The Mother of Parliaments Part 9

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHATHAM

FROM THE PAINTING BY WILLIAM h.o.a.rE, R.A., IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY]

Men in the House of Commons, as Bolingbroke said, "grow, like hounds, fond of the man who shows them sport, and by whose halloos they are used to be encouraged." If, in addition, the Prime Minister possesses singleness of purpose and supreme self-confidence, his power in Parliament is supreme. The "Great Commoner" owed his political success as much to his courage and a.s.surance as to his splendid gifts as an orator. "I know that I can save the country," he once observed to the Duke of Devonshire, "and I know that no other man can!"[137] The Duke of c.u.mberland, a political adversary, described him very justly when he said that he was "that rare thing--a man!" His position in the House of Commons was in many ways unique. His very presence seemed to instil fear into the hearts of his opponents, and promote confidence in those of his supporters. A member named Moreton, Chief Justice of Chester, in a speech in the Lower House, once made some allusion to "King, Lords, and Commons, or, as that Right Honourable Member"--looking across at Pitt--"would call them, Commons, Lords, and King!" The Prime Minister rose at once in that slow dignified manner which always commanded silence, and, fixing the speaker with a cold and terrifying gaze, asked the Clerk of the House to make a note of Moreton's words. "I have heard frequently in this house doctrines that have surprised me," he said; "but now my blood runs cold!"

Moreton, in some alarm, hastened to apologise for his ill-chosen words, saying that he had intended nothing offensive. "King, Lords, and Commons; Lords, King, and Commons; Commons, Lords, and King--_tria juncta in uno_! Indeed, I meant nothing!" he explained. Pitt gravely accepted this apology, but took the opportunity of giving the trembling Moreton some very sound advice. "Whenever that honourable gentleman means nothing," he said, in his sternest and most frigid tones, "I strongly recommend him to say nothing!"

[137] Hayward's "Biographical Essays," vol. ii. p. 39.

The terror he inspired among his opponents was shown on another occasion when he replied to an attack of Murray, the Solicitor-General, afterwards Lord Mansfield. "I must now address a few words to Mr.

Solicitor," said Pitt; "they shall be few, but they shall be daggers!"

Murray at once became much agitated. "Judge Festus trembles,"

continued Pitt relentlessly, pointing his finger on him. "He shall hear me some other day." He sat down, Murray made no reply, and a languid debate showed the paralysis of the House.[138]

[138] Butler's "Reminiscences," pp. 154-157.

It was not only in Parliament that Pitt's power made itself felt, or that his words were received with a kind of reverential awe bordering on terror. Government officials knew well that he was not a man to be trifled with, or, if they did not know it, he soon found occasion to bring the fact to their notice. Once, when he had sent a message to the Admiralty saying that the Channel Fleet was to be got ready to sail on the following Tuesday, the Board of Admiralty respectfully replied that such a thing was an impossibility; the time was too short. The Prime Minister drily rejoined that in that case he would recommend the King to name a new Board of Admiralty. Needless to say, the Channel Fleet sailed on Tuesday.[139]

[139] Russell's "Recollections," p. 263.

Pitt, indeed, possessed all the attributes of a successful Prime Minister. He was himself infused with a fervid enthusiasm which he could transmit into the hearts of all who shared his confidences. His courage was infectious. No man, said Colonel Barre, could come out of the Minister's private room without feeling himself braver than when he entered. He was gifted with a serene composure, a perfect self-possession, and understood the House of Commons as well as did Disraeli after him, and as well as Lord Salisbury understood the Lords.

Both these two last statesmen possessed that polished style, dry humour and sarcasm which are beloved of parliamentary audiences.

Disraeli was the more ornamental speaker of the two, but seldom wasted time in rhetoric, and, like Lord North, never weakened his argument by superfluous declamation. One of the secrets of his success was that he knew when to keep silent--knowledge that is of infinite importance to a Prime Minister. Gladstone--great as a Premier, and still greater as Chancellor of the Exchequer--could not always stay his speech. His earnestness and enthusiasm carried him away, and he thereby often dissipated in debate those powers which his rival was reserving for great occasions. Lord Salisbury adopted a studiously common-place tone in the House; he did not orate, he talked confidentially. And Parliament has always preferred this quiet fashion of speaking, to what Dizzy once called the "somewhat sanctimonious eloquence" of Gladstone. Lord Palmerston's jaunty manner was far more popular than the exuberant eloquence of greater orators. People said that they preferred his "ha! ha!" style to the wit of Canning or the gravity of Peel.

The Premiership is not a bed of roses, and it requires the phlegm of a Lord North to sleep there at all. It is, no doubt, the pinnacle of political ambition, but from that giddy height many a statesman has looked down with envy, like St. Simon on his column, at the groundlings who walk securely beneath his feet. Elevation brings with it many disadvantages. The searchlight of public opinion beats relentlessly upon a Prime Minister; even his private life is open to criticism. Enemies lay snares for him on every side; friends and political allies have to be treated with tact and tenderness; his labours never cease, day or night.[140] It is his duty, as Gladstone said, "to stand like a wall of adamant between the people and the sovereign," and the burden of an Empire hangs heavy upon his shoulders. From the very moment of a Prime Minister's appointment his responsibilities commence. Entrusted by the sovereign with the delicate duty of forming a Ministry, he is at once faced with a task of exceptional difficulty. Whom shall he choose? This problem awaits his instant solution. Luckily, as Bagehot says, the position of most men in Parliament forbids their being invited to the Cabinet, while that of a few men ensures their being invited.[141] Between the compulsory list, whom he must take, and the impossible list, whom he cannot take, a Prime Minister's independent choice is not very large; it extends rather to the division of the Cabinet offices than to the choice of Cabinet Ministers.

[140] Among the unpublished ma.n.u.scripts at Welbeck Abbey are some private notes made by the Duke of Portland, who was Prime Minister in 1783, suggesting methods of treatment suitable for various political allies at the time of the Coalition Ministry. The following extracts are of interest:--

"Lord Salisbury. Irish jobs.

Lord Thanet. Personal attention.

Lord Cornwallis. Should be spoken to: has two members in the House of Commons.

Lord Clarendon. Anything for himself or Lord Hyde.

Lord Wentworth. Wants something. He voted against.

Duke of Argyle. Great attention. Scotch jobs.

Gen. Luttral. To be sent for next session. Lord Temple should not be allowed all the merit of the job that we done for him lately.

Gen. Vaughan. Quebec, or a Command anywhere.

Lord Westcote. Distant hopes of a Peerage.

Mr. Gibbon. Will vacate his seat for an employment out of Parliament: very much wished by Lord Loughborough."

(N.B.--This Gibbon is the historian.)

[141] "Fortnightly Review," No. I, p. 10.

This distribution of places is, however, an invidious duty; there are so many reasons governing a Premier's choice of his colleagues.

Valuable services to the party have to be rewarded; the claims of men who have held Cabinet rank in former Governments cannot be disregarded; the wishes of the Sovereign must be considered.[142] To satisfy all who expect office is impossible; to satisfy the few who deserve it is a laborious and not altogether grateful business. The statesman whom it is proposed to appoint as Minister for War may yearn for the Lord Chancellorship; the prospective President of the Board of Trade desires to become Irish Secretary. It is for the Prime Minister, by coaxing or entreaties, to content them both. But there are less pleasant duties than this to perform. Certain ex-Cabinet Ministers who have not proved a success in their various departments must be shelved with as little damage to their feelings as possible; salves in the form of peerages must be administered to other aggrieved politicians who have been left out. At times ex-Ministers who are no longer members of the Cabinet have shown signs of disinclination to retire.

In 1801, for instance, when Addington became Prime Minister, Lord Loughborough, who had been Chancellor in Pitt's administration, resigned the Great Seal, but continued to attend Cabinet meetings, and Addington was eventually compelled to write and ask him to deprive the Cabinet of the pleasure of his distinguished presence.[143]

[142] The necessity of pleasing George III. compelled many Prime Ministers to include his friend Addington in their administrations, and inspired Canning to remark that this Minister was like the small-pox, which everybody was obliged to have once in their lives.

[143] Campbell's "Lives of the Chancellors," vol. v. p. 327.

The manner of appointing a Minister, as also the manner of acquainting a colleague that his services are no longer required, varies with different Premiers. One may be as curt in his methods of appointment as another is in his mode of dismissal. Walpole and North provide excellent examples of this. On the death of Lord Chancellor Talbot in 1736-7, Walpole offered the Great Seal to Lord Hardwicke who was then Lord Chief Justice. The latter hesitated about accepting the office, until one day the Prime Minister impatiently informed him that unless he made up his mind without any further delay, the Seal would be given to Fazakerley, another famous lawyer. Hardwicke remonstrated that Fazakerley was quite unfit for the post of Lord Chancellor, being both a Tory and a Jacobite. "Never mind," replied Walpole, pulling out his watch. "It is now exactly noon. If you do not let me know that you have closed with my offer before eight o'clock this evening, I can only tell you that, by twelve, Fazakerley will be as good a Whig as any man in His Majesty's dominions!" Hardwicke hesitated no longer.[144]

[144] "Life of Eldon," vol. iii. p. 486.

Lord North's method of dismissing Fox from his Cabinet in 1774 was no less peremptory. "Sir," wrote the Prime Minister, "His Majesty has thought proper to order a new commission of the Treasury to be made out, in which I do not perceive your name."[145]

[145] "History of the Political Life of C. J. Fox," pp. 76-7.

It is seldom that a Prime Minister can give complete satisfaction in the formation of a Ministry, though the task is perhaps lightened by the fact that the possession of rare ability is not an absolute necessity for a Cabinet Minister.

In 1851 the Prince Consort sent Lord Derby the examination papers which Prince Alfred had been set when he pa.s.sed as a naval cadet "As I looked over them," wrote the Prime Minister in his reply, "I couldn't but feel very grateful that no such examination was necessary to qualify Her Majesty's Ministers for their offices, as it would very seriously increase the difficulty of framing an administration!"

A curious list, as Macaulay suggested, could be made out of successful Lord Chancellors ignorant of the principles of equity, and of First Lords of the Admiralty ignorant of the principles of navigation.

Sheridan even went so far as to say that a competent knowledge of the Rule of Three was a sufficient qualification for the Chancellorship of the Exchequer. Fox never understood what was meant by Consols. He only knew them to be things which rose and fell, and he was delighted when they fell, because, as he said, it annoyed Pitt so much. Lowe, who took a gloomy view of his office,[146] always admitted that he was "a bad hand at figures," and his financial statements as Chancellor were both obscure and unintelligible. Lord Randolph Churchill, too, when he was at the Treasury, is always supposed to have remarked to a clerk who brought him a list of decimal figures, that he "never could understand what those d----d dots meant!"

[146] "The Chancellor of the Exchequer exists to distribute a certain amount of human misery," he once remarked, "and he who distributes it most equally is the best Chancellor."

Government departments are to a great extent run by the permanent officials. As Sir George Lewis, himself successively Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary, and Minister for War, justly observed, it is not the business of a Cabinet Minister to work his department. His business is to see that it is properly worked. If he does too much, he is probably doing harm. The permanent staff of the office can do what he chooses to do much better than he, or, if they cannot, they ought to be removed. Strength of purpose, quickness of decision, and a good supply of sterling common-sense are worth more to a Minister than mere technical knowledge.[147]

[147] See Bagehot's "English Const.i.tution," p. 200.

Besides the appointment of his colleagues, the Prime Minister also has in his patronage a number of posts in the Royal Household, which become vacant when an Administration changes. These are not so difficult to fill, and are usually distributed among members of the House of Lords, who are thus bound to their party by ties even stronger than those of sentiment.[148]

[148] Among the offices in the Royal Household which are filled by the Prime Minister, the most important are those of the Master of the Horse, the Lord Steward, the Lord Chamberlain, the seven Lords in Waiting, and the Mistress of the Robes.

The actual Ministry consists of over forty persons, of whom perhaps a quarter form the Cabinet.[149] The annual cost to the country in ministerial salaries is well under 200,000, and cannot therefore be considered excessive, considering the delicacy of the administrative machine, the efficiency with which it is run, and the amount of work that has to be accomplished.

[149] A complete list of the salaries and offices of Ministers does not lie within the scope of this volume. It will be sufficient to enumerate briefly the most important members of the administration.

First in order of precedence stand the Prime Minister, the Lord High Chancellor, the Lord President of the Council, the Lord Privy Seal (an office to which, like that of the Prime Minister, no salary is attached), and the First Lords of the Treasury and Admiralty. After these come the five Secretaries of State: for Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs, the Colonies, War, and India. These are followed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretaries for Scotland and Ireland, the Postmaster-General, the Presidents of the Board of Trade, Local Government Board, Board of Agriculture, and Board of Education, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and the First Commissioner of Works. There are, besides, eight Parliamentary Under-Secretaries, four Junior Lords of the Treasury (one of whom is unpaid), a Patronage Secretary, a Financial Secretary, a Paymaster-General, Attorney-General, and Solicitor-General. Scotland is represented by a Lord-Advocate and a Scottish Solicitor-General; Ireland by a Lord-Lieutenant, a Lord Chancellor, an Attorney-General, and a Solicitor-General.

The labours of Cabinet Ministers have increased enormously in modern times. This is perhaps one of the reasons why they no longer deem it necessary to attend debates as regularly as their predecessors. In Disraeli's time all the members of the Cabinet sat on the Treasury Bench throughout a debate, and listened attentively to every speech.

It was considered obligatory upon the Leader of the House to be present perpetually in his place in Parliament. Neither Gladstone nor Disraeli would have thought of leaving the Chamber, except for a hurried dinner, until the House rose. The sittings have become so lengthy of late that it would be impossible for any Minister thus to give up his whole time to debate. Ministers are consequently provided with private rooms within the precincts of the House, whither they betake themselves as soon as question time is over, leaving one or two of their number to act as sentinels.

The cup of a young politician's happiness is filled to the brim on that glad day when he is offered a post in the Ministry. It does not actually overflow until he has been given a seat in the Cabinet itself. Should such success attend him, the summit of his ambition is within sight. In imagination he sees the mantle of Walpole descending upon his shoulders. Before his eyes stretches a vista of political splendour which only reaches a glorious conclusion when the vaults of Westminster Abbey open to receive his ashes. There is but one fly in the ointment. A member of the House of Commons who is appointed to ministerial office has perforce to submit himself once more to the judgment of the electors, and beg his const.i.tuents to return him again to Parliament. This rule is some two centuries old, and was designed to prevent the corruption of unworthy members who might otherwise be bought by the offer of lucrative Crown appointments.[150] It is no longer of any practical value for this purpose, and so tiresome a practice, entailing as it does much hardship and expense upon a newly created Minister, could well be abolished. Old customs die hard, however, and nowhere do they take so "unconscionably long a time a-dying" as in Parliament.

[150] Exceptions are made by Statute in favour of the Secretary of the Treasury and some other officers, or of a Minister who is transferred from one office to another in the same Administration.

The ratification by the sovereign of the Prime Minister's choice in the matter of colleagues is a brief but not unimposing ceremony. To each of the three Secretariats of State there belongs a seal which is the outward and visible sign of the authority attaching to the post.

When a Government goes out of office and a fresh Ministry is appointed, the seals are delivered up in person to the sovereign by the outgoing Ministers. His Majesty then hands them to the members of the new Administration, who receive their badges of office in a suitably humble att.i.tude, on their knees, and kiss the royal hand that confers these favours.