MR. GRANT DUFF'S SPEECH.
IT is neither for its eloquence nor its frankness—though it is both eloquent and frank—that Mr. Grant Duff's speech at Elgin is a noteworthy one. It is pleasant, in these days of half-concealed " tendencies " and timid shuffling, to hear a member—himself a Scotehman—tell Scotch constituents that Teligious liberty includes the rights of minorities ; that if six men believe in the "Scotch Sabbath," they have no right to make the seventh keep it against his will; that if a Protestant chaplain is paid for teaching Protestant ruffians, a Catholic priest ought to be paid for benefiting Catholic murderers ; that, in short, the command to love thy neighbour as thyself was not meant as an empty formula. To tell people in Elgin that Christ died for man, and not for Scotchmen only, is an act of boldness for which we honour the speaker ; but there is more in the speech than audacity. There is evidence of un- usual strength as to the degree to which the modern—or should we say the immediate ?—form of Liberalism, that system of politics which does liberal things instead of merely removing illiberal obst toles, is conquering the old system of Radicalism. Mr. Grant Duff has political instincts which twenty years ago would have developed him into a more genial Sir William Molesworth. He is even now disposed to seek the solu- tion of difficulties, first of all, in giving up the task which involves such trouble. He approves the surrender of the Ionian Islands, for example, "from sober calculation," i e , because he thinks them not worth their care and cost. Is Elgin, or are the Hebrides ? The reason for giving up those islands was no calculation, but the belief that in holding down an unwil- ling section of a possibly great European people, we were false to the principles upon which the British Government has been founded. The member for Elgin speaks with horror "of hav- ing to fight for Canada, which burdens our resources, obeys only just as far as she pleases, and imposes heavy protective duties upon our manufactures." He wants to give up Canada be- cause we might have to fight for her. So we might for the Isle of Man. The point that we have no right to desert those who wish to abide by our side, provided they will do their part in the alliance, is not so much as alluded to, while the highest objection to the policy of surrender, that it would dwarf the English imagination, and reduce an Imperial race to a parochial family, seems not to have struck the speaker. It would not be fair to say that he thinks the mere aboli- tion of the Irish Church the best cure for Irish ecclesias- tical evils, for in these days it is dangerous even to hint to an ordinary constituency that justice would alike sug- gest a still more liberal measure; but we are not quite sure that this is not Mr. Duff's feeling. There is a trace, too, in his speech of the sentiment, once a ruling one with advanced Liberals, of acute dislike to the Establishment, such as undoubtedly was entertained by the whole school of philo- sophical Radicals. All these ideas are, however, half latent, or visible only as veins are visible in marble, lost except upon the very closest inspection. They are germs of thought, not thoughts ; and though they would once have developed, as we have said, into the old hard radical policy, they serve to-day only to mark how completely the temper of the times and the circumstances which mould policy have been changed. Where the Radical would have abolished the Church, Mr. Duff would only widen her gates, reduce her tests abolish the last of those perverse "disabilities" by which else has for centuries striven to keep out all intellects not above or below small scruples ; where the old Liberal would have denounced univer- sities as hotbeds of superstition and tyranny, the new one simply asks for their reform. So, too, an matters of foreign politics. The Manchester Radical would have left Poland and Italy pretty much to their own devices ; but Mr. Duff, admitting the excessive difficulty of war for Warsaw, apolo- gizes for not fighting, and implies pretty distinctly that for Italy we might even take that last tremendous step. He thinks he would give up Canada as they would have done ; but when it comes to the pinch it will probably be found that "giving up" is merely the extreme expression of a just determination not to retain Canadians against their and that if they ask for aid the aid will be heartily conceded. As a matter of fact, the Liberals will probably do more than this, for the question, when raised, is sure to be raised in some way affronting to the national pride, and statesman- ship and philosophic thought will be placed in abeyance to- gether. Even on the personnel of the Ministry the member for Elgin expresses very nearly the tone of Liberal thought. The country, sthat vast half-organized mass of opinion which is the true strength of Government, likes Lord Pal- merston, but the Liberals do not, though they, unlike Mr. Duff, fairly recognize both his ability and his value for the hour. It is true, though strangely annoying, that Mr. Gladstone, if ho is to rule England, must compel that glorious intellect of his to forego the luxury of intellectual indecision, and that England, as well as the Liberals, is very tired of the half-dozen exhausted politicians whom Lord Palmerston and Earl Russell employ as their political staff. The new fact is that where the Radical thus believing would resist these men, the modern Liberal balances advantages and drawbacks, and, preferring them to Tories, votes steadily by their side.
It is, however, on the religious question that the new tone of Liberalism is most marked. The speech occupies just three columns in the local paper, and nearly two are devoted to matters ecclesiastical, while of these again only two para- graphs are in any way specially Scotch. Mr. Duff, like most of his opinions and standing, has seen that should the political quiescence endure, ecclesiastical questions will assume a totally new position, and he speaks out boldly and well. He would apply as well as uphold the principles of religious liberty, rejecting the placid compromises under which the last gene- ration concealed their real faintheartedness. He holds that religious liberty is a fiction when six millions of Irishmen are taxed to promote the faith of one, which tho six believe to be heretical; that it is denied when Scotchmen are prohibited from education on account of religious opinions ; and that it is threatened in principle, if not impaired in practice, when evidence is refused, unless backed by pledges in which the witness• avowedly does not believe. These arc the ideas also of all sound Liberals, and Mr. Duff's recapitulas tion may serve to remind them, amidst the pteans perpetually rising over all that has been accomplished, how very much still remains to be done. The mere task of conciliating Ire- land, changing it into an integral section, not of England, as the Nationalists are always affirming, but of the Empire, is work for a generation, and work which must be begun soon, if the party is not to surrender its claim to administrative ability. It will be done all the sooner and all the -easier if the scores of English members who think, with the member for Elgin, that Ireland ought to be treated as part of England, with equal claims and equal responsibilities, will but speak out as frankly and bravely as he has done. The recess season for speech-making has hardly fully set in, and we trust before it ends Liberal members will have given a few of their real opinions—waked their constituents up, instead of pleasantly condoling with them on the necessity for slumbering. Con- tent is an excellent thing, but its perfection is only sleep, after all.
Previous page
