Part 10 (1/2)

Having for years neglected social reform, we have recently tried to make up for lost time by the hurried adoption of a number of measures, often faulty in principle and ill-considered in detail, which seek to obtain by frenzied haste those advantages which can only be secured by the strenuous and persistent application of sound principles embodied in deliberate and well-conceived legislative enactments.

Disraeli, therefore, saw the rock ahead, but how did he endeavour to steer the s.h.i.+p clear of the rock? It is in dealing with this aspect of the case that the view of the statesman dwindles away and is supplanted by that of the self-seeking party manager. His fundamental idea was that ”we had altogether outgrown, not the spirit, but the organisation of our inst.i.tutions.” The manner in which he proposed to reorganise our inst.i.tutions was practically to render the middle cla.s.ses politically powerless. His scheme, const.i.tuting the germ which, at a later period, blossomed into the Tory democracy, was developed as early as 1840 in a letter addressed to Mr. Charles Attwood, who was at that time a popular leader. ”I entirely agree with you,” he said, ”that an union between the Conservative Party and the Radical ma.s.ses offers the only means by which we can preserve the Empire. Their interests are identical; united they form the nation; and their division has only permitted a miserable minority, under the specious name of the People, to a.s.sail all right of property and person.”

Mr. Monypenny, if I understand rightly, is generally in sympathy with Disraeli's project, and appears to think that it might have been practicable to carry it into effect. He condemns Peel's counter-idea of subst.i.tuting a middle-cla.s.s Toryism for that which then existed as ”almost a contradiction in terms.” I am unable to concur in this view. I see no contradiction, either real or apparent, in Peel's counter-project, and I hold that events have proved that the premises on which Disraeli based his conclusion were entirely false, for his political descendants, while still pursuing his main aim, viz. to ensure a closer a.s.sociation of the Conservative Party and the ma.s.ses, have been forced by circ.u.mstances into an endeavour to effect that union by means not merely different from but antagonistic to those which Disraeli himself contemplated.

It all depends on what Disraeli meant when he spoke of ”Conservatism,”

and on what Mr. Monypenny meant when he spoke of ”Toryism.” It may readily be conceded that a ”middle-cla.s.s Toryism,” in the sense in which Disraeli would have understood the expression, was ”a contradiction in terms,” for the bed-rock on which his Toryism was based was that it should find its main strength in the possessors of land. The creation of such a Toryism is a conceivable political programme. In France it was created by the division of property consequent on the Revolution. Thiers said truly enough that in the cottage of every French peasant owning an acre of land would be found a musket ready to be used in the defence of property. In fact, the five million peasant proprietors now existing in France represent an eminently conservative cla.s.s. But, so far as I know, there is not a trace to be found in any of Disraeli's utterances that he wished to widen the basis of agricultural conservatism by creating a peasant proprietary cla.s.s. He wished, above all things, to maintain the territorial magnates in the full possession of their properties. When he spoke of a ”union between the Conservative Party and the Radical ma.s.ses”

he meant a union between the ”patricians” and the working men, and the answer to this somewhat fantastic project is that given by Juvenal 1800 years ago:

Quis enim iam non intelligat artes Patricias?[74]

”Who in our days is not up to the dodges of the patricians?”

The programme was foredoomed to failure, and the failure has been complete. Modern Conservatives can appeal to the middle cla.s.ses, who--in spite of what Mr. Monypenny says--are their natural allies. They can also appeal to the working cla.s.ses by educating them and by showing them that Socialism is diametrically contrary to their own interests. But, although they may gain some barren and ephemeral electoral advantages, they cannot hope to advance the cause of rational conservative progress either by alienating the one cla.s.s or by sailing under false colours before the other. They cannot advantageously masquerade in Radical clothes. There was a profound truth in Lord Goschen's view upon the conduct of Disraeli when, in strict accordance with the principles he enunciated in the 'forties, he forced his reluctant followers to pa.s.s a Reform Bill far more Radical than that proposed by the Whigs. ”That measure,” Lord Goschen said,[75] ”might have increased the number of Conservatives, but it had, nevertheless, in his belief, weakened real Conservatism.” Many of Disraeli's political descendants seem to care little for Conservatism, but they are prepared to advocate Socialist or quasi-Socialist doctrines in order to increase the number of nominal Conservatives. This, therefore, has been the ultimate result of the gospel of which Disraeli was the chief apostle. It does no credit to his political foresight. He altogether failed to see the consequences which would result from the adoption of his political principles. He hoped that the Radical ma.s.ses, whom he sought to conciliate, would look to the ”patricians” as their guides. They have done nothing of the sort, but a very distinct tendency has been created amongst the ”patricians” to allow themselves to be guided by the Radical ma.s.ses.

I cannot terminate these remarks without saying a word or two about Disraeli's great antagonist, Peel. It appears to me that Mr. Monypenny scarcely does justice to that very eminent man. His main accusation against Peel is that he committed his country ”apparently past recall”

to an industrial line of growth, and that he sacrificed rural England ”to a one-sided and exaggerated industrial development which has done so much to change the English character and the English outlook.”

I think that this charge admits of being answered, but I will not now attempt to answer it fully. This much, however, I may say. Mr.

Monypenny, if I understand rightly, admits that the transition from agriculture to manufactures was, if not desirable, at all events inevitable, but he holds that this transition should have been gradual.

This is practically the same view as that held by the earlier German and American economists, who--whilst condemning Protection in theory--advocated it as a temporary measure which would eventually lead up to Free Trade. The answer is that, in those countries which adopted this policy, the Protection has, in the face of vested interests, been permanent, whilst, although the movement in favour of Free Trade has never entirely died out, and may, indeed, be said recently to have shown signs of increasing vigour, the obstacles to the realisation of the ideas entertained by economists of the type of List have not yet been removed, and are still very formidable. That the plunge made by Sir Robert Peel has been accompanied by some disadvantages may be admitted, but Free Traders may be pardoned for thinking that, if he had not had the courage to make that plunge, the enormous counter-advantages which have resulted from his policy would never have accrued.

As regards Peel's character, it was twice sketched by Disraeli himself.

The first occasion was in 1839. The picture he drew at that time was highly complimentary, but as Disraeli was then a loyal supporter of Peel it may perhaps be discarded on the plea advanced by Voltaire that ”we can confidently believe only the evil which a party writer tells of his own side and the good which he recognises in his opponents.” The second occasion was after Peel's death. It is given by Mr. Monypenny in ii.

306-308, and is too long to quote. Disraeli on this occasion made some few--probably sound--minor criticisms on Peel's style, manner, and disposition. But he manifestly wrote with a strong desire to do justice to his old antagonist's fine qualities. He concluded with a remark which, in the mouth of a Parliamentarian, may probably be considered the highest praise, namely, that Peel was ”the greatest Member of Parliament that ever lived.” I cannot but think that even those who reject Peel's economic principles may accord to him higher praise than this. They may admit that Peel attained a very high degree of moral elevation when, at the dictate of duty, he separated himself from all--or the greater part--of his former friends, and had the courage, when honestly convinced by Cobden's arguments, to act upon his convictions. Peel's final utterance on this subject was not only one of the most pathetic, but also one of the finest--because one of the most deeply sincere--speeches ever made in Parliament.

I may conclude these remarks by some recollections of a personal character. My father, who died in 1848, was a Peelite and an intimate friend of Sir Robert Peel, who was frequently his guest at Cromer. I used, therefore, in my childhood to hear a good deal of the subjects treated in Mr. Monypenny's brilliant volumes. I well remember--I think it must have been in 1847--being present on one occasion when a relative of my own, who was a broad-acred Nottinghams.h.i.+re squire, thumped the table and declared his opinion that ”Sir Robert Peel ought to be hanged on the highest tree in England.” Since that time I have heard a good many statesmen accused of ruining their country, but, so far as my recollection serves me, the denunciations launched against John Bright, Gladstone, and even the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, may be considered as sweetly reasonable by comparison with the language employed about Sir Robert Peel by those who were opposed to his policy.

I was only once brought into personal communication with Disraeli.

Happening to call on my old friend, Lord Rowton, in the summer of 1879, when I was about to return to Egypt as Controller-General, he expressed a wish that I should see Lord Beaconsfield, as he then was. The interview was very short; neither has anything Lord Beaconsfield said about Egyptian affairs remained in my memory. But I remember that he appeared much interested to learn whether ”there were many pelicans on the banks of the Nile.”

The late Sir Mountstuart Grant-Duff was a repository of numerous very amusing _Beaconsfieldiana_.

[Footnote 69: This pa.s.sage occurs in _Coningsby_, and Mr. Monypenny warns us that ”his version of the quarrel between Charles I. and the Parliament is too fanciful to be quite serious; we may believe that he was here consciously paying tribute to the historical caprices of Manners and Smythe.”]

[Footnote 70: Mr. Monypenny says in a note that a hostile newspaper gave the following translation of Disraeli's motto: ”The impudence of some men sticks at nothing.”]

[Footnote 71: What Buffon really wrote was: ”Le style est l'homme meme.”]

[Footnote 72:

Iratusque Chremes tumido delitigat ore; Et tragicus plerumque dolet sermone pedestri Telephus et Peleus.

_Ars Poetica_, 94-96.]

[Footnote 73: _Sir Robert Peel_. Charles Stuart Parker. Vol. iii. 425.]

[Footnote 74: _Sat._ iv, 101.]