BOOKS.
LORD LYTTON AS A POLITICIAN AND ORATOR.* Tars collection of the spoken and unspoken speeches of the late Lord Lytton is preceded by a short memoir by his son, which includes the germs of a work upon the " Genius of Conservatism and some letters and extracts. The present Lord Lytton is an able and a cultivated man, but this memoir is not satisfactory, or worthy of his abilities. It is neither a concise and clear outline- of the late Lord Lytton's political career, nor a simple essay upon his political powers. It is a little of both, and consequently not enough of either. Whatever, too, we may think of the modern drama, or the best training for young men about to em- ploy their talents in a political sphere, and however worthy of thoughtful consideration the biographer's opinions may be, they are out of place in a short prefatory memoir of his father. It may be thought at first that Lord Lytton took up politics as a mere amusement. But this was by no means the case, though he considered literature as his chief work, and he looked to literary success as the main object of his life. But whatever we may
think of the substance of his literary works and of his political writings and speeches, there can be no doubt, after a perusal of these volumes, that he devoted that energetic study to politics, an far as he touched them, which is one of the most conspicuous. traits in his career as a writer. Not only did he give this great care to politics themselves,—it is none the less apparent in his. speeches. Every one of the speeches which he delivered, either in or out of the House of Commons or the House of Peers, was- accurately prepared before it was delivered. The second volume
of this collection contains no less than fifteen speeches, which were prepared, but never delivered. They commence with one- on literary Copyright in 1839, and are concluded by one upon the Franco-German War in 1870. They are naturally, therefore, almost as much literary as oratorical productions, and there cam be little doubt that the careful symmetry of the sentences, and the pointed antitheses, would be lost in the rude atmosphere of the House of Commons. The very fact of so- many remaining undelivered apparently shows that a set and elaborately worked-up oration must, in very many cases, be inappropriate to the changing features of a debate, and that the most pointed sentences would fall fiat upon the ears.
of an audience for whom they were prepared long before the
debate commenced. As a Parliamentary speaker, Lord Lytton can never be placed in the first rank. Many of his Parlia- mentary compositions are very admirable as works of rare refine- ment and literary taste, but it is too apparent that they must be admired for their graceful form rather than as specimens of per-.
suasive eloquence or sympathetic thought. An audience would listen to them and admire them, but no one could doubt that they were not dictated so much by the promptings of the heart as by the cultured brain and the skilful mind. Take, for instance, such a sentence as the following (Vol. II., p. 109) from the speech delivered by Lord Lytton upon the Reform Bill of 1859 ; it appears. to us to be totally wanting in the sympathetic perceptions of the opinions of the lower class in England; and at the same time to.
be a striking piece of oratorical declamation :-
"Is this the precise moment suddenly to transfer political power from the middle-class, with which, on the whole, it now rests, and by which, on the whole, it has been liberally and usefully exercised, to the wider area of a class, however honest and respectable, still not yet educated up to the mark which England should require in a constituency that is to enable her to confront foreign Powers not with the force of numbers, but with the majesty of disciplined intellect?"
"The majesty of disciplined intellect " is a phrase which, standing
by itself, is an admirably-arranged connection of words, but it is utterly out of place when applied to the middle-class re- spectable tradesman. Throughout these speeches there is con- stantly apparent a want of what may be termed spontaneous perception ; and a striving to understand the subject under• discussion and to enumerate the ideas which the speaker has formed upon the topic is equally visible. The consequence of this is that those speeches are the most• effective which deal either with a subject requiring precision and clearness of exposition, or a polished display of oratorical vigour, not,. however, a vigour replete with full imagery or hearty sym- pathy, but bright and superficial keenness. Probably, as good examples as these volumes contain of Lord Lytton's most striking manner will be found in the speech delivered on the 29th of • Speeches of Eduard, Lord Lytton. With Memoir by his don. Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood and Son. 2 vols. 1814.
January, 1855, on the condition of the Army before Sebastopol. It was delivered in support of Mr. Roebuck's motion to appoint a select committee to inquire into the condition of the English Army in the Crimea. Lord Lytton's speech is virtually an arraignment of the Government for its conduct of the war :—
" To me individually," says the speaker, at the conclusion of his speech, "and to the public, it is a matter of comparative indifference from what section of men a government at this moment shall be formed, so long as it manfully represents the great cause to which the honour and safety of England are committed, and carries into practical execu- tion the spirit that animates the humblest tradesman, the poorest artisan who has sent his scanty earnings to the relief of our suffering Army. It has been said, as the crowning excuse for the Government, that all our preceding wars have begun with blunders. Were this an arena for historical disquisition, I should deny that fact, but grant it for the sake of argument. How were those blunders repaired and converted into triumphs? I know a case in point. Once in the last -century, there was a Duke of Newcastle who presided over the conduct -of a war, and was supported by a league of aristocratic comb,inations. That war was indeed a series of blunders and disasters. In vain attempts were made to patch up that luckless ministry, in vain some drops of healthful blood were infused into its feeble and decrepid con- stitution; the people at last became aroused, indignant, irresistible. They applied one remedy ; that remedy is now before ourselves. They -dismissed their Government, and saved their Army."
Of course it hardly gives a fair idea of the power of an oration to extract small pieces, but the more these speeches are perused, the more noticeable they become for literary finish, and for the careful study which they show of the subject under discussion, rather than for any of the purer oratorical qualities which stamp a states- man as a speaker of the first rank. But passing from Lord Lytton as a Parliamentary speaker to Lord Lytton as a politician ,simply, the same qualities and defects are equally visible. There is the same careful study of the political page, there is the -same careful comparison of present with past events. Lord Lytton judged the present to a great extent by the events of the past, and his conclusions were those rather of the historical student than of the observer of the political currents of the day. His Liberalism was a Liberalism of culture rather than of feeling, and of experi- ence rather than of hope. His Conservatism was the product of ;study, of a cosmopolitan dislike to men of one fixed idea, of a fear of crude schemes engendered more by hope, than by a sober -experience and careful comparison of past events. "You cannot be always strong," he says (Vol. H., p. 115), " if you create a con- stituency that does not secure to Liberal Members the same high standard of integrity and culture." There is also the same width of view as regards the number of subjects which he took up, which Lord Lytton displayed in his literary career. No one can consider the concluding words of his address on Reform in the year 1860 dictated either by a spirit of hope or by an accurate know- ledge of the people, and there is visible also the astonishment of the historical student that the laws of historical theory should -be violated for the sake of practical utility (Vol. IL, p. 149)
"If that be the course [to persevere in passing the Bill] which you -deem it your duty to pursue, then I can only express a fervent wish that the result may justify the reversal of all the rules by which the states- men, even of republics, would rather seek in similar time and circum- stances to strengthen the hand of the executive, than transfer to the wide circle of an unaccustomed multitude the nice and permanent adjustment of national finances, and cautions preparation against perils which already alarm the boldest statesmen and menace the strongest thrones."
There is yet another and somewhat unique aspect in which these speeches force us to observe Lord Lytton,—that is, in the role of a literary politician. There have been few, if any men in recent years, of such high eminence in the purely literary world who have also taken a comparatively active part in politics. There was so much more of the oratorical faculty in Lord Macaulay's nature, and his writings are to a great extent so eminently political and pugnacious, that we class him rather among the literary politicians 'than the political litterateurs, and the same may, though he differs in the form, be said of Mr. Disraeli. But Lord Lytton was more literary than political. He prided himself upon this character, and rather took up the position of the champion of the literary inter- ests, and some of his best speeches are upon the subject of literary and dramatic copy-right. From the day he entered the House of Commons as Member for St. Ives in 1831 he began to do his best to aid the late Mr. Justice Talfourd in enlarging the privileges and removing the restrictions of literature and journalism. " I believe," he says, in 1855 (Vol. I., pp. 233), " I was the first person who ever introduced into this House a motion for the repeal of the taxes on knowledge, including the stamp duty on newspapers I was then a very young man, but the opinions I then entertained in favour of the total repeal of the newspaper stamp duty are not removed, they are strengthened by the lapse of time." This was a work in itself which would alone do credit to Lord Lytton's character as defender of the literary interest in Parliament. The result of a careful perusal of these speeches and of the writings to be found in the bodyof the Memoir will be to show Lord Lytton as a lukewarm politician in a party sense. With the Liberals or the Conservatives he had no party-sympathy, even though he took office under Lord Derby. He sympathised with the Liberals in any scheme for the national advancement of the people based on the strong desire of all classes. He sympathised with the Conservatives in their dislike of dema- gogues, and of reforms of which he could not clearly see the end, he attached himself to their cause because their party, on the whole, seemed to him less likely to do harm than the Liberals, rather than because they were likely to do more good. Some have regretted Lord Lytton's versatility, but these speeches seem to strengthen the opinion that, instead of lessening his fame, the number of his studies considerably increased it. There are some men who by devoting themselves to one thing alone may attain a much greater height than by cultivating many things. But Lord Lytton did not possess the great qualities, the solidity, or the genius to master to its utmost depth one subject. He polished the form and bestowed upon it the most artistic pains, but this form was comparatively empty. He might, perhaps, have Tendered one single subject somewhat more beautiful in its details, but had he given himself up entirely to any one subject—the drama, or imaginative literature, or politics—he could hardly have succeded, for he did not possess the first-rate mind which alone could render such singleness of purpose eminently successful. No man did more to multiply the talents bestowed on him, and therefore he is worthy of admiration, even though we may con- sider the sentiment of his writings thin, and his political powers shallow.
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