THE TRAINING OF ELDEST SONS.
LORD CRANBORNE, the eldest son of the younger branch of the Cecils, the branch of which Lord Salisbury is the head, came of age on the 23rd inst., and the journals, with the kindness for the great families which never dies out in England, treat the incident as an event, describe the festivities at Hat- field at full length, and express in different ways a hope that Lord Cranborne will speedily embark on a political career. We can quite agree in the hope, for we hold that so long as the aristocratic system exists, it is best that the heads of the great Houses should take a great part in politics, should help to shield us from the thirst for pecuniary gain.which is the temptation of ,democracy, but to which only one aristocracy, the Roman, ever succumbed ; and should give to the State some service, in return for the exceptional and, as regards their right of legislation, the irrational privileges they enjoy. °coterie pcuribus, Englishmen prefer Cecil to. Smith, and there is a good deal to be said for a penchant which strikes the Radicals of the Continent as being of all the English oddities perhaps the most unintelligible. But we should have liked to have seen among the numerous comments upon Hatfield, and the doings there, a word written upon the subject of training for English political life. Is no such thing possible, and if not, why not P There are, roughly speaking, at least a thousand families in England, taking peers, great squires like Sir T. Acland, and influential millionaires together, whose highest secret pride is that their sons will enjoy either a special position in politics or a special chance of succeeding in political life, and who would, if they could, give those sons something of special training.for that work. Yet we rarely hear that they do give it, and never hear of the existence of any general or received opinion as to the best method of giving it. Indeed, we should say there was a very general belief that no method of training was expe- dient, or even possible ; that the boys intended to govern men must be educated like the boys not intended, and that one sys- tem of training will be found about as good as another. Certainly, no separate system is adopted. The ancient device of making the sons of great men pages in statesmen's houses is entirely dead, and has not been superseded by any other. The lads who are to go to the front in Parliament, if they can, are sent, like others, to Eton or Harrow, to Oxford or Cambridge, plunge for a moment into "Society," and then, if opportunity serves, are brought forward as candidates for political life, sometimes appearing on. the hustings less qualified than the majority of their compeers. The head of the elder branch of the Cecile, for example, was chosen in 1877 Member for a county, after honestly confessing his profound ignorance of some of the simplest questions with which he would have to deal, and making speeches which would have squelched any John Smith whatever. The consequence of this failure is that theyou ng scarcely reach the House of Commons, and when they do, make scarcely any visible impression there. There are no bands of boys in the House as there were in Pitt's time; boys are never even mentioned for high office; and the only " boy " in the House with considerable position is Lord Randolph Churchill, who is thought of all over the country as a quick and promising lad, but who is already thirty-three—ten years older than Pitt in his first Premiership, two years older than Shelley when he died, as old as M. Gambetta when he was Dictator of France.
There must be some defect in the method of training, though it is hard to decide where it is. The fathers are probably right in thinking that a special education for politics would not do, would either produce a distaste for them, as a religious edu- cation frequently does for religious observances, or would developo the tendency to priggishness which is latent in the majority of the capable while they are very young. That certainly was the result in the case of Sir Robert Peel, who was bred by his father for the Premiership, and who, though he be- came a great Premier, remained through life unsociable, prig- gish, and shy. The " usual " education must be best for those who are to influence their kind, even Lord Beaconsfield owing something of his great impediment, his difficulty in quickly comprehending the instinctive feelings of Englishmen, to the separateness of his bringing-up. He never was at school or college, and was talking epigrams in a library when most lads are skylarking in the playing-fields ; and though he gained from his father's talk much intellectual advantage, owed to his seclu- sion many of his earlier mistakes, especially the preposterous vehemence of his language. We are not quite sure, however, that the "usual" education might not, in the case of such lads, be made to include that knowledge of modern history which is in this country so carefully and dexterously ignored at school and college, till even the Prince of Wales, in an early speech, spoke of "my ancestor," Queen Elizabeth ; and we are quite sure that they would benefit immensely by being taught both to write and to speak with ease. Ability being assumed, a lad can be taught to write simply and say what he has to say in public with easy clearness long before he is twenty-one, and is so taught in America, and in some political circles in France. The Debating Clubs both in the Public Schools and the Univer- sities could, with a little pressure from influential fathers, be far more utilised than they are, and the notion that they tend to shallow thinking is only a perversity. The favourites of the Oxford Union have not proved shallow men, and those who have entered Parlia- ment as boys, like Charles Fox and Mr. Gladstone, have often been distinguished for acumen and thought, as well as oratory. Fox in particular, who was seated illegally before he was quite of ago, was a thinker, and will, a century hence, have a far higher position than he has now, when we can Hardly see him for the graces and vices on the surface of his personality. His wisdom, like his eloquence, is half lost in the still audible rattle of his dice-box. Those changes—the utilisation of the means of learn- ing to speak easily, and more attention to history—are, we think, the only practical improvements in the training of boyhood possible to lads intended for statesmen, but after boyhood there must be many more. Travel, to begin with, should be made more educating, by being made a little wider. The old notion. that the Grand Tour was essential to a gentleman of degree had wisdom in it, though so many lads learned in their travels nothing but foreign vices, and the Grand Tour noiv in- cludes India and the whole of English-speaking man- kind. There is an idea abroad that it is uninstructive to wander, but we never saw the lad yet who was not instructed by seeing political life in America, though we admit the grandees' idea that their sons, if they visit Washington, are sure to marry American girls, has some truth in it; but two Colonists, at least, are Cabinet Ministers ; the author of "Greater Britain" may be Premier some day, and the time—one cold weather—which Lord Derby spent in India distinctly facilitated his career. He did not see "India," of course—nobody ever does, least of all the Anglo-Indians—but he talked on the spot to the most experienced men, who know quite well what sort of " boys" it is worth their while to educate in their own knowledge. We take it, travel may be made training for the great, and there are worse people about than the "Lady of Bethany," even if an Eva were always sure to cross the path of a Tan cred, and produce a complication not to be solved even by Lord Beaconsfield's high audacity.
But after the travel, what then P There is some kind of apprenticeship open to all professional men, even to journalists or clergymen, though the former seldom learn anything, and the latter got out of heart ; but it is said there is none for politicians. That may be true, but we doubt it, and should rather say there was none open that the political youngsters .exactly liked. There is municipal life, to begin with. That is never tried, yet we suspect the councils of the great cities are at least as open to eldest sons as they were to Mr. Chamberlain, the" wards" having a distinct liking for young lads of position who will interest themselves in city affairs. In the two other countries of Europe where the nobles try to keep in front, Germany and Italy, nobody despises local work, and men with historic names accept and work in the Mayor's sash or gown. In 1869 or 1870 the Mayors of Italy might have had a Libre d' Oro all to themselves, and under the Second Empire every fourth or fifth Maire represented some great house. The notion that there is any difficulty for such men in getting elected is purely imagin- ary, as Lord Cranborne will very soon discover, if he puts up his name for either St. George's or Stepney, as he likes. Let him try Stepney, for choice; and learn what East London wants for only a single year. The neglect of this kind of work and training is neither kindly nor wise, and there is another, not nearly so pleasant, which might prove at least as good. The old device, the pageship, is still possible, under now conditions, and is occasionally adopted, though under singular limitations. It seems to be within etiquette for anybody, however important, either through rank or wealth, to become private secretary to any Minister, but outside etiquette for him to de- scend lower. What is the defence of that idea, which has for all ambitious lads this disadvantage, that the very best method of learning practical politics, short of entering the House of Com- mons, is closed to them, unless their own party is in power ? Any prominent Member who would take a little trouble could teach nearly as much as a Member as he could as Minister; while the subordinate, worrying, vexing work, which so trains the temper and so cultivates experience, is as instructive as ever. With a capable chief who intends to help, there is no discipline like a secretaryship, whether the object is to learn polities or the management of estates, and it must be always open to the lads to whom careers are open early. The neglect of such training, once considered the most honourable of all, is due to love of ease ; and to keep that down is the first condition for success in the struggle of English life, in which leisure is now the only not per- mitted blessing. Of course, if the House is open, the House is the best apprenticeship of all ; and the only doubt to be settled is whether it is better for the young Member to learn in silence, or to do as Fox did, and weary mankind by using the Honks as a kind of intellectual exercising-ground. On the whole, we should say tlfe latter was the wiser course, if only the youngster has something of any kind to say, and is not posi- tively disagreeable to the House, for of all training, the work of "getting up" subjects is that whioh developes readiness most effectually. It is the work of the Junior Bar, and that is their quality, and none can be of more use to the man who hopes, through debate, one day to be able to act upon English history.
After all, England is governed in the main by well-directed tongue; and it is skill in debate, not skill in governing, which makes of Lord Salisbury the leader of a historic party.
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