ENTRY INTO THE CABINET
SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER, 1882
I.
Part of Sir Charles's routine was his morning bout of fencing. [Footnote:
Sir Charles's fencing seems to have dated from 1874, during his stay in
Paris after his first wife's death. Fuller reference to fencing at 76,
Sloane Street and to his antagonists will be found in Chapter XLVII. (Vol.
II., pp. 233, 234). ] This was the relaxation which he managed to fit into
his crowded daily life, but his weekly holiday he spent upon the river. He
notes, just before the Parliamentary crisis due to the bombardment of
Alexandria:
'At this time I had given up the practice of going out of town to stay
with friends for Sundays, and I did not resume it, for I found it
better for me to get my work done on the Saturday night and my Foreign
Office boxes early on the Sunday morning, to go to the Abbey on the
Sunday morning at ten, and after this service to go on the river, and
go to bed at eight o'clock at least this one night in the week, and I
bought a piece of land at Dumsey Deep, near Chertsey, with the view of
building a cottage there.'
It was not here, however, that he built his riverside house, but close by,
at Dockett Eddy, which he bought in the following summer. [Footnote: A
fuller account of life in his riverside home is to be found in Chapter LI.
(Vol. II., pp. 317-324).] The two pieces of ground were connected by a
long strip of frontage which he acquired, thereby saving the willows and
alders which then sheltered that reach, and made it a windless course for
sculling. Even more perfect was it, by reason of its gravelly bottom, for
another form of watermanship. On Sunday, October 22nd, 1882,
'after Westminster Abbey I went down to Teddington, and took a lesson
in punting from Kemp, the Teddington fisherman, and from this time
forward became devoted to the art, for which I gave up my canoeing.'
His resolve to spend his Sundays in retreat on the river did not pass
without protest from his friends, as is shown by a characteristic letter
from Sir William Harcourt:
"CUFFNELLS, LYNDHURST,
"_August 28_, 1882."
"DEAR DILKE,"
"Don't be an odious solitary snipe in the ooze of the Thames, but come
down here at once and nurse Bobby.
"Yours ever, W. V. H."
"Bobby" was Mr. Robert Harcourt, now M.P. for the Montrose Burghs.
He replied:
"LALEHAM FERRY (_for this night only.
I shall be at the P.O. every day this week_).
"_August 29th._
"MY DEAR HARCOURT,
"I went to bed on Saty. night at dark and on Sunday night at dark.
Last night I was late from London, and sat up till nearly 9! Bobby
himself can hardly beat that, can he? On the other hand, he does not
get a swim in the Thames at 5 a.m., or breakfast at 6, as I do.
"It is very good of you--and like old times--for you to press me to
come down, and, believe me, I should like my company. But when, as
now, I am splendidly well, and only want to make up arrears of sleep,
the river is the best place for me. I shall go to Walmer next week,
but then that is sea, and sea is sleepy too; and I have all my work
there with the telegraph in the House, and messengers four times a day
as if I was in the F.O., so I can be away--and yet be on duty--as I
promised to be till 19th or 20th Septr....
"... This is the longest letter that I was ever known to write in all
my life, except perhaps once or twice to you in the old days."
It had now been decided that Wentworth Dilke, being eight years old,
should go to school and leave Mr. Chamberlain's house, of which he had
been an inmate for some eighteen months.
'On the day of Tel-el-Kebir I received a very pleasing letter from
Chamberlain, thanking me for what I had said to him about his
reception for so long a period at Highbury of my son. It was a
touching letter, which showed both delicacy and warmth of affection.'
On September 21st Sir Charles Dilke went to Birmingham to take his boy to
Mrs. Maclaren's school at Summerfields, near Oxford. 'Then crossing to
Waterford, spent five days in the South of Ireland--and afterwards went
straight to St. Tropez to stay with M. Émile Ollivier.' "Il faut fermer la
boutique et alors on se trouve tout de suite bien," is his comment as he
started on one such journey.
'During my visit to Ollivier I explored the south coast of the
mountains of the Moors, along which there was no road, and bought some
land at Cavalaire, against the possible chance of a boulevard being
made through my land at Toulon in such a way as to cut me off from the
sea. I walked from Bormes to the Lavandou upon the coast, and fancied
I found the path by which St. Francis journeyed when he landed to save
Provence from the plague. It is hollowed out by feet, in some places
to three feet deep through the hard quartz and schist, and everywhere
at least six inches, so its age is evidently great, and it must have
been a path in the days of Saracen domination, if not even in or
before the Roman times, for the two villages were ever small.
'At Ste. Claire, the first bay eastward from the Lavandou, I had seen
a funeral in which all the crucifixes were borne before the corpse by
women, and the coffin carried by women. Ollivier's father was still
living--Démosthène, born under the First Republic, and a deputy under
the Second: an old Jacobin of an almost extinct type. Ollivier's house
is as pretty as the whole coast. It stands on a peninsula with perfect
sands, one or other of which is sheltered for bathing in any wind, and
instead of the usual parched sterility of Provence, springs rise all
round the house, which is lost in a dense forest of young palms. The
views are not from the house, but from the various shores of the
peninsula, all these, however, being close at hand. I had for escort
in my trips about the coast the famous Félix Martin, founder and Mayor
of St. Raphael and of Valescure, a railway engineer who was known as
the American of Provence, and who, in fact, is the most desperate and
the most interesting and pleasant speculator of France. Speaking to me
of Fréjus, my favourite town, and its surroundings, Martin called it
"the Roman Campagna on the Bay of Naples," a very pretty phrase,
absolutely true of it, for the scenery is that of the plain between
Naples and Capua, but the ruins and the solemnity of the foreground
were those of the outskirts of Rome till Martin spoilt it. At the spot
where I bought my land eighty boats of Spanish and Italian coral
fishers were at anchor. I picked up Roman tiles upon my ground, and
found a Roman tomb in the centre of my plot.'
'I was struck with some of the old châteaux in the woods as I returned
along the coast to Toulon. Near Bormettes there are two which were
nationalized at the Revolution, and the families of the buyers, having
turned Legitimist and put stained glass into the chapel windows, are
now becoming nobles in their turn, at all events in their own
estimation, and thriving upon cork and American vines.[Footnote: The
piece of land at Cavalaire was never built on by Sir Charles, but he
remained owner of it till 1905, when it was sold by him. His
friendship with the Ollivier household continued till the end of his
life.]
'It was during this visit that Ollivier made use of a phrase which I
have repeated: "When one looks at the Republic one says: 'It can't
last a week--it is dead.' But when one looks at what is opposed to it,
one says: 'It is eternal.'"'
The true inner history and genesis of the Franco-Prussian War formed
matter for talk with Ollivier, who was among the half-dozen men in Europe
best able to inform Sir Charles on the question. The Memoir records a
reminiscence told by M. Ollivier.
'When the war broke out, he naturally asked the Emperor about his
alliances. The Emperor, who was singularly sweet and winning in his
ways, smiled his best smile but said nothing, walked to a table,
unlocked a drawer, and took out two letters-one from the Emperor of
Austria, and the other from the King of Italy, both promising their
alliance. But, although this was Ollivier's story, the Italian letter
must have been conditional. Ollivier set down the defeat to this
slowness of action, and supineness, due first to the Emperor's firm
belief that Austria would move, and then to his stone in the bladder
and refusal to let anyone else command. At a later date I became aware
of the true story, which was that afterwards told by me in
_Cosmopolis_. [Footnote: "The Origin of the War of 1870," by Sir
Charles Dilke, _Cosmopolis_, January, 1896.] Austria had declined to
join in a war begun in the middle of the summer. It had been fixed for
May, 1871. Bismarck found this out from the Magyars, and made the war
in 1870.'
To the detail thus gained at first hand Sir Charles Dilke added another in
the next year. On February 1st, 1883, he met at Sir William Harcourt's
house the Italian Ambassador Count Nigra, who had been in 1870 Minister in
Paris:
'He told me that in 1866 the Italians had sent to Paris to ask whether
they should join Prussia or Austria, both of whom had promised to give
them Venice, and how the Emperor had told them that Italy was to join
Prussia as the weaker side, and that when the combatants were
exhausted he intended to take the Rhine. Nigra also told me that in
1870 the Emperor had told him that he meant peace, and that it was
Gramont on his own account who had told Benedetti to get from the King
of Prussia the promise for the future. This was all superficial, as we
now know that Nigra was, as the Empress Eugénie said in 1907, a "false
friend." Nigra said that Bismarck had made the war by telegraphing his
own highly coloured account of the interview; for the French official
account, which had only reached Paris (according to Nigra) after war
had been declared, had shown that the King had been very civil to
Benedetti, although the French Ambassador had persisted in raising the
question no less than three several times.... [Footnote: The famous
interview at Ems between the King of Prussia and M. Benedetti, the
French Ambassador at Berlin, is referred to. See Benedetti, _Ma
Mission en Prusse_, chap. vi.; _Bismarck, His Reflections and
Reminiscences_, translated from the German under the supervision of A.
J. Butler, vol. ii., chap, xxii.; _Life of Granville_, vol. ii., chap.
ii.]
'On my return through Paris in September, 1882, I had interviews with
Duclerc, the French Prime Minister, and with Nubar, as well as with
Gambetta. Duclerc I found a cross old man, who was furious because I
mentioned Madagascar. On the Tunis capitulations I found the French
willing to come to an agreement; but Egypt, the Suez Canal, the Congo,
the Pacific Islands, and Newfoundland were all of them difficult
questions at this time....
'In a talk with Gambetta on October 19th he said to me that it was his
intention, "whether _I_ liked Duclerc or not," to keep him in power,
whether he does what he ought, does nothing, or does what is
ridiculous. The curse of France is instability. Duclerc is an honest
man.' Gambetta was 'aged and in bad spirits.'
Sir Charles communicated this expression through Mr. Plunkett, the British
Chargé d'Affaires, to M. Duclerc. "I gave him the third alternative in
more diplomatic language," Mr. Plunkett wrote, "but he understood me, and
we laughed over the idea."
A general reflection of this year is that 'Gambetta hates fools in theory,
and loves them, I think, in practice.'
In London during the autumn session Sir Charles records some interesting
gossip, to which may be added this first entry of earlier date:
'Lord Granville was a most able man, who did not, in my opinion,
decline in intellectual vigour during the many years in which he took
a great part in public affairs. He always had the habit of
substitution of words, and I have known him carry on a long
conversation with me at the Foreign Office about the proceedings of
two Ambassadors who were engaged on opposite sides in a great
negotiation, and call "A" B, and "B" A through the whole of it, which
was, to say the least of it, confusing. He also sometimes entirely
forgot the principal name in connection with the subject--as, for
example, that of Mr. Gladstone when Prime Minister--and had to resort
to the most extraordinary forms of language in order to convey his
meaning. The only other person in whom I have ever seen this
peculiarity carried to such a point was the Khedive Ismail, who sent
for me when I was in office and he in London, and when the Dervishes
were advancing upon Egypt, to say that he had an important piece of
information to give the Government, which was the name of a spot at
which the Dervishes might easily be checked, owing to the narrowness
of the valley. He kept working up to the name, and each time failing
to give it, so that I ultimately went away without having been able to
get from him the one thing which would have made the information
useful. Each time he closed his speech by saying, "Le nom de ce point
important est--chose--machine--chose," and so on...
'On Thursday, November 2nd, I breakfasted with Mr. Gladstone to meet
the Duc de Broglie. We discussed the question of the authorship of the
pretty definition of Liberal-Conservatives as men who sometimes think
right, but always vote wrong. But even Arthur Russell, who was at the
breakfast with his wife, could throw no light upon the matter. Madame
Olga Novikof was also present, and, of course, the Duc de Broglie took
me into a corner to ask me if it was true that Mr. Gladstone was
absolutely under her influence. She announced her intention of going
the next day to Birmingham, and Mr. Gladstone asked Chamberlain to go
with her, although he did not know her and although there was a
Cabinet; but Chamberlain refused.
'In the evening of November 15th there dined with me John Morley, Lord
Arthur Russell, and Gibson, afterwards Lord Ashbourne, Huxley, the
Rector of Lincoln, and some others; and, thanks to Gibson, who was
very lively, the conversation was better than such things often are.
He was deep in the secrets of Randolph Churchill...
'I was asked from 24th to 27th to stay with the Duke and Duchess of
Edinburgh at Eastwell Park, but was also asked to Sandringham.
'The Princess of Wales told me a story of the Shah which had amused
her. Walking with her at the State Ball, he had clutched her arm, and
with much excitement asked about the Highland costume which he had
seen for the first time. Having thus got the word "Écossais" into his
head, and afterwards seeing Beust with his legs in pink silk
stockings, he again clutched her, and exclaimed: "Trop nu--plus nu
qu'Écossais."'
II.
The business of the autumn Session was limited, by agreement, to
determining the new "Rules of Procedure."
'On Friday, October 20th, there was a Cabinet which decided to stick
to our first resolution on procedure--that is on the closure--without
change; or, in other words, to closure by a bare majority.'
When the matter came to a vote in the House, the Government were saved
from defeat by the support of Mr. Parnell and his adherents, who were
determined not to have closure by a two-thirds majority, which could in
practice be used only against a small group.
'On Monday, October 23rd, the Cabinet considered the principle of
delegation of duties from Parliament itself to Grand Committees, to be
proposed in the procedure resolutions.'
This was the beginning of what is now the ordinary procedure in all Bills,
except those of the first importance. It was introduced expressly as an
experiment on six months' trial; and it appears that it was not adopted
without much opposition in the Cabinet, for the Memoir records:
'On November 21st Hartington and Harcourt tried hard to induce Mr.
Gladstone to drop his idea of Grand Committees, and I noted in my
diary: "If they are dropped now they are dead for ever--that is, for a
year at least. 'Ever' in politics means one year."'
On November 13th Lord Randolph Churchill, in a discourse upon the right to
make motions for adjournment, contrived, by way of happy illustration, to
refer to the "Kilmainham Treaty." The phrase in itself was a red rag to
Mr. Gladstone, but Lord Randolph added to the provocation by describing it
as "a most disgraceful transaction, so obnoxious that its precise terms
had never been made known." Mr. Gladstone charged fiercely at the lure,
denied that there had been any "treaty," and challenged the Opposition to
move for a Committee of Inquiry.
On November 14th, between two meetings at Lord Granville's house, at which
'Kimberley, Northbrook, Carlingford, and Childers were present with
myself, there was a discussion at lunch as to Mr. Gladstone's promise of a
Committee on the Kilmainham Treaty, at which all his colleagues of the
Cabinet were furious.'
On November 16th:
'a Cabinet was suddenly called for this afternoon to consider Mr.
Gladstone's extraordinary blunder in granting a Committee on the
Treaty of Kilmainham. The whole of his colleagues had been against him
when he had previously wished to do it, and now he had done it without
asking one of them. Grosvenor, the Whip, thought it would upset the
Government. Mr. Gladstone expressed his regret to his colleagues that
he had been carried away by his temper. Harcourt said that no two of
the witnesses would give the same account of the transaction, and that
while Mr. Gladstone might force Chamberlain, as his subordinate, to
make a clean breast of it, it was hard on Parnell.
'There was later in the day a private conversation between Chamberlain
and Harcourt and Grosvenor as to the Kilmainham Committee, Chamberlain
declaring that if called before a Committee he must read all the
letters, and Harcourt saying that if they were read he should resign.'
When the Session opened on October 27th, the Memoir indicates that the
Prime Minister's retirement was expected.
On November 4th there was a dinner at 76, Sloane Street, at which Mr.
Gladstone, Lord Granville, the Dean of Westminster, Mr. Balfour, and
others, came to meet the Duc de Broglie. In the course of the evening,
'Mr. Gladstone told me that he had finally decided not to meet
Parliament again in February. The gossip was that Hartington was to be
Prime Minister, that Fawcett would resign if not put into the Cabinet,
and Chamberlain and I had agreed to insist on county franchise '(which
meant a very large extension of the suffrage),' and to withdraw our
opposition to Goschen, it being understood that he gave way on county
franchise. It was far from certain that Mr. Gladstone meant Hartington
to be leader on his retirement. The Duchess of Manchester had told me
just before my dinner on Saturday, November 4th, that Mr. Gladstone
had written to Lord Granville to tell him he should not meet
Parliament again, saying that he wrote to him as he had been leader
when the party had been in Opposition. The letter had been shown to
Hartington, who was much irritated at the phrase. The letter was also
sent on to the Queen, and the Duchess thought that the Queen had said
in reply that if Mr. Gladstone resigned she should send not for Lord
Granville, but for Hartington.
'On Monday, November 6th, I heard more about the proposed resignation
of Mr. Gladstone. He had declared that he would not take a peerage,
but had promised not to attend the House of Commons, and I thought
that Hartington would make his going to the Lords, or at least leaving
the Commons, a condition. I pressed for the inclusion of Courtney in
the Cabinet in the event of any change.'
Although one of Mr. Gladstone's junior colleagues from 1880 onwards, Sir
Charles Dilke had been frequently in disagreement with him, and in 1882
had refused to accept the Irish Secretaryship. Yet it was to Sir Charles
that Mr. Gladstone in 1882 was beginning to look as his ultimate successor
in the lead of the House of Commons. A passage in Lord Acton's
correspondence shows how Mr. Gladstone's mind was working at this time. A
breakfast-table discussion between Miss Gladstone and her father is noted
by her, at which, on the assumption of Mr. Gladstone's retirement and the
removal of Lord Hartington to the House of Lords, the names of possible
successors to the leadership of the House of Commons were discussed. The
Chief's estimate of Dilke was thus given:
"The future leader of H. of C. was a great puzzle and difficulty. Sir
Charles Dilke would probably be the man best fitted for it; he had
shown much capacity for learning and unlearning, but he would require
Cabinet training first." [Footnote: _Letters of Lord Acton_, p. 90.]
It followed, then, that if Mr. Gladstone seriously contemplated
resignation, he was bound to insure that Sir Charles got without more
delay the "Cabinet training." It was absurd that the Minister in whom Mr.
Gladstone saw the likeliest future leader of the House of Commons should
be kept technically, and to some extent really, outside the inner circle
of confidence and responsibility.
By the middle of November the hint of Mr. Gladstone's retirement had
leaked out, and conjecture was busy with reconstruction of the Cabinet.
Apart from the question of the Prime Minister's position, speculation was
kept active by the fact that since Mr. Bright's retirement in June no
appointment had been made to the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster,
that office having no very urgent or definite duties. There was also the
widespread feeling that Sir Charles Dilke's admission to the Cabinet was
overdue, and men guessed rightly at the cause of the delay. Meanwhile the
leaders of the party were considering how far these causes still operated.
On November 16th Sir Charles was approached by the Chief Whip.
'Lord R. Grosvenor, after the Cabinet, came to me, and asked me if I
thought that the Queen was now willing to have me in the Cabinet. I
said that so far as I knew the trouble was at an end. He replied that
he had had two accounts of it. Harcourt told him that both the Prince
of Wales and Prince Leopold had said that she had made up her mind to
take me; but Hartington said that she had told him a different story.
I said I did not know which was right; but that she could take me or
leave me, for not another word would I say.
'Sunday, November 19th, I spent at Cuffnells, Lyndhurst--the home of
"Alice in Wonderland," Mrs. Hargreaves, Dean Liddel's daughter--with
the Harcourts, and Harcourt told me that he believed in Mr.
Gladstone's retirement.'
In the last days of November Sir Charles was at Sandringham with Mr.
Chamberlain.
'Chamberlain told me that Lord Hartington and Lord Granville were
going to insist with Mr. Gladstone that he should stay as nominal
Prime Minister, Hartington taking the Exchequer and dividing the lead
of the House with him, and Rosebery and I being put into the Cabinet.
'On December 1st there was a Cabinet, before which Lord Granville told
me that I was to be put into the Cabinet at once if the Queen
consented. When they met at two o'clock the Cabinet were told of this
and strict secrecy sworn, but two of them immediately came and told me
that it was settled I was to be Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.'
The Chancellorship of the Duchy presented itself to Sir Charles Dilke as a
kind of roving commission to help other Ministers with the detail of
measures. But the Queen took the view that this place was a "peculiarly
personal one," and should be held by someone whom she considered a
"moderate" politician, and who need not be in the Cabinet. On December 4th
'the Queen, who had been informed that she was still a free agent with
regard to me, had hesitated with regard to the Duchy of Lancaster,
which had, of course, been conditionally accepted by me on the
understanding that I was to be man-of-all-work in the Cabinet. It was
understood on this day that Childers was to be Chancellor of the
Exchequer if his health allowed it, and a delay was granted for his
decision or that of his doctors; and it was understood that Lord Derby
was to come in in Childers' place. Evelyn Ashley was suggested for my
place; and Edmond Fitzmaurice, Henry Brand, or Brett for Ashley's'
(that of Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade).
On December 7th it was settled that
'Hartington was to go to the War Office if the doctors pronounced
Childers well enough to take the Exchequer, and this would leave the
Under-Secretaryships for the Colonies and India, as well as for
Foreign Affairs, open between Fitzmaurice, Ashley, Brand, and Brett.
'Harcourt wrote on the 7th about Mr. Gladstone: "The resignation
project is for the present adjourned _sine die_."
'On Saturday, December 9th, Childers came to me from Mr. Gladstone to
ask if I objected (as we had settled that it would be improper for me
to invite a contest in Chelsea on the old register in the last month
of the year) to letting my appointment be known before it was made,
and I consented, although this would have had the effect, in the event
of opposition, of giving me a twenty days' fight instead of one of
only seventeen.'
Mr. Gladstone now put forward a different proposal:
'On Monday, the 11th, I saw the Prince of Wales with regard to my
appointment. On the same day Mr. Gladstone had some trouble with the
Queen about the Primacy, as he told me on December 12th.... On the
12th I wrote to Chamberlain that Austin Lee had told me that the Queen
had some days earlier told our friend Prince Leopold that she was
willing that I should be in the Cabinet, but not in the Duchy, and it
was this that she had said to Mr. Gladstone on the 11th about which he
sent for me on the 12th. He said that he thought it would be possible
to get over this objection in time, but that there was another
possibility about which he asked me to write to Chamberlain, but not
as from him. I wrote: "Would you take the Duchy and let me go to the
Board of Trade, you keeping your Bills? This would be unpleasant to
you personally, I feel sure, unless for my sake, though the Duchy is
of superior rank. It would, of course, be a temporary stopgap, as
there must be other changes soon. It is not necessary that you should
do it, else I know that you would do it for me. So that please feel
you are really free. I told Mr. Gladstone that I could only put it to
you in such a way as to leave you free. You had better perhaps write
your answer so that I can show it him, though I suppose he will
suppose himself not to have seen it!"'
On December 13th the Prince of Wales sent for Sir Charles to advise his
pressing this course on Mr. Chamberlain. But on that same day Mr.
Chamberlain replied from Highbury:
"MY DEAR DILKE,
"Your letter has spoilt my breakfast. The change will be loathsome to
me for more than one reason, and will give rise to all sorts of
disagreeable commentaries. But if it is the only way out of the
difficulty, I will do what I am sure you would have done in my place--
accept the transfer. I enclose a note to this effect which you can
show to Mr. G. Consider, however, if there is any alternative. I
regard your _immediate_ admission to the Cabinet as imperative, and
therefore if this can only be secured by my taking the Duchy, _cadit
quaestio_, and I shall never say another word on the subject. Two
other courses are possible, though I fear unlikely to be accepted: (1)
Mr. Gladstone might tell the Queen that I share the opinions you have
expressed with regard to the dowries, and intend to make common cause
with you--that if your appointment is refused I shall leave the
Government, and that the effect will be to alienate the Radical Party
from the Ministry and the Crown, and to give prominence to a question
which it would be more prudent to allow to slumber. I think the Queen
would give way. If not we should both go out. We should stand very
well with our party, and in a year or two we could make our own terms.
Personally I would rather go out than take the Duchy.... (2) Has the
matter been mentioned to Dodson? He _might_ like an office with less
work, [Footnote: Mr. Dodson was President of the Local Government
Board.] and he _might_ be influenced by the nominally superior
rank.... Now you have my whole mind. I would gladly avoid the
sacrifice, but if your inclusion in the Cabinet depends upon it, I
will make it freely and with pleasure for your sake."
'The result was that Dodson "put himself in Mr. Gladstone's hands."
There was, however, an interval of ten days, during which things went
backwards and forwards much.'
The probability of the Queen's refusal to accept Mr. Chamberlain for the
Duchy made his threat of resignation more serious, and a letter came to
Sir Charles from Mr. Francis Knollys deprecating this vehemently on behalf
of the Prince of Wales. Its last sentence is worth quoting, as it endorsed
what was known to be Dilke's own special wish:
"What he would like to see would be Lord Northbrook at the India
Office and you at the Admiralty."
'On December 14th I saw Mr. Gladstone, but a new opening had arisen,
for Fawcett was very ill, and supposed to be dying, and Mr. Gladstone
determined to wait for a few days to see whether he got better....
'On December 16th Mr. Gladstone pledged himself to me in writing with
regard to putting me immediately into the Cabinet in some place, and
on December 17th the Queen agreed that a paragraph to that effect
should be sent to the newspapers. On the 18th, however, she declined
to entertain the question of taking Chamberlain for the Duchy. On
December 20th Mr. Gladstone wrote that he was "between the devil and
the deep sea." I do not know which of the two meant the Queen, and
whether the other was myself or Chamberlain. On December 21st
Chamberlain came up to town to see me. On the 22nd the Dodson plan
went forward in letters from Mr. Gladstone to Sir Henry Ponsonby, the
Queen's Secretary, and from Lord Hartington, to the Queen. On the 22nd
at night Dodson accepted it, and on the 23rd I was formally so
informed, and virtually accepted the Presidency of the Local
Government Board, which I nominally accepted on December 26th.'
Before Sir Charles vacated the seat by his letter of acceptance, the
Tories in Chelsea had met and decided not to oppose him. Among the letters
of congratulation none gratified the new Minister more than one from Lord
Barrington, Lord Beaconsfield's former private secretary, who wrote, even
before the appointment was officially confirmed:
"I like watching your political career as, besides personal feeling,
it makes me think of what my dear old chief used to say about you--
that you were _the_ rising man on the other side."
On December 27th Lord Granville sent from Walmer Castle a letter of
characteristic courtesy and charm.[Footnote: The letter given in Chapter
XX., p. 311.] It crossed an expression of gratitude already despatched by
his junior:
"MY DEAR LORD GRANVILLE,
"Having received Mr. Gladstone's letter with the Queen's approval, I
write to thank you for all your many kindnesses to me while I have
been under your orders. I shall continue to attend the office until
the Council, but I cannot let the day close without trying to express
in one word all that I owe to you as regards the last thirty-two
months.
"Sincerely yours,
"CHARLES W. DILKE."
But it was much later, when the Government had fallen, that this "one
word" came to be developed.
"76, SLOANE STREET, S.W.
"_Tuesday, July 14th_, 1885.
"MY DEAR LORD GRANVILLE,
"I am glad you feel as you do about me. Malicious people and foolish
people have both so long said that I wanted to be S. of S. for For.
Affs. myself that I never expect to be believed when I say the simple
truth--that in my opinion it ought to be in the Lords as long as there
are Lords, and that my only wish was to be of any help I could. I can
only think of the Errington-Walsh business when I think over points on
which we have differed, and I cannot help scoring that down to Forster
and the silly Irish Government, and not to you, though you are so
loyal a colleague that when you have accepted you always actively
support.
"I do not suppose I shall ever, if again in office, have such pleasant
official days as those I spent in the F.O. under you, but the next
best thing would be at the Admiralty--the office to which all my life
has always inclined me--to obey your orders from the F.O.
"I am sure you will believe this even if no one else will, and believe
me also ever
"Yours very affectionately and sincerely,
"CHARLES W. DILKE."
'Trevelyan, in sending his congratulations from the Chief Secretary's
Office at Dublin, asked me for the earliest possible draft of heads of my
Local Government Bill for England: "in case it is settled that we are to
bring one in--a move which I have come to think is necessary. They need
not run on all fours, but there are points on which it would not do to
adopt a different policy."'
To the Secretary of State's congratulations, Sir Julian Pauncefote,
permanent head of the Foreign Office staff, added his tribute:
"How we all deplore your departure, _none so much as myself_. You will
leave behind you a lasting memory of your kindness and geniality, and
of your great talents."
Other friends, among them Mr. Knollys, assumed as a matter of course that
the promotion would bring a change from congenial to uncongenial work.
They were right. "I shall be in the Local Government Board by Wednesday,
as I shan't, after Chamberlain's kindness, put him in a place which he
will like less than the Board of Trade. Shan't I hate it after this
place!" Sir Charles Dilke wrote. "But," he added, "it will 'knock the
nonsense out of me.'" That was the view put to him, for instance, by Lord
Barrington. "In the end it is well that a Minister should go through the
comparative drudgery of other offices. It gets him 'out of a groove.'"
Mr. Gladstone, on making what Sir Charles Dilke calls 'the formal
announcement' on December 23rd, wrote:
"Notwithstanding the rubs of the past, I am sanguine as to your future
relations with the Queen. There are undoubtedly many difficulties in
that quarter, but they are in the main confined to three or four
departments. Your office will not touch them, while you will have in
common with all your colleagues the benefit of two great modifying
circumstances which never fail--the first her high good manners, and
the second her love of truth....
"I have entered on these explanations, because it is my fervent
desire, on every ground, to reduce difficulties in such high and
delicate matters to their minimum; and because, with the long years
which I hope you have before you, I also earnestly desire that your
start should be favourable in your relations with the Sovereign."
This was written only a few weeks after the Prime Minister had spoken to
his intimates of Dilke as some day his probable successor in the
leadership of the House of Commons. Mr. Gladstone did not omit to urge
that the new Minister should do his best to conciliate good-will. The
Queen, he said, "looked with some interest or even keenness to the words
of explanation as to the distant past," which Sir Charles himself had--
"not in any way as a matter of bargain, but as a free tender"--proposed to
use.
They were guarded. In an address delivered at Kensington before his re-
election, he dwelt almost exclusively on questions of Local Government,
and coming to the Government of London, he said:
"There were very many subjects upon which one might modify one's
opinions as one grew older; there were opinions of political infancy
which, as one grew older, one might regard as unwise, or might prefer
not to have uttered; but upon the Government of London--the opinions
he expressed in 1867 were his personal opinions at the present time."
This and the closing admission that when he first came before the electors
of Chelsea, he "was only between three-and four-and-twenty years of age,
and was perhaps at that time rather scatter-brained," are all the
allusions to the remote past which the speech contains; but there is every
reason to believe that it was taken as satisfactory. Mr. Gladstone wrote
that the comments of the Conservative press, which were pretty certain to
be read at Osborne, would be useful. Finally, "to integrate their
correspondence," he added this reference to Sir Charles's known wish for
the Admiralty:
"I passed over the suggestion about clearing the Admiralty (_a_) from
reluctance to start Northbrook's removal to any less efficient place;
(_b_) on account of Parliamentary displacements; not at all because it
was too big a place to vacate and offer."
'All the same,' the Memoir adds, 'I liked the L.G.B.'
The change of office did not mean any severance from foreign policy, which
Sir Charles could now approach in his proper sphere, with the authority of
a Cabinet Minister. He was succeeded by Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, who had
returned from his mission to Constantinople. Dilke wrote on December 23rd
to Lord Granville: "I should suggest that no time be lost in getting
Fitzmaurice here. He likes work, and will go at these matters like a
lion."
'On the last day of the old year Lord Granville, writing from Walmer
to thank me for what I had said about him to my constituents, added:
"I have given the sack to ---- at the end of the five years' limit
which now expires. He would like to keep the appointment on leave for
six months, and might be very useful in advising the office. But would
there be any House of Commons objection to this prolongation?" This
was a specimen of the way in which, after I had left the Foreign
Office, all Foreign Office questions were still thrown on to me; and
as a matter of fact I did almost as much Foreign Office work during
the year 1883 as I had done from 1880 to 1882. Fitzmaurice, however,
was able, and worked very hard, and he gradually acquired an enormous
mastery of the detail of the questions.' [Footnote: Sir Charles notes
how glad he was to induce Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice to continue Mr.
Austin Lee in the post of official private secretary.]
His unopposed return for Chelsea did not take place till January 8th,
1883. Before this he had been formally admitted to the Privy Council.
'I had left the Foreign Office on December 27th, having been there
exactly two years and eight months, and on Thursday, the 28th, I went
down to a Council at Osborne to be sworn; and on the 29th addressed
the principal meeting held in my constituency with regard to my re-
election, and advocated a policy of decentralization in Local
Government affairs. I was rather amused at Osborne by the
punctiliousness with which, after I had kissed hands on being sworn a
member of the Council, the Queen pointed out to the Clerk of the
Council that it was necessary for me again to immediately go through
precisely the same ceremony on appointment as President of the Local
Government Board--a curious point of strict etiquette. I could not but
think that the portion of the Privy Councillor's oath which concerns
keeping secret matters treated of secretly in Council is more honoured
in the breach than in the observance; but when Mr. Gladstone chose,
which was not always, he used to maintain the view that the clause is
governed by the first part of the oath, so as to make it secret only
in respect of the interests of the country and the position of other
members of Council. There is nothing in the oath about any limit of
time, but it has always been held in practice that a time comes when
all political importance has departed from the proceedings of the
Council, and when the obligation of secrecy may be held to lapse.
There is nothing, however, more delicate than the question of where
the line is drawn. Chamberlain was directed by the Cabinet, for
example, at the time of the Kilmainham Treaty, to carry on
negotiations with Parnell which were absolutely impossible except by a
partial revelation of matters discussed secretly in Council; but as
the Prime Minister was a party to this, I suppose that the Queen's
consent to the removal of the obligation would be in such a case
assumed, though it was not in this case real. Another difficulty about
the oath is that it in no way provides for the position towards their
chiefs of members of the Government not members of the Privy Council.
'It is difficult, therefore, to say that the oath in practice imposes
any obligation other than that which any man of honour would feel laid
upon him by the ordinary observances of gentlemen.'
Sir Charles was only thirty-nine when he entered the Cabinet, yet the
general feeling was that his admission was overdue rather than early, and
no one had shown more anxiety for it than the future King.
'During the whole month while my position in the Cabinet was under hot
discussion, I saw a great deal of the Prince of Wales, who wished to
know from day to day how matters stood, and I was able to form a more
accurate opinion both of himself and of the Princess, and of all about
them, than I had formed before. The Prince is, of course, in fact, a
strong Conservative, and a still stronger Jingo, really agreeing in
the Queen's politics, and wanting to take everything everywhere in the
world and to keep everything if possible, but a good deal under the
influence of the last person who talks to him, so that he would
sometimes reflect the Queen and sometimes reflect me or Chamberlain,
or some other Liberal who had been shaking his head at him. He has
more sense and more usage of the modern world than his mother, whose
long retirement has cut her off from that world, but less real brain
power. He is very sharp in a way, the Queen not sharp at all; but she
carries heavy metal, for her obstinacy constitutes power of a kind.
The strongest man in Marlborough House is Holzmann, the Princess's
Secretary and the Prince's Librarian. He is a man of character and
solidity, but then he is a Continental Liberal, and looks at all
English questions as a foreigner! The Princess never talks
politics.... It is worth talking seriously to the Prince. One seems to
make no impression at the time ... but he does listen all the same,
and afterwards, when he is talking to somebody else, brings out
everything that you have said.'
Some letters of this date show how strongly the personal friendship of Sir
Charles Dilke and Mr. Chamberlain had developed during their political
alliance.
In September, 1881, Mr. Chamberlain writes that he has been "reading over
again a book called _Greater Britain_, written, I believe, by a young
fellow of twenty-five, and a very bright, clever, and instructive book it
is." He petitions for a copy "properly inscribed to your devoted friend
and admirer, J. C." Sir Charles, in acknowledging this, protested against
the word "instructive," and his friend apologized. "But it is instructive
for all that. When you next come to Birmingham you shall inscribe my
copy.... Let me add that in all my political life the pleasantest and the
most satisfactory incident is your friendship."
These expressions were further emphasized by another letter of this date.
Sir Charles, hurrying into Mr. Chamberlain's room in the House of Commons,
had found him busy and preoccupied, and so followed up his visit with a
letter. Mr. Chamberlain replied:
"_December 6th._
"I am not sorry to have the opportunity of saying how much I
appreciate and how cordially I reciprocate all your kind words.
"The fact is that you are by nature such a reserved fellow that all
_demonstration_ of affection is difficult, but you may believe me when
I say that I feel it--none the less. I suppose I am reserved myself.
The great trouble we have both been through has had a hardening effect
in my case, and since then I have never worn my heart on my sleeve.
"But if I were in trouble I should come to you at once--and that is
the best proof of friendship and confidence that I know of."
About that same time Lord Granville was writing to Sir Charles on foreign
affairs, and diverged into general politics, remarking on the Free Trade
speeches then being delivered. "With what ability Chamberlain has been
speaking! I doubt whether going on the stump suits the Tory party." To
this Sir Charles replied with an enthusiasm rare in his utterances:
"Chamberlain's speech was admirable, I thought. I, as you know,
delight in his triumphs more than he does himself. It is absurd that
this should be so between politicians, but so it is. Our friendship
only grows closer and my admiration for him stronger day by day."