The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke Volume I Part 20

'But the fact was that the subject was so funny that it was impossible to make a speech about it which would not have been amusing, and Randolph Churchill, who replied to me, was funnier than I was, though he was not equally regardful of the truth.'

'One of the Corporations which I had attacked was that of Woodstock, and Randolph Churchill brought the Prince of Wales down to the House to hear his defence of his const.i.tuency. I had said in my speech that the Mayor of Woodstock had been lately fined by his own Bench, he being a publican, for breaking the law in a house the property of the Corporation, and that he had said on that occasion in public court, after hearing the evidence of the police: "I have always had a high respect for the police, but in future I shall have none." Randolph Churchill, answering me, said that I had slightly mistaken the Mayor's words, and that what he had really said was: "I have always had a high respect for the police, but in future I shall have _more_." After this debate was over, Randolph came up to me outside, and said: "I was terrified lest you should have heard anything to-day, but I see you have not." I said: "What?" He said: "He was fined again yesterday."'

In the same speech the case of New Romney was described--"the worst of all" the Cinque Ports, where the number of freemen, twenty-one at the pa.s.sing of the Reform Act (of 1832), had fallen to eight--

"the only town in England in which six gentlemen elected themselves to every office, appointed themselves magistrates, let the whole of the valuable town properties exclusively to themselves, audited their own accounts, and never showed a balance sheet."

A cartoon in one of the comic papers displayed one selfsame and highly complacent person, first as "Our Grocer," then as "Our Mayor," then as "The Gentleman who elects our Mayor," "The Gentleman who disposes of our Public Trusts," "The Gentleman who benefits by our Public Trusts, "and "The Committee appointed annually to look into the Accounts of the Gentleman who disposes of our Public Trusts."

Another of Sir Charles's topics in 1875 was the working of the Ballot Act.

'A dull speech on a dull subject,' it secured, however, the appointment of a Committee to inquire whether secrecy of voting was not menaced by the form in which ballot papers were issued. But the main object of his activity in the field of electoral reform was redistribution, and this object was the hardest to attain, because more than 400 members of the House sat for const.i.tuencies not numerically ent.i.tled to representation.

The over-represented had a majority of two-thirds in Parliament, and this was a tremendous vested interest to a.s.sail. Still, the whole Liberal party was now committed to the support of his principle.

The same general support was given to his Bill 'known as the Allotments Extension Bill, to provide for the letting to cottagers of lands held for the benefit of the poor'--a scheme originally proposed by Mill.

'My Parliamentary Session of 1875 was my most successful.

'My motion on Ballot Act, " " " Unreformed Boroughs, " " " Redistribution, " Bill " Allotments, were all four great successes, and so spoken of in all the papers. On the first I got my way. On the second I prepared it for next year, and on the third and fourth I got the support of the whole Liberal party and most of the Press.'

There are a good many pleasant stories of what seems to have been a very easy-going Session of Parliament:

'At this time Plimsoll's name was in every mouth, and the only formidable opposition in the House was that which he offered to the Government in the sailors' name. Old Adderley, afterwards Lord Norton, who was at the Board of Trade, a.s.sured me, in his solid hatred of the man, that when Plimsoll told the House of Commons that he had stopped a fearful shipwreck by taking a telegram to the Board of Trade at 3 a.m., and ringing for the porter and sending it then and there to the President's house, Plimsoll had neglected to state that this telegram had reached him at five o'clock in the afternoon, and had been kept back by him till the middle of the night for the production of a sensation....

'The other hero of the Session was Major O'Gorman, a hero of four-and- twenty stone, who on two occasions at least made the House laugh as they never laughed before, nor have laughed since. We used at first to lose him at a quarter to twelve each night, as he had to get to the Charing Cross Hotel, where he lived on the fourth storey, before the lift had gone up for the last time. But later in the Session we managed to keep him till 1.15, for he made the brilliant discovery that the luggage lift, which just suited him, was available till 1.30.

'Some of his finest things are lost in the reports. For example, "Swill the whisky through the streets till the very curs lie prostrate," and this, which, however, in a weakened form, survives in Mr. Lucy's Diary: "Some men who call themselves my const.i.tuents tell me that if I oppose this Bill I shall never sit again. Well, _what then?_" (This in a stentorian voice that nearly blew the windows out.) "Athens ostracized Aristides."

'After midnight a postponed Bill is fixed for the next sitting by the words "This day." O'Gorman was opposing and watching such a Bill, and shouted out: "_What_ day?" "This day" was solemnly repeated. Then the puzzled Major, looking at the clock, and bowing to the chair, said: "Mr. Speaker, is it yesterday or is it to-morrow?" I never heard a question more difficult of reply under the circ.u.mstances of the case.

The best Irish bull uttered within his own hearing was, says Dilke, Sir Patrick O'Brien's defence of Mr. Gladstone addressed to the Irish Nationalists: "The right honourable gentleman has done much for our common country. He has broken down the bridges that divided us."

III.

When the Session was ended, Sir Charles, according to his custom, set out on travel, following a scheme mapped out far ahead. In December, 1874, he had written to Miss Kate Field, correspondent of the _New York Tribune_ and a friend of Sir Charles and of his first wife, that he would be in America in the following September on a journey round the world, and there accordingly he appeared--'on my way to j.a.pan, China, Java, Singapore, and the Straits of Malacca--taking with me as travelling companion my scheme for a history of the nineteenth century,' a work projected on such ample lines that a note of this year sets down 1899 as the probable date of completion, "if I live so long."

The record of this journey is to be found in the additional chapters to _Greater Britain,_ first issued in 1876 as magazine articles, and added to the eighth edition in 1885. He saw j.a.pan before the Satsuma rebellion had broken out in a last attempt to restore the old feudal regime, and he stayed in the Tartar General's _yamen_ at Canton, where at gun-fire he and the other Europeans in the same house were shut up within barred gates, only representatives of the white race among 2,000,000 Chinese. As for the j.a.panese, he wrote:

"I'm in love with this country and people.... The theatre is where I spend all my time.... There alone can you now see the soldiers in masks, ferocious and hairy, with the chain-armour and javelins of fifteen years ago. [Footnote: This was written in 1875.] There alone can you now see the procession of daimios accompanied by two-sworded Samurai, there alone have the true old j.a.pan of the times before this cursed 'New Reform Government' arose."

'My stay at Tokio was at the same moment as that of Shimadzu Suboro, the old Satsuma Chief, uncle and adoptive father to the Satsuma Princes, and last const.i.tutional light of the Feudal party. The "great Marshal" Saigo was commanding in chief the forces, and was in the next year to head the Satsuma rebellion. The Corean Envoys--tall men, with wondrous stars in their hair--were at the capital also, and I met them often.'

The beauty of Java, where he stayed at the Governor's Palace at Buitenzorg, charmed him.

His journey from the East was very rapid, and January, 1876, saw him back in England. He was in time to address his const.i.tuents as usual before the opening of Parliament.

The speech contains what he points out as notable in one who 'so seldom spoke upon the Irish question'--an attack on the Coercion Bill of the previous year. It might be better, he said, to govern Ireland on the a.s.sumption that human nature is much the same everywhere, and Irishmen under no special bar of incapacity. A majority of the Irish representatives were in favour of Home Rule, and "a reformed dual const.i.tution might possibly be devised which would work fairly well." This was an extreme att.i.tude for those days, and he went on to recommend "the immediate creation of a local elective body, having power to deal with public works and the like"--in short, very much what Mr. Chamberlain advocated in 1885.

The speech also protested against Lord Carnarvon's policy as Colonial Minister, "in sending out Mr. Froude to stump South Africa against the local Ministers of the Crown, which was the beginning of all the frightful evils which afflicted South African affairs for the next nine years."

The conduct of the Opposition did not escape comment. "The duty of a Liberal leader is to follow his party, and this Lord Hartington has done with exemplary fidelity and unexampled patience." Another phrase noted that the Session of 1875 had left its mark on the House of Commons, "for pillows had been for the first time provided for members who wished to sleep," and the same atmosphere of repose marked the Session of 1876. The Memoir sketches some Parliamentary operations with which Sir Charles was connected:

'Early in this session occurred the introduction of the Royal t.i.tles Bill, conferring the Imperial t.i.tle upon the Queen, and I wrote for Fawcett a motion for an address to pray the Queen that she would be graciously pleased not to a.s.sume any addition to her t.i.tle in respect of India other than the t.i.tle of Queen. When the matter came on for discussion Cowen, who had now come into the House for Newcastle, rose to make his first speech. He had succeeded his old father, who was a Whig in politics and an old fogey in appearance, the son being now an ultra-Radical, now a democratic Tory, dressing like a workman, with a black comforter round his neck, and the only wideawake hat at that time known in the House of Commons. The next day Mr. Disraeli said: "I am told that we are blamed for not having put up a Minister to answer Cowen. How could we? I came into the House while he was speaking. I saw a little man with one hand in his pocket, and the other arm raising and waving uncouthly a clenched fist, making what appeared to be a most impa.s.sioned oration. But I was in this difficulty. I did not understand a word of it. I turned to my colleagues, and found that they were in the same position. We could not reply to him; we did not understand the tongue in which the speech was delivered." Cowen spoke with a Newcastle burr so strong that it was not easy to follow his words, and it was only by the context that one could guess what he meant, when he used, for example, such a word as "rowing," which he p.r.o.nounced "woane."...

'I again brought forward my motion with regard to unreformed corporations, with fresh ill.u.s.trations and new jokes, and the second edition was voted as popular as the first. Corfe Castle, with the Lord High Admiral of the Isle of Purbeck, and a Corporation consisting of one person, was a gem. Sir John Holker, who had to deal with the question for the Government, and who prepared the Royal Commission which sat to consider it in consequence of my motions, laid down some law for my information, which I doubted, and thereon showed to Harcourt, who said: "You will find the Attorney-General's law as bad as might be expected." Holker was personally popular. But he certainly, though a great winner of verdicts from juries, was one of the dullest men who ever addressed the House of Commons.'

Although Sir Charles was active and, generally speaking, successful during this session, on two points he found himself without support. One was his opposition to the principle of the Bills dealing with the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, on both of which he "took a highly Conservative tone without securing any a.s.sistance from Conservative opinion." But a pa.s.sage in his diary, March, 1877, describes his action and that of the Liberal party on the "Universities Bill" of that year, and mentions a meeting at which Lord Hartington, Goschen, Harcourt, Fawcett, and Fitzmaurice were present, and at which 'it was decided to support my amendments to the Bill.' [Footnote: See Appendix, p. 200.]

His conservatism in academic matters revealed itself fully in 1878, as did that abiding feeling for his old college which characterized every after-- allusion to it or to his University life. The Papal diplomatist, Bishop Bateman, founder of Trinity Hall, was mentioned by Sir Charles with the respect due to a patron saint. No traditions were dearer to him than those of Trinity Hall. Speaking at the College annual dinner, he impressed upon the reforming Fellows their obligation, in the college interests, to retain its exclusive teaching and qualifications for fellowship as laid down by its founder, "for the study of the canon and civil law."

[Footnote: A sc.r.a.p of the menu of the dinner of June 19th, 1878, is preserved, which shows these toasts: '"The Lord Chief Justice of England-- proposed by the Master; responded to by the Lord Chief Justice of England, Sir Alexander c.o.c.kburn. Fellows and ex-Fellows--proposed by Sir Charles Dilke, Bart., M.P.; responded to by (Fellows) Professor Fawcett, M.P., (ex-Fellows) R. Romer, Esq. Our Old Blues and Captains of the T.H. Boat and Cricket Clubs--Proposed by Leslie Stephen, Esq."]

"It is a good thing for a small college that it should not be merely one of the herd. It is a bad thing that a small college should be driven to teach everything--cla.s.sics, mathematics, law, theology, medicine, and science, physical and moral--for if it teaches so many things, of necessity, from its poverty in money and in men, it cannot teach all well. A small college can only keep at a high moral and social and intellectual level by having a distinguishing note or accent. In our dear old House we have already in existence by our history and by the Instrument of Foundation that special mark to distinguish us from others which the most advanced University Reformers clamour to see created as regards each College in the University....

"It should keep its distinguishing note, and flourish for another five hundred and twenty-eight years, not only in manners, good-fellowship, and rowing, but as a school of law.

"In rowing and law it had fallen off, but good-fellowship still differentiates the College, and prevents it from surrendering to the prevailing tendency to make the colleges in our grand old University pale copies of French _lycees_--all cut on one pattern and administered by schoolmasters, who will rule over dunces of universal acquirements examined to the point of death."

The other question on which he failed to secure support was his attack on the Royal Academy:

'What I really wanted was that the Academy should be reminded that they obtained their present magnificent site upon conditions which have not been observed, and that they ought at least to give a free day a week at their exhibition, and give up a portion of their privileges against outsiders.'

But the attack, as he admits, was not pressed with spirit for he had only the _Pall Mall Gazette_ and the _Examiner_ with him in the Press. In the House Lord Elcho [Footnote: Better known as Lord Wemyss, long the venerable father of Parliament.] and Mr. George Bentinck 'alone understood the question,' and the latter was too intimate with all the Academy leaders to afford a hope that he would do otherwise than take their side.

So, feeling his isolation in the matter, Dilke limited himself to moving for some papers, which were given.

By the summer of 1876 Sir Charles was well again:

'I began this year to stay a great deal at Lady Waldegrave's, both at Dudbrook in Ess.e.x and at Strawberry Hill; and ultimately I had a room at Strawberry Hill, to which I went backwards and forwards as I chose.

The house was extremely pleasant, and so was Fortescue, and he pa.s.sionately adored his wife, and was afterwards completely broken down and almost killed by her death. Fortescue was my friend; but she was an excellent hostess, and the house was perfectly pleasant, and that in a degree in which no other house of our time has been. The other house which was always named as "the rival establishment,"

Holland House, I also knew. Some of the same people went there-- Abraham Hayward, commonly called the "Viper," and Charles Villiers, for example. Lady Waldegrave always made everybody feel at home, which Lady Holland did not always do. Those of whom I saw the most this year, in addition to the Strawberry Hill people (who were Harcourt, James, Ayrton, Villiers, Hayward, Dr. Smith the editor of the _Quarterly,_ Henry Reeve the editor of the _Edinburgh,_ the Comte de Paris, and the Due d'Aumale), were Lord Houghton and Mrs. Duncan Stewart. Lord Houghton never met me without referring to a review of his collected works, which appeared in the _Athenaeum_ in the spring, and which had cut the old man to the heart' (because it rated his poetry on a level with that of Eliza Cook).

'One of the most agreeable parties of clever people to which I ever went was a luncheon given by Mrs. Stewart, when she was living a few doors from me in my street, at which I was the only man, the party chiefly consisting of old ladies; indeed, I was by far the youngest person present. Besides Mrs. Stewart herself, there were friends, Lady Hamilton Gordon, Lady Pollock, Lady Hopetoun, Mrs. Frank Hill, Mrs.

Oliphant, and Mrs. Lynn Linton--Lady Gordon, a remarkably able woman, one of the bedchamber women of the Queen and a great gossip; Lady Pollock, slow, but full of theatrical anecdote, being stage-mad, as was her husband, old Sir Frederick, the Queen's Remembrancer, father of my Cambridge friend Professor Pollock (now Sir Frederick) and of Walter Pollock, the editor of the _Sat.u.r.day Review_. A few days later I met Lady Pollock at a great party given by Lord Houghton. Irving was coming down the stairs, at the bottom of which we stood, having Mrs.

Singleton (now, 1894, the Amba.s.sadress, Lady Currie) upon his arm. Old Lady Pollock, clutching at my arm, exclaimed: "Who is that woman with Irving?" To which I answered: "Mrs. Singleton, author of _Denzil Place_--Violet Fane." "She won't do him any harm, will she?" was the embarra.s.sing question by which Lady Pollock replied to me.'

In this summer Sir Charles gave dinner-parties which included ladies--'a plan which I found so uncomfortable for a politician who had only a grandmother to entertain them that I dropped it after August, 1876.' His dinners were always among the pleasantest in London, but till 1886 they were only dinners of men.

Of men friends of this year he specially notes 'Gennadius, the Greek Secretary, afterwards Minister,' with whom his friendship was lifelong.

APPENDIX

A meeting was held at Devonshire House on March 1st, 1877:

'There were present, besides Lord Hartington and myself, Lowe, Goschen, Harcourt, Fawcett, and Fitzmaurice.--It was decided to support Grant Duff in adding the names of Huxley and Max Muller, and not to support Fitzmaurice in adding Bryce, but to support him in adding Hooker, and Goschen in adding Professor Bartholomew Price to the Oxford Commission, and to support Hartington in moving to add Dr.

Bateson, the Master of John's, to the Cambridge Commission. Bouverie was to be proposed by Harcourt, as against c.o.c.kburn, for chairman of the Cambridge Commission, because we objected to overworked Judges being on Commissions. The name of Bradley, afterwards Dean of Westminster, was suggested for the Oxford Commission by Lowe, but not supported by the meeting, and it was decided to support my amendments to the Bill. The Commissions as originally suggested were badly composed. The best men suggested were not good--Dr. Bellamy (President of St. John's, Oxford), for example, the wealthiest of all college officials, a precise, old-fashioned, kind-hearted nonent.i.ty, a simple tool of more intelligent Conservatives; and Henry Smith, an Irishman of the keenest order of intelligence, ready to give an intellectual a.s.sent to the abstract desirability of the best and highest in all things. On another of the names originally suggested I may quote Smith himself, for when Dean Burgon's appointment was attacked in the House of Commons by me and others, Smith, approaching Lord Salisbury at a party, and engaging in conversation upon the matter, said that the reasons for appointing him were overwhelming, at which Lord Salisbury was greatly pleased; when Henry Smith went on: "No such Commission could possibly be complete without its buffoon."'