SIR W. V. HARCOURT'S RESIGNATION.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11132, 26 January 1899, Page 4

SIR W. V. HARCOURT'S RESIGNATION.

The following is the letter written by Sir William Hareourt to Mr John Morley, in which the former startled the British public early in December last, by announcing his intention to resign the leadership of the Liberal party : — Malwood, December Bth, 1898. My dear John Morley, — I am informed that discussions are being raised, or proposed to be raised, in reference to the future leadership of the Liberal party. It seems to be supposed that this is a question upon which I ought to feel a great personal interest and some anxiety. So far as it affects myself, I feel no anxiety on this matter. My record is clear, and my resolution is fixed to under- , take no responsibility, and to occupy no position the duties of which it is made impossible for me to fulfil. There are people who appear to consider that the office of a leader is one which offers such inducements as would inspire an ambition to be pursued by all means and at any sacrifice. You, at least, are not so unacquainted with the realities of public affairs as to suffer under such a delusion. The protracted labor, the constant anxiety, and the heavy responsibility of that situation are such as no man of Bense or honor will undergo except from a high sentiment of public duty. For myself, the part which I have played in public life has been governed by a very plain and Bimple sense of obligation. In the latter years of Mr Gladstone's political life, both in Government and Opposition, he was good enough, with the concurrence of my colleagues, to commission me to render him a necessary, however inadequate, assistance in order to lighten his labors in the burdensome work of the House of Commons and elsewhere. When the time, so disastrous to the Liberal party, arrived at which he J took his final leave as its responsible chief, there were many considerations which would have led me to desire relief from the burdens of office. I determined not to yield to such temptations for two principal reasons ; first, because I did not choose that it should be thought that I was governed by personal feeling; secondly, because in the face of a vast deficit caused by the necessary increase of naval expenditure for national defence I thought it my duty to remain at my post as Chancellor of the Exchequer, in order to establish the public finances upon a just and adequate basis in the Budget of 1894, which was then imminent. The task was not a promising one in the presence of the powerful opposition by which it was encountered. Nevertheless, I felt it would have been cowardly to shrink from the risks and the labor which it imposed, and I resolved somewhat reluctantly to continue to discharge, as leader of the House of Commons, such duties as seemed to me most conducive to the interests of the Liberal party, which for 30 years of Parliamentary life it has been my constant object to sustain. At the meeting of the party (called jointly by Lord Rosebery and myself), on the retirement of Mr Gladstone, we set forth at the Foreign Office our entire adherence to the principles and the policy which he had bequeathed to us. The late Government fought together through the sessions of 1894 and 1895, under circumstances of unexampled difficulty, with a narrow and precarious majority, the battle of Liberal principles, not, I am glad to remember, without some signal successes. After the great defeat of 1895, in which you and I suffered in common, there were not wanting again strong temptations to any who desired only their own comfort and freedom from toil and responsibility to abandon a defeated army to its fate. That was not a course which recommended itself to you or to me. "We rallied the broken ranks and took our places again in the van of the Liberal fight. Even with our attenuated lines we inflicted upon the overwhelming majority of the Government a remarkable defeat on the Education Bill of }89li. Our successes were due to the loyalty and united action of the Liberal party jn support of those who led their forces. It is only when such a spirit — prevails that anything pan be accomplished by a pplitjcal party, whether in ■ the days of its good or evil fortune. A party rent by sectional disputes and personal interest is one which no man oan consent to lead, either with oredib to himself or advantage to tho country. You and my other colleagues know well the desire I have ever felt, and the efforts I have made, to secure unity of action in the promotion of the common cause ; to reconcile differences of opinion where they might arise ; and to consult the sentiments and the feelings of those with whom it was my duty and my satisfaction to net. In this spirit of cordial cooperation, which I gratefully acknowledge, we have" ever since the dissolution carried on the work of the party. It has been whispered by men who neither know nor care to know the truth that I have allowed personal considerations *o influence publio aotion. No man knows bettei? than yourself the falsehood of these unworthy insinuations. If personal proscriptions have been insisted upon, as a ground for refusal of common action in the general cauße, they have not i proceeded from me. In my opinion such pretensions ata intolerable, and, in common witlf'my luoUeEgnea, J have always refused to recognise them. I am not, and I shall not consent to be, a candidate for any contested position. I will be no party to Buoh a degradation in the tone of public life in tbis country, I have been content to the best of my ability, in any situation which fell to my '}<&' to duty towards the party which it bag ton niy pride and my pleasure to serve, Jl J }f&W 'arrived at the concliuiou that I can" best discharge that duty in an lndopondenfc position in the House of Commone you will, T feel sure, agree that a disputed leadership beset by distracted sections and conflicting interests is an impossible situation, and a ~ releaso from vain and onerous obligations I will come to me as a welcome relief. I will be glad if you will make this letter known at once, in 6«eh JttftßH°l' »s you may think fit, in order to remove any I ;mipapprehonpion ns to my personal souti--1 ments and jjopjijon.— Voiu'g yery sincerely, W. y. Hajscoujit'. '