TOPICS OF THE DAY.
LORD HARTINGTON'S SPEECHES. LORD HARTINGTON'S speeches at Manchester, like most of his recent speeches, were of a kind to show that how- ever " moderate " his Liberalism may be, it is at least strong and clear, and the Liberalism of hearty conviction, not that sort of Liberalism which matches Toryism so well that it is hard to discriminate between the two. We will shortly con- dense the drift of his speeches, because we are anxious to point out that the popular enthusiasm which he elicited was really caused by no ad captandum party hits, by no reck- less party rhetoric, but by the modest exposition of sober and sterling political sense. No contrast could be greater than the contrast between the speeches of Lord Hartington and Lord Salisbury, delivered in successive weeks in the same places. Lord Salisbury avowedly defended the policy of protecting bad Governments, if you want them to keep out dangerous foes. We had never, he said, shrunk from the practice of confirming mischievous puppets in their places, if they were likely to serve our purpose in the large policy we had in view. Lord Hartington described such tactics as "immoral," as well as wanting in political sagacity. It was the policy, he said, of the Holy Alliance, the policy so strongly repudiated by Mr. Canning, even in the days of a Tory Govern- ment. Lord Salisbury again defended the policy of seizing Cyprus as a " demonstration " to the Armenians that we really intended what we said, when we proposed to resist the advance of Russia into Asia Minor. Lord Hartington treats that as a policy of utterly vain and empty demonstration, since it has not been followed even by any steps to make Cyprus useful to us, still less by any steps to use Cyprus as a breakwater against Russia, or for the purpose of putting pressure upon Turkey. Again, Lord Salisbury, with expressions of profane jubilation, spoke of the advance of Austria into the Balkans as a great guarantee for the good government of the East of Europe. Lord Hartington replies, that if this only means that England may safely trust to the German Powers to prevent the aggrandisement of Russia in these regions, it is just what the Liberals have all along been asserting that it was reasonable to expect ; but that he fears it means something very different,—that we intend, instead of developing the free national life of the Christian populations now subject to Turkey, to spur on Austria to bring them into subjection, as she was taught in the early part of this century to bring into subjection the small Italian Stales; that, in short, an Austrian despotism is to be the substitute for Slav or Greek self-government and freedom ; and such a policy Lord Hartington strongly condemns, precisely for the same reason for which he still more strongly condemns the support -which, for political purposes, it is proposed to give to the still worse despotism of Turkey. Such a policy might lead to the disruption of Austria, but would hardly lead directly to the regeneration of the Balkans. The main lines of Lord Hart- ington's view of the Eastern Question are, therefore, boldly and simply drawn, and drawn as every true Liberal would have them drawn.
And Lord Hartington is not less clear and manly in his view of the Afghan question. The success of Lord Salisbury's Afghan policy had scarcely been celebrated, he says, in despatches which flavoured more of "triumphant poetry" than of official prose, when the massacre of Cabul came, and it was proved that that policy had failed in every particular, that every statement had been falsified, that the treaty of Gun- damuk had been rendered a simply impossible solution of the question, and that everything, from the use of force to the con- struction of a policy, had to be done completely over again, from a totally new point of view. Even Lord Salisbury had to find a new defence for himself ; and his new defence is, that Lord Northbrook's reluctance in 1875 to force English envoys on Shere Ali, is the cause of all the trouble which has occurred. It is something new, says Lord Hartington, to find a British Government, which, instead of shielding its subordinates, tries to throw on those subordinates the blame of the blunders which it had itself made, and which they had endeavoured to avert. It is something new to find a British Government treating a Governor-General of India as one who ought to be a sheer puppet, and to register the decrees sent him from home, in spite of his own and his Council's strong conviction that these decrees are fatal mistakes. But this is the natural consequence of the Afghan blunders, and of the absolute inability of Lord Salisbury to admit that, from beginning to end, he has followed bad counsels. Now we are left with the difficult alternative of either oocupying Afghanistan, which would really mean annexing it, or, giving up altogether the middle policy of placing a British Resident in Cabal, and abandoning Afghanistan to the anarchy we have produced there ; and this delicate and difficult alternative, is the only fruit of Lord Salisbury's long and elaborate preparations for a more commanding policy in relation to Central Asia.
Lord Hartington contrasts the Tory with the Liberal foreign policy, in relation both to Europe and Asia. The Liberals,. he says, deeply convinced that British interests in Europe. are but rarely of a kind to warrant any risk of war, would dis- approve a policy of military demonstration. "There is no Power in Europe, except England, that has not, during the present century, known the horrors of a foreign invasion," and this, of course, makes her position an unique one, and one, moreover, favourable to the exercise of a disinterested' moral influence on behalf of constitutional freedom, and' of weak and oppressed, but growing and improving, nations. Such an influence Lord Hartington would have the United Kingdom steadily put forth, but he would not let her threaten war on the Continent till she had got a cause in which to fight,. not only intrinsically noble and popular, but also of a kind that admits of being so explained to the people at largo that it would rally all the energies of England to its standard. For any less clear cause, Great Britain should not threaten war,. except where the large interests of her own great empire, and free communication with her dependencies, are obviottsly and clearly involved. Such is Lord Hartington's outline of the ideal character of the British foreign policy, and one more. strongly contrasted with that of the present Government cart hardly be conceived. The latter has been threatening to friendly Governments and hostile to weak peoples. The former would be friendly to friendly Governments, and devoted to the spread of constitutional independence and liberty. And as a conse- quence of such a foreign policy, Lord Hartington would find time for an active development of our domestic institutions, and the rescue of our present incompetent and degenerate, finance from the condition of cowardice and confusion into. which it is steadily lapsing.
Now, the chief characteristic of these speeches of Lord Hartington's, is that while they are clear and vigorous, they are not of an exciting character. They distinctly exhort the country to a policy far soberer, far less ostentatious, far' more simple and solid and within our reach, than that which it has been recently pursuing. Lord Hartington gives fair notice that if he and his friends should obtain power, they. will try to put an end to a policy of "demonstration," and only pretend to do what they mean really to do and to abide by ; that they will not sign conventions which,. after they have made a great sensation in the world, re- main dead-letters ; that they will not seize islands for which they have no use, beyond the melodramatic effect pro- duced by seizing them ; that they will not rectify frontiers,. when the rectification only forces them into new wars, instead of guarding against old dangers ;—that they will not use mischievous puppets as their instruments to carry out great policies ; and in general, will not defy Governments which they do not intend even to resist. Now, there is nothing exciting to the popular imagination in this string of negatives, and still less is the positive sketch given by Lord Hartingtom of the true foreign policy, one of an exciting nature. He thinks. it should be, for the most part, limited in Europe to the steady exertion of a cordial moral influence in favour of popular and constitutional governments, and on behalf of weak and yet. growing nations ; and that the great reserve of our power should be carefully stored and hoarded for really critical occasions, and for the firm defence of the long line of communications between, the different members of our vast empire. This is eminently a sober policy. It would put an end to the recent flourishing& and surprises, and would open anew the laborious work of re- forming our degenerate finance and recasting our own local institutions. Yet these sober speeches seem to have been re- ceived with a more genuine enthusiasm than Lord Salisbury's much headier programme. If there be any signs to which we can trust, the great multitudes which hung not only on Lord Hartington's words, but on the words of the many speakera who addressed subsidiary meetings, were eager for this more manly and sober and self-contained policy. It was no vexa- tion to them to contemplate making a less noisy and andiose appearance on the stage of European and Asiatic politics, so long as they could play a more sincere and simple part. They would. prefer giving a little genuine, but unostentatious, help to, oppressed States, to perpetually throwing down the glove to a great monarchy and then withdrawing it again by private negotiation. Lord Hartington has made no secret of what he desires. He desires a return to plainer and honester ways, and the people appear to be more delighted than ever they were with the flourishes of our Fleets in the Bosphorus, or the hollow threats launched by our diplomatists at Berlin. This is a good sign of the times. Lord Hartington justly said that the interest taken in Parliamentary debate had faded, because it was felt that the issue no longer lies with Parliament,—that it lies with the constituencies. And yet when we go to this wider and more popular field, the desire for sober and simple ways. seems far more enthusiastic than it has ever been in this Parliament. The shifting of the jurisdiction to a more popular Court, results, apparently, in a calmer judgment,—in a far heartier vote, indeed, than we have ever had in the great Council of the nation, for a cessation of all this theatrical bluster, and a return to manly and upright ways. No omen could be better. Lord .Hartington is a modest and straightforward speaker, advocating a modest and straight- forward policy; and the people are all the more eager to give him their support for the modesty and straightforwardness at once of his manner and his meaning,
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