THE SUCCESSION TO THE LIBERAL LEADERSHIP.
THAT Mr. Gladstone is at the present moment essential to the cohesion and spirit of the Liberal Party, no one who knows anything of English politics can doubt for a moment. His own followers not only believe in him with enthusiasm, and with great justice, not only as the most eloquent but as the most heartily disinterested of their leaders, but even amongst his opponents there is, we suspect, hardly any man of first-rate calibre who doubts that Mr. Gladstone would have been just as eager to support Lord Salisbury to carry Irish Home-rale, as he has shown himself to carry it by Liberal votes. Now, for the leader of a great party, and especially for the leader of a great progressive party, there is no qualification higher than that of pure political disinterestedness. And what makes the present situation so critical is this, that failing Mr. Gladstone, whose age and health make it necessarily doubtful how long he may be able to continue in the forefront of this most exhausting conflict,—we heartily hope that his holiday in Venice may do him all the good it can,—there are but three men, so far as we know,—we exclude, of course, all Peers, like Lord Rosebery, whose leadership would hardly be anything but nominal as regards the House of Commons,—on behalf of whom any one would be disposed to maintain that they would succeed him with any prospect of inspiring their followers with profound confidence, and their foes with respect. Those leaders are Mr. John Morley, Mr. Henry Fowler, and Sir George Trevelyan.
Mr. John Morley,—whose progress towards recovery we record with hearty pleasure,—is in many respects much the most eminent of these three in his claim on the Liberal Party, if that party is to be regarded, as we fancy it must be now regarded, as absolutely pledged to secure Home-rule for Ireland. He was the first to take up the cause. Excepting Mr. Glad- stone, he ie much the ablest of its champions. And he has certainly advocated it in a tone of moderation of which even the distinguished chief himself could not boast. He has always adhered to the attitude of a statesman in discussing the ques- tion. And he has received the hearty acknowledgments of his ablest antagonists to the general fairness and courtesy of his criticisms. At the same time, the choice of Mr. John Morley would be regarded as making Irish Home-rule the one dis- tinguishing article of the Liberal creed,—for it is impossible to conceive Mr. Morley's willingness to keep that in any degree in the background,—and it would give occasion of offence to not a few of the Liberal party, that a man who has been in many respects the apologist of the French encyclopaedists and revolutionists, and who is himself so distinguished as an agnostic, should be chosen to lead a party of which the most active element has always been remarkable for its aversion to mere iconoclasts and its hearty Christian belief. Add to this that Mr. Morley has hardly the physique which would enable him to endure the horrible fatigue which Lord Palmerston, Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Disraeli bore for so many successive Sessions,—a fatigue which every Session threatens to render more exhausting,—and we venture to doubt whether, with all his great intellectual and moral qualities, and that air of un- questionable distinction which he imparts to all his speeches, Mr. John Morley is likely to be the successor of Mr. Gladstone, or even if he be, to hold on long in a position which requires, above everything, physical endurance of the highest order. In this toughness we imagine that Mr. Henry Fowler would be less deficient. He is not only an eloquent, but a ready speaker, and full of that serious conviction which lends both Mr. Glad- stone and Mr. Morley their great influence: As a Dissenter, he would command a great deal of fresh enthusiasm amongst the mainstay of the Liberal army ; and as a very moderate Dissenter who has always shown a great respect to the Church of England, he would be regarded with cordial good-will by many who would dread to see an illustrious agnostic at the head of a great English party. At the same time, there is no denying that to place a Dissenter at the head of the Liberal Party would excessively irritate the fears of Churchmen all over the Kingdom, as a sign that Disestablish- ment was at hand,—nor that it would be very difficult for a man in Mr. Henry Fowler's position to resist the cry for Die- establishment, even though as a statesman he might think it premature, even if not mischievous. Then, of course, the choice of Mr. Fowler, who has never been in the Cabinet, would make it much more difficult for some of his more distinguished colleagues to follow his lead, and it might fairly be expected to estrange those of them who are not conspicuous for dis- interestedness. Indeed, if the choice of the Liberal Party should
fall on him, there can be little doubt that he would encounter criticisms from some of his former colleagues which would render the guidance of the Liberal Party by him a work of gigantic difficulty, if it did not render it almost impossible. That the first Nonconformist Liberal leader should spring from being ex-Secretary to the Treasury to the very head of the party, would be a transformation which only the highest genius could justify ; and masculine and moderate as Mr. Henry Fowler certainly is, no one would think of ascribing to him the highest genius. We believe, therefore, that he is not at all likely to succeed to Mr. Gladstone's position whenever he vacates it. Of course, Sir George Trevelyan occupies a different posi- tion ; but though in point of literary distinction and Cabinet rank it is a much more favourable one, we think that the set- off of his vacillations will be more than enough to destroy his chance of being accepted as Liberal leader. The Newcastle Daily Chronicle of Wednesday last had a very amusing article on that curious scientific invention, the Trevelyan Rocker, which it describes thus :—" It consists of a heated block of iron or copper of a peculiar shape and delicately poised upon a grooved block of cold lead. The lead gets heated at the point of impact, and, being a bad conductor of heat, it swells up and tilts the Rocker over to the other side. The same thing happens there, and the Rocker is tilted back again ; and so on, and on, and on for any length of time." And it adds :- " Its own heat is all-sufficient, the warmth of its own bosom given out to, and taken back again from, the party with which it is for the moment in touch." Now, no party will like to be led by a statesman, however distinguished, who is liable to such a nick-name as this. You may do a great deal with a Rocker, but hardly lead a party in a straight line with it.
This survey leaves the Liberal Party without any adequate successor to Mr. Gladstone who is really likely at once to command the moral confidence of the party, and to satisfy the formal and physical conditions requisite for a successful leader. Of course, Sir William Harcourt remains, who will satisfy brilliantly all the formal and physical con- ditions, but who will certainly not command moral con- fidence. He is a man of Cabinet rank. As a mere debater, his resources may compare even with Mr. Gladstone's. He is a speaker of great humour and often exceptional wit. And he is almost inexhaustible. But then who believes that Sir William Harcourt was ever really converted to Home- rale f All that he had said on the other side up to the very eve of the Home-rule revolution, had too genuine a ring about it for anybody to be deceived by the artificial rhetoric which he now employs. Sir William Harcourt would be a brilliant leader in every way but this,—that his followers would know that it was not his convictions which were leading them, but they who were leading his convictions. That is not at all an enviable impression for any party to entertain about its leader, but least of all for the Liberal Party. When you advocate radical change, the least that you can require is the profound conviction of the leaders that that radical change is for the national benefit, and not merely for the temporary advantage of the party that they happen to lead. And no one would have this assurance in Sir William Harcourt's case. Indeed, it would be unreasonable to feel it in the case of the man who was by far the most trenchant of the assailants of the Parnellites up to the very moment when Mr. Gladstone declared for the Parnellites, and who so short a time before had been taunting the Conservatives with their destiny of " stewing in Parnellite juice." We should regard it as a great calamity for the Liberals to be led by Sir William Harcourt, and yet we doubt whether any one of the leaders, except himself, has the formal rank, the physical strength, and the abundance of resource necessary for such a post. We should be only too glad to know that Mr. Morley would be able to take the place for which, of all the possible men, he has certainly the highest moral qualities. But we hardly hope that it will prove possible for him to do so. Yet, ill as we agree with the Liberal Party on the subject of Home-rule, we should conceive it to be a national misfortune that it should place at its head any leader in whose depth of moral conviction the nation at large could place no confidence.
Previous page
