TOPICS OF THE DAY.
LORD SALISBURY'S RESIGNATION.
LMOST in silence, without a jar, with no uproar in Parliament and no popular demonstration, the com- mand of that huge barque, the British' Empire, has been transferred from one hand to another. The ship moves on undisturbed, the crew are all at their stations, there is no sign of alarm, no thought that the course will be altered, the speed decreased, or the destination changed. It is a marvellous testimony to the order which reigns on board, and all the more so because the Captain who dis- appears was no mere figurehead. It has often been our duty to point out that Lord Salisbury interfered with his officers too little, that he was too content while great blunders were avoided, that he did not exact from his subordinates either sufficient unity or a sufficient display of the full measure of their powers. Nevertheless, Lord Salisbury was an excellent Captain. All on board, pas- sengers no less than crew, critics as well as those who were content, felt that under him the ship was safe, that nothing rash would be attempted, that no clear duty would be shirked, that rocks would be avoided without diminution of speed, that above all mutiny was impossible. A conviction of that kind is a source of strength as well as contentment, even if the Captain is asleep in his cabin. It would be foolish to describe Lord Salisbury as the greatest of our Premiers since the Revolution ; but with the possible exception of Lord Beaconsfield, he has probably been the most intellectual, the man who has had the widest outlook, who has distinguished most clearly between fact and the appearance of fact, who has displayed in the highest degree the sense of proportion. This quality, often wanting even in menwith Lord Salisbury'sintellectual strength, was the explanation of much of the displeasure he occasionally caused. It is the weakness of our time to consider every question great, to pant for reforms which are insignificant, to. groan over dangers which may never occur, to . believe that all the evils of life can be cured if only somebody will pass some never specified law. Lord Salisbury was absolutely free of that weakness ; and as he always told the truth, and had a habit from early training of telling it in the style of a Saturday Reviewer instead of wrapping it up in smooth platitudes, he sometimes created an irritation which made his opponents writhe, and induced his friends to call him "indiscreet." On the other hand, we cannot recall an indiscreet proposal of which the originator was Lord Salisbury. He probably did not believe in democracy any more than other reflective men do, • and being intellectually brave, he let that unbelief occasionally be seen ; but he knew the great experiment was inevitable, and worked with it as the first condition of political life, even, as we read his action, tormenting himself with an unwieldy Cabinet in order that every section of effort in which important classes were interested should be represented. It is argued that he made no great internal improvements ; but how many has he resisted for. which opinion was ready ? It is said that he did nothing for temperance, or education, or the housing of the people ; but on which of these great subjects has he *taken a backward step, or on which of them has opinion beceme sufficiently solidified to be a base for striking action ? Lord Salisbury thought- the country would grow in prosperity if only let alone; he let it alone with a tenacity like Walpole's, and it has grown marvellously under his serene rt4ime.. It has not been his fault, though it has often been his misfortune, that for the moment serenity seems to Radicals to have in it something of the nature of sin. They would rather be accused of fussiness than of folly; and they rated as " lethargic " a man who was only calm. The country under him has had nearly seventeen years of internal peace.
It is, however, by his conduct of foreign *affairs that Lord Salisbury will be judged, and in this department has been both active and successful. We' think ourselves that he has yielded too easily to the tradition of the Foreign Office as to our best policy with Russia, and believe that had he been more determined lie would have framed and established a modus vivendi which would for a genera- tion have secured peaee in Asia. We dislike as much as ever the entanglement- with Japan,- but we must admit,- granted—which we cannot grant—that Russia is the. enemy, that that Alliance gives us a position of tremendous strength in the Far East. Judged from the consistently anti-Russian standpoint, it was a great diplomatic stroke. He 'has also succeeded in the much more difficult task of avoiding quarrels with Germany, which, ruled for the moment by an erratic and " difficult " man of genius, has at all events seemed to seek at our expense a Colonial Empire, to share with us the dominion- of the seas, and to be first in the endless race for commercial supremacy. On half-a-dozen occasions a rash man or a nerveless man might have brought. us into premature collision with the new Power, and perhaps evoked a coalition against Great Britain ; but Lord Salisbury has steered the ship well, and we emerge from a situation full of sunken rocks without loss of dignity, and with no substantive loss at all, unless it be a loss that in Turkey and Persia and China Germany stands between us and Russia, and is watched by statesmen in St. Peters- burg with the sleepless suspicion which they once con- centrated on ourselves. Germany asserts that she also has a world-policy, and Lord Salisbury, bowing obligingly, has left her to seek the bases without which a world-policy is an ambitious dream. He has felt it his business never to quarrel except for a visibly adequate end, and to prefer not to see little tricks about boundaries when the territory absorbed was not worth a serious effort. It is notable that all the while Austria, the indispensable ally of Germany, remains the cordial friend of Great Britain, and that the most astute Frenchmen doubt whether in the Mediterranean Italy, also the ally of Germany, is not secretly keeping step with the great maritime *Power. In Western and Northern Africa also France has been allowed to acquire great territories without serious opposition from London, and now marches her colonies there with ours over more miles than we care to count. This—the refusal to act until the object of action is clear and is recognised as adequate—is the secret of the marvellous patience dis- played by Lord Salisbury both in Crete and China, where i - all Europe gathered together to avoid collision, n a crowd which seemed at every movement to make col- lision inevitable. Nevertheless, when a great end was at stake Lord Salisbury faced the immense danger involved in the Fashocla affair, and when British friend- ship for America was in question courteously made all Europe feel that BiSmarck for once had failed to read an adversary aright. The "painted lath" proved stronger than 'steel. We believe, though we cannot yet prove; that he showed the same -courage in the Armenian question, that he decided on interference, that he induced the Austrian Government to mobilise a corps d'arm6e, and that the British Fleet would have forced the Dardanelles but for unexpected but irresistible opposition - at home. Lord Salisbnry may be a grand seigneur in many of - his ways and opinions, but he has knit strong bonds between us and the great Republic of the West. Nor must it be forgotten that in the war with the Boers the persistent courage of the Cabinet must have owed much, though not all, to the quiet resolution of the Premier, who never grew depressed in defeat or blatant .after victory, and never forgot that in that remote contest the real stake was not the frausvaal, but the continuance of the Empire. We shall not for many a long day have a more uniformly successful Premier ; and just think, when inclined • to criticise, all that that implies, the dangers that arise daily all over the world like clouds on a windy night, the sleep- less eyes that are watching for a slip, the mighty forces always ready to be loosed on the faintest opening for a charge. The future Premiers of Great Britain will urgently need that habit of ready sleep in quiet times which is the best preservative of energy, and which Lord Salisbury was so frequently accused by his adversaries of .poisessing. It is a grand possession.
Previous page
