in which Redmond has reorganized the party. It has under his guidance
become once again a powerful force in political life. The House of
Commons, as a whole, has thoroughly recognized Redmond's position,
influence, and capacity. The Prime Minister has given many proofs of the
importance which he attaches to Redmond's decisions and movements. The
new leader of the Irish party has won a much higher rank as a
Parliamentary debater than he ever had attained to in the days before he
had become invested with a really grave responsibility. The newspaper
critics on all sides of political life are agreed in describing him as
one of the foremost living debaters. Indeed, there are but three or four
men in the House of Commons who could possibly be compared with him for
eloquence and skill in debate, and there is a quality of grace and
artistic form in his style of eloquence which often recalls the memories
of brighter days, when the art of oratory was still cultivated in
Parliament. The success with which he has conducted the movements of his
party has compelled Ministerialists and Opposition alike to take serious
account of Redmond and his followers when the chances of any great
political measure are under consideration. Only quite lately, during the
passage of the Education measure, he adopted a policy which at first
greatly puzzled his opponents, and at the last moment succeeded in
impressing the Government and the Ministerial party generally with the
conviction that Redmond understands when and how to strike a decisive
blow.
Of course we hear sometimes, and of late rather often, about differences
in the Irish party itself, and about a threatened secession from John
Redmond's leadership. The Tory papers in England, and even some of the
journals which are professedly Liberal, made eager use of this supposed
dissension, and endeavored to persuade themselves and their readers that
Redmond has not a full hold over his followers and over the Irish
people. I may tell my American readers that they will do well not to
attach the slightest importance to these stories about a threatened
secession from the lately reunited Irish National party. In the first
place, I never heard of any political party which did not inclose in its
ranks some men who could not always be reckoned on as amenable to the
discipline which is found necessary in every political organization.
There is a considerable number of Liberal members who cannot be counted
on to follow at all times the guidance of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman.
There are many Ministerialists, and some of them very clever men, who
have lately been proving that at times they would just as soon vote
against Arthur Balfour as with him. But in regard to the Irish party and
the members who do not always fall in with the wish of its leader, the
actual facts are peculiar. The only members of the party who have lately
been showing a tendency to mutiny are, with one exception, men of no
account whatever in Ireland's political life. I do not wish to name any
names, but I can state with deliberation that almost every one of the
mutinous members just now is a man who has not the slightest chance of
ever again being sent to represent an Irish constituency in the House of
Commons. These men have long since forfeited the confidence of their
constituents and their fellow-countrymen. They are perfectly aware of
this fact; they know quite well that the next general election will see
them put out of Parliamentary life; and, in despair of re-election, they
probably think that they might as well make the most of the opportunity
for rendering themselves conspicuous or for indulging in eccentricities
which now can do them no further harm. It may be taken for granted that
at the next general election the National constituencies of Ireland will
send to the House of Commons no men who are not prepared to work in
complete union with the National party, and to recognize the authority
of the leader who has the confidence of his people. I do not care to
waste many words on this subject, but I think it right to assure my
American readers that they need not attach any serious importance to the
doings of five or six men, most of whom are either mere "cranks" or are
driven to desperation by disappointed personal ambition.
John Redmond has the confidence of his countrymen in England and
Scotland, as well as in Ireland, and we have seen that within the last
few months he has obtained full assurance that he enjoys the confidence
of his countrymen in the United States, in Canada, and in Australasia. I
feel all the more ready to bear my testimony to his merits and his
success because of the fact that I was, during a crisis which lasted for
some years, in direct opposition to the policy which he felt himself
conscientiously bound to adopt. The change of events has released him
from any obligation to adhere to such a policy, and I do him the justice
to believe that he accepted with the sincerest and most disinterested
good will the first genuine opportunity offered for a complete reunion
of Irish Nationalists. John Redmond is still young enough to have a
career before him, and I feel the fullest confidence in his future.
[Illustration: Photograph copyright by Elliott & Fry
SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT]
SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT
Every friend and admirer of Sir William Harcourt must have been glad
when it was made known that the late leader of the Liberal party in the
House of Commons had declined to accept the King's offer of a peerage
and was determined to remain in that representative chamber where he had
made his political name and won his place of command. Sir William
Harcourt would have been thrown away in the House of Lords. He could not
have done anything to arouse that apathetic chamber to living importance
in the affairs of state, and the House of Commons would have lost its
most impressive figure. Sir William Harcourt's political fame was made
in the House of Commons, and he is even yet its most distinguished
member. I say "even yet" because Harcourt is growing old, and has passed
that age of threescore years and ten authoritatively set down as the
allotted space of man's life. But he shows no appearance of old age,
seems full of energy and vital power, and is as well able to command
the listening House of Commons by argumentative speech and impressive
declamation as he was twenty years ago. Harcourt's bearing is one of
superabundant physical resources, and he has a voice of resonant tone
which imposes no tax on the listening powers of the stranger in the
farthest gallery. He is a very tall man, would be one of the tallest men
in any political assembly, and his presence is stately and commanding.
After Gladstone's death he became the leader of the Liberal party in the
House of Commons, and he resigned that position only because he could
not cordially accept the policy and plans of action undertaken by his
leader in the House of Lords, Lord Rosebery. I do not propose to enter
at any length into the differences of opinion which separated these two
men, but it was generally understood that Lord Rosebery did not see his
way to carry out Gladstone's policy for the maintenance of Greece and
the Christian populations generally against the blood-stained domination
of the Ottoman power in the southeast of Europe. The result of these
differences was that Lord Rosebery applied himself to form a Liberal
party of his own, which should be what is called Imperialist in its
policy, and that Harcourt became merely a member of the Liberal
Opposition in the House of Commons. To have won the place of Liberal
leader in the representative chamber might well have satisfied the
ambition of any man, and to withdraw from that place rather than
contribute to any further disagreement in the party did not in any sense
detract from Harcourt's influence and fame.
Sir William Harcourt won his earliest distinctions in law and literature
rather than in politics. He comes of a family which has a history of its
own and had members who won reputation during many generations. He was
educated at Cambridge University and obtained high honors there. He was
called to the bar in 1854, and became Queen's Counsel in 1866. In the
meantime he had accomplished some important literary work. He was a
writer for the "Saturday Review," then at the zenith of its reputation,
and under the title of "Historicus" he contributed a series of letters
on important public subjects to the "Times" newspaper which attracted
universal attention, were afterwards collected and published in a
volume, and found readers in every part of the world where men take
interest in the public life of England. He was a leading advocate in
some legal causes which excited the profound attention of the whole
country, and was already regarded as a man of mark, who might be safely
assumed to have a successful career before him. It was generally taken
for granted at the time that such a man was certain to seek and find a
place in the House of Commons, which of course offers an opening for
rising legal advocates as well as for rising politicians. I can remember
quite distinctly that to all of us who were watching the careers of
promising men it appeared quite certain that Harcourt was not likely to
content himself with professional distinction, and that when he entered
the House of Commons he would devote himself for the most part to the
business of political life. He made one unsuccessful attempt to obtain a
seat in the House of Commons as representative of a Scottish
constituency, and was more fortunate in his second endeavor, when he was
elected to Parliament by the city of Oxford as a Liberal in 1868. Then
for a while I personally lost sight of him, for towards the close of
that year I began a lengthened visit to the United States, and only
learned through the newspapers that he was already winning marked
distinction as a Parliamentary debater. When I returned to England in
1871, I found that Harcourt was already regarded as certain to hold high
office in a Liberal administration. His first step in that direction was
to obtain the office of Solicitor-General in Gladstone's Government.
A story was told of Harcourt at the time--this was in 1873--which I
believe to be authentic and is worth repeating. Up to this time he was
merely Mr. William Vernon Harcourt, but the usage in Parliamentary life
is that the leading law officers of the Crown, the Attorney-General and
the Solicitor-General, shall receive the honor of knighthood. It was
therefore a matter of course that Mr. Harcourt should become Sir William
Harcourt, and bear the title by which he is still known everywhere. The
story goes, however, that Harcourt was not much delighted with the offer
of a distinction which is commonly conferred upon the mayors of English
cities and towns and other such personages of municipal position.
Harcourt, as I have said, came of a distinguished English family which
had contributed Lord Chancellors and other such exalted dignitaries to
the business of the State. He probably had also in his mind the fact
that rising men in his own profession who happened to be sons of peers
were specially exempted by constitutional usage from the necessity of
putting up with knighthood when accepting one of the two legal offices
under the Crown. The manner in which this very fact proclaimed the
comparative insignificance of the title may have still further
influenced Harcourt's objections. Anyhow, he did endeavor to impress
upon Gladstone his claim to be exempted from the proffered dignity.
Gladstone, however, assured him that it was the recognized
constitutional practice to confer a knighthood upon a new
Solicitor-General, and that there was no reason why Harcourt should seek
dispensation from the honor. "Then," demanded Harcourt--so at least the
story is told--"why don't you confer knighthoods on all the members of
your Cabinet, and see how some of them would receive the proposition?" I
cannot vouch for this story as historical truth, but I can vouch for the
fact that it was told everywhere at the time, and received, so far as I
know, no contradiction.
Harcourt made his way almost at once to the front rank of Parliamentary
debaters. His style was somewhat rhetorical and declamatory, but it was
distinctly argumentative, and his speeches contained few passages of
mere declamation. He was a hard hitter, one of the hardest in the House,
but he hit straight from the shoulder and never gave an unfair blow. He
was often very happy in his sarcastic touches, and there was a certain
robust and self-satisfied good humor even in his severest attacks on his
Parliamentary opponents. The general impression of observers at first
was that Harcourt would go in merely for the reputation of a powerful
debater in the House of Commons, and would not show any ambition for the
steady and severe work of Ministerial office. The public had yet to
learn that the highest reputation of the man was to be made by his
success as the head of a great Ministerial department. Many observers
also formed the opinion that Harcourt had no clear political views of
his own, and was merely a sort of free lance ready to accept employment
under the most convenient leader. He had entered the House of Commons as
a Liberal, and even before he accepted office had always ranked himself
as a regular supporter of the Liberal party, but he often made speeches
in opposition to the views of extreme Liberals or Radicals--speeches
such as might well have been made by some eloquent member of the Tory
party. Many of the more advanced Liberals had for some time no
confidence whatever in Harcourt's Liberalism, and were often engaged in
sharp controversy with him. My own impression is that, up to a certain
period in his career, Harcourt had not formed, or troubled himself to
form, any very settled opinions on the rising political questions of the
day. Upon all the old subjects of political debate, on the controversies
which divided political parties in a former generation, his views were,
no doubt, quite settled, but then there were many new subjects coming up
for discussion, bringing with them new occasions for political division,
and it is quite probable that on some of these at least the new
Solicitor-General had not quite made up his mind. He had been a close
student at Cambridge, and had been elected professor of international
law by that University; he had practiced law as an advocate, and had
begun to make a reputation for himself as a writer. It is quite probable
that he had not yet given any special attention to some of the new
questions which the growing development of social and political
conditions was calling up for Parliamentary consideration.
Harcourt appears to have accepted as a matter of course, when he entered
the House of Commons, the recognized principles inherited by the Liberal
party. But there was then, as at most other periods of England's
constitutional history, a new and advancing Liberal party beginning to
make its influence felt, and not satisfied to abide by the mere
traditions and established canons of the older Liberalism. Only a very
few even of the advanced Liberals were yet prepared to support and
encourage the Irish demand for Home Rule, and on such domestic
questions, for instance, as the regulation of the liquor traffic, the
Liberal party in general had not made up its mind to any policy other
than a policy of mere inaction. I mention these two subjects in
particular because they have an especial value in throwing light upon
the change which took place more lately in Harcourt's political
attitude. Probably at the time when he first entered the House of
Commons he had not concerned himself much with the Home Rule question,
and had allowed himself to take it for granted, as so many even among
Liberal politicians and newspapers would have told him, that the Irish
Home Rulers were aiming at the break-up of the Empire. In the same way
it is quite possible that he may have given little or no attention to
the demand for some new regulation of the liquor traffic, and dismissed
the whole subject as a crotchet of Sir Wilfrid Lawson. When, however, he
began to study the political life of the House of Commons as an active
and a rising member, and when he found that his inclinations and his
instincts were leading him into politics and away from law, we can
easily understand that he set himself to study with candid judgment the
new questions which were beginning to divide the Liberal party. I have
often heard Sir William Harcourt accused of inconsistency and even of
time-serving, because of his sudden conversion to the principle of some
political movement which was at last coming to be accepted by the great
Liberal leaders. I do not see any reason whatever to believe that
Harcourt can fairly be reproached with inconsistency, or justly accused
of any ignoble motive for his adoption of the newer and more advanced
opinions. The explanation seems to me quite clear. The university
student, the practicing advocate, the professor of international law,
adopted a new career and devoted himself to an active part in the work
of the House of Commons. Then it was that he studied for the first time
with earnestness and impartiality some great developing questions which
had previously been mere names and shadows to him, and thus he came to
form the conclusions which guided his subsequent career. If Harcourt had
been thinking chiefly of his own political advancement, he might have
done better for himself by following the example of Disraeli, and taking
a place among the Tories, where intellect and eloquence were more rare
than on the other side of the House, and where promotion was therefore
more easily to be won.
Harcourt had probably not given much attention to great financial
questions until he came under the influence of Gladstone. Up to that
time he had, perhaps, not assumed that such subjects were likely to come
within the scope of his practical work; but when he had to study them,
he began to discover that he had within him the capacity for a thorough
comprehension of their real meaning and development, and as the result
of the study he became, when the opportunity offered itself, one of the
most successful and enlightened financial Ministers of his time. In the
same way he may never have given any serious thought to the question of
Irish Home Rule, and may have fallen quietly into the way of regarding
it, in accordance with the common opinion of most Englishmen just then,
as something naturally associated with a rebellious desire for the
breaking up of the Empire. When, however, he was led to study it as a
question of reasonable import, he grew to be a convinced and a hopeful
advocate of the cause. For a long time after he had taken office under
Gladstone he found himself brought into an incessant opposition and even
antagonism to the small group of Irish members, who then represented the
Irish national demand, and compelled to fight against the obstruction
which these Irish members were raising night after night, as their only
means of enforcing public attention to a serious consideration of
Ireland's national complaints and claims. He became converted to the
cause of Home Rule, just as Gladstone did, by having the question forced
upon his consideration, and thus being compelled to ask himself whether
there was not some real sense of justice inspiring the Irish agitation.
I shall always remember a conversation I once had with Gladstone on
this subject of Irish Home Rule. It was in one of the inner lobbies of
the House of Commons, and Mr. Gladstone began it by asking me how I
could regard Home Rule as a national demand, seeing that only a very
small number of the Irish representatives in the House were actively in
favor of such a measure. Gladstone called my attention to the fact that
out of the whole body of Irish representatives elected by the
constituencies on the same basis of voting, less than a dozen members
declared themselves uncompromising advocates of Home Rule. I drew
Gladstone's attention to the fact that the suffrage in Ireland was so
high and so restricted that the whole bulk of the Irish population were
disqualified by law from giving a vote at any election. Gladstone
appealed to me to say whether he had not long been in favor of an
expanded suffrage for the whole Kingdom, and I told him that I cordially
recognized his sincere purpose, and that whenever we got a really fair
and popular suffrage he would then find ample proof that the great bulk
of the Irish people were united in their demands for Home Rule. Not long
after, it came about that Gladstone and his Government saw their way to
a measure of reform which gave the whole Kingdom an expanded and popular
suffrage, and at the next general election the great majority of Irish
members opposed to or lukewarm about Home Rule disappeared altogether
from Parliament, and their places were taken by avowed and
uncompromising Home Rulers elected mainly because they were earnest
advocates of Home Rule. Out of the hundred and three members who
constitute the Irish representation, we had then nearly ninety who were
proclaimed and consistent Home Rulers. This result did much of itself to
make Gladstone a convert to Home Rule, and it had naturally the same
effect on Harcourt, who was far too intelligent a man not to accept the
lesson taught by the Irish constituencies, and to admit that the demand
for Home Rule was a genuine national demand, and as such entitled to the
serious consideration of real statesmen. The conversion of Harcourt I
have always, therefore, regarded as sincere and statesmanlike, and of
the same order as the conversion of Gladstone himself. The first
business of statesmanship is to recognize established facts and to act
upon their evidence. Once the demand had been proved to be national,
neither Gladstone nor Harcourt was the man to deny it a full
consideration; and the same full consideration made the one man and the
other an advocate of Home Rule.