TOPICS OF THE DAY.
LORD BEACONSFIELD AT THE GUILDHALL.
THE view taken by almost all English journalists of the Guildhall speech of last Monday was that it was one of Lord ]3eaconsfield's most fantastic performances, intended to amuse an audience to whom he did not choose to say anything serious, or even important. This interpretation of it may have been the true one, though we suppose that its uni- versal assumption as the true one, is due, in part, to the predominant interest in the question of dissolution, on which Lord Beaconsfield had no intention of throwing any light, and partly to the fact that the report of the speech, as given in the cheaper journals, differed rather curiously, in a few sentences at least, from the report given in the Times, which last certainly pointed to a more distinct intention of exciting alarm than the more widely spread version. It is quite possible, nevertheless, that the more fantastic view of Lord Beaconsfield's oration may be, on the whole, the truer one. For it is difficult to suppose that in many parts of the speech he was indulging in anything but histrionic pirouettes, and if so, the heroics of a single portion of his speech may perhaps be, to a certain extent, rightly interpreted as mock heroics. Still, when we consider that of the diplomatic body only the German Ambas- sador and the Charge d'Affaires of the United States were present at the banquet, that the Ministers of Russia, Turkey, and France were conspicuous by their absence ; that Count Schouvaloff, the representative of friendly relations with Russia, has certainly resigned, and that his resignation has been accepted ; and that something or other is happening which almost all Continental Europe interprets in a graver sense than our own Press ; and finally, that none of the regulation assur- ances of friendly relations with all the European Powers were repeated, as they usually are repeated, at the Guildhall banquet, it is far from unlikety that the Prime Minister did intend some of his omissions to be commented upon, and some of his warnings to be taken, in a less fantastic and histrionic sense than the English Press, accustomed to very little but fantastic and histrionic attitudes in this Government, insisted on attributing to them. The truth is that Lord Beaconsfield is so accustomed to be grandiose about nothing, that it is very difficult to discern when his grandiosities are intended to mean something, and when they are not. The English Press appear to think that Lord Beaconsfield had nothing to say which would gratify curiosity, nothing that would awaken anxiety, and nothing that would allay anxiety, and that as he was nevertheless determined not to be common- place, the attitudes in which he posed in order to say nothing, were more striking than interesting.
And obviously many parts of his speech support this view. The harvest, we know, has been nearly as bad as could be, yet the demand for iron, for tropical pro- duce, and most of all, the urgent demand for " chemicals," proved, said Lord Beaconsfield, that the improvement in trade which had set in would be "permanent." And clearly Lord Beaconsfield gave a rather histrionic pirouette, as he dwelt on the demand for "chemicals." There was something technical in laying special stress on that, and Lord Beaconsfield always likes to show that he could be technical if he pleased, and only refrains from it because he leaves it to duller persons. The demand for tropical produce, again, was raising the price of silver, and Lord Beaconsfield dwelt a moment or two on that, as he told his audience how well this illustrated "the magic of patience." Then, again, there was "the general hardening of money," a phrase which Lord Beaconsfield evidently enjoyed, as giving his speech a flavour of banking lore, and an air of appropriate familiarity with currency and the exchanges. But what gratified Lord Beaconsfield even more than the conviction that the revival of trade was of a permanent character, was the admirable conduct of the people of England during these years of terrible trial, and this though he "could not comprehend" how "our brilliant brethren of Ireland" could discover in "political agitation and social confusion" a remedy for economic distress. The diffi- culty he expressed in comprehending the motives of Irish agitation did not, however, diminish in any way the profound gratification with which he explained that the less brilliant English could not comprehend it either. In the common- placeness of English patience he found a complete set-off to the brilliant irritability of the Irish. In relation to Afghanistan, again, Lord Beaconsfield's flourishes had very little relation to the event, for he expressed himself delighted with the "signaL success" of the enterprise which had ended in a massacre, and in the utter collapse of the proposed scientific frontier;. and he could hardly express his admiration of that minia- ture Beaconsfield who, as Viceroy of India, had brought. his Afghan policy to bear such fruit. Even tha massacre seemed to add only an heroic touch or two to the general grandeur of the situation, as Lord Beaconsfield, conceives it. He spoke of it as one of those incidents which "rend the hearts of nations," just as if it had no other con- nection with the policy pursued than that of heightening, by its tragic contrast, the magnificence of the triumph we had achieved. "Avenging the memory of our countrymen, and' asserting the supremacy of our arms," might almost have been, if we had had no further light on the subject than Lord Beaconsfield's speech, a mere fifth act, fitly concluding the drama of our glorious enterprise, instead of an attempt to retrieve the total disaster which had overtaken it. If Lord Beaconsfield's- speech has been interpreted as meaning absolutely nothing but "words, words, words," it is probably due in the main to the. rhetorical flourishes with which he commemorated the greatest blunder and greatest calamity of his blundering an calamitous Administration.
When Lord Beaconsfield came to the foreign relations of the Government, however, we suspect that he meant to be less unreal, though the predisposed imagination of hearers and readers insisted on interpreting him as mean- ing no more than before. The complete absence of any reference, however slight, to the affairs of Turkey,. whether in Europe or Asia, the silence as to our relations whir Foreign Powers, the expressive void where the Russian and Turkish representatives, to say nothing of the representatives of France, Austria, and Italy, ought to have been, and the curioue sentences in which Lord Beaconsfield expressed a rather hesi- tating hope that peace would be "maintained," suggest to those who read carefully the foreign news that there is a cer- tain amount of danger, which Lord Beaconsfield, though he, did not choose to raise alarm, was by no means desirous. altogether to ignore. Indeed, if the Times' report of what Lord Beaconsfield said is the accurate one, he must have intended to press upon us that uneasiness as to our foreign relations, under certain not improbable contingencies, would be far from inap- propriate. Our country, he is represented as saying, is- all the more likely to be "an object of general plunder," the more it avails itself of its insular position, and keeps out of the intrigues of Europe. The following was the curious sentence, pronounced, no doubt, ore rotund°, with which he assured his audience of the probable results of an insular foreign policy:— " If there be a country, for example, one of the most extensive and wealthiest empires in the world, and if that country, from a. perverse interpretation of its insular geographical position, turns an indifferent ear to the policy and fortunes of Continental Europe, such a course would, I believe, only end in its becoming= an object for general plunder. So long as the power and advice of England are felt in the councils of Europe, peace, I believe,. will be maintained, and maintained for a long period. With- out their presence, war, as has happened before, and too fre- quently of late, seems to me to be inevitable." Another report oi
these curious sentences runs thus If there be a country, for example, with the most extensive and wealthiest empire in the world, and if that country, with a perverse interpretation of its insular geographical character, turns an indifferent ear to the. feelings and fortunes of Continental Europe, I believe peace is. in danger. It is to such an indifference that I attribute the occurrence of many fatal wars ; but if the power and advice of England are heard in the councils of Europe, I have the. conviction that peace will be maintained, and maintained for a long period. I will not say that with such a condition peace is inevitable, but of this I feel certain, that if England deserts. her natural position in the councils of Europe, war is too pro- bable." Whichever version we accept as the true one, words such as these, spoken by any Prime Minister but Lord Beacons- field, would be treated as very grave and serious indications of a disturbed and menacing condition of our foreign affairs. Of course, Lord Beaconsfield's words can never be construed as seriously as the words of other Prime Ministers always
have been ; but it is probable that he may really have intended to give a significant hint, where he has been
generally understood as only indulging in a fantastic mag- niloquence. The picture of England given up to "genera) plunder," as a consequence of maintaining too insular an atti- tude,--if that, indeed, was what Lord Beaconsfield said,—was
a wonderful illustration, in his noblest chiaroscuro style, of the fatal consequences of a Gladstone Administration,—though not one very complimentary to Continental Europe. If Europe is restrained only by the English bit and bridle from the most brutal attempts on an unoffending neighbour, the friendly feeling for us entertained in Germany must have been grossly exaggerated by Count Munster. Of course, a good deal of this was "tall talk." To hint that but for the spell of Eng- land over Europe, Europe would turn again and rend us, and that the spell of England can be cast over Europe only by the Imperial administration of Lord Beaconsfield, is, of course, childish braggadocio. But even the mildest version given of his language could hardly have been used, without some in- tention of suggesting an alarm, which the Press, accustomed to hear the cry of "Wolf, wolf I" from those lips, has, per- haps somewhat too tenaciously, refused to take. Of course, how- ever, one cannot help construing such suggsetions in the light of the subsequent remark that the true motto for a British Administration should be borrowed from Rome, and should consist of the words, " Imperium et libertas." From such a motto, says Lord Beaconsfield, "her Majesty's Ministers do not shrink," because they are convinced that their countrymen are rich in "that noblest of human sentiments, now decried by philo- sophers,patriotism ;" and "because the people of Great Britain would never anticipate that in defending their Empire, they might chance to forfeit their liberties." Of course, such a context throws an air of unreality over the ponderous menaces of the previous sentences, but we are, never- theless, of opinion that Lord Beaconsfield did wish to be understood as speaking with more anxiety as to the foreign relations of England, than he succeeded in conveying to hearers who discounted his language at such a very high rate as to reduce its import absolutely to nothing. Whether considering the recall of Count Schouvaloff, the recent menaces of Lord Salisbury, and the undeniable com- plications in the East of Europe, a little more seriousness should not have been attributed to the Prime Minister's awful silence, and still more awful innuendos, we are strongly inclined to doubt. When Lord Beaconsfield means to say that the situation is strained, he should not, of course, call up a picture of the plunder of England by foreign armies, for that amuses everybody. But there is always danger of subtracting somewhat too much of serious meaning from the exaggerations of accom- plished political comedians like Lord Beaconsfield.
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