MR CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN.
IT is interesting to note the flutter of surprise which has run through the country at Mr. Campbell- Bannerman's speech against the House of Lords. To the plain man who does not worry about magazine-rifles and Army grievances, the figure of the Secretary of State for War is the merest shadow. No wonder, then, he rubs his eyes, and asks,—What sort of a man is this Mr. Campbell- Bannerman, and why, when he speaks, does he speak with authority, and not like the ordinary Ministerial nonentity ; why, in a word, does he make one feel that, somehow or other, one ought to know more about a man who speaks with such an evident sense that his opinion is a very important matter ? The explanation is that, though the public at large has not realised the fact, Mr. Campbell- Bannerman is one of the five most important men in the Gladstonian Party, and that if the three most important had to be named, they would, in spite of all appearances, be Lord Rosebery, Mr. Morley, and Mr. Campbell- Bannerman,—not Lord Rosebery, Mr. Morley, and Mr. Asquith. So important, indeed, is the position occupied by Mr. Campbell-Bannerman, that it has been freely said in the inner circle of Gladstonians, that if Mr. Gladstone retired, he would be the only person capable of stilling "the fierce conflict of sects and factions, ambitious of ascendency," and burning for office, which is certain to succeed the political absolutism of the present regime. "Mr. Campbell-Bannerman is the only man who could do it, but he could," is what is frequently said by those who point out with despair how Sir William Harcourt would not serve under Lord Rosebery, nor Lord Rose- bery under Sir William Harcourt ; how Mr. Morley is impossible as a Prime Minister; how Mr. Asquith's elevation would set loose a tornado of jealous indig- nation; and how Lord Spencer and Lord Kimberley are compromises who might be blown to pieces by an article in an evening paper. Mr. Campbell-Bannerman is, in a word, the "dark horse" of the Gladstonian Party, and a "dark horse" on whom a great many knowing people are inclined to put their money.
Naturally, then, people are beginning to ask what sort of man is this Gladstonian "dark horse ; " what are his opinions, his aims, his characteristics, his general con- figuration of mind ; and finally, in what does his strength c3nsist ? Mr. Campbell-Bannerman's public record affords very little in the way of answer to these questions. All that is officially known about him is that he succeeded Sir George Trevelyan as Irish Secretary, and at once showed that he knew how to hold his tongue and keep his temper. The Irish Member who declared that the Minister responsible for his country ought to have "the heart of an iceberg and the hide of a rhinoceros," might have almost found his ideal in Mr. Campbell-Bannerman. No taunts worried or annoyed him. If he was asked absurd and insulting questions, he did not, like poor Sir George Trevelyan, flame up about his being "an English gentle- man." He sat doggedly on, and treated the Irish Party like one of the mists of his native land,—a tiresome pheno- menon, but not one to be overcome by indignation or denunciation. He took the abuse like the attendance at the Office, the journeys to Dublin, and the other disagreeable incidents connected with the post,—that is, as things to be endured with the minimum of fuss. Mr. Campbell- Bannerman, in a word, lay as low and kept as " snug " as possible. Mr. Campbell-Bannerman's next appearance in public was a curious one for him. He made a political joke, or rather one of those half-jokes, half self-satirising statements, which are popular North of the Tweed, and his joke happening to take the popular fancy, it ran like wildfire through the nation. Mr. Campbell-Bannerman described conversion to Home-rule as "finding salvation," and very soon the phrase was in every one's mouth. A less-balanced man would, on the strength of this success, have set up for a political wit. Mr. Campbell-Bannerman knew better, and lay low. Since then, Mr. Campbell- Bannerman, as far as the country at large is concerned, has continued to lie low with the utmost assiduity. Close observers may have noticed, however, that he has been gradually gaining a position of great influence in the House of Commons. Besides doing his departmental work with ability, and avoiding all needless conflicts with the military experts on the one hand, and the Radicals on the other, he has been always ready to help his colleagues and his party in moments of difficulty. Whenever the coach has seemed like sticking in the mud, there has been the cheery but never garrulous Scotch- man, the man who always inspires confidence, and never raises envy or malice, ready to lend a hand and set things going again. There has been no self-advertisement, no parade, only the persistent diffusion of a general sense of capacity, moderation, geniality, and common-sense carried to the ninth power. But no one who knows the House of Commons will fail to note how terrible a rival is the man who seems to exude these qualities, and to exude them in silence and without fuss or self-conscious- ness. Nothing can long prevent such a man coming to the front in an English deliberative Assembly. So much for Mr. Campbell-Bannerman as revealed by his political record. We believe that if those Members of his party who have tried to analyse the man who is creeping to the front inch by inch, no one exactly knows how, were asked to describe him, they would give an answer which would mean,—Mr. W. H. Smith with a difference, or else a Scotch W. H. Smith. No doubt the difference is an important and far-reaching one. Mr. W. H. Smith was, when you reached the rock-bed of his nature, a sort of bourgeois saint. Mr. Campbell-Bannerman possesses less of the " simple Simon" attitude which the caricaturists found in Mr. Smith, and more canniness and pawkiness. Still, the likeness is near enough to make the success of the one illustrate and explain the success of the other. Mr. Campbell-Bannerman, like Mr. Smith, has mastered the "inestimable art" of not forcing the pace, of not over- doing things, and of knowing how to sit quiet on one's " hinderlands " without fussing. A. curious piece of self- revelation, which recalls Mr. Smith's attitude of mind, is to be found in a little speech made last week by Mr. Camp- bell-Bannerman at a luncheon at the Liberal Club in New- castle-on-Tyne. Mr. Campbell-Bannerman was drawn into a definition of Liberalism. He might have been expected at the present moment to define it after some one or other of the cant phrases of the day, such "as trust in the people," or "justice and brotherhood." Not a bit of it. He was content with pitching a very much lower note. "Liberal politics," said Mr. Campbell-Bannerman, "meant the politics of common-sense." Here we have the real man,— his politics are the politics of common-sense. This being so, it is easy to understand why Mr. Campbell- Bannerman never makes enemies, never stirs up stnfe, never hates and never gets himself hated, and if he or his Party are assailed, takes his punishment with the utmost coolness and good-humour. To do other- wise would be to show lack of common-sense, and to deny his creed. It must not be supposed, however, that Mr. Campbell-Bannerman has nothing but common-sense and the genial and businesslike cynicism which so often accompanies it. He is essentially one of the men who recognise the conditions under which they are working, and who are not imposed upon by " seemings." He is, too, unless his friends are mistaken, a man possessed of a political judgment,—one of the most valuable, as it is one of the rarest, qualities of statesmanship. Lastly, Mr. Campbell-Bannerman is a capable administrator, a persuasive if apparently unattractive speaker, and pos- sesses the instinct for managing the House of Commons. When one is asked to give a concrete instance of .Mr. Campbell-Bannerman's abilities, it seems at first sight difficult, so little has he cared to advertise his achieve- ments. One, however, though little noted at the time- and herein was its chief cleverness—may be quoted as a veritable masterpiece of Parliamentary management. In the autumn. Mr. Campbell-Bannerman, as Secretary of State for War, virtually appointed the Duke of Con- naught to the Aldershot command. The incident made the Radicals furious, and they determined to raise the matter in the Commons in a very aggravated form. They had a particularly good case. The Duke of Con- naught was not entitled by his position in the Army to the post. It was a command which, above all others, required an officer of great experience. Lastly, an officer exactly qualified—Lord Roberts—would have willingly taken the appointment. In a word, the whole thing was exactly what Radical speakers and writers have again and again denounced as Court jobbery. Armed with this excellent case, the young lions of the Radical party proceeded to bait the Secretary for War. Did they move him or embarrass him ? Not in the very least. He kept cool, while they grew hot. He was always civil, always patient, but he contrived to turn the edge of every weapon brought against him. Any other man would have made a dozen bitter enemies. Not so Mr. Campbell- Bannerman. He never said a word too much, or a word too little, bt.t kept steadily on, with his head down and his coat up to his ears, as a man dies who has got to face a temporary storm of rain. One stroke of management was specially masterly. Mr. Campbell-Bannerman let drop that it would have been an insult to offer such an appointment to Lord Roberts. Off went the hunt in full cry after this false scent. The Duke of Connaught's alleged military incapacity was entirely forgotten in the fervid declarations that Lord Roberts would not have been insulted by the offer, and that Mr. Campbell. Bannermanwas deplorably stupid to have said or thought any such thing. Mr. Campbell-Bannerman only smiled and lay low. At last the Radicals remem- bered that their object was not to defend Lord Roberts, but to attack the Duke of Connaught. By this time however, the pack was bored and weary, and bad little heart to start running again. Accordingly, the matter soon dropped, and no more was heard of the in- cident. That was a remarkable achievement; but still more remarkable was the fact that Mr. Campbell-Bannerman had come out of the scrimmage with his point gained, and without having made a single enemy. Contrast this result with Mr. Asquith's fate in regard to the dynamiters o r the Featherstone riots. He, too, stuck to his guns ; but in the sticking he managed to create enmities which are still alive and. active.
We have given an answer to the question,—What sort of a man is Mr. Campbell-Bannerman ? It remains to .deal with the question,—In what does his strength con- .sist ? First, of course, in his practice of common-sense, in his moderation, in his power of not making enemies -even under strong provocation, in his capacity for holding his tongue, and in his genius for lying low and not exciting ✓ ivalries by self-advertising and pushing. These are quali- ties which will always win their way,but especially in a party like the Gladstonians. Then there is his moderation and reasonableness. The Gladstonian Party is supposed not to be a capitalist party, but, as a matter of fact, it is one to which many rich men belong, and over which the capitalist .class still exercises a very considerable control. Of late years there has been happening in England. what happened long ago in America,—the exercise of a certain amount of external control over politics by groups of rich men whose power is not less real because it is hidden. In spite of the Daily Chronicle and Mr. John Burns, the moneyed men who belong to, or in any other way can influence the Gladstonian Party, have a good deal to say as to questions both of men and measures. These Gladstonian capitalists feel safe with Mr. Campbell-Bannerman. He is not the sort of man to rush into political adventures. A rich man himself, and a man of common- sense and moderate views, he is not likely to tolerate ." wild-cat " schemes for Socialistic legislation. No doubt such influences are not only not visible, but are persis- tently ignored and denied. They exist, however, and they are not unlikely to work for Mr. Campbell-Bannerman. What can they do against the will of the people ?—we can hear the Radical enthusiast asking. Nothing in theory. Yet somehow or other, when the Gladstonian capitalist bars legislation of a particular kind, "the chariot of liberty" does not easily roll that way. Mysterious forces seem to delay the wheels. Mr. Campbell-Bannerman, if we are not mis- taken, has another secret influence working in his favour,— the influence of the Court. A man does not make so clever a stand as he made, in regard to the Aldershot appoint- ment, without a good. mark being put against his name. Again, his appointment to the War Office is in itself a sign of Court favour. The Prime Minister who wants things to go smoothly, and all Prime Ministers want that, does not put at the head. of the Army any one who is persona ingratissima at Court. Lastly, Mr. Campbell- Bannerman is a Seotchman, and a very popular Scotch- man. No Englishman, of course, supports any other Englishman merely because he was born in England. That is not so in Scotland. A Scotchman gets an extra dose of support from his friends simply and solely because he is Scotch. Since, then, he can draw support from all these sources, and is besides a very genial and capable man, Mr. Ca.rapbell-Bannerman is bound to have a great political future. No one can, of course, safely prophesy that he will win, but his chance is a good. one. In these days, when Alexander's reign is over, it often happens that it is not the greatest General, but the man who has been able to lie low and create no enemies, who wins. It may well be that the "dark horse" of the Liberal Party, and not lord Rosebery or Sir William Harcourt, will succeed Mr. Gladstone.
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