CHAPTER XI KHAKI Is the autumn of 1836 Lord Rosebery had resigned the leadership of the Liberal Party, and had been succeeded in that great trust by Sir William Harcourt; who, having lost his seat for Derby at the General Election of 1895, was now M.P. for West Monmouthshire. The relations between the new leader, his colleagues, and his followers were by no means harmonious; and the Liberal party gradually fell into as factious, forlorn, and dispirited a condition as it had ever known. 'Punch' thoroughly enjoyed the situation, and thus expressed it in a letter supposed to have been written by Sir William Harcourt to Mr. John Morley in the autumn of 1898: The year declines: in yonder Malwood glades 1 You at Newcastle (somewhere in the North), How like a dream the youthful splendour fades! Mr. Morley had been defeated at Newcastle at the General Election of 1895. A NEW LEADER For we were relatively young, and took 249 'On February 7th, 1899,' says Lawson, 'the Liberal Party met at the Reform Club to choose a leader in the place of Harcourt, who had resigned. On account of being an old Liberal, I was honoured by being placed in the chair. In a short speech I stated what the business was, and one of the newspapers said that I got through" without an anecdote." ‘This was a remarkable meeting, for we were unanimous— a most remarkable thing for an assembly of Liberals—and we elected Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman for our leader. Campbell-Bannerman's own speech was tactful and hearty, and the whole function passed off most pleasantly. 'One Wednesday during this Session we got a chance of discussing a Scotch Local Veto Bill. Again I quote from my Journal a description of the debate, but a similar description would fit the case of almost any Veto debate. 2 3 "John Wilson moved it shortly, sensibly and solidly. Then Faithfull Begg opposed-Wait for the Commission' Failure in Canada' etc. Duncombe in a few platitudes seconded the opposition. Colville" made a good speech, answering a good deal of Begg's nonsense. HeywoodJohnstone was tolerably absurd, talking very vaguely of new licensing arrangements. Munro-Ferguson supported the Bill 6 7 1 Lord Salisbury's phrase for the outlying districts of the United Kingdom. 2 M.P. for Govan Division of Lanarkshire. $ M.P. for N.E. Lanarkshire. M.P. for St. Rollox Division of Glasgow. M.P. for West Cumberland. "M.P. for North-West Sussex. 7 M.P. for Leith District of Burghs. mildly, but well for him. Ashcroft (I have quite forgotten as I write who or what he was) raged with strong adjectives and weak arguments. I followed for about 25 minutes (I wonder what I said). Sir Mark Stewart was unusually feeble and illogical against the Bill. Douglas-a new Scotch Member-spoke fairly well for the Bill. Thorburn' was tolerably ridiculous. Campbell-Bannerman was very good for the principle of the Bill, and said virtually that Scotland should have the first chance for Veto. The Lord Advocate 5 was feeble and rather silly against the Bill." 'Then we divided and were beaten by 74. 'During all this Session the shadow of coming trouble in the Transvaal hung more or less over the House. Chamberlain was busy working his hardest-of course, I do not say intentionally-to bring things to a crisis. Nagging, bragging, threatening, bluffing, bullying, swaggering, and all to get a footing to interfere in a matter with which we had no earthly right to interfere in the Transvaal. I am glad to think that a handful of Radicals did what they could by speech and vote on the rare occasions when they had a chance-to avert the awful catastrophe which ensued. But what were they among so many? The nation was gradually inflamed and I really believe considered that there was something noble and patriotic in sending out troops, exceeding the Boers in numbers by about 5 to 1, to complete the overthrow of their freedom. 'I believe also that there are even now (1904) plenty of grown up men, intelligent withal and good, who admire Mr. Chamberlain for his proceedings and look upon him as a great statesman. Of such is the world made up! 'During this Session there was a very interesting bye IM.P. for Oldham. 5 For N.W. Lanarkshire. 2 M.P. for Kirkcudbrightshire. M.P. for Peebles and Selkirk. A. G. Murray, M.P. for Edinburgh and St. Andrews Universities ; created Lord Dunedin 1905. election in which I took some part. Sir John Austin-the Member for Osgoldcross-had caused some friction in his constituency by his "pro-brewer " line of action, which irritated his Temperance constituents. (He was himself, I believe, a maltster). Things getting rather hot, he made up his mind. to take the Chiltern Hundreds and go down and appeal to the constituency on avowedly Liquor lines. Here then. was a challenge to the Prohibitionists which we could not decline. A candidate was available-and we could not have had a better one-in the person of Mr. Charles Roberts, who unselfishly threw himself into the breach and fought the battle gallantly on Temperance grounds. The Tories brought forward no candidate of their own. We made a good fight, but Sir John, aided by J. Havelock Wilson, M.P.,' one of the working-men Members, and by the rampant, Radical parson of Cumberland, who had voted for Lord Charles Beresford because he was an Irishman, won by a fine majority. 'I mention this fight because there was a moral to be drawn from it. It was virtually a combat in reference to Temperance legislation-the two candidates not differing materially on other points of the Liberal programme. So, if the Tories had really cared for Temperance reform they might have voted for Roberts without in any way injuring the Tory party. But the result of the Poll showed that they did nothing of the kind. And the moral is that the cornerstone of the Tory party is Drink, or in the words of Marion Crawford: "Beer is the great irrigator of Conservative principles." 'There was one very pathetic incident in the House during this Session (1899) of which, as I was an eye-witness, my relation may be of some interest. A Debate was proceeding, -instigated by John Morley-as to our doings on the Nile, when, after our victory, the tomb of the Mahdi was desecrated and his remains thrown into the Nile, or at least were treated For Middlesbrough. in some such dishonourable manner. About 11 o'clock Dr. Wallace, M.P. for East Edinburgh, rose to speak. But he had only uttered a few sentences when he faltered, became mute, and sank into his seat. John Burns came up and literally carried him out of the House. He was taken to the Westminster Hospital hard by, but died before morning. He was a man of great talent and of quaint originality; some of his speeches-though not of the ordinary Parliamentary type -being most remarkable. 'I was sitting on the same bench from which he rose—not far off him and his last words before he faltered made an abiding impression upon me. Speaking against the desecration of the Mahdi's tomb, he said that it might be considered expedient to do it, but, if it were not right, it should not have been done" on any consideration." I thought that there might have been many "last words" less satisfactory than these. 'I went pretty early the next morning to the Hospital to ask after him, but met Lord Rosebery in the doorway coming out, who told me that all was over. It struck me as a kind trait in Lord Rosebery's character, for he must have hurried off almost instantly he heard of the attack to make enquiries. 'I think there is nobody left in the House so original as was Dr. Wallace. Birrell is not in the House at the time when I write (1904), but his originality is not exactly of the same type as that of Wallace-perhaps better, but that I am not here discussing. Coming to the Session of 1900 I feel averse to dwelling on it, for it was a grievous time, the horror of the wicked war more or less deadening or deteriorating all our proceedings. One thing of an interesting nature was that the Irish Nationalist Members were sound on the question and made many and powerful speeches against the war; speeches which, had the nation been in a sane mind-which no nation is when at war-would have been applauded and appreciated. 'A few Radicals continued their opposition; Lloyd-George |