire and the rector could manage by divided despotism the whole
business of a parish are destined soon to become a curious historical
memory. The system of national education, established for the first time
in England by Gladstone's Government in 1870, has naturally had much to
do with the quickening of intelligent activity all over the British
Islands. A new generation has grown up, in which localities are no
longer content to have all their business managed for them by their
local magnates, and the recent statutes passed by Parliament for the
extension everywhere of the local government principle are a direct
result of the legislation which has made education compulsory in these
countries. All over the agricultural districts we now find county boards
and parish councils conducting by debates and divisions the common
business of each district, just as it is done in the great cities and
towns. It seems to me that this spread of the principle of local
self-government opens a most appropriate field for the intellect and the
energies of such statesmen as Lord Aberdeen. Only in recent times have
great noblemen condescended to trouble themselves much, so far at least
as their Parliamentary careers were concerned, with municipal or other
local affairs. A peer, if he happened to have any taste or gift for
Parliamentary and official work, was willing to become Foreign
Secretary, Viceroy of India, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, or Governor of
a Colony. Not infrequently, too, he consented to devote his energies to
the office of Postmaster-General. But he was not likely to see any scope
for a Parliamentary career in the management of local business. In his
own particular district, no doubt, he was accustomed to direct most of
the business in his own way and might be a local benefactor or a local
mis-manager, according as his tastes and judgment qualified him. But the
general business of localities did not create any Parliamentary
department which seemed likely to deserve his attention. The condition
of things is very different now, and Lord Aberdeen is one of the men to
whom the country is mainly indebted for that quickening and outspreading
of the local self-governing principle which is so remarkable and so
hopeful a phenomenon of our national existence at present. In every
movement which pretends to the development and the strengthening of that
principle Lord Aberdeen has always taken a foremost part.
I am not myself an unqualified admirer of that part of the British
constitutional system which makes the House of Lords one of three great
ruling powers. I should very much doubt whether Lord Aberdeen himself,
if he were set to devise a constitutional system for these countries,
would make the House of Lords as at present arranged a component part of
our legislative system. But I am quite willing to admit that, since we
have a House of Lords and while we have a House of Lords, a man like the
Earl of Aberdeen does all that can be done to turn the existing
constitution to good account and make it in some degree worthy of
national toleration. While there exists an aristocracy of birth, even
the most uncompromising advocate of democracy and the equal rights of
men might freely admit that a career like the political and social
career of Lord Aberdeen does much to plead in defense of the system.
Lord Aberdeen has always proved that he thoroughly understands the
responsibilities as well as the advantages of his high position. Not one
of the Labor Members, as they are called, of the House of Commons--the
chosen representatives of the working classes--could have shown a deeper
and more constant sympathy with every measure and every movement which
tends to improve the condition and expand the opportunities of those who
have to make a living by actual toil. Lord Aberdeen has yet, I trust, a
long and fruitful career before him. The statesmanship of England will
soon again have to turn its attention to the social movements which
concern the interests of the lowly-born and the hard-working in these
islands. If a better time is coming for the statesmen of England,
whether in office or in opposition, who love peace and who yearn to
take a part in measures which lead to genuine national prosperity, we
may safely assume that in such a time Lord Aberdeen will renew his
active career, to the benefit of the people whom he has served so
faithfully and so well.
[Illustration: Photograph copyright by W. & D. Downey
JOHN BURNS]
JOHN BURNS
John Burns stands out a distinct and peculiar figure in the House of
Commons. He is the foremost representative of that working class which
is becoming so great a power in the organization of English political
and industrial life. "Be not like dumb driven cattle," says Longfellow
in his often-quoted lines--"Be a hero in the strife." The British
workingmen were until very lately little better than dumb driven cattle;
in our days and under such leadership as that of John Burns they have
proved themselves capable of bearing heroic part in the struggle for
great reforms. I can remember the time when the House of Commons had not
in it any member actually belonging to the working classes. At that time
the working classes had no means of obtaining Parliamentary
representation, for it may be said with almost literal exactness that no
workingman had a vote, or the means of obtaining a vote, at a
Parliamentary election. The conditions of the franchise were too
limited in the constituencies to enable men who worked for small daily
or weekly wages to become voters at elections. In order to become a
voter a man must occupy a house rated at a certain yearly amount, and he
must have occupied it for a specified and considerable space of time,
and there were very few indeed of the working class who could hope to
obtain such legal qualifications. In more recent days the great
reformers of these islands have succeeded in establishing what may be
fairly described as manhood suffrage in these countries, and have also
secured a lodger franchise; have established the secret ballot as the
process of voting; and by these and other reforms have put the
workingman on a level with his fellow-citizens as a voter at
Parliamentary elections. My own recollection goes back to the time when
the law in Great Britain and Ireland insisted on what was called a
"property qualification" as an indispensable condition to a candidate's
obtaining a seat in the House of Commons. I have known scores of
instances in which clever and popular candidates got over this
difficulty by prevailing on some wealthy relative or friend to settle
legally on them an amount of landed property necessary to qualify them
for a seat in the House. It was perfectly well known to every one that
this settlement was purely a formal arrangement, and that the new and
nominal possessor of the property was no more its real owner than the
child who is allowed for a moment to hold his father's watch in his hand
becomes thereby the legal owner of the valuable timepiece. In our days
no property qualification of any kind is needed either for a vote at a
Parliamentary election or for a seat in the House of Commons, and
therefore the workingmen form an important proportion of the voters at
Parliamentary elections and are enabled in certain constituencies to
choose men of their own class to represent them in the House of Commons.
I have thought it well to make the short explanation of the changes
which have taken place in the condition of the British workingmen during
recent years as a prelude to what I have to say concerning that foremost
of British workingmen, John Burns. It is only fair to say that the
workingmen of these countries have made judicious and praiseworthy use
of the new political powers confided to them, and have almost invariably
sent into Parliament as the representatives of their class men of
undoubted ability and of the highest character, men who win the respect
of all parties in the House of Commons. Of these men John Burns is the
most conspicuous. He has never, indeed, held a place in an
administration, as two, I think, of his order have already done; but
then John Burns is a man of resolutely independent character, and it
would not be easy thus far to form even a Liberal Government which
should be quite up to the level of his views on many questions of
domestic and foreign policy.