MR. W. H. SMITH. T HE death of Mr. W. H.
Smith is a considerable blow to the Unionist Party. It is constantly the mis- fortune, though occasionally the merit, of English Cabinets, that they do not precisely represent, or even clearly per- ceive, the inner opinions of solid Englishmen, but are influenced mainly by leaders not always fully in touch with the average majority. Though nominally all equal, the English Cabinet Ministers are usually swayed, sometimes even governed, by two or three men, who for the most part are either born aristocrats who fear the voters whom they only partly understand, or men of genius who are detached from the voters by the possession of qualities altogether outside their mental range. Mr. Gladstone is as little like an average Englishman as Lord Salisbury is,—the latter resembling more a Continental diplomatist of the highest class, with a vein of satire in him • utterly foreign to the English genius ; and the former, a Highlander of most unusual powers both of stirring emotion and of attracting the devotion of whole populations. The less distinguished Ministers are often Englishmen of the most thorough kind—Mr. Childers for instance, was one, and Mr. Ward Hunt—but they do not govern except in their own departments, and rather instruct than weigh with the governing committee when it takes large resolutions. It was the good fortune of Lord Salisbury's Government to possess a colleague who was in a special degree a representative of one side of his• party, the side which is not agricultural, of average Englishmen of sense, and of the immense body of citizens on both sides who are disinclined to extreme courses, and to any course that can be denominated " viewy." His representative character, as • well as his strong sense, made Mr. Smith invaluable in Cabinets, while he possessed an unexpected capacity, which it is to Lord Salisbury's credit to have detected, and which made him the most efficient of Parlia- mentary assistants. He could lead the House of Commons. Though entirely devoid of eloquence, except in the shape of occasional persuasiveness, and not credited with much initiative, he gradually acquired a weight in the House which made him a formidable opponent when a division was pending, even to Mr. Gladstone, while. he once or twice defeated Mr. Gladstone's henchmen with a com- pleteness that left nothing to be desired. The truth was, that besides his intimate knowledge of the House, its temper and its ways, his thorough knowledge of business, and his immoveable firmness, constantly dis- played in his management of the new prerogative of Closure, Mr. Smith possessed a quality excessively rare among politicians of his type. Englishmen of the middle class who possess first-rate force and rise to high position, have almost invariably something of the bull in them, regard opposition with resentment, and when irritated, lower their heads and charge.. They love snubbing their friends and " slogging " their enemies, without much re- gard to the results of either operation. Indeed, like great barristers, they hardly win their places without some capability in them of developing insolence. Mr. Smith, with the full force of his special class, and a trace of the dour obstinacy and strong will which make the successful man of business, was the kindliest of mankind, never gave even a fair blow except when fighting was a duty, and never gave an unfair blow at all. He never irritated any one, unless it were Lord Randolph Churchill, who hated him for his best qualities, and convinced even Irishmen that he wished them well if only they would allow State business to advance. It was impossible to hate him, or to doubt his fairness ; and a man who is at once popular and just, yet of an immoveable firmness, soon learns to control even the kind of mob which the House of Commons presents when it. gets out of hand. One touch more of initiating power, and Mr. Smith, as leader of the House, might have rivalled Sir Robert Peel ; and as it was, he completely lived down the contempt of the high-and-dry aristocrats who looked on him as a tradesman ; and so won on his Cabinet and party, that rather than let him go to any less important function, they in- duced him to kill himself with overwork. We fancy he knew that his illness was not all gout, which yachting does not relieve, and that nothing but his overmastering sense of duty kept him, with his moderate estimate of himself and his unusual wealth, chained to a heavy oar. He wanted to be at sea, but he had contracted to be sentry for the Govern- ment in the House of Commons, and fit or unfit in health, he fulfilled his contract. Had he claimed his peerage two years ago, he might have been living still ; but he was one of the solid men who, though without quick-burning en- thusiasm, can gravely resolve to be expended, if need be, for an adequate cause. There are many such in England, but few who deserve more respect than the man who began life as a great newsagent, and ended it, by the con- sent even of his opponents, a most successful Leader of the House of Commons.
It is fortunate for Lord Salisbury that the great vacancy created by Mr. Smith's death need not be immediately or permanently filled up, and that there is no need to balance or discuss the comparative claims of Mr. Goschen and Mr. Balfour. Both can remain with dignity where they are until the dissolution. This is not a moment for the re- organisation of the Cabinet, er, indeed, for any change which it is possible to avoid. It is next to impossible to move Mr. Balfour from the government of Ireland. He has a large and most difficult Irish Bill to carry; a Bill which half his party regard with acute distrust, only miti- gated by their belief that he makes few blunders with regard to Ireland ; he has to face the Irish Members through a Session when, as he knows, they will think a rampage will guarantee their seats ; and he has to govern Ireland during the period of anarchy in politics, of kaleidoscdpic shiftings of the groups, and of wild rushes by all who are ambitious—and an unambitious Irishman must be sought among the Quakers—which will follow the death of Mr. Parnell.. No person could replace Mr. Balfour in these great functions, for no one else would remain unmoved by the Irish fire of small shot ; nor is he the man to decline them in order to snatch at a promotion which may be his, or may be worthless, in the course of a few months' time. On the other hand, Mr. Goschen can, without quitting the Exchequer, where he has all manner of half-done work to finish, beginning with a great Currency Bill, do all the necessary work of Leader in the House of Commons. Indeed, he has done it all through the Session whenever Mr. Smith was away, and though the work will be more arduous, he can, as the business of the Session will be Irish, continue to perform it still. There will be no objection raised to an arrangement avowedly made ad interim, and leaving the question of the permanent lead, and therefore perhaps of the future Premiership, open to the decision of events. If he requires an adlatus, there is Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, who will in any case, we presume, be made First Lord of the Treasury. That post must be filled up, for legal reasons among others, but the First Lord need not be also Leader of the Lower House. Sir Michael can do that work also, and fairly well, as he has repeatedly shown, but he has scarcely the weight to manage the House in a, final Session; there is a bit too much hardness in his Toryism for the average voter ; and he would exasperate almost to madness the groups who, from different sides, will be trying their utmost to rivet the promises of the agricultural labourer. It is in this arrangement that Lord Salisbury will find the least resistance, and least miss, though still he must miss much, the solid support he would have derived from the presence of "plain Mr. Smith," in whose hands the baton of the House was always safe, and always gave the time.
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