LORD SALISBURY AT THE MANSION HOUSE.
TORB SALISBURY is often told,—we ourselves have often told him,—that his judgment is wiser than his tongue ; that he acts more wisely than he speaks ; that if he could but restrain his cynical humour, he would be one of the most sagacious statesmen of his day. Nevertheless, when we read such a speech as he made at the Mansion House on Wednesday, we cannot help seeing the close con- nection between what is usually called his cynical humour and. his practical sagacity. For his cynicism is not real cynicism ; it is rather wise satire at the vanity of human nature epigrammatically expressed. Take, for instance, the mode in which he dealt with the congratulations he had received on the success of the Administration in the House of Commons. He attributed, it in great measure to the influenza which had silenced so many incorrigible speakers. Now, that was at bottom a modest plea. He knew that his colleagues in the Lower House had worked very hard, and no doubt he did not in any way really underrate either Mr. W. H. Smith's services, or Mr. Goschen's, or Mr. Balfour's ; but he suggested that their labour and zeal would not have effected nearly so much as it did, but for the accidental help received from an epidemic which detained so much oratorical power at home and in bed. He did not think it wise to lay too much stress on the energy of his colleagues, and, indeed, he knew that energy alone would have effected nothing without some negative influence at work to divert the energy of his foes, and so he paid a laughing tribute to a non-political ally which had served the purposes of the Administration better than any member of the Adminis- tration could possibly have served its purposes. And the satire was quite true. What is wanted to fructify the labours of Ministers in the House of Commons is not so much zeal and judgment in them, as a mine sprung under the zeal and energy of their foes. Though it may be much to do only what is right and wise, it is still more, said. Lord Salisbury, to have an ally who seals the lips of those who wish to do what is wrong and unwise. Is not that a reminder which political vanity always needs, and does not always receive ? Again, when Lord Salisbury remarked that the great issues between England and the United States as to seals and lobsters would probably one day secure a settlement, but that they would certainly drag their slow length along "with a calmness and a slowness of progression suited to the animals with which they are concerned," and that we must not imagine that "the luxury of carrying on these negotiations will cease for any Minister for a considerable number of years," he was evidently laughing partly at the tenacity and impatient patience with which Englishmen and their American cousins dispute every inch of ground in relation to minute details such as these, and partly at the reluctance with which statesmen waive a ground of contention to which they have long been accustomed, and which many come to regard as a sort of " luxury " of litigation, much as Peter Peebles regarded the great suit which had reduced him to beggary in Sir Walter Scott's " Redgauntlet." There, too, you see the sagacity of Lord Salisbury, his insight into the litigating instincts of the Anglo-Saxon race, and even the litigating instincts of Foreign Secretaries themselves. To us, Lord Salisbury has appeared to express sense and moderation themselves in his discussions with the United States and with Newfoundland ; but doubtless he has been fully aware of a contentious in- stinct even in his own heart, when he was urged to concede a point which he saw could be effectively insisted, on, or to suppress a telling sarcasm for which he discerned an excellent opportunity. Lord Salisbury would not be the wise Foreign Secretary he is, if he had not been aware of the excess of contentious instinct in his own heart.
_Take, again, in relation to the condition of the South American Republics, the very wise satire on Mr. Wining's eloquent but rather windy oratory concerning calling a new world into existence to redress the balance of the old. If Mr. Canning were now living, said Lord Salisbury, "I do not know whether he would congratulate himself on the accuracy of his foresight, or whether he would be so con- fident as he appeared to be then, that statesmen can safely undertake the part of Providence against despotisms." In that stroke of satire, Lord Salisbury embodied half the wisdom which has made his administration of the Foreign Office a success. He has wisely distrusted that ambitious conception of the function of Foreign Secretaries which makes them anxious to play the part of Providence in curbing the adventurous designs of popular despots. Lord Salisbury evidently agrees with the late Lord Lytton, who puts into the mouth of his Prime Minister (Cardinal Richelieu), the admirably candid though perhaps some- what trite admission :— " Yes, let us own it, there is one above
Rules the harmonious mystery of the world Far better than Prime Ministers."
The same distrust of the more ambitious flights of Foreign Ministers was embodied in his warning to politicians not to attach too much importance to the worth of treaties and alliances. Lord Salisbury has himself negotiated more than one treaty which has turned out a dead-letter, and he knows well enough that nothing is less operative than a treaty which is not wisely made, which is made rather as a stroke of diplomacy to foil the design of some other Power, than as a bong-fide contract which the parties to it really desire and intend to keep. "I am quite sure," said Lord Salisbury, "that we exaggerate too much the importance and the effect of treaties. In this age of the world, and in view of the fearful risk which every disturbance of peace brings upon every nation concerned in it, I do not think that we must set too high the effect of the bonds constituted by signatures on a piece of paper. If nations in a great crisis act rightly, they will act so because they are in unison and cordiality with each other, and not because they have bound them- selves to each other by protocols. Do not, therefore, pay too much attention to this talk that you may have heard of alliances and treaties." With regard to the Triple Alliance, he remarked :—" I do not know what these treaties may contain. I have always carefully abstained from asking, and I do not suppose that I should have been told if I had. asked." You could not have a better specimen of that shrewd depreciation of the importance of formal inter- national contracts which Lord Salisbury's wit no less than his experience has taught him. We are not sure that he would be a great Foreign Minister at a time of peril, at a time when it became our clear duty to take part in a great struggle. Very probably he might not be equal to such a test. But for times when it is our duty no less than our policy to keep as much as possible out of supererogatory promises and contracts, the great master of "flouts and jeers" is also one of the wisest of Foreign Secretaries, and is wise precisely for the reason that his wit, quite as much as his wisdom, keeps him clear of rash and dangerous engagements.
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