SIR GEORGE REID'S REMINISCENCES.*
As one reads Sir George Reid's agreeable if rather slight reminis- cences one cannot help reflecting how much Australia owes to Scotland. The Scots are a race of pioneers. Among no other people does family affection reconcile itself to send forth its fledglings at so early an age to shift for themselves, wring a living from intractable lands, or learn to possess their souls in silence on lonely sheep. walks. Scottish youth seems to say :—
" For we cannot tarry here, We must march, my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger, We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend. Pioneers ! 0 Pioneers ! "
Throughout Sir George Reid's pages Scottish names continually occur, and it is to he remembered that for the moat part ho writes of his countrymen who have distinguished themselves. ,Himself a son of the manse, he was taken to Australia as a child when his father emigrated for his health. In 1852 the family landed in Australia after the customarily long voyage in a sailing ship. Sir George Reid had but little schooling in the new country and entered an office at the early age of thirteen. Although we heartily agree with all that he says about the need of more highly organized educa- tion in Britain, we have to recognize that his own career is not an impressive argument to the point. If every man had the power to educate himself as he went along as Sir George Reid has done, we could leave systems of education to look after themselves. One of the principal means of his self-education was speaking at debating societies. He began this when he was fifteen years old, and what he says about debating societies in general is just and true. They bring out shy youth, expose the arrogant to wholesome snubbing; and draw the members into contact with many subjects. But the time comes when the maturing man must take leave of these things, for if he continue it is as though he wishes to live on savouries instead of on bread. The debating society tends to encourage hair-splitting and rhetoric, witticisms and delusive epigram, rather than the sound material of information. Any one who has returned in later years to the Unions of Oxford and Cam- bridge may have found that the dream had departed and the glory flown. What he once admired he has come to mistrust. Sir George Reid, though grateful to his Australian debating societies, refers to them as emphatically not a model for the man of affairs.
It was always his intention to be called to the Bar, but he delayed so long in passing his preliminary that a would-bo patron—a high legal luminary—informed him at last that he would probably be at the Bar of Heaven before ho presented himself at the Australian Bar. He actually held public office before he passed his preliminary, and then suffered agonies of dread at the prospect of the possible humilia- tion of being ploughed. Both as Secretary of the Crown Law Offices and as an Australian statesman he had much to do with the reform of the Land Laws in New South Wales. He describes the Land Laws, which encouraged indiscriminate settlement, as the worst in the world, and it was long before they were reduced to
• My Reminiscences. By the Right Hon. Sir George Houstoui Reid, C.C.S., &e. With 16 Photogravure Plates. London : Cassell and Co. [16s. net.] system. It is particularly interesting to read his opinion that these laws were the primary origin of bushranging. After entering politics Sir George Reid's advance was rapid. He built up a large practice at the Bar and rushed to the top of the political ladder simultaneously. He neatly retorts on those who gibe at lawyer-poli- ticians that the man whose sole occupation is politics is after all the real " professional " politician. We cannot follow his career through the various stages by which he became Premier of New South Wales (and the chief champion of Free Trade in Australia after Sir Henry Parkes), a protagonist of the Federation of Australia Premier of the Commonwealth, High Commissioner of the Common-
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wealth in Britain, and ultimately an independent Imperialist member of the British House of Commons. His humour always made him one of the most popular characters in Australia, and he refers more than once to the value of humour for the politicia s. We wish that Sir George had recounted the numerous occasions on which he was by no means at a loss for a retort. Some of his " back answers " are still famous in Australia. Another point on which he insists as of value in the equipment of the politician is the power to apologize handsomely. We quite agree. Every one likes the courage of the man who apologizes frankly, yet how few men can conquer their pride at the.right moment ! On the altar of pride they lay all hope of advancement in the estimation of their fellows. They maintain a futile air of infallibility, and lose their dignity in trying to save it. In Australia the opportunities for apology are more numerous than here, as debate runs faster and more furious and is more charged with personalities. Sir George Reid's impressions of the House of Commons, after his Australian experiences, are interesting :— " After thirty years of membership, and twenty of leadership, in Australia, I suppose I ought to have felt quite at home in the House of Commons from the first. But indeed I did not. I felt much more at home in the Strangers' Gallery 1 The fact is, although the forms are very much the same, the difference in the business is almost complete, and so is the difference in the ways of the House of Commons, and so again is the difference between the styles of speaking that take.' I was in that most trying of positions—an old hand in a new world. There are almost as many differences in the precincts of the House as I found in the House itself. I am bound to say that most of the differences were, as might fairly be expected, to the advantage of the Mother of Parliaments. I never saw the power of the Chair or its efficiency more in evidence. The House enjoys Mr. Speaker's sarcastic or humorous touches, which seldom miscarry and never detract from his authority, as they might easily do if he were a less skilful occupant of the Chair. Of course, this War has put the House on its best behaviour. Party strife, and all those unlovely things that come out of it, are con- spicuous by their absence. The speeches, as a rule, do not strike one's ears forcibly at first. In an Australian Parliament there is more eloquence—of sorts—far snore physical emphasis and repeti- tion. Personalities and points of order are not frequent in the House of Commons. They do not form part of the stock in trade of any member so far as I have observed. The style of speaking which catches the ear of the House of Commons is that which suggests information worth having, carefully arranged, tersely expressed, and reasonings that do not soar too high or swerve too much. But, as everybody knows, there have been occasions of great heat which made the House just as excitable and disorderly as the younger Parliaments. When one remembers the large number in England who can afford the heat training for public life from youth upwards, and the numerous chances which the municipal systems of Great Britain offer to talent short of cash, ono's pride in the achievements of the Parliaments beyond the seas is more than ever justified."
Another thing that strikes us in these reminiscences is that the democrat of the Dominions is quite detached in his sentiments from our home politics. Ho by no means accepts the calm assumption of British Radicals or Socialists that they are the true democrats, and that by their standards professing democrats must be judged. In the Dominions there is more genuine trust of the people than here, and it is perfectly Well understood that the people as a whole are for defending themselves stoutly against outside aggression. Sir George Reid was an intense admirer of Gladstone, but nothing could exceed his admiration of Disraeli when the latter sent a fleet into the Dardanelles in 1878. His account of his visit to Gladstone is touching :- " He was then 87 yoars old ; but that grand old face and those piercing oyes were still suggestive of their former power. The conversa- tions were mainly general, but occasionally personal. His knowledge of Imperial affairs was obvious. The only remark he made about his own career was this : Sixty-one years ago I was Under-Secretary for the Colonies ! ' I never will forget the thrill I felt when, in parting, he took me by the hand and said : ' May the Lord cause His face to shine on you and yours ! ' " Sir George Reid describes his meetings with the German Emperor and Lord Kitchener. Of the conversation with the Kaiser lie writes :-
" I ventured to say : What a horrible thing it would be if the German bulldog and the British bulldog got their teeth into one another, allowing some inferior animal to climb over -their mutilated remains ? ' The Emperor's hand flashed from beneath his military cloak, and he exclaimed, Never I Never ! ' My im- pression-then was that the Kaiser looked upon war between Germany and Britain as inconceivable. It has since occurred to me that His Majesty may have scouted the idea that the German bulldog
would, in the event suggested, reach the stage of ` mutilated remains.' " Of Lord Kitchener he says :- "Every time I entered his room I lost every trace of the bustle and pressure of the outside world. I never saw a single paper on any desk in his room. His manner was leisurely, as if he had not a care. If I did not know otherwise I could have believed that he was a country squire in London, for an hour or two. When ho spoke his words were few and distinct. Some thought him cold-hearted, and so he was when he was dealing with incompetents and offenders. His sense of duty was supreme. Nor did he carry about with him those cheap coins of calculated civilities which help men of inferior merit. But his was a warm heart, all the same. He was the only man in England who used to greet me with, Hullo, old man I used to feel that such a greeting meant that he thought me fit for my job!"
As to the future of the Empire Sir George is of course an optimist. He wisely tells us not to expect the arrival of an Imperial Parliament in a moment. Meanwhile he rules out both an Imperial Tariff and Free Trade within the Empire, and recommends a scheme of Prefer-
ence and reciprocity.
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