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I, 

THE  LIFE   OF 

THE  RIGHT  HON.   SIR  HENRY 
CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN,  G.C.B. 


BY 

J.    A\    SPENDER 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES 
VOL.  I 


\c 


HODDER   AND    STOUGHTON 
LIMITED  LONDON 


C     5 


%- 

I 


Made  and  Printed  in  Great  Britain. 
T.  and  A.  CONSTABLE  LTD.,  Printers,  Edinburgh. 


SIR   HENRY   CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 


I1KNKY  i  AMl'iiKI.I.-lJAXNKRMAN,   L874 
({'koto,  MaitlliinJ  /'<'.r) 


/•'rontisficce 


PREFACE 

SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN  was  never 
a  voluminous  correspondent,  and  in  the  last  years 
of  his  life  he  seldom  wrote  at  length  on  any  matter 
that  he  could  talk  over  with  friends  or  colleagues.  The  story 
of  his  life  is,  therefore,  not  one  that  can  be  left  to  tell  itself 
in  his  own  words,  and  his  biographer  has  necessarily  to 
thread  his  way  through  contemporary  records  which  are 
coloured  by  controversy  and  sometimes  to  choose  between 
recollections  which  differ.  Sir  Henry  fortunately  left  behind 
him  a  diary  which  briefly  records  his  movements  from  the 
beginning  of  the  year  1886  to  the  time  of  his  death,  and 
this  has  proved  invaluable  in  correcting  lapses  of  memory 
and  ascertaining  the  facts  of  his  life. 

In  the  first  years  after  the  War  there  was  a  natural 
disposition  to  dismiss  the  politics-of  the  previous  years  as 
trivial  in  comparison  with  that  tremendous  event.  It  is 
probable,  I  think,  that  as  time  goes  on  historians  will 
reverse  this  tendency  and  consider  the  years  preceding 
the  War  to  merit  a  specially  careful  study.  To  a  future 
generation  the  South  African  War,  the  Tariff  controversy, 
the  great  Liberal  triumph  of  1906,  the  interpretation  given 
to  the  British-French  Entente,  the  effort  to  come  to  terms 
with  Germany  about  naval  shipbuilding — in  all  of  which 
Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman  played  a  conspicuous  part 
— may  take  their  place  in  a  sequence  of  events  leading  up 
to  the  climax  of  1914.  It  is  in  any  case  a  biographer's 
duty  to  resist  the  judgment  which  dismisses  any  of  these 
events  as  unimportant. 


vi    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

It  is  customary  to  describe  the  differences  between  men 
of  the  same  party  as  'sordid'  in  comparison  with  the 
honourable  and  legitimate  warfare  of  men  of  opposing 
parties.  If  that  distinction  were  well  founded,  much  of 
the  record  of  both  the  British  parties  during  the  years 
covered  by  this  biography  would  be  open  to  this  reproach. 
It  is  not,  I  think,  well  founded.  The  difficulties  which 
honest  men  have  in  working  together  within  party  lines, 
and  the  strains  which  exceptional  events  place  upon  their 
allegiance  to  party,  are  a  large  part  of  British  history,  and 
the  study  of  them  is  essential  to  the  understanding  of  the 
party  system.  The  record  of  party  differences  is  therefore 
not  an  '  exposure  '  of  what  ought  to  be  hidden,  but  an 
important  part  of  the  necessary  material  of  history. 

The  biographer  who  deals  with  comparatively  recent 
events  is  under  the  necessity  of  expanding  his  narrative 
when  he  might  often  wish  to  curtail  it.  He  has  no  text- 
books to  refer  to,  few  agreed  records  of  important  trans- 
actions to  which  he  can  appeal.  He  is  dealing  with  a  period 
which  is  the  '  blind  spot '  of  the  younger  generation,  the 
period  subsequent  to  the  history  taught  in  schools  and 
universities,  and  prior  to  their  own  experience  of  politics. 
In  revising  this  narrative  I  have  frequently  been  reminded 
that  amplification  of  things  familiar  to  myself  and  others 
who  lived  through  this  period  was  necessary  to  make  the 
story  intelligible  to  others,  and  it  has  seemed  safer  to  err 
in  that  direction  than  to  risk  obscurity. 

I  am  indebted  to  His  Majesty  the  King  for  access  to 
the  Archives  at  Windsor,  and  for  gracious  permission  to 
use  certain  documents  in  cases  where  the  permission  of 
the  Sovereign  was  required  ;  to  Lord  Pentland,  one  of  the 
trustees  of  Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman's  will  and  the 
sole  legatee  of  his  papers  and  correspondence,  who  has 
placed  all  the  available  documents  at  my  disposal  and 


PREFACE  vii 

helped  me  throughout  in  the  work  of  research ;  to 
Mr.  Pearce  Campbell,  head  of  the  firm  of  J.  and  W.  Campbell, 
another  of  the  trustees  of  Sir  Henry's  will,  who  has  helped 
me  with  material  for  the  earlier  chapters ;  to  Viscount 
Gladstone  and  Mr.  Vaughan  Nash,  who  have  given  me 
invaluable  aid  in  revising  my  manuscript  and  proofs  ;  to 
Mr.  Arthur  Ponsonby,  who  has  permitted  me  to  draw 
freely  on  his  diary  of  the  last  years ;  and  to  many  others 
who  have  assisted  me  with  their  recollections  and  entrusted 
me  with  letters  in  their  possession.  I  should  add  that  I 
am  specially  indebted  to  Mr.  Vaughan  Nash  for  details  in 
Chapter  XXXVII.  ' 

In  a  few  places  I  have  borrowed  phrases  and  passages 
from  forgotten  writings  of  my  own  without  thinking  it 
necessary  to  trouble  the  reader  with  references. 

J.  A.  S. 

CHANTRY  PLACE,  MARDEN, 
KENT,  Aug.  i,  1923. 


CONTENTS   OF  VOLUME  I 

PREFACE  PAGE 

*          *          •          .  v 


CHAPTER  I 
CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH 

Campbell  andMcOran— How  the  Campbells  came  to  Inchanoch 

-Their  Removal  to  Glasgow— the  Brothers  Campbell  and 

the  Firm  of  J.  and  W.  Campbell-Birth  of  Henry  Campbell 

(Bannerman)-His  Father's  Character  and  Achievements 

Family  Life  and  Education— A  Juvenile  Grand  Tour 

-Glasgow    University   and    Cambridge— In    Business— 

Marriage— Tours  Abroad— Early  Political  Views      .          .  x 

CHAPTER  II 
CANDIDATE  AND  M.P. 

Candidature  for  the  Stirling  Burghs-A  Raid  on  Officialism- 
Campbelhtes  and  Ramsayites— The  Spring  Election—  \ 
certain  Liveliness— The  Autumn  Election-A  Triumphant 
Return— Compliments  in  Glasgow— The  Member  and  his 

Constituents 

25 

CHAPTER  III 
PARLIAMENT  AND  OFFICE 

The  Move  to  London-First  Speeches  in  Parliament-An 
Attack  on  the  '  Ancient  Universities  '—Compulsory  Educa- 
tion-Financial Secretary  to  the  War  Office-Association 
with  Cardwell— The  Cardwell  Reforms— Out  of  Office— A 
Military  Specialist-Money  Payments  for  Regimental 
Exchanges-Scottish  Affairs-A  Dangerous  Reputation  33 


x     SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAPTER  IV 
ARMY,  NAVY,  AND  IRELAND 

FACE 

The  1880  Parliament — In  the  Old  Office  again — Recruiting 
Problems — Childers'  Reforms — Financial  Secretary  to  the 
Admiralty — The  Truth  about  the  Navy — a  Letter  to  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer — Impressions  of  a  Private 
Secretary — Lord  Northbrook's  Testimonial — Irish  Chief 
Secretaryship — Doubts  and  Hesitations — Ambiguous  Con- 
gratulations— Qualifications  as  Chief  Secretary — Doubts 
about  '  the  Lodge  ' — First  Visit  to  Ireland  ...  49 


CHAPTER  V 
A  STORMY  CHIEF  SECRETARYSHIP 

An  Ominous  New  Fact — Difficulties  of  the  Chief  Secretary — 
A  '  Sufficiently  Dull  Man  '—Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor's  Tribute 
— His  Guiding  Principles — Some  Detestable  Questions — 
An  Irish  Education  Bill — Royal  Visit  to  Ireland — The 
Renewal  of  the  Crimes  Act — Cabinet  Differences — Camp- 
bell-Bannerman's  Line — The  Search  for  a  '  Judicious 
Title  '—The  Proposed  Land  Bill— Mr.  Gladstone's  Views 
—Mr.  Chamberlain's  Policy — The  Chief  Secretary's  Mem- 
orandum— '  Something  like  Grattan's  Parliament '-  —The 
Central  Board  Scheme  and  its  Rejection — Deadlock  in  the 
Cabinet — Fall  of  the  Government — Lord  Spencer's  Tribute 
to  Campbell-Bannerman  ......  65 


CHAPTER  VI 
HOME  RULER  AND  CABINET  MINISTER 

The  November  Election — Unopposed  Return — Opinions  on 
Home  Rule — Finding  Salvation — Correspondence  with 
Lord  Spencer — Letter  to  Lord  Northbrook — Formation  of 
the  New  Government — Secretary  for  War — Queen  Victoria's 
Nominee — Sir  William  Harcourt  and  the  Estimates- 
Contagious  Diseases  Act — Speech  on  the  Home  Rule  Bill 
— The  '  In-and-Out  Solution  '-—Dissolution  and  Defeat 
of  the  Government — A  Popular  Minister  ...  88 


CONTENTS  xi 

CHAPTER  VII 
THE  HANDY  MAN  OF  OPPOSITION 

PAGE 

Many  Activities — Speech-making  in  Scotland — A  Sanguine 
Partisan — Invitations  from  Scottish  Constituencies — West 
Perth  and  the  Stirling  Burghs — Illness  and  Holiday  abroad 
— The  Hartington  Commission — Objections  to  a  Chief  of 
the  Staff — Dislike  of  '  Continental  Militarism  ' — Relations 
with  Mr.  Gladstone — The  Conservative  Land  Purchase 
Bill — Letters  to  Sir  William  Harcourt — A  Four-figure 
Majority  ......  .no 

CHAPTER  VIII 
BACK  AT  THE  WAR  OFFICE  ^ 

A  Disappointing  Election — Back  at  the  War  Office — Too 
Many  Peers— The  Minister's  Time-table— His  General 
Policy — Questions  with  Queen  Victoria — Guards  and 
Cameron  Highlanders — The  Honorary  Colonels — Report 
of  the  Wantage  Committee — Strong  Objections — Patron- 
age and  Promotion  —  Battles  with  the  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer — Obstacles  to  Economy — Alarms  about 
Foreign  Affairs — Leaving  Well  Alone — The  Eight  Hours 
Day .123 


CHAPTER  IX 
REORGANISATION  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  CAMBRIDGE 

Soldiers  and  Civilian  Militarists — Reorganisation  at  the  War 
Office — The  Commandership-in-Chief— A  Compromise — 
The  Need  of  New  Blood — The  Duke  of  Cambridge  and 
Reform — The  Departure  of  the  Duke — The  Cordite  Debate 
and  Division — Resignation  and  Fall  of  the  Government 
—The  Incident  of  the  Seals  —  G.C.B.— Buller  and  the 
Commandership-in-Chief — Tributes  from  the  War  Office  .  144 


CHAPTER  X 

AN  ALL-ROUND  MINISTER     ^ 

An     All-round     Minister — Parting    with     Mr.     Gladstone 
Relations  with  Queen  Victoria — Autumns  at  Balmoral 


xii    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

PAGE 

Letters  to  his  Wife — The  Cellular  Life — Falling  into 
Theatricals — Mourning  to  Music — The  Queen  and  the 
House  of  Lords — The  Speakership — The  Cabinet  in  a 
Scrape— The  Goal  of  his  Ambition — Objections  of  Col- 
leagues— Doubts  in  the  Burghs — A  Disappointment- 
Dislike  of  London  Life— Reasons  for  Absence — Remon- 
strances of  Sir  William  Harcourt  ...  .164 


CHAPTER  XI  ' 

LIBERAL  DIFFICULTIES  AND  SOUTH  AFRICAN 

TROUBLES 

The  Election  of  1895 — The  Burghs  Faithful— A  Heavy 
Disaster — The  Difficulties  of  the  Ex-Cabinet — Mr.  Glad- 
stone and  the  Armenian  Question — Resignation  of  Lord 
Rosebery — Imperialists  and  Little  Englanders — The 
Jameson  Raid- — A  Historical  Retrospect — The  South 
African  Committee — Harcourt's  and  Campbell- Banner- 
man's  part  in  it — Their  Theory  of  Rhodes's  Action — A 
Shattering  Blow — Divided  Opinions — The  Spectator's 
Allegation — A  Lost  Opportunity.  .  .  .  .182 


CHAPTER  XII  - 
SUCCESSION  TO  THE  LEADERSHIP 

Sir  William  Harcourt's  Resignation — The  Harcourt-Morley 
Correspondence — Imperialism  and  Little  Englandism — 
Lord  Rosebery's  Influence — The  Dark  Star  of  Politics — 
The  Liberal  Leadership — '  No  Such  Office  ' — The  Choice 
of  the  Successor — Difficulties  of  the  Position — Campbell- 
Bannerman  and  the  Shorter  Catechism  —  A  Medical 
Opinion — Nolo  Episcopari — Acceptance — The  Party  Meet- 
ing— A  Portrait  of  Himself  ......  208 

CHAPTER  XIII 
ON  THE  EVE  OF  WAR 

The  Session  of  1889 — Hopes  of  Tranquillity — Death  of  Mr. 
T.  E.  Ellis — Appointment  of  Mr.  Herbert  Gladstone  as  Chief 
Whip — First  Speech  as  Leader — The  Brewing  of  the  Storm 
in  South  Africa — The  Milner  Despatch — The  New  Situa- 


Xlll 


CONTENTS 

tion— The  Demand  of  the  Franchise  in  South  Africa— 
Campbell-Bannerman's  Views— Nothing  to  justify  Warlike 
Action— Conversations  with  Mr.  Chamberlain— Objections 
to  Government  Plan— Off  to  Marienbad— A  Troubled 
Holiday— The  Summons  Home— The  Maidstone  Speech- 
Cross-currents  in  the  ex-Cabinet  — The  Groups  in  the 
Party— The  Opposition  in  Parliament— Passionate  Differ- 
ences—Mr. Chamberlain's  Propaganda— The  Problems  of 

the  Leader 

223 


CHAPTER  XIV 
WAR  AND  POLITICS 

A  Troubled  Recess— Military  Disaster  and  Popular  Dis- 
pleasure— Politicians  and  Soldiers— Public  Speeches- 
Speaking  at  each  other— Efforts  in  Unity— The  War 
Atmosphere— Difficulties  of  Moderation— An  Imperturb- 
able Spirit— The  Pitfalls  of  Speech-making— Lord  Rose- 
bery's  Attitude— Lawson  '  battle-axe  in  hand  '—The 
Religio  Milneriana— London  Government— Clerical  Tithes  253 


CHAPTER  XV 
TROUBLES  IN  THE  LIBERAL  PARTY 

The  Campaign  in  South  Africa— Appointment  of  Lord 
Roberts  and  Lord  Kitchener— Drafting  an  Amendment 
-Campbell-Bannerman's  Views— The  Return  of  the 
1  Scriveners  '-  -The  Debate  on  the  Amendment— Differ- 
ences and  Abstentions— Recriminations  of  the  Generals— 
The  Question  of  Annexation— His  Strong  Opinion- 
Persuading  his  Colleagues— Speech  at  Glasgow— A  Closed 
Chapter— Debate  on  Colonial  Office  Vote— The  Treatment 
of  Rebels— A  Disastrous  Evening— Mr.  Chamberlain  on 
the  War-path  .  .  .267 

CHAPTER  XVI 
THE  KHAKI  ELECTION 

An  Interval  at  Marienbad— The  Dissolution— Caught  in  a 
Trap— The  Khaki  Election— The  Unionist  Slogan- 
Optimism  and  Disappointment— A  reduced  Majority  in 


xiv  SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 


PAGE 


the  Burghs— The  General  Result— Attitude  of  the  Liberal 
Imperialists— The  Imperial  Liberal  Council— Objection 
to  Sectional  Organisations— Taking  Stock  of  the  Position 
—The  Scottish  Whips— An  Olive-branch  to  Lord  Rosebery 
—A  Speech  at  Dundee— Sir  William  Harcourt  and  the  ex- 
Cabinet— The  Beginning  of  Farm-burning— Standing  up 
for  the  Soldiers— The  Contracts  Question  .  288 

CHAPTER  XVII 
THE  WAR  AND  THE  OPPOSITION 

The  Stalemate  in  the  War— Smoothing  Tactics— The  News- 
paper War— Death  of  Queen  Victoria— Debate  on  the 
Address  —  Unconditional  Surrender  —  Towards  Liberal 
Unity— A  new  Ground  of  Quarrel— Farm-burning  and 
Concentration  Camps— Speech  at  Oxford— Sir  Alfred 
Milner's  Opinions— The  Kitchener-Botha  Negotiations- 
Speech  on  Taxation— Speech  at  Bradford— Definition  of 
Liberal  Policy  .  3*4 

CHAPTER  XVIII 
'  METHODS  OF  BARBARISM  ' 

Sir  Alfred  Milner  in  London— Renewal  of  Liberal  Dissensions 
—Miss  Emily  Hobhouse's  Report— An  Interview  at  Gros- 
venor  Place— Methods  of  Barbarism— Popular  Displeasure 

A   Critical   Phase— The  War  to  the  Knife   and    Fork 

—The  Party  Meeting— Lord  Rosebery 's   Intervention- 
'  The  Lonely  Furrow  '—An  '  Awful  Fortnight  '—General 
Botha's  Opinion 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN,   1874          .  Frontispiece 

JAMES  McORAN  CAMPBELL         .  17 

WILLIAM  CAMPBELL    ...  .         .       32 

KELVINSIDE  HOUSE,  GLASGOW    .  .               65 

LADY  CAMPBELL  .                                  80 

SIR  JAMES  CAMPBELL                  .  113 

STRACATHRO,  FORFARSHIRE         .  ....     128 

MR.  AND  MRS.  HENRY  CAMPBELL  (SiR  HENRY  AND  LADY 
CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN)  ABOUT  THE  TIME  OF  THEIR 
MARRIAGE  IN  1860  .......  161 

HUNTON  COURT,  NEAR  MAIDSTONE,  KENT         .  .176 

GENNINGS,  NEAR  MAIDSTONE,  KENT  .         .  .     209 

JAMES  CAMPBELL  OF  TULLICHEWAN   .  .224 

THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN, 

1892     .  .     257 

MRS.  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN      .  ...     272 


XV 


CHAPTER  I 
CHILDHOOD  AND  YOUTH 

Campbell  andMcOran — How  the  Campbells  came  to  Inchanoch 
— Their  Removal  to  Glasgow— the  Brothers  Campbell  and 
the  Firm  of  J.  and  W.  Campbell — Birth  of  Henry  Campbell 
(Bannerman) — His  Father's  Character  and  Achievements — 
Family  Life  and  Education — A  Juvenile  Grand  Tour- 
Glasgow  University  and  Cambridge — In  Business — Marriage 
-Tours  Abroad — Early  Political  Views. 


I 


N  the  year  1660  a  young  Campbell  of  Melfort  in  the    CHAP. 
district  south  of  Oban  killed  a  young  McColl  in  a 


fray  at  a  clan  gathering.  The  act  was  probably  JT' x"32' 
accidental,  since  the  father  of  McColl  seems  to  have  forgiven 
it,  but  the  outcry  of  the  McColl  family  was  so  great  that 
it  was  thought  necessary  for  the  young  Campbell  to  leave 
the  country.  He  went  by  night  mounted  on  a  pony  with 
provisions  for  two  or  three  days,  and,  after  some  wander- 
ing, put  himself  under  the  protection  of  the  Earl  of  Menteith. 
When  with  the  Earl  he  met  Miss  Nancy  Haldane,  a  niece  of 
Haldane  of  Lanrick,  and  made  a  runaway  marriage  with 
her.  The  Earl  forgave  him  and  established  the  young 
couple  on  the  farm  of  Inchanoch  in  Menteith,  which  they 
and  their  descendants  held  rent  free  until  it  passed  into  the 
hands  of  Graham  of  Gartmore  in  1779. 

The  outlaw  had  changed  his  name  to  McOran  on  leaving 
Melfort,  and  his  descendants  continued  to  call  themselves 
McOran  while  they  were  in  Menteith,  though  they  resumed 
the  name  of  Campbell  when  they  went  elsewhere.  There 
was  a  local  saying  that  '  there  was  never  a  Campbell  in 
Menteith  nor  a  McOran  out  of  it.'  When  Graham  of 
Gartmore  acquired  the  property  he  left  James  McOran, 
great-grandson  of  the  original  Campbell  of  Melfort,  who 
was  then  in  possession,  undisturbed,  and  gave  him  a  lease 

VOL.  i.  A 


2     SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    of   the   farm   from   1779   to   1800,  which  was   afterwards 
renewed  to  1819.     In  1803,  however,  he  decided  to  sell  it 


1836-1868.  to  Mr  Graham-Shepherd  of  Rednock,  who  wished  to  add 
to  it  his  park,  and  James  McOran  was  given  £525  for  the 
unexpired  portion  of  his  lease  and  asked  to  take  himself 
elsewhere. 

He  left  reluctantly,  as  well  he  might,  having  a  wife  and 
nine  children  and  little  or  nothing  beyond  this  compensation 
for  their  support.  The  eldest  son  John,  aged  seventeen, 
who  had  already  served  a  year  in  the  city  as  apprentice 
to  a  grocer,  appears  to  have  pointed  to  Glasgow  and  the 
grocery  business  as  the  likeliest  way  of  earning  a  living. 
Accordingly  in  1804  James  McOran,  who  now  changed  his 
name  back  to  Campbell,  opened  a  grocer's  shop  in  Gallow- 
gate,  and  the  following  year  moved  to  Saltmarket,  where 
grocery  was  expanded  into  '  general  provisions.'  Hard 
times  followed,  and  after  two  years  the  shop  was  given  up 
and  the  father  and  mother  l  left  Glasgow  and  went  to  live 
at  Head  of  Green,  whence  they  moved  eventually  to  Park- 
head.  The  eldest  son  John,2  meanwhile,  had  migrated  to 
America  and  for  a  few  months  there  was  talk  of  the  whole 
family  following,  but  this  was  ended  by  the  news  that  he 
had  married  an  American  girl  almost  immediately  on 
landing  and  was  now  absorbed  in  his  own  fortunes.  By 
this  time  the  other  sons,  James,  William,  and  Alexander, 
had  obtained  some  sort  of  schooling  and  were  apprenticed 
to  various  firms  in  Glasgow,  James  going  to  his  father's 
old  friends,  McLachlan  and  McKeand,  who  were  in  busi- 
ness as  Warehousemen.  The  lads  were  enterprising  and 
industrious,  and  had  ideas  of  setting  up  for  themselves  at 
the  earliest  possible  moment.  By  the  time  he  was  twenty 
(1810)  James  was  a  full-fledged  partner  in  a  tailor's  business 
styled  '  Paterson  and  Campbell,'  and  when  it  failed,  two 
years  later,  persisted  by  himself  for  four  years  longer  as 

1  Helen,  daughter  of  John  Forrester  of  Frew  near  Kippen,  married 
James  McOran  in  1785. 

*  John  subsequently  returned  to  Glasgow,  and  was  for  some  years  in 
business  with  his  brothers,  but  eventually  made  America  his  home.  He 
bought  a  property  at  Fonda  in  New  York  State,  and  died  there  in  1872. 


J.  AND  W.  CAMPBELL  3 

a   'clothier.'     The   failure  was   no   discredit,    and   James    CHAP 

Campbell  showed  the  stuff  he  was  made  of  by  paying  all . *• 

the  creditors  in  full  with  interest  in  the  subsequent  years.  ^T-  ^2 
In  the  meantime  the  friends  of  the  family,  especially 
McLachlan  and  McKeand,  exerted  themselves  to  put  the 
brothers  on  their  feet.  William  now  proposed  to  start  a 
'  hawker's  business/  i.e.  supplying  goods  to  hawkers,  and 
McLachlan  and  McKeand  found  capital  to  take  a  warehouse 
and  buy  goods.  In  1816  James  abandoned  tailoring  and 
joined  his  brother  in  this  new  venture,  which  was  launched 
in  1817  as  the  firm  of  J.  and  W.  Campbell.  In  the  first 
scheme,  James  Campbell,  William  Campbell,  and  Messrs. 
McLachlan  and  McKeand  had  each  a  third  share  but 
fourteen  months  later  Mr.  McKeand  was  paid  out,  and  five 
years  later  still  Mr.  McLachlan,  who  was  now  in  bad  health, 
disposed  of  his  share  to  the  brothers.1 

The  new  firm,  which  was  started  at  5  Saltmarket,  rapidly 
outgrew  '  the  hawker's  business,'  and  six  years  later  (1823) 
moved   to  34  Candleriggs.     Thence  in   1856  it  made   its 
final  move  to  29  Ingram  Street,  where  it  now  is.     In  1822 
James  Campbell,   the  senior  partner,  now  in  prosperous 
circumstances,  married  the  daughter  of  a  successful  Man- 
chester   manufacturer,    Janet    Bannerman,    who    brought 
a  literary  strain  into  the  family,  since  her  mother  was  a 
Motherwell  and  a  sister  of  William  Motherwell  the  Glasgow 
poet.     The  young  couple  lived  first  on  the  north  side  of 
George  Square  in  what  was  then  described  as  the  '  New 
Building/  where    their   eldest  son  James  Alexander  was 
born  in  1825.     In  1829  James  Campbell  built  the  house,  21 
Bath  Street  (afterwards  129),  which  was  his  Glasgow  house 
for  the  rest  of  his  life,  and  there  is  still  a  tradition  that  he 
astonished  his  neighbours  by  bringing  Italian  workmen  to 
decorate   it.     A   year   or   two  later   he  took  the  mansion 
of  Kelvinside  for  his  summer  residence,  and  here  on  Sep- 
tember 7,  1836,  his  second  son  and  youngest  child  Henry, 
the  future  Prime  Minister,  was  born.     In  addition  to  the 

1  These  details  are  taken  from  a  memorandum  left  by  Sir  James  Camp- 
bell, dated  Stracathro,  Nov.  6,  1875. 


4     SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    two  sons  there  were  four  daughters  :  Jane,  the  eldest  of  the 

y  family,  who  died  at  Zurich  in  1842,  aged  nineteen  ;  Louisa, 

1836-1868.  kom  jn  1833,  who  married  James  A.  Bannerman  and  died 

at  Torquay  in  1873  ;   Helen,  who  died  in  childhood  in  1836 ; 

and  Mary,  who  died  in  infancy  in  1835. 

Kelvinside,  originally  known  as  Bankhead,  was  a  pleasant 
eighteenth-century  house,  built  in  1749  by  a  '  Virginia 
Don,'  as  the  Glasgow  merchants  who  traded  in  tobacco  were 
called  in  those  days.  It  was  finely  situated  on  a  bend  of 
the  Kelvin,  opposite  the  present  Botanic  Gardens.  The 
house  has  long  vanished  from  the  scene  and  the  whole 
district  is  now  built  over  with  streets  and  terraces,  but 
eighty  years  ago  it  was  still  in  the  country  and  the  wooded 
banks  overlooking  the  Kelvin  were  famous  for  their  snow- 
drops and  wild  hyacinths.  In  later  years  James  Campbell 
moved  to  the  neighbouring  house  of  Jordanhill  for  his 
summer  quarters,  but  he  was  at  Kelvinside  when  his  family 
were  growing  up,  and  it  was  there  that  Henry  and  his 
brother  and  sisters  spent  their  summer  holidays. 


II 

Of  his  early  days  Henry  Campbell  has  left  no  records 
and  his  contemporaries  have  passed  from  the  scene.  But 
tradition  agrees  that  the  Campbells  were  a  happy  and  united 
family,  with  strong  and  energetic  characters  and  serious 
views  of  their  duties  in  life.  In  after  years,  when  he  was 
old  and  famous,  Henry  Campbell  spoke  of  '  the  things 
which  he  had  learnt  at  his  mother's  knee  '  as  coming  back 
to  him  when  all  else  had  faded  ;  and  his  mother  is  remem- 
bered in  her  family  as  a  lady  of  great  dignity  and  charm, 
with  a  rare  habit  of  self-control  which  she  impressed  upon 
her  children.  A  granddaughter  remembers  with  awe  how 
she  saw  a  wasp  alight  on  her  face  and  walk  all  over  it  without 
causing  her  to  move  in  her  chair  or  betray  the  slightest 
sign  that  she  was  aware  of  it.  It  is  perhaps  worth  noting 
that  she  came  of  a  Liberal  family,  and  in  after  days,  when 
her  son  first  stood  as  a  Liberal  candidate,  some  of  his  sup- 


JAMES  CAMPBELL,  SENIOR  5 

porters  said  :    '  Mr.  Henry  's  no  a  Campbell  —  he  's  just  a    CHAP. 
Bannerman.'     James,   'my  big  brother/   as   the  younger 


one  persisted  in  calling  him  to  the  end  of  their  lives,  was,  " 
with  his  ten  years'  seniority,  the  acknowledged  leader 
among  the  children,  and  all  bear  witness  that  he  was  a 
kindly  and  affectionate  elder  brother.  Henry's  particular 
'  pal,'  as  he  grew  up,  appears  to  have  been  his  sister  Louisa, 
and  to  her  he  addressed  such  boyish  letters  as  have  sur- 
vived. Dogs,  rabbits,  and  other  domestic  pets,  especially 
dogs,  which  seem  to  have  multiplied  very  rapidly  at  Kelvin- 
side,  played  a  large  part  in  the  children's  world. 

James  Campbell,  the  father,  who  is  justly  famous  in  the 
municipal  history  of  Glasgow,  was  a  man  of  immense  in- 
dustry and  powerful  will.  In  addition  to  carrying  on  a 
great  and  expanding  business,  he  was  an  eager  municipal 
politician  and  a  leader  of  the  Conservative  Party  in  his 
city.  In  1837  and  again  in  1841  he  stood  as  a  Tory  candi- 
date for  Glasgow  and  was  beaten  on  both  occasions.  No 
Conservative  was  returned  for  Glasgow  until  1874,  when 
Mr.  Alexander  Whitelaw  was  elected  as  third  member  under 
the  Disraelian  three-cornered  constituency  scheme.  James 
Campbell  was  an  ardent  admirer  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and  in 
1837,  wnen  Sir  Robert  was  coming  to  Glasgow  to  be  installed 
Lord  Rector  of  the  University,  he  drove  post-chaise  to 
Drayton  Manor  and  back  in  what  was  said  to  have  been 
record  time  in  order  to  convey  an  invitation  to  him  to 
attend  a  banquet  to  be  given  by  his  Conservative  admirers 
in  the  city.  For  that  an  immense  wooden  pavilion  was 
erected  in  what  is  now  Prince's  Square,  Buchanan  Street, 
and  it  is  recorded  that  the  company  numbered  3430,  that 
they  sat  from  5.30  in  the  afternoon  till  1.30  in  the  morning, 
and  that  even  then  only  nineteen  out  of  the  thirty-seven 
toasts  on  the  list  had  been  given.  Henry  Campbell  was  in 
his  cradle,  but  his  future  chief,  Mr.  Gladstone,  then  still  the 
rising  hope  of  the  stern  and  unbending  Tories,  was  present 
and  made  a  speech.  In  1860,  when  Lord  Brougham  was 
in  Glasgow  as  President  of  the  Social  Science  Congress,  he 
was  the  guest  of  James  Campbell,  and  probably  met  the 


6     SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    future  Prime  Minister,  who  was  then  still  living  under  his 
J; >  father's  roof.1 


1836-1868.  The  Tjjsruption  movement  of  1843  divided  the  Campbell 
family,  as  it  did  many  others  in  Scotland,  and  the  partners 
in  the  great  firm  went  different  ways,  James  remaining  a 
strong  Conservative  and  Established  Churchman,  while  his 
brother  William  went  with  the  Free  Church  and  became  a 
Liberal  in  politics.  But  all  accounts  agree  that  in  spite 
of  his  strong  opinions,  James  Campbell  was  an  exceedingly 
tolerant  man,  and  that  no  political  or  religious  differences 
affected  the  good  relations  of  the  brothers  or  their  families. 
He  encouraged  his  own  children  to  think  for  themselves 
and  was  not  at  all  annoyed  when  they  developed  opinions 
of  their  own. 

James  Campbell  entered  the  Glasgow  Town  Council  in 
1835  and  became  Lord  Provost  in  1840,  a  position  which 
he  held  for  the  usual  period  of  three  years.  His  appoint- 
ment was  welcomed  by  men  of  all  parties,  and  during  his 
years  of  office  he  made  an  end  of  the  feuds  which  had  dis- 
tracted the  Council  for  some  years  previously.  Some 
characteristic  stories  are  told  of  him.  When  the  mill  at 
Barrowfield  caught  fire,  the  police  refused  the  use  of  the 
burgh  fire-engine,  on  the  ground  that  Barrowfield  was 
outside  the  burgh  boundary,  whereupon  the  Lord  Provost 
peremptorily  ordered  the  engines  out  and,  mounting  one 
of  them  himself,  drove  to  the  scene  of  the  fire.  For  this  he 
was  solemnly  censured  by  the  Police  Commissioners. 
He  incurred  another  censure  from  his  own  Council  a  little 
later,  for  helping  the  Government  to  frame  a  new  Police 
Bill  for  the  city,  when  they  had  disagreed.  In  spite  of  his 
Conservative  opinions  he  was  an  active  and  progressive 
Lord  Provost ;  great  improvements  were  made  during  his 
years  of  office,  and  Glasgow  developed  rapidly  as  a  port. 
In  1841  he  was  knighted,2  on  the  occasion  of  the  birth  of 

1  For  many  of  the  details  in  this  chapter  I  am  indebted  to  Dr.  David 
Murray,  a  veteran  and  distinguished  citizen  of  Glasgow. 

1  The  Glasgow  people  had  a  jest  at  his  expense  on  this  occasion.  He 
came  back  from  London,  after  receiving  the  accolade,  by  the  newly  opened 


BOYHOOD  IN  GLASGOW  7 

the  Prince  of  Wales  (afterwards  King  Edward  VIL),  and    CHAP. 
two  years  later,  when  he  had  at  length  laid  down  his  office, » — 


his  fellow-citizens  of  all  parties  gave  him  a  banquet  and  ^ET-  I"32' 
presented  him  with  a  costly  piece  of  gold  plate.  In  1848 
he  acquired  the  estate  of  Stracathro  in  Forfarshire,  a  fine 
property  with  a  big  house,  where  he  continued  to  live  until 
his  death  in  1876  at  the  advanced  age  of  eighty-six.  During 
all  these  years  he  was  counted  a  foremost  citizen  of  Glasgow 
and  was  greatly  respected  for  his  high  character  and  public 
spirit. 

It  was  in  this  atmosphere  of  politics,  public  work,  com- 
mercial prosperity,  and  local  fame  that  the  young  Henry 
Campbell  grew  up.  The  parents  had  all  the  Scottish 
virtues :  they  were  religious,  dutiful,  orderly,  and  business- 
like ;  in  spite  of  their  wealth,  they  lived  simply  and  applied 
themselves  seriously  to  the  education  of  their  children.  At 
the  age  of  eleven  Henry  was  sent  to  Glasgow  High  School,1 
where  he  got  the  rudiments  of  what  was  then  deemed  to  be 
a  sound  classical  education,  with  Latin  and  Greek  for  its 
main  ingredients.  He  attended  the  annual  reunions  of  his 
classmates  in  his  old  school  in  1897  and  1898,  and  they 
declared  on  these  occasions  that  he  had  won  their  respect 
and  affection  as  a  lad,  and  that  '  he  had  been  their  superior 
in  the  classroom  and  their  equal  in  the  playground.'  Of 
his  achievements  in  the  playground  he  spoke  in  after  years 
with  humorous  modesty,  declaring  that  he  had  spoilt  a 

railway  to  Liverpool  and  thence  by  steamer  to  Glasgow.  The  steamer 
reached  Greenock  early  on  a  Sunday  morning  when  there  was  no  water 
to  bring  her  up  to  Glasgow.  So  his  fellow-townsmen  fetched  him  off  in 
a  specially  chartered  boat  decked  with  flags  and  bunting,  and  landed  him 
before  a  large  crowd  on  the  Sabbath  morning.  It  so  happened  that  he 
and  his  firm  had  just  announced  their  opposition  to  travelling  on  Sunday 
and  had  let  it  be  known  that  they  would  forward  no  goods  by  the  Edin- 
burgh and  Glasgow  Railway  if  that  Company  ran  Sunday  trains. 

1  This  school,  formerly  the  Grammar  School,  was  one  of  the  first  in  the 
United  Kingdom  to  develop  what  was  subsequently  called  a  '  modern 
side.'  In  1833  it  changed  its  name  to  '  High  School  '  and  added  classes 
in  English  and  modern  languages,  mathematics,  chemistry,  geography, 
and  drawing.  Thomas  Campbell,  John  Gibson  Lockhart,  Sir  William 
Hamilton,  and  Sir  John  Moore,  the  hero  of  Corunna,  are  among  the  dis- 
tinguished names  on  its  roll. 


8     SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    great  deal  of  good  turf  in  vain  efforts  to  become  a  golfer, 
y  and  frankly  admitting  his  lack  of  proficiency  in  other  kinds 

1836-1868.  of  sport      But  the  Campbell  children  were  provided  with 

ponies  and  knew  how  to  ride  them,  and  he  seems  at  this 
age  to  have  been  a  healthy  out-of-door  sort  of  lad  who 
loved  the  country  and  rejoiced  in  his  holidays  at  Kelvin- 
side  or  Stracathro. 

During  these  years  the  whole  family  were  regular 
attendants  at  St.  George's,  Glasgow,  the  place  of  worship 
of  the  leading  commercial  families  in  Glasgow,  then  under 
the  ministrations  of  the  Rev.  James  Craik,  D.D.,  after- 
wards Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland.  Dr.  Craik's  son,  Sir  Henry  Craik,  well  remembers 
Sir  James  Campbell's  pew  and  the  unfailing  presence  of 
each  member  of  his  family.  The  young  Henry  Campbell 
was  a  frequent  visitor  at  the  minister's  house,  and  Dr. 
Craik  took  a  special  interest  in  the  plans  for  his  education. 
Sir  Henry  Craik,  though  ten  years  younger  than  Henry 
Campbell,  has  a  clear  recollection  of  the  Campbell  family, 
and  he  has  recorded  his  own  impressions  of  them  at  this 
time  : — 

The  figures  both  of  Sir  James  and  Lady  Campbell  stand  out 
distinctly  in  my  memory.  If  that  memory  does  not  deceive  me, 
Henry  Campbell  took  after  his  mother  in  personal  appearance. 
Sir  James  was  a  man  of  somewhat  rough  exterior  and  with  a 
character  of  marked  force.  As  a  youth  I  dreaded  him,  but 
assuredly  not  from  any  lack  of  kindliness  in  his  behaviour 
towards  us.  If  he  was  homely  and  somewhat  brusque,  he 
certainly  never  was  churlish  or  repellent.  His  own  energy  had 
raised  him  to  a  leading  position  in  the  commercial  world  of 
Glasgow,  but  he  had  not  attained  that  position  without  experience 
of  the  hazards  of  business  risks.  His  voyage  had  not  all  been 
plain  sailing.  He  began  life  *  as  an  agricultural  workman  :  and 
I  remember  how  in  his  later  years  in  showing  my  mother  round 
the  grounds  at  Stracathro  he  was  tempted  in  the  threshing-yard 
to  try  a  fling  with  the  old-fashioned  flail.  The  result  was  rather 
disastrous  to  his  shoulders,  and  he  turned  with  a  smile  to  my 
mother,  and  remarked  that  the  time  did  not  seem  so  long  ago 

1  At Inchanoch. 


THE  TWO  BROTHERS  9 

since  he  had  spent  hours  in  wielding  the  flail  with  no  danger  of    CHAP. 
mishaps !  *• 

In  politics  Sir  James  was  a  Tory  of  the  old  school,  full  of  ^T.  1-32. 
memories  of  pre-reform  days,  and  of  the  old  Corporation  regime. 
But  whatever  he  thought  of  his  son  Henry's  politics,  he  was 
none  the  less  sincerely  proud  of  his  abilities  (which  were  fully 
recognised  in  the  University)  and  of  the  promise  of  his  Parlia- 
mentary career.  His  elder  son,  James  Alexander,  followed  more 
nearly  the  political  predilections  of  his  father,  although  in 
somewhat  modified  form,  and  more  suited  for  adaptation  to 
modern  ideas.  He  followed  his  father  also  in  his  more  complete 
absorption  in  Scottish  affairs,  which  can  hardly  be  said  to  have 
satisfied  the  more  comprehensive  ambition  and  the  wider  range 
of  his  brother  Henry.  The  two  brothers,  indeed,  although 
cordial  in  their  friendship  and  sympathetic  in  domestic  life, 
were  formed  in  strongly  contrasted  moulds.  Their  widely 
different  views  of  politics  and  their  fundamental  disagreement 
upon  almost  all  public  questions  did,  however,  keep  them 
asunder  in  many  ways.  Each  had  too  strong  a  brain  and  too 
firm  a  resolution  to  gloze  over  these  fundamental  differences,  as 
smaller  or  more  careless  men  might  have  done.  They  loved  and 
respected  one  another  :  but  each  disliked  the  opinions  of  the 
other.  This  difference  remained  as  strongly  marked  as  ever  to 
the  end  of  their  lives. 

in 

Sir  Henry  Craik  adds  that  from  his  early  years  Henry 
Campbell  had  a  very  distinct  idea  that  the  proper  object 
of  education  was  to  get  knowledge  of  the  world  rather 
than  knowledge  of  books.  If  so,  he  may  well  have  got  the 
inspiration  from  his  father,  whose  thoughts  lay  entirely  in 
the  same  direction.  Being  a  large  importer  of  foreign  goods 
with  correspondents  all  over  Europe,  Sir  James  Campbell 
believed  in  foreign  languages  and  saw  to  it  that  his  sons 
were  early  grounded  in  French.  Frequently  in  their  child- 
hood they  seem  to  have  accompanied  him  in  his  journeys 
in  France  ;  and  in  August  1850  he  took  Henry  from  school, 
a  week  before  his  fourteenth  birthday,  and  sent  him  with 
his  big  brother  James  (who  was  then  just  twenty-four)  and 
his  cousin  David  on  a  grand  tour  in  Europe.  Every  week, 
and  sometimes  twice  a  week,  during  this  tour,  Henry  wrote 


io  SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    long  and  careful  letters  home  to  his  sister  Louisa,  and  these 
L        she  dutifully  copied  into  two  large  copy-books  which  have 


1836-1868.  happily  survived.  A  few  years  hence  they  may  have  an 
interest  of  their  own  as  a  picture  of  the  old  Europe  which 
is  rapidly  fading  from  our  eyes.  But  their  value  for  present 
purposes  is  in  the  lively  picture  that  they  present  of  the 
Campbell  boys  and  their  doings. 

The  itinerary  of  the  party  was  laid  out  for  nearly  a  year's 
absence,  and  it  took  them  by  train,  diligence,  river,  steamer, 
and  post-chaise  through  France,  Switzerland,  Italy,  Sicily, 
and  back  through  Austria,  Germany,  Holland,  and  Belgium 
—  a  famous  tour  for  a  lad  of  fourteen.     We  may  guess  that 
there  was  business  in  it  as  well  as  pleasure  and  education, 
for  they  were  armed  with  letters  of  introduction  to  people 
who  appear  to  have  been  correspondents  of  the  Glasgow 
firm,  and  James  is  often  reported  to  be  out  on  business 
when  the  others  are  doing  their  lessons  or  taking  their 
pleasure.     '  James,'  says  Henry,  writing  from  Paris,  '  has 
gone  to  see  about  shawl-patterns  for  the  warehouse,  while 
David  and  I  go  to  the  review  at  the  Tuileries,'  and  the  next 
day  all  three  lads  sit  in  judgment  on  certain  '  papers  '  which 
James  has  brought  in  —  presumably  paper  patterns  —  and 
report  them  to  be  in  '  the  newest  fashion  and  approved  by 
all  of  us.'     But  whatever  James  may  be  doing,  Henry  is 
the  faithful  recorder.     He  tells  how  they  were  '  rather  ill  ' 
on  the  boat  in  which  they  came  over  with  '  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Charles   Kean,  the   great   stage-players,   and  with  Albert 
Smith,  the  great  writer  in  Punch  who  has  written  several 
small  books  '  ;  how  he  and  David  were  so  fatigued  with 
travelling  that  they  '  fell  fast  asleep  in  passing  through  the 
beauties  of  the   Boulevards/   but  in  spite   of  everything 
'  greatly  enjoyed  table  d'hote  at  Meurice's  Hotel/  where 
they  had  established  themselves,  and  '  went  afterwards  to 
Franconi's  and  were  very  much  pleased/     At  Notre-Dame 
he  finds  '  exactly  the  same  little  dwarf  woman  begging  that 
we  saw  in  1846,'  and  notes  that  nothing  is  altered  at  Ver- 
sailles,  where   they  feed   the   fishes   '  as   usual/     He  was 
evidently  at  the  age  of  fourteen  a  vieux  Parisien.     James 


A  GRAND  TOUR  IT 

and  another  James,  their  cousin  James  Bannerman,  who  CHAP. 
was  apparently  living  in  Paris  at  this  time,  being  late  in  \ 
keeping  an  appointment  on  the  Boulevard  with  the  younger  •(ET-  z"32' 
boys,  David  buys  sixteen  pairs  of  gloves  '  to  put  off  the 
time.'  The  short-lived  Republic  of  1850  is  still  in  being, 
and  Henry  notes  that  all  the  buildings  have  '  Liberte, 
Egalite,  Fraternite  '  written  on  them.  He  has  no  opinion 
of  the  National  Guards,  and  comments  severely  on  their 
lack  of  discipline  and  their  loose  habit  of  '  smoking  pipes 
all  the  time/  All  three  lads  are  very  careful  in  attending 
service  on  Sundays,  and  generally  go  twice  in  the  day,  once 
to  the  Scottish  church  and  once  to  the  English.  They  are 
good  Protestants,  and  James  takes  the  other  two  to  a 
meeting  on  behalf  of  Protestant  missions  in  France  where 
M.  Grandpierre  holds  forth.  '  Very  much  pleased  with 
what  we  understood,'  says  Henry,  '  but  he  spoke  rather  too 
fast  to  be  easily  followed  by  us.'  Two  nights  later  they 
attended  another  missionary  meeting  at  the  Oratoire. 

The  first  part  of  the  journey  from  Paris  was  in  '  the  coupe 
of  a  diligence  hoisted  on  to  a  railway  truck.'  At  the  railhead 
this  was  reattached  to  the  body  of  the  diligence,  which  went 
with  six  horses  to  Dijon.  Twenty-two  hours  in  another 
diligence  brought  them  to  Chalons,  whence  they  took 
steamer  down  the  Saone  to  Lyons — a  curious  hint  of  the 
mixed  methods  of  travelling  in  vogue  at  this  period.  '  We 
had  both  heard  and  read/  writes  Henry,  '  that  Lyons  was 
a  disagreeable  and  filthy  place,  but  it  is  anything  but  that. 
Of  course  it  is  a  continental  town  and  has  all  the  faults  of 
one,  but  it  has  many  beauties.  We  had  also  heard  that 
France  was  not  an  interesting  country,  but  we  all  were 
enchanted  with  it '  (and  he  remained  enchanted  with  it  to 
the  end  of  his  life).  He  devotes  many  pages  to  the  '  lions 
of  Lyons/  its  statues,  pictures,  and  '  noble  edifices/  and 
describes  the  devotions  to  the  newly  canonised  saint,  St. 
Empere,  explaining  how  indulgences  were  granted  to  those 
who  visited  his  shrine,  indulgences  meaning  '  that  any  one 
who  prayed  there  could  do  anything  he  liked  for  the  next 
300  days/ 


12   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.        Crossing  the  Jura  he  observes  peasants  with  immense 
•  straw  hats  with  small  crowns  threshing  corn  with  sticks  in 


•  the  open  air.  At  Geneva  the  party  announce  themselves 
'  owners  of  a  carriage  and  masters  of  a  coachman,'  and  in 
this  they  go  to  Zurich  where  they  see  '  steamers  building  for 
Gen.  Radetzky  to  keep  the  Italians  in  order.'  Church- 
going  is  faithfully  recorded  and  Henry  is  a  severe  critic  of 
sermons.  At  Geneva  '  the  clergyman  preached  a  very 
commonplace  sermon,  turning  it  at  last  into  a  beggar's 
petition  for  the  Church  funds.  So  disgusted  that  we  did 
not  go  back  in  the  evening.' 

Crossing  the  Alps  he  is  enchanted  with  the  Italian  Lakes, 
but  '  surprised  and  disappointed  with  Milan,'  the  streets 
being  '  nasty,  winding  and  narrow  like  the  back  streets  of 
Paris.'  The  Cathedral  is  admitted  to  be  fine,  and  in  spite 
of  their  zeal  for  Protestant  missions,  they  attend  High 
Mass  and  '  are  much  struck  by  it.'  The  letters  now  abound 
in  elaborate  descriptions  of  churches  and  pictures,  the 
latter  carefully  assigned  to  their  schools  and  none  of  im- 
portance missed.  Domestic  details  come  in  between,  and 
five  reasons  are  carefully  set  down  for  engaging  the  coach- 
man's cousin  as  valet  de  place — a  luxury  which  was  appa- 
rently outside  the  parental  scheme.  At  Milan  they  go  to 
the  Opera  and  see  '  Wilhelm  Tell  miserably  performed  by  a 
set  of  the  ugliest  men  and  women  conceivable.'  The  ballet, 
however,  is  admitted  to  be  '  very  good  indeed.' 

At  Verona  he  finds  out  the  Mantegna  of  the  Duomo  and 
goes  into  raptures  over  it,  but  he  is  depressed  by  the  '  dull 
sad  beauty  of  Venice  '  and  worn  out  by  three  days'  laborious 
sight-seeing.  Florence  casts  her  spell  over  him.  '  Firenze 
la  bella,'  he  exclaims,  '  bella  indeed ! '  There  for  a  fortnight 
in  the  Hotel  New  York  they  settle  down  to  see  everything, 
and  the  letters  become  a  complete  guide-book.  At  the 
Pitti  and  Uffizi  Galleries  he  makes  a  select  list  of  pictures, 
and,  if  he  fails  to  remember  them  after  he  gets  home,  goes 
back  the  next  day  to  refresh  his  memory.  At  Florence  he 
sees  Marshal  Radetzky  going  out  to  dinner  with  the  Austrian 
Ambassador — '  a  little  man  about  the  same  age  as  the 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  ITALY  13 

Duke  (of  Wellington)  but  much  stronger  and  more  active    CHAP. 
than  the  Duke.'     After  dinner  he  notices  a  '  great  Austrian 


lady  standing  on  a  terrace  before  the  Embassy  with  a  group     T<  I"32' 
of  officers  and  smoking  a  cigar  like  the  rest  of  them.' 

From  Florence  they  make  a  flying  visit  to  Rome,  pre- 
sumably to  engage  their  apartment  for  the  winter,  going 
by  sea  from  Leghorn  to  Civita  Vecchia  and  back  the  same 
way.  The  steamer  is  crowded  and  uncomfortable  and 
they  spend  all  night  on  deck.  Civita  Vecchia  makes  a 
painful  impression  on  them  and  is  said  to  have  a  '  popula- 
tion of  wild  beasts.'  Henry  looks  carefully  at  his  fellow- 
passengers  on  the  steamer  coming  back,  and  notes  '  an 
Irish  lieutenant  from  Garibaldi's  English  Legion,  a  son  of 
the  Duchesse  de  Berri,  bearing  a  letter  from  the  King  of 
Naples  to  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  a  diplomat  with  de- 
spatches for  the  Austrian  Government  and  some  officers  of 
Lamoriciere's  army.'  Reaching  Florence  again  they  pick 
up  their  post-chaise  and  horses,  and  start  in  leisurely 
fashion  overland  to  Rome.  In  a  delightfully  artless  way 
Henry  now  breaks  it  to  his  parents  that  they  have  an 
ambitious  plan  for  extending  their  journey.  '  Perhaps  you 
are  not  aware  that  we  hope  to  go  to  Naples,  Sicily,  Malta, 
and — Constantinople  and  back  to  Trieste  by  sea  !  '  In 
the  meantime  there  is  the  journey  through  Tuscany  and 
Umbria,  and  that  is  all  delightful  except  that  some  of  the 
towns  are  filthy  and  the  mosquitoes  are  beginning  to  be 
tiresome.  '  For  the  fleas  we  do  not  care — they  are  clean, 
spanking,  funny  little  things,  and  their  bite  does  not  inflame. 
But  the  mosquitoes  are  no  favourites.  They  are  smaller 
than  flies  and  larger  than  midges  ;  their  bite  swells  a  good 
deal  and  is  very  itchy.'  '  Commend  me,  as  James  says, 
to  Tuscany.  It  is  composed  of  hill  and  dale  very  much  ; 
a  very  moundy  and  beautiful  country,  and  reminds  me 
vastly  of  Piedmont.  The  colours  are  lovely — the  blue 
distances,  the  green  olives,  the  yellow  faded  leaves,  con- 
trasting with  the  white  sun  and  bright  sky.'  They  spend 
the  night  at  Passignano,  sail  out  on  the  Lake  of  Trasimene, 
and  make  out  the  plan  of  the  battle.  Here  they  pick  up  a 


14   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    boy,  aged  about  twelve,  the  sole  support  of  a  family  of  five, 

*•       who  comes  with  them  on  a  pony  which  he  '  bought  for  ten 

1836-1868.  scuc[i  ^d  is  wiHing  to  sell  for  20.'     Uphill  the  pony  is 

hitched  on  to  the  horses,  but  a  pair  of  bullocks  has  to  be 
added  to  get  them  up  to  Perugia.  The  one  drawback  he 
finds  in  that  city  is  the  ubiquity  of  Pietro  Perugino.  '  Wher- 
ever you  turn  you  find  Peter  Perugino,  and  the  worst  of  it 
is  that  the  most  of  his  works  are  stiff  and  not  very  pleasing.' 
But  the  city  is  '  the  most  picturesque  imaginable  and  its 
views  the  finest.'  Elaborate  accounts  follow  of  all  the 
towns  and  villages  they  pass,  Assisi,  Foligno,  Terni,  Civita 
Castellana,  Spoleto,  with  their  pictures,  churches,  and 
treasures,  and  nothing  mentioned  in  Murray's  Guide  appears 
to  have  been  overlooked.  At  Civita  Castellana  they  see 
the  French  Eagle,  symbol  of  the  protecting  power  of  the 
Papal  States,  and  a  little  later  spy  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's 
across  the  plain. 

'  Rome  is  very  like  Paris — not  at  all  old,  fusty,  black  and 
dirty,  but  new,  gay  and  sunny  ' — scarcely  the  expected 
impression  of  the  Eternal  City.  '  Oh !  I  thought  as  I 
approached  St.  Peter's,  it  is  far  too  small,  but  when  I  got 
up  to  it  I  changed  my  tune.  The  inside  is  altogether 
incomprehensible — one  cannot  imagine  so  large  a  building 
not  to  be  at  all  clumsy.'  Presently  he  divides  Rome  into 
old  and  new.  '  Old  Rome  is  like  Rome  and  nothing  else- 
New  Rome  is  like  Paris  or  anywhere  else.  French  soldiers 
and  priests  abound  in  all  quarters,  but  in  respect  of  in- 
habitants Rome  is  just  the  same  as  any  place  else.'  He 
has  a  keen  eye  for  the  different  types  of  ecclesiastic.  '  A 
cardinal  is  a  priest  with  a  red  cap  and  purple  cape  l  lolling 
in  a  carriage  drawn  by  horses  in  red  plumes,  driven  by  a 
coachman  with  a  cocked  hat  and  with  two  men  with  cocked 
hats  standing  up  behind.  A  Prelate  is  a  priest  with  purple 
clothes  and  stockings  walking,  with  a  cocked  hat  following.' 
The  party  are  now  settled  for  the  winter  in  an  apartment 
on  the  third  floor  of  No.  n  Via  della  Fontanella,  a  'small, 

1  Fifty  years  later  he  read  these  letters  again  and  put  in  little  corrections 
in  pencil.     Here  he  has  added,  '  and  red  stocmngs.' 


WINTERING  IN  ROME  15 

narrow,  dirty  street/  but  looking  out  on  to  the  Via  Babuino,    CHAP. 
which  is  bright  and  pleasant.     They  have   dining-room,         ' 


sitting-room,  four  bedrooms,  kitchen,  and  small  bedroom  T'  I"32' 
for  servant,  all  for  £11  a  month.  They  are  armed  with 
sheaves  of  introductions,  and  James  is  now  doing  business 
and  paying  calls  all  over  the  city.  A  Mr.  Austin  is  found 
to  teach  Henry  classics,  and  he  goes  to  his  house  between 
3.30  and  5  on  five  days  in  the  week.  On  other  days  Signer 
Rossi  comes  to  their  apartment  to  teach  them  Italian,  and 
M.  de  Vaux  to  teach  them  French.  The  boys  speak  highly 
of  their  preceptors,  and  Henry  reports  that  they  are  work- 
ing seriously.  But  they  remain  insatiable  sightseers,  and 
there  is  scarcely  a  church  or  a  monument  in  Rome  or  out- 
side the  walls  wThich  is  not  visited  and  reported  upon  in  the 
letters  home.  For  exercise  they  ride  in  the  Campagna  and 
do  not  hesitate  to  buy  horses,  the  tempers  and  characters 
of  which  are  elaborately  described. 

The  guide-book  perhaps  contributes  something  to  Henry's 
letters,  but  there  are  many  personal  touches,  especially  in 
the  descriptions  of  the  Christmas  ceremonials.  They  go  to 
Santa  Maria  Maggiore  on  Christmas  Eve  and  see  the  Pope 
(Pio  Nono)  '  borne  on  a  fine  chair  supported  on  two  poles 
carried  by  fourteen  men  in  red  and  very  finely  dressed  with 
the  splendid  jewelled  tiara  and  clothes  to  correspond.'  He 
is  '  a  kind  pleasant-looking  old  gentleman,  who  gave  the 
crowd  his  blessing  as  he  passed,  and  we  being  part  of  the 
crowd  got  some  of  it  of  course.'  On  Christmas  Day  they 
went  in  dress  coats  to  High  Pontifical  Mass  at  St.  Peter's, 
and  '  got  a  splendid  position  quite  near  the  Pope.'  He  has 
a  bodyguard  of  '  Italian  Counts  '  dressed  in  '  frills,  cloaks, 
knee-breeches,  and  long  swords,  just  like  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
James  i.,  and  all  that  set.'  The  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem  is 
there,  but  he  is  seen  '  blowing  his  nose  with  a  dirty,  dark- 
coloured,  common  pocket-handkerchief  at  the  most  solemn 
moment.'  The  finest  Cardinal  is  AntoneUi,  '  a  good- 
looking  young  man.'  The  boy  concludes  that  it  is  all  '  very 
fine,  but  not  a  particle  of  devotion  in  it  '  —  which  possibly 
reassured  his  Protestant  parents. 


16   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.        So  the  days  pass  till  the  Carnival,  which  he  thinks  a  very 
pinchbeck  affair.     By  this  time  the  programme  is  revised 


1836-1868.  ancj  Constantinople  cut  out,  but  Naples  and  Sicily  remain, 
and  soon  after  Easter  they  are  again  in  their  post-chaise 
taking  the  road  over  the  Pontine  marshes,  which,  as  he 
tells  his  sister,  runs  quite  straight  for  twenty -five  miles, 
'  as  much  as  from  Glasgow  to  Greenock  and  more.'  They 
visit  Lake  Albano  and  Lake  Nemi,  stop  at  Felletri,  which 
is  '  filthy  in  the  extreme/  and  at  Fondi,  which  is  '  infamously 
dirty.'  There  are  rumours  of  brigands,  especially  the 
notorious  Fra  Diavolo,  and  the  boys  are  a  little  disappointed 
that  there  is  no  adventure  to  report.  Henry  is  troubled  at 
having  no  papers  from  home,  and  complains  that  he  has 
no  idea  '  what  the  Government  is  doing/  but  newspapers, 
and  all  printed  documents,  especially  in  a  foreign  language, 
were  greatly  suspect  in  these  times  in  Italy,  and  it  was  by 
no  means  to  be  taken  for  granted  that,  when  posted,  they 
would  be  delivered.  At  the  Naples  frontier  the  party  is 
held  up  and  searched  by  the  customs  officials,  wrho  go 
through  their  books  and  insist  on  burning  '  one  of  James's 
harmless  constitutionalisms/  Still,  they  are  delighted  with 
Naples  and  have  the  good  fortune  to  run  into  a  first-class 
royal  funeral — that  of  the  Prince  of  Salerno,  uncle  of  the 
King — which  Henry  carefully  reports.  The  procession  is 
very  fine,  but  '  the  officers  of  the  Noble  Guard — most  of 
them  raw  beardless  youths — fluttered  about,  and  such  a  set 
of  foppish,  unwarlike  fellows,  who  seemed  to  think  that 
wearing  fine  clothes  and  strutting  was  all  they  had  to  do 
(probably  it  is),  never  was  imagined/  This  '  little  King/ 
he  adds,  '  with  his  little  kingdom  has  no  less  than  100,000 
soldiers,  of  which  about  12,000  are  Swiss.  The  Neapolitan 
troops  are  famous  for  appearance  and  manner,  but  there 
is  a  slur  on  their  name  with  regard  to  the  great  essential  of 
a  good  soldier  which  it  will  be  very  difficult  for  them  to 
get  rid  of/  From  Naples  they  ascend  Vesuvius  and 
visit  Pompeii,  which  makes  a  new  and  deep  impression 
on  his  mind.  He  thinks  the  frescoes  in  the  house  of 
Sallust  would  '  outweigh  in  merit  the  same  number  of 


JAMES   McORAN  CAMPBELL  (1752-1831) 

\\'HO   SETTLED    IN    GLASGOW    IN    1805 
CJKAM)!  A  I  111  K    OK    SlR    HENKY   CAM  I'liELL-P.ANNEKM  AN 

{Photograph  <y  Oil  Painting) 


>-  -' 


A  THIRST  FOR  KNOWLEDGE  17 

Cowpers,  Wouvermans,  and  Ostades'  —  a  singular  comparison    CHAP. 
for  a  boy  of  fourteen.     The  next  stage  is  by  sea  from  Reggio        \' 


to  Palermo,  followed  by  a  short  tour  in  Sicily,  which  is  ^T<  I"32- 
faithfully  recorded  but  more  in  the  guide-book  manner. 
The  Vault  of  the  Capucines  makes  him  shiver.  '  Masses  of 
bones  are  there  :  the  ceiling  ornamented  with  Arabesques 
in  bones  ;  lanterns  of  bones  ;  brackets  in  the  walls  of 
bones  ;  all  bones,  bones,  bones.  Horrid.'  James  had  a 
long  conversation  with  a  monk  on  the  two  faiths,  but  to 
what  effect  is  not  reported. 

The  effort  at  recording  flags  a  little  as  the  months  pass 
and  the  unending  diorama  unfolds.  After  France  and 
Italy  come  Austria,  Germany,  Belgium,  and  Holland.  He 
was  delighted  (and  never  ceased  to  be  delighted)  with 
Vienna,  where  they  went  to  a  Bier  Halle  at  the  other  end 
of  the  town  and  heard  'the  famous  musician,  J.  Strauss, 
play  all  the  evening  and  enjoyed  it  vastly.'  Prague  came 
next  and  astonished  them  with  a  new  kind  of  picturesque- 
ness  ;  then  Berlin,  which  they  '  greatly  admire.'  There 
they  saw  the  King  unveil  a  statue  of  Frederic  the  Great, 
surrounded  by  veterans  —  one  of  them  106  years  old  — 
who  had  '  served  Frederic  in  many  of  his  battles.'  At 
Dresden  they  find  out  the  house  '  where  father,  mother,  and 
James  lived,'  and  James  returning  to  the  place  '  thinks  it 
looks  very  small.'  On  the  way  to  Brussels  they  visit  the 
field  of  Waterloo  and  reconstruct  the  battle  with  their 
usual  care.  Flying  visits  to  Rotterdam,  Amsterdam,  and 
Antwerp  complete  their  journey,  and  then  they  return  by 
sea  to  London  to  visit  the  great  Exhibition,  which  '  sur- 
passes anything  we  expected.' 

The  writer  of  these  letters  was  clearly  no  ordinary  boy. 
He  is  old  for  his  years,  with  a  thirst  for  knowledge  and  a 
quiet  determination  to  make  the  most  of  every  hour.  He 
has  evidently  been  well  trained,  whether  at  home  or  school, 
for  he  is  admirably  methodical,  and  when  he  embarks  on  a 
narrative  sets  it  out  in  excellent  order.  He  seldom  bubbles 
over,  but  absorbs  with  quiet  appreciation,  lit  up  with 
little  touches  of  humour.  Yet  his  eyes  are  wide  open  to 

VOL.  I.  B 


18  SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    everything  that  he  sees,  and  he  is  curious  about  all  sorts  of 
people  and  their  ways.     Few  boys  of  fourteen  either  in  those 


1836-1868.  ^ayS  or  these  have  had  such  an  adventure,  and  it  cannot 
have  been  quite  easy  to  settle  down  after  it  at  Bath  Street, 
and  the  High  School  at  Glasgow. 


IV 

Beyond  the  bare  facts  that  he  passed  from  the  High 
School  to  Glasgow  University  in  the  year  1851,  and  that 
he  won  the  Cowan  Gold  Medal  for  Greek  in  the  University 
in  1853  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  there  are  no  traces  of  the 
next  few  years.  The  gold  medal  was  no  mean  distinction  ; 
the  list  of  medallists  include  the  names  of  many  men 
eminent  in  after  life,  among  them  Lord  Sandford,  James 
Bryce,  Sir  John  Cheyne,  Professor  W.  Y.  Sellar,  and  Sir 
Henry  Craik.  His  scholarship,  which  was  highly  promising 
at  this  time  and  remained  with  him  to  the  end  of  his  life  in 
a  surprising  facility  for  quotation  from  Latin  and  Greek 
authors,  seems  to  have  suffered  a  decline  after  this  effort. 
Sir  J.  H.  Graham  of  Larbert,  who  was  with  him  at  Glasgow 
University,  remembers  him  '  as  rather  reserved  and  not 
joining  in  sports/  and  adds  that  though  '  he  did  not  appear 
to  be  a  hard  worker  or  much  interested  in  the  routine  of 
the  class,  he  was  "  aye  ready  and  all  there  "  in  oral  and 
written  examinations.' 

He  went  on  to  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  in  1854  without 
stopping  to  take  a  degree  at  Glasgow,1  and  there  he  took  up 
mathematics  and  obtained  a  respectable  degree  as  Senior 
Optime  in  the  Mathematical  Tripos  of  1858,  but  was  only 
placed  in  the  third  class  of  the  Classical  Tripos — a  very  inade- 
quate achievement  for  a  Cowan  Gold  Medallist.  Bracketed 
with  him  as  20th  Senior  Optime  was  Lord  Frederick  Caven- 
dish who  was  assassinated  in  the  Phcenix  Park  in  1881,  but 
there  is  no  evidence  that  the  two  men  ever  met  as  under- 
graduates. Samuel  Butler,  the  author  of  Erewhon,  was  in 

1  He  received  the  Honorary  Degree  of  LL.D.  from  Glasgow  University 
in  1883. 


AT  CAMBRIDGE  19 

the  first  class  of  the  Classical  Tripos  this  year.    Of  the  young    CHAP. 
Campbell's  undergraduate  career  almost  the  only  memories        *' 


are  those  of  Bishop  Browne  (formerly  Bishop  of  Bristol),  who  " 
was  at  Trinity  with  him  and  whom  even  in  these  days  he 
was  in  the  habit  of  calling  '  Browne  Episcopus.'  They 
played  whist  together,  and  Bishop  Browne  remembers  him 
as  agreeable  and  companionable  but  not  specially  distin- 
guished. His  rooms  in  Trinity  were  on  the  first  floor  of 
the  old  Court  between  the  Queen's  Gate  and  the  kitchen 
and  Combination  Room.  The  sitting-room  had  two  big 
windows  looking  north  to  King  Edward's  Gate  and  the 
Chapel,  with  the  fountain  in  the  foreground  and  the  great 
gateway  of  the  College  at  the  north-east  corner — as  delightful 
a  prospect  as  may  be  had  from  an  undergraduate's  rooms  in 
Cambridge.  The  bedroom  was  diminutive  but  also  looked 
into  the  great  Court.  There  is  a  Glasgow  tradition  that 

s  the  young  Campbell  was  already  a  Liberal  when  he  went 
up  to  Cambridge,  but  there  is  no  evidence  on  this 
point.  Mr.  Oscar  Browning  remembers  meeting  him  after 
he  had  taken  his  degree  in  the  rooms  of  Howard  (afterwards 
Sir  Howard)  Elphinstone,  a  Fellow  of  Trinity,  and  recalls 
him  as  a  '  strong,  hearty,  sensible  Scotchman,  intelligent 
but  not  prominent  in  conversation,  popular  but  not  much 
known.'  One  evening  Elphinstone  had  a  new  microscope 
and  wanted  to  examine  some  human  blood  ;  no  one  would 
supply  any  but  Campbell,  who  quickly  bared  his  arm. 

When  he  became  Prime  Minister,  correspondents  wrote 
from  country  vicarages  to  remind  him  that  they  had  been 
undergraduates  together,  and  this  may  give  a  hint  of  the 
kind  of  friends  he  made.  He  was  certainly  not  one  of  the 
academically  brilliant  and  ambitious  young  men,  shining 
lights  of  the  Union  or  the  College  Debating  Societies,  \vhom 

,  their  contemporaries  acclaim  as  budding  statesmen.  He  lived 
quietly,  made  no  splash  with  his  money,  and  went  his  own 
way  with  a  small  circle  of  his  own  friends.  One  of  his  first 
speeches  when  he  was  elected  to  Parliament  was  on  Uni- 
versity Tests,  and  there  is  a  note  of  rather  caustic  humour 
in  it  about  the  alleged  virtues  of  a  University  Education. 


20  SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    It  is  evident  that  he  came  away  without  any  exaggerated 
respect  for  his  teachers  or  exalted  opinion  of  the  ancient 


1836-1868.  universities  as  seats  of  learning,  though  he  conceded  them 
a  certain  merit  as  schools  of  manners.1 

On  leaving  Cambridge  in  1858  he  returned  to  Glasgow 
and  went  at  once  into  the  firm  of  J.  and  W.  Campbell,  of 
which  he  became  a  partner  in  1860.  Tradition  says  that 
he  was  put  into  the  Canadian  department,  but  that  he  did 
very  little  work  in  this  or  in  any  other  branch  of  the  busi- 
ness. He  had  none  of  his  elder  brother's  energy  or  interest 
in  business,  and  neither  his  father  nor  his  brother  appears 
to  have  put  any  pressure  on  him.  He  was  the  Benjamin  of 
the  family  ;  the  firm  was  abundantly  prosperous,  and  the 
other  partners  were  quite  equal  to  the  demands  on  them. 
He  had  had  an  exceptional  education,  and  was  scarcely 
expected  to  settle  down  to  the  ordinary  routine.  Of  this 
indulgence  he  seems  to  have  taken  full  advantage  and  in 
these  years  he  earned  the  reputation  for  indolence  which 
followed  him — rather  unjustly — in  after  life.  But  under 
this  outward  appearance  he  was  doing  rather  important 
things.  He  was  reading  quite  dangerous  authors  like  Darwin 
and  Herbert  Spencer.  He  was  thinking  out  things  and 
coming  to  conclusions  rather  different  from  those  of  his 
father  and  his  brother.  During  the  hours  when  he  was 
supposed  to  be  engaged  with  the  Canadian  correspondence, 
he  was  often  at  the  counter  of  one  Daniel  Lawson,2  a  man 
of  original  character  who  also  read  strange  books  and  talked 
Radical  and  Chartist  politics.  The  two  had  long,  earnest, 

1  See  infra,  pp.  35  and  36. 

*  In  1906,  when  he  was  Prime  Minister,  he  was  asked  by  Dr.  David 
Murray  of  Glasgow  to  sign  an  application  for  a  pension  for  Miss  Lawson, 
sister  of  Daniel  Lawson,  and  he  replied  : — 

BELMONT  CASTLE,  MEIGLE, 
\7th  Jan.  '06. 

DEAR  SIR, — I  have  signed  Miss  Lawson's  application  with  the  greatest 
willingness. 

Dan  Lawson  was  for  many  years  one  of  my  most  intimate  friends,  and 
I  had  a  warm  affection  and  respect  for  him,  and  I  owe  a  great  deal  to  his 
stimulating  and  illuminating  companionship.  I  hope  the  pension  will  be 
allowed. — Yours  very  truly,  H.  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN. 


. 


IN  BUSINESS  21 

and  stubborn  talks,  and  it  was  whispered  that '  old  Daniel '    CHAP. 
was  getting  great  influence  over  Mr.  Henry.    In  truth,  he  was  v_     l' 


rapidly  becoming  a  Radical,  not  a  Whig  or  Palmerstonian,  "ET- I'32* 
but  a  really  advanced  politician  who  was  not  at  all  content 
with  a  Rest-and-be-thankful  Whig  Government.  He  had 
sympathisers  in  his  uncle,  William  Campbell,  and  his  cousin 
James,  the  son  of  William  ;  and  his  father  seems  to  have 
been  quite  benevolent  about  it.  On  his  side  he  valued  and 
was  grateful  for  this  forbearance,  and  was  careful  not  to 
air  his  politics  in  Glasgow  or  to  take  any  part  which  could 
bring  him  into  collision  with  his  family  in  their  native  city. 
But  he  was  none  the  less  gradually  making  up  his  mind  to 
quit  business  for  politics,  and  when  opportunity  offered, 
to  seek  a  seat  in  Parliament  for  a  Scottish  constituency 
sufficiently  remote  from  Glasgow  to  save  the  appearance 
of  challenge  to  his  father  and  brother. 

Though  not  active  in  business  he  was  useful  to  the  firm 
in  many  ways  and  on  excellent  terms  with  the  employees. 
He  was  an  ardent  volunteer  and  served  first  as  Lieutenant, 
and  then,  in  succession  to  his  brother  James,  as  Captain  of 
the  M  Company  of  the  ist  Lanarkshire  Rifle  Volunteers, 
which  was  recruited  entirely  from  men  in  the  employ  of 
J.  and  W.  Campbell  and  drilled  in  one  of  its  warehouses. 
He  commanded  this  company  at  the  Royal  Review  by 
the  Queen  in  Edinburgh  in  1860,  not,  as  he  freely  acknow- 
ledged, without  a  certain  anxiety,  which  was  happily  belied 
by  the  result.  More  than  thirty  years  later,  when  he  was 
Secretary  for  War,  he  attended  the  annual  gathering  of  his 
old  Corps  and  spoke  humorously  of  the  hardships  and 
difficulties  it  had  to  contend  with  in  early  days,  recalling 
'  frequent  occasions  when  he  was  made  to  tramp  about  a 
plot  of  ground  in  Burnbank,  which  was  miscalled  a  field, 
and  which  was  covered  with  something  which  they  fondly 
imagined  to  be  grass,  but  did  not  always  present  the  appear- 
ance of  that  natural  product.'  He  added  that  when  it 
came  to  his  turn  to  be  initiated  into  the  elementary  mys- 
teries of  judging  distance  drill,  he  was  '  sent  to  what  was 
then  the  rustic  solitude  of  the  Great  Western  Road.'  He 


22  SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    is  described  as  at  this  time  a  smart  and  well-dressed  young 

*•       man  who  wore  an  eye-glass  and  looked  quite  military  in 
1836-1868.  uniform_ 

In  1860,  at  the  wedding  of  his  brother  James,  at  which 
she  was  one  of  the  bridesmaids,  he  first  met  his  future 
wife,    Charlotte,    daughter   of   Major-General    Sir   Charles 
Bruce,  then  commanding  the  forces  at  Edinburgh.     It  was 
a  case  of  love  at  first  sight,  and  after  a  brief  engagement 
they   were    married    in    September    of    the    same   year. 
To  the  end  of  his  days  he  regarded  this  as  the  happiest 
of  all  events  in  his  calendar,  and  from  this  time  forward 
there  was  no  doubt  as  to  the  greatest  preoccupation  in 
his   life.      Both   he    and   she   had  strong   characters   and 
pretty  stubborn  wills,  which  might  easily  have  clashed  but 
for  the   deep  mutual  understanding  and  affection  which 
held  them  together.     From  the  beginning  to  the  end  he 
was  wholly  devoted  to  her,  and  she  to  him,  and  the  fact 
that  they  had  no  children  made  them  the  more  dependent 
on  each  other.     They  were  so  much  together  that  they 
seldom  had  occasion  to  correspond,  and  with  the  excep- 
tion of  one  batch  of  his  letters  to  her,  written  when  he  was 
Minister  in  Attendance  at  Balmoral   (1892-94),  no  letters 
between  them  have  survived.     How  great  a  part  she  was 
of  his  life  will  appear  as  this  biography  proceeds.     She  was 
not  naturally  a  politician,  but  she  was  a  shrewd  judge  of 
character,  and  whenever  the  personal  element  entered  in, 
she  held  and  expressed  very  decided  opinions.     She  resented 
an  injury  to  him  more  than  he  did  himself,  and  was  often 
on  guard  against  what  she  considered  to  be  his  easy-going 
disposition  and  his  readiness  to  believe  what  specious  and 
plausible  people  said  to  him.     No  man  could  have  had  a 
more  loyal  wife  ;  and  her  determination  that  he  should  not 
be  deprived  of  any  just  reward  undoubtedly  supplied  some- 
thing that  was  lacking  in  his  unambitious  temperament.. 
Her  prolonged  ill-health  was  the  one  cloud  upon  their  later 
married  life,  and  questions  of  health,  on  which  they  were 
mutually  solicitous  for  each  other,  inevitably  played  a  large 
part  in  their  existence, 


MARRIAGE  AND  LIFE  IN  GLASGOW     23 

After  his  marriage  he  took  a  house  at  6  Claremont  Gardens,  CHAP. 
Glasgow,  and  with  his  wife  mingled  freely  in  Glasgow  society.  ^__^ — 
Among  the  few  who  can  recall  them  in  these  days  there  ^'r' I"32- 
is  agreement  that  they  were  quiet  and  unassuming  people, 
who  kept  their  opinions  to  themselves  and  were  on  the 
best  of  terms  with  their  family  and  relations.  Then,  as 
later,  his  ruling  passion  was  for  European  travel,  and  nearly 
every  year  they  spent  six  weeks  abroad  journeying  through 
France,  Switzerland,  Italy,  or  Spain,  one  or  other  of  them 
keeping  conscientious  diaries  as  they  went.  Their  wedding 
journey  (September  1860)  was  over  almost  exactly  the  same 
ground  that  he  had  travelled  in  his  boyish  tour  ten  years 
earlier — through  Switzerland,  over  the  Simplon  to  the 
Italian  Lakes,  Milan,  Venice,  Genoa,  Pisa,  Florence,  by  sea 
from  Leghorn  to  Civita  Vecchia  and  Rome.  Later  they 
galloped  through  Normandy,  Brittany,  and  the  Loire  in  a 
breathless  month,  and  in  1864  they  traversed  Spain  from 
north  to  south,  and  went  by  sea  from  Cadiz  to  Malaga, 
passing  Gibraltar  on  the  voyage.  To  the  leisurely  tourist 
there  could  scarcely  be  more  exhausting  itineraries  than 
these  diaries  present.  They  came,  they  saw,  and  they  went, 
missing  no  city,  museum,  cathedral,  picture-gallery,  castle, 
or  ancient  monument  that  is  starred  in  a  guide-book ; 
sleeping  in  rough  inns,  getting  up  at  five  in  the  morning  to 
catch  diligences  which  took  them  for  ten  hours  over  rough 
roads,  moving  rapidly  according  to  plan,  until  the  whole 
was  accomplished.  Almost  invariably  against  every  inn 
or  hotel  he  puts  a  note  to  say  whether  the  dinner  was  good 
or  bad,  or  the  wine  drinkable  or  the  reverse  ('  wine  at 
Burgos  savouring  of  the  pig-skins  in  which  it  is  kept ').  The 
diaries  are  brief  and  methodical,  but  no  authority  prevents 
him  from  saying  that  the  most  admired  things  are  ugly,  if 
they  seem  so  to  him.  Evidently  both  he  and  she  took 
enormous  pleasure  in  these  journeys,  and  he  was  storing 
up  that  curious  and  intimate  knowledge  of  foreign  countries 
which  made  him  in  after  days  one  of  the  most  European  of 
British  public  men. 

During  these  years  he  kept  up  a  regular  correspondence 


24   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    with  his  wife's  uncle,  General  Sir  H.  Bruce,  who  was  then 
*        serving  in  India,  and  though  his  own  letters  have  not  sur- 


1836-1868.  vjyed  we  may  gather  the  gist  of  them  from  the  General's 
replies,  which  he  carefully  preserved.  The  two  appear  to 
have  kept  up  a  serious  debate  upon  Indian  policy,  the 
Schleswig-Holstein  affair,  the  American  Civil  War,  army 
and  navy  expenditure,  and  various  burning  questions  of 
home  politics.  It  is  evident  that  the  nephew  sympathised 
with  the  North  in  the  American  Civil  War,  for  the  uncle 
enters  into  a  long  argument  refuting  this  heresy  and  proving 
it  to  be  a  total  impossibility  that  '  the  Yankees  '  should  win. 
At  another  time  he  rebukes  him  for  speaking  of  '  the  enor- 
mous expenditure  on  armaments  '  and  deprecates  Radical 
illusions  about  the  fighting  services. 

Incidentally  this  correspondence  affords  evidence  that 
Henry  Campbell  was  a  careful  student  of  blue-books  and 
public  papers  ;  some  of  which  he  sent  out  to  his  uncle,  and 
from  others  of  which  he  seems  to  have  made  copious  extracts. 
Evidently  in  these  years  he  was  taking  his  politics  seriously, 
and  his  friends  could  have  had  no  doubt  about  the  drift  of 
his  thoughts. 


CHAPTER  II 
CANDIDATE  AND  M.P. 

I  Candidature  for  the  Stirling  Burghs — A  Raid  on  Officialism — 
Campbellites  and  Ramsayites— The  Spring  Election — A 
certain  Liveliness — The  Autumn  Election — A  Triumphant 
Return — Compliments  in  Glasgow — The  Member  and  his 
Constituents. 

EARLY  in  March  1868  Laurence  Oliphant,  then  CHAP. 
member  for  Stirling  Burghs,  surprised  the  Liberal  "' 
f  Whips  by  applying  for  the  Chiltern  Hundreds. 
That  brilliant  and  wayward  man  of  letters  had  strayed  into 
politics  as  into  many  other  walks  of  life,  and  though  he  had 
not  distinguished  himself  in  the  House  of  Commons,  his 
constituents  had  been  proud  of  him  and  were  reluctant  to 
part  with  him.  As  afterwards  appeared,  he  was  taking 
the  first  step  on  the  road  which  led  him  into  the  camp  of 
the  prophet  Harris,  and  no  persuasion  availed  to  move  him 
from  his  decision,  or  even  to  induce  him  to  hold  on  for  the 
few  months  till  the  Parliament  expired.  The  Burghs  now 
found  themselves  under  the  necessity  of  submitting  to  two 
elections  within  a  few  months,  one  a  by-election  in  April 
under  the  old  franchise,  and  the  other  at  the  General  Election, 
which  was  due  in  the  autumn,  under  the  new  household 
suffrage. 

The  constituency  was  supposed  to  be  Whig  or  moderate 
Liberal,  and  for  many  years  after  the  Reform  Bill  it  had 
been  represented  by  Lord  Dalmeny  (father  of  the  present 
Earl  of  Rosebery),  the  heckling  of  whom  by  the  advanced 
Radicals  is  still  a  memory  in  Dunfermline.  When  the 
vacancy  arose,  the  seat  was  assigned  at  Party  headquarters 
to  Mr.  John  Ramsay  of  Kildalton,  a  rich  distiller  and  an 
influential  citizen  of  Glasgow,  where  he  had  earned  himself 
a  good  name  both  in  business  and  philanthropy.  In  1865 


26   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    he  had  stood  as  a  '  moderate  Liberal '  or  '  Liberal-Conserva- 
"; ,  tive  '  for  Glasgow,  and  though  beaten  by  both  Whig  and 


1868.  Radical  in  the  contest  for  the  two  seats,  he  was  thought  to 
have  acquitted  himself  well,  and  was  supposed  to  have 
advanced  in  his  political  views  during  the  subsequent  three 
years.  In  particular  as  a  Free  Churchman  who  had  taken  a 
prominent  part  in  the  Church  Union  movement,  he  had  the 
blessing  of  the  Free  and  United  Presbyterian  Churches  of 
Glasgow,  and  carried  with  him  their  warm  recommendation 
to  the  ministers  of  these  Churches  in  the  Burghs.  With 
this  combined  religious  and  political  backing,  he  was  ex- 
pected to  have  a  walk-over  at  the  by-election  and  to  establish 
his  claim  to  an  unopposed  return  at  the  General  Election. 

Suddenly  a  young  man — also  from  Glasgow — brought 
confusion  to  these  plans.  To  the  astonishment  of  every- 
body, Henry  Campbell,  son  of  a  famous  Glasgow  Tory,  and 
otherwise  altogether  unknown  in  politics,  presented  himself 
on  the  scene  and  announced  his  intention  of  challenging 
the  official  candidate  on  an  advanced  Liberal  platform. 
Whether  the  impulse  came  from  Glasgow  friends  who  knew 
his  politics  and  saw  the  opening,  or  from  Dunfermline, 
with  which  the  firm  of  J.  and  W.  Campbell  did  a  consider- 
able business,  can  only  be  guessed.  In  either  case  Mr. 
Campbell  knew  all  about  Mr.  Ramsay  of  Kildalton  and 
was  quite  definitely  of  opinion  that  he  was  not  a  good  enough 
Liberal  for  the  Stirling  Burghs.  So  descending  there  with 
a  shrewd  Glasgow  lawyer,  Mr.  Gordon  Smith,  as  his  agent, 
he  immediately  and  without  invitation  or  organisation 
issued  his  address  to  '  the  electors  and  non-electors/  clearly 
not  forgetting  that  a  large  number  of  the  latter  would  join 
the  ranks  of  the  former  before  the  year  was  out. 

His  programme  comprised  what  was  in  those  days  the 
full  Radical  creed,  household  suffrage  for  counties  as  well 
as  towns  ;  national  and  compulsory  education  ;  religious 
equality  and  its  corollary,  disestablishment ;  self-govern- 
ment for  the  counties ;  direct  popular  control  of  licences  ; 
land-reform  by  the  abolition  of  entail  and  primogeniture 
and  a  simplified  form  of  land-transfer  ;  and  in  foreign  affairs 


STANDING  FOR  PARLIAMENT  27 

a  strong  dose  of  Manchesterism  to  correct  Palmerstonian    CHAP. 
jingoism.     His  meetings  were  a  great  success,  especially 


with  the  '  non-electors/  who  cheered  his  speeches  to  the  echo.  /ET-  32- 
But  they  proved  too  strong  meat  for  the  select  company 
of  electors,  and  when  the  poll  was  declared,  Ramsay  had 
565  votes  to  Campbell's  494. x  Up  to  this  point  all  had 
been  good  tempered,  and  the  Ramsayites  had  generally 
contented  themselves  with  smiling  at  the  pretensions  of 
the  young  Radical.  But  after  the  poll,  there  was  a  row 
royal  in  Dunfermline.  It  was  evident  that  the  beaten 
cause  was  the  popular  cause,  and  when  Ramsay  sympa- 
thisers locked  the  town-house  in  the  face  of  the  defeated 
candidate  and  refused  him  permission  to  speak  from  a 
window  to  the  crowd  below,  there  was  liveliness  and  bitter- 
ness between  the  two  factions,  and  the  question  '  who  took 
the  Key  '  became  a  serious  issue  in  municipal  politics. 
Henry  Campbell  \vas  not  in  the  least  put  out  by  the  result. 
He  was  looking  beyond  this  election  to  the  next  and  was 
well  satisfied  to  have  established  his  claim  and  won  the 
bulk  of  the  '  non-electors.'  His  speech  after  the  declara- 
tion of  the  poll  dealt  largely  with  foreign  affairs  and  sug- 
gests that  his  opponent  had  defended  a  spirited  foreign 
policy.  A  passage  of  it  is  worth  quoting  :— 

There  are  many  who  croak  that  the  decadence  of  the  Empire 
has  commenced.  I  am  no  believer  in  anything  of  that  sort. 
If  the  glory  of  this  country  is  founded  on  foreign  aggression,  if 
it  is  supported  by  military  force,  if  it  be  dependent  on  our  power 
of  extorting  unwilling  allegiance  from  members  of  our  race  in 
distant  quarters  of  the  globe — if  all  this  is  to  be  glory  that  is  to 
attach  to  a  Christian  nation  like  this — if  this  is  the  glory,  I  rejoice 

1  In  a  note  written  shortly  before  his  death,  the  late  Sir  William 
Robertson,  for  fourteen  years  Chairman  of  the  Dunfermline  Liberal 
Association,  recorded  one  picturesque  feature  of  these  pre-ballot  elections. 
In  order  to  prevent  doubtful  voters  from  being  captured  by  the  other 
side,  it  was  the  custom  of  both  parties  to  gather  as  many  of  these  as  possible 
the  night  before  the  election  and  to  keep  them  throughout  the  night  in 
halls  where  abundant  entertainment  was  provided.  Then  in  the  morning 
they  were  marched  to  the  polling  booth,  each  between  two  stalwarts,  who 
conducted  them  to  the  polling  clerk  and  made  sure  that  they  declared 
themselves  for  the  right  candidate. 


28   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,  that  it  is  passing  away.  I  am  not  sneering  at  all  at  the  past 
11  •  history  of  our  country,  I  am  aware  that  in  the  past  we  have 
1868.  acted  according  to  the  spirit  of  the  age  and  we  have  shown  our- 
selves equal  to  any  other  nation.  But  let  us  not  revert  to  that 
state  of  things  ;  let  us  not  go  back  instead  of  forward.  Let  us 
rather  show  other  nations  a  more  excellent  way ;  let  us  set 
ourselves  to  encourage  a  brotherly,  friendly,  generous  spirit 
among  the  nations,  and  at  home  let  us  apply  ourselves  to  the 
reduction  of  that  jealousy  and  distrust  which  at  present  exist, 
and  to  the  promotion  of  a  more  friendly  spirit  among  all  classes  ; 
and  let  us  above  all  attack  the  tremendous  task  that  we  have 
before  us  in  the  conquering  of  the  monster  of  ignorance  and  vice 
which  exists  amongst  us. 

Within  two  days  he  accepted  an  invitation  to  stand  again 
and  now  devoted  himself  unsparingly  to  strengthening  his 
hold  before  the  General  Election.  From  this  time  onward 
he  had  a  local  agent,  Mr.  Alexander  Macbeth,  and  was 
supported  by  an  active  and  zealous  committee  which 
regularised  his  position. 

ii 

When  the  autumn  election  came  Campbellites  and 
Ramsayites  put  off  the  gloves  and  pummelled  each  other 
in  good  earnest.  It  was  alleged  against  the  sitting  member, 
whose  aversion  to  draughts  was  well  known,  that  the  only 
speech  he  made  at  Westminster  during  his  brief  sojourn 
there  was,  '  I  '11  thank  ye  to  shut  that  window.'  It  was 
retorted  upon  the  Radical  candidate  that,  being  a  son  of 
Sir  James  Campbell,  he  was  a  '  Tory  in  disguise  ' — a  more 
insidious  way  of  countering  his  opinions  with  the  new 
electorate  than  a  frontal  attack  on  them.  To  this  he  had 
a  spirited  answer  : — 

Now  some  of  my  kind  friends  in  the  crowd  say  I  'm  a  Tory. 
Well,  my  father  is  a  Tory  and  I  am  proud  of  him,  and  my  brother 
is  a  Tory  and  I  am  not  ashamed  of  him.  My  father  is,  as  you 
all  well  know,  because  you  have  been  told  it,  chairman  to  the 
Tory  candidate  for  Glasgow,  and  my  brother  is  chairman  of  the 
Lord  Advocate's  Committee  of  the  Glasgow  University.  There- 
fore, they  say  I  am  a  Tory.  I  should  like  to  see  the  man  who 
would  come  to  my  face  and  tell  me  that.  All  I  can  say  is  this, 


CAPTURING  THE  STIRLING  BURGHS    29 

that  if  I  am  a  Tory  in  disguise,  I  would  be  unfit  for  my  position,    CHAP. 
but  in  proof  of  the  fact  that  I  am  not  a  Jesuit,  as  my  opponents  , 1L 


would  make  you  suppose,  I  may  add  that  this  morning  I  took    ^ET.  32. 
the  trouble  of  going  to  Glasgow  and  recording  my  votes  for  the 
Liberal  candidates. 

To  his  previous  programme  he  now  added  a  strong  support 
of  the  Liberal  policy  of  disestablishment  in  Ireland,  and 
pledged  his  allegiance  firmly  to  Mr.  Gladstone  on  that  and 
other  issues.  But  throughout  this  campaign  his  appeal 
was  especially  to  the  newly  enfranchised  : — 

Now,  gentlemen,  some  time  ago  you  had  an  election  here, 
and  at  that  election  I  failed  to  get  a  majority  of  the  suffrages. 
Against  that  decision  as  representing  the  opinions  of  the  people 
of  the  Burghs  this  candidature  of  mine  is,  of  course,  an  open 
protest.  I  know  that  I  possess  the  sympathy  and  the  goodwill 
of  the  working-classes  of  the  Burghs.  I  say  I  know  it.  Not 
that  I  hope  for  it — I  say  I  have  it.  And  there  has  been  nothing 
that  has  occurred  during  the  last  six  months  which  has  belied 
that  conviction.  Wherever  I  have  gone  I  have  been  received 
with  the  greatest  kindness  and  hearty  goodwill,  and  in  every 
part  of  the  constituency  the  general  public  have  crowned  me 
with  honours  which  I  have  done  nothing  to  deserve.  All  that 
I  want  from  you  is  to  afford  me  the  opportunity  of  deserving 
this  honour.  Entrust  your  Parliamentary  interests  to  me.  I 
promise  to  devote  myself  to  your  service  and  to  show  by  my 
conduct  that  I  reciprocate  the  great  sympathy,  kindness,  and 
confidence  which  you  have  placed  in  me. 

When  the  result  was  declared  he  was  found  to  have  polled 
2201  to  his  opponent's  1682.  After  the  election  he  was 
carried  shoulder-high  to  his  hotel,  and  escaped  from  his 
admirers  with  a  torn  coat  and  a  battered  hat.  '  My  appear- 
ance in  such  a  proud  posture,'  he  said,  addressing  them 
from  the  window,  '  is  owing  to  the  support  I  have  received 
from  my  friends  of  the  working  classes.  In  the  words  of  a 
paraphrase  of  Horace,  the  Scottish  working  man  is 

"  a  stubborn  chiel, 
As  hot  as  ginger  and  as  true  as  steel." 

He  had  evidently  in  the  six  months  of  his  campaign  become 
an  accomplished  electioneerer. 


30   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.        Having  captured  the  seat  by  this  spirited  raid  on  the 
established  party  authorities,  he  set  to  work  to  make  peace 


l868'  between  the  rival  factions  and  to  dig  himself  in  as  the 
authentic  representative  of  the  Liberal  Party.  Praises  of 
his  tact,  his  geniality,  his  readiness  to  serve  the  humblest 
of  his  constituents,  were  soon  in  all  mouths.  Most  of  the 
Ramsayites  were  easily  converted,  and  some  of  them  re- 
mained to  the  end  of  his  life  among  his  warmest  supporters. 
The  last  objection  to  him  had  been  that  he  was  too  young, 
and  to  that  he  had  smartly  replied  in  one  of  his  election 
speeches  that  if  he  could  make  himself  younger  he  would, 
and  that  he  defied  any  one  of  them  to  say  that  they  would 
do  differently.  '  Of  all  the  things  that  I  possess  and  of  all 
the  qualities  of  which  I  am  able  to  boast,'  he  added  with  a 
fine  gesture,  '  there  is  none  that  I  value  more  highly  than 
the  remnant  of  the  vigorous  fire  of  youth  which  still  remains 
to  me.'  The  general  verdict  was  that,  if  he  was  young  he 
was  uncommonly  shrewd  and  canny,  and  from  the  very 
beginning  his  constituents  were  confident  that  he  would 
cut  a  great  figure  in  Parliament. 

He  had  told  the  people  of  the  Burghs  that,  if  elected,  he 
would  be  in  a  position  to  make  such  business  arrangements 
as  would  enable  him  to  devote  the  whole  of  his  time  to  his 
Parliamentary  duties.  So  far  from  resenting  his  break- 
away from  the  family  politics,  his  father  and  brother  did 
everything  in  their  power  to  smooth  his  path  and  provide 
the  fullest  opportunity  for  the  career  he  had  chosen.  Stout 
old  Tory  as  he  was,  Sir  James  Campbell,  as  Sir  Henry  Craik 
recalls,  was  proud  of  his  Radical  son,  and  it  gave  him  rare 
pleasure  when  a  company  of  city  veterans  invited  the  young 
member  to  a  complimentary  dinner  at  the  Western  Club 
on  his  return  to  Glasgow  after  the  November  election.  The 
compliment,  it  was  well  understood,  was  paid  as  much  to 
the  father  as  to  the  son  ;  and  the  company  included  ex- 
Lord  Provosts,  Whig  and  Tory,  and  representatives  of 
commerce,  law,  and  literature  from  the  University  as  well 
as  the  city,  all  joining  in  congratulations  to  the  aged  parent 
on  his  promising  son  and  the  auspicious  beginning  that 


THE  MEMBER  AND  HIS  CONSTITUENTS    31 

he  had  made  in   his   political   career.     Ex-Lord  Provost    CHAP. 
Galbraith  brought  with  him  a  message  of  sympathy  sent 


from  his  sick-bed  by  Henry  Rainy,  one  of  the  medical  ALr' 32p 
professors  of  the  University,  and  the  father  of  the  famous 
Robert  Rainy  for  whom  Henry  Campbell  had  always  the 
warmest  admiration.  It  was  agreed  by  all  that  the  young 
man  acquitted  himself  well  and  modestly  in  acknowledging 
this  compliment,  and  once  more  there  were  confident  pre- 
dictions of  the  great  future  that  was  in  store  for  him. 

Much  will  be  said  of  his  connection  with  the  Stirling 
Burghs  as  this  biography  proceeds.  It  was  an  intimate 
and  vital  part  of  his  public  life  which  he  never  permitted 
to  be  overlaid  or  obscured  by  any  other  claim  on  him.  That 
he  should  speak  first  to  his  constituents  and  only  to  others 
when  their  legitimate  claim  had  been  satisfied  was  a  rule 
which  he  seldom  broke,  even  when  he  had  attained  the 
highest  office.  But  speech-making  was  always  in  his  view 
only  a  small  part  of  his  duties.  Year  by  year  in  his  annual 
visits  to  the  Burghs,  he  made  it  a  special  point  to  meet  and 
talk  to  his  constituents,  opponents  as  well  as  supporters  ; 
and  memories  are  still  vivid  of  the  gatherings  in  the  houses 
of  his  hosts,  Sir  James  Smith,  Sir  William  Robertson,  and 
others,  at  which  he  delighted  the  company  by  his  geniality 
and  kindliness,  his  wit  and  his  shrewdness.  No  constituent 
of  his  ever  shared  the  opinion  current  at  one  time  that  he 
was  a  commonplace  man  of  mediocre  abilities.  Quite 
early  in  the  day  the  people  of  the  Burghs  predicted  a  dazzling 
career  for  their  young  member,  and  were  not  a  little  im- 
patient when  the  London  politicians  seemed  slow  to  confirm 
their  estimate.  No  man,  as  the  phrase  goes,  took  greater 
pains  with  his  constituents,  but  he  had  the  happy  knack  of 
so  dealing  with  them  that  he  seemed  not  to  be  currying 
political  favour,  but  to  be  taking  a  genuine  pleasure  in 
serving  and  helping  the  neighbours  who  had  sent  him  to 
Parliament.  None  of  their  letters  ever  went  unanswered  ; 
no  service  that  they  asked  of  him,  whether  in  Scotland  or 
in  London,  was  either  given  grudgingly  or  withheld  without 
good  reason.  The  relations  thus  established  were  of  the 


32   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    utmost  value  to  him,1  and  their  effects  extended  far  beyond 
the  Burghs.     He  was  in  particular  judged  to  be  a  good 


l868'  Scot,  who  could  be  relied  upon  to  stand  doggedly  for  the 
Scottish  view  and  could  count  on  a  Scottish  backing  extend- 
ing beyond  party  politics.  The  Burghs  not  only  saved  him 
from  the  electioneering  vicissitudes  which  so  often  hamper 
distinguished  men  in  their  careers,  but  gave  him  an  increas- 
ing testimonial  as  a  model  member z  which  greatly  helped 
him  with  his  countrymen  and  even  at  Westminster. 

1  The  names  of  a  few  of  Campbell-Bannerman's  leading  supporters  in 
the  Burghs  may  be  recorded  here.  Among  them  were  Mr.  Andrew  Drum- 
mond  of  Tredinnock,  Chairman  of  the  Stirling  Election  Committee,  and 
his  brother,  Mr.  Henry  Drummond,  father  of  the  late  Prof.  Henry  Drum- 
mond ;  Mr.  Andrew  Young,  also  Chairman  for  many  years ;  Provost 
George  Christie,  for  nine  years  Provost  of  Stirling  ;  Sir  John  Graham 
of  Larbert,  an  old  and  intimate  friend  residing  in  Stirlingshire ;  Sir 
James  B.  Smith  (Clifford  Park,  Stirling),  for  many  years  Chairman  of  the 
Stirling  Election  Committee,  with  whom  he  frequently  corresponded  ; 
Mr.  Robert  Taylor,  Solicitor,  of  Stirling,  his  sole  Election  Agent  in 
Stirling  from  1886  to  the  time  of  his  death  ;  Provost  Robertson  of  Dun- 
fermline,  in  early  days  Chairman  of  the  Dunfermline  Election  Committee ; 
his  son  Sir  William  Robertson,  linen  manufacturer,  also  Chairman  for 
fourteen  years,  Vice-Chairman  of  the  Carnegie  Trusts,  Dunfermline,  and 
in  1917  appointed  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Fifeshire,  who  died  this  year  (1923), 
another  frequent  correspondent.  Sir  John  Ross,  LL.D.,  now  Treasurer  and 
Chairman  of  Carnegie  Trusts,  acted  as  Agent  for  Mr.  Ramsay  of  Kildalton 
in  the  two  elections  of  1868,  and  afterwards  served  in  the  same  capacity 
for  Campbell-Bannerman  until  1886,  the  year  of  the  Home  Rule  split, 
when  he  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  David  Gorrie,  who  acted  in  Dun- 
fermline from  that  time  onwards.  All  these  were  frequent  visitors  at 
Belmont,  after  Campbell-Bannerman  settled  there  in  1887.  Other  old 
friends  and  supporters  in  Stirling  still  living  are  ex-Provost  James 
Thomson,  for  nine  years  Provost  of  Stirling,  Mr.  Ebenezer  Gentleman, 
Mr.  Daniel  Stewart,  and  Mr.  George  Morgan,  the  last  three  of  whom 
voted  for  him  in  1868. 

Until  the  passing  of  the  Representation  of  the  People  Act  of  1918,  the 
constituency  of  the  Stirling  Burghs  consisted  of  the  five  burghs,  Stirling, 
Dunfermline,  Culross,  Inverkeithing,  and  South  Queensferry.  Under  the 
Act  of  1918,  Stirling,  with  the  burghs  of  Falkirk  and  Grangemouth,  now 
forms  the  new  constituency  of  the  Stirling  and  Falkirk  District  of 
Burghs ;  Dunfermline,  with  Cowdenbealh,  Inverkeithing,  and  Lochgelly, 
the  Dunfermline  District  of  Burghs,  Culross  and  South  Queensferry 
being  merged  in  the  County  constituency  of  West  Fife. 

1  For  many  details  about  his  relations  with  the  Stirling  Burghs  see 
The  Model  Member,  by  Mr.  J.  B.  Mackie,  published  from  the  Office  of  the 
Dunfermline  Journalio.  1914. 


WILLIAM  CAMPBELL  (17:>4-1S64) 

BROTHER  AND  PARTNER  OF  SIR  JAMES  CAMPBELL,  AND 

FOUNDER  WITH  HIM  OK  THE  FIRM  OF  J.  AND  W.  CAMPBELL 

{.Photograph  of  Engraving jrom  Oil  Painting  by  Daniel  Macnee,  R.S.A.) 


P-  3 


CHAPTER  III 
PARLIAMENT  AND  OFFICE 

The  Move  to  London — First  Speeches  in  Parliament — An 
Attack  on  the  '  Ancient  Universities  ' — Compulsory  Educa- 
tion— Financial  Secretary  to  the  War  Office — Association 
with  Cardwell — The  Cardwell  Reforms — Out  of  Office — A 
Military  Specialist — Money  Payments  for  Regimental 
Exchanges — Scottish  Affairs — A  Dangerous  Reputation. 


E 


LECTION   to  Parliament  necessitated  removal  to    CHAP. 
London,  and   before   the  session   opened    Henry 


Campbell  and  his  wife  had  established  themselves  T-  32"44' 
at  60  Queen's  Gate.  In  1872  they  moved  on  to  117  Eaton 
Square,  and  thence  in  1878  to  6  Grosvenor  Place  which  for 
the  greater  part  of  their  lives  remained  their  residence  in 
London.  In  1904  they  moved  again  and  for  the  last  time 
to  29  Belgrave  Square,  where  in  1905  the  Campbell-Banner- 
man  Administration  was  formed. 

In  1871  Henry  Campbell's  uncle,  Henry  Bannerman  of 
Manchester,  died,  and  left  him  a  life-interest  in  the  property 
of  Hunton  Court,1  near  Maidstone,  with  the  condition 
attached  that  he  should  assume  the  name  of  Bannerman. 
This  he  did  with  considerable  reluctance,  and  his  wife 
with  so  much  more  that  for  many  years  she  continued  to 
sign  herself  '  Charlotte  Campbell '  and  desired  her  friends 
to  address  her  by  that  name.  Hunton  was  a  charm- 
ing estate  which  brought  in  a  moderate  income,  but  his 
uncle's  widow  remained  in  occupation  of  the  principal 
house  until  her  death  in  1873,  and  at  the  outset  there  were 
considerable  charges  to  meet.  There  was,  therefore,  little 
foundation  for  the  popular  idea  that  he  had  come  into 

1  Now  in  possession  of  Mr.  James  Campbell-Bannerman,  son  of 
Mr.  James  A.  Bannerman  by  his  marriage  with  Louisa  Campbell,  sister 
of  Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman. 

VOL.  I.  C 


34   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    an  immense  fortune  through  the  death  of  his  uncle.     The 
n'    ^  bulk   of   his  money,  afterwards  as  before,  was  Campbell 


1868-1880.  moneyj  drawn  partly  from  the  business  and  partly  from 
judicious  investments  in  property  in  Glasgow,  for  which 
his  father  and  his  brother  James  were  responsible. 

Being  precluded  from  occupying  Hunton  Court,  he  settled 
at  Gennings,  another  house  on  the  estate,  and  spent  several 
weeks  of  every  year  there  until  1887  when  he  disposed  of 
the  house.  It  was  a  comfortable  retreat  within  convenient 
distance  of  London  in  the  midst  of  charming  country,  and  he 
took  pleasure  in  the  garden  and  liked  his  Kent  neighbours. 
Here  he  bore  his  part  in  local  politics  and,  as  President  of 
the  Kent  Liberal  Association,  endeavoured  to  spread  the 
light  in  the  darkness  of  the  Home  Counties.  From  the 
beginning  his  heart  was  set  upon  making  a  home  in  Scotland 
when  means  and  opportunity  offered,  but  up  to  1887,  when 
he  took  up  his  residence  at  Belmont  in  Perthshire,  Gennings 
remained  his  only  house  in  the  country. 

Henry  Campbell's  name  does  not  appear  in  Hansard 
during  the  first  session  of  the  1868  Parliament,  and  he  may 
be  presumed  to  have  contented  himself,  like  a  prudent  new 
member,  with  finding  his  way  about  and  watching  the  old 
hands.  He  first  broke  silence  on  June  17,  1869,  when  he 
backed  Sir  Lyon  Playfair  in  urging  large  amendments  to 
the  Scottish  '  Endowed  Hospitals  '  Bill — a  measure  for 
the  reform  of  the  schools  which  go  by  the  name  of  hospitals 
in  Scotland,  introduced  by  the  Lord  Advocate.  Charac- 
teristically he  chose  a  Scottish  subject  and  placed  himself 
before  the  House  as  an  advanced  politician  desirous  of 
going  a  great  deal  farther  than  the  Government.  He  spoke 
effectively  but  attempted  no  oratorical  flights.  Twelve 
days  later  (June  29)  he  found  another  opportunity  in  the 
debate  on  going  into  Committee  on  the  University  Tests 
Bill,  and  caught  the  ear  of  the  House  in  a  speech  which 
was  nicely  calculated  to  ruffle  the  susceptibilities  of  academic 
persons  on  either  side.  If  nobody  else  would,  he  seemed  to 
say,  he  at  least  was  going  to  tell  a  little  of  the  truth  about 
these  ancient  Universities  before  which  his  elders  prostrated 


THE  ANCIENT  UNIVERSITIES  35 

themselves  in  silent  rapture.     His  opinions,  he  began  by    CHAP. 
announcing,  '  differed  diametrically  not  only  from  those  of 


opponents   but  from  those   held   by  many  supporters  oiM: 
the  Bill '  :- 

All  the  arguments  addressed  to  the  House  (last  year  and  this) 
have  proceeded  on  the  assumption  that  the  University  system 
is  nearly  perfect.  Honourable  gentlemen  opposite  have  ex- 
pressed their  fears  lest  the  influx  of  a  large  body  of  students 
unconnected  with  the  Church  of  England  should  impair  the 
present  excellent  system  ;  while  honourable  gentlemen  on  this 
side  have  endeavoured  to  calm  those  fears.  Sir,  if  I  wish  to  see 
this  measure  passed  into  law,  I  am  almost  afraid  to  say  that  it 
is  precisely  because  of  what  I  conceive  to  be  the  gross  inefficiency 
of  the  present  system,  and  because  my  only  hope  of  its  amend- 
ment lies  in  the  infusion  of  fresh  blood.  Honourable  members 
look  back  on  the  Universities  through  a  mist  of  pleasant  recollec- 
tions and  associations  which,  to  a  great  extent,  blinds  their  eyes 
to  the  real  state  of  the  case.  But  I  am  only  expressing  the 
opinion  of  a  great  many  University  men  when  I  say  that  not  only 
do  these  Universities  with  a  maximum  of  endowments  educate 
a  minimum  number  of  the  young  men  of  the  nation,  but  to  those 
few  young  men  they  afford  a  minimum  of  education  at  a  maximum 
of  expense.  We  used  to  hear  the  Universities  spoken  of  as 
'  places  of  sound  learning  and  religious  education.'  Our  belief 
is  that  the  learning  is  not  very  sound  and  that  the  religion  is  not 
very  learned.  Sir,  I  have  no  wish  to  disparage  or  depreciate  the 
good  which  a  young  man  receives  from  his  residence  at  a 
University.  He  can  hardly  fail  to  acquire,  in  greater  or  less 
degree,  that  most  subtle  but  most  valuable  quality  which  may 
perhaps  best  be  termed  knowledge  of  the  world.  But  this 
benefit  is  entirely  extraneous,  entirely  extra-academical ;  he 
obtains  it  from  mixing  in  society  with  his  contemporaries,  and 
not  in  any  sense  from  the  University  system.  So  far  as  more 
solid  acquirements  are  concerned  the  University  and  colleges 
leave  him  to  his  own  resources  ;  he  is  obliged  to  hire  for  himself 
a  tutor  to  conduct  his  studies,  and  for  all  practical  purposes  he 
might  every  bit  as  well  prepare  for  the  periodical  examinations 
in  London  or  Paris  as  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge. 

From  this  he  went  on  to  religious  teaching,  which  the 
opponents  of  the  measure  so  highly  prized  and  would  so 
jealously  guard  :— 


36  SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.        I  would  remind  honourable  gentlemen  who  have  been  at  a 
^__        __,  University  and  would  inform  other  honourable  members  what  it 
1868-1880.  is.     I  will  take  the  largest  and  most  illustrious  college  at  either 
University.     What  training  in  religion  does  an  undergraduate 
there   receive  ?     There   is   compulsory   attendance    at   chapel. 
Now,  sir,  this  is  a  matter  of  discipline— sometimes  even  of  hard 
discipline— and  I  venture  to  think  the  House  will  not  attach 
much  importance  to  the  influence  of  such  attendance  on  the 
religious  character  of  a  young  man.     Then  he  is  examined  in 
the  course  of  his  residence  on  two  or  three  Gospels  or  other  parts 
of  the  New  Testament ;   but  these  are — very  properly — treated 
as  pieces  of  classical  literature,  just  as  a  Greek  play  would  be, 
and  not  with  regard  to  dogmatic  teaching  or  moral  training. 
He  has  also  to  pass  an  examination  in  Butler's  Analogy,  Butler's 
Three  Sermons  and — if  that  work  be  dignified  with  the  title  of 
religious — on   Dr.    Whewell's  Elements   of  Morality.     But   the 
most  important  piece  de  resistance  of  this  theological  banquet 
is  Dr.  Paley's  Evidences  of  Christianity,  a  work  undoubtedly  of 
the  highest  merit  and  of  great  historical  interest,  but  its  interest 
is  mainly  historical  and  it  is  hardly  suited  to  be  used  as  a  text- 
book.    And  as  to  the  value  of  this  as  an  element  in  religious 
education,  I  may  say  that  a  week  or  two  ago  I  met  in  the  library 
of  this  House  two  members  who  have  not  very  long  ago  left  the 
University.     They  asked  me   if   I   could  remember   a   certain 
argument  of  Paley's,  and  in  order  to  refresh  my  memory  they 
repeated  a  fragment  of  a  line  of  wretched  jargon,  a  piece  of 
memoria  technica  which  is  used  for  the  purpose  of  getting  up 
this  subject  and  which  was  probably  all  that  remained  to  them 
of  Dr.  Paley's  work.     Now,  sir,  even  supposing — which  many 
may  doubt — that  it  is  advisable  to  supplement  at  the  University 
the  religious  training  which  is  better  received  at  home  and  at 
an  earlier  period  of  life,  I  venture  to  submit  that  this  so-called 
religious  education  has  no  substantial  value. 

He  concluded  with  an  appeal  to  the  House  to  consider  the 
subject,  not  as  a  mere  question  between  Churchmen  and 
Dissenters,  but  as  a  question  affecting  the  whole  nation  : — 

For  my  part  I  have  no  wish  to  take  from  the  Church  of 
England  anything  that  rightfully  belongs  to  her ;  nor,  on  the 
other  hand,  have  I  any  sympathy  with  the  motives  of  those — 
and  there  are  not  a  few — who  hope,  under  the  provisions  of  this 
Bill,  to  see  a  very  select  number  of  the  dissenting  youth  brought 


COMPULSORY  EDUCATION  37 

up  to  the  Universities,  there  to  be  fascinated  by  the  influence  of    CHAP. 
the  Church  of  England  and,  as  it  were,  inveigled  into  her  fold.  v 


Sir,  I  think  such  considerations  should  not  be  taken  into  account  /ET.  32-44. 

by  this  House.     This  is  not,  I  say,  a  sectarian  question,  it  is  a 

national  question  ;  it  is  not  a  question  of  aggrandising  or  denud- 

ing any  particular  sect,  it  is  a  question  of  raising  the  efficiency 

of  the  Universities  as  national  instruments  of  education.  .  .  . 

We  wish  to  see  the  Universities  thrown  altogether  open  to  the 

nation  ;  and  thus,  while  the  nation  derives  the  full  benefit  of 

the  high  traditional  position  of  those  great  institutions,  my  hope 

is  that  the  freer  and  fuller  life  of  the  nation  will  in  turn  react  on 

the  Universities  and  render  them  better  qualified  to  fill  their 

high  position. 

The  young  Liberal  member  who  could  speak  with  this 
breeziness  about  the  ancient  Universities  in  Mr.  Gladstone's 
hearing  was  clearly  not  without  courage  or  originality. 
The  speech  was  evidently  well  prepared  and  probably 
committed  to  memory,  but  it  has  the  true  '  C.B.  touch  ' 
of  later  days.  We  may  conjecture  that  it  was  a  success, 
for  Hansard  pays  it  the  compliment,  rather  unusual  in 
those  days,  of  a  report  in  the  first  person. 

A  month  later  (July  27)  he  spoke  vigorously  in  support 
of  a  motion  to  apply  the  principle  of  compulsory  attend- 
ance to  the  Scottish  Parochial  Schools  Bill,  which  had  been 
introduced  into  the  Lords  by  the  Government  and  brought 
down  to  the  Commons.  He  derided  the  fears  of  the  com- 
pulsory principle  which  had  been  expressed  on  the  Con- 
servative side  of  the  House,  and  cited  the  example  of  many 
European  countries,  and  especially  Switzerland,  where  it 
was  working  to  complete  satisfaction.  If  compulsory 
education  was  irripracticable  elsewhere,  it  certainly  was  not 
so  in  Scotland.  '  I  believe  our  countrymen  in  the  North 
are  far  too  shrewd  to  be  misled  by  any  fear  of  the  horrors 
attendant  on  compulsory  education  and  the  interference 
which  it  is  supposed  to  create  with  the  liberty  of  the  subject.' 
Compulsory  attendance  was,  he  insisted,  the  necessary 
corollary  of  compulsory  rating.  '  In  a  Bill  like  this  in 
which  power  is  taken  to  exact  rates  from  all  inhabitants 
in  support  of  education,  you  are  bound  to  furnish  the 


38   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    ratepayers  with  a  guarantee  that  the  object  for  which  the 
money  is  raised  is  attained.     I  consider  it  absolutely  unjust 


1868-1880.  to  ^0  otherwise.'  This  argument  prevailed,  though  Scot- 
land, as  it  turned  out,  had  to  wait  another  eighteen  months 
while  the  principle  was  being  applied  to  England.  When 
the  Scottish  Education  Bill  of  1871  was  introduced,  he 
found  another  opportunity  of  expressing  his  views  on 
education,  and  this  time  gave  a  strong  support  to  the 
methods  proposed  by  the  Government.  '  No  doubt/  he 
said,  '  men's  minds  were  divided,  as  to  the  central  authority, 
between  the  fear  of  tyranny  in  London  and  jobbery  in 
Edinburgh — it  was  difficult  to  say  which  feeling  was  the 
stronger — but  if  the  Board  were  strong  enough  to  resist 
the  Anglicising  tendencies  of  the  Privy  Council,  it  would 
give  satisfaction.'  He  then  plunged  into  the  religious 
question  in  a  passage  which  is  worth  recording  as  a  side- 
light on  opinions  which  became  important  in  after  days  : — 

There  would  be  in  Scotland  when  this  Bill  received  its  full 
development  a  purely  and  entirely  denominational  system  of 
education.  There  was  only  one  solution  of  the  difficulty  and 
that  was  this — the  State  should  cease  to  undertake  the  religious 
education  of  children.  ...  In  Scotland  it  would  be  perfectly 
safe  to  leave  religious  instruction  to  voluntary  effort.  He  hoped 
that  Amendments  would  be  brought  forward  which  the  House 
might  accept  with  a  view  to  meet  these  points,  and  if,  in  debating 
these  amendments,  there  should  be  any  renewal  of  the  bitter 
contests  of  last  year,  the  blame  would  rest  with  the  Government 
and  especially  with  the  Vice-President  of  the  Council.  If  they 
had,  instead  of  adopting  a  course  of  compromise,  adhered  to 
their  own  principles  and  thrown  themselves  on  the  loyal  support 
of  their  own  party,  they  would  not  only  have  carried  their  Bill 
but — what  was  of  far  more  importance — they  would  have  laid 
down  sound  lines  upon  which  by  common  consent  might  have 
been  built  a  rational  system  of  education  for  each  of  the  three 
divisions  of  the  Kingdom.  They  had  not  done  so  and  they  now 
reaped  the  somewhat  bitter  fruits  of  that  conduct,  but  he  hoped 
there  would  be  as  little  asperity  as  possible  in  the  discussion  and 
that  the  Government  would  be  found  willing  to  make  whatever 
concessions  were  necessary.  (Feb.  27,  i87r.) 

In  the  same  month  he  spoke  on  the  Deceased  Wife's  Sister 


IN  OFFICE  39 

Bill  and  vigorously  combated  the  idea  that  Scottish  opinion    CHAP. 
was  unfavourable  to  it.  ^_  Lli 


A-.T.  32-44. 

II 

His  speeches  were  not  frequent  and  they  were  always 
brief,  but  these  quotations  may  help  to  dispose  of  the  legend 
that  he  obtained  office  by  favour  or  influence  before  opening 
his  mouth  in  the  House  of  Commons.  By  the  beginning 
of  the  third  session  he  had  struck  his  note — the  note  of  an 
advanced  politician,  according  to  the  standard  of  his  time, 
who  was  no  blind  supporter  of  the  Government.  If  he 
had  not  conspicuously  made  his  mark,  he  had  become 
known  as  a  young  man  of  rather  original  character  who 
was  companionable,  self-possessed,  and  expressed  himself 
pithily  and  sometimes  wittily.  He  had  also  certain  quali- 
fications which  Mr.  Gladstone  specially  favoured  in  the 
young  men  whom  he  chose  for  office.  He  had  had  a  Uni- 
versity education,  he  came  from  a  business  stock,  and  had 
presumably  had  a  business  as  well  as  an  academic  training. 
He  had  shown  a  good  spirit  in  choosing  his  own  politics 
independently  of  his  family,  and  he  wras  already  supposed 
to  have  considerable  influence  in  Scotland.  This  was  a 
good  record  for  a  young  member,  and  no  one  was  surprised 
when  in  November  1871,  Mr.  Gladstone  appointed  him  to 
the  Financial  Secretaryship  of  the  War  Office,  rendered 
vacant  by  the  promotion  of  Captain  Vivian  to  be  Under- 
secretary of  State. 

It  is  not  an  unmixed  advantage  for  a  young  politician 
to  be  made  an  Under-Secretary.  If  he  gets  his  footing  on 
the  first  rung  of  the  ladder,  he  pays  for  this  promotion  by 
losing  his  right  of  independent  speech,  and  when  his  Chief 
is  in  the  House  of  Commons,  he  must  for  the  most  part  be 
content  with  a  silent  and  strictly  subordinate  part.  For 
the  next  three  years  the  young  Member  for  Stirling  made 
no  more  independent  sallies  on  his  own  account,  but  he 
was  given  opportunities  in  debates  on  the  Estimates,  and 
was  generally  judged  to  have  acquitted  himself  well.  His 
speeches  were  mostly  on  details  which  have  no  modern 


40  SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    interest,  but  now  and  again  he  was  able  to  launch  out  into 
HTL     j  policy,  and  on  his  first  appearance  as  a  Minister  x  we  find 
1868-1880.  njm  exp0un(jing  the  best  blue-water  doctrine   in    answer 
to  Tory  militarists  who  insisted  on  comparing  the  British 
Army  with  the  Prussian.     '  Comparaison  n'est  pas  raison/ 
he  retorted,  and  thereupon  entered  into  a  vigorous  argu- 
ment to  prove  that  '  the  sea  gives  us  time  '  and  renders 
the   expensive    instantly   mobilisable    army-corps    system 
unnecessary  and  inappropriate  to  our  needs. 

Two  letters  of  this  period  may  help  to  show  his  relations 
to  his  Chief  and  the  kind  of  work  he  was  doing.  In  the 
first  few  weeks  of  his  entry  into  office  he  had  set  himself 
to  a  careful  investigation  of  the  position  of  Paymasters  in 
the  Army,  and  the  '  jottings  '  referred  to  are  an  elaborate 
memorandum  on  that  subject  faultlessly  written  out  in 
his  own  hand  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  Cardwell 

60  QUEEN'S  GATE,  Jan.  n,  1872. — I  have  been,  most  unfortun- 
ately, laid  up  since  I  saw  you  on  Tuesday  with  a  bad  cold,  which  I 
have  thought  it  most  prudent  to  check  in  time  before  it  goes  far, 
and  with  this  view  I  must  stay  in  the  house  till  Saturday  at  the 
soonest.  I  hope,  however,  to  get  to  the  Office  then  for  the 
meeting  at  n. 

Mr.  Dalzell  tells  me  that  you  have  written  to  ask 

1.  About  the  Guards, 

2.  As  to  stoppages. 

1.  Mr.  Knox  and  I  have  not  yet  been  able  to  discuss  the 
Guards  question  with  Sir  J.  Lindsay,  but  we  have  a  Financial 
Statement  prepared  setting  forth  the  case  from  our  point  of 
view.     Sir  J.  L.  will  have  that  to-morrow,  and  either  on  Saturday 
or  next  week  we  can  go  over  it  with  him,  and  I  fully  expect  that 
we  shall  be  able  to  furnish  you  with  the  information  in  time  for 
the  igth.     There  are  one  or  two  points  which  I  suspect  will  be 
stoutly  contested. 

2.  The  Consolidation  of  Pay  I  understood  you  meant  to  be 
postponed  for  the  present. 

I  think  it  wise  that  it  should  be  postponed  ;   in  order  that  it 

1  March  4,  1871. 


WORKING  FOR  CARDWELL  41 

may  be  fully  sifted  in  conjunction  with  other  parts  of  the  pay    CHAP. 
arrangements.  , l* 1  • 


The  more  I  consider  the  matter  the  more  satisfied  I  am  that  /ET.  32-44. 
Regimental  Accounts  both  in  form  and  substance  might  be 
greatly  simplified.  The  military  effects  of  many  such  simpli- 
fications I  am  not  able  to  judge  of,  but  as  a  piece  of  office  business 
I  cannot  believe  that  accounts  might  not  be  prodigiously  simpli- 
fied, with  a  consequent  reduction  of 

Labour . \  of 
Establishment,  .'.  of 
Expense  ;  and  also  of 
Chance  of  Error. 

I  say  this  with  no  small  degree  of  self-mistrust,  lest  it  should 
be  a  case  of  rushing  in  where  others  have  trodden  to  no  purpose 
before. 

I  am  employing  my  vacant  time  here  in  putting  on  paper  one 
or  two  of  the  ideas  I  have  formed  as  to  Paymasters  and  Accounts 
—for  which  I  claim  no  originality,  as  they  are  mostly  suggested 
in  various  office  papers  I  have  seen — and  I  will  take  the  liberty 
of  laying  them  before  you  informally,  that  you  may  consider 
whether  they  deserve  attention.  And  with  reference  to  the 
time  of  doing  so,  I  think  it  might  be  best  to  take  advantage  of 
the  present,  when  everything  else  connected  with  the  Army  is 
unfixed,  rather  than  wait  for  a  quieter  time  when  people  might 
call  out  for  rest. 

I  must  apologise  for  this  long  note. 

I  am  much  annoyed  that  owing  to  my  being  laid  up  I  have 
not  yet  been  able  to  deliver  your  note  to  Mr.  Lowe  about  the 
Estimate  Clerks.  I  have  also  the  other  paper  as  to  Irish  Army 
Agent  Clerks — which  I  will  take  to  the  Treasury  as  soon  as  I  am 
going  about  again. 

Jan.  12,  '72. — I  enclose  a  few  jottings  on  the  Paymaster 
Question  and  some  others. 

If  in  any  point  I  have  travelled  beyond  my  proper  functions 
I  know  you  will  excuse  me— all  the  subjects  are  mixed  up 
together  so  that  I  could  not  confine  myself  to  '  Finance  '  proper. 

I  have  written  this  paper  for  your  own  reading  only,  and  have 
felt  all  the  more  free  on  that  account.  Had  I  taken  counsel  first 
of  the  permanent  officials  I  fear  I  should  have  had  all  the  en- 
thusiasm (such  as  it  is)  taken  out  of  me  by  their  objections  to 
most  of  my  proposals.  And  as  I  have  great  faith  in  the  trueness 


42   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    of  a  fresh  outside  view  in  such  matters,  I  have  thought  it  best  to 
go  straight  to  you  with  my  ideas. 


1868-1880.       Of  course  they  are  mere  suggestions — and  are  not  put  forward 
in  anything  like  a  confident  or  dogmatic  spirit. 

I  was  relieved  to  learn  that  the  meeting  to-morrow  was  put 
off,  as  I  do  not  think  I  can  venture  out,  but  on  Monday  I  hope 
to  be  right  again. 

These  departmental  activities  were,  however,  quite 
secondary  to  what  to  the  end  of  his  life  he  considered  to 
have  been  his  inestimable  good  fortune  at  this  time.  That 
was  to  have  been  associated  with  Mr.  Cardwell,  who,  when 
the  new  Financial  Secretary  entered  the  Government,  was 
in  the  full  tide  of  his  great  scheme  of  Army  reform.  For 
Cardwell  he  conceived  an  unbounded  respect  and  admira- 
tion ;  and  Cardwell's  principles  remained  throughout  his 
life  his  firm  anchorage  and  final  test  of  sound  military 
policy.  As  War  Minister  he  avowed  himself  the  pupil  of 
Cardwell,  and  as  Prime  Minister  he  was  still  on  guard  lest 
the  Cardwellian  faith  should  suffer  at  profane  hands. 

The  story  of  Cardwell's  reforms  is  familiar,  but  it  is 
necessary  to  bear  it  in  mind  for  the  understanding  of 
Campbell-Bannerman's  military  opinions.  Cardwell  ended 
the  conflict  of  authority  between  the  Secretary  of  State  and 
the  Commander-in-Chief  by  making  the  former  supreme  ; 
instituted  the  method  of  short  service  for  infantry,  thus 
enabling  an  adequate  reserve  of  trained  men  to  be  built 
up  ;  abolished  the  purchase  of  commissions,  and  cleared 
the  way  to  promotion  by  merit ;  instituted  the  territorial 
system  whereby  the  militia  and  the  local  volunteers 
were  grouped  in  each  district  with  a  battalion  of  the 
line  ;  and  finally  established  the  linked-battalion  system 
whereby  one  battalion  of  a  regiment  remained  at  home 
while  the  other  went  abroad,  and  a  regular  interchange 
between  the  men  and  officers  of  both  was  provided 
for.  By  these  measures  Cardwell  popularised  the  Army, 
while  reducing  its  cost,  and  set  up  a  coherent  system 
which  enabled  the  Empire  to  be  defended  by  a  com- 
paratively small  voluntary  army.  His  guiding  principle 


THE  CARDWELL  REFORMS  43 

was    that   compulsory   service    as    practised    abroad   was    CHAP. 
neither  necessary  nor  suitable  to  the  British  Empire,  and 


that  the  conditions  of  service  must  therefore  be  made '" 
such  as  would  attract  the  willing  recruit  and  offer  a  good 
career  to  capable  officers.  Long  service  with  unbroken 
exile  was  fatal  to  the  first  of  these  objects,  and  the  purchase 
of  commissions  wholly  inconsistent  with  the  second  or 
indeed  with  any  worthy  conception  of  the  profession  of 
arms. 

When  Henry  Campbell  became  Financial  Secretary  the 
battle  was  raging  over  purchase,  and  mess-rooms  and 
drawing-rooms  rang  with  denunciations  of  the  '  Liberal 
Lawyer.'  To  a  later  generation  the  wonder  is  not  that 
this  ancient  abuse  was  abolished,  but  that  it  could  have 
been  tolerated  so  long  or  have  found  champions  among 
people  claiming  to  be  intelligent.  But  in  1871  the  power 
of  purchasing  promotion  was  still  passionately  defended 
as  one  of  the  pillars  of  a  system  which  required  officers  of 
the  British  Army  to  be  gentlemen  of  good  birth  and  easy 
means,  and  assumed  that  all  military  qualifications  would 
be  added  to  them  if  these  essentials  were  assured.  That 
the  Service  would  irretrievably  go  to  the  dogs  if  purchase 
were  abolished,  and  that  Mr.  Gladstone  was  guilty  of 
treason-felony  when  finally  he  used  the  Royal  Warrant 
to  overcome  the  opposition  of  the  House  of  Lords,  was  the 
loudly  expressed  opinion  of  all  the  best  people  and  the 
great  majority  of  officers.  To  be  plunged  into  this  struggle 
and  to  be  daily  at  the  War  Office  in  these  times  was  a 
bracing  experience  for  a  young  man  of  advanced  Liberal 
views,  and  Henry  Campbell  learnt  from  it  a  lesson  which 
he  cherished  all  his  life — that  it  was  possible  to  be  a  good 
Liberal  and  yet  to  take  a  profound  interest  in  military 
policy  and  the  organisation  of  the  Army.  By  all  contem- 
porary testimony  he  was  quick  to  learn  his  job,  and  was 
able  without  any  exhausting  labour  to  master  the  techni- 
calities of  the  Office  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  easily  the  match 
of  the  Service  members,  who,  then  as  now,  sought  every 
opportunity  to  catch  the  Government  tripping. 


44  SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP. 
III. 

\_       _n       _j 

1868-1880. 


III.  m 


His  Financial-Secretaryship  proved  to  be  more  than  an 
episode  in  his  Parliamentary  career.  Mr.  Cardwell's  with- 
drawal to  the  House  of  Lords  after  the  defeat  of  the  Glad- 
stone Government  left  the  late  Financial-Secretary  the  chief 
spokesman  of  the  Opposition  on  military  subjects,  and  for 
the  next  six  years  he  was  largely  a  military  specialist  with 
a  watching  brief  to  prevent  the  great  reforms  of  the  previous 
Parliament  from  suffering  in  the  general  reaction.  Within 
a  few  weeks  of  the  assembling  of  the  new  Parliament  he 
won  great  applause  by  a  short  speech  1  in  the  lively  debate 
which  arose  over  the  action  of  the  War  Office  in  compelling 
Lord  Sandhurst  to  refund  £753  of  his  pay  as  Commander- 
in-Chief  in  Ireland.  Lord  Sandhurst  had  been  absent 
from  his  duties — partly  from  ill-health,  partly,  it  was 
alleged,  on  the  summons  of  the  Government  which  desired 
his  advice  in  London,  and  partly  to  attend  the  House  of 
Lords — for  more  than  half  the  period  of  his  command,  and 
the  War  Office  had  contested  the  right,  which  he  had 
claimed,  to  draw  his  full  pay.  It  was  the  kind  of  subject 
in  which  the  House  of  Commons  is  always  enormously 
interested,  and  the  atmosphere  quickly  grew  heated  when 
Mr.  Anderson  hinted  that  Lord  Sandhurst  had  committed 
an  offence  for  which  the  return  of  the  money  was  a  quite 
inadequate  penalty,  and  Mr.  Horsman  retorted  by  charging 
the  Government  with  a  mean  and  vindictive  parsimony. 
On  the  spur  of  the  moment  the  late  Financial  Secretary 
plunged  into  the  debate  and  in  his  gravest  manner  poured 
a  stream  of  cold  water  on  both  these  disputants.  Lord 
Sandhurst's  sole  offence,  so  he  pointed  out,  was  that  he 
'  took  a  mistaken  and  exaggerated  view  of  the  rights  and 
privileges  belonging  to  his  high  office  '  and  the  Govern- 
ment's that  it  was  obliged  to  enforce  a  legal  rule  that  was 
binding  on  the  highest  as  on  the  humblest  of  its  officers. 
The  speech  belonged  to  the  moment  and  is  not  worth 
recalling  except  that  according  to  contemporary  opinion 

1  May  21,  1874. 


RESISTING  THE  REACTION  45 

it  greatly  raised  the  general  opinion  of  Campbell-Banner-    CHAP. 
man's  capacity  as  a  House  of  Commons  man.     It  is  by <-    HYL 


such  timely  strokes  that  a  young  member  gains  his  reputa-  ^T>  32'44' 
tion,  and  the  performance  was  judged  not  less  meritorious 
because  he  was  manifestly  suffering  from  a  heavy  catarrh. 
Mr.  Gathorne-Hardy  was,  on  the  whole,  inclined  to  walk 
in  the  path  laid  down  by  his  predecessor  and  gave  com- 
paratively  few   opportunities   to   the   Cardwellian   watch- 
dogs.    But  in  the  second  session  he  threw  a  sop  to  the 
reactionaries    by    introducing   a    Bill    to   legalise    money 
payments  for  regimental  exchanges.     That  these  had  been 
and  were  being  made,  and  that  by  means  of  them  rich  men 
were   enabled   to   avoid   disagreeable   service   abroad   and 
poor  men  induced  to  yield  up  desirable  appointments  at 
home,   was   notorious.     To    the    Cardwellian    it   was    bad 
enough  that  this  system  should  be  tolerated,  in  spite  of  the 
warrant  that  forbade  it,  and  altogether  intolerable  that  it 
should   be   legalised.     Led   by   Mr.    Trevelyan,    who   had 
greatly    distinguished    himself    in    the    campaign    against 
purchase  in  the  previous  Parliament,  Liberals  and  Radicals 
were  loud  in  denunciation  of  this  proposal,  and  Campbell- 
Bannerman  was  hot  on  the  scent.     He  spoke  vigorously 
on  the  second  reading.1    The  Bill  was,  he  said,  '  in  effect 
one  to  invest  the  occupants  of  certain  offices  under  the 
Crown  with  the  right,  under  the  express  sanction  of  Parlia- 
ment, to  traffic  in  those  offices  and  deliberately  to  invite 
them,  on  the  one  hand,  to  avoid,  on  payment  of  money,  the 
discharge  of  unpleasant  duty  which  it  had  come  to  their 
turn  to  discharge,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  make  gain  by 
undertaking  something  which  the  public  service  did  not 
require  them  to  undertake.'     There  was,  he  insisted,  an 
intimate  connection  between  this  sale  of  offices  and  the 
now   discredited    and    exploded   purchase    system.     '  The 
conditions  were  not  and  could  not  be  equal  between  the  rich 
man  and  the  poor  man.     The  poor  officer  serving  abroad 
would  be  absolutely  shut  out  from  all  hope  of  exchanging 
to  this  country.     He  did  not  say  that  all  the  evils  of  purchase 

1  Feb.  22,  1875. 


46   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    would  come  in  with  this  system,  but  he  much  feared  that 
IIL    ,  the  difference  would  merely  be  this — that  whereas  formerly 


1868-1880.  ^e  rjcj-,  man  paid  money  and  went  before  his  poorer  senior, 
now  the  poor  man  would  receive  money  and  go  behind  his 
richer  junior.'  He  wound  up  with  a  good  emphatic  general 
proposition  :  '  The  evils  attending  the  traffic  in  offices  had 
been  well  known  in  past  times  ;  Parliament  in  its  wisdom 
had  raised  barriers  against  them,  and  the  present  House 
was  asked  to  pull  these  barriers  down  and  to  renounce 
the  principle  which  hitherto  had  governed  the  public 
service  of  England,  naval,  military,  and  civil — the  prin- 
ciple that  men  entered  the  service  not  that  the  poor  man 
might  make  gain,  nor  that  the  rich  man  might  indulge  his 
fancy,  but  in  order  that  rich  and  poor  alike  might  do  their 
duty.'  The  arguments  against  this  proposal  were,  indeed, 
unanswerable,  but  England  was  then  in  reaction,  and  the 
Cardwellians  were  on  the  whole  well  satisfied  that  no  worse 
inroads  were  attempted  into  the  work  of  the  previous 
Parliament. 

Throughout  this  Parliament,  Campbell-Bannerman  was 
in  constant  communication  with  Lord  Cardwell  (who  was 
his  neighbour  in  Eaton  Square)  and  defended  the  Card- 
wellian  system  both  against  the  '  Colonels  '  who  wanted 
the  old  Army  back  and  the  Radicals  and  anti-militarists 
who  then,  as  later,  regarded  both  War  Office  and  Admiralty 
as  proper  subjects  in  all  circumstances  for  what  in  modern 
terminology  is  called  the  '  axe.'  His  speeches  were  brief, 
pithy,  and  bristling  with  facts  and  figures,  especially  figures, 
for  which  his  modest  attainments  as  a  Senior  Optime  were 
supposed  to  have  given  him  a  special  qualification.  Out- 
side these  military  exercises  his  activities  were  chiefly  those 
of  a  Scottish  member.  Seldom  was  there  a  debate  on  a 
Scottish  subject  in  which  his  name  did  not  appear.  Again 
and  again  he  joined  his  brother  Scots  in  the  complaint, 
which  seems  to  have  fallen  on  deaf  ears,  that  Bills  in  which 
they  took  an  absorbing  interest  were  pushed  over  into  the 
small  hours  of  the  morning  or  shunted  into  any  siding  that 
suited  the  convenience  of  the  Government.  Whatever 


SCOTTISH  DEBATES  47 

latitude    he   might   give   himself    on    other    occasions,   a    CHAP. 
Scottish   debate   invariably   found   him   in   his   place.     A .    ll*' 


Scottish  Church  patronage  Bill  introduced  in  1874  encoun-  ^T'  32~44' 
tered  his  strongest  opposition.  It  was  a  proposal,  he 
asserted,  to  bolster  up  the  Established  Church  at  the  cost 
of  the  other  Presbyterian  bodies,  a  mere  political  device 
which  lay  under  the  suspicion  of  being  specially  designed 
to  checkmate  the  movement  for  the  union  of  the  Free  and 
United  Presbyterian  Churches.1  Here  spoke  the  convinced 
Liberationist,  and  he  took  occasion  to  declare  his  convic- 
tion that  in  the  Disruption  of  1843  the  Free  Church  had 
not,  as  generally  supposed,  gone  out  on  a  mere  question 
of  patronage  but  taken  '  the  higher  ground  of  spiritual 
independence.' 

In  March  1877  he  made  a  considerable  speech  on  a 
Scottish  Temperance  Bill  introduced  by  a  private  member, 
and  for  once  declared  himself  to  have  an  open  mind. 
There  was  only  one  point,  he  said,  on  which  Scottish 
opinion  was  agreed,  and  this  was  that  facilities  for  drinking 
should  somehow  be  judged  and  dealt  with  by  local 
authorities.  Beyond  this  everything  was  vague.  That 
being  the  case,  and  '  no  one  having  supplied  a  proposal 
on  which  all  could  agree  and  yet  all  of  us  being  united 
in  thinking  that  something  ought  to  be  done,  was  it  not 
the  proper  thing  to  call  upon  the  Government  to  ascertain 
the  facts  both  for  themselves  and  for  us  by  issuing  a  Royal 
Commission  or  in  some  other  way  ?  It  was  difficult  to 
find  a  Scottish  member  who  had  not  either  a  Bill  in  his 
pocket  or  a  plan  for  a  Bill  in  his  head,  but  the  difficulty  was 
that  they  did  not  approve  of  each  other's  plans.' 2  Needless 
to  say  Mr.  Disraeli's  Government  was  not  in  a  hurry  to 
bring  any  of  these  Bills  out  of  the  Scottish  members'  pockets 
or  heads. 

When  the  Parliament  ended  he  was  in  danger  of  being 
ticketed  and  put  away  as  a  serviceable  member  of  the 
official  kind,  a  man  devoted  to  one  subject,  who  might  be 
relied  upon  to  vote  straight  and  serve  his  party  faithfully, 

1  July  13,  1874,  s  March  14,  1877. 


48   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL -BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    and  in  due  course  to  mount  through  grades  of  Under- 
Secretaryships  to  a  Cabinet  position,  which  he  would  fill 


8-1880.  respectably  in  his  declining  years.  He  was  judged  a  com- 
petent speaker  with  a  dash  of  humour  which  relieved  the 
dullness  of  his  chosen  topics,  and  he  had  given  satisfactory 
evidence  of  being  a  good  party  man  with  a  leaning  to 
advanced  opinions.  But  in  Parliament  at  all  events  he  had 
taken  no  part  in  the  raging  controversies  of  these  times,  nor 
had  he  joined  with  the  Radical  frondeurs,  Chamberlain  and 
Dilke,  in  any  of  the  forcing  operations  which  established 
their  claims  as  men  of  the  hour.  He  was  universally 
popular  and  had  made  a  wide  circle  of  friendly  acquaint- 
ances, but,  unlike  other  young  men,  he  stood  aloof  from 
political  friendships  and  joined  none  of  the  groups  which 
revolved  about  the  rising  or  setting  suns  on  the  front  bench. 
He  was  thought  to  be  rather  indolent  and  devoid  of  ambi- 
tion, as  indeed  he  was.  Of  the  young  men  of  his  time,  few 
in  1880  would  have  been  thought  less  likely  than  he  to 
qualify  in  the  future  for  the  position  of  Prime  Minister, 
and  none  would  have  been  more  astonished  than  himself 
if  some  magician  could  have  promised  him  this  prize. 


CHAPTER  IV 
ARMY,  NAVY,  AND  IRELAND 

The  1880  Parliament — In  the  Old  Office  again — Recruiting 
Problems — Childers'  Reforms — Financial  Secretary  to  the 
Admiralty — The  Truth  about  the  Navy — A  Letter  to  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer— Impressions  of  a  Private  Secre- 
tary— Lord  Northbrook's  Testimonial — Irish  Chief  Secretary- 
ship— Doubts  and  Hesitations — Ambiguous  Congratulations 
—Qualifications  as  Chief  Secretary — Doubts  about  '  the 
Lodge  ' — First  Visit  to  Ireland. 


I 


T  was  evident  at  the  end  of  the  1874  Parliament  that    CHAP. 
Campbell-Bannerman  (as  he  now  was)  had  suffered 


some  of  the  drawbacks  which  beset  young  men  who  /ET-  44"48- 
accept  minor  office  at  the  beginning  of  their  careers.  When 
he  had  been  appointed  Financial  Secretary  to  the  War  Office 
in  1871,  an  enthusiastic  supporter  in  the  Stirling  Burghs 
had  hailed  him  as  a  future  Prime  Minister  on  the  strength 
of  it.  In  1879  he  had  critics  in  the  Burghs  who  doubted 
if  the  kind  of  office  he  was  likely  to  be  offered  would  justify 
the  loss  of  the  independence  which  they  thought  proper 
in  their  representative,  and  at  a  meeting  in  Dunfermline 
in  1879  he  was  sharply  heckled  as  to  whether  he  should 
accept  office,  if  offered  it  in  the  new  Parliament.  He 
returned  a  characteristically  canny  answer  : — 

It  will  depend  first  of  all  upon  the  constituencies  of  the 
country  whether  they  return  a  Liberal  majority,  and  then 
upon  Her  Majesty  the  Queen  whether  she  will  ask  the  Liberal 
leaders  to  form  a  Government ;  then  upon  the  Liberal  leaders 
whether  they  will  consider  me  worthy  of  being  taken  into  the 
Government,  and  then  upon  myself  whether  I  will  consider  it 
worth  my  while  to  go  in. 

The  1880  election  left  no  doubt  about  the  first  three  of 
VOL,  i.  D 


5o  SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP     these   conditions   having  been   fulfilled/  but  there  was   a 
JX__  reasonable  doubt  among  his  friends  about  the  fourth.     Was 
^4.  it  worth  while  for  him  to  go  back  after  nine  years  1 

modest  Financial  Secretaryship  with  which  he  started  in 
1871  and  to  accept  the  very  subordinate  position  whic 
the  holder  of  this  post  occupies  when  his  Chief  is  in  ^ 
Commons  ?      Men  like  Chamberlain  and  Dilke,  who  had 
come  into  Parliament  five  or  six  years  later  than  he  had 
were  actually  storming  the  Cabinet  while  he  was  offered 
a  humble  place  in  the  basement.     The  answer  was    quite 
truthfully,  that  he  never  for  a  moment  compared  hims 
with  these  performers  or  dreamt  of  a  career  in 
flight      He  was  of  the  happy  and  easy-going  disposition 
which  takes  what  comes  without  disappointment  or  jealoi 
and   with  all  the  talents  waiting  to  be  placed  in  the  new 
Government,  he  was  well  satisfied  that  a  niche  of  any  kind 
should  be  found  for  him.     He  therefore  accepted  without 
demur  when  Mr.  Gladstone  proposed  that  he  should  return 
to  his  old  position  at  the  War  Office,  and  if  he  had  greater 
expectations,  no  one  knew  of  them.     His  Chief  was  now 
Mr  Cbilders,  a  steady  and  rather  rigid  administrator  of 
old  school  who  had  the  great  merit,  from  Campbell-Banner- 
man's  point  of  view,  of  being  a  sound  Cardwelhan. 
Childers  he  always  spoke  with  appreciation  and  respect, 
and  since  it  is  on  record  that  Childers  described  him  as 
having  '  nerves  of  iron/  2  when  he  was  appointed 
Secretary  for  Ireland  in  1884,  he  must  have  shown  s 
qualities  as  an  administrator  which  Under-Secretanes  , 
not  usually  have  an  opportunity  of  displaying. 

The  period  from  1880  to  1882  was  not  an  easy  one 
the  War  Office.    The  many  little  wars  of  the  previous 
Administration,  the  troubles  in  the  Transvaal  and  Zulu- 
land,   the  increasing  demands  from  India,  the  unre 

i  His  own  re-election  for  the  Stirling  Burghs  was  practically  un°PPosed 
at  this  election"     His  Conservative  opponent,  Sir  James  Gibson-M .utland 
withdrew  between  nomination  day  and  polling  day  and  receive* 
1 42  votes  to  CampbeU-Bannerman's  2900. 

«  Life  of  Childers,  by  his  son  Lt.-Col.  Spencer  Childers,  n.  190. 


AGAIN  IN  OFFICE  51 

Egypt  and  the  necessity  for  providing  first  for  the  cam-    CHAP. 
paign  against  Arabi  and  after  it  for  the  Army  of  Occupation,  v_ 


threw  a  severe  strain  on  the  recruiting  and  drafting  ^T>  44~48' 
systems,  and  the  Cardwellians  were  once  more  on  the 
defensive.  General  Roberts  on  his  return  from  India 
declared  publicly  at  a  Mansion  House  banquet,  that  short 
service  was  a  mistake  and  specially  inapplicable  to  India. 
The  '  boy  regiments,'  he  said,  had  without  exception 
broken  down  in  the  Afghan  campaign,  and  if  his  army  had 
been  composed  of  only  short-service  men,  it  would  un- 
doubtedly have  been  annihilated.  Sir  Garnet  Wolseley 
was  of  the  opposite  opinion  and  declared  that  his  experience 
of  the  '  boy  soldiers  '  in  the  Zulu  war  was  exactly  the  reverse 
of  General  Roberts's  in  Afghanistan.  Mr.  Childers  met  his 
critics  with  a  reform  scheme  (introduced  on  March  3,  1881), 
which  raised  the  minimum  age  of  recruiting  to  nineteen 
and  laid  down  that  no  man  should  be  sent  to  India  before 
the  age  of  twenty.  The  period  of  enlistment  was  now 
fixed  at  twelve  years,  as  a  rule  seven  with  the  colours 
at  home  and  abroad,  and  five  in  the  reserve.  At  the 
same  time  Childers  carried  Cardwell's  principle  of  localisa- 
tion to  its  logical  conclusion  by  abolishing  numbers  and 
substituting  county  designations  for  regiments,  and  by 
grouping  militia  battalions  with  battalions  of  the  line  in 
territorial  regiments.  But  the  reform  which  most  struck 
the  popular  imagination  and  which  is  most  likely  to  be 
associated  with  Mr.  Childers'  name  was  the  total  abolition 
of  flogging  as  a  punishment  in  the  Army. 

The  Financial  Secretary  heartily  concurred  in  these 
measures  and  earned  the  approval  of  his  Chief  as  an 
'  excellent  economist  and  administrator.'  1  He  also  sat 
long  hours  as  Chairman  of  the  '  Coast  Brigade  Committee/ 
whose  labours  ended  in  reducing  these  establishments  and 
making  an  equivalent  addition  to  the  Garrison  Artillery. 
But,  except  as  having  answered  a  few  unimportant  questions, 
his  name  does  not  appear  in  Hansard  during  this  period  ; 
and  for  honour  and  glory  he  had  to  be  content  with  an 

1  Life  of  Childers,  ii.  166. 


52   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    increasing  reputation  in  the  inner  circle  as  a  man  who  was 
placed  below  his  capacities. 


1880-1884. 

ii 

In  May  1882,  after  the  murder  of  Lord  Frederick  Caven- 
dish, Mr.  Trevelyan  was  appointed  Chief  Secretary  for 
Ireland,  and  Campbell-Bannerman  succeeded  him  as  Parlia- 
mentary and  Financial  Secretary  to  the  Admiralty.  What- 
ever may  be  the  respective  ranks  in  the  hierarchy  of  the 
military  and  naval  secretaryships,  this  change  was  for 
practical  purposes  promotion,  and  as  Mr.  Gladstone 
said  in  proposing  it,  it  offered  him  an  '  increased  scope 
for  parliamentary  action  and  exertion.'  His  Chief,  Lord 
Northbrook,  being  in  another  place,  he  now  for  the  first 
time  became  answerable  for  a  great  Department  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  his  position  inside  the  Department 
was  undoubtedly  enhanced  by  this  circumstance.  During 
the  two  years  and  more  that  he  filled  this  place,  the  Navy 
was  the  subject  of  a  formidable  agitation  in  Parliament 
and  the  country.  Our  principal  naval  competitor  in  these 
days  was  France,  and  it  was  vehemently  alleged  that  while 
we  remained  stagnant  and  stationary,  she  was  gradually 
overhauling  us  and  would  shortly  be  our  equal  if  not  even 
our  superior  in  naval  power.  In  September  1884  the  Pall 
Mall  Gazette  launched  its  '  Truth  about  the  Navy/  a  series 
of  spirited  articles  by  Mr.  W.  T.  Stead,  who  argued  that 
we  were  spending  less  on  the  Navy  than  in  the  year  1868, 
though  in  the  interval  our  trade  and  wealth  had  increased 
by  40  per  cent,  and  our  shipping  by  30  per  cent.  ;  that  the 
French  expenditure  was  dangerously  near  ours  ;  that  our 
guns  were  inferior  to  the  French  both  in  weight  and  power  ; 
that  the  number  of  our  torpedo  boats  was  quite  inadequate, 
that  our  coaling  stations  and  many  of  our  home  ports  were 
practically  undefended ;  that  our  squadrons  in  various 
parts  of  the  world  were  inferior  to  those  of  our  rivals  ;  and 
that  these  rivals  actually  had  more  sailors  and  a  larger 
naval  reserve.  This  storm  was  brewing  from  the  time  that 
Campbell-Bannerman  took  up  his  duties,  and  on  both 


AT  THE  ADMIRALTY  53 

the  occasions   that  he  presented  his  estimates  he  found    CHAP. 
himself  exposed  to  a  fire  of  expert  criticism  which  arraigned 


his  Department  not  for  its  extravagance,  but  for  its  skimp-  ^ Tt  44"48' 
ing  and  dangerous  economy. 

He  was  adroit  and  good-humoured  in  face  of  these  attacks, 
and  impressed  the  House  with  his  easy  mastery  of  facts 
and  figures.  In  1883  he  announced  firmly  that  the  Govern- 
ment refused  to  '  rush  into  a  new  era  of  shipbuilding/  and 
loyally  defended  the  official  programme.  In  1884  he 
strongly  resisted  Sir  John  Hay's  motion  to  '  inquire  into 
the  condition  of  the  iron-clad  navy/  and  again  warmly 
defended  both  the  Government  programme  and  the  organisa- 
tion of  the  Navy  against  Sir  Edward  Reed's  attacks.  His 
Chief,  Lord  Northbrook,  was  roundly  accused  by  the  critics 
of  somnolence  and  apathy  ;  and  he  certainly  had  a  very 
strong  aversion  to  entering  upon  what  he  called  a  '  game  of 
beggar  my  neighbour '  with  France.  He  was  also  greatly 
impressed  with  the  difficulty  of  designing  any  sort  of  ship 
which,  in  the  rapid  changes  of  naval  construction,  might 
not  be  out  of  date  before  it  was  launched.  Upon  both 
these  points  and  upon  the  whole  question  of  what  we  should 
now  call  capital  ships,  Campbell-Bannerman  loyally  sup- 
ported him,  but  he  was  far  from  easy  in  his  mind  about 
certain  other  matters  on  which  he  was  possibly  in  a  position 
to  hear  rather  more  of  naval  opinion  within  the  Admiralty 
than  the  First  Lord. 

Lord  Northbrook  was  in  Egypt  on  an  official  mission 
when  Mr.  Stead  launched  his  attack  in  September  1884, 
but  Campbell-Bannerman  took  it  seriously  from  the  begin- 
ning, and  in  the  absence  of  his  Chief  addressed  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Childers,  who  had  now  become  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  Childers 

Oct.  2,  1884. — I  am  growing  anxious  to  know  what  view  the 
Cabinet  is  likely  to  take  of  the  question  which  has  been  raised 
so  loudly  regarding  the  Navy.  I  wrote  to  Lord  Northbrook 
last  week,  judging  that  although  he  is  not  to  be  troubled  about 


54  SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    ordinary  Admiralty  matters,  he  ought  to  be  consulted  on  the 
,  general  Party-question  of  naval  policy  which  is  now  being  dis- 


1880-1884.  cussed.  But  I  see  that  he  has  gone  to  Upper  Egypt,  so  that  it 
may  be  some  time  before  he  can  reply  ;  and  it  is  not  to  be 
expected  that  he  will  give  any  detailed  statement  of  opinion. 
In  fact  what  I  asked  him  for  was  only  an  indication  of  the  line 
I  should  take  in  a  speech  I  have  to  make  10  days  hence  at 
Dumfries. 

It  seems  to  us  to  be  nearly  certain  that  the  subject  will  be 
brought  up  when  Parliament  meets,  probably  by  an  Amendment 
to  the  Address  ;  and  although  I  do  not  believe  that  the  hysterical 
excitement  of  the  P.M.  Gazette  extends  far  beyond  London, 
there  is  sufficient  interest  and  anxiety  felt  in  the  country  to 
prevent  the  question  being  shelved  or  poohpoohed. 

Taking  the  different  branches  of  Imperial  Maritime  Defence 
which  the  P.M.  article  enumerated,  there  are  two  which  do  not 
affect  Navy  Estimates,  and  these  are  perhaps  the  two  upon 
which  the  case  as  put  before  public  consideration  is  most 
striking  :  viz.  the  supply  of  guns,  and  the  fortification  of  coaling 
stations  and  harbours  abroad.  Of  these,  as  they  do  not  directly 
concern  the  Admiralty,  I  need  say  nothing. 

Of  the  directly  Naval  Expenditure  I  think  I  correctly  state 
the  general  feelings  of  the  professional  members  of  the  Board 
when  I  say  that  they  consider  that  it  should  be  increased  by  half 
a  million  to  a  million.  It  is  the  iron-clad  Fleet  that  is  generally 
most  discussed  in  the  House  of  Commons,  but  I  do  not  think  it 
is  on  this  that  my  colleagues  would  spend  the  greater  part  of 
the  money  if  they  had  it.  We  have  always  deprecated  in 
Parliament  any  comparison,  ship  by  ship  or  class  by  class,  with 
France,  and  my  impression  is  that  our  opponents  have  not  made 
much  of  this  part  of  their  case  so  far  as  iron-clads  are  concerned  ; 
although  it  may  be  that  a  period  has  come,  or  is  coming,  when 
owing  to  the  definite  programme  the  French  have  been  recently 
working  up  to,  our  margin  of  superiority  may  be  for  the  moment 
less  than  it  should  be.  When  their  programme  is  accomplished, 
we  should,  of  course,  by  going  on  steadily  year  by  year,  recover 
our  ground.  It  is  a  matter  of  opinion.  Probably  if  a  couple 
of  2nd  class  iron-clads  were  ordered  by  contract,  and  the  building 
of  ships  in  progress  in  the  dockyards  hastened  as  far  as  was 
consistent  with  the  economical  administration  of  the  Yards,  the 
Naval  Lords  would  be  satisfied.  It  is  in  the  sea-going  torpedo 
vessels  and  torpedo  boats  that  they  consider  that  we  are  especi- 
ally deficient.  The  latter,  it  is  true,  can  on  an  emergency  be 


THE  '  TRUTH  ABOUT  THE  NAVY '   55 

turned  out  in  this  country  with  a  facility  which  exists  nowhere    CHAP. 
else,  but  allowing  for  this  we  ought  to  be  provided  with  a  larger  .     1V-     . 
number  than  we  have.      There  are  also  gun-fittings,  fittings  for  -*T.  44-48. 
merchant  vessels  ;  and  (a  point  much  urged)  we  have  not  nearly 
means  enough  in  the  country  of  manufacturing  torpedoes. 

I  am  not  writing  by  authority  on  the  part  of  the  Naval  Lords, 
but  merely  indicating  what  I  have  gathered  to  be  their  general 
view  ;  and  in  a  great  part  of  it  I  am  disposed  to  concur.  I  am 
bound  to  add  that  I  have  found  no  trace  in  the  Board  of  sympathy 
with  the  scare,  as  it  finds  expression  in  the  newspapers,  excepting 
in  so  far  as  these  deficiencies  exist. 

If  the  question  is  raised  in  the  House  when  it  meets,  it  will,  of 
course,  be  necessary  for  the  Government  to  have  a  definite 
answer  to  give.  I  think  W.  H.  Smith's  suggestion  of  a  Com- 
mittee has  been  coldly  received,  but  the  Opposition  will  support 
a  motion  insisting  on  the  Navy  being  strengthened,  and  whatever 
its  motive  may  be  (as  to  which  I  have  my  ideas)  many  of  our 
people  will  join  them.  I  may  mention  H.  H.  Fowler,  who 
writing  to  me  on  another  subject  says,  '  an  increased  shipbuilding 
vote  will  have  the  support  of  the  Radical  Economists  ' :  and 
you  will  have  observed  that  Labouchere  takes  the  same 
line.  On  the  other  hand,  Richard  and  the  peace  party  will 
oppose  anything  like  yielding  to  a  panic  ;  and  he  tells  me 
he  is  contemplating  an  immediate  reprint  of  Cobden's  Three 
Panics. 

I  thought  it  best  to  write  to  you,  as  it  will  be  necessary  to  be 
fore-armed,  and  I  should  be  glad  to  have  some  idea  of  the  attitude 
the  Government  will  assume  on  the  matter.  This  must  be  my 
excuse  for  troubling  you  with  so  long  a  letter. 

It  was  perhaps  sufficient  daring  for  an  Under-Secretary, 
in  the  absence  of  his  Chief,  to  approach  the  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer  with  a  proposal  that  the  estimates  of  his 
Department  should  be  increased  by  'half  a  million  to  a 
million.'  In  those  less  spacious  days  Chancellors  of  the 
Exchequer  fought  desperate  battles  with  Departments  over  a 
thousand  pounds.  But  the  Cabinet,  as  it  turned  out,  was 
by  this  time  thoroughly  roused,  and,  without  waiting  for 
the  First  Lord's  return,  announced  a  naval  programme 
requiring  a  supplementary  estimate  of  £3,000,000.  The 
Parliamentary  Secretary  heartily  concurred,  but  before  the 


56  SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    new  scheme  was   far   advanced   he   had   been   moved   to 
another  sphere. 


0-1884  j  am  mciebted  t0  gjr  Gordon  Voules,  who  was  his  private 
secretary  during  these  two  years,  for  certain  impressions  of 
him  at  this  time.  He  struck  those  who  served  him  as 
having  a  peculiarly  felicitous  knack  of  expressing  himself, 
whether  in  writing  or  in  conversation.  But  he  never 
wrote  letters  or  made  speeches  if  he  could  help  it.  In  pre- 
ference to  writing  he  would  ask  his  secretary  to  lunch  or 
to  dinner,  or  to  '  look  in  at  6  Grosvenor  Place  '  on  his  way 
to  the  office.  He  had  a  rooted  objection  to  advertising 
himself,  and  one  of  his  favourite  expressions  was,  '  I  don't 
think  we  need  publish  this  urbi  et  orbi.'  He  had  the  reputa- 
tion of  taking  life  easily,  but  he  had  a  remarkably  methodical 
mind,  which  enabled  him  to  get  through  the  maximum  of 
work  with  the  minimum  of  labour,  either  mental  or  physical. 
While  in  London  he  took  no  exercise  and  never  walked 
if  he  could  avoid  it,  but  he  loved  a  week-end  at  Dover,  and 
spent  a  large  part  of  it  sitting  on  the  end  of  the  pier.  He 
was  extremely  hospitable,  and  there  were  no  better  dinners 
or  kinder  host  and  hostess  than  at  6  Grosvenor  Place.  But 
his  own  habits  were  carefully  abstemious,  and  he  used  to 
say  that  his  mineral  water  bill  cost  him  far  more  than  all 
the  wine  he  drank  in  the  year.  When  he  went  to  Scotland, 
the  general  impression  was  that  he  left  his  work  behind 
him,  but  this  was  far  from  true.  He  spent  long  hours  pre- 
paring naval  statistics  and  memoranda  for  the  Cabinet, 
and  sometimes  drove  his  keepers  to  despair  by  remaining 
indoors  with  his  figures  when  they  were  expecting  him  to 
come  out  with  his  guests. 

He  took  special  pains  with  Labour  questions  and  arranged 
a  system  of  annual  visits  to  the  dockyards  to  hear  per- 
sonally the  grievances  of  the  men,  instead  of  waiting  for 
them  to  send  petitions  to  the  Admiralty.  He  was  entirely 
at  home  in  these  visitations,  and  his  wife,  who  always  accom- 
panied him,  greatly  interested  herself  in  the  conditions  of 
the  women-workers,  who  were  then  chiefly  employed  in 
the  sail-lofts.  Another  and  different  kind  of  grievance  for 


SOME  CHARACTERISTICS  57 

which  he  obtained  redress  was  that  arising  out  of  the  in-    CHAP. 
adequate   spiritual  services   for   Roman   Catholics   in    the 


Fleet.  He  sent  his  private  secretary  round  the  naval  'Er<  44~48' 
stations  to  obtain  particulars  of  each  case,  and  then  acted 
at  once  in  his  usual  business-like  way.  One  of  his  improve- 
ments was  the  building  of  a  small  Roman  Catholic  church 
at  Portsmouth,  to  the  great  relief  of  the  padre  who  had 
previously  to  hold  his  services  in  two  old  hulks  moored 
together  in  the  harbour.  He  had  the  satisfaction  of  proving 
that  this  was  actually  an  economy,  for  the  church  cost  little 
to  build,  and  it  was  very  expensive  to  keep  the  hulks  in 
repair. 

The  general  impression  of  him  was  of  a  very  simple  and 
kindly-dispositioned  man  who  was  never  known  to  lose  his 
temper  or  be  seriously  put  out.  When  he  first  appeared 
at  the  Admiralty,  the  disposition  on  the  naval  side  was  to 
regard  him  as  just  another  Radical  sent  to  '  cut  'em  down,' 
but  they  quickly  learnt  that,  though  always  an  economist, 
he  could  be  relied  upon  to  fight  tooth  and  nail  for  anything 
that  they  convinced  him  was  essential.  On  hearing  of  his 
transfer  to  Ireland,  Lord  Northbrook  wrote  from  Cairo  : — 

Lord  Northbrook  to  Campbell- Banner  man 

CAIRO,  Oct.  20,  1884. — I  am  in  despair  at  hearing  from  a  tele- 
gram from  Mr.  Gladstone  that  you  are  going  to  leave  the  Admir- 
alty for  Ireland.  I  suppose  I  ought  to  congratulate  you,  as  the 
position  is  one  of  the  most  important  in  the  Government  and  it 
is  a  real  privilege  for  any  one  to  have  to  work  with  Spencer. 
But  it  is  a  severe  loss  to  us  all.  No  one  of  the  secretaries  I  have 
had,  and  they  have  been  very  good  ones,  has  helped  me  more 
than  you,  or  filled  better  the  place  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
I  can  assure  you  that  I  am  greatly  indebted  to  you,  not  only  for 
this  but  for  the  sound  advice  you  have  so  often  given  me,  and 
the  excellent  tact  you  have  invariably  shown  in  all  your  relations 
with  our  Naval  colleagues.  You  may  feel  assured  that  you 
have  made  your  mark  at  the  Admiralty,  and  that  you  will  be 
very  much  missed  there. 

When  he  left  the  Admiralty  he  sent  his  secretary  a  tie- 
pin  of  cat's-eye  set  in  diamonds,  saying  that  he  had  chosen 


58   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    the  stone  as  an  acknowledgment  of  the  '  cat's  eye  vigilance 

/     -  with  which  you  have  helped  me  to  run  Admiralty  finances.' 

0-1884.  jne  secretary's  last  service  to  him  was  to  buy  him  a  small 

pocket-revolver  to  take  with  him  to  Ireland — a  weapon 

which,  as  Sir  Gordon  Voules  adds,  he  never  had  the  slightest 

intention  of  using. 

in 

By  October  1884,  change  and  promotion  seemed  to  be 
exhausted  for  this  Parliament,  and  the  Secretary  to  the 
Admiralty  had  laid  his  plans  for  a  quiet  month  by  the  sea 
with  his  wife  at  Thurston,  near  Dunbar.  This  agreeable 
plan  was  interrupted  by  a  telegram  from  Lord  Spencer 
early  in  the  morning  of  the  I3th,  begging  him  to  meet  him 
at  Edinburgh  the  following  day,  '  either  at  the  Balmoral 
Hotel  before  one  or  later  at  Dalmeny.'  Lord  Spencer  was 
staying  at  Hawarden,  and  '  Mr.  Gladstone,'  he  added  in 
his  telegram,  '  wants  me  to  see  you  on  important  business.' 
There  was  no  disobeying  such  a  summons,  and  Campbell- 
Bannerman  was  at  the  hotel  before  one.  Lord  Spencer 
went  straight  to  the  point.  Sir  George  Trevelyan  was 
quitting  Ireland,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  wished  Mr.  Campbell- 
Bannerman  to  succeed  him.  The  proposal  appears  to 
have  come  as  an  unwelcome  shock  to  the  recipient  of  it, 
and  he  was  decidedly  of  opinion  that  he  ought  not  to  accept 
it.  He  mistrusted  his  capacities  ;  all  that  he  knew  of 
Irish  administration  led  him  to  regard  it  with  suspicion 
and  dislike.  Lord  Spencer  was  persuasive,  but  for  the 
time  being  without  avail.  Campbell-Bannerman  promised 
to  take  a  day  to  consider,  but  scarcely  left  the  result  in 
doubt.  He  did  not  even  take  the  day,  but  wrote  within 
three  hours  to  close  the  door  :- 

To  Lord  Spencer 

Monday  (Oct.  14). — I  quite  appreciate  your  wish  to  know  as 
soon  as  possible  my  answer  on  the  subject  of  our  conversation, 
and  therefore  I  will  not  wait  till  to-morrow  as  I  said  I  should. 
On  thinking  the  matter  over  quietly  and  taking  as  clear  a  view 


IRISH  CHIEF  SECRETARY  59 

of  it  as  I  can,  I  am  only  confirmed  in  the  opinion  I  expressed  to    CHAP. 
you  that  it  would  not  be  wise  for  me  to  accept  the  office.     I       IV 


know  the  limit  of  my  own  capacities,  and  I  should  be  greatly  ^T-  44-48. 
afraid  that  I  should  fail  to  discharge  my  duties  successfully,  and 
at  the  same  time  I  confess  I  should  be  hampered  by  want  of 
belief  in  the  system  I  was  called  upon  to  defend.  I  feel  most 
deeply  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Gladstone  in  thinking  me  fit  for  so 
important  a  position,  and  I  have  every  wish  to  be  of  use  in  any 
way  to  him  and  also  to  yourself  with  all  the  difficulties  you  have 
to  meet.  But  I  do  not  wish  to  undertake  duties  which  I  have 
reason  to  fear  I  should  insufficiently  discharge. 

I  cannot  thank  you  too  warmly  for  having  sent  for  me  to-day 
and  having  discussed  the  matter  with  me  in  so  kindly  a  manner. 

To  this  Lord  Spencer  replied  the  same  day  :— 

Lord  Spencer  to  Campbell-Banner  man 

Oct.  14. — I  am  extremely  obliged  to  you  for  the  expeditious 
way  in  which  you  sent  your  answer  to  me,  but  I  very  much 
regret  its  nature.  I  flattered  myself  that  you  might  (notwith- 
standing your  modest  diffidence  and  your  want  of  faith  in  the 
system  of  Irish  Government)  have  consented  to  try  and  work 
with  me  in  Ireland. 

But  I  must  not  press  you  more.  I  will  send  your  letter  to 
Mr.  Gladstone,  and  all  I  ask  of  you  is  this,  if  after  a  night's  reflec- 
tion you  feel  justified  in  arriving  at  a  different  conclusion,  pray 
telegraph  at  once  to  Mr.  Gladstone  at  Hawarden  and  to  me  at 
Ballater  or  Perth  some  words  like  '  Ready  to  meet  you,'  which 
I  will  understand  and  will  prepare  him  for  also. 

Whether  he  was  softened  by  this  appeal — who  indeed  would 
not  have  been  ? — or  whether  '  the  authority  '  to  whom  the 
case  was  no  doubt  referred  gave  her  vote  for  acceptance, 
can  only  be  guessed,  but  the  signal  was  given  both  to  Mr. 
Gladstone  and  to  Lord  Spencer. 

Campbell-Banner  man  to  Lord  Spencer 

THURSTON,  DUNBAR,  Oct.  15. — I  have  telegraphed  to  you  and 
to  Mr.  Gladstone  in  the  terms  you  suggested.  I  was  unable  to 
do  so  after  receiving  your  letter  in  the  course  of  the  day  yester- 
day ;  and  if  it  is  now  too  late  and  other  arrangements  are  in 
progress,  pray  consider  my  present  action  as  set  aside. 


60   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.  I  could  not  sooner  make  up  my  mind  to  get  over  the  feeling 
t  IV-  ,  I  explained  to  you  in  Edinburgh,  but  I  am  now  ready  to  put 
1880-1884.  myself  at  your  disposal,  and  I  have  told  Mr.  Gladstone. 

Whatever  comes  of  it,  I  am  greatly  obliged  to  you  for  your 
kindness. 

I  write  in  great  haste  for  an  early  post. 

Mr.  Gladstone,  having  apparently  not  been  prepared,  was 
puzzled.  '  Do  the  words  "  meet  you  "  mean  an  affirma- 
tive,' he  telegraphed  back,  '  if  so,  it  is  in  time,  reply  forth- 
with please.'  The  affirmative  was  despatched  without 
further  delay,  and  the  next  morning  brought  another  letter 
from  Lord  Spencer,  expressing  lively  satisfaction,  and 
declaring  his  complete  confidence  that  the  new  Under- 
secretary would  '  fill  the  post  admirably.'  '  You  may  be 
sure,'  he  wrote,  '  I  shall  use  my  utmost  endeavours  to  help 
you  in  your  difficult  task.  We  shall  be  in  relations  to  each 
other  which  need  complete  confidence  and  trust  in  each 
other,  and  I  hope  you  will  never  have  to  complain  that  I 
have  failed  in  these  respects.  We  may  often  have  to  ask 
indulgence  of  each  other,  for  I  know  that  in  my  duties  I 
sometimes  must  act  without  the  power  of  consulting  you, 
but  if  this  happens,  it  will  be  from  no  desire  on  my  part  to 
act  alone.' 

In  1884,  as  later,  the  Chief  Secretaryship  for  Ireland  was 
justly  considered  the  most  thankless  position  in  the  Govern- 
ment, and  the  Phosnix  Park  murders  were  recent  enough 
to  add  to  it,  in  the  general  estimation,  a  considerable  spice 
of  personal  danger.  Within  four  years  it  had  wrecked  the 
career  of  one  very  considerable  man,  and  was  popularly 
supposed  to  have  bleached  the  hair  of  another.  The  offer 
of  such  a  place  without  Cabinet  rank  at  a  moment  when 
the  Cabinet  was  notoriously  divided  about  the  proper 
method  of  discharging  its  duties  was  scarcely  a  call  to 
ambition,  and  could  not  be  attractive  to  a  man  of  genial 
disposition,  who  was  supposed  to  value  ease  and  the  quiet 
life.  The  letters  of  congratulation  which  followed  the 
public  announcement  reflected  the  common  opinion  and 
chimed  in  with  his  own  mood.  One  old  friend  sent  '  a  few 


A  BED  OF  NETTLES  61 

words  of  sincere  condolence  '  on  his  '  conspicuous  act  of    CHAP. 
self-sacrifice   and  public  spirit.'     '  A  bed  of  nettles/   ex-      IV' 


claimed  another  ;    '  it  will  be  disagreeable,  but  you  will  ^T-  44"48' 
come    out    of    it  with  flying   colours/    consoles    a   third. 
Lord    Wolseley,    then    on    the    way    to    Khartoum,    sent 
greetings  from  a  '  far-off  oasis  in  the  midst  of  the  great 
desert/    adding   much  well-meant   advice    from   an  Irish- 
man  about  the   proper  way   to   treat   the    Irish.     '  Your 
acceptance  of  the  position/  he  wrote,  '  shows  you  have  a 
stout  heart — the  finest  qualification  for  dealing  with  my 
countrymen  ;    the  next  a  strong  hand  wielded  under  the 
dictation  of  the  most  kindly  disposition  and  with  a  sym- 
pathy for  the  faults,  failings  and  weakness  of  the  Celtic 
race.     The  hand  must  have  a  glove  on,  but  the  man  who 
feels  it  must  feel  in  his  heart  that  it  can  and  will  hit  him 
hard,  if  hitting  is  required.  .  .  .  The  task  before  you  is  more 
difficult  than  that  of  taking  a  small  army  to  Khartoum.     I 
can  knock  my  enemy  down  whenever  he  dares  to  oppose, 
whereas  your  hands  are  tied  by  a  form  of  constitution  not 
meant  or  suited  for  the  management  of  a  country  like 
Ireland/     '  I  hardly  like  to  say  how  much  I  rejoice  that 
such  a  man  as  you  is  to  take  the  place/  wrote  Sir  George 
Trevelyan  from  the  Chief  Secretary's  Lodge.     '  Formidable 
as  it  looks,  it  is  a  possible  place  and  the  thing  to  avoid  is 
the  same  man  holding  it  too  long.'      From  his  own  people 
came  a  chorus  of  applause.     The  Town  Council  of  Stirling 
sent  him  a  congratulatory  address,  expressing  the  '  hearty 
satisfaction  and  pride  of  politicians  of  all  shades  of  opinion  ' 
in  the  constituency,  and  declaring  them  to  be  united  in  the 
hope  that  '  his  valuable  life  may  be  preserved  from  danger 
and  that  by  his  good  temper,  good  sense,  and  commanding 
intellectual  ability,  he  may  in  his  new  sphere  earn  fresh 
laurels  in  addition  to  those  he  already  so  worthily  wears/ 
Dunfermline  followed  with  an  equally  cordial  appreciation. 
From  these  felicitations  we  may  infer  something  of  his 
reputation  at  this  time.     He  was  judged  to  have  a  good 
temper,  good  sense,  a  stout  heart,  and  greater  abilities  than 
he  had  yet  had  an  opportunity  of  showing.     But  what 


62   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    specially   commended   him    to    Mr.    Gladstone    and   Lord 
Spencer  was   the  serene  imperturbability  with  which  he 


1880-1884.  was  generally  credited  by  officials  and  members  of  Parlia- 
ment. At  a  time  when  the  baiting  of  Chief  Secretaries  had 
been  raised  to  a  fine  art  by  the  Nationalists,  and  when 
obstructionists  rejoiced  to  find  victims  who  would  quiver 
under  their  lash,  it  was  imperative  to  appoint  a  man  who 
would  keep  a  cool  head  and  an  even  temper,  and  not  regard 
the  position  as  an  opportunity  for  histrionic  displays  or 
self-advertisement.  Campbell-Bannerman  understood  what 
was  wanted  and  cheerfully  complied.  He  was  quite  aware 
that  Irish  policy,  in  the  large  sense,  was  in  the  hands  of 
Lord  Spencer  and  the  Cabinet,  and  that,  as  Chief  Secretary, 
he  would  be  expected  to  play  a  subordinate  part.  Lord 
Spencer  was  the  last  man  to  let  this  appear  either  in  their 
public  or  private  relations,  and  from  the  first  he  was  all 
courtesy  and  equality.  Within  a  fortnight  he  was  con- 
gratulating his  new  colleague  on  his  minutes,  and  apologis- 
ing for  the  abruptness  of  his  own.  '  I  like  extremely  your 
minutes,  they  are  clear,  comprehensive  and  short.  While 
on  this  subject  of  mutual  minutes,  I  should  like  to  say  that 
I  often  minute  more  conclusively  than  I  properly  ought 
before  you  have  given  your  opinion.  I  often  did  this  to 
save  time  and  Trevelyan  trouble.  But  I  am  always  ready 
to  modify  or  withdraw  my  minute,  if  you  show  good  reason 
against  my  view.'  The  Chief  Secretary  modestly  replied 
that  he  too  would  always  be  glad  to  be  '  convinced  or  upset/ 
and  added  a  word  about  a  '  trumpery  matter.' 

I  see  you  are  already  tired,  as  I  have  long  been,  of  writing  my 
horrid  long  name.  I  am  always  best  pleased  to  be  called  Camp- 
bell tout  court,  and  most  of  my  old  friends  do  so  :  Childers,  for 
instance,  has  been  trained  into  it.  An  alternative  is  C.  B. 

Having  a  private  secretary  whose  initials  also  were  C.  B., 
Lord  Spencer  rejected  the  alternative  and  made  his  own 
abbreviation — H.  C.-B.,  which  was  invariably  used  in  the 
stream  of  letters  which  passed  between  him  and  the  Chief 
Secretary  during  the  next  eight  months.  Lord  Spencer  was 
a  most  faithful  and  copious  correspondent,  and  for  once  in 


DOUBTS  ABOUT  '  THE  LODGE '    63 

his  life  Campbell-Bannerman  wrote  to  the  same  scale  in    CHAP. 
reply,  his  clear  and  careful  handwriting  contrasting  oddly 


with  the  vehement  hieroglyphics  of  the  Viceroy.  ^Tl  44"48' 

At  the  end  of  October  Campbell-Bannerman  wrent  over 
to  Dublin  to  be  sworn  into  office,  but  with  Parliament 
meeting  at  the  beginning  of  November,  his  place  was  at 
Westminster,  and  he  stayed  only  a  few  days.  In  spite  of 
Sir  George  Trevelyan's  assurance  that  he  would  find  the 
'  domestic  arrangements  '  in  '  perfect  order,'  he  appears  to 
have  taken  a  gloomy  view  of  the  Chief  Secretary's  Lodge, 
and  much  correspondence  followed  as  to  its  habitability, 
reports  being  called  for  from  surveyors  and  inspectors, 
which  were  not  forthcoming  till  the  end  of  December.  '  The 
actual  time  of  our  coming  over/  he  tells  Lord  Spencer 
just  before  Christmas,  '  will  depend  on  what  we  hear  of 
the  sanitary  state  of  the  Lodge.  I  have  only  to-day  seen 
Mr.  Griffiths's  report,  and  so  far  as  drains  etc.  are  con- 
cerned, I  think  the  house  can  be  made  habitable  in  a  tem- 
porary way  by  the  introduction  of  a  very  few  changes. 
But  what  to  my  mind  is  more  serious  is  that  the  whole 
water  supply  is  from  a  well  which  is  only  three  yards  from 
the  cesspool.  From  what  Mr.  G.  says,  I  infer  that  the 
cesspools  and  drains  are  mostly  of  brick  or  stone  of  the 
old-fashioned  kind,  with  ample  opportunity  for  leakage. 
If  so,  the  water  must  be  contaminated.  It  is  being  ana- 
lysed, and  I  am  anxiously  waiting  for  the  analysis.  Tainted 
water  is  bad  even  for  horses,  and  I  hesitate  to  send  over 
even  my  fore-runners  until  I  get  some  satisfaction  on  this 
point,  which  is  vital.'  It  is  characteristic  of  him  that  he 
was  much  more  afraid  of  the  cesspool  at  the  Lodge  than 
of  the  knives  and  pistols  which  were  supposed  to  be  lying 
in  wait  for  Chief  Secretaries  in  Dublin. 

He  appears  eventually  to  have  been  satisfied  on  the  vital 
point,  for  he  came  with  his  wife  to  Dublin  in  the  first  week 
of  January  1885,  and  settled  at  the  Chief  Secretary's  Lodge. 
There  they  remained  till  the  middle  of  February,  giving 
dinner-parties,  mixing  freely  in  Dublin  society,  and  attend- 
ing the  Viceregal  functions.  It  is  recorded  that  he  bore 


64   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    the  sword  of  state  at  the  Viceroy's  Levee  in  Dublin  Castle 
on  February  4,  and  that  he  and  his  wife  were  '  in  attend- 


1880-1884.  ^^  on  ^e  Viceroy  and  Countess  Spencer  '  at  the  first 
State  ball  at  the  Castle  on  February  n.  On  the  i6th  he 
went  with  his  wife  to  Belfast,  where  he  was  entertained 
at  lunch  by  the  Ulster  Reform  Club,  and  crossed  thence 
by  Larne  and  Stranraer  to  Glasgow.  After  that  his  parlia- 
mentary duties  required  him  to  be  mainly  in  London,  but 
he  went  again  with  his  wife  to  Dublin  for  the  royal  visit  in 
April,  and  made  one  or  two  other  flying  visits  to  confer 
with  the  Viceroy  and  other  officials. 

True  to  his  invariable  practice,  Campbell-Bannerman 
presented  himself  early  to  his  constituents  and  to  them  made 
his  first  deliverance  on  Irish  affairs.  '  I  had  nothing  to 
say,'  he  characteristically  tells  Lord  Spencer  (December  14), 
'  and  I  think  I  effectively  said  it.  I  had  to  make  some 
allusion  to  Ireland,  and  I  thought  the  most  innocuous  line 
to  take  was  that  suggested  by  the  local  situation,  viz.  that 
if  the  Irish  were  gradually  allowed  to  have  their  own 
way  as  much  as  the  Scotch,  there  would  be  no  inconsist- 
ency or  danger  to  the  Union  in  it.  I  found,  however,  that 
my  countrymen  have  no  interest  in  the  subject  beyond  a 
wish  to  see  the  disloyal  people  put  down  and  kept  down. 
There  is  no  love  lost  between  the  two  countries.' 

That  was  a  fair  summary  of  English  as  well  as  Scottish 
opinion  about  Ireland  in  the  autumn  of  1884. 


o    3 

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CHAPTER  V 

A  STORMY  CHIEF  SECRETARYSHIP 

An  Ominous  New  Fact — Difficulties  of  the  Chief  Secretary— 
A  '  Sufficiently  Dull  Man  '—Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor's  Tribute- 
His  Guiding  Principles — Some  Detestable  Questions — An  Irish 
Education  Bill — Royal  Visit  to  Ireland — The  Renewal  of 
the  Crimes  Act — Cabinet  Differences — Campbell-Bannerman's 
Line — The  Search  for  a  'Judicious  Title '- -The  Proposed 
Land  Bill — Mr.  Gladstone's  Views — Mr.  Chamberlain's  Policy 
— The  Chief  Secretary's  Memorandum — '  Something  like 
Grattan's  Parliament '-  -The  Central  Board  Scheme  and  its 
Rejection — Deadlock  in  the  Cabinet— Fall  of  the  Govern- 
ment— Lord  Spencer's  Tribute  to  Campbell-Bannerman. 


new  Chief  Secretary  had  to  be  sworn  of  the    CHAP. 
Privy  Council  and  re-elected  to  Parliament.     There  -     v" 
was  no  opposition  to  his  return,  but  he  was  techni- 


cally  out  of  Parliament  during  the  long  and  stormy  debate  on 
the  Maamtrasna  executions  with  which  the  session  opened 
on  October  23.  For  three  days  and  nights  the  vials  of  Irish 
wrath  were  poured  out  upon  Lord  Spencer,  who  was  out- 
rageously accused  of  having  insisted  on  the  execution  of  an 
innocent  man,  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  facts  which  proved 
his  innocence.  Englishmen  were  used  to  these  allegations, 
and  the  debate  might  have  passed  like  others  but  for  one 
ominous  new  fact.  This  was  that  the  members  of  the 
Fourth  Party  both  spoke  for  the  Irish  amendment  to  the 
Address,  and  supported  it  in  the  division  lobby,  thereby 
opening  a  new  line  of  country  which  the  Government  could 
not  ignore.  To  their  other  Irish  troubles  had  now  to  be 
added  the  possibility  of  a  combination  between  Toiies  and 
Parnellites  to  their  undoing.  Never  was  there  a  more 
obscure  and  perplexing  situation.  Among  his  own  country- 
men Mr.  Parnell  was  supreme,  and  under  the  new  franchise, 
VOL.  i.  E 


66   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    which  was  now  to  be  extended  to  Ireland,  it  was  all  but 
certain  that  his  followers  would  return  from  eighty-five  to 


1884-1885.  nmety  strong  in  the  new  Parliament.  In  the  meantime, 
British  Radicals  were  in  revolt  against  coercion,  and  the 
Cabinet  itself,  as  appeared  later,  was  desperately  divided 
about  the  renewal  of  the  Crimes  Act  which  expired  in  August 
of  the  coming  year.  These  cross-currents  were  a  standing 
temptation  to  adventurous  spirits  in  the  Opposition. 
English  Tories  were  certainly  not  opposed  to  coercion  in 
Ireland,  but  at  this  moment  they  were  prepared  to  pay 
almost  any  price  to  be  rid  of  Mr.  Gladstone  and  to  prevent 
his  return  to  power  at  the  election  in  the  following  year. 
To  avert  that  unspeakable  calamity  all  means  seemed  justi- 
fiable, and  an  understanding  with  Mr.  Parnell  which  might 
secure  Irish  support  for  the  defeat  of  the  Government  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  thereafter  throw  the  Irish 
vote  on  to  the  Tory  side  in  the  constituencies,  was  certainly 
not  to  be  ruled  out. 

In  these  perilous  circumstances  the  Chief  Secretary 
could  certainly  not  be  a  cipher,  and  his  work  at  Westminster 
was  only  less  important  than  Lord  Spencer's  in  Dublin. 
He  had,  in  fact,  a  highly  complicated  task.  He  had  to 
defend  his  Chief,  to  conciliate  the  Radicals  who  thought 
that  Chief  to  be  a  Whig  coercionist,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  avoid  any  plausible  opening  for  the  fatal  combination 
of  Tories  and  Parnellites.  All  this  he  had  to  do  without 
being  acquainted  with  the  secrets  of  the  Cabinet,  or  admitted 
to  consultation  with  that  august  body.  Lord  Spencer  had 
desired  that  he  should  have  the  Cabinet  key,  but  Mr.  Glad- 
stone saw  grave  objections  to  making  so  serious  a  precedent 
in  favour  of  a  junior  Minister  who  was  outside  the  Cabinet, 
and  Lord  Spencer  had  to  explain  hastily  that  he  had  been 
premature  in  promising  it.  The  Chief  Secretary  was  appa- 
rently never  called  into  council  even  when  he  had  to  be 
the  mouthpiece  of  grave  decisions,  and  his  correspondence 
more  than  once  suggests  that  he  was  imperfectly  informed 
about  the  conflicts  that  were  raging  among  his  superiors. 
These  and  other  disabilities  he  accepted  without  complaint, 


A  '  SUFFICIENTLY  DULL  MAN  '          67 

though  he  could  scarcely  have  been  unaware  that  any  false    CHAP. 
step  on  his  part  might  bring  the  whole  shaky  edifice  of 


Cabinet  and  Government  toppling  to  the  ground.  His  /ET-  48' 
method,  unlike  that  of  his  predecessor,  was  that  of  passive 
good  humour  and  extreme  frugality  of  speech.  He  posi- 
tively courted  the  reputation  of  being  below  the  average 
of  front-bench  intelligence,  and  used  to  tell  with  a  chuckle 
how,  one  afternoon  in  the  Lobby,  he  found  himself  in  a 
group  of  three  men  who  were  discussing  the  new  Chief 
Secretary,  and  one  of  them,  who  happened  not  to  know 
him  by  sight,  disposed  of  the  subject  by  saying,  '  At  all 
events,  everybody  seems  agreed  that  he  is  a  sufficiently  dull 
man.'  The  '  sufficiently  dull  man  '  very  quickly  proved 
that  he  had  method  in  his  dullness,  and  in  a  very  few  weeks 
it  became  evident  that  he  had  spoilt  the  sport  of  Chief- 
Secretary-baiting.  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  called  him  the 
'  Sand-bag  Chief  Secretary,'  put  on  to  stop  the  breach  in 
the  beleaguered  citadel  of  Irish  administration,  and  he  did 
his  best  to  earn  this  reputation.  Others  said  that  he  was 
trying  to  '  govern  Ireland  with  Scotch  jokes,'  and  again  he 
did  not  disown  the  imputation.  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor,  who 
was  afterwards  one  of  his  most  valued  friends,  has  vividly 
described  the  general  impression  that  he  made  on  the 
House  and  his  Irish  antagonists  : — 

The  Irishmen  found  that  they  had  met  a  very  tough  antagonist 
in  the  new  man.  When  they  were  confronting  Mr.  Forster,  they 
could  make  even  that  rough  and  rude  giant  writhe,  as  they 
denounced  his  regime.  Mr.  Trevelyan's  face  would  shrivel  up 
almost  with  visible  pain — he  himself  said  that  he  would  sooner 
face  a  battery  than  those  furious  and  eloquent  Irish  benches— 
and  it  was  expected  that  Campbell-Bannerman,  much  less  known, 
with  a  much  smaller  reputation,  would  prove  a  far  easier  prey. 
But  the  real  Campbell-Bannerman  was  unknown  to  the  Irishmen 
and  to  the  House  generally.  Up  to  this  time  people  had  thought 
of  him  simply  as  one  of  the  industrious,  painstaking,  eminently 
respectable  and  eminently  dull  officials  who  are  chosen  by  every 
government  for  the  smaller  places  in  the  official  hierarchy.  It 
was  expected  that  he  would  meet  Irish  wit  with  dull,  unimagina- 
tive answers,  and  that  he  would  be,  so  to  speak,  roasted  alive. 


68    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,  i  What  turned  out  to  be  the  fact  was  that  Campbell-Bannerman 
y-  L  had  wit  as  ready  as  that  of  any  of  his  opponents,  that  he  had 
1884-1833'.  immense  force  of  character,  above  all  that  he  had  unfathomable, 
unreachable  depths  of  imperturbability.  It  might  have  been 
self-confidence,  it  was  probably  indifference  ;  but  there  was  no 
human  being  who  seemed  so  absolutely  impervious  to  attack. 
One  night,  for  instance,  after  the  Irish  members  had  been 
hammering  away  at  him  for  hours,  he  calmly  got  up  and  described 
the  position  of  Chief  Secretary  as  one  eminently  calculated  to 
improve  one's  moral  discipline.  One  was  taught  to  penetrate 
through  one's  self-esteem,  and  to  discover  one's  hidden  iniquities  ; 
and  then  he  proceeded  to  give  a  plain,  unvarnished  account  of 
the  transaction  which  had  evoked  thunders  of  denunciation  from 
his  opponents  opposite.  There  was  nothing  to  be  done  with  an 
opponent  like  this.  He  laughed  at  vituperation  ;  he  was  jaunty 
under  a  cyclone  of  attack.1 

Hansard  gives  but  a  pale  reflection  of  the  heat  and 
agitation  of  these  times.  All-night  sittings,  incessant 
motions  of  adjournment,  violent  recriminations,  scenes  and 
suspensions,  had  now  for  several  years  been  the  normal 
course  of  Irish  business  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  all 
the  storms  had  raged  round  the  Chief  Secretary's  head. 
Speaking  of  his  predecessor,  Sir  George  Trevelyan,  a  con- 
temporary observer  said  that  '  every  miscarriage  of  justice, 
the  misdeeds  of  every  Castle  official,  the  infliction  of  every 
sentence  pronounced  by  the  Judges  were  regarded  as  evi- 
dence of  his  personal  ill-will  against  the  nation  whose  affairs 
he  had  been  sent  to  administer.'  2  The  theory  adopted 
towards  the  new  Chief  Secretary  came  to  be  the  more  bene- 
volent one  that  he  was  carrying  out  the  instructions  and 
repeating  the  stereotyped  replies  of  superiors  whose  policy 
he  did  not  understand,  and  would  probably  have  detested 
if  he  did  understand  it.  Campbell-Bannerman,  it  need 
not  be  said,  understood  very  well ;  and  in  the  course  of 
the  eight  months  that  he  worked  with  Lord  Spencer,  he 
conceived  the  highest  admiration  of  him  and  of  the  integrity 

1  Sir   Henry    Campbell-Bannerman,    pp.    24-25,    by   T.    P.   O'Connor. 
(Hodder  and  Stoughton,  1908.) 

2  Annual  Register,  1884. 


DETESTABLE  QUESTIONS  69 

and  humanity  with  which  he  was  endeavouring  to  work  a    CHAP. 
system  which  both  men  afterwards  concluded  to  be  impos- 


sible. He  had  his  differences  with  his  Chief  on  certain  JET' 48' 
points  of  detail,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  speak  his  mind 
freely  when  these  arose.  '  At  all  hazards/  he  says  on  one 
occasion,  '  a  prosecution  must  be  instituted  against  Con- 
stable D.  If  there  is  the  slightest  sign  of  shirking,  we  shall 
not  be  able  to  carry  on  here  at  all.  D.  deliberately  got 
up  an  accusation  which  might  have  brought  a  man  to  the 
gallows.'  This  appears  to  have  ended  a  somewhat  lively 
correspondence  in  which  the  Viceroy  maintained  that 
there  was  no  case,  and  the  Chief  Secretary  took  the  con- 
trary view  and  held  to  it  firmly  against  the  Viceregal 
opinion.  But  these  incidents  were  rare,  and  Campbell- 
Bannerman's  guiding  principle  was  absolute  loyalty  to  the 
Viceroy  against  both  the  Parnellite  assault  and  the  Radical 
criticism  of  his  administration. 

'  I  have  taken  my  seat  and  answered  my  questions,  and 
the  Irish  treated  me  with  good  nature,'  he  reports  to  Lord 
Spencer  on  November  3,  but,  as  his  predecessor  had  warned 
him,  there  were  many  '  detestable  questions '  hanging 
over  him.  There  was  Maamtrasna,  always  in  the  back- 
ground ;  there  was  a  malodorous  Castle  scandal,  and  the 
constant  suggestion  that  all  the  authorities  from  the  Viceroy 
downwards  were  in  league  to  cloak  the  iniquities  of  Dublin 
Castle — not  mere  acts  of  oppression  and  tyranny,  but 
depravity  in  its  lowest  form.  There  were  endless  sugges- 
tions that  members  of  the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary  were 
suborning  evidence,  and  acting  as  agent-provocateurs,  and 
about  some  of  these  the  Chief  Secretary  was  evidently  far 
from  comfortable  in  his  own  mind.  There  was  the  inter- 
minable Bolton  case,  that  of  an  official  against  whom 
bankruptcy  proceedings  had  been  taken  and  afterwards 
annulled,  and  who  had  thereupon  been  reinstated  in  his 
office  by  Lord  Spencer  to  the  scandal  of  the  Irish  members, 
who  deplored  the  laxity  of  the  Viceroy  and  vehemently 
denounced  his  perilous  doctrine  that  what  an  official  did 
with  his  money  was  his  own  affair,  so  long  as  he  remained 


70    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    solvent.       Campbell-Bannerman     took     his     usual     good- 
^  humoured  view  of  this  dispute  and  accepted  his  Chief's  de- 


85'  cision  on  it,  but  'I  am  bound  to  add,'  he  writes  in  signifying 
his  assent,  '  that  the  House  of  Commons  sometimes  (and 
generally  on  a  personal  question  like  this)  becomes  like  the 
herd  of  swine  into  which  the  devils  entered,  and  then  no 
reason  prevails.  It  is  also  to  be  observed  that  the  House 
of  Commons  wishes  he  (Bolton)  was  at  the  bottom  of  the 
sea,  because  he  takes  up  so  much  of  their  time,  and  wants 
to  know  why  on  earth,  when  we  had  got  rid  of  this  man, 
we  did  not  rightly  or  wrongly  keep  him  out.'  Now  and 
again  he  puts  in  a  vivid  sketch  of  an  evening  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  '  The  Cork  case  was,  of  course,  brought  up, 
twisted,  exaggerated,  misstated,  according  to  the  fancy 
of  each  speaker.  They  pick  up  the  case  from  each  other's 
speeches  and  go  on  embellishing  and  inflating,  until  at 
last  their  indignation  at  the  story  they  tell  knows  no  bounds. 
No  contradiction  or  correction  or  explanation  is  taken  any 
notice  of.'  Occasionally  he  adds  thumb-nail  portraits  of 
his  great  leaders — '  Mr.  G.  like  a  raging  lion,  but  unfortun- 
ately awakening  prolonged  echoes  to  his  roar  '  ;  Harcourt 
'  intervening  with  a  forcible  speech  which  doubled  the 
heat  of  the  discussion  and  increased  the  waste  of  time  in 
about  the  same  ratio.'  To  the  Chief  Secretary  '  forcible 
speeches  '  in  an  Irish  debate  were  anathema. 

His  one  legislative  effort  was  the  introduction  on  March 
24  of  a  Bill  to  extend  elementary  education  in  Ireland. 
Fourteen  years  had  passed  since  education  had  been  made 
compulsory  in  Great  Britain,  but  no  steps  had  been  taken 
to  enforce  the  corresponding  policy  in  Ireland.  Over  a 
great  part  of  the  country  illiteracy  still  prevailed,  and  the 
attendance  at  a  large  number  of  schools  was  so  small  and 
irregular  that  the  educational  results  were  hardly  worth 
considering.  The  House  of  Commons  had  passed  a  resolu- 
tion in  1882,  declaring  it  to  be  '  expedient  to  introduce 
into  Ireland  the  principle  of  compulsory  education  with 
such  modifications  as  the  social  and  religious  conditions  of 
the  country  require,'  but  nothing  had  been  done  to  carry 


IRISH  EDUCATION  71 

it    out.     Campbell-Bannerman    was    determined    that    at    CHAP. 
least  an  effort  should  be  made  to  remove  this  reproach 


before  the  Parliament  expired,  and  he  took  much  pains  /ET'  48- 
with  the  preparation  of  his  Bill.  It  was  not  a  heroic  measure, 
but  the  best  that  seemed  possible  in  the  discouraging 
circumstances.  Deducting  allowances  made  for  seed-time 
and  harvest,  Saturday  holidays  and  vacations,  the  Irish 
child  was  to  be  required  to  attend  school  on  a  hundred 
days  in  the  year.  School-Attendance  Committees  were  to 
be  set  up,  composed  in  equal  parts  of  the  National  Educa- 
tion Board,  the  managers  of  schools  in  the  district,  and  the 
Boards  of  Guardians.  Powers  were  to  be  given  to  these 
to  acquire  sites  compulsorily,  and  provision  made  for  in- 
creasing the  emoluments  of  teachers,  the  extra  cost  being 
met  by  the  raising  of  a  national  rate. 

From  the  Irish  point  of  view  the  flaw  in  the  Bill  was 
that  the  extra  cost  was  to  be  borne  by  Ireland  and  not 
provided  out  of  the  Imperial  Exchequer.  In  other  respects 
it  was  benevolently  received  even  by  the  Parnellites.  Mr. 
Justin  McCarthy  blessed  it,  and  Mr.  Parnell  contented 
himself  with  giving  notice  of  a  friendly  amendment.  The 
Chief  Secretary  was  judged  to  have  made  an  excellent 
and  business-like  speech  ;  the  principle  of  his  measure  was 
universally  conceded,  and  after  an  unchallenged  second 
reading,  no  more  was  heard  of  the  subject  in  this  Parlia- 
ment. Campbell-Bannerman  himself  subsequently  advised 
Lord  Spencer  that  it  had  better  be  left  until  Irish  County 
Councils  were  set  up. 

ii 

During  the  month  of  March  both  Chief  Secretary  and 
Viceroy  were  deeply  occupied  with  the  forthcoming  visit 
of  the  Prince  and  Princess  of  Wales  to  Ireland.  The  omens 
were  discouraging.  Indiscreet  newspapers  had  heralded 
the  event  as  a  test  of  Irish  loyalty  and  an  attempted 
demonstration  against  the  '  uncrowned  King.'  The 
Nationalists  had  replied  with  counter-demonstrations  to 
prove  that  no  Royal  favours  could  detach  them  from  their 


72    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    political  allegiance.     United  Ireland  brought  out  a  special 
v'       supplement  containing  adverse  opinions  from  Nationalist 


1884-1885.  meters  of  Parliament,  and  a  host  of  other  people,  from 
the  Archbishop  of  Cashel  to  the  officials  of  the  smallest 
branch  of  the  National  League.  The  Lord  Mayor  of  Dublin 
announced  that  he  would  haul  down  the  flag  on  the  Town 
Hall  immediately  the  Prince  arrived,  whereupon  the  students 
of  Trinity  College  broke  into  the  shed  in  which  the  flag 
was  kept  and  bore  it  away  in  triumph.  To  that  the  Cor- 
poration retorted  by  providing  themselves  with  the  green 
standard  which  has  since  flown  over  their  municipal  build- 
ing. It  was  in  vain  that  the  officials  explained  that  the 
Prince  had  nothing  to  do  with  politics.  The  Nationalists 
were  bent  on  their  counter-demonstration,  and  the  loyalists, 
who  were  at  first  somewhat  cool  about  a  compliment  which 
they  deemed  to  be  a  tardy  reparation  for  the  long  neglect 
of  Ireland  by  the  Royal  House,  were  now  on  their  mettle 
to  give  it  the  political  significance  which  their  opponents 
imputed  to  it. 

Having  been  fixed,  the  visit  had  to  go  forward,  but  it 
was  a  serious  perplexity  to  the  Government.  On  March  17 
the  Chief  Secretary  wrote  to  the  Lord-Lieutenant : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Spencer 

HOUSE  OF  COMMONS,  March  17. — I  have  had  a  long  talk  with 
Errington.1 

He  says  there  is  a  general  feeling  among  well-disposed  people 
in  Ireland  that  the  Prince's  visit  will  in  itself  do  no  good  :  it  is 
too  late  or  too  soon  :  our  trump  card  is  being  wasted  :  if  enthu- 
siasm among  loyalists  is  created  it  will  only  drive  the  others  into 
more  extreme  courses — etc. ,  etc. ,  etc. 

All  this  would,  however,  be  entirely  changed  if  it  was  accom- 
panied by  an  announcement  of  a  policy. 

Measures  are  not  wanted  so  much  as  promises  and  declarations. 

For  instance  :  as  a  programme  : 

1.  Coercion — with  regrets,  etc.,  and  modified  in  extent. 

2.  Thorough  Purchase  Bill.     (These  to  be  passed  this  year.) 

3.  Local  Government  and 

*  Sir  George  Errington,  M.P. 


A  ROYAL  VISIT  73 

4.  Abolition  of  separate  Govt.  and  frequent   Royal  visits.    CHAP. 
(These  to  be  announced  for  future.)  v_  V- 


.ET.  48. 
Then,  he  says,  Prince's  visit  has  a  meaning,  etc.,  etc.,  etc. 

It  seems  to  me  there  is  much  in  this :  except  that  it  would 
not  do  to  use  the  visit  as  a  (to  be  very  Irish)  cloak  for  the  dis- 
closure of  certain  schemes  such  as  local  govt.  which  may  be 
regarded  as  one-sided  political  measures. 

This  is  the  objection  :  but  if  the  matter  was  skilfully  handled 
the  appearance  of  this  might  be  avoided. 

Errington  thinks  some  such  announcement  would  have  a 
great  effect  in  Rome  if  made  before  Easter  :  and  therefore  before 
meeting  of  Bishops. 

Since  they  were  in  for  politics,  it  appears  to  have  been  the 
Chief  Secretary's  view  that  they  had  better  go  deeper  in. 
But  there  were  a  great  many  objections  to  this  particular 
programme.  Let  alone  the  fact  that  the  renewal  of  coercion, 
with  whatever  regrets,  could  scarcely  be  a  gracious  first 
item  in  a  Royal  speech  on  Irish  soil,  the  Cabinet  itself  was 
at  that  moment  deeply  divided  about  the  proposed  legisla- 
tion. Lord  Spencer,  who  knew  the  inner  situation  better 
than  his  colleague,  held  to  the  more  humdrum  course,  and 
devoted  himself  to  preventing  the  loyalist  demonstrations 
from  becoming  too  much  of  a  challenge  to  the  Nationalists. 
The  Orange  lodges  at  Belfast  insisted  on  an  address  con- 
forming to  their  standard  of  loyalty.  Would  the  Chief 
Secretary  see  Lord  Arthur  Hill,  the  Conservative  Whip 
and  a  noted  North  Ireland  man,  and  see  what  could  be 
done  about  it  ?  Campbell-Bannerman  did  his  best  and 
returned  answer  that  the  address  had  better  be  presented 
'  on  the  last  day  and  smothered  with  others.'  Consulted 
on  the  problem  of  keeping  order,  '  I  should  have  more 
faith,'  he  replied,  '  in  the  closing  of  the  whiskey  shops  than 
anything  else,  even  the  sending  of  troops.'  That  particular 
specific  remained  untried. 

The  visit  came  off  on  April  7,  and  the  worst  forebodings 
were  happily  not  realised.  The  Chief  Secretary  went  to 
Dublin  for  the  occasion,  and  immediately  after  it  sat  down 
and  wrote  to  his  Chief : — 


74    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Spencer 


X884-I605.  CHIEF  SECRETARY'S  LODGE,  April  8. — I  cannot  resist  sending 
a  line  to  offer  my  very  sincere  congratulations  to  Her  Excellency 
and  yourself  on  the  events  of  to-day. 

No  one  could  fail  to  observe  that  besides  the  hearty  reception 
of  H.R.H.,  there  was  a  special  warmth  in  the  way  in  which 
Lady  Spencer  and  yourself  were  greeted.  Men  who  were  in  the 
street  among  the  people  have  especially  confirmed  this. 

We  may  take  the  Royal  visit  as  marking  the  approval  given 
by  the  Queen  and  by  our  English  Countrymen  to  your  conduct 
as  Viceroy  :  and  it  must  be  most  gratifying  to  you  to  find  that 
among  the  bulk  of  such  people  here  as  we  saw  about  to-day  the 
same  feeling  is  entertained.  If  anything  would  reward  you  for 
so  courageously  enduring  the  atrocious  attacks  of  Healy  &  Co. 
it  must  be  this. 

In  Dublin  the  Nationalists  remained  at  home  and  left  the 
streets  clear  to  a  tremendous  loyalist  demonstration. 
Belfast  exceeded  itself,  and  a  riot  was  happily  prevented 
at  Cork,  but  there  was  a  scrimmage  at  Mallow  Station, 
where  Mr.  William  O'Brien,  accompanied  by  a  band  and  a 
bodyguard  of  local  Nationalists,  endeavoured  to  present 
an  address  to  the  Prince  protesting  against  the  injustices 
of  Lord  Spencer's  rule,  and  was  only  thwarted  by  the  hasty 
departure  of  the  Royal  train.  The  Prince  was  not  pleased, 
and  it  needed  all  the  Chief  Secretary's  diplomacy  to  prevent 
the  Mallow  incident  ending  in  parliamentary  recrimina- 
tions. Campbell-Bannerman  was  wisety  of  opinion,  as  he 
wrote  to  Lord  Spencer,  that  the  least  said  soonest  mended. 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Spencer 

HOUSE  OF  COMMONS,  April  21.  '85. — I  have  a  note  from 
F.  Knollys  saying  that  H.R.H.  is  anxious  that  if  any  attack  is 
made,  apropos  of  Mallow  or  Cork,  in  the  House,  on  H.R.H.  or 
the  visit,  the  House  shd.  be  made  aware  of  the  scandalous 
attacks  made  on  the  Prince  in  the  Speeches  of  O'Brien,  O'Connor, 
and  others. 

Now  I  have  a  nice  selection  of  incendiary  speeches  by  those 
Gentlemen  which  I  keep  handy  for  any  debate  on  the  subject. 
I  do  not  see  anything  personally  offensive  to  H.R.H.  in  them — 


TROUBLE  AT  MALLOW  75 

but  we  are  so  case  hardened  that  I  may  not  be  sensitive.     No    CHAP. 
doubt,  a  new  comer  will  set  down  as  rank  blasphemy  what  we        v- 
are  accustomed  to  deem  mere  words  of  choler.  ^T.  48. 

I  have  replied  that  the  House  well  understands  the  matter, 
appreciates  what  H.R.H.  has  done  and  gone  through,  and  knows 
how  scandalous  has  been  the  conduct  of  certain  Irish  members  : 
that  if  a  debate  occurs  (which  I  doubt)  the  facts  shall  be  made 
known  :  at  the  same  time  I  was  sure  H.R.H.  wd.  understand 
that  there  was  danger  in  making  heroes  of  those  men,  etc.,  etc. 

The  truth  is,  I  think  the  lighter  the  hand  we  treat  it  with  the 
better  :  if  it  can  be  done,  ridicule  is  a  better  method  than 
indignation. 

This  attitude  was  rendered  the  easier  because  the  more 
responsible  Irish  Nationalists  had  been  specially  anxious 
that  no  incivility  should  be  shown  to  the  Prince  in  Ireland. 
Campbell-Bannerman  reports  a  conversation  that  he  had 
with  Mr.  Justin  McCarthy  the  day  after  the  Mallow 
incident : — 

McCarthy  took  occasion  to  deplore  the  Mallow  occurrences. 
He  said  that  Parnell  deeply  regretted  it,  that  it  was  all  done 
without  his  consent  and  in  fact  in  direct  opposition  to  his  desire 
and  order.  I  said  it  was  a  monstrous  thing  when  all  the  arrange- 
ments had  been  made,  room  reserved  for  ladies  on  the  platform, 
etc. ,  etc. ,  that  these  people  with  bands  and  row  should  come  for 
the  direct  purpose  of  creating  a  conflict ;  and  that  evidently  the 
Railway  people  were  perfectly  entitled  to  clear  the  station.  He 
said  '  Yes,  quite  so  '  to  all  this.  He  said,  however,  it  was  a  pity, 
as  they  were  there,  the  bands  were  not  allowed  to  play  some 
Irish  tunes.  I  said  it  was  no  question  of  tunes  but  of  an  un- 
pardonable and  disorderly  intrusion.  He  said  he  greatly  feared 
for  Cork,  and  that  Parnell  was  very  nervous  about  it :  he  wished 
the  Prince  had  never  gone.  I  said  it  would  never  do  to  change 
his  route  now — and  he  said  '  No,  of  course  not.'  He  praised 
H.R.H.  warmly,  and  acknowledged  the  excellence  of  his  inten- 
tions in  the  matter.  He  also  admitted  that  the  conduct  of  the 
Lord  Mayor  of  Dublin  on  Monday  was  disgraceful. 

I  report  all  this  for  what  it  is  worth  :  I  suspect  he  was  told  by 
Parnell  to  speak  to  me. 

Both  Chief  Secretary  and  Lord-Lieutenant  confessed  to 
each  other  that  they  breathed  more  freely  when  the  Prince 
was  safely  out  of  Ireland. 


76    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP. 

v__^l__,  III 

1884-1885.         T      ,,  ,. 

Ln  the  meantime  the  parliamentary  situation  was  develop- 
ing, and  the  Government  had  had  ominous  warnings  of 
what  was  in  store  for  them.  Though  the  Irish  part  of  the 
Redistribution  of  Seats  Bill  came  under  the  party  compact, 
which  should  have  made  it  non-controversial,  they  were 
often  in  difficulties  to  save  it  from  covert  attacks.  '  Last 
night,'  Campbell-Bannerman  reports  to  Lord  Spencer  on 
March  n,  'numbers  of  our  people  voted  (against  their 
opinions)  under  Government  pressure  for  the  University 
Seats,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  part  of  the  compact  between 
the  two  parties,  but  afterwards  on  a  Tory  amendment  to  save 
small  boroughs  in  Ireland,  Northcote  himself  only  brought 
one  man  to  vote  for  the  Bill  against  the  amendment,  and 
that  one  man  was  Cunliffe  Brooks,  who  has  a  permanent 
pair  arranged  by  the  Tory  Whips.  One  voted  against  his 
leaders  and  the  other  stayed  away.  So  much  for  loyalty 
and  discipline.' 

All  through  this  period  constant  vigilance  was  necessary 
to  prevent  snap  divisions  through  a  combination  of  Tories 
and  Parnellites  on  minor  issues.  The  Government  was 
evidently  crumbling,  and  disaffection  within  its  own  ranks 
was  spreading.  Even  Mr.  Gladstone's  broad  shoulders 
were  unequal  to  the  load  of  trouble  which  had  been  accumu- 
lating in  home  and  foreign  affairs  since  the  beginning  of 
the  year.  But  the  greatest  difficulty  of  all  was  that  the 
Cabinet  was  unable  to  make  up  its  mind  about  the  per- 
plexing and  unescapable  problems  which  now  confronted 
it  in  Ireland.  The  Crimes  Act  was  due  to  expire  in  August 
of  this  year  ;  was  it  to  be  renewed  in  whole  or  in  part,  pro- 
longed for  a  period  or  be  made  a  permanent  part  of  the 
ordinary  law  ?  If  renewed,  could  the  edge  be  taken  off  it 
in  Ireland,  or  British  Radicals  appeased  by  concessions  on 
land  reform  or  local  government  ?  Could  anything  be 
done  to  get  in  front  of  the  Nationalist  movement,  which 
evidently  under  the  new  franchise  was  going  to  sweep  all 
Ireland  except  the  north-east  corner  ?  These  questions 


DIFFERENCES  IN  THE  CABINET        77 

had  been  bandied  to  and  fro  in  the  Cabinet  for  months    CHAP. 
past,  but  with  no  other  result  than  the  discovery  of  sharp  v.    v' 


divisions  which  made  united  action  impossible.  /ET- 

In  his  Life  of  Mr.  Gladstone,1  Lord  Morley  has  carefully 
enumerated  the  different  shades  of  opinion  which  the 
Government  had  somehow  to  harmonise  if  they  were  to 
escape  disaster.  The  Whig  wing  of  the  Cabinet,  adhering 
to  Lord  Spencer,  were  for  a  modified  renewal  of  the  Coercion 
Act,  with  the  balm  of  a  Land  Purchase  Bill  and  a  limited 
extension  of  self-government  in  local  areas.  The  Radical 
wing  were  averse  to  coercion  and  averse  to  a  Purchase 
Bill,  but  they  were  willing  to  yield  a  milder  form  of  coercion 
on  condition  that  the  Cabinet  would  agree  not  merely  to 
small  measures  of  self-government  in  local  areas,  but  to 
the  erection  of  a  Central  Board  clothed  with  important 
administrative  functions  for  the  whole  of  Ireland.  In  the 
House  of  Commons  it  was  certain  that  a  fairly  strong 
Radical  contingent  would  resist  coercion  in  any  degree, 
and  a  Liberal  below  the  gangway,  who  had  not  been  long 
in  Parliament  but  who  had  been  in  the  Press  a  strong 
opponent  of  the  coercion  policy  of  1881  (Mr.  Morley  him- 
self), had  given  notice  that  if  proposals  were  made  for  the 
renewal  of  exceptional  law,  he  should  move  their  rejection. 
There  had  also,  as  Mr.  Gladstone  reported  to  the  Queen, 
been  certain  indications  in  what  was  considered  the  Whig 
or  moderate  section  of  the  House  of  great  dislike  to  special 
legislation,  even  of  a  mild  character,  for  Ireland. 

Being  outside  the  Cabinet,  Campbell-Bannerman  was 
not  required  to  commit  himself  deeply  to  any  of  these 
parties,  and  his  general  line  was  that  of  loyal  adhesion  to 
his  Chief,  accompanied  by  all  efforts  within  his  power  to 
conciliate  the  Liberal  and  Radical  opinion  that  was  hostile 
or  suspicious.  From  the  end  of  February  he  was  at  work 
taking  soundings  in  the  House  of  Commons  about  both 
the  Crimes  Act  and  the  Land  Purchase  Scheme.  As  to 
the  former,  the  singular  idea  was  broached  that  the  corner 
might  be  turned  and  the  odium  of  exceptional  legislation 

1  Book  vii.  chap.  xi.  (Vol.  in.  pp.  190-191,  ist  Edition). 


78    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    for  Ireland  avoided  by  screwing  up  the  criminal  law  for 
the  whole  country  to  the  pitch  required  in  Ireland.     '  I 


1884-1885.  hayg  casually  spoken  to  a  number  of  members/  he  reports 
to  Lord  Spencer  on  February  28,  '  and  every  one  says  that 
the  difficulty  is  got  over  if  a  Bill  is  passed  for  the  whole 
kingdom,  and  that  England  will  stand  a  good  deal  with  this 
object.  I  tested  my  talkers  with  such  things  as  searching 
houses  and  proclaiming  meetings,  and  I  was  told  that  there 
need  be  no  objection  to  even  these  powers  being  given. 
The  English  Radicals  will  stretch  a  long  wray  to  meet  us. 
Such  men  as  H.  H.  Fowler,  Rathbone,  Willis,  Q.C.,  Illing- 
worth,  say  this.  If  this  is  so  (I  will  continue  my  enquiries) 
it  will  be  a  great  matter  and  we  can  have  a  permanent 
measure  instead  of  a  renewable  one.'  Politicians  in  a 
difficulty  will  indeed  '  stretch  a  long  way  '  for  a  plausible 
expedient  which  saves  their  faces,  but  it  is  perhaps  fortu- 
nate for  Great  Britain  that  the  further  enquiries  did  not 
favour  this  one. 

Three  weeks  later,  after  consultation  with  the  Law  Officers 
and  the  Government  draftsmen,  the  Chief  Secretary  re- 
ported that  what  Lord  Spencer  wanted  could  by  no  manner 
of  means  be  grafted  on  to  the  English  and  Scottish  criminal 
law.  He  wanted,  in  fact,  rather  more  than  the  Chief 
Secretary  thought  necessary,  and  the  latter  did  not  scruple 
to  put  his  views  plainly  before  his  Chief,  who  with  charac- 
teristic fairness  invited  him  to  write  a  memorandum  for 
the  Cabinet  to  set  against  one  that  he  was  preparing  him- 
self. The  argument  went  on  through  April  and  May,  and 
in  the  end  the  proposed  new  Bill  was  fined  down  to  the 
minimum  that  Lord  Spencer  regarded  as  essential  and 
beyond  which  he  refused  to  budge.  At  the  end  of  May 
Mr.  Gladstone  was  growing  impatient,  and  he  wrote  himself 
to  the  Chief  Secretary  expressing  the  hope  that  he  would 
have  ready  for  the  Cabinet  in  the  following  week  '  the 
draft  of  a  Bill  with  a  very  judiciously  chosen  title  to  succeed 
the  Crimes  Act  (or  rather  displace  it).'  When  this  letter 
arrived  the  Chief  Secretary  was  unluckily  taking  a  few 
days'  holiday  in  Paris,  and  it  considerably  fluttered  his 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  CRIMES  ACT    79 

private  secretary,  who  forwarded  the  gist  of  it  at  once  to    CHAP. 
Dublin  for  the  information  of  Lord  Spencer.     There  was  v_    v> 


no  difficulty  about  the  draft,  which  was  ready,  but  the   /ET-  48- 
'  judiciously  chosen  title  '  had  still  to  be  found. 

Plainly  the  idea  of  the  Cabinet  and  of  Mr.  Gladstone 
was  that  the  Bill  could  be  presented  in  a  form  which  would 
enable  its  sponsors  to  say  that  the  Crimes  Act  was  not 
re-enacted  nor  even  '  succeeded '  but  '  displaced  '  ;  and  if 
the  Government  had  survived  to  present  it  to  Parliament, 
it  is  easy  to  imagine  the  subtlety  with  which  Mr.  Gladstone 
would  have  developed  these  distinctions.  It  was  further 
desired  by  the  anti-coercionist  group  that  the  procedure 
should  be  by  reference,  which  would  avoid  the  naked  re- 
hearsal of  the  unpopular  provisions  which  the  Viceroy 
thought  it  necessary  to  re-enact.  The  Bill  was,  in  fact, 
proposed  in  alternative  drafts,  one  of  which  was  designed 
to  meet  this  demand. 

The  Chief  Secretary  duly  reported  these  developments  in 
letters  which  show  the  shifts  to  which  the  Cabinet  was  re- 
duced in  its  efforts  to  satisfy  the  Viceroy  without  alienating 
the  Radicals  : — 

Campbell-Banner  man  to  Lord  Spencer 

May  18. — I  discussed  the  Crimes  Bill  with  Jenkyns.  Thring  x 
has  no  instructions,  and  I  was  only  able  to  tell  him  what  I  under- 
stood from  you  that  the  Cabinet  had  determined. 

He  is  to  prepare  a  draft  with  some  such  name  as  Criminal 
Procedure  and  Constabulary  Bill.  There  are  three  ways 

i°.  A  new  Bill,  enacting  with  modifications  the  retained 
clauses.  The  advantage  of  this  is  that  you  cut  connec- 
tion with  the  Crimes  Act.  The  disadvantage,  that  you 
have  to  fight  every  word  of  the  clauses  afresh.  Which 
is  the  greater  evil — to  have  the  law  still  associated  with 
the  old  Act,  in  the  minds  of  the  people  ;  or  to  have  to 
rediscuss  the  different  clauses  word  by  word  in  Parlia- 
ment (including  the  definition  of  intimidation)  ? 

2°.  A  Bill  continuing  certain  enumerated  clauses  of  the  Act, 

1  Sir  H.  Jenkyns,  Assistant  Parliamentary  Counsel  to  the  Treasury, 
and  Sir  Edward  (afterwards  Lord)  Thring,  Parliamentary  Draftsman. 


8o    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.  '  Subject  to  the  following  modifications.'    There  is  this 

,     v-  difficulty,  that  it  is  not  all  modification.     E.g.  Intimida- 

1884-1685.  tion  has  to  be  made  an  indictable  offence. 

3°.  Similar  to  2°,  only  referring  to  certain  enactments  to  be 
continued,  and  setting  them  out  verbatim  in  the  Schedule. 
Less  direct  reference  to  Crimes  Act. 

We  decided  to  prefer  2°. 

Thring  and  Jenkyns  will  draw  a  Bill  on  this  footing,  and  then 
we  can  go  into  it  with  the  three  Law  Officers  (James,  Herschell, 
Walker)  and  Harcourt.  I  presume  Harcourt  will  be  in  charge 
of  the  Bill.  This  can  be  done  before  the  holidays. 

It  will  have  to  be  ready  for  introdn.  immediately  after 
the  holidays  :  evidently  all  business  will  be  delayed  till  it  is 
disposed  of. 

One  point.  We  think  if  Clause  8.  is  to  be  retained  the  less  it 
is  altered  the  better.  Particularly  as  to  the  '  proclaimed  district.' 

The  Purchase  Bill  cannot  be  ready  before  Whitsuntide.  It  is 
a  difficult  Bill  to  draft. 

IRISH  OFFICE,  June  6,  '85. — When  he  was  in  Dublin,  Thring 
tells  me  that  you  decided  in  favour  of  what  he  calls  Bill  A.. ,  that 
is,  the  Bill  fully  re-enacting  the  various  clauses  of  the  Crimes  Act, 
which,  with  modifications,  we  propose  to  retain. 

Undoubtedly  this  is,  for  the  purposes  of  administration,  the 
preferable  Bill.  I  find,  however,  that  there  is  a  strong  feel- 
ing here  in  favour  of  the  referential  Bill.  It  would  of  course 
offer  fewer  corners  to  rub  on  the  susceptibilities  of  people  in 
Parliament. 

What  we  arranged  before  the  holidays  was  that  Harcourt  was 
to  submit  both  Bills  to  Mr.  G.  for  his  choice.  Not  only  was  this 
duty  left  to  Harcourt  but  it  was  loudly  claimed  by  him.  He 
has,  however,  done  nothing,  and  denied  to  me  last  night  that 
this  had  ever  been  suggested.  He  is  now,  although  he  was  not 
then,  in  favour  of  the  referential  Bill. 

Mr.  G.  took  (to  me)  exception  to  the  title,  '  Trial  and  Con- 
stabulary.' He  expressed  a  particular  dislike  to  the  word 
'  Constabulary.'  He  also  thought  the  Bill  too  long.  He  had 
not  seen  the  referential  Bill. 

The  result  is  that  Thring  will  send  Mr.  G.  a  copy  of  the  two 
Bills,  suggesting  as  an  altered  title  '  Trial  Procedure.'  The 
words  '  and  for  other  purposes  '  he  says  will  technically  cover 
the  Constabulary  and  Intimidation  Clauses. 

Thring  will  also  send  him  a  memorandum  which  he  has  pre- 


LADY  CAMPI5KLL  (DIED  1873) 
MOTHER  OF   SIR   HENRY   CAMPBEU.-BAXNKKMAX 

(Photograph  o/ Oil  Painting  by  Graham  Gilbert) 


A  TEST  QUESTION  81 

pared  on  the  Bill,  and  which  he  and  I  went  over  and  amended    CHAP. 
this  morning.     He  will  send  you  a  copy. 


I  presume  you  do  not  seriously  object  to  either  form  of  the    ^T.  48. 
Bill.     If  the  referential  form  is  adopted,  it  will  be  easy  for  the 
Executive  to  supply  its  agents  with  a  code  exactly  setting  forth 
the  various  clauses  as  modified. 

The  other  question  about  which  I  wrote  yesterday — of  the 
hanging  up  of  the  powers  until  put  in  form  by  proclamation- 
is  quite  independent. 

We  had  Barbavilla  last  night — long  wordy  speeches  aimed  at 
the  Crimes  Act  question.  .  .  . 

The  Irish  counted  the  House  out  on  their  own  debate,  because 
they  saw  that  the  Govt.  wished  to  make,  and  had  a  chance  of 
making,  progress  with  business. 

A  reference  to  the  text  of  the  Crimes  Act  of  1881  may 
suggest  that  there  was  scarcely  anything  of  importance  in 
it  which  a  skilful  draftsman  might  not  have  included  in  a 
Bill  for  '  Trial  Procedure  and  Other  Purposes,'  but  to  poli- 
ticians at  that  moment  the  name — or  disguise — was  all- 
important,  and  if  the  Bill  had  gone  forward,  it  is  likely 
enough  that  it  would  have  borne  this  disarming  title.  By 
June  5  the  Cabinet  had  so  far  agreed  as  to  authorise  Mr. 
Gladstone  to  give  notice  the  following  week  of  a  '  Bill  to 
take  the  place  of  the  expiring  Crimes  Act/  but  the  very 
important  point  remained  to  be  settled  whether  Clause  vm. 
— dealing  with  intimidation  and  unlawful  assembly,  assaults 
on  constables,  bailiffs,  and  process-servers,  forcible  posses- 
sion of  land  and  houses,  etc. — upon  which  Lord  Spencer 
insisted,  should  remain  in  '  direct  and  full  operation,'  or 
whether  the  Viceroy  should  bring  it  into  operation  by  pro- 
clamation when  he  saw  fit.  Here,  after  all,  was  a  crucial 
test  of  the  sincerity  of  the  Government  when  they  declared 
their  intention  of  going  the  utmost  lengths  to  restore  the 
ordinary  law  ;  and  it  is  more  than  possible  that,  if  the  stiffer 
view  had  prevailed  in  the  Cabinet,  the  anti-coercionist 
Ministers  would  have  resigned  before  the  Bill  was  pro- 
duced. Mr.  Gladstone,1  as  we  gather  from  Lord  Morley's 

1  For  Mr.  Gladstone's  views  on  this  subject  see  his  letter  to  the  Queen, 
Oct.  5,  1885.       (Morley's    Life,    Book  viii.  chap.  ii.  p.   199,  Vol.  in.   ist 
VOL.  I.  F 


82    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    narrative,  contemplated  that  possibility,  and  with  charac- 
teristic courage  had  laid  m'3  plans  for  going  on  in  spite  of 


1884-1885.  ft  jj.^  question,  however,  was  not  tested,  for  the  crumb- 
ling Government  had  fallen  on  another  issue  before  the 
debate  could  be  resumed  in  the  Cabinet. 

IV 

The  Chief  Secretary  was  not  less  active  in  furthering  the 
second  part  of  Lord  Spencer's  policy,  the  proposed  Land 
Purchase  Bill.  '  I  am  more  and  more  satisfied,'  he  wrote 
to  Lord  Spencer  on  March  26,  '  that  whatever  is  done  or 
left  out,  we  must  have  a  Purchase  Bill.  I  began  with  a 
strong  prejudice  against  it  (unless  in  the  most  limited  form), 
but  I  think  it  is  quite  necessary  in  the  interests  of  the  land- 
lords, and  in  order  to  shut  the  door  and  end  the  question. 
Whether  the  interest  of  the  tenant  so  much  requires  it  I 
doubt.  But  now  we  have  all  parties  agreeing — Tories, 
Parnellites,  and  Whigs.  .  .  .  What  I  will  try  (but  I  did  it 
before  with  no  effect)  will  be  to  get  Mr.  Gladstone  to  give 
not  a  simply  evasive  but  an  encouraging  answer :  he  need 
not  make  any  definite  promise,  but  hint  that  such  a  Bill 
is  fully  intended.'  Seven  weeks  elapsed  before  he  was 
able  to  report  on  Mr.  Gladstone's  state  of  mind  : — 

Campbell-Banner  man  to  Lord  Spencer 

IRISH  OFFICE,  May  ig,  '85. — Mr.  Gladstone  sent  for  me  yester- 
day about  a  Purchase  Bill.  I  urged  it  as  strongly  as  I  could, 
but  I  could  not  give  any  opinion  as  to  what  the  Parnellites  might 
do,  out  of  spite.  They  cannot  well  openly  oppose,  but  I  do  not 
believe  that  in  truth  they  like  it.  All  other  parts  of  the  House, 
I  told  him,  would  welcome  and  assist  it. 

I  saw  Thring  and  started  him  again  at  a  Draft. 

At  the  House  I  got  no  talk  with  any  one  but  Grosvenor,  who 
said  that  Chamberlain  still  held  out. 

Edition.)  He  evidently  attached  great  importance  to  the  distinction 
between  the  '  Coercion  Clauses  '  of  the  Crimes  Act  which  Lord  Spencer 
had  been  persuaded  to  drop  and  the  '  Procedure  Clauses  '  which  he  had 
insisted  on  retaining.  It  is  nevertheless  difficult  to  see  how  Clause  vin. 
could  have  been  brought  under  the  second  category. 


LAND  PURCHASE  83 

If  a  Bill  is  decided  on,  it  is  a  pity  it  should  not  be  issued  in    CHAP. 
time  for  the  Antrim  Election.  v- 


The  Liberal  Candidate  there  has  written  to  the  effect  that  his  -<ET.  48. 
chance  is  spoiled  by  the  disappointment  on  this  subject.  He 
wrote  to  this  effect  to  Samuel  Smith,  M.P.,  who  told  me  he  had 
spoken  to  Chamberlain  about  it,  and  that  Chamberlain  told  him 
that  he  was  altogether  opposed  to  a  Crimes  Bill,  but  was  in 
favour  of  a  Purchase  Bill.  Smith  said,  however,  on  further 
enquiry,  that  Chamberlain  told  him  he  meant  a  Bill  such  as  last 
year's — he  was  not  favourable  to  '  Dickson's  Bill.' l 

All  these  currents  and  counter  currents,  schemings,  and 
pretensions  are  odious. 

Mr.  Chamberlain,  as  he  afterwards  said,  was  a  '  Home 
Ruler  before  Mr.  Gladstone,'  and  at  the  end  of  April  he  had 
launched  a  scheme  for  a  Central  Board  in  Ireland,  and  was 
now  definitely  making  it  an  alternative  to  the  Spencer 
policy  of  a  renewal  of  coercion  tempered  by  land-purchase. 
On  this  also  Campbell-Bannerman  reported  to  his  Chief  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Spencer 

HOUSE  OF  COMMONS,  April  30,   '85,   10  P.M. — Chamberlain 
circulated  a  box  to-day  to  Trevelyan,  Lefevre,  and  myself. 
It  contained  three  papers  which  you  have  seen  :— 

His  views  on  the  Crimes  Act, 

His  Local  Scheme, 

An  account  of  his  talk  with  Cardinal  Manning. 

Also  a  note  in  which  he  directed  a  special  attention  to  the 
latter. 

Lefevre  had  written  nothing.  Trevelyan  had  written  a  longish 
minute,  dated  to-day,  approving  the  Scheme  ;  strongly  opposing 
a  Purchase  Bill ;  recommending  the  abandonment  of  the  Educa- 
tion Bill ;  and  holding  to  the  Jury  part  only  of  the  Crimes  Bill. 

I  thought  it  right  to  show  that  I  was  against  the  full  Local 
Scheme,  and  I  enclose  a  copy  of  what  I  wrote. 

I  have  had  no  opportunity  of  talking  to  any  of  them,  but  think 
you  may  be  glad  to  know  even  this  much  of  what  is  going  on. 

1  Mr.  (afterwards  the  Rt.  Hon.)  T.  A.  Dickson,  an  Ulster  Liberal  and 
land-reformer,  who  was  supposed  to  be  inspiring  Lord  Spencer  on  Land 
Purchase.  He  subsequently  (1888-1892)  sat  as  Nationalist  Member  for 
the  St.  Stephen's  Green  Division  of  Dublin. 


84    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    The    memorandum    put    in    with    characteristic    modesty 
contains  the  germ  of  an  idea  which  was  to  develop  rapidly  in 


1884-1885.  j^g  mm(j  an(j  that  of  others  during  the  next  nine  months  : — 

HOUSE  OF  COMMONS. 
Confidential. 

I  am  not  sure  how  far  I  am  invited  to  give  an  opinion. 

I  am  personally  not  afraid  of  going  great  lengths — the  length 
of  something  like  a  '  Grattan's  Parliament/  although  there  would 
be  awkward  difficulties  of  detail. 

But  this  Scheme,  it  appears  to  me,  would  put  the  so-called 
Irish  Government  in  a  position,  not  only  intolerable  to  itself, 
but  impossible. 

The  Central  Board,  elected  by  the  mass  of  the  people,  would 
have  a  weight,  and  assume  an  authority,  inconsistent  with  an 
independent  Executive.  The  Chairman  of  the  Board  and  the 
leading  men  in  it  would  altogether  overshadow  the  Minister. 
The  situation  would  be  impossible  :  we  must  go  further  and  have 
a  separate  Irish  Ministry,  if  we  go  this  length. 

County  Boards  are  a  matter  of  course  ;  but,  although  I  have 
no  prejudice  against  a  radical  change,  I  cannot  see  my  way  to 
the  Central  Board. 

I  do  not  agree  that  a  Land  Purchase  Scheme  should  be  post- 
poned. I  would  have  no  local  public  guarantee  for  the  money. 

The  Education  Bill  might  well  wait  for  the  Establishment  of 
County  Boards.  I  doubt  that  the  Catholic  Bishops  really  wish 
Education  to  be  controlled  by  an  ordinary  representative  body 
of  laymen  ;  but  if  they  acquiesced,  I  should  be  glad  of  it. 

I  have  already  given  my  views  on  the  Crimes  Act. 

30/4/85. 

Evidently  both  he  and  Lord  Spencer  had  been  moving  to 
the  conclusion  that,  as  regards  the  Central  Government  in 
Ireland,  there  was  no  half-way  house  between  the  English 
system,  with  the  powers  necessary  to  maintain  it,  and  an 
Irish  Parliament  with  full  responsibility.  He  would  go 
great  lengths — the  length  of  something  like  a  Grattan's 
Parliament/  but  he  saw  nothing  but  conflict  and  confusion 
in  the  setting  up  of  an  elective  Irish  Board  side  by  side 
with  an  independent  Executive.1  To  that  extent  his  seven 

1  It  is  worth  noting  that  he  took  exactly  the  same  objection  to  the 
Lyttelton  Constitution  for  the  Transvaal  in  1906. 


THE  GERM  OF  HOME  RULE     85 

months'  experience  of  Irish  administration  had  cleared  the    CHAP. 
issue  and  prepared  his  mind.     There  might  be  a  big,  but 


there  could  be  no  little,  solution  of  the  Irish  question.  He  ^T'  48' 
had  yet  some  way  to  travel  before  reaching  the  conclusion 
that  the  big  solution  was  inevitable  and  desirable,  but  an 
analysis  of  these  events  goes  far  to  explain  the  seeming 
paradox  that  men  of  his  disposition  and  Lord  Spencer's, 
who  at  this  time  appeared  to  be  in  the  Whig  camp  on  Irish 
policy,  were  among  the  first  to  embrace  Home  Rule.  They 
conceived  the  problem  in  parliamentary  terms,  whereas 
Mr.  Chamberlain  conceived  it  in  terms  of  local  govern- 
ment. Mr.  Gladstone's  assertion  that  there  was  no  half- 
way house  between  Coercion  and  Home  Rule  was  to  them 
not  a  rhetorical  flourish,  but  the  actual  teaching  of  their 
administrative  experience.  So  long  as  England  attempted 
to  govern  Ireland  in  her  domestic  affairs,  she  was  obliged 
to  arm  herself  with  the  powers  necessary  to  maintain  her 
position  against  Irish  hostility ;  and  if  the  exercise  of 
these  powers  conflicted  with  her  Liberal  tradition  or  her 
sense  of  sound  policy,  then  she  must  boldly  concede  the 
government  of  Ireland  to  Irishmen. 

Mr.  Gladstone  had  favoured  the  Central  Board  Scheme 
as  the  next  practicable  step,  and  on  its  rejection  by  the 
Cabinet  in  the  middle  of  May  he  wrrote  to  Lord  Spencer 
that  it  was  dead  '  for  the  present  only.  It  will  quickly 
rise  again,  as  I  think,  perhaps  in  larger  dimensions.'  1  The 
two  parties  in  the  Cabinet  had  now  fought  each  other  to  a 
standstill,  and  the  Radicals  finally  made  it  clear  that,  if 
Lord  Spencer  would  not  have  their  Central  Board,  they 
would  not  have  his  Land  Purchase  Scheme.  Lord  Spencer 
was  gravely  disturbed,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  endeavoured  to 
pacify  him  by  a  concession  which  immediately  brought 
him  letters  of  resignation  from  Mr.  Chamberlain  and  Sir 
Charles  Dilke,  who  insisted  that  they  would  accept  no  scheme 

1  Morley's  Life,  Book  viii.  chap.  ii.  (Vol.  in.  p.  194).  As  the  Cabinet 
broke  up  he  said  to  one  colleague,  '  Ah  !  they  will  rue  this  day  '  ;  and  to 
another,  '  Within  six  years,  if  it  please  God  to  spare  their  lives,  they  will 
be  repenting  in  sackcloth  and  ashes.' 


86    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    of  Land  Purchase   unless  accompanied    by  their  Central 
Board.     The  resignations  were  averted,  but  by  the  begin- 


'3s>  ing  of  June  there  remained  nothing  to  present  to  Parlia- 
ment but  the  '  Trial  Procedure  Bill/  about  which  the 
Cabinet  was  still  divided,  and  on  that  the  Whigs  had, 
unknown  to  themselves,  been  dished  by  the  Tories,  whose 
intimacy  with  the  Parnellites  was  now  barely  disguised. 
Always  faithful  in  reporting  to  his  Chief,  Campbell- 
Bannerman  more  than  once  retails  the  House  of  Commons 
gossip  on  this  subject : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Spencer 

IRISH  OFFICE,  March  19,  '85. — You  may  have  heard  the 
following  story  :  I  was  told  it  by  Mundella  last  night. 

On  the  night  of  the  Division  of  the  Vote  of  Censure  on  the 
Soudan  question,  Mundella  went  to  Cosset's  room  to  smoke  a 
cigar.  On  leaving  it,  and  escaping  from  the  hot  atmosphere  of 
the  room,  he  remained  walking  up  and  down  in  the  compara- 
tively fresh  and  cool  air  of  the  corridor  which  leads  from  the 
Central  Hall  to  the  door  of  the  Commons  Dining-room.  Out 
of  this  corridor,  as  you  know,  rises  the  staircase  leading  up  to 
the  Committee  Rooms  above,  which  staircase  was  at  that  hour 
(10.30  P.M.)  dark  and  deserted. 

As  he  paced  backwards  and  forward  he  became  aware  of  two 
figures  at  the  top  of  the  first  flight  of  steps  of  the  staircase,  and 
he  saw  that  they  were  two  men  in  close  conversation.  Thoughts 
of  dynamitards  and  all  sorts  of  things  came  into  his  head,  and 
his  curiosity  led  him  to  leave  his  quarter-deck  and  take  one  or 
two  strides  towards  the  foot  of  the  dark  staircase.  As  he 
advanced  the  two  men  became  aware  of  his  approach,  and 
turned  towards  him,  so  that  the  light  fell  full  on  their  faces. 
They  were  Rowland  Winn  J  and  Parnell. 

Shortly  afterwards  the  Parnellites  met  to  consider  how  they 
should  vote. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  truth  about  the  '  dark  stair ' 
episode,  whether  there  was  a  '  compact '  or  not,  or  whether 
the  decision  was  arrived  at,  as  Lord  Randolph  Churchill 
subsequently  claimed,  by  '  immense  deliberation ' 2  on  the 

1  Conservative  Whip. 

1  Speech  at  Sheffield,  Sept.  4,  1885. 


FALL  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT  87 

merits   of  the  question,   the  fact  remained  that  by   the    CHAP. 
beginning  of  June  Lord  Salisbury  and  the  Conservative 


leaders  had  definitely  reached  the  conclusion  that  '  in  the  ^T-  48> 
absence  of  official  information '  there  was  '  nothing  to 
warrant  a  Government  in  applying  for  exceptional  powers 
in  Ireland.'  On  June  8,  Conservatives  and  Parnellites 
went  into  the  lobby  to  vote  for  Sir  Michael  Hicks  Beach's 
amendment  to  the  beer  and  spirit  taxes  of  the  Budget, 
and  the  Government,  defeated  by  twelve  votes,  found 
refuge  from  its  troubles  in  resigning. 

'  I  shall  be  very  sorry,'  wrote  Lord  Spencer,  '  that  our 
official  relations  should  close.  They  have  been  delightful 
to  me,  and  I  cannot  thank  you  too  much  for  the  confidence 
you  have  placed  in  me  and  the  cordial  and  generous  way 
you  have  worked  with  me.  I  hope  you  have  not  repented 
the  decision  which  my  short  visit  to  Edinburgh  last  autumn 
brought  about.'  He  had,  indeed,  no  reason  to  repent.  His 
seven  months  at  the  Irish  Office  had  taken  him  out  of  the 
departmental  rut,  placed  him  in  the  firing  line  and  plunged 
him  into  great  affairs.  In  the  House  of  Commons  he  had 
won  a  reputation  for  patience,  courage,  and  resourcefulness 
which  he  could  hardly  have  gained  in  any  other  office. 
Most  of  all,  he  had  run  a  straight  course  and  supported  his 
Chief  loyally  through  all  the  intrigues  and  cross-currents 
of  these  times.  He  was  judged  by  the  inner  circle  to 
be  a  trusty  man  and  a  good  colleague  who  had  no  axe  to 
grind.  His  friendship  and  admiration  for  Lord  Spencer 
remained  to  the  end  of  his  life  one  of  the  strongest  of  his 
political  attachments. 


CHAPTER  VI 

HOME  RULER  AND  CABINET  MINISTER 

The  November  Election — Unopposed  Return — Opinions  on 
Home  Rule— Finding  Salvation — Correspondence  with  Lord 
Spencer — Letter  to  Lord  Northbrook — Formation  of  the  New 
Government — Secretary  for  War — Queen  Victoria's  Nominee 
—Sir  William  Harcourt  and  the  Estimates — Contagious 
Diseases  Act — Speech  on  the  Home  Rule  Bill — The  '  In-and- 
Out  Solution  ' — Dissolution  and  Defeat  of  the  Government — 
A  Popular  Minister. 


CHAP.      "T DESPITE  the  turmoil  at  home  and  the  certainty  of  a 
,    VL    ^  I     general  election  in  November,  the  ex-Chief  Secre- 

1885-1886.  1,  J  tary  took  his  holiday  with  an  untroubled  mind, 
and  was  perhaps  not  sorry  to  be  safely  removed  from  the 
battle  of  the  Programmes,  '  authorised  '  and  '  unauthorised/ 
in  which,  during  the  next  few  months,  Radical  was  as  much 
engaged  with  Whig  as  Liberal  with  Tory.  He  browsed 
for  a  month  in  Scotland,  spent  August  at  Marienbad,  most 
of  September  at  Gastein,  and  returned  in  a  leisurely  way  by 
Innsbruck  to  Munich,  reaching  London  on  October  8.  A 
week  later  he  issued  his  election  address,  and  then  took  up 
electioneering  in  his  own  constituency,  addressing  the 
Burghs  in  speeches  which  kept  a  nice  balance  between  the 
contending  factions,  but  on  the  whole  placed  him  on  the 
advanced  line.  Holding  to  his  old  argument  against  the 
Central  Council  in  Ireland,  he  declared  himself  opposed  to 
the  '  National  Councils  '  for  local  affairs  in  the  different 
parts  of  the  United  Kingdom,  which  were  a  penumbra  of 
the  '  unauthorised  programme,'  but  he  came  out  resolutely 
for  free  education,  and  for  disestablishment  both  in  Scotland 
and  England,  and  saw  nothing  to  be  alarmed  at  in  '  three 
acres  and  a  cow/  or  the  compulsory  powers  with  which 
Mr.  Chamberlain  proposed  to  arm  local  authorities  to  give 

88 


A  STIFF  PASSAGE  89 

effect   to    this   policy.     Whenever   the    personal   question    CHAP. 
arose,  he  seized  every  opportunity  to  declare  his  loyalty  to  v^ — > 
Mr.  Gladstone.     '  There  is  among  us  one  man/  he  said,  in  ^ 
speaking  of  the  reform  of  County  Government,  '  who  is 
above  all  men  competent  to  deal  with  this  question.' 

Mr.  Gladstone  has  shown  us  in  many  cases  how  his  high 
authority,  his  knowledge  of  affairs,  his  firm  grasp  of  principles, 
his  marvellous  mastery  of  details  can  subdue  difficulties  and 
guide  us  out  of  a  labyrinth  from  which  it  might  seem  hopeless 
to  seek  an  issue.  Let  us  rejoice  that  his  bodily  force  is  not  yet 
seriously  abated,  and  let  us  hope  that  in  the  coming  Parliament 
to  which  he  himself  has  summoned  the  fresh  energy  of  the 
newly  enfranchised  electors,  he  may  add  yet  this  signal  service 
to  those  he  has  already  rendered  to  his  country.1 

This  was  the  authentic  note  of  the  true  Gladstonian,  and 
it  never  failed  to  evoke  cheers  from  the  Liberals  of  the 
Stirling  Burghs.  Everything  went  smoothly,  and  once 
more  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  an  unopposed  return. 

But  he  was  not  yet  a  Home  Ruler,  and  his  election 
address  contained  a  stiff  passage  which  was  often  thrown 
in  his  teeth  in  subsequent  months  : 

My  recent  connection  with  the  Government  of  Ireland  has 
only  served  to  increase  my  appreciation  of  the  difficulties  to  be 
met  by  those  who  administer  the  affairs  of  that  country.  I  am 
desirous  of  seeing  at  the  earliest  possible  moment  a  large  exten- 
sion of  local  self-government  in  Ireland  ;  but  I  would  give  no 
countenance  to  the  scheme  of  those  who  seek  to  injure  this 
country,  as  they  would  assuredly  ruin  their  own,  by  separation 
under  one  name  or  another. 

In  speeches  to  his  constituents  he  had  further  argued  that 
if  the  Irish  people  '  found  that  the  most  tangible  of  their 
grievances  had  been  removed,  and  that  they  were  invested 
with  the  power  of  managing  everything  that  affected  their 
home  interests  and  their  daily  life,'  they  '  would  suddenly 
discover  that  they  were  satisfied  without  well  knowing 
how,  and  they  would  cease  to  cry  out  for  certain  distant 
and  inaccessible  objects  which  they  were  incited  by  their 

1  Stirling,  Oct.  23,  1885. 


90    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    leaders  to  claim  !  '      Evidently  these  passages  meant  and 
could  only  mean  that  he  was  opposed  to  Home  Rule  in 


!88s-i886.  ^e  Commonly  accepted  meaning  of  that  term,  and  in  the 
subsequent  controversy  he  made  no  attempt  to  disguise 
that  fact.  Events  moved  rapidly  during  the  next  few 
weeks,  and,  as  the  most  recent  Liberal  Chief  Secretary,  he 
was  deeply  involved  in  them.  Early  in  December  he  was 
in  correspondence  with  Lord  Spencer,  who  avowed  himself 
(Dec.  13)  '  uneasy  at  the  drift  of  my  thoughts  and  inclina- 
tions,' and  begged  him  to  come  to  Althorp  for  a  talk.  Three 
days  later  Lord  Spencer  renewed  his  appeal.  '  I  really  must 
see  you  before  the  end  of  the  week.  Any  day  Mr.  Glad- 
stone may  write  to  me  or  see  me,  and  I  am  in  real  anxiety 
about  the  subject.  I  had  a  very  big  talk  with  Goschen 
yesterday,  and  frightened  and  horrified  him,  I  expect 
greatly.'  The  next  day  (Dec.  17)  the  Hawarden  kite  was 
flown,  to  the  astonishment  and  dismay  of  the  whole  ex- 
Cabinet.  There  was  no  doubt  now  about  the  urgency  of 
the  business,  and  Campbell-Bannerman,  who  was  staying 
at  Gennings,  roused  himself  to  go  for  two  days  to  Althorp. 
What  passed  must  be  inferred  from  his  subsequent  letters, 
but  already,  it  is  clear,  he  was  far  beyond  the  point  of  his 
October  election  address  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Spencer 

HUNTON,  MAIDSTONE,  Dec.  27,  '85.— I  have  been  thinking  a 
great  deal,  of  course,  of  all  you  said  the  other  day  at  Althorp. 

I  think  all  the  difficulties  of  detail — police,  landowners,  tariffs, 
taxation,  etc. — are  capable  of  adjustment. 

The  two  great  points  on  which  my  doubts  fasten  are  the 
finality  of  the  scheme  and  the  possibility  of  carrying  it  out. 

As  to  the  first,  though  of  course  we  can  have  no  certainty, 
yet  I  think  we  ought  to  have  some  better  evidence  than  we 
possess  that  it  would  be  accepted  as  satisfactory  and  final. 
Can  we  depend  on  the  moderates  standing  firm  ?  They  would 
have  some  evil  days,  between  the  angry  loyalists  on  one  hand 
and  the  Fenian  extremists  on  the  other.  Take  for  instance  the 
very  probable  contingency  that  capital  would  leave  the  country, 
and  thus  that  employment  would  be  diminished,  and  trade 


ARGUMENTS  ON  HOME  RULE  91 

reduced,  if  not  to  a  standstill,  to  a  condition  of  great  dullness.    CHAP. 
There  would  be  an  outcry  for  absolute  independence  so  as  to  v     VI-  ^ 
attract  foreign  money,  and  for  relief  from  Imperial  taxation.  &*.  48-49- 
This  would  come  very  early,  before  any  new  combinations  or 
parties  had  been  formed.     Would  this  outcry  not  sweep  away 
the  new  Parliamentary  constitution  just  as  the  National  League 
denounces  the  Land  Act  ? 

Then  as  to  practicableness.  I  do  not  imagine  that  public 
opinion  at  present  would  support  it,  unless  both  parties  agreed. 

If  there  is  no  agreement,  ought  the  proposal  to  be  mooted  or, 
at  least,  formally  adopted  ?  On  the  whole  I  think  not.  If 
things  are  left  as  they  are,  the  Government  may  struggle  on, 
and  opinions  would  ripen  gradually.  But  with  a  number  of 
prominent  public  men  giving  open  support  to  the  proposal  of 
a  separate  Parliament,  it  would  be  impossible  to  administer 
Ireland,  and  people  in  this  country  would  at  once  fah1  into  one 
or  other  camp  on  the  subject.  The  question  would  be  com- 
promised and  prematurely  forced  ;  and  we  might  find  ourselves, 
before  we  knew  how,  in  a  civil  war  in  Ireland. 

My  hopes  rest,  therefore,  more  than  ever  on  some  entente 
between  the  two  parties. 

The  whole  prospect  is  most  perplexing  and  bewildering,  and 
I  do  not  know  that  my  muddled  cogitations  are  of  much  value. 
I  confess  that  I  find  my  opinions  moving  about  like  a  quicksand. 

Lord  Spencer  wrote  again  within  the  week,  enclosing 
sundry  letters  from  correspondents  of  his  own.  Campbell- 
Bannerman  replied  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Spencer 

GENNINGS,  HUNTON,  MAIDSTONE,  Jan.  2,  '86. — I  am  much 
obliged  to  you  for  letting  me  see  these  letters. 

Lord  Monck  after  all  is  very  vague,  for  he  does  not  say  what 
his  idea  of  H.R.  is  :  but  he  sees,  what  the  other  two  apparently 
do  not,  that  the  present  state  of  things  cannot  go  on,  and  that 
you  cannot  coerce. 

It  is  a  great  comfort  and  relief  to  me  to  hear  that  you  are  so 
much  bothered  and  perplexed.  It  shows  that  my  disease  is  in 
the  air  and  is  not  peculiar  to  myself. 

I  feel  confirmed  in  my  notion  that  the  Gov.  and  Parnell  shd. 
be  compelled  or  at  least  challenged  to  shew  their  hands  :  and 
that  there  should  be  no  premature  disclosure  on  the  part  of  any 


92    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    Liberal  leader.     Any  '  large  '  measure,  if  it  is  not  to  be  carried 
VI-    _,  ought  not  to  be  proposed  or  spoken  of,  because  if  a  large  measure 


1885-1886.  is  not  to  be  carried  something  else  must  be  done ;  and  new 
difficulty  will  be  put  in  the  way  of  that  something  else  if  it  is 
known  that  influential  people  are  quite  of  another  way  of 
thinking.  It  does  not  seem  to  me  like  an  ordinary  legislative 
case  where  a  disclosure  might  educate  opinion. 

I  think  there  is  force  in  the  contention  that  in  any  case  a 
great  change  shd.  not  be  made  without  a  definite  challenge  of 
Irish  opinion.  It  is  said,  and  is  no  doubt  partly  true,  that  the 
late  election  did  not  directly  turn  on  Home  Rule.  There  is 
the  old  dilemma  as  to  Home  Rule  and  the  extinction  of  land- 
lords— which  of  these  is  the  object  and  which  is  the  means  ? 

If  it  was  known  that  there  was  a  sufficient  number  of  people 
in  England  willing  to  give  Home  Rule  if  the  Irish  wished  it,  but 
ready  to  resist  it  if  they  did  not,  and  an  appeal  was  made,  side 
issues  wd.  be  dropped  and  above  all  the  Unionists  wd.  exert 
themselves.  In  such  an  issue  no  ordinary  inconvenience  or 
fear  of  consequences  wd.  prevent  a  loyal  man  from  voting : 
whereas  in  the  late  election  many  no  doubt  did  not  trouble  to 
vote,  wishing  to  avoid  personal  risk,  and  thinking  the  Union 
safe  owing  to  the  interest  of  England  in  its  favour.  This  trusting 
in  and  trading  upon  the  fact  that  in  the  long  run  we  should 
support  the  loyalists,  has  led  to  nearly  the  whole  mischief,  and 
now  may  prevent  its  proper  cure. 

But  all  this  comes  later  and  does  not  affect  the  immediate 
problem. 

Surely  the  Govt.  cannot  face  the  world  if  they  leave  Ireland 
as  it  is,  with  the  '  no  Government '  which  prevails.  They  must 
say  what  they  propose  to  do. 

II 

In  the  meantime,  he  had  been  in  correspondence  with 
Lord  Northbrook,  to  whom  on  December  26  he  avows 
frankly  that  his  views  had  '  shifted  onward  '  :- 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Northbrook 

Dec.  26,  '85. — Since  we  had  some  conversation  a  week  or  two 
ago  in  London  on  the  question  of  Ireland,  matters  have  greatly 
advanced,  and  I  do  not  see  quite  the  same  deadlock  that  then 
appeared  to  be  before  us.  The  prospect,  however,  is  still 


NATIONAL  COUNCIL  OR  PARLIAMENT?    93 

bewildering,  if  not  appalling.     I  have  seen  Lord  Spencer  and    CHAP. 
learned  his  views,  and  through  him,  those  of  some  other  people,  v,    VL 


I  think  I  am  a  good  deal  more  timid  than  he  is,  and  I  cannot  ^T.  48-49- 
pretend  to  have  any  new  lights,  or  to  have  formed  any  very 
definite  views  ;   but  after  what  has  passed  between  us  perhaps 
you  would  let  me  say  how  the  points  strike  me. 

Last  summer  I  was,  and  I  still  remain,  strongly  opposed  to 
the  scheme  that  was  then  before  us,  of  some  sort  of  National 
Council,  to  exist  side  by  side  with  an  Executive  Govt. ,  forming 
part  of  the  regular  Imperial  Administration.  Such  a  scheme 
would  create  a  position  totally  intolerable  and  impossible,  and 
would  aggravate  instead  of  removing  the  House  of  Commons' 
difficulty. 

Rather  than  try  it,  I  thought  we  should  confine  ourselves  to 
the  erection  of  district  and  County  Boards,  and  other  adminis- 
trative improvements,  which  would  increase  popular  authority 
over  Irish  questions  and  occupy  with  them  the  public  mind. 

The  situation  is  now  changed.  Such  a  scheme  has  now  no 
chance  of  being  proposed  or  accepted  :  and  our  choice  is  between 
modest  reforms  and  a  separate  Parliament  with  a  separate 
Govt.  .  .  .  Now  whatever  difficulties  or  dangers  may  attend 
a  separate  Parlt.,  it  does  not  create  the  condition  of  antagonism 
in  administration  which  I  dreaded  in  the  scheme  of  last  summer. 
It  also,  in  the  main,  rids  the  House  of  Commons  of  the  Irish 
obstructives.  On  the  other  hand,  after  all  that  has  passed,  it 
is  doubtful  whether  a  mere  system  of  popular  County  Govt. 
would  not  now  be  abused,  and  become  the  occasion  and  instru- 
ment of  further  and  dangerous  agitation  against  this  country. 
I  am  disposed  to  make  very  great  abatements  from  the  apparent 
value  of  the  return  of  85  Parnellites,  owing  to  the  circumstances 
of  the  election,  but  we  cannot  altogether  explain  away  or  deny 
the  effect  of  their  success,  especially  in  Ulster.  In  face  of  it, 
we  can  hardly  expect  that  improved  County  Govt.  will  satisfy 
the  public  mind  in  Ireland.  And  how  is  fresh  agitation,  whether 
based  on  extended  local  privileges  or  not,  to  be  met  ?  The 
Landlords'  party  having  ostentatiously  thrown  away,  last 
summer,  such  powers  as  they  had,  we  cannot  expect  public 
opinion  here,  and  especially  liberal  public  opinion,  to  support 
any  exceptional  legislation  of  the  kind  we  have  been  accustomed 
to  rely  upon.  There  is  thus  no  obvious  alternative  to  the  grant 
of  a  Parliament. 

The  conditions  to  the  establishment  of  a  separate  Parliament 
are  these : — 


94    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.        (i)  It  must  be  accepted  publicly  by  Parnell  &  Co. 
VL     ^      (2)  We  must  have  reason  to  believe  that  it  will  be  final. 


1885-1886.  This  is  the  point  on  which  I  have  the  greatest  doubts, 

and  of  course  it  is  the  principal  point.  Some  authorities 
say  it  will ;  but  I  should  fear  it  will  not  satisfy  the 
English-hating  Americans  (for  instance),  whose  money 
keeps  the  whole  agitation  going. 

(3)  Some  security  must  be  taken  against  the  complete  spolia- 

tion of  landowners. 

(4)  The  control  of  police  must  of  course  go  over.     But  this 

does  not  imply  the  control  of  the  R.I.C.  The  localities 
should  provide  themselves  with  police  of  the  English 
type.  The  Constabulary  we  must  take  over,  perhaps 
partly  disband,  possibly  partly  absorb  in  our  Army ; 
at  any  rate  provide  for. 

(5)  We  must  provide  for  all  our  officials,  where  necessary. 

There  remain  three  questions  :— 

(6)  Would  this  lead  to  civil  war  or  religious  feuds  ?     If  so, 

this  would  be  a  strong  reason  against  it.  I  do  not 
believe  it  would. 

(7)  Would  it  ruin  Ireland  by  driving  all  capitalists  and  their 

money  out  of  the  country,  and  destroying  her  credit  ? 
This  I  think  a  more  likely  evil  than  my  (6) . 

(8)  Will  English  and  Scotch  public  opinion  support  the  idea  ? 

I  doubt  it.  It  would  if  the  true  facts  were  known,  but 
they  are  not,  and  the  decision  will  be  largely  governed 
by  sentiment.  The  proposal  certainly  could  not  be 
carried  by  our  party  if  the  others  raised  the  country 
against  it. 

The  gist  of  my  opinion,  therefore,  at  present,  is  :— 

(a)  A  separate  Parliament  is  not  open  to  the  objections  fatal 

to  a  National  Council. 

(b)  There  is  no  alternative  to  it. 

(c)  Its  details  can  be  adjusted. 

But:- 

(d)  We  must  be  sure  that  it  will  satisfy  (or  as  sure  as  you  can 

be  in  politics) ,  and 

(e)  Public  opinion  in  this  island  will  not  support  it  unless  it  is 

put  forward  by  the  leaders  of  both  parties. 

I  do  not  know  whether  the  last   must  be  regarded  as  an 


HOPE  OF  JOINT  ACTION  95 

impossible  condition.     Possibly  these  two  conditions  make  the    CHAP. 
whole  proposal  incapable  of  realisation  at  present. 


Unfortunately  the  way  in  which  some  shadow  of  Mr.  G.'S^KT.  48-49. 
opinions  has  been  allowed  to  be  disclosed  has  already  raised  a 
cry  against  the  proposal  as  a  mere  place-hunting  intrigue,  and 
thus  the  question  is  compromised.  But  I  can  hardly  doubt 
that  some  members  of  the  Govt.  at  least  must  see  that  things 
cannot  go  on  as  they  are,  and  that  no  change  but  a  big  change 
can  meet  the  necessity  of  the  case.  I  confess  that  my  hope 
lies  in  their  being  able  to  bring  about  some  joint  action  between 
the  parties. 

My  views  have  thus  shifted  onwards  since  I  saw  you,  and  this 
is  why  I  trouble  you  with  this  letter. 

Ill 

Early  in  January  he  spent  three  days  with  Lord  North- 
brook  at  Stratton,  where  Sir  George  Trevelyan  also  was 
staying,  and  his  views  as  to  immediate  action  swung  a  little 
away  from  Lord  Spencer's.  On  returning  to  Gennings  he 
wrote  again  to  Lord  Spencer  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Spencer 

GENNINGS,  HUNTON,  MAIDSTONE,  Jan.  8,  '86. — I  have  just 
returned  from  Stratton,  where  Trevelyan  was  also  staying. 
Lord  Northbrook  said  he  would  write  to  you,  but  if  I  am  not 
boring  you  I  wish  to  say  one  or  two  things. 

I  think  I  can  say  with  absolute  accuracy  that  Lord  North- 
brook  and  myself  take  an  identical  view  of  the  position.  There 
is  one  point  of  difference  to  which  I  will  allude  by  and  by. 

Trevelyan  differs  materially  inasmuch  as  the  centre  of  gravity 
of  his  opinions  is  more  on  the  side  of  resistance.  He  thinks, 
and  we  do  not,  that  a  sustained  policy  of  coercion  is  possible. 
He  does  not  regard  a  separate  Govt.  as,  sooner  or  later,  inevitable. 
He  is  also  more  exercised  on  the  subject  of  the  police  than  we 
are — at  least  than  I  am.  I  think  he  is  influenced  by  his  recollec- 
tion of  his  experiences  at  the  time  of  the  Police  Strike  in  1882. 
He  also,  I  think,  exaggerates  the  success  of  the  Crimes  Act  and 
its  administration  in  checking  the  National  Movement :  he  is 
more  Spencerian  than  the  Viceroy  !  for  I  know  that  you  attach 
great  significance  to  the  spread  of  Parnellism  even  in  your  time 
among  public  bodies  and  Corporations. 


96    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.        Two  things  seem  to  me  to  have  become  more  clear  since  I 
VL     ,  saw  you  : — 


1885-1886. 

(1)  That  no  feasible  or  sufficient  mode  has  been  suggested  of 

preventing  the  spoliation  of  the  landlord  under  Home 
Rule ;  and  without  some  check  or  safeguard  it  would 
be  intolerable  to  hand  over  the  Govt.  Even  J.  Morley 
in  his  last  night's  speech  states  this  as  the  first  thing 
to  be  secured.  But  no  one  sees  how  it  can  be  done. 

(2)  A  separate  Parlt.  will  be  opposed  by  the  Tories  and  most 

Liberals  and  Radicals.  I  do  not  see  how  this  opposition 
can  be  easily  overcome.  It  is  based  rather  on  English 
and  Imperial  than  on  Irish  grounds,  and  I  think,  indeed, 
that  those  of  us  who  have  had  to  do  with  Ireland  and 
know  the  hideous  difficulties  of  its  government  (e.g. 
Hamilton  and  Jenkinson)  are  naturally  disposed  to  take 
too  light  a  view  of  the  dangers  to  the  Empire  of  the 
alternative  to  which  we  deem  ourselves  driven. 

If  these  two  facts  be  true,  the  scheme  of  a  separate  Parliament 
is  impracticable  for  the  moment.  And  if  it  is  not  practicable, 
it  seems  to  me  it  ought  not  to  be  mooted.  It  is  not  as  if  any  of 
us  thought  it  a  good  thing  in  itself,  or  beneficial  either  to  Ireland 
or  England.  On  the  contrary,  if  the  Irish  people  would  only  be 
quiet  and  reasonable,  they  have  very  few  grievances  and  these 
would  be  readily  removed,  leaving  to  the  country  the  immense 
advantage  of  close  connection  with  England.  We  regard  Home 
Rule  only  as  a  dangerous  and  damaging  pis  oiler.  What  good 
then  can  be  done  by  declaring  for  it ;  and  what  effect  will  be 
created  except  to  weaken  still  further  the  power  of  the  executive 
and  the  chance  (if  there  is  any)  of  a  quieter  and  less  revolutionary 
solution  ?  It  appears  to  me  that  we  are  very  much  in  the 
position  of  a  beleaguered  garrison.  Some  of  us  may  think  that 
we  should  do  well  to  come  to  terms  with  the  enemy,  but  if  the 
majority  are  for  trying  their  fortune  and  resisting,  it  is  not 
either  necessary  or  right  that  we  should  hold  out  a  little  white 
flag  on  our  own  account.  It  would  be  quite  different  if  we 
thought  that  the  Parnellites  were  right  in  principle ;  we  might 
be  bound  in  conscience  to  declare  for  them.  As  it  is,  the  country 
being  unwilling  to  take  the  step  which  we  may  consider  in  the 
long  run  unavoidable,  ought  we  to  urge  it,  when  we  ourselves 
dread  it,  and  above  all  when  the  attendant  safeguards  are 
apparently  unattainable  ? 

The  one  point  on  which  I  differ  from  Lord  Northbrook  is  after 


A  CONSPIRACY  OF  CIRCUMSTANCES    97 

all  a  matter  of  fact  and  not  of  opinion.     He  anticipates  that  the    CHAP. 
Govt.  will  introduce  some  sort  of  Coercion  Bill,  and  discusses ..    VI-     _, 
the  line  we  ought  to  take.     My  idea  is  that  they  will  do  nothing  ^T.  48-49. 
of  the  kind  ;  they  will  represent  Ireland  as  very  free  from  crime 
and  on  the  whole  prosperous,  and  will  say  nothing  of  any  re- 
pressive measure.     If  I  am  right,  the  difficulty  will  not  arise  : 
if  they  did  introduce  a  Bill,  we  should  have  to  see  what  it  was 
before  committing  ourselves. 

Is  it  possible  after  all  to  hope  that  Mr.  Gladstone  may  appear 
and  produce  a  scheme  of  Home  Rule,  free  from  all  the  defects 
and  guarding  against  all  the  evils  which  ordinary  people  like 
me  see  and  dread  ?  This  would  be  indeed  a  triumph  and  no 
prejudice  would  stand  in  the  way  of  its  being  accepted.  But  it 
is  a  task  almost  more  than  human. 

There  was,  as  these  letters  show,  much  mental  agonising 
on  the  part  of  all  these  distinguished  men  in  their  effort  to 
'  find  salvation.'  l  That  phrase  was  attributed  to  Campbell- 
Bannerman,  but  he  appears  not  to  have  used  it  of  himself, 
and  it  would  scarcely  have  described  his  state  of  mind  in 
January  1886.  He  felt  none  of  the  raptures  of  a  convert 
finding  peace  and  consolation  in  a  new  faith.  To  him  Home 
Rule  was  as  yet  but  a  pis  oiler,  to  which  we  were  being 
driven  by  a  conspiracy  of  evil  circumstances — British  mis- 
government,  Irish  wrong-headedness,  the  party  manoeuvres 
which  had  dished  Lord  Spencer  and  made  a  middle  course 
impossible  to  the  Liberal  Party.  Upon  one  point  he  had 

1  Sir  Edward  Russell  of  the  Liverpool  Post  (afterwards  Lord  Russell) 
has  left  the  most  probable  account  of  its  genesis.  According  to  him,  it 
arose  in  conversation  between  Campbell-Bannerman  and  Mr.  Mundella 
in  the  Lobby  of  the  House  of  Commons.  Mr.  Mundella  said,  '  Well, 
waiting  till  now,  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  Home  Rule  has  got 
to  be  accepted,  and  that  that  and  that  alone  can  clear  everything  up. 
Mr.  Campbell-Bannerman  replied,  '  Yes,  you  are  just  in  the  position  of  a 
man  who,  in  the  language  of  the  Salvation  Army,  has  found  Jesus.  He 
has  been  in  great  perplexity  and  distress  and  he  feels  that  everything  has 
been  made  straight  and  right  by  this  one  thing.'  Sir  Edward  adds  that 
Campbell-Bannerman  was  greatly  amazed  when  the  next  time  Mr.  Mun- 
della spoke  he  said  that  his  friend  Campbell-Bannerman  declared  that  he 
had  found  Salvation  long  ago.  (See  The  Model  Member,  by  J.  B.  Mackie, 
pp.  75-6.)  Another  of  his  contributions  to  the  Home  Rule  controversy 
was  the  word  '  Ulsteria '  to  express  the  excitement  of  the  North-Eastern 
part  of  Ireland,  but  I  have  not  been  able  to  discover  the  speech  in  which 
the  word  is  used. 

VOL  I.  G 


g8    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    been  clear  from  the  beginning.     There  was  no  remedy  in 
VI      ^  the  central  administrative  Board  which  Mr.  Chamberlain 


1885-1886.  ^d  pr0pOSed  in  April  of  the  previous  year.  '  I  am  per- 
sonally/ he  had  written  in  the  memorandum  which  he 
presented  to  the  Cabinet  on  that  project  (April  30,  1885), l 
'  not  afraid  of  going  great  lengths — the  length  of  something 
like  a  "  Grattan's  Parliament,"  although  there  would  be 
awkward  difficulties  of  detail,  but  this  scheme  would  put 
the  so-called  Irish  Government  in  a  position  not  only 
intolerable  in  itself  but  impossible.'  A  man  who  started 
from  this  position  could  eventually  come  to  only  one  con- 
clusion, but  he  thought  it  a  grim  business,  and  the  faith 
and  fervour  which  Mr.  Gladstone  was  afterwards  to  kindle 
in  the  '  great  cause  '  were  yet  to  come. 

In  the  light  of  after  events  it  would  be  a  waste  of  words 
to  argue  for  the  verbal  consistency  of  any  British  statesman 
on  the  Irish  question.  To  a  Home  Ruler  it  seems  evident 
that  a  happier  result  would  have  been  reached  for  both 
countries  if  some  eminent  people  had  awakened  earlier 
to  the  conditions  which  Mr.  Gladstone  thought  imperative 
in  1886.  Campbell-Bannerman  evidently  disliked  Mr. 
Gladstone's  tactics,  and  greatly  mistrusted  the  sanguine 
estimates  which  encouraged  the  Liberal  leader  to  his 
impetuous  frontal  attack  in  1886.  But  on  the  point  of 
principle  he  was  whole-heartedly  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  opinion 
that  the  choice  lay  between  two  roads — the  one  leading 
forward  to  a  Parliament  in  Dublin,  the  other  back  to  strife, 
coercion,  and  the  intensification  of  the  system  which,  from 
his  experience  as  Chief  Secretary,  he  knew  to  be  bankrupt. 
Accordingly  when  the  choice  had  to  be  made,  he  held  that 
there  could  be  no  alternative  for  a  convinced  Liberal,  and 
unhesitatingly  threw  in  his  lot  with  Mr.  Gladstone,  who 
invited  him  to  become  Secretary  for  War  in  the  Cabinet 
which  he  formed  after  the  defeat  of  Lord  Salisbury's  Govern- 
ment in  the  new  Parliament. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  Campbell-Bannerman  owed 
this  appointment  to  Queen  Victoria.  Mr.  Gladstone's 

1  See  supra,  p.  84. 


SECRETARY  FOR  WAR  99 

original  nominee  had  been  Mr.   Childers,   who  had  been    CHAP. 
War  Secretary  in  the  1880  Cabinet,  but  the  Queen  took 


strong  exception  to  this  appointment,  and  herself  urged  ^T-  48"49- 
that  the  late  Chief  Secretary  was  the  most  suitable  man 
for  the  place.  There  was  much  debate  on  the  point  between 
the  Queen  and  the  Prime  Minister,  and  it  was  only  with 
great  reluctance  that  Mr.  Gladstone  gave  way.  '  After 
some  discussion/  the  Queen's  Secretary,  Sir  Henry  Pon- 
sonby,  reported  to  her  on  Feb.  8,  '  Mr.  Gladstone  said  he 
wished  to  please  Your  Majesty  to  the  best  of  his  power, 
and  therefore  at  a  great  sacrifice  would  give  up  Mr.  Childers 
and  would  select  the  gentleman  named  by  Your  Majesty, 
Mr.  Campbell-Bannerman,  for  the  War  Office.'  The  next 
day,  the  Duke  of  Cambridge,  then  Commander-in-Chief, 
took  up  his  pen  and  wrote  to  the  Queen  : — 

I  hope  you  will  allow  me  to  assure  you  how  grateful  I  feel  to 
you,  not  only  on  my  own  account  but  specially  as  regards  the 
interests  of  the  Army,  that  you  insisted  on  Mr.  Campbell- 
Bannerman  corning  here  as  Secretary  of  State,  in  preference  to 
Mr.  Childers.  The  former  is  a  very  nice,  calm,  and  pleasant 
man,  well  known  by  all  here  and  who  knows  the  War  Office  work 
and  with  whom  I  have  no  doubt  I  shall  be  able  to  get  on  very 
smoothly  and  well. 

IV 

He  thus  at  the  age  of  forty-nine,  after  eighteen  years  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  first  attained  Cabinet  rank.  He  was 
a  man  of  peace,  but  for  that  reason  perhaps  the  more 
acceptable  as  a  War  Minister  to  a  Liberal  Government, 
and  the  five  years  that  he  had  served  in  the  Department  as 
Financial  Secretary  in  Mr.  Gladstone's  first  and  second 
Administrations  clearly  marked  him  out  for  the  place.  As 
an  ex-Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland,  he  had  something  more 
than  a  departmental  footing  in  a  Cabinet  whose  main  object 
was  to  present  a  Home  Rule  Bill  to  Parliament,  and,  though 
he  was  not  included  in  the  Cabinet  Committee  which  now 
set  to  work  to  draft  the  Bill,  he  was  often  consulted 
on  details  and  freely  invited  to  express  his  opinions.  In 
later  years  he  frequently  described  his  sensations  at  his 


ioo    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    first  Cabinet,  where  he  found  himself  seated  next  to  Mr. 
'      Gladstone.     '  I  sat  down  timidly,'  he  said,  '  on  the  edge 


1885-1886.  Q£  fae  ckajr)  jjke  a  faussc  marquise,  abashed  to  be  under 
the  wings  of  the  great  man.  But  waving  his  hand  to- 
wards his  colleagues,  he  said,  "You  will  get  on  all  right 
with  them.  You  will  be  canny  and  you  will  be  couthy." 
That  he  should  address  me  in  the  patois  of  my  own 
village  put  me  at  once  at  my  ease,  and  enhanced  my 
sense  of  his  general  omniscience.'  '  Couthy/  as  Campbell- 
Bannerman  used  to  explain,  was  something  more  than  the 
opposite  of  uncouth.  It  connoted  affability,  amiability, 
accessibility,  and  much  more. 

He  was  already  at  home  in  the  War  Office,  and  received 
a  warm  welcome  on  his  return  thither  from  both  soldiers 
and  civilians.  He  was,  in  their  view  and  that  of  the  public 
generally,  the  best  possible  chief  that  a  Radical  Admini- 
stration could  provide  for  either  of  the  fighting  services, 
and  he  quickly  settled  down  to  friendly  and  easy  relations 
with  officials  who  were  old  friends.  He  had  for  his  Under- 
secretary Lord  Sandhurst,  and  for  his  Financial  Secretary 
Mr.  Herbert  Gladstone.  He  regarded  it  as  a  high  compli- 
ment that  Mr.  Gladstone  should  nominate  his  son  (whom 
he  commended  as  being  '  competent  and  conformable ') 
to  this  particular  place.  But  in  a  five  months'  tenure  of 
office  in  a  Government  wholly  devoted  to  another  subject, 
his  main  duty  was  to  carry  on,  and  there  is  little  of  import- 
ance to  record  of  this  period.  Coming  into  office  in  the 
first  week  of  February  and  being  required  to  produce  his 
estimates  on  March  22,  he  was  obliged  for  the  most  part 
to  take  his  figures  from  his  predecessors.  Very  unpalatable 
figures  they  were — showing  an  increase  of  £440,000  on  the 
effective  and  £383,000  on  the  non-effective  vote — and  the 
Minister  had  to  ride  out  a  storm  from  the  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer  (Sir  William  Harcourt)  who,  then  as  always, 
was  fulminating  for  economy.1  In  substance,  he  referred 
him  to  the  Cabinet : — 

1  Lord  Ripon,  the  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  had  also  been  exposed 
to  the  blast,  and  he  replied  with  much  spirit ; — 


SECRETARY  FOR  WAR  101 

Campbell-Banner  man  to  Sir  William  Har court  CHAP. 

Feb.  10,  '86. — My  predecessor  left  for  me  the  '  materials  '  for  ^"^ — ' 
our  Estimates,  and  I  have  only  been  able  to  go  over  them 
roughly.     The  serious  points  are  these  :— 

1.  An  increase  of  10,000  men  to  the  British  force  in  India. 

This  has  been  agreed  to  ;    and  already  effected  to  the 
extent  of  7000. 

2.  The  maintenance  of  the  present  force  of  about  18,000  men 

in  Egypt. 

Let  it  be  observed  that  this,  if  maintained  continuously, 
necessitates  the  raising  of  depots,  etc.  in  this  country  to  supply 
drafts.  It  completely  vitiates  our  organisation  and  causes  great 
indirect  expense.  Hitherto  it  has  had  the  effect  of  destroying 
the  Army  at  home,  because  it  has  been  treated  as  temporary ; 
but  now  the  Cabinet  must  say  Aye  or  No  to  its  maintenance, 
and  we  can  adjust  our  Establishments  and  estimates  accordingly. 

3.  Increased  Naval  Armaments. 

4.  Fortification  and  armament  of  Coaling  Stations,  Military 

Ports,  and  Commercial  Harbours. 

This  has  been  begun  and  is  promised  to  Parliament  to  be 
spread  over  some  years.  It  is  a  very  large  thing  :  whether  a 
loan  would  be  admissible  in  such  a  case  is  a  matter  to  be 
considered. 

All  these — especially  Egypt  and  the  Defence  of  Ports — are 
Cabinet  questions,  and  until  they  are  decided  the  Department 
can  say  nothing.  Taken  en  bloc  as  they  stand,  they  involve  an 
increase  of  £2,500,000  to  the  Estimates. 

Apart  from  these,  I  take  it  the  other  item  in  the  Estimates 
would  show  little  variation  from  last  year  :  it  is  these  huge 
questions  that  will  cause  the  difference.  So  we  can  only  talk 
over  them  in  anticipation  of  the  Cabinet  meeting.  I  am  ready 
for  that  any  day  you  like. 

ADMIRALTY,  February  nth,  1886. 

MY  DEAR  HARCOURT, — It  is  a  mistake  to  begin  firing  your  big  guns  at 
the  commencement  of  an  action.  I  shall  reserve  mine  for  closer  quarters. 

You  do  not  at  present  know  what  sort  of  Estimates  I  am  about  to  bring 
forward  or  what  are  the  requirements  or  liabilities  of  the  Admiralty. 
You  shall  have  the  rough  sketch  as  soon  as  possible,  but  if  you  wish  me  to 
reduce  the  Estimates  as  much  as  I  can,  I  must  have  time  to  go  through 
them  carefully, — Yours  sincerely,  RIPON. 

Life  of  Lord  Ripon,  by  Lucien  Wolf,  ii.  185. 


102    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    Some  rumours  of  contemplated  economies  appear  to  have 
reached  the  Queen,  who  expressed  an  anxious  hope  that 


1885-1886.  ^e  efficiency  of  the  service  was  not  going  to  be  imperilled 
by  them.  To  this  the  Minister  returned  a  soothing  and 
diplomatic  answer  : — 

Campbell-Banner  man  to  Sir  Henry  Ponsonby 

WAR  OFFICE,  Feb.  17. — I  hope  you  will  assure  Her  Majesty 
that  it  is  my  great  desire  to  do  all  that  is  required  for  the  efficiency 
of  the  Army.  It  may  be,  however,  that  with  a  falling  revenue 
and  with  depressed  trade  throughout  the  country,  certain 
services  and  especially  some  new  undertakings  may  have  to  be 
postponed.  I  am  confident,  however,  that  any  temporary 
postponement  of  this  sort  will  not  affect  the  essential  efficiency 
of  the  Army,  which  is  doubtless  the  main  object  of  the  Queen's 
solicitude  and  to  the  maintenance  of  which  I  will  devote  all 
possible  care. 

The  Army  Estimates  were  increased  by  about  two  millions 
last  year  and  the  vote  of  credit  has  also  enabled  large  sums  to 
be  expended  on  various  stores  which  were  required.  There  are 
circumstances  which  would  make  it  extremely  difficult  to  justify 
any  considerable  further  increase  for  the  coming  year. 

But  no  '  temporary  postponements  '  could  get  away  from 
the  fact  that  the  troops  in  Egypt  had  to  be  paid  for,  and 
that  all  the  authorities  agreed  that  the  Indian  establish- 
ments needed  to  be  increased  by  10,000  men.  Still  less 
at  a  moment  when  naval  agitation  was  running  strong, 
could  the  necessity  be  avoided  of  picking  up  arrears  in  the 
supply  of  breech-loading  guns  which  the  War  Office  was 
then  supplying  for  the  Navy  as  well  as  the  Army.  All 
that  could  be  done  to  placate  the  economist  was  slightly 
to  reduce  the  number  of  new  rifles  (Enfield-Martini)  to  be 
turned  out  within  the  financial  year,  and  with  that  Sir 
William  Harcourt  had  to  be  content. 

The  new  Secretary  for  War  needed  all  his  adroitness  when 
the  time  came  for  him  to  introduce  his  estimates  (March  16). 
On  the  motion  to  go  into  Committee,  Mr.  Howard  Vincent 
presented  himself  with  a  motion  declaring  the  immediate 
increase  of  the  Volunteer  Capitation  Grant  to  be  '  abso- 


A  GLADSTONIAN  ERUPTION  103 

lutely  and  urgently  necessary.'     To  the  majority  of  the    CHAP. 

House  this  seemed  to  be  an  innocent  '  hardy  annual,'  with  < ^ — , 

a  strong  claim  to  sympathetic  treatment.  Not  so  to  Mr.  * 
Gladstone,  who,  to  the  surprise  of  his  colleagues,  and  most 
of  all  of  the  Minister  for  War,  leapt  to  his  feet  and  denounced 
it  with  volcanic  energy  as  a  grossly  unconstitutional  pro- 
posal to  increase  the  charges  upon  the  people  beyond  the 
amount  asked  for  by  the  Executive.  In  a  torrent  of 
indignant  oratory  he  swept  aside  the  Volunteers,  and 
declared  uncompromisingly  that  he  would  never  accept 
orders  from  the  House  of  Commons  to  increase  expendi- 
ture. In  vain  the  supporters  of  the  motion  endeavoured 
to  argue  that  the  increase  of  the  Volunteer  vote  might  even 
have  the  effect  of  reducing  the  Army  estimates.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone declined  all  argument  with  parliamentary  criminals 
who  were  plainly  invading  the  prerogatives  of  Executive 
and  Treasury. 

A  very  uncomfortable  quarter  of  an  hour  followed, 
for  it  quickly  became  evident  to  the  Whips  that  the 
House  could  only  with  very  great  difficulty  be  led  up  to 
these  heights  of  constitutional  purity  on  a  question  in 
which  the  constituents  of  most  of  them  were  deeply  inter- 
ested. Even  the  ascetic  Sir  Michael  Hicks  Beach  refused 
to  follow,  and  doubted  whether  these  thunders  from  Sinai 
were  warranted  by  the  occasion.  Campbell-Bannerman 
had  his  work  cut  out  for  him  to  compose  this  storm,  and 
he  was  hard  put  to  it  to  soothe  the  friends  of  the  Volunteers 
(as  he  did  by  a  promise  to  remove  their  financial  difficulties) 
without  compromising  his  Chief  on  the  point  of  principle. 
As  it  was,  Mr.  Howard  Vincent's  motion  was  only  defeated 
by  187  to  166.  This  was  scarcely  a  good  atmosphere  for 
his  first  appearance  with  his  own  estimates  as  Minister  for 
War,  but  he  acquitted  himself  well,  arguing  firmly  for  the 
necessity  of  the  increased  estimates,  and  dwelling  especially 
on  the  enormous  importance  of  the  development  of  modern 
guns  and  gunnery  under  the  influence  of  the  new  slow- 
burning  powder  and  the  necessity  for  us  especially  to 
keep  pace  with  it.  As  always,  he  was  troubled  about  the 


104    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    disturbance  of  the  Card  wellian  balance  which  the  large  number 
/L    ^of  troops  abroad  was  producing  in  the  home  battalions, 


1885-1886.  but  ne  was  able  to  rep0rt  tnat  recruiting  was  good,  and  that 
the  reserve  had  reached  51,000.  A  letter  to  the  Queen 
at  this  date  will  show  how  he  endeavoured  to  solve  his 
problems  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Queen  Victoria 

March  16,  1886.— Mr.  Campbell-Bannerman,  with  his  humble 
duty  to  Your  Majesty,  wishes  to  be  permitted  to  explain  the 
provision  made  in  the  Army  Estimates  for  the  Garrison  of  Egypt. 
In  the  present  position  of  necessary  uncertainty,  it  was  impossible 
to  avoid  a  conjectural  basis  for  the  Estimate.  Your  Majesty 
has  been  made  aware  of  the  decision  of  the  Cabinet  to  withdraw 
Your  Majesty's  troops  as  soon  as  possible  to  Assouan,  and  this 
decision,  in  all  the  circumstances,  is  quite  according  to  the  advice 
of  the  Military  Officers  here  who  are  personally  acquainted  with 
the  local  situation.  It  is  further  the  desire  of  His  Royal  Highness 
the  Field-Marshal  Commanding  in  Chief,  and  of  the  Government, 
that  with  the  least  possible  delay  six  Battalions  should  be  with- 
drawn from  Egypt ;  but  it  is  impossible  to  foresee  how  much 
further  the  process  of  diminishing  the  force  in  that  country  can 
be  carried  during  the  year. 

Last  year  the  Estimate  provided  for  only  6000  men  in  Egypt, 
and  Mr.  Campbell-Bannerman  thinks  that  the  most  regular  and 
convenient  course  is  taken  by  providing  in  these  new  Estimates 
for  8000,  leaving  any  excess  establishment  in  that  country  to 
be  met  by  a  Supplementary  Estimate  if  necessary. 

Your  Majesty  was  graciously  pleased  to  express  to  Mr.  Camp- 
bell-Bannerman Your  Majesty's  deep  interest  in  the  condition 
of  the  Army,  which  under  the  strain  imposed  by  the  occupation 
of  Egypt  has  not  been  satisfactory  of  late.  The  new  Estimates 
provide  for  replacing  on  the  Home  Establishment  the  augmenta- 
tion recently  given  to  the  British  Army  in  India,  and  also  for 
maintaining  a  depot  of  600  men  in  each  case  of  a  Regiment 
having  both  battalions  abroad,  and  for  rearranging  the  establish- 
ments of  Infantry  Battalions  at  home  so  that  none  shall  be  at 
a  lower  strength  than  750  Rank  and  File.  These  arrangements 
will  prevent  the  extreme  strain  on  the  Army  at  home  from  which 
it  has  lately  suffered,  and  Mr.  Campbell-Bannerman  trusts  that 
they  will  go  far  to  effect  the  object  which  Your  Majesty  has  at 
heart. 


THE  C.D.  ACTS  105 

Early  in  March  he  circularised  his  colleagues  on  a  subject    CHAP. 
that  had  long  agitated  Parliament  and  the  country,  and .    VL 


which  he  felt  could  no  longer  be  held  up,  as  it  had  been  *Lr'  48'49- 
in  previous  Parliaments  : — 

March  12,  '86. — In  the  interests  of  the  health  of  the  Army  and 
the  moral  conditions  of  the  garrison  towns,  it  is  most  desirable 
that  the  [Contagious  Diseases]  Acts  should  be  repealed.  So  long 
as  they  remain,  there  will  be  hope  that  the  dormant  powers 
will  be  revived,  and  neither  local  municipal  authorities  nor 
benevolent  individuals  will  move  in  the  matter. 

I  consider,  therefore,  that  we  must  go  with  Stansfeld. 

If  this  is  so,  we  should  do  it  frankly,  ungrudgingly,  and  at 
once  :  and  we  must  undertake  to  bring  in  a  Bill. 

In  1883  Hartington  introduced  a  Bill  repealing  the  Acts,  but 
substituting  a  power  of  detaining  women  voluntarily  entering 
hospitals  till  cured.  The  opponents  will  resist  this  bitterly, 
and  so  far  as  I  can  learn  it  is  not  much  cared  for  in  the  interests 
of  the  health  of  the  Army.  I  would  advise  simple  repeal. 

To  improve  the  present  state  of  things  I  would  trust  to  local 
effort.  But  the  Government  ought  to  subsidise  the  special 
hospitals  on  a  voluntary  system.  This  used  to  be  done  before 
the  Acts. 

Mr.  Gladstone  shied  a  little  at  the  promise  to  introduce  a 
Government  Bill,  and  thought  it  sufficient  to  promise 
facilities  for  Mr.  Stansfeld's  Bill.  That  was  the  course 
adopted.  Mr.  Stansfeld  first  introduced  a  motion  which 
the  Secretary  for  War  supported  in  debate,  and  followed 
this  up  by  producing  a  Bill  which  passed  rapidly  through 
all  its  stages  without  a  division,  and,  after  a  brief  debate  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  became  law  in  April  of  this  year. 
That  the  Act  should  be  repealed  was  regarded  as  a  fore- 
gone conclusion  in  both  Houses,  and  the  only  controversial 
question  was  whether  the  power  of  detaining  women  volun- 
tarily entering  hospitals  should  be  retained.  On  that 
Campbell-Bannerman's  view  prevailed,  and  the  point  was 
not  seriously  pressed  ;  but  the  Government  gave  a  pledge 
to  continue  the  subsidies  to  special  hospitals  on  a  voluntary 
basis. 


io6    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 


CHAP. 
VI. 


On  May  13  Campbell-Bannerman  took  part  in  the  Home 
Rule  debate,  and  became  the  mouthpiece  of  the  Cabinet 
in  one  of  their  many  attempts  to  conciliate  their  opponents 
on  the  desperately  tangled  question  of  the  representation 
of  the  Irish  members  at  Westminster.  The  cry  had  gone 
up  that  Mr.  Gladstone's  Bill  violated  the  elementary 
principle  of  '  no  taxation  without  representation,'  and  he 
was  authorised  to  propose  what  was  called  the  '  in  and 
out'  solution.  That  is  to  say,  Ireland's  contribution  to 
the  Imperial  Exchequer  was  to  be  fixed  by  the  House  as 
then  constituted,  in  which  Ireland  was  fully  represented, 
but  before  any  notice  was  made  to  create  a  new  charge  or 
increase  an  existing  one,  the  Irish  members  were  to  be 
'  summoned  and  restored  to  their  full  position  in  the  House.' 
He  struggled  manfully  in  a  quite  effective  speech  to  make 
this  proposal  seem  acceptable  and  workable,  with  possibly 
some  doubts  at  heart  as  to  how  its  manifold  and  obvious 
difficulties  were  to  be  overcome.  It  was  received  with 
derision  by  opponents,  who  were  less  concerned  to  solve 
the  problem  than  to  point  to  the  impossibility  of  solving 
it  as  a  fatal  obstacle  to  Home  Rule.  On  the  main  question 
he  frankly  confessed  that  the  Bill  was  a  '  totally  new  depar- 
ture,' the  '  supreme  importance  of  which  he  would  be  the 
last  man  in  the  world  to  underrate.  The  fact  that  the 
responsible  Government  of  the  Queen  had  proposed  to 
Parliament  the  establishment  of  a  statutory  Parliament  in 
Dublin  was  the  greatest  and  most  startling  event  in  the 
political  life  of  any  man  then  in  Parliament.  If  ever  there 
was  an  occasion  when  the  principle  absorbed  the  detail  it 
was  this,  yet  instead  of  challenging  the  principle  and  saying 
it  was  the  wrong  thing  to  do,  its  opponents  seized  on  the 
details  and  declared  only  that  it  was  done  in  the  wrong  way.' 
Varying  Mr.  Gladstone's  phrase  that  the  opponent  of  Home 
Rule  imputed  a  double  dose  of  original  sin  to  the  Irish,  '  I 
decline,'  he  said,  '  to  proceed  in  the  expectation  that  the 
Irish  will  exhibit  none  of  the  virtues  and  all  the  vices  of 


OPPOSITION  IN  THE  BURGHS        107 

the  human  race.'     The  speech  was  a  skilful  attempt  to    CHAP. 
shunt  the  critics  of  the  Bill  on  to  the  Committee  stage,  and 


to  secure  the  second  reading,  which  by  this  time  had  become  ^ET-  48'49> 
the  utmost  that  the  Government  dared  hope.     But  even 
that  proved  to  be  past  praying  for,  and  on  June  8  the  Bill 
was   defeated  by   a  majority   of   30,    and   Mr.   Gladstone 
immediately  dissolved  Parliament. 

Campbell-Bannerman  had  been  returned  unopposed  on 
his  appointment  as  Secretary  of  State  for  War  in  February 
of  this  year,  and  only  once  had  an  opponent  appeared  in 
the  field  against  him  since  his  election  for  the  Stirling 
Burghs  in  1868.  But  in  that  constituency,  as  in  all 
others,  Home  Rule  had  roused  the  Tories  and  divided  the 
Liberals,  and  he  now  found  himself  challenged  by  a  formid- 
able candidate  in  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir  John)  Pender,  of 
electric  cable  fame,  and  a  man  with  considerable  local 
influence.  Taking  nothing  for  granted,  he  devoted  himself 
whole-heartedly  to  electioneering,  speaking  frequently  in  all 
parts  of  the  constituency,  and  addressing  himself  especially 
to  the  wavering  Liberals.  Of  Home  Rule  he  now  spoke 
with  warmth  and  eloquence  as  the  great  cause  to  which 
the  Liberal  Party  was  dedicated,  begging  his  hearers  to 
concentrate  on  the  principle  and  not  permit  themselves  to 
be  misled  or  mystified  by  a  wrangle  about  detail.  The 
Government,  he  insisted,  having  failed  to  carry  their  Bill, 
were  free  to  recast  it  and  introduce  another  in  which  all 
objections  to  the  original  scheme  would  receive  considera- 
tion, but  in  the  meantime  the  simple  question  for  the 
electors  was  whether  the  new  chapter  was  to  be  opened 
and  the  Irish  permitted  to  govern  themselves,  or  whether 
they  were  to  be  thrown  back  on  the  old  and  evil  ways. 
The  heckling  was  hottest  on  the  Land  Purchase  Bill,  and 
though  he  loyally  defended  the  Government  for  introducing 
it,  he  frankly  confessed  himself  less  enthusiastic  about  the 
pledging  of  national  credit  to  the  extent  proposed  and 
claimed  full  liberty  of  action  for  the  future.  The  Burghs 
stood  firm  and  returned  him  by  a  majority  of  929,  but  in 
the  country  at  large  the  Government  was  heavily  defeated, 


io8    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    and  his  first  term  of  Cabinet  office  was  brought  to  a  close 


_v_ — '  after  little  more  than  five  months. 


Nothing  remained  but  to  wind  up  in  Pall  Mall,  and  he 
returned  to  London  for  that  purpose  in  the  second  week 
of  July.  His  last  official  act  was  to  lay  the  foundation 
of  the  Distinguished  Service  Order  in  a  draft  which  he 
submitted  to  the  Queen. 

Mr.  Campbell-Bannerman,  with  his  humble  duty  to  Your 
Majesty,  has  the  honour  to  submit  a  draft  Warrant  for  the 
Institution  of  a  new  Naval  and  Military  Decoration.  It  has 
been  brought  to  Your  Majesty's  notice  that  on  many  recent 
occasions  great  difficulty  has  been  found  in  suitably  recognising 
the  claims  of  officers  who  have  rendered  distinguished  service 
in  active  operations  in  the  field,  but  who  owing  to  their  junior 
rank  were  not  eligible  for  the  honour  of  the  Bath.  Recourse 
has  been  had,  in  such  cases,  to  Brevet  promotion  either  con- 
ferred immediately  or  postponed  until  the  rank  of  the  officer 
entitled  him  even  to  this  honour  and  the  consequences  have 
been  most  inconvenient,  as  a  too  great  extension  of  Brevet 
promotion  causes  much  confusion,  and  occasionally,  considerable 
unfairness. 

It  has  therefore  appeared  to  H.R.H.  the  Field-Marshal  Com- 
mander-in-Chief,  and  Mr.  Campbell-Bannerman  agrees  in  the 
opinion,  that  it  would  be  greatly  in  the  interest  of  the  Services 
if  your  Majesty  would  be  graciously  pleased  to  institute  a  decora- 
tion which  would  furnish  the  means  of  fitly  recognising  the 
exemplary  discharge  of  duty  in  the  field  on  the  part  of  officers 
of  your  Navy  and  Army. 

The  Board  of  Admiralty  and  the  Secretary  of  State  for  India 
have  been  consulted  and  acquiesce  both  in  the  general  idea  and 
in  the  particular  conditions  suggested  in  the  enclosed  draft : 
and  Mr.  Campbell-Bannerman  humbly  lays  it  before  Your  Majesty 
in  the  hope  that  Your  Majesty  will  be  pleased  to  approve  it. 

July  7,  1886. 

The  condition  of  this  reward,  as  defined  in  the  draft,  was 
that  the  services  of  the  officer  to  be  decorated  should  have 
been  marked  by  the  '  especial  mention  of  his  name  by  the 
Commander-in-chief  of  the  Forces  in  the  field,  in  despatches 
for  meritorious  or  distinguished  service  in  the  field,  or 


OUT  OF  OFFICE  109 

before  the  enemy.'     The  order  was  instituted  under  his    CHAP. 
successor  in  September  of  this  year. 


Short  as  his  term  of  office  had  been  he  had  made  many  ^T-  48"49- 
warm  friendships  with  both  soldiers  and  civilians,  and  his 
departure  was  genuinely  regretted.  Lord  Wolseley  wrote 
that  while  he  was  delighted  at  the  defeat  of  '  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's attempt  to  break  up  the  Empire,'  he  was  very 
sorry  to  lose  the  Minister.  '  You  are  just  the  man/  he 
said,  '  to  suit  both  sides  of  the  War  Office,  and  I  am  sure 
that  whatever  may  be  the  individual  politics  of  those  in  it, 
we  all  hope  you  may  return  to  it,  whenever  the  Liberal 
Party  can  be  reunited  and  again  in  power.'  Six  years 
were  to  pass  before  he  again  took  his  seat  at  the  Secretary 
of  State's  table,  but  his  War  Office  friends  were  always 
welcome  visitors  at  his  house,  and  his  interest  in  the  human 
side  of  its  affairs  was  unflagging. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  HANDY  MAN  OF  OPPOSITION 

Many  Activities — Speech-making  in  Scotland — A  Sanguine 
Partisan — Invitations  from  Scottish  Constituencies — West 
Perth  and  the  Stirling  Burghs — Illness  and  Holiday  abroad — 
The  Harrington  Commission — Objections  to  a  Chief  of  the 
Staff — Dislike  of  '  Continental  Militarism  ' — Relations  with 
Mr.  Gladstone — The  Conservative  Land  Purchase  Bill — 
Letters  to  Sir  William  Harcourt — A  Four-figure  Majority. 


CHAP.  \  S  an  ex-Cabinet  Minister,  Campbell-Bannerman  had 
.  vn-  ,  I  \  from  this  time  forward  a  new  status  in  the  House 
1886-1892.  J^  \^  Of  Commons.  He  was  now  officially  a  '  leader,' 
with  the  right  of  being  called  to  the  ex-Cabinet  conclaves, 
with  freedom  to  take  part  in  general  debates,  and  the  cer- 
tainty of  being  reported  at  respectable  length  by  the  news- 
papers when  he  spoke  in  the  House  or  in  the  country.  He 
was  in  a  peculiar  sense  the  handy  man  of  the  Opposition 
front  bench.  He  was  their  spokesman  on  military  ques- 
tions ;  he  had  enough  knowledge  of  the  Admiralty  to  take 
part  in  naval  debates,  and  as  a  recent  Chief  Secretary  for 
Ireland  he  had  a  special  standing  on  the  subject  which 
then  dominated  all  others.  As  the  most  distinguished  of 
Scottish  Liberal  members  he  was  the  natural  guardian  of 
Scottish  interests,  and  his  English  colleagues  cheerfully 
placed  themselves  in  his  hands  and  generally  retired  from 
the  scene  when  Scotland  claimed  the  attention  of  the 
House.  These  various  activities  at  length  rescued  him 
from  the  perilous  reputation  of  being  a  departmental  man, 
and  gained  him  a  place  as  an  all-round  politician  who 
must  now  be  regarded  as  in  the  inner  circle. 

Though  a  good  party  man  who  played  to  win,  he  had  no 
love  for  office,  and  cheerfully  exchanged  the  red  boxes  and 
the  Cabinet  key  for  the  greater  freedom  and  less  responsi- 

110 


A  HOSPITABLE  HOST  in 

bility  of  the  '  cold  shades.'     He  had  no  sooner  given  up    CHAP. 
his  seals  than  he  was  off  to  Marienbad  for  the  autumn,  and  * 1^ 


year  by  year  for  the  next  six  years  his  diary  shows  him  ^T>  5°'55' 
constantly  on  the  move  between  London,  Scotland,  and 
his  house  in  Kent,  often  spending  a  Whitsuntide  fortnight 
in  Paris,  always  returning  punctually  to  his  favourite 
Bohemian  watering-place  at  the  beginning  of  August,  and 
sometimes,  as  in  1890,  taking  an  Italian  tour  in  the  winter. 
In  London  he  dined  out  frequently  and  entertained  freely, 
doing  in  this  respect  whatever  the  Whips  of  the  party 
thought  expedient.  Occasionally  he  notes  in  his  diary, 
'  Swell  dinner  at  home/  but  the  guests  as  a  rule  were  the 
heavy  swells  of  politics,  and  not  the  stars  of  the  social 
world.  He  liked  agreeable  society  of  all  kinds,  but  took 
no  pleasure  in  mere  buzzing  about  with  rich  and  smart 
people  who  probably  looked  down  on  his  opinions  and 
thought  it  condescension  to  admit  a  Radical  to  their 
company.  In  his  own  circle  he  was  an  accomplished  and 
most  hospitable  host,  and  though  he  never  smoked,  and 
drank  only  the  smallest  quantity  of  wine,  he  liked  a  good 
dinner  and  took  pleasure  in  giving  the  best  to  his  friends. 
For  sustained  thrills  and  dramatic  personal  incidents  few 
Parliaments  have  equalled  that  from  1886  to  1892.  Lord 
Randolph  Churchill's  resignation  ;  the  Round  Table  Con- 
ference ;  Mr.  Balfour's  unceasing  conflict  with  Irish  Nation- 
alism ;  the  Parnell  Commission  and  the  exposure  of  Pigott ; 
the  swift  change  from  triumph  to  disaster  when  Parnell 
passed  from  the  Commission  to  the  Divorce  Court ;  the 
raising  and  the  quenching  of  Liberal  hopes ;  the  dominance  of 
Mr.  Gladstone's  amazing  personality  and  his  inextinguish- 
able energy  and  enthusiasm  in  the  Irish  cause — all  this 
remains  vividly  in  the  memory  of  those  who  lived  through 
these  years.  Campbell-Bannerman  had  not  the  oratorical 
qualities  to  make  him  a  protagonist  on  this  scene,  but  he 
caught  the  infection  of  the  times  and  took  his  full  share 
of  public  speaking  as  an  ardent  Gladstonian.  Scotland 
was  his  principal  battleground,  and,  though  his  constituency 
was  always  his  first  call,  he  seldom  refused  an  invitation 


SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    from  any  of  the  great  cities  and  constantly  made  two  night 
VIL      journeys  with  speeches  in  between.     At  Belmont  alone  he 


1886-1893.  pieac[e(j  the  need  of  rest  and  quiet  to  excuse  him  from 
engaging  in  local  campaigns  ;  but  among  his  neighbours  in 
Kent  he  appeared  as  an  active  Liberal,  and  frequently 
travelled  backwards  and  forwards  from  London  to  address 
their  meetings  and  encourage  them  in  their  uphill  fight  in 
the  Home  Counties.  There  were  also  certain  causes  which 
specially  appealed  to  him,  and  in  spite  of  a  warning  from 
Harcourt  that  disestablishment  was  '  only  a  cry/  and  not 
a  very  good  one  at  that,  he  was  persistent  in  his  support 
of  Scottish  disestablishment,  and  by  attending  meetings  of 
the  Liberation  Society  declared  himself  openly  as  a  dis- 
establisher  for  the  English  Church  also.  For  a  man  who 
was  supposed  to  enjoy  ease  and  the  quiet  life  these  were 
astonishingly  active  years. 

ii 

Campbell-Bannerman  had  all  the  sanguineness  as  well  as 
the  combativeness  of  the  born  party  politician.  Year  by 
year  he  shared  the  belief  that  the  Government,  in  spite  of 
its  great  majority,  was  rapidly  bieaking  up  and  would  soon 
be  driven  to  the  country.  He  confides  his  moods  to  his 
most  frequent  correspondent  at  this  time,  his  cousin  James 
Campbell  of  Tulliechewan. 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  James  Campbell 

HOUSE  OF  COMMONS,  July  29,  '87. — We  are  going  off  to 
Marienbad  as  soon  as  I  can  escape,  but  we  shall  be  down  at 
Belmont  in  September. 

Things  are  going  first-rate  all  over.  You  never  knew  people 
in  such  a  pitiable,  disheartened,  humiliated  plight  as  the  Govern- 
ment and  their  followers.  They  have  lost  belief  in  themselves 
and  are  going  fast  down  the  hill. 

If  G.  O.  T[revelyan]  gets  a  thumping  majority  and  if  we  win 
the  Cheshire  seat  (which  we  ought  to  do)  it  will  take  out  of  them 
the  little  wind  they  have  left. 

The  Unionists  are  all  at  sea  ;  Joe  plunging  deeper  and  deeper 
— he  is  more  likely  to  join  the  Government  than  Hartington. 


SIR  JAMES  CAMPBELL  (1790-1876) 
FAIIIHK  UK  SIK  HENKY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAM 

{Photograph  of  Oil  Painting) 


p.  0 


A  SANGUINE  POLITICIAN  113 

Randolph  also  is  wilder  than  ever,  has  no  words  strong  enough    CHAP. 
to  condemn  the  Government  (a  '  pack  of  blasted  fools  '  he  called  v    vn- 


them  yesterday) ,  and — strangest  of  all — he  has  quarrelled  over  ^T.  50-55 
this  Land  Bill  with  Joe.     Randolph  told  a  friend  of  mine  the 
other  day  that  he  knows  we  should  win  easily  if  a  General 
Election  took  place  now. 

Our  people  of  course  are  correspondingly  jubilant,  plucky  and 
confident. 

We  all  hope,  however,  that  nothing  will  happen  to  force  the 
running  but  that  the  Tories  may  blunder  on  till  the  thing  is  ripe. 

We  may,  indeed,  sing  '  Oh,  be  joyful,'  he  writes  after  a 
series  of  good  by-elections  in  the  same  year ;  '  they  are  in  a 
proper  mess  with  their  business  in  the  House  :  their  Land 
Bill  is  beginning  to  disgust  its  own  admirers,  because  as 
we  come  to  close  quarters  with  it  we  find  what  confusion 
it  will  make  in  Ireland  ;  they  have  muddled  the  Newfound- 
land business  :  as  to  free  education,  we  shall  hear  no  more 
of  it  till  next  year.'  (It  was  not  carried,  in  fact,  till  1891.) 
Hopes  ran  highest  after  the  exposure  of  Pigott  and  the 
collapse  of  the  Parnell  Commission,  and  then  sank  to  zero 
a  year  later  with  the  Parnell  divorce  and  the  split  in  the 
Irish  Party.  Campbell-Bannerman  was  wholly  with  Mr. 
Gladstone  about  Parnell,  and  took  soundings  of  Scottish 
Liberalism  which  enabled  him  to  assure  his  colleagues  that 
no  other  line  was  possible.  But  expectations  of  a  speedy 
triumph  were  now  extinguished,  and  from  reckoning  on 
the  early  collapse  of  the  Government,  Liberals  were  reduced 
to  hoping  that  a  respite  might  be  given  them  to  rally  their 
forces  before  Parliament  was  dissolved. 

In  the  autumn  of  1887  a  question  arose  which  caused 
him  a  good  deal  of  agitation  during  the  next  two  years. 
Ought  he,  as  a  leader  of  the  party  and  the  most  distin- 
guished of  the  Scottish  members,  with  the  sole  exception 
of  Mr.  Gladstone,  to  be  content  with  the  safe  seat  he  had 
occupied  since  1868,  or  to  go  out  and  win  one  from  the 
enemy  ?  His  own  inclinations  were  not  in  doubt.  He 
was  devoted  to  the  Burghs,  and  for  twenty  years  had  been 
on  intimate  and  affectionate  terms  with  his  constituents. 

VOL.  i.  H 


H4    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    The  five  towns,  Stirling,  Dunfermline,  Inverkeithing,  South 
Queensferry,    and    Culross    made    an    ideal    constituency, 


1886-1892.  situated  in  charming  country  rich  with  historical  monu- 
ments and  memories.  To  be  saved  from  the  vicissitudes 
of  electioneering  and  to  have  constituents  who  could  be 
relied  upon  to  resist  the  swing  of  any  pendulum  was  especially 
attractive  to  a  man  of  his  temperament.  Very  reluctantly 
then  he  listened  to  the  suggestion  that  duty  required 
him  to  leave  this  pleasant  refuge  and  launch  himself  on 
the  wild  waters  of  Central  Glasgow  with  its  immense  Unionist 
majority.  '  You  know  all  about  this,'  he  writes  to  James 
Campbell  in  September  1887,  '  and  I  know  little.  The 
majority  to  be  pulled  down  is  enormous,  but  they  think  I 
could  do  it.  It  would  be  a  big  job  ;  but  a  great  victory 
if  I  won.  Still  I  am  not  going  to  run  my  head  against  a 
stone  wall.  I  have  said  I  should  require  very  full  informa- 
tion before  even  contemplating  it.'  The  question  went 
backwards  and  forwards  for  eighteen  months,  at  the  end 
of  which  he  gave  a  final  decision  against  the  change.  In 
the  meantime  proposals  came  from  Forfarshire  and  Dum- 
bartonshire, both  said  to  be  safe  wins,  and  finally  from 
West  Perthshire,  alleged  to  be  safe  for  him  though  for  no 
one  else.  The  West  Perth  Liberals  sent  him  an  immense 
petition  which  is  worth  quoting  for  the  evidence  it  gives 
of  his  position  in  Scotland  at  this  time  : — 

We  are  convinced  that,  however  difficult  the  struggle  for 
victory  in  this  constituency  must  be,  with  you  as  candidate 
such  victory  would  be  in  a  high  degree  probable.  It  is  not  only 
that  many  electors  would  desire  to  be  represented  by  one  who 
is  resident  in  the  county  and  is  thus  in  sympathy  with  its  own 
special  wants  and  sentiments.  This  qualification  on  your  part, 
important  as  we  believe  it  to  be,  is  relatively  insignificant  in 
comparison  with  the  claims  you  have  on  our  confidence  as  one 
of  the  most  distinguished  of  the  generals  of  the  party  which 
Mr.  Gladstone  leads  and  as  being  second  to  none  as  a  trusted 
pioneer  of  the  Liberalism  of  Scotland.  We  are  satisfied  that, 
with  the  single  exception  of  Mr.  Gladstone  himself,  no  candidate 
could  be  found  who  would  be  so  universally  and  sincerely 
welcomed  by  the  Liberal  Party  in  West  Perthshire  ;  and  we  beg 


A  QUESTION  OF  SEATS  115 

most  cordially  to  invite  you  to  undertake  to  fight  our  battle    CHAP. 
at  the  General  Election.  .  .  .  We  do  not  desire  to  interfere  in  t    VIL    . 
any  selfish  spirit  with  the  ties  that  bind  you  to  the  Stirling  &t-  50-55. 
Burghs,  but  we  point  to  the  circumstance  that  there  victory  is 
comparatively  easy,  while  with  us  it  must  almost  necessarily 
be  incapable  of  attainment  in  the  absence  of  a  leader  of  your 
distinction,  and  that  consequently  the  considerations  which  we 
state  we  may  fairly  claim  to  urge  on  behalf  of  the  Party  generally. 

By  this  time  the  Burghs  had  learnt  what  was  in  the  wind 
and  were  thoroughly  alarmed.  They  replied  with  a  counter- 
petition  :— 

We,  the  undersigned  electors,  being  a  few  of  your  many  most 
loyal  supporters,  ardent  admirers,  and  warmest  friends  in  the 
constituency,  having  heard  with  much  concern  and  regret  that 
you  have  been  invited  to  contest  West  Perthshire  at  the  next 
election,  and  that  you  have  requested  time  to  consider  the 
invitation,  humbly  desire  to  approach  you  with  an  expression 
of  our  most  grateful  recognition  and  high  appreciation  of  the 
splendid  services  and  great  honour  you  have  rendered  to  and 
conferred  upon  us  during  the  twenty  years  you  have  most 
faithfully  represented  us  in  Parliament ;  and  also  to  express 
our  most  sincere  and  earnest  wishes  that  you  may  long  continue 
our  Representative  in  Parliament.' 

Private  arguments  were  added  to  this  public  remonstrance. 
It  was  suggested  to  him  that  the  Burghs  might  be  by  no 
means  so  safe  as  was  assumed  if  he  were  removed,  and 
that  leading  manufacturers  and  others  who  were  neutral 
or  inactive  against  him  would  probably  throw  away  the 
scabbard  and  plunge  in  against  any  ordinary  Liberal  candi- 
date. These  arguments  chimed  in  with  his  own  inclina- 
tions, and  without  great  difficulty  he  satisfied  his  conscience 
that  his  right  course  was  to  remain  with  the  Burghs,  and 
from  this  he  never  wavered  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

It  possibly  influenced  him  that  in  this  year  (1889)  he 
had  had  his  first  warning  of  serious  illness.  In  the  spring 
of  the  year,  as  he  reports  to  his  cousin,  a  lingering  chill 
'  settled  on  the  liver  and  extended  to  one  lung  more  or 
less/  producing  '  a  condition  of  debility '  which  is  '  a 
novelty  for  me,  and  a  pretty  condition  for  a  Gladstonian 


n6    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    separatist  in   these   days   of   active  warfare.'     When   the 
autumn  came,  the  condition  still  persisted,  in  spite  of  the 


1886-1892.  usuai  £WO  m0nths  in  Marienbad,  and  the  doctors  were 
unanimous  that  he  must  cancel  all  engagements  and  go 
right  away  for  the  winter.  This  prescription  was  always 
congenial  to  him  and  his  wife  ;  and,  starting  at  the  begin- 
ning of  December,  they  divided  the  next  seven  weeks 
between  Paris,  Vienna,  and  Florence. 

in 

This  absence  under  medical  orders  prevented  him  from 
attending  the  final  sittings  of  the  Commission  presided 
over  by  Lord  Hartington  on  naval  and  military  admini- 
stration, of  which,  as  an  ex-Secretary  for  War,  he  was  one 
of  the  most  important  members.  The  Hartington  Com- 
mission issued  two  Reports,  the  first  in  July  1889  and  the 
second  in  February  1890.  The  first  dealt  mainly  with  the 
Admiralty,  and  in  a  tentative  paragraph  suggested  that 
'  there  might  be  some  advantage  in  the  formation  of 
a  naval  and  military  Council,  which  should  probably  be 
presided  over  by  the  Prime  Minister,  and  consist  of  the 
parliamentary  heads  of  the  two  services  and  their  principal 
professional  advisers.'  It  was  accompanied  by  a  memoran- 
dum by  Lord  Randolph  Churchill,  making  the  singular 
suggestion  that  the  two  services  should  be  presided  over 
by  non-party  Ministers  appointed  for  five  years,  i.e.  dis- 
tinguished soldiers  and  sailors  who  should  be  made  peers  or 
Privy  Councillors,  and  attend  the  Cabinet  on  a  footing  of 
equality  with  other  Ministers  when  military  and  naval 
questions  were  being  discussed.  As  a  link  between  these 
two,  Lord  Randolph  Churchill  proposed  the  creation  of  a 
'  Secretary  of  State  and  Treasurer  for  the  Sea  and  Land 
Forces  of  the  Crown,'  who  should  settle  the  estimates  in 
consultation  with  the  War  Minister,  and  be  responsible 
for  them  to  Parliament.  All  these  proposals  have  remained 
interesting  curiosities,  and  the  two  services  received  them 
with  marked  coolness.  The  second  Report,  dealing  with 
War  Office  reorganisation,  was  more  practical  and  proved 


THE  HARTINGTON  COMMISSION      117 

to  be  the  basis  of  the  changes  made  in  later  years,  some  of    CHAP. 
them  by  Campbell-Bannerman  himself. 


This  second  report  proposed  the  abolition  *•  of  the  office  JET-  5°~55- 
of  Commander-in-Chief  '  at  the  occurrence  of  a  vacancy  ' 
in  that  office  or  '  at  any  favourable  opportunity/  and  the 
distribution  of  its  functions  among  a  group  of  principal 
military    officers    (Chief   of    the    Staff,    Adjutant-General, 
Quartermaster-General,    Director   of    Artillery,    Inspector- 
General  of  Fortifications),  who  should  be  directly  respon- 
sible to  the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  administration  of 
their  respective  departments  and  the  preparation  of  their 
estimates.     Hitherto  these   officials  had  been   responsible 
to  the  Commander-in-Chief  alone.     Further,   it  was  pro- 
posed that  a  War  Office  Council  should  be  established, 
consisting  of  these  military  officers  and  the  Parliamentary 
and  Permanent  Under-Secretaries  under  the  presidency  of 
the  Secretary  of  State.     The  Chief  of  the  Staff  was  clearly 
intended  to  be  the  most  important  of  the  principal  military 
officers.     '  We  are  informed,'   says   the  Majority   Report, 
'  that  in  the  military  systems  of  all  the  Great  Powers  of 
Europe,  there  is  a  special  Department  of  the  Chief  of  the 
Staff,  freed  from  all  executive  functions  and  charged  with 
the  responsible  duties  of  preparing  plans  of  military  opera- 
tions, collecting  and  co-ordinating  information  of  all  kinds, 
and  generally  tendering  advice  upon  all  matters  of  organisa- 
tion and  the  preparation  of  the  army  for  war.     We  con- 
sider that  by  the  creation  of  such  a  central  organising 
department,  the  military  defence  of  the  empire  would  be 
considered  as  a  whole,  and  its  requirements  dealt  with  in 
accordance  with  a  definite  harmonious  plan.' 

Campbell-Bannerman,  while  assenting  to  the  general 
conclusions  of  his  colleagues,  took  strong  exception  to  this 
proposal,  and  added  a  memorandum  to  the  Report  recording 
his  dissent.  '  The  Chief  of  the  Staff,'  he  observed,  '  is  to 
have  no  executive  or  administrative  duties  but  to  devote 

1  '  We  are  of  opinion  that  the  permanent  retention  of  the  office  of 
Commander-in-Chief,  as  it  now  exists,  should  not  form  a  part  of  the  future 
Constitution  of  the  War  Department.'— Report,  Feb.  n,  1890. 


n8    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    himself  entirely  to  collecting  information,  to  thinking  out 
certain  great  military  problems,  and  to  advising  the  Secretary 


1886-1892.  Q|  c^ate  in  matters  of  general  military  policy.  In  my 
opinion  the  creation  of  such  an  office  in  this  country  is  (i) 
unnecessary  and  (2)  likely  to  reintroduce,  perhaps  in  a 
worse  form,  some  of  the  very  evils  which  the  organisa- 
tion of  a  Council  of  General  Officers  would  be  designed  to 
remove,  and  which  are  so  clearly  exposed  in  this  report.' 
The  analogy  with  '  continental  militarism  '  roused  all  his 
hostility  : — 

It  is  true  that  in  continental  countries  there  exists  such  a 
department  as  is  here  described.     But  those  countries  differ 
fundamentally  from  Great  Britain  in  the  constitution  of  their 
Army  and  of  its  government,  as  well  as  in  the  purposes  for  which 
it  is  maintained.     They  are  constantly,  and  necessarily,  con- 
cerned in  watching  the  military  conditions  of  their  neighbours, 
in  detecting  points  of  weakness  and  strength,  and  in  planning 
possible  operations  in  possible  wars  against  them.     But  in  this 
country,  there  is,  in  truth,  no  room  for  '  general  military  policy  ' 
in  this  larger  and  more  ambitious  sense  of  the  phrase.     We  have 
no  designs  against  our  European  neighbours.     Indian  '  military 
policy '  will  be  settled  in  India  itself  and  not  in  Pall  Mall.     In 
any  of  the  smaller  troubles  into  which  we  may  be  drawn  by  the 
interests  of  some  of  our  dependencies,  the  plan  of  campaign  must 
be  governed  by  the  particular  circumstances,  and  would  be  left 
(I  presume  and  hope)  to  be  determined  by  the  officer  appointed 
to  direct  operations.     And  as  to  the  defence  of  these  Islands  and 
of  our  depots  and  coaling  stations,  although  there  may  have 
been  some  slackness  and  delay  in  the  past,  we  have  reason  to 
believe  that  now,  if  full  provision  has  not  yet  been  made,  com- 
plete schemes  at  least  have  been  matured  for  protection  against 
attacks  which  cannot  vary  greatly  in  character.     I  am,  therefore, 
at  a  loss  to  know  where,  for  this  large  branch  of  its  duties,  the 
new  Department  could  find  an  adequate  field  in  the  circumstances 
of  this  country.     There  might  indeed  be  a  temptation  to  create 
such  a  field  for  itself ;    and  I  am  thus  afraid  that  while  there 
would  be  no  use  for  the  proposed  office,  there  might  be  some 
danger  to  our  best  interests. 

All  that  is  in  fact  required  for  our  purposes  can  be  amply 
obtained  by  an  adequately  equipped  Intelligence  Branch  which, 
under  the  direction  of  the  Adjutant-General,  could  collect  all 


OBJECTIONS  TO  A  CHIEF  OF  THE  STAFF  119 

necessary  information  and  place  it  at  the  disposal  not  of  one    CHAP. 
officer  or  Department  alone,  but  of  all  the  military  Heads  whose  ._    Vl1' 


duty  it  would  be  to  advise  the  Minister.  ^ET.  50-55. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  restrict  the  meaning  of  '  military 
policy  '  to  the  humbler  but  not  less  important  problems  of  Army 
administration — such  as  the  extent  of  the  establishments,  the 
proportion  of  the  several  arms  and  their  organisation,  the  condi- 
tions of  service  of  officers  and  men,  the  distribution  of  our  forces 
and  their  equipment  (and  it  is  these  and  these  alone  that  con- 
stitute '  military  policy '  with  us) — then  I  confidently  assert 
that  these  difficult  questions  will  be  far  better  dealt  with,  and 
sounder  advice  regarding  them  will  be  tendered  to  the  Minister, 
by  the  experienced  soldiers  who  are  engaged  day  by  day  in  the 
active  administration  of  the  Army,  than  by  an  officer  or  body 
of  officers,  however  able  and  distinguished,  who  sit  apart  and 
cogitate  upon  the  subject. 

Here  speaks  the  old  Liberal  with  his  rooted  dislike  of  con- 
tinental ways  and  his  suspicion  of  soldiers  who  '  sit  apart 
and  cogitate.'  Much  was  being  written  at  this  time  in 
praise  of  the  Prussian  General  Staff  and  the  necessity  of 
providing  the  British  Army  with  a  similar  '  brain.'  That 
this  '  brain '  would  not  be  content  with  providing  for 
hypothetical  wars,  but  that,  aided  and  abetted  by  other 
'  brains,'  it  would  plan  and  finally  precipitate  actual  wars 
was  a  theme  which  he  often  developed  in  after  years,  and 
which  he  by  no  means  abandoned  even  when,  as  head  of 
the  Government,  he  consented  to  the  creation  of  a  General 
Staff  and  Chief  of  the  Staff  for  the  British  Army.  These 
things  in  his  view  were  dangerous  necessities  only  to  be 
justified  by  the  evilness  of  the  times.  In  1890  he  insisted 
that  there  was  no  necessity  for  them. 

A  further  objection  was  that  it  would  be  a  serious  mistake 
to  place  one  important  military  officer  in  a  superior  posi- 
tion to  his  colleagues.  '  In  their  relations  with  the  Minister 
these  high  officers  ought  to  be  equal  among  themselves. 
This  is  of  cardinal  importance  for  the  success  of  the  new 
organisation.'  A  last  objection  was  to  giving  a  fixed  five- 
years'  appointment  to  an  officer  who  must  in  a  special 
degree  be  the  confidant  of  the  Government  and  might  even 


120    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    be  the  author  of  a  policy  which  led  to  their  defeat.     Such 

VII 

an  officer,  if  appointed  at  all,  should  enter  upon  and  quit 


6'1892-  office  with  the  Ministry.  Summing  it  all  up,  Campbell- 
Bannerman's  conclusion  was  that  '  by  acting  on  this 
proposal  we  should  merely  replace  the  office  of  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  by  a  new  office,  which,  while  lacking 
some  of  the  advantages,  would  soon  display  most  of  the 
disadvantages  of  the  office  to  be  abolished.' 

IV 

To  be  thrown  into  intimate  relations  with  Mr.  Gladstone 
was  one  of  his  chief  satisfactions  in  these  times,  and  there  is 
evidence  that  Mr.  Gladstone  greatly  liked  him  and  trusted 
his  judgment.  The  two  men  were  in  correspondence  at 
the  end  of  1886  as  to  the  proper  line  to  be  taken  in  the  per- 
plexing situation  created  by  Irish  violence  and  British 
coercion.  '  Urge  the  Government  to  produce  the  Local 
Government  Bill  they  have  promised,  egg  on  the  dissen- 
tient Liberals  to  press  this,  disavow  generally  but  firmly  all 
countenance  in  whatever  shape,  to  threats,  violent  language, 
conspiracy  against  contracts,  or  disorder,  point  out  the 
deplorable  change  since  the  cup  of  hope  was  dashed  from 
the  people/  was  Mr.  Gladstone's  advice.  In  November 
1888  Mr.  Gladstone  entrusted  him  with  the  official  amend- 
ment to  the  Bill  renewing  the  Ashbourne  Act,  an  amendment 
declaring  that  no  measure  could  be  satisfactory  which  did 
not  '  provide  for  shortening  the  term  of  revision  applicable 
to  the  judicial  rents  established  under  the  Land  Act  of 
1881,  so  as  to  meet  the  exigencies  created  by  the  heavy 
fall  in  agricultural  values  since  the  passing  of  that  Act, 
as  well  as  for  entitling  leaseholders  to  the  benefit  of  the 
Act.'  He  made  an  elaborate  and  closely  reasoned  speech, 
but  the  Government  having  made  a  complete  volte  face 
from  their  previous  declarations  by  permitting  revision  of 
judicial  rents  for  three  years  in  Lord  Cadogan's  Bill  of  1887, 
refused  to  go  the  whole  length  of  permanently  shortening 
the  judicial  term.  A  few  months  later  Mr.  Gladstone 
wrote  from  Naples  to  beg  him  to  undertake  the  '  watching 


FEELING  IN  SCOTLAND  121 

and  care  of  the  Scottish  Local  Government  Bill  on  behalf    CHAP. 
of  the  Opposition/  a  task  entirely  to  his  taste,  which  he      VIL 


enlivened  with  abundant  local  knowledge  and  characteristic  ^T<  5°~55' 
flashes  of  humour. 

Two  letters  to  Harcourt  show  his  activities  in  the  autumn 
of  this  year.  It  will  be  seen  again  that  he  was  especially 
keen  for  the  retention  of  Scottish  Disestablishment  as  a 
plank  in  the  Liberal  platform — a  plank  which  Sir  William 
Harcourt  considered  as  of  at  least  doubtful  value  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Sir  William  Harcourt 

BELMONT  CASTLE,  MEIGLE,  Oct.  16,  1890. — I  will  read  the 
pamphlet  on  Land  Purchase,  and  if  it  goes  against  the  whole 
thing  I  agree  with  it  to  start  with.  It  will,  however,  supply 
arguments,  which  are  all  needed  for  making  up  a  speech. 

I  met  my  constituents  on  Tuesday  at  Stirling  and  told  them  I 
was  against  any  scheme  of  the  nature  of  Balfour's.  A  localised 
scheme,  dealing  with  the  congested  districts,  stands  on  another 
ground  :  but  I  am  not  spoony  on  it  either. 

Our  people  in  the  country  are  almost  to  a  man  against  any 
enterprise  of  the  sort. 

I  found,  as  I  expected,  that  the  disestablishment  question  is 
doing  us  no  harm,  but  good.  The  '  Church  Liberals  '  and  anti- 
voluntary  Free  Churchmen  are  all  Unionists — from  MacCallum 
and  old  Stair  downwards. 

An  effort  will  be  made  to  get  Mr.  Gladstone  to  draw  in  his 
horns  on  the  subject,  but  I  for  one  will  stiffen  him  all  I  can.  In 
the  Highlands  we  may  lose  a  little,  but  that  is  as  nothing  to 
losing  the  full  hearty  support  of  our  best  people  through  the 
rest  of  Scotland. 

Your  weather  in  the  New  Forest  is  as  nothing  to  what  we  have 
here — and  the  farmers  here  have  had  a  good  crop  and  find  a 
rattling  price  for  potatoes,  so  that  everybody  is  in  the  highest 
spirits. 

BELMONT  CASTLE,  MEIGLE,  SCOTLAND,  Nov.  20,  1890.— To  the 
best  of  my  observation  and  information,  the  feeling  among  our 
own  people  in  Scotland  is  very  strong  against  Parnell  remaining 
as  the  recognised  head  of  his  Party.  There  is  here  a  strong 
undercurrent  of  distrust  of  the  Irish  character,  and  this  recent 
exposure  strengthens  it.  It  also  gives  an  excuse  for  any  doubting 
brethren  to  break  off,  if  so  disposed. 


122    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.  Whether  they  are  right  or  wrong,  my  belief  is  the  Scotch  will 
..  v*]  __^  not  tolerate  Parnell  in  his  position  of  quasi-partnership  with  the 
1886-1892.  Liberal  leaders. 

v   I  send  this  line  in  haste  to  let  you  know  how  the  wind  blows 
here. 

In  1891  he  brought  wrath  on  his  head  by  accepting  the 
chairmanship  of  the  London  Water  Committee  without  con- 
sulting Sir  William  Harcourt,  who  pointed  out  that  as  Home 
Secretary  in  1880  he  himself  had  a  special  responsibility  for 
the  policy  to  be  inquired  into,  and  took  strong  objection  to 
a  member  of  the  Opposition  front  bench  presiding  over 
a  committee  to  which  no  member  of  the  Government  front 
bench  had  been  appointed.  Campbell-Bannerman,  who 
was  always  for  peace,  bowed  to  the  storm. 

When  at  the  end  of  June  1892  Parliament  was  at  length 
dissolved,  he  reaped  the  reward  of  his  fidelity  to  the  Burghs 
in  the  increase  of  his  majority  from  929  to  1096.  The 
result  was  never  in  doubt,  but  he  attached  great  importance 
to  the  majority  reaching  four  figures. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

BACK  AT  THE  WAR  OFFICE 

A  Disappointing  Election — Back  at  the  War  Office — Too 
Many  Peers — The  Minister's  Time-table — His  General  Policy 

—Questions  with  Queen  Victoria — Guards  and  Cameron 
Highlanders  —  The  Honorary  Colonels  —  Report  of  the 
Wantage  Committee — Strong  Objections — Patronage  and 
Promotion — Battles  with  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer 

—Obstacles  to  Economy — Alarms  about  Foreign  Affairs- 
Leaving  Well  Alone — The  Eight  Hours  Day. 


HE  election  of  July  1892  was  a  deep  disappointment    CHAP. 
to  the  Liberal  Party.     At  the  end  of  it  Conserva-  *    vni"   > 
tives  and  Liberal  Unionists  were  still  the  largest  ^T-  S5"s8> 


party  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  Liberals  and  Irish 
together  had  a  combined  majority  of  no  more  than  forty. 
By  that  number  exactly  the  Conservative  Government 
were  defeated  on  a  vote  of  no  confidence  moved  by  Mr. 
Asquith,  immediately  on  the  reassembling  of  Parliament, 
and  Lord  Salisbury  tendered  his  resignation  to  the  Queen 
(Aug.  8).  Undaunted  either  by  the  narrowness  of  the 
majority  or  the  evident  difficulties  in  front  of  him,  Mr. 
Gladstone  proceeded  at  once  to  form  the  new  Government. 
On  August  15  Campbell-Bannerman  wrote  to  his  cousin, 
James  Campbell : — 

I  am  again  to  be  Secretary  of  State  for  War  :  but  this  is  secret 
until  it  is  announced  in  the  newspapers.  I  am  glad  to  know 
that  it  was  generally  anticipated,  and  desired,  not  only  among 
politicians  of  both  sides,  but  in  the  War  Office  and  in  high 
quarters.  I  was  sure  that  this  or  some  equivalent  position 
would  come  to  me,  but  many  of  the  other  boys  have  been  in  an 
agony  of  anxiety  and  most  of  them  still  are.  It  is  the  first  time 
I  have  had  to  do  with  making  up  a  Government,  and  it  is  a  most 
sickening  job.  Everything  has  to  be  discussed  and  considered, 
and  the  secrets  of  all  hearts  laid  bare.  Even  yesterday  (Sunday) 

123 


124    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    they  scoured  the  Clubs  for  me,  and  finally  tore  me  away  from  a 

__,  French  novel  in  a  cool  library  to  advise  as  to  the  mode  out  of 

1892-1895.  a  dilemma.     I  take  as  little  to  do  with  it  as  I  can.     Mr.  G.  is 

in  high  spirits  but  terribly  worn  and  worried  by  this  job. 

Rosebery  will  be  in  :  but  he  is  in  wretched  health  and  has  refused 

and  been  over-persuaded  ten  times  over.     He  is  thoroughly  in 

sympathy  on  all  points  of  policy.  .  .  .  My  belief  is  if  he  gets  to 

work  it  will  do  much  to  cure  him. 

I  expect  we  shall  go  down  to  Osborne  on  Wednesday,  and  I 
see  nothing  to  prevent  my  slipping  away  with  my  wife  to  Marien- 
bad  on  Saturday  or  Sunday.  The  next  few  weeks  are  the  dead 
season  in  all  the  public  offices.  My  wife  is  shockingly  out  of 
health — can  hardly  crawl  about. 

I  expect  all  the  appointments  will  be  fixed  in  the  next  two 
days  :  and  great  will  be  the  gnashing  of  teeth  of  the  nine  out  of 
ten  who  will  get  nothing.  Let  us  hope  they  will  have  cooled 
down  before  next  winter  ! 

I  hope  we  may  see  you  at  Belmont  later  on.  I  fancy  we  shall 
be  there  for  the  bulk  of  the  autumn. 

His  general  views  as  to  the  composition  of  the  Government 
may  be  inferred  from  a  letter  to  Sir  William  Harcourt, 
who  had  objected  to  the  excessive  number  of  peers  which 
it  contained  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Sir  William  Harcourt 

6  GROSVENOR  PLACE,  Aug.  14,  '92. — I  have  been  thinking 
much  over  this  question  of  the  Lords  :  although  it  is,  I  presume, 
really  settled. 

I  entirely  agree  with  your  objections  to  their  having  so  many 
of  the  first  flight. 

But  what  occurs  to  me  as  in  my  opinion  over-riding  the 
objection  is  this.  This  is  after  all  not  an  ordinary  case  of 
forming  a  Government.  The  Government  is  being  formed  for 
^  the  special  purpose  of  enabling  Mr.  G.  to  carry  out  his  ideas  :  it 
is  in  an  unusual  degree  his  Government.  Is  not  the  first  thing 
necessary  that  he  should  be  comfortable  in  it,  and  therefore  he 
should  have  his  own  way,  on  a  matter  which  comes  so  near 
himself  as  this  ?  It  is  not  what  you  or  I  would  like,  or  should 
be  happy  in  defending  :  but  I  think  it  can  be  acquiesced  in  with 
a  good  grace  in  consideration  of  his  peculiar  circumstances. 
He  does  not  seem  to  be  very  exacting  in  smaller  matters  which 
can  be  easily  arranged. 


A  CHARACTERISTIC  TIME-TABLE     125 

His  diary  shows  that  he  faithfully  carried  out  the  pro-    CHAP. 
gramme  outlined  in  his  letter  to  his  cousin.     On  the  eight- 


eenth he  went  to  Osborne  and  received  his  seals,  then  ^T-  5S"58' 
attended  for  two  days  at  the  War  Office,  and  on  the  2ist 
made  off  for  Marienbad,  where  he  stayed  till  September  27, 
when  he  was  recalled  for  a  Cabinet  on  the  2Qth.  Two 
days  later  he  was  off  to  Zurich  to  fetch  his  wife  on  her  way 
back  from  Marienbad,  and  then  spent  a  week  in  Paris  till 
another  Cabinet  required  him  to  come  to  London.  The 
rest  of  October  and  all  December  was  spent  in  Scotland, 
but  he  was  regular  in  attendance  at  Pall  Mall  for  nearly 
the  whole  of  November. 

This  time-table  was  thoroughly  characteristic  of  him, 
and  it  may  suggest  that  he  was  not  unduly  weighed  down 
by  the  responsibilities  of  his  office.  But  he  was  neither  a 
new  broom  nor  a  timid  novice  in  Pall  Mall.  Six  months' 
experience  as  Secretary  of  State  and  a  long  apprenticeship 
as  Financial  Secretary  had  taught  him  the  ways  through  the 
military  labyrinth  and  given  him  a  shrewd  knowledge  of 
the  generals  and  officials.  He  perfectly  understood  that 
what  the  new  Government  expected  of  its  Minister  for 
War  was  that  he  should  avoid  heroics  and  keep  the  esti- 
mates down.  With  Lord  Sandhurst  as  Under-Secretary  and 
Mr.  W.  Woodall  as  Financial  Secretary  he  had  a  team  which 
exactly  suited  him,  and  which  could  be  trusted  to  work 
loyally  with  its  chief.1  The  one  thing  which  he  held  as  an 
article  of  faith  was  that  the  Cardwellian  system  of  short 
service  and  linked  battalions  was  as  near  as  possible  per- 
fection for  this  country ;  and  to  see  that  it  was  faithfully 
carried  out  and  carefully  guarded  from  rash  innovators 
was,  in  his  view,  nine-tenths  of  the  duties  of  a  Minister  for 
War.  Only,  as  he  believed,  by  a  period  of  service  which 

1  The  principal  permanent  officials  at  this  time  were  Sir  Ralph 
Thompson,  K.C.B.  (Permanent  Under-Secretary) ;  Sir  Arthur  Haliburton, 
K.C.B.  (Assistant  Under-Secretary) ;  and  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir  Ralph) 
Knox  (Accountant-General),  with  all  of  whom  he  established  intimate 
personal  relations.  For  the  first  year  his  principal  private  Secretary 
was  Mr.  Guy  (afterwards  Sir  Guy)  Fleetwood  Wilson,  and  for  the  sub- 
sequent two  years  the  Hon.  Rowland  C.  F.  Leigh. 


126    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    guaranteed   the  Reserve,   and   the  strict  maintenance  of 
an  even  balance  between  the  infantry  battalions  serving 


1892-1895.  abroa(}  an(j  those  serving  at  home,  could  the  dual  problem 
of  Home  and  Imperial  defence  be  solved,  and  a  sufficiency  of 
trained  men  be  provided  for  emergencies  under  the  voluntary 
system.  Break  loose  from  this  and  you  were  launched  in 
the  wild  waters  of  conscription  and  continental  militarism. 
The  new  Secretary  of  State  visited  the  Queen  at  Balmoral 
in  October,  and  there  confirmed  the  good  opinion  which 
he  had  already  won  in  high  quarters.  '  I  think  you  made 
a  very  good  impression  on  the  Queen,'  wrote  her  Secretary, 
'  as  you  listened  to  her  and  encouraged  her  to  speak  openly, 
which  she  hesitates  to  do  with  those  who  seem  convinced 
that  what  she  is  going  to  say  is  wrong  in  their  view  before 
she  says  it.'  These  happy  relations  were  to  be  somewhat 
severely  tested  during  the  next  few  months.  When  he 
came  into  office,  Campbell-Bannerman  made  the  disturb- 
ing discovery  that  there  were  eleven  more  battalions 
abroad  than  was  permissible  under  the  Cardwell  system 
strictly  administered,  and,  casting  about  for  methods  to 
redress  the  balance,  he  conceived  the  daring  idea  of  enabling 
other  regiments  to  recall  their  straying  battalions  by  send- 
ing the  Guards  on  foreign  service.  The  Queen  greatly 
disliked  this  idea,  which  she  declared  to  be  '  detrimental  to 
the  efficiency  of  the  service  and  the  military  position  of  the 
Court/  and  said  sharply  that  it  would  '  abolish  Guards 
altogether.'  The  new  Minister  held  firmly  to  his  point, 
and  on  his  reporting  that  the  whole  War  Office,  military 
and  civilian,  favoured  his  proposal,  the  Queen  gave  way 
and  contented  herself  with  expressing  the  hope  that  where- 
ever  the  Guards  were  sent,  they  would  at  least  be  relieved 
of  the  exhausting  night  work  which  fell  to  their  lot  in 
London.  He  gives  an  inside  version  of  this  matter  in  a 
letter  to  Sir  William  Harcourt  :— 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Sir  William  Harcourt 

6  GROSVENOR  PLACE  (undated}.— I  have  rather  taken  to  heart 
the  question  of  sending  a  Battn.  of  Guards  to  Gibraltar,  of  which 


A  THREATENED  REGIMENT  127 

I  spoke  to  you  :   and  to  which  I  myself  suggested  the  objection    CHAP. 
that  it  might  be  misinterpreted  abroad.  VIII- 


Thinking  it  over,  I  am  more  and  more  anxious  to  do  it.     It  ^ET.  55-58. 
wd.  be  the  thin  end  of  a  much  bigger  wedge  than  they  think : 
and  it  wd.  be  very  popular  politically  here. 

I  therefore  asked  Rosebery  what  he  thought  and  he  replies  :— 

'  I  only  see  one  objection  and  that  is  more  on  your  account 
than  mine.  It  strikes  me  that  Europe  might  think  we  were 
coming  to  our  last  gasp  when  we  send  the  Guards  out  of  England 
in  order  to  find  a  battn.  for  Egypt.  But  you  can  truly  say  that 
this  proceeding  is  not  connected  with  Egypt  but  with  an  im- 
memorial scheme  of  your  own.  From  the  point  of  view  of  my 
office  I  see  no  objection.' 

The  thing  can  be  easily  explained  and  I  can  smother  it  up 
with  detailed  explanations  when  I  bring  in  the  Estimates.  I  am 
not  afraid.  And  it  is  really  a  tremendous  chance,  with  the 
Duke  actually  asking  my  approval  before  submitting  it  to  the 
Queen  !  I  can  hardly  believe  my  eyes  after  all  I  have  gone 
through  on  the  subject. 

What  do  you  say  ?     Shall  I  do  it  ? 

Gib.  is  better  than  Malta  for  the  purpose  and  there  would  be 
little  fuss. 

Another  tiresome  question  arose  over  the  Cameron  High- 
landers, now  threatened  with  disbandment  owing  to  their 
failure  to  keep  up  their  strength,  and  provide  the  second 
battalion  which  the  system  required.  The  Queen  appealed 
to  the  Scottish  patriotism  of  her  new  Minister.  She 
'  believed  that  he  will  be  as  glad  as  she  is  to  save  her  own 
Highland  Regiment  from  annihilation,'  and  begged  him 
to  add  another  battalion  to  be  recruited  in  Glasgow.  It 
was  strongly  impressed  on  him  that  Scotsmen  would 
consider  the  annihilation  of  the  Cameron  Highlanders  a 
severe  blow  to  the  national  feeling,  an  unjust  return  to 
a  regiment  which  had  distinguished  itself  by  its  good 
conduct,  and  a  slight  to  the  Queen  who  had  been  specially 
connected  with  this  Corps.  With  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  thundering  against  military  extravagance  and 
imposing  '  a  universal  negative '  upon  all  superfluities, 
there  was  small  margin  for  a  Highland  Regiment  which 
recruited  60  per  cent,  of  its  strength  from  London  and  only 


128    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    2  per  cent,  from  the  Highlands,  and  the  Minister  pressed 
VI11'     his  point.     The  Queen  thereupon  very  skilfully  shifted  her 


1892-1895.  grounc[  to  the  proposal  of  alternative  schemes  which  would 
meet  the  objections  without  extinguishing  the  regiment, 
and  the  discussion  of  these  lasted  for  the  duration  of  the 
Parliament. 

Then  there  were  questions  about  the  Emperor  William. 
In  January  1893  the  Queen  wished  to  make  him  a  Field- 
Marshal  of  the  British  Army.  The  Minister,  the  Government, 
and  the  Commander-in-Chief  all  agreed  in  thinking  it  too 
much  and  too  soon.  This  exalted  rank  should  be  reserved 
for  mature  years  and  tried  friendship.  The  Queen  gave  way, 
but  in  April  she  was  staying  at  Coburg  and  surprised  all 
these  authorities  by  making  the  Emperor  Hon.  Colonel-in 
Chief  of  the  ist  Royal  Dragoons,  without  waiting  for  the 
advice  of  the  Minister.  The  Emperor,  we  are  told,  was 
greatly  delighted,1  and  telegraphed  at  once  to  the  regiment, 
which  till  then  had  heard  nothing  of  the  distinguished  honour 
about  to  be  conferred  on  it.  For  a  moment  there  was  a 
great  fuss  and  much  solemn  talk  about  the  constitutional 
proprieties,  but  the  Minister  was  much  more  amused  than 
annoyed,  and  very  sensibly  set  to  work  to  get  the  sanctions 
from  the  Departments — Foreign  Office  as  well  as  War 
Office,  to  say  nothing  of  Cabinet  and  Prime  Minister — 
which  ought  to  have  been  consulted  before  this  momentous 
step  was  taken.  The  affair  had  its  sequel  in  August  of 
the  following  year  when  the  Emperor  came  to  visit  the 
Queen  at  Osborne,  and  found  to  his  disappointment  that 
the  regiment  was  not  there  to  meet  him.  He  gravely 
inquired  whether  there  was  anything  against  them  that 
they  were  not  allowed  to  send  a  party  to  greet  their  Colonel- 
in-Chief.  The  sad  truth  (which  had  to  be  concealed)  was 
that  everybody  had  forgotten  about  the  Colonel-in-Chief. 

1  The  Emperor,  it  seems,  had  desired  to  be  Colonel  of  a  Highland 
regiment,  and  that  too  was  seriously  debated  in  January  1894.  The 
comment  of  a  distinguished  Scotsman  was  :  '  The  idea  of  William 
as  a  Highland  colonel  is  sufficiently  comic  in  itself,  but  it  is  rendered 
inexpressibly  so  by  the  fact  that  he  has  forbidden  the  kilt  to  appear  at 
his  Court  balls  as  an  improper  costume.  He  must  take  to  the  trews.' 


X 

o 

£ 

it 
a 

OS 

a 


p  I 

X  -,-! 

2      j 


a    -= 

gSd 

5      H      | 

2  a    a 

3  2   £ 


O    a    . 

=-   S  S 


-    a 


< 

:-5  o 
1  < 


A  KNOTTY  PROBLEM  129 

Fortunately  there  was  still  time  to  make  amends,  and  when    CHAP. 
he  went  to  Aldershot  a  few  days  later  to  review  the  troops, 


there,  surely,  was  a  whole  squadron  of  the  Royal  Dragoons  /ETl  55"58' 
in  attendance  on  their  imperial  Colonel.  The  Emperor  was 
again  greatly  delighted,  and  the  Queen  telegraphed  to  the 
Minister  to  say  that  she  was  much  pleased  by  the 
'  alacrity  and  readiness  '  with  which  he  had  carried  out 
her  wishes. 

After  the  Emperor,  the  Czar.  He  too,  as  the  Queen 
strongly  urged,  must  have  an  honorary  colonelcy  on  the 
occasion  of  his  marriage  with  her  granddaughter  in 
November  1894.  Again  the  War  Office  frowned.  There 
should  be  economy  in  these  distinctions.  The  Emperor 
William  might  take  it  amiss  that  the  unique  honour  con- 
ferred upon  him  should  so  soon  be  shared  by  a  brother 
sovereign.  The  Duke  of  Cambridge  said — rather  heavily 
for  the  occasion — that  '  we  should  not  overlook  our  senti- 
ments towards  the  Emperor  of  Germany  and  the  great 
German  nation  which  it  is  of  such  enormous  advantage 
and  importance  to  us  to  retain.'  Better  wait  till  the  Czar 
came  to  England  to  visit  the  Queen,  as  surely  he  would. 
The  Queen  pressed  and  eventually  the  War  Office  gave 
way.  Followed  a  long  debate  as  to  what  regiment 
should  be  chosen.  The  whole  British  Army  appears  to 
have  been  brought  under  review  before  the  Guards  were 
selected. 

The  tragic  fate  which  has  befallen  some  of  the  recipients  of 
these  honours  casts  its  shadow  backwards  on  these  amenities 
of  the  old  Europe,  in  which  the  sovereigns  were  all  at  peace 
with  one  another  and  exchanged  greetings  and  compliments 
as  affectionate  friends  and  relatives.  To  the  War  Office 
at  the  time  these  incidents  were  a  source  of  innocent 
pleasure  and  the  cause  of  much  intricate  correspondence, 
which  Campbell-Bannerman  pursued  with  great  patience 
and  a  wealth  of  genial  comment  that  was  highly  appreciated 
in  Pall  Mall.  There  was  a  flavour  about  the  old  War  Office 
which  greatly  appealed  to  him.  The  long  and  finely 
proportioned  room  with  its  superb  ceiling  and  beautiful 

VOL.  i.  I 


130    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    mantelpiece,  the  Secretary  of  State's  table  with  its  great 
VIIL     silver  inkstand  and  massive  candlesticks,  the  soft  carpet, 


1892-1895.  .^e  Chippendale  chairs — all  seemed  designed  to  make  it 
a  perfect  temple  of  peace,  except  for  the  noise  of  traffic 
outside.  In  the  adjoining  room  sat  his  three  private 
secretaries,  and  in  another  room  beyond  that  was  H.R.H. 
the  Commander-in-Chief,  the  '  Duke  ' — to  the  old  War 
Office  there  was  never  any  other  duke — kindly,  irritable, 
emphatic,  full  of  good-humour  and  ill-humour,  making 
constant  incursions  from  his  own  territory  to  that  of  the 
Secretary  of  State.  Above  was  the  Adjutant-General, 
Sir  Redvers  Buller,  '  My  Buller,'  as  the  Minister  called  him, 
'  whom  I  would  back  to  keep  his  end  up  against  them 
all.'  In  the  offing  was  Lord  Wolseley,  relegated  to  the 
Irish  command  and  the  Royal  Hospital  in  Dublin,  where 
he  was  supposed  to  watch  with  misgiving  the  proceedings 
of  the  Anti-Wolseley  School  in  Pall  Mall.  Farther  away 
still  was  General  Roberts  in  the  last  months  of  his  Indian 
command,  but  always  with  a  keen  eye  on  Pall  Mall  as 
the  strategical  centre  of  operations  affecting  the  future  of 
distinguished  generals. 

ii 

Over  the  whole  scene  was  a  sense  of  uncertainty.  The 
Secretary  of  State  had  before  him  two  documents  on  which 
he  was  expected  to  act,  the  Report  of  the  Hartington 
Commission  x  on  the  Organisation  of  the  War  Office,  and 
the  Report  of  the  Wantage  Committee  on  the  length  and 
conditions  of  service  with  the  Colours  and  in  the  Reserve. 
The  first  threatened  the  extinction  of  the  Commandership- 
in-Chief  and  heaven  knows  what  other  changes,  if  change 
once  began.  The  Duke  shivered  at  the  word,  which  seemed 
to  him  and  his  world  the  end  of  all  things,  and  comforted 
himself  by  the  thought  that  the  Commission  had  not  pro- 
posed to  do  anything  serious  until  the  term  of  his  office — 
which  he  supposed  to  be  for  life — had  expired.  The  same 

1  See  supra,  pp.  116-120, 


IMPENDING  CHANGES  131 

view  was  held  in   the   highest  quarter.     The  Queen,  said    CHAP. 
her  Secretary,  writing  to  the  Minister  in  September  1893, 


'  is  troubled  about  your  reference  to  the  Hartington  Com-  ^T>  S5"s8> 
mission,  as  she  thought  it  was  dead.'     It  was  not  dead, 
but  knowing  his  War  Office  and  not  being  of  a  pushful 
disposition,  the  Secretary  of  State  thought  it  prudent  to 
move  cautiously.1 

The  second  Report,  that  of  the  Wantage  Committee, 
raised  questions  which,  in  Campbell-Bannerman's  view, 
were  of  vastly  greater  immediate  importance.  For  years 
past  the  critics  of  the  Cardwell  system  had  been  thunder- 
ing at  the  War  Office  and  flooding  the  columns  of  the  Times 
with  their  voluminous  letters.  Commanding  officers  who 
disliked  the  drudgery  of  training  drafts  which,  as  soon  as 
trained,  were  removed  to  feed  the  foreign  battalions,  set 
up  a  chorus  of  lamentation  which  was  echoed  from  club 
armchairs  by  the  large  number  of  old  gentlemen  who  were 
convinced  that  the  Army  had  been  going  to  the  dogs  from 
the  day  that  the  '  Liberal  lawyer '  abolished  purchase. 
The  War  Office  had  in  a  measure  exposed  itself  to  these 
attacks  by  its  failure  to  preserve  the  balance,  which  the 
Cardwell  system  required,  between  the  number  of  units 
kept  at  home  and  those  serving  abroad,  and  there  had  been 
considerable  difficulty  in  obtaining  the  drafts  necessary 
for  India  and  Egypt.  Hence  the  alleged  '  breakdown ' 
which  led  to  the  appointment  in  May  1891  of  the  Wantage 
Committee.2  That  Committee  sat  from  May  to  December, 
and  in  the  following  March  issued  a  report  which,  among 
much  that  was  useful,  if  unexciting,  contained  one  highly 
controversial  recommendation.  This  was  that  the  periods 
of  service  should  be  modified  so  as  (a)  to  allow  men  to 
extend  their  colour  service  from  year  to  year  or  for  any 

1  See  letter  from  Lord  Wolseley  to  Lord  Haliburton.     Lord  Haliburton, 
a  Memoir  of  his  Public  Service,  by  G.  T.  B.  Atlay,  pp.  107-113. 

2  The  Committee,  with   Lord   Wantage   as   Chairman,   included   Lord 
Selborne  (then  Viscount  Wolmer),  Lieut. -Gen.  Sir  Edward  Bulwer,  Sir 
T.  Crawford,  M.D.,  Lieut.-Gen.  W.  H.  A.  Fielding,  Gen.  Sir  J.  J.  H.  Gordon, 
Col.  A.  C.  Nightingale,  Col.  Salis-Schwabe,  Col.  A.  J.  Shuttleworth,  Major 
J.  Stacpole,  and  Sir  Arthur  Haliburton. 


132    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    number  of  years  up  to  twelve  in  all ;  (b)  to  allow  men  of  good 
_>  character  who  had  left  the  service  not  less  than  six  and  not 


1892-1895.  more  than  twelve  months  previously,  to  return  from  the 
reserve  to  complete  twelve  years'  colour  service  without 
refunding  any  money  or  gratuity  received  on  transfer  to 
the  reserve  ;  and  (c)  to  allow,  if  the  exigencies  of  the  service 
should  permit,  trained  soldiers,  who  wished  to  do  so,  to 
pass  freely  to  the  reserve  before  the  end  of  their  period  of 
engagement  with  the  colours.  To  this  proposal  a  strong 
minute  of  dissent  was  attached  by  Sir  Arthur  Haliburton, 
the  Assistant  Under-Secretary  for  War,  who  held  that  these 
changes  were  '  calculated  through  their  effect  on  the  short- 
service  system  to  reduce  our  fighting  reserve  by  many 
thousands  of  men,  and  at  the  same  time  largely  to  augment 
the  non-effective  charges  of  the  army/1  Campbell-Banner- 
man  was  entirely  of  Haliburton's  opinion.  In  his  view, 
the  extension  of  the  terms  of  service  with  the  colours  from 
six  years  to  twelve  would  have  been  the  axe  at  the  root  of 
the  Cardwell  system,  in  that  it  must  have  destroyed  the 
reserve  which  it  was  one  of  the  main  objects  of  that  system 
to  build  up  ;  and  it  must  further  have  added  enormously 
to  the  pension  charges  of  the  Army,  since  it  would  be  im- 
possible and  unfair  to  keep  a  man  for  twelve  years  and  not 
allow  him  to  serve  on  to  pension.  Whatever  defects  there 
might  be  in  the  existing  system,  this  change,  he  was  con- 
vinced, could  do  nothing  but  aggravate  them,  and  if  it  was 
adopted,  we  should  inevitably  be  faced,  and  within  a 
comparatively  short  time,  with  a  real  breakdown  of  volun- 
tary recruiting.  In  this  opinion  he  had  the  strong  support 
not  only  of  his  soldiers  and  officials  at  the  War  Office,  but 
also  of  Lord  Wolseley,  who,  notwithstanding  that  he  had 
somewhat  rashly  described  the  home  battalions  as  '  squeezed 
lemons  '  in  his  evidence  before  the  Wantage  Committee, 
was  firmly  convinced  of  the  virtue  of  short  service  and  the 
young  soldier.  In  Wolseley's  view  as  in  Campbell-Banner- 
inan's,  the  right  policy  was  not  to  go  back  on  the  Cardwell 
system,  but  to  carry  it  out  as  its  author  intended  by  restor- 

1  Haliburton  Memoirs,  p.  95. 


THE  WANTAGE  REPORT  133 

ing  the  balance  between  the  battalions  serving  abroad  and    CHAP. 
those  kept  at  home  ;    by  making  the  Commanding  Officers 


of  the  home  battalions  understand  that  the  training  of yET>  55~58- 
drafts  was  an  essential  part  of  their  duties  in  time  of  peace, 
and  reliance  on  the  reserves  to  bring  them  up  to  strength  in 
time  of  war  a  necessary  expedient  of  modern  armies  in 
this  country  as  elsewhere  ;  and  at  all  hazards  maintaining 
the  period  of  service  which  ensured  an  adequate  reserve. 
The  root  of  the  whole  matter  was  the  simple  proposition 
that  the  more  men  you  had  with  the  colours  and  the  longer 
the  term  of  service,  the  less  you  could  have  with  the  reserve. 
Short  service  increased  the  aggregate  of  trained  men  and 
built  up  an  adequate  reserve  ;  long  service  must  diminish 
the  aggregate  and  starve  the  reserve.  Short  service  pro- 
vided the  country  with  a  sufficiency  of  men  for  an  emergency 
at  small  cost  to  the  taxpayer ;  long  service  could  only  do 
so  by  greatly  increasing  the  establishments  and  keeping 
a  large  army  perpetually  on  a  war  footing.1 

Holding  these  views  and  considering  it  to  be  specially 
his  duty  to  resist  this  part  of  the  Wantage  Report,  Campbell- 
Bannerman  was  bound  to  appear  a  conservative  admini- 
strator, though  conservative  in  the  sense  that  he  was 
upholding  what  he  considered  to  be  the  Liberal  tradition  of 
the  Army  against  military  innovations.  His  first  discovery 
on  entering  office  was  that  there  were  seventy-six  battalions 
abroad  to  sixty-five  at  home,  a  disturbance  of  the  Cardwellian 
balance  which  he  struggled  hard  to  redress  during  the  next 
three  years,  though  untoward  circumstances  repeatedly 
defeated  him.  Apart  from  this,  to  improve  the  lot  of  the 
soldier  in  all  possible  ways  that  the  '  everlasting  nay  '  of 
the  Treasury  permitted,  to  see  that  the  rearming  of  the  Army 
with  the  Lee-Metford  rifle,  which  was  then  going  forward, 
was  carried  through  punctually  and  efficiently,  and  to 
provide  for  the  manufacture  of  the  new  explosive,  cordite, 
was  a  large  part  of  his  administrative  duties.  Decisions 
on  the  weighty  matters  raised  in  the  Hartington  Commis- 
sion Report  lay  ahead  of  him,  but  his  first  business,  as  he 

1  Haliburton  Memoirs,  pp.  107-113. 


134    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    conceived  it,  was  to  make  the  '  system  '  work,  and  when 


>  it  worked  to  leave  well  alone. 


1892-1895. 


in 

In  the  meantime  the  veiled  struggle  between  the  '  old 
school '  and  the  '  young  school '  was  incessantly  going  on 
and  frequently  invaded  the  Secretary  of  State's  room.  The 
principal  battleground  was  patronage,  a  subject  which, 
then  as  now,  consumed  a  vast  deal  of  the  time  and  sharpened 
the  tempers  of  the  Minister  and  his  advisers.  The  Duke 
was  a  stubborn  upholder  of  promotion  by  seniority  where 
the  consensus  of  the  best  people  did  not  clearly  point  to 
promotion  by  favour,  and  his  habit  of  '  not  caring  a 

d n  '  for  the  selections  of  the  Promotion  Board  was  a 

perpetual  cause  of  unrest.  '  Behind  our  H.R.H.  are  other 
H.R.H.'s,'  warns  one  of  the  civilian  officials,  and  it  must 
be  said  for  the  Duke  that  he  was  not  always  a  free  agent 
when  he  was  inveighing  against  the  Promotion  Board. 
Buller  all  but  resigned  over  one  flagrant  case,  and  Wolseley 
sent  earnest  remonstrances  from  Dublin  to  the  Secretary 
of  State  against  the  indiscriminate  promotion  of  colonels 
to  be  major-generals  by  seniority  and  irrespective  of  their 
capacity  to  command  a  division.  '  Will  you  therefore,' 
he  wrote,  '  lift  us  out  of  the  slough  of  seniority  promotion. 
You  can  easily  do  so,  and  the  Army — all  that  is  best  in  it — 
will  bless  you.  The  Army  in  general  wants  a  spurt  of 
reform,  for  there  is  growing  up  amongst  us  a  feeling  of 
hopelessness  that  good,  hard  work  and  ability  are  still 
kept  in  the  background,  and  that  the  idle  and  stupid — 
whom  it  is  thought  have  most  friends  in  high  quarters- 
have  as  good,  if  not  a  better  chance  of  preferment.  The 
young  school  want  to  make  the  Army  a  real  profession  in 
which  the  best  men  may  be  able  by  their  own  exertions  to 
rise  to  the  top  as  men  do  at  the  Bar,  in  the  Church,  as 
doctors,  civil  engineers,  etc.' 

The  Minister  was  not  a  partisan  of  any  school,  but  he 
was  in  sympathy  with  the  young  school  on  this  subject, 


THE  HIGH  COMMANDS  135 

and  whenever  a  case  came  before  him,  he  fought  to  the    CHAP. 

VIII 

utmost  for  following  the  selection  of  the  Promotion  Board. » — ^__> 
But  he  had  much  trouble  with  the  higher  commands.  All  ^E'T'  S5's8' 
the  seniors  had  a  strong  preference  for  employment  near 
home,  and  it  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  they 
could  be  persuaded  to  take  commands  which  might  remove 
them  from  the  scene  of  impending  changes.  Some  said 
frankly  that  that  was  their  reason  ;  others  objected,  or 
their  wives  objected,  to  uprooting  their  establishments.  In 
November  1892  the  Minister  was  almost  in  despair  about 
the  Indian  command.  General  Roberts,  who  had  held  it  for 
seven  and  a  half  years,  was  willing  to  stay  a  few  months 
longer,  on  conditions  which  guarded  his  future,  but  Lord 
Kimberley,  the  new  Secretary  of  State  for  India,  strongly 
objected  and  desired  a  Commander-in-Chief  who  was  not 
committed  to  the  '  forward  school.'  Sir  Redvers  Buller 
declined  to  go,  pleading  private  reasons  which  no  persuasion 
availed  to  overcome.  Of  the  other  possible  candidates,  the 
Duke  objected  to  one,  the  Government  of  India  to  another, 
and  the  Minister  to  the  remainder.  The  way  out  was  found 
at  the  last  moment  by  the  appointment  of  Sir  George  White, 
who  seems  to  have  encountered  fewest  objections  and  was 
warmly  backed  by  Roberts.  Malta  was  offered  to  Lord 
Wolseley,  who  was  urged  to  take  it  on  the  grounds  that 
it  would  give  him  five  years'  secure  employment  with  in- 
creased emoluments,  whereas  the  Irish  command  expired 
within  two  years.  Materially  it  promised  considerable 
advantages,  but  it  meant  banishment  from  the  scene  of 
impending  changes,  and  wisely,  as  it  turned  out  afterwards, 
he  declined  it.  In  September  1893  the  Duke  of  Connaught 
was  appointed  to  the  Aldershot  command  ;  and  in  defend- 
ing this  appointment  the  Minister  cheerfully  ran  the 
gauntlet  of  the  parliamentary  criticism  which  followed,  and 
much  impressed  the  Queen  by  his  serene  indifference  to 
attacks  which  greatly  annoyed  her.  The  most  formidable 
of  his  critics  on  this  occasion,  as  on  others  during  the  Parlia- 
ment, was  Sir  Charles  Dilke,  who  urged  that  no  officer 
should  be  appointed  to  Aldershot  who  was  not  likely  to 


136    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    command  armies  in  war.1     It  may  be  added  that  General 
1  '  ^  Roberts,  who  had  now  returned  from  India,  had  greatly 


1892-1895.  desire(j  this  appointment,  and  he  was  much  mystified  and 
not  pleased  at  being  told  that  he  was  too  distinguished  to 
be  permitted  to  step  down  to  a  relatively  inferior  place  like 
Aldershot,  after  holding  the  supreme  command  in  India. 
Malta  and  Gibraltar  were  offered  him  as  suitable  to  his 
rank,  but  he  declined  both.  He  was  more  than  consoled, 
however,  when  in  May  1895  he  was  made  Field-Marshal  and 
appointed  to  succeed  Lord  Wolseley  in  Ireland. 

IV 

A  looming  presence,  never  far  away,  was  that  of  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  natural  enemy  of  all  spending 
departments,  fighting  stubbornly  the  lost  battle  of  public 
economy.  Sir  William  Harcourt  did  not  mince  his  words, 
and  his  expostulations  were  free  and  frank.  The  Minister 
had  not  been  in  office  three  months  before  he  fell  on  him 
about  the  Maplin  Sands,  an  interminable  dispute  about 
a  strip  of  coast  required  for  an  artillery  range  which  the 
War  Office  had  kept  going  for  twelve  years.  '  Pray  now 
in  heaven's  name/  cried  the  Chancellor,  '  let  us  have  some 
answer  and  not  go  drivelling  on  incurring  fresh  costs  and 
more  interest.  There  seems,  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  to  be 
no  system  or  organisation  in  the  War  Office  which  gives 
any  security  against  the  most  serious  pecuniary  complica- 
tions.' A  '  little  note  in  prospect  of  estimates/  in  which 
the  Minister  spoke  of  a  supplementary  estimate  and  inti- 
mated that  in  spite  of  all  possible  economies  his  estimates 
for  the  coming  year  would  be  £400,000  above  those  of  the 
previous  year,  'produced  a  whirlwind  which  continued  inter- 
mittently for  the  next  three  months.  '  My  own  Depart- 
ment/ said  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  (Jan.  1893), 
'  is  mainly  occupied  in  the  contemplation  of  bloated  estimates. 
For  jingoism  and  extravagance  the  Unionists  are  not  in  it 

1  The  Life  of  Sir  Charles  Dilke,  by  Stephen  Gwynn  and  Gertrude 
Tuckwell,  vol.  ii.  p.  415.  (John  Murray.) 


A  BRUSH  WITH  THE  CHANCELLOR  137 

with  us.     The  only  question  is  how  many  pennies  must  be    CHAP. 
added  to  the  income-tax  next  year.' 


Campbell-Bannerman  retorted  in  kind  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Sir  William  Harcourt l 

Jan.  6,  '93. — I  do  not  know  what  gadfly  has  stung  you  and 
caused  such  a  jobation  as  you  have  launched  at  me.  Other 
people  besides  the  Treasury  are  doing  their  best  to  keep  down 
Estimates,  but  while  there  is  no  difficulty  whatever  in  propound- 
ing general  principles,  there  is  a  good  deal  in  keeping  in  check 
the  actual  growth  of  requirements. 

It  is  by  no  means  the  easy  thing  it  was  ten  years  ago  ;  and  I 
doubt  very  much  if  the  country  would  support  any  violent 
upsetting  of  recent  arrangements  even  in  the  interests  of  imme- 
diate saving,  however  convenient. 

I  will  do,  and  am  doing,  what  1  can  ;  but  I  honestly  tell  you 
if  anything  would  slacken  my  zeal  it  would  be  to  be  fulminated 
at  from  mid-air ! 

All  I  can  promise  is  that  I  will  bring  things  down  as  much  as 
possible. 

As  to  a  supplementary  estimate,  if  one  is  necessary,  why  is 
it  ?  Simply  because  Goschen  cut  down  too  far  and  because 
too  sanguine  a  view  was  taken.  That  is  no  discredit  to  us.  The 
sum  spoken  of  here  was  a  good  round  figure  to  give  for  answer  to 
a  first  enquiry,  the  reality  will  be  far  short  of  it. 

Seriously,  you  need  not  be  afraid  ;  the  Departments  will  not 
be  unreasonable,  let  n  Downing  Street  be  equally  sensible,  and 
all  will  go  well. 

But  ii  Downing  Street  was  not  appeased,  and  returned  to 
the  charge  with  another  letter  which  declared  that  the 
country  was  under  an  intolerable  load  of  taxation  and  would 
'  insist  that  a  bit  should  be  put  in  the  mouths  of  generals 
and  admirals.'  We  were  '  actually  in  the  condition  of  a 

1  This  in  the  spring  of  1894 — while  the  famous  Budget  of  that  year 
was  hatching  and  controversy  between  the  Treasury  and  the  War  Office 
had  become  somewhat  heated — may  perhaps  be  cited  as  another  way  of 
averting  wrath  : — 

6  GROSVENOR  PLACE,  S.W.,  i8th  April  '94. 

MY  DEAR  HARCOURT, — In  anticipation  of  a  raised  duty  on  spirits,  I  have 
been  importing  some  Styrian  Cherry  Brandy,  with  which  I  have  a  long- 
standing acquaintance.  I  am  sending  you  half  a  dozen  bottles  and  I  hope 
you  will  find  it  good. — Yours  sincerely,  H.  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN. 


138    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    householder  whose  weekly  bills  were  at  the  mercy  of  a 
VIIL     French  chef  over  whom  he  had  no  control.'     Especially  he 


1892-1895.  appeaje(j  to  Campbell-Bannerman  to  stamp  on  the  pro- 
posal to  '  annex  the  Equator  and  the  Upper  Nile  '  (i.e. 
Uganda),  and  warned  him  that  '  you  and  I  will  have  to  find 
the  material.'  With  this  stern  economist  on  one  flank  and 
his  generals  on  the  other,  and  an  Opposition  lying  in  wait 
to  trip  him  up,  if  Radical  cheeseparing  could  be  alleged  to 
have  endangered  the  national  safety,  the  Minister  had  no 
easy  time  when  his  estimates  were  being  hatched  ;  and  he 
showed  more  than  once  that  he  was  a  good  fighter  when 
the  Treasury  had  brought  him  down  to  bed-rock.  But 
better  than  some  of  his  colleagues  he  knew  how  to  manage 
the  formidable  Chancellor,  and  he  was  never  more  imper- 
turbably  good-humoured  than  when  he  was  determined 
to  have  his  own  way.  Sir  William  had  many  maxims  for 
his  colleagues,  and  one  of  them,  as  he  told  the  Minister  for 
War,  was  :  '  When  you  have  your  heart  particularly  set 
on  anything,  always  give  it  up.'  It  was  not  always  easy 
to  know  when  Campbell-Bannerman  had  his  heart  set  on  a 
thing,  but  when  he  had,  he  seldom  or  never  gave  it  up. 

Nevertheless,  he  was  the  last  man  to  indulge  in  any 
aimless  military  extravagance.  Not  only  had  he  the 
instincts  of  the  thrifty  Scot,  but  he  greatly  disliked  what  is 
called  '  militarism,'  and  strongly  held  that  the  Navy  was  the 
first  line  of  defence  for  this  country,  with  the  first  call  on 
the  Exchequer.  It  vexed  him  sorely  to  see  his  estimates 
mount,  but  circumstances  were  against  him  in  the  first 
part  of  his  administration.  In  January  1893  the  young 
Khedive  made  a  spirited  effort  to  break  loose  from  British 
control,  and  Lord  Cromer  called  urgently  for  reinforce- 
ments in  Egypt.  This  was  a  sad  blow  to  his  hopes  of 
getting  back  the  eleven  battalions,  and  he  appears  to  have 
parried  it  by  suggesting  a  naval  demonstration  instead. 
This  brought  Mr.  Gladstone  about  his  ears.  '  I  think  you 
will  agree  with  me,'  wrote  the  Prime  Minister,  '  that  the 
sending  of  men-of-war  at  this  time  to  Alexandria  should 
force  be  needed,  would  be  open  to  grave  objection,  as 


DEMANDS  FOR  TROOPS  139 

recalling  the  memory  of  the  bombardment  and  suggesting    CHAP. 
to  hostile,  perhaps  even  to  impartial  judges,  some  intention 


of  reviving  it  under  possible  circumstances.'  There  was 
reason  in  the  objection,  and  the  troops  had  to  be  found  and 
the  painful  necessity  submitted  to  of  adding  a  quarter  of  a 
million  to  the  estimates.  In  September  there  was  again 
a  demand  for  troops,  this  time  for  West  Africa,  where 
Foreign  Office  and  Colonial  Office  joined  in  pressing  for 
an  expedition  against  the  turbulent  Sofas.  Campbell- 
Bannerman  objected  that  the  affair  was  likely  to  be  more 
serious  than  these  Departments  realised,  and  pointed  out 
that  the  troops  would  be  operating  in  a  country  where 
French  and  British  boundaries  were  extremely  vague,  and 
that  the  risk  of  a  collision  with  the  French  could  not  be 
neglected.  Once  more  he  tried  to  pass  on  at  least  a  part 
of  the  burden  to  the  Admiralty,  and  suggested  that,  if  the 
expedition  must  be  undertaken,  the  Sierre  Leone  garrison 
should  be  utilised  and  its  place  taken  for  the  time  being 
by  blue-jackets,  a  suggestion  which  by  no  means  com- 
mended itself  to  the  First  Lord,  though  he  afterwards  fell 
in  with  it  to  the  extent  of  permitting  a  naval  contingent 
to  go  with  the  expedition.  Campbell-Bannerman  was 
overruled,  but  his  warnings  proved  well  founded,  for  on 
their  way  to  meet  the  Sofas,  the  expedition  came  into 
collision  with  a  French  force,1  which  appears  to  have 
mistaken  them  for  Arabs  ;  and,  though  the  French  were 
repelled  and  their  commander  mortally  wounded,  two  lieu- 
tenants of  a  West  Indian  regiment  and  the  captain  of  the 
constabulary  were  killed.  It  was  a  sad  bungle,  for  which 
both  parties  had  their  share  of  blame,  and  the  best  that 
could  be  said  was  that  the  officers  behaved  well  when  the 
mischief  had  been  done.  Campbell-Bannerman  took 
special  pains  to  keep  the  uglier  details  out  of  the  papers, 
and  so  helped  to  avoid  what  might  have  been  a  serious 
international  incident. 

Foreign  affairs  were  far  from  easy  in  1893.     The  chronic 
trouble  with  the  French  seemed  to  be  coming  to  a  climax. 

1  Warrina,  Dec.  23,  1893. 


140    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    M.    Waddington    had    been    instructed    to    approach    the 
_>  Government  with  a  view  to  fixing  a  term  to  the  British 


VIII. 


1892-1895.  OCCUpation  of  Egypt,  and  had  been  politely  informed  that 
no  discussion  was  possible.  Simultaneously,  a  dangerous 
quarrel  was  brewing  over  Siam,  where  French  aggression 
was  meeting  a  dogged  British  opposition  ;  and  finally  there 
was  a  strong  rumour  that  the  Russians  had  naval  ambitions 
in  the  Mediterranean  and  were  going  to  break  out  of  the 
Black  Sea.  In  August,  Lord  Rosebery  found  it  necessary 
to  warn  both  the  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty  and  the 
Secretary  for  War  that  the  autumn  prospect  was  stormy. 
Campbell-Bannerman  was  extremely  sceptical,  and  he 
wrote  in  characteristic  style  to  the  First  Lord  of  the 
Admiralty  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Spencer 

HOUSE  OF  COMMONS,  Aug.  17,  '93. — I  have  just  received  the 
enclosed  from  Rosebery. 

Last  week  I  heard  that  the  F.O.  had  been  working  among 
our  Intell.  Depts.  and  the  story  was  told  of  the  incursion  of  the 
Russian  fleet,  partly  from  New  York  and  partly  from  the  Black 
Sea,  and  the  alarming  results  in  the  Mediterranean.  It  was 
therefore  urged  that  the  Garrison  of  Malta  shd.  be  strengthened 
to  meet  the  inevitable  coup  de  main. 

The  fever,  in  my  Dept.,  did  not  extend  beyond  the  Intell.  Dept. ; 
Buller  was  quite  unmoved  :  but  it  was  decided  that,  at  its  leisure, 
the  Naval  and  Military  Committee  should  consider  what  steps 
should  be  taken  on  the  imminence  of  War. 

I  do  not  want  to  rouse  my  '  experts/  now  perfectly  quiescent. 
Buller  is  grouse-shooting.  Besides,  the  object  now  alleged  is 
to  shew  France  and  Russia  that  we,  etc.  etc.  etc.  This  would 
be  better  done  by  adding  a  few  ships  to  the  Meditn.  Squadron, 
than  by  putting  a  few  men  in  Malta. 

Do  you  know  anything  of  it  ?  Are  there  Russian  ships  coming 
from  the  Black  Sea,  and  when  ? 

I  am  most  sceptical  about  the  whole  thing  :  but  on  the  other 
hand  this  is  a  serious  communication  from  the  Foreign  Secretary. 

I  shall  see  you  at  the  Cabinet  to-morrow. 

The  reader  will  observe  that  once  more  it  would  be 
'  better  to  send  a  few  ships  '  than  to  part  with  men.  Happily 


A  THREATENED  CRISIS  141 

the  skies  cleared :    Siam  was  settled  by  agreement,   the    CHAP. 
French  said  no  more  about  Egypt ;   the  Russians  remained 


in  the  Black  Sea,  and  the  War  Minister's  estimates  were  & 
uneventful.  Generally  speaking,  his  demands  remained  at 
about  £18,000,000  for  an  army  of  155,000  men.  There  was 
an  increase  of  a  quarter  of  a  million  in  1893,  and  another  of 
£171,000  in  1894,  followed  by  a  decrease  of  £22,000  in  1895. 
In  the  last  year  (1895)  he  took  special  pride  in  having 
brought  the  demands  of  the  Army  below  that  of  the  Navy, 
and  expressed  a  highly  sanguine  opinion  that  '  all  the 
Officers  in  the  Army  would  rejoice  at  this,  as  they  fully 
realised  that  the  Navy  occupied  the  first  place  in  our 
national  defence.'  To  the  innovators  who  would  lay  rash 
hands  on  the  Cardwell  system  he  had  but  one  reply  :  '  These 
things  were  settled,  and  he  declined  at  his  time  of  life  to 
enter  upon  the  many  paths  of  "  reform."  '  1  '  The  best 
reforming  wisdom  lay  in  leaving  well  alone.'  2  This  was  his 
refrain  in  all  his  statements  to  the  House  of  Commons, 
but  he  recognised  that  the  system  would  not  stand  the 
strain  of  the  military  operations  which  some  of  his  critics 
were  dreaming  of,  and  he  challenged  them  to  say  '  whether 
anybody  would  think  of  our  sending  an  army  to  engage  in 
a  continental  war.'  3  In  1893  this  was  the  last  thing  that 
the  House  of  Commons  was  thinking  of,  and  it  answered 
the  questions  with  the  loud  cheers  which  indicated  that  it 
regarded  a  negative  answer  to  this  question  to  be  self- 
evident. 

That  the  system  '  should  be  jealously  guarded  and  policy 
adjusted  to  it,'  were,  therefore,  his  leading  ideas.  But 
within  the  system  all  manner  of  changes  were  possible.  The 
germ  of  the  expeditionary  force  of  later  days  may  be  seen 
in  the  specially  constituted  force  for  foreign  service  of 
20,000  men  and  8000  horses,  with  artillery,  bridging, 
balloon,  telegraph,  medical  and  other  sections  which  he 
announced  in  1893. 4  In  1894  the  pay  of  the  private  was 
slightly  improved,  and  numerous  small  changes,  such  as 

1  House  of  Commons,  March  14,  1893.  "  Ibid.  March  15,  1893. 

3  Ibid.  March  9,  1893.  4  Ibid.  March  n,  1893. 


142    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    the  substitution  of  coir-fibre  bedding  for  straw,  to  which 
vm'     he   gave   careful   personal   attention,    were   introduced   to 


1892-1895.  jncrease  the  comfort  of  the  soldier  and  render  the  service 
more  attractive.  But  the  reform  of  all  others  in  which 
he  took  greatest  satisfaction  was  the  introduction  in  1894 
in  the  Small  Arms  Ammunition  factory  at  Woolwich 
Arsenal  of  the  eight  hours  day,  and  he  greatly  regretted 
that  he  was  unable  to  persuade  the  Admiralty  to  take 
the  same  step  at  the  same  time.  In  a  letter  to  the  First 
Lord  he  explained  his  ideas  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Spencer 

WAR  OFFICE,  Sept.  n,  '93. — On  the  merits  of  the  question  we 
now  stand  thus.  Two  days  ago  I  received  the  formal  opinion 
of  Dr.  Anderson,  the  excellent  Director  of  Ordnance  Factories 
(13,000  men  at  Woolwich  alone !),  that  he  was  now  satisfied  that 
we  ought  in  the  public  interest  to  reduce  the  hours  to  48  a  week. 
He  is  anxious  to  receive  instructions  for  the  preparatory  steps. 

This  conclusion  is  the  result  of  careful  experiment  and  con- 
sideration :  the  final  motive  power  being  Mather's  account  of 
the  actual  results  of  his  working  of  the  system.  This  you  ought 
to  see  at  once,  and  I  think  Mr.  Gladstone  would  be  much  interested 
in  it. 

But  the  War  Office  could  not  well  take  such  a  step  alone,  and 
I  hope  as  soon  as  I  am  able  to  get  out  again  to  see  you  as  to  the 
Dockyards. 

Other  smaller  employments  must  of  course  follow  suit. 

The  case  of  mere  watchers  and  waiters,  such  as  the  Customs 
men,  is  of  course  not  at  all  the  same. 

I  am  most  anxious  that  we  should  not  fritter  away  our  chance, 
but  should  make  the  most  of  it.  John  Burns  said  to  me  if  we 
did  it,  it  had  better  not  be  done  just  yet ;  our  two  Bills  of  this 
session  are  enough  for  the  present ;  and  he  suggested  announcing 
it  in  the  Speech  at  the  opening  of  next  session. 

It  is  for  the  public  sentiment  a  big  thing,  and  we  should  make 
the  most  of  it. 

The  '  Mather  '  referred  to  in  this  letter  was  the  well-known 
Member  of  Parliament  and  manufacturer,  Mr.  (afterwards 
Sir  William)  Mather,  who  had  introduced  the  shorter  hours 
into  his  own  works  and  was  convinced  that  they  were  not 


THE  EIGHT  HOURS  DAY  143 

only  good  for  the  workers  but  profitable  to  the  employers.    CHAP. 
The  same  view  was  strongly  held  by  the  Financial  Secretary 


to  the  War  Office,  Mr.  Woodall,  who  also  was  an  experienced  ^T-  55"s8> 
man  of  business.  Objections  were  many,  but  an  experi- 
mental trial  trip  showed  the  way  through  most  of  them. 
For  once  the  Minister  was  able  to  practise  Liberal  prin- 
ciples in  his  own  Department  and  present  the  Government 
to  the  public  as  a  model  employer.  In  introducing  his 
estimates  in  the  following  year,1  he  was  able  to  tell  the 
House  of  Commons  that  the  shortening  of  the  hours  '  had 
been  met  by  the  men  employed  in  a  spirit  of  alacrity  and 
faithfulness  which  promised  the  best  results.'  Already  he 
was  in  a  position  to  '  state  confidently '  that  there  had 
been  no  loss  to  the  public,  and  with  this  experience  to 
guide  him,  he  now  announced  that  the  experiment  would 
be  extended  from  Woolwich  to  the  Army  Clothing  Depart- 
ment. 

1  March  16,  1894. 


CHAPTER  IX 

REORGANISATION  AND  THE  DUKE  OF  CAMBRIDGE 

Soldiers  and  Civilian  Militarists — Reorganisation  at  the  War 
Office — The  Commandership-in-Chief — A  Compromise — -The 
Need  of  New  Blood— The  Duke  of  Cambridge  and  Reform— 
The  Departure  of  the  Duke — The  Cordite  Debate  and 
Division — Resignation  and  Fall  of  the  Government — The 
Incident  of  the  Seals — G.C.B. — Buller  and  the  Commander- 
ship-in-Chief— Tributes  from  the  War  Office. 

CHAP.      "T  "VECRUITING  was    good   during  Campbell-Banner- 
man's  three  years  at  the  War  Office,  though  with 


R 


1892-1895.  j^  ^^  ^g  usua}  tendency  to  droop  a  little,  especially 
for  the  militia,  when  trade  improved,  as  it  did  in  the  year 
1894-5.  In  1895  the  Minister  reported  with  great  satis- 
faction that  short  service  had  vindicated  itself  by  bringing 
the  reserve  above  the  expected  figure  of  80,000,  and  he 
predicted  confidently  that  taking  one  year  with  another 
the  numbers  would  continue  to  meet  the  demands  of  the 
system.  The  critics  of  the  system,  chiefly  Sir  Charles 
Dilke,  Sir  George  Chesney,  and  Lord  Wolmer  (now  Lord 
Selborne),  insisted  on  the  contrary  that  recruiting  had 
broken  down  and  perpetually  arraigned  the  Minister  for 
what  they  considered  to  be  an  impenetrable  optimism. 
With  the  service  members  generally  Campbell-Bannerman 
was  always  on  good  terms,  but  he  had  less  patience  with 
the  civilian  pundits  who  sought  to  teach  the  War  Office 
its  business,  and  more  than  one  of  them  was  on  his  black 
books  when  his  term  of  office  ended.  He  had  a  great 
respect  for  soldiers,  and  could  always  be  relied  upon  to 
stand  by  them  against  carping  critics,  but  he  had  the 
same  kind  of  aversion  to  the  civilian  militarist  as  some 
people  have  to  the  ecclesiastical  layman.  Sir  Charles  Dilke's 
biographer  has  said  that  he  never  forgave  Sir  Charles  for 


144 


WAR  OFFICE  REFORM  145 

his  vote  on  the  Cordite  division.     It  would  be  truer  to    CHAP. 
say  that  he  was  completely  out  of  sympathy  both  with  v. 


Sir  Charles  Dilke's  methods  in  politics  and  with  the  order  •*:T-  55~58' 
of  ideas  that  he  represented  in  military  matters. 

From  the  autumn  of  1894  onwards,  he  addressed  himself 
seriously   to   the   reorganisation   of   the   War   Office,    and 
devised  the  scheme  which  he  handed  on  to  his  successor 
in    June    of   the   following    year,   and  which    formed    the 
groundwork  of  subsequent  reforms.     He  had  now  definitely 
to  decide  which  of  the  recommendations  of  the  Hartington 
Commission  he  would  adopt,  and,  having  been  a  member 
of  that  Commission,  he  was  thoroughly  familiar  with  the 
ground.     As  already  stated,  its  Report  had  been  delivered 
in  two  parts,  the  first  (issued  in  May  1889)  dealing  with 
the  relations  between  the  War  Office  and  the  Admiralty,  and 
the  second  (issued  in  May  1890)  with  the  internal  organisa- 
tion of  the  War  Office.     The  first  proposed  the  creation 
of  a  Naval  and  Military  Council  to  comprise  the  principal 
professional  advisers  of   both  War  Office    and  Admiralty 
for   the    co-ordination    of   military    and   naval  operations. 
This  he  found  to  be  beyond  his  scope.   Neither  department 
was  willing  to  merge  itself  in  the  other,  and  civilian  consti- 
tutionalists were  doubtful  whether  the  questions  of  high 
policy  which  must  necessarily  arise  out  of  their  joint  delibera- 
tions could  properly  be  committed  to  a  purely  professional 
council.     The  question  received  a  partial  solution  in  sub- 
sequent years,  first  by  the  appointment  of  a  Cabinet  Com- 
mittee of  Defence,  and  subsequently  by  the  establishment 
of  the  Committee  of  Imperial  Defence,  but  as  the  experi- 
ence of  the  Great  War  showed,  it  is  still  largely  an  unsolved 
problem.     There   remained   the  second  Report,  and   from 
this,  as  has  been  already  recorded,  Campbell-Bannerman 
had    dissented    in    one    important    respect,1    namely,    the 
creation  of  a  Chief  of    the  Staff  to  act  as  the   principal 
military    adviser    of    the    Secretary    of    State    in    lieu    of 
the    Commander-in-Chief,    whose    office    it    proposed    to 
extinguish. 

1  See  supra,  pp.  116-120 
VOL.  I.  K 


146   SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.        This  particular  proposal  being  ruled  out,  there  remained 

TV 

T'     -> a   variety    of   middle    courses,    and    Campbell-Bannerman 
1892-1895.  c^Qse  as  the  kest  Of  them  the  retention  of  the  Commander- 

ship-in-Chief  as  a  periodical  appointment  subject  to  retire- 
ment after  a  term  of  years,  with  considerably  reduced 
powers.  The  Commander-in-Chief  was  now  to  be  Chairman 
of  the  Army  Board,  on  which  were  to  sit  the  heads  of  the 
principal  military  departments  as  defined  by  the  scheme, 
viz.  the  Adjutant-General,  the  Quarter-Master-General, 
the  Inspector-General  of  Fortifications,  and  the  Inspector- 
General  of  Ordnance,  with  the  Accountant  -  General  in 
attendance.  The  duties  of  this  Board  were  to  be  selec- 
tions for  promotion,  selections  for  staff  appointments, 
proposals  for  estimates  and  such  other  questions  as  might 
be  referred  to  it  by  the  Secretary  of  State.  The  Com- 
mander-in-Chief was  to  be  responsible  to  the  Secretary  of 
State  for  all  decisions  come  to  in  military  matters,  and 
for  the  collection  and  compilation  of  military  information, 
and  for  the  preparation  and  maintenance  of  detailed  plans 
for  the  mobilisation  of  the  Regular  and  Auxiliary  forces  ; 
and  he  was  to  issue  all  orders  to  the  Army.  All  the  high 
military  officials  (Adjutant-General,  Quarter-Master-General, 
etc.)  were  to  have  direct  access  and  be  responsible  for 
giving  advice  to  the  Secretary  of  State  on  all  matters  within 
their  jurisdiction,  but,  though  they  could  not  shelter  them- 
selves behind  the  Commander-in-Chief  for  not  giving 
advice  with  which  he  did  not  agree,  they  were  bound  to 
refer  all  questions  for  his  opinion  before  finally  submitting 
them  to  the  Secretary  of  State.  If  they  could  not  recon- 
cile or  subordinate  their  opinions,  the  matter  was  referred 
to  the  Secretary  of  State,  who,  after  hearing  the  views  of 
all  concerned,  was  to  be  the  supreme  and  final  authority.1 
In  addition  to  the  military  Board  mentioned  above,  there 
was  also  to  be  a  War  Office  Consultative  Council,  con- 
sisting of  the  members  of  this  Board,  the  Under-Secre- 
taries  of  State,  the  Financial  Secretary  and  such  military 
officers  as  might  on  special  occasions  be  summoned, 

1  Haliburton  Memoir s,  p.  132. 


THE  COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF  147 

and   this  was   to   be   presided   over  by  the  Secretary  of    CHAP. 
State.1  ^_ 


During  the  early  months  of  1895  Campbell-Bannerman  ^T>  55"58< 
elaborated  the  details  of  this  scheme  in  consultation  with 
his  civilian  officials,  especially  Sir  Ralph  Thompson,  but  it 
was  not  till  the  end  of  May  that  he  was  ready  to  launch 
it  on  his  generals.  '  Buller  asked  me  this  afternoon 
what  you  wanted  to  see  him  about,'  writes  Sir  Ralph  on 
May  30,  '  and  as  he  was  in  a  specially  good  humour,  I 
thought  it  might  be  as  well  that  I  told  him,  which  I  did 
in  these  terms,  viz.  that  you  had  given  us  your  general 
ideas  of  what  the  organisation  should  be,  and  asked  us 
to  apply  it  to  the  Hartington  Report  as  far  as  the  circum- 
stances permitted,  and  to  put  the  whole  into  some  formal 
shape  so  that  the  scheme  might  be  looked  at  and  discussed 
as  a  whole,  and  that  I  thought  you  wanted  to  show  him 
the  proposed  scheme.5  Buller  was  talked  to  the  following 
week  and  the  outline  approved,  but  in  the  meantime  the 
Minister  had  definitely  come  to  the  conclusion  that  if  any 
scheme  of  reorganisation  was  to  be  successful,  it  must  be 
preceded  by  one  change  which  he  alone  could  effect.  There 
must  be  a  Commander-in-Chief  who  was  in  the  prime  of 
life  and  vigour,  and  who  was  not  so  wedded  to  the  old 
ways  that  his  consent  to  the  new  order  would  be  com- 
pulsory and  reluctant.  This  raised  a  question  of  extreme 
delicacy  for  the  Army,  the  Sovereign,  and  the  Minister, 
and  it  necessarily  required  him  to  inflict  pain  upon  a  man 
whom  he  sincerely  respected,  and  whose  long  service  and 

1  There  were  obvious  difficulties  in  the  divided  responsibilities  of  this 
scheme,  which,  as  Campbell-Bannerman  was  aware,  depended  on  the 
willingness  of  individuals  to  make  it  work.  Considerable  friction  developed 
during  the  next  few  years,  and  Lord  Wolseley  complained  to  the  House 
of  Lords  in  after  years  that  '  the  Adj  utant-General  and  Quarter-Master- 
General  were  no  longer  the  Staff  officers  of  the  Commander-in-Chief  at 
Headquarters.  They  are  accountable  to  the  Secretary  of  State  and 
not  to  the  Commander-in-Chief  for  the  discharge  of  their  duties.  They 
are  the  Staff  officers  of  the  civilian  Secretary  of  State.' 

The  office  of  Commander-in-Chief  was  finally  abolished  in  Feb.  1904  on 
the  recommendation  of  the  '  Reconstitution  Committee  '  and  its  functions 
transferred  to  the  Army  Council. 


148    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    estimable  character  entitled  him   to  every  kind  of  con- 

T  "V 

*•    -•  sideration. 


1892-1895. 

ii 

The  Duke  of  Cambridge  had  been  appointed  Commander- 
in-Chief  in  succession  to  Lord  Hardinge  by  Lord  Palmer  - 
ston's  Government  in  1856,  when  he  was  thirty-seven  years 
of  age.     It  was  in  accordance  with  the  Prince  Consort's 
ideas  that  the  royal  authority  over  the  Army  should  be 
exercised  by  a  Prince  ;  and  then  and  for  sixteen  years  later 
the   royal   Commander-in-Chief   dispensed   patronage   and 
exercised  control  from  the  Horse  Guards  without  obliga- 
tion to  consult  the  Secretary  of  State,  who  was  neverthe- 
less responsible  to  Parliament  for  his  proceedings.     The 
abolition  of  this  mischievous  dual  control  in  1870  was  one 
of  Lord  Cardwell's  principal  reforms,  and  from  that  year 
onwards  the  supreme  authority  was  vested  in  the  Secretary 
of  State.     But  the  idea  that  the  Commander-in-Chief  was 
in  an  administrative  as  well  as  a  military  sense  head  of 
the  Army  and  responsible  to  the  Sovereign  rather  than  to 
Parliament,    lingered   in   Whitehall  ;    and   the   Duke   had 
both  a  high  sense  of  his  personal  authority,  and  an  un- 
common tenacity  in  sticking  to  the  old  ways,  in  which 
he  very  sincerely  believed.     Not  only  Lord  Cardwell  but 
successive    Secretaries    of    State    had    found    his    extreme 
Conservatism    a   serious    obstacle    to    changes    that    were 
plainly  overdue.     He  was  now  in  his  seventy-fourth  year. 
In  the  opinion  of  the  Minister  and  the  Cabinet  the  changes 
now  impending  offered  a  convenient  opportunity  for  his 
retirement.     The   Duke  was   accordingly  informed  at  the 
beginning  of  May  that  his  resignation  would  be  expected 
in    the    following    November.     No    disguise    could    make 
such   a  communication   agreeable,  and   the   Duke  replied 
frankly   that  it  had   '  deeply  hurt  his   feelings.'     '  Loyal 
and  devoted  service  to  Her  Majesty  and  the  country  of 
fifty-eight  years  —  thirty-nine   of  which   in   the   high   and 
responsible  position  of  Commander-in-Chief  of  Her  Majesty's 
Army  —  justify  me,'  he  wrote,  '  in  assuming  that  my  per- 


THE  QUESTION  OF  'THE  DUKE'      149 

sonal   feelings    are   entitled   to   some   consideration.'     His    CHAP. 
appointment  was,  like  others,  at  the  pleasure  of  the  Sove- 


reign, and  he  had  no  legal  ground  for  expecting  special 
treatment,  but  he  had  always  been  given  to  understand 
that  he  had  a  life-tenure,  and  his  involuntary  retirement 
seemed  to  justify  a  claim  to  some  material  compensation. 
He  said  that  if  the  Secretary  of  State  had  consulted  him, 
he  would  not  have  objected  to  any  of  the  changes  proposed, 
but  this  did  not  meet  the  Secretary  of  State's  view  that 
new  men  with  new  ideas  were  an  essential  part  of  his 
changes.  For  a  month  or  more  the  argument  went  to  and 
fro — a  painful  and  exhausting  business  for  a  Minister  who 
hated  to  inflict  pain.  The  first  difficulty  was  to  persuade 
the  Duke  that  his  withdrawal  was  inevitable,  and  the  next 
to  fix  the  date  for  his  departure.  A  letter  to  the  Queen's 
Secretary,  Sir  Arthur  Bigge  (now  Lord  Stamfordham), 
describing  one  of  many  interviews  between  Campbell- 
Bannerman  and  the  Duke,  will  show  how  the  argument 
proceeded  : — 


Campbell-Bannerman  to  Sir  Arthur  Bigge 

WAR  OFFICE,  May  17,  '95. — I  found  him  as  always  most 
kindly  and  extremely  frank.  He  gave  an  explanation  of  his 
position  which  for  the  first  time  made  me  clearly  understand  the 
distinction  he  draws  between  the  resignation  of  his  office,  and 
'  placing  himself  in  the  Queen's  hands. ' 

By  resignation  he  thinks  it  would  be  implied  that  he  took 
some  blame  to  himself,  that  he  admitted  the  argument  of  age, 
that  he  confessed  failure,  that  he  gave  way  to  vulgar  attacks. 
If  he  was  not  conscious  of  failure,  why  should  he  resign  ? 

On  the  other  hand,  if  he  places  himself  in  H.M.'s  hands,  what 
he  means  is  that  he  is  ready  to  do  whatever,  on  the  advice  of 
her  Ministers,  she  desires.  And  by  way  of  illustrating  what  he 
meant,  he  recited  to  me  the  letter  which  H.M.  would  probably 
write  to  him.  Her  Majesty,  he  thought,  would  say,  '  Since  I 
saw  you,  I  have  considered  the  matter,  and  I  find  that  my 
Ministers  are  of  opinion  that  an  altered  organisation  should  be 
given  to  the  administration  of  the  Army  :  that  this  alteration 
involves  a  considerable  change  in  the  duties  of  your  office 


150    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    cannot  be  carried  out  while  you  hold  it,  and  therefore  I  think 
*X-     ,  it  best  that  you  should/  etc.,  etc. 


1892-1895.      I  gathered  that  the  reason  of  age  is  not  a  very  acceptable 
reason  :   the  acceptable  reason  is  that  of  a  change  in  the  Office. 

I  really  think  there  is  force  in  the  distinction  H.R.H.  draws  : 
he  will  not  resign,  but  if  the  Queen  asks  him  to  do  so,  he  will 
give  up  his  office.  There  is  a  refinement  in  the  distinction 
worthy  of  the  Schoolmen  :  but  I  see  it  clearly  enough. 

The  Queen  took  the  hint,  and  two  days  later  she  wrote  to 
the  Duke  :  — 

WINDSOR  CASTLE,  May  19,  1895. 

MY  DEAR  GEORGE,  —  Since  seeing  you  on  Thursday  I  have 
given  much  anxious  thought  to  the  question  of  your  tenure  of 
the  office  of  Commander-in-Chief. 

I  quite  appreciate  the  reasons  which  make  you  reluctant  to 
resign  the  office  which  you  have  so  long  held  with  the  greatest 
advantage  to  the  Army  and  with  my  most  entire  confidence  and 
approbation. 

I  have,  however,  come  to  the  conclusion,  on  the  advice  of  my 
Ministers,  that  considerable  changes  in  the  distribution  of  duties 
among  the  officers  constituting  the  Head  Quarter  Staff  of  my 
Army  are  desirable. 

These  alterations  cannot  be  effected  without  reconstituting 
the  particular  duties  assigned  to  the  Commander-in-Chief. 
And,  therefore,  though  with  much  pain,  I  have  arrived  at  the 
decision  that,  for  your  own  sake  as  well  as  in  the  public  interest, 
it  is  inexpedient  that  you  should  much  longer  retain  that  position 
from  which  I  think  you  should  be  relieved  at  the  close  of  your 
Autumn  duties. 

This  necessary  change  will  be  as  painful  to  me  as  it  is  to  you, 
but  I  am  sure  it  is  best  so.  —  Believe  me  always,  Your  affec. 
cousin  and  friend,  (Signed)  VICTORIA  R.  I.1 

1  Later  in  the  year,  when  the  Duke's  retirement  took  effect,  the  Queen 
addressed  him  the  following  letter  :— 

BALMORAL  CASTLE,  Nov.  2,  1895. 

DEAR  GEORGE,  —  Pray  accept  my  warm  thanks  for  your  kind  letter.  It 
is  with  much  pain  that  I  see  you  leave  the  high,  important,  and  responsible 
office  which  you  have  held  so  worthily  for  nearly  forty  years.  Accept  also 
my  sincerest  thanks  for  the  great  services  you  have  rendered  to  the  Country, 
to  the  Army,  and  myself,  which  will  be  most  gratefully  remembered. 

Believe  me,  that  I  feel  deeply  for  you  and  this  severance  of  a  tie  which 
existed  so  long  between  you  and  the  Army.  It  is  not,  however,  a  real 
severance,  for  you  are  a  Field-Marshal  and  Colonel  of  many  Regiments. 


QUEEN  VICTORIA'S  ATTITUDE        151 

The  Queen,  though  always  on  intimate  and  affectionate    CHAP. 
terms  with  her  cousin,  had  realised  from  the  beginning  that 


the  reorganisation  scheme  would  involve  his  retirement,  'ET-  5S"58- 
and  she  thought  it  highly  undesirable  that  he  should  place 
himself  in  opposition  to  what  was  evidently  a  serious 
decision  of  the  Government.  Her  desire  was,  therefore, 
to  obtain  a  speedy  decision  with  the  utmost  possible  con- 
sideration for  his  feelings.  Nevertheless,  questions  of  the 
date  when  he  should  go  and  the  manner  in  which  his  going 
should  be  announced  dragged  on  till  the  third  week  in 
June,  when  the  Prime  Minister  reinforced  the  Minister 
for  War  by  himself  conveying  the  decision  of  the  Cabinet 
to  the  Duke,  who  received  it,  as  he  said  in  his  reply  on  June 
21,  '  with  the  deepest  sorrow  and  grief.'  On  the  same  day 
— the  last  in  the  life  of  the  Government — Campbell-Banner- 
man  made  the  announcement  to  the  House  of  Commons 
in  terms  which  went  far  to  heal  the  wound  that  he  had 
been  obliged  to  inflict.  After  eulogising  the  Duke's  devo- 
tion to  duty  and  the  affection  and  gratitude  he  had  won 
as  the  friend  and  faithful  servant  of  the  Army,  he  pro- 
ceeded to  paint  a  portrait  of  him  which  was  both  courtly 
and  truthful : — 

There  are  two  qualities,  which,  in  my  opinion,  are  the  most 
important  that  any  public  man,  and  especially  any  public  servant 
can  enjoy.  One  of  them  is  supposed  to  be  inborn,  though  I 
doubt  it  ;  the  other  is  acquired.  They  come  in  my  opinion 
before  talent ;  they  are  better  than  zeal ;  they  make  genius 
useful ;  they  fertilise  eloquence.  They  are  as  rare  as  they  are 
essential ;  they  are  constantly  spoken  of  but  never  denned. 
We  know  them  by  the  vague  titles  of  common  sense  and  know- 
ledge of  the  world.  In  the  exercise  of  these  great  qualities  the 

I  need  not  either  say,  that  I  shall  be  glad  to  hear  your  opinion  on  affairs 
of  importance  connected  with  the  Army. 

I  shall  gladly  support  anything  which  the  Govt.  may  feel  able  to  propose 
for  you. 

I  trust  that  you  are  well,  and  with  renewed  expressions  of  my  affection 
and  friendship,  believe  me  always — Your  very  affectionate  cousin  and 
friend.  (Signed)  VICTORIA  R.  I. 

I  have  seen  Lord  Wolseley  and  shall  not  fail  to  impress  upon  him  what 
you  mention,  and  have  indeed  already  written  to  him  in  that  sense. 


152    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    Duke  is  a  past-master  and  it  is  their  possession  that  has  made 
x-    _^  his  influence  so  great.     But,  sir,  there  is  another  quality  which 


1892-1895.  comes  home  very  closely  to  the  heart  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
The  Duke  of  Cambridge  has  been,  as  I  have  said,  for  39  years 
the  occupant  of  the  office  of  Commander-in-Chief.  At  first 
his  position  was  one  of  quasi-independence ;  he  was  gradually 
brought  closer  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  until  at  last  he  has  been 
distinctly  responsible  to  the  Parliamentary  Minister.  During 
a  great  part  of  this  time,  though  happily  not  of  recent  years. 
there  was  much  room  for  jealousy,  for  difficulty,  and  for  friction, 
and  if  this  trying  time  has  been  successfully  passed,  it  has  been 
in  great  measure  because  the  Duke  of  Cambridge  is  a  firm 
observer  of  constitution  and  propriety,  a  respecter  of  Parlia- 
mentary authority,  and  because  he  desires  always  to  recognise 
and  follow  the  general  feeling  of  the  country.  I  only  now 
express  publicly  what  I  have  often  said  privately,  when  I  say 
that  if  Providence  had  called  the  Duke  of  Cambridge  to  be 
sovereign  ruler  of  some  country,  he  would  have  exercised  in 
an  eminent  degree  all  the  qualities  which  we  regard  as  necessary 
in  the  constitutional  head  of  the  State.  I  see  it  sometimes 
imputed  to  him  in  articles  on  Army  subjects  that  he  is  an  im- 
pediment in  the  way  of  all  reform.  Well,  sir,  it  is  well  known 
that,  when,  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  certain  great  changes 
were  advocated,  fundamentally  altering  our  Army  system,  the 
Duke  of  Cambridge  did  not  then  view  them  with  favour,  because 
he  did  not  anticipate  a  successful  result  from  them.  But  when 
they  were  introduced  with  the  approval  of  the  opinion  in  the 
country  and  with  the  authority  of  Parliament,  he  frankly 
accepted  them  ;  he  has  never  been  slow  to  acknowledge  the 
benefits  accomplished  by  them  ;  and  I  can  say  that  of  late 
years  he  has  never  shown  himself  unwilling  to  adopt  such  changes 
as  were  likely  to  be  of  advantage  to  the  Army.  If  I  required 
to  quote  instances  of  this  temperament  I  would  refer  to  the  fact 
that  he  now  makes  way  in  order  that  certain  changes  may  be 
introduced  which  Ministers  have  recommended  to  Her  Majesty 
for  the  benefit  of  the  service  to  which  he  belongs.  If  the  time 
has  now  come  for  the  retirement  of  His  Royal  Highness,  and 
if  we  are,  some  of  us  at  least,  looking  forward  to  the  introduction, 
on  the  occurrence  of  this  event,  of  an  altered,  and,  as  we  think, 
a  more  efficient  machinery  of  administration,  we  can  yet  with 
perfect  consistency  look  back  with  admiration  and  gratitude 
upon  a  long  career,  distinguished  by  such  constant  zeal  and 
devotion  and  marked  by  a  marveUous  development  and  improve- 


THE  DUKE'S  DEPARTURE  153 

ment  in  that  Army  which  it  has  been  the  Duke  of  Cambridge's    CHAP. 
pride  to  command,  and  whose  interests  it  is  his  highest  happiness  .     **• 


to  serve.  ^T-  55-58 

Campbell-Bannerman  had  a  sincere  liking  for  the  Duke, 
as  indeed  had  every  Minister  who  had  been  brought  into 
contact  with  him.  His  simplicity,  his  kindliness,  his  trans- 
parent honesty  and  sense  of  duty  appealed  especially  to  a 
man  who  liked  straight-dealing.  The  Duke  was  greatly 
touched  and  wrote  at  once  to  express  his  '  very  sincere 
thanks/  to  which  Campbell-Bannerman  replied  : — 

6  GROSVENOR  PLACE,  S.W.,  June  22. 

SIR, — I  am  deeply  grateful  to  your  Royal  Highness  for  your 
very  kind  letter.  It  is  not  allowable  in  the  House  of  Commons 
to  introduce  much  feeling  into  a  formal  statement,  and  I  could 
not  therefore  say  all  that  I  felt,  but  I  was  glad  to  be  able  to  give 
expression  to  some  small  part  of  the  appreciation  of  your  Royal 
Highness's  career,  which  I  share  with  all  competent  observers. 
The  tone  of  the  House  was  entirely  sympathetic. 

The  incident  which  occurred  later  in  the  evening  will  probably 
lead  to  the  severance  of  my  connection  with  the  W.O.,  but  I 
shall  always  remain  profoundly  sensible  of  your  Royal 
Highness's  kindness  and  consideration  and  proud  of  the  dis- 
tinguished honour  I  have  enjoyed  of  serving  the  Queen  as  a 
colleague  of  your  Royal  Highness. — I  remain,  Sir,  Your  Royal 
Highness's  most  obedient  servant, 

HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN. 

A  letter  written  to  him  by  the  Duke  five  years  later — 
in  the  middle  of  the  Boer  War — may  be  added  to  com- 
plete this  correspondence. 

GLOUCESTER  HOUSE,  PARK  LANE,  W., 
June  27,  1900. 

MY  DEAR  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN, — You  were  good  enough 
to  express  a  wish  to  Colonel  Augustus,  my  son,  to  possess  a 
photograph  of  myself,  and  I  send  you  one  signed  by  myself, 
which  in  days  to  come  may  occasionally  remind  you  that  we 
were  colleagues  in  the  days  when  you  were  at  the  War  Office 
as  Secretary  of  State. 

I  often  wish  that  that  period  was  still  going  on,  but  we  must 
submit  to  the  inevitable,  and  after  80  I  don't  think  one  is  equal 


154    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    to  any  hard  work.     I  remember  those  days  with  satisfaction, 
X-    ^  and  I  venture  to  think  that  I  left  the  Army  in  a  creditable  condi- 


1892-1895.  tion  to  my  successor,  in  which  endeavour  you  always  aided  my 
efforts. 

With  every  feeling  of  old  friendship  for  yourself,— I  remain, 
my  dear  Campbell-Bannerman,  Yours  most  sincerely, 

GEORGE. 

ill 

Had  the  Duke  of  Cambridge  been  a  vindictive  man,  he 
might  have  found  some  small  consolation  in  the  fact  that 
the  Minister  who  had  announced  his  passing  from  the  scene 
was  himself  compelled  within  a  few  hours  to  follow  him 
into  retirement.  No  sooner  had  the  last  compliment  been 
paid  to  the  Duke  on  the  afternoon  of  June  20  than  Mr.  St. 
John  Brodrick  rose  to  move  the  reduction  of  the  Secretary 
of  State's  salary  by  one  hundred  pounds  on  the  ground 
that  he  had  not  supplied  the  Army  with  a  sufficient  reserve 
of  Cordite.  Mr.  Brodrick  made  an  ingenious  case.  He 
pointed  out  that  Lord  Wolseley  had  said  that  it  was  essential 
to  have  480  rounds  per  man  with  200  on  the  soldier  or 
close  to  the  firing  line.  The  equipment  regulation  pre- 
scribed 400  rounds  per  man  and  with  360,000  men  we  ought, 
even  at  the  lower  figure,  to  have  at  least  150  million  rounds, 
whereas  he  maintained  that  we  had  practically  no  reserve. 
Answer  was  made  first  by  Mr.  Woodall,  the  Financial 
Secretary,  and  afterwards  by  the  Minister  himself,  that  in 
the  opinion  of  the  experts  the  reserve  was  ample,  and  that 
nothing  had  been  omitted  since  cordite  was  introduced 
to  build  up  the  supply  and  increase  the  means  of  manu- 
facture. 

Both  replies  were  short  and  had  to  be  supplemented  by 
further  explanations,  as  the  debate  spread  and  members 
of  the  Front  Opposition  bench,  including  Mr.  Wyndham, 
Mr.  Balfour  and  Mr.  Goschen,  rose  in  succession  to  support 
what  was  evidently  a  concerted  attack.  Relying  on  the 
unbroken  tradition  which  forbade  detailed  disclosures  on 
this  subject  as  contrary  to  the  public  interest,  Campbell- 
Bannerman  declined  to  reveal  the  actual  figures,  but  he 


THE  CORDITE  DEBATE  155 

offered  to  show  them  privately  to  the  Opposition  leaders,    CHAP. 
and  in  the  meantime  assured  the  House  that  all  forces  *..*' 


armed  with  the  new  rifle  —  practically  the  whole  Army  /ET>  55"s8' 
except  the  Volunteers  —  were  provided  with  the  regulation 
400  rounds.  In  answer  it  was  insinuated  that  the  sums 
allotted  in  the  estimates  made  it  impossible  that  provision 
could  have  been  made  on  this  scale,  and  when  Campbell- 
Bannerman  explained  that  the  cost  of  production  had 
been  reduced  by  50  per  cent,  since  the  earlier  estimates, 
his  assailants  proceeded  to  argue  that,  even  if  the  regula- 
tion 400  rounds  had  been  provided,  the  provision  should 
have  been  the  480  rounds  required  by  Lord  Wolseley,  or 
even  the  500  and  more  which  other  military  authorities 
declared  to  be  essential.  Substantially  the  Minister's 
case  was  that  the  introduction  of  cordite  had  been  an 
extremely  difficult  matter,  requiring  experiment  and 
experience  at  every  stage  to  test  its  qualities  and  its  dur- 
ability, that  the  difficulties  had  been  overcome  without 
jeopardising  supplies  in  the  transition  stage,  and  that 
provision  had  now  been  made  for  rapidly  increasing  the 
plant  and  output.  His  critics  were  not  to  be  appeased 
by  any  of  these  explanations,  and  the  mention  of  difficulties, 
coupled  with  the  promise  of  future  increases,  was  even 
taken  as  an  admission  that  their  case  had  been  made  out. 
Behind  the  critics  were  great  armament  firms  alleging 
that  they  had  been  starved  of  orders  and  —  more  important 
for  immediate  purposes  —  the  whole  rank  and  file  of  the 
Unionist  party,  now  panting  for  any  opportunity  to  defeat 
the  Government  and  end  the  Parliament. 

The  truth  was  that  both  the  Minister  and  the  Whips 
had  been  taken  by  surprise.  They  had  attached  no  more 
importance  to  Mr.  Brodrick's  motion  than  to  a  hundred 
others  which  in  the  course  of  party  warfare  had  been  raised 
on  the  estimates  and  successfully  disposed  of.  Had  they 
known  that  their  opponents  had  been  specially  whipped 
up  for  this  occasion  or  that  certain  of  their  own  supporters 
were  meditating  a  hostile  vote,  they  would  have  taken 
special  precautions,  and  at  least  prolonged  the  debate  over 


156    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    the  dinner  hour  and  until  the  absentees  on  the  Govern- 

IX 

ment  side  could  be  brought  up.     As  things  were,  events 


1892-1895.  were  ar]oweci  to  take  their  noiinal  course,  and  ran  swiftly 
to  disaster.  The  division  was  called  at  a  quarter-past 
seven,  and  it  was  at  once  noted  as  an  ominous  sign  that 
the  ministerial  lobby  was  the  first  to  be  cleared.  But  when 
the  four  tellers  approached  the  table,  the  Clerk  by  some 
mistake  gave  the  paper  with  the  figures  to  the  Govern- 
ment Whip,  Mr.  Thomas  Ellis.  Ministerialists  breathed 
again,  but  suddenly  Mr.  Ellis  after  glancing  at  the  paper, 
handed  it  to  the  Conservative  Whip,  Mr.  Akers-Douglas. 
For  a  moment  Mr.  Akers-Douglas  seemed  to  be  incredulous 
and  made  as  if  he  would  return  the  paper,  but  a  second 
glance  left  no  doubt,  and  a  moment  later  he  was  reading 
out  the  result.  The  Ayes  to  the  right  were  132.  The 
Noes  to  the  left  were  125.  The  House  had  resolved  by 
a  majority  of  seven  to  reduce  the  salary  payable  to  the 
Secretary  of  State  for  War  by  one  hundred  pounds.  It  had 
also  destroyed  the  Government  of  Lord  Rosebery  and  ended 
the  Parliament.  The  Minister  at  once  moved  to  report 
progress,  and  the  House  rose  in  a  hubbub  of  excitement. 
The  next  morning  he  wrote  to  the  Prime  Minister : — 

6  GROSVENOR  PLACE,  June  21,  1895. 

DEAR  LORD  ROSEBERY, — After  the  incidents  of  last  night  in 
the  House  of  Commons  which  amounted  to  a  censure  upon  myself, 
I  have  no  alternative  other  than  to  ask  you  to  tender  to  H.M. 
the  resignation  of  the  office  with  whose  seals  she  has  graciously 
trusted  me. 

I  would  ask  you  at  the  same  time  to  convey  to  H.M.  my 
profound  gratitude  for  all  her  gracious  kindness  to  me,  and  to 
assure  H.M.  of  my  constant  devotion. — Yours  very  sincerely, 

H.  C.-B. 

His  own  feelings  may  be  judged  from  a  letter  which  he 
wrote  a  day  or  two  later  to  his  cousin,  James  Campbell. 
'  As  to  the  censure  of  me,  I  am  very  proud  of  it.  It  was 
a  blackguard  business.  We  have  too  much  ammunition 
rather  than  too  little.  .  .  .  The  Adjutant-General  and 
his  officers  strongly  support  me  both  before  the  vote  and 


A  FATAL  DIVISION  157 

since  it,  but  Mr.  Balfour  and  Mr.  Goschen  spurn  my  word    CHAP. 

TV 

and   his   alike.'     He   adds   a  word   about  the  Duke  !     '  I  ^  _J 


had  just  concluded  the  negotiations  about  the  Duke  which  ^T-  55"s8> 
have  gone  on  for  weeks.  There  never  was  such  a  business 
and  I  am  quite  worn  out  with  it.  I  carried  the  Queen 
with  me  throughout  and  most  of  her  family.  She  was  in 
fact  most  interested  and  anxious.  The  difficulty  was 
the  poor  old  dear  himself,  and  I  am  thankful  to  say  he  is 
still  most  friendly  and  grateful  to  me  for  the  way  I  have 
managed  the  whole  business,  and  we  have  never  been 
other  than  friends.  Such  a  result  I  am  very  proud  of,  and 
I  can  now  rest  on  my  laurels.' 
To  the  same  correspondent  he  wrote  again  on  July  I : — 

The  papers  will  have  announced  this  morning  that  the  Queen 
is  to  make  me  a  G.C.B.  and  I  have  to  go  back  to  Windsor  to-day 
to  be  invested.  Of  course  it  has  a  special  significance  after  the 
circumstances  of  last  week  ;  but  it  is  specially  meant  as  a  mark 
of  her  approval  of  my  conduct  of  the  negotiations  about  the 
poor  old  Duke  of  Cambridge.  She  has  repeatedly  told  me 
that  no  one  except  myself  could  have  managed  it.  That  is  a 
little  strong,  but  she  is  very  effusive  about  it. 

Eight  years  later  in  a  speech  at  Newport  (Nov.  30, 1903), 
he  referred  to  the  Cordite  incident  in  a  passage  which 
may  fitly  be  given  here  : — 

I  had  inserted  in  the  estimates  the  full  amount  asked  for  by 
my  military  advisers.  After  the  division  and  when  the  incident 
was  over,  they  assured  me  that  if  I  had  gone  to  them  and 
expressed  a  willingness  to  place  at  their  disposal  £50,000  or 
£100,000  more  for  army  service,  small-arm  ammunition  was  the 
last  thing  they  would  have  wished  to  spend  it  upon.  The  new 
explosive,  cordite,  was  in  an  experimental  stage.  Above  all, 
there  were  doubts  as  to  its  keeping  and  preserving  its  regularity 
and  power,  and  therefore  it  was  inexpedient  to  have  an  exagger- 
ated stock,  especially  as  it  was  not  slow  of  manufacture,  and 
we  were  successfully  opening  up  abundant  sources  of  supply. 
We  have  it  on  record  that  these  very  men,  notwithstanding  this 
extraordinary  facility  of  supply,  these  very  men  who  are  so 
feverishly  anxious  about  the  stock  of  ammunition,  allowed 
their  reserve  of  it — in  high  time  of  war  and  not  in  piping  time 
of  peace — to  run  down  almost  to  zero. 


158    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP. 

• ^ '  IV 

1892-1895. 

There  followed  the  singular  incident  of  the  Seals.  Custom 
prescribes  that  a  Minister  resigning  office  shall  hand  back 
his  seals  to  the  Sovereign  or  to  some  person  commissioned 
by  the  Sovereign,  but  Lord  Salisbury,  though  not  yet  Prime 
Minister,  was  apparently  unable  to  wait  for  these  cere- 
monial courtesies,  and  on  Tuesday  morning,  June  25,  he 
sent  his  Private  Secretary,  Mr.  Schomberg  McDonnell,  to 
Campbell-Bannerman,  to  ask  him  to  hand  over  his  seals 
to  his  successor  that  same  afternoon.  The  messenger,  hot 
on  the  scent,  called  first  at  Grosvenor  Place,  and,  not  finding 
his  quarry  there,  tracked  him  to  Carlton  Gardens,  where  he 
was  supposed  to  be  paying  a  call,  and,  having  again  drawn 
blank,  hurried  to  the  House  of  Commons  and  took  up  a 
strategic  position  at  the  Minister's  private  door.  There 
finally  he  intercepted  him  as  he  got  out  of  a  cab,  and  intro- 
duced himself  as  the  bearer  of  '  an  urgent  and  private 
message  in  connection  with  the  seals  of  the  War  Office.' 
Campbell-Bannerman  thereupon  invited  him  into  his 
private  room,  where  he  explained  that  it  might  be  neces- 
sary to  appoint  the  new  Secretary  for  War  that  very  after- 
noon, in  which  case  an  immediate  transfer  of  the  seals 
would  be  desirable.  Campbell-Bannerman  was  no  stickler 
for  form,  but  he  was  naturally  not  pleased  at  being  singled 
out  for  this  erratic  departure  from  precedent,  or  at  the 
suggestion  that  an  emergency  existed  in  his  department 
which  called  for  these  peremptory  measures.  In  the 
circumstances  he  replied  quite  properly  that  he  could  do 
nothing  without  consulting  the  outgoing  Prime  Minister. 
Lord  Rosebery,  who  was  always  quick  to  resent  a  slight 
to  a  colleague,  took  an  even  stronger  view  of  the  irregu- 
larity of  the  proceeding  than  Campbell-Bannerman  himself, 
and  advised  that  the  seals  should  not  be  surrendered  except 
to  the  proper  authority  in  the  ordinary  way.  The  affair 
had  now  got  into  the  newspapers,  where  it  buzzed  furiously 
for  the  next  two  days.  On  the  27th  Lord  Rosebery  put  a 
question  to  Lord  Salisbury  in  the  House  of  Lords  about 


THE  INCIDENT  OF  THE  SEALS       159 

1  this  mysterious  transaction.'     '  In  former  times/  he  said,    CHAP. 

TV 

'  sovereigns  of   an  arbitrary  character  have  sent  for  the 


seals  of  their  Minister  without  receiving  them  themselves,  ALT'  55"s8> 
but  that  a  new  Minister  who  had  not  been  in  office  twelve 
hours  should  send  his  Private  Secretary  to  a  Secretary  of 
State  for  his  seals,  without  any  written  authority  is,  to  my 
mind,  a  proceeding  so  unparalleled  as  coming  from  the  head 
of  the  constitutional  party,  that  I  think  it  is  in  the  interests 
of  constitutional  history  and  constitutional  tradition,  as  well 
as  of  the  relations  we  are  accustomed  to  cultivate  between 
political  parties,  although  antagonistic,  that  a  full  and  fair 
explanation  of  the  nature  and  motive  of  this  proceeding 
should  be  given.'  Lord  Salisbury,  who  was  manifestly 
uncomfortable,  suggested  that  it  was  '  a  common  thing  to 
hand  over  seals  to  other  persons  than  the  sovereign,'  hinted 
that  War  Office  finance  required  immediate  attention,  and 
said  that  he  was  only  anxious  to  spare  the  outgoing  Minister 
the  necessity  of  travelling  down  to  Windsor.  Finally,  under 
pressure,  he  made  a  somewhat  reluctant  apology  for  a  pro- 
cedure which,  he  still  insisted,  had  been  misunderstood 
and  magnified  beyond  reason.  To  this  Campbell-Banner- 
man  himself  replied  in  a  letter  to  the  Times  :— 

SIR, — I  have  no  desire  to  prolong  the  discussion  of  the  little 
episode  relating  to  the  proposed  surrender  of  the  War  Office 
seals,  but  I  am  anxious  to  correct  one  or  two  inaccuracies  in 
Lord  Salisbury's  representation  of  what  occurred. 

In  Mr.  McDonnell's  interview  with  me  there  was  no  suggestion, 
such  as  is  alleged,  of  a  command  from  the  Queen,  or  of  relieving 
me  of  a  necessity  of  a  journey  to  Windsor.  What  he  asked 
was  whether  it  would  be  convenient  to  me  to  hand  over  my 
seals  to  my  successor  in  the  course  of  that  afternoon  (Tuesday, 
June  25).  I  replied  that  it  seemed  to  me  an  irregular  pro- 
ceeding, but  that  my  personal  convenience  should  not  stand  in 
the  way  if  Lord  Salisbury  and  Lord  Rosebery  agreed  that  this 
should  be  done.  Mr.  McDonnell  then  said  that  Lord  Rosebery 
had  not  been  communicated  with,  and  that  this  direct  trans- 
ference of  seals  had  frequently  occurred.  I  said  that  I  was  not 
aware  of  it,  but  that  in  any  case  I  could  give  no  answer  without 
consulting  Lord  Rosebery.  I  accordingly  saw  Lord  Rosebery, 


160    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    and  I  caused  an  answer  to  be  sent  to  Mr.  McDonnell  to  the 
X-    ^  effect  that  I  found  that  Lord  Rosebery  agreed  with  me  in  the 


1892-1895.  opinion  that  it  would  be  improper  for  me  to  surrender  my  seals 
of  office  to  any  one  except  to  the  Sovereign,  from  whom  I 
received  them. 

What  was  demanded  of  me  was,  in  fact,  that  I  should  hand 
over  my  seals  to  some  person  of  whose  authority  to  receive 
them  I  was  unaware,  and  that  this  should  be  done  by  direction 
of  another  person  who  was  not  at  the  time  a  Minister  of  the 
Crown. — I  am,  Sir,  Your  obedient  servant, 

H.  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN. 

6  GROSVENOR  PLACE,  June  28. 

There  certainly  was  no  '  command  from  the  Queen.'  On 
the  contrary,  she  was  greatly  vexed  at  the  incident,  which 
she  thought  disrespectful  to  herself  as  well  as  discourteous 
to  the  Minister,  and  she  considered  an  explanatory  memo- 
randum which  was  presented  to  her  far  from  satisfactory.1 
Such  researches  as  were  made  into  the  precedents  tended 
to  show  that  in  cases  in  which  direct  transference  of  seals 
had  occurred,  it  was  by  command  of  the  sovereign,  and 
that  the  reason  for  this  unusual  course  was  that  the  sove- 
reign did  not  desire  to  grant  an  audience  to  the  outgoing 
Minister.  To  none  of  the  outgoing  Ministers  would  Queen 
Victoria  more  gladly  have  given  audience  than  to  Campbell- 
Bannerman.  In  recent  months  she  had  thoroughly  ap- 
proved of  his  reorganisation  scheme,  and  she  was  grateful 
to  him  for  the  tact  and  consideration  with  which  he 
had  handled  the  question  of  the  Duke  of  Cambridge's  with- 
drawal. When  Lord  Rosebery  proposed  that  the  familiar 
initials  '  C.-B.'  should  now  be  converted  into  'G.C.B.,'  she 
heartily  approved,  and  to  Campbell-Bannerman  himself 
this  signal  mark  of  the  royal  favour  was  perhaps  the  more 
welcome  after  the  buffeting  that  he  had  received  in  the 
course  of  this  week. 

It  was  suggested  at  the  time  that  the  extreme  anxiety  of 
his  opponents  to  obtain  possession  of  his  seals  was  due  to 

1  Her  comment  was  :  '  The  Queen  has  read  this  memorandum  and 
thinks  it  does  not  in  the  least  alter  the  question.  It  was  quite  wrong  and 
Lord  Salisbury's  fault.  The  precedents  are  totally  different  and  not  at 
all  cases  in  point.' 


Z 
-C 


~  o 

E:  55 

5  z 

o  ~ 


-     X 

a  H 
fa 

^  n 


c 


z 

a 


Q 
Z 


FALL  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT          161 

a  suspicion  that  he  might  avail  himself  of  the  interval    CHAP. 

T  V 

between  the  tendering  of  his  resignation  and  the  entrance 


into  office  of  his  successor  to  appoint  the  new  Commander-  ^T<  5S"s8' 
in-Chief.  It  is  undoubtedly  a  fact  that  he  had  intended 
to  appoint  Sir  Redvers  Buller  to  this  office,  and  he  had 
actually  obtained  the  Queen's  consent  to  this  appointment. 
But  difficulties  arose  as  to  the  announcement  of  a  successor 
to  the  Commander-in-Chief  five  months  before  the  office 
would  become  vacant  according  to  the  date  arranged  with 
the  Duke  of  Cambridge  for  his  departure.  Campbell- 
Bannerman  appears  to  have  consulted  the  Opposition 
leaders  on  this  point,  and  their  reply  seems  to  have  been 
that  though  formal  objection  could  not  be  taken  to  the 
announcement  of  the  Duke's  successor  simultaneously  with 
that  of  his  retirement,  yet  that  they  could  not  pledge  them- 
selves to  ratify  the  appointment  in  the  event  of  a  change 
of  Government.  In  such  circumstances  Campbell-Banner- 
man  was  the  last  man  to  take  advantage  of  his  technical 
rights  to  tie  the  hands  of  his  successors,  and  the  idea  that 
he  intended  to  '  jump  '  this  appointment  may  safely  be 
dismissed.  Buller,  it  should  be  added,  had,  with  a  modesty 
which  did  him  credit,  expressed  his  extreme  reluctance  to 
accept  the  position  of  Commander-in-Chief  if  by  so  doing 
he  should  inflict  a  disappointment  on  Lord  Wolseley,  whose 
claims  he  was  foremost  in  acknowledging. 

v 

The  Government  was  doomed  before  the  Cordite  debate, 
and  it  was  a  mere  accident  that  Campbell-Bannerman's 
alleged  misdeeds  should  have  been  the  occasion  of  its 
defeat.  For  weeks  past  it  had  stumbled  along  with  majori- 
ties seldom  rising  above  20,  and  sometimes  falling  to  7  or  8. 
While  the  Opposition  was  planning  the  Cordite  explosion 
the  Government  Whips  were  in  anxious  thought  as  to 
how  they  could  muster  a  majority  for  the  critical  divisions 
on  the  Welsh  Church  Bill,  which  were  bound  to  take  place 
in  the  following  week,  and  it  is  extremely  probable  that,  if 
the  Government  had  not  fallen  on  the  Friday,  it  would 

VOL.  I.  L 


162    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    have  done  so  on  the  Monday.    The  Prime  Minister  recog- 
x'   ^nised  at  once  that  his  gallant  effort  to  carry  on,  already 


1892-1895.  amiost  miraculously  prolonged,  was  now  exhausted,   and 
his  colleagues  without  exception  agreed  with  him,  though 
they  were  by  no  means  unanimous  about  the  decision  of 
the  Cabinet  to  resign  and  not  to  dissolve.     But  general 
regret  was  expressed  on  both  sides  of  the  House  that  the 
final  blow  had  fallen  on  a  Minister  who  was  universally 
popular,  and  who  was  deemed  to  have  acquitted  himself 
well  in  one  of  the  most  difficult  offices.     During  the  next 
few  days  Campbell-Bannerman  received  many  letters  of 
sympathy  from  his  own  friends  and  not  a  few  from  political 
opponents  and  Service   members,   who  said   frankly   that 
they  would  have  hesitated  to  vote  as  they  did  if  they  had 
realised  the  consequences.     One  of  these  wrote  to  explain 
that  he  had  not  understood  that  the  Minister  had  pledged 
his  word  to  the  explanation  that  he  gave  to  the  House, 
and   he   handsomely  adds,    '  I  have   always  thought  and 
frequently  said  that  you  were,  in  my  opinion,  the  best  admini- 
strator we  have  had  in  Pall  Mall  since  the  days  of  Lord 
Cardwell.'     '  It  is  no  secret/  said  another,  '  that  the  Army 
generally  have  looked  upon  you  as  the  best  War  Minister 
of  modern  times,  an  opinion  which  I  cordially  share.'     In 
the  War  Office  itself  the  regret  at  his  departure  was  deep 
and  genuine.     Soldiers  and  officials  alike  had  been  won  by 
his  kindly  disposition  and  genial  humour  ;   they  knew  that 
he  could  be  relied  upon  to  defend  them  when  they  were 
unjustly  attacked,  and  to  choose  the  straight  path  among 
the  many  devious  ones  that  were  open  to  the  occupant  of 
this  office. 

If  Campbell-Bannerman  had  claimed  any  special  merit 
for  himself  as  Secretary  for  War  he  would,  I  think,  have 
said  that  he  had  done  something  to  heal  the  chronic  quarrel 
between  the  soldiers  and  the  politicians.  It  was  an  old 
tradition  of  the  soldiers  that  the  House  of  Commons  was 
the  enemy,  and  a  Radical  House  of  Commons  the  worst 
enemy  of  all.  During  his  years  at  the  War  Office  he  set 
himself  very  seriously  to  persuade  them  that  the  House  of 


QUALITIES  AS  WAR  MINISTER       163 

Commons  was  a  very  reasonable  body  which,  if  frankly    CHAP. 
and  honestly  dealt  with,  would  do  justice  to  soldiers  as  to 


other  servants  of  the  public.  What  he  set  his  face  against  & 
were  the  subterfuges  and  evasions,  the  half-answer  or  the 
misleading  answer,  which  had  in  his  opinion  done  so  much 
to  create  hostile  relations  between  the  House  and  the  Services. 
That  the  House  was  right  in  making  a  jealous  scrutiny  of 
expenditure,  that  it  was  the  business  of  the  soldiers  to 
co-operate  with  the  Minister  in  giving  rational  explana- 
tions to  the  House,  that  soldiers  were  not  infallible  when 
they  pleaded  patriotic  necessity  for  increasing  their  demands 
on  the  taxpayer,  and  that  exorbitancy  and  waste  might 
be  as  threatening  to  the  Army  and  the  country  as  niggardli- 
ness and  cheeseparing — were  some  of  the  sound  maxims 
which  he  endeavoured  to  implant  in  the  minds  of  his  military 
advisers. 

It  was  a  great  part  of  his  strength  that  he  never  stepped 
out  of  his  place  as  a  civilian  administrator  or  gave  himself 
the  airs  of  the  amateur  strategist.  But  equally  he  was 
firm  against  the  soldier  trespassing  on  civilian  ground,  and 
would  allow  no  extension  of  the  boundaries  from  the  military 
side.  For  the  professional  soldier  on  his  own  ground  he 
had  always  the  greatest  respect  and,  as  will  presently  be 
seen,  he  again  and  again  put  his  veto  on  criticism  which 
seemed  to  him  to  transfer  to  Generals  in  the  field  the  blame 
which  rightly  belonged  to  politicians  ;  but  the  soldier  who 
despised  Parliament  or  wished  to  make  the  Army  inde- 
pendent of  civilian  control  found  in  him  always  a  stubborn 
and  resolute  opponent. 


CHAPTER  X 

AN  ALL-ROUND  MINISTER 

An  All-round  Minister — Parting  with  Mr.  Gladstone — 
Relations  with  Queen  Victoria — Autumns  at  Balmoral — • 
Letters  to  his  Wife— The  Cellular  Life— Falling  into  Theatri- 
cals— Mourning  to  Music — The  Queen  and  the  House  of  Lords 
— The  Speaker-ship — The  Cabinet  in  a  Scrape — The  Goal  of 
his  Ambition — Objections  of  Colleagues — Doubts  in  the 
Burghs — A  Disappointment — Dislike  of  London  Life — 
Reasons  for  Absence — Remonstrances  of  Sir  William  Har- 
court. 

CHAP.     /^~^  AMPBELL-BANNERMAN  was  by  no  means  merely 

*• ,  I  Minister  for  War  in  these  days.     As  a  member  of 

1892-1895.  V^ y  the  Cabinet  he  was  one  of  those  who,  in  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's phrase,  '  put  his  mind  into  the  common  stock ' ;  and 
his  good  temper  and  genial  humour  made  him  invaluable 
as  a  conciliator  to  a  group  of  distinguished  men  who 
developed  an  extraordinary  capacity  for  rubbing  each 
other  the  wrong  way  during  the  difficult  three  years  of  this 
Administration.  For  Mr.  Gladstone  he  had  a  profound 
admiration  (qualified  occasionally  by  the  impatience  which 
the  subtleties  of  that  great  man  inspired  in  men  of  simpler 
character),  and  the  parting  salute  that  he  paid  to  his  old 
chief  in  March  1894  was  no  idle  compliment : — 

6  GROSVENOR  PLACE,  S.W.,  March  3,  '94. 

DEAR  MR.  GLADSTONE, — I  am  most  unwilling  to  trouble  you 
to-day  with  any  mere  expression  of  personal  feeling,  but  I  find 
it  impossible  to  refrain  from  saying  that  apart  from  my  estimate 
of  the  irreparable  loss  which  your  retirement  involves  to  the 
Party  and  the  Country,  I  am  overwhelmed  with  sorrow  on  my 
own  account !  I  cannot  adequately  convey  to  you  my  gratitude 
for  your  great  kindness  and  indulgence  to  me  through  so  many 
years  during  which  my  greatest  pride  has  been  to  be  associated 

164 


FAREWELL  TO  MR.  GLADSTONE      165 

with  you.     And  I  feel  as  if  the  larger  part  of  the  charm  and    CHAP. 
attraction  of  public  life  has  gone,  if  I  am  no  longer  to  serve  v     *• 


under  you.  /KT-  55-58. 

I  will  not  say  more,  but  I  am  sure  you  will  believe  how  deep 
and  sincere  my  feeling  is. — Believe  me,  Yours  very  sincerely, 

H.  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN. 

10  DOWNING  STREET,  WHITEHALL, 

March  5,  '94. 

MY  DEAR  C.  BANNERMAN, — The  pain  of  simple  severance, 
and  the  further  pain  of  a  profound  disagreement  approaching, 
have  received  every  mitigation  that  was  possible  from  the 
extreme  kindness  of  colleagues,  among  the  indications  of  which 
kindness  your  most  friendly  letter  is  conspicuous. 

Pray  accept  my  thanks  for  it  and  with  them  the  expression 
of  my  fervent  hope  that  in  whatever  department  you  may  be 
called  upon  to  serve  the  crown  and  country  you  may  be  enabled 
to  preserve  and  consolidate  its  best  traditions  and  to  repress 
those  which  are  of  an  opposite  or  inferior  order. — Believe  me 
always  sincerely  yours,  W.  E.  GLADSTONE. 

On  the  '  profound  disagreement  approaching  '  it  is  pro- 
bable that  his  vote  would  have  been  given  to  Lord  Spencer, 
if  the  controversy  had  not  been  closed  by  the  withdrawal 
of  Mr.  Gladstone.  But  he  took  no  definite  part  in  the  war 
of  succession  which  followed,  and  was  reported  at  the  time 
to  be  one  of  the  very  few  men  in  the  Cabinet  who  were 
willing  to  serve  either  under  Sir  William  Harcourt  or 
Lord  Rosebery.  But  in  the  next  few  months  his  sym- 
pathies were  strongly  with  Lord  Rosebery,  and  his  view 
was  very  definitely  that  Sir  William  ought  either  to  have 
retired  or  to  have  made  up  his  mind  to  work  amicably  with 
the  new  Prime  Minister.  He  writes  to  his  cousin,  James 
Campbell,  in  February  1895  :- 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  James  Campbell 

6  GROSVENOR  PLACE,  Feb.  12,  '95. — How  are  things  going  ? 
First  rate,  if  some  of  our  great  people  would  only  see  it.  It  is, 
of  course,  a  tight  fit  and  needs  close  steering,  but  once  we  are 
done  with  the  Address  we  are  in  smooth  water. 

On  the  Welsh  Bill  a  lot  of  the  Liberal  Unionists  must  vote 


166    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,  with  us,  and  on  the  Irish  Land  Bill  some  of  the  Ulster  Tories 
v  x'  must.  I  do  not  say  we  shall  be  very  triumphant,  but  we  can 
1892-1895.  peg  along. 

The  Tories  are  by  no  means  happy.     They  don't  really  want 
a  dissolution,  for  although  they  think  they  will  gain,  it  will  not 
be  good  enough.     Of  course  it  will  be  a  beastly  session  of  close 
attendance. 
Two  things  against  us  : 

1.  The  Irish  hard  up  for  means  to  maintain  their  poor  fellows 

hanging  on  here. 

2.  Intrigues  of  Dilke  and  Labby,  and  sulks  and  despondency 

of  a  certain  great  man  of  my  near  acquaintance. 

The  last  is  very  bad  and  is  the  cause  of  woes  innumerable.  The 
Prime  Minister  is  most  patient  and  good-natured,  but  his  diffi- 
culties on  this  ground  are  prodigious.  There  are  no  other  diffi- 
culties. 

They  are  going  to  put  me  on  as  Chairman  of  this  Unemployed 
Committee— a  horrible  thing.  I  protested  and  said  I  knew 
nothing  about  poor  law  subjects — I  had  never  even  picked 
oakum  in  my  life.  The  grim  reply  was,  '  My  dear  fellow,  you  '11 
wish  you  were  picking  oakum  before  you  are  done  with  this  job.' 

These  apprehensions  turned  out  to  be  groundless.  The 
Committee  held  only  a  few  preliminary  meetings  and  was 
not  reappointed  when  the  new  Government  came  into  office. 

ii 

In  the  meantime  he  had  grown  in  favour  with  his  col- 
leagues and  the  House  of  Commons,  and  on  man}7  occasions 
had  shown  himself  a  useful  debater  on  other  than  military 
subjects.  In  spite  of  their  encounters,  he  and  Sir  William 
Harcourt  remained  good  friends,  and  his  progress  in  the 
hierarchy  may  be  measured  by  a  letter  which  Sir  William, 
now  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons,  addressed  to  him 
a  few  days  after  Mr.  Gladstone's  retirement  and  Lord 
Rosebery's  succession. 

10  DOWNING  STREET,  March  7,  '94. 

MY  DEAR  C.  BANNERMAN, — .  .  .  I  shall  have  very  heavy  work 
over  the  Budget  this  next  month  and  shall  much  want  aid  and 
relief  in  the  House  of  Commons. 


A  MESSENGER  TO  THE  QUEEN       167 

I  hope  you  will  be  willing,  when  I  am  unable  to  be  there,  to    CHAP. 
take  my  place  and  fulfil  the  office  for  which  you  are  most  fitted,  v__  ^ 


not  only  by  seniority  but  by  special  aptitude. — Yours  sincerely,  ^ET.  55-58. 

W.  V.  HARCOURT. 

He  was  by  this  time  firmly  established  in  the  inner  circle  of 
the  Cabinet,  and  his  counsel  was  sought  in  all  its  emergencies. 
Above  all,  he  seems  to  have  had  the  happy  gift — denied  to 
some  of  his  colleagues — of  getting  on  with  Queen  Victoria, 
in  spite  of  Guards  and  Cameron  Highlanders,  and  he  was 
repeatedly  asked  to  take  soundings  in  depths  which  the 
most  eminent  scarcely  dared  plumb.  Thus,  at  the  end  of 
January  1893,  when  he  was  about  to  visit  the  Queen  at 
Osborne,  Mr.  Gladstone  requested  him  to  convey  the  un- 
welcome ne\vs  that  Suspensory  Bills  for  the  Welsh  and 
Scottish  Churches  would  be  included  in  the  programme  for 
the  coming  session.  Mr.  Gladstone  was  possibly  unaware 
(and  the  Queen  may  not  have  known)  that  his  chosen 
messenger  was  one  of  the  few  members  of  the  Cabinet  who 
had  been  committed  from  the  beginning  of  his  political 
life  to  the  disestablishment  of  all  three  Churches — English 
as  well  as  Welsh  and  Scottish.  Whatever  the  tidings  he 
brought  he  appears  always  to  have  been  a  welcome  guest 
to  Queen  Victoria  ;  and  during  his  three  years  as  Minister 
for  War  he  paid  several  visits  to  Osborne  and  Windsor,  and 
was  Minister  in  Attendance  at  Balmoral  in  October  of  each 
year.  Almost  the  only  letters  to  his  wife  which  are  to  be 
found  in  his  correspondence  are  from  Balmoral,  and  they 
describe  the  daily  life  of  the  Court  in  the  Highlands  with 
a  particular^  of  detail  which  would  do  credit  to  a  lady 
journalist : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  his  Wife 

BALMORAL  CASTLE,  Sunday,  6.30  P.M.,  Oct.  23,  1892. — It  has 
been  a  perfectly  dreadful  day — snowing  ever  since  10  A.M.  but 
thawing  as  it  fell :  '  exceedingly  cold.  I  drove  to  Church  at 
Crathie  with  Sir  H.  P.1  and  Miss  MacNeill,  and  we  occupied  the 
big  seat  in  the  '  breast  of  the  loft.'  The  Queen  was  to  have  gone 

1  Sir  Henry  Ponsonby,  Queen  Victoria's  Private  Secretary. 


168    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP     for  the  Communion  after  the  ordinary  service,  but  they  persuaded 
x>    _,  her  to  stay  at  home,  it  was  such  a  risk.     But  the  old  lady  has 


1892-1895.  been  out  for  an  hour's  drive  in  a  close  carriage  late  in  the  after- 
noon !  My  companions  envied  me  my  nice  fur  coat. 

It  is  the  funniest  life  conceivable  :  like  a  convent.  We  meet 
at  meals,  breakfast  9.45,  lunch  2,  dinner  9  :  and  when  we  are 
finished,  each  is  off  to  his  cell  (at  least  I  to  mine)  and  there  is 
no  common  life  except  round  a  table.  About  7  a  man  comes 
round  and  says  whether  I  am  to  dine  with  the  Queen  :  I  hardly 
expect  I  shall  to-night.  So  in  this  weather  I  spend  the  whole 
day  alone  reading  in  my  room.  I  have  done  Maarten  Maartens 
and  have  taken  to  the  Debacle,  which  has  more  stuff  in  it. 

Sir  H.  P.  took  me  to  the  library,  however,  from  which  I  may 
take  a  book.  I  think  it  is  about  the  letter  A  in  this  plan  (rough 
sketch  enclosed)  ;  but  the  Castle  is  all  intersected  by  long,  narrow 
passages  ending  in  baize  doors,  I  could  not  find  my  way  without 
help.  ...  I  have  really  no  fault  to  find  :  my  room  is  very 
comfortable,  about  the  size  of  the  bird-room  at  Belmont,  but 
with  a  turret  dressing-room  besides.  The  house  is  well  warmed 
with  hot  water :  I  have  a  good  fire  and  five  new  wax  candles 
each  night. 

Detailed  descriptions  follow  of  the  staff  and  ladies-in-waiting, 
with  an  impartial  appraisement  of  their  looks  and  frocks, 
and  very  decided  opinions  about  the  suitability  of  the  one 
to  the  other.  Full  justice  is  done  to  the  '  Jezebelian  ' 
beauty  of  a  certain  great  lady  and  the  '  moon-lit '  charms 
of  another.  The  house  is  said  to  be  '  all  carpeted  and 
curtained  in  tartan '  and  to  '  look  very  well  at  that.' 
Apparently  he  dined  with  the  Queen  every  night  but  one 
this  year,  and  found  her  generally  '  most  lively  and  in- 
terested/ frequently  joking  and  ready  to  talk  freely  on  all 
manner  of  subjects.  '  She  is  always  either  very  serious  or 
all  smiles.'  On  the  Wednesday  she  was  '  very  merry  in 
anticipation  of  the  Council  to-morrow,  and  asked  me  if  I 
had  studied  my  part.'  Curtis's  band  played  in  the  corridor 
every  evening  and  H.M.  was  rather  concerned  when  he 
spoke  approvingly  of  their  '  Viennese  trio,'  for  she  thought 
they  were  all  English,  but  was  reassured  on  learning  that 
their  address  was  Kentish  Town.  The  Queen  '  asks  for 
one  thing  after  another — Cavalleria  twice — and  "  quite 


AT  BALMORAL  169 

charming,  so  beautiful !  '        Prince  Henry  of  Prussia  was    CHAP. 
there — '  such  a  nice-looking  chap  and  so  pleasant-mannered  :        /.    -» 
quite  unaffected,' — and  one  morning  he   'sent  up  paper  ^Tl  S5"58> 
balloons  to  the  great  delight  of  all  the  Battenberg  children  ; 
witnessed  also  by  old  granny  in  her  pony's  chair  with  a 
Highlander  at  the  pony's  head.' 

After  the  first  day  the  '  cellular  life  '  was  modified,  for 
Lady  Downe  begged  him  to  come  to  tea  in  the  billiard 
room,  an  invitation  joyfully  accepted,  and  leading  to  much 
sociability  with  the  '  ladies  '  and  '  gentlemen.'  In  the  end 
the  Queen  gave  him  an  inscribed  copy  of  her  Leaves  from 
her  Journals — '  So  I  bring  my  prizes  home  from  school  '• 
and  he  is  left  speculating  whether  this  is  done  to  all  Ministers 
in  Attendance,  or  is  a  special  favour  to  himself.  He  hopes 
the  latter. 

The  next  October  (1893)  he  falls  into  theatricals—  -'  our 
old  friend  Pattes  de  Mouche,  watered  down  into  a  Scrap  of 
Paper  ' — about  to  be  performed  at  the  Castle  by  a  cast 
consisting  of  the  Bancrofts,  Sir  John  Hare,  Mr.  Forbes 
Robertson,  Lady  Monckton,  and  Miss  Mary  Rorke,  with  the 
gentlemen  and  ladies  of  the  Court  in  the  minor  parts.  Again 
he  dines  almost  every  night  with  the  Queen,  and  faithfully 
encloses  a  little  plan  of  the  round  table  where  he  sat  with 
royalties  to  right  and  left.  The  talk  is  now  all  of  the  stage, 
and  he  falls  into  the  mood,  possibly  astonishing  the  Court 
with  his  remarkable  knowledge  of  the  French  sources  of 
the  British  drama.  Prince  Henry  of  Battenberg  induces 
him  to  '  tell  to  the  table  '  the  story  of  a  recent  Paris  pro- 
duction— 'Champignol  malgre  lui — which  he  does  ('  with 
some  reserves  '),  the  Queen  '  with  her  face  puckered  up 
and  laughing,  especially  about  the  hair-cutting.'  As  an 
old  playgoer  he  thinks  it  a  little  excessive  to  be  obliged  to 
attend  first  the  dress-rehearsal  and  then  the  actual  per- 
formance of  both  the  Scrap  of  Paper  and  Diplomacy  which 
followed  it,  and  the  fact  that  he  sat  all  one  night  with  his 
knees  into  the  back  of  the  Empress  Eugenie  scarcely  con- 
soles him,  though  it  starts  a  train  of  historical  reflections. 
But  the  scene  is  a  rich  one  for  intimate  comment,  and  the 


170    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    letters    again    abound    in    lively    observations    on    frocks, 
-•  manners  and  styles  of  beauty,  and  the  reactions  of  spec- 
1892-1895.  gators  and  actors  to  the  sunshine  of  the  royal  presence. 

The  following  year  gloom  hung  over  the  scene  when  he 
revisited  it  on  November  2.  The  Court  was  in  mourning 
for  the  Czar,  and  the  music  was  stopped,  at  all  events  for 
the  first  day.  After  that  it  was  decided  that  '  we  could 
mourn  to  music/  and  Curtis's  band  resumed  with  a  selec- 
tion of  appropriate  pieces.  But  even  worse  than  the 
mourning  was  the  state  of  politics.  If  the  Home  Rule  Bill 
was  out  of  the  way  and  Mr.  Gladstone  gone,  the  House  of 
Lords  question  was  looming  up.  The  Queen,  he  records 
on  November  3,  '  hardly  spoke  during  dinner  and  looked 
pale  and  worn.'  She  explained  it  by  the  work  which  had 
been  thrown  on  her  by  the  Czar's  death,  but  the  Minister 
soon  divined  that  there  was  more  in  it  than  that.  Lord 
Rosebery  had  made  a  speech  '  presaging  a  revolution  and 
with  only  twenty-four  hours'  notice  to  herself ' : — 

C.  reports  Archie's  speech  fell  like  a  bombshell  among  them  : 
all  the  X—  -'s,  Y —  -'s,  and  others  were  loud-mouthed  in  de- 
nouncing it ;  treason,  revolution,  etc.  The  ignorant  set  not  to 
know  that  it  was  sure  to  come  !  Then  he  says  all  this  has  such  an 
effect  upon  the  Queen  to  whom  it  is  conveyed — '  everyone  thinks 
so  and  so/  '  all  the  gentlemen  at  lunch  were  saying  so  and  so  ' — 
the  gentlemen  !  What  is  their  opinion  worth  ? 

For  days  the  Queen  would  say  nothing  about  politics — 
'  only  Czar,  weather,  crops,  Marienbad,  etc./  and  the 
Princess  Louise  reports  her  '  terribly  exercised  and  hurt/ 
On  the  morning  of  November  5,  she  made  an  appoint- 
ment for  seven  that  evening,  but  cancelled  it  in  the  after- 
noon on  the  ground  of  other  pressing  business,  and  instead 
wrote  a  note  to  her  Private  Secretary,  '  of  a  very  uncom- 
promising character,  though  civil  towards  me/  The  next 
day  she  decided  to  see  him,  and  an  interview  took  place 
of  which  he  has  left  a  separate  record  :— 

BALMORAL  CASTLE,  6th  November  '94. 

Agrees  with  some  things  but  not  all.  Mr.  C.  B.  forgets  the 
danger  of  increasing  the  power  of  the  House  of  Commons  and 


THE  QUEEN  AND  THE  HOUSE  OF  LORDS  171 

having  no  force  to  resist  the  subversive  measures  of  the  so-called    CHAP. 
Liberals  but  better  called  destructives.  *• 


Could  never  agree  to  taking  from  the  Lords  their  power  to  A:T.  55-58. 
alter  or  reject  measures,  this  might  be  obtained  from  a  President, 
not  from  her.  Thinks  it  cruel  that  after  her  long  reign  at  her 
age,  with  her  many  cares,  she  should  be  obliged  to  refuse  her 
assent  to  proposals  of  her  Ministers,  when  it  would  be  her 
greatest  pleasure  to  support  them. 

BALMORAL  CASTLE,  jth  November  '94. 

Wishes  to  talk  to  me  about  this  terrible  question  :  so  anxious 
there  should  be  no  agitations  and  no  public  meetings  :  thought 
an  immediate  dissolution  would  have  avoided  this. 

Quite  admitted  that  the  H.  of  L.  might  require  reform  ;  Lord 
S.  thought  it  did.  But  we  must  have  a  check  against  the  H.  of 
Commons  which  too  strong,  and  had  been  ever  since  Lord 
Beaconsfield's  most  unfortunate  Act. 

Admitted  that  it  was  not  wise  to  oppose  a  barrier  to  public 
opinion,  better  to  guide  and  moderate  it. 

Again  dwelt  on  the  necessity  of  moderation  of  language  and 
no  agitation  :  and  complained  (smilingly)  of  so  great  a  question 
being  brought  forward  at  her  age  and  with  all  her  family  and 
other  cares. 

Made  a  point  of  the  alarm  of  all  the  better  classes,  the  Budget 
being  the  latest  instance,  and  pointed  out  that  all  the  Liberal 
peers  had  turned  against  us,  and  Mr.  G.  had  had  great  difficulty 
in  finding  a  Household.  It  was  this  alarm  that  caused  the 
antagonism  between  the  two  Houses,  so  that  it  was  our  fault. 

I  expressed  regret  that  she  should  be  so  troubled  ;  it  was  not 
we  who  raised  the  question  but  the  peers  who  brought  it  on  by 
their  contemptuous  treatment  of  the  opinions  represented  in 
H.  of  C.  ;  (a)  believed  there  was  no  violent  feeling  in  the  country, 
but  a  strong  steady  conviction  that  present  position  was  neither 
solid  nor  safe  ;  ridiculous  to  have  this  elaborate  representative 
system  and  maintain  a  House  to  check  its  result  :  check  only 
applied  to  legislation,  not  to  whole  sphere  of  administration  ; 
(b)  result  as  to  legislation  frequently  that  more  violent  Bills  of 
Tories  are  passed  when  moderate  Liberal  Bills  are  refused  ;  (c)  no 
check  in  fact  at  all  while  Tories  are  in  power  :  illusory  as  useful 
check,  but  great  power  to  provoke  and  cause  worse  evils  ;  better 
to  trust  those  who  have  been  given  the  power  ;  (d)  reasonable  and 
sensible  feeling  throughout  the  masses  ;  (e)  House  of  Commons 
also  not  so  bad  as  she  thought  ;  (/)  no  agitation  necessary  ; 


172    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    cannot  prevent  discussion  at  public  meetings  :  no  necessity  for 
X-       violent  language,  case  being  so  strong. 


Z892-I89S.      ^  Admitted  that  the  members  by  which  recent  Bills  rejected 
were  unfortunate. 

(b)  This  appeared  to  impress  and  to  be  new. 

(c)  Admitted. 

(d)  Admitted  as  general  principle. 

(e)  Admitted. 
(/)  Admitted. 

Ill 

No  man  knew  better  than  Campbell-Bannerman  how  to 
clothe  advanced  politics  in  moderate  language,  but  there 
never  was  any  question  of  the  robust  character  of  his 
Radicalism.  He  was  heart  and  soul  for  the  Home  Rule 
Bill,  for  Sir  William  Harcourt's  Budget,  and  for  all  the 
other  Radical  measures  of  this  Administration  ;  but  he 
hated  rows  and  splits,  and  his  equable  temper  and  unfailing 
sense  of  humour  enabled  him  to  see  comedy  in  a  great 
many  things  in  which  some  of  his  colleagues  saw  tragedy. 
It  was  said  of  him  at  the  beginning  of  1895  that  he  was  the 
only  member  of  the  Cabinet  who  was  on  speaking  terms 
with  all  his  colleagues.  That  need  not  be  taken  too  literally, 
but  he  certainly  was  in  these  months  a  most  valuable 
cement  to  the  Cabinet,  and  his  reputation  as  an  all-round 
politician  was  considerably  higher  in  the  inner  circle  than 
it  was  yet  with  the  general  public. 

It  was  accordingly  a  great  surprise  to  his  colleagues  when 
he  conveyed  to  them  in  March  1895  that  he  would  like  to 
succeed  to  the  Speakership  shortly  to  be  vacant  through 
the  resignation  of  Mr.  Peel.  It  amazed  them  that  he 
should  desire  it.  He  was  nothing  if  not  a  party  politician, 
and  the  last  man  who  could  be  supposed  to  desire  the  frozen 
impartiality  of  the  Chair.  If  there  was  anything  he  had 
seemed  to  like  less  than  taking  part  in  debates,  it  was  sitting 
through  them,  and  it  had  never  occurred  to  them  that  he 
would  deliberately  choose  the  strict  routine  and  long  hours 
of  listening  to  the  wise  and  unwise  which  are  the  penalties  of 
this  great  office.  Nevertheless  he  made  it  very  clear  that 


THE  SPEAKERSHIP  173 

this  was  the  one  prize  above  all  others  that  he  coveted.     He    CHAP. 
was  to  his  bones  a  House  of  Commons  man,  and  a  House       x' 


of  Commons  man  could,  in  his  view,  have  no  higher  ambi-  ^T'  5S"s8' 
tion.  Possibly  as  he  liked  the  quiet  life,  the  idea  that  in 
this  way  he  would  escape  from  the  platform  and  the  turmoil 
of  electioneering,  and  be  free,  when  Parliament  was  not 
sitting,  to  roam  the  Continent  without  the  annoyance  of 
being  called  back  by  the  Whips  or  having  to  resist  their 
calls  (as  he  generally  did),  entered  a  little  into  his  thoughts  ; 
but  in  any  case  his  mind  was  made  up  that  the  Speakership 
was  the  proper  goal  and  climax  of  his  career. 

There  was  no  question  that  he  would  have  made  an 
excellent  Speaker.  He  had  exactly  the  cast  of  mind  and 
the  quality  of  humour  that  the  House  of  Commons  likes 
in  its  Speakers.  He  would  have  been  wise,  genial,  firm, 
and  serenely  impartial  in  his  rulings.  And  at  the  moment 
there  was  a  quite  persuasive  case  for  falling  in  with  his 
view.  The  Cabinet  had  got  themselves  into  a  bad  scrape 
by  letting  it  be  known  that  they  intended  to  nominate  Mr. 
Courtney  for  the  position.  They  had  supposed  that  their 
own  impartiality  in  proposing  a  Unionist  and  the  evident 
claims  of  that  just  man  wrould  dispose  of  all  objections, 
but  they  found  to  their  dismay  that  a  large  number  of 
Radicals,  most  of  the  Irish,  and  practically  the  whole  of 
the  Unionist  Party  would  oppose  his  election  and  possibly 
unite  in  voting  for  Sir  Matthew  White  Ridley,  whom  the 
Opposition  intended  to  nominate  if  the  Government  persisted 
in  proposing  Mr.  Courtney.  The  Government  were  in  fact 
in  serious  danger  on  this  question,  and  when  their  opponents 
intimated  that  if  Campbell-Bannerman  were  nominated 
they  would  not  oppose  him,  they  seemed  to  have  been 
offered  an  honourable  and  providential  way  out  of  an  ex- 
tremely awkward  dilemma.  But  the  Cabinet  would  not 
hear  of  it.  The  Prime  Minister  opposed  it,  Sir  William 
Harcourt  opposed  it,  everybody  opposed  it.  '  No  Minister, 
and  of  all  Ministers  least  of  all  you/  wrote  the  Prime 
Minister,  '  can  be  spared  to  fill  the  Speakership.'  '  I  may 
mention  to  you,'  said  one  of  his  colleagues,  '  that  the  Queen 


174    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    spontaneously  expressed  her  sense  of  your  indispensable- 
ness  to  me   to-day.'     Sir  William  Harcourt  was  equally 


1892-1895.  emphatic^  as  may  be  judged  from  their  correspondence. 


Campbell-Bannerman  to  Sir  William  Harcourt 

6  GROSVENOR  PLACE,  March  9,  '95.  —  I  have  been  thinking  a 
great  deal  of  all  you  said  about  the  Speakership,  and  the  more 
I  think  of  it,  the  more  clearly  do  I  see  objections  to  what  you 
suggested. 

However  awkward  it  may  be  to  nominate  a  man  of  our  own, 
it  seems  to  me  the  only  course  consistent  with  dignity  and  self- 
respect.  I  fear  Courtney's  nomination  would  be  very  badly 
received  by  our  people  in  the  House  of  Commons  and  still  more 
in  the  country. 

If  then  a  man  of  our  own,  you  will  think  me  conceited  but  I 
believe  I  should  be  more  popular  —  perhaps  I  should  say  less  un- 
acceptable —  among  the  opposition  than  any  one  you  could  choose. 

My  ambitions  do  not  permanently  lie,  nor  do  my  powers,  in 
a  fighting  direction  :  and  despite  my  robustious  aspect  I  do  not 
think  I  can  go  on  long  with  active  politics  —  so  my  Dr.  told  me 
the  other  day. 

What  more  fitting  therefore  than  the  calmer  life  ? 

I  suppose  the  Cabinet  on  Tuesday  is  about  this. 

6  GROSVENOR  PLACE,  S.W.,  March  ir,  '95.  —  .  .  .  Please  under- 
stand that  I  do  not  urge  any  personal  '  claim  '  of  mine  :  all  I 
have  said  about  myself  was  that  I  was  willing  to  take  the  place, 
and  that  from  circumstances  stated  I  should  not  be  such  a  great 
loss  to  the  fighting  strength  of  the  party  as  was  sometimes  implied. 

But  putting  the  personal  question  aside,  I  remain  of  the  same 
opinion  —  but  in  a  stronger  degree  —  that  we  cannot  without  fatal 
loss  of  prestige  go  to  the  enemy  for  a  Speaker. 

What  is  our  position  ?  We  are  professing  to  carry  things 
through  with  our  small  majority,  to  pass  a  number  of  Bills  and 
go  through  the  session.  We  laugh  at  the  idea  of  defeat  or 
dissolution  :  this  braggart  vein  is  the  only  one  which  justifies 
our  policy.  And  yet  when  a  plain  duty  is  put  upon  our  party 
to  furnish  a  Speaker  we  go  to  the  enemy  and  say,  '  Please 
Mr.  Balfour  and  Mr.  Chamberlain,  be  so  kind  as  to  lend  us  a 
man  :  we  are  so  poor  in  men  and  so  poor  in  votes  that  we  cannot 
furnish,  or  dare  not  spare,  a  candidate.  Nay  more,  on  the  eve 
of  an  election  we  announce  that  it  is  no  use  for  the  beggarly^time 


A  THWARTED  AMBITION  175 

left  to  us,  for  us  to  name  a  Speaker  ;  we  discount  and  anticipate    CHAP. 
a  defeat ;    we  fly  the  enemy's  flag  over  the  citadel  before  the 


assault  begins.     This  is  how  it  would  seem  to  the  world  and  -^T.  55-58. 
above  all  to  our  people.     Our  only  chance  is  to  go  on  as  we  are 
doing  with  a  confident  air  :    how  encouraging  this  decision  will 
be  to  our  fighting  men  ! 

But  then  you  say  our  ignominious  position  will  be  covered  by 
the  super-excellent  merits  of  Courtney.  On  this  let  me  say  :  — 

(1)  How  can  we  talk  of  his  merits  when  we  ourselves  passed 

him  over  for  Chairman  ? 

(2)  How  can  we  be  sure  that  we  shall  be  allowed  to  choose 

him  ?  If  we  go  to  Balfour  for  a  man,  we  shall  have  to 
take  the  man  he  gives  us  and  not  pick  among  his  people. 

(3)  You  think  our  people  will  gladly  accept  Courtney.     I 

doubt  it,  notwithstanding  anything  one  or  two  papers 
may  say  :  we  know  the  many  motives  of  papers  !  In 
the  country  he  is  only  known  as  one  of  our  most  acrid 
opponents  :  who  votes  with  us  on  just  enough  questions 
to  give  him  an  air  of  independence,  which  is  never  shown 
on  main  questions.  I  venture  to  say  no  greater  strain 
could  be  put  on  their  loyalty  at  a  time  when  it  does  not 
deserve  such  an  ordeal. 

I  put  my  views  plainly  because  I  entertain  them  clearly.  I 
must  now  shut  myself  up  and  nurse  my  cold  till  Thursday,  for 
I  had  not  my  Dr.'s  leave  to  be  out  to-day.  I  cannot,  therefore, 
be  at  the  Cabinet  to-morrow,  but  I  hope  my  opinions,  much  as 
I  give  them,  may  be  brought  before  my  colleagues. 

Yet  another  surprise  awaited  him  over  this  matter.  His 
constituents  had  now  got  wind  of  the  proposal,  and  it  turned 
out  that  many  of  them,  so  far  from  being  pleased  and  com- 
plimented, as  he  expected,  were  inclined  to  regard  his 
appointment  to  the  Chair  as  a  virtual  disfranchisement  of 
the  Burghs.  A  few  seem  even  to  have  imputed  sordid 
motives.  He  wrote  to  his  agent,  Mr.  D.  Gorrie,  of  Dun- 
fermline  :— 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  D.  Gorrie 

HOUSE  OF  COMMONS,  March  19,  1895. — I  have  not  communi- 
cated with  you  about  the  Speakership  because  I  have  been  ill, 
and  very  busy  when  well,  and  the  thing  was  really  '  in  the  air. ' 


176    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.        I  am  much  surprised  and  disappointed  to  find  that  there  would 
x>    _,  be  any  grumbling  among  my  constituents  when  on  the  contrary 


1892-1895.  there  ought  to  be  crowing  and  trumpet  blowing  ! 

It  is  not  only  the  compliment  that  is  implied  to  a  constituency 
when  its  member  is  chosen  to  be  president  of  this  great  chamber  : 
it  is  more  than  that.  A  vacancy  occurs  and  at  once  one  name 
leaps  to  the  thoughts  of  all :  Tories,  L.U.'s,  Irish  and  Liberals 
were  all  unanimous  for  me.  Courtney  wa.s  not  in  it :  he  was  only 
thought  of  on  the  assumption  that  I  would  not  stand.  I  am  the 
only  man  anywhere  whom  all  would  support,  and  the  personal 
expressions  of  feeling  I  have  had  from  all  quarters  would  surprise 
you 'as  they  have  surprised  me.  There  has,  in  fact,  never  been 
a  case  like  it. 

All  this  is  something  to  brag  of :  but  my  natural  pride  is 
damped  when  I  find  my  own  constituents  (of  all  people  !)  grudging 
and  grumbling.  Especially  have  I  been  humiliated  when  I 
gather  that  the  view  taken  is  that  I  should  be  feathering  my  own 
nest,  and  when  the  prospects  of  a  pension  and  a  peerage  are 
dragged  out  as  the  motive.  I  can  say  for  myself,  and  I  am  sure 
I  can  for  all  who  have  been  so  friendly  to  me,  that  such  a  thing 
never  entered  my  head.  These  do  not,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  go 
with  the  office  necessarily  :  they  are  specially  voted  by  the  House, 
but  only  when  a  substantial  term  has  been  served.  And  they 
are  put  out  of  perspective  when  the  great  position  and  responsi- 
bility are  considered.  It  is  surely  a  mean  and  squalid  view  of 
a  great  office  to  count  the  guineas  ! 

(Oddly  enough  I  see  they  are  at  it  again  about  my  great  wealth 
—I  wish  I  could  stop  the  dirty  own-correspondents  who  put 
about  all  the  silly  lies  about  my  immense  fortune  and  so  forth  ; 
for  it  is  all  lies,  yet  I  cannot  contradict  it  without  dirtying  myself 
with  their  vulgarity.  There  is  no  truth  in  all  their  stories — my 
fortune  is  a  very  moderate  one  though  comfortable  enough.) 

Clearly  my  duty  was  to  do  as  I  have  done — to  express  my 
willingness  to  serve,  if  the  House  and  my  Party  desired  it.  It 
is  a  service  owed  to  the  country  by  any  one  who  is  called  to  it. 

Personally  I  did  not  much  care  either  way — there  are  balancing 
advantages  and  evils.  But  now,  as  a  fact,  I  do  not  think  there 
is  any  probability  of  my  taking  the  place,  and  it  is  a  great  relief 
to  get  out  of  the  glare  of  publicity  in  which  I  have  lived  for 
the  last  ten  days  ! 

The  same  day  he  replied  to  his  Dunfermline   chairman, 
Mr.  W.  Robertson,  who  also  had  written  to  say  that  his 


a 
£ 
o 

H 


O 

u 


H 


OBJECTIONS  OF  CONSTITUENTS       177 

acceptance    of    the    Speakership    would    not    be    viewed    CHAP. 
favourably  by  his  constituents,  since  they  '  looked  for  a 


still  higher  position  for  him '  :— 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  W.  Robertson 

HOUSE  OF  COMMONS,  March  19,  '95. — I  am  obliged  for  your 
letter.  I  can  assure  you  that  the  great  turmoil  of  the  last  ten 
days  has  been  most  unpleasant  to  me  as  I  never  like  to  be  talked 
about  ;  but  I  have  at  the  same  time  the  greatest  reason  for  pride, 
and  for  acknowledgment  to  my  brother  members  in  all  parts  of 
the  House,  in  that  I  have  been  spontaneously  designated  on  all 
sides  as  worthy  of  the  highest  honour  the  House  can  bestow,  and 
as  enjoying  its  confidence. 

I  should  have  expected  that  this  high  mark  of  honour  would 
have  been  regarded  by  my  constituents  as  redounding  to  a  great 
degree  upon  them.  I  am  not  aware  that  any  one  in  this  century 
has  been  so  honoured  by  the  House  :  and  I  should  have  thought 
they  would  have  been  flattered  when  it  was  recognised  that  the 
object  of  it  was  chosen  by  them. 

I  was  a  passive  instrument  in  the  matter.  It  was  my  clear 
duty  to  undertake  the  labours  and  responsibilities  of  the  position 
if  the  House  and  especially  my  Party  called  upon  me,  as  they 
did  :  and  you  will  forgive  me  for  saying  that  I  equally  think  it 
would  be  the  patriotic  duty  of  any  constituency  to  acquiesce  in 
the  most  honourable  arrangement. 

However,  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  not  likely  that  I  shall  go  to 
the  Chair,  so  that  the  occasion  for  the  constituency  making  any 
sacrifice  will  not  arise. 

Personally,  I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  your  expressions 
towards  me,  as  well  as  for  the  energetic  support  you  have  always 
given  to  the  cause  of  the  Party  in  the  Burgh. 

The  matter  was  decided  by  the  refusal  of  his  colleagues. 
In  March  1895  the  Government  was  in  a  position  in  which 
it  not  only  could  not  spare  its  War  Minister,  but  in  which 
the  very  idea  of  the  '  reconstruction  '  which  would  follow 
his  departure  seemed  appalling.  '  If  that  delicate  and 
tessellated  fabric  were  touched,'  said  one  of  its  members, 
'  it  would  fall  into  ruin.'  There  was  no  resisting  these 
arguments,  and  Campbell-Bannerman  accepted  the  con- 
clusion with  his  usual  philosophy,  though  undoubtedly  he 

VOL.  i.  M 


178    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    regarded  it  as  the  most  serious  disappointment  that  he  had 
suffered  so  far  in  his  public  life.     It  is  difficult  to  say  whether 


1892-1895.  ^g  astonishment  of  his  colleagues  at  his  desire  to  be  Speaker 
or  his  astonishment  at  their  opposition  to  it  was  the  greater. 
He  took  a  cool  estimate  of  his  capacities  and  limitations, 
and  never  for  a  moment  thought  of  himself  as  a  star  of  the 
first  magnitude.  But  he  did  undoubtedly,  in  his  own 
phrase,  '  fancy  himself  as  Speaker/  and  he  would  have 
thought  himself  amply  rewarded  if,  after  proving  a 
capable  administrator  in  the  great  Departments,  he  had 
been  elected  to  that  office,  and  thence  passed  in  due  course 
to  an  honourable  retirement.  That  his  colleagues  or  the 
Sovereign  would  consider  him  '  an  indispensable  man,'  or 
be  much  troubled  if  he  sought  one  career  rather  than 
another,  had  never  occurred  to  him  ;  and  how  indispensable 
he  would  prove  and  to  what  extent  their  veto  on  his  with- 
drawal from  active  politics  was  to  affect  the  future  was 
hidden  both  from  them  and  from  him. 


IV 

There  is  no  question  that  Campbell-Bannerman  liked 
public  life,  and  revelled  in  the  opportunities  which  it  gave 
him  for  the  whimsical  observation  of  men  and  things  which 
was  his  principal  form  of  private  entertainment.  But  one 
incident  of  it  he  greatly  disliked,  and  that  was  the  constant 
interruption  of  the  routine  of  life  which  he  had  laid  down 
for  himself.  He  was  willing  to  spend  six,  or  in  case  of 
necessity,  seven  months  of  the  year  in  London,  and,  while 
there,  to  devote  the  whole  of  his  time,  including  week-ends 
(which  he  seldom  or  never  spent  out  of  London)  to  his 
parliamentary  work.  But  to  be  two  months  abroad  and 
at  least  three  months  in  Scotland — not  merely  for  pleasure 
and  rest,  but  to  visit  and  keep  in  touch  with  his  con- 
stituents— he  considered  extremely  desirable,  if  not  quite 
imperative,  and  he  was  always  on  guard  to  resist  encroach- 
ments on  this  scheme.  Thus,  on  being  appointed  Secretary 
for  War  in  1892,  he  proceeded  to  carry  out  his  habitual 


•  C.-B.'S  WAYS  '  179 

programme  as  if  nothing  had  happened,  and  started  for  CHAP. 
Marienbad  within  two  days  of  receiving  his  seals  from  v—^J — / 
the  Queen.  '  C.-B.'s  ways  '  in  this  respect  became  a  pro- 
verb, and  the  unruffled  coolness  with  which  he  carried  his 
point  against  the  remonstrances  of  the  Whips l  and  the 
frowns  of  his  seniors  was  the  envy  of  his  more  laborious 
colleagues,  some  of  whom  also  had  country  houses  and  a 
liking  for  Paris  and  Marienbad.  To  him  it  was  more  im- 
portant that  his  wife  should  not  be  disappointed  than  that 
he  should  earn  good  marks  as  an  industrious  apprentice, 
and  at  almost  any  time  he  would  cheerfully  have  sacrificed 
his  career  if  he  was  not  acceptable  on  these  terms.  He  had 
the  good  fortune  in  these  years  at  the  War  Office  to  have  a 
Commander-in-Chief  who  was  constantly  '  reviewing,  pre- 
siding and  inspecting  '  in  all  parts  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
and  an  Adjutant-General  whose  predilection  for  Devon- 
shire was  as  warm  as  his  own  for  Scotland.  In  his  corre- 
spondence with  the  latter  his  own  reasons  for  remaining 
at  Belmont  were  agreeably  echoed  by  Buller's  requests  to 
be  allowed  to  stay  at  Crediton  ;  and  if  the  one  was  per- 
suaded that  the  greater  part  of  the  duties  of  the  Secretary 
of  State  could  be  discharged  from  a  Scottish  country  house, 
the  other  was  sure  that  the  Adjutant-General's  could  easily 
be  combined  with  the  duties  of  a  country  gentleman  in  the 
West  of  England.  Sir  William  Harcourt  alone  remon- 
strated and  poured  out  some  of  his  most  pointed  sarcasms 
on  this  subject : — 


Sir  William  Harcourt  to  Campbell-Banner  man 

December  31,  1894. — Christmas  now  being  over — a  festivity 
which  I  believe  the  Scotch  heathen  do  not  observe — I  really 
hope  you  will  awake  to  the  fact  that  there  is  an  institution 
called  H.M.'s  Government,  that  there  are  such  things  as  estimates, 
and  that  one  day  there  will  be  a  House  of  Commons. 

1  It  is  related  thai  when  he  was  a  junior  Minister,  Lord  Kensington, 
the  second  Whip,  always  stern  about  Ministers  keeping  divisions,  tried 
to  bar  his  exit  from  the  House.  '  The  hireling  fleeth,'  said  the  Whip. 
'  He  fleeth  because  he  is  an  hireling,'  was  the  quick  retort. 


i8o    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.        I  am  extremely  sorry  that  any  one  should  be  put  to  incon- 
_^  venience  and  most  of  all  you.     Scotland  is  a  far  cry,  but  then 


1892-1895.  as  a  compensation  it  occupies  more  than  half  the  Government, 
and  till  we  get  Home  Rule  for  Scotland  it  is  almost  inevitable 
that  Ministers  should  be  occasionally  in  London. 

We  began  this  Government  with  a  declaration  that  there  were 
to  be  Cabinets  once  a  week ;  we  have  got  down  now  to  once  a 
quarter,  and  I  suppose  if  we  survive  we  shall  have  half-yearly 
and  perhaps  yearly  meetings. 

In  my  recollections  of  Government,  Ministers  are  always  in 
town  all  November  and  January,  and  I  do  not  see  how  adminis- 
tration can  be  carried  on  on  any  other  policy. 

I  am  urgently  in  need  of  your  strong  sense  and  judgment  to 
help  me  in  controlling  the  extravagance  and  looseness  of  other 
Departments. 

On   this  occasion  Campbell-Bannerman   defended  himself 
with  some  vigour  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Sir  William  Harcourt 

BELMONT,  Jan.  2,  '95. — Your  idea  of  Christmas  junketting 
as  my  main  occupation  amuses  me.  My  view  of  it  is  rather 
that  I  have  been  sweating  in  the  stoke-hole  keeping  the  steam 
up,  while  certain  other  people  have  been  lolling  in  the  smoking- 
room  or  enjoying  the  breezes  on  the  quarter-deck.  Mine  have 
been  meetings  without  plum-pudding  unless  that  word  can  be 
figuratively  applied  to  the  varied  but  stodgy  oratory  of  the 
War  Minister.  This  week  is  a  bye-week  in  Scotland,  when  we 
are  recovering  from  our  New  Year  orgies,  so  I  am  going  up  to-day 
to  Pall  Mall  for  the  rest  of  the  week  :  but  next  week  I  have  two 
political  fixtures  in  Scotland  which  were  arranged  long  ago  and 
can  hardly  be  departed  from,  so  that  I  cannot  be  in  London  then. 

I  have  had  Knox  here  for  some  days  and  have  gone  closely 
into  our  votes  for  next  year.  I  think  you  can  count  on  our 
showing  no  increase  over  the  present  Estimates,  though  it  is  a 
tighter  fit  than  I  expected. 

He  came  up  and  attended  the  Estimates  Committee,  but  it 
needed  another  loud  growl  from  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer  to  bring  him  up  again  for  the  Cabinet  of  the 
following  week,  and  he  counted  it  a  real  grievance  that 
'  having  engineered  a  free  week '  he  should  be  '  dragged 


A  REMONSTRANCE  FROM  SIR  WILLIAM  181 

up  and  down  the  country  unnecessarily  in  the  snow.'     In    CHAP. 
March  1895  there  was  another  sharp  encounter.     Queen 


Victoria  was  going  to  Cimiez  and  wished  him  to  accompany  AT'  S5"58- 
her  as  Minister  in  Attendance.  This  time  duty  compelled 
him  to  consult  Sir  William,  and  he  was  rash  enough  to  put 
in  a  suggestion  that  he  might  '  bulge  over '  for  a  few  days 
beyond  the  Easter  holiday.  The  answer  came  promptly. 
'  I  have  no  right  to  interfere  with  the  manner  in  which  you 
may  spend  your  holiday,  and  I  cannot  conceive  anything 
more  agreeable  than  the  method  you  propose,  but  I  must 
absolutely  insist  that  you  should  return  the  day  before 
the  House  of  Commons  meets.  It  is  absolutely  impossible 
that  we  should  spare  any  of  our  bench  so  long  as  Parlia- 
ment is  sitting.  We  can  have  no  "  bulging  over."  This 
work  must  be  done  by  the  drones  of  the  other  place.  What 
else  do  they  exist  for,  so  long  as  they  are  permitted  to  exist.' 
The  state  of  the  Government  majority  in  March  1895  made 
the  argument  irresistible,  and  failing  permission  to  '  bulge 
over,'  he  gave  up  Cimiez  and  spent  the  holiday  with  his 
wife  in  Paris. 


CHAPTER  XI 

LIBERAL  DIFFICULTIES  AND  SOUTH  AFRICAN 

TROUBLES 

The  Election  of  1895 — The  Burghs  Faithful— A  Heavy 
Disaster — The  Difficulties  of  the  Ex-Cabinet — Mr.  Gladstone 
and  the  Armenian  Question — Resignation  of  Lord  Rosebery 
—Imperialists  and  Little  Englanders — The  Jameson  Raid — 
A  Historical  Retrospect — The  South  African  Committee— 
Harcourt's  and  Campbell-Bannerman's  part  in  it— Their 
Theory  of  Rhodes' s  Action — A  Shattering  Blow — Divided 
Opinions — The  Spectator's  Allegation— A  Lost  Opportunity. 

CHAP,     f^  AMPBELL-BANNERMAN   was   fortunate   in   his 
own  election,  the  Burghs  returning  him  with  the 


C 


1895-1898.  ^^^  slightly  increased  majority  of  1127  over  a  new 
Unionist  opponent  (Mr.  S.  M'Caskie)  in  July  1895.  That 
possibly  was  their  way  of  showing  what  they  thought  of  '  the 
Cordite  Scandal.'  But  the  party  as  a  whole  suffered  a  heavy 
disaster,  and  with  a  majority  of  133  against  them  were 
clearly  sentenced  to  a  long  term  of  opposition.  '  It  is  a 
regular  rout/  he  writes  to  his  cousin,  but  except  for  the 
'  sore  grief  '  of  Dumbartonshire  (where  his  cousin  had  been 
specially  active),  he  took  it  philosophically  and  once  more 
found  great  consolation  in  the  prospect  of  freedom  to 
travel. 

Campbell- Bannerman  to  Sir  William  Harcourt 

BELMONT  CASTLE,  July  27,  '95. — What  a  turnover  we  have 
come  through !  I  am  greatly  disappointed  with  the  later 
elections  in  Scotland,  although  there  is  only  one  that  is  not 
readily  accounted  for.  That  is  Stirlingshire,  and  the  only 
explanation  of  the  quite  unexpected  result  there  is  that  a  large 
number  of  miners  were  carried  over  by  the  I.L.P.  people  at  the 
last  moment.  In  all  the  other  constituencies  our  losses  can  be 

182 


A  LIBERAL  DISASTER  183 

accounted  for  either  by  peculiarities  of  the  constituency  or    CHAP. 
peculiarities  of  the  candidate.  ,__ 

The  whole  result  is  rather  appalling,  but  I  think  our  people  ^ET.  58-62. 
are  taking  the  situation  rightly,  and  showing  a  decent  degree 
of  pluck.  I  presume  there  will  be  no  important  matter  dealt 
with  next  month  :  and  then  a  clean  adjournment  till  the  New 
Year.  I  intend  making  tracks  for  Bohemia  the  end  of  this 
week,  and  shall  only  be  a  day  or  two  in  London  on  my  way. 

I  need  not  say  that  your  peripeties  have  been  followed  with 
great  interest  and  sympathy — these  are  the  days  when  we 
readily  follow  the  apostolic  injunction  to  rejoice  with  them  that 
do  rejoice  and  weep  with  them  that  weep.  But  I  usually  refrain 
from  enclosing  my  tears  in  a  letter,  for  I  think  condolence  only 
adds  to  the  poignancy  of  sorrow. 

'  We  must  send  politics  to  the  d.  for  six  months  at  least !  ' 
he  exclaimed  in  another  letter  to  his  cousin,  and  so  saying 
departed  almost  immediately  for  Marienbad.  From 
Marienbad  he  wrote  again  to  Sir  William  Harcourt  a  fort- 
night later,  conveying  the  no  doubt  expected  intelligence 
that  he  did  not  intend  to  return  for  the  meeting  of  Par- 
liament : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Sir  William  Harcourt 

MARIENBAD,  Aug.  14,  '95. — I  hear  from  Haliburton  at  the  War 
Office  that  he  can  confirm  what  he  told  me  before.  They  will 
in  the  main  carry  out  my  scheme  of  reorganisation  :  and  he  says 
they  do  not  anticipate  doing  more  than  giving  a  general  outline 
in  any  statement  they  make  at  present.  I  have  instructed 
Monkswell  fully  if  Lansdowne  makes  the  statement  in  the  H.  of 
Lords. 

As  to  ammunition,  they  will  take  money  for  a  few  additional 
millions  of  rounds,  but  they  were  bound  to  do  that.  They  cannot 
make  good  what  I  understand  they  were  putting  about  the 
constituencies  as  to  the  enormous  deficiency.  I  have  sent  a 
short  letter  to  the  Daily  News  stating  exactly  what  was  done  and 
not  done,  and  Woodall  is  thoroughly  up  in  all  the  facts. 

As  my  wife  is  not  really  fit  to  be  left  alone,  I  have  given  up  the 
idea  of  returning,  as  there  seems  little  reason  for  it. 

I  have  not  heard  who  they  will  make  Commander-in-Chief- 
I  expect  Wolseley ;   and  it  is  no  harm  if  they  do.     They  will  I 
hear  give  the  poor  old  Duke  an  extra  month,  till  Nov.  i.     That 
is  what  I  originally  proposed  for  him. 


184    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

He  returned  late  in  October  to  find  an  uncomfortable 
situation  among  his  colleagues  of  the  Liberal  front  bench, 
1895-1898.  anci  saw  jess    reason    than  ever  for  departing  from   his 

usual  plan  of  spending  the  winter  in  Scotland.  Gossip, 
which  for  once  reported  truly,1  said  that  certain  eminent 
people  were  not  on  speaking  terms  with  each  other,  and 
that  necessary  communications  between  them  had  to  be 
carried  on  through  a  third  party.  To  convene  the  ex- 
Cabinet  in  such  circumstances  was  difficult,  but  not  to 
convene  it  was  to  deprive  the  party  of  any  effective  lead. 
Arrangements  were  patched  up  which  saved  faces,  but 
they  barely  concealed  the  trouble  behind  the  scenes,  and 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  party  were  more  and  more  puzzled 
and  mortified  by  estrangements  for  which  they  could  assign 
no  political  cause.  For  fifteen  months  the  front  bench 
stumbled  along,  just  contriving  to  keep  up  appearances, 
but  smothering  rather  than  healing  its  quarrels.  Then  in 
the  autumn  of  1896  the  Armenian  question  boiled  up,  and 
on  September  24  Mr.  Gladstone  came  out  of  his  retirement 
to  address  a  great  meeting  at  Liverpool,  calling  upon  the 
Powers  and  the  British  Government  in  particular  to  take 
a  firm  attitude  against  the  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid.  A  fort- 
night later  (October  6),  Lord  Rosebery  surprised  his  col- 
leagues by  writing  a  letter  to  the  Liberal  Chief  Whip,  Mr. 
T.  Ellis,  announcing  his  resignation  of  the  leadership  of  the 
party,  and  in  the  following  week  (Oct.  10)  explained  his 
reasons  for  doing  so  to  a  meeting  of  the  Scottish  Liberal 
Federation  held  at  Edinburgh. 

These  reasons  were,  briefly,  that  the  position  of  a  Peer 
Premier  was  extremely  difficult  unless  he  had  colleagues 
in  the  House  of  Commons  who  saw  absolutely  eye  to  eye 
with  him,  and  that  to  a  situation  long  becoming  impossible 
Mr.  Gladstone  had  innocently  and  unconsciously  admini- 
stered the  coup  de  grace  by  advocating  a  line  of  action  which 
he  could  not  endorse,  though  he  was  aware  that  it  was 
approved  by  a  great  many  Liberals.  The  public  judged 

1  See  The  Life  of  Sir  William  Harcourt,  by  A.  G.  Gardiner,  vol.  ii. 
chap.  xix. 


FRICTION  BETWEEN  LEADERS       185 

rightly  that  Lord  Rosebery  had  found  it  impossible  to  work    CHAP. 
with  Sir  William  Harcourt,  but  his  departure,  instead  of 


healing  the  quarrel,  extended  it  from  the  leaders  to  the  M' 
rank  and  file.  For  Lord  Rosebery,  as  soon  appeared,  had 
strong  sympathisers  who  were  not  ready  to  give  an  un- 
qualified allegiance  to  Sir  William.  The  situation  was  again 
patched  up  by  a  general  agreement  to  treat  the  vacancy 
created  by  Lord  Rosebery's  retirement  as  merely  in  the 
leadership  of  the  Liberal  peers  and  to  leave  in  abeyance 
the  question  of  the  leadership  of  the  party.  Nothing, 
therefore,  was  done  except  to  appoint  Lord  Kimberley  as 
leader  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Sir  William  Harcourt  con- 
tinued, as  before,  leader  of  the  party  in  the  Commons,  but 
significant  hints  were  thrown  out  by  Roseberians  that  he 
was  not  on  that  account  to  consider  himself  as  possessing 
the  right  of  succession  to  the  position  of  Prime  Minister, 
if  and  when  the  party  returned  to  power. 

Campbell-Bannerman  saw  faults  on  both  sides,  and  he 
was  not  a  sworn  partisan  of  either,  although,  as  already 
recorded,  his  sympathies  were  generally  with  Lord  Rose- 
bery in  the  personal  questions  which  had  arisen  between, 
him  and  Sir  William  Harcourt.  He  frankly  said  that 
greatly  as  he  deplored,  he  was  not  surprised  at  Lord  Rose- 
bery's decision.  But  the  situation  which  now  opened  up 
was  full  of  trouble.  On  most  domestic  questions  the  party 
seemed  to  be  united  and  effective.  In  the  years  1897 
and  1898  it  had  great  victories  in  by-elections  ;  it  killed 
the  Government  Education  Bill — a  first  essay  in  the  policy 
afterwards  carried  out  by  Mr.  Balfour's  Government — it 
vigorously  resisted  the  Agricultural  Rating  Bill,  and  set 
its  face  generally  against  the  policy  of  '  doles/  which  was 
now  being  inaugurated  from  the  Treasury  Bench.  On  all 
these  matters  there  was  complete  unity,  and  Sir  \Villiam 
Harcourt  had  no  difficulty  in  asserting  his  authority.  But 
this  could  by  no  means  be  said  of  foreign  affairs.  Here 
it  was  evident  that  a  serious  quarrel  was  brewing,  the 
Roseberians  generally  expressing  what  were  known  as 
Imperialist  opinions,  while  the  Harcourtians  held  firmly 


i86    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    to    the    doctrines    of   the   Manchester    School,    and   were 

XI 

generally  dubbed  '  Little  Englanders.'     The  foreign  ques- 


,895-1898.  ^jons  which  were  now  coming  up  gave  abundant  oppor- 
tunities, if  not  for  open  quarrel,  at  least  for  accentuating 
these  shades  of  opinion.  There  was  the  Far  East  crisis, 
with  the  Russian  seizure  of  Port  Arthur,  the  German  of 
Kiao-Chow,  and  our  belated  retaliation  at  Wei-hai-Wei. 
There  was,  above  all,  the  Soudan  campaign  and  the  Fashoda 
crisis  (September  1898),  in  which  the  Roseberians  came  out 
strongly  on  the  side  of  the  Government  and  in  support  of 
the  declaration  warning  the  French  from  the  Nile  Valley, 
made  by  Sir  Edward  Grey  during  the  previous  Govern- 
ment, which  they  considered  to  be  specially  a  part  of  their 
own  policy.  Lord  Rosebery,  in  spite  of  his  retirement,  was 
active  in  public  speaking,  and  Sir  William  Harcourt  com- 
plained that  the  Imperialist  group,  and  especially  Sir 
Edward  Grey,  made  speeches  without  consulting  him  or 
the  ex-Cabinet.  Campbell-Bannerman  was  with  the  Rose- 
berians on  many  of  these  issues,  and  he  thought  the 
Opposition  perfectly  entitled  to  rally  the  Government  on 
its  policy  of  '  threats  and  withdrawals/  and  to  take  credit 
to  itself  for  firmness  and  foresight  in  the  matter  of  Fashoda. 
Such  was  the  general  course  of  events  during  the  two 
years  after  Lord  Rosebery's  retirement,  and  it  was  watched 
with  misgiving  by  both  Sir  William  Harcourt  and  Mr. 
John  Morley.  They  scented  jingoism  in  the  tone  and 
spirit,  if  not  in  the  substance,  of  the  speeches  of  the  Rose- 
berians, and  complained  that  the  retired  leader  was  exercis- 
ing an  influence  over  the  party  which  was  unfair  to  the 
actual  leaders.  Campbell-Bannerman  thought  them  unduly 
sensitive,  but  he  continued  to  do  his  best  to  smooth  the 
ruffled  susceptibilities  of  both  sections,  and  was  recog- 
nised as  a  useful  bridge  between  them.  In  his  own  contri- 
butions to  the  public  speaking  of  these  times  he  generally 
avoided  dangerous  topics  and  found  refuge  in  chaffing  the 
highly-coloured  imperialism  of  Mr.  Chamberlain  (Stirling, 
October  25,  1897)  when  he  was  not  discoursing  on  home 
affairs.  His  speeches  were  not  frequent  and  he  took  full 


AT  WORK  IN  SCOTLAND  187 

advantage  of  the  greater  freedom  of  Opposition ;  but  he    CHAP. 

could  be  counted  upon  to  be  in  his  place  in  the  House  when  > <L — ' 

he  was  wanted,  and  played  his  usual  part  as  spokesman  ^T-  58"( 
for  the  Opposition  on  military  and  Scottish  affairs.     In 
January    1897   he   entered  with  zest  into  the  Forfarshire 
by-election,    which   was    handsomely   won    by    his    friend 
Captain  Sinclair  :— 

Campbell-B anner-man  to  Sir  William  Harcourt 

BELMONT  CASTLE,  MEIGLE,  SCOTLAND,  Jan.  31,  '97. — The 
Forfarshire  Election  is  over,  for  good  or  evil — a  snowy  polling 
day,  which  was  against  us,  but  there  was  no  drifting — of  snow, 
whatever  there  may  have  been  of  votes. 

It  is  a  most  critical  election — if  we  lost  it  the  party  in  Scotland 
would  be  knocked  out  of  time.  Everything,  however,  looks  as 
well  as  possible  and  I  cannot  see  how  we  can  be  worse  than  at 
the  General  Election.  Sinclair  has  done  splendidly,  and  has 
shown  an  amount  of  pluck  and  tenacity  that  his  friends  hardly 
credited  him  with. 

I  should  have  been  up  on  Tuesday,  but  I  have  a  long-standing 
engagement  to  a  big  meeting  (auspice  Ellis)  at  Crewe  on  Thursday. 
It  comes  in  very  awkwardly,  as  those  long-arranged  things 
always  do  :  but  it  must  be  adhered  to,  and  I  will  go  there  on  my 
way  up. 

I  cannot  therefore  be  in  London  for  the  meeting  of  the  African 
Committee  on  Friday  at  12.  Of  course  if  the  meeting  was  of 
real  importance  I  could  come  up  by  some  night  train,  but  it 
would  be  a  strong  order  in  this  weather. 

Another  letter  to  the  same  correspondent  in  the  autumn 
of  this  year  explains  more  of  his  activities.  He  was,  for 
once,  a  little  cooler  about  Scottish  disestablishment : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Sir  William  Harcourt 

BELMONT  CASTLE,  MEIGLE,  SCOTLAND,  Oct.  14,  '97. — As  you 
say,  things  are  woefully  dull.  I  have  to  '  address  '  my  people  on 
the  25th,  and  I  have  not  an  idea  what  to  say.  '  John  '  and 
Asquith  have  been  perambulating  these  counties  and  the  Scots- 
man (who  must  know)  declares  there  is  nothing  new  in  all  their 
outpourings.  What  chance  is  there  then  for  a  humble  gleaner 
following  them  ? 


i88    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.        As  to  Disestt,  I  think  Tommy  Shaw  is  right — a  frank  and 
_,  firm  reference  to  it  is  advisable  but,  saving  his  presence,  there 


1895-1898.  are  few  of  our  public  men  who  care  much  about  it  just  now,  and 
fewer  still  in  private.  '  Lat  the  Auld  Kirk  alane  ;  she  's  da'ing 
nae  hairm  '  is  the  prevalent  feeling  :  and  not  the  rain  of  all  the 
Rainys  can,  for  the  moment,  raise  the  tide. 

We  had  a  good  time,  though  miserable  weather,  in  Bohemia. 
The  illustrious  person  (Ed.,  Prince  of  Wales)  behaved  very  well, 
submitted  to  rules,  lost  weight,  and  was  happy. 

II 

The  '  African  Committee  '  mentioned  in  this  letter  was 
the  famous  inquiry  '  into  the  origin  and  circumstances  of 
the  incursion  into  the  South  African  Republic  by  an  armed 
force  '  to  which  he  had  been  appointed  in  August  1896. 
From  this  time  forward  South  African  affairs  played  so 
large  a  part  in  his  public  life  that  an  opportunity  may 
conveniently  be  found  here  to  recall  the  circumstances  of 
this  time. 

For  six  years  or  more  a  stubborn  duel  had  been  in  pro- 
gress between  Mr.  Cecil  Rhodes  and  Mr.  Kruger,  the  President 
of  the  South  African  Republic.  Mr.  Rhodes's  idea  was 
the  union  of  South  Africa  up  to  the  Zambesi  under  British 
influence  ;  Mr.  Kruger's  the  defence  of  Dutch  independ- 
ence with  the  Transvaal  as  its  rallying  point.  When  Mr. 
Rhodes  went  as  a  young  man  to  South  Africa,  the  prevalent 
opinion  was,  in  the  words  of  the  Cape-Dutch  leader,  Mr. 
Hofmeyr,  that  '  the  north  was  Kruger's  inheritance.' 
Against  that  he  set  his  face.  The  North,  in  Mr.  Rhodes's 
view,  had  to  be  British.  If  the  Dutch  got  it,  they  would 
prevent  the  British  from  following,  set  up  hostile  tariffs, 
bar  the  railways,  and  prevent  the  flow  of  trade  on  which 
the  southern  colonies  depended.  This  was  a  shrewd  and 
sound  idea,  which  was  no  sooner  conceived  than  acted  upon 
with  energy  and  courage.  It  required  that  Kruger  should 
be  anticipated  in  the  North,  and  shut  out  from  the  West 
or  from  any  region  where  he  could  stride  across  the  road 
from  the  Cape  to  the  North.  Up  to  1895  Kruger  had  lost 
and  Rhodes  won  every  point  in  the  game.  The  North  was 


THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  COMMITTEE    189 

secured  for   the  Chartered  Company,   Bechuanaland   was    CHAP. 

annexed  by  the  Imperial  Government,   the  forlorn  treks  » ^ , 

and  spasmodic  raids  by  which  the  Boers  attempted  to  /ET-  58~62' 
anticipate  or  overtake  their  unsleeping  rival  were  without 
exception  headed  off  or  turned  back.  The  understanding 
between  England  and  Portugal,  and  the  1884  convention 
cut  them  off  from  the  sea  on  the  East ;  and  by  letting  the 
Swaziland  Convention  expire  they  had  missed  their  one 
opportunity  of  getting  a  port  with  the  consent  of  Great 
Britain.1  History,  in  fact,  could  show  no  better  example 
ol  skilful  and  busings-like  imperialism  than  British  enter- 
prise  during  the  half-dozen  years  which  ended  in  1895.  So 
far  as  Mr.  Rhodes  was  concerned,  it  was  a  remarkable  piece 
of  work,  conducted  with  consummate  tact  and  skill,  un- 
scrupulous perhaps  and  high-handed  in  certain  details,  but 
on  the  whole,  legitimate  competition  in  which  the  victory 
was  to  the  strongest,  the  quickest  and  the  most  far-seeing. 
If  there  was  anything  to  wonder  at,  it  was  not  that  President 
Kruger  should  have  resisted  the  process  which  threw  him 
back  within  his  boundaries,  shut  him  from  the  sea  and 
surrounded  him  with  British  territory,  but  that  Mr.  Rhodes 
should  have  carried  it  through  without  alienating  the 
Dutch  in  Cape  Colony.  So  far,  nothing  could  have  been 
more  enlightened  or  more  successful  than  his  idea  of  carry- 
ing the  Dutch  with  him  in  what  he  conceived  to  be  the 
destiny  of  South  Africa. 

But  in  1895  there  still  remained  one  stubborn  problem 
which  seemed  unamenable  to  reason.  The  discovery  of 
gold  in  the  Transvaal  and  the  consequent  inrush  of  a  mining 
population  had  produced  a  bitter  local  quarrel.  There  was 
nothing  strange  or  unexpected  in  this.  The  same  causes 
had  produced  the  same  results  in  many  parts  of  the  world. 
It  was  natural  that  Kruger  should  desire  to  protect  his 
burghers  from  being  swamped  by  the  newcomers.  It  was 
inevitable  that  the  newcomers  should  resent  the  measures 
that  he  took  for  this  purpose.  The  Kruger  policy  was 
antiquated  and  vexatious,  and  it  was  alleged  that  many 

1  Bryce,  Impressions  of  South  Africa,  3rd  edition,  pp.  167-8. 


190    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    of  the  officials  who  had  been  imported  from  Europe  to 
*  administer    the   mining  settlement   had   become   corrupt. 


1895-1898.  jyjr  Kruger  ancj  m-s  group  were  evidently  seeking  to  com- 
bine incompatibles  —  to  encourage  gold  mining  and  profit 
by  the  new  wealth,  and  at  the  same  time  to  keep  the 
mining  population  under  disabilities  which  would  preserve 
the  old  burgher  ascendancy.  Only  the  most  scrupulously 
honest  and  competent  administration  could  have  made 
this  situation  tolerable  for  any  length  of  time,  and  before 
the  close  of  1894  the  '  Uitlanders,'  or  Outlanders,  i.e.  the 
foreign  population  on  the  Rand,  were  discontented  to  the 
verge  of  rebellion.  When  Lord  Loch,  the  High  Commis- 
sioner, visited  President  Kruger  at  Pretoria  in  that  year, 
some  of  them  made  extremely  embarrassing  demonstra- 
tions which  probably  enlightened  the  President  as  to  their 
intentions,  and  led  him  to  start  the  process  of  arming 
against  them  which  so  greatly  complicated  the  situation  in 
subsequent  ye  ars  . 

The  Outlanders  now  began  to  prepare  for  action,  and  all 
through  1895  South  Africa  was  buzzing  with  their  inten- 
tions. But  though  the  word  '  revolution  '  was  freely  used, 
the  general  opinion  was  that  violence  would  be  avoided. 
Dr.  Rutherfoord  Harris,  one  of  the  Outlander  witnesses 
before  the  South  African  Committee,  said  that  what  he 
had  contemplated  was  an  '  absolutely  bloodless  revolution/ 
since  '  the  action  of  the  Transvaal  Government  was  un- 
popular not  merely  with  the  English,  but  with  the  great 
majority  of  the  British  in  Cape  Colony,  and  very  many  of 
the  subjects  of  the  Transvaal  itself  sympathised  with  the 
grievances  of  the  Reformers  and  would  not  be  prepared 
for  anything  like  a  forcible  repression  of  their  movement.' 
There  followed,  unfortunately,  not  the  bloodless  revolu- 
tion anticipated  by  this  witness,  but  the  tragic  fiasco  of 
the  Jameson  Raid.  It  appeared  afterwards  that  there 
had  been  serious  dissensions  among  the  '  Reformers  '  in 
the  last  months  of  1895.  Some  wanted  the  new  regime  to 
;  be  under  the  British  flag  ;  others  wished  for  a  new  inde- 
pendent Republic.  Many  had  never  seriously  contem- 


THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  RAID  191 

i  plated  taking  rifles  into  their  hands  and  lining  barricades.    CHAP. 
:  In  the  early  part  of  December  1895,  it  was  the  opinion  of 


Mr.  Rhodes  himself  that  the  revolution  would  come  to  ^ 
nothing.  Then  suddenly,  on  December  31,  Dr.  Jameson 
made  a  rush  for  Johannesburg  with  the  five  hundred  troopers 
I  belonging  to  the  Chartered  Company  whom  the  Imperial 
Government  had  permitted  to  be  brought  down  to  Pitsani 
on  the  Bechuanaland  border.  It  was  a  feather-brained 
enterprise,  lacking  in  every  element  of  success,  political 
or  military,  and  Dr.  Jameson  and  his  men  were  easily 
intercepted  and  captured.  But  the  effect  in  South  Africa, 
in  this  country,  and  all  over  the  world  was  lamentable.  The 
British  were  deeply  mortified  and  the  Dutch  bitterly  in- 
censecL  At  one  blow  Dr.  Jameson  had  shattered  Mr. 
Rhodes'  life-long  policy  of  working  with  the  Dutch ; 
reinstated  Mr.  Kruger  ;  prepared  the  ground  for  an  alliance 
between  the  Transvaal  and  the  Orange  Free  State,  and, 
generally  speaking,  thrown  all  Dutch  sympathies  in  South 
Africa  on  to  the  side  of  the  Boer  President.  In  the  middle 
of  the  turmoil  came  the  German  Emperor's  telegram  to 
President  Kruger,  which  greatly  angered  opinion  at  home, 
and  added  a  European  complication  to  the  South  African 
embroilment. 

in 

There  never  was  a  more  testing  situation  for  the  Imperial 
Government.  Unless  that  Government  acted  wisely,  made 
amends  to  the  Boers,  did  even  justice  to  its  own  subjects 
who  had  broken  the  law,  and  generally  showed  itself  clean- 
hand*  d  and  clear  of  complicity,  war  between  the  two  races 
was  almost  certain  to  follow.  Unhappily,  in  1896  the 
atmosphere  was  not  favourable  to  cool  counsels  or  even- 
handed  justice.  The  Boer  Government  acted  with  gene- 
rosity in  releasing  Dr.  Jameson  and  hi-;  companions  and 
handing  them  over  to  the  Imperial  authorities  for  trial  at 
home,  but  wiped  out  any  credit  which  might  have  accrued 
to  it  from  this  act  by  proceeding  with  rigour  against  the 
other  Reformers,  four  of  whom  were  actually  sentenced  to 


192    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    death.     London  society  and  the  home  public  retaliated  by 
making  heroes  of  Dr.  Jameson  and  Mr.  Rhodes,  who  were 


1895-1898.  ju(jge(i  to  have  sinned  merely  by  excess  of  patriotism.  Pre- 
sident Kruger's  refusal — popularly  ascribed  to  German 
instigation — of  Mr.  Chamberlain's  invitation  to  him  to 
come  to  London  and  discuss  the  whole  situation  in  an 
amicable  manner  made  bad  no  better ;  and  1896  was  not 
far  advanced  before  it  became  clear  that  none  of  the  parties 
were  likely  to  act  in  a  cool  or  judicial  manner.  At  the 
trial  of  the  Raiders,  which  took  place  at  the  Old  Bailey 
in  June,  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  sternly  repressed  demon- 
strations and  insisted  on  a  strict  application  of  the  law, 
but  the  House  of  Commons  was  scarcely  in  the  same 
mood,  and  it  was  always  highly  improbable  that  a  Select 
Committee  of  its  members  would  prove  a  suitable  body 
for  the  inquiry  which  all  parties,  including  the  Government, 
agreed  to  be  imperative. 

The  Committee  was  appointed  at  the  close  of  the  session 
of  1896,  but  could  do  no  more  that  year  than  ask  for  its 
reappointment  at  the  beginning  of  the  following  session 
and  adjourn  its  proceedings  till  then.  In  the  meantime 
the  Cape  Parliament  had  held  an  inquiry  of  its  own  and 
established  the  facts,  so  far  as  they  concerned  persons  in 
South  Africa,  in  a  manner  which  Mr.  Rhodes  accepted  as 
fair  and  just.  These  facts  were  that  in  starting  when  he 
did  Mr.  Jameson  had  acted  on  his  own  initiative  and  un- 
beknown to  Mr.  Rhodes  and  the  Johannesburg  Reformers, 
but  that  Mr.  Rhodes  was  an  active  instigator  of  the  Johannes- 
burg conspiracy,  and  had  intended  Jameson's  force  to  be 
used  in  its  support  at  the  proper  moment.  That  upon  the 
Raid  becoming  known  the  '  letter  of  invitation  '  concocted  at 
Johannesburg  in  November,  which  alleged  an  urgent  need  of 
help  to  avert  danger  from  women  and  children,  was  cabled 
to  London  on  his  instructions,  and  a  fictitious  date  inserted 
in  it ;  and  that  Mr.  Rhodes  had  refused  to  disown  Jameson 
and  to  join  the  High  Commissioner  in  recalling  him.  There 
was,  therefore,  no  question  of  Mr.  Rhodes's  complicity  in 
the  conspiracy  and  preparations  for  the  Raid  (though  not  in 


THE  JOHANNESBURG  CONSPIRACY    193 

the  Raid  itself)  ;    and  there  was  abundant  evidence  which    CHAP. 

XL 


could  not  be  challenged  of  the  extent  to  which  he  and 
certain  other  directors  and  leading  spirits  in  the  Chartered  ^L1>  58"' 
Company  had  financed  the  Johannesburg  movement  and 
provided  it  with  supplies  and  munitions  from  the  Com- 
pany's stores.  All  this  was  established  and  undisputed 
before  the  Committee  met,  but  there  remained  the  very 
serious  question  of  the  part  which  the  Imperial  Govern- 

j.  j-  j. 

ment  had  played,  and  this  above  all  else  was  what  the 

Committee  was  expected  to  explore. 


But  this  was  not  quite  the  simple  issue  that  it  was  popu- 
larly supposed  to  be.  It  was  unquestionably  the  business 
of  the  Imperial  Government  to  be  informed  of  any  trouble 
that  might  be  impending  in  the  Transvaal,  but  it  certainly 
was  not  its  business  to  foment  or  encourage  such  trouble 
or  to  take  any  part  except  a  preventive  and  restraining 
one.  If  it  thought  trouble  inevitable,  it  was  certainly 
justified  in  taking  measures  which  would  enable  it  to  inter- 
vene for  the  protection  of  its  subjects,  but  as  certainly  it 
was  not  justified  in  preparing  any  force  to  side  with  the 
revolutionaries  against  the  lawful  Government  of  the 
Transvaal.  It  is  easy  to  make  these  distinctions  on  paper, 
but  in  practice  a  very  fine  line  divided  foreknowledge  from 
connivance  and  precautionary  measures  from  partnership  ; 
and  in  the  highly  charged  atmosphere  of  South  Africa  it 
was  easily  believed  that  the  Colonial  Office  had  over- 
stepped this  line,  and  that,  when  it  leased  the  Bechuana- 
land  strip  to  the  Chartered  Company  and  permitted  Dr. 
Jameson  to  bring  his  troopers  to  that  spot,  it  not  only  fore- 
saw but  was  a  party  to  the  revolution  and  approved  of  Mr. 
Rhodes's  designs.  More  serious  still,  the  Rhodesians  had 
behaved  in  such  a  way  as  to  lend  colour  to  these  suspicions, 
for  in  the  months  following  the  Raid  they  fought  desperately 
to  save  the  Charter  of  the  South  African  Company,  and 
hinted  not  obscurely  at  disclosures  which  they  might  and 
would  make  if  the  penalties  inflicted  on  them  or  those  who 
took  part  in  the  Raid  exceeded  the  minimum  which  for 
appearances  they  were  willing  to  accept. 

VOL.  i.  N 


194    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.        It    is    here    probably    that    we    get    the    clue    to    the 
attitude  of  Sir  William  Harcourt  and  Campbell-Banner- 


1895-1898.  mari)  who  were  the  principal  Opposition  members  on  the 
Committee.1  Mr.  Chamberlain  had  taken  the  Opposition 
leaders  into  his  confidence  at  the  time  of  the  Raid,  and 
they  had  been  favourably  impressed  by  the  prompt  and 
energetic  measures  he  had  taken  to  recall  and  disown  Dr. 
Jameson.  The  Rhodesians,  as  it  seemed  to  them,  had  not 
only  committed  a  most  serious  offence,  but  they  had  aggra- 
vated it  first  by  alleging  the  complicity  of  the  Imperial 
authorities  in  order  to  overcome  the  objections  of  their 
more  scrupulous  supporters,  and  next  by  persisting  in  this 
allegation  to  save  themselves  from  punishment.  Both  Sir 
William  Harcourt  and  Campbell-Bannerman  had  a  high 
sense  of  the  dignity  of  the  Imperial  Government,  and  those 
who  resorted  to  these  means  seemed  to  them  to  be  guilty 
of  an  outrage  which  placed  them  beyond  the  pale.  '  They 
operated,'  said  Sir  William  Harcourt  in  the  debate  of 
February  20,  1900,  '  to  draw  the  Colonial  Office  in,  so  as 
to  be  able  to  say  to  South  Africa,  "  the  Colonial  Office  is 
behind  us."  I  want  to  have  that  shown  up.  I  want  to 
have  the  conduct  of  these  men  who  have  stuck  at  nothing — 
these  unscrupulous  men  who  have  deceived  everybody, 
who  have  ruined  the  character  of  the  British  nation  for 
honesty  and  fair  dealing — shown  up  in  its  true  light.' 
Campbell-Bannerman  on  the  same  occasion  made  the  House 
of  Commons  smile  by  attributing  the  failure  of  the  Com- 
mittee to  cross-examine  Mr.  Hawksley  to  its  regard  for 
the  dignity  of  the  House  of  Commons.  '  He  had  un- 
doubtedly flouted  the  Committee  and  flouted  Parliament 
(by  refusing  to  produce  the  alleged  incriminating  telegram) 
and  it  would  have  been  an  extraordinary  thing  in  the 
circumstances  to  have  recalled  him  and  proceed  with  the 
examination  of  this  contumacious  person  as  if  nothing  had 
happened.  These  were  the  perfectly  simple  and  straight- 

1  The  other  Opposition  members  of  the  Committee  were  Mr.  J.  E.  Ellis, 
Mr.  Sydney  (now  Earl)  Buxton,  and  Mr.  Labouchere,  the  last  of  whom 
signed  a  separate  report. 


WILLING  TO  WOUND  195 

forward  reasons  which  governed  the  Committee/     No  one    CHAP. 
doubted   Campbell-Bannerman's    straightforwardness,    but 


the  comment  was  made  that  this  kind  of  simplicity  was  /ET<  58~ 
fatal  to  the  discovery  of  truth.  For  if  an  important  witness 
could  defy  the  Committee  by  refusing  to  produce  material 
evidence  and  then  escape  cross-examination  on  the  ground 
that  he  had  been  contumacious,  the  investigation  was 
bound  to  be  brought  to  a  standstill. 

A  Committee  on  which  the  Minister  whose  conduct  was 
a  principal  subject  of  the  inquiry  sat  on  equal  terms  with 
those  who  were  appointed  to  pass  judgment  on  it  could 
scarcely  in  any  case  have  been  judicial,  but  these  preposses- 
sions on  Sir  William  Harcourt's  and  Campbell-Bannerman's 
part  probably  disabled  it  still  further  as  a  means  of  ascer- 
taining the  truth.  Its  proceedings,  which  lasted  from  the 
beginning  of  February  to  June  7,  1897,  were  altogether 
bewildering  to  the  public.  The  Rhodesians  seemed  '  willing 
to  wound  and  yet  afraid  to  strike.'  They  let  it  be  known 
that  their  agents  had  been  in  constant  communication 
with  the  Colonial  Office  before  the  Raid  and  had  sent  a 
series  of  telegrams  to  their  chief  in  South  Africa,  suggesting 
that  the  Imperial  authorities  were  behind  him,  and  that 
he  had  used  these  '  to  support  his  action,'  but  they  refused 
to  produce  the  telegrams,  and  no  steps  were  taken  to  compel 
them.  When  some  of  these  telegrams  were  produced  by  the 
Cable  Company,  the  principal  witnesses  were  not  recalled  for 
cross-examination  upon  them,  and  those  who  tendered  ex- 
planations seemed  to  be  trifling  with  the  Committee.  Some 
important  witnesses,  like  Mr.  Fairfield  of  the  Colonial  Office, 
were  dead ;  others,  like  Earl  Grey,  were  in  South  Africa ; 
another,  Dr.  Rutherfoord  Harris,  could  not  be  recalled  because 
his  address  could  not  be  found.  No  one  was  pressed  for  any 
documents  that  he  did  not  wish  to  produce,  and  the  pre- 
sumption was  accepted  that  those  documents  which  had 
been  produced  were  a  sufficient  sample  of  the  whole,  and 
that  since  these  were  capable  of  being  explained  or  explained 
away,  there  was  no  need  to  trouble  about  the  remainder. 
The  Report  denounced  Mr.  Rhodes  and  gravely  censured  the 


196    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    two  officials,  Sir  Graham  Bower,  the  Colonial  Secretary  at 

XT 

the  Cape,  and  Mr.  Newton,  the  Bechuanaland  Administrator 


1895-1898.  (Wk0  aione  of  aii  those  concerned  seem  to  have  taken  their 
punishment  without  complaint  or  reprisals),  but  to  the 
question  '  whether  the  Colonial  Office  officials  at  home  had 
received  information  that  could  be  assumed  to  convey  a 
warning  of  the  impending  incursion/  it  returned  a  decisive 
negative.1 

IV 

The  public  were  by  no  means  indisposed  to  accept  this 
finding,  but  they  were  greatly  perplexed  and  disturbed  by 
the  methods  by  which  it  had  been  reached.  Liberals  in 
particular  blamed  their  spokesmen,  and  especially  Sir 
William  Harcourt  and  Campbell-Bannerman,  for  having 
failed  to  break  through  what  they  considered  to  be  a  con- 
spiracy of  silence.  Others  surmised  reasons  of  State  dis- 
closed privately  to  the  leaders  of  the  Opposition  as  the 
explanation  of  a  forbearance  which  seemed  otherwise  in- 
explicable. Campbell-Bannerman  stated  repeatedly  that 
this  allegation  was  groundless.  '  There  was  a  suspicion/ 
he  told  the  House  of  Commons  in  1900,  '  that  there  was 
something  known  to  members  of  the  Committee  which  was 
not  disclosed  to  the  public,  that  some  understanding  had 
been  communicated  to  them,  some  arrangement  come  to 
which  influenced  their  action.  I  can  only  say  for  myself— 
and  I  am  also  sure  every  other  member  of  the  Committee 

1  Apparently  Sir  William  Harcourt  intended  this  answer  to  be  strictly 
limited  to  Dr.  Jameson's  operations  on  Dec.  31,  1895  (of  which  Mr.  Rhodes 
also  disclaimed  foreknowledge),  for  in  the  diary  of  the  late  Lord  Harcourt 
the  following  passage  occurs  :  '  He  (Sir  William  Harcourt)  was  early 
convinced  and  finally  satisfied  that  Chamberlain  was  not  privy  to  and  had 
no  previous  knowledge  of  the  Raid,  and  had  never  encouraged  or  approved 
it.  He  always  believed,  though  this  could  not  be  subjected  to  proof,  that 
Chamberlain  was  aware  of,  and  by  implication  a  participant  in,  the 
preparations  for  a  rising  in  Johannesburg,  and  he  never  ceased  to  hold 
this  belief  to  the  end.  He  also  thought  that  this  privity  rendered  Cham- 
berlain liable  to  something  in  the  nature  of  "  severe  pressure  "  by  Miss 
Flora  Shaw,  Rhodes,  Rutherfoord  Harris,  Dr.  Jameson,  and  others  to 
conceal  or  prevent  the  production  of  possibly  illuminating  documents  or 
information.' — Life  of  Sir  William  Harcourt,  vol.  li.  p.  429. 


MR.  RHODES  AND  MR.  CHAMBERLAIN  197 

will  say  it  though  I  am  not  obliged  to  speak  for  them —  CHAP. 
that  I  heard  nothing  and  I  was  told  nothing.  I  did  not 
hear  of  any  one  else  hearing  anything  or  being  told  anything.' 
What  he  said  in  public  he  repeated  in  private  to  the  end 
of  his  life,  and  no  one  who  knew  him  could  doubt  for  a 
moment  that  he  was  telling  the  absolute  truth  and  the  whole 
of  the  truth,  so  far  as  it  was  within  his  knowledge.  He 
took  Sir  William  Harcourt's  view  of  the  conduct  of  Mr. 
Rhodes  and  believed,  like  Sir  William,  that  Mr.  Rhodes 
and  his  associates  had  first  employed  the  theory  of  Colonial 
Office  complicity  in  order  to  bring  the  waverers  into  their 
conspiracy  and  afterwards  persisted  in  it  in  order  to  escape 
punishment.  Men  who  had  so  little  regard  for  the  public 
interest  and  were  guilty  of  the  long  course  of  fraud  and 
duplicity  which  on  their  own  showing  was  brought  home 
to  them,  were  not,  in  his  opinion,  credible  witnesses  whose 
allegations  required  serious  consideration  in  face  of  the 
Colonial  Secretary's  emphatic  denials.  Holding  these  views, 
it  seemed  to  him,  as  it  did  to  Sir  William  Harcourt,  that  the 
imperative  duty  of  the  Committee  was  to  convict  the  real 
criminals  with  the  least  possible  delay  and  not  to  permit 
itself  to  be  drawn  off  the  scent  or  dragged  on  into  another 
session  by  a  vain  hunt  for  the  missing  telegrams,  or  the 
pursuit  of  evasive  witnesses,  who  would  probably  be  in  the 
heart  of  Africa  when  wanted  in  the  Committee  room.  The 
winding-up  of  the  Committee  and  the  framing  of  its  Report 
on  the  theory  that  the  Rhodesians  were  solely  to  blame 
thus  followed  naturally  from  these  views,  and  the  chief 
part  of  the  Report  appears  to  have  been  actually  written  by 
Sir  \Villiam  Harcourt.  Sir  William,  indeed,  was  of  opinion 
that  he  had  won  a  signal  triumph  in  persuading  the  Com- 
mittee to  accept  his  scathing  condemnation  of  Mr.  Rhodes, 
and  on  seeing  his  draft,  Campbell-Bannerman  expressed 
grave  doubts  whether  he  would  ever  get  it  accepted. 

v 

But  then  followed  a  shattering  blow  both  to  Sir  William 
and  to  Campbell-Bannerman.     In  the  debate  which  took 


198    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    place  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  Report  of  the  Com- 
mittee,1 Mr.  Chamberlain,  rising  late  in  the  evening  when 


1895-1898.  ^h  Of  them  had  exhausted  their  right  to  speak,  largely 
wiped  out  the  censure  which  the  Report  had  passed  on  Mr. 
Rhodes,  by  giving  him  a  certificate  of  personal  honour  : — 

But  as  to  one  thing,  I  am  perfectly  convinced — that  while  the 
fault  of  Mr.  Rhodes  is  about  as  great  a  fault  as  a  politician  or  a 
statesman  can  commit,  there  has  been  nothing  proved — and  in 
my  opinion  there  exists  nothing— which  affects  Mr.  Rhodes's 
personal  position  as  a  man  of  honour.  It  is  said  by  some  members 
who  take  a  different  view  that  he  deceived  this  person  and  that 
person.  That  is  perfectly  true  ;  but  that  is  part  of  the  original 
offence.  If  a  man  goes  into  a  revolution,  he  may  be  right  or  he 
may  be  wrong.  In  this  case  Mr.  Rhodes  was  wrong.  But  if  a 
man  goes  into  a  revolution,  it  follows  on  as  a  matter  of  course, 
that  he  must  deceive  other  people.2 

So  far  as  policy  entered  into  their  findings,  the  main  idea 
of  the  Liberal  leaders  was  that  in  the  dangerous  situation 
in  South  Africa  the  peace  would  best  be  secured  by  dis- 
sociating the  Imperial  Government  from  all  complicity  in 
Raid  or  conspiracy,  and  by  driving  a  wedge  between  Mr. 
Chamberlain  and  Mr.  Rhodes.  The  last  thing  that  seems 
to  have  occurred  to  either  of  them  was  that  the  Colonial 
Secretary  would  wipe  out  the  censure  on  Mr.  Rhodes  by 
giving  him  this  public  testimonial  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
Mr.  Chamberlain  had  signed  the  Report  and  accepted  their 
theory  of  Mr.  Rhodes's  guilt.  They  had  assumed  that 
serious  consequences  must  follow,  and  that  it  would  at 
least  be  a  question  whether  Mr.  Rhodes  could  be  permitted 
to  remain  a  member  of  the  Privy  Council.  In  any  case  it 
seemed  incredible  to  them  that  Mr.  Chamberlain  could  go 

1  July  26,  1897,  Mr.  Philip  Stanhope's  motion. 

2  '  There  was  a  widespread  view  that  the  testimonial  to  Rhodes  had 
been  wrung  from  him  (Mr.  Chamberlain)  by  the  threat  that,  if  Rhodes 
was  humiliated,  the  suppressed  telegrams  would  be  disclosed,  and  it  was 
said  at  the  time  with  a  good  deal  of  authority  that  a  member  connected 
with  the  Rhodes  group  had  come  to  the  House  armed  with  copies  of  the 
telegrams  and  prepared  to  read  them,  if  Chamberlain's  attitude  had  not 
proved  satisfactory.' — Life  of  Sir  William  Harcourt,  by  A.  G.  Gardiner, 
ii.  436.     See  also  Annual  Register,  1897,  p.  169. 


AN  EMBARRASSING  SPEECH          199 

out  of  his  way  to  speak  in  these  terms  of  a  man  who,  on    CHAP. 
their  theory,  the  theory  of  the  Report,  the  theory  which 


Mr.  Chamberlain  himself  had  accepted,  had  been  guilty  of 
outrageous  conduct  towards  him  personally.  '  I  was  never 
more  astonished,  and  I  will  say  I  was  never  more  shocked 
than  when  I  heard  that  speech/  Sir  William  told  the  House 
of  Commons  three  years  later.  The  House  and  the  public 
generally  were  scarcely  less  astonished,  and  more  than  ever 
the  impression  prevailed  that  there  was  something  behind 
which  the  Committee  had  failed  to  discover.  Mr.  Chamber- 
lain could  hardly  have  been  unaware  that  this  speech  was 
bound  to  be  specially  embarrassing  to  the  Opposition 
leaders.  They  had  risked  a  good  deal  to  resist  the  partisans 
who  were  convinced  of  his  complicity,  and  who  saw  or 
thought  they  saw  the  opportunity  of  a  grand  exposure. 
They  had  stood  loyally  to  their  conception  of  the  public 
interest,  and  refused  to  let  any  party  considerations  prevent 
them  from  doing  justice  to  a  political  opponent.  Now 
Mr.  Chamberlain  himself  had  thrown  them  over,  and  come 
perilously  near  making  nonsense  of  the  theory  on  which 
they  had  acted.  Liberals  had  been  angry  before  at  what 
they  considered  to  be  the  ineptitude  of  their  representatives 
on  the  Committee  ;  large  numbers  of  them  were  now  con- 
vinced that  both  Harcourt  and  Campbell-Bannerman  had 
permitted  themselves  to  be  duped  by  Mr.  Chamberlain. 

VI 

Suspicions  were  not  allayed  when,  as  time  went  on,  no 
steps  were  taken  against  Mr.  Rhodes,  and  the  two  officials, 
Sir  Graham  Bower  and  Mr.  Newton,  who  were  censured  by 
the  Committee,  were  restored  to  the  public  service  and 
given  fresh  employment  by  the  Colonial  Office.  That  these 
men  had  been  made  scapegoats,  who  could  not  justly  be 
punished  if  Mr.  Rhodes  and  more  highly  placed  offenders 
were  immune,  was  the  natural  inference.  When  in  the 
following  year  the  Independance  Beige  published  a  batch 
of  the  suppressed  telegrams,  said  to  have  been  stolen  from 
the  desk  of  Mr.  Rhodes's  solicitor,  Mr.  Hawksley,  there 


200    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    were  still  further  questionings.     The  new  telegrams  were 
^  on  the  lines  of  those  disclosed  to  the  Committee  and  capable, 


8981  like  those,  of  being  explained  on  the  theory  that  the  senders 
of  them  had  misunderstood  or  misrepresented  the  views  of 
the  Colonial  Office,  but  it  now  appeared  that  a  correspond- 
ence,  of  which  the  Committee^  had  known  nothing,  had 
passed  about  them  between  Mr.  Chamberlain  and  Mr. 
Hawksley.  This  matter  was  discussed  in  the  House  of 
Commons  after  the  war  had  broken  out  in  1899,  and  certain 
Opposition  speakers  now  demanded  the  production  of 
these  letters.  To  this  Mr.  Chamberlain  retorted  that  he 
was  not  prepared  to  gratify  '  the  spiteful  curiosity  '  of  his 
political  opponents,  but  that  he  was  willing  to  show  the 
correspondence  privately  to  Sir  William  and  Sir  Henry.1 
Both  agreed  that  the  communication  to  them  of  documents 
which  were  refused  to  the  House  would  be  contrary  to  all 
parliamentary  propriety,  and  a  probable  cause  of  embarrass- 
ment to  them  for  no  public  object. 

But  from  this  time  forward  they  joined  with  their  colleagues 
and  the  Opposition  generally  in  the  demand  that  the  inquiry 
should  be  reopened,  and  on  February  20,  1900,  both  seized 
the  opportunity  of  a  motion  to  that  effect,  moved  by  Mr. 
Philip  Stanhope  and  subsequently  amended  to  meet  their 
wishes  by  Mr.  Birrell,  to  explain  their  position  to  the  House. 
Parts  of  their  speeches  on  this  occasion  have  already  been 
quoted,  but  one  or  two  points  may  be  added.  Campbell- 
Bannerman  still  claimed  that  the  Committee  '  exposed  the 
whole  story,  the  manufactured  revolution,  the  lavish 
expenditure  with  such  futile  results  and  the  ludicrous  but 
inevitable  collapse.'  '  They  showed/  he  said,  '  how  from 
first  to  last  it  was  the  creation  of  Mr.  Rhodes  and  his  friends, 
and  how  shallow  were  the  pretences  by  which  it  was  sought 
to  hoodwink  British  feeling.'  He  also  repeated  his  view 
that  the  telegrams  produced  were  '  a  good  enough  sample  for 
the  judgment  to  be  formed  that  conduct  such  as  that  was 
inconsistent  with  even  a  decent  standard  of  honour.'  Next 
he  dealt  with  the  explanation  which  Mr.  Chamberlain  had 

1  Oct.  19,  1899. 


THREE  YEARS  LATER       201 

offered  that  he  had  only  intended  this  exculpation  to  apply    CHAP. 
to  the  charge  of  dishonest  pecuniary  motives  and  dealings 


that  had  been  brought  against  Mr.  Rhodes  :- 

The  Rt.  Hon.  gentleman  to-night  explained  that  he  merely 
said  Mr.  Rhodes  had  done  nothing  inconsistent  with  the  conduct 
of  a  man  of  honour  because  he  did  not  consider  him  guilty  of 
what  he  had  been  accused — namely,  sordid  and  selfish  aims  and 
purposes.  That  is  not  the  question,  and  that,  I  venture  to  say, 
was  not  the  question  with  which  the  Rt.  Hon.  gentleman  was 
dealing  when  he  made  his  speech.  He  says  that  any  one  who 
enters  into  revolutionary  methods  and  joins  a  conspiracy  must 
be  expected  to  tell  falsehoods.  That  may  be  so,  and  that  may  be, 
as  far  as  it  goes,  an  excuse  in  the  case  of  a  private  individual. 
But  this  is  not  the  case  of  a  private  person  ;  it  is  the  case  of  the 
Prime  Minister  of  a  Colony,  of  a  public  servant  who  is  bound  to 
do  his  duty  to  those  with  whose  affairs  he  is  charged,  and  it  is 
towards  them  and  not  towards  the  other  country  in  which  he  is 
fomenting  a  revolution  that  he  exhibits  falsehood  and  treachery. 
Surely  the  Rt.  Hon.  gentleman  never  intended  to  imply  that 
conduct  such  as  that  was  consistent  with  even  a  decent  standard 
of  honour.  And  can  we  wonder  that  the  extraordinary  exculpa- 
tion of  Mr.  Rhodes  by  the  Colonial  Secretary  obliterated  the 
exculpation  of  the  Colonial  Secretary  by  the  Committee  and  left 
doubts  and  suspicions  as  to  the  relations  of  the  Colonial  Office 
with  the  conspirators  in  South  Africa  worse  than  they  were 
before  ? 

This,  then,  was  his  attitude  three  years  after  the  Report 
had  been  issued.  The  Committee  had  done  its  best,  and, 
on  the  facts  before  it,  it  had  taken  the  right  course  in  refus- 
ing to  prolong  its  inquiry  and  declaring  at  the  earliest 
Mblr  moment  its  condemnation  of  the  men  it  judged 
really  guilty  ;  but  its  intentions  had  been  frustrated  by 
Mr.  Chamberlain  himself  and  new  facts  had  come  to  light 
whirl i  demanded  further  inquiry.  By  1900,  unhappily,  the 
mischief  had  been  done  and  no  further  inquiry  at  that 
moment  could  have  undone  it.  A  very  few  weeks  before 
this  debate  (Jan.  9,  1900)  Mr.  Balfour  had  replied  to  critics 
of  the  Government  who  asked  why  they  had  not  called 
upon  the  Transvaal  to  disarm,  that  '  our  hands  were  tied 
and  our  mouths  were  closed  by  the  Raid.'  The  critics 


202    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    retorted  that  if  hands  were  tied  and  mouths  closed,  it  was 
not  merely  by  the  Raid  but  still  more  by  the  failure  to  do 


1895-1898.  jus£ice  after  the  Raid,  and  the  evident  reluctance  of  the 
Government  to  probe  the  circumstances  to  the  bottom 
and  dispense  impartial  justice  to  the  offenders.  In  later 
days  when  controversy  became  heated  and  the  sections 
of  the  Liberal  Party  were  disputing  with  each  other  as  to 
whether  the  war  which  followed  was  inevitable,  some  of  his 
Liberal  critics  retorted  upon  Campbell-Bannerman  that  as 
a  member  of  this  Committee  he  had  been  a  party  to  pro- 
ceedings which  greatly  contributed  to  making  it  so.  He 
was,  on  the  contrary,  of  opinion  that  not  the  proceedings  of 
the  Committee  but  the  failure  of  the  Government  to  take 
action  upon  them  was  the  cause  of  the  mischief,  and  for 
this  he  held  that  the  responsibility  rested  entirely  upon 
Mr.  Chamberlain. 

VII 

The  story  that  he  and  Sir  William  Harcourt  had  con- 
nived at  a  policy  of  concealment  on  secret  representations 
from  Mr.  Chamberlain  remained  in  currency  during  1897 
and  1898,  in  spite  of  all  denials,  and  in  August  1901  yet 
another  theory  was  suggested  by  the  Spectator  on  the 
strength  of  a  letter l  from  a  correspondent  signing  himself 
'  C.  B.,'  which  alleged  that  Mr.  Rhodes  had  ingratiated 
himself  with  Liberal  leaders  by  a  donation  of  £5000  to  the 
party  funds,  and  thereby  obtained  from  them  a  promise 
that  Egypt  should  not  be  evacuated.  This  letter,  said  the 
Spectator,  in  an  editorial  comment,  '  incidentally  explained 
the  greatest  of  all  the  mysteries  in  regard  to  Mr.  Rhodes 
— the  mystery  of  why  the  Liberals  on  the  South  African 
Committee  allowed  Mr.  Rhodes  to  get  off  so  very 
easily,'  and  afforded  a  clue  to  '  the  extraordinary  conduct 
of  the  nominally  anti-Rhodes  members  of  the  South 
African  Committee,  Sir  William  Harcourt  and  Sir  Henry 
Campbell-Bannerman.'  For  '  These  gentlemen,'  continued 
the  Spectator,  '  if  the  transaction  recorded  is  correct,  were 

1  Aug.  3,  1901. 


POLICY  AND  PARTY  FUNDS          203 

at  the  mercy  of  Mr.  Rhodes.     They  might,  as  we  in  fact    CHAP. 

noticed  at  the  time  that  they  did,  perform  a  stage  combat  v ^ — < 

and  make  valiant  passes  over  Mr.  Rhodes's  head,  but  they  MT'  5 
knew  that  if  they  really  pressed  him,  he  could  make  them 
supremely  ridiculous  and  something  more  by  publishing 
the  story  of  how  he  bought  and  they — or  rather  the  Liberal 
Party — sold  all  that  excellent  and  useful  policy  known  as 
the  "evacuation  of  Egypt."  No  wonder  the  South  African 
Committee  was  a  fiasco  when  Mr.  Rhodes  could  at  any 
moment  tell  the  story  of  the  £5000  and  his  dealings  with  the 
official  organisation  of  the  Liberal  Party.' 

Campbell-Bannerman  was  not  in  the  habit  of  mincing 
his  words  in  face  of  a  charge  of  this  kind,  and  he  wrote 
promptly  to  the  Spectator  :- 

Sept.  10,  1901. 

SIR, — My  attention  has  been  drawn  to  a  letter  in  your  paper 
of  last  week  signed  '  C.  B.'  retailing  a  story  regarding  a  sum  of 
money  which  is  there  said  to  have  been  given  by  Mr.  Rhodes  to 
the  Liberal  Party  in  consideration  of  the  agreement  of  the 
Liberal  Government  to  remain  in  Egypt.  This  story  you  think 
right  to  accept  or  adopt  in  an  editorial  paragraph,  and  you  draw 
from  it  an  explanation  of  the  action  taken  by  Sir  William 
Harcourt  and  myself  on  the  South  African  Committee.  I  beg 
to  say,  and  Sir  William  Harcourt  authorises  me  to  say  for  him, 
that  the  story  is  from  beginning  to  end  a  lie  and  that  your 
deductions  are  therefore  false. — I  am,  Sir,  etc., 

H.  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN. 

The  Spectator,  though  aggrieved  by  this  robust  language, 
withdrew  its  '  deductions,'  while  still  maintaining  that  its 
allegations  about  the  £5000  transaction  were  true.  So  far 
as  the  South  African  Committee  was  concerned,  the  real 
truth  of  the  matter  was  precisely  the  opposite  to  what  it 
alleged.  Both  Campbell-Bannerman  and  Sir  William  Har- 
court  wrere  so  impressed  with  the  guilt  of  Mr.  Rhodes  and 
so  convinced  of  the  immediate  necessity  of  censuring  his 
conduct  that  they  probably  attached  less  importance  than 
they  should  have  done  to  the  other  aspects  of  the  case. 
As  to  the  £5000  donation  neither  of  them  till  then  had 


204    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    heard  of  it  or  knew  anything  about  it.     It  is  no  doubt  the 
.>  rule  in  dealing  with  party  funds  not  to  let  the  right  hand 


XI. 


1895-1898.^  know  what  thc  left  hand  doeth  ^or  taketh^  but  Mr 

contribution,  as  Campbell-Bannerman  learned  on  inquiry, 
was  not  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word  a  contribution  to 
the  party  funds  at  all.  It  was  a  contribution  given  by 
Mr.  Rhodes  to  Mr.  Schnadhorst,  the  well-known  organiser 
of  the  National  Liberal  Federation,  when  he  was  on  a  visit 
to  South  Africa  in  February  1891,  and  it  was  intended  for 
use  at  the  coming  General  Election  by  that  organisation. 
Since  Mr.  Schnadhorst  had  passed  from  the  scene,  his  version 
of  the  transaction  could  not  be  heard,  but  it  appeared  from 
the  correspondence  between  him  and  Mr.  Rhodes,  which 
Mr.  Rhodes  caused  to  be  published  in  the  Spectator,'1  (i) 
that  before  giving  his  money  Mr.  Rhodes  had  expressed  his 
fear  that  a  Liberal  Government  might  evacuate  Egypt, 
and  had  been  reassured  by  Mr.  Schnadhorst ;  and  (2)  that 
after  giving  it  he  had  taken  alarm  at  certain  speeches  made 
by  Mr.  Gladstone  and  Mr.  Labouchere,  and  had  sharply 
requested  that  his  money  should  be  diverted  to  charity,  but 
had  again  been  reassured  by  Mr.  Schnadhorst,  who  professed 
to  know  what  was  in  the  minds  of  certain  of '  the  Liberal 
leaders.  It  may  reasonably  be  said  that  Mr.  Schnadhorst 
exceeded  his  functions  in  undertaking  to  inform  Mr.  Rhodes 
about  the  intentions  of  the  future  Liberal  Government, 
but  the  idea  that  Mr.  Gladstone  or  Lord  Rosebery  sold 
their  Egyptian  policy  to  Mr.  Rhodes  for  £5000,  and  that 
Sir  William  Harcourt  and  Campbell-Bannerman  were 
prevented  from  doing  their  duty  on  the  South  African 
Committee  by  a  guilty  knowledge  of  this  transaction, 
scarcely  calls  for  serious  discussion. 

In  addition  to  writing  to  the  Spectator,  Campbell-Banner- 
man wrote  to  his  Dunfermline  chairman  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  William  Robertson 

MARIENBAD,  Sept.  3,  '01. — I  have  just  received  your  letter  of 
the  30th,  and  have  telegraphed  that  I  should  like  to  see  anything 

1  Oct.  12,  1901. 


A  CHARGE  REFUTED  205 

you  think  of  sending  to  the  Spectator,  as  you  kindly  offer  to  let    CHAP. 
me  do  so.  v     XI>     „ 

The  Editor  of  that  paper  cuts  a  poor  figure,  and  if  it  were  not  ^T.  58-62. 
the  silly  season  when  the  papers  are  hard  up  for  sensation  no  one 
would  have  thought  much  of  his  fine  disclosures. 

You  will  observe  that  what  he  said  was  this  :  Rhodes  had 
given  £5000  to  the  party  funds  on  condition  that  we  adopted  the 
policy  of  remaining  in  Egypt,  and  this  explains  the  mystery  of 
Harcourt  and  me  sparing  Rhodes  at  the  enquiry. 

A  palpable  mare's  nest  !  for  Rhodes  was  not  spared  at  the 
enquiry,  on  the  contrary  he  was  condemned  in  unmeasured  terms 
\\hirh  on  the  Committee  were,  substantially,  dictated  by 
Hard  urt  and  accepted  by  Chamberlain,  as  the  published  Report 
shows. 

But  the  other  part  of  the  story  was  equally  false,  for  no 
bargain  of  the  kind  alleged  was  made  by  Rhodes  with  the  Govern- 
ment, or  could  be  made.  The  whole  tale  is  an  absurdity. 

That  Rhodes,  who  professed  to  be  a  Liberal  and  a  Home 
Ruler,  may  have  given  something  to  the  fund  may  be  true :  of 
that  H.  and  I  naturally  knew  nothing.  It  would  be  quite  in 
keeping  with  his  general  policy  if  he  did  so.  Also,  what  Schnad- 
horst  may  have  said  to  him  we  cannot  tell :  he  had  of  course 
no  authority  to  commit  the  Government,  and  whatever  he  said 
was  only  his  own  opinion. 

The  promised  documents  from  the  Cape,  therefore,  can  contain 
nothing  affecting  Harcourt  and  me. 

But  what  you  write  about  is  rather  the  question  of  the  in- 
conclusive report  of  the  Committee  which  has  been  held  to  have 
shielded  (or  at  least  let  off)  Chamberlain — not  Rhodes. 

I  am  aware  of  no  influence  in  the  matter  beyond  what  I  have\ 
stated  in  the  House  of  Commons,  viz.  the  improbability  of  any  | 
result  from  further  enquiry,  and  the  urgent  expediency  of  closing  j , 
the  matter  and  not  carrying  it  over  to  another  year. 

I  remember  that,  as  you  say,  Schreiner  was  very  strong  on 
this  latter  view :  but  I  hardly  rate  his  opinion  now  so  highly 
as  I  did  then.  The  thing,  however,  \vas  obvious.  It  is  not  easy 
to  see  how  we  could  have  got  the  telegrams  which  were  refused 
to  us,  and  even  if  we  had  (after  long  delay)  there  was  no  reason  to 
believe  that  they  would  have  been  found  less  capable  of  innocent 
explanations  than  the  Flora  Shaw  telegrams  (exactly  of  the  same 
nature)  which  we  were  able  to  see  owing  to  a  different  cable 
being  used  for  them.  Labouchere  moved  to  report  Hawksley 
to  the  House :  he  always  takes  the  extreme  line :  Blake 


206    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    supported   him.     Harcourt,    John  Ellis  and  I  voted  against 
XL     J  him. 


1895-1898.  I  have  never  believed  that  these  telegrams  would  have  done 
any  good.  What  would  have  done  good  was  to  go  on  with 
Hawksley's  examination,  who  was  engaged  in  telling  us  the  whole 
story  of  his  personal  dealings  and  interviews  with  the  Colonial 
Secretary.  The  Committee  declined  to  touch  him  any  more  as 
having  been  contumacious  and  disrespectful.  This,  I  have  long 
thought,  was  the  mistake.  Hawksley  asserts  that  he  would  have 
proved  all  sorts  of  things  against  Chamberlain. 

I  have  said  all  this  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  invited 
J.  C.  to  clear  himself  by  producing  the  private  letters  that  passed 
with  Hawksley.  But  the  telegram  part  of  the  business  I  do  not 
attach  much  importance  to,  and,  above  all,  the  whole  thing 
involves  the  conduct  not  of  Rhodes  at  all,  but  of  Chamberlain. 

Of  course  the  story  is  now  raised  by  Rhodes'  hangers-on, 
through  the  Spectator,  for  the  purpose  of  blackening  Harcourt 
and  me,  because  we  are  resisting  the  plans  and  ideas  of  their 
faction  at  the  Cape. 

We  shah1  see  what  comes  from  the  Cape  :  so  far  as  I  am  con- 
cerned I  cannot  be  affected. 

The  money  affairs  of  Party  funds  are  entirely  in  the  hands 
of  the  Chief  Whip — the  P.  Minister  himself  knows  (generally) 
nothing  of  them,  unless  in  some  particular  case  facts  come  out. 

S.  is  now  dead  :  he  was  a  friend  of  Rhodes  and  had  been  out 
at  the  Cape,  I  think,  more  than  once. 

It  is  probable  that  another  generation  will  possess  all  the 
material  necessary  to  clear  up  a  problem  which  is  still  a 
very  perplexing  one.  Only  then  will  it  be  possible  to  test 
Campbell-Bannerman's  theory  that  the  telegrams  produced 
were  a  sufficient  sample  of  the  whole.  What  is  certain  is 
that  th.£  Report  of  th^  Committee  did-not  have  the-^ffect 

^ ^^^^^^^*^^^^^ 

that  he  and  Sir  William  Harcourt  intended.     If  increased 
^  rather  than  allayed  suspicion,  and  left  the  Boers  free  to 

argue  that  Great  Britain  had  deliberately  rejected  the 
opportunity  offered  her  of  healing  the  quarrel  by  exacting 
the  due  penalties  from  those  who  were  responsible  for  the 
Raid  and  the  conspiracy.  Both  Sir  William  Harcourt 
and  Campbell-Bannerman  were  severely  blamed  at  the 
time  by  their  own  supporters  for  their  failure  to  make 


A  SEED  OF  DISTRUST 


207 


58-62. 


effective  protest  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  evening  CHAP. 
(July  26,  1897)  when  Mr.  Chamberlain  nullified  the  Report 
of  the  Committee  by  casting  his  mantle  over  Mr.  Rhodes. 
Undoubtedly,  as  most  of  the  occupants  of  the  Liberal  front 
bench  admitted  in  after  years,  there  was  at  that  moment 
a  lack  of  initiative  and  concerted  action  for  which  a  heavy 
price  had  subsequently  to  be  paid.  -Campbell-Bannerman 
was  not  in  charge  of  the  debate,  and  he  cannot  fairly  be 
held  chargeable  for  this  failure,  but  the  -whole_seguence  of 
events  left  him  gravely  uneasy,  and,  together  with  his 
experience  on  the  Committee,  inspired  him  withlT~deep 
distrust  of  the  men  who  wenfshaping  South  African  policy. 


CHAPTER  XII 

SUCCESSION  TO  THE  LEADERSHIP 

Sir  William  Harcourt's  Resignation — The  Harcourt-Morley 
Correspondence — Imperialism  and  Little  Englandism— Lord 
Rosebery's  Influence — The  Dark  Star  of  Politics — The 
Liberal  Leadership — '  No  Such  Office  ' — The  Choice  of  the 
Successor — Difficulties  of  the  Position— Campbell-Banner- 
man  and  the  Shorter  Catechism — A  Medical  Opinion — Nolo 
Episcopan — Acceptance— The  Party  Meeting — A  Portrait 
of  Himself. 

CHAP.  /^~"\N  the  morning  of  December  13,  1898  the  political 
v  xn-  .  I  I  world  was  astonished  and  puzzled  by  the  publica- 
1898-1899.  \^_^J  tion  of  a  correspondence  between  Sir  William 
Harcourt  and  Mr.  Morley,  in  which  the  former  announced  his 
resignation  of  the  leadership  of  the  Opposition  in  the  House  of 
Commons  and  the  latter  '  gravely  expressed  his  concurrence  ' 
in  that  step.  '  Discussions/  said  Sir  William,  '  were  being 
raised  or  proposed  to  be  raised  in  reference  to  the  future 
leadership  of  the  Liberal  Party,  and  my  resolution  is  fixed  to 
occupy  no  position  the  duties  of  which  it  is  made  impossible 
for  me  to  fulfil.  A  party  rent  by  sectional-disputes  and 
personal  interests  is  one  which  no  man  can  consent  to  lead, 
either  with  credit  to  himself  or  advantage  to  the  country. 
I  am  not,  and  I  shall  not  consent  to  be,  a  candidate  for  any 
contested  position.'  He  had  consequently  arrived  at  the 
conclusion  that  he  could  best  discharge  his  duty  to  the 
Liberal  Party  in  an  independent  position  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  '  you  will  I  am  sure  agree/  he  said  in  a 
clinching  final  sentence,  '  that  a  disputed  leadership  beset 
by  distracted  sections  and  conflicting  interests  is  an  impos- 
sible situation,  and  a  release  from  vain  and  onerous  obliga- 
tions will  come  to  me  as  a  welcome  relief.'  His  correspondent 
left  no  doubt  about  his  agreement.  '  I  cannot/  he  wrote, 

208 


z 

H 


HARCOURT'S  RESIGNATION  209 

'  feel  the  smallest  surprise  that  at  last  you  have  found  it    CHAP. 
impossible  to  keep  silence  in  a  situation  that  may  well  have 


become  intolerable  to  you.  For  months  past  I  have  often  /ETi  6 
wondered  at  your  steadfast  reserve  and  self-command  under 
the  provocation  of  those  unworthy  insinuations  to  which 
you  refer,  and  which,  if  you  had  ever  thought  it  worth 
while,  you  could  at  any  moment  have  blown  to  atoms.' 

The  particulars  of  the  retiring  leaders'  complaints  were 

publicly  delivered  a  month  later,  when  Mr.  Morley  made 

a  speech  to  his  constituents  at  Brechin  (Jan.  17).     He  said 

that  he  saw  spreading  through  the  country  and  infecting 

the  Liberal  Party  the  dangerous  doctrine  in  foreign  policy, 

condemned  even  by  Lord  Salisbury,  that  it  was  '  our  duty 

to  take  everything  we  can  get,  to  fight  everybody,  and  to 

make  a  quarrel  of  every  dispute.'     During  the  previous 

year  he  had  stood  aside  and  preserved  a  '  grim  and  stony 

silence,'  in  order  to  avoid  making  differences  for  the  party. 

But  he  had  come,  independently  of  Sir  William  Harcourt's 

resignation  though  substantially  for  the  same  reason,  to  the 

decision  that  he  must  be  free  to  take  his  own  line,  and  he 

accordingly  now  '  asked  leave  of  his  constituents  no  longer 

to  take  an  active  and  responsible  part  in  the  formal  counsels 

of  the  heads  of  the  Liberal  Party.'     At  the  same  time  he 

begged  them  to  believe  that  his  decision  was  '  not  tinged 

with  the  shadow  of  a  shade  of  personal  feeling,'  or  with  any 

kind  of  blame  or  complaint  of  his  comrades  on  the  bench. 

In  a  more  combative  passage  he  denounced  the  current 

militarism  and  imperialism,  and  declared  that  '  the  Liberal 

Party  would  only  be  useful  as  an  instrument  of  human     „ 

progress  so  long  as  it  walked  persistently  in  the  path  of 

peace,  economy,  and  reform.'    Coming  to  details,  Mr.  Morley 

declared  that  he  had  taken  special  objection  to  the  attitude 

of  some  Liberals  on  the  Fashoda  incident,  and  that  he 

adhered  firmly  to  the  line  that  he  had  taken  throughout 

in   opposition   to   the   Nile   expedition   and   the   practical 

annexation  of  the  Soudan. 

The  lists  were  thus  again  set  for  a  renewal  of  the  conflict 
on  foreign  and  imperial  affairs  which  from  the  days  of 

VOL.  i.  o 


210    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    Palmerston   and   Bright  had  continued  intermittently  in 
the  Liberal  Party  and  was  still  smouldering  up  to  the  time 


:)9'  of  the  Great  War.  It  was  never  quite  the  clear-cut  issue 
that  it  is  popularly  supposed  to  be.  '  There  is  no  peace-at- 
any-price  party/  said  a  contemporary  observer  :  '  there  are 
only  parties  which  disapprove  of  each  other's  wars  '  ;  and 
in  1898  there  was  scarcely  a  pacifist  in  the  Liberal  Party 
who  would  not  have  made  an  exception  in  favour  of  a  war 
with  '  Abdul  the  damned/  on  behalf  of  the  Armenians. 
Lord  Rosebery  had  in  fact  resigned  his  leadership  because 
he  thought  that  Mr.  Gladstone  in  his  retirement  was  in- 
fluencing Liberals  to  a  too  quixotic  adventure  in  this 
direction.  But  at  this  time  and  until  the  late  days  of  Mr. 
Asquith's  Government,  the  great  majority  of  British 
Liberals  were  steadily  opposed  to  all  enterprises  which 
could  have  drawn  the  country  into  the  great  game  as  played 

*  in  Europe  or  compelled  it  to  militarise  itself  on  the  European 
'  model.  To  cultivate  civil  but  aloof  relations  with  the 
European  Powers  ;  to  rely  for  defence  on  the  Navy ;  to  avoid 
all  adventures  in  Africa  and  Asia  which  might  lead  to  colli- 
sions with  European  Governments ;  not  to  yield  to  scares 
or  panics  or  to  use  the  language  of  jingoism  on  slight  provo- 
cation, and  to  guard  the  national  purse  from  exorbitant 
demands  for  Army  and  Navy — this,  in  foreign  affairs,  was 
undoubtedly  the  drift  of  the  main  stream  of  the  party.  So 
far  Mr.  Morley  was  entirely  right  in  his  address  to  his  con- 
stituents. Whether  he  was  equally  right  in  his  interpreta- 
tion of  the  other  current  of  Liberal  opinion  is  a  more  doubtful 
question.  Lord  Rosebery  and  his  group  warmly  repudiated 
the  imputation  of  jingoism.  But  they  were  keen  students 
of  foreign  affairs,  and  they  feared  that  the  non-intervention 
attitude,  if  accepted  as  the  whole  duty  of  an  Englishman, 

A  might  lead  to  ignorance  of  world  affairs  and  indifference  to 
the  needs  and  interests  of  the  British  communities  beyond 
the  seas.  They  were  zealous  about  schemes  for  federating 
the  Empire  and  educating  the  home  public  in  imperial 
policy.  They  saw  that  whatever  Englishmen  might  wish, 
the  vast  and  scattered  British  possessions  touched  other 


TWO  DOCTRINES  211 

nations    at   innumerable   points   and   raised   an   immense    CHAP. 
variety  of  questions  on  which  a  purely  insular  policy  could 


afford  no  guidance.  In  their  view  the  reaction  against  ^T>  62"63> 
Disraelian  politics  had  gone  too  far,  and  the  Liberal  Party 
needed  to  be  purged  of  the  suspicion  that  it  was  either 
indifferent  to  foreign  affairs  or  incompetent  to  handle  them. 
The  controversy  was  by  no  means  unlike  that  which  cut 
across  parties  in  the  United  States  both  before  and  after 
the  Great  War. 

Sir  William  Harcourt  belonged  to  the  old  school,  and  he 
most  sincerely  believed  that  it  was  his  duty  to  defend  the 
.  deposit  of  faith  enshrined  in  the  formula  of.  '  peace,  re- 
trenchment, and  reform  '  againsLJiei£Jd.cs_jwithin  the  fold. 
He  was  also,  and  could  not  help  being,  conscious~~6T  trle~~ 
strong  influence,  especially  upon  the  younger  members  of 
the  party,  of  his  brilliant  predecessor,  who  had  formally 
retired  but  was  manifestly  still  on  the  scene.  A  retired 
leader,  who  is  still  actively  in  being  as  a  politician,  affects 
the  actual  leader  like  a  dark  star  which  deflects  the  visible 
planets  from  their  orderly  rotation  about  their  lawful  sun. 
Thus  Mr.  Gladstone  acted  upon  the  Liberal  Party  in  Lord 
Rosebery's  time,  and  thus  Lord  Rosebery  himself  acted 
upon  it  first  during  Sir  William  Harcourt's  leadership  and 
then  for  the  subsequent  seven  years  during  Campbell- 
Bannerman's.  The  dark  star  may  have  the  best  intentions  ; 
he  may  have  marked  out  an  orbit  for  himself  which  will 
never,  as  he  thinks,  disturb  the  sway  of  his  legitimate 
successor,  but,  so  long  as  he  is  there,  his  influence  must  make 
itself  felt.  And  when  Sir  William  spoke  of  the  position 
being  '  contested/  he  meant  undoubtedly  that  certain 
members  of  the  party  kept  up  intimate  relations  with  Lord 
Rosebery  and  laid  particular  stress  in  debate  upon  the 
imperialist  doctrine  which  he  had  preached  to  Liberals. 
This  had  appeared  especially  in  the  debates  on  the  Nile 
expedition  and  the  Fashoda  question  ;  and,  though  nothing 
had  been  said  to  which  Sir  William  could  take  formal  excep- 
tion, there  had  been  tone,  accents,  and  nuances  in  which 
he  detected  a  challenge  to  his  authority.  There  was  yet 


212    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    another  aspect  of  his  position  which  was  peculiarly  galling 
IL  ^  to  a  man  of  his  temperament.     It  was  the  generally  accepted 


1898-1899.  doctrine  that  the  leadership  of  the  party  in  the  House  of 
Commons  did  not  carry  with  it  any  assured  title  to  succeed 
to  the  position  of  Prime  Minister  in  the  event  of  the  party's 
returning  to  power ;  and  some  members  of  the  Imperialist 
wing  fell  into  the  habit  of  reminding  him  that  Lord  Rose- 
bery's  resignation  did  not  settle  this  question  in  his  favour 
or  raise  him  from  being  leader  in  the  House  of  Commons  to 
being  leader  of  the  Liberal  Party. 

The  point  is  important,  for  it  is  the  clue  to  much  that 
happened  in  the  next  eight  years.  '  There  is  no  such  office 
as  that  of  leader  of  the  Liberal  Party/  said  Dr.  Spence 
Watson  in  a  speech  to  the  National  Liberal  Federation 
vshortly  after  Sir  William  Harcourt's  resignation,  and  in  the 
circumstances  of  the  hour  the  statement  was  exactly  true. 
But  it  needs  one  qualification.  A  Prime  Minister  is  the 
acknowledged  leader  of  his  party,  and  an  ex-Prime  Minister 
has  generally  been  held  to  retain  that  position  unless  and 
until  he  resigns  it,  as  Mr.  Gladstone  did  in  1875  and  Lord 
Rosebery  in  1896.  No  Liberal  would  for  a  moment  have 
disputed  that  Mr.  Gladstone  was  the  leader  of  the  party 
from  the  day  that  he  became  Prime  Minister  for  the  second 
time  in  1880  down  to  his  final  retirement  in  1894.  But  it 
was  a  cherished  part  of  Liberal  theory  that  in  default  of  an 
ex-Prime  Minister,  neither  the  ex-Ministers,  nor  the  party 
in  Parliament,  nor  any  outside  organisation  had  the  right 
to  confer  upon  any  individual  the  title  of  leader  of  the  party 
or  to  certify  him  as  the  only  man  who  should  accept  the 
commission  of  the  Sovereign  to  form  a  Government.  In 
theory,  then,  there  was  nothing  to  do,  when  Lord  Rosebery 
resigned,  but  appoint  another  peer  to  lead  in  the  Lords, 
and,  when  Sir  William  Harcourt  resigned,  to  appoint 
another  member  of  Parliament  to  lead  in  the  Commons. 
However  untimely  it  may  have  been  to  remind  Sir  William 
Harcourt  of  these  theoretical  limits  to  his  claim,  it  was  very 
definitely  laid  down  by  all  the  pundits  on  his  retirement 
that  his  successor,  whoever  he  might  be,  must  be  considered 


NOMINATING  THE  NEW  LEADER     213 

leader,  not  of  the  party,  but  of  the  party  in  the  House  of    CHAP. 
Commons.     The  question  who  should  ultimately  be  Prime 


Minister  thus  remained  in  suspense,  and  the  history  of  the  ^T<  62"63' 
party  conflict  during  the  next  four  years  was  largely  that 
of  a  conflict,  open  or  veiled,  for  a  disputed  succession. 

ii 

The  self-immolation  of  Sir  William  Harcourt  and  Mr. 
John  Morley  left  only  four  members  of  the  previous  Cabinet 
'  in  the  counsels  of  the  party '  on  the  Liberal  front  bench  in 
the  House  of  Commons — Campbell-Bannerman,  Sir  H.  H. 
Fowler,  Mr.  Asquith,  and  Mr.  Bryce.  To  this  attenuated 
body  fell  by  custom  the  duty  of  nominating  the  new  leader. 
Campbell-Bannerman  was  spending  the  winter  placidly  at 
Belmont  without  the  faintest  suspicion  of  what  was  coming, 
and  his  first  intimation  was  a  letter  from  Harcourt  which 
reached  him  on  the  day  that  the  Harcourt-Morley  corre- 
spondence was  published  :— 

MALWOOD,  LYNDHURST,  Dec.  12,  1898. 

MY  DEAR  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN, — The  transactions  which 
are  going  on  secretly  and  publicly  with  reference  to  the  future 
leadership  have  led  me  to  a  conclusion  which  I  think  will  not 
surprise  you.  The  situation  has  become  intolerable  and  I  have 
resolved  not  to  appear  in  the  approaching  session  in  the  character 
of  Leader  of  the  Opposition. 

I  need  not  say  that  it  is  not  my  intention  to  leave  Parliament, 
but  I  have  come  to  the  decision  that  I  can  render  more  service 
to  the  Liberal  Party  and  the  country  in  an  independent  position 
in  the  House  of  Commons. 

I  write  at  the  same  time  to  thank  you  and  the  rest  of  my 
colleagues  for  the  support  you  have  given  me  in  the  arduous  and 
difficult  duty  which  I  have  for  some  years  been  called  upon  to 
discharge. 

I  must  beg  you  to  treat  this  communication  as  absolutely 
secret  until  I  announce  it  in  public,  which  must  be  immediately. 
-Yours  very  truly,  W.  V.  HARCOURT. 

To  this  he  replied  :— 

BELMONT  CASTLE,  MEIGLE,  SCOTLAND, 
\j,th  Dec.  '98. 

MY  DEAR  HARCOURT, — Your  letter  came  upon  me  as  quite 


214    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    a  surprise,  for  since  the  beginning  of  July  I  have  been  first  abroad 
XIL  _,  and  then  in  retreat  here,  and  have  only  seen  three  of  our  M.P.'s, 


1898-1899.  so  that  I  was  quite  unaware  of  the  negotiations  or  confabula- 
tions to  which  you  refer.  The  silly  newspapers  have  of  course 
been  saying  all  sorts  of  silly  things. 

Still,  I  can  quite  understand  how  uncomfortable  your  position 
was,  and  I  am  not  astonished  at  your  decision.  I  greatly  regret 
the  change  in  our  political  relations,  and  so,  I  am  sure,  will  all 
our  colleagues,  for  I  never  heard  one  of  them  express  any  but 
the  kindliest — I  would  even  say  the  most  affectionate — feeling 
towards  yourself.  No  one  entertains  that  feeling  more  warmly 
than  I  do. 

The  party  is  indeed  in  a  queer  condition  and  no  one  can  see 
what  the  end  of  it  all  may  be. 

I  will  of  course  keep  this  perfectly  secret  until  you  make  your 
announcement. — Believe  me,  Yours  very  truly, 

H.  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN. 


This  was  the  soft  answer,  but  the  four  survivors  felt  that 
they  had  been  placed  in  an  extremely  invidious  position 
and  did  not  scruple  to  say  so  in  their  letters  to  each  other. 
'  Harcourt,'  said  Fowler,  '  has  run  away  from  a  bogy  of  his 
own  creation.  I  think  we  have  been  treated  very  badly, 
and  that  the  thinly-veiled  insinuations  against  us  are  most 
untruthful  and  that  the  whole  proceedings  from  whatever 
point  you  consider  it  is  unworthy  of  the  two  leaders  who 
have  so  ingloriously  involved  themselves  and  their  reputa- 
tions in  this  foolish  fiasco.'  Campbell-Bannerman  remained 
in  Scotland,  but  his  three  colleagues  quickly  compared 
notes  and  came  unanimously  and  without  hesitation  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  vacant  position  should  be  offered  to 
him.  On  December  19,  Mr.  Asquith  wrote  : — 

What  a  pity  it  is  when  big  causes  and  interests  get  into  the 
hands  of  grown-up  children  who  will  not  play  in  the  same  nursery. 
.  .  .  My  object  in  writing  is  to  say  at  once  and  without  ambiguity, 
that  I  earnestly  hope  you  will  see  your  way  to  take  the  lead  and 
that  if  you  do,  you  will  receive  from  me — and  I  believe  from  all 
of  us — the  most  loyal  and  energetic  support.  I  am  strongly  of 
this  opinion. 


EXPLORING  THE  GROUND  215 

The  choice  of  the  four  needed  the  formal  ratification  of  a    CHAP. 

V  T  T 

party  meeting,  but  for  all  practical  purposes  it  was  decisive, 


and  Campbell-Bannerman  thus  had  the  offer  of  the  leader-  /ET>  6 
ship  in  his  hands  within  a  week  of  Sir  William  Harcourt's 
resignation.  The  Liberal  peers  had  with  great  correctness 
held  aloof  from  the  decision,  but  one  of  their  number,  Lord 
Tweedmouth,  who  was  always  to  his  colleagues  a  House  of 
Commons  man,  was  commissioned  to  go  to  Belmont  to 
explore  the  ground.  Campbell-Bannerman's  acceptance 
was  by  no  means  taken  for  granted.  He  had  shown  no 
sign  of  any  ambition  to  surpass  his  own.  record  as  a  Cabinet 
Minister  and  Secretary  of  State.  He  had  been  a  faithful 
but  not  specially  active  front  bench  man  ;  his  interventions 
in  debate  had  been  pithy  and  effective,  but  not  challenging 
or  pontifical ;  his  health  was  supposed  to  be  uncertain,  and 
he  had  with  great  regularity  claimed  release  from  Parliament 
at  the  beginning  of  August  each  year,  and  had  even  spoken 
as  if  this  was  a  necessary  condition  of  his  remaining  in  public 
life.  That  he  would  break  his  established  habits  and  take 
upon  himself  the  exacting,  continuous,  and  harassing  duties 
of  parliamentary  leader  was  thought  by  some  of  those  who 
knew  him  best  to  be  highly  improbable.  Outwardly  the 
position  offered  him  wore  a  most  forbidding  aspect.  The 
brilliant  and  gifted  ex-Prime  Minister  had  found  the  task 
of  leading  the  party  from  the  House  of  Lords  impossible ; 
the  most  redoubtable  fighting  man  in  the  Commons  had 
retired  from  his  leadership  in  disgust  and  taken  with  him 
the  most  influential  of  the  elder  statesmen.  All  three  re- 
mained on  the  scene  and  by  their  resignations  had  claimed 
their  right  to  free  action  untrammelled  by  authority.  The 
party,  though  apparently  recovering  in  the  country,  was 
dazed  and  stunned  by  the  seemingly  inexplicable  behaviour 
of  its  veterans,  and  not  a  little  inclined  to  blot  them  out 
and  trust  its  fortunes  to  the  younger  men,  one  of  whom, 
Mr.  Asquith,  was  already  judged  to  be  among  the  three 
or  four  best  debaters  in  the  House  of  Commons.  That 
Campbell-Bannerman  would,  with  becoming  acknowledg- 
ments of  a  handsome  compliment,  find  reasons  for  declining 


216    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    so  perilous  an  honour  was  the  majority  opinion  in  Fleet 
x*  "...  v  Street  during  the  next  ten  days. 

This  was  not  at  all  his  idea.  '  I  am  enough  son  of  my 
country,'  he  wrote  a  little  later  to  Mr.  John  Ellis,  '  and  have 
enough  of  the  Shorter  Catechism  still  sticking  about  my 
inside  to  do  my  best  when  a  thing  comes  straight  to  me.' 
We  may  conjecture  that  his  mind  was  very  rapidly  made  up, 
and  that  the  opinion  of  '  the  authority/  the  partner  for 
whom  at  any  moment  he  would  cheerfully  have  sacrificed 
the  whole  of  his  political  ambitions,  was  no  less  decisive.  At 
first  he  spoke  of  consulting  his  doctor,  but  the  medical  diffi- 
culty was  disposed  of  within  a  week.  '  There  is  no  a  priori 
reason,'  wrote  Dr.  Maclagan  on  December  26,  '  why  you 
should  not  take  the  post  and  none  for  my  asking  you  to 
give  up  the  idea.'  Dr.  Maclagan's  opinion  may  be  taken 
as  having  settled  the  matter,  but  nolo  episcopari  is  the  atti- 
tude expected  of  eminent  people  called  to  come  up  higher, 
and  for  the  next  few  weeks  he  nursed  a  cold  at  Belmont, 
and  expressed  a  pious  hope  to  his  correspondents  that  the 
lot  would  fall  on  a  worthier  recipient.  On  January  2  he 
wrote  to  his  old  War  Office  friend,  Sir  Ralph  Knox : — 


Campbell-Banner  man  to  Sir  Ralph  Knox 

BELMONT,  Jan.  2,  '99. — We  have  had  a  horrible  winter  down 
here.  Each  day  different  from  and  worse  than  another.  I  have 
been  three  weeks  prisoner  with  a  malignant  sort  of  cold,  and  my 
wife  has  caught  it  and  is  now  proceeding  through  it.  This  has 
given  me  plenty  of  time  to  read,  re-read  and  study  two  famous 
letters  published  recently  which  have  greatly  perturbed  our 
side  of  the  House  of  Commons.  I  still  do  not  know  what  it 
means.  Who  is  it  that  has  been  intriguing  and  against  whom  ? 
Since  a  certain  gentleman  reproved  sin,  and  two  other  gentle- 
men at  Rome  complained  of  sedition,  we  have  seen  nothing 
like  it. 

As  to  the  future,  it  does  not  look  very  nice  for  some  of  us,  but 
we  must  take  it  as  it  comes.  I  am  quite  in  the  dark  down  here 
and  see  no  one  ;  but  I  hardly  detect  those  easy  years  in  which 
I  had  hoped  to  engineer  a  passage  for  myself,  but  I  still  hope  I 
shall  be  mate  and  not  captain. 


NOLO  EPISCOPARI  217 

Three  days  later  he  wrote  more  explicitly  to  Lord  Rosebery,    CHAP. 
with  whom  he  was  on   the   warmest   terms   of   personal 


r    •  ALT.  62-63. 

friendship  : — 

Campbell-Banner  man  to  Lord  Rosebery 

BELMONT,  Jan.  6,  1899. — I  have  been  vegetating  here  ever 
since  the  startling  publication  of  letters  last  month  and  have 
been  thinking  over  the  situation  so  created  and,  after  this 
respectable  interval,  I  feel  moved  to  write  to  you  and  say  what 
my  view  is. 

I  pass  over  the  letters  themselves,  as  to  which  all  of  us  who  are 
acquainted  with  the  facts  cannot  have  two  opinions.  The  third 
letter  which  was  launched  a  day  or  two  ago  is  in  keeping  with 
its  predecessors. 

It  is  much  more  important  to  look  at  the  future  than  at  the 
past.  Now  my  estimate  of  prospects  in  the  House  of  Commons 
is  by  no  means  a  dismal  one.  My  belief  is  that,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  half  a  dozen  intriguers  whose  vanity  as  well  as  their 
malice  will  lead  them  to  mischief  and  whose  interest  it  is  to  make 
out  that  there  are  irreconcilable  differences  among  us,  the  party 
is  sound  enough  ;  and  that  if  activity  and  zeal  are  shown  and 
a  considerate  and  encouraging  spirit  is  maintained  towards 
individuals,  we  shall  make  a  very  decent  show.  I  do  not  believe 
that  any  violent  or  aggressive  tactics  are  required,  but  rather 
reasonable  watchfulness  and  sedulous  attention  to  public  affairs. 
Our  people  resent  having  been  left  to  drift ;  and  they  are  sick  of 
the  conception  of  public  life  which  consists  merely  in  their  being 
expected  to  form  an  occasional  ring,  while  some  notable  bruiser 
displays  his  science.  With  a  little  quiet  handling  they  will  be 
all  right. 

The  question  is,  who  is  to  be  the  titular  leader  ?  Need  I  tell 
you  that,  for  a  hundred  reasons,  I  would  rather  it  was  any  one 
than  myself.  My  three  ex-colleagues  (only  four  of  us  remain  !) 
each  and  all  press  me  to  take  the  place  ;  and  from  what  I  have 
gathered  from  Tweedmouth  (who  came  here  from  London,  having 
seen  many  people),  from  the  gossipers  in  newspapers  and  from 
other  sources,  it  looks  as  if  the  general  feeling  runs  that  way.  I 
fear,  therefore,  that  if  things  continue  as  they  are,  the  probability 
is  it  will  fall  upon  me  ;  and  being  assured,  as  I  am,  of  the  hearty 
and  energetic  co-operation  of  my  colleagues,  I  could  not  in  that 
case  refuse.  If  it  should  turn  out  otherwise,  so  far  from  being 
chagrined,  I  should  exclaim  with  my  favourite  character  in  all 


2i8    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 


CHAP,    history,  Qv  (frpovTls'I-mroKXei&y  .  *    But  if  I  receive  what  in  kirk 
xn-    ,  sessions  we  style  a  '  call/  I  am  son  enough  of  my  country  to  do 


1898-1899.  my  best. 

I  say  this  disregarding  the  fact  that  ordinary  difficulties  will 
be  mightily  increased  by  the  existence  of  a  pair  of  intellectuels 
sitting  round  the  corner,  always  ready  to  pounce.  I  know  this 
well,  but  I  think  that  it  will  be  at  once  safest  and  most  self- 
respecting  for  us  who  are  to  be  responsible  for  the  party,  to 
disregard  them  and  presume  on  their  good  behaviour  until  they 
show  that  our  confidence  is  misplaced. 

I  expect  to  move  up  to  London  about  the  third  week  of  this 
month  and  then  I  shall  be  better  able  to  judge  of  the  whole 
question. 

Lord  Rosebery  replied  encouragingly,  and  letters  now 
arrived  from  all  quarters  urging  him  to  consent. 

'  I  wish  to  tell  you,'  wrote  Mr.  Haldane,  '  how  much  satis- 
faction the  prospect  has  given  me  individually.  I  feel  as  if 
a  pile  of  feather-beds  had  been  lifted  off  my  back.'  '  You 
didn't  funk  the  Irish  when  several  others  did  in  one  shape 
or  another/  wrote  his  old  friend,  Mr.  Donald  Crawford, 
'  and  you  won't  funk  Harcourt/  Lord  Tweedmouth  added 
a  word  of  advice  which,  as  nearly  always  when  the  Liberal 
Party  is  in  Opposition,  turned  out  to  be  a  counsel  of  perfec- 
tion :  '  I  hope  you  will  only  accept  on  the  rigid  understand- 
ing that  the  front  bench  in  future  should  be  kept  constantly 
clothed,  and  that  its  members  should  bind  themselves  to 
take  active  part  in  the  business  of  the  House,  and  to  back 
you  strongly  in  a  militant  programme/  Several  years  were 
to  pass  before  that  aspiration  was  fulfilled. 

By  the  beginning  of  January,  then,  the  question  was 
settled,  but  Campbell-Bannerman  held  strictly  to  the  correct 
attitude  that  nothing  was  to  be  taken  for  granted  until  the 
commission  had  been  formally  bestowed  on  him.  In  the 

1  Herodotus,  vi.  129. — '  Hippocleides  doesn't  care.'  Hippocleides,  son 
of  Tisander,  the  Athenian,  came  to  the  court  of  Cleisthenes  the  Tyrant 
of  Sicyon  as  a  suitor  of  his  daughter  Agariste,  and  would  probably  have 
won  her  if  he  had  not  at  the  last  moment  offended  her  father  by  an 
excessive  display  of  his  accomplishments  as  a  dancer  and  acrobat.  He 
made  the  above  reply  when  Cleisthenes  said  to  him,  '  You  have  danced 
yourself  out  of  your  marriage.' 


THE  PARTY  MEETING  219 

very  singular  circumstances  of  the  Liberal  Party,  the  ques-  CHAP. 
tion  of  procedure  presented  many  conundrums.  '  Shall  all .  J  r  '  ^ 
the  front  bench  (ex-Cabs.)  be  called  together  ?  '  asked  Mr.  ^T-  62-63- 
Asquith.  '  Who  is  entitled  to  issue  such  a  summons  ?  Are 
the  three  principal  members  of  the  defunct  body  to  be  in- 
cluded or  omitted  ?  And  is  there  any  member  of  it  in 
either  House  who  wishes  to  see  it  assembled  for  any  purpose 
under  heaven  ?  '  That  awful  resurrection  was  avoided,  and 
the  triumvirate  who  had  nominated  the  leader  thought  it 
sufficient  to  present  him  for  confirmation  to  a  '  party  meet- 
ing/ that  is,  a  meeting  of  Liberal  M.P/s,  convened  at  the 
Reform  Club  on  February  6,  the  day  before  the  assembling 
of  Parliament.  There  was  by  this  time  no  question  at  all 
of  his  acceptability.  The  newspapers  had  declared  his 
appointment  to  be  certain,  and  it  had  been  eminently  well 
received  both  by  the  Liberal  press  and  by  the  rank  and  file 
of  Liberals.  The  latter  heaved  a  sigh  of  relief  at  the  pro- 
spect of  being  led  by  a  safe  and  sober  judging  man  who  was 
not  likely  to  develop  temper  or  temperament  or  to  fall  a 
victim  to  the  mysterious  disorders  which  had  proved  fatal 
to  his  predecessors.  Whoever  might  be  the  ultimate  Prime 
Minister,  Campbell-Bannerman,  they  thought,  would  at 
least  give  the  Liberal  Party  an  opportunity  for  the  con- 
valescence and  recovery  which  was  plainly  necessary,  if 
any  of  its  members  were  to  succeed  to  that  position. 

in 

The  party  meeting  when  it  took  place  was  something  more 
than  a  formality.  It  gave  the  much  tried  rank  and  file  an  oppor- 
tunity of  demonstrating  that  they  were  not  split  into  irrecon- 
cilable factions,  as  the  leaders  had  appeared  to  be  ;  and  it 
gave  the  new  leader  an  opportunity  of  making  a  thoroughly 
characteristic  first  appearance.  The  '  oldest  member/  Sir 
Wilfrid  Lawson,  was  unanimously  voted  into  the  chair,  and 
just  tribute  having  been  paid  to  the  life-long  services  of 
Sir  William  Harcourt,  the  resolution  (moved  by  Sir  Joseph 
Pease,  seconded  by  Mr.  Channing,  and  supported  by  Dr. 
Farquharson,  Mr.  Alfred  Thomas,  and  Mr.  Labouchere)  '  that 


220    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman  be  requested  to  undertake 
the  leadership  of  the  Liberal  Party  in  the  House  of  Commons/ 


1898-1899.  was  carrje(j  -with  cordial  unanimity.  Every  shade  and 
;  section  of  opinion  was  carefully  represented  both  in  the 
tribute  to  the  departing  leader  and  the  welcome  to  the  new 
leader,  and  for  this  occasion  there  was  not  a  ripple  on  the 
surface.  Campbell-Bannerman's  reply  was  both  modest 
and  manly,  striking  successively  the  notes  of  loyalty  to  the 
party  and  loyalty  to  the  House  of  Commons.  '  I  am  over- 
whelmed/ he  said,  '  by  your  goodness,  and  it  is  with  a  full 
heart  that  I  accept  from  my  comrades  in  the  House  of 
Commons  the  high  position  to  which  you  have  called  me. 
I  am  well  aware — no  one  is  better  aware — that  I  am  poorly 
equipped  for  the  duties  of  that  position  in  comparison  with 
some  distinguished  men  who  have  gone  before  me  ;  but 
there  is  one  thing  in  which  I  will  yield  to  none  of  them — 
namely,  in  my  devotion  to  the  Liberal  Party  and  my  faithful 
adherence  to  Liberal  principles.  I  will  go  a  little  further, 
and  say  that  there  is  yet  another  respect  in  which  I  trust 
I  shall  never  be  found  wanting.  According  to  my  concep- 
tion of  it,  the  duty  of  a  parliamentary  leader  in  the  House 
of  Commons  is  not  owed  only  to  himself  and  his  own  con- 
science or  even  to  his  party — he  has  a  duty  also  to  the 
House  of  which  he  is  a  member,  and  I  declare  in  the  strongest 
terms  that  I  am,  above  all  things,  a  loyal  son  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  and  that  I  place  above  all  interests,  even  the 
interests  of  the  great  historic  party  to  which  I  am  proud  to 
belong,  the  maintenance  and  the  advancement  of  the  name 
and  fame  and  power  of  the  great  assembly  to  which  we  all 
belong.' 

In  a  passage  of  lively  banter  he  came  to  grips  with  the 
party  situation  in  the  House  of  Commons  :- 

Her  Majesty's  Government  have,  as  we  know,  many  excellences 
and,  if  we  at  any  time  are  inclined  to  forget  them,  they  will 
always  be  ready  to  remind  us  of  this  themselves.  They  say  they 
have  achieved  many  successes,  though  we  may  not  always 
recognise  them  ;  and  yet  they  are  not  too  happy.  .  .  .  There  is 
a  thorn  inconveniently  near  to  their  most  fragrant  roses,  there 


THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  RANK  AND  FILE  221 

is  a  crumpled  rose-leaf  in  the  bed  of  their  self-complacency,  and    CHAP. 
this  is  that  they  have  no  Opposition.  .  .  .  Let  us  take  pity  on  ^_ 


them.  Let  us  give  them  that  which  they  so  ardently  desire.  &T.  62-63. 
Let  us  relieve  them  from  this  disability  from  which  they  are 
languishing,  and  let  us  here  determine  that  we  will  make  an 
Opposition  for  them,  if  it  does  not  at  present  exist.  By  your  leave, 
if  you  please,  we  will  make  that  Opposition  not  violent  or  vin- 
dictive or  reckless,  as  have  been  many  of  the  oppositions  by  which 
the  Liberal  when  in  power  has  been  confronted  ;  but  we  will 
make  it  rather  a  watchful,  a  steady,  an  active,  and  an  alert 
Opposition.  That  would  be  my  ideal  and  I  think  I  am  pretty 
right  in  supposing  that  it  would  be  yours. 

After  glancing  briefly  at  the  supposed  differences  in  the 
Liberal  Party,  which  he  declared  to  be  no  greater  than  those 
natural  and  wholesome  differences  which  always  must  exist 
in  a  body  of  men  who  are  habituated  to  think  and  act  for 
themselves,  instead  of  thinking  and  acting  to  order,  he 
wound  up  with  an  appeal  for  energy  and  unity  :— 

It  is  with  the  utmost  confidence  that  I  call  upon  you,  my  loyal 
comrades  in  the  House  of  Commons,  to  give  me  support.  And  I 
need  hardly  point  out  to  you  that  you  give  that  support  not  to 
me  personally,  but  to  me  as  representing  the  cause  of  the  Liberal 
Party  and  its  principles.  I  am  quite  aware  that  this  means 
sacrifices— sacrifices  of  time  and  of  other  occupations — sacrifices 
of  amusements,  but,  most  heartrending  of  all,  sacrifices  of  in- 
dividual prejudices  and  fads  and  fancies.  But  I  hope  I  am  well 
enough  known  to  be  a  person  of  a  pretty  tolerant  and  easy-going 
disposition,  not  likely  to  exercise  pedantically  any  powers  of 
Party  discipline,  and  I  think  it  will  be  found  that  I  shall  be  as 
ready  to  listen  to  the  conscientious  objector  as  would  be  any 
stipendiary  magistrate.  But,  gentlemen,  if  we  are  to  succeed, 
if  we  are  to  fulfil  the  legitimate  functions  of  an  active  Opposition 
with  anything  like  dignity  and  credit  to  ourselves,  then  there 
must  be  a  wilh'ngness  to  subordinate  individual  ideas  and 
opinions  to  what  is  believed  to  be  for  the  general  interest ;  and 
I  am  confident  that  from  what  I  know  of  the  Liberal  Party,  from 
long  experience  of  it,  that,  whoever  you  might  choose,  or  might 
have  chosen,  to  be  your  leader  might  count  with  perfect  certainty 
that  there  would  be  among  you  that  adherence  to  your  leader 
which  is  essential. 


222    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.        Between  the  lines  of  this  speech  could  be  read  the  speaker's 
estimate  of  himself,  and  of  the  part  which  he  proposed  to 


1893-1899.  piay  jje  was  not  going  suddenly  to  ape  a  new  character 
and  play  Pope  to  the  party.  He  was  a  comrade  among 
comrades,  chosen  by  them  to  do  the  best  for  the  common 
cause,  a  '  person  of  a  pretty  tolerant  and  easy-going  dis- 
position,' who  would  not  dictate  or  dragoon,  but  who  looked 
for  cheerful  and  willing  support  from  men  who  had  put  him 
there  to  do  their  business.  He  was  never  so  happy  as  in 
painting  this  homely  picture  of  himself,  and  in  the  subsequent 
years  not  a  few  distinguished  men  found  to  their  cost  that 
in  taking  him  at  his  word  they  had  dangerously  under- 
estimated the  formidable  qualities  of  mind  and  will  that 
were  ingrained  in  his  disarming  character. 

The  appointment  having  been  ratified,  congratulations 
poured  in  from  all  quarters.  Scotland  especially  rejoiced 
that  her  all  but  hereditary  rights  in  the  leadership  of  the 
Liberal  Party  had  once  more  been  recognised.  A  brother 
Scot,  however,  sends  a  warning  :  '  Don't  play  the  bagpipes 
too  loud  ;  it 's  rather  trying  for  the  Saxon,  when  both 
the  leader  of  the  House  and  the  leader  of  the  Opposition 
are  Scots.'  '  I  wonder,'  adds  the  same  correspondent, 
'  how  Balfour,  having  deplored  his  widowhood  from  Har- 
court,  will  find  his  new  official  wife.  He  has  sighed  and 
mourned  for  an  Opposition  ;  perhaps,  as  the  nurses  have 
it,  he  will  be  given  something  to  cry  for.' 


CHAPTER  XIII 

ON  THE  EVE  OF  WAR 

The  Session  of  18^9 — Hopes  of  Tranquillity — Death  of  T.  E. 
Ellis — Appointment  of  Mr.  Herbert  Gladstone  as  Chief  Whip 
—First  Speech  as  Leader — The  Brewing  of  the  Storm  in 
South  Africa— The  Milner  Despatch — The  New  Situation— 
The  Demand  of  the  Franchise  in  South  Africa — Campbell- 
Bannerman's  Views — Nothing  to  justify  Warlike  Action- 
Conversations  with  Mr.  Chamberlain — Objectioas  to  Govern- 
ment Plan — Off  to  Marienbad- — A  Troubled  Holiday — The 
Summons  Home — The  Maidstone  Speech — Cross-currents  in 
the  ex-Cabinet — The  Groups  in  the  Party — The  Opposition 
in  Parliament — Passionate  Differences — Mr.  Chamberlain's 
Propaganda — -The  Problems  of  the  Leader. 

OLITICIANS  looked  for  tranquillity  in  the  session    CHAP. 
of  1899.     The  only  seriously  controversial  measure 


foreshadowed  in  the  Queen's  Speech  was  the  Govern-  *' 
ment  of  London  Bill,  and  the  prospect  in  foreign  affairs 
was  for  once  almost  unclouded.  Nothing  was  in  sight 
which  threatened  a  revival  of  the  controversy  within 
the  Liberal  Party.  '  Things  abroad/  wrote  Sir  Edward 
Grey  to  the  new  leader,  '  look  more  peaceful  than  they  have 
done  for  a  long  time,  and  we  may  have  a  quiet  session  in 
foreign  affairs.  We  shan't  go  to  war  or  talk  of  it  about 
Macedonia,  and  I  hope  this  year  will  be  taken  up  in  talking 
about  peace  at  the  Czar's  Conference,  and  next  year  with 
the  Paris  Exhibition.' 

In  April  the  Opposition  suffered  a  heavy  blow  from  the 
unexpected  and  untimely  death  of  Mr.  T.  E.  Ellis,  their  Chief 
Whip,  a  young  man  of  notable  ability  and  fine  character, 
who  had  greatly  endeared  himself  to  the  party  and  its 
leaders.  His  place  was  hard  to  fill,  and  there  were  anxious 
consultations  about  it.  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Bryce  (April  7), 
Campbell-Bannerman  speaks  of  the  '  terrible  calamity ' 


223 


224    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    which  has  befallen  the  party,  but  says  he  has  '  an  idea  for 

YTT  I 

the  future.'     This  idea,  as  he  confessed  the  next  day,  was 


1899-  '  Herbert  Gladstone,  if  he  would  take  it.  I  can  see  no  one 
else  who  would  not  cause  a  blow  up.'  His  colleagues  most 
cordially  agreed,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  made  a  precedent  by 
'  stepping  down  '  from  the  position  of  ex-First  Commissioner 
of  Works  to  that  of  Chief  Whip.  The  descent  in  rank  was 
only  nominal.  No  position  in  the  coming  years  proved  more 
important  or  could  have  offered  its  incumbent  a  greater 
opportunity  of  doing  service  to  the  Liberal  Party  than 
that  which  Mr.  Gladstone  occupied  from  this  time  onwards 
to  the  great  victory,  of  which  he  was  the  principal  organiser, 
in  1906.  There  could  not  have  been  a  happier  choice  for 
Campbell-Baniierman,  and  there  was  no  man  with  whom 
he  had  more  intimate  and  cordial  relations  from  this  time 
onward. 

Campbell-Bannerman  made  his  first  speech  as  leader  in 
the  debate  on  the  Queen's  Speech,  and  there  was  nothing 
in  it  to  suggest  that  he  would  lean  to  the  anti-Imperialist 
wing  of  the  party.  In  a  spirited  passage  he  rallied  Mr. 
Balfour  on  an  incautious  admission  in  a  recent  public 
speech  that  the  universal  impression  was  that  '  there  was 
hardly  anything  to  which  England  would  not  submit  rather 
than  consent  to  a  great  war.'  That,  he  said,  was  '  on  the 
right  hon.  gentleman's  own  admission  the  condition  to  which 
he  and  his  friends  had  reduced  the  affairs  of  the  country  by 
their  policy  of  valiant  words  and  feeble  action,'  and  it  was 
because  of  this  feeling  that  the  country  had  risen  to  support 
the  Government  in  the  Fashoda  crisis,  and  had  proved  to 
the  foreign  observer  '  that  this  firm  and  strong  exhibition 
of  the  power  of  this  country,  so  far  from  making  for  war, 
was  the  best  and  certain  condition  for  the  maintenance  of 
peace  endangered  by  nothing  more  than  by  vacillation  and 
uncertainty.'  '  Now,'  he  continued,  '  we  are  reaping  the 
benefit  of  that,  and  I  trust  it  has  been  made  known  and  is 
understood  on  all  hands  that,  while  on  the  one  side  we  are 
ready  to  insist  on  respect  for  our  rights,  on  the  other  hand 
we  are  anxious  for  friendly  arrangements  to  remove  causes 


JAMES  CAMPBELL  OF  TULLICHEWAN 
{Photograph  of  Oil  Painting) 


p.   112 


A  PERILOUS  BALANCE  225 

of    difficulty.'      Passing    to   home   politics,    he   gave    Mr.    CHAP. 
Chamberlain    a    lively    quarter    of    an    hour    about    the     ' 


unfulfilled    promise   of   old  age   pensions  which   in    1895 ALT'  62~63' 
had   been  so  prominent   a   feature   in   his    electioneering 
make-up  and  had  been  so  unaccountably  neglected  in  the 
subsequent  years. 

The  first  weeks  of  the  session  passed  quietly  but  not  quite 
without  evidence  of  the  difficulties  which  awaited  the  new 
leader.  He  was  already  being  closely  watched  for  the  x 
slightest  sign  of  his  inclinations  to  one  section  or  the  other.1 
Mr.  Morley  faithfully  reported  each  symptom  to  Sir  William 
Harcourt,  who  was  then  travelling  abroad,  and  was  filled 
with  pleasure  when  he  obtained  the  new  leader's  vote  for  a 
motion  to  '  call  attention  to  the  Government's  policy  in 
Egypt,  and  to  the  circumstances  of  the  Nile  expedition.' 
This  Mr.  Morley  interpreted  as  definitely  coming  down  on 
the  anti-Imperialist  side.  Campbell-Bannerman  carefully 
explained,  however,  in  the  speech  which  he  made  on  this 
occasion  that  he  was  not  in  favour  of  reversing  the  Govern- 
ment's policy.  '  If  my  right  hon.  friend's  motion  had 
meant  that  we  were  to  retrace  our  steps  and  undo  what 
has  already  been  done,  I  should  certainly  not  have  voted 
for  it;  but  regarding  it  as  a  continued  protest  against  a 
policy  of  which  we  have  already  expressed  an  adverse 
opinion,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  voting  for  it.'  Evidently 
from  the  first  it  was  a  perilous  balance,  and  the  criticism 
was  heard  that  he  ought  either  to  have  spoken  differently 
or  voted  differently.  But  on  the  whole,  when  the  House 
adjourned  for  the  Easter  recess,  he  was  judged  to  have 
done  well.  His  interventions  had  generally  been  timely 
and  to  the  point,  he  had  spoken  adroitly,  and  he  had 
given  a  strong  lead  on  social  questions  at  the  Hull  meeting 
of  the  National  Liberal  Federation  (March  8).  Certainly 

1  See  Life  of  Sir  William  Harcourt,  vol.  ii.  chap.  xxvi.  After  his  first 
speech  on  the  Address  Mr.  Morley  wrote  to  Sir  William  (Feb.  8) :  '  C.-B. 
•was  very  clever — easy,  amusing — and  a  success,  as  we  knew  he  would  be. 
His  passage  on  the  retention  of  the  Sudan,  etc.,  was  first-rate.  But  of 
course  it  was  dead  in  the  teeth  of  all  that  has  been  said  by  Rosebery, 
Grey,  and  Asquith.'  This  scarcely  seems  to  have  been  the  current  opinion. 

VOL.  I.  P 


226    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    there  was  no  sign  that  either  wing  of  the  party  had  repented 
of  their  choice. 


1899. 

ii 

On  March  20  Mr.  Chamberlain  told  the  House  of  Commons 
that  there  was  nothing  to  be  done  in  the  matter  of  the  Trans- 
vaal.    '  There  were/  he  said,   '  certain  clear  cases  where 
we  could  intervene  and  rightly  intervene  in  the  affairs  of 
that  country.     We  could  intervene  if  there  was  a  breach 
of  the  Convention,  and  we  should  have  the  usual  right  of 
interference  if  the  comity  of  nations  were  not  observed,  but 
the  Government  were  advised  that  no  such  case  had  arisen.' 
There  remained  a  third  possibility  that,  having  regard  to 
our  predominant  position  in  South  Africa,  we  might  make 
friendly  recommendations  to  the  Transvaal  for  the  benefit 
of  South  Africa  generally  and  in  the  interest  of  peace.     We 
did  that  at  the  time  of  the  Raid,  because  we  believed  that 
President  Kruger  was  willing  to  make  some  concession  to 
the  non-Boer  population.     But  nothing  had  occurred  since, 
and  nothing,  said  Mr.  Chamberlain,  '  has  reached  me  since 
as  to  the  tone  and  temper  of  the  Transvaal  Government 
which  would  lead  me  to  believe  that  friendly  suggestions 
of  that  kind  would  be  for  a  moment  effective.    Therefore 
under  the  circumstances  I  do  not  think  it  would  be  dignified 
or  expedient  to  make  a  representation  which  would  receive 
no  consideration.'     It  caused  some  surprise  later  that  Mr. 
Chamberlain  should  have  used  this  language  in  the  third 
week  of  March,  for  since  the  beginning  of  the  year  the  storm 
which  was  eventually  to  burst  over  the  country  had  been 
visibly  brewing  in  South  Africa.     During  the  early  part  of 
the  winter  little  had  been  heard  of  the  impending  trouble. 
Sir  Alfred  Milner  was  at  home  on  a  short  vacation,  and  Sir 
William  Butler,  who  discharged  his  functions  in  his  absence, 
had  warned  the  Government  against  attaching  too  much 
importance   to   the  representations  of  the   South  African 
League  —  the    Association    which    had    been    formed    at 
Johannesburg  to  awaken  opinion  on   the  subject  of  the 
Outlanders'  grievances.     On  his  return  to  South  Africa, 


TROUBLE  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA         227 

Sir  Alfred  Milner  let  it  be  known  at  once  that  he  differed    CHAP. 

\"  I T  T 

from  his  deputy  in  taking  a  serious  view  of  the  Transvaal  -. 


agitation  ;  and  on  March  10,  ten  days  before  Mr.  Cham-  ^ 
berlain  spoke,  he  had  addressed  an  energetic  remonstrance 
to  the  Transvaal  Government  against  the  commandeering 
of  British  coloured  subjects  for  a  native  expedition,  and 
was  quickly  engaged  in  a  heated  correspondence  with  the 
Transvaal  State  Secretary.  On  March  28,  in  reporting  the 
circumstances  to  Mr.  Chamberlain,  he  described  the  situa- 
tion as  '  already  about  as  strained  as  it  could  be/  and  by 
this  time  it  was  commonly  reported  in  London  that  the 
Outlanders  were  determined  to  force  a  crisis,  and  that  they  ; 
had  the  High  Commissioner  behind  them. 

On  May  5,  while  the  Government  was  considering  its  next 
step,  Sir  Alfred  Milner  sent  the  famous  despatch  which 
made  it  clear  that  his  own  sympathies  were  vehemently 
engaged  on  the  side  of  the  Outlanders.  '  The  spectacle  of 
thousands  of  British  subjects,'  he  wrote,  '  kept  permanently 
in  the  position  of  helots,  constantly  chafing  under  undoubted 
grievances  and  calling  vainly  on  Her  Majesty's  Govern- 
ment for  redress,  does  steadily  undermine  the  influence  and 
reputation  of  Great  Britain  and  the  respect  for  the  British 
Government  within  the  Queen's  Dominions.'  Sir  Alfred 
declared  the  case  for  intervention  to  be  '  overwhelming,' 
and  dismissed  the  idea  that  things  would  right  themselves 
if  left  alone  as  untenable.  He  scouted  the  theory  that  the 
agitation  was  the  work  of  capitalists,  and  dwelt  upon  the 
special  hardships  with  which  the  grievances  weighed  upon 
men  accustomed  to  British  institutions.  Next  he  declared 
that  the  root  of  the  evil  lay  in  the  Franchise,  and  boldly 
launched  the  paradox  that  '  the  only  way  of  helping  our 
subjects  is  to  help  them  to  cease  to  be  our  subjects/  Finally 
he  laid  stress  on  Great  Britain's  paramount  position,  and 
asserted  that  the  situation  in  the  Transvaal  was  pro- 
ducing disaffection  in  the  Cape.  '  I  regret  to  say  that  this 
doctrine  (that  of  an  independent  South  Africa  detached 
from  the  British  Crown),  supported  as  it  is  by  a  ceaseless 
stream  of  malignant  lies  about  the  intentions  of  the  British 


228    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    Government,  is  producing  a  great  effect  upon  a  large  number 
of  our  British  fellow-subjects.    Thousands  of  men  peaceably 


l8"'  disposed  and,  if  let  alone,  perfectly  satisfied  with  their 
position  as  British  subjects,  are  being  drawn  into  dis- 
affection, and  there  is  a  corresponding  exasperation  on  the 
side  of  the  British.' 

Here  was  the  new  situation  with  a  vengeance,  and  Mr. 
Chamberlain  accepted  it  without  demur.  Within  five  days 
he  cabled  back  to  Sir  Alfred  Milner,  approving  the  general 
tenor  of  his  despatch,  and  declared  that  '  though  most 
unwilling  to  depart  from  their  attitude  of  reserve  and  ex- 
pectancy/ the  Government  could  not  '  permanently  ignore 
the  exceptional  and  arbitrary  treatment  to  which  their 
fellow-countrymen  were  exposed.'  He  was,  however,  still 
for  pacific  measures,  and  wound  up  by  suggesting  that  Sir 
Alfred  should  offer  to  meet  President  Kruger  at  Pretoria. 
Steyn,  the  President  of  the  Orange  Free  State,  had  simul- 
taneously made  a  similar  suggestion,  and  after  sundry 
pourparlers  it  was  arranged  that  the  meeting  with  Kruger 
should  take  place  at  Bloemfontein  on  May  31.  The  result 
was  disappointing.  The  discussion,  instead  of  being  the 
frank  and  friendly  exchange  of  views  which  had  been 
expected,  was  limited  to  a  demand  on  the  High  Commis- 
sioner's part  for  the  franchise  with  a  five  years'  qualifica- 
tion and  to  a  refusal  to  entertain  this  proposal  on  the  part 
of  the  President,  who  argued  that  what  was  intended  was 
to  swamp  the  Boers  with  a  mass  of  Outlanders,  whose  real 
status  in  the  country  was  not  comparable  to  that  of  the 
Boers.  Returning  to  Cape  Town,  Sir  Alfred  expressed  his 
regret  at  the  failure  of  the  Conference,  but  preached  patience, 
and  Mr.  Hofmeyr,  Mr.  Schreiner,  and  Mr.  Fischer  of  the 
Orange  Free  State  endeavoured  to  bring  the  President  to 
reason.  Seeing  some  franchise  to  be  inevitable,  the  latter 
introduced  a  Bill  with  a  nine  years'  qualification  into  the 
Boer  Volksraad,  but  on  the  pressure  being  renewed  con- 
sented to  reduce  the  term  to  seven  years,  and  this  Mr. 
Chamberlain  described  as  a  basis  for  settlement. 

To  follow  the  subsequent  negotiations  in  detail  would 


BOER  AND  OUTLANDER  229 

be  outside  the  scope  of  this  biography.     They  were  com-    CHAP. 
plicated  throughout  by  the  reluctance  of  the  Outlanders  to 


accept  the  franchise  as  the  proper  solution  of  their  diffi- 
culties, and  their  extreme  scepticism  of  the  good  faith  of 
the  Boers  in  adopting  it.  This  led  to  demands  for  inquiries 
by  outside  arbitrators  which  the  Boers  resented  as  a  denial 
of  their  competence  to  decide  what  they  claimed  to  be  a 
purely  domestic  matter.  From  this  the  controversy  strayed 
on  to  the  dangerous  ground  of  British  '  suzerainty  '  in  South 
Africa,  and  became  eventually  a  clash  between  the  claim 
of  the  Transvaal  to  be  a  '  sovereign  independent  State  '  and 
the  claim  of  Great  Britain  to  be  the  Paramount  Power  in 
South  Africa.  There  was  a  moment  in  the  middle  of  July 
when  the  quarrel  seemed  about  to  be  settled  by  what 
appeared  to  be  a  fair  compromise,  and  on  the  igth  of  that 
month  the  Times  issued  an  apparently  inspired  statement 
that,  assuming  the  Volksraad  to  have  acted  in  good  faith, 
'  the  crisis  between  Great  Britain  and  the  Transvaal  may 
be  regarded  as  ended';  but  a  storm  of  protest  came  the 
next  day  from  the  Outlanders,  who  denounced  the  pro- 
posed settlement  as  a  '  humiliating  surrender,'  '  a  moral 
Majuba,'  and  an  '  imperial  disaster.'  From  this  time 
forward  the  controversy  became  highly  confused,  the  debate 
on  the  suzerainty  cutting  across  the  debate  on  the  franchise, 
while  Mr.  Chamberlain  struck  a  sharper  and  sharper  note. 
On  August  26  he  delivered  the  famous  Highbury  speech  in 
which  he  spoke  of  the  '  sands  running  down  in  the  glass/ 
and  of  Mr.  Kruger  '  dribbling  out  reforms  like  water  from 
a  squeezed  sponge,'  and  declared  in  menacing  tones  that 
'  the  knot  must  be  loosened  or  else  we  shall  have  to  find 
other  ways  of  untying  it.'  By  the  beginning  of  September 
feelings  were  so  wrought  up  on  both  sides  that  calm  argu- 
ment on  the  merits  of  any  proposal  was  all  but  impossible. 
Despatches  crossed  each  other  in  such  a  way  that  it  was 
difficult  to  discover  which  proposal  either  side  was  answer- 
ing, or  which  had  been  accepted  and  which  rejected.  Finally, 
under  wrhat  they  deemed  to  be  the  obduracy  of  the  Boers, 
the  British  Government  intimated  that  they  would  be 


230    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CH\P.    compelled  to  'consider  the  situation  afresh  and  formulate 

"V"  T  T  T 

new  proposals  ' ;  but  before  these  could  be  produced,  troops 


l8"'  were  on  the  move,  and  the  Boers  were  plainly  preparing 
to  invade  the  colony  of  Natal.  On  October  7,  Royal  pro- 
clamations were  issued  in  London,  continuing  time-expired 
men  in  service  and  calling  the  reserves  to  the  colours.  On 
October  9 — after  President  Steyn  had  made  a  forlorn  effort 
to  mediate — President  Kruger  issued  his  ultimatum  and, 
to  the  surprise  of  the  Government,  it  was  found  that  the 
Orange  Free  State  had  thrown  in  its  lot  with  the  Transvaal. 

in  * 

One  point  in  these  proceedings  is  of  great  importance  for 
the  understanding  of  the  party  situation  which  followed. 
The  '  new  diplomacy  ' — supposed  to  be  Mr.  Chamberlain's 
special  invention — which  appealed  to  the  public  at  every 
stage  of  the  negotiations  and  employed  menacing  language 
in  a  dispute  which  seemed  specially  to  call  for  tact  and 
persuasiveness,  was  much  blamed  for  the  result,  but  it  was 
no  heedless  or  uncalculated  display  of  bad  manners.  The 
theory  universally  held  by  the  British  in  South  Africa, 
and  by  them  impressed  on  the  home  authorities,  was 
that  strong  language  backed  by  a  very  moderate  display 
of  force  would  bring  Mr.  Kruger  to  reason,  if  British 
opinion  was  seen  to  be  unanimous.  This  was  conveyed 
privately  to  the  editors  of  newspapers,  who  were  told  on 
very  high  authority  that  Mr.  Kruger  '  never  looked  into 
the  mouth  of  a  cannon/  and  that  if  all  parties  would  only 
speak  together  and  make  it  plain  that  the  country  was 
solid  in  its  demands,  the  risk  of  war  was  negligible.  It  was 
at  this  point  that  the  long  and  bitter  controversy  which 
^  afterwards  raged  between  Mr.  Chamberlain  and  Campbell- 
Bannerman  began.  Caimobell-Bannerman  differed  in  toto 
from  Mr.  Chamberlain  in  his  measurement  of  the  risk  of 
war,  if  the  '  new  diplomacy  '  was  in  charge,  and  of  the  kind 
of  war  which  would  follow,  if  war  came.  He  attached  no 
importance  to  the  instances  cited  to  prove  that  Mr.  Kruger 
invariably  gave  way  to  a  sufficiently  firm  remonstrance — 


A  CRITICAL  NOTE  231 

Vaal  Drifts,  Stellaland  Raid,  Limpopo  Trek,  and  so  forth —    CHAP. 
and  pointed  out  that  these  were  relatively  trivial  matters 


on  which  he  could  afford  to  yield,  whereas  what  was  now  ' 
proposed  vitally  affected  the  Boer  ascendancy  in  the  Trans- 
vaal. Ca'mpbell-Bannerman  was  also  utterly  sceptical  of 
the  rash  obiter  dictum,  attributed  to  Mr.  Rhodes,  that 
'  the  Boer  military  power  was  the  greatest  of  unpricked 
bubbles,'  and  based  himself  on  the  sober  military  opinion 
which  predicted  a  long,  costly,  and  embittered  struggle. 

never  been.  the_J^  Little  Englander  ' 

~ 


_--  _ 

that  he  was  afterwards  supposed  to  be,~buOlrrChambef- 
Utn^  methods  offended  both  his  sense  of  propriety  ^ahd'liis 
instinct  for  the  wise  and  safe  handling  of  !T~dimcult  and 
djJlgerous  emergency. 

Jlolding  these  views,  he  said  in  a  speech  at  IlforcL  on 
une_i7  ^at  '  ne  thought  it  "ght  to  say  plainly  that  he 
for  his  part  could  discern  nothing  in  what  had  occurred  to 
justify  either  warlike  action  or  even  military  preparations.' 
This  speech  struck  a  critical  note  that  broke  the  unanimity 
which,  according  to  the  official  theory,  was  necessary  to 
avoid  war.  There  had  been  a  preliminary  skirmish  on  the 
subject  in  the  debate  on  Army  estimates  in  the  House  of 
Commons  on  April  21,  when  Campbell-Bannerman  criti- 
cised a  proposal  not  merely  to  reinforce  the  South  African 
garrison,  but  to  build  barracks  in  South  Africa  for  the  pro- 
posed reinforcements,  and  Mr.  Chamberlain  had  sharply 
retorted  that  these  measures  were  an  absolute  necessity  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  the  Transvaal  Republic  had  '  enor- 
mously increased  their  offensive  and  defensive  forces,'  and 
spent  '  enormous  sums  '  on  importing  artillery  and  rifles. 
In  the  subsequent  weeks  the  scheme  of  reinforcements  had 
taken  the  concrete  shape  of  a  force  of  10,000  men,  to  be 
despatched  immediately  to  South  Africa  with  the  avowed 
intention  of  strengthening  the  hands  of  the  Government 
in  their  demands  on  the  Transvaal.  Campbell-Banner- 
man was  unaware  of  this  when  he  spoke  at  Ilford, 
but  his  phrase  struck  at  the  idea  of  a  silent  and  agreed 
movement  of  troops,  and  he  even  ridiculed  the  idea  of 


232    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    employing  force  to  enable  British  citizens  to  throw  off  their 

XIII.         -D     ...    /       „ 

British  allegiance  : — 


1899. 

.Why  is  it  that  certain  newspapers  tell  us  that  we  ought  to  go 
to  war  ?  It  is  because  the  demands  made  by  our  representative 
in,  respect  of~the-4ranchise  have  been  refused.  Consider  for  a 
moment  what  this  means.  Can  anything  be  more  anomalous, 
more  incongruous,  more  absurd  than  the  idea  that  when  a  number 

nf  nnr  fpllnw-rnnntrympfl  jpcir^nt  m  thlS  foreign  COUntry  desire 

what  to  do  ? — tojdivest  themselves  of  the  quality  of  being  our 
countrymen,  t.Q-_diange  their  nationality,  to  get  rid  of  their 
British  citizenship/  to  adopt  the  citizenship  and  the  nationality 
of  the  TransYaal,_to  un-British  themselves  and  become  Boers, 
that.we_ax£_to  go  to  war  with  the  Government  of  the  Transvaal 
because-lh£y__mll_nat  allow  this  interesting  process  to  be  per- 
formed with  the  mpi'dity_jwHrh  the  aspirants  desire  ?  And  this 
is  toJbe  done, l>e  it  observed^  in  the  name  of  what  ?• — in  the  name 
of  British  patriotism  and  of  love  arid  devotion  to  the  Empire. 
Although  the  Conference  failed,  considerable"  concessions  have 
been  made  since  it  broke  up.  And  why  should  we  despair  of 
obtaining  all  that  is  necessary  by  the  pressure  of  peaceful  negotia- 
tion ?  Many  interests  are  working  in  increased  degree  in  favour 
of  concession.  The  Orange  Free  State,  the  Dutch  at  the  Cape, 
the  present  Ministry  in  the  Cape  Colony,  are  all  using  their 
influence  in  that  direction  ;  aye,  and  there  is  something  else — 
an  influence  which  cannot  in  the  end  be  resisted — the  influence 
of  the  opinion  of  right-thinking  and  intelligent  men  throughout 
the  world.  I  remember  John  Bright  quoting  in  the  House  of 
Commons  on  one  occasion  two  lines  of  a  poet  in  reference  to 
political  matters  :— 

'  There  is  on  earth  a  yet  diviner  thing, 
Veiled  though  it  be,  than  Parliament  or  King.' 

What  is  that  diviner  thing  ?  It  is  the  human  conscience  in- 
spiring human  opinion  and  human  sympathy.  And  the  position 
of  affairs  has  come  to  this  that,  as  I  believe,  the  universal  con- 
science and  opinion  of  mankind  is  being  brought  with  almost 
its  full  force  to  bear  upon  this  question  of  the  government  of  the 
Transvaal.  Where  is  there  then  in  the  whole  jdtuation  anything 
justifying .  t_he_senseless  appeal  to  arms,  which  in  every  case,  even 
if  we  admit  it  at  all,  we  can  only  allow  as  the  last  hateful  alterna- 
tive when  all  peaceful  methods  have  failed. — (Ilford,  June  17.) 

It  was  now  evident  to  Mr.  Chamberlain  that,  if  his  plan 


INTERVIEW  WITH  MR.  CHAMBERLAIN    233 

was  to  succeed,  an  effort  must  be  made  to  bring  the  Opposi-    CHAP. 

XIII 

tion  leaders  into  line  with  it,  and  on  June  20,  three  days 


after  the  Ilford  speech,  he  asked  Campbell-Bannerman  to 
let  him  come  to  his  room  in  the  House  of  Commons  '  for  a 
few  minutes'  talk  about  the  Transvaal.'  What  passed 
between  the  two  men  was  the  subject  of  a  lively  dispute  in 
the  debate  on  the  South  African  War  Commission  Report 
five  years  later.1  Campbell-Bannerman  sent  the  corre- 
spondence dealing  with  the  matter  to  the  press  after  this 
debate,  and  he  also  left  a  contemporary  note  of  their 
interview  which  may  be  inserted  here  together  with  this 
correspondence  : — 

HOUSE  OF  COMMONS,  June  20,  1899. 

MY  DEAR  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN, — I  should  like,  if  you  have 
no  objection,  to  have  a  few  minutes'  talk  with  you  about  the 
Transvaal. 

May  I  come  to  your  room,  and  when  ? — Yours  truly, 

J.  CHAMBERLAIN. 

Notes  of  conversation  with  Mr.  Chamberlain  :— 

June  20,  1899. 

Mr.  Chamberlain  asked  me  to  allow  him  to  come  to  my  room 
and  have  a  few  minutes'  conversation  about  the  Transvaal.  He 
was  anxious  if  I  would  to  treat  the  matter  out  of  party  lines. 
He  had  read  my  speech  on  Saturday  at  Ilford,  and,  with  the 
exception  of  one  phrase,  had  no  criticism  to  pass  upon  it.  That 
phrase  was  where  I  said  that  I  saw  nothing  in  all  that  had 
happened  to  justify  warlike  action  or  military  preparation.  If 
by  '  military  preparation '  I  meant  preparation  with  an  im- 
mediate view  to  war,  he  agreed  with  me.  But,  he  said,  that  while 
the  Cabinet  had  decided  that  nothing  was  to  be  done  at  present, 
a  time  might  come  when  they  might  contemplate  sending  out  a 
force,  with  a  view  to  prove  their  determination.  When  the  full 
papers  came  home  as  to  the  Bloemfontein  Conference,  a  despatch 
would  have  to  be  written  and  that  would  be  the  time  when  this 
step  would  have  to  be  considered.  Their  opinion  as  to  the  state 
of  feeling,  both  in  the  Transvaal  and  in  the  Colony,  was  to  the 
effect  that  a  firm  attitude,  supported  by  force,  was  necessary  in 
order  to  gain  our  point.  In  the  Colony  the  Dutch  were  becoming 

1  House  of  Commons,  Feb.  3,  1904. 


234    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    less  and  less  friendly,  and  firm  action  of  the  kind  indicated  would 

XIIL   ,  put  a  stop  to  this  tendency.     As  to  the  Transvaal  he  handed  me 

1899.      the  most  recent  telegram  they  had  received,  which  is  annexed  to 

this  paper.     I  urged  the  apparent  danger  of  this  course,  that  it 

might  inflame  Dutch  feeling  instead  of  allaying  it.  and  that, 

intended  though  it  might  be  as  a  mere  piece  of  bluff,  if  the  bluff 

was  not  successful  it  meant  war. 

He  said  that,  contrary  to  all  that  was  put  in  the  papers,  he 
himself  was  striving,  and  always  had  been,  for  a  peaceful  settle- 
ment. But  he  was  afraid  that  a  demonstration  of  the  kind 
indicated  would  be  necessary.  It  would,  however,  be  a  game  of 
%  bluff,  and  it  was  impossible  to  play  that  game  if  the  Opposition 
did  not  support  the  Government.  He  mentioned  a  similar 
matter.  The  force  at  present  in  South  Africa  is  without  trans- 
port and  therefore  not  mobile.  It  was  most  desirable  that  this 
transport  should  be  provided  as  soon  as  possible,  which  means 
practically  the  purchase  of  mules  in  Natal. 

I  said  that  this  seemed  to  me  to  be  on  a  different  footing,  being 
a  mere  process  of  equipment  for  a  force  already  on  the  spot.  But 
it  required  consideration.  I  must  consult  my  colleagues. 

The  expeditionary  force  he  spoke  of  was  10,000  men. 

'  The  most  recent  telegram '  contained  a  statement  by  an 
(unnamed)  authority  in  South  Africa,  who  was  said  to  be 
intimate  with  the  Boers,  and  to  know  their  mind  and  dis- 
position, to  the  effect  that  they  would  give  way  without 
striking  a  blow  if  the  Government  backed  their  demand  by 
strong  and  unmistakable  pressure  of  force,  but  that,  if  there 
was  the  slightest  vacillation,  their  backs  would  be  stiffened 
and  they  would  give  nothing.  Another  authority,  also  said 
to  be  intimate  with  the  Boers,  was  quoted  as  saying  that 
nothing  could  be  obtained  without  the  firmest  attitude  and 
a  demand  accompanied  by  force. 

After  consulting  his  colleagues,  Campbell-Bannerman 
replied  :— 

HOUSE  OF  COMMONS  June  22,  '99. 

MY  DEAR  CHAMBERLAIN, — When  we  had  our  conversation  on 
Tuesday  I  promised  that  I  would  think  over  what  you  said  and 
let  you  know  what  view  my  colleagues  and  myself  took  of  it. 

I  fully  appreciate  the  friendly  note  of  your  communication 
and  thank  you  for  it.  On  considering  the  whole  situation, 


THE  WORD  '  BLUFF '  235 

however,  I  cannot  see  my  way  to  give  you  any  assurance  that    CHAP. 
we  shall  be  ready  to  acquiesce  in  any  open  military  demonstration  ^  X] 


such  as  the  despatch  of  a  force  to  the  Cape.  ^T-  62-63. 

Even  as  to  the  provision  of  transport  for  the  existing  force, 
which  I  admitted  was  on  a  different  footing,  while  this  can  be 
justified  as  a  mere  matter  of  equipment,  we  are  strongly  of 
opinion  that  in  the  present  state  of  feeling  in  South  Africa  it 
should,  if  done  at  ah1,  be  done  on  a  moderate  scale  and  in  an 
unostentatious  way. 

I  write  this  as  you  were  good  enough  to  invite  an  expression 
of  opinion  on  these  two  topics.  But  we  feel  very  strongly  that 
in  so  grave  a  matter  the  undivided  responsibility  must  rest  with 
the  Government  and  that  in  the  interest  of  the  country  it  is 
desirable  that  the  hands  of  the  Opposition  should  be  entirely 
free. — Believe  me,  Yours  very  truly, 

H.  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN. 

To  this  Mr.  Chamberlain  answered  :— 

HOUSE  OF  COMMONS,  June  22,  '99. 

MY  DEAR  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN, — Many  thanks  for  your 
letter.  I  appreciate  its  spirit  and  do  not  quarrel  with  its  con- 
clusions. 

Perhaps  if  the  situation  develops  and  new  features  present 
themselves  I  may  ask  to  see  you  once  more. — Meanwhile,  believe 
me,  Yours  very  truly,  J.  CHAMBERLAIN. 

In  the  1904  debate  Mr.  Chamberlain  expressed  a  doubt 
whether  he  had  used  the  word  '  bluff.'  Though  he  '  could 
not  charge  his  memory  with  a  contradiction,'  it  was  not, 
he  said,  '  a  word  that  he  was  fond  of  or  that  he  would 
have  been  likely  to  use.'  The  truth  seems  to  be,  if  we 
follow  Campbell-Bannerman's  notes,  that  he  himself  first 
used  the  word,  and  that  it  was  accepted  by  Mr.  Chamber- 
lain. The  word  undoubtedly  dwelt  in  Campbell-Banner- 
man's mind,  but  it  is  not  in  itself  of  great  importance. 
The  material  fact  was  that  Mr.  Chamberlain  had  described 
the  intentions  of  the  Government  as  being  what  in  popular 
parlance  would  be  called  '  bluff.'  In  the  1904  debate, 
Campbell-Bannerman  expanded  his  notes  a  little  and  gave 
a  slightly  more  picturesque  account  of  the  interview  : — 

The  Right  Hon.  gentleman  came  to  my  room.     He  told  me 


236    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    that  he  wished  to  submit  to  me,  and  of  course  to  those  with 

XIII- ,  whom  I  acted,  certain  proposals   that  the  Government  were 

1899.  contemplating.  The  first  of  them  was  to  send  out  10,000  men 
to  the  Cape,  and  the  Right  Hon.  gentleman  asked  whether  the 
Opposition  would  join  in  recommending  that  step  to  the  House 
and  to  the  country.  I  think  I  must  have  looked  a  little 
surprised,  or  I  may  have  uttered  a  few  words  of  surprise,  for 
the  Right  Hon.  gentleman  went  on  to  say :  '  You  need  not  be 
alarmed.  There  will  be  no  fighting.  We  know  that  those 
fellows — that  was  the  Boers — won't  fight.  We  are  playing  a 
game  of  bluff.'  I  think  I  ventured  to  express  frankly  to  the 
Right  Hon.  gentleman  that  such  a  policy  was  unworthy  of  the 
country.  If  I  did  not  say  that,  I  felt  it ;  but  at  all  events  I 
said  that  it  was  a  rash  and  dangerous  policy,  that  it  was 
dangerous  to  begin  a  course  of  bluff  when  you  did  not  know 
what  it  might  lead  to,  and  I  said  I  must  consult  my  colleagues. 
I  only  give  my  own  personal  impression  at  the  time.  Then 
the  Right  Hon.  gentleman  said  that  there  was  another  thing— 
that  the  forces  in  Natal  were  deficient  in  equipment,  in 
transport  especially,  and  that  they  lacked  mobility  ;  and  the 
Right  Hon.  gentleman  wanted  to  know  if  there  would  be  any 
feeling  expressed  if  that  fault  were  made  good.  Well,  Sir,  I 
said  that  I  would  consult  my  colleagues  on  both  of  these 
proposals.  I  invited  my  colleagues  to  come,  and  I  told  them 
what  the  Right  Hon.  gentleman  had  said,  and  I  took  their 
mind  on  both  these  questions.  With  regard  to  the  equipment 
of  troops,  which,  I  think,  meant  the  purchase  of  mules  and 
horses  mostly,  we  said  we  thought  there  was  nothing  to  be 
urged  against  the  proposal.  It  was  desirable,  if  we  had  a 
force,  that  it  should  be  efficient,  provided  that  it  was  done  in 
such  a  way  as  not  to  be  ostentatious  or  provoking — not  to  be 
trumpeted  about — with  the  view  to  producing  some  effect  on 
the  minds  of  men  in  South  Africa.  But  as  to  the  other 
proposal  we  could  only  reply  that  the  responsibility  for  a 
great  movement  of  troops  such  as  that  lay  entirely  with  the 
Executive  Government,  and  that  we  were  not  prepared  to 
relieve  them  of  any  part  of  the  responsibility.  I  think  that 
was  practically  the  gist  of  what  occurred. — (House  of  Commons, 
Feb.  5,  1904.) 

Campbell-Bannerman's  letter  of  June  22,  therefore,  con- 
veyed the  combined  decision  of  the  Liberal  leaders  in  both 
Houses.  There  were  already  differences  of  opinion  among 


GOVERNMENT  AND  OPPOSITION      237 

them  as  to  the  merits  of  the  Government  policy  and  the    CHAP. 

\  T  T  T 

wisdom  of  forcing  it  at  that  particular  moment,  but  they 


were  unanimous  that  the  responsibility  must  belong  to  the  ALT-  62"63- 
>N  Government,  and  could  not  be  shared  by  others  who  had  no 
voice  in  shaping  the  policy,  and  would  have  no  means  of  con- 
trolling the  steps  which  might  be  taken  to  enforce  it.     This 
seemed  to  Campbell-Bannerman  the  A  B  C  of  Parliament- 
arism, and  an  Opposition  which  departed  from  it  would,  in 
his  view,  have  abandoned  the  one  clear  function  in  which 
it  could  be  of  service  to  the  public,  that  of  free  and  inde- 
,  pendent  criticism.     But  the  plan  to  which  he  was  asked  to 
consent  appeared  to  him  also  to  be  open  to  the  gravest 
objection   on   both   military   and   political   grounds.     The 
contemplated  force  of  10,000  men  was  too  small  to  make 
the  British  position  secure  if  the  Boers  proved  obdurate, 
and  yet  large  enough  to  arouse  suspicion  and  hostility.     He 
could   understand,    as    he    frequently   said    afterwards,    a 
diplomacy  which  worked  for  war  and  made  corresponding 
preparations,  but  not  a  diplomacy  which  risked  a  big  war 
by  brandishing  a  small  force  in  the  face  of  a  formidable 
opponent. 

IV 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  even  if  they  had  desired  to  do  so, 
the  Liberal  leaders  were  not  in  a  position  to  give  a  pledge 
of  silent  acquiescence  on  the  part  of  Liberals  in  a  display 
of  force  against  the  Transvaal  at  this  stage.  The  memory 
of  the  Raid  was  too  recent,  and  suspicions  of  the  parties  in 
South  Africa  which  had  engineered  the  Raid,  and  which 
were  now  vehemently  demanding  strong  measures  against 
their  old  enemy,  were  prima  facie  too  well  founded  for  the 
bulk  of  British  Liberals  to  give  a  blind  vote  of  confidence  in 
the  new  departure.  Some  of  them  had  a  natural  sympathy 
with  a  little  nationality  in  collision  with  a  great  Empire, 
many  of  them  profoundly  mistrusted  the  '  cosmopolitan 
finance,'  which  seemed  to  play  so  large  a  part  in  the  affairs 
of  the  Transvaal  and  the  Rand.  Campbell-Bannerman  had 
undoubtedly  the  mass  of  the  party  with  him  when,  in  his 


238    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    speeches  from  now  to  the  end  of  session,  he  continued  to 
IL     strike  the  critical  note,   and  repeated  with  even  greater 


1899-     emphasis  that  the  case  as  presented  by  Mr.  Chamberlain 
offered  no  justification  for  war  or  warlike  measures.     S|>eak- 
.  1 1  (-.       ing  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  July  28  he  said  : — 

I  altogether  disbelieve  in  the  efficacy  in  this  case,  and  in  most 
other  cases,  of  threats  and  hints  of  armed  force,  whether  they 
take  the  form  of  open  words  or  newspaper  announcements  of 
military  preparations.  As  to  war  itself,  a  direct  preparation  for 
actual  hostilities,  I  must  only  repeat  here  what  I  have  said  else- 
where, that  from  the  beginning  of  this  story  to  the  end  of  it  I  can 
see  nothing  whatever  which  furnishes  a  case  for  armed  inter- 
vention and  least  of  all  during  recent  days  or  weeks  when  we  are 
evidently  approaching,  if  only  circumstances  continue  favourable, 
a  solution  of  the  question.  ...  A  war  in  South  Africa— a  war 
with  one  of  the  independent  States  in  South  Africa — would  be 
Qne_of_the_direst  calamities  that  could  occur. 

This  speech  brought  a  note  of  approval  from  Lord  Ripon, 
to  whom  he  replied  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Ripon 

6  GROSVENOR  PLACE,  July  29,  1899. — It  is  most  kind  of  you 
to  send  me  a  note,  and  there  is  no  one  whose  approval  I  value 
more  highly. 

We  were  in  a  difficult  place,  for  it  was  impossible  to  say  one's 
mind  out,  lest  we  should  do  mischief,  but  I  think  the  matter  is 
left  pretty  straight.  I  thought  the  passages  from  Mr.  Joe's 
speeches  in  1896  l  (not  so  long  ago  !),  quoted  with  satisfaction  as 
doubtless  expressing  his  present  policy,  were  useful  as  an  antidote 
to  what  we  know  that  policy  to  be. 

And  when  they  announce  a  proposed  enquiry,  and  proclaim 
that  they  are  in  no  hurry,  I  think  we  may  sleep  with  our  mind 

1  The  principal  quotation  was  from  a  speech  of  Mr.  Chamberlain's  in 
the  House  of  Commons  on  May  8,  1896  :  '  A  war  in  South  Africa  would  be 
one  of  the  most  serious  wars  that  could  possibly  be  waged.  It  would  be 
a  long  war,  a  bitter  war,  and  a  costly  war,  and  it  would  leave  behind  it 
impressions  of  strife  which,  I  believe,  generations  would  hardly  be  able  to 
blot  out.  To  go  to  war  with  President  Kruger  to  enforce  upon  him 
reforms  in  the  internal  affairs  of  his  State  in  which  Secretaries  of  State, 
standing  in  their  place,  have  repudiated  all  right  of  interference,  that 
would  be  a  course  of  action  which  would  be  immoral.' 


MR.  CHAMBERLAIN'S  RETORT        239 

easy  :  notwithstanding  the  brave  words  about  '  seeing  it  through  '    CHAP. 
and  '  putting  their  hand  to  the  plough.'     So  long  as  they  are  ,   xin-  , 
only  ploughing  we  need  not  mind.  ^ET.  62-63. 

Having   failed   to   influence   the   Opposition   leadersJ,__Mr. 

Chamberlain  \vas  quick  to  launch  the  theme-  v,  hich  he  was 


.  to_de  velop  with  rich  variety  during  the  comln^'three  "y 
—  that  the  critics  of  the  Government  were  the  enemies  o 


peace  and  the  friends  of  the  enemy.     '  The  worst  enemies  < 
of  peace/  he  said  at  Birmingham  four  days  after  his  con- 
versation with  Campbell-Bannerman,  '  are  those  who  for 
purposes  of  their  own  are  misleading  President  Kruger  and  - 
encouraging  him  to  resist  the  pressure  which  is  put  upon  i 
him  by  telling  him  that  if  he  will  only  stand  firm,  he  will 
find  in  this  country  a  divided  Government  and  a  divided 
people.'     These    thunders    left    Campbell-Bannerman    un- 
disturbed.    Though  far  from  intending  it,  Mr.  Chamberlain 
himself  had  persuaded   him — and,  as  his   correspondence 
shows,  he  remained  persuaded  up  to  the  last  moment — 
that  the  Government  was  bluffing  and  would  find  some 
means  of  avoiding  war. 

He  therefore  went  off  as  usual  to  Marienbad  at  the  begin- 
ning of  August  and  refused  to  be  ruffled,  though  agitated 
warnings  reached  him  from  home. 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  Herbert  Gladstone 

HOTEL  KLINGER,  MARIENBAD,  Aug.  27,  '99.--  .  .  .  We  have 
been  having  a  first-rate  holiday  here  :  weather  superb  :  society 
indifferent — verging  on  bad.  The  illustrious  Sun  is  disturbing, 
and  there  are  no  stars  visible  in  the  firmament  about  him.  .  .  . 

The  Affaire  Dreyfus  keeps  us  interested.  Oddly  enough 
nearly  all  the  French  Colony  here  are  Dreyfusards.  As  to  the 
Transvaal,  I  hope  it  will  go  on  quietly,  but  we  must  be  ready  at 
any  time,  I  fear,  for  a  protest.  I  have  put  politics  altogether 
aside,  but  in  Sept.  I  propose  to  begin  the  perusal  of  Whittaker  de 
Temperantia.  For  the  present  I  find  it  enough  to  look  at  the 
outside  of  the  volume. 

I  hope  you  have  been  having  some  shooting,  and  otherwise 
enjoying  yourself. 


240    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    The  quick  changes  which  in  the  month  of  August  trans- 
IL     f erred  the  issue  from  the  Franchise  to  the  Suzerainty,  and 


l8"'  the  menacing  effect  of  Mr.  Chamberlain's  Birmingham  speech 
at  the  end  of  August,  were  perhaps  not  quite  so  easily 
measured  in  the  Bohemian  watering-place  as  in  London. 
The  differences  of  opinion  on  his  own  bench  which  after- 
wards became  acute  had  not  at  this  time  developed  to  the 
point  which  compromised  joint  action,  though  the  public 
had  already  begun  to  notice  a  variation  of  accent  and  tone 
in  the  speeches  of  the  Liberal  leaders.  Speaking  at  Leven  on 
September  2,  Mr.  Asquith  substantially  repeated  Campbell- 
Bannerman's  formula  when  he  said,  '  there  is  nothing  in  the 
situation,  delicate  and  even  dangerous  as  it  has  become, 
^  which  cannot  and  ought  not  to  be  safely  solved  by  firm 
and  prudent  diplomacy.'  '  Holding  this  view,'  he  added, 
'  I  for  one  am  not  alarmed  by  the  irresponsible  clamours 
which  we  hear  from  some  familiar  quarters  for  war.  I  do 
not  believe,  I  cannot  believe,  that  anything  has  occurred  or 
is  threatened  to  bring  us  even  within  a  measurable  distance 
of  a  catastrophe  which  would  be  a  reproach  to  statesman- 
ship, a  calamity  to  civilisation,  and  an  almost  immeasurable 
catastrophe  to  South  Africa.'  On  September  15  Mr.  Morley, 
with  his  friend  Mr.  Courtney,  took  the  field  at  Manchester 
and,  while  offering  Kruger  good  advice  which  he  failed  to 
take,  at  once  struck  a  high  controversial  note  : — 

Nobody  who  really  tries  to  take  a  large  and  consistent  view  of 
South  African  affairs — nobody  can  suppose  that  a  definite  and 
permanent  settlement  is  immediately  within  reach  ;  and  I,  who 
am  very  often  called  an  extreme  man — I,  for  one,  entirely 
distrust  all  political  navigators  who  are  for  ever  steering  a  bee- 
line  among  sunken  rocks  and  steering  ahead  at  full  speed  through 
a  thick  mist.  ...  I  ask  myself  very  often  in  my  little  doctrinaire 
study,  when  I  think  about  these  things — think  about  them,  don't 
write  about  them  in  the  Yellow  press — I  ask  myself  whether  the 
man  with  the  sword  blundering  in  and  slashing  at  the  knots  that 
patient  statesmen  ought  to  have  untied  is  not  responsible  for 
half  the  worst  political  catastrophes  in  Europe.  You  may  carry 
fire  and  sword  into  the  midst  of  peace  and  industry — such  a  war 
of  the  strongest  Government  in  the  world  against  this  weak  little 


THE  SUZERAINTY  241 

Republic,  and  the  strongest  Government  in  the  world  with    CHAP. 
untold  wealth  and  inexhaustible  resources,  will  bring  you  no  v__ 


glory.  It  will  bring  you  no  profit,  but  mischief,  and  it  will  be  ^£T.  62-63. 
wrong.  You  may  make  thousands  of  women  widows  and 
thousands  of  children  fatherless.  It  will  be  wrong.  You  may 
add  a  new  province  to  your  Empire.  It  will  still  be  wrong.  You 
may  give  greater  buoyancy  to  the  South  African  Stock  and  Share 
market.  You  may  create  South  African  booms.  You  may 
send  the  price  of  Mr.  Rhodes's  Chartered's  up  to  a  point  beyond 
the  dream  of  avarice.  Yes,  even  then  it  will  be  wrong.' 

Three  days  later,  speaking  to  his  constituents  at  Tredegar, 
Sir  William  Harcourt  brought  all  the  weight  of  his  learning 
to  bear  on  the  suzerainty  controversy,  and  declared  that 
he  could  see  '  no  valid  answer '  to  the  Transvaal  argument. 
He,  too,  gave  Mr.  Kruger  the  good  advice  to  renew  his  offer 
of  the  five-year  franchise,  but  his  verdict  was  definitely 
against  war,  and  in  emphatic  language  he  protested  that 
'  not  what  we  could  do  but  what  was  right  to  do/  was  the 
only  question  before  the  country  and  the  sole  test  of  British 
supremacy.  These  protests  and  warnings,  it  should  be 
added,  were  by  no  means  confined  to  the  Liberal  side. 
Many  Unionists  were  profoundly  uneasy  at  the  course 
events  had  taken,  and  some  of  them,  notably  Mr.  Arthur 
Elliot,  Mr.  J.  M.  Maclean,  and  Sir  Edward  Clarke  said  so  in 
very  outspoken  language  to  their  constituents. 

With  the  whole  country  in  a  ferment,  and  the  ex-leaders 
emerging  from  their  tents,  his  friends  on  the  front  bench  felt 
it  was  time  for  Campbell-Bannerman  to  be  back.  Had  he 
been  on  the  spot  he  could  have  said  no  more  and  no  less 
than  they  had  said,  but  his  colleagues  felt  his  absence  to  be 
a  disability,  and  the  retired  leaders  were  near  at  hand  and 
reported  by  the  Chief  Whip  to  be  '  boiling  over/  Mr. 
Asquith,  in  a  letter  to  Marienbad,  explaining  the  circum- 
stances of  his  Leven  speech,  enlarged  on  the  difficulties : — 

Mr.  Asquith  to  Campbell-Bannerman 

Sept.  14,  '99. — Your  letter  of  August  30  reached  me  here  on 
Saturday  morning  last  (the  2nd)  just  as  I  was  about  to  start 
VOL.  I.  Q 


242    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    (most  reluctantly)  for  some  local  functions  at  Leven  in  this 
11 '     county. 


1899.  Herbert  Gladstone  had  beer  staying  with  me  here  for  the  last 
week  and  was  about  to  take  his  departure.  I  had  only  a  minute 
in  which  to  show  him  your  letter  and  to  take  counsel  on  the 
situation.  He  agreed  (on  the  whole)  with  me,  that  in  view  of 
the  state  of  feeling  here — especially  among  our  own  people — 
I  could  not,  even  on  the  most  exiguous  or  obscure  platform, 
abstain  from  all  mention  of  the  Transvaal.  There  was  further, 
in  both  our  minds,  the  advertised  fact  that  J.  M.  had  suddenly 
arranged  a  meeting  at  Arbroath  for  to-morrow  (Tuesday)  at 
which  we  did  not  doubt  that  he  would  produce  a  fiery  cross 
lighted  at  the  embers  of  the  Hawarden  fire.  ...  I  accordingly 
took  the  opportunity  of  finding  myself  in  a  small  upper  room  at 
Leven  in  the  presence  of  about  100  females — with  a  small 
sprinkling  of  the  other  sex — to  deliver  a  ten-minutes'  allocation 
on  the  question  of  the  hour.  You  have  no  doubt  seen  what  I 
said  in  the  Times  and,  bearing  in  mind  the  difficulties  and  dangers 
of  the  situation,  I  hope  you  will  approve.  ...  It  would  be  a 
mistake  to  suppose  that  our  people — as  a  whole — are  at  all 
4.  strongly  pro-Boer.  I  talked  to  one  or  two  representative 
Liberals  before  I  spoke — Free  Church  ministers  and  such — and 
was  rather  surprised  to  find  how  anti-Kruger  and  bellicose  was 
their  frame  of  mind.  ...  I  purposely  couched  what  I  had  to 
say  in  favour  of  peace  in  the  most  guarded  and  balanced  terms — 
hoping  thereby  not  to  do  injury  to  the  situation,  and  yet  to  convey 
to  S.  African  sympathisers  with  K.  that  he  must  divest  himself 
of  a  little  of  his  Arcadian  astuteness  and  come  to  reasonable 
terms.  The  situation  is  very  serious,  and  though  I  profess  to  be 
and  am  an  optimist,  I  have  my  fears. 

He  was  now  being  heavily  bombarded  by  Liberals  wanting 
to  know  his  mind  or  desiring  him  to  intervene  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  Herbert  Gladstone 

MARIENBAD,  Sept.  19,  '99. — This  morning  I  received  a  telegram 
of  prodigious  length  (including  the  despatch  from  the  Transvaal 
Government  published  in  England  yesterday)  from  the 
Manchester  Transvaal  Committee :  with  a  separate  telegram 
from  C.  P.  Scott :  both  calling  on  me  to  save  the  situation  ! 

I  cannot  see  in  the  whole  case  as  it  now  stands  anything  to 
alter  our  opinion  or  attitude.  Making  any  allowance  possible 


REFLECTIONS  FROM  MARIENBAD    243 

for  Boer  duplicity  and  procrastination,  there  has  been  some    CHAP. 
curious  shifting  of  ground  on  our  own  side,  not  to  speak  of  v_        __, 
provocative  language  :  nothing  as  yet  to  found  war  upon,  except  &?.  62-63. 
sheer  impatience,  and  possibly  a  desire  to  gratify  British  arrogance 
at  the  Cape. 

Of  course,  in  all  such  cases  there  comes  a  time  when  national 
dignity  is  involved :    but  I  cannot  see  yet  that  this  is  the  case 
with  us,  unless  it  is  created  by  the  continual  despatch  of  driblets 
of  troops  and  floods  of  staff-officers.     The  national  dignity  is  not 
so  much  involved  as  to  justify  our  closing  ranks  with  the  Govern- 
ment and  putting  out  of  our  sight  the  feeble  grounds  of  the  war. 
I  can  conceive  that  condition  of  things  arising :    but  as  yet,  if 
we  were  to  get  laughed  at  as  a  nation,  it  would  merely  be  because 
of  our  warlike  preparations,  so  ostentatiously  made,  and  not  on 
account  of  our  attitude  in  the  negotiations.     The  negotiations! 
have  been  bungled  :  bungled  because  of  the  application  to  them  I 
of  too  much  cleverness  and  too  little  honesty  :   but  negotiation  I 
is  still  the  road  to  follow. 

At  the  same  time,  for  me  to  denounce  war  at  this  moment 
would  be  in  all  respects  dangerous.  I  have  therefore  telegraphed 
to  these  restive  gentlemen  a  mild  answer  which  will  no  doubt 
be  published,  and  which  I  therefore  do  not  write  out  here,  merely 
repeating,  as  now  applicable,  what  has  been  already  said  by 
Asquith  and  myself. 

We  leave  this  on  Thursday  for  Berlin  for  a  day  or  two,  and  will 
work  homewards.  Our  address  will  always  be  known  at  6  Gros- 
venor  Place,  but  we  shall  be  riding  at  a  single  anchor  and  could 
quicken  our  movements  homewards  at  any  time  if  thought 
desirable. — Yours,  H.  C.-B. 

Lest  it  should  be  wrongly  transmitted,  this  is  what  I  said  to 
the  Committee : — 

'  Mv  view  of  question  remains  precisely  as  stated  in  House  of 
I  Commons,  July  29.  Subsequent  negotiations  have  become 
\  complicated  and  matter  more  confused,  but  essential  merits 
I  unchanged,  and  solution  not  beyond  competence  of  straight- 
\  forward  diplomacy  and  goodwill.' 

On  September  21  Mr.  Herbert  Gladstone  wrote  to  advise  a 
return  home,  and  Mr.  Asquith  wired  from  Scotland  urging 
the  earliest  possible  consultation  with  colleagues.  '  It  is 
quite  clear,'  reported  the  former,  '  that  our  people  are  rather 
wandering  in  difficult  paths,  and  any  false  move  will  have 


244    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    a  bad  effect  one  way  or  the  other.'     '  There  is  a  strong  war- 

X  TTT 

1  _,  feeling  in  London/  he  reported  three  days  later,  '  but  I 


l8"-     don't  think  it  is  as  strong  as  it  was  in  1877.' 

v 

In  deference  to  these  warnings,  Campbell-Bannerman  cut 
short  his  stay  at  Marienbad,  and  turned  home  though  with 
obvious  reluctance.  The  state  of  Lady  Campbell-Banner- 
man's  health  required  the  journey  to  be  made  by  slow 
stages,  and  after  spending  nights  at  Frankfurt,  Mainz,  and 
Cologne,  he  reached  Brussels  on  the  28th.  There  he  read 
in  the  Times  the  despatch  of  September  22,  which  fore- 
shadowed a  change  of  issue  and  the  production  of  new  pro- 
posals. He  interpreted  this  as  meaning  that  there  was  no 
immediate  danger  of  war,  and  he  therefore  countermanded 
his  plans,  and  resolved  to  spend  the  next  few  days  in  Brussels. 
But  again  he  was  pressed  to  hasten  back,  and  on  October  3 
he  came  through  to  London,  while  his  wife  went  to  Paris. 
The  following  day  the  ex-Cabinet  met  and  decided  on  the 
general  line,  which  he  took  in  a  speech  at  Maidstone  on  the 
6th.  A  report,  untrue  as  subsequently  turned  out,  that 
the  Boers  had  invaded  Natal  temporarily  disarranged  these 
plans,  and  telegrams  flew  backwards  and  forwards  between 
ex-Minis ters  all  day  on  October  5.  The  Maidstone  speech 
delivered,  Campbell-Bannerman  immediately  rejoined  his 
wife  in  Paris,  where  he  was  when  the  ultimatum  was  de- 
livered on  October  9.  He  started  back  on  the  I3th,  but  was 
detained  at  Calais  by  a  storm  in  the  Channel,  which  necessi- 
tated more  telegrams  postponing  the  ex-Cabinet  meeting 
fixed  for  the  following  day.  His  imperturbable  refusal  to 
be  hustled  stood  him  in  good  stead  on  many  occasions,  but 
colleagues  of  a  less  equable  temperament  sometimes  grew 
impatient. 

There  was,  indeed,  every  reason  for  him  to  be  on  the  spot, 
if  he  was  to  maintain  his  authority.  The  cross-currents 
which  had  first  appeared  when  the  Milner  despatch  was 
published  in  June  were  now  running  strongly  in  the  head- 
waters of  the  party.  Of  his  three  principal  colleagues  Mr. 


LIBERAL  DIVISIONS  245 

/  Asquith  was  moderately  and  Sir  Henry  Fowler  vehemently    CHAP. 

\  on  the  side  of  the  Government  on  the  main  issues  in  the  v — —^—L^ 
Transvaal  dispute.  He  himself,  while  freely  admitting  the  JET' 
Outlanders'  grievances,  profoundly  mistrusted  Mr.  Cham- 
berlain's methods  and  steadily  refused  to  accept  the  high 
valuation  which  both  Mr.  Asquith  and  Sir  Henry  Fowler 
put  upon  Sir  Alfred  Milner's  part  in  the  Government  policy. 
Mr.  Bryce,  the  fourth  of  the  quartette,  was,  if  anything, 
more  opposed  to  the  Government's  methods  than  Campbell- 
Bannerman,  and  felt  a  keen  sympathy  for  the  Boers  under 
the  hard  driving  of  the  new  diplomacy.  Outside  the  ex- 
Cabinet  were  Sir  William  Harcourt  and  Mr.  Morley,  abound- 
ing in  the  same  sense  and  not  obscurely  intimating  that 
they  would  feel  it  necessary  to  take  action  on  their  own 
account  if  the  ex-Cabinet  failed  to  move.  Against  these 
again,  but  also  outside  the  consultative  circle,  were  the  two 
rising  young  men,  Sir  Edward  Grey  and  Mr.  Haldane,  both 
stubbornly  of  the  Chamberlain-Milner  persuasion ;  while  on 
the  other  side  Sir  Robert  Reid,  future  Lord  Chancellor,  was 
all  on  fire  at  the  wrong  threatened  to  a  little  nationality. 
Lord  Rosebery  had  not  so  far  declared  himself,  and  questions 
as  to  his  opinions  and  intentions  were,  then,  as  always,  a 
disturbing  factor.  Both  parties  claimed  him,  and  neither 
seemed  to  know  his  mind.  Outside  the  leaders,  the  great 
majority  of  the  party  were  at  the  beginning  of  October 
hostile  to  the  Government  and  in  full  agreement  with 
Campbell-Bannerman  when  he  repeated  that  he  .saw  no 
GauseJfor_waL  The  strong  backing  which  the  Daily  News, 
under  the  editorship  of  E.  T.  Cook,  an  intimate  friend  and 
admirer  both  of  Sir  Alfred  Milner  and  Mr.  Rhodes,  had 
given  to  the  Government  policy  had  undoubtedly  influ- 
enced a  certain  number  of  Liberals,  but  the  main  demand 
which  came  up  from  the  rank  and  file  was  for  an  even 
stronger  lead  against  those  who  favoured  war.  Not  a  few 
complaints  were  heard  that  there  had  been  no  answer  from 
the  front  bench  to  Mr.  Chamberlain's  Highbury  speech. 

The  Chief  Whip,  then,  was  well  justified  in  saying  that 
any  false  move  would  have  a  bad  effect  one  way  or  the 


246    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    other.     From  October  3  onwards  events  became  every  day 
more  complicated.     The  ex-Cabinet  had  considerable  diffi- 


[8"'  culty  in  reaching  agreement  at  its  meeting  on  the  4th. 
'  Bryce  said  yesterday/  wrote  Sir  Henry  Fowler  on  the 
following  day,  '  that  he  considered  the  leader  in  the  Daily 
News  yesterday  to  be  very  mischievous.  I  have  read  it  again 
and  am  bound  to  say  that  individually  I  agree  with  it. '  When 
one  colleague  '  agreed '  with  what  another  thought  '  very 
mischievous/  there  was  no  plain  sailing  for  the  chief  navi- 
gator, but  sufficient  harmony  was  established  to  tide  over 
his  Maidstone  speech  (Oct.  6).  In  that  he  declared  himself 
mystified  as  to  the  reasons  for  which  war  was  threatened, 
and  expressed  his  regret  that  the  suzerainty  claim  had  been 
pressed  in  such  a  way  as  to  raise  the  suspicions  of  the  Boers. 
At  the  same  time  he  was  careful  to  add  that  the  last  proposals 
of  the  Government  were  reasonable  and  should  be  sufficient 
to  convince  the  Boers  of  the  groundlessness  of  these  suspi- 
cions. It  was  obviously  the  speech  of  a  man  in  difficulty,  and 
in  the  circumstances  it  could  not  be  otherwise.  Sir  William 
Harcourt  wrote  approvingly  and  entered  into  an  elaborate 
argument  on  the  suzerainty  question.  To  this  he  replied 
in  a  letter  which  shows  that  his  objections  to  the  war  policy 
were  not  based  on  any  denial  of  the  right  of  Great  Britain 
to  intervene  for  just  cause  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Sir  William  Harcourt 

Oct.  10, 1899. — I  am  much  obliged  for  your  letter,  and  delighted 
to  know  that  you  think  what  I  said  was  useful.  I  thought  it 
was  not  the  time  for  slanging  the  Government,  and  that  all  one 
said  should  be  addressed  to  the  possibility  of  peace. 

I  had  not  got  far  in  your  letter  before  I  said  to  myself,  '  I  must 
send  this  to  Asquith  '  ;  and  further  on  you  suggest  this — which 
I  will  do. 

To  my  entirely  lay  mind,  two  of  your  points  present  themselves 
thus :- 

i.  We  have  no  right  under  the  convention  to  demand  or  urge 
a  change  of  franchise. 

No.  But  the  Milnerite  theory  is  that  we  have  the  right  to 
protect  our  countrymen  from  grievances ;  and  that  we  suggest 
an  effective  naturalization  as  the  shortest  way  to  getting  the 


DRIFTING  TO  WAR  247 

grievances  cured,  i.e.  let  them  cure  them  themselves.     This  will    CHAP. 
be  what  the  Government  will  say. 


(If  you  ask  me  my  own  opinion  I  hold  this  '  franchise  '  move-  ^T.  62-63. 
ment  as  the  biggest  hypocrisy  ...     It  was  designed  in  order 
that :- 

(a)  Kruger,  seeing  the  real  drift  of  it,  might  refuse  it,  and  supply 

a  direct  ground  of  quarrel. 

(b)  If  he  accepted  it,  it  would  mean  that  not  being  able  to  get 

in  by  the  front  door  they  would  get  the  area  gate  opened 
and  get  possession  in  this  way  of  the  country. 

(c)  The  innocent  Briton  would  be  gulled  by  the  flavour  of 

legality  and  of  civilized  progress  in  the  word  '  franchise.' 

But  this  is  only  my  view  of  it,  and  practically  they  are  dropping 
it  because  the  Outlander  does  not  care  about  it  and  would  not 
use  it  if  he  might.) 

Then  as  to  the  general  power  or  responsibility  of  this  country, 
it  is  no  doubt  vague,  but  I  think  it  is  substantial.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  the  two  races  in  the  Colony,  Natal,  and  for  that  part  of  it, 
Free  State,  are  hindered  from  forgetting  their  differences  by  this 
constant  quarrel  in  the  Transvaal.  The  sooner  it  is  settled  the 
better  in  the  interest  of  S.  Africa  generally.  Therefore  we  have 
a  stronger  inducement  or  title  to  intervene  than  if  it  was  merely 
the  ill-treatment  of  some  Englishman  at  Calais. 

It  is  analogous,  surely,  to  the  right  of  the  Powers  of  Europe  to 
try  and  stop  misgovernment  in  Turkey  which  endangers  general 
peace. 

And  as  to  the  Portuguese,  I  should  answer  to  your  question, 
Yes,  there  also,  if  the  same  danger  arose,  but  it  cannot  arise,  for 
the  two  jealous  races  are  not  there  together. 

This  is  of  course  a  mere  lay  view,  but  I  think  there  is  reason  in 
it.  It  is  a  case  of '  tua  res  agitur  '  intensified  by  our  undoubtedly 
predominant  position,  which  carries  with  it  responsibility,  and 
responsibility  gives  a  right  which,  if  not  technically  and  legally 
definite,  is  yet,  as  I  said,  substantial. 

The  reasons  for  war  might,  as  he  said  at  Maidstone,  be 
mystifying,  but  that  there  was  no  avoiding  war  was  plain 
after  October  9.  Whatever  the  rights  or  wrongs  of  the 
dispute,  it  was  certain  that  a  great  and  proud  country  would 
not  take  from  President  Kruger  a  peremptory  demand  that 
'  its  troops  should  be  withdrawn  from  South  Africa/  and 
'  none  now  on  the  high  seas  be  landed  in  any  port '  in  that 


248    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    country.     This  to  a  certain  extent  simplified  the  task  of  the 

X  T  TT 

Opposition,  and  when  Parliament  met  for  a  special  session 


on  October  17,  its  leaders  were  agreed  on  supporting  the 
Government  in  voting  supplies.  But  there  agreement 
ended.  One  group  was  in  favour  of  qualifying  this  support 
of  the  Government  by  an  amendment  criticising  the  course 
of  the  negotiations  and  regretting  the  failure  to  produce 
the  new  proposals  foreshadowed  in  the  last  despatch. 
Another  group  strongly  dissented  from  this  proposal,  both 
on  tactical  grounds,  and  because  they  objected  to  the 
criticisms  implied  in  it.  Mr.  Asquith  had  already  advo- 
cated whole-hearted  support  of  the  Government  for  the 
purposes  of  the  war,  and,  in  a  letter  to  a  correspondent, 
Lord  Rosebery  had  urged  the  nation  to  '  close  its  ranks 
and  relegate  party  controversy  to  a  more  convenient  season.' 
The  same  view  was  expressed  emphatically  in  a  letter  from 
Sir  Henry  Fowler  : — 

Sir  Henry  Fowler  to  Campbell- Bannerman 

Oct.  12,  '99. — The  new  situation  disposes  of  your  question  as 
to  attacking  the  Government  either  on  the  address  or  the  vote 
or  the  whole  policy — and  I  think,  subject  to  your  judgment,  it 
also  disposes  of  moving  any  amendment  either  from  our  bench 
or  with  our  support.  Rosebery's  letter  and  Asquith's  speech,  » 
as  it  appears  to  me,  defines  the  only  policy  which  a  responsible 
Opposition  could  adopt.  On  public  grounds  as  well  as  on  party 
tactics  I  hope  there  will  be  no  difference  of  opinion  as  to  this. 
Men  who  have  been  members  of  a  Government  and  who  possibly 
may  be  members  again  are  bound  to  look  at  a  crisis  like  this 
from  a  different  standpoint  from  Labby  and  his  clique.  They 
are  bound  to  support  the  Queen's  Government  in  defending  the 
Empire  and  they  would  not,  in  my  humble  judgment,  be  justified 
in  any  policy  either  of  obstruction  or  abstention.  From  a  party 
point  of  view  any  other  course  would  be  suicidal — it  would  mean 
a  break-up  of  the  party  inside  and  a  smash  far  greater  than  in 
1895. 

This  view  prevailed  with  the  leaders,  and  when  the  House 
met,  Campbell-Bannerman  confined  himself  to  asking 
critical  questions  in  a  speech  on  the  Address.  Meanwhile 
Sir  William  Harcourt  brought  his  influence  to  bear  on  one 


A  STORMY  DEBATE  249 

stubborn  figure,  and  reported  that  even  the  '  atrox  animus    CHAP. 
Courtney! '  had  yielded  to  his  persuasions.     But  '  Labby  v_l^J_^ 
and  his  clique '  and  a  good  many  others — including  Mr.  7 
Lloyd  George — were  obdurate,  and  voted  135  strong  for 
an   amendment,  moved   from    the    back   benches  by  Mr. 
Philip  Stanhope,  '  disapproving  of  the  conduct  of  the  nego- 
tiations which  had  involved  us  in  hostilities  with  the  South 
African  Republics'  (Oct.  18). 

VI 

The  debate  revealed  deep  and  passionate  differences  of 
opinion,  and  the  dramatic  interlude  in  which  Sir  Edward 
Clarke  cross-examined  Mr.  Chamberlain  showed  that  con- 
sciences were  by  no  means  easy  even  on  the  Unionist  side. 
Three  groups  were  distinguishable.  '  One,  while  admitting 
that  the  negotiations  had  in  certain  respects  been  clumsily 
conducted,  threw  the  blame  on  the  Boers  and  declared  the 
war  to  be  just  and  inevitable.  The  second  held  the  British 
Government  mainly  to  blame  forjthe  failure  of  the  negotia-  v 
tions,  but  nevertheless  held  the  war  to  be  inevitable  after 
the  ultimatum.  The  third  frankly  thought  the  whole  trans- 
action iniquitous,  and  held  the  ultimatum  to  be  merely  an 
incident  in  a  quarrel  provoked  by  Mr.  Chamberlain  and  Sir 
Alfred  Milner,  at  the  instigation  of  the  Transvaal  capitalists. 
The  middle  course  of  the  second  group  was  the  natural  line  of 
the  Party-leader.  It  was  eminently  reasonable  and  logically 
consistent.  A  man  might  honestly  have  objected  to  Mr. 
Chamberlain's  diplomacy  and  yet  not  be  prepared  to  pay 
for  it  by  humiliating  himself  before  Mr.  Kruger.  Or,  he 
might  honestly  think,  that  on  the  issue  squarely  presented 
by  the  ultimatum  between  Boer  and  British  ascendancy  in 
South  Africa,  there  could  be  only  one  choice  for  an  English- 
man. But  to  keep  to  this  narrow  path  without  straying  to  j 
right  or  left  as  the  war  went  on  was,  as  the  event  proved,  I 
all  but  impossible.  The  right  and  left  wings  contained  a 
large  proportion  of  the  ablest,  keenest,  and  most  combative 
men  in  the  party  ;  the  centre  was  heavily  weighted  with 
safe  men  of  moderate  talents  who  found  shelter  from  the 


250    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    storm  in  a  convenient  oblivion  of  all  that  happened  before 

Y  T  T  T 

the  ultimatum.     From  the  very  beginning,  the  two  wings 


18991     started  shelling  each  other  over  the  heads  of  the  others,    j 
and  not  infrequently  combined  to   concentrate  their  fire  on 
the  centre. 

Campbell-Bannerman  realised  from  the  first  that  the  war 

O  c.^-was  a  shattering  blow  to  Liberal  hopes.  The  party,  which 
up  to  the  month  of  August  had  been  winning  by-elections 
.and,  by  all  the  signs,  prospering  in  the  country,  was  thrown 
into  confusion  and  deeply  divided.  All  the  munitions 
laboriously  gathered  for  the  coming  party  fight — the  doles 
to  landlords,  parsons  and  Church  schools,  the  '  blazing 
indiscretions  of  Lord  Salisbury '  and  Mr.  Chamberlain — 
were  thrown  on  the  scrap-heap,  and  all  the  sins  of  the 
Government  wiped  out.  JLn  all  wars  it  is  an  axiom  that 
unless  compelled  to  seek  peace,  a  nation  will  only  change 
from  a  less  to  a  more  war-like  Government,  and  that  very 
evidently  could  not  in  this  case  be  a  Government  formed 
from  the  Liberal  Party.  So  the  hope  which  in  the  summer 
of  the  year  had  seemed  to  be  well  justified  of  a  return  to 
power  within  a  year  or  eighteen  months  had  to  be  put  aside 
at  the  beginning  of  October  and  the  fact  squarely  faced  that 
while  the  war  lasted,  and  as  long  after  as  the  war-spirit  was 
alive,  the  Opposition  could  not  be  converted  into  a  Govern- 
ment. The  length  of  this  period  was,  of  course,  completely 
uncertain  in  the  autumn  of  1899.  No  one  believed  that 
the  war  would  last  a  year  :  the  common  opinion  was  that 
it  would  be  over  in  six  months,  and  after  that  the  more  san- 
guine spirits  predicted  a  speedy  reaction  which  would  be 
all  in  favour  of  the  Liberal  Party.  Campbell-Bannerman 
had  no  illusions,  and  predicted  nothing.  From  the  begin- 
ning he  held  that  the  war  would  be  far  more  serious  than 
either  Mr.  Chamberlain  or  his  South  African  advisers 
appeared  to  realise,  and  he  knew  that  while  it  lasted  no 
leader  of  the  Liberal  Party  could  hope  to  do  more  than  keep 
his  party  intact  as  an  Opposition,  and  that  even  this  com- 
^  paratively  mqdest  achievement  would  be  attended  with  the 
greatest  difficulty. 


'FRIENDS  OF  THE  ENEMY  251 

But  neither  he  nor  any  one  else  on  the  Liberal  side  fore-    CHAP. 

XIII 

'saw  the  extreme  bitterness  of  the  controversy  that  was  to 


follow.  The  first  sign  of  it  was  at  the  Bow  and  Bromley  ^T-  62"63> 
1  election,  at  which  the  vials  of  wrath  were  outpoured  upon 
the  Liberal  candidate  (Mr.  Harold  Spender),  who,  though 
taking  the  line  that  the  war  was  inevitable  after  the  ulti- 
matum, and  must  be  prosecuted  with  all  vigour,  avowed 
himself  an  impenitent  critic  of  the  pre-war  diplomacy.  The 
entire  machinery  of  the  Unionist  Party  was  mobilised,  and 
all  the  leaders  brought  into  the  field  to  protest  that  a  Liberal 
success  would  weaken  the  hands  of  the  Government  in 
carrying  on  the  war.  All  the  hoardings  were  covered  with 
posters  denouncing  the  Liberal  candidate  as  a  friend  of  the 
enemy  and  an  enemy  of  his  country7.  By  a  confusion  which 
has  been  wilfully  practised  in  all  wars,  perfectly  legitimate 
efforts  to  keep  the  peace  before  the  state  of  war  existed 
were  given  the  appearance  of  illicit  trafficking  with  the 
enemy  after  war  had  broken  out.  The  Liberal  candidate 
was  handsomely  beaten,  and  a  contemporary  reporting  the 
circumstances  to  Headquarters  expressed  the  opinion  that 
the  final  blow  was  given  to  his  chances  by  the  appear- 
ance on  his  platform  of  certain  prominent  pro-Boers. 
Mr.  Chamberlain  was  a  remorseless  master  of  what  has  since 
come  to  be  called  propaganda,  and  it  quickly  became 
evident  ..that -he  was  preparing  as  formidable  a  campaign 
against  his  critics  in  Great  Britain  as  against  the  enemy  in 
South  Africa.  In  the  next  few  months  nothing  was  omitted 
which  could  serve  the  purpose  either  of  kindling  the  war 
spirit  in  the  country  or  of  suggesting  that  the  Opposition 
was  playing  an  unpatriotic  part. 

%  This  line  of  attack,  as  its  authors  no  doubt  intended, 
inflamed  the  differences  in  the  Liberal  Party,  and  greatly 
aggravated  the  difficulties  of  the  leader.  It  fell  indiscrimi- 
nately upon  Liberal-Imperialists  and  pro-Boers.  The 
former  protested  their  innocence ;  the  latter  hit  back 
vigorously  and  more  and  more  displayed  their  sympathy 
with  the  Ppers.  Both  appealed  to  the  leader,  the~Tm- 
perialists  asserting  that  the  party  would  be  hopelessly 


252    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    compromised  unless  it  dissociated  itself  from  anti-national 
sentiments,  the_pro-Boers  that  it  would  be  eternally  dis- 


graced  if  it  lacked  courage  10  stem  the  tide  of  jingoism.  '  It 
is  one  thing/  wrote  a  leading  Imperialist,  '  to  go  to  the  stake 
for  principles  you  believe  in,  and  quite  another  to  be  roasted 
alive  for  a  cause  you  abhor,'  and  Mr.  Chamberlain,  seeing  his 
advantage,  was  quite  determined  that  Liberal-Imperialist 
and  pro-Boer  should  roast  together.  Campbell-Bannerman 
could  give  no  relief  to  these  sufferers,  but  in  these  months 
he  strove  loyally  to  walk  in  the  middle  path  and  threw  the 
<£  whole  of  his  influence  into  keeping  the  peace  between  the  two 
sections.  He  would  give  no  official  countenance  to  amend-  ' 
ments  which  were  likely  to  divide  the  party  or  embarrass  | 
the  Government  in  the  conduct  of  the  war.  tong  and 
strenuously  he  wrestled  in  private  with  the  hot-heads  of 
both  sections.  But  certain  things  he  would  not  do.  _He 
would  not  withdraw  his  criticism  of  Mr.  Chamberlain's 
diplomacy  or  declare  the  war  to  be  inevitable,  except  in  the 
limited  sense  that  the  Kruger  ultimatum  had^made  it  so. 
He  would  not  join.in.any  of  the  popular  outcries  for  ven- 
geanca_DiL_ihe_J3-oers.  And  when  disaster  came,  he  would 
not  encourage  or  endorse  any  line  of  criticism  which  trans- 
ferred the  blame  from  the  Government  to  the  soldiers.  On 
the  other  hand,  when  war  had  once  broken  out,  he  steadily  ' 
refused  to  commit  himself  or  the  party  to  an  unavailing 
protest  against^  the  annexation  of  the  Boer  States.  He 
held  the  war  to  be  a  calamity,  but  he  foresaw  from  the 
beginning  that  any  issue  other  than  a  British  defeat  was 
bound  to  bring  these  States  within  the  British  system. 
Herein  he  differed  temporarily  from  Mr.  Asquith,  who  on 
a  generous  impulse  had  warned  the  country  against  coquet- 
ting with  the  idea  of  annexing  the  Boer  States.  (Newburgh, 
Oct.  12.)  This  was  in  keeping  with  Lord  Salisbury's  dis- 
claimer :  '  We  seek  no  territory,  we  seek  no  goldfields  ' ;  but 
Campbell-Bannerman  was  convinced  from  the  beginning 
chat  a  war  with  the  Boers  could  have  no  other  issue  than 
the  absorption  of  the  Boer  territory — and  incidentally  of 
the  goldfields — into  the  British  system. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

WAR  AND  POLITICS 

A  Troubled  Recess — Military  Disaster  and  Popular  Dis- 
pleasure— Politicians  and  Soldiers — Public  Speeches— Speak- 
ing at  each  other — Efforts  in  Unity — The  War  Atmosphere- 
Difficulties  of  Moderation — An  Imperturbable  Spirit — The 
Pitfalls  of  Speech-making — Lord  Rosebery's  Attitude— 
Lawson  '  battle-axe  in  hand  '  -  -  The  Religio  Milneriana— 
London  Government — Clerical  Tithes. 


I 


Parliamentary  session  was  short,  and  immedi-    CHAP. 

ately  it  was  over  Campbell-Bannerman  returned » ,__ 

to  Belmont.   Not,  however,  to  find  repose  or  escape 


from  the  difficulties  of  the  Liberal  Party.  He  was  drenched 
with  good  advice  (some  of  it  couched  in  rather  menacing 
terms)  from  all  quarters.  Each  group  protested  in  turn 
that  the  excesses  of  the  others  rendered  it  impossible  for 
them  to  keep  silence  ;  each  indicated  that  the  slightest 
leaning  to  the  other  on  the  part  of  the  Parliamentary  leader 
might  put  them  under  the  deplorable  necessity  of  taking 
independent  action.  Lord  Rosebery  in  a  speech  at  Bath 
had  repeated  Chatham's  injunction :  '  be  one  people, 
forget  everything  for  the  public  '-—a  high  maxim,  but  mani- 
festly easier  for  the  retired  leader  than  for  his  successor. 

A  letter  to  Mr.  Sydney  Buxton  shows  his  mood  at  this 
time  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  Sydney  Buxton 

BELMONT,  Oct.  31,  '99. — I  was  not  at  all  surprised  at  the  two 
Byes,1  the  case  seemed  hopeless  from  the  first.  I  fear  Exeter  2 
is  a  bad  place  for  us  also. 

I  confess  that  all  these  philosophic  and  historic  students  with 

1  Presumably  East  St.  Pancras  (July  12)  and  Bow  and  Bromley  (Oct.  27) 
*  Election    Nov.    6,    Sir    Edgar    Vincent    (Conservative)    returned    by 
majority  of  659. 


258 


254    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    whom  we  have  to  deal  are  beyond  my  modest  range.     I  do  not 
,  see  where  the  lofty  principles  of  Imperialism  come  in  to  this 


1899.  somewhat  sordid  quarrel.  Those  who  do  not  approve  of  the 
war  must  regard  it  with  dislike  ;  those  who  approve  of  it  have 
all  along  repudiated  the  notion  of  our  wanting  to  grab  anything. 
If  it  was  necessary  it  is  a  great  calamity  :  if  it  was  not  necessary 
it  is  a  stupid  and  dangerous  blunder.  But  where  there  can  be 
any  ground  for  Cock-a-doodle-doo  I  fail  to  see. 

I  am  quite  ready  to  trust  the  man  at  the  helm,  as  we  are 
advised  to  do,  but  I  should  like  to  pick  my  man  and  to  be  sure 
how  he  sets  his  helm.  And  if  he  is  himself  in  great  degree  cause 
of  the  tempest,  what  then  ?  I  don't  get  much  light  or  sound 
doctrine  from  any  of  our  public  counsellors. 

I  see  that  Lucy  publishes  it  that  at  the  private  Kitson  dinner 
I  was  emphatic  in  saying  that  R.  [Lord  Rosebery]  must  be  our 
leader.  I  said  nothing  of  the  sort.  I  said  his  standing  aloof 
was  nonsense,  that  he  must  fall  in  with  his  old  comrades,  and 
more  in  that  amiable  strain,  but  that  was  all.  I  said  nothing 
about  our  accepting  his  policy  :  what  I  meant  was  that  he  should 
openly  accept  ours.  And  neither  at  home  nor  abroad  are  there 
such  fundamental  differences  as  common  sense  cannot  bridge  over. 
But  if  every  man  is  to  try  and  screech  out  a  new  policy  of  his 
own  and  excommunicate  all  who  won't  accept  it,  then  of  course 
our  party  efforts  are  a  vain  show. 

'  I  had  the  greatest  difficulty  last  week,'  he  confides  to  Lord 
Ripon,  '  in  persuading  our  colleagues  not  to  make  speeches 
in  the  House  against  each  other.  Grey  was,  I  am  told,  very 
cross  about  the  division,  and  went  off  to  Glasgow  to  dis- 
charge his  mind.  Of  course  others  will  do  the  same.' 
A  letter  to  Mr.  Bryce  further  explores  the  position  :  — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  Bryce 

BELMONT,  Nov.  10,  '99.  —  I  greatly  fear  that  recent  events  have 
strengthened  the  Government. 
There  are  two  lines  of  attack  :- 

(i)  That  of  those  who,  like  Mr.  Merriman,  say  the  whole  thing 
is  a  scandalous  plot  of  money-seekers  using  the  British 
Government  as  a  catspaw  ;  backed  by  the  pure  Jingo 
piratical  spirit. 

That  is  a  view  which,  whatever  we  think  of  it,  we  can  hardly 
proclaim  and  act  upon. 


DISASTERS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA        255 

(2)  The  view  that  J.  Ch.  and  Milner  were  set  on  war,  or  at    CHAP. 
least  on  victory  over  Kruger,  and  that,  intentionally  or  , 


not,  they  so  bungled  the  negotiations  that  they  ran  us    ^T.  63. 
into  war. 

This  is  Stanhope's  amendment.     But  now  the  ordinary  man, 
even  if  a  Liberal,  is  saying  :- 

All  this  may  be  very  true  and  very  interesting,  but  the  dis- 
closure since  the  war  began  of  the  vast  war  power  of  the 
Boers,  far  beyond  anything  that  could  be  necessary  against 
a  raid  or  a  revolt,  shows  that  they  meant  mischief  against 
us,  that  they  thought  they  could  do  for  us  ;  this  explains 
their  insolence  and  their  ultimatum  ;  and  it  shows  that  they 
must  be  put  down. 

Thus  all  the  former  points  of  controversy  are  out  of  date. 

This,  and  the  doctrine  of  equal  rights,  furnish  a  lovely  standing 
ground  :  and  insinuations  against  capitalists,  or  hole-picking  in 
J.  Ch.'s  diplomacy,  lose  all  effect. 

In  effect,  Joe  and  Milner  claim  the  credit  of  having  unmasked 
batteries  which  had  been  erected  and  pointed  against  the  Empire  : 
we  need  not  care  how  they  did  it  :  they  have  delivered  us  from 
a  great  peril  :  they  must  be  supported,  and  it  is  a  mean  thing  to 
snarl  at  them. 

What  do  you  say  to  that  ?  The  very  difficulties  of  the  war, 
and  strength  of  the  enemy,  help  the  Government  in  the  country  ! 

I  go  to  Manchester  (eheu  !)  this  next  week,  and  Birmingham 
the  week  after 

II 

The  war  from  the  beginning  went  badly,  and  if  one  party 
was  angry  with  the  Government  for  making  war  at  all,  the 
others  were  even  angrier  because  it  made  war  so  badly. 
Before  the  end  of  October  the  Army  had  suffered  a  serious 
reverse  at  Ladysmith,  and  during  the  subsequent  weeks 
the  situation  grew  steadily  worse.  It  now  became  evident 
that  Ministers  had  grossly  miscalculated  the  military  power 
of  the  Boers,  and  when  caught  by  the  ultimatum  were 
without  any  adequate  means  of  defending  British  territory. 
Europe  scoffed  and  the  British  public  were  deeply  mortified. 
Many  counsellors  adjured  Campbell-Bannerman  to  take 
advantage  of  the  occasion  and  avoid  all  other  difficulties 


256    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.  •  by  voicing  the  public  wrath  at  the  military  incompetence 
of  the  Government  and  the  ineptitude  of  their  Generals. 


This,  to  his  credit,  he  steadily  refused  to  do.  He  states 
his  reasons  in  a  letter  to  Sir  Ralph  Knox,  which  reveals  both 
the  good  citizen  and  the  old  Secretary  for  War. 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Sir  Ralph  Knox 

BELMONT,  Nov.  12. — I  have  not  said  a  word  and  have  dis- 
couraged others  from  saying  a  word  in  depreciation  of  the 
administration  of  the  war  by  the  W.O. 

Those  who  are  howling  about  that  part  of  the  business  are 
men  who  having  committed  themselves  to  approval  of  the  War, 
but  requiring  some  ground  of  attack  to  justify  them  in  not 
crossing  the  floor  of  the  House,  find  it  in  denouncing  Lansdowne 
and  the  War  Office.  You  may  see  some  of  these  gentlemen 
sitting  very  near  me,  I  admit,  but  I  have  never  said  Amen  to  them. 

What  I  have  said  is  that  as  the  Government  knew  the  extent 
of  the  Boer  armaments,  etc.,  they  are  culpable  for  not  having 
either  checked  them  or  strengthened  the  colonies  against  them, 
and  that  to  enter  with  that  knowledge  on  a  provocative  contro- 
versy about  grievances,  which  might  very  well  lead  to  war,  was 
lunacy.  But  that  was  the  fault  of  the  C.O.  and  his  Cabinet,  and 
not  of  the  W.O. 

This  howling  against  the  army  systems  and  administration 
will  only  result  in  prodigious  waste  of  money  and  the  expansion 
of  the  Army  beyond  our  powers  of  maintenance. 

.  The  military  disasters  were,  in  his  view,  the  inevitable 
result  of  the  bluffing  diplomacy  which  had  landed  us  in  a 
position  for  which  we  were  totally  unprepared,  and  if  for 
that  reason  alone,  he  felt  it  impossible,  in  criticising  the 
Government,  to  pass  the  sponge  over  their  record  before 
the  ultimatum.  In  a  speech  at  Manchester  on  November  15 
he  developed  this  theme  in  a  vigorous  and  combative  argu- 
ment, which  in  the  opinion  of  some  of  the  Imperialists  trans- 
gressed the  limits  of  the  truce  agreed  upon  between  them 
and  him.  In  this,  he  not  only  repeated  but  expanded  the 
charge  of  '  bluffing  '  which  he  had  made  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  charged  the  Government  with  having  spoilt 
the  chance  of  peace  by  dribbling  out  forces  to  South  Africa, 


THE  RIGHT  HONOURABLE  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN,  IS'.'i! 

(Photo,  London  Stereoscopic  Co.)  p- 


'COMMON-SENSE  IMPERIALISM'        257 

which  were  large  enough  to  excite  the  suspicions  of  the  Boers    CHAP 
but  too  small  to  operate  successfully  if  war  broke  out  :— 


ALr.  63. 

This  is  what  I  have  denounced  as  a  game  of  '  bluff '  by  which 
I  mean  the  sustained  attempt,  and  by  an  affectation  of  superior 
force  to  impose  upon  and  cow  your  opponent,  I  adhere  to  that 
description  of  the  policy  of  the  Government.  I  repeat  that  it 
was  an  unworthy  policy  and  a  dangerous  policy,  and  I  add  now, 
which  I  have  not  said  before,  with  all  the  wisdom  and  satisfaction 
which  comes  of  speaking  after  the  event,  that  it  has  proved  a 
fatal  policy — fatal  I  mean  to  the  cause  of  peace.  But  when  1 
used  this  phrase  in  the  House  of  Commons,  it  was  immediately 
retorted  on  me  that  they  were  not  playing  at  bluff,  that  bluff 
was  a  game  played  by  a  man  who,  having  no  good  cardfe  in  his 
hand,  tries  to  make  his  opponent  believe  that  his  hand  is  a  strong 
one.  And  the  triumphant  cry  rang  out,  '  We  hold  the  cards.' 
Yes,  we  hold  the  cards,  but  where  were  they  ?  They  were  not 
in  our  hands,  they  were  not  in  Natal — they  were  still  in  the  pack. 
The  pack  was  not  even  shuffled. 

About  the  controversies  in  the  party  he  generally  found 
refuge  in  silence,  but  a  week  later  at  Birmingham1  (Nov.  24) 
he  had  a  good-humoured  word  to  say  on  the  subject  of 
'  Imperialism  '  :— 

You  will  have  observed  that  every  one  nowadays  appears  to 
cultivate  some  peculiar  species  of  his  own  of  what  is  called 
Imperialism,  and  to  try  to  get  some  qualifying  adjective  of  his 
own  before  the  word.  Now  I  should  be  sorry  to  find  myself 
differing  from  other  people,  but  I  also  have  a  species  of  Imperial- 
ism of  which  I  am  a  votary,  and  I  have  my  pet  word  by  which 
to  qualify  it.  Mine  is  '  Common-sense  Imperialism.'  I  should 
be  much  surprised  if  it  were  not  found  that  I  belong  to  the  largest 
congregation  of  all  who  worship  at  that  shrine.  We  have  in  this 
country  an  overflowing  population,  and  we  are  bound  to  find  for 
their  industrial  energy  ever  fresh  and  fresh  fields  and  outlets. 
We,  therefore,  cannot  do  a  work  more  patriotic  and  more  con- 
ducive to  the  happiness  of  our  own  people  at  home  than  by 

1  Of  Birmingham  he  reports  :  '  I  got  on  very  well  and  the  meeting  was 
hearty  and  friendly — some  vulgar  interruptions.  But  the  air  as  of  a 
state  of  siege,  caused  by  the  pressure  of  the  suzerainty,  is  most  remark- 
able, and  has  a  dulling  effect  upon  everything.  Cadbury  most  kind  and 
cordially  with  us.  A  detachment  from  Wolverhampton  thirsting  for  the 
punishment  of  a  certain  knight  [Sir  H.  H.  Fowler].' 

VOL.  I.  R 


258    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.  '  developing  the  resources  of  the  Empire,  by  securing  our  trade 
XIV-    ,  rights,  and  by  cultivating  close,  cordial  and  active  relations  with 


' 


1899.  all  the  members  of  the  British  family  scattered  throughout  the 
world.  There  is  ample  room  here  for  all  our  activity,  and  for  my 
part  I  grudge  to  see  any  of  that  activity  diverted  to  the  acquisi- 
tion— sometimes  it  may  be  inevitable — to  the  acquisition  of  new 
dominions  which  may  bring  us  glory,  but  which  very  often  is 
rather  a  burden  than  a  source  of  advantage  for  many  years. 

At  Aberdeen  on  December  19  he  spoke  more  pointedly  about 
Mr.  Chamberlain's  responsibility  for  the  war  : — 

Mr.  Chamberlain  is  mainly  answerable  for  the  war.  It  is  the 
result  of  his  persistent  policy.  Let  me  put  it  more  fairly.  It  is 
one  of  the  possible  results  of  his  persistent  policy,  not  perhaps 
the  result  which  he  intended — we  know  from  his  own  statement 
the  result  which  he  intended — but  still  a  natural  result  which  he 
ought  to  have  anticipated.  And  although,  of  course,  in  a  broad 
sense,  while  the  Cabinet  having  assented  to  his  course  of  action, 
have  become  equally  responsible,  yet  he  has  shown  no  unwilling- 
ness to  take  the  credit  of  it  and  will  get  the  blame  of  it,  if  blame 
is  deserved.  And  all  that  he  has  shown  in  those  speeches  at 
Leicester  is  that  he  is  abundantly  provided  with  cceur  leger,  the 
lightness  of  heart  which  the  French  Minister,  M.  Emile  Ollivier, 
on  a  memorable  occasion  avowed,  when  he  entered  upon  the  war 
with  Prussia.  That  spirit  brought  disgrace  to  the  Minister  and 
calamity  to  the  country  he  served,  and  if  we  are  saved  in  this 
instance  from  damage  and  loss,  it  will  be  owing  to  the  exercise 
ot  the  wisdom  of  Mr.  Chamberlain's  colleagues,  and  to  the  forti- 
tude and  good  sense  of  his  countrymen  at  large.' 

It  was  in  one  of  these  Leicester  speeches  that  Mr.  Chamber- 
lain told  the  French  to  '  mind  their  manners/  and — coming 
fresh  from  a  talk  with  the  Kaiser  at  Windsor — declared 
that  '  the  natural  alliance  is  between  ourselves  and  the 
great  German  Empire  '  (Leicester,  Nov.  30) .  America,  too, 
he  seemed  to  suggest,  would  be  the  natural  third  party  to 
such  an  understanding.  The  overture  was  frigidly  received 
in  both  countries,  and  Mr.  Chamberlain  was  soundly  rated 
by  all  parties  for  his  tactless  incursion  into  the  sphere  of  the 
Foreign  Office.  In  a  speech  at  Willington  Quay  (Dec.  16), 
Mr.  Asquith  declared  it  to  be  no  time  for  '  responsible 
persons  to  go  about  whistling  for  alliances  among  the 


DISTRESSED  SUPPORTERS  259 

Great  Powers  of  Europe,  and  dazzling  the  civilised  world    CHAP. 

XIV 

with  fresh  exhibitions  of  the  bewildering  freaks  of  the  new « ,_!_ 

diplomacy.'  Lord  Rosebery  also  gravely  rebuked  the 
'  flouting  of  foreign  nations.'  Campbell-Bannerman  left 
this  debate  to  his  Imperialist  colleagues,  and  he  had  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  them  confirm  his  own  estimate  of  the 
Colonial  Secretary  in  at  least  one  department  of  affairs. 
But  the  German  episode  was  only  a  brief  diversion,  and  the 
disasters  now  reported  from  South  Africa  made  opinion 
more  and  not  less  warlike.  In  the  prevailing  atmosphere 
argument  about  the  past  was  unavailing,  and  most  of  all 
when  accompanied  by  what  the  man  in  the  street  took  to 
be  excuses  for  the  Boers.  To  Campbell-Bannerman's  charge 
of  '  bluffing '  the  newspapers  retorted  sharply  that  it  was 
undoubtedly  true,  but  that  the  proper  conclusion  to  be 
drawn  from  it  was  that  the  Government  ought  to  have  sent 
a  much  larger  number  of  troops  to  South  Africa  at  a  much 
earlier  period — which  was  the  last  thing  that  Campbell- 
Bannerman  himself  had  desired. 

Appeals  came  to  him  daily  to  say  something  or  do  some- 
thing to  help  distressed  supporters  caught  in  the  storm  of 
popular  disapproval,  and  he  could  only  reply  by  telling 
them  to  be  patient  and  wait  till  the  weather  changed.  It 
was  evident  by  this  time  that  the  Liberal  Party  was  deeply 
divided,  and  that  its  leaders  were,  without  mentioning  names, 
aiming  a  large  part  of  their  speeches  at  each  other.  If 
Campbell-Bannerman  attacked  Sir  Alfred  Milner,  Mr. 
Haldane  and  Sir  Edward  Grey  came  immediately  to  his 
defence  ;  if  he  said  that  he  disbelieved  in  '  the  great  Dutch 
conspiracy,'  another  of  his  colleagues  produced  a  formidable 
array  of  facts  to  prove  belief  in  it  to  be  credible  and  plaus- 
ible. All  had  incontrollable  consciences  ;  Imperialists  and 
pro-Boers  each  pleaded  in  turn  that  the  excesses  or  indis- 
cretions of  the  other  made  it  imperative  for  them  to  break 
silence.  Campbell-Bannerman  did  all  that  conscience  per-  I 
mitted  to  keep  the  peace.  But  he  would  make  no  terms 
with  the  theory  that  the  pre-war  diplomacy  was  irrelevant 
to  the  issue  now  before  the  country.  The  strife  in  South 


260    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    Africa  was,  as  he  saw  it,  all  but  fratricidal,  and  a  constant 

V  T  W 

recollection  of  all  the  circumstances  leading  up  to  it  was 


l8"'     necessary  to  bring  it  to  a  tolerable  and  merciful  conclusion. 

^Th€  duty  of  Liberals,  as^jiejinsisted,  was  not  to  fan  the 
flames  or  exacerbate  the  fighting  spirit,  but  to  remember 
the  equities  even  in  the  heat  of  battle,  and  to  work  for  the 
day  when  reconciliation  could  be  effected. 

A  wise  and  entirely  rational  and  public-spirited  concep- 
tion of  duty,  but,  as  he  soon  discovered,  full  of  peril  and 
difficulty  in  the  atmosphere  of  war.  To  a  Government 
embarked  on  war,  it  is  a  necessity  to  evoke  the  war-spirit, 
and  that,  for  the  mass  of  people,  is  only  to  be  done  by 
painting  with  the  broadest  brush  the  iniquities  of  the  enemy 
and  the  entire  righteousness  of  the  national  cause,  .^s 
autumn  drew  to  winter  and  disaster  followed  disaster  in 
South  Africa,  the  iniquities  of  the  enemy  seemed  to  be  of 
a  deeper  and  deeper  dye,  and  there  was  less  and  less  room 
in  the  picture  for  the  half-shades  of  reasonable  allowance  and 
forbearance  for  which  Campbell-Bannerman  so  courageously 
pleaded.  British  soldiers  were  dying  in  the  field,  and 
bereavement  and  anxiety  falling  on  thousands  of  homes. 
With  Dundee  fallen,  and  Ladysmith  and  Kimberley 
besieged,  and  the  best  Generals  constantly  baffled  or  dis- 
astrously beaten,  and  the  whole  foreign  press  in  derisive 
chorus,  the  British  public  were  in  no  mood  to  listen  to  what 
they  regarded  as  excuses  for  the  Boers.  It  was  doubtful, 
as  an  observer  said  in  the  '  black  week '  of  December, 
whether  they  were  angrier  with  the  Boers,  the  pro-Boers,  or 
,  the  Government,  but  they  were  least  of  all  inclined  to  listen 
to  any  counsellor  of  moderation. 

The  situation  was,  indeed,  far  different  from  what 
Campbell-Bannerman  had  had  a  reasonable  right  to  expect 
when  he  accepted  the  leadership  eleven  months  previously. 
The  country,  which  then  seemed  to  be  turning  again  towards 
Liberal  opinions,  was  now  wholly  absorbed  in  war  ;  a  new 
and  worse  cause  of  dissension  had  been  created  for  the 
Liberal  Party,  and  the  task  of  leading  it  was  far  more  diffi- 
cult and  embarrassing  than  in  the  days  of  his  predecessors, 


THE  FAITH  OF  AN  OLD  LIBERAL     261 

who  had  found  it  impossible.     But  it  was  precisely  at  this    CHAP. 
time  that  those  who  were  intimately  associated  with  him 


began  to  discover  his  sterling  qualities.  One  immense  MT'  63' 
advantage  he  had  over  all  other  politicians  then  in  the 
public  eye.  Whatever  befell,  he  remained  imperturbable, 
and  no  provocation  seemed  to  spoil  the  habitual  serenity 
of  his  temper  or  abate  the  large  allowances  which  he  made 
for  the  political  infirmities  of  other  people.  Never  for  a 
moment  was  he  shaken  in  the  belief,  which  was  the  sheet- 
anchor  of  the  Victorian  Liberal,  that  whatever  temporary  ,/ 
reverses  it  might  suffer,  Liberalism  was  bound  to  prevail 
among  the  British  people  in  the  long  run.  It  was  this 
admirable  philosophy  and  serene  temper  which  enabled  him 
to  face  with  complete  composure  the  concentrated  attack 
upon  him  by  newspapers  and  politicians  which  was  for  a 
time  to  make  him  very  nearly  the  most  unpopular  man  in 
the  country,  and  eventually  to  prepare  the  way  for  one  of 
the  most  conspicuous  personal  triumphs  in  the  memory  of 
men  now  living. 

in 

Public  speeches  during  this  period  presented  every  kind 
of  difficulty.  '  I  am  greatly  exercised  about  my  meetings,' 
he  writes  to  Mr.  Herbert  Gladstone  on  November  2,  '  and 
since  we  met  the  situation  has  been  altered,  first  by  Rose- 
bery's  speeches,  and  second  by  the  news  in  Natal.  Had 
everything  gone  smoothly  in  the  war,  people's  nerves  would 
have  calmed  down,  but  now  it  is  worse  than  ever.  But 
the  chief  thing  is  R.'s  [Rosebery's]  speeches.  I  cannot 
speak  without  protesting  against  insane  Imperialism,  and 
I  cannot  let  the  subject  alone  without  seeming  to  agree.  .  .  . 
It  is  a  very  serious  position.  I  have  no  desire,  as  I  have 
abundantly  shown,  to  make  a  split,  but  we  cannot  allow 
all  the  splitting  to  be  done  on  one  side.'  This  seems  to  have 
alarmed  the  Chief  Whip,  who,  after  conferring  with  Lord 
Tweedmouth,  wrote  that  it  would  be  '  better  to  cancel  the 
speech,  if  you  really  feel  constrained  to  attack  or  strongly 
criticise  the  whole  of  the  Government  policy  or  Rosebery's 


262    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    Imperialism.'     Campbell-Bannerman  stuck  to  his  guns  and 
wrote  again  after  seeing  Lord  Tweedmouth, '  what  happened 


l8"*  to  me  when  I  got  to  close  quarters  with  the  thing  and  began 
actually  to  think  of  what  I  should  say,  I  felt  that  the  same 
old  humming  and  hahing  sort  of  speech  would  not  do,  and 
also  that  I  must  at  least  dot  the  i's  (if  I  did  not  d.  the  eyes) 
of  Liberal  Imperialism.  I  see  my  way  to  all  this  without 
any  open  or  even  controversial  reference  to  R.  And  as 
for  the  events  before  the  war,  I  have  a  full  opening  by  their 
attacks  upon  me  and  the  bluff  business  comes  in  particu- 
larly handy.'  The  veiling  of  his  intentions  was  perhaps  a 
little  less  adroit  than  he  supposed,  but  he  got  through  his 
autumn  and  winter  speeches  without  serious  trouble  or 
disturbance  of  good  relations  with  Lord  Rosebery.  At 
the  beginning  of  December  he  reports  to  the  Chief 
Whip  :- 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  Herbert  Gladstone 

BELMONT,  Dec.  7,  '99.- — I  was  at  Dalmeny  last  week  for  a  dinner 
in  Edinburgh.  I  found  the  I*>rd  a  little  inscrutable,  but  perfectly 
friendly  and  active.  Ripon  and  Acland  both  turned  up  there : 
the  latter  looking  much  better,  and  fit  for  re-entry.  But  he  says 
he  is  troubled  with  sleeplessness. 

Coming  home,  I  spent  an  hour  or  two  at  Dunfermline  among 
my  constituents.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  war  fever,  and  they 
are  a  little  bewildered  by  the  buckets  of  contempt  and  abuse 
poured  on  me  by  the  Scotsman  and  other  papers.  I  do  not 
think,  however,  it  goes  very  deep :  but  for  the  moment  there 
is  a  coldness. 

I  discussed  West  Fife  with  my  agent,  who  is  also  Birrell's. 
He  is  greatly  upset  by  the  idea  of  a  change,  and  says  it  is  absol- 
utely necessary  to  be  ready  with  a  good  substitute  if  we  want 
to  keep  the  seat,  and  he  knows  of  none.  What  he  fears  is  a 
Socialist  or  some  such  man  being  started  among  the  miners. 
Birrell  when  he  first  came  had  to  pass  through  the  odium  of  being 
a  carpet-bagger,  etc.,  although  he  had  just  enough  connection  to 
swear  by :  but  he  has  established  himself,  and  they  are  rather 
proud  of  him.  If,  however,  he  hopped  away,  and  a  perfect 
stranger  of  no  renown  or  position  presented  himself,  the  mass 
would  either  go  "for  the  Socialist  or  pass  over  to  the  local  Tory. 
That  is  the  danger. 


THE  TEMPERANCE  QUESTION        263 

I  will  write  to  Ronald  [Munro-Ferguson]  about  it.      I  hear    CHAP. 
nothing  from  him  now — and  there  are  deep  dissensions  in  the .  ^XIrV; 
Scottish  Liberal  Association.  -'Er-  63- 

I  have  written  to  the  Southampton  man  that  I  cannot  at  this 
distance  of  time  fix  a  day  in  February  for  a  meeting.  Mendl 
has  written  to  me  that  the  Plymouth  people  acquiesce  in  my 
visit  there  being  put  off — and  I  suspect  the  reason  is  that  there 
is  a  strong  Jingo  feeling,  and  that  what  I  should  say  would  not 
be  acceptable.  Does  not  this  apply  a  little  to  Southampton  also  ? 

There  is  always  the  chance  that  I  may  after  all  have  to  give 
my  own  constituents  a  turn  next  month.  Had  the  situation 
remained  as  it  was  last  summer  it  would  not  have  been  necessary, 
but  it  will  not  do  for  me  to  seem  to  shirk  meeting  my  own  people 
when  the  war  has  caused  some  discord.  I  shall  see  by  and  by  ; 
but  if  I  find  this  necessary  it  will  stop  all  other  projects  of 
meetings. 

I  see  the  Temperance  people  have  their  manifesto  out.  The 
Scotsman  is  down  on  it  with  a  column  and  a  half  of  condemnation 


The  Temperance  question,  then  as  always,  was  one  on 
which  no  Liberal  leader  could  do  right.  In  his  Manchester 
speech,  Campbell-Bannerman  had  given  a  cautious  blessing 
to  the  minority  report  of  Lord  Peel's  Commission.  It 
seemed  a  natural  word  of  encouragement  to  a  zealous  effort 
in  reform,  but  the  local  vetoists  flew  to  arms  at  the  supposed 
treason  to  their  cause,  while  the  Liberal  brewers  were  thrown 
into  a  state  of  unrest.  '  Here  is  old  Lawson  battle-axe  in 
hand,'  he  reports  to  the  Chief  Whip,  and  after  him  came 
'  K.  and  H.  up  in  arms  lest  the  veto  be  betrayed.'  A  good 
deal  of  December  was  spent  in  inventing  formulae  and 
soothing  susceptibilities.  '  I  have  answered  each  according 
to  his — necessities/  he  writes  towards  the  end  of  the  month. 
The  lot  of  a  Liberal  leader  seeking  safe  subjects  in  the  year 
1899  was  not  cast  in  smooth  places.  '  I  will  of  course  stand 
to  my  guns,'  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Bryce  at  the  end  of  November, 
'and expose  J.Ch.'s  misrepresentations — but  the  odd  thing 
in  the  situation  is  that  we  are  denounced  as  hotly  as  if  we 
were  opposing  the  war  :  whereas  we  accept  it  and  support 
it  as  warmly  as  the  Government  do.  All  we  say  is  that 
Joe  could  have,  and  ought  to  have,  either  avoided  it  or  been 


264    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    prepared  for  it.     Our  gentlemen,   therefore,   who   are  so 
XIV-   ,  anxious  to  proclaim  that  they  don't  agree  with  us  are  simply 
l8"-     laudatores  Josephi.     A  curious  thing  out  of  which  to  manu- 
facture a  split  in  the  great  Party  of  which  he  is  the  bitter 
enemy  !     But  behind  him  stands  Milner,  and  it  is  doubt  of 
Milner  that  is  the  unpardonable  sin.'     Rightly  or  wrongly, 
he  attributed  a  large  part  of  his  difficulties  with  his  col- 
leagues and  especially  those  of  them  who  were  Balliol  men 
to  what  he  characteristically  called  the  religio  Milneriana. 
He  was  Cambridge  and  Trinity,  not  Oxford  and  Balliol,  as 
he  more  than  once  reminded  me  (in  allusion  to  my  own 
Balliol  antecedents),  and  this  blind  belief  in  a  Balliol  hero 
he   regarded  as  a  psychological   infirmity  of   the    Oxford 
mind.     If  so,  it  was  amply  corrected  by  other  Oxford  men 
among  his  colleagues,  for  it  certainly  could  not  be  said  that 
either  Mr.  Morley  or  Sir  Robert  Reid — another  Balliol  man 
—was  unduly  disposed  to  worship  at  this  shrine.     Still  less 
Mr.  Bryce,  who  throughout  the  autumn  courageously  main- 
tained his  views  about  the  origin  of  the  war.     Two  days 
before  Christmas  Campbell-Bannerman  went  to  Aberdeen 
to  support  Mr.  Bryce  and  made  good  his  promise  to  '  stand 
up   to   Joe.'     Nothing   in   these   months   gave   him   more 
pleasure  than  this  meeting.     '  The  most  remarkable  thing,' 
he  writes  to  the  Chief  Whip,  '  was  the  extraordinary  enthu- 
siasm with  which  Bryce  was  received — the  whole  audience 
upstanding  and  cheering  for  some  minutes — which  is  the 
answer  to  the  local  papers  that  have  been  daily  heaping 
odium  on  him,  while  he  has  been  denouncing  the  Govern- 
ment policy  in  meeting  after  meeting.'     The  Liberal  Imperi- 
alists looking  on  inferred  that  the  leader  was  moving  to  the 
left,  and  warned  him  not  to  be  misled  by  the  fallacious  test 
of  public  meetings  and  the  enthusiasm  of  a  minority  of 
devoted  followers.     Herein  they  were  right,  as  the  sequel 
proved,  but  the  meetings  gave  him  hope  and  comfort,  and 
his  courageous  facing  of  the  storm  established  him  in  a 
position  with  the  resolute  rank  and  file  from  which  sub- 
sequent attacks  could  not  dislodge  him. 


UNIONIST  LEGISLATION  265 


CHAP. 
IV  XIV. 


A  word  may  be  added  here  about  other  political  happenings  ^T.  6s. 
in  the  year  1899.  Apart  from  South  Africa,  the  parlia- 
mentary session  was  uneventful.  The  London  Govern- 
ment Bill  creating  the  Borough  Councils  was  introduced  in 
a  form  which  appeared  to  be  not  a  little  animated  by  the 
grudge  which  the  Unionist  Party  bore  to  the  London  County 
Council,  up  till  then  a  stubbornly  Radical  and  Progressive 
body,  but  it  was  largely  modified  by  persistent  criticism 
from  the  Liberal  benches  and  emerged  in  a  form  which  was 
very  nearly  agreed  between  parties.  The  Government  per- 
sisted in  leaving  the  City  untouched,  added  to  it  the  '  Greater 
Westminster'  as  another  compensating  authority  to  the 
County  Council,  and  insisted  on  giving  Borough  Councils  the 
power  of  promoting  Bills  in  Parliament,  but  in  most  other 
respects  deferred  to  their  critics.  Campbell-Bannerman 
took  a  lively  interest  in  this  Bill,  and  was  frequently  in 
consultation  with  London  members  about  the  points  which 
arose  out  of  it.  Much  more  feeling  was  aroused  by  the 
Clerical  Tithes  Bill,  which  relieved  the  clergy,  at  a  cost  of 
£87,000  per  annum  to  the  taxpayer,  of  half  the  rates  payable 
on  income  derived  from  tithes.  This  was  an  unpopular 
measure,  introduced  almost  without  warning  under  the 
ten-minutes'  rule,  and  thrust  through  all  its  stages  without 
amendment  in  the  teeth  of  persistent  opposition  in  which 
several  Unionist  members  for  borough  constituencies  joined. 
Mr.  George  Whiteley,  Conservative  Member  for  Stockport, 
who  afterwards  became  Chief  Whip  in  the  1905  Administra- 
tion, first  broke  with  his  party  in  these  debates.  The  lead 
on  this  subject  was  assigned  to  Mr.  Asquith,  but  Campbell- 
Bannerman  frequently  intervened,  and  from  the  beginning 
objected  that  the  proposed  relief  was  wrong  in  principle, 
and  both  inadequate  and  inappropriate  to  the  case.  Charac- 
teristically he  illustrated  his  case  from  the  Established 
Church  of  Scotland  : — 

I  will  take  the  case  of  an  established  Church  well  known  to 
the  leader  of  the  House — the  Church  of  Scotland.     It  is  a  poor 


266    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    Church,  it  does  not  include  among  its  members  the  main  part  of 
the  most  exalted  and  the  most  wealthy  of  the  community  ;  it  is 


1899  a  Church  comprising  the  great  mass  of  the  trading,  farming  and 
labouring  people  of  Scotland — at  least  it  has  a  share  of  all  these 
three  classes.  It  came  home  to  the  Church  of  Scotland  a  few 
years  ago  that  a  large  number  of  its  ministers  were  not  in 
receipt  of  sufficient  incomes  to  maintain  their  position.  What 
did  it  do  ?  It  instituted  a  fund  and  it  collected  subscriptions  so 
that  a  certain  minimum  income  might  be  established  which 
every  one  of  the  ministers  was  to  receive,  and  that  has  been  done 
by  the  freewill  effort  and  self-sacrifice  of  the  people  of  the  Church. 
Here  is  an  instance  of  an  established  Church  which  can  take  the 
right  way  in  dealing  with  a  difficulty  of  this  sort.  That  is  the 
way  and  not  to  exact  aid  from  the  already  burdened  community, 
many  members  of  which  are  every  whit  as  much  in  need  of  help 
as  the  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England. — (House  of  Commons, 
June  22,  1899.) 

During  the  first  nine  months  of  the  year  the  prospects 
of  the  Liberal  Party  had  been  steadily  improving  in  the 
country,  and  notable  gains  had  been  won  in  by-elections, 
especially  in  East  Edinburgh,  and  in  the  double-barrelled 
constituency  of  Oldham,  where  Mr.  Emmott  and  Mr.  Walter 
Runciman  had  won  a  resounding  victory  over  Mr.  Winston 
Churchill  and  his  Tory  colleague.  Summing  up  the  results 
at  the  end  of  August,  the  official  chronicler  was  able  to  say 
that  the  Liberal  position  in  the  country  was,  according  to 
all  the  signs,  better  than  in  1892,  a  year  of  Liberal  victory. 
Everything  in  fact  pointed  to  the  almost  certain  defeat  of 
the  Unionist  Administration  at  the  general  election  which 
both  parties  expected  within  the  subsequent  eighteen  months, 
and  in  all  probability  nothing  less  than  the  great  upheaval 
of  the  war  could  have  averted  this  result. 


CHAPTER  XV 

TROUBLES  IN  THE  LIBERAL  PARTY 

The  Campaign  in  South  Africa — Appointment  of  Lord 
Roberts  and  Lord  Kitchener  -  -  Drafting  an  Amendment 
-  Campbell- Bannerman's  Views  -  -  The  Return  of  the 
'  Scriveners  ' — The  Debate  on  the  Amendment — Differences 
and  Abstentions — Recriminations  of  the  Generals — The 
Question  of  Annexation — His  Strong  Opinion — Persuading 
his  Colleagues — Speech  at  Glasgow — A  Closed  Chapter- 
Debate  of  Colonial  Office  Vote — The  Treatment  of  Rebels— 
A  Disastrous  Evening — Mr.  Chamberlain  on  the  War-path. 

EE  in  December  i8gg  the  Cabinet  summoned  Lord  CHAP. 
xv 
Roberts  and  Lord  Kitchener  and  appointed  the  * — _^J__ 
former  to  the  supreme  command  in  South  Africa  ^ 
with  the  latter  as  Chief  of  his  Staff.  So  sudden  was  this 
proceeding  that,  according  to  general  rumour  at  the  time, 
not  even  Lord  Wolseley,  the  Commander-in-Chief,  was  con- 
sulted. Lord  Roberts  asked  for  a  largely  increased  force, 
and  power  to  make  a  more  effective  use  of  the  Colonial 
contingents  already  in  South  Africa.  He  and  Lord 
Kitchener  proceeded  at  once  to  South  Africa,  working  out 
a  new  plan  of  campaign  on  the  voyage  out.  Arriving  there, 
they  were  quickly  at  work  and  by  the  beginning  of  March 
had  put  an  entirely  new  complexion  on  the  campaign. 
Striking  at  Bloemfontein,  they  outflanked  the  Boers  and 
compelled  them  to  withdraw  from  Natal.  On  February  27, 
4000  Boers  under  Cronje  surrendered  at  Paardeberg, 
and  on  the  following  day  Ladysmith  was  relieved.  On 
February  5  President  Kruger  and  President  Steyn  made 
a  joint  overture  to  the  Government  for  the  ending  of  the 
war  by  the  recognition  of  the  '  incontestable  independence 
of  the  two  Republics.'  This  received  a  stern  answer  from 
the  Cabinet,  and  on  the  following  day  Bloemfontein  was 


2-17 


268    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    abandoned  and  President  Steyn  took  to  flight.     For  the  next 
few  weeks  the  British  progress  was  unchecked.     The  Orange 


I900t  Free  State  was  annexed  ;  and  by  the  middle  of  May  Kim- 
berley  and  Maf eking  had  been  relieved.  Johannesburg 
surrendered  on  May  30,  and  on  June  4  Lord  Roberts  entered 
Pretoria. 

These  events  were  still  in  the  future  when  Parliament 
reassembled  at  the  end  of  January,  and  the  Opposition 
leaders  had  before  them  the  difficult  problem  of  discover- 
ing a  patriotic  and  serviceable  line  for  a  party  that  was 
deeply  divided  on  the  main  issue.  For  mere  critics  of  the 
Government,  assuming  the  moment  to  be  timely  for  criti- 
cism, the  material  was  only  too  abundant.  There  could  be 
no  doubt  that  Ministers  had  utterly  miscalculated  the  forces 
opposed  to  them  when  they  marched  or  drifted  into  war, 
and  that  the  consequences  had  been  disastrous  and  deeply 
mortifying  to  the  country.  But  whatever  might  justly  be 
said  on  that  subject  at  the  proper  time,  a  sound  practical 
instinct  declared  that  there  could  be  no  purpose  in  saying 
it  at  that  moment,  unless  it  contributed  to  a  more  efficient 
conduct  of  the  war  or  to  the  supersession  of  the  Govern- 
ment by  another  which  would  be  more  warlike.  In  its 
then  condition  the  Liberal  Party  could  not  plausibly  be 
presented  to  the  public  in  this  light ;  and  a  large  and 
active  section  of  its  members  were  strongly  opposed  to  the 
policy  of  silence  on  the  origin  of  the  war  and  concentra- 
tion of  criticism  on  the  conduct  of  the  war  which  party 
strategists  recommended  as  the  line  of  safety.  Once  more 
a  middle  course  had  to  be  discovered,  and  nimble  wits  were 
at  work  on  it  from  the  beginning  of  January. 

Campbell-Bannerman,  as  already  explained,  was  clear 
upon  two  points  :  he  would  have  nothing  done  which 
debarred  the  party  from  criticising  origin  and  policy ;  he 
would  not  consent  to  any  shunting  on  to  Generals  and 
soldiers  of  responsibilities  which  properly  belonged  to  poli- 
ticians. Early  in  January  Sir  Charles  Dilke  submitted  an 
amendment  to  the  Address  expressing  '  regret  that  the 
Government  failed  to  foresee  the  probability  of  a  war 


PARLIAMENTARY  STRATEGY         269 

with  the  combined  forces  of  the  South  African  Republic  and    CHAP. 
Orange  Free  State,  and,  in  spite  of  the  existence  of  ample 


means   of  information,   erroneously  estimated  the   extent    MT'  63' 
and  nature  of  the  military  preparations  necessary  for  the 
success  of  Your  Majesty's  forces.'     Campbell-Bannerman 
wrote  emphatically  about  this  to  the  Chief  Whip  :— 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Air.  Herbert  Gladstone 

BELMONT,  Jan.  5, 1900. — I  do  not  think  Citizen  Dilke's  amend- 
ment covers  the  ground.  It  is  admirably  fitted  as  a  peg  on  which 
to  hang  up  for  public  admiration  the  intimate  knowledge  of  facts 
possessed  by  its  originator — but  that  is  not  our  sole  object.  Our 
people  would  at  once  demand  a  more  decided  impugnment  of 
the  policy,  besides  the  three  points  here  attacked,  viz.  :— 
(i)  the  want  of  prevision  of  war. 

(ii)  the  want  of  provision  for  war. 

(iii)  the  mistaken  view  of  the  attitude  of  the  Free  States. 

I  entirely  agree  with  what  you  say  as  to  our  taking  a  decided 
line.  If  certain  of  our  nearest  friends  find  themselves  up  a  tree, 
tant  pis  pour  eux.  But  those  who  have  only  got  up  to  the  first 
branch,  or  were  merely  looking  wistfully  up  the  stem,  may  be 
assisted  down. 

I  do  not  at  all  like  the  tone  of  Furness's  *  letter  to  the  York 
people.  A  Liberal  to  be  allowed  to  sit  if  he  undertakes  to  refrain 
from  'unpatriotic  criticism.'  Therefore  Liberals  generally 
(except  this  one  man)  are  unpatriotic  critics.  That  concedes 
the  whole  question. 

A  week  later  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Bryce  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  Bryce 

BELMONT,  Jan.  n,  1900. — Very  many  thanks  for  your  letter. 
I  have  heard  very  little  from  any  one  for  the  last  week  or  two. 

I  am  going  up  to  London  on  the  23rd  or  24th,  and  it  would  be 
most  desirable  for  our  bench  to  have  as  much  communication  as 
possible  with  each  other  before  any  formal  meeting  is  held  to 
consider  the  Speech. 

My  only  source  of  information  is  the  papers,  but  judging  from 
them  two  things  strike  me  : 

is*.— That  the  outcry  has  a  little  worn  itself  out :  that  the 
Morning  Post  and  other  papers  overshot  the  mark,  and  that 
1  Sir  Christopher  (afterwards  Lord)  Furness. 


270    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,  there  is,  if  not  a  reaction,  a  lull  at  present — Ladysmith  aiding. 
xv-  ,  If  any  successes,  or  decent  results,  come  before  the  30th  the  fever 
1900.  will  further  abate. 

2nd. — The  attempt  is  made — unconsciously  in  some  quarters, 
but  deliberately  in  others — to  run  away  with  the  question  on  to 
the  side  issue  of  the  conduct  of  the  War  and  of  the  Military 
Department.  I  can  quite  understand  that  this  would  be  the 
line  of  '  Woodthorne.' x  The  Crimean  precedent  does  not  tell 
here  at  all :  there  was  in  that  case  proof  of  no  organization,  bad 
commissariat,  etc.,  in  fact  no  army,  whereas  here  the  organization 
has  surprised  everybody  and  there  are  no  complaints  of  any  of 
the  Departments.  The  one  thing  is  want  of  mounted  men  and 
alleged  inferiority  in  guns.  So  far  as  these  points  can  be  estab- 
lished they  mean  error  of  judgment  in  Wolseley,  Wood  and 
Buller.  That  is  a  very  limited  matter  :  but  nothing  would  suit 
the  Government  better  than  to  see  the  public  interest  turned  on 
to  these  questions,  with  perhaps  a  sensational  extension  into  the 
future  strength  and  composition  of  the  Army  to  deal  with  our 
larger  Imperial  demands — a  very  charming  subject,  no  doubt, 
but  hardly  seasonable  now. 

~  The  real  question  now  is  the  conduct  of  the  Government,  their 
present  negotiations,  their  general  attitude  towards  the  Trans- 
vaal, their  pushing  negotiations  to  the  full  war-pitch  while 
making  no  adequate  preparations  for  war,  their  neglect  of  the 
information  supplied  to  them,  their  criminal  levity  and  reckless- 
ness, and  their  total  miscalculation  of  the  probable  issues.  It  is 
on  these  they  must  be  attacked  ;  and  the  guns  and  horses  and 
transports  are  the  merest  red-herrings. 

I  have  noticed,  as  you  have,  the  signs  of  a  milder  tone  in  some 
of  our  dissentients,  and  they  are  significant  enough.  But  no 
compromise  seems  to  me  possible.  Our  people  would  revolt. 

One  danger  is  lest  the  Forest  of  Dean  2  should  be  too  prominent 

-'  non  tali  auxilo  '-—but  also,  he  is  not  sound  on  the  main 
question  and  mainly  seeks  an  occasion  for  displaying  his  technical 
knowledge  about  guns,  etc.,  and  airing  some  theories  of  his  own. 

I  hope  you  will  see  Asquith.  The  mischief  is  that  most  of  our 
people  never  turn  up  till  the  very  eve  of  meeting. 

We  have  had  execrable  weather,  but  are  both  pretty  well. 

I  hear  that  the  Executive  of  the  Sc.  Lib.  Assn.  have  smoothed 
down  the  little  ruffle  that  shewed  itself  at  Aberdeen — but  the 
startling  thing  is  that  the  president  has  intimated  his  desire  to 

1  Sir  Henry  Fowler,  whose  address  was  '  Woodthorne,'  Wolverhampton. 

2  Sir  Charles  Dilke,  who  represented  the  Forest  of  Dean. 


CRITICISM  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT    271 

be  present  at  a  meeting  of  the  Executive  during  this  month.    CHAP. 
What  is  he  up  to  ?     He  has  never  attended  one  before.  ,_  xv- 

2pip        fif. 

In  a  series  of  speeches  delivered  in  Manchester  (Jan.  8-10), 
Mr.  Balfour  supplied  a  crop  of  rich  material  to  critics  of  the 
conduct  of  the  war,  and  journalists  of  all  parties  fastened 
on  the  phrase  in  which  he  said  that  '  the  man  in  the  street 
knew  as  much  as  the  man  in  the  Cabinet.'  Campbell- 
Bannerman,  however,  stuck  to  his  point.  He  wrote  again 
to  the  Chief  Whip  :- 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  Herbert  Gladstone 

BELMONT,  Jan.  12,  1900. — Balfour  does  not  appear  to  have 
made  much  by  his  Manchester  speeches.  But  the  attacks  in  the 
London  press  are  mainly  from  the  ultra-Jingo  point  of  view : 
and  there  is  a  great  disposition — intentional  or  not — to  get  the 
criticism  to  run  off  on  a  false  issue.  The  organisation  of  the  War 
Office,  or  the  quality  of  our  weapons,  may  be  very  nice  subjects 
for  enquiry  by  and  by  :  the  immediate  question  is  the  conduct 
1  of  the  Government  in  working  the  Transvaal  quarrel  up  to  the 
war-pitch  without  adequately  preparing  for  war. 

Nothing  that  I  have  said  bars  us  from  that  line  of  criticism  : 
and  I  hope  all  of  our  immediate  associates  bear  in  mind  that 
what  I  said  against  contemplating  war  was  said  with  their 
knowledge  and  approval. 

I  am  all  against  any  riding  off  on  a  mere  enquiry  into  the 
conduct  of  the  war  and  the  Departments.  And  another  point 
is  that  the  Forest  of  Dean  must  not  move  an  amendment  or  it 
will  fail. 

In  brief,  he  insisted  that  criticism  for  the  Liberal  benches 
should  be  Liberal  criticism,  and  what  he  had  in  mind  was 
'  a  general  amendment  dealing  with  policy  plus  campaign- 
ing '  to  be  moved  by  a  man  after  his  own  heart,  a  man  like 
Lord  Fitzmaurice,  '  as  straight  as  a  reed  in  his  action  and 
as  sound  as  a  bell  in  his  views/  In  the  meantime,  trouble 
was  brewing  in  Scotland  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  Herbert  Gladstone 

BELMONT,  Jan.  21,  1900. — A  nice  kettle  of  fish  in  the  Scotch 
Lib.  Assn.  There  is  a  meeting  of  the  Executive  on  Friday  next 


272    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    at  which  R.  is  to  be  present.     Comes  he  with  a  sword  or  with  an 
olive  branch  ?     That  is  what  they  do  not  know.     I  had  Webster 


1900.  (J.  M.'s  chairman)  here  for  a  night,  and  he  is  full  of  fury,  but 
I  rather  suspect  the  message  from  on  high  will  be  peaceful.1 
Possibly  the  President  may  say  that  the  honour  should  go  round, 
as  he  apparently  has  said  at  the  80  Club  ;  in  which  case,  if  he 
retired,  Carmichael  and  Ronald  2  would  remain  and  pull  the 
strings  for  him.  What  is  alleged  is  that  all  their  official  candidates 
are  of  the  militant  Imperialist  type,  and  if  another  sort  of  man 
is  adopted  no  help  is  given  but  much  cold  water.  This  is  what 
happened  recently  to  Wason  ;  our  excellent  Haldane  (who  was 
busy  laying  pipes  and  pulling  wires  and  wigging  ears  all  the  time 
he  was  down  here  at  Xmas)  went  about  deploring  the  calamity 
of  such  a  man  as  Wason  being  elected.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
unless  R.  is  very  peace-bringing  and  puts  forth  all  his  powers  of 
conciliation  there  will  be  a  row,  for  tempers  are  up.  I  am  very 
glad  to  hear  of  Asquith  being  so  reasonable.  Much  depends 
on  him. 

Campbell-Bannerman  had  his  way  about  the  amendment, 
and  at  their  meeting  on  January  25  the  ex-Cabinet  drafted 
it  on  the  comprehensive  form  that  he  desired  :  — 

But  we  humbly  express  our  regret  at  the  want  of  knowledge, 
foresight  and  judgment  displayed  by  Your  Majesty's  advisers 
alike  in  their  conduct  of  South  African  affairs  since  1895  and  in 
their  preparations  for  the  war  now  proceeding. 

This  gave  all  the  critics  their  opportunity,  but  maintained 
the  grand  impeachment  of  Government  policy  from  1895. 
A  cautious  colleague  suggested  that  so  wide  a  sweep  might 
give  a  skilful  ministerialist  the  chance  of  finding  loose 
joints  in  Campbell-Bannerman's  own  armour,  but  the 
suggestion  left  him  cold  :— 

(i)  The  South  African  Committee.  —  My  case  was  fully  stated 
in  my  speech  when  the  Report  was  debated.  I  was  party  to  no 
arrangement  or  understanding  with  Joe.  Never  heard  of  any. 
I  am  not  afraid  of  that. 

1  Lord  Rosebery  resigned  the  Presidency  of  the  Scottish  Liberal  Associa- 
tion in  the  spring  of  this  year  and  Campbell-Bannerman  was  elected  to 
succeed  him.     In  a  letter  to  the  Association  Lord  Rosebery  said  that  he 
'  resumed  his  absolute  independence  unfettered  even  by  the  slight  bonds 
of  nominal  office.' 

2  Mr.  R.  Munro-Ferguson  (now  Lord  Novar). 


MRS.  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 
(Photo,   Jiosch,  Paris) 


A  RAPPROCHEMENT  273 

(2)  Attacks  on  W.O. — This  also  I  do  not  mind  in  the  least.     I    CHAP. 
have  no  responsibility  since  '95  and  I  never  refused  anything, , XV- 


guns  or  stores  of  any  sort  that  the  soldiers  asked  for.     Besides,    &r.  63. 
the  whole  army  could  have  been  re-armed  in  these  five  years. 
Again,  I  have  never  said  the  W.O.  organisation  was  perfect — on 
the  contrary,  I  removed  H.R.H.  in  order  to  alter  it.     Their  new 
organisation  has  not  been  a  success. 

The  amendment,  as  he  desired,  was  placed  in  the  hands  of 
Lord  Edmond  Fitzmaurice,  to  whom  he  explained  the 
circumstances  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Edmond  Fitzmauvice 

6  GROSVENOR  PLACE,  Jan.  26, 1900. — We  have  resolved  to  move 
an  amendment  to  the  Address,  in  the  terms  given  on  the  other 
side.  It  arraigns  the  general  S.A.  policy  since  '95,  as  well  as  the 
want  of  preparation.  For  myself,  I  could  vote  for  something 
even  more  explicit ;  but  this,  while  sufficiently  emphatic,  gives 
latitude,  and  it  will  be  supported  by  Grey  and  Co.  This  last 
fact  implies  that  we  should  not  in  terms  attack  the  franchise 
negotiations  which  they  whitewashed  in  October,  but  of  course 
the  policy  of  last  summer  comes  in  in  connection  with  the  whole 
Chamberlain  line  of  conduct,  from  before  the  Raid  downwards. 

Now,  will  you  move  it  ?  This  was  proposed  by  me,  and 
accepted  with  acclamation  by  all  my  colleagues  ;  and  you  will 
do  us  a  great  service  by  undertaking  it. 

Before  the  session  began  there  was  a  certain  rapprochement 
between  Campbell-Bannerman  and  the  two  leaders  who  had 
proscribed  themselves  in  the  winter  of  1898.  '  It  strikes  me 
as  rather  odd/  he  writes  to  Mr.  Gladstone  on  the  23rd,  '  that 
in  my  speech  dinner,  I  include  Mellor  and  Fitzmaurice  and 
leave  out  the  two  letter-writers  of  last  year — echo  answers 
why  ?  '  Three  days  later  he  has  written  to  the  '  fair  Mal- 
woodina,'  and  hopes  '  that  bulky  nymph  will  not  be  coy.' 
Mr.  Gladstone  at  the  same  time  reports  that  the  '  honest 
one  '  is  in  good  mood.  It  will  be  seen  subsequently  that 
this  invitation  to  dinner  was  something  less  than  an  in- 
vitation to  rejoin  the  councils  of  the  party,1  but  Campbell- 
Bannerman  was  always  for  personal  friendliness,  and  events 

1  See  infra,  p.  310. 
VOL.  I.  S 


274    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    had  more  and  more  thrown  him  into  close  relations  with  Sir 
William   Harcourt   and   Mr.  Morley.     The   Speech   dinner 


I9°°-  included  both  the  '  scriveneis,'  and  it  is  not  recorded  that 
any  untoward  consequences  followed.  Dinners  had  not  yet 
become  the  symbol  of  disagreement. 

ii 

Lord  Edmond  Fitzmaurice  moved  the  amendment  en- 
trusted to  him  in  a  characteristically  temperate  and  able 
speech.  Of  the  debate  which  followed  it  must  be  said,  as 
of  so  many  at  this  time,  that  it  was  damaging  to  the  Govern- 
ment without  being  helpful  to  the  Opposition.  The  leader 
maintained  his  middle  line  with  careful  regard  for  the  feelings 
of  colleagues  to  right  and  left ;  the  pro-Boers  spoke  with 
frankness  and  passion ;  the  Liberal  Imperialists  dissociated 
themselves  from  the  pro-Boers,  and  when  the  division  came, 
there  were  considerable  abstentions.  Ministers  floundered 
in  both  Houses  ;  Lord  Salisbury  admitted  that  the  Intelli- 
gence Department  was  imperfect,  and  set  it  down  to  the 
absence  of  an  adequate  Secret  Service  Fund ;  Lord  Lans- 
downe  and  Mr.  Balfour  defended  the  Intelligence  Depart- 
ment, and  declared  its  information  to  be  '  extremely  correct 
as  to  the  extent  and  nature  of  the  Boer  preparations.' 
Campbell-Bannerman  took  immense  pains  to  fortify  waver- 
ing supporters.  To  one  of  them  he  wrote  at  length  : — 

I  shall  be  very  sorry  if  you  are  unable  to  vote  for  the  amendment 
to-morrow.  I  quite  sympathise  with  the  points  of  view  which 
you  put,  but  they  were  all  carefully  considered  when  the  amend- 
ment was  agreed  upon.  Had  that  amendment  not  been  moved, 
the  state  of  the  Opposition  would  have  been  chaotic  ;  the  debate 
would  have  been  irregular,  frequently  violent,  and  utterly 
mischievous.  We  should  have  been  laughed  to  scorn  by  the 
Tories  ;  the  party  would  have  been  absolutely  broken  up  :  and 
Europe  would  have  said  that  Chamberlain  was  the  only  dominant 
personality  in  England.  I  write  strongly,  but  I  speak  from 
knowledge  of  what  would  have  happened  but  for  this  amendment 
The  one  chance  was  to  produce  an  amendment  which  would 
unite  those  who  held  divergent  views  on  questions  of  past 
history.  That  was  done,  and  the  Front  Bench  is  absolutely 


THE  OPPOSITION  AND  THE  WAR     275 

united.  I  am  quite  aware  what  outsiders  are  saying,  who  know  CHAP. 
little  or  nothing  of  the  working  of  the  House  of  Commons  and  the  ,_  xv- 
real  difficulties  which  responsible  men  have  to  face  on  occasions  ^ET.  63. 
like  these.  But  I  beg  you  to  observe  that  the  responsible 
Opposition  have  given  every  encouragement  to  our  troops,  and 
the  debate  has  brought  out  clearly  that  even  men  like  Bryce  are 
determined,  not  only  to  prosecute  the  war,  but  to  prosecute  it 
to  a  point  which  shall  enable  us  to  secure  a  settlement  under 
which  the  recurrence  of  such  a  war  will  be  impossible.  The 
natural  talk  about  useless  discussion  will  soon  die  away.  Please 
observe  that  the  worst  denunciations  of  the  Opposition  for  this 
debate  come  from  the  Times,  Standard,  Morning  Post,  and  Daily 
Mail — which  papers,  not  for  merely  a  week,  but  ever  since 
Balfour  spoke  at  Manchester,  have  been  violently  denouncing 
the  Government  daily,  and  calling  upon  the  country  to  repudiate 
their  actions,  and  even  to  ostracise  some  of  their  principal  men. 

To  my  mind,  the  dominant  point  of  the  situation  is  not  South 
Africa,  where  we  can  and  must  win,  but  the  critical  and  dangerous 
state  of  our  position  in  Europe.  I  believe  the  Opposition  can 
do  inestimable  service  to  the  country  in  producing  a  better  state 
of  things  relatively  to  Europe.  But,  to  bring  that  about,  it  is 
absolutely  essential  that  we  should  dissociate  ourselves  from  the 
Raid  and  Chamberlainism.  We  shall  do  that  by  this  debate. 
Some  of  our  friends  say  the  debate  is  all  right,  but  we  ought  not 
to  divide.  To  this  I  can  only  say  that  not  to  divide  after  the 
debate  would  be  futile,  and  would  simply  be  giving  ourselves 
away  to  the  other  side.  But  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  a  division, 
because  the  House  most  certainly  will  not  give  leave  to  the 
Opposition  to  withdraw  the  amendment.  And  what  situation 
could  be  worse  if  100  Liberal  members,  as  would  be  the  case, 
were  to  stand  to  the  amendment,  while  the  Front  Bench  and  a 
score  or  two  of  others  ran  away  from  it  ? 

It  is  impossible  to  speak  freely  in  a  letter,  but  I  do  hope  that 
you  will  come  up  to-morrow,  so  that  we  can  talk  the  matter  over. 

Snch  were  the  labours  of  the  Opposition  leader  in  these 
days.  At  the  end  of  the  first  week  of  the  session,  it  was 
evident  that  the  divisions  of  the  Liberal  Party  went  to 
the  root  of  the  main  issue  before  the  country  and  that, 
however  much  the  Government  might  be  discredited  by 
the  course  of  events  in  South  Africa,  it  was  safe  from  chal- 
lenge by  its  parliamentary  opponents. 


276    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.        A  motion  from  the  Radical  benches  for  a  fresh  inquiry 
xv 

into  the  Jameson  Raid  was  thin  ice  both  for  Campbell- 


19001  Bannerman  and  Sir  William  Harcourt,  but  it  gave  the 
former  the  opportunity  of  protesting  publicly  against  Mr. 
Chamberlain's  exculpation  of  Mr.  Rhodes  in  the  debate 
of  1898  l  (Feb.  20).  A  month  later  he  was  in  his  element 
in  protesting  against  the  violent  intolerance  shown  by  the 
jingo  mobs,  which  were  now  in  full  cry  against  the  '  pro- 
Boers/  and  in  demanding  protection  for  free  speech  and 
lawful  meetings.  In  a  reply  which  chimed  in  with  the  mood 
of  the  country,  Mr.  Balfour  boldly  declared  that  the  demon- 
strations in  question  were  natural  and  spontaneous,  and  that 
it  was  for  those  who  called  these  meetings  '  to  be  careful 
lest  they  asked  more  of  human  nature  than  after  all  history 
shows  that  human  nature  is  capable  of  giving.'  Human 
nature  during  the  next  few  months  proved  capable  of  giving 
very  little  to  opponents  and  critics  of  the  war,  and,  as  the 
temperature  rose,  the  difficulties  of  the  Liberal  Party  in- 
creased. The  leader  could  do  nothing  but  mark  time  and 
endeavour  to  keep  the  differences  within  bounds,  but  he 
not  unfrequently  had  the  annoyance  of  seeing  his  col- 
leagues in  the  front  bench  decline  his  lead  in  the  division 
lobby,  and  many  a  night  he  sat  helplessly  while  the  right 
and  left  wings  of  his  party  hammered  each  other  to  a 
delighted  audience  of  Ministerialists. 

Before  the  end  of  March  he  was  laid  up  in  Grosvenor 
Place  with  a  sharp  attack  of  laryngitis,  which  made  it  a 
physical  impossibility  for  him  to  fulfil  his  engagement  to 
speak  to  the  National  Liberal  Federation  at  Nottingham 
on  the  28th.  His  place  was  taken  at  the  last  moment  by 
Sir  Edward  Grey,  and  busybodies  invented  the  malicious 
story  that  the  Federation  had  withdrawn  its  invitation  to 
him,  and  insisted  on  being  addressed  by  a  leading  Imperialist 
who  supported  the  war.  There  was  not  a  word  of  truth  in 
it,  and  Sir  Edward  most  scrupulously  refrained  from  saying 
anything  which  could  accentuate  differences.  At  the 
beginning  of  April,  Campbell-Bannerman  went  with  his 

1  See  supra,  p.  200. 


RECRIMINATIONS  OF  GENERALS      277 

wife  to  his  old  quarters  in  Dover,  and  after  a  week  there    CHAP. 
moved  on  to  Paris,  whence  he  wrote  on  the  igth  : — 


Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  Herbert  Gladstone 

GRAND  HOTEL,  TERMINUS,  Paris,  April  19,  1900. — We  have 
spent  ten  days  on  the  shores  of  the  Channel  with  great  advantage 
to  my  health  and  still  greater  to  my  wife's.  Weather  cold  and 
windy  ;  but  here  warm  and  sunny  to-day.  The  trees  all  bursting 
into  green.  No  exhibition  yet,  I  believe — I  have  not  yet  been 
to  look — except  carcases  of  buildings  and  packing-cases. 

The  '  little  war '  appears  to  drag.  Was  there  ever  anything 
like  the  recriminations  of  our  Generals  ?  Was  such  linen  ever 
washed  in  public  before  ?  At  that  sort  of  game  I  back  excellent 
Duller  against  any  one  ;  he  hits  hard  and  fears  no  man.  Has 
any  solemn  despatch  before  ever  contained  such  a  passage  as  that 
in  which  he  gives  his  reason  for  preferring  Woodgate  to  Coke- 
that  a  man  with  two  sound  legs  is  better  for  climbing  a  hill  than 
a  man  with  only  one  !  Warren  was  always  difficult  to  get  on 
with,  and  is  a  man  of  no  military  experience  though  brave  and 
capable. 

I  promised  some  time  ago  to  dine  with  Perks  on  the  gth  to 
meet  some  candidates  from  the  Eastern  Counties  and  others. 
This  has  now  blossomed  into  a  banquet  at  the  N.L.C.,  with  80 
guests,  derived  from  the  East  Coast,  from  Humber  to  Thames, 
specially  called  '  to  meet  Sir  H.  C.-B.'  This  is  an  unexpected 
development,  but  I  suppose  it  is  all  right,  and  it  is  very  spirited 
of  Mr.  P. 

On  Tuesday  after  we  meet,  Nussey  has  first  place  with  a 
motion  about  the  neglect  of  relief  to  towns  in  the  matter  of 
rating.  This  is  a  good  egg  to  lay  and  to  sit  upon  :  and  the 
ex-Cab,  ought  to  cackle  loudly  over  it  ;  do  you  not  agree  ? 
H.  H.  F.  ought  to  be  primed  with  an  oration  useful  for  the 
constituencies  :  and  Asquith  also  ? 

I  have  a  letter  from  Bob  Reid  about  the  Australian  Bill :  he 
takes  what  I  think  the  sound  view,  viz.  that  we  should  give  the 
Australians  their  will  of  it.  Asquith  I  think  agrees :  and 
practically  Haldane,  though  he  has  suggestions  of  his  own. 

The  '  Recriminations  of  the  Generals  '  referred  to  the  singular 
Spion  Kop  despatches  published  on  April  17,  which  formed 
the  subject  of  lively  and  very  damaging  debates  in  both 


.  63. 


278    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    Houses  when  Parliament  reassembled.     Campbell-Banner- 
xv 

man    was    content    to    hold    a    watching    brief    in    this 


19001  controversy,  but  the  event  proved  that  he  was  not  wrong 
in  '  backing  his  excellent  Buller  against  any  one.'  '  Our 
Generals  seem  unable  either  to  win  victories  or  to  give 
an  intelligible  account  of  their  defeats,'  was  the  caustic 
comment  of  an  onlooker  of  these  proceedings. 

in 

As  the  South  African  campaign  marched  to  what  all  the 
world  judged  to  be  its  speedy  close,  Campbell-Bannerman 
more  and  more  occupied  himself  with  thoughts  of  the  settle- 
ment which  should  follow,  and  of  the  part  which  Liberal 
policy  should  play  in  it.  I  have  already  recorded  that  from 
the  very  beginning  of  the  war  he  had  made  up  his  mind 
that  the  independence  of  the  Boer  Republics  was  a  lost 
cause.  Deplorable  though  he  thought  it  that  British  and 
Dutch  should  have  made  their  differences  a  fighting  issue, 
he  was  yet  clear  in  his  mind  that  a  British  victory  must  end 
the  dual  system  in  South  Africa,  and  he  was  determined 
that  the  Liberal  Party  should  not  waste  itself  on  an  imprac- 
ticable protest  against  annexation,  but  devote  its  energies 
to  a  Liberal  and  democratic  settlement  in  a  united  South 
Africa.  He  had,  however,  to  move  circumspectly,  for  the 
cross-currents  on  this  subject  within  the  party  were  intri- 
cate and  unexpected.  Mr.  Asquith,  though  a  leader  among 
the  Imperialists,  had  quite  early  in  the  day  declared  definitely 
against  annexation,  and  not  a  few  others  of  the  same  school 
had  proposed  an  intermediate  policy  which  would  assert 
British  paramountcy  without  extinguishing  the  Boer 
Republics.  The  pro-Boers  \vith  a  few  exceptions  opposed 
annexation  as  the  final  crime,  and  desired  the  whole  weight 
of  the  Liberal  Party  to  be  thrown  against  it.  Campbell- 
Bannerman,  for  the  moment,  found  himself  almost  alone  in 
his  view  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  Herbert  Gladstone 
6  GROSVENOR  PLACE.,  May  28,  1900.— I  had  a  deputation  here 


THE  QUESTION  OF  ANNEXATION     279 

this  morning,  auspice  Channing,  on  the  question  of  the  hour,  viz.    CHAP. 
annexation.  ..    xv* 


JE.1.  63. 

Channing  :       \ 

H.  J.  Wilson  :  1-  Anti-annexation,  but  rather  vague. 

Lawson  : 

Maddison  :  Ditto,  but  not  extreme. 

Fenwick  :  Anti-war  generally,  but  hopeful  as  to  North 

of  England  in  any  case. 
Duckworth  :  Cautious    and    reasonable,    against    any 

emphasis. 

(  Sympathetic  but  against  any  split  :   must 

Humphreys  Owen  :  ....                             , 

,-,                               •{  prevent  repetition  of  danger,  and  at  the 
Emmott  Barlow  : 

I  same  time  save  country  from  Rhodes. 

Maddison  and  Fenwick  said  South  Manchester  *  is  not  a  work- 
ing-class constituency—  mostly  clerks  and  small  residents  : 
therefore  not  typical. 

I  was  astonished  at  the  personnel  of  the  deputation,  and  still 
more  at  the  moderation. 

I  dwelt  on  the  complications  attending  any  solution  and  depre- 
cated any  hasty  committal. 

Three  days  later  he  wrote  to  the  same  correspondent  :  — 


^.  —  I  am  glad  you  sent  me  Ripon's  and 
Evans's  letters.  I  will  send  a  line  to  both. 

Things  have  moved  apace  since  last  week.  Lord  Salisbury's 
speech,  the  Free  State  proclamation,  the  occupation  of  Pretoria  ! 
There  is  no  longer  room  for  vague  philosophising  such  as  we 
thought  would  suffice,  it  is  aye  or  no.  I  tried  to  get  the  ex-Cab. 
to  pronounce  on  this  plain  issue,  but  they  did  not. 

My  own  view  has  been  quite  clear  for  some  time,  and  all  I  say 
will  be  entirely  consistent  with  everything  I  have  already  said. 
I  have  never  uttered  a  pro-Boer  word  :  I  have  been  anti-  Joe 
but  never  pro-Krugcr. 

And  it  is  as  clear  as  a  pikestaff  that  the  countries  must  be  in 
form  '  annexed.'  I  think  I  can  give  half  a  dozen  irrefragable 
reasons  for  it. 

The  only  question  was  whether  we  should  say  so.  There  are 
three  lines  :  — 

i.  Not  yet  able  to  say  ;  have  provisional  military  Government  ; 

1  By-election  on  May  25,  Unionist  (Hon.  W.  R.  W.  Peel)  returned  by 
largely  increased  majority. 


280    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.  be  guided  in  actual  settlement  by  feeling  of  all  parties  at 

J?2—,  Cape. 

1900.          2.  Government  have  responsibility  ;    if  they  annex  shall  not 

oppose,  but  wash  our  hands  of  it. 
3.  Accept  annexn.  as  practically  inevitable  after  all  that  is  past. 

I  think  I  can  work  No.  3  in,  with  just  a  dash  of  i  and  2,  in  a 
way  that  will  answer.  And  if  No.  3  is  to  be  our  ultimate  position, 
it  is  better  to  avoid  boggling  over  it. 

I  will  send  this  to  London  as  your  Leeds  visit  seems  uncertain. 

On   the  same   day  he   communicated  his   view   to   Lord 
Ripon  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Ripon 

BELMONT,  June  i,  1900.— Herbert  G.  has  sent  me  your  letter. 
I  was  very  sorry  you  were  not  at  the  meeting  of  ex-Colleagues, 
but  events  have  marched  since  then. 

Lord  Salisbury] 's  speech,1  the  proclamation  of  the  Free  State, 
the  occupation  of  the  Transvaal !  We  had  decided  that  for  the 
present  we  should  hold  rather  aloof ;  say  there  was  no  hurry : 
we  must  ascertain  how  the  war  has  left  public  feeling  in  the 
Colony  and  elsewhere  :  and  in  fact  philosophise  over  the  situa- 
tion. 

But  there  is  no  room  for  philosophy  now.  The  formal  annexa- 
tion must  be  either  approved  or  rejected.  While  acquiescing  we 
may  insist  on  full  Self-Governing  rights,  etc.,  etc.,  but  the  first 
point  is,  aye  or  no  to  the  actual  form  of  annexation. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  it  must  be  aye,  with  much  shaking  of  the 
head  over  dangers  and  difficulties.  But  the  dangers  of  any 
alternative  possibility  would  be  greater. 

Then  if  this  is  so,  I  see  no  good  in  boggling  over  it :  better  to 
accept  it  frankly. 

That  is  the  view  I  take.  It  is  a  departure  from  the  attitude 
approved  at  our  meeting,  but  it  is  forced  by  the  gallop  of  events, 
and  it  was  not  altogether  unforeseen. 

I  have  so  continuously  found  myself  at  one  with  you  that  I 
hope  you  take  a  similar  view  in  the  present  emergency. 

Lord  Ripon  appears  to  have  had  some  doubts  about  the 
Free  State  : — 

1  Cannon  Street  Hotel,  May  29. 


f  NO  SHRED  OF  INDEPENDENCE '     281 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Ripon  CxvP' 

i  ^ 

BELMONT,  June  3,  1900. — Very  many  thanks.  The  only  point  ^T-  ^ 
on  which  I  differ  is  the  question  whether  the  Free  State  could 
have  been  treated  differently  :  this  I  cannot  see  possible.  The 
hurry  was  unnecessary  and  may,  as  you  say,  cause  difficulties,  but 
sooner  or  later  they  were  bound  to  be  answered.  But  I  will  take 
care  to  claim  easy  treatment  for  them  on  the  ground  of  past  good 
Government. 

And  I  will  principally  urge  the  fullest  Self-Government  at  the 
earliest  time. 

What  a  phrase  was  Lord  Salisbury] 's  :  that  they  should  be 
deprived  of  every  '  shred  '  of  independent  Government !  It  will 
serve  very  well  to  emphasise  the  point.  .  .  . 

In  this  correspondence  he  was  preparing  the  ground  for 
the  speech  which  he  was  to  make  at  Glasgow  on  June  7.  •.. 
There,  despite  the  fact  that  the  '  ex-Cab.'  had  come  to  no 
decision,  he  not  only  burnt  his  own  boats,  but  laid  down  the 
general  principles  which  were  to  guide  him  in  all  South 
African  policy  up  to  the  final  act  of  reconciliation  of  which 
he  himself  was  the  principal  author.  '  I  would  plainly  say/ 
he  told  the  Glasgow  Liberals,  '  that  most  men  who  have 
looked  all  round  this  question  must  have  seen  that,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  the  two  belligerent  states — the  two  con- 
quered states — must  in  some  form  or  other  become  states 
of  the  British  Empire.  We  must  recognise  accomplished 
facts,  we  must  accept  the  inevitable  results  of  the  war,  we 
must  do  whatever  it  may  be  which  will  most  conduce  to 
the  permanent  tranquillity  and  security  of  South  Africa, 
and  wejrnust  set  before_us  as  our  chief  aim,  after  the  security 
of  the  Imperial  power,  the  conciliation  and  harmonious 
co-operation  of  the  two  European  races  in  South  Africa/ 
He  proceeded  to  a  close  argument  with  the  numerous  kinds 
of  opponents  whom  he  already  saw  in  his  path,  skilfully 
making  use  of  Lord  Salisbury's  rasping  declaration  in  his 
City  speech,  that  the  Boers  would  be  permitted  '  no  shred 
of  independence.' 

We  must  set  before  us  as  our  chief  aim,  after  the  security  of 
the  Imperial  power,  the  conciliation  and  harmonious  co-operation 


282    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    of  the  two  European  races  in  South  Africa.     Now,  how  is  this 
to  be  done  ?     Is  that  a  question  which  I  need  ask  any  meeting 


1900.  of  Liberals  ?  We  need  have  no  doubt  how  it  is  to  be  done  —  by 
applying  our  Liberal  principles,  the  Liberal  principles  from  which 
the  strength  of  the  Empire  has  been  derived  and  on  which  it 
depends.  Let  us  apply  our  Liberal  principles,  and  whether  our 
party  be  in  a  majority  or  in  a  minority,  I  think  it  is  well  in  em- 
power to  secure  that  these  principles  shall  be  applied.  Let  us 
restore  as  early  as  possible  and  let  us  maintain  those  rights  of 
self-government  which  give  not  only  life  and  vigour  but  content- 
ment and  loyalty  to  every  colony  which  enjoys  them,  the  rights 
of  self-government,  shall  I  say  by  way  of  parenthesis,  which  I 
for  my  part  have  thought,  and  still  continue  to  think,  would  work 
effectively  for  cordial  conciliation  between  communities  much 
nearer  home.  Now  I  know  there  are  many  men,  for  whom  I  have 
the  highest  respect  and  with  whom  I  have  much  sympathy, 
whose  strong  desire  is  that  some  kind  of  national  independence 
should  be  restored  to  those  states.  But  do  not  let  us  be  misled 
by  words.  I  have  said  '  some  kind  of  independence.'  What 
would  be  the  value  to  either  state  or  burgher  of  the  sort  of 
independence  that  I  often  see  foreshadowed  ?  The  state  is  not 
to  have  any  relation  whatever  with  foreign  Powers,  the  state  is 
to  be  prohibited  from  either  acquiring  or  using  arms,  and  to  be 
subjected  to  the  constant  supervision  and  interference  which 
that  prohibition  would  entail  ;  the  franchise  to  be  used  is  to  be 
dictated  from  outside.  That  is  a  matter  of  course,  because  it 
is  about  the  franchise  that  we  have  gone  to  war.  The  language 
to  be  spoken  in  their  Parliament  is  to  be  prescribed  from  outside  ; 
the  language  to  be  taught  in  their  schools  is  to  be  prescribed. 
Why,  what  is  left  of  the  reality  and  dignity  of  independence  ? 
There  would  indeed  be  left  the  name  and  the  sentiment  —  and 
sentiment  is  never  a  thing  to  be  despised—  but  for  my  part  the 
picture  does  not  attract  me  and  the  dangers  and  the  difficulties 
appal  me.  For  who  can  find  a  solid  and  enduring  settlement  in 
a  tissue  of  limitations  which,  while  they  endured,  would  be  nothing 
but  a  standing  sign  and  symbol  of  subjugation,  and  which  imply, 
and  indeed  openly  represent,  a  chronic  relation  of  hostility  and 
suspicion  and  even  recrimination  between  the  state  and  its  great 
neighbours  ?  But  when  we  turn  to  the  other  alternative,  do  not 
imagine  that  we  get  rid  of  difficulties.  The  difficulties  are  hardly 
less  formidable.  I  regretted  to  read  some  ill-judged  words, 
which  may  possibly  become  ill-omened  words,  let  fall  the  other 
day  by  the  Colonial  Secretary,  when  he  spoke  of  applying  to 


LAYING  THE  FOUNDATIONS          283 

these  two  states  Crown  Colony  Government,  and  this  declaration    CHAP. 
was  followed  up  by  the  announcement  by  the  Prime  Minister  at  ^_  xv- 


a  banquet  in  the  City  a  few  days  afterwards  that  they  ought  to  ^-T.  63. 
be  deprived  of  every  shred  of  independent  government.  And, 
as  if  this  was  not  enough,  Lord  Salisbury,  in  order  to  emphasise 
his  determination,  repeated  the  phrase,  '  every  shred  of  inde- 
pendence.' If  I  thought  that  that  was  the  spirit  of  the  policy 
of  our  country  to  the  subjugated  states,  1  would  hark  back  to 
some  truncated  kind  of  independence,  abnormal  and  absurd  as 
it  might  be,  and  take  it  with  all  its  risks  and  all  its  evils,  but  1 
take  comfort  in  the  remembrance  that  Lord  Salisbury  has  a 
habit  of  throwing  about  his  phrases  somewhat  loosely,  and 
what  I  would  venture  with  the  greatest  respect  to  suggest  to 
him  is  that  at  a  critical  time  like  this,  he  should  remember  the 
immense  importance  that  attaches  to  the  least  of  his  words.  I 
would  even  hope  that  all  he  meant  was  that  they  should  have 
no  particle  of  independence  in  the  way  of  leave  to  enter  into 
transactions  with  other  Powers,  external  independence  of  that 
sort.  But  if  that  was  what  he  meant,  was  it  worth  while  to  say 
it,  and  especially  to  emphasise  it,  when  it  is  the  common  property 
of  everybody  who  has  made  any  suggestion  for  the  future  at  all  ? 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  if  he  meant  that  the  citizens  of  the  two 
states  were  to  be  deprived  of  all  independence  in  their  own 
internal  government,  then  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the 
conception  and  the  spirit  will  be  fatal  to  our  Empire  in  South 
Africa. 

No  speech  that  he  made  in  the  whole  of  his  career  deserves 
more   careful   attention.     It  was   a  speech  which   at   the 
moment  of  its  delivery  was  least  likely  to  obtain  popular 
support.     To   the   public   in   its  war-fever,  Crown  Colony  v 
Government  was  if  anything  too  good  for  the  Boers,  who 
might  think  themselves  lucky  if  for  years   to  come  they 
escaped  martial  law.     To   talk  of  conferring  self-govern- A 
ment  upon  an  enemy  who  was  still  killing  our  soldiers  seemed 
utterly   unreasonable   even   to  moderate  men  ;    while   the 
pro-Boers  muttered  that  the  offer  to  their  friends  of  British  a 
Liberalism  in  lieu  of  National  Independence  was  very  like 
_cant.     Campbell-Bannerman  cared  for  none  of  these  critics  ; 
he  was  thinking  not  of  the  present  but  of  the  future,  and  it 
remains  to  his  credit  that  within  three  days  of  Lord  Roberts's 


284    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    entry  into  Pretoria,  he  had  definitely  laid  down  the  prin- 

^ — <jciples  on  which  his  own  Cabinet  was  six  years  later  to  effect 

I9°0-     the  great  reconciliation. 

IV 

Whatever  he  said,  he  was  at  that  moment  bound  to  be 
wrong,  and  the  Glasgow  speech  merely  brought  upon  his 
head  the  usual  outpouring  of  reproach  and  abuse.     But  he 
brought  the  bulk  of  the  party  round  to  his  own  view,  and 
from   that  moment  it   became   common  ground  between 
parties  that  the  Boer  Republics  must  in  one  way  or  another 
be  part  of  the  British  Empire.     Mr.  Morley  intimated  his 
consent,  '  a  gloomy  and  reluctant  consent/  in  a  letter  to  the 
Times.     '  I  have  throughout  regarded  the  war  and  annexa- 
tion as  one  transaction.     That  chapter  is  virtually  closed. 
The   thing  is   done.     The  evil  blunder  is  consummated.' 
The  pro-Boers,  however,  maintained  their  general  attitude 
to  the  end  of  the  session  regardless  of  all  warnings  of  its 
electioneering  unwisdom  ;   and  the  Imperialists  did  nothing 
to  smooth  the  course  of  their  leaders.     The  moment  of 
greatest  embarrassment  was  reached  towards  the  end  of  the 
session  (July  25)  in  the  debate  on  the  Colonial  Office  vote. 
This  mainly  turned  on  the  Blue-Book,  containing  the  corre- 
spondence between  Mr.  Chamberlain,  Sir  Alfred  Milner,  and 
the  Cape  Government  on  the  question  of  the  treatment  of 
rebels.     It  was  opened  temperately  enough  by  Mr.  Sydney 
Buxton,  whose  objection  was  chiefly  to  the  perpetual  dis- 
franchisement  of  the  Cape  rebels.     But  a  little  later  Sir 
Wilfrid  Lawson  plunged  in  with  an  uncompromising  amend- 
ment, and  was  soon  denouncing  the  whole  policy  of  the 
Government  as  that  of  '  the  freebooter,  the  filibuster,  the 
burglar,  and  the  Boxer.'     The  leader  found  himself  between 
two  fires.     On  the  one  side  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  Sir  Robert 
Reid,  and  Mr.  Labouchere  came  energetically  to  the  support 
of    Sir   Wilfrid;     on    the    other,    the    Liberal-Imperialists 
threatened  to  go  the  whole  length  of  supporting  the  Govern- 
ment rather  than  be  associated  with  the  pro-Boers.     For 
once  he  took  refuge  in  abstaining.     He  could  not  vote  for 


MR.  CHAMBERLAIN  ON  THE  WAR-PATH  285 

the  amendment,  he  explained,  because  he  disagreed  with    CHAP. 
some  of  the  extreme  views  of  the  mover,  but  he  would  not 


vote  against  it,  because  that  might  be  taken  as  implying  /ET'  63> 
approval  of  the  Government's  policy.  The  reasons  were 
of  little  consequence  ;  he  was  making  a  last  endeavour  to 
prevent  an  open  and  flagrant  schism  of  his  party  in  the 
division  lobby.  The  result  was  disastrous.  Sir  Edward 
Grey  rebuked  him  for  temporising,  and  announced  his 
intention  of  voting  against  the  amendment ;  Mr.  Bryce 
countered  Sir  Edward  Grey  by  announcing  his  intention 
of  voting  for  it ;  and  when  the  division  came,  Campbell- 
Bannerman  walked  out  followed  by  thirty-five  of  his  party, 
while  forty  voted  with  the  Government  and  thirty-one 
for  the  amendment  on  which  he  had  advised  abstention. 
Such  was  the  condition  of  the  party  and  such  the  position 
of  the  Parliamentary  leader  in  July  1900. 

But  the  portent  of  this  debate  was  Mr.  Chamberlain's 
speech.  That  was  undisguised  electioneering.  With  re- 
morseless ingenuity  the  Colonial  Secretary  set  himself  to  the 
congenial  task  of  making  mischief  between  the  two  wings 
of  the  Opposition,  and  saddling  both  with  the  responsi- 
bility of  encouraging  the  Boers  to  resist.  '  If  we  could  have 
shown,'  he  declared  in  his  closing  passage,  '  that  there  was 
absolutely  no  party  in  this  country  on  the  question,  I  firmly 
believe,  as  I  am  standing  here,  that  the  war  would  have 
been  brought  to  a  conclusion  before  now  '  —a  clear  antici- 
pation of  the  charge  which  was  to  be  thundered  from  a 
thousand  platforms  during  the  next  three  months.  '  There 
is  ground  for  wishing  in  the  interests  of  this  country/  he 
told  the  House,  '  that  at  all  events  we  shall  have  substan- 
tially a  unanimous  House  behind  us,  and  substantially  a 
unanimous  people  behind  in  the  difficulties  we  have  to  face.' 
The  Opposition  was,  in  fact,  to  be  wiped  out.  It  was  the 
same  plea  that  was  raised  eighteen  years  later  after  a  much 
greater  war.  The  interests  of  the  country  required  that 
there  should  be  unanimity — substantial  unanimity  in  the 
House  and  in  the  country.  Mr.  Lloyd  George  was  hot  on 
the  scent.  Rising  after  Mr.  Chamberlain,  he  denounced 


286    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    his  speech  as  sheer  vote-catching.     '  I  venture  to  say  that 
there  is  no  worse  eye-glass  than  the  ballot-box  ;    and  it  is 


1900.  through  that  glass  that  the  Rt.  Hon.  gentleman  has  been 
looking  at  all  these  facts.  .  .  .  The  Rt.  Hon.  gentleman  is 
so  essentially  a  political  manager  that  he  is  always  election- 
eering. He  is  a  kind  of  political  agent,  and  so  permeated 
is  he  with  that  instinct  that  he  has  made  up  his  mind  that 
if  the  war  cannot  be  a  military  success,  at  any  rate  he  will 
make  it  an  electioneering  success.  That  is  electioneering  ; 
it  is  not  statesmanship  ;  and  it  is  not  the  way  to  settle  the 
peace  of  South  Africa.' 

Mr.  Lloyd  George  had  rightly  divined  Mr.  Chamberlain's 
intention  and,  as  afterwards  appeared,  all  preparations  I 
for  a  surprise  dissolution  were  by  this  time  far  advanced  ' 
at  Government  headquarters.  But  Campbell-Bannerman  • 
was  slow  to  believe  it.  From  the  first  day  of  the  war 
he  had  taken  for  granted — as  indeed  had  all  the  staider 
politicians  of  both  parties — that  there  would  be  no  election 
until  the  fighting  was  over.  The  Parliament  still  had  two 
years  of  its  legal  term  to  run,  and  it  seemed  incredible 
to  him  that  any  Government  would  take  advantage  of  a 
favourable  moment  in  an  unfinished  war  to  obtain  a  new( 
lease  of  power  for  itself.  That,  according  to  his  somewhat 
antiquated  ideas,  was  not  within  the  rules  of  the  game. 
To  Mr.  Chamberlain,  on  the  other  hand,  it  seemed  the  height 
of  wisdom  to  get  in  front  of  the  reaction  which  was  bound 
to  follow  the  war.  Why  listen  to  the  ad  misericordiam  plea 
of  an  Opposition  caught  in  a  trap  ?  Why  be  deterred  from 
the  patriotic  duty  of  ensuring  the  fruits  of  the  war  by  a  too 
squeamish  compunction  about  the  party  advantages  ?  It 
was  a  happy  coincidence  which  enabled  both  to  be  secured 
by  the  same  stroke.  Even  the  sober  Spectator  declared  it 
to  be  the  truest  moral  courage  to  risk  the  possible  mis- 
understanding of  motive  for  the  highest  interests  of  the 
country.  The  argument  prevailed,  but  not  without  some 
misgiving  among  the  older  and  steadier  members  of  the 
Unionist  Party.  Some  of  these  disliked  Mr.  Chamberlain's 
ascendancy,  and  foresaw  that  it  must  be  intensified  by  an 


RUMOURS  OF  RESIGNATION          287 

election  in  which  he  was  bound  to  be  the  central  figure.    CHAP. 

xv 
Others   foresaw   a  fleeting   triumph   followed   by   a  great  v 

reaction. 

The  debate  of  July  25  was  followed  by  much  gossip  about 
Campbell-Bannerman's  personal  position.  He  was  said  to 
have  felt  deeply  the  flouting  of  his  authority  by  the  different 
sections  on  that  occasion,  and  to  be  only  awaiting  a  con- 
venient opportunity  to  tender  his  resignation.  All  these 
rumours  were  baseless.  Quite  early  in  the  day  he  had 
written  off  resignation,  or  even  the  threat  of  it,  as  an  avail- 
able weapon  for  a  man  in  his  position.  The  fact  that  his 
two  predecessors  had  resigned  would,  he  felt,  have  made  it 
ridiculous  for  him  to  seek  the  same  way  of  escape.  Having 
accepted  the  position,  he  felt  that  the  least  of  the  duties  he 
owed  to  the  party  was  to  stick  to  it  with  all  possible  tenacity. 
In  this  resolve  he  was  helped  by  a  certain  lethargy  of 
temperament  which  made  him  slow  to  take  offence  ;  and  by 
a  characteristically  modest  estimate  of  his  own  claims  and 
abilities.  He  thought  of  himself  not  as  political  grandee, 
whose  dignity  must  be  offended  when  individuals  declined 
to  follow  his  lead  ;  but  as  a  Liberal  among  Liberals  doing 
his  best  to  keep  the  party  together  without  straining  any 
man's  conscience  or  liberty,  expecting  little  at  the  moment, 
but  serenely  confident  of  the  future,  if  the  immediate  danger 
could  be  avoided.  A  bad  night  for  the  Opposition  or  himself 
in  the  House  of  Commons  was  all  in  the  day's  work,  and  the 
next  morning  found  him  imperturbably  cheerful.  In  July 
1900  no  warning  of  impending  trouble  could  induce  him  to 
vary  his  accustomed  time-table  by  one  day,  and  on  August  5 
he  started  as  usual  for  Marienbad  with  Lady  Campbell- 
Bannerman,  leaving  his  colleagues  to  wind  up  the  session. 
Parliament,  for  the  moment,  was  more  absorbed  in  the  Boxer 
Rebellion  than  the  South  African  War,  but  the  session  ended 
in  an  acrimonious  debate  on  '  certain  letters  found  at 
Pretoria  '  which  Mr.  Chamberlain  was  evidently  storing  up 
as  an  electioneering  bonne  bouche,  and  it  became  more  than 
ever  clear  that  the  grand  electioneerer  was  on  the  war-path. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  KHAKI  ELECTION 

An  Interval  at  Marienbad — The  Dissolution — Caught  in  a 
Trap — The  Khaki  Election — The  Unionist  Slogan — Optimism 
and  Disappointment— A  reduced  Majority  in  the  Burghs— 
The  General  Result — Attitude  of  the  Liberal  Imperialists— 
The  Imperial  Liberal  Council — Objection  to  Sectional 
Organisations — Taking  Stock  of  the  Position — The  Scottish 
Whips — An  Olive-branch  to  Lord  Rosebery — A  Speech  at 
Dundee — Sir  William  Harcourt  and  the  ex-Cabinet — The 
Beginning  of  Farm-burning — Standing  up  for  the  Soldiers— 
The  Contracts  Question. 

CHAP.      S~^\  AMPBELL-BANNERMAN  settled  methodically  to 
his  Marienbad  routine,  and  though  this  year  as  last 


C 


V^.X  the  storm-warnings  followed  him  from  home,  he 
remained  unruffled.  '  I  thought  over  your  suggestion,'  he 
writes  to  the  Chief  Whip  on  August  19,  '  that  I  should  write 
one  or  two  stinging  phrases  as  to  an  untimely  dissolution,  but 
inspiration  did  not  come  readily,  and  on  the  whole  I  think 
it  is  safer  to  leave  it  alone  for  the  present :  it  would  be 
difficult  to  avoid  giving  the  impression  either  of  dreading 
an  election  or  of  daring  them  to  have  it — both  alike  undesir- 
able. I  confess  I  still  cannot  believe  it — and  they  could 
hardly  make  their  appeal  with  De  Wet,  Botha  and  Co.  still 
in  the  open.  We  shall  probably  know  better  a  fortnight 
hence.'  Letters,  meanwhile,  were  reaching  him  from  Scot- 
land, pointing  to  '  a  good  deal  of  schismatism.'  The  Master 
of  Elibank,  a  first-class  candidate,  ready  to  stand  for 
Midlothian  and  certain  to  win  if  properly  supported,  had 
'  never  a  word  of  communication  or  recognition  '  from  the 
Scottish  Whip,  '  because  he  does  not  swallow  the  whole 
shibboleth  about  the  war  and  the  new  imperialism,  having 
in  fact  the  misfortune  to  agree  more  or  less  with  his  leader 

288 


'SCRAMBLING  HOME'  289 

on  those  points.'     The  Scottish  Whip  appears  to  have  been    CHAP. 
communicated    with    and    to    have    given    a   satisfactory 


assurance  that  he  would  fight  the  campaign  through  '  from  ^T-  6s"64> 
the  dissolution.' 

By  September  12  there  was  no  resisting  the  evidence  that 
dissolution  was  at  hand,  but  he  still  refused  to  be  hustled  :— 

Campbell-Banner  man  to  Mr.  Herbert  Gladstone 

MARIENBAD,  Sept.  12,  1900.  —  I  am  very  glad  to  have  your 
letter  this  morning,  for  we  have  been  greatly  in  the  dark  in  this 
remote  country,  and  the  great  question  of  the  dissolution  is  as 
much  a  mystery  as  ever. 

What  you  say  seems  decisive,  and  at  any  rate  the  risk  is  too 
great  to  be  disregarded  ;  so  that  I  will  arrange,  so  far  as  I  am 
concerned,  to  be  home  soon.  As  to  putting  out  any  manifesto 
or  arranging  for  a  speech,  I  do  not  see  how  that  can  well  be  done 
now  until  the  actual  announcement  of  the  Dissolution  is  made. 
It  would  look  rather  foolish  to  begin  righting  before  one  is 
challenged. 

I  notice  what  you  say  as  to  the  lack  of  a  '  lead,'  and  reference 
is  made  to  my  speeches  of  last  winter.  But  these  are  past  and 
gone,  and  dealt  with  a  state  of  things  that  has  disappeared.  My 
pronouncement  on  the  present  situation  was  made  in  Glasgow  in 
June  ;  in  an  elaborate  and  much-considered  speech,  which  was, 
I  thought,  received  as  satisfactory  ;  in  which  I  accepted  annexa- 
tion, and  indicated  the  true  policy  to  follow.  I  thought  that 
speech  would  be  printed  and  circulated  :  certainly  I  cannot  now 
say  anything  further  or  different.  And  the  situation  in  South 
Africa  has  not  materially  altered  since  I  made  it.  That  speech 
would  have  supplied  the  hungry  candidates  with  all  they  ask  for 
so  far  as  South  Africa  is  concerned. 

Since  that  time  none  of  the  Front  Bench  have  shown  that  they 
do  not  agree  with  me  or  follow  me,  and  therefore  I  thought  it 
was  agreed  that  every  one  should  put  out  his  own  views.  That 
is  what  I  intend  to  do,  and  take  my  chance  of  harmony  !  I  am 
convinced  that  there  is  really  little  discord  in  reality,  although 
for  various  reasons  it  is  made  the  most  of. 

A  day  later  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  start  his  campaign 
by  addressing  his  constituents  on  the  24th,  and  to  '  scramble 
home  in  the  course  of  next  week.'  His  old  friend  Capt. 
Sinclair  was  with  him  ;  and  the  next  days  were  occupied  in 

VOL.  I.  T 


290    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    preparing  the  speech  and  drawing  up  the  address  to  his 
/L      constituents  which  was  to  be  his  manifesto  to  the  country. 


He  started  home  on  the  i8th  and,  leaving  his  wife  in  Paris, 
reached  London  on  the  22nd. 

ii 

The  dissolution  was  announced  in  the  London  Gazette  on 
September  18,  and  Campbell-Bannerman  came  out  at  once 
with  his  address  and  met  his  constituents  at  Stirling  the 
following  evening.  Electioneerers  are  a  sanguine  tribe,  and 
he  was  buoyed  up  by  cheerful  reports  of  the  good  spirits  and 
fine  fettle  of  the  party  which  came  in  from  all  parts  of  the 
country.  But  shrewd  judges  were  aware  from  the  beginning 
that  the  Opposition  was  caught  in  a  trap  from  which  there 
was  no  escape.  The  only  resource  for  its  leaders  was  to 
decline  the  issue  which  the  Government  were  forcing  upon 
them,  to  represent  themselves  as  agreed  in  accepting  the 
results  of  the  war  and  the  annexation  of  the  two  Republics  ; 
to  denounce  the  unfairness  of  snatching  an  election  on  an 
expiring  register  and  exploiting  the  success  of  the  soldiers 
for  the  benefit  of  the  politicians  ;  and  to  insist  on  the  reality 
and  importance  of  other  questions  outside  the  settled  issue 
of  the  war.  All  this  Campbell-Bannerman  did  with  skill 
and  adroitness  in  his  election  address,  which  covered  the 
whole  field  of  foreign  and  domestic  policy  during  the  previous 
five  years,  and  boldly  charged  the  Government  with  gross 
mishandling  of  the  very  question  on  which  they  were  de- 
manding the  support  of  the  country.  The  average  elector 
was  by  no  means  disinclined  to  admit  the  greater  part  of 
this  indictment,  and  he  was  quite  aware  that  the  election 
was  a  smart  trick  which  inflicted  serious  injustice  on  the 
Opposition.  But  his  practical  instinct  told  him  that  the 
defeat  of  the  Government  would  be  construed  by  the  Boers 
and  by  foreign  Powers  as  a  censure  of  its  entire  South  African 
policy  and  an  all  but  fatal  blow  to  an  enterprise  to  which 
the  country  was  irretrievably  committed,  and  on  which  it 
had  spent  a  great  deal  of  blood  and  treasure.  He  might 
despise  a  Government  which  was  seeking  to  capitalise  the 


THE  UNIONIST  SLOGAN  291 

war  for  its  own  advantage,  but,  if  the  coercion  was  put  upon    CHAP. 
him,  he  could  not  resist  it  or  support  the  Opposition  in  ' 


evading   the   issue.     To   put   that   coercion   on   him   wasnET'63"64' 
precisely  the  object  of  the  Khaki  election  ;  and  the  best  that  1 
the  Opposition  could  hope,  as  its  Chief  Whip  frankly  said, 
was  to  be  a  '  good  second.' 

But  that  remorseless  realist,  Mr.  Chamberlain,  was  not 
content  that  this  pressure  of  facts  and  circumstances  should 
work  to  the  inevitable  result ;  he  was  resolved  that  the 
whole  Opposition  should  be  branded  as  little-Englanders 
and  no-patriots,  whom  it  was  necessary  without  a  moment's 
delay  to  wither  and  destroy  under  the  righteous  wrath  of 
the  electorate.  He  asked,  as  Mr.  Birrell  said,  '  not  for  an 
ordinary  majority  but  for  an  overwhelming  majority,  and 
upon  the  ground  that  this  was  no  ordinary  general  election, 
but  one  in  which  every  vote  cast  for  a  Liberal  against  a 
supporter  of  Lord  Salisbury  was  a  vote  given  for  the  enemy.' 
A  saying  attributed  to  the  Mayor  of  Mafeking  that  '  every 
Government  seat  lost  would  be  regarded  by  the  Boers  as  a 
gain  to  themselves/  was  '  crystallised/  as  an  ingenious  M.P. 
explained,  into  the  more  direct  and  effective  assertion  that 
'  every  vote  given  to  a  Liberal  was  a  vote  given  to  the  Boers/ 
and  '  every  seat  won  by  the  Opposition  a  seat  gained  by 
the  Boers/  This  was  the  slogan  of  the  Unionist  Party, 
and  during  the  next  three  weeks  it  was  declaimed  by 
thousands  of  speakers  and  scattered  broadcast  on  flaming 
placards.  An  excited  telegraph  clerk,  catching  the  general 
infection,  even  transcribed  the  formula,  as  used  by  Mr. 
Chamberlain  in  a  message  to  a  candidate,  into  '  a  seat  sold 
to  the  Boers/  Posters  and  leaflets  carried  the  same  message 
into  all  the  constituencies.  Eminent  Liberals  were  repre- 
sented on  posters  as  offering  tribute  to  President  Kruger, 
helping  him  to  shoot  British  soldiers  and  to  haul  down  the 
Union  Jack.  Mr.  Rose,  the  member  for  the  Newmarket 
Division,  was  pictured  in  this  position,  though  he  had  lost 
two  sons  in  the  war,  and  was  visiting  their  graves  in  South 
Africa  when  the  election  was  taking  place.  Lord  Roberts 
and  Lord  Kitchener  were  boldly  annexed  by  the  same 


292    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    audacious  electioneerers.     An  equestrian  portrait  of  the  one 
XVL  ^  and  a  menacing  full  figure  of  the  other  adorned  a  poster 


19001  issued  on  behalf  of  Mr.  Gerald  Balfour  at  Leeds,  which  bore 
the  familiar  device,  '  To  vote  for  a  Liberal  is  to  vote  for  the 
Boer.'  This  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Lord  Roberts  had 
cabled  from  South  Africa  that  he  held  entirely  aloof  from 
politics.  The  captured  letters  played  a  conspicuous  part 
in  the  campaign,  and  provided  material  for  a  '  Radical 
Traitor  '  leaflet,  in  which  it  was  plainly  suggested  that  the 
Radical  Party  was  in  treasonable  correspondence  with 
the  enemy. 

Caught  in  this  storm  of  invective,  which  fell  indiscrimi- 
nately on  all  sections  of  the  Liberal  Party,  the  leaders  drew 
together  and  fought  a  losing  battle  with  courage  and  skill. 
Campbell-Bannerman  himself  was  indefatigable,  and  from  ( 
September  26  to  October  n  he  was  speaking  incessantly 
in  London  and  Lancashire  and  all  parts  of  the  country.  As 
regards  South  Africa,  his  main  point,  repeated  again  and 
again,  was  that  we  should  pass  as  quickly  as  possible  from 
military  occupation  to  self-government,  and  above  all  things 
avoid  setting  up  Crown  Colony  Government  or  any  other 
form  of  un-free  institutions  which  might  strike  permanent 
roots.1  For  the  rest  he  boldly  faced  the  points  on  which 
the  popular  prejudice  against  him  was  likely  to  be  strongest, 
and  refused  to  trim  his  sails  to  conciliate  his  opponents. 
His  one  concession  was  to  accept  the  annexation  of  the  two 
Republics  as  a  settled  fact,  but  he  declared  himself  impenitent 
about  his  criticisms  of  Mr.  Chamberlain's  diplomacy,  came 
courageously  to  the  rescue  of  his  old  friend,  Mr.  J.  E.  Ellis, 
under  Mr.  Chamberlain's  attacks,  and  denounced  the  pub- 
lication of  the  '  Pretoria  letters  '  as  a  gross  impropriety. 
With  equal  firmness  he  appealed  for  a  wise  and  merciful 
judgment  of  the  enemy  : — 

Everybody  was  a  pro-Boer  who  did  not  agree  to  everything 
Mr.  Chamberlain  did,  and  who  said  :  '  Here  is  a  people  fighting 
gallantly  for  the  independence  of  their  own  country  ;  for  good- 
ness sake  do  not  attribute  every  sort  of  evil  to  them  while  you 
1  See  especially  speech  at  Kilmarnock,  Oct.  n,  1900. 


THE  LIBERAL  FAITH  293 

are  fighting  them  ;  when  you  have  got  them  down,  treat  them    CHAP. 
with  the  respect  and  honour  that  such  a  people  ought  to  receive      XVL 


—a  people  who,  though  they  may  be  mistaken  and  entirely  ^T.  63-64. 
wrong,  are  conscientiously  fighting  for  the  independence  of  their 
own  land/  For  taking  this  view  he  was  called  a  pro-Boer.  That 
again  was  a  gross  slander  and  falsehood,  and  that  newspapers  and 
politicians  should  stoop  to  a  mean  artifice  of  that  kind  was  a 
scandal  and  a  disgrace  to  the  political  life  of  to-day. 

The  disclaimer  was  useless.  To  the  average  militant  Briton 
the  man  who  could  speak  and  think  thus  about  the  Boers 
in  the  heat  of  the  battle  was  a  pro-Boer,  and  there  was  no 
more  to  be  said  about  it. 

This,  nevertheless,  was  for  scores  of  thousands  of  Liberals 
the  true  faith  which  it  was  the  purpose  of  the  party  to 
uphold  in  good  times  and  bad,  and  never  so  much  as 
when  it  was  in  danger  of  being  swamped  in  the  passion 
and  prejudice  of  war-time.  From  north  to  south,  as 
the  leader  reported  to  Headquarters,  the  stalwarts 
were  splendid,  and  his  spirits  rose  as  he  passed  from 
one  scene  of  enthusiasm  to  another.  '  A  happy  meet- 
ing in  St.  James's  Hall — packed  and  hearty/  he  writes  on 
September  30,  '  all  the  men  there  said  things  have  not  looked 
for  years  as  they  now  do  in  London,  especially  that  labour 
is  with  us.  Rochdale,  two  meetings  magnificent,  magnifi- 
cent also  an  outlying  meeting  in  Oldham.  The  same  enthu- 
siasm there,  and  comparisons  made  with  '95,  greatly  to  the 
detriment  of  that  year/  Four  days  later  he  sent  a  cheerful 
report  about  Scotland,  but  the  elections  were  now  beginning, 
and  already  he  has  to  admit  that  '  London  has  not  at  all 
come  up  to  what  I  heard  predicted  last  week/  It  was  the 
old  story  :  splendid  meetings  and  disappointing  polls.  The 
immense  majority  of  Liberals  were  as  staunch  as  ever,  and 
were  little,  if  at  all,  affected  by  the  differences  between  their 
leaders  ;  but  to  win  a  general  election  a  party  needs  to  poll 
the  whole  of  its  own  strength  and  to  add  the  wavering 
electors,  and,  as  in  1895,  so  in  1900,  the  Liberal  Party  was 
a  little  below  its  full  strength  and  had  gained  practically 
none  of  the  waverers.  It  was  clear  after  the  first  three 


294    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,  days'  polling  that  there  would  be  no  change  to  the  advantage 
_1^_ — '  of  the  Opposition.  In  the  boroughs,  the  results  of  1895  were 
I9°°'  almost  exactly  reproduced,  the  Government  gaining  one 
seat  on  balance.  There  were  losses  and  gains,  and  the 
Opposition  had  the  consolation  of  snatching  seats  from  the 
Government,  but  the  Unionist  majority  in  votes  was  sub- 
stantially increased  in  the  aggregate.  The  counties  did 
rather  better  for  the  Opposition,  and  showed  17  Liberals  to 
10  Ministerialist  gains.  When  the  last  returns  had  come 
in  and  the  final  account  was  made  up,  the  Government 
majority  over  Liberals  and  Nationalists  was  found  to  have 
been  increased  to  134  from  the  130  at  which  it  stood  at  the 
dissolution,  but  was  actually  18  less  than  at  the  previous 
general  election. 

Campbell-Bannerman's  own  majority  in  the  Stirling 
Burghs  was  reduced  to  630  after  a  hot  contest  with  a  Liberal- 
Unionist  opponent  (Col.  Duke) — a  set-back  which  he  frankly 
confessed  was  a  complete  surprise  to  him.  He  attributed  it 
to  the  turnover  of  the  Irish  and  Catholic  vote  on  the  school 
and  university  question  ;  but  we  may  surmise  that  the  tide 
of  war-feeling  which  was  running  strongly  in  other  parts  of 
Scotland  had  not  been  quite  without  influence  on  his  own 
stronghold.  Scottish  Liberals  had  the  mortification  of 
seeing  their  country  return  a  Unionist  majority  of  22  to 
19,  a  disaster  which  they  had  just  escaped  in  1895.  This 
was  the  only  feature  in  the  election  which  seriously  ruffled 
Campbell-Bannerman,  and  he  breaks  out  bluntly  that 
'  Glasgow  is  damnable.'  The  rest  he  took  philosophically, 
while  frankly  confessing  that  it  fell  far  short  of  his  hopes. 

These  hopes  were  never  well  founded,  and,  looking  back  to 
the  events  of  this  time  in  the  light  of  a  subsequent  Khaki 
election,  we  may  even  say  that  the  Liberal  Party  did  ex- 
ceedingly well  in  1900.      The  plan   of  overwhelming  the 
Opposition,  which  was  as  plainly  in  Mr.  Chamberlain's  mind 
;    as  in  that  of  a  subsequent  organiser  of  victory,  fell  very  far 
\   short  of  success.    What  might  have  happened  if  the  '  coupon ' 
method  had  been  thought  of  in  1900  and  applied  by  a  Coalition 
of  Chamberlainites  and  Liberal-Imperialists  to  the  selection 


'  VOTES  FOR  THE  BOERS  '  295 

and  certification  of  candidates  in  that  year  is  an  interest-)  CHAP. 

XVI 

ing  speculation.      But  in  1900  the  Boer  War  had  not  *  ' 


organised  the  party  system  as  had  the  greater  war  in  1918  ;  ^Tl  63'64' 
and  even  the  mild  suggestion  that  a  certain  number  of 
Liberal-Imperialists  should  be  left  unopposed,  though  mooted 
in  the  months  before  the  election,  was  summarily  rejected 
by  the  Unionist  organisation.  To  do  the  Liberal  -Imperi- 
alists justice,  they  neither  invited  these  favours  nor  at  any 
time  sued  for  quarter  from  their  Unionist  opponents.  Though 
holding  tenaciously  to  their  views  about  the  war,  many  of 
them  went  out  of  their  way  to  emphasise  their  differences 
with  the  Unionist  Party,  and  to  proclaim  themselves  im- 
penitent Radicals  on  all  other  issues.  This  attitude,  com- 
bined with  Campbell-Bannerman's  own  determination  to 
go  to  the  extremes  t  length  of  tolerance  for  the  avoidance 
of  open  quarrel,  enabled  the  party  to  come  out  of  the  election 
of  1900  with  its  machinery  intact,  and  the  vast  majority 
of  its  adherents  unshaken  in  their  allegiance.  If  the 
indictment  which  Mr.  Chamberlain  had  endeavoured  to 
fasten  on  his  opponents  had  any  truth  in  it,  the  country  was 
faced  with  the  alarming  fact  that  2,105,518  electors  had 
gone  to  the  polls  to  register  '  a  vote  for  the  Boers/  against 
2,428,492  who  had  voted  against  them. 

in 

But  this  comparatively  cheerful  view  of  the  election  could 
scarcely  be  taken  by  contemporary  Liberal  politicians. 
Only  a  year  before  they  had  every  reason  to  hope  for  the 
speedy  return  of  their  party  to  power  ;  now  they  found 
themselves  again  in  the  wilderness  for  an  indefinite  number 
of  years,  with  a  majority  against  them  which  they  could 
not  hope  to  break  down  by  any  display  of  energy  or  skill  in 
Parliament.  Searchings  of  heart  were  inevitable  and,  in 
the  then  state  of  the  party,  led  very  easily  to  recriminations. 
Campbell-Bannerman  was  roused  from  his  habitual  toler- 
ance by  the  activities  of  a  new  association  called  the  Imperial 
Liberal  Council,  which  had  come  into  existence  a  few  months 
before  the  general  election.  Front  bench  politicians  had 


296    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    stood  aloof  from  it,  but  Lord  Brassey,  who  had  lately  re- 

-y  T  TT 

turned  from  the  Governorship  of  New  South  Wales,  had 


I9°°-  consented  to  become  Chairman  of  it,  and  Mr.  R.  W.  Perks 
(who  was  supposed  to  be  in  the  confidence  of  Lord  Rosebery) 
was  one  of  its  leading  spirits.  On  the  eve  of  the  election  it 
issued  a  list  of  fifty-six  candidates  who  were  '  understood  to 
be  in  general  agreement  with  the  policy  of  the  Council/  and 
almost  immediately  after  the  election  it  met  and  adopted 
a  resolution  declaring  '  that  in  order  to  secure  the  ascend- 
ancy of  the  Liberal  Party  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  its 
ability  to  effect  the  domestic  reforms  which  are  so  urgently 
needed,  the  time  has  arrived  when  it  is  necessary  to  clearly 
and  permanently  distinguish  Liberals  in  whose  policy  with 
regard  to  Imperial  questions  patriotic  voters  may  justly 
repose  confidence  from  those  whose  opinions  naturally 
disqualify  them  from  controlling  the  action  of  an  Imperial 
Parliament  of  a  world-wide  community  of  nations.'  Most 
of  the  proscribed  were  disposed  to  laugh  at  this  portentous 
communication,  but  Campbell-Bannerman  took  it  more 
seriously  and  was  out  in  a  trice  with  a  '  letter  to  a  corre- 
spondent '  : — 

I  agree  with  all  that  you  say  in  deprecation  of  the  institution 
and  maintenance  within  the  Liberal  Party  of  any  sectional 
organisation,  but  when  such  an  organisation  proclaims  as  one  of 
its  objects  that  all  Liberals  who  do  not  belong  to  it,  and  whom 
it  chooses  to  proscribe,  should  be  excluded  from  the  party,  the 
case  becomes  intolerable.  This  is  a  time  for  unity,  for  keeping 
in  mind  the  many  important  points  on  which  we  are  entirely 
agreed,  and  not  for  exaggerating  any  individual  ground  of 
difference.  In  what  may  be  styled  Imperial  policy,  there  is 
absolute  harmony  among  four-fifths  of  the  Liberal  Party,  and  it 
cannot  be  for  any  useful  purpose  that  it  is  sought  to  manufacture 
division  which  does  not  naturally  exist.  Any  men  calling  them- 
selves Liberals  who  do  so,  whatever  their  own  views  may  be,  are 
the  worst  enemies  of  the  party  and  of  the  principles  for  whose 
maintenance  it  exists.  Such  tactics  and  the  spirit  that  they 
display  are  fatal  to  our  usefulness  as  an  Opposition,  and  no  party 
could  exist  in  vigour  and  efficiency  within  which  they  were 
pursued  and  tolerated. — (Oct.  20.) 


AFTER  THE  BATTLE  297 

About  this  and  other  matters  he  spoke  his  mind  freely  to    CHAP. 
his  intimates  : —  v_il\L_ 


JET.  63-64. 


Campbell-Bannerman  to  Sir  William  Harcourt 

BELMONT,  Oct.  21,  igoo. — I  was  delighted  to  receive  your 
letter,  and  am  very  grateful  not  only  for  the  kind  expressions 
you  use  in  it  but  for  the  public  declarations  of  friendly  loyalty 
you  have  more  than  once  made.  In  our  present  circumstances 
such  declarations  give  one  courage  to  stand  up  against  the  abuse 
and  all  the  other  modes  of  attack  which  are  so  freely  used. 

I  admired  your  slashing  and  uncompromising  speeches,  and  if 
more  of  our  people  had  gone  for  Joe  as  you  and  I  did  we  should 
have  made  a  better  thing  of  the  contest. 

Scotland  has  been  most  lamentable  :  but  I  am  not  greatly 
surprised  at  much  of  the  loss,  for  we  have  been  torn  by  faction. 
Still  there  is  a  most  discreditable  amount  of  Khaki  feeling,  open 
jingoism  among  the  Unionists,  and  timidity  and  half-heartedness 
among  our  own  men.  There  was  the  bread-and-butter  influence 
in  the  Clyde  district ;  and  above  all  there  was  the  turnover  of  the 
Catholic  vote.  It  was  this  last  that  reduced  my  majority. 

I  greatly  fear  that  the  effect  of  the  election  will  be  not  to  heal 
sores  but  to  open  them  wider.  I  have  sent  to  the  Press  a  letter 
in  denunciation  of  the  Perks  manifesto,  which  carries  mischievous 
audacity  beyond  toleration,  but  I  think  the  manifesto  is  a  happy 
incident,  as  showing  quiet  Liberals  through  the  country  some- 
thing of  the  spirit  of  the  men  we  have  to  deal  with. 

I  have  no  doubt  there  will  be  any  quantity  of  subterranean 
working  until  Parliament  meets,  and  we  must  be  prepared  to 
meet  it. 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  Herbert  Gladstone 

BELMONT,  Oct.  22,  1900. — Now  that  we  have  dried  our  clothes 
and  washed  the  salt  out  of  our  eyes,  we  mariners,  survivors  of  the 
storm,  can  communicate  with  each  other  in  peace. 

I  do  not  think  we  need  exchange  impressions  as  to  the  past. 
The  wretched  result  in  Scotland  is  due  partly  to  bread-and-butter 
influences,  especially  in  the  Clyde  district,  where  warlike  expendi- 
ture is  popular ;  partly  to  the  turnover  of  the  Catholic  vote, 
which  was  the  main  cause  of  my  diminished  majority ;  partly 
to  Khaki ;  and  partly  to  our  own  factions,  which  have  taken  some 
of  the  heart  out  of  us. 


298    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.        I  fear  that  we  are  not  more  united  than  before.     I  never  saw 
KVL      a  more  audacious  piece  of  mischief  than  the  Perks  manifesto,  and 


1900.  I  have  had  to  send  to  the  Press  a  protest  against  it.  At  the  same 
time  I  believe  the  incident  will  not  be  without  advantage  as 
showing  the  quieter  Liberals  the  sort  of  spirit  we  have  to  cope 
with. 

We  must  now  begin  to  set  our  house  in  order  after  the  fray, 
and  the  very  first  thing  is  that  Ronald's  x  resignation  opens  the 
question  of  organisation  and  the  relations  of  Whips  to  the 
Associations  and  gives  us  a  chance  of  reviewing  it  if  we  choose. 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Ripon 

BELMONT,  Oct.  29,  1900. — It  was  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to 
receive  and  read  your  letter. 

I  do  not  think  we  need  grumble  at  the  result  of  the  election, 
as  we  came  out  of  it  without  heavy  damage,  and  such  a  combina- 
tion of  adverse  conditions  can  hardly  recur. 

I  confess  that  the  thing  which  concerns  me  most  is  to  find  that 
Chamberlainism  pays  with  our  Country  men.  They  worship  a 
forcible  man  and  a  clever  man,  and  if  his  methods  are  vulgar, 
dishonourable,  unfair,  they  only  smile  and  approve.  The  lowering 
of  the  standard  of  public  life  is  a  far  worse  evil,  because  more 
permanent,  than  toryism,  jingoism,  or  any  other  heresy  ;  panem 
et  circenses  :  money  spent  in  the  country,  flags  to  wave,  bluster 
to  shout  for — that  is  the  object :  let  right  and  honour  and  freedom 
go  and  be  hanged  !  The  commencement  de  siecle  morals,  ap- 
parently ! 

I  had  to  fire  a  shot  across  the  bows  of  Mr.  Perks  and  his  crew 
mainly  because  they  were  bragging  and  puffing  themselves  and 
seeking  to  attract  the  neophytes.  I  hope  that  an  open  repudia- 
tion of  them  will  at  least  prevent  the  new  Members  from  com- 
mitting themselves.  But  the  air  is  full  of  intrigues.  I  have 
neither  seen  nor  heard  anything  of  or  from  our  man  of  mystery 
at  Dalmeny  since  the  election  began  :  I  ought  to  add  '  directly 
or  indirectly.' 

Your  argument  on  the  future  of  South  Africa,  and  the  infinite 
advantage  of  putting  the  future  military  expenditure  on  the 
shoulders  of  the  S.  Africans  themselves,  is  most  forcible  and 
valuable.  To  me  it  appears  unanswerable,  and  I  trust  we  shall 
make  it  our  line.  I  am  greatly  obliged  to  you  for  putting  it  so 
clearly.  As  you  say,  the  past  expenditure  is  gone,  and  it  has  no 
living  effect :  the  future  yearly  cost  has  a  most  potent  influence 
1  Mr.  Ron  ild  Munro-Fcrguson  (now  Lord  Novar),  Scottish  Whip. 


ANGER  WITH  THE  SMOOTHERS       299 

which  will  work  either  for  conciliation  and  reunion  or  for  coercion    CHAP. 
and  discord,  according  as  we  place  it. 


I  hope  your  health  keeps  good.     We  are  having  the  most  ^T.  63-64. 
brilliant  weather  in  these  parts. 

IV 

Campbell-Bannerman  was  by  this  time  well  aware  that 
he  would  have  to  fight  not  only  for  his  own  political  life,  but' 
to  save  the  party  from  a  fatal  disruption.  Till  now  he  had 
played  the  part  of  mediator  at  considerable  sacrifice  of  his 
own  inclinations  and  no  little  peril  to  his  own  authority. 
Returning  from  the  election,  both  sides  were  tempted  to 
vent  their  displeasure  on  '  the  smoothers.'  The  left  wing 
declared  that  the  acceptance  of  annexation  and  the  refusal 
of  the  straight  issue  had  compromised  the  Liberal  faith 
without  bringing  it  any  support  at  the  elections  ;  the  right 
wing  complained  that  the  leader  had  not  dissociated  himself 
from  the  pro-Boers  or  exerted  his  authority  to  prevent 
them  from  injuring  the  party  by  their  defiant  espousal  of  a 
lost  and  unpopular  cause.  Campbell-Bannerman  took  all 
this  with  his  usual  composure.  He  had  convinced  himself 
from  his  experience  at  the  elections  that  the  great  body  of 
centre  Liberals,  the  three-fourths  or  four-fifths  of  the  party 
to  whom  he  constantly  appealed,  were  behind  him  in  his 
via  media.  But  where  he  took  his  stand  was  against  the 
formation  of  sectional  organisations  with  the  avowed  object 
of  giving  permanence  to  a  quarrel  which  he  believed  to  be 
transient  and  curable.  To  individual  differences  of  opinion 
he  was  amazingly  tolerant,  but  when  the  organisation  of 
the  party  was  touched  or  threatened  with  a  rival  he  was 
at  once  up  in  arms  and  threw  the  whole  weight  of  his 
authority  against  the  schismatics.  Of  all  the  differences 
which  were  reported  to  him  in  these  months  those  which 
caused  him  greatest  concern  related  to  the  Whips'  Depart- 
ment, and  the  alleged  lukewarmness  and  hostility  of  the 
Junior  Whips  to  the  official  policy  ;  and  though  he  was 
always  on  the  best  of  personal  terms  with  Mr.  Ronald 
Munro-Ferguson,  the  Scottish  Whip  (who  made  no  secret 


300    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    of  his  sympathy  with  the  Imperialist  wing  and  his  dislike 
n'     of  candidates  of  the  opposite  school),  it  was  undoubtedly  a 


1900.  reiief  to  him  when  Mr.  Munro-Ferguson  tendered  his  resigna- 
tion shortly  after  the  election,  and  he  had  the  opportunity 
of  appointing  his  own  warm  friend  and  staunch  supporter, 
Captain  Sinclair,  to  the  vacant  place.  He  felt  that  he  was 
at  least  entitled  to  have  a  Scot  of  his  own  persuasion  at  the 
centre  of  party  authority  in  Scotland. 

It  is  the  key  to  what  followed,  that  he  came  out  of  the 
^•election  with  a  firm  resolve  to  oppose  organised  schism. 
But  he  kept  the  door  open  to  all  possible  personal  recon- 
ciliation. The  Liberal  press  was  calling  loudly  for  peace 
on  the  front  bench.  The  Liberal  differences,  it  said, 
afflicted  the  head  rather  than  the  body  of  the  party  ;  the 
great  mass  of  the  party  stood  together  now,  as  always,  for 
the  main  things,  and  they  were  surprised  and  mortified  at 
the  incessant  wrangling  which  went  on  between  the  leaders. 
The  call  was  in  particular  for  co-operation  between  Lord 
Rosebery  and  Campbell-Bannerman.  Rightly  or  wrongly 
the  rank  and  file  made  a  distinction  between  Lord  Rosebery 
and  the  other  leaders  of  the  Imperialist  wing.  They 
noticed  that,  though  he  had  called  for  national  unity  after 
the  ultimatum,  he  had  never  endorsed  Mr.  Chamberlain's 
diplomacy,  and  seldom  or  never  used  the  phrases  about  the 
absolute  justice  and  inevitability  of  the  war  which  were 
common  form  in  speeches  of  other  members  of  the  group. 
He  had  spoken  vigorously  at  the  election,  and  associated 
himself  with  the  rest  of  the  party  in  protesting  against  the 
methods  of  the  other  side  ;  he  had  sharply  rebuked  the 
Colonial  Secretary  for  his  light-hearted  excursions  into 
foreign  affairs  ;  he  had  made  it  clear  that  he  did  not  accept 
Sir  Alfred  Milner  as  an  infallible  authority.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  was  evident  that  he  had  the  complete  confidence  of 
the  Imperialist  wing,  and  was  in  a  position,  if  anybody,  to 
reconcile  them  to  Campbell-Bannerman's  leadership  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  Why  then,  it  was  asked,  should  not 
the  two  men  combine  to  restore  the  unity  and  efficiency  of 
the  party  ?  '  The  clear  wish  of  the  vast  majority  of 


THE  APPEAL  TO  LORD  ROSEBERY  301 

Liberals/  wrote    the    Chief    Whip    at    the    beginning    of    CHAP. 
November,  '  is  that  you  should  have  the  active  co-opera- 


tion of  Rosebery  for  general  party  purposes.  Is  this  not  '(ET-  63"64 
possible  now  that  the  air  has  been  cleared  by  the  election  ?  ' 
The  argument  was  reinforced  by  an  appeal  to  a  leading 
article  in  the  Times,  which  declared  it  to  be  Lord  Rosebery's 
duty  in  the  national  interest  to  resume  a  direct  responsi- 
bility for  the  conduct  of  the  Opposition. 

Campbell-Bannerman  was  willing,  but  his  native  shrewd- 
ness told  him  that,  if  he  made  a  direct  overture  and  was 
rebuffed,  he  would  damage  his  position  with  both  wings  of 
the  party,  and  alienate  the  left  without  conciliating  the 
right.  There  were  eminent  colleagues  of  his,  to  whom  he 
was  beholden  for  much  vigorous  support  in  the  black  times, 
who  regarded  the  movements  for  the  recall  of  Lord  Rose- 
bery as  a  threat  to  themselves.  In  all  the  circumstances, 
he  felt  it  necessary  to  walk  warily.  '  As  to  the  reunion  of 
great  people/  he  writes,  on  November  9,  to  the  Chief  Whip, 
'  I  am  considering  what  can  be  reasonably  said  and  done. 
I  am  and  always  have  been  favourable  to  the  attempt.' 
Three  days'  cogitation  led  him  to  the  conclusion  that  it 
would  be  '  quite  necessary '  for  him  in  his  forthcoming 
speech  at  Dundee,  to  '  speak  of  Rosebery  in  pretty  explicit 
terms,  saying  that  we  should  welcome  his  return  to  work 
within  our  defence  of  the  old  principles,  but  that  I  was  sure 
he  would  never  consent  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a 
section,  as  the  hostile  papers  strongly  urge  him.'  '  I  will 
hold  the  door  wide  open/  he  says  finally,  '  but  I  shan't  ring 
the  dinner-bell  or  hang  out  a  flag  of  distress/ 

He  had  already  written  to  Lord  Ripon  on  this  and  other 
matters  requiring  a  decision  of  the  front  bench  :— 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Ripon 

BELMONT,  Nov.  7,  'oo. — I  have  received  the  enclosed  letter 
from  Herbert  Gladstone  this  morning,  and  I  send  it  on  to  you  at 
once.  I  do  so  firstly  because  it  is  in  your  province  as  ex-Colonial 
Minister,  but,  secondly,  if  you  will  allow  me  to  say  so,  because 
your  opinions  are  those  with  which  I  most  fully  sympathise. 


302    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.       There  are  one  or  two  subsidiary  points  on  which  I  do  not  agree 
xy1-    ,  with  him.     For  instance  : — 
1900. 

(a)  I  do  not  admit  that  there  was  a  verdict  of  blind  confidence 

in  the  Government. 

(b)  Our  acceptance  of  annexation  does  not  mean  that  we 

acquiesce  in  everything  that  the  Government  may  do 
in  pursuance  of  that  policy. 

(c)  Our  objection  to  the  Crown  Colony  System  was  not  that  it 

let  in  Chamberlain  and  Rhodes,  but  because  it  was  in 
itself  an  abrogation  of  the  very  rights  we  have  exposed 
by  war,  and  because  once  set  up  it  might  be,  and  probably 
would  be,  continued  indefinitely  ;  whereas  military  rule 
or  any  irregular  semi-military  rule  would  be  essentially 
provisional. 

But  the  main  point  is  as  to  Milner — it  is  the  personal  question. 

We  cannot  shut  our  eyes  or  ears  to  the  fact  that  Milner  has 
close  friends  very  near  to  us.  I  have  heard  them  spoken  of  as 
the  '  Balliol  Set '  ;  they  include  Grey,  Asquith,  and  Haldane ; 
and  it  is  my  conviction  that  one  of  the  main  influences  causing 
the  determined  support  given  by  them  to  the  Government's  S.A. 
policy  has  been  Milner-worship. 

I  must  frankly  say  that  the  impression  left  on  my  mind  is 
entirely  opposite.  I  think  he  was  the  worst  man  possible  for 
his  position,  and  .  .  .  that  sensible  and  solid  people  regard 
him  and  his  influence  with  the  gravest  mistrust. 

I  do  not  say  that  it  would  be  proper  for  us  to  arraign  the 
conduct  of  Milner.  But  if  the  question  is  temperately  raised  I 
do  not  see  my  way  to  vote  for  him,  still  less  to  announce  before- 
hand that  I  shall  do  so.  It  is  quite  true  that  we  leave  the 
responsibility  with  the  Government :  but  if  our  opinion  is 
challenged  I  cannot  vote  black  white  to  '  save  the  face  '  of  Milner 
and  his  devotees.  That  is  my  feeling,  but  I  want  very  much  to 
know  what  you  think. 

As  regards  the  mightier  personage,  we  seem  to  me  to  be  pretty 
much  in  an  '  impasse.' 

Things  cannot  go  on  as  they  are.  So  long  as  Rosebery  is 
hanging  on  our  flank,  with  his  myrmidons  busy,  there  can  be  no 
peace.  He  is  ruining  the  party  and  himself  at  the  same  time  : 
he  must  either  join  in  or  openly  vanish.  Can  he  join  in  ?  Har- 
court  and  Morley  won't  touch  him  politically,  for  the  reason 
we  know  of :  and  for  the  same  reason  he  wishes  to  squeeze 


A  SPEECH  AT  DUNDEE  303 

them   out   and   silence   them.     The   Unionist  papers  clamour    CHAP. 
for  him.  XVI- 


I  have  to  speak  next  week,  and  must  refer  to  this.  I  am  ^ET.  63-64. 
disposed  to  say  we  shall  all  be  glad  to  see  him  back  working  for 
the  common  cause  .  .  .  but  it  must  not  be  any  new  sectional 
party  that  he  works  with,  but  the  old  party  with  the  old 
principles  adapted  of  course  to  new  events  and  conditions.  Any 
arrangement  which  involved  the  leaving  out  of  half  our 
principles,  in  order  to  create  a  new  party,  a  mere  sickly  shadow 
of  the  Government  party,  would  have  no  support  from  me. 

I  do  not  think  that  generalities  will  longer  do  —  the  i's  must 
be  dotted. 


e  Dundee  speech,  which  was  delivered  on  November  15,  c/ 
contained  as  much  as  he  could  make  public  of  these  thoughts. 
If  he  was  not  a  great  platform  orator,  he  could  always  fill 
three  columns  of  the  newspapers  with  lively  and  readable 
matter,  and  at  the  same  time  convey  a  due  proportion  of 
unspoken  meaning  in  that  semi-secret  code  which  is  beloved 
of  the  adepts.  At  Dundee  he  began  with  a  lively  attack 
on  the  Government  for  their  attempt  to  brand  two-thirds  of 
the  Opposition  as  traitors,  which  he  characterised  as  having 
reached  a  '  depth  of  infamy  in  party  malice  to  which  no 
previous  Government  had  ever  sunk.'  Then  he  chaffed  the 
Prime  Minister  on  the  reconstruction  of  his  Government— 
'  the  stable  remains  the  same,  the  horses  are  the  same,  but 
every  horse  is  in  a  new  stall  '  —  and  from  that  he  plunged 
into  the  affairs  of  the  Liberal  Party.  First  he  declared  it 
to  be  '  the  merest  calumny  '  to  say  that  Liberals  were 
indifferent  to  Imperial  interests.  '  It  was  to  a  great  extent 
Liberal  enterprise  that  founded  the  Empire  ;  and  it  cer- 
tainly was  Liberal  policy  that  had  preserved  it.'  This  led 
to  a  spirited  vindication  of  the  Manchester  School  :  — 

It  is  said  also  that  there  .are  among  us  a  remnant  of  the  Man- 

.  Chester  -School,  and  all  idle  and  ignorant  people  in  the  street  are 

'  ready  to  denounce  the  Manchester  School.     Why,  if  there_  is  a 

remnant  among  us  either  of  the  men  or  of  the  ideas  of  the  Man- 

chester School,  I  am  profoundly  grateful  for  it.     Who  among  us 

can  throw  a  stone  at  them  ?     Their  main  doctrines  are  enshrined 

in  the  public  policy  of  tliis  country.     What  was  it  they  were 


304    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    fighting- for  ?     They  were  lighting  against  the  whole  forces  of  the 
Tory  Party  and  against  nearly  the  whole  force  of  the  privileged 


1900.  classes  in  the  country.  Their  doctrines  were  the  doctrines  of 
freedom  of  trade,  love  of  peace,  due  regard  to  economy,  non- 
intervention in  the  squabbles  and  jealousies  of  other  nations, 
and  the  bestowal  of  free  institutions  upon  our  colonies,  so  that 
the  colonies  might  gradually  be  trained,  nay,  might  train  them- 
selves, to  become  nations  on  their  own  account  in  co-operation 
— let  us  hope  in  co-operation  and  perfect  amity — with  the  people 
of  this  country  from  whom  they  sprang.  These  are  the  doctrines 
of  the  Manchester  School,  and,  as  I  say,  nobody  is  so  idle  and  so 
ignorant  that  he  cannot  have  a  fling  at  them.  They  are  doctrines 
which  even  the  present  Government,  if  they  wish  to  do  it,  dare 
not  repudiate,  although  we  sometimes  suspect  that  in  particular 
cases  they  disregard  them.  If  there  are  still  alive  in  our  ranks 
men  who  in  the  changed  circumstances  of  the  day — of  course 
wisely  adapting  their  doctrine  to  these  changed  circumstances 
and  events — if  there  are  men  who  still  keep  proclaiming  these 
sound  old  cardinal  principles,  who  still  preach  righteousness  and 
still  warn  us  against  a  love  of  Empire  and  pride  of  Empire 
running  into  greed  of  Empire,  I  thank  heaven  for  it.  It  is  not 
only  that  they  are  essential  to  the  completeness  of  the  Liberal 
Party,  they  are  essential  to  the  good  government  of  the  country.' 

It  was  plain,  then,  that  he  was  not  going  to  repudiate 
Manchesterism  or  consent  to  any  drumming  out  of  the 
party  of  the  old  guard  which  stood  for  '  the  sound  old 
cardinal  principles.'  An  adroit  use  of  the  unhappy  resolu- 
tion of  the  Liberal- Imperialist  Council — which  by  a  slip  of 
the  tongue  that  excited  much  wrath  he  called  the  '  Liberal- 
Unionist  Council ' — enabled  him  to  make  his  meaning  even 
more  precise.  Who,  he  asked,  were  the  men  who  would  be 
excluded  if  this  resolution  became  operative  ?  They  were, 
among  others,  Sir  William  Harcourt  and  Mr.  John  Morley, 
men  as  patriotic  as  any  in  the  country,  who  had  done 
splendid  service  to  the  party  and  fought  valiantly  in  the 
good  cause. 

It  was  not  till  the  ground  had  been  thus  cleared  and  his 
brothers-in-arms  reassured  that  he  came  to  the  reference 
to  Lord  Rosebery.  It  was  no  more  and  no  less  than  he  had 
promised,  and  certainly  not  a  ringing  of  dinner-bells  : — 


REBUKE  OR  INVITATION  ?  305 

Lord  Rosebery,  to  our  great  regret,  went  out  of  public  life  four    CHAP. 
years  ago.     None  of  us  ever  rightly  understood  why.     The  desire  ^_        ___, 
of  the  Liberal  Party  then  was  that  he  should  remain.     The  desire  ^ET.  63-64. 
of  the  Liberal  Party  ever  since  has  been  that  he  should  return. 
Our  attitude  and  our  policy  to  Lord  Rosebery  is  that  which  is 
familiar  to  us  in  the  phrase  of  the  '  open  door.'     The  door  has 
always   been   open   for   Lord   Rosebery 's  return.     We   should 
welcome  him  and  rejoice  to  see  him  standing  among  his  old 
comrades  and  taking  his  share  in  carrying  on,  as  he  so  well  can, 
the  work  which  they  have  been  endeavouring  to  prosecute  in  the 
most  unfavourable  circumstances  during  his  absence.     Of  one 
thing  you  may  be  quite  sure — that  Lord  Rosebery  will  never 
come  back  to  put  himself  at  the  head  of  a  section.     I  know 
nothing  of  his  disposition  or  intentions  ;  but  I  am  certain  of  this 
—that  if  he  enters  public  life  again,  he  will  come  back  to  the 
whole  party,  the  whole  Liberal  Party  with  which  he  was  associated 
before,  to  the  party  with  all  its  healthful  shades  of  opinion,  which, 
after  all,  are  only  indications  of  a  healthy  intelligence. 

The  '  section  '  judged  that  there  was  more  of  rebuke  to 
themselves  than  invitation  to  Lord  Rosebery  in  this  care- 
fully-worded passage,  and  when  in  another  speech  on  the 
same  day  he  spoke  of  some  Liberal  Imperialists  as  men  who, 
though  honest  and  simple-minded,  had  been  '  led  astray  by 
the  heavy  fumes  of  a  fermented  and  half-digested  doctrine,' 
their  principal  exponent,  the  Daily  News,  broke  out  into 
loud  protest. 

On  the  whole,  it  could  not  be  said  that  the  Dundee  over- 
ture was  a  success.  He  was,  nevertheless,  absolutely 
sincere  in  holding  the  door  open  to  Lord  Rosebery,  and  we 
get  his  inner  mind  in  a  note  from  Belmont  to  the  Chief 
Whip  a  week  after  the  Dundee  speech  : — 

Mr.  L.  H.,  M.P.,  has  been  here  to-day  by  his  own  appointment. 
A  sort  of  emissary :  from  whom  ?  Selected,  I  presume,  on 
account  of  parliamentary  experience.  He  had  lunch  and  we 
had  an  hour's  talk.  There  is  some  movement  to  have  a  sort  of 
round  robin  to  R.  to  come  and  lead  us  :  would  I  view  it  favour- 
ably ?  I  said  I  had  said  publicly  that  I  would  gladly  work  with 
him,  etc.  ;  but  there  is  no  vacancy  in  the  Lords  and  he  can't  lead 
the  Commons.  The  forming  of  a  Ministry  is  a  good  bit  off  and 
settles  itself  at  the  time.  R.  knew  privately  that  I  was  quite 

VOL.  i.  u 


306    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,  favourable  to  him,  and  I  doubted  if  I  could  go  any  further  than 
XVL  ,  I  had  done.  Any  invitation  from  a  section  I  could  be  no  party 
1900.  to,  and  it  would  split  the  party  hopelessly. 

Would  I  serve  under  him  ?  Certainly,  if  I  was  willing  to  serve 
at  all,  and  if  his  policy  was  sound.  He  appeared  surprised.  .  .  . 
It  is  not  in  the  coulisses  of  daily  newspapers  that  salvation  will 
be  wrought. 

To  Sir  William  Harcourt,  who  had  apparently  intimated 
that  the  return  of  Lord  Rosebery  would  be  the  signal  for 
his  departure,  he  wrote  on  November  18  : — 

Campbell-Banner  man  to  Sir  William  Harcourt 

BELMONT,  Nov.  18,  'oo. — I  am  much  obliged  for  your  letter 
which  I  received  on  my  return  from  my  excursion  to  Dundee, 
and  I  am  glad  to  hear  that  you  are  ready  for  the  duties  before  us, 
which  will  be  more  than  usually  difficult. 

I  shall  be  in  London  either  on  Saturday  next,  or  at  the  latest 
on  Monday  the  26th,  and  shall  be  ready  and  delighted  to  talk 
over  the  position. 

There  will  be  several  separate  questions  of  much  delicacy, 
which  I  put  in  order  of  increasing  importance  : — 

1.  The  course  of  the  Election. 

2.  J.  C.  and  his  companion. 

3.  The  recent  course  of  the  war,  and  the  way  to  bring  it  to 

an  end. 

4.  Milner. 

This  last,  which  overlaps  No.  3. ,  is  by  far  the  ugliest.  A  motion 
for  the  recall  or  condemnation  of  Milner  would  raise  a  storm  ; 
and  it  would  be  most  desirable  that  any  of  our  friends  who  think 
of  raising  it  should  be  persuaded  to  accept  some  sort  of  sus- 
pension of  judgment  instead  of  actual  condemnation.  It  is 
unusual  to  condemn  an  absent  public  servant,  and  it  has  an 
ungenerous  flavour  which  alienates  public  sympathy.  I  do  hope 
you  will  do  what  you  can  to  get  this  on  reasonable  lines. 

I  got  the  three  things  said  at  Dundee  which  the  situation 
demanded  : — 

1,  that  such  tactics  as  those  pursued  by  the  Lib.  Imp.  Council 

would  not  be  tolerated  ; 

2,  that  there  was  no  proscription  or  exclusion  of  Rosebery  or 

any  one  else ; 

3,  that  I  would  go  on  in  my  place  as  long  as  I  was  wanted. 


TRYING  TO  KEEP  TOGETHER        307 

Each  of  these  was  necessary,  as  I  had  gathered  on  all  hands.    CHAP. 

I  notice  what  you  say  as  to  your  attitude  towards  R.,  and  that  ^__        __, 
you  have  informed  Asquith  of  it.     That  is  a  personal  matter  ^r.  63-64. 
between  you  and  him,  and  I  am  very  sorry  that  there  should  be 
this  gulf  fixed.     But  of  course  I  have  to  deal  with  the  situation 
on  grounds  of  public  policy  and  public  interest,  and  in  anything 
I  say  I  confine  myself  to  that  aspect  of  it. 

The  great  object  is  to  try  to  keep  together,  but  if  we  have  to 
split  it  should  be  on  some  obvious  public  point. 

There  will  be  no  Speech  dinner  for  this  little  Autumn  Session. 

He  wrote  on  the  following  days  to  Lord  Ripon  and 
Mr.  Sydney  Buxton  :- 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Ripon 

BELMONT,  Nov.  19,  'oo. — I  am  very  grateful  to  you  for  writing 
so  pleasantly  about  my  speech  at  Dundee. 

I  am  very  little  disposed  to  regret  or  modify  anything  I  said. 
What  I  said  as  to  Rosebery  will  be  distasteful  to  Harcourt  and 
some  others ;  but  it  was  true,  it  was  a  most  desirable  thing  to 
say,  and  it  was  necessary  in  order  to  clear  the  ground.  As  to 
the  L.  Impl.  Council,  they  required  to  be  trounced  ;  and  I  said 
nothing  against  their  opinions — only  against  their  tactics  and 
pretensions. 

I  think  that  upon  this,  those  of  us  who  are  reasonable  may  well 
make  an  attempt  to  bring  our  friends  together.  It  will  be  a  bad 
attempt !  and  perhaps  not  very  hopeful,  but  worth  trying. 

We  shall  have  the  question  of  the  course  of  the  war,  and  how 
to  bring  it  to  an  end  :  and  the  question  of  Milner.  If  we  part 
company  over  these  I  fear  the  split  will  be  final,  and  I  think  we 
ought  to  try  to  '  accommodate  '  opinions  somehow. 

As  to  the  war,  I  agree  with  your  objection  to  this  policy  of 
exasperation,  but  on  the  other  hand  we  must  avoid  letting  it  run 
into  a  tirade  against  our  soldiers  and  generals  as  inhuman  and 
cruel.  It  will  be  difficult. 

I  expect  to  go  up  to  town  the  end  of  this  week  or  beginning  Qf 
next.  I  do  not  imagine  there  will  be  any  assembling  of  the 
ex-Cab,  till  the  3rd  or  following  day  :  but  I  will  let  you  know. 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  Sydney  Buxton 

BELMONT,  Nov.  21,  'oo. — It  was  a  real  pleasure  to  get  your 
letter  this  morning,  for  I  knew  when  I  opened  it  that  I  should 


3o8    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    find  sound  and  intelligent  opinions  (or  in  other  words  my  own) 
.  and  also  loyalty  and  single-mindedness,  which  are  qualities  even 


1900.      rarer. 

What  you  report  exactly  coincides  with  my  ideas  both  of  facts 
and  of  tactics.  It  was  absolutely  necessary  to  trounce  this 
pretentious  L.I.  Council.  I  checked  the  corresponding  organizn. 
last  summer  and  could  not  sit  quietly  and  let  these  fellows  take 
command  of  the  ship  and  order  out  half  of  the  crew. 

But  I  said  nothing  against  their  opinions — in  fact  I  share 
them,  cum  grants,  being  I  hope  a  Liberal  and  also  an  Imperialist 
enough  for  any  decent  man.  But  when  you  put  the  two  words 
together,  L.  and  I.,  it  is  like  pouring  one  part  of  a  Seidlitz  powder 
into  the  other. 

We  have  got  to  include  many  shades  of  opinion  in  order  to 
make  up  the  Liberal  Party.  It  always  was  so  and  always  will  be. 

As  to  the  troublesome  R.,  it  is  time  he  must  be  in  or  out :  as 
long  as  he  is  merely  looking  over  the  wall,  there  will  be  no  peace 
for  us. 

We  must  try  to  go  as  well  together  as  possible  on  S.A.,  and 
Grey  and  his  very  superior  set  must  be  content  not  to  be  asserting 
their  superiority  at  every  turn.  Honest  fellows  have  swallowed 
annexation  much  against  the  grain,  for  the  sake  of  unity :  it 
would  be  too  cruel  to  be  hauling  it  up  with  a  string  now  and  then 
in  order  to  see  whether  digestion  is  duly  following  deglutition. 
The  sacrifices  and  reticences  ought  not  to  be  all  on  one  side. 

I  agree  with  you  that  there  will  probably  have  to  be  some 
irregular  form  of  Government  for  some  time,  which  we  may  call 
military  Government — the  great  thing  will  be  to  prevent  its 
assuming  a  permanent  and  regular  form,  which  would  hinder 
Self-Government.  Milner,  I  am  not  disposed  either  to  attack 
or  defend,  we  have  not  enough  '  stream  of  facts  '  for  either.  I 
shall  be  up  in  town  on  and  after  Sunday  next  and  glad  to  see 
you  any  time. 


Parliament  met  on  December  3  for  a  short  session  to 
'  swear  in  '  and  vote  supplies  for  the  war.  The  mood  of  the 
majority  on  reassembling  was  far  different  from  what  might 
have  been  expected  from  a  party  returning  in  triumph  from 
the  polls.  Ministers  were  manifestly  uncomfortable  and 
their  supporters  highly  critical.  The  assumption  on  which 


DISCONTENT  IN  PARLIAMENT        309 

the  election  had  been  fought  that  the  war,  as  Lord  Roberts    CHAP. 

XVI 

said  in  giving  up  his  command,  was  '  virtually  at  an  end/ 


was  clearly  not  justified.  The  reconstruction  of  the  Ministry  ^ 
had  not  impressed  the  public,  and  the  newspapers  of  both 
parties  commented  caustically  upon  the  multiplication  of 
Cecils  in  the  Ministerial  fold.  Old-fashioned  politicians  in 
the  Unionist  Party  had  greatly  disliked  Mr.  Chamberlain's 
electioneering  methods,  and  were  anxious  about  the  results 
of  his  ascendancy  in  the  party.  Anxiety  and  mistrust, 
deepening  as  the  days  went  on  and  one  mortifying  incident 
after  another  was  reported  from  South  Africa,  hung  heavily 
over  Parliament  and  the  country. 

Campbell-Bannerman  came  up  to  London  on  November 
26,  and  the  pre-Session  palavers  began.  '  I  shall  be  delighted 
to  see  you,'  he  writes  to  a  friend,  '  only  let  me  hoist  a  storm 
cone — heavy  gale  from  the  S.W.  The  Malwood  philosopher 
has  telegraphed  that  he  is  coming  up  to-morrow  and  will 
come  here  in  the  afternoon.  So  if  you  are  not  available  in 
the  morning,  better  not  come  till  after  dark,  when  the  wind 
may  have  blown  itself  out.'  There  are  no  traces  of  any 
damage  done,  and  the  philosopher  appears  to  have  been  in 
benevolent  mood.  Campbell-Bannerman  was  relieved  to 
find  that  Sir  William  objected  to  the  attack,  which  the  left 
wing  desired,  on  the  appointment  of  Sir  Alfred  Milner  to 
administer  the  Transvaal  and  Orange  River  Colonies.  '  He 
says  he  is  so  indebted  to  Milner  for  services  in  the  past  that 
he  could  not  join  in  it.'  The  general  decision  of  the  ex- 
Cabinet  was  to  discourse  at  large  on  the  election  and  the 
war  in  the  debate  on  the  Address,  but  not  to  propose  an 
amendment  on  any  of  the  pain  issues.  One  amendment, 
however,  all  sections  of  the  party  were  determined  to  have, 
and  this  was  on  the  subject  of  Ministers  and  public  contracts, 
and  it  was  arranged  that  this  should  be  moved  by 
Mr.  Lloyd  George  and  supported  by  the  Party  Whips. 
Another  matter  which  appears  to  have  been  decided  at  the 
same  time  was  there  should  be  no  alteration  in  the  ex- 
Cabinet  Committee.  This  decision  was  conveyed  to  Sir 
William  Harcourt,  who  replied  : — 


3io    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.  MALWOOD,  LYNHURST,  Dec.  5,  1900. 

XVI-    J     MY   DEAR   CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN, — Tweedmouth   has   been 
1900.      good  enough  to  communicate  to  me  the  conclusion  at  which  you 
have  arrived  on  the  proposal  I  have  made  to  you. 

I  thought  it  my  duty  in  the  interest  of  the  unity  of  the  Party 
to  offer  joint  action  and  co-operation  with  you  and  your  colleagues 
under  your  leadership.  That  I  understand  is  declined.  For 
myself  personally  I  do  not  regret  it  as  it  leaves  me  a  liberty  of 
action  I  should  not  have  otherwise  enjoyed,  though  I  regret  that 
there  should  exist  such  a  desire  on  the  part  of  others  to  aggravate 
rather  than  to  heal  the  differences  which  distract  the  Party  and 
which  make  your  difficulties  as  great  as  I  found  them  when  I 
occupied  your  place. 

For  yourself  I  feel  the  most  sincere  regard  and  shall  be  happy 
as  an  outsider  to  render  you  what  assistance  I  can. 

I  am  not  sorry  that  this  occasion  has  allowed  me  to  make  my 
position  clear  and  left  no  doubt  as  to  my  desire  to  contribute  to 
the  unison  of  the  Party  and  the  causes  which  have  defeated  that 
object. — Yours  truly,  W.  V.  HARCOURT. 

6  GROSVENOR  PLACE,  S.W.,  7  December  'oo. 

MY  DEAR  HARCOURT, — I  could  not  reply  to  your  letter  yester- 
day, as  I  had  the  debate  in  prospect,  and  had  to  lay  aside  all  my 
private  correspondence. 

I  most  warmly  appreciate — and  reciprocate — the  tone  in 
which  you  write.  On  full  consideration  we  all  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  was  better,  in  the  interest  of  the  Unity  of 
the  Party,  that  things  should  be  left  as  they  are. 

I  shall,  however,  always  be  delighted  to  have  your  most 
valuable  co-operation,  and  to  consult  you  in  the  most  friendly  and 
loyal  spirit,  and  I  can  assure  you  that  the  feeling  of  personal  regard 
which  you  express  is  sincerely  mutual.— Yours  very  truly, 

H.  C.-B. 

In  his  speech  on  the  Address,1  Campbell-Bannerman 
definitely  took  his  stand  against  the  unconditional  sur- 
render attitude  which  was  now  rapidly  becoming  the  whole 
of  Unionist  policy  in  regard  to  South  Africa.  He  begged 
the  Government  to  issue  a  proclamation  to  the  Boers, 
announcing  that  their  co-operation  as  citizens  would  be 
sought  and  that  '  by  and  by,  when  things  have  settled  down 

1  Dec.  3,  1900. 


FARM-BURNING  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA    311 

and  there  is  safety,  they  will  have  their  share  in  the  full    CHAP. 
rights    of    self-government.'     '  Why/    he    asked,    '  should 


it  not  be  announced  to  them  that,  if  they  will  lay  down  ^T'  63~64' 
their  arms,  leaders  and  burghers  alike,  if  they  will  return 
to  their  homes  and  resume  their  old  life,  they  will  enjoy 
their  property  with  their  families,  and  that  their  kinsfolk 
who  have  been  sent  to  exile  as  prisoners  will  be  restored 
on  the  same  terms.  Would  not  such  a  proclamation  lift 
the  cloud  of  despair  from  off  them  and  let  the  dawn  of  a  new 
hope  soften  their  feelings  towards  their  conquerors  ?  '  Lord 
Kimberley  made  a  similar  appeal  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
but  Lord  Salisbury's  answer  was,  briefly,  '  that  the  only 
thing  these  people  will  be  satisfied  with  is  in  some  way  to 
restore  to  them  their  independence,  and  since  that  \vas 
impossible,  there  was  nothing  to  do  but  to  go  on  fighting.' 
Certainly,  he  admitted,  it  was  desirable  that  these  countries 
should  some  day  attain  the  position  of  self-governing  colonies 
of  Great  Britain,  but  that  could  not  be  in  the  present  bitter 
state  of  feeling.  '  He  knew  not  how  long  the  delay  might 
be.  It  might  be  years,  it  might  be  even  generations  ;  it 
must  depend  much  on  the  Boers'  own  disposition  and 
conduct.'  Cold  comfort  here  for  the  advocates  of  a  peace  by 
understanding. 

In  the  meantime,  there  had  begun  under  stress  of  guerilla 
warfare  the  farm-burnings  and  other  punitive  measures 
which  in  the  next  few  months  were  to  be  the  subject  of 
bitter  controversy.  Both  Campbell-Bannerman  and  Lord 
Kimberley  asked  anxious  questions  on  this  subject,  but 
the  former,  again  to  the  irritation  of  some  of  his  followers, 
went  out  of  his  way  to  say  that  he  '  not  only  had  no  sym- 
pathy with,  but  repudiated  with  indignation  and  scorn, 
the  preposterous  attacks '  made  in  some  quarters  upon 
British  officers  and  soldiers  in  this  connection.  '  As  to  the 
imputation  of  cruelty,'  he  added,  '  why  we  know  the  British 
soldier,  we  know  that  he  is  the  most  warm-hearted,  the  most 
tender-hearted,  the  most  soft-hearted  creature,  and  if  we  went 
no  further  than  the  old  adage,  nemo  repente  fuit  turpissimus, 
we  know  that  men  in  the  ranks  of  the  British  Army  are  not 


312    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    capable  of  excess  of  the  kind  attributed  to  them.1     Here 

XVI 

spoke   the   old  Secretary  for  War,   persistent  as  ever  to 


I9°°'  prevent  the  soldiers  from  being  saddled  with  the  faults  of 
others.  In  all  the  controversy  that  followed,  he  insisted 
that  he  was  questioning  not  the  conduct  of  the  soldiers  but 
the  instructions  given  to  them  by  their  superiors.  For  the 
rest,  he  challenged  the  conduct  of  the  election  and  especially 
the  publication  of  the  captured  letters,  characterising  it 
as  a  disgraceful  act,  which  in  private  life  would  have 
excluded  the  person  responsible  for  it  from  the  society  of 
honourable  men.  Mr.  Chamberlain  hotly  replied  that  the 
act  was  the  act  of  the  whole  Government,  and  derided  the 
theory  that  the  ethics  of  private  life  precluded  the  Govern- 
ment from  penalising  the  '  moral  treason  '  which  he  dis- 
covered in  the  letters  of  Dr.  Clark  and  Mr.  Labouchere. 

There  followed  an  interval  of  calm  in  which  Mr.  Chamber- 
lain made  a  conciliatory  speech  on  an  amendment,  moved 
by  Mr.  Emmott,  embodying  in  set  form  Campbell-Banner- 
man's  proposal  of  a  proclamation  to  the  Boers.     For  one 
brief  hour  Government  and  Opposition  were  so  near  agree- 
ment that  he  himself  counselled  the  withdrawal   of   this 
amendment.     The  difference  in  tone  between  the  Colonial 
Secretary's  speech  in  this  debate  and  the  speeches  of  other 
Ministers  the  previous  day  suggested  that  some  new  influ- 
ence was  at  work,  and  the  rumour  went  abroad  that  there 
were  sharp  differences  of  opinion  in  the  Cabinet  about  the 
next  step  in  South  Africa.     Three  days  later  (Dec.  10),  the 
amendment  on  Ministers  and  public  contracts,  moved  by 
Mr.  Lloyd  George,  led  to  an  extremely  embittered  debate, 
in  which  Mr.  Chamberlain  hotly  denounced  '  the  conspiracy 
of  insinuations  and  charges  '  against  himself  and  his  family. 
All  the  speakers  disclaimed  the  intention  of  imputing  dis- 
honesty or  corruption,  but  it  was  plain  that  the  holdings  of 
the  Chamberlain  family  in  various  Birmingham  companies 
were  aimed  at  in  the  formula  which  declared  that '  Ministers 
of  the  Crown  and  members  of  either  House  of  Parliament 
holding  subordinate  office  in  any  public  department  ought 
to  have  no  interest,  direct  or  indirect,  in  any  firm  or  com- 


THE  CONTRACTS  DEBATE  313 

pany  competing  for  contracts  with  the  Crown,  unless,  the    CHAP. 
nature  and  extent  of  such  interest  being  first  declared,  Your 


Majesty  shall  have  sanctioned  the  continuance  thereof  and,  ^ 
when  necessary,  shall  have  directed  such  precautions  to  be 
taken  as  may  effectually  prevent  any  suspicion  of  favourit- 
ism.' 1  Campbell-Bannerman  took  no  part  in  this  debate, 
which  was  largely  carried  on  by  the  Liberal  Imperialist 
group.  The  occasion  was  important,  since,  apart  from  the 
merits  of  the  question  in  dispute,  it  finally  disposed  of  the 
idea  of  a  rapprochement  between  the  Liberal  Imperialists 
and  Mr.  Chamberlain,  and  made  it  evident  that  there  would 
be  no  advance  in  this  direction  from  either  side.  To  that 
extent  the  leader's  task  was  simplified. 

1  Amendment  defeated  by  269  to  127. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  WAR  AND  THE  OPPOSITION 

The  Stalemate  in  the  War  —  Smoothing  Tactics  —  The  News- 
paper War  —  Death  of  Queen  Victoria  —  Debate  on  the 
Address  —  Unconditional  Surrender  —  Towards  Liberal  Unity 
—A  new  Ground  of  Quarrel  —  Farm-burning  and  Concentra- 
tion Camps  —  Speech  at  Oxford  —  Sir  Alfred  Milner's  Opinions 

—  The  Kitchener-  Botha  Negotiations  —  Speech  on  Taxation 

—  Speech  at  Bradford  —  Definition  of  Liberal  Policy. 


1 


CHAP.     T^  HE  first  year  of  the  new  century  opened  in  gloom 
XVIL  for  the  country  and  for  all  parties  in  the  State. 


1901.  J,         Facile   optimism   about  the  war  was  no   longer 

possible.  Manifestly  it  was  not  over  or  nearly  over,  and 
the  new  phase  of  guerilla  tactics  on  which  it  had  entered 
presented  extraordinary  difficulties,  both  military  and 
political.  In  spite  of  their  victory  at  the  election,  Ministers 
had  lost  rather  than  gained  credit  in  the  country.  Voters 
who  had  given  them  a  reluctant  support  were  quick  to 
resent  the  false  assumption  on  which  they  had  traded  in 
October,  that  the  war  was  '  virtually  at  an  end.'  Serious 
doubts  were  arising  even  among  staunch  supporters  of  the 
war  about  the  pursuance  of  the  quarrel  to  the  bitter  end 
of  unconditional  surrender.  But  once  more  the  difficulties 
of  the  Government  were  worse  than  profitless  to  the  Opposi- 
tion. Ready  debaters  might  find  abundant  material  for 
slashing  attacks,  but  so  long  as  the  war  lasted  it  was  certain 
that  there  could  be  no  change  of  Government,  and  highly 
probable  that  the  differences  and  difficulties  of  the  Liberal 
Party  would  increase.  Campbell-Bannerman  faced  the 
situation  with  his  usual  stoicism,  but  he  had  no  illusions. 
To  the  eager  partisans  who  wished  to  '  clear  the  air '  by 
proscribing  their  opponents,  he  replied  with  the  constant 
reminder  that  time  and  abundant  time  would  be  given 

314 


PRUDENT  ADVICE  315 

to  the  Opposition  to  heal  its  quarrels,  and  that  it  would  be    CHAP. 
folly  to  make  permanent  and  final  a  cleavage  which  might     XVIL 


altogether  have  passed  away  by  the  time  it  was  called  upon  ^T>  64'6s' 
to  form  a  Government.  It  was,  as  he  kept  repeating,  the 
one  advantage  of  an  Opposition  that  it  could  afford  differ- 
ences which  would  be  fatal  to  a  Government,  and,  except 
in  the  one  case  of  organised  schism,  he  was  determined  to 
do  nothing  to  deprive  Liberals,  who  were  by  nature  an 
unruly  tribe,  of  the  much-prized  liberty  of  differing  among 
themselves. 

To  go  quietly  and  avoid  all  sharp  issues,  while  looking 
steadily  to  the  end  of  the  war  and  reconciliation  by  self- 
government  after  it,  was  his  constant  advice  at  this  time  : — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Ripon 

BELMONT,  Jan.  g,  '01. — I  most  cordially  accept  and  reciprocate 
your  New  Year  message. 

I  agree  with  all  you  say  as  to  the  black  outlook  and  the  Slough 
of  Despond  in  which  we  are  wallowing  at  the  Cape.  The  danger 
of  a  general  or  organised  rebellion  does  not  appear  to  be  so  great, 
but  the  evident  helplessness  of  the  Imperial  Authorities  and  their 
inability  to  protect  property  and  even  life  in  the  greater  part  of 
the  Cape  Colony  must  have  a  strong  effect  when  combined  with 
the  resentful  feelings  aroused  by  the  war. 

Kitchener  seems  to  have  loyally  carried  out,  in  his  recent 
address  to  Transvaal  Burghers,  the  understanding  come  to  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  but,  as  you  say,  it  may  be  too  late.  And  if 
this  state  of  warfare  goes  on,  where  are  our  reinforcements  to 
be  found  ? 

If  there  is  no  improvement  by  the  time  Parliament  meets  there 
may  be  an  opportunity — and  if  so,  a  duty — of  making  some 
definite  declaration  of  policy ;  and  it  would  be  well  if  we  con- 
sidered beforehand  what  should  be  said. 

Any  attack  on  Milner  is,  for  many  reasons,  out  of  the  question. 
But  there  are  one  or  two  points  on  which  we  might  come  to  some 
conclusion. 

For  instance,  is  this  new  departure  judicious,  whereby  the 
High  Commissioner  is  divorced  from  the  Governorship  of  the 
Colony  ? 

What  modification  can  be  made  in  the  proposed  intermediate 
system  of  government  for  the  new  Colonies  which  would  admit 


316    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    Burghers  to  some  consultative  voice  long  before  possibly  the  time 
xvn-     when  full  Self-Government  could  be  safely  conceded  ? 


1901.          Would  they  have  a  (subordinate)  flag,  like  other  Colonies  ? 
It  is  marvellous  what  virtue  people  see  in  a  flag. 

If  we  could  plan  out  some  definite  points  of  criticism  and 
suggestion  on  which  among  ourselves  we  could  agree,  it  would 
greatly  strengthen  us.  The  country  sees  that  the  Government 
have  been  wrong  in  every  single  prognostication  from  first  to 
last  of  the  whole  business,  and  has  lost  faith  in  them  :  but  mere 
criticism  and  recrimination  will  not  do  us  much  good.  In  these 
quiet  days  such  things  are  better  thought  over  than  in  the  bustle 
of  an  opening  session. 

BELMONT,  Jan.  17,  '01.— This  morning  has  brought  me  the 
enclosed  from  Labouchere.1  It  bears  upon  what  I  wrote  to  you 
and  it  falls  in  with  Courtney's  letter  in  the  Times  of  the  i5th. 

After  all  that  has  been  said  (by  myself,  for  one)  it  is  impossible 
to  go  back  on  annexation,  not  only  because  it  is  a  fait  accompli 
but  because  it  is  a  chose  jugee.  And  any  proposal  which  takes 
the  territories  out  of  the  Status  of  Colonies  would  be  dangerous. 
Any  intermediate  position  would  be  a  position  of  unstable 
equilibrium,  and  the  future  would  be  one  prolonged  attempt  of 
Dutch  and  British  to  pull  them  over  to  one  side  or  the  other. 

But  what  we  might  advocate  is,  under  the  form  and  name  of 
Colony  to  give  the  largest  domestic  independence  and  allow  the 
fullest  maintenance  of  healthy  habits  and  traditions,  although 
these  may  not  be  similar  to  ours.  If  this  is  what  Labby  means 
when  he  says,  make  them  like  States  in  the  German  Empire  or 
the  Australian  Commonwealth,  I  agree  :  though  his  instance  of 
Bavaria  with  an  army  of  its  own  had  better  be  kept  dark.  .  .  . 

P.S. — Labby  is  only  a  casual  and  not  a  regular  correspondent 
of  mine.  I  daresay  some  people  would  be  shocked  :  but  on  the 
worst  view  even,  fas  est  et  a  diabolo  doceri  \ 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Mr.  Bryce 

BELMONT,  Jan.  18,  '01.— It  is  very  good  of  you  to  enquire  as 
to  my  wife's  health.  She  is  still  suffering  greatly  from  '  gouty 
neuritis,'  and  in  consequence  cannot  get  up  her  strength,  especi- 
ally as  the  pain  causes  sleeplessness.  Sometimes  we  fancy  there 
is  a  slight  improvement,  but  it  comes  on  again  as  severe  as  ever. 
We  must  come  to  some  conclusion  about  it  when  we  come  up  to 
Apparently  a  letter  objecting  to  the  annexation  of  the  Boer  Republics. 


BRITISH  AIMS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA     317 

town,  but  it  is  quite  possible  that  I  may  have  to  take  her  clear    CHAP. 
away  somewhere  for  a  month  or  two.  v  xvn.  ^ 

What  you  tell  me  is  most  interesting.  Of  course  we  think  and  ^T.  64-65. 
speak  of  the  War  under  the  possibility  of  a  sudden  collapse  of 
hostilities  at  any  time,  but  this  seems  less  and  less  possible. 
And  if  there  is  no  such  result  in  store,  then  the  position  is  even 
more  serious  than  this  time  last  year.  We  must  be  very  careful 
not  to  take  any  line  which  might  seem  to  be  anti-British,  for  our 
countrymen,  though  sick  at  heart,  are  all  the  more  touchy  and 
obstinate,  and  if  we  are  to  have  any  influence  we  must  not  run 
counter  at  this  moment  to  the  policy  in  which  the  national 
dignity  seems  involved.  The  War  must  be  finished  in  such  a 
way  as : — 

(a)  To  satisfy  the  Dutch  (and  the  world)  that  we  are — to  use 

an  abominable  phrase  now  much  used — '  on  top  '  ;  and 

(b)  To  convince  the  Dutch  that  they  will  be  as  little  muddled 

with  and  governed  as  may  be. 

If  we  press  (b)  too  vehemently  we  may  weaken  (a)  which  would 
be  fatal.  It  was  the  fatal  flaw  in  the  '81  settlement.  A  few 
months  ago  when  we  seemed  to  be  sweeping  everything  before 
us  we  could  afford  to  do  and  say  what  would  be  unwise  now  that 
we  are  in  a  sort  of  stalemate. 

Subject  to  this,  however,  it  would  be  a  great  relief  to  our 
conscience — Party  and  personal — if  we  could  when  the  Session 
opens  renew  and  strengthen  a  declaration  in  favour  of  generous 
terms  and  promise  of  full  Self-Government  on  the  model  of  an 
Australian  State. 

It  ought  to  be  shown  to  our  Countrymen  that  the  future  of 
S.A.  and  maintenance  of  our  '  Empire  '  does  not  depend  on  the 
issue  of  the  War.  That  issue  might  be  unconditional  surrender 
made  to-morrow.  But  our  S.A.  Dominion  will  be  lost  even  then, 
if  the  British  do  not  make  themselves  so  agreeable  to  the  Dutch 
as  to  gain  their  confidence  and  friendship. 

As  to  the  D.  News,  the  thing  has  caused  a  pretty  flutter  in  the 
Imp.  Lib.  quarters— the  coteries  at  the  Ref.  Club  and  elsewhere 
are  greatly  distressed. 

The  tone  I  believe  will  be  moderate.  I  saw  J.  M.  just  before 
the  public  announcement  was  made,  as  I  was  passing  through 
London.  He  was  not  in  it,  but  was  consulted,  and  he  told  me 
that  Lehmann  x  and  George  were  inclined  to  declare  a  new 

1  Mr.  R.  C.  Lehmann,  appointed  editor  of  the  Daily  News  in  succession 
to  Mr.  E.  T.  Cook. 


3i8    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    departure  and  carry  fire  and  sword  into  the  Imp.  Country.     But 
J.  M.  told  them  that  the  note  for  the  present  time  was  '  Unity  of 


i901-  the  Party/  that  there  should  be  no  slanging  of  friends,  but  gentle 
argument  and  persuasion,  seasoned  with  lively  attacks  on  the 
Government.  They  admitted  and  promised.  Let  us  hope  the 
result  will  prove  right.  For  a  time  the  incident  will  no  doubt 
exasperate  heart-burnings  and  jealousies. 

In  the  meantime  we  good  Imperialists  are  all  outbidding  each 
other  on  the  exhilarating  subject  of  Commercial  Education. 

By  the  way,  is  not  the  collapse  of  the  Administrative  Reform  l 
Gas  work  amusing  ?  Just  what  I  expected — an  exact  replica 
of  1855-6. 

6  GROSVENOR  PLACE,  Feb.  g,  '01. — Thanks  for  your  letter.  It 
is  most  interesting  in  unfolding  the  views  of  '  Son  Eminence 
Grise.'  2  I  can  however  over-trump  you,  for  I  lunched  yesterday 
with  the  Cardinal  Prince  himself. 

There  was  not  much  in  it  all.  Perfectly  friendly,  deeply 
interested,  but  immovably  aloof.  What  most  struck  me  was 
that  on  S.  A.  especially,  he  seemed  to  me  not  to  have  apprehended 
the  full  gravity  of  the  situation  :  but  he  was  not  nearly  so  one- 
sided about  it  as  those  who  cluster  round  his  name.  Of  course 
I  had  no  overtures  to  make  and  our  conversation  was  quite 
general. 

I  have  also  seen  Merriman — a  most  taking  and  effective  envoy  ! 

I  am  calling  our  little  Council  on  Tuesday.  What  we  have  to 
consider  is  with  regard  to  S.  A.  (i)  What  lines  to  take ;  (2)  whether 
to  have  an  amendment ;  (3)  in  what  form  ?  My  own  prejudice 
I  confess  is  against  an  amendment  at  this  juncture.  Strong 
speeches  are  required  and  are  better  than  votes.  But  this  is 
just  what  we  have  to  decide. 

On  Wednesday  we  shall,  I  presume,  meet  again  when  we  have 
the  King's  Speech. 

These  '  smoothing '  tactics — to  pick  up  the  favourite 
epithet  of  the  hour — seemed  extremely  spiritless  to  the 
pro-Boers,  and  quite  inadequate  to  the  Imperialists.  The 
two  wings  were  already  engaged  in  the  process  of  mining 
and  countermining  each  other,  which  formed  the  chief  part 

1  '  Efficiency  by  administrative  reform  '  was  one  of  the  catch-phrases 
of  this  time  and  had  been  specially  advocated  together  with  commercial 
education  by  Liberal  Imperialists. 

*  Lord  Rosebery. 


THE  WAR  IN  FLEET  STREET         319 

of  their  activities  during  the  next  two  years.     These  opera-    CHAP. 
tions — as  is  indicated  in  one  of  the  letters  just  quoted —  -> 

included  the_.capture_  of  _the_jDaily  News^  by  the  pro-Boers  /ET>  64"6s' 
and  the.eyictipn  from  the  editorship  of  Mr.  E.  T.  Cook,1  who 
had  defended  the  war  policy  and  harried  the  pro-Boers  with 
a  raking  flank  fire  from  the  spring  of  1899  until  now.  Mr. 
Lloyd  George  played  a  leading  part  in  this  transaction  and 
Campbell-Bannerman  was  not  consulted  about  it,  but  he 
had  too  often  been  the  victim  of  Mr.  Cook's  dialectics  to 
pretend  dissatisfaction  at  the  result.  The  Daily  News 
executed  its  curve  with  the  discretion  advised  by  Mr.  Morley, 
but  its  n;ew_editor,  Mr^R^C.  Lehmann,  and  the  staff  he  had 
gathered  round  him  belonged  to  the  militant  school  of 
anti-Imperialists,  and  after  the  period  of  grace  were  quickly" 
on  the  war-path.  It  should  be  addecTthaF the  eviction  of 
Mr.  Cook  from  ttie^Daily  News  had  been  the  counter-stroke 
to  the  dethronement  of  Mr.  Massingham,  the  most  formid- 
able editor  on  the  anti-Imperialist  side,  from  the  Daily 
Chronicle  in  iSgg^and  that  paper  now  provided  an  oppor- 
tunity for  Mr.  Cook  to  resume  his  activities  as  its  principal 
leader-writer.  Mr.  Massingham  found  refuge  for  the  "next 
few  years  on  the .  Manchester  _Guardian  and  the  Daily  News, 
and  in  0:907  became  editor  of  the  Nation,  wBlch~uh'derits 
former  title  the  Speaker,  had  been  edited  by  Sir  Wemyss 
Reid,  a  warm  supporter  and  intimate  friend  of  Lord  Rose- 
bery.  On  the  whole,  honours  were  easy  as  between  the 
two  groups  in  these  transactions,  but  the  capture  of  news- 
papers had  by  this  time  become  an  accepted  mode  of 
political  warfare,  and  for  the  next  two  years  most  Liberal 
editors  and  writers  lived  an  uneasy  life  between  the  two 
groups. 

II 

Queen  Victoria  died  on  January  22,  and  Parliament  was 
immediately  summoned  to  take  the  oath  to  the  new  Sove- 
reign and  to  pay  its  tribute  to  his  illustrious  predecessor. 

1  For  details  see  Sir  Edward  Cook  :  a  Biography ',  by  J.  Saxon  Mills, 
pp.  192-205.  (Constable:  1921.) 


320    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    Campbell-Bannerman  was  far  from  well  at  this  time,  and 
KVII<     he  was  greatly  troubled  by  the  illness  of  his  wife,  who  was 


I90I>  suffering  from  an  acute  attack  of  the  painful  malady  which 
afflicted  her.  But  he  rose  to  the  occasion,  and  his  speech 
in  seconding  the  '  address  of  condolence  and  congratula- 
tion' touched  the  human  note  so  often  lacking  on  cere- 
monial occasions.  He  dwelt  on  the  late  Queen's  '  homely 
sincerity  of  character  which,  amid  all  the  pomp  and  dignity 
of  her  august  position,  seemed  to  make  the  whole  world  kin,' 
and  on  the  '  friendly,  tender,  almost  familiar  mutual  under- 
standing which  she  had  established  with  her  people  at  home 
and  throughout  the  Empire.'  Of  her  successor  he  spoke 
in  a  warm  and  courtly  appreciation  which  seems  to  antici- 
pate the  intimate  relations  that  he  established  with  King 
Edward  in  later  years. 

Parliament  met  for  business  on  February  14,  and  almost 
immediately  plunged  into  the  South  African  question. 
Campbell-Bannerman  struck  his  note  in  his  speech  on  the 
Address.  He  was  prepared  for  the  mailed  fist,  or  enough 
of  it  to  clear  our  colonies  of  the  invader  and  establish  the 
superiority  of  our  arms,  and  he  sharply  criticised  the 
Government  for  the  '  tumbling,  drifting  and  dribbling  '  of 
their  method  of  reinforcement.  But,  these  objects  being 
accomplished,  he  pleaded  for  '  the  olive  branch ' — a  definite 
declaration  which  would  save  the  dignity  and  sentiment  of 
the  Boers  and  induce  them  to  lay  down  their  arms — and 
protested  against  the  demand  for  '  unconditional  surrender.' 
Mr.  Balfour  retorted  that '  unconditional  surrender  '  applied 
not  to  individuals  but  to  institutions,  to  the  independence 
of  the  Boer  States  about  which  there  could  be  no  compro- 
mise. The  debate  on  the  Address  and  on  the  amendments 
subsequently  moved  brought  out  the  usual  differences  of 
opinion  in  the  Liberal  ranks,  and  Mr.  Chamberlain  bitterly 
attacked  the  leader  of  the  Opposition  for  shirking  a  clear 
issue  and  encouraging  the  Boers.  This  brought  Mr.  Asquith 
to  the  defence  in  a  vigorous  protest  against  the  revival  in 
Parliament  of  '  the  obsolete  Billingsgate  of  the  General 
Election,'  and  the  net  result  was  to  draw  the  Opposition 


THE  DEBATE  ON  THE  ADDRESS      321 

rather  closer  together.     The  majority  of  the  Imperialists    CHAP. 
were,  it  appeared,  as  much  opposed  to  '  unconditional  sur-  v  X'IL 


render  '  as  the  pro-Boers  ;  and  Sir  Edward  Grey,  who  was  'ET-  64'6s> 
supposed  to  be  the  most  unyielding  of  the  former  group, 
himself  protested  against  Lord  Salisbury's  dismissal  of  self- 
government  '  for  a  generation  or  more.'  Both  groups  pro- 
fessed themselves  uneasy  at  the  rather  obscure  course  of 
events  which  had  caused  the  postponement  of  the  promise, 
which  Mr.  Chamberlain  had  given  to  the  House  early  in 
December,  to  issue  a  proclamation  to  the  Boers  announcing 
the  intentions  of  the  Government  as  to  the  immediate 
demilitarising  of  the  administration  of  the  Boer  States, 
and  the  promise  of  Colonial  self-government  at  the  earliest 
opportunity.  This  apparently  had  been  delayed  in  defer- 
ence to  the  objections  of  Lord  Kitchener  and  Sir  Alfred 
Milner. 

Campbell-Bannerman  was  not  dissatisfied  with  the  debate 
on  the  Address  :  — 

Campbell-Bannerman  to  Lord  Ripon 

6  GROSVENOR  PLACE,  Feb.  16,  '01.  —  I  do  not  take  so  serious  a 
view  of  our  domestic  position  as  I  am  sorry  to  see  you  do.  After 
all  Kimberley  *  and  I  were  only  describing  opposite  sides  of  the 
shield,  he  dwelling  more  on  energy  and  I  on  conciliation  ;  and 
although  he  may  perhaps  be  less  favourable  to  immediate  steps 
being  taken  than  I  am,  the  difference  is  only  as  to  the  moment  and 
the  opportunity. 

I  am  surprised  to  find  how  well  what  I  said  has  been  taken 
even  by  men  reckoned  as  '  Imperialists,'  and  no  remonstrances 
have  reached  me  (even  from  a  Whip  !  !). 

The  amendment  given  in  by  Lloyd  George  was  drawn  by 
Courtney.  As  a  proposition  I  cordially  agree  to  it  ;  but  after 
much  colloquy  and  some  pressure,  he  has  promised  not  to  move 
it.  Harcourt,  Morley,  Labby  and  nearly  all  our  sound  men 
were  against  an  amendment  ;  my  main  objection  being  that  it 
was  not  in  the  interest  of  peace  and  good  feeling  that  such  a 
reasonable  amendment  should  be  deliberately  rejected.  But  a 
number  of  these  men  will  speak  and  strongly.  And  I  shall  be 

1  Lord  Kimberley  had  spoken  for  the  Opposition  in  the  debate  on  the 
Address  in  the  House  of  Lords. 

VOL.  I.  X 


322    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    much  surprised,  in  the  case  of  their  speeches  provoking  the 
,  intervention  of  the  Milnerites,  if  these  will  venture  to  attack  the 
line  I  took.     I  am  convinced  that,  so  to  speak,  the  centre  of 
gravity  is  palpably  shifted  forward.     I  have  no  complaint  to 
make  of  the  way  I  have  been  met  even  by  the  extremest  men- 
Lloyd  George,  H.  J.  Wilson,  C.  P.  Scott,  Channing,  Pirie,  etc. 
Let  us  take  what  comfort  we  can  from  these  facts. 

But  while  agreement  seemed  nearer  on  the  policy  of  the 
war,  a  new  and  dangerous  subject  of  quarrel  was  opening 
up  on  the  methods  of  the  war.  The  tactics  of  the  Boers  were 
baffling  to  the  soldiers  and  exasperating  to  the  public.  They 
were  nowhere  and  everywhere  at  the  same  time  ;  and  the 
capture  of  their  principal  cities  had  had  none  of  the  effects 
which,  according  to  the  rules  of  regular  warfare,  might 
properly  have  been  expected  from  it.  Commandos  of  first- 
rate  horsemen  mounted  on  fast  ponies  inflicted  mortifying 
reverses  on  slow-moving  infantry,  and  vanished  in  the 
night,  taking  guns  and  prisoners  with  them.  There  were 
no  precedents  for  this  warfare,  and  none  could  be  deduced 
from  the  text-books,  which  assumed  that  a  '  civilised ' 
opponent  would  consider  himself  beaten  on  a  given  set  of 
circumstances  arising.  The  soldiers,  fatally  handicapped 
by  their  inferior  mobility,  improvised  expedients  according 
to  '  military  necessity  '  ;  and  fierce  arguments  arose  at 
home  and  in  South  Africa  about  the  humanity  or  inhumanity 
of  their  proceedings. 

Campbell-Bannerman  was  much  moved  by  the  stories 
which  came  from  South  Africa,  but  he  was  not  the  mere 
sentimentalist  that  his  opponents  alleged  him  to  be.  From 
the  beginning,  as  I  have  already  shown,  he  had  thrown  the 
whole  weight  of  his  influence  against  the  tendency  to  shift 
on  to  the  soldiers  responsibility  for  errors  and  miscalcula- 
tions which  he  believed  to  be  political,  and  now  he  drew  a 
sharp  distinction  between  punitive  and  military  measures, 
and  sought  to  concentrate  criticism  upon  those  who  pre- 
scribed the  '  method '  as  distinguished  from  those  who 
merely  obeyed  orders  In  his  speech  on  the  Address,  he 
had  assumed  (or  thought  it  politic  to  assume)  that  a  puni- 


'  PUNITIVE '  AND '  MILITARY '  MEASURES  323 

tive  policy  had  been  tried  for  some  weeks  at  the  end  of  the    CHAP. 
previous  year,  but  had  been  definitely  withdrawn  : —  -  XVIL 


64-65. 

Then  (after  the  taking  of  Pretoria)  began  that  era  of  punitive 
burnings  and  confiscations  which  we  cannot  recall  with  pleasure 
and  which,  so  far  as  my  observation  has  gone — and  I  have 
talked  with  many  men  who  have  been  out  in  South  Africa,  as 
well  as  many  who  have  remained  at  home — are  now  universally 
regarded  as  having  been  a  mischievous  error  in  policy.  I 
declared  in  December,  and  I  repeat  the  declaration  now,  I  have 
never  given  credence  to  the  stories  of  wanton  cruelty  on  the  part 
of  British  soldiers  ;  but  the  whole  proceedings  were  cruel,  and 
officers  and  men  who  were  compelled  to  give  orders  for  and  to 
execute  those  acts  loathed  the  work  they  were  engaged  upon. 
We  are  still  without  information  as  to  the  extent  of  these  punitive 
operations.  I  remember  in  December,  in  the  middle  of  a  speech, 
the  Colonial  Secretary  said  Lord  Kitchener  had  been  directed  to 
furnish  full  particulars,  and  I  trust  that  they  will  be  furnished 
that  we  may  know  what  really  has  been  done.  This  policy  of 
devastation  appears  to  have  been  abandoned  altogether,  whether 
in  consequence  of  debates  in  this  House  or  because  of  other 
reasons  I  cannot  say,  but  the  evil  it  did  lives  after  it.  ...  Can 
any  one  estimate  how  much  the  duration  of  the  war  has  been 
extended  by  these  so-called  strong  measures  ?  And  with  regard 
to  these  strong  measures,  let  me  say  this — that  I  am  not  aware 
that  any  member  of  the  Government  has  ever  advocated  them, 
or  even  strongly  defended  them,  but  they  have  been  demanded 
and  exulted  in  by  leading  organs  of  the  Press  which  support  and 
sometimes  speak  as  if  they  inspired  and  directed  the  policy  of 
the  Government. — (House  of  Commons,  Feb.  14.) 

The  theory  of  a  deliberate  punitive  policy  adopted  for  a 
period  after  the  taking  of  Pretoria,  and  now  '  abandoned 
altogether/  and  the  distinction  which  he  drew  between 
the  method  and  the  execution  were  a  diplomatic  approach 
to  a  difficult  subject,  but  the  actual  facts  were  probably  less 
simple.  After  the  taking  of  Pretoria,  Government,  soldiers, 
and  civil  administrators  had  groped  their  way  in  circum- 
stances which  had  taken  them  all  by  surprise,  and  the 
'  punitive  '  and  the  '  military  '  were  inextricably  mixed  in 
the  measures  that  followed.  The  deplorable  Venters  burg 
proclamation,  in  which,  after  the  town  had  been  cleared  of 


324    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,  supplies,  partly  burnt  and  the  farms  in  the  vicinity  destroyed, 
XVIL  ;  it  was  announced  that '  the  Boer  women  and  children  should 
I901'  apply  to  the  Boer  commandant  for  food,  who  will  supply 
them  unless  they  wish  to  see  them  starve/  had,  indeed, 
been  disapproved  by  the  military  authorities  at  home,  and 
withdrawn  at  the  instance  of  Lord  Roberts ;  but  on  Feb.  26 
Mr.  Brodrick  admitted  that  in  rationing  the  women  and 
children  coming  into  the _  Concentration  Camps  a  distinc- 
tion had  been  drawn  between  those ~wEb  had"  surrendered 
with  their  husbands  and  fathers  and  those  who  had  come 
in  '  to  be  fed,'  while  their  relations  were  still  in  the  field. 
The  farm-burning,  again,  was  alternately  defended  as  an 
absolutely  necessary  measure  to  prevent  the  farms  being 
used  to  shelter  and  supply  the  men  in  arms,  and  as  a  puni- 
tive measure  for  the  cutting  of  the  line  and  other  acts  of  war. 
Whatever  the  motive,  the  result  was  the  same.  Thousands 
of  women  and  children  were  driven  shelterless  into  the  veldt, 
and  there  was  no  way  of  relieving  their  necessities  except 
by  concentrating  them  in  improvised  camps,  where  it  was 
extremely  difficult  either  to  feed  them  sufficiently  or  to 
provide  the  minimum  of  sanitation  necessary  to  prevent 
epidemics.  Thousands  of  children  died  from  measles  alone. 
The  heated  controversy  that  arose  about  these  methods 
widened  the  breach  between  the  two  wings  of  the  Opposition. 
There  was  in  theory  no  reason  why  a  man  who  approved  of 
the  war  should  not  disapprove  of  a  particular  method  of 
conducting  it,  but  in  practice  the  judgment  was  coloured 
by  the  view  which  the  onlooker  took  of  the  origin  of  the 
war  and  the  character  of  the  Boers.  To  the  pro-Boer 
the  original  wrongdoing  was  ...rendered  infamous  by  the 
devastation  ;  to  the  Imperialist  the  devastation  was  a  grim 
necessity^  which  the  Boers  had  brought  upon  themselves 
by  their  own  fault  and  continued  obduracy.  The  man  in 
the  street  and  the  great  majority  of  the  newspapers  were 
of  the  latter  opinion,  and  passionately  protested  against 
what  they  termed  foul  imputations  upon  the  soldiers 
Campbell-Bannerman,  though  the  storm  eventually  broke 
upon  his  own  head,  endeavoured  at  first  to  stand  between 


AN  AMIABLE  INTERLUDE  325 

the  two  parties  and,  as  usual,  got  well  buffeted  for  his  pains.    CHAP. 

XVII 

The  one  listened  with  anxiety  to  his  plain  words  about  a  t  '  • 
method  which  he  assumed  to  have  been  abandoned;  theAvi'64"6 
other  demanded  much  plainer  speech  about  what  they 
alleged  to  be  going  on  and  increasing.  Mr.  Lloyd  George 
in  particular  would  have  none  of  the  fine  distinction  between 
the  'method  '  and  its  execution,  and  was  as  unsparing  in 
his  language  about  officers  in  the  field  as  about  the  Govern- 
ment. Except  in  the  simple  case  of  proved  trea/flieryon 
the  part  of  the  owner,  farm-burning,  he  declared,  was  an 
atrocity  and  an  abomination,  and  peculiarly  odious  when 
practised  for  reprisals  or  intimidation.1 

in 

There  was  a  lull  at  the  end  of  February,  when.  .the.  Com- 
mittee of  the  National  Liberal  Federation  met  at  Rugby 
For  once  the  two  sections  surprised  eacfTottleT 


by  their  mutual  amiability.     Mr.  Lloyd  George  counselled 
the  withdrawal  of  an  amendment  aimed  at  Sir  Alfred  Milner  ; 
Mr.  R.  W.  Perks,  one  of  the  most  active  of  the  Liberal  Im- 
perialists, stiffened  up  the  official  resolution  by  procuring  the 
insertion  of  the  word  '  forthwith  '  in  the  clause  demanding 
the  announcement  of  '  a  policy  for  the  settlement  of  South 
African  affairs  which  will  secure  equal  rights  to  the  white 
races,  just  and  humane  treatment  of  the  natives,  and  such 
a  measure  of  self-government  as  can  honourably  be  accepted 
by  a  brave  and  high-spirited  people.'     Both  sections  com- 
bined in  expressing  their  'profound  conviction  .that  -the     ., 
long  continuance  of  the  deplorable  war  in  South  Africa— 
dedamd^for_electioneering  ends  to  be  over  last  September 
—was  due  to  the  policy  of  demanding  unconditional  sur- 
render, and  to  a  want  of  knowledge,  foresight,  and  judgment"" 
-o»  -the  part  of  the  Government,  who  have  neither  demgri- 
-sirated  effectively  to  the  Burrs  thr  military  supremacy  <>i" 
Great  Britain,  nor  so  conducted  the  war  as  to  enable  them 
-toJay^down  their  arms/     CampbeU-Bannerrnan  was  not 
present  at  the  Rugby  meeting,  but  he  was  heartened  by  the 

1  House  of  Commons,  Feb.  18,  1900. 


326    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,  result,  and  a  few  days  later  dotted  the  i's  and  crossed  the 
r  '  '  t's  of  this  resolution  in  a  speech  at  a  dinner  of  the  Eighty 
and  Russell  Clubs  at  Oxford  (March  2).  Boldly  claiming 
that  the  country  was  all  but  unanimous  in  wishing  to  see 
the  war  ended,  he  declared  it  to  be  a  matter  of  pride  that 
the  chief  independent  organisation  in  the  Liberal  Party  had 
been  the  first  to  give  formal  and  open  expression  to  this 
national  desire.  Now  at  length  there  could  be  no  question 
what  Liberal  policy  was  : — 

That  policy  is  directed  to  two  main  objects — first,  that  we 
should  clearly  make  known  to  the  peoples  of  the  belligerent 
States,  not  in  vague  but  in  definite  terms,  that  our  purpose  is  not 
conquest  but  conciliation,  not  humiliation  but  friendship  and 
freedom ;  and  in  the  second  place,  that  these  terms  should  include 
the  re-settlement  in  their  homes  of  the  burghers,  who  by  capture 
or  the  operations  of  war  have  been  dispossessed,  and  the  estab- 
lishment, as  soon  as  order  is  restored,  of  free  self-governing  institu- 
tions. ...  If  we  are  to  maintain  the  political  supremacy  of  the 
British  power  in  South  Africa— and  this  surely  is  the  end  and 
purpose  of  all  we  are  doing — it  can  only  be  by  conciliation  and 
friendship  ;  it  will  never  be  by  domination  and  ascendancy, 
because  the  British  power  cannot  there  or  elsewhere  rest  securely 
unless  it  rests  upon  the  willing  consent  of  a  sympathetic  and 
contented  people. 

The  speaker  went  on  to  develop  the  idea  which  from  the 
beginning  was  the  root  principle  of  his  South  African  policy, 
that  there  should  be  none  of  the  half-way  house  called 
Crown  Colony  Government.  He  conceded  that  there  might 
be  an  interval  for  settling  down,  but  he  held  strongly  that 
military  government  had  better  continue  until  the  country 
was  ripe  for  self-government,  rather  than  that  a  non-repre- 
sentative civil  administration  should  be  set  up  and  en- 
couraged to  strike  permanent  roots  and  accumulate  vested 
interests.  Here  he  came  into  conflict  with  a  characteristic 
part  of  the  Milner  policy  upon  which  the  Liberal  Imperialists 
were  disposed  to  keep  an  open  mind.  On  the  whole  the 
Oxford  speech  was  felt  to  have  given  a  leftward  tilt  to  the 
delicate  balance  of  the  Rugby  resolution.  There  was 
nothing  in  it  to  which  the  Liberal  Imperialists  could  definitely 


SIR  ALFRED  MILNER'S  VIEWS        327 

take  objection,  but  they  perceived  something  which  was    CHAP. 
not  what  they  meant.  .  X'IL 


More  important  still,  the  public  were  bitterly  disappointed  ^T"  °4"6s> 
with  the  slow  progress  of  the  war.  In  a  despatch  dated 
February  6,  1901,  Sir  Alfred  Milner  frankly  admitted  that 
the  previous  six  months  had  been  a  period  of  '  retrogres- 
sion.' It  was  clear  by  now  that  a  great  part  of  the  work 
supposed  to  have  been  completed  at  the  end  of  August 
1900  would  have  to  be  done  over  again.  The  renewal  of 
war  in  the  Boer  States  had  had  a  serious  reaction  in  Cape 
Colony,  where  Sir  Alfred  reported  that  anti-British  feeling 
had  been  kindled  by  a  '  carnival  of  mendacity  '  about 
British  atrocities.  Though  De  Wet's  organised  attempt  to 
invade  Cape  Colony  had  failed  and  his  force  had  been  driven 
back  behind  the  Orange  River,  yet  the  condition  in  the 
northern  part  of  the  Colony  continued  to  be  one  of  smothered 
rebellion  barely  kept  under  by  treason  trials,  suppression 
of  newspapers,  and  threats  to  suspend  the  Constitution.  In 
the  Boer  States  themselves,  the  effort  to  start  civil  admini- 
stration had  proved  futile  in  the  disturbed  condition  of  the 
country.  The  Boers  were  '  on  the  run,'  especially  De  Wet, 
who  ran  to  such  purpose  that  he  perpetually  evaded  his 
pursuers  and  returned  almost  immediately  on  their  tracks, 
but  the  British  Army,  as  impatient  newspapers  complained, 
seemed  to  be  perpetually  on  the  defensive.  To  the  man 
in  the  street  it  seemed  an  unseasonable  moment  to  talk  of 
conciliation  and  self-government.  He  meant  and  wanted 
British  ascendancy  and  '  no  nonsense  about  it,'  and  ap- 
plauded the  firm  language  in  which  Sir  Alfred  Milner  declared 
that  the  loyalists  of  Cape  Colony  would  rather  see  the  war 
continue  indefinitely  than  run  the  risk  of  a  compromise  which 
would  leave  the  remotest  chance  of  a  recurrence  of  these 
troubles.  In  particular,  Sir  Alfred's  denunciation  of  the 
'  carnival  of  mendacity '  was  eagerly  taken  up  by  the 
popular  press,  and  made  the  ground  for  renewed  and  violent 
attacks  upon  Campbell-Bannerman  and  the  left  wing  of 
the  Liberal  Party,  who,  it  was  alleged  again,  were  largely 
responsible  for  the  continuance  of  the  war  through  their 


328    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    criticisms  of  the  Government  and  of  the  officers  in  the 

X.V  1 1 .  r*      1    1 

,        field. 

The  left  wing  replied  energetically  that  the  boot  was  on 
the  other  leg — that  the  war  was  in  fact  being  prolonged  by 
the  devastation  policy  and  by  the  harsh  and  unyielding 
insistence   on   unconditional  surrender.     A   Parliamentary 
Paper  published  on  March  22, l  on  the  attempted  peace  nego- 
tiations between  Lord  Kitchener  and  General  Botha,  pro- 
vided material  for  both  parties.     Botha,  Lord  Kitchener 
reported,  '  showed  very  good  feeling,'  but  '  tried  very  hard 
for  some  kind  of  independence.'     On  that  Lord  Kitchener 
was    unyielding,    but    he    suggested    government    by     an 
Executive  Council  '  with  or  without  an  Elective  Assembly,' 
and  the  Government  declared  '  an  Elective  Assembly '  to 
be  impossible.     He  was  also  willing  that  the  amnesty  to  be 
given  to  the  Boers  should  be  extended — subject  only  to 
disenfranchisement — to  the  colonial  rebels,  but  Sir  Alfred 
Milner  objected — and  Mr.  Chamberlain  agreed  with  him — 
that  this  concession  would  have  a  '  deplorable  effect '  in 
the  Colonies.     The  negotiations  broke  down,  but  whether 
on  the  major  issue  of  independence,  or  on  the  minor  issues 
of  amnesty  and  the  future  form  of  government,  remained 
in  doubt,  except  so  far  as  it  was  decided  by  the  assurance 
which  Mr.   Kruger,  who  was  then  in  Paris,  gave  to  the 
Matin,  that  Botha  never  had  any  idea  of  accepting  terms 
which  would  have  impaired  the  independence  of  the  Trans- 
vaal.    This  was  regarded  as  conclusive  by  the  advocates 
of  unconditional  surrender,  and  their  opponents  were  left 
to  argue  that  this  was  what  Mr.  Kruger  was  bound  to  say 
after  the  negotiations  had  broken  down,  and  that  in  any 
case  he  had  fled  from  the  scene  and  had  ceased  to  be  a 
person  of  importance. 

Campbell-Bannerman  was  laid  up  with  a  severe  chill 
during  the  last  half  of  March,  and  left  Mr.  Bryce  to  speak 
for  him  in  the  debate  on  this  and  other  South  African 
subjects  in  the  House  of  Commons.  His  doctor  ordered 
rest  and  change,  and  for  the  next  three  weeks  he  sauntered 

1  Cd.  528. 


A  SHREWD  FORECAST  329 

in  his  characteristic  way  between  Dover,  Calais,  and  Paris.    CHAP. 
He  came  back  for  the  Budget,  which  Sir  William  Harcourt, 


measuring  it  by  the  standard  of  his  time,  declared  to  be  'ETl  64"6s' 
'  the  most  disastrous  financial  statement  ever  made  by  a 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  in  the  House  of  Commons,' 
and  at  a  dinner  given  to  Mr.  Thomas  Lough  the  following 
evening,  he  made  the  curiously  prophetic  observation  that 
the  '  broadening  of  the  basis  of  taxation,'  on  which  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  prided  himself,  left  a  wide- 
open  door  to  a  Protectionist  successor.  '  What,'  he  asked, 
'  was  our  safeguard  against  this  contingency  ?  Nothing 
except  the  honest  word  and  courageous  character  of  Sir 
Michael  Hicks  Beach.  I  trust  him  implicitly,  but  will  he 
always  be  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and  what  will 
happen  when  he  ceases  to  be  Chancellor  ?  ' — a  question  to 
be  dramatically  answered  within  two  years.  This  and  a 
sharp  passage  of  arms  with  Mr.  Brodrick  on  his  still-born 
Army-corps  scheme  were  his  chief  political  activities  during 
these  weeks.  Then  came  the  meeting  of  the  National 
Liberal  Federation  at  Bradford  (May  14-16),  and  further 
deliverances  on  the  state  of  the  party  and  its  South  African 
policy.  The  leader  received  abundant  good  advice  about 
the  things  he  was  to  say  and  the  things  he  was  to  avoid 
saying  on  this  occasion,  and  he  listened,  as  always,  with 
great  deference  and  good  humour  to  the  multitude  of  his 
counsellors.  But  substantially  he  held  to  his  own  line — 
reliance  on  self-government  to  heal  the  quarrel  between 
British  and  Dutch,  protest  against  the  threatened  interval 
of  Crown  Colony  administration,  and  protest  again  against 
the  demand  for  unconditional  surrender  and  the  refusal  of 
amnesty  to  the  Cape  rebels.  On  the  last  of  these  questions 
he  risked  a  new  cleavage  with  some  of  his  colleagues,  who 
were  impressed  by  Sir  Alfred  Milner's  opinion  that  the 
extension  of  amnesty  to  the  Cape  would  have  a  '  deplor- 
able effect '  upon  the  loyalists  of  the  Colony.  On  this  he 
stated  his  own  view  without  flinching  : — 

What  is  the  latest  and  highest  official  proposal  as  regards  the 
Cape  rebels  ?     It  is  this — that  they  should  be  allowed  to  remain 


330    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    in  the  Transvaal  State  or  the  Orange  River  State  unmolested  bv 

Y  \T  T  T 

.us.  if  they  please,  but  that  if  they  return  to  their  own  homes,  to 
their  properties,  to  their  families  and  to  their  neighbours  in  the 
two  old  colonies,  the  rigours  of  the  law  shall  be  applied  to  them. 
Was  ever  a  more  absurd  proposal  made  ?  And  I  must  again 
remind  these  high  officials  of  their  own  policy.  They  make  these 
two  states  British  Colonies,  and  if  that  is  to  be  their  standing, 
can  anything  be  more  ridiculous  than  that  a  man  on  account  of 
an  imperial  crime,  shall  not  be  punished  or  molested  in  one 
British  colony,  but  shall  be  punished  if  he  goes  into  a  neighbour- 
ing British  colony  ?  Don't  our  Ministers  see  that  amnesty  is 
inevitable  ?  If  they  don't  see  it,  I  admit  it  is  entirely  in  keeping 
with  what  we  have  seen  in  the  whole  of  this  business  from  first 
to  last,  where,  from  the  Jameson  Raid  downwards,  in  every 
estimate  of  the  position,  in  every  forecast,  in  every  prophecy  they 
have  been  wrong.  But  if  peace  were  made  to-day  without 
amnesty,  amnesty  would  have  to  follow  to-morrow.  Why,  then, 
not  take  advantage  of  this  necessity  ?  Why  not  throw  some 
force  into  it.  Why  not  remove  this,  which  must  be  a  material 
stumbling-block  to  a  settlement  ?  I  will  tell  you  why  it  must 
be  a  material  stumbling-block.  The  whole  world  would  condemn 
the  Boer  captains  if  they  thought  for  a  moment  of  making  terms 
for  themselves,  and  leaving  in  the  lurch  the  men  who  have  fought 
with  them. — (May  15.) 

The  '  high  officials  '  distinguished  from  Ministers  in  this 
passage  were,  of  course,  mainly  one,  Sir  Alfred  Milner,  and, 
as  the  Imperialists  noticed,  Campbell-Bannerman  was  more 
and  more,  in  his  polemics,  coming  into  conflict  with  that 
masterful  man,  whom  he  supposed  to  be  driving  a  rather 
reluctant  Ministry  along  the  path  of  unconditional  sur- 
render and  no  amnesty.  His  main  point,  however,  was 
that  after  the  annexation  of  the  Boer  States  the  war  had 
taken  on  a  character  which  distinguished  it  from  all  ordinary 
wars.  It  was  a  conflict  with  men  who,  according  to  our 
own  hypothesis,  were,  or  were  to  be,  citizens  of  the  British 
Empire  : — 

What  is  the  thing — I  want  to  impress  this  upon  you — what  is 
the  thing  that  lies  at  the  root  of  this  question  ?  It  is  often 
strangely  forgotten.  It  is  this.  When  these  communities  who 
are  now  at  war  with  us,  when  they  are  vanquished,  when  they  are, 


THE  TASK  FOR  LIBERALS  331 

if  you  like  to  put  it  so,  chastened  for  the  misdeeds  committed    CHAP. 
against  us,  we  are  not  going  to  brush  them  away  and  have  done     y 


with  them,  we  are  going  to  take  them  to  our  bosom,  and  the  ^T'  64-65. 
very  men  who  are  out  in  the  veldt  in  arms  against  us  must  be 
made  contentedly  loyal  citizens,  in  order  that  peace  and  pro- 
sperity may  be  attained.  You  may  be  sure  that  they  will  never 
become  either  contented  or  loyal  under  a  system  of  government 
which  they  at  least  regard  as  government  by  red  tape,  if  not 
government  by  barbed  wire. — (May  15.) 

Consent  to  the  policy  of  annexation  threw  upon  Liberals, 
as  he  was  never  weary  of  repeating,  a  peculiar  responsi- 
bility for  watching  vigilantly  the  conduct  of  the  war  in 
its  present  phase,  and  preparing  the  way  for  free  institu- 
tions at  the  end  of  it.  This  was  the  burden  of  his  theme 
from  now  onwards  to  the  end  of  the  war. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
'  METHODS  OF  BARBARISM  ' 

Sir  Alfred  Milner  in  London  —  Renewal  of  Liberal  Dissensions 
—Miss  Emily  Hobhouse's  Report  —  An  Interview  at  Gros- 
venor  Place  —  Methods  of  Barbarism  —  Popular  Displeasure— 
A  Critical  Phase  —  The  War  to  the  Knife  and  Fork  —  The  Party 
Meeting  —  Lord  Rosebery's  Intervention  —  '  The  Lonely 
Furrow  '  —  An  '  Awful  Fortnight  '  —  General  Botha's  Opinion. 


CHAP.     '"Hr~>HE  Bradford  speech  had  contained  an  energetic 
xvm-  .  appeal  to  Liberals  to  close  their  ranks  and  re- 

1901.  J^         member    the  ninety-and-nine    points   on   which 

they  were  united  rather  than  the  hundredth  on  which 
they  were  divided.  But  no  one  knew  better  than 
Campbell-Bannerman  that  the  hundredth  point  was  very 
nearly  a  hundred  per  cent,  of  all  the  politics  that  mattered 
at  the  moment.  With  the  prolongation  of  the  war, 
controversy  on  South  Africa,  instead  of  abating,  became 
more  embittered,  and  the  opposing  parties  grew  more 
intolerant.  At  the  beginning  of  April,  Mr.  Sauer  and 
Mr.  Merriman  had  arrived  in  England  as  delegates  of  the 
Afrikander  Bond,  and,  in  a  series  of  meetings  arranged  for 
them,  protested  vehemently  against  the  annexation  of  the 
Boer  Republics,  and  denounced  both  the  conduct  of  the 
war  and  Sir  Alfred  Milner's  administration  of  martial  law 
in  Cape  Colony.  Their  meetings  were  much  disturbed,  and 
the  Unionist  press  boiled  over  in  anger  at  their  proceedings. 
On  May  24  Sir  Alfred  Milner  arrived  in  London  from 
South  Africa  on  furlough,  and  was  driven  through  cheering 
crowds  to  Marlborough  House  where  he  was  received  by  the 
King,  who  conferred  a  peerage  on  him.  Sir  Edward  Grey 
had  gone  down  to  Southampton  to  meet  him,  and  Sir  Henry 
Fowler  was  among  the  guests  invited  to  a  luncheon  party 
in  his  honour  given  the  following  day  by  Mr.  Chamberlain 


332 


SIR  ALFRED  MILNER  IN  LONDON     333 

at  Claridge's  Hotel.     In  replying  to  the  toast  of  his  health,    CHAP. 
Sir  Alfred,  or  as  he  now  was,  Lord  Milner,  spoke  scathingly 


of  the  trouble  to  which  he  and  others  had  been  put  '  to  MT'  64"65' 
prove  to  persons  with  an  ingrained  habit  of  self-delusion 
that  the  Government  of  this  country  would  not  give  up  its 
agents  in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  and  that  the  people  of  this 
country  would  not  allow  themselves  to  be  bored  into  aban- 
doning what  they  had  spent  millions  of  treasure  and  so 
many  precious  lives  to  attain.'  '  I  do  not  know,'  he  said, 
'  whether  I  feel  more  inclined  to  laugh  or  to  cry  when  I 
have  to  listen  for  the  hundredth  time  to  these  dear  delu- 
sions, this  Utopian  dogmatising,  that  it  only  required  a 
little  more  time,  a  little  more  tact,  a  little  more  meekness, 
a  little  more  of  all  those  gentle  virtues  of  which 
I  know  I  am  so  conspicuously  devoid,  in  order  to 
conciliate — to  conciliate  what  ?  Panoplied  hatred,  insen- 
sate ambitions,  invincible  ignorance.  I  fully  believe  that 
the  time  is  coming — Heaven  knows  how  we  desire  to  see  it 
come  quickly — when  all  the  qualities  of  the  most  forbearing 
statesmanship  which  are  possessed  by  many  of  our  people 
will  be  called  for  and  ought  to  be  applied  to  South  Africa. 
I  do  not  say  for  a  moment  there  is  not  great  scope  for  these 
even  to-day,  but  always  provided  they  do  not  mar  what  is 
essential  for  success  in  the  future,  the  conclusiveness  of 
the  final  success  of  the  present  drama.'  These,  in  spite  of 
the  saving  clauses,  were  challenging  words,  which  were 
quickly  taken  up  by  the  Radicals  and  pro-Boers,  and  sharp 
encounters  followed  between  the  two  wings  of  the  Opposi- 
tion. Mr.  Morley,  in  a  speech  at  Montrose  (June  4),  de- 
nounced the  '  imitation  Bismarck,'  who  had  forced  the 
negotiations  without  preparing  for  war,  and  declared  that 
if  we  had  had  '  an  able  negotiator,  a  man  accustomed  to 
bargain  and  give  and  take,'  at  the  Bloemfontein  Conference, 
he  '  would  have  given  President  Kruger  plenty  of  time  to 
smoke  his  long  china  pipe,'  and  come  to  a  settlement  which 
would  have  avoided  war.  Mr.  Bryce  at  the  Memorial  Hall 
(June  12)  entered  a  strong  plea  for  the  amnesty  which 
Lord  Milner  was  supposed  to  have  refused,  and  other  less 


334    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    responsible  men  used  even  plainer  language  about  the  High 

xvrIIL  ^  Commissioner. 

I9°I-  In  a  speech  to  his  constituents  at  Berwick  (May  30), 
Sir  Edward  Grey  came  out  strongly  on  the  other  side, 
insisting  that  Lord  Milner  must  be  the  Administrator  to 
carry  out  the  settlement  after  the  war,  and  retorting  on 
Mr.  Morley,  who  had  said  in  the  House  of  Commons  that  the 
South  African  question  was  '  solving  itself  '  before  the  war, 
'  that  it  was  indeed  solving  itself,  but  "  solving  itself  '  by 
South  Africa  slipping  from  our  grasp.'  In  the  middle  of 
this  clatter,  Campbell-Bannerman  had  to  fulfil  an  engage- 
ment to  speak  at  Edinburgh,  where  he  endeavoured  without 
much  success  to  restore  order  by  claiming  that  in  spite  of 
differences  about  the  war  and  its  origin,  the  whole  Liberal 
Party,  bar  an  insignificant  section,  were  united  against 
'  the  most  unwise  as  well  as  the  most  unworthy  policy  of 
enforcing  unconditional  surrender  upon  those  who  were  to 
be  their  loyal  and  contented  subjects  in  the  new  Colonies.' 
Mr.  Chamberlain  must  have  been  more  than  human  if  he 
had  not  found  a  grim  satisfaction  in  the  complete  success 
with  which  the  Milner  wedge  had  once  more  been  driven 
into  the  distracted  Liberal  front  bench. 

But  the  climax  was  still  to  come.  Holding  that  the  South 
African  War  differed  from  all  ordinary  wars  in  that  it  was 
waged  with  an  enemy  who  had  to  be  converted  into  a  fellow- 
citizen,  Campbell-Bannerman  greatly  objected  to  methods 
which,  though  they  might  be  a  short  cut  to  military  success, 
were  likely  to  cause  lasting  resentment.  For  the  past  six 
months,  as  I  have  already  indicated,  he  had  watched  with 
growing  anxiety  the  devastation  policy  which  had  compelled 
the  British  authorities  to  undertake  the  all  but  impossible 
task  of  housing  in  concentration  camps  the  Boer  popula- 
tion left  homeless  by  the  destruction  of  their  farms.  By 
the  beginning  of  June  some  60,000  Boers  had  been  gathered 
into  these  camps,  and  it  was  incontestable  that  great  suffer- 
ing and  heavy  mortality,  especially  among  children,  had 
followed  from  overcrowding,  bad  food,  and  insanitary  con- 
ditions. The  average  mortality  in  all  the  camps  was  n6'j6 


RENEWED  DISSENSIONS  335 

per  thousand,  and  in  the  Bloemfontein  Camp,  one  of  the    CHAP. 

X  V 1 1 1 

largest,  the  rate  mounted  up  to  383'i6  per  thousand.     The 


Government,  while  not  denying  the  facts,  pleaded  that  every  A:I'  64~65' 
possible  effort  had  been  made  to  deal  with  a  problem  of 
unparalleled  difficulty,  and  that  a  large  part  of  the  suffering 
and  mortality  was  due  to  the  ignorance  and  inexperience  of 
the  Boer  women.  In  Campbell-Bannerman's  view  the 
evil  lay  in  the  devastation  policy  which  required  this  impos- 
sible task  to  be  attempted,  and  he  saw  in  it  a  seed  of  mischief 
which  might  be  fatal  to  reconciliation  after  the  war. 

But  his  opinion  on  this  subject  was  much  more  than 
political.  Always  deeply  sensitive  to  the  sufferings  of 
women  and  children,  he  was  greatly  moved  by  the  appeals 
which  had  been  made  to  him  on  this  subject,  with  constantly 
increasing  urgency  from  the  beginning  of  this  year  onwards. 
The  same  steamer  which  brought  Sir  Alfred  Milner  "from 
South.  Africa  brought  also  Miss  Emily  Hobhouse,  a  zealous 
and  intrepid  lady  who  "had  obtained  permission  to  visit  the 
concentration  camps  as  delegate  of  the  Distress  Fund  for 
South  African  women  and  children  ;  and  she  came  to  him 
in  the  second  week  of  June,  bringing  her  report  and  diary. 
'  The  interview,'  says  Miss  Hobhouse,  '  remains  vivid  in 
my  mind.  Of  all  whom  I  saw  at  that  time,  deeply  interested 
as  they  were,  he  alone,  greatly  occupied  as  he  was,  seemed 
to  have  the  leisure  and  the  determination  to  hear  and  under- 
stand everything.  For  nearly  two  hours  he  listened  with 
rapt  attention,  now  and  then  putting  a  question  to  elucidate 
a  point.  He  left  the  impression  of  a  man  who  spared  no 
time  or  pains  to  arrive  at  truth,  and  in  whom  wisdom  and 
humanity  were  paramount.' 

The  same  week  1  he  was  the  principal  guest  at  a  dinner 
given  by  the  National  Reform  Union  at  the  Holborn 
Restaurant.  Mr.  Philip  Stanhope,  a  prominent  member 
of  the  left  wing  of  the  party,  was  in  the  chair,  and  the 
company,  which  included  Sir  William  Harcourt  and  Mr. 
Morley,  was  predominantly  of  the  same  persuasion.  Campbell- 
,Bannerman,  replying  to  the  toast  of  '  Our  Guests/  turned 

1  June  14. 


336    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    with  unwonted  energy  upon  the  critics  who  had  reproached 
XVIIL    him   for   saying   at   Edinburgh   that   those   Liberals   who 


I9°r-  favoured  the  policy  of  unconditional  surrender  were  only 
an  insignificant  fraction  of  the  Liberal  Party.  '  What/  he 
asked,  '  was  this  policy  of  unconditional  surrender  ?  ' — 

It  was  that  now  we  had  got  the  men  we  had  been  fighting 
against  down,  we  should  punish  them  as  severely  as  possible, 
devastate  their  country,  burn  their  homes,  break  up  their  very 
instruments  of  agriculture  and  destroy  the  machinery  by  which 
food  was  produced.  It  was  that  we  should  sweep — as  the 
Spaniards  did  in  Cuba  ;  and  how  we  denounced  the  Spaniards — 
the  women  and  children  into  camps  in  which  they  were  destitute 
of  all  the  decencies  and  comforts  and  many  of  the  necessaries  of 
life,  and  in  some  of  which  the  death-rate  rose  so  high  as  430  in  the 
1000.  He  did  not  say  for  a  moment,  because  he  did  not  think 
for  a  moment,  that  this  was  the  deliberate  and  intentional  policy 
of  His  Majesty's  Government,  but  it  was  the  policy  of  the  writers 
in  the  press  who  supported  them,  and  at  aU  events  it  was  the 
thing  that  was  being  done  at  that  moment  in  the  name  and  by 
the  authority  of  this  most  humane  and  Christian  nation.  On 
the  previous  day  he  asked  the  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons 
when  the  information  would  be  afforded  of  which  we  were  so 
sadly  in  need.  His  request  was  refused.  Mr.  Balfour  treated 
them  to  a  short  disquisition  on  the  nature  of  war.  A  phrase  often 
used  was  that  '  war  is  war,'  but  when  one  came  to  ask  about  it 
one  was  told  that  no  war  was  going  on,  that  it  was  not  war. 
When  was  a  war  not  a  war  ?  When  it  was  carried  on  by  methods 
of  barbarism  in  South  Africa. — (June  14). 

'  Methods  of  Barbarism ! '  Curiously  enough,  the  phrase 
was  hardly  noticed  in  the  next  day's  papers,  but  the  day 
after  it  was  wrenched  from  its  context,  and  the  day  after 
that  printed  in  large  type,  and  for  a  thousand  days  hurled 
back  at  him  in  anger  and  scorn.  He  had  insulted  the 
British  Army,  defamed  the  British  people,  rendered  himself 
for  ever  impossible  as  leader  of  one  of  the  great  British 
parties.  He  was  at  last  branded  in  his  true  colours  as  a 
pro-Boer  and  a  traitor.  Poster  and  leading  article  repeated 
the  tale,  and  it  passed  from  platform  to  platform  through 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  Such  a  stream  of 
denunciation  had  scarcely  descended  even  upon  Cobden  and 


METHODS  OF  BARBARISM'  337 

Bright  in  the  height  of  patriotic  enthusiasm  for  the  Crimean    CHAP. 
War  ;    and  a  peculiar  enormity  was  supposed  to  attach  to  S_XVI1 


this  crime,  because  the  author  of  it  had  been  twice  Secretary  A':T-  64~65' 
of  State  for  War.  The  pro-Boers  rejoiced,  but  even  the 
faithful  '  centre  '  shook  its  head  over  the  unwonted  indis- 
cretion of  its  leader,  and  the  Imperialists  were  greatly 
incensed.  To  the  latter  not  merely  the  phrase,  but  the 
whole  speech  and  the  entire  proceedings  at  the  Holborn 
dinner  were  an  offence.  Campbell-Bannerman  in  his  pero- 
ration had  appealed  to  Liberals  throughout  the  country  to 
show  the  same  spirit  and  life  as  he  saw  before  him  in  his 
Radical  London  audience  ;  Mr.  Morley  had  declared  the 
speeches  to  be  '  in  the  main  stream  of  Liberalism/  and 
spoken  ironically  about  the  conversion  of  '  some  of  their 
friends  in  politics/  which  he  attributed  not  to  their  sense 
of  right  and  wrong,  but  to  '  a  belated  apprehension  of  the 
law  of  cause  and  effect  bringing  carnage,  horror,  debt  and 
confusion  following  inevitably  from  an  evil  and  thoughtless 
policy/  What  was  this  but  deliberate  provocation  ? 

He  was  implored  to  explain,  and  some  of  his  warmest 
friends  were  most  urgent  for  a  timely  word  to  calm  the 
tempest.  Would  he  not  write  a  '  letter  to  a  correspondent/ 
find  some  excuse  to  pay  a  friendly  compliment  to  the  Army, 
explain  that  he  didn't  mean  what  of  course  he  could  not 
have  meant,  at  least  protest  that  the  interpretation  put 
on  his  speech  was  a  gross  calumny  ?  No,  he  would  do 
none  of  these  things  :  he  had  meant  exactly  what  he  said, 
neither  more  nor  less,  and  on  fit  occasion  he  would  repeat 
it.  Repeat  it  he  did  three  days  later  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  when  Mr.  Lloyd  George  moved  the  adjourn- 
ment of  the  House  to  discuss  the  question  of  the  Concentra- 
tion Camps  and  Miss  Hobhouse's  Report,  which  by  now  had 
become  public  property.  This  time  he  endeavoured  to 
make  his  meaning  a  little  more  precise  :— 

I  never  said  a  word  which  would  imply  cruelty  or  even  indiffer- 
ence on  the  part  of  officers  or  men  in  the  British  Army.  It  is  the 
whole  system  I  consider,  to  use  a  word  I  have  already  applied  to 
it,  barbarous.  There  are  no  people  in  the  world  who  feel  that 

VOL.  I.  Y 


338    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    barbarity  more  than  the  unfortunate  men  whose  duty  it  is  to 
XVIIL^.  enforce  that  system.  .  .  .  What  I  object  to  is  the  whole  policy 
of  concentration,  the  whole  policy  of  destroying  the  homes  of 
women  and  children,  involving  them  in  circumstances  of  con- 
siderable cruelty,  certainly  of  unintentional  cruelty. — (June  17.) 

His  obvious  determination  to  repeat  the  offending  word 
irritated  his  critics  far  more  than  his  discriminating  use  of 
it  appeased  them.  The  atmosphere  of  the  debate  was  much 
heated,  and  Mr.  Lloyd  George  attacked  Lord  Milner  with 
great  bitterness — a  sure  way  of  arousing  the  anger  of  the 
Liberal  Imperialists,  who  broke  away  when  Campbell- 
Bannerman  announced  his  intention  of  supporting  the 
motion.  To  Mr.  Haldane  fell  the  now  familiar  task  of 
dissociating  himself  from  his  leader,  and  he  gravely  regretted 
that  the  word  '  barbarous  '  should  have  been  used,  and 
generally  exonerated  the  Government  both  for  the  '  system  ' 
and  its  consequences  in  the  Concentration  Camps.  When 
the  division  was  called,  fifty  Liberals,  including  Mr. 
Asquith  and  Sir  Edward  Grey,  abstained,  and  Unionist 
papers  commented  gleefully  upon  the  rebuke  they  had 
administered  to  their  leader.  Campbell-Bannerman  came 
away  from  the  House  more  than  ever  determined  to  stick 
to  his  guns.  His  mind  was  absolutely  filled  with  the 
question  of  the  Concentration  Camps,  and  the  debate  had 
convinced  him  that  nothing  less  than  he  had  said  and  done 
would  stir  the  Government  to  action  for  their  improvement. 

II 

The  next  three  weeks  were  the  most  critical  period  of  his 
leadership.  The  Liberal  Imperialists  were  greatly  exaspe- 
rated. The  Holborn  dinner  and  the  proceedings  in  Parlia- 
ment seemed  to  some  of  them  a  concerted  effort  to  drive  them 
out  of  the  party.  There  was  not  only  Campbell-Bannerman's 
phrase,  and  his  indictment  of  the  high  authorities  in  South 
Africa  whom  they  trusted  and  supported ;  there  was  Mr. 
Morley's  speech  claiming  them  as  reluctant  converts  to  the 
views  of  the  left  wing,  and  declaring  these  alone  to  be  in  the 
'  main  stream  '  of  the  party.  A  pro-Boer  meeting  at  the 


WAR  TO  THE  KNIFE— AND  FORK     339 

Queen's  Hall  on  June  ig,  at  which  Mr.  Labouchere,  who    CHAP. 
presided,  declared  it  to  be  the  first  plank  in  Liberal  policy, 


as  he  understood  it,  to  send  '  some  man  of  good  counsel  to  Mr'  64'65' 
South  Africa,  instead  of  that  wretched  penny-a-liner  Lord 
Milner,'  certainly  made  things  no  better.  The  next  day 
(June  20)  Mr.  Asquith  was  dining  with  the  South  Essex 
Liberals  at  the  Liverpool  Street  Station  Hotel,  and  threw 
off  his  usual  restraint.  This  time  he  said  flatly  that  he  and 
his  friends  would  not  tolerate  to  be  told  that  they  were 
heretics  and  schismatics,  and  still  less  that  they  had  seen 
the  error  of  their  ways  and  understood  that  their  opinions 
were  at  variance  with  the  predominant  and  authorised 
creed  of  Liberalism.  '  To  such  a  degree  could  tolerance 
and  the  desire  for  party  unity  be  misinterpreted.'  Replying 
directly  to  Mr.  Morley,  he  added  : — 

There  is  nothing  in  the  world  so  uncongenial  to  me  as  to  enter 
on  any  kind  of  public  disputation  with  an  old  friend  and  colleague, 
by  whose  side  I  have  often  fought  in  the  past  and  by  whose  side 
I  hope  to  fight  again  in  the  future  ;  but  the  consequences  of  such 
a  misconception  are  so  grave  both  to  the  party  and  to  the  country 
that  I  feel  in  duty  bound  to  take  this  very  first  opportunity  that 
has  offered  itself  to  dispel  it  entirely  and  once  for  all.  I  am 
speaking  not  for  myself  alone,  but  for  a  large  number  of  my 
colleagues  in  the  House  of  Commons  and  for  a  still  larger  body  of 
Liberal  opinion  outside.  Those,  I  say,  who  have  taken  our  view 
may  be  right  or  they  may  be  wrong.  That  is  not  what  I  am 
concerned  to  argue  ;  time  will  decide.  We  have  never  sought 
to  make  the  holding  of  that  view  the  test  of  the  political  orthodoxy 
of  our  fellow-Liberals  and  I  hope  that  we  never  shall.  But  that 
makes  it  all  the  more  necessary  for  me  to  say  in  the  plainest  and 
most  unequivocal  terms  that  we  have  not  changed  our  view,  that 
we  do  not  repent  of  it,  and  that  we  shall  not  recant  it. 

The  Liverpool  Street  Station  Hotel  had  thus  replied  to  the 
Holborn  Restaurant,  and  the  process  of  dining  and  counter- 
dining  1 — the  '  war  to  the  knife — and  fork,'  as  Mr.  Henry 

1  The  '  dining  history  '  of  the  Liberal  Party  in  these  weeks  was  thus 
summed  up  by  the  Westminster  Gazette  :  '  There  was  a  dinner  on  June  14 
at  which  speeches  were  made  which  gave  great  offence  to  the  Imperialist 
section  of  the  Liberal  Party.  There  was  a  dinner  on  June  20  at  which 
Mr.  Asquith  answered  the  speeches  which  gave  the  offence.  There  is 


340    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    Lucy  wittily  called  it — was  by  this  time  well  on  foot.     The 
IL     Liberal  Imperialists  now  decided  that  there  must  be  another 


19011  dinner  to  celebrate  the  Liverpool  Street  dinner,  and  to 
'  render  public  acknowledgment  of  Mr.  Asquith's  great 
services  to  the  Liberal  Party  in  asserting  the  freedom  of  its 
members  to  hold  national  and  patriotic  opinions.'  The 
Hotel  Cecil  was  chosen  as  the  scene  of  this  engagement,  and 
its  date  fixed  for  July  19.  To  dine  or  not  to  dine  was  the 
question  which  for  the  next  three  weeks  distracted  the 
Liberal  Party.  The  left  wing  denounced  the  dinner  as  an 
intolerable  attack  upon  the  authorised  leader ;  the  centre 
thought  it  unwise  and  inexpedient  to  stress  the  differences 
in  the  Liberal  Party,  and  forty  Liberal  M.P.'s  addressed 
a  polite  letter  to  Mr.  Asquith,  explaining  why,  with  the 
greatest  respect  for  him,  they  felt  unable  to  accept  this  in- 
vitation. The  hero  of  the  demonstration  was  in  a  position 
of  no  little  embarrassment,  and  Campbell-Bannerman 
records  his  impression  that  if  left  to  himself  he  would 
probably  have  liked  to  extinguish  the  whole  affair.  But 
his  friends  insisted,  and  there  was,  in  fact,  no  retreat  com- 
patible with  the  dignity  of  any  of  the  parties  now  that  the 
occasion  had  been  advertised  and  delightedly  hailed  as  '  the 
feature  of  the  day/  by  the  largest  circulations.  Mr.  Asquith 
made  a  judicious  reply  to  the  forty,  in  which  he  disclaimed 
the  intention  of  promoting  differences,  and  expressed  the 
hope  that  he  would  be  able  to  turn  the  occasion  to  account 
to  '  convince  the  people  that  there  is  a  preferable  and  a 
practicable  alternative  to  a  Government  with  whose  policy 
or  want  of  policy  a  large  and  growing  number  of  them  are 
every  day  becoming  more  profoundly  wearied  and  dis- 
satisfied.' The  words  were  soothing,  but  the  fact  remained 
that  the  dinner  was  to  go  on  in  spite  of  this  protest,  and 

now  to  be  a  dinner  in  recognition  of  the  speech  which  answered  the  speeches 
which  gave  the  offence  to  the  Liberal  Imperialists.  There  will  next  be 
a  dinner  in  recognition  of  the  speech  which  gave  the  offence  which  was 
answered  by  the  speech  which  led  to  the  dinner  in  recognition.  The 
Liberal  Party  will  thus  dine  and  counter-dine  itself  out  of  existence  or  else 
be  dissolved  in  the  laughter  of  that  observant  man  in  the  street  or  balancing 
elector  whose  suffrages  it  so  greatly  desires  to  obtain.' 


THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  PARTY    341 

the  whole  affair  seemed  now  to  be  developing  into  a  definite    CHAP. 

XVITI 

challenge  to  the  authorised  leader. 


ALT.  64-65. 
Ill 

These  events  may  seem  trivial  after  the  lapse  of  years,  but 
it  is  necessary  to  describe  them  in  some  detail  to  explain 
what  Campbell-Bannerman  considered  to  be  the  most  im- 
portant step  that  he  took  during  his  leadership.  From  the 
moment  that  the  dinner  to  Mr.  Asquith  was  announced,  his 
mind  was  made  up  that  he  would  appeal  to  the  party — to 
the  Liberal  members  of  Parliament  who  had  elected  him 
as  their  leader  and  whose  commission  he  held.  He  would 
call  a  party  meeting.  The  very  idea  sent  a  shiver  down  the 
spines  of  conventional  politicians.  It  was  open  confession 
of  disaster,  a  desperate  operation  on  a  doomed  patient,  a 
thing  forbidden  by  all  parliamentary  tradition  in  the  first 
year  of  a  new  Parliament.  All  these  conventional  objec- 
tions he  brushed  aside.  He  had  done  his  best  to  smooth 
away  differences,  sacrificed  many  of  his  private  convictions 
— perhaps  more  than  he  ought  to  have  done — to  save  the 
appearance  of  unity,  but  now  the  occasion  was  critical  and 
the  choice  must  be  made.  He  would  appeal  to  his  fellow- 
members  with  all  his  sins  upon  his  head,-  •'  methods  of 
barbarism,'  incompetence,  unpopularity — and  if  they  desired 
to  be  rid  of  the  '  incubus  '•  -that  elegant  word  was  beginning 
to  be  used  about  him — they  should  have  the  opportunity. 

I  saw  him  more  than  once  in  these  days  and  well  remember 
his  state  of  mind.  Against  Mr.  Asquith  he  bore  no  grudge, 
and  their  personal  relations  were  never  embarrassed.  But 
he  regarded  it  as  a  very  serious  fact  that  the  man  who  had 
hitherto  helped  him  most  to  keep  the  peace  between  the 
two  sections  was  now  definitely  committed  to  war  against 
the  left  wing.  And  though  he  entirely  acquitted  Mr.  Asquith 
personally  of  any  design  upon  his  leadership,  he  was  not  so 
charitable  to  all  the  Imperialist  group.  He  believed  that 
behind  Mr.  Asquith  were  others  who  were  very  definitely 
scheming  to  deprive  him  of  the  leadership,  and  he  spoke 
impatiently  of  their  '  cabals '  and  '  intrigues.'  He  saw 


342    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    '  Master  Haldane  '  laying  wires  in  open  daylight  with  the 
'    air  of  innocence  which  only  a  philosopher  could  assume-, 


'  Master     Munro-Ferguson '    mustering    '  the     Household 
Brigade  '  '  for  open  rebellion/  '  Master  Grey  '  holding  with 
'  Greyish  obstinacy  '   a  redoubt  of  his  own.     He  had  to 
assume  in  public  that  they  were  all  members  of  his  flock, 
but  he  wished  it  to  be  known  that  he  was  not  deceived, 
and  would  not  be  hustled  out  of  his  position  by  the  opera- 
tions of  any  of  them.     The  great  mistake  which  his  prede- 
cessors had  made  was,  he  held,  that  they  had  nursed  their 
grievances  up  to  the  moment  of  their  resignations  instead 
of  appealing  in  a  straightforward  way  to  the  rank  and  file, 
who  alone  could  decide.     By  their  resignations  they  had 
made  resignation  impossible  for  him,  since  a  third  resigna- 
tion within  five  years  would  dissolve  the  Liberal  Party  in 
laughter,  but  to  the  rank  and  file  he  would  go  and  to  them 
he  would  put  the  straight  question  whether  they  wished  him 
to  remain  leader  or  not.     So  he  hoisted  the  storm-warning 
by  declaring  in  a  speech  at  Southampton  on  July  2  that 
the  Liberal  Party  was  '  in  a  critical  position,'  and,  having 
taken  particular  pains  in  that  speech  and  another  delivered 
in  the  House  of  Commons  to  reiterate  his  own  views  about 
the  war,  he  summoned  the  Liberal  M.P.'s  to  meet  him  at 
the  Reform  Club  on  July  9 — ten  days  before  the  Asquith 
dinner. 

He  knew  that  he  was  taking  a  certain  risk.  The  loyal 
centre,  the  four-fifths  of  the  party,  as  he  claimed  them  to  be, 
could  of  course  be  relied  upon.  He  had  only  to  say  the 
word  and  they  would  give  him  a  unanimous  vote  of  confi- 
dence. But  the  Liberal  Imperialists  might  either  not  attend 
the  meeting  or,  if  they  did  attend,  make  it  the  occasion  for 
a  definite  split.  The  newspapers  looked  forward  with  lively 
anticipation  to  the  gth  of  July,  and  their  parliamentary 
correspondents  reported  threatening  movements  behind  the 
scenes.  But  the  danger,  if  it  existed,  was  greatly  exagge- 
rated. The  Liberal  Imperialists  were  not  a  Whig  group 
trembling  on  the  verge  of  Toryism  and  looking  for  an  oppor- 
tunity to  go  over.  The  more  influential  of  them  were 


THE  PARTY  MEETING  343 

convinced  Liberals  and  Radicals,  inclining  rather  to  the  left    CHAP. 

XVIII 

wing  than  to  the  right  on  domestic  affairs,  and  they  had  no 


intention  of  leaving  or  being  drummed  out  of  the  Liberal  ^T<  64"6s- 
Party.  They  had  fought  the  election  vigorously,  and  it  was 
noted  that  they  were  especially  hostile  to  Mr.  Chamberlain, 
who  on  his  side  kept  them  at  arm's  length.  In  all  the  dis- 
traction of  these  times,  there  was  never  a  whisper  of  any 
serious  overture  from  them  to  the  Unionist  Party  or  from 
the  Unionist  Party  to  them.  Given  free  choice,  they  would 
undoubtedly  have  preferred  another  leader,  but  they  were  / 
not  willing  to  supplant  Campbell-Bannerman  at  the  cost ; 
of  wrecking  the  Liberal  Party  or  to  land  themselves  in  a\ 
position  in  which  they  would  hang  helplessly  in  the  air 
between  the  two  parties.  They  therefore  decided  to 
attend  the  meeting,  to  join  in  the  vote  of  confidence  to  the1 
leader,  but  to  claim  full  liberty  to  express  their  own  opinion^ 
within  the  party. 

To  Lord  Ripon  he  wrote  after  summoning  the  meeting : 
'  I  shall  make  my  views  as  to  the  South  African  situation, 
present  and  future,  perfectly  plain  and  ask  their  confidence 
upon  that  basis  ;  recognising  of  course  the  right  of  inde- 
pendent opinion  in  every  one,  but  denouncing  personal 
feuds  and  sectional  organisations.  How  anything  I  can 
say  will  leave  us  is  another  question.  I  hardly  see  how  we 
can  go  on.  The  only  hopeful  thing  is  the  great  loyalty  and 
good  feeling  with  which  the  bulk  of  the  party  has  behaved 
in  the  present  trying  circumstances.'  These  misgivings 
proved  unnecessary.  The  meeting,  when  it  assembled,  was 
unanimous  and,  on  the  part  of  the  great  majority,  enthusi- 
astic. At  the  outset  he  placed  himself  absolutely  at  the 
disposal  of  his  brother  members,  declared  frankly  that  he 
had  convened  the  meeting  for  the  sole  purpose  of  discover- 
ing whether  he  retained  their  confidence  sufficiently  to 
exercise  his  authority  to  maintain  harmony  in  the  party, 
sketched  broadly  the  South  African  policy  which,  in  his 
view,  united  four-fifths  of  the  party,  and  then  spoke  his 
mind  about  the  differences  in  the  past,  boldly  risking  offence 
by  ascribing  a  large  part  of  them  to  personal  antagonisms  :- 


344    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.        With  this  community  of  view  on  the  general  question,  which 
svi n.       believe  in  thoroughly,  why  are  we  not  united  and  harmonious  ? 


1901.  Gentlemen,  I  think  it  my  duty  to  speak  plainly.  We  are  divided 
not  on  account  of  real  and  essential  divergencies  of  opinion,  but 
because  of  the  operation  of  certain  personal  antagonisms  which 
for  the  last  half-dozen  years  have  disturbed  and  paralysed  the 
Liberal  Party  in  Parliament.  In  the  interests  of  those  antagon- 
isms grounds  of  difference  are  eagerly  sought  out,  the  importance 
of  smaller  differences  is  exaggerated,  and  energies  which  ought 
to  be  political  have  been  personal.  Our  friends  in  the  country 
know  little  or  nothing  of  this.  They  are  discouraged  and  they 
are  mystified.  If  you  go  among  them — this  is  my  experience 
whenever  I  go  amongst  them — they  say,  '  What  on  earth  is  the 
matter  that  you  people  in  the  House  of  Commons  cannot  agree  ; 
why  are  you  incapable  of  harmonious  co-operation  ?  '  Now, 
gentlemen,  the  Liberal  Party  is  a  party  of  free  speech  and 
%  independent  thought,  of  comprehensiveness  and  of  tolerance. 
For  my  part,  if  it  were  not  so  I  would  not  occupy  a  prominent 
position  in  it,  nor  even  the  humblest  position  in  it.  And  I  will 
not  lend  my  authority  to  any  exclusiveness  or  to  the  repression 
of  any  genuine  opinion.  Differences  of  political  opinion  within 
a  party  are  usually  capable  of  being  adjusted,  and  even  if  they 
are  not  adjusted,  they  do  not  interfere  with  the  general  agreement. 
But  in  this  case  what  I  am  speaking  of  does  not  represent  genuine 
opinion  ;  it  manufactures  differences  for  its  own  purposes.  I 
am  no  partisan  of  any  side  in  those  antagonisms  I  speak  of  ;  they 
are  confined  to  a  few  individuals,  very  honest,  very  energetic  and 
very  persistent.  They  do  not  know  the  infinite  mischief  they  do 
to  the  party  which  they  imagine  they  serve.  I  impartially  blame 
all  who  take  part  in  them.  And  well  I  may,  for  of  all  people  I 
do  not  know  if  any  one  has  ever  suffered  so  much  as  I  have  from 
the  effects  they  create. 

Well,  gentlemen,  I  am  here  to  say  to  you  deliberately  and 
emphatically  that  we  shall  never  restore  healthy  efficiency  to  the 
Liberal  Party  in  the  House  of  Commons  unless  these  rebels  are 
put  down,  and  I  appeal  to  all  solid,  earnest,  loyal  men— and  I 
am  sure  I  see  no  others  here — to  lend  their  aid  in  extinguishing 
them.  I  can  make  this  appeal  with  the  more  frankness  and 
confidence,  because  I  am  not  aware  that  these  little  machinations 
have  ever  been  directed  personally  against  myself.  (-Well, 
gentlemen)  this  evil  can  be  put  down  by  one  force  and  by  one 
force  alone — by  the  general  sense  of  the  party,  by  all  refusing  to 
countenance  any  sectional  organisation  which  is  directed  against 


AGREEMENT  TO  DIFFER  345 

other  members  of  the  party,  and  declining  to  judge  personal    CHAP. 
questions  by  personal  standards  and  prejudices.     The  party  ^xvn L 


must,  in  fact,  rise  above  these  petty  questions  to  a  clear  appre-  ^T.  64-65. 
hension  of  the  great  part  it  is  expected  by  its  friends  and  by  the 
country  at  large  to  fill. 

The  '  centre  '  next  took  up  the  tale,  and  weighty  and  reverend 
members  of  Parliament  (Sir  James  Kitson,  Sir  Joseph  Pease, 
Dr.  Farquharson,  Mr.  Alfred  Thomas,  and  Mr.  Fenwick) 
spoke  to  a  resolution  of  confidence,  which  received  a  special 
blessing  from  one  retired  leader,  Sir  William  Harcourt. 
Then  came  Mr.  Asquith  and  Sir  Edward  Grey,  who  also 
supported  the  resolution  in  terms  of  affectionate  regard  for 
Campbell-Bannerman  and  frank  expressions  of  regret  that 
they  had  been  compelled  to  add  to  his  difficulties.  Both 
professed  ignorance  of  the  '  cabals  '  and  '  intrigues,'  and 
rejected  the  theory  that  the  Liberal  differences  had  personal 
origins.  The  differences,  said  Mr.  Asquith,  were  real  and 
honest,  and  to  ignore  them  was  '  either  affectation  or  political 
dishonesty.'  Especially  was  it  useless  to  present  amend- 
ments in  Parliament  so  miraculously  drafted  that  members 
of  opposite  opinions  could  flock  to  the  same  lobby  in  support 
of  them.  While  differences  existed,  they  should  be  ex- 
pressed in  such  a  way  as  not  to  embitter  and  exaggerate 
them,  but  full  and  unfettered  liberty  must  be  claimed  from 
time  to  time  to  express  and  to  act  upon  honestly  entertained 
convictions,  without  any  imputation  of  party  disloyalty. 
Sir  Edward  Grey  boldly  claimed  that  the  meeting  should 
consider  that  it  had  not  only  passed  the  resolution  of  con- 
fidence in  the  leader  but  given  the  Liberal  Imperialists  a 
charter  to  express  their  opinions  freely  upon  questions  on 
which  it  was  known  that  they  differed  from  other  members 
of  the  party.  Sir  Edward  rather  bluntly  reminded  the 
leader  that  he  was  not  the  only  sufferer  in  the  warfare 
between  Liberals.  '  I,  too,'  he  said,  '  have  suffered.  Let 
any  one  put  himself  in  my  place,  with  the  best  years  of  his 
life  slipping  away,  and  consider  the  discouragement  and 
the  blight  of  knowing  that  personal  cross-currents  existed 
and  w&re  affecting  the  party.'  In  his  reply  Campbell- 


346    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP.    Bannerman  expressed  a  polite  surprise  that  either  of  his 

XVIII 

colleagues  should  have  suspected  him  of  desiring  to  pro- 


I9°r*  scribe  the  free  expression  of  differing  opinions,  but  what  he 
did  object  to,  he  said  quite  firmly,  was  separate  '  organisa- 
tions established  for  the  purpose  of  perpetuating  and  accen- 
tuating difference.'  This  was  in  allusion  to  certain  schemes  „ 
which  were  in  the  air  for  providing  the  Imperialists  with  a 
permanent  organisation. 

The  meeting  was  an  anti-climax  for  those  who  had  pre- 
dicted a  sensational  quarrel,  and  some  of  them  said  caustic- 
ally that  the  proceedings  exactly  resembled  one  of  those 
miracles  of  draftsmanship  for  the  combining  of  opposite 
opinions  which  Mr.  Asquith  derided.  They  were  wrong : 
Campbell-Bannerman  had  achieved  his  main  purpose,  which 
was  to  restore  the  balance  temporarily  disturbed  by  the 
National  Reform  Union  Banquet,  and  to  establish  himself 
firmly  in  the  confidence  of  the  centre.  It  was  plain  from 
henceforth  that  he  would  not  resign  so  long  as  the  centre 
supported  him,  and  he  could  not  be  displaced  by  any 
minority.  The  charter  to  express  their  opinions  freely, 
which  Mr.  Asquith  and  Sir  Edward  Grey  had  claimed,  he 
gave  ungrudgingly  :  he  only  observed  that  they  had  never 
till  now  appeared  to  think  his  consent  necessary  for  the 
exercise  of  this  privilege. 


IV 

But  even  now  the  drama — or  comedy — was  not  quite 
played  out.  A  week  after  the  party  meeting  Lord  Rose- 
bery,  who  had  been  abroad  during  the  first  fortnight  of 
July,  made  a  sudden  appearance  with  a  letter  to  the  City 
Liberal  Club,1  claiming  his  share  of  the  '  remarkable  charter ' 
by  which  the  Opposition  had  '  united  or  reunited,  on  the 
double  basis  of  a  hearty  and  undisputed  allegiance  to  its 
leader  and  a  complete  liberty  of  action  and  dissent  with 
regard  to  the  one  vital  question  before  the  country.'  The 
suggestion  had  been  thrown  out  that  he  should  preside  at 

1  July  16. 


LORD  ROSEBERY  INTERVENES   347 

the  dinner  to  Mr.  Asquith,  and  the  fear  of  a  '  Rosebery    CHAP. 
Restoration '  had  added  not  a  little  to  the  anger  of  the  left 


wing.  But  if  the  Liberal  Imperialists  looked  to  Lord  Rose-  ^ 
bery  to  lead  them,  they  discovered,  not  for  the  first  or 
the  last  time  in  their  dealings  with  that  inscrutable  man, 
that  they  were  reckoning  without  their  host.  He  said  in 
effect  to  the  City  Liberals  that  he  was  not  coming  back  to 
put  his  head  into  this  hornets'  nest.  Having  laid  down  his 
leadership  in  1896  '  with  the  hope  rather  than  in  the  expec- 
tation of  promoting  its  unity,'  he  would  '  never  voluntarily 
return  to  the  arena  of  party  politics.'  But  he  considered 
that  there  was  '  a  useful  and  uncoveted  place  in  the  Common- 
wealth for  one  who,  having  held  high  office  and  having  no 
desire  to  hold  it  again,  could  speak  his  mind  with  absolute 
independence.' 

Availing  himself  of  this  independence,  he  proceeded 
to  tell  the  Liberal  Party  that  an  attitude  of  '  neutrality 
and  an  open  mind  on  a  war  to  which  the  whole  Empire 
had  rallied  was  an  impossible  attitude  which  spelt  Liberal 
impotence.'  There  was  in  fact  a  '  sincere,  fundamental 
and  incurable  antagonism  of  principle  '  between  the  two 
sections,  an  antagonism  which  arose  from  radically  different 
conceptions  of  the  British  Empire  and  the  attitude  of 
good  citizens  towards  it.  To  attribute  this  to  personal 
jealousies  was  absurd.  '  Who  is  jealous  of  whom  ?  What 
position  in  the  party  is  a  subject  of  envy  ?  Certainly  not 
the  Liberal  throne,  the  most  uneasy  that  has  existed  since 
the  partition  of  Poland.'  The  root  of  the  trouble  lay  much 
deeper.  A  party  could  not  be  conducted  on  the  principles 
of  Issachar.  '  The  two  sections  might  call  themselves  by 
the  same  name  and  row  in  the  same  boat,  but,  if  so,  the 
boat  can  never  advance,  for  they  are  rowing  in  opposite 
directions.  Until  the  crew  make  up  their  mind  towards 
what  point  they  are  to  row,  their  barque  can  never  move, 
it  can  only  revolve.'  It  was  idle  to  keep  talking  of  '  the 
grand  old  principles  of  the  Liberal  Party.'  That  was  all 
very  well  for  a  peroration,  but  for  practical  or  business 
purposes  it  was  necessary  to  know  what  those  principles 


348    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,    were  as  applied  to  the  British  Empire  in  the  present  con- 
t  dition  of  the  world. 


There  could  scarcely  have  been  a  less  timely  deliverance 
for  the  Liberal  Imperialists  and  especially  for  Mr.  Asquith, 
who  had  just  assured  the  Centre  Liberals  that  the  last 
thing  he  desired  was  to  emphasise  differences.  Lord  Rose- 
bery,  however,  was  not  content  with  writing  this  letter  ; 
he  went  to  the  City  Liberal  Club  on  the  day  of  the  Asquith 
dinner,  and  in  a  speech  delivered  during  the  luncheon  hour, 
repeated  the  substance  of  his  letter,  and  added  one  passage 
which  aroused  widespread  curiosity  : — 

For  the  present  at  any  rate,  I  must  proceed  alone.  I  must 
plough  my  furrow  alone.  That  is  my  fate,  agreeable  or  the 
reverse  ;  but  before  I  get  to  the  end  of  that  furrow,  it  is  possible 
that  I  may  find  myself  not  alone.  But  that  is  another  matter. 
If  it  be  so,  I  shall  remain  very  contented  in  the  society  of  my 
books  and  my  home.  If  it  be  so,  I  shall  wait  for  those  cir- 
cumstances to  arise  before  I  pronounce  with  any  definiteness 
about  them. 

Here  was  a  hint  of  developments  still  to  come,  but  for  the 
moment  the  result  of  this  incursion  was  to  take  the  sting 
out  of  the  dinner  to  Mr.  Asquith,  and  to  provide  an  additional 
embarrassment  both  for  the  guest  and  his  hosts.  The  latter 
were  now  more  concerned  to  prove  that  they  were  not  of 
Lord  Rosebery's  opinion  about  the  fundamental  disunity 
of  the  Liberal  Party  than  to  pursue  the  argument  with  the 
leader  on  the  pro-Boers.  Mr.  Asquith  made  the  best  of  an 
embarrassing  occasion,  speaking  eloquently  upon  the  ideals 
of  Liberal  Imperialism  and  linking  them  up  with  the  neces- 
sity of  breeding  an  Imperial  race  by  a  policy  of  Radical 
reform  in  '  little  England.'  Like  his  chief,  he  appealed  to 
the  '  bulk  of  Liberals/  the  familiar  four-fifths  who  guarded 
the  shrine  of  orthodoxy ;  and  assuredly  there  was  nothing 
in  his  doctrine  from  which  any  of  them  need  have  dissented. 
Certainly  Campbell-Bannerman  did  not  dissent.  In  the 
meantime  he  had  even  had  the  satisfaction  of  hearing  Sir 
Edward  Grey  reprove  Lord  Rosebery  in  a  speech  at  Peter- 
borough (July  17)  : — 


THE  LONELY  FURROW  349 

Lord  Rosebery  has  said  that  he  thinks  the  position  taken  up    CHAP. 
at  the  Reform  Club  the  other  day  an  impossible  one  which  cannot 


last.     I  would  say  to  him  in  return  that  the  position  he  takes  up  -*T-  64-65. 
in  his  letter  is  an  impossible  one.     The  position  of  standing  aside 
from  party  politics  cannot  last.     It  is  true  that  lookers-on  see 
most  of  the  game.     Yes,  but  they  do  not  influence  the  result. 

The  comment  of  the  Government  newspapers  and  of  the 
man  in  the  street  was  that  to  all  the  other  differences  in 
the  Liberal  Party  there  was  now  added  a  difference  between 
Lord  Rosebery  and  the  Liberal  Imperialists.  In  regard  to 
that  at  least,  Campbell-Bannerman  could  afford  to  be  the 
tertius  gaudens,  and  he  manifestly  had  every  advantage 
over  the  '  solitary  ploughman  '  whose  own  followers  were 
unable  to  ascertain  whether  he  was  in  or  out  of  politics.  So 
far  he  was  not  ill-satisfied  with  the  results  of  this  first  trial  of 
strength,  but  he  had  no  illusions  about  the  future  :  '  We 
have  had  an  awful  fortnight,'  he  wrote  to  the  President  of 
the  Dunfermline  Liberal  Association  on  July  13,  '  but  it 
has  all  ended  well  for  the  moment.  I  have  the  whole  party 
except  about  six  men  with  me,  and  even  on  the  South 
African  question  (whatever  they  may  have  the  courage  to 
say  publicly  :  that  is  another  question)  they  with  very  few 
exceptions  take  my  attitude.  But  the  intriguers  will  go 
on  as  opportunity  offers.'  The  Asquith  dinner,  he  confides 
to  the  same  correspondent,  is  a  '  stupid  blunder,  it  has  the 
taint  of  its  origin  about  it,'  and  '  every  single  man  I  have 
spoken  to  condemns  it  and  wishes  it  given  up.  This  in- 
cludes A.  himself.'  The  '  origin  '  he  frankly  believed  to  be 
a  plot  against  himself  pursued  with  great  persistency  by 
certain  people  who  were  attempting  to  use  Mr.  Asquith  for 
their  own  ends.  He  foresaw  that  it  would  continue,  and 
that  the  charter  of  free  speech  which  the  Imperialist  section 
claimed  to  have  received  from  the  party  meeting  might 
give  even  greater  publicity  to  the  quarrel.  On  the  other 
hand  he  considered  that  he  himself  had  obtained  two  signal 
-advantages  from  this  meeting  :  (i)  a  renewal  of  his  mandate 
from  the  party  with  his  policy  openly  declared  on  the  South 
African  question,  (2)  a  mandate  of  his  own  to  resist  any 


350    SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

CHAP,  organisation  which  appeared  to  make  a  permanent  cleavage 
— ^l^out  of  the  South  African  issue.  To  the  second  of  these 
things  he  attached  the  utmost  importance.  There  was  in 
his  view  the  sharpest  distinction  between  freedom  to  differ 
about  the  origin  and  conduct  of  the  war  and  the  setting  up 
of  an  organisation  which  sought,  in  opposition  to  or  rivalry 
with  the  central  organisation,  to  run  candidates  of  its  own 
at  elections  or  otherwise  to  divide  the  party  on  the  whole 
range  of  Imperial  questions.  His  strong  repugnance  to 
this  kind  of  organisation  is  the  clue  to  his  action  in  the 
subsequent  months. 

v 

While   these   dissensions   continued   within   the   Liberal 
household,  the  storm  raged  unabated  outside.    .Campbell- 
Bannerman  was  held  up  to  scorn  by  the  popular  press^ 
anathematised  in  polite  society,  cursed  in  the  clubs,  and 
his  crime  declared  to  be  for  ever  unforgivable  and  inexpiable. 
That  he  had  '  done  for  himself,'  that  he  could  never  be 
Prime  Minister  or  long  remain  the  leader  of  any  party  that 
respected  itself,  was  the  loudly  expressed  opinion  of  the 
man  in  the  train  and  the  man  in  the  City.     'Methods  of 
barbarism  '  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth,  quenching  all 
argument,   stamping  the  verdict  with  finality.     He  bore 
it  with  his  usual  philosophy  and  positively  chuckled  over 
the  anonymous  letters  which  poured  in  upon  him,  declaring 
various  kinds  of  painful  death  to  be  too  good  for  his  iniquities. 
Now  and  again  he  was  nettled  when  the  Imperialists  seemed 
to  be  throwing  him  to  the  wolves,  and  nothing  more  helped 
the  good  personal  relations  which  were  always  maintained 
between  him  and  Mr.  Asquith  than  that  the  latter  loyally 
came  to  his  defence  against  his  assailants.     The  one  thing 
that  he  seriously  took  to  heart  was  that  he,  an  old  Secretary 
for  War,  who  had  stood  between  the  soldiers  and  the  efforts 
of  politicians  to  throw  upon  them  the  blame  for  sins  which 
were  purely  political,  whose  loyalty  to  the  service  was  his 
special  pride — that  he  of  all  men  should  be  charged  with 
defaming  the  Army.     Against  this  he  protested  vehemently 


A  WORD  FROM  GENERAL  BOTHA     351 

and  unceasingly,  and  the  difference  between  the  responsi-    CHAP. 
bill  ties  of  those  who  prescribed  a  '  method '  and  those  who 


executed  it  under  orders  was  the  one  point  on  which  he  ^ 
continued  to  make  public  explanations.     On  all  others  he 
was  silent  or  impenitent,  and  no  remonstrances,  public  or 
private,  no  plea  of  the  harm  which  was  being  done  to  the 
party,  had  the  smallest  effect  on  him. 

•  **••••• 

One  day  eight  years  lajter,  I  found  myself  talking  over 
these  events  with  QenfiraLJBotha,  who  was  visiting  this 
country  as  first  Prime  Minister  of  the  South  African  Union. 
Just  as  I  was  leaving  he  stopped  me  for  a  moment  and  said  : 
'  After  all,  three  words  made  peace  and  union  in  South 
Africa:  "  methods  of  barbarism."  Softening  the  epigram 
a  little,  he  went  on  to  speak  of  the  tremendous  impression 
which  had  been  made  upon  men  fighting  a  losing  battle 
with  an  apparently  hopeless  future  by  the  fact  that  the 
leader  of  one  of  the  great  English  parties  had  had  the 
courage  to  say  this  thing,  and  to  brave  the  obloquy  which 
it  brought  upon  him.  So  far  from  encouraging  them  to  a 
hopeless  resistance,  it  touched  their  hearts  and  made  them 
think  seriously  of  the  possibility  of  reconciliation. 


DA     Spender,  John  Alfred 

The  life  of  the  Right  Hon.  Sir 
CI5S6    Henry  CampbelL-Bannerman. 

v.I          v.I 
cop. 2 


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