LORD HARTINGTON IN THE CITY.
THE chief value, though not the only value, of Lord Hartington's speeches of Wednesday in the City, consists in the revelation they contain of himself and his loftiness alike of character and of view. It was like the man who yawned in the middle of one of his own speeches, "because," he said, "it was so dull," to express surprise that he should receive the freedom of the City, and so be classed with statesmen with whom he was unworthy to be reckoned ; like him to suppose that he deserved no credit for his labours, because "he had not been tempted by the possession of any extraordinary gifts to seek in politics for personal advantage or personal distinction," and cankl therefore only devote himself to public duty ; like him to suppose that because he had done only administra- tive work for thirty years, he was hardly the equal of men who had linked their names with historical measures or illustrious achievements. In other men, such sentences, uttered from such a position and under such circumstances, would savour of affectation, or at least of the pride that apes humility ; but all who heard him recog- nised that they were sincere, and that Lord Hartington honestly thinks he has done the work which fell to him as well as he could, and has done no more, the greatness of the work being no credit of his. He saved the Kingdom from dismemberment, that being the day's duty, just as he would have saved a family from a fire, had that task fallen in his way. It is not because he under- rates his work that he describes it with such pathetic simplicity, but because he is big enough to consider such work his natural occupation. It is natural to a man of that unselfish temper to consider the claims of party connec- tion as almost irresistibly binding, as indispensable, in fact, to the nation, and therefore to break away from them with difficulty and pain. Lord Hartin,gton acknowledges that he had scruples before the Irish Question arose, but having in him no well-spring of jealousy, no wish to be separate from his comrades, no necessity for fretful self-assertion, he forebore, until at last the occasion arose which compelled him to be himself, or fall into an excess of servitude. Then, at last, and with reluctance, he acted, with what results we all know. Lord Hartington rarely speaks in public of himself or his own motives, and abstains from the self-analysis so tempting to the self-conscious ; and on this occasion, when he has broken his rule, his speech, which is no defence of his course, but only a description of it, is full of an uncon- scious magnanimity, which displays itself again in his treatment of his foes. He does not descend to abuse of the Parnellites, but simply says he has no confidence in them. "It is unnecessary to impugn their character or their motives ; it is unnecessary to go behind their public utterances ; but the men to whom I refer have never pro- fessed friendship for Great Britain or for the people of Great Britain. They have never disguised their sympathy with the enemies of Great Britain. Their doctrines have been denounced as doctrines of public plunder ; their methods in Parliament have been denounced as hostile to Parliamentary government in any shape or form ; their methods of agitation in Ireland have been denounced by our own leaders as destructive of every form and principle of social order." Therefore—and surely the reasons are sufficient—Lord Hartington cannot work any longer with the sworn allies of the Parnellites. Was ever a reason for secession from a party more tranquilly stated or more finally conclusive ?
It was like Lord Hartington, again, to devote most of his time, in his first speech of Wednesday, to a grave and lofty panegyric of the historic action of Parliament since the Union. Most men would have thought such an utter- ance unnecessary or beside the question, and would have turned to one of the endless details of the burning contro- versy; but the conduct of Parliament, however tedious it may seem to describe it, involves the very essence of the struggle. Parliament is the true ruler ; and if the Par- liament has been bad, if, above all, it has intended evil, then Ireland may be justified in seeking to throw off its misguiding or its languid authority. But it is not so. Lord Hartington has been a leading Member of Parliament for thirty years, and here is his deliberate testimony With all the shortcomings which we can attribute to ourselves, I think we may say that there is much that has taken place within the last quarter of a century to which all those who have borne a part, however humble, in the government and administration of the country can look back with feelings of satisfaction. It is true that the great and decisive battles which established, settled, decided the fate of such questions as religious freedom, the free- dom of trade, and the rights of the people to representation in Parliament, had been fought before my time. But at least we may claim that we have completed and consolidated what had been won in those great victories. The last relic of sectarian exclusiveness was removed by the admission of the Jews to Parliament, in which the City of London bore so distinguished a part. The fiscal reforms of Mr. Gladstone have completed the Free-trade system inaugurated by Sir Robert Peel, and have, in my opinion, enor- mously improved the material prosperity of every class in this country. The basis upon which our institutions rest has been strengthened by the extension to all classes of the country of a complete system of voluntary education, and the interest in and the election for the Government under which they live has been increased by the successive extensions of the electoral franchise—the work not of one party alone, but of both parties, as proved in the great measures of 1867 and 1885. And now we may hope, we have every reason to hope, that these beneficial extensions of democratic power are about to receive their crowning development in a liberal extension of larger powers of local self-government to all classes of the community. Gentle- men, the time would not permit me to dwell upon, to attempt to give you even the slightest sketch of the history of the years to which I have referred. But I think that I may say that such a history would record an earnest desire on the part of Parliament and of Governments, and in general a successful effort, to recog- nise the rights, to improve the condition, to lighten the burdens, and to brighten the lives of the mass of the population, who had, perhaps, up to a recent period received less of the care and atten- tion of Parliament than they have lately done It would be wrong and false to say that all that has been accomplished in recent years, all the good to which I have referred, which I think has been done in the last quarter of a century, has been the work of Parliament alone. Public opinion has done much, an extended and a higher education of all classes has done much, the influence of the Press has done much ; but Parliament has been the instrument through which all these beneficial
reforms to which I have referred have been accomplished ; and we are anxious and desirous, above all things, that the authority, the power, and the influence of that Parliament, which has hitherto done so much and which we believe is still capable of doing more. should remain unimpaired."
It is this body, thus earnestly anxious to do its duty, the authority of which the seceders of Ireland are especially anxious to throw off. It is Parliament they hate as much or more than England, as is shown in their efforts to degrade and ruin it while still sitting within its walls and employing its authority to redress their grievances. And, finally, it is natural for Lord Hartington to go at once to the very root of the question, and tell Ireland that the long struggle of seven centuries is drawing to an end, and that the issues for her are independence or a cordial union. The one thing she is not and cannot be, is a Colony. Which issue will be chosen, Lord Harting- ton cannot predict, for it depends wholly upon the action of the British democracy. If they are strong ; "if they inherit the imperial and governing instincts which have been transmitted to them by those from whom they have derived their power ; if they have the spirit of their kinsmen across the Atlantic, who, placed under not dissimilar circumstances, refused to consent to the destruc- tion of their Empire,—then they will make the effort, and exercise the patience which is required to govern Ireland, not by the same laws, but by laws founded on the same principles and emanating from the same authority as those under which they themselves live." There is the whole truth, simply stated by a man in whom the people are at last learning fully to confide.
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