TOPICS OF THE DAY.
MR. BALFOUR'S SPEECH.
MR. BALFOUR'S speech at the Guildhall was in one respect of most happy augury. It was the first time that he had been called upon to speak as head of his Majesty's Government on what is by tradition always an eventful occasion, and he assumed without effort the true position. His speech was not the speech of a Minister, but of the Prime Minister, the representative of the King, the pivot and chief of the Administration, who is re- sponsible for all Departments alike, and therefore for the good government and progress of the entire Empire. He should not, perhaps, have omitted India, as he obviously did, because it was to be the subject of debate that evening ; but with that exception, he surveyed the whole stream of affairs, foreign politics, domestic politics—which are confined for the moment to the Education Bill—and, above all, Colonial politics, which in consequence of the events of the last three years have assumed an entirely new importance. Upon each he had something to say, often wise and always satisfactory, to his audience, and on each penetrated with the tone which belongs to the states- man whose business it is to see the whole and recognise the comparative importance of each event. His general view was in a. high degree optimistic. He saw no pressing domestic questions, except indeed the Education Bill, which was fiercely debated, though, as he hinted, the debates turned upon local government and religion, education itself being forgotten. " I do not happen at this moment," said Mr. Balfour, with fine sarcasm, " to remember that we have spent much time " in the debates " over education." He congratulated the country on the termination of the war, " the great relief from the long strain and tension felt during the war by every man interested in his country or his relatives,— for who of us had not relatives or friends at the front ? " That war had proved that the people were as ready as of old to sacrifice themselves ; and had shown, moreover, that the great Colonies were prepared, not to be " sleeping partners " in the Empire, but to share its risks and sacrifices as they share its profits. As to the future of the two new Colonies, he believed it would be a happy one. The task of recon- stituting their prosperity was a tremendous one, for during the war " none of the industries, none of the agricultural work by which a great community is supported, were in active operation," and therefore industrial society had to be reconstructed from the beginning ; but the task had been successfully begun, and he believed that "after not many months we shall have brought the condition of the Colonies to a higher state of material prosperity than ever they were in before they became integral portions of the British Empire." He approved Mr. Chamberlain's visit to South Africa, thinking it one of the happiest intuitions of Mr. Chamberlain's administration—" the greatest Colonial administration in British history"—and he trusted it would be a precedent, for officials learned little from despatches, and he could not help hoping for the closer connection with the Colonies which such visits would further. The hope of something in the nature of a Constitutional Union with the Colonies might be a distant one—though a fiscal rapprochement may be nearer—but the hope is one which everybody must cherish. " I look on such problems with hopeful eyes, and anticipate no insuperable difficulties in introducing into the whole British Empire the happy spirit of liberty and patriotism which now so eminently distinguishes our great depen- dencies."
Mr. Balfour was as sanguine about foreign affairs. Fresh from an interview with the German Emperor, he was certain that all the Great Powers intended to main- tain peace, and lie believed they would be successful. " I know not that any danger within the ken of human vision menaces in the smallest degree that peace which it should be our earnest endeavour to preserve." It might, indeed, be that there was distrust and dislike of us on the Con- tinent, and in the sphere of politics there were always weak places " at points where the higher civilisation comes in contact with the lower, good government with bad govern- ment, Western ideas with ideas less developed." There is in such places "an unstable equilibrium," but it is the business of Western diplomacy to deal with and prevent these dangers, which, after all, are small " when compared with those tremendous forces which a conflict between first-class Powers would call into play." As for our own situation, the stories of the German Emperor's objects were only " fantastic "—he had come solely to visit his near kinsman—and for the rest, Lord Lansdowne's skilful management had secured. for us the Japanese Alliance, and an " open door " upon the Yangtsze-kiang.
It is a fine speech, and will send a glow through most of its readers' minds, a glow of admiration for the speaker's courage as well as for the pleasantness of the picture he paints ; but is it not a little too optimistic, a little too much like Lord Granville's speech of 1869, when, on the very edge of the greatest war of modern times, he saw not a cloud in the international sky ? The British Government is well informed, but there have always been Courts which distrust it and which shelter their plans from its scrutiny with jealous care. It is a little difficult, as one watches the preparations all nations are making, the bitter jealousies all nations express, the quivering unrest in Eastern Europe, the passionate aspirations in the West for more prosperity and more dependent territory, to feel as confident as the Prime Minister does in the maintenance of peace. Sovereigns and statesmen desire it ardently, but are the peoples equally solicitous ? They express their solicitude strangely if they are. Nothing is so tranquil or so well guarded as a magazine of gunpowder, but those who are asked to live near it still calculate that the chances of ex- plosion distinctly derogate from the amenities of the neighbourhood. We will accept any assurance from Mr. Balfour of facts within the range of his knowledge; but we find it hard to credit that the German Emperor, one of the ablest of diplomatists, and lord of many sporting estates, is visiting Sandringham, and meeting all our most influential Ministers, and holding long interviews with Mr. Chamberlain and Lord Lansdowne, merely for the sake of some shooting and of seeing his kinsfolk. It may very well be that he wishes to smooth away the irritation existing between the two peoples ; but then he must, with his clear mind, have some definite object in smoothing it away. He is not a Napoleon III., to think dreamily of mighty projects and do nothing to carry them out. And we cannot consider it " fantastic " to discuss what those projects must be, or to suggest, what is painfully obvious, that if Russia regarded 'Great Britain as hostile or suspicious, Germany would be much safer than at present she is. Mr. Balfour, we fear, is a much more sanguine man than his uncle was ; and though sanguineness is often a source both of strength and enterprise, it sometimes blinds us to the risks around us, and to the necessity of caution and preparation. We are no friends to that pessimist view of the immediate future which so often marks the views of English journalism, and sometimes of English politicians ; but this is a time of rapid events and sudden surprises, and in such a time we hold it doubtful wisdom to believe that everything must of necessity go well. After all is said, Lord Lansdowne, though more successful in the Foreign than in the War Office, is capable of error, the nations of Europe are liable to bursts of fierce emotion, and the people of Great Britain have once or twice in our own time taken the bit in their teeth. We could find it in our heart to wish that Mr. Balfour in his first speech as Prime Minister to the world at large had allowed himself to show, what we do not doubt is the fact, that he per- ceives the clouds as well as the sunshine, and to demon- strate that he at least is not carried away, even for a moment, by political exhilaration.
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