BOOKS.

THE LATE LORD DERBY'S SPEECHES.* IN his admirably just and sympathetic introduction, Mr. Lecky observes that Lord Derby's mind had much of the Whig character, and if that term, which we should be sorry to see disappear from the vocabulary of politics, is taken in a general sense, the description is true enough. But Lord Derby went a long way in the direction of opinions not usually asso-

* Speeches and Addressee of Edward Henry, X1rtli, Earl of Derby. K.G. Selected and Edited by Sir T. H. Sanderson, ILO.B., and E. S. Roscoe. With a Prefatory Memoir by W. E. H. Looky. 2 vols. London : Longnians, Green, and Co. 1,..21.q. elated with Whiggism. In early life he was, according to Greville, a "real and sincere democrat," and throughout life he retained a deep interest in the condition of the working classes, which showed itself in his knowledge of social ques- tions and movements of many kinds. In early life, too, he

was attracted by the doctrines of the Manchester School, a type of Liberalism peculiarly uncongenial to the Whigs of the day; he remained always a great admirer of John Bright, and he will be probably remembered as the most convinced adherent of the Cobdenic school of political thought that the highest rank of statesmanship has produced in this country. Peace, Free-trade, and Economy were his guiding political ideas. " We used to argue," he once said, " that peace could only be secured by the establishment of Free- trade. It is now, perhaps, nearer the truth to assert that Free-trade cannot exist until you have a policy of peace. Thai they will both come, I have no doubt. If I doubted it, I should despair of the future." Hatred of war and belief in Free. trade were not with him, as with so many, mere phrases. When he was Foreign Secretary, he carried his love of peace to the point of enfeebling his action as a practical statesman, and sacrificing the certainty of his succession to the place of Prime Minister ; a great landlord, he yet in all his speeches on the ever-deepening agricultural depression, habitually declared the impossibility and undesirability of a return to Protection.

A sound economist, and guided to a remarkable extent by consistent principles in politics, he was in no respect a doctrinaire, differing in this respect from many of the school whose ideas he shared, and his thoroughly English love of facts and detail enabled him to appeal with force and effect to minds which consideration of theory do not appeal to, always a majority in an English audience. Even such a subject as the State ownership of railways, he treats in a studiously fair and open spirit, examining figures and pre- cedents with apparently no a priori bias on the Free-trade side. Freedom of contract is apt to be a fetish with the typical Free-trader. This is how he treats the subject :-

" We sometimes hear it said, Freedom to contract is all nonsense ; the parties are on too unequal terms ; the law must step in to protect the weaker side.' Now I do not meet that argument by a denial of the right of the State to interfere. It is very difficult to set bounds to the abstract rights of the State. If Parliament may take from me as much as it pleases of my land to make a railway, it may undoubtedly assume a right to deekl'e on what terms I shall lot my farms. But the practical objections to legislative interference with contracts are exceedingly strong7 (II., 19.) Speaking as he always did out of the fullness of knowledge and thought, Lord Derby's speeches stand the test of pub- lication far better than many which depend for their effect upon rhetoric. Their severe reasonableness had, no doubt, greater effect at the moment of their delivery in the heat of some party conflict when most men had ceased to think calmly; read in cooler moments they are so obviously right in tone and expression that they appear almost commonplace.

We venture to say that nine men out of ten would agree with every word in them, and would be apt accordingly to under- value the combination of qualities which produced them. That they would be wrong in doing so, we feel no doubt, and it is impossible not to feel that the loss of so convincing and authoritative an exponent of sound views is an irreparable one in times when class and party feeling increasingly exaggerate

points of difference, and embitter and obscure controversy. It would be a great thing, for instance, to have in our midst

a statesman to whom men would listen, and who would dare to say, with Lord Derby's felicity, sympathy, and precision, what all would feel to be the truth about that famous and misleading catchword, the "living wage." We must console ourselves with the knowledge that these volumes will be a mine of wisdom available for politicians. No public man since Cobden died has had the same grasp of principle to guide him through the mazes of labour politics, and the same instinctive

sympathy with the needs of common men, and none since Cobden have had the art of so persuading and convincing their judgment. Lord Derby wanted, indeed, imagination; initiation, decision,—qualities which Cobden had ; but on the other hand, his position and training gave him the advantage over Cobden in a wider range of knowledge and experience and a greater freedom from prejudice.

It is difficult to give any idea by quotation of such speeches as we have endeavoured to describe, but we may look at some of Lord Derby's utterances about agriculture, a subject to, which he naturally gave much attention, and upon which he was often called to speak. He was, we are told, an admirable man of business, and managed his vast estates with skill and success. But he was more than a good administrator. "In many long walks with him through his property," says Mr. Lecky, " I was always struck with the evident pleasure with which he was welcomed by his people, the fullness of know- ledge and kindness of interest with which he inquired into the

circumstances of every tenant I have known few men in whom the desire to make every one about them happy was so strongly and clearly marked."

It is a singular proof, as Lord Derby remarked in 1887, of the elasticity and financial strength of the community as a whole, that it has borne with so little apparent injury the ." heavy and even tremendous blows which have fallen on the greatest as well as the oldest of all our industries," and in the same speech he summed up the advantages which the country still possesses in the following words :-

" We have a good working climate, a laborious population, an insatiable market, capital in abundance, and greater handiness in the use of machinery than any other people in the world, except the Americans, a love of the land and country life among all classes ; and if with all these advantages we cannot hold our own we must be very much changed from those who have gone before us." (II., 179.)

By 1891, however, things were worse instead of better, and the speaker does not attempt consolation, giving instead a summary of the causes which had been at work, and which currency reformers alone will find incomplete :-

(1.) The increased and constantly increasing facilities of communication, which destroy the natural protection given to native products by distance. (2.) The demand of labourers everywhere for higher wages, better accommodation, and more of the pleasures and conveniences of life, which necessarily cost money. (3.) A. growing impatience for larger returns than money can give, and, I am afraid, an increasing preference for speculation over the slower processes of industry and saving. (4.) A. certain uneasiness and distrust of what Parliament may llo, which leads many people to prefer investments which they can get out of at short notice, and which are less under the control of legislation than land is ; besides another feeling, nearly akin to that of which I have been speaking, which makes men desire rather to conceal than display their possessions, conceal. .went being obviously impossible in the case of land. It seems only reasonable to expect that these tendencies will increase rather than diminish with the progress of time."

The last-mentioned cause he had singled out in previous years. "The one fatal thing is uncertainty, suspense through not knowing what is going to happen. I am sure that the feeling of uncertainty is at this moment checking a great deal of improvement which landowners would otherwise be willing to make." It is easy to guess what Lord Derby would have thought of the choice of the present moment for legislation which will inevitably complete the process by which the most useful class of landowners, the resident squires, who depend on their rents and live on their properties, are rapidly being crushed out of existence ; a process of which the deplorable .effects upon the distribution and upon the well-being of the agricultural population of the country are now evident. Lord Derby had "no magical remedy" to propose, only the old story of patience and perseverance, freedom from legislative interference, and a reform of the system of rating, which this year's Budget has made pressing and imperative, as a mere act of justice.

Many people take comfort in thinking that if the present system of agriculture is doomed to extinction, another better adapted to modern conditions will take its place. Lord Derby had no belief in the alternatives proposed. He had little hope that small proprietors would be able to hold their own.

"I greatly doubt whether, without exceptional capacity, or exceptional opportunities, the owner of ton, fifteen, or even twenty acres, will be able to hold his own against the com- petition of larger capital and better appliances, and against the temptation of ready money if he is pressed to sell." (II., 268.) Of the other alternative, " what is vaguely called nationali- sation of the land," he spoke as follows :— " No two people agree as to what they mean by the phrase, except that the land is to be taken from its present owners. But one may ask the promoters of such schemes, do you mean to pay fairly for what you take or not ? If they do they will make a very bad bargain for the State ; if they do not, the plunder, enormous as it might be, would not be enough to make up for the shaking of public confidence which follows on every act of confiscation. Let owners once feel that they are no more secure than in Turkey, or in Persia, and they will be just as ready to invest capital in improvements as they are in these countries,— that is, they will not do it at all." (II., 269.) We have singled out, to the exclusion unfortunately of many other topics, some of Lord Derby's observations upon a great subject with which he was intimately acquainted, because it affords a good example of his habit of facing facts, and analysing situations, however discouraging, without panic, and without yielding to wild counsels of remedies worse than the disease.

We have left ourselves no space to speak of Lord Derby's strictly political career, save to remark upon the singular irony which led him to throw in his lot with the Liberal party just when that party was beginning to break finally with all ideas which had attracted him to it, and upon his advocacy of which, as we have indicated, his fame as a political philosopher will principally rest.