Evening Post. THURSDAY, MAY 24, 1928. "RESOLUTE RESIGNATION"

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 121, 24 May 1928, Page 10

Evening Post. THURSDAY, MAY 24, 1928. "RESOLUTE RESIGNATION"

Lord Birkenhead's speech on the second reading of the. women's franchise Bill in the House of Lord was an undignified, uninspiring, ahd cynical performance, but not one at which anybody with even a superficial knowledge of his career had any right to be surprised. The top and the tail of-the speech as reported by cable yesterday were as'follows: Lord Birkenhead said he was against an extension of the franchise to women, "I am so still," he said, "but there is no inconsistency in recommending this measure. .... .My recommendation to your Lordships is to go to the lobby in favour of the Bill, if without * enthusiasm, yet in a spirit of 'rosolute resignation.". "Religious resignation" would have supplied a still more impressive climax to this remarkable speech, but even Lord Birkenhead's audacity was not equal to so. high a flight, Their Lordships were invited to follow his lead in voting for a Bill that he did not believe in without the comforts of religion to sustain them, but it is obvious that the "spirit of resolute resignation" which he invoked was a simpler matter for him triaii for many of his colleagues. He has had so much, more .practice. .; Custom,-',„s: Shakespeare says, hath mado it'in-him; a-property of easiness. . -.-.' . 'The hand of little employment hath, the: daintier sense. .Lord Birkenhead has long since passed beyond the stage of daintiness and squeamishness in these matters, and it is interesting to'find that before, his first call to a display of "resolute resignation" on this issue Mr. "E. TV Raymond"—now identified as Mr. Raymond Thompson, the late editor, of the "Evening Standard"—had published a,forecast of his probable attitude to such questions and illustrated it from another character- in the play that we have quoted. Writing, apparently .in 1918 v 9rth'ethen Sir F. E. Smith, Mr. "Raymond^ said-:":' "Dost know this water-fly"? Hamlot's words""come*"''trippingly to tho tongue when one, contemplates a career like this. Osi'ic, the point device courtier, is the eternal type of the ephemeral. "With as much difficulty one associates the idea of immortality with "F.E." It [ irks Osric-not at all'to change his views. He describes the weather one moment as "indifferent cold," and tho next as "very sultry/';,for no better reason than Hamlet will- liaye it so. And in this he only!anticipates f.'F.jß.^s" attitude to the .British electprate.. Osrie had "only got the;-tune of the time and outward habit of, encpijnter,'* Nobody ever suspected /F.E." of m0r0... .... . We must not think of the water-fly merely as a'typoi of significance f? insignificance]. It is also the most agile, energetic, and voracious of creatures, with a great instinct for the nourishment, of its slim and elegant .form. [■.While, it seems to be just clancing.for-joy of. the thing, it keeps its hundred-lensed' eye on tho niain chance. .•".-" This clever, if rather malicious, writing not only indicates the opinion of one "shrewd observer, but probably sums up fairly well the lawyer-like impression that this brilliant young barrister has already made upori public opinion. ; ■"• When' this diagnosis appeared ;"F.E.". was Attorney-General in Mr. Lloyd George's War Cabinet,, and the War had already antiquated his other popular title of "Galloper-Smith"— a title conferred upon him' in recognition of the elpquence with which he had,.stimulated the arming of Ulster against Mr. Asquith's Home Rule Bill. In a ipassage which is as apposite to the present occasion as, that already quoted, _ Mr. "Raymond" hints that "F.E." had not really been the light-hearted and light-headed Rupert that he appeared to be in those galloping pre-war. days. ",F.E,,",he writes, is a daredevil.with 1 reservations. Tor pretty well any cause ho. is. ready to die in tho last ciitijh, hut he holds himself free to decide which is tho last ditch, and- how the final. sacrifice shall be made. It wouid really bo very interesting to know ex-' actly what Sir Edward Carson, who has none' of this light Jesuitry, thinks of him to-day. Fivo years ago "EVE." was gallantly conjugating, the verb "to gallop." "You.gallop; they gallop; let us all gallop; but especially I will gallop." There nover was sp mad a fellow since Master Shallow lay at Clement's Inn. Others might occasionally shiver at tho idea of civil strife in earnest. It is only right to suppose that the Londonderrys and Carsons sometimes had misgivings. Not so our doughty Templar. Ho was always buoyant. "Civil war—; certainly./ Kod ruin and'tho breaking up of laws^why, my dear, sir, wait till we get. really well, started. Of course it wilt bo a nuisance—l shall probably have to: give up my huntin'—but if the Beds persist, something must flow. I hope it will not be human gore." Yet "F.E.," with all his anxiety to burn his boats, worked hard to insure them before -applying tho..torch. If Mr. Asquith was relieved by the intervention of the Kaiser from a perhaps still' more appalling problem in Ulster,, "F.E." also was relieved from a very grave responsibility. Probably no man, says Mr. "Raymond," had moments of moro acute, anxiety in 1914, when it seemed possible that he must either gallop in earnest or betray; no man, it is safe to BE,y, more sincerely welcomed the' Party truce which gave him an- opportunity of got ting safely out of' his "Ulster saddle. Since their there is no evidence •that ho has-given-'a second thought to his- doai*; and doiir .'jfri'ehds. :■" .. This reference to Lord Birkenhead's

forgetfillness of "his clear and dour friends" in Ulster- was strikiiigly illustrated in his duel with Lord Oarson when the Irish Treaty was before the House of Lords in 1921. "A daredevil with reservations" is admirably descriptive of Lord Birkenhead's attitude to the problem now before the House of Lords* He'declared himself to be against an extension of the franchise to women, but he was prepared to vote for it nevertheless. The reason for this apparent inconsistency was that he had been still more strongly opposed to the original enfranchisement of women in. 1919, but had voted for that nevertheless. That the previous inconsistency fully justifies a smaller one now must be obvious to the meanest capacity. The disaster, says Lord Birkenhead, took place in 1919. . . , Everybody wont mad in 1919, and gradually and inevitably wo descended the slippery path! . . . Only a .negligible minority voted against those' proposals. Thai everybody-—or nearly everybody—"went mad in 1919" was surely a strong reason why the winer minority should' assert itself and avert the threatened descent down the slippery path of Avernus. That wise minority would have been less negligible and might even have been effective if Lord Birkenhead had not deserted it. There is even something to be said for an ineffective minority in such a case. Lord Birkenhead is of course perfectly familiar with the Roman poet's picture of the "just and tenacious man" who resists the clamours ,of the mob and the frown of the^despot with equal courage, and shows that Even if the heavens should fall The wreck' Will strike one fearless head. ; ■ * . Lord Birkenhead may admire the poem, but he does not think much of its hero. . He stated with an almost disarming naivete that he preferred -the Attorney-Generalship to martyrdom. I took the view, he says, that, having made a frank explanation to the House of Commons of my.position, it was my duty as Attorney-General to carry out the wishes-of the" Government. The "spirit of resolute resignation" which Lord Birkenhead . now commends to the House of Lords was not resolute enough on that occasion to suggest the resignation of the At-torney-Generalship. His action and his argument rather recall the spirit of complaisance, coupled with ' a paramount sense of duty, which never failed Captain Recce, of H.M.S. Mantelpiece, under any conditions. Lord Birkenhead could well have addressed to his colleagues in the Coalition Cabinet and to his unenfranchised sisters the very words of the gallant captain:— "By any reasonable plan , I'll mako you happy if I can; My own convenience count as nil: It is my; duty, and I will." , It may be that his own convenience was not entirely overlooked, but we have his own word for it that it,wag mainly M: matter.'hi' duty.' With him, as with Captain Recce, R.N., "it was his duty and he did." The daredevilry of Lord Birkenhead, like that of Galloper Smith, is fortunately subject, as Mr. "Raymond" says, to "reservations."