THE ERA OF EVOLUTION

Fifty Years of Parliament. The Earl of Oxford and Asquith, S.G. (Camels. In two volumes, £2 10s. net, with illustrations.) " It covers," writes Lord Oxford of his book, " the strugglei, triumphs and failures of no fewer than eleven Parliaments—a period of constructive Imperial development, as well as an era of industrial amelioration and evolution, without parallel in the history of any civilized country."

AND this is the sober truth. To the present generation of Englishmen, the peaceful and ordered progress of events to which, up to the year 1914, they had been accustomed for almost a century may seem the ordinary conditions of society ; our present discords and disasters may appear but a brief departure from the normal. The exact reverse is in fact the truth. The forty-six years (1868-1914) covered by Lord Oxford's book constitute a period of quite unexampled stability. They are the great exception, the most abnormal riod of which history relates—an oasis of order in the chaotic changes and chances of the history of Western civilization. But in this very fact lies their unique interest. We have here ated to us by one of its foremost men the history of that quo thing in human affairs, a system of Covert-meta which actually worked. English parliamentary democracy, as Lord Oxford points out, came into full working order about the ear 1868 and from that date to 1914 a great procession of statesmen succeeded in administering the country, in main- ining and aggrandizing the Empire, in creatingthatimmensely 'eh, powerful and peculiar community which was the ritain of 1914. No one in the world could be as well fitted

o tell that story as Lord Oxford ; he is the human embodi- ent of all that is most typical, and in many ways of all that s best, in that epoch. His clear, genial confidence that on he whole things will work out for the best if drily uhreasonable ople can be prevented from interfering with them unduly ; calm assumption, not untinged with complacency, that ear by year the community will get rather richer, a little ore reasonable, a shade more liberal minded, are both haracteristic of his epoch.

These two well printed volumes of memoirs are a perfectly ended mixture of history and reminiscence. The narrative like a broad cool English river, calmly winding its way down

o the sea. Nothing breaks the easy flowing surface. Yet here is no monotony, for on every page or so we come on ome perfect sentence . on ,which we pause and dwell with pecialsatisfaction. What could be more perfect, for example. han the phrase which doses his introductory chapter ? He introducing us to the two great protagonists who fill, like ector and Achilles, the foreground of his picture of the truggles of .Liberal and Tory in the later half of the last ntury. He tells us that, at first,, when they both, rather nexpeetedly, became 'leaders of their respective parties, ither Gladstone no Disraeli had a strong hold on the °use of Commons.

" They were," he writes, " in their different ways, two of the realest Parliamentarians in our history ; but when they becams, each did in turn, the idol of the nation, it was not by reason of heir ascendancy in the House of Commons, but through their ity to touch and to capture, the one the imaginatiori, the

t er the conscience, of their countrymen outside."

From a detailed account of the struggle of these Titans ord Oxford turns aside to give us a delightful chapter on arliamelitary eloquence in 1869. His quotations, which °nn a pendant to those to be found in Lord Curzon's Portia- eektry Eloquence, confirm an impression, always entertained the present writer, that as an artist John Bright was rhaps the greatest orator that Westminster has ever seen. 'hat Irishman for example has ever told of the troubles of no with such noble dignity as Bright expressed in his speech n the second - reading of the Irish Church Bill ? Gathorne ardy hid referred to the Protestant Church in Ireland as the light of the Reformation."- Mr. Gathorhe Hardy," replied Bright, " appeared not able cornpfeliOnd that this light of the Reformation, sustained by rivilege, and fanned as it had been by the hot breath of faction, as been not so much a helpful light as a scorching fire, which burned-74 ahnost everything good and noble in the country, its flames industry " and charity and peace and loyalty have perished " If I were particular on the point as to the sacred nature of the rialowmonts,' I Should -even then be satisfied with the propositions in this Bill—for; after all, hope it' i$ not far from Christianity to.charity ;- and wo know that the DiJine Founder of our faith has.loft, much more of the doings of a compassionate and loving heart than He has of .dogma.. .• . We can do btrt little, it is true. We cannot reluine the extinguished lamp of reason. We cannot make the deaf to hear. We cannot make the dumb to speak. It is not given to us-

' From the thick film to 'purge the visual -ray, And on the sightless eyeballs pour the day.'

But at least,we can lessen the load of affliction, and we can make the life more tolerable to vast numbers who suffer." •

" I know. of nothing finer," writes Lord Oxford, " in the annals' of British -eloquince." • Nor does Lord Oxford fail to quote from the great " Trojan horse ". speech of Robert Lowe .in -opposition. to the .Liberal

Reform Bill of 1866, which as he says " deserves to be disin- terred from the graveyard of Hansard." There is the great passage on

" Demagogues are the commonplace of history. They are to be foUnd wherever popular commotion has prevailed, and they all bear to one another a strong family likeness. Their names float lightly on the stream of time ; they are in some way handed down to us, but then they are as little regarded as is the foam which rides on the crest of the stormy wave, and bespatters the rock which it cannot shako."

Majestically Lord Oxford's narrative sweeps on from par- liament to parliament. He sums up with absolute fairness, but with fundamental hostility, the brief, bright story of Randolph Churchill. Then on to the Pigott case and the last Administrations of Mr. Gladstone. We have now reached a point at which Lord Oxford himself began to take a prominent part in affairs and his comments become more and more authoritative. He has something amusing to tell us about the formation of almost every Cabinet. Of the last Gladstone Government (the one of which Harcourt said to Lord Rosebery " without you the Government would have been ridiculous, with you it is only impossible ") he tells this story. An applicant for a post in this Cabinet came to Lord Morley in search of encouragement. But, says Lord Oxford, he was unlucky enough to catch Morley " in rather a ragged mood." This was the conversation that ensued :- " My dear X, if you get into the Cabinet, take my

advice and never open your lips there.' ' X.: I never do, except when I have something to say.' : That's just when you should keep them shut.-' "

Lord Oxford begins his second volume with the new century. In the first three parts of it he deals with the political story from 1900 to 191-1.' His narrative now concerns domestic politics exclusively, for, as he says, he has dealt with the genesis of the Great War in another book. In this volume we notice, perhaps, a certain diminution in the august impartiality with which he treats the earlier party contests. Lord Oxford is essentially and fundamentally a party man, and he sees the conflicts of the Budget of 1909: of the veto, and of the Home Rule Bill through strictly

Liberal eyes.

But this may be said only to add a spice to the narrative.

It is interesting at the moment, for example, to read the story Of how the Asquith Administration handled the coal strike of 1912 and to compare his methods with that of the present Government. Lord Oxford gives the reasons which prompted him to pass the " Coal Mines Minimum Wage Bill " of that date, "as the matter is of more than merely historical interest." There are, of course, many passages in this part of the book from which our readers will dissent most strongly.

We lay down Lord Oxford's volumes with the reflection that this was Parliamentary democracy. We wonder whether or no it will survive triumphantly the twentieth century as it survived the nineteenth.