Part 25 (2/2)

of the nation could have given true and sufficient reasons for the belief that was in them It was certainly not because he had added, in fact if not in nareat province to the British Ereater have been draithin the ic circle of the _Pax Britannica_ without theapproaching the recognition accorded to Lord Croain, it was not Lord Croh that skill was In India and in East and West Africa we have had exareat officials that have passed almost unnoticed Lord Croment? for he himself was the last ures, was doubtless very great; butits scope, or of understanding what he had done to produce order out of chaos, or how he had turned a bankrupt country into a solvent one

Deftness, nofinancial freedoht to be set up by the Powers in Egypt, would by itself have entirely failed to win hireeted him when he retired froh so supremely skilful, was never properly understood at hoainst all the Powers and had won out, but success here could not possibly have obtained for Lord Cromer that unbounded confidence which was shown him by the nation

The respect and veneration which the British public felt for Lord Cromer would, if his health had permitted, have called him to power at the moment of worst crisis in the war; yet those who called him could not have said why they felt sure he would prove the organizer of victory

They were content to believe that it was so

What was the quality that placed Lord Crohout Britain and the Empire? What was it that made him universally respected,--as much by soldiers as by civilians, by officials as by Mes as by Radicals, by Socialists as by Individualists? The answer is to be found in the spirit in which Lord Cromer did his work What raised him above the rank-and-file of our public men was his obedience to a very plain and obvious rule It was this: _to govern always in the interests of the governed_ This sounds a trite and elementary proposition, and yet the path it marks out is often a very difficult one to follow It ht, but it is so narrow that only the well-balanced ht or to the left It is always a plank across a strea on the rocks in a raging torrent

There are a hundred tenoble, to divert the I the narrow path exactly

In certain circumstances it may seem a positive virtue to exploit some province of the Empire for the Mother Country, or for the Eoverned in the interests of the great organism of which that province for a little to the one side or to the other Yet if these were listened to, on the ground of the interests of the Empire as a whole (it must be admitted that the temptation to think of the interests of the people of these islands is one which has been steadily resisted by all our great Proconsuls) they e as ithas proved a better or surer foundation of Empire, or has more helped even its material develope of the absolute power of the Mother Country over the Dependencies and subject States, but, on the contrary, to develop these as a sacred trust We rightly asked for, and we took, farthe war than frohter Nations were their own mistresses and could do what they liked They stood on an equality with us In the case of the Dependencies, we are Trustees, and no temptation whatever, either for ourselves or for others, would allow us to budge one inch froht path

Here, Lord Croest He was an ideal Trustee

And what made this evident was the fact that he talked coard to it as a pedant or a prig As long as the principle was firmly maintained, he bothered himself very little about matters of appearance

If Lord Cromer kept the path successfully in this respect, he kept it equally well in regard to another teovern, not in the true interests of the governed, but in what the governed think is their interest--to do what they actually desire rather than what they would desire if they were better judges

Weak governors, that is, act as if they were servants and not trustees

To play the part of an obedient servant is right and necessary here, for we are over age, have no need of trustees, and govern ourselves It is wrong when you stand in _loco parentis_ to those whose affairs you adovernment that an Eastern people establishes for itself In spite of the suffering that it inflicts upon the people, there is good evidence to show that, judged by the test of popularity, the governed in the East prefer arbitrary personal rule to just and efficient constitutional government In the same way a child will tell you, and honestly tell you, that he prefers raspberry-jaular meals of brown bread and butter, and that he is quite willing, in the interests of the pastry system of nourishment, to brave the pains which Mary experienced when she consuuardian does not, however, in view of such statement, conclude that it is his or her duty to let the child have whatever he likes

In the sa to ad State it is the duty of the adn or to carry out the will of his masters, the people, he would make no such admission in the case of an Oriental country Yet this did not, as ht be supposed, lead to a cold, harsh, or overnment Lord Cromer had far too , as he himself would have said, to push to extreood for him, and not what he asked for at the top of his voice

In small matters, indeed in all non-essentials, Lord Croive the native what he wanted, and strove still ood, what he did not want Lord Cro what, in Bacon's phrase, he would call ”luciferous” stories, to illustrate the folly of the administrator who thrusts physical ihtenood _per se_, or econooverned richer or cleverer or happier One of the stories of which Lord Cro Indian civilian who on his first day in a new district, and when he was entirely unknown, took a walk in the fields and saw an elderly ryot ploughing the land Being good at the vernacular and full of zeal, the district officer asked how things were in that part of the country The old loos were undoubtedly very bad, but that they o on cultivating the land ”This year it is the cattle plague Last year it was the Agricultural College But since they are both the will of God, both must be borne without complaint” That story the present writer re of a ricultural iht, no doubt, as Lord Cromer said, to make the task of the fellaheen much easier, but nevertheless it was certain that the ard them as pure evil--mere oppressions by ard if not deht how to get another fifteen per cent, of produce out of the land Knowing this, Lord Cromer harried the native as little as possible He was fond indeed of saying that there was very little you could do to rateful?” he would interject--There was, however, one thing which they could and did appreciate, and that was low taxation It was no good to say to the Oriental: ”It is true you pay higher taxation, but then look at the benefits you get for it--the road up to the door of your house which enables you to save iht railway not far off, the increased water for irrigation, a school for your children, and so forth and so on” To all these benefits the Oriental taxpayer is totally indifferent, or at all events he refuses to see any connection between them and the taxes paid They come or do not come, like the rain from Heaven All he is certain about is that the tax-collector is asking him double what he used to ask So h he kept his rule to govern in the interests of the governed so strictly and was so exact a trustee, was always human--never pedantic, professorial, or acades, a just man, and he realised that justice was not true justice unless it were hue and the sympathy of co governh he always tried so to harness his adall as little as possible That is why he won to such a strange degree the trust and adyptian people Peasant men and wouest idea of what he was and what he stood for, yet felt an unbounded belief in his desire that they should be justly treated There is a well-known story which exactly illustrates the point I aed in sanitary work in the Delta pointed out to a well-to-do far terrible risks by having her cesspool quite close to the door of her house, and so placed that it was conta-water used by her and her family At last after many ineffectual remonstrances he ordered the removal of this sure and certain road to death by cholera The wo hih for the moment he could oppress the poor and triu ”The hted She would appeal to him and he would protect her

Lord Crohtly, that this invocation was his best epitaph Appeals, no e, were never frowned down by hi They were often of an intie of the Babu, for Egypt has its Babus as well as Bengal One coan as follows: ”Oh, hell!

Lordshi+p's face grow red with rage when he hears too beastly conduct of Public Works Departy of Hampden may, with very little alteration, be applied to Lord Cromer ”The sobriety, the self-coment, the perfect rectitude of intention,” were as truly the qualities of the Ruler and regenerator of Egypt as they were of the great statesainst the sullen tyranny of Charles and Laud

For Joseph Chamberlain, I felt a very real and very warm affection as a man Unfortunately for me, however, I was, except in the matter of Home Rule, out of sympathy with most of his later political principles, or, at any rate, his political standpoint Mr Chah in no sense a man of extre To tread the narrow, uphill, and rather stony path of the _via e ways of carrying thereat mistake to call hiination in politics He liked to prophesy and to help fulfil his prophecies He was not content to wait and watch things grow He was, indeed, one of the political gardeners who thoroughly enjoy the forcing-house If he had been a grower of vegetables instead of Orchids, he would have dealt, I feel sure, almost entirely in ”_priinative faculty more in politics than he did, except Disraeli, and here, indeed, Mr Chaination run so wild as to becoar, pompous, and ostentatious, whereas Mr Chamberlain always kept his visionary scheh I think he placed no lilish people to ers and difficulties in the world of politics, and always held them, as, indeed, do I, capable to be of heroic mould, he never inflated hihtily and with good sense To take a concrete example, he, no more than Lord Cromer, would have intoxicated his mind with a fantastic idea like that of the Cape to Cairo railway as did Mr Rhodes That was at its best only a syh Mr Cha and business success some of the best qualities of the statesman, that is, confidence in himself, and his sound practical sense, he was not, as I think his greatest adree, a deep political thinker

He was, however, a great orator and a great parliamentary advocate, and, if properly briefed, there was no man who could state a case better or h an advocacy quite untouched by cynicism, was apt to raise doubts in the public norance of the ued as thethe first half of his political life and later as a convinced Protectionist Yet I am certain that on both occasions he was perfectly sincere In each case, though he did not realise it, he was speaking frohly converted him and made him think of the policy advocated in the spirit of a missionary

Mr Chaht to be proud He was a good fighter and an unwearied worker, and he spent hily in the service of his country Above all things, he had that quality of vigour and daring which endears itself, and alill endear itself, to a virile race He was not for ever counting the cost of his actions, but would as gaily as any hero of romance throw his cap over the wall and folloithout a thought of the difficulties and dangers that ht confront him on the other side

No one has ever asserted that Mr Chamberlain left his coht place, or accepted help fro thement for what they had done Remember that it is very rare in the case of a public ratitude The accusation of ingratitude, indeed, ainst the great by the sh to take help from me when he needed it; now he has raised himself, the hunored”--”While ere unknown ether shoulder to shoulder and helped each other When he grew big and strong, he forgot the colleagues of his early days, ignored their past services, and huetfulness”-- ”I soon saw that, if he had not actually forgotten me, he would very much rather not be asked to remember me”--”It was evidently a bore to him to talk of old days, or to be relad of 'a back up'”--”He liked to think that he owed it all to himself and to no one else” These are the kind of criticisms that most winners in the Political Stakes have to bear Such criticisms, very likely unfair in theard to Mr Gladstone But thoughof Mr Chale instance of such gruard to Mr Chamberlain On the contrary, the world of politics is filled with h their work for Mr Chamberlain ot the helping hand and the loyal service, but repaid theenius for friendshi+p of which Lord Morley once spoke, extended far beyond the ordinary liot a friend, but never forgot any loyal or honest helper, and, what froot also that it is not enough merely to remember the helper You ness to forget support, this instinct towards repayment of loyal service, was no piece of cynical calculation, no acting on the et men to serve you well and support you is to make it clear to them that you always pay your debts with full interest

That Mr Charateful I do not doubt; but I aenerous nature and to no sordid calculation