BOOKS.
THREE ENGLISH STATESMEN.*
GOLDWIN SMITH is deservedly reckoned a master of the English language. He has, perhaps, no equal in the art of writing pun- gent sarcasm, weighted with real moral indignation. Every word comes from the heart, as well as from the head, and through the perfection of his style, every word tells. And his style is but the reflex of his principles. Clear, forcible, uncompromising, de- sperately earnest, his principles have won for him the reputation of a political fanatic, because the very boldness and force with which they were expressed helped people to forget that he was enunciat- ing theory, not insisting that his theory could practically be carried out fully and at once. Fanatic he certainly is not, unless that word be extended to mean every one who zealously believes in a cause or a principle ; but be is too apt to let partizan spirit, though of a lofty type, appear iu his treatment of subjects almost alien to it. The book now before us is positively disfigured, as a historical work, by the frequent references to matters of present politics, and especially to that miserable Jamaica business, of which most men are ashamed, and all heartily tired. Doubtless Mr. Goldwin Smith's chief object in delivering these lectures was to inculcate modern political lessons by the aid of past examples, and such an object is not only legitimate, but most desirable. But this may easily be carried too far ; allusions to an event of transi- tory importance are specially damaging to the permanent value of a book, though they may give additional point to a lecture. Apart, however, from the political views inculcated in this volume, there are outlines, clearly and boldly sketched, if mere outlines, of the three statesmen who give the titles to his lectures, which are well deserving of study.
A few years ago, soon after the publication of Mr. John Forster's Debate on the Grand Remonstrance, Mr. Goldwin Smith gave two unwritten lectures from the History Chair at Oxford, of which Pym was the hero, and the first lecture in his present volume is the publication in a literary dress, and, so far as we remember, the first publication, of the views then expressed. He regards Pym, and not Hampden, as the real leader of the Parliament from the commencement of the Revolutionary struggle until his death, as the greatest orator of the party, and the most cultivated states- man. Hampden's great service in the Ship-Money question, his higher social position, the great devotion to his person shown by men of all ranks, perhaps also his death in battle, have tended to place him foremost ; many others besides Lord Macaulay have thought that the obscure skirmish at Chalgrove changed the fate of England. But the facts tell differently. That Pyin was unquestionably the leader, in a parliamentary sense, of the party to which he belonged, is sufficiently shown by his hav- ing taken the chief part in the impeachment of Strafford, though other evidence is not wanting. He was also the head of the Committee of Safety, and as such virtually wielded the • Three Ewiliah Siatesma. A Course of Lectures on tbe Political History of England. By Goldwin Smith. London: Macmillan and 0o. 1867. Government for more than a year, a period of repeated disasters to the Parliamentary cause, among which Flampden's death was scarcely the worst. At the end of the year 1643 Pym died ; but before his death he had secured the assistance of the Scots, had overcome the fears of Essex and the half-hearted party, and had seen the tide turned by the relief of Gloucester and the second baftWof Newbury. He was buried with the royal pomp befitting the." King' of the Commons," as he was often styled in his life- time, and the eager rejoicings of his enemies bore witness to the value of his life. But they rejoiced too soon : Pym's energy had sustained his cause through the first trying period, when all the military conditions were unfavourable, and the sword of Cromwell was now ready to weigh down the scale. Pym is evidently a man after Mr. Goldwin Smith's own heart, unswerving in his adherence to a cause, possessed of high literary and historical culture, of per- fectly blameless life, a man of action, but of political, not military action, and therefore unstained by blood, and above all really religions. Accordingly, he paints him without a blemish, and we cannot say that be is wrong. The greatest trial of all, that of complete success, was spared to Pym, and his fame is perhaps the purer for the very reason which has made it less bright than he deserves, because he died when the very crisis of the struggle was barely past.
Cromwell, or rather the Protector, is the second of Mr. Gold- win Smith's three statesmen ; and here, again, we seem to recog- nize the sentiments of a brilliant review of M. Guizot's book on Cromwell; which appeared some years ago in the Times. Be this as it may, Mr. Goldwin Smith has a clear idea of Cromwell's character, not really less favourable than Mr. Carlyle's, though to sober-minded people more truthful. " The Protectorate, with its glories, was not the conception of a lonely intellect, but the revo- lutionary energy of a mighty nation concentrated in a single chief." The representative and ruler of the English race, the pre-emi- nently imperial race of the modern world, in the greatest crisis of its history, might well be one of the greatest of men ; and regard- ing Cromwell merely as a statesman, one can hardly estimate him highly enough. Mr. Goldwin Smith dwells with great pleasure on the Constitution he established, on the persistent manner in which he strove to maintain free institutions and avoid arbitrary government, on the economy, the efficiency, the far-sighted reforms of his administration ; but he feels that these are not his chief title to fame, even taking into account the gigantic obstacles be had to overcome. The moral greatness of the Protector is even more conspicuous than his intellectual power. The ablest General alive, with an invincible army devoted to him, he might have had the Continent at his feet ; but he sheathed his sword for ever as soon as Worcester freed England from civil war. Call it mere prudence, if you will, deny any nobler motives for his for- bearance to reopen the great religious war ; but even then the self-restraint which refused to listen to the promptings of personal ambition and religious enthusiasm is almost superhuman. For though his admirers may find grounds for believing that he was not vulgarly ambitious, there is no possible doubt that he was deeply tinged with religious fanaticism. "A hypocritical fanatic " is the old character of Cromwell ; but Mr. Goldwin Smith shows plainly enough not only that the two qualities are contradictory, but that he clearly was the one, and not the other. At the same time, he was before his age in striving persistently to establish liberty of conscience, in the proper sense of the phrase ; at any rate, Mr. Goldwin Smith gives us many and strong reasons for so believing. In this, as in other respects, lie is apparently himself one of those who " regard Cromwell's policy as a tidal wave, marking the line to which the waters will once more advance, and look upon him as a ruler who was before his hour, and whose hour, perhaps, is now come." We are hardly so sanguine as Mr. Goldwin Smith as to the speedy downfall of party government in England, or so bitterly hostile to it, but we fully agree with him that " the organic legislation of Cromwell's time may still deserve the consideration of constitutional reformers, if the nation should ever desire to eman- cipate itself from the government of party."
Mr. Goldwin Smith's account of Pitt is deeply tinged by his very strong feelings about the French Revolution. All the world would probably agree in his estimate of Pitt's career before the war broke out, though he gives too special a prominence to his financial ability ; and the majority would side with him rather than with Lord Stanhope, in refusing to hold Pitt free from all blame for taking office after George III.'s scandalous India Bill intrigue, even if they failed to see, with Mr. Goldwin Smith, the taint of this one dishonourable action in many subsequent transactions. But with regard to the revolutionary war, and Pitt's administra- tion during it, he writes in a manner which illustrates forcibly the intimate connection between his opinions and his sympathies. The ordinary Liberal tone is to praise the French Revolution as a whole, in spite of undoubted excesses, and to blame Pitt severely for going to war, and a fortiori for the "Tory reign of terror" which ensued in England. The average Tory regards the Revolu- tion as a movement utterly iniquitous and detestable, against which all the world was bound to take arms. And there is a decided tendency on all sides, now that a Bonaparte is once more on the French throne who has always been at peace with England, to respect the memory of Napoleon I. Mr. Goldwin Smith flies in the face of all alike. He abhors the Revolution for its atheism and its cruelty, and censures Fox severely for his tone regarding it. He denounces in the strongest terms the war against the Revolution, and demolishes every argument urged in its favour. But all is changed with the rise of Napoleon, whom he hates with an energy of hatred to which his command of language gives powerful expression. After the rupture of the peace of Amiens, "Pitt came in to con- duct a war, and this time a necessary war, for I am convinced that with the perfidy and rapine of Bonaparte no peace could be made; that the struggle with him was a struggle for the independence of all nations, against the armed and disciplined hordes of a con- queror as cruel and as barbarous as Attila. The outward mask of civilization Bonaparte wore, and he could use political and social ideas for the purposes of his ambition as dexterously as cannon ; but in character he was a Corsican, and as savage as any bandit of the isle. If utter selfishness, if the reckless sacrifice of humanity to your own interest and passions be vileness, history has no viler name." Pitt sank under the crushing blow of Austerlitz, and left his work to be carried on by successors who had little in them of Pitt but his lately developed Toryism. Pitt was, perhaps, as unlike Pym as any prominent English statesman well could be ; but in this, at least, they were alike,----that both sank under the weight of public cares at a moment of deep gloom for the cause they were sustaining, and yet after having really sustained the worst pressure, though neither their own eyes nor those of other men for many a day saw that the tide had turned.
We have spoken of the intimate connection between Mr. Goldwin Smith's opinions and his sympathies ; we ought perhaps, to have rather said that his sympathies seem to govern his opinions. Those sympathies are intensely demo- cratic, bitterly hostile to anything savouring of violence, con- temptuous towards all pomp and ceremony, enthusiastic in admi- ration of the Universities, not as they are, but as they might be,—above all, deeply religious. His remarks as to the im- portance of the religious element in political movements are the most interesting and suggestive ; and perhaps this is the only hobby which he does not ride too hard. Certainly he does strain coherence, not unfrequently, to make some past event point a modern democratic moral, or to introduce opinions inapplicable to the times he was treating, however opportune now. Some of these views coincide minutely with those which we have repeatedly ex- pressed, as where he says that for an army or navy to be in a perfectly sound state dismissal should be the highest punishment ; or where be anticipates, in glowing language, a future "moral, commercial, and diplomatic union of all the communities of the Anglo-Saxon race." Some of them do not please us quite so well ; but even where we disagree with Mr. Goldwin Smith's conclu- sions, we cannot help sympathizing with himself, for it is evident that his every opinion has its origin in warm love of truth and moral worth. He may not always be wise, but he is always sensible, always enthusiastic ; and iu these cynical days it may be morally useful for society to study the writings of an enthu- siast for goodness, even as it may be politically useful, at a moment of democratic change, fully to comprehend the attitude and principles of the cultivated Democrats.
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