The history of Sir Charles Lewis, long time member for Derry, who sat in
the last Parliament for North Antrim, is full of instruction for young
members. Mr. Charles Lewis, as he was most familiarly known, entered the
House as member for Derry in 1872, representing the city for just
fourteen years. He was returned again at the General Election of 1886;
and it was part of the evil fate that pursued him through his
Parliamentary career that he should have been unseated on a petition. In
the following February he was returned for North Antrim, and with the
Salisbury Parliament disappeared from the political arena.
[Illustration: SIR CHARLES LEWIS.]
It was in the Session of 1874 that he bounded into fame. Conservatives
were in high spirits, just entering under Mr. Disraeli's leadership upon
a long lease of untrammelled power. Mr. Lewis, unnoticed in the
preceding Parliament, came to the front in the earliest weeks of the new
one, buzzing around in what some of his contemporaries were inclined to
regard as an unnecessarily blatant manner. He attracted the notice of
the _World_, just then founded, and, under the new and vigorous system
of editorship inaugurated by Mr. Edmund Yates, boldly striking out for a
leading place in weekly journalism. Mr. Lewis, whom his most relentless
detractors would not accuse of lack of courage, resented the playfully
bitter attacks of the _World_, and brought before Mr. Justice Coleridge
and a special jury what, at the time, achieved some notoriety as the
great White Waistcoat question.
It must be admitted that whether a member of the House of Commons wears
a white waistcoat or a black one is no business of anyone but himself;
certainly has nothing to do with his political position. But of Mr.
Lewis's once famous white waistcoat it may be said, as was written long
ago in another connection, "which thing is an allegory." A white
waistcoat worn in sultry weather with light tweed or other summer suit
is appropriate to the occasion and pleasant to the eye. It was an
indication of Mr. Lewis's character--perhaps too subtly, possibly
erroneously, deduced--that in bleak March weather he should have
breasted an angry House of Commons in a spacious white waistcoat, made
all the more aggressive since it was worn in conjunction with a
stubbornly-shaped black frock-coat and a pair of black trousers of
uncompromising Derry cut. However it be, Mr. Lewis would stand no
reflections upon his white waistcoat, and gave the new _World_ an
appreciable fillip on its career by haling it into court on a charge of
libel, which Lord Coleridge dismissed without thinking it necessary to
trouble a jury.
That was not a hopeful start for a new member. But Mr. Lewis was not the
kind of man to be daunted by repulse. It supplies testimony to his
strong personality that, whilst more or less damaging himself, he
succeeded on more than one occasion in seriously compromising his
political friends and the House itself. In the whirlwind that followed
it was forgotten that it was Mr. Lewis (now Sir Charles, "B.B.K." as the
Claimant put it) who brought about the appointment of the Parnell
Commission and all it boded. When in May, 1887, the _Times_ published an
article accusing Mr. Parnell of wilful and deliberate falsehood in
denying his connection with P. J. Sheridan, Sir Charles Lewis reappeared
on the scene, and, with protest of his desire that the Irish leader
should have the earliest opportunity of clearing his character from the
slur cast upon it, moved that the printers of the _Times_ be brought to
the Bar on a charge of breach of privilege. Mr. W. H. Smith, then fresh
to the leadership, did his best to shake off this inconvenient
counsellor. Sir Charles's proposal was burked; but he had laid the
powder, which was soon after fired and led to the successive explosions
around the Parnell Commission.
That in later life Sir Charles Lewis should have taken this precise
means of bringing himself once more to the front was fresh proof of his
courage. It was on an analogous motion that he had made his earliest
mark. A Select Committee sitting on Foreign Loans, the morning papers
had, as usual, given some report of the proceedings. But though this was
customary, it was, none the less, technically a breach of Standing
Order. Mr. Charles Lewis, availing himself of the existence of the
anachronism, moved that the printers of the _Times_ and the _Daily News_
be summoned to the Bar, charged with breach of privilege. Mr. Disraeli,
then leader, did his best to get out of the difficulty. Mr. Lewis, in
full flush with the white waistcoat, was inexorable. The printers were
ordered to appear. They obeyed the summons, and the House finding itself
in a position of ludicrous embarrassment, they were privily entreated to
withdraw, and, above all, to be so good as to say nothing more on the
matter.
Never since the House of Commons grew out of the Wittenagemot has that
august Assembly been brought so nearly into the position of Dogberry.
"You shall comprehend all vagrom men; you are to bid any man stand, in
the Prince's name." "How, if a' will not stand?" queried the wary second
watchman. "Why, then," said the unshakable City officer, "take no note
of him, but let him go; and presently call the rest of the watch
together, and thank God you are rid of a knave." Thus, in the spring of
1875, under the temporary leadership of Mr. Charles Lewis, did the House
of Commons act towards the representatives of the _Times_ and the _Daily
News_, with the added embarrassment that the vagrom men in question had
not refused to stand, but were even then in the lobby awaiting judgment.
In the following Session Mr. Lewis succeeded in stirring up another
historic scene. It was he who brought under the notice of the House of
Commons Mr. Lowe's historic declaration, made in a speech delivered at
Retford, that before Mr. Disraeli had undertaken to pass a Bill creating
the Queen Empress of India, two other Prime Ministers had been
approached on the subject by Her Majesty, and had declined to be a party
to the proceedings. Mr. Lewis was utterly devoid of sense of humour, a
poverty that largely accounts for his failure in public life. The only
joke he ever made was unconsciously produced. It happened one night in
Committee of Supply, when, girding at the Irish members opposite, he
sarcastically expressed the hope that the vote before the Committee
"would not prove another fly in the ointment to spoil the digestion of
honourable gentlemen opposite."
"Mr. Chairman," observed Mr. Delahunty, who then represented Waterford
City, "we have many peculiarities in Ireland, but we don't eat
ointment."
Thus, though Mr. Lewis had no humour in his own nature, he was
occasionally the cause of its ebullition in others. The short note he
elicited from Mr. Lowe when he assumed the right to call the right hon.
gentleman to task for this indiscretion hugely delighted the House of
Commons.
[Illustration: MR. LOWE.]
"Sir," snapped Mr. Lowe, "my recent speech at Retford contains nothing
relating to you. I must therefore decline to answer your questions."
That would have shut up some men. It had the effect of inciting Mr.
Charles Lewis to further action. He brought forward a motion for a
return setting forth the text of the oath of Privy Councillors,
explaining that he desired to show that Mr. Lowe had, in the disclosure
made, violated his oath. There followed an animated and angry scene.
Disraeli, whilst dealing a back-handed blow at the inconvenient friend
behind him, struck out at his ancient enemy, Lowe, whose statement he
said was "monstrous, if true." He added that he was permitted to state
on the personal authority of the Queen it was absolutely without
foundation.
These are some of the episodes writ large in a notable Parliamentary
career. Their range shows that Mr. Lewis was a man of high, if
ill-directed, capacity. No mere blunderer could have stirred the depths
of the House of Commons as from time to time he did. He was, in
truth--and here is the pity of it--a man of great ability, an admirable
speaker. If his instincts had been finer and his training more severe he
would have made a position of quite another kind in Parliamentary
annals. Vain, restless, with narrow views and strong prejudices, he was
his own worst enemy. But he will not have lived in vain if new members,
entering the House from whatever quarter, sitting on whichever side,
will study his career, and apply its lesson. His character in its main
bearings is by no means unfamiliar in the House of Commons. It was his
special qualities of courage and capacity that made him so beneficially
prominent as an example of what to avoid.