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SPEECHES AND ADDEESSES

OF

EDWAED HENEY XV™ EAEL OP DEEBY, E.G.

VOL. II.

SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES

OF

EDWAED HEMY XY™ EAEL OE DEEBY
K.G.

SELECTED AND EDITED BY
SIR T. H. SANDERSON, K.C.B. and E. S. KOSCOE

WITH A PBEFATOBY MEMOIB
BY W.E.H. LECKY

IN TWO VOLUMES— VOLUME IL

LONDON
LONGMANS, GEEEN, AND CO.
AND NE"W YOEK : 15 EAST 10* STEEET
1894
All right's reserved

Bv< 5 5-11

CONTENTS

THE SECOND VOLUME

1879
XLIV. The Commercial Depression — The Causes and the
Remedies 
XLV. Agricultural Depression — Protection — Local Taxa
tion — Small Fkbbholdebs — Large and Small
Estates — Relations of Landlord and Tenant —
Game Laws — Unexhausted Improvements . .
XLVI. Local Patriotism — Local History ....

12
25

1880
XLVII. Industrial Condition of England — Home and Foreign
Trade — Trade 'with the Colonies — Settlement of
Trade Disputes — Company Promoting . . . 29
XLVIII. Savings Banks — The National Debt — Penny Banks —
Frugality  42
XLIX. Elementary Education — School Boards . . . 50
L. Coffee Taverns  56
LI. Lord Lawrence  60
LII. Free Libraries  65
LIII. The Punishment of Juvenile Offenders . . . 69

CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME

1881

LIV. On Art 
LV. Co-operation — Capital and Labour
LVI. The Medical Profession.

PAGE 75
8090

1882
LVII. Lord Derby's Change of Party— Procedure of the
House of Commons— Ireland — The English Land
Question 
LVIII. Free Trade— Protection in the Colonies— Protection
IN the United States — Commercial Treaties — The
Policy of Cobden 

94

103

1883
LIX. Agricultural Societies — Transfer of Land — Peasant
Proprietors — Compensation for Improvements . .

113

1884
LX. The Abolition o^ Slavery

120

1885
LXI. Constituencies and Members — Tory Democrats — The
Irish Party — Local Debts — The Land Question —
Registration — Parliamentary Procedure — Church
and State — Foreign Policy — Ireland . . . . 124

1886
LXII. Home Rule — Position of the Liberal Unionists — The
Coercion Fallacy — Ireland not III used — Home
Rule and Irish Nationality — Home Rule not Final
—The Land Question — Ulster  139
LXIII. The Liberal Unionists — The Irish Land Question —
Remedial Measures  153

CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME vii
1887 PAGE
LXIV. The Blind — their Training and Education . . 158
LXV. Parliamentary Procedure — The Demands of Ireland
— The Irish Criminal Law Amendment Bill — The
Liberal Party  164
LXVI. The State of Agriculture — Depreciation in the
Value of Land — Causes — Remedies . . . 174
LXVII. Hospitals  180
LXVIII. The Retention of Knowledge — Technical Educa
tion — The Value and Use of Books — A "Well-
instructed People  183
LXIX. Home Rule — An Irish Parliament — Local Parlia
ments — The Precedent of the Colonies — Irish
Opinion — Coercion — Land Purchase . . . . 189

1888
LXX. Industrial Prospects of the Country — The National
Debt — Local Government — Foreign Affairs —
France — Russia — Austria 

198

LXXI.
LXXII.

LXXIII. LXXIV. LXXV.

LXXVI.

1889
Emigration  204
Home Rule — The Liberal Unionist Party — Local
Independence — Tendencies of an Irish Parliament
— The Relations of England and Ireland — Home
Rule Fallacies — The Union — The Policy of the
Unionists  210
Technical Education — Competitive Examinations . 225
The House of Lords  232
Home Rule — The Liberal Unionist Party — Irish
Grievances — The Probable Results of an Irish
Parliament — A Paper Union — Ulster — A"" Long
Struggle  235
Home Rule — A Federal Union — Increased Pro
sperity OP Ireland — The Land Question — The
Alliance of the Unionists  245

viii CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME PAGE
LXXVII. Continuation Schools — Evening Occupations for
Young Persons  253
LXXVIII. Secondary Education — The Boy and the Man —
Reading  258
LXXIX. Free Trade — Protection in the United States
AND in thp, Colonies — Peasant Proprietors —
Nationalisation of the Land — Leasehold En
franchisement — Foreign and Colonial Trade —
Capital and Labour  263
1890
LXXX. Material Progress of Ireland — Law and Order —
Payment of Rent — A Federal System for Great
Britain and Ireland  276
LXXXI. The Mitigation of the Smoke Nuisance . . . 283
LXXXII. The Study of Science  287
LXXXIII. The Distribution of Charity— The Emigration of
Children — Three Forms of Charity . . . 292
1891
LXXXIV. Education— Examinations — Continuation Schools
— Knowledge — Success in Life . . . . 298
LXXXV. John Bright  gQ4
LXXXVI. Agriculture — Fruit Culture  gjl

XLIV
THE COMMEBGIAL DEPBES SION— THE
CAUSES AND THE BEMEDIES
EocHDALE : January 2, 1879
I THANK you for a reception of which I can truly say that
its warmth and cordiality will not easily be effaced from my
recollection. I came here as a stranger, having no personal
claim upon you except that of an old Lancashire connection,
but you have been kind enough to welcome me as a country
neighbour of whom you may occasionally have heard, and
also — though I know that here I address a non-political
audience — -you have received me, I think, as a public man,
and as one engaged in political life with whfcse opinions upon
particular questions you may or may not agree, but whom
you are willing at least to credit with an honest endeavour to
do his duty in circumstances not always easy or agreeable. I
am glad to observe, and I do not notice it now for the first
time, that in these great northern towns— and not in the
great towns alone, but in villages also — workmen's clubs of
this description are being established, which show by their
number that there is a real demand for those opportunities of
social intercourse and of rational enjoyment which they can
offer. That is a satisfactory and a hopeful sign, and I notice
it with the more pleasure because we must admit that at this
moment the sky is full of clouds. There are many signs
around lis of a state of things which is neither hopeful nor
satisfactory, and I think I shall best fulfil the purpose of our
meeting if I venture to trouble you with a few words on the
subject of the condition in which we now find ourselves.
Although the present state of affairs is unsatisfactory enough,
VOL. II. B

2 THE COMMEBGIAL DEPBESSION
we must not be led away by what we hear or even by what is
passing before our eyes to take an exaggerated view of its
dangers. Up to the beginning of the late hard weather,
there was little, if any, increase of pauperism, and even now
the returns of the internal consumption, and the savings
banks deposits, which, on the whole, have increased during
the year, do not indicate so utter a collapse of national in
dustry and prosperity as is in many quarters believed to
exist. A few weeks of suffering, borne as they have been
with the silent uncomplaining endurance which is part of our
national character, do not justify us in speaking as if the
days of English prosperity were numbered. Still, after
making all allowances for exaggeration, there is no use in
denying the fact that we are face to face Avith an industrial
crisis such as we have not seen since the days of the cotton
famine. It is, I hope, less intense than that was ; but, on
the other hand, it is more widely spread, and affects more
numerous industries ; neither have we the same certainty of
its being due to a merely temporary cause.
I do not pretend to be able to tell you anything new as to
the causes of the state of things which we see around us.
They are, I think, various, and, coming at the same time,
they have produced results for which no one of them singly
would account. In the first place, we have had over-tradincr.
Prosperity, it has often been said, creates competition, and
competition kills prosperity. You all know how constantly it
happens that a man who has made a large capital in his
business, instead of leaving off with a competence, proceeds
at once to invest his gains in doubling the extent of his
concern. That operation cannot go on for ever. If we make,
say, twice as many stockings as we made ten years ago, it
does not follow that there will be twice as many legs to put
them upon. A time comes when more is being produced
than the market will take, and a reaction follows of low prices
and low wages. I note that state of things without any idea
that it is likely to be altered. To stop halfway in anything,
to leave off without the most complete success that circum-

THE CAUSES 3
stances allow, is not our English nature, and still less is it
Lancashire nature. All I say about it is this— that those
who play double or quits must expect occasional heavy losses ;
but it is unfortunate that the losses should fall on others
besides themselves. There is another cause more especially
operative of late years, and it is this. The classes that have
money to invest are in this country more easily gulled out of
it than anywhere else ; and neither Honduras loans, Vene
zuelan loans, Turkish loans, Spanish loans, nor anything that
promises high interest comes amiss to them. I believe that
if a few years ago the King of Dahomey had wanted a loan he
would have got one. I almost wonder that he did not try ;
but probably he was too much of a savage to see the advan
tage of being in debt.
The estimate has been made — I never verified it, but I
believe it has been made on good authority — that English
capitalists have lent more than 300 millions sterling to States
which will never pay them a shilling. A great deal more, no
doubt, has been wasted in private sj)eculations abroad. Now,
as long as such a period of free lending goes on, trade is arti
ficially stimulated here. A South American Grovernment,
perhaps, raises four or five millions, and proceeds to spend
it — after deducting what financial agents have stolen by the
way — in building ironclads or in making railways. The ships
or the rails, as the case may be, are constructed here; but
when that money is spent, and when the borrowing State
finds that it can raise no more, it ceases to indulge in the
extravagance of paying interest to its creditors, and at the
same time the demand for ironclads or rails stops all of a
sudden. That has happened with a remarkable frequency
during the last few years, and we have had in consequence a
most useful and valuable Parliamentary exposure by Sir
Henry James of a few of the most rotten of these transactions.
Here, again, I see no remedy, except that kind of wisdom
which is only learnt by experience. I have never, for my
part, understood why Governments are preferred as debtors
to individuals, the fact being that they are precisely the one
B 2

4 THE COMMEBGIAL DEPBESSION
class of debtors who need not and do not pay unless it suits
their convenience. Other causes of distress have been of a
more local and temporary character. The world is curiously
linked together, and I do not doubt but that many an English
child has gone to bed without supper because of the famme
which ravaged whole provinces in China and of the dearth
which has impoverished a large part of India. But you must
add to the hst other agencies which are more within our
control. I am afraid it is impossible to resist the evidence
that in some branches of business competition has assumed
the ugly form of adulteration or deception, and of merely
apparent cheapness, so that in consequence the good quahty
of British goods is not so readily taken for granted as in
former days.
I am not at all a believer in what are called 'good old
times.' Most abuses are old ; but what is new is the eye
trained to detect them and the conscience that revolts against
them. But in this particular matter I think it is clear that
we have been getting worse rather than better. There, at
least, we see our way to amend what is amiss, and it will be
our own fault if that reproach continues. It is not so easy to
give a judgment on the question of foreign competition or to
say how far it has really injured us as yet. I know that some
very capable judges believe it to be a very formidable rock
ahead, while others, equally competent, treat it lightly. My
judgment is worth little ; but if I were to give one, I should
lean rather to the sanguine than to the despondent side. In
regard to coal, capital, and effective labour, we can hold our
own against any country. Let me just observe in passing
that the common fear of being outdone by cheapness of labour
abroad seems to refute itself, for it is admitted that our most
dangerous rivals are the people of the United States, and yet
that is the one country where wages are higher than in
England. But, after all, we have no right to expect a mono
poly in the business of clothing the world, nor yet m making
iron and steel for all mankind. That is a position which we
can hardly claim to acquire, and which, if we had it, could

THE CAUSES 5
only be held, even for a time, by the most uncertain and
precarious of all possible tenures. There is enough work for
foreigners and for us too ; and believing, as I suppose we do
here, that sooner or later in human affairs reason will get the
upper hand, I look forward confidently to a not distant date
when this mania of restrictive tariffs, which seems just now
to be spreading among other nations and our own colonies,
will give way before the general experience of its practical
failure. Of one thing I am quite sure, that any attempt on
our part to restore trade by reverting to a system of protec
tion — reciprocity, I believe, is the new term for it — would be
a disastrous policy.
Our best chance of establishing free trade abroad is to
show that we believe in it at home. To go back from our
present position, apart from all other objections, would be
accepted as an admission that the foreigner has been right
and we ourselves wrong. Besides, any restriction on imports,
established nominally to serve a temporary purpose, would be
sure to create interests dependent upon those restrictions,
which would make their abolition difficult when they had
served their immediate purpose. The last cause of distress is
one which I can barely touch upon in this room, lest I should
seem to do so with an object which is foreign to the purpose
of our meeting. Till we can have some evidence that peace
will be kept in Europe, it is idle to expect that trade will
revive. As a fact, whatever the cause may be, confidence
does not exist. We all profess to wish for peace, and I hope
most of us do so sincerely ; but do not let us forget that in a
country like this there are interests which tend steadily and
constantly in an opposite direction.
I am not referring to politics or to parties, but to social
tendencies which will operate equally whatever Ministry or
party is in power. In the first place, we have a more.
numerous and more highly trained military class than we
ever had before. There is a keener professional feeling
among English officers than in days when military teaching
was less attended to. There is a natural and a not discredit-

6 THE COMMEBGIAL DEPBESSION
able desire among them to test the value of what they have
been learning, and to acquire the professional distinction
which can only come from actual service. They are much
more a writing class than they were ; they have learnt to
use the press instead of treating it with contempt; and
when you recollect that there is in what are called the upper
classes scarcely a family that has not some connection with
the army, you must recognise a social influence which tells
powerfully when questions of war or peace are in the balance.
Then you have a large number of persons in the business
classes to whom war is a profitable speculation. A campaign
involves an enormous outlay, and of that outlay a good deal
remains in the hands of those who supply the special articles
required in war. Ships are wanted for transport, guns, rifles,
armour-plates, stores of every description, horses ; and that
vast demand, however dearly it has to be paid for by the
community as a whole, gives a temporary stimulus to industry
and makes a good many private fortunes.
I can only touch on this in passing, though it is a subject
well worth looking into in detail. But there is more behind.
You have always a certain number of interests, not of course
always the same, which may be described as threatened
interests. Those who represent them are expecting Parlia
mentary interference of some kind, and look forward to it
with about as much pleasure as a patient in the surgeon's
hands looks forward to an operation without chloroform.
They will do anything to gain time, and to persons so situated
no event is more welcome than a state of things which, even
if only for a year or two, concentrates all attention on foreign
affairs and puts what is passing at home out of people's heads.
I speak purposely in vague terms to avoid offence, but you
will understand me, and you will perceive that it is a mere
delusion to say, as people are constantly saying, that every
body is against war if it can be honourably avoided. On the
contrary, there are a good many persons who think either
that they will make a very good thing out of a war, or that it
will serve to keep off something that they dislike even more ;

THE CAUSES 7
and in either case we must not be surprised if they act ac
cording to their convictions. It is no use being angry with
them ; they do only after their kind ; but let us clearly see
where the danger lies and not deny its existence.
Some of you may be surprised that in referring to the
cause of our present troubles I have said nothing about unduly
high wages and the demands made on employers by the
employed. I have left the question alone for two reasons —
first, because I believe its importance has been enormously
exaggerated ; and, next, because the evil, if it is an evil, tends
to correct itself. When there are large new gains to be
divided between masters and men it is hardly possible that
they should ascertain except by actual trial what is the fair
share of each, and it is almost certain that, in the first
instance, they will differ ; but, as matters now are, the
question for us all to solve is rather how by joint action to
mitigate disaster than how to apportion our relative shares of
advantages gained. It is not a moment to stand out on
either side for extreme rights, but to keep together our
resources and reserve our energies for the return of better
times. You will, no doubt, in the next few months have every
variety of wild and foolish proposals put before you. You
will be invited by some people, as I said before, to return to a
protective system under the disguise of reciprocity. That is
a suggestion of which your good sense will make short work.
You will hear from others, no doubt, that all manufacturing
industries are overstocked, and that a part of the population
of our towns ought to go back on the land as occupiers or
owners. Of that expedient I speak with more respect, but I
confess it does not seem to me a very hopeful one. We may
probably have changes in the land laws within the next few
years, but, though they may lead to more careful and profit
able cultivation of the soil, they are very unlikely to lead to a
larger number of persons being employed upon it. The
small freeholder and the very small occupier have never held
their own in England any more than the hand-loom weaver

8 THE COMMEBGIAL DEPBESSION
against the competition of the power-loom. I think it will be
so still. For my part I think the future will in that respect
be like the past ; but many people take a different view, and
to them I say the experiment is very easily tried. There are
plenty of acres to be had and plenty of owners willing to sell ;
let those who have faith in what is called ' peasant proprie
torship ' go into the market, form a company, buy land and
divide it into lots of the size they think most suitable. If
they fail to find purchasers, we shall know that the supposed
demand does not exist ; if they succeed, they will have done
useful service ; and in any case they will have practically
tested the soundness of a theory that has never yet been either
verified or refuted.
Though I do not hold that there is much of an opening
for working men on the land at home, I do not say the same
of land elsewhere. I think it is a very fair question whether
in this little island of ours we are not getting packed too
closely, and whether we have not suffered from the compara
tive stoppage of emigration in the last few years. Emigration
is for a people like ours a natural and even a necessary outlet.
You may pass what laws you please, you may lighten the
labour of taxation, until the working men are practically
exempt ; but as long as there are more of them than can get
work, and as long as two men are looking after one employer,
neither votes nor freedom from taxes, nor anything else that
politicians can do, nor yet any expedient of their own for
producing artificial scarcity of labour in special employments,
will in the long run prevent them from being badly off. I am
not contending that any of you should start off for the New
World without inquiry as to the chances when you get there.
Just now the Americans have their troubles as well as our
selves ; but with their boundless soil they are rapidly accu
mulating capital, and with their exceptional energy they are
sure to rally before long, and, indeed, I beheve the rally has
already begun. There are children living who will probably
see the United States numbering 200,000,000 of inhabitants ;
and I do not think there is any subject to which leaders of

THE BEMEDIES 9
working men can more usefully turn thsir attention than the
supplying to those who want it here accurate and trustworthy
intelligence as to their chances beyond the Atlantic, either
north or south of the Canadian boundary-line.
We shall always have men enough left at home ; and
even if emigration were to go to the length of checking the
increase here, which it almost certainly will, it is better to
have 35,000,000 of human beings leading useful and intelligent
lives, than 40,000,000 struggling painfully for a bare sub
sistence. There are many persons, I know, who will object
on the ground that, though emigration may be good for the
individual, it weakens the State. I cannot take that view.
A contented people goes a long way towards making a State
powerful ; and I have always been convinced that a great deal
of our freedom from international trouble in this country,
which we sometimes ascribe to national character, and some
times to our political constitution, is really due to the various
outlets which, both in past and present times, we have created
for ourselves beyond sea. They are our safety-valves, and if
they get choked, I should expect the result to be uncomfortable.
There is one other matter on which I hope I may say a
word without offence. I am not going to give you a lecture
on what is called teetotalism. If that rule of life be a duty
for one class, it is equally a duty for all ; and I have never
seen my way to the conclusion that it is a duty, though I
honour those who, for the sake of example and social useful
ness, sacrifice a lawful indulgence. But not the less the fact
remains, that if the quantity of liquor and tobacco consumed
in the British Islands were reduced by one-half, besides all
other incidental advantages, you would effect a reduction in
taxation, mainly for the benefit of the working classes, to
the amount of 20 millions sterling. The figures are public
and well known, and I take them as given for last year.
You pay 40^ millions of taxes in customs and excise for those
articles alone, which is very convenient for persons interested
in a large national outlay, and there are a good many of
them. They will never find any other tax that will be paid

10 THE COMMEBGIAL DEPBESSION
with so little inquiry ; but if we could only manage that little
reduction of one-half — which, after all, does not imply the
adoption of very ascetic habits by our people — do not you
think that, besides the gain in comfort and health, besides
having fewer paupers and less work for the police, we shall
have done something for public economy and something for the
cause of peace ? This is a matter for the people more than for
the State. The State, I think, is often injudiciously accused.
It does not force or induce men to drink, but, on the contrarj- ,
fines them pretty heavily for so doing. A working man who
is a teetotaler pays lower taxes here than in any other
country in the world ; in fact, except on his tea or coffee, he
hardly pays taxes at all. It is in his jDOwer to emancipate
himself almost entirely from the taxgatherer if he chooses ;
while, by his vote, he retains power over the national outlay.
To what extent he will do so depends upon himself and on
his own class. I say advisedly on his own class, because in
practice, as we know, it is the opinion of those with whom we
are daily and habitually associated that influences our lives.
I tell you, therefore, as working men, that if you wish your
class to have social power corresponding to the political power
which you now possess, you must bring your opinion effectu
ally to bear upon this question of temperance. It is a collec
tive quite as much as an individual interest. All reforms are
akin, and of all reforms that lie ready to your hand, it is the
most urgent, the most practical.
One word, in conclusion, on a more agreeable subject.
Among aU English communities Eochdale has the honourable
distinction of being that in which the great industrial move
ment of co-operation was the earliest and most successfully
worked. The men who founded the Equitable Pioneers
Society will be remembered when many who have made more
noise in their time are forgotten, I am glad to learn that
that powerful organisation has, at any rate so far, suffered
but httle from bad times. Co-operation will not work
miracles, and co-operative institutions will fail hke others if
they are worked with too little capital or with borrowed
capital, or by men who do not understand their busmess ; but,

THE BEMEDIES 11
whatever may happen in particular cases, I believe that the
principles which lie at the root of the movement are sound.
I read them in this way : first of all there is no credit, and
therefore no bad debts ; honest, careful men, who have their
money ready to the day, are not to be made to pay double
because spendthrifts and squanderers cannot be got to pay at
all. Next, there is no adulteration, the buyers and sellers
being the same body of men, and having no inducement to
cheat themselves ; and, thirdly, men who give their labour to
the concern have a direct interest in the result, and work
under the stimulus of that feeling that they are working for
themselves. If I am right in thinking that these, broadly
stated, are the principles of the co-operative movement, they
are right, and will stand the test of an adversity even more
severe than that of the next few months or years is likely to
be. They may not do all which their promoters expect ;
they may not transform or regenerate society ; but they
will effect a really useful and permanent improvement in our
social condition ; and to this town and to this district the
credit of having originated that improvement will be largely
due. I must ask you to pardon me if, in the hope that I
might make these remarks of some use, I have made them
rather dry. I do not wish to dogmatise on the questions I
have tried to deal with. I do not tell you, ' This is so, and
you must take it as an absolutely certain truth.' I only say,
' This seems to me so, use your own judgment upon it.' We
none of us know what this new year may bring ; but if we
can keep peace abroad ; if we listen to no quackish remedies
for our present difficulties, but fight them by the only avail
able means open to us — patience, judicious sympathy, and
help, and public and private economy wherever the relief of
distress is not concerned — the next anniversary of this Club
may be held under happier auspices, and we may look
back upon the year 1879 aa one which, if less prosperous
than many of its predecessors, yet brought with it this com
pensation — that it braced up our energies to manly endurance,
and helped to prove to ourselves and to the world that we are
really a united people.

12

XLV
AGBIG ULTUBAL DEPBESSION—PBOTEGTION— LOCAL
TAXA TION — SMALL FBEEHOLDEBS — LABGE
AND SMALL ESTATES— BEL ATION S OF LAND-
LOBD AND TENANT— GAME LAWS — UNEX
HAUSTED IMPBOVEMENTS
Meeting of Lanoashiee Pakuees' Clue and Chaiibee of Ageicultuee
Liveepool: June 14, 1879
I HAVE come here at the request of the Lancashire Farmers'
Glub, many of whose members think it desirable that we
should confer together as to the present state of the agri
cultural interest, which is admitted to be unsatisfactory, and
as to what, if anything, can be done for its advantage — that
being a matter on which a very wide diversity of opinion
prevails.. Now, gentlemen, in the first place, are we to
consider that the distress which prevails among farmers is
likely to be permanent, or is it temporary in its character ?
That is a question on which a good deal depends, and which
it is not easy to answer with certainty. I incline to the more
hopeful view, and for this reason. We have had, in the last
two or three years, a combination of circumstances which are
not likely to recur all together. We have had, generally
speaking, bad harvests at home. We have had during the
same time abundant supplies from abroad, which, to the
general public, is, of course, a gain, but which has robbed the
farmer of his usual compensation for short crops — a high
price for his produce. He has sold little, and he has sold
that little cheap. We have had great industrial depression,
the causes of which do not concern us here, but the effect of
which on the demand for agricultural produce has been very
perceptible. Further, we have lived for a long time in
constant apprehension of war on a large scale, and we have

AOBICULTUBAL DEPBESSION 13
actually been engaged in two wars on a small scale. Now,
any one of these troubles may occur again, and probably will,
but it is very long odds that we do not have them all, one
ou the back of the other. No doubt there is plausibility in
the argument of those who contend that we are only now
experiencing the effect of the free-trade measures of thirty
years ago. It takes time, they tell us, to develop a new
industry and to organise the means of transit, but they say
that this is now done, and that the British farmer can never
again compete successfully against the growers of corn in
California and on the western prairies, to say nothing of
countries still more distant. Possibly those who speak in that
sense may be right, at least so far as corn is concerned, for
corn is easily transported, easily stored, and will keep. But
I do not think we need be discouraged as yet by anything that
we have seen as to the import of foreign cattle. In meat, and
milk and vegetables, and some other articles of produce, we
ought to be able to hold our own. If we have against us
cheapness and abundance of land in other quarters of the
globe, we have in our favour nearness to the market ; and even
ocean steamers will not reduce the Atlantic to a mere ferry.
Generally, I should put it in this way — in respect of those
things which will not bear keeping we have a natural protection
against the foreigner ; in respect of produce, the cultivation of
which requires minute care and personal oversight, such as
can be given on the small highly cultivated farm at home,
and in respect of labour, which is now comparatively cheap —
I mean in comparison with that of the Colonies — we possess
advantages which we are not likely to lose. But looking to
the present only, it is impossible to deny that in some parts
of England farmers have great reason to complain.
When I hear, as I did the other day, of one land-owner
who has fourteen farms on his hands, and another who has
eight or ten, it is impossible to doubt that there must be real
distress, for the farmer is not naturally locomotive, and will
usually bear a good deal rather than throw up his holding.
But I should like more information than I possess as to the

14 PBOTECTION
area over which this serious depression prevails. In these
parts I hear nothing of farms thrown up, or of farmers un
able to go on. On my estates I have not a single holding
vacant, and hardly any arrears ; and from what I hear as to
the affairs of my neighbours, I believe other large land-owners
in South Lancashire are in the same fortunate position.
This makes me suspect there is some over-colouring in the
pictures of agricultural ruin which I see so freely drawn. I
have my suspicions that not all those tenants in more
southern districts who have offered to throw up their farms
either expect or wish to be taken at their word. And where
a tenant sees his way to a probable reduction of rent, he is
not likely in his public utterances to take a rose-coloured view
of his prospects. Still, allowing for some natural exaggera
tion, there is no doubt that the distress about which so much
is said is severe in some counties, real in most, and felt to
some extent, though it may be but slightly, in all ; and the
question is. What are we to do for ourselves, or what are we
to ask Parliament to do for us ?
Gentlemen, there are some suggested remedies which it is
only necessary to mention in order to j^nt them out of the
way. Nobody in Lancashire is likely to ask for a return to
protection, and I think what has passed in Parliament this
year is enough to show farmers everywhere that it is mere
waste of time to cry out for help of that sort. Even those
who talk about reciprocity and the protection of British in
dustry as regards other branches of production, admit that
imported food cannot again be taxed.
So we may pass on to something more practical. One of
the subjects most frequently discussed by Chambers of Agri
culture and farmers' meetings is the incidence of local taxa
tion. Local taxes, it is said, fall more heavily on land than
on other kinds of property. I am not concerned to deny that,
nor do I undertake to prove that their incidence is, in all
respects, perfectly just ; but I am compelled, against my own
interest, to point out to you that the farmer, though certainly
he is concerned, is not the person primarily concerned in this

LOCAL TAXATION 15
matter. No doubt he pays rates in the first instance. No
doubt where they have been considerably raised within a few
years, so that there has been no time for a readjustment of
rents, he is the sufferer ; and I am aware that this has hap
pened in many instances, and given rise to much legitimate
complaint. But we have to look further forward than a year
or two, and if all rates whatever were taken off he would not
be a gainer in the long run. When the next valuation of the
estate took place, the absence of those local burdens would be
an element of increased value, and what was taken off from
rates would fairly enough be added on in rent. And the same
argument applies to the various proposals which we hear of
from time to time for putting rates on to the owner instead of
the occupier. No shifting of burdens of that kind lasts
longer than the expiration of existing leases ; for when a fresh
bargain has to be made, freedom from rates will be an item
to be taken into account. And I might carry the matter
further, and say that where rents are moderate and of old
standing it is not generally the interest of the tenant to bring
about changes which will of necessity compel revaluation. But
I do not dwell upon that. It is enough for my purpose to con
tend that all increase of local charges falls ultimately on the
owner, all reduction of them is for his ultimate advantage —
although obviously if such charges are increased until they
crush and pauperise the owner, the tenant suffers also from
his landlord's inability to expend capital on the estate. But
short of that, rate, as I apprehend, is simply a reduction from
rent, and the only farmer who will gain permanently by its
being lessened is the farmer who cultivates his own land.
The same remark apphes to a burden upon land of which we
do not hear much in these parts, since locally it does not affect
us. I mean the malt tax. No doubt it is a heavy charge
upon a certain class of lands, and has the inconvenience of
falling unequally on different parts of the country ; but it is
not a charge on the farmer except in the same sense as rent
is so. Take away the tax and the landlord pockets the dif
ference. On that ground I have never been able to support

16 SMALL FBEEHOLDEBS
the agitation for its removal, which, however, of late years
has greatly subsided. The British landlord is pitying himself
a good deal just now, but I do not know that he gets much
sympathy outside his own class ; and certainly he will have
too much sense to ask for a reduction of taxation in his
special favour.
Gentlemen, I pass over some subjects of inquiry bearing
on the future of the land, not because they are unimportant
or unpractical, or because they would be out of place here, but
simply because they would take us further than our time
allows. I will not do more than touch upon the question,
deeply interesting as it is, whether we should make matters
better by establishing, if we can do it, a class of cultivators
who shall be also freeholders. I am only repeating what I
have said more than once before, when I tell you that I should
like to see this experiment fairly tried. There is land enough
in the market ; and if a few capitalists choose to join, buy an
estate, and divide it into small lots, they may practically test
the question by selling these off, letting the purchasers pay
by instalments spread over a long term of years. There is no
difficulty in the thing, and you want no new law to try it.
There is a certain risk to those who make the trial, but it will
be well worth while to know by actual experiment whether
there really is a demand for land on the part of that class
who cannot afford to buy more than a few acres. The obvious
advantage gained, if the experiment succeeds, is that such
owners will work on their own ground more zealously than they
win on anybody else's. The equally obvious drawback is that
purchasers of the class we are speaking of would not only have
no spare capital to expend on the soil, but, until they had
paid off the purchase-money, would be in the position of very
heavily encumbered owners. Between these opposite con
siderations only an actual trial, I think, can decide. But even
if that solution be a practical one, it is one which would take
generations to work out, and for you tenant farmers who
do not want to buy your farms, and for the most part have not
the capital to buy them, it is no solution at all.

LABGE AND SMALL ESTATES 17
For the same reason we may ignore the vexed question of
large or small estates. I may be biassed by position, but the
impression on my mind is that tenants generally prefer to be
under a large rather than a small owner, because on estates of
some magnitude there is more of an established system, more
money proportionately is spent on improvements, and rents
are generally fixed at a lower rate. But from the point of view
of the cultivation, the farm and not the estate is the unit we
have to do with. If, for example, the farms in a given district
are each on an average about 100 acres in extent, it makes
absolutely no difference to the way in which they are worked,
whether one, or ten, or fifty are under the same landlord.
One exception only to that rule I would make. There are
land-owners, though, I think, not many, who are owners only
in name, whose estates really belong to their creditors, who
are encumbered up to the eyes, and who are driven to press
hard upon their tenants because they are hard pressed them
selves. There is no doubt in my mind that the existence of
that class of owner is a misfortune. If the present depres
sion continues, matters will become worse and worse for such
persons as I am describing, and the question may arise — I
do not tell you that it has arisen yet — whether some such
summary remedy as was applied by the Encumbered Estates
Act in Ireland may not become necessary here. That is for
Parliament and for the country to decide ; in the mean
while I would strongly warn land-owners against a common
delusion that it is always better to hold on to an estate,
however encumbered, rather than to sell, because the price of
land is constantly rising. No doubt that has been the ex
perience of the last fifty years, but it does not follow that the
experience of the next fifty years may not be, on the whole, in
an opposite direction. It is argued, I know, that in con
sequence of our existing land-laws owners cannot sell — that
land is artificially locked up and kept out of the market.
My experience and observation lead me to doubt that asser
tion. Wherever I happen to own landed property I generally
hear of some neighbour anxious to part with his estate, and,
VOL. II. c

18 BEL ATION S OF LANDLOBD AND TENANT
as a matter of fact, I believe at the present moment it is
easier to buy an estate than to sell one. People have found
out that there are better paying investments almost equally
secure, and, in these days of expensive habits and diminished
profits, they like 4 per cent, better than 2. I have been for
many years in search of that fabulous being, the capitalist
who can find no land to purchase, and I have ended by
disbelieving in his existence.
Gentlemen, I pass to a subject which more directly con
cerns you and me. I mean the relations between landlord
and tenant, starting from the basis of our actual land system,
and considering what alterations of detail in it are possible or
desirable. And on these matters 1 hope we shall speak
frankly to one another, and not use phrases which are neither
clearly defined nor capable of definition. I say so because I
think a great deal of mischief is done by both parties to
the discussion preferring to shelter themselves under general
terms which each side interprets in its own favour. I have
sometimes heard claims put forward, which nine out of ten of
those who made them would have had too much sense of
justice to advance if they had seen what was impUed in
them. In such cases it is best to state the objection at once
rather than to keep it back for fear of giving offence. And,
on the other hand, I believe farmers, or those who speak on
their behalf, often seem, from the language which is put into
their mouths, to be asking for more than they really mean or
wish. I shall try for my part to speak plainly, and while I
ten you what seems to me just and reasonable, I am quite
open to conviction if you can show me that I am wrong.
The Enghsh system is not like the Irish, as there are no
questions of nationality or religion to complicate and embitter
our mutual relations. Therefore we need not discuss such
claims as those for fixity of tenure, compensation for dis
turbance, and the like, which are reaUy only indirect ways
of transferring the ownership from one person to another.
The tenant who is legally irremovable so long as he pays a
fixed rent is the real owner : he is simply in the position of

BE LAT ION 8 OF LANDLOBD AND TENANT 19
an owner burdened with a heavy mortgage. To be placed
in that position is the Irish demand, and to the English
mind, which acknowledges the landlord's reserved right of
returning into possession of his own estate, that demand
simply means taking away by law the property of A to give
it to B.
The English tenant recognises the fact that his relation to
his landlord is one of contract, and, if I understand the sub
ject rightly, the difficulties which from time to time arise
relate almost exclusively to matters for which the contract
has not sufficiently provided. That view of the case suggests
the remedy which will usually be effective — do not leave these
points unprovided for when you enter on a farm. We some
times hear it said, ' Freedom to contract is all nonsense ; the
parties are on too unequal terms ; the law must step in to
protect the weaker side.' Now, I do not meet that argument
by a denial of the right of the State to interfere. It is very
difficult to set bounds to the abstract right of the State. If
Parliament may take from me as much as it pleases of my
land to make a railway, it may undoubtedly assume a right
to decide on what terms I shall let my farms. But the
practical objections to legislative interference with contracts
are exceedingly strong. Such interference is no new experi
ment of the present day. In the Middle Ages the State
undertook to fix the wages of labour, with signal ill success.
In much later days, almost within our recollection, the State
intervened for the protection of the debtor, as it was sup
posed, and forbade capitalists to lend their money at more
than five per cent. The result, as we all know, was that the
law was evaded whenever lender or borrower agreed to evade
it, and the debtor had to pay a heavy price for the risk which
he cooapelled the creditor to incur. So I think it will be if
you try to regulate by Act of Parliament the arrangements
made between the man who has a farm to let and the man
who wants to take it. If the incoming tenant is strong
enough to make his own terms, he wants no protection ; if he
is not, he will agree to any evasion of the legal conditions 0 2

20 BEL ATION S OF LANDLOBD AND TENANT
which the owner may propose. Eecollect that every owner
has the choice of various expedients to escape from an
obligation to which he objects. He may keep his lands in
his own hands ; and rich men, whose fortune is mostly in
money, and who own estates rather for pleasure than profit,
are likely to. do so, if they find the alternative is to lose all
control over them. He may again let it only to tenants who
he knows are not able or not likely to insist on legal rights
against him, and, of course, these will not be of the improving
or independent class. Or, thirdly, he may fix a rent higher
than he intends actually to receive, and keep the difference in
reserve to be collected only in the event of a dispute between
himself and his tenant.
Do not suppose that I am contending that it is desirable
that such expedients should be resorted to, or that I am
suggesting their use. I only want to show you what awkward
questions will be raised, and what perplexities we shall get
into, if once we drift away from the plain rule of ordinary
life, that of letting the two parties to a bargain settle the
terms between them. But I will go further, and say that
there never was a time when it was less necessary for tenant
farmers to ask the State to make contracts for them. In the
present state of things they are masters of the situation.
When farms are competed for, as they were and still are in
Ireland, no doubt the owner can make his own conditions ;
but exactly the opposite is the case just now. With farms
lying unoccupied all over the country, it is the farmer's own
fault if he accepts a lease with provisions in it which he
thinks objectionable. If he looks after his mterest in that
respect, he wants no help ; if he does not choose or care to
look after it, he deserves none. Now, gentlemen, the re
marks which I have made as to leaving contracts free apply
in principle to ah of the three main subjects of agricultural
discussion— restrictions on cultivation, game, and unexhausted
improvements. But there are differences of detail, and a
word on each may not be out of place. One of the demands
often made by Chambers of Agriculture is for what they call

GAME LAWS 21
' free cultivation.' I do not think the phrase a happy one.
Everybody is free to cultivate his own land as he pleases, and
freedom by law to cultivate somebody else's land as the
cultivator pleases means a transfer of ownership if it means
anything. The question is hardly one for Parliament to deal
with. So long as you leave an owner free not to let his land
at aU, or to let it to whomsoever he pleases, it is on the face
of it inconsistent to forbid him to impose such restrictions on
the cultivation as the tenant is willing to accept. But, looking
at it as a matter not for legal interference but for private
action, I do not doubt that there is a great deal of truth and
force in the complaint that leases are often clogged with
conditions not applicable to the wants of modern farming,
probably not intended to be enforced, but which have been
kept up merely by the force of routine, because nobody has
taken the trouble to look into them and see how far they
require to be modified. That is a grievance to which farmers'
clubs are quite right in calling attention ; and as there is
no real conflict of interest, and no feeling involved, I should
imagine that the settlement of it is not likely to offer any
serious difficulty.
As to game, what I have to say upon it will not take long.
Everybody agrees that over-preserving is a nuisance — that
you cannot have, and ought not to try to have, a warren and
a food factory on the same ground. But the remedy is not
so simple. I assume that few farmers wish to do away
with game laws altogether. The effect of so doing would be,
especially in these populous districts, to lay open your fields
to perpetual trespass in search of game ; and popular feeling
would not allow of the passing of a trespass law sufficiently
severe to put an end to the nuisance. The result would be a
worse state of things than you have now. Speaking for
myself, I should have no objection to such a, change in the
law as would give the game to the tenant, in the absence of
any agreement to the contrary ; but, as it would almost
always be a subject of agreement, the change so made would
be one rather of form than fact. Some people contend that

22 GAME LAWS
the landlord should have no power of reserving the game ;
but that would not only be an arbitrary restriction, it would
be an altogether useless one, for the tenant having the game
might let it, and he would naturally let it back again to the
owner. To prohibit that would involve the absurdity that
every owner would be able to shoot on his neighbour's lands,
but not on his own ; to allow it would leave things virtually
as they are. It seems to me, therefore, rather a matter to
be dealt with in detail than to be made the subject of any
sweeping legislation. A tenant has a right to protection
from all damage by game, greater than what he bargained
for when he took the farm, and if any method can be devised
for securing to him that protection more effectually than he
has it now, I for one shall not object. I do not see that it is
possible to deny that a farmer has a real grievance who takes
a farm with very little game upon it, and finds the quantity
doubled or trebled during his occupancy ; though here, again,
I must point out that the original cause of the mischief lies
in the vagueness of the agreement, and that is a matter
within his own power to remedy. Again, no remedy can
be too prompt or efficient in the case of persons, whether
owners or occupiers, who are injured by the game kept by
their neighbours. In that case there is no dispute as to the
wrong inflicted, and there ought to be as little as possible of
delay or cost in redressing it.
Something is said in the report as to the shortness of the
present notice to quit — six months wherever the new Act has
not been brought into operation. I think, considering the
character of modern farming, that complaint is a reasonable
one. The practice recently adopted, as I am told, by most
owners in this part of the country is to give twelve months.
That is not an inconveniently long delay for the landlord re
entering into possession, and, I think, it might fairly be
made the rule in all cases. As to unexhausted improvements,
that is not a question which can be treated in a few sentences.
As to the loading principles to be acted upon, there is, I
think, no wide difference of opinion. No one wishes that the

UNEXHAUSTED IMPBOVEMENTS 23
landlord should confiscate the result of the tenant's outlay ;
and, on the other hand, the landlord has a right to protect
himself against having to pay for so-called improvements
made by the tenant, which may be of no use to him, and
may not add to the letting value of the farm. These are the
two rocks between which we have to steer. I believe the last
Act on the subject — the Act passed by the present Parlia
ment — embodies as fair a solution of the points in dispute as
we are Ukely to arrive at, and I am told, and I apprehend,
that the results which it has produced are not to be measured
by the extent to which it has been formally adopted. Even
where, as no doubt has very generally happened, landlords
and tenants have preferred to contract themselves out of it
and to make their own arrangements, they have mostly
followed the lines on which the Act is drawn ; and, consider
ing the great varieties of custom in different parts of the
country, I do not think it is surprising that they should not
have chosen to bind themselves by a hard and fast rule.
But here again I must repeat what I said in another
connection, most of the trouble on this question arises from
want of care in the first instance, and what I may call a
happy-go-lucky way of doing things, which is not business.
I have more than once asked farmers why they had laid out
their money without security, knowing perhaps that their
farm was likely to go into the market, and generally the
answer is that they do not know ; that they were drawn on to
spend more than they meant at first ; and that they supposed
they would be fairly dealt with, and that it would all come
right. Well, if men will not exercise ordinary prudence the
fault is their own when they suffer. The farmers have
always been in a stronger position than they knew of ; they
are now, in the actual state of the land market, stronger
than they have been for many years past ; and if they only
make up their own minds as to what terms they think fair
in regard to this question of improvements, they require no
help from outside. Landlords do not, as far as I could ever
see, want to claim what is not their own. They have a

24 UNEXHAUSTED IMPBOVEMENTS
strong feeling in favour of settling such claims amicably and
quietly ; and, apart from personal feeling and from a sense
of justice, they are too much afraid of injuring their party
and their class to be willing to quarrel with those who have
the voting power, the electoral command of the counties, in
their hands. I have never known any land-owner find fault
with the principle of paying for unexhausted improvements ;
what, I think, some are afraid of is lest the application of
that prmciple should be made use of for the purpose of
introducing indirectly the Irish demand for compensation for
disturbance. But the two things are essentially distinct. The
one is a claim founded on justice, the other rests on nothing,
and the more absolutely you keep them apart the better.
My last word to you is this : Eecollect that the relations of
landlord and tenant in the long run wiU be regulated mainly
by the need which each has of the other. If there are two
farmers competing for every vacant holding, I do not care
what the law may be, the owner of that holding will be
master of the situation. If, on the other hand, two landlords
are running after the same tenant, that tenant will be in the
position of being able to make his own terms. You wiU spoil
your own and each other's chances by being too thick on the
ground. Now, the land of England capable of cultivation
is a fixed quantity ; the size of holdings is not likely, on an
average, to be reduced, and consequentl}' there is not room
for more farmers here. Let those who have sons whom they
are bringing up to their business look outside this island. In
America and Australia there will be room for centuries to
come ; and in those countries, as long as a man is on good
terms with himself, he cannot quarrel with his landlord. If
he is active and enterprising he will get on in a new country
better than he could in an old one, and by making a vacancy
here he will do good instead of harm to those whom he leaves
behind. It is a simple question of figures : keep down your
numbers and you will keep down your rents. That is
disinterested advice from a landlord, but it is truth, whoever
says it.

25

XLVI
LOCAL PATBIOTISM— LOCAL HISTOBY
Opening of the Picton Beading Room, Liveepool : Octobee 8, 1879
The duty that now devolves upon me is one of a very agree
able character, and because it is agreeable, and because I
know that the conclusion to which I am coming will be
accepted by all present without elaborate reasons, my labour
will be light and my speech will be short. I am about to ask
you to drink the health of Mr. Picton, your old fellow-towns
man, long tried in your service, and well known not only
within, but beyond, the limits of Liverpool. It is not for
me to relate in detail the vicissitudes of a career which
has been laborious and successful, nor to dilate on the cha
racteristic qualities of an intelligence equally energetic and
versatile. But it is no secret to you that Mr. Picton has
been the architect of his own fortune, as well as the archi
tect of many other works which are more prominent before
our eyes. That his position has been self-made, that it
has been the result of hard and constant work, is not peculiar
to him, for there is not a northern town Avhich ca,nnot pro
duce similar examples ; but what is less common is the
continuous and careful attention which, in the intervals of a
life abundantly occupied with private concerns, he has never
failed to give to the public interests of his fellow-citizens.
He has proved in his own case the truth of that often-
repeated saying that ' time is elastic, and nobody knows
how much may be put into it until they try ; ' that it is
generally the busiest men who have most leisure for any
really useful purpose, while it is the man who has nothing to
do who never can find an hour to spare ; and that work.

26 LOCAL PATBIOTISM
honest hard work, very seldom hurts anybody when it is not
accompanied by worry or over-anxiety, or careless living.
But, gentlemen, it is not for the purely personal merits
of unwearied industry and well-rewarded perseverance that
we pay honour to our guest this evening, it is for the service
which he has rendered to this community. Local patriotism,
if I may use the term, is a quality which we cannot too care
fully encourage ; for of all kinds of patriotism it is at once
the most needed and the least selfish. I have never feared
that, as regards our great national affairs, there will be
amongst English people any want of zeal and devotion.
The excitement created by the handling of vast interests,
the world-wide fame which is the result of Parhamentary
labour when directed by real ability, the consciousness of
acting a part on the historical stage, will always attract high
intellect, and save our Imperial Senate from being vul
garised and degraded. But we have not quite the same
security in municipal matters. They offer less to influence
the imagination. They require in these days almost as dih-
gent and minute attention, and the reputation which they
confer is necessarily of a more local and limited character.
You cannot attach too much importance to having your local
affairs in the hands of men who wish to be reaUy thinking
what they can do for the town, not what the town can do for
them. Anybody who has read of the exposure of the affairs
of New York, at the time when a certain clique ruled there
supreme, may see to what depths of corruption and jobbeiy it
is possible for a great city to descend, when the most respect
able and honest-minded men of all classes keep aloof from its
affairs, and leave them in the hands of persons to whom they
are only a profitable speculation. That, I think, is for English
cities among the possible dangers of the future — a danger in
creased by the inevitable severance of classes in a great town,
and by the disposition of those who have made money to leave
the town for the country. And on other and more general
grounds I say that we ought to do all in our power to maintain
a strong feeling of what I may call municipal patriotism.

LOCAL HISTOBY 27
It is not good for any man to be occupied solely with his
own affairs. That we all recognise. Every one, no doubt,
has his duty to the country at large, but the claims of the
nation upon all, except a few specially set apart for such work,
are slight and far between. It is the city, the borough, or the
parish which supplies the great majority of us with a possible
and useful sphere of action. There are not half a dozen men
in existence, if indeed there are so many, who can say of
themselves with truth, 'If I had not lived English affairs
would have taken a different course.' But there are thou
sands who may reflect, without self-illusion, and without
vanity, that the condition of their immediate neighbourhood
would have been widely different if they had not existed ; and
if it were possible, which happily it is not, so completely to
centralise any country that there should remain no body, and
no institution, intermediate between the individual and the
State, I should say that such a country would lose the best
possible training, if not the only training, for the transaction
of public affairs on a large scale ; and I should expect to find
that its inhabitants, as a rule, would know scarcely any mean
between fanatical devotion to a single idea, on the one hand,
and lethargic indifference, on the other, to all public interests
and ideas. I cannot wholly omit another point, because I
believe it is characteristic of Mr. Picton's whole career. No
man in Liverpool has more strenuously contended for the
principle that in the choice for local office individual fitness
should take precedence of party politics. I know that there
may be some differences of opinion on that question in the
abstract, and, therefore, though personally I believe Mr.
Picton's view to be the right one, I do not here lay stress
upon it.
But, gentlemen, if active public services be in course of
time forgotten, as public services do get forgotten in the lapse
of generations, that is a fate which need not be apprehended
for the historian of Liverpool. I need not tell you that
Mr. Picton's work is one of the most useful and successful
of local topographies. No literary skill will make a topo-

28 LOCAL HISTOBY
graphical work as interesting to the casual reader as the
last new novel by an eminent author, or the last collection
of popular essays ; but the local historian need not envy the
novelist or the essayist. Their works hit the fancy and the
fashion of the day ; they have their vogue, and they dis
appear, whilst a record of local history which is accurate,
which is graphic, ahd which relates to an important com
munity, will rather gain than lose in value two or three
centuries hence. Cities pass away, and if that Antipodean
artist of the remote future whom Lord Macaulay has im
mortalised, after sketching the ruins of St. Pa.urs, should
come northward to Liverpool, though he wiU no doubt find
the Liverpool docks as little affected by time as an Egyptian
pyramid or a Eoman amphitheatre, he will perhaps discover
for the rest only some ruins, not all of which he will greatly
care to sketch. But the more effectuaUy time does its work
on brick and stone, the more valuable become the printed and
engraved memorials of monuments which have disappeared,
and of a civilisation which has fallen into decay. We need
not look so far forward in this case ; but changes are due to
other causes besides that of decay. Unless the English race
degenerates, and I do not see that it has begun to do so, we
may be assured that the material progress, which for the last
few years has been casually interrupted, will before long
revive ; that of that renewed prosperity we shall have our
full share ; and that the Liverpool of the twentieth or
twenty-first will be something very different from that of the
nineteenth century. Then men will realise, even more than
they do now, the value of an exact and faithful reproduction
of a vanished past. Then, as now, in the houses of Lan
cashire men, in the libraries of Lancashire towns, and not
there alone, but throughout those of England, the work of
Mr. Picton will preserve his name in connection with that of
the great city of which he has been so long an inhabitant, an
administrator, and a benefactor ; and in seeking, as an artist
and historian, to preserve the memory of others, he will have
built the most effectual and lasting monument of himself.

29

XLVII
INDUSTBIAL CONDITION OF ENGLAND— HOME AND
FOBEIGN TBADE—TBADE WITH THE COLONIES-
SETTLEMENT OF TBADE DISPUTES — COMPANY
PBOMOTING
HUDDEBSFIELD : Januaey 8, 1880
I HAVE come here on your invitation and at your request to
take part in a discussion on the industrial condition of the
country, and, if courtesy had allowed, I should have preferred
the attitude of a listener to that of a speaker. For it is no
flattery to tell you that on subjects such as are dealt with in
this Chamber of Commerce, your knowledge is, and must be,
more practical, more detailed, and more accurate than mine.
I can only suggest a few general considerations, and even
these I put before you rather as questions for debate than as
conclusions which I ask you to accept. That our industrial
position at the present moment is unsatisfactory is a truism
which nobody will dispute ; but two circumstances, I think,
may be noted which in some degree mitigate the evil. In the
first place, we, the English nation, do not suffer alone. If
we did, if our industry were decaying while that of other
countries was prospering, a more despondent view would be
permissible. But I do not see that we are worse off than our
neighbours, or that we have fallen behind in the race.
Perhaps we have been in too great a hurry all over the world
to grow richer, and are paying the penalty of reckless specu
lation. But, at any rate, it is certain that France, the
United States, and other countries have shared in the general
decline and depression of the last few years.
Another source of satisfaction is that probably in all our
history there has never been an industrial crisis which

30 INDUSTBIAL CONDITION OF ENGLAND
involved so little acute suffering to the poorer class. No
doubt they have suffered ; wages have been lower, work has
been scantier, pauperism, to some extent, has increased. But
food has been cheap, and I think most of you who are middle-
aged persons will agree with me that, as compared with the
hard times of thirty-five or forty-five years ago, with the
times of Chartism and of Corn Law controversies, there has
been really nothing to speak of either in the way of general
suffering or of general discontent. The crisis has been long,
but it has not been severe. It has lasted long enough, at any
rate, to give us time for reflection on our future prospects,
and there are three questions which are being perpetually
raised, and as to which it is desirable we should form for
ourselves as clear an idea as we can as to how the truth
stands. First, are we on the whole, as a community, growing
richer or poorer ? Second, what is the proportion which the
profits on our foreign trade bear to the entire earnings of the
nation ? Third, is our foreign trade really falling off, or has
it suffered only a slight and temporary check ? Now, on each
of these three points I should like to say a few words.
As to the first, the increasing or diminishing wealth of the
nation, I will not conceal my belief that the prevalent opinion
at the present time is more gloomy than the circumstances
justify. You cannot judge by the results of a single year.
You must take for your measure a longer interval of time.
Go back only ten years, to January 1870, and ask jourselves
whether since that date the British Islands have advanced or
fallen back in material prosperity. We know what has hap
pened. We know that the movement has been irregular, that
three or four years of extraordinary growth have been foUowed
by others of partial check and reaction. But take any test
you please— the income-tax returns, the sums deposited in the
savings banks, or the consumption of popular luxuries, such as
tea, beer, and tobacco. You have in figures, which are public
and in everybody's hands, conclusive evidence of advance and
not of decline, and that after making full allowance for the
growth of population in the interval. Man for man, the

INDUSTBIAL CONDITION OF ENGLAND 31
people of England, Scotland, and Ireland, in this year 1880,
possess a larger amount of property, a larger income in
money or money's worth, than they did ten years ago. In
1870 the incomes liable to taxation were 445 millions ; in
1877 they were 570 millions. In 1870 the sums deposited in
savings banks were 53 millions ; in 1878 they were 74
millions. In 1870 the quantity of tea imported for use at
home was 117,000,000 lbs. ; in 1878 it was 157,000,000 lbs.
Now, about these figures there is no doubt nor ambiguity, and
they are only taken as samples of many others. We are
richer than we were ten years ago ; for I suppose no one will
contend that in the two or three years which have elapsed
since the date of the last returns available we have lost as
much ground as was gained in the preceding seven or eight.
I need not press the point further. Many well-informed
persons will tell you that, taking the country as a whole,
there has been no such thing as a year of loss ; that at the
end of the worst years we have been collectively better off
than at the beginning. But that assertion, perhaps, hardly
admits of proof, and I do not urge it.
But one word more I will add. I believe we shall never
rightly understand the industrial history of the years of
inflation, 1871-72-73, and the reaction which has followed,
unless we carefully bear in mind that a great deal of the
apparent fluctuation both ways has been apparent only, and
not real, so far as the community as a whole was concerned.
I will explain what I mean. A sudden rise in the price of
any particular article which is consumed at home adds to the
wealth of one class and takes away from that of another.
When coal, for instance, rose to three times its normal price,
as for a time it did in Lancashire, the producers of coal made
a very good thing ; the buyers underwent a certain loss.
But, inasmuch as the seller, if he is an honest man, returns
to the Income Tax Commissioners the increased gains which
he has made, while the buyer is not entitled to strike off
anything from his return because he has to pay three times
as much for his coal, the change -which really leaves the

32 HOME AND FOBEIGN TBADE
community neither richer nor poorer, since the gain of A is
exactly balanced by the loss of B — figures in official statistics
as a genuine increase of wealth. That seems obvious enough
when one states the case, but I think we are apt to overlook
it in reasoning. To put the matter in other words, when you
consider the enormous profits made by some classes in the
years of abundance, you must, before you estimate the
aggregate gain to the nation, deduct from those profits the
corresponding losses of those who have had to buy dearer.
And, conversely, since the fall in prices, you must set the
increased advantage of the buyer against the diminished
advantage of the seller. Life, I take it, is easier now to the
possessor of a small fixed income than it was six or seven
years ago. Look at it that way, and you wiU infer, on the
one hand, that we were not really as rich as we thought our
selves in 1873, and, on the other, that we are not as poor as
we are apt to think ourselves now.
Now, as to the next point, the proportionate importance of
home and foreign trade, you will not, I am sure, suspect me
of indifference to those vast commercial interests which it is
the boast of England to have created in every quarter of the
globe. But we can only gain by substituting precise statements,
where that is possible, for vague generalities, and, freely
admitting that I was not myself prepared for the result of
statistical inquiry on this point, I think I am not unreason
able in supposing that a good many other persons may be in
the same condition. What, then, is the aggregate of our
national income, and in what proportion is it swelled respec
tively by home industry and foreign trade '? That is at least
an interesting inquirj', whatever results you deduce. We
have no absolutely certain data to go upon, but we have data
that carry us a long way. We have the income-tax returns,
which are certain so far as they go, and accurate at least on
one side, for we may be sure that the_y do not exaggerate.
They have stood as high as 579 millions ; and, allowing for
the inevitable leakage, for the moral certainty which we have
that in many cases they are lower than they should be, I see

HOME AND FOBEIGN TBADE 33
no reason to doubt that our best statisticians are right when
they fix the amount of incomes liable to taxation at an
aggregate of not much less than 600 millions. When we
come to deal with incomes not liable to taxation we are on
less firm ground. The calculations which have been made
are more complicated, and to some extent they are con
jectural ; but the general belief amongst those most competent
to judge is that the incomes which are liable to tax and those
which from their smallness escape it about balance one
another in aggregate amount. That is the result arrived at
by Mr. Dudley Baxter some years ago, and by Mr. Giffen in
some remarkable essays. If they are right, you have a gross
national income falling little short of 1,200 millions ; but
strike off, if you will, one-sixth of that amount as possible
excess, and put it only at 1,000 millions. That is the whole.
Now, how much does foreign trade bring in ? That is a
question which we can answer with a reasonable degree of
certainty. Taking the whole value of British exports at 200
millions, which is a fair average, and deducting the price of
the raw material imported from abroad, we have about
140 millions as the profit which remains in English hands.
That is about one-seventh of the total aggregate income of
the community. No doubt it is a large, even an enormous,
figure — I may note, in passing, it would just about pay the
national liquor bill — but it scarcely justifies the language
which we often hear, as if the home trade were a compara
tively trifling matter, and as if the industrial life or death of
the nation depended on the keeping up of its exports.
And that brings me to a third part of the inquiry, is it or
is it not the fact that our foreign trade is likely to fall off?
Have we reached that point which soon or late must be
reached by every nation in the course of its history, when
material progress ceases, and material decadence begins ? I
do not believe it, and for various reasons. In the first place,
what is being said now in that sense has been said a hundred
times before in every temporary pause and interval of what
has been a perpetually growing prosperity. That, of course,
VOL. II. D

34 HOME AND FOBEIGN TBADE
does not in itself prove that the croakers who have been
wrong twenty times before may not be right at last ; but it is
a circumstance to be taken into account in judging of the
value of their predictions. Then, I say, the evidence which
is brought forward to prove a permanent depression in our
foreign trade is utterly inadequate for that purpose. What
does it come to ? Only this, that during four or five or six
years at most our habitual progress has been arrested, as it
has often been before. It is only a check, not a falling off.
We produce as much as ever we did, only we have had to
sell what we produce rather cheaper. ' But then,' it is said,
' look at the competition that you are threatened with by
foreign countries.' Well, let us look at that competition. It
is twofold : that of the United States and that of the Conti
nent. As to the United States, I do not deny that they are or
may be most formidable rivals. It is hard to put any hmits,
even in imagination, to the possible development of that
wonderful country- — forty Englands rolled into one, as some
body called it — to which, in all present appearance, if it only
manages to hold together, the first place in the future of the
world belongs. But for the present we do not find that the
Americans themselves claim or expect to beat us in the open
market. They do not come out and face us in the open, they
fight entrenched up to the eyes, behind a protective tariff,
and even with the help of that tariff they have not wholly
checked the import of English manufactures mto thek own
country. This does not look like confidence in then- own un
aided superiority, and in a country where land is so cheap it
seems difficult not to suppose that the labour market must be
affected unfavourably to the manufacturing employer by the
counter-attractions of land-owning and farming. StUl, making
all these allowances, American competition is not to be lightly
spoken of. All I say as to our rivals in that quarter is that
there is room enough in the world for us both.
As to our Continental competitors, I have never yet been
able to see what advantage they have over England. They
have not got our cheap coal, they have not got our cheap

HOME AND FOBEIGN TBADE 35
iron, they have not got our vast accumulated masses of
capital, they have not got the almost unlimited command
of mechanical appliances which is to be found in our great
towns, nor the supply of trained workmen which never fails
us in England. More than that, they have not got free
labour, for labour is not free where, as now all over Europe,
a young man is liable to be taken from the trade he is learn
ing for three or four of the best years of his life, initiated
into the vices of a camp, and sent back having forgotten all
that is of use to him to know. And conscription is only the
sign of a deeper-seated evil. The Continent, for the most
part, is given over to great military Empires, and militarism
cannot co-exist with industry on a great scale. One must
destroy the other. Do you think that Emperors, and Grand
Dukes, and Archdukes, Field Marshals, and great personages
of that sort really want the manufacturing industries of
their Empires to be developed ? Do you suppose it would
suit them to have to do with an intelligent, keen-witted,
critical, and well-to-do population such as inhabit the
northern towns of England? Depend upon it they are
not such fools ; they know their business better. What
they want is something quite different — a peasantry hungry
enough at home to find the ordinary life of a private soldier
rather agreeable than otherwise, and submissive enough to be
ready to shoot their own brothers, if ordered, without asking
why. No, gentlemen, each nation must lead its own life,
and military Empires will never be industrial rivals. They
may injure you by being bad customers, but they will not
hurt you otherwise. We, in England, as I believe, are
marked out by all our characteristic qualities for industrial
supremacy, and, as far as Europe is concerned, I am not
afraid lest we should lose it. No doubt the observation which
I have made just now does not apply to the smaller and less
ambitious communities of Europe ; but they, too, have their
own troubles. They are heavily weighted by the existence
of land frontiers, and the consequent necessities of costly
D 2

30 TBADE WITH THE COLONIES
defence. They suffer from the faults of other people, not from
their own, but they suffer all the same.
But then it is argued that the whole world is shutting out
our trade by protective tariffs, and our own Colonies are
following the example. Now, let us look into that a little.
As to the Colonies, is there a particle of evidence to show
that they have really and definitely adopted the theory of
protection ? That they have tried it, or are trying it as an
experiment in some cases, is certain ; but if, as we believe, it
is an experiment which must necessarily end in failure, why
should that alarm us ? No doubt each separate colonial
interest would like to be protected ; but when each interest
finds that it can secure protection for itself only at the cost of
paying for the protection afforded to every other interest, the
supporters of each will soon begin to discover that it is
possible to buy gold too dear. The process of disillusion, I
am told, has already begun in Victoria, and when bubbles
burst they do not burst gradually or by halves. I think, also,
that we ought to allow more than we do for the difficulties of
colonial finance. In a new country, where scarcely anybody
has made his fortune, where there are very few luxuries, and
no masses of accumulated wealth, internal taxation is not
very easy or productive, and that is all the more the case
where settlers live scattered far apart, making the collection
of direct taxation difficult. A country m that condition is
apt to rely on customs duties for a large part of its income,
and to raise them without much inquiry as to whether they
operate protectively or not. Clearly that is a cause for the
existence in young countries of protectionist duties which
will disappear as time goes on, as the lands become inhabited,
and as the community increases in wealth. The only thing I
fear with regard to the Colonies is lest we should spoil our
own game by meddling prematurely. If anything would con
firm the Australian and Canadian settlers in protectionist ideas,
it would be the slightest semblance or suspicion of dictation
from England in a contrary sense.
There is no jealousy more intensely sensitive than that of

TBADE WITH THE COLONIES 37
British settlers beyond the seas in their relations with the
mother country. They are perfectly loyal ; they are willing
and even proud to call themselves British subjects, and to
enjoy British protection (and they are quite right, for the
arrangement, whilst it is the simple fulfilment of a duty on
our part, is a very good one for them) ; but they remain with
us, as I conceive, on the tacit understanding that they shall
do exactly as they please, and that the nominal and honorary
supremacy which we claim shall not be treated as a fact.
They are, if I may use such a figure, like horses which run
loose alongside the car of the State, but do not help to draw
it. Therefore, all the talk which we sometimes hear about
free trade within the British Empire — a great Imperial Zoll-
verein — is simply inapplicable to the conditions under which
we live. We cannot really regulate the conditions of com
merce, except in these islands and in India, and in India we
can do it only so far as the almost hopeless condition of
finance in that country will allow us. But, if we cannot use
authority where the Colonies are concerned, we can trust to
reason and experience, which are much safer grounds to rely
upon. I believe it is mainly the example of the United
- States which has influenced our Colonies ; and when they
change, as they must, the smaller communities which look up
to them will do the same. Meanwhile, let us remember this —
that every doubt expressed as to our own course, every casual
word of regret which is given to the abandonment of protec
tive duties amongst ourselves, does harm outside England. If
we seem to hesitate, how shall we convert those who are
wavering ? If we do not believe in ourselves, how are we to
make anybody else believe in us ? In a position such as ours
it is much easier to point out the i.iselessness of popularly
suggested remedies than to indicate others which may be
more available. I have no great faith in diplomatic preaching,
but something I suppose we may do by the combined action
of our diplomatists and our manufacturers, when an opening
is afforded by changes of tariffs in foreign States. France,
Italy, Spain, and the smaller States generally are not indis-

38 SETTLEMENT OF TBADE DISPUTES
solubly wedded to commercial restrictions ; and it does not
follow that, because a principle which thirty years ago was
entirely new has not made a conquest of Europe in one gene
ration, its ultimate success is to be despaired of. With Spain,
at least, we know we can negotiate by modifying our wme
duties, whenever it is again our good luck to see such a thing
as a financial surplus.
Something we may accomplish by lightening gradually
the public burdens, which still press on our workers at home,
though I am bound to admit that I do not think those burdens
are many or heavy. Public and private economy tell in such
a race as we have to run, and neither just at j)resent is our
strong point. We are a wasteful people taken as a whole, and
by better social arrangements even lower money wages than
are now paid, if the state of business should cause them to be
lowered, may be made to go a good deal further in the way of
comfort than they do now. Can we make anything more of
the home market than we do ? I see in every great town a
good many backs which do not seem very abundantly covered,
and I fancy the woollen trade would receive a material
stimulus if the owners of those backs did not prefer to keep
themselves warm by internal applications. It is of no use to
talk, as some people do, of going back to longer hours of work,
because hours on the Continent are longer than here. This
we may be assured that our people will not stand. There
are steps which, once taken, cannot be retraced ; but if we
cannot get more hours of work, cannot we put more into each
hour ? Can we not make the day's labour of each individual
man worth more than it is ? Mechanical mvention has not
said its last word, and when you have done all that you can
do in that line the human part of the mechanism remains to
be taken in hand, and to have its productive capacity developed
to the utmost. This you are doing by the creation of that
admirable technical school on which you have spent so much
money and pains. Lastly, there is an immense problem to
solve — can we do anything to lessen the waste of capital and
labour in the perpetually recurring conflicts between the two?

SETTLEMENT OF TBADE DISPUTES 39
I know that the difficulty has hitherto been found all but
insuperable. I know, also, that something may be set against
the enormous loss caused by strikes, in the increase of labour-
saving machinery which they have brought about. I was
speaking only the other day to the leading partner in a great
concern in which a strike had prevailed during the greater
part of last year, and he told me casually that one result of
that strike was that improved machinery was being introduced
into the works which would dispense altogether with the labour
of many men, and, in addition, would enable ordinary workers
in other cases to take the place of skilled artisans. That
process, I imagine, has been going on in all lines of business
ever since manufactures began, and it has been to the em
ployer a considerable mitigation of the inconvenience that he
has undergone.
But I think we must all feel that, with the good sense and
moderation which has been shown on both sides in England,
it is not hopeless to look forward to a less costly and trouble
some method of settling trade disputes than that which now
prevails. If I were a manufacturer, I think I would rather
encourage than discourage men with whom I had to do in
setting up co-operative undertakings. They have very often
failed, and they will very often fail again ; but, depend upon
it, no man has ever taken an active part in them without
getting a clearer notion than he had before of the risks and
responsibilities of an employer. Arbitration, again, is, I think,
growing more and more in popular favour where questions of
wages are concerned. It has its defects, no doubt; the award
of the umpire cannot be enforced if either party refuses to
accept it, and there is the difficulty which I have myself felt
acutely when occupying the position of an umpire — that the
process is a very arbitrary one. There is no law to administer ;
there is no exact right or wrong in the case ; you have to
judge, as best you can on the facts before you, what would
probably be the result of a trial of strength between the con
tending parties. Still, with all these drawbacks, it is a useful
if rough expedient, and we can only gain by its extended

40 COMPANY PBOMOTING
adoption. Meanwhile, we have to recollect that our labour
difficulties, grave as they may be, are not peculiar to this
country. Our rivals feel them as much as we ; and they will
feel them more seriously than we do, just in proportion as
they call in the aid and interference of the State to settle
matters which we leave to the free action of individuals.
There is one other matter of vast general interest, but
upon which I hardly venture to touch. We all know what
will happen when trade revives, as it is sure to do. The
' promoter ' will be at his work again. Schemes will be
launched by hundreds which have not one particle of honesty
or reality about them, and which are perfectly well known to
be intended for the benefit of no human being except those
who get them up — which are, in fact, swindhng transactions,
and nothing else, whether the law can touch them or not. Is
it absolutely necessary — is it quite a law of Nature that on
these occasions the ignorant and credulous — a large part of
all society, as we know— must be tempted on to ruin without
an attempt to expose the fraud, under the eyes of hundreds
of experienced men of business who know perfectly well what
is going on ? We should be ashamed of looking on and
seeing a man robbed in the street without attempting to in
terfere ; and where, morally, is the difference ? It is not the
business of individuals to act as public prosecutors, and jour
nalists are not always willing, and I do not see that they are
bound, to risk prosecutions for libel by plain speaking ; but is
it impossible that in such cases associations of men, acting
directly or indirectly, should intervene, at least, by the sug
gestion of a few timely questions, or by an opportune word of
warning publicly given ? I know well the difficulty of the
subject, and the objections which may be made. All I tell
you is that in a well-ordered societv, where frauds such as I
speak of are unpunished and successful, it is not answer
enough for each man to say — ' This is not my business, so I
left it alone.' It might not be his business individually and
singly— it is his business as a member of a community. The
nation has lost millions directly by rascalities of this sort.

COMPANY PBOMOTING 41
and indirectly it has lost a great deal more, because investors
who have suffered by a rogue will not trust an honest man.
But, gentlemen, I am not here to propound to you any
new method of getting over difficulties with which we are all,
unhappily, familiar. I do not believe in short cuts to fortune.
Labour, enterprise, and saving gave us the industrial position
which we have earned, and those qualities alone can retain it.
But we must know what we want. If we are going as a nation
into the gunpowder and glory business — if we think the in
creased development of militarism a necessity of our position,
do not let us hide from ourselves what one result at least will
be. We may be successful and glorious. So we were in 1815,
but I do not suppose that at any period in our history the
English people have been so poor, so miserable, or so dissatis
fied as they were in the fifteen or twenty years which followed
Waterloo. But there is a difference between those times and
the present. Sixty years ago the labourer and the artisan
might suffer, but they had to submit ; there was no escape for
them. But now the seas are open, they need not even go
outside the British Empire to escape from Imperial taxation
and from European responsibilities. Australia and Canada
will take them in, and be glad of their coming, while these
countries will take very good care not to involve themselves
further than they can help in European troubles. I think
that is a circumstance which ought to be borne in mind if any
question shall arise of military adventure not forced upon us
by duty or by self-defence.

42

XLYIII
SAVINGS BANKS— THE NATIONAL DEBT-
PENNY BANKS— FBUGALITY
Liveepool : Januaey 16, 1880
I WAS asked as long ago as October last to dehver an address
to the supporters and promoters of the Penny Banks in and
around Liverpool. My first impulse was to refuse, feeling as
I did, and do, that it is utterly impossible to tell you anything
new or particularly worth hearing on the subject of Savings
Banks ; but I was told that my coming might be of use to a
movement with which I heartily sympathise ; and, further,
I reflected that if nothing was to be uttered in pubhc which
had very often been heard before, though possibly the general
public might gain, yet that new rule would be a sentence of
professional ruin to some journalists, to many politicians, and,
perhaps, to most popular preachers. Therefore I thought
better of the matter, and I am here. And if what I say to
you is chiefly in the line of what may be caUed benevolent
commonplace, you must blame the subject at least as much
as the speaker.
Now, as to the general question of savings banks ; one is
apt to ask, ' Why do they date, so to speak, only from yester
day ? ' How comes it that so very simple and unobjectionable
an idea never got itself acted upon till fifty j'ears ago ? But
I think the answer is easy. Savings banks are delicate plants
which will only grow and thrive in a certain political tem
perature and climate. You cannot have them, to begin with,
in any country that is despotically governed, where the
Sovereign and the State are one. Nobody will put his spare
cash into the hands of an individual who considers that he
has a perfect right to keep it if he pleases. You must have a

SAVINGS BANKS 43
Government controlled, in some form, by public opinion, before
you can trust it with your earnings. So, again, you will not
have savings banks, on any large scale, in a country liable to
revolutionary outbreaks. I doubt if in any South American
State, or perhaps even in Spain, you would find citizens
willing to trust their cash to official hands. There must be
security for order as well as freedom. Further, there must
be a working class, which has emerged in the course of time
from an absolutely dependent condition, and which has some
education, and some hope of rising in the world. The very
notion of laying by for old age or for children does not come
into the head of a savage or a serf. Even in England, I am
told that the rustic of the south occasionally reasons in a beery
manner, and says, ' The parish is bound to keep me when I
am past work ; why should I lose my pleasure for the sake of
saving the farmers' pockets ? ' You do not hear that kind of
talk hereabouts, and you will not hear it anywhere when School
Boards have done their work, and when every working man
can read his newspaper.
Then, again, savings banks are rather an urban than a
rural institution. A country thinly populated, and with habi
tations at wide distances, is not favourable to their creation
or their growth, though that obstacle is less serious than the
others. Still, if a man has to walk ten or twenty miles to
make his deposit, as may happen in a Colony, or even in some
out-of-the-way district at home, he is not always willing to
take the trouble ; and if he starts on the journey it is a chance
that, before he gets to the end, part of his stock will have gone
down his throat in a liquid form. So you see the setting up
of savings banks is not quite so simple a matter as it seems,
I believe that when they were first established in England
they met with a good deal of opposition, on very queer grounds,
as it would seem to us now. One favourite taunt against
their promoters was that they aimed at making the free
hearted generous English people mean and miserly. Others
talked of the wretched state of the poor, not wholly without
reason in those days ; and how the first thing to do was to

44 THE NATIONAL DEBT
feed them better before you asked them to put by their wages ;
others, again, thought that the Poor Law was a poor man's
substitute for a savings bank. Not a few disliked the whole
movement, because they said dependence on the bounty of
the rich was the natural reliance of the deserving poor ; one
class was made charitable by having its liberality appealed to ;
the other was kept humble by having to look up for help ;
and I dare say, though I do not know it, that then, as now, the
publican said (rather in private, and to suitable hearers, than
in public) : ' If these new-fangled devices for saving come in,
what is to become of our trade, and what is to become of the
taxes on drink ? ' Well, so a good many of our great-grand
fathers talked, and possibly to our great-grandchildren some
of our modern utterances may not sound much wiser. But
savings banks grew and flourished. They grew slowly in bad
times — quickly in good times — but their growth was never
arrested. I need not point out to you how much the burden of
the National Debt, heavy and vexatious as it must always be,
would be practically lessened if a large part of it were owned
in small sums by our working people at home — if it went,
that is, to mitigate poverty and not to increase abundance.
I will just mention incidentally another reason why it is
exceedingly desirable that the deposits in savings banks
should increase. They supply the most convenient method —
the only convenient method that has yet been found- of
enabling Parliament to reduce the mass of the national
indebtedness by means of what are called terminable annui
ties. You would not thank me to explain the process ; but
every financier can tell you that that is the best, the surest, if
not the only way of lightening that unpleasant legacy which
the wisdom of our ancestors has bequeathed to us. We are
paying now for the Duke of Marlborough's victories ; and,
though I hope we shall always pay up honestly, it is not
satisfactory to think that, in 170 years, we have repaid the
capital thus borrowed about 140 times over in interest, and
that the principal remains still as a charge upon us. Depend

THE NATIONAL DEBT 45
upon it, that question of national debts wiU be a serious one
some day in Europe. They are steadily getting piled up
higher (I speak of foreign countries — not of our own), and
when the burden grows intolerable people will begin to ask
questions, which are not quite easy to answer, as to the right
of one generation to lay burdens in perpetuity on all pos
terity. So let us keep out of the mess by lightening our load
while we can ; and, as I said before, for that purpose there
is no such efficient machinery as that supplied by savings
banks. I have never clearly understood why our savings
banks are tied down so closely as to the amount which each
depositor may invest in a year, or as to the total amount
which he may hold. I have often asked the question, and
the reasons given have been two — both, to my mind, very bad
ones : one, lest the business of the ordinary banks should be
interfered with, which I do not think it seriously would be,
and, in any case, it is not the business of the State to secure
them a monopoly ; the other, a graver objection, is that it
may be a risk to the State to hold so much money at call,
since, if everybody wished to be paid off at once, the funds
would not be forthcoming. To this I think the answer is
that it is only when a banker is distrusted, when he is
thought likely to fail, that there is a run upon him ; and as
the solvency of the State is not likely to be doubtful under
any conceivable circumstances, there will never be a run on
the State. And it is mere commonplace to say that the
larger number of people you interest in keeping things quiet,
the safer your social system will be. It is rather a trouble
some business for a poor man who does not employ a banker
to buy into the funds, and land is never likely to be a con
venient investment for very small owners, because it wants
personally looking after, while money once safely put away
looks after itself. Therefore, speaking merely my personal
opinion, I should like to see a considerable extension in the
maximum which may be held by depositors — perhaps up to
600L in ah, and IDOL in any one year.'
' The present limit (1894) is 200?. in all, and 30/. in a year.

46 PENNY BANKS
This is hardly the time or place to refute popular fallacies
on economical matters, else I should have liked to say a word
about that queer delusion that leads some working men to
fa,ncy that accumulation of capital, even by their brother
workers, is somehow hostile to them. The case is exactly
the other way ; the more money there is in the country the
cheaper the use of it will be, and the better the bargain for
the poor man, who must work or trade with other people's
capital. High interest — usury, as people used to call it — has
been, in all ages, one of the standing grievances of the poor ;
and high interest, when generally prevalent, and not due to
any special insecurity in the investment, means only that
capital is scarce — in other words, the people have not been
accumulating. In India, at this day, the peasant who must
borrow to cultivate his field has to borrow at 20 per cent.,
and once involved at that rate of interest he never gets free.
If India were richer, if capital were more plentiful, the gains
of the individual capitalist would be lessened. He would have
to lend at 10 or 8 or even 5 per cent., but the worker would
find his life proportionately easier. It is from the operation
of the same principle that all great destructions of capital,
such as arise from wars, are apt to be popular with owners of
money, as such — of course, assuming that it is other people's
money that is lost, and not theirs — because, where a great
deal has been destroyed, what remains is worth more. So
you see the work which these banks are doing is really tend
ing to bring about a social change. You are obliging the
capitalist to be content with lower interest, and making
industrial employment, which depends on cheap capital, more
abundant for the artisan and the labourer. . . . But you
cannot have a large river without little rivers and brooks to
feed it, and that useful office is performed in great part by
the penny banks whose representatives come here to-night.
Where the question is between thrift and self-indulgence,
between saving and spending, delays are dangerous. There
is a perilous interval between the time when a man gets paid
off and the time when he puts by what he ought to be able to

FENNY BANKS 47
spare. In a large town like this, to go to any one of the
three offices of the bank may involve a long walk, and it is
not an unreasonable wish on the part of the promoters of
these Penny Savings Banks to make it as easy for a working
man to invest in them as it is for him to invest in a glass of
beer. I am glad to see by the report just published that you
have now ] 04 of these penny banks ; that they hold the
money of 28,000 depositors, and that, in addition, they have
transferred to the Central Bank over 5,000L in the depositors'
own names. It is impossible to do a more useful work, or to
do it in a more unostentatious way. You, the working
promoters of these banks, are the humble and obscure, but
not less effective missionaries of a movement, which is
essentially one in favour of civilisation. For, rely upon it,
in all societies the thriftless class is really the dangerous
class. It is not a question of social position. There is not
much to choose bet ween the poor Irish tenant, who is ripe for
a revolution because he cannot pay his rent, and the ruined
lord who is ready to vote that black is white that he may get
a place at Court and pay his gambling debts. Where there
is not saving there must be debt, and from the days of the
Eoman Eepublic to our own, in every age and country, a large
debtor class has been an element of danger and disturbance.
That is the public — the national side of the question. It may
seem almost ridiculous to speak of penny savings in connec
tion with the growth or decline of national wealth ; but yet
look at the matter that way. I will not repeat the old story of
what the British liquor bill is — just 140 millions, or 20Z.
a head for every family of five in the British Islands. Nor
wiU I tell you that half that sum saved would pay all the
taxes of the year ; but we all know that without supposing
the nation to adopt very ascetic habits, or even to become as
strictly frugal as France, there is an enormous margin for
reasonable economy, and we do not, I think, always sufficiently
appreciate the fact that private frugality will enforce public
economy. Suppose only one quarter of the sum spent in

48 FBUGALITY
liquor or tobacco to be saved ; that implies a reduction of
ten millions in the revenue ; and do you suppose that any
Chancellor of the Exchequer would go to work to put on those
ten millions again by direct taxation ? Not he ; he would
learn to do without them.
It is a peculiarity of this country, and I think a happy
peculiarity, that the class whose incomes are under 150L
a year — the class, that is, who live on weekly wages — may
relieve themselves almost entirely from taxation if they think
fit. They do not now as a rule care to do it, but the time
will come when there will be a change in that as well as in
other respects. The depositors in these banks remind me,
if they will not be offended by the comparison, of those almost
microscopic insects which have built up the great coral reefs
of the Pacific. Singly, these insects are insignificant and
almost invisible ; collectively, they have raised mountains out
of the ocean, inclosed square leagues of sea, and constructed
breakwaters which exceed a thousandfold the most gigantic
works of human engineers. And so you, the human workers,
are piling up, by your separate minute contributions, the
gigantic structure of national wealth. As to the private and
personal part of the business, I leave that to others to deal
with. Preaching is not in my line, but I remember the
Spanish proverb, ' He that sleeps too soundly, let him borrow
the pillow of a debtor,' and as Spaniards have a good deal of
experience on the subject of insolvency, I suppose we may
accept their opinion. Just one word more. You will some
times hear people talk — young people especially, as if there
was something mean and poor about the habit of frugality,
and as if squandering were the sign of a generous nature.
If ever that fallacy is uttered in your hearing, just put your
foot upon it and trample it out. There are, here and there,
misers and selfish economists, no doubt ; but, as a rule, what
is there less generous than self-indulgence ? Most people
who save do so with at least a partly unselfish purpose. They
save for the old age of a parent, for the future of a child, or
in order that they themselvea, in old age, may not be a

FBUGALITY 49
burden to others. But of what is needlessly spent, how
much goes, in general, in nothing else than personal and
selfish pleasure ! It is very fine, I dare say, for a youth to
have his fling, aud come home with empty pockets ; but what
is there fine about the spectacle of that same youth grown
old, with nothing of his own laid by, disabled from work,
and living on the charity of his brothers, his sisters, or his
children ? Who has got the best of it then ? But, as I said
before, I will not preach. I only congratulate you, the workers
in this penny bank movement, on what you have done
already — it is a good deal — and I wish you life, health, and
energy to go on with your useful service.

VOL. II.

50

XLIX
ELEMENTABY EDUCATION— SCHOOL BOABDS
LivEEPOoii : Januaey 26, 1880
I COULD not refuse the invitation lately received from the
Liverpool Educational Council to distribute the scholarships
and prizes awarded by them for the work of last year, because,
when one's co-operation is asked for a useful public purpose,
and when no pressure of private or public business stands in
the way, it is ungracious to decline such assistance, however
little it may be worth. We have aU got to justify our exist
ence, or, in homelier words, to pay for our keep in some
shape ; and though I am not sure that making speeches
about education is the most useful kind of employment that
a man can be put to just now, still, as far as I am concerned,
it is the first that comes to hand, and therefore I have had
great pleasure in coming here. I need not tell you the
nature of the duty which the Liverpool Council of Education
performs. ... It has permanently founded eight scholar
ships, at a cost of 500Z. each ; and I notice the fact because
I hope to see the number of these scholarships largely ex
tended. There are a good many people who are afflicted
with what a Frenchman called la manie de la perpetuite, who
wish to be able to say non omnis moriar, who desire to live in
something they have done when they themselves have, in the
ancient phrase, gone over to the majority. Now it is not
given to many persons to play a part in history ; or to write
a book which, as Gibbon said of his great historical work,
will be ' read and abused a hundred years hence ; ' or even to
connect their names with some large national foundation,
such as that of Mr. Peabody in London, and Sir William
Brown in this city. But there is a kind of local immortality
which anyone may secure \vho has 1,000L and the will to

ELEMENTABY EDUCATION 51
spend it. Let him found a scholarship, and he may have
the assurance that his money will not be wasted, that it will
not be jobbed, that it will be a help to deserving students in
distant times, and that his disposition is as little likely to be
interfered with as any arrangement which in these days it
would be possible to make. His name will be handed down,
and some people at least will think kindly of him perhaps
two or three hundred years hence.
You may like to know what is the exact state of the case
at present as regards these scholarships. Of the seven which
I am about to announce presently, five are permanently
endowed ; the remaining two are temporarily provided for.
All these are held for three years. Next year there will be
seven more to give away, and I am authorised, by those who
are best able to judge, to say that they confidently hope and
expect that, before the time comes for their distribution,
these seven also will be endowed by similar gifts. But,
returning to what is immediately before us, I wish to express
my conviction of the good work which this local council of
education is doing. There are many things in regard to
elementary schools which in a great city like this ought to
be done, and which a school board in its official capacity
cannot do. Official machinery must always have something
stiff and hard in its working, and you want it in these
matters supplemented by individual care and by personal
encouragement. Honours and rewards conferred on the
teachers of the most successful schools, as well as on the
children in those schools ; prizes and certificates of merit to
pupil teachers ; and, speaking generally, the public recog
nition by the community of Liverpool of all useful services
rendered to the cause of education in Liverpool — these are
not things which can be done by official authority or paid for
out of the rates, but they are things which nevertheless ought
to be done. . . .
Compulsion is a rough and clumsy expedient. In some
cases it is necessary, but it is apt to create hardships, unless
cautiously employed, and to rouse against the School Board,
E 2

52 ELEMENTABY EDUCATION
and even against education in general, a feeling of suspicion
and distrust which it is most undesirable to create. In Liver
pool the object has been to lead instead of to drive ; to do
away as far as possible with the necessity of exercising com
pulsory powers by attracting to the schools children whose
parents are not much inclined to send them there. You
may ask, How is that to be done ? We answer that, by the
prospect held out of rewards and prizes, and of public dis
tinction, the parents are induced not only to send then-
children more freely than they otherwise would to the schools,
but also to keep them there longer. That latter point, as you
know, has always been a difficulty — I may say one of the
greatest difficulties which teachers have had to contend
against. We say, further, that by these annual competitions,
conducted by independent examiners (I lay stress upon this,
for we do not believe in auditing our own accounts), if a boy
shows more than ordinary talent, he is brought forward, and
has a chance given him which otherwise he would not have.
And, lastly, the effect of this annual competition, not only
between scholars, but between schools, keeps ahve in both
teachers and taught a sort of healthy emulation. If in any
school the method of teaching is defective, the defect may
very long escape notice, unless the school is compared with
others. But under our system of yearly comparison, no such
deficiency can long exist without being brought to light. I
must also mention one other feature of the system, which is
this — that when the attendance of a child has been punctual
and regular for not less than a year, when in that year the
absences have not exceeded five, a reward is granted which
practically confers free education in the same school for the
whole of the succeeding twelve months. That is a kmd of
prize which, I a.m told, is greatly valued ; and it has this
advantage, amongst others, that it can be gained by anyone,
that success in gaining it does not depend on the accident of
talent, nor on the casual inferiority of rivals. It is a moral
rather than an intellectual test, and the habit which it tends
to create is equally useful in any department of life.

SCHOOL BOABDS 53
The working of the educational scheme here leads me
to one remark which I wish to make. It is no use denying
the fact that a good deal of jealousy prevails, in some parts
of the country, against the extension of School Boards.
Every now and then you see in print a piteous appeal to the
pubhc in general to help some little parish school of which
you never heard before, and to save it, not from being swept
away altogether — that would be, apparently, a minor evil —
but from being taken over by a School Board. Well, that is
only nature. Power is power, even on a small scale ; and
when two or three men, with some cost and trouble, have set
up a school, which they can manage in their own way, natu
rally they do not like handing over the control of it to a com
mittee, of which, though they may be leading members, they
are only members like others. But in this country we soon
learn to reconcile ourselves to the inevitable. When a rural
police was first set up in the counties it was necessary, for
many years, to make its establishment optional ; but, in time,
the squires began to see that the plan was the right one, and
the obligation to adopt it was accepted in the end without
difficulty. It will be just the same with School Boards. It
was, and is, quite right to hurry nobody, but to give people
time to get used to a new notion ; but that they must before
long become universal is, I think, as certain as most things
that are not matters of actual calculation. But what I would
respectfully urge on our educational friends in the smaller
towns, and in the country, is to look at what is being done in
the great cities, and to satisfy themselves that cheap, good,
and moral teaching can be given at least as effectually under
a School Board as without one, .while the burden fahs much
more fairly; for, though I am an admirer of voluntary
agencies wherever they can be brought to bear, there is no
doubt that when a public duty is discharged by voluntary
agencies alone, it is apt to be thrown on a very few shoulders.
The willing horse draws aU the load. I have seen that
repeatedly, and I think I see it in the case of many of our
Liverpool charities. I remember looking over the yearly

54 SCHOOL BOABDS
record of work done in a very large London parish, where, out
of many thousands, some fifty or sixty individuals supplied
nearly the whole of the funds required. That is not fair, where,
as is the case with schools, the State and the public recognise
them not as a luxury, but as a necessity. We need not fear but
that there will be plenty of room for volunteers in educational
matters even if every school in the country were put under a
School Board— the very arrangements which I have been de
scribing to you as in force here show that to be the case.
There is one thing more about our Liverpool system which
I ought to note, if only because it is not as common as it
might be. Neither in the School Board, I believe, nor in the
Council of Education, has there been the shghtest hitch or
unpleasantness caused by sectarian disputes. You know what
controversies on ecclesiastical subjects are when once they
begin — how reasonable people cease to reason — how amiable
people say and do unpleasant things — and how, figuratively
speaking, mud and bad eggs are always flying about. When
people go in for disputes of that sort, it is election time with
them every year and all the year round. We have kept
clear of that trouble in Liverpool ; all sects have been repre
sented — all have been equally and fairly dealt with ; and, on
the neutral ground of moral and intellectual training, they
have worked in friendship together. Why should it not be
the same everywhere ? I cannot tell, except that Liverpool
is a busy place, and that, when men have got useful work to
do, they have neither time nor taste for wranghng. That is
nearly all with which I need trouble you to-day. I spare you
the well-worn commonplaces about the advantages of mental
culture and of literary tastes ; but I will give j'ou one result
of personal experience, and I will suggest to j^ou one observa
tion which you may make for yourselves. I have been many
years a magistrate ; and as Chairman at Kirkdale I have had
to deal in the last twenty-three years with the cases of more
than 1,500 offenders against the law. That is a sufficient
number to judge by ; and nothing has struck me more forcibly
than the utter stupidity and brainlessness of 99 out of every

SCHOOL BOABDS 65
100 of those unlucky individuals. It is not merely ignorance ;
that might be explained by their mostly belongmg to the
poorest class ; but, as far as my observation goes, they are for
the most part as much below the average of their own class
intellectually as they can be morally. Nine-tenths of them
might be Zulus for any good that they have got from civilisa
tion ; and that is my answer to the foohsh talk you sometimes
hear about the worthlessness of merely intellectual training.
Civilised beings will at least not have the vices of savages or
of brutes. My other remark is this : Look about you — use
your own eyes and judgment, and of all those persons whom
you know anything of who have gone to the bad, just observe
how many have any turn for books or study. You will find
one, perhaps, here and there ; but only as a rare exception.
Intellectual activity is in itself a moral safeguard — it kills
vicious tastes, just as in the bodily life a healthy appetite for
food keeps out the morbid craving for drink. Therefore it is
that to the spread of School Boards, and of all that goes with
them, I look for moral and social, as well as intellectual
improvement. Indeed, I cannot separate them. Mental cul
ture cannot come without assiduity, and that is a moral
quahty. In an examination it is not the sharpest who wins,
it is the most accurate, the most laborious, and most careful.
But it will not come of itself. There must be willing hands to
work. There must be co-operation of classes and of sects,
and though money must not be wasted, it must not be unduly
spared. What on earth is the use of it if not to promote
civilisation ? Yet you hear people cry out about the mon
strous burdens imposed by the School Board, who would
vote for spending a hundred times as much in other ways
which we will not talk of here. I do not think I ought to sit
down without mentioning the debt which we owe to the
examiners who here worked for us. They have given their
services unpaid, and very laborious service it is, and they want
and ask no return except the recognition which you will not
refuse. I will trouble you no further, but proceed to the
business of the day.

56

COFFEE TAVEBNS
London : Febkuaet 25, 1880
Now, as to the general subject of coffee taverns, I do not
suppose there is anything very new to be said about them,
although, as regards the general welfare of the population,
the subject is of far more importance than many about which
a far greater amount of noise is made. But a witness who
comes forward in a Court of Justice to speak of what he
knows is not found fault with if he is not original and
entertaining. It is enough that he should be accurate, and I
come here as a witness to tell you the httle I know of the
great and growing success of this movement in those large
northern towns with which I happen to be best acquainted.
Liverpool, with its immense seafaring population, and with
that other kind of population which, unluckily, is attracted
there, as to all places where sailors come ashore in large
numbers — Liverpool has an unfortunate reputation in the
matter of sobriety. But in Liverpool a Coffee-house Com
pany has been set up within the last two or three years
which a few months ago was so prosperous that when by
way, as I thought, of giving it a lift, I wrote and applied for
some shares, I found that instead of conferring a favour by
my application, their allotment would have been a favour
conferred upon me — that, in fact, they were all taken up, and
stood at a high premium. In Manchester and other places I
hear of similar success, and I think this may be taken for
granted, that there is a real public want to be supplied, and
that therefore these concerns ought not to fail except, as
every other undertaking may fail, in consequence of mis-

COFFEE TAVEBNS 57
management. It is a common thing to hear people say,
when they are arguing against the well-known ideas of Sir
Wilfrid Lawson and his friends, ' Oh, I am all for temper
ance, but I am against temperance on compulsion.' I rather
lean to that view myself, but there is another side to the ques
tion which, perhaps, we do not sufficiently consider. We see
in our great towns that often we are apt to have not tempe
rance, but intemperance, on compulsion. There are thousands
of shops where intoxicants are sold, but till lately there were
few or none where a thirsty man could get a cheap cup of
anything that would not make him drunk.
As you know, there is a great deal of talk in connection
with this subject about what is called local option. We
are not only for local option, but we are for personal option,
in this sense — that we want everybody to have what he has
not now — a free choice as to whether he shall have stimulants
or non-stimulants as part of his daily consumption. As
matters are, the working man's choice now very often is —
drink beer or go dry, and knowing, as we all do, the extent to
which excess in drink prevails, we think that the least which
society can undertake (I do not say that it is the most which it
should undertake) is to give a man a chance of being tempe
rate without making himself exceptionally uncomfortable. I
fully believe that for every one man who has taken to swilling
of hie own free and deliberate choice, two or three, or possibly
a much larger proportion, have been driven into it by example,
by the influence of social habits, or by the fact that a good
fire, a warm room, company, and refreshment were not to be
had without the accompaniment of liquor. Now that is what
we want to get iid of. It would seem as if a movement Hke
this— interfering with nobody's freedom, meddling with no
man who wishes to be left alone— ought to meet with little
if any opposition. But do not let us flatter ourselves into
any such sanguine delusion. As yet it is not big enough to
have made enemies; but if it succeeds as the co-operative
stores have succeeded (and I do not see why it should not) , it
wUl be met with an opposition as vehement, as bitter, and in

58 COFFEE TAVEBNS
the end as futile, as that which the co-operators have had to
encounter. Aud all the better that it should be so. We do
not expect to win without a fight. I recollect once hearing
two Members of Parliament talking over a speech which had
been lately delivered in the House of Commons. ' That was
a telling speech of So-and-So's,' one said. ' Well, I do not
know,' the other answered, ' I did not see that it made any
body very angry.' And so, depend upon it, a reform which
makes nobody angry, which provokes no jealousy, and ex
cites no criticism, is not generally one of a very effective
character. Now, I am not here to make a temperance speech, but I
think there are two very good texts which temperance orators
might dilate upon. We hear a great deal about the peasantry
becoming owners of land, having gardens and fields of then-
own, and so forth. Do you know what an acre of good agri
cultural land is worth on an average ? Put it at 60L, and you
will not be far wrong ; in fact, that is a high price just now ;
and if you choose to do a little ciphering, you will see that
that makes as nearly as possible Sd. for every square yard. I
wonder how many working men think that whenever they
order threepennyworth of beer they are swallowing down a
J'ard of good land. Or, put it another way — suppose out of
our drink bill of 140 millions we could save only 60 milhons —
and that would not imply the adoption of severely abstemious
habits— and suppose that very moderate reduction continued
only for ten years, how much land could the working classes
afford to buy out of that saving ? It is a very simple sum —
10 millions of acres, or just about one-eighth of the whole
soil of these islands. I recommend that as a subject for
profitable meditation. Now, as to my other text, I do not
think our great consuming class sufficiently understand how
completely the publican and the tax-gatherer are identified.
I do not think they quite realise that whenever they order
sixpennyworth of spirits they are handing over threepence as
a free gift to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. If they
realised that, perhaps they would repent of their liberality.

COFFEE TAVEBNS 59
We hear some talk of a probable deficit of 2,000,000Z. in the
Excise revenue for the year just ending. I hope I shall not
be called unpatriotic for saying that I could be well content to
see a much larger deficit in that branch of the revenue. A
more sober people could pay as well for the necessity of
enforcing a somewhat stricter public economy, and if the
altered habits of the nation led to a new departure in finance
— -well, there would be some sufferers and a good many
grumblers, but, on the whole, I do not believe even those who
had to pay most heavily in the first instance would have
reason to complain in the long run. If I had to talk to
working men on financial matters I should tell them, ' Do not
complain of being taxed ; you are hardly taxed at all. It is
you who tax yourselves, and if you make yourselves sheep
you must expect to be shorn.' You may think I have
wandered from the subject, but all that I have been saying
is really a part of the argument in favour of these coffee
taverns. You are fighting the great enemy, drink — and
fighting him with the most effective weapons. May your
hands be strong for the work — for you have got your work
before you.

CO

LI
LOBD LAWBENGE
Mansion House, London : Febkuaby 13, 1880
I HAVE come here to discharge a duty, in many respects
agreeable, and assuredly honourable, but yet one which is not
without its difficulties. I am to ask you to pay a tribute of
respect to the memory of an eminent public servant — of one
who was more than an eminent public servant, for with a
great intellect he combined a singularly fine and unselfish
character. The language of panegyric is not easy to use :
partly because, from that tendency which we all regret, but
which we all share, praise, even of the dead, is apt to be less
interesting than criticism ; partly because the greatness of a
human character is ill described in the current phrases of
popular speech ; partly also because, while in most cases the
language of unmeasured eulogy sounds unreal and rhetorical,
any reserve or qualification falls tamely and coldly on the
ears of those who have come to reverence and to admire.
But these difficulties trouble me but little to-daj', for it is of
Lord Lawrence that I have to speak. Malice itself never
fastened on his career the imputation of one discreditable
incident or unworthy act. His task is done. His name can
now excite no envy, except, so far, it may be, as his dead
greatness overshadows the living, and a friend need not fear
to speak in terms of too warm sympathy about a hfe which
offers to an enemy absolutely no one topic of detraction. I
cannot claim to have known Lord Lawrence as intimately as
many who, happily, are still living, and perhaps present, but
I was his guest at Lahore twenty-eight years ago, when, with
his brother, he governed the Punjaub ; I was his colleague in
the India Office six years later ; and it was often my privilege
in more recent times to discuss with him, or rather to gather

LOBD LAWBENGE 61
his opinions upon, questions that arose concerning Indian
affairs. Therefore, without claiming any special intimacy, I
may say, as the world goes, that I knew him well ; and the
impression which his character and conversation always left
on my mind was one which I can only describe as a certain
heroic simplicity. If his opportunity had never come, if he
had never had a chance to do an historical act, you would still
have felt that you were in the presence of a man capable of
accomplishing great things if they were wanted, and capable
also, as it seemed to me, of leaving the credit of them to any
body who chose to take it. I do not believe that any man
was ever so successful in reaching the highest prizes of life
who struggled less for them. He said to me once that if as a
young man he had had enough to live upon, however poorly,
at home, he never should have gone out to India. He took
his place where he could find it ; he did his duty as it came to
him to do, and he could, I think, have felt that the doing of
it was reward enough, even if fame and honours had not
followed. I need not remind you of the leading facts of his
career, for that would be merely to repeat one of the most
famous chapters of Anglo-Indian history. When the insur
rection broke out in 1857 he was in charge bf the Punjaub, a
newly conquered province, inhabited by perhaps the most
warlike race in India, full of old soldiers who within ten years
of that date had fought for independence, and therefore,
as might be supposed, were likely to go against us. An
ordinary ruler might have been excused if, in these circum
stances, he had kept back every available soldier for defensive
purposes. But Sir John Lawrence knew better. He was
confident, on the one hand, that a wise and just administra
tion had reconciled the Sikhs to Enghsh rule ; he knew, on
the other hand, that the crisis was at Delhi, not at Lahore,
and there can be no doubt now that he was right. Even with
the help sent from the Punjaub the forces round Delhi were
barely strong enough to succeed. Without that help the
siege would have been hopeless, and I have never met any
Indian who doubted that if the resistance at Delhi had been

62 LOBD LAWBENGE
prolonged, if the siege had in consequence been raised, if the
cause of the insurgents had even for a few weeks appeared to
be the winning cause, many of the native chiefs who were
wavering and watching events would have taken part against
us, and the struggle would have assumed a far more formi
dable character. It is therefore hardly an exaggeration to say
that the action of Sir John Lawrence saved India. At the
lowest, it averted, in all probability, the continuance of the
war for two or three years, with the result of bankruptcy to
the Indian Exchequer and incalculable suffering to the Indian
people. And in saying this I do not lessen nor disparage the
merits of Lord Canning. Communications were interrupted;
and Sir John Lawrence, like every other Governor of a distant
province, had to act on his own responsibihty.
Of the administration of Lord Lawrence as Governor-
General I will not speak in detail, because it is equaUy my
duty and my wish to avoid touching on any controverted
question of policy. His policy was one of rigid economy,
because he knew — few men knew it so well — the abject
poverty, the constant struggle against destitution, which
characterise the life of the Indian peasant, and it seemed to
him cruelty and crime to throw on a class so heavily weighted
the added burden of unnecessary taxation. It was a policy
of peace, because war, which means promotion to the Anglo-
Indian officer and fresh appointments to the Enghsh civil
servant, means increased suffering to the native cultivator.
And it was the same dominant feeling, the same intense
appreciation of the sufferings of the poor, joined to the
orderly instincts of a financier, which led him to show a
somewhat modified and imperfect sympathy, in general, with
Indian princes and chiefs. He was often thought to lean to
the side of severity where their interests were concerned. I
am not disposed to argue how far he was wrong and how far
right in that respect. I am only explammg a tendency
which was known to all who knew him. He thought that as
a rule they were enjoying wealth without fully recognising its
responsibilities, that they were often drones in a hive not too
well stocked with honey, and when a question of right arose

LOBD LAWBENGE 63
between them and the ill-paid, ill-fed, working class, his sym
pathies were very decidedly with the latter, though a sense
of justice might be stronger than even his sympathy. With
that feeling was connected also his view of our position in the
East. He not merely saw, not merely acknowledged in words,
but recognised in action that our only possible justification
before the world and our own consciences for being where we
are lay in the wretchedness of the masses under rulers who
were continually at war with one another, and in our power
to make their condition at least more endurable by maintain
ing that external peace and order which may in the long run
enable them to work out their own form of civilisation in their
own way. That solid and substantial benefit to humanity was,
in his mind, worth struggling for ; apart from that, I think
he valued mere glory-hunting as little for his country as he
did for himself.
During five years he administered India — working hard,
as all Governor-Generals must work — living plainly and simply
— as it is better, in my mind, a Governor-General should live
— not, perhaps, wholly approved of by the showy and fashion
able part of society which is to be found in Calcutta, as well as
in London, but respected by members of the services as a man
who knew their work as well as they knew it themselves, and
venerated by the natives, whom he understood as no Governor-
General has understood them before or since. His time for
retirement came, and he withdrew, then verging on old age —
for men live fast in the Tropics— and with weakened health.
Nearly forty years of service had been crowned by the highest
personal promotion and the highest hereditary honour — a
Viceroyalty and a Peerage. He had earned the right to rest,
if ever man earned it ; or, if absolute rest was not compatible
with his still active habits, he might have selected some kind
of work which would have kept him before the eyes of the
pubhc without involving laborious drudgery in matters of
detail. But that was not his view. He was offered the chair
of the London School Board— a heavy, a thankless, and, com
pared with those which he had fihed, an obscure position. He
saw his way to be of use, and he took the post, and for years he

64 LOBD LAWBENGE
worked in it as if his living had depended on his exertions.
For an ex- Viceroy he might seem to have descended in point
of official dignity ; but something would have been lacking to
the completeness of Lord Lawrence's life if that last proof
had not been given of his absolute indifference to the mere
look and show of things so long as any publicly useful result
was to be obtained. Many of you may recollect that his
brother. Sir Henry Lawrence, when dying, desired that his
epitaph might be, ' Here lies Henry Lawrence, who tried to
do his duty.' On the tomb of the younger and more fortu
nate of the two brothers, the inscription might well have run,
' Here lies John Lawrence, who did his duty to the last.'
I have little more to add, but it may be noticed that
though of mortal men none ever less went out of his way
to court or to conciliate the favour of those with whom he
worked — for he was blunt and plain of speech even to a
fault^no man whom I have known made warmer friends or
more enthusiastic and devoted adherents. They worked with
an almost passionate energy for a man who, if he never spared
them (and certainly that was the case), never spared him
self either, and under whose often rugged manner they weU
knew lay a warm and affectionate heart. Gentlemen, I have
done ; you have other speakers to hear, and they will fill up
the outline which I have but feebly sketched. Two wishes
only I may express — one that the monument which we raise
may be such as will show that even in this bustling age we do
not quite forget noble service rendered to England because it
was rendered a few years ago ; the other that some one com
petent for the work may give us a worthy record of the life of
Lord Lawrence, in order that so illustrious an example may
not be lost, and that those who come after us may know
something of the man in whom so many of his contemporaries
saw one of the best and finest types of the patriot and of the
statesman. I conclude by moving : ' That John, Lord Law
rence, was a statesman of whom England is proud, and that
he deserves an honourable memorial at the hands of his
countrymen.'

65

LII
FBEE LIBBABIES
Blackpool : June 18, 1880
The Town Clerk, in the address he has read, has referred to
such part as I have played in public life, and, though address
ing an audience of mixed opinions, I am sure I may say this,
that, arduous and often disagreeable as the duties of English
public life are, they would be infinitely more so were it not for
the conviction which every public man entertains that the
nation will put a kindly and generous construction upon the
proceedings of those who are endeavouring honestly and con
scientiously, according to their lights, to serve it. Ladies
and gentlemen, I have come the more willingly, because, as
your Mayor just now observed, the good effect of such an
undertaking as that of which you are now celebrating the
completion is not confined to the immediate locality benefiting
by it. It is not merely an honour and advantage to your
town, it is also an example to others. That would be the case
wherever a free library was established ; but it is peculiarly
the case here, because probably there is hardly any town in
England which, in addition to its normal population, receives
so large a number of visitors. Many years have now elapsed
since the Act came into operation by which the establishment
of free rate-supported libraries was made possible ; and the
Act, I think we may now say from an experience of twenty
years, has worked well so far as it has worked at all. I have
never heard of any single town in which, having been once
put in force, it has subsequently been allowed to drop ; but its
operations hitherto have been partial more than universal.
These northern districts, and the great manufacturing centres
VOL. II. F

66 FBEE LIBBABIES
generally, have been, as might be expected, the first to set the
example ; and nowhere in the world — not even in the United
States — is better or more ample provision made for the
wants of readers than in Liverpool, Manchester, and, I
believe, Birmingham. But in London, partly because the
enormous size of the capital, and the fact that it is the
capital, tend in some degree to weaken local municipal feel
ings, there has undoubtedly been no general movement in
favour of applying the Act, and attempts to do so in par
ticular districts have more often than not been unsuccessful.
So again in some of the half-rural towns we can perhaps
hardly expect that there should be much forwardness to incur
expense not absolutely necessary, in order to provide for wants
which are felt only by a limited class. You might think that
when there was least doing — when there was most leisure,
there would be most inclination for reading ; but I do not
think the experience of the world confirms that view of the
question. The amount of leisure, and the use made of it, are
only too commonly in an inverse ratio one to another. The
idlest man is generally he who has least time, and it is those
who are busy who are the most ready to meet unexpected
calls upon them. What applies to individuals applies to com
munities also ; yet the want which these free libraries supply
is very real, and in some cases very pressing.
We are probably, with perhaps the single exception of the
Americans, the hardest worked people in the world. In aU
that concerns work we are about the most successful. I am
not sure that we succeed equally well in matters of amuse
ment and recreation, except when, as it often happens, our
amusement takes the form of hard bodily work. At any rate
there are some sources of enjoyment from which we are cut
off. We cannot, at least in the northern parts, enjoy outdoor
life all the year round as it is enjoyed by the inhabitants of
Southern Europe. We have not yet, speakmg generally)
accomplished the feat, whatever we may do in a generation or
two, of making our towns such as to give lively gratification
to the artistic sense. I may say so without offence, for un-

FBEE LIBBABIES 67
doubtedly you are exceptions to that which I say is the
general rule, although I believe artistic tastes and require
ments are becoming more developed every year. We are not,
taking the generality of us, and comparing us with the
Continental countries, a play-going people ; and until within
the last few years, to my mind, we were not a musical people.
And there are those who say that we — or at least a good
many of us — never look so little as if we were enjoying life
as when we are trying to amuse ourselves. On the other
hand, there is no doubt that we are essentially a reading
people. Take books and newspapers together, I imagine we
do not fall short either of the Germans or the Americans in
that respect. The French, with all their singular quickness,
are not generally readers; they prefer, as a rule, the ex
change of ideas, and therefore I do not include them in the
comparison. With us the taste for reading is a growing
taste, for every year and every decade sees an increase in the
quantity of literature provided for the public, whatever the
quality may be, which is a question I do not refer to. There
is, therefore, no country in the world where rate-supported
libraries should be so common as in England. They supply
opportunities for culture to real students, and though that
class is never in any country a very numerous one, and pro
bably never will be, yet I am sure it is a class which deserves
every help and encouragement that we can give to it. They
furnish rational pleasure and amusement to hundreds of
thousands who have not too much pleasure in their lives, and
to whom a good deal of such amusement and recreation as is
commonly offered is not of the most desirable kind. They
aid the spread of civihsation, and if it be true, as I believe it
is, that with all our wisdom, with all our equahty before the
law, with all the interest in social questions which many
people sincerely feel, and which everybody in these days is
bound to profess — if it be true that, notwithstanding all these
things, there is no country in the world where the presence or
the absence of culture is more marked than in England, then
I say that this is an object which we cannot afford to neglect. F 2

68 FBEE LIBBABIES
Free libraries are of use, too, in another way. They show
what can be done by co-operation. V^en I speak of co
operation, I do not refer to that particular form of movement
which is just now scaring tradesmen out of their wits. I
do not speak of that, but I mean joint contributions for, joint
participation in, one common purpose by which the com
munity acts as a single whole, and not merely as a collection
of individuals, each looking to an object of his own. It
would not be a bad test, roughly speaking, of the degree of
civilisation which any country has attained if we were to
judge it by the measure in which the habit of acting together
for joint purposes, of throwing funds or labour into a joint
stock for some common object, prevails among the people. I
suspect that, as we go on, at least in towns, private libraries
on anything like a large scale will tend to become less and
less common, and that we shall see a larger and larger
number of collections, not necessarily free to all comers, or
supported out of the rates, but practically available to aU at
moderate prices, and filling the part which that useful institu
tion the London Library fills in London and its neighbour
hood. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I wiU not detain you
further, partly because on a subject of this kind it is utterly
impossible to say anything which has not been said ten
thousand times before; partly because, after a considerable
experience of speeches, I have never, or hardly ever, heard of
a speech that was complained of for being too short, whereas
I have heard a great many complained of for being too long.

69

LIII
THE PUNISHMENT OF JUVENILE OFFENDEBS
Manchesteb : Octobee 5, 1880
There is, I suppose, no question as to the importance of the
subject which this meeting has been called to discuss. It is
one which affects the fate of some thousands every year of
our future men and women. It is a subject with which every
magistrate who has had much judicial experience has often
found himself compelled to deal, one with which he has
probably often had to deal in a manner not altogether satis
factory to his own convictions or to his own feelings. I believe
also that most of those who have had to do with the adminis
tration of justice will concur with me in thinking that it
involves questions of greater complexity and difficulty than
is, perhaps, at first sight apparent. You have in all punish
ment two separate and distinct objects to aim at — one is
to deter, and the other is to reform, and no system of
punishment wiU be altogether satisfactory which does not
more or less combine both these results. I am not sure that
even in the case of adults we have reached entirely satisfac
tory conclusions in regard to these matters. Practically,
except in very few and rare cases, imprisonment is our sole
penalty, and I have often been painfully impressed with the
fact that after two or three terms of imprisonment the same
offenders come again and again, apparently neither deterred
nor reformed by the disciphne which they have undergone,
but accepting their penalty as the inevitable condition of the
life they have chosen to lead. However, that is not the
matter immediately before us. What we have to consider is

70 THE PUNISHMENT OF JUVENILE OFFENDEBS
how we are to deal with a particular class of offenders —
offenders who are old enough to be mischievous and some
times to be dangerous, who are old enough to know that they
are doing wrong and to incur a certain amount of moral
responsibility, but who, nevertheless, are not of an age to
realise the full gravity of the situation in which they have
placed themselves, to know the full extent of the injury which
they have inflicted upon others, and the manner in which
their act wih affect their own future career. Now, whatever
we ought to do for offenders of that class, there is one thing
which in my mind it is perfectly clear that we ought not to
do, and that is to send them to gaol. I say that not on the
ground which I have sometimes seen put forward — that of
the bad associations to which they might be exposed in gaol,
because in a well-conducted prison there ought to be power to
prevent any association of that kind ; but I say it because
imprisonment is a life-long stigma. It is a mark of disgrace
which cannot be wiped out, and which is too heavy a penalty
for childish or boyish acts. People only ask whether it is
really true that So-and-so was ever in gaol or not, and if they
hear that he was, they do not always stop to inquire at what
age the offence was committed, and how far he ought to have
been treated as a really responsible person. I entirely agree
with what Sir William Harcourt has said and written upon
that subject,' and, as a Chairman of Sessions, I have always
acted, as far as the law allowed, upon the lines which he has
laid down. The reformatory, or some analogous institution,
ought to be the substitute for the gaol in all cases to which
it can properly be applied. I do not know why it is that im
prisonment is prescribed by law before the provisions for
sending a boy to a reformatory take effect.^ I have never
heard any good reason for this, and I think that the sooner we
are free from that obligation the better.
' Letter of Sir "W. V. Harcourt, Home Secretary, to the Mayor of Man
chester, September 16, 1880 (Times, September IS, 1880).
' The law now allows a youthful offender to be sent to a reformatory without
imprisonment, 56 & 57 Vict., c. 48 (1893).

THE PUNISHMENT OF JUVENILE OFFENDEBS 71
The question remains how far the present reformatory
system admits of modification in that sense and for the pur
pose with which we are now dealing. Managers at present
object as a rule — at least, that has been the result of my
observations and experience — to receive boys for a term at
the lowest of three years, and sometimes they object to
receive them for less than five years. Obviously there are a
great many cases in which some penal detention, as we may
call it, even for three years, is quite in excess of the offence
committed, or where it is an unfair burden upon the parents
and an unnecessary charge upon the community. What we
want to find is some punishment for boj s from ten to fourteen
and fifteen years of age which shall not inflict permanent dis
grace, which shall not confound them in after life with the
criminal class, which shall not impose a heavy burden on
parents in cases where the parents themselves may be free
from blame, which shall not create a misplaced sympathy by
any appearance of over-severity, and which shall, on the
other hand, be efficient enough to act as a deterrent. These
conditions are hard to reconcile, perhaps impossible to recon
cile, in the fullest sense ; but unless we can to some extent
satisfy them we shall not have accomplished what we are
endeavouring to do.
Now, some people, as you all know, recommend flogging
as a kind of universal remedy in such cases. I do not hold
with that. I believe there are many cases where it is useful
and unobjectionable, and I should not object to extend the
power of magistrates so as to make it possible for them to
apply that kind of punishment in some cases to which it is
riot at present applicable. As far as I know, the limits upon
its application are rather arbitrary and formal, and are not
based on any real principle. But we must bear in mind that
if the question is to be the question of applying corporal
punishment as a general rule in such cases, there are objec
tions to that kind of punishment which it is impossible to
ignore, and which would be sure to operate very strongly
against it. In the first place, I imagine it is about the most

72 THE PUNISHMENT OF JUVENILE OFFENDEBS
unequal kind of punishment that can be devised. There is
no one respect in which individuals differ more one from
another than in their susceptibihty to bodily pain. In the
next place, we live in times when public opinion is somewhat
impulsive, and when the fact that a strong current of feeling
is running in a particular direction to-day is no guarantee
that it will not run in a contrary direction a few months
hence. A single case of over-severity, such as might very
well occur when power was given to a very large number of
magistrates throughout the country — a single case of severity
in the application of corporal punishment would very likely
cause a reaction against its use which would prevent that
kind of punishment from being applied even in cases where it
might be perfectly legitimate and fitting. Then, again, if it is
very slightly and leniently administered, it does not serve the
purpose of deterring, and I think you may take it as a rule
that punishments of this kind, where they fail to deter, have
the contrary effect of tending to harden. Therefore, while I
would give power to employ corporal punishment to a mode
rate extent in some cases where the power does not now exist,
I should be sorry to look upon it as a general means of
correction in such cases as those with which we have to deal.
I believe that what we want can be best obtained by a
modification in, or addition to, our present system of reforma
tory treatment. Two or three months' detention in a school
where the work is hard, where there is little or no play, and
where the life generally is rough and unattractive, ought, in
the case of a boy, to answer all the purposes which are met in
the case of men by a short term of imprisonment. No lad
who had gone through the discipline, if it were properly
applied, would wish to be exposed to it again, while being
boys, and young boys only, it would not leave a stain upon
their character in after life, nor destroy the feeling of self-
respect in the manner which arises from imprisonment in a
gaol. I quite admit that what is proposed in the resolution
which I shall move is not an ideally perfect scheme. There is
one risk attending it — that where a number of not very well-

THE PUNISHMENT OF JUVENILE OFFENDEBS 73
conducted lads are brought together in any institution— call
it by what name you please— there is the danger that the
worst will have a corrupting influence upon the others ; but
that is an objection which may equally be applied to reforma
tory schools as at present administered, and we know that
the reformatory system has, nevertheless, been fairly success
ful. I would add that I think magistrates dealing with very
young offenders, boys of nine or ten, or even eleven — you
cannot go precisely by age, because character does not always
depend upon years — might, more than they do at present,
take upon themselves the responsibility of remitting all legal
punishment on condition of the parents undertaking to see
that the boy is effectually punished at home. That is always
the best solution, where it is possible ; for there is something
incongruous, as everybody must feel who has had to do it, in
bringing the machinery of the law to bear upon children who
have no idea of legal responsibility, and very little idea of any
authority except that of their parents. I should not be sorry
to see an inquiry, whether by a Commission or a Parliamentary
Committee, into the whole subject of juvenile offences. The
laws of Continental punishment differ very much from ours.
We know that on the Continent questions of this kind have
been very closely studied. I think we might probably obtain
experience from foreign States which would be useful to us
here ; but that is a question for Government to determine,
and it is beyond the scope of our present meeting.
If I may sum up what I believe to be immediately
desirable, I would put it under three heads. First, no im
prisonment in any case for boys under fourteen ; secondly, an
extended power of moderate corporal punishment up to that
age ; and, thirdly, the provision of distinct and separate
places of detention for young off'enders, so that they should
not escape punishment altogether merely because it is un
desirable to send them to gaol. There is only one other
remark which I should like to make. It is common to see
magistrates attacked and found fault with at public meetings
and in the press for having imprisoned young lads ; but very

74 THE PUNISHMENT OF JUVENILE OFFENDEBS
often the fault is rather with the law than with those who
have to administer it. If a boy has put a stone under a
railway train, thereby risking hundreds of lives, or if he has
out of mahce and revenge set a haystack on fire, or if he has
brutally and violently assaulted and injured some younger
child, you can hardly let him go free of aU punishment, and
if he is to be punished at all, it can only be in the manner
which the law sanctions. I think this meeting will be of use
in showing that the recent action of the Home Secretary
meets with our approval, and that in this, as well as in other
counties, magistrates will be ready to support him, and to
act with him in doing away with unwise and demorahsing
forms of punishment. I will just mention, in concluding,
that what I have said about corporal punishment is the
expression of my own personal opinion only. It is possible
some of you may not agree with me on the point, and, there
fore, I wish to point out to you that what I have said is in
no way embodied in the resolution which is before us, and if
any of you differ from me on that branch of the subject, that
need not prevent you from supporting the resolution I have
to move : ' That, in the opinion of this meeting, legislation is
urgently required to prevent juvenile offenders (the age to be
left to be determined by the legislators) being sent to common
gaols either for terms of punishment or preliminary to their
committal to reformatory or industrial schools ; and this
meeting is also of opinion that suitable provision ought to be
made for the detention of such juvenile offenders separate
from adults between the time of arrest and that of the hearing
of the charges against them.'

75

LIV
ON ABT
Oldham : Opening of School of Science and Aet, Maech 17, 1881
.... As to the other branch — that which relates to art —
I shall speak briefly, and with the caution which every man
ought to observe when he feels himself out of his depth. If I
knew absolutely nothing about such matters, I might, perhaps,
address you as many speakers have addressed many audiences,
with all the intrepidity of ignorance ; but I do know just
enough to be aware that I should be to you an incompetent
teacher — and an incompetent teacher is worse than none.
There are two sides to the question of art as we look at it
here — the industrial or commercial, and that which relates
to art as a part of human culture. Of the industrial branch
of the question it is enough to say that English products go
to every part of the world, that they compete with similar
products from many other countries, that successful com
petition in all articles of common use depends, in some degree
at least, on ornamentation, and that, defective as popular
taste may be, yet, when a good and a bad design are put side
by side, the great majority of civilised mankind have sufficient
use of their eyes to detect the difference. A trained eye and
a cultivated taste are, therefore, of no small value, even from
the purely utilitarian point of view as bearing on the exten
sion of our trade. But that is not the first or only con
sideration to which we have to look. We cannot, I think,
lay down with precision the relation which exists between the
artistic culture of a country and its general civilisation.
That the one is an exact measure of the other is a doctrine

76 ON ABT
which, as it seems to me, history does not bear out. There
are qualities which seem to have no relation to art, which yet
are important factors in national greatness. I dare not con
tend that an inartistic people is an uncivilised people. The
history of Eome, in old days, the history of England up to a
recent date, would hardly agree with that theory. But I do
affirm that a people in whom no high or great development
of art is possible fails to realise a part of its destiny — fails to
do for itself and the world what it might. And what is true
of the nation is also true of the individual. I do not argue
that without the love or knowledge of art even a high degree
of mental or moral culture is impossible. Able men — men of
keen intellect, men of honest and patriotic purpose — fulfiUing
their duties blamelessly, have lived, and do live, contentedly
in a world which has nothing to please the eye or to excite the
artistic taste. All one can say of such persons is that their
development in one respect is incomplete : that they miss one
of the purest and most lasting of human enjoyments, and that
their loss is not the less because they themselves are not con
scious of it. We do not believe in making everybody an artist,
or even an amateur, but we do believe in raising the general
level of culture in that respect ; and no man whose eyes are
open can doubt the direction in which we are moving.
I do not suppose that in any development of human effort,
with the single exception of mechanical science, England has
made more marked advance within the last half-century than
in the cultivation of art in its various forms. It is not usuaUy
our fault in England to depreciate our own doings, or to form
too modest an estimate of ourselves, but in this one particular
I really think that we are habitually more modest than we
have occasion to be. As to an increase of the love for art,
nobody who knows the world around him can dispute it.
Look at the interest excited by the yearly London exhibitions
— observe the enormous business, and I should say, from some
observation of years past, the constantly increasing business,
done in pictures, in drawings, and in prints. No rich man in
the present day considers himself decently lodged unless he

ON ABT 77
has on his waUs some specimens of the work of well-known
artists. You may say there is more fashion in all this than
real liking ; that may be in certain cases, but the people who
follow fashion at least bear witness to the tendency of opinion
and feeling in others, even if they only mimic it themselves.
They are the straws that show how the wind blows ; and, for
myself, I am not at all disposed to join in the ridicule sometimes
thrown on amateurs and collectors who prefer to trust a better
judgment than their own. They are, as likely as not, men
who really wish to be serviceable in their pleasures, as well as
in their business, who appreciate and respect what they do
not fully understand, and who, to put it at the lowest, realise
the fact that wealth has duties to art, and discharge them as
best they can. And when we speak of the development of
English art, am I not justified in saying that in one depart
ment at least — that of water colours — we have taken a lead in
Europe ? I know that it is the general opinion, not in England
only, for that would not prove much, but in foreign countries.
And if in other branches we do not claim quite so high a posi
tion, we at least hold our own respectably and fairly. I have
spoken so far of painting only. I am told, in addressing a Lan
cashire audience, I should speak of the improvements in the
patterns of prints. Perhaps I ought, but I do not know much
about it, except that I believe that in the last thirty years there
has been an extraordinary progress in that respect. Now,
take a kindred profession — that of architecture. Compare the
London of to-day with the London of forty years ago. Far
be it from me to say that the results are all that we could wish.
There is ugliness enough still, and sometimes a pretentious
ugliness which is worse than the simple absence of anything
to please the eye. But everywhere there is the attempt to
realise some results better than our forefathers accomplished,
and the bare square boxes of brown brick, with holes cut in
them, which represented the frontage of London streets at the
beginning of our century are, happily, not reproduced in any
modern work that I have seen. And outside London — here
in these northern towns, where it must be owned that the

78 ON ABT
climate and surroundings are not inspiring — you at least
show that public money is freely spent, with the full consent
of those who have to bear the burden, on public edifices
which only want a brighter sun and a purer air to be recog
nised as not unworthy of more picturesque regions. We do
not boast of aesthetic cotton mills. I have seen one or two
attempts in that direction, but on the whole the less said
about them the better. But I think the Law Courts, the
Town Halls, the Public Libraries, and similar buildings in
our poor smoky Lancashire will bear architectural compari
son with most modern European work. There is a fancy,
T know (to my mind it is a very idle one), that something in
our sombre climate, as southerners reckon it, unfits us for
the successful pursuit of art — that brighter colouring and a
wilder nature are requisite. Well, I am no authority on such
a subject, but I may point out that though Holland is not the
most sunny nor most romantic of countries, she has produced
a school of art which is in its own line unrivalled and famous
throughout Europe. On the other hand, I am not aware that
those countries where Nature has done most for the pleasure
of the eye and the cultivation of artistic taste — take Norway
and Switzerland for example — have, as a fact, been specially
famous for art.
A great writer has told us that so long as we live in smoky
towns, and use steam engines, and build tall chimneys, it
is no use trying to be artistic. That seems to me a hard
doctrine, because, though we may modify, we cannot absolutely
alter, the conditions of our national existence. If English
art is only to flourish when English manufactures cease, it
will have to wait a long time. Nor would a people utterly
impoverished be likely to care about things not necessary for
subsistence. But if warnings of that kind are meant not to
discourage, but, on the contrary, to stimulate us into trying
to make our surroundings a little brighter, we may pardon
the exaggeration for the sake of the good advice. For myself, I
hold that it is especially in districts like these where, unhappily,
though it may be unavoidably, Nature has lost her charms.

ON ABT 79
and where crowded populations gather around centres of
business that have in them not much that is beautiful and
pleasant — I say it is here, more than elsewhere, that industry
should most strenuously exert itself to repair the mischief that
industry has produced — that if we cannot take our people to
brighter and pleasanter regions, we should at least give them
the chance of seeing something that is not sordid and squahd
— and that if dullness of climate and monotony of employment
create in some minds a taste for low and mean gratifications,
we should counterwork these temptations by introducing such
elements of a higher civilisation as can flourish under gloomy
skies, and as will refine and soften — I do not say rough, but
careless and undeveloped natures. Gentlemen, I have im
perfectly discharged my duty. I do not speak to you as an
artist, but as an unlearned, though sincere, lover of art.
Happily, in all lines of life it is possible to appreciate what
you only partially understand, and to sympathise with labours
which you cannot imitate. I have no fear for the future of
these schools. The English public, and especially the Lanca
shire public, does not let a good thing drop which it has once
taken up.

80

LV
GO-OPEBATION— CAPITAL AND LABOUB
Annual Congeess of Co-opebative Societies, Leeds : June 6, 1881
I THANK you, gentlemen, from my heart, for a reception the
cordiality of which in a long experience of public life I have
seldom seen equalled, and never surpassed. It is not in the
language of idle flattery, but as the expression of a deliberate
and sincere conviction, that I begin by telling you that the
subject which brings this Congress together — the subject of
co-operation— is, in my judgment, more important as regards
the future of England than nine-tenths of those which are
discussed in Parliament, and around which political contro
versies gather. In a free country the sphere of government
is necessarily and properly limited ; law restrains but few of
our actions, and for the most part its operation is hardly felt
by orderly and respectable people. The principles of action
which a man shall adopt, the occupation he shall follow, the
object towards which he shall direct his life, are matters with
which the State, speaking broadly, cannot meddle. We have
learnt by a long experience of national life that many matters
which of old it was thought essential that the governing
power should regulate, may with safety and advantage be left
to the community ; and as we have gradually adopted and
are more and more adopting that doctrine, notwithstanding
some superficial appearances to the contrary, the risk of
political convulsion is proportionately lessened. But the
energy which would cause these convulsions is diverted, not
destroyed. It runs into other channels. The workman who
thinks he is hardly used in the matter of wages does not ask

CO-OPEBATION 81
that they should be raised by legislation. He forms a union,
and fights the employer on comparatively equal terms. The
employer, in his turn, uses the same weapons. He combines
with his colleagues in the same business to resist what he
considers unjust demands. Voluntary associations on a large
scale, asking no help from the State, but only freedom and
not interference, are a marked and peculiar characteristic of
the age ; and it is to my mind not the least of the many
merits of the co-operative movement that it is kept strictly
within the limits of that principle. It does not clamour for
public money ; it does not ask that its opponents should be
put down by law ; it does not override free contract or meddle
with individual liberties. Even those who oppose it most
strongly, and whose personal interests suffer by its extension,
do not venture to contend that the supporters of the new
principle are not clearly within their right.
I confess that, personally, I have a great distrust of the
philanthropist who says — and a good many are saying it in
various forms : ' If you agree with me that so-and-so is right,
do help me to force everybody to do it.' We are not free,
depend upon it, from danger on that side ; and Mr. Mill's
book on Liberty — one of the wisest books, as I think, of our
times — is quite as much needed now as when it was written,
perhaps rather more. Well, then, starting from this point,
that co-operation is an essentially voluntary movement, let us
see what we expect it to do for us, and what reasons we can
give for our belief. In the first place, I assume as a thing
needing no proof that co-operative industry sets its face
against all shams, all dishonest work, all attempts at making
an article to look like something which it is not, all the tricks
and dodges by which the ingenious seller is in the habit of
tempting the ignorant buyer. And in putting forward that
argument on its behalf, I am not advancing any claim on the
part of the co-operators to special virtue. I should have no
great faith in the permanence and extension of a movement
which required on the part of its promoters a standard of
morality and character considerably higher than that which
VOL. II. G

82 CO-OPEBATION
generally prevails. To frame a society perfectly unselfish, in
which a man should consider his neighbour's interests as he
does his own, is a pleasant dream. Under the stimulus of
religious enthusiasm it seems to be sometimes realised on a
small scale, and for a limited time ; but, so far as the world has
gone yet, experience has not been favourable to such attempts.
Then you ask. Why do I say that co-operative work is
pretty sure to be honest work ? For this reason, that, under
the system you have adopted, you put duty and interest on
the same side, or, at any rate, you do not put them in oppo
sition to each other. The object, as I understand it, where
distribution is concerned, is to make the interest of the buyer
and seller identical ; in fact, they are the same people. You
get rid of the otherwise inevitable antagonism. '\'\Tiether
nominal profits are large or small, whether prices are high or
low, is a matter of no moment where the money only comes
out of one pocket to go into the other. Nobody wants to
cheat himself, and the temptation to dishonest practices is
withdrawn. Thej' die out as the habit of smugghng dis
appears with free trade, or as drunkenness disappears when
liquor cannot be got at; and in this way, without fuss or
parade or pretensions to superior virtue, j^-ou put an end, so
far as you are concerned, to a class of evils against which
morahsts have been preaching from the earhest days of
civilisation with about the measure of success which preaching
usually accomplishes. AU that it is necessary to add on this
head is that the good you do is not limited to your own
members. You set an example which the outside pubhc in
its own interest wUl take care is not lost. Where stores have
led the way shops must follow.
In the next place, I suppose we may take it for granted
that where co-operation comes in the system of dealing on
credit dies out, and I think it is hardly possible to overrate
the economical and social gain by that result alone. Debt is
the universal plague of this country. The State is in debt,
as we know, to the tune of about nine years of its income.
The great towns have started later in the race, but I am

CO-OPEBATION 83
bound to say they are making up for lost time and borrowing
largely— I wiU not say recklessly. You wiU not find one land
owner in ten who is free from mortgages, and you will find, I
am afraid, a good many who are really only collecting rents
for the benefit of their creditors. A banker would be thought
disobliging if he objected to a solvent customer overdraw
ing his account, and we all know that a tradesman of the
good old sort is content to wait almost indefinitely for his
bill to be paid as long as he can charge interest on the
amount. I do not speak of the extent to which mercantile
and manufacturing business is done with borrowed money,
partly because that is a matter of which I know very little,
partly because there may be reasons to urge in defence of that
arrangement which do not apply to the other cases I have
cited. But to add a further illustration. I have been often
told — it is very likely to be true — that the distress among
farmers, both in England and Ireland, has been largely
increased by their habit of borrowing in prosperous times,
and that when the lenders are alarmed by successive bad
seasons and call in their advances, there is naturally a col
lapse. Now, I do not enter into the difficult question of how
far and under what circumstances business may fairly be done
on the basis of credit instead of cash ; but I contend that in
the ordinary affairs of life the very best service which could
be rendered to any man would be to make it impossible for
him to buy anything, necessaries excepted, until he had got
the money in hand to pay for it ; and this is practically the
result which would ensue in every community exclusively
supplied on co-operative principles.
The first point of your charter is, I take it, ' No
adulteration ; ' the second, ' No running into debt.' These
two objects may, I suppose, be attained, and, in fact, are
attained, by many associations which have not accepted the
pecuhar features of the co-operative system. Any persons
may set up a joint-stock company for the purpose of supply
ing themselves, and run it on the principle of paying ready
money and yet not be co-operators at all, as we read the

84 CO-OPEBATION
meaning of the word. What I understand to be your dis
tinctive principle is this— that the worker should be paid
according to the results of the work — that he should be whoUy
or in part his own employer. Now, what an outsider or
casual inquirer would naturaUy ask about that principle is.
How does it act as regards quantity and quality of industrial
productions ? How does it affect the happiness and comfort
of those who adopt it ? And how does it bear on the relations
between labour and capital ? These three, I think, are the
main heads of our inquiry.
As to the first, it must strike any impartial observer that
more work is likely to be done, and that it is likely to be
better done, on the co-operative system than on that of
ordinary wages, and for a very simple reason. In the former
case every man is working for himself — for others also, no
doubt, but among others for himself ; in the latter case, he is
working for an employer, with whose interests he cannot be
expected to identify himself very warmly. It is only human
nature that his zeal should be stimulated by knowing that
he personally is to reap what he sows ; whereas the man
employed by the day or hour can scarcely be expected to care
to do more than is required to secure himself from dismissal.
But that is not all. In co-operative industry the master's
eye is everywhere. I have heard it affirmed, whether truly
or not I cannot judge, that in occupations where men are
hired by the day it is an unpopular thing for any one to do
more than his mates', and that the exhibition of more than
ordinary industry and skill is likely to be resented rather
than imitated and admired. But introduce co-operation, and
every working man is an employer and an overlooker too.
The master's eye is literally everywhere. Slow work or
scamped work means so much less return to the associated
body, and those who are working together have the strongest
possible interest, not only in doing their own appointed task,
but in seeing that everybody else does his.
Then as to the effect on the workman himself. It is a
commonplace to say that labour in which we take a keen

CAPITAL AND LABOUB 85
interest almost ceases to be labour at all, and that a very
light task performed on compulsion and as mere drudgery is
felt to be heavy. And if at the same time the worker knows
that in every stroke of work he is helping his own comrades,
not pulling against them ; that the more he does, the more
he earns their good- will, and not their envy or jealousy; and
if, further, he has reason to suppose that, in however sub
ordinate a capacity, he is helping on a movement which is for
the permanent benefit of his country, he has motives to impel
and feelings to encourage him which the ordinary labourer
has not, and which may very well carry him over difficulties
and discomforts such as are incident to every form of employ
ment. It is sometimes objected, ' Division of profits is very
well where there are profits to divide ; but how if there are no
profits, only losses ? ' To that I answer, ' Supposing a private
business, be it a miU or a shop or anything else, collapses in
consequence of bad times, is the man who works in it for
wages free from the results of failure ? ' No ; he loses his
employment, and in a dull state of trade he may not, possibly,
find another. The utmost that he gains is that his wages
may be kept on a little longer while the employer is slowly
consuming his capital ; and if a co-operative undertaking, no
matter what, be worked with skill and care, it ought to be
able to command as much capital to meet a temporary emer
gency as a similar undertaking in private hands.
My third point is that of all the ten thousand schemes
hitherto proposed — and there is a new one about every six
weeks — for closing the long-standing differences between
capital and labour, co-operation is that which promises the
largest results with the fewest drawbacks. I wiU not occupy
time by speaking of what we aU know : the waste of capital
and the waste of labour (which is the same thing), the iU
feeling, the bitterness which trade disputes carry with them.
In such disputes we feel that the result is lamentable, yet we
hardly know whom to blame. Is the capitalist wrong in
refusing to pay higher wages than the market price ? Cer
tainly not. He is not bound to do it, and if he did. his

86 CAPITAL AND LABOUB
neighbour, who has fewer benevolent impulses or scruples,
would undersell him. Is the working man wrong in trying
to get the best price he can for his labour and in combining
with others for the purpose ? Certainly not. It is both his
natural and his legal right. Yet, both being in the right,
millions of money are squandered, social feuds are created,
sometimes riot and disturbance follow. Where there is on
both sides a wish to discover reasonable terms of peace, the
intervention of an impartial third party who shall hear both
sides and decide is often effectual in bringing about an under
standing. But arbitration is not always an applicable
remedy ; in fact, it is a remedy which can only be applied
Avhen the disease is in a fair way to be cured. Two parties to
a dispute who both agree to refer it to an umpire are already
halfway to an understanding ; but when each is convinced of
being in the right and quite convinced that the other is
unreasonable, what chance is there of their consenting to
refer the matter ? And let me add that in labour questions,
so far as my own experience goes, arbitra.tion is never a
wholly satisfactory process. I have sat more than once as
umpire, and never without a feeling that I was asked to pro
nounce a judicial decision in a matter in which really there is
no law to appeal to. There is usually not much doubt as to
the facts. The question whether or not such-and-such a
payment for labour is a fair one is in its nature insoluble.
You cannot untie the knot, you have to cut it ; and when it
is cut, when the strike is over and work begins again, though
the di.spute is settled for a moment, the cause of it remains,
the dormant antagonism of interests is not removed. Tou
co-operators meet that difficulty, or rather you turn it. You
say, ' There shall be no conflict of interests where we are
concerned, for the two parties shaU be identical ; the employer
shaU be also the employed, and the profits of one the gain of
the other.' It is, if I may use such an expression, like the
settlement of an old family law-suit by the marriage of
htigants. It ends the dispute, because there is nothing left
to dispute about.

CAPITAL AND LABOUB 87
And what a dispute it is to end ! Other conflicts seem
drawing to a close, or are tacitly abandoned, because one side
sees that victory is hopeless. We do not persecute one
another for religion, because we have recognised the fact that
men's religious ideas must be expected to differ indefinitely.
We do not claim for any ruler or for any Government irre
sponsible authority, because we acknowledge the right of
civilised nations at least to govern themselves. Even for our
international relations, however imperfectly and unsuccess
fully we may practise the doctrine, we admit that justice
must be the supreme arbiter and peace the normal relation.
But while the quarrels of former generations are either dying
out or, at the worst, are assuming mUder forms, the new
industrial difficulty is growing into continually larger propor
tions with the continuance of external peace and the conse
quent increase of wealth.
Capital and labour hardly recognise that they are in
opposition to one another as long as capital is on a sinall scale
and no vast accumulations exist. But this is essentially a
temporary state of things ; the large business kills out the
small one. You begin with the master working personally
among the half-dozen men whom he employs, and you end
with works employing several thousands of hands, and
managed by millionaires in the literal sense of the word.
The difference between the relative position of employer and
employed tends to widen, not to diminish. Concede to trade
unions all possible freedom of action, let them be managed
with the utmost skill and prudence, and yet, to my thinking,
in the battle they carry on, capital will win in the end, for
this reason : The employer can afford to wait longer than the
employed ; he has reserve funds to fall back upon ; he is only
a little impoverished, a little thrown back in the race, where
the operative is pinched for his daily food. Moreover, the
article which the working man has to sell is one which in the
very nature of things will not keep. He sells his labour, but
obviously, if he cannot sell to-day's labour at the beginning of

88 CAPITAL AND LABOUB
the day, he cannot sell it at all. That portion of his stock has
perished in a few hours. The employer also loses by the
interruption of work ; but he loses less, and he can afford it
better. I do not, therefore, believe in unionism as a per
manent and effective means of reconciliation between rival
interests. Nor have I more faith in legislation. The United States
are the most democratic country now existing in the world,
but nowhere in the world are individual fortunes made on so
enormous a scale. They certainly exceed those of England,
and that although the taxation on realised property is far
heavier than here. You cannot legislate effectively to check
industrial accumulations without a double risk — first, that of
driving away capital, -which is always timid, to other countries ;
and, next, that of setting men's feelings of personal justice
against the law when it is made to appear that taxation is
directed to the express purpose, perhaps, of impoverishing a
class : not to mention that if a system of finance avowedly
confiscatory be once set on foot it is not easy to keep it within
what its promoters may consider reasonable limits. And yet,
if no remedy be found, if class differences widen instead of
narrow, the prospect is not cheerful. Given the condition
that nearly all political power is virtually in one class — as
under a system of household suffrage it is, whenever the class
chooses to take it — and nearly all the surplus wealth which
men desire to possess is in the hands of another class, how
long will you be able to avert an explosion ? It is an
awkward problem, and, like a nasty brook or fence to a
hunting man, the longer you look at it the worse it seems.
Yet in one way or another we have to face it, and it is my
deliberate behef that you, the co-operators, if you have not
solved the difficulty altogether, are at least moving in the
direction which promises the most effectual and the most
equitable solution. These, as it seems to me, are the three
substantial and indisputable gains of the co-operative move
ment—no motive for fraud, no hability to debt, no room for

CAPITAL AND LABOUB 89
dispute between employer and employed, and I own, for my
part, I am content to stop there. If you accomplish these
things you will have done more for the world, or rather for
the portion of it which adopts your ideas, than has been done,
or is likely to be done, by any other agency with which I am
acquainted.

90

LVI
THE MEDICAL PBOFESSION
Liveepool : Octobee 3, 1881
The agreeable duty of presenting the prizes won by students
of the Medical Society has been discharged, and it only
remains for me, according to custom, to address to you one
or two remarks. They will be very few, for two reasons —
first, because I cannot fiatter myself that words of advice or
encouragement coming from a stranger will seriously influence
young men who have deliberately chosen their career in life ;
and next, because counsel addressed to professional men
comes best from those who have gone through the same
training, and can speak from personal experience. You
students have selected among the various occupations open to
you one of which the interest and importance can scarcely be
exaggerated. The services of the soldier or the sailor, invalu
able as they are, are not always, happily in our day they are
not often, in requisition ; but the war against disease is con
stant and never-ending. The lawyer, bound by his instruc
tions and by the customary requirements of his profession,
cannot always feel that his success, however honourable and
deserved, is the triumph of justice ; but the saving of life is
work which no man can regret, however slight the apparent
value may be of the individual's life so rescued. The ecclesi
astic and the politician live in an atmosphere of controversy,
and are daily compelled to affirm and to act upon convictions
which, nevertheless, fall far short of certainty. The art of
the physician may also err ; but, if it does, Nature has a very
speedy and effectual way of pointing out his mistake. The

THE MEDICAL PBOFESSION 91
student of abstract science gratifies in the fuUest measure the
intellectual requirements of his nature, and he may be sus
tained by a perfectly just conviction of the ultimate utUity of
his work ; but the stimulus of a direct and visible result is
most frequently wanting to his exertions. Your privilege, the
privilege of your chosen employment, is— and a high and
enviable one I call it — that you can largely satisfy the intel
lectual impulse to know and to discover on the one hand,
while on the other you can equally, in the ordinary routine of
your duty, do useful service to your fellow-men. Intellectually
considered, the subje'ct of your study is that which most
deeply concerns us all.
It has grown into a proverb that the proper study of man
kind is man ; and in this age, when the intimate connection
of body and mind are recognised — when we know that no
thought, no feeling, no emotion, can pass over the human
frame without leaving traces of its passage — the enormous
importance of studying the physical organisation of our race
is less than ever likely to be disregarded. The ultimate
mystery of existence can never be solved ; but on the condi
tions of existence every successive generation of inquirers
throws a clearer and clearer light, and in that line of research,
never exhausted nor capable of being exhausted, there is
space enough for the highest ambition, and interest enough
to compensate for much of mere drudgery and dullness. But
there is another and, perhaps, a more practical aspect in
which the profession of which we speak may be regarded.
Medical science applies itself more directly than any other
to the promotion of human well-being and the prevention of
human suffering. And it does more than that. Those who
practise it are the guardians, so to speak, of the national
health, and I need not tell you what is implied in that
practice. The struggle for existence between races, as
between individuals, is incessant. The strongest must win in
the end ; and the very first condition of a strong race is that
it shall be physically healthy. In no age of the world have
sanitary matters attracted so much attention as in ours, and

92 THE MEDICAL PBOFESSION
in the extension of life ahd the diminution of disease we are
reaping the fruit of what has been done during the last
twenty or thirty years. I need not point out, in connection
with that subject, how great is the power and the influence of
the medical adviser on distress ; nor need I dweU on what is
obvious enough — the demand made upon him for courage and
honesty to speak the whole truth where scientific matters are
in question, where money is on one side and health on the
other, and when plain speech may give serious offence in
quarters where offence is dangerous.
But it is not in such questions alone that the moral as
weU as the intellectual qualities of the physician are con
stantly called into play. He has to deal, not with dead
matter, but with men and women; he has to witness and
experience their caprices, their passions, their weaknesses,
and of these last at least he sees more than the members
of any other profession, and that is no light burden to
bear. He must be firm, under penalty of being useless.
He must be sympathetic, or the experience of his daUy
life will force him into cynicism. He must avoid needless
pugnacity and antagonism, yet without yielding in any
essential point to the quackery and empiricism in which
a half-educated public delights. But, on the other hand,
he probably enjoys more of the confidence of those with whom
he has to do than any other adviser. We do not in these
days confess ourselves to priests, but we do confess our
selves — generally with great sincerity — to our lawyers and om-
physicians. For the great office, as I most seriously call it,
of a trusted medical adviser there is wanting more than fine
science, though that must necessarily be the basis ; he must
have tact, judgment, firmness in opinion, courtesy and gentle
ness in expression.
One thing more I will add — there is, happily, in all
departments of life much unpaid service freely and un
grudgingly rendered, often by men who might be excused if
they thought first of their own scantily provided families.
But I assert with some confidence that the absolutely

THE MEDICAL PBOFESSION 93
gratuitous assistance given by the medical profession to those
who are unable to pay for it far exceeds that which is
bestowed or demanded in any other line of life ; and it is not
less creditable to those who give it because custom has in
great measure caused it to be expected as a matter of course.
Whether it is equally creditable to the public that it should
be expected to the extent it is, is a different question, into
which I need not now enter. What I here say to you
medical students may be summed up in one word — respect
your profession and respect yourselves. You have great
examples before you, you have noble traditions to follow, you
have exceptional opportunities of leading a life not only
blameless, but intellectual, and publicly useful. Eemember
that each one of you, young as he may be, can do something
to honour or, so willing, to discredit his profession. I have
no doubt which your choice will be ; and I hope many of you
may look back from a respected and honoured professional
position on these early days of discipline and training.

94

LVII
LOBD DEBBY'S CHANGE OF PABTY—PBOCEDUBE
OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS — IBELAND — THE
ENGLISH LAND QUESTION
Liveepool : Januaey 4, 1882
I THANK you warmly and sincerely for the kindness of this
reception. It is a memorable one to me, because it is the
first which I have ever experienced from a meeting of the
Liberal party. ^ There are always some circumstances attend
ing a change of political connection which are disagreeable,
and even painful. It cannot be otherwise, and it is right, in
the public interest, that it should be so ; but for myself per
sonally, though a change of political alliances must always
imply some modification of political ideas, I have not much to
' Lord Derby publicly announced that he had joined the Liberal party by
the following letter to Lord Sefton on March 12, 1880 : —
' 23, St. James's Square :
' Mai-eh 12, 1880.
' Deae Sefton, — You have told me, and others have said the same, that
many of my friends in Lancashire expect from me a more explicit declaration
of political opinion than I have hitherto made. Under present circumstances
I cannot refuse to comply with their wish. I have been long unwilhng to
separate from the political connection in which I was brought up, aud with
which, notwithstanding occasional differences on non-political questions, I
have, in the main, acted for many years ; but the present situation of par
ties, and the avowed policy of the Conservative leader in reference to foreign
relations, leaves me no choice. I cannot support the present Government, and
as neutrality— however, from present feelings, I might prefer it— at a political
crisis is an evasion of public duty, I have no choice except to declare myself,
however reluctantly, ranked among their opponents. You may make any use
of this letter that you please. ' Believe me, yours truly, ' Deeby.'

CHANGE OF PABTY 95
unsay of what I have said in former years. I have been a
Conservative ; a high Tory, or indeed a Tory at all, if I can
attach any definite meaning to the word, I never have been.
High notions of prerogative and ecclesiastical privilege have
found no defender in me, and still less have I ever sym
pathised with that curious development of modern sentiment
which has got the name of Jingoism, and of which I suppose
the leading idea to be that no State can be in a healthy con
dition that is not occasionally pitching into its neighbour.
In one respect — I am not ashamed to own it — I have profited
by experience and observation. I have learned more and
more forcibly the uselessness, to put it on no other ground,
of attempting to resist the progress of popular ideas, and I
have come to think more and more highly of the moderation,
the fairness, and the general justice with which masses of
men, including all conditions of life, are disposed to use their
power. Considering the great diversities of fortune in this
country, I should have expected in 1867, when the franchise
was enlarged, a certain display of class feeling and of jealousy,
not to say of bitterness against the riph, such as is visible in
Continental pohtics. I do not observe in England or Scotland
a trace of any such feeling, and I believe that if the wealthy
and educated classes will act with sense and prudence, if they
will put themselves at the head of movements leading up to
necessary reforms, they will not find their real interests
exposed to much danger, and they may retain a large share
of their former influence in the State.
I am not going to waste your time by a controversial
defence of the policy of the present Cabinet. Criticism is the
legitimate function of an opposition, and it is a duty the
performance of which they do not often neglect ; but the
duty of a majority, and a majority in possession of power, is
not criticism but action. It is not their business to dweU
upon the past, but to provide for the future. What was
done in 1881 is now a matter of only historical interest ;
the question that concerns us is. What is going to be done
in 1882? Gentlemen, I think there is a very general

96 PBOCEDUBE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
concurrence of opinion that the first work on hand is the im
provement of the procedure of the House of Commons. You
must sharpen your tools — they have got terribly blunt of late
years — before you can use them with effect. We have to
deal with obstruction of two kinds — that which is wilful and
wanton, and that which arises from more innocent motives.
Now, it is often said that obstructionists can be best dealt
with separately and personally. I do not agree in that, be
cause, though, if obstruction be carried beyond a certain
point, you can undoubtedly treat it as an offence, yet twenty,
thirty, or forty members relieving one another, and acting
with the deliberate purpose of spinning out debate, can
accomplish their object without any one of them making the
mischievous intention evident. And when you come to the
other and far more numerous class of obstructionists, those
who mean no harm, whose only fault is vanity and loquacity,
who only seek notoriety, or to make a figure in the eyes of
their constituents, or who set a higher value upon what they
suppose to be their opinions than their neighbours are apt to
do, it is absurd to talk of punishing them. There is only
one remedy : the House must do formally what after all it
now does informally ; it must fix a period when debate shall
close. It is argued that, if that is done, minorities wiU be
unfairly silenced. If that were so, no one would suffer more
than the Liberals, who generally begin by being in a smaU
minority. But it does not follow, if the cluture is to be adopted,
that it shall be adopted by a bare plurality of votes. Such a
procedure would be, in my judgment, liable to abuse, and it
would be going beyond the necessities of the occasion. If debates
can be closed by the vote of three-fourths of those present, or,
if you will, of three-fourths of the entire House, I think you
may trust to the rivalry of political parties to prevent the
rule being enforced except where it is really required. And
M'e must remember two things — first, that Parliament in
these days has got to act as well as talk ; next, that a section
which has not got one-fourth of the House on its side can
practically do nothing more even now than protest, and.

PBOCEDUBE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 97
under modern conditions, it can do that outside the House as
well as inside.
There are two other expedients which it may be weU to
consider. Do we require a biU to pass through so many
stages ? I have always supposed that our system of three
readings came down to us from a time when biUs were not
put into print, and when members only knew what was in
them by hearing them read out. Surely, if you have one
debate upon the principle, then a thorough sifting in Com
mittee, and, lastly, another debate when the biU comes out of
Committee, you have all the discussion that is really wanted.
And the other expedient I refer to is the dividing of the
House into large Committees, so that several biUs of first-
rate importance may be passing through Committee at the
same time. The only doubt I feel about it is whether the
House would consent to delegate so much of its authority to
any section of its members in a matter of really first-rate
importance ; but, however the thing is done, I fancy we are
aU of one mind that the expediting of procedure is about the
first job to be taken in hand.
[Lord Derby then touched on county and London govern
ment and the extension of the franchise in the counties, sub
jects on which there has since been legislation.]
There are, as we know, other important matters to deal
with, none perhaps specially pressing, nor likely to call out
strong party feeling. All I say about them here is that I trust
the Cabinet and Parliament will make up their minds to do
with them either one thing or another — either to let them
alone for the year, or to push them steadily through. There
is no such effective kind of obstruction as that which is wholly
unintended, and which comes from the natural desire of every
Government to carry through more measures than there is
time for. Every department likes to have its biU in Parha
ment, and the end is they obstruct one another. And there
is more involved than mere loss of time. The House gets
sick of a subject which has been discussed again and again
VOL. II. H

98 IBELAND
without result, and the oftener it has been shelved the iriore
likely it is to be shelved again.
But, gentlemen, we all know that none of these admini
strative reforms or constitutional changes, enormously im
portant as they may be, are foremost in our minds at the
present time. They can all wait if necessary. What cannot
wait is the work of restoring order and peace in Ireland.
Those of you who know the opinions which I have expressed,
know that I do not take a very cheerful or sanguine view of
the situation. I am afraid the discontent and the dislike
of English rule, the vague but powerful sentiment of natio
nality, which we have so often witnessed abroad, have a deeper
hold of the Irish mind than we on this side have been willing
to admit. What is asked for under the name of Home Eule
is a separate Parliament ; and I am afraid I must say I
believe that is a very general wish among the Irish masses.
What are we to do ? There is no escape from the dilemma.
If we grant their wish we virtually break up the Emphe ; for
I suppose everybody can see that a Parliament, however
limited at first in powers, once established in Dublin, would
very soon shake off any dependence on the Parliament sitting
at Westminster. If we resist — and personally I do not see
that we have any choice — we must frankly accept the fact that
we are overruling the will of a local majority, and, for my part,
I see nothing arbitrary or despotic in so doing.
The relations of England and Ireland concern not the
Irish alone, but the whole 35 millions of our population ; and
I cannot doubt that of those 35 millions there is an over
whelming proportion in favour of maintaining the connection
in its present form. The will of the majority, it is argued,
ought to rule. Certainly ; I accept that doctrine. I do more ;
I assert it. But, in a matter that concerns the entire com
munity, it is the majority of the whole community, and not
of any part of it, to which I refer. There is one thing that we
have a right to ask, and that is, that in a time of disturbance
and difficulty the Government of the day shall have the
support of all parties in the State. It is not a time for calling

IBELAND 99
names, for bitter and angry speeches about things which are
done and which cannot be undone. The latest charge against
the Government is that they have been slack in their efforts
to preserve or to restore order. I beheve that a more ground
less accusation was never brought against any set of men. It
is absurd, because the Ministry of the day, whoever they may
be, have more to lose by the continuance of disorder, and
more to gain by putting an end to it, than any other set of
men can have. They have, I believe, done what is possible
and necessary. If there is disappointment as to what they
have accomplished, that is, in my belief, due to the fact that
we have underrated the gravity of the situation. They have
strengthened the police, they have not shrunk from using the
powers which the law gives them in the way of arrests, and
they have, at least, effected this result — that in parts of the
country which are seething with disaffection there has been
no open outbreak.
People talk of proclaiming martial law. What use would
that be against private murders, outrages, and a systematic;
refusal to pay rents ? You might just as well advise a house
holder, who is afraid of burglars, to protect himself by planting
cannon before his door. We hear loud complaints against the
decisions of the Land Courts,' and we are told that a demand
should be made for compensation to landlords who have
suffered by these decisions. Now, as to the first point, I
think we ought to suspend our judgment. Very few cases
have been tried, and, I believe, no appeals. Parliament has,
no doubt, a right to ask and to know on what principle the
Land Commissioners are exercising the enormous discretion
they possess. That is a. fair subject for inquiry, especially
after some rather wild utterances which have been indulged
in by their subordinates. And we have a right also to ascer
tain that due judgment has been exercised in the choice of
those subordinates. But it is not fair play to condemn them
' The Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1881, by which among other things a Land
Commission was constituted to fix fair rents, was now attracting much public
attention.

100 IBELAND
unheard, nor to take a few cases, which may be extreme cases,
as though they were necessarily typical. As to compensation,
without denying that there are instances in which it might be
in the abstract just, I cannot see how it can be practically
managed. You would have to try every case over again. You
must exclude the claim of those land-owners who, voluntarily
or under pressure, have settled with their tenants out of Court.
You must exclude equally the case of those liberal and indul
gent landlords whose rents will not be reduced to any appreci
able extent, because they have freely waived much which they
might with justice have demanded ; and, of course, it is not
contended that compensation should be given to those who
may have really abused their powers. The only persons on
behalf of whom a plausible case can be made out are those
who may have been harshly or hastily dealt with by the
judges. But till the appeals are tried how can we tell who
they are, and how are we to pick them out of the mass ?
I would say further, though respecting proprietary rights
as sincerely as any one, that in a time of revolutionarj' dis
turbance — and that is the state of things in Ireland — those
whom the State, at infinite cost and trouble, is struggling to
preserve may fairly be asked to accept the necessity of some
sacrifice on their side. Leave the Irish people and the land
owners face to face, and we know what would happen. There
would very soon be an end of all rent, and an end of Irish
landlords, too, so far as residence in Ireland is concerned.
Men, whom a lifeboat has dragged out from a vessel going to
pieces on the rocks, must not complain too loudly if they lose
some of their property in the process. As to the future, I
think our course is plain. Let us grant reforms by all
means — decentralisation in any practicable shape — but let us
hold out no false hopes of independence, or of a federal
system which never can work between two countries so closely
connected as England and Ireland. And, on the other hand,
let us have no more scolding. We are the stronger party,
and can afford to keep our tempers. I have faith in time.
When people see that what they wish for is fairly and finally

THE ENGLISH LAND QUESTION 101
out of reach, thoy first cease to try for it, and in the end to
think about it at all. Let us hope it may be so with Home
Eule. America is not a despotic nor a reactionary country,
but we know how America dealt with secession, and we see
how soon and how thoroughly the traces of a sanguinary
contest have disappeared. I do not see why we should show
less determination, or have less good fortune.
From Irish land to English land the transition is natural ;
but one cannot, at the end of a speech, enter upon that
enormous question of the English land laws. It is not one
question, but half a dozen ; and many of the proposals that are
put forward are in direct contradiction to one another. The
single remark I will venture on is this — before we proceed to
legislate, let us ask ourselves what our object is. Do we
intend that the land shall yield the largest return of profit to
its owners, or do we mean that it is to be made to produce
the largest quantity of food for the public, or do we desire, as
some people seem to do, that it should be so worked as to
employ the largest possible number of people upon it ?
Because these three objects are quite distinct from one
another — not only distinct, but incompatible, and you must
settle what you aim at before you know what you want to do.
Or to put it in another way — Do you want permanent im
provements to be made by the landlord or by the tenant ?
We have to choose between the two. There are some things
which even Parliament cannot effect, and one of them is to
create in two different sets of persons a feeling of ownership
as regards the same estate. Up to a certain point, I think,
we see our way. Nearly everybody agrees that the present
restrictions on the transfer of land cannot be maintained. I
do not think it ought to be difficult to make nearly every acre
in England saleable. Heavily encumbered estates are a
public nuisance, and I accept and share in the general
opinion that an increase in the number of landowners is
desirable in the interest of the class itself.
As to the relations of landlord and tenant, I shaU be quite
ready to support any fair plan of compensating a tenant for

102 THE ENGLISH LAND QUESTION
unexhausted improvements ; but I think we shall not do wisely
if we commit ourselves to any scheme of allowing him to sell
what is called his interest, which really means selling some
thing that does belong to him and a good deal that does not.
These, however, are matters not very urgent ; for just now, as
you know, the tenant is in a better position to make his own
terms than he has been in the memory of man. He is really
master of the situation, and the excessive competition for
land which has always been put forward as the basis on which
Irish land reforms were to rest certainly does not exist in
England. As to plans, such as have latelj' been laid before
you in this city by an intelligent and able gentleman,
Mr. Jesse CoUings, for cutting up estates and selling them in
small bits to working men, I think that they will keep. There
is nothing very revolutionary in them if you pay the owners
fairly for what you take ; but they would lead to a good deal
of jobbing, and if any such demand for land in smaU lots
exists, as is supposed, I do not see why you need caU in the
State to do what private companies are perfectly capable of
doing. I have detained you longer than I wished — longer
than I ought — but I thought it best on such an occasion as
this to make a full confession of political faith, and teU you
what I should do, and what I should be prepared to support,
in regard to the main questions of the moment. We do not
live in quiet or easy times ; but prudence and courage in the
history of this England of ours have carried us successfully
through many difficulties and dangers, and I confidently
believe that by the exercise of those qualities we shaU again
triumph over any obstacles now or in future.

103

LVIII
FBEE TBADE— PBOTECTION IN THE COLONIES-
PBOTECTION IN THE UNITED STATES— COMMEB.
CIAL TBEATIES—THE POLICY OF COBDEN
London : July 1, 1882
I RISE now to propose to you the toast of the evening,
'Prosperity to the Cobden Club.' More than a generation
has gone by since the close of the great struggle on the Corn
Laws ; half as many years have elapsed since the death of
the remarkable man who was the leader in that battle. So
far as we in England are concerned, the controversy which he
carried on has only an historical interest. The issue is
decided, and will not be raised again within any period to
which we can look forward. I assert this confidently, and I
assert it with the full knowledge that a certain ghost or
shadow of protection still walks the earth. Fair trade, I
believe, is the name of that not very formidable apparition ;
but, as every practical politician on either side knows, it is a
ghost only, and not a reality. Let those amuse themselves
with trying to lay it who have nothing else to do. We say
that, apart from aU arguments founded on general principles,
protection cannot be revived, because the artisans — the town
population, those who are not concerned in agriculture— are
not in the least likely to submit to a tax on their food ; and
unless corn and meat and other produce are included among
protected articles agriculturists will not thank you for increas
ing the price of other articles which they consume and do not
produce. To put the matter in another way, if we were to
take it into our heads to retaliate on the Americans, the chief
protectionist nation in the world, we could not do it by taxing

104 FBEE TBADE
luxuries, for they send us none ; we could only tax food, which
our own people would not stand, and raw materials, which
would be simply injuring our own industries. Therefore, so
far as home affairs are concerned, I look on the question as
settled. I am quite aware that at this point I may be met by
an objection taken from another point of view. I may be
told, ' Talk about free trade being secured ! You have never
had it ; you raise twenty millions by duties on imports.'
Well, it often happens that people who talk over matters
together find that they are using the same terms in different
senses, and the word ' free trade ' is perhaps not free from
ambiguity. If it be said that there is no free trade while any
import is taxed — that a clean sweep ought to be made of
customs and custom-houses — then, no doubt, we are not free
traders, nor is any country in the world, so far as I am aware.
You cannot get rid, in England, of customs without doing
away with excise duties also : you could not, for instance, let
in spirits from abroad untaxed, and keep up the tax on those
made at home. And whatever many of us might personally
prefer if we could frame the world anew to our liking, I
suppose there are not many living politicians who expect to
see an end both of customs and excise. But the general
interpretation put on the word ' free trade ' is something
different. It is commonly understood, I think, to mean only
the absence of protection, the placing foreign produce on
exactly the same footing as our own, the taxing of imports
for revenue purposes only, and the removal of all duties not
absolutely necessary for that purpose. In this sense we have
been consistent free traders, at least ever since the shilling
duty on corn was abolished ; and though, when opportunity
serves, we shall be glad to see the still remaining duties
lightened, yet I do not conceive that the Cobden Club, or any
other body of free traders, has ever pledged itself collectively
to a total abolition of customs.
Passing from home affairs, what are our prospects in the
Colonies ? There is no use in refusing to look at events as
they are ; and undoubtedly the ideas which prevail in our

PBOTECTION IN THE COLONIES 103
most important Colonies are not what English free traders
would wish to see there. The controversy, which practically
has closed at home, there still remains open. Protection is
accepted and believed in as a system by a large part of the
colonial communities. Now, I do not know that we ought to
be startled, though we may be disappointed, at that state of
things. We are apt to forget that our circumstances at the
time of the struggles for the repeal of the Corn Law were
peculiar, and such as do not exist in a new country. Enghsh
free traders had immense advantages in two respects : the
taxes which they mainly voted against were taxes on food, the
most unpopular, naturally, of any ; and the class which was
chiefly supposed to benefit by these taxes was numerically
small, and one against which it is always easy to raise demo
cratic feeling. It was not a question of the rich against the poor ;
it was a question in which a small section of the rich (and it
is fair to say many of the poor also) found themselves in
antagonism at once to the mercantile and manufacturing pluto
cracy and to the main body of the working classes. We are
apt to argue, ' The principle has been victorious here ; why
not everywhere ? ' but I am afraid we must admit that, so far
as the masses are concerned, the victory never has been, and
never will be, one of abstract reasoning. We cannot alter
the conditions under which we live ; the masses decide these
questions, and it is not their habit to study long columns of
figures, nor to weigh nice and carefully constructed arguments
against each other. They follow a much simpler guide. The
English democracy said, when English protection was in
question, ' Here are laws which make our food dear ; let us
get rid of them ; ' but the colonial democracy say of protec
tion as it concerns them, ' Here are laws which keep up the
price of our labour ; they ought to be maintained.' In
England, they look at the matter from the point of view
of consumers ; in Australia and Canada, they are apt to
look at it from the point of view of producers. I do not
think they will be converted by reasoning ; but the test of
experience is a sure one. And, luckily, e.xperience will not be

100 PBOTECTION IN THE COLONIES
wanting. As if on purpose that the experiment should be
fairly tried, the two most important Australian Colonies have
adopted an opposite policy — Victoria goes for protection. New
South Wales for free trade. They are very similarly cir
cumstanced in other respects, so that it is a perfectly fair
fight, and we, at least, are not likely to feel any doubt as to
the result.
There is another thing which ought to be noted when the
prevalence of protectionist ideas in the Colonies is talked of.
How far are those ideas really protectionist ? How far do
they grow out of a deliberate preference for the protective
system, or how far are they the result of financial expediency
and financial difficulties ? We know that our leading Colonies
are going ahead at a great rate in expenditure as well as in
resources. I will not say that they are going too fast, for they
have an immense future, and their present burdens wiU be as
nothing to them fifty years hence ; but what with selling land
and treating the proceeds as revenue on the one hand, and
what with piling up debts on the other, they are drawing
pretty heavily on their future. Now, direct taxes are not
popular anywhere, least of all in a young country where there
is very little accumulated capital. Indirect taxes are very
often, though of course not always, protective, and it is a
powerful reinforcement to the Protectionist party in a Colony
when they can say, ' If you take off protective duties you
must submit to a heavy income tax or land tax.' The moral
of that is this : that if colonists are to be free traders, they
must not outrun the constable. Free trade and economy are
inseparable. Large expenditure in a young country means
large import duties, and they open the door to protection.
No doubt I may be told that the protective system is adopted
in some Colonies from an entirely different cause ; that the
policy is accepted and believed in for its own sake. I do not
deny it ; I do not see that it can be denied. There is some
thing in it of pure selfishness — of precisely the same feeling
which makes the colonial working men object to Chinese
immigrants, or, indeed, to- any immigrants at all in large

PBOTECTION IN THE COLONIES 107
numbers. They have got a monopoly of the labour market,
and they mean to keep it. They do not as yet see that in
lessening the general wealth of the country they are lessening
the demand for their own labour. That is one of the lessons
which experience wiU teach them, and probably before many
years are over. But no doubt there is another feeling at
work with which it is stUl more difficult to argue, as it does
not rest on any basis of reason. The wish that a country
should produce within itself aU that it requires may some
times be due to an exaggerated caution. It was so in the
case of M. Thiers, one of the shrewdest of mankind, who
knew as well as we do the economical advantages of free
trade, but who thought that France ought to be self-support
ing in view of a possible coalition against her. But very
often it is a mere unreasoning dislike of having to rely on
outside help.
We all know (and many of us understand) the feeling of
the country gentleman who likes to grow his own fruit and
kill his own mutton, though quite aware that it costs him
more than if he bought both in the market ; and I think,
among Americans especially, some feeling of that kind may
be traced. They like the notion that they can do without
Europe, though they would not at all like the inference
inseparable from it that Europe could do without them. As
to what is said about the advantages of providing a variety
of occupations, that is a plea which one can hardly suppose is
seriously used ; but there is an argument far more plausible
and, therefore, far more dangerous ; colonists will tell us
that they .quite agree that as a permanent thing protection is
inexpedient, but that just as beginners learn to swim with
corks, so a young country has a right to foster its native
industries until they are strong enough to hold their own.
Well, that may be merely an excuse ; but if it is seriously
meant, a more mischievous delusion cannot well be started.
Those who use the argument sincerely do not see that they
are tying their own hands in the future. It is the idlest
of all follies to suppose that when you have created a body of

108 PBOTECTION IN THE COLONIES
protected interests, guaranteed by the State against all ex
ternal competition, you wih be able to withdraw the protec
tion under which they have grown up. If they are not
powerful and flourishing, then no doubt it may be possible ;
but in that case the expedient of temporary protection has
failed to accomplish its purpose ; if they are powerful and
flourishing, they will be too strong to be treated in that way.
I do not see, as regards the Colonies, that we can do any
thing directly to check the growth of the protective spirit.
We know that, however loyal they may be and are to the
British connection, the shghtest hint that can be made to look
like dictation from Downing Street is sure to drive them in
the opposite direction. All I think we can do is not to en
courage or advise an increased colonial expenditure — it must
be paid for somehow, and it will probably be paid for out of
protective duties.
It is hardly worth while in this presence to expose the
absurdity of that well-meant proposal which we sometimes
hear of, according to which the British Empire should be
formed into a Zollverein, absolute free trade bemg the rule
within it, and protection against all outside. It is impracti
cable as involving the necessary co-operation of a number of
distant and free Legislatures which are not the least likely to
surrender their commercial independence ; it would open the
widest possible door to the largest possible number of frauds,
and it would not even please those classes at home, if there
are an,y, who still retain a wish for protection. Take the
case of Canada, for instance. According to this ingenious
scheme Canadian corn would come in free, but Eussian corn,
or that from the States, would be taxed. The English farmer
would not get what he is supposed to want, and the English
working man would be paying more for his loaf in order to
give a bounty to colonists who, as a rule, are better off than
himself. As regards the United States — I say it with regret
— I believe it would be idle to hold very hopeful language at
this moment. Undoubtedly, protection is dominant in the
New World, and the States are so rich in their soil, in then-

PBOTECTION IN THE UNITED STATES 109
influx of population, and in their boundless future, that they
can hardly ruin themselves if they try. All one can say is
that American politics show many instances of sharp and
sudden turns, and that sooner or later free trade must become
a sectional question. Western farmers will not always enjoy
the notion of paying tribute to Eastern manufacturers ; and
if, as I beheve, the States which profit by protection are the
minority of the whole (I might say even a small minority),
that is a circumstance which in a popular Government and
among a singularly intelligent people must tell in the long
run. Perhaps, also, the growth of a Socialist movement,
directed against private property in all forms, and especially
against property in land, may lead American statesmen to
consider whether it is wise to maintain a system which un
doubtedly tends to build up vast private fortunes at the
general expense. In the meanwhile, we have to recollect that
the case of the Americans is peculiar. They have America to
themselves ; they, unwisely as we think, are protectionists as
against Europe, but over an area as large as Europe within
the Union itself there exists absolute free trade. Their con
stitution and their geographical position do much to neutralise
the mistakes of their policy. That is no comfort to us cer
tainly, but it is an excuse for them.
I have said already that to free traders the sky is at this
moment overcast, but in one quarter there is a prospect of
better things. Light comes to us from the the East, and
considering the many difficulties that surround Indian finance,
and the uncertainty of a part of the Indian revenue, it is a
bold step, as weU as a wise one, that the Finance Minister of
India has taken. We have now in India a nearer approxi
mation to absolute free trade than exists anywhere except in
England. AU customs duties have been swept off, except
those on wines, spirits, opium, arms, and ammunition, and on
one or two more. There are no internal transit duties as in
the old days of native States, and it is probably the first time
in the history of the world that so vast an area, and so
enormous a population, have been practically set free from

110 COMMEBGIAL TBEATIES
commercial restrictions. If we owe to the people of India, as
I think we do, reparation for some acts of past aggression and
injustice, we are in the right way to make it now.
When discussing the general principle of free trade, there
is a wide field of thought into which I do not care to ask you
now to enter, but which deserves serious attention. We are
constantly calling on the State to control and regulate our
relations with one another more and more closely — how long
people are to work, how they are to be taught, what they are
to drink, what sort of houses they are to live in ; in aU these
matters, and many others, we are perpetually invoking Par
liament to interfere. I am not arguing that that tendency
is wrong — it is a vast question, but I think that its indirect
effect is not favourable to freedom of trade ; for the principle
upon which free trade rests is that of the sufficiency of the
individual to attend to his own interests, and it is natural for
the average man, for the untaught man, to ask. If the State
can manage men's business for them in many departments of
life better than they can manage it for themselves, why is
trade to be the exception ? It may be that we cannot help
ourselves, but it is at least worth while to note the existence
of a difficulty from which probably we cannot escape.
Of our prospects and improved commercial relations with
European countries there is much to be said, and I beheve we
need not be despondent. The world of free traders has long
been divided on the subject of commercial treaties. They
are objected to by many persons partly on the general ground
that it is unwise to sanction the principle of reciprocity by
making tariff reductions matters of international bargain,
partly for the more special and cogent reason that it is not
wise for England to begin bargaining when she has already
given away gratis nearly all that she might have kept to
trade with. In that last criticism there is force, and every
English negotiator must feel it ; but the controversy is reaUy
one of practical expediency rather than of abstract theory ; and
if through the machinery of a treaty we can get better terms
than without one, I think most people will be content to put

COMMEBGIAL TBEATIES 111
their objections in their pockets. With France especially the
political advantage of closer relations is so great that we
ought, I think, to make some sacrifice rather than forego it.
It is not a question of trade only ; it is a question — to use a
phrase which I am not fond of, but which is sometimes con
venient — of ' high policy ' as well. There is nothing more
certain than this, that trade is the great preventive of war.
Eeligion has not served to check wars ; they were never more
frequent or more barbarously carried on than in the ages when
faith was unshaken, and when every man was a believer.
Forms of government have not sufficed to check war, for we
have seen democracies as pugnacious as Governments of any
other character ; and I am afraid that we can hardly contend
that even the general increase of intelligence has done much
to make men peaceable. But if you so connect two countries
that neither can injure the other without equally injuring
itself at the same time, you have, not indeed a perfect
guarantee against quarrels, for that is impossible, but a
better guarantee than any other yet devised. The most plucky
of pugilists would hardly care to fight if the arrangement of
Nature were such that every blow he struck hurt him as much
as it hurt his opponent ; and that is really the position of two
countries between which close commercial intercourse exists.
People sometimes say, ' Look at the great expectations
which were formed between 1846 and 1853, and see how they
have been disappointed.' If it is meant that a good many
confident predictions have been falsified, that is true enough
— the same thing has happened very often before, and will
happen very often again. But if it is said that free trade has
failed to check the fighting propensities of men, I deny that
utterly ; an experiment cannot be said to fail which has never
been tried. There has been no general adoption of free trade
principles throughout Europe, and, until they are adopted,
I do not see how any man can decide that they will not have
the result which their first promoters expected. As far as
this country is concerned, I think we do see a very marked
change. There is much less inclination than of old on the

112 THE POLICY OF COBDEN
part of the English people to become principals in every
(quarrel ; and though four years ago there seemed to be a
reaction, we know how that ended : 1880 showed us what the
actual public feeling was in that matter. I deny, there
fore, that the policy of Cobden has been a failure. He was
too sanguine — most reformers are. I suppose without that
temperament a man can hardly be a reformer. He allowed
perhaps too little for the influence of various passions on
men ; but where is the public teacher, I ask again, in any
age and country, who has fully realised his ideal ? A man is
not to be deprived of credit for what he has done because he
himself expected to do more ; and it is unreasonable to talk
as if a new principle had beeri tried and found wanting, when
it has hardly even been preached in Europe for more than
thirty years, and hardly acted upon except by one single
country. The world moves slowly, and for xn.j part, if it were
to change its ways of thinking in a few years, I should not be
sanguine of the change being permanent. Quick growth
means quick decay, and with ideas as with plants, those that
are longest in coming to maturity are likely also to be longest
in lasting. That peace, not war, is the normal condition of
States ; that they are gainers, not losers, by each other's
prosperity ; that ideas, rather than arms, in the long run,
decide the destinies of mankind : these are the principles
which this Club endeavours to promote ; and, as we firmly
believe them to be true, we should distrust the very laws of
our being if we did not expect them to be victorious.

113

LIX
AOBICULTUBAL SOCIETIES— TBANSFEB OF LAND-
PEASANT PBOPBIETOBS— COMPENSATION FOB
IMPB 0 VE MENTS .
Liveepool : Septembee 6, 1883
.... It would be a waste of time to speak about the benefits
of these exhibitions ; we all know and admit them ; but there is
just one thing I should like to say. I think it will be a great
misfortune if the multiplication of small district societies —
against which I have nothing to say ; they are excellent in
their place — but I say it would be a great misfortune if the
multiplication of these societies were to draw off support from
the larger associations which go over the whole extent of the
country. There is a great deal to be said for small local district
meetings ; there is much pleasure and some profit to be
derived from them ; but if you come to consider what is for
the real benefit of the farmer, then it is the large and not the
small societies which do the real work..
Now I suppose you will expect me to say a few words in
reference to the various classes connected with the land. We
have not in this part of the country suffered much, com
paratively speaking, even at the worst of times — I mean when
compared with the southern and midland counties — but no
doubt the last few years have been bad everywhere both for
land-owners and occupiers ; and so far from wondering that
some expressions of discontent and irritation have been
occasionally heard, and that some wild speculations have been
indulged in, I must sav it has always been to me a matter of
surprise to see with what patience, with what good feeling,
VOL. II. I

114 TBANSFEB OP LAND
and with what mutual helpfulness all classes have joined to
meet the difficulties which they had to face. Some part of
our trouble is inevitable and can only be accepted. We cannot
alter the weather, and although the present season has not
been altogether favourable, still I hope we may say it has
been a considerable improvement upon those which have gone
before. We cannot, again, expect to exclude by any artificial
agency that foreign competition which many of us feel
severely. That is a question practically settled and disposed
of, or else I should not refer to it here. But we can do much
to insure that our resources shall be turned to the best
account, and in that respect a great deal has been done,
though, of course, the full effect of it cannot be immediately felt.
There have been, as long as most of us can remember,
two principal grounds of complaint on the part of those who
think, as I do, that more could be made than has been made
of the soil of England. One was that land could not be easily
bought and sold — that it was practically locked up from public
use ; and that the tenant was not sufficiently protected in
regard to any improvements which he might make. Now, as
to the first grievance, as many of you know, because I have
said the same thing before, I think it was at aU times con
siderably exaggerated. I do not believe that it has ever in
the last thirty years been difficult for a man who had money
in his pocket to buy an estate, and I confess I do not see what
change in the law will make it possible for a man who has
not money in his pocket, or who cannot get money from some
body else, to become a landed proprietor. But, however that
may be, it certainly is not now the case that land is kept back
from public use. It is easier, I am perfectly convinced — and
I speak from a good deal of observation and experience — at
the present time, and has been for some time back, to buy an
estate than it is to sell one. I wiU affirm that if any rich
man, even one of those millionaires in the New World of
whom we hear so much, were to take a fancy to invest his five
or ten or fifteen millions in British soil, he might have to wait
a little for an operation on so large a scale ; but it would not

TBANSFEB OF LAND 115
be many months, perhaps not many weeks, before he would
be able to accomplish his purpose. Partly that readiness to
sell is the result of bad times, partly it arises from a most
natural and laudable desire — which 1 am glad to see that land
lords are more and more feeling — to disencumber their estates
and so hold themselves prepared to meet any emergencies
that may come ; partly it is the result of an exaggerated mis
apprehension of what the Legislature may be inclined to do
in regard to land, and partly also I think it is due to the very
useful measure which has passed through the present Parlia
ment enabling settled estates to be sold with very few limita
tions and conditions.'
No doubt that will not always remain so, and we shall hear
more about entails and settlements by-and-by ; but, so far as
the wants of the intending purchaser are concerned, I do
not think he has much to complain of in the present state
of things, and I think, with the present considerably reduced
prices of land, which, taking the whole country over, are
certainly 15 per cent., perhaps 20 per cent., below what they
were ten years ago— I say, considering the reduction in the
prices of land, I am inclined to think that the British investor
is a little needlessly timid in coming forward. I speak as a
land-owner myself, and I speak in the interests of land-owners,
when I say I heartily wish to see new buyers coming into the
market and filling up those gaps and voids which will always,
from time to time, occur among the older possessors of the
soil. It is for the interest of the country that the accumu
lated wealth should be poured out upon the land rather than
that it should be squandered on a needy and greedy foreign
State, or invested in speculative undertakings, of which one-
half are swindles. Looking at it in the interest of the buyer^
he may get 2^ per cent, lor his money if he buys his estate
with common skiU and judgment, and, as many of my friends
know, it is not quite certain, if he continues to prosper, and
money continues to be plentiful, that twenty or twenty- five
years hence the Funds will give him more.
' The Settled Land Act, 1882. I 2

110 PEASANT PBOPBIETOBS
I will not go into the old-disputed question of what are
caUed peasant proprietors. I have often said, and I repeat
now, that if any considerable number of persons wish to try
the experiment, they need not wait for Parliament to help
them. It is not a difficult thing to form a company to buy
an estate and to break it up into small lots. Whether that
will be a successful experiment nothing except actual trial can
show. But, while a good many people are fond of speaking
and writing on the subject, I do not see that anybody is wiU
ing to put his hand into his pocket and try what can be done
with very little trouble. To be sure that cannot be done
without some risk, and talk costs nothing. If people really
mean what they say about wishing the poor man to be able
to invest his savings in the soil, I answer that they can bring
that result about whenever they please. The objection often
taken is that the cost and trouble of making out a title are
practicaUy prohibitory. That may apply to the small buyer,
but it does not apply to a company which can make its title
once for all and buy land in large blocks and then divide ; and
until I see people inclined to utilise the means which they
have, I shall take the liberty of thinking that the supposed
demand for very small estates — peasant proprietary — is rather
speculative than real, is founded upon a notion of what people
ought to want rather than upon any observation and expe
rience of what they really do want.
Now, if I am not wearying you too much, I should like to
say one word about that other subject of complaint to which
I have referred — the want of adequate protection for tenants'
improvements. I have always held that to be a real grievance,
even though the cases of actual hardship may be few and far
between. Parliament has now dealt with it,' and though I do
not wish to refer here to any controversial topic, I think I
may affirm that the Legislature has, on the whole, succeeded
in doing that which it meant and tried to do, namely, to make
as fair a compromise as the nature of the case admits between
the claims of the owner and those of the occupier. I . know
' See the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1883.

COMPENSATION FOB IMPBOVEMENTS 117
there are some persons who fear that litigation will be en
couraged, and that ill feeling will be created between landlord
and tenant. I am not afraid of that if there are good sense
and moderation on both sides ; and if, on either side or on
both sides, those quahties should unhappily be wanting, then
I say of two evils it is the lesser one that litigation should
take place than that a wrong should be suffered to which the
law should give no redress. But in truth landlord and tenant
are so dependent on each other that they can help one another
to such a degree if they choose, or make things so unpleasant
to one another if they quarrel, that, given the most ordinary
amount of good sense and good feeling, I think there wiU be
little doubt that, as a general rule, they wiU pull together.
Now, objection is taken from the other side. There are
some people — I do not think a great many — who would have
Parliament go much further, and adopt something like the
Irish system, which virtually makes the tenant owner of the
soil, with only a fixed payment due to the landlord. I do not
think that would do for England, and I will tell you why. I
do not put my objection on the ground of the landlord's rights.
Land-owners are a comparatively small body, and, unhappily,
in the best of all possible worlds, abstract rights do not go for
much when there is no voting power behind them. But here,
at least, all permanent improvements are made by the land
lord, and notoriously upon most large estates a very consider
able portion of the rent goes back in that way to the soil.
Now, once put the owner in such a position that he can derive
no advantage from the improvement of his estate, and of
course he will spend no money upon it. Why should he ? It
has become practically his tenant's and not his own. But the
effect of that would be to transfer the opportunity and the
duty of developing the resources of the soil from a class which
is generally well off, and both able and willing to do it, to a
class which has, as a rule, no superfluous means beyond what
it requires for its own business. If farmers as a body were
to ask for fixity of tenure, I believe, for my own part, that
they would get it, because no power could restrain them, but

118 COMPENSATION FOB IMPBOVEMENTS
they would not get the landlord's money spent on their farms
in addition ; and comparing what they would gain with
what they would lose, I think they would make a very bad
bargain. What will be the effect of this change in the law which we
have made ? Not much, I think, directly, except the preven
tion of certain rare, but always possible, cases of injustice.
It will do something ; it will, I think, discourage mere specu
lative and reckless expenditure on experimental farming ; for
if the land-owner knows or believes that his tenant will, in the
end, send in a bill to him, he will object to outlay which he
does not think likely to pay. Formerly, the loss would have
been all the tenant's ; now it is possible, under the plan of
valuation, for the landlord to bear his share of it, and he wiU
be cautious accordingly. In the same way and for the same
reason, I think the new arrangement will favour the moderate-
sized farmer as against the very large farmer. The owner,
who may, at the expiration of a tenancy, have a long bUl sent
in to him, will naturally prefer to lessen the risk of an incon
veniently heavy payment as far as he can, and the best way
of doing that will be to see that no single tenant holds more
than a certain amount of land. All his tenants are not hkely
to leave him at once, and he will not have a very heavy
demand from any one of them. I believe also that in many
cases it will have the effect of inducing tenants of their own
choice to revert to the system of yearly agreements instead
of leases for long terms.
Farmers are not always willing, in the uncertamty of the
seasons, to bind themselves for a term of years. Their chief
inducement to do so has hitherto been their natural and just
desire to obtain security for what they laid out in land ; and
now that they have got that security, in another shape, I
think it is probable that they may generally prefer freedom
to withdraw themselves and their capital from the- land when
ever they wish. But if that is to be the result it would be
solely of their own choice. I do not suppose there are many
land-owners now in any part of England who wUl be so insane

COMPENSATION FOB IMPBOVEMENTS 119
as to lose a good tenant rather than grant him a lease. Of
course, a good deal will depend upon the spirit in which the
Act is worked. I believe that both classes concerned will join
in trying to make it work smoothly. It is very much their
interest to do so; and if they do, I hope that no further legis
lation dealing with their respective claims may be necessary
for a long time to come. Legislative interference in such
matters is sometimes, in my belief, necessary, but it is always
an evil if it can possibly be avoided. It is, like medicine,
necessary to cure a complaint if you have got one, but, like
medicine, it is a thing which in a healthy state of the body
you can well do without. Forgive me for having inflicted this
long sermon upon you. I thought you would not be satisfied
if I did not say something about the recent changes that have
taken place affecting the condition of the farmer.

120

LX
THE ABOLITION OF SLAVEBY
Meeting to celeeeate the Jubilee oe the Abolition or Slavebt in thb
Beitish Colonies, London : August 1, 1884
I HAVE been asked to come here in a double capacity — partly
as the Minister ' who for the time being represents that
department which was most immediately concerned in the
construction and working of the Emancipation Act, and
partly as the son of the Minister to whose lot it feU, fifty
years ago, to pass through Parliament that great historical
measure. Many people may ask — I was myself at first in-
chned to ask — why, with so many questions waiting for
solution which concerned the present and the future, go back
upon the past, and indulge in singing songs of triumph over
a victory won fifty years ago? But I think the answer is
plain, when we consider that slavery in some shape has
prevailed in every organised society of antiquity, and was,
indeed, the basis of ajicient European civUisation. The date
of its disappearance from the civilised world — for it practically
received its death-blow in 1834 — is an historical landmark,
interesting, not merely to philanthropists, but to all thought
ful students of the evolution of society. It would be an
interesting question, but hardly suitable for this time and
place, for anyone to examine the moral and inteUectual
causes which brought about that remarkable change. Much,
I think, was due to the great humanitarian and popular
movement which pervaded all Europe in the latter part of the
eighteenth century, something to the increase of popular
power, something to the excess to which the slave system had
' Lord Derby was at this time Secretary of State for the Colonies in
Mr. Gladstone's second administration.

THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY 121
been developed — for it is more easy to understand and to
excuse purely domestic slavery, where some human relations
exist between master and slave, than that which takes the
form of vast gangs owned and worked for profit by a master
who does not even know his slaves by sight ; something also
to an economical cause — the growing perception of the fact
that compulsion cannot produce inteUigent labour, and that,
in the complicated industrial operations of modern life, in
telligence is more necessary than mere brute force. At any
rate, to whatever extent that cause may have operated, the
lesson has been learnt. We have seen that no slave-driver's
whip can develop industry as it is developed among freemen,
by the fear of want on the one hand, and the prospect of
fortune on the other. We have seen, too, that not only are
the workers better off under freedom, but that employers of
free labour can make their business more profitable than ever
slave-owners were able to do. The Slave States of America
were never rich as a class. The great capitalists of America
all come from the North. In the case of the negro, I do not
believe that any expectations have been disappointed except
such as were pitched unreasonably high.
Perhaps we appreciate more justly the influence of heredity
than men did half a century ago. When we consider that the
negro population of our Colonies had been slaves for a genera
tion or two, and absolute savages before they were made
slaves, the wonder to niy mind is not that they should come
short of a European standard of civilisation, as no doubt
they do, but that they should have done as well for them
selves as on the whole they have. In Barbados they work as
steadily as English labourers. In Jamaica there is a very
large exodus of negroes who go freely to the hard labour and
unhealthy climate of the Panama Canal, tempted by the high
rate of wages offered. In some islands, I admit, their condi
tion is somewhat torpid and stagnant ; but at the worst they
are quiet, unaggressive, and only ask to be allowed to lead
their own life in their own way. I certainly do not expect
that the West Indies will ever be what Australia and Canada

122 THE ABOLITION OF SLAVEBY
are ; but I see no reason why they should not enjoy a very
fair measure of prosperity, and be happy in a quieter fashion.
And it ought not to be forgotten that where the West Indian
negro is not industrious the cause is not merely his position
of freedom, but the combination of very few wants with un
limited land on which to squat. But, after all, the question
what may be the future of the negro race is one with which
we are only indirectly concerned. What does concern us is
that we should do our duty by them. Let them have
freedom, let them have a fair chance, let them be fairly
matched in the race of life ; and whether they win or lose,
our responsibility is covered. We are not answerable for
their doing well ; we are answerable for putting no obstacles
in their way to prevent their doing well.
I have spoken of the English Act of 1834 as having
practically given the death-blow to slavery throughout the
world. I do not think that is saying too much, for we know
the force of public opinion. All of us leave a good part
of our consciences in our neighbours' keeping — when one
country condemns an institution, and makes great sacrifices
to get rid of it, others are pretty sure to follow suit ; and in
the case of that emancipation on a far greater scale carried
through under less happy auspices by the United States, I
think it is indisputable that one at least of the principal
operating causes on the American mind, one of the main
supports of the emancipationist movement in its earlier
stages, was the dislike to seem to lag behind England in a
question of political progress. There is only one thing more
that I wish to say about the legislation of 1834. It was
essentially honest legislation. There were many persons who
thought that the planters — the owners of slaves — ought to
bear the whole loss that followed on their slaves bemg set
free. I am not surprised that that view was taken. There
is, and always was, plenty of cheap philanthropy. And no
doubt it is a tempting thing to relieve your neighbour in
distress at somebody else's cost, and not out of your own
pocket. But the Government and Parliament of that day

THE ABOLITION OF SLAVEBY 123
did not see it so. They recognised the fact that the Legis
lature which had permitted and sanctioned slavery was just
as much responsible for its existence as the individuals who
happened to own slaves, and they paid honestly for the rights
Avhich they swept away. I believe that that act of justice was
an act of policy also. It showed aU the world that we were
in earnest in the matter ; it disarmed local opposition, which
would otherwise have been naturally very bitter ; and it gave
to the legislation of 1834 a character which it would not
otherwise have had — a character of national self-sacrifice and
of generosity, as well as of justice.
Now, as to the resolution which I am to move, I need not
spend many words upon it. It comes to this — that the slave
trade, which we are making so many efforts to put down,
never will be put down thoroughly while slavery exists. I
accept that doctrine. I believe it is the truth. Smuggling
never has been checked until low tariffs made it not worth
while to smuggle. And we must recollect that the slave
trade is no imported or foreign calamity in Africa. It is a
native of the soU. It has existed as far back as we can trace
anything African. Our sable brother has been in the habit
of catching and selling his brothers whenever and wherever
he got a chance, and he will go on doing it so long as he can
find a market. No doubt we have checked the slave trade on
some routes and in some districts ; but against that gain we
must set the enormous increase of suffering which follows
when slaves are driven in haste, and through desert and
unfrequented districts, in order to escape capture. I am
quite sure that until slavery dies out in Asia, and at least in
the partially civilised parts of Africa, as it has in Europe,
you will never thoroughly get rid of the slave trade. How
that is to be done — when it can be done, through what
agencies, and in what countries first — is not a question which
can be settled by an offhand sentence at a public meeting.
But that it ought to be done — that it can be done, and that
m time it will be done — are matters about which I entertain
no doubt.

124

LXI
CONSTITUENCIES AND MEMBEBS — TOBY DEMO-
CBATS—THE IBISH PABTY— LOCAL DEBTS— THE
LAND Q UESTION—BEGISTBA TION— PABLIAMEN-
TABY PBOCEDUBE — CHUBGH AND STATE —
FOBEIGN POLICY— IBELAND
Blackbuen : Octobee 10, 1885
I MOST sincerely thank you for the great cordiality of this
reception, and I thank you still more for the language of
high and well-deserved panegyric with which the previous
speakers have referred to the leaders of the Liberal party.
Mr. Gladstone has come forward at an age when all men
naturally desire rest. He has come forward for the purpose
of supplying that union to the Liberal party which is the one
thing we need ; and when a man does that, who has been
twice Prime Minister, who has held the first office in the
State for more than ten years, and who has gone through
more than fifty years of unequalled labour in the public
service, I say that his appearance on the stage of pubhc life
is absolutely free from any suspicion of a desire to gratify
private ambition, and it is an example of self-devotion and of
a sacrifice of personal feeling to public duty, which not his own
followers alone, but the country at large, will know how to
admire and appreciate. I do not want to disappoint you, but
I am not going to say a word to you about the coming general
election.' It is not my place. Peers are non-electors, and though
other non-electors — a lunatic, a pauper, a lad under age — may
' On June 9 the Government was defeated in the House of Commons, and
Mr. Gladstone resigned oflice ; he was succeeded by Lord Salisbury, and the
general election took place in November.

CONSTITUENCIES AND MEMBEBS 125
interest themselves in election matters if they choose, that is
a privUege not extended to members of the House of Lords.
I accept the disqualification, but I am reminded of what a lady
said in the time of the great French Eevolution when she was
told that women ought not to interfere in politics. ' Yes,' she
said, ' that may be very well, but when a woman is going to
have her head cut off it is natural she should ask why.' And
it is equally natural that we who are citizens, whether peers
or not, who have some stake in the country, should wish to
know on what system we are to be administered and taxed
and legislated for during the next five or six years. I think,
therefore, you wiU not take it amiss if I venture to trouble
you for a few minutes on the great question in which we are
all interested — what principles shall be those of the next
Parliament, what programme of legislation the two Houses
are to have before them in the years immediately coming.
There is one thing which, with your leave, I will not do.
I will not enter into any discussion of the personal ability or
fitness of this or that public man to hold power. I keep
clear of that subject, partly because it is invidious, partly
because it is commonplace, partly because it is, to my mind,
of secondary importance. You, the electors, are the masters.
You are to decide what is to be done. When that is settled,
the men to do it will always be found. You must leave them
some freedom of action, else administration cannot go on ;
but you must tell them plainly what you want, and not only
that, but you must see that it is done. A country is not
self-governed because once in six years it chooses the indi
viduals who are to legislate for it. It can only have real
self-government if in every county, in every borough, in
every constituency there is kept up a constant watchfulness,
a constant interest in what is being done in Parliament which
wiU make the 600 gentlemen at Westminster feel that they
are legislating under the eyes of those who sent them there.
I am not afraid, for one, that such a system will produce any
undue dependence or servility among public men. The
public does not want slaves ; it values frank speech and

126 TOBY DEMOCRATS
manly spirit, and it will bear dissent, and even contradiction
courteously and respectfully expressed ; but it will not bear,
and it ought not to bear, indifference or neglect of duty. It
ought to discourage talk which wastes time, and obstruction
however plausibly excused ; and if in these matters you want
your servants to do their duty, there is only one way — look
after them sharply, and give them your mind plainly if they
chatter when they ought to be at work. I repeat, the imme
diate question before us, and before all England, is, what are
to be the principles on which this new Parhament is to act ?
The choice is very limited. There are only two practicaUy
possible lines of policy open. A really and purely Conserva
tive policy — a system of keeping things as they are — is not
now on the cards. Lord Salisbury's late speech is proof
enough of that. There is a restlessness, a passion for
reform, a desire that the new world shall be different from
the old, which no section of politicians can resist. The
party now in power see it as clearly as we do. Therefore, a
new name had to be invented, and, as they cannot very well
caU themselves Liberals, they have hit upon the phrase Tory
Democrats. It is a capital one, for, being perfectly uninteUi-
gible, it does not pledge anybody to anything.
What a Conservative is we know, but to describe a Tory is
difficult, and when you add the Democrat, why, the name is a
most convenient one under which to rally all those people
who feel that concessions to Liberalism are inevitable, but
who do not like to own themselves beaten. But, gi"ving up
the name as a hopeless puzzle, what do the Tory Democrats
intend to do ? I do not exactly know, and I do not think they
know themselves ; but I think I can guess pretty accurately
what will be the lines on which thej' are likely to travel.
They require to impress the popular imagination ; to distract
the public mind from questions of internal policy ; and the
surest way of doing so is to engage in a dashing, adventurous>
hazardous, and costly system of foreign policy. Spend freely,
swagger a good deal, go as near to a quarrel with some foreign
State as you can without actual war ; and for the moment all

THE IBISH PABTY 127
the world will look that way, and local government and reform
of taxation and Church Establishments and parochial disputes
of that sort will be forgotten for the moment. It is an old
dodge. It wiU answer as long as there are fools in the world,
and even with a reformed Parliament we may, perhaps, have
a few left. But, of course, internal affairs cannot be entirely
neglected ; and what is to be done with them ? Well, if large
reforms are to be made, and if all existing interests are to be
very tenderly dealt with, there is only one way — spend fast
and freely, and you will make everybody happy all round for
the moment. Of course you must borrow, and posterity must
pay ; but posterity has no vote, and the future can take care
of itself. Mind, I am not saying — it would be unjust to say —
that these things or things like them will be done ; I only affirm
that the temptation to do them is strong, that a reckless
foreign policy and a spendthrift home policy are the natural
expedients of what is called a Tory Democrat when he is run
close by his opponents. But there is another consideration.
What will a Cabinet, supposing it influenced by such ideas as
I have been speaking about, do about Ireland ? For, do not
let us delude ourselves, Ireland is the great difficulty now, just
as Sir Eobert Peel said it was his forty-five years ago.
You have seen the speeches lately made by Mr. Parnell.
He tells you that, whoever else wins or loses, the Irish National
party are bound to win at the next election. They will hold
aloof from both parties and try to make their own terms.
Now, I do not impute to our present administrators that they
will be guilty of the great iniquity of bartering away the
English hold on Ireland for the sake of Irish support, but I
say the temptation is strong. They will be pressed to yield
this, that, and the other, and in each case they will be told
that the concession will not make things much worse than
they are already. The bribe is a high one. Will they — will
any of us — have the courage to resist it ? Eighty votes — and
it is likely that the Irish party will not number less — are a
great power when parties are divided. If I were an elector,
that is a consideration which I should think more important

128 THE IBISH PABTY
than almost any other. It is never good to have parties
• closely balanced. In the present state of things a small
majority either way would be nothing less than a disaster.
I do not suppose our Conservative friends in their most
sanguine moods expect a large majority ; and we are, there
fore, in this position — either we must have such a majority as
may make us independent of the Irish vote, or Mr. Parnell
must be the virtual ruler of this country.' Now, there may
be differences of opinion as to the propriety of Mr. Parnell
having power in Ireland ; but nobody on this side the water.
Whig or Tory, Eadical or Conservative, wishes him to be
master of England. Why do I dwell on this ? Because it
leads to a very plain conclusion. If you do not want to have
Mr. Parnell and his friends for your masters, you must return
a majority that shall make one party independent of him.
That party can in the nature of this case only be the Liberal
party. The Liberal party can only win by cordial union
among all its sections. Moderate men, "Whigs — it is an historic
name, and not a name to be ashamed of — must not let them
selves be scared by a few utterances which may not be
altogether prudent or just towards them, and our enthusiastic
friends with socialist leanings must recollect that they are
not the whole world ; that they are not, in all probability, a
majority of their own party, and that if they go for all or
nothing they may quite possibly get nothing for their pains.
I cannot see, for my part, why it should be necessary to
anticipate what is probably a distant future. We have work
enough before us on which we are all agreed — I speak of the
Liberal party as a whole — to give occupation to Parliament
for the next five years ; and I do not think there is any reason
for holding back or for refusing to join in .that work because
we may possibly hereafter differ about something which is not
now urgent, and which, in any case, had better wait until it
has been more thoroughly argued out.
The question of local government is one of the first to be
' The result of the general election was to give the Liberals a majority over
the Conservatives, but not over both the Conservatives and the Irish party.

LOCAL DEBTS 129
dealt with, but it is one as to which, in principle, there is no
difference among Liberals of any shade. We all agree that
the administration of county affairs must be put into the
hands of an elective -board. The only differences among us,
if they exist, are on a point of detaU. For my own part, I
should not shrink from giving very large powers to these local
Parliaments, subject only to one restriction — I hold it abso
lutely necessary that some check should be put upon their
powers to mortgage the future. The ratepayers may be
trusted to control extravagant expenditure if it faUs at once
on the rates, but the temptation is strong to secure some im
mediate advantage at the cost of future generations. I am
not the only person who sees, and has long seen, with uneasi
ness the growth of indebtedness in our large towns ; and
though prudence is not generally a very popular virtue with
democracies, yet this is a case where the instincts and sym
pathies of democracy are or ought to be on the side of prudence.
For capital always tends to get into few hands, and if our
local debts grow, as they very possibly may, to be counted by
hundreds of millions, we shall have done much to create a
new plutocracy, which will not be popular in its tendencies or
ideas. Most people think it a misfortune that the State
should have to pay in perpetuity more than 22,000,000^.
a year to fundholders who have absolutely no duties to perform
in return for what they receive. The late Government did
what they could to provide for the gradual reduction of the
National Debt. I wish we could have done more, but at least
it was a beginning. But all our work will be undone, the
dangers which we are trying to lessen will be immeasurably
increased, if, side by side with the old National Debt, there
grows up a new Municipal Debt of perhaps equal amount.
Depend upon it this is a very serious question. The growth
of Sociahsm throughout Europe has followed very closely on
the gigantic increase of national indebtedness during the
present century, and men who begin to feel the pressure in
tolerable are apt to raise questions, more easily stated than
solved, as to the right of any State to impose burdens in
VOL. II. ^

130 THE LAND QUESTION
perpetuity for the benefit of one generation. I do not go into
details here, but I hold that, as a general principle, you
should insist on every local body which contracts a debt
providing for the repayment of that debt within fifty or sixty
years at the latest.
To turn to another subject of domestic legislation, every
body is agreed that one of the first questions that will have to
be dealt with by the new Parliament is the law, or rather the
set of laws, concerning land. I will tell you my views on
that question in as few words as I can. I believe that the
public will require that all laws which have for their object or
effect to impede the sale of land shall be removed. They are
not now as stringent or as effective as it is common to
suppose ; but while they exist there M'ill always be at least a
plausible grievance, and any mischief which they may really
do will be magnified tenfold in the popular imagination. I
think that land-owners will be well advised if they encourage
the multiplication of small proprietors ; and, so far as it is
possible to cheapen and simplify the transfer of land — it is not
so easy as many think — I am in favour of that also. I think,
when times are a little better for sellers than they are now, it
will be a good thing to put into the market gradually, and not
in such a way as to sacrifice their value, lands belonging to
charities, ecclesiastical bodies, and other public trusts, making
exceptions in cases where the holding of them is necessary for
the purposes of the trust. A public company or institution
is, in the nature of the case, generally a non-resident pro
prietor, an absentee proprietor, and is restrained by the
conditions of its ownership from doing many things which
are reasonably expected from a private owner. If such
estates were sold in small lots, farm by farm, men of com
paratively small means would have ample opportunities of
buying. As to the plan, which has been so much talked
of lately, of enabling local authorities to buy land by com
pulsion in order to sell it again to labourers in small hold
ings, I am not absolutely hostUe, but I am sceptical. It has
never been thoroughly examined or discussed ; it has never

THE LAND QUESTION 131
even been debated in Parliament. We have not heard the
objections that could be taken to it, nor the answers to those
objections, and tiU we have I should be sorry either to
condemn it or to sanction it in an unqualified manner. It is
nonsense, however, to talk of it, as some people do, as confisca
tion. We are all accustomed to see land taken by compulsion
for public purposes. There is nothing new in that, and to
speak of it as a vast machinery of corruption intended to
enable local authorities to reward their supporters seems to be
an absolutely unfounded and unreasonable charge. But what
strikes me most strongly in connection with it is that it pro
poses to throw on the ratepayers what may probably be a
very heavy burden for the benefit of one class. It must be
a losing operation, for, of course, I assume that the price"
paid is to be a fair one, and I can hardly see the farmer,
the shopkeeper, the clerk, and the artisan submitting to a
large increase in their rates for the sake of supporting a new
class of cultivators who are to be created at their expense.
I think they would be apt to ask, ' If one set of men are to
be helped out of the rates to set up in business, why not
another ? ' Why is the man who wants to stock a shop not
as well entitled to public assistance as he who wants to set
up a farm ? Either a thing will pay or it will not pay. If it
will, why should not private enterprise carry it through ? If
it will not, the question will, I think, be asked, whether the
general public ought to be taxed to do it. At the same time
I am not saying that the experiment should not be tried.
There is nothing hke practice to test theory. But, if it is
tried, it should be at first on a small scale, and with all
reasonable precautions against jobbery or abuse ; and I think
also that powers of compulsory purchase need not, in the
first instance, be taken until or unless it has been ascertained
that purchase in the ordinary way will not meet the require
ments of the buyers. Landlords in these days are willing
enough to sell ; the difficulty is to find buyers ; and to my
mind the trouble is not to bring peasant proprietors on to the
sod, but to keep them there. If they are free to sell again, a
K 2

132 THE LAND QUESTION
good many of them will disappear after a bad year or two.
If they are not free to sell, you are creating a new set of
restrictions in place of those which you propose to sweep
away, and you are tying up the land more tightly than before.
That, however, is a matter for the future. I believe that the
next few years will see an immense increase in the number of
land-owners, partly in consequence of the removal of legal
restrictions on sale, partly because existing owners are more
sensible than they were a few years ago of the danger of
heavy encumbrances at a time when taxation is likely to be
increased, and partly also because the fall in rents has
lessened the feeling of security in regard to land which used
to make people think it the safest of aU investments. That
movement I think the law should favour and stimulate, and I
doubt whether, for the present at least, it need do much
more. I am not in favour of the Irish system of what is caUed
the three F's, and I will tell you why. I think it would
operate seriously to check the progress of the reform which
we have been speaking of; it would introduce a double
ownership, whereas all land reformers ever since I can re
member have been crying out for single ownership ; and it
would check the sale of land, which is exactly what we want
to promote ; and, more than all, it would put an end to im
provements of a costly and durable character. For, in this
country, such improvements are made by the owner, and not
by the occupier. The tenant has not, as a rule, the capital
which is required, and of course the landlord will not make
them if the rent is fixed by law, because he has then no
inducement to improve. The profits would go into another
man's pocket. It is important also to notice that the system
of fixed rents and free sale is a benefit to the tenant only in
the first instance. He is to be free to sell his interest, and,
of course, when he sells he will take care to get full market
value for it ; and the man who buys of him will be paying a
competition price for his farm under the new arrangement,
just as, under the old arrangement, he might have been pay-

ENFBANCHISEMENT OF LEASEHOLDS 133
ing a competition rent. I am not pleading in favour of the
land-owners. I know that they are a numerically smaU body,
not very popular, and just now half ruined ; and under those
circumstances the less people talk about their rights the
better. But what I am afraid of is lest in our eagerness to
improve the condition of the cultivator we adopt remedies
which are incompatible with one another, which will neutra
lise one another, and which wiU leave us in a worse position
than they found us in. There are so many people now on
public platforms and elsewhere anxious to have a share in
demolishing the squires that if they do not take care they
will be breaking each other's heads with their random blows.
There is only one other aspect of the land question which
I wUl ask you to look at, and that is the question of en
franchising leaseholds in towns. Let me say at once that, as
a rather large holder of that kind of property, I have not the
slightest objection to that proposal on grounds of self-interest.
Ground-rents are merely investments, and there is no special
hardship in having to change them for some other investment
on fair terms. But there is one consideration which I have
not seen referred to, and which concerns the tenant. If any
one letting a house for more than twenty years is to be under
the obligation of selling it to the tenant, if required, will not
that tend quite as much to shorten leases as to create free
holds ? If that is the consequence, the builder who has re
deemed his ground-rent may get an advantage, but the
occupier will be worse off than before. I am not saying that
objection is fatal ; I dare say it could be got over ; but I
should like to have the whole question gone into thoroughly
by a Commission or Committee, so that we may not run into
mistakes which it may not be easy to set right. The system
of leasing for a short term is undoubtedly a bad one ; and if,
as they say is the case in the south, the tendency is to shorten
the term, it may be quite fair to check that tendency by law.
When, as is the case over much of this county, the lease is
for 999 years, the tenant has virtually a freehold, or what is
equivalent to a freehold, already, and I do not see that any

134 BEGISTBATION—PABLIAMENTABY PBOCEDUBE
change is required. Let me just add, before passing from
this subject, that, in the interest of the public, whatever the
State means to do about land it ought to do quickly. Every
body loses by uncertainty and suspense. No man will spend
money on his estate if he is not sure of being allowed to keep
it, or if the conditions of his ownership are likely to be
altered from year to year. The value of land in Great
Britain is probably not much under 2,000,000,000Z., and the
reduction of one-third in that value means a loss to the com
munity nearly equal to the doubling of the National Debt.
There are also three other subjects which are ripe for
immediate solution — local government. Parliamentary pro
cedure, and registration. As to the last I have nothing to
say, except that I cannot conceive that the Conservative
party, who had the good sense to recede from an untenable
position, where the suffrage and distribution of seats were
concerned, will attempt to take back what they have agreed
to give by putting unnecessary obstacles in the way of electors
claiming their votes. It would be foolish — it would be even
suicidal — for they would probably shut out as many friends
as enemies, and they would alienate the poorer electors in
general without any advantage for themselves. I hope,
therefore, that is a subject which we may see dealt with in a
practical spirit, and not in one merely of partisanship.
The question of procedure is far more difficult and com
plicated, because it raises the very awkward query of how far
a minority, which may be a very large and powerful as well
as a very small minority, shall be allowed to retard the
passing of measures which it dislikes by full and detailed
discussion. You cannot settle that by any cut-and-dry rule.
You can only give to the House large powers of cutting short
needless talk, and trust to the good sense and moderation of
an English Parliament to prevent them from being abused.
A great deal may be done by the appointment of grand com
mittees to expedite legislation in detail ; but, in the case of
important measures which excite strong feeling, that is an
expedient whicli will not help us much. For the House of

CHUBGH AND STATE 135
Commons, as a whole, wiU not be content that such measures
should be discussed only in committee ; they wiU insist upon
debating them over again. On the whole, while I accept the
principle of giving very large powers to the Speaker, I believe
that the most powerful check on obstruction will be found
outside the walls of Parliament. The most reckless obstructors
will not dare to jplay tricks if they are met by a strong ex
pression of opinion on the part of the constituencies. Let
the nation put its foot down and say, ' We will have no more
of this,' and there will be an end of it ; any other remedy, to
my mind, is only a palliative. But one thing you must do :
you and we — for we are all outsiders so far as the House of
Commons is concerned — do not encourage the practice which
has grown up of late years of expecting every Government to
bring in three times as many bills as it can possibly carry.
That leads to more waste of time than anything ; measures
are brought in, read a second time, discussed at great length,
and then, for want of time, they are dropped just when the
heaviest part of the work upon them was finished, and all has
to be done over again. That is a good deal your fault — I mean
the fault of the public of the constituencies. You like large
promises, and you take your chance of their not being kept.
Ask for less, and see that what is promised is really done,
and we shall get on faster.
There are in the background, as we know, far larger
questions than any of those which I have touched. One of
them affects the relations which should exist between Church
and State. I have long held, and am ready to avow it openly,
that I do not believe that an Established Church — that is, the
exclusive alliance of one religious denomination among many
with the State — can be in the long run permanently main
tained alongside of a system of really popular representation
such as we have got now. Disestablishment, and at least
partial disendowment, must, in my mind, ultimately come ;
and if I were a parson, or one of those laymen who identify
themselves especially with ecclesiastical interests and ideas, I
should look rather to making the best terms possible while

136 FOBEIGN POLICY
there is time than to resisting what is inevitable. But we
are hardly ripe in England for that change. It is a very big
one, and if we take it up now you may be quite sure that no
other reform — and we have a good many on hand — could
possibly get itself attended to. I think, therefore, that the
decision which has been come to, to let the subject stand over
for the moment, is a wise one. But if the representatives of
Scotland desire the disestablishment of their Church, it is not
for Englishmen to oppose them ; and, for myself, though I
can speak for no one else, I consider that Wales has a strong
claim to be separately dealt with. In Wales, as was the case
in Ireland, Nonconformists form the bulk of the population.
The Welsh people constitute in many respects a distinct
nationality, and I do not see why we should refuse to Welsh
loyalty what we have granted to Irish sedition.
Our foreign policy I will deal with as briefly as possible.
We are not in the happy position of the United States, who
can afford to have no foreign policy. We cannot absolutely
seclude ourselves from the affairs of Europe, but I am quite
sure that the less we are mixed up in the sanguinary muddle
of Continental diplomacy the better for England. We need
no special alliances. We have nothing to gain by being mixed
up with the mtrigues of despotic or semi-despotic Powers. I
know too little of what is passing in Bulgaria to express an
opinion upon it beyond this, that the statesman would be
insane who should drag England into war in such a quarrel,
and I feel confident that the party now in power, however
much they may dislike the upsetting of the Berhn Treaty,
will not do anything so suicidal. As to Egypt, it may have
been, it probably was, inevitable that we should interfere as
we did in 1882 — I cannot speak confidently on that because I
was not a member of the Government — but it is not the less
unlucky on that account ; and I think we ought to look out
and see that we do not on any pretext, however plausible, get
that Egyptian millstone tied permanently round our necks.
We hold already an enormous proportion of the earth's
surface. Great military Empires are apt to be like soap

IBELAND 137
bubbles. Just when they have reached their greatest expan
sion they burst up ; and I believe that by spreading ourselves
further, by increasing the already unwieldy bulk of the
Empire, we are not only augmenting responsibihties almost
too heavy to be borne, but accelerating the inevitable to all
nations, though, as we hope, the distant for us, period of
national decline and decay.
I have detained you too long, but let me for one moment
refer to what is now the most difficult and dangerous piece of
work before us. What are we to do about Ireland ? I do not
think that even now the gravity of the situation is fully
understood. It is useless to deny that a dislike of the
English connection is the almost universal feeling of the
country, with the exception of Ulster. We have granted
religious equality, we have given the occupier the control
of the land, we offer the people at large self-government
of the same kind that we are ready to introduce in England
and Scotland, but it is idle to deceive ourselves with the
notion that these things have satisfied, or are likely to
satisfy, the Irish people as a body. The anti-English feeling
is probably at this moment stronger than it has ever been
before. The demand is for an independent Irish Parhament,
free even to exclude English goods by protective duties.
And even if at first the Nationalist party would consent to
some restrictions on its authority, those restrictions would
undoubtedly serve as a basis for fresh agitation, unless total
legislative independence were obtained. Now, I am afraid
that while that is the Irish temper it is hopeless to suppose
that we can rely on conciliation alone. Let us do for Ireland
whatever is just and kind, but let us do it for the satisfaction
of our own consciences, not in the hope of a return which we
shall not get. On the question of maintaining the supremacy
of the Imperial Parliament justice is on our side. Three
millions have no right in such a matter to dictate to 33
millions, and, if we stand firm, I am not afraid of the result.
I say that for the benefit of those who look at the matter in a
national and patriotic point of view. To the mere wire-

138 IBELAND
pullers on the one side or the other — a useful class, I do not
disparage them — I should hold a different language ; I should
tell them to be careful lest in running after the Irish vote
they lose the vote of England and Scotland. We cannot
play with this question. It is too grave ; it is too dangerous ;
and if we wish to make concessions of all that can reasonably
be asked by reasonable Irishmen — and that I am as willing
as any man to do — we must lay down unmistakably at the
same time that there are principles that cannot be tampered
with — the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament, the mainte
nance of the Imperial rule, and the rights of loyal English
citizens whom we have for generations past encouraged to
settle in Ireland, and whom we cannot abandon to enemies
who hate them on account of theh connection with us.
I thank you for the patience with which you have listened
to what I am afraid has been rather a dry statement of
opinion. I have tried to address myself to the question, not
of how we should win — of that I have no doubt — but of the
use which we should malce of the victory when it is gained.
That, after all, is the chief matter. Union, moderation, and
energy are what we need ; we shall find them, I am well con
vinced, among the Liberals of Lancashire, and it is an old
saying that where Lancashire leads, England before long will
follow.

139

LXII
HOME BULE— POSITION OF THE LIBEBAL UNION
ISTS—THE COEBCION FALLACY — IBELAND
NOT ILL USED — HOME BULE AND IBISH
NATIONALITY— HOME BULE NOT FINAL— THE
LAND QUESTION— ULSTEB
Liveepool : June 29, 1886
Wb are engaged just now on a new constitutional experiment.
The present dissolution of Parliament is not one of an ordinary
character. It is not a contest of parties as formerly ; it is
rather what the French call a plebiscite — a popular vote of
the whole electoral body taken on a single question. And for
my own part I do not regret it, because I hold that such a
question as that now before us ought not to be decided by any
authority inferior to that of the nation itself. For myself, I
have come here as a matter of duty rather than of pleasure.
We are in the midst of a crisis, the greatest and most
dangerous, in my judgm.ent, that the present generation has
witnessed, and which to us Liberals is attended with this
jjeculiar unhappiness, that, in whatever way it may end, it
must necessarily cause for a time, at least, the disruption
of the Liberal party. So long as it seemed possible that the
breach might be repaired, I have abstained from saymg or
doing anything that could make it wider. But the mischief
is now done. We, political friends and former comrades, find
ourselves ranged on different sides, and at this moment, for
any one who has a sense of political responsibility to remain
neutral or to speak in hesitating terms is to show not prudence
or caution, but simply cowardice.
We are met in this room to protest against a disruption

140 POSITION OP THE LIBEBAL UNIONISTS
of the Union between Great Britain and Ireland. We do so
because we are Liberals — because we believe the Union of
the two countries to have been a right and wise step in the
direction of progress, and the repeal of that Union to be an
essentially retrograde measure. And let me add this : we
Liberal Unionists deny that we are seceders establishing a
little private sect of our own. It would ill become me to utter
a word in disparagement of the great and remarkable man
whom we are compelled to oppose. Mr. Gladstone's name is a
part of English history. Contemporary censure cannot injure,
as contemporary panegyric cannot raise him. But we have
been accustomed to think of Mr. Bright also as a Liberal
authority ; we have been accustomed to respect the sound
judgment and honest purpose of Lord Hartington ; we see
in Mr. Goschen one of the first financial authorities of our
time ; and in Mr. Chamberlain the able, the energetic, the
eloquent leader of the newer school of Eadicals. When we
see these men, and others like them, at no slight sacrifice of
personal feeling, and in some cases of personal prospects,
come forward against the chief whom they have faithfully
served, and the majority of the party on which they rely, and
when they do this, not as striking out a new policy, but as
maintaining that policy which untU of late was undisputed,
we are entitled to assert that Liberal Unionism is no crotchet,
that it is no defection from established and recognised party
ties, no result of personal jealousies, such as often break up
political parties, but the necessary consequence of a new and,
as I hold, a most Ul-judged departure, taken in haste and
repudiated by a Liberal Parliament. We are sometimes told
that all foreign, all Continental opinion is against us. I very
much doubt that as a matter of fact ; and, if it were a fact, I
should stiU like to know on what knowledge of the. subject an
opinion of that kind was founded. I wUl not easily believe
that the Liberals of France, of Germany, of Italy, or of Spain,
who know the pa.rt which clericalism has played in their
countries, can desire to see a measure adopted which, whatever
other results it may have, will give over Ireland, as regards its

THE COEBCION FALLACY 141
internal affairs, to the absolute control of the peasantry, who
are themselves under the absolute control of an Ultramontane
priesthood. If they expect anything which has ever been
known or thought of as a Liberal pohcy to result from that
process, they must ignore the teaching of their own observa
tion and experience at home.
Then, again, we are told, and it is repeated in every
variety of phrase, ' You have only two alternatives before you :
Home Eule or coercion.' Now, I believe a more transparent
fallacy than that was never uttered. What is meant by
coercion ? Does it mean that men who break the law should
be coerced to keep it ? Why, coercion in that sense is only
another name for civilisation, and the very people who cry out
against the mere notion of compelling one part of Ireland to
accept a system which it dislikes would be the very first to
call for a forcible repression of the Protestant minority of
Ulster if that minority showed a disposition to resist. But
when we are told that under no circumstances can a policy of
coercion — if I am to use what is really a nickname — be justi
fied, does not that prove too much ? The argument, if it
mea.ns anything, means that England is not to put a veto
upon any demands which the majority of the Irish people may
put forward. How if they asked for separation ; how if they
signified their wish of independence ? You cannot concede
it, and this our English Home Eulers admit. But if the Irish
persist, and you refuse, what do you come to but that hateful
necessity, as I allow it to be, of using force at last ? In truth,
if the Irish are to be the sole judges of what they want, and
are to have it simply because they want it, there is nothing
for us to discuss here. We have only got to let them choose
for themselves and accept what they suggest. But if we
repudiate that notion as absurd — as, I suppose, all of us do —
we admit that England and Scotland must in the last resort
determine what they will surrender and what they will retain,
and must enforce their decision if necessary. And let me say
in passing that our right to do so is not a right founded upon
force alone. It is founded upon that which is the basis of all

142 IBELAND NOT ILL USED
popular and democratic legislation — the will of the majority.
The relations between England and Ireland do not concern
Ireland alone — they affect us deeply and in a hundred ways.
And the question what these relations are henceforward to be
is to be settled, not by five millions on one side of the Channel
only, still less by the three millions which constitute the local
majority, but by the thirty-six millions on both sides of the
Channel. Closely connected with what I will call the coercion fallacy
is another very like it — the specious, the plausible plea —
' Cannot you trust Irishmen to manage their own affairs ? '
Their own affairs ? Yes. But the affairs of classes whom
they want to plunder, of neighbours between whom and them
there exists a deep hereditary antipathy — whether they are to
manage the affairs of these persons is quite another matter.
The fallacy lies in treating Ireland as a single homogeneous
whole. It is not so, and it has never been so. Where is that
common nationality we hear so often talked of ? "What are
the proofs of it ? Is there community of race ? Notorio-asly
the inhabitants of Ireland are amongst the most mixed races
of Europe. Community of language ? Yes, that they have ;
but it is the language of England. Community of religion ?
We all know how- fierce and incurable is the antagonism of
two religions brought face to face. Is there absence of class
differences ? Unhappily they are more rampant in Ireland
than in most countries of the world. ' Our own Parliament '
may be a telling cry, but to be accurate something should be
added. ' Our own Parliament and other people's property '
would more nearly represent what is asked for.
Again, with many persons it has become a habit to talk as
if Ireland under our actual Parliamentary government were
oppressed and ill used. How is it more so than Scotland or
Wales or any other component part of the British Islands ?
With household franchise, and practically with electoral dis
tricts, with a larger share of Parliamentary representation
than she is entitled to, either by population or by wealth,
what single advantage is there that Enghshmen or Scotch-

IBELAND NOT ILL USED 143
men possess that an Irishman does not share ? We are told
that there is too much centrahsation in the local administra
tion. That may be admitted, and it is easily remedied,
although I would just observe in passing that the cause of
that abuse lies, and always has lain, not in any desire of the
Anglo-Irish authorities for excessive power, but in the reluc
tance of Irishmen to trust one another. The peasantry and
the landlords, the Orangemen and the Catholics, live un
happily in relations of mutual distrust, and so you are obliged
to have stipendiary magistrates and other officials to deal
impartially between them ; and so it is in other matters.
AVell, are Irish affairs neglected in Parliament ? So far from
that, we hear hardly of anything else. Are Irish ideas treated
with contempt ? So far from that, we have gone against our
own traditions and ways of thinking, especially in the matter
of the land, rather than leave an Irish grievance unredressed.
It is childish to make a complaint in these days of the penal
laws of the last century, or of disabilities imposed on Catholics,
which expired sixty years ago.
I will call a witness on this part of the case who is above
suspicion — Mr. Gladstone himself. Mr. Gladstone, in a speech
which I quote, said, in 1871, ' I have looked in vain for the
setting forth of any practical scheme of policy which the
Imperial Parliament is not equal to deal with, or which it
refuses to deal with, and which is to be brought about by
Home Eule. . . . You would expect, when it is said that the
Imperial Parliament is to be broken up, that, at the very
least, a case should be made out showing that there were
great subjects of policy, and great demands, necessary for the
welfare of Ireland, which representatives of Ireland had united
to ask, and which the representatives of England, Scotland,
and Wales had united to refuse. There is no such grievance.
There is nothing that Ireland has asked, and which this
country and this Parliament have refused.' And if that were
true fourteen years ago, as I believe it was, surely it is stiU
more so now after the two Land Bills to which I have referred
and a host of minor measures. But Ireland, it is said, is poor

144 HOME BULE AND IBISH NATIONALITY
and wretched. Yes, in comparison with England it is a poor
country, but compare the state of the people now to what it
was forty years ago-^and I speak here from knowledge, for
I knew the south of Ireland in early youth — and I affirm
confidently that no country in Europe has made such rapid
progress as regards the material well-being of the people. In
their houses, in their food, in their dress, the difference is
extraordinary. There is distress enough still, chiefly in the
extreme west, where a very ignorant and helpless population
clings to a barren soil. For that distress the only possible
remedy is emigration, and emigration is exactly the remedy
which Irish patriotism denounces.
But then we are told we ought to give Ireland a Parliament
of its own, not because there are substantial grievances to
remedy, but in deference to the principle of nationality. Now,
I want you to examine without passion or exaggeration the
plan that has been laid before Parliament, and see how far it
meets the demand for nationality. No doubt the bill of last
Session is dead. But though details may be altered, we may
fairly presume that the next bill proceeding fi'om the same
authors will be drawn on the same general lines. Well, what
will it do ? In regard to foreign relations it places Ireland
in a position of absolute dependence, absolute subjection to
England, without even a voice in the Imperial Parliament. It
does the same in regard to colonial, naval, and military matters.
Inasmuch as we believe the Irish, left to themselves, would
wish to endow their Church, we forbid them to do so, and as
we know or suppose that they would immediately tiy to shut
out British trade, we forbid them to alter customs duties
without our leave. Our diplomacy may be carried on in a sense
wholly opposite to Irish wishes ; a campaign in which Irish
troops are employed may be mismanaged ; Ireland may, and
probably wiU, feel strongly disposed to protect her industries ;
but on all these subjects under the bUl of this year Irishmen will
not have a word to say. In all these relations they were, and
are, our equals ; by the bill they are to become our dependants ;
and this is the scheme which is to satisfy the Irish demand

HOME BULE NOT FINAL 145
that Ireland should be made a nation. A nation without an
army, without a navy, without a diplomacy, without power to
establish a Church or to alter a tariff ! And subject, in addi
tion, to a heavy tribute, just and reasonable enough, no doubt,
but surely the most unpopular of all possible inflictions.
To my mind it is preposterous to talk of a plan of this
kind as putting an end to agitation. That is an object for
which we would sacrifice a good deal. But here you will gain
at best a momentary lull. The first meeting of the new Irish
Parliament, limited and controlled on all sides as it is to be,
will be the beginning of a new agitation, more formidable than
the old, because you have left yourselves less power to resist
it. ' But, then,' says somebody, ' are you not laying stress
on detaUs which may be altered or amended ? ' WeU, I do
not see how that can be. The exclusion of Irish Members
from the Imperial Parliament is the very foundation of the
whole scheme. It would be unjust and even absurd that
Irishmen should vote in the internal affairs of England and
Scotland whilst retaining exclusive control over their own.
It is practically impossible to draw a line of distinction between
Imperial and local concerns. That has been admitted, and
even if it were not so, how would it be possible to carry on
business in a House of Commons which is on some questions
to include Irish Members, and on others to shut them out ?
You would have a majority fluctuating from day to day, and
no Minister could be sure of his position for a week together.
If the machine is to work at all, you must confine the Irish
Members to their own Parliament, and if you do not want
separation — if you wish to safeguard Imperial interests, as
Mr. Gladstone very properly desires to do — you must restrict
that local Parliament from dealing with Imperial affairs. But
if any man can suppose that Irishmen, of whom so many have
been ready to throw away their own lives and take those of
others in what they regard as a national cause — that they will
be satisfied with this maimed and mutilated nationality, this
small instalment of what they ask for — I will not say that
VOL. II. I,

146 HOME BULE NOT FINAL
such a man must be blind, but I do say he must be shutting
his eyes very hard.
Oh, but then I am told, ' Why are you to be more Irish
than the Irish themselves ? ' If they express themselves
satisfied with the terms which they have secured, are they not
the best judges ? My answer is : No doubt they would take
these conditions, and be glad to get them, but they will not
take them as a final or permanent settlement. They will
secure what they can, and use it as a means of getting more.
As a matter of tactics, they are quite right ; we should do the
same in their place. I do not accuse them of deceit if they
practise a natural and discreet reticence as to the future. But
even if you suppose the present leaders of Irish opinion to be
satisfied, who are they that they should answer for the Irish
people ? They are at the head of the movement to-day ; they
may be— they probably will be — outbid by younger and more
violent men to-morrow. They are the Girondins of the
movement, and the Jacobins are ready to take then- place.
Mr. Parnell, you say, on behalf of Ireland is satisfied. Yes ;
but who will guarantee how long Ireland will be satisfied with
Mr. Parnell ? He is a Protestant ; he is, I believe, a landlord ;
he is a member of the educated classes ; how long will he
remain leader of a Celtic, Catholic, landlord-hating democracy ?
History in all ages is full of instances of men who have led
popular movements successfully and triumphantly until they
began to think they had gone far enough. Then they have
tried to check their followers instead of cheering them on, and
as surely as they did so, they have been dethroned and
trampled under foot. I do not believe that Mr. Parnell wiU
be an exception.
We are told this is a plan to put an end to Irish agitation.
I say that if it were put forward as a final proposal, with no
hope of getting it materially altered in the future, scarcely
one Irish voice would be raised in its favour. To the Loyalists
— nearly, if not quite, one-third of the whole — it is absolutely
hateful. For Eepealers, Nationalists — caU them what you
will — it does not go far enough, except as a temporary expe-

HOME BULE NOT FINAL 147
dient. You are doing too much for one party and a great
deal too little for the other. You will lose the first, you will
not gain the latter.
Now, I believe that the motive which influences men most
strongly in favour of some such legislation as this is sheer
despair — about the most dangerous feeling by which men can
be influenced when they set about the work of legislation. It
is argued, ' Nothing short of recognising Ireland as a nation
will satisfy Irish feeling.' Well, if there is any force in my
argument, you are not going to recognise Ireland as a nation.
But is it true that we can retain no reasonable hope of recon
ciling Irishmen to the Union ? Why, the great administrative
changes which have altered the face of Irish society have not
had time to operate. The Land Act is not six years old ; the
Land Purchase Scheme (I mean that now in force) has scarcely
come into operation at all. The Church was disestablished less
than twenty years ago. Is it very unreasonable to suppose that
with so many former causes of quarrel removed a different
feeling may grow up ? Why, how long was it before Scotland
accepted union, I do not say cordially, but as a thing not
absolutely intolerable, and which had brought some advantages
for the sacrifices which it involved ? Certainly not till near
the end of the century ; and yet the Scotch started from a far
higher social level, and were not previously embittered against
England. Yet, what Scotchman now dreams of repeal ?
AVhat Scotchman is not proud of the fusion of his political
nationality with that of England ? Why is not a similar
softening of feeling, a similar acceptance of political necessity,
possible to the Irish also ? I see only two alternatives — either
they are reconcilable, and then we should not give up the
attempt to reconcile them to union ; or they are inspired, as
some of them undoubtedly are, by a blind, passionate hatred
to England, and in that case, is it wise to put into their hands
the means of gratifying that amiable passion ?
There is another matter which the electors will have
seriously to" consider. If the Irish people are to manage their
own internal affairs, what are we to say about the land-
L 2

148 THE LAND QUESTION
owners ? Eecollect that their position is peculiar. They are
attached to the English connection, and because they are so
attached, and because most of them are Protestants, they are
cordially hated by the masses who will control the Irish
Parliament. Many of them bought land under the En
cumbered Estates Act thirty years ago, encouraged to do so
by the English legislation of the time, and the savings of
hundreds of laborious English lives are invested in Irish
acres. When it was alleged that landlords asked rents higher
than the tenantry could be fairly expected to pay, the Enghsh
Parliament interfered, checked eviction, reduced these rents,
and fixed them on a scale which was abundantly favourable
to the tenant. Now there is a fresh outcry, and it is not con
cealed, it is not disguised that so soon as the Irish people are
their own masters in that respect the land-owners wUl be
stripped of the greater part of then- property. I need not
labour that point or waste your time in trying to prove it,
because it is admitted by the Government themselves. The
certainty of this spoliation is the only plea which could be put
forward for that gigantic operation of buying them out which
was contemplated in the late Session, and which could not
have involved a less cost than 100 or 150 millions to be lent
on the worst possible security. That Land Purchase scheme
was, as we all know, very unfavourably received, and evidently
had no chance of passing.
Now, I want to know whether it wiU be revived and
pressed through or not. I do not believe it will. I do not
believe that Parliament will accept it. But in that case what
is our position — the position of the English Legislatm-e — in
regard to these proprietors ? We know that if we are to hand
them over to the Irish Parliament they will be robbed. We
know that their rights are as clear and unquestionable as
those of the English fund-holder, and that every abuse which
may have attended their former tenure is removed. We — at
least, the Government, which, if this Irish legislation is pro
ceeded with, will still be in power — have recognised the duty
of buying them out at a fair price in preference to h^^nding

THE LAND QUESTION 149
them over to their enemies. But to do our plain duty to
them is expensive and unpopular, and therefore, I am afraid,
it is only too likely that we are going to connive at open,
barefaced, undisguised spoliation of those who have put their
savings in Irish land relying on England's good faith and
English honour. I will not mince my words in speaking of
that proposal. I say it is not merely cowardly, it is dis
honest, and until I see it I will not believe that a man like
Lord Spencer, whom we all respect, and who is perfectly
acquainted with the state of the case, will make himself a
party to such a very shady transaction. I do not, of course,
mean that his colleagues would be less scrupulous, but pro
bably they do not realise the state of things as clearly as
Lord Spencer, from his official experience, does and must do.
Mr. Morley — I say it to his honour — holds fast to the Pur
chase Bill as a necessary accompaniment of Home Eule. So,
at least, I read his speech. He does not wish to be responsible
for the policy of plunder. But are not these two Ministers
bound to consider the probability of Parliament rejecting the
Purchase Scheme ? And will it be a sufficient defence for
them to tell the land-owners, ' We are very sorry ; we meant
to save you, but you see in the actual state of opinion we can
do nothing more ' ? But they do not all go even that length.
There is my friend Mr. Childers, who naturally enough, as an
old Chancellor of the Exchequer, looks at the financial side of
the question, and he will have nothing more to do with a
Purchase Bill, though he concurred in bringing in one three
months ago. What a united Cabinet ! What a happy
prospect for the future !
It has been suggested, I know, that some arrangement
might be eome to with the Irish leaders that would make
Irish land secure without the need of purchase. I wish I
could think that possible, but I do not. You cannot add to
the many disabilities of the proposed Irish Parliament, or
refuse to allow them to deal with the laws concerning land.
You cannot use the Lord Lieutenant's veto permanently year
after year as a protection against unjust legislation ; and even

150 ULSTEB
if a Dublin Parliament left the laws as they are (which is not
likely), yet when every judge, every magistrate, and every
policeman is selected from the popular party — that is, from
the anti-rent party — I would not give much for the land
owner's chance of being able to enforce his legal claim,
whatever the law might be.
But behind that question of the land there is another far
graver and more dangerous. What are we going to do with
Ulster ? There is no doubt about the feeling of Ulstermen.
If they make good their words and resist by force the attempt
to impose upon them an authority to which they have never
given consent, can you conceive a more hateful, a more dis
creditable position for the English Government than that of
having to use force to drive away from themselves — to drive
out of the English Constitution — men who only want to
remain as they are under the law of the British Parliament,
and not to be placed in the power of others whom they regard
as hereditary enemies ? It is answered, ' They have reaUy
nothing to fear. Their mistrust of the Catholics is unreason
able.' lam not so sure of that. But grant that the fact were so,
does it lie in the mouths of the Home Eulers to hold that
language ? They are quite prepared to yield to the dishke
which the majority of the Irish feel for being under the
British Parliament, however causeless that dislike may be.
Why is the same indulgence not to be shown to the feelmgs
of Ulstermen, though they may have the misfortune of being
Protestants and of being loyal subjects ? But look at it
another way. When we plead for maintaining the Union,
one of the arguments most commonly employed against us is
the impossibility of carrying on the busmess of the House of
Commons, which contains ninety irreconcilable members out
of 670 — nearly one-seventh of the whole. What legislative
body, it is asked, can keep order under such circumstances ?
But in the new Irish Parliament, if it is fairly composed,
which I suppose is intended, one-fourth of its members, m all
probability, will be irreconcilable. Either our friends, the
English Home Eulers, are greatly exaggerating the danger

ULSTEB 151
from obstruction at Westminster, or they think — possibly
they do — that obstruction in Dublin does not matter. It is
for them to choose which explanation they prefer. But
meanwhile this, at least, is clear — without Ulster the new
Parliament will be mutilated and incomplete ; including
Ulster it will contain a large proportion of members who will
have no wish except to impede its operation and to make it
ridiculous in the eyes of the world. We got shame and dis
credit enough by abandoning the American loyalists a hundred
years ago, at the close of the American War. But in that
ca»e we had the excuse of necessity. No such excuse can
be pleaded now, and even if, which I believe to be impossible,
the Ulstermen were to accept the situation made for them,
and consented to fraternise with the South, depend upon
it that you would in that event have raised a new crop
of enemies to England, and that these men and their
descendants for generations would hate you with a hatred
as bitter, more deserved, and tenfold more dangerous than
that of the Celt.
Neither my voice nor your patience will suffice for the
whole of this great argument, else I should have liked to say
a word as to the precedents which have been drawn from
other countries in favour of this dual scheme. Two of them
may be put out of court at once. There is absolutely no resem
blance between the system of the United States, or that under
which Canada is governed, and the plan proposed for Ireland.
The only parallel that I know of is that of Austria and
Hungary. But that Austro-Hungarian Constitution is only
twenty years old. It was adopted on compulsion rather than
from choice, as the only means of keeping a vast, ill-compacted
Empire from falling to pieces after a disastrous war. To say
that it has always worked smoothly is a delusion, but the
main and material difference is this, that in Austria and in
Hungary the power of the Crown is enormous, the power of
the two Legislatures in practice comparatively small. The
Executive depends on the Emperor, and not on Parliamentary
majorities. Under these circumstances, if the two Parlia-

152 ULSTEB
ments pull different ways, it is an inconvenience rather than
a danger. I need not tell you that that is not the Constitu
tion under which we live, and that here the forces which
resist disunion would be infinitely weaker than they are in
Austria. I will go no further into this branch of the subject,
not from want of material, but from want of time.
I have now given you — I hope without unfairness, cer
tainly without intentional exaggeration — my reasons for
objecting to this policy of repeal. I object to it because I
beheve it will be not the end but the beginning of a new stage
in that agitation which we want to abate. I object to it
because it imposes upon us the alternative, either of an
enormous payment from the English Treasury or of a cruel
and cowardly robbery of the property of one particular class.
I object to it because we have no right to put one-third of the
population of Ireland — and that the only portion which is
really friendly to us — under a regimen which they dread and
detest. Lastly, I object to it because I believe it wUl so
weaken our hold upon Ireland that in the end — not, of course,
at once, but after a few agitated and stormy years — we shaU
be under the necessity of undoing what we have done, and we
shall have before us only the dismal choice between separation
and reconquest. I end as I began. The issue is the greatest
that any Englishman now living has had to try. On the
decision of the next three weeks the future of Ireland, and to
a great extent that of England, depends.
That decision once given is final and irrevocable. We can
none of us foretell, still less can we control it, but we can
each of us do our own duty by voice or vote, and however
wire-pullers may intrigue, and however demagogues may
declaim, I will not and cannot believe that it wiU be a decision
unworthy of the former character and fatal to the future of
our still United Kingdom.

158

LXIII
THE LIBEBAL UNIONISTS— THE IBISH LAND
QUESTION— BEMEDIAL MEASUBES
London : Decembee 7, 1886
I HAVE great pleasure in returning thanks on behalf of the
House of Lords. We who belong to that House have been
kept by circumstances very much out of the Irish dispute.
We could not discuss a bill which was before the House of
Commons, and, as you know, Mr. Gladstone's bill never
reached our House. If it had, I do not think we should have
felt much hesitation about disposing of it, and we should have
referred it to the constituencies as the only possible judges in
such a quarrel. But I am glad that we were not called upon
to do our duty in that way, because the issue would have been
complicated by the mere fact of a difference between the
Houses, and considerations would have been introduced which
had nothing to do with the merits of the case. As matters
are, we stand in a different position ; the country has given
its verdict, and our Home Eule friends wUl not find that they
have much power of influencing the Irish policy of the present
Parliament. Unless some extraordinary blunder is committed
by the Government, we have a respite of three or four years
in which to study and deal with this Irish difficulty. Now,
while that question is pending it seems to me absolutely
essential that we should keep up our separate organisation.
We occupy a position which is peculiar, which may become
difficult, but which I think we can maintain, and which it is
very important that we should maintain. I will not say that
we hold the balance of parties in the Commons — though that

154 THE LIBEBAL UNIONISTS
is not far from the truth — but at any rate we have put an
end to the favourite boast of Mr. Parnell's supporters that
the balance of parties is in his hands. We do not stand on a
Conservative platform ; if we did, we should not have been
justified in refusing to coalesce with the gentlemen now in
office. We are Liberals minus Home Eule ; and let me say in
passing that we oppose Home Eule, not as a Liberal measure
which we consider rash and dangerous, but as a measure
essentially and in its nature reactionary, and calculated to
discredit the Liberal cause. Well, no doubt Home Eule is the
question of the moment, and while it remains so we must
accept the fact that the Liberal party is split in two. It is
useless to try to disguise that fact, and I am afraid the
breach is one which will take some time in healing.
We are often told that in a little while we shall cease to
exist as an organised body, and merge in one or other of the
great political parties. That seems to me a wild and ground
less prophecy. Why, to whom should we go ? I do not see
either my noble friend our Chairman, or my right hon. friend,
whose absence we all regret, Mr. Chamberlain, nor yet Sir
George Trevelyan, whose gallant fight against anarchy and
sedition we all remember, joining the Conservative party,
however they and we may be willing to see that the present
Government has fair play. Nor is it likely, on the other hand,
that men who have sacrificed their immediate political pro
spects — sacrificed them, it may be, for years to come — and
who have pledged themselves to a certain line of policy in the
face of all the world, will recant their utterances and swallow
their principles for the sake of that most worthless of aU
supposed prizes — the possession of office without power to
give effect to their own views. No, we shall not join the
Conservatives, though under some circumstances we may
support them, and assuredly we shall not turn Home Eulers.
But then, it is said, the constituencies may snuff us out.
Well, they may, but I do not believe they will, and for this
reason. Every debate, every speech, every month that passes
is a gain to our cause. There are hundreds of thousands of

THE LAND QUESTION 155
voters who at the last election were taken by surprise. The sub
ject was new to them ; they had not considered it ; and it is
no wonder that they were carried away by the great name
and influence of Mr. Gladstone. When they come to vote
again they will know what they are voting about ; and I do
not think the result will be favourable to Mr. Parnell and his
friends. Now, I have said that we should gain by the
increased knowledge which experience brings ; and we are
getting that experience now. What is this anti-rent agitation
that we see going on ? Just bear in mind the circumstances.
Only five years ago the Irish peasantry, or rather farmers,
cried out for fixity of tenure and judicially settled rents. It
was against our ideas ; but they got what they asked for.
Many people complained that the scale of rents fixed was
unduly favourable to the tenants ; nobody, as far as I know,
complained that it was unduly favourable to the landlords.
But because a fall in prices has taken place, which was
expected, and to a large extent allowed for, the Irish agitators,
and I am afraid among them a good many of the Irish priests,
are crying out against the monstrous hardship of holding the
tenantry to terms which they themselves were asking for,
clamouring for, only six or seven years ago. Now, just
consider what an absence of the most elementary notions of
justice that state of things shows. Two parties differ on a
question of price. One of them asks for arbitration and gets
it ; the decision of the arbitrator which satisfies him at the
moment turns out less favourable than he expected ; instantly
he cries out, ' Oh, your ruling goes for nothing ; we must
break the judicial contract and make a new one.' Are people
who reason in that way to be trusted with the property of
other men, and with absolute power over a minority whom
they detest, distrust, and fear ?
There is another matter for the public to consider. We
are often told, 'If you had agreed to the Home Eule Bill
nothing would have been heard of this anti-rent campaign.'
Well, does anybody in his senses believe that ? Part of the
scheme of last year was that Irish rents should be paid to the

166 THE LAND QUESTION
State — to the English Treasury. Would there not have been
just as much trouble in recovering these rents for the State as
there is in enforcing payment to the landlords ? Or if the
plan of land purchase had been dropped, and the land-owners
been left to make their own terms with an Irish Executive
and an Irish Legislature, is there any doubt but that we
should have seen them unscrupulously plundered under our
eyes and as a consequence of our act ? The more I reflect on
the situation the clearer it becomes to me as to Mr. Gladstone
that it is the land question quite as much as the question of
nationality that is at the bottom of the present trouble ; and
that if we wish to do any good, our first care ought to be to
help the Government in dealing with that. The first step to
that eiid is to assert the supremacy of the law. I do not hold
that to be as difficult as many friends of mine do. Irish
agitators are dangerous people to run away from ; they are
not dangerous people to resist. I think that if all Irish
officials from policemen upwards are only relieved from the
fear of being handed over in a few months or years to a
Nationalist Government, you will not find this anti-rent move
ment as dangerous as it looks from a distance. Of course, I
do not mean that allowance should not be made for real
distress, for real inability to pay ; but the great majority of
cases where payment is resisted do not come under that
description. And when a well-to-do farmer contends that it
is unfair to hold him to a bargain made five years ago, it is a
reasonable answer to say, ' Why did you press for fixity of
rents if you were not prepared to take the chances of good or
bad times ? '
We still have to consider what remedial measm-es are
possible. I will not attempt to mislead you. I do not
deceive myself by any sanguine expectation that we can fully
satisfy Irish demands by anything which we do. As far as I
can make it out, the real wishes of the Irish masses or of those
who lead them are three— (1) the land for nothing, or next to
nothing ; (2) protection to Irish industries against Enghsh or
foreign competition ; and (3) the power and predominance, in

BEMEDIAL MEASUBES 157
some form or another, of the Catholic hierarchy. Now, the
first of those results cannot be obtained without robbery ; the
second would be a reversal of all our commercial policies and
an injury to our own people ; the third is equally opposed to
the ideas of Liberalism and to the feelings — say, if you will,
the prejudices — of the English people. The truth is that if
Ireland is to be governed by Irish ideas, as the phrase is, no
half measure, like that of last year, will be of the slightest
permanent value. We have only two alternatives before us —
either to give Ireland at least as much of independence as
Canada or Australia enjoy — which, with regard to our own
safety (to say nothing else), we cannot ; or firmly and steadily
to maintain the Union, removing such causes of complaint as
we can deal with, and trusting to time to do the rest. I own
I have seen with some surprise the tolerance, not to call it
encouragement, which this Irish agitation against law and
property is receiving from persons in England who ought to
know better. Are they quite sure that the complaint may not
be catching ? Are they quite sure that the example may not
be followed nearer home ? The teaching of the Irish agitators
is open, undisguised Socialism — patriotism often only the pre
text, plunder generally the object. Is it for men like great
English land-owners, is it for capitalists and large employers
of labour, to give even a silent sanction to teaching of that
kind ? I think they are cutting a rod for their own backs,
and that they had better be careful whUe it is yet time. In
conclusion I say only this — let us firmly hold our own ground ;
let us avoid all bitterness in dealing with former colleagues
and allies ; let us keep the door open for reconciliation ; but
let us hold out no hope that such reconciliation can take place
on the basis of any arrangement, of any new Constitution,
that wiU loosen the existing ties between England and Ireland.
If we keep steadUy on these lines, we may not be going the
right way to get into office, if anyone cares for it, but we
shall accomplish something worthier and better— we shall
have the respect of aU honest men, and the consciousness that
we have done well fcJr our country.

158

LXIV
THE BLIND— THEIB TBAINING AND EDUCATION
Peeston: Apeil 26, 1887
Of all ways in which the Jubilee can be celebrated there can
be none better, none more appropriate, than the enlarging or
endowing of an institution whose object is to help the helpless,
to relieve those who are struggling under grievous disabihties,
and to utilise human talents and capacities which, left to
themselves, might probably be useless both to society and to
their possessors. I need not waste time in explaining what
are the claims of the blind to assistance. Those claims are
not likely to be disregarded. The danger, as it seems to me,
is much greater that they should be dealt with in a blundering
and mischievous fashion than that they should be treated with
indifference or neglect. But there is one circumstance in
connection with any institution for the aid of the blind that
may be worth notice. It is absolutely free from risk of a kind
which attends most charities. It is an old commonplace, but
not the less important to bear in mind, that charity is very
apt to create the distress it professes to relieve. As somebody
said long ago, if you pay men for digging they will dig ; if you
pay men for begging they will beg. If we were greatly to relax
the system on which Poor Laws, for instance, are administered,
we should soon double the number of paupers. But you may
be quite sure of this, that whatever you do for the blind — if
every individual among them were lodged, fed, and clothed for
nothing — though I do not say that would be a very judicious
form of charity — yet you would not thereby have increased
the numbers of the blind by one. Nature alone determines

THE BLIND 159
how many they shall be, and I am not aware that science has
so far thrown any light on the causes of congenital blindness.
Many of you, I dare say, will be surprised to learn what the
number of the blind population in England is. By the census
of 1881 it amounted to 22,800 persons, or one in 1,138 of the
total population. But there is one thing satisfactory about
these figures — it is, that the proportion is decreasing. In
1861, there was one blind person to every 1,037 ; in 1871, one
to every 1,052 ; in 1881, as I have said, one to every 1,138.'
This change for the better is due — as most improvements in
the lot of the human race are due — to science. The great
majority of cases of blindness in infancy, I am told, are not
congenital — that is, they do not date from birth. They are
due to disease, often caused or aggravated by neglect, and I
hope we may look forward to a much more rapid diminution
of such cases in the future, as I have shown you has taken
place in the last thirty years. But we live in the present, and
it is with the present that we have to deal ; and whatever faults
we may have, neglect of the blind has not been one. There
are at this moment upwards of fifty institutions in the British
Islands for their care and assistance — I may, perhaps, be
understating my case, I dare say there are others of which I
have not heard, but I speak here of what I know — nor are
there any signs that the interest felt in them is diminishing.
On the contrary, there is at this moment a Commission sitting
to inquire into their needs, and to consider how the relief
afforded to them can be made more effective. Nor does Eng
land stand alone in this matter. On the Continent and in the
United States similar work is being done, and a constant
comparison of results obtained goes on between various
countries. We cannot make blindness otherwise than a heavy and
terrible privation. We cannot — it is useless to pretend it —
put the blind on a level, generally speaking, as to either use
fulness or enjoyment of life, with the seeing. But we can do
much to lessen their disabilities and to lighten their darkness
' By the Census of 1891 the proportion had further decreased to one per 1,236.

160 THE BLIND
— how much, scarcely any one knows except the few who have
given a close and practical attention to the subject. There
are few chapters of private biography more interesting than
those which deal with the lives of the illustrious blind. For
all human life is, or ought to be, a struggle. On that con
dition alone does it possess interest for other human beings,
and the triumph of energy over difficulties has seldom been
more signally illustrated than in the records of sightless men
who have successfully held their place in the great competition
of life under the heaviest of merely physical privations. The
instances are many, and to some of you, at least, they are
familiar. Take, as an example, Saunderson, the friend of
Newton, and one of the first mathematicians of his time — a
man who could calculate the movements of planets which he
had never seen, through a sky whose very appearance must
have been to him unimaginable. Take the still more extra
ordinary case of Huber, the Geneva naturalist, whose observa
tions and experiments on bees have still, I believe, a scientific
value. Yet those observations must have been made by the
use of other eyes than his own, for he was blind, if not from
birth, at least from childhood. Take a less distinguished but
still notable person, Metcalfe, of Knaresborough, who laid out
many of the roads in Derbyshire a century ago. He was an
engineer, who is reported on admitted authority to have acted
as a guide in that mountainous country. His favourite
amusement was hunting, and he once rode a race and won it,
and also served as a bugler in the campaign which ended at
CuUoden. This man was blind from a child. And coming to
our own time, who does not remember, and who does not
respect, the late Mr. Fawcett ? Of all men in the world, a
debater in Parliament most wants to see the people he is
talking to, to read their faces, to understand their mood. Yet
no one who ever heard Mr. Fawcett will deny that he was not
merely an able lecturer on political topics, but, what is quite
a different thing, an effective and powerful debater. WeU,
men such as I have described have a use and value beyond
the actual result of their work. They show what can be done ;

THEIB TBAINING AND EDUCATION 161
they hold out an example and an encouragement to others
similarly situated ; and imagination plays so large a part in
all our lives, however little imaginative we may think our
selves, that the anticipation of success or the anticipation of
failure will in either case go far to produce the expected
result. In every school, in every workshop, in every institution
intended for the aid of the blind there should be brought under
their notice the record of what men similarly afflicted have
accomplished. They need a stimulus of this kind, for when
they mix with persons who can see they are exposed, especially
as chUdren, to various influences which are not to their
advantage. Sometimes — I hope very rarely — they are treated with
neglect or contempt ; more commonly they are made the
objects of an injudicious pity. They are the ' poor blind.'
Little or nothing is expected of them ; they have a claim on
everybody's services, and need give none in return. Now that
is exactly the kind of sympathy which they ought not to have.
The object should be to make them lose as far as possible the
sense of an isolated and peculiar existence, to take them out
of themselves and enable them to mix in the great stream of
life which is flowing round them. How is that to be done ?
In the first place, they must be enabled by mechanical processes
which are familiar enough to read. Of course they can read
only books printed in a peculiar type cognisable by the touch ;
but books of that kind are happily already many, and the
number is increasing. In the next place, and that is even
more important, they must be trained to earn their living. I
am not speaking obviously of those who are well off, though I
do not know that it does anybody harm to have learnt some
mechanical occupation. The consciousness of utility and the
sense of self-respect can never be thoroughly developed in those
who are living on charity, however little it may be their own
fault that they are so situated. And, lastly, as I conceive, it
is very desirable that they should be brought together. They
require skilled and special teaching. Their peculiar require
ments must be studied, and what is of great importance in a
VOL. II. M

162 THE BLIND
school for the blind, and there alone, they are all on a level.
They are helped, but they are not singled out as objects of
compassion. They are accustomed to the idea that to a large
extent they must and can help themselves. It is not for me
in these brief remarks to indicate in detail what is the best
method to be employed in their training. But of one thing I
am sure, because all authorities on the subject agree upon
it — there can be no greater mistake than to teach them as
a general rule to rely on music as a means of support. I
am not speaking of high or exceptional talent — that con
stitutes a case apart — but only of ordinary skill in this
art. The musical profession is overstocked, and though
musical accomplishments have their value as adding pleasm-e
to life, they are not a very sure way of earning a living. The
question whether blind men as a rule are capable — that is, of
course, after proper training — of earning their own living is
one on which experts differ. A minority contend that they
are, or ought to be ; the greater number hold only that
they can go a long way towards it, and argue quite justly that
it is one thing to support a man in idleness, and quite another
to supplement his earnings by gift or pension when he has
done aU in his power to maintain himself. My opinion is
worth nothing on such a point ; it is enough for me, and I
think it will be enough for you, to rest in this conclusion —
that an incomplete success is better than none, and that the
experience of life teaches most of us to be content in the end
with much less than we aimed at when we began.
It is far more important to consider what the public and what
the State can do for the 20,000 blmd persons. I believe a great
deal may be accomplished by simple means. Very few people
would grudge some extra help, whether from rates or taxes, or
both, towards the teaching of the blind. It is obvious that a
blind pupU causes more labour to the teacher than another, and
is likely to yield him less return on the principle of payment
by results. I do not see why that difference should not be
recognised, and an extra premium given for every such pupU
in one shape or another. We want workshops for the blind

THEIB TBAINING AND EDUCATION 163
in every large town, both for instruction and adult employ
ment. We want Government inspection for blind schools and
the most intelligent of the blind pupils employed in them, but
always as a rule under the supervision of teachers who can
see. If it is objected that these things will cost money, my
answer is, that I saw a statement at a recent Conference to
the effect that 40,000L a year is paid out of the rates to
maintain healthy adults among the blind at the public expense.
I have not verified those figures ; I give them as they reach
me ; but if they represent anything like the truth, the cost of
making the blind poor self-helping, or nearly so, can hardly
be as great as that of keeping them paupers. But I do not
treat it, and I do not ask you to treat it, as a matter of money.
It is really a great deal more. A blind man untrained must
be nearly useless, and a useless life can seldom be a harmless
life. We can only remain healthy in mind or body by action,
and it must be action directed to some rational purpose. The
ideal condition in which every man shall have his work to do,
and shall do it, is very far off, but we may approach nearer
and nearer to what we cannot reach, and it is a great step in
that direction to develop the faculties and to utilise the powers
of a class numerous enough to form the population of a con
siderable town, helpless enough to call out sympathy and pity
from all their neighbours, and for the most part intelligent
and energetic enough to profit by training if once they are put
in the right way, and encouraged not to believe that their in-
flrmities are an insuperable bar to success.

M 2

164

LXV
PABLIAMENTABY PBOGEDUBE—THE DEMANDS OF
IBELAND— THE IBISH CBIMINAL LAW AMEND
MENT BILL— THE LIBEBAL PABTY
Liveepool : June 8, 1887
I HAVE been asked to take the chair at this meeting, and
to say a few words on the Irish question, which, whatever else
it may have done, has created a Liberal Unionist party. For
eighteen months England has been talking and thinking of
nothing else. The newspapers have overflowed with speeches
upon it. England and Scotland have been almost ignored ;
parties have been broken up, and new and strange, though
temporary, combinations have been formed, and we seem not
much nearer to a solution than we were a year ago. There
are many people who will say that this is not an unmixed evil.
Many good Conservatives no doubt think that the best service
that Ireland can render to England is that of saving her from
the dangers of over-legislation ; and Mmisters, although they
may be kept up later at night than is agreeable, and although
they may have to listen to many speeches which are neither
useful nor pleasant, have this consolation — that they are not
expected to bring in bills, and that practicaUy they are almost
exempt from criticism upon their official proceedings. It is a
serious state of things, but we may get out of it. No doubt
there is a great deal of useful legislative work that might
be taken in hand, but there is nothing specially urgent in
13oint of time, and attempts to settle difficult questions
such as that of local administration or the government of
London at a time when all the world is thinking of some
thing else, are generally unsuccessful, because there are

PABLIAMENTABY PBOCEDUBE 165
always obstacles in the way, and you have to get up steam
in order to push through those obstacles. If you cannot
do that you faU, and then the question, whatever it may
be, is left in a worse position for settlement than it was
before. I think, therefore, we can afford to be patient,
and that the ingenious scheme of forcing us to do what
the Irish Members want, by making it impossible for us to
do anything else, is not likely to be successful in practice.
It is also to my mind a good thing that we have been
compelled, and shall be compelled yet further, to revise our
system of Parliamentary debate. We should have to do
that anyhow, even apart from organised obstruction.
Forty years ago, when I first knew the House of
Commons, I doubt if more than 200 Members, or, say
roughly, at the utmost one-third of the House, took any
part in debate. Now it is quite the exception if among
the 670 Members you find one silent Member. That alone
would have forced us to reconsider our procedure. We have
got to learn, and to make everybody learn, that no man has
the right to occupy the time of Parliament by saying over
and over again what has been said a hundred times before,
even if he does it with no worse intention than that of
making his constituents think what a great man he is. I
am not impressed by the outcry against silencing the
minority. In this country you cannot silence anybody.
The press and the platform fix your attention, and it is
outside Parliament that in the main opinion is formed. What
we have to do is only to put that opinion into the form
which it must assume when it is to be embodied into
action. I think, then, that we may be obliged to our Irish
friends for putting before us the problem of dealing with the
subject in such a manner that we must solve it. There is
nothing unreasonable in closing a debate when it is clear that
there is nothing new or important to add to what has already
been said ; and the case is infinitely stronger when we are
dealing, not merely with vanity or loquacity on the part of
individuals, but with systematic and intentional waste of

166 PABLIAMENTABY PBOCEDUBE
time. To attempt to obstruct for obstruction's sake, where it
could be proved, is an offence against Parliament, and it may
fairly be treated as such.
I say nothing here of the discreditable scenes which I am
afraid are lowering the House of Commons in the pubhc
esteem. They are simply a disgrace to Parliament and the
nation. You cannot wholly stop them. No action taken by
any Speaker, however energetic, wiU force men to express
themselves like gentlemen, if it is not their nature so to do.
Something must be allowed for national habits and the
normal language of Celtic controversy ; but personal insults
are not to be tolerated, and I think that the House collectively
will have before long to say to some members of it, ' If you
do not understand what decency means, we do, and we intend
to enforce it.'
Well, our Irish friends have made up their minds that
they will beat us by mere delay and waste of time. I think
in that matter they are too sanguine. The game may be a
good one, but two can play at it. Obstruction is hard work to
the obstructors, the more so as they are fewer in number than
those whom they are obstructing. It is on both sides a trial
of patience, and patience, as far as I have yet heard, is not
one of the strong points of Celtic character. We must not
forget that when this Criminal Procedure Amendment BUl —
that is its name — is once passed, in whatever shape it may
finally pass, their chief weapon of offence is gone. We cannot
well refuse to hear them, even at what we may consider an
excessive and unreasonable length of time, on a question
which touches them and their constituents so nearly. But we
are not bound to show equal forbearance when they deal in
the same manner with subjects which concern them no more
than they do all other Members. Let us pass this bill. Let
us settle the procedure of Parliament, and in another year,
though obstruction may, and probably will, still be a nuisance,
it will no longer be a serious impediment. But I go further,
and I teU you this, that the notion that by passing any such
measure as Enghsh Home Eulers now propose, you wiU settle

THE DEMANDS OF IBELAND 167
the Irish question, is on the face of it a delusion, which no
reasonable man can fall into unless he wilfully shuts his eyes.
What is the Irish demand ? We all . know — nationality.
And what does nationality mea,n ? I will admit at once that
it does not mean formal separation from the British Crown.
That may be the wish of Irish- Americans, but it is not the
object, I believe, of any important party in Ireland. The Irish
would be content to remain nominally subject to the Queen,
but upon this condition, that they should deal with all merely
Irish subjects as freely as Canada and Australia deal with
theirs. They would claim liberty to arrange their own tariff,
which would, of course, be a Protectionist one ; to clear out
the land-owners on the merest pretence of compensation ; to
establish a Catholic ascendency which Ulster would never
endure ; and to have the absolute control of Irish affairs
through an Irish Executive. The Queen would be guided
by Irish advisers, and, as our system renders it necessary that
the Crown should act under Ministerial advice, that is, in
effect, equivalent to the separation of the country.
Now that, I believe, stated without exaggeration, is what
the Irish want. That is what they would rest satisfied with,
at least for a time. But observe that is not what any
English statesman has proposed. That demand goes im
measurably further than the bill of last year. And I do
not suppose that any successor of Mr. Gladstone will endea
vour to go further than he did ; in fact, the talk we hear now
is all in the opposite sense. The proposals of 1886, as we are
now told, are to be watered down. Irish Members are still to
sit in the Imperial Parliament. The supremacy of the Im
perial Parliament is to be recognised. There is to be an Irish
Parliament, but it is to be confined to strictly local and sub
ordinate functions : in fact, in Ireland they call it a big
Vestry, and nothing more. That is the language of English
Home Eulers at the present moment. Now, let us see what
it means and what it comes to. Irish Members are to sit in
the Imperial Parliament. Are they to vote on purely English
and Scotch affairs ? If they are, we have this absurdity, that

168 THE DEMANDS OF IBELAND
they are to make laws for us by which we are to be bound,
and that we are not to make laws for them. That is so
utterly preposterous that I cannot believe that it will ever be
seriously proposed. But it is said that there is another
alternative. They may come over to vote on Imperial
questions, but on those only. Well, in the first place, it
would not be easy — I doubt whether it would be possible —
to distinguish between the two. I admit that you can draw a
distinction, but look what an utterly chaotic condition of
things that arrangement would produce. You would never
know who had got a majority. On English and Scotch ques
tions the majority might be one way ; on Imperial questions
the Irish Members would come in and turn the balance the
other way. What government would be possible on such
terms ? No, you may depend upon it that these amiable
attempts to soften down the Home Eule scheme of last year
so as to suit English tastes will not succeed. There are only
three possible alternatives — separation, union in the main as
we have it, or the same independence as the self-governing
Colonies. Now, the first alternative, that of separation, is
not worth discussing. It is not a matter of practical pohtics.
Honour, interest, safety, make it impossible. The other two
policies are both practicable, but all between the two is only
delusion and deception. You cannot have one country
governed by two Parliaments. Start an Irish Parliament,
surround it by whatever restrictions and limitations you
please, and in a few years you will either have to suppress it
altogether or declare it independent and supreme. That is
the one point in all this confused controversy in which I for
one feel absolutely certain that I am a Unionist. I may be
asked. If the Irish want to be treated as a Colony-, why should
they not ? My answer in the first place is that it is a matter
which concerns us as well as them. Three millions have no
natural claim that I know of to override 34,000,000. In the
next place, I very much doubt whether they have realised in
their own mind what it is they are asking for. They are our
equals now. Under their own plan in the only way in which

THE DEMANDS OF IBELAND 169
it could possibly be worked they would be our dependants and
our subordinates. Federal union is possible where many com
munities not of very unequal strength are concerned ; but
federal union between one powerful state and one much
weaker means virtually the servitude of the weaker one of
the two. As for those ingenious gentlemen who have plans
for a federated Empire to govern by central councils, and
who ask why Ireland might not, like the Colonies, be a
province, it is enough to say, ' Wait till you have got your
scheme in working order ; ' and I should say they will have
some trouble to do that. It is a grand and attractive idea,
and I do not wonder it should have laid hold of the popular
imagination : but in the Colonies it is not seriously discussed,
and ninety-nine colonists out of a hundred will tell you that,
as applied to the present state of things, it is fantastic and
impracticable. Well, then, what is the actual state of the case ? It is
not satisfactory ; that we all admit. Eesist the Irish demand,
and you have the existing agitation to fight. Concede it, and
you will be confronted with a new agitation to-morrow. We
must make up our minds to trouble in any event. But there
are some indications, I think, of a better time coming. We
must not shrink from some sacrifices in order to settle the
Irish land question. That more than anything else is at the
root of the evil. The Land Act of 1881 was probably a wise
measure under the circumstances of the time. It was revo
lutionary if you please, but it was applied to a state of things
in which any remedy of a milder kind would have been use
less. It has succeeded over a large part of Ireland. It has
failed chiefly in those districts where a crowded population
with little employment hold on desperately to a wretched
soil. In those districts there would probably be as much
distress as there is now if landlords and rents were unknown.
You have there a soil on which no tenants could thrive, and
I am afraid you have, for the most part, also there tenants
who would not thrive on any soil. You cannot do anything,
or very little, for the people in these parts except to encourage

170 THE IBISH CBIMINAL LAW AMENDMENT BILL
them to move away. In the West of Ireland what we want
is to help and encourage the tenants to buy their farms.
That cannot be done in a day or in a year, but in a genera
tion it may be done, and with a population living on their
own land, with increased power of local self-government,
which nobody wants to refuse, and with diminished numbers
— at least in the West — I see no reason why Ireland should
not in time become reconciled, as Scotland was reconciled
long ago. Past history is quickly forgotten, and we hardly
realise how long and how deeply the Scotch Union was
detested by the ancestors — and not the very remote ances
tors — of men who to-day would maintain it at the risk of
their lives. If all these things fail, the next generation will
have before them the same difficulty that now exists, and
possibly a new solution may have to be tried. But that is
an ' if,' and I think it would be cowardly, it would be suicidal,
to yield to the counsels of despair and throw up the cards
before the game is played out.
Now, I suppose you will expect me to say a few words
about that bill which is absorbing the whole time of the House
of Commons.' To me the most remarkable thing about it is
that it shows the extraordinary power which phrases and
nicknames exercise over the English mind. It is caUed a
Coercion Bill, and that is enough. Nobody asks whether it is
intended to coerce criminals or innocent men. It is a good
deal less stringent on the whole than the bill of 1882, for
which most of the opponents of the present bill voted. The
principal object of it is one which I should have thought
English people would approve — namely, to take away from
criminals the absolute impunity which they now enjoy in the
case of certain offences when they are brought to trial before
juries which notoriously dare not or will not convict. Nor
should I have expected that we would forget this certain fact,
that for every man whom the bill, if it be passed, will subject
' ' A Bill to make better Provision for the Prevention and Punishment of
Crime in Ireland.' Introduced into the House of Commons by Mr. Balfour,
and read a first time after tive nights' debate, on April 1, 1887. Eeceived the
Eoyal Assent, July 19, 1887.

THE IBISH CBIMINAL LAW AMENDMENT BILL 171
to legal coercion it will rescue half a dozen from coercion
which is illegal. As to the details, we are in no way pledged
to them. The provision for trying Irish offenders in England
seems to me open to question, but if what I hear be true, then
that will be dropped, I suppose. Care will also have to be
taken lest in increasing the summary power of magistrates,
which is quite right, we give them power to punish offences
which are really slight with undue severity. That is a point
upon which honest and reasonable criticism, from whatever
quarter it comes, may be of real value.
We are told that what we are doing in Ireland we should
not dare to apply to a Scotch or English community. My
answer is that if through local causes in any district in this
country offences went unpunished as they now do in Ireland,
I believe the Enghsh people as a whole would not hesitate to
apply a similar remedy. Then again it is described as a mere
device to enable land-owners to recover their rents. Even
land-owners are entitled to protection from the law as well as
other people. Through exceptional circumstances the land
lords have been compelled to sacrifice part of their rents,
receiving in return a Parliamentary guarantee for the rest.
But as a matter of fact I believe that the intimidation practised
and the injury inflicted have been much more frequently on
the tenants themselves than on either their landlords or their
agents. You may take it as a general rule that wherever
popular violence supersedes the law — though the rich may be
the intended and immediate object of attack — it is generally
the poor who suffer. Then it is said, ' You ought to have
fixed a limit of time, and not made the Act permanent.' Well,
that is a detaU, and not vital either way. But there are two
points to be considered. One is that the law is less respected
if it is to cease to be the law in a year or two, and the other
that this Bill if it passes will not be enforced a day longer
than Parliament pleases that it should be. It is absurd to
suppose, as I have seen it put somewhere, that it would be
difficult to pass a repealing Statute. If a majority of the
House of Commons thought the bill had lasted long enough.

172 THE LIBEBAL PABTY
a repealing Statute (which would meet with no obstruction)
would pass in a single sitting. Just one more remark in this
connection. It is constantly repeated, and it is repeated by
speakers who ought to know better, and who probably do know
better, that the combination formed by the Irish peasants for
the purpose of withholding rents is only like a strike for
wages in this country, and therefore not an offence. You to
whom I speak are not likely to be imposed upon by rhetorical
tricks of that kind. When a working man strikes for higher
wages he does that which he has a perfect right to do. It
may be wise, or it may be foolish, but he refuses to sell his
labour, which is his own, below a certain rate. When an Irish
tenant refuses to pay rent, being able to do so, he is breaking
a bargain into which he freely entered, and, moreover, a
bargain which in most cases has been already modified by
Parliament in his favour. He is using another man's property
without paying for it. There is a shght difference, I think, in
point of justice and morality between holding on to what is
your own, even if you rate it at too high a price, and holding
on to property which belongs to your neighbour.
Now, I know that I have detained you very long. I have
only one word in conclusion. What are to be our relations
as matters stand towards that section — I am afraid we must
admit the larger section — of the Liberal party which has ac
cepted the principle of Home Eule ? That is the immediate,
the practical question. It is useless to cry peace when there
is war. It is impossible, however we may wish it, to bridge
over the differences that divide us. They are too deep and
too wide. But this Irish question is not the only one in the
range of politics, nor can it last for ever. We shall want
each other's help again, and we must remember, in actions
as well as in words, that we are after all friends who have
honourably differed, and not enemies. Lord Hartington has
shown us an admirable example of the spirit in which this
controversy should be treated. The Irish Home Eulers, on
the other hand, have given us, and give us every day, an
illustration of the manner in which grave and high problems

THE LIBEBAL PABTY 173
of statesmanship may be vulgarised and brutalised in the
mouths of brawling demagogues. Let us profit both by the
example and the warning. We are aiding our own party
more than they know ; for if Liberalism and Irish Home Eule
come to mean the same thing, the prospects of Liberal success
in the English constituencies are not brilliant. I do not
pretend to see far into the future, but in one future I do not
believe. I do not believe that the democracy will inaugurate
their power by arrogating functions, abandoning rights, and
ignoring claims which their predecessors have for three
generations respected. There is not really much sympathy
in England with the Irish Home Eule movement ; most of
those who have taken it up have done so in deference to the
authority of a great leader, and from a reluctance to break
through Parliamentary ties which we respect, although we
regret the result. I have no doubt for my part that the
verdict of the electors when they are appealed to again will be
as it was last year — supposing, that is, that we do not ab
solutely throw away the two or three, or perhaps more.
Sessions which must intervene. But, however that may be,
we Liberal Unionists are not worshippers of the jumping cat,
however popular that form of faith may be. We have clear and
firm convictions which we do not mean to abandon ; and if,
unhappily, the choice lies between the two, we are quite ready
to give up our political prospects and our political position,
but we are not ready to give up the Union.

174

LXVI
THE STATE OF AGBIGULTUBE—DEPBECIATION IN
THE VALUE OF LAND—GAUSES—BEMEDIES
Manchesteb : Septembee 1, 1887 •
.... I PASS from local affairs to the consideration of the
general state of the agricultural interest in England, but
I cannot speak in rose-coloured terms. I have nothing
on this subject to put before you that can be very satis
factory to utter or to hear. We sometimes exaggerate in
talking of the general depression which affects industry in this
country. However severe it may be as affecting particular
occupations, it has not prevented England, as a whole, from
growing during the last ten years richer instead of poorer.
That is proved by evidence absolutely beyond dispute. But
when we come to the land it is impossible to speak too strongly
of the losses which have been and are being sustained. The
tendency is rather to underrate them than otherwise, because
to a considerable extent they have fallen on a class of persons
whom they have not reduced to absolute and visible poverty,
and because the English land-owner and the English farmer
are not as a rule given to howling and lamentation. They
bear what they have to bear silently and doggedly. If they
have made a bargain by which they are losers they keep to it,
and they decidedly object to being pitied. It is impossible
even to attempt an estimate of what the fall in the value of
land has been during the last ten years in many parts of
England. It is certainly not less than 40 per cent. Here,
and in the north generally, where we have large towns close

DEPBECIATION IN THE VALUE OF LAND 175
at hand, it is still comparatively slight. I should say that 20
per cent, would be a fair average, but if we take the whole area
of England I believe a mean between those two figures would
not be far from the truth, and that a depreciation of 30 per
cent, would fairly represent the change which has taken place.
Consider what a destruction of capital that represents. I have
no material, and I can find none, which would enable me to
separate the value of land from that of houses and land used
for other purposes than that of cultivation, and therefore I
cannot tell you what the value of agricultural land itself is ;
but land and houses together have commonly been reckoned
at something like 2,000,000,000L ; and if agricultural land be
taken as representing one-half of that amount you would have
upon that estimate a loss of 300,000,000^ falling on the land
owning class. And I am afraid I cannot accept the consola
tion which some people are inclined to offer when they say,
' All the better for the small owners ; they will have a chance
to buy when the big men are ruined.' My idea is that the
result will be exactly the other way. The big owners will be
able, not always, but generally, to hold their own. The
smash will be, and indeed already is, among the small squires,
the owners of a few hundred acres — a valuable class whom we
should most of us be glad to see increased rather than
diminished in numbers. As to the loss sustained by the
farmers I cannot even attempt to estimate the amount. What
I do know is that they have suffered even worse than the
world in general believes. And it is a singular proof of the
elasticity and financial strength of the community as a whole
that it has borne with so little apparent injury the heavy and
even tremendous blows which have fallen on the greatest as
well as the oldest of aU our industries.
When wehavesucha state of things as this to deal with there
are two questions which every rational man asks and tries to
get an answer to. First, What are the causes of the mischief ?
¦ and, next. What remedies will be of service ?
In this case the causes are not far to seek. The principal
one is, of course, the foreign competition, which we all feel.

176 CAUSES OF THE DEPBECIATION
and which we are likely to feel for a long while to come. It
is argued, I hope with truth, that we have seen the worst of
it ; that in many cases the very low prices that have ruled are
due to foreign speculations which have been a loss to the
speculators ; that the cheap but excessively wasteful mode of
culture in new countries cannot go on long without exhaust
ing the soil ; and that, if the American and Australian supplies
seem inexhaustible, there is rapid increase in the local demand
caused by increasing population in those countries. That may
be ; I hope it is so ; but the prospect of relief coming in that way
seems to me distant. But there are other causes at work in
depreciating the value of land just now. There is necessarily
uncertainty as to what legislation may do. We do not talk
politics here, but it is quite obvious that the governing class,
which, as a rule, possesses no real property, wiU look at things
very differently from a class which is in an exactly opposite
position. I am not myself very much alarmed. I do not
think the Irish system as we have it now is good outside
Ireland, where it arose out of necessity rather than choice.
But if we had it here I dare say we could make it work.
Where there is good sense and forbearance most systems can
be made to work. The one thing fatal is uncertainty — sus
pense through not knowing what is going to happen. I am sure
that that feeling of uncertainty is at this moment checking a
great deal of improvement which land-owners would otherwise
be willing to make, but which they will not make if they do
not feel sure who is to profit by it. And there is another
circumstance that tells against us — that curious feehng, not to
me very intelligible, but undoubtedly strong, which in these
days attaches a certain unpopularity to the possession of land,
at any rate to its possession on a large scale. If it were
merely the natural prejudice of those having nothing against
those who have much, then, however we might regret it, we
should say that it was simply human nature. But what
puzzles me is why an exceptional amount of prejudice should
attach to that form of property which yields the smallest
return, which has the least power of evading taxation, and

DEPBECIATION IN THE VALUE OF LAND 177
which involves the largest amount of public and social duty.
However that may be, the fact remains that there is un
doubtedly a prejudice against land-owning, and many persons
who, having made money, would twenty-five or thirty years
ago have invested a part of it as a matter of course in land,
now prefer investments which are less exposed to the public
eye, which involve fewer claims on the owners, and which are
more easily transferred in case of need to other hands or
to other countries. I hope, for my part, that the feeling I
speak of is only temporary, and that it will pass off when we
have shaken down into the new order of things. But while it
lasts it necessarily tends to aggravate the existing agricultural
depression. There are other circumstances of a merely temporary
nature which we have to allow for. Lord Cairns' Act' — or
rather, perhaps, the change in popular feeling which made the
Act possible — has thrown large quantities of land rather
suddenly on the market just at a time when for other reasons
there are fewer buyers than before. That, no doubt, wiU
come right before long. These new estates will be absorbed,
and the ultimate effect will be good, but for the moment it
rather increases than lessens the actual difficulties of the
situation. Some people would add another explanation of the
land-owners' and farmers' difficulties, and ascribe them in
part to the demand common of late years for higher wages. I
do not think that demand has had much effect of the kind
supposed. Cheap labourers do not always imply cheap labour.
You must take the quality as well as the cost, and if the
labourer asks for and gets many things now which he did not
in the days of our grandfathers, there is the certain fact that
he does not come on the poor rates, as he used to do. In the
next place, you must consider the extended employment of
labour-saving machinery. If it be true, as I sometimes hear
asserted, that the quality of labour now supplied is inferior to
what it was, that the younger men work with less zeal and
show less interest in their work than their elders, that is reaUy
' The Settled Land Act, 1882.
VOL. II. N

178 DEPBECIATION IN THE VALUE OF LAND
a serious matter. I hear that kind of talk very often in Kent.
Sometimes I hear it in Lancashire, but not so often ; but
I notice that it comes generally from elderly men. They say
that things are not what they used to be, and the notion that
the world is going to the bad is just as much a sign of
advancing age as losing one's hair or one's teeth. It is always
satisfactory to have companions in misfortune, and I beheve
there is no doubt that what is happening in England in
consequence of competition from beyond the seas is not
peculiar to this country. The peasant cultivators of France
and Italy are suffering at least as much as our farmers
are, and in one respect they are worse off. For there are very
few of them who do not know what mortgages mean, and
holders of mortgages as a general rule are less indulgent than
landlords. Now, what are the remedies for the trouble we are in ?
What will Parliament do for us, and what can we do for
ourselves ? There are some things which Parliament cannot
do, and which it would not do if it could. It neither can nor
will give back protection in any form, however disguised. Of
that we may be sure. But there are some things that are
not beyond its power. It can relieve the farmer from some
part of the burden of rates which he bears, which it is admitted
ought to fall in some shape on personal as well as real pro
perty, and that is, I suppose, the principal help we have
to look to. It may do something to equalise railway charges,
which are said to be at the present time unduly favourable to
long distances — that is practically the foreigner — and it may
encourage a demand for land by giving facUities to buyers
on a small scale. I am not myself a believer in the theory that
very small farms — I mean farms of from 5 to 20 acres —
in ordinary circumstances hold their own against those of
larger size. Many people think otherwise. It is an experi
ment which on many grounds, social and political as well as
economical, it may be well to try. If it succeeds, so much
the better ; if not, we are only where we were. Anyhow, it is
a movement really in the land-owners' interest, for if it succeeds

DEPBECIATION IN THE VALUE OF LAND 179
it brings a new class of buyers into the market, and that will
tend necessarily to raise the price of land to something nearer
its former value. In any case cheap transfer is desirable.
Both political parties agree in that. Some say that the land
owners object to it, but I have never heard any of them do so,
though whether the lawyers will let us have it remains to
be seen. As to what we can do ourselves, I have no magical
remedy to suggest, only the old story of patience and perse
verance and mutual help. I am not going to teach farmers
how to farm. Every man to his trade. It is better to stick
to your own trade, and farming is not mine. I may just hint
that even if we are beaten finally out of wheat-growing, it does
not foUow that no other crop will pay. We have a good
working climate, a laborious population, an insatiable market,
capital in abundance, and greater handiness in the use of
machinery than any other people in the world except the
Americans, a love of the land and country life among all
classes ; and if with all these advantages we cannot hold our
own we must be very much changed from those who have
gone before us.

N 2

180

LXVII
HOSPITALS
On Laying the Foundation Stone of the New Liveepool Royal Infikmaey,
Liveepool: Octobee 29, 1887
I WAS asked some time ago to lay the first stone of this buUd
ing, and I accepted the invitation with pleasure, for it is a
good and useful work, a work of beneficence and of public
spirit, and one which confers benefits upon the community
far out of proportion to the capital expended or to the mere
direct aid given. The common feehngs of human nature wUl
not allow us to leave any human being to die of accident or
disease, if medical or surgical aid can reheve him. Nor need
you have any fear of imposture. It is very possible, as we
all know, to simulate poverty or distress ; it is barely possible
to simulate disease, and for obvious reasons the attempt is
hardly ever made. Then, again, accidents and sudden or violent
illnesses are casualties of a kind which amongst the poorer
classes cannot reasonably be expected to be provided against
while our present society lasts — and it is not yet likely to
smash up. We must always have a vast multitude of men and
women who cannot pay for themselves the cost of careful
medical attendance in a long sickness. They must be helped
in some way, and hospital treatment is at once the least ex
pensive and the most effective way. But there is something
more to be said. It is not a paradox to affirm that the greatest
gainers by the existence of hospitals are to be found among
those who never enter their doors. They are schools of
medical science where a young man learning his business can
see in a few months more cases of disease of various kinds

HOSPITALS 181
than he would be likely to see in the private practice of a life
time — where he can profit by the teaching and experience of
the leading men of his profession, where a high standard of
professional feeling and honour is maintained, and where
greed and quackery, and all those tricks by which low prac
titioners sometimes try to push their way into notice, are
discountenanced and put down by the full force of an organised
and unanimous opinion. It is no exaggeration to say that
the work done and the researches made by the physicians and
surgeons of the great English hospitals of this day may relieve
the sufferings and prolong the lives of patients in America
and Australia 100 years hence. Apart from the feelings of
humanity to the individual, it is impossible to overrate the
pubhc value of such services. An unhealthy people indicates
a decaying community, and the more we know of former times
the more surely we become aware that with growing civilisa
tion life becomes not only fuller, but longer. Those are the
conquests of medical and sanitary science — not perhaps in
popular estimate as glorious as a campaign where a hundred
thousand people are killed, but possibly of more enduring
service to mankind. Let me add only this — that while we
justly praise the school of science of the medical profession,
we must not forget that they have other claims upon us. Of
all men our physicians and surgeons give the largest propor
tion of their time and knowledge, which is their capital, to
the unpaid relief of suffering among the poor. We take that
as so much a matter of course that we scarcely give them
credit for it ; but the fact that we do so is in itself the highest
praise. Let me only say, in conclusion, that it is a peculiar pleasure
to me to take part in this ceremony ; for, as you have been
told, it was an ancestor of mine who laid the first stone of the
Eoyal Infirmary, nearly 140 years ago. And it was my
grandfather who, sixty-six years ago, laid the first stone of
the old building which is now being replaced. I have, there
fore, an hereditary interest in this work — an interest which I
hope will be handed down undiminished to those who may

182 HOSPITALS
succeed me. There are claims of many kinds on the com
munity of Liverpool. There is one especially for a new coUege
building, about which I may have something to say at a future
time, and in another place. But life and health are more
important than even learning, and whatever else we do or
leave undone, a claim which is at once that of science and
humanity ought not to be postponed to any other. There is
a story of a foreigner in the last century who, visiting London,
looking at Greenwich and Chelsea Hospitals, and comparing
them with the not very ornamental buUding of St. James's
Palace as it was in those days, said, ' This is an odd country.
Kings are lodged like beggars, and beggars are lodged like
kings.' Perhaps it was a higher compliment than he meant
it to be. And I hope it may be said of us that we shaU
nurse, lodge, and treat our humble and suffering patients
with not less tenderness and not less care than if they were
millionaires, and that the most costly pUes of buUdings in
this city will be — as, indeed, even now they partly are — those
which are open to every member of the community, which
have been created mainly by the munificence of the rich, and
which are utUised for the benefit or enjoyment of the whole
of the community, and especially of the poor.

183

LXVIII
THE BETENTION OF KNOWLEDGE — TECHNICAL
EDUCATION— THE VALUE AND USE OF BOOKS—
A WELL-INSTBUGTED PEOPLE
Annual Meeting of the Union of Lancashiee and Cheshike Institutes,
Ceewe : November 7, 1887
When I consented to take a part in the proceedings of this
meeting, I did so with reluctance, because although five-and-
twenty or thirty years ago I was in the habit of speaking on
educational subjects, I have done so little of late years. A
good many other matters have interfered, and a change has
occurred which is scarcely less than a revolution. It was to the
purpose in the days I speak of to talk about the advantages of
school teaching, because the large proportion of English chU
dren then did not go to any school. The question of compul
sory attendance had only begun to be discussed, and if the
question was raised at all, I am quite sure that the advocates
of compulsion would have been in a small minority. School
Boards were unheard of, rate-supported schools were un
known : now, not only are they familiar to us all, but a gene
ration is growing into manhood which has been educated in
them. You will see, therefore, what a gulf separates the
present from the past, and except that I felt it would be
uncourteous to decline the flattering invitation, coming from
an institution connected with my own part of the country, I
should have persevered in saying, what I said when first in
vited, ' Leave the work of discoursing on such subjects to men
who understand the ideas of the present and future rather

184 THE BETENTION OF KNOWLEDGE
than to those whose connection is chiefly with the past.' WeU,
in the state of things with which we have to deal, a great deal
of what was formerly a matter of discussion has been taken
for granted. We may assume that nearly every English chUd
gets a fair amount of primary teaching ; the present difficulty
is to see how children are to keep what they have acquired.
You cannot bring to any practical test the question of how
much what has once been known has been forgotten, but that it
constitutes a large proportion of the whole no observant person
can doubt. To a certain extent, I am afraid, that must be ac
cepted as an unfortunate necessity. Of all the seeds sown only
a few will germinate. That is as true in regard to mental cul
ture as it is in regard to nature. Of men who receive an Oxford
or a Cambridge education, and who have gone through what at
any rate in my day was the usual classical and mathematical
training, probably the majority at thirty would find their mathe
matics shaky ; and if that is the case with those who have
most leisure, and the largest general cultm-e, we can hardly
expect a better result under less favourable conditions. But
in the case of those with whom we deal, whom we must pre
sume to have been educated in Board schools or denomina
tional schools, there are other causes operating to produce the
same unsatisfactory result. Where large numbers are taught
together, minute individual care is impossible, and something
of a mechanical character is apt to be given to the teaching.
Then there is the want of time and the consequent struggle to
put more into it than is reasonably possible.
I cannot set my opinion against that of experts, and I have
no doubt the Education Department knows its business best,
but I am often surprised at the quantity and at the variety of
knowledge which it is supposed that a child can absorb. I do
not think it is strange if what is acquired hastily for the pur
poses of an examination often drops out as soon as the imme
diate purpose has been served. In my days at Cambridge
there existed a rule that no man could go in for classical
honours unless he had taken mathematical honours, and
consequently young men without the slightest capacity for

THE BETENTION OF KNOWLEDGE 185
mathematics were compelled to cram up a certain quantity of
them as a necessary condition for competing in subjects which
they really cared for. That rule was a mistaken one, and the
Cambridge authorities abrogated it long ago. What I am told
is this : that notoriously those who had so crammed up mathe
matical problems and theories for temporary purposes
managed to forget them again in a few months or weeks, so
that, except so far as that all mental exercise which is not exces
sive ought to be healthy, the trouble taken was pure waste, and
led to no result whatever. The thing was a treadmill, and
nothing else. I suspect the same thing happens with all
examinations, oftener than teachers or examiners allow. Yet I
am not finding fault with examinations as a test of what has
been taught. They are a very imperfect test, but where you
are dealing with large numbers, no other that I know of is
available, and you must have some. Life would not be long
enough for any inspector or examiner really to ascertain what
each of some hundreds of children has learnt, and the
examination papers supply an easy and convenient, if some
what mechanical and inadequate, method of getting at a fairly
accurate general result. The real mischief is due to the in
adequacy of compulsory methods where the human intellect is
concerned. When a parent sends a child to school only be
cause the law compels him to do so, and when the boy learns
only from necessity, and the teacher is looking primarily to
the report of the inspector and the grant to be secured, it is
inevitable that there should be a great waste of teaching power.
I am not arguing against compulsion. In our actual state of
society it is probably inevitable ; but the old saying that one
volunteer is worth two pressed men is true of other things
besides fighting. Those who learn only because they must
will learn no more than they must, and they will very soon forget
the greater part of that. Therefore, do not let us exaggerate
the gain that we derive from our w idespread and costly system
of primary teaching. It does much — nobody will deny that ;
but it leaves much undone. It ends too soon for the full effect
aimed at to be accomplished ; and if there has been pressure

180 TECHNICAL EDUCATION
applied in schools, instead of a taste, there will be created an
actual distaste, for books and learning generally which is not
quickly or easily got over. Well, what is the remedy ? I do
not suppose that an absolute or complete remedy can be
found ; but the most obvious thing to do is to supply the neces
sary defect of the school course by teaching children to a later
age. What should we be, we of the classes who have leisure
and culture, if all the education we got ended at twelve or four
teen, and if the rest of our lives was absorbed in the struggle for
a living ? We cannot pretend to put lads who have to go early
to work for their living on the same footing as those whose
college training goes on to the age of twenty or later. The differ
ence will always be wide, but we can do a good deal to make
it less wide than it is. The Institutes of fifty years ago for the
most part failed because of the want of good primary schools
to feed them. We have got the schools now, and what we
have to do is to provide the means of carrying on the instruc
tion of those who are willing to learn after the time when they
are clear of school, and free to follow their own devices when
the day's work is over.
As to one part of your business— technical instruction —
there is now only a single opinion. We are harder pressed
than ever before by the competition of foreign artisans and
workmen. We are fighting not for the markets of England
alone, we are fighting for the markets of the world. We have
held our own hitherto, but the struggle is sharper than ever,
and we cannot afford to throw away any advantage which is
possessed by other countries. It may be that we shall find
out that we have overrated the benefit of technical teaching,
that it can do less for us than we now expect ; but we are at
least bound to try, and to deserve success whether we get it or
not. But the question of how to get a living is not the only
one with which these institutions have to do. Nobody will deny
that the years between fourteen and twenty are the most im
portant years of life — those most capable of being utilised on
the one hand, most likely to be wasted or abused on the other.
We want to help lads and young men to spend those years

TRE VALUE AND USE- OF BOOKS 187
rationally and usefully. They must be doing something when
their work is finished. In this part of the country and in our
climate many evening hours must be spent indoors. "Where
will they be spent, and how ? On the answer to that
question the future of a life may depend.
I will not dwell in detail on what is, perhaps, the most
hackneyed of all subjects of popular discussion — the value
and use of books ; but I say from my own experience and
feeling what Lord Macaulay said many years ago in better
words than I can command — that a genuine taste and love
for reading is in itself a greater source of happiness than
any external advantages of fortune whatever. Put it on
the lowest ground, and say that a lad reads for amuse
ment only. Well, amusement of some kind he must have;
for a young man living in a town, possibly away from
home and family, the choice of amusements is limited, and
he will get a better sort of interest out of Walter Scott and
George Eliot, and Thackeray and TroUope, not to mention
older writers, than out of any cheap pleasure — probably
one of the cheap and nasty sort — that is likely to be
within his reach. I say that in passing ; but this Society
aims at far more than the promotion of harmless and re
spectable entertainment. It aims at continuing and ex
tending the education of young men in the working class,
and not necessarily in that only, by the same agencies
which are found available in other class competitions :
prizes, scholarships, lectures, exhibitions, and agents for
organised concerts, and communication between institutions
in various towns. What has been done, and what it is
doing, will be better explained by others who will speak
from personal knowledge. My conviction is that it has
already become, and will become still further, a powerful
instrument for the diffusion of sound and useful teaching ;
that it will be a help to thousands who both need and
deserve help ; that it will spread what is of all things most
wanted and most difficult to acquire, the habit of accurate
and scientific thought ; and that it will give us better-

188 A WELL-INSTBUCTED PEOPLE
trained workmen and, more than that, better-trained
citizens. We have now a stronger interest than any
nation except the Americans ever had before in educating
its people ; for the governing class, if it chooses to use its
strength, is now the most imperfectly educated class, and
our House of Commons exercises a power far greater than
that which belongs to any legislative body elsewhere. I
say it advisedly — there is no country in the world where
the direct popular vote has the same authority as now
belongs to it in England; and when one thinks of the
complexity of the questions dealt with, and the interests
involved, so far from crying out if the democracy now and
then go wrong, I am much more inclined to rejoice that
they are so often right. I repeat that for us to have a
well-instructed people is a question of hfe or death. What
ever tends to that object deserves our support, and I beheve
that this Society does so in a more than ordinary degree.

189

LXIX
HOME BULE — AN IBISH PABLIAMENT — LOCAL
PABLIAMENTS — THE PBEGEDENT OF THE
COLONIES— IBISH OPINION — COEBCION — LAND
PURCHASE
London : Decembee 8, 1887
I CONGRATULATE you OH the demonstration of this day.
Whether we look at it in the point of view of numbers, of the
variety of classes and sections which it represents, or of the
determination and unanimity which have prevailed and now
prevail with us, it is itself an answer to the often repeated
fiction that the defenders of the Union are growing fewer in
numbers and feebler in conviction. Exactly the contrary, in
my view, is the case. There has been no appreciable loss of
Parliamentary power, and that is something, for the well-
recognised tendency of Parliamentary majorities, on whichever
side they may be, is to diminish as time goes on, until a new
election brings a fresh shuffle of the cards. The constituencies
were appealed to last year, they gave a decisive answer, and
there is absolutely nothing to show that when they are ap
pealed to again their answer will not be in the same sense.
There is only one real danger ahead as far as I can see. It
is that the pubhc may become so utterly wearied and disgusted
with the subject that they will say, ' Settle the Irish question
anyhow — only settle it somehow, that we may hear of it no
more, and have leisure to mind our own affairs.' I think that
is not a purely imaginary risk. And I see only one way of
meeting it. That is, to make people clearly understand that
the simple concession of an Irish Parliament would be no

190 AN IBISH PABLIAMENT
settlement at all, but only the beginning of a fresh agitation
quite as troublesome as that which we now have to deal with.
Is there to be an Irish Parliament subject to the control of the
Imperial authorities ? Why, that is exactly the state of things
which even in the last century Irishmen rebelled against as
intolerable. Is it to deal with legislation only — that is one
proposal — and not have the Executive responsible to it ?
Why, that is exactly the system which formerly prevailed in
all our leading Colonies, and which was the subject of con
stant complaint till it got itself abolished. If you want to
satisfy the feeling of Irish nationality, you must at least put
Ireland on the footing of Canada or Australia. Those are the
lowest terms. You cannot buy Irish content at a cheaper
price. But that is going far beyond Mr. Gladstone's proposals
of 1886, and unless you mean to go that length — which, as far
as I can see, nobody does — what do you gain by a change ?
I do not believe that the existing discontent will be per
petual. People very soon cease to cry out for what they know
to be out of their reach. Look at the Southern States of the
American Union. They are pacified; they do not mean to
break out again. Were they pacified by getting all they
wanted ? No, but by finding out that they could not get it,
and that they must go without it. Why should the L-ish be
harder to convince, if — and there is the question — only we in
England are equally sure of our own minds ? I wUl not
rehearse at length the commonplaces of this question. If
majorities have any rights, it needs no argument to prove that
33 millions have a right to overrule three miUions in a matter
which concerns them all. If local feelings are to be considered,
Ulster has as good a claim to protest against being governed
from Dublin as Dublin has to protest against being governed
from London. If we have been right in thinking, as we have
thought for 200 years, that Parliamentary government was
the best guarantee for freedom, it surely cannot be wise to
weaken the House of Commons by practically taking from it
the control of the Executive in Ireland. And more, remember
that what you do for Ireland you may be called upon to do,

LOCAL PABLIAMENTS 191
probably for Scotland, certainly for Wales. Are you prepared
for that ? Are you prepared to have four local Parliaments
instead of the one we know, with perhaps a Federal Council
over all ? That seems to me the most extraordinary and the
most suicidal idea that Liberals can possibly take up. I do not
suppose there are many Absolutists left among us — I mean by
Absolutists people who thmk that the Crown ought to be the
dominant and supreme power in the Constitution ; but that is
exactly what our Home Eule friends are leading us to. De
stroy the present House of Commons, turn it into a body
dealing merely with federal affairs, and what becomes of
Ministerial responsibility ? To whom are Ministers to be
responsible ? Given one supreme Executive for federal pur
poses, four Executives for the separate countries, and four
local Parliaments, is it not perfectly clear that in all this chaos
of conflicting jurisdictions there would be nowhere any body
of men capable of directing and controlling national policy as
the House of Commons does now ? I can only hint at that
difficulty, but I think that in all this controversy it has scarcely
received as much attention as it deserves.
But then we are told, ' Nobody wants to meddle with the
House of Commons ; the local Irish Parliament which we pro
pose is intended to be in strict subordination to it,' and the
precedent of the Colonies is quoted. Now, I am almost
ashamed of repeating what has been said so often before ;
but what possible resemblance has the case of the Colonies to
that of Ireland ? Parliament has a right, it is said, to over
rule the decision of a Canadian or an Australian Legislature.
Certainly it has — on paper — and it might do so once ; but
it assuredly would not have a chance of doing so twice. Our
great Colonies are separated from us, one group by 3,000 miles
of sea, one by 6,000 miles, one by more than 10,000 miles.
Is that the case with Ireland? Notoriously, if Canada or
Australia wished to leave us — I am very glad they do not, but
if they did — we should not dream of retaining them by force.
WiU any man, even Mr. Gladstone, say the same as to
Ireland ? Notoriously, the colonial feeling is one, notwith-

192 THE PBEGEDENT OF THE COLONIES
standing occasional and passing differences, in the main of
warm attachment to England. Can any man contend that
that is the general feeling of the Irish people ? And if all
these points of difference be admitted — denied they cannot be
— what is the value of this colonial precedent or parallel?
Look at it another way. Our friends say they are going to
give the Irish a Parliament which is to be strictly subordinate
to that which sits at Westminster. Do they mean that or
not ? If they do mean it, can they — can anyone who reads
Irish papers and listens to Irish speeches — suppose that a big
vestry of that kind will be accepted by the Irish people as a
settlement of their claim ? And if they do not mean it — if they
perfectly well know that the restrictions, the limitations of
power, the appeal to the House of Commons, would all vanish
into air when their reality came to be tested — is it quite fair
to ask us to accept a scheme which will not and cannot work;
to offer it as a settlement when they must be weU assured in
their own minds that it is no settlement at all — that it is only
a device to induce England to make concessions which once
made cannot be withdrawn, and which necessarily involve
larger concessions in the immediate future ? I do not know
what others may think, but I at least will speak plainly. I
believe that if you allow any set of men caUing themselves, or
being called, a Parliament, to meet in Dubhn, no matter how
restricted you may intend their functions to be, that body wUl
be accepted as the only body capable of making laws that shaU
be binding on Ireland, and then all control from this side of the
water is gone. Now, we do not mean that that shall hajDpen
if we can help it ; at any rate we can make sure that it shaU
not happen without the English people understanding tho
roughly what is proposed. The decision rests with them ; but
they might justly reproach us if they came to a decision
without full knowledge of what they were doing, and under
the influence of misrepresentations, whether intentional or not.
Now let me say one word on a part of the question with
which English Home Eulers are very fond of dealing. They
tell us, ' You have no right to govern a people except by its

IBISH OPINION 193
own consent — you are governing Ireland by coercion, and not
by consent.' I suppose we should all agree that it is very
desirable that government should carry with it the good-will
of the largest number possible of the governed. But when
our friends lay it down as a general and indisputable law
that every people, or fraction of a people, shall have the form
of government it prefers, I think they are proving too much for
their own purpose. Look at it this way. They disclaim, very
vehemently, the name of Separatists. They are indignant
at the idea that they favour separation. But suppose the
majority of the Irish people desire separation ? It is not at
aU clear to me that they do not. At all events, I should be
very sorry to test it by a plebiscite. Would our friends defer
in that case to the wish of the majority, or would they not ?
If they would, what becomes of their assurances to us ? If they
would not — they say they would not, and we are bound to take
their word for it — what becomes of their principle ? They are
not fighting, by their own admission, for whatever the Irish
people may think best, but for what they think best for the
Irish people. WeU, so are we. The principle of action is
the same in both cases ; the difference is in the application.
They would not yield to an Irish demand for a separate army,
a separate navy, a separate diplomacy. We think a separate
Legislature just as dangerous, and that in the end it will lead
to all of these. Then we come to the old plea, ' Irish opinion
is all but unanimous against you.' Well, I admit that the
state of Irish opinion is the strong point of the Home Eulers.
They have not many strong points, and we can afford to give
them one.
But there are two considerations which we ought to bear
in mind. One is this — even in these democratic days you
cannot assume an absolute equality of importance among all
voters. We admit that Irish Home Eulers have with them a
numerical majority, but it is far less than it appears from the
Parhamentary representation, because our system ignores
the local minority in each constituency. I believe the real
VOL. II. o

194 IBISH OPINION
numerical proportion to be under, certainly not to be above
two to one. But I cannot ignore the fact that among the
minority are to be found nearly all the elements, except
simple numbers, that make the greatness of a country. Lord
Hartington can tell you more about that than I can ; but,
after all, when you have three-fourths of the capital, of the
intelligence, of the culture, of the industrial enterprise of a
country on your side, that is at least something to set off
against a hostile majority in the least instructed and most
prejudiced class. But there is another way to look at it.
Why are we to assume that what is now the case must always
be the case ? Why are we to give up the Irish peasantry as
irreconcilable ? Why, the changes of the last twenty years
amount to a social revolution. No man, whatever he thinks
of their merits, can treat them as slight or unimportant.
The ascendency of the Church was complained of, and it has
been swept away ; the land system was complained of, and it
has been dealt with in a sphit more favourable to the tenant
than would have been shown by any Legislature in Europe ;
and are we to suppose that these changes will produce no effect
on popular feeling ? You may ask, ' Why have they produced
none as yet ? ' I answer, partly because they are lost sight
of in the prospect of much larger changes ; partly because, as
we all know, it takes time for a population to realise a large
alteration in their condition. The sea continues to run high
long after the wind which raised it has gone down, but we
know that if no fresh storm springs up it will become calm in
time. For my part, I refuse to believe that when every tangible
grievance has been removed the dream of a separate nationality
which has no historical existence will continue to influence
Irish minds. We do not in England allow enough for the
worship of force and success — the desire to be on the winning
side, which exists, I suppose, wherever human beings are
found, but which is stronger in Ireland than in most parts of
the world. English support has made manyr Irishmen beheve
that Home Eule is winning, and they have rushed over to
what seemed the strongest party. Let them see that they

COEBCION 195
were mistaken in their belief, and they wUl fall back, the great
majority of them, as quickly as they came on.
There is one other point which I cannot pass over. We
hear a great deal of the wickedness of coercion, by which, of
course, is meant the exceptional legislation of last Session.
I do not care to argue a merely personal question, and it is
hardly worth while to point out — which has been done so
often — that the coercive measures of 1882 were a good deal
more stringent than those of 1887. That is only by the way.
But when I hear coercion denounced, I am reminded of the
man who, when the question of capital punishment was dis
cussed, said, ' I am all for doing away with the death penalty ;
but let the murderers set the example.' I suppose we all
dislike needless coercion, though coercion in some form is only
another name for civilisation ; but is there no other coercion
than that of the law ? What about the coercion of the
League ? I believe that to the bulk of the quiet and peaceable
inhabitants of Ireland what is called coercive legislation has
brought, and is bringing, not restraint, but freedom — freedom
from the daily and nightly fear of violence ; freedom to sell
to whom they please, and associate with whom they please ;
freedom to dismiss a workman, or a servant, or to enforce the
payment of a just debt, without danger of secret and savage
revenge. Of this I am sure — no Government can allow a
system of anarchy to go on, and the Government of a popular
and democratic State less than any other. We are accus
tomed to quote the United States as the typical democracy of
the world, but if in New York or New England disturbances
like those of Ireland had been attempted, depend upon it they
would have been put down far more roughly and summarily
than they have been here.
I do not wish to weary you, and I will not add more than
one word on that difficult and important question of land
purchase. We have not as yet formulated any policy in
regard to it, and I hope we shall not be in a hurry. The
difficulties are immense. You cannot pledge English credit,
because Parliament will not let you. You will not easily find
o 2

196 LAND PUBCHASE
an Irish security on which money will be advanced. And
even if you succeed, it is a questionable experiment to have
the State for sole landlord or sole creditor, whichever you call
it, and the whole body of the tenantry for debtors. Person
ally, I lean rather to the opinion lately expressed by Mr.
Bright, and I should hke to see, before trying such a gigantic
operation as buying out all the landlords, whether less costly
and less ambitious measures may not answer as well. My behef
is that the facilities given by Lord Ashbourne's Act are likely
to be taken advantage of much more than they have been, if
once you can drive out of the mind of the tenant the idea
which is now fixed there — that he can get the land without
paying for it. Of course, tUl that delusion is dispelled no Act
will be of any use. They will not pay for what they expect to
get for nothing. When they realise the fact that we do not
mean to commit robbery, or to aUow it, they wiU come for
ward as buyers, and then it will be time enough, in my mind,
to see what larger facilities they require. There are parts
of Ireland which may require special treatment — what are
called the congested districts. Well, treat them specially;
give your medicine to the sick, but do not force those who are
not sick to take it too. It is often said by Home Eulers that
we are not entitled to the name of Liberals, because we hold
the opinions which the whole party held up to 1885. It seems
eccentric, to say the least, to deny the name of Liberals to
Mr. Bright, to Mr. Chamberlain, and to Lord Hartington.
But I do not believe our Home Eule friends, whatever they
may say, will try to read us out of the party. They would lose
too much. They would be cutting off then- noses to spite
their faces. We remain what we have been from the first —
an independent section, prepared to defend the Union, but
abandoning no principle which we have professed. We are for
free trade, for peace, for economy. We support the present
Government as against Home Eule, but we support them as
allies, not as colleagues. I end as I began. Our destiny is in
our own hands. Once let the English public really master
this question, and we are safe. It is not an accident that in

A GOOD CAUSE 197
a matter which does not specially concern any class the over
whelming majority of educated Englishmen are on our side.
The masses will be so too when they know the truth. It will
be a sharp struggle, but it will not be a long one. We have a
leader whom we trust ; we have zealous friends ; we have a
good cause, and if with these advantages we do not win, the
fault will be our own.

198

LXX
INDUSTBIAL PBOSPEGTS OF THE COUNTBY—THE
NATIONAL DEBT— LOCAL GOVEBNMENT— FOBEIGN
AFFAIBS—FBANGE—B USSIA—A USTBIA
Liveepool : Novembee 7, 1888
I THANK you for the kindness of the reception you have given
me — a kindness of which, in this room, I have had frequent
experience for more than thirty years, but which gains rather
than loses in value by the lapse of time. You wUl expect me,
I think, in returning thanks for your toast, to say a few words
as to the state of affairs with which we in this year 1888 have
had to deal. My opinion may be worth very little, but, at
least, it is that of one who has been compelled to watch
public life pretty closely for a considerable time, who has no
personal interests to serve and no antipathies to gratify, and
who has always tried to look at contemporary events from
a national and administrative, rather than from a party,
point of view.
On some former occasions I have talked to you about the
industrial prospects of the counti-3% I shall not do so now,
because I believe that the despondency which it was then my
object to combat has passed off, and that as regards industrial
questions the public mind is exactly in that state which is
most desirable — hopeful without over-confidence, and cautious
without being discouraged. We have before us, in all proba
bility, a return of better times, but what it now most concerns
us to remember is the presence of two dangers which we must
face, which we cannot escape by ignoring, and which it wUl
need all our care to guard against. One is that of a constant

THE NATIONAL DEBT 199
growth of population at a rate more rapid than that of the
corresponding increase of capital ; the other is the competition
to which in the markets of the world we are exposed — a com
petition in many cases actually fed and stimulated by English
capital, a competition in which victory rests with the race
which can work most effectively, and produce most cheaply.
Asia is in the field as well as Europe — Oriental frugality
and docility, backed up by European capital ; and though I
believe we shall hold our own in the long run, I believe also
that we shall be harder put to it than we have ever yet been.
And for us the struggle is one of life or death. We have made
for ourselves a great and peculiar position. We cannot now
return to the simple existence of a merely agricultural country-
We are bound to go on, or to collapse.
Turning to another subject, you will, I am sure, under
stand that if I speak at all in this room of Parliamentary
proceedings, I must do so in the most guarded and colourless
manner ; but there are very few here or anywhere who will
not have seen with pleasure that the House of Commons
appears to have in a great measure recovered that efficiency
for active purposes which during the last few years has been
somewhat impaired, and as nobody is interested in a wasted
Session, or in administrative failure, I think we may all con
gratulate ourselves on the passing of two measures which it is
no exaggeration to describe as of first-rate importance. Luck
and skUl co-operated to make possible the reduction of interest
on the debt ; and I may observe in passing that no one more
generously acknowledged the success of Mr. Goschen in that
respect than his predecessor, Mr. ChUders, whose own attempts
in the same direction were baffled by the then state of the
financial world.
One word on that question of debt. It is a great thing to
have saved the interest — nearly a million and a half now,
nearly three millions in a few years' time — but I earnestly
hope that what is so saved may be applied, if not wholly, at
least for the greater part, not in the reduction of taxes, which,
on the whole and compared with our resources, are now

200 LOCAL GOVEBNMENT
probably about the lightest in Europe, nor in the extension of
armaments, which are certainly costly enough, but in ac
celerating the operations of that process by which in some
forty or fifty years' time we may hope to have shaken off
altogether our heavy inherited burden of indebtedness.
As to the other great measure of the year, the Local
Government Act, it had the good fortune to be accepted with
little reservation by both parties, which is the best proof that
it was felt to be a necessity. Whether it will work well or
badly depends upon those who administer it. We are, of
course, prepared for higher rates, but I sincerely trust that we
shall continue to make a stand against the accumulation of
local debt. That is pretty well guarded against at present,
but I think I see in the not distant future that pressure wUl
be applied to lessen the efficiency of those safeguards. And
one thing more. I do not know if it be too sanguine an
anticipation, but I hope that we, the county electors, wUl vote
for men, and not exclusively for flags and colours. If every
election is to be a party wrangle, the only winner in the long
run will be that remarkably unpleasant animal known to
modern politics as the ' carpet bagger.' I trust we may keep
him out. Choose squires, choose men in business, choose
farmers, choose working men if you find any who are fit
and willing, but choose men who have something to lose by
maladministration, and who will not start from the theory
that squandering the public money is good because it increases
the demand for labour. Some people complain that the new
Countj'^ Councils have not power enough. If that is a mistake,
it is one on the safe side. You can always extend the functions
of an administrative body ; you cannot easily curtaU them ;
and, apart from that, I am not sure that it is wise to accumu
late a great variety of powers in the hands of one set of
persons. Some men interest themselves in education, some
in county finance, some in poor-law administration, and there is
a good deal to be said in favour of leaving each kind of business
to those who feel themselves naturally drawn to it. However,
that is a very fair matter for future discussion. Nothing that

FOBEIGN AFFAIBS 201
Parhament has done in regard to it is final, and experience
will help us to feel our way.
So much for our home affairs ; but there are affairs of
another sort that force themselves on our notice whether we
wiU or no. It is difficult to judge how far our industry and
prosperity at home have been affected by the fear of foreign
complications. Perhaps familiarity makes the risk to be un-
felt, but the uncertainty whether Europe will remain at peace
or not has been, is, and must be a disturbing element in all
our calculations. Of course, on such subjects, I speak only as
an observer from the outside ; but where the future is con
cerned exclusive information does not go for much, and some
times the old saying is true that on-lookers see most of the
game. In my judgment the prospects of continued peace are
less unfavourable than it is the fashion of the moment to sup
pose. There are four great nations, or rather Governments,
any one of which can bring about a war if it chooses. Take
them in turn. The first is France. Now, I firmly believe
that, whatever vague hopes of recovering the lost provinces at
some future day may be entertained, there is no considerable
party of Frenchmen which at present desires war. Honest,
sincere Eepublieans wish the Eepublic consolidated, and they
have no desire to see a successful general play the old Bona
parte game again. The persons whose votes must decide the
question certainly do not want a heavier conscription and in
creased taxes. The two extremes — the ultra-Monarchists on
the one side, and the Anarchists on the other — may, and
probably many of them do, wish for general confusion ; but
they are only a fraction of the people. I am, I will not say
certain, but as confident as it is ever reasonable to be, that
neither the French Government nor the French masses will
knowingly take or support any step that may provoke an
international quarrel ; although they may wish to make them
selves respected in Europe, and though, with that object in
view, they may indulge in a military expenditure which even
their wonderful frugality and industry must feel to be a heavy
burden.

202 FOBEIGN AFFAIBS
Then look to Eussia. In Eussia, as we know, nearly
everything turns on the will of one man. There is no rival
power or influence to be set against that of the Emperor.
Now, I have conversed with various persons — diplomatic
friends and others — who can speak with some authority as to
the character of the Eussian Emperor. His personal tastes
and aptitude are not military. That, I believe, is certain.
He is perfectly well aware that a war, no matter with whom,
is the wish of the Eevolutionary party, because they believe
that the sufferings and sacrifices, and the political excitement
which follow on war, will all make in their mterest. He would
be playing the game of his worst enemies if he allowed himself
to be drawn into a quarrel. He is quite aware of the difficulties
in which his Empire is placed by a corrupt administration and
by bad finance ; and, short of some personal or national affront,
to which no doubt he would be sensitive, it is utterly impro
bable that he wUl be the man to set Europe on fire.
As to Austria I need not speak. Austrian statesmen have
before them a task of enormous difficulty in keeping that hetero
geneous and ill-compacted Empire from tumbling to pieces.
They would much rather, I fancy, make no move, and if they
move at all, they will of necessity take then- lead from Berlin.
Then there is Germany. No doubt the presence there of a
young, energetic sovereign, whose tastes and training are all
military, is a circumstance to be taken into consideration. I
can imagine that the young German Emperor might look on
a war into which he might suppose himself to be forced, and
which he would direct, as not the greatest of possible mis
fortunes. But there is one consideration to be borne in mind.
What should he fight for ? Military superiority Germany
has got already. No German desires to annex more French
territory, and every colony which Germany is trying to create
beyond the seas is a pledge for peace at home.
The danger which I see, and I do not wish to make less of
it than the facts of the case justify, is twofold. In the first
place, you have got now all over the Continent an enormous
body of men to whom the continuance of peace means com-

FOBEIGN AFFAIBS 203
parative poverty and obscurity, and whose only hope of dis
tinction lies in war. I suppose, if you take the great military
empires of Europe, the collective aggregate of their officers
must amount to several hundred thousand ; men mostly weU
educated and naturally anxious for action. That is a force
with which we have to reckon, and whose interest will be
mainly against us. It is said that universal military service
has, so far, a peaceful effect ; that by it the masses have
brought home to them a sense of the sacrifices which they
make. That is true, probably, of the men, but it does not
apply to the gigantic permanent staff of which I have been
speaking. Another danger is of a different kind. Peace may
be risked by the very impatience shown to secure it. Sup
pose any Power, exhausted by the cost of military preparation,
to call imperatively for general disarmament. Nothing could
be more natural or seem more legitimate, but nothing could
be more likely to bring about an immediate collision. We, of
course, can have only one interest and one feeling. I trust
we shall keep out of all entanglements in which our straight
forward simplicity of conduct would be inevitably taken
advantage of, and that we shall do what we can to pour cold
water on those great masses of combustible material which
are heaped up on every side. The nation, luckily, is not in a
blustering mood, and we have quite enough to do with our
own troubles at home.

204

LXXI
EMIGBATION
Liveepool : January 21, 1889
I HAVE come here to plead in favour of a society which has
for its object the promotion of emigration, or perhaps I should
rather say the securing of emigrants against many of the
dangers and abuses to which they are exposed. For emigrants
there will be, whether this society exists or not, and emigra
tion must be accepted as one of the recognised institutions of
this country. I will not waste words by pointing out what is
clear enough — that for a nation situated as we are an outflow
of population is an absolute necessity. No doubt we have a
national capital always increasing ; no doubt the volume of
our trading and manufacturing business continues to grow, if
not from year to year, at least from decade to decade ; no
doubt we have some uncultivated lands at home, though for
the most part they are poor lands, and not such as could be
profitably cultivated at the present prices of food. But, on
the other hand, we have a yearly growth of population of little
less than 400,000 ; and, although industrial production is
constantly on the increase, labour-saving machinery reduces
the number of hands employed, and there is in the present,
and is still more likely to be in the future, a considerable
supply of labour for which no demand exists.
Those are, in brief, the facts of the case ; and here let me
guard myself against being supposed to consider emigration
as an adequate remedy for the dangers ahead. I do not thiuk
so ; I never have thought so. But, though it may not be a
cure, it is at least a palliative. It lessens impatience by

EMIGBATION 205
lessening suffering, and it gives time to deal with our troubles
before they thicken upon us. There are, I think, some people
who still object to it on principle, and that for various reasons.
A very few perhaps cling to the notion that the fighting power
of a State depends upon its population, and that the fighting
power of a State is the chief thing to look to. I do not agree
with either of these propositions, but they are hardly important
enough in their influence on present opinion to be worth dis
cussion. Some people, again, are afraid of making labour too
dear, ignoring the fact that ill-paid labourers do not always,
or generally, mean cheap labour ; because, if you put very little
into a man, you will, as a rule, get very little out of him.
Some men, I am afraid, do not like the open safety-valve.
They wish, if not exactly for an explosion, yet for such high
pressure as will always give agitation a motive power. Neither
of these last considerations is likely to be publicly avowed,
but many motives influence action which do not find vent in
speech ; and no doubt there are some benevolent people who
hold that if their own particular cure for the evils of society
were adopted England could maintain double or treble its
present population with ease and without distress. Teetotalers
and vegetarians, amongst others, are generaUy credited with
that notion. Many socialists think the same. Well, I am
not going to wrangle with those gentlemen. I only say to
them, ' You may be right, but you have not converted the
world yet. When you have, we will see what your remedies
are worth. Meanwhile, let us try and deal with men as they
are, and with society as it exists.'
What is there to say on the other side ? In the first place,
this— that if the current of emigration were suddenly changed,
you would very soon find the result in the growth of pauperism.
In the next place, every successful emigrant (and with reason
able care nine out of ten ought to succeed) not only leaves his
place at home vacant for some one else to fiU, but makes work
for those whom he has left behind. He was a pauper, or next
door to one ; he becomes a customer. Let colonists do what
they wUl in the way of protectionist tariffs— I am sorry they

206 EMIGBATION
do it, but they are their own masters — England will for many
years to come be the chief source of supply for manufactures
of whatever kind. And there is more than that. Though we
may not want to see the whole globe Anglicised, though we do
not want the entire human race to be a reproduction of the
English middle class, for that would be a little monotonous,
still we may be legitimately glad, and even proud, to think
that the race to which we belong will not be crowded out of
existence, but wUl hold its own in the most distant parts of
the globe. The settlement of a new country is, after aU, the
only permanent form of conquest, and it is a kind of conquest
that involves injury to no man.
I say, then, that, assuming the right place and the right
men to be chosen, emigration is good for those who go and
for those who stay behind. As to the place, there are prac
tically only three alternatives. Tropical colonies are out of
the question if a man is to live by the work of his hands.
South Africa has an admirable climate and plenty of land to
spare ; but black men and white men do not always get on
comfortably together, and the large Dutch and native ad
mixture does not suit every settler. Australia has every ad
vantage for those who do not dislike a somewhat hot and dry
climate ; the distance is the chief objection. But where the
cost of transport has to be considered Canada is most likely
to be chosen ; and Canada, of course, includes the possibility
for the emigrant, if he is not content with his prospects, of
moving south and trying his fortune in the United States.
And it is in Canada, accordingly, that most of those who go
out from these parts are apt to settle. Now as to the sort of
men who should go. The farm labourer, the unemployed
artisan, and, generally, everyone who has the use of a pair of
strong arms and the will to use them, is safe enough. He will
not make his position worse, and he is almost sure to make
it better. The well-paid artisan should be more careful. He
may find that nominally higher wages are balanced by larger
necessary outlay, and he ought to inquire carefully before he
breaks with his old connections. As to the class of young

EMIGBATION 207
men of higher education it is difficult to advise. They may
not mind roughing it, but the necessary absence of intellectual
pursuits and congenial society are heavy drawbacks. Many
such, I fancy, go out who might have done as well at home if
they had been willing to live the same sort of life and do the
same sort of work that is forced upon them in the Colonies.
I do not discourage them, but I say tha.t the sacrifice imposed
upon them is heavier than that made by young men who
have been differently trained. Even a freehold farm and an
abundance of plain food may be bought too dear. The three
main requisites for a successful colonist are these — he should
be young, poor, and energetic. The last is the most important
of the three. Let no man think of going out who is not
prepared to do a hard day's work. Colonial employers give
ample wages, but they expect good work in return. There is
no room for that rather large class, with whom we are familiar
at home, who go about asking for work, but hoping that they
will not find it — whose chief employment, in fact, consists in
being one of the unemployed.
That remark leads me to what is the chief difficulty of the
emigration question. I mean the danger of exciting colonial
jealousy by pouring in too many emigrants, or emigrants of
an unsuitable kind. In every self-governed colony, as we
know, the working classes are masters, and laws are mainly
formed to suit their convenience. It cannot be otherwise.
Now, their obvious interest, at least for the moment, is not to
admit too many competitors for employment. They have
got a good thing in the shape of high wages, and they mean
to stick to it. I have no hesitation in saying that, if any
scheme were started with the help of the State, such as
benevolent persons often suggest, which should pour, say
100,000 settlers yearly into Australia or Canada, that proposal
would be met by legislation of some kind in the colony affected
with the view of checking an influx of population larger than
could be easily absorbed ; and, of course, the cry would be
louder if among so large a number there were found, as almost
inevitably must happen, a certain proportion of paupers.

208 EMIGBATION
loafers, and bad characters. We have to be extremely care
ful not to irritate the colonial susceptibility on that point.
The colonist will only take our best men, and he does not
want too many of them. The existence of that feeling, to
my mind, is conclusive against great and ambitious schemes
of colonisation. It is also a strong reason for taking all
possible precautions that the emigrant on landing shall know
where to go to find employment at once. If he is seen loafing
about helplessly, although only for a few days, immediately
the cry will be raised, 'England is at her old game, dumping
down her paupers here.'
Now, the society on behalf of which I am speaking takes
special care to avoid that danger. It keeps up communication
with the Colonies, so that the emigrant when he lands finds
himself at once amongst friends. It advances him part of the
cost of his passage, and it is said that in many cases the loan
is repaid. My experience of loans would not lead me to be
sanguine on that score, but I defer to the opinion of those
who ought to know best. But the main benefit which it
confers is this. Besides help in money, it tells the mtending
emigrant — who generaUy knows as much about the Colonies
as he does about the moon — where he had better go, what he
must take with him, and to whom he is to address himself,
and so he is saved from that unpleasant and bewildering
sensation, unpleasant even to educated people, and far worse
to the ignorant and simple, of being on a continent where he
knows nobody, where nobody knows him, and where he is
liable to have his ignorance taken advantage of in various
ways. Emigration must always be a wrench. It involves a
lifelong parting of families, and a separation from old friends
and old associations. But the suffering may be diminished if
the emigrant finds on the other side a warm welcome, and the
assurance that a place is ready for him. Those wants the
society on behalf of which I am speaking can supply, and will
supply, but upon one condition — that you in your turn wUl
supply its wants, and will help it to get fairly started on its
way.

EMIGBATION 209
I hardly know whether it is worth while to discuss the
objection that what we want is home colonisation — the settling
of people on unoccupied lands — rather than emigration beyond
seas. In the first place, there is room for both, for one does
not exclude the other. Let every man ride his own hobby
as long as he does not try to ride over his neighbour. In the
next place, schemes of what is called ' home colonisation '
are various, but not, in general, promising. One of the
favourite ideas of their promoters is to take the people who
have faUed in other occupations and to plant them on land
which professional farmers have not been able to utilise. The
least effective part of the population is to be put on the least
productive part of the soil. I am not sanguine as to the
success of projects of that kind, though, as a land-owner, I am
glad of anything that increases the demand for land. But if a
man can get a hundred acres in Canada for less than he would
have to pay for ten acres here, I think he had better move. I
believe that emigration, guided and directed as it is in the
case of this society, is at least a partial remedy for existing
difficulties. If any one has a better plan, let him pursue it ;
if not, let him help us.

VOL. II.

210

LXXII
HOME BULE— THE LIBEBAL UNIONIST PABTY—
LOCAL INDEPENDENCE— TENDENCIES OF AN
IBISH PABLIAMENT— THE BELATIONS OF ENG
LAND AND IBELAND— HOME BULE FALLACIES
—THE UNION— THE POLICY OF THE UNIONISTS
Ashton-undee-Lyne : January 28, 1889
I AM honoured by your invitation, and grateful for your
reception ; but honoured and grateful as I am, I claim some
merit for coming here, for you have asked me to speak to you
on the Irish question, and no sense of the importance of the
issue can destroy the feeling that to speak upon Home Eule is
to travel over very familiar ground, and to enforce arguments
which many of you must have heard quite often enough.
Still, you have asked me, I have accepted, and I wUl do what
is possible. I begin by noticing one fallacy which is con
stantly repeated, and not perhaps as often refuted as it might
be. We who stand here as Liberal Unionists are perpetuaUy
spoken of by our present opponents as men who have seceded
from the Liberal cause — who dislike reforms which would
hurt us personally or as a class, and who have taken
advantage of a plausible pretext to leave the Liberal camp.
That kind of talk is wholly absurd when applied to men hke
Mr. Chamberlain and others whom I could name, to whom,
by the very constitution of their minds, it would be impossible
to see public affairs except from a democratic point of view.
But I do not dwell upon the personal question. I say that we
have objected to the Home Eule proposal because we are
Liberals-— that we dislike it, not as an extreme and revolu-

LOCAL INDEPENDENCE 211
tionary measure, but as a reactionary measure; and that
the main stream of Liberal opinion throughout the world
is with us, who want to keep these two islands together —
not with those who desire, wholly or partially, to disunite
them. Let me explain what I mean. The struggle between the
central power on the one hand, and local independence on the
other, is not confined to our own country. It goes on, more
or less, everywhere. Look at Italy as one example. You
have in Italy States and provinces which, for antiquity, fame,
and the part which they have played in history, are certainly
more entitled to separate national existence than any part of
Ireland. Milan, Genoa, Venice, Florence, Naples, are at any
rate not inferior to Dublin ; but ask any Italian what he has
to say to a proposal to establish a federal system in Italy, with
Home Eule for each of those great cities, which formerly,
remember, were great States. Why, he would laugh in your
face. He would tell you, ' My good friend, whether you know
it or not, you are proposing exactly what the Pope, and the
Cardinals, and the supporters of the old regime would like
best. Under a Constitution such as you suggest there would
very soon be an end of united Italy. We, who are Liberals
and Italians, shall resist it to the death.' Take Germany.
You wUl find that what every Liberal there desires is gradually
and cautiously to lessen the power of the several States, and
to increase that of the Imperial authorities. The supporters
¦of the opposite view are invariably, as I believe, members of
the Conservative, or even of the retrograde, section. Take
Switzerland. In the little civil war which went on there some
forty years ago, the Liberals were for the central authority ;
the Clericals were on the side of the resisting cantons which
stood on the ground of their separate State rights. Take
America. On the one great political issue with which the
United States have had to deal during their century of
existence, the supporters of State rights were also the sup
porters of negro slavery, and the opponents of State rights
were the authors of emancipation. In France, with its
p 2

212 TENDENCIES OF AN IBISH PABLIAMENT
centralised administration, the question has scarcely arisen,
but it was once raised in the midst of the great revolution
of ninety years ago, when one party — the Girondins — was
accused of desiring to substitute the federal system for the
existing unity. The charge was probably unfounded, but so
far was it from being thought to be connected with progres
sive or Liberal ideas that it contributed not a little to destroy
the political leaders against whom it was made. The party
lost power, and the chiefs lost their heads. I will not multi
ply examples, but I lay it down, and I challenge Home Eulers
to show the contrary, that as a rule throughout the civilised
world in modern times, wherever, in any country, the attempt
has been made to weaken the central power of the State in
order to strengthen that of some particular province, the
progressive party has been found on the opposing side.
If you think this argument too theoretical, take the
particular case before us. We cannot, of course, predict in
fallibly what the tendencies of an Irish Parliament would be
in all respects, but of some of them we may be absolutely cer
tain. I have never found anyone who denied that one of the
strongest desires of the Irish National party was to encourage
their home industries by protective duties. I have never heard
it questioned that an Irish Parliament elected by popular
constituencies would on most questions — I do not say on aU,
but especially where education and social life were concerned
— be mainly in the hands of the Catholic priests. That may
not be the feeling of the leaders, but it would be the feehng of
the masses. On those two points, if evidence were wanted, I
might call as witnesses the authors of the BUl of 1886 ; for
they proposed expressly to debar the Irish Parliament from
the right either of imposing customs duties or of endowing
any religious body. It would be easy to show that the safe
guard proposed in each case would have been purely illusory,
but that is not my present object. I mention that fact in
order to show that, in the view of Mr. Gladstone and his then
colleagues, the danger was one to be guarded against, for if
there were no real danger, why impose what must necessarily

TENDENCIES OF AN IBISH PABLIAMENT 213
be an unpopular restriction ? Then there are questions of
foreign policy. Is it certain or probable that Irish and
English ideas wUl be the same on these questions ? Suppose
we had had an Irish Parliament thirty years ago, when
Garibaldi was the hero of the hour and all English Liberals
talked enthusiastically about Italian liberation, do you think
the Irish Parliament would not have tried to make its
infiuence felt in an opposite direction, and to save the
temporal power of the Pope ? It is as certain as anything
in politics can be that the Irish ideas which we Liberal
Unionists are censured for not accepting will include in com
merce, protection ; in regard to education and social questions,
clericalism pushed to the utmost ; in foreign affairs, an
Ultramontane policy. Are any of those ideas part of the
Liberal programme, or is it in the interests of Liberalism, as
the word is common^ understood, that they should prevail ?
From measures pass to men — to the leaders of opinion
and action in Ireland. Of them we have some materials
for judging. We know what the Irish members in the
House of Commons are. They have the strongest induce
ment to conduct themselves courteously and temperately
there ; for they are on their good behaviour ; they repre
sent their country and their cause in English eyes ; and
they are quite acute enough to know how powerful an argu
ment for Irish self-government it would be if they could be
pointed to as men worthy to legislate for and to administer
an important State. But what do we find ? They vary,
no doubt. Dr. Tanner and some others whom I could
name may not be quite fair samples ; but take the most
active and eloquent among them, are they exactly the sort
of people on whose judgment we should like implicitly to
rely ? I do not denounce them or criticise them, but if any
one were to say that they are peculiar products of an imper
fect civilisation his description would not err on the side of
severity. What reason have we to suppose that Irishmen
elected to serve at Dublin will show higher or better qualities
than those elected to serve at Westminster ? Here they are

214 BELATIONS OF ENGLAND AND IBELAND
restrained to a certain extent by English opinion — ahen
opinion, they would call it — at home they will create opinion.
Is the opinion they will create likely to be of a healthy or
civilised kind ? You can answer that question for your
selves. I will not go again over that often-trodden ground of the
equal impossibility of admitting the Irish members to an
English Parliament, or of excluding them from it, if Ireland
is to have a Legislature of its own. If you exclude them, Ire
land becomes a mere dependency of England on all foreign
or Imperial questions ; if you include them, which is the
present proposal, you must do that which Mr. Gladstone de
clared less than three years ago to be impracticable — you
must draw a line of distinction between English and Imperial
questions, besides other inconveniences which would be fatal
to good administration and to the working of Parliamentary
government. I will not pursue that argument, because I
dwelt upon it just a month ago before another audience, and,
though we have had various speeches on the Home Eule side
since then, I have not seen any answer even attempted. My
conviction is — and I speak of it not as a thing probable, but
as a thing certain — that if unhappily the English people de
termined on giving Ireland a Legislature of its own, there
would be no rest, no halting-place, until the Parliament of
Dublin was invested with all the powers of the Parhament of
Westminster. No doubt that would not mean formal sepa
ration, the Queen would still be sovereign in Ireland, but
practically it would be separation, for, under Parliamentary
government, the Crown can only act on Ministerial advice, and
the Minister can only advise the policy which is advocated
or supported by Parliament.
I know what is said on the other side. We are told
there may be difficulties in the relations of the two countries,
but at least they will be reconciled ; gratitude will smooth
the way and make all easy ! That is a fine topic for those
who are given to gush. Well, I am not so cynical as to
dispute the efficacy of gratitude as a motive power where

BELATIONS OF ENGLAND AND IBELAND 215
individuals are concerned, but I do not think it exercises much
influence over nations. What is more, I do not think it
ought. Statesmen are trustees for the nation they serve, and
they have no more right to compromise the national interest,
or what they consider such, in order to gratify their own
feelings, than they would have to give away in charity an
estate which they held in trust. Any way, the fact is as I
state. Instances are innumerable, but one is enough. Look
at the present relations between France and Italy. They are
hardly amicable — certainly not cordial. Everybody knows
that but for the armed intervention of France thirty years ago
a united Italy would not have been created, yet at this moment
if a European war broke out, it is more likely than not that
Italy would range herself on the side opposed to that taken
by France. How would it be with Ireland ? That a semi-
independent Ireland will waive all further claims in deference
and in compliment to us is a wild expectation. The more
probable result would be that an Irish Executive would watch
for the first opportunity when we were in serious trouble, and
then ask for complete freedom. In fact, that is exactly what
they did more than a hundred years ago. Ireland had then a
Parliament with limited powers. Ireland wanted those powers
extended, and the opportunity was seized, when English
strength and military resources were well-nigh exhausted by
the American war, to enforce her claim by creating an army
of Irish Volunteers to which nothing at that moment could
have been opposed.
Many people look to the American precedent, and ask why
Ireland should not be placed, as regards us, in the position of
a State in the American Union. That is a plausible suggestion,
but it will not bear looking into. The fact is that federal
union between two countries of very unequal importance is a
practical impossibility. Federation is possible — it is even
easy — between several States of which no one is powerful when
compared to the whole. No one in New York, or Virginia, or
California can reasonably feel aggrieved because wishes which
prevail in his own State are overruled by a majority amongst

jlj. \yj.KJ.j^ xt< \j ±jjjj JJ £X±jj-iJn.\jj^J.

the sixty miUions of people and the thirty-eight States which form
the American Union. But where you have only two communities
to deal with, the case is different. There is no third party to
mediate. Supposing them to pull different ways, either one must
give way to the other, or they must split. A split is, of course,
impossible in the Irish case. It is equally out of the ques
tion that thirty-three or thirty-four millions of people should
follow the lead of less than five millions. The onlv possible

THE UNION 217
Ireland has never been, in any recognised sense of the word,
a nation, except as an English dependency. You hear a great
deal about Grattan's Parliament — the Irish Parliament that
existed from 1782 to 1801, and of which I spoke just now.
WeU, that Parliament is a curious one for Celtic patriots to
appeal to. It was a Parliament composed entirely of Pro
testants, no Catholics sat in it. It passed, I believe, fifty-four
distinct Acts of the kind now called Coercion Acts. It began
in one revolution — for the Volunteer movement of '82 was
really a revolution, though no blood was shed— and it ended
after the putting down of an insurrection which cost thousands
of lives, and which has left bitter memories to this day. It
would be as reasonable for the negro of the Southern States
of America to identify himself with the white planters and
slave-owners who were in power there before the War of
Secession, as for the Celtic peasant to profess sympathy with
or regret for the Irish Parliament of the last century. And,
as a fact, I do not believe that it was regretted by the mass of
the Irish people.
Irish history is fertile in fiction, but even in Irish history
no transaction has been so unceasingly misrepresented as that
of the Union. It is described as having been carried by a
mixture of force and corruption. The fact is that it was
naturally and vehemently opposed in Ireland by the governing
classes, who had a monopoly of power and wanted to keep it,
but that it was unpopular with the nation there is no proof
whatever. If the wise counsels of Pitt had prevailed, if the
•emancipation of the Catholics had gone hand in hand with the
transfer of legislative power, it would have been accepted as
a benefit. The misfortune and the fault was allowing that
necessary measure of conciliation to be delayed for a quarter
of a century, and to be carried at last only out of fear lest a
civil war should break out. It was a right act when done, but
it was done too late, and done with wrong motives assigned.
You hear a great deal of bribery being employed to carry the
Act of Union. WeU, there was always plenty of jobbing in
Irish politics, and never probably was it worse than in

218 THE UNION
Grattan's Parliament ; and I do not doubt that a good many
patriots jumped at the opportunity of feathering their nests at
the public expense. Perhaps there are a few who would do
the same thing now. But the transaction which is most often
referred to — I mean the million and a quarter voted for buying
up the rotten boroughs — was not a case of bribery at aU. Many
of the seats in the Irish Parliament were what in those days
were called pocket boroughs — that is, they were absolutely in
the hands of" one, or two, or three, or half a dozen men. Of
course, that was an abuse, but it was an abuse which had
grown up in course of time, which existed equally in England,
which the public had always tolerated ; and when these pocket
boroughs were swept away their owners were compensated for
the loss of what had come to be considered as property.
Whether that were right or wrong, it is a fact that a large
part of the compensation money — I believe over a thhd of the
whole — went to persons who opposed and resisted the Union
to the last. You can hardly have clearer evidence that there
was no bribery in the case : you do not pay a man a bribe
when you know he is voting against you.
I should not trouble you with all this ancient history now
if so much were not made of it by the other side. For my
own part, I do not think that the question how the Union was
carried is a very material one. Many acts have been done in
public life which it would be impossible to defend on the score
of justice, but of which the remote consequences have been of
benefit to mankind. To take only one instance, we may think
— most of us do think — our Indian Empire a benefit to those
whom we govern ; but we need not, therefore, justify all the
acts of Clive and Hastings, by whom mainly that Emphe was
acquired. There is a more practical question to consider.
What have the results of the Union been ? What is the state
of Ireland compared with what it was ninety years ago?
Now, on that point we can give a certain and positive answer.
In regard to health and comfort and education, and ah
material advantages, the progress of Ireland has been rapid
and remarkable. I could give statistical proof of that in

IBISH GBIEVANCES 219
plenty, but statistics are a weariness, and the fact, I suppose,
is not disputed. No doubt the population has not increased,
and for the same reason which has caused it to diminish in
the purely agricultural districts of England. Men go where
there is work to be got, and that is mainly in the towns. Ire
land has no coal, and therefore has very few manufactures ;
but nobody denies that the Irish masses, however poor they
may still be, according to our standard, are living under con
ditions which they would have thought luxurious fifty years
ago ; and that connects itself with another question not,
perhaps, as often touched upon by speakers on this subject
as it might be.
What are the grievances for which we are asked to provide
so very sweeping a remedy as a complete change in our Con
stitution ? I have read most of the speeches that have been
delivered by those who may be called representative men, and
I have not got much light on this subject. I find a good deal
of declamation, but very little argument. A stranger who
should hear of this controversy for the first time would
naturally say to the Irish representatives, ' I suppose you have
some complaints which the Parliament at Westminster wUl
not listen to, and for which you are afraid you will never get
a hearing, except through a Parliament of your own.' Now,
to that I should like to know what the Irish answer would be.
The Protestant Church, which used to be foremost in the list
of grievances, is disestablished and disendowed ; the land
question has been dealt with in a spirit of even extreme
liberality to the tenant, for nobody who knows anything about
land will deny that rents as fixed by the Land Commissioners
are exceedingly low. If more freedom of local government is
asked for, that would notoriously have been granted long ago
if the question had not been complicated by the larger issues
now raised, and it will be granted when the present agitation
has subsided. If admission to public employment is in ques
tion, Ireland enjoys not merely equality, but favour, for if an
Englishman were by chance appointed to any local office in
Ireland, there would be a howl of indignation, whereas nobody

'220 THE WISHES OF IBELAND
thinks of complaining because an Irishman is simUarly em
ployed in England. And let me just say, in passing, that this
cry of ' Ireland for the Irish, Scotland for the Scotch, Wales
for the Welsh,' is a dangerous one to raise. Nobody has yet
cared to meet it by a counter-demand of ' England for the
English,' and I hope we shall not do so ; but if that reply were
provoked, and took a practical form, I do not think the mmor
nationalities would be the gainers.
There is another question, again, which our Home Eule
friends are not fond of grappling with. If we are to govern
Ireland according to the wish of the Irish people, must we
not first find out what that wish is ? I am not here to deny
that a considerable numerical majority are ready to vote for
something which they call Home Eule. That is certain, but
how many of those have any definite ideas of what they want ?
Ask a peasant, and he would probably tell you frankly that he
wants Ireland to be independent. Ask a priest, and if you
get a plain answer from him, which you probably would not,
he would tell you that he meant the supremacy of the Cathohc
religion. Ask a tenant farmer, and he would say that he
wanted to hold his farm without paying rent for it ; we know
the phrase, ' prairie value,' which is an ingenious euphemism
for no value at all. But if Home Eule were explained to them
as English Home Eulers explain it, that nothmg more is in
tended than a Parliament which should after all be liable to
be overridden in case of need by the Parliament at West
minster, are you sure that a majority of the Irish nation
would care to vote for that ? It they did, it could only be in
the expectation that things would not end there, and that in
the long run they would get all they wished for, and one-third
of Ireland, that part which is thoroughly loyal and weU-
affected, would feel itself sacrificed, and be irritated and
exasperated beyond measure. You would be disgusting one-
third of the people in order to disappoint the other two-thirds.
Then we are pressed with another argument, which I know
has weight with many people — what I call the argument from
despair. They say — people have said it to me — 'Yes, it is a

BE8ISTANCE TO HOME BULE 221
bad job ; we do not deny that very likely inconveniences which
you expect from repeal of the Union will foUow, but what
choice have we? What is the alternative? We cannot go
on fighting and quarrelling as we are doing now.' Now, I
admit there is a certain force in that contention, but I think
there is an answer to it. Look to the United States. In the
last generation Liberal speakers were never tired, in any
question to which precedents could be made to apply, of
quoting the precedent of America. It is a curious sign of the
times that Conservative speakers do so now, and perhaps
rather more of the two. Well, look, I say, to the United
States. They had a great and sanguinary civil war not thirty
years ago. Whether the Irish patriots are in earnest or not,
there is no doubt the patriots of the Southern States were
desperately in earnest. Whatever we may think of their
cause, they fought like men. Seldom was a more unequal
struggle so long protracted. They were beaten ; they were-
compeUed to submit. Many people thought — I am not
ashamed to say that I was one of them — that, conquered as
the Southerners might be, and incapable of resisting force by
force, they would long continue irreconcilable, and that they
would be a permanent trouble and danger to their conquerors.
What happened? Why, they accepted the situation, they
submitted to the Union, and no Southerner now dreams of
the renewal of a secession movement.
Well, why should not the followers of Mr. Parnell, or
rather the followers of Mr. DUlon, Mr. O'Brien, and Mr.
Davitt— for outside Parliament they are the real movers —
show as much sense as the followers of Jefferson Davis and
of Lee ? There is only one thing necessary, and that is that
they should know the decision of this country to be final, and
recognise the fact that their cause is lost. We all reconcile
ourselves, a little sooner or a little later, to what we know to-
be inevitable. This agitation will live so long as we in England
and Scotland hold out hopes of its success. If we make up
our minds to resist it we shall find that it has very little
vitality.

¦222 THE POLICY OF THE UNIONISTS
EecoUect, again, the precedent of Scotland. The Scotch,
when they united with us, had really much to sacrifice. They
had maintained their independence, which Ireland never did.
They had enjoyed for centuries an organised Government and
a recognised nationality. Their statesmen saw the advantages
of union with England, but among the masses through nearly
the whole of the last century it was quite as unpopular as the
Irish Union is in Ireland. Yet no Scotchman now, except a
handful of Celtic enthusiasts in the Highlands, wants a separate
Parliament for Scotland. What has reconciled them ? Only
fair treatment, the lapse of time, and the conviction that what
was done so long ago cannot now be undone. Why is that
which happened in Scotland impossible to the Irish ? They
cannot be more tenaciously patriotic. We all know what a
Scotchman is in that respect. They may have less political
wisdom and judgment, but that is a plea which will hardly be
X3ut forward by their friends.
Now, I may be asked a question. I may be told, ' You
have objected to one policy, but you have not offered one
instead : you have not told us what you would do.' WeU, in
the first place, I would do what is being done now, enforce
the law steadily, firmly, and calmly. Do not believe what
people tell you when they say that that is not democratic
doctrine. Anarchy is not democracy. Anarchy is the negation
of democracy. Anarchy and despotism have a good deal in
¦common, for both rest on force, but democratic communities
affirm as their leading principle respect for the wUl of the
majority embodied in the law. And with our franchise such
as it is now, no man can seriously contend that the views of
Parliament are not the views of the people. Of this I am
sure — that in no country in the world would as much toleration
have been shown for men who openly announce their intention
of defying the law as has been shown in Ireland. Eepubhcan
France, Eepubhcan America, would have made very short
work of men whose excesses we have treated till lately with
almost contemptuous indifference. Then we are told that the
-enforcement of the law is coercion, and that is a name so

THE POLICY OF THE UNIONISTS 223
horrible that merely to mention it is condemnation enough.
WeU, I hope we have too much sense in these parts to be
governed by phrases and frightened by nicknames. What
does coercion mean? It means that people are coerced to
obey the law ; and so they must be everywhere and always, if
civUisation is to exist at all. Wherever you have a court of
law to appeal to, there must be a power behind it to enforce
its decrees. And that is coercion.
I cannot conceive how English politicians, with the
traditions of order that prevail in this country, should lend
themselves, as some do, to apologise for and to defend Irish
outrages and Irish lawlessness. Is the cause a good one ?
The right to live in another man's house without paying for
the use of it is hardly a right for which one would think
Englishmen should care to make themselves martyrs, and if
the teaching of the Irish agitators is to prevail it will apply
to a good deal more besides the land. No contract will be
possible, no debt will be secure, credit will disappear, and
where credit disappears capital is apt to follow. I repeat,
then, the first duty of the State, in the interests of the Irish
themselves, is to steadily enforce the law, while not refusing
to amend it if reasonable cause can be shown. In the next
place, I think the policy ought to be persevered in of helping
tenants to buy their farms. Every freeholder so created is
an enemy to further agitation, and that is why the Land
Purchase Act, just passed, has been so bitterly opposed, though
it only professed to do on a much more modest scale what
Mr. Gladstone himself proposed to do on a gigantic scale in
his Bill of 1886. Lastly, much as I dislike State interference
and State assistance where they can be dispensed with, the
case of Ireland is so exceptional that I should not grudge help
to Irish industries where it could be given at no excessive cost.
There are many ways in which that may be done without
violating any economical law ; and depend upon it, an Irish
man who has work enough to do, and good pay for doing it,
wiU not trouble his head much about Emmett, and Tone, and
Fitzgerald, and the glorious memories of '98. But for the

224 THE POLICY OF THE UNIONISTS
land question, the question of nationality would never have
been serious. Settle the one, and you take the sting out of
the other.
I have troubled you too long. My excuse must be that
I have only obeyed your wish, and that no question equalling
in magnitude this question of union or disunion has been
raised in our time. I will not affirm that a wrong decision
will land us in a civil war, but I do say that it will place us
in a position from which we shall be singularly skilful, or
singularly fortunate, if we extricate ourselves without blood
shed. The next few years must decide the question. The
decision does not rest with any public man, or with any Govern
ment. It rests with us ; it rests with you ; it rests with every
one who has a voice or a vote. And where such issues are
concerned it is not enough to be calmly neutral or carelessly
friendly. In the face of public danger — and such danger is
before us — action, energetic action, is a duty ; indifference
and apathy are crimes.

225

LXXIII
TECHNICAL ED UCATION—GOMPETITI VE
EXAMINATIONS
Peeston : Januaey 31, 1889
I KBCEivED your invitation to come here and to attend this
meeting with very mixed feelings. On the one hand, I could
not but feel it an honour and a pleasure to take part in a
useful work of this kind, especially in a town with which
I have so many connections, both personal and hereditary.
On the other hand, I could not but feel that if what you want
is a lecture on technical instruction, which will tell you any
thing new and valuable, you have come to the wrong man.
First, because if novelty on such a subject is not absolutely
impossible, it is possible only to those who have more practical
knowledge than I can claim ; and next, because discussion is
useless and unmeaning where there is no difference, where
there is nothing to contend for on the one hand, and no
thing to oppose on the other. Now, in this matter of tech
nical instruction we are all on one side. Some of us expect
much from it, and some of us little. Some have faith in
theory, and some in rule of thumb. That is a difference of
view which we find everywhere, but in the main we are
agreed. The most eager educationists would not tell you that
school teaching can supersede the actual practical training of
the workshop, the farm, or the office. The most obstinate
sceptic would scarcely argue that a lad is the worse for
knowing something more of the general principles on which
he is working than he can learn in the ordinary routine of his
business. VOL. II. Q

226 TECHNICAL EDUCATION
I speak cautiously, because every good cause is liable to be
injured by exaggeration, and that is peculiarly true in such
matters as these. I have listened to speeches and read
addresses which seem to imply a belief that a ploughman
would draw a straighter furrow if he knew the geology of the
soil on which he was working, and that a loom would be more
carefully tended if the factory hand attending it were well up
in the natural history of the cotton plant. Now, if we want
to be believed we must keep to what is probable, and,
speaking as an outsider in this matter, I should say that
the strongest argument, to my mind, in favour of technical
training is this, that every nation which is our rival in
productive arts has gone in for it zealously. I can under
stand a soldier of the old school seeing no good in breech
loaders and magazine rifles and all the new arms of precision,
but I can scarcely imagine that any one would deny the
necessity of introducing those weapons when he knew that
every army with which his own could be brought into
collision was adopting them. It is an old story that we are
competing with all the world, that the competition is hkely to
be more severe than ever, that in many cases it is fed and
stimulated by English capital, and that we shall probably be
harder put to it than we have ever been yet to hold our own.
The Americans would have been far more dangerous rivals
than they are if they had not — in the spirit, let us hope, of
pure generosity — handicapped themselves by a protectionist
system which has gone far to neutralise their many advan
tages. That system wiU not last for ever, and when it
ceases we shall have even more trouble with them than we
have now.
You may ask. What is the particular deficiency in our
training which needs to be supplied ? Well, I suspect that we
do not always realise the change which has come over busmess
in these later days. Men require to be more specially trained
to it. They require, for dealings abroad, more knowledge of
foreign languages than is usually got in the course of an
English education. They require also more knowledge of the

TECHNICAL EDUCATION 227
demands of foreign countries, and more readiness to adapt
themselves to the supply of those demands. It is said— I
speak only at second hand of such matters, but our Consuls
frequently repeat it— that we lose a great deal of business
which we might keep or acquire by either not knowing or not
•caring what it is exactly that the foreign customer asks for ;
that we do not like to be put out of our way, or disturbed in
¦our accustomed routine, and that we are apt to supply rather
what we think our customers ought to want than what they
reaUy do want. If that be so, it is exactly the sort of
prejudice that a more extended and more thorough commercial
¦education would remove. I believe that what I am saying is
tolerably familiar to those who have been led by their business
-or their tastes to look into this subject. At any rate, the
English public have felt the difficulty of the situation ; they
have felt that they cannot afford to throw away a chance, and,
however much may still remain to be done, I doubt if there is
.any country where the provision for technical instruction has
been more rapidly increased during the last few years than in
England. Teaching of the kind is not open to any of the ob
jections which are frequently brought against our ordinary
school system. If I rightly understand what it means, and
in what it consists, it does not admit of cramming, that much
•abused practice to which so many reasonable and so many
unreasonable objections have been taken. It does not involve
the constant appeal to memory, and nothing but memory,
which is the weak point of our literary schooling. You teach
lads in these schools to do something, and to understand what
they are doing. Now, I think it is a rule without exception,
that whereas facts, or figures, or names, or definitions which
are merely swallowed down, and which require no action
beyond that of learning or remembering them, get speedily
forgotten, what you learn to do is a possession retained for
life. The books read at school leave a very dim impression
after twenty or thirty years ; but nobody who has learnt to
ride, to row, to swim, to skate, to play cricket, or to speak a
foreign language ever entirely forgets his skill. It may get
a 2

228 COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS
rusty from disuse, but he soon regains it if wanted, and I
suppose it is the same with drawing, with music, and with all
other work in which the hand has a share as well as the head.
And I think, further, that it is the general experience that
whereas learning, where the memory alone comes into play, is
to most people tedious, unless the subject be one of excep
tional interest, learning to do something, no matter what,
where a certain degree of skill and practice are necessary, is
to most people agreeable rather than otherwise. Early lessons
in drawing, I know, are often remembered with pleasure ; so
is the learning to speak and write a new language ; but no
body, as far as I know, has connected pleasing associations
with the memory of the Latin grammar.
Now, I do not know whether I shall be diverging too
widely from the immediate subject before me if I make a
few remarks on one closely connected with it, which of late
has attracted a good deal of attention. You cannot have
teaching of any kind without examinations in some form, and
a storm of controversy has lately raged, perhaps is stUl raging,
round the question whether or not examinations have been a
success. That is a question of large public interest ; for if
we were to condemn them as a system the relations of the
school to the State would be profoundly altered ; and as
regards public patronage, we should lose what is at any rate
an effective check upon jobbery and a security against absolute
stupidity in those who succeed. I believe that checks upon
public patronage were never likely to be more wanted than
now. The danger is not the same as it was forty years
ago. It comes from a different quarter. When we first
heard of appointments to be made by competition, what
reformers were afraid of was the undue influence of peers
and rich men and Members of Parliament. That is a very
shadowy danger now; but things wiU not be better if for their
influence be substituted that of election agents and wire
pullers. The fatal phrase of the American President Jackson,
some sixty years ago, that ' to the victor belongs the spoUs,'^

COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS 229
has, by the common consent of aU inteUigent Americans, done
more harm to their administrative system tha.n any other
event in their history, because it means that the efficiency of
the CivU Service is to be subordinated to the interests of party
politics. That is a risk which we must avoid at aU hazards.
We have probably now the best and purest Civil Service that
exists in the world, and we have got to keep it so. I believe
that our present arrangements do effectually check jobbery,
and that is a merit which makes up for many defects.
Some of the faults which may be found in the competitive
system I have no hesitation in declaring to be imaginary.
You see frightful pictures drawn of the health of young men
destroyed by excessive competition and overwork. I will
venture to assert that for one young man whose health has
suffered from those causes, you will find half a dozen who
have suffered from idleness, and from the habits of life which
idleness in young men is always sure to produce. There is
no better securitj^ for steadiness of conduct in a young man
than regular work for a definite object. He cannot afford to
play tricks with himself, or do anything which may unfit him
physically or mentally for the time of trial. I do not tell you
that there are no instances in which mischief has been done
by over-study, but I think it will almost always be found,
where that has happened, that it is due to one of two causes :
either the youth is too weak physically to bear any strain
—and in that case failure at an examination is only a fair
warning of the more serious failure to which he would be
liable in active life — or, which I suspect is the more common
cause, he has been badly prepared or disinclined to work, or
has been brought prematurely into the field, and then has
tried to make up in a few months the ground which ought to
have been covered by the work of years. Given a sound mind
and body to begin with, and the exercise of ordinary care
and prudence, I do not believe that there is anything unwhole
some in competitive examination, and the best proof of it is
that most of our successful lawyers and professional men have

230 COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS
gone through that ordeal, and that most of those who have-
taken the highest University degrees have been distinguished
in later life, except when, as often happens, they were content
with some quiet and useful employment, not caring to try for
the big prizes.
But it cannot, I think, be denied that in these sweeping
denunciations which we have heard of the competitive system
as now administered, there is a certain admixture of truth.
Two evils it undoubtedly has — one, I am afraid, not capable
of amendment, but inherent in the very nature of things ; the
other remediable, if not wholly, yet to a great extent. What is
incurable is this, that where a very large number of candidates
have to be examined at the same time, the process is neces
sarily a rough and ready one, leaving a good deal to chance ;
because the full extent of a man's or even of a boy's know
ledge cannot be really tested by half a dozen examination
papers, and the time necessary for a complete and therefore
absolutely fair comparison cannot be given. That is a weak
point in the system, and, as far as I can see, it must remain
so — at least, no remedy occurs to me. The other fault which
I find is that, under examination tests as now applied, memory
is apt to be too exclusively relied upon, that the question is
not so much what the student understands as v\hat he can
recollect ; and then come in all the dodges of cramming and
all the attendant abuses of which we hear so much, and which
I think really are abuses, though they may be exaggerated in
popular report. These are days in which we hold commissions
of inquiry upon everything. As a rule not much comes of
them except the multiplication of Blue Books. But that
makes no difference ; there are always people ready to serve
on them ; and though I rather shrmk from suggesting an
addition to the number, yet possibly a thorough overbauhng
of our examination system might serve the double purpose of
silencing wUd and fantastic objections and bringing to light
incidental errors.
I am afraid this is rather a digression from our proper-
subject, but I trust to your kindness to excuse it, the more

COMPETITIVE EXAMINATIONS 231
so because in this institution, as everywhere else, you have
examinations, and, in fact, to carry on any plan of teaching
without them, whatever the subject-matter may be, would be
like carrying on a business without keeping accounts. You
must have some means of testing the work which you are
doing, and no other or better has yet been devised.

232

LXXIV
THE HOUSE OF LOBDS
London : Apeil 12, 1889
I EisE to return thanks for that branch of the Legislature
with which accident and the British Constitution have caused
me to be connected. There are others who but for Parha
mentary etiquette would be more entitled to reply to this
toast. They sit by a prouder title than I can boast, for they
sit in virtue of their own personal achievements, whereas I
can only claim to sit by an inherited title. Whatever else
may be noticeable about the House of Lords,' one thing is
certain : we are the best-abused legislative body in Europe.
Ever since I can remember anything connected with politics,
I have heard it said sometimes that the House of Lords did
nothing, and sometimes that it did mischief, and our early
extinction has been prophesied on the rather incompatible
grounds occasionally that we were useless, and occasionaUy
that we were dangerous ; but, somehow or other, we have
continued to exist, and not only to exist, but to flourish. I
sometimes think that we are like the Leaning Tower of Pisa,
which looks to anybody who sees it for the first time as if it
were going to tumble down at once, but which has, neverthe
less, contrived to hold its own for generations.
I fancy that most persons who have studied the subject
will agree with me that there are many reforms in the con
stitution of the House of Lords which might be usefully
adopted, but it is only justice to ourselves to say that the
great difficulty in the way of adopting those useful and
' See vol. i. pp. 46, 101, for other speeches on the subject.

THE HOUSE OF LOBDS 233
necessary reforms has not lain in any opposition within our
own body, but rather in the jealousy of those outside, who do
not desire to see any changes made which would create a
stronger Second Chamber than now exists. I am not going
into that question, and for my own part I am not very deeply
concerned as to the particular manner in which a Second
Chamber is constituted. It seems to be a difficult thing to do,
for modern attempts to do it have for the most part failed ;
but the great thing is that you should have something in the
nature of a Second Chamber — that I do believe in. No man,
and no set of men, are good enough to be entrusted with an
absolute and despotic authority ; and it is a despotism in
another form if a majority of one legislative body can at a
moment's notice do anything affecting public or private
interests without the opportunity of an appeal to the public.
You want the possibility of such an appeal, and a Second
Chamber gives you that, however it may be constituted.' As
to the social value of peerages, I do not know that I am a
good judge ; but, notwithstanding the great multiplication of
them in recent years, a multiplication which, however, has
not done more than keep pace with the increase of population
in the British Islands, I do not see that the social value of a
peerage has diminished. I am sure there are quite as many
people as ever there were who have got their own consent to
be made peers — and a good many of them get what they want.
There is only one other reflection suggested to me by this
toast, and that is rather a melancholy one. All our political
' In a speech on April 2, 1881, upon this same subject. Lord Derby made
¦the foUo-wing noticeable remarks :
' It is sometimes said that in the course of events, and as time goes on, the
House of Lords and the House of Commons are likely to go wider and "wider
apart. "Well, I do not think that, for this reason. If -we were to regard them
both as absolutely and purely independent bodies, I admit that might be the
natural tendency, but the fact is we have a superior whom we both recognise.
That superior is public opinion — public opinion created not inside, but outside
of our Legislature ; public opinion which we are bound, if we can, to interpret
wisely, whose manifestations it is always our duty to regulate, and sometimes,
by timely criticism and by seasonable discussion, to correct, but which neither
the House of Lords nor the House of Commons can oppose or defy.'

234 THE HOUSE OF LOBDS
institutions are no doubt very glorious while they last, but for
the most part they are very short-lived. All our administrative
arrangements — I do not speak of the British Constitution,
because there is a good deal of truth in the saying of a
foreigner that the great merit of the British Constitution was
that it did not exist — meaning of course that it did not exist
m any written and definite form — all our constitutional sys
tem and all our administrative arrangements are very im
portant while they last, but they do not last long. Those
who have tunnelled the Alps, those who have bridged the
Atlantic, those who have pierced isthmuses, those who have
encircled the whole globe with a system of telegraphic com
munication, may boast that they have done work which wUl
last for all time. We politicians cannot ; we are A'ery lucky
if we accomplish anything which lasts our own time. But a
man must work in his vocation. Those who cannot do work for
the future must work for the present ; those who cannot do
great things must be content to do small things ; and if they
do them to the best of their power, that is ail that anybody
has a right to ask.

235

LXXV
HOME BULE— THE LIBEBAL UNIONIST PABTY—
IBISH GBIEVANCES— THE PBOBABLE BESULTS
OF AN IBISH PABLIAMENT— A PAPEB UNION—
ULSTEB— A LONG STBUGGLE
Birmingham : Apeil 24, 1889
It is under some difficulty that I rise to address you here, for
I come as a stranger. I have no personal claim on your good-
wiU, but I come relying on the fact that we are united by
common sympathies, that we are engaged in a common cause,
and that we all alike recognise the gravity of the issue which
is to be tried. It is no ordinary trial of strength between
political parties that brings us together. It was no light
matter three years ago for men who in principle are Liberals,
or even Eadicals, to consent to the possible postponement of
many measures on which they had set their hearts. Nor was
it, I suppose, easy for Conservatives to waive at once all feel
ings of distrust in regard to politicians whom they had been
accustomed to look upon as opponents, and to join cordiaUy
with them in a new alliance. Yet that alliance has been
made ; it exists, and it grows stronger, and not weaker, every
day. You in this town have given signal proof of your de
termination, and I believe you would be ready to give it again
if necessary, that no accidental misunderstanding shall destroy
or impair the union of the Unionists. Now, the very fact
that things are so is proof of the energy and intensity of our
convictions. There are those, I know, who say that Ireland
was only the occasion of a split in the Liberal party that must
have come sooner or later, and that.if the Irish difficulty had

236 THE LIBEBAL UNIONIST PABTY
never arisen some other excuse would have been found. Do
you believe that? I do not. I have known something of
party politics during the last thirty years, and I tell you a
wilder fiction was never devised. The Liberal party was never
¦divided until after the election of 1885. At that election, as
we know, it voted solid. No doubt it had what it always has
had, a right and left wing, and between those two sections
absolute and entire agreement on all questions was not to
he expected. But there was no substantial difference, no
difference that could have interfered with common action;
and when Mr. Gladstone's ill-omened declaration in favour of
Home Eule was announced, the separation that ensued did
not follow the lines of any earlier difference. We have among
the Unionists many of the stoutest and staunchest of Eadicals.
It is enough to mention the honoured name of Mr. Bright, who
has passed away lamented by the whole nation, and of our
distinguished President, who still is and who, we hope, wUl
long remain with us. On the other hand, Mr. Gladstone has
carried away with him not a few of those politicians who were
hitherto regarded as belonging to the moderate section — men
like Lord Granville, Lord Spencer, and others whom I might
name as belonging to the old Whig connection.
The fact is that a wholly new policy has been started upon
us — one which has nothing to do with the old constitutional
disputes of Eadicals and Conservatives. Conservatives no
doubt oppose Home Eule for Ireland as an innovation of the
most gigantic and, as they and we both consider, of the most
unnecessary kind. Liberals oppose it because in their belief
it is incompatible with the political ideas which they value
most — incompatible with equitable administration, with equal
treatment for all religions, and with the maintenance and
spread of free trade. If it is any glory or any gratification to
Home Eulers that they have united formerly hostile parties in
opposition to their proposals, that is a result which they may
fairly boast of. As Liberal Unionists it is enough to say that
we stand on our old ground ; that we have not lowered our
flag ; that we have not deserted our leaders ; that we fought

THE LIBEBAL UNIONIST PABTY 237
by their side the battle against ParneUism and disunion as^
long as they chose to fight it, and that we owe them no^
apology for now declining to reverse our action and tO'
follow them into the enemy's camp. Something, no doubt,
wUl have been lost to the Liberal cause by this separation.
That we do not deny; we only affirm that it is no fault
of ours, and I think we may fairly add, as indeed our
Chairman has just now hinted, that there is abundance of
useful legislative work that must be done, or at least that
ought to be done, at some time, which cannot be undertaken
when a great party struggle is going on, and which an Ad
ministration, supported as the present is and influenced as the
present is by a Liberal alliance, may fairly take in hand. The
Local Government Act of last year is a fair instance of the kind
of legislation I mean. Nobody will deny that that Act is
based on Liberal principles and is a development of Liberal
policy. Yet it was accepted by the bulk of the Conservative party
because, whether all of them personally liked it or not, they
saw that it was required by the circumstances of the time.
There is plenty more work of the same kind to be done,
and I do not see, and I do not believe, that there is any reluc
tance to do it. The Budget of this year is not a reactionary
Budget ; it is one frankly, though moderately. Liberal. The
new plan of Scotch administration is not, I believe, taken as a
whole, disliked by Scotch Liberals, and if anybody complains
of the absence of striking and sensational legislation, let him
remember how vast and how rapid has been the progress
already and lately made. I doubt whether any country, not
in a state of actual revolution, has worked out changes in its
Constitution so extensive as we have done in the last five-and-
twenty years. There is scarcely an institution, scarcely a law,
which has not been largely modified within that time, and
considering what our present franchise is, considering the fact
that political power is now almost wholly in the hands of the
poorer classes if they choose to use it, and, on the other
hand, that most other things that men value are in the
hands of the richer classes, I think that whatever any of us.

238 IBISH GBIEVANCES
may foresee, or whatever any of us may fear, we need not be
afraid of reactionary legislation, or even of any undue inclina
tion to rest and be thankful. As to the severance of personal
ties among politicians, that is a disagreeable and even a painful
thing for those whom it concerns. But, after all, it concerns only
a limited number of persons. Few men are important ; no
man is necessary. England will find servants enough when
she wants them, even although every name now known in
politics were to disappear to-morrow.
So much for the party aspect of the question, which,
indeed, is a small part of the whole. It is tedious, it is weari
some to travel again and again over familiar ground, and yet,
when we are met to confirm one another's faith in the princi
ples which we hold, we are bound to satisfy ourselves, and to
satisfy the friends to whom we speak, that these principles
have not been taken up lightly or without sufficient cause.
What is it that we object to when we declare our opposition to
Home Eule ? In the first place we deny the fundamental
principles on which the demand for Home Eule rests. We do
not deny that Ireland may have grievances, but we deny that
Ireland has any grievances due to or connected with the
Union. We say that Ireland enjoys every right, every privi
lege, that belongs to any other part of the British Islands. Is
she under-represented ? On the contrary, as we aU know, a
rearrangement of seats on the basis of population would give
Ireland at least ten or twelve fewer seats than she has at pre
sent. Are Irish affairs neglected ? Why, one of the most
practical arguments that is used in favour of Home Eule is
that Irish affairs occupy the time of Parliament so exclusively
that England and Scotland cannot get their business attended
to. Are Irish Members, when they will condescend to observe
the ordinary decencies of debate, refused a hearing or listened
to with impatience ? Why, it is notorious that, being scarcely
more than one-seventh of the House of Commons, they claim
a share of time and attention entirely disproportionate to their
numbers, and which would not be granted to Englishmen or
Scotchmen simUarly situated. Have their grievances in the

IBISH GBIEVANCES 239
recent past been ignored, or has redress been refused ? Take
the two which always figured most prominently in their
speeches— the question of the Church and the question of the
land. To satisfy them, and as an act of justice, the Protestant
Church was disestablished and disendowed ; and they enjoyed
what, at any rate, most Liberal politicians think a most de
sirable state of things, and which England, Scotland, and
Wales have not — entire mutual independence of Church and
State. Take the land. There, again. Parliament has gone out
of its way, and, I may say, has put a strain upon its own con
victions, in order to give the Irish the benefit of a land system
which, whether in itself desirable or not, is at any rate that
which they never ceased to cry out over. And when that, too,
failed to satisfy the parties for whose benefit it was intended,
we are even, indeed, lending English capital and largely em
ploying English credit to make the Irish peasant the owner of
his own farm, a thing which we have not done and are not
doing for any other part of the United Kingdom.
Now, I ask, are these proofs of indifference to Irish com
plaints ? Then, as to local government, it is perfectly true
that local institutions of Ireland, as they now exist, give far
more power to the Executive and less to elected authorities
than was the case here even before the Act of last year. But
how has that state of things come about ? Why, notoriously
the reason of it is not the desire of the Lord Lieutenant or
the Secretary or the Dublin officials to exercise those local
functions ; but the strength and bitterness of local party
feeling, and the fact that the Irish people are in two camps —
neither party willing to trust the other. Nobody desires, in
truth, to withhold from Irish counties or boroughs the control
of strictly local affairs ; but we are bound in justice to see that
whatever powers we give are not such as can be deliberately
and systematically used, as in many cases, I believe, there is
all the will to use them, for the ruin of an unpopular minority.
That is the real difficulty. It is a difficulty for which we are
not responsible ; it arises out of the very condition of Irish
parties. I repeat this — that whatever may have been the case

240 PBOBABLE BESULTS
a hundred or even fifty years ago, there has been, and
is in the present generation, the most sincere and earnest
desire to remedy every intelligible Irish grievance.
• It is, perhaps, partly the fault of our own action in past
years that what we now do is often misunderstood. What we
have conceded as a measure of justice and policy, the Irish
people believe to have been yielded through fear ; and they
argue if Parliament has been driven so far on the road to con
cession, there is no reason why it should stop there. That is
their view, and there are plenty of good simple people here
who honestly say, ' If the Irish want only a local Legislature
which shall always be subject to the Imperial Parliament at
Westminster, why should they not have it ? What harm can
it do ? ' My answer is that to give the Irish a Legislature of
their own, on condition that they shall use their power so as
not to interfere with the rights of the Imperial authority, is
like giving a child a drum and teUing him not to make a noise.
Eemember the language of Mr. Parnell. I believe there is no
dispute about its authenticity, and he is a man who means
what he says. Here are the words used by him at Cincinnati
in February 1830 : ' None of us, whether we are in America
or in Ireland, will be satisfied till we have destroyed the last
link which keeps Ireland bound to England.' And again,
more recently, at Mayo, in November 1885, his own journal
reports the following words as uttered by him : ' Speaking for
myself, and I believe for the Irish people and all my colleagues
in Parliament, I have to declare that we will never accept,
either expressly or impliedly, anything but the full and com
plete right to arrange our own affairs, to make our land a
nation, to secure for us, free from outside control, the right to
our own course among the people of the world.' That does
not look very much like submission to the supreme authority
of the Imperial Parliament. That was said only four years
ago, and though I certainly should not quote a speech of
Mr. Gladstone or Sir William Harcourt of four years ago as
evidence of their views on Irish policy, it is quite otherwise
with Mr. ParneU. He knows what he wants. His methods

OF IBISH PABLIAMENT 241
may vary according to the opportunities and necessities of the
time ; but though his methods may vary, I beheve his purpose
to be unchanged. And remembering these utterances, and sup
posing an Irish Parliament meeting in College Green, with aU
the constitutional restraints which Enghsh simplicity is asked
to believe in as safeguards, how long wUl these safeguards
last ? Some of them will be evaded in the most direct and
simple fashion. It is useless to say to the Irish people, ' You
shaU not set up an army of your own,' when there wUl be
nothing to prevent their creating an army of police or en
couraging the formation of Volunteer corps as they did a hundred
years ago. It is idle to forbid them to endow any religion
when they have control of all schools, and when they might,
if they pleased, appoint their parish priest inspector of the
viUage school, and pay him a salary in that capacity. It is
possible, no doubt, to say that they shall not tax any article
imported from England ; but that restriction is easily evaded
if they have control over their own finance, and if they can
give a bounty to any home industry that competes with im
ported articles. Besides, who is to determine whether the
new Constitutional Charter is violated or not ? In the United
States the matter is simple. They have a written Constitution
and a Supreme Court, which is its recognised and authoritative
interpreter. We have neither ; and if England and Ireland,
having made what is, in effect, a treaty, found themselves
unable to agree as to what that treaty meant, or how it was
to be interpreted, I know of no means of deciding the question
except by force.
But there is something more than that. The last decision
of the Home Eule party is that, come what may, the Irish
Members are not to be banished from Westminster. They are
stUl to sit with us. There are constitutional and adminis
trative difficulties involved in that position which I have often
adverted to, and which I have never seen even an attempt to
solve. I will not refer to them again. But if we are to have
stUl in our Parhament a powerful Irish party acting together
as they act now, can you doubt that their constant endeavour
VOL. II. R

242 A PAPEB UNION
would be to extend the powers of the new Irish Legislature,
and every limitation of those powers, however it might have
been stipulated beforehand, would be exclaimed against as an
act of tyranny and oppression ? Why, we should be told, and
it would be quite true, ' You conceded our Parliament in
deference to our claim of nationality ; do you imagine that the
mere creation of a big Vestry to deal with parochial affahs is
enough to satisfy a national sentiment such as ours ? ' We
all know what the answer must be. We feel that if we were
ourselves Irish Nationalists we should not be content with so
mere a shadow of power, and it is idle to expect anybody wiU
be content. I do not go so far as some people who say there is
absolutely no alternative between union and separation, but
I do contend that, if we are not to maintain the existiiig Union,
Ireland must not be a sham, but a real nationality. It must
have its own army, its own navy, its own diplomacy, its own
tariff, possibly its own favoured and dominant Church. Are
we prepared to grant that or not ? If we are, let us say so at
once, and end a bitter and vexatious conflict ; but if we are not
so prepared — and I believe very few people are — it is surely
better to stand on the firm ground which we now occupy than
to plunge into a system of concessions, one of which will
inevitably involve another, and to be perpetuaUy dragging on,
saying at every new surrender, ' This must positively be the
last.' That is a policy to my mind without dignity, without
grace, and without sense.
We are often taunted by our opponents with supporting
what is called only a paper union, whUe they are for a union
of hearts. The paper union is, at least, a substantial fact,
and the union of hearts is, at least, problematical. How long
would gratitude for the gift of Home Eule last ? The gratitude
for such concessions is not, I am afraid, in politics, an appre
ciable force. The whole history of nations is a record of wars
against recent allies, and alliances with recent enemies, and
in the course of international life it must be so. What would
the Irish have to be grateful for if Home Eule came ? Would
it come as the free gift of English generosity ? No, it would

ULSTEB 243
have been notoriously extorted by the exigencies of English
party politics, from the annoyance to England of eighty
Members of Parliament to vote equaUy against every Govern
ment, and by the supposed danger to ourselves of a discon
tented Ireland. Depend upon it Irish statesmen would never
yield to us a single point of advantage in the future in return
for what we had done in the past. It would not be reasonable
to expect it, and I do not know if it would be even just to ask
it. Eemember, too, something else — that there are in Ireland
hearts to be lost as well as hearts to be won. There is no
bitterness like that of an alienated friend — alienated because
he thinks he has been betrayed, and, apart from all questions
of honour, you would make a bad bargain if you purchased
the temporary thanks of Munster and Connaught at the cost
of the permanent resentment of Ulster.
That leads me to the only further remark which I shall
make on the constitutional part of the question. The
strongest practical argument for Home Eule is the embarrass
ment caused by Irish hostility in the working of the Parlia
mentary machine. We are often told, ' You cannot carry on
affairs with one-seventh of the House of Commons irrecon-
cUable.' It is an odd thing for Home Eulers to put forward ;
they want to set up a Parliament in which it is as certain as
anything can be that the irreconcUables, the men of the north
of Ireland, will be at least one-fourth, and more probably one-
third. Do they expect that Parliament to work or not ? If
it wiU not, they had better not talk about the impossibility of
carrying on Parliamentary business here under conditions
infinitely less unfavourable than those under which they wish
to place it there.
You may, I am afraid, think that I have dwelt too long on
the constitutional argument ; but, after all, that is the really
important part of the case. What I may have said, and how
B has contradicted himself, and how D has blundered, aU these
little personal incidents that turn up in the course of a con
troversy like this, are amusing and excitmg enough for the
moment ; but after a few weeks, if not after a few days, they
a 2

244 A LONG STBUGGLE
blow over — they are done with and forgotten. What is per
manent, what is essential, is the relation which England and
Ireland are to hold to one another, and we must not allow that
question to be obscured or pushed out of sight by any petty
and personal details. As to this coercion claptrap, I would
deal with it if I could see anything in it to answer. It will be
time enough to deal with it seriously when our opponents can
show that any one has been punished except for obstructing
or attempting to obstruct the authorities in the execution of
the law, and when they can point to any country throughout
the civilised world in which such obstruction is not a punish
able offence. We scarcely realise On this side the water either
the monstrous distortions of fact that occur when eviction
scenes are sensationally described, or the care and theatrical
skill with which those scenes are got up by the local agitators
to make a figure in the English press 
I conclude with only one remark. Do not expect, do not
hope, that this controversy can be quickly brought to an end.
I wish with all my heart that it could be so, but I do not see
how it can. If we win at the next election, which I suppose we
shall, we cannot expect that a powerful Parliamentary minority
will at once abandon a cause to which they are deeply pledged.
If by any mischance we were to lose, if a majority of electors
declared in favour of Home Eule in some form, even then the
fight would only have begun, for it is one thing to accept Home
Eule as an abstract principle, and quite another thing to work
it out in detail. Therefore, in any case we must keep to
gether, prepared if need be for a long struggle, mmimising
such differences as may exist among ourselves, not makmg too
much of sinall victories, and not disheartened by small defeats,
but trusting in the good sense of the English people, and
secure at least of two things — the depth and sincerity of our
'convictions and the impartial verdict of history.

245

LXXVI
HOME BULE— A FEDEBAL UNION— INGBEASED PBO-
SPEBITY OF IBELAND— THE LAND QUESTION—
THE ALLIANCE OF THE UNIONISTS
London : .Tune 27, 1889
We have, I may venture to say, blown the bill of 1886 out of
the water. We have challenged its authors to produce a new
one, and very wisely they have held their tongues. I will not
assert that their guns have been silenced, but at least they
have been drawn back. We hear much about coercion, some
thing about sugar and free trade, and every casual word or
incident that can be used to reflect discredit on the Govern
ment is made the most of. That is all according to the rules of
the game ; but the one thing which Home Eulers will not argue
about is Home Eule, and in their own interest they are quite
right. One fact, however, has been cleared up by discussion.
We were told at first that Ireland was to be treated in a purely
exceptional manner ; the rest of the United Kingdom was not
to be interfered with. We have pointed out again and again
that that was impossible ; that with the Irish Union repealed,
the Scotch, and even the Welsh Union, could not be per
manently maintained. If I may judge by what I hear and
read, it seems that on that point our assertion, disputed at
first, is now generally admitted. It is seen at last that the
question of Irish nationality involves that of federal union,
not between two nationalities only, but between four. That
is an important advance, because it gives us something like a
principle to discuss.

246 A FEDEBAL UNION
Now, I say nothing against federal unions in general.
They may create a firm and lasting bond. They have done
so in the case of Switzerland on a small scale, and in the case
of America on a great scale. I omit more recent instances,
because in such matters time is the only real test of success.
But I lay down this rule with confidence — that no federal
union can be stable or successful except where there is some
at lea.st approximate equality of importance and power be
tween its various component States ; or, at any rate, that no
such union can exist where one State alone can outweigh all
the rest put together. Now that would be the case with us.
If England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland are to be treated as
separate States, united for federal purposes, the effect of that
will be that in all federal matters — in all matters, that is,
concerning the whole — the three minor States, supposing
them agreed among themselves, may at any moment be over
ruled by the single voice of England. You cannot prevent
that if representative power is to be equaUy apportioned
according to population. And if wealth is to have anything
to do with the proportion of representation, the superiority of
England will be even more marked. Now, what would foUow
from that state of things ? Why, that your ingenious plan for
emancipating the so-called nationalities only ends in placing
them in a position of more entire, more marked, and more
unmistakable dependence. They are no longer one with
England, incorporated with us ; but they must do in aU
matters of Imperial concern whatever England pleases. They
are half separated only in order that they may be made to
feel more thoroughly their position of subordination. That is
not, I think, a gift of freedom for which they are likely to feel
very thankful. I know what wUl sometimes be answered, that
Home Eule for Ireland is only the first step in a general
federation of the Empire, which is to include Canada, Aus
tralia, and South Africa, as well as the British Islands. Mr.
Parnell, I remember, once took that line in a speech which he
made, and, as addressed to an English audience, it was a very
ingenious suggestion. Well, Imperial federation is a grand

INGBEASED PB08PEBITY OF IBELAND 247
idea, and I am not surprised that it should have taken a strong
hold of the imaginations even of thoughtful and sensible men.
This is not the time or place to argue whether it is a practi
cable arrangement or not. All for which I now contend is that
it does not exist even on paper, in the shape of a working
scheme ; that the colonists, who are mainly concerned, have
not shown the slightest desire to accept it ; and that till they
do, it is premature to treat it as the basis of a new Constitu
tion for Great Britain and Ireland. In fact, for my own part,
I am willing to make a fair bargain with our Home Eule
friends who are believers also in Imperial federation. Let
them begin at the other end. Let them federate the Colonial
Empire first ; and if they will agree to leave Irish Home Eule
alone till they have done that, I will agree to accept Home
Eule when they have done it. That is a fair offer, and for us,
in my belief, it is a perfectly safe one to make. But, of course,
when I speak of federation in this connection, I mean an
organised system of federation restmg on a definite a.greement.
I do not give the name of federation to the kind of loose
alliance or protectorate which is virtually all that we have
now. I will not go over ground which has been thoroughly
trodden by hundreds who have been before me, but at this
point I would ask one plain question. Ireland is represented
by Mr. Gladstone in his recent Cornish tour, and by many
others, as having suffered grievously from the Union. Is it,
or is it not, the fact that, in regard of material prosperity, in
regard of the comfort and well-being of the people, Ireland
has advanced more rapidly in the last fifty years than
any other part of the British Islands ? I have no doubt
myself of the answer to that query. Wages are higher,
food is better, the single-room mud hovels of old days are
being displaced by cottages of the English type, and nobody
now sees the crowds of beggars which once hung about the
towns and infested the high roads. But there is another way of
looking at the matter. All Ireland is under the same law.
Admitting, which I do, the relative poverty of the south and

248 INGBEASED PBOSPEBITY OF IBELAND
west when measured by an English standard, how comes it
that Ulster flourishes, as to everybody's knowledge it does ?
If political causes have operated elsewhere to keep Ireland
poor, why not there also ? If the Union has impoverished
Cork and Galway, why has it not impoverished Belfast ? Yet
we know the contrary to be the case. That fact alone is, to
my mind, conclusive as to the backwardness of Ireland in
general not being due to the English connection. I do not
say that English misgovernment in past times may not have
had something to do with it ; but it is rather late in the day
to be called upon to apologise for religious disabilities which
ceased two generations ago, for commercial restrictions which
ceased ninety years ago, or for penal laws which have had no
operative existence for considerably more than a century-
And if any man says that Ireland is not now governed or legis
lated for with due reference to Irish ideas and feehngs, my
answer would be to point to such questions as those of the
Church and the land. In regard to local government, we are
prepared to make large concessions. AU that we requu-e is,
in that and in other matters, to have some assurance that the
ordinary laws of justice shall not be disregarded in the case of
a locally unpopular minority, and that the Protestant ascen
dency of old days shall not be replaced by a Catholic and
Celtic ascendency, which would be quite as one-sided in its
dealings. But look at the state of Ireland itself. I am not an
optimist, especially where the Irish are concerned, but I do
not see how any one can doubt, with the evidence which we
have before us, that in regard to agrarian crime, and — what is
nearly the same thing — in regard to agrarian agitation, there
has been a marked falling off, that the Plan of Campaign is
being discredited and recognised as a failure, and that some
new dodge will have to be resorted to if the American dollars
ai-e to be raked, in as they have been during the last few
years. I will not trouble you with figures, but I believe it is
not and cannot be disputed that, alike in regard of outrages,
of persons boycotted, of evictions, and of rents unpaid, there

THE LAND QUESTION 249
has been a decrease which is no exaggeration to call extra
ordinary. And that is not wonderful. Who can be surprised
that an Irish peasant should refuse to pay his rent, when he
is assured by the people whom he most confides in, his priest
probably included, that he has only got to hold out and that
his landlord wUl not dare to enforce the law ? He has been
continually told that tUl he has come to beheve it. Expe
rience is now undeceiving him ; and as there is no country
in the world where men are more ready than in Ireland to
resist authority when they think it is feeble, so there is none
where they are more ready to yield to it when they see it is
strong. Now, as to the future, I think it is generaUy felt that the
creation of what I will not call a peasant proprietary, but a
proprietary composed of those who were formerly tenants,
gives the best security for peace, and that such a body can be
created on a large scale only by using the credit of the State.
No doubt there are objections — grave and reasonable objec
tions — to that policy, and in a different state of things I
should very likely have been one of the first to urge them ;
but in politics we have often only the choice between two
evils or two dangers, and just now the one paramount neces
sity is to give a larger number of the Irish people a personal
interest in keeping down agitation and maintaining order. I
sometimes hear it said that, by helping the tenants to buy,
especially the larger tenants, we are only creating a new
landed proprietary, which will soon be as unpopular as the
old. I disbelieve that for various reasons. In the first place,
the buyer will be always a resident, and almost always an
Irishman, so that it will be impossible to talk about Ireland
being a foreigner's farm, or to get up a fresh agitation against
Englishmen and absentees. In the next place, throughout
the south and west of Ireland, which are, or were, the disturbed
districts, he will be almost always a Catholic, and the local
priests will have no professional interest in crying him down.
And, lastly, the new owners wUl be small owners. They will
not as a rule be under any temptation to sublet ; and they will

250 THE LAND QUESTION
not be exposed to the odium which, under a democratic
system, falls on any class which is at once limited in numbers
and reputed to be wealthy. No doubt there wiU be a heavy
debt to pay off, and till it is paid a good deal of Ireland will be
virtually owned in England ; but that is an inevitable con
dition of any connection, whatever its form may be, between
a rich country which is able to lend and a poor one which is
compelled to borrow. No doubt, also, the State wiU find itself
occasionally compeUed to enforce its claims when the borrower
is unable or unwilling to pay. But I do not see why it should
be worse for the State to have to do that on its own account
than to do it for the benefit of private creditors. And as to
the expense, it is not necessary that the process of purchase
should be undertaken on a great scale at once. It may be
gradual, and spread over a long term of years. The very fact
that a tenant is able to buy will prevent impatience. Possibly
in many cases it may even operate to make him indifferent as
to buying. People are always tolerant of a condition from
which they know that they can escape whenever they please.
I do not contend that purchase will be everywhere an
effective remedy. In some districts it will hardly be possible.
You have many parts of the west where the population is too
poor not merely to buy their holdings, but to hve on them if
they had nothing to pay. In such cases other measures must
be tried. But the fact that your remedy wUl not be apphcable
in, say, one case out of ten, is surely no reason for not apply
ing it in the other nine. I think I know what will be said of
any such proposal. We shall be told : ' All this is very well.
You may improve the material condition of Ireland ; possibly
you will : but do not imagine that you will thereby diminish
the desire for a separate nationality.' Well, we will see about
that. I dare say those who now call themselves Nationalists
will not care to drop their name. I admit that in a certain
class the feeling will remain, and that with certain individuals
it may even be as strong as before ; but that wUl not be so
with the masses. You will have opened so wide a safety-valve
when the tenants are contented, that the agitators will never

THE LAND QUESTION 251
again be able to get up steam enough to produce an explosion.
The National question has been always with us ; but in our
generation, at least until it was connected with the land
agitation, it took no real hold on the people. Eemember how
utterly it collapsed after the famine, and the abortive attempts
at insurrection in 1848. Why was that ? Because in every
part of the country there were vacant farms ; and the scramble
and struggle for the means of existence caused by over-popula
tion had ceased. My belief is, though I may be sanguine,
that in a few months you will hear very little more of evic
tions on a large scale. Land-owners do not undertake them
willingly. They are costly and troublesome. They have
been a necessary result of and a reply to the adoption of the
Plan of Campaign. When that plan is shown to have failed,
refusals to pay rent will cease — -as, in fact, they are ceasing
now. In aU probability, by the time the present Parliament
comes to an end, the electors who will decide upon our fate hi
the future wUl have a very different Ireland to deal with from
the Ireland of 1886, or even of 1889. What is more, our
Home Eulers are becoming aware of that fact, and that is the
reason why they have so suddenly discovered the iniquity of
septennial Parliaments — a subject which, for practical pur
poses, I do not think we have heard of for a quarter of a
century. It reminds me of the old story of a medical man
called in with somewhat needless haste to attend to a trifling
complaint. ' Is it an urgent case ? ' asks the doctor. ' Yes,'
says the man who was sent for him ; ' if you don't make haste
the patient will have got well before you come.' So it will be
here. The case for Home Eule may not be a strong one now,
but it is a good deal stronger than it will be three years
hence. The resolution which I am to move does not require many
words in its support. The alliance between Liberals and
Conservatives in defence of the Union was not the result of
intrigue or of personal calculation. It was imposed upon
both sections by the necessities of the situation. It will cease,
no doubt, when the danger ceases which it was formed to

252 THE ALLIANCE OF THE UNIONISTS
meet. It will continue, I venture to predict, while that
danger continues. It serves at once to strengthen and to re
strain the present Government. It enables them to resist the
pressure of high Tory followers, and to carry such measures
as the Local Government Act of last year and the Land
Transfer Bill now before Parliament. It creates, or rather it
recognises, a political state of things which cannot last for
ever ; but it meets the wants of the present time, and no
political combination can do more.

258

LXXVII
CONTINUATION SCHOOLS-EVENING OCCUPATIONS
FOB YOUNG PEBSONS
Manohestek : Octobee 9, 1889
I PEBSUMB that most of those to whom I am now speaking-
know something about the movement, if one is to use so pre
tentious a word, which it is the object of this meeting to pro
mote. It has grown by a natural and simple process out of
the system of universal and compulsory school teaching which
we have established during the last twenty years. In 1870
the nation decided that, so far as was in the power of any
public authority to prevent it, no child should grow up unable
to read and write, or destitute of at least some elementary
knowledge. That object has been in the main accomplished ;
but the very success which has been achieved so far leads to a
further demand. It is felt and seen that of all the teaching
which has cost so much trouble and money — certainly not less
than seven millions yearly, and probably a good deal more —
a large proportion, larger probably than most of us suspect,
goes absolutely to waste. Just as in the richer classes, in the
portion of society which is supposed to be educated, boys pass
years of their lives chiefly in trying to pick up a little Greek
and Latin, which nine-tenths of them never utilise and soon
forget, so in the village school or Board school a great deal is
learned which, from mere disuse, is absolutely lost in a very
short time — that is, looking at the matter from a purely
intellectual or educational point of view. Looked at from the
point of view of morals and discipline the result is nearly the
same. A lad is turned out of his school, and started to make

254 CONTINUATION SCHOOLS
his own way in life at the age of twelve or thirteen. It is
quite right that he should begin at that age to contribute
towards his own support. It is not only right, but in a society
organised like ours it is even a necessity. But work does not
take up all his time. The evenings remain to be disposed of,
and what is a lad to do ? where is he to go ? He is not always
welcome at home, especially if the house is smaU and the
family large. Even if he is welcome he does not always care
to stay there, and parental control is feeble in the classes that
maintain themselves. There is no place for him to resort to
except such as are not of a very desirable character, and the
streets of Manchester on a winter evening are not very at
tractive or exactly the sort of playground you would wish to
see selected. Therefore, on various grounds we think we are
justified in asking for help to enable those boys who reaUy
take an interest in learning to carry their school education a
little further. There are three separate but not unconnected
objects which the promoters of these classes have in view.
They want to help in the extension of that technical instruc
tion for which everybody is now calling, and which is so
useful, perhaps so necessary, for material success in life. They
want to help young men who have a turn for culture, whether
scientific, literary, or artistic, to develop their faculties, for
the sake of the increased enjoyment, the deepened interest in
life which all increase of intellectual power tends to give ; and,
lastly, they want to help boys of the ordinary sort — not ex
ceptionally bright or exceptionally studious, but boys with a
good deal of human nature in them — to find some decent,
harmless, and pleasant occupation for the hom-s which are
not taken up by work, and which in the absence of such
occupation will almost certainly be wasted in idleness, and
very probably wasted in mischief. That is our justification
for wanting to set up evening classes.
But why are they called recreative ? That is a question
very likely to be asked — a question which I asked when the
subject was new to me. If merely to promote amusement,
even harmless amusement, had been the object of this move-

CONTINUATION SCHOOLS 255
ment, I should no doubt have wished it well, but I think you
would not have seen me on this platform. We have rather
too much talk about amusement in these days. It seems to
be thought that nobody can possibly be expected to do what
is wearisome, and that to be entertained is one of the first
necessities of life. Personally, I do not see things quite in
that way ; but we have a justification for putting prominently
forward the idea of recreation in this case. We cannot, and
we would not if we could, make attendance at our classes
compulsory. We do not quarrel with the principle of com
pulsion, but we see that in things of the mind it is not very
effective. You may bring a horse to the water, but you can
not make him drink. You may force a boy to go to school,
but you cannot easily force him to learn, and certainly you
cannot force him to remember what he has learnt. We can
only teach those who are willing to come to be taught, and
that being so, to make our teaching attractive is not merely
desirable, it is indispensable. The hook must be baited if we
are to catch fish. We must not conceal from ourselves some
disadvantages under which we suffer. In the poorest classes,
perhaps in the artisan class also, there are many persons who
do not care for or value instruction for their children. That
is not so, I believe, in Scotland, nor in America, but I am
afraid it is so in England, and when that is the case you can
hardly expect the children themselves to be wiser. Again,
compulsion in educational matters, as in most others, has
certain inherent drawbacks. Boys who go to school only
because the law compels them are naturally inclined to think
the whole thing a nuisance, and to get away for ever as soon
as they can. One must not blame them for that. I do not
know that many of us were much disposed to appreciate
learning for its own sake at the age of eleven or twelve, and I
am not sure that those who are so prematurely wise are always
the most successful later on. At any rate, the fact is, as I
learn from those who have carefully studied the subject, that
the attendance at night schools is under one per cent, of those
who leave the day schools, and for the enormous mass all the

256 CONTINUATION SCHOOLS
education they ever get — except what I do not undervalue,
but what we are not speaking of now, the education of practical
work — ends at twelve years old. In London alone it is calcu
lated that 80,000 children leave the elementary schools every
year at the average age of twelve and a half ; so that you have
200,000 at least between twelve and fifteen, and nearly 400,000
between twelve and seventeen. In most towns, I believe, the
age of leaving school is rather below that of London. So that
it is not too much to say that, as regards the mass of the
English people, their education, apart from the trade which
they learn, ends in their thhteenth year. Now, the objections
to that state of things are obvious. It puts us at a dis
advantage in competing with better trained countries, and it
does, I believe, more than anything else to keep in existence
a class of which England has more than any country I know
— the rough half-taught lad, who is as often as not in mischief
from sheer want of any better way of passmg his time. We
all know how in the upper and middle classes the years
between twelve and eighteen are precisely those which parents
and teachers look to as the most critical, the most dangerous
— often the most decisive as to the future. It is in those
years that the innocence and irresponsibility of childhood
ceases. It is in those years that the most powerful and
universal of human instincts is first awakened. It is m those
years that habits and tendencies are most certainly formed
and most permanently fixed. We should think it little better
than murder to let a boy in the richer classes run wild dming
that period of life, and if he went utterly to the bad afterwards
we should say, ' Of course, what else could be expected ? '
Well, I do not see why what is a social necessity for us
should not be at least as desirable for our poorer neighbours.
I need not tell you what a lad of fifteen or sixteen, with strong
animal passions and imperfect training, is likely to be doing if
he is not looked after. The best that can happen, and bad is
the best, is one of those boy and girl marriages which are so
common in the poorer classes, which hamper the men who
contract them for life, and which throw on our streets such

CONTINUATION SCHOOLS 257
multitudes of weakly under-sized children. The worst that
can happen, the more undesirable alternative, you know
without my telling you. I think I have sufficiently explained
what we mean and v/hat we want, and I would sum it up in
one sentence : Look after the lads, and you may trust the men
to look after themselves. And recollect what these lads are.
They may not know much ; many of them may not be par
ticularly wise ; but when they reach the age of twenty- one they
form part of the now ruling class of England. The working
class, as we all know, outnumbers not only every other, but all
others put together. No policy can be successful, no policy
can have so much as a trial, which does not commend itself
to the opinions and the feeling of the artisans and the
labourers of England. They in the last resort must deter
mine what our relations with foreign States are to be, how we
are to manage India, what we are to do with our Colonies,
whether we shall stick to competition, or try to protect native
industry again. It is a new experiment in the world's history
that we are trying. The United States have many consti
tutional checks ; the Eepublics of antiquity were slave-holding
communities, and, in fact, in the view of the present day
would be looked upon as only aristocracies with a large num
ber of members. We in England have given all power
practically to the House of Commons ; and we have given all
power over the House of Commons to those who work with
their hands. Lord Sherbrooke said long ago when the
franchise was more restricted, 'Let us at least teach our
masters to read and write ; ' and we say, Let us endeavour to
bring about a state of things in which every Enghsh elector
shaU have at least as much knowledge as is possessed by the
average American citizen. That may not be a very lofty
ideal to reach, but I suspect it is a good deal above our ordi
nary English level.

VOL. II.

258

LXXVIII
SEGONDABY EDUCATION—THE BOY AND THE
MAN— BEADING
Oehskikk : Octobee 28, 1889
It is not easy to say anything on the subject of popular
education which shall contain any novelty or interest, not
because the importance of the subject is not felt, for we all
admit that, but because the truths which were useful and in
place when uttered to the last generation are now common
places, because on the leading questions connected with
j)opular schools we are either all agreed or know perfectly well
what are the facts on which we disagree, and they are for the
most part of such a nature that argument is more likely to
confirm differences than to do away with them. DetaUs may
reasonably be left to experts. As to principles, we have most
of us formed an opinion, and are not likely to change it. The
Act of 1870 has done an important and useful work. We may
say with truth that the number of untaught children is now
inappreciably small, and though undoubtedly it is the fact
that of what has been learnt at school an enormous propor
tion is forgotten afterwards, yet that is common to all classes.
It is only what must be expected when we are deahng with
lads who have lives of hard work before them, and to a con
siderable extent the want may be supplied by that secondary
teaching of which we all 'in these days hear and talk so much.
We cannot expect in twenty years to make good the de
ficiencies of many bygone generations, but we have done
as much as any one can reasonably e.xpect ; and whereas
formerly the school arrangements of foreign countries were

SEGONDABY EDUCATION 259
constantly held up to us as an example to follow, we stand
now, I take it, quite as high as most of them with regard
to these matters. On the whole, without for a moment
contending that our existing machinery is perfect, I see no
reason for disappointment or impatience ; and as the wise
policy of the Legislature has left a large discretion in the
hands of local authorities, we may fairly assume that pro
gress in the future will be as rapid as the general pubhc
opinion of the time and place desires that it should be.
Further than that you cannot go, and if you try it, sudden
spurts of energy will be followed by long periods of inac
tion, and more will be lost than gained.
I am not going now to discuss any general questions
connected with popular education, such as free schools. School
Boards, or the like. There are plenty of opportunities for
such controversies, and what we are dealing with here is
something different. But this Grammar School will be
popular in the best sense of the word. We all hope and
believe and intend that it should be. It is designed for a
somewhat higher class of teaching than that of the ordi
nary viUage school. I suppose it is admitted on all hands
that our weak point in educational matters is still (though
less than formerly) the want of good secondary or middle-
class teaching. The upper classes have got a system, not
perhaps in itself very admirable, certainly not as good as
they are apt to think it, but a system which they like,
which suits them, and which they are not disposed nor
likely to alter. The children of the poor are, at any rate,
better provided for than they ever were before. For the
middle class a great deal has been done, but a great deal
still remains to do. We cannot at a few years' notice supply
every town with a grammar school such as we should like
to see; but here in Ormskirk we have an ancient founda
tion to build upon, and though the endowments are not
large, yet that is a circumstance which ought not to dis
courage lis, but rather to incite us to make up by good
organisation and successful working for the deficiency in
s 2

260 THE BOY AND THE MAN
that respect. We have a new scheme for the management
of this school— new within the last few years — a new
master, and by all accounts one admirably fitted for this
work, a new organisation, and we have, as we believe, a
strong local feeling which is favourable to our institution.
With these advantages we ought to prosper, and if we do
not the fault wUl be our own. We all know that, whether
we like it or not, whether or not we think it an ideal
state of things — I am finding no fault with it for one — we
live ifl a world which is one of keen and eager competi
tion, a very good world for the industrious and the prudent,
for the healthy bodies and active minds, a very bad one
for those whom any cause, whether physical, mental, or
moral, has disabled from holding their own in the struggle.
A great writer of this century has made the true, though
unpleasant, remark that ' from man to the meanest insect
all are at strife,' and certainly the industrial contests of
peace, though more harmless, and we hope more beneficial,
are not less strenuously carried on than those which involve
the use of gunpowder. A lad well trained is not sure of
success, but he has made a good beginning, and he starts
with a character which is in his favour, with an inteUect
at least partially developed, and with habits of steady ap
plication which are more important in the long run than
showy and brilliant talent. If I were to offer a word of ad^ ice
to those who have gained prizes to-day, it would be to warn
quite as much as to encourage them, to say that early suc
cesses count for nothing unless vigorously followed up, and to
tell them what is everybody's experience, that many of those
who at school and college were pointed out as the coming men
of their generation have dropped back quietly into obscurity,
while others who were thought comparatively nothing of have
pushed forward steadily and reached the front. I was talking
only the other day to a middle-aged lawyer, well acquainted
with the leaders of his profession, and we chanced to speak of
one of the highest dignitaries of the law. ' Oh,' said my
friend, ' I remember him well at college, and I remember also-

THE BOY AND THE MAN 261
that there was another man of the same standing from whom
much more was expected ; but that man, for some reason or
another, never got any practice, and he is an obscure barrister
stiU.' Well, there may have been some chance in that, but it
was a type of what often happens. The race of professional
life or business life is a very long one, and it is one in which
endurance counts for more than speed. Too much work or
too little work, carelessness in the management of bodily
health, a discursive habit of mind, an eager pursuit of plea
sure, an impatience of what is dull and tedious, a tempera
ment too sanguine on the one hand, or too easily discouraged
on the other, may all be fatal obstacles to what seemed a cer
tain success. I do not know which would be the longer list of
the two — a list of the brilliant young men who have broken
down and dropped out of the running, or a list of the men who
have got on and played their part well against the dishearten
ing predictions of their early acquaintances.
There was a noted wit and man of talent who sat in the
Irish Parliament of the last century together with young
Arthur Wellesley, afterwards the great Duke of Wellington,
and he had in later life the courage to admit that, looking at
the great General of future days when a youth, he had both
thought and said, ' Well, whoever gets on in life, that young
man will not.' Take another instance from a different
department of life. Some of you may have read the in
teresting autobiography left by Anthony TroUope, of whose
ability and industry in later life there can be no doubt. In
fact, his literary industry was exceptional and extraordinary.
He tells with quite amusing frankness the story of how, in his
early days, both as a boy and a clerk, he was credited with an
absolute absence of both one quality and the other. Well,
my moral is, let those who have carried off the prizes to-day re
member that they have only taken the first step out of many,
and that over-confidence or carelessness may ruin their pro
spects. Let those who have faUed remember the same thing,
and take their failure as a stimulus, not as a discouragement.
Advice as to the conduct of life is seldom of much use,

262 BEADING
especially from strangers. Perhaps advice in general, being
always gratuitous, is for the most part worth what it
costs ; but if a lad has any turn for reading — and I do not
mean by that only reading of a severe and difficult kind, but
reading which is good of its kind in any line — he has within
him a source of pleasure, and pleasure of the sort which it is
a pity and a shame not to utilise. Books ought not to be the
whole of any man's life, and the taste for them is in great part
a matter of personal temperament ; but I am sure that the man
is happiest in whose life they fill an important place, both for
what he gains and what he escapes. He gains by assimila
ting theories higher than he is probably capable of producing,
and by the wider outlook over life which he commands. He
escapes to a great extent the inevitable temptations of those
whose leisure is mere idleness. He escapes what is scarcely
less dangerous, the sense of weariness and vacancy when those
temptations are resisted, but when there is nothing else to
substitute for undesirable forms of pleasure. That is a fertUe
theme. I do not dwell upon it, but I do emphatically express
dissent from that dictum of ancient wisdom which we must
somehow or other have misconstrued, that increase of know
ledge means increase of sorrow. I do not think it is so. In
creased knowledge may shatter some illusions, and may show
us that life is not so rose-coloured as we are apt to think it in
youth ; but it brings ample compensation, and the proof is
that no one who has it will ever wish to be without it. In
creased care, increased anxiety it may bring ; but even so
trouble is better than apathy, as waking is better than sleep
ing, and life better than death.

263

LXXIX
FBEE TBADE— PBOTECTION IN THE UNITED STATES
AND IN THE COLONIES— PEASANT PBOPBIETOBS
—NATIONALISATION OF THE LAND— LEASEHOLD
ENFBANGHISEMENT—FOBEIGN AND COLONIAL
TBADE— CAPITAL AND LABOUB
Boohdale : Novembee 12, 1889
It is always a pleasure to me to stand before a Lancashire
audience, and nowhere more than here, for Eochdale has a
double claim to be remembered in the history not only of our
county, but of our country. Your town is inseparably con
nected with the great orator and single-minded statesman
whose residence during most of his life was among you ; and
you may claim to have been the first to bring into practical
existence that co-operative system which has already achieved
so remarkable a success, and which in my judgment promises
better than any other remedy yet suggested for the great
and threatening evil which is upon us — the chronic war
between capital and labour.
Of the actual state of the country, in an economic point of
view, I do not care to speak, for I think we all understand it
pretty well. There have been times within the last twenty
years when optimistic illusions were natural, and when it was
a good service done to the public to throw a little cold water
upon them. There has been more recently a period of de
pression, in which the exaggerations to be guarded against
were all in an opposite direction, and when it was opportune
to ask people not to make quite sure that our national de
cadence had begun. We are not now, I think, under the
influence of a strong bias either way. We see a revival of

264 FBEE TBADE
industry, and we know of no reason why it should not continue.
We do not shut our eyes against evidence of the formidable
competition which we have to meet, but neither do we despair
of meeting it successfully. The future depends on ourselves,
on our continued powers of invention, on our undiminished
spirit of enterprise, on industry unrelaxed, and, above all, on
the absence of that suicidal hostility between employers and
employed which may very easily make the rich poor, but which
will never make the poor rich. It is not so difficult to kill an
industry as many people seem to think, and once killed it is
not quickly brought to life again.
There is another topic on which I wUl barely touch,
though I do not avoid it from any fear of provoking opposition
here. We have had many proofs that whatever the relative
position of political parties may be. Parliament is not disposed
to allow of any tampering with the sound principles of free trade.
I know that there are people who believe a revival of pro
tection in some form to be possible, and who think the
example of the United States likely to be catching. I utterly
disbelieve in any risk from that quarter, and I will tell you
why. No one would be mad enough to" tax imported food,
and if that is not proposed what inducement have the various
classes connected with land to add to the price of articles
which they must buy, while there is to be no addition to the
price of articles of which they are sellers ? I do not think the
Sugar Convention ' was meant as a first step towards reviving
protection as a system. It looks to me more like a concession,
not too wisely made, to the importunity of supporters, and
probably with a strong suspicion at least that nothing would
come of it. I am not behind the scenes, and I do not care to
be ; but although most of us would be glad to get rid of the
bounty system if it can be done by diplomatic means, I do not
think that the House of Commons will agree, or even that it
will be asked to agree, to a system of discriminatmg or diffe-
' A Convention signed in London, August 30, 1888, by the Plenipotentiaries
of Austria, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Kussia,
and Spain, ' to insure by reciprocal engagements the total suppression of open
or disguised bounties on the exportation of sugar.' It was never ratified.

FBEE TBADE 265
lential duties. I hope, on the other hand, that we may see
a further development of the free trade policy of the last forty
years. I do not suppose we can spare at present the whole
four millions which the tea duties yield us ; and, even if we
could, it is doubtful policy to cut away entirely one of the few
sources of revenue that are left ; nor is it clear to me that a
working man who neither drinks nor smokes is entitled to
be rewarded for his abstinence by being entirely free from
taxation ; but I believe that, if we reduced those duties, say,
by one-half, increased consumption would in time make up
the loss, and we might very well simplify our tariff by sweeping
away some petty duties, such as those on fruit.
No doubt in regard to commercial policy the sanguine
anticipations of forty j^ears ago have not been realised. It
was then hoped that the world in general would be as ready
a,s we have been to adopt the principles of free trade. That
has not proved to be so, and now there are despondent persons
— and I observe that those who enjoy taking gloomy views
.are more ready to jump at conclusions than anyone else — who
say that because the promised good time has not come yet,
therefore it never will come. That is, to my mind, a hasty
judgment. It often happens that thoughtful writers and
speakers on public affairs are quite right in the substance of
their predictions, but quite wrong as to the time required for
their fulfilment. Mr. Senior in his published volumes has
recorded the conversation of French Liberals in the early
¦days of the Empire. They prophesied its fall, and indicated
the causes which would lead to that result ; but they expected
the end to come in three or four years, whereas it really took
nearly twenty years. We free traders have just in the same
way been partly right and partly wrong. We indicated
correctly the direction in which the world is travelling, but we
have been mistaken as to the pace. It is not difficult to see
the obstacles which have impeded hitherto the progress of free
trade. In Europe they can be stated in a single sentence —
the mutual jealousies of Governments have produced mutual
fears, and mutual fears have led to these exaggerated arma-

266 PBOTECTION IN THE UNITED STATES
ments which are crushing out the very life of the great
Continental nations. Of course, when a Government is
straining every nerve to raise money, whether by taxation or
by borrowing, it is glad of any excuse to raise or to maintain
duties or imports. And connected with that is another con
sideration, which the late M. Thiers used to put prominently
forward — that of the supposed necessity for a State, which
may be attacked by a combination of its neighbours, to have
within its own territory at any time sufficient commodities for
all its own requirements. We used to argue that ' Peace
could only be secured by the establishment of free trade ; ' it
is perhaps now nearer the truth to assert that free trade
cannot exist until you have a policy of peace. That they
will both come I have no doubt — if I doubted it I should
despair of the future. We may have need of patience, but in
the end we shall not be disappointed.
It is a puzzle to many people to find out how protectionist
ideas have spread and flourished in what would seem the
uncongenial soil of the United States. I do not profess
altogether to account for the fact — for certainly there is no
country which is more thoroughly possessed by the competitive
idea of life — but some partial explanation may be suggested.
In the first place, the Americans, with their enormous terri
tory, have absolute free trade already over great part of a
continent. In the next place, free trade has always presented
itself to them as an English — that is a foreign — idea, and the
curious political jealousy of England, which has not yet died
out, leads them to think that in some way or another we are
pressing it upon them to advance our own ends. So far from
that being the case, I own that my feelings as a free trader
and as an Englishman are at variance where America is
concerned. W^e are bound to give honest advice if we give
any ; but when the Americans become free traders they wUl be
far more dangerous rivals in business than they now are. In
fact, I think that the desire to produce everything for them
selves is a matter of feeling rather than of reasoning. They
like the idea, just as a man who has a garden likes growing

PBOTECTION IN THE COLONIES 20T
his own fruit and vegetables, though he is quite aware that he-
could get them as good and much cheaper in the market.
Then we must aUow for the energy, the wealth, and the
political power of the protected interests. They have more to
lose than any section of their opponents has to gain ; and
they know it, and act accordingly.
When it is asked. Why have our Colonies followed the
American precedent rather than ours ? I should answer to
that — it is too early to speak of them as if their policy were
permanently fixed ; they will try a few experiments before they
settle down, and it is not extraordinary that they should have
been led away by the example of a country which may reason
ably seem to them to bear more resemblance in its social and
economical condition to theirs than England does with its
sinall area and its ancient civilisation. Something, too, is
due to that peculiar kind of intellectual antagonism — which is
not in the least hostility — that impatience of dictation, or even
the appearance of it, by the mother country which exists in
all colonial communities, just as in private life it is apt to
exist between parents and children, though they may be on very
good terms. Experience will teach them in time — and nothing
except experience can do it. MeanwhUe, all we have got to do
is to stand by our convictions ; obviously, we cannot expect
other people to believe in us if we do not believe in ourselves.
You have invited me, as I gather, in order that I should
speak to you on the industrial condition of the country. That
is not an easy matter because of the variety of subjects which
come under that comprehensive definition. There are some
parts on which we may take it for granted that we are agreed.
It is certain that we cannot go on increasing our population
at its present rate without serious danger of such overcrowding
as no country can safely bear. It is certain also that we shall
be exposed to competition of increasing severity in years to
come, and that one preparation which we can make to meet it
— perhaps almost the only one — is so to reduce our public
burdens that our successors may not be unduly weighted for
the race. It is certain also that we are bound to do what we

268 PEASANT PBOPBIETOBS
can to render the transfer of land easy, and so to increase pro
ductive power. What else can be done, or should be done, in
connection with the land is, perhaps, hardly a question for
discussion here ; and I pass it over with very few words.
The theory which is uppermost at present is what I may
call the peasant proprietor theory — the ownership of the land
in small plots by individual cultivators.' I should not be
¦dealing frankly with you if I professed to accept that theory
to its fullest extent. I greatly doubt whether, without excep
tional capacity or exceptional opportunities, the owner of 10,
15, or even 20 acres will be able to hold his own against the
competition of larger capital and better appliances, and against
the temptation of ready money if he is pressed to sell. If he
can hold his own, his success is a gain in every way to the
community ; but in order to succeed he must keep his land
free from encumbrances — if it is mortgaged to the greater part
' The following letter contains further remarks on this question :
33 St. James' Square, February 6, 1892.
Sir, — In answer to your question, I am in full agreement with Lord Salisbury
in believing that the experiment of creating small landed propertie.^ ought to
be tried, and this for more than one reason. First, because the public evidently
desires that the trial should be made, and next, because, if the experiment suc
ceeds, it will both tend to satisfy the requirements of a numerous class, and add
to the value of land, which at present is lower than it ought to be. There is no
question of hardship to the land-owner, nor any present need of compulsion,
for estates can be bought in every county on easy terms. It remains to be seen
whether very small proprietors can hold their own. They certainly have not
done so in the past ; but many people hold that, being a more instructed class
than in former times, they will work harder and to better purpose. It may be
so ; opinions differ, and nothing will settle the dispute except bringing the
matter to a practical test. I do not believe that either the creation of small
holdings or that of District Councils will have much effect in diminishing the
attraction which the life ot great towns seems to hold out to the agricultural
labourer. The same tendency is shown and the same complaint made in
countries which differ widely in their social constitution. Higher \Yages, more
varied amusements, easier access to shops, and the pleasure which many
people feel in the mere presence of a crowd, are quite adequate explanations of
the townward movement. The man on whom these attractions operate most
strongly is not likely to be kept back by the prospect of comparative solitude
and hard work ou a farm of five acres. I remain, &c.
(Signed) Deeby.

NATIONALISATION OF THE LAND 269'
of its value, as is apt to happen, he will be worse off than a
tenant who pays rent — for independence in such a position is.
merely nominal, and whereas a tenant in difficulty has a moral
claim to indulgent treatment, the debtor must pay or quit.
But having said so much, let me add that I keep myjudgment^
in suspense — that I believe the question is one which can be
settled only by actual experiment — and on that account as well
as various others I should wish the experiment to have the
fairest and most conclusive trial. There is no difficulty on
the part of land-owners — hundreds of them wish for nothing
better than to be bought out, if not wholly yet in part, and as
we all know there are not hundreds but thousands of persons
ready to supply capital if they see the chance of a fair return
and adequate security. The only caution I would offer is this
— do not let the public — above aU, do not let the State, com
mit itself to action on a large scale in this matter, so far as
England is concerned, until it has tested results on a small
scale ; that is common prudence, and the matter is not one in
which breathless haste is either necessary or desirable. Of
course you will understand that nothing of what I have said
here applies to the question of allotments, which is an entirely
separate one, because the allotments are not, and cannot be,
the principal dependence of those who hold them. I will not
discuss here what is vaguely called the nationalisation of the
land. No two people agree as to what they mean by the
phrase, except that the land is to be taken from its present
owners. But one may ask the promoters of such schemes —
Do you mean to pay fairly for what you take, or not ? If they
do, they will make a very bad bargain for the State ; if they
do not, the plunder, enormous as it might be, would not be
enough to make up for the shaking of public confidence which
foUows on every act of confiscation. Let owners once feel that
they are no more secure than in Turkey or Persia, and they
will be just as ready to invest capital in improvements
as they are in those countries — that is, they will not do it
at all. On the vexed question of land in towns, and what is called

270 LEASEHOLD ENFBANCHISEMENT
leasehold enfranchisement, we have had an exhaustive inquiry
by a Committee of the House of Commons, ending in an in
conclusive report, which perhaps fairl}-- represents the actual
state of opinion. I have only time for a passing remark upon
it here. The holders of leases in towns are, as a rule, well-to-
do people, quite alive to their own interest : in fact, in most
•cases they are builders ; they have entered into their engage
ments with open eyes, and, generally speaking, have made a
very good thing of them. I think it will require strong
¦evidence after public inquiry before Parliament will interfere to
break bargains they have deliberately entered into, and to en
able them to obtain what they did not bargain for at less than
the market price. Moreover, it will not encourage future
¦owners to ve leases, if a leasehold can be turned into freehold
property at the option of the holder ; in fact, it would put an end
to leases altogether ; and then we come to this, that a man who
wants a house must either build or buy for himself, or hold it
for a very short term only. I do not think that would con
tribute to public convenience. But the Legislature has a
perfect right if it pleases to lay down the rule that no future
leases be granted for less than 999 years, or perpetuity, and I
for one should make no objection to such a restriction. That
would get over all difficulties in the future as to renewals,
and answer the objections as to what is called jerry-building;
for if existing houses are badly built the mischief is past cure
as regards them. You can only deal with buUding in the
future, and a 999 years' lease puts a stop to all grievances
arising out of the allegation that the tenant's interest is for
feited to the landlord. I think also that land-owners need not
wait for Parliament to interfere. In Manchester and in these
parts we have the 999 years' system ; and I think owners of
huilding land will do wisely if they introduce it elsewhere. As
to leases for lives, nobody has a good word for them. But
they are never granted now, and as they will die out in a few
years of themselves, it seems hardly worth while to legislate
about them. I believe that over unsanitary dweUings the
local authorities have ample control by existing Acts. The

FOBEIGN AND COLONIAL TBADE 271
trouble is that they do not always care to use the power they
have. But if their powers need strengthening, by all means
let them be strengthened. No one has a right to make a pro
fit out of disease, or overcrowding carried so far as to produce
disease. Before I leave the land I wish to throw out one
suggestion. Twenty years ago we had the wildest possible
guesses as to the distribution of the soil ; as to the number
of persons that are owning land. Everybody admitted the
importance of the question, but nobody had data to go
upon. The Government of the day determined to try and
clear up the mystery. They ordered an inquiry, and the re
sult was that remarkable Blue Book which has been more
often read and quoted from than any publication of the
kind — the list, I mean, of land-owners which came out in
1873. It was imperfect, and not always accurate, but it
brought us at least very near the truth. Now, I think,
the time has come when the work then done may be re
vised. Twenty years will have made a good deal of differ
ence. I believe you will find that the number of owners
has largely increased ; and the cost and the trouble will be
much less the second time than the first.
To pass to other subjects. I suppose we all agree that
with a growing population the extension of our foreign and
colonial trade is to us a necessity. How is that to be
brought about ? You ask, and you are quite right in ask
ing, that our diplomatists should do what is possible by
negotiation. I think I may say, knowing that service
pretty well from previous experience, that there is no such
indifference to commercial interests either at home or
abroad as is often imputed. In a case which was lately
brought before me by a member of this Chamber — I mean
that of our relations with Bulgaria — I have been able to
ascertain what has passed, and, though not authorised to
state details in public, I have satisfied myself that the
British authorities are doing all that is in their power, and
with hope of success. But the Chambers of Commerce
may do something for themselves, and if they were willing

272 FOBEIGN AND COLONIAL TBADE
to send out agents from time to time to co-operate with
our diplomatists and help them with their special know
ledge, I think they would find that a proposal of that kind
would not be badly received in Downing Street. You know
better than I can do whether there is any truth in what
is often said — that our producers here look rather to their
own taste as to what is best than to that of the buyers
abroad, and that business is lost in consequence. It would
seem a simple proposition that when you go fishing you
should choose your bait with reference to what the fish like,
rather than to what you think they ought to like ; but I can
not believe that our exporters overlook such a very elemen
tary rule. As to colonial trade, I am afraid we have not
much in our power; if our colonists like dear and bad
articles of their own making rather than good and cheap
ones made here, there is no help, they must have then-
own way ; but colonial tariffs have not as yet materially
checked our trade. We have many advantages over colonial
producers, and with that we must be content. Only let us
remember that wherever any one of us sends out or helps
to send out a healthy, industrious young man to a British
Colony, he is not merely doing a kind and useful act to
the individual, he is providing a fresh consumer of British
exports. There is great difficulty in a system of State-
supported emigration, not the least being the probable re
sistance of the Colonies themselves ; but that does not apply
to emigration helped by private agency ; and I doubt if
money which individuals are wiUing to spare for public pur
poses can be more advantageously spent in any other way.
I have been asked to say something on the subject of
technical instruction, but on that you are more capable of
teaching me. I believe it is for us a necessity. I know that
other towns are taking it up. I do not think it likely that
Eochdale will choose to be left behind in the race ; and I am
told that the movement has made much progress here. But
it is not enough to have buildings and teachers ; the working
class must take it up as a thing that concerns themselves.

CAPITAL AND LABOUB 273
and whether they will do so or not rests with them.
Surely they will see their own interest, and not hold aloof.
But, gentlemen, there are other obstacles to the develop
ment of trade besides what arise from foreign competition or
neglect to secure a market. We have, as I said at the begin
ning, to deal with the claims of labour, constantly making
themselves heard more and more loudly. We cannot ignore
them ; we cannot afford to treat with contempt even proposals
which are demonstrably unreasonable. We must argue about
many things which we were formerly content to assume,
and if we do come to argument I think it is easy to show
that some of the demands popularlj' put forward would be
infinitely more injurious, if conceded, to those who make
them than to any one else. Take, for instance, that which we
so often hear of, the compulsory reduction of labour to eight
hours a day. I pass over what appears to me the excessive
injustice of forbidding one man to do his best and to earn all
he can because his neighbour has less energy or fewer wants.
But I ask this — does any one propose to enforce also a minimum
rate of wages ? If not, the market rate of pay per ten hours
being so much, you are simply knocking off 20 per cent, from
the working man's wages when you reduce him by law to
eight hours. That is not, I suppose, the result intended. But
if it is attempted to fix by law a minimum of wages, what
endless complications follow ! In the first place, if the employer
does not choose to give that rate, and the employed is willing
to take less, what human power can enforce the law ? In the
next place, is it not rather hard on the inferior workman ?
He can get taken on for, say, 3s. a day ; but the law forbids
him to take less than 4s. What can follow, except that he will
not be employed at aU ? The good workman is earning less
than he might, the inferior workman is earning nothing ; that
is the outcome of the grand project for benefiting labour.
Then comes in the question of foreign competition. I do
not see on what grounds you could possibly resist the demand
of the employer to be protected against his rival abroad, when
you force him to produce less and to pay more. The claim in
VOL. II. T

274 CAPITAL AND LABOUB
justice would be irresistible. But, I may be told, nobody is
proposing to fix wages by law. Perhaps not ; but if you cut
down hours of labour by legal compulsion, and at the same
time mean to keep up wages, you will be driven to some ex
pedient of that kind, however absurd you may think it,
and however absurd it may really be. So with many other
benevolent, but not beneficent, schemes which are in the air,
' Build lodgings for all the poor to be let at the lowest price,'
says one man. Well, if you do that locally, you merely
attract an influx of labour, which is not wanted ; if you do it
generally, you undersell the people who make it their business
to provide lodgings. You drive them out of the trade, and
you have the whole working population of the place on your
hands to find houses for. I give that only as an instance ;
there are many other projects to which the same principle ap
plies. People in these days talk slightingly of economical
laws — but economical laws are only reason applied to a parti
cular department of human affairs ; you may ignore them if
you like, as you may ignore the law of gravitation, but they
wUl operate all the same. Popular talk did not make them,
and popular talk will not unmake them. No man outside a
lunatic asylum has ever said (as is now often imputed) that
they ought to be taken as the sole guides of hfe ; but no wise
man will affirm, on the other hand, that they can safely be
disregarded. Well, it may be asked, if you reject as useless or
mischievous various popular solutions of the labour controversy,
have you nothing to suggest in your turn ? Certainly I have
nothing new to suggest ; and I should greatly distrust any
man who told me that he had found an absolute^ certain
remedy for the disorder which we see and feel. But I have a
decided opinion as to the dhection in which we ought to look.
What is vaguely called co-operation — profit-sharing would be a
more accurate name — seems to me to give the best chance of
reconciling employer and employed. It has at any rate three
great advantages. It asks for no Parliamentary action — it
meddles with no man's liberty — and it requires neither help
nor money from the outside world. It may have been dis-

CAPITAL AND LABOUB 275
credited in early days by too big talk, as though it would fun
damentally alter human nature and the conditions of society,
and it may have been discredited also by being unfairly mixed
up with the vagaries of poor old Eobert Owen. But it has
outlived prejudice, and is now more than an experiment, it is
a success. Just look at the figures of the last few years, as given in
the Co-operative Year-book. In 1866 their sales were, in
round numbers, to the value of 4| miUions ; in 1876 to the
value of nearly 20 millions ; in 1886 to the value of nearly
33 millions. And the other figures, with which I do not trouble
you, correspond. They show real, rapid, continuous growth
and, except in one year out of the last twenty-five, no falling
off. I know, of course, what may be said. I know that these
successes have been gained in one department of industry
mainly — that of distribution — and that where production is
concerned the results have been more doubtful. That proves
only that there is something left to be accomplished — not that
the principle is unsound. For my own part I believe in the
principle. That is to say, I believe that the most effectual
way of reconciling employers and employed is to give them
one interest. When a man deals with the co-operative store
in which he is a shareholder, he knows he will not be
cheated, for why should he cheat himself ? And where the
worker gains directly by the prosperity of the business he
must be a hopeless idiot if he does not exert himself to the
utmost of his power. I think, as I said before, that it is in
that direction we must look. Further than that I do not
pretend to see — but the danger before us I do see, and it is
worth running some risks, and hazarding some failures, by
which those who come later may profit, if thereby we can help
towards the reconciliation of classes, which certainly are not
now united, and which cannot injure each other without
equaUy injuring themselves.

T 2

276

LXXX
MATEBIAL PBOGBESS OF IBELAND— LAW AND
OBDEB— PAYMENT OF BENT— A FEDEBAL SYS
TEM FOB GBEAT BBITAIN AND IBELAND
Liveepool : Januaey 16, 1890
We may fairly do so much justice to our opponents on this
Irish question as to assume that all alike desire Ireland to be
prosperous, however they may differ as to the means. And
do not let the fact of Irish agitation and Irish discontent,
unpleasant as it is, blind us to another fact, namely, that
Ireland relatively to her past position is prosperous to a
remarkable degree. The level from which she started, no
doubt, was a low one. Anybody who remembers what Ireland
was in the days of the repeal agitation, and just before the
famine, can recall a time when to live in a house of more
than one room, to taste any food except potatoes, or to wear
shoes and stockings, implied, at least in the south of Ireland,
that you belonged to the upper classes. I can well remember —
it was in the year 1844 — trying to count the beggars who
surrounded a Bianconi's car in a small town of the south, and
being obliged to leave off after counting up to a hundred and
twenty. Not that they were all, or most of them, professional
mendicants, but most of the local population saw no harm and
no discredit in going in for their chance of picking up an odd
penny in that way. I can remember, again , a family in Tipperary
who made a home for themselves by the primitive process of ex
cavating a burrow in a steep bank, where the road ran through
a cutting, filling up the front of it with sods, and leaving a hole
for door, window, and chimney. You would not see anything
of that kind now ; and though nobody denies that the period

MATEBIAL PBOGBESS OF IBELAND 277
of transition has been one of severe suffering, I say, with
perfect confidence, that there is no country in Europe in which
material progress has been so rapid during the last fifty years,
and that, making some exception for what are called the
congested districts, the Irish peasantry are as healthy and
well-nourished a race as you will find anywhere in Europe. I
say, further, that all the grievances of which we used to hea,r
so much in the days of O'Connell have absolutely disappeared.
What were they — the supremacy of the State Church ?
That does not exist. Capricious evictions on a large scale?
They are impossible. Excessive rents ? Eents are regulated
by judicial process. Impossibility of owning land? Why,
the object which the British Government has most at heart
just now is the creation of a peasant proprietary, and that is
being carped at, and indirectly but strenuously opposed by the
very people who would have been the readiest to cry out for it
had it been refused.
Well, really, under those circumstances it does seem a
little absurd to go on about the old immemorial traditional
grievances of Ireland, the violated Treaty of Limerick 200
years ago, the penal laws and commercial restrictions of the
last century, and the disabilities of Catholics, which scarcely
one living man in twenty can remember to have seen in force.
What are the present grievances ? That which is most loudly
put forward is the intolerable, the outrageous wrong done to
popular sentiment because the law is actually enforced ! In
some cases a man illegally and bitterly persecuted is protected,
and those who attempt to molest him are punished. In other
cases, the tenantry on an estate, with the priest at their head,
agree what is the amount of rent they choose to pay, and
Irish patriots have no language strong enough to express their
indignation because the land-owner and the authorities say
that that is a question to be settled by a judicial decision, and
that the parties shall not be judges in their own case. That
is what is meant by the talk about coercion. Why, if you
had a Home Eule Government in Ireland to-morrow, that
Government would find itself in this difficulty : either it must

278 LAW AND OBDEB
coerce on its own account, or it must declare that no debt or
contract shall be enforceable by process of law. That is
anarchy pure and simple — anarchy only quahfied by the
power of the priest. Do you think that the anarchical spirit
which we know prevails in Ireland is confined to the Irish at
home ? Look at what has lately been passing in America. A
quarrel among the Irish factions in the Western States led to
murder. The murderers were apprehended and put on their
trial. They, or some of them, have been happily convicted,
but not until, if the story in the papers be correct, some
hundred jurors had been set aside at the instance of the
prosecution on the ground that they were certain to violate
their oaths, and to acquit the prisoners against the evidence.
Is not that Cork or Tipperary over again ? Well, when men
carry into a new country, where they have not a shadow
of a grievance, that sort of defiance and hostility to the law,
that determination to be a law for themselves, can you place
much confidence in their judgment or fairness when they
complain of its administration at home ? But I think we
ought not to play into the hands of our opponents by allowing
these questions of the justice of convictions or the severity of
magistrates' sentences to be mixed up with the constitutional
question of Home Eule. Suppose that by some unexpected
chance the agitators were in some cases accurate in their
statements and right in their conclusions, what would that
prove ? It might prove that a magistrate had exceeded or
abused his powers, and that somebody else should be put in
his place. It might prove even that men with more legal
training should be substituted for lay magistrates. But what
has that to do with creating a new Legislature for Ireland ?
What is there in questions of this kind that Parliament is not
competent to deal with ? The Irish Members have been
themselves the chief obstacle to careful and impartial inquiry
into grievances of that kind. They have got up so many
absolutely unfounded complaints ; they have put forward so
many accusations which melted into air when put to the test,
that undoubtedly they have created a prejudice which did

PAYMENT OF BENT 279 /
not exist before. We can only judge by past experience, and
when nine stories of cruelty and injustice out of ten have been
shown to be imaginary, there is no doubt a chance, a possi
bility, that the tenth case may be a real one, but that it will
be listened to with a strong a priori inclination to disbelieve
it. In that respect they have cut a rod for their own backs.
That any other prejudice exists against them in the English
Parliament I do not believe, and I have never seen the
slightest evidence of it.
Now, we understand that the Irish measure of the year is
to be a Land Bill, and of course that bill cannot be discussed
until we know its terms ; but I have no hesitation in saying
that some measure of the kind is wanted, and that in the
actual circumstances of the country we are bound to choose
the lesser of two evils, and to overlook objections which at
other times might be serious. It is argued that the tenants
may combine in a refusal to pay the annual sum required for
interest and instalments. They certainly may ; it is a
possibility, but I do not think that those who have already
repaid part of their debt will readily incur the risk of losing
their land by refusing to pay the rest. After all, the Govern
ment is bound to enforce the payment of a fair rent to private
owners. Its obligation is not increased by the fact that it is
itself a creditor ; and I cannot conceive that in England, at
least, there will be any sympathy with men who voluntarily
call on the State to help them to become owners — who are
helped in a large and liberal way — who get their farms upon
terms more favourable than they could possibly have antici
pated, and who then turn round and say, ' No, the land is
ours by right, and we wiU keep it without paying for it.' There
is one advantage about the plan of selling to the tenants
which, in the actual state of the country, I think important.
Its adoption on a large scale is a heavy blow to all those
fantastic schemes of what is called land nationalisation, which
in plain English means robbery. You may trust the owner
of 10 or 20, 50 or 100 acres to defend the rights of property
as effectually as if he owned 1,000 or 10,000 ; and no force is

280 A FEDEBAL SYSTEM
to be despised as things are now in Ireland which is likely to
be exerted in the cause of honesty and law.
As to the constitutional question (which is really the
question at issue), after all, though perpetual attempts are
made to mix it up with irrelevant or unimportant details, I
think we can all see that it has passed into a new phase. The
ideas of 1886 are out of date. The bill of 1886 was in effect
a plan for treating Ireland as a colony. Opinion manifestly
declared against that. Then came the modification of aUowing
the Irish Members to continue to sit in Parliament, although
Parliament was to have nothing to do with Irish affairs.
That made nonsense of the whole proposal, and it was
fairly blown out of the water by the fire of criticism directed
against it. It is safe to say that of that plan also we have
heard the last. Since then the Home Eulers have been
cautious about committing themselves ; but, so far as they
have spoken intelligibly, they seem now to recognise the fact
that you cannot combine a federal with a Parliamentary
system. What they lean to now is a federal system, pure
and simple — a system under which England, Scotland, Ireland,
and Wales shall form separate and self-governing members of
a federation similar, in general outline, to that of the United
States. Now, I never wish to argue unfairly, and I am bound
to admit that this last development of the Home Eule theory
is far less unreasonable than its predecessors. It is not in
itself absurd ; it is not absolutely impracticable ; it is not
open to the criticism that it would, like the schemes which it
has superseded, produce absolute confusion, and end in a
deadlock. No doubt the federal sj'stem can be made to work.
Switzerland on a small scale, and the United States on a
large scale, have both proved that ; but I think it is open to
objections hardly less serious, though of a different kmd. In
the first place, its adoption would be a revolution such as we
have never known in England. It would utterly upset the
two most real and important, of our institutions, the House of
Commons and the Cabinet. It would put an end to the House
of Commons, for what you would have would be first an

A FEDEBAL SYSTEM 281
Imperial CouncU dealing with foreign, colonial, and Indian
affairs, with defence, and with Imperial finance ; next, a
merely local Enghsh Assembly, like a State Legislature
in America, all-powerful as regards local legislation, but
unable to touch any Imperial question. Neither of these
bodies, both so limited in their functions, could possibly
possess the influence or the power of Parliament as we now
have it. Authority so divided would be frittered away. There
would be no one central body to which everybody could look
as the guide and test of opinion. Exactly the same thing
would hold good of the Cabinet. At present the same dozen
men are held resjjonsible for the entire conduct of public
affairs ; but a system under which the Secretary for Foreign
Affairs and the Secretary for War should be responsible to
one body, the Home Secretary to another body, each absolutely
independent of the other, and in which the two sets of
authorities. Imperial and local, would not even sit together
as colleagues, would utterly destroy that unity of administra
tion which we believe to be necessary for administrative
efficiency. Whether the difficulties and inconveniences of
such a system can be made clearly intelligible to the mass of
the electors I do not know, but I am sure they must be very
obvious to Mr. Gladstone and to the able men who have
followed his lead. There is another difficulty of a different
kind. Suppose England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland to be
federally united ; how are they to be represented in the
Council which is common to them all ? Nobody would
seriously propose that they should each have the same
number of votes ; that would be too absurd when you have
twenty-five millions in one State, and two millions in another.
Then, is representation to be proportionate to population ?
That is fair and reasonable ; but in that case the whole
system becomes a farce, because the English vote will outweigh
all the rest put together. Scotch, Irish, and Welsh Members
may talk as they please, but they will be in a hopeless and
permanent minority. I see no escape from these two alter
natives, one absurd, the other objectionable, unless, indeed.

282 A FEDEBAL SYSTEM
it is proposed to cut up England into half a dozen States, a
proposal which has not yet been made, and which, I think,
would hardly commend itself to patriotic feeling. I put
forward that little puzzle for our Home Eule friends to solve.
There may be a solution, but, if they are to find it, they must
give us more reasoning and less rhetoric than has been
common in their speeches of late. They are in a difficulty.
If they do not bring a plan forward they will hardly rouse
enthusiasm on behalf of an unknown and undeclared policy.
If they do, they will give us something to criticise, and I
hope we shall discharge that duty with fairness indeed,
but carefully and thoroughly, and that we shall not aUow
phrases to be substituted for argument, or assertions to be
taken for proof.

283

LXXXI
THE MITIGATION OF THE SMOKE NUISANCE.
London: May 22, 1890
I HAVB been asked to take part in this meeting, and I could
not refuse, for, living much in a part of the country where we
see the sun much seldomer than we ought, and where one is
apt to blacken one's fingers in gathering a flower or a leaf,
I naturally wish to find some public interest excited in
the suppression or decrease of a nuisance by which all my
neighbours suffer, and those suffer most who cannot afford to
move. The diminution of smoke, and its necessary accom
paniment, dirt, is a matter which concerns everybody except
those fortunate persons who live entirely away from great
towns. I wish I could add that it interests everybody ; but
as a matter of fact it does not, and that is really the chief
difficulty with which we have to contend. In this country,
where almost unequalled mechanical skill has unbounded
capital available to employ it, very few public wants are likely
to remain unsupphed when they are once felt to be wants.
Canals came when traffic had become too heavy for the roads,
railways came when canals were felt to be too slow, gas re
placed oil, and electricity is replacing gas, because people
have begun to appreciate effective lighting ; and the problem
which we now have to solve, that of comparatively smokeless
fuel, is certainly not more difficult to deal with than those to
which I have referred.
The trouble is that there is no strong feeling on the
subject either here or in the manufacturing districts. We
most of us bear patiently what we have got used to, and end
by accepting it as a law of nature. I do not beheve that the

284 THE MITIGATION OF TRE SMOKE NUISANCE
most polluted air, or the destruction of vegetation, has any
effect in driving away labour. In towns like Wigan, which is
the centre of a coal-field, or Euncorn, or Widnes, where
chemical vapours of a very unpleasant kind penetrate into
every room of every house, the population seems to me to
accept the conditions of life as though they were normal and
necessary. The large employer does not live on the spot, the
workmen get good wages, and, of course, if the residents do
not care to exert themselves, nobody else is likely to take up
the matter. I dwell upon that because I believe indifference
is in this matter, as in many others, the chief evU which we
have to encounter. As to the extent of the smoke nuisance
we all know how the facts stand. The area affected is very
large ; but the population affected is much greater in propor
tion, because the districts which suffer are precisely those
which contain the largest number of inhabitants to the square
mile. You have pure air where there are few people to enjoy
it ; you have polluted air where many people are obliged to
breathe it. Nor is there any chance of the annoyance coming
to a natural end unless our manufacturing industries were to
collapse, which would mean starvation to millions and general
impoverishment to the country. Now, this expenditure of
fuel in creating dirt is an injury in various ways. It is, in
the first place, a waste of the fuel itself. There has been
great improvement, no doubt ; but the quantity used to
generate a certain amount of heat and power is still
enormously in excess of what, according to theory, it ought
to be. In the next place, the waste caused by perpetual
dirt is in itself not inconsiderable. The discomfort we all
know, and can judge of for ourselves. The injury to health
is variously estimated. I doubt whether healthy adults suffer
much from it, but children and delicate persons certainly do.
Then, when cleanliness has become difficult and laborious, to
say the least, the temptation is great to give up the attempt
to maintain it. And, lastly, the injury to vegetation is
no trifling loss in every way. I know many Lancashire
houses in or close to great towns in whose gardens scarcely

THE MITIGATION OF THE SMOKE NUISANCE 285
a flower can be grown, and fruit is of course out of the
question. If we must pay this price for manufacturing supremacy,
be it so. I am not here to contend that the object is not
worth the sacrifice ; but I do not believe there is any ' must '
in the case. I do believe that more than three-fourths,
possibly nine-tenths, of the smoke from coUieries or manu
factories of all kinds is absolutely unnecessary and prevent-
ible. But there will be some trouble and some outlay at
first. The thing wiU not do itself; it must be the result of
strong pressure from public opinion, and that opinion we
want to create, or, if it exists already, to strengthen. The
matter would be easy enough if any capital could be got out
of the movement for any political party, or even if any class
feeling could be appealed to ; but in this case there is no
impulse of that kind possible. W^hat we want to do is every
body's business, and that is the reason why it has been
nobody's business. Let me add that, in my part of the
country at least, it is not the smoke produced by domestic
fires, it is the smoke of collieries, mills, and works of various
kinds that is the great offender. Let me add that it would
be exaggerating the state of the case if I were to speak as if
nothing had been done here and there, but not uniformly, or
in all places, and naturally A will not put himself to trouble
and expense to keep down his smoke if B and C, within a mile
or two of him, are allowed to dirty the air at their pleasure.
I do not know that we want more stringent legislation.
Possibly we do, but before we get it, or even ask for it, let us
try the experiment fairly of enforcing the laws which we have.
There is much to be done in that way in almost every place that
I know. But there is one necessary preliminary step, which is
to show that the law can be obeyed, and that without extra
ordinary cost or trouble. Now, that is the work which such
a committee as this can do. This Society has been warmly
supported in Manchester, and, I believe, in other northern
towns, and Londoners have nearly, though not quite, as much
reason for taking it up. We have many of the most repre-

286 THE MITIGATION OF THE SMOKE NUISANCE
sentative names in Lancashire on the list of our contributors ;
why should it not be the same here ? I only know of one
industry which can be reasonably hostile to us. I do not
think we can expect the soap-makers to be very cordial ; and
yet, even as to them, I hardly know, because, though we may
lessen the quantity of dirt to be got rid of, we shall certainly
increase the desire to get rid of what remains. Since this
meeting was called I have had a visit from a tenant on my own
estate, who rents collieries from me, and he declared that for
thirteen years he has worked on the principle of suppressing
smoke entirely, that he has found it practicable, and, more
than that, that he has made it pay. Let us have more cases
of the same kind brought forward. If we only say the thing
can be done, that is a matter of opinion, and we may be
contradicted ; if we are able to say the thing has been done,
and to prove it, that is a matter of fact, and no contradiction
is possible.

287

LXXXII
THE STUDY OF SCIENCE
Liveepool : Septembee 26, 1890
. . . Thb necessity of technical instruction, if our workmen
are to hold their own against foreign rivals, is a commonplace
of the platform ; but we must not forget that there are other
objects to be served, less pressing — some would say less prac
tical — yet in their ultimate results surely not less important.
You wiU not expect from me, who can claim no relation to
science except that of a respectful admirer and in some very
humble degree a student, a disquisition on the use and value
of scientific training ; but some facts are clear, and need no
special gift of observation to detect them. Ours will be re
membered as pre-eminently the age of science, I might say
throughout the civilised world, but more especially in England.
In literature our age has done well, but we can scarcely, per
haps, claim to rival the generation which gave us Shakespeare
and Bacon. In politics we cannot judge the work of our own
time. We are too near it, and we have not seen the end ;
but the changes of our day, many and important as they are,
can scarcely be set alongside the reformation of the sixteenth,
or the civil wars and revolutions of the seventeenth, century.
I speak here not as judging any of these movements, but only
as weighing their relative magnitude and importance. In
regard of wars and of conquests, happily we have little in the
last fifty years to look back upon. But the triumphs of applied
science in our day are the veriest commonplace. To dwell
upon them would be absurd, and in such matters one success
leads to another. More than that, spread as civilisation is
over the whole earth, there is no fear of such a reaction of

288 THE STUDY OF SCIENCE
barbarism and ignorance as that which followed the decadence
of the Eoman Empire. In this one respect I think we may
praise ourselves without fear of seeming ridiculous to the next
generation. Our successors may excel us as writers, as politicians, as
soldiers ; they may surpass even the industrial energies of the
present time, but it is not likely — it is scarcely possible — that
in the region of science the twentieth century should witness
advances greater than, or as great as, those of the nineteenth.
The general experience of the world hitherto has been that
brilliant, but brief, epochs of advance have been followed by
long intervals of stagnation, and sometimes even of retrogres
sion. Eetrogression is not likely, as I said just now, but stag
nation is quite possible. There is one phrase much employed
when people talk on these subjects, which, to my mind, con
tains a fallacy. I mean the common phrase of popularising
science. Now, to popularise science is simply impossible.
You may give everybody an opportunity of learning, but not
everybody will or can take advantage of it. You may popula
rise the results of science, but that is quite a different matter.
As an old saying runs, there is no royal road to mathematics.
Anybody could cram up, with the help of an average memory
and of easily acquired handbooks, a summary of what has
been done in astronomy, in chemistry, or other sciences ; but
when that result is accomplished he will be very httle nearer
to any real gain which science could bring to him. It is only
labour and perseverance, added to natural capacity, that can
give a scientific mind. Fortunately, not everybody is requhed
to have it. I have no doubt a man may be a good workman,
a good clerk, a good man of business, and discharge all the
duties of life in a satisfactory way, although he believes that
the sun goes round the earth and that the moon and stars are
lighted up at night to enable mankind to see their way. We
cannot all be what the hideous slang of the day describes as
' scientists,' any more than we can all be poets ; but I think
the answer was a good one, which was given long ago, to the
objection, ' You want to make your pupil Jack of all trades, and

THE STUDY OF SCIENCE 289
master of none.' ' No,' was the reply, 'I want him to be Jack
of all trades, and master of one.' Nobody is required, nor
indeed is it usually possible, to make a serious study of more
than one profession ; but just as it is good to have a taste for
books, though we may not wish to become authors, and to have
a love of pictures, though we may never intend to paint, so it
is desirable to have a sympathetic insight into studies alien
from our own. Time is not wasted in that way, for there are
very few people a good deal of whose time does not run to
waste ; and when they talk of want of time it is really, nine
times out of ten, want of energy that they mean. No doubt
much labour is monotonous and wearisome, but those who
have tried the experiment will tell you that, given a reason
able degree of bodily health and mental activity, the best re
pose from monotonous labour is to be found in change of
occupation, not in absolute apathy and vacancy, and that is
one reason why, in my judgment, some tincture of scientific
knowledge is desirable for every educated person ; the result
may not be great, but the process is valuable. An entire
absence of the scientific spirit is no doubt compatible with
brUhant talent and high distinction. You do not find fault for
a deficiency of that kind in a novelist, a poet, or a writer of
light literature, but it is a deficiency notwithstanding.
If you ask me what I mean by a scientific spirit, I think I
know, but I must confess that it is more easily described in
vague and general terms than precisely defined. I mean by
it, in the first place, a habit of accuracy and exactness in
matters of fact. It matters very little to an orator that his
facts should be carefuUy verified— sometimes he is wise in ab
staining from the attempt — but a calculation or an experiment
must inevitably faU if there is a want of accuracy anywhere.
In the next place, I mean that temper of mind which seeks for
conclusions, but does not jump at them ; which is equally
opposed to the stupid incredulity of ignorance, refusing to
accept any idea which is not famUiar; to the reverential
credulity which accepts as true any statement coming down
from old or high authority ; and to the careless indifferentism
VOL. II. ^

290 THE STUDY OF SCIENCE
which, so long as a theory looks and sounds weU, and especi
ally if it flatters some previously existing feeling or prejudice,
does not care on what foundation of reality that theory rests.
Ours is an age when the half-educated are a power in the
world ; when more men than ever before reason and speculate
on difficult matters, and when, consequently, there is all round
us and on all subjects a quite bewildering amount of loose
talk and inconclusive argument. More than that, there are
fashions in opinion, and you constantly hear it said, ' Oh, yes,
that was the way people reasoned twenty years ago, but it is
quite out of date now.' Well, such fluctuations, I suppose,
must exist in what are called practical affairs, but that is all
the more reason why it is good to have to do with theories
that cannot go out of fashion, and with truths that are
absolutely incapable of being affected by the ebb and flow of
what is called public opinion. Else we should be apt to rest
in the conclusion that nothing is true and nothing false, and
that the best thing to do is simply to accept the current ideas
of the day, which, indeed, from the point of view of personal
interest, very likely for most of us is the best thing. That the
world is governed by laws which we did not make and cannot
abolish — laws which will operate whether we recognise or
ignore them, and which it is our wisdom, therefore, to study
that we may obey, and in obeying utilise them — that is what
I take to be the outcome of scientific teaching, and if anybody
thinks that a useless or an unimportant or unnecessary lesson
I do not agree with him. Something else science rightly
understood will teach us : to know what it is that we can
ho^je to know and to understand ; and to recognise how little
that is, and how much lies, and probably always will lie,
beyond the reach of our faculties.
One word only I will add — that, having known men of
many professions, I should say, as far as my observation goes,
that the happiest lives are those which have been devoted to
science. Every step is interesting, and the success of those
who do succeed is lasting. What general, what orator, what
statesman, what man of letters, can hope to leave a memory

THE STUDY OF SCIENCE 291
like that of Darwin ? An invalid in health — a man who sel
dom stirred from home — a man until his later years very
little known to the outer world, but who, from his quiet study,
revolutionised the thought of Europe, and will be remembered
as long as Newton and Bacon. If fame be ever worth work
ing for — I do not say it is — that kind of fame is surely,
of all, the most durable and the most desirable. I have
perhaps digressed from our proper subject, for it is not likely
that we have a future Darwin in this room ; but it is no
exaggeration to say that, as a rule, no man who has taken to
science as the work of his life regrets the choice, while men
who have done important work in other lines feel like Eenan,
who, at the height of his literary eminence, tells us in his
autobiography that he has often regretted that science rather
than historical research had not been the object of his early
pursuit. Nothing remains for me now except to offer to this
School of Science my sincere good wishes for its future
prosperity, and to you, the successful students who are
attending here to receive your prizes, my congratulations on
the good beginning which you have made, and my hope that
neither early success nor possible temporary faUure may
induce you to desist from those " steady, unhasting, unresting
exertions without which the great prizes of life can never be
attained.

d2

292

LXXXIII
THE DISTBIBUTION OF CHABITY—THE EMIGBA
TION OF CHILDBEN—THBEE FOBMS OF CHABITY
The Annual Meeting of Friends op the Shelteeing Hoivie foe Oephans
AND Destitute Childeen, Liveepool : Decembee 29, 1890
I AM glad to see that neither the time of year nor the weather
has prevented a considerable gathering here. But had it even
been much smaller, there would have been consolation in the
fact that what is said in this room, even if it reaches the ears
of comparatively few, reaches the eyes of many. Whoever
stands on a Liverpool platform addresses an audience im
measurably larger than any hall could contain. You have
heard from Mrs. Birt the teachings of experience ; from me
you can get only theory. I was asked some time ago to attend
this meeting and say something in support of this institution,
and I have consented to do so very willingly, but I did not con
sent until I had gone through its earlier reports and the
various statements put forward on its behalf, and satisfied my
self that it is not merely a benevolent undertaking — that is
very doubtful praise, like saying of a man that he has good
intentions — but also that it is a beneficent undertaking, which
is quite a different matter. It is a very old commonplace, but
not less true for that, that charity often creates more distress
in the long run than it relieves at the moment. There are
still persons, perhaps, to whom that may seem a paradox,
invented in the interest of mean and parsimonious people ; but
no man will think it so who has closely watched the effects of
careless and impulsive giving. Probably, as this world is con
stituted, it is scarcely possible to distribute large sums without
doing along with the good effected a certain proportion of harm.

THE DISTBIBUTION OF CHABITY 293
We cannot escape from these conditions of human existence ;
but what we can do is to see that the good result shall be as
great and permanent, and the accompanying harm, if any, as
slight, as is possible under the circumstances. For instance,
even the safest of all ordinary charities — a well- administered
hospital — is so far liable to abuse that patients get admission
to it who could afford to pay for themselves, and it is said that
if a local school be liberally endowed, the principal gainers are
those who own or occupy houses in the immediate neighbour
hood, because parents will flock into the district where their
children will be well and cheaply educated. Or, to take another
case, I believe there is no doubt that in London, when public
attention some years ago was called to the state of one par
ticular (district in the East-end and a rush of contributions
for the relief of the inhabitants followed, the immediate effect
was that the rents of all lodgings in that district rose, because
those who took them reckoned on coming in for a share of the
good things that were going.
I dwell on this point, you may perhaps think too strongly
and too long, because I am well assured that in these days the
danger is not on the side of indifference to distress, but of
thoughtlessness as to the best way of dealing with it. When
people give largely either to relieve their own consciences, or
because everybody tells them that it is their duty to give largely,
they are apt to think very little of what becomes of the money
they have parted with. It is enough for them that they have
shown unselfishness in givmg it ; to teU them to take trouble
in addition would be askmg too much. The money is no longer
in their hands, and they do not feel responsible for it. Now,
that is a mischievous fallacy, because it ignores the painful but
quite indisputable fact that of aU the evil that exists in the
world a very large proportion has been caused by persons who
thought they were doing good. We want good sense as much
as good feeling. I believe this home to be as nearly free from
danger of abuse as any form of charity can be. No doubt
there is one danger to guard against— that of relieving worth
less or careless parents from their natural duty of looking after

294 THE EMIGBATION OF CHILDBEN
the children whom they have brought into the world. But
there is a large class of children in whose case that kind of
parent does not exist — orphans, children of widows, or others
too poor to maintain them (I fear they are many), or chUdren of
parents who have deserted them, or of parents who are suffering
the penalties of breaking the law or who are not to be found.
And let this be borne in mind, that wherever there is wanton
and wilful neglect on the part of the parent, the law can and
does interfere and punishes the offence. I am not denying that
there is need of watchfulness in the choice of cases to be dealt
with ; but I think that, with proper care and discrimination,
it is quite possible so to work a charity like this that no father or
mother shall be enabled by it to escape from their duty to their
children and to society.
So much for the class of children for whom it is sought to
provide. Now as to the means of providing for them. It would
be mere waste of time to expatiate on the advantages of
emigration. We are, and we must be, an emigrating country.
With our small area and growing population we have no
choice in the matter ; we cannot employ or feed 400,000 more
human beings every year. No doubt emigration is only a
palliative. No doubt it would be well for us if population did
not increase at so rapid a rate. But we must deal with the
world as we find it, and I do not hesitate to say that to
dispose in some way of the growing swarms of the poorest
class is not a matter of humanity only, but one also of public
safety. Well, how is that to be done? Large schemes of
colonisation have often been promoted, but they have never
succeeded yet, and probably they never will. The enormous
cost hi comparison to the result accomplished is alone an
almost fatal objection. Individual emigrants may be helped
out, either by relatives or friends or by the aid of Societies ;
but where grown-up men are concerned, that can only be done
with care and caution, and if the poorest and least able to get
on at home are selected to be sent out, you will very soon
have complaints from the Colonies of the labour market being
unduly interfered with. You have, moreover, the old, never-

THE EMIGBATION OF CHILDBEN 295
ceasing difficulty that the people whom England is most
wUling to spare are not those whom the Colonies are most
willing to receive. I do not, of course, affirm that these
difficulties cannot be overcome; I say only that they are
difficulties not to be ignored or underrated. But I do not beheve
that any Colony has ever objected to the class of emigrants
whom it is the object of this institution to send out — boys
and girls. There is a demand for them everywhere — girls
especiaUy, if they will fit themselves for domestic service,
which is one of the most crying wants of an undeveloped
country. But, whether boys or girls, they have chances
which an adult has not. They excite no jealousy ; they are
valued as being useful by the very people who would resent
the importation of adult labour ; and, going out at an age
when habits are still unformed, they can adapt themselves to
new conditions more readily than a grown man or woman
could do.
But we need not theorise on this point, because we have
evidence as to what Canada actually thinks and feels. In the
report of one of our meetings, held not very long ago, I find
the following statement : ' The average applications received
from Canada during the past few years have been 1,000.'
And as I believe not more than 200, if as many, get sent out
in any one year, there is no danger of overstocking the
market. The benefit to the children themselves is too obvious
to dwell upon. Even an African or Australian savage hardly
leads so wretched a life as that of a young boy or girl running
loose, trying to pick up a living in the streets of a great
town. And, on the other hand, the life of a Colony — which
has drawbacks, no doubt, for educated persons and for those
who leave happy homes behind them which they will never
see again — that life to a street Arab is a distinct improvement
in his condition even at first. He may have hard work to do,
but it is healthy work ; he lives in pure air, he has plenty of
wholesome food, and he has before him the prospect of in
dependence and of rising in the world. What is more, under
the arrangements which this Society makes he is never

296 THE EMIGBATION OF CHILDBEN
uncared for. He is not sent out until there is a place where
he can be received, and until there are friends ready to receive
him. He does not lose a home — which, in fact, in most cases
he has never had ; he finds one. No doubt, before he is fit
for colonial life he requires training — and that training, I
understand, is given here, so that no boy, or girl either, shaU
go out until there is a reasonable certainty that he or she
has acquired the habits of cleanliness, of obedience to dis
cipline, and of industry. One great recommendation, to my
mind, of this system is its cheapness in proportion to the
result obtained. I see it stated that 151. will cover the whole
cost of taking in a child, training it in a home here, and
sending it to Canada, where it will be self-supporting.
Compare that estimate with the cost of refuges, homes, in
dustrial schools, and similar institutions in this country, and
then consider whether 15L is a heavy price to pay for a life
rescued from poverty, vagrancy, and very probably from crime.
I have never heard but one objection made to the system
which seemed to me tp have any real weight. It is sometimes
urged, ' Why be at such trouble to take a certain number of
vagrant or neglected children out of the streets, when you
know that their place will only be filled up by others ? ' To
that I answer, there is no necessity why their place should be
so taken. It cannot be a law of nature that a certain number
of children in every great town should run about wUd and
half-starved. Stop the leak in the ship's bottom by all
ijieans, but while you do that you must also pump out the
water that has got in already. Vagrancy and pauperism
perpetuate themselves ; they will not grow up again so easily
where they once have ceased to exist. And it is mere foolish
ness to say, if we cannot root out a public nuisance and danger
altogether, that we will do nothing to diminish it. In all
human affairs there are ten cases which admit of palliatives
to one which admits of cure.
One last remark only I would add. Of all useful charities
(I set aside those that are wasted, or worse than wasted),
there are three degrees. The lowest — good in its way — is

THBEE FOBMS OF CHABITY 297
when you help a man over some immediate difficulty or
distress, doing nothing for his future. That is all right, but
the result is not permanent. The next grade is that kind of
assistance which you give when you place the person helped
in such a position that he can help himself for the future.
And the highest and best form of charity is that which not
only enables him to help himself, but to pass on to others at a
later date the assistance which he has received. And that is
what we do here. Not only is the child who is sent out started
in life with every chance of success, but he adds to the number
of our colonists, to the employers of British capital, to the
consumers of British products, and so to the welfare and
prosperity of those whom he leaves behind. That is a really
valid plea — not the less so because it appeals to men's rea
son rather than their impulses. One thing more I ask you
to bear in mind. We are constantly appealed to in these
days to give our names and our means to new and sometimes
sensational plans of phUanthropy. Now, I am not here to
dissuade anybody from helping any scheme of the soundness
of which he or she is satisfied ; but people may perhaps be
warned not to let good work which is now being done languish
and faU because some newer project has laid hold of the
popular imagination. Help the novelty if you please and
think eight, but do not help it at the cost of old and weU-tried
institutions. I believe in the institution which we are dis
cussing to-day. I beheve it to be sound in principle and
well administered in practice; and I therefore cordially.
recommend it to the support of the Liverpool community, of
whom for present purposes I count myself as one.

298

LXXXIV
ED UCA TION — EXAMINA TIONS — CONTINUATION
SCHOOLS-KNOWLEDGE— SUCCESS IN LIFE
BuEY : Januaey 28, 1891
It is always a pleasure to meet my friends and neighbours
of Bury, and there is in Bury no place where I meet them
with more satisfaction than here, not only because thirty-
eight years ago I had the honour of addressing a simUar
audience in this room, but because at a stUl earlier date my
father before me took a warm interest in the success of this
Athenffium, and either laid the first stone or presided at the
formal opening, in days which now seem to us far distant.
For those were days when Macaulay's History was stUl only
half written, when Wellington was still with us as a living
presence, and when the figure of Peel, though just disappear
ing from the scene, was still the most prominent in political
life. We seem since then to have passed through a long experi
ence of life, and yet it is only forty years — much in the history
of an individual, nothing in that of a nation. We have gained
a good deal since then — of that there can be no reasonable
doubt — but perhaps we have also lost something. I do not
recognise in the literature or hear in the talk of the present
day that tone of confident optimism which distinguished the
years in which I first knew public affairs — the years between
1840 and 1850. Everybody then seemed so very sure that,
given a few changes which would come about almost of
themselves, the world was going to be a different place ; wars
were to cease, for democracy was to triumph, and democracy
was sure to be peaceable. Free trade would spread from
England over the whole earth. Education would make every
body wise, and the quarrels and follies of the past would

EDUCATION 299
soon be mere memories. I do not think we are so sanguine
now. Experience has done its work; we have learnt that
even with improved conditions of life — and those undoubtedly
we have— there is a good deal of human nature left in
man. We do not quite say, in the untranslatable language
of the Frenchman, the more changes there are, the more
things remain the same, but we recognise the fact that
neither voting powers nor schools have sufficed to make
the world an earthly paradise ; that it is well to have dis
posed of the grievances and the difficulties of the last gene
ration, but that we have disposed of them only to find our
selves confronted by others not less serious, and not less
needing solution. If that is true generally, it is certainly
true in educational matters. We teach everybody ; we oblige
everybody to learn as far as possible up to a certain point, and
no doubt the present is a more cultivated and intelligent
age than the last. But it is a less satisfactory reflection
to consider how much of the seed that has been sown never
goes into the ground at all ; how much of the mental food
that our authorities not merely prepare, but stand by and see
swallowed, is never assimilated, and in many cases seems
to produce only nausea and indigestion. Well, I suppose we
must make up our minds to that. Nature is wasteful, and
we must not complain if we find that a good deal of honest
and earnest effort is, in appearance at least, thrown away.
It is something that every child is able to read, even if three
out of four do so either to very little purpose or not at all.
It is something that the opportunity of self-improvement
should be given, even if it is not always, or possibly not
often, made use of. At least the State will have done its
duty, and each generation may be expected to show some
advance over the last. We have provided, I suppose, pretty
well for primary education.
I sometimes think that, in one respect, we have done too
much, or rather perhaps that we have not been working on
the right lines. I speak with doubt and deference, but it does
seem to me that our schools try to teach more than is possible

300 EXAMINATIONS
in the time allowed, and that the consequent haste and effort,
and the reaction, which inevitably follow may do more to dis
gust boys and girls with books, to make them non-readers in
later hfe, than the little increase of early acquired knowledge
is worth. For my own part, I would rather that a lad should
leave school comparatively ignorant, but fond of reading and
keen to acquire knowledge, than that he should do so in the con
dition, not unfrequent, of a person who has just gone through
an examination — glad that the cramming business is over, and
determined, if he can help himself, never to go through any
thing like it again. Do not misunderstand me. I have nothing
to say against examinations, but, on the contrary, a good deal
to say in their favour. They are eminently useful in their way,
especially as applied to the public service. They check jobbery,
they save us from a good deal of political corruption, they
keep out the blockheads and the idlers, and they supply a
rough test, not of intellectual capacity by itself, nor of industry
by itself, but of that combination of the two which is wanted
for practical success in life. But, like other good things, they
have their drawbacks. They do, I think, tend to destroy the
ideal of the genuine student, the love of knowledge for its own
sake. They do cause an undue stress to be laid on the most
mechanical of all intellectual faculties — that of memory, and,
of course, they do not give any corresponding development of
the more important faculty of judgment. As to the aUeged
danger of too great pressure on the brain whilst stUl unde
veloped, I do not contend in the face of high medical authori
ties that it is absolutely imaginary, but I think it is exaggerated.
Those who break down in training are generally either those
who would anyhow have broken down later on, or else those
who have tried hard to make up by a short spell of excessive
labour for having taken things too easily in the beginning. To
some thinkers examinations seem undesirable because they
promote the principle of individual competition— man against
man. I cannot say that I see much in that objection. Life
is a struggle ; always has been, and always must be ; and in
England at least we think that struggle is better than stagna-

CONTINUATION SCHOOLS 301
tion. Even the very societies which are established to develop
the principle of co-operation as against competition, societies
which have been very useful and very successful, are of ne
cessity competing against one another, and against the whole
world. Parhamentary life and life at the Bar are one long
competition. Even our games are mostly competitive, and it
is an old remark that an Englishman is seldom satisfied with
his amusements until he has made them as like a business as
he can. Let me next say a word about what I think is the last
educational development. I mean the continuation schools,
as they are called, which take up young people at the time
when ordinary primary schools let them go. I think that an
eminently useful movement, partly on the simple and homely
ground that it keeps young folks out of mischief at the most
dangerous age ; partly because it gives them a chance of ac
quiring knowledge and cultivation which they could not acquire
as children, and perhaps in most cases would not care to ac-
quu-e in later life. It is, in fact, only a revival in a new form
of the old movement which led to the formation of institutes
such as this. Many of them succeeded wholly or partially,
but many failed for a reason which does not now operate — ¦
because the groundwork of good primary schooling did not
then exist. . . . WeU, I may be asked — one often asks it of
oneself on such occasions — what is all this machinery of
schools and evening classes and institutes meant to do ?
What result do you expect to produce ? And to that I do
not see that any single answer could be given. We want
various things, not incompatible with one another ; mutually
helpful, yet not identical. We want good and useful servants
for the State. We know very well that instruction does not
necessarUy give wisdom ; yet we think that it places some
check on wild and impracticable ideas, and that those classes
which have political power in their hands should have some
ideas as to how their power ought to be used. Again, we want
men so trained for professions and industrial occupations of
all sorts that we in England shaU not be in a position of

302 KNOWLEDGE
inferiority to other countries. We want men rescued, for the
sake of society generally quite as much as for their own, from
the temptation to silly, and wasteful, and vicious forms of
pleasure, by supplying them with other sources of amusement
which are, to put it at the lowest, neither costly nor hurtful.
And, inasmuch as we are not Orientals, nor pessimists, who
think life itself a mistake (at least I do not believe that doctrine
to be popular in England), we think that to augment the
sum of intellectual activity in the human race is, on the whole,
to increase human happiness, and therefore is desirable. I
am aware that that last proposition is not absolutely undis-
pated. It is an old saying that he that increases knowledge
increases sorrow ; but that is an Asiatic, not a European, view
of the case. The general tendency of human experience is
the other way, and though it is arguable that a street sweeper
who can neither read nor write, or a savage in the wUderness,
may be happier than a philosopher, I do not know the philo
sopher who, if it could be brought to the test, would consent
to change places.
Then, again, it is sometimes said you are making people
discontented with all this teaching, because jou. are giving
them tastes which they cannot gratify. Well, I do not treat
that objection with contempt. There is something in it. It
points to a possible danger, but the answer is, I think,
sufficient. In the first place, not all desirable tastes are costly
and not all discontent is undesirable. In the next place, you
will have the discontent whether you have the teaching or not,
and though book-learning is not always nor necessarUy wisdom,
yet, of the two, utter ignorance is more liable to be duped,
more liable to be used as an instrument for mischief-makers
to play upon, than even partial and imperfect knowledge.
We have difficulties ahead with labour questions and the like,
but none which we may not surmount if we only keep our
eyes and ears open and our heads cool. Disputes between
employers and employed are nothing new, and I do not see why
exceptional treatment for them should be more required now
than in the past.

SUCCESS IN LIFE 303
I have only one more word to add, and it is addressed
equally to those who are coming up this evening to receive
their prizes and to those who have tried for them but failed.
To the one I say, do not be over-confident ; to the others, do
not despond. Life is a long race in which success depends
much more on staying power than on speed. I should never
despair of a young fellow's chances only because he was or
seemed to be a little slower than his neighbours. A blunt
knife will cut as well as a sharp one, only you must j)ress
upon it harder ; but I should put a very big black mark
against any youth whom I heard say, ' I can't do this ; it is
too much trouble,' or still worse, ' It does not interest or
amuse me.' It was said long, ago that the first requisite for
public hfe was to have the patience of a camel, and that who
ever wanted to succeed in the law must live like a hermit and
work like a horse. There is truth, I believe, in both sayings,
and they apply to other pursuits besides politics and law. I
do not believe that this generation has retrograded in any
direction ; but if it has a weak point, it is perhaps that we
expect more in the way of amusement, and are less patient of
what is dull and disagreeable. I hope in that respect I may
be wrong. Hard work made England what it is, and hard
work will be needed to keep England what it is. I will
preach to you no more, and will end with hearty good wishes
for the success of this Institution.

304

LXXXV
JOHN BBIGHT
On the Unveiling of Me. Beight's Statue, Manchesteb :
October 18, 1891
The duty which devolves upon me now is both honourable
and agreeable. I ask you to join in paying honour to the
memory of a man who was remarkable in his day, who was
during many years more praised and more abused than is
the fate of any except a few, but who needs no statue to keep
him in the memory of his countrymen, for he has written his
name in large and durable letters on the history of England.
The name of John Bright is known among all Enghsh-
speaking people, in America and in the Colonies as well as in
Great Britain. But we in Lancashire claim him specially, not
merely because he was born and bred among us, but because
he embodied in a peculiar degree those qualities which are
usually held to be characteristic of Lancashhe — strong and
clear opinions, determined purpose, and plain uncompromising
speech. Among the subscribers to this statue are reckoned men
of various political parties, and that is right. They include, I
have no doubt, many who may not hold that the political
results of John Bright's action are or will be unmixed good, but
who can separate character from opinion, and can respect, where
they find it, sincerity and simplicity of purpose and a dis
interested desire for the public weal. To these qualities, even
in the heat of party disputes, few, if any, persons have doubted
John Bright's claim, and it is mainly, I think, on that ground
that he who never hesitated to speak his mind, who did not
always pick his words, and cared little about giving offence,
has left behind so httle painful recoUection of past quarrels.

JOHN BBIGHT 305
For if he spoke often in anger, it was anger inspired by pub
lic considerations, not by private resentment or interested
motives ; passion was in his words, but not malice or malevo
lence. He denounced, but he did not sneer. He gave hard
blows, but he was prepared to take them in return. The
fighting instinct was strong in him ; but there has seldom been
an Enghshman yet, whatever his theory of life might be, to
whom a fair stand-up fight was altogether distasteful or who
did not respect pluck even when shown in a cause opposite to
his own.
Of Bright, in his character of an orator, there is nothing
to be said that is not familiar and even commonplace. By
common consent he stands in that capacity among the fore
most — many will say the foremost — of the generation, and
even of the century, in which he lived. His manner of speech
was, I believe, the result of long- continued study and practice,
and it accomplished the highest result of art, for the art was
not apparent. I do not know a purer style, one more abso
lutely free from affectation of phrase, from commonplace, from
discursiveness, or from superfluity of words. He is the one
authority who will always be appealed to by those who contend
that classical models are not required for the formation of an
English style of writing or of speaking. But it is to be re
membered that if he was not familiar with the literature of
Eome and of Greece, the English epic of Milton was his
favourite study ; and when all is said, style depends less on
what a man has read than on what he is. He must, of
course, know his own language well — it is the tool he has to
work with — but directness, brevity, emphatic diction where the
subject demands it, satire and impassioned eloquence, are
qualities which cannot be acquired. SkUl and readiness in
public argument, what we call debating power, is an art which
most men of fairly acute intellect, and not too sensitive fibre,
can acquire by the help of practice and training ; but the
orator is like the poet, he must be born such, he cannot be
made. I do not think that men in future times will look back
to the speeches of Bright, as we do to those of Burke, for wide
VOL. II. X

306 JOHN BBIGHT
and thoughtful generalisations which retain their value when
the subjects which call them forth are dead and buried, nor
for finished models of rhetorical skill such as those of
Canning, nor yet for epigrams and turns of phrase such
as Lord Beaconsfield was accustomed to throw off, though
I do not say that any of these distinctive marks are
absolutely wanting. But the oratory of Bright was what
Parliamentary and popular oratory should be, and what
that of Burke emphatically was not, directed to the object
of the moment ; practical, simple, meant to convince rather
than to dazzle or to amuse, the speech of a man who had
action in view, not the literary exercise of a rhetorician.
I have heard, during forty years of Parliamentary life,
many famous speeches, but among the two or three most
remarkable which remain in my memory is that delivered by
Bright in the early days of the Crimean war. He had every
thing against him, for he spoke to an audience never in those
years very friendly ; he spoke at a moment of great ^jopular
excitement, and in opposition to the general sense of both
Parliament and the public ; but the effect was such as no other
man, with the possible exception of Mr. Gladstone, could have
produced, and I doubt if any speech of a later date has
equalled it in that respect. Not the least admirable quahty
of his eloquence was that, however impassioned, it was always
grave and deliberate. I have heard a large class of speakers
described as not knowing what they were going to say when
they got up, not knowing what they were saying whUe they
were on their legs, and not knowmg what they had said when
they sat down. That is no very rare type ; but it was exactly
the reverse of Bright. He could be thoroughly effective in
reply, as we all know ; but he was not ashamed, and wisely
so, to meditate carefully beforehand what he meant to say,
holding that respect, both to his audience and to himself,
binds a speaker to deliver his message in well-considered
terms, to know exactly what he means and to say it in the
language most suited to impress his meaning.

JOHN BBIGHT 307
When I speak of Bright as a statesman I touch on more
delicate topics, but you will give me credit for doing so in no
controversial spirit. There has been no man in our time who
was so entirely faithful to the ideas which he set out, and to
which he adhered to the day of his death. These were, as I
think, mainly four : the benefits of democratic government,
the folly of war, the wisdom of a free-trade policy, and the
advantage (he would have said the duty) of treating religion as
a thing apart and disconnected from the administration of
political affairs.
As to the first of these, he had the good fortune, not com
mon to pioneers in any cause, to see the accomplishment of
his purpose. No one, I suppose, will deny that to him more
than to any man the establishment of the actual franchise and
the transfer of political power to the wage-earning classes are
due. Other leaders may have accepted what they saw to be
inevitable, but to him it was an object always before his eyes,
an object of hope and confident expectation. That he has
succeeded is certain. A later generation will pronounce on
the effects of the peaceable revolution which he brought
about. To us they can only be matters of speculation ;
but when the history of that movement is written, the name
most prominent in connection with it will assuredly be that
of Bright. On questions of peace or war it is not in the nature of
thmgs that an equally decisive result should be obtained,
because in that matter no State can regulate its actions
solely by its own wishes. It is not always true between
nations that it takes two to make a quarrel. When the state
of Europe in this century is matter of historical record, it wUl
be no slight set-off against the many undoubted gains of civi
lisation that a larger number of men than ever before in the
world's history have been armed and kept ready for war
without any one definitely assignable cause except inter
national jealousy or greed. Those who have protested, how
ever vainly, against that condition of things deserve from
X 2

308 JOHN BBIGHT
posterity the honour which they have not always received
from their contemporaries, and in that list not the least dis
tinguished name will be the name of him of whom we are now
speaking. In regard to free trade, so far as England is concerned, we
may fairly say that the victory rested with Bright ; that the
personal credit must be divided pretty equally between him
and Cobden ; and that, although opinion on the subject is pro
bably less unanimous than it was twenty years ago, yet there
is no reasonable probabUity of the national decision being re
versed. Whether the example we have set will be followed in
other countries it is yet too early to decide. I, for one, do
not despair, but there is no shame in avowing that the early
free traders were sanguine, as I imagine most successful
leaders of opinion are and must be. Perhaps it is a kindly
provision of Nature that we should all exaggerate the magni
tude of the results of what we do, since without that whole
some stimulus we should seldom do anything, and the world
would stand still. Perhaps, also, we are apt to be in too great
a hurry, and to forget how slowly the great ideas that govern
mankind are worked out. At any rate, this is certain, that if
free trade has not spread over the whole civilised world,
abolished pauperism, and brought peace in its train, as many
people hoped forty yea'rs ago, it has exercised a powerful in
fluence for good even in countries where it has been very
partially and imperfectly developed, and the result of the
English experiment has been so far a success that the oppo
nents of free trade abroad have always endeavoured to separate
their case from ours. They do not argue that it has faded in
England ; they contend only that the position of England is
peculiar, and that what suits us would not suit them. No
doubt the more sceptical and despondent section of society
have bad something to say for themselves. Cj'uics might well
be amused, and philanthropists despondent, when the great
Eepublic which represented democracy and peace, and it was
thought free trade, found itself involved in a gigantic civil
war, and began to saddle its citizens with the additional

JOHN BBIGHT 309
burden of a high protective tariff. But the war ended in
triumph ; the debt which it left is being rapidly paid off ; in
ternal peace has been restored ; and in dealing with a country
of sudden and rapid changes, I do not see why we should
despair of protection dying out on the other side of the Atlan
tic as it has done on this.
The last of the questions which I have mentioned as
those to which Bright's life was devoted — the separation of
secular and ecclesiastical concerns — is still undecided. I do
not dwell on it for a reason which you will easily imagine —
because it cannot be touched without exciting differences and
provoking feelings which are not in place on such an occasion
as the present. I say only this, that the view which Bright
took was the only one which with his training and surround
ings it was possible he should take ; that he was strengthened
in it by the example of America and the Colonies, and by the
fact that no one in the present day, when laying the founda
tions of a new community, would dream of connecting the
State with any particular religious denomination, and that
even in the Established Church itself the tendency to rely
upon voluntary support is increasing in a marked degree. I
neither utter a prophecy nor express a wish, but I think it is
the judgment of most men that the tendency of the age is
towards voluntarism ; and if I am right in that respect, John
Bright undoubtedly might be claimed as a representative
man. I have mentioned America, and I think we should not
ignore or pass over the warm, the almost passionately affec
tionate, interest which Bright always felt and displayed where
the United States were concerned. He thought of them as
of a greater, happier, and perhaps a better England, where,
on a new soil and among a younger people, problems might
be safely and easily worked out which are fuU of difficulty in
an old country like ours. I beheve that in displaying that
feeling, though he had no diplomatic object in view, he did
England a service, that he soothed the often irritated feelings
of a sensitive people, and induced Americans to make one

310 JOHN BBIGHT
exception to their too ordinary belief that among us they are
misjudged and misunderstood.
I have not much to add, but there is one remark which
the subject imperatively calls for. Bright, in his earlier life,
was constantly and till the end often described as a dema
gogue. Well, if you take the word in its literal sense as
meaning a leader of the people, he was one ; but no politician
has ever lived who was less ready to humble himself before
the people, to flatter prejudices which he did not share, or to
conceal opinions which might make him unpopular. We
know the kind of popular champion who takes up a cause as
soon as it seems likely to pay, who heads a crowd with
immense determination so long as it cheers and follows him,
but who hangs back the moment the cheers become faint and
few. We have plenty of that sort, perhaps we could do with
fewer ; but not once only, but again and again. Bright showed
himself wiUing to oppose the popular opinion of the day when
he believed it to be wrong. You remember his attitude in the
Crimean war, his sacrifice of office (though that cost him
little) at the time of the Egyptian expedition, and his honour
able refusal to join any movements, however popular, which
did not commend themselves to his judgment. The question
is not whether in any particular instance he was inteUectuaUy
right, but that he was always ready to sacrifice to his convic
tions, not merely popularity, but that public confidence which
all political men value, and which necessarily implies a general
sympathy with the ideas of the day. Posterity judges by
results. We are too near to the time of John Bright to be
fair judges of his statesmanship; but some thmgs we may
say of him without hesitation or doubt — that for a quarter of
a century he powerfully influenced the decisions of Parlia
ment ; that he was no cosmopolitan revolutionist, but a
sincere lover of his country; that he was by the common
judgment of mankind a consummate orator ; and that to that
praise, not slight in itself, he added the higher glory of being
a thoroughly honest man.

811

LXXXVI
AGBICULTUBE—FBUIT CULTUBE
Manchestee : Octobee 21, 1891
You have asked me to open this Conference on the subject of
fruit cultivation, and I have accepted the invitation very
willingly, because the subject appears to me at least as worthy
of serious attention as many which attract more notice and
excite a warmer interest. Controversy — attack and defence
—is always popular ; discussion which is not controversial is
apt to be thought dull, and so it happens that many questions
of real importance get less attention paid to them than they
deserve, because they cannot be used by politicians or jour
nalists as missiles with which to pelt one another, or as weapons
with which to fight the eternal battle of parties. It is notorious
that our principal industry, that of agriculture, has not of
late shared in the general prosperity ; that land in many
districts is almost, if not quite, unsaleable ; that in all parts
of England rent has fallen ; that the farmer is often less able
to pay a low rent than he was fifteen or twenty years ago to
pay a high one ; that land is being very largely laid down to
grass in order to save labour ; and that the younger farmer
and the younger labourer are both disposed to throw up the
game, and to try their chances either in great towns or in the
Colonies. To inquire into the causes of that state of things
is no part of our business to-day. In my opinion they are
various, and no one can be made responsible for all the
results that we see. I would only observe in passing that
they may, in my belief, be mainly classed under four heads :
(1) The increased and consequently increasing facUities of
communication, which destroy the natural protection given to

312 AGBICULTUBE
native products by distance. (2) The demand of labourers
everywhere for higher wages, better accommodation, and more
of the pleasures and conveniences of life, which necessarily
cost money. (8) A growing impatience for larger returns
than land can give, and, I am afraid, an increasing preference
for speculation over the slower processes of industry and
saving. (4) A certain uneasiness and distrust of what Parlia
ment may do, which leads many people to prefer investments
which they can get out of at short notice, and which are less
under the control of legislation than land is ; besides another
feeling, nearly akin to that of which I have been speaking,
which makes men desire rather to conceal than display their
possessions — concealment being obviously impossible in the
case of land. It seems only reasonable to expect that these
tendencies will increase rather than diminish with the progress
of time. In assigning these causes I may be right or wrong, but
about the facts which I state there is no dispute. And I say,
therefore, without fear of contradiction, that every expedient
which tends to increase the value of English soil, and leads
to the profitable employment of labour upon it, deserves our
serious attention. I think also it wUl be admitted that, if we
can add to the diet of the English labourer, the farmer, and
the poorer classes generaUy, a free use of food which shall be
cheap, nourishing, wholesome, and agreeable, we shall be
doing useful service. I am not a vegetarian either in theory
or in practice, but I imagine that many persons who do not
hold the vegetarian doctrine will think as I do, that in this
country we are apt — at least those who can afford it — to
look too exclusively to meat as a source of nourishment, and
that both health and economy would be promoted in the case
of many of us by a more mixed diet. Certainly on the
Continent fruit is more used than here, where we are apt to
treat it rather as a mere luxury than as an addition to our
food resources.
The question may be asked, and it would not be an
unreasonable one, why select Manchester as a centre for the

FBUIT CULTUBE 313
discussion of these matters, since South Lancashire, especially
South-east Lancashire, is never likely to be the most suitable
part of England for the growth of fruit? The answer, I
think, is that we do not contemplate fruit-growing in great
towns or in their immediate suburbs. We are not going to
ask the Corporation to plant an orchard in St. Ann's Square,
nor to ask manufacturers to grow strawberries on the roofs of
their mUls and sheds. But Manchester is a convenient centre
for large districts in which the same natural or artificial
obstacles to fruit-growing do not exist, and, without being
too sanguine as to the future, we may look forward to a time
when less smoke will be sent into the air, and when nuisances
will be more effectually checked than they are as yet. The
advantages of fruit-growing are obvious and on the surface.
It creates a large demand for labour, because in that industry
the human hand cannot be superseded by machinery ; it
may under favourable circumstances give an immense return
per acre. The work connected with it is healthy, and uias-
much as fruit is not easily or usually transportable to long
distances, or capable of being kept for a long time, it is less
exposed to foreign competition than corn or grain of any sort.
As to the return, no certain average can be taken where soil
and climate vary so widely. The figures which I have
obtained relate to Kent, and come from good authority.
Strawberries are taken as giving a gross return of 27Z. per
acre, and a net return, after all expenses are paid, of between
61. and 71. ; raspberries, 21Z. gross return, and 71. net profit ;
currants, BOZ. gross, net 111.; apples, plums, and cherries,
'2,51. gross return, net profit about 51. But these last, especi
ally apples, give no return for five years at least. The average
of several seasons has been taken, so as to allow for losses as
well as for exceptional gains. On the other hand, there are
drawbacks which must not be overlooked. All cultivation is
accompanied with a considerable amount of uncertainty, and
some people indeed tell you that farming is a lottery, only
with all the prizes left out ; and in the case of fruit this is
particularly so ; for one frosty night, or two or three days of

314 FBUIT CULTUBE
stormy weather in the late spring or early summer, wUl often
destroy the whole promise of the year. Then there is the
immense fluctuation in price, so great that a very abundant
crop may be almost unsaleable. In Kent this year, to my
own knowledge, plums were being sold far below the price it
must have cost to raise them. There is the risk of plunder by
tramps, vagrants, and mischievous boys, entaUing the expense
and trouble of constant watching; there is the difficulty of
cheap transport where small quantities are concerned, the
difficulty of storing up for future use what is essentially
perishable ; and also, what is more important, the difficulty
of learning how to practise an art which looks simple enough,
but which really requires considerable skUl and experience.
Two other considerations are also to be borne in mind —
one, that where fruit trees are concerned there must be a
considerable interval of time between the planting and the
remunerative return ; the other, that to some extent the price
of fruit is liable to be kept down by the quantity which is
grown for pleasure rather than for profit, and the surplus of
which is thrown on the market. I have read and heard ex
pressions of opinion from which it would seem that the writers
or speakers imagine that fruit can be grown by anybody
anywhere — that you have only to get your five or ten acres,
no matter in what soil, stick in trees or plants, and make your
fortune by watching them grow. Now, I need not tell you
that anybody who starts with these expectations will find him
self greatly deceived. In the first place, the soU must be care
fuUy chosen. In the next place, the grower must know
something about his business. Then, agam, if he wants to
sell beyond the limits of his own parish, he must have easy and
inexpensive transport. And with all these advantages there
remain the risks of which I have spoken. In the southern
counties, in Kent especially, fruit-growing has been studied as
an art, I may say for centuries. The orchards and gardens
of Kent are spoken of by travellers with admiration as early
as the seventeenth century ; and though the growers as a class
are fairly prosperous, I do not imagine that their average

FBUIT CULTUBE 315
profits are especially high. The large gains of one year are
balanced by the losses of another.
As to land being obtained for the purpose, there need be
no trouble. There is plenty of land vacant, as we aU know,
and landlords will be glad for their own sakes to encourage an
industry which wUl increase the demand for it. The question
what size of farms will pay best for this kind of cultivation is
one which I think only experiment can decide. Very large
farms are, of course, out of the question where minute industry
is required. But as between moderate-sized holdings and very
smaU ones, the large holder wUl have the advantage of skUled
supervision, of cheaper conveyance, and of a better market ;
and if his capital is, as it ought to be, in due proportion to his
acres, he will be better able to bear the losses to which be will
from time to time be exposed. How far these advantages may
be counteracted by the superior energy which a man is supposed
to put forth when he is working directly for himself is a com
parison which anybody can make, and no two persons will
come to the same conclusion. But of one thing I am assured
— that no man can wisely go into this business who is not
prepared to incur some expense in the first instance, and to
run some risk later on. The labourer may envy the farmer ;
but the labourer is sure of his wages, and the farmer is not
sure of his crop, nor yet of the market if he has a crop to dis
pose of. And I add further that it is a delusion to suppose
that a man is doing good to his neighbours by farming or by
carrying on any other industry at a loss. He may for the
moment increase the amount of wages which are paid in his
immediate locality, but he is diminishing the stock from
which those wages are to be paid hereafter, and so stimulating
a demand which he cannot satisfy. That warning may seem
superfluous ; but the English mind is more speculative than
cautious, and we often hear it said of some one whose enter
prises have come to grief from financial causes that he has
done more good to his neighbours than to himself. The fact
is he has done no good to anybody.
I do not forget that there is a class — whether large or

316 FBUIT CULTUBE
small I cannot judge — of persons who take to fruit-growing as
an amusement and an occupation rather than with any notion
of making it pay. Of them one can only say that, as they
expect nothing in the way of profit, they will not be disap
pointed, and that they have found an excellent mode of utUising
their spare time and superfluous energy — quite as wholesome
as kicking a ball about a field, and, I should think, much
more entertaining. If a man cultivates his own land, and
has paid for it, he is, of course, in the most satisfactory
position. I say if he has paid for it, for otherwise mortgages
are apt to be a heavier burden than rent. And if he has not
capital and prefers to hold on a lease, I would say, let him be
very careful, and let the land-owner be so likewise, as to
making clear and definite terms. I am quite sure that when
disputes occur between landlord and tenant they arise, in nine
cases out of ten, not out of a wish on either side to overreach
the other, but from the easy rural fashion of letting things go
on without a distinct and definite agreement as to the rights of
both parties, but on the basis of some vague understanding
which is apt to end in misunderstanding. That caution
applies to other matters besides fruit, but it is obviously more
necessary where the expense incurred in planting is large, as
it must be in the ease of fruit trees. The best plan would be,
if the landlord could afford it, that he should put in the trees
himself, charging in the rent for interest on his outlay. If he
cannot, or will not, go to this expense, there should be a well-
defined agreement as to what the tenant shall receive in case
of going out.
I do not know that I need trouble you with any further pre
face, and I shall now leave the subject in the hands of gentle
men who have more practical acquaintance with it than I can
lay claim to. I ought to have said something before as to the
admirable exhibition which we have witnessed in this building.
I have not had an opportunity of giving it more than a rapid
and hasty glance, but I have seen enough to show me that the
promoters of this exhibition were fully justified in their enter
prise, and have attained the object with which it was under-

FBUIT CULTUBE 317
taken. I do not know that I ever saw in any part of England
a finer display of fruit, and I doubt if anywhere I have seen
one quite so fine. Do not think me over-cautious or inclined
to throw cold water on what is an undoubted success, if I re
mind you that to produce magnificent specimens of fruit —
though it is very desirable as showing what can be done — is
not in itself sufficient. It is not enough to show that we can
grow in England some of the finest fruit in the world. It
requires also to be shown — if what we are doing is to be a
serious business and not merely an amusement — that it can be
done so as to give the grower a fair and reasonable profit. On
this subject I hope we shall have more information than it has
been in my power to supply.

THB END

FEINTED EY
SPOTTISWOODE AXD CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON

H Classifteb Catalogue
OF WORKS IN
GENERAL LITERATURE
PUBLISHED BY
LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C.
91 and 93 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, and 32 HORNBY ROAD, BOMBAY.

CONTENTS.

BADMINTON LIBRARY (THE)
BIOGRAPHY, PERSONAL ME
MOIRS, &c.
CHILDREN'S BOOKS
CLASSICAL LITERATURE, TRANS
LATIONS, ETC.

PAGE 10

COOKERY, DOMESTIC
MENT, &c.

MANAGE-

EVOLUTION, &c.

ANTHROPOLOGY,

FICTION, HUMOUR, &c.
FUR, FEATHER AND FIN SERIES
HISTORY, POLITICS, POLITY,
POLITICAL MEMOIRS, &c.
LANGUAGE, HISTORY AND
SCIENCE OF

7
25

28 17
20 12

16

MENTAL, MORAL, AND POLITICAL
PHILOSOPHY - 14
MISCELLANEOUS AND CRITICAL
WORKS - 29
MISCELLANEOUS THEOLOGICAL
WORKS , - 32
POETRY AND THE DRAMA 19
POLITICAL ECONOMY AND ECO
NOMICS - 17
POPULAR SCIENCE - 24
SILVER LIBRARY (THE) 26
SPORT AND PASTIME 10
STONYHURST PHILOSOPHICAL
SERIES . 16
TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE, THE
COLONIES, &c. 9
WORKS OF REFERENCE- - 25

INDEX OF AUTHORS AND EDITORS.

Page
Abbott (Evelyn) 3, 18
 (T. K.) ¦ -14,15
— (E. A.) - 14
Acland (A. H. D.) 3
Acton (Eliza) - 28
Adeane (J. H.)- 8
^schylus 18
Ainger (A. C.) - 12
Albemarle (Earl of) - 10
Allen (Grant) - 24
Amos (S.) 3
Anstey (F.) 20
Aristophanes 18
Aristotle - - 14
Arnold (Sir Edwin) - 9, 19
 (Dr. T.) - 3
Ashbourne (Lord) 3
Ashby (H.) 28
Ashley (W. J.) - 3, 17
Avebury (Lord) 17
Ayre (Rev. J.) - 25
Bacon - - 7, H
Baden-Powell (B. H.) 3
Bagehot (W.) - 7. 17. 29
Bagwell (R.) - 3
'Bain (Alexander) 14
Baker (Sir S. W.) 9, 10
Balfour (A. J.) - ". 32 I

Page
Balfour (Lady Betty) 5
Ball (John) - g
Banks (M. M.) - - 20
Baring-Gould(Rev.S.)27,29
Barnett (S. A. and H.) 17
Baynes (T. S.) - - 29
Beaconsfield (Earl of) 20
Beaufort (Duke of) - 10, 11
Becker (W, A.) 18
Beddard (F. E.) 24
Beesly (A. H.) - 7
Bell (Mrs. Hugh) 19
Bent (J. Theodore) - 9
Besant (Sir Waher)- 3
Bickerdyke (].) 11, r2, 13
Birt (A.) - - - 20
Blackburne (J. H.) 13
Bland (Mrs. Hubert) 20
Boase(Rev. C. W,)- 4
Boedder (Rev. B.) 16
Bosanquet (B.) - 14
Boyd (Rev. A. K.H.) 29,32
Brassey (Lady) ' 9
 (Lord) - 12
Bray (C.) - - 14
Bright (Rev. J. F.) - 3
Broadfoot (Major W.) 10
Browning (H. Ellen) 9
Bruce (R. I.) - - 3

Buck (H. A.) -
Buckland (Jas.)
Buckle (H. T.)-
Buckton (C. M.)
Bull (T.) -
Burke (U. R.)
Burns (C. L.) -
Burrows (Montagu)
Butler (E. A.)
 (Samuel)

12
25 3
2828 3
29 4
„ ^'^
- 18, 20

Calder (J.) - - 29
Cameron of Lochiel 12
CampbelURev. Lewis) 18,32
Camperdown (Earl of) 7
C^awthornelGeo. Jas.) 13
Chesney (Sir G.) - 3
Childe-Pemberton(W.S.) 7
Cholmondeley-Pennell (H.) - II
Churchill(W. Spencer) 3, 20
Cicero - - - 18
Clarke (Rev. R. F.) - 16
Clodd (Edward) - 17, 24
Clutterbuck(W. J.)- 9
Colenso (R. J.) - 29
Coleridge (S. T.) 19
Comparetti (D.) 30
Conington (John) 18

Conway (Sir W. M )
Conybeare (Rev. W. J
& Howson (Dean)
Coolidge (W. A. B.)
Corbin (M.)
Corbett (Julian S.) -
Coutts (W.)
Coventry (A.)
Cox (Harding)
Crake (Rev. A. D.)
Crawford (J. H.) -
Creiffhton (Bishop) -
Crozier (J. B.) -
Curzon of Kedleston
(Lord) -
Custance (Col. H.
Cutts (Rev. E. L.)

Page II
¦) 26 9
25 4
l8

S5
30 4
.14 4
12 4
Dallinger (F. W.) - 5
Davidson (W. L.) 15, 16, 32
Davies (J. F.) - . 18
Dent (C. T.) - . h
De Salis (Mrs.) - 29
De Tocqueville (A.) - 4
Devas (C. S.) - - 17
Dickinson (G. L.) 4
 (W. H.) - - 3;
Dougall (L.) 20
Dowden (E.) 31

INDEX OF
Page
Doyle (A. Conan) - 21
Du Bois (W. E. B.)- 5
Dufferin (Marquis of) 12
Dunbar (Mary F.) - 20
Ebrington (Viscount) 12
Ellis (J. H.) - - 13
 (R. L.) - 14
Evans (Sir John) 30

Farrar (Dean) - - 16, 21
Folkard (H. C.) 13
Ford (H.) - 13
 (W.J.) - 13
Fowler (Edith H.) 21
Foxcroft (H. C.) 7
Francis (Francis) 13
Francis (M. E.) - 21
Freeman (Edward A.) 4
Treshiield (D. W.) - 11
Froude (James A.) 4, 7, 9, 21
Furneaux (W.) - 24

<jardiner (Samuel R.)
'Gathorne-Hardy (Hon.

12, 1312
1314
32

A. E.)
¦Gibbons (J. S.)
Gibson (Hon. H.)
¦  (C. H.) -
 (Hon. W.)
Gleig (Rev. G. R.)
Goethe - . ig
Going (C. B.) - - 25
Gore-Booth (Sir H. W.) 11
Graham (P. A.) - 13
 (G. F.) - - 16
Granby (Marquis of) 12
Grant (SirA.) - - 14
Graves (R. P.) - 8
Green (T. Hill) 15
Greene (E. B.)- 5
Greville (C. C. F.) 4
Grose (T. H.) 15
Gross (C.) 4, 5
Grove (F. C.) - 11
 (Mrs. Lilly) 11
Gurnhill (J.) - 15
Gwilt (J.) - 25

Haggard (H. Rider)- 21, 30
Hake (O.) - - - 12
Halliwell-Phillipps(J.) 8
Hamlin (A. D. F.) - 30
Hammond(Mrs. J. H.) 4
Harding (S. B.) - 5
Hardy (A. Gathorne-) 12,13
Harte (Bret) 21
Harting(J. E.)- 12
Hartwig (G.) 24
Hassall (A.) 7
Haweis (H. R.) 8, 30
Heath (D. D.) - 14
Heathcote (J. M.) 12
 (C. G.) 12
 (N.) - 9
Helmholtz (Hermann
von) - - 24
Henderson (Lieut-
Col. G. F.) 8
Henry (W.) - 12
Henty (G, A.) - - 26
Herbert (Col. Kenney) 12
Herod (Richard S.) - 13
Hiley (R. W.) - 8
Hillier (G. Lacy) 10
Hime (H. W. L.) - 18
Hodgson (Shadworth)i5, 30
Hoenig (F.) 30
Hogan (J. F.) - 7
Holmes (R. R.) 8
Homer - - 18
Hope (Anthony) 21
Horace - - 18
Houston (D. F.) 5
Howitt (W.) - 9
Hudson (W. H.) 24
HuUah (j.) 3°

AUTHORS
Page
Hume (David) - 15
Hunt (Rev. W.) 4
Hunter (Sir W.) 5
Hutchinson (Horace G.) II, 13
Ingelow (Jean) 19
Ingram (T. D.) 5
. ackson (A, W.)
ames (W.) - 15
efferies (Richard) 30
.ekyll (Gertrude) 30
( ' erome (Jerome K.) -
Johnson (J. & J. H.) 30
' ones (H. Bence) 25
¦ ordan (W. L.) 17
\ owett (Dr. B.) 17
\ oyce (P. W.) - 5, 22, 30
Justinian : - 15
Kant(l.) - - 15
Kaye (Sir J. W.) 5
Kelly (E.)- - 15
Kent (C. B. R.) 5
Kerr (Rev. J.) 12
Killick (Rev. A. H.) - 15
Kingsley (Rose G.) - 30
Kitchin (Dr. G. W.) 4
Knight (E. F.) . - g, 12
Kbstlin (J.) 8
Kristeller (P.) 30
Ladd (G. T.) - 15
Lang (Andrew) 5, 10, 11, 13,
17,18,19,20,21,22, 26, 30, 32
Lapsley (G. T.) - 5
Lascelles (Hon. G.) 10, 12
Laurie (S. S.) - 5
Lawley (Hon. F.) 11
Lear (H. L. Sidney) - 2g
Lecky (W. E. H.) 5, 15, ig
Lees (J. A.) - - 9
LesUe (T. E. Cliffe) - 17
Levett- Yeats (S.) 22
Lillie (A.) - - 13
Lindley (J.) 25
Loch (C. 8.) 30
Lodge (H. C) - 4
Loftie (Rev. W. J.) - 4
Longman (C. J.) 10, 13, 30

AND EDITOR S— continued.

(F. W.)
 (G. H.) -II,
Lowell (A. L.) -
Lubbock (Sir John) -
LucanLutoslawski (W.)
Lyall (Edna) -
Lyttelton (Hon. R. H.)
 (Hon. A.) -
Lytton (Earl of) 5,

Macaulay (Lord) 6, 19
Macdonald (G.) 9
 (Dr. G.)_ - - ig, 32
Macfarren (Sir G. A.) 31
MackaiKJ. W.) - 8, 18
Mackinnon (J.) 6
Macleod (H. D.) - 17
Macpherson (Rev. H. A.)i2
Madden (D. H.) - 13
Magnusson (E.) 22
Maher (Rev. M.) - 16
Malleson(Col. G.B.) 5
Mann (E. E.) - - 29
Marbot (Baron de) 8
Marshman (I. C.) 8
Martineau (Dr. James) 32
Mason (A. E. W.) - 22
Maskelyne (J. N.) 13
Maunder (S.) - 25
Max Muller (F.)
8,15, 16, 22, 31, 32
May(SirT.Erskine) 6
Meade (L. T.) - - 26
Melville(G.J.Whyte)
Merivale (Dean) - 6
Merriman 'H. S.)

Page
15.17 31
13. 1915

Mill (John Stuart)
Milner (G.)
Moffat (D.)
Monck(W. H. S.)
Montague (F. C.) 6
Moon (G. W.) - 19
Moore (T.) - 25
 (Rev. Edward) - 14
Morgan (C. Lloyd) - 17
Morris (Mowbray) 11
(W.) 18^ 19, 20, 22, 31

Mulhall (M. G.)
Nansen (F.)
Nesbit (E.)
Nettleship (R. L.)
Newman (Cardinal) -
Onslow (Earl of)
Osbourne (L) -

17

II, 12
23

Park (W.) - 14
Payne-Gallwey (Sir
R.) - - - II, 14
Pearson (C. H.) 8
Peek (Hedley) - - 11
Pemberton (W. S.
Childe-) - - 7
Pembroke (Earl of) - 12
Pennant (C. D.) - 12
Phillipps-Wolley (C.) 10,22
Phillips (Mrs. Lionel) 6
Pitman (C. M.) - II
Pleydell-Bouverie (E. O.) 12
Pole (W.) - - - 14
Pollock (W. H.) - II, 31
Poole (W. H. and Mrs.) 29
Pooler (C. K.) - - 20
Poore (G. V.) 31
Pope (W. H.) 12
Powell (E.) - - 6
Praeger (S. Rosamond) 26
Prevost (C.) - 11
Pritchett (R. T.) 12
Proctor (R. A.) 14, 24, 28

Raine (Rev. James) -
Rankin (R.)
Ransome (Cyril)
Raymond (W.)
Reader (Emily E.)
Rhoades (J.)
Ribblesdale (Lord)
Rice (S. P.)
Rich (A.) -
Richardson (C.)
Richter (J. Paul) -
Rickaby (Rev. John)
 (Rev. Joseph) -
Ridley (Sir E.) -
Riley Q.W.) -
Roget (Peter M.) -
Romanes (G. J.)
8, 15, 17.
 (Mrs. G. J.) -
Ronalds (A.) -
Roosevelt (T.) -
Ross (Martin) -
Rossetti (Maria Fran-
cesca) - - -
RoWe (R. P. P.)
Russell (Lady) -
 (R.)

4
20
3,6

23 18141018
10, 12
31 16161820
16, 25

32

Saintsbury (G.) 12
Sandars (T. C.) 15
Seebohm (F.) - 6, 8
Selous (F. C.) - 10, 14
Senior (W.) - - 11, 12
Sewell (Elizabeth M.) 23
Shakespeare - 20
Shand (A I.) 12
Shaw (W. A.) - 6
Shearman (M.) - 10, 11
Sinclair (A.) - - 12
Smith (R. Bosworth) 6
 (T. C.) - - 5

Page
Smith(W.P.Haskett) 10
Somerville (E.)
SophoclesSoulsbyJLucyH.)Southey (R.)
Spahr (C. B.)
Spedding)J.) -
Stanley (Bishop)
 (Lady) -
Stebbing (W.) -
Steel (A. G.) -
Stephen (Leslie) - 10
Stephens (H. Morse) 6
Stevens (R. W.) - 31
Stevenson (R. L.) - 23, 26
Stock (St. George) 13
Storr (F.) - - 14
Strong (S. A.) - - 30
Stuart-Wortley(A.J.) 11,12
Stubbs (J. W.) - - 6
Suffolk & Berkshire
(Earl of) - - II
Sullivan (Sir E.) 12
Sully (James) - - 16
Sutherland (A. and G.) 7

23 18
313117'
7,14 24 8
8,23

(Alex.)
Suttner (B, von)
Swinburne (A. J.)
Symes (J. E.) -

- 16, 3123 16
17

Taylor (Meadows) 7
 (Una) - 23
Tebbutt (C. G.) 12
Terry (C. S.) - 8
ThornhiU (W. J.) 18
Todd (A.) - - 7
Toynbee (A.) - - 17
Trevelyan (Sir G. O.) 6, 7, 8
 (G. M.) - - 6, 7
TroUope (Anthony)- 23
Turner (ri. G.)
Tyndall 0.) -
Tvrrell (R. Y.) -

31

18
Upton(F.K.and Bertha) 26
Van Dyke (J. C.) - 31
Verney (Frances P.
and Margaret M.) 8
Virgil - 18
Wagner (R.) - . 20
Wakeman (H. O.) 7
Walford (L. B.) 23
Wallas (Graham) 8
Walpole (Sir Spencer) 7
Walrond(Col.H.) - 10
Walsingham (Lord)- II
Waher (J.) - 8
Ward (Mrs. W.) - 23
Warwick (Countess of) 31
Watson (A. E.T.) 10,11,12
Webb (Mr. and Mrs.
Sidney) 17
 (T. E.) - 16, 19
Weber (A.) - 16
Weir (Capt. R.) 11
West (B. B.) - 23
Weyman (Stanley) - 23
Whately(Archbishop) 14, 16
 (E.Jane) - - 16
Whitelaw (R.) - 18
Wilcocks (J. C.) 14
Wilkins (G.) - 18
Willard (A. R.) 31
Williams (T.) - 7
WilUch (C. M.) 25
Witham (T. M.) 12
Wood (Rev. J. G.) - 25
Wood-Martin (W. G.) 7
Wordsworth (W.) - 20
Wright (C. D.) 17
Wyatt (A. J.) ig
Wylie (J. H. 7
1 Zeller (E.) 16

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Hope. — The Heart of Princess-
OsRA. By Anthony Hope. With 9 Illus
trations. Crown Svo., 3s. dd.

22 MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

Fiction, Humour, &e. — continued.

Jerome. — Sketches in Lavender:
Blue and Green. By Jerome K. Jerome.
Crown Svo., 3s. dd.
.Joyce. — Old Celtic Romances.
Twelve of the most beautiful of the Ancient
Irish Romantic Tales. Translated from the
Gaelic. By P. W. Joyce, LL.D. Crown
Svo., 3s. dd.
Lang. — A Monk of Fife ; a Story
of the Days of Joan of Arc. By Andrew
Lang. 'With 13 Illustrations by Selwyn
Image. Crown Svo., 3s. dd.
Levett -Yeats. — The Chevalier
D'AuRIAC. By S. Levett-Yeats. Crown
Svo., 3s. dd.
Lyall (Edna).
The Autobiography OF A Slander.
Fcp. Svo., IS., sewed.
Presentation Edition. With 20 Illustra
tions by Lancelot Speed. Crown
Svo., 2s. dd. net.
The Autobiography of a Truth.
Fcp. Svo., IS., sewed ; is. dd., cloth.
DoREEN. The Story of a Singer.
Crown Svo., 6s.
Wayfaring Men. Crown 8vo., 65.
Hope the Hermit : a Romance of
Borrowdale. Crown Svo., 6s.
Mason and Lang. —Parson Kelly.
By A. E. W. Mason and Andrew Lang.
Crown Svo., 6s.
Max Muller. — Deutsche Liebe
(German Love) : Fragments from the
Papers of an Alien. Collected by F. Max
MiJLLER. Translated from the German by
G. A. M. Crown Svo., 5s.

Melville (G. J. Whyte).
The Gladiators.
The Interpreter.
Good for Nothing.
The Queen's Maries.

Holmby House.
Kate Coventry.
Digby Grand.
General Bounce.

3rown Svo., is. dd. each.
IMerriman. — Flotsam.- A Story of
the Indian Mutiny. By Henry Seton
Merriman. Crown Svo., 3s. dd.

Morris (William).
The Sundering Flood. Cr. Svo.,
7s. dd.
The Water of the Wondrous
Isles. Crown Svo., 7s. dd.
The Well a t the World's End.
2 vols. Svo., 2Ss.
The Story of the Glittering
Plain, which has been also called The
Land of the Living Men, or The Acre of
the Undying. Square post 8vo., 5s. net.
The Roots of the Mountains,
wherem is told somewhat of the Lives of
the Men of Burgdale, their Friends, their
Neighbours, their Foemen, and their
Fellows-in-Arms. Written in Prose and
Verse. Square crown Svo., Ss.
A Tale of the House of the
WOLFINGS, and all the Kindreds of the
Mark. Written in Prose and Verse.
Square crown Svo., 6s.
A Dream of John Ball, and a
King's Lesson. i2mo., is. dd.
News from Nowhere; or. An
Epoch of Rest. Being some Chapters
from an Utopian Romance. Post Svo.,
IS. dd.
The Story of Grettir the Strong.
Translated from the Icelandic by Eirikr
Magnusson and William Morris. Cr.
Svo., 5s. net.
*»* For Mr. William Morris's Poetic^al
Works, see p. 19.

Newman (Cardinal).
Loss AND Gain: The Story of a
Convert. Crown Svo. Cabinet Edition,
6s. ; Popular Edition, 3s. dd.
Callista : A Tale of the Third
Century. Crown Svo. Cabinet Edition,
6s. ; Popular Edition, 3s. dd.

Phillipps-Wolley. — Snap: a Legend
of the Lone Mountain. By C. Phillipps-
Wolley. With 13 Illustrations. Crown
Svo. , 3s. dd.

Raymond (Walter).
Tpvo Men o' Mendip. Cr. Svo., 65.
No Soul Above Money. Cr.Svo.,65.

MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS. 2j

Fiction, Humour, &e. — continued.

Reader. — Priestess and Queen:
a Tale of the White Race of Mexico ; being
the Adventures of Ignigene and her Twenty-
six Fair Maidens. By Emily E. Reader.
Illustrated by Emily K. Reader. Crown
Svo., 6s.
Sewell (Elizabeth M.).
A Glimpse of the World, Amy Herbert,
Laneton Parsonage. Cleve Hall.
Margaret Percival. Gertrude.
Katharine Ashton. Home Life.
The Earl's Daughter. After Life.
The Experience of Life. Ursula. Ivors,
Cr. Svo., IS. dd. each cloth plain. 2s. dd.
each cloth extra, gilt edges.
Somerville and Ross. — Some Ex
periences OF AN Irish R.M. By E. OJ.
Somerville and Martin Ross. With
31 Illustrations by E. Oi. Somerville.
Crown Svo., 6s.
Stebbing. — Probable Tales.
Edited by William Stebbing. Crown
Svo., 4s. dd.
Stevenson (Robert Louis).
The Strange Case of Dr.Jekyll
AND Mr. Hyde. Fcp. Svo., is. sewed.
is. dd. cloth.
The Strange Case of Dr.
J EKYLL and Mr. Hyde; with other
Fables. Crown Svo., 3s. dd.
More New Arabian Nights — The
Dynamiter. By Robert Louis Steven
son and Fanny van de Grift Steven
son. Crown Svo., 3s. dd.
The Wrong Box. By Robert
Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne.
Crown Svo., 3s. dd.
Suttner. — Lay Down Your Arms
(Die Waffen Nieder) : The Autobiography
of Martha von Tilling. By Bertha von
Suttner. Translated by T. Holmes.
Cr. Svo., is. dd.
Taylor. — Early Italian Love-
Stories. Taken from the Originals by
Una Taylor. With 13 Illustrations by
Henry J. Ford. Crown 4to., 15s. net.
TroUope (Anthony).
The Warden. Cr. Svo., \s. bd.
Barchester Towers. Cr.8vo.,i5.6(i.

Walford (L. B.).
Mr. Smith: a Part of his Life.
Crown Svo., 2s. dd.
The Baby's Grandmother. Cr.
Svo., 2s. dd.
Cousins. Crown Svo., is. 6d.
Troublesome Daughters. Cr.
Svo., 2S. dd.
Pauline. Crown Svo., 25. 6d.
Dick Netherby. Cr. Svo., 2s. 6d.
The History of a Week Cr.
Svo. 2s. dd.
A Stiff-necked Generation. Cr.
Svo. 2s. dd.
Nan, and other Stories. Cr. Svo.,
2s. dd.
The Mischief of Monica. Cr.
Svo., 2S. dd.
The One Good Guest. Cr. Svo.
2S. dd.
' Ploughed,' and other Stories.
Crown Svo., 2s. dd.
The Ma tchmaker. Cr. Svo., is. 6rf.
The Intruders. Crown Svo., is. 6d^
Leddy Marget. Crown Svo., is. 6rf.
IvA Kildare : a Matrimonial Pro
blem. Crown Svo., 2S. dd.
Ward. — One Poor Scruple. By
Mrs. Wilfrid Ward. Crown Svo., 6s.
West. — Edmund Fulleston ; or.
The Family Evil Genius. By B. B. West,.
Author of ' Half Hours with the Million
aires,' etc. Crown Svo., 6s.
Weyman (Stanley).
Sophia. With Frontispiece. Crown.
Svo., 6s.
The House of the Wolf. With
Frontispiece and Vignette. Crown Svo.,
3s. dd.
A Gentleman of France. With
Frontispiece and Vignette. Cr. Svo., 6s.
The Red Cockade. With Frontis
piece and Vignette. Crown Svo., 6s.
Shrewsbury. With 24 Illustra
tions by Claude A. Shepperson. Cr..
Svo., 6s.

24 MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

Popular Science (Natural History, &e.).

Beddard. — The Structure and
Classification of Birds. By Frank E.
Beddard, M.A., F.R.S., Prosector and
Vice-Secretary of the Zoological Society
of London. With 252 Illustrations. Svo.,
21S. net.

Butler. — Our Household Insects.
An Account of the Insect-Pests found in
Dwelling-Houses. By Edward A. Butler,
B.A., B.Sc. (Lond.). With 113 Illustra
tions. Crown Svo., 3s. dd.
Purneaux (W.).
The Outdoor World; or The
Young Collector's Handbook. With 18
Plates (16 of which are coloured) , and 549
Illustrations in the Text. Crown Svo.,
6s. net.
Butterflies and Moths (British).
With 12 coloured Plates and 241 Illus
trations m the Text. Crown Svo., 6s. net.
Life in Ponds .and Streams.
With S coloured Plates and 33 r Illustra
tions in the Text. Crown Svo., 6s. net.
Hartwig (George).
The Sea and its Living Wonders.
With 12 Plates and 303 Woodcuts. Svo.,
7s. net.
The Tropical World. With S
Plates and 172 Woodcuts. Svo., 7s. net.
The Polar World. With 3 Maps,
S Plates and S5 Woodcuts. Svo., 7s. net.
The Subterranean World. With
3 Maps and So Woodcuts. Svo., 7s. net.
Heroes of the Polar World. With
ig Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 2s.
WONDERSOFTHE TROPICAL FoRESTS.
With 40 Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 2s.
Workers under the GROUND.'Wiila
29 Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 2s.
Marvels Over our Heads. With
29 Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 2s.
Sea Monsters and Sea Birds.
With 75 Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 2S. dd.
Denizens OF THE Deep. With 117
Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 2s. dd.

Hartwig (George) — continued.
Volcanoes and Earthquakes.
With 30 Illustrations. Cr. Svo., is. dd.
Wild Animals of the Tropics.
With 66 Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.

Helmholtz. — Popular Lectures on
Scientific Subjects. By Hermann von
Helmholtz. With 6S Woodcuts. 2 vols.
Cr. Svo., 3s. dd. each.

Hudson (W. H.).
Nature in Downland. With 12
Plates and 14 Illustrations in the Text by
A. D. McCoRMiCK. 8vo., los. dd. net.
British Birds. With a Chapter
on Structure and Classification by Frank
E. Beddard, F.R.S. With 16 Plates (8
of which are Coloured), and over 100 Illus
trations in the Text. Cr. Svo., 6s. net.
Birds in London. With 17 Plates
and 15 Illustrations in the Text, by Bryan
Hook, A. D. McCormick, and from
Photographs from Nature, by R. B.
Lodge. Svo., 12s.
Proctor (Richard A.).
Light Science for Leisure Hours.
Familiar Essays on Scientific Subjects.
Vol. I. Crown Svo., 3s. dd.
Rough Wa ys made Smooth. Fami
liar Essays on Scientific Subjects. Crown
8vo., 3s. dd.
Plea sa nt Wa ys in Science . C ro wn
Svo., 3s. dd.
Nature Studies. By R. A. Proc
tor, Grant Allen, A. Wilson, T.
Foster and E. Clodd. Crown Svo.,
3s. dd.
Leisure Readings. By R. A. Proc
tor, E. Clodd, A. Wilson, T. Foster
and A. C. Ranyard. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
*^* For Mr. Proctor's other books see pp. 14
and 28, and Messrs. Longmans &• Co.'s
Catalogue of Scientific Works,
Stanley. — A Familiar History of
Birds. By E. Stanley, D.D., formerly
Bishop of Norwich. With 160 Illustrations.
Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.

MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS

25.

Popular Science (Natural History, kz)— continued.

Wood (Rev. J. G.)
Homes without Hands: A Descrip
tion of the Habitations of Animals, classed*
according to the Principle of Construc
tion. With 140 Illustrations. Svo.,
71. net.
Insects a t Home : A Popular Ac
count of British Insects, their Structure,
Habits and Transformations. With 700
Illustrations. 8vo., 7s. net.
Out of Doors; a Selection of
Original Articles on Practical Natural
History. With 1 1 Illustrations. Cr. Svo.,
3s. dd.
Strange Dwellings : a Description
of the Habitations of Animals, abridged
from ' Homes without Hands '- With 60
Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.

Wood (Rev. J. G.) — continued.
Petland Revisited. With 33.
Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
Bird Life of the Bible. With 32
Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
Wonderful Nests. With 30 Illus
trations. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
Homes under the Ground. With
2S Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
Wild Animals of the Bible. With
29 Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 3s. dd.
Domestic Animals of the Bible.
With 23 Illustrations. Cr. 8vo., 3s. dd.
The Branch Builders. With 28.
Illustrations. Cr. Svo., 2s. dd.
Social Habita tions and Parasitic
Nests. With iS Illustrations. Cr. 8vo., 2s.

Works of Reference.

Gwilt. — An Encyclopedia of Ar
chitecture. By Joseph Gwilt, F.S.A.
With 1700 Engravings. Revised (1S88),
with Alterations and Considerable Addi
tions by Wyatt Papworth. Svo., 21s. net.
Maunder (Samuel).
Biographical Treasury. With
Supplement brought down to 1889. By
Rev. James Wood. Fcp. Svo., 6s.
Treasury OF Geography, Physical,
Historical, Descriptive, and Political.
With 7 Maps and 16 Plates. Fcp. Svo., 6s.
The Treasury of Bible Know
ledge. By the Rev. J. Ayre, M.A. With
5 Maps, 15 Plates, and 300 Woodcuts.
Fcp. Svo., 6s.
Treasury of Knowledge and Lib
rary OF Reference. Fcp. Svo., 6s.
Historical Treasury. Fcp. Svo., 65.

Maunder (Samuel) — continued.
The Treasury OF Botany. Edited
by J. Lindley, F.R.S., and T. MooiTe,
F.L.S. With 274 Woodcuts and 20 Steel
Plates. 2 vols. Fcp. Svo., 12s.
Roget. — Thesaurus of English
Words and Phrases. Classified and Ar
ranged so as to Facilitate the Expression of
Ideas and assist in Literary Composition.
By Peter Mark Roget, M.D., F.R.S.
Recomposed throughout, enlarged and im
proved, partly from the Author's Notes, and
with a full Index, by the Author's Son,
John Lewis Roget. Crown Svo., los. dd.
V'J\!lXlQh.-PoPULAR Tables forgiving
information for ascertaining the value of
Lifehold, Leasehold, and Church Property,
the Public Funds, etc. By Charles M.
WiLLicH. Edited by H. Bence Jones.
Crown Svo., los. dd.

Children's Books.

Buckland. — Two LittleRuna wa ys.
Adapted from the French of Louis Des-
noyers. By James Buckland. With i 10
Illustrations by Cecil Aldin. Cr. Svo., 6s.
Corbin and Gom^.-URcniNS of
THE Sea. By Marie Overton Corbin
and Charles Buxton Going. With Draw
ings by F. I. Bennett. Oblong 4to., 3s. dd.
Crake (Rev.- A. D.).
Edwy the Fair; or. The First
Chronicle of jEscendune. Cr. Svo. , 2s. dd.

Crake (Rev. A. D.) — continued.
Alegar the Dane ; or. The Second
Chronicle of .(Escendune. Cr. Svo. 2s. dd.
The Rival Heirs : being the Third
and Last Chronicle of^scendune. Cr.
Svo., 2s. dd.
The House OF Walderne. A Tale
of the Cloister and the Forest in the Days
of the Barons' Wars. Crown Svo., 2s. dd.
Brian Fitz-Count. A Story of
Wallingford Castle and Dorchester
Abbey. Cr. Svo., 2s. dd.

26 MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

Children's Books — continued.

Henty (G. A.). — Edited by.
Yule Logs : A Story-Book for Boys.
By Various Authors. With 6i Illus
trations. Crown Svo., 6s.
Yule Tide Yarns: il Story-Book
for Boys. By Various Authors. With
45 Illustrations. Crown Svo., 6s.

Lang (Andrew). — Edited by.
The Blue Fairy Book. With 13S
Illustrations. Crown Svo., 6s.
The Red Fairy Book. With 100
Illustrations. Crown Svo., 6s.
The Green Fairy Book. With gg
Illustrations. Crown Svo., 6s.
The Yellow Fairy Book. With
104 Illustrations. Crown Svo., 6s.
The Pink Fairy Book. With 67
Illustrations. Crown Svo., 6s.
The Grey Fairy Book. With 65
Illustrations. Crown 8vo., 6s.
The Blue Poetry Book. With 100
Illustrations. Crown Svo., 6s.
The Blue Poetry Book. School
Edition, without Illustrations. Fcp. Svo.,
2s. dd.
The True Story Book. With 66
Illustrations. Crown Svo., 6s.
Ihe Red True Story Book. With
100 Illustrations. Crown Svo., 6s.
The Animal Story Book. With
67 Illustrations. Crown Svo., 6s.
The Red Book of Animal Stories.
With 65 Illustrations. Crown 8vo., 6s.
The Arabian Nights Entertain
ments. With 66 Illustrations. Cr. Svo.,6s.

Meade (L. T.).
Daddy's Boy. With S Illustrations.
Crown 8vo., 3s. dd.
Deb and the Duchess. With 7
Illustrations. Crown Svo., 3s. dd.
The Beresford Prize. With 7
Illustrations. Crown Svo., 3s. dd.
The House of Surprises. With 6
Illustrations. Crown Svo. 3s. dd.
Praeger (Rosamond),
The Adventures of the Three
Bold Babes: Hector, Honoria and
AlisaniIer. a Story in Pictures. With
24 Coloured Plates and 24 Outline. Pic
tures. Oblong 4to., 3s. dd.
The Further Doings of the Three
Bold Babies. With 24 Coloured Pictures
and 24 Outline Pictures. Oblong 4to.,3S.6rf.
Stevenson. — A Child's Garden of
Verses. By Robert Louis Stevensqn.
Fcp. 8vo., 5s.
Upton (Florence K. and Bertha).
The Adventures of Two Dutch
Dolls and a ' Golliwogg' With 31
Coloured Plates and numerous Illustra
tions in the Text. Oblong 4to., 6s.
The Golliwogg' s Bicycle Club.
With 31 Coloured Plates and numerous
Illustrations in the Text. Oblong 4to., 6s.
The Golliwogg at the Seaside.
With 31 Coloured Plates and numerous
Illustrations in the Text. Oblong 4to. , 6s.
The Golliwogg IN War. With 31
Coloured Plates. Oblong 4to., 6s.
The Golliwogg's Polar Adven
tures. With 31 Coloured Plates. Ob
long 4to., 6s.
The Vege-Men" s Revenge. With
31 Coloured Plates and numerous Illus
trations in the Text. Oblong 4to., 6s.

The Silver Library.

Crown Svo. 3s. dd.
Arnold's (Sir Edwin) Seas and Lands. With
71 Illustrations. 3J. dd.
Bagehot's (W.) Biographical Studies. 3s. dd.
Bagehot's (W.) Economic Studies. 3s. dd.
Bagehot'B (W.) I tterary Studies. With Portrait.
3 vols, 3s. dd. each.
Baker's (Sir S. W.) Eight Years in Ceylon.
With 6 Illustrations. 3s. dd.

each Volume.
Balier's (Sir S.W.) Bine and Hound in Ceylon.
With 6 Illustrations. 3i. di.
Baring-Oould's (Rev. S.) Curious Myths of the
Middle Ages. 3s. dd.
Baring-Gould's (Key. S.) Origin and Develop
ment of Religious Belief, z vols. 3s. dd. each.
Beclier's (W. A.) Oailus : or, Roman Scenes in the
Time of Augustus. With 26 lUus. 3s. dd.

MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS. 2/

The Silver Library — -continued.

Beolier's (W. A.) Charicles :, or. Illustrations of
the Private Life of the Ancient Greeks.
With 26 Illustrations. 3s. dd.
Bent's (J. T.) The Ruined Cities of Mashona-
land. With 117 Illustrations. 3s. dd.
Brassey'B (Lady) A Voyage in the ' Sunbeam '.
With 66 Illustrations. 3s. dd.
Chnrchill's (W. S.) The Story of the Malakand
Fleld Force, 1897. With 6 Maps and Plans.
JS. dd.
Clodd's (B.) Story of Creation: a Plain Account
of Evolution. With 77 Illustrations. 3s. dd.
Conybeare (Rev. W. J.) and Howson's (Very
Rev. J. S.) Life and Epistles of St. Paul.
With 46 Illustrations, jr. dd.
Dougall's (L.) Beggars All : a Novel. 3s. dd.
Doyle's (A. Conan) Micah Clarke. A Tale of
Monmoutn's RebeUion. With 10 Illusts. -y.dd.
Doyle's (A. Conan) The Captain of the Polestar,
and other Tales, jr. dd.
Doyle's (A. Conan) The Refugees: A Tale of
the Huguenots. With 25 Illustrations, -jfidd.
Doyle's (A. Conan) The Stark Munro Letters.
3s. dd.
Fronde's (J. A.) The History of England, from
the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the
Spanish Armada. 12 vols. 3s. dd. each.
Froude's (J. A.) The English in Ireland. 3 vols.
los. dd.
Froude's (J. A.) The Divorce of Catherine of
Aragon. 3s. dd.
Froude's (J. A.) The Spanish Story of the
Armada, and other Essays. 3s. dd.
Froude's (J. A.) Short Studies on Great Sub
jects. 4 vols. 3s. dd. each.
Froude's (J. A.) Oceana, or England and Her
Colonies. With 9 Illustrations. 3s. dd.
Froude's (J. A.) The Council of Trent. 3s. dd.
Froude's (J, A.) The Life and Letters of
Erasmus, 3s. dd.
Froude's (J. A.) Thomas Carlyle : a History of
his Life.
r795-i835. 2 vols. js. 1834-1881. 2 vols. 7s.
Fronde's (J. A.) Caesar : a Sketch. 3s. dd.
Fronde's (J. A.) The Two Chiefs of Danboy : an
Irish Romance of the Last Century, ^s. dd.
Gleig's (Rev. G. B.) Life of the Duke of
Wellington. With Portrait. 3s. dd.
Grevllle's (C. C. F.) Journal of the Beigns of
King George IV., King William IV., and
Queen Victoria. 8 vols. , 3s. dd. each.
Haggard's (H. B.) She : A History of Adventure.
With 32 Illustrations. 3s. dd.
Haggard's (H. B.) Allan Quatermain With
20 Illustrations. 3s. dd.
Haggard's (H. R.) Colonel Qaaritch, V.C. : a
Tale of Country Life. With Frontispiece
and Vignette. 3s. dd.

Haggard's (H. B.) Cleopatra. With 29 Illustra
tions. 3s. dd.
Haggard's (H. B.) Eric Brighteyes. With 51
Illustrations. 3s. dd.
Haggard's (H. R.) Beatrice. With Frontispiece
and Vignette. 3s. dd.
Haggard's (H. B.) Allan's Wife. With 34 Illus
trations. 3s. dd.
Haggard (H. R.) Heart of the World. With
IS Illustrations. 3s. dd.
Haggard's (H. R.) Montezuma's Daughter. With
25 Illustrations. 3J. dd.
Haggard's (H. B.) The Witch's Head. With
16 Illustrations. 3s. dd.
Haggard's (H. B.) Mr. Meeson's WiU. With
16 Illustrations. 3s. dd.
Haggard's (H. B.) Nada the Lily. With 23.
Illustrations. 3J. dd.
Haggard's (H.B.) Dawn. With 16 Illusts. 3s. 6rf.
Haggard's (H. B.) The People of the Mist. With
16 Illustrations. 3s. dd.
Haggard's (H. B.) Joan Haste. With 20 Illus
trations. 3s. dd.
Haggard (H. B.) and Lang's (A.) The World's
Desire. With 27 Illustrations. 3s. dd.
Harte's (Bret) In the Carquinez Woods and
other Stories. 3s. dd.
Heimholtz's (Hermann von) Popular Lectures
on Scientific Subjects. With 68 Illustrations.
2 vols. 3s. dd. each.
Hope's (Anthony) The Heart of Princess Osra.
With 9 Illustrations. 3s. dd.
Hornung's (E. W.) The Unbidden Guest. 3s. dd
Hewitt's (W.) Visits to Bemarkabie Places.
With 80 Illustrations. 3s. dd.
Jefferies' (B.) The Story of My Heart: My
Autobiography. With Portrait. 3s. dd.
Jefferies' (R.) Field and Hedgerow. With
Portrait. 3s. dd.
Jefferies' (B.) Bed Deer. With 17 Illusts. -y.dd.
Jefferies' (B.) Wood Magic: a Fable. With
Frontispiece and Vignette by E. V. B. 3s. dd.
Jefferies (B.) The Toilers of the Field. With
Portrait from the Bust in Salisbury Cathedral.
3s. dd.
Kaye (Sir J.) and Malleson's (Colonel) Historv
of the Indian Mutiny of 1837-8. 6 vols'.
3s. dd. each.
Knight's (E. F.) The Cruise of the ' Alerte ':
the Narrative of a Search for Treasure on
the Desert Island of Trinidad. With 2
Maps and 23 Illustrations. 3s. dd.
Knight's (E. F.) Where Three Empires Meet: a
Narrative of Recent Travel in Kashmir,
Western Tibet, Baltistan, Gilgit. With a Map
and S4 Illustrations. 3s. dd.

MESSRS. LONGMANS & CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS.

The Silver Library — continued.

Knight's (E. F.) The ' Falcon ' on the Baltic : a
Coasting Voyage from Hammersmith to
Copenhagen in a Three-Ton Yacht. With
Map and ii Illustrations. 3s. dd.
Kbstlin's (J.) Life of Luther. With 62 Illustra
tions and 4 Facsimiles of MSS. 3s. dd.
Lang's (A.) Angling Sketches. With 20 Illustra
tions. 3s. dd.
Lang's (A.) Custom and Myth : Studies of Early
Usage and Belief. 3s. dd.
Lang's(A.)CockLaneandCommon-Sense. js. dd.
Lang's (A.) The Book of Dreams and Ghosts.
3J. dd.
iang's (A.) A Monk of Fife : a Story of the
Days of Joan of Arc. With 13 Illustrations.
3s. dd.
Xang's (A.) Myth, Ritual, and Religion. 2 vols. 7s.
Lees (J. A.) and Clutterbuck's (W. J.) B. C.
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