MR. LABOUCHERE.
it is natural enough. Mr. Labouchere is a Radical, the majority water without waiting till they come up to breathe. He is a of the new Members are Radical, and like loves like. But great financial authority ; and when he says that Ireland is Radical though he be, Mr. Labouchere, from the oratorical nothing the batter for English capital because the advances go point of view, is an aristocrat. He is the heir of a long line to men who have outrun the constable and spent the money in of speakers in the Reformed and the Unreformed Parliaments England, while the interest is paid by Ireland, his hearers feel who have been listened to with keen and appreciative amuse- that he knows all about these mysteries, and has dispelled a ment by successive generations of men imbued with the delusion kept up by immoral capitalists for their selfish ends. tastes and traditions which are born of aristocratic societies. Once more, Mr. Labouchere's speeches minister to the sus- What is there in his ostentatious plainness of statement, piciousness which is always latent in democracies. His hearers his easy and complete disregard of political conventions, like to feel that he knows Mr. Chamberlain better his readiness to give the Parliamentary spade its common than Mr. Chamberlain knows himself ; that all his sym- and least Parliamentary name, that can recommend him to pathy with Mr. Chamberlain's Radicalism, with "his ideas the existing House of Commons? Democracies are earnest; Mr. about ransom, about a progressive Income-tax, and the corn- Labouchere is a joker, in season and out of season. Democracies pulsory taking of land from the landlords," have not blinded are profoundly impressed with the fateful significance of every him to his friend's faults. Mr. Chamberlain is self-confident ; step they take ; Mr. Labouchere knows better than most men he is impulsive ; he leaps before he looks ; when he is pledged how much humbug there is in politics, and he never scruples to a wrong course, he feels bound to persevere in it; he cannot to say so. Democracies are wont to dress up very common- bear having his preserves poached upon. Only an intimate place ideals in very fine phrases ; Mr. Labouchere is an could have discovered all these weaknesses; and men who have an iconoclast in such matters, and delights in enforcing his con- interest in finding Mr. Chamberlain in the wrong are naturally elusions by arguments which seem directly intended to shock pleased when Mr. Labouchere comes forward and says,—' You those who have arrived at the same goal by other and more know what opportunities I have had for studying my right commonplace roads. honourable friend's character ; and this is the result of my One reason, perhaps, is that democracies, after all, are observations.' His hearers feel that Mr. Labouchere's candour human, and it is human to like to be amused. This is all has been their salvation, that it has saved them from voting the more probable in the condition in which the new House against their constituents' wishes rather than not follow Mr. finds itself. The new Members are very diligent in their Chamberlain. attendance upon debates, and they must already have found Mr. Labouchere's position in the House of Commons is less out how much the pleasure therefrom is alloyed by the dullness wonderful, therefore, than we may at first be inclined to think. of many of the speeches. Men of their own flesh and blood His speeches seem to answer to wants of which the new rise up around them, and they are condemned to hear their Members in particular are really conscious ; and their con- own thoughts expressed in much the same hesitating and fidence is a natural return for services which they suppose ineffectual fashion that they would have employed themselves, themselves to have received.
Of course, there are exceptional moments,—moments when a Cabinet Minister is on his legs, laying the eggs out of which much future oratory on the back benches will be hatched if the debate lasts long enough. But even Cabinet Ministers can sometimes pall upon the ear, and it is then that a speaker like Mr. Labouchere is so valuable. He gives them food for laughter, and laughter is sometimes the best form of intellectual tonic. for other portions of the population, and that is a very good Another reason may be that democracies are sometimes a little reason why Irish Members should gradually acquire in our uneasy about their own convictions. They are not quite un- Parliament all the rights which Scotch Members have long touched by the scepticism around them ; even at the moment ago acquired ; but is it any reason why we should give Ireland of putting their theories into words, they feel a suppressed what Scotland does not ask for, in spite of the fact that suspicion that if they were closely examined they might not Scotland is far more homogeneous, both politically and eeele- be found to hold water. Mr. Labouchere's speeches exactly siastically, than Ireland V If Mr. Bryce really means that meet this frame of mind. He has taken to pieces the grand democracies tend to split up into smaller and smaller demo- generalities which have so great an attraction for them, cmcies, as certain cellular tissues tend to split up into smaller and is able to assure them that they really wash. There and smaller groups of cells, he has, we think, but little faith is no doubt about the result of the process, because he re- in the future of democracy. states these generalities in the plainest and least romantic prose, and yet is not ashamed to make them his own. Here is an example from his speech on Tuesday. When Mr. Gladstone appeals from the classes to the nation, we can
THOUGH many things are doubtful about the new House conceive the response he evokes just touched by the faar that of Commons, there is no question whom it is that the he may have been carried away by his own belief in the policy Hume delighteth to honour. The favour of the democracy which the "classes" have one and all rejected. Mr. Labouchere
has not fallen upon the head which would have been selected has at once a comforting thought to suggest. Think the beforehand as its likeliest recipient. Two theories on this Prime Minister may be rather off his head, do you ? Well, point may be said to have divided the field down to the time look at me ; am I off my head ? I have gone into the whole of the meeting of Parliament. According to one of them, Mr. thing, and, depend upon it, he is quite right. A man of the Gladstone was to be the hero of the new House, as he was of upper class, perhaps, has more education than an artisan—if the old. According to another, the place of dignity was you knew them as well as I do, you would not be too sure even reserved for some new man, inspired by the dawning passion of that—but his mind is entirely warped. He is always wrong of the new electorate, and burning to give fresh expression on politics, and the labouring classes are always right. Experi- to fresh thoughts. Neither theory has turned out true. ence shows it.' Here is the practical judgment of the man of Mr. Gladstone is a powerful Minister in the new Parlia- the world coming in to confirm the theoretical judgment of ment, as he was in the old ; but he is powerful rather the political enthusiast. Mr. Labouchere is not likely to be from his supposed hold upon the country, than from carried away by his feelings ; his fault is rather the other his actual hold upon the House of Commons. No way. He is, if anything, given to be cynical over-much, to doubt his name can give to Mr. Leicester thoughts that do trusting men just so far as he sees them, and no farther. often lie too deep for spelling ; but the special worship which This makes him just the man to apply as a touchstone to it called forth in the former House is not reproduced in the strong, passionate utterances like those of Mr. Gladstone. If present. Among the new Members, again, no one has yet two men so unlike in every particular say the same thing, a asserted any marked supremacy. There are promising democracy which really wants to get at the truth, if only it speakers and good men of business among them, but that is knew how, feels that it need inquire no further. all. Yet the democracy is not left without a shepherd. A Again, Mr. Labouchere speaks with something of the air of Member who sat in the old House, but held no special place a man who has turned Queen's evidence against his own bad in it, has found in its successor a band of ready worshippers. companions. Anybody can say that we are occupying Egypt The man whom the new House of Commons delighteth to because there are so many money-lenders in the House of honour, the hero singled out by the unspoken acclamations of Commons, but Mr. Labouchere can say it with an air of well- the new democracy, is Mr. Labouchere. founded assurance which is only attainable by men who know The choice is a strange one. So far as views go, of course, the ways of money-lenders, and can track their course under
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