SALISBURY CENTENARY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 92, 19 April 1930, Page 17

SALISBURY CENTENARY

■i.'/s.l ... .•. (2nd Notice.) HIGH STATESMANSHIP AND "BLAZIXG INDISCRETIONS" :' , (By "Ajax.") -... Mr. Algernon Cecil is not restrained by his relationship tb the third Mar- :! quis of Salisbury' from writing about him in tho "Dictionary of National Biography" with perfect candour, nor is he restrained by the motto attributed to its'first editors, "No flowers, by request," from doing so with . freedom and vivacity. In the following passage ■ Mr. Cecil does full justice to the paradox that this brilliant and scholarly speaker is now best known by a few startling indiscretions, which were probably not premeditated, or by the criticisms of opponents or candid friends. After noting that Salisbury's cynicism > was the protest against sentiment of a man who dreaded above everything the least'touch of cant, Mr. Cecil proceeds: It is of a piece with this that the note of passion is wanting in his eloquence, for his. emotion, instinctively repressed, seldom stirs the polished surface of his language. No great passage of oratory, no vivid imaginative phrase, keeps green the memory of. his speeches. It is something -~- - of a satire upon this master of satire that ; ;v v ,>he is best remembered by certain casual and ' caustic comments, which critics denominated "blazing indiscretions." His diplomatic - caution and-his extreme courtesy seemed to slacken in his,public speeches, and he iK-.-r -.occasionally expressed himself before popular audiences with a humour as reckless as it was shrewd. ." , - / ■'■-.♦ * * ■*■ The contrast between tho Lord Salisbury of private life and the Lord Salisbury of the public platform is stated in still stronger terms by George W. E. Ensseil in his "Collections and Becollections":-— lord Salisbury goes so little into general society-that his qualities as a talker are, not familiarly known. He is painfully shy,' and at a club or in a large, party undergoes.'the torments of the lost. Yet no one can listen, even casually, to his conversa- ;»•;. tion without appreciating the fine manner, w. full both of-dignity and of courtesy; the utter freedom from pomposity, formality, '.£.'; and.self-assertion;; and the" agreeable dash ■ ""■ of genuine cynicism, which modifies, though it does not mask, the flavour of his fun. ... It is the universal testimony of Lord Salisbury's guests, whether at Hatfield or in Arlington street, that he is seen at,his very best in his own house. ; The combination of such genuine amiabil- • ity in private life with such calculated • brutality in public utterance constitutes : a psychological problem which might profitably be made the subject of a Romanes Lecture. '■ ; '■' , It was the occasional and apparently i uncalculated "brutality" of these utterances that had(impressed mo most, , and I leave my first paragraph as I \ wrote it before.l knew that Mr. Bussell's high authority was against me. / * ■■■'•■. V :■.. ' The accuracy of Mr. Cecil's judgment was vividly impressed upon; me when I tried to recall w;hat I knew atout Salisbury's speeches. Disraeli's description.- of. him -as a master of" gibes and ' flouts and jeers," with which I dealt last week; Morley's reference to his genius for."blazing indiscretions"; and iho purport of the "Hottentot" pas- , iiage in one of, his own speeches against Home Bule—two hostile criticisms, one from a friend and colleague, and one notorious example gf the indiscretions p.. to 'which the other critic refers—that, was all that without the aid of books I could remember. Nothing else remained of the eloquence and the ;...;,. wit of the man who had, ruled '^England .longer -than Gladstone,; :;• and always received , a good hear!y,-[-, ing, whether in Parliament or on the i:: . ] platform. IT was not to be" expected that f{ I should get any information about the ;■*• "Hottentot 5' blunder from'the "Life '.;i of Salisbury;" which his daughter ; has v. written, and if there is any her index jrjj fails to reveal: it. /On the other hand, !C; it was a point which Morley?s ;:bio-' r graphy of 'Gladstone seemed unlikely to, miss, and" under '(Salisbury, Marquis / of," "Hottentot Speech" duly figures I 'in. his index. f ■■■' .-■ *. * * * Early in ISS6, Gladstone, having won tho ' General Election by a narrow majority, was called to office, and on the'Bth April.he introduced the first of his Home Bule Bills. Morley thus describes the> help which this wonderful old man of 77 received in his heroic task from an unexpected quarter:— .The debate, on the second reading had , hartlly begun "when Lord Salisbury placed in the hands of his adversaries a weapon with which they took care to do much execution. Ireland, he declared, is not one nation, but two nations. There were races - like the Hottentots, and even the Hindus, incapable of self-government. He would not place confidence in people who had acquired the habit of using knives and slugs. .* His policy was that Parliament should en- •'•!.. able the Government of England to govern Ireland. ' "Apply that recipe honestly, ;'consistently,. and resolutely for twenty years, and at the end of that time you will ■'find;that Ireland will befit to accept any 'gifts in thel way of local government or ■• repeal'of coercion'laws that you'may wish to give her." In' the same genial vein, • Lord Salisbury told his Hottentot fellowcitizens—one of the two "invictae gentes" .. of, Mr. Pitt's famous quotation—that il some great store of imperial treasure were '•■ going to be expended on Ireland, instead of buying out landlords it would be far more usefully employed in providing for the emigration of a million Irishmen. Explanations followed this inconvenient can- . dour,- .but explanations are apt to be clumsy, and the pungency of the indiscretion kept it long alive. A humdrum speaker, who was able to contribute nothing better to the animation of debate, could always by insinuating a reference to Hottentots, knives, andslugs, the deportation ■■:of a million Irishmen,'and twenty years of continuous coercion, make sure of a roar of angry protest from his opponents, followed by a lusty counter-volley from his friends. .'*.■,'*■ .« ♦ This "Hottentot speech" is, so far as I know;; the most glaring, and. it is certainly the most famous, of what his j grandson (or is it grand-nephew?) describes as "casual and caustic coin- ; ments which critics denominated 'blazing indiscretions.'" It is astonishing that a learned man whose speeches often gave the impression of a philosopher ; ""thinking on his logs,"' and who in diplomacy and in ordinary life was a model' of courtesy, should every now and then let drive in this, thoroughly i fierce, unguarded,, and injudicious fashion. Here is another speech in which Salisbury discussed the same subject ' with pungency and wit, but without ' giving his opponents the handle that he so often did. The occasion was the presentation of an address from a large \body of Irish Nonconformist ministers in opposition to Home Bule on the 14th November, 1888:— • ■ You are told that what is in store .for ! you is that Ireland shall govern herself— that she shall, have self-government. Metaphors are admirable things. They adorn oratory. They, often enable you to explain in. a short compass. But metaphors may be pushed' to "excess, and when the . idea of a single voluntary being is extended to Ireland, divided us she is into parties separated b\- the widest chasm and the strongest differences," the metaphor, has 'ceased to be useful and becomes delusivei It is absurd to talk of self-government

when there is no self to govern. If three people arc sitting upon two people and rifling their pockets you must not say that they are a group of five enjoying the blessings of self-government. #~■♦' *• * Eight years previously Ireland had provided Salisbury with the occasion for an equally characteristic and much weightier utterance. When Gladstone carried the country against the Beaconsfield Government in 1880, he found himself confronted with a social revolution in Ireland which, as he said, wasv a much more difficult matter to deal with thau a political revolution. One of the remedial measures which ho proposed for the distress prevailing in some parts of Ireland and the excitement and disorder arising from harsh evictions was a Bill for compensating a tenant on certain conditions if his landlord had turned him out of his holding. After the House of Commons had passed the Bill, the House of Lords, largely at Salisbury's instigation, threw it out by the large majority of 282 to 51. The rapid and vast extension of agrarian disturbance, Gladstone wrote, followed, as was to be expected, this wild excess of landlordism, and the Irish Government proceeded to warn the Cabinet that coercive legislation would be necessary. #-...-* ■ '» * ' ■ It is quite possible to agree with Gladstone in believing that the rejection of the Compensation for Disturbance Bill played right into the hands of the Land League, and yet to admire the sound principle, the dignity, and the courage which Salisbury brought to his attack upon the Bill. After discounting ' GladstoneV statement that Ireland was coming "within measurable distance" of civil war as unsupported by any reasonable evidence, ho proceeded: Let us be careful how in this hasty way we admit the' existence of these great emergencies to justify the suspension of our ordinary usages. When such exaggerated claims to confidence on the part of the existing Executive are put forward it is impossible to forget that there are reasons besides public emergencies which occasionally actuate Ministers of the Crown. Without referring to the constitution of Parliament and the mode in .which Ministerial majorities are obtained, it is very natural that a Minister of the Crown, particularly if he is not very strongly impressed with reverence for the rights of property, should desire to make his own path .smooth and his own term of office peaceful, by feeding the wild beast he is not allowed to tame. . . You might as well expect to satisfy a wild beast,"when he is pursuing you, by casting him a portion of your hand, to induce him to forego any further enterprise upon your body, as to hope to calm this Socialistic, anti-rent, not to say rejiily rebellious agitation, by. passing this Bill. Salisbury's appeal to the House of Lords to do the right thing, regardless of the consequences, was also of a quality entirely independent of the merits of his opposition to the Bill. I decline, he sa.d, in deciding how I shall give my vote, to ask with the noble Earl (Derby) what will be thought of the action of the House of Lords out of doors. We have a higher responsibility. Ido not believe that the reputation, the character, or the influence of any man or body of men is to be preserved by perpetually thinking of what may be thought of their conduct out of doors. The motto of the House of Lords is "Be just and fear not"; but be sure that if you fear you will not long be just. The landlords of Ireland may be:a small class comparatively, but, after all, they are a class many of whom assumed their present responsibilities and incurred the dangers into which they are running at the hands of a Liberal Government, because they trusted to the word of Parliament, and invested their money in Irish land on what they called Parliamentary security. To these men you are-bound in. honour. If;you .do not defend the landlords, depend upon it nobody else will. Do that—do what is just and right to all classes—and you may safely leave your authority, your influence, and your mediatorial power to the good.sense and consideration of your countrymen.