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democratic garden; the wilder the scheme the more the officials, the less freedom for everybody, and the greater the rejoicing on the part of the demagogues. Mr Lloyd George and those of his kidney look upon unpaid freely given services as one of the great barriers still existing between the world as it is and the world as they would have it; between a world which, for all its countless injustices and inequalities, at least provides a reasonably happy life for the great majority of human beings, and the world of their imaginings, which is to be a place of enforced monotony and mediocrity unspeakable.

I am not going to claim that I work every day and all day. I hunt a little, shoot a little, fish a little; but cannot agree that I am despoiling the poor by so doing. If I gave up hunting, and bestowed in urban alms the two or three hundred pounds a-year which I spend on my horses, and if many others followed my example, there would but be a robbing of Peter to pay Paul. Some folk would gain, others lose. The farmer whose oats I buy, or who breeds a likely young one now and again (which may make a charger or an M.I. cob, even if it does not turn out a hunter), is he less worthy of consideration than the docklabourer or the bricklayer? So, too, with shooting, which brings in a good many extra half-crowns to the labourer's cottage in the course of the season, though I am not at

pains to defend the upbringing of inordinate quantities of tame pheasants.

One must feel that the present is a singularly ungracious time for Mr Lloyd George to have chosen for such an attack. One of the main efforts of the Government to which he belongs-at times one would imagine it belonged to him-has been to provide the country with a Territorial army. Now in many ways, in most ways, the Territorial army is proving a considerable success, and is, in any case,

an enormous advance on the old Volunteer system. This result has been obtained almost entirely by the untiring labours of the men whom the Chancellor is never tired of attacking. But for the much abused "county magnates" the whole scheme would have fallen still-born to the ground. It speaks volumes for the good sense and patriotism of these gentlemen that, although the great majority of them are Conservatives, they nevertheless accepted the plans of a Liberal Secretary of State, and have done and are doing their very best, in the face of every conceivable difficulty, to carry them into effect,-bespattered all the time with the Chancellor's choicest Billingsgate.

The only large division of "idle rich" to be found in the country are the foreigners, usually Americans, who take many of the best grouse moors, deer forests, and salmon rivers. They come and spend their leisure in Great Britain because

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they get more fun for their difficulty by only having one money here than in their own son. or any other country. things are made unpleasant for them they will stay away, and the stream of dollars which filters through the Highlands will dry up. That will not be to anybody's great advantage.

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The truth is that in a country where the right of the first born is so firmly established you cannot in the nature of things get any very great number of idle men. The younger sons even of the most bloated plutocrat are nearly always obliged to work; the eldest son is seldom content to wait till he steps into his father's shoes. The system is one which cannot be defended logically, and did not survive the Revolution in France; but it is a good one, and in this country has worked splendidly. The Empire has been created by younger sons, while the first-born has stayed at home to look after the family business, whether it be selling tea or owning land. I should say that Paris, for its size, contains a far greater number of gilded loafers than London, as all the sons share alike; though of course it must be remembered that most French parents get over the

To sum up, there is no evidence anywhere to prove that there is in this country any considerable number of idle rich men. The well-born and well-to-do classes, as a general rule, are fully aware of the responsibilities of their position, and do their best to fulfil them. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, by the accident of birth, is incapable of understanding any class but his own, which is a small one; and has entirely forgotten the heaven - made law, that an idle man is never happy, and the man-made law, that the younger sons must earn their bread. His tongue is venomous, and he is willing enough to wound; but so long as he labours under foolish delusions, which cloud his intelligence and obscure his reason, he may indeed be the cause of much mischief, but never, I hope and believe, of any very serious injury to the body politic. He may, He may, he does, sometimes deceive many of the people, but now and again he is sure to be found out, and will never be able to fool all the people all the time. It takes a Napoleon to do that, and Mr Lloyd George is no Napoleon— only Cleon Redivivus.

HUGH OAKELEY ARNOLD-FORSTER.

IT is generally held that a man's life and character are the result of heredity and environment, and in both respects the subject of this memoir was singularly favoured. To his parentage may be traced his exceptional ability, with that sterling character which his wife1 convincingly shows him to have possessed, and to his early environment that strong sense of duty, that patriotism, and that tenacity of purpose which raised him-though his own personal advancement was never his aim to the high position and responsibilities of a Secretary of State. He was grandson of Dr Arnold, the great headmaster of Rugby, of whom it was truly said that he was not so much a schoolmaster as a prophet among schoolmasters, a man whose life and example gave new vitality to education and a new spirit to our public schools. He was the nephew of Matthew Arnold, poet, philosopher, and critic. He was the son of William Delafield Arnold, soldier and thinker, who in his early youth was selected by John Lawrence to be the first Director of Public Instruction in the Punjaub.

Three years after the birth of her son Hugh, his mother died, and a year later his father died at Gibraltar on his way home. The orphaned Hugh

and his brother and two sisters found, from the time of their arrival in England, a home at Wharfeside in Yorkshire, with their father's sister Jane and her husband William Forster, who became father and mother to them, and brought them up in an atmosphere not only of the tenderest love and care, but of domestic peace, simplicity, and earnest work. This is how an American writer speaks of that Yorkshire home:

"What a vision it is for my memory that pretty house at Wharfeside where I first came to know William and Jane Forster. Never was there a closer intellectual com

panionship than theirs; each, as it were, supplementing the other; his rugged strength, his quick mind, his wide knowledge of books, of men, and affairs. Her keen intelligence, dignity, her tenderness of feeling." her grace of manner, her sweet

Wordsworth said of her that in all that went to make up excellence in woman he thought Jane Arnold was the finest example he knew. It was from her that Matthew Arnold cared most for approval of his poems or his political essays.

The name of William Forster stands so high on the roll of the nation's honoured sons, that it is scarcely necessary to recall his grand if rugged character, "thoroughly genuine and independent," as Gladstone called it. Earnest worker for the protection of native races,

1 The Right Honourable Hugh Oakeley Arnold-Forster. A Memoir, by his Wife. London: Edward Arnold. 1910.

and whose name he now added to his own, becoming "ArnoldForster." Yet Oxford was a congenial atmosphere to him; his work in the History Schools fitted in with the bent towards the study of political and social questions which he had already developed; and Ruskin's influence helped to sustain a high standard of ideals.

true friend of the working were to him from the first, man, author of the first Education Act, staunch believer in a great future federation of the Empire, a strong Liberal by heredity and by conviction, in turn Under Secretary for the Colonies, Minister of Education, Chief Secretary for Ireland, he was too honest to serve on when he thought his party's leader was betraying the country's cause. Mrs ArnoldForster thinks that his name will be most clearly remembered in connection with his Education Bill of 1870. We think it will be even better in practice; but the call remembered by his courage in the stormy years in Ireland which preceded the "Kilmainham Treaty," and his resigning office in 1882 rather than agree to his chief's unconditional surrender to the breakers of the law.

After leaving Oxford he read for the Bar, working in chambers and obtaining sufficient briefs to convince him that he could succeed

to political life was strong upon him, and when in 1880 his "father" became Chief Secretary for Ireland, he commenced official life as his Private Secretary. The two years which followed made an indelible impression on his Such were they who moulded mind. He saw his father, to in his early years the character whom he was deeply devoted, of one already fitted by hered- threatened and attacked, his ity to receive and assimilate life in constant danger. Even their teaching, and in every his mother was not spared the stage of this book, and in every receipt of threatening letters. act and phase of the life of He saw the suffering inflicted its subject, we can trace their on men and women by the influence. It was not from his cruel and calculating political first school, John Penrose's at tyranny of the Land League. Exmouth, nor from Rugby, The question of prolonging the whence he was removed by Mr existing Coercion Act was beForster when Dr Hayman suc- fore the Government; they ceeded Dr Temple, nor from the decided against its prolongatutor with whom he subse- tion. Mr Forster, fighting the quently worked, nor yet from Land League through the Oxford, where he took a first- ordinary law alone, asked for class degree in modern history, exceptional powers to suppress that he derived his real educa- crime. The Government retion. It was from the home fused his request. Juries retraining and example of his fused to convict criminals. "father and "mother," as as The cruel practice of boycotting William Forster and his wife grew up. Moonlighting out

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rages, incendiary fires, cattlemaiming, assassinations, increased in number. Mr Forster, striving with all his heart to discover and remove the causes of these evils, was none the less resolved to combat to the death this abominable tyranny. His Private Secretary knew and shared his difficulties and dangers, his opinions and resolves. At length Mr Gladstone recognised the need of special powers: the Protection of Person and Property Act was passed and became law. But outrages continued and grew, till in September 1881 agrarian crime reached highwater mark. In October Parnell was arrested under the P.P.P. Act and sent to Kilmainham prison, the Land League was declared an illegal association, and its meetings were suppressed.

At this time young ArnoldForster published a pamphlet that saw many editions and did much to educate Parliament and the people, 'The Truth about the Land League,' based upon documents published by the League and the authority of sworn reports. He had knelt on the roadside by a dying man shot from behind a hedge by his unknown enemies. He had stood by the deathbed of another, shot down because he had paid his rent. Threatening letters came by every post. It was known that the Chief Secretary's life was in hourly danger.

And it was at this time that Mr Gladstone decided to release Parnell and the other imprisoned Members of Par

liament. Mr Forster demanded certain conditions which Mr. Gladstone refused to grant. The release was unconditional, the surrender to the lawbreakers complete. Mr Forster realised the impossibility of his his position, position, and resigned office. Within 8 few days Lord Frederick Cavendish, his successor, sent to carry out the policy of conciliation, and Mr Burke, the Under Secretary who had worked with Mr Forster and served Ireland devotedly and loyally, were assassinated in the Phoenix Park; and their death was followed by a more stringent Coercion Act than any known before.

Here we have the origin of Arnold-Forster's future creed as regards Ireland - a creed based upon knowledge and experience, a creed which made his prime duty the defence of the loyal men and women of Ireland.

A political career had from the first strongly first strongly appealed to Arnold - Forster; invitations from constituencies had reached him as early as 1879 and 1880; but his father was anxious for his professional success at the Bar, and dissuaded him from accepting them. But before the resignation of 1882 he was persuaded to accept the candidature for Devonport in the Liberal interest. This candidature he withdrew later when he found himself compelled to break free from the Liberal party; and the first seat which he contested was Darlington, at the General Elec

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