TOPICS OF THE DAY.
LORD ROSEBERY AT SCARBOROUGH.
NOTHING comes out so clearly in Lord Rosebery's speech at Scarborough, on October 18th, as that the dominant feeling of the Radical party is still one of bewilderment. They cannot understand why they were beaten, or decide on the explanation which will hurt them least., or make up their minds as to what it is best for them to do in the immediate future. They looked, there- fore, to the leader, and loudly proclaimed their conviction— or was it only their hope—that, after he had spoken, the party would feel itself once more in the position of a party with a purpose. The hope was not unreasonable either, for no leader ever had a better chance given him of re- viving and rebinding a defeated, and therefore dispirited, army, and at the same time of rehabilitating his own prestige. Lord Rosebery at Scarborough was speaking for the first time after the Elections, free alike from the trammels of office and from that pressure of his colleagues' opinions which his admirers still protest so damped, while his Government lasted, the originality of his views. He was still leader, he was at liberty to say what he pleased, and there was even a wish that he would break loose, and at the risk of offending sections of his party, offer a policy to that immense and solid body of convinced Liberals who, as Lord Rosebery proudly asserted, are not dead, and who, we who are Unionists can add with both cordiality and conviction, will never die. If Lord Rosebery could have uttered a speech which lifted the hearts of his party, if he could have sketched out any course of action, if he could have given even a cue for the hour immediately upon us, he would have remade his position, have been hailed again as the real as well as nominal leader on his own side, and have been able to say with some imperiousness to carping colleagues and doubt- ful adherents outside, "These are my views, gentlemen, and I lead." Lord Rosebery, however, is just as be- wildered as the remainder of his party. He does not know, to begin with, whether he ought to lead, or any- body else, but doubts whether "the preparation of the next Liberal victory "—the preparation, mind, not the winning — " will not rest more with those in the country than those in Parliament." The man in the street is to give the cue, and the Liberal leaders are to take it up. He himself is not to command his army, but only to " voice " the strategy it approves. As to the causes of the defeat, he had no matured opinion at all, but thought aloud in the most curious, irresolute, reflective sort of way. Was it, perhaps, Lord Rosebery seems to be asking himself, the " gullibility " of the electors who were taken in by promises ? Yes ; it may have been that. Or was it that Mr. Gladstone's lieutenants were all inferior men, that when the great forest-tree was re- moved, it was "found that the trees which had grown up under its shadow had been overshadowed by it," and were consequently — Lord Rosebery abstains in courtesy from saying this—rather a spindly lot, with- out much timber in them ? It may have been that. Or was it that the English masses did ilot care much about distant compatriots, or about the Disestablishment of the Church in Wales, or the establishment of Home-rule in Ireland ? It may have been that. Or again, was it that the programmes were too heavy and too numerous, that "all the notes of the piano were struck at once," with discord for the result ; Lord Rosebery is very much inclined to think it may have been that ; and that his own pet programme, the sweeping away of the obstructive power of the House of Lords as the first task to be accomplished, would have been highly preferable; but be is not quite sure, for his final doubt is whether the defeat was not after all deserved for some fault not dis- covered. The mass of the nation, whom with one side of his mind he thinks "gullible," appear to the other side of his mind as full of "shrewd collective common- sense," and he is inclined to believe that "if that common-sense has rejected us, it is because uncon- sciously, and in some way of which we were not aware, we had deserved that rejection." Is it a great states- man who is talking, or is it that matchless creation of George Eliot's genius, the viewy, undecided, intellec- tually timorous, yet intellectually rash, Mr. Brooke ? We entirely recognise Lord Rosebery's wish to be fair, and his intention, as he acknowledged, to be before all things frank ; but his is the fairness which we often find in the undecided, the frankness of the Lord Dudley who used to consult himself, out loud, as to the necessity of asking a friend to dinner.
If any Liberal can find in that speech anything to inspirit him, any "clear bugle-note," as the Daily Chronicle describes the signal it wants and has not received, he has a power of appreciation which to us has. not been granted. And we want to appreciate, too, for we bailed Lord Rosebery's election to the leadership as a hopeful move, and have no wish whatever to see the great party to which England and the world owes so much fall into a condition of melancholy listlessness, still less to see it split into the groups into which, if the leaders cannot or will not lead, it will inevitably be disintegrated. The faddists did not succeed, it is true, in the Election ; but when the Commander-in-Chief is unfelt, every General of Division is sure to develop an " objective " as well as a strategy of his own. Lord Rosebery inspires us with no hope and no fear, and we do not believe that he will inspire the body of his followers. It is true that he did give them one word of distinct counsel, which was to keep on doing nothing but criticise until the psychological moment arrived, and if every British elector was a literary man, that might be wise advice ; but as he is not, but, on the contrary, a man. brutally eager to see something done, he will not gain from it any new impetus to exertion. It is also true that Lord. Rosebery did give one hint which might, under other circumstances, reinvigorate his party, namely, to resist any proposal the Government might make to render education more denominational; but that will not, we believe, wake up the sleeping lion. Lord Rosebery is deceived about education, as Sir William Harcourt was deceived about the Veto Bill, by confusing the ideas of the bustling members of the party with the ideas of the mass of the electors. He would probably find in Scar- borough, or anywhere else, that the dozen most " ener- getic " and " convinced " and talkative unpaid agents of the party were all hostile at once to denominationalism and the liquor-trade ; but that is not the opinion of the quiet masses, who desire their beer to be brought close to them, and who wish education to have a strong flavour- of religion and morality about it. They want their children to be taught something substantial ; and they want them to be decent folk after the old standard—which. is respectability, resting on a basis of belief—and whether the teaching force comes from the Board-school or from. the parson's school, they do not care one straw. The Radicals will get nothing out of that question except an endless quantity of debate ; and Lord Rosebery, in suggesting that this may be the lever to turn the Government out, only shows how difficult it is for a man in his position to enter into the feelings of the common folk. He is bemused by the excited language of a minute body of voluntary agents, and, we may add, by an equally minute body of journalists who are almost compelled by their profession to think that, if intelligence has but been developed, all has been secured that a nation needs. There is very little, Lord Rosebery will find, in this hint, even if it is caught at rather eagerly —unless, indeed, all Unionists go mad and sit at the -Ultra-Churchmen's feet, than which we know nothing more improbable—and we have searched his speech in vain for another. He is, in truth, a little bewildered, like his followers, and does not know what to say, and although that is a very natural attitude of mind, and one entirely undeserving of rebuke, still it is not very inspiriting to dispirited men. An essay on the natural- ness of Liberalism, as well as Conservatism, and its charm not only for the discontented, but also for all who are young, together probably a majority in the State, would have had a more rousing effect, particularly if Lord Rosebery had been able to say what he carefully avoided saying,—" I also am Liberal down to my bones ; and in every forward movement, though it should involve years of battle, if you will follow, I will lead." He wants, he admits it himself, to be in the centre of the rush, to be carried along by "the country," and it is only in Asia that people honestly consider this the leader's proper place. Look at all popular pictures, even of sea- fights. The captain with his drawn sword is always at least a pace ahead.
Previous page
