MR. CHAMBERLAIN. B RMSH politicians received a shock on Monday from
the report of a severe accident to the Colonial Secre- tary. As it turned out, the accident, though it might easily have destroyed his eyes, that being a frequent result of a smash of glass on the forehead, did not seriously injure Mr. Chamberlain ; but it set everybody considering what if he were disabled, even for a time, would be the result. Though we by no means agree with all Mr. Cham- berlain's policy, believing that it is sometimes directed too entirely towards a discovery or retention of markets, and that the project of an Imperial Zollverein, in particular, is a mistake, we cannot doubt that his disappearance from the scene, even for a time, would have been a heavy blow both to the Cabinet and the Empire. As regards the latter point there is, in fact, no serious controversy. From every side the vast body of British Colonies and Dependencies send up evidence of profound confidence in their present manager, confidence not born, we think, wholly of the recent explosion of Imperial feeling, though that has greatly contributed to it, but of a sense that in Mr. Cham- berlain they have a Secretary for the Colonies who really studies them, consults their feelings, and devotes his whole capacity and attention to making them prosperous. That has not been the unbroken record of the heads of the Department. One or two have been lazy men, inclined to let the permanent staff go their own way so long as they suggested nothing original ; one or two have been absorbed in other branches of politics .; and many have been convinced that the less the Colonies were interfered with the more rapid, and, so to speak, • natural, their progress would be. They thought of them as trees, always growing, and forgot that even trees, especially tropical trees, need clearances. Indifference was the charge always brought by Colonists against the Mother-country, and indifference was not only injurious to the interests, but stung the pride, of the white Colonists, who, feeling that they possess continents, wish to be recognised as men with an amazing future. Mr. Chamberlain has never made that mistake. He has valued the Colonies, and has taken great trouble to show that he valued them ; and as he is an able man of business as well as a great politician, the trouble he has taken has produced effective results. His despatches, and still more his speeches, have soothed the pride of the Colonists, and have so modified the general opinion, especially in Canada and Australia, that all thought of quitting the Empire has died away, and they have forwarded most valuable rein- forcements to the British armies in the field with an enthusiasm which was entirely genuine. No doubt Mr. Chamberlain was fortunate in the incidents of the war, which stirred the patriotism of race as no previous incident had stirred it ; but still it is true that when he took office the great Colonies were in a criticising mood, and that now they are sending men to die in defence of the Empire. That is a very great change to have discerned as possible, and to have promoted success- fully. It has probably doubled the immediate defensive power of Great Britain, besides justifying a hope that in the years to come she may be surrounded and supported by a ring of continents inhabited by peoples as powerful as her own.
It is as a member of the Cabinet that Mr. Chamberlain is now a subject of controversy. His enemies declare that be is much too dominant and pugnacious, that he presses his undoubted influence too hard, that he is too often in favour of a policy of action, and especially, that when he makes speeches on foreign affairs he leaves an im- pression, most galling to the greater States, that he rather despises them. This impression is extraordinarily prevalent on the Continent, where Mr. Chamberlain is regarded as a potential enemy of the first class. Some little bit of this accusation is probably true. We incline to think that Mr. Chamberlain does a little exaggerate in his own mind the power of this country, that he is not disposed to make concessions when concessions might be wise, and that, though he does not despise foreign countries, he has a certain contempt for, and impatience with, the smooth utterances by which trained diplomatists strive to avoid stinging that sensitive " honour " which in countries where the duel still reigns is often so unreasonable and un- manageable. The same peculiarity is manifest in his speeches on domestic affairs. Mr. Chamberlain is hardly a great orator in the old sense—i.e., in the sense that Mr. Gladstone was—but he is the most. persuasive speaker alive, with this very infrequent quality, that his speeches per- suade those who read them as well as those who hear them,—an immense power in a country given to taking its political education from speeches. There is, however, in all his speeches something of the fighting man. As he finishes his opponents among the audience sigh ; but it is not so much the sigh of content as the sigh of men who have been utterly beaten in argument, and know it. And though this temperament is, in a perplexed world like the present, sometimes a little dangerous, it must not be for- gotten that it is the temperament of strength, and that what British Cabinets want is usually a tonic. Most of its members under both parties are aristocrats, who have no doubt occasionally a certain largeness of view, but who seldom possess the energy or decision or determination to govern which belongs to the manufacturer who is also a politician. (There is one exception in our history to this rule. The Reform Bill was framed and passed by Whig aristocrats ; but we believe they derived their strength and their decision from a conviction that unless they could rouse the whole middle class their case was hopeless.) The man who can lend force to a British Cabinet, and make that force visible in his speeches, is in- valuable, all the more if he is not its head, for then he must consult and persuade, and sometimes must devise a gentler line of action than his own unassisted judgment would have suggested.
It must not be forgotten, in forming any judgment on Mr. Chamberlain as a politician, that he is to one party—or is it a. section of one party ?—the object of an unqualified, and, we are bound to add, malignant, detestation. They cannot forgive what they call his " desertion " of Mr. Gladstone upon the Home-rule question. As no claim of personal loyalty can compare with the claim of loyalty to one's country, and as at least two-thirds of all leading Liberals, and much more than half the electors, expressed the same view, we can only attribute this picking out of one man for savage attack to two causes. One is that he carried the Midlands with him, which was, of course, exasperating. The other was that the Radicals had lost a hope. They thought that Mr. Chamberlain would have led them, and recognising his force, expected triumph on many questions much nearer to their hearts than Home-rule. There was no reason whatever why Mr. Chamberlain should not think for himself like anybody else, and this reason why he should, that he was able to do it; but for years all fairness was lost in a passion of anger more common on the Continent or in Ireland than in our calmer British contests. There was not the smallest evidence that he had changed his opinion, for he probably had not formed one till, so suddenly, the question passed out of the region of dreams into that of practical politics ; and even if he had, his change was not so great as that of Mr. Gladstone. The malignity was born, it had a certain effect in intensifying Mr. Chamberlain's pugnacity,. and until the Boer War broke out it affected by reflex action the general estimate of his character, and even of his powers. With the war, however, the people adopted him again. They recognised his nerve, his marvellous tenacity, his incapacity of losing hope ; and though Mr. Chamber- lain may never be Premier, he will never while he lives lose his influence over his countrymen, or cease to be regarded as a great reserve force against a day of peril.
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