of the British workingman. He is short in stature, very dark in
complexion and in the color of his hair, and a stranger seeing him for
the first time might take him for an Italian or a Spaniard. His physical
strength is something enormous, and I have seen him perform with the
greatest apparent ease some feats of athletic vigor which might have
seemed to demand the proportions of a giant. His whole frame is made up
of bone and muscle, and although he is broadly and stoutly built, he
does not appear to have any superfluous flesh. If I had to make my way
through a furious opposing crowd, I do not know of any leader whom I
should be more glad to follow than John Burns. But although Burns is
physically made for a fighting man, there is nothing pugnacious or
aggressive in his temperament. He is by nature kind, conciliatory, and
generous, tolerant of other men's opinions, and only anxious to advance
his own by fair argument and manly appeals to men's sense of humanity
and justice. I have seen him carry a great big elderly man who had
fainted at a public meeting and take him to a quiet spot with all the
ease and tenderness of a mother carrying her child. But if I were an
overbearing giant who was trying his strength upon a weaker mortal, I
should take good care not to make the experiment while John Burns was
anywhere within reach. He is an adept at all sorts of athletic sports
and games, skating, rowing, foot-racing, boxing, cricket, and I know not
what else. He is essentially a man of the working class, and has, I
believe, some Scottish blood in his veins, but he is a Londoner by
birth, and passed all his early life in a London district. He was born
to poverty, and received such education as he had to begin with at a
humble school in the Battersea region on the south side of London.
Now, I should think that a boy born in humble life who had in him any
gift of imagination and any faculty for self-improvement could hardly
have begun life in a better place than Battersea. The Battersea region
lies south of the Thames, and is a strange combination of modern
squalidness and picturesque historical associations and memorials. The
homes of the working class poor stand under the very shadow of that
famous church in Old Battersea where Bolingbroke, the high-born, one of
the most eloquent orators known to English Parliamentary life, and one
of the most brilliant writers who adorn English literature, lies buried,
and where strangers from all parts of the world go to gaze upon his
tombstone. Everywhere throughout the little town or village one comes
upon places associated with the memory of Bolingbroke and of other men
famous in history. Cross the bridge that spans the Thames and you are in
the Chelsea region, which is suffused with historical and literary
associations from far-off days to those recent times when Thomas Carlyle
had his home in one of its quiet streets. To a boy with any turn for
reading and any taste for history and literature, all that quarter of
London on both sides of the Thames must have been filled with
inspiration. John Burns had always a love of reading, and I can easily
fancy that the memories of the place must have been a constant stimulant
and inspiration to his honorable ambition for self-culture. His school
days finished when he was hardly ten years old, and then he was set to
earn a living, first in a candle factory and afterwards in the works of
an engineer. Thus he toiled away until he had reached manhood's age, and
all the time he was steadily devoting his spare hours or moments to the
task of self-education. He read every book that came within his reach,
and studied with especial interest the works of men who set themselves
to the consideration of great social problems.
Burns naturally became very soon impressed with the conviction that all
could not be quite right under a political and social system which made
the workingman a mere piece of living mechanism and gave him no share
whatever in the constitutional government of the country. At that time
there was no system of national education in England, and the child of
poor parents had to get his teaching through some charitable
institution, or to go without any teaching whatever. So far as the
education of the poorest classes was concerned, England was at that time
far below Scotland, below Germany and Holland, and below the United
States.
As regards the political system, a man of the class to which John Burns
was born had little chance indeed of obtaining the right to vote at a
Parliamentary election, which was given only to men who had certain
qualifications of income and of residence not often to be found among
the working classes. The English system of national education is little
more than thirty years old, and the extension of the voting power which
makes it now practically a manhood suffrage is likewise of very modern
date. It was natural that an intelligent and thoughtful boy like John
Burns should, under such conditions, become filled with socialistic
doctrines and should find himself growing into a mood of impatience and
hostility towards the rule of aristocrats, landlords, and capitalists,
by which the country was then dominated. Soon after he had reached his
twenty-first year he obtained employment as a foreman engineer on the
Niger in Africa, and there he had his first experience of a climate and
a life totally unlike to anything that could be found in the Battersea
regions. I have often heard it said that during his employment in
English steamers on the Niger he was known among his British companions
as "Coffee-pot Burns," in jocular recognition of his devotion to total
abstinence principles. He spent about a year in his African occupation,
and during that time he had managed to save up a considerable amount of
his pay, a saving which we may be sure was in great measure due to his
practice of total abstinence from any drinks stronger than that which
was properly contained in the coffee-pot. When he left Africa, he
invested his savings in a manner which I cannot but regard as peculiarly
characteristic of him, and which must have given to such a man a
profitable return for his investment--he spent his savings, in fact, on
a tour of several months throughout Europe. Thus he acquired an
invaluable addition to his stock of practical observation and a fresh
impulse to his studies of life and of books. He settled down in England
as a working engineer, and he soon began to take a deep interest and an
active share in every movement which had for its object the welfare of
the classes who live by daily labor.
Obviously, there are many improvements in the condition of such men
which could only be brought about by legislation, and John Burns
therefore became a political agitator. His voice was heard from the
platforms of great popular meetings held in and around London and in
many other parts of the country, and he was one of the leaders of the
great agitation which secured for the public the right of holding
open-air meetings in Trafalgar Square. John Burns was meant by nature to
be a popular orator. He has a physical frame which can stand any amount
of exertion, and his voice, at once powerful and musical, can make
itself heard to the farthest limit of the largest outdoor meeting in
Hyde Park or Trafalgar Square. But he is in no sense whatever a mere
declaimer. He argues every question out in a practical and reasonable
way, and although he has some views on political and industrial subjects
which many of his opponents would condemn as socialistic, there is
nothing in him of the revolutionist or the anarchist. His object is to
bring about by free and lawful public debate those reforms in the
political and industrial systems which he regards as essential to the
well-being of the whole community. The Conservative party in this
country used to have for a long time one particular phrase which was
understood to embody the heaviest accusation that could be brought
against a public man. To say that this or that public speaker was
endeavoring to "set class against class" was understood to mean his
utter condemnation in the minds of all well-behaved citizens. We do not
hear so much of this accusation in later days, partly because some of
the very measures demanded by those setters of class against class have
been adopted by Conservative Governments and carried into law by
Conservative votes. But there was a period in the life of John Burns
when he must have found himself denounced almost every day in speech or
newspaper article as one whose main endeavor was to set class against
class. John Burns does not seem to have troubled himself much about the
accusation. Perhaps he reasoned within himself that if the endeavor to
obtain for workingmen the right of voting at elections and the right to
form themselves into trades-unions for the purpose of bettering their
lives were the endeavor to set class against class, then there is
nothing for it but to go on setting class against class until the
beneficent result be obtained. So John Burns went on setting class
against class, with the result that he became recognized all over the
country as one of the most eloquent, capable, and judicious leaders whom
the workingmen could show, and his unselfishness and integrity were
never disparaged even by his most extreme political opponents.
A remarkable evidence was soon to be given of the solid reputation which
he had won for himself in public life. A complete change was made by
Parliamentary legislation in the whole system of London's municipal
government. The vast metropolis which we call London was up to that time
under the control for municipal affairs of the various parish boards and
local vestries, each of them constructed on some representative system
peculiarly its own, and none of them, it may be justly said, under any
direct control from the great mass of the community. The greater part of
the West End of London was under the management of a body known as the
Metropolitan Board of Works; the City of London was dominated by its own
historic Corporation; each other district of the metropolis had its
governing vestry or some such institution. Apart from all other
objections to such a system, one of its obvious defects was that no
common principle was recognized in the municipal arrangements of the
metropolis; there were no common rules for their regulation of traffic,
for the levying of rates, for the management of public institutions, and
a Londoner who changed his residence from one part of the town to
another, or even from one side of a street to another, might find
himself suddenly brought under the control of a system of municipal
regulations with which he was totally unfamiliar. Appeals were
constantly made by enlightened Londoners for some uniform system of
London government, but for a long time nothing was done in the way of
reform. At last, however, it happened--luckily, in one sense, for the
community--that the Metropolitan Board of Works, which ruled the West
End districts, became the cause of much public scandal because of its
mistakes and mismanagement, not to use any harsher terms, in the dealing
with public contracts. The excitement caused by these discoveries made
it impossible for the old system to be maintained any longer, and the
result was the passing of an Act of Parliament which created an
entirely new governing body for the metropolis. This new governing body
was styled the London County Council, and it was to have control of the
whole metropolis, with the exception of that comparatively small extent
of municipal territory which we know as the City of London. The members
of the new County Council were to be chosen, for the most part, as are
the members of the House of Commons, by direct popular suffrage. Some of
the foremost men in England became members of the new County Council.
One of these was Lord Rosebery, another was Sir Thomas Farrer (who has
since become Lord Farrer), a third was Frederic Harrison, one of the
most eminent writers and thinkers of his time, and another was John
Burns, the working engineer. I mention this fact only to show how
thoroughly John Burns must have established his reputation as a man well
qualified to take a leading place in the municipal government of London.
Since that time he has been elected again and again to the same
position.
When the great dispute broke out in London between the dock-laborers and
the ship-owners, John Burns took an active and untiring part in the
endeavor to obtain fair terms for the workers, and by his moderation
and judgment, as well as by his inexhaustible energy, he did inestimable
service in the bringing about of a satisfactory settlement. The late
Cardinal Manning took a conspicuous part in the effort to obtain good
terms for the workingmen, and he was recognized on both sides of the
dispute as a most acceptable mediator, and I remember that he expressed
himself more than once in the highest terms as to the services rendered
by John Burns during the whole of the crisis. Burns made one or two
unsuccessful attempts to obtain a seat in the House of Commons--or
perhaps, to put it more correctly, I should say that he consented, in
obedience to the pressure of his friends and followers, to become a
candidate for a seat. In 1892 he was elected to Parliament as the
representative of that Battersea district where his life began, and he
has held the seat ever since. In the House of Commons he has been a
decided success. It is only right to say that the workingmen
representatives, who now form a distinct and influential section in the
House, have fully vindicated their right to hold places there, and have,
with hardly any exception, done honor to the choice of their
constituents. John Burns is among the foremost, if not the very
foremost, of the working class representatives. He has won the good
opinions of all parties and classes in the House of Commons. He has won
especial merit which counts for much in the House--he never makes a
speech unless when he has something to say which has a direct bearing on
the debate in progress and which it is important that the House should
hear. He is never a mere declaimer, and he never speaks for the sake of
making a speech and having it reported in the newspapers. The House
always knows that when John Burns rises he has some solid argument to
offer, and that he will sit down as soon as he has said his say.
The first time I had the honor of becoming personally acquainted with
John Burns was in the House of Commons, shortly after his first
election, and I was introduced to him by my friend Michael Davitt. I
could not help feeling at the time that it was a remarkable event in
one's life to be introduced to John Burns by Michael Davitt. Both these
men were then honored members of the House of Commons, and both had for
many years been regarded by most of what are called the ruling classes
as disturbers of the established order of things and enemies of the
British Constitution. Davitt had spent years in prison as a rebel, and
Burns had been at least once imprisoned, though but for a short time, as
a disturber of public order. Every one came to admit in the end that
each man was thoroughly devoted to a cause which he believed rightful,
and that the true and lasting prosperity of a State must depend largely
on men who are thus willing to make any sacrifice for the maintenance of
equal political rights in the community. I have had, since that time,
many opportunities of meeting with Burns in public and private and
exchanging ideas with him on all manner of subjects, and I can only say
that the better I have known him the higher has been my opinion of his
intelligence, his sincerity, and his capacity to do the State some
service.
John Burns has made himself very useful in the committee work of the
House of Commons. The House hands over the manipulation and arrangement
of many of its measures on what I may call technical subjects--measures
concerning trade and industry, shipping and railways, and other such
affairs of business--to be discussed in detail and put into working
shape by small committees chosen from among the members; and these
measures, when they have passed through this process of examination, are
brought up for full and final settlement in the House itself. It will be
easily understood that there are many subjects of this order, on which
the practical experience and the varied observation of a man like Burns
must count for much in the shaping of legislation. Burns has genial,
unpretending manners, and although he was born with a fighting spirit,
he is not one of those who make it their effort to cram their opinions
down the throats of their opponents. Although his views are extreme on
most of the questions in which he takes a deep interest, he is always
willing to admit that there may be something to be said on the other
side of the controversy; he is ever ready to give a full consideration
to all the arguments of his fellow-members, and if any one in the
committee can show him that he is mistaken on this or that point, he
will yield to the force of argument, and has no hesitation about
acknowledging a change in his views. Fervent as he is in his devotion to
any of the great principles which have become a faith with him, there is
nothing of the fanatic about him, and I do not think his enemies would
ever have to fear persecution at his hands. There is no roughness in
his manners, although he has certainly not been brought up to the ways
of what is generally known as good society; and his smile is winning and
sweet. He has probably a certain consciousness of mental strength, as he
has of physical strength, which relieves him from any inclination
towards self-assertion. I should find it as difficult to believe that
John Burns countenanced a deed of oppression as I should find it to
believe that he sought by obsequiousness the favor of the great.
John Burns was, it is almost needless to say, an opponent from the very
beginning of the policy which led to the war against the South African
Republics. When the general election came on, about midway in the course
of the war, the war passion had come upon the country like an epidemic,
and some of the most distinguished English representatives lost their
seats in the House of Commons because they refused to sanction the Jingo
policy. Many men who were rising rapidly into Parliamentary distinction
were defeated at the elections by Imperialist candidates. Nor were the
men thus shut out from Parliament for the time all members of the
Liberal party. In some instances, although few indeed, there were men
belonging to the Conservative, the Ministerial, side, who could not see
the justice of the war policy and would not conceal their opinions, and
who therefore had to forfeit their seats when some thoroughgoing Tory
Imperialists presented themselves as rivals for the favor of the local
voters. So great was the influence of the war passion that even among
the constituencies where the workingmen were strong there were examples
of an Imperialist victory over the true principles of liberty and
democracy. But the Battersea constituents of John Burns remained
faithful to their political creed and to him, and he was sent back in
triumph to the House of Commons to carry on the fight for every good
cause there. He took part in many debates during the continuance of the
campaign, and he never made a speech on the subject of the war which was
not listened to with interest even by those most opposed to his
opinions. He has the gift of debate as well as the gift of declamation,
and he knows his part in Parliamentary life far too well to substitute
declamation for debate. The typical demagogue, as he is pictured by
those who do not sympathize with democracy, would on such occasions
have merely relieved his mind by repeated denunciations of that war in
particular and of wars in general, and would soon have lost any hold on
the attention of the House, which is, to do it justice, highly practical
in its methods of discussion. John Burns spoke in each debate on the war
when he had something to say which could practically and precisely bear
on the subject then under immediate consideration--a question connected
with the administration of the campaign, with the manner in which the
War Office or the Colonial Office was conducting some particular part of
its administrative task, with the immediate effects of this or that
movement, and in this way he compelled attention and he challenged
reply. I remember, for instance, that when the spokesmen of the
Government were laying great stress on the severity and injustice of the
Boer State's dealings with the native populations of South Africa, John
Burns gave from his own experience and observation instances of the
manner in which African populations had been dealt with by British
authorities, and demanded whether such actions would not have justified
the intervention of some European State if the conduct of the Boer
Government, supposing it to be accurately described, was a
justification for England's invasion of the Boer territory. Whenever he
took part in the debate, he met his opponents on their own ground, and
he challenged their policy in practical detail, instead of wasting his
time in mere declamatory appeals to principles of liberty and justice
which would have fallen flat upon the minds of those who held it as
their creed that Imperial England was free to dictate her terms to all
peoples of inferior strength and less highly developed civilization.
John Burns has fairly won for himself an honorable place in the history
of our time. If he had done nothing else, he would have accomplished
much by demonstrating in his own person the right of the workingman to
have a seat in Parliament. One finds it hard now to understand how the
English House of Commons could ever have been regarded as the
representative ruling body of England, when it held no members who were
authorized by position and by experience to speak for the working
populations of the country. I mean no disparagement to the other
representatives of the working classes when I say that I regard John
Burns as the most distinguished and the most influential among them.
Others of the same order have rendered valuable service, not merely to
their own class, but to the State in general since they came to hold
seats in the House of Commons; some have even held administrative office
in a Liberal Government, and have shown themselves well qualified for
the duties. Not any of them, so far as I can recollect, has ever shown
himself the mere declaimer and demagogue whom so many Conservative
observers and critics used to tell us we must expect to meet if the
workingmen were enabled to send their spokesmen into the House of
Commons. I do not know whether John Burns has any ambition to hold a
seat in some future Liberal Ministry, but I venture to think that if
such should be his fortune, he will prove himself more useful than ever
to the best interests of his country. He has never sought to obtain the
favor and the support of his own order by flattering their weaknesses,
by encouraging them in their errors, or by allowing them to believe that
the right must always be on their side and the wrong on the side of
their opponents. I fully believe that he has good and great work yet to
do.
[Illustration: Photograph copyright by W. & D. Downey
SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH]
SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach is now, as everybody knows, out of office. _Il
reviendra_, no doubt, and in a happier sense, we may trust, than fate
allowed to the once famous personage concerning whom the words I have
quoted were said and sung throughout France. _Il reviendra_ was the
burden of the chant composed to the honor of the late General Boulanger
and echoed through all the French music-halls at the time when Boulanger
got into trouble with the existing government. But Sir Michael
Hicks-Beach is a man of very different order from Boulanger, with whom
he has, so far as I know, nothing whatever in common except the fact
that they were both born in the same year, 1837.