UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 A MEMOIR
 
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 asutm 
 
 LOUD ON : EDWARD ARNOLD 1906 .
 
 LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 . -*^ 
 
 A MEMOIE 
 
 BY 
 
 L. T. HOBHOUSE 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'MIND IN EVOLUTION,' ETC. 
 
 AND 
 
 J^ L. HAMMOND 
 
 AUTHOR OF ' C. 3. FOX : A STUDY, ETC. 
 
 ' Justum et tenacem propositi virum 
 Non ctvium ardor prava iubentium 
 Mente quatit solida' 
 
 LONDON 
 EDWARD ARNOLD 
 
 41 & 43 MADDOX STREET, BOND STREET, W. 
 to tljc EnDfa Office 
 
 1905 
 
 (All rights reserved.)
 
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 6 H *> 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THIS Memoir was undertaken at the desire of the 
 late Lady Hobhouse, and since her death in May last 
 has been continued in accordance with what were 
 believed to be her wishes, namely, to give in brief 
 compass a permanent record of her husband's work, 
 and of his thoughts on many questions of public 
 interest to which he had given close attention. The 
 Editors have received great assistance from many of 
 Lord Hobhouse's friends, who have allowed them the 
 use of private letters, and in some cases contributed 
 impressions and appreciations of Lord Hobhouse's work. 
 Most of these obligations are acknowledged in the 
 text, but they wish to record here their very special 
 debt to Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick, who has most generously 
 put at their disposal his intimate knowledge and ex- 
 perience of Lord Hobhouse's life and work in India. 
 It is due chiefly to him that the Editors have been 
 able to give so full a picture of this part of Lord 
 Hobhouse's career. They have also to thank Lady 
 Jenkyns for the use of letters written by Lord Hob- 
 house to his nephew Sir Henry Jenkyns ; Mr. Gomme 
 for supplying materials for the description of Lord 
 Hobhouse's work on the London County Council ; 
 and the Bight Hon. Henry Hobhouse, M.P., for many 
 valuable suggestions at every stage of the work. 
 
 October 15, 1905.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTEE I 
 EARLY LIFE AND CAREER AT THE BAR 
 
 CHAPTEE II 
 THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION ... 24 
 
 CHAPTEE III 
 INDIA 59 
 
 CHAPTEE IV 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME . . . ,,115 
 
 CHAPTEE V 
 LONDON GOVERNMENT 158 
 
 CHAPTEE VI 
 JUDICIAL WORK 194 
 
 CHAPTEE VII 
 CRITICISM OP MODERN TENDENCIES . . .217 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII 
 THE CLOSING YEARS 259 
 
 INDEX 275
 
 PORTRAITS 
 
 ARTHUR HOBHOUSE, AET. 35 . . . Frontispiece. 
 (From a crayon sketch by G. Richmond, RA.) 
 
 SIR ARTHUR HOBHOUSE, AET. 61 . . To face p. 134 
 LORD HOBHOUSE, AET. 83 ... p. 222
 
 CHAPTER I 
 EAELY LIFE AND CAREER AT THE BAR 
 
 ARTHUR HOBHOUSE was born at Hadspen House, in 
 the county of Somerset, November 10, 1819. His 
 father, Henry Hobhouse, by birth a Somerset squire, 
 was an active and distinguished civil servant in his day. 
 He was Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the 
 Home Department from 1817 to 1827, Keeper of the 
 State Papers from that date to his death in 1854, and 
 a Privy Councillor from 1828. But besides being an 
 active servant of the State, Henry Hobhouse held a 
 high conception of his duties as a landowner. He was 
 of the type which for many generations has made the 
 government of England by the ' country gentlemen ' 
 possible. Always active in local affairs, and for ten 
 years Chairman of the Somerset Quarter Sessions, he 
 had in more than ordinary degree the habit of looking 
 at things from the public point of view, and interest- 
 ing himself in details of administration, dull as they 
 might be in themselves, purely because they in- 
 timately affected the welfare and happiness of a 
 country-side. The conception of a country squire's 
 life and its duties which he bequeathed to his children 
 is drawn in a letter by Arthur Hobhouse, written 
 twenty years after his father's death, to one of his 
 nephews :
 
 2 MEMOIE OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 You are not likely to take a farm in hand, but will 
 probably continue to let the whole as your great-grandfather, 
 grandfather, and father did before you. Then the manage- 
 ment of your property consists of adjusting the few questions 
 which arise with the tenants, attending to repairs of 
 buildings, and sometimes to such things as labourers' cottages 
 and perhaps allotment grounds : all matters of interest and 
 importance on which the difference between a well and an 
 ill-managed estate turns ; but all of which put together 
 would hardly find fv&vv avbpi more than two or three weeks' 
 occupation in the year. 
 
 Then there are the various local functions which a country 
 gentleman may perform. He may be a Poor Law guardian 
 and attend their meetings once a week ; a magistrate with 
 meetings at Petty Sessions once a month, and at Quarter 
 Sessions four times a year ; a manager of Lunatic Asylums 
 and similar institutions; a trustee of public endowments, 
 and so forth. I have long thought that there is no more 
 noble or useful life than one spent in honest and zealous 
 devotion to these things. The men who will do it are very 
 rare, for to do it well requires a great deal of close attention 
 to minute details, and much patience, good sense, tact and 
 temper besides, while the work brings in no money, and no 
 reputation beyond the society affected by it. But such men 
 are the very cement of the society in which they live, and 
 they find their reward in seeing things go right instead of 
 wrong, in their own self-respect, and in the respect of those 
 about them. My father was one of such men, and he occu- 
 pied a position in the county quite out of proportion to his 
 insignificant property. Your father was rising into a similar 
 position, and would probably have attained it had he lived 
 a few years longer. 
 
 This conception of public service independent of 
 a personal career forms the background of Arthur 
 Hobhouse's own life. But the special duties of a land- 
 owner were not his. He was the ninth and youngest
 
 EAELY LIFE AND CAEEEE AT THE BAR 3 
 
 child of his father. Of his three elder brothers, Henry 
 succeeded to the estate, Edmund took orders and 
 became Bishop of Nelson in New Zealand, and after- 
 wards Assistant Bishop of Lichfield, and Reginald was 
 for fifty years rector of a Cornish parish, and for 
 fifteen years Archdeacon of Bodmin. Arthur's abilities 
 showed themselves at an early age. It was a legend 
 in the family which if not wholly true was at least 
 useful for damping the self-satisfaction of other pre- 
 cocious members that he could read when he was 
 two, learnt Latin when he was four, and went to 
 school when he was six. The two earlier statements, 
 if correct, should perhaps be quoted rather to the 
 discredit of the educational methods of the age than 
 for any other purpose. The third statement is con- 
 firmed by a letter, written to Sir Thomas Farrer sixty 
 years after the event, in which Arthur Hobhouse 
 speaks of the death of a Mr. Currey who was ' nearly 
 my oldest friend ; for our intimacy began when he 
 was seven years old and I but six, under very adverse 
 circumstances ; two young children at the bottom of 
 a large and rather rough school.' Such was education 
 in the twenties. A clever, perhaps too forward child of 
 six, taken out of the comfort and safety of home and 
 pitched neck and crop into a large and rather rough 
 sohool to sink or swim as best he could. However, 
 Arthur Hobhouse was of those who swam. At the 
 age of eleven he went on to Eton, where he spent 
 seven years under Keate and Hawtrey. Thence (after 
 distinguishing himself in the Newcastle Scholarship 
 examination) he went up to Balliol in 1837. Here, like 
 so many other men, he formed some of the friendships 
 which persisted through his whole life and deeply 
 
 B 2
 
 4 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 affected it. Stafford Northcote, Thomas Henry Fairer, 
 William Rogers, and Jowett were among his most 
 intimate friends, and in each case the relation was life- 
 long. The future Master of Balliol was not in those 
 days above the freaks of an undergraduate, nor did 
 he always care in later days to be reminded of his 
 doings. Balliol men recount a conversation at a break- 
 fast in the College in later years, when Lord Hobhouse 
 in a vein of reminiscence asked, ' Do you remember, 
 Jowett, when you and I stole the scholars' surplices out 
 of the ante-chapel ? ' ' No, no ; don't remember it at 
 all, think you must be mistaken/ was the Master's 
 embarrassed reply. But it was perhaps repudiation 
 rather than denial. 
 
 In November, 1840, Hobhouse took his degree, having 
 among his companions in the first class in classics the 
 late Lord Lingen. In the following June he was 
 entered at Lincoln's Inn, and in 1845 he was called to 
 the Bar. A journey to Ireland that occurred in the 
 interval is worth mentioning for the sake of the 
 impression he formed of Father Mathew. This is 
 expressed in a letter which he wrote forty-eight years 
 afterwards to the Lord Mayor of Dublin, on the 
 occasion of the Father Mathew Centenary : 
 
 Privy Council Office, Nov. 10, 1889. 
 MY LORD, In the year 1841, when I had just graduated 
 at Oxford, I walked over some parts of Ireland, and was 
 hospitably received by Father Mathew in Cork. I then saw 
 his administration of pledges, and heard his kindly sensible 
 addresses to the recipients, and I have never lost the im- 
 pression which I then received of the grand simplicity and 
 unselfishness of the man, and his perfect willingness to spend 
 and be spent in unceasing labour for the good of his fellow
 
 EAELY LIFE AND CAREER AT THE BAR 5 
 
 men. I believe lie exhausted his means and his life for 
 them ; and though it happened then, as ever, that the first 
 enthusiasm of the people could not be sustained, I believe 
 that he permanently inculcated in many the habits of 
 restraint and sobriety. I am glad that you are about to do 
 him honour, and I wish that my means were as abundant as 
 my goodwill to help you. As it is, I send a modest dona- 
 tion, not that it can make any effectual addition to your 
 funds, but more by way of expressing my sympathy with 
 your undertaking, and my reverence for Father Mathew. 
 I am, my Lord, your obedient servant, 
 
 HOBHOUSE. 
 
 Whilst a student Arthur Hobhouse took part in 
 a very different kind of work, which laid the founda- 
 tions of his future views on many social questions. 
 William Rogers, who was afterwards to make himself 
 a name as ' Hang Theology Rogers ' in the educational 
 world, had become incumbent of one of the poorest 
 parishes in the centre of London, and was throwing 
 himself into the work of tbe place with his whole 
 heart. Arthur Hobhouse gave him all the help he 
 could, and many years afterwards, in a speech to the 
 Charity Organization Society, he summed up tbe results 
 of the experience thus gained : 
 
 They were both young and had a great deal to learn, 
 and amongst the things they learned were these : how easy 
 it was to demoralize people by injudicious gifts, how use- 
 less it was to attempt to raise chronic poverty by the mere 
 administration of doles, and how impossible it was to know 
 what any one was getting unless there was much concert 
 and combination between the various donors of good things. 
 Well, it resulted, after many struggles and stumbles, that 
 he laid down for himself these rules. First, never to give 
 without inquiry he ought to qualify that by saying that 
 the rules were general rules, for in such a thing as this it
 
 15 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 was impossible to have a universal rule, but as general rules 
 they were these never to give without inquiry ; secondly, 
 only to give when there was hope of tiding over some 
 temporary pressure, and setting the recipient on his legs 
 again unless he made up his mind to treat the recipient as 
 a pensioner on him for life ; and, thirdly, to leave the chronic 
 and the helpless cases to the Poor Law. These rules he 
 found of some comfort and aid to him for the guidance of 
 his own individual action, though it was an extremely 
 imperfect guidance. 
 
 His life at this time is described in letters to his 
 father. 
 
 March 13, 1843. Beading law seems to me to be like 
 swimming by one's self in the sea, where after labouring 
 much one does not seem to have advanced at all, owing to 
 the vast extent before one and the want of all objects for 
 comparison. 
 
 I am now established here in New Square with two other 
 pupils, one of whom is Tom Farrer, whom you know. 
 
 A month or two later he is exercised on the question 
 of becoming a marshal. 
 
 June 8, 1843. On receipt of your letter I conferred with 
 Lonsdale who has been Patteson's marshal of late, with 
 Farrer who was Erskine's, and with John Coleridge who 
 is his father's. I find that they all undertook the office 
 before they had been with a pleader, and that Coleridge 
 went a circuit or two even before he took his degree at 
 Oxford. They all agree in saying that the marshal's work 
 is of so trifling a nature that a few minutes' application 
 would make any man master of his business. In fact 
 ignorance seems to be as necessary a qualification for the 
 civil side as you think impudence is for the criminal side. 
 You don't seem to doubt my impudence ; and I will answer 
 for my having ignorance enough for anything. Under 
 these circumstances, having ascertained that Patteson was
 
 EARLY LIFE AND CAREER AT THE BAR 7 
 
 not averse to having a marshal who knew nothing, I have 
 accepted his offer. I presume this will be agreeable to your 
 wishes, having gathered from your letter that your only 
 reason for wishing the offer to be rejected was fear of my 
 incapacity. And this I hope has been removed by what 
 I have said. I believe the circuit does not begin till the 
 tenth of next month. It appears to me (since they say that 
 a Chancery barrister ought to know something of the practice 
 of Common Law courts) that I may get some insight into 
 the saidjpractice during my marshalship, and thus be excused 
 going circuit after my call. "Wherein are two plain advan- 
 tages : one that I travel at the public expense instead of my 
 own or rather yours, the other that I do not now put myself 
 out of the way of getting business in my own peculiar line, 
 which if I went circuit after my call I should do. 
 
 I shall be very happy to convey Catherine to Southton 
 or do anything else that may be thought requisite. But 
 tell Eliza that if she wishes for an avant-courrier to Ventnor 
 to prepare lodgings, &c., she could not pick out a worse 
 person in the whole world than myself. Besides my natural 
 incapacity for judging of situations, soils, airs, &c., I have 
 been blessed with far too good health to have any idea 
 of the kind or degree of the comforts requisite for an 
 invalid. 
 
 June 15, 1843. Arthur Shadwell and I were not bumped 
 at all, seeing that bumping is not incident to a breast race. 
 Neither were we beaten, for though we did not come in first 
 yet we won the real fruits of victory by not coming in last. 
 For you must know that in our four-oar races the first boat 
 wins honour and glory but the last boat pays for the punch. 
 So that the real struggle is not who shall come in first, 
 but who shall avoid coming in last. And this we did avoid. 
 After all I can't think how you heard of it, for I am sure 
 I never told you, and being a perfectly private affair it 
 could hardly have appeared in the papers, except Bell's Life 
 and you are not in the habit of reading that. I find rowing 
 suit my knee admirably. It is not so fitting for my
 
 8 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 sedentary occupations as it involves a loss of epidermis. 
 I am glad to see a brilliant day and to feel a warm one, but 
 the wind appears to be up stream, i. e. in the east. I hope 
 I may soon have to take Cat to the Isle of Wight. 
 
 In October of 1843 he went to Oxford to take his 
 M.A. degree. From Hadspen he had to drive to 
 Castle Gary, whence he seems to have gone by coach 
 to Bath. 
 
 I found when I got to Gary that you were quite right 
 about the time of the Swiftsure, which was 9.30 and not 9 
 as I had been informed. I was forced to employ my spare 
 time in lionizing Gary, which is a place not perfectly new 
 to me, and therefore after having counted all the shawls in 
 Mrs. Close's window I began to find it rather dull. I was 
 the only outside and Mr. "Wake the only inside. The coach- 
 man enlivened my dullness by giving me an extremely 
 minute account of the last hours of his wife (who appears to 
 have died a short time since), and of the manner in which 
 he and his child exhibited their feelings on that sad 
 occasion. He also took an opportunity of re-narrating the 
 same to another passenger who got up at Prestleigh, but as 
 the said passenger had taken an early opportunity of getting 
 very drunk that morning, he did not evince much sympathy. 
 For this, however, the coachman did not much care, but 
 seemed satisfied with repeating his tale of domestic afflic- 
 tion. The drunken gentleman turned out to be Mr. of 
 
 Cannard's Grave Inn. He embraced me tenderly at parting, 
 and pressed divers preparations of alcohol (all of which he 
 recommended) on my acceptance; but I repulsed his embraces 
 and declined his spirituous liquors, and so we landed him 
 at his inn quite safe except sundry contusions produced by 
 a heavy fall which he met with owing (as he asserted) to 
 ' the wheels going round with him.' I also found poacher 
 Phinn, whom you must know by his appearance at sessions. 
 I spoke to Mr. John regarding the delay of your parcel, and 
 he says that he has known many instances of delay happening
 
 EAELY LIFE AND CAEEEE AT THE BAE 9 
 
 at Paddington, but none of its happening at Bath, and 
 therefore he thinks that the fault was not at Bath on this 
 occasion. He said further that if there was any parcel of 
 great moment (here he darkly hinted at fish) it should be 
 sent to Paddington with some trustworthy person who 
 should himself see it put into the train. My mother will 
 be glad to hear that I received a high character of Mr. Fisher 
 both from poacher Phinn and Mr. John, and that to Mr. J.'s 
 certain knowledge Messrs. Tudway, Jarrett, Knatchbull, and 
 Colonel Jolliffe all deal with that tradesman. "We got to 
 Oxford very safe, and I procured dinner and bed at the 
 Master's *. Both he and all his household down to Trim are 
 very flourishing. 
 
 One small circumstance rather trenches on his happiness, 
 which was that a certain writ commanding some one to 
 attach the person of Eichard Jenkyns wheresoever he might 
 be found had just issued from that abominable court the high 
 court of Chancery. I found him immersed in his answer, 
 and had a long conversation with him on the subject, which 
 ended by his resolving to do as you originally suggested, viz., 
 to submit to the Court and reserve his opposition till a scheme 
 is laid before the Master. I duly took my M.A. gown 
 yesterday morning, in company with many others. The 
 Master lent me 20, saying that that would cover all 
 expenses, but the University and the College between them 
 managed to run the bill up to 21 13s. 
 
 A journey by the same coach thirteen months later 
 is described in another letter. 
 
 I had a very cold journey : the first part very pretty 
 owing to the desperate attempts of the sun to break through 
 the mists. But when we got to the top of Mendip, we 
 suddenly experienced a feeling as though one of Dr. 
 Priesnitz's wet sheets had been thrown around us, without 
 the superincumbent blankets. We found ourselves in 
 
 1 Dr. Jenkyns, Master of Balliol 1819-1854.
 
 10 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 a thick cold wet fog with a mouldy-looking rime hanging 
 from our hats, eyelashes, and whiskers, and any other hirsute 
 surface to which it could attach itself. This lasted all the 
 way to Bath, by which time a considerable quantity of the 
 caloric with which we started had escaped. I think we 
 reached Paddington without any very stirring adventures. 
 I should mention, though, that a little way beyond Ansford 
 we took up the daughter of the coachman, who immediately 
 seized the opportunity of giving me a few additional 
 memoirs of his late lamented wife, by way of reviver and 
 supplement to the much fuller account with which he 
 favoured me the last time I travelled with him. Really the 
 knowledge I shall possess of her will almost entitle me to be 
 her biographer. 
 
 In August, 1846, he made a tour to the North, and 
 wrote : 
 
 I am afraid that not many ptarmigans will fall to my 
 gun, seeing that I propose going to Scotland without any 
 such implement. I am not at any time a very keen sports- 
 man, and when in new country I am always much more 
 eager to acquaint myself with its features, physical and 
 moral, than to destroy its wild animals. 
 
 From Ambleside he writes, August 12, 1845 : 
 I got away according to my purpose on Monday evening, 
 and arrived here at 11.30 on Tuesday morning. Rail as 
 far as Lancaster; from thence Her Majesty's mail, which 
 did itself great credit by galloping down these hills. The 
 weather has as yet been not very favourable, being dull 
 with occasional showers; and the hills are not too fond 
 of showing their tops ; however, there is light enough to 
 show one the extreme beauty of the country, which though 
 not new to me is as charming as it was at first, and the 
 air most invigorating, especially after escaping from a stew 
 pan. The Farrers have got a sort of lodging-house just 
 outside the town of Ambleside ; which is pretty much the 
 same sort of thing as all lodging-houses in all watering-
 
 EAELY LIFE AND CAEEEE AT THE BAE 11 
 
 places, very whitewashy and very public. I learn from 
 the latest information that the name of the house is 
 Fisherbeck Cottage. The only ' beck ' we have discovered 
 belonging to the said cottage is a little runnel, about half 
 a foot wide and three inches deep, which ripples down 
 by the side of the garden. "We have not yet fished in it, 
 but it hardly seems calculated to afford much employment 
 for fishers. There are two steamers set up on Windermere, 
 plying regularly between Ambleside and Newby Bridge, 
 which afford much scandal to devoted admirers of the 
 picturesque. Nevertheless I propose going by one of them 
 to Bowness, where Edmund tells me I may expect to find 
 George Blisset. But to my Londinensian and matter-of- 
 fact eyes, a steamer or two is no dissight. The dominion 
 of mind over matter is, to say the least, as pleasing to my 
 taste as a beautiful wilderness. They are making a railway 
 from Lancaster to Kendal, and talk of carrying it on to 
 Ambleside ; at which Wordsworth is very savage, and has 
 written a letter to the Morning Post, and divers sonnets 
 deprecatory of such proceedings. He complains that the 
 quiet of the Lakes will be destroyed by the great concourse 
 of visitors, whom he avers to be unable to understand 
 the beauty of scenery. One is sorry to see the old man 
 indulging in so selfish a piece of sentimentality. 
 
 In describing a visit of one of his brothers to Dr. 
 Cull in 1847, he writes : 
 
 Dr. Cull appears to be the author of an article which 
 appeared in the Penny Cyclopaedia, headed ' Stammer.' This 
 article, embodied in the form of a pamphlet, he distributes to 
 his pupils, whose first task appears to be to master Dr. Cull's 
 views of the method of elocution. "What with the larynx 
 and the pharynx, and the bronchia, and certain valves and 
 cavities of various sorts, sizes, positions, and denominations, 
 the process of speech seems to be nearly as difficult as that 
 of understanding Dr. Cull's book. I dare say his views are 
 all very right, but the only one of them clear to me at present
 
 12 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 is that lie affirms that to be true of all speech which I only 
 supposed to be true of the greater portion of speech, viz. 
 that it is great waste of breath. 
 
 In August, 1847, he became engaged to Miss Fairer, 
 sister of his old college friend, and daughter of the 
 well-known solicitor, Mr. Thomas Farrer. Two letters 
 of this year are interesting as evidences of the pre- 
 vailing spirit. The first is to his father, and refers to 
 the fears of a French invasion. 
 
 ... I am one of those benighted persons who think that 
 we have no security for a month's peace, and that if we go to 
 war our fiery and bitterly hostile neighbours will certainly 
 attempt an invasion, and may possibly succeed in effecting 
 a landing. Such fears are much laughed at, but as the open 
 expression of them seems to induce men to take precautions, 
 I for one do not shrink from the ridicule thereby excited. 
 But there is another way of increasing the general security 
 on which, as you yourself adopted it in your early youth, 
 I should much like to have your opinion. . . . People say 
 The French will never get back again; but however that may 
 be, I have no fancy during the time they are here to see our 
 houses burnt and ourselves maltreated and our women 
 ravished. And the French are not famous for inflicting 
 anything short of the full measure of the calamities of war 
 upon any people they may happen to conquer. Nor are they 
 likely to make any exception from their general rule in 
 favour of the perfidious English. Moved by these consider- 
 ations, I have been strongly induced to lend my assistance 
 to a body of riflemen now in the course of formation amongst 
 professional men ; and yesterday I made some enquiries 
 about it. I find that I can afford the requisite time ; and 
 I was assured that the immediate outlay (for a plain uniform, 
 rifle, and bayonet) would not be above 10, and the annual 
 expense only 3. I think, therefore, that I can afford the 
 requisite money. But I should not like finally to determine 
 on joining without asking your advice, if you will be good
 
 EARLY LIFE AND CAREER AT THE BAR 13 
 
 enough to give it me. The way in which the matter strikes 
 me is this : 
 
 1. That the best way of preventing an invasion is to show 
 that the fighting men of the country are in arms and pre- 
 pared in such a way as to leave a small chance of success to 
 the invader. 
 
 2. That if such a proceeding will not operate as a pre- 
 ventive, it affords the best chance of a cure. 
 
 3. That it is impossible to tell what effect the success of 
 the Parisian mob may have upon Ireland and the Chartists 
 and other malcontents in our own country, and nothing will 
 strengthen the hands of Government so much as the existence 
 of efficient corps of gentlemen such as the one to which 
 I propose to belong. 
 
 4. That in case of any hostile force being in our country, 
 it is better to meet them in the field than to suffer them to 
 attack us in our homes, and that it is impossible for persons 
 wholly undisciplined to contend in the field with regular 
 troops. 
 
 5. That my inability to keep a horse renders it necessary 
 that I should belong to some infantry corps, and that the 
 nature of the country through which the enemy would have 
 to march points out the rifle as the most efficient weapon 
 with which to oppose them. But this is a minor considera- 
 tion. It seems rather laughable to turn from a drawer of 
 bills to a drawer of triggers, and I dare say one would make 
 a very bad soldier, but still one might do something, and 
 after all my principal reason is that which I put first, viz. 
 that a display of resolution usually prevents an attack. 
 
 The second letter is to Miss Farrer, written on the 
 eve of the great Chartist demonstration, when he was 
 sworn in as a special constable. 
 
 11 New Square, April 9, 1848. 
 
 I obeyed your injunctions to visit Mrs. Farrer to-day, and 
 found her well both in body and spirit. She declares herself 
 quite at ease regarding the events of to-morrow ; though she
 
 14 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 says it would be otherwise if she had two naughty girls to 
 take care of. She has ordered the two rusty locks to be (if 
 possible) taken off the two rusty guns that are in the 
 house ; and has told Archer that she will not have either the 
 kitchen cleaver or the poker given to anybody who may 
 demand arms. I am sadly afraid that if it comes to a pinch, 
 this order will hardly admit of being obeyed ; like the order 
 to take the wasp out of the room. William has been ex- 
 citing his eloquence this afternoon to try and persuade Archer 
 to become a special constable ; but all in vain. He declared 
 that he was no rebel, that he was satisfied with his present 
 condition, indifferent to the question of universal suffrage, 
 and but slightly interested in the other five points of the 
 charter, that he would secrete the cleaver amongst his shirts, 
 put the poker up his back, and do anything else in obedience 
 to Missus, but he had a wife, and did not like to be liable 
 to be called away to a distance from her. A widely different 
 spirit was manifested by Thomas. He avowed himself 
 ready and willing to do whatever and to stay wherever 
 Missus thought best, and I believe that, knowing that his 
 forte consists in casting down brittle articles from high 
 places, he has taken the whole of our china, breakfast set as 
 well as dinner, to the upper story, with the resolution of 
 dashing it down upon the very first ruffian who may attempt 
 the door. 
 
 I have seen C. to-day, who both looked and reported her- 
 self well. Mrs. Farrer wished her to spend to-morrow in 
 Gloucester Terrace, offering to send the carriage at any time 
 of the day when it was not likely to be upset and turned 
 into a barricade. This offer, however, has been refused ; 
 especially as Primrose Hill is one of the places of rendezvous, 
 and therefore Gloucester Terrace is a post of greater danger 
 than Devonshire Street. It does not much matter where 
 any person is ; I shall be very much surprised if the whole 
 affair does not pass off in perfect peace and quietness. I will 
 send you a line to-morrow if I can ; but hardly expect it, as 
 I shall be on duty in Trafalgar Square.
 
 EAELY LIFE AND CAREER AT THE BAR 15 
 
 Monday evening. 
 
 I have just time to add a line to say that the whole 
 business is over. The Chartists have been thoroughly beaten 
 without a blow struck, and gave up their procession quietly. 
 The only danger now is from bands of marauders, but the 
 shop-keepers are now pretty well prepared for them. 
 
 They were married on August 16 of this year, and 
 took a house in Devonshire Street. He was by this time 
 acquiring some practice, as the following letter from 
 a legal friend shows : 
 
 To THE RT. HON. HENRY HOBHOUSE. 
 
 Nov. 14, 1848. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I think it may be a gratifying piece of 
 intelligence to you to hear, that being in the Chancellor's 
 Court to-day, I had the pleasure of listening for the first 
 time to Arthur, who was speaking against a demurrer, 
 which had been put in to a bill drawn by him, in a cause 
 (Law v. some Copper Coy. I believe). The demurrer had 
 been over-ruled in V. C. Bruce's Court, and had been carried 
 by appeal before Lord Cottenham. I can truly say that 
 I never heard any one even the most practised counsel 
 address the Court, or handle the subject, in a more effective 
 or masterly manner. I was standing at a little distance 
 from the counsel seats at the time, and was asked by two 
 or three very client-like looking individuals, who the 
 Junior was who was so ably addressing the Court. When 
 I mentioned Arthur's name, one asked if he were ' Mr. 
 Roundell Palmer's Hobhouse ' ; and another, ' if he were not 
 the son of the Rt. Honble. Henry Hobhouse.' 
 
 His success in arresting the attention of the Court (which 
 he did in the most marked manner) was all the greater as 
 the subject might have been supposed to have been exhausted 
 by the two Q. C.'s (Russell and Bolt) who had just gone 
 before him on the same side. One of the best proofs of his
 
 16 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 eloquence is that it worked me up to such a pitch of 
 enthusiasm at the moment, that I resolved to write you an 
 account of the impression produced on me which is simply 
 this, that of all the men I have met, without exception, 
 Arthur seems to me to possess, in the greatest degree, the 
 necessary qualifications for success in the Court of Chancery. 
 
 His legal work during the next ten years was 
 varied by several vacation tours abroad. In 1851 he 
 visited France, and in 1852 Switzerland, for the first 
 time. 
 
 Annecy, Sept. 12, 1852. 
 
 MY DEAR FATHER, I hope you won't be ruined by the 
 postage of this, but all our thin paper is out, and I am told 
 that the thick costs no more ; at any rate it is all I have. 
 "When last I wrote, or rather when Mary wrote, we were 
 at Chamonix purposing to make a circuit of Mont Blanc. 
 The weather, however, has again interfered and totally 
 defeated us. Hannibal himself could hardly have crossed 
 the Alps under such disadvantages ; and Hannibal had no 
 wife with him, possessed a good digestion, and didn't care 
 for fleas. For the first two days of our journey we had 
 a continuance of our fine weather, and this just sufficed to 
 take us over the duller part of the route across the Great 
 St. Bernard to Aosta, where we arrived on Saturday evening. 
 "We only stayed to lunch at the Hospice, and after an hour's 
 stay we were glad to get away, it was so cold, notwith- 
 standing it was midday and the sun shining brilliantly. 
 The monk who attended us said it was one of the warmest 
 days of this summer ; and he informed us that few of them 
 could stand the climate more tha ten years, and even then 
 many left with pulmonary complaints. The Valaisans talk of 
 carrying a carriage road over the pass by a somewhat different 
 route, in which case the occupation of the Hospice, at least 
 in its present position, will be gone. But to this enterprise 
 the Piedmontese must be parties ; for their territory reaches 
 to near the top of the pass, and they are not such active
 
 EAELY LIFE AND CAREER AT THE BAR 17 
 
 road-makers as the Swiss. Aosta we found to be a beautiful 
 place ; the valley is larger than the Swiss valleys, and the 
 vegetation finer and more varied. The town also is very 
 ancient and possesses many interesting buildings, the 
 earliest of which is a triumphal arch erected by Augustus, 
 whose name the city bears. But all praise of the city must 
 be confined to its out-of-doors aspect ; creature comforts are 
 sadly wanting. There is no clean water in the place, and 
 such as there is is very little used by the inhabitants. The 
 vermin in our rooms swarmed to such a degree, that we 
 burnt lights all night and occupied ourselves the greater 
 part of the time in defending ourselves from them. On 
 Thursday we passed over the Little St. Bernard, and took 
 our leave of the high Alps, of which we have seen about 
 as little as is conceivable for people who have spent two 
 or three weeks amongst them. Since we left Piedmont 
 our personal comforts have materially improved ; the Savoy- 
 ards are much cleaner, more active and thriving, than the 
 people we saw on the other side of the Alps. It is indeed 
 a great relief to have escaped from the filth and squalor 
 of Italy. In the valley of Aosta it is said that more than 
 two per cent, are idiots ; we saw a vast number ; and nearly 
 every woman and a large portion of the males appeared to 
 be affected with goitre. Such sights take away all pleasure 
 which the beauty of the country might afford. "We are 
 at present in a very pretty little place ; the town is very 
 ancient ; it has been possessed in turn by Romans, Visigoths, 
 Saracens, Franks, Spaniards. Germans, and French. It is 
 now in the Sardinian dominions; the population is Savoyard, 
 and speaks French. The buildings seem to have been 
 erected in all periods, from the time of Methuselah down 
 to the present, and the whole forms as quaint and grotesque 
 a picture as can well be imagined. Yet, withal, it has life 
 in it the very Manchester of Savoy; the population is 
 about 6,000 ; they have one long chimney and are building 
 another; our salon is lighted with gas; there are smooth 
 pavements in the streets, and carriages can pass one another 
 
 c
 
 18 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 there ; the odours are of an altitude immeasurably inferior 
 to those we have lately inhaled ; at our inn we dine, and 
 are not simply dined upon. Altogether we feel that we 
 have got back to a land of comparative civilization. 
 
 Your affectionate son, 
 
 ARTHUR HOBHOUSE. 
 
 Meanwhile he made steady progress at the Bar 
 throughout the fifties, and in 1862 he was made a Q. C., 
 an event described in a letter to his wife. 
 
 Bethell has just sent me notice of his intention to make 
 me Q. C. in a very kindly expressed note addressed not to 
 me but to Palmer, to whom, as he expresses it, he will give 
 the pleasure of being the medium of communication with 
 me. I have written to thank him accordingly. You must 
 prepare to contract your household expenditure, for those 
 evening drafts over which you have groaned did after all 
 bring in golden guineas. 
 
 Of his barrister days, Lord Davey preserves a 
 reminiscence which is characteristic : 
 
 "When I first came to the Chancery Bar Hobhouse was 
 a leading junior. Shortly afterwards he took silk and 
 practised at the Rolls, in which Sir John Romilly then 
 administered justice, in that very comfortable and well- 
 arranged Court in Chancery Lane. One of the first serious 
 cases in which I held a brief was in the Rolls, and I had 
 Hobhouse for my leader. We came to grief, and probably 
 deservedly. But I remember, and am still grateful for, the 
 care which he took to make it clear to the clients that it was 
 not owing to any fault of the junior in the conduct of the 
 case before it came into Court. 
 
 This promising career was now to be checked. In 
 February, 1862, he had suffered a great loss in the 
 death of his eldest and favourite brother, and as his
 
 EARLY LIFE AND CAREER AT THE BAR 19 
 
 executor and successor in many trusteeships, undertook 
 a serious and trying addition to his responsibilities. 
 Shaken by a severe illness in 1863, he came gradually 
 to the conclusion that the rush of a lawyer's life in 
 great practice was beyond his strength, and in 1866 
 he accepted an appointment from Earl Russell on the 
 Charity Commission. It was a tremendous break in 
 his career, and to some it might have seemed the end 
 of it. Indeed, with a less able man, this would have 
 been the case. The feelings of his friends are reflected 
 in a number of letters, of which we give a few. 
 
 From Sir Stafford Northcote, Mrs. Hobhouse's brother- 
 in-law, at this time a member of the Schools' Enquiry 
 Commission. 
 
 42 Harley St., March 14, 1866. 
 
 MY DEAE AETHUE, I have not liked to write to you while 
 there was any doubt as to the result of the step you had 
 determined on taking ; but neither do I like to let it pass 
 without a word of sympathy. I cannot doubt that you are 
 the best judge of what you can and what you cannot do 
 without an undue strain on your strength ; and I feel so sure 
 that you have acted on full consideration, that I do not think 
 we ought to indulge in the feelings of regret which are the 
 first to arise when we learn of your cutting short a career 
 which, if God had given you strength, must have been so 
 brilliant. To my mind an unfinished work is always more 
 suggestive than what we may call by comparison a finished 
 one. It brings us more in contact with the world to come, 
 and makes one feel that nothing is really complete here ; 
 but that all we do here is but a part of the great preparation 
 for the higher future state. 
 
 But after all, I am talking nonsense, at least, I am saying 
 what is inapplicable to you, though it is what I often dream of 
 for myself. You have plenty of work yet before you; and I 
 am really speculating upon the inheritance which we Schools' 
 
 c 2
 
 20 MEMOIE OF LOBD HOBHOUSE 
 
 Commissioners and others are likely to step into, now that 
 you are dead to the Bar and have come to life in the Charity 
 Commission. The time is a very critical one, and I hope it 
 will not be long before we shall see your Commission advanced 
 to the rank of a judicial tribunal of first-rate importance. It 
 seems to me quite necessary that some new system of dealing 
 with Endowments should be adopted, and that a simpler, 
 cheaper, and more effective machinery should be substituted 
 for the Court of Chancery. I hope, by and by, you will help 
 us to establish it. It will be an immense advantage to us to 
 have the aid of a thorough lawyer in the commencement 
 and inauguration of the work ; and looking at the matter 
 from my own point of view, I am tempted to think that you 
 may confer a more general and lasting benefit upon the 
 country in your new capacity than you could have done as 
 a barrister, or even as an Equity Judge. All this is at 
 present in the dim future ; and perhaps I ought not to tell 
 you too much of what I think will be the result of our 
 Commission. I will only say that cum tails sis, gaudeo quod 
 nosier es. 
 
 Ever yours affectionately, 
 
 STAFFORD H. NOBTHCOTE. 
 
 16 Devonshire Place, W., March 16, 1866. 
 
 MY DEAR STAFFORD, Of the many notes which I have had 
 to answer I have left yours till nearly the last, because it 
 seemed to me that I had much to say about it, and yet I do 
 not now think that I have much, except to express very 
 warm thanks for the amount of esteem and kindness dis- 
 played in it. 
 
 As regards the present, I feel very confident that I have 
 done wisely. I have never properly and thoroughly recovered 
 the shock my health received in 1863. I found myself falling 
 again into the same state, and determined it was foolhardy 
 to run the same amount of risk again. The question then 
 lay between the alternatives of quitting work altogether, at 
 least for a substantial time, and seeking some quieter path.
 
 EAELY LIFE AND CAREER, AT THE BAR 21 
 
 To the former, which would probably have involved as final 
 a farewell to the Bar as I have now made, I could not 
 reconcile myself. I hope that the latter course, by giving 
 me substantial employment of no very exciting kind, will 
 enable me to recover my former vigour if my constitution 
 admits of it. 
 
 Quoad the future, I dare not speculate on it. If I feel 
 strong and vigorous again, I shall object to work and pro- 
 motion as little as any man. If otherwise, I may be found 
 wanting in the energy requisite for novelties. At present 
 I am content with the present, and unless I misjudge 
 myself I shall remain content even though as time goes on 
 it should be found that my office does not afford sufficient 
 scope for the amount of work I have at command. I imagine 
 the work to be substantial, to be useful, and to be increasing, 
 or capable of increase : and, if so, though the post be not 
 very dignified nor very lucrative, it will suffice to make me 
 a contented man. Again thanking you for your sympathy, 
 
 am> Ever yours affectionately, 
 
 A. H. 
 
 From J. D. Coleridge, afterwards Lord Chief Justice ; 
 at this time Liberal M. P. for Exeter. 
 
 I am very glad for the sake of the Charity Commission that 
 such a man as you are has thought fit to accept a seat at the 
 Board. I cannot make up my mind simply to congratulate 
 you because I am so very sorry that you should leave the Bar. 
 I hoped that before long you would make up your mind to 
 take the plunge I have been fool enough to take, and 
 become, as you are most justly fit to become, a law officer. 
 ~We>ll,fugaces labuntur anni, and I am afraid your step shows 
 that you are feeling older and not so strong as one who has 
 known you so long, and regarded you so much as I have, 
 would wish. Whatever happens, I know you will do good 
 wherever you are, and as you were not unwilling to take 
 this appointment, I am heartily glad you should have any- 
 thing you care for.
 
 22 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 From his old Eton tutor, Bishop Chapman. 
 
 My earliest leisure moment cannot be more gladly em- 
 ployed than in expressing the comfort I feel in your late 
 appointment, with the premonitory warnings which you could 
 not safely and prudently disregard. Disappointing it would 
 be to many to have a career of distinction checked, but this 
 will not, as it need not, cause you much regret, with one of 
 real usefulness and benefit to others exchanged for hope of 
 advancement to yourself. The qualities of your mind and 
 character, dear friend, so fit you for your new office, that it 
 is not your old tutor's weakness which makes him think 
 it a real gain to the Church, and to the high interests con- 
 fided to your charge. Full occupation you will have, both 
 in research and in decision, without any strain being felt to 
 which your physical strength might be unequal. 
 
 From Henry (afterwards Lord) Thring. 
 
 It is very lucky for the public that all clever men have 
 not good health. You will inspire some life into the some- 
 what inert form of the Charity Commission. Undoubtedly 
 the Commission will increase in importance with a man 
 like yourself, and may do more good than any other body 
 with which I am acquainted. I think you have done 
 wisely in giving up the Bar, for although life may not 
 be the first object of man, health undoubtedly is, and 
 your strength was not equal to the work of a counsel in 
 large practice. 
 
 From H. M. Cairns, afterwards Lord Cairns, at this 
 time a leading speaker on the Conservative side in 
 Parliament. 
 
 I was certainly much surprised when I heard you had 
 accepted the appointment. Although you sometimes spoke of 
 feeling the weight of your work, you seemed to me to do it 
 with so much ease, and your position at the Bar was so com- 
 pletely made, and made in the very front, that I thought it>
 
 hardly to be supposed that you should surrender it for any- 
 thing short of the Bench. 
 
 From Lord Homilly, Master of the Rolls. 
 
 It was with much surprise mingled with regret that I 
 received and read your letter this morning. It was a great 
 source of regret to me, because no one in my Court gives me 
 more assistance, or in a more agreeable manner than yourself. 
 It was a great surprise to me, because considering your 
 position in my Court and the apparent facility with which 
 you maintain it, I did not expect that you would make so 
 great a pecuniary sacrifice for the sake of a permanent office. 
 However, in all these matters, I am satisfied that every man 
 is the best judge of his own affairs and of what is for his 
 advantage, and therefore, though I cannot congratulate you, 
 I cannot but congratulate the Board of Charity Commis- 
 sioners on the accession of such a member as yourself. 
 I feel the loss to myself severely, and sincerely wish you 
 every possible success and health for the rest of your life. 
 
 The feelings of his family may be judged from a 
 letter from his sister, Miss Eliza Hobhouse : 
 
 I have read your letter to C. with much sorrow that you 
 are obliged to put yourself aside, for awhile at least ; but 
 really and truly thankful that you see the prudence of 
 retiring from the business that has broken your health and 
 can no longer be transacted without risk. I am very glad 
 you have courage to act on this view, which those who have 
 seen you of late have no doubt is the true one. 
 
 To yourself I cannot help offering my heartfelt condolence 
 that bodily strength is not granted to support you in the use 
 of great mental power and acquirement, and to the mainten- 
 ance of a position and prospects you have nobly earned. 
 But, if this cannot be, we must hope you will, like our 
 Father, pursue a useful and honourable career in the line 
 you have adopted, and by your timely retreat prolong a life 
 which is so important to others.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION 
 
 ' SUBSTANTIAL employment of a not very exciting 
 kind ' : this was the phrase that Arthur Hobhouse used 
 to describe the new life for which he had left the 
 victorious struggles and the fierce emulations of the 
 Bar. His friends, with one exception, sounded the 
 same note of ambitions renounced, of repose, of tran- 
 quil restoration of health and peace. One man took 
 a juster view of his future. 'The time is a very 
 critical one,' wrote Stafford Northcote. 1 'I am tempted 
 to think that you may confer a more general and 
 lasting benefit upon the country in your new capacity 
 than you could have done as a barrister, or even as 
 an Equity Judge/ How true was that appreciation, 
 alike of the necessities of the hour and of the command- 
 ing gifts which made Hobhouse adequate to them, will 
 be recognized by every one who knows the part he was 
 to play in the next few years of his life in one of the 
 chief emancipating achievements of the great era of 
 reform which was then dawning over England. His 
 new life, welcomed as a life of calm routine, was to 
 prove a life of furious contest, and his strong sense of 
 duty, unflinchingly obeyed, made him the centre of 
 the storm which a resolute and revolutionary treat- 
 
 1 Sir Stafford Northcote was a member of the Schools' Enquiry Com- 
 mission, and was therefore able to see what a storm was brewing.
 
 THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION 25 
 
 ment of deeply-laid abuses provoked among the 
 governing classes. His career at the Charity Com- 
 mission was the turning-point in his life. It left on 
 legislation and administration in a great crisis the 
 strong impress of his wise, just, and fearless mind ; 
 and it marked the birth of those liberal tendencies, 
 of which the rest of his life was one continuous and 
 consistent development. 
 
 The Charity Commission had been created by the 
 Act of 1853, known as the Charitable Trusts Act, and 
 if that Act had been carried in the form in which it 
 was originally introduced by Lord Cranworth, it would 
 have provided for the settlement of many of the 
 difficulties which it was left to Hobhouse and his 
 colleagues to overcome. Lord Cranworth's Bill would 
 have given the Charity Commissioners power to frame 
 schemes for the application of any charity funds 
 towards the promotion of any charitable purposes in 
 the following cases, (1) where the original purpose had 
 failed ; (2) where the Foundation created pauperism 
 or immorality ; (3) where Foundations, being in- 
 sufficient in value, might usefully be united with 
 others ; (4) where, in Foundations sixty years old, 
 there were no beneficial results, or the benefits were 
 insignificant compared to the value. The schemes 
 were to be laid before Parliament, and, if consented 
 to by the governing body, were to pass into law in 
 three months unless annulled ; but, if not consented 
 to, they were to be passed like other Bills. These pro- 
 visions were struck out, and in their place clauses were 
 introduced empowering the Commissioners to submit 
 schemes to Parliament, but without specifying in what 
 classes of cases, and without providing any machinery
 
 26 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 for passing into law the schemes when submitted. 1 
 A commission with these limited powers was obviously 
 quite incapable of dealing with the innumerable abuses 
 that demanded drastic and immediate treatment, and 
 it is not surprising that in introducing the Endowed 
 Schools Bill in 1869, W. E. Forster was able to say 
 that the Charity Commission in the fifteen years of 
 its existence had only carried eighteen Bills, of which 
 nine related to schools. Nor is it surprising that the 
 Charity Commissioners themselves made frequent and 
 fruitless complaints in their reports of restrictions 
 which virtually disabled them from effective action, 
 and that it had been found necessary in 1864 to 
 appoint the Schools Enquiry Commission, of which 
 Forster was a member, to investigate and report on 
 the dismal condition of middle-class education in 
 England. The seven chief public schools were ex- 
 cluded, as they had been made the subject of a 
 separate enquiry and of separate legislation. The 
 Schools Enquiry Commission dealt with 2,957 endowed 
 schools, scattered all over the country, enjoying a 
 gross income of 593,281. 
 
 The mere mention of these figures shows how justly 
 Northcote had spoken when he said this was a very 
 critical time, and how much was at stake in the 
 conflict over the principles which should govern the 
 use of endowments. Though Hobhouse had retired 
 from the Bar for the sake of his health, he certainly 
 brought no exhausted mind and no exhausted vigour 
 to this momentous issue. The three lectures which 
 he delivered, whilst he was a Charity Commissioner, 
 in March, 1868, and in May and June, 1869, and which 
 
 1 See Dead Hand, p. 57.
 
 THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION 27 
 
 he afterwards published in the Dead Hand, are, by 
 general admission, the most lucid, the most searching, 
 and the most profound statement that exists of the 
 case for drastic reform. Hobhouse had to contend 
 not only with the natural fears and prejudices that 
 are excited by any attack on vested interests, but 
 also with John Stuart Mill's interesting and charac- 
 teristic scruples. The best statement of Hobhouse's 
 case against both classes of opponents is to be found 
 in his lecture on the Disposition of Property to Public 
 Uses, the last of his speeches before he was made an 
 Endowed Schools Commissioner. 
 
 ... I have been urged to examine, and I now propose to 
 examine, how far the existing powers of Founders ought 
 to be curtailed. And in so doing, I will again deal with 
 the doctrines advanced by Mr. Mill, in the paper to which 
 I have already referred. I do so for two reasons: First, 
 because those doctrines seem to me to contain much error ; 
 and error from a man of such mark, and on a subject too 
 which hardly anybody has taken the pains to study, 
 produces disastrous effects. I have already come across 
 cases in which people, who really shrink from and wish, 
 to suppress the whole discussion, are delighted to quote 
 so great an authority in favour of quiescence. Secondly, 
 because arguments (I am not speaking of assertions) in 
 favour of the authority of Founders are so scarce that 
 it is refreshing to find one of substance enough to grapple 
 with, and useful to know whither to direct one's force. 
 First, I will perform the more pleasant task of noting 
 the points of agreement. Mr. Mill allows that gifts to 
 public uses which work a clear and positive public mischief 
 ought at once to be interfered with, and he instances doles 
 or distributions of direct alms. Again, he thinks that in 
 all cases there ought to be some limit of time beyond 
 which the Founder's intention should be wholly dis-
 
 28 MEMOIE OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 regarded, or, in other words, when his ownership over 
 the property should cease. In both these propositions, as 
 far as they go, I heartily agree : merely observing, that 
 they have not yet found acceptance, that the evils arising 
 from their non-recognition are very serious, the powers 
 engaged in opposition to them very great, and that there is 
 no chance of these or any other useful reforms being made 
 acceptable to the nation at large, until they have learned 
 to estimate the right of posthumous disposition more nearly 
 at its true valued 
 
 But when we come to consider at what point of time the 
 Founder's ownership shall cease, Mr. Mill propounds schemes 
 which seem to me objectionable, and founds them on 
 reasoning which is absolutely fatal to all effective reform on 
 such a subject. 
 
 His first and most characteristic argument is, that variety 
 and not uniformity is the thing most essential to human 
 progress. Minorities, he says, ought to be protected. The 
 experiments of individuals to promote the public good 
 ought to be allowed ; and to disallow them, in the supposed 
 interest of the public, is an offence against human liberty. 
 And he inveighs against the intolerance of the majority 
 respecting other people's disposal of ' their property,' of 
 ' money of their own,' of ' what is lawfully their own,' after 
 their deaths. Now, that the thoughts and speculations of 
 adult reasonable beings should be left to play freely and 
 without restraint, I agree. Their actions should be as tree 
 as is consistent with the avoidance of injury to their 
 neighbours. To justify restraint of individual action on 
 the ground of detriment to others, the detriment should 
 be clear and indubitable ; or, in legal language, the benefit 
 of the doubt should always be given in favour of individual 
 freedom. So much the perfect law of liberty requires, 
 and so much is essential for the due progress of mankind. 
 These principles demand that, in the expenditure of money, 
 as in other things, adult reasonable beings should be left 
 to act nearly as they please. While a man is alive you
 
 THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION 29 
 
 have a tolerably sure guarantee that he will not, for any 
 public object, expose himself to privations, to blame, to 
 ridicule, to the chances of failure, or even undergo the 
 exertions which any original or eccentric course involves, 
 unless he has some strong enthusiasm or conviction that 
 he is right. This guarantee might not work in all cases, 
 but it would in so many that the others may be safely 
 disregarded. 
 
 But when a man's deeds are to have no operation till 
 he is dead, what security have we that he will be guided 
 by any considerations of public spirit or benevolence ; that 
 he will feel the weight of responsibility ; that his passions 
 will be chastened by conscience, or his fancies corrected 
 by sober reason and reflection ? 
 
 I have intimated on previous occasions my deep distrust 
 of a priori reasoning on practical subjects. Speculation 
 and conjecture are doubtless essential to all discovery, but 
 they should be carefully collated with facts, and if unveri- 
 fied are worth very little. To my mind the conjectural 
 reasoning is against Mr. Mill's view. But I willingly turn 
 from it to the teaching of experience. And it seems to 
 me, that if there were any truth in the notion that, in order 
 to have useful experiments properly tried in matters of 
 public interest, we ought to put it in the power of men 
 to make posthumous dispositions for this purpose, our 
 history, and especially our history of the last 250 years, 
 would abound with instances of valuable discoveries being 
 made by means of such dispositions. We should be able 
 to point to institutions and arrangements of great and 
 acknowledged value taking their origin in some bequest, 
 and which, but for that bequest, could never have flourished. 
 Where are they ? I ask Mr. Mill and those who agree with 
 him to point out one, and when I am told of it, I promise 
 to examine it. 
 
 At present, though our law has favoured gifts to public 
 uses beyond that of any other country, though the wealth of 
 our testators has exceeded that of any other country, I have
 
 80 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 never come across a single case to support Mr. Mill's 
 hypothesis, that the power of binding the public to accept 
 property on a testator's own conditions is of value in the 
 discovery of new modes of benefiting the public. But I have 
 come across many, very many, cases in which that power has 
 visibly operated to demoralize the testator himself, and all 
 whom his actions affect. 
 
 He proceeded to give various instances, amongst 
 them the following : 
 
 Take the following mixture of bitterness, vanity, and 
 eccentricity, in one Thomas Nash : { I do also hereby give 
 and bequeath to the mayor, senior alderman, and town-clerk 
 of Bath,-for the time being, the sum of 50 per annum, in 
 trust, payable of the Bank Long Annuities, standing in my 
 name at the Bank of England, for the use, benefit, and 
 enjoyment of the set of ringers belonging to Abbey Church, 
 Bath, on condition of their ringing, on the whole peal of 
 bells, with clappers muffled, various solemn and doleful 
 changes, allowing proper intervals for rest and refreshment, 
 from eight o'clock in the morning until eight o'clock in the 
 evening, on the fourteenth of May in every year, being the 
 anniversary of my wedding-day ; and also on every anni- 
 versary of the day of my decease to ring a grand bob major 
 and merry mirthful peals, unmuffled, during the same space 
 of time, and allowing the same intervals as before mentioned, 
 in joyful commemoration of my happy release from domestic 
 tyranny and wretchedness. And for the full, strict, and due 
 performance of such conditions, they, the said ringers, are to 
 receive the said 50 per annum, in two payments of 25 
 each, on those respective days of my marriage and decease. 
 And now that dear divine man (to use Mrs. Nash's own 
 words) the Rev. P. B., may resume his amatory labours 
 without enveloping himself in a sedan-chair for fear of 
 detection.'/ 
 
 Take again such an instance as this. The Lord of the 
 Manor of Barton founds a school for the poor of several
 
 THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION 31 
 
 parishes. There are to be forty children, all of whom are to 
 be appointed by the lord of the manor. All the children are 
 to be taught to read, but none are to be taught the dangerous 
 arts of writing or arithmetic, except such as the lord of the 
 manor shall think fit. I need hardly say that difficulties 
 have arisen in the conduct of this school. Is this one of the 
 experiments to which we ought to submit ourselves for 
 50 or 100 years ? The Foundation was in the year 1807. 
 
 It is interesting to see how Hobhouse's opinions 
 were received by some of his friends at the time. 
 
 MY DEAR HOBHOUSE, I write to thank you for your 
 pamphlet, which I have read with great pleasure. 
 
 I hope that this is only a beginning, as you hint, and that 
 you won't let the matter drop. Opportunities should be 
 made if they don't come. Judging by appearances there 
 could be no better time than the present, on the eve of a 
 Eeform Parliament and after the Eeport of the Schools' 
 Commission. 
 
 It has often seemed to me that it was not worth while for 
 you to give up the prospects of the Bar unless you meant to 
 undertake something of this sort. Perhaps it is a more 
 difficult task than to achieve the greatest success at the Bar, 
 for it requires more force of mind and character. A person 
 must have ' a fire burning in him,' if I may use such meta- 
 phorical language, and lose no opportunity of impressing his 
 views on the world. 
 
 Could you get your pamphlet reviewed in The Times? 
 I think Rogers might manage this for you ; or if he cannot, 
 I will send the pamphlet to Brodrick, who is sometimes able 
 to help in these ways. 
 
 The abstract question whether endowments are a good or 
 an evil, raised by A. Smith and others, seems to me an 
 unmeaning one. They are good when they are a stimulus 
 either to education or science or sanitary improvement ; 
 when they are gained by self-help and promote self-help ; 
 they are evil when they are the reverse of this.
 
 32 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 You have the knowledge of the law, and the experience of 
 the facts, and the liberal mind that is not enslaved by long 
 practice of the law. These meet in very few persons. Also, 
 I think that you do yourself injustice about style, for the 
 pamphlet is very well and tellingly written. I wish that 
 you could bring out some larger and more general work, 
 before the subject is really discussed in Parliament. 
 
 Ever most truly yours, 
 
 B. JOWETT. 
 
 From Mr John Morley. 
 
 193 Piccadilly, W., May 31, 1869. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR, I have read with the highest interest the 
 paper which you have been so kind as to send me. It is 
 very valuable indeed, and I think that it presents a side 
 of the matter perhaps more important for us to remember 
 than the other and complementary side on which Mr. Mill 
 dwelt. I presume that you have sent Mr. Mill a copy. If 
 not, I should be glad to forward him one. 
 
 From Vice - Chancellor Wood, afterwards Lord 
 Hatherley. 
 
 31 Gt. George St., July 22, 1868. 
 
 I find on my return to town your note and Lecture. 
 I have only had time to glance at the latter. I think we 
 shall not disagree very much. Several years ago I read 
 at the Social Science (Bradford) meeting a paper recom- 
 mending that none should be allowed to dispose of property 
 for more than a life in being and 21 years afterwards 
 in his own Scheme of Charity, but that at the end of 
 that period every charitable endowment should be open 
 to revision and applicable to purposes then deemed most 
 beneficial by competent authority. I have given evidence 
 to the same effect before the Middle Class School Com- 
 mission, which Erie heard.
 
 33 
 
 From William Ellis, the economist, the founder of 
 the Birkbeck Schools. 
 
 36 Gt. Winchester St., E.G., July 20, 1869. 
 
 MY DEAB SIB, I have delayed thanking you for the two 
 pamphlets with which you so kindly favoured me through 
 our friend Eogers, till I had an opportunity of reading not 
 only them, but a report of your paper and the discussion 
 thereon at the rooms of the Society of Arts. 
 
 My thanks would have been hearty had they been 
 tendered to you at once, but they are much heartier now. 
 You have delighted me. You carry me with you entirely. 
 I shall almost be surprised if Mr. Mill himself does not 
 express to you his concurrence in your views. The practical 
 difference between you, if you were called upon to act 
 together, could not but be small. 
 
 As regards the public in general, the source of ' founder- 
 worship' is to be found in the confused notions which 
 prevail concerning 'rights of property.' More than half 
 the world seem to believe that there are what they call 
 ' natural rights ' which do not terminate with death. They 
 need to be taught by you and the like of you that the rights 
 of property are derived from law only, or the will of Society, 
 and that the rights to ' property vacant by death ' are also 
 dependent upon the same power, and that what rights ought 
 to be conferred in either case should be determined by one 
 consideration exclusively their tendency to contribute to 
 the general well-being. 
 
 When once Society begins to grasp and apply these 
 simple truths, many superstitions, some more pernicious 
 than founder-worship, will be gradually dispelled. I heartily 
 hope that the power will be placed in your hands of giving 
 effect to the principles so ably expounded in your writings, 
 both in administering the laws as they exist, and in obtain- 
 ing those improvements of which existing laws are so 
 greatly in need. 
 
 D
 
 34 MEMOIE OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 From George Jessel, afterwards Solicitor-General 
 and Master of the Rolls. 
 
 Lincoln's Inn, April 15, 1868. 
 
 On my return from Paris on Monday night I found your 
 note and accompanying lecture, for both of which I thank 
 you. For the first, because you rightly assume that I have 
 not sunk into a mere lawyer, but remain a man and trust 
 always shall. Indeed I make it a rule (not always without 
 exception) to devote one hour a day at least to some branch 
 of non-legal knowledge. I devoted somewhat more than that 
 time last night to your lecture, feeling justified, although it 
 was the day before term, on the ground that it was not 
 wholly extra-legal. It is a subject by no means new to 
 me ; but I am inclined to go much further than perhaps it 
 would be proper for a Charity Commissioner to even think 
 of going in the way of legislative interference with founders' 
 wills. I need not say that the lecture is in every way 
 worthy of you, both as to learning and style ; but I do 
 not feel at all confident that your audience admired it as 
 much as I do. 
 
 From Earl Russell. 
 
 Pembroke Lodge, 
 
 April 12, 1868. 
 
 I am much obliged to you for your Lecture, which I am 
 reading with much interest. When I was in office last, 
 I wished to appoint a Commission to consider the subject 
 from a general point of view, but Lord Cranworth thought 
 we had enough of Commissions. 
 
 Still, the subject deserves enquiry, and after enquiry 
 legislation. The limit of a life and 21 years gives some 
 security against the perpetuity of private bequests, and 
 the extravagance of heirs brings estates left to a family of 
 descendants into the market. But charitable foundations 
 are a perpetual mischief. Some remedy ought to be applied. 
 
 Your position on the Charities Commission you owe solely
 
 THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION 35 
 
 to your reputation as a lawyer and a man of ability, a fame 
 well deserved. 
 
 From Robert Lowe, who was to become Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer this same year. 
 
 34 Lowndes Square, S.W., April 7, 1868. 
 I have read your lecture with great pleasure. No better 
 service can be done than to teach the public the elements of 
 this subject. It is strange how utterly ignorant persons 
 otherwise well-informed (Lord Cranborne, for instance) are 
 on this subject. I go even further than you, and seriously 
 think that many kinds of charities ought to be altogether 
 prohibited, and all subject to the most absolute revision 
 without the least reference to the will of the founder after 
 the expiration of 21 years. 
 
 In 1869 the Endowed Schools Commission was 
 created by Forster's Endowed Schools Act, which 
 Mr. Morley, in his Life of Gladstone, describes as ' one 
 of the best measures in the history of this Government 
 of good measures.' The Endowed Schools Bill, which 
 was the outcome of the Report of the Endowed Schools 
 Enquiry Commission, contained two main proposals, 
 first, that three Commissioners should be appointed 
 with powers to frame schemes for individual schools and 
 with large powers of reorganization and reconstruction ; 
 second, that an Examining Board should be instituted 
 to give certificates of efficiency to masters ; no master 
 was to teach in an endowed school without such 
 a certificate, and masters in private schools might 
 compete for them. The second part was abandoned, 
 and the authority of Dr. Benson, then head master of 
 Wellington College, was quoted against it. The pro- 
 posal to institute inspection, made by the Endowed 
 Schools Enquiry Commission, was for the present 
 
 D 2
 
 36 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 postponed, as Forster thought it could be better 
 arranged after the reorganization of the schools had 
 been carried out. Forster was able to make out an 
 overwhelming case for his Bill, and he fortified it with 
 many amusing instances. 
 
 In one school, whose net income was 792 a year, 
 the head master taught three boarders, and no others, 
 the under master only attended when he chose, and 
 the usher taught in an inferior village school. In 
 another school, where two masters received 300 
 between them, and one had a good house also, one boy 
 was receiving instruction, while a private school close 
 by had eighty boarders, and forty day scholars paying 
 more than the grammar school fees. In another, 
 where the master, since dead, received over 200 
 a year, the Assistant Commissioner of the Schools 
 Enquiry Commission found him occupied in preparing 
 a system of ' teaching prime numbers,' the system 
 being contained in two perfectly unintelligible cards, 
 which were shortly to be brought into use in the 
 school. In another case, in the South of England, the 
 trustees had made it a condition that the master 
 should take boarders, but he fixed prohibitory terms 
 (120 a year), and of this school the Commissioner 
 had written, ' Six day boys, all very young and paying 
 fees, composed the school. The boarders' dining-room 
 was occupied as a coach-house by two of the master's 
 carriages, the night study was a laundry, and the 
 large dormitory a billiard room.' In Suffolk at one 
 school the master did no work whatever, but supported 
 an old age in the comfortable school-house; at another 
 he was almost helpless from age and paralysis ; at 
 a third he was honest enough to declare that he was
 
 THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION 37 
 
 no longer fit for work ; at a fourth he was deaf ; while 
 at two others he was no longer in the prime of life, and 
 was languishing under his work. That is to say, more 
 than a quarter of the grammar schools in one county 
 were suffering from the bodily infirmities of the master. 
 Objection was taken in many quarters to the ap- 
 pointment of a Commission, which was described as 
 an 'all-powerful triumvirate/ and it is perhaps not 
 surprising that the strong opinions which Hobhouse 
 had expressed, were thought by many to disqualify 
 him from serving on it. The other two Commissioners 
 were Lord Lyttelton and Canon Robinson, of whom 
 Lord Lyttelton found himself in somewhat the same 
 predicament as Mr. Hobhouse. The names of the 
 Commissioners were not divulged till the Bill had 
 passed the Committee. In the House of Lords 
 the Duke of Richmond objected to Lord Lyttelton 
 because he had taken part in the discussion on Hob- 
 house's paper at the Social Science Association, and 
 had expressed disrespect of founders' intentions. On 
 that occasion, indeed, Lord Lyttelton had gone so 
 far as to say that he was doubtful if the Government 
 were wise in entrusting such large powers to men of 
 such pronounced views as himself and Mr. Hobhouse. 
 The Duke of Cambridge was afraid of Lord Lyttelton, 
 though he, Lord Lyttelton, ' could not go quite so far 
 on that subject as Mr. Hobhouse, a distinguished 
 Chancery barrister, who had not felt himself precluded 
 by his intended appointment on the Commission 
 from giving expression to his views.' Lord Salisbury, 
 who was anxious to 'restrict the area over which the 
 destructive action of the Commission was to range/ 
 said that it was impossible to act judicially and im- 
 
 4G74S3
 
 38 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 partially when you had formed strong opinions. ' This 
 somewhat applied to the noble Lord, and in a greater 
 degree to Mr. Hobhouse, for he could not see what 
 chance an unfortunate school would have that got into 
 Mr. Hobhouse's clutches.' 
 
 When the Commission set to work, it excited less 
 Parliamentary opposition than might have been ex- 
 pected from the temper of these discussions, and only 
 ten of its actual schemes were challenged. 
 
 Mr. Hobhouse's own views on his position are best 
 stated in a letter of June 28, 1871, to Lord Carnarvon, 
 who in discussing one of the schemes of the Commission 
 in the House of Lords, had referred to the views on 
 the general subject of endowments expressed by the 
 Commissioners. 
 
 Your Lordship thinks that you have made no personal 
 attack on me. You will pardon me for saying that you have 
 attacked me on a point on which a lawyer is peculiarly 
 sensitive. According to The Times, you have said that on 
 account of my opinions I am hardly fit to exercise judicial 
 functions. Now every profession has its points of honour. 
 And with lawyers it is a cardinal point of honour not 
 to allow personal opinion to influence professional duty. 
 I wonder whether any judge on the Bench, or eminent 
 lawyer of any kind, would stand the test your Lordship 
 applies to a more humble personage. Sir Eoundell Palmer 
 thinks patents are wholly mischievous ; would you therefore 
 say he is unfit to be Attorney-General, who has to decide 
 whether or no patents shall be granted ? The present Lord 
 Chancellor 1 , with other Chancery judges, entertains quite as 
 strong opinions as I do about Founders and their authority, 
 are they therefore unfit to judge in charity cases ? Only the 
 other day V. C. "Wickens, and after him Sir "W. James, strongly 
 
 1 Lord Hatherley.
 
 THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION 39 
 
 condemned the Law relating to the custody of infants, a topic 
 on which people's feelings are very excitable ; but did they 
 therefore strain the law, or does anybody blame them for 
 doing their best to call attention to its defects ? I might 
 multiply such examples infinitely, but I have probably done 
 enough to show that your Lordship's censure of me is not 
 relevant, even if I were the judge from whom an appeal is 
 brought, which I am not. 
 
 I now know, which was not the case before, to what 
 utterances of mine your Lordship refers. Of course I am 
 not going now to defend them, nor even to point out the 
 qualifications with which they were accompanied, and which 
 for fairness sake, should be cited with them. What I say 
 is, that they have no bearing whatever on the case in hand, 
 and can never have much more, if they have any, on any 
 individual case. For my purpose they were important. 
 They were written at Christmas, 1867. At that time no one 
 (except Lord Cranworth, who was completely defeated) had 
 ventured to propose any reform at all in the Law of Endow- 
 ments, notwithstanding the often-repeated recommendations 
 of the Charity Commission. Having recently become a 
 member of that Commission, I found that the mass of 
 people would not even consider the question of reform, from 
 a preliminary objection that it was irreverent and unjust 
 towards Founders. I therefore set myself to attack this 
 objection both on its legal and its moral side : contending 
 that we were obeying a bad law and reverencing an un- 
 worthy object. But all this was done to promote a general 
 reform of the Law. At that very moment I was daily 
 applying, in (I think) the driest professional temper, the 
 very law which so required alteration. Nor did it ever 
 occur to me that my wish to alter the law, however strong, 
 could have any bearing on my judgement how it was to be 
 applied in a particular case. 
 
 The Endowed Schools Act is one instalment of the neces- 
 sary reforms. And why that Act should not be applied to
 
 40 MEMOIE OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 each case by persons previously interested in its success, as 
 honestly and intelligently as by those who knew and cared 
 nothing about it, I am at a loss to conceive. 
 
 The Endowed Schools Commissioners suffered in 1871 
 a severe check in the rejection by the House of Lords 
 of their scheme for remodelling the Emanuel Hos- 
 pital, Westminster. This charity was nearly 300 years 
 old, and was administered, in accordance with a Royal 
 Charter of Queen Elizabeth, by the Lord Mayor and 
 Aldermen of London. The revenues of the endowment 
 had, of course, increased very largely, and at the time 
 the controversy arose it was used as an almshouse for 
 some twenty aged people and a school where some 
 sixty children, boys and girls, were clothed, boarded, 
 and educated. These children were admitted into the 
 school on the nomination of members of the Corporation. 
 The Endowed Schools Commissioners proposed to 
 abolish the existing school and to amalgamate the 
 Emanuel Hospital with three other local Charities, in 
 order to create an adequate system of secondary 
 schools for Westminster. Under this scheme there 
 were to be two day schools and one suburban boarding 
 school, each containing 300 scholars. Fees were to be 
 charged, but exhibitions were to be founded of which 
 one-third were to be given to the best boys in the 
 primary schools, one-third were to be reserved for 
 orphans, and the remaining third were to be subject 
 to general competition. The schools were to be placed 
 under a new governing body of twenty members, on 
 which the Court of Aldermen were to be represented 
 by three of their number. The Corporation, threatened 
 with this loss of patronage and of rights of manage- 
 ment, attacked the scheme with great vigour, and
 
 THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION 41 
 
 raised the cry of spoliation and robbery, which is 
 always sure of a sympathetic response from the English 
 public. A brisk warfare followed in the press and on 
 the platform. The Times gave a powerful and consistent 
 support to the Commissioners, and the charges brought 
 by the friends of the Corporation were answered in its 
 columns by Mr. Fearon, who had been a member of the 
 Schools Enquiry Commission, and Mr. Roby, Secre- 
 tary of the Endowed Schools Commission. 
 
 The opposition to the scheme in the House of Lords 
 was led with spirit and enjoyment by Lord Salisbury. 
 His most eminent supporter was Lord Cairns, whose 
 objections to the scheme carried all the greater weight 
 because, unlike Lord Salisbury, he sincerely respected 
 both the members of the Commission and the general 
 spirit of their administration. A certain picturesque 
 interest was added to the debate by the intervention 
 of Lord Buckhurst, a descendant of the foundress, who 
 assured the House as her representative that no fault 
 was to be found with the way in which the Corporation 
 had administered her benefactions. The Duke of Argyll 
 and Bishop Temple supported the Commissioners. 
 
 The Duke, to illustrate his contention that the 
 Corporation were unfit to administer the School as 
 Governors, quoted from a document, issued in their 
 name, the following sentences : ' We are charged with 
 having made no attempt to make the school the 
 means of eliciting superior qualities and promoting the 
 possessors of them. We freely admit the charge, and 
 we should hold it to be a breach of our trust to divert 
 the bounty intended for the poor and destitute for 
 purposes of higher education.' In the same document 
 the Corporation defined the object of the school thus :
 
 42 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 ' -Hewers of wood and drawers of water would still be 
 wanted, and in properly educating such to gain their 
 living by their honest labour, as Lady Dacre directed, 
 Emanuel Hospital is fulfilling its proper function in 
 the work of education.' A form of prayer was given 
 to the children to be said every night, in which they 
 prayed that they might meet the worthy Governors, 
 the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, in the 
 heavenly kingdom. 
 
 The most frequent and the most plausible argument 
 on Lord Salisbury's side was the argument that money 
 which had been left for the poor was being diverted to 
 the uses of the middle class. Lord Lyttelton, the chief 
 Commissioner, was not very happy in his answer to this 
 charge, and the most powerful reply came from Lord 
 Bipon, who pointed out that the beneficiaries under this 
 scheme would be chosen from the promising poor boys 
 in primary schools rather than from the children of the 
 servants and dependants of the Corporation. Bishop 
 Temple argued that circumstances had changed with 
 the passing of the Elementary Education Act, and 
 that the best way to provide for the poor was to 
 supply secondary schools that would be accessible to 
 those of their children who were able to profit by them. 
 Lord Salisbury's motion was carried by a majority of 
 eight, and though Lord Cairns expressed in a private 
 letter the hope that the scheme might survive in 
 a modified form, the hope was not realized, and the 
 whole scheme for reorganizing the Charities of West- 
 minster was rejected for the time. 
 
 Two years later, in 1873, when Hobhouse was in 
 India, the scheme passed the House of Commons in 
 an amended form.
 
 THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION 43 
 
 Before the first encounter in the House of Lords' 
 Hobhouse wrote to his wife : 
 
 Endowed Schools Commission, 
 
 2 Victoria Street, S.W., April 22, 1871. 
 
 I have just received a message from Forster which will 
 prevent my going away. He is in great turmoil about the 
 Emanuel case, on which indeed the whole success of the 
 Commission depends. It is therefore very important not to 
 stumble at the first encounter, and as this unfortunately 
 takes place in the House of Lords, and Lord De Grey is 
 away, others must be coached even if only for the purpose 
 of enabling them to judge whether to argue the case at 
 once or to put it off; a point which cannot be decided till 
 Lord Salisbury has fired off his speech. So I promised 
 Forster not to go away, if wanted, and it seems he does 
 wish me to prime the L. C. this evening, and if possible 
 Lord "Westbury to-morrow. 
 
 It is very provoking, but business must be done ; and it is 
 no easy matter to answer briefly at least fifty lies crammed 
 into as many paragraphs. I have been occupied all day 
 with it, and have supped full of mendacity. 
 
 Two letters after the defeat in the House of Lords 
 are of some interest. Lord Cairns wrote : 
 
 I confess I should have been very glad if I could have 
 voted for the scheme. There is much in it that seemed to 
 me to be extremely good, and I have no sympathy with the 
 narrow and selfish views of the Corporation of London. But 
 the scheme has been made the test of more extreme views 
 on the subject of competitive examination for elementary 
 schools, and of the propriety of making what seem to me 
 general endowments for primary education into either 
 secondary schools or prizes for the ' elite ' in primary schools, 
 than I can bring myself to endorse.
 
 44 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 I think the scheme might be modified so as, without im- 
 pairing its efficiency, to avoid forcing these views in so 
 sharp a form on those who are not prepared to accept them. 
 
 Lord Westbury wrote : 
 
 House of Lords, July 3. 
 
 I am very much vexed to find by The Times of this 
 morning that Lord Bessborough by a singular mistake 
 paired me as a Peer who was in favour of the Marquess 
 of Salisbury's motion. 
 
 Nothing could be more contrary to my intention and ex- 
 pressed desire. 
 
 The Scheme of the Commissioners had my most cordial 
 approbation. After Lord Cairns's speech I was anxious to 
 speak, but gave way to M. of Bipon. The House was 
 impatient, and as the Lord Chancellor was desirous of 
 speaking I gave up the hope of getting an opportunity of 
 being heard, and having a dinner party I left the House 
 whilst Lord Nelson was speaking. I regret the result very 
 much, as I most thoroughly approved of the Commissioners' 
 Scheme. In fact it is what I have advocated for more than 
 thirty years. Pray make this known to your colleagues. 
 
 Hobhouse's view of the importance of the decision 
 in the Emanuel case is given in a letter to a nephew 
 in 1904. 
 
 My canvass of Westminster in 1879-80 taught me that one 
 if not the main cause of the overturn of votes in London 
 among the trading classes was fear of reform in favour of 
 the artizan classes. I remember Leonard Courtney asking 
 me some time in the eighties why all the London shopkeepers 
 had turned Tory, and I said, mainly because they were afraid 
 of reforms in favour of the artizan classes. . . . All sub- 
 sequent observation has tended to confirm me in that 
 view. The City of London turned round bodily and 
 sharply on the Emanuel Hospital case. They were
 
 THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION 45 
 
 trustees of large eleemosynary funds, and assumed to 
 be owners. The Endowed Schools Commission treated 
 them as trustees. That was not to be borne. A violent 
 agitation was set on foot, supported by the whole Tory party 
 in the House of Lords. It took all Gladstone's strength to 
 maintain the law. The City, which had been Liberal for 
 long periods of time, has been Tory ever since that interfer- 
 ence with its 'property.' The position of its wealthy 
 members and their cries of ' Robbery ' had a great effect in 
 the election of 1874. There was much property in the same 
 sort of position, and trustees sucked no small advantage out 
 of it. So interference was bitterly resented. The artizan 
 classes were quite supine in this case, though the object of 
 the Commissioners, and the result, was to convert some 
 patronage of the Common Council into excellent schools for 
 the labour classes in London. 
 
 His views about the whole question, after three years' 
 work on the Commission, are given in the following 
 letters. 
 
 Endowed Schools Commission, 2 Victoria Street, S.W. 
 
 January 2, 1872. 
 
 Heaps of business here. But things look gloomier than 
 ever, and personal interests in the ascendant everywhere, 
 and not a spark of public spirit to oppose them except in the 
 County of Devon. The schoolmasters are quite right, but 
 they also are speaking in the direction of their own interests, 
 and they have no political power. Palmer's opinion merely 
 supports my legal judgement as against John Coleridge's : 
 it does not and cannot undo the practical mischief resulting 
 from the Education Department preferring to be guided by 
 private opinion of an advocate instead of having recourse to 
 the public tribunal pointed out by the Law. 
 
 However, our duty clearly is to struggle on and produce 
 such results as the Act intends. If then the nation do not 
 choose to have them, our consciences will be free, though
 
 46 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 of course we shall bear the whole blame. But the Act may 
 as well be struck out of the statute book ; into which, indeed, 
 it never ought to have got without much more discussion 
 than it received. 
 
 September 7, 1873. 
 
 At all events the Commission has been more successful 
 by a good deal than I ever thought it would be when I 
 reluctantly consented to serve upon it. I believed the Act to 
 be premature by many years, and knew that its effects had 
 not been discussed and were not understood by those who 
 passed it, and that if it ever was worked at all honestly, let 
 the moderation in working it be what it might, there would 
 be a great row. Under these circumstanced I always looked 
 upon ourselves as missionaries sent to lighten the heathen, 
 and to be persecuted and perish at their hands ; as a forlorn 
 hope told off to die in the ditch, and who are successful if 
 those who come after them can mount the wall?) There has, 
 however, been a good deal more success than that ; for one 
 of the most obstinate strongholds of corruption has been 
 stormed, and though the victors may have been knocked to 
 pieces in the contest, they have made it comparatively easy 
 for others to occupy the province of endowments and reduce 
 it from anarchy and chaos to law and order. 
 
 July 14, 1874. 
 
 The gist of the whole matter is that the Act was ten, or 
 perhaps thirty, years too early. It wanted a new generation 
 grown up in familiarity with the discussion of its main 
 principles. It would never have passed had not people's 
 attention been absorbed by the Irish Church Act. The 
 consequence was that when set to work, even in the most 
 moderate fashion, it came by surprise on nine-tenths of 
 society, and excited resentment against its agents. The 
 same thing happened under the Poor Law of 1834, which 
 indeed was more discussed, but was very imperfectly under- 
 stood or accepted by the country. I have referred to this 
 analogy several times in our discussions on this subject.
 
 THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION 47 
 
 Then the first Commission, who tried honestly to work the 
 law, encountered great unpopularity and was broken up. 
 The consolation is that their brave and sincere attempt to 
 put in action a law sound in principle but new and dis- 
 tasteful in character, produced a distinct balance of good, 
 and so I hope it may be found of the E. S. C. 
 
 Mr. Roby has been kind enough to supply us with 
 the following account of the work of the Endowed 
 Schools Commission. 
 
 Mr. Hobhouse's legal knowledge and experience stood the 
 Commission in good stead from the very commencement of 
 its work. There were in the Act a great many matters of 
 no slight complexity which had to receive, if not an authori- 
 tative interpretation, at least a practical and working inter- 
 pretation. Whether the particular business was a model 
 scheme for the administration of an educational endow- 
 ment or an answer to doubts about the extent of the 
 jurisdiction, or unravelling the mixed law and facts sur- 
 rounding the treatment of a particular endowment, he was 
 always patient and thorough in consideration, and modest 
 and clear in statement. The Commissioners acted as a 
 body in deciding on general principles and in the final 
 approval of a scheme, but in the selection of particular 
 schools or endowments for prior treatment they usually 
 acted separately, each in the section of England allotted 
 him. Each saw and instructed the Assistant Commissioner 
 who was sent personally to negotiate with the local authori- 
 ties, and each directed or drew the letters sent from the 
 office to explain the way in which it was proposed to deal 
 with the particular endowment. The letters bore the 
 secretary's signature, but were usually the work of the 
 Commissioner in charge. Mr. Hobhouse wrote with facility, 
 and excelled in close and forcible argument, and naturally 
 took kindly to this part of the work \ I can remember the 
 
 1 The letters were often written on a number of half-sheets of note-paper 
 and pinned together for the clerks to write out. He told me that he did 
 this because he hated waste.
 
 48 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 satisfaction with which he said when such an occasion arose, 
 ' I think this is a case for a reasoned letter ' ; and I was some- 
 times amused in thinking what the village trustees would 
 say when they received a careful and elaborate exposition 
 which might have seemed appropriate if addressed to a 
 judge on the bench. But we soon found that behind the 
 village trustees there was often a Church or Nonconformist 
 Vigilance Committee, who were capable enough of com- 
 prehending the argument, however little they might be 
 disposed to be convinced by it. 
 
 I do not know that, at first at any rate, there was marked 
 difference between one Commissioner and another in their 
 general views on the reform of the schools or on the applica- 
 tion of the Act in detail. All were in favour of giving large 
 freedom, so far as the Act permitted, to the governing body 
 on religious instruction; of grading and adjusting the schools 
 of a district so as to meet, without unnecessary overlapping, 
 the various educational wants; of admitting girls to the 
 benefit of endowments whenever the nature or magnitude 
 of a foundation made it suitable; of converting to educational 
 uses doles and other obsolete or pernicious charities ; of 
 giving the locality an effective share in the government of 
 the schools. The legal difficulties involved in carrying such 
 views into practice were naturally more perceptible to 
 Mr. Hobhouse than to his colleagues, and he often expressed, 
 both verbally and in writing, his desire that a point should 
 be argued by counsel so that there might be as much light 
 thrown on the problems as possible before the Commissioners 
 took any final step^'Tate was somewhat cruel to him, as 
 when in one difficult case, the trustees having accepted the 
 proposal and engaged Mr. Lopes, Q.C., and Charles Bowen 
 to argue their view, the argument came off only when he 
 had already ceased to be a Commissioner by his appointment 
 to a high post in India. 
 
 As the work of the Commission proceeded, it became 
 evident that the Schools Enquiry Report which produced 
 the Endowed Schools Act, and the Act itself, were in
 
 THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION 49 
 
 advance of the general sentiment of the country. Trustees 
 who objected to any interference, schoolmasters who disliked 
 the sphere proposed for them or their school in future, 
 Church and Nonconformist Committees who claimed to have 
 the Act interpreted in ways specially favourable to their 
 educational principles or desires, solicitors who feared their 
 interests might suffer under a new governing body or by 
 the simplification of the rules for administering the trusts, 
 gradually murmured or clamoured disapproval of the Com- 
 missioners. A number of wealthy endowments in West- 
 minster, within a stone's throw of the Commissioners' office 
 and of Parliament, seemed to me to invite large and early 
 reform. Mr. Hobhouse readily took the suggestion, and 
 commenced proceedings. One of them, Emanuel Hospital, 
 was under the government of the Aldermen of the City of 
 London. The solicitor to the City sounded the tocsin, and 
 summoned the authorities of boroughs and trustees of endow- 
 ments throughout England to resist the Commissioners, and 
 succeeded in bringing opposition to a head. The scheme 
 proposed was rejected by the House of Lords on Lord 
 Salisbury's proposal, but afterwards amended and carried 
 in the House of Commons after a brilliant and slashing 
 speech by Mr. Gladstone. The schools so reorganized by 
 the Commissioners' schemes have proved a great success, but 
 the tumult hindered the work of the Commission and made 
 it difficult or impossible to deal boldly at that time with 
 endowments in other parts of England similar to that of 
 Emanuel Hospital for the boarding and clothing s well as 
 for the education of scholars. The Commissioners were not 
 cowed by turmoil or obloquy into any surrender of their 
 principles, which were stated pretty fully in a general 
 report presented to Parliament in 1872 (No. C. 524), and 
 drawn mainly, I think, by Mr. Hobhouse. The appendix to 
 that report contained several letters or documents) on 
 different parts of the Commissioners' operations, and those 
 on legal questions were largely if not entirely drawn by 
 Mr. Hobhouse. But they are too intimately connected with
 
 50 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 the particular facts of certain endowments and particular 
 clauses of the Endowed Schools Act to allow of quotation 
 for general purposes. 
 
 If I were to criticize Mr. Hobhouse's action as a Com- 
 missioner in dealing with particular educational endowments, 
 I should be inclined to say that he perhaps looked upon the 
 Commissioners too much as judges, which to some extent 
 they certainly were by the Act, and too little as adminis- 
 trators. He was indeed much more of the lawyer than of 
 the diplomat. It was not for him to waive or reduce the 
 requirements of the Act of Parliament or to submit the 
 discretion which the Commissioners were to exercise to 
 the opinions or desires of non-authorized persons. And 
 dogged opposition on the part of particular trustees was 
 apt to appear to him rather as faithlessness than as fidelity 
 to their trust. He had so thoroughly convinced himself of 
 the folly and mischief of many of the parts of existing 
 administration of charities, that he was hardly able to 
 understand the ignorant complacency and blind adherence 
 with which the founder's will and ancient rules were re- 
 garded by some of the local administrators. I agreed in 
 his views too strongly to be disposed or entitled to censure : 
 I am only describing what appears to me to have been his 
 position. 
 
 As time went on I cannot but think the turmoil and 
 noise of opposition, sometimes no doubt legitimate but 
 often prejudiced and unreasonable, savouring rather of 
 politics than of zeal for educational interests, made the work 
 of the Commission grow somewhat irksome to him. He 
 probably felt as a judge would feel where loud assertion 
 and indecent clamour were substituted for argument and 
 proof. Perhaps, too, the subordination of the Commission 
 to the Committee of Council on Education, when both 
 parties, being sensitive to the external agitation, grew 
 inevitably critical of each other, formed a further ground 
 of dissatisfaction in his mind. So that while he never 
 shrank from manfully playing his part, I should suspect
 
 THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION 51 
 
 he welcomed his removal to another sphere of official duty, 
 when he was appointed to the distinguished post of Legal 
 Member of the Council in India. 
 
 Lord Davey writes about this Commission as 
 follows : 
 
 The work of the Commission was to reform and in many 
 cases to resuscitate and recall into life the vast educational 
 endowments of this country, except the seven so-called 
 Public Schools which were dealt with by a different Act. 
 This work was particularly congenial to Hobhouse's in- 
 tellectual character, which was distinguished by logical 
 and fearless adherence to principle, tenacity, and thorough- 
 ness of work. In conjunction with the energetic Secretary 
 of the Commission, Mr. Roby, who afterwards became a 
 Commissioner, he was mainly responsible for laying down 
 the lines upon which the schemes made by the Commission 
 have been framed. Judged as a whole, the work which 
 Hobhouse assisted to initiate, on lines which were followed 
 in the main by his successors, was one of a public utility 
 which it is almost impossible to exaggerate. A work 
 which necessarily interfered with the private patronage 
 and functions of powerful corporations, and offended local 
 susceptibilities and the supposed interests of bodies of self- 
 elected trustees, was sure to meet with opposition and to be 
 freely criticized. Vested interests had to be considered, 
 and the religious difficulty was always present. As standing 
 counsel for many years of the Endowed Schools Commis- 
 sioners (after Lord Hobhouse had ceased to be a member 
 of that body), and subsequently as member and chairman of 
 one of the largest endowed schools in the neighbourhood 
 of London, I have had unusual opportunities of estimating 
 the work of the Commission. I think mistakes were made 
 both in tactics and in substance. I doubt the wisdom of at 
 once attacking the most powerful corporations, though it 
 was characteristic of the moving spirits of the Commission 
 in its early days. And experience has shown that the 
 
 E 2
 
 52 MEMOIE OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 Commission overrated the powers of the schools to be 
 self-supporting after they were provided with school 
 buildings and a salaried head master. Nor did they per- 
 haps sufficiently allow for the demand for an expanded 
 range of education which has followed on the impulse they 
 have given to educational activity. But granting all this, 
 the mistakes can be, and are being, corrected and the best 
 monument of the work which Hobhouse assisted to in- 
 augurate is ' Circumspice/ 
 
 It was during these years of his life that Mr. Hob- 
 house first came into touch with Mr. Bryce, who 
 writes : 
 
 My acquaintance with him began when he was a Charity 
 Commissioner, many years ago ; and I was quickly struck 
 not only by the thoroughness of his knowledge of the 
 economic as well as the legal side of charity work, but 
 even more by the zeal and interest in his work which moved 
 him. Nobody could be less like the mere routine official, 
 who does his duty in a humdrum respectable way and then 
 thinks he has done enough. Mr. Hobhouse was an economic 
 reformer, permeated by the sound economic doctrines which 
 were practised as well as preached forty years ago. He had 
 an extremely high standard of duty and of honour, and he 
 had also a most kindly and tender heart. But he was con- 
 vinced that what may be called ' legal charity ' did far more 
 harm than good to the poor, and his experience had shown 
 him that charitable foundations are apt to become nests of 
 abuses, and that even those which are honestly and carefully 
 managed are often useless, because the objects to which they 
 are devoted have ceased to be the objects now needed. He 
 was therefore a reformer of a bold type, who was trenchant 
 in language and would have been drastic in action also, had 
 the opportunity been given him. He wrote several pam- 
 phlets and articles advocating sweeping changes in the law, 
 but he found few ministers or legislators willing to support 
 him, for the failure of Mr. Gladstone's effort to tax charities
 
 THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION 53 
 
 made in a speech which has become famous for the lumi- 
 nous cogency of its argument had spread the belief that 
 the public was not educated up to the level of the principles 
 to which Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Hobhouse appealed. How- 
 ever, he persevered so long as he remained a Charity Com- 
 missioner, and as an Endowed Schools Commissioner he was 
 able to do much good in the way of improving the old 
 grammar schools, though less than he desired, for forces 
 of resistance, well-meaning but ignorant resistance, often 
 checked him and his colleagues in a policy which was 
 cut short by the reactionary Act passed by the Tory Govern- 
 ment of 1874. 
 
 "When I was preparing the Bill for the reform of the 
 Parochial Charities of the City of London, which after three 
 years' fighting passed into law in 1883, he gave me invaluable 
 help both in suggesting the provisions needed and in revis- 
 ing the drafts of the Bill. He never grudged trouble when 
 any public end was in view : and was indeed one of the 
 most unselfish and high-minded men of his time, with whom 
 it was a pleasure to work, because the more you knew him, 
 the more you respected him. 
 
 His independence and his courage were abundantly proved 
 by the position he took up and adhered to in India when a 
 Viceroy, animated by views which he strongly disapproved, 
 was placed at the head of the Council of which he was a 
 member. But of his Indian career, and of his life and work 
 after he returned to England, others are far more competent 
 to speak than I am. His simple dignity, his straightfor- 
 wardness, his zeal in the cause of freedom and humanity, 
 remained through his declining years what they had been 
 in his prime: and though he sometimes seemed grieved 
 when comparing what he saw in old age with the greater 
 and wider enthusiasm for noble ideals which he had seen in 
 his youth, he was never harsh in his judgements, and seldom 
 despondent of the future. 
 
 The importance of the reforms in middle-class 
 education, sweeping though they were, have been
 
 54 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 obscured by the still more important Act, creating 
 a national system of elementary education, which 
 Forster carried through the House of Commons in 
 1870. Hobhouse, though afterwards a member of the 
 London School Board, was debarred as a civil servant 
 from taking any prominent part in the first election of 
 that Board. He, however, acted as Treasurer of the 
 Committee formed for securing the election of 
 Mr. Huxley. He wrote an amusing letter to his wife, 
 describing how he came to take this position. 
 
 Endowed Schools Commission, 
 
 2 Victoria Street, S.W., April 1, 1870. 
 I send Miss Garrett's 1 notes. I have written to promise 
 support to Dr. Murray, duly notified, and to say with re- 
 spect to School Board that, finding a diversity of interest 
 between her and Huxley, I shall vote exclusively for the 
 latter, but will do all I can by way of private canvass for 
 her among those who are frightened at the thoughts of him. 
 Two most disreputable looking chaps called here yesterday. 
 They were a 'deputation' from Huxley's Committee, or 
 perhaps the Committee itself, to ask me to be the treasurer 
 of the funds collected. They explained that their brethren 
 would feel more confidence in a treasurer above their own 
 rank in life. The treasure, it is supposed, will not amount to 
 more than 100. So I have opened an account this morning 
 with Sir C. Scott. The only contribution at present is 5 of 
 my own. 
 
 His views on the working of the Act in the country 
 are given in a letter to a nephew two years later. 
 
 Simla, October 17, 1872. 
 
 ... I am quite content with your action with regard to 
 K. School. "We shall see in the course of a few years (or at 
 
 1 Afterwards Mrs. Garrett-Anderson.
 
 THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION 55 
 
 least you will see) what School Boards develop into. I am 
 very hopeful of their action in the towns ; in the rural 
 districts their operation must be much more doubtful, and 
 at all events much slower. You say that H. tells you that 
 the farmers are very anxious to avoid a rate ; and again, you 
 say that the parson will have to pay half the expenses out of 
 his own pocket. Just so ; and that is exactly the state of 
 things which makes me wish for the pressure of the School 
 Board. The farmers will always avoid rates as long as 
 somebody else will pay the needful ; but neither is it just, 
 nor in any point of view desirable, that the expenses of 
 schools should fall on the clergy. Whether the landowners 
 and farmers pay by dint of voluntary subscriptions or of 
 legal rate matters little ; but I do want to hold the law well 
 over them, and to make them pay. All this will be under- 
 stood in time, but I have all along thought that several 
 years must elapse before the new system is accepted in the 
 country districts, and am quite willing to be patient. 
 
 As regards Catechism, as to which some very hazy and 
 some very erroneous notions lie at the bottom of the clerical 
 opposition to School Boards, as . s. d. lie at the bottom of 
 the opposition of the farmers, I may possibly write to you 
 later on, but not now. 
 
 In considering the history of the revolution effected 
 in the rights of married women by the legislation 
 which began in 1870 and continued to 1893, a con- 
 siderable place must be assigned to Mr. Hobhouse's 
 address at the Social Science Congress at Birmingham, 
 in October, 1868. Nearly ten years had passed since 
 Mill had condemned the 'almost despotic power of 
 husbands over wives,' and had maintained that wives 
 should have the same rights and should receive the 
 protection of the law in the same manner as all other 
 persons, and the next year (1869) the protest was to 
 be developed in his famous book on The Subjection
 
 56 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 of Women. But there were strong prejudices against 
 interference with what was regarded in many quarters 
 as a fundamental condition not only of the peace, but 
 of the existence of the family. When the first Bill 
 on the subject came to the House of Lords in 1870, 
 it was regarded with very great apprehension by so 
 bold a social reformer as Lord Shaftesbury, and 
 Lord Westbury and Lord Penzance succeeded in 
 reducing it to a measure which practically affected 
 only the earnings of married women. Professor 
 Dicey, in his recent book on Law and Opinion in 
 England, has commented on the slow growth of 
 public opinion on the subject. No better solvent of 
 this wide-spread prejudice could be found than Mr. 
 Hobhouse's clear and temperate paper, and it was 
 afterwards reprinted for the use of the Committee on 
 Mr. Russell Gurney's Bill. 
 
 He began by showing how mistaken was the 
 notion that to amend the law which gave the 
 personal property and earnings of a wife to her hus- 
 band was to strike at the general relations between 
 husband and wife. It merely struck at the common 
 law or the customary traditional law of England. 
 Now this law was set aside already by every marriage 
 settlement that was made, and the Court of Chancery 
 had for generations been counteracting the effect of 
 the common law by making it possible in various ways 
 for married women to hold property independently of 
 their husbands, and by recognizing the validity of con- 
 tracts between husband and wife. It had in fact created 
 separate property for married women, and this meant 
 that the most enlightened English lawyers, those whose 
 business it was to adapt the law to the progress of
 
 THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS COMMISSION 57 
 
 events, and make it tolerable to a civilized community, 
 regarded the common law rule of giving all the wife's 
 property to the husband as a bad rule, to be violated 
 whenever there was property enough to admit of 
 the intervention of trustees, or of the Court of 
 Chancery. The paper went on to show that 
 the evidence given before the Parliamentary Com- 
 mittee which had recently been sitting proved that 
 the existing state of things was no harmless and 
 unimportant anomaly. Of the witnesses it said 
 ' they all unite in saying that the law works visible 
 mischief; they tell us tales of wives plundered by 
 worthless and dissipated husbands ; of their inability 
 to obtain payment of legacies due to them, because 
 the executors are afraid of the husband's legal rights ; 
 of their savings being drawn from the places of 
 deposit, of their furniture, and even their clothes, 
 being taken to provide for their husbands' sensual 
 enjoyments. And the law protects and encourages 
 the husband in all this ! The selfish hardened man 
 may console himself by reflecting that he is only 
 doing what he will with his own ; the timid cowed 
 wife is still further disheartened by knowing that 
 her husband is within his legal right/ The general 
 effect of the system created by the Court of Chancery 
 side by side with the common law was that there 
 was one law for the rich, another for the poor. Mr. 
 Hobhouse's own remedy was to make married women, 
 in the absence of contract, free and absolute owners 
 of their own property. This reform had been effected 
 in most of the States of America and in Upper 
 Canada with excellent results. 
 
 'That objections,' he wrote, 'should spring up to such
 
 58 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 a change as we are discussing is a matter of course. 
 As in this world we have nothing good without its 
 defects, so we have no bad thing without its good 
 points. Partly from this cause, partly from the per- 
 vading habit of confounding that to which we are 
 accustomed with the eternal principles of right, partly 
 from indolence and fear of the unknown, there is 
 nothing established for which reasons are not found.' 
 
 Mr. Hobhouse's reform was not achieved for many 
 years, but an instalment was provided in the Act of 
 1870 which is associated with the name of Mr. Russell 
 Gurney. That Act in its final form was, as has been said, 
 a very tentative and limited measure, doing little more 
 than giving the wife a right to her earnings. The Act 
 of 1882 made the whole property of a married woman, 
 whether it is hers at marriage or comes to her after 
 marriage, her separate property, but under this Act she 
 did not acquire full contractual capacity. If a woman 
 had no separate property when she incurred a debt, 
 any separate property which she might afterwards 
 acquire was not liable to satisfy the debt. This 
 anomaly was removed by the Act of 1893, which gave 
 a married woman full contractual and testamentary 
 capacity, except in so far as her power is limited 
 by marriage settlements and the restraints on an- 
 ticipation l . 
 
 1 See Professor Dicey, Law and Opinion in England, pp. 369-93, for a full 
 account.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 INDIA 
 
 MR. HOBHOUSE was appointed to succeed Sir James 
 FitzJames Stephen as Law Member of the Governor- 
 General's Council in 1872. He took his seat in Council 
 on May 25 in that year, and he resigned it on April 10, 
 1877, having served within a few weeks of the usual 
 period of five years. When he was starting for India, 
 Sir J. Coleridge congratulated him on the time he would 
 have for reading, and told him that Macaulay, when 
 going out as Law Member, took out with him the 
 Delphian edition of the classics and read them all 
 through. But Mr. Hobhouse was not long in office 
 before he discovered that things had altered immensely 
 in this respect since Macaulay's day. 'I wish/ he writes 
 to a friend in England, ' Sir J. Coleridge could sit a day 
 in my room and see the streams of papers that have 
 to be attended to ' ; and in truth the mass of work he 
 had to dispose of, even when not actually employed 
 on any formidable legislative project, was such as to 
 tax to the utmost the energies of the most laborious 
 man. 
 
 The Law Member of the Governor-General's Council, 
 like the other members, has to act in more than one 
 capacity. As a member of the Supreme Executive 
 Council, he has to assist in disposing of all the questions 
 that come before that Council, and, having regard to 
 the peculiar qualifications he brings to bear, it is often
 
 60 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 of the highest importance that he should assert himself 
 and take a leading part in the settlement of those 
 questions, in whatever department they may arise, 
 even though they may not involve anything that 
 could be called a point of law. 
 
 Then as a member of the Legislative Council, which 
 comprises, besides the members of the Supreme Council, 
 a number of 'additional' members, official and non- 
 official, he has to take by far the heaviest share of the 
 work of legislation. He himself introduces and carries 
 through the Council all Bills falling within the province 
 of the legal expert, and he is further compelled by the 
 exigencies of the situation to take a very large share 
 of the work relating to all other Bills, revising them 
 before they are introduced and sitting as chairman of 
 the Committees of the Legislative Council to which 
 they are almost invariably referred. 
 
 Lastly, he is the Member of Council ' in charge ' of 
 the legislative department of the Government of India 
 a department which is not only concerned with the 
 work of legislation, but also performs for all other 
 departments an immense quantity of advising work 
 similar to that which is done in most Government 
 departments in England by the legal adviser within 
 the department. 
 
 The high qualifications for the discharge of all these 
 important duties which Mr. Hobhouse possessed, as 
 a man of rare intellectual ability, of high education, 
 and indefatigable industry, as a learned lawyer and 
 a practical man of business, were well known to all 
 who had had to do with him during his previous life 
 in England. But what perhaps above all things most 
 impressed those who knew him in India was his
 
 INDIA 61 
 
 passionate love of justice, his vehement dislike of 
 anything savouring of arbitrary action, his hatred of 
 all shams, and his contempt for vain display and mere 
 popularity-hunting. In certain respects, no doubt, as 
 he himself was always the first to admit, he fell some- 
 what short of his two immediate predecessors. Maine, 
 in addition to other high qualifications, was what is 
 commonly called a 'jurist/ and his works have done 
 more to popularize legal subjects, especially in their 
 historical aspects, among English-speaking people all 
 over the world, than those of any previous writer. 
 FitzJames Stephen would probably have preferred the 
 reputation of a working lawyer to that of a jurist 
 indeed he is said on one occasion to have defined a jurist 
 as ' a damned fellow without briefs ' but at the same 
 time he had a large element of what may be called the 
 professorial spirit. Mr. Hobhouse utterly disclaimed 
 all pretensions to anything of the kind. The Maharaja 
 of Vizianagram one day in the Legislative Council 
 spoke of him as ' one of the greatest and most learned 
 and eminent jurists of the world.' Mr. Hobhouse's 
 remark on this was quite characteristic of him. He 
 said he was 'only a practising lawyer of somewhat 
 plodding habits and some professional experience.' 
 But in this he was very far indeed from doing himself 
 justice. It was no doubt in the practice of his pro- 
 fession that he acquired most of his legal lore, and it 
 was chiefly from the practical point of view that he 
 approached any question that came before him, but he 
 had a breadth of view and a grasp of principle rarely 
 to be found either in the practising barrister or in the 
 'jurist.' 
 
 Like most men who have held the office of Law
 
 62 MEMOIE OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 Member, Mr. Hobhouse when entering upon his duties 
 seems to have had no more knowledge of the country 
 and the people than the average well-educated English- 
 man ; but there never was a new arrival in India who 
 more fully realized the dangers to which his ignorance 
 in this respect exposed him ; and his constant sense of 
 those dangers was his best protection against them. 
 Writing of a certain official, who was sent to India 
 from England in his time with a view to the intro- 
 duction of certain changes, he says, ' He came out with 
 some purely theoretical notions . . . apparently thinking 
 (as is not uncommon in England) that India is a good 
 place to try crotchets in, and then he went through 
 the process of finding out that facts are just as 
 stubborn here as anywhere else, or indeed that facts 
 are more stubborn in backward societies than they are 
 in advanced ones.' The temptation to plunge hastily 
 and without due consideration into sweeping measures 
 of reform is one from which even the permanent Indian 
 official of long experience is not exempt. There is a 
 pressing need of a reform of some sort. He feels he is 
 the man of all others to carry it through ; the opposition 
 he will have to encounter will not be very formidable ; 
 he has not much longer to stay, and if the thing is to 
 be done at all it must be done quickly. This temptation 
 is of course the more dangerous in the case of a man 
 who goes out to India to fill an important post for 
 a brief period, and it is one against which Mr. 
 Hobhouse was ever on his guard. He was an extra- 
 ordinarily quick observer, taking an intense interest in 
 all things Indian that came under his notice, whether 
 in his office or outside, and he rapidly acquired a greater 
 knowledge of the country and the people than perhaps
 
 INDIA 63 
 
 any man coming out from England to occupy a similar 
 position had done before ; but the result of this was 
 only to leave him more strongly impressed than ever 
 with the immense difficulties that present themselves 
 to the British legislator or administrator in India. 
 
 Mr. Hobhouse was fortunate in the men with whom 
 he found himself associated on his arrival in India. 
 The then Governor-General, the late Lord North- 
 brook, was a man very much of his own way of 
 thinking. He was, indeed, somewhat more cool and 
 diplomatic than was always agreeable to one so down- 
 right and uncompromising as Mr. Hobhouse was apt 
 to be, when once he had solved his doubts and saw 
 clearly what he believed to be the right course ; but 
 the two men had a genuine respect for one another, 
 and the relations between them seem to have been 
 always most friendly. Writing in August, 1875, when 
 they had been more than three years at work together, 
 Mr. Hobhouse says : ' My own immediate chief in India 
 is about as satisfactory a one as it is possible to have, 
 firm and imperturbable, determined to command, and 
 well able to do so ; but always ready to listen, and to 
 give way when convinced; clear-headed and industrious/ 
 Lord Northbrook, on his side, seems to have had the 
 greatest confidence in Mr. Hobhouse's judgement, and 
 repeatedly sought his advice in regard to matters 
 which would not in the ordinary course be specially 
 referred to the Law Member. Mr. Hobhouse was 
 fortunate also in his colleagues in the Supreme and 
 Legislative Councils, with the exception of one member 
 of the Legislative Council, whose idiosyncrasies are 
 still remembered in India and elsewhere, and his mode 
 of dealing with even that distinguished person left
 
 64 MEMOIE OF LORD HOBHOTJSE 
 
 nothing to be desired in point of good taste. He was 
 fortunate too in this, that throughout his whole term 
 of office the secretaryship in the legislative department 
 was held by Mr. Whitley Stokes, a learned lawyer and 
 accomplished draftsman, who had had many years' ex- 
 perience of India, who had been in charge of the 
 legislative work of the Government of India from the 
 year 1865, and who was destined to succeed Mr. 
 Hobhouse as Law Member of Council. Mr. Hobhouse 
 and Mr. Stokes did not, it is true, see eye to eye on 
 some of the important subjects with which they had 
 to deal, but they were always excellent friends and 
 pulled well together. A great deal of the legislative 
 work for which Mr. Hobhouse was formally responsible 
 was really done by Mr. Stokes, and Mr. Hobhouse 
 repeatedly referred in Council to this, disclaiming all 
 credit for himself. Mr. Stokes, on his part, looked up 
 to Mr. Hobhouse as a man ' to work under whom was 
 not only a privilege but an education.' 
 
 In April, 1876, Lord Northbrook resigned, after 
 continuing as Viceroy more than two years under the 
 Conservative Government which came into office in 
 February, 1874. The change must have been far from 
 welcome to Mr. Hobhouse, especially as Lord Lytton, 
 who succeeded to the Governor-Generalship, was in a 
 special sense the representative of the Conservative 
 Government, between whom and the Government of 
 India certain serious differences of opinion, to be referred 
 to later on, had arisen. It may be added that though 
 both Lord Lytton and Mr. Hobhouse were, each after 
 his own fashion, largely endowed with those qualities 
 which go to the formation of friendships, they were too 
 widely different in their temperaments and modes of
 
 INDIA 65 
 
 thinking ever to become close friends. Writing to a 
 friend in June, 1876, Mr. Hobhouse says : ' Our new 
 Governor-General remains very pleasant as regards 
 personal relations. He is an interesting companion with 
 much more general conversation, though I think not 
 more real knowledge or cultivation, than Lord North- 
 brook. But I fear he will never be up to the grinding 
 work which a Governor-General must go through who 
 wishes to be the actual ruler of this country. . . . When 
 he applies himself to business he is clever and quick 
 and original, and quite strong enough to hold what- 
 ever he has made his own : but he is also, I think, 
 impulsive and far too ready to rush into action on 
 a prima facie view of a case ; a dangerous quality for 
 a man in his position, and especially for one who has 
 not the strength to master great masses of material.' 
 A month later he writes to another friend much to 
 the same effect, but, notwithstanding certain differ- 
 ences of opinion, the two men seem to have continued 
 to be fairly good friends to the close of Mr. Hobhouse's 
 term of office, when Lord Lytton gave a farewell ban- 
 quet in his honour, and made a speech acknowledging 
 his services in highly complimentary terms. 
 
 Sedulously though he applied himself to study the 
 country and the people, Mr. Hobhouse never omitted 
 to seek the aid of persons of longer experience than 
 himself. We find him constantly acknowledging his 
 obligations to his colleagues in both the Councils for 
 the advice and assistance they gave him ; indeed in 
 many cases he was content, having regard to their 
 more intimate acquaintance with the subject under 
 consideration, to place himself entirely in their hands 
 and accept the humble r61e of putting their ideas into
 
 66 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 shape. He was, moreover, in frequent communication 
 with the judges of the High Courts, especially with 
 Sir R. Couch and Sir R. Garth, who were the Chief 
 Justices at Calcutta in his time and were both his 
 intimate friends, as also with the leaders of the Bar. 
 No man ever applied himself more diligently to the 
 study of the vast masses of opinions, sometimes ex- 
 tending over hundreds of closely-printed foolscap pages, 
 which are sent in by local officials, high and low, 
 European and Indian, on every proposed measure ; and 
 unless an opinion was palpably worthless, as is apt at 
 times to be the case, he always treated it with con- 
 sideration and respect. 
 
 After Mr. Disraeli came into office in February, 
 1874, with Lord Salisbury as Secretary of State for 
 India, various differences of opinion sprang up between 
 the Government of India and the Home Government. 
 The most serious of these arose out of certain proposals 
 made by the Home Government in developing our 
 relations with the Ameer of Afghanistan, which may 
 be said to have been the starting-point of that 
 policy which came to be called by different people, 
 according to the view they took of it, the 'forward 
 policy/ the 'imperial policy/ the 'jingo policy/ or 
 the ' policy of swagger and grab.' Another serious 
 difference arose out of the proposal made by the 
 Home Government for the abolitioh of the customs 
 duties levied on cotton goods imported into India. 
 There were further differences which arose in the 
 ordinary course of business, such as those relating to 
 the working of the legislative machine in India, to the 
 codification of the substantive law of India, to certain 
 problems of famine relief, to the case of the Guicowar
 
 INDIA 67 
 
 of Baroda, which, though less serious in themselves, 
 acquired an additional importance from the circum- 
 stance that they involved the question of the extent 
 to which the Secretary of State may legitimately push 
 his interference with the Government of India. On 
 all these matters Mr. Hobhouse entertained very- 
 strong opinions, and he was not a man to make a secret 
 of those opinions except so long and so far as his 
 official position required him to do so. Some time 
 after he had left India, certain people seem to have 
 suggested that his opposition to the Conservative 
 Government in regard to these Indian questions was 
 prompted by party spirit, but those who were most 
 closely connected with his work in India would pro- 
 bably be unanimous in saying that in taking, whether 
 rightly or wrongly, the views he did upon those 
 questions, he was entirely unbiassed by any con- 
 sideration of party. The permanent Indian official 
 is, as a rule, something of an agnostic so far as 
 English party politics are concerned. He is apt to 
 look upon any English ministry, Conservative, Unionist, 
 Liberal, or what you please, as about as good or as bad 
 as any other ; and he is quick to detect and resent 
 any attempt by a Governor-General or any one else 
 fresh out from England to import sectarian political 
 doctrines into India. But those who were associated 
 with Mr. Hobhouse in India never appear to have 
 charged him with any such attempt. That he was 
 a strong Liberal in the broad sense of the word in 
 the sense in which most persons, of whatever political 
 denomination, would wish to be considered Liberals 
 was no doubt patent to all ; but he was not thought 
 of as a strong party man, and it came quite as a 
 
 F 2
 
 68 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 surprise to many of his Indian friends to see him 
 taking up a decided position in political circles after 
 his return to England. It may be added that the 
 only one of the questions above referred to, which 
 involved any party issue, was that relating to the 
 forward policy, and those who knew Mr. Hobhouse 
 best will hardly doubt that if the forward policy had 
 been started by Gladstone and the Duke of Argyll 
 he would have opposed it just as strongly as he did 
 when it was started by Disraeli and Lord Salisbury. 
 It would be manifestly impossible in the present memoir 
 to enter at large upon the subject of the forward policy, 
 the cotton duties, and the other questions above re- 
 ferred to, the discussions on which run to an appalling 
 length in Blue Books, Parliamentary Debates, and 
 elsewhere, but it seems desirable to give a brief account 
 of Mr. Hobhouse's connexion with some of them. 
 
 The discussion regarding the forward policy was 
 started by a dispatch from Lord Salisbury to Lord 
 Northbrook's Government, dated January 22, 1875. 
 In that dispatch Lord Salisbury directed the Govern- 
 ment of India to take measures, with as much expedition 
 as the circumstances of the case permitted, for procur- 
 ing the assent of the Ameer to the establishment of 
 a permanent British agency (by which was meant a 
 European officer as political agent) at Herat, to be 
 followed later on by the establishment of a similar 
 agency at Candahar. 
 
 The Government of India replied in a long dispatch, 
 dated June 7, signed by Lord Northbrook, Lord 
 Napier of Magdala, Sir Henry Norman, Sir William 
 Muir, Sir Ashley Eden, and Mr. Hobhouse, protesting 
 against the order chiefly on the ground that all the
 
 INDIA 69 
 
 most competent authorities, both European and native 
 (and among others Sir Louis Cavagnari, destined to 
 play so tragic a part in this affair later on), were 
 unanimous in thinking that we should find the 
 Ameer most unwilling to receive permanent European 
 political agents at any place in his dominions, TKis 
 unwillingness, it was said, would not be due to any 
 unfriendliness on his part towards us, but to the 
 adverse feeling entertained to anything of the kind by 
 an influential party in Afghanistan. The Ameer's 
 position in Afghanistan, it was observed, was not so 
 secure that he could afford to neglect any strong 
 feeling of that kind. He would also, it was said, be 
 influenced by a fear for the safety of any European 
 officers that might be sent. It was added that, even 
 if the Ameer were, under pressure from us, to give 
 a reluctant consent to the proposal, we should gain no 
 advantage, as our agent would in that event be in an 
 unfavourable position for doing any good, and moreover 
 any outrage on him would place us in an extremely 
 embarrassing position. Lord Salisbury returned to 
 the charge, in a dispatch dated November 19, 1875, 
 in which he urged among other things that ' Indian 
 diplomatists, by superior intellect and force of character, 
 have in their intercourse with native princes often 
 triumphed over more stubborn prejudices,' than those 
 which the Government of India and their advisers 
 attributed to the Ameer ; and he directed the Govern- 
 ment of India to find some occasion for sending 
 a mission to Cabul without avoidable delay to urge 
 the proposal, especially by pressing upon the Ameer 
 ' the risk he would run if he should impede the course 
 of action which the British Government think necessary
 
 70 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 for securing his independence.' To this the Govern- 
 ment of India replied in a dispatch of January 28, 1876, 
 reiterating their objections, and in particular urging 
 again, as against the proposal to put pressure on the 
 Ameer, that the advantages to be gained from the 
 presence of British officers in Afghanistan depended 
 entirely upon the cordial concurrence of the Ameer, 
 and would not be secured by his reluctant assent after 
 pressure put upon him by us V It is curious to find, 
 after the lapse of so many years, what might be called 
 a generalization of this last argument in a speech 
 Lord Lansdowne delivered in the House of Lords on 
 the second of June, 1905, in reply to certain criticisms 
 made by Lord Newton on the settlement effected by 
 Sir Louis Dane at Cabul in the early part of this 
 year. After admitting that our agreements with the 
 late Ameer, re-established by Sir L. Dane with the 
 present Ameer, were not in all respects everything 
 that could be wished, and that successive Governor- 
 Generals of India had desired to make improvements 
 
 1 Paragraph 26 of the letter seems worth quoting in full. It ran as 
 follows : 
 
 ' It is in the highest degree improbable that the Ameer will yield a hearty 
 consent to the location of British officers in Afghanistan which the Mission 
 is intended to accomplish ; and to place our officers on the Ameer's frontier 
 without his hearty consent would, in our opinion, be a most impolitic and 
 dangerous movement. Setting aside the consideration of the personal risk to 
 which under such circumstances the Agents would be exposed, and the 
 serious political consequences that would ensue from their being insulted or 
 attacked, their position would be entirely useless. They would be dependent 
 for their information on untrustworthy sources. They would be surrounded 
 by spies under the pretext of guarding them or administering to their wants. 
 Persons approaching or visiting them would be watched and removed ; and 
 though nothing might be done ostensibly which could be complained of as 
 an actual breach of friendship, the Agents would be checked on every hand, 
 and would soon find their position both humiliating and useless. Such was 
 the experience of Major Todd at Herat, in 1839, when his supplies of money 
 failed. Such was the experience of Colonel Lumsden when he went to 
 Candahar in 1857 as the dispenser of a magnificent subsidy.'
 
 INDIA 71 
 
 in them, Lord Lansdowne went on, ' But I do not think 
 I shall misrepresent any who have held that high 
 office, when I say that to one and all of them the 
 idea of forcing such improvements and reforms upon 
 the Government of Afghanistan was wholly repugnant. 
 I think we should all of us have preferred to be 
 content with a less satisfactory state of things, cordially 
 accepted by the ruler of Afghanistan, rather than 
 attempt a much more satisfactory and completely 
 developed arrangement forced upon him by coercion of 
 any kind ' (Hansard, cxlvii. p. 362). 
 
 Lord Northbrook, who seems in dealing with this 
 question to have had throughout the support of 
 Mr. Hobhouse and the highly distinguished Indian 
 officers who were associated with him in the Council, 
 resigned with effect from April 12, 1876, and was 
 succeeded by Lord Lytton, who took out in his pocket, 
 to be shown to his colleagues at such time as he might 
 deem fit, a fresh dispatch from Lord Salisbury dated 
 February 28, directing the Government of India to 
 send to the Ameer a mission, which ostensibly would 
 be one of mere compliment and courtesy, but which 
 would afford an opportunity of discussing the relations 
 between ourselves and the Ameer, and, among other 
 things, of impressing on him the necessity of receiving 
 English officers as political agents in certain parts of 
 his dominions. On April 24, 1876, Lord Lytton 
 caused a letter to be sent to the Ameer, informing him 
 that it was intended to send a mission under Sir Lewis 
 Pelly, and on May 22 the Ameer sent a reply to this 
 letter, refusing to receive the proposed mission. Lord 
 Salisbury's instructions of February 28 were then 
 laid before the Council, with the result that a second
 
 72 MEMOIK OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 letter was sent to the Ameer on July 8, again urging 
 him to receive the mission, explaining that the 
 Viceroy's object was the maintenance of friendly 
 relations between the two Governments, and adding in 
 conclusion, 'It will for this reason cause the Viceroy 
 sincere regret if Your Highness, by hastily rejecting 
 the hand of friendship now frankly held out to you, 
 should render nugatory the friendly intentions of His 
 Excellency, and oblige him to regard Afghanistan as 
 a State which has voluntarily isolated itself from the 
 alliance and support of the British Government.' The 
 discussion continued until the end of the year, when it 
 was agreed that the Ameer should send his minister 
 to discuss matters with Sir Lewis Pelly at Peshawur. 
 The Peshawur Conference began on January 27, 1877, 
 and the discussions went on until March 26, when the 
 Ameer's minister died. From the beginning it was 
 doubtful whether he ' was authorized to accept the 
 sine qua non condition that British officers should 
 reside on the frontier of Afghanistan to watch outside 
 events,' and ultimately after much fencing he rejected 
 it 1 . The negotiations thus broke down 'upon the 
 essential point which was indeed the keystone defined 
 by Lord Salisbury's dispatch of February, 1876 V 
 Sir Lewis Pelly returned from Peshawur on April 2 ; 
 and, as Mr. Hobhouse's tenure of office came to an end 
 a week later, it is unnecessary for us further to pursue 
 the history of the events which culminated in the 
 second war with Afghanistan. The Blue Books are 
 silent as to the view Mr. Hobhouse and those who 
 thought with him took of the proceedings to which 
 
 1 Lord Lyttori's Indian Administration, by Lady Betty Balfour, p. 135. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 163.
 
 INDIA 73 
 
 we have been referring ; but it appears that, at least 
 at one critical stage, he dissented from the action 
 proposed by Lord Lytton. Lady Betty Balfour, at 
 page 64 of the work above cited, tells us that he, with 
 Sir William Muir and Sir Henry Norman, dissented 
 from Lord Lytton and the majority of their colleagues 
 in regard to the proposal to send to the Ameer the 
 letter of July 8, 1876, to which reference has been 
 made. Their notes or minutes of dissent do not appear 
 to have seen the light, and it is possible that they 
 were recorded in such a form that they would not 
 in the ordinary course of business be transmitted to 
 England, but Lady Betty Balfour writes of Mr. Hob- 
 house and the other two dissentients as follows : 
 
 They were of opinion that Sher Ali was acting within his 
 right in refusing to receive an English mission, that the 
 reasons assigned by him were substantial, and that the pro- 
 posed letter was almost equivalent to a threat of war. They 
 held that although stress had been laid on the temporary and 
 complimentary character of the mission, its real object was, as 
 the Amir well knew, to enforce the reception of permanent 
 English agents, that we were not dealing fairly with the 
 Amir if we omitted to state distinctly the object at which we 
 were aiming, that if the temporary mission were accepted and 
 the permanent mission refused our position would be em- 
 barrassing, and that we ought to resolve beforehand whether 
 in such a case we should accept the refusal or resort to force. 
 It was better, they thought, to wait until the Amir was in 
 want of our assistance to help him out of difficulties, when we 
 could make terms with him. 
 
 It only remains to add, as regards the main point 
 under discussion during Mr. Hobhouse's tenure of 
 office, that, at the conclusion of what may be called 
 the first act of the war, Lord Lytton so far achieved
 
 74 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 success that Sir Louis Cavagnari was installed as our 
 agent at Cabul on July 24, 1879, but the massacre 
 of him and his companions only six weeks later led to 
 the abandonment of the idea of having permanent 
 European agents in the Ameer's dominions, an idea 
 which has not since been revived. Alluding to this sub- 
 ject in the course of a speech in the House of Lords in 
 January, 1881, Lord Lytton, after a touching reference 
 to his grief for the loss of his friend Cavagnari, pro- 
 ceeded as follows : 
 
 Apart, however, from that great sorrow, my opinion as to 
 the propriety of the course we pursued by acquiescing in the 
 Ameer's strongly expressed, and apparently sincere, request 
 for the support of a British mission at his court, is an opinion 
 entirely unchanged by the abominable crime with which it 
 was so ill requited. But although I think it was right, and 
 even necessary, in the interests of all concerned, to make 
 that humane experiment, undeterred by the risks it involved 
 and of which we were not unconscious, I admit, my Lords, 
 that the experiment has failed. 
 
 In regard to the forward policy generally Mr. 
 Hobhouse entertained strong opinions, to which he 
 gave expression in letters written to friends, and also 
 in an article entitled ' Some Reflections on the Afghan 
 Imbroglio,' which he contributed to the Fortnightly 
 Review for September, 1880. He urges in the first 
 place that the forward policy is immoral, that we have 
 no right to seize other people's territory or forcibly to 
 impose a protectorate on them merely for the purpose 
 of improving our own position. He is severe on the 
 stock pretexts commonly advanced in support of for- 
 ward movements the assertions that the mass of the 
 inhabitants of the country in question are only too
 
 INDIA 75 
 
 eager to come under us, and that it is merely a few 
 'young bloods' or bad characters or bigoted and 
 grasping priests that are against us; the repeated 
 protestations that there is no idea of 'annexing' 
 the country, which are no doubt absolutely true in 
 the technical sense of the word as understood by 
 experts, but which convey a totally false impression 
 to the ordinary man ; and so on. He scouts the 
 notion that the mere proximity of Russia to our 
 border would lead to disaffection among the ruling 
 chiefs and the people of India. He asks : ' If Russian 
 intrigues are so formidable to us in India itself, would 
 they not be a hundred times as formidable to us in 
 Afghanistan ? ' He further asks where are we to stop 
 in our forward course ? He compares the advocates of 
 the forward policy to ' those simple speculators in 
 geography who, feeling the North wind to be cold, 
 invented a genial hyperborean region beyond it.' 
 ' But/ he goes on, ' attempts to get behind the North 
 wind only land us in thrilling regions of thick-ribbed 
 ice. Flying from what is very bearable, we rush into 
 starvation and destruction.' Lastly, he refers to the 
 military difficulties to be encountered ; but, whatever 
 may be thought of some of his other arguments, it 
 would probably be considered by most people at the 
 present day that in dealing with these difficulties he 
 rather understates than overstates his case. 
 
 The cotton duties were another subject of difference 
 between the Home Government and Lord Northbrook's 
 Government. 
 
 For a long period preceding Lord Northbrook's 
 appointment to the Governor- Generalship, duties had 
 been levied at the rate of 3 J per cent, ad valorem on
 
 76 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 cotton yarns, and 5 per cent, on cotton piece goods 
 and other cotton manufactures imported into India. 
 These duties were simply items in the general import 
 tariff, which comprised almost the entire range of 
 possible imports, and were levied solely for revenue 
 purposes and without any view to protection. They 
 had, indeed, been imposed at a time when there were 
 no cotton-mills in India and when, for practical purposes, 
 there could have been no question of protection. That, 
 low as they were, they did operate to some extent as 
 a protection to the mill industry after it had become 
 established in India is very probable. However that 
 may be, the Manchester Chamber of Commerce in 
 January, 1874, presented a memorial to the Secretary of 
 State objecting to these duties, chiefly on the grounds 
 that they were ' absolutely prohibitory to the [import] 
 trade in yarn and cloth of the coarse and low priced 
 sorts/ and that they ' increased the cost to the native 
 population, or at least to the poorest of the people, of 
 their articles of clothing, and thereby interfered with 
 their health, comfort, and general well-being.' That 
 memorial was referred by the Government of India to 
 a Committee appointed for the revision of the tariff, 
 and, while the matter was still under consideration 
 out there, the Secretary of State (Lord Salisbury), 
 addressed to the Government of India a dispatch 
 dated July 15, 1875, in which, while stating that the 
 protective effect of the duties was * probably insignifi- 
 cant,' and that he did not attribute to them the effect 
 of ' excluding English competition,' and thereby raising 
 the price of a necessity of life to the vast mass of 
 Indian consumers, he nevertheless insisted on the 
 necessity of abolishing them as soon as the state of
 
 INDIA 77 
 
 the Indian finances might admit of this being done. 
 He insisted on this, partly because such duties seemed 
 to him incompatible with the system of free trade, 
 and partly, or as he stated in a subsequent dispatch 
 chiefly, for a political reason, namely because, as the 
 protective effect of these duties had come to be 
 exaggerated both in England and in India, the bitter- 
 ness of feeling between the English and the Indian 
 manufacturers would tend to increase if they were not 
 soon abolished. ' The precaution,' he said in conclusion, 
 ' has indeed been delayed too long. Some soreness 
 even now will be felt, and more will be expressed, by 
 persons who will trace such a policy to a preference of 
 English over Indian interests. But the irritation will 
 only extend over a wider surface if action is delayed, 
 and may, if the delay be too far prolonged, become 
 a serious public danger.' In a later dispatch, dated 
 November 11, 1875, he reiterates his arguments, and 
 at the close, after observing that 'the paramount 
 importance of guarding the Indian treasury from^ 
 financial embarrassment must be borne in mind/ he 
 says, ' The entire removal of the duty should, however, 
 not be adjourned for an indefinite period, but provision 
 should be made for it within a fixed term of years/ 
 The Government of India (Lord Northbrook, Lord 
 Napier of Magdala, Sir Henry Norman, Mr. Hobhouse, 
 Sir Edward Bayley, Sir William Muir, Sir Alexander 
 Arbuthnot, and Sir Andrew Clarke) replied in a 
 dispatch, dated February 25, 1876. They dealt with 
 the question at great length and in much detail, and 
 the conclusion to which they came was that, while ' by 
 no means insensible to the advantage of reducing the 
 duty upon cotton manufactures/ they regretted that
 
 78 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 the then financial prospects precluded them from 
 taking any immediate action in that direction, and 
 that they entertained very serious objections to any 
 measure which would commit future Governments to 
 the entire removal of the duty. The two last para- 
 graphs of the dispatch are worth quoting in full. 
 They were as follows : 
 
 Your Lordship, however, in the dispatches of July 15 
 and November 11, has mainly pressed upon us the desira- 
 bility of removing this duty for political reasons. It is 
 apprehended that discussions will take place in which the 
 conflicting interests of England and of India will be urged, 
 that Parliament will insist upon the repeal of the duties, 
 and that an irritation, which would be avoided if the duties 
 were dealt with at once, may thus be created to the injury of 
 both countries. 
 
 "We trust that this anticipation may not be realized ; but, 
 while we should much regret that any such feelings should 
 be excited on the part of any portion of our fellow country- 
 men at home, it is our duty to consider the subject with 
 regard to the interests of India ; we do not consider that the 
 removal of the import duty upon cotton manufactures is 
 consistent with those interests, and we hope that the 
 statement contained in this dispatch of the whole circum- 
 stances of the case, and of the condition of the Indian 
 finances, will show that the real effect of the duty is not 
 what is supposed, that it cannot be removed without danger 
 to the Indian finances, and that the imposition of new taxes 
 in its stead would create serious discontent. 
 
 Lord Salisbury's answer to the Government of India 
 was dated May 31, 1876, after Lord Lytton had 
 succeeded Lord Northbrook. It too is a very lengthy 
 letter, but the only points in it which it seems necessary 
 to note here are, first, that he explained (paragraph 5)
 
 INDIA 79 
 
 that he never contemplated the imposition of fresh 
 taxation for the purpose of abolishing the cotton duties, 
 and, secondly, that he declared (paragraphs 8 to 10) 
 that he never meant to say that the duties were not 
 protective, and proceeded (paragraph 15 et seq.) to 
 show that they were. 
 
 The matter, at least so far as Mr. Hobhouse was 
 concerned, seems to have rested there until March, 
 1877, when Sir John Strachey, who had succeeded Sir 
 William Muir as Finance Member of Council in 
 December, 1876, made his financial statement. Sir J. 
 Strachey was a strong advocate for the abolition of all 
 Customs duties, and he accordingly considered that, 
 though owing to the financial position he could not on 
 that occasion do anything towards the abolition of the 
 cotton duties, he was bound to make a profession of 
 faith. Upon this Mr. Hobhouse, Sir Edward Bayley, 
 and Sir Henry Norman recorded a dissent dated 
 March 11, 1877, the grounds of which, as stated by 
 them, were as follows : 
 
 1. Because we do not understand it to be the intention 
 of the Secretary of State in Council to debar the Governor- 
 General in Council for the time being from a comprehensive 
 consideration of the present aspect of any subject-matter 
 upon which they have to pass laws. 
 
 2. Because we understand the Secretary of State in 
 Council, so far as he has given orders on the subject, to have 
 laid down that the repeal of the duties on cotton goods is 
 out of the question until a surplus income has been gained. 
 
 3. Because there appears to be no chance of a surplus 
 income for at least two years to come, and the period of 
 deficit may be much further prolonged. 
 
 4. Because we think it essential that the Government of 
 the day should not be embarrassed by unnecessary promises
 
 80 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 and pledges in considering the question which taxes it is 
 most desirable to reduce or repeal at any given time. 
 
 5. Because we think that, whenever the possession of 
 a surplus enables it to reduce duties at all, the Government 
 should carefully consider whether it is not desirable to 
 operate upon other duties, e.g., the salt duties, the sugar 
 duties, or the export duties, in priority to the import duties ; 
 in our judgement, each of these three items of revenue 
 requires alteration far more urgently than do the duties on 
 cotton goods. 
 
 6. Because independently of pure financial questions, we 
 think it impolitic to disregard the fact, that the repeal of 
 duties on cotton goods in India, in preference to other 
 injurious taxes, is viewed with great suspicion and dislike 
 by a large portion of the educated natives of this country, 
 and is likely to cause much irritation among them. 
 
 7. Because the announcement now made is calculated to 
 withdraw from the Government of the future the free and 
 unembarrassed discussion of the considerations above in- 
 dicated, to say nothing of others which may then present 
 themselves. 
 
 Here Mr. Hobhouse's official connexion with the 
 question came to an end, as he resigned his seat in 
 Council about three weeks later ; but his interest in it 
 continued unabated ; and, in his unofficial utterances 
 regarding it, he did not mince matters. The Home 
 Government, in directing the abolition of the duties, 
 had, as already stated, professed to justify their action 
 chiefly on ' political reasons ' in the higher sense of the 
 pbrase, but to rely also on orthodox free trade prin- 
 ciples. Mr. Hobhouse was disposed to think that the 
 ' political reasons ' by which they were actuated were 
 of a different, and somewhat less exalted, nature, and 
 that the enthusiasm they professed for free trade had 
 little weight in determining their policy. How far he
 
 INDIA 81 
 
 was right, we need not consider here, but a great 
 many other people thought as he did. 
 
 Nor can we go into the subsequent history of the 
 matter. It is enough to say that Manchester appears 
 to be satisfied with the settlement arrived at some 
 years later, and which now holds good, that the 
 grievance of the Indian producer is little heard of in 
 these days, but that it is not forgotten, and that there 
 are some who apprehend that, if India is ever called 
 upon to co-operate in a fiscal scheme like that pro- 
 pounded by Mr. Chamberlain, the question may be 
 reopened and we may have all the fat in the fire 
 again. 
 
 The extent to which the Home Government may 
 legitimately push its interference with the Government 
 of India was a question that was much debated during 
 these months, and Mr. Hobhouse's letters to his 
 friends during the period referred to contain many 
 complaints of the tendency of Lord Salisbury and his 
 Council to interfere in matters on which they were 
 ill-informed and on which they ought to have trusted 
 the Government of India. Over-interference by the 
 Home Government is likely to lead to over-inter- 
 ference from other quarters as well. As he observes 
 with a good deal of truth, ' Parliament may, and I 
 think will, be content to leave much to rulers in India, 
 but it is quite a different thing when the ruler sits 
 at Westminster.' It is probably the same with the 
 press and the public in England ; and thus the 
 larger question arises as to how far it is possible 
 for people generally in England to exercise any bene- 
 ficial influence over a dependency so distant as India. 
 This question he discusses in one of the lectures he 
 
 a
 
 82 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 delivered after his return to England, and as the 
 observations he then made refer in a somewhat pointed 
 manner to certain of the controversies of the period 
 we are now considering, they may appropriately be 
 quoted here. They are, moreover, well worth quoting 
 because, though all persons may not agree in some 
 things he said in illustrating his views, the main 
 principles he laid down seem eminently sound, and will 
 probably commend themselves to all persons familiar 
 with the problems of Indian administration. After 
 referring to the opinion entertained by some that 
 people in England cannot possibly understand enough 
 of Indian questions to do anything but mischief by 
 interference, he proceeds as follows : 
 
 I agree to that so long as it is confined to what I may 
 call specific acts of government as distinguished from its 
 general principles. Of course such a distinction is impos- 
 sible to define in words, nor could it always be observed in 
 practice. Yet it is a very substantial distinction: and of 
 the majority of cases it would not be difficult to say whether 
 they fall within one class or the other. If we were to 
 attempt generally to dictate from England who should be 
 appointed a Monsiff or a Collector, what places should be 
 erected into municipalities, where and how troops should 
 be quartered, how far a chieftain of Kattiawar should be 
 trusted with the power of punishing offenders within his 
 territory, we should act in ignorance, and throw everything 
 into confusion. On the other hand, if we cannot decide 
 here upon the broad principles on which our dependencies 
 are to be governed, we are of all men the most miserable ; 
 for we have more dependencies than all other nations put 
 together ; and for their government, and all its consequences 
 to ourselves, we are to be wholly at the mercy of our 
 agents. 
 
 Between these extremes there are of course many cases
 
 INDIA 83 
 
 as to which different minds, admitting the broad principles 
 that we should exercise general supervision and abstain 
 from minute interference, will yet come to different con- 
 clusions as to the question under which principle they fall. 
 I say it is impossible to define, or even to classify, a 
 particular case beforehand, but I may illustrate my meaning 
 by an example or two, at least so far as to show that I am 
 not using vague words without meaning. 
 
 Take such a case as the deposition of the Gaekwar of 
 Baroda. It is a very important principle that our Indian 
 officials shall not under colour, or with the sincere view, of 
 preventing internal misgovernment, draw native territory 
 under our direct dominion ; but that principle once secured, 
 as in the case of Baroda it was, it is also very important 
 that the Indian officials should be left to judge of the kind 
 and degree of misconduct in a ruler which will justify his 
 supersession in favour of another, and of the method of 
 effecting such a supersession. In that case I think that 
 people here were disposed to interfere in a way which would 
 have been unwise, even if they had possessed much more 
 exact knowledge of the case, and which the slender stock of 
 their knowledge made more unwise. 
 
 Take again the case of a great famine. There are those 
 who think that acute famines are a necessary and natural 
 check on the undue multiplication of the human race in 
 India, and that they are the means of preventing even 
 worse miseries. There are those, again, who think that 
 every possible effort, even though involving great sacrifices 
 and risks, should be made to save the sufferers. That is 
 a broad difference of principle which may be perfectly well 
 understood and decided in this country, but the object being 
 decided, the mode of action should be left to those who are 
 on the spot. 
 
 So with taxation. If the system of taxation were found 
 to violate great principles, economical or political, there 
 would be good reason why we should judge it in this country 
 and insist on its alteration with more or less rapidity. But 
 
 G 2
 
 84 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 to interfere with particular taxes on the ground that they 
 are slightly more or less hurtful than others, is to interfere 
 in things that we cannot judge of. And that course leads 
 at once to what we have lately witnessed and are now 
 witnessing, an agitation in this country by a particular 
 commercial interest to have the taxes of India adjusted so 
 as to benefit that interest. 
 
 You will thus see that I should deprecate interference 
 with the local government of the dependency even in very 
 important departments of action, provided that the main 
 principles and objects of our Government are not being 
 infringed. But to say that we cannot judge to what ends 
 the Government of India should be directed is a desertion 
 of our position as a governing people, and an abnegation of 
 our right to have any dependencies at all. 
 
 In point of fact it has been pressure from this country 
 more than anything else which has introduced the most 
 important principles of our Government into India. Since 
 the prosecution of Warren Hastings no Government has 
 treated native princes with his barefaced contempt of justice. 
 Lord Cornwallis's great reforms were carried by him when 
 coming fresh from England, and armed with new and 
 special powers by Parliament for the purpose of overriding 
 opposition; and the spread of education was carried 
 mainly by Lord Halifax, aided by a body of opinion in 
 this country. 
 
 I might mention other matters; but time presses, and 
 I will go on to state briefly some points on which I think 
 that we in England ought to form our opinions, and can do 
 so if we will only take as much trouble as we do over nearer 
 political problems. 
 
 I think we can decide which of the two schools of Indian 
 statesmen is most to be trusted: those who would press 
 forward alterations from without, or those who would prefer 
 the slower process of growth from within. I think we can 
 insist on having Indian taxation adjusted by those who can 
 view the whole field of it, and not by votes of the House of
 
 INDIA 85 
 
 Commons on representations made as to a particular tax by 
 a particular English interest to whom it is obnoxious. We 
 may decide for ourselves whether it is wiser to give people 
 the keys and rudiments of knowledge or to withhold them ; 
 whether or no it is wise to stifle the infant vernacular press 
 of a country because of a few petulant utterances ; whether 
 a system which practically excludes from high office all the 
 natives of a country can be a satisfactory or a durable system; 
 whether we should govern with an eye to the perpetuation 
 of our own rule, or with the aim of raising the Indians in 
 the scale of peoples so far as we can do it. 
 
 Above all I should urge my countrymen seriously to study 
 the question whether further aggrandizement in India will 
 bring us anything but further responsibilities and dangers. 
 That is a matter of which we can judge even better from our 
 point of view than from the Indian point ; and it is one on 
 which it is most urgent that a healthy public opinion should 
 be formed in England. For the most part, statesmen in 
 England have disapproved of the aggrandizements effected 
 in India. On the occasion which is still under controversy, ' 
 the order for aggression was given from England to reluctant 
 officials in India, but that certainly would not have been 
 done had there been a body of adverse opinion in England. 
 I wish to see such a body of intelligent opinion in England 
 as will supply a constant check to the spirit of aggrandizement 
 or Imperialism in India ; but if judgement is to go against 
 me, I would far sooner see my countrymen aim at foreign 
 empire with their eyes open, and knowing all their respon- 
 sibility, than be plunged into it blindfold and helpless. 
 
 To sum up this part of my subject, I will venture to lay 
 down four brief propositions. First, whether we wish it or 
 no, new modes of communication have necessarily brought 
 the Governments of England and India into closer contact. 
 It is certain that, whether its head be Lord Hartington, 
 Lord Salisbury, or another, the India Office will govern India 
 more essentially than in former times. 
 
 Secondly, the Secretary of State for India wants intelligent
 
 86 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 guidance and control from the nation at large, just as much 
 as any other Secretary of State. 
 
 Thirdly, increased attention to Indian affairs does not 
 necessarily mean more interference with the details of 
 government there. It means a greater power of judging 
 when to interfere and when not, and of interfering with 
 effect when judged necessary. 
 
 Fourthly, the more people pay attention to Indian affairs, 
 the higher will be the general level of knowledge in that 
 department, and the more easy we shall find it to send out 
 men competent to take part in the government there. 
 
 The work of legislation during Mr. Hobhouse's 
 term of office was very heavy. Among the laws 
 passed, there were elaborate Acts applicable to the 
 whole of British India, or to parts of it, relating to 
 executive matters, Acts for the assessment and col- 
 lection of the land revenue, Acts providing for the 
 establishment and working of municipalities, Acts 
 regulating irrigation, emigration, shipping, and ports. 
 Besides the Procedure Codes, to be presently referred 
 to, there were important Acts touching tbe administra- 
 tion of justice Acts regulating the constitution of 
 the Courts and the admission of appeals, and so forth. 
 Then there was an Act regulating the Presidency banks, 
 the Act for tbe registration of documents, and the 
 North- Western Provinces Rent Act, wbich, with the 
 Revenue Act for that province, were deemed so im- 
 portant that it was thought well to hold a special 
 sitting of the Legislative Council at Agra in 1873 to 
 admit of their being discussed with the aid of the 
 local authorities. An immense amount of work was 
 also done with a view to clearing and improving the 
 Indian Statute Book. Consolidation Acts, Acts re- 
 pealing obsolete enactments, Acts defining the local
 
 INDIA 87 
 
 extent of various enactments and providing a power 
 to determine what enactments were in force in certain 
 remote parts of the country, and to extend to them 
 enactments not already in force there, were prepared 
 and passed. The responsibility and the credit for 
 work of the description last mentioned rested chiefly 
 with the secretary, Mr. Whitley Stokes ; but many 
 difficult questions presented themselves from time to 
 time, for the solution of which Mr. Hobhouse's aid 
 had to be invoked. 
 
 Under the head of codification the great work was 
 the Revised Code of Civil Procedure Act 10 of 1877 
 which extended to 314 pages of the Statute Book, 
 and which, being to a large extent a new law, in- 
 volved an immense amount of work, especially on the 
 part of Mr. Stokes, to whom Mr. Hobhouse gave the 
 chief credit for it. The High Courts Criminal Pro- 
 cedure Act, 1875, and the Presidency Magistrates Act, 
 1877, though not called codes, were really codes of 
 criminal procedure for the courts concerned. The 
 Specific Relief Act, 1877, was a code occupying a place 
 midway between codes of procedure and codes of 
 substantive law ; and it has a special interest for us, 
 inasmuch as it was pre-eminently the work of Mr. Hob- 
 house himself, who, owing to his having practised so 
 long in courts of equity in England, was singularly 
 qualified for such a task. 
 
 It remains to speak of the more arduous work of 
 the codification of the substantive law, which has 
 given rise to much discussion from time to time in 
 India as elsewhere. 
 
 The fact that, with all this great activity in Indian 
 legislation, no great code of substantive law was
 
 88 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 placed on the Statute Book in Mr. Hobhouse's time 
 has sometimes formed the subject of comment. His 
 two immediate predecessors had each succeeded in 
 passing an important code of substantive law ; very 
 soon after his departure his successor, Mr. Stokes, 
 produced a great programme for the codification of 
 various other portions of the substantive law, which 
 he carried out to an important extent before leaving 
 India ; and the circumstance that nothing of the same 
 sort was accomplished by Mr. Hobhouse would seem 
 to have suggested to some persons that he had taken 
 upon himself to throw over what, up to his time, had 
 been an accepted scheme of legislation. But any such 
 suggestion would be entirely devoid of foundation. 
 
 It is true that, as already shown, he had a strong 
 faith in the natural growth of human institutions 
 generally, and of law in particular, and that he was 
 not an enthusiastic advocate for the rapid codification 
 of great masses of substantive law. He doubtless 
 took a more limited view than either of his two 
 immediate predecessors or his immediate successor of 
 what could be safely done by the Indian legislature 
 in that direction, and in this his colleagues, or the 
 majority of them, appear to have agreed with him ; 
 but neither he nor they were persons lightly to take 
 upon themselves to reverse a policy so long established 
 as that of the gradual codification of the law in India. 
 The truth is that at the time of Mr. Hobhouse's 
 arrival in India the position with reference to this 
 matter was somewhat peculiar. As Sir Courtenay 
 Ilbert observes in his interesting sketch in The Speaker 
 of December 17, 1904, Mr. Hobhouse 'succeeded an 
 intellectual giant, who had compressed into two years
 
 INDIA 89 
 
 and a half labours which, with an ordinary mortal, 
 would have sufficed for at least a dozen years, and who 
 had left India staggering and breathless under a wave 
 of new legislation.' Sir James Stephen himself, ardent 
 an advocate for codification as he was, expressed an 
 opinion in the Legislative Council on April 9, 1872, 
 immediately before his retirement, to the effect that, 
 if his Contract Act was passed (as it was), no further 
 codes of what is properly called substantive law 
 would be needed for a length of time, except a Code 
 of Easements and a Code of Torts ; and it may 
 be here observed that it was ultimately decided, 
 omnium consensu, that a Code of Torts was 
 not desirable. It may be added that, just then, 
 something like a reaction had taken place in regard to 
 such matters. In his Legislative Forms and Methods 
 (p. 138), Sir Courtenay Ilbert says that ' considerable 
 uneasiness had been caused both in England and in 
 India by the rapidity and amount of recent Indian 
 legislation, and Mr. Hobhouse on his departure for 
 India received strong hints that it would be desirable 
 to slacken the pace of the legislative machine. His 
 own observation and experience after arrival in India 
 satisfied him of the prudence of this advice, and 
 induced him to direct his energies to work, which, 
 if it attracted less public attention than that of his 
 immediate predecessor, was not less practically useful.' 
 It may, however, be best to let Mr. Hobhouse speak 
 for himself. Referring to this subject in the Legis- 
 lative Council on October 12, 1872, he made the 
 following observations : 
 
 Now at our last meeting, Sir John Strachey intimated 
 that some people had imbibed the notion that the work
 
 90 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 recently done, or some of it, was to be undone ; and he took 
 occasion to contradict that notion, and to speak in terms 
 of praise, high but not too high, of those who had borne 
 the principal share in the work. I need not repeat what 
 I then said. I will only again express my thanks to him 
 for having said so well what we all think. But it would, 
 perhaps, be useful if I were to add something by way of 
 distinguishing between the various lines of work to be 
 pursued, all parts of one great whole; and showing why 
 some should be preferred to others. Of course I am not 
 presuming to speak for the Government, and personally 
 I shall discharge, as well as I can, whatever duties are set 
 me. But looking at the matter with the lights I have 
 at present, it seems to me most likely that the work of 
 codification proper will advance, at all events for a year 
 or two, at a slower rate than lately. 
 
 When I speak of codification proper, I mean the reduction 
 to writing of unwritten laws. The rearrangement and 
 combination of written laws is also codification, but it is 
 codification of that which is already codified, and is usually 
 called consolidation. 
 
 Now consolidation, dealing with written law, need not 
 involve any change at all; and though it often brings 
 about some change, yet it is often mere change of detail, 
 and sometimes very little of that. Unwritten law stands 
 in a different position; of course everybody knows that 
 what we call unwritten law is not unevidenced by writing. 
 But it is contained in many different writings, records of 
 old traditions, and of the utterances of different lawyers, 
 usually imperfect, often conflicting, and never possessing 
 an absolute or final authority which no one is at liberty 
 to dispute. It is as it were floating in the air, syllabled 
 by many voices, which it is the privilege of the skilled 
 judge to hear, and his duty to combine into harmony for 
 the purpose of the case before him. It therefore possesses 
 a flexibility and a power of adaptation which cannot be 
 possessed by the written law.
 
 INDIA 91 
 
 Now, to reduce these floating elements to a single authorita- 
 tive writing necessarily involves change. No human genius, 
 or collection of human geniuses, can express in language 
 the result of a quantity of traditions and judgements so 
 as to give their precise equivalent: that there should be 
 nothing over and yet no lack. Nor can law be expressed 
 for the first time in language of final and indisputable 
 authority without acquiring a bearing and a rigidity which 
 it had not before. Few probably could attempt the task 
 without finding that the constant imperfection of their 
 instrument, and the occasional aberration of their own con- 
 ceptions from the true mark, lead them to expressions which, 
 when they come to be interpreted by others, work unfore- 
 seen results. 
 
 It is obvious, therefore, that from the very nature of the 
 case, the codification of unwritten law must bring about 
 much more change than that of the written law. And this 
 leads me to the following reflections : 
 
 First. Every change brings some unsettlement. If it is 
 a wise change, it settles society on a firmer basis than before : 
 but there must be some disturbance in the process. We are 
 acting for people who, we are told, do not accept change 
 readily. They have no representative institutions, and no 
 organized machinery for making their sentiments known, 
 so that we do not learn immediately what they are thinking. 
 It therefore seems more prudent not to make many large 
 changes simultaneously, lest the inevitable disturbance 
 should be too much multiplied ; nor in too rapid succession, 
 that we may learn something of the working of one before 
 bringing on another. 
 
 Secondly. As I have observed before, every great legisla- 
 tive measure must have its imperfections. Some are con- 
 genital with it, some spring from the circumstance that it 
 is interpreted by minds other than those which framed it, 
 so that unintended consequences are brought about. These 
 imperfections will be disclosed by the wear and tear of 
 daily work. And it is of greater moment for a time to
 
 92 
 
 watch the working of the important laws actually passed, 
 and to assist it when necessary, than to pass others which, 
 of course, would have their defects too, perhaps in much 
 greater number. 
 
 Thirdly. Supreme legislators may think that I take too 
 professional a view of the matter, but I believe that no laws 
 can work well unless lawyers are well acquainted with them. 
 It may not be always true that ' whate'er is best administered 
 is best,' but it certainly is true that without good and 
 accurate administration no principles and no rules can work 
 well. Such administration cannot be had from men who 
 are not thoroughly familiar with the law they are adminis- 
 tering. Now I hear from judges and others 1 , some apprehen- 
 sions lest they should be found wanting for some time in 
 their knowledge of the new bodies of law. Nor is this 
 surprising, because a lawyer gets his law ground into him 
 by daily practice, and is never thoroughly at ease with it, 
 and cannot apply it with promptitude and accuracy, till 
 that process has taken place. If, therefore, we present new 
 laws too rapidly to those who have to apply them, we run 
 much greater risk of miscarriage, and of having to do some 
 of our work twice over, than if they come more gradually. 
 
 There is yet another reason why the work of codification 
 can hardly go on so rapidly, and that is, that the principle 
 of many recent Acts has brought in their wake the necessity 
 of much legislation, of a local and subsidiary kind, but still 
 legislation. It has been of late years a frequent practice 
 with this Council to pass laws laying down certain princi- 
 ples and limits of action, and then leaving local govern- 
 ments to apply the principles by means of detailed rules. 
 
 1 A certain native judge in the Punjab, who had learned his work under 
 the old Criminal Procedure Code of 1861, after some attempts to study Fitz- 
 james Stephen's revised code of 1872, which comprised 540 sections and was 
 to a very large extent a new law, exclaimed in despair ' Lumber bhi nahin 
 raha ' (' Even the numbers have not been left '), meaning that the order of the 
 sections had been entirely altered. That code and two other big codes, 
 comprising in the aggregate nearly 1,000 sections, were so timed as all to come 
 into force on the same day, and Mr. Hobhouse found it necessary to pass an 
 Act postponing the operation of the biggest for some months.
 
 INDIA 93 
 
 The plan seems, if I may say so, to be excellent, and 
 peculiarly suitable to the circumstances of India. But the 
 working of the law, for good or ill, depends very much 
 on the frame of the rules. And we have recently had some 
 instances in which the law and the rules together have 
 brought out some unexpected and not very satisfactory 
 results. It will, therefore, be necessary to bestow more 
 attention upon these codes of rules, and, if necessary, to 
 come to the Legislature for amendment of the laws under 
 which they are framed. 
 
 I hope it will not be considered that by these remarks 
 I intend to disparage the work of codification ; because I do 
 not mean that. It is certainly far the most difficult of all 
 the work a legislator can be called on to do, and makes the 
 greatest demands on legislative genius. It requires the 
 greatest amount of mental labour and of mental power. 
 What I mean is, that at this juncture, just after large 
 measures of codification have been passed, the other 
 objects I have mentioned have greater claims on our 
 attention. 
 
 After Lord Salisbury became Secretary of State in 
 1874 the India Office pendulum, which had pointed 
 to delay and caution in 1872, took (as Sir C. Ilbert 
 remarks) a swing in the opposite direction ; and a 
 dispatch was sent out to India, for which Sir Henry- 
 Maine seems to have been to a large extent re- 
 sponsible, urging the necessity of pushing on the work 
 of codification. The Government of India in reply, 
 while fully recognizing the importance of codification, 
 dwelt on the necessity of proceeding slowly and 
 cautiously in the work, and on the risks and evils 
 attending rapid legislation. The controversy con- 
 tinued, and the following extract from a letter written 
 by Mr. Hobhouse to a friend in England in July, 1876, 
 will serve to show his attitude with reference to it :
 
 94 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 Maine is a very clever fellow, and a good fellow too, 
 I think. But he speaks so much in generals, always 
 without referring to details, usually I believe without 
 studying them, that everything he says requires to be 
 qualified by collation with the facts. When he says that 
 I am opposing myself to codification, he says what is only 
 true sub modo ; the truth is, that I am opposing codification 
 after his method : codification in too great a hurry, codifica- 
 tion of subjects which we don't know enough about to 
 codify, codification of matters which touch the most delicate 
 social questions, codification of other matters about which 
 no human beings ever dispute. In short, I insist upon 
 considering time, place, and circumstance before I codify, 
 and upon knowing what law is to be enacted before I 
 propose to enact any. The India Office is insisting on 
 codification (as it does upon other things) on purely abstract 
 grounds, and with the obvious intention of having an 
 English Commission to find out laws for India. There has 
 been a very curious correspondence on this subject, which 
 I suppose the world will see some day. It is a fine 
 specimen of the a priori, abstract, transcendental mode of 
 treating practical subjects which prevails in high quarters 
 just now. 
 
 That Mr. Hobhouse's opposition to the India Office 
 went no further than he stated in that letter is pretty 
 clear from the fact that all this time he, in conjunction 
 with Mr. Stokes, was working hard at a revision of the 
 draft code relating to the transfer of property, which 
 was sent to England before he left India, and which, 
 after undergoing further transformations, ultimately 
 became law as the Transfer of Property Act of 1882. 
 That, it should be explained, was the only draft code 
 of substantive law which, under the system then in 
 force, it was open to the Law Member to take in hand 
 during Mr. Hobhouse's term of office. According to
 
 INDIA 95 
 
 the scheme for preparing codes for India, which was 
 started under Section 28 of the 16 & 17 Vic. c. 95, 
 the first drafts were to be framed by a body of 
 Commissioners in England, and were to be transmitted 
 to India to be passed by the Legislative Council there, 
 with, it need hardly be said, such modifications as that 
 Council might think fit. The Commissioners appointed 
 for this purpose from time to time prepared several 
 drafts which were sent out to India. In the year 1870 
 some of these drafts had been passed into law, and 
 some were still standing over when the distinguished 
 men then serving as Commissioners, being dissatisfied 
 with the way in which their work had been treated in 
 India, resigned. At the time Mr. Hobhouse went out 
 to India there were only two of the Commissioners' 
 drafts remaining to be dealt with, namely, the Transfer 
 of Property Act already mentioned, and a draft on the 
 subject of promissory notes, bills of exchange, and 
 cheques. This latter draft had been got into shape 
 and was introduced in Council by Mr. Massey in 1867 ; 
 but the mercantile community were much opposed to 
 it and it was dropped. Sir James Stephen did not 
 attempt to revive it because, as he explained, it had 
 been ' laid aside as unsuitable both to English mer- 
 chants, who naturally wish to follow the law of 
 England, and to native merchants, who have customs 
 of their own about Hundis, which it is not desirable 
 to interfere with.' Mr. Hobhouse on bis arrival had 
 consulted the leading merchants and leading lawyers 
 regarding it, with a view to taking it in hand again ; 
 but they would have none of it. Thus only the 
 transfer of property draft remained for Mr. Hobhouse 
 to deal with. If additional codes were to be started,
 
 96 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 the machinery for producing the first drafts having 
 broken down, some substitute for it had to be pro- 
 vided ; and here a difference of opinion arose. The 
 Secretary of State proposed to entrust the work to 
 a small body of eminent draftsmen in England. The 
 Government of India, on the other hand, insisted that 
 the work should be done in India, and the discussion 
 was still proceeding when Mr. Hobhouse's term of 
 office came to an end. Ultimately the Secretary of 
 State gave way, and Mr. Hobhouse's successor became 
 free to propose such codification as he deemed fit. It 
 is not, of course, intended to suggest that, if Mr. 
 Hobhouse had been placed in a similar position, he 
 would have availed himself of his freedom to the same 
 extent as Mr. Stokes did. Indeed, enough has been 
 said to indicate the contrary ; but this account of his 
 attitude to the whole question will clear away some 
 misunderstanding. 
 
 Mr. Hobhouse gave some lectures on Indian subjects 
 after his return to England, from which some extracts 
 may be given to illustrate his views. 
 
 When I first went to the country I was under the im- 
 pression, derived from books, that Indian caste meant only 
 the well-known fourfold division; and the first idea con- 
 veyed to me by actual contact with the reality was that 
 caste was a gigantic system of trades unions for the purpose 
 of securing employment to as many hands as possible. For 
 I found that my servants were very fond of setting up their 
 caste as a reason why somebody else, and not they, should 
 do particular pieces of work Of course the excuse was 
 sometimes a feigned one and a mere attempt on the credulity 
 of a new comer, but often it was genuine. However that 
 might be, I soon found that the trades-union view of caste 
 was a very shallow one ; that the institution is one of the
 
 INDIA 97 
 
 most powerful kind, pervading the whole life of those who 
 are subject to it, and, though mixed up with many trivial 
 and many inconvenient observances, yet supplying all the 
 sanctions of law, morality, and religion to the conduct of 
 daily life. Caste then, as it seems to me, is the strongest 
 possible preservative of society on the small scale, and it 
 possibly accounts for the sameness of character preserved 
 in the different classes of Indians through long ages and 
 numerous dynastic changes. On the other hand, it is 
 absolutely destructive of society on the large or national 
 scale. For how can people combine together for a length 
 of time or for any great purpose, who must not vary their 
 occupations, who must not travel across the sea, who must 
 separate from one another for the most ordinary purposes of 
 life, such as eating, under peril of defilement ? 
 
 Now it will be seen that the notion, a very common one, 
 that there is such a thing as an Indian nation is a pure 
 delusion. In the first place, the population consists of many 
 nations, quite different in type and origin, speaking quite 
 different languages, and in all grades of civilization from 
 the lowest level up to a very high one. In the second place, 
 there are two strongly antagonistic religions. In the third 
 place, where the great prevailing religion would seem to 
 form an overpowering element of fusion, we find that it 
 compels disunion by carving up society into a number of 
 small divisions, each more or less repellent of the other. 
 
 This division, as he observes, has made it easier for 
 us to conquer India and to hold it ; but it adds greatly 
 to the complexity of the problems we have to solve 
 there. He begins his second lecture by asking the 
 question ' What ought we to be doing in India ? ' and 
 observing that from the time of Lord Cornwallis 
 it has been generally admitted tbat we ought to 
 govern India for the benefit of the Indians. But 
 then comes the further question, How best can this be 
 
 H
 
 98 MEMOIE OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 done ? and his remarks on that question go so far to 
 explain his attitude towards many of the problems 
 with which he had to deal, that they are worth quoting 
 at some length. 
 
 There are (he observes) two schools of statesmen, who, 
 agreeing in this main point and in much else, differ as to 
 the mode and degree in which we ought to introduce into 
 India the social and political methods which we have found 
 best for England. One school has a firm belief in the 
 capacity of laws and political arrangements introduced 
 from without to mould the character of nations ; and they 
 desire, therefore, to introduce as quickly as possible the 
 latest outcome of European civilization, in the confidence 
 that our Indian subjects will grow up to it. The other 
 school maintains that laws and institutions must grow from 
 within ; that external arrangements are of little use unless 
 the people for whom they are made is prepared to receive 
 them ; that the best and most permanent laws are the out- 
 growth of antecedent customs or convictions ; that, in order 
 to govern a people wisely, we must study their feelings, 
 their intelligence, and the actual working of their present 
 usages ; that in India we are very much in the dark on all 
 these points ; that it therefore behoves us to be extremely 
 cautious how we disturb any existing custom that is not 
 manifestly noxious, or on the mere speculation that some 
 other practice will work better; that these principles, 
 applicable everywhere, are especially so in India, where 
 custom has the force of religion, and is the very life-blood 
 of the people. 
 
 I will just illustrate the position of these two schools with 
 reference to an actual controversy. It is proposed to intro- 
 duce into India a simple uniform system of weights and 
 measures. Nobody doubts its utility if it is practicable. 
 The objectors say that the people are not nearly educated 
 enough to use it ; that it runs counter to all their existing 
 methods, and will only make confusion worse confounded.
 
 INDIA 99 
 
 Its supporters say that if once made law the people will 
 soon learn its value, and that it is our duty to educate them 
 up to it. ' If,' said one speaker, ' the ignorance of the 
 people was to be received as a reason for not adopting im- 
 provements, India would be in a very bad way indeed.' 
 
 I think that the former of these schools is prevalent 
 chiefly among those who have spent more time in England 
 than in India, and the latter among those who have worked 
 chiefly in India. But on the very rare occasions when our 
 Legislature has spoken on the subject, it has inclined to the 
 latter or cautious school. For instance, when a Commission 
 was set on foot to make laws for India, it was ordered that 
 first careful inquiries should be made, and then that the 
 Commission should suggest such alterations as they thought 
 good, due regard being had to the distinction of castes, 
 differences of religion, and the manners and opinions pre- 
 vailing among different races, and in different parts of the 
 said territories. 
 
 Nevertheless, it happens every now and then that our 
 Indian administrators are severely taken to task for the 
 slowness with which they introduce improvements into 
 India, and there arises a feverish impatience to make 
 alterations. And as I am one of those who think that we 
 have proceeded at least as fast as the country can bear, and 
 that we run much more risk of failure from rapidity than 
 from delay, I will try to explain and to illustrate some of 
 the difficulties which are felt by those who desire to base all 
 new arrangements on the footing of their adaptation to the 
 wants and capacities of the people. 
 
 Some of these difficulties you will have anticipated from 
 what I have said before of the size of the country and the 
 numbers of the people, and I will not dwell longer on 
 them. 
 
 Another obvious difficulty is the difference of language, 
 for people never can communicate with one another quite so 
 effectually when one of them uses a language in which he 
 does not think. If, indeed, there were free and equal inter- 
 
 H 2
 
 100 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 course between European and Asiatic, the difficulty of 
 language would be much lessened, but the intercourse is very 
 constrained. 
 
 In the first place all the Indians, even the upper ranks, 
 feel when with a European that they are in the presence of 
 the governing class ; and being, many by temperament, and 
 most by reason of long traditions of despotic rule, timid 
 towards their rulers, they often shrink from saying what they 
 are thinking. 
 
 Then the Hindoo will not eat with a European. People 
 laugh at us for our habit of dining together, and say sarcas- 
 tically that the way to an Englishman's heart is down his 
 throat. But those who have lived in a country in which 
 people will not eat together, will feel that the reason and 
 the laugh, too, are on our side ; that we are right ; and that 
 a most valuable instrument of ascertaining the real character 
 and the true feelings of one's neighbours is thrown away by 
 refusing to eat with them. This practice of eating separately 
 is also shared by the Mahomedans, who have either borrowed 
 from the Hindoos, or retained after conversion, some of the 
 incidents of caste. 
 
 Another bar to intercourse is the condition of the ladies. 
 I am told that there is nothing in the Hindoo religion, or in 
 their old traditions or practices, which enjoins the seclusion 
 of women. Perhaps they have borrowed the practice from 
 the Mahomedans in return for the caste customs which they 
 imparted to the Mahomedans ; but from whatever cause, the 
 women of the upper classes are not seen by strangers. Even 
 if they did come abroad, they are kept in such a state of utter 
 ignorance as quite to unfit them for association with educated 
 persons. 
 
 The obstacles to intercourse do not all come from the 
 Indian side, though I think that most of them do. But 
 Europeans in India are few in number, they are all very 
 busy men, and it is a most serious cause of weakness that as 
 a rule they are perpetually changing their posts, and that 
 each spends a very short time, sometimes only a few months,
 
 INDIA 101 
 
 in any one locality. A mere bird of passage like that cannot 
 have any very fruitful intercourse with the residents in his 
 district. 
 
 Again, though I always insist that the Indian Civil 
 Service is as noble a service as any in the world, and though 
 I am proud of having belonged to it, though only for a short 
 time, and only as a sort of supernumerary, its members have 
 their faults, which are the faults of a dominant race. It is 
 not to be denied that some of them, particularly I believe 
 among the younger men, commit the great mistake of 
 despising the people over whom they bear rule ; that they 
 omit to consult them when they may usefully do so ; that 
 they snub them when unpalatable advice is given; and 
 that thus they lose opportunities of valuable information, 
 and repel the Indians from their side. 
 
 I think also that the rapid communication between India 
 and England, though most useful in other respects, has 
 widened the distance between European and Asiatic. The 
 effect of it is, that no Englishman now looks upon India as 
 his home, as many used to do ; but either by visits, or by 
 constant letter- writing, he keeps his home in England. 
 
 If he brings out a wife or sister the gulf becomes wider than 
 ever. An undoubtedly beneficial change, the great increase 
 of English ladies in India certainly has the effect of more 
 completely separating the two races, for, as a rule, the foreign 
 ladies will have nothing to say to the natives, and the males 
 of the family, having now more domestic attractions, seek 
 native society less than they used to do. 
 
 Perhaps all the difficulties I have mentioned as preventing 
 a true understanding of Indian social problems are less in 
 degree than the one great difficulty which attends men who 
 belong to a society in one stage of advance, and are trans- 
 planted to another in a totally different stage of advance. 
 Men bred up in the atmosphere of free movement, change, 
 struggle, and competition are placed in the midst of innum- 
 erable communities to whom all the transactions of mankind 
 are governed by custom. Almost all words to which we
 
 102 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 attach definite legal or political ideas in England connote 
 different ideas in India. Such words as landlord, tenant, 
 farm, debtor, creditor, land tax, and others, have to be 
 materially modified before we can take them as representing 
 the facts of Indian life. 
 
 Now put all these circumstances together, and you will see 
 how much reason our Indian administrators have to be 
 circumspect before they move. It is hard for them to get 
 sufficient knowledge, even of such facts as are patent to the 
 five senses ; and still harder to know, what is quite as im- 
 portant, the feelings of the people towards a new arrange- 
 ment, and their capacity for using it. 
 
 After giving some examples of errors on matters of 
 simple fact resulting from carelessness, he proceeds as 
 follows : 
 
 Even in those cases in which we know the immediate 
 facts, and where the action taken is matter of the clearest 
 propriety, it will happen that the effects produced do not 
 correspond with the anticipations, because other connected 
 facts have not been taken into account. 
 
 Nobody would wish that the rite of Suttee, or of burning 
 living widows with their dead husbands, should endure for 
 an instant after the time at which the Government finds 
 itself strong enough to put it down. It was an ancient 
 religious rite, practised among the higher castes of Hindoos, 
 disliked but tolerated by the Mahomedans, and for some 
 time by ourselves. When its abolition was first mooted, 
 it was thought to be dangerous to thwart the religious 
 convictions of our subjects, and perhaps if it had been done 
 quite suddenly and without preparation there would have 
 been danger. The controversy went on for some thirty 
 years, during which time some small restrictions were 
 placed on the practice. Doubtless the discussion had the 
 effect of preparing many minds for the change, for when 
 the abolition was effected by Lord William Bentinck it
 
 INDIA 103 
 
 was acquiesced in at once and finally in our dominions. 
 But, though we have saved many innocent lives, we have 
 not prevented them from being very unhappy lives. Accord- 
 ing to Manu's injunctions, a Hindoo widow is to emaciate 
 her body, and to devote herself to pious austerities. I 
 believe that, at least among the upper classes, these 
 injunctions are enforced. She may not marry again, though 
 she may be and often is a mere child at her husband's 
 death ; she is shut up, has no occupation, wears peni- 
 tential garments, eats only once a day, and, in short, 
 undergoes constant mortification. Some rebel against this 
 hard fate and become lawless members of society; most 
 succumb to it and become merely useless ones. 
 
 The practice of female infanticide was very common, and 
 is still extant, among the upper classes of India, especially 
 the Eajpoots. It is not in itself a religious rite, but it rests, 
 first, on the necessity of finding a husband for every girl 
 who reaches the age of puberty, which is a strict matter of 
 religion ; secondly, on the caste rule, that a girl must not 
 marry below, and if possible should marry above, her caste; 
 and, thirdly, on an inveterate custom which prescribes lavish 
 and often ruinous expense upon such marriages. To avoid 
 these painful necessities people kill their daughters immedi- 
 ately after birth. "We have striven for many years, and are 
 still striving, against this practice. Partly from the nature 
 of the act, which it is easy to commit in secret, and partly 
 because it is done in obedience not to a mere religious belief, 
 but to social laws which are in active operation, the struggle 
 is a long one, and the success is not yet complete. But what 
 I am concerned with at this moment is to point out that, 
 though we have saved the lives of many children, they are 
 a superfluity in their society, and we cannot get rid of the 
 social laws which make those lives a burden to a great many 
 of them. 
 
 Now, here are two customs which are cruel, demoralizing, 
 hardening to the heart, and necessarily a bar to the progress 
 of civilization. I am not hinting a doubt but that their
 
 104 MEMOIE OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 abolition was a right act and a beneficial one too. I am only 
 showing that, even in such clear cases as these, the bad custom 
 which we abolish by law is found to be so mixed up with 
 other customs and beliefs which law cannot abolish, that the 
 full measure of benefit expected from the abolition cannot 
 be attained. 
 
 Then, having referred to the administration of Lord 
 Cornwallis, of which he always speaks in terms of high 
 praise, he continues : 
 
 Yet this great ruler, apparently misled by a false analogy, 
 did an act the consequences of which would have very much 
 surprised him. 
 
 Probably many of you know that the backbone of Indian 
 revenue is the land tax, or land rent. The land tax is such 
 a proportion of the produce as the sovereign power in its 
 discretion thinks fit to take. Lord Cornwallis, in his states- 
 manlike desire to give definite rights to the subject as 
 against his ruler, resolved to fix the amount of the tax, 
 instead of taking a discretionary amount from time to time. 
 This operation is known as the ' Permanent Settlement.' Now, 
 our Mogul predecessors committed the collection of their 
 revenue to persons called zemindars, landholders or landlords, 
 whose office gradually became hereditary. They collected 
 rent from the cultivator, paid the stipulated amount into the 
 Treasury, and kept the rest for themselves. That was the 
 state of things we found in existence, and we reasoned upon 
 it as though the Indian zemindar and cultivator were 
 analogous to an English landlord and tenant. By the 
 ' Permanent Settlement' Lord Cornwallis turned the zemindar 
 into a landlord in our sense of the term, leaving the 
 cultivator unprotected. I do not speak of the fiscal effects 
 of this settlement, the bad side of which was sufficiently 
 foreseen, and which certainly have their good side as well. 
 But the political and social effects are generally recognized 
 as quite unexpected, and by no means desirable. They are 
 thus described by Sir Henry Maine: 'That,finding the country
 
 INDIA 105 
 
 one in which the cultivator had a permanent interest in the 
 soil, we turned it into a country of great landlords and great 
 estates, and that the proprietary thus created is characterized 
 by being politically valueless, by its failure to obtain any 
 wholesome influence over the peasantry, and by its oppression 
 of all inferior holders. It is at this moment a matter of great 
 anxiety with Indian statesmen how to modify these unlooked- 
 for secondary results of a reform which was grand in con- 
 ception, absolutely pure in intention, and highly beneficial 
 as regards improvement of the soil.' 
 
 Sir Arthur Hobhouse l followed with keen interest the 
 discussion and agitation which followed the introduction 
 of what is generally called the Ilbert Bill. That Bill, 
 introduced in 1883, provided that native judges under 
 certain exceptional conditions in country districts 
 should have jurisdiction over Englishmen, a jurisdiction 
 already granted them in Ceylon and in the Presidency 
 towns. He wrote two articles in the Contemporary 
 Review and a letter in the Pall Matt Gazette to 
 explain the historical development of the policy, of 
 which this concession was an item, and to show how 
 grossly its scope and effects had been exaggerated. 
 Lord Salisbury, for example, had asked what would 
 his hearers' feelings be if they were in some 
 distant and thinly populated land, far from all 
 English succour, and if life and honour were exposed 
 to the decision of some tribunal, consisting of a 
 coloured man ? Sir Arthur Hobhouse pointed out that 
 the tribunal could only imprison for a year, and tbat 
 there was always an appeal to the High Court. 
 He welcomed tbe Bill as a development of tbe practice 
 of employing natives to which every great Indian 
 administrator had looked forward. Tbe tide of feeling, 
 
 1 He was made K. C.S.I, in 1877.
 
 106 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 however, ran so strongly against the Bill that it was 
 found necessary to introduce a provision empowering 
 an Englishman tried before a native judge under this 
 Bill to require that half the jury should be European- 
 British subjects. 
 
 At the very end of his life Lord Hobhouse took 
 part with Lord Bipon, Mr. Courtney, and others, in 
 organizing the Indian Famine Union. It was the 
 object of this body to persuade the Government to 
 arrange for a detailed inquiry into the conditions of 
 life in some of the Indian villages, in order to find out, 
 if possible, whether the growing frequency of famines 
 was due to economic evils that were amenable to 
 treatment. Lord Hobhouse and his colleagues held 
 that the constant recurrence of famine during the last 
 few years had created new conditions which it was 
 the duty of the Government to explore. It was impor- 
 tant, for example, to find out whether the exhaustion 
 of the peasants was connected with the alien con- 
 dition of land tenure which we had introduced. The 
 famines were not food famines, but money famines due 
 to the economic paralysis of the ryot. One of the last 
 public speeches Lord Hobhouse made was at a 
 meeting in support of this demand. ' Was it/ he asked, 
 1 the fact that the ownership of land was passing away 
 with ever-increasing rapidity from those who culti- 
 vated the land to those who did not cultivate it, who 
 did not live near it, and who did not wish to have it 
 for any other purpose than to receive a rent from it ? 
 What they wanted to know was this, whether those 
 painful phenomena of famine and pestilence, and of 
 the shifting of land from one to another, were really 
 evidences of increased depression and misery, and if
 
 INDIA 107 
 
 that was so, then what remedy could be suggested 
 by a careful study of the state of the Indian villages 
 in times when they were more prosperous.' 
 
 One of his colleagues has been kind enough to give 
 us some personal reminiscences of Lord Hobhouse's life 
 in India. 
 
 ' I saw a good deal of Lord Hobhouse and his wife 
 while they were in India, and occasionally stayed in 
 their house or accompanied them on the excursions 
 they made during the brief holidays permissible to 
 a Member of Council. When he arrived in India he 
 was about fifty-three years of age in what, having 
 regard to the nature of the work before him, might be 
 called the prune of life ; but his worn and anxious face, 
 and a certain quaint and old-world manner and mode 
 of expressing himself, were apt to give one the im- 
 pression of a man more advanced in life. Though he 
 was too good-natured to show it to people in India, he 
 must have missed a good deal of what he had been used 
 to in England. In the year 1872 we find him writing 
 to a nephew as follows : 
 
 This, I presume, will reach you at Oxford, where you will 
 be Lard at work with your books again. I am sometimes 
 inclined to envy you. But each age has its own fitting work 
 to do, and I must be content with memories and an occasional 
 dip into favourite passages. You will find the pleasure, and 
 the profit, of this as years roll on. Unfortunately I do not 
 meet here with many whose education has been of a kind to 
 store their minds with classical reading, either ancient or 
 modern ; the practical work of life has absorbed them from 
 a very early age. Not chill penury but hard business has 
 repressed their noble rage, and frozen the genial current of 
 their soul. It is a great contrast between them and my late
 
 108 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 colleagues, who were much more accomplished scholars than 
 myself. But the men here have other qualities of their own, 
 and very fine ones, developed by the constant pressure of 
 business, and the frequent exercise of personal responsibility. 
 A handful of rulers among countless multitudes of subjects 
 have no holiday time of it, nor can they relax their attention 
 any more than could the driver of your horses as they dash 
 down Countisbury Hill. 
 
 'I well remember his "occasional dip into his favourite 
 passages." Once, in particular, in the course of an 
 excursion I made with him from Simla into the " in- 
 terior," as we used to call it, or into the " exterior " as 
 he always insisted on calling it, I came upon him in 
 the forest in the heat of the day, reading out Lycidas 
 in a loud voice and with great gusto, to the admiration 
 of a number of natives who were watching him intently 
 from a little distance, and were doubtless under the 
 impression that he was going through some solemn 
 religious exercise. Though he and Lady Hobhouse 
 formed many friendships in India, which they valued 
 highly and which were to last for their lives, I don't 
 think they took much to the Simla folk generally. 
 They seemed more at home in Calcutta, where society 
 was organized on a broader basis. But in both places 
 they opened their doors wide, and showed themselves 
 to be tbe best of good hosts, not only to the Europeans, 
 but also to such members of the Indian community as 
 were prepared to mix in European society. Lady 
 Hobhouse was much interested in female education. 
 I remember on one occasion going with her to take 
 Lord Hobhouse's place at a distribution of prizes in the 
 Brahmo Edmaj School, and among the pupils was 
 Keshub Chunder Sen's daughter, the present Maharani
 
 INDIA 109 
 
 of Kooch Behar, who was then a bright and clever 
 little girl of about twelve. I may add that the desire 
 of the Hobhouses to cultivate the society of Indians 
 of the better class did not spring merely from a sense 
 of duty or from an anxiety to learn something of the 
 country. They really enjoyed meeting these people, 
 and among other things the quaint and high-flown 
 oriental modes of expression had for them, as new 
 arrivals in India, all the charm of novelty. In one of 
 the lectures already referred to, Lord Hobhouse told an 
 anecdote of an interview he had with a Sikh chief, 
 which seems worth quoting. 
 
 I was, lie says, sojourning in a tent at Delhi when a Sikh 
 chieftain, whom I had seen from a dozen to a score of times, 
 came to pay me a visit. He is a man of grand and stalwart 
 proportions, and he had to squeeze through the low tent 
 door, while his retinue could hardly find even standing room 
 inside. Having seated him in my only arm-chair, I said, 
 'I have but a small place to receive your Highness in.' 'Not 
 so,' answered he, ' the place you receive me in is your heart, 
 and that is large.' 
 
 * As I have said, Lord Hobhouse, when he came to 
 India, looked older than his age ; but he was as vigorous 
 in body as in mind. He took to badminton, which 
 was then all the rage, and became such an adept in it 
 that at Calcutta he, with the aid of two members of 
 the Legislative Department staif (one of whom was but 
 a poor player), proved more than a match for any three 
 who could be got together to face them. I have heard 
 that on his return to England he started the game in 
 a small garden attached to one of the official residences 
 in Downing Street, but it was destined to be driven 
 out everywhere by lawn tennis and the revival of
 
 110 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 croquet. Lord Hobhouse was, moreover, a good walker. 
 On a tour through the Simla Hill States and the 
 Kangra Valley we had sometimes to make double 
 marches, but he did it for the most part on foot. 
 I generally walked with him part of the way, but I 
 never was much on my own legs. One day, when we 
 reached the boundary of the Suket State, we found 
 the raja's prime minister with his escort waiting to 
 receive us. After stopping for a little to exchange 
 the usual courtesies, we all started together on foot. 
 I had soon to take to my horse, but the prime minister, 
 though he was a very stout man and not much given 
 to walking, felt bound to follow Lord Hobhouse on 
 foot. Needless to say, he could not keep up long, and 
 before we had gone far he had so completely broken 
 down that he had to be supported on either side by 
 two of his attendants, each of them putting an arm 
 round his waist and he putting an arm round the 
 neck of each. Nothing I could say would persuade 
 him to get on his horse, and so I had to ride on and 
 speak to Lord Hobhouse, who of course insisted on all 
 ceremony being dispensed with. When starting with 
 the Hobhouses on that expedition, I rather feared that 
 people of their age attempting a long march in those 
 hills for the first time would find the work a little too 
 rough for them ; but they took to it as readily as if 
 they had been at it all their lives, and they were 
 intensely interested in everything they came across : 
 every new tree, every new bird or beast, every new 
 flower, all the ways of the people they met nothing 
 escaped them ; and I confess that they drew my 
 attention to many things that I had had under my very 
 nose for years and years without ever noticing them.
 
 INDIA 111 
 
 ' At Mundi we were the guests of the raja the 
 eccentric little man whose death has been recently 
 reported. The food provided for us was, of course, of 
 the sort eaten by Europeans, but Lord Hobhouse 
 having expressed a wish to try the food of the country, 
 the next morning, as we were sitting down to the 
 ordinary English breakfast, the raja appeared, and 
 walking up to him, said in the best English he could 
 muster : "Which I eat, I send you." Thereupon there 
 entered a string of attendants carrying a second 
 breakfast, consisting of over twenty small dishes of 
 all sorts and of all degrees of greasiness, spiciness, 
 sourness, sweetness, and rancidness. It was not a very 
 tempting repast for those unaccustomed to such food, 
 but Lord Hobhouse, with his usual desire to try every- 
 thing, declared that he would make his breakfast on 
 it ; and accordingly set to work, eating a little of 
 everything ; and wound up, to the raja's great delight, 
 by " protesting " that it was excellent. 
 
 ' In about two days' march from Mundi we came to 
 Palumpore, in the Kangra Valley, where we were the 
 guests of the Commissioner, the late Sir Douglas 
 Forsyth an able but over-sanguine officer, whose 
 hobby at that time was the opening of a great central 
 Asian trade with its chief entrep6t at Palumpore, 
 where an annual fair was to be held. That scheme, 
 like many others of a similar kind, was doomed to be 
 an utter failure, and there was not much to see at the 
 fair, which was being held when we arrived ; but an 
 incident occurred which seems to be worth mentioning, 
 as it affords a striking illustration of how things of 
 that sort are apt to be managed in India, and of the 
 fact that, out there, it is the misfortune not only of
 
 112 MEMOIE OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 princes, but also of Commissioners and others even of 
 lower degree, to be served by over-zealous servants. 
 As we were walking along the road, on each side of 
 which the sellers and their wares were ranged, a 
 number of traders approached Lord Hobhouse with 
 their hands joined in a prayerful attitude, and calling 
 aloud for help and redress. Their complaint was that, 
 as they were passing through the district with their 
 goods on the way to certain markets in the plains, 
 the native official who had been placed in charge of 
 the fair, and who, after the manner of his kind, felt 
 bound to make it as big a thing as possible, had them 
 seized and conducted to Palumpore, where they were 
 being detained though there were no buyers there ; 
 meanwhile they were losing their market, and their 
 goods were spoiling. Needless to say, they were at once 
 released and allowed to proceed on their way, and it 
 is to be hoped that the over-zealous native official 
 received what he deserved. 
 
 ' Among the many subjects the Legislative Depart- 
 ment had to consider in those days was that of the 
 professional thugs or other thieves who contrive to 
 administer datura to travellers in order the more 
 easily to rob them. One afternoon we were at the 
 house of Sir Edward Bradford, then superintendent- 
 general of the Thuggee Department, and Lord Hob- 
 house, learning that one of Sir Edward's orderlies was 
 an " approver " or reformed thug, expressed a wish to 
 hear from him something as to the modus operandi in 
 administering datura. We were standing in a small 
 jungly back garden, and after some conversation with 
 the man, Lord Hobhouse at last asked, "And this 
 terrible drug, where is it to be found ? Is it easy to
 
 INDIA 113 
 
 procure ? " to which the man replied, " Cherisher of the 
 poor ! that is a bush of it just behind you, and see, 
 there are a lot more over in that corner." Some funny 
 fellow present at once charged the poor man with 
 having planted those bushes himself, and suggested 
 that he was evidently relapsing into his evil courses ; 
 but, as a matter of fact, the plant is to be found 
 growing wild everywhere, and it was quite clear that 
 there would be no use in making a law against the 
 possession or sale of datura. 
 
 ' Lady Hobhouse always had a dog, and that dog was 
 always an important personage in the house. When 
 the well-known Porus died, Lord Northbrook presented 
 her with another dog, which was christened "G.G.," and 
 he in turn had to be replaced by a third. Lord 
 Hobhouse, who, like his wife, was much attached to 
 dogs, used to say that he found it painful to think that 
 Nature had so ordained that such faithful and devoted 
 companions of man should be so very short-lived as 
 compared with him, while elephants, for which none 
 of us feel any particular affection, live to such an 
 immense age V 
 
 1 The love of his dogs, with extreme tenderness to them if sick or injured, 
 was a feature of his character to the last, and is worth noting as illustrating 
 a side of his nature which perhaps only those really intimate with him could 
 fully appreciate. On ' G.G.' he wrote some verses in which the complaint of 
 the unequal length of canine and human life reappears. 
 
 A queer fat ball of curly fluff 
 
 With pink four feet and nose, 
 But deep within that jacket rough 
 
 A strong affection glows. 
 
 Such warmth of lore as in its turn 
 
 Draws love from human hearts, 
 Radiant whene'er he meets his friends 
 
 And sad whene'er he parts. 
 
 I
 
 114 MEMOIE OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 And still he seeks himself to endear 
 By whine and furtive lick, 
 
 By mute device and boisterous cheer, 
 By quaint device and trick. 
 
 But soon must come the fatal day 
 When his short life shall end. 
 
 Man is a shadow, yet outlives 
 Full many a canine friend. 
 
 Ah me, that such a tender bond 
 Should knit his dog to man, 
 
 Yet burst asunder all too soon 
 By life's unequal span.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME. 187S-1892 
 
 f 
 
 AFTER leaving India, Sir Arthur Hobhouse found him- 
 self drawn, for the first time in his life, into the active 
 warfare of party politics, for it was at the election of 
 1880 that he made his only attempt to enter Parlia- 
 ment. The causes that first engaged his energies 
 on his return were of a less exciting and polemical 
 character. In 1878 he was appointed by the Con- 
 servative Government to act as arbitrator in the 
 difficult and tedious question of the enclosures of 
 Epping Forest, and in the same year he joined the 
 Administrative Committee of the Charity Organiza- 
 tion Society. But he soon found himself obliged to 
 enter on more controversial tasks, for his mistrust 
 and indignation had been steadily growing with each 
 new development of Lord Beaconsfield's foreign policy, 
 and he had determined to make his protest against 
 the temper and conceptions of national aims which 
 characterized those adventures in as direct, emphatic 
 and public a manner as possible. That dangerous and 
 intoxicating policy of ambition had provoked men who 
 had hitherto kept aloof from the strife of the state, 
 among others Herbert Spencer, Ruskin, and Burne 
 Jones, to take part in public life. Hobhouse felt that 
 the crisis obliged him to become a party man. The 
 development of this strong conviction is best described 
 
 I 2
 
 116 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 in a lecture he delivered in October, 1880, at the 
 opening of the Westminster Young Men's Liberal 
 Association. 
 
 If anybody had told me a few years ago, say even three 
 years ago, that I should be asked to deliver an address for 
 the purpose of launching a political party organization or to 
 become the president of one, I should have laughed at him. 
 I should have laughed, because up to that time few men, 
 who had paid any attention to public affairs at all, could 
 have been less engaged with any party than myself. In 
 the days when the Conservative party was led by a wise and 
 patriotic statesman who, loyally accepting the great organic 
 changes just made, avoiding further ones, and avoiding 
 foreign quarrels, applied his great powers of administration 
 to domestic and economical affairs, and led the country 
 swiftly, skilfully, and boldly along the path of commercial 
 reform in those days I called myself a Conservative. When 
 that party quarrelled with Sir Robert Peel, and virtually 
 placed themselves under the command of a bold and clever 
 rhetorician and romance-writer, who to my apprehension 
 did not show either any capacity for business or any grasp 
 of high political principle, I inclined to follow the Liberal 
 statesmen. Moreover, as I grew older, I saw more and more 
 clearly the wisdom of diffusing political power over wider 
 areas, and I came to feel strongly the necessity of altera- 
 tions in the laws regulating property, which I found that 
 a Conservative party would not favour. Still, I was quite 
 content to be patient about these things, and I looked with 
 much equanimity on the changes of ministry which took 
 place from time to time. In short, though I was much 
 interested in many political questions, the struggles of party 
 politicians concerned me but little. The nation was making 
 steady progress in the direction of greater freedom for 
 a greater number ; and though the progress was slow, I am 
 one of those who think that slowness in political and social 
 changes is a necessary condition of their durability.
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 117 
 
 So it was until the Conservative victory of 1874. Then, 
 for the first time since the days of the great Sir Robert Peel, 
 a party calling itself Conservative found itself supported by 
 a substantial majority of the House of Commons. Most of 
 us thought that nothing worse had happened than the inter- 
 position for a longer or shorter term of years of a check 
 to those gradual adaptations of old arrangements to new 
 circumstances which we call reforms. Nay, many said that 
 the preponderance of a Conservative party did not necess- 
 arily mean even a cessation of reforms, and that just as the 
 Conservative party under Peel effected most salutary and 
 potent reforms in the departments of commerce and finance, 
 so the same party under Disraeli might do as well in other 
 departments, notably in that of law. So we received the 
 Conservative majority in a spirit of not unfriendly hope. 
 But gradually we learn that the Conservative party, while 
 retaining its name, has changed its spirit; that with new 
 leaders it has acquired a new character, and is now nothing 
 but the old Tory or aristocratic party, with strong re- 
 actionary tendencies. For any useful reforms it proves to 
 be impotent. Few are attempted. If any one of importance 
 is attempted, it is not pressed ; it is found to encroach on 
 some privilege or some sentiment too dear to its possessors 
 to be parted with, and it is dropped : just as the Lord 
 Chancellor's proposal to take away judicial power from the 
 House of Lords was snuffed out by a caucus meeting of Tory 
 Peers. On the other hand, the Government is found to be 
 anything but Conservative as regards the broad lines of 
 national policy. It is true that reactionary legislation, such 
 as was the attempt to restore to scholastic endowments that 
 sectarian character which the preceding Parliament had 
 taken away, can be and is defeated in the House of 
 Commons. But as regards our dealing with other peoples, 
 the Ministers, having got into the saddle, were able to show 
 their tendencies without substantial check. 
 
 It would lead me too far away from the subject of this 
 address if I were to attempt here to recount what I consider
 
 118 MEMOIE OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 the misconduct of our affairs, in at least three quarters of 
 the globe, which began in the year 1875 and went on 
 during the remainder of Lord Beaconsfield's tenure of power. 
 The bill of indictment has been drawn by far abler hands 
 than mine, nor is it now my object to draw it. My object 
 is to point the moral of it, and to remind you of it only so 
 far as is necessary for that purpose. We have been made 
 to appear before the world as indifferent to humanity, 
 indifferent to freedom, pursuing only our own material 
 interests, ready for that object to support an odious tyranny, 
 greedy of other people's territory, contemptuous of the 
 common rights of mankind, oppressors of weak nations. 
 And all this was dignified with the name of' Imperial Policy/ 
 or some other equally magniloquent phrase. "Well, but 
 could no check be administered to such conduct? No, 
 none ; because, first, the Ministry took care to commit the 
 nation they represented before consulting the Houses of 
 Parliament, and even went the length of deceiving the 
 Houses when inconvenient questions were asked ; and, 
 secondly, when these affairs did come before Parliament, 
 they came only in the shape of a question whether or no 
 Ministers should be blamed for what they had done; and 
 then it was found that the party which had brought them 
 into office invariably supported them through thick and 
 thin. 
 
 It was this last phenomenon which convinced me that 
 I could not do my duty without becoming a party man. 
 As early as the month of June, 1877, 1 knew that the Govern- 
 ment were deceiving the country about their doings in 
 Afghanistan, though my lips were sealed against public 
 speaking until the official papers should be published. But 
 I was weak enough to think that when full light was thrown 
 upon the matter, their own party would be found to contain 
 enough of right-minded men to check them by showing 
 displeasure both at wanton aggressions and at violations of 
 the truth. But when I learned that the great Conservative 
 party did not contain such men; when it was clear that
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 119 
 
 they were going to place party considerations first and 
 others nowhere; when they proved to demonstration, as 
 they did in the debates of December, 1878, that among this 
 numerous and powerful party there was no independent 
 thought at all; that they were bent simply on following 
 their leader, and on retaining power in his hands at the 
 expense, if need be, of the national character; when all 
 these things became clear, then it became equally clear that 
 the duty of men who had hitherto stood aloof from parties, 
 or had adhered but loosely to them, was to fight with might 
 and main for a party with more intelligence, with less 
 dependence on their leaders, with higher principles and 
 wiser aims than belonged to the party in power. The 
 powerful combination which boasted of containing the mass 
 of nobles, of courtiers, of accumulated wealth, of the learned 
 professions, and of ancient corporations ; which had courted 
 influential interests, and gained over a conspicuous portion 
 of the London newspaper press; which was confident of 
 having, by its crafty strategy, set up so many bulwarks that 
 it could not be overthrown, had forgotten one thing; and 
 that is, that political power depends mainly upon mental 
 and spiritual forces ; and that such forces were certain to be 
 found working against those who denied their existence in 
 politics, and who worshipped the inferior powers of material 
 interests, of brute force, and of mechanical discipline. 
 
 His views eleven years later, on the party system, 
 are given in a letter to a friend who had changed from 
 one party to the other. 
 
 15 Bruton St., W., Nov. 24, 1891. 
 
 Many thanks for your full letter. I will say no more 
 about the electoral struggles. I see that matters have gone 
 too far for anything but a fight at the poll. You have 
 in the stress of combat, even if you disguise it from yourself 
 for a while, changed your side in public affairs. People 
 don't receive fire from their old allies and return it, without
 
 120 MEMOIE OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 mutual exasperation and permanent hostility. And as for 
 an intermediate position, if you maintain that, you will 
 do what I have seen many men and groups of men attempt, 
 but have never seen any accomplish. Of course I mean 
 as active fighting politicians. I am not speaking of that 
 very important class, the private persons who usually hold 
 the balance at the polls between the combatants. They 
 may be quite independent of party : and better that they 
 should be. The party you join, or are about to join, is 
 only less important (me indict) to the life of a nation than 
 the party of movement. Its greater repose attracts me : 
 I like and admire a great many of its members: I often 
 think it right on particular issues: and I always wish to 
 see it strong and ably manned : because, however irritating 
 delay may be to the convinced, it is better for the nation 
 at large that great changes should not take place with 
 a rush, but that each shall be delayed till thoroughly sifted, 
 and till a very large number of persons understand it. 
 That is the condition of steady progress: and so it has 
 proved in the long struggles over monarchy, oligarchy, 
 privileges, franchise, free trade, free thought, education, 
 and so I believe it will prove in this matter of our govern- 
 ment of Ireland, which was arrested, quite justifiably, in 
 1886. If you take an honourable part, as you well may, 
 in the guidance of this great and necessary party, I shall 
 be well content : though my experience led me, almost in 
 middle life, to attach myself to the other camp, as heading 
 generally in the right direction. 
 
 I agree with you in thinking that you are not likely t 
 see much abatement of private dissensions on account of 
 public affairs : though there is not now anything approach- 
 ing to the irritation which existed in my younger days; 
 in the thirties and the forties. ' Idem sentire de republica ' 
 has always been a strong bond of union : and per contra. 
 But I have managed to walk through life on terms of 
 close friendship with many political opponents: and so 
 doubtless will you.
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 121 
 
 Hobhouse's solitary attempt to enter the House of 
 Commons was made in a famous constituency and at 
 a famous election. Westminster has an unchallenged 
 supremacy in its roll of Parliamentary representatives. 
 The election of Charles James Fox in 1782 was the 
 chief event of the great uprising against the corrupt 
 power of the court, and George III spent 8,000 in 
 the unavailing effort to avert it. Fox sat for West- 
 minster till his death hi 1806, and his successors 
 included, besides Sheridan, Burdett, Romilly, and Mill, 
 a representative of Hobhouse's name and blood in 
 Sir John Cam Hobhouse, the friend of Byron. In 
 a letter written to Mr. Carr explaining his views in 
 November, 1879, Sir Arthur Hobhouse recalled the 
 days when his relative had represented Westminster : 
 ' Sir John Cam Hobhouse and the Westminster electors 
 stood by one another through very troublous times.' 
 Sir John Cam Hobhouse sat for Westminster for 
 thirteen years, during part of which time he was 
 Secretary at War and Chief Secretary for Ireland in 
 the Reform Government. Sir Arthur Hobhouse's 
 colleague in the attempt to recover Westminster for 
 the causes that had made it famous was the most 
 distinguished of the disciples of its distinguished 
 member, John Stuart Mill. Mr. John Morley had 
 stood once for Parliament fifteen years before as 
 a candidate for his native city of Blackburn. When 
 he came before the Westminster electors in 1880 his 
 place in the front rank as a man of letters and as 
 a political writer had already been won. His studies 
 of the great forces that prepared France for revolution 
 had been published, and as editor of the Fortnightly 
 Review he had begun the career, as an eloquent and
 
 122 MEMOIK OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 fearless critic of political conduct, which he was to 
 continue in the chair of the Pall Mall Gazette. It 
 must have seemed to the Liberals at Westminster 
 that their constituency was returning to the high 
 place it had held in the history of the country, when 
 two candidates came before it, one of whom was among 
 the first of living writers of the English language, and 
 the other, besides his administrative achievements, had 
 had an original and creative share in one of the most 
 important of our domestic changes. The Conservative 
 members were Sir Charles Russell, who had won the 
 Victoria Cross at the battle of Inker mann, and Mr. 
 W.H. Smith, who was already a Cabinet Minister, having 
 become First Lord of the Admiralty in Mr. Disraeli's 
 Government in 1877, on the death of Ward Hunt. 
 
 There was never any doubt about the governing 
 issues of the election at Westminster. The two 
 Liberal candidates had both been brought into political 
 life by their poignant sense of the injustice done, 
 the danger incurred, and the weaknesses created by 
 a foreign policy based on violence and aggression. At 
 all their meetings the chief topics were the Afghan 
 war, the Zulu war, the Cyprus Convention, the 
 constant and restless pursuit of ambitious and un- 
 scrupulous designs. Dr. Guinness Rogers, who took 
 the chair at one of their meetings, well described them 
 as fighting not so much against Toryism as against 
 Imperialism. Among their most active supporters were 
 Mr. Robert Lowe, Mr. James Beal, Lord Frederick 
 Cavendish, Lord Richard Grosvenor, and Sir Charles 
 Dilke. 
 
 The Liberals, though rich enough in enthusiasm and 
 devotion, suffered seriously from the want of funds,
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 123 
 
 and when the expenses of the election were returned 
 it was found that the Conservative candidates had 
 spent 6,146, and the Liberals 3,588. This inequality 
 no doubt affected the result. Mr. W. H. Smith was 
 returned at the head of the poll with 9,093 votes ; 
 Sir Charles Russell received 8,930 votes ; Mr. Morley, 
 6,564; and Sir Arthur Hobhouse, 6,443. In 1874 
 Mr. Smith had received 9,871 votes and Sir Charles 
 Russell 8,681, so that there had been a slight decrease 
 in the Conservative poll. But the Liberal candidates, 
 Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton and Sir W. J. Codrington, 
 had received 3,749 and 3,435 votes respectively, so that 
 the Liberal poll had increased by nearly 3,000 votes. 
 
 Neither of the defeated candidates allowed his own 
 failure to damp his enjoyment of the great triumphs 
 of Liberalism in the country. Hobhouse's own views 
 are given in letters to Sir T. H. Farrer and to his wife. 
 
 15 Bruton St., W., April 5, 1880. 
 
 Many thanks to you and E. for sympathy. As regards 
 myself, I am better pleased to be out of Parliament than 
 in it, and I should not have felt at ease, if, placed as I was, 
 I had declined to fight the battle. On public grounds, 
 my only motive, the general success gives me ample satisfac- 
 tion. Even looking at Westminster alone, we ought to 
 be satisfied. There is now a Liberal party, where there 
 was only a congeries of atoms, more or less mutually 
 repellent; there are no reproaches or even regrets, such 
 as beaten parties commonly resort to; on the contrary, 
 from the howling Republicans up to the stately Whigs, 
 all appear to be looking forward to prepare for the next 
 combat. 
 
 As for the general result, the heavy cloud of gloom and 
 fear for the country is lifted. Imperial policy has really 
 been the one issue, and it has received a buffet from which
 
 124 MEMOIE OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 it will not soon recover ; though we ought to lose no time 
 and spare no effort in deepening and fixing the impressions 
 now made on people's minds. What is peculiarly gratifying 
 to me is that the abominable iniquity of the Afghan war, 
 against which I strove two years officially, and three more 
 in trying to diffuse the truth, has proved far the most 
 powerful instrument in battering down the edifice of fraud, 
 injustice, and selfishness; and all the hard words of 
 frightened officials, all the abuse of Dizzy's janissaries of 
 the Press, all the sneers of upper class Sadducees, are 
 amply repaid. And their idol of gold, with his feet of mud, 
 is broken to pieces. That is a thing worth fighting for. 
 
 For the future, I shall be glad to have regular official 
 employment, if it comes to me. . . . Anyhow, I shall try to 
 make myself useful in some way, while it is yet day. 
 
 To LADY HOBHOUSB. 
 
 15 Bruton St., W., April 10, 1880. 
 
 The tenth of April never comes round but I think of 
 the great Chartist demonstration, thirty-two years ago, when 
 I served in Trafalgar Square, leaving you at Hadspen. 
 "We are in the same relative localities now, and enjoying 
 also a great and memorable political triumph, though the 
 forces now in opposition might be curiously contrasted 
 with the opponents of 1848. The amount of success becomes 
 almost alarming : but still I am very glad to win counties. 
 I had thought it impossible, except to a very slight extent ; 
 and it not only swells numbers, but prevents the dividing 
 lines between the two parties from being so very sharp. 
 
 It was very true, as Sir Arthur Hobhouse says in 
 the first letter, that his campaign was not an isolated 
 and solitary protest on his part against the Govern- 
 ment's conduct of affairs in Afghanistan. Early in 
 the year he had been compelled to discharge a painful
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 125 
 
 duty by sending a memorial to the Prime Minister 
 asking for an inquiry into acts which the military 
 correspondents had described in their accounts of the 
 Afghan campaign. 
 
 This campaign was the invasion of Afghanistan 
 after the murder of the English Envoy and his suite 
 at Cabul. It had been one of the stipulations of the 
 Peace of Gandamak, made with the Ameer Yakoob 
 Khan after the invasion of 1879, that an English 
 representative should be allowed to reside at Cabul. 
 In September, 1879, there was a popular uprising, the 
 Envoy and his suite were massacred, and the British 
 troops again invaded the country to take vengeance 
 for the murders and to restore the authority of Yakoob 
 Khan. Yakoob Khan, however, was soon found to 
 have been an accomplice in the murders and to have 
 encouraged the resistance to the British force, and 
 was sent as a prisoner to India. 
 
 The memorial is too important to be summarized; 
 it ran as follows : 
 
 MY LOED, "We have heard with surprise and grief the 
 account of certain acts committed by the British authorities 
 in Afghanistan, which we believe to be contrary to the 
 practices of civilized warfare, and certain to be followed 
 by disaster and dishonour. In proclaiming that all who 
 opposed the British forces would be treated as rebels, that 
 those who had instigated the resistance would be punished 
 without mercy, and in^>ffering rewards for any person who 
 had fought against his troops, the general in command 
 took a course which cannot be justified either by public 
 law or by the customs of civilized armies in the field. 
 A national resistance |o invasion cannot with justice be 
 converted into mutiny and insurrection by a proclamation 
 of the invaders; much more so when the invaders have
 
 126 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 themselves destroyed such government and organization as 
 previously existed in the country. We make no reference 
 to anything that has been done during actual operations 
 in the field, or to the execution of those who were fairly 
 convicted of murder ; but we desire to point out how grave 
 a thing it is that soldiers on a campaign should deliberately 
 put their prisoners to death on political grounds, and on 
 a technical charge of rebellion. It appears that the general 
 in command, having obtained possession of Cabul and the 
 territory round it, instituted a systematic search, not only 
 for those who had been accomplices in the attack on the 
 British Envoy, but for those who had taken an active 
 part in the defence of their country. The accounts pub- 
 lished under a strict military censorship inform us that 
 in a series of public executions a considerable number of 
 Afghans have been hung by the orders of British officers, 
 with no military object, but as a measure of political 
 vengeance. Against some of these, we are told, there was 
 evidence that they had a share in the attack on the Envoy ; 
 others, and among them a chief priest, were put to death 
 on the general ground of having fought in the enemy's 
 ranks, or having been prominent in the defence. These 
 executions took place at a time when there was no 
 actual resistance in arms; those executed were prisoners, 
 either previously taken in fight or arrested in their homes. 
 In some cases, at least, men were hung on the spot, on 
 the sole evidence that their names were found on the lists 
 of particular regiments. "We are told that after the bloody 
 combats of December, the general, after retaking Cabul, 
 returned to the system of hanging prisoners on political, 
 as distinct from military grounds. A pardon has now been 
 proclaimed, but this pardon rests on the principle that 
 those who defend their country from invasion are com- 
 mitting a crime. And it reserves the leaders of that 
 defence for special punishment. Such proceedings are in 
 violation of the practices of civilized warfare. They treat 
 the invasion of an independent nation as if it were the
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 127 
 
 sanguinary repression of a domestic insurrection. They 
 have inflamed the hostility of the Afghan people, and they 
 must make it permanent. "We ask Her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment to institute an inquiry into acts which affect the 
 honour of the nation, of the army, and of the sovereign *. 
 
 Accounts had come to England of executions that 
 had taken place in accordance with these proclama- 
 tions, and they had been the subject of comment by 
 Mr. Frederic Harrison in an article in the Fortnightly 
 Review, as well as on public platforms. When Parlia- 
 ment met on February 5, Lord Granville questioned 
 Lord Beaconsfield about these charges, and Lord 
 Beaconsfield replied that he had asked the authors 
 of the memorial for the documents on which they 
 
 1 The memorial was signed by the Duke of Westminster, the Bishops of 
 Oxford and Exeter (Mackarness and Temple), Arthur Hobhouse, K.C.S.I., 
 T. Fowell Buxton, Bart., Charles E. Trevelyan, Bart., P. A. K. Russell, 
 S. Morley, M.P., W. H. Premantle, Rector of St. Mary's, Bryanston Square ; 
 C. J. Wingfield, K.C.S.I., Charles P. Hobhouse, Bart., late a Judge of thd 
 High Court of Calcutta, Joseph Chamberlain, M.P., E. H. Plumptre, Vicar of 
 Pluckley ; Frederic Harrison, John F. Clark, Bart., J. A. Froude, E. S. Beesly, 
 George Howard, M.P., Henry Allen, D.D., John Morley, W. A. Hunter, 
 Professor of Jurisprudence, University College, London ; Colin Mackenzie, 
 Liout.-Gen. ; Humphry Sandwith, C.B., John P. Thomasson, L. H. Court- 
 ney, M.P., Ashton W. Dilke, Frederick Pennington, M.P., Stopford A. 
 Brooke, Thomas Hughes, Evan Bell, Major; Henry Crompton, William 
 Morris, James Bryce, D.C.L., Samuel Gurney, Arthur Hallam Elton, Bart., 
 Justin McCarthy, M.P., John Dacosta, R. D. Osborn, Lieut. -Col. ; E. Burne- 
 Jones, J. Llewelyn Davies, Rector of Christ Church, Marylebone ; J. Baldwin 
 Brown, H. Richard, M.P., Edward North Buxton, Wilfrid Lawson, M.P., 
 Bart., F. W. Chesson, John Swinburne, Bart., James Heywood, John West- 
 lake, Q.C., P. Benson Maxwell, Knt., R. Knight, C. H. Hopwood, M.P., 
 Henry F. Pelham, Tutor of Exeter College, Oxford, Senior Proctor ; Malcolm 
 Mac Coll, Rector of St. George's, Botolph Lane ; Walter H. James, M.P., 
 A. V. Dicey, G. W. Kitchin, M.A., late Senior Student of Christ Church, 
 Oxford ; Charles L. Shadwell, M.A., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford ; Arthur 
 Arnold, John Webster, LL.D. Aberdeen; H. F. Tozer, M.A., Tutor of Exeter 
 College, Oxford ; Mark Pattison, Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford ; J. Pass- 
 more Edwards, T. H. Green, Whyte's Professor of Moral Philosophy, 
 Oxford ; L. R. Phelps, M.A., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford ; R. Bosworth 
 Smith, Edward E. Bowen, Arthur G. Watson, D.C.L.
 
 128 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 founded their allegations, and had not been supplied 
 with them, and that persons who could believe the 
 charges were very much to blame. The Duke of 
 Argyll, who had refused to sign the memorial himself, 
 replied that it was absurd to say that these charges 
 had no foundation except newspaper paragraphs : they 
 were founded on General Roberts's own proclamation. 
 Did General Roberts, or did he not, shoot men who 
 were guilty of nothing except the defence of their 
 country ? Next day Sir Arthur Hobhouse replied in 
 a letter in the Daily News to Lord Beaconsfield's 
 statements. The request for the evidence on which 
 the allegations were based only reached him on the 
 evening of February 4, and on the following day he 
 sent to Lord Beaconsfield's secretary a sufficient, 
 though by no means exhaustive list of such accounts, 
 eight of them taken from the Daily News, one from 
 The Times, and one from the Times of India. The 
 answer therefore was on its way to Lord Beaconsfield 
 at the very tune he was speaking. ' It is surely too 
 sharp to ask a man for evidence on Wednesday 
 evening, and to proclaim him a defaulter on Thursday 
 afternoon.' 
 
 On February 11, Sir Arthur Hobhouse wrote a letter 
 to The Times, explaining the position which he and his 
 fellow memorialists had taken up. 
 
 SIB, The ' Proprietor ' of the Times of India is in too 
 great a hurry to defend himself. He seems to be sensitive 
 about something which appeared in his paper and was 
 afterwards contradicted, but which he thinks was used for 
 the purpose of the memorial to Lord Beaconsfield. 
 
 In fact, however, it was not used, nor have I myself ever 
 seen it. The passage in the Times of India which was used
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 129 
 
 was, like the other reports relied on, of a much more matter- 
 of-fact kind, being only a fuller report appearing in the 
 Times of India of the 17th of November, 1879, of a proclama- 
 tion which was also reported in the Daily News of the 15th 
 of November. The e Proprietor's ' letter, therefore, has abso- 
 lutely nothing to do with the discussion in which he has 
 taken part. It is really no use attempting to argue that, in 
 believing people to have been executed merely for attacking 
 us, and merely as rebels, we had not good ground to rest on. 
 We had much the same grounds as for believing that there 
 was any invasion of Afghanistan at all viz., a number of 
 concurrent reports coming through official or officially- 
 controlled channels, all tending to the same point, and 
 remaining for weeks uncontradicted. 
 
 So far as I know, nobody did doubt that there was 
 substantial truth in the reports, though the memorialists 
 did not affirm their accuracy, but only referred to the 
 reports themselves, and asked only for inquiry. As long 
 as there was no contradiction, the party who cannot bear 
 to hear that there is anything wrong about our Afghan 
 policy defended the executions on principle, and as being 
 necessary incidents of war. Now they deny that there 
 were such executions, but condemn the reported ones so 
 strongly as to say that it was shameful to believe such 
 things, even so far as to ask for inquiry. 
 
 As I have said before, nobody will be more glad than 
 myself, both on private grounds, and still more on public, 
 to find that we have been deceived ; and it is a comfort 
 now to be assured that, for once in this vexed matter, the con- 
 tending parties stand on the same ethical and political basis. 
 
 General Roberta's answer was read to the House on 
 February 13. Part of it dealt with charges about the 
 treatment of the wounded, as to which the memorial 
 had said nothing; the part that referred to the 
 memorial is given in full. 
 
 As to the Proclamation published relative to the treat-
 
 130 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 ment of soldiers and others concerned in the attack on the 
 Embassy, and of those who had apparently shown them- 
 selves to be rebels against the Ameer by fighting against us, 
 I would mention that at the time the Proclamation was 
 issued Yakoob Khan was outwardly our friend, and re- 
 peatedly spoke to me of the people who had fought against 
 us at Char-Asiab as rebels to his rule ; and on that account 
 they were referred to in the terms of the Proclamation. As 
 for men being hanged for the simple fact of their having 
 fought against us, such was not the case. Rewards were 
 certainly offered for their capture ; but this was done with 
 a view of arresting those who, directly or indirectly, had 
 taken part in the massacre of the several members of the 
 British Embassy. All convicted of such a crime would, 
 I believe, have been sentenced to death in any country, 
 whether civil or martial law had been in force. The 
 Kotwal (chief magistrate of the city) was found guilty of 
 having incited the troops to the massacre, of having taken 
 an active part in dishonouring the dead bodies, and of 
 having subsequently instigated the troops and people of 
 Cabul to resist our advance. On these accounts he was 
 hanged. As to prisoners taken in fight being shot, such 
 is totally devoid of truth, further than in one or two 
 instances summary punishment has been inflicted on indi- 
 viduals who have been found mutilating our wounded 
 soldiers; indeed, all the wounded that have fallen into 
 the enemy's hands at different times have been treated 
 in the most cruel manner and horribly mutilated. With 
 regard to the men who were not implicated in the attack 
 on the Embassy, some short time after Yakoob Khan had 
 been made a prisoner an amnesty was proclaimed, and the 
 people of every district visited by our troops have invariably 
 been informed that those soldiers have nothing to fear from 
 us ; but, on the other hand, if they came in and gave up 
 their rifles or guns they would receive the amount authorized 
 for the same. This was fully understood, and a considerable 
 number of arms have from time to time been brought in.
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 131 
 
 Recently, quite irrespective of any action taken by us, the 
 Mollahs have been preaching a 'jehad' or religious war, 
 and have by these means got together by coercion, practical 
 as well as religious, a gigantic collection of people. On 
 reaching Cabul this mass was joined by all the riffraff of 
 the city and neighbouring villages; but the Kazilboshis, 
 merchants, and respectable inhabitants, so far from throwing 
 in their lot with our opponents, held aloof, and from time 
 to time gave us valuable information. The greater portion 
 also of the Sirdars of Cabul remained during the dis- 
 turbances in our camp. As soon as I was aware that the 
 enemy had been completely dispersed, I published a general 
 amnesty, feeling that the people generally were not to 
 blame for what had occurred, and the quickest way of 
 restoring order was to invite the people to Cabul and to 
 let them see that they could trust implicitly to our for- 
 bearance and generosity. At the same time the Civil 
 Dispensary was re-established, and notice was sent through 
 the city and to all the neighbouring villages, inviting the 
 wounded to hospital and assuring them that they had 
 nothing to fear. Many wounded have been brought in, and 
 are being taken every care of 1 . Hansard, Third Series, 
 vol. ccl, pp. 579-82. 
 
 1 When the Official Return of the cases tried before the Military Commis- 
 sion at Cabul was issued (c 2523), it appeared that the simple offence of 
 bearing arms against us was not the sole charge in any case in which 
 sentence of death was inflicted, though in many cases the charges of ' taking 
 part in the attack on the Residency, and being present at the action of 
 Charasiab,' were put together. 
 
 The abstract statement made by the Government of India is as follows : 
 Charges. Number Number 
 
 executed, released. 
 
 Dishonouring the bodies of the officers of the Embassy 4 
 Possessing property belonging to the Embassy 4 4 
 
 Being armed within 5 miles of the camp * ... 6 15 
 
 Attacking escorts with a view to releasing prisoners . 4 
 
 Murdering camp followers ; participation in the attack on 
 
 the Residency; inciting people to rise ; carrying arms; 
 
 treacherously firing on and killing wounded soldiers 69 67 
 
 87 76 
 
 * This was forbidden by the Proclamation instituting Martial Law. 
 
 K2
 
 132 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 The provisions of the Proclamations that were 
 referred to in the memorial were as follows : 
 
 In my Proclamation l dated 3rd October, I informed the 
 people of Kabul that a British army was advancing to take 
 possession of the city, and I warned them against offering 
 any resistance to the entry of the troops and the authority 
 of His Highness the Amir. That warning has been dis- 
 regarded. The force under my command has now reached 
 Kabul and occupied the Bala Hissar, but its advance has 
 been pertinaciously opposed, and the inhabitants of the city 
 have taken a conspicuous part in the opposition offered. 
 They have therefore become rebels against His Highness 
 the Amir, and have added to the guilt already incurred by 
 them in abetting the murder of the British Envoy and his 
 companions a treacherous and cowardly crime which has 
 brought indelible disgrace upon the Afghan people. It 
 would be a just and fitting reward for such misdeeds if the 
 city of Kabul were now totally destroyed, and its very name 
 blotted out ; but the great British Government ever desires 
 to temper justice with mercy, and I now announce to the 
 inhabitants of Kabul that the full retribution for their 
 offence will not be exacted, and that the city will be spared. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is necessary that they should not escape 
 all penalty, and, further, that the punishment inflicted 
 should be such as will be felt and remembered. Therefore, 
 such portions of the city buildings as now interfere with 
 the proper military occupation of the Bala Hissar, and the 
 safety and comfort of the British troops to be quartered in 
 it, will be at once levelled with the ground ; and, further, 
 a heavy fine, the amount of which will be notified hereafter, 
 will be imposed upon the inhabitants of Kabul, to be paid 
 according to their several capacities. 
 
 Finally, I notify that I will give a reward of Rs. 50 for 
 
 1 For the Proclamation in full see Kober fs, Forty-one Years in India, vol. ii, 
 p. 287.
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 133 
 
 the surrender of any person, whether soldier or civilian, 
 concerned in the attack on the British Embassy, or for such 
 information as may lead directly to his capture. A similar 
 sum will be given in the case of any person who may have 
 fought against the British troops since the 3rd September 
 (Shawal) last, and therefore become a rebel against His 
 Highness the Amir. If any such person so surrendered or 
 captured be a captain or subaltern officer of the Afghan 
 army, the reward will be increased to Es. 75, and if a field 
 officer to Es. 120. 
 
 Kabul, 12th November, 1879. 
 
 To all whom it may concern 1 . On the 12th October 
 a Proclamation was issued in which I offered a reward 
 for the surrender of any person who had fought against 
 the British troops since the 3rd September, and had thereby 
 become a rebel against the Amir Yakub Khan. I have 
 now received information which tends to show that some, 
 at least, of those who shared in the opposition encountered 
 by the British troops during their advance on Kabul, were 
 led to do so by the belief that the Amir was a prisoner 
 in my camp, and had called upon the soldiery and people 
 of Kabul to rise on his behalf. Such persons, although 
 enemies to the British Government, were not rebels against 
 their own Sovereign, and the great British Government 
 does not seek for vengeance against enemies who no longer 
 resist. It may be that few only of those who took up 
 arms were thus led away by the statements of evil-minded 
 men, but rather than punish the innocent with the guilty, 
 I am willing to believe that all were alike deceived. On 
 behalf of the British Government, therefore, I proclaim 
 a free and complete amnesty to all persons who have fought 
 against the British troops since the 3rd September, provided 
 that they now give up any arms in their possession and 
 return to their homes. The offer of a reward for the 
 surrender of such persons is now withdrawn, and they will 
 not for the future be molested in any way on account of 
 
 1 See Roberts, Forty-one Years in India, vol. ii, p. 255, note.
 
 134 MEMOIE OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 their opposition to the British advance ; but it must be 
 clearly understood that the benefits of this amnesty do not 
 extend to any one, whether soldier or civilian, who was 
 concerned directly or indirectly in the attack upon the 
 Residency, or who may hereafter be found in possession 
 of any property belonging to members of the Embassy. 
 To such persons no mercy will be shown. Further, I hold 
 out no promise of pardon to those who, well knowing the 
 Amir's position in the British camp, instigated the troops 
 and people of Kabul to take up arms against the British 
 troops. They have been guilty of wilful rebellion against 
 the Amir's authority, and they will be considered and 
 treated as rebels wherever found. 
 
 Sir Arthur Hobhouse's defeat at "Westminster had, 
 as we have seen, caused him no personal disappoint- 
 ment, for at no time in his life did he think himself 
 particularly suited for Parliamentary work. But it 
 left him in some doubt about the direction in which 
 his energies could be applied most usefully. He was 
 now sixty, and it would have seemed the natural 
 course at his time of life to have resumed the kind 
 of work in which he had been engaged, rather than 
 seek some new and strange employment. The cir- 
 cumstances of his career, however, presented certain 
 embarrassments from this point of view. The promi- 
 nent part he had taken in Indian controversies made 
 it difficult for the Government to give him an appoint- 
 ment in the India Office. He had all the qualifications 
 that are wanted for the Bench, except that he had 
 left the Bar for the Charity Commission fifteen years 
 earlier. 
 
 Fortunately a means occurred to Mr. Gladstone by 
 which his endowments of mind and experience of 
 Indian affairs could be employed in the public service.
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 135 
 
 In 1881 he was appointed a member of the Judicial 
 Committee of the Privy Council under the Act of 1833 
 (commonly known as Lord Brougham's Act), which 
 enables the sovereign by sign^manual to appoint two 
 persons, other than the judicial officers mentioned in 
 that Act, to be members of the committee. His work 
 on the committee is discussed elsewhere. By a singu- 
 lar circumstance Hobhouse found himself serving his 
 country for the next twenty years in a most important 
 and distinguished office without pay or pension. With 
 the exception of Lord Kingsdown, all Hobhouse's 
 predecessors and colleagues on the committee were, 
 unlike him, either judicial officials or ex-judges in receipt 
 of pensions. His appointment gave great pleasure to 
 his old friend, Jowett, who wrote to congratulate him. 
 
 Balliol College, February 10, 1881. 
 
 I think that there could not be a better position for the 
 last ten or fifteen years of active life far better than 
 politics, which give one strange bedfellows and require too 
 great a sacrifice of individual ideas to party : I could not 
 wish to see you better placed. It seems to me the natural 
 crown and completion of your life, that after many varied 
 experiences you should return to the law at last. 
 
 And now you must grow young again, and go back to 
 youthful studies. Such a post should put new vigour into 
 a man. I used to think you too prone to speak of the poor 
 remains of life, as if the last ten or fifteen years were not 
 the prime of it. It is true that the memory fails a little 
 for the permanent acquisition of new knowledge. But old 
 recollections soon come back, and there is greater power 
 of getting up a subject quickly than at any former time 
 of life. 
 
 Hobhouse's work on the Judicial Committee did not 
 engross all his time or energy, and he was anxious to
 
 136 MEMOIE OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 supplement it by some public work tbat was not 
 purely honorary. He even applied for a County Court 
 Judgeship, and when Canon Robinson's death in 1882 
 created a vacancy on the Charity Commission, he wrote 
 to Mr. Gladstone expressing a wish to return to the 
 field of his earliest public work. After his application 
 had been sent in, he received a letter from Mr. Douglas 
 Richmond, who, of course, did not know that he was 
 a candidate, asking for his support for his own candi- 
 dature. On receiving this letter Hobhouse wrote to 
 Mr. Gladstone, withdrawing his claims in favour of 
 Mr. Richmond. ' I have just heard from Mr. Douglas 
 Richmond that he is a candidate for the vacant place 
 in the Charity Commission. I should not venture to 
 say a word about his candidature, were it not that you 
 have been good enough to say that my own fitness for 
 the post would be duly considered. I have so very 
 high an opinion of Mr. Richmond, and think that he 
 has rendered such good service to his department of 
 public affairs, that if by any possibility you should be 
 hesitating between him and myself, I should think it 
 right to give the preference to him.' It was believed 
 in some quarters that the Government might feel 
 obliged to appoint a Nonconformist Commissioner, and 
 Hobhouse received a letter from Mr. Henry Richard, 
 the eminent Nonconformist leader, in which he said : 
 'I am free to say this much, that if the office of 
 Commissioner is not given to a Nonconformist, I believe 
 there is no man living who would be more generally 
 acceptable to the Nonconformists than yourself.' 
 
 Mr. Douglas Richmond writes with regard to this 
 incident as follows : 
 
 One incident in his life I should like to record, because
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 137 
 
 it is evidence at once of the extreme generosity of his 
 nature, and of his unselfish desire to serve his country in 
 any capacity in which he might see a sphere of usefulness. 
 When in the year 1883 a vacancy occurred at the Charity 
 Commission, and I was a candidate for appointment, I took 
 occasion to inform Lord Hobhouse of the fact, and on my 
 appointment the first note of congratulation I received was 
 from him. I afterwards learnt that he had himself applied 
 to Mr. Gladstone for the place, but on hearing of my 
 candidature had declined to press his infinitely greater 
 claims. 
 
 In April, 1883, Mr. Douglas Richmond was appointed 
 to the post, and Mr. Gladstone informed Sir Arthur 
 Hobhouse of the appointment in the following letter: 
 
 10 Downing Street, Whitehall, April 17, 1883. 
 
 DEAR SIR A. HOBHOUSE, The idea of appointing a Non- 
 conformist to the vacant Charity Commissionership has 
 been for the present occasion abandoned. This being so, 
 I regard the claims of yourself and Mr. Richmond as having 
 been under all the circumstances entitled to a preference. 
 Further, I have to bear in mind that you have generously 
 waived your own pretensions in Mr. Richmond's favour, on 
 public grounds. 
 
 I propose to recommend him for the appointment, but 
 I must not omit upon doing so to express my strong sense 
 of the generous and self-sacrificing spirit in which you have 
 acted on this occasion. 
 
 I remain, very faithfully yours, 
 W. E. GLADSTONE. 
 
 During these years Sir Arthur Hobhouse took little 
 part in public controversies, though he sent a strong 
 letter to the Pall Mall Gazette in October, 1880, urging 
 on the Government the duty and policy of retiring from 
 Candahar. * We look to them,' he wrote, ' to make up
 
 138 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 their own minds. In all the miserable history of our 
 first Afghan war, there is one bright political spot, 
 and that is the resolute courage with which the great 
 Conservative leaders, Wellington and Peel, insisted on 
 withdrawing from the country we had overrun. It 
 was humiliating for the time, but it was just and 
 prudent, and we did it. The success was complete. 
 By it we lost no strength, no " prestige " in India, and 
 so far as the Afghans were concerned, we gained peace 
 and security very valuable to us "at a critical moment, 
 and lasting from the year 1842 until wantonly dis- 
 turbed by us in the year 1876. We look to the 
 present Government to act with equal courage and 
 wisdom, and if they do we may confidently predict 
 for them an equal success/ Six months later this 
 policy was carried out with the success which 
 Hobhouse had anticipated for it. 
 
 He also tried to organize a league against aggres- 
 sion, an attempt described in the following note found 
 amongst his writings : 
 
 After that (the election of 1880), sanguine people pro- 
 claimed that the Jingoes the party of aggression and 
 'Empire' were destroyed. I was one who thought them 
 still the most powerful force in the country, as well as the 
 most dangerous. Herbert Spencer thought likewise. We 
 got together a meeting at my house, with the view of 
 setting up an Anti-aggression League. But we met with 
 no support, the bulk of people thinking that the danger of 
 ousting morality from public policy was past. 
 
 The developments of the Government's Egyptian 
 policy caused him a good deal of distress and concern, 
 as is shown by a letter he wrote to a friend in August, 
 
 1882.
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 139 
 
 "Westminster Hotel, "West Malvern, August 4, 1882. 
 
 I will try to get up the energy necessary for under- 
 standing the Egyptian question, but at present I do not 
 see my way clear enough for any useful utterance except 
 on two points, one being the Dual Control and the other 
 our use of Indian troops and money. On the latter head 
 the tergiversation of the Government appears to me un- 
 pardonable, and I shall be surprised indeed if its glaring 
 character does not open people's eyes, in spite of their wish 
 to support Gladstone, or to keep out Salisbury. But on 
 the other parts of this complicated question I am not sure 
 whether further study will bring me to any decided conclu- 
 sion: still less am I confident of expressing my thoughts 
 in a persuasive way. It may be as you say, that to throw 
 light on a political problem is worth more than much 
 official work. Still, a man must do what he can. That 
 I can work a judicial or semi-legal office easily, and indeed 
 with pleasure to myself, I know. That I can do it well 
 I believe ; whereas the composition of papers and speeches 
 on political and social questions is very great labour to 
 me, and, after all, I have no evidence that they produce 
 any effect. Quoad reviewers and such-like evidences 
 of public attention, my words always fall as flat as 
 flounders. 
 
 In 1882 Hobhouse gave his judgement in the 
 Epping Forest Case. In the same year he became 
 a member of the London School Board. 
 
 In the Autumn of 1883, he accepted an invitation 
 from Mr. Villard, the President of the North Pacific 
 Railroad, to visit the United States, and take part in 
 the opening ceremony of the line which had just been 
 completed across the Atlantic. Among his fellow guests 
 were his friends, Lord Hannen, Lord Bowen, Lord 
 Carrington, Mr. Bryce, Mr. (now Lord) Davey, Mr. 
 Francis Buxton, and Mr. Albert Grey (now Earl Grey).
 
 140 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 He left England in the Scythia on August 11, and 
 returned in the Bothnia on October 26. This journey 
 being his first experience of America was of great 
 interest to him, and he recounted his adventures to his 
 wife in a series of letters. Some of the peculiarities of 
 the Americans are noted in the following extracts : 
 
 I verily believe that the Americans are so fond of bigness 
 that they like big prices. One man envied me the sight of 
 the North Pacific Railway, because it is the longest in the 
 world. Another responded to my praise of the Central Park 
 by saying, 'Yes, it is the third largest Park in the world,' the 
 others being, according to him, at Philadelphia and Dublin; 
 he evidently does not know of Yellowstone. And so with, 
 their rivers and their territories, they are always dwelling 
 on their size. No doubt size is a stimulant to the imagina- 
 tion, and one element of grandeur (a doubtful one, perhaps, 
 in the case of a long railway), but people here seem to treat 
 it as if it constituted grandeur. . . . 
 
 The States certainly beat the old Country in bigness of 
 advertisements. One I saw at Coney Island made a passing 
 railway train look quite small ; there are some sizeable ones 
 here greeting us on our entry, among others 'Electric 
 Clothiers ' ; I did not think of being clothed by electricity, 
 but perhaps it will be my fate. 
 
 They are also very choice in the headings of paragraphs 
 in newspapers. To invent startling or attractive ones is a 
 business of itself, and some of them are very clever. Here 
 is one : ' He might have been Moses.' Then comes a story 
 of a child found at the river's bank, deserted or strayed. 
 Another: 'He might hire a poet,' introductory to a speech by 
 Coleridge, declaring that something or other he had just 
 seen was so grand, that he could not find words to express 
 his feelings about it. ... 
 
 The lack, or apparent lack, of enjoyment of the flowers 
 that grow on the wayside of life, seems to one a serious 
 defect in the life of ordinary Americans. Enterprise, dollars,
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 141 
 
 business of all kinds ; as long as you are on such subjects 
 they are most instructive and intelligent companions, but 
 ask them about a bird, a plant (not being a tree used for 
 lumber), climate, geology, scenery (other than the stock 
 places, which every American talks about), or literature, and 
 they not only don't know, but are taken aback with surprise 
 that anybody should concern himself with such trivialities. 
 . . . For music we had frogs (tree-toads, they call them), and 
 what I should have called crickets ; but my host thought 
 they were Katy-dids. Oddly enough, not one of the party 
 was prepared to say whether a ' Katy-did ' was an insect or 
 a bird, nor who Katy was, nor what she did, nor why the 
 creature should bear the name, except on condition of 
 uttering a sound like it, which a single shrill note certainly 
 is not. Indeed, they seem highly insensible to the animal 
 and vegetable life around them. I have only discovered 
 three flowers in the garden, geranium, gladiolus, and cane, 
 and the two latter they call lilies. 
 
 A few extracts follow, relating to the opening cere- 
 monies which took place in the North- Western States. 
 
 September 3, 1883. 6.30 p.m. 
 
 The St. Paul business is over. "We were driven up to the 
 principal Square, and there introduced to a number of St. 
 Paulines. A friendly lawyer took possession of me, and we 
 sat or walked about, looking at a procession which occupied 
 some two hours in passing. A few soldiers, a few militiamen, 
 the various Societies and Institutions, and most of the trades 
 of the town took part in it, advertising themselves in the 
 most open manner. Among other things, "Washington and 
 Lafayette appeared hand-in-hand on a carriage. St. Paul 
 city, the N. P. Railway, and the Mississippi were personified 
 by divers young women. The Post Office of 1842 was 
 displayed, a wooden box with half a dozen pigeon-holes, and 
 an inscription stating that in that year its revenue was 3 
 dollars 25 cents. Then came by a drawing of the present
 
 142 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 P. 0., with a legend stating that this year's revenue was 
 184,000 dollars. Then there came an ox-cart inscribed ' To 
 Portland 6 months,' followed by a picture of a train with 
 ' To Portland 4 days.' Well, we got thro' it, and then re- 
 embarked on a train to Minneapolis, where, with slight 
 variations, we had the same performance over again. . . . 
 
 September 5. 
 
 Then off to Bismarck, the capital of Dakota, where we 
 arrived late at night and rested awhile from jolting. Up at 
 sunrise next morning to see the laying of the corner-stone 
 of the 'Capitol,' as the Bismarckians proudly call the building 
 they are about to erect and to make the centre of civilization 
 and empire. It was a most striking and impressive scene. 
 Bismarck is a very ancient city, being fully 10 years old, 
 and its growth has been very slow, as it has only 3,500 
 inhabitants. But now, having bridged the Missouri and got 
 their railway east and west, they have boundless confidence 
 in their future, and boldly place their ' Capitol ' on a high 
 elevation in the open prairie, fully li miles from the existing 
 town. Thither we repaired, or rather, raced in chariots, 50 
 or 60 carriages of various kinds, including one regulation 
 omnibus, admirably horsed and recklessly driven across the 
 open prairie (for, like our Upper India in the dry weather, 
 the prairie is an open road), each charioteer choosing his 
 own course, and apparently caring only to outstrip his 
 neighbour. I never expected to make one in a chariot race, 
 just as John Gilpin 'little thought, when he set out, of 
 running such a rig.' However, we arrived safely, which 
 I was surprised at after my two spills at the other neapolis t 
 of which I think I told you. Then Villard laid the corner- 
 stone under the auspices of the Governor-General Ordway. 
 The speaking was really excellent. Every man seemed, in 
 his own way, deeply impressed with the solemnity of the 
 occasion. Ordway was brief and emphatic in his introduction 
 of each speaker ; Villard gravely historical and statistical. 
 Mr. Billings then spoke ; he is one of the original promoters
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 143 
 
 of the N. P. E,., who was doomed to meet with failure and 
 (temporary) ruin. I am at this instant writing at a city, 
 named after him. N.B. All the settlements are 'cities' here, 
 just as all the meals are * banquets.' . . . The only exception 
 to the serious tone was General Grant, who came forward 
 reluctantly, and after much pressing. He began by saying 
 that his great fault was, that when he once began to address 
 a crowd, he never knew when to leave off. He speedily 
 belied his words, however, for after a sentence or two in a 
 jocular vein, he ended by saying, ' I am very glad to have 
 come here, but very sorry that you called on me to speak.' 
 
 Then the Governor dismissed the assembly. A strong 
 element of pathos was imported into the scene by the 
 appearance of the former Lords of the country, in the person 
 of Sitting Bull and the remnant, about 20, of his powerful 
 tribe, the Dakotas or Sioux. 'In that man,' says Evarts, 
 ' you see the only foreign power that has made head against 
 the United States.' And in fact, he waged war, not altogether 
 unsuccessfully, for 20 years and more. But his people have 
 dwindled away, and he is left nearly alone. I was introduced 
 to him, shook hands, and exchanged a sentence or two through 
 an interpreter. He is about 65 years old, quite active, and 
 sits a horse easily and well. His face is one of great power, 
 with the confident, steely, impenetrable smile that charac- 
 terizes Sphinxes, and, to some extent, Disraeli. "We left 
 Bismarck full of wonder and delight, at all events I did. 
 
 Pend d'Oreille, September 9, 1883. 
 
 After the speeches the rails were laid. About 100 yards on 
 either side of the meeting points there were no rails on the 
 sleepers, but at each end of the space trucks of rails and a 
 gang of navvies were kept in readiness. At a given signal 
 the trucks advanced and the rails were cast down, laid and 
 riveted with great rapidity. When the last one was laid, 
 Villard struck a blow to a rivet (whether really a gold or gilt 
 one I have not been able to ascertain), and this set in motion 
 an electric battery, which (at least so we were told) flashed
 
 144 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 the news simultaneously to Portland, to New York, and to 
 England. Then the band (a U.S. cavalry band) played 
 ' Yankee Doodle ' and ' God Save the Queen ' (acknowledged 
 by the English party by bare heads and a cheer at the end), 
 the ' "Wacht am Rhein/ and the ' Marseillaise.' ... A little 
 cessation from noise is very agreeable. The jolting does cease 
 for awhile when the train stops and we get out, but the noise of 
 the stations is often as great as the noise of the moving train. 
 Besides the bustle of speaking to a number of people, there 
 are bands of music, and worse than that, salutes of guns. At 
 one place they saluted us with dynamite, so close that, besides 
 making everybody jump out of his skin, they blew in two of 
 the windows of our car, which is now fitted up with boards 
 instead. And at the point of ceremony they insisted on 
 giving an Imperial salute, so we were made to start and 
 deafened by two guns fired 101 times within 30 yards of us. 
 
 After witnessing these ceremonies, Lord Hobhouse 
 and his friends were carried on to Portland (Oregon) 
 and Victoria (Vancouver's Island). On their return 
 journey they visited the Yellowstone National Park 
 and Niagara. We append some extracts from his letters 
 describing the Geysers at the former of these places. 
 
 Yellowstone Hotel, September 22. 
 
 This morning we woke up at the Southern Terminus of 
 the Yellowstone Branch Railway, in a very wild and desolate 
 valley between high mountains; then we were dragged up by 
 gallant horses to this place, and those of us who did not go 
 onwards have been spending the rest of the day in looking 
 at the ' Mammoth Hot Springs,' and bathing in sulphurous 
 waters. It is a very curious scene. Looked at from below, 
 it seems as if the valley were filled up by a glacier of great 
 magnitude. This glacier, however, is only the deposit of the 
 Springs, of which the exposed part that we can see can hardly 
 be less than 500 feet in thickness. The name Mammoth does 
 not come from any fossil remains, but merely from the big
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 145 
 
 scale of the concern. There is no beauty in the general view, 
 which is rather glaring and desolate. But as you walk about 
 the place there is a great deal that is very curious and very 
 interesting. Some of the springs make large promontories 
 with cliffs 30 or 40 feet high, others form isolated cones, one 
 of which is said to be 45 feet high ; others large platforms, 
 others deep cups or craters, others a succession of terraces. 
 And there is not lacking considerable beauty of detail and 
 colour. The sides of the cliffs and cones are covered with 
 fretwork and arabesque patterns, and each terrace is bordered 
 by a projecting lip, on which the trickling water is always 
 tracing new lines. One of the most remarkable springs has 
 thrown up mineral matter (pure silver, I am told by Professor 
 von Zittel) in the shape of a gigantic beehive, I suppose 30 
 feet high. It is so even in shape, that the water rising from 
 the centre, pours down all the sides and covers them with 
 fresh shining deposit, some pure white, some a rich orange. 
 Of course it grows rapidly in size, and it has already embraced 
 and destroyed several pine trees. Unfortunately, the Ameri- 
 can public are allowed to walk about wherever they please, 
 and the consequence is, notwithstanding the great extent of 
 the formation, the greater part of the delicate work is trampled 
 on, and broken to pieces. 
 
 Norris Geyser Basin, September 25, 1883. 
 I am glad to have seen Geysers, having read about them in 
 early childhood (in Winter Evenings, I think) and having 
 had my imagination somewhat inflamed by them. The 
 Upper Basin, which we reached yesterday, is much the most 
 energetic, having several large fountains which play to a 
 great height. I only saw two. One is called ' Old Faithful,' 
 because of his extraordinary regularity in playing at intervals 
 of an hour. He is said sometimes to throw a jet of 150 feet 
 high. I should say that the 5 jets I saw were from 60 to 80 
 feet. There being no Chinamen in the place, 'Old Faithful' 
 plays the part of washerman, but he will only wash linen 
 rightly, and that he does not either starch or iron. Woollens 
 
 L
 
 148 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 he tears, perhaps he calls it mangling. One man employed 
 on the survey showed me a pair of brown holland inex- 
 pressibles very well washed, merely by being put into the 
 centre of 'Old Faithful.' He is, however, a little irregular 
 about sending home. Several of my German friends put 
 their handkerchiefs in. One man, a doctor, thinking, I sup- 
 pose, to have his washing done cheap, cast in two. All were 
 returned at the next eruption except three, including those 
 belonging to the doctor. This morning one was found, 
 frozen stiff and stark, but well washed. Alas ! the doctor's 
 two never reappeared in time, but his friends console him by 
 saying they will come some time, and he will benefit some- 
 body in the neighbourhood at the expense of a great scolding 
 from his wife when he gets home. 
 
 To LOED FAEEEE. 
 
 National Hotel, Yellowstone National Park, 
 Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming Ter., Sept. 23, 1883. 
 I take advantage of a short lull in this locomotive life 
 to send you a few words of good wishes on your change of 
 title. I suppose you care for it as little as most men, but to 
 anybody compliments and acknowledgements of good service 
 are acceptable, and to be ranked among the ornaments and 
 luxuries that make life pleasant. I had before sent a 
 message of kindness in one of my hurried and scrappy letters 
 to Mary, written by fragments amid joltings and hustle, 
 and ' mailed,' or rather given to others to be mailed, under 
 circumstances which leave a pleasing uncertainty as to 
 their chance of hitting the mark. The Americans, being 
 determined to have the biggest Park in the world, have 
 seized upon a tract of mountain land (65 miles x 55), and 
 have placed it under a Superintendent. A Company has 
 received power to erect divers hotels, and this is the first, 
 just completed. There is no population and no produce, 
 and a party of engineers has just begun to make roads, 
 or what they now call roads, consisting of a series of pitfalls
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 147 
 
 disposed on steep slopes. However, horses do drag over 
 such places carriages which do not go to pieces in the 
 process, and as I am to enjoy more than a hundred miles 
 of such travelling in the next two days, I had better not 
 abuse it. We have lovely weather, bright hot sun, and 
 frosty nights, and are at present free from smoke of forest 
 fires, which is almost always present to spoil the scenery 
 west of the Rockies. 
 
 In 1885 he himself became a peer. The Govern- 
 ment's motives in offering, and his motives in accepting, 
 a peerage are to be learnt from the following letters, 
 the first of which was addressed to him by his old 
 friend, Lord Selborne, the retiring Lord Chancellor. 
 
 June 24, 1885. 
 
 DEAE HOBHOUSE, I hope you will pardon me, for having 
 made it my request to Mr. Gladstone, on our leaving office, 
 that you should be offered a Peerage : and you will see, from 
 his letter to me just received, which I enclose, that it is only 
 for you to say whether you will accept it or not. 
 
 I did not ask it from any belief that a Peerage, in itself, 
 would be much (if anything) of an object of ambition to 
 you. But I thought it would be greatly for the public 
 advantage, that you should be enabled to do the same good 
 service, judicially, in the House of Lords, which you have 
 done in the Privy Council. I have always regretted the 
 circumstances which, by making so long a break in your 
 professional career, made it difficult to find the means of 
 receiving for the public the benefit, on the Judicial Bench, 
 of your accurate knowledge of equitable principles, and 
 your other eminent qualifications to do service in this way. 
 "When I asked you to undertake the work of the Judicial 
 Committee, it was in the hope and belief that you would 
 establish there such a reputation as might (in one way or 
 another) overcome the effect of these circumstances ; and 
 I am assured that this has been the case. 
 
 L 2
 
 148 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 I do hope you will accept. I think there can hardly, in 
 your case, be any private reasons to the contrary. Since 
 Cairns's death, I am the only Equity man in the House of 
 Lords I am a good deal older than you and Equity is, 
 now more than ever, important. 
 
 Please send me as early a reply as you can. 
 
 Ever yours affectionately, 
 
 SELBOENE. 
 
 FEOM LOED HOBHOUSE TO SIE C. ILBEET. 
 
 Bournemouth, August 26, 1885. 
 
 Many thanks for your letter of the 31st ult., just received 
 here. A peerage is unsuitable to me in several respects, 
 nor has it been offered to, or accepted by, me as a ' reward,' 
 c recognition,' and so forth, or with any political aspect, but 
 solely on professional grounds, that I may help in the ap- 
 pellate work. This is the work which I like best, and is the 
 most suitable to me, and so I am glad to have it. I would 
 far sooner have had a more modest post with a modest salary, 
 but unfortunately all such things have been denied to me. 
 
 As a member of the Upper House, Lord Hobhouse 
 took little active share in the pitched battles of party, 
 but he worked hard for important if less conspicuous 
 objects. He took tbe first opportunity of advancing 
 a cause which he had much at heart, the reform of 
 copyhold tenure. Previous legislation for promoting 
 copyhold enfranchisement had been largely nugatory, 
 because the whole cost fell on the tenant. In July, 
 1885, Lord Hobhouse moved the second reading of the 
 Copyhold Enfranchisement Bill, which was designed 
 to give effect to the defeated intentions of earlier Acts. 
 Under the Bill the lord of a manor was to be obliged, 
 when admitting any one as his tenant, to offer to take 
 compensation, the compensation to be fixed by agree-
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 149 
 
 menfc or a valuer. The Bill was rejected by forty-six 
 votes to fourteen. In March, 1887, when an almost 
 identical Bill came up from the House of Commons, 
 Lord Hobhouse moved and carried the second reading, 
 and the Bill was referred to a Select Committee. 
 The Bill was a good deal altered in committee, and 
 Lord Hobhouse's efforts were directed to preserving 
 as much of its usefulness as he could. Ultimately 
 the Bill passed into law, and was supplemented 
 later by a Copyhold Amendment Act, introduced by 
 Lord Hobhouse in the Lords because the House of 
 Commons had struck out some of the clauses of the 
 original Bill. There was a consolidating Act in 1894. 
 He made a notable contribution to a kindred subject 
 by two articles in the Contemporary Review, in which 
 he preached emancipation from the ' dead hand ' in 
 a direction that had been suggested to him by his 
 experience as a member of the Royal Commission on 
 the best means of simplifying transfer of land. An 
 earlier Commission in 1857 had suggested that there 
 should be established a general Registry of Titles, in 
 which each property should be entered in a name or 
 names representing absolute ownership, so that the 
 registered owners could confer a good title on a pur- 
 chaser. This system was to be protected from abuse 
 by a system of notice, under which every person 
 entitled to an interest in the land might have full 
 warning if his interest was to be transferred, just as 
 a judicial order may be procured to prevent the 
 transfer of Consols without notice. In 1862 a Bill 
 was passed under the auspices of Lord Chancellor 
 Westbury, which went on a different plan from the 
 plan recommended by the Commission. It provided
 
 150 MEMOIE OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 that every kind of interest should be entered on the 
 registry : the registry it established was a registry, 
 not of complete ownership but of deeds. It required 
 further that every title should be made perfect be- 
 fore it was put on the register. The result was that 
 the system was very expensive, and nothing was 
 done. The Commission on which Lord Hobhouse sat 
 was appointed because of the failure of the Act of 
 1862. It reported in 1869 and recommended a return 
 to the simpler procedure suggested in 1857. In 1875 
 an Act was passed, establishing a Registry on that 
 system. This Act, however, accomplished little, and 
 Lord Hobhouse was not surprised, because it had 
 fallen to him to prepare the rough draft of the Report, 
 and in examining closely the evidence given before 
 the Commission he had made up his mind that it was 
 impossible to obtain a simple system of transfer as 
 long as we retained a very complicated system of laws. 
 'For our settled estates,' he wrote afterwards, 'with 
 their numerous contingent remainders, shifting and 
 springing uses, and jointures, and portions and terms 
 of years, and two or three layers of family charges, to 
 be transferred by the simple process of entry in a book, 
 is, as I believe, about as easy as it is for a camel to 
 pass through the eye of a needle.' Foreign systems 
 of registry, he pointed out, were all based on systems 
 of law which did not admit our long settlements of 
 land. ' Long settlements make fettered land : simple 
 ownerships make free land.' 
 
 'Free land,' in this sense of the words, was the 
 subject of two articles that he contributed to the 
 Contemporary Review in 1886 (February and March). 
 'In my mouth,' he said, '"Free land" means land
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 151 
 
 which the living possessor is free to deal with accord- 
 ing to his needs or wishes, without being fettered by 
 old arrangements made by former owners who have 
 gone where they no longer want land/ In these 
 articles he traced the growth of the system of entailed 
 estates. After the Norman Conquest great land- 
 owners tried to keep land in their families by entailing 
 it, i.e., by giving it to the head of the family and his 
 issue, or, in effect, giving it to the family, not to the 
 individual. The kings, the judges, and the clergy 
 resisted this scheme, and the judges declared that 
 such gifts carried complete ownership, subject only to 
 the condition that if the head of the family had no 
 issue, the land given was to revert to the donor. But 
 in Edward I's time, the barons had become the most 
 powerful order in the kingdom, and they passed in the 
 House of Peers the Statute of Entails, which insisted 
 that in these cases the will of the donor should be 
 observed. When the Wars of the Roses had shattered 
 the nobles, the burghers were able to evade this 
 statute by fictitious lawsuits called Recoveries, in 
 which a stranger, who was really the agent of the 
 landed owner, brought an action against him, and, by 
 his connivance, got judgement. In Taltarum's case, 
 1472, the validity of these sham lawsuits was estab- 
 lished. After the Restoration there was another 
 change in the balance of power, and the nobles, making 
 allies of the lawyers, who had so often defeated them, 
 were able to rebuild the system of Family Law. That 
 system had had the effect in two centuries of accumu- 
 lating great masses of land in a very few hands, and 
 Lord Hobhouse proposed to repeal the Statute of 
 Entails and to forbid gifts to the unborn, leaving
 
 152 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 every owner free to choose the persons, among the 
 living, who were to succeed him in the possession of 
 his land. This reform he regarded, not as the only 
 reform that was wanted, but as the condition of all 
 true reform, for it was the only means of simplifying 
 transfer and breaking up the concentrations which had 
 been effected by two centuries of Family Law. 
 
 Another Bill of which Lord Hobhouse took charge 
 was known as the Sunday Bill. There exists on the 
 Statute Book a harsh Act drawn up by Dr. Porteus, 
 Bishop of London, in 1781, enacting that any place 
 opened or used for public entertainment and amuse- 
 ment or for public debate upon any part of ' the Lord's 
 day called Sunday,' to which persons are admitted by 
 payment of money or by tickets sold for money, is to 
 be deemed a disorderly house. The keeper is to 
 forfeit 200 for every day, the manager or master of 
 the ceremonies 100, and every doorkeeper or servant 
 50. The advertising or publishing any advertisement 
 of such an entertainment entails a penalty of 50. In 
 1894 the Leeds Sunday Society employed Max O'Rell 
 to give a lecture, and as the lecture was humorous it 
 was taken to come under this Act. A prosecution 
 was instituted, and it only failed on the ground of 
 a technical irregularity. Lord Hobhouse, who was 
 President of the Sunday Lecture Society that year in 
 succession to Huxley, brought in a Bill in 1897 to 
 provide that no prosecution should be instituted 
 without the consent of the Attorney-General, thus 
 eliminating the common informer, and also that the 
 Act should not apply to ' lectures or music, if the 
 proceedings were undertaken for the public good and 
 not for the profit of the promoters.' He pointed out
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 153 
 
 that there were other cases in which the consent of 
 some public authority was necessary to a prosecution, 
 and that at present prosecutions might be instituted 
 against the will of the public or the authorities, and 
 yet the Act only existed to protect the public. The 
 Bishop of Winchester moved the rejection of the Bill, 
 on the ground that it would lead to Sunday labour by 
 the employment of musicians. Lord Cowper, Lord 
 Farrer, and Lord Herschell all spoke in favour of the 
 Bill, Lord Farrer laying stress on the fact that the law 
 made distinctions, as in the Joint Stock Companies 
 Act, between associations that were carried on for 
 profit and those that were not. The two Archbishops 
 and the Lord Chancellor opposed the Bill, and it was 
 rejected by fifty votes to thirty-seven. 
 
 Lord Hobhouse did not speak in the debate on 
 Home Rule, but he was one of the small minority to 
 vote for the second reading of the Bill of 1893. He 
 had made up his mind, after long deliberation, that 
 Home B-ule was a better solution of the Irish difficulty 
 than any solution that its opponents could provide. 
 This conviction grew on him steadily, as the following 
 letters indicate. 
 
 To LADY HOBHOUSE. 
 
 Privy Council Office, Feb. 27, 1889. 
 
 The brothers C. both there: stupider than ever: inti- 
 mately persuaded that the break-down of The Times case is 
 due to some mysterious wickedness of Parnell and his allies, 
 and hoping that Parnell would be put into the box and 
 turned inside out. And such, I suppose, will be the position 
 of many of our Unionist friends. To-day's events, however, 
 will dash their hopes, because Parnell has been in the box, 
 and not a word asked by the Attorney-General, who has
 
 154 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 entirely withdrawn the case quoad the letters ; and it is by 
 no means certain that Parnell need be examined on the 
 other part of the case. 
 
 Butt told me that a stout strong man, a medico, after 
 giving evidence in chief very quietly and clearly, got a 
 little flustered with the first questions in cross-examination, 
 quite trivial ones, fell down and was taken up dead. And 
 we were speculating what would have been the result had 
 such a thing happened to Pigott, and on what accidents the 
 event of a combat may turn. Davey tells me the Unionist 
 party are very depressed just now : but I expect that will 
 not last long. They will soon find out that the Parnell- 
 letter question has no real bearing on the Government-of- 
 Ireland question; though they were fools enough, and I 
 think we must add base enough, to trumpet it forth 
 as conclusive against Parnell. Much more permanently 
 damaging to them will be Balfour's legal proceedings. 
 Great masses of people have now got thoroughly hold of 
 the facts, that what is innocent in England is crime in 
 Ireland, that political leaders are prosecuted on trumpery 
 pretences, at times selected so as to hamper their political 
 actions, tried by inferior judges with no juries, and punished 
 very harshly; and that as the result the criminals are 
 honoured and the law and its agents detested. That is the 
 truth, and time will increase its effect instead of taking it 
 away. 
 
 To MB. A. G. SYMONDS. 
 
 April 2, 1891. 
 
 I doubt whether we have ever found ourselves in circum- 
 stances which have raised so interesting a constitutional 
 struggle, or which have tested the reality and depth of the 
 professed Liberalism of Englishmen, as they are now tested 
 by the effort to give local self-government in Ireland, and 
 to shake off the heavy hand of the conquering class, never 
 able to hold its own except by force applied from the con- 
 quering country. "When I see Englishmen just enough to
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 155 
 
 extend to their weaker neighbours in Ireland the liberties 
 they have won for themselves, I shall begin to hope for the 
 much more difficult position in India ; but not till then. 
 
 Lord Hobhouse's views on the position of the House 
 of Lords, after nine years' experience as a member of 
 tbat body, are given in an article in the Contemporary 
 Review of December, 1894. In it he urges the 
 need for reform in tbe constitution of the House, 
 A second chamber he considers desirable as an effica- 
 cious ' corrective machinery ' when the House of Com- 
 mons has turned out ' rough work.' To prevent this 
 second chamber becoming obstructive, he suggests that 
 after the Peers have twice rejected or twice altered 
 a measure, ' the Commons should have power to resolve 
 that the measure ougbt to become law, notwithstanding 
 the opposition of the Peers.' With regard to the 
 constitution of this new House of Lords, he would do 
 away with hereditary rights of legislation, and make 
 it a working body of, say, from 200 to 250 men 
 appointed for life or ex officio by the Crown, or, in 
 other words, by responsible Ministers. ' Peerages 
 not requiring the labour of legislation, garters, stars, 
 baronetcies, knighthoods, and so forth ' could still be 
 bestowed as rewards for partisans, and the House of 
 Lords would consist of men of ability, ' not liable to 
 irruptions of inexperienced men whipped up for special 
 political combats.' The House of Lords would gain in 
 dignity ; ' when overruled, they would be so in due 
 course of business, as a judge is. They would not 
 have to pass under the yoke of humiliation, as they 
 now are, from the application of political pressure, or, 
 in plain English, fears that something worse will 
 happen, and make them pass into law something that
 
 156 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 they disapprove.' Lord Hobhouse had taken too large 
 a part in fights against vested interests for him to 
 think any such change as that he outlined easy to 
 accomplish. 
 
 That the struggle for such a reform will be most arduous 
 and prolonged, it is impossible to doubt. Behind the House 
 of Lords stand the ' interests ' ; that is, the powerful interests 
 of wealth and privilege, whose possessors cannot bear to be 
 meddled with, and yet which the growing popular forces 
 see more clearly year by year that it is the interest of the 
 nation at large to control or modify: the Established 
 Churches, the liquor trades, the City and Guilds of London, 
 the dominant caste of entail and primogeniture, the great 
 landowners, and the great monopolists. Add to them the 
 cranky-headed men who, professing the desire for reform, 
 do all they can to hinder it, unless it is laid out in every 
 jot and tittle according to their own fancies; perhaps not 
 a very numerous class, but a troublesome one. Add, again, 
 the classes numerous in all ranks, and of overwhelming 
 proportion in the richer ranks of those who from steady 
 conviction distrust and fear the growth of popular forces, or 
 who from tradition or association always place themselves 
 in opposition to every demand from the popular side. Such 
 forces as these make up a formidable army, very strong in 
 numbers, and stronger still in money, organization, and 
 ability, both literary and political. Still, it is difficult to 
 doubt that the mass of electors are much more numerous, if 
 only they choose to bestir themselves. They will do so with 
 effect when they see how distressing and dangerous the 
 present posture of things is, and how reason and experience 
 alike point to reform. That, unless I mistake, will require 
 time, and hard work, and courage, and patience under 
 reverses. So it behoves all who are clear in their minds 
 that the welfare of our country is best promoted by the free 
 and healthy growth of popular forces, and that the obstacles 
 raised by the House of Lords thereto are irritating to the
 
 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES AT HOME 157 
 
 extent of danger, to bring home those beliefs to the electo- 
 rate each in his own way and as it is given to him by 
 quiet exposition, close argument, eloquence, organizing 
 power, zeal, and weight of character; trying not to 
 exaggerate or to extenuate, but striving in patient and 
 hopeful persistence until the truth prevails.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 LONDON GOVERNMENT 
 
 ALL reforms that have overthrown or arrested the 
 power of formidable interests have owed much of their 
 success to sustained and patient efforts that are almost 
 unknown to the public. This is true even of measures 
 that seize at once the popular imagination, and attack 
 grievances of which the community is directly and 
 passionately conscious. It is much more true when 
 the wrongs and abuses that are to be abolished have 
 quartered themselves on the apathy and anarchy 
 of a population which lacks the means of anything 
 more than a random and occasional protest, and 
 seems to have lost with the capacity even the will 
 to organize its common interests. This was the state 
 of London thirty years ago, when a few resolute men 
 determined to obtain for the capital the rights of civic 
 freedom and municipal life that were enjoyed by some 
 of the smallest English corporate towns. This great 
 reform seems to-day so inevitable and irresistible that 
 it is difficult to do justice to the energy, courage, and 
 devotion, without which it could never have been 
 achieved. In those successful efforts to stimulate in 
 a languid and indifferent London the desire of self- 
 government, and a sense of all the hundred injuries 
 suffered directly and indirectly from misrule, Lord 
 Hobhouse took a leading and indefatigable part.
 
 LONDON GOVERNMENT 159 
 
 The question of local government had interested 
 Lord Hobhouse long before he joined in starting the 
 London Municipal Reform League. In 1863 Mr. 
 James Beal, the pioneer of London reform, got up 
 a petition asking for a common municipal government. 
 Mr. Hobhouse, among many others, signed this peti- 
 tion, and found himself in an unexpectedly prominent 
 position, for the Clerk of the House of Commons, 
 seeing no other signatures on the particular sheet 
 which contained his name, chose that sheet for 
 publication, so that the petition appeared to the 
 public as a petition from Mr. Arthur Hobhouse. 
 In 1878, the year after his return from India, he 
 became a vestryman. His vestry, that of St. George's, 
 Hanover Square, he once described as the most Tory 
 body in London. This experience he found very useful 
 afterwards. 'I have been ten years a member of 
 a vestry/ he said in 1888, ' and during that time there 
 has not been even a suspicion of a job. There are, 
 I should say, at least twenty members, some working 
 tradesmen, others persons of position and leisure, who 
 devote a very large amount of time and labour to the 
 unpaid service of the community. But the impossi- 
 bility of acting in the common interest for want of 
 a common organization is always turning up.' He 
 lamented what he called ' the hugger-mugger way ' in 
 which vestrymen were elected, with the result that they 
 represented the wealthy and substantial middle-class, 
 but not the poor. ' I am very sorry for it, I never lose 
 an opportunity of deploring it, but the fact is that the 
 artisan classes of London are perfectly supine about 
 their local affairs. They will make a great fuss and 
 agitation over a Parliamentary election, when they
 
 160 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 may succeed in sending to the House of Commons 
 a man who will be one in 670, and who may once or 
 twice a year have to speak or to vote on some subject 
 directly bearing on their lives. But when it is a ques- 
 tion of a Vestry or a School Board, which does not 
 seem so grand a thing, they will not stir a finger to 
 return a man whom they trust, though he may have 
 one voice in fifty or sixty, and though he must very 
 frequently, and may every day, be engaged in matters 
 which directly concern the education of their children, 
 or the health and comfort of their dwellings.' The 
 cause of London Government was included in his 
 election address at Westminster, and he threw himself 
 with ardour into the work of the London Municipal 
 Reform League, which was started in 1880. It took 
 eight years of hard work before he and his comrades 
 saw the fruit of their labours in the establishment of 
 the London County Council. 
 
 The position of affairs when they started on their 
 campaign was afterwards summed up by Lord Hob- 
 house as follows : 
 
 We found that London was in a lamentable state of 
 disintegration and -weakness. Like other great towns, it 
 was in essence one community of human beings ; but it was 
 so situated that in a great many respects it did not act as 
 one community. It had common interests in fresh air and 
 pure water, in traffic and public order and supplies of food, 
 and in treatment of tlie poor when they fell down crippled 
 in the acute struggle of life. There were common interests, 
 but they were not served by a common government Some- 
 thing had been done. The vestries had been strengthened 
 in 1835, the Board of Works had been erected in 1855 the 
 first attempt at getting a representative body drawn from 
 the whole of London, though it was a weak attempt. More
 
 LONDON GOVEENMENT 161 
 
 had been done in the creation of the School Board the first 
 attempt at a direct representation of the whole of London. 
 But still it remained the fact that over nearly the whole 
 area of civic life the old chaos of haphazard parishes 
 remained, and there was no common authority either to 
 regulate the interests of Londoners inter se, or to represent 
 London as against strangers. There are many cases in 
 which the interests of London as a whole are on one side, 
 and, say, a railway company, or a water company, or a person 
 absorbing common rights you can find plenty of instances 
 for yourselves the interests of those foreign bodies on the 
 other side. In those cases London stands impotent before 
 the aggressors ; it has always been victimized ; it has not 
 the power to protect itself which is possessed by the smallest 
 corporate town in England. 
 
 Some account of the work of the League was given 
 by Lord Hobhouse in 1889, on the occasion of a pre- 
 sentation to Mr. J. F. B. Firth, its chairman. 
 
 When the League began to work in 1880 the prospect 
 seemed a hopeless one. They found opponents in all the 
 local institutions of London, above all in the City Corpora- 
 tion, with its big and powerful organization, and the public 
 purse behind it which it controlled without any liability 
 to account. In these circumstances they had to move the 
 mass of Londoners, who were sunk in apathy and ignorance. 
 After two years of work it became apparent that the 
 League was making progress, and the easy contempt with 
 which they had been at first regarded was changed for 
 fear and anger, leading to vituperation. The favourite 
 charge against them was that they were ' a few obscure 
 agitators,' which was exactly true ; for they were few, they 
 were obscure, and they were agitators. But they had the 
 right on their side, and they worked on till it became 
 obvious that the majority of Londoners desired to have 
 a single government for the management of civic affairs, 
 and it became practicable to prepare a measure for that 
 
 M
 
 162 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 purpose. In 1880 such a thing would have been futile; 
 but in 1884 it had become possible. A large and states- 
 manlike measure had been introduced by Sir William 
 Harcourt in 1884, though it had not passed into law ; but 
 in 1888 the thing was actually done. 
 
 This propagandist work was carried on chiefly by 
 means of meetings, and the meetings were at first 
 very little calculated to encourage the reformers. 
 Lord Hobhouse never spared himself, and he was just 
 as ready and eager to give one of his luminous exposi- 
 tions of the case for reform when the audiences were, as 
 they were generally at first, what he called ' very select 
 specimens of the human race, but decidedly thin in 
 numbers/ as he was when, as happened later, they 
 were large and enthusiastic. Lord Hobhouse believed 
 from the first that the mind of Londoners was capable 
 of being fired by 'the grand and animating ideal of 
 the unity of London.' 
 
 Of this ideal he wrote as follows to The Speaker : 
 First of these spiritual or non-mechanical forces, I rank 
 the great and animating ideal of the unity of London, 
 placed before Londoners by the noble courage and public 
 spirit of Mr. Beal and Mr. Firth, who just lived to enter 
 into the Promised Land, and by a number of their less- 
 known fellow workers in the cause of London Municipal 
 Reform. As long as the idoa was presented only to the 
 high-placed and wealthy members of London society, it was 
 treated as purely visionary. The Royal Commission which 
 reported in the year 1854 disposed of it partly by an 
 epigram, saying that London was not a town, but a province 
 covered with houses, and partly by reference to the lament- 
 able fact as though it were not something due to the 
 neglect of man, but an unalterable provision of nature that 
 the different parts of London, being distant and populous, 
 knew nothing of one another. This is not the place to fight
 
 LONDON GOVEENMENT 163 
 
 battles over again, or to show the ways in which these 
 fallacies were exposed, and the truth that London is essen- 
 tially one community of human beings, which ought to 
 have an organic government of its own, was established. 
 Suffice it to say that, after a while, we found that no topic 
 was more easily seized by our audiences than that of the 
 unity of London. It may seem strange to the upper ten 
 thousand, who live in the pleasantest parts of the town, and 
 who, after all, are hardly Londoners, for they run away to 
 their pleasant rural homes, where their interests are, directly 
 they have earned their money or have had their amusement, 
 as the case may be it may seem strange to them that the 
 shopkeeper or artisan should have his imagination fired with 
 the greatness of London and with the idea of making all its 
 parts work together for the good of the whole. Neverthe- 
 less, I state the facts as they have shown themselves to my 
 eyes. I believe that this ideal has become part of the minds 
 of multitudes of Londoners ; that it is now an assumed 
 premiss in their reasoning ; that it has played the principal 
 part, whether consciously or unconsciously, in their recent 
 action; and that it is destined not to decay, but to grow 
 and to produce more and more good fruit. 
 
 The agitation for a central London government was 
 Lord Hobhouse's main interest and concern during 
 the eight years it lasted. He found time for an active 
 share in the resistance that was made to the con- 
 tinuance of the coal dues of 13c?. a ton, which were 
 levied by the City Corporation within an area of 
 fifteen miles from Charing Cross. The Board of 
 Works introduced into Parliament a Bill to continue 
 these dues till the end of the century. Lord Hob- 
 house spoke against this proposal in Holborn Town 
 Hall in March, 1887, and his speech was afterwards 
 printed as a pamphlet. Later he carried a resolution 
 in the County Council condemning it : with the result 
 
 M 2
 
 164 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 that the proposal was abandoned. For two years, 
 1882-4, he was a member of the London School Board. 
 But every London question revolved in his mind round 
 the central need for a single government. This was 
 brought out by a resolution which he carried at a 
 meeting of the London Municipal Reform League in 
 December, 1887, after making a speech to show how 
 the Want of representative institutions complicated and 
 aggravated all those problems, alike of administrative 
 relief and of public order, that presented themselves 
 when the question of the unemployed became acute. 
 The resolution runs as follows : ' Having taken into 
 consideration the following circumstances, viz. : the 
 number of unemployed persons in London ; the ab- 
 sence of any accurate knowledge either of the number 
 or their condition ; the state of unrest in which the 
 poorer classes are ; their desire to make their wants 
 and feelings manifest in the wealthier parts of the 
 town ; the impossibility of their doing so, except by 
 general meetings in the open-air, they having no local 
 representative institutions, and no buildings in which 
 they can meet ; the disputes which have arisen re- 
 garding the use of public places for this purpose ; the 
 disastrous collisions between masses of Londoners and 
 the national police owing to those disputes ; the ab- 
 sence of any adequate municipal police; this Committee 
 resolves : That the necessity for establishing a single 
 Representative Municipality of London becomes more 
 urgent year by year, and that the postponement of 
 such a reform is fraught with danger.' 
 
 In 1888 Mr. Ritchie included in his Local Govern- 
 ment Bill some clauses creating a County Council for 
 London, and thus (somewhat unexpectedly) the re-
 
 LONDON GOVERNMENT 165 
 
 formers found their capital object attained. Some 
 of the members of the Municipal Reform League not 
 unnaturally concluded that there was no further use 
 for the League. Lord Hobhouse took a very different 
 view. He pointed out that though much had been 
 done, much remained to be done : and the League 
 could still work with benefit to London. Rates ought 
 to be equalized ; the police ought to be under the 
 control of the Council ; the areas of the subordinate 
 local governments should be largely readjusted; the 
 City ought to be absorbed into the County Council, 
 and the licensing of public-houses ought to be 
 given to the Council. Lord Ripon, who had taken 
 an arduous share in the labours of the League, held 
 the same opinion, and it was agreed unanimously at 
 a meeting held in November, 1888, that the League 
 should continue its existence for the future work of 
 municipal reform. It was indeed obvious that a great 
 deal would depend on the spirit in which London used 
 her opportunities. Lord Ripon and Lord Hobhouse 
 both laid great stress on the importance of making 
 London's first representative body as strong as it 
 could be made in ability and in grasp of London 
 problems. Lord Hobhouse published a letter in the 
 Star to this effect. 
 
 I wish, to say what may induce men of ability and 
 ambition to offer themselves for election; and what may 
 induce electors to choose men of the most statesmanlike 
 qualities, with reference only to municipal questions, and 
 not to the side they take in national politics. London is 
 peculiarly unfortunate in this, that most of her men of 
 wealth and leisure, who can easily attend to public affairs, 
 have homes elsewhere which they prefer to their London 
 homes, and where they place their local interests to the
 
 166 MEMOIE OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 neglect of London. I wish to point out that it is worth the 
 while of any man, be his powers what they may, if only he 
 feels himself strong enough, to take part in the first forma- 
 tion of London government. 
 
 "When the School Board was created, men and women of 
 the highest abilities came forward to fashion it, and the 
 electors had the good sense to choose them. Few of them 
 could afford to remain many years, but they worked long 
 enough to put in action a very powerful machinery for 
 education, which their successors have had the easier task 
 of keeping in action. They have reaped honour and grati- 
 tude for that statesmanlike work, and have not repented 
 their sacrifices. 
 
 Now the work which lies before the first County Council 
 is greater in magnitude and intricacy, and hardly, if at all, 
 less important than the first work of the School Board. 
 
 From what I heard on Monday, and have read since, 
 I know there are those who think that the main alteration 
 just made is that London will now have a Board directly 
 elected, instead of one chosen by the Vestries, to perform 
 some executive duties running in fixed grooves. Such 
 thinkers can hardly know much of the agitation of the last 
 eight years, or of the reasons which have roused a large 
 mass of Londoners out of their old apathy in local affairs, 
 to demand local self-government. It is a shallow and 
 inadequate conception of the case. Londoners have asked 
 to be organized in order that matters appertaining to 
 London as a whole may be properly discussed in the 
 presence of all interests, and the prevailing currents of feel- 
 ing and conviction may be ascertained. That has hitherto 
 been impossible, but it will now be done. From the time 
 when London outgrew the bounds of the City, till the 
 creation of the Board of Works, there was no Local Govern- 
 ment of London. That body and the School Board consti- 
 tute the only attempts to remedy the defect. There are 
 long arrears of neglect to make up, and to do it is a task of 
 first-rate difficulty.
 
 LONDON GOVEKNMENT 167 
 
 The parochial system in London is an anachronism. For 
 ecclesiastical purposes it has been broken to pieces. But for 
 civil purposes it still remains, and largely governs our 
 administration and our rating. Now London is one great 
 community. The tide of human beings has submerged 
 parish boundaries, which are only ascertainable in a legal 
 and artificial sense. The rich have drifted into some 
 parishes and the poor into others : but the rich are the rich 
 of the whole of London, and the poor the poor of the whole. 
 Each part of the town should be treated as part of the 
 whole, and the present anomalous areas of jurisdiction 
 should be reformed. The Act invests the Council with 
 powers for this purpose, and no doubt they will be used. 
 But then the alteration of areas and jurisdictions is mixed 
 up with the question of equalizing rates. And so we have 
 a group of knotty problems at the outset. 
 
 Another point as to local taxation. The coal-tax expires 
 next year. Many wish it to expire ; many wish to renew 
 it. Mr. Smith has fairly said it is a question for Londoners 
 to decide. How can they decide it except by their repre- 
 sentative council ? Is it not to be debated ? Must it not be 
 debated at once ? And when it is debated, do you not 
 infallibly bring on a debate about rates ? Probably all the 
 supporters of the tax are so because they fear an increase of 
 the rates. The answer is, ' Make the owners of property pay 
 rates, and you will replace the coal-tax without burdening 
 the occupier. Let us go to Parliament for that.' The two 
 discussions are inextricably mixed up together. And so we 
 have another group of knotty problems pressing for solution. 
 
 Why have not Londoners any police at their command ? 
 Other towns have. The City of London has. The reason is 
 obvious. When the police was established, London, except 
 the City, was a mere geographical expression. It was an 
 anarchy, and could not have a police. Now it is organized, 
 and will be able to have what it has long wanted. The 
 question is not a simple one, because the presence of the 
 national Government complicates it. It must be carefully
 
 168 MEMOIE OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 adjusted. It may not be immediately pressing in its own 
 nature, but if I have rightly gathered men's feelings on the 
 subject, a great many members will be returned to tht> 
 Council, pledged to raise the question as soon as possible. 
 
 Closely connected with the police is the question of open 
 spaces. It is a question of great importance, becoming 
 more urgent every year as large public meetings grow 
 more frequent. It is quite necessary that there should 
 be such places available for meetings; equally necessary 
 that they should be subject to regulation and control. 
 The matter is essentially a local one, except where the 
 seats of national Government are affected; and it ought 
 to be settled with due regard to the interests of all parts 
 and classes of London. That can only be done by the 
 Council. And so we have a third group of knotty questions 
 pressed on partly by external circumstances, partly by 
 strong feeling. 
 
 It would be easy to go on, and to show the direct and 
 immediate effect of the present change upon supplies of 
 the necessaries of life, such as water and artificial light, 
 upon markets. Upon the application of endowments we 
 all know that, in the case of London, there must be a large 
 and speedy supplement to the present Act. Is the Council 
 to have no voice in that matter? If it has not, it will 
 be an abortion indeed. 
 
 But I have said enough for my purpose perhaps too 
 much for your space and readers. In matters of pure 
 administration clear-headed, honest, industrious men of 
 business would suffice. I hope we shall have many such, 
 and that we shall give them due thanks and honour for 
 their work ; but for the things I have mentioned we want 
 some statesmen : men of original minds, with powers of 
 analysis and of construction, who can grapple with large 
 affairs and can lead others in settling them. And when 
 such a man can be found, what does it matter whether he 
 follows Lord Salisbury or Mr. Gladstone? The dividing 
 lines are different in municipal and national politics. Some
 
 LONDON GOVEENMENT 169 
 
 of the most trenchant reformers in municipal affairs that 
 I know are Conservatives or neutrals in national affairs, 
 and per contra some of my Liberal friends refuse to move 
 an inch in municipal reform. 
 
 I will conclude as I began. To able men I say that 
 a noble and conspicuous field of action is open, which 
 will task all their powers and satisfy any honourable ambi- 
 tion. To electors I say, 'When you find men who show 
 that they have a firm grasp of municipal affairs, send 
 them to the Council, and all London will thank you 
 for it.' 
 
 Lord Hobhouse did not offer himself for election, 
 but at the first meeting of the Council held in 
 February, 1889, he was elected an Alderman by 105 
 out of 118 votes. 
 
 In spite of his seventy years, Lord Hobhouse threw 
 himself with great zeal and energy into the work 
 of the County Council. That work he liked none 
 the less because very much of it was not done in the 
 public eye. When he was responding for the House 
 of Lords at a complimentary dinner to Mr. Haggis, 
 on his appointment as Deputy Chairman of the County 
 Council, in November, 1889, he remarked that there 
 was one resemblance between the House of Lords 
 and the County Council, for both of them did little 
 business before the eyes of men and a great deal in 
 the inner chamber. 'Some criticisms of the London 
 County Council were based on the idea that the 
 whole business of the Council was done in one meeting 
 a week of four hours at the Guildhall. Nothing was 
 said about the numbers of councillors who went every 
 day of their lives to the offices and institutions of the 
 Council, who worked tbere for hours, who did more 
 paper work at night, and who gave up by far the
 
 170 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 greater part of their lives and their strength to 
 the benefit of their neighbours.' Lord Hobhouse was 
 Chairman of the Corporate Property, Charities and 
 Endowments Committee, and during 1889 he reported 
 in that capacity on the Livery Companies and their 
 properties, and also on the schemes of the Charity 
 Commission for reforming the City Parochial Charities. 
 No work could have been more congenial or suitable 
 to hun, for he had long taken an ardent interest in 
 the right use of London's charities and endowments. 
 Indeed, the powerlessness of London to prevent the 
 abuse and waste of these useful resources was one 
 of the most eloquent illustrations in his eyes of the 
 strong need of a single and representative govern- 
 ment. In 1881 he had given a good deal of help 
 to Mr. Bryce in the preparation of his Parochial 
 Charities Bill. 
 
 Lord Hobhouse's opinions about the City Companies 
 had been set out in an article which he published in 
 the Contemporary Review of January, 1885. That 
 article was written on the Report of the Royal Com- 
 mission which had inquired into the administration 
 of the Companies. The Commission had been ap- 
 pointed by Mr. Gladstone's Government, and it had 
 issued a majority and a minority Report. The majority 
 Report was signed by the Earl of Derby, the Duke 
 of Bedford, Lord Sherbrooke, Lord Coleridge, Sir 
 Sydney Waterlow, Mr. Albert Pell, M.P., Mr. W. H. 
 James, Mr. Joseph F. B. Firth, M.P., and Mr. Thomas 
 Burt, M.P. The dissentients were Lord Cross, Lord 
 Rothschild, and Mr. Alderman Rotton. The Com- 
 mission estimated that, after excluding non-productive 
 property, and property which was subject to express
 
 LONDON GOVERNMENT 171 
 
 trusts, the available income of the Companies was 
 440,000 a year. Their expenditure consisted of 
 150,000 spent on public or benevolent objects, 100,000 
 on banqueting, and 175,000 on maintenance. This 
 last item was analysed as follows : salaries to officials 
 amounting to 60,000 : Court Fees made to members 
 of the governing bodies for attendances, amounting 
 to 40,000, and 75,000 for rates, taxes, repairs, and 
 improvements, the repairs and improvements being 
 chiefly the restoration and decoration of the Companies' 
 stalls. The nine commissioners held that the corporate 
 property of the Companies was of a public nature, 
 and they recommended legislation for the following 
 among other purposes : 
 
 (a) Restraining the Companies from alienating 
 their ancient corporate property. 
 
 (6) Securing the permanent application of a con- 
 siderable portion of the corporate income to useful 
 purposes. 
 
 (c) Declaring new trusts of the trust property, 
 where a better application has become desirable. 
 
 (d) Publication of accounts. 
 
 Lord Hobhouse's article was an historical survey, 
 moderate and judicial in its spirit, of the growth of 
 the Companies, made with the object, as he said, 
 of inducing people to read the Report. It showed 
 how far the Companies had drifted from their original 
 place in the old scheme of government and charity ; 
 and stated with unanswerable force the case for 
 Parliamentary action and inquiry. Its conclusions 
 can be grasped from two paragraphs. 
 
 It appears to me that all the broad considerations in 
 this case point to the interference of the Legislature as
 
 172 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 the right thing. There are some differences in the Com- 
 panies which would be brought out by such an inquiry 
 as the Report recommends. To the bulk of them the 
 following considerations apply. 
 
 They are totally different bodies to what they were 
 formerly. The bulk of their property was acquired in 
 their old character. They were important portions of the 
 Municipal Government. They now play only a small part 
 in it. Their principal functions were superintendence and 
 regulation of trade and of craftsmen. With some few 
 exceptions, those have passed away. The charters show 
 that religious services were one object of their endowments. 
 Those ceased at the Reformation. The charters also show 
 that aid to the poor, the very poor who could find no 
 subsistence, was another object of their endowments. That 
 remains, but the poor of the craft who are now helped are, 
 at least to some extent, not the very poor, nor can this 
 class of objects absorb so much of the endowments, but 
 that a large surplus must remain. Ought it not to be 
 taken, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that 
 the Companies acquired property in that character, and 
 for those purposes in which and for which they were 
 incorporated, and so enabled to acquire and preserve it? 
 And if that character has passed away, and those purposes 
 have failed, which is the most just and decent thing : that 
 the property should be taken by the miscellaneous groups 
 who by descent, purchase, or otherwise have come into 
 the place of these trade societies, or that the State should 
 step in to readjust it? 
 
 When Lord Hobhouse reported in June, 1889, on 
 the Livery Companies, he recapitulated the main facts 
 of the situation, and asked the Council to accept a 
 recommendation that the Government should be asked 
 to introduce a measure for carrying into effect the 
 reforms proposed by the majority of the Royal Com- 
 mission. The Council, after debating hostile amend-
 
 LONDON GOVERNMENT 173 
 
 ments from Mr. Cohen, Mr. Marks, and Mr. Beachcroft, 
 adopted Lord Hobhouse's recommendation, but the 
 reform, like many others, was destined to slumber for 
 many years in the general reaction of national politics. 
 The agitation, however, had a marked effect in calling 
 attention to a neglected subject, and in making the 
 Companies more attentive to their duties. 
 
 Other Committees on which Lord Hobhouse served 
 were the Local Government and Taxation Committee, 
 the Parliamentary Committee, the General Purposes 
 Committee, and the special Committee to report on the 
 transfer of business from the Justices of the Counties 
 out of which the County of London was formed. 
 
 In the early part of 1890 he had a serious break- 
 down, and found it necessary to restrict his work. To 
 his brother-in-law, Lord Farrer, he wrote as follows : 
 
 Cadbury House, North Cadbury, Bath, Sept. 9, 1890. 
 
 How to retrench? Perhaps that is as difficult for the 
 man who has overspent his strength as for any other 
 spendthrift, especially if he is old, and has no balance to 
 draw on or windfalls to hope for. Of one thing all my 
 experience makes me sure, viz. that I cannot do a little of 
 anything. I must drink deep or taste not. And as I see 
 my imprudent neighbours running away altogether from 
 their old homes in order to reform their expenditure, so 
 I must cut off whole branches of work to reform mine. 
 
 On the whole, my present conclusion is to decline further 
 working on the C. C. Committees, to take up Judicial 
 Committee as my first business, and to endeavour to help 
 the C. C. (if they are willing) by paper work or speech 
 on matters involving principles or demanding research or 
 exposition. It is possible that on such conditions I may 
 usefully retain the Aldermanship for a time, but I must 
 hold myself ready to resign it at the will of my colleagues.
 
 174 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 and anyhow shall contemplate resigning it voluntarily 
 before long. 
 
 On his return to Council work, after his breakdown, 
 Lord Hobhouse drew up a report on the incidence of 
 taxation as between owner and occupier, for the Local 
 Government and Taxation Committee. In this question 
 he had long been interested. In 1889 he had become 
 Chairman of the United Committee for the taxation 
 of ground rents and values, and had published an 
 article on the Local Taxation of Rents in London, 
 which had afterwards been reprinted as a pamphlet. 
 In this pamphlet he had summarized his main con- 
 clusions under five heads. 
 
 1. It is desirable that owners of property in London 
 
 should in some way be made to contribute directly 
 to the common local burdens. 
 
 2. It should be decided, after full inquiry, what portion 
 
 of the rates is justly chargeable on owners. 
 
 3. Occupiers should be empowered to deduct that portion 
 
 from the rents payable by them. 
 
 4. All future contracts at variance with such power of 
 
 deduction should be declared void. 
 
 5. In the case of such contracts existing when the new 
 
 law is passed, the owner should be made liable to 
 bear his share of rates made for subsequent perma- 
 nent improvements. 
 
 An interview which was published in the Pall Mall 
 Gazette of January 25, 1888, under the heading, 'Is 
 much to be got out of Ground Rents ? ' helps to illus- 
 trate his position. 
 
 ' I do not like the phrase " ground rents," ' said Lord 
 Hobhouse, 'for the public has got hold of an altogether 
 mistaken notion in relation to that subject There seems
 
 LONDON GOVEENMENT 175 
 
 to be a general idea that the ground landlords of London 
 form a class distinct in character and limited in number, 
 whose property affords an enormous reservoir of wealth, 
 which can be drawn upon in the future for defraying the 
 cost of municipal government. I think that is a mis- 
 apprehension. There are, no doubt, a few great landlords 
 whose rent-roll commands the attention and excites the 
 envy of many; but the Duke of Badlbrd, the Duke of 
 Westminster, and the like, are few; and in most cases 
 the ultimate freeholder is by no means the possessor of 
 such an immense estate as is generally imagined. In 
 dealing with this question I prefer to speak of the occupier 
 and the owner, or rather owners for there may be and 
 often are many owners to a house. The moment you get 
 behind the occupier you come upon a series of persons 
 having reversionary interests in the property. Sometimes 
 the property is let and re-let and sub-let until there are 
 as many as six or seven persons having reversionary interests 
 in it between the occupier and the original freeholder. 
 Any scheme that is to provide for sharing the burden of 
 rates between the occupier and the reversioners must affect 
 all persons who have proprietary interest in the property. 
 This, however, can be done, I think, by providing that 
 the local rates shall always be paid by the occupier, who 
 should have power to deduct all contracts to the contrary 
 notwithstanding a certain proportion, which we will take 
 roughly at, say, 25 per cent., of the total rate from the 
 person to whom he pays his rent. There is difficulty in 
 saying what would be a fair proportion to throw on owners. 
 That must be the subject of discussion. I only put a 
 quarter by way of illustration.' 
 
 ' That is : you would do in relation to rates what is already 
 done in relation to income tax ? ' 
 
 'Precisely; and it is very simple to provide for a pro- 
 portionate distribution of the rates between the occupier 
 and the various persons interested in his holding. For 
 instance, let us say that I am the occupant of a house of
 
 176 MEMOIE OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 the rateable value of 200 per annum, the rate on which 
 is 4s. in the pound. As occupier I pay 40 a year in rates. 
 To my immediate landlord I am sitting at, let us say, an 
 annual rent of 100 per annum. If the proportion pre- 
 scribed by statute as that payable by the owner is 25 
 per cent., I should be empowered to deduct Is. in the 
 pound, which is one-fourth of the rate, from the money 
 that I must pay to my landlord. That is to say, if I pay 
 him 100 rent, I should deduct 5 towards the payment 
 of my 40 rates. The person to whom I pay the rent may 
 hold it again from another owner at 50 per annum rent. 
 He would pay this subject to a shilling in the pound, 
 say 2 10s. deduction, and so on, till we came back to 
 the original freeholder, whose interest in the property may 
 only amount to 1 per annum ; but from that 1 there 
 would be taken 1*., so that while the chief proportion of 
 the rate would fall upon the occupier, a certain proportion 
 would be evenly distributed upon all those who had rever- 
 sionary interest in the holding. 1 
 
 'But how would this work in cases where the property 
 was rack-rented? In that case I presume the rent on 
 a rateable value of 200 would probably be 250. Would 
 the occupier be allowed to deduct a shilling in the pound 
 upon the 250, while he only paid 4s. in the pound on 
 200?' 
 
 'No; he would only deduct the one-fourth upon the 
 annual value chargeable to the rates. That is to say, he 
 would deduct 10 on his 250 rental not 12 10s. 
 because the owner ought only rightly to be liable to the 
 quarter rate on the amount actually assessed. This seems 
 to me the simplest way. There is no other scheme by 
 which this can be effected, short of a total revolution of 
 the whole system of rating, and that is too great an under- 
 taking to be worked out in less than the lifetime of a 
 generation; whereas in London we wish to come with 
 reasonable speed to a more equitable division of rates 
 between owner and occupier.'
 
 LONDON GOVERNMENT 177 
 
 In his speech in the County Council on November 3, 
 1891, Lord Hobhouse addressed himself in particular 
 to two arguments : one, that the owners of property do 
 pay, not part, but the whole of the local expenses ; 
 secondly, that there is a supreme economic law which 
 ordains that whatever may be done to place the 
 local expenditure primarily on the owners, they will 
 recover it all in the shape of rent. Lord Hobhouse 
 argued against the first proposition, that the owners 
 resisted the proposal, though, if this proposition were 
 true, the reform would release them from the invidious 
 position they occupy of seeming to pay very little, when 
 they really paid all of the local expenses. The second 
 proposition he contested on the ground that rents had 
 not risen on account of the Income Tax Act, which 
 made the landlords who had hitherto received their 
 rent free from rates and taxes, submit to a tax on their 
 rents, and that interest on mortgage debts had not risen 
 in consequence of the Act of 1842, which imposed a tax 
 that had varied in its history from Sd. in the to 25. 
 
 Some extracts from letters written about this time 
 to Lord Farrer show how keen and critical an interest 
 he took in the affairs of the County Council. 
 
 15 Bruton Street, W., Nov. 30, '91. 
 
 . . . What strokes of malicious fate the C. C. has had. 
 First Firth, who will never be replaced in our time ; then 
 Gordon, when he had just mastered the great problem of 
 drainage ; then Haggis ; all struck down suddenly in the 
 full tide of life and work. Never was a ship launched 
 in such storms of malignity and hatred from the rich and 
 official classes ; and with such lamentable casualties among 
 its officers. 
 
 N
 
 178 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 The School Board elections are very ominous of ill. 
 I had faintly hoped they might falsify my belief that the 
 lower strata of London have no political insight or force ; 
 but they have corroborated it. The rich people, down to 
 the well-to-do shopkeeper, though not specially active, hang 
 together; but below that there is little but a multitude 
 of incoherent atoms, little command, no obedience, full play 
 given to the vanity, selfishness or combativeness of indi- 
 viduals and small groups. Perhaps the best organized are 
 the Socialists and the few Labour Unions ; and they have 
 no pleasure so keen as to defeat those whom they call 
 "Whigs, or capitalists, or bourgeois : i. e. the steady Liberals 
 who have done more for them than anybody, but whom 
 they hate more than anybody. I suppose that in time, 
 though hardly in this generation, they will learn the rudi- 
 ments of politics : that union is strength ; that it requires 
 some concession of individual inclinations; that a man 
 who will go some way with you is better than one who 
 won't go any way at all ; that persons who seek election 
 are not all self-seekers; that political power cannot be 
 held without constant vigilance; and so forth. But all 
 these things are foolishness to the ordinary London 
 artisan. 
 
 15 Bruton Street, "W., Dec. 20, '91. 
 
 I have nothing but ill to report of the L. C. C., partly 
 owing to ill usage from outside, but more to errors inside. 
 One Court of Law decides that Councillors cannot claim 
 privilege for any slanders they may emit during Licence 
 meetings, because they are not Judges; and straightway 
 another Court decides that, because they are Judges, their 
 proceedings are null and void, if some of them, though not 
 voting, appear by advocate to oppose a licence. Hawkins's 
 ruling is right, I think, and Coleridge's wrong. I should 
 like to know how many J.P.'s appear at Licence Sessions 
 as partisans on one side or the other ; and how the business 
 is to be carried on efficiently if some of the authorities 
 do not work at it beforehand ; or who contends that such
 
 LONDON GOVERNMENT 179 
 
 preliminary work makes their decisions void ; or what 
 difference it makes whether members of the Licensing 
 Body speak by themselves or by their advocates. Both 
 decisions may be wrong; but certainly both cannot be 
 right, unless it be right always to trample on the C. C. ; 
 for that is the only point in which they agree. 
 
 Sandhurst Lodge, Dec. 27, '9L 
 
 . . . The colouring is very brilliant here, owing probably 
 to the wet and (until the last few days) very mild autumn : 
 the moss like velvet just turned out at Genoa ; the needles 
 of the firs and the bark of birches, rhododendrons and 
 (so-called) dogwoods, of unusually vivid greens, whites and 
 crimsons. But they have suffered an ominous invasion 
 of London soot at thirty odd miles from Hyde Park corner. 
 There is a black scum on the waters and the roads ; and 
 the girls tell me that the fog freezing on their garments 
 when skating, instead of being silvery, is sooty. "William 
 says he first observed it last year; but it is worse now. 
 It looks bad for the future vegetation and beauty of these 
 parts. People cry out that something must fie done; and 
 newspaper writers, knowing everything though themselves 
 unknown, are blustering as though nobody ever thought 
 about it till they blew their brazen trumpets; and some 
 ask what is the use of a County Council if it does not 
 prevent fogs and smoke. 
 
 Poor C. C. : blamed for everything it cannot do; and 
 blamed for everything it does do. The Times thinks it 
 an occasion for triumph over us that we obey a mandamus ; 
 and a subject for reproach and insinuation of evil motives 
 that we refused the licences a second time. 
 
 15 Bruton Street, W., Dec. 31, '91. 
 
 . . . C. C. again ! All roads lead to C. C. Somebody turns 
 a number of people out of their wretched dwellings in 
 Leather Lane into the murkiest of fogs and the severest 
 of frosts. Therefore, howl at the C. C. ; by some occult 
 
 N 2
 
 180 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 means they have done it all. When that fiction is exposed, 
 howl at them again; it is all their fault for not having 
 asked Parliament for power to prevent such evictions. 
 They are placed in this dilemma by that accurate thinker, 
 E. B. First, they did the cruel thing ; but if, as the fact 
 is, they had nothing to do with it, they are equally to 
 blame for not preventing everybody else from doing it: 
 for as they have power to prevent rubbish from being 
 cast out into the street, they must have power to prevent 
 human beings from being cast out there ; or if perchance 
 they have not, it is all their own fault for not having asked 
 Parliament to give it to them. 
 
 15 Bruton Street, W., Jan. 81, '92. 
 
 I don't believe in the great blowing of horns by Liberal 
 leaders; nor do I much blame the leaders for not having 
 worked in London, simply because there are so few who 
 seriously care to hear them ; and it is not their business to 
 create a political community, but to lead it when created. 
 I may be wrong, but when I remember how many years it 
 took us to persuade Londoners : first, that there actually was 
 no Government of London ; secondly, that it was possible to 
 have one ; and thirdly, that it was desirable ; and how, when 
 the machine was created, nearly everybody withdrew from 
 the M.R. League because they said the work was done, 
 I shall disbelieve, until I see the thing with my eyes, the 
 existence in London of any steady force capable of support- 
 ing the champions of the poorer classes and districts against 
 a storm of obloquy from the rich. I shall be very glad 
 whenever my error is demonstrated. 
 
 In March, 1892, he wrote an article in the Con- 
 temporary Review, in which he combined with a power- 
 ful defence of the general policy of the County Council, 
 an outspoken criticism of some of tbe details of its 
 administration. 
 
 My readers must not suppose that in praising the Council
 
 LONDON GOVERNMENT 181 
 
 I am praising myself. I had worked for little more than 
 a year, when I was overtaken by ill health, and have done 
 very little Council work since ; though I can see enough of 
 it to speak with confidence of my colleagues ; and nobody 
 who is not inside the Council can tell what their work is, 
 because it is nearly all done in committee-rooms, and in 
 visiting institutions and places. Neither must anybody 
 suppose that I assent to the wisdom of everything they have 
 done. I have often voted in a minority. I have above 
 indicated that I think them mistaken in the method chosen 
 to test the equality of assessments. I think them too reluc- 
 tant to pay the necessary price for skilled head-work ; over- 
 ready to pay for hand-work ; too confident in their power to 
 regulate wages; wrong in abolishing the pension system; 
 wrong in trying to pay off debt by annuities ; too ready to 
 overrule their committees in matters of detail ; and there 
 may be other things of the same kind. But on all or any of 
 these things I may be wrong, and others right, and even 
 were I much more confident in my own opinion than I am, 
 these are all matters of practice which experience will test, 
 and which may be set right if shown to be wrong. And 
 they do not at all detract from my estimate of the broad 
 qualities evinced by my colleagues as a body, of the honesty, 
 zeal, self-sacrifice, capacity for business, and general straight- 
 ness and wisdom of aim, which have won my respect, and 
 which will I feel sure, whatever may be the ebbs and flows 
 of particular elections, attract and retain the respect of all 
 Londoners who care to learn what has been done for them. 
 
 The elections for the County Council took place in the 
 spring of 1892, and Lord Hobhouse wrote a manifesto 
 for the Eighty Club Committee. The great victory of 
 the Progressive party at that election gave him much 
 pleasure, and he wrote in the Speaker a series of articles 
 on the Unity of London, in which he analysed the 
 causes of the victory, and remarked the significance of 
 the cleavage of districts.
 
 182 MEMOIE OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 Let any one take a map of the London constituencies, 
 and put a distinctive colour to those which have returned 
 Reactionary Councillors. He will see how nearly they 
 coincide with the haunts of those who are called by the 
 somewhat slang term of * The Upper Ten Thousand.' The 
 wealthy and privileged City; the wealthy and official 
 "Westminster; the wealthy and professional Strand and 
 Holborn ; the sites of the great "West-End estates those of 
 the Grosvenor, Portman, and Bentinck families, and of the 
 Church, with their wealthy tenants in St. George's, Maryle- 
 bone, and Paddington ; the comfortable villas of Hampstead, 
 Hammersmith, and Dulwich; the dull, spruce streets and 
 squares of South Kensington, which for the last thirty 
 years have been the settling-ground of rich people : all these 
 places have not any desire at all for a strong, united Govern- 
 ment of London. . . . 
 
 Of course, it is not possible to give to the poorer classes 
 a share of political power in any exact proportion to their 
 numbers. Probably it would not be desirable, if possible, 
 because artificial political arrangements ought to correspond 
 in some rough fashion with the actual force which lies 
 behind them, in case of conflict. At all events, it is not 
 possible. Those who have the purse must always have at 
 their command a powerful press, the greatest facility of 
 creating machinery, the services of paid agents and of direct 
 dependents. They must have the advantage of being able 
 to abide in the same place, often in a conspicuous position ; 
 and, when they are doing good work in the world, as so 
 many of them are, of doing it so as to attract the notice and 
 admiration of their neighbours. By hope, by fear, or by 
 love, it is certain that rich people will influence a great 
 number of others. . . . 
 
 The plain and disagreeable fact is that London has been, 
 and is, used as a place where amusement may be got, or 
 social ambition gratified, or money amassed. A man comes 
 for those objects, and stays a longer or shorter time. Then 
 he goes away to his pleasant house in the suburbs or in
 
 LONDON GOVERNMENT 183 
 
 further rural districts, where are his wife, his children, his 
 horses, his dogs, his gay garden, his stately trees ; and, if h& 
 is far enough from the smoke, clear skies and fair landscapes 
 and all things which enchain the affections to a place and 
 make it one's home. The interests of his country neighbours 
 are his ; but as for his multitudinous neighbours in London,, 
 who are called together by his action, or without whom he 
 could not take the action he desires, for the case may be put 
 either way, they, alas, are too apt to be forgotten. 
 
 The Council had now passed safely through a great 
 crisis of its existence, and London had ratified its bold 
 reforms. That crisis had been anxiously awaited by 
 Lord Hobhouse, who knew how formidable were the 
 powers that were hostile, and had dreaded the effect 
 of the constant criticism of an unfriendly press, always 
 watchful for its slips and falls. Three great events 
 had marked the triumph of Lord Hobhouse's hopes. 
 One was the creation of the County Council. The 
 second the election of the first Council, and the wise 
 use London had made of its opportunities. The third 
 the election of the second Council, and the decision and 
 enthusiasm with which London had ranged itself on 
 the side of public spirit and democratic reform. It is 
 not surprising tbat Lord Hobhouse, who was now 
 seventy-three years old, felt that the double strain of 
 his duties at the Judicial Committee and the County 
 Council must be relaxed, and that he could now with- 
 draw from his active part in the work of the London 
 County Council without misgiving for its future. His 
 letter to Sir John Hutton gives the best account of 
 his reasons. 
 
 Privy Council Office, Aug. 8. 
 
 My dear Hutton, I have at length quite made up my 
 mind to resign my appointment as London County Council
 
 184 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 alderman, or, to speak more correctly, to place my resigna- 
 tion in the hands of the Council, who, I assume, will 
 accept it. 
 
 Simultaneously with this I send to Mr. De la Hooke 
 a formal notice. But I do not like to leave the body, whose 
 appointment of me has been a source of satisfaction and 
 pride to me, without fully expressing to somebody with 
 what feelings I do so, and I conceive that nobody is so 
 fitting as the chairman for that purpose, the more so because 
 I have just been reading with great interest your detailed 
 report of the year's work, in which you yourself have 
 played so large a part. So far as regards my help to the 
 Council's work I ought to have resigned two years ago, 
 when it had become clear that my breakdown in the first 
 part of 1890 had left me permanently incapable of doing my 
 duty in so many fields as I was working in ; and that I must 
 neglect some if I were to cleave to any. I was then over- 
 persuaded by three or four friends whom I consulted, and 
 kept my place till after the re-election of the Council. 
 Now, two things are abundantly clear first, as regards self, 
 that I cannot properly serve the Council unless I give up other 
 work more suitable for me ; secondly, as regards the Council. 
 It is strong, prosperous, ably manned, and, though with 
 plenty of difficulties before it for many years to come, it has 
 struck its roots firmly, and will go on growing in strength 
 and usefulness. The departure of much more valuable men 
 than myself would not materially hurt it now, and I shall 
 serve it best by departing and so making room for some 
 more efficient member. It is needless, after what I have 
 said, to express more explicitly the deep sense of respect 
 and admiration with which I take leave of my colleagues ; 
 for their public spirit, their industry, their zeal, and their 
 practical ability. But, I will add, I also feel very grateful 
 to them for the invariable courtesy with which I have been 
 treated, and which has often turned labour into pleasure, 
 though just now it augments the regret with which I close 
 this chapter of my life. With every wish, and with confident
 
 LONDON GOVERNMENT 185 
 
 expectation, that you will play a great part in public affairs 
 as chairman of the Council, 
 
 I am very sincerely yours, 
 HOBHOUSE. 
 
 Mr. Charles Harrison, Vice-Chairman of the Council, 
 moved a resolution placing on record the Council's 
 sense of Lord Hobhouse's valuable services, and the 
 resolution, which was seconded by Mr. Antrobus, the 
 Moderate Leader, was carried unanimously. Mr. Har- 
 rison referred especially to Lord Hobhouse's report on 
 local taxation. It may be of interest to quote in this 
 place what Lord Monkswell, speaking at an Eighty 
 Club dinner, earlier in the year, had said of Lord 
 Hobhouse's work. 'Lord Hobhouse brings to bear 
 upon our deliberations not only a fine intellect and 
 great attainments, but he also brings to bear upon 
 them what, in a popular assembly, is of equal impor- 
 tance social qualities : that charm of manner, that 
 utter absence of selfishness which has procured for him 
 so many and such attached and devoted friends. And 
 I may add this of Lord Hobhouse, that he is no 
 respecter of persons. There is no one on the London 
 County Council who chooses to ask his advice who 
 will not get from him all the assistance he is capable 
 of giving, and, on the other hand, there is no member 
 of the Council so powerful or so highly placed as to be 
 beyond the reach of his rebuke. I have heard Lord 
 Hobhouse take to task no less a person than Lord 
 Bosebery himself, with a courage and pertinacity that 
 fill me with admiration not unmixed with awe.' 
 
 Though he was no longer an Alderman, Lord Hob- 
 house's interest in the work of the County Council 
 never flagged, and two years later he took a leading
 
 186 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 part in fighting the Council's battle over Betterment. 
 One of the first results of the creation of a single 
 government for London was to give concrete form to 
 the strong but hitherto ill-organized desire to recover 
 for the community some part of the wealth with which 
 its improvements enriched private persons. In prin- 
 ciple most people agreed that it was just that a man 
 whose property was raised in value by some particular 
 improvement, effected by the public authority, should 
 make a special contribution to the expense of that 
 improvement. In practice it was not easy to find a 
 scheme that was fair and simple of execution. In 1889 
 the County Council made provision of this kind in 
 a Bill, but it was rejected by the House of Commons. 
 A second attempt in 1893 was more fortunate, for a 
 Bill containing a Betterment scheme passed the House 
 of Commons. This Bill provided that within what were 
 known as 'the limits of deviation/ i.e. limits within 
 which land may be taken under the Bill for an im- 
 provement, land shall be liable to an improvement 
 charge in respect of any increased value or benefit 
 which the land might derive from the improvement. 
 The Council was to assess this enhanced value, and 
 there was to be a special charge of 3/ o on one-half of 
 the enhanced value. If the owner objected, the Local 
 Government Board was to provide an arbitrator, whose 
 decision was to be final. The arbitrator was to consider 
 the several interests of the land, and he could either 
 postpone the commencement of the charge, or apportion 
 its incidence between the freeholders and others during 
 any existing term of years. This scheme was carried 
 in the Council without a dissentient voice. In the 
 House of Commons it was carried by a large majority
 
 LONDON GOVERNMENT 187 
 
 both of the House and of the London members. When 
 the Bill came up to the House of Lords the second 
 reading was moved by Lord Hobhouse, but Lord 
 Onslow moved and carried a resolution to the effect 
 that proposals for the assessment of capital values 
 instead of annual values, and for creating new and 
 'arbitrarily-defined' areas of taxation, ought not to be 
 included in a private Bill, but, if found just and equit- 
 able, should be based on general principles laid down 
 by Parliament. This part of the Bill was therefore 
 struck out in Committee, and the amended Bill was 
 returned to the House of Commons, which decided by 
 221 votes to 88 to disagree with the Lords' amend- 
 ments. The House of Lords rejected Lord Hobhouse's 
 motion that it should not insist on its amendments, and 
 in the autumn session it carried, against the Govern- 
 ment's opposition, Lord Morley's proposal for a joint 
 Committee of both Houses to consider whether persons, 
 the value of whose property is clearly increased by an 
 improvement, can be required to contribute to its cost, 
 and if so, under what conditions Parliament should 
 sanction the levying of such contributions in Local 
 Acts or Provisional Orders. The proposal, though it 
 was carried in the Lords, came to nothing, because the 
 House of Commons refused to join in such a Committee. 
 Lord Hobhouse, separating himself from his party, 
 voted for the proposal, because, as he explained after- 
 wards, he thought that the inquiry by the Committee 
 would dissipate a good many of the extraordinary 
 misapprehensions which existed in the House of 
 Lords. 
 
 The next year Lord Hobhouse wrote three articles 
 in the Contemporary Review to defend the scheme of
 
 188 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 the County Council from the criticisms of the Duke of 
 Argyll, Lord Salisbury, Lord Onslow, and others in 
 the House of Lords, not, as he said, ' to stir the ashes 
 of a dead controversy, but to elucidate a living one/ 
 for the County Council had launched for 1894 a similar 
 measure to that which had been rejected in 1893. 
 Lord Hobhouse entered an energetic protest against 
 the ugly and uncouth term which the County Council 
 had invented to describe their policy, but the policy 
 itself found no more powerful defender. The subject 
 had become involved in the general quarrel which had 
 grown up between the County Council and the House 
 of Lords, and nobody was better qualified than Lord 
 Hobhouse, with his vigorous but composed manner of 
 stating and answering a case, to disentangle the real 
 issues from the alien controversies that obscured them. 
 He defended the County Council scheme as a measure 
 of which it was the intention and the effect to lay a 
 charge on the value created by the improvement, and 
 expressible in terms of rent or price obtainable at the 
 time. If there had been no sale or letting since the 
 improvement, the arbitrator must conjecture the in- 
 creased value. But there was nothing novel or ar- 
 bitrary in that arrangement, for it was what was done 
 when a man increased his house at his own expense, 
 and did not carry it into the market. The Duke of 
 Argyll had argued that hi cases where it was just to 
 call for contributions for general improvements, the 
 claims of the public were satisfied by increased rating. 
 To this argument Lord Hobhouse made two replies. 
 The increased rate went to the particular parish which 
 levied the rate, not to the County Council which had 
 borne the expense of the improvement. Secondly, it
 
 LONDON GOVERNMENT 189 
 
 did not satisfy the ground on which Betterment was 
 claimed, namely, that the enhanced value had been 
 created not by the landowner, but by his neighbours. 
 ' If I spend my own money in improving my own 
 property, I pay more rates. So does the man whose 
 property has been improved by the public. The two 
 are taxed equally in that respect by the parish. But 
 for the advantage of having his property improved at 
 the public expense, and not at his own, the second man 
 is not taxed at all. To make him pay something for 
 that advantage is the principle of Betterment.' 
 
 In April, 1894, Lord Morley moved for a Committee 
 of the House of Lords, and his motion was accepted by 
 Lord Rosebery on behalf of the Government. Lord 
 Hobhouse and Lord Farrer were both put on the 
 Committee, which ultimately contained fifteen members, 
 including Lord Salisbury and Lord Onslow. The 
 Committee reported in July, and the House of Lords 
 agreed to Lord Halsbury's motion adopting the report. 
 In this report the Committee recognized the general 
 principle of Betterment, but laid it down that damage, 
 as well as improvement, must be taken into account, 
 and it gave the rate-payer, when assessment was in- 
 creased, the option of calling on the local authority to 
 purchase his property at the value it possessed before 
 the improvement was made. Next year, for the first 
 time, a Betterment clause passed the Lords. The Bill 
 which contained the clause was the London County 
 Council's Tower Bridge Southern Approach Bill, which 
 had been rejected in the previous year. A Betterment 
 clause has since been incorporated in Bills sanctioning 
 seven London improvements, and Manchester and other 
 municipalities have also benefited by the recognition
 
 190 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 of the principle which Lord Hobhouse and his colleagues 
 preached with such perseverance and success. 
 
 Lord Hobhouse had presided in 1891 at a meeting 
 of the London Municipal Reform League, at which a 
 resolution had been carried urging the creation of 
 District Councils, to which women should be admissible, 
 to take the place of Vestries, and gradually to acquire 
 the control of local charities. He, therefore, took a 
 special interest in the London Government Bill of 
 1899, which abolished Vestries and District Boards, 
 and divided London into twenty-eight Metropolitan 
 Boroughs, each with Mayor, Aldermen, and Councillors. 
 His views are given in his letters to Lord Farrer. 
 
 15 Bruton St., W., 17. 3. '99. 
 
 In my judgement the chances for any measure of this 
 kind to work well depend on the relation of areas to 
 powers. 
 
 . . . The powers substantially accord with the scheme origi- 
 nally framed by John Lloyd, promulgated by the Mun. Eef. 
 League once before the birth of the L. C. 0., and recently 
 agreed to in conference between L. C. C. and a number of 
 Vestries. They are strictly local concerns, which may be 
 handled by small local authorities without collision with, 
 their immediate neighbours or with Londoners at large. 
 That being so, it seems to me not desirable to give very 
 large areas of jurisdiction to bodies that are to exercise such 
 powers. I should say of my own Vestry that it is not too 
 small but rather too large, and that its business would be 
 better done if its waist at Hyde Park Corner were cut in 
 two. My main reasons are two. 
 
 First, the multitudinous local affairs which Vestries ad- 
 minister, and which it is not proposed to vary in kind, are 
 likely to be better understood and attended to by near 
 residents. I should say that the most responsible of them is 
 assessment. I do not mean the most important for the
 
 LONDON GOVERNMENT 191 
 
 wants of daily life, such as lighting, paving, thoroughfares, 
 and so forth, but that which requires most judgement and 
 character. I believe it would be the best worked for 
 each locality by persons in actual touch with it, always 
 strengthened (or controlled it may be) by officers of the 
 Exchequer and of the L. C. C. working with them. My 
 conviction is that enlargement of area would in this matter 
 not promote but impair efficiency, and a fortiori of other 
 matters not of so much public interest. 
 
 My other reason is that elected representatives of large areas 
 are so very prone to take part in general controversies. The 
 London Vestries did so after ' Hobhouse's Act x ' placed them 
 on an elective basis, not without advantage, by giving a (very 
 imperfect) voice to Londoners when there was no Municipal 
 Government of London, and its Parliamentary Boroughs 
 were hopelessly unwieldy. The same spirit has again 
 been stimulated by the recent enlargement of the electoral 
 basis, but is not a desirable thing for the Vestrymen or for 
 their constituents. At present some portion of my energies 
 is consumed in persuading my fellow Vestrymen not to waste 
 their time in discussing large social and political problems 
 (usually propounded to us by our ambitious neighbours of 
 St. Margaret and St. John, calling themselves ' Westminster ') 
 which affect the whole kingdom, and for the solution of 
 which our voice is of no more avail than the voice of the 
 bawling newsboy. My belief is that Mayor, &c., of ' West- 
 minster ' would have souls above the petty local affairs, and 
 in default of employment on the great London affairs, which 
 they are not to have, will either stay away or discuss national 
 affairs. As for the more pompous titles, I think that if they 
 attract people, which is their excuse, it will be the sort of 
 people we do not want, who come not for the work but to 
 get a step in rank above their neighbours ; and they also 
 are the people who will not be content with the homely 
 duties allotted to the Boroughs, but will always be com- 
 
 1 This Act was passed in 1831, on the motion of Sir J. C. Hobhouse, then 
 M.P. for Westminster.
 
 192 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 plaining that their power is not equal to their dignity. 
 If there really is substance in the suggestion that empty 
 titles will attract serious working men, why is the L. C. C. 
 left with a Chairman, when the lesser London bodies are to 
 have Mayors? 
 
 The comparisons which are made (ad nauseam) between 
 London parishes and the Provincial Boroughs are not to 
 the point. It is not proposed to make the London Boroughs 
 integers of London Government. At least not ostensibly 
 proposed, and not by this Bill. That it is the idea favoured 
 by those who have framed this Bill we know from previous 
 historical passages. But when nakedly propounded as ' teni- 
 fication,' the Londoners would not swallow it, and it is not 
 now ostensibly proposed. What is proposed is to create 
 elective representatives of great masses of population and 
 wealth, to give them pompous titles, and then set them to 
 perform the humble duties of a subordinate part of a much 
 greater urban community. The Corporation of (say) Man- 
 chester has the whole government of a City to administer : 
 its powers, duties, and dignity are all in proportion, and it 
 is (I believe) content. Now make 'Westminster' a City. 
 The facts will not admit of its being independent. It must 
 remain a subordinate part of a much greater City. I say its 
 whole position ought to be regulated accordingly. 
 
 . . . The proposals for other big Boroughs, up to 400,000 
 population, fall under the same considerations. I don't 
 like the exaltation, though only empty titles, of the ex- 
 isting big Parishes, but they are there, with established 
 working systems; and there is apparently no sufficient 
 political force to readjust their areas by way of diminution. 
 That is no reason why we should create another big district, 
 or perhaps five or six others. I utterly disbelieve that 
 seventy-two men, call them by which name you please, can 
 pay personal attention to the numerous details which require 
 attention in so large an area. The more high-sounding titles 
 you give them, the less likely they are to be men who will 
 condescend to plodding work. I am confident that the
 
 LONDON GOVEBNMENT 193 
 
 administration will fall into the hands of paid officials, to 
 a great extent uncontrolled. I am equally confident that 
 the jurisdiction of the L. C. C. will be at once assailed with 
 increased force. And I believe that its legitimate and 
 beneficial authority will be impaired, as surely as I believe 
 that the framers of this Bill intend it to be. 
 
 In 1900, after the passing of the London Government 
 Bill, the old Vestry of St. George's, Hanover Square, 
 came to an end, and Lord Hobhouse, who had been an 
 active and useful member of that Vestry for more than 
 twenty years, finally retired, at the age of eighty, from 
 all active part in the government of London.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 JUDICIAL WOEK 
 
 ON his return from India in 1878 Sir Arthur Hobhouse 
 was appointed by the Conservative Government to act 
 as arbitrator in a long series of difficult and trouble- 
 some questions, raised by the judgement of the Master 
 of the Rolls in 1874 on the subject of the Enclosures 
 in Epping Forest. Mr. Edward North Buxton has 
 been kind enough to supply an account of the arbi- 
 trator's work. 
 
 ' The work of Sir Arthur Hobhouse in settling the 
 complicated questions of ownership in Epping Forest 
 is gratefully remembered by the survivors of the actors 
 in that drama. After the famous judgement of the 
 Master of the Rolls in 1874, by which the wholesale 
 enclosures of land in Epping Forest by the Lords of 
 the Manor were conclusively shown to be illegal, it 
 became necessary for the Corporation of London, the 
 plaintiff against the Lords in that case, and for Parlia- 
 ment to consider how far that judgement should be 
 literally enforced against the " grantees," i. e. those 
 who had purchased lands from the Lords, and in most 
 cases erected houses on them, or cultivated the land, in 
 good faith and with an honest belief in their title. It 
 was at once seen that the removal of these buildings 
 and the restoration of the land to its forestal condition 
 would be a harsh measure. Each case, and there were 
 several hundreds, had to be considered broadly on its
 
 JUDICIAL WORK 195 
 
 merits. For this, not merely a first-rate lawyer, but 
 one versed in the equity of the question, and familiar 
 with every phase of the long contest, was needed. On 
 the one hand, the powerful party, which had for years 
 fought for the popular right amid great discouragement, 
 but who had emerged triumphantly, naturally demanded 
 the fruition of their victory. Some of these desired to 
 bring the question to a violent conclusion, and in some 
 cases impatient or enthusiastic people commenced to 
 pull down the fences, thus forcing the hand of the 
 authorities and adding greatly to the difficulties of 
 those who desired an equitable settlement. 
 
 ' On the other side, the grantees of the Lords of the 
 Manor were sore and incensed at what they considered 
 the cruelty of depriving them of the land for which 
 they had paid, and the capital invested in buildings or 
 cultivation. To many, this represented all they pos- 
 sessed, and feeling naturally ran high, even long-standing 
 friendships being in jeopardy. 
 
 ' It was of good augury when, under the Epping 
 Forest Act, 1878, Sir A. Hobhouse was appointed to 
 this task . His mastery of detail, combined with breadth 
 of view, peculiarly fitted him for it, and were a guarantee 
 that all persons interested might possess their souls 
 in patience. To the best of my recollection the con- 
 sideration of these cases took about two years, the 
 arbitrator patiently working through them, hearing 
 every equitable claim which could be urged. In order 
 personally to inspect the land affected, he took a house 
 near the Forest for several weeks in the summer. 
 
 ' Ultimately, while the whole of the land remaining 
 in the hands of the Lords of the Manor and some of 
 that in the hands of the grantees was restored to the 
 
 o 2
 
 196 MEMOIE OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 Forest, the owner of every dwelling erected on illegally 
 enclosed land was allowed to retain around it such a 
 proportion as the arbitrator deemed to be necessary to 
 it as " curtilage." For that which he was required to 
 throw open he received compensation, while for that 
 which he retained he was required to pay a further 
 sum for a Parliamentary title, in itself no small ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 ' It would be too much to say that in the final result 
 every one was satisfied. Too many cherished hopes 
 were disappointed, but no word was ever uttered im- 
 pugning any judgement of his, and all embitteredfeelings 
 were presently laid to rest by his masterly reports which 
 disarmed criticism. 
 
 ' Other subsidiary questions were referred to him, 
 such as the claims for lopping rights, which were to be 
 henceforth abolished. One of these may be cited : 
 In the parish of Loughton the whole of the house- 
 holders had a right to cut fuel within the Manor. The 
 privilege was much prized, but had to be determined 
 in the interests of the Forest as a whole. The existing 
 householders had not alone to be considered, but those 
 who might come afterwards. Sir Arthur valued the 
 Loughton right at 7,000, of which 1,000 was allotted 
 to the existing householders, and the remainder devoted 
 to the erection and maintenance of a public hall and 
 library. Thus Hobhouse, the declared enemy of "the 
 dead hand," was instrumental in endowing the parish 
 for all time with a possession, as to the beneficial 
 effects of which there has been so far no difference of 
 opinion. 
 
 'The contemporaries of these doings are disappearing, 
 but it should never be forgotten by those who come
 
 JUDICIAL WORK 197 
 
 after that we owed the settlement of these complex 
 questions to the patience and insight of Lord Hobhouse.' 
 
 Before this arbitration had been concluded Lord 
 Hobhouse was made a member of the Judicial Com- 
 mittee of the Privy Council, a body on which he served 
 for twenty years. To Mr. Hope, the Registrar of the 
 Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the editors 
 of this volume are indebted for a very clear and in- 
 teresting account of the work of this Committee. 
 
 ' By Acts of 1832 and 1833, a Judicial Committee 
 of the Privy Council was appointed l to hear all appeals 
 and complaints in the nature of appeals whatever which 
 could be brought by Statute or Custom before the King 
 in Council from any Court, Judge, or Judicial Officer. 
 By section 4 of this Act, the King was given power to 
 refer to the Judicial Committee any such other matters 
 whatsoever as His Majesty should think fit. The Act 
 provided that the Judicial Committee should consist of 
 all Privy Councillors holding or having held the office 
 of Lord President or Lord Chancellor or any of the 
 high judicial offices enumerated in the Act. That list 
 of high judicial offices has since been extended by the 
 
 1 The exercise of judicial functions by the Privy Council was no novelty. 
 ' It has always been a rule of our constitution,' wrote Sir Thomas Raleigh, 
 then Registrar of the Privy Council, ' that the subject who failed to obtain 
 justice in the ordinary Courts might go in the last resort to the King 
 himself. Petitions for the correction of errors in the proceedings of the 
 Courts were presented to the King in Parliament or to the King in Council. 
 The King's English subjects preferred to go to the King in Parliament, and 
 in course of time the House of Lords was recognized as the Court of final 
 appeal for England, and for the United Kingdom generally. The King's 
 subjects beyond seas found that their petitions were more speedily heard 
 if addressed to the King in Council ; the Council Board thus became the 
 tribunal of final appeal for the Colonies and India.' Encyclopaedia of the Laws 
 of England, vol. 10, p. 452, under ' Privy Council.' It would seem that 
 down to 1833 appeals to the Sovereign in Council were few. They were 
 heard usually in vacation, when Judges, being members of the Privy Council, 
 were free to attend by Committees specially appointed.
 
 198 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 Appellate Jurisdiction Acts, 1876 and 1887. By the 
 Act of 1883 the King was empowered by his Sign 
 Manual to appoint "any two other persons being 
 Privy Councillors" to be members of the Judicial 
 Committee. 
 
 ' In March, 1881, Lord Hobhouse was sworn a Privy 
 Councillor and appointed a member of the Judicial 
 Committee under this last power, in succession to Sir 
 Joseph Napier, an Ex-Lord Chancellor of Ireland. 
 
 'The extensive nature of the jurisdiction of the 
 Judicial Committee will be appreciated when it is re- 
 membered that not only do they hear all appeals to the 
 King in Council from India, the Colonies, the Channel 
 Islands, and the Isle of Man, but also appeals in 
 Ecclesiastical Cases, whether in matters of ritual or 
 under the Clergy Discipline Acts, in Maritime and 
 Prize Causes, from Schemes framed under the Endowed 
 Schools Acts, and in questions arising under the Unions 
 Benefits Act of 1860. Applications for the extension 
 of Letters Patent and for the grant of Compulsory 
 Licences under such Letters also come before the 
 Committee. Moreover, from time to time matters are 
 specially referred to them under the general power 
 reserved to the Sovereign as above stated by section 4 
 of the Act of 1833. 
 
 ' Thus in one and the same Sittings there may, and 
 often do, come before the Committee cases from 
 India, on important matters involving decisions in 
 Mohammedan or Hindu Law ; from Ceylon or South 
 Africa, where Roman-Dutch Law prevails ; from Malta, 
 the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, each with 
 their special laws ; from Canada, dealing with intricate 
 points under the British North America Act, 1867, as
 
 JUDICIAL WORK 199 
 
 to the respective powers of the Dominion and Provincial 
 Legislatures ; or from the Province of Quebec, raising 
 points of French Law ; Patent Cases ; and perhaps an 
 appeal in a Maritime or Ecclesiastical Cause, or from a 
 Consular Court or other Court established in a country 
 without the Dominions of the Crown, under the Foreign 
 Jurisdiction Act, 1890. 
 
 ' Matters heard by the Judicial Committee need not 
 necessarily involve directly, or even indirectly, any 
 pecuniary value, e.g. it is not uncommon for an Ad- 
 vocate in one of the Colonies who thinks that he has 
 been improperly prohibited or suspended from practising 
 to appeal to the King in Council, and such appeals are 
 heard by the Judicial Committee. So, too, unless the 
 Royal Prerogative has been restricted by express en- 
 actment, an appeal lies in criminal cases. 
 
 ' This list does not pretend to be exhaustive, but it 
 will probably assist in forming an estimate of the 
 difficult and various problems of law to which Lord 
 Hobhouse applied himself so assiduously for twenty 
 years ; and a reference to the Law Reports will show 
 how large a share he took in preparing the Judgements 
 to give effect to the decisions arrived at by the Board. 
 
 ' He was ever ready with his assistance to the Staff 
 of the Office when any question arose in the carrying 
 out of the directions contained in the Judgements, or in 
 matters of practice, and his demeanour to Counsel was 
 equally courteous. 
 
 ' Mr. John D. Mayne, who had a commanding practice 
 before the Privy Council in Indian Appeals, in the 
 Preface to the sixth edition (1900) of his Treatise on 
 Hindu Law and Usage, says, "Both the Privy Council 
 and the Indian Courts have been rich in decisions of
 
 200 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 unusual importance, particularly in regard to the law 
 of adoption and wills." It may be safely said that to 
 these decisions Lord Hobhouse largely contributed. 
 
 ' Immense labour and care were bestowed on the 
 preparation of his Judgements, both as to matter and 
 expression, and they were delivered with a dignified 
 emphasis. Of one dealing with very difficult matters 
 relating to adoption, Mr. Mayne, in the same work, 
 p. 185, says " that the Judgement certainly avoided 
 none, and dealt with all the difficulties of the case " 
 a remark that would probably be equally applicable to 
 all of the many Judgements prepared by the same 
 learned Judge. 
 
 ' His earliest colleagues, who generally attended the 
 Board, were Sir Barnes Peacock, Sir Montague Smith, 
 Sir Robert Collier (afterwards Lord Monkswell), and 
 Sir Richard Couch. On occasions also in those days 
 Lords Selborne, Blackburn, Watson, Bramwell, and 
 FitzGerald sat with him. In later times he was further 
 associated with the present Lord Chancellor (Lord 
 Halsbury), Lord Herschell, Lord Shand, Lord Morris, 
 Lord Macnaghten, Lord James of Hereford, Lord Ash- 
 bourne, Lord Davey, Lord Lindley, Lord Robertson, 
 Lord Hannen, Sir Francis Jeune, Sir Edward Fry, and 
 Sir Ford North ; also with Sir Henry Strong, late 
 Chief Justice of Canada, Sir Henry de Villiers, Chief 
 Justice of the Cape of Good Hope, and Sir Samuel 
 Way, Chief Justice of South Australia, appointed 
 members of the Judicial Committee under the Judicial 
 Committee Amendment Act, 1895, passed during Lord 
 Rosebery's administration. 
 
 ' Lord Hobhouse sat for the first time in the Privy 
 Council on March 8, 1881, and for the last on July 24,
 
 JUDICIAL WOEK 201 
 
 1901. He delivered Judgements in some 120 Indian 
 Appeals, and 80 in Appeals other than Indian. 
 
 'Apart from decisions on appeals dealing with eveiy 
 branch of law in India, the Law Reports record Judge- 
 ments by him in appeals from wellnigh every other 
 possession of His Majesty beyond the seas, ranging 
 from the great self-governing Colonies in Australasia 
 and Canada to small islands such as Cyprus and Fiji, 
 and involving the consideration of very diverse subjects, 
 and of English, Roman-Dutch, French, and other systems 
 of law. He delivered Judgements further in Petitions 
 for the extension of Letters Patent, in such Maritime 
 Cases as are subjects of Appeal to His Majesty in 
 Council ; and in appeals under the Endowed Schools 
 Acts. He assisted, moreover, at the hearing, under the 
 last Acts, of the important appeal of Christ's Hospital 
 (L.R. 15 (1890) A.C. 172), of the appeal of Read v. 
 The Bishop of London (L.R. (1892) A. C. 644), where 
 the vexed questions of the Mixed Chalice, Lighted 
 Candles, and the Eastward position came up for de- 
 termination ; and of a case, Sirdar Gurdyahl Singh v. 
 Eajah of Faridkote (L. R. (1894) A. C. 670), involving 
 important points of international law, in which Lord 
 Selborne gave the Judgement of the Board. 
 
 ' He was also one of the Committee summoned to 
 report in the matter of a Special Reference from the 
 Bahama Islands heard, in 1892, by eleven members of 
 the Committee, including the Lord Chancellor, the 
 Lord Chief Justice, the Master of the Rolls, Lord Ash- 
 bourne, and Lord Justice Bowen, in addition to the 
 members usually attending the Board, when points in 
 connexion with committal by a Judge for contempt of 
 Court, and the power of the Crown, acting through the
 
 202 MEMOIE OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 Governor, to remit the sentence were fully discussed 
 (see L. E. (1893) A. C. 138).' 
 
 Another important appreciation is supplied by Lord 
 Davey. 
 
 Throughout Lord Hobhouse's long career I have known 
 him as friend, as counsel, and latterly as colleague. Apart 
 from his knowledge of law, which was of course increased 
 by experience, Lord Hobhouse in my opinion possessed the 
 highest judicial qualities. He was extraordinarily indus- 
 trious, patient, and attentive to the arguments of Counsel, 
 whom he always treated with the utmost courtesy and even 
 forbearance. One quality which Lord Hobhouse possessed 
 in an eminent degree was tenacity. I have known even 
 Sir George Jessel moved by argument to modify or even 
 revise his first impression of a case, but when Lord Hobhouse 
 had once formed and expressed an opinion I have never 
 known him yield it, either in the course of the argument or 
 in consultation with his colleagues, on the judgement to be 
 given. I believe this arose from his habit of not forming 
 an opinion or expressing his views until he considered he 
 had all the material for doing so, as well as from the natural 
 bent of his mind to hold fast by an opinion once formed. 
 The Judicial Committee is supposed to 'know' whatever 
 law is administered by the Courts in every part of the 
 British Empire, which comprises almost every civilized 
 system of jurisprudence. English law, of course, Lord 
 Hobhouse knew from his early training at the Bar. Indian 
 law he had commenced the study of in India, and I think 
 he made Indian cases his special care in the Judicial Com- 
 mittee. At any rate it was in the consideration of these 
 cases, which sometimes involve points of great difficulty, 
 that his assistance, always valued, was most appreciated. 
 But he seemed equally at home with a case depending on 
 French or Roman- Dutch law, or the intricacies of a Maltese 
 family settlement, for the construction of which one had to 
 look to the minute and highly technical rules laid down by
 
 JUDICIAL WORK 203 
 
 the Roman Curia. His judgements usually contained an 
 elaborate analysis of the evidence to be considered, and 
 where it was a question of law, a full and clear discussion 
 of the legal principle involved. Lord Hobhouse never 
 allowed any point in a case, which he considered had 
 a bearing on the decision, to pass unnoticed. I call to 
 mind two judgements of his in Indian law, settling im- 
 portant points in the Hindu law of succession and the law 
 relating to adoption. Lord Hobhouse seldom sat in the 
 House of Lords, and his increasing deafness made it difficult 
 for him to do so. I can only recall two cases in which he 
 took part the Russell divorce case, and the Kempton Park 
 case. In each of these cases he was in a minority. Lord 
 Hobhouse had not the subtle mind of Selborne or Bowen, 
 or the power of luminous compression of legal principle 
 which distinguished Cairns. But he was a careful, good, 
 reliable Judge, whose opinion everybody respected, and 
 a great support to the Tribunal of which he was so long 
 a member and regular attendant. He served the country 
 (without pecuniary reward, it must be noted) till he was 
 compelled by age and infirmities to retire, and his colleagues 
 were painfully sensible of their loss. 
 
 It would be out of place to give a survey of all the 
 cases that came before Lord Hobhouse, but some de- 
 scription of a few of his most important judgements may 
 perhaps be of interest. 
 
 One appeal from South Africa raised the question of 
 the status of the Church of South Africa. The Bishop 
 of Grahamstown had claimed the Church of St. George 
 in Grahamstown as his cathedral, and asserted the right 
 to preach there whenever he thought fit. The officiating 
 Minister of the church was willing to allow the Bishop 
 to preach whenever he thought fit, as a matter of cour- 
 tesy, but argued that, as Dean, he himself had the control 
 of the arrangements. On April 17, 1879, the Bishop
 
 204 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 came to the church to preach, after formally admonish- 
 ing the Minister not to hinder him, but the latter 
 anticipated the time of the delivery of the sermon, and 
 preached himself, whereupon the Bishop protested and 
 left the church a second and more decorous edition of 
 the famous scene at the Council of Basel, when the Arch- 
 bishop of Taranto managed to anticipate the Cardinal of 
 Aries and celebrate mass. For this conduct the Minister 
 was found guilty of contumacious disobedience by the 
 Diocesan Court. The Supreme Court of Cape Colony, 
 however, absolved the Minister on the ground mainly 
 that the Church of St. George had been devoted to 
 ecclesiastical purposes in connexion with the Church of 
 England, whereas the Church of South Africa was not 
 a part of the Church of England. The Bishop appealed 
 from this decision, but it was upheld by Lord Hobhouse 
 and his colleagues, Sir Barnes Peacock, Sir Robert 
 Collier, Sir James Hannen, and Sir Richard Couch. 
 The Judicial Committee argued that the sole question 
 was the use of the Church of St. George. The defen- 
 dant, by his action in taking part in the Synods that 
 established the Church of South Africa on a voluntary 
 basis, and in the election of the Bishop, had come 
 under personal contracts which justified the Bishop's 
 contention, but he had no power to contract away the 
 rights of other people, and the Church of St. George was 
 governed by an Ordinance of 1839, and the property 
 was settled to uses in connexion with the Church of 
 England. The Church of South Africa, on the other 
 hand, was not in connexion with the Church of Eng- 
 land as by law established, because one of the articles 
 of its constitution, drawn up at the Synod of 1870, 
 declared that the Church was not bound by the de-
 
 JUDICIAL WOKE 205 
 
 cisions of tribunals other than its own ecclesiastical 
 tribunals. It followed that the same belief might be 
 orthodox in England, and heresy in South Africa. 
 The Church of South Africa, having chosen indepen- 
 dence, could not claim control of endowments that were 
 settled for uses in connexion with the Church of 
 England. 
 
 A case of great constitutional importance was^heard 
 before Lord Hobhouse, Lord Macnaghten, Sir Barnes 
 Peacock, Sir Richard Baggallay, and Sir Richard Couch 
 in July, 1887. Three Canadian banks and a Canadian 
 insurance company had appealed against a judgement 
 of the Court of Queen's Bench, which had decided 
 that the Quebec Legislature was acting within its 
 powers in passing an Act in 1882 imposing certain 
 direct taxes on certain commercial corporations. The 
 banks had won their case before the Supreme Court in 
 Canada, which had decided that the tax was an in- 
 direct one, that it was not imposed within the limits of 
 a province, that the Dominion Parliament alone had 
 the power to regulate banks, that the Provincial 
 Legislature could tax only that which existed by their 
 authority or was introduced by their permission, and 
 that if the power to tax such banks existed they might 
 be crushed out by it, and so the power of Parliament 
 to create them might be nullified. The case reaUy 
 turned on the relation of different sections of the 
 Federation Act. That Act was passed in 1867, and it 
 distributed legislative powers between the Parliament 
 of the Dominion, and the Legislature of the Provinces. 
 It assigned to the Provincial Legislatures 'direct 
 taxation within the province in order to the raising of 
 a revenue for provincial purposes/ while enumerating
 
 206 MEMOIE OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 among the powers of Parliament ' the raising of money 
 by any mode or system of taxation, and the incorpora- 
 tion of banks.' The Judicial Committee decided against 
 the banks, on the ground that the tax was a direct 
 tax, and that though Parliament had the power of in- 
 corporating banks and regulating trade and commerce, 
 that power was not interfered with by the power of 
 the Provincial Legislature to make banks contribute to 
 the public objects of the provinces where they carry 
 on business To the argument that the Legislature 
 might lay on taxes so heavy as to crush a bank out of 
 existence and to nullify the power of Parliament to 
 erect banks, the Committee replied that when the 
 Imperial Parliament conferred wide powers of local 
 self-government on great countries such as Quebec, it 
 could not have meant to limit these powers on the 
 speculation that they would be used in an injurious 
 manner. There were obvious reasons for confining 
 their power to direct taxes and licences, because the 
 power of indirect taxation would be felt all over the 
 Dominion. To place a limit on the power because it 
 might be used unwisely would lead to insuperable 
 difficulties in the construction of the Federation Act. 
 
 In delivering judgement on a case that came from 
 Canada, in which a drunken father claimed the custody 
 of his children, Lord Hobhouse made some important 
 reflections on the relation of law to public opinion. 
 
 Their Lordships have been very much pressed, as the 
 Courts below were, with broad judicial statements of the 
 father's legal power over his children, and of tlie amount 
 of misconduct which it requires to induce the Court of 
 Chancery to interfere with him. Their Lordships are dis- 
 posed to think that the facts of this case are such that, even
 
 JUDICIAL WOEK 207 
 
 if it had occurred early in this century, the Court would 
 have been induced to give the custody of the children to 
 their mother. But they remarked during the argument, 
 and wish to remark again, that no one has stated or can 
 state in other than elastic terms, the grounds on which the 
 Court should think fit to interfere. There must be a 
 sufficient amount of peril to the welfare of the children. 
 But that sufficient amount can hardly be fixed for one age 
 by the standard of another. Drunkenness, for instance, is 
 looked upon as a much graver social offence now than was 
 the case two or three generations ago, and its effect upon 
 the welfare of a family must be judged of accordingly. For 
 many years the tendency of legislative action and of judicial 
 decision, as well as of general opinion, has been to give to 
 married women a higher status both as regards property 
 and person ; and, in family questions, to bring the marital 
 duty of the husband and the welfare of the children into 
 greater prominence ; in both respects diminishing the 
 powers accorded to the husband and the father. This 
 change must necessarily affect the views of Judges upon 
 the welfare of families when they are called on to exercise 
 their discretion ; or, what is not a very different thing, to 
 decide what is sufficient cause for taking children out of 
 the custody of the father. ... A judgement on such a 
 question always was and must be in its essence a discre- 
 tionary judgement, viz. one guided by views on social and 
 domestic matters absolutely incapable of being brought 
 under legal rules and definitions. Doubtless it is exercised 
 within stricter limits and under greater pressure than in 
 cases when the Legislature has in express terms given a 
 discretion. Their Lordships are now acting under that 
 pressure. But the welfare of a family is powerfully affected 
 by the opinion of relatives, friends, and neighbours, which 
 no Judge has a right to disregard ; and that opinion will 
 be the opinion of the day, not of a bygone day. And what- 
 ever might have been the view taken prior to the year 1839, 
 it is quite impossible at the present day to say that, under
 
 208 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 such circumstances as are disclosed by the present case, it 
 would not be seriously prejudicial to the children to take 
 any of them away from their mother in order to place them 
 in the custody of their father. 
 
 Perhaps the most important judgement delivered by 
 Lord Hobhouse was that which decided in 1899 that 
 under Hindu Law an adoption can validly be made of 
 an only son of his father. The question had been the 
 subject of many a contradictory judicial decision during 
 an entire century, and of conflicting interpretations of 
 the sacred Hindu books. These Hindu books made it 
 clear that a man discharged his debt to his ancestors 
 as soon as he had a male son. 'By a son a man obtains 
 victory over all people, by a son's son he attains im- 
 mortality, then by the son of that son he reaches the 
 region of Brahma.' ' Since the son delivers the father 
 from the region called Put, he was therefore called Putva 
 by Brahma himself.' These extracts are from the Laws 
 of Manu, the most revered of all the codes. Vasishtha, 
 whose name is next to that of Manu in point of antiquity 
 and authority, may be said to be the centre of the con- 
 troversy. In his writings be said that the father and 
 the mother have power to give, to sell, and to abandon 
 their son. ' But let him not give or receive in adoption 
 an only son. For he must remain to continue the line 
 of ancestors.' Another sage, Saunaka, puts it, ' By no 
 man, having an only son, is the gift of a son to be ever 
 made/ and another, Yajnavalkya, 'For an only son must 
 not be given, for Vasishtha ordains " Let no man give 
 or accept an only son." ' These writings all belong to 
 the Smritis, which are held by orthodox Hindus to 
 have emanated from the Deity. A seventeenth-century 
 commentator had written about this : ' He who has one
 
 JUDICIAL WORK 209 
 
 son only, is " eka-putra," or one having an only son ; by 
 such a one the gift of that son must not be made, for 
 a text of Vasishtha declares " An only son let no man 
 give," &c.' 
 
 One of the many judgements which had been given 
 on the subject (Mr. Justice Mitter, 1868) had declared 
 that adoptions originated in motives of religion, and 
 not in the ordinary human desire for perpetuation of 
 family properties and names. ' It is clear therefore that 
 the subject of adoption is inseparable from the Hindu 
 religion itself, and all distinction between religious 
 and legal injunctions must be inapplicable to it.' This 
 dictum was described by Lord Hobhouse and his col- 
 leagues as begging the essential question. Have the 
 precepts in the sacred writings a legal or only a religious 
 bearing ? Sir William Macnaghten had said, ' It by no 
 means follows that because an act has been prohibited 
 it should therefore be considered as illegal. The dis- 
 tinction between the vinculum iuris and the vinculum 
 pudoris is not always discernible.' Lord Hobhouse 
 reviewed the passages and the various judgements, and 
 asked why, if a man discharges his debt to his pro- 
 genitors as soon as a male son is born to him, that ser- 
 vice is obliterated if he gives his son away in adoption. 
 Vasishtha does not rest his injunction on spiritual 
 benefit at all, but on the importance of continuing the 
 line of his ancestors, a common human motive for 
 desiring legitimate issue. The issues were summarized 
 in Lord Hobhouse's words : 
 
 Old books, looked on as divine, give to the father plenary 
 powers over his sons. The same books discountenance the 
 giving of an only son in terms which may be construed as 
 a positive command, making the gift void, or as a warning 
 
 p
 
 210 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 pointing out the mischief of the act, but leaving individual 
 men to do it at their peril. The books contain no express 
 statement which kind of injunction is meant. The practice 
 of such adoptions is frequent. Over some substantial portions 
 of Hindu society it is established as a legal custom, whatever 
 may be the general law. In other very large portions it is 
 held to be part of the general Hindu law. Nowhere is it 
 known to be followed by hatred or social penalties. Pausing 
 there, the case is one in which, if the authoritative precepts 
 are evenly balanced between the two constructions, the 
 decision should be in favour of that which does not annul 
 transactions acceptable to multitudes of families, and which 
 allows individual freedom of choice. 
 
 The result was a decision in favour of allowing these 
 adoptions. Whichever party had been successful, the 
 decision was bound to cause some disturbance, but this 
 decision involved the least. 
 
 Other Indian appeals had to do with attempts to 
 introduce English estate tail into Hindu property, 
 which the law would not allow, with the trusteeship 
 of an idol, and with a curious dispute as to the cere- 
 monial used in a mosque. In the last of these cases 
 certain members of the congregation accused the 
 ministers and officials of heresy, because they pro- 
 nounced the word 'Amen' in a loud instead of a low 
 voice, and adopted the performance of Kafadaim, the 
 gesture of lifting the hands to the ears, at a particular 
 point of the service. 
 
 In reference to one of these Indian ritual cases Lord 
 Hobhouse wrote to his wife as follows : 
 
 15 Bruton Street, W., Feb. 14, '89. 
 
 I am absorbed, and shall be for some days, in a very long 
 and intricate case for Calcutta ; the question being which 
 of nine persons, all being incarnations of Vishnu, and all
 
 JUDICIAL WORK 211 
 
 worthy of worship as deities, is the chiefest, and the proper 
 person to preside over a temple, and the worship of a 
 painting which represents the deified Dowjee. He died as 
 lately as 1826, and we have a replica, or copy, of his portrait. 
 It is like all other Indian portraits, just like the man 
 belonging to the ox-car which hangs on our wall. But, says 
 one of the witnesses, you have only to look at it to see that 
 it is God Almighty. I have been wondering whether our 
 quarrels over candles and wine and water, and the raising 
 of hands, seem to our Rajpoot neighbours as unreal and 
 frivolous as their quarrels about the relative dignity of 
 paintings, sticks, and stones seem to us. 
 
 Although Lord Hobhouse had been given his peerage 
 in 1885 in order that he migbt take part in the judicial 
 business of the House, it was found that a difficulty 
 about a statutory qualification had been overlooked. 
 Only peers who had been Judges of the Higb Courts 
 of tbe United Kingdom could sit on Appeals in the 
 House of Lords. In 1887 an Act was passed, placing 
 tbe members of tbe Judicial Committee on the same 
 footing as Judges for this purpose. By that time, how- 
 ever, Lord Hobhouse had got into a groove of work at 
 the Judicial Committee, and, owing to tbe deaths of 
 other members, was needed for Indian cases. 
 
 The result was that be sat on appeals in the House 
 of Lords on tbree occasions. Tbe first of these was the 
 Kempton Park case. 
 
 This was an appeal to decide whether an enclosure 
 adjacent to the Kempton Park racecourse, to which 
 people were admitted at race meetings, on payment 
 of a fee, was a ' place ' witbin the meaning of tbe 
 Act of 1853. The greater number of people who 
 entered the enclosure came tbere to bet with pro- 
 fessional bookmakers. The bookmakers were admitted 
 
 p 2
 
 212 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 on the same terms as the general public, had no 
 special rights in the enclosure, and acted indepen- 
 dently of and in competition with each other. The 
 appellant was a shareholder of the Kempton Park 
 Company, who brought the action to have an authorita- 
 tive decision on a question which had been differently 
 determined in different courts. It was held that the 
 enclosure was not a place kept or used for the purpose 
 of betting with persons resorting thereto within the 
 meaning of the Betting Act of 1853. Lord Hobhouse 
 and Lord Davey dissented from the judgement of the 
 majority. Lord Halsbury, who delivered judgement, 
 held that the enclosure at Kempton Park did not come 
 within the range of the disputed sections of the Act, 
 because these sections did not affect to deal with the 
 betting of people unconnected with the house betting 
 inter se. The owner or occupier in this case had no 
 interest in any bet, and the men who took the admission 
 fee neither knew nor cared whether the men who paid 
 the fee betted or not. Any one who had a field with a 
 view of the boat-race, and let it for the day, might be 
 certain that betting would go on, but did that make 
 his field a common gaming-house? Lord Hobhouse, 
 on the other hand, argued that if the Company's 
 enclosure was a place used for the purpose of betting 
 with persons who resorted to it, it was the thing 
 prohibited, and was declared to be a common 
 nuisance and contrary to law. In this case there 
 was an enclosure of a quarter of an acre, where 
 a number of persons, whose calling was to make bets 
 with any one who came near them, habitually collected 
 on race days ; they numbered 200, each with his clerk, 
 and the greater number of other persons using the
 
 JUDICIAL WORK 213 
 
 enclosure there went to bet with these bookmakers. 
 The enclosure was thus a place for the regular and 
 methodical practice of betting. He agreed that the 
 Act was directed not against betting, but against book- 
 makers and those who made a business of betting. But 
 the mode of warfare adopted against such persons was 
 to strike at places where betting was concentrated into 
 a focus. This place, in his view, was a concentrated 
 focus of betting, as regular as the races themselves. 
 
 The second case was a matrimonial suit which has 
 an historical importance, and though Lord Hobhouse 
 was in a minority, the view that he defended on that 
 occasion seems to have influenced decisions that have 
 since been made in divorce cases. The question at 
 issue was whether the cruelty which warrants a judicial 
 separation of husband and wife must be physical cruelty. 
 The wife had filed a petition for judicial separation 
 a few months after her marriage, on the ground that 
 her husband had been guilty of cruelty, and the petition 
 had been dismissed. Three years later she filed a 
 petition for the restitution of conjugal rights. The 
 case was tried before Baron Pollock and a special jury, 
 who found that the wife had been guilty of cruelty 
 in bringing and repeating odious charges against her 
 husband, of which he was not guilty. The result was 
 that her petition was refused, and the husband was 
 granted a judicial separation. The wife appealed from 
 the decision, and the Court of Appeal allowed the 
 appeal, but held that her conduct to her husband, in 
 spreading false charges against him, disentitled her 
 to the restitution of conjugal rights. The husband 
 appealed from this decision, but in vain, the House of 
 Lords affirming the judgement of the Court of Appeal
 
 214 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 by five to four. The judges in the majority, who 
 held that cruelty must be physical to warrant a 
 judicial separation, were Lord Watson, Lord Herschell, 
 Lord Macnaghten, Lord Davey, and Lord Shand. 
 Lord Halsbury, Lord Hobhouse, Lord Ashbourne, 
 and Lord Morris held that the husband was entitled 
 to a judicial separation, because his wife had tormented 
 him by persisting in an odious charge, for which there 
 had been proved to be no foundation. 
 
 In 1901 Lord Hobhouse, who was now in his eighty- 
 second year, felt that the increasing disabilities of age 
 made it impossible for him to continue his work on the 
 Judicial Committee. His announcement of this decision 
 was received with genuine regret, as the following 
 tributes to his judicial work testify. 
 
 Privy Council Office, Nov. 17/01. 
 
 MY LORD, I have received with much regret the intelli- 
 gence conveyed by your letter of the 13th that you desire 
 to resign your appointment as a Member of the Judicial 
 Committee, and I know that my regret will be shared by 
 all my colleagues on the Council, and especially by those 
 who have had the pleasure and advantage of being asso- 
 ciated with you in the discharge of the arduous and respon- 
 sible duties attaching to the exercise of the functions of the 
 Judicial Committee. 
 
 I trust your Lordship will allow me to acknowledge also, 
 on behalf of His Majesty, the great value of the services 
 which you have been willing to continuously render to the 
 Empire for over twenty years, and to assure you that you 
 will carry into your retirement the gratitude and respect of 
 His Majesty's subjects in all parts of his dominions. 
 
 I remain, 
 
 Yours obediently, 
 
 DEVONSHIRE.
 
 JUDICIAL WORK 215 
 
 House of Lords, April 22, 1901. 
 
 MY DEAR HOBHOUSE, I am very conscious of the service 
 you have rendered to the state by your faithful and constant 
 attendance in the Judicial Committee, and I am sure all my 
 brother judges, as well as I myself, have felt how valuable 
 that service has been to us from your great learning and 
 experience. May I ask you in pursuance of the willingness 
 expressed in your letter to continue the service a little 
 longer, and thereby increase the great obligations under 
 which you have already laid your country. 
 Believe me always, my dear Hobhouse, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 HALSBUBY. 
 
 Goodrest, Reading, Berkshire, Oct. 28. 
 
 MY DEAR LORD HOBHOUSE, I cannot help writing to say 
 how much we shall all miss you at the Privy Council. It 
 was not only your courtesy and candour, your judicial mind 
 and great attainments, which rendered you invaluable. 
 Beyond these you possessed, what I fear we shall never find 
 again, that capacity for understanding the native mind, and 
 of appreciating and sympathizing with native law, which 
 no one can acquire who has not breathed the atmosphere 
 of the East. That strange spectacle of races who are all 
 antique with an antiquity to which the Christian era is 
 something modern, and who are getting varnished over 
 with a film of nineteenth-century civilization, which never 
 gets below the surface, requires to be studied upon the spot. 
 That we have made so few mistakes in dealing with them 
 is, I suppose, due to the fact that we began by recognizing 
 our ignorance, but that is not enough till it is replaced by 
 knowledge. I do not think that any one on the Committee 
 but yourself could have written that adoption judgement, 
 which has satisfied every one and offended no one. 
 
 "Wishing you many years of happiness and usefulness, 
 I am, dear Lord Hobhouse, 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 JOHN D. MAYNE.
 
 216 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 We may add here a record of the proceedings of the 
 Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, at its first meet- 
 i ng after Lord Hobhouse's death, Wednesday,Dec. 7, 1904. 
 There were present : the Lord Chancellor, Lord Mac- 
 naghten, Lord Robertson, Lord Lindley, Sir Ford North. 
 
 The Lord Chancellor said : 
 
 Before we begin the business of the day it is impossible 
 to pass over the fact without notice that a distinguished 
 member of our body, and who remained for twenty years an 
 active member of it, has been taken to his rest. Lord Hob- 
 house was able to win the affection and respect of all his 
 colleagues by his unfailing courtesy, his desire beyond all 
 other things to see justice done, and the diligent mode in 
 which he made himself master of every subject which it was 
 necessary to make himself master of in order to do justice 
 between the parties. No one but those who acted with him 
 as his colleagues could have known how kind, courteous, 
 and considerate he was in dealing with opinions which 
 differed from his own ; and although he had firm opinions 
 of his own, which it was not easy to shake, he always 
 respected and had regard to the opinions of others. His 
 is a great loss, but he has done that which most of us would 
 like to have said of us he has firmly, courageously, most 
 courteously and kindly done his duty, and his best epitaph 
 will be found in the universal respect and affection in which 
 he was regarded. 
 
 Mr. Haldane said : 
 
 I do not know whether I may be permitted on behalf of 
 the Bar here present and those who had the privilege of 
 arguing before Lord Hobhouse to say how deeply we re-echo 
 the sentiments which have fallen from your Lordship. It 
 was with a sense of personal loss and personal grief that 
 many of us received the news yesterday, and felt ourselves 
 cut off from the personal relationship, the unfailing gentle- 
 ness, and the appreciation with which Lord Hobhouse always 
 received our advocacy.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 CEITICISM OF MODEEN TENDENCIES 
 
 THE coming of old age hindered Lord Hobhouse 
 from taking an active part in public life, and finally 
 caused his retirement from judicial functions in 1901. 
 But it in no way diminished his interest in public 
 affairs, still less did it weaken the convictions which 
 had been growing within him throughout the later 
 half of his life as to the foundations of social well-being 
 and the laws of political justice. The reactionary move- 
 ment which so deeply affected thought in the last years 
 of the century left him unmoved, or rather strengthened 
 his attachment to those principles which he had come 
 to recognize as the basis of all that is best in modern 
 public life. Every step in the backward direction 
 appeared to him only to illustrate more clearly by 
 contrast the value of ' the great constructive work of 
 the early Victorian statesmen.' His Liberalism, there- 
 fore, only grew stronger and deeper in proportion as 
 that of many others became feeble and faint. The 
 situation was indeed one in which his peculiar qualities 
 eminently fitted him to play a man's part, and though 
 his immediate influence was doubtless confined to 
 a limited circle, yet within that circle his age, his long 
 experience, his legal knowledge, his wide acquaintance 
 with affairs, and the incisive judgement of men and things 
 flowing from that knowledge and experience, made him
 
 218 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 a tower of strength to those who were fighting in what 
 was for a long time a forlorn hope. 
 
 The part which he was called upon to play was one 
 from which many a man of his years, however deep 
 his convictions, might well have excused himself on 
 the score of age. It raised personal animosities, it 
 created a bitterness of feeling, which, at no time 
 pleasant to endure, is perhaps least so when life is 
 drawing to a close, and the faithful servant desires 
 only to feel that the hard work of the day is done. 
 To withstand one's countrymen to the face because 
 they are wrong is the hardest duty that can fall to 
 the lot of any public man, yet there are occasions 
 when it is the first and most sacred duty of every 
 patriotic citizen, and such an occasion, in Lord Hob- 
 house's view, was presented by the outbreak of the 
 war in South Africa. In a speech at a private meeting 
 held in his house shortly after the outbreak of the 
 war, he lays down very clearly the principles which 
 should guide those who wish good to their country, 
 when it has become involved in a quarrel in which 
 they cannot believe it to be in the right. 
 
 There is no class of disputes in which, it is more essential 
 to keep the judgement undisturbed by passion than inter- 
 national ones ; if it were only because there is no common 
 superior to step in and decide them. And the difficulty of 
 doing it is much increased by the fact that large numbers 
 of people think it wwpatriotic to decide, or at least to say, 
 that their own country is wrong in a dispute with another. 
 That is mere confusion of thought. Patriotism has nothing 
 to do with that matter, being consistent with either view. 
 Patriotism is a virtue which leads a man to sacrifice himself 
 for the good of his country. There is no patriotism in 
 flattering one's own countrymen or in assuring them that
 
 CEITICISM OF MODEEN TENDENCIES 219 
 
 they are right in what they are doing. That is merely 
 swimming with the stream, one of the most alluring forms 
 of indolence. A man is not a patriot because he desires that 
 the community to which he belongs shall be aggrandized at 
 the expense of other communities to which he does not 
 belong. When a man desires that he or his family shall be 
 enriched at the expense of others, we do not call him 
 philanthropic ; nay, if his desire leads him to be unfair, we 
 call him selfish. It is only a change of degree, and not of 
 kind, in the feeling, when the desire is extended to a man's 
 colleagues, his sect, his party, or his nation. The inherent 
 selfishness of desiring the success of a cause, because it is 
 his own and not because it is right, is less apparent and 
 indeed actually less in amount when its range is wider 
 than when it is narrower. That is all. 
 
 'My country, right or wrong' is a cry which one has 
 heard called of late years a patriotic one. It is just as 
 patriotic as 'Myself, right or wrong.' It is essentially 
 selfish, and if generally acted on would render any settle- 
 ment impossible except by war, when once those who speak 
 for a nation have committed -it to explicit demands. A man 
 who will take pains to find out where lies the right and 
 the wrong, or it may be the wise and the unwise, course ; 
 the man who, being convinced that the existing rulers of 
 his country are wrong or unwise, has the courage to stand 
 up and say so ; who confronts rulers, and penalties, legal or 
 social, and frowns, and sneers, and howling multitudes; 
 that man is the patriot, is he who sacrifices himself for his 
 country's good. And among our roll of patriots by general 
 consent such men are to be found. 
 
 The principle which he laid down for his own guidance 
 in such matters was a simple one. He held that no 
 fundamental distinction can be drawn between the 
 obligations of nations and those of individuals, that the 
 penalties of transgression were as certain in the one 
 case as in the other, that accordingly he who encour-
 
 220 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 aged and even he who failed to dissuade his fellow 
 countrymen from embarking on and persisting in an 
 iniquitous course failed in his duty as a citizen and 
 a patriot, and finally that this conception of inter- 
 national obligation and patriotic duty was no novelty, 
 but accorded with the best tradition of the greatest 
 English statesmen. 
 
 To AN AMERICAN. 
 
 March 6, 1901. 
 
 I have been flattered by the gift of your book on annex- 
 ation. My powers of reading are very much impaired, and 
 I have not yet had time to read it through. But I hope 
 to do so before long, and glancing at parts of it, I think 
 I can see that you hold up moral standards for our guidance 
 in national conduct. That is refreshing to an old man who, 
 just on the point of quitting the world, sees all around him 
 a passionate reflux into barbarism, and hears the arguments 
 of Sennacherib and Rabshakeh substituted for those of 
 Chatham and Burke and Canning and Gladstone. All my 
 life I have insisted, with general acceptance as one fancied, 
 that the code of morals and justice is the same between 
 nations as between individuals, with the addition that the 
 nation which never dies is even more certain to reap the 
 fruits of conduct, whether bitter or sweet, than the indi- 
 vidual who may die before the fruits ripen. Now in our 
 war controversy, which in many respects resembles yours, 
 these principles are openly and generally derided, or passed 
 over as not worth mentioning. I have hardly heard the 
 words right, wrong, justice, injustice, uttered ; British 
 interests are the true standard of conduct, with the in- 
 evitable result that the very lowest views of what is our 
 interest prevail. The old barbarous ideals have come up 
 to the top again : that heroism consists in fighting ; national 
 welfare in aggrandizement; patriotism in declaring that 
 your countrymen ought to win, right or wrong ; that what
 
 CEITICISM OF MODEEN TENDENCIES 221 
 
 we want is more territory subjugated, more soldiers, more 
 glorious victories, more certainty that others shall not 
 dispute our will, and so on through the whole conqueror's 
 creed. I do not doubt that the small voice of justice and 
 truth will be heard again, though I shall not live to witness 
 it; I hope you may; yet in the meantime vast mischief 
 will have been done, and probably there will be no return 
 to wiser courses till we have undergone severe suffering. 
 For your country it seems yet possible that the worshippers 
 of empire may be resisted by those of reason and justice. 
 I trust the result may be so, and welcome every effort that 
 I see made to help it. 
 
 It was with the deepest regret that he witnessed 
 the defection of a large portion of the Liberal Party 
 from its old principles in relation to these matters. 
 
 To ME. A. G. SYMONDS. 
 
 Charlton, Portbury, Bristol, Sept. 30, 1900. 
 
 ... I think I have before stated to you my inability to 
 join in electoral operations merely because they profess to 
 be on behalf of ' Liberals ' ; seeing that many who call 
 themselves Liberals (I fear the great majority) are merely 
 competing with the Tories which shall make the most show 
 in doing the work of the Primrose, or the Army and Navy, 
 Leagues. There are some brilliant exceptions (e.g. John 
 Burns, Morley, Harcourt, and, we may hope, Campbell- 
 Bannerman), alas, too few ! 
 
 Notwithstanding my great admiration of Lord Eosebery's 
 brilliancy, industry, and administrative ability, I have had 
 misgivings ever since he started his Imperial Federation, 
 now some ten years ago ; and for the last four or five years 
 I have been convinced that the Liberal Party will do 
 nothing as long as they try to conciliate men whose ideals 
 of national welfare and greatness are directly antagonistic 
 to Liberal ideals, at least, as I have always understood them.
 
 222 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 It is no trifle to break with, men who have occupied the 
 position of leaders and are of great ability and influence. 
 Their absence leaves the party very weak. But their 
 presence makes it still weaker; produces indeed complete 
 paralysis, and must continue to do so when on every 
 question of public importance the apparent leader never 
 speaks without being contradicted by his apparent followers, 
 or takes a step without being thwarted by them. 
 
 To SIB CHARLES HOBHOUSE. 
 
 April 14, 1902. 
 
 As regards politics, I agree with you in deprecating pre- 
 fixes or suffixes to the term ' Liberal/ but I sadly fear that 
 the differences which they indicate go a great deal deeper 
 than hair-splitting or even than personal rivalries. I think 
 they are the outcome of a complete substitution of a new 
 ideal of national life for the old one ; the new one (for 
 Liberals) being that the highest welfare of a nation consists 
 not in preserving freedom of thought and action to its units 
 and letting all men work according to their gifts, but in 
 conquest and in military equipments, and in the necessary 
 organizations for crushing all minds into one iron mould ; 
 ' thinking in communities ' as the spokesman of the Social 
 Democratic Federation puts it, or ' thinking in empires ' 
 after the fashion of Mr. Cecil Rhodes. ( Imperium et liber- 
 fas' was the fantastic quip of a fantastic politician whom 
 the irony of fate induced the magnates of England to put at 
 their head. 'Imperium aut libertas' fits the case better; 
 for the two are contradictory to one another. It is obvious 
 that the military habit necessary for a conquering nation 
 must crush individual freedom. And where is the instance 
 in history of a people who set themselves to subjugate their 
 neighbours and have remained free themselves? . . . Our 
 own value for liberty has visibly declined during the last 
 twenty years, since Primrose Leagues, and Army and Navy 
 Leagues, and Unionists with the Union Jacks, and the great 
 money-dealing interests that profit by war have systematic-
 
 LORD HOKHOUSE, /KT. 83.
 
 CEITICISM OF MODEEN TENDENCIES 223 
 
 ally preached the doctrine of Empire ; and since the daily 
 press has, by purchase mainly, passed into the same camp, 
 and with it the formal and professed organizations for main- 
 taining Christian precepts, have, three-fourths of them, 
 made themselves the mouthpieces of the most powerful 
 voices. I fear that we have chosen Imperium and rejected 
 Libertas. "We are fast becoming a military empire ; con- 
 scription stares us in the face ; we have thrown away the 
 immunity from great armies which our insular position has 
 given. 
 
 April 15, 1902. 
 
 The above was written yesterday, and then came an 
 interruption. To-day we know that the reactionaries against 
 free trade have had their measure of success, and that our war 
 of conquest is to be paid for mainly by our posterity, vogue 
 la galere. 
 
 To MR. A. G-. SYMONDS. 
 
 15 Bruton Street, "W., March 17, 1902. 
 I have just been sending a contribution to the ' League of 
 Liberals against Aggression and Militarism,' a society with 
 an oppressively long title ; but nowadays it seems that very 
 nice distinctions are necessary, seeing that there are as many 
 subdivisions of men called Liberals as there are of Methodists, 
 or more. I do not know whether you are actively engaged 
 with this particular body, but presume that you are in 
 sympathy with it. Just twenty years earlier Herbert 
 Spencer and others, who saw deep into the main currents 
 of thought, tried to form a similar organization, and a 
 meeting was convened at this house. But it all came to 
 nothing. Nearly all the Liberals were supine, saying, and 
 I suppose thinking, as Sir "William Harcourt openly boasted, 
 that the election of 1880 had finally crushed the Jingoes. 
 
 He recognized that something more than a party 
 question was involved in the controversy before the
 
 224 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 nation. A profound change had affected the national 
 temper, and the only hope of permanent and genuine 
 improvement lay in the return to the better ideals of 
 an earlier day. 
 
 To CANON BAENETT. 
 
 15 Bruton Street, W., December 17, 1900. 
 
 . . . The only hope that I now have of our country's re- 
 covery to sanity lies in education ; by which I mean, not 
 only books and lectures, which may be very effective, nor 
 winning of marks at schools by spelling and such exploits 
 as are within the purview of inspectors, which are better 
 than nothing ; but the gradual action of the more thoughtful 
 and refined minds on those which are less so, such as you 
 are trying to achieve by your residence at Toynbee, in 
 contact with some of the lower ranks of London society. 
 It is a slow and laborious process, and must sometimes be 
 very trying to your steadfastness. But we, or rather those 
 of us who are young enough to be active, have nothing less 
 before us than to build up again the sense of right and 
 justice in political matters which the bulk of the nation 
 has lost, and indeed the very existence of which is openly 
 denied and scoffed at. I hope you will live to contaminate 
 many minds with the foolish and exploited notions of our 
 youth, and our fathers. 
 
 In relation to one of the saddest features of the war 
 he took a prominent part. In December, 1900, his 
 niece, Miss Emily Hobhouse, moved by the sad 
 accounts which had reached her of the suffering of the 
 Boer women and children, who had been rendered 
 homeless by the burning of their farms, and carried off 
 to what became known afterwards as Concentration 
 Camps, sailed for South Africa, determined, if possible, 
 to visit the Camps and bring to the sufferers such
 
 CEITICISM OF MODEEN TENDENCIES 225 
 
 relief as circumstances might allow. She received 
 a permit to visit the Orange River Colony from Sir 
 Alfred Milner, and found already in active operation 
 the condition of things which subsequently produced 
 so terrible a mortality. Accounts of what she found 
 were written home to her relatives, and efforts were 
 made by Lady Hobhouse and others to bring them to 
 the notice of the War Office, and to obtain relief for 
 the sufferers. For this purpose in particular the 
 Committee of the South Africa Women and Children 
 Distress Fund was formed. On its behalf Lord Hob- 
 house addressed the following letter to the Speaker : 
 
 April 15, 1901. 
 
 SIE, I write on the chance that you will be able to call 
 special attention to one phase of the dreadful calamities in 
 South Africa, for which you and I and all our countrymen, 
 in more or less degree, have to answer. Some of those 
 whose attention has been specially attracted to these things 
 have for some time been trying to relieve the weakest and 
 most innocent sufferers, and they have formed a committee 
 which is now on the point of issuing an appeal for more 
 general efforts to that end. I am not myself one of the 
 committee, though my wife is, and I am doing what one 
 weak individual can to assist them. This communication 
 to you is written without their authority, but each separate 
 utterance does something to diffuse that knowledge which 
 is the necessary condition of right action. Our appeals are 
 addressed to all English people who have hearts to feel for 
 the sufferings of fellow men and women, and to all who are 
 thinking what course of action at the present moment is 
 most likely to bring honour and permanent rest to our 
 country. We do not speak of political or military action ; 
 such matters are beyond our scope. We mean action for 
 the relief of acute sufferings, of which, whether he thinks 
 them inevitable, justifiable, or otherwise, every Englishman 
 
 Q
 
 226 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 must feel the painfulness, and none can say that he has not 
 had a share in bringing them to pass. 
 
 Whatever may have been the cause of the disputes, what- 
 ever the rights and wrongs alleged on either side, it has 
 been abundantly clear for more than a twelvemonth that 
 we are engaged in the subjugation of two communities; 
 small ones, it is true, but previously at liberty to manage 
 their own internal affairs ; and that they are fighting with 
 all their strength to preserve that liberty. That species of 
 war, war with a nation, leads to dreadful misery. It has 
 led us on to lay waste large portions of the country, and to 
 drive a portion of their male inhabitants and large numbers 
 of women and children, who either would not or could not 
 escape, away from their homes into camps where they are 
 kept in confinement. This is done in order that they may 
 not afford sustenance to the males who are in arms. But 
 thus they are deprived of the ability to sustain themselves, 
 and are dependent on the arrangements made by their 
 captors. 
 
 The difficulty of such arrangements is very great. The 
 results, of which we have received accounts at first-hand, 
 are such as to rend the heart and to shock the conscience. 
 Numbers crowded into small tents : some sick, some dying, 
 occasionally a dead one among them ; scanty rations dealt 
 out raw, lack of fuel to cook them; lack of water for 
 drinking, for cooking, for washing ; lack of soap, brushes, and 
 other instruments of personal cleanliness ; lack of bedding or 
 of beds to keep the body off the bare earth ; lack of clothing 
 for warmth and in many cases even for decency ; no needles 
 or thread to mend tatters ; shelter only in tents of single 
 canvas, now scorched by a very hot sun, and now drenched 
 by rain, and very slender appliances to meet the maladies 
 consequent on such exposure. It is not that our people are 
 cruel ; we are not casting blame ; certainly many are doing 
 what they can with the resources at their disposal, and doing 
 it with pity in their hearts. But the evil comes of the 
 nature of the war in which we are engaged, and of the
 
 CEITICISM OF MODEEN TENDENCIES 227 
 
 magnitude and novelty of our undertaking to uproot a 
 population and to keep it at a distance from its own 
 home. 
 
 "We do not dwell on wounded feelings, the anguish of 
 separation, the despair of watching the children, unable to 
 help while they waste away. These are griefs which money 
 can alleviate but little. But every kind of physical affliction 
 seems to be accumulated in these camps, or, at least, in some 
 of them, containing thousands of people : hunger, thirst, 
 nakedness, weariness, dirt, disease ; and money judiciously 
 applied may alleviate these things. 
 
 "We add that our proposal is to give help wherever suffer- 
 ings and a chance of alleviating them are found ; all without 
 reference to the national character of the recipients. It 
 may be that the greater part of what we collect may go 
 to Dutch people ; but if so, that will be because they are 
 the most numerous and the most exposed to want and 
 hardship. 
 
 "We have disclaimed all political or military references ; 
 and yet there is one sense of the words in which our 
 enterprise, if successful, can hardly fail to have a political 
 result. "Whatever differences of opinion there are as to 
 the merits of the war and the course it has to run, all 
 agree that, after it is over, English people and Dutch will 
 have to live in the same political society. Anything that 
 attracts the two component parts of that society to one 
 another will diminish its friction and strengthen its union. 
 And it may well be that the help, and perhaps still more 
 the sympathy, brought by English people to the women 
 and children of the Dutch in their direst need will soften 
 the feelings of the weaker party, and make it easier for them 
 to unite in one community with the stronger. 
 
 Not being allowed to prolong her visits to the Camps, 
 Miss Hobhouse returned to England at the end of 
 May, 1901, and made a personal appeal to the authori- 
 ties at the War Office for a reform of the Camps and 
 
 Q 2
 
 223 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 for permission to return to assist in the work. To 
 the latter request no answer was given, and while 
 promises of reform were made, the death-rates, of which 
 monthly returns were given henceforward, proved that 
 the accounts which Miss Hohhouse had given of the 
 conditions of life in the Camps had erred only by being 
 too moderate. As the summer wore on, matters grew 
 worse ; with each monthly return the death-rate in- 
 creased till, as Dr. F. S. Arnold said in an address 
 from a deputation of citizens to the Lord Mayor of 
 Manchester, it rose to a point paralleled only in the 
 great historic pestilences. The War Office had ap- 
 pointed a committee of ladies to visit and report 
 on the Camps, but their sailing was delayed ; and, 
 moved by the continual letters which she received 
 from South Africa painting the distress and despair of 
 women and children, many of whom were now person- 
 ally known to her, Miss Hobhouse determined to make 
 a final attempt to reach the Camps again. She sailed 
 accordingly in October, but was met at Capetown by 
 an officer and soldiers, by whom she was forcibly 
 deported. On her return to England Lord Hobhouse 
 at once took up her cause, and stated her case in the 
 following letter to the papers : 
 
 SIR My niece, Miss Emily Hobhouse, writes to you a 
 letter explanatory of the incidents relating to her seizure 
 in Capetown and deportation to England. Can you find 
 space to append to it some remarks from my point of view ? 
 
 No power on earth can prevent the case from being 
 publicly discussed, and that process may be rendered more 
 intelligent by a temperate statement of facts and an indica- 
 tion of the great principles on which they bear. 
 
 Miss Hobhouse does not enter on any political question,
 
 CEITICISM OF MODERN TENDENCIES 229 
 
 except so far as the attack on her liberty is itself a political 
 question. It may, with other attacks on other people, 
 become one if the law is found unequal to protect private 
 individuals against orders which persons in command of 
 the organized forces of the country, and therefore physically 
 masters of it, may take it into their heads to issue. Every 
 reasonable effort will be made to bring this case to the 
 calm arbitrament of law. And I say no more on that side 
 of it now, except that I believe the treatment accorded to 
 her has no warrant of law to support it. But suppose I am 
 wrong. Suppose it to be the law that the Crown (i. e. the 
 Minister for the time being in office) has power, on its own 
 allegation of military necessity, to declare 'martial law/ 
 and that no court of justice can inquire whether such 
 necessity really exists, what law do we live under ? There 
 is no difference in this respect between a colony and 
 England. Is it the case that the Crown can abrogate all 
 existing laws in any given area, and place the persons and 
 property of its inhabitants at the discretion of some soldier 
 who happens to be in command there and then, one who 
 may be an able and thoughtful man, such as Lord Kitchener, 
 or may be an inexperienced subaltern who takes action 
 pending orders from a superior? The great Duke of 
 "Wellington, who saw into the heart of practical matters 
 with as true insight as was ever given to man, has told us 
 that ' martial law ' (other than the law applicable to military 
 forces) is no law at all; it is the will of a man who has 
 force at his disposal. No lawyer that I can discover has 
 ever told us anything so full and so true about that military 
 dictatorship which we have called by the misleading name 
 of ' martial law.' Such is the general notion of it. Such 
 is the practical working of it. Its results on the large scale, 
 when passions run high, are such as no man likes to con- 
 template or read about. In Miss Hobhouse's case passions 
 have not run high, and the consequences, though injurious, 
 are not grave ; but the principle that underlies it is just 
 as momentous as in any other case of military dictatorship.
 
 230 MEMOIE OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 Taking her account as correct, all her remonstrances were 
 met by the one magic formula : "Why am I prevented from 
 joining my friends? Martial law. Why should I submit 
 to be examined by a strange doctor instead of my own ? 
 Martial law. "What right have you to set those nurses upon 
 me? Martial law. By what authority do you take me 
 from my ship into another? Martial law. What offence 
 have I committed ? Martial law. The poor officers, indeed, 
 said all they could, and it is all quite logical on the theory 
 that the will of the commander is the law. But then it 
 shows in a strong light what, on nearer acquaintance, this 
 sort of law is; how it may reign paramount over the 
 minutiae of life, according as one thing or another is con- 
 venient for the officer on the spot. Doubtless in other 
 cases, where immediate action is necessary, the officer on 
 the spot acts as he thinks best; but only subject to the 
 ultimate judgement of a court of justice as to the right 
 or wrong of what is done. I would urge my countrymen 
 to fix their attention on these principles, which lie at the 
 very root of the division between free and despotic institu- 
 tions. If the law is, as the authorities contend, constitutional, 
 questions familiar to our forefathers, but unfamiliar to us, 
 will soon arise. And, seeing how very long a time it takes 
 to inform large multitudes as to the value of an abstract 
 principle not yet violated in their own persons, they cannot 
 begin a day too soon. Yours, &c. 
 
 HOBHOUSE. 
 
 15 Bruton Street, W., December 3, 1901. 
 
 As to the difficulties besetting any action to test the 
 legality of the deportation, he wrote to Mr. Symonds : 
 
 15 Bruton Street, W., December 5, 1901. 
 
 Our first difficulty is to find a defendant in England. I do 
 not expect that Brodrick or any other Minister will help us. 
 
 As to an Act of Indemnity, of course the Ministry can 
 have one by holding up a little finger. Opposition would
 
 CEBTICISM OF MODEEN TENDENCIES 231 
 
 not have the ghost of a chance ; nor do I think that any 
 would be offered ; for arbitrary as Ministerial Acts, whether 
 defensible in law or not, have been, and senseless as I think 
 them to have been, they have the national will at their back, 
 which, if it had been previously expressed by the Legislature, 
 would leave no legal ground of complaint. And resort to 
 Indemnity is an admission of illegality, or something like it. 
 
 To impeachment there is the same practical answer: an 
 overwhelming majority. We are in a minority, I fear still 
 a very small one ; and we must make the best of it. 
 
 It is gratifying to hear that public-spirited men are 
 willing to contribute funds. But, for more than one reason, 
 I prefer to bear on my own shoulders the expense of the 
 suit, as well as the odium and the ridicule which its failure 
 will bring down. I believe I can bear it all. What I 
 cannot do is to carry on newspaper warfare. I cannot read 
 quick enough, nor write, nor think ; in short, I am too old 
 and worn out. I did not like writing the letter I have 
 written : yielding only to urgent instance of friends ; and I 
 cannot now think it of any importance. 
 
 I fear that legal expenses will prevent my giving even 
 the little I am wont to give to political objects ; but I must 
 rub on as best I may. 
 
 In point of fact it was found impossible to bring an 
 action, and the incident remains as an evidence of 
 what is possible under the laws of a free country. 
 
 In home as in foreign matters Lord Hobhouse's 
 attitude was essentially that of a Liberal of the old 
 school, but it was tempered in relation to domestic 
 affairs and to economic questions, first ; by a deep-lying 
 sympathy with the working classes, as men labouring 
 under permanent difficulties in the way of obtaining 
 justice, and secondly, by a clear perception, based on 
 a practical knowledge of affairs, that the energetic and
 
 232 MEMOIE OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 unimpeded action of public authorities is in many 
 matters the only alternative to the corrupt influences 
 of wealth. This second point is sufficiently illustrated 
 by his work in forwarding the creation of the London 
 County Council, and in promoting a more equitable 
 adjustment of local taxation. In the letters which 
 follow, there will be seen a very strong sympathy with 
 the aims of labour, contending with a distrust of many 
 of the methods of Trades Unions and of many of the 
 principles of Socialism. 
 
 To LORD FAEEEE. 
 
 Charlton House, Nailsea, Somerset. 
 October 3, 1892. 
 
 Many thanks for your letter of 30th ult., and the ac- 
 companying memorandum on wages. I think the letter is 
 sure to have a good effect, bringing out as it does the great 
 magnitude and formidable difficulties of the operations 
 which some of our members [of the L.C.C.] think so simple 
 and so easy to handle. I think we may rely with tolerable 
 confidence on the working of experience in this department, 
 as in others, of human affairs. It is very natural that the 
 men who have fought on one side of the wages question 
 should see that side clearly, and the other side dimly or not 
 at all -, and not surprising that the representatives of wage- 
 earning constituencies should for some time be swift to 
 follow the wage- earning members. But there is nothing 
 like responsibility for making people slow and cautious. 
 Mistakes doubtless have been and will be made in en- 
 deavouring to redress what most of us think to be the 
 inequality that bears against the hand-worker. But they 
 are made on cheaper terms, and are more easily set right, 
 by Municipal than by National Governments; and every 
 experiment will bring its lesson of failure or success to 
 a number of men whom the progress of events is irresistibly, 
 and rapidly, bringing to play a most important part in
 
 CRITICISM OF MODEKN TENDENCIES 233 
 
 public affairs. This sort of consideration has made me 
 anxious ever since the great extension of franchise in 1867 
 to bring forward working-men into School Boards, Vestries, 
 administrative bodies of all kinds. And though they think 
 thoughts and do actions which I cannot well understand, 
 I conceive it to be a matter of political necessity that their 
 views shall have a trial : and, moreover, finding those I have 
 come across to possess as much ability and honesty as other 
 people, though possibly biassed and narrow, I believe that 
 after a not ruinous amount of experiment, under the 
 pressure of great responsibility, and with plenty of criticism 
 and discussion, their efforts will produce more good result 
 than bad, even as regards the single question of wages : to 
 say nothing of the political and social stability given by 
 the free play of conflicting views. I think your paper is 
 excellently calculated to make people think, whether they 
 be headstrong, one-eyed labour-members, or men who, 
 having no clear views of their own, have followed those 
 whom they believe to understand the question best. 
 
 He was quite capable of sympathizing with the 
 demands of labour when they affected property for 
 which he was himself responsible, as appears in a letter 
 of much earlier date. 
 
 Simla, June 30, 1872. 
 
 . . . When M. wrote last, she mentioned a strike, or at 
 least a combination, for rise of wages at Hadspen. One 
 would be very sorry if an actual strike were to take place, 
 for that leads to much misery, but I am not sorry to hear 
 that the labourers there have the spirit to demand greater 
 advantages for themselves. I am sure that nothing effectual 
 can be done to bridge over the frightful gulf between rich 
 and poor which exists in our country, till the poor become 
 intelligent enough and strong enough to manage their own 
 affairs. We are, of course, a very long way from that yet : 
 but education is beginning to tell, and life is stirring the
 
 234 MEMOIE OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 inert mass. It is probably the prelude to a better state 
 of society ; but that can hardly be reached without severe 
 troubles in the process, 
 
 To LADY HOBHOUSE. 
 
 15 Bruton Street, W., July 23, 1897. 
 The discussions on Compensation &c. Bill do not begin 
 till Monday, so I shall not be present. I have received a 
 sheaf of 'amendments/ real and supposed ; very real, some of 
 them, in my opinion : but then I have always hated, and 
 still hate, the law which makes a certainly and absolutely 
 innocent man liable to pay for injuries suffered by another 
 who cannot be more innocent, and is in many cases clumsy 
 or careless or foolhardy. But mine is not popular doctrine; 
 and political parties are with one another in denouncing 
 it. So there is nothing for the isolated thinker to do, 
 except sit by and wonder what will come next. I guess 
 that the next thing will be to throw all the burden of 
 individual misfortunes on 'the State,' which the wise 
 leaders of the artisan classes teach them to look upon as 
 an omnipotent being, existing apart from individual men 
 and women, with an inexhaustible purse filled by some 
 magic, and ready to remove all ills of life. And so they 
 cry more and more for ' State ' aid, not knowing that they 
 are themselves the State, and that payments by the State 
 come mainly out of their own pockets and are to a large 
 extent a device for making the industrious and thrifty pay 
 for those who are not such. 
 
 To CANON BABNETT (with reference to the Engineers' Strike). 
 
 15 Bruton Street, W., November 3, 1897. 
 I am quite prepared to think you have done right, 
 because you have a profound understanding of the relations 
 between capital and labour ; and are sure to judge sym- 
 pathetically and wisely. I am not, however, prepared to 
 follow you. Doubt is the parent of inaction, and I have
 
 CEITICISM OF MODERN TENDENCIES 235 
 
 serious doubts on which side one's sympathies ought to be. 
 I do not pretend to have studied the case any deeper than 
 to satisfy myself that the points raised in this particular 
 dispute are such as only one who is versed in such ques- 
 tions can understand ; and that a superficial looker-on is 
 just as likely to do harm as good by interfering. Probably 
 the present tussle has a long history behind it, and is the 
 climax of many lesser ones. Perhaps it is in its essence 
 a struggle for power, or for independence, between capital 
 and labour. It is true that readiness to confer is a point 
 in favour of the men, but it is only one of many stages 
 of the dispute. Twenty years ago, perhaps even ten, I 
 should have been in favour of the men in a general struggle, 
 but they have latterly, along with increased power, shown 
 (as I think) such ugly tendencies towards tyranny as to 
 make me suspicious of them ; and doubtful whether their 
 victory would be a public good. 
 
 It seems absurd to think so much of one's own absolutely 
 insignificant action, but, on the whole, I shall feel more 
 easy in my own mind by not interfering at all. 
 
 To ME. G. J. HOLYOAKE. 
 
 January 27, 1904. 
 
 Comparatively early in life, I became a convert to the 
 principle of encouraging the presence in Parliament of 
 representatives drawn from the poorer classes; and after 
 the extension of franchise in 1884-5 I have thought it of 
 great political importance. The wealthier Liberals have 
 been very shy of it ; and I remember thinking that in the 
 case of Odger they behaved both unwisely and unfairly. 
 I think they are wiser now : but it is probably from their 
 reluctance to Labour members, or partly so, that there has 
 grown up among the Labour ranks that hostility to the 
 Liberal party which in some minds seems to have become 
 a leading principle of politics, and which is used, with 
 reason or without, to injure Liberals at elections : thereby 
 most certainly also injuring the interests of the Labour
 
 236 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 class. I remember reading some three or four years ago 
 a letter by Goldwin Smith, who gave a large share of his 
 brilliant abilities to the service of the Labour class, ex- 
 pressing his dismay and disgust at the masses of the artisan 
 class in England joining with their old oppressors to 
 trample down those to whose efforts they owed the increase 
 of their power and material welfare. 
 
 The rise of the Protectionist movement served to 
 confirm Lord Hobhouse's conviction of the immense 
 and growing power of the organized forces of wealth 
 to influence public opinion. 
 
 To ME. HOLYOAKE. 
 
 February 13, 1904. 
 
 To my mind, among all the sinister phenomena emer- 
 gent during the last twenty years, the most ominous of 
 formidable political danger is the complete success with 
 which the money power has subjugated the ephemeral 
 press, which for all immediate political purposes leads the 
 nation. Our conquest of the two Dutch Republics was care- 
 fully prepared by years of sedulous slander against the Dutch 
 in African newspapers, all echoed in the bulk of English 
 papers; and these papers have passed into the hands of 
 the rich classes, who favour military force and autocratic 
 government, and are steady adversaries of freedom and of 
 all the institutions that make for it Look at the sudden 
 sweep of the doctrine of commercial protection over the 
 country. It is due very largely to the command gained 
 over newspapers by rich people, who have been pouring 
 out money like water for the purpose of saturating the 
 country with their arguments, and (until rebuffed) of in- 
 fluencing elections. The sums spent have been enormous : 
 and yet we poor simple folk, who without any veil over 
 us support the present commercial status, cannot by any 
 means find out who are the promoters of this vast propa- 
 ganda. Surely it was never yet heard of that a great
 
 CEITICISM OF MODERN TENDENCIES 237 
 
 public agitation for a revolution in fundamental national 
 policy should be carried on, and that we should not know 
 who are the people who are hiring advocates and spreading 
 literature to keep all this agitation going. It seems to me 
 a serious public danger. 
 
 To L. T. HOBHOUSE. 
 15 Bruton Street, W., March 27, 1904. 
 The extreme difficulty [lies in] conveying information 
 to large numbers of people when it is not that sort of 
 information which newspaper people call in their slang 
 ' good copy.' It can only be done by those who have got 
 some powerful machinery at their back. Such machinery 
 was, and is, at the command of those who call themselves 
 by the euphemism ' Tariff-Reformers.' As their method of 
 return to barbaric institutions has in its favour a large part 
 of the daily newspapers and the whole of the well-manned 
 caucuses in the Tory interests, they had only to print their 
 fictions and their fallacies, which must have been very easy 
 to produce, and then nothing was needed but money to set 
 them rolling along the channels already cut for their recep- 
 tion. The money, we know, was forthcoming at once in 
 profusion. The extreme bashfulness of its providers pre- 
 vents us from knowing from whom this great public service 
 proceeds. But there is more than one 1 wealthy interest to 
 which it may be highly profitable to spend money freely in 
 securing power to the party which favours those who possess 
 money. I was told the other day by a man who is much 
 among political people, that there are active Tory partisans 
 (whether calling themselves Unionists, Liberal-Unionists, 
 Imperialists, Constitutionalists, or any other fancy name 
 matters little) who say that they do not care what the next 
 election may cost them, because the brewers will provide it 
 all. Certainly if the brewers spend ten millions in giving 
 the Tories a fresh term of power, they may easily get twenty 
 in return. So would other great monopolists or compact 
 alliances, such as water companies, urban landowners, money
 
 238 MEMOIE OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 dealers, contractors et hoc genus omne, including patriots 
 who own gold-mines ; to say nothing of our friends the 
 parsons, who provide, not much money, but vast quantities 
 of platforms for rural audiences. It is the principle of 
 Tammany simplicity itself ; you put me in office, and I will 
 take care that you shall dip your hands in the public 
 pocket. 
 
 You think that the particular form of the great general 
 reaction in favour of private interests as against public, 
 which consists of cunningly adjusting customs duties, has 
 been killed. I, thinking of the eternal and ubiquitous 
 power of the purse, and seeing that the purses have with 
 them, either directly or indirectly through other issues, the 
 men of rank and office, the organized professions, including 
 those of education and official theology, cannot rise above 
 a hope that you may be right. 
 
 28th. Saturday's Hyde Park meeting seems to have gone 
 off with spirit and without hitch ; not like the meetings held 
 to protest against Dizzy's wars, which were broken up by 
 City patriots importing well-drilled mobs for the purpose. 
 I see one of the loudest of fanfaronades in the Daily News 
 this morning, and well written too. But I don't suppose it 
 will have much effect. The men now in power have learned 
 to despise the voice of multitudes, unless it is expressed at 
 the Parliamentary polling-booths. But those are exactly 
 the places to which Londoners resort for the purpose of 
 taking away the power which at Municipal elections they 
 seem to confer on popular causes ; and they have well earned 
 the contempt they have got. 
 
 I hope you will get a refreshing holiday, and be able to 
 put aside for a time the grinding controversies into which 
 you have been plunged, and to enjoy the exquisite beauty 
 of vernal Italy, which we stupid English only visit in dusty 
 autumn ; and to indulge in some days of intercourse with 
 the great creations of great artists, painters, sculptors, archi- 
 tects, whose genius blossomed when the heavy weight of 
 ecclesiastical theology was lifted for a while by the return
 
 CEITICISM OF MODERN TENDENCIES 239 
 
 to ' pagan ' thought. Whatever the ' re-birth ' did or failed 
 to do, it certainly produced a great outburst of human 
 energy in many ways ; though, alas ! it was to be quenched 
 again too soon by the strong hand of power ; how far owing 
 to its own demerits who shall say? Adhuc sub iudice Us est. 
 
 Lord Hobhouse was well aware that the reactionary 
 movement which so much impressed him was not 
 confined to his own country. He was, however, very 
 doubtful as to the value of any criticism by English 
 Liberals of the doings of another nation. 
 
 To DR. EVANS DAEBT. 
 
 Banwell Abbey, Somersetshire, August 13, 1904. 
 
 DEAE SIR, I beg to acknowledge your letterof the 8th inst. 
 inviting me to join in the address to President Roosevelt, 
 of which you enclosed the copy herewith returned. 
 
 I think with you that these outbursts of savagery over 
 large tracts of the U.S.A., apparently among all classes of 
 society, or with the tacit acquiescence of all, must be classed 
 among the ugliest symptoms of that recrudescence of, or 
 relapse into, barbarism which, as it seems to me, is affecting 
 large portions of Christendom. It shows itself in all depart- 
 ments of human thought and conduct : reviving abandoned 
 beliefs and reverting to social types which have been tried 
 and found wanting. In the cases with which you deal, it 
 shows itself in taking popular clamour for evidence, and 
 accusation for proof, and violence for firmness ; in refusal to 
 wait for calm inquiry ; in bloodthirsty desire for vengeance ; 
 and in enjoyment of tortures inflicted on the victims : all 
 impulses of barbarous peoples, very hardly and slowly over- 
 come by civilizing agencies. 
 
 It is true that I have no personal knowledge of these 
 things, but I have for years past seen them stated in public 
 prints, and have not seen any public contradiction of them : 
 nor can it be truthfully said that they are intrinsically incred-
 
 240 MEMOIE OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 ible, therefore I believe them to be true. And so strongly do 
 I feel the existence of a great evil, that I do not like to 
 refuse participation in your address without giving a reason. 
 
 My reason, curtly stated, is that I think the intervention 
 of foreigners in the affairs of a great nation by direct 
 approach to its Government is likely to prove not only 
 ineffectual for its purpose, but a source of irritation which, if 
 it produce any result, will enlist national pride in defence 
 of the impugned conduct, and so harden the wrongdoers in 
 their wrongdoing. And this consideration is, I think, 
 strengthened when the conduct impugned is the natural off- 
 spring of a temper into which a large portion of the stronger 
 races of mankind have fallen. 
 
 I do not see clearly whether you consider that the practice 
 of lynching is or is not due to hatred or contempt of the negro 
 race. I have underlined some passages which look both 
 ways. In such accounts of lynching as I have seen, a 
 coloured person has almost invariably been the victim. If, 
 however, it is true that white persons are lynched indiscrim- 
 inately with others, the practice cannot be ascribed wholly 
 to race prejudice. My own belief is that it is due to race 
 prejudice. That evil temper has been only too prevalent 
 among our own countrymen, fas everybody must see who 
 has made himself familiar with the history of either the East 
 Indies or the "West, or of our dealings with Chinese or 
 Africans or Australians or Maories. But in the Southern 
 U.S.A. it has been sharply accentuated by generations of 
 slave -holding, and by the forcible abolition of slavery. 
 It is notable that Americans have been familiarized with 
 lynching through the (not unjustifiable) repression of crime 
 by volunteer agency, in the half-settled territories where 
 the law was not yet strong enough to cope with robbers and 
 murderers. But there, the offenders, being white men, the 
 practice of lawless revenge has weakened with the weakening 
 of lawless persecution, and with the strengthening of more 
 regular and dispassionate modes of dealing with it. Quaere, 
 has it weakened in the case of Negroes ?
 
 CRITICISM OF MODERN TENDENCIES 241 
 
 It is far from my wish to raise controversy with you, or to 
 suggest that you should reconsider your proceedings because 
 another who sympathizes with your general aim feels doubts 
 as to their practical effect. No man more than myself depre- 
 cates the prevalent doctrines. The flood of reaction has been 
 visibly rising these thirty years and more; and our Transat- 
 lantic kinsfolk are taking their share of it in such modes as 
 are congenial to their history and present political circum- 
 stances. The very rudiments of national morality have to 
 be learned all over again. ... To you and others who are en- 
 deavouring to teach their fellow men to follow the ways of 
 peace and justice, and to hate high-handed aggression in all 
 its workings, whether by nations or races or classes,! cordially 
 wish all success. Moreover, the wording of your address 
 appears to me to be very temperate and courteous, and as in- 
 offensive as its matter permits. But I have probably said 
 enough to show that a man may earnestly desire to abate 
 violence, and yet hesitate to follow a particular road by 
 which others seek to reach that object ; though you may, and 
 probably will, think my reasons weak and inconclusive. 
 
 To L. T. HOBHOUSE. 
 
 Banwell Abbey, October 2, 1904. 
 
 I should like to see some passages of history put together 
 with the view of showing how certainly, and how quickly, 
 a nation which throws itself into the business of conquest 
 loses its own liberties, and with them its power of initiative 
 and its general health : as in the cases of Spain and 
 Portugal, and of France under Louis XIV and both the 
 Bonapartes ; not to go back to wider ranges of time or 
 space, or forward to present affairs. The same survey would 
 show how the lust of conquest is habitually disguised under 
 the names of Liberty, Religion, and Peace. Spain and 
 Portugal were to convert benighted Americans and Indians 
 to Christianity, and were blessed by Popes accordingly. 
 The elder Bonaparte was always going to establish
 
 242 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 peace. The younger one did actually establish it, according 
 to his own assertion. c I/Empire ? c'est la Paix ! ' was his 
 frequent refrain. Poor honest fellows ; both found perverse 
 neighbours who waged constant wars against them till they 
 were beaten down. But I don't expect you to do this 
 piece of work ; at all events not now ; perhaps you may 
 come across somebody else who will. Meanwhile, I am 
 sure that your essay can have none but a good effect, if it 
 has any at all. I add this proviso, because I feel convinced 
 (I dare say you have heard me say so before) that our 
 countrymen are so besotted with their visions of Empire 
 meaning that an Englishman shall feel himself to be the 
 lord of half the earth's surface, and so sit at home wbei 
 yalatv like Homer's Zeus that nothing will cure us except 
 some great and painful shock, whether it come from foreign 
 war or from intestine commotions. If this foreboding is 
 wrong, lucro appone. You are, at all events, right in trying 
 to bring about a saner mood by appeals to reason. 
 
 The 'essay' here referred to was the proof of a volume 
 on * Democracy and Reaction/ published a few weeks 
 later. Lord Hobhouse went through the proofs with 
 his accustomed thoroughness. Some of the longer 
 comments on points suggested to him by its perusal 
 are subjoined. 
 
 . . . There are two main causes of reaction after every 
 great forward movement. One is that some of the most 
 energetic of the movers are those who have set their hearts 
 upon destroying, or it may be creating, some particular 
 institution. "WTien their object is gained, these are satisfied 
 and cease working. Again, there are many, probably the 
 majority, who form extravagant expectations of the results 
 of victory, and when they see only reasonable results they 
 are disappointed and angry ; all the more so if, as is likely, 
 even those reasonable results are attenuated by the imper- 
 fections of all human endeavour. So both satisfaction and
 
 CRITICISM OF MODERN TENDENCIES 243 
 
 dissatisfaction are obstacles to further effort in the path 
 of reform. The sequel of the great Parliamentary reform 
 of 1832 is a striking example. Immediately after its 
 passing, large bodies of Whigs (the arch-Radical, Sir 
 Francis Burdett, among the first) joined the Tories, forming 
 the Conservative party under PeeL In 1834 the over- 
 whelming majority of the Reformers was much reduced, 
 and in 1837 there was a compact Opposition of 300 in the 
 House of Commons, who nearly paralysed the action of the 
 Melbourne-Russell Ministry. 
 
 I do not think you have lost sight of causes like these, 
 but they might perhaps be usefully more accentuated. I 
 myself have always thought that in 1868, and again in 1880, 
 the nation was, under Gladstone's mighty impulse, moved to 
 a higher moral level than it was able to maintain, and it 
 fell back accordingly under the influence of coarser passions 
 when the impulse was relaxed. His boldest and noblest 
 actions were made the objects of keenest attack by the 
 enemy, and were but feebly supported in the country ; such 
 as the Alabama Arbitration, and his reversal of the Frere- 
 Shepstone-Colley-Lytton piracies ; both leading to excellent 
 results, though afterwards spoiled by the revival of the 
 pirate (Imperialist) policy ; and as his Irish Home Rule, ' 
 which he was not allowed to try. 
 
 . . . India is the only real ' Empire ' we possess (unless 
 we include Ireland as another province held under our 
 direct government by military force), and with its acquisi- 
 tion Liberalism had very little to do ; though its adminis- 
 tration gives rise to the essential differences between 
 popular and autocratic tendencies. When we attempted 
 to treat the American Colonies as our * Empire,* we 
 failed. Only a few Whigs, such as Burke and Fox, 
 had then risen to the conception of self-governing off- 
 shoots. It was after Papineau's rebellion that this con- 
 ception took vigorous root; and its growth was doubtless 
 due to the Liberal party. The present loose but real union 
 between us and our American and Australasian Colonies is 
 
 E 2
 
 244 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 due to this conception. If the Georgian principles were 
 revived, we should break up to-morrow. 
 
 ... It is a difficult job to call a political party by the 
 name which suits it best, especially when it is changing 
 its name every few years, as the Tory party and its suc- 
 cessors have done. Unmeaning nicknames are usually the 
 best, such as Tory, Whig, Bianchi, Neri, Guelf, Ghibelline, 
 Huguenot, Mountain, Whiteboy, Malignant, Copperhead, 
 Locofoco, and so forth. Parties using names that denote 
 qualities take good qualities for themselves and bad ones 
 for their opponents ; and the names, even if justifiable at 
 the moment, are apt to become very inappropriate as time 
 runs on. But to make a nickname convenient, it requires 
 that the party should have borne it for a long time. The 
 Tory party in the hands of Peel dropped its name and 
 became Conservative, implying that its opponents were 
 destructive of something that it defended. Disraeli hated 
 the name Conservative and liked the name Tory ; but Tory 
 had a bad odour, and he set up other names, such as the 
 Country party, and the Patriotic party. Certainly in his 
 hands Conservative was one of the last epithets applicable 
 to the party which he used for destroying the work of 
 Liberal Ministries, and saturating our politics with Imperial 
 military ideas. None of the new names stuck till the 
 happy moment when the Liberal party was frightened at 
 the proposal to apply its own principles to the government 
 of Ireland; and then the combination which truly re- 
 presented the Tories in upholding government by force 
 took the name of Unionist, and fell under the leadership 
 of Chamberlain. The new name and new leadership proved 
 to be most valuable acquisitions. I don't think that the 
 Conservative side of this combination attracted the new 
 voters of 1885 or the great mass of the middle class, who 
 displaced Liberals for the sake of Tories. It was the Tory 
 side. They were attracted by rank, wealth, office, the 
 weight of clergy, lawyers, soldiers, organized professions 
 and interests, by the incessant exaltation of military glory
 
 CEITICISM OF MODERN TENDENCIES 245 
 
 and depreciation of justice or generosity towards other 
 nations as being mere pusillanimity. On the temper so 
 created came the great moving power of money; freely 
 contributed by the owners of it, who have found the 
 purchase of political power to be the purchase of the 
 national purse and the best of investments, and who found 
 their position menaced by the Liberal principle that public 
 interests must be preferred to private. That was all very well 
 to talk of in the abstract ; but when Gladstone and some of 
 his adherents proceeded to give it practical effect, that was a 
 very different affair. Money, freely spent in buying up news- 
 papers and in other modes of political propaganda, and in 
 bribery, not sporadic and direct at elections as formerly, but 
 indirect and continuous by local entertainments, support of 
 local charities, and so forth, was and is the spur that makes 
 the mare to go. 
 
 We have said that Lord Hobhouse was a Liberal of 
 the old school, in fact, he was in the best sense essentially 
 a man of moderate views and cautious temper ; the good 
 side of his native Conservatism never left him ; yet his 
 most prominent interventions in public affairs, whether 
 dealing with endowments in the early seventies or in 
 opposing the war passion at the end of the century, 
 made men think of him as an extreme and almost 
 dangerous Radical. He possessed the judicial temper 
 in an eminent degree, yet he is also seen in these 
 letters and in many public acts as the resolute advo- 
 cate of an unpopular opinion. The explanation of this 
 apparent contradiction is simple enough. His opinions 
 on public matters were founded upon actual observa- 
 tion of affairs rather than on abstract principles, and 
 moulded by a certain native caution, an unsanguine 
 temper, and the lawyer's reverence for the past and 
 habit of looking at things all round before giving an
 
 246 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 opinion. But the opinion once formed, from the very fact 
 that its foundations were so secure, was held, against 
 the world if necessary, with a tenacity which is rare 
 in any department of life, and the swing of circum- 
 stances brought Lord Hobhouse's opinions, moderate 
 and reasonable as they were in themselves, more than 
 once into sharp conflict with the excited emotions of 
 the public at large. The man who under such cir- 
 cumstances will not budge an inch is always for the 
 time an extremist, and to be an extremist in this sense 
 and until the judgement of his countrymen cooled, 
 Arthur Hobhouse was not afraid. Characteristic of 
 his general attitude to public affairs is a letter on 
 Halifax ' the Trimmer.' 
 
 To Miss FOXCEOPT. 
 
 Charlton House, Portbury, Bristol, 
 
 September 16, 1896. 
 
 I return with many thanks your copy of Halifax's 
 Trimmer, which I am glad to have seen, and have read 
 with great interest. It is full of wit and point ; and for the 
 most part, as I think, of political sagacity not confined to 
 a particular juncture but fitted for all times. . . . 
 
 In my judgement we are at this moment in the stream of 
 a revolution strongly analogous to that of the seventeenth 
 century. Then the problem was how to change from 
 a government mainly monarchical to a government by the 
 classes who had got knowledge, and with it, power. Now 
 much larger classes have got knowledge, and with it, power, 
 and the problem is again how to adapt forms and machinery 
 to the substantial changes. There are no public men who 
 play a more useful part in such adaptations than the 
 Trimmers ; who are despised and vilified by partisans on 
 both sides ; but wlio prevent attempts to do per saltum what 
 can only be done in long periods of time, and make it
 
 CEITICISM OF MODERN TENDENCIES 247 
 
 possible to effect great changes with little bloodshed, or, 
 under favourable circumstances, -without it. In France 
 there have been few Trimmers or none, and their social 
 changes have been sudden and violent, and often disastrous 
 failures. In England we took half the sixteenth century to 
 achieve the object of a National Church independent of the 
 Pope : nearly the whole of the seventeenth for the more 
 difficult task of setting up a constitutional Monarchy con- 
 trolled by a strong Oligarchy : a large part of the nineteenth 
 with (I will venture to prophesy) a large part of the 
 twentieth for the still more difficult and complicated task 
 of adapting our institutions to the vast numbers who claim, 
 and who ought, to take part in public affairs. In all these 
 movements the man who has the sagacity to see and avoid 
 excess and hurry, and to take the weaker side for the time 
 being, lessens the inevitable shock. He is not the driving 
 power, but the governor, of the engine : not the sail, but the 
 ballast, of the ship. And such a man, I take it, was Halifax. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 HOBHOUSE. 
 
 A mind so active and so sincere was not likely to 
 rest placidly in any traditional view of religious 
 questions, merely because it was traditional. That 
 Lord Hobhouse should have thought long and deeply 
 on the ultimate problems is in accordance with the 
 sincerity of his character and the profound seriousness 
 of his outlook upon life. What his final views may 
 have been is nowhere stated, but it is clear in the 
 first place that he was in the widest acceptation of the 
 term a Rationalist ; he believed that reason should 
 be allowed to play freely round all matters of human 
 interest, and the deeper the interest involved, the 
 more urgent the need for rational investigation. In 
 the second place, for him the essentials of religion 
 lay in morality, and it was by its effect on morals
 
 248 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 that the pretensions of any creed were to be tested. 
 From this it followed further that the contrast between 
 pretension and performance struck him often with 
 painful force, and, particularly in those later years 
 of his life, when so many lights of the religious 
 firmament were shining only to the increase of the 
 moral darkness, he pointed with his usual incisiveness 
 to the contrast between the articles of their creed 
 and the teaching that they were giving to the 
 people. 
 
 His general view is expressed in a fragment written 
 in August, 1898. 
 
 August 10, 1898. 
 
 Religion and morality are two sides of the same bent of 
 mind ; that which leads the man to act rightly. Morality 
 is the law of conduct with reference to this world or life. 
 Religion is the law of conduct with reference to some other 
 world or life. 
 
 Sound morality and sound religion produce the same 
 results in conduct and in promoting human welfare. Such 
 religion as that of the Psalmist's (xv and xxiv), who places it 
 in truth, honesty, clean hands, and a pure heart ; as that of 
 Micah, who places it in justice, mercy, and reverence ; as 
 that of the Epistle of James, which places it in benevolence 
 and purity ; as that of other passages of the New Testament, 
 which place it in love to mankind ; all sucli maxims of 
 religion are just those of morality, only with reference more 
 or less express to the will of a ruling Deity. They have 
 nothing to do with theological dogmas of a tribal or 
 sectarian kind. 
 
 The difference is this the moral man, following laws 
 which he believes to be ascertained and continually tested 
 by their effect on human welfare, seldom goes astray far or 
 for a long time. Whereas the religious man, believing that
 
 CRITICISM OF MODERN TENDENCIES 249 
 
 he is obeying the positive commands of a Deity, or is 
 securing his own welfare or possibly that of others after 
 death (points which cannot be ascertained or tested), may 
 be, and often has been, led into extravagancies of conceit, 
 pride, folly, and cruelty, which bring mankind into de- 
 gradation and misery. 
 
 It was probably more a love of civil liberty than 
 agreement in opinion which prompted the following 
 letter to Mr. Bradlaugh : 
 
 To C. BBADLAUGH, ESQ. 
 
 15 Bruton Street, W., August 25, 1888. 
 SIE, 
 
 I have not the honour of personal acquaintance with you ; 
 and if you have heard my name, that is probably all you 
 know of me. But for ten years or more I have, though not 
 able always to view things as you do, admired the bravery 
 and constancy with which you have battled for peace, for 
 freedom, and for the welfare, as you see it, of your fellow 
 men. Two days ago I read in the Star a letter from you, 
 showing how your combats in these public affairs had in- 
 volved you in debt, and how, not asking help from any one, 
 you asked only that others would not encroach unduly on 
 your time and strength, while striving to work yourself 
 free. 
 
 My object in now writing is to ask you to accept such 
 small aid as I can afford. I wish it were more, but it has 
 been my lot for many years to do public work without pay ; 
 and so, among other luxuries, I have often to deny myself 
 the luxury of giving to objects I should like to help. 
 
 I have no right to offer you money, or to be offended if 
 you should reject it. But I hope you will accept it, because, 
 though its amount is trifling and will do you little good, it 
 is offered from simple respect. 
 
 I will only add, that, except to the one person with whom 
 I have all goods in common, viz. my wife, I never speak of
 
 250 MEMOIE OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 private gifts such as this ; and she is as silent as myself; 
 so that it will rest entirely with you whether the transaction 
 is or is not known to others. 
 
 Believe me to be, 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 HOBHOUSE. 
 
 The following correspondence with Mr. G. J.Holyoake, 
 begun in 1899 and extending over the last years of Lord 
 Hobhouse's life, sufficiently illustrates his attitude. 
 
 15 Bruton Street, W., July 31, 1899. 
 I have just received an appeal on behalf of a Rationalist 
 Press Association, of which I infer that you are the prime 
 mover. I speak of my advanced age with diffidence, because 
 I am addressing a man whom I believe to be older than 
 myself, and yet who is conspicuously active in promoting 
 what he believes to be truth and justice. But my energies 
 are fast dying out, and I feel extremely averse from joining 
 any fresh societies or combinations. At the same time 
 increased length of life has continually brought to me 
 increase of conviction that, important as is authority, 
 tradition, or custom for the support of our weak human 
 nature, the free play of the most divine faculty in man, his 
 reason, is far more essential ; and that it is very difficult to 
 exercise, while acquiescence in use and wont is easy enough. 
 I see, or think I see, in this generation a lazy relapse to 
 ruder and less noble ideals of life: the military, the 
 priestly, the autocratic; with the consequent habits of 
 praying to Hercules instead of putting a shoulder to the 
 wheel, and of looking to be guided and protected by 
 somebody else through the hard places of life instead of 
 overcoming them by self-exertion. Those who are called 
 Rationalists appear to me to be doing, as they have long 
 done, very valuable work under great discouragement, by 
 continually calling on their fellow men to bring assertions 
 to the test of reason, and to rely on themselves. And it is 
 because of their invaluable method and of their constant
 
 CEITICISM OF MODEEN TENDENCIES 251 
 
 courage in enforcing it, rather than from assent to any 
 particular intellectual propositions (though they are not to 
 be despised), that I feel they deserve the gratitude and 
 acknowledgement of men who from whatever cause other 
 occupations, weaker faculties, aversion to public controversy, 
 hesitating doubts, or mere indolence look on without 
 joining in the conflict. 
 
 You do not ask for money apart from the proposed 
 industrial enterprise : but if you will allow me to accompany 
 these expressions of goodwill with a humble gift of money, 
 such as befits a man who has for long worked without pay, 
 I shall be glad. Please accept the enclosed cheque, to be 
 applied as you think fit : and do not hold yourself 
 accountable to anybody for the use of it. With great 
 respect, I am, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 HOBHOUSE. 
 
 Charlton, Portbury, April 8, 1899. 
 
 I can remember the name of Ernest Jones very well in 
 the days of my early youth as a leading member of the 
 Chartist body, whom I, like most of my fellows in age and 
 position, then looked upon as rash and dangerous, even 
 malevolent, disturbers of the peace, but whom, after some 
 years, I learned to regard as honest and brave men, who 
 advocated political reforms, much in advance of the average 
 political reformer of the day ; but which were all of them 
 fair subjects of discussion, and which have since been to 
 a large extent either actually accomplished, or accepted by 
 large bodies of men as desirable goals to be gradually 
 approached. All honour to the pioneers in every march of 
 the human army. But I am quite conservative enough to 
 think that, vexatious as it is to early reformers who see 
 their way clearly, it is better for society at large that 
 changes, whether of thought or of organization, should 
 come slowly, and that each step onward should be made 
 good through discussion and struggle before further steps
 
 252 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 are taken. Comparing the progress of our own country with 
 others, we have reason I think to be thankful that the 
 social forces adverse to changes, however beneficial, have 
 been overcome inch by inch, and that so we have been 
 saved from the sweeping reactions which follow great 
 changes made per saltum, and by the authority only of 
 a few commanding minds. 
 
 To take your example of Omar Khayyam, the history of 
 which I only knew dimly till now. His perfectly free play 
 of thought about all problems of life (though just the same as 
 that of Horace and other ' heathen ' writers taught to us at 
 school) is, when imported into daily life, calculated to shock 
 violently the average religious thought of my boyhood. 
 And if accepted at once by literary men, it would probably 
 have created an organized and powerful and immovable 
 hostile party among the mass of educated and religious 
 society. But creeping painfully in through this channel and 
 that,throughsuch thinkers as Fitzgerald himself, as Tennyson, 
 as Matthew Arnold, and many lesser men, the mind of Omar 
 Khayyam has won its way into the broad deep current of 
 English thought, and holds place as one view among many 
 which go to make up the mental atmosphere of our time. 
 And though we are now, as I think, in a backwater of reaction 
 to a lower plane of thought and social endeavour, whence 
 a strong necessity for men of your robust ways of thinking ; 
 our danger from soldiers, priests, Croesuses, and rowdy 
 seekers after excitement, and idle pleasure-hunters, is not 
 so great as that of France or Belgium or Germany or Italy, 
 where the upspring of free thought was more sudden and 
 seemed to be more complete than with us. 
 
 With regard to the penultimate sentence of your letter, 
 you must permit me to be sceptical whether I wrote to you 
 anything with which you are not familiar, or which is worth 
 reproduction. But it does sometimes happen that some 
 turn of expression, probably fortuitous, strikes another mind 
 as of value. I need hardly say that I shall be glad if it has 
 so happened with any words of mine.
 
 CRITICISM OF MODERN TENDENCIES 253 
 
 November 4, 1899. 
 
 Alas for the hollowness of those who claim to be special 
 and accredited prophets of peace, love, and divine counsels. 
 At the first blast of the trumpets in a war of ambition, they 
 are all for high-handed force and bloodshed. Where are 
 the Bishops and Clergy, the incense-burners, worshippers 
 of Virgins and Saints, conscientious Nonconformists, spouters 
 of fine sentiments for peace conferences ? "With exceptions 
 lamentably few, they are tramping along the broad and 
 easy road laid down by the strong, the rich, and the excitable 
 multitude. It would seem that there are few except the 
 despised Rationalists and Agnostics (Atheists the Churches 
 would call them) to maintain that the moral law is the 
 same for nations as for individuals, and that there is no 
 higher or deeper policy than to do as we would be done by. 
 Here we are, however, in the delirium of war fever, and 
 for the time preaching is idle or rather worse. 
 
 The French were just in the same state of delirium over 
 Dreyfus ; having no patience with those who insisted on 
 seeking truth or doing justice in the case of a weak indi- 
 vidual, when a million voices were shouting that nothing 
 should be said or done to show that the 'Army' (= a few 
 officers of high rank) or the 'Nation' (= a few leading 
 politicians) had gone wrong. And by all accounts the 
 priests were ringleaders in the fury. "We in England were 
 keen enough then to see the fallacies, the immoralities, and 
 the dangers of the French temper. And so the French are 
 keen enough to see the same faults in our national deter- 
 mination to take our neighbour's land, suppressing his 
 national life ; and to see that our professional preachers of 
 revealed religion do not stand on any higher ground than 
 the Jesuits in the Dreyfus case. 
 
 15 Bruton Street, W., November 17, 1901. 
 
 Your volume of ' Biichner ' has arrived. Many thanks for 
 it. I hope to be able to read it after a while, but not just 
 yet: because I have other matter in hand, and because I
 
 254 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 cannot read now except very slowly and by rather short 
 stages, with intervals of rest. Moreover, the subject is one 
 with which I am not familiar, and I see at a glance that 
 the treatment of it is such as demands all my powers of 
 attention to get any profit from the book. 
 
 The last book you sent (Gould's Religion of First Christians) 
 proved very interesting. Its line of thought is, so far as 
 my previous reading has gone, quite original : and it strikes 
 me as one which throws additional light on the Gospel 
 stories : and one which, both by its intrinsic worth and by 
 the sobriety with which it is presented, is capable of com- 
 mending itself to the attention even of those who are most 
 wedded to the views of the orthodox Christian Churches as 
 to their origin and sanctions. 
 
 Charlton House, Portbury, Bristol, August 1, 1902. 
 
 Coming to our accustomed autumnal retreat, I am met 
 by a parcel addressed in your well-known handwriting: 
 and I find myself indebted to you for two copies of Mr. 
 Laing's work on Modern Science and Thought. I have 
 always found this writer's books eminently readable and 
 instructive, and I hope to read this one before long ; given 
 leisure, of which I now have a good quantity, and eyesight 
 which every passing year bedims. 
 
 Is it possible that our countrymen are awakening to the 
 perils of their march back towards barbarous ideals under 
 the guidance of clergy, soldiers, capitalists, and ambitious 
 politicians? or do we see only a slight rift in the clouds 
 preparatory to fresh periods of gloom ? I hear my Liberal 
 friends shouting as if the recovery had come ; but I cannot 
 persuade myself that many years of retrogression in every 
 department of thought and action, pervading all ranks of 
 the community, and favoured by powerful organizations, is 
 so superficial an affair as to be brought to a check without 
 some much greater shock than the natural sequels of a 
 food-tax and a fresh endowment of the state creed. If it 
 proves to be so, a new phenomenon will have appeared
 
 CEITICISM OF MODERN TENDENCIES 255 
 
 in our political history : not a very satisfactory one ; for it 
 indicates a degree of levity in public affairs inconsistent 
 with well-ordered conduct, and dangerous to national 
 stability. 
 
 October 31, 1902. 
 
 I have, as you surmise, returned home : not on account of 
 Royal proceedings, the bustle and turmoil of which we old 
 people have avoided : but after an absence of some months, 
 begun for considerations of health, mainly my wife's, partly 
 my own. 
 
 Many thanks for the books. I was about to get the 
 new edition of Supernatural Religion, which I read in the 
 original one some years ago with much interest. But I am 
 tardy about getting books, because I am uncertain, and at 
 best very slow, about reading those which I do get. "Whether 
 I shall read this new edition of Supernatural Religion I 
 know not. I did read Bishop Lightfoot's strictures: 
 temperate, grave, and worthy of a great bishop : and most 
 remarkably and commendably free from the mixture of ex- 
 citement and arrogance which then was too often the tone 
 of the orthodox towards heretics : and indeed is so still, 
 though in less degree. But he seemed to me to touch rather 
 the details and the outskirts than the main body of the 
 argument. 
 
 I am glad to hear you say that your Society has grown. 
 It is quite certain that the willingness of people to hear 
 discussion on matters which were taken as concluded by 
 infallible authority, and not disputable without some savour 
 of impiety, has visibly increased during the last quarter 
 century. It is the most hopeful sign of spiritual life stirring 
 the lump, among many lamentable signs of decay and 
 paralysis in English society at large, and especially in the 
 great, rich, and socially all-powerful organizations for main- 
 taining traditional orthodoxy. For infallibility, whether of 
 Pope, Council, Church, Bible, Koran, Pundits, always and 
 everywhere smothers reason and drags down all spiritual life 
 with it. Still, many generations must pass away before those
 
 256 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 who appeal to human reason can compete with the multitudes 
 who are not satisfied unless they can find some infallible 
 guide who will save them the trouble of thinking. 
 
 April 6, 1903. 
 
 I have been reading a circular letter of invitation, signed 
 by Mrs. C. F. Smith, and find that it carries my recollections 
 back a long way. 
 
 I wonder whether my memory, which ever and anon 
 plays me fantastic tricks, is deceiving me in mixing you up 
 with an incident which happened in the year 1842, and 
 which gave a new turn to my thoughts. A bookseller in 
 Holywell Street placed in his window some notice of criticism 
 on the Old Testament, calling its merits in question. This 
 caused great offence to a passer-by, a young man, a school 
 fellow of my own, honest, impulsive, and, as I was, brought 
 up to believe that the controversies of which we heard one 
 side had no other side. His zeal being kindled, he broke 
 the bookseller's window. The next stage was the police office. 
 I cannot well remember how the affair ended there, but I do 
 remember that the sympathies of the ' respectable ' classes 
 and their press were all with the breaker of windows and 
 against the seller of books. That offended my notions of 
 justice and liberty, and it led me into a train of thought, 
 slow and intermittent and not yet ended, by which I was 
 landed in the belief that the free working of his Reason (or 
 whatever name we may give to mental operations I am not 
 talking metaphysics) is the most precious possession of a 
 man, and that the arrogance which refuses him the right 
 to expose its workings freely to his fellow men is to be 
 classed among the most dangerous and deadly of social 
 disorders. I say my train of thought has not ended, because 
 with enlarged experience of life it has constantly received 
 additional confirmation, and been applied to a larger range 
 of cases. 
 
 It may be that you were not connected with this Holywell 
 Street affair, but somehow it and your name have been 
 jumbled up in my head together. And I have classed you
 
 CEITICISM OF MODERN TENDENCIES 257 
 
 with Mr. Thomas Scott of Ramsgate, whom, as with yourself, 
 I never saw, or came into contact with except by some pen- 
 and-ink correspondence ; but from whose temperate and 
 fearless methods of reasoning I drew much nutriment. 
 
 I observe in Mrs. Smith's letter, as I do in other quarters, 
 the assumption that the proscription of heterodoxy is gone 
 out of the world. I wish I could think so ; but it seems 
 to me that, in the tide of reaction towards ruder and lower 
 types of thought and social organization, this favourite 
 doctrine of the rulers has a fair chance of revival along 
 with others which seemed dead but were only sleeping. 
 
 Will you take this acknowledgement in lieu of my 
 personal presence at the meeting held in your honour ? 
 
 To a clergyman who wrote to him during the war, 
 appealing for a subscription towards the building of 
 a church, he wrote : 
 
 Your letter dated the 6th inst. has reached me ; and I think 
 it more respectful to you to send an answer, though it be one 
 which will not meet your approval. Setting aside trifling 
 contributions, such as would be useless to you and not 
 becoming to myself, or to the solemn names by which you 
 adjure me ; and speaking only of substantial gifts ; I have 
 for the last two or three years found myself impelled to allot 
 to public objects a much larger part of my means than 
 formerly, and to employ it in objects other than those on 
 which you set so high a value. I do not despise church 
 buildings or decorations, which are pleasant enough in their 
 place. But the great ruling power of the Universe, by whom 
 you call on me to be guided, leads me to think of more serious 
 things. 
 
 I find myself one of a great nation which has set itself to 
 subjugate two small nations : and in that process has slain 
 many of them, and has destroyed the property of all. Of the 
 frightful misery so created there is, I believe, no doubt, even 
 among those who think that our claims to supremacy are 
 just, and our methods authorized by the customs of war. If 
 
 s
 
 258 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 I thought so, I should still feel it one of my first obligations to 
 alleviate the sufferings of the weaker party, whose belief in 
 the righteousness of their cause is not less strong than that 
 of the most confident Englishman in the righteousness of 
 his. As I am one of those who think that through a history 
 of many years we have, with some bright intervals, abused our 
 irresistible strength, and done grievous wrong to our weak 
 neighbours, I leave you to imagine the deep mortification 
 with which I have found myself compelled to join in 
 oppressing them, and the obligation which rests on me to 
 direct my extremely insignificant powers of public action 
 towards the aid of those who are trying to reinstate ruined 
 homes, to allay roused hatreds, and to convince our country- 
 men that their violence is laying up for them a heritage not 
 of strength but of weakness and national decay. 
 
 I should not have thought it necessary to make this answer 
 if your letter did not appear to assume that, if only I were 
 sufficiently guided by the Spirit of God, I should be led to 
 adorn your church. I know nothing of the Spirit of God in 
 this connexion, except that which moves men to do justly 
 and to love mercy and to walk humbly. And the more I 
 think of such things, and compare them with the doings of 
 my countrymen, and of myself as an integral part of them, 
 supported as they are by nearly every organized body in the 
 Kingdom, the more my mind is led away from your objects 
 and fixed upon others. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 HOBHOUSE.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE CLOSING YEAKS 
 
 APART from the regret with which he witnessed the 
 course of public affairs, Lord Hobhouse's old age 
 was a time of much peaceful happiness and quiet 
 enjoyment. His interests, always manifold and vivid, 
 were sustained to the last, and there were now, as 
 throughout his life, numerous objects of more personal 
 and private beneficence which always claimed a large 
 share of his thought. With all his constitutional 
 tendency to self-depreciation, looking back over his 
 life he could not feel that he had done otherwise than 
 well with it. This is admitted in a letter written to 
 Lord Farrer, on the occasion of his golden wedding : 
 
 Charlton House, Portbury, Bristol, August 16, 1898. 
 . . . The principal value of anniversaries, I always think, 
 is to make one look back, and reckon up the sum of life, 
 with, its lights and shadows, pleasures and pains, joys and 
 sorrows, grounds for satisfaction or for shame. Nobody can 
 quite compare himself with others, because the thoughts 
 of their hearts and the greater part of their acts are un- 
 known to him ; but the visible phenomena justify comparison 
 in a rough way. Nor can he compare what has been with 
 what might have been : because no one knows the might- 
 have-beens; but conjecturally a comparison maybe made. 
 "What I find of myself is that with all drawbacks of time 
 wasted, opportunities lost, things done wrong and from 
 wrong motives, and errors of judgement and misfortunes, 
 
 s 2
 
 260 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 my score is as good as the average of my neighbours, is 
 better than one used to speculate on in the days when we 
 talked and dreamed over things at the outset of life, and 
 far better than some conceivable alternatives which have 
 come into view. Just at this moment people are in a 
 flattering mood, and are making me out to be a better 
 fellow than I ever was or am. But so far as there is any 
 truth (there is a modicum) in such flatteries, I set down the 
 influences for good in my life, firstly, secondly, and thirdly 
 to my marriage with a clever, good, right-minded, and affec- 
 tionate woman, and to the family of like character, whom 
 indeed I had come to know intimately before I fell into 
 love with her, but with whom she cemented my alliance 
 closely, and, as it has turned out, indissolubly. I find this 
 anniversary, and the review attending it, to be a very 
 solemn thing (as indeed marriage was, though that was all 
 prospect and this retrospect) : worthy of rejoicing, but of 
 rejoicing in a quiet and humble way. 
 
 You know our joint dislike of displays, rites, and cere- 
 monies of all kinds ; a dislike which in this instance was 
 enhanced by the feeling that none of our own generation 
 on either side had been blessed with as long a continuance 
 of wedded union. And so we withdrew quietly to the scene 
 of our first honeymoon, when the changes and chances of 
 life were all hidden in the womb of the future ; and all we 
 knew was that we started with a good stock of mutual love, 
 health, strength, and intelligence to work upon. "Which of 
 the two honeymoons was the most agreeable I am not quite 
 sure ; but we enjoyed the latter one very much in a sober 
 humble spirit. And so we await what is yet to come ; only 
 hoping that the end may not be preceded by mental decay, 
 nor by any inordinate amount of pain. . . . 
 
 Death he faced with equanimity ; his one fear was 
 that he might survive his own faculties, for as soon as 
 his work was done, his only feeling was that ' night as 
 welcome as a friend would fall.' A severe illness at
 
 THE CLOSING YEARS 261 
 
 the end of 1902 found him very ready for either 
 alternative ; so ready that a relative, fearing that the 
 will to live had grown weak in him, wrote pointing out 
 the strength of the ties, public as well as personal, that 
 still bound him to life and its interests. On recovering 
 he replied in the following terms : 
 
 January 19, 1903. 
 
 I promised to answer what you wrote to me at Christmas 
 about the choice between living and dying. Not that there 
 is any practical question before me, because I am convinced 
 that in my case the wish for life or death would not in any 
 measure influence the event ; and I recognize both that the 
 doctor's point of honour is to preserve life and that there 
 are some who earnestly wish to keep me alive ; at least one, 
 to whom I am bound by every conceivable tie. So I have 
 loyally obeyed in all that my expert attendants have willed 
 me to do. 
 
 But it is not amiss to put on paper such imperfect 
 intimations as writing can convey of my feelings towards 
 this supreme event of human life ; and your present appeal 
 gives occasion for it. Perhaps I may take a place among 
 your psychological gallery of specimens and enter into the 
 structure of your next work ; only I suspect that my atti- 
 tude is of too commonplace a kind to furnish any fresh 
 material for the student. 
 
 From a comparatively early time in my life I have con- 
 stantly borne in mind that I may die the next day, and 
 have been quite content to abide the event. But I am 
 confident that this abiding sense of the precariousness of 
 life has never made the least difference in my external 
 action, except so far as it may have given me serenity of 
 mind, and have made me indifferent to risks. I have 
 acted in all affairs just as if my life were to be continued 
 to the end of the affair in hand ; and whether I have been 
 idle or strenuous, timid or brave, selfish or generous, rash 
 or prudent, harsh or gentle, spiteful or kindly, my actions
 
 262 MEMOIE OF LOKD HOBHOUSE 
 
 have been governed, not by the sense that I may die to- 
 morrow, but by the ordinary springs of human conduct, and 
 I believe that in all this I resemble the mass of my fellow 
 creatures. 
 
 As to the time and mode of my death, I have long 
 wished to die in harness, and have envied those among my 
 companions who have done so. If a man does so after 
 a long course of honest work, that in my view is complete 
 euthanasia. The drawback of such a death is the shock 
 to the survivors ; and the gravity of that depends on cir- 
 cumstances. In my own case there has for a long time 
 been only one person whose life would be seriously and 
 permanently affected by my departure, and she is now well 
 stricken in years. Others doubtless would have emotions of 
 kindness and regret. 
 
 Poor Pope will grieve a month, and Gay 
 A week, and Arbuthnot a day. 
 
 The waters would rapidly close over my head, and leave 
 not a wrinkle behind. Next best to dying in the foil tide 
 of activity, is death coming speedily and painlessly after 
 that tide has ebbed; and that also is euthanasia, which 
 might have been mine if I had not awoke from my deep 
 drowsiness of a few weeks ago. For myself only I wished 
 it: but I have recognized the right of others to keep me 
 alive, and accept the lot that awaits me with patience, and 
 willingly enjoy the many pleasant things that the world 
 yet contains; among which is conspicuous the love and 
 kindness of those nearest to me. 
 
 What I do very earnestly and constantly wish is that my 
 life may not be prolonged after I have lost control over my 
 thoughts or of my bodily functions. I have known many 
 such cases, and they have seemed to me objects for the 
 deepest commiseration, for whom immediate death was to 
 be earnestly desired. Also I shrink from pain. And yet 
 I know that if my life is even moderately prolonged, it is 
 certain to be attended by great pain, and probably by loss 
 of faculties.
 
 THE CLOSING YEARS 263 
 
 You see I do not share the sentiments of Sophocles in 
 his most pathetic mood, or of Job in his mood of greatest 
 bitterness r6 /XT) fyvvai, &c. On the contrary, I believe that 
 for nearly all terrestrial beings who universally cling to 
 life, it contains much more enjoyment than pain, as it most 
 certainly has for myself, and I acknowledge thankfully 
 that, present infirmities notwithstanding, the good things 
 of it are for me well in excess over the evil or unpleasant 
 things. My outlook is only the common-sense of a rational 
 being who looks before as well as after. The end must 
 come, and come soon. My work is done, and I do not wish 
 it postponed for that cause. I do wish it to come before 
 that stage which, as my experience tells me, awaits all 
 who long outlive their strength: pain and helplessness 
 which cause dire distress to the man himself and to all who 
 care for him. 
 
 If you say that the dread of these things is cowardice, 
 I am not sure that I can repel the charge. But it seems to 
 me not unreasonable, nor other than human, to desire that 
 death, of which I am not afraid, may come before the setting 
 in of long racking pains and humiliating imbecilities, of 
 which I am afraid. And, after all, it is but an attitude of 
 mind. I cannot lengthen my life, and I am not willing, 
 probably not able, to shorten it. 
 
 Thus far as regards my own feelings on the personal and 
 domestic side. What you say about public affairs is 
 flattering, but I think delusive. When a man is so weakened 
 that he holds aloof from public controversy, because he has 
 not the stamina necessary for renewing and sustaining 
 conflict against assailants, he is virtually without influence 
 in public affairs; and though it is true that all private 
 groups of sympathizers lend support and comfort to one 
 another, to say more than that of me is exaggeration. I 
 agree that to court death by reason of disgust with the 
 action of one's fellow countrymen is a weak and blame- 
 worthy act of impatience, and, if prompted by the desire 
 of escaping conflict which others are left to endure, may
 
 264 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 be stigmatized as cowardice. One'thinks of Prevost Paradol 
 who, within a very short time of Louis Napoleon's over- 
 throw, killed himself in despair at the ascendancy of priests 
 and soldiers, which he thought to be permanently es- 
 tablished. Whereas there is the conflict still vigorously 
 waged in France, and by no means without hope for the 
 side of reason and liberty ; as I hope and believe will occur 
 in England, though hardly till our insane fit of arrogance 
 has met with its natural check in some shock or other. 
 But Paradol's case is not mine, for I am not courting 
 death. If mortification at seeing lower ideals of national 
 welfare supplant higher ones, and fear of impending 
 calamities from that cause, should concur with other things 
 to reconcile one to quitting the world a little sooner in- 
 stead of a little later, there is not much to be ashamed of. 
 As long as I am here, and as long as I retain my health of 
 mind, I shall use such tiny atoms of power as I may possess 
 for the promotion of the public welfare, according to the 
 tenets which I embraced in the vigour of manhood, and 
 which all my subsequent experience and reflection have 
 tended to confirm. 
 
 Now let me thank you for your sympathetic, intelligent, 
 and affectionate appeal, and assure you that, whether living 
 or dying, or wishing to live or die, I hope to demean myself 
 in such fashion that my family shall have no cause to blush 
 for me. 
 
 Did you ever read Mat Arnold's thoughts in "Westminster 
 Abbey? I am not to be named in the same week with 
 Arthur Stanley; but the verses which I quote here have 
 always appealed to me with singular force and directness. 
 He has been referring to Stanley's noble character and work, 
 and then says : 
 
 What could he better wish than then to die 
 And wait the issue lying underground? 
 
 Why should he pray to range 
 
 Down the long age of truth that ripens slow, 
 
 And break his heart with all the baffling change 
 And all the tedious tossing to and fro?
 
 THE CLOSING YEAES 265 
 
 In the next stanza Arnold indicates the points of reaction, 
 of which he was witnessing the early shoots, as we witness 
 the mid-growth, and your generation will witness the full 
 efflorescence (a military despotism) unless the shock comes. 
 
 Other letters breathe a similar feeling about the 
 beauty of death in old age, and the contrasted tragedy 
 of a premature cutting off of youth and vigour. 
 
 To SIB EDWAED FEY. 
 
 July 21, 1903. 
 
 . . . And the gallant old Pope has closed his long eventful 
 life at last : and the head-liners proclaim ' A painless end,' 
 when the poor old man has been tossing to and fro between 
 death and life for many weeks, with all the harpies and 
 ghouls of the news-mongery eager to snatch every detail of 
 his struggles. He has lived a noble life, which one is sorry 
 to see attended by such ignoble crowds at its close. What 
 a comfort to be obscure and die in peace 1 
 
 ToC. 
 
 15 Bruton Street, W., April 23, 1904. 
 
 You will have heard before now of 's premature 
 
 death. . . . She had all the preliminaries of a peaceful, use- 
 ful, happy life before her. And then just on the threshold 
 she is struck down, and all the thought, care, and love that 
 have been given without stint to her nurture are thrown 
 away, so far as any fruit in her is concerned. 
 
 One feels\tempted for a moment in these cases to break 
 out, as Milton does over the death of his college friend, at 
 the waste of effort in the world. 
 
 Were it not better done as others use, 
 To sport with Amaryllis in the shade 
 Or with the tangles of Neaera's hair. 
 
 For the fair guerdon which he hopes to find, 
 Comes the dark fury with abhorred shears 
 And slits the thin-spun life.
 
 266 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 It is possible that you may have had a passing shadow 
 of such thoughts lately, on the premature death of your 
 daughter A., and that of B., who had done little more than 
 display a charming girlhood and enter into the dawn of 
 a charming womanhood. Not much reflection is needed to 
 supply the corrective, as Milton himself does in his robust 
 fashion, though wrapped in the imagery of his fancy. 
 But all the reflection in the world cannot prevent the sharp 
 pain of the blow that shatters hopes by which many labours 
 and anxieties have been cheered for many years. Nor would 
 one wish to prevent it, nor to do other than leave it to the 
 course of transmutation into tender memories by the gentle 
 hand of time. 
 
 The death of one * who has lived out a long and active life 
 affects one very differently. . . . Certainly the parting moment 
 is one of great gravity, and is attended with pain, however 
 familiarized the idea of death may have become owing to 
 its repeated approaches to one side or the other. But when 
 two men have been so much and so long separated in actual 
 life as we have been, that takes away from the acuteness of 
 pain which those feel who are kept in touch by constant 
 habit as well as affection. 
 
 The final parting from one whose life and my own have 
 run alongside for more than eighty years does indeed open 
 a flood of recollections extending from earliest perceptions 
 until now ; and it is a very solemn feeling to find oneself, 
 the sole survivor of a large family that held together for 
 more than a quarter of my life, still alive, but hardly able 
 to do any of the work of the world, and destined to pass 
 very soon, like the others, behind the veil. 
 
 To MB. J. LLOYD. 
 
 Banwell Abbey, September 26, 1904. 
 
 I do still see the light of the sun, but the life I lead does 
 not correspond to the flattering terms which you bestow 
 
 1 Referring to the recent death of his brother, Edmund.
 
 THE CLOSING YEAES 267 
 
 upon it. It is a very inert and useless one ; half the twenty- 
 four hours engaged in sleeping, and the rest in feeding, 
 strolling about, and lazily reading books which are printed 
 in type and on paper good enough to suit very weak eyes, 
 and which contain matter superficial enough to suit equally 
 weak brains. To myself I appear to be a mere cumberer 
 of the ground; but there are those (especially one, who 
 attracted me more than sixty, and became my wife more than 
 fifty-six years, ago) to whom the prolongation of my life 
 appears a desirable thing. Moreover, notwithstanding failure 
 of hearing, sight, and strength, both of muscle and brain, 
 I still find that life offers more pleasures than pains, and so 
 am content to live on : though when the end comes I shall 
 be heartily content to meet it. 
 
 Thank you for kind words, and for the cutting which 
 shows that your unselfish efforts to promote public welfare 
 have met with the recognition which they deserve at the 
 hands of your neighbours. You are still quite young enough 
 for reasonable hope that there may yet be many years of 
 useful work for you to do. As I think, there is no more 
 solid basis of happiness for a man than the consciousness of 
 having done with all his might the work that has come to 
 his hand ; and no more honourable position for such an one, 
 be he of high rank or low, or of great wealth or small, than 
 to live and die among his neighbours, attended by the 
 respect and the authority which his antecedent life attracts. 
 So may it be with you. 
 
 We are occupying for a few weeks a house in a charming 
 part of the world ; the western end of Mendip, in my own 
 native and beloved Somersetshire ; not that part of it where 
 I was born and spent much of my childhood and young- 
 manhood ; but among hills visible from that part It is 
 always a pleasant place of retreat for me. We intend 
 returning to London in a few days' time, and there fixing 
 ourselves for some months. But every year I become more 
 unsociable, owing to deafness and other bodily shortcomings ; 
 so I do not see many people, wherever I am. The power
 
 268 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 which I retain more than others is leg power, which carries 
 me to the top of Mendip and down again. And just now 
 I am reminded that it is time to start for a walk with a 
 little dog, nearly as infirm as myself, who is my constant 
 companion when I take my walks abroad. All good go with 
 
 you. 
 
 From your sincere friend, 
 
 HOBHOUSE. 
 
 I return cutting, which may be useful to send to some one 
 else. Such things are apt to get exhausted, so experience 
 teaches l . 
 
 Meanwhile his intense enjoyment of a country life 
 remained an inexhaustible source of happiness. He was 
 one of those men who rapidly establish points of contact 
 with their surroundings ; tbe antiquarian interests of 
 the neighbourhood, its botanical possibilities, or, in the 
 case of Somersetshire, its early associations, all meant 
 much to him and were a frequent theme of conversation 
 and correspondence, particularly in his later years. His 
 powers of walking continued, and he would roam over 
 Mendip in the summer or a spur of the Chilterns in 
 the spring with a dog friend at his heels, establishing 
 grand-paternal relations with a tribe of small children 
 in every neighbourhood where he stayed for long. 
 
 To REV. J. B. MEDLEY. 
 
 ... I fear we shall never see Charlton again, enjoyable 
 as the place is, and kind as are the neighbours, and pleasant 
 
 1 By the side of these letters the following rendering of the Emperor 
 Hadrian's address to the parting soul, which occurs among other jottings in 
 one of h is notebooks, may find a place : 
 
 Little, lively, kindly soul, 
 Comrade of my flesh, and guest, 
 Wilt thou go ? and to what goal ? 
 Pallid, shivering, undrest, 
 And leave unsaid thy wonted jest.
 
 THE CLOSING YEARS 269 
 
 as are all the memories and images connected with it. 
 Lady Hobhouse has had a full share of energy in her life, 
 but Time is now ' laying his iron hand ' upon her, and she 
 finds that a house like Charlton, which cries aloud for others 
 to share its amenities, wants for its due use inmates, and 
 especially young ones, more than her strength suffices for. 
 As for me, my social energies have been sapped away this 
 longful while. 
 
 I think we shall fall back on the Manor House at Ban well. . . . 
 It is a couple of sizes or so smaller, and in that respect more 
 fitting. And the factors of civilization, ecclesiastical, civil, 
 and commercial; the church, the vicarage, the police, the 
 gas, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker, and the 
 rest of it ; are so close that we can almost throw a casting- 
 net over them. Our culinary department highly approves 
 of having to take no thought for the morrow, and being able 
 to get an additional beefsteak at an hour's notice, or to scold 
 an erring butcher or fishmonger before the sun has gone 
 down upon justly excited wrath. 
 
 To MES. BARNETT. 
 
 Sandhurst Lodge, June 29, 1904. 
 
 ... If anything could dispose one more than usual to 
 desire fresh air and plant-life for our fellow townspeople, 
 it is our present environment. "We are feasting our eyes on 
 verdure and innumerable flowers, set in an outer framework 
 of fir woods and breezy heaths ; soothing our ears by the 
 whispers of the wind in the delicate foliage of the pines ; 
 and taking refreshment through our nostrils in every breath 
 of air that comes across the broom and the gorse and the 
 heather, or the meadows whose grass is being turned into 
 hay by gangs of biped workers, and into milk, butter, cheese, 
 and beef by quadrupeds. From mid-May to mid-June I 
 have always reckoned the primest of the prime of the year, 
 and from mid-April to mid-July the secondary prime. 
 During my working years I always used to yearn for the 
 open country in the Spring and early Summer, and to fret
 
 270 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 at the custom which crowds us into cities when Nature's 
 beauty is at its best, in order that we may kill something in 
 "Winter or Autumn. But I got very little of my desire till 
 now, when, old and inert as I am, I find that the enjoyment 
 of life and growth in a renewed world is the keenest that 
 can meet the senses. 
 
 This was the last of his summers. August and 
 September were passed tranquilly as usual in the pretty 
 Somerset village under the shadow of Mendip ; but he 
 had no strength for another winter, and a brief illness 
 brought the end swiftly and with little pain. He died 
 on December 6, as he desired, with faculties unim- 
 paired. Lady Hobhouse lived not quite five months 
 longer. They had been married fifty-six years. 
 
 Arthur Hobhouse lived and died unknown to the 
 greater public. His reputation stood high only with 
 those who were well qualified to judge him. To others 
 he was scarcely even a name. But he has perhaps 
 left a deeper mark on his generation than many 
 a figure who has made a braver show upon its stage. 
 Measured by actual achievements, an insufficient test, 
 his influence could not be rated low. To have laid 
 the foundations of a rational method of dealing with 
 charitable endowments, to have taken a prominent 
 part in forwarding what was perhaps the greatest 
 legal revolution of the last century the Acts which 
 gave married women the control of their own property 
 and earnings, were no small achievements. His five 
 years in India gave him a place among those who 
 have built up so much that is admirable in our dealings 
 with that great dependency, and lent him weight in 
 opposing the return to lower ideals of statesmanship.
 
 THE CLOSING YEAES 271 
 
 Twenty years of judicial work in the two supreme 
 courts of the Empire, devoted always to the rational 
 and human interpretation of the law, could not pass 
 without leaving a real and beneficent effect upon its 
 complex mass of traditions and enactments. Side by 
 side with this arduous work, he found time year by 
 year for the furtherance of many movements London 
 government, land reform, and even the liberation of 
 Sunday from the trammels of the Judaic law. Finally, 
 through the later years of his life, the whole weight of 
 his personal influence, backed by all the authority 
 of long experience, high office, and proved capacity, 
 was set to stem the current of reaction towards a 
 debased ideal of national politics, and though his 
 public interventions were few, his resolute attitude 
 was a constant source of encouragement to those 
 actively engaged in a fight which for a while seemed 
 hopeless. With those who knew him best a deeper 
 influence survives, the example of a man who through 
 a long life put the public service above personal 
 ambition, who found in work its own reward, and 
 did what came to him, small or great, with equal 
 thoroughness because it was work and had to be done. 
 There is a distinction acutely drawn by Plato 
 between the art of doing a thing and the art of 
 getting paid for it, and there is a corresponding dis- 
 tinction between two types of able men. There is 
 a class of men of whom the world hears much, who 
 have learnt the second art to perfection to such 
 perfection that they reap the reward not only of what 
 they do themselves, but often of what others do as 
 well. There are others who put the work first, and 
 take the payment as it comes. For them, honest
 
 272 MEMOIR OF LOED HOBHOUSE 
 
 work, careful thought, public service, the redress of 
 wrongs, the teaching of truth, has a fatal fascination. 
 They cannot escape it even if they would, and are 
 forced by it often into the sacrifice of a career. They 
 are, as Arthur Hobhouse himself once put it, with 
 the dry humour and self-depreciatory tone which were 
 parts of him, ' beasts of burden ' ; in the more appre- 
 ciative phrase of the poet, they are ' helpers and friends 
 of mankind' whose 'is the praise, if mankind hath 
 not as yet in its march fainted and fallen and died/ 
 The world, far from thanking them, thinks them weak- 
 lings who cannot fight for their own hand, but in 
 reality it is the greatest mark of their strength that 
 they pass over this accusation with contempt. They 
 do not fight well for their own hand, because they 
 regard such things as a hindrance to the proper 
 business of life, but on public matters they err, if at 
 all, in the direction of being too strong. They are 
 not pliable, and so make uncomfortable members of 
 easy-going boards. Success of a kind often comes 
 to them as a sort of secondary consequence. Sheer 
 ability pushes them into it, in spite of the fatal 
 tendency to sympathize with lost causes and tell 
 inconvenient truths. Of this class was Arthur Hob- 
 house. With qualifications for judicial and administra- 
 tive work inferior to none among his contemporaries, 
 he could not avoid a measure of personal success. 
 But of the art of success he knew nothing. Indeed, 
 he missed that first and greatest qualification, of serene 
 belief in his own merits, in which the prosperous man 
 of the world finds so much gratification and support. 
 He judged himself severely, and applied the somewhat 
 sombre view of things which went with a certain lack
 
 THE CLOSING YEAES 273 
 
 of physical buoyancy in his constitution with special 
 rigour to his own position and performances. Here 
 again we touch another fatal flaw in those who value 
 their performances not as a means of self-advancement 
 but as contributions to the world's work. The skilled 
 self-advertiser is so accustomed to make much out of 
 little that a very modest effort grows in his hands into a 
 great achievement, and since to do his business well 
 he must learn to deceive himself, as well as the public, 
 he soon adds to external plaudits all the happiness 
 of perfect inward satisfaction with his own merits. 
 Listen to his conversation and you will recognize if 
 you are just that he is puffing his wares quite as 
 much to impress himself as to gain anything from 
 you. Meanwhile the humble beast of burden, judging 
 his performance by the standard of perfection, knows 
 that all he can say is that he has done his best and 
 is internally convinced that there was in the range of 
 possibilities a better way which perhaps a better man 
 would have discovered. He depreciates his doings 
 not from a mannerism, nor because he regards humility 
 in the abstract as a virtue, but because his mind is 
 constantly set towards great and high interests of 
 human welfare, and his contribution to them always 
 seems small in comparison with his wishes. 
 
 Such a man is generally of extreme simplicity in his 
 personal habits and his modes of thought and speech, 
 for he does not demand much of life. He is slow to 
 judge men, but when the time arrives pronounces judge- 
 ment with incisive phrase and with authority. He has 
 a courtesy of manner which we call of the old world 
 merely because it is not of our time, and will address 
 the peasant's wife of whom he asks his way with
 
 274 MEMOIR OF LORD HOBHOUSE 
 
 precisely the same deference which he shows to the 
 lady within his house, and in these little ways he 
 is quite unconscious of differing from the mass of men. 
 In personal relations he shows the same desire to 
 serve his generation as in his public work. If his 
 wealth grows, the balance is at the disposal of the 
 most necessitous of the causes which he supports, or 
 of the friends and relations whose needs he under- 
 stands, but his benefactions are not mere gifts easily 
 lavished from an overflowing purse, but carefully 
 thought out and adjusted with his usual thoroughness 
 to the requirements and the character of the recipient. 
 Not money but time and thought the worker's most 
 treasured assets are of the essence of his gifts. So 
 he moves noiselessly through a world of clamour and 
 advertisement, possessing his soul in patience and 
 refreshing it with a quiet humour. Of such was 
 Arthur Hobhouse. In a note-book in which he was 
 wont to jot down occasional verses and translations 
 and other fugitive pieces occurs an epitaph on him- 
 self which gives the character of the man and the 
 measure of his personal ambition : 
 
 Called on to work in many fields, he still 
 Strove with his might each duty to fulfil, 
 And keep unstained, of all a man may claim 
 The noblest heritage, his father's name.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Afghanistan 
 
 Lansdowne, Lord, on policy as to, 
 
 70-1. 
 Salisbury, Lord, policy of, as to, 
 
 68-74. 
 
 war with (1879), 124-34. 
 withdrawal from (1881), 138. 
 Africa, South 
 
 Church appeal case (1879), 203-5. 
 War of 1899 
 
 clerical attitude towards, 253. 
 Hobhouse's attitude towards, 
 
 218-21, 253, 257-8. 
 press agitation for, 236. 
 women and children, Miss Hob- 
 house's work for, 224-8. 
 Ambleside, 10-11. 
 Antrobus, Mr., 185. 
 Aosta, 16-17. 
 Arbuthnot, Sir A., 77. 
 Argyll, Duke of, 41, 128, 188. 
 Arnold,, Dr. F. S., cited, 228. 
 
 Matthew, quoted, 264. 
 Ashbourne, Lord, 200, 214. 
 
 Balfour, Lady Betty, cited, 72 nn., 73. 
 Barnett, Canon, letters to, 224, 234-5. 
 
 Mrs., letter to, 269. 
 Bayley, Sir Edward, 77, 79. 
 Beachcroft, Mr., 173. 
 Beaconsfield, Earl of, on the Afghan 
 
 campaign, 127-8 ; party names em- 
 ployed by, 244; otherwise men- 
 tioned, 66, 115, 127, 128. 
 
 Beal, James, 122, 159, 162. 
 
 Benson, Dr., 35. 
 
 Bessborough, Lord, 44. 
 
 Billings, Mr., 142. 
 
 Blackburn, Lord, 200. 
 
 Blisset, George, 11. 
 
 Bowen, Lord, 48, 139. 
 
 Bradford, Sir Edward, 112. 
 
 Bradlaugh, C., letter to, 249-50. 
 
 Bramwell, Lord, 200. 
 
 Bryce, J., estimate of Hobhouse by, 
 52-3; Parochial Charities Bill of, 
 53, 170 ; otherwise mentioned, 139. 
 
 Buckhurst, Lord, 41. 
 
 Burdett, Sir Francis, 243. 
 
 Burne-Jones, Sir E., 115. 
 
 Burns, John, 221. 
 
 Burt, Thomas, 170. 
 
 Butt, Isaac, 154. 
 
 Buxton, Edward North, account by, 
 
 of Epping Forest arbitration cases, 
 
 &c., 194-202. 
 Francis, 139. 
 
 Cairns, Earl, letter from, 22 ; Em- 
 manuel Hospital case, 41-4. 
 Cambridge, Duke of, 37. 
 Campbell-Bannerman, Sir H., 221. 
 Canadian Banks case (1887), 205-6. 
 Carnarvon, Lord, letter to, 38-40. 
 Carrington, Lord, 139. 
 Cavagnari, Sir Louis, 69, 74. 
 Cavendish, Lord Frederick, 122. 
 Chapman, Bishop, letter from, 22. 
 Charitable Trusts Act (1853), 25. 
 Charity Commission 
 
 Hobhouse appointed a member of, 
 19. 
 
 origin of, 25. 
 
 restrictions on, 25-6. 
 Chartists, 13-15, 124, 251. 
 Churches, militarism of, 253. 
 Clarke, Sir Andrew, 77. 
 Coach travelling, 8-10. 
 Cohen, Mr., 173. 
 Coleridge, Lord, 59, 170, 178; letter 
 
 from, 21. 
 
 Collier, Sir Robert, see Monkswell. 
 Compensation Bill, 234. 
 Conservative Party 
 
 development of, 116-7. 
 
 names adopted by, 244. 
 Contemporary Review 
 
 London city companies, Hobhouse's 
 article on, 170-2. 
 
 London County Council, Hob- 
 house's article on, 180-1. 
 Copyhold Enfranchisement Bills, 
 
 148-9. 
 
 Cornwallis, Lord, 104. 
 Country gentlemen, duties of, 1-2. 
 Country life, 268-9. 
 Couch, Sir R., 66, 200, 204, 205. 
 Courtney, Leonard, 44, 106.
 
 276 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Cowper, Lord, 153. 
 
 Cranworth, Lord, 25, 84, 89. 
 
 Cross, Lord, 170. 
 
 Cull, Dr., 11. 
 
 Currey, Mr., 8. 
 
 Custody of children case, 206-8. 
 
 Dane, Sir Louis, 70. 
 
 Darby, Dr. Evans, letter to, 239-41. 
 
 Davey, Lord, quoted on Hobhouse 
 at the Bar, 18-19 ; on the Endowed 
 Schools Commission, 51-2 ; esti- 
 mate of Hobhouse by, 202-8 ; other- 
 wise mentioned, 189, 200, 212, 214. 
 
 Davidson, Dr. R., Bishop of Win- 
 chester, 153. 
 
 De Grey, Lord, 43. 
 
 De la Hooke, Mr., 184. 
 
 De Villiers, Sir Henry, 200. 
 
 Dead Hand, Lectures published in, 27. 
 
 Democracy and Reaction, 242. 
 
 Derby, Earl of, 170. 
 
 Devonshire, Duke of, letter from, 214. 
 
 Dicey, Professor, cited, 56. 
 
 Dilke, Sir Charles, 122. 
 
 Disraeli, see Beaconsfield. 
 
 Dreyfus case, 263. 
 
 Eden, Sir Ashley, 68. 
 Education 
 
 condition of, in endowed schools 
 (1869), 31, 36-7. 
 
 rates for, 55. 
 
 training of teachers, proposal for, 
 
 85. 
 
 Egypt, Liberal policy as to (1882), 189. 
 Elections of 1880, 123. 
 Ellis, William, letter from, 38. 
 Emmanuel Hospital case, 40-4, 49. 
 Endowed Schools Act (1868), 46. 
 Endowed Schools Bill (1868), 35-6. 
 Endowed Schools Commission 
 
 constitution of, 37. 
 
 creation of, 35. 
 
 Davey, Lord, on the work of, 51-2. 
 
 Emmanuel Hospital case, 40-4, 49. 
 
 Hobhouse's letters on, 88-40, 46-7. 
 
 report of (1872), 49. 
 
 Roby, Mr., on the work of, 47-51. 
 Endowments 
 
 grotesque instances of, 30-1. 
 
 Jowett's views on, 81. 
 
 Mill's views on, 27-80. 
 
 Wood and Ellis on, 32, 33. 
 Epping Forest enclosures, 115, 189, 
 
 194-6. 
 
 Fairer, Lord (Thomas Henry), 4, 6, 
 153, 189 ; letters to on school 
 
 days, 8 ; on elections of 1880, 123 ; 
 from America, 146-7 ; on restric- 
 tion of work, 178 ; on London 
 County Council, 177-80 ; on London 
 Borough Council Scheme, 190-8 ; 
 on wages, 232 ; on golden wedding, 
 259-60. 
 
 Farrer, Miss, see Hobhouse, Lady. 
 
 Fearon, Mr., 41. 
 
 Fitzgerald, Lord, 200. 
 
 Firth, J. F. B., 161, 162, 170, 177. 
 
 Forster, W. E., 35-6, 48, 54. 
 
 Forsyth, Sir Douglas, 111. 
 
 Forward policy, 66, 74-5. 
 
 Foxcroft, Miss, letter to, 246. 
 
 French invasion, attitude towards, 
 12-13. 
 
 Fry, Sir Edward, 200: letter to, 
 265. 
 
 Garrett, Miss, 54 and note. 
 
 Garth, Sir R., 66. 
 
 Geysers, 145. 
 
 Gladstone, W. E., 49, 184, 248 ; letter 
 
 from, 137. 
 Gordon, Mr., 177. 
 Grant, General, 148. 
 Granville, Lord, 127. 
 Grey, Albert (Earl Grey), 139. 
 Grosvenor, Lord Richard, 122. 
 Gurney, Russell, 56, 58. 
 
 Hadrian, Emperor, cited, 268 note. 
 
 Haggis, Mr., 169, 177. 
 
 Haldane, R. B., estimate of Hobhouse 
 
 by, 216. 
 
 Halsbury, Earl of, letter from, 215 ; 
 estimate of Hobhouse by, 216 ; 
 otherwise mentioned, 200, 212, 
 214. 
 
 Hannen, Lord, 139, 200, 204. 
 Harcourt, Sir William, 162, 221, 
 
 223. 
 
 Harrison, Charles, 185. 
 Frederic, 127. 
 Hatherley, Lord, 88 ; letter from, 
 
 82. 
 
 Hawkins, Mr. Justice, 178. 
 Herschell, Lord, 153, 200, 214. 
 Hobhouse, Arthur, Lord 
 
 Career birth, 1 ; school days, 8 ; 
 Oxford, 8-4 ; legal studies, 4 ; 
 social work in London, 5 ; takes 
 M.A. degree, 9 ; engagement to 
 Miss Farrer, 12 ; marriage, 15 ; 
 foreign travel, 16-18 ; success at 
 the Bar, 15, 22, 23 ; illness, 19 ; 
 on the Charity Commission, 19, 
 25; lectures on endowments,
 
 INDEX 
 
 26-7 ; serves on the Endowed 
 Schools Commission, 37 ; paper 
 on position of married women, 
 56-8 ; Law Member of Indian 
 Council (1872), 59; the cotton 
 duties, 79, 80; Specific Relief 
 Act, 87 ; speech on codification of 
 law, 89, 93 ; Transfer of Property 
 Act, 94 ; Afghan policy, 73 ; life 
 in India, 107-18 ; resigns (1877), 
 80 ; lecture on home relations 
 with India, 81-6 ; lectures on 
 Indian subjects, 96-105 ; helps 
 to organize Indian Famine 
 Union, 106; joins committee 
 of C.O.S., 115; Epping Forest 
 Arbitration cases (1878-82), 115, 
 139, 194-6 ; memorial on Afghan 
 campaign, 125-9 ; stands for 
 Parliament (1880), 115, 121-4; 
 views on party politics, 116-20 ; 
 tries to form Anti-Aggression 
 League, 138 ; London Municipal 
 Reform League (1880), 159-65; 
 work as member of Judicial 
 Committee of Privy Council 
 (1881-1901), 135, 197, 200-1 ; 
 member of London School Board 
 (1882-4), 139, 164; Ilbert Bill 
 (1883), 105; visit to America 
 (1883), 139-47; made a peer 
 (1885), 147; Copyhold Enfran- 
 chisement Bills, 148-9 ; Land 
 Transfer question, 149-52 ; on 
 Irish government, 153-5 ; elected 
 alderman (1889), 169; work on 
 L.C.C., 169-70, 173; betterment 
 question, 186-9 ; breakdown 
 (1890), 173 ; resigns from L.C.C. 
 (1892), 183 ; on reform of House 
 of Lords, 155-7; Sunday Bill 
 (1897), 152 ; Grahamstown 
 Church case, 203-5; Canadian 
 Banks case, 205-6 ; custody of 
 children case, 206-8 ; Indian 
 adoption case, 208-10 ; Indian 
 ritual cases, 210-1 ; Kempton 
 Park case, 211-3 ; resigns from 
 Judicial Committee, 214 ; atti- 
 tude towards South African war, 
 218-21, 225-7, 253, 257-8; on 
 Miss Hobhouse's deportation, 
 228-30; golden wedding, 259; 
 illness (1902), 260-1; at Ban- 
 well, 267-9 ; death, 270. 
 Characteristics 
 
 argumentative faculty, 47. 
 courage, 53, 216. 
 courtesy, 216. 
 
 decision, inflexibility of, 202, 
 216, 246. 
 
 economical habits, 47 note. 
 
 honesty of mind and straight- 
 forwardness, 51, 53. 
 
 industry and zeal, 52, 53, 60, 
 202. 
 
 justice, love of, 61. 
 
 kindliness, 52. 
 
 liberalism, 216, 231, 245. 
 
 observation, quickness of, 62. 
 
 practicality, 61. 
 
 religious views, 247-9, 250, 254-6. 
 estimates of, 270-4 ; by Mr. Bryce, 
 
 52-3 ; by Lord Monkswell, 185 ; 
 
 by Lord Davey, 202-3 ; by Lord 
 
 Halsbury and Mr. Haldane, 216. 
 Hobhouse, Lady (wife), engagement 
 of, 12 ; in India, 108-9 ; on Com- 
 mittee of S. Africa Women and 
 Children Distress Fund, 225 ; death 
 of, 270 ; letters to, 13, 18, 43, 54, 
 124, 140-6, 153, 234; otherwise 
 mentioned, 113, 249-50, 260, 262, 
 267. 
 
 Catherine (sister), 7, 8. 
 
 Sir Charles (cousin), letters to- 
 on imperialism, 222; on death. 
 265. 
 
 Bishop Edmund (brother), 3 ; death 
 of, 266 and note. 
 
 Eliza (sister), 7 ; letter from, 23. 
 
 Emily (niece), work of, for Boer 
 women and children, 224-5 ; ap- 
 peals to the War Office, 227 ; de- 
 ported from Capetown, 228-30. 
 
 Henry (father), career of, 1 ; Arthur 
 Hobhouse's letters to, 6-13, 16-18 ; 
 letter to, from legal friend, 15. 
 
 Henry (brother), 3, 18. 
 
 Sir John Cam (cousin), 121, 191 note. 
 
 L. T. (nephew), letters to on 
 'Tariff- Reformers,' 237-9; on De- 
 mocracy and Reaction, 2415. 
 
 Ven ble Reginald (brother), 3. 
 Holyoake, G. J., letters to on labour 
 
 members and money power, 235-7 ; 
 on the Rationalist Press Associa- 
 tion, &c., 250-7. 
 
 Holywell Street bookseller incident, 
 256. 
 
 Hope, Mr., 197. 
 
 Hutton, Sir John, letter to, 183-5. 
 
 Huxley, Thomas, 54. 
 
 Ilbert, Sir C. P., Bill of (1883), 105-6 ; 
 
 letter to, 148 ; quoted, 88-9. 
 India 
 
 adoption, law of, 208-10.
 
 278 
 
 INDEX 
 
 India, continued 
 caste, 96-7. 
 
 Code of Civil Procedure (1877), 87. 
 codification of the substantive law, 
 
 87-96. 
 
 cotton duties, 75-81. 
 education, female, 108. 
 famines, 106. 
 forward policy, 66, 74-5. 
 Gaekwar of Baroda, 83. 
 Government 
 
 differences with Home Govern- 
 ment, 66. 
 
 interference by Home Govern- 
 ment, 81-6. 
 methods of, 98-9. 
 party politics resented in, 67. 
 Ilbert Bill (1883), 105-6. 
 infanticide, female, 103. 
 intercourse, barriers to, 100-1. 
 land tenure, 104-6. 
 Law Member of Council, position 
 
 and work of, 59-60. 
 Lytton's, Lord, viceroyalty of, 64-5. 
 Northbrook,Lord,viceroyaltyof,63. 
 reforms, hasty, dangers of, 62, 99. 
 ritual cases, 210-1. 
 Specific Belief Act (1877), 87. 
 suttee, 102-3. 
 Thugs, 112. 
 
 Transfer of Property Act (1882), 94. 
 Treatise on RinduLaw and Usage cited, 
 
 199-200. 
 
 women, position of, 100. 
 Irish Home Bule, 153. 
 
 James, Sir W., 39. 
 
 W. H., 170. 
 
 of Hereford, Lord, 200. 
 Jenkyns, Dr., 9 and note. 
 
 Jessel, Sir George, letter from, 34 ; 
 
 Epping Forest judgement, 194 ; 
 
 Hobhouse compared with, 202. 
 Jeune, Sir Francis, 200. 
 Jones, Ernest, 251. 
 Jowett, B., friendship with, 4 ; letters 
 
 from on endowments, 31 ; on 
 
 Judicial Committee appointment. 
 
 135. 
 
 Judicial Committee of the Privy 
 Council 
 
 constitution of, 197-8. 
 
 functions of, 197 note. 
 
 judgements of, in which Hobhouse 
 was concerned, 201, 203-11. 
 
 jurisdiction of, scope of, 198-9. 
 
 Kempton Park case, 211-3. 
 Kingsdown, Lord, 135. 
 
 Kitchener, Lord, 229. 
 
 Kooch Behar, Maharani of, 108. 
 
 Labourers, position of, 233. 
 
 Land transfer, 149-52. 
 
 Lansdowne, Marquess of, on Afghan 
 
 policy, 70-1. 
 Law, relation of, to public opinion, 
 
 206-7. 
 
 Leo XIII, Pope, 265. 
 Liberal Party 
 
 Labour Party's hostility to, 235. 
 
 League of Liberals against Aggres- 
 sion and Militarism, 223. 
 
 letters on, 221, 223. 
 Lightfoot, Bishop, 255. 
 Lindley, Lord, 200, 216. 
 Lingen, Lord, 4. 
 Lloyd, J., letter to, 266. 
 Local Government Bill (1888), 164. 
 London 
 
 charities, 170. 
 
 City Companies, 170-3. 
 
 City Corporation, 161. 
 
 coal dues, 163, 167. 
 
 ground rents, 174-6. 
 
 municipal elections, apathy as to, 
 159-60, 178. 
 
 open spaces, 168. 
 
 police, 167. 
 
 rates, 167, 174-6. 
 
 Toryism, 44. 
 
 unemployed, 164. 
 
 London Borough Councils, Hob- 
 house's views on, 190-3. 
 
 County Council 
 betterment question, 186-9. 
 constitution of first body, 165-6, 
 
 168-9. 
 
 elections of 1892, 181. 
 Hobhouse's work on, 169-70, 173 ; 
 
 his letters on, 177-80 ; his article 
 
 on, in Contemporary Review, 180-1 ; 
 
 his resignation from, 183. 
 House of Lords, quarrel with, 188. 
 
 Municipal Reform League (1880), 
 159-65. 
 
 Lonsdale, , 6. 
 
 Lopes, Mr., Q.C., 48. 
 
 Lowe, Robert, see Sherbrooke. 
 
 Lumsden, Colonel, 70 note. 
 
 Lynching, 240. 
 
 Lyttelton, Lord, 37, 42. 
 
 Lytton, Earl of, Hobhouse's relations 
 
 with, 64-65 ; Afghan policy of, 
 
 714. 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, 58.
 
 INDEX 
 
 279 
 
 Macnaghten, Lord, 200, 205, 209, 214, 
 216. 
 
 Maine, Sir Henry, Hobhouse com- 
 pared with, 61 ; on Indian land 
 tenure, 105 ; mentioned, 93-4. 
 
 Marks, Mr., 173. 
 
 Married women, position of, 55-8, 
 207. 
 
 Martial law, 229-30. 
 
 Massey, Mr., 95. 
 
 Mathew, Father, 4-5. 
 
 Mayne, John D., cited, 199-200; 
 letter from, 215. 
 
 Militarism, 253. 
 
 Mill, J. S., on endowments, 27-30 ; 
 on position of married women, 55 ; 
 mentioned, 121. 
 
 Milner, Sir A., 225. 
 
 Mitter, Mr. Justice, 209. 
 
 Monkswell, Lord (Sir R. Collier), 
 200, 204 ; estimate of Hobhouse 
 by, 185. 
 
 Morality and religion, 248-9. 
 
 Morley, Lord, 187, 189. 
 
 John,!letter from, 32 ; Westminster 
 candidature of, 121-3 ; mentioned, 
 221. 
 
 Morris, Lord, 200, 214. 
 Muir, Sir Wm., 68, 73, 77, 79. 
 
 Napier, Sir Joseph, 198. 
 
 of Magdala, Lord, 68, 77. 
 Nash, Thomas, bequest of, 30. 
 Newton, Lord, 70. 
 
 Norman, Sir Henry, 68, 73, 77, 79. 
 
 North, Sir Ford, 200, 216. 
 
 Northbrook, Lord, Hobhouse's rela- 
 tions with, 63 ; Afghan policy of, 
 68 ; on the cotton duties, 77-8 ; 
 resigns, 64, 71 ; mentioned, 113. 
 
 Northcote, Sir S., 4; letter from, 
 19-20, 24. 
 
 Old age, 262, 267. 
 Omar Khayyam, 252. 
 Onslow, Lord, 187-9. 
 Ordway, Governor-General, 142. 
 
 Pdtt Mall Gazette, interview published 
 
 in, on ground rents, 174-6. 
 Palmer, Sir R., see Selborne. 
 Paradol, Prevost, 264. 
 Parliament 
 
 Commons, House of Labour mem- 
 bers, 235. 
 Lords, House of 
 
 Hobhouse on reform of, 155-7. 
 L.C.C. in collision with, 187-8. 
 Parnell, C. S., in the Times case, 153-4. 
 
 Party names, 244. 
 
 politics, 116-20 ; resented in India, 
 67. 
 
 Patriotism, 218-9. 
 
 Peacock, Sir Barnes, 200, 204, 205. 
 
 Pell, Albert, 170. 
 
 Pelly, Sir Lewis, 71-2. 
 
 Penzance, Lord, 56. 
 
 Piedmont, 17. 
 
 Pollock, Baron, 213. 
 
 Press, influence of, 236. 
 
 Privy Council, Judicial Committee 
 
 of, see Judicial Committee. 
 Property, popular views on, 28, 33. 
 Public opinion, law in relation to, 
 
 206-7. 
 
 Raleigh, Sir Thos., on the Privy 
 
 Council, 197nofe. 
 Rationalism, 247-9, 250-1, 256. 
 Rationalist Press Association, 250, 
 
 255. 
 
 Rhodes, Cecil, 222. 
 Richard, Henry, letter from, cited, 
 
 136. 
 Richmond, Duke of, 37. 
 
 Douglas, 136-7. 
 Rifle corps, 12-13. 
 
 Ripon, Marquess of, 42, 106, 165. 
 
 Ritchie, C. T., 164. 
 
 Roberts, General, proclamations of, 
 in Afghan campaign, 128-34. 
 
 Robertson, Lord, 200, 216. 
 
 Robinson, Canon, 37, 136. 
 
 Roby, Mr., 41 ; quoted on the En- 
 dowed Schools Commission, 47- 
 51. 
 
 Rogers, Dr. Guinness, 122. 
 
 Rev. Wm., 4, 5. 
 Romilly, Lord, letter from, 23. 
 Roosevelt, President, 239. 
 Rosebery, Earl of, 185, 189. 
 Rothschild, Lord, 170. 
 Rotton, Alderman, 170. 
 Ruskin, John, 115. 
 
 Russell, Earl, appoints Hobhouse on 
 the Charity Commission, 19 ; letter 
 from, 34. 
 
 Sir Charles, 122-3. 
 
 Salisbury, Marquess of (Lord Cran- 
 borne), on the Endowed Schools 
 Commission, 37-8 ; Emmanuel Hos- 
 pital case, 41, 42, 49 ; at India 
 Office, 66 ; Afghan policy, 68-74 ; 
 on the cotton duties, 76-9 ; better- 
 ment question, 188, 189 ; otherwise 
 mentioned, 35, 105. 
 
 Savoy, 17.
 
 280 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Schools Enquiry Commission, 19, 
 
 26. 
 
 Scott, Thos., 257. 
 Selborne, Lord (Sir R. Palmer), 88, 
 
 200 ; letter from, 147. 
 Shaftesbury, Earl of, 56. 
 Shand, Lord, 200, 214. 
 Sherbrooke, Lord (R. Lowe), 122, 
 
 170 ; letter from, 85. 
 Sioux Indians, 143. 
 Smith, Goldwin, 236. 
 
 Sir Montague, 200, 
 
 W. H., 122, 123. 
 Speaker 
 
 London, unity of, Hobhouse's ar- 
 ticles on, 181-8. 
 
 London municipal problems, Hob- 
 house's account of, 162-3 ; South 
 Africa Women and Children 
 Distress Fund, Hobhouse's letter 
 on, 225-7. 
 
 Spencer, Herbert, 115, 188, 228. 
 Sport, 10, 270. 
 Star, Hobhouse's letter to, on London 
 
 municipal problems, 165-9. 
 State aid, 234. 
 
 Stephen, Sir James Fit^james, Hob- 
 house compared with, 61 ; codifica- 
 tion accomplished by, 89, 92 note 1 ; 
 otherwise mentioned, 59, 95. 
 Stokes, Whitley , Hobhouse's relations 
 with, 64; codification programme 
 
 of, 88 ; otherwise mentioned, 87, 
 94. 
 
 Strachey, Sir J., 79, 89. 
 
 Strong, Sir Henry, 200. 
 
 Supernatural Religion, 255. 
 
 Symonds, A. G., letters to on Irish 
 policy, 154 ; on the Liberal Party, 
 221, 223 ; on Miss Hobhouse's de- 
 portation, 230-1. 
 
 'Tariff-Reformers', 237. 
 Taxation, Hobhouse's report on inci- 
 dence of, 174, 185. 
 Temple, Bishop, 41, 42. 
 Thring, Lord, letter from, 22. 
 Todd, Major, 70 note. 
 Trimmers, 246-7. 
 
 Villard, Mr., 139, 142, 143. 
 Vizianagram, Maharaja of, 61. 
 
 Waterlow, Sir Sydney, 170. 
 
 Watson, Lord, 200, 214. 
 
 Way, Sir Samuel, 200. 
 
 Westbury, Lord (Sir R. Bethell), 18, 
 
 56 ; letter from, 44. 
 Westminster, members for, 121. 
 Wickens, V. C., 89. 
 Women, married, position of, 55-8, 
 
 207. 
 Wordsworth, Wm., 11. 
 
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 Demy 8vo. With Illustrations and Maps. 153. net. 
 
 Captain C. G. Rawling, with one English companion, accom- 
 plished in 1903 a remarkable journey through North- West Tibet, 
 penetrating far into the interior and surveying over 38,000 square 
 miles of hitherto unknown country. Great hardships were en- 
 countered and difficulties overcome. When the explorers attempted 
 to enter the sacred town of Rudok they were captured by the 
 Tibetans, and forced to make a long detour in order to reach British 
 territory. 
 
 On his return to India, Captain Rawling joined the Tibet Expedi- 
 tion, and immediately after the signing of the Lhasa treaty was 
 despatched by Sir F. Younghusband to Gartok. The account of his 
 journey through an absolutely unknown country is full of interest. 
 At Shigatse, the largest town in Tibet, the highest officials and 
 ecclesiastics were visited and the monasteries and forts explored. 
 The Brahmapootra was traced to its source, and both the holy 
 Manasarowar Lake and the Kailas Peak were visited. The party 
 returned to Simla through Gartok and the Indus and Sutlej valleys. 
 
 The photographs with which the book is illustrated are of quite 
 exceptional beauty. 
 
 IN THE DESERT. 
 
 By L. MARCH PHILLIPPS. 
 
 AUTHOR OF ' WITH RIMINGTON.' 
 
 Demy 8vo. With Illustrations, izs. 6d. net. 
 
 The author, whose book ' With Rimington ' will be remembered 
 as taking high rank among the literature of the South African War, 
 sets himself in this work to trace the effect upon Arab architecture, 
 religion, poetry, and philosophy of the Desert of which the Arab is 
 the child. He believes that, in order properly to appreciate these 
 things, it is necessary first to realize the scenery in which they de- 
 veloped. The result is an extraordinarily vivid picture of life in the 
 Great Sahara, in which notes of travel are combined with descriptions 
 of scenery and people, and the history and methods of the French 
 administration are handled with great skill.
 
 Mr. Edward Arnold's List of New Books 3 
 
 ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES ON 
 ECONOMIC QUESTIONS (1865-1893). 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTORY NOTES (1905). 
 
 By the RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT GOSCHEN. 
 
 Demy Svo. 155. net. 
 
 This collection of essays and addresses forms an intensely interest- 
 ing survey of all the most important economic aspects of our history 
 during the last forty years. Lord Goschen's qualifications for such 
 a survey need not be enlarged upon. 
 
 Completeness and finality have been given to the record here 
 presented by Introductory Notes and additions which represent 
 a further expenditure of work and thought out of all proportion to 
 their amount, while all the freshness and vividness of contemporary 
 expressions of opinion has been preserved. 
 
 TWO YEARS IN THE ANTARCTIC. 
 
 a IRartattve of tbe JBritieb IRational antarctic Bjpcoition. 
 
 By LIEUTENANT ALBERT B. ARMITAGE, R.N.R., 
 
 SECOND IN COMMAND OF THE ' DISCOVERY,' 1901-1904 ; AND OF THE JACKSON-HARMSWORTH 
 POLAR EXPEDITION, 1894-1897. 
 
 With Preface by Dr. Nansen. 
 Demy 8vo. With Illustrations and Map. 155. net. 
 
 In this book Lieutenant Armitage avoids scientific details as far 
 as possible, and aims rather at telling a straightforward story of the 
 daily life, with all its hardships and perils on the one hand, and its 
 boyish amusements and cheery good comradeship on the other, of 
 the little body of picked men who went out in the Discovery. His 
 racy narrative, assisted by the beautiful illustrations by Dr. E. A. 
 Wilson, artist to the expedition, and others, and an excellent map, 
 conveys a vivid impression of the Antarctic regions, and the unat- 
 tractive conditions of existence in them.
 
 4 Mr. Edward Arnold's List of New Books 
 
 THE LIFE OF JOHANNES BRAHMS. 
 
 By FLORENCE MAY. 
 Two volumes. Demy 8vo. With Illustrations. 2 is. net. 
 
 The author is exceptionally qualified for the task of writing these 
 volumes by her own acquaintance with Brahms, begun when she 
 was a young student of the pianoforte, and her personal recollections 
 of his teaching are among the most interesting parts of the book. 
 Her aim, in giving some account of Brahms' compositions, has not 
 been a technical one ; so far as she has exceeded purely biographical 
 limits she has endeavoured to assist the general music-lover in his 
 enjoyment of the noble achievements of a beautiful life. The 
 materials have been gathered almost entirely at first hand in the 
 course of several continental journeys. Dates of concerts through- 
 out the work have been verified by reference to original programmes 
 or contemporary journals. 
 
 FINAL RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 DIPLOMATIST. 
 
 By the RIGHT HON. SIR HORACE RUMBOLD, BART., 
 G.C.B., G.C.M.G., 
 
 AUTHOR OF ' RECOLLECTIONS OF A DIPLOMATIST,' AND ' FURTHER RECOLLECTIONS 
 OF A DIPLOMATIST.' 
 
 Demy Svo. 155. net. 
 
 Sir Horace Rumbold begins the third and concluding series of his 
 ' Recollections' in theyear 1885, at the point to which he brought his 
 readers in the volumes already published. He describes his life as 
 Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Greece from 
 1885-1888, and to the Netherlands from 1888-1896. In the latter 
 year he was appointed Ambassador to the Emperor of Austria an 
 exalted position which he retained until his retirement from the 
 Diplomatic Service in 1900. 
 
 The conclusion of these ' Recollections ' presents a set of Diplo- 
 matic memoirs as comprehensive as they are interesting. Sir Horace 
 Rumbold has known nearly all the famous personages of his time, 
 and the personal touches and pleasant anecdotes with which he 
 illuminates their characters render the volumes excellent reading.
 
 Mr. Edward Arnold's List of New Books 5 
 
 FLOOD, FELL, AND FOREST. 
 
 By SIR HENRY POTTINGER, BART. 
 Two volumes. Demy Svo. With Illustrations. 253. net. 
 
 Few men probably know their Norway better than Sir Henry 
 Pottinger, and fewer still have described it, from the point of view of 
 sport, better than he has done in this book, in which the experience 
 of a lifelong sportsman and the graceful literary touch of a skilled 
 writer are combined with the happiest effect. Whether the subject 
 be elk-shooting, salmon-fishing, or camping, Sir Henry abounds in 
 interesting anecdotes and valuable information, and his book cannot 
 fail to give pleasure to all lovers of the rod and gun. 
 ,,^The illustrations are from the author's own sketches, or drawn 
 under his immediate supervision. 
 
 A FORGOTTEN JOHN RUSSELL. 
 
 JBeing I/etters to a dfcan of ^Business, 1724*1751. 
 
 Arranged by MARY EYRE MATCHAM. 
 
 Demy 8vo. With Portrait. 125. 6d. net. 
 
 The letters written to an active man of business (those written by 
 John Russell are few and unimportant) during a long period of time 
 must necessarily be something of a medley. But if they lack the 
 kind of interest which centres in the life-story of an individual, they 
 offer far more varied and ample material to those who care, with 
 Thackeray, ' to people the old world with its everyday figures and 
 inhabitants.' To the majority of readers probably the most inter- 
 esting correspondents will be the numerous sea captains fathers 
 and grandfathers of those who fought under Hawke and Nelson. 
 But all sorts and conditions of men made calls on John Russell's 
 capacity for business or for friendship, writing for the most part in 
 home and intimate fashion of private and domestic matters, illus- 
 trating in innumerable ways the ordinary life of the time, and 
 incidentally throwing many interesting sidelights on England's 
 position in the world as a State whose future lay upon the ocean.
 
 6 Mr. Edward Arnold's List of New Books 
 
 THEODORE OF STUDIUM : 
 
 HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 
 By ALICE GARDNER, 
 
 ASSOCIATE AND LECTUKER OF NEWNHAM COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'JULIAN THE PHILOSOPHER,' 'STUDIES IN JOHN THE SCOT,' 'ROME THE MIDDLE 
 
 OF THE WORLD," ETC. 
 
 Demy 8vo. With Illustrations. IDS. 6d. net. 
 
 Theodore of Studium (born 759, died 826), though little known in 
 Western Europe, was a man of remarkable abilities and character, 
 who left a deep impression on Byzantine monasticism, and on the 
 thought and life of the Eastern Empire. This biography, founded 
 on Theodore's own writings and those of his contemporaries, en- 
 deavours to set forth the various sides of his activity. These are prin- 
 cipally (i) his very prominent part in the Iconoclastic Controversy, 
 with his staunch opposition to Caesaropapism ; (2) his monastic 
 reforms ; (3) his great services as calligraphist, and as promoter of 
 the preservation and multiplication of manuscripts ; (4) his wide 
 correspondence, which throws much light on the morals and manners 
 of his time, as well as on some important historical events; and 
 (5) his poetical activity, shown in works written both in the old 
 classical and the new ecclesiastical metres. The events and conflicts 
 of his life elucidate the tendencies which led to the separation of the 
 Churches and Empires of the East and West. 
 
 THE QUEEN'S POOR. 
 
 Xffe as tbeg ftnD it in {Town anfc Country. 
 By M. LOANE. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. 
 
 Of those who work professionally among the poor, and have a 
 firsthand knowledge of their lives and thoughts, most, if not all, 
 have had experiences worthy of record. But, owing either to the 
 absorbing nature of their duties or to the want of a literary gift, 
 very few of them have put on paper the curious things which they 
 have heard and seen from day to day. Miss Loane has not only 
 contrived to find time, in the midst of a busy life of district nursing, 
 to keep notes of her experiences, but has written them in a singularly 
 attractive style, revealing a keen sense of humour, as well as a 
 plentiful supply of common-sense. Her stories are grouped under 
 such suggestive headings as ' Husband and Wife among the Poor,' 
 ' The Religion of the Respectable Poor,' ' The Art of Polite Con- 
 versation,' and so forth.
 
 Mr. Edward Arnold's List of New Books 7 
 
 LORD HOBHOUSE: 
 
 A MEMOIR. 
 By L. T. HOBHOUSE, and J. L. HAMMOND, 
 
 AUTHOR OF ' MIND IN EVOLUTION.' AUTHOR OF ' C. J. Fox : A STUDY. 
 
 Demy 8vo. With Portraits. 145. net. 
 
 Lord Hobhouse, who died in December, 1904, abandoned in 
 middle life a brilliant career at the Chancery Bar for the service of 
 the State, in which he had a long and varied experience. His official 
 career began with his appointment as a Charity Commissioner in 
 1866, and ended with his retirement from the Judicial Committee of 
 the Privy Council in 1901. Most of his work was of a kind of which 
 the general public knows little. He was Legal Member of the 
 Viceroy's Council in India for five years, and he was a member of 
 the Judicial Committee for twenty years. But at one time he 
 found himself the centre of a vehement controversy, and the part he 
 played as a member of the Endowed Schools Commission marks a 
 turning-point in the history of English education. He had an 
 active share in the movement which won for London its rights of 
 self-government, and he gave many legal judgments which have an 
 historical significance. 
 
 SHORT LIVES OF GREAT MEN. 
 
 By W. F. BURNSIDE and A. S. OWEN, 
 
 ASSISTANT MASTERS AT CHELTENHAM COLLEGE. 
 
 Crown 8vo. With Illustrations. 35. 6d. 
 
 Special Cheltonian Edition, including plan, of Reredos and an Introduction 
 by the Rev. R. Water field , M.A. 45. 
 
 The Cheltenham College memorial of Old Cheltonians who fell 
 in the South African War takes the form of a reredos in the school 
 chapel, filled with forty-four figures illustrating certain aspects of 
 English history and representative men in different callings of life. 
 It has been felt that an account of these great men would be service- 
 able, not only to those who see these carved figures every day, but 
 to a larger number of readers, who would be glad to have in a com- 
 pendious form biographies of many of the leading men in English 
 history and literature. The list extends from St. Alban to Gordon, 
 and for the sake of convenience chronological order has been 
 adopted. Illustrations are given of eight typical personages.
 
 8 Mr. Edward Arnold's List of New Books 
 
 SOME DOGMAS OF RELIGION. 
 
 By JOHN ELLIS McTAGGART, Litt.D., 
 
 LECTURER IN MORAL SCIENCES, TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 Demy 8w. IDS. 6d. net. 
 
 This book attempts to prove, in the first place, that beliefs as to 
 certain matters of fact beyond our empirical experience are essen- 
 tial for religion, and of fundamental importance for human life. 
 Secondly, it is maintained that such beliefs cannot legitimately rest 
 on faith, but only on argument. It is suggested that the most 
 reasonable form for the doctrine of immortality to take is one which 
 makes each person to have existed for many years before the exist- 
 ence of his present body, and perhaps for all past time. 
 
 THE jENEID OF VIRGIL. 
 
 With a Translation by CHARLES J. BILLSON, M.A., 
 
 CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, OXFORD. 
 
 2 vols. Crown \to. 305. net. 
 
 These handsome volumes contain on the left-hand page a text 
 based on Conington's, and on the right a line-for-line translation in 
 blank verse. 
 
 A FISHING CATECHISM 
 
 AND 
 
 A SHOOTING CATECHISM. 
 
 By COLONEL R. F. MEYSEY-THOMPSON, 
 
 AUTHOR OF ' REMINISCENCES OF THE COURSE, THE CAMI-, AND THE CHASE.' 
 
 Two volumes. Foolscap 8vo. 35. 6d. net each. 
 
 Lovers of rod and gun will welcome these valuable handbooks 
 from the pen of an admitted expert. The information given is abso- 
 lutely practical, and is conveyed, for the most part, in the form of 
 Question and Answer. As the result of some fifty years' experience, 
 the author seems to have anticipated every possible emergency, and 
 the arrangement is especially calculated to facilitate easy reference. 
 There are special chapters on fishing and shooting etiquette, and at 
 the end of each book is a chapter dealing with the legal side of the 
 subject.
 
 Mr. Edward Arnold's List of New Books 
 
 THE WALLET SERIES OF HANDBOOKS. 
 
 The following five volumes are the new additions to this useful 
 series of handbooks, which range, as will be seen, over a wide field, 
 and are intended to be practical guides to beginners in the subjects 
 with which they deal. 
 
 Foolscap 8vo., is. net per volume, paper ; 2s. net cloth. 
 
 THE MANAGEMENT OF BABIES. By MRS. LEONARD 
 HILL. 
 
 The author is an expert in this all-important subject, and her book is con- 
 fidently recommended to mothers as thoroughly sound, sensible, and free from 
 fads. The medical information may be relied upon absolutely, and the book 
 abounds in practical and most valuable advice. A whole chapter is devoted to 
 the development of intelligence and the importance of early training a matter 
 too often ignored by mothers and nurses. 
 
 ON COLLECTING MINIATURES, ENAMELS, AND 
 
 JEWELLERY. By ROBERT ELWARD, Author of On Collect- 
 ing Engravings, Pottery, Porcelain, Glass, and Silver.' 
 
 In this volume the author pursues the same thorough method as in his former 
 work. After several hints to collectors, he gives a careful historical and de- 
 scriptive summary of each subject, with a short bibliography. 
 
 MOTORING FOR MODERATE INCOMES. By 
 
 HENRY REVELL REYNOLDS. 
 
 The demand for motor-cars at reasonable prices is rapidly increasing. Mr. 
 Reynolds has taken ^500 as the largest sum which his readers are likely to pay 
 for a car, with a proportionate amount in addition for up-keep. He lays down 
 the general principles which should guide the would-be purchaser, and gives 
 sufficient information to enable him to examine any car with understanding. 
 The respective capacities, prices, etc., of a number of cars are given in tabular 
 form. Motor bicycles and other small vehicles receive a considerable share of 
 attention, and there are chapters on driving and the amenities of the road. 
 
 ON TAKING A HOUSE. By W. BEACH THOMAS. 
 
 A thoroughly practical guide to the science and art of house-taking is urgently 
 required by most people sooner or later in their lives. Most people, too, are 
 obliged to pay dearly for the kind of experience which is to be found condensed 
 into this little book. Mr. Thomas has accumulated an enormous amount of 
 information on the subject, and his words of warning are calculated to save 
 intending purchasers or lessees from innumerable pitfalls.
 
 io Mr. Edward Arnold's List of New Books 
 
 THE WALLET SERIES (continued). 
 Foolscap $>vo., is, net per volume, paper ; 2s. net cloth. 
 
 COMMON AILMENTS AND ACCIDENTS AND 
 THEIR TREATMENT. By M. H. NAYLOR, M.B., B.S. 
 
 This is a lucidly written handbook, covering rather different ground from that 
 usually coming under the description of ' First Aid.' It is intended to meet all 
 ordinary emergencies, and to indicate such treatment as may safely be tried 
 before the arrival of a doctor. 
 
 The following volumes have been already published : 
 
 ON COLLECTING ENGRAVINGS, POTTERY, PORCE- 
 LAIN. GLASS. AND SILVER. By ROBERT ELWARD. 
 
 ELECTRIC LIGHTING FOR THE INEXPERIENCED. 
 By HUBERT WALTER. 
 
 HOCKEY AS A GAME FOR WOMEN. With the New Rules. 
 By EDITH THOMPSON. 
 
 WATER-COLOUR PAINTING. By MARY L. BREAKELL 
 (' Penumbra '). 
 
 DRESS OUTFITS FOR ABROAD. By ARDERN HOLT. 
 
 NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION. 
 
 THE REMINISCENCES OF SIR 
 HENRY HAWKINS 
 
 (JBaron JBrampton). 
 Edited by RICHARD HARRIS, K.C., 
 
 AUTHOR OK ' ILLUSTRATIONS .OF ADVOCACY,' ' AULD ACQUAINTANCE,' ETC. 
 
 Crown Svo. With Portrait. 6s. 
 
 In this edition a few of the more technically legal passages have 
 been omitted, but all the dramatic episodes and characteristic anec- 
 dotes remain untouched.
 
 Mr. Edward Arnold's List of New Books n 
 
 NEW FICTION. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 6s. each. 
 
 THE PROFESSOR'S LEGACY. 
 
 By MRS. ALFRED SIDGWICK, 
 
 AUTHOR OK 'CYNTHIA'S WAV," 'THE BERYL STONES,' ETC. 
 
 A FLOOD TIDE. 
 
 By MARY A. DEBENHAM. 
 
 THE BROWN HOUSE and CORDELIA. 
 
 By MARGARET BOOTH. 
 
 A TROMBONE AND A STAR. 
 
 By C. T. PODMORE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'A CYNIC'S CONSCIENCE.' 
 
 NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 RED POTTAGE. 
 
 By MARY CHOLMONDELEY. 
 
 POLITICAL CARICATURES, 1905. 
 
 By F. CARRUTHERS GOULD. 
 Super royal 4^0. 6s. net.
 
 12 Mr. Edward Arnold's List of New Books 
 
 THE ROMANCE OF EMPIRE. 
 
 By PHILIP GIBBS, 
 
 AUTHOR OF ',FACTS AND IDEAS,' ' KNOWLEDGE is POWER,' ETC. 
 
 Crown Svo. 
 
 In this volume Mr. Gibbs tells, in his characteristically interesting 
 style, the story of the expansion of Britain, beginning shortly before 
 the time of Elizabeth, and bringing the account down almost to the 
 present day. Each great division of our Empire beyond the seas is 
 dealt with in turn, and without any sacrifice of historical accuracy 
 or proportion the author gives to his narrative the attractiveness of a 
 well-told romance. 
 
 CHEAPER EDITION. 
 
 PEN AND PENCIL SKETCHES OF SHIPPING AND 
 CRAFT ALL ROUND THE WORLD. 
 
 By R. T. PRITCHETT. 
 Demy 8vo. With 50 full-page Illustrations. 33. 6d. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED EDITION. 
 
 HISTORICAL TALES FROM 
 SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 By A.IT. QUILLER-COUCH ('Q.'), 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'THE SHIP .OF STARS,' ETC. 
 
 Cvown 8vo. With Illustrations from the Boydell Gallery. 6s. 
 
 The value of this much-appreciated work will, it is believed, be 
 enhanced by the addition of sixteen selected illustrations from the 
 well-known Boydell collection.
 
 Mr. Edward Arnold's List of New Books 13 
 
 RACES OF DOMESTIC POULTRY. 
 
 By EDWARD BROWN, F.L.S., 
 
 SECRETARY OF THE NATIONAL POULTRY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY. 
 
 AUTHOR OF ' POULTRY KEEPING : AN INDUSTRY FOR FARMERS AND COTTAGERS,' ' INDUSTRIAL 
 POULTRY KEEPING," 'PLEASURABLE POULTRY KEEPING,' ETC. 
 
 Crown $0. With Illustrations. 6s. net. 
 
 This important and comprehensive work, by an admitted master 
 of his subject, will be welcomed by all who are interested in poultry- 
 keeping. Chapters I. and II. deal with the origin, history, and 
 distribution of domestic poultry, and with the evolution and classi- 
 fication of breeds ; the next ten chapters are devoted to the various 
 races of fowls ; Chapters XIII. to XV. treat of ducks, geese, and 
 turkeys. The remaining chapters are on external characters and 
 breeding. There are also Appendices. 
 
 THREE LITTLE COOKS. 
 
 By LUCY CRUMP. 
 Square crown 8vo. With Illustrations by Gertrude M. Bradley, as. 6d. 
 
 This is a charming little story for children, describing how 
 Ophelia, Thomas, and Heidi learnt cookery with a toy stove. 
 
 NEW EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. 
 
 COMMON-SENSE COOKERY. 
 
 ffor Enfllteb f>ousebol&s, witb Gwentg flfcenus worfceD out fn BetafL 
 By COLONEL A KENNEY-HERBERT, 
 
 AUTHOR OF FIFTY BREAKFASTS,- ' FIFTY LUNCHES,' ' FIFTY DINNERS,' ETC. 
 
 Large crown 8vo. With Illustrations. 6s. net. 
 
 The author has so largely rewritten this edition that it is prac- 
 tically a new book. Besides being brought up to date with the 
 very latest ideas on the subject, it is much enlarged, and now 
 contains a number of attractive full-page illustrations.
 
 14 Mr. Edward Arnold's List of New Books 
 
 RECENT ADVANCES IN PHYSIOLOGY 
 AND CHEMICAL PATHOLOGY 
 
 By A. P. BEDDARD, M.A., M.D., 
 
 ASSISTANT PHYSICIAN, LATE DEMONSTRATOR OF PHYSIOLOGY, GUY'S HOSPITAL; 
 
 LEONARD HILL, M.B., F.R.S., 
 
 LECTURER ON PHYSIOLOGY, THE LONDON HOSPITAL; 
 
 J. J. R. MACLEOD, M.B., 
 
 PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY, WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY, CLEVELAND, U.S.A. 
 LATE DEMONSTRATOR OF PHYSIOLOGY, THE LONDON HOSPITAL; 
 
 BENJAMIN MOORE, M.A., D.Sc., 
 
 JOHNSTON PROFESSOR OF BIO-CHEMISTRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL; 
 
 AND M. S. PEMBREY, M.A., M.D., 
 
 LECTURER ON PHYSIOLOGY, GUY'S HOSPITAL. 
 
 Demy 8vo. i6s. net. 
 
 This book, which is edited by Mr. Leonard Hill, consists of Lec- 
 tures on Physiological Subjects selected for their direct clinical 
 interest, and designed to meet the requirements of advanced students 
 of Physiology. Dr. Beddard deals with Digestion, Absorption, 
 Lymph, Urea, and Secretion of Urine ; Mr. Hill himself with the 
 Atmosphere in its Relation to Life, Metabolism of Water and 
 Inorganic Salts, and Metabolism of Fat ; Professor Macleod with 
 the Metabolism of the Carbohydrates, Haemolysis, Uric Acid, and 
 the Purin Bodies ; Professor Moore with Vital Energy, Ferments, 
 and Glandular Mechanisms ; and Dr. Pembrey with the Exchange 
 of Respiratory Gases, Influence of Temperature, Sources of Mus- 
 cular Energy and Fatigue, and Internal Secretion. 
 
 A MANUAL OF PHARMACOLOGY. 
 
 By WALTER E. DIXON, M.A., M.D., B.Sc. LOND., 
 D.P.H. CAMS., 
 
 ASSISTANT TO THE DOWNING PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, 
 EXAMINER IN PHARMACOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITIES OF CAMBRIDGE, GLASGOW, AND DUNDEE. 
 
 Demy Svo. 155. net. 
 
 This text-book, which is prepared especially for the use of students, 
 gives a concise account of the physiological action of Pharmacopoeia! 
 drugs. The subject is treated from the experimental standpoint, 
 and the drugs are classified into pharmacological groups. The text 
 is fully illustrated by original tracings of actual experiments and by 
 diagrams.
 
 Mr. Edward Arnold's List of New Books 15 
 
 NEW EDITION. 
 
 PRACTICAL PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 By A. P. BEDDARD, M.A., M.D., J. S. EDKINS, M.A., M.B., 
 
 L. HILL, M.B., F.R.S., J. J. R. MACLEOD, M.B., AND M. S. 
 
 PEMBREY, M.A., M.D. 
 
 Demy Svo. Copiously illustrated with figures of physiological apparatus, 
 diagrams, and a large number of interesting tracings. 123. 6d. net. 
 
 VALVES AND VALVE GEAR 
 MECHANISMS. 
 
 By W. E. DALBY, M.A., B.Sc., M.lNST.C.E., M.I.M.E., 
 
 PROFESSOR OK ENGINEERING, CITY AND GUILDS OF LONDON CENTRAL TECHNICAL COLLEGE. 
 
 Royal Svo. With numerous Illustrations. 2 is. net. 
 
 Valve gears are considered in this book from two points of view, 
 namely, the analysis of what a given gear can do, and the design of 
 a gear to effect a stated distribution of steam. The gears analyzed 
 are for the most part those belonging to existing and well-known 
 types of engines, and include, amongst others, a link motion of the 
 Great Eastern Railway, the straight link motion of the London and 
 North-Western Railway, the Walschaert gear of the Northern of 
 France Railway, the Joy gear of the Lancashire and Yorkshire 
 Railway, the Sulzer gear, the Meyer gear, etc. A chapter is added 
 on the inertia stresses in the links of a valve gear, and an actual 
 example of the inertia loading of a Joy gear is fully discussed. 
 
 NEW AND REVISED EDITION. 
 
 FOOD AND THE PRINCIPLES OF 
 DIETETICS. 
 
 By ROBERT HUTCHISON, M.D. EDIN., F.R.C.P., 
 
 ASSISTANT PHYSICIAN TO THE LONDON HOSPITAL AND TO THE HOSPITAL FOR SICK CHILDREN, 
 GREAT ORMOND STREET. 
 
 Demy Svo. With 3 Plates in colour and numerous Illustrations in 
 the text. 1 6s. net. 
 
 This important work, the first edition of which was described by 
 the Guardian as ' one of the most enthralling books ever published 
 on the subject,' has been thoroughly revised by the author in the 
 light of the experience of recent years, and is now absolutely up to 
 date.
 
 16 Mr. Edward Arnold's List of New Books 
 
 SURGICAL NURSING 
 
 Sno tbc principles of Surgery for nurses. 
 By RUSSELL HOWARD, M.B., M.S., F.R.C.S., 
 
 LECTURER ON SURGICAL NURSING TO THE PROBATIONERS OF THE LONDON HOSPITAL; SURGEON 
 
 TO OUT-PATIENTS, ROYAL WATERLOO HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN AND WOMEN ; 
 
 SURGICAL REGISTRAR, LONDON HOSPITAL. 
 
 Crown Svo. With Illustrations. 6s. 
 
 This is an exceedingly lucid and comprehensive handbook on the 
 subject, and contains all the most approved methods very clearly 
 arranged. 
 
 THE LAWS OF HEALTH. 
 
 By D. NABARRO, M.D., B.Sc., D.P.H., 
 
 ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PATHOLOGY AND BACTERIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. 
 
 Crown 8vo. With Illustrations, is. 6d. 
 
 This volume takes the form of a very simply-written primer of 
 health, in which the direct application of the science of physiology 
 to every-day life is shown, while care is taken to avoid technical 
 terms whenever possible. The author's chief aim is to give such 
 explicit directions as will, if acted upon, help the reader to develop 
 a sound mind in a sound body, and, at the same time, to demonstrate 
 in a simple manner why each rule or warning is given. He also 
 shows in almost every chapter the effect on the tissues and nervous 
 system of a misuse of alcoholic drink and tobacco. 
 
 LINGUA MATERNA. 
 
 By R. WILSON, B.A., 
 
 AUTHOR OF ' A FIRST COURSE IN ENGLISH ANALYSIS AND GRAMMAR,' ETC. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 35. 6d. 
 
 This book is 'intended for teachers who wish to keep themselves 
 abreast of what has been aptly called ' The New English Move- 
 ment.' The author discusses in turn each of the branches of school- 
 work in English, describes methods adopted in some of the best of 
 our schools, and suggests schemes of work to meet the Government 
 requirements in the native language and literature. The volume 
 aims at being practical and suggestive, a guide to practical work 
 rather than a contribution to airy speculation. 
 
 LONDON : EDWARD ARNOLD, 41 & 43 MADDOX STREET, W,
 
 UNIVERSITY OF *~**"?ORNIA. T.OS ANGELES 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT 
 
 T rVO A X1/-1I7IT T7IO
 
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 565 
 
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