TOPICS OF THE DAY.
LORD ROSEBERY AT THE MEETING OF THE WAYS.
TORD ROSEBERY has come to the point for which J politicians of his stamp feel a rather active dislike, —the point where two ways meet and he is bound to take one of them, when he would much rather follow both, if that were not unfortunately forbidden by what Carlyle used to call " the everlasting No." He is called upon by Mr. Labouchere, in the most imperious accents, to say whether be will endorse the view of the Leeds Conference on the House of Lords question, or will not endorse it, and is tenderly advised, in the latter event, to give up the Premiership to Sir William Harcourt, and retire into what Mr. Labouchere evidently regards as the political obscurity for which he is best fitted. If Mr. Labouchere alone insisted on his making his choice, and adhering in unmistakable language to that choice, whether it were the choice of the Leeds Conference or not, it would not so much matter. Mr. Labouchere is not a power of the first significance in politics. But when Lord. Rose- bery's most powerful champion in the Press, — the Daily Chronicle, — also insists on it that the time has come to speak out in quite unmistakable tones, and declare for war with the House of Lords, if he wishes to retain the confidence of the Liberal party, the situation becomes more serious. It is true that the Daily Chronicle does not show the least tenderness for Sir William Harcourt, and even rebukes him somewhat sternly for his " slip on the turf " in forcing a sneer at Lord Rosebery's racing tastes into his final speech on the Budget ; but none the less the Daily Chronicle will hear of nothing of the nature of compromise in relation to the fight with the Lords, and if Lord Rosebery does not come out boldly and unmistakably on that subject, we suppose that it would find itself compelled,—much against the grain,—to throw over Lord Rosebery, and either take up with the House of Commons' leader whose old-fashioned notions about economy it so much dislikes,—or, more probably,— to cry out that Mr. Asquith should be asked to supersede both Sir William Harcourt in the Commons and Lord Rosebery in the Lords. However this may be, the Daily Chronicle is so peremptory as to the absolute necessity of declaring against the Lords, that it must evidently abandon Lord Rosebery, unless Lord Rosebery makes up his mind to lead, and to lead boldly, the crusade against the constitutional privileges of that great historic House. At present, Lord Rosebery has limited himself to describing the declarations of the Leeds Conference as embodying " a valuable opinion" on the subject of the reform of the House of Lords. But evidently that is not what the Radicals want. Lord Rosebery, on the first reading of the Aliens Bill, appeared to think Lord Salisbury's opinion on the treatment of aliens " a valuable opinion," though when he came to the second reading, he attacked it root and branch. To have called the Leeds declaration, therefore, " a valuable opinion," does not commit Lord Rosebery to any specific action ; and what the Socialistic Radicals, no less than the old political Radicals, desire, is not the mild ap- probation of a detached intellect, but the promise of sturdy and energetic support. Lord Rosebery must either pledge the Government to this sturdy and energetic support of the policy of the Leeds Conference, or he will lose not only the support of the Labouchere Radicals in the House of Commons, but the invaluable help which the socialistic Radicals give him in the Press. And Lord Rosebery is lost if he alienates at one stroke both these factors in the Liberal party. Yet is he not more inevitably lost, if he swallows Mr. Labouchere's test and becomes the vigorous mouthpiece of the crusade against the Peers ? Lord Rosebery is per- fectly well aware that Mr. Gladstone was much too eager a leader to keep the party well together. He himself has hitherto steadily avoided. that mistake. What he loves to do is to defend the Liberal party's programme on oppor- tunist principles and to discourage all knight-errantry. He tried to do this on the Irish question on more than one occasion, and found out that his nonchalance was not at all kindly taken. He tried to make it evident that he wished to wait till the " predominant partner " in the United. Kingdom was convinced, before bringing forward Irish Home-rule, again ; but the Irishmen immediately determined to wean him from that, to them, very offensive' disposition. Next he ventured to reproach the Labour party for not following their leader, and the Labour party rose in insurrection at once, and did all in their power to lose him the seat which Lord Coleridge's death had vacated in the Attercliffe Division of Sheffield. He tried to appease the insatiability of the various groups of which his party is composed by assuring them that he greatly approved of groups, if only they would. unite whenever there was any danger for the party flag. But his complaisance was not at all kindly taken, and the Welsh group were very near deserting him till they got a pledge, which will probably be the most serious of the difficulties with which the next Session must begin, that Welsh Disestablishment should stand first in the Liberal programme for next year. In a. word, Lord Rosebery has endeavoured to do by adroitness what can only be done, if at all, by the union of a lofty character with a dominant will. Mere adroitness will not do. Sir William Harcourt will never yield to mere adroit- ness which he must well know has no backing in pro- found earnestness or conviction. Mr. Gladstone and Lord. Salisbury have both wielded a kind of authority to which Lord Rosebery can lay uo sort of claim. Besides his unfor- tunate position as a Member of the House of Lords, he has neither the experience nor the tenacity of purpose, nor the depth of conviction that are needful. He is like the driver of a tandem of which the leading horse is a, very powerful and self-willed animal,—one over which the reins give him no power while he is without a whip. And now he is come to the point when he must either take command without the necessary power, or give up the pre- tence of guidance altogether. No doubt Lord Rosebery will go where the strongest men of his party require him to go. But his heart will not go with them. He will always be saying what doe& not satisfy them, and obliged to do what does not satisfy himself. He will be haled any to a struggle with the' Peers in which he only half believes, and in which he is quite aware that the greater part of the English nation. does not at the present moment believe at all. As we have said, what he would really do, if he were quite free,. would be to hesitate between the two divergent roads, to travel sometimes on one of them and sometimes on the other, and so to combine the disadvantages of both. He would threaten the Lords to-day, curb the Commons to-morrow, and find that he had upset the coach the next day. That would be his natural disposition. But he will be kept to the stronger policy, without thoroughly believing in it, while his natural shrewdness as a man of the world, will make him see clearly that the " predominant partner " has no sort of fancy for a revolution of which the only effect must be to embark this country on a policy as alien to its own instincts as it would. be to those of the Upper House which it is asked. to sweep away. Lord Rosebery has none of the gifts of a revolutionary leader. As a politician he believes more in tact than in force, and there is no grim- ness of purpose about him. But a revolution needs force,. and needs force at the head. It is a situation in which finesse will do nothing, and yet Lord Rosebery's forte is finesse. Even sheer force of will without very deep and sagacious conviction would most likely fail, but Lord Rosebery has shown very little force of will, and no depth of conviction at all. At every political crisis he seems to feel the strength of his opponents'' position much more vividly than he feels his own. He has a good. deal of address but no passion and no mastery in dealing with men. His shrewdness only weakens him, for it makes him see clearly how great are the forces against which he is compelled to fight by the will of others, and not by his own. He knows as well as possible that an attack on the Lords, especially if he leads. it, will be a failure, that the heart of the country is not in it, and that the vigorous moderation which Englishmen love is at present on the side of the ancient institution which he is required to storm. If he refuses to attack, he will be dethroned. by his followers. If he consents, he will be rejected by the nation. And in either case alike, what he himself contributes to the fight will be of very' little significance, not enough to count as a factor in the result. That is a very discouraging position for him, and_ yet he cannot avoid seeing that he must now choose for. himself whether he will break with his party or whether his party shall master him. In neither case will he w n. any great success. But in the former case he wou'd acting as his own shrewd and moderate diplomatic mind prompts him to act. In the latter case he would be drawn into the maelstrom of an agitation in the wisdom of which he ,has no confidence, while, once sucked into its whirl- pool, he would have no hope of continuing to be his own distinct and genuine self.
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