Fifteen Chapters of Autobiography
ceremony of dedicating Epping Forest, then lately rescued from
depredation, to the service of the public. It was a forward spring; the
day was bright, and the forest looked more beautiful than anything that
Dore ever painted. I was standing in the space reserved for the House of
Commons, by W. H. O'Sullivan, M.P. for the County of Limerick. He was an
ardent Nationalist, but recent events had touched his heart, and he
overflowed with friendly feeling. "This is a fine sight," he said to
me, "but, please God, we shall yet see something like it in Ireland. We
have entered at last upon the right path. You will hear no more of the
Irish difficulty." Within an hour of the time at which he spoke, the
newly-appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland--the gallant and high-minded
Lord Frederick Cavendish--and the Under Secretary, Mr. Burke, were
stabbed to death in the Phoenix Park at Dublin, and the "Irish
difficulty" entered on the acutest phase which it has ever known.
At that time Lord Northbrook was First Lord of the Admiralty, and on
Saturday evening, the 6th of May, he gave a party at his official
residence. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh were among the guests, and
there was some music after dinner. In the middle of the performance, I
noticed a slight commotion, and saw a friend leading Mrs. Gladstone out
of the room. The incident attracted attention, and people began to
whisper that Gladstone, who was not at the party, must have been taken
suddenly ill. While we were all wondering and guessing, a waiter leaned
across the buffet in the tea-room, and said to me, "Lord Frederick
Cavendish has been murdered in Dublin. I am a Messenger at the Home
Office, and we heard it by telegram this evening." In an incredibly
short time the ghastly news spread from room to room, and the guests
trooped out in speechless horror. That night brought a condition more
like delirium than repose. One felt as though Hell had opened her mouth,
and the Powers of Darkness had been let loose. Next day London was like
a city of the dead, and by Monday all England was in mourning. Sir
Wilfrid Lawson thus described that awful Sunday: "The effect was
horrifying--almost stupefying. No one who walked in the streets of
London that day can ever forget the sort of ghastly depression which
seemed to affect everyone. Perfect strangers seemed disposed to speak in
sympathizing, horror-stricken words with those whom they met. In short,
there was a moral gloom which could be felt over the whole place."
FOOTNOTES:
[31] Lord Beaconsfield. _Endymion._
[32] The following incident may be worth recording for the information
of such as are interested in the antiquities of Parliament. I first took
my seat on the highest bench above and behind the Treasury Bench, under
the shadow of the Gallery. A few days later, an old Parliamentarian said
to me, "That's quite the wrong place for you. That belongs to ancient
Privy Councillors, and they sit there because, if any difficulty arises,
the Minister in charge of the business can consult them, without being
observed by everyone in the House." That was the tradition in 1880, but
it has long since died out.
[33] Afterwards Lord Gladstone.
[34] Gladstone's own phrase.
[35] Afterwards Lord Morley of Blackburn.
[36] The Right Hon. Hugh Law.
XI
POLITICS
"Ne'er to these chambers, where the mighty rest,
Since their foundation came a nobler guest;
Nor e'er was to the bowers of bliss conveyed
A fairer spirit, or more welcome shade."
T. TICKELL, _On the death of Mr. Addison_.
Lord Frederick Cavendish was laid to rest with his forefathers at
Edensor, near Chatsworth, on the 11th of May, 1882--and on the evening
of that day the Home Secretary, Sir William Harcourt, brought in a
"Prevention of Crimes Bill" for Ireland, designed to supersede the
Coercion Act which had proved such a dismal failure. The new Bill
provided for the creation of special tribunals composed of Judges of the
Superior Courts, who could sit without juries; and gave the police the
right of search at any time in proclaimed districts, and authorized them
to arrest any persons unable to give an account of themselves. The Bill
was succinctly described as "Martial Law in a Wig," and, as such, it
was exactly adapted to the needs of a country in which social war had
raged unchecked for two years. The murderous conspiracy died hard, but
experience soon justified those who had maintained that, as soon as a
proper tribunal was constituted, evidence would be forthcoming. The Act
was courageously administered by Lord Spencer and Sir George Trevelyan,
under circumstances of personal and political peril which the present
generation can hardly realize. In less than two years the murderers of
Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke had been hanged; the conspiracy
which organized the murders had been broken up; and social order was
permanently re-established.
Such were the excellent effects of the Crimes Act of 1882, and annalists
treating of this period have commonly said that the Act was due to the
murders in the Phoenix Park. Some years ago Lord James of Hereford,
who, as Attorney-General, had been closely associated with these events,
placed in my hands a written statement of the circumstances in which the
Act originated, and begged that, if possible, the truth of the matter
might be made known. This may be a convenient opportunity for giving his
testimony.
"The Bill of 1882 was designed, and on the stocks, during the month of
April. I saw F. Cavendish as to some of its details almost immediately
before his starting for Ireland. As Chief Secretary, he discussed with
me the provisions the Bill should contain. On Sunday, May 7, 1882, when
the news of F. Cavendish's murder became known, I went to see Harcourt.
He begged me to see that the drawing of the Bill was hastened on. About
2 o'clock I went to the Irish Office, and found the Irish
Attorney-General hard at work on the Bill. The first draft of it was
then in print. No doubt F. Cavendish's death tended to affect the
subsequent framing of the Bill. Harcourt came upon the scenes. T---- and
J---- were called to the assistance of the Irish draftsmen, and no doubt
the Bill was rendered stronger in consequence of the events of May 6.
"I also well remember the change of front about the power of Search. The
Irish Members in the most determined manner fought against the creation
of this power.... Harcourt, who had charge of the Bill, would listen to
none of these arguments, but Mr. Gladstone was much moved by them. There
was almost a crisis produced in consequence of this disagreement; but
Harcourt gave way, and the concession was announced."
It is not my purpose in these chapters to speak about my own
performances in Parliament, but the foregoing allusion to the concession
on the Right of Search tempts me to a personal confession. In the Bill,
as brought in, there was a most salutary provision giving the police the
right to search houses in which murders were believed to be plotted.
After making us vote for this clause three times--on the First Reading,
on the Second Reading, and in Committee--the Government, as we have just
seen, yielded to clamour, and proposed on Report to alter the clause by
limiting the Right of Search to day-time. I opposed this alteration, as
providing a "close time for murder," and had the satisfaction of helping
to defeat the Government. The Big-Wigs of the Party were extremely
angry, and Mr. R. H. Hutton, in _The Spectator_, rebuked us in his most
grandmotherly style. In reply, I quoted some words of his own. "There is
nothing which injures true Liberalism more than the sympathy of its left
wing with the loose ruffianism of unsettled States." "Such a State," I
said, "is Ireland; and if, under the pressure of extraordinary
difficulties, Ministers vacillate or waver in their dealings with it,
the truest Liberalism, I believe, is that which holds them firmly to
their duty."
In that sad Session of 1882 the troubles of the Government "came not
single spies, but in battalions," and the most enduring of those
troubles arose in Egypt. For the benefit of a younger generation, let me
recall the circumstances.
Ismail Pasha, the ruler of Egypt, had accumulated a national debt of
about L100,000,000, and the pressure on the wretched peasants who had to
pay was crushing. Presently they broke out in revolt, partly with the
hope of shaking off this burden, and partly with a view to establishing
some sort of self-government. But the financiers who had lent money to
Egypt took fright, and urged the Government to interfere and suppress
the insurrection. A meeting of Tories was held in London on June 29th
and the Tory Leaders made the most inflammatory speeches. Unhappily, the
Government yielded to this show of violence. It was said by a close
observer of Parliamentary institutions that "When the Government of the
day and the Opposition of the day take the same side, one may be almost
sure that some great wrong is at hand," and so it was now. On July 10th
our fleet bombarded Alexandria, smashing its rotten forts with the
utmost ease, and killing plenty of Egyptians. I remember to this day the
sense of shame with which I read our Admiral's telegraphic despatch:
"Enemy's fire weak and ineffectual."
The protest delivered on the following day, by Sir Wilfrid Lawson, the
most consistent and the most disinterested politician whom I ever knew,
deserves to be remembered.
"I say deliberately, and in doing so I challenge either Tory or Liberal
to contradict me, that no Tory Government could have done what the
Liberal Government did yesterday in bombarding those forts. If such a
thing had been proposed, what would have happened? We should have had
Sir William Harcourt stumping the country, and denouncing Government by
Ultimatum. We should have had Lord Hartington coming down, and moving a
Resolution condemning these proceedings being taken behind the back of
Parliament. We should have had Mr. Chamberlain summoning the Caucuses.
We should have had Mr. Bright declaiming in the Town Hall of Birmingham
against the wicked Tory Government; and as for Mr. Gladstone, we all
know that there would not have been a railway-train, passing a roadside
station, that he would not have pulled up at, to proclaim
non-intervention as the duty of the Government."
On the 12th of July John Bright retired from the Government, as a
protest against the bombardment, and made a short speech full of solemn
dignity. "I asked my calm judgment and my conscience what was the path I
ought to take. They pointed it out to me, as I think, with an unerring
finger, and I am humbly endeavouring to follow it."
But it was too late. The mischief was done, and has not been undone to
this day. I remember Mr. Chamberlain saying to me: "Well, I confess I
was tired of having England kicked about all over the world. I never
condemned the Tory Government for going to war; only for going to war on
the wrong side." It was a characteristic saying; but this amazing lapse
into naked jingoism spread wonder and indignation through the Liberal
Party, and shook the faith of many who, down to that time, had regarded
Gladstone as a sworn servant of Peace. The Egyptian policy of 1882 must,
I fear, always remain the blot on Gladstone's scutcheon; and three
years later he gave away the whole case for intervention, and threw the
blame on his predecessors in office. In his Address to the Electors of
Midlothian before the General Election of 1885 he used the following
words: "We have, according to my conviction from the very first (when
the question was not within the sphere of Party contentions), committed
by our intervention in Egypt a grave political error, and the