TOPICS OF THE DAY

OUR SCHOLAR PRIME MINISTER

MR. BALDWIN'S slow, steady, insatiable con- quest of the hearts of the British People is one of the most notable things in recent political history. We may fancy that he has gone to sleep, and that we can very properly follow his example, but when we wake up we find that a whole new province in our social "lay-out " has been invaded, and that our persistent Prime Minister is already in full possession ! Only a year ago Mr. Baldwin seemed essen- tially the plain man's " pet proposition." He appeared as one whose ideal was to lean over a gate with a briar pipe in his mouth and contemplate his pigs, while they returned his gaze, with transports of mutual admiration.

And now Mr. Baldwin has reached out his hand and swept all the scholars and lovers of literature into his charmed circle. His address to the Classical Association on Friday, January 8th, suddenly made the nation recog- nize that Mr. Baldwin, following Carteret and Fox, and Canning and Gladstone, is a devoted and well-equipped student of Greek and Latin literature. But Mr. Baldwin has done more than they. His address was not merely " a jolly " in the classical age. It was a piece of fascinat- ing as well as sound reflection on a great theme. It was as distinguished in style and presentment as it was sincere in spirit. Besides, there was a zest in his speech which thrills his readers as much as it obviously thrilled his hearers. In the comments of Lord Finlay and Lord Sumner there was a note of genuine surprise and pleasure.

- The Prime Minister is full of gusto when he tells us how, after long-drawn-out and dull revels in the public houses of his first constituency he returned home to invigorate his mind in the pages of Homer, Virgil and Horace. Again; what could be more moving than his story of the bell that sounded amid the Etrurian shades, and brought with it those home thoughts which haunt the Englishman abroad ? He, too,

" Heard on Lavernia Scargill's whispering trees And sighed by Arno for his lovelier Tees."

Full, too, of fascination is the long wave-length of feeling set in motion by the passage which dealt with the Imperial heritage in which we all share. Though Mr. Baldwin does not quite claim the status of Civic Romanus, " honoris cause " for the ordinary Englishman, obviously he does not hold with those who tell us that no trace of a Roman strain remains in our race. He thinks we have a right to say in Horatio's words in Hamlet :— " Never believe it.

I am more an antique Roman than a Dane."

Full of a fine literary instinct was Mr. Baldwin's preference for the classic way of painting the beauty of a woman. While we moderns try " to put our picture across " by a laboured catalogue of a heroine's beauty, the classical poets bid us read her charms in the by- stander's eyes.

But, though all these critical episodes and incidents in the address were full of delight, the present writer must confess that the thing that stirred him most was the expression of Mr. Baldwin's intention to return to the classics. He means, before he dies, to light his torch once more at the shrines of Rome and Greece. Surely he will share his resumed treasure with his countrymen.

We long to hear the comments of a man who has been a chief of State on such books as Cicero's Letters or Tacitus' historical works. What would one not give to read him on the famous passage in Cicero's letters in which the literary statesman very petulantly, but also very poig- nantly, replies to some political advice written to him by Atticus ! The great financier, with that lack of acumen often visible in " big business," advised Cicero not to commit himself too much to either side. He should remain detached and independent and watch events. Cicero was for tine really angry with his friend and banker. What was the use of such advice ? It could not possibly be followed. Atticus evidently did not realize the situation. Had he forgotten that there were only two Lobbies ? The essential problem was this : What was he, Cicero, to say and do when the question came round and said,' " Marcus Tullius, which way do you vote 7-" To talk about not committing oneself when faced with such a question was a grievous irritant, not helpful advice.

This problem is, in fact, the crux of practical politics. It is the kind of problem which used to be so often and so amazingly canvassed by Lord Morley in his table talk.' Indeed, the present writer cannot read Cicero's letter without hearing in it the voice of the last of the Philo- sophical Radicals. Lord Morley possessed a finer and more sincere character than Cicero's ; but there was more than a touch of Cicero in his nature, and in his suave intelligence and well-stored mind. Mr. Baldwin must often have seen. sound party men in a like condition. Indeed, he may have been in that condition himself before now. Anyhow;' his analysis would be of incomparable interest.

Consider, too, the wonderful passage in the Agricola in which Tacitus contracts the special characteristics- of the British people into a couple of sentences :— " The Britons themselves are a people who cheerfully comply with the levies of men, and with the imposition of taxes, and with all the duties enjoined by Government ; provided they receive, no illegal treatment and insults from their governors : those they. bear with impatience. Nor have the Romans any further subdued them than only to obey just laws, but never to submit to be slaves " What comments might not Mr. Baldwin, out of his experiences, be able to give us some day on that passage Or on the speech of Galgacus about the nature of Roman conquest " They style it by a lying name, government ; and when they have spread a general desolation, they call it peace." Are the Riffs and the Druses, we wonder; making such comments at this very moment ? At all: events there is a foretaste of our Puritan pacifist in these words which is worthy of note.

Notable, if he were to give them to us, would be the thoughts of one who had been Prime Minister on the passage which describes the effect of Tiberius' first speech from the Imperial Throne on a portion of the Senate - A pompous and plausible speech, but in it little faith and sincerity. Tiberius, even upon subjects which needed no disguises, used words dark and cautious ; perhaps from his diffident nature, perhaps from a habit of dissembling : at this juncture indeed, as he laboured wholly to hide his heart, his language was the more carefully wrapped up in equivoques and obscurity : bat the

Senators, who dreaded nothing so much as to seem to understand him, burst into tears, plaints, and vows."

Mr. Baldwin must have heard such speeches, though, no doubt, less fierce and menacing in tone. Still, .srlia- mentary and party audiences at crises are not free from the dread of too much understanding.

Most of all we should like to hear Mr. Baldwin on the line in which Virgil epitomizes the Imperial burden :— " Tandote Thalia erat Romanam condere gentem."

" So vast a burden and so slow a pace Is theirs who seek to found a sovereign race."

That this line went home to the plain Roman, we know by the fact that it was scratched in huge letters on the vaulted ceiling of one of the " drying off rooms " in a public bath. Mr. Baldwin's reflections only a week ago on why the Roman Empire perished show that his mind is already at work on one side of the problem. - •