THE COMMENTS OF BAGSHOT

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7445, 20 May 1911, Page 9

THE COMMENTS OF BAGSHOT

ABOUT POLITICS IX GENERAL. ’ As I'have■ already explained. Bagshot’s vocation as a Civil servant prevented him from taking part in polities, while it gave him special opportunities for forming a judgment on, public affairs and public men from within- 1 He bad been private secretary to more than one Minister, and had spent numberless hours in ,tl)« Lobby‘and under the. clock in the House of .Commons following debates which.affected his department; and being wholly without the, bureaucrat's impatience of popular assemblies, he was a shrewd and . unprejudiced critic, of debates. It is, I know, supposed in those days to bom sure sign that a man is not an "advanced thinker" if he is a believer in nartv government; but I cannot disguise the ~ fact, that ■ Bagshot was a believer, and’a staunch believer, in the party system. I have in my possession a letter from him written a few months before his death, an extract from which will bear quoting: Do hot let us realise. that an. un- : .organised democracy is powerless against every kind of : tyranny, and that the only, organisation possible in pubkh affairs is that of parties. . What your despot hates is not a mob'of voters, but organised parties of voters. Nothing is easier, as his"tory proves, than to get a plebiscite ■ for a tyranny from ah unorganised mob. Those, therefore,- who wish to • • destroy parties wish, , whether- they know It or not, to disarm democracy, for tho party is its only : effective instrument of action. I have noticed throughout niy life that the people who inveigh against party government are almost invariably hostile to popular government. What they have in, their minds , is a government of su r perior beings, bureaucrats, aristo- ' crats, or intellectual persons calling themselves Socialists—a thing whion I profoundly abhor. ■ As a purely intellectual exercise you or I might sit down and invent something : superior to the British House of Commons and the British party system: but honestly I don’t know where this better thing exists. If tho party system is bad, is the group system‘better, and; if not tb© gronp system, shall we find salvation in abolishing groups, and parties and leaving every man to go his own way without guidance or hindrance? Yonr House of Commons would then bo a mob of 670 , non-party men. The idea fills me with terror, but, what-. ' ever other results might follow from it, this I regard as certain: the 670 would bo at tho mercy of any little group which acted together, and, about this group the despised party -system would inevitably come into existence again. For this is the law. ; of: all assemblies - which have the power to act . as Well as talk. "Par- 1 liament,” by the way, is a . misleading word. The House of Commons ' is not a talking-shon. but an Assembly which acts through debate. The root of the matter - is that your politician is everywhere and always a man who acts in association with others. His party may be large or iff may be small, but in either case- it will fetter bis liberty of action. Ho may think as much ahead ■ of his party as he likes and as much behind it-as his conscience will allow, but he must act with-it or break with it and join another. Whether parties are few and big or many and Email’

depends entirely on the varieties of opinion in a country, and since the British people commonly take simple and massive views, their parties ore few and bier—which personally . I think to ho an advantage. . But m either case the condition nf : being a politician at all is that you submit to tho. discipline oi your party group.; Many excellent men are incapable; of this.' 'They have a conscience or a. temperament which compels them to differ from all . the; parties. Abundant opportunities are open to them ■ for influencing their neighbours, and if we ever do have a real critical, revising Scfcond Chamber, wo - may open the door to some of them. by proportional representation. But it is folly for them to complain that they . are shut , out pi a particular kind 'of career .the essence of winch is ac- ■ tion in combination. When a man says that his conscience prevents him from combining with his neighbours,- wo may praise him and admire bini and: encourage, him in all possible ways to : communicate, his solitary thoughts-by speech or pen, but wo cannot lie expected to distress ourselves .because be is excluded from a'career -in* which combined action is, essential. , . ,; Bagshot, I may. add,’bad. an enormous ’respect for the judgment 'of the British people and T have heard him say that, looking back over tho general elections of his lifetime, he considered:the popular verdicts to have been without execution right and'just, and even the of the majorities to have, been delicately adjusted to the equities of:.the case. 1 find at the. end of his copy of Gustave be Ben's "La Foule” a rather, drastic comment .on -that , of collective hysteria , ,iho . British : crowd, he says, "has an admirab e instinct ‘for so much of an idea, as will work.’ They will praise the rest, cheer the rest, and,,make; a 'popular .hero of the visionary wdio will give’ them , a dream, but only for ‘ what. will work.iwiU • they 1 ”go', to the poll. This is [what; the electioneerers mean .when they say that their meetings ,are no clue, to the election. Long may ,the distinction between cheering and voting survive in this conn-, ■ ■■ v* . The new, note-hooks abound in observations’ about public, affairs. In 1806 i come upon a passage too long to ouoto, in which , he is shaking [his head oyer certain school-books which had come into his hand’s, and which taught 'that the British Empire was irresistible and . allpowerful. :‘‘On th.<v c-ontrary, he writes, i"tho duty of tho British; Empire...as of fall nations, 'is to discover the limits ol its power «and to work witlun them. It can be irresistible on its own ground and'in its own element, - but provided always that its policy is not so. spread as to brill's it into collision with others, who are irresistible on their ground and in their element. It is absurd that the present generation should be , taught out of books' which assume'-the state ot Europe-to be; the same as it was after the : battle of . Waterloo." There , follow some observations about armaments: Armaments are like -bullion in,thebank on which, diplomacy draws cheques. It is pure hypofcrisy. to pretend that they are only an insurance against: war. They are for almost every country tho foundation, of, its policy in time •of peace. ' A relative of mine devoted several years,of.his life and many thousands of' pounds ‘to inventing a process’ .for rendering gunpowder non-explosive. His enterprise Was completely successful, but he discovered too , late • that nobody, wanted- non-explosive .gunpowder.’ .Some people did not want gunpowder at all,, but those ■ who wanted gunpowder, wanted it to go off. In vain did my uncle explain that the gunpowder which he had rendered non-explosive could, by another process, be restored to its explosive condition.: , My relatives ingenuity seems to mo an exact parable of the proceedings of the Governments of Europe. They accumulate vast stores of gunpowder, and then hold Hague Conferences to see if they can render it non-explo- , sive. They spend millions’ on’ ordnance,’and millions, more on paying statesmen and diplomats to prevent the ordnance from going.off. Every-, bodv assures you that his own gunpowder is non-explosive .and that everybody clse’s gunpowder is highly dangerous. , I know nothing to meet tho case but the universal application of my relative’s invention. * Another; note about British policy may come in here: The not- only, lives in an island, but wherever: he goes ho seeks to reproduce the: island con- , dition.: From my youth upwards iho whole; purpose, of , British policy in: the East has been to,make an island of India. It is not enough that she ; is isolated by mountains; there must , bo buffer-States to prevent her boundaries from touching , those of any , Power which might desire to possess her; there must be an absolute veto : on all -'continuous railways which might link her lip with Europe and the . West. In Africa ~we use Belgium and Portugal to isolate us from - Germany; in America we ivatch, jealously lest there should, be the slightest breacdi in the tariff- wall, which isolates' Canada from the United States. and deplore the omission of which Providence has been; guilty in not providing an ocean to divide’the two 1 countries. The true Englishman : shudders at the thought o. living in physical contact witn a great and powerful,: neighbour, and will not;, permit even a hole to bo burrowed from Calais to Hover. Hence the elaborate apparatus of neutral cones. buffer-States, guarantees of indepen-' dence for small nations to keep big ones at arm’s length, and other isolating devices which are (he peculiar contribution of Great Britain to the diplomacy of the world. I come next to a series of observations on the-fallacy of arguing from the par-ti'-ular to the gpn^rnl;

IVhen ihpre is a run on a bank, it is prudence for one depositor to . get his money out. if he can, hut It is madness tor all the depositors to make a simultaneous rush for all the money. ; It is wise for ono-brewpr to buy one public-house to protect himself from tho competition of other brewers, but it is madness for, all tho brewers to buy all the public-houses with the . idea of protecting themselves from each other. If all tho brow, ers do it. they are pacing a great price for what was already theirs before they bought it. One brewer, may • increase his trade by acquiring a tied house, but all the brewers cannot increase their trade by buying all tho houses. It is wise for one trader to protect himself against competitors, if ho •can; but it is folly for all the traders to try to protect themselves against all their competitors. For one man's competitor is another ‘ man’s customer, and when- they have all collectively excluded their competitors, they have also shut out their customers. ’ Similarly the armaments of Europe are for all the nations madness and for each nation imperative. It may, therefore, ho very useful to organise an international movement against them, but it is useless to agitato against your own Government for doing what other Governments are doing. 1 pass from, this to three notes about compromise which are -worth recording i Very few people are able, to make the, essential distinction between, a ‘compromise and an equivocation. A compromise is a retd mean )>ctwocu two extremes which' both parties will, accept as a basis.of action; an equivocation is a verbal formula which , can be so interpreted as to enable both parties to retain their original position. , ■ ■■■ The articles of the Church, of Eng-‘ ■ land are'less a compromise than an equivocation. They- are, so dratted as to enable ono party,,to -maintain that they are-Catholic, and- another, party to maintain that - they are Pro-testant.-They represent, therefore, not ■ a compromise'on which the two narties can unite, but a formula which , enables. them to go their separate ways under an appearance of unity. A large number of the constitu- • tional compromises which figure in English law and history arc of tho. same character. They have served the practical purpose of, masking , or concealing conflict, but they are interpreted by each party with a mental reserve which „may declare it- - 'self surprisingly in a moment of.: strain. ■ - - ,

Here are certain observations about tha trend of social politics: I smile to myself when X hear the . Western man speak of "the problem, of-the educated native” as if it werea special affliction of the Government -of India. The arrival ■of tho ■ educated. proletariat is precisely tho problem of all the Governments ofEurope, and in the next thirty years it will bo every’ bit as perplexing in London and Berlin as it now ia in Calcutta.; ’ v Chamberlain’s doctrine of, ransom is perfectly sound, and all tho.. Go-, vernments know-it- I know.it.in my own department.yAVhpn society guarantees the weak'rich'in the posses-, sion of their .property,; itisobliged to find compensation’ for' tho 'strong, poor. And that in all States alike is'tho beginning of Socialism. Vox populi. vox dei? No, indeed, • my friend, or you, and,l would have, to turn our coats every time it brought our political opponents into power. And yet. I can imagine a man holding at one and the same time that bis own views were right, and that the'country was right in rejecting them. For, tho idea which is right for him only becomes right for the community if and when tho community wills it. The impatient ,;: idealist is for forcing his doctrine on the unconverted;, which ■is a worse ■; mistake in politics, than in religion. One of the most"engaging point about modern political leaders is the elephantine clumsiness of their efforts to deceive. I have seen a dozen grand tactical manoeuvres in my time, but not one of them could have deceived' an intelligent child.’. When’ a political party : sells ; its : soul, it never gets paid. 'The operation oi dishing tho Whigs, has always been fatal to tho . Tory, party. : , I find that I have far from exhausted my material, but I must reserve the remainder lor a later - chapter.—S.,' in- “ Westminster Gazette.”