OF CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS A4,' 1895. THE "EIGHTY" CLUB, CONTENTS. COMMITTEE 2 OBJECTS 3 4 RULES 5 8 REPORT FOR 1894 917 LIST OF MEMBERS 17 34 Speeches and Pamphlets published during the year : "The House of Lords," by T. A. Spalding. "Labour Questions," by B. Pickard, M.P. "Party Prospects," by Sir F. Lockwood, Q.C., M.P. " The Lords, Labour and Liberalism," by Right Hon. Lord Tweedmouth. " The House of Lords," by Sir F. Lockwood, Q.C., M.P. " Liberal Programme and the House of Lords," by Right Hon. Earl of Kimberley, K.G. " London Government," by Sidney Webb X PRESIDENT. * RIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P. (1884)4 VICE-PRESIDENTS. *Rr. HON. ARNOLD MORLEY, M.P. (Com. 1880, V.P. 1881, Treas. 1881-6. *Rx. HON. SIR G. O. TREVELYAN, Bart., M.P. (V.P. 1885.) "R. B. HALDANE, Q.C., M.P. (Com. 1880, Hon. Sec. 1881-3, V.P. 1885.) *RT. HON. H. H. ASQUITH, Q.C., M.P. (Com. 1885, V.P. 1886.) Rr. HON. LORD KENSINGTON (Com. 1880, V.P. 1886). *W. S. ROBSON, Q.C. (Com. 1885, V.P. 1887). *Sir ROBERT T. REID, Q.C., M.P. (Com. 1881, V.P. 1887.) "RT. HON. JAMES BRYCE, M.P. (V.P. 1889.) *RT. HON. HERBERT GLADSTONE, M.P. (V.P. 1889). *SiR EDWARD GREY, Bart., M.P. (V.P. 1889, Com. 1887.) *RT. HON. LORD TWEEDMOUTH (V.P. 1893, Com. 1887.) "*LORD RUSSELL of Killowen, K.C.M.G. (V.P. 1893.) AUGUSTINE BIRRELL, Q.C., M.P. (V.P. 1893, Com. 1889.) *SYDNEY BUXTON, M.P. (Com. 1892, V.P. 1894.) *Sir F. LOCKVVOOD, Q.c., M.P. (Com. 1894, V.I'. 1895.) *G. W. E. RUSSELL, M.P. (Com. 1886, V.P. 1895.) ~*J. LAWSON WALTON, Q.C., M.P. (Com. 1889, V.P. 1895.) EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. ANTON BERTRAM (1893). II. C. BIRON (1894). W. H. COZENS-HARDY (1894). W. RUSSELL COOKE (1894). *W. M. CROOK (1893). *Sir ROBERT P. EDGCUMBE (1895). *T. E. ELLIS, M.P. (1895). *T. W. FRY (i 893). C. GEAKE (1893). J. W. GKEIG (1894). ROBERT W. HAMILTON (1893). B. F. IlAWKSLEY (1895). *GEORGE LAWRENCE (1894). JOHN LEA (1895). G. P. MACDONELL (1893). N. NICKI.EM (1895). *Colonel J. C. READE (1894). G. N. RICHARDSON (1893), (Oxford.) J. ROSKILL (1894). G. C. SMITH (1803). *J. SWINBURNK-HANHAM (1895). *H. J. TE.NNANT, M.P. (1895). *C. P. TREVELYAN (1894). MORGAN I. M. WILLIAMS (1895). W. B. YATES, L.C.C. (1894). SEC. CAMBRIDGE UNIV. LIBERAL CLUB (1889). TREASURER. * THOMAS SADLER, 2, Garden Court, Temple, London. (Hon. Sec. 1885, Treas. 1887.) SECRETARY. J. A. B. BRUCE, 2, Middle Temple Lane, London, E.G. (1883) <*~ IN ALL COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE SECRETARY ABOUT OBTAINING SPEAKERS FOB MEETINGS. THE WORDS " EIGHTY CLUB " SHOULD BE WRITTEN ON OJTSISE OF ENVELOPE * Candidates for Parliament Date first elected to the Committee. Result of Election for 8 Members of the Committee, February 6th, 1895. *T. E. ELLIS, M.P 148 *J. C. SWINBURNE-HANHAM ... 135 *H. J. TENNANT, M.P 117 JOHN LEA 115 *Sir R. PEARCE-EDGCUMBE 109 MORGAN I. M. WILLIAMS 97 [NEVILLE WATERFIELD] ... (Retired) 94 BOUCHIER F. HAWKSLEY ... ... 75 N. MICKLEM 60 G. M. HARRIS ... 39 H. PARKER LOWE 33 BROWNLOW KNOX .. ... ... 16 Number of Voting Papers 169. Scrutineers : A. M. LATHAM and Taos. ALFRED SPALDING. 21 8378 THE "EIGHTY' CLUB. THE " EIGHTY " CLUB was originally formed in the year "80," shortly before the General Election, with the object of promoting Liberal Education, and of stimulating Liberal organization, especially with reference to the election which was shortly to take place. The necessity for some such body was felt in consequence of the numerous applications received by the Central Association of the Liberal Party for the assistance of Speakers and Lecturers at meetings, both in London and the country. Since that time it has been felt desirable to continue the work for which the Club was originally formed, and at a meeting, in February, 1881, at the House of Commons, it was determined that the Club should be placed on a perma- nent basis, with the intention of carrying out the above objects, and of supplying as far as possible the want experi- enced by local Associations The Club consists of a number of gentlemen who are 4 willing to give assistance by speaking at Public Meetings and by delivering Lectures on political subjects. The Committee of Local Organizations which consider that such help would be of advantage to them, are requested to communicate with the Secretary, J. A. B. B. BRUCE, 2, Middle Temple Lane, London, E.G. %* In all communications with the Secretary, the words "Eighty Club" should be written on outside of the envelope. RULES. i. The name of the Club shall be the " Eighty Club." 2. The object of the Club shall be to bring Objects. together successive generations of Liberals, with a view to the promotion of the Liberal cause in the House of Commons and at Parliamentary Elections. T.. The Club shall consist of a President, Executive Committee. Vice- Presidents, Secretary, Hon. Ireasurer, :. a Committee (with power to fill up vacancies) and ordinary members. 4. The President, Vice-Presidents, and Election of Committee. one-third of the Committee shall be elected at the Annual General Meeting of the Club. The Committee of the Eighty Club shall consist of thirty members, a third of whom shall retire annually by seniority ; retiring members being eligible for re-election after the expiration of a year. Any member of the Committee who shall not have attended at least four Com- mittee meetings in the year shall ipso facto cease to be a member of the Committee, but shall be eligible for re-election at the Annual Meeting of the Club for the remainder of his term of three years. Nominations must be sent in to the Secretary seven days before the Annual Meeting. The President, Vice-Presidents, Secretary, and Hon. Trea- surer, shall be ex officio members of the Committee. Agre of Candidates elected by the Club. No. of Candidates. retriilatinir Election of Candidates. 5. Members may be elected either by the Committee or by the Club at a General Meeting, but no one shall be eligible for election by the Club at a General Meeting who is more than forty years of age. 6. There shall not be more than four elections yearly, and not more than 100 can- didates shall be elected in any one year by the Club. 7. (a) Every candidate for election by the Club shall be proposed by one member of the Club, and seconded by one, two, or three others, and no member shall propose or second any candidate with whom he has not been personally acquainted previously to his proposing or seconding such candidate. (b) No candidate shall be proposed for election by the Club unless he shall have signified to his proposer that he is willing to take part in political work on behalf of the Liberal Party. (c) Each candidate for election by the Club shall be proposed at a General Meeting of the Club, and shall be balloted for at the next or at a subsequent General Meeting. At each of such General Meetings either the proposer or one of the seconders shall be present. ((f) In the notice convening each General Meeting the Secretary shall append the names of all candidates to be balloted for at such meeting, together with the names of their respective proposers and seconders. The names of candidates in such notice shall be in the order of the date of their proposal. () There shall be an annual subscription of one guinea, payable on the ist January in each year. Any member who fails to pay the annual subscription within three months from that date shall cease to be a member of the Club. The Committee may, however, at any subsequent time, reinstate such defaulting member if it think fit (r) The payment ot ten guineas shall be considered equivalent to the annual payment of one guinea. 13. Expenses incurred by any member in attending meetings on behalf of the Club shall be paid by the Secretary out of the funds of the Club ; but it shall be the duty of the Secretary, in the absence of special circum- stances, to recover, if possible, the amount so paid from the Association or persons at whose request the member attended. N.B. The Cambridge University Liberal Club is affiliated with the Eighty Club, and the Secretary is ex officio a member of the Executive Committee. "EIGHTY" CLUB. ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1894. The Executive Committee are glad to be able to report that the " Eighty " Club has, during the past year, done a large amount of political work. The Club now consists of 615 members: of these, 5 are Honorary, 55 Life, 12 resident abroad, and 543 ordinary members. CANDIDATES FOR PARLIAMENT. 193 members of the Eighty Club stood for Parliament at the last election, and 103 were returned; of these, 28 won seats for the Liberal Party. Members of the Club willing to become candidates for seats at the next General Election are requested to communicate with the Secretary. LECTURES AND MEETINGS. Members willing to speak, lecture, or canvass are requested to communicate with the Secretary. The number of speeches made during the year by members of the Club, in consequence of direct application to the Secretary, has been about 400. This is exclusive of a large number which have been arranged through members having been put into communication with local associations 10 by the Secretary. A circular has been sent out to members of the Club (according to rule 10) asking for an account of any political work they may have done during the year ; members not having sent in a return are requested to do so at once. LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL ELECTION. A special sub-committee has been appointed to organize workers for the support of Progressive Candidates irrespective of Party Politics. PARISH COUNCILS ACT. A large number of applications were received from villages all over the country asking for speakers to explain this Act. In nearly all cases we were able to comply with the requests and a large number of questions were also answered by the Secretary, and pamphlets on the subject were distributed gratis. BYE ELECTIONS. Members of the Club have rendered assistance by canvas- sing or speaking at most of the bye elections. DINNERS. Four dinners have been held during the year, at which speeches were made by Mr. Pickard, M.P., Mr. E. Harford, Mr. Asquith, M.P. Lord Tweedmouth, Mr. A. Acland, M.P. the Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General -the Earl of Kimberley, and Mr. Arnold Morley, M.P. These speeches have since been printed and widely distributed. EIGHTY CLUB "AT HOMES." Two Eighty Club Smoking "At Homes " were held at the Westminster Palace Hotel, and one "At Home" at Mr. and Mrs. James Blyth's, at which the Premier and over 700 persons were present. II GENERAL MEETINGS. Nine General Meetings of the Club were held during the year for the election of members and other purposes. COMMITTEE MEETINGS. Eleven meetings of the Executive Committee have been held ; also several meetings of Sub-Committees. NEW MEMBERS. Thirty-five members have resigned or been struck off the list during the year. Forty-seven new members have been elected. POLITICAL PUBLICATIONS The Committee have published the speeches made at the dinners and "At Homes" of the Club, and have sent out 7,500 copies to the members of the Club, Members of Parliament, candidates for Parliament, and to the Secretaries of most of the Liberal Associations in England. They have also sent out 1,500 copies of the last Annual Report, and many copies of the following pamphlets, some of which are now out of print, also pamphlets explaining Parish Councils Act in all about 15,000 during the year: HOUSING OF THE WORKING CLASSES, by J. T. Dodd. PARISH COUNCILS, by Y. S. Stevenson, M,P. UNEARNED INCREMENT, by R. B. Haldane, Q.C., M.P. RURAL LAND, by Sir E. Grey, Bart., M.P. LONDON GOVERNMENT, by Sidney Webb (New Edition of 5,000). OLD AGE PENSIONS, by Phipson Beale, Q.C. LONDON GOVERNMENT, by Lord Hobhouse. HOUSE OF LORDS, by T. A. Spalding (40 pp. 2d.). "EIGHTY" CLUB, 1879 TO 1895. Date No. of M embers. M.P.'s. Candidates for Parliament at the last General Election. New Members during the year. 1879 1880 Known as Mr. Grey's Committee. 39 * 7 1881 57 * 18 1882 96 25 32 1883 121 29 53 1884 2OO 36 43 1885 243 45 So 58 1886 285 37 loo 58 1887 310 44 IIO 121 1888 384 62 140 96 1889 451 68 1 60 82 1890 5OO 69 170 63 1891 55 70 193 60 1892 580 i3 195 61 1893 603 IOO 195 54 1894 620 IOO 194 47 * No record. FINANCIAL STATEMENT. The financial report presented by the Treasurer, Mr. Thomas Sadler, shows a balance of 54 14^. "]d. to the credit of the Club. There is also a sum of ^400,* accruing from life membership, invested in the names of R. T. Reid, Q.C., M.P., and R. B. Haldane, Q.C., M.P., as Trustees for the Club. This has been invested in Canadian Pacific De- benture Stock 4 per cent. The accounts have been audited by Mr. R. B. Haldane, Q.C., M.P. It should be noted that a large number of members attended meetings in distant parts of the country at their own expense. k Value on January 23rd, 416. EIGHTY CLUB "AT HOMES." Date. Speakers. Chairman and Place. Proposer and Seconder of Vote of Thanks. 1888. Nov. 21 . . 1889. Apr. 10 . . May 15 . . July 31 . . 1890. May 14 June 24 .. 1891. Apr. 17 . July 22 . . Nov. 20.. 1892. Mar. 25 . . July .. Nov. 30.. 1893. Feb. 15 . . April 26 . . June 7 .. July 5 . . . . Dec. 6 . . 1894 Feb. 21 .. Rt. Hon. Sir W. Har- court, Q.c., M.P. Rt. Hon. H. H. Fowler, M.P. Rt. Hon. Earl Granville, 1C.G. SirC. Russell, Q.c., M.P. Rt. Hon. Sir W. Har- court, Q.c., M.P. Rt. Hon. Sir G. O. Tre- velyan, Bart., M.P. ' At Home " to Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone on their Golden Wedding. R. P.. Haldane, M.P. At West. Pal. Hotel. Rt. Hon. E. Marjori- banks, M.P. At West. Pal. Hotel. At the Earl of Aberdeen's. At Lord Biassey's. *Sir"VV. Lawson, Bt., M.P. *Earl Compton. Oscar Wilde. C. Russell. * T. C. Hedderwick. * Hon. Mark Napier. 'George W. E. Russell. C. E. Mallett. At Surrey House (Mr. Cyril Flower's). Smoking "At Home." At Westminster Palace Hotel. At 8, Grosvenor Square (Sir A. and Lady Hayter's.) At Alford House. (Mr. and Mrs. James Williamson, M.P.'s.) Smoking " At Home." At Westminster Palace Hotel. Mr. G. W. E. Russell in the chair. Rt. Hon. Sir Wm. Har- court. R. T. Reid, Q.C., M.P. *Sir W.Lawson, Bt.,M.p W. B. Duffield. At Surrey House (Mr. & Mrs. Cyril Flower's). The Rt. Hon. Marquis of Ripon, K.G. Prof. W. Harrison Moore. At West. Pal. Hotel. *Gen. Sir A. Clarke. B. F. Hawksley. Smoking "At Home." At Westminster Palace Hotel. Lord Kensington in the chair. At Institute of Water Colours (Mr. and Mrs. David Ainsworth). At Surrey House (Lord and Lady Battersea's). At 24, Park Lane (Lord and Lady Brassey). Right Hon. H. H. Asquith, Q.C., M.P. Mr. T. Sadler. in the Chair. Mr. H. C. Biron. *Mr. W. M. Crook. Smoking "At Home." At Westminster Palace Hotel. Lord Kensington in the chair. (continued.) EIGHTY CLUB "AT HOMES" (continued). June 27 . At 33 Portland Place (Mr. and Mrs. James Blyth's. Nov. 19 .. SirF.Lockwood,Q.c.,M.p. (At Westminster Palace Hotel.) Mr. W. S. Robson. *T. Lough, M.P. Lynden Bell. EIGHTY CLUB DINNERS. Date. Speakers. Chairmen. Proposer and Seconder oj Vote of Thanks. 1884. Feb. 29. . Rt. Hon. Sir C. Dilke, Bart., M.P. Albert Grey, M.P. Horace Davey, Q.C. , M.P. Hon. B. Coleridge May 9 . . Rt. Hon. Sir H. James, Q.C., M.P. mold Morley, M.P. Seorge Russell, M.P. F. Verney. uly ii Rt. Hon. W. E. Glad- stone, M.P. ^ord R. Grosvenor, M.P. Rt. Hon. Earl of North brook. *I. S. Leadam. Nov. 18 . . iS8 5 . Mai . 10 . . Rt. Hon. John Bright, M.P. Rt. Hon. G. J. Goschen, M. P. Albert Grey, M.P. .. Albert Grey, M.P. .. Hon. A. Lyttelton. H. H. Asquith. F. Lockwood, Q.c. P. Lyttelton Cell. April 28 . . Rt. Hon. J. Chamber- lain, M.P. Arnold Morley, M.P. T. Raleigh. Sir E. Grey, Bart. uly i Rt. Hon. Sir G. O. Tre- velyan, M.P. Lord R. Grosvenor, M.P. R. B. Haldane. E. A. Parry. 1886. Mar. 5 . . Rt. Hon. The Marquis of Hartington, M.P. Lord R. Grosvenor. *W. S. Robson, M.P. *Alfred Milner. une 8 . . Rt. Hon. John Morley, M.P. R. B. Haldane, M.P J. D. Fitzgerald. *G. G. Greenwood. Nov. 23 .. Sir Charles Russell, Q.c M.P. Sir Horace Davey, Q.C. *A.C. Meysey-Thompsor 'Robert Wallace. 1887. April 17 .. Rt. Hon. W. E. Glad H. H. Asquitb, M.P *R. T. Reid, Q.C., M.P. stone, M.P. *T. E. Scrutton. May 1 6 . Rt. Hon. Sir G. O. Tre velyan, Bart. R. B. Haldane, M.P *Hugh Boyd. *R Lehmann. Dec. 13 . Kt. Hon. Karl Gianvill Rt. Hon. Earl Spencer. W. S. Robson (late M.P. for Bow) "W. R. Kennedy, Q.C. Charles Russell, Jun. i8S3 Feb. 21 . . Kt. Hon. Sir \\. Hai court, <).<:., .M.P. (T. D. Sullivan, M.P. R. T. Reid, Q.C. M.P. ^Herbert Gladstone, M.P. George Lawrence. May8 . (has. S. Parnell, M.I' Rt. Hon. J. Morley. .M.P R. B. Haldane, M.I *A. H. D. Acland, M.P. E. F. V. Knox. 1880. Mar. 8 . Kt. Hon. Earl Spencer K.(i. Charles S. Parnell, M.P. F. Lock wood, y.c M.P. Earl Rosebery. "Augustine Birrell. EIGHTY CLUB DINNERS (continued). Date. i Speakers. Chairmen. Proposer and Seconder of Vote of Thanks. May 30 . . Rt. Hon. Lord Herschell. Lord Kensington. "J. Rigby, Q.c. H. W. W. Wilberforce. Nov. 19 . . Kt. Hon. J. Morlev, M.P. Sir E. Grey, Bart., M.P. *Anthony Hawkins. *J. C. Swinburne Hanham 1890. Mar. ii .. Rt. Hon. H. H. Fowler, M.P. "Augustine Birrell, M.P. "J- W. Philipps, M.P. 'R. McKenna. May 3 H. H. Asquith, Q.C., M.P. (At Cambridge.) *R. Lehmann Hon. A. Lyttelton. C. Geake. *A. Morley, M.P. Pattison-Muir. Dec. 2 . . 1891. May 30 . . Thomas Burt, M.P. R. B. Haldane, Q.C., .M.P. (At Cambridge,) Rt. Hon. Sir G. Tre- velyan, Bt , M.P. Sir C. Russell, Q.c., M.P. *J. Lawson-Walton. J. Roskill. *E.R. Pearce Edgcumbe. I. A. Bertram. "E. F. V. Knox, .M.P. C. Trevelyan. Dec. 9 . . Dr. Spence Watson. Rt. Hon. J. Morley, M.P Rt. Hon. Earl Spencer, K.G. R. A. Hudson. W. Harrison Moore. Rt. Hon. J. Morley, M.P. 1892. Feb. 29 . Lord Hobhouse. Sir C. Russell, Q.c., M.P. Lord Monkswell. J. F. Torr. May 21 R. T. Reid, Q.C., M.P. (At Cambridge.) Sir E. Grey, Bt., M.P. *A. Birrell, M.P. H. N. Ferrers. *Oscar Browning. Theobald Mathew. Aug. 4 . . Hon. E. Blake, M.P. Rt. Hon. J. Bryce, M.P. *E. J. C. Morton .M.P R. W. Hamilton 1893. May 12 . Rt. Hon. H. H. Camp- bell-Bannerman, M.P. Augustine Birrell. M.P. *J. W. Crombie, M.P. Julius Bertram. 1894 May 2 j . . B. Pickard, M.P. E. Harford. Rt. Hon. H. J. Gladstone, M.P. *Sydney Buxton M.P. *Col. J. C. Reade. *Sir\V.Lawson,Bart.,.M.p. June 2 . . Sir F. Lockwood, Q.c. , M.P. (Cambridge). Sir R. T. Reid, O.C., M.P. *H. J. Tennant, .M.P. Sheldon Amos. *A. I. David. Danks. July 10 . Lord Tweedmouth Rt. Hon. A. H. D. Acland, M.P. *Rt. Hon. H. H. Asquith. Q.C.. M.P *H. W. Paul, M.P. *T. Willans Nussey, M P. *SirF. Lock wood, Q.c. .M.P. Dec. 6 . . Rt. Hon. Earl of Kim- berley, K.G. Rt. Hon. Arnold Morley, M.P. *T. E. Ellis, M.P. J. A. Strahan. *A. Birrell, Q.c., M.P. * Denotes a candidate for Parliament t Previous to 1884 Dinners were private and no speeches were made. LIST OF MEMBERS. Denotes a Candidate for Parliament at the last General Election or at the present time. t Denotes a candidate for a former Parliament. *ACLAND, Right Hon. A. H. D., M.P., Clynnog, Carnarvon, N. Wales, and 28 Cheyne Walk, S.W. fAcLAND, C. T. D. , Holincote, Taunton. ADKINS, W. R. D., Springfield, Northampton. AGNEVV, C. MORLAMJ, 22 Upper Hamilton terrace, N.W. fAiNswoRTH, J. S., Harecroft, Gosforth, Cumberland (life member). *AINSWORTH, D., M.P., The Flosh, Cleator Moor, and 29 Pont street, S.W ( life me in ber. ) ALEXANDER, G. GLOVER, 6 Park square, Leeds. AI.LARD, W., Clovelly, Crescent roal, Norbiton. *ALLEN, C. F. EGERTON, M.P., Heywood Cottage, Tenby, and 154 Cambridge street, S.W. (life member,} ALLEN, J. G., 7 Clermont road, Preston, Brighton. ALLEN, H. SEYMOUR, Cresilly, Pembrokeshire, and 9 Great Cumberland Place, W. ALLEN, A. A., Cambridge Club, 20 Albemarle street, and 9 St. James' street. W. ALLEN, T. H., Queen's College, Oxford. AMOS, M. SHELDON, c/o Percy Bunting, Esq., n Endsleigh Gardens, N.W. ANDERSON, C. A., 32 Watling street, E.G. ANNAN, JOHN, i Walbrook, B.C. ARBUTHNOT, F. F., 18 Park lane, W. fARMiTSTEAD, G., 4 Cleveland square, Pall Mall, S.W. ASHBY, JOHN, J.P., The Close, Staines. *ASHTON, T. G., Prestbury Hall, Macclesfield. *ASQUITH, Right Hon. H. H., Q.C., M.P., Cavendish Square, W. ATKINSON, C. J. F., 97 Albion street, Leeds. AUSTIN, Louis F., Devonshire Club, St. James' street, S.W. BAILY, H., 176 Haverstock hill, N.W. BALIAN, C., National Liberal Club, S.W. BALSTON, W. E., Barvin, Potter's Bar. BARCLAY, HUGH, Colney Hall, Norwich. BARLOW, J. J., 48 Park street, Southport. BARNES, G. S., 33 Carey street, W.C. BARRATT, FRANCIS, 39 Lennox square, S.W., and Prideaux, Par Station, Cornwall. *BATTERSEA, Lord, 7 Hyde Park place, W., and Aston Clinton, Tring. BATTEN, CARY, Abbott's Leigh, near Bristol. fBEALE, W. PHIPSON, Q.C., 10 New court, Carey street, W.C., and 19 Upper Phillimore gardens, Kensington, W. BEATTY, OCTAVIUS, Killevey, Wimbledon, S.W. *BEAUFOY, MARK H., M.P., 87 South Lambeth road, Lambeth. BEDDINGTOX, H. M., 8 Cornwall terrace, Regent's Park, N.W. BELL, W. LYNDEN, i Brick court, Temple, E.G. BENN, C. A., 2 Dr. Johnson's buildings, Temple, E.G. BENN, H. H., Lynton and Lynmouth Electric Light Co., Lynmouth, North Devon. *BENN, J. W., M.P., L.C.C., I5a Finsbury square, W. BENNETT, R. A., 22 Lushington Road, Eastbourne. BENSON, W. A. S., 39 Montagu square, W. BENSON, G. R., M.P., Norfolk House, Victoria Embankment, W.C BERRIDGE, T. D., 40 Woburn square, W.C. BERTRAM, ANTON, 93 Elgin crescent, Netting Hill, W., and i Dr. Johnson's Buildings, Temple, E.G. BERTRAM, JULIUS, 29 York terrace, Regent's park, N.W., and 34 Norfolk street, Strand, W.C. BEVAN, S. J., 50 Elm Park gardens, S.W. BICKERSTETH, H. C., Bondgate, Ripon. BICKERSTETH, JOHN, Waplington Manor, York. BICKNELL, Rev. N. L., Pendowrie, Liskeard, Cornwall. BICKNELL, R. P., Christ's College, Cambridge. BIRON, H. C., 32 St. George's road, S.W., and 4 Crown Office row, Temple, E.G. *BiRRELL, A., Q.C., M.P., 3 New square, Lincoln's Inn, W.C. , & 30 Lower Sloane street, S.W. BISGOOD, J. J., 14 Queen Anne gardens, Bedford park, Chiswick. BLACKWELL, T. F., The Cedars, Harrow Weald, (life member.} BLAKE, F. D., I Brick court, Temple, E.G. BLANCKENSEE, J. F., 29 and 30 King street, Cheapside, E.G. BLYTH, JAS., Woodhouse, Stanstead, Essex, and 33Portland Place W. (life member}. BLYTH, H. A., 45 Portland place, W. (life member.} BOND, W. C., Boxhurst, Dorking. *BONHAM-CARTER, J., Adhurst St. Mary, Petersfield. BONO, PERCY, 27 Store street, Bedford square, W.C. BONHOTE, Major LEITH, 68 Lexham gardens, S.W i8 BOOTH, S. BARKER, 3 Gray's Inn square, W.C. BOWEN, J. H., 2 Bank buildings, Weymouth. BOWRING, T. B., 7 Palace gate, Kensington, W. fBoYD, HUGH, n King's Bench Walk, Temple, E.G., and Mark's Dene, West Clandon, Guildford, and 13 Evelyn gardens, South Kensington. fBRABOURNE, Lord, 3 Queen Anne's gate, S.W. BRAMALL, A. M., Redland House, Highbury Hill, N., and 47 Lime street, E.G. *BRAND, Hon. A. G., M.P., 6 Evelyn Mansions, Carlisle place, S.W. fBRASSEY, LORD, K.C.B., 24 Park lane, W., and Normanhurst Castle, Battle. *BRASSEY, Hon. T. A., 19 Hertford street, W., and Park Gate, Battle (life member.} BREACH, W. POWELL, Newham House, Steyning. BRENON, A., 48 Clanricarcle gardens, W. fBRiGHT, W- LEATHAM, 23 Holland road, Brighton. BROOKS, H. E., 74 Great Tower St., E.G., and Stifford Lodge, near Grays, Essex. BROUGH, JAMES R., 'Eversley,' 29 Alexandra villas, Finsbury park, N. *BROWN, Sir ROGER, Highfield, Hilperton, Trowbridge, Wilts (life member). BROWN, E. STEWART (see Stewart). *BROWNING, OSCAR, King's College, Cambridge. BRUCE, J. A. B. B., 2 Middle Temple lane, Temple, E.G. and Members' Mansions, Victoria street, S.W. (Secretary}. BRUNNER, H. R., 9 Ennismore gardens, S.W. *BRYCE, Right Hon. JAMES, M.P. , 54 Portland place, W. BRYCE, J. ANNAN, 35 Bryanston square, W., and 8 Austin Friars, E.G. *BUCHANAN, T. R., M.P., 12 South street, Park lane, W. BULMER, E. F., Ryelands, Hereford. BURN, JAMES, n Old Broad street, E.G., and 14 Stanhope gardens, W. BURNARD, R., Hillsborough, Plymouth. *BuRT, THOMAS, M.P., Reform Club, S.W., and 35 Lorraine crescent, Newcastle-on-Tyne (honorary member}. BUTLER, SLADE, 2 Middle Temple lane, Temple, E.G. *BUXTON, SYDNEY C., M.P., 15 Eaton place, S.W. tBuxTON, E. N., Knighton, Buckhurst Hill. BUXTON, GEOFFREY F., Sunney Hill, Thorpe, Norwich. BUXTON, C. Louis, Bolwick, Marsham, Norwich. BUXTON, HARRY G., Catton Hall, Norwich. *CAINE, W. S., M.P., 33 North Side, Clapham Common, S.W. C/UNE, W., Balliol College, Oxford. *CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN, Right Hon. H., M.P., 6 Grosvenor place, S.W. (life member.) 19 CAMPBELL, Rev. A. J., Barry, Forfar. CANDY, H. C., 101 Gower street, W.C. CARLESS, WM., 81 Warrior square, St. Leonard's-on-Sea. *CARMICHAEL, SIR T. D. GIBSON, Bart., Castlecraig, Dolphinton, N.B. *CARMICHAEL, SIR TAS. M., Bart., M.P., 12 Sussex place, Regent's Park, W. CARRINGTON, LORD, P.C., G.C.M.G., L.C.C., Wycombe Abbey, Bucks, 50 Grosvenor street, W. *CAUSTON, R. K., M.P., 12 Devonshire place, W. fCAVAN, EARL OF, 47 Duke street, St. James's, S.W. (life member}. *CHANNING, . A., M.P., Reform Club, s.w., and 40 Eaton Place, s.w. CLARK, J. W., Refirm Club, s.w., and 11 New square, Lincoln's Inn. *CLARKE, General Sir A., 42 Portland place, W. CLARKE, EDGAR, 132 Westbourne terrace, W. *CLARKE, T. CHATFIELD, 132 Westbourne terrace, W. CLAY, C., The Hollins, Luddenden, nr. Manchester. CLAY, W. G., 5 Paper buildings, Temple, E.G. CLIFTON, ARTHUR, Albemarle Club, Albemarle street, S.W. *COBB, HENRY P., M.P., 53 Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C., and Weald- stone House, R. S.O. , Middlesex. tCoHEN, ARTHUR, Q.C., 6 Holland park, W., and 5 Paper buildings, Temple, E.G. COHEN, H. J., 4 King's Bench Walk, Temple, E.C. COLBECK, C., Moretons, Harrow-on-the-Hill. "COLERIDGE, Lord, Q.C. , 3 King's Bench Walk, Temple, E.C. COMINS, H., Walden, Hades Hill, Enfield. *COMPTON, EARL, M.P., L.C C., 51 Lennox gardens, S.W. *CONYBEARE, C. A. V., M.P., 47 Halsey street, Chelsea, S.W. COOK, E. T., 6 Tavistock square, W.C. COOKE, T. P., Hull News Office, Hull. COOKE, H. P., 25 Orsett terrace, W. COOKE, W. RUSSELL, 3 New Inn, W.C. , and 87 Westbourne terrace, W. CORBETT, C. H., 2 Tanfield court, Temple, E.C. CORBETT, JULIAN, Imber Court, Thames Ditton, S.W. CORDER, P., 41 Mosley street, Newcastle. CORN FORTH, W., Hazeleigh, Surbiton. CORY, CLIFFORD, Cardiff (life member}. *COSTELLOE, B. F. C., L.C.C., 33 Chancery Lane, W.C., and 40 Grosvenor road, S.W. COTTON, ALBERT L., Balliol College, Oxford. COZENS-HARDY, W. H., 50 Laclbroke grove, W. *CROMBIE, J. W., M.P., Devonshire Club, St. James' street, S.W., and Balgowrie Lodge, Aberdeen, and 67 Jermyn street, S.W. *CROOK, W. M., 2 Middle Temple lane, E.C. CUNDELL, Dr. G. R. , Brunswick House, Kew (life member]. *DAVID, A. J., 4 Harcourt buildings, Temple, E.G. DAVIES, W. REES, M.P., I Dr. Johnson's buildings, Temple, E.G. DAVIES, J., Rough Grange, Gateacre, near Liverpool. DAVIES, A. L., 2, Garden court, Temple, E.G. DAVIES, J. HOWARD, IA Frederick's place, Old Jewry, E.G. DEACON, STUART, Appleton House, Widnes. DENDY, F. W., Eldon House, Jesmond, Newcastle-on-Tyne. DENTON, EARDI.EY BAILEY, Orchard Court, Stevenage, and 37 Palace Chambers, 9 Bridge street, Westminster, S.W. *DE LISLE, BERNARD, 26 Uryden Chambers, 119 Oxford street, W. ; and Gracedieu Warren, Whitwick, Leicestershire. DICKINSON, W. H., L.C.C., 19 Campden Hill road, Kensington, W. *DlLKE, Right Hon. Sir CHARLES W., Bart,, M.P., 76 Sloane street, s.w. DILLON, H. W., St. Ethelburg House, Bishopsgate street, E.G., and Peak Hill Lodge, Sydenham, S.E. DODD, J. T., 55 St. Giles, Oxford. *DoDD, CYRIL, Q.C., M.P., 2 Harcourt buildings, Temple, E.G., and 28 Inverness terrace, W.. DUFFIELD, W. B., i Dr. Johnson's buildings, Temple, E.G., and 23 Vincent square, W. *DUNCAN, J. A., 2 Garden court, Temple, E.G., and Members' Mansions, S.W. DUNN, H. A. GOLMORE, II Stone buildings, Lincoln's Inn, W.C., and 24 Hyde Park place, W. EDWARDES, HON. W., 69 Grosvenor street, W. (lije member.} EDWARDS, W., Junr., 14 Daleham gardens, Hampstead, N.W. ELKIN, B. A., 9 Abercorn place, St. John's Wood. ELLIS, CUTHBERT, 7 Hammersmith terrace, W. *ELLis, T. E., M.P., 132 Palace chambers, Westminster, S.W., and 38 Ebury Street, S.W. ERSKINE, LESTOC R., 5 Westbourne street, Hyde Park, W. ESTCOURT, ROWLAND, Gay ton, Northampton. EUMORFOPOULOS, G., Sunny Bank, Meadvale, Redhill. EVE, H., 4 New square, Lincoln's Inn, W.C. *FARQUHARSON, DR. R., M.P., Migbie Lodge, Porchester gardens, S.W. tFELL, JOHN, J. P. , Hollyhurst, Leamington. *FENWICK, Captain HENRY THOMAS, M.P., 6 Charles street, W. *FERGUSON, R. C. MUNRO, M.P., Brooks's Club, and 46 Cadogan square, S.W. *FERGUSON, JOHNSON, J. E., M.P. (see Johnson). FIELD, T- LESLIE, 32 Clevedon place, Eaton square, W., and Reform Club, S.W. FIGGIS, S., Wildwoods, North end, Hampstead, N.W. FISHER, H. A. L., New College, Oxford. FOA, F., 34 De Vere gardens, S.W. FOSTER, S., II George street, Hanover square (life member']. FRASER, R. S., 4 Finsbury Circus, E.G. FROST, R., 8 King's Bench Walk, Temple, E.G. (life member}. FRY, J. P., Cleveland Lodge, Great Ayton R.S.O., Yorkshire. *Fier. ) *\YiLLS, Sir W. H., Bart., 25 Hyde Park gardens, W., and Easthill, St. Lawrence-on-Sea, Thanet. WILLS, STANLEY, i Dr. Johnson's buildings, Temple, E.G., and Stainton, Sundridge Park, Bromley. WILSON, N. F., 10 Cliff Terrace, Kendal. *WINFREY, R., Spalding. WITHERS, J. J., Maltravers House, Arundel street, Strand, W.C., and 9 Bathurst street, Hyde Park, W. WOLVERTON, LORD, 23 Park lane, W. (life member.} *WOODHOUSE, Sir J. T., Elloughton, Brough, Yorks. WOODINGS, W. D., 42 Parliament street, S.W. WRIGHT, FRANK, 180 Brearley street, Birmingham. YATES, W. B., L.C.C., 3 Harcourt buildings, Temple, E.G. Y'GLESIAS, H. R., I The View, Beachcroft road, Upper Tooting, S.W. *YouNG, A., II Old square, Lincoln's Inn, W.C. YOUNG, DOUGLAS, 167 Brixton road, S.W. YOUNGER, R., 16 Old buildings, Lincoln's Inn, W.C. *W. M. CONVVAY, 21 Clanricarde gardens, W. *R. HIPPISI.EY Cox, Wandle, Mitcham. Rev. H. S. LUNN, 5 Endsleigh Gardens, N.W. H. A. MORRAH, St. John's College, Oxford. B. b. STRAUS, 8 Hyde Park mansions, W. THE MASTER OF ELIBANK, Darnhall, Peebles. C. J. WIHTTING, Poole road, Bournemouth. 34 MEMBERS RESIDENT ABROAD. ABERDEEN, Earl of, Ottawa, Canada. COBBETT, Prof. PITT, Sydney, New South Wales. COGHLAN, E. W. COTTON, H. E. A., Bar Library, Calcutta, India. *DUFF, Right Hon. Sir R., SYDNEY, New South Wales. ELGIN, Earl of, Calcutta. India. FREMANTLE, H. E. S. GARRETT, F. E., MACGREGOR, Mr. Justice A., Orange Free State. MOORE, Professor W. HARRISON, Melbourne University, Victoria. NISBET, J., co M. H. Nisbet, Esq., Athenaeum Club, Sydney, South Wales. PEARSON, E. W., Minnedora, Manitoba, Canada. *PROBYN, Hon. LESLIE. WISE, Hon. B. R., Carisbrooke, Sydney, New South Wales. HONORARY MEMBERS. (See ordinary list.) *BURT, THOMAS, M.P. (1891). GLADSTONE, Right Hon. W. E., M.P. (1884). *MORLEY, Right Hon. J., M.P. (1886). REID, WEMYSS (1892). WATSON, Dr. SPENCE (1892). " EIG-HTY OLTJB. DINNER TO THE LABOUR REPRESENTATIVES. S! 'HECHES BY MR. B. PICKARD, M.P. (PKESfDEXT OF .l//.V7v'.s' FEDEKATIOX) MR. E. HARFORD (.SECRETARY OF AM ALGA MA TED SOCIETY OF RAILWAY SERl'AXTS.) MR. SYDNEY BUXTOX, M.P., COL. READE, and Sin W. LAWSOX, BART., M.P. AT THE WESTMINSTER PALACE HOTEL. On Wednesday, May 2$rd, 1894. MR. HERBERT GLADSTONE, M.P, IN THE CHAIR. -r : ]. A. I'. BRUCF, 2, Middle Temple Lane, E.C. "EIGHTY" DINNER on WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1894 AT WESTMINSTER PALACE HOTEL, TO Mr, B, PICKARD, H,P,, and the Labour Representatives, Mr. HERBERT GLADSTONE, M.P., in the Chair. Members. *Ains\vorth, David, M.P. Halian, C. Barrett, F. Keatty, Octavius, C.C. Bell, Lynden Bertram, Anton Bertram, Julius Blackwell, Thomas Francis Blyth, James Bruce, J. A. B. (Sec.) *Burt, Thomas, M.P. *Bu\ton, Sydney, M. 1'. Buxton, Harry ( !. *'De Lisle, Bernard (Cheshire) Fraser, R. S. *Fry, T. \V. (Westmoreland) Fry, J. P. *Gladstone, Herbert, M.P. *Grimwade, K.W., J.P. (Croydon) *Haldane, K. B., Q.C., M.P. Hamilton, Robert W. Ha\vkin, R. C. Ilawksley, 15. F. Ilutchinson, C. C., J.P. i, R. Kemp, J. Kimmins, C. \V. Kleimenhagen, M. Knox. Brownlow Kyd, D. H. *La\vrence, George (Guild ford) Guests. Barris, A. Beard, J. T. Bertram, Sir G. (Speaker of Jersey) Collinson, E. de L. *Cook, E. Rider, J.P. Craggs, F. Grant, A. J. Harris, W. C. Harford, E. (Secretary Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants) Hertz, Dr. Howard, T. Kinderman, C. Ludwig, Dr. G. Mclntyre, A. Moore, J. Morison, J. Moulden, J. C. *Pickard, B., M.P. (President Miners" Federation) Pretty. L. E. Rushbrook, W. G. Stuart-Menteath, A. A. (New Zealand) Sunderland, A. W. Terrer. i, M. \Yaugh, H. Willis, J. G. Members. *Lawson, Sir Wilfrid, Bart., M.P. Lockhart, S. S. *Lush, A. H. (Totnes) Macdonell, G. P. Manners, L. Mason, David M. *Mencll, S. (Plymouth) Moon, K. O. *Morice, Beaumont (Wells) Morison. Rev. W. 1). "Xapier, Hon. Mark, M.P. *Pearce-Edgcumbe, E. R. (S. Dorset) * Pearson, W. D. (Colchester) Radforcl, George II. ""Reade, Col. Colquhoun (Walworth) * Ritchie, A., J.P. (Kennington) Roth, Bernard, J.P. "Routledge, Alderman F. Russell, C. Ryan, G. II. Schult/, George A. *Soames, A. \\". (Ipswich) *Stevens, T. *Stevenson, F. S., M.P. Swan/.y, F. A. Terrero, R. Waterlow, I). S. Yates, W. B., L.C.C. Young, D. Guests. * Wilson, J., M.P. -"Woods, S., M.P. and 6 other guests. .The Times. Press Association. Daily News. Daily Chronicle. Daily Graphic. Central News. Sheffield Daily Telegraph. Exchange Telegraph Co. Mr. Sydney Buxton, M.P. , proposed, Colonel C. Reade (Liberal candidate for Walworth) seconded, and Sir W. Lawson, Bart., M.P. supported the vote of thanks to speakers. Nearly 100 were present. LABOUR QUESTIONS. DINNER to the LABOUR REPRESENTATIVES. SPEECHES i:v MR. PICKARD, M.P. AND MR. HARFOR1). At the " Eighty '' Club Dinner on Wednesday, May 231x1, held at the Westminster Palace Holel, Mr. B. Pickarcl, M.P. (President of the Miners' Federation), and Mr. E. Harford (Secretary of Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants) were the guests of the evening. Mr. Herbert Gladstone, M.P. , took the Chair, and there were also present R. B. Haldane, <_>.c., M.P., John Wilson, M.I'., Sydney Buxton, M.P., Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Bart., M.P., David Ainsworth, M.P. , Thomas Burt, M.P. , Sir G. Bertram (Speaker of the States, Jersey), Thomas Francis Blackwell, James Blyth, T. W. Fry (Westmoreland), F. W. Grimwade, J.P. (Croydon), A. H. Lush (Totnes), S. Mendl (Plymouth), G. P. Macdonell. F. R. Pearce-Edgcumbe (Dorset), Col. Colquhoun Reade (Walworth), A. Ritchie, J.P., Alderman Routledge, A. W. Soames (Ipswich), W. B. Yates. L.C.C., Charles Russell, George Lawrence (Guildford), Robert Hamilton, A. A. Stuart-Menteath (New Zealand), Julius Bertram, Anton Bertram. Sir W. D. Pearson, Bart., (Colchester), J. A. B. Bruce, Scaetary. In all nearly 100 were present. The Chairman, MR. HERBERT GLADSTONE, M.P., who was received with cheers, said : Gentlemen, I ask you to welcome our guests Mr. Pickarcl and Mr. Harford. (Cheers.) They a're the guests of the evening and need no introduction from me. You are acquainted with them personally ; you know the field and the scope of their work; and I am satisfied that our guests will receive the heartiest welcome from the " Eighty " Club to-night. I can assure them that the "Eighty" Club includes not a few earnest labourers in the vineyard where the main interests of the industrial community lie. (Hear, hear.) There are many men present here to-night who have worked hard for the people and the industries of this country, and for the cause of labour ; and those gentlemen, I am sure, will be specially hearty in 6 LABOUR QUESTIONS. the greeting that they extend to our guests. And I think I may say that the presence of our guests here to-night shows that they recognise how bound up the interests of labour are with the progressive work of the Liberal Party and of the Liberal Govern- ment. Mr. Pickard represents a class of workers numbering something like 700,000, one of the most important industries of the country; he is a gentleman who has occupied, for many years, a most arduous and responsible position. We are glad to see him here to-night in something like good health, for we know and appreciate the fact that he has had to contend in periods of great stress and strain against somewhat serious physical disabilities. Mr. Pickard not only has the ordinary work of a great Labour Union, but he is essentially a captain of industry ; he has to consider questions of policy perhaps as difficult as any which have to be considered in the Cabinet Councils of the realm. I am glad that personally I can claim to have had -some slight con- nection with the sphere in which Mr. Pickard moves. During the past two years I have been connected with the department of the Government which is responsible for the administration of the Coal Mines Act, and I have been therefore brought into contact, as it were, with the mining element of the country. Well, I know what the mining element is. I know something about the difficulties of administering mines legislation, and I know something about the deficiencies of it. Sometimes we hear, gentlemen, that this is a time of grand-motherly legislation and grand-motherly administration, and that we are bothering employers a great deal too much by fruitless interference. But I stand in a somewhat happy position because I am, in a small sort of way, a coal owner myself. When I was at the Home Office on one occasion I stood in rather a curious position, namely, that of both Prosecutor and 1 )i Tendant, because being associated in the administration of the Coal Mines Acts at the Home Office, I was party to the prosecution of the manager and owner of the colliery with which I was con- nected. Well, of course, during that time I lay rather low. and I do not think I let out in the Home Office that I had any connection with the colliery in question. (Laughter.) Well, gentlemen, in the court of first instance, before the magistrates we were lined, (hear, hear and laughter) but the colliery appealed to Ouarter Sessions and we were triumphantly acquitted ; so I had the double satisfaction of doing my duty in the Home Office in seeing that justice should be done, and as the part owner of thi* colliery, I MR. HEKKKKT (II.ADSTOXK, M.P. had the satisfaction of being completely acquitted. Therefore, gentlemen, I think that shows that "what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander," and I am quite prepared to pay any penalties that may be attached to me under the Coal Mines legislation and the Coal Mines administration. I hope and trust that the close administration of the Mines Act will continue. There are deficiencies in the Act upon which I will not touch. There are points of weakness in the department which ad- ministers these Acts, probably known to many here present, but all that I can say about that is that I am absolutely confident that the interests of that department are safe in the hands of Mr. Asquith (hear, hear) and I am confident that every month that he continues to be in office will add to the efficiency of the department over which he has so well prc : ( Hear, hear.) We have not only Mr. Pickard here to-night, but we have Mr. Harford, the Secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants. (Hear, hear.) I have been associated \\ith him di past years : I served two years on the Committee enquiring into the grievances of Railway Servants and I congratulate Mr. Harford on the passing of the Railway Servants' Act, one of the few really important measures which have been passed into 1 ; the present Government. It is a measure which is most useful in itself, which has great possibilities about it, and which probably will be an extremely useful precedent for legislation of a similar kind directed to other industries. How was that Act passed ? It was (1 through the work of Mr. Hafford's Society. It was p. first by combination; secondly by unity; and thirdly by n ableness. and I congratulate Mr. Harford upon the manm which he conducted the agitation which led to this reasonable and satisfactory result. Now, gentlemen, it seems to me that we, as members of the Liberal Party, may learn a lesson from the work of our guests. Through unity they have been successful; through unity in the past the Liberal Party has been successful. If we do not piv our traditions in that respect I am afraid we cannot be succ- still. We at any rate are not yet disunited. There are some whispers of little disagreements in the House of Commons, - rift within the lute." I see no such disagreement outside. Inde- pendence is talked about. Indepenu ntlcmen, I think is as often a vice as it is a virtue. It is very often synonymous with LAKOUK <"H-KSTICNS. weakness. Still, it all depends upon what you are going to be in- dependent about ; and if you are independent about selfish per- sonal objects, and do not have regard to the interests and aims and sentiments of the people in general, I think independence is apt to degenerate into something which is very unreal, very selfish, and very unpatriotic. (Cheers.) If we carry our minds back to the general election, we. remember with some pain and grief that there was a great deal of independence about at that time ; and I often speculate as to how we should stand at the present moment if that independence had not existed at the general election, and if we had all pulled together. If we had all pulled together, as some of us hoped we should, we should have swept the country, and by this time we should have passed Home Rule for Ireland, and the road would have been clear for bene- ficent measures for the United Kingdom. (Hear, hear.) That happy result did not come to pass. Well, gentlemen, I think that independence can be carried too far. I read an account of an independent labour movement the other day, and two or three of the speakers got up and said that they thought that they should be certainly independent of both Liberals and Conservatives : but they went a step further, and declared they thought that they should be also independent of the Independent Labour Party. (Laughter.) Well, gentlemen, when people get sufficiently independent, then perhaps there is some chance of their learning the value of com- bination. I hope we shall arrive at that, because when we are independent we are as the shifty sand which is borne about by wind and tide, in which there is no stability, and on which one cannot rely. Now, gentlemen, union is essential for our purpose, and I say we ought to learn a lesson from the work done by Mr. Pickard and Mr. Harforcl, and by the various labour Unions throughout the country. (Cheers.) They win the battles for those whom they represent, by pulling together, by solid hard united work. They do not necessarily agree on all points, but they set themselves to work for objects which are common to all ; and they are not affected by the childishness which, because it cannot get all it wants at one time, says it will not co-operate, and that it will not do anything it can for the common interest. The great organizations presided over by Mr. Pickard and Mr. Harford have shown that they can fall into line : they have shown that they can realize what are the first and foremost objects at which they ought to aim ; they have shown that they can dissociate themselves from selfishness and from mean and petty objects, and that they can work together for the common good ; and it is becanse they have realized that that is the road to success they have succeeded as we all know they have succeeded. I ask you to welcome here to-night the guests of the evening, and I am sure no guests will ever have a heartier greeting from the " Eighty '' Club than Mr. Pickard and and Mr. Harford, for their own sakes, for the sake of the work they do, and for the sake of the great mass of workmen whom they so worthily represent. (Cheers.) MR. B. PICKARD, M.P.,. President of the Miners' Federation : Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, I have no need to say that this is the first time that I have been among you. T have no need to say that I am pleased to be with you. On my own behalf I have to thank the Chairman of this meeting for the kind words he has expressed with regard to the work that I have done. I also wish to say that I am heartily thankful that he has not forgotten those whom I represent. The work we have done is before the world. Our aims and objects have been freely criticised. I am referring now to the work of the Federa- tion to which I belong, and for which I have worked to the best of my ability, and which has had due recognition from the " Eighty " Club to-night. I was saying to our Chairman a short time ago that although the " Eighty " Club has assisted a great many members into Parliament, somehow or other they have over- looked myself, and he excused himself by saving that I required no help. I thought so at the time, and was quite pleased to find that the "Eighty" Club were sending their representatives all over the country to those who desired help and who were entitled to he 1 .]) from the "Eighty'' Club. Therefore I have no ground of complaint with regard to any lack of interest on the part of the "Eighty" Club, and 1 know that no slight was intended at that time in their not supporting me. You can take it from me that our men are fully alive to all those political questions and other questions which the " Eighty " Club is striving to press upon the people of this country. The "Eighty" Club has got a name. I think some of you who read the papers, especially the evening papers, will consider that you have got a name that you can talk about. The Echo to-night says that I am to be the guest of a Revolutionary Club. Well, if they had been at the Berlin Congress and seen some men get up on their feet and begin to open their 10 LABOUR QUESTIONS. mouths, if there was a revolution at all anywhere it was there. Well, if your intentions are revolutionary, as I believe they are intended to be, it will be a revolution of a very quiet order. You have no desire at all to throw bombs into cafes ; you have no desire to have a revolution to destroy the lives of innocent women and children. Now I can say for 'Mr. Harford and myself, and Mr. Burt and Mr. Wilson, we do not belong to that class of revolu- tionists. We believe that there should be revolutions, but they should be brought about in a different manner. We do not believe in destroying property in order that the working classes in some way or other may convince employers and the rich people of this world that all that they have got should not only b.elong to the revolutionists but should be destroyed and belong to nobody. What we believe is that we should have fair con- sideration for every class ; that we should have fair remuneration for the work which we perform. We do not care so much how much a man obtains by managing a business if only he will allow the workers to have a fair share when running the concern. We do not believe that that has been done in the past. (Hear, hear.) The ''Eighty" Club has been the schoolmaster abroad, delivering their lectures not merely on political economy, but on matters political, and they have been training the working classes of this country to seek for and obtain, not by physical force, but by every intellectual and moral power which they possess, a fair share of the wealth created by themselves and also for those who have the brains to manage their affairs. Now I did not intend to go into that question, but it an a remark or two made by the Chairman. I wish to say first of all with regard to this " Eighty" Club, I think it has done a good work. You are not praising me or lifting me higher than I think I ought to be. I have this idea about men in general, that we all seek to get from each other that which we think should be in n, and the : " Eighty" Club, through its n '.-vcrvthing that they can obtain by making them- - as popular as it is possible for them to be. That is the thing to do in every line of life. Number One even in the 'Eighty' Clui is nothing wrong in 'ating that so plainly. The " Eighu " Club is incli irk. 1 do not think that they have been assist much as they might have been by a great Liberal Party, and I hope that in t- Eighty" Club and the Liberal Party will MR. PICKAKD, M.P. 11 he synonymous, and the work performed will have results such as we have not seen up to now. Mr. Gladstone has been telling you about certain things, and I wish to say one thing in particular, namely, as to whether I am about to resign certain positions or not. Well, I think I had better make that point clear now. From information received since I got into England I came home last night I found certain rumours abroad, and I have seen a good many friends to-day, and whatever intention I had before I came home yesterday, I have made up my mind that at all events for the present I shall retain the positions I occupy. (Cheers.) When it was made clear to me, whatever personal feeling I might have in the matter, if it should in any way act injuriously to a large body of workmen, I should set my own feelings and desires on one side, and fall in with the best advice obtainable. Therefore with regard to the International Congress, seeing that in my absence, and in the absence of my friends on my left, they have re-elected me as their Secretary, I shall con- tinue to do that w-ork so far as I am able. With regard to the Miners' Federation, of which I have been proud to be President for some considerable time, I have no quarrel \yhatever with my own people, and I am not now going to allow personalities to intervene and prevent me from continuing to do the work. I wish it also to be clearly understood that whatever the newspapers have got to say about my health, which has been bad enough I know, I am pleased to say, for niy own sake and that of my family, that I am much better than I have been for some considerable time. (Cheers.) I can tell you, so far as this gathering is con- cerned, this is the first time that I have been able to stand on my feet and speak at all for somewhere about three years. In all the great battles that have been fought in this very room, the colliery owners have allowed me to keep my seat, and to fight them as best I could. I did my best as you all know, and I simply wish it to be understood that I am thankful, whatever other people may be. 1 also wish to say with regard to the work of this Inter- national ( 'ongress which a good many people think just from a ii what has appeared in the newspapers that it is worthless and does no good, that the great difficulties we had were not so much with the men but the language. For instance, we hav< made in English, it is translated into Frenrh, and from the French, with however many errors there may be in the h translation, it is translated into German; and sometimes 12 LAIIDUK < H'ESTIONS. we have an Austrian who is a Bohemian, and who speaks in the Bohemian dialect, and we have nobody but one man in the Conference (apart from the man speaking himself) who can translate himself, and he translates himself into German, and when that is done somebody may translate it into English. Therefore you will see at once how battles and difficulties, and what are called "scenes," occurred in the International Congress, where four languages were spoken. I have no doubt if the Chairman spoke to us in German, and someone else in French, you would be all impatient before the translations were finished. They smoke and drink there, therefore you are on equal terms with them so far as that goes. But when there are four languages being spoken .ind all are waiting to hear the first and last word, and they do not understand three-fourths of it, you can imagine yourselves in that position, and you would want to kick up a row if you had a speech prepared. As soon as one man sits clown and the interpreter has to get up and explain it, other speakers are up on their feet ready to speak in the same language, and with half-a-dozen people on their legs, the men are a little excited and there appears to be a terrible row going on. Now we have found out that a good manv people now are able to speak in a good many languages, and I think it should be one of the things that the " Eighty'' Club should strive to bring about, so that various languages should be taught in our schools and colleges. I tried my best, when working in the pit, to learn German, but I could not. I did try a little French, and was a little more successful, but I never thought it would be of use to me. I only wish I knew as much about French now as I did tw' -iiiy-five years ago when I was working in the mines. Mr. Hurt will tell you that when he was working in the mines he got most of his information at that time. With regard to the connection of workers with the great Liberal Party, I may say that as a workman I have always been under the impression that to be connected with the Liberal Party, seeing that tile Liberal Party in my judgment in reading history, and ;iiainted with most of the leaders for a long time now, .iberal Party has been the friend of the working classes of this country for at least the last fifty years. (Cheers.) As to the trades unions, we must thank the Liberal Party for allowing them to organise by law, and we must thank the Liberal Party for bringing forward that movement. The Tory Party say, " We ga< MR. PICKARD, M.l'. 13 Act of 1875 or l &76> which has given you greater freedom in Trade Union work/' Well, we say that we are thankful for that also ; but the man who breaks the fetters off the slave is the man that we must praise. Therefore, with regard to the Liberal Party we say that we thank you heartily for making men of us and enabling us to assemble in our villages, in our school rooms, in our public-houses we are bound to do it there for there is nowhere else in the villages and in our other places we have got the right to speak out like men and ask for what we really want. We ask for it, we do not beg for it ; we simply desire to state clearly, as far as we are able, what are our aims and objects in life, and which we wish to seek by every lawful means to obtain them. The Liberal Party have done that for us. We who live in the counties are quite prepared to say another thing. Wiv i Mr. Gladstone there is not a bigger man in this room : I do not mean this Air. Gladstone (laughter), I mean the other one who overshadows him when Mr. Gladstone received a deputation of miners (I believe Air. Hurt was on that deputation) in 1874, I am proud to think that I was on that deputation, ask- ing Mr. ( ilaclstone if he could not see his way to grant our working populations of the counties the same vote as had been given to the workers in the boroughs. Now, I shall not forget the reply that he gave to us on that occasion. This deputation was a day or two before the dissolu- tion, and I think Mr. Gladstone's last remark was : " Gentlemen, however willing I may be to take this matter in hand, I have found those who are surrounding me not in the same frame of mind ; therefore. I cannot promise you that you will receive the County Franchise at the present moment." Everybody knows now that a dissolution took place and we got no County Franchise until the year 1884 or 1885. We were told on that occasion that Mr. Gladstone was very ill, that is, he was not well, and we as miners were the only deputation that he could meet on that occasion. Well, we went home, as it is said, happy to think that the Prime Minister had taken the miners into consideration, and that he, at all events, was alive to the fact that we as miners in the country agitating this question, and were determined to have this County Franchise as speedily as possible. You know the weary years that followed. Mr. George Trevelyan passed his resolu- tion year after year. It was only when Mr. Gladstone had made ii]) hi> mind that if the people of Great Britian were really desirous 14 LABOUR QUESTIONS. of having this great boon conferred upon them, that they should have it, and when he found out that the great body of the working classes desired anything, so far as he was able as a Minister and as a politician, he would see that it was secured to them. (Cheers.) Well, we had that power, and we have to thank the Liberal Party for getting us the power of sending members to Parliament, and it has enabled working men to send one or two members of the Labour Party to represent them, and some of them are here to-night. My great offence at the Trade Union Congress is that I have said plainly, "If you want members in the House, pay your 6d. per year and that will secure to you, in every large town, a representative if you care to have one." Now, another boon that the Liberal Party has given to the working classes is this : they have never opposed, so far as I know, a genuinely selected Labour candidate at any election. I should like it to be pointed out if it has ever been the case that they have been opposed. Therefore, with regard to this Independent Labour Party, I have no sympathy whatever with the so-called free and Independent Labour Party. The interest of the Liberal Party, so long as they will work with the Labour Party, is with the working men. (Cheers.) If the Liberal Party will not take hold of the working man's hands, if they will not join in unity and help to pass measures into law which will be for the benefit of the working man, why the day will come when the working man will say, "We will have a Labour Party which will be independent of the Tory and Liberal Parties," and I think they will be justified whenever that day arives. I do not think that day has come yet, gentlemen. (Cheers.) I never could see how an Independent Labour Party could exist without funds. If any politician can form an Independent Labour Party without funds under present political arrangements and conditions, and can get members into Parliament, then it will convince ;m that an Independent Labour Party can be independent of itself. They will find out, as the Chairman has already said, that they will be independent, not merely of everybody else, but of them- s too. I have had many reflections thrown upon myself for making such statements, but on this public occasion I would like to say to the "Eighty" Club that the workers of this country delight in being independent. The men too are thoroughly in earnest in politics, and there are many among the workers who do not care to be slapped on the back or scratched on the back, but MR. PICKARD, M.P. 15 they like to feel that they have an interest in the nation, and that they are working for the good of themselves and their fellow workers. Without in any way reflecting upon other people who are taking other courses, it is only fair to those who represent their hundreds of thousands, to state to you that this is a mere fragment of the working classes who are following in the wake of those who, while pretending to be in sympathy with the Liberal Party, generally run a candidate in order to oust the Liberal candidate. I have no sympathy with any such-like movements. With regard to the present Government, I have said it before, and I think it might well be said now, since this Government came into power, in my judgment they have done more to ameliorate the condition of the workers of this country, in the eighteen months or two years they have been in office, than any other Government that has run the lifetime of a Parliament. (Loud cheers.) Personally I have no fault to find with any [Minister. With regard to the miners, I think the Home Secretary has done well. (Hear, hear.) I can only hope that he will follow that up by bringing in a Bill which will give to us what we are asking for. We think we should have some practical colliers as Inspectors of Mines. We think that we have practical co'liers smongst us who are well qualified for the position. We have men amongst us who have studied all the theoretical science of mining, and they know it practically, because they are working in the mines every day. Th y have '< ssed their examinations ; they have obtained their first and their second-class certificates, and I do not see why the Home Secretary should be so reticent and so nice about ap- pointing a man with horney hands to the position of a kid L inspector, for that is how our men put it. They say the o'l are all kid-glove fellows ; they are all connected with the mine managers, and they are a sort of caste class (hear, hear) ; and they work into each others' hands. I do not wish to reflect upon the inspectors, because I have no doubt that they do the well, but we should have a commingling of the classes. If a man iipetent, whether he be a common collier, or a deputy, or an underground viewer, he should be appointed. We ask that working men should be appointed to those positions. We say that the worker will have sympathy with the workers, because he is of the same class and kindred. I believe the. Home Secretary will do well to do that for us. What I say to him is, that if it is not to be Communism, if it is not to be rank Socialism, then grant us 16 LAIMUR OCKSTIOXS. a fair share cf the emoluments of office. The workers who placed you into power, who have made you Home Secretaries, by first putting you into Parliament, we want you, when you get into those high positions, to consider the working classes. If you are not of the working classes, you are dependent upon them for your very livelihood ; and I think we are only asking what is right and fair. Then again I think that our mines ought to have patent safety catches to be attached to cages that run down into the mines. I have advocated that for a long time. I worked twenty years in a mine, and during several years of that time there were patent safety catches, and those catches I have seen tested in such ways that I know that they are to be depended upon. I have heard some mine managers say that they are jimcracks. Well, I have seen a cage filled with a corfe of iron, and I have seen the bolts drawn, and with those bolts drawn, the cage has only been allowed to go about the third of an inch. Now we say that if a rope breaks with these patent safety catches, the lives of our miners will be safe. Therefore we are not asking too much when we ask for more grandmotherly legislation in the direction of saving life. Now, gentlemen, there is a question which I think the Home Secretary ought to be more praised for than some things with d to the mines, namely, that of introducing into the House of Commons an Employers' Liability Bill ; and after it had IK in sent to the Grand Committee on Law, the Home Secretary faith- fully adhered to the pledges that the Bill should be carried without a contracting out clause. Now, what we have contended for is this : that if we had an Employers' Liability Bill at all, we should have it in such a way as it would place every man free before the law : that no colliery owner or workman should be allowed to evade the law by seeking to contract out of it. I would just like to men- tion that Mr. Haldane has helped us very much in this connection in passing the measure through the House of Commons, and 1 can only hope that some day Mr. Haldane, from the " Eighty " Club, will reap some position in the government, which I consider he is fully entitled to. (Cheers.) I have no need to labour the question of the Employers' Liability Bill, which has been threshed out so many years. There is only one thing I can tell the right hon. gentleman in the chair, that what we fought for as against the late Government, and what we should always fight for, is this : we will not have a Bill with a contracting clause in it. If it were passed into law with that, allowing of contracting out, the agitation would MR. PicfrARD, M.r. 17 be still continued until we get a majority of the House of Commons, and those in the Upper House removed to a happier sphere, where they will not do much harm. (Cheers.) Well, I believe that is the frame of mind of the vast majority of the working classes of this country. Another question which has been alluded to very much, and it has been brought home to some people, is that of the eight hours question. Now I think the Government have taken a wise step in trying to put the factories and workshops under the eight hours system. It may not be the way that I would like it done, but everything that tends in that direction goes to prove that the mind of the people of this country is advancing very rapidly on this important question, and it has now become a burning question. Everybody is talking about eight hours. Some people say that they would only like to have to work eight hours, while in the case of the highly paid Govern- ment officials they would fare very badly indeed if they were made to work eight hours a day instead of the 3^ to 4 hours, with their Times, and talk across the table, and we have a very fair idea of what an eight hours day would be to some people. I do not think I need labour this point either. The House of Commons, two sessions in succession, have ond reading of the eight hours Bill by substantial majorities. Some people seemed to think that colliery owners and managers should not be the only persons to be fined or sent to prison, if a man happens to work a few minutes beyond the eight hours, and they say that the workmen ought to be punished. That would be going back on the law, gentlemen. In all the Mines Acts that have ever been passed, the colliery owner has been made responsible for the management of the mine, and I contend that, in order that the mine may be managed according to Act of Parliament, the mine owner and the manager should be the responsible persons to look after this measure, and see it pro- perly carried out. Why should that be done ? Simply because, if it is left to one man, and then another, to prosecute offenders, it would lead to nothing but trouble and dissension in and about our mines, and it would revolutionise all idea of management connected with our mines. Therefore I hope those members of Parliament here, when we get into Committee on this Bill, will not seek, as I understand the Home Secretary is desirous of seeking, to place the power of prosecution only in the hands of the work- men. If he does, he must study precedents, and if he can 18 LABOUR QUESTIONS. find in any workshops or factory legislation that such prosecutions are left in the hands of the workmen, then it might be fairly mar It- applicable to the workmen in our mines. With regard to com- pulsion or contracting out, I do not know who will be in favour of that. If it should be allowed that any one mine had the right to contract out of the Act, then that would lead to nothing but confusion. We want an eight hours day all round a uniform eight hours day. We do not say by the Bill we have before the House that it will compel every man to work eight hours, but that he shall not work more than eight hours. Some people have got the idea that we intend to work a man eight hours whether he will or not, by the Bill, and he shall not be allowed to leave his work until he has worked eight hours from bank to bank. The Bill says nothing of the kind. The promoters of the Bill never thought of this, or intended anything of the kind. The Bill says this, that not more than eight hours shall be worked in any one day. Therefore, those who try to place an interpretation upon the Bill, other than that, are certainly deceiving themselves, and cannot find any warranty for it in the Bill itself. I am pleased, for one, that the Government, so for as it has been able, has assisted in passing this Bill during the last two Sessions. I know there are dissentients in the Government, I know that the Government are not attempting in any way to force their views upon the dissentients, and they are leaving them to vote for the Bill or against it, in fact they are leaving them free. But when you look through the Division List you will be quite satisfied that there is such a majority in favour of this Bill, that in my opinion, during the running of this Session, the Bill will be passed into law so far as the House of Commons is concerned. We have pledges from the Government to give facilities for the passing of this measure into law, and believe the Government will fulfil their pledges. I can only hope, at all events, that when it passes the House of Commons, the House of Lords will have some consideration for the workers of this country ; and if they do not have it for the poor Irishmen, we hope they will have some regard for the poor colliers, and that they will let this small Bill pass into law, and allow the vast majority of miners of the country to en j. the benefits which they believe will accrue from such a beneficial measure. (Cheers.) In conclusion, so far as I am concerned, I express to you, one and all, my hearty thanks for the kind reception and the patient hearing you have given to me. MR. HARFORD. 19 MR. HARFORD : I thank you most heartily for the very cordial manner in which you have welcomed me to this your festive board. I look upon it not as a compliment to myself alone, but as a conpliment to that vast army of workmen, who in one sense are servants of some of the wealthiest corporations in the king- dom, while in a double sense they are public servants who are ready' to minister to your wants, so far as transport is concerned, both by day and by night. They are a body of men indeed whom anyone may be proud to represent at a gathering of this descrip- tion ; a body of men in whose ranks are to be found heroes, aye, heroes as great as any found on a field of battle, many of whom daily carry their lives in their hands in the services which they render to the travelling public, and many of whom in the past have been shamefully overworked. But, thanks to the progressive legislation of the Liberal Party, I hope that that day is now past and gone for ever. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, we are fortunate in- deed in having, as one of the measures of the last Session, a Regulation of Railways Act passed, which has done something at all events to limit the hours of duty on railways ; one which I am sure the class which I represent accept as a very wholesome instalment in the direction of reasonable hours of work. It is one which has recognised, I believe for the first time, the principle of the organisation of labour, inasmuch as a representation can be made under that Act of Parliament by any person representing a body of men, providing that representation is made strictly bona fide, and upon evidence which may have been duly and properly supplied. Well, gentlemen, we have not had time yet to see how far this Act may operate, but what has been done, and what has come to my knowledge since it has been in operation, tends to prove that matters are being materially improved in the direction of shortening the hours of labour. Now, one of the first classes of men to complain were the goods guards in the employ of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Company, whose hours of labour, for the most of them, averaged from fourteen to sixteen hours per day, and the result has been that the Company having been called upon to adjust the men's time, have done so, without any pressure being brought to bear, and they have will- ingly obtained a further supply of engines, and consequently employed more goods guards, and have of course of necessity put on more goods trains, so that the hours of labour for this class of servants in the employ of that Company at all events have been brought down to something like reasonable limits. 20 LABOUR QUESTIONS. Now, the next Company with which we experienced some considerable difficulty was the Metropolitan Railway, and I, on behalf of the men, made a representation that the men in the employ of the underground railways in London were working too long hours. These poor fellows, especially on Sundays, had to take turns of duty of 16, 18, and 19 hours for the Sunday work, and we were told at first that it was impossible to make any alteration, unless the men were to work every Sunday during the whole year. But, gentlemen, while some of the directors or managers the managers I presume it would be could not see their way clear how to alter this state of things without having to resort to so much labour, yet to the credit of the men employed they themselves were able to advise a scheme whereby the hours were reduced by one-half on Sunday, and whereby they got this enormous amount of Sunday rest. There- fore, so far as the working of the Act in these two instances is concerned, we have every reason to be satisfied with it at present. But I regret that in some other quarters at the present time I may say perhaps the managers do not know it it appears to be that where these restrictions of the number of hours have been made there are some most irritable conditions imposed, and the work of the men has been made as uncomfortable as it is possible to make it, on account of this Act coming into operation. I hope that this is but a passing bit of bad humour, which will presently be buried. At all events, I do say this, that in one or two instances where the hours have been increased because others have been reduced, that that is a matter which I can well trust the department with which Mr. Burt is connected, to see that there is no retrograde step allowed, namely, the increasing or leveling up of others because some have been brought down. Now with regard to progressive legislation. Like our friends the miners, we are looking anxiously forward to something like greater concessions by the present Government for that body which I represent. We have been clamouring for some con- siderable time for Sub-Inspectors of railways who shall have had practical training, or have spent many years of their lives on rail- ways, and who, consequently, would be more fitted to know where to look out for danger, and where to report as to the conditions that were likely to cause accidents. It is a lamentable fact that the butchers' bill, as it is called, over our railways, still continues very high indeed. When we find something like 460 railway men MR. HAKFORD. were killed I will not say that all of them were killed by accidents that were not unavoidable there may have been certainly, some thoughtlessness ; I cannot admit carelessness, because the preservation of one's self is the first law of nature, and if the man has any ideas about it he will not needlessly run into danger. But there may have been accidents from thought- lessness that led to such accidents, but apart from these there are many conditions that might safely be altered if they were pro- perly investigated. As Mr. Pickard said, I have nothing to say against the present inspecting officers of the Board of Trade. I go so far as to say that the working men whom I represent have every confidence in their ability for the discharge of the duties which they perform. I venture to think that their inquiries into accidents and I have attended many of them are as full and complete as one could naturally wish, and 1 venture also to assert that having looked very carefully into the conclusions which they sometimes draw from the facts brought out in evidence, that they are such that no practical man could scarcely venture to differ from. Therefore, in that respect we have no fault to find with the present inspecting officers, but we do think that there should be a second grade of officers, and that when there are Inspectors of Mines and Factories and Workshops, that we ought to have men from amongst the ranks of labour, to be Sub- Inspectors of Railways. There are one or two questions which I believe they would be eminently fitted to deal with ; for instance, the great loss of life amongst the working staff. At the present time there are no inquiries held as to the deaths of railway servants beyond those held by the coroner, excepting in cases where passengers are killed or injured at the same time. Well, gentlemen, if collisions occur on our railways, and pas- rs meet with their deaths by such collisions, or in any other way, then the inspecting officer of the Board of Trade inquires into the cause of the death of the passengers, and I certainly think that the lives of our railway men are as dear to their families as the lives of passengers are to their families, and there ought to be similar inquiries to examine into the working conditions, and to point out how those conditions could be altered so as to promote greater safety, and if it were only for that purpose alone their appointment would be justified. I have been met in the past with the excuse that were such a thing permitted it would be an unwarrantable interference with the management. But I 22 LABOUR QUESTIONS. fail to see where any interference with the management comes in. There is no more interference with the management of a railway by asking the Board of Trade to make an inquiry into an accident to an employee than there is at the present time an interference with the management by the present inspecting officials reporting as to the cause of accidents to the general public. (Hear, hear.) Therefore, I trust and hope in the not far distant future, that we, in common with the other sections of the working classes of this country, will have this small boon conferred upon us, which I hold we stand so much in need of. There is one point in the legislation which was referred to by Mr. Pickard, which I must of necessity say a word or two about I refer to the Employers' Liability Bill, the fate of which you of course all know. Well, gentlemen, I congratulate the Government for the firm stand which it took in relation to that question. As mover of the resolution at the Trades Union Congress at Belfast, which called upon the Government to withdraw the Bill rather than sacrifice any one of the principles, I did so with a great amount of pleasure, and I venture to tell you that the opposition which was shown towards that measure by a section of the industry which I represent, but which, by the way, is not very largely con- nected with my association, from the very faqt that I believe that so many of these funds which are in operation on the London and North Western Railway, tends in a great measure to prevent men from joining their Trades Unions, or from making independent provision for the very accidents which the Company say they do through the medium of their insurance funds. During the progress of that measure, and indeed since. I have spoken on the question at many meetings attended by the London and North Western ( Company's servants, and I have never, up to the present moment, met with one single individual who would stand up and argue in favour of the London and North Western Insurance Fund. Why, uentlemen, it speaks for itself. To be plain and candid with you! I look upon it- it may be a mistaken notion of mine but I look upon it that all such funds connected with large corporations, such as railway companies, is one fetter more round the neck of the workman, and that the sooner it can be removed the better for the workman. I believe that they hamper his independence, believe that they are an undue tax upon his earnings, and that the men can be better served by joining independent associations, which would provide the same benefit at less cost. I venture to MR. HARFORD. 23 think that any donations or contributions to funds of that description by employers partake too much of the nature of charity, a thing that ought to be scouted by independent, honest English workmen. I venture to think that the ,20,000 per annum it has been variously estimated which is said to be given by the London and North Western Company to the particular insurance fund, when it comes to be divided amongst 60,000 or 64,000 workmen, represents a small fraction over a penny per week. When they tell us that only one accident in ten will come under the Employers' Liability Bill, then my reply is that they should make the provi- sion for the other nine themselves rather than be the recipients of a paltry penny per week. It would be interesting if I were to give you a little illustration of how the Insurance Fund is worked. Now we will suppose, for illustration, that an engineman who, in the course of the many duties that he has to perform, meets with a similar accident to one which I saw reported in last Friday evening's papers, which occurred in Dundalk on the Great Northern of Ireland. The man, on arriving at Dundalk, found that the bearing of the driving axle was getting hot from friction : it was not working nicely from the dust from the road or the grit that had got on the axle, and he had to put his arm through the spoke of the wheel for the purpose of oiling it. Another train or engine came up behind him, and without any notice or warning it just shoved the engine a few inches ahead. Well, when the man withdrew his arm it was found to be so seriously fractured, that he was sent to the hospital and had it amputated. We will suppose that this man had been in the employ of the London and North Western Company where the enginemen are "con- tracted out," and being an engineman of any number of years service, he would be paid -js. 6d. per day. Now this poor fellow, in the prime of life, with his arm amputated, would get from the Insurance Fund one guinea per week. This is what is called the temporary disablement allowance. If there are any surgeons in this room they will agree with me that after the shock to the system and the amputation, it would take at least about 17 weeks before there could be any prospect of his doing any work, consequently he would receive 17 guineas. At the same time, while he lias taken 17 guineas from this Insurance Fund he has in the 17 weeks ,38 $s. in the shape of wages. If you call "this compensation I call it nothing of the kind. I hold that 24 LAKOUR QUESTIONS. it is nothing more or less than accidental sickness which he might provide for himself by joining some of the large friendly societies which exist, and which are a credit to the working classes of this country. What becomes of the man after that ? A man bereft of his right arm can no more take charge of a locomotive engine, and can only do such labour as a maimed man is capable of, and for the rest of his life, whether long or short, he is a loser to the extent of probably ,50 per annum, and the only compensation he has got has been 1 7 guineas. I ask whether there is anyone in this kingdom who for such an injury under such circumstances would award 17 guineas for the loss of a right arm to a man capable of earning 2 55. a week ? With regard to that let me say that a few months ago an accident occurred whereby an engineman lost his life at Bricklayers' Arms on the South Eastern Railway by being crushed against a wall. He happened to be a member of my Association, and let it be thoroughly understood by you that we provide legal assistance for the whole of our members in any matter connected with their employment ; and consequently it became my duty on behalf of the children to take proceedings against the South Eastern Company not to take proceedings, by the way, be- cause the Company was too generous and immediately the appli- cation of the Solicitor was made to them they offered ^400 for the t\v< > children left motherless and fatherless. Now had this driver con- tractedout and been in the employofthe London and North Western Company the sum total that would have been received for these two children would have been ^80. The South Eastern Company said, " You must put us in the County Court at least, and we will not defend the action but pay you ^400," or five times the sum that would have been got from the London and North Western Company under their Insurance Fund. This little illustration will, I have no donbt, enable you to estimate whether it is better to have contracting out, or no contracting out. If you weigh the matter you will see that there is no freedom of contract with the London and North Western in being left alone to do as they please. The only freedom of contract is this, that the workmen must accept the conditions or starve, unless they can --t some other employment. There is just one other word I would like to say, and I do so with some sense of responsibility in an assembly of this description. In the industry to which I belong, taking all classes of life amongst railway servants, according to the latest MR. SYDNEY BUXTOX, M.P. return which we have been able to get, there are 380,000 men who oftentimes feel it rather hard that there is no direct representative of such a large body of such an important industry as this to be . found in the House of Commons. In making this remark I may say that as an individual I have no ambition for work of that description ; but I certainly do think that at all events the Liberal Party ought to have the power to make way for a genuine railway man to be able to take his seat amongst other members, so as to voice the wishes and aspirations of such a large body of men. I venture to say that if the way was only clear, that the matter of expense would be a matter of no consideration whatever, because my Association has some two or three years ago decided that in the event of such an opening being found, they would willingly provide the necessary expenses. Then, gentlemen, I think there arc some matters in connection -with this which require some little consideration, and which may be another point of the progressive legislation of the Liberal Party, namely, that at all events, regis- tration and returning officers' fees, and so on, should be made as light and as easy as possible, especially for men who represent labour intererts. I venture to think that there are to be found in our ranks men with their heads screwed on the right way, level- headed men, who would not be a disgrace to such an assembly as the House of Commons. I venture to think that in all probability when questions affecting railways were being discussed that they would be able to lend from their practical knowledge some good and useful hints and arguments in certain directions which would probably tell in favour of the working classes. V.'ell now, gentlemen, I can only repeat the very great pleasure that I feel in being your guest to-night, and I can only hope that the success of your Club, and the interests which it so carefully watches and looks after, will in future be crowned with greater effect, and be better recognised than it has been in the past. (Hear, hear.) On behalf of the Association which I represent, a large body of railway workers in the kingdom, I beg sincerely to thank you for the manner in which you have listened to me. (Cheers.) MR. SYDXKY BUXTON, M.P., said: It is a great pleasure to me that I have to ask you to give a very hearty vote of thanks to our distinguished guests this evening. (Cheers.) I think that it was a very happy thought on the part of the "Eighty" Club to have 26 L.AKOUR QUESTIONS. asked our guests to discuss in the interesting way that they have done these labour questions, which to my mind are in many aspects of much more importance than many of the other political matters which have been discussed by the "Eighty" Club. I am sure that everyone who has listened to the able speeches that Mr. Harford and Mr. Pickard have delivered will see that it is quite possible to preserve fully independence of action while co-operating with a Party, which, as Mr. Pickard has truly said, has labour questions greatly at heart. I am glad that the " Eighty " Club also should have recognised the very great development the extraordinary development which has taken place of late, years in regard to those labour questions. Not only has public opinion and public sympathy been very much altered and increased in regard to these matters, but what I think of still more importance (and I think Mr. Pickard will agree with me in this) that the working men themselves are taking a far greater interest in their own affairs than they did a few years ago. And it is satisfactory to think that the interest is by no means confined to this island, but extends largely to the Continent. The International Conference to which Mr. Pickard referred to just now will, we may hope, lead to further results, because of some International labour agreement probably, as the best future really for labour and the settlement of labour questions. There seems to be the unfortunate difference to which he referred of diversity of language, and it is quite clear that from a labour point of view the attempt to build the Tower of Babel was a great mistake. (Laughter.) Then again, only a very few years ago the general policy with regard to the great questions of the State as an employer of labour was too much based, it seems to me, on the old canon of political economy, that you ought to go as far as you can for economy and cheapness, and that it was not the duty of the State in any way to interfere with the question of wages or the conditions of labour. We are all thankful to say that the State during the last year or two has displayed a conscience, and that we have carted the dry bones of political economy to Jupiter and Saturn, and I hope they like r hem. (Laughter.) But we have seen and proved that, at all events as regards labour, to buy in the cheapest market is often to buy in the dearest ; and I think we have all recognised that the State being an employer of labour being the largest employer of labour, both direct and indirect, in the country must necessarily have some considerable influence on the conditions of labour and on the rate of wages. MR. SYDNEY BuXTON, M.P. 27 That influence in the past has been an influence for evil, and we hope in the future it will be an influence for good. (Hear, hear.) The first step taken in regard to that matter should be to bring the State, as it ought to be, in line as a fair employer of labour, and to insist that where the State indirectly employed labour through its contractors, that those contractors, when they employ men on Government contracts, should employ men only at fair rate of wages and under proper conditions of labour. This we have done ; and of course it was impossible for the State to stay there. If they insisted, and rightly insisted, upon taking the mote out of the eye of the contractor, they were bound to attend to the beam in their own. I think that has been the most important departure of late years and I think it has been largely carried out by this Government the greatest departure that has taken place has been that the State, as a great labour em- ployer, has recognised that it must set a good example to other employers of labour, and, as Mr. Campbell-Bannerman said, it must be in the first flight of employers. (Hear, hear.) And this Government has at all times endeavoured in two ways to carry this out, because, without going into details, we all know that the two great spending departments, the War Office and the Admiralty, have largely increased the rate of wages paid to their unskilled labourers and other classes of labour ; and they have introduced, for the benefit of the men themselves and at no disadvantage to the State, the eight hours system in all their Government factories and workshops. (Cheers.) That, gentlemen, seems to me to be a very great departure. But I am not sure that the further departure that has been taken by this Government in regard to a Bill to which Mr. Harford referred, and for which he is largely responsible, I mean the Railway Servants' Bill, is not even a still greater departure, because we have always been told up till within the past few years that the State ought not in any way to interfere with the hours oj adult male labour. That principle we have now broken through, and, as Mr. Harford has said, the Railway Servants is the first step it is the thin end of the wedge in the hours of adult males, and I for one rejoice that that principle ha? been very properly accepted. We are glad to welcome our two friends here this evening as representing labour, because Liberalism, after all, is, as one of our distinguished members of this Club, Mr. Birrell, once said, " Liberalism is not a creed, but a frame of 28 LABOUR QUESTIONS. mind " ; and I believe the frame of mind which Liberals have is a frame of mind not only towards progress and reform, but a very great sympathy in regard to these labour matters. That being so, and that being I think increasingly so, in the Party to which we belong, we believe that we are able to give them great assistance in the objects that they have in view, and that it is important for them and for us to work together, and we believe if we can keep in accord one with another that we may take further steps in advance to improve the conditions of the people, bring about increased opportunities, greater leisure, happier homes, to the advantage of the great masses of our fellow-countrymen. (Cheers.) I have very great pleasure in asking you to give a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Pickard and Mr. Harford for their very interesting addresses and also for the opportunity they have given us in entertaining them in this way, and holding out the hand of fellowship to them. (Cheers.) COLONEL COLQUHOUN READE (Liberal candidate for Walworth) in rising to second the proposition, said : Sir, it is not altogether an enviable task to second a vote of thanks to guests at the "Eighty" Club, for usually, as has occurred this evening, everything that can be said has been said by the proposer. But, gentlemen, I don't mean to detain you long. There are, however, one or two words I should like to say with regard to the subject of labour and as to inviting our guests here to-night. I do not claim it as any merit of mine, but for two and a half years I have pressed upon the Committee of the "Eighty" Club that something should be done to show the interest that it takes in labour questions ; and to show its interest in the labour leaders and the labour problem in general. I was very glad that our efforts enabled us to get Mr. Burt to come here as the guest of the ''Eighty" Club a year or two ago. Mr. Burt is an old labour leader whom we all honour (hear, hear) but in addition to that he holds some strong views, which are not shared by other labour members, upon the limitation of the hours of adult male labour. And so we have here to-night labour representatives differing on a subject that is dividing the labour world. We have here to-night one of the majority of the Trades Union Congress who is in favour of dealing with adult labour in mines and elsewhere, and on a previous occasion we had Mr. Burt, who took the opposite view, and to-night we have heard Mr. Harford. I think this shows that the "Eighty" Club is SIR WILFRID LA\VSOX, M.P. 29 impartial. I know that there are many here who would have liked, and I certainly hoped, to have seen a representative of the Independent Labour Party present at our board this evening. I should have looked upon it as an happy omen that we are going to win the general election. (Hear, hear.) There is one real danger which we Liberals ought to face, and if possible to remove, before the next general election, and that is the opposition of the Independent Labour Party and the Social Democratic Federation. It is all very well to say that this op- position is silly and ungrateful, and that the interests of the Labour Party and the Liberal Party are identical ; but we are not merely theorist?, we are practical, and I think something should be done to try to remove those candidates, because, if they are not re- moved, we are certain to lose many seats and we may be exposed to defeat at the next general election. I have, however, been wandering away from the motion, which was to second the vote of thanks to the labour leaders. I am particularly pleased that the two guests should be a miner and a railway worker. I have taken myself an immense interest in the limitations of the hours of workers in mines and the regulation of the hours of railway servants, and I can cordially endorse what Mr. Harford said, that it will be a sin and a shame if the railway workers have not a representative of their own to speak up for them in Par- liament. There are twenty-two Railway Directors in Parliament, and 'the 380,000 railway men have not a single representative in the House of Commons. I will not detain you longer, for the hour is late. I only say that I feel that I am expressing the view of every member of the " Eighty " Club when I say that we wel- come our guests this evening and thank them for the speeches they have made. They are not merely theorists and doctrinaires, but they are men who have worked in the mines and on the railways, and they can tell us the wants of the labourer better than we can who have merely listened to them. I hope that this will not be the last time that the labour representatives will be at this table, but that we shall have the leaders of labour to expound their views on many occasions at our board. (Cheers. ) Sir WILFRID LAWSOX, Bart., M.P. : Gentlemen, The last speaker said it was difficult to second a motion at the " Eighty " Club. It is much more difficult to "third" a motion, I can assure you. Now it is a common thing when anybody has got up to speak to say 30 LABOUR QUESTIONS that he has been called upon unexpectedly. Now it is quite true in my case (laughter) ; although the Chairman said to me about an hour ago, " I shall call upon you to speak with regard to the vote of thanks to the labour members," I did not in the least believe him. because I have been so long in the House of Commons I have got into the habit of disbelieving everything that has been said by a man on the front bench. (Laughter.) I never got so far as one member who said that he never believed anything that was stated until it was contradicted by the Government. (Renewed laughter.) I am glad to support the motion, and I do it very cordially, not that I am a labour man I am very far from it I don't think I could earn half-a-crown any day. (Laughter.) I should be very sorry to try ; and more than that I am called upon to speak about those labour members. I don't know what a labour member is. I have never known. Some day I am going to ask what a labour member is. Although I have said I am not a labour man, I have considered that I am in one sense a labour member, because my opinion of Liberalism is that it is the policy to do the most good for labour. (Hear, hear.) I agree with Mr. Disraeli, who said a good many good things, though he did several bad things. In one of his novels he said that "the duty of politics is to promote the social welfare of the people," and you cannot do that without the labour class, which is the largest class in the community. (Hear, hear.) I am glad to see the labour leaders here. Mr. Harford, although not a member at present, is to be one some day, and I congratulate them on being here at all, because those of us who read of what went on at Berlin last week would be apprehensive at one time that they would not come back at all ; but here they are. and, as someone said, they appear to have had a kind of Tower of Babel conference they all spoke at one time and in different languages, according to Mr. Pickard. The result of such a conference, I am sure, would be very singular. I am glad that they are back. Whether they will go again I do not know, and as they appear to be very sensible men I should have my doubts whether they will go back to Berlin or not. There are two or three that have been with us a good many years in the House of Commons, and I hope many more similar ones will join them. I am not much in the way of praising men ; I am rather in the attacking line, but I don't think that you can find three better members than the three labour leaders whom we have SIR WILFRID LAWSON, M.P. 31 here to day, and if all of us were as good in our several capacities as the labour members are it would be a very different House of Commons, I can assure you. I hope that they will be reinforced, if you can find men so good I don't think you can find them equally good, but nearly as good, and I hope the same sort of men will come into the House of Commons when the next general election occurs, and that labour men and Liberal men will work shoulder to shoulder together, and that we shall succeed in that final overthrow of the mischievous powers of lords, landlords, and bishops, and brewers. (Laughter.) I hope we shall work from one end of the year to the other to benefit the people of this country. (Cheers.) The vote having been put was carried enthusiastically. Mr. PICKARD said they could not sufficiently thank the pro- poser, seconder, and " thirder " for the kind words they had ex- pressed. He was very much afraid, although they were credited with being men of sense by Sir Wilfrid, they would be silly enough to try and get a better understanding with their friends on the Continent. Mr. HARFORD said he was very glad to find that he had been able to interest them in the topics connected with railway servants, and he himself was delighted with the reception he had met with, and he hoped that they were satisfied with the remarks that he had made. The proceedings then terminated. Secretaries of Liberal Associations requiring 1 Speakers or Lecturers should communicate with the Secretary of the "Eighty" Club, J. A. B. BRUCE, 2 Middle Temple Lane, London, B.C. "EIGKBTY" CLUB. SPEECHES BY FRANK LOCKWOOD, Q.C., M.P. H. J. TENNANT, M.P, SHELDON AMOS, MR. A. J. DAVID, AND MR. DANKS, AT THE MASONIC HALL, CAMBRIDGE, On Saturday, June 2, 1894. MR. R. T. REID, Q.C., M.P. (THE SOLICITOR-GENERAL) IN THE CHAIR. Secretary:]. A. B. BRUCE, 2, Middle Temple Lane, B.C. PARTY PROSPECTS. SPEECH AT CAMBRIDGE BY F. LOCKWOOD, Q.C., M.P. At the "Eighty" Club Dinner, held at the Masonic Hall, Cambridge, <>n Saturday, June 2nd, 1894, there were present: R. T. Reid, Q.c., M.P. (the Solicitor-General), in the chair, F. Lockwoud, o.c., M.P. (the guest of the evening), G. Leveson Gower, M.P., David Ainsworth, M.P., H. J. Tennant, M.i'. ; the candidates for the following constituencies, T. C. Hedderwick (Lanark), H. lleldman (Hunts), B. Morice (Somerset), A. J. David (Cam- bridge), H. L. Samuel (S. Oxford), F. Verney (Norwich), H. de R. Walker (Stowmarket), L. K. H. Shoobridge (N.W. Staffordshire), A. Young (Kircud bright), T. Sadler, Treaslieer (Harrow). Theobald Mathew, Dr. VerraJl, Dr. Kimmins, H. H. Prince Charoon of Siam, J. Roskill, Anton Bertram, C. Geake, Lindsey Smith, Sheldon Amos, J. T. Wardlaw, Pattison Muir, F. G. Thomas, G. M. Trevelyan, E. Danks (Russell Club, Oxford), ' Leslie Fraser, S. E. Whiteway, Professor Wilkins, Dr. McAlister, C. -M. Atkinson, and J. A. B. Bruce (Secretary). In all 103. The Solicitor General, who was received with loud cheers, said : Gentlemen, I hold upon authority tha.t the duty of a chairman is to take the chair and sit there. In compliance, however, with the cu.sU'in and usage of this Club I will say a few words, and I assure you they will be few. I must first congratulate all those who have succeeded in ob- taining places at this banquet upon their good fortune, for I observe gentlemen in the gallery who have not been privileged like ourselves, and I know there has been a larger demand for places than it has been possible to meet. I am not surprised at that. There are two good reasons, one political and the other personal. (Hear, hear.) On the politi- cal side 1 suppose we have rarely had a more interesting juncture of public affairs. The great party to which we are all proud to belong is fighting a desperate struggle against most powerful enemies. We have dared during the last two and twenty months to support a Government whose PARTY PROSPECTS. policy, although characterised by good sense, has yet been such as to inflame the anger and disturb the placid equanimity of a number of most worthy people who act as though the principal object of creation had been to make things comfortable for themselves and their friends. (Laughter.) This Liberal Party during the last two and twenty months has been bent on great reforms healing the wounds of Ireland (applause) rescuing the House of Commons from the reproach of impotence (applause) curtailing unjust ecclesiastical privilege (applause) - shortening the hours of labour, at least for some, and endeavouring in some measure to adjust the burden of taxation to the ability of those who have to pay. (Hear, hear.) And in the course of this we have provoked the attack and outcry of men who have an interest in the maintenance of abuse, or who have not the intelligence to perceive that the good parts of our institutions are most likely to be preserved if we are prompt to destroy the bad part. (Applause.) Nevertheless the Liberal Party, in the House of Commons and outside, has made the best fight that it could. We have stood to our guns and we are not likely to desert them. (Applause.) What we are doing is trying to convert the opinion of England, and I hope that before long we shall succeed. Therefore, I am not surprised, upon political grounds, that men take an interest in the present situation. You are here also, I believe upon a personal ground. (Applause.) We have in this Club many distinguished men, scholars and statesmen, and men prominent in the literary and scientific world. And we are proud to number among our members a man of whom one can say, without suspicion of flattery, that he is an humourist of the most delightful fancy (hear, hear) a Radical of the purest water, and, since the withdrawal to a more serene atmosphere of our friend Sir Charles Russell, admittedly the most brilliant advocate at the English bar. (Applause.) I am sorry that Lord Tweedmouth, by reason of a summons he was not in a position to resist (laughter) has been unable to take the chair upon this occasion, but I have at least one MR. FRANK LOCKWOOD, Q.C., M.P. qualification for the post I fill. I have for many years enjoyed the closest intimacy with our guest of this evening, (applause) and I can claim to know better than most the further and far stronger titles he has to the affection of all who have been admitted to his friendship. I will now ask Mr. Lockwood to address you. (Loud cheers ) Mr. FRANK LOCKWOOD, Q.C., M.P.: Mr. Solicitor General and Gentlemen, I have wondered why the two hospitable clubs, the " Eighty " Club and the Cambridge University Liberal Club, should not perfect their hos- pitality by leaving the guest of the evening to sit silent, attentive, and appreciative, while he listened to the well-known eloquence of the two Clubs who entertain him to-night. That would have been indeed my pleasure, for to tell you the truth speech-making of this descrip- tion is not much in my line. (" Oh,'' and laughter.) But there is one error I have noticed in speech-making into which I promise I will not fall to-night. I think the great curse of speech-making in the present day is the length of the speeches we have to listen to. Perhaps we offend more in political rather than in any other branch of speech-making, and I verily believe we offend in Parliament more than in any other assembly in the length of our speeches. (Hear, hear.) I rarely see a great speech-maker in the House of Commons rise up to address the assembly without looking at the clock,- and when he sits down he looks again at the clock. I assure you he does not do it in any apologetic frame of mind. He wants to see if he has done an hour, and if he has, he is perfectly content, and he feels like Jack Lofty in " The Good Natured Man," " I can talk my two hours without feeling the want of them." (Laughter.) However, you have ordained it that your guest is to speak, and speak I must. I remember in the earlier days of this Club, even before it was the "Eighty " Club, when we used to sit as members of Mr. Albert Grey's committee at the feet of political authority, we heard words of wisdom and we went and preached them in the desert ; after the great PARTY PROSPECTS. election of 1880 it was the wont of this Club to extend its hospitality to political authority, and we sat, and we admired, and we listened. But now all this is reversed ; it is political authority that entertains the rank and file of the Party. This puts me at some disadvantage, Mr. Solicitor General, because I was always diffident and apprehensive in the presence of authority. I remember so far back as my own University career, I avoided .authority. (Laughter.) Indeed, to such an extent has this diffidence grown upon me that I remember occasions perfectly well in the streets of this University town when I have met authority in the shape of the Proctor I have actually turned and fled. (Loud laughter.) 1 believe there is some spirit of that sort even preserved unto this day. (Laughter.) Another , matter that gave me some cause for apprehension, was indeed, whether I was to get this dinner that was promised to me at all, because I continually read in the papers that a dissolution was at hand, and, of course, dissolution meant no dinner. (Laughter.) 1 do not refer to the prognostica- tions of the Times ne\\ spaper, for with the Times, crisis is chronic, but even papers which should have been more sympathetic with the Party have been telling us from day to day that dissolution was inevitable. I met a man in the Temple the other day and it shows how little straws in the minds of some indicate the way the wind is blowing and he said to me '' I am afraid we are not going to last long, I am afraid there is going to be a dissolution.'' I asked him why he thought so, and he said : '' I was walking down Middle Temple Lane, and passing the door of the Solicitor General, I noticed that his name, which has been painted afresh, has only been done in one coat of paint." (Loud laughter.) Of course I pointed out that my honourable and learned friend came of a prudent race, and that no importance must be attached to that otherwise significant fact. I was re-assured the other day when my Lord Rosebery was speaking at the National Liberal Club, and announced that the Government was a fighting one, and would fight as Icng as there were two shots in the locker, or in other words, MR. FRANK LOCKWOOD, Q.C., M.P. as long as we had a majority of two votes in the lobby. But I was cast down when my honourable and learned friend, Mr. Haldane, like one of the weird sisters of Macbeth preaching on some blasted Scottish heath (laughter) announced that the day of dissolution was at hand. I don't know whence he owed that strange intelligence, but this speech, if it did not reassure me, I think it did not reassure the Party. I remember in a North of England country town there was a prophet not a racing prophet (there are plenty of them there) but a real prophet (laughter) a sort of man who foretells the end of the world once a week. (Laughter.) Nobody believed him you could not believe a man who was regularly wrong once a week but a local coal merchant told me that the number of persons getting in coal by the sack was phenomenal. It was not because they expected the world was coming to an end, but it would not be well to be left, when it did come, with a stock of coal on hand. (Laughter.) It might be used, possibly, against you. (Loud laughter.) Well, these things, as I say, caused me from time to time grave apprehension. I am glad to find that no dissolution has interfered with your kindly hospitality to-night. Now, sir, in seriousness let us ask ourselves what it is that has given reason for these dismal prophecies. How is it that we have one man saying there is to be a dissolution, and another man saying there is not? I might suggest that a possible solution of this condition of things would be that somebody should be appointed some person' in authority, who should issue from time to time authorised bulletins announcing the exact condition of the Govern- ment. If that duty devolved upon me, I should feel inclined at the present time to word the bulletin in this fashion : " That, notwithstanding two or three temporary relapses, on the whole the strength of the Government was well maintained " (hear, hear, and applause) and, if I may judge of the rest of the Government by my learned and honourable friend, Mr. Solicitor-General, perhaps I may add, "and are taking nourishment freely." (Laughter and applause.) What is it that has caused these PARTY PROSPECTS. temporary relapses? In the first place, we owe our reduced majority, the inroads on our majority, to what is called the Independent Member that is to say, the gentle- man who stands on a Liberal platform, who has the support of the Liberal Association, who gets the Liberal votes and is returned to support a Liberal Government, and then takes every available opportunity of voting against it. Far be it from me to suggest, sir, that we should not have inde- pendence in our ranks ; if we ceased to be independent we should cease to be a Party ; but we may have too much of a good thing. There is a great temptation to be an independent member; his whims and may I say his antics are chronicled in the newspaper; if he votes against the Government he finds it duly recorded as a matter of important information, and if he finds himself in the Government lobby why there is more joy in the lobby over that independent member than over ninety and nine possibly stupid but honest fellows who have been trudging through those turnstiles day after day and night after night in support of principles they were returned to support. (Hear, hear.) Then, of course, our majority has been reduced by reason of the action of those members we call Parnellites ; but here I wish to speak of these gentlemen as men who never professed allegiance to the Liberal Party I mean so far as promise of support is concerned they have never posed as men who would support the Government of to-day they have broken no pledges, and they have a perfect right, if they think fit, to adopt an independent line of action. As to whether it is expedient for them to adopt an independent line of action is a matter, of course, for their consideration. How they hope if they really want to have the Irish policy of the Government carried into effect how they think that is to be done by defeating the Government which has pledged itself to an Irish policy which they have professed that they are anxious to have carried into effect, I do not know. How they hope to carry out the Irish policy of this Government by defeating the Government I cannot tell, but I give them all credit for acting from the highest and most honourable motives in MR. FRANK LOCKWOOD, Q.C., M.P. 9 what they have done. But what think you of the Tory Party that has availed itself of the support of the Parnellite members ? Gentlemen, we are perpetually being told that the Tory Party is the party of integrity, and we are the party of dishonour and disintegration. What think you of a Party which from time to time seizes upon those oppor- tunities when they think the Government is weak by reason of the defection say of the Parnellite members, and form an unholy alliance for the purpose of defeating the Govern- ment and possibly after a general election of taking their places? It was only the other day when the ninth clause of the Home Rule Bill was under consideration. As the Bill stood, it was provided that eighty Irish members should be retained in the Imperial Parliament ; Mr. John Redmond perfectly within his right proposed that that number should be increased to one hundred. If there is one contention that the Tories have made more strongly than another, it is that we ought never to touch any ques- tion of franchise- or registration, indeed -unless we deal with the unequal representation of various parts of the United Kingdom, and they have continually pointed out that one of the most glaring and startling cases to be dealt with is the over-representation of Ireland at the present time. Of course Mr. John Redmond's desire to increase the number of members in the Imperial Parliament to one hundred instead of eighty was in flat contradiction of that principle, yet the Tory Party did not hesitate for a moment to avail themselves of the disaffection of the Parnellite members ; they did not hesitate, because they thought at that time that not only would they have the support of those nine members who are called Parnellites, but they thought they would have the support of the whole body of National members in the House of Commons, and they hoped to defeat the Government. Why, the Govern- ment was taking up a position in accordance with principles they had maintained, and they hoped to defeat the Government by maintaining a principle which was absolutely contrary to that which they professed. Well, sir, for a - Party that claims to possess all the 10 PARTY PROSPECTS. education and wealth and intelligence and honour and integrity, that appears to me to be playing pretty low down. (Applause.) Gentlemen, another inroad which is threatened in our majority, and has been threatened, is caused by the threatened defection of certain of the Welsh members. I am sure I do not know what the attitude of these gentlemen may eventually be, but I hope with all my heart that they will see, as I wish those Irish members of whom I have spoken to see, that it is simply suicidal to place themselves in opposition to a Government which has pledged itself to carry out the measures for which these various political parties are contending. How is it possible, gentlemen, for this Government or any other Government to do all these great things at once? How is it possible for them to satisfy the very legitimate cravings of various parts of the United Kingdom at one and the same time? The Government have a right to ask and a right to expect forbearance in these matters. I am glad to think in the main they get it, but I cannot pass from what I am saying now without calling upon you to recognise the great sacri- fice that has been made by the Irish Nationalist members of Parliament (hear, hear, and applause) the great sacrifice that they have made in aid of the Government which they are supporting to-day. Why, even on the division to which I have just now alluded they ran the risk of incurring great unpopularity in Ireland when they voted, as to their credit be it said they did, for the eighty against the hundred. In the debates taking place on the Budget, local pressure of a very severe nature has been put upon the Nationalist members. They have withstood it, and they have been true as steel to this Government. (Hear, hear.) I think the English people, and the Scotch people, and the Welsh people, ought to remember this, and that they ought not to grudge the time which has been given, and the time which will have to be given eventually, in order that this Irish policy to which we, as Liberals, have pledged ourselves may be honourably and satisfactorily carried out. (Applause.) I alluded to the position of the Nationalist members just MR. FRANK L, n.C., M.P. 11 now in regard to the Budget, and of that Budget and the action of the Opposition I want to say a word or two to you to-night. I am not going to discuss the death duties. (Laughter.) I once heard of a young man who was said to have been the life and soul of his father's funeral. (Laughter.) Even under those conditions he was able to keep up a happy mien, but I venture to think it would even eclipse the gaiety of a funeral if I were to endeavour to discuss with you the intricacies of the death duties to-night. (Laughter.) The Budget has been under discussion now for some time, and probably will remain under discussion /or some considerable time longer. It is a Budget of which any political party may very reason- ably be proud. (Applause.) It is a popular Budget. (Hear, hear.) It is a Budget which, when it was first introduced in the House of Commons, found favour not only with supporters of the Government, but found con- siderable favour with the Opposition. Let me now just recall to you what was written in the Standard newspaper of the 1 7th of April, 1894, of this Budget. It was in a leading article of that day. " The Budget proposals which Sir William Harcourt laid before the House of Commons last night appear to have been framed in a sincere and sensible spirit. They include features no doubt which will be turned to electioneering account, both by the Minis- terialists and the Opposition. But the Chancellor of the Exchequer may be acquitted of having introduced them with any design save that of meeting financial exigencies by equitable and honourable expedients. ... It is due to him to say that if his aim had been merely to produce something specious and popular, he might easily have done- it on less creditable lines. Nor is it any reproach to him that he has shown marked consideration for classes on whom we are all agreed that the burden of taxation presses with undue weight. He had to provide for a deficit of about four millions and a half. The money had to be raised somehow. But how was it to be done ? " ' Gentle- men, compare the tone of that article with the position of the Opposition in relation to the Budget at the present 12 I J AKTY PROSPECTS. time. (Hear, hear.) At first they treated the Budget as it deserved to be treated. They found it was a popular Budget, and they have determined to treat the Budget as it does not deserve to be treated. We have heard a great deal about this Budget in Parliament, but I venture to say we shall hear very little of it on the platforms of the country. Its popularity will save it from that. It is all very well for Dukes to go about with tears in their eyes depicting the terrible condition of those who will succeed them in having to pay duty on seventeen millions of money. (Laughter.) Gentlemen, these are not topics that stir the popular mind (applause) and you will hear very little discussion of the Budget on the public platform. The Opposition first of all approved it ; having ascer- tained it was likely to be popular they endeavoured to destroy it, and they called to their aid for that purpose the unholy alliance to which I have already called your attention. They hoped by the pressure of the brewers and the distillers, particularly the distillers, to obtain the assistance of not only the Parnellite but the National members. They dare not, of course, attack that particular portion of the Budget alone, so they determined, if they could, to defeat it upon the second reading. Gentlemen, I have had some experience in the House of Commons, not so long as the experience of my friend, the Solicitor- General, but I can remember no occasion, and I don't think he can remember an occasion, when the Opposition proceeded to give a flat contradiction to the financial proposals of the Government. Mark you, here was a deficit for which the present Government are no more responsible than the Opposition. It consisted in the main of the increased navy armaments ; it consisted also of the increased grant for education. For my own part I wish it were all for education. (Hear, hear.) But the Tory Party to-day are boasting it was their patriotic example that drove us to these grants for increasing our navy armaments ; they are boasting on the platform that they are the authors of Free Education ; therefore this is a deficit which they cannot criticise ; it is MR. FRANK LOCKWOOD, o.C., M.P. 13 a deficit for which they are equally responsible with our- selves. Therefore we have to find this money ; as the Standard says, " the money has to be raised somehow " ; the question is " How is it to be done ? " We make a series of proposals, and how is it met ? A private member in the House of Commons is put up to move " that the Bill be read this day six months," thus, of course, relegating it to the Greek Kalends. Gentlemen, what would you think of any commercial house in which certain liabilities having to be met, one partner, being equally responsible with the others for those liabilities, made certain proposals for their reduction, but all the assistance he could get was this, " We won't have your proposals. We have only got this to propose, that we post- pone the consideration of this matter for six months?" What about the creditor ? In this case, what about the country ? What would have been the position of the Opposition supposing they had been unfortunate enough, not only for the Government but for them- selves, to have defeated the Government on that resolu- tion ? What would have been their position, with no financial scheme and no alternative suggestion with regard to meeting the deficit ? That which would be asinine in the commercial man is asinine in the Opposition of to-day. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, the Opposition are particularly anxious, no doubt, on this question of the Budget proposals, because, although to some extent they may rely upon the House of Lords to assist them, yet the power of the House of Lords is limited in respect of its rejection of the financial proposals of the Government, and, therefore, they feel that although they may rely upon that assembly to stand by them upon every occasion when Liberal measures have to be defeated, yet they feel they are not in such a strong position with regard to the destruction of Budget proposals. Gentlemen, as to how long the Liberal Party are to tolerate this action of the House of Lords I am sure I do not know. (Applause.) The House of Lords has been attacked on Liberal platforms in terms so familiar to you that I do not propose to weary you with the heavy indictment which we 14 PARTY PROSPECTS. are prepared to lay against them ; but I should like to call your attention to a defence which has been made in this University town to a defence of the House of Lords by the chairman of a meeting which took place in Cambridge not very long ago, a meeting somewhat akin to that in which we are engaged this evening. I understand that there has sprung into existence in your midst a Cam- bridge University Conservative Association, and as imitation is the sincerest form of flattery I suppose you ought to congratulate yourselves when you remember that the Cambridge University Conservative Association has affiliated itself with the United Club. (Laughter.) On the occasion of the inaugural meeting of the Cam- bridge University Conservative Association a historic defence was made for the House of Lords, made by a reverend gentleman, the Master of Corpus, who was in the chair on that occasion. My attention was called to this historic defence by reason of the leading article of the Con- servative Cambridge paper, for there I read that " The Master of Corpus, who presided, covered a wide field of political history (laughter) but not wider than the occasion justified." Not too wide but just wide enough. (Laughter.) Gentlemen, I referred to the speech of this reverend chair- man, but before I come to this historic defence of the House of Lords, I will, with your permission, call your attention to his observation on another interesting question, " One man, one vote." " As to one man one vote, that was all very well." (Laughter.) You will find as you go on that " all very well " is a favourite expression of the Master of Corpus (laughter) " that was all very well if one man was exactly equal to another. Should the man who contributed nothing to the expenses of the kingdom have the same voice in the administration of the kingdom as the man who paid a very large sum ?" Gentlemen, I must confess I was staggered when I gathered from the speech of the reverend gentleman that he was here pleading for the enfranchisement of wealth. If the Master of Corpus had advocated, as we should have expected from so eminent a MR. FRANK LOCKWOOD, Q.C., M.P. 15 gentleman,, the enfranchisement of education, of intelligence, of knowledge, of history, or of sweetness and light, one could understand it, but the mere vulgar enfranchisement of wealth I do not think it was worthy of the Master. He then proceeded to speak of the House of Lords. " Then passing to the Upper House of Parliament, it was all very well " (laughter) " it was all very well to talk about the House of Lords being an obstructive body. Concentrate their thoughts back on the past history of their country. Was there not a time when the tyranny of one of the worst monarchs was resisted by whom ? Why, by the Barons of England at Runnymede." (Laughter.) " Applause." (Renewed laughter.) " Centuries passed away and they came to the time of another monarch," we usually do! (laughter) " an inglorious monarch, one who ulti- mately abdicated his throne." I think that was hard of the Master of Corpus. The only respectable thing James the Second did was to abdicate his throne, and to hold it as a reproach to him well it was not worthy of the Master of Corpus. " Were not seven bishops sent to the Tower for resisting the tyranny of that monarch? They were the Lords Spiritual who resisted the tyranny of that individual. He thought when the historian of this century, which was fast running to a close, wrote the annals of the last decade, he would speak of the House of Lords as having resisted a tyranny worse yes, he said worse than the tyranny of any individual he meant a tyranny well he would not finish the sentence." (Laughter.) " Applause." (Renewed laughter.) Gentlemen, I confess it is one of the most extraordinary defences of the House of Lords that I ever heard in the course of time. He praises the conduct of the Barons at Runnymede in 1215, but the House of Lords, as part of our present constitution, never met until 1258. (Laughter.) He claims that the bishops acted in their capacity of Lords Spiritual. Well, if the reverend gentleman had only taken the trouble to read an account of the trial he would see that it was there pro- tested that they were not acting as Lords Spiritual, but in their ecclesiastical character as guardians of the law of PAIUY I'Kosi-ECTS. Uniformity. Gentlemen, in the leading article to which I have called your attention, after those words I have just read as to the gentleman covering " a wide field of political history, but not wider than the occasion justified," I find it is further stated that " he was not addressing an audience well trained in politics." I am sure I do not know what the result of the train- ing may be which the audience had at their inaugural meeting, but I trust that better and more accurate instruction may await them in the future. It is even a worse case than I thought for the House of Lords, if its defence depends upon these somewhat remote historical allusions. Gentlemen, we have, of course, got a heavy fight with this House of Lords. We have an enormous majority against us in that assembly, but for my part I would rather pin my faith and place my confidence in a Govern- ment which had a majority of fourteen in the House of Commons and -a minority of four hundred in the House of Lords. Before I sit down to-night, I must say one word in answer to the kindly observations which have been made by my honourable and learned friend who is with us to-night. I can say, indeed, in the words of the poet : 'We clamb the hill thegither, And mony a canty day, Bob, We've had wi ane anither. I don't exactly know what the meaning of the word "canty" is, but inasmuch as the author lived somewhere near Dumfries it is no doubt familiar to my honourable friend. It has been a matter of great and sincere congratula- tion to the friends of the Solicitor General that his great political talent, his great professional ability, have been recognised (loud cheers) ; those of us who like him well have had no prouder moment in our Parliamentary career than when we found that the acclamations of welcome came not from one side of the House merely, and we felt proud of this that still in political life it goes for something to have been throughout your life, fair and square. (Applause.) Nothing could MR. II. T- TEXNANT, M.P. 17 have added more to my pleasure this evening than to have seen my old friend here seated in this chair and intro- ducing me to this Club. My thanks, indeed, are due to him for coming here thus to do me honour. Gentlemen, what shall I say to you, members of this Eighty Club and of this University Club, except to thank you most deeply for your kind and generous reception of me, and to hope that you will make allowance for one who is not much accustomed to political utterances on occasions such as this. Indeed, it was suggested to me at an earlier period of this evening that I should select some twelve of your number and collect them in a corner of this room that I might address you under conditions more familar to myself. I have had no advantage of that kind, but nevertheless, I thank you most heartily for your kind reception of me as your guest. (Applause.) Mr. H. J. TENNANT, M.P. : Mr. Solicitor-General and Gentlemen, The task which has been placed in my hands this evening is a pleasant one, because it is easy ; it is also an easy one, because it is pleasant. I am sure that it will require no great effort on my part to recommend this vote to your favourable consideration, for I feel that I am not only expressing my thoughts but the thoughts and feelings which are uppermost in the minds of all of us when I ask you to convey to Mr. Lockwood a message of deep and real gratitude for the speech to which we have just listened. Mr. Lockwood, gentlemen, has been known for a long time as one skilled in no ordinary measure in the art of portraiture, and he has proved to us to demonstration this evening that this artistic faculty is not limited to the delineation of that which is merely outward and superficial, but that he is capa- ble of reproducing in a manner which must not only excite our admiration but which we should like to imitate, and which should stimulate our faculties for examination, if I may use that word in this assembly (laughter) of reproducing those Parliamentary profiles and those political positions which he so admirably portrays. Well now, Mr. Solicitor- General, I am, I believe, the Benjamin of Parliament ; if I am 18 PARTY FROST i not the Benjamin, at any rate I am the Joseph. (" No," and laughter,) I say that because a distinguished son of this University has entered Parliament since I had that honour I allude to a Senior Wrangler, Mr. Moulton. (Hear, hear, and applause.) Well, I believe no Benjamin, I mean Joseph, is complete without his pit (perhaps you will say coat, but I. say pit), and I do not doubt the pit will be dug for me sufficiently soon by the genial efforts of my brethren on the other side of the House. I am not going to attempt to dig a pit for myself by any criticism of Mr. Lockwood's most witty and suggestive speech ; but I would venture to make this one suggestion to Mr. Lock wood, and that is to supplicate him to give a little more of his wise counsel and his witty remarks to us in the House of Commons. (Hear, hear.) We know, gentlemen, he is much engaged else- where, not as we put it in the House of Commons " in another place," but elsewhere ; and probably the widow and the orphan, and the disappointed damsel, and the much-maligned director (laughter) could tell you much better than I can what they owe to him. (Laughter.) Mr. Lockwood appears to have the faculty of extracting the confidences of maidens, and possibly of eluding those of the defamed financier ; but however that may be, he certainly has been enabled to raise the price of one or two curious commodities in the market. If I were a Stock Exchange man I should say that the market value of blasted hopes and blighted affections has become distinctly firm in fact they have a hardening tendency. (Laughter) I have no doubt you will bear me out when I say it is not usual for any member of Parliament to complain of the rareness of the utterances of any other member of Parliament, but I am confident that a large number of members of that assembly would join me in my invitation to Mr. Lockwood, which is to give a little more to the Mother of Parlia- ments of what he has given to-night to his Alma Mater, namely, some of his reflective criticisms, of his friendly counsel, and of his genial presence. (Applause.) Mr. M. SHELDON AMOS : Mr. Solicitor General and MR. M. SHELDON AMOS. 19 gentlemen, I have much pleasure in seconding a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Lockwood, for the generous measure in which he has satisfied the anticipations of a rare pleasure which we had formed for this evening ; and I should like to couple with this vote of thanks speaking, as I think I may do, for the Cambridge University Liberal Club (hear, hear) a hearty welcome to our other visitors here in Cambridge to-night, not only to the members of the " Eighty " Club, but als L. C ) ; *Whitbread, Howard, M.P. Whittingham, Rev. G. N. Willans, Wm. Williams, Morgan I. M. Wills, Sir W. II., Bart. Vates, W. B., L.C.C. Voun. Guests. Daily Chronicle Press Association The Daily Chronicle Central News Morning Leader Exchange Telegraph Co. J. Moore & Sons At>out 145 were present at the dinner, and 25 ladies attended after- wards to hear the speeches, in all about 1 70. Mr. H. W. PAUL, M.r., proposed, Mr. T. WII.LANS NUSSEY, M.r., seconded, and Rt. Hon. H. II. ASQUITH, Q.c. , M-P., supported, the vote of thanks to Lord Tweedmouth. Mr. FRANK LOCKWOOD, Q.C., M.P., proposed a vote of thanks to the chair. *" Signifies candidate for Parliament at present time or last General Election, t Signifies candidate for Parliament previous to last General Election. THE LORDS, LABOUR, & LIBERALISM. Speeches by Right Hon. LORD TWEEDMOUTH (Quest of the Evening), Right Hon. H. H. ASQUITH, Q.C., M.P., and Right Hon. A. H. D. ACLAND, M.P. At the "Eighty" Club Dinner, held at Westminster Palace Hotel, on Tuesday, July loth, 1894, there were present Right Hon. A. II. D. Acland, M.P., in the chair, Right Hon. Lord Tweedmouth (guest of the evening), Right Hon. H. H. Asquith, Q.c., M.P. , Lord Brassey, S. Stern, M.P., Thomas Shaw, M.P. (Solicitor-General for Scotland), F. Lockwood, Q.C., M.P. , C. E. Shaw, M.P., Augustine Birrell, Q.C., M.P., F. S. Stevenson, M.P. , II. W. Paul, M.P., H. Whitbread, M.P., T. P. O'Connor, M.P., E. F. V. Knox, M.P., T. W. Nussey, M.P., J. VV. Benn, M.P. , Dr. Farquharson, M.P. , J. A. Pease, M.P., F. A. Channing, M.P., H. P. Cobb, M.P., H. S. Leon, M.P., W. Rees Davies, M.P., D. C. Guthrie, M.P., Sir W. H. Wills, Bart., Sir W. D. Pearson, Bart., M.P. (Colchester), Hon. R. C. Grosvenor, l-.c.c., Alderman Routledge, Charles Russell, T. Stevens (Berks), J. A. Duncan (Kirkcudbright), \V. M. Crook (Wandsworth), George Lawrence (Guildford), II. W. Raphael (North St. Pancras), Baron Halkett (Lonsdale), T. Sadler (Harrow), [Treasurer], S. F. Mendl (Plymouth), James Tomkinson (Cheshire), R. O. B. Lane, Q.C., Oscar Browning (Worcester), E. T. Cook, R. A. Hudson, J. W. Greig, J. Patten Macdougall, C. Geake, Harry Bowdoin, W. H. Cozens- Hardy, Hon. R. E. Connor (New South Wales), J. Tail SVardlaw (Sec. C.U.L.C.), Rev. J. P. Gledstone, Leonard Powell, A. H. Leonard, W. B. Yates, L.C.C., A. Young, W. Russell Cooke, M. W. Massingham, B. de Lisle (Wirral), A. J. David (Cambridge), Hon. T. A. Brassey (Christchurch), J. Roskill, Captain Sinclair, M.P., E. W. Grimwade (Croydon), C. Higgins, Q.C., M.P., M. I. M. Williams, A. H. Lush (Totnesj, B. F. Hawksley, A. M. Latham (Knutsford), E. R. Spiers (Islington), F. Freeman Thomas, Douglas Walker, Q.c. (Somerset), J. A. B. Bruce (Secretary], and others. About 145 were present at the dinner, and about 25 ladies came in after- wards to hear the speeches about 170 in all. Amongst the ladies present were : The Countess of Aberdeen, Lady Tweedmouth, Miss Rigby, .Mrs. Knox, Mrs. George Lawrence, Mrs. Spender. Mrs. Paul, Mrs. E. T. Cook, etc. THE CHAIRMAN (Right Hon. A. H. I). ACLAND, M.P.), who was received with loud cheers, said : Gentlemen, 1 have one great regret ; I arrived late, and I found my friend, Mr. Frank THE LORDS, LABOUR, AND LIBERALISM. Lockwood, occupying the chair ; it is a source of great regret to me that he has not continued to occupy the chair, and to perform the duties of the chair. I owe, however, I suppose, some apologies to the members the Club for being late, and I can only say that I was despatched on a mission to speak to one of those conferences which are being held all over the country among the delegates of our rural villages who are certainly determined to put into force with a vigour and a cheerful spirit which is quite unparalleled, the great Local Government Act which this Government has succeeded m pass- ing. (Hear, hear.) That may be cheering news both to candidates and to members for rural divisions. (Hear, hear.) I believe my chief task, which I will try to despatch as shortly as possible, is to offer, in the name of the Club, our heartiest possible welcome to Lord Tweedmouth. (Cheers.) A good deal is said about the havoc which is worked by the House of Lords when a Liberal Government is in power ; I know no greater in- stance of that havoc than the fact that it is Lord Tweedmouth not Mr. Majoribanks, sits beside me. He left us, I believe, with profound regret ; he left us to cross the central lobby altogether against his will. I think now he is a sadder man ; whether he is a wiser man I do not know (laughter), but I am quite sure ot this that sometimes he must feel uncomfortable, and to-night, sitting amongst so many members of the Lower House, he must feel peculiarly uncomfortable, when he thinks that he is not even paired. (Laughter.) I do not know what the real qualities of the most ideal whip may be but if they include a sort of breezy cheerfulness when there are rocks ahead ; if they include a kind of potential severity, which is a necessary quality of all good Chief Whips, and if they include lots of pluck, and plenty of tenacity, then I say my friend, Lord Tweedmouth, comes up to the standard. (Cheers.) has had a difficult task during the longest Session on record. I would not like to say he has had to intimidate members to come up to divisions, but at any rate he has had to woo them with the very best of his ability. I believe that he has invented new whips of his own. I do not speak of Whips of flesh and blood, but whips on paper. He has ivente< fiery red whips, which come to us on particular occasions, a are meant to frighten us. Then there is a sort of deep, dark, thick line, which 1 believe he invented himself, which is meant to have its own peculiar effect upon us. One way and another, RIGHT HON. A. H. D. ACLAND, M.P. whether by these paper whips, or whether by his own personality, he has carried the Liberal Party through one of the most difficult Sessions on record with complete success. (Loud cheers.) Then there is, besides, a peculiar missive which comes every week for ministers. It arrives on Saturday morning. It faces us with our misdeeds. If we have missed a division, it tells us so, and the worst of it is that at the head of the record is invariably the Chief Whip, who never misses a division himself. (Laughter.) Well, gentlemen, I cannot tell you of all the work which Lord Tweedmouth has done with such great ability and success, but I will just mention one other matter that he has had to deal with not only members, but candidates. Now my friend, Mr. Birrell, who is sitting close at hand, has written an admirable essay on the Parliamentary Candidate, and his view is, that the candidate and the member should be kept as far apart as possible. (Laughter.') He says that the candidate is the embodied hope of the Party, and that the member is a sombre figure, made sombre by his experiences. (Laughter.) All I can say is that I feel con- fident of this, that the Senior Whip sees quite enough of the member, and has a sufficient number of interviews with the can- didate. (Laughter.) And worse than all, if a candidature goes wrong, or there is any mishap with a bye-election, the Senior Whip gets a very full and adequate share of the blame. Now our guest of to-night occupies the dignified posts of Lord Privy Seal and Chancellor of the Duchy. I asked him just now what he would give me if I could make him an effective Cabinet Minister in the House of Commons, without either of those two dignified posts. Gentlemen, the sum was not mentioned. (Laughter.) But I am quite sure of this, that I know our guest well enough to believe that if there was a possibility of bringing him back to the House of Commons, the sum would be large. It is a source of regret to us all who are members of the House here to-night, that Lord Tweedmouth has left us. (Hear, hear.) I can only think of one solace which he carries with him into his retirement, or his quasi retirement, to the House of Lords, and that is this that he is the last of a long line of Chief Whips who acted under Mr. Gladstone himself. (Hear, hear.) And I believe that the memory of all those months of constant con- fidential communication between himself and our late leader will be a memory which he will not readily forget. (Hear, hear.) I now call upon Lord Tweedmouth, who guided us through the hardest Session of modern times, so courageously, and so well, 8 THE LORDS, LABOUR, AND LIBERALISM. that those of us who were under his guidance will never forget it, (Loud cheers.) LORD TWEEDMOUTH (who on rising was received with loud and continued cheering) said : Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I have to thank you sir, my friend, and my colleague, for the very eulo- gistic way in which you have referred to me ; and you, gentlemen, of the " Eighty " Club, I have also to thank for the cordial way in which you have assented to those eulogies. But to you, sir, and to you, members of the " Eighty" Club, I must equally say that I can only accept those eulogies in a very vicarious way indeed, because, gentlemen, I was but the tool, I hope a well- balanced and a handy tool, I hope a tool of good temper, and of good metal (hear, hear), but still, gentlemen, the edge and the point was given to that tool by the greatest handicraftsman of modern days (cheers) ; and gentlemen, it was the hand of that great politician that guided the tool, and by his cunning its completed work was achieved; Gentlemen, I assure you I am not exaggerating when I say that the whole of the credit which has been attributed to me, should be attributed to your great leader, and it is as Mr. Acland has said, a^ proud thought with me to think that during all those months I should have worked steadily under his direction, and that during all those months, neither between him and me, nor between other members of the Government and me, arose a single point of difference, or a single quarrel (loud cheers). Well, gentlemen, Mr. Acland has referred to my removal to another place. That removal has affected me more than words can say. Mr. Acland put it at a very high rate when he said that I would have given him a large sum of money if he could have restored me to the House of Commons as an effective member of the Cabinet. Gentlemen, I should ask for nothing of the sort. I would give well, I equally will not mention the sum (laughter), but I would willingly, I would gladly, I would joyfully go back to the House of Commons, to my old place, and to my old connec- tion, with my old friends the members of the House of Commons (cheers). Gentlemen, I am bound to confess it is a gratifying thing to me to see so many members of the House of Commons here to-night ; men who I fear have writhed under me at times (hear, hear, no, no, laughter, and "yes" from Mr. Lockwood) ; I am glad to think that Mr. Lockwood has writhed, at any rate ; that is an achievement of which any Whip may be proud (laughter) to make so effervescent a member of society for once drop his gas. (Renewed laughter.) RIGHT HON. LORD TWEEDMOUTH. Gentlemen, I feel very much in this position, I feel very much in the position of a man who has been the working adjutant of a well-disciplined and successful regiment, who suddenly finds him- self taken out of that place, and made a mere superfluous appendage, let us say drum-major, or some other member of the band (laughter). Gentlemen, I am afraid that in that capacity I am hardly capable of serving, because I cannot claim to have the ornamental qualifications which should pertain to such a post. But, ladies and gentlemen, it does seem to me that it is not an unsuitable occasion for me, I do not say to make you a speech, but to give you one or two reflections on the subject of the position of that House to which I now have the honour to belong. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, in the first place it is often said that we Liberals are inconsistent in assenting, and in joyfully assenting, to a hereditary Monarchy, and yet desiring to do away with a hereditary House of Parliament. Gentlemen, the analogy is an utterly false one. (Cheers.) The process of evolution has been applied to the Crown, and I think if that same process of evolution had been applied to the House of Lords, we should have little to complain of with regard to that House at this moment. (Hear, hear.) What is the difference? The Crown chooses its Ministers at the bidding and at the sug- gestion of the House of representatives of the people ; the Crown follows the advice of those Ministers, and according as the people, from time to time, decide that the Ministers shall belong to one Party or the other in the State, you find the Crown loyally assenting to that choice, and assenting to the programme and proposals of its Ministers. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, that is not the case with the House of Lords. The House of Lords claims a totally different position. It rises superior to any obedience or care for the wishes of the voters of this country. (Hear, hear.) It is said that the House of Lords is a useful body of revision. Gentlemen, it seems to me that there is no question of revision at all in the performances of the House of Lords. (Hear, hear.) What does it do ? In the one case, when our opponents are in possession, it becomes nothing but the recording angel of the deeds of Tory Ministers (hear, hear) ; but when we Liberals are in power, it does little but either reject our proposals altogether, or else to mutilate them so far as it can. (Hear, hear.) I can under- stand that if the House of Lords were really a revising body, if it applied the same rules to the proposals of the one Party as it does to the other Party, if it combined with those duties that duty 10 THE LORDS, LABOUR, AND LIBERALISM. which it does well perform, namely, the duty of the High Court of Appeal of Justice, then the position of the House of Lords would be very different in the minds of the people. (Hear, hear.) But what are the facts? It seems to me that you cannot even say that the House of Lords prevents noxious measures from being passed measures I mean which, in their opinion, are noxious ; because, what happens ? Why, that the very measures which are in one generation, or through several generations, thrown out of doors by the House of Lords, in a future generation are consented to by them. Gentlemen, the principal function of the House of Lords is to prevent any grace attaching to any concessions to the wishes of the people (cheers) that its whole object of existence is to prevent that old and true maxim being carried out in the legislation of this country, namely, bis dat qui cito dat. (Hear, hear.) Well, I think it is very clear that this question of the House of Lords and its position with regard to the repre- sentative House, is one of those questions which must soon be decided upon by the people of this country. Gentlemen, do not hide it from yourselves that in entering upon that campaign, you are entering upon a very considerable campaign (hear, hear) a campaign that is full of difficulty; which perhaps is full of danger to us as a Party (no, no), not perma- nently. (Cheers.) I have no doubt who are going to be the victors in the long run, but do not think by mere shouting you are going to bring down these walls of Jericho. (Cheers.) Do not think, gentlemen, that a House of Commons with a majority of 30 to 40 can efficiently deal with this question. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, I do not think it very much matters what the particular plan is which is adopted with regard to the House of Lords. There are many plans suggested, and I do not think it very much matters which of those plans is eventually adopted, provided it is one that secures the predominance of the House of Commons. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, this question will undoubtedly be before the country at the time of the next election in a very prominent fashion. (Cheers.) In my judgment the immediate issue of it will lie with the electors of this country, and it will be for them to declare next election whether they really and sincerely, and strongly, have this question at heart. If, gentlemen, they have it so, and if on those terms they return a large Liberal majority to the House of Commons, I have no doubt as to what the fate of the House of Lords will be in the future. RIGHT HON. LORD TWEEDMOUTH. 11 But, unless the Liberal Party is supported, and largely sup- ported, by England, by Scotland, by Wales, and by Ireland, on this subject, I fear that it must be certain that a satisfactory and a thorough dealing with this question will be postponed to some future date. Now, let me for a moment turn to another subject, a subject which perhaps does not affect the House of Lords, but which affects what they may consider the other end of the social scale. It is a subject which must be brought to the minds of many of us of all of us I should say, by the result of our most recent bye election ; I mean the question of Labour representation, and of the place that representatives of Labour are to take in our Party, and in our Parliament. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, I have heard from many men, I have seen in the Press, many comments with regard to the Attercliffe election, expressing satisfaction at the result of that election. Well, in my humble judgment, there is no person and no Party to be congratulated on the result of that election. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, that election is useful and important as an object lesson ; but as a source of congratulation to any Party connected with it, I cannot admit that it is to be considered; (hear, hear) on the contrary it seems to me, while on the part of some there was want of consideration, want of tact, want of management, want of that give and take which is the essence of all politics, there was also on the part of others, and of other Parties, a proof, and a clear proof, of the most unscrupulous disregard of means in order that an end should be accomplished. (Hear, hear.) To one set of people alone do I think no blame is to be attached, and that is to that mysterious body which we so often see written of, or hear spoken of, as " head-quarters." Now, gentlemen, I have some experience of the inner working of that Vehmgericht (laughter), but, gentlemen, my experience is that in the case of a good safe seat, headquarters has very little power indeed. The days are entirely gone by when whips, or anybody else, can force on a constituency a candidate that they do not want. (Cheers.) Whatev. have gained we have gained this, that -our candidates throughout the country are, as a rule, the free choice of the electors of the Party to which they belong in the particular constituency. (Hear, hear.) With one exception, and that, gentlemen, is in the case of an absolutely forlorn hope. (Laughter.) Then I admit head- quarters is very powerful indeed, and if there is really no 12 THE LORDS, LABOUR, AND LIBERALISM. chance of winning they can impose any candidate they like on that unhappy constituency. (Laughter.) But we have had some experience of troubles with three-cornered fights in the past, and we are threatened with many of them in the future. Now, I know that to some of my friends these . three-cornered fights, this insistence on the part of sections of the Party to what they consider proper and sufficient represen- tation in the country, is looked upon with objection, is looked upon with reprobation. Gentlemen, I see no reason for regarding it in anything of that light. It seems to me that the causes of this new departure, if I may so call it, are very natural, are very simple, and are in much to be commended. You forget, or those who hold such opinions as I have been indicating, forget the altered conditions of our present political life. Remember that we have now an extended educa- tional system, a system which even yet is being day by day extended more and more under the skilful management of my friend here, Mr. Aclar.d (cheers), who, I do not hesitate to say, is better ac- quainted with the educational needs of our working classes than any man now in either House of Parliament. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, we have also an extended franchise, a franchise which includes now almost every able citizen, and I wish, I hope, it will soon include all. (Hear, hear.) Under these conditions we have a totally new set of working men growing up, men who have had the advantage of better education, who have had the advantage of citizenship, and who are anxious to take their share in the government of the country. Gentlemen, is it not right, is it not proper that these men who have ceased to take their opinions from those classes who call themselves the upper classes, who do claim for themselves the right to decide what is best for them rather than to have what is best for them decided by others ; is it not right that these men should attack and consider the problems which are brought before them in their daily life? (Hear, hear.) ( ientlemen, what are those problems ? how does life appear to them ? long hours of labour, little leisure, insanitary dwellings and scanty wage, enough and sufficient perhaps to keep their families in decent comfort, but leaving no margin for any oppor- tunity of saving against sickness, or against accident, leaving no margin for the ordinary pleasures of life. Gentlemen, can you wonder that working men looking on this state of things, and con- sidering it for themselves, should at times be led away and should adopt opinions and methods which are considered extreme RIGHT HON. LORD TWEEDMOUTH. 13 and violent, and even dangerous ? Gentlemen, I say to you who go about this country, beware against meeting these opinions with mere hostility and contempt. (Cheers.) It has been my fortune to come across and to be brought into contact with many of these men, with men who hold perhaps opinions very different from mine ; many of them opinions which perhaps I think wrong, and which I think should not be held ; but, gentle- men, my experience of those men has been that it is an utter mistake to suppose that the working man leader of the present day is what he is so often represented by our opponents to be, a mere self-seeking demagogue. (Loud cheers.) Gentlemen, he is nothing of the kind. I do not mean to say that there are not bad men in this class, as there are in all classes. (Hear, hear.) But, gentlemen, as a rule, these working men leaders are working men with a very lively appreciation of what a working man's life is, and whose real, true, and honest desire is to better the condition under which their fellows live, and to improve them. (Cheers.) Now, gentlemen, what is it that these men ask ? They ask that the old conditions of life of the working man should be changed, that those old conditions should be improved, that they should have some of those advantages and some of those benefits and some of those pleasures which heretofore, I am afraid, have been mostly confined to the wealthier classes of this country. They put it before you that they after all are a main factor in the industrial production of this country ; and what they ask of you is that they should have somewhat a larger share of the profits of that production. Gentlemen, is this a gospel of rapine and plunder? Is it a mere demand for ease and idleness? I am sure that every hearer that I have here to-night will say, '' No ; that these demands are not only worth considering but are worth taking some trouble to concede." (Loud cheers.) Well, gentlemen, what is to be the answer that we Liberals are to give to these fellow citizens of ours? Are we who are the descendants and the successors of those who have gained such victories in the past, who have won such great things for the people of this country in days gone by, are we to say that these new problems which are rising up before us in the present are insoluble, and that we are not men enough to deal with them? No, gentlemen ! (Hear, hear.) I do not think it matters whether \\e remain in office or whether we do not ; that is a matter of the purest indifference. But, gentlemen, these are subjects that we are bound to tackle (hear, hear). And what I say is that we should go to these men, 14 THE LORDS, LABOUR, AND LIBERALISM. and say to them what I believe they know themselves, that as in the past we have been their best friends ; as in the past their objects and our objects have been similar, so it is our business in the future to keep in touch with them, and to make our objects their objects, and to ask them to join with us faithfully and solidly in a common and close alliance (cheers). Gentlemen, I have no fear as to what the answer of these men will be. I have no fear that we shall find ourselves betrayed by them ; nor have I any fear that we shall not do our duty and keep our promises to them (cheers). Gentlemen, for my part I am sick of the divisions ; I will not say divisions, I do not admit that they exist, but of the so-called divisions in our Party, which it is the interest of our opponents to foster and to magnify (hear, hear). Gentlemen, I hate hearing about Liberals and new Liberals; Radicals and old Radicals ; the Labour Party and the Indepen- dent Labour Party (hear, hear). Gentlemen, after all we Liberals never can show the united immoveable front of the Tory Party (hear, hear). Our men must go in loose order, and it is in loose skirmishing order that they will win. Depend upon it that the army which is sufficiently disciplined enough to work in loose skirmishing order to allow each man to use his own brains and to work as seems best to him at the moment, is the army which will beat all the conventional, old fashioned, highly drilled regiments of the past. (Loud cheers.) Gentlemen, our business should be to welcome into the elec- torate every citizen of this country (hear, hear). We should throw the doors of our House of Commons open to every class and to every creed. We should attach ourselves to public principles and cast aside personal advantages ; we should be careless of whether we remain in orifice or whether we go out of orifice ; we should determine to do the right because it is right, and without any care as to whether it will be to the advantage of our Party or not. Great objects can only be gained by great sacrifices, and, gentlemen, the last thing I would say to you is this : Let us above all things be true to ourselves and to each other. (Loud cheers,) MR. H. W. PAUL, M.P. : Mr. Acland, my Lords and Gentle- men, At this time and in this place an obituary notice must be brief; but I should fail in the performance of my duty, I should be a poor interpreter of your feelings, if I did not pay a passing tri- MR. IT. W. PAUL, M.P. 15 bute to the memory of our late lamented friend, Mr. Marjoribanks. I had the honour and the pleasure of Mr. Marjoribank's acquaintance. I followed him obediently, I trembled at his nod, I writhed under his lash. I learned from him two invaluable lessons ; the futility of speeches and the necessity of votes ; and going, as the dullest pupil sometimes will, a little beyond my preceptor, I realised that the political equivalent of the just man made perfect was Fox's famous description of Ferguson of Pitfour : " There goes that Scot who was never present at any debate and never absent from any division." (Laughter.) Mr. Marjoribanks has gone to that well discovered country, so admirably described to-night by one of its latest visitors, from whose bourne, under our present law, no commoner returns (laughter) and from whose clutches, when a Liberal Government is in office, no legislation escapes. You who have heard the speech which has just been brought to too speedy a close, are enabled to appreciate the fact that we lost as much in the silent Chrysostom of the House as we gained in the active Cerberus of the Lobby. (Laughter and cheers.) In his place to-night we welcome Lord Tweedmouth, a peer by no fault of his own, and as good a Radical as ever. But, gentle- men, in returning thanks to Lord Tweedmouth I tread upon delicate ground. What is a mere member of the House of Commons that House which you, Mr. Acland, have described to-night, and have rather astonished me as an old constitutionalist, by describing as the Lower House, a transient, ephemeral phe- nomenon, here to-day, and gone to-morrow what can such a one say of that illustrious assembly where Lord Tweedmouth a happier Theseus sedet crternnmqite sedcbit. (Laughter.) Gentlemen, there is no credit in being a Radical in the House of Commons with an intelligent audience before you, and a popular constituency behind you ; but it is another matter to preserve intact the purity of sound principles in the rarified atmosphere of the House of Lords, where, as Lord Coleridge says, " the voice of the people is but faintly heard," and where, as I may add, it is never heeded until it abandons the language of argument and adopts the language of menace. (Laughter and cheers.) Gentlemen, there are some people who think people now-a- days will think anything and say most things there are people, perhaps some of you here to-night, who consider that the present Government is a little too aristocratic (laughter), and that even for a Radical administration the plebeian element is rather small. (Hear, hear.) But I never heard from the most advanced poll- 16 THE LORDS, LABOUR, AND LIBERALISM. tician, or from the most carping critic, anything but expressions of the most sincere satisfaction and delight at the inclusion of Lord Tweedmouth in the Cabinet not merely as a reward for his splendid services, but as an advantage to the Government, to the Party, and to the nation at large. I do not know whether I may venture to express a hope as to one speech and one vote which I hope Lord Tweedmouth may be able to give in the House of Lords. I should like to hear him speak, I should like to see him vote for two things. In the first place, for the curtailment of the unjust privileges which now appertain to the body of which he is a member; and in the second place, for the removal of their unfair disabilities, which would enable him to return to the scene of his former triumphs and once more to represent one of those many constituencies which I am sure would be proud and delighted to return him as their member. (Hear, hear.) And now, gentlemen, I will take leave, even in the presence of the Home Secretary, to exercise the prerogative of mercy and to release you from further listening to a speech which has only one object, as it had only one excuse, to express our esteem and regard for our distinguished guest whose fidelity to the Liberal Party is only equalled by the staunchness of his adhesion to those great principles of equality and of justice upon which Liberal policy has always rested and must always rest. (Cheers. ) Mr. T. WIT.LANS NUSSEY, M.P. : Mr. Acland, my Lords and gentlemen, I am happy to think that it requires no speech from me to commend this toast to the members of the " Eighty " Club ; to second it, therefore, except in the most brief and in the most formal manner, would indeed be a superfluity. If it were otherwise, however, I might feel some diffidence, as an English member, in seconding a vote of thanks which has been proposed by my honourable friend the member for South Edinburgh (Mr. Paul), and which is to be spoken to by the right honourable gentleman, the member for Fife (Mr. Asquith) a vote of thanks to a Scotchman, a member of a somewhat Scotch Cabinet, which is pledged to Irish and Welsh reform. As, how- ever, the representative of the younger members of the "Eighty" Club, I should like to give expression to our appreciation of the merits of our guest this evening. My words, I can promise you, shall be as brief as my feelings of gratitude to Lord Tweedmouth are deep and sincere my feelings of gratitude not only for the MR. T. WII.LANS NUSSEY, MiP. 17 able and vigorous speech with which he has just charmed us this evening, but also for those invaluable services which he has rendered to the Liberal Party in the past as Patronage Secretary to the Treasury in Mr. Gladstone's last administration. I ex- perience, as you will readily believe, some little difficulty in .formulating in Lord Tweedmouth's presence those sentiments which I should not hesitate to express were he absent. For one reason, it is not so very long ago since I myself was a new boy in the House of Commons, and regarded Lord Tweedmouth much in the same light that I used to regard my head master at school, or my college tutor, as a being omnipotent, and almost omniscient a being to be revered and respected, but a being whom it was just as well to avoid and to worship at as great a distance as one conveniently could. It was perhaps in this capacity, as the able whip of the Liberal Party, rather than our guest of this evening, whom the " Eighty " Club delights to honour, that he best fulfilled the definition which Canning once gave of Cabinet Ministers. He told a deputation who waited upon him and asked him for a manifesto, that Cabinet Ministers were like fishes they drank a great deal but said very little. (Laughter.) I can assure you, gentlemen, that Lord Tweedmouth, in his official capacity, was ever ready to share in the joys and the sorrows of the numerous members of his Party, to rejoice with those who rejoiced, and to mourn with those who mourned ; but, on the other hand, if you pressed him too closely as to why the Government, in their infinite wisdom, did not apply the closure, or if you suggested that you might go away and take a little holiday, unpaired, you found that Lord Tweedmouth did not say much, except in the latter instance, when what he did say was usually pretty much to the point. I believe, gentlemen, it is largely, if not mainly, due to Lord Tweedmouth's energy and self-reliance, his tact and resource, that this Liberal House of Commons, of which we are all justly proud, has been enabled to play the part of the soul of that historic gentleman, Mr. John Brown, and keep "marching on." I have much pleasure in seconding this vote of thanks to Lord Tweedmouth. (Loud cheers.) The HOME SECRETARY (The Right Hon. H. H. ASQUITH, Q.C., M.P.), who was received with loud cheers, said : Mr. Acland and gentlemen, I feel a certain amount of diffidence in rising to support this motion, partly founded upon the apprehension which 18 THE LORDS, LABOUR, AXD LIBERALISM. I have, that if Lord Tweedmouth were what I have always been accustomed to consider him, namely, the Liberal Whip in the House of Commons, he would have regarded with the greatest censure the conduct of a member or supporter of an Administra- tion, who, on a Tuesday night, when a Government Bill of the highest importance was being considered by the House of Commons, had ventured to absent himself even for a few moments from the deliberations of that assembly. (Laughter.) Perhaps we live under a milder regime. (Renewed laughter.) But I con- fess, when I look back upon the past, and when I compare the past with the present, I cannot help thinking to myself that the position in which we now find Lord Tweedmouth recalls to our minds what might have happened if we had been school boys in some public school, and had suddenly found our head master elevated to the position of a bishop. (Laughter.) We should have congratulated him on his elevation to a serener and more exalted sphere. We should have felt a great deal of pertur- bation at the loss of one whose nod, or wink, we had always been accustomed to obey ; but, at the same time we should have had a certain sense of personal relief (laughter) that a dominat- ing, authoritative, uncompromising power had been removed from our daily lives. I, as one who for a number of years have been in the habit, like my right honourable friend in the Chair, of obeying implicitly, docilely, subserviently, the faintest indication of that supreme and dominating power, I feel, I confess, a certain sense of emancipation that I can now look upon him as one who is removed by the accidents of birth, and of fortune, and of chance, from the sphere in which he so long ruled, to another sphere in which we can contemplate him from a position of disinterested criticism. (Laughter.) Well, gentlemen, I am glad to have the opportunity which your hospitality to-night affords of paying in two or three sentences, if I may venture to look upon myself for a moment as the spokesman of the Liberal Party a tribute which was never more justly earned, and which was never more sin ,erely due from the members of a political organisation, to the man to whom we owe the deepest debt of gratitude and of obligation. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, when the history of political Parties comes to be written in the century, and in the reign in which we live, I do not believe that there is any man whose name will be more sincerely honoured, and whose reputation will be more certainly assured, than that of your guest to-night. (Cheers.) He, with a complete RIGHT HON. II. II. ASQUITH, Q.C., M.P. 19 sacrifice of personal ambition, in a moment when the Liberal Party was under the stress of great political obligations, took a place of exceptional and of arduous responsibility. During the last Session, the Session of 1893, when the Home Rule Bill was passing through the House of Commons, I do not think that I am exaggerating when I say that there is no single man, with the exception of Mr. Gladstone himself, to whom we were more in- debted for such success as we obtained, than to our friend, Mr. Marjoribanks, as I still venture to call him, who, in those days of danger, of difficulty, and of doubt, with an unfailing tact, with an unerring instinct, with a capacity for enlisting discipline, and for summoning enthusiasm, which I have never seen equalled, brought the rank and file of the Liberal Party into line, and secured for us a complete, an undeviating, and an unswerving success. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, we cannot help regretting, those of us who are in the House of Commons, that he is no longer with us. He has passed to a sphere where " Beyond these voices there is peace " (laughter), but although he is removed from the tumults and the anxieties in which he so long exercised a domi- nating and controlling influence, we still have the advantage of his counsel, of his guidance, and of his support ; and I am certain, whatever may be the fortune of the assembly to which he belongs, that in the days which are to come the Liberal Party can look nowhere with more confidence for its leaders and its spokesmen in the great controversies that lie before us, than it can to our friend, Lord Tweedmouth, as we are now compelled to call him. (Cheers.) The position of a Whip is 'one that it is difficult to define, for it is almost impossible to analyse. It requires a combination of qualities which are rarely united in a single man, but I believe it will be the unhesitating and the unanimous testimony, not only of Liberals, but of Conservatives, if they had to poll their suffrages upon this question, that there is no man in our genera- tion who has united those qualities more conspicuously, and more successfully, than has your guest of to-night. I regret, we all regret while we recognise to the full, the advantage which we enjoy from the able successors whom he has left behind him in the school which he himself founded (hear, hear), that that great, that unique influence has been removed from our midst. (Hear, hear.) But, gentlemen, though men come and go, though positions are changed, though places are taken by this man, and by that, we have a confident assurance that, so long as Lord 20 THE LORDS, LABOUR, AND LIBERALISM. Tweedmouth is with us, the Liberal Party has a source of strength in hours of danger, a composing, a reconciling, and at the same time a dominating influence in the ordinary affairs of political life which none of us will be ready to part with, and which all of us, from the top to the bottom of the great ranks of the Liberal Party, recognise with gratitude, and I may say, with enthusiasm. (Cheers.) I would add, if I may venture to do so, one word in the character of a Scotch member. He has been, as I know well, during the last six years, the central and the composing, and I may say the guiding influence in Scotch politics. We are here, a far cry from Scotland but Scotland, depend upon it, is now, as it always has been, the rank and file and the backbone of the Liberal opinion of this kingdom. (Cheers.) Our late illustrious captain, whom we cannot even yet reconcile ourselves to the thought that he has parted from us, was a Scotch member, and Mr. Marjori- banks, while he was the leading whip of the Liberal Party, repre- sented, embodied and emphasized Scotch opinion. Speaking myself as an Englishman who has the advantage to represent a Scotch constituency, I venture to say it may be to some extent personal prejudice -that so long as the Liberal Party is in sym- pathy with the great bulk and body of Scotch opinion, so long will it be in harmony with the great principles and traditions of Liberalism, and so long will it be an effective, a potent, I may venture to say an omnipotent, force in controlling the policy and the legislation of the country. We stand now at a critical moment in the fortunes of the Liberal Party. We have arrayed against us, more powerfully and more formidably than at any time in the past, all the traditional enemies of progress and of reform. The one chance, and the only chance, of our bringing to an effective issue those great principles which we exist to embody and support, is in sub- ordinating sectional and personal differences to the pursuit of a common and dominating policy. (Cheers.) In the progress of opinion, and in the development of political exigencies, new questions arise, new problems come to the front, new forces declare themselves. Depend upon it, gentlemen, that the position of the Liberal Party to-day, as it always has been in the past, ought to be a position not of negation, and not of antagonism, but of wide, comprehensive, and sympathetic interest in all the new and the constantly developing problems of the hour. (Hear, hear.) I am one of those who think that we ought, as far as we RIGHT HON. II. II. ASQUITH, Q.C., M.P. 21 can, not merely from the point of view of Party, but from the point of view of principle, to show ourselves in sympathy and in contact with all the new forces which are gradually thrusting themselves to the front, and which are only forces depend upon this in so far as they represent a genuine, deep-seated feeling and sentiment among the people of this country. (Cheers.) Anything in the nature of exclusiveness, anything in the nature of rigidity, anything in the nature of a conventional and traditional attitude towards the questions, the opinions of the hour, is very much to be deprecated. I am certain that so far as we can forecast the future of the Liberal Party, it must lie in the direction of gradually gathering in, not in a disorganised, and not in an extreme^ and not in an irrational form, but of gradually gathering in within our ranks, within the ambit of our political policy, all those great, new, potent forces which you may depend upon it will mould the future, not only of England, but of the civilised world. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, that question presents itself especially at this moment in relation to what is called the problem of labour. We have tried during the two years that we have been in office to show that it is possible to reconcile the claims of labour with the reasonable exigencies of practical common sense. I do not think that we have altogether failed in that endeavour. (Hear, hear.) But whatever may be the verdict which is passed upon us as individuals, or upon us a Government, for my part I am absolutely assured that it is only by convincing the great mass of the people of this country with whom both power and responsibility now rest that it is not by extravagant extra-legal operations, but that it is by bringing their views, their opinions and their wants, frankly, fairly, and freely, to the attention of the House of Commons, and of that far wider and higher tribunal, the electors of this country that it is only in that way, by conciliating their support, by convincing their judgment, by enlisting their enthusiasm, that the free development of this country, and the attainment of the best interests which we all have at heart, can possibly be secured. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, we have endeavoured, so far as lies within our power, to attain to that result. We have had, in the prosecution of that task, I venture to say, no stronger and no more potent personal influence than that of your guest of to-night, and I ask you all in the great struggles and controversies which lie before us, not to take what I may call a conventional, frigid, and purely 22 THE LORDS, LABOUR, AND LIBERALISM. personal or Party attitude, but to keep your minds and your judgments open to every form and phase of these great problems and to assure and convince yourselves that in the struggles which lie before us, it is only by giving the widest and the fulle tension to the great principle which the Liberal Party has had in trust in the past, and which I trust it will always maintain in the future the principle I mean, that the people are themselves the best judges, because they are those who have the fullest know- ledge of what makes for their permanent interests that we of the Liberal Party can maintain the position that we have hitherto held in the destinies and in the development of the fortunes of 1 great country. (Cheers.) Gentlemen I am very glad to have had the opportunity c saying these few words to you to-night. I have been for a great number of years an active member of the Eighty Club. ( I believe that we in our humble way have played our part, and have done our share in bringing to the front great and urgent questions, and in prosecuting them to a legitimate and logica conclusion ; and I hope in the future, as in the past, we shall succeed in combining, as we have always sought to combine, knowledge and discretion upon the one side, with a full, free, a: unstinted enthusiasm and belief in the great principles of popular progress and of popular justice which the Liberal Party is em- bodied to support, and by its support of which it will in the long run be judged in the verdict of history. I have the most sincere and complete pleasure in supporting this vote of thanks which has been passed to our friend Lord Tweedmouth. (Loud cheers.) LORD TWEEDMOUTH: Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I can assure you that I came to this dinner to-night with a very lively sense of the severity of the ordeal through which I was about to pass. For, gentlemen, though it has been my business to make other people speak, and to check other people from speaking 1 never have pretended to enter into the lists as a speaker myse I felt the ordeal was greater still because to-night I had to address an audience of speakers, that Saul had literally to descend amongst the prophets ; and I could not but feel that the prophets were likely to be very severe critics indeed. But, gentlemen, 1 can assure you that I very highly appreciate the honour that you did me in asking me to be your guest to-night, and I can also assure you that I feel very fully rewarded for any success that , ao, MR, FRANK LOCKWOOD, Q.C., M.P, '23 for any services that I have been able to render to the Liberal Party, by the kindness of your reception of me to-night, and by the kind, the too kind, the too flattering words which have been spoken regarding me by the other speakers this evening. Gentlemen, I do not think I can do better than act up to the definition of a Cabinet Minister, given by my friend Mr. Nussey. His view was that a Cabinet Minister should drink much and say very little. I think that that is rather a good injunction to any man at a public dinner, provided always that he can get decently good drink. (Laughter.) Gentlemen, in the privacy of the Cabinet room, Cabinet members certainly do not live up to that definition of Mr. Nussey ; but I expect that that perhaps may be because we are furnished with nothing better to drink than water. But, gentlemen, I shall live up to that definition to-night. I shall not weary you by further speech, but I shall only ask you to join with me in drinking the health of our Chairman, who -is not the least among your leaders. (Loud cheers, and cries of " Lockwood.") The CHAIRMAN : Gentlemen, I am very much obliged to you for your kindness in drinking my health, and if I could now induce my friend, Mr. Frank Lockwood, to speak, I should be delighted. MR. F. LOCKWOOD, Q.C., M.P. : Lord Tweedmouth and gentlemen, It is not the first occasion on which I have been called upon to speak without having a very precise indication as to what was to be the nature of the observations that I should make. But I gather from the concluding observations of Lord Tweed- mouth that he was anxious to ask you to drink the health of our excellent Chairman, Mr. Acland. I can assure you that I could be very eloquent and that I could speak at very great length on the merits of Mr. Acland. We knew him when he was one of the rank and]file, before he attained the very exalted position which he now has in fact one of the great advantages of having been a member of Parliament for a great many years is that you know a great many men in the Government although you are not a member of it yourself. (Laughter.) Those of us who have had some years experience in the House of Commons know how, when we first embarked upon our legislative career, we looked upon Cabinet Ministers as things to In. 1 admired from a distance; they preserved their reputations with us mainly because we knew so little about them. (Laughter. But as time rolled THE LORDS, LABOUR, AND LIBERALISM. on, and as the honourable gentlemen who sat by our sides became right honourable, as they left the serener sphere of the private member and became members of some great Govern- ment, one was really surprised to find how, notwithstanding those great temptations to be pedantic, they preserved after all some slight reminiscences of the time when they were themselves good fellows. (Laughter.) There are many here to-night whom some of us in Parliament have known as private members with whom we have associated on terms of good fellowship. If there is one thing that strikes one more than other things in connection with Parliamentary life, it is, that notwithstanding the high honours which they have attained to, and the enormous salaries which they get, they still are not proud. (Laughter.) It may be because they know perfectly well that although we are still private members, there does come a time in the delibera- tions of Parliament when their salaries form the subject of contro- versy. It is in days such as those that they rely on men like Mr. Birrell and myself. (Laughter.) Far be it from me to ascribe to them interested motives in preserving the friendship of humble individuals like ourselves, but still it is some comfort to us to think that by our votes in Parliament we are able to do something towards maintaining them and their families. (Laughter.) Lord Tweedmouth, I believe that a time will come when, with the ex- ception of the legal members of the " Eighty " Club, all the members of this Club will be cabinet ministers. We are getting on in that direction. No truer word was said to-night than when my right honourable friend, the Home Secretary, told you that he had been associated almost from its commencement with the " Eighty " Club. He has. He has worked for it ; he has worked with it, and I only hope that the exalted rank to which these right honourable gentlemen have attained will never prevent them from extending still that help and support which they gave in the past in their humbler and poorer days (laughter), and that they will still continue to work as hard and as well with a Club which has, I believe, done so much for Liberalism in the past. (Hear, hear.) Now gentlemen of the " Eighty " Club, in all seriousness, do con- sider what your admirable Chairman has done for the Liberal Party since he has been a member of this Liberal Cabinet. He- did not initiate free education, but he has done in the House of Commons that which he said on the platforms he would do ; he has made free education a real and a live thing (cheers) ; and no man has done more to carry out that great principle for which MR. FRANK LOCKWOOD, Q.C., M.P, some of us contended in the past even without the approbation of the Party to which we belong no man has done more to carry out that great -principle of Liberalism than has my right honour- able friend who now sits in the Chair. You may have observed that at an earlier period this evening that position was occupied by myself. Gentlemen, Mr. Birrell will agree with me, I feel sure in this, that the rank and file of the Party are accustomed to being turned into warming pans (laughter), whilst for a moment i thought that I was to hold the honourable position for the whole of this evening, that indeed the toast I am now seconding was to be a toast which was to be applied to myself, and not to my right honourable friend ; I found, before many of these excellent dishes with which you have been regaled to-night had been passed round, that I was only in the position of a warming, pan. (Laughter.) Gentlemen, I congratulate you that the change took place. I should like very much to have heard how my right honourable friend would have proposed my health (laughter) if it had been his duty to do so. 1 do not think he would have said much about me from a legislative point of view, although no doubt many kind, many complimentary and entirely true observations would have been made. (Laughter.) But I can conscientiously recommend you to return to him the thanks which certainly are due to him. He has come here, I believe, at great personal inconvenience. Being a member of a Cabinet that, as my right honourable friend has told you, has a most important Bill before the House of Commons, when every vote is of the utmost importance, he has been wandering some- where in the neighbourhood of Stonehenge this afternoon, and enjoying himself there probably much more than he would have done in the House of Commons. (Laughter.) We must not be too critical with regard to that ; it is only the rank and file of the Party who have to L be in constant attendance (renewed laughter) if they cannot vote, well they are worth nothing. It is only Cabinet Ministers who can roam at Salisbury and other places. But we are glad, to have him back amongst us ; we are glad that he has been able to tear himself from those rural attractions we will not enquire too closely what they were we can only con- gratulate ourselves that he was able to be here even at a late period of this evening, and if we can learn anything from Cabinet Ministers to-night, it is this, that if you really want to be effective at a public meeting, whether it be a dinner or a penny reading, you should always come in late. (Laughter.) It creates a certain 26 THE LORDS, LABOUR, AND LIBERALISM. amount of nervous anxiety as to whether you are really coming, and when you do come you are sure of a rapturous reception. My right honourable friend is entitled to that reception at your hands. (Hear, hear.) I do not know, I am sure, as to whether there is any other topic in connection with his life that he would like me to allude to. (Laughter.) As I had not the slightest idea that it would be my privilege to second this vote of thanks, I had not that opportunity which always should be accorded to a speaker on an occasion of this kind of enquiring of the gentleman whose health he is about to propose as to what subjects he would like to have mentioned, and as to what subjects he would rather not have touched upon. I have, so far as I could, discharged this duty by touching upon topics which I hope have not been offensive to him ; there are many that occur to me that I am perfectly sure would be offensive to him, but I do not propose to touch upon those or to delay you longer, but to ask you to join with me in drinking his health. (Loud cheers.) The CHAIRMAN : Gentlemen, I do not believe that at any well regulated dinner it is ever expected that the Chairman should return thanks twice. But that appears to be the expectation of my friend, Mr. Lockwood, and that expectation I am afraid I must disappoint. EIGHTY" CLUB SMOKING "AT HOME. SPEECH BY MR. FRANK LOCKWOOD, Q.C., M.P. (SOLICITOR-GENERAL.) A Smoking " At Home " was held on Monday, Nov. 19, 1894, at 10 p.m. at the Westminster Palace Hotel. Mr. W. S. Robson, Q.c. (Liberal candidate for South Shields), took the Chair. Amongst those present were : Rt. Hon. Lord Tweedmouth, Rt. Hon. James Bryce, M.r., Arthur Cohen, Q.C., 1' Channing, M.P. , W. A. McArthur, M.P., J. Lloyd Morgan, M.P., R. K. Causton, M.P., H. W. Paul, M.P., Cyril Uodd, Q.C., M.I'., W. Leatham Bright, E. J. C. Morton, M.P., Ellis Griffith (Anglesea), W. B. Yates, L.C.C., Arthur B. Challis, Professor J. A. Strahan, Professor W. Harrison Moore (Mel- bourne), Charles Russell, T. Sadler {Treasurer}, T. \V. Fry (Westmoreland), W. M. Crook, H. H. Raphael (St. Pancras), Berkeley Halle, Robert W. Hamilton, Charles Geake, Colonel Colquhoun Reade (Walworth), G. M. Harris, A. J. David (Cambridge), H. lleldman (Hants), Bouchier F. Hawksley, W. H. Cozens-Hardy, Leonard Powell, W. B. Duffield, F. W. Maude, Charles Trevelyan (Lambeth), J. A. B. Bruce (Secretary], etc., etc. In all about 150 were present. The CHAIRMAN (Mr. W. S. ROBSON, Q.C., Liberal Candidate for South Shields), who was received with cheers, said : Gentlemen, We are to have the pleasure to-night of listening to one whom we are delighted to welcome as a member of Her Majesty's Government. We welcome him the more warmly because he is not only a member of Her Majesty's Government, but he is also one of ourselves. The Solicitor-General, like the Attorney- General, and indeed like everybody else that has any claim to aspire to one of those offices, is a member of the " Eighty " Club (laughter) and an old and constant member of the "Eighty" Club. He needs, therefore, neither introduction nor eulogium among us ; but we are glad to have had the honour of congratulating him upon his acces- sion to office. I think I might even go a step further, and, in spite of the somewhat untoward reverse which is said to have taken place in some part or other of Scotland to an excellent Liberal, who bears a name which has certainly not been very fortunate in elections (laughter) in spite, I say, of that untoward incident, I think we may fairly congratulate both the Solicitor-General and his colleagues in the Government upon the prospect of a prolonged and useful period of power. 1 hat prospect will, I dare say, be diversified by one or two general elections, but nobody has any right to complain of that certainly Mr. Lockwood will not complain of it for from what I know of him and his constituency, I should say that he finds an election a gay interval of humorous intercourse with very friendly supporters and very friendly opponents ; and even we out- siders of the ordinary rank and file have no reason for apprehension of any general election. If the next election takes place, as we hope and believe it will, upon a definite and straightforward issue/ which can be laid before the people without mystery and without reserves (hear, hear) we have no reason to fear it. If I were to venture to draw any moral whatever from Forfarshire, I should say that the only thing that we have to warn our friends about is to give us perhaps fewer mandates and more majorities, for the multiplication of mandates appears to me to be the division of majorities. However, these are matters which will be for Mr. Lockwood, and not for me, to deal with, and I will not trespass upon his functions. I therefore now with pleasure call upon him to address us. The SOLICITOR GENERAL (who was received with cheers) said : Mr. Robson and Gentlemen, It is a great pleasure to me to come here to-night to meet a club with which I have been associated from the early days of its existence, and, indeed, before the "Eighty" Club was the " Eighty" Club I had the pleasure of being a member of that Committee of Mr. Albert Grey, which, I believe, was the genesis of the Club of which we :-ee so many members here to-night. Gentlemen, I thank you very much for your kindly welcome, for I gathered from the manner in which yoii received Mr. Robson's observations with regard to myself, that the appointment which I have had the honour to accept has been an appointment which, so far as my fellow members are concerned, has been not unpopular. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, Mr. Robson has spoken to-night of the im- pending election, but he has been very careful not to commit himself to any precise period when that election is to take place. I was very much struck with some, and indeed with all, of the observations of the Premier in the admirable speech which he made at the Mansion House on the 9th of November, when he pointed out to that representative assembly that amongst the dangers that exist, and which from time to time menace the peaceful condition of Europe, perhaps one of the most formidable was that of the great standing armies of the Continent. One can well under- stand the truth of that observation. I suppose that soldiers get tired of marching and counter-marching and mounting guard, with occasional autumn manoeuvres, and in the same way this Club I take to be one of the most formidable wings of the fighting portion of the Liberal Party. Very probably, if you could poll it, you would find that its members are very strongly in favour of meeting the electorate throughout the length and breadth of the country. Well, gentlemen, at present, you have to be content with occasional skirmishes. I am very sorry to think, as Mr. Robson has reminded us, that in a skirmish which has taken place recently, we have not altogether had the best of it. The result of that, of course, upon good soldiers is to make them fight all the better. (Cheers.) What is the answer that you, gentlemen, bring back from the constituencies which you are in the habit of visiting ? You go north, and you go south, and you bring back to headquarters the same answer, namely, that in all your oratorical armoury you have not got a stronger weapon that you can use before any popular audience, than a very frank and a very free criticism of the action of the House of Lords. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, we are told by apparently responsible speakers, we are told by apparently responsible newspaper writers, that in the country there is apathy (no, no) on this question of dealing with the House of Lords. I appeal to you, and to your practical experience, as to whether that is true You know perfectly well that the difficulty you have to contend with at public meetings is not in stirring up enthusiasm, is not in evoking denuncia- tion ; your difficulty is to moderate the transports of those who are prepared to deal with this matter. (Hear, hear.) You know perfectly well that when the question is asked by > ou at the beginning of your speeches as to what is to be done with the House of Lords, you have the most peremp- tory suggestions from the audience. (Laughter.) And those \\ho are telling us, and those who are writing to us, and writing for us, say that there is apathy in the country with regard to this question, show that they have but the slightest and the most imperfect knowledge of the condition of the feeling upon this burning question. (Hear, hear.) I believe myself that this question of the House of Lords, and the feeling of the country with regard to it, is demon- strating most clearly the strong hold which the Liberal Party has upon what I may venture to call the passion of the Party. I believe that there is now a stronger feeling with regard to a peremptory dealing with this institution than has ever existed in the history of that institution. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, I suppose that you, as public speakers, have exhausted your category of illustration in dealing with the House of Lords. But I am going to read to you to-night, if you will permit me, an illustration made use of by no less a person than Lord Salisbury in the speech which he made the other day, which appears to me to be as apt and illus- trative of the position of the House of Lords as any that has probably been used by yourselves on the occasion of your addressing large and popular audiences. Gentlemen, I do not kno,v how it is, but you will remember within your experience, and it certainly is within pine, that whenever you wanted an illustration with regard to the condition of the State you have always resorted to the ship at sea. (Laughter.) It was an illustration that was capable of great possibilities. You described how, in the early morning, on a placid and calm sea, the ship spreads its white sails for the favouring breezes to fan, the favouring breezes being the popular feelings (laughter) and how it breasted the waves, and how one was reassured by the firm and determined face of the gentleman who had got his hand upon the helm. (Laughter.) Then you used to depict how on the horizon was seen the small cloud which gradually darkened and grew darker still, and how the hurricane rose, and you used to describe how it whistled through the rigging, how it fell upon that ship tempest- tossed. (Laughter.) But it still survived, and the face of the man at the helm was still calm. (Laughter.) Then you would tell them how in the evening time, the storm having abated, that good ship was smoothly wafted to its haven the haven was the Treasury Bench. (Laughter.) This illustration did good stead at many a public meeting. You have all used it. But, gentlemen, you do not use it now. You draw your illustration, not from the ship ; it is now drawn from the railway train. I do not know how this has come about. We live, I suppose, in faster times, and it may be that it has been brought about by that not altogether inconvenient habit of addressing popular audiences at railway stations from railway trains. (Laughter.) It is an admirable institution, because it not only gives unqualified pleasure to those who agree with us, but it is desperately annoying to those who are in the train who do not. (Laughter.) Lord Salisbury has adopted this latter method of illustration ; and in speaking mark you, not at all of the House of Lords, but in speaking of an entirely, I am glad to say an absolutely different institu- tion he was good enough to say: "What would be said if you were directors of a railway, and if your engineers had got your locomotives always in dock, telling you from year to year that some improvement was being applied to your machinery? You would say, 'We want our locomotives to run, and you must contrive some machinery that will at all events make them run in reasonable time.' " Gentle- men, that illustration was used by the noble lord in reference to the legislative action of the House of which I, and many here, have the honour of being members. But how abso- lutely applicable it is to that House of which the noble lord is a member, but for which, and of which, and in respect of which, he is very loth to accept any responsibility. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, that is the very question that we have been asking ourselves. We have been saying that we want to get this line clear. We have been saying, and a great many people have been telling us, both in the House of Commons and out of the House of Commons, that there are a great many overladen trains which are very much overdue, and the Government I speak, I suppose, for the first time to-night as a member of that Government, as the youngest member of that Government, and consequently as absolutely as ignorant as yourselves of the inner secrets of that Government (laughter) I take it that this Government has been very much pressed by various sec- tions of its party to consider that their particular train is overdue. Who is responsible for that ? Gentlemen, what is the remedy? In the case of a railway company the person who has any grievance, or has any fault to find, if he is a person of a heated temperament he is perfectly ready to tell you that if you only hang a director every- thing will be put straight at once. But you know better than that. You know perfectly well that the only method of getting rid of incompetent directors is to wait until you have the general meeting of shareholders, when you con- sider the conduct of the directorate, and when you vote as to whether those gentlemen shall continue in their position, or whether they shall not. I take it that this Government has to wait until they have the general meeting of the shareholders of this United Kingdom, who will then express their views as to how this directorate shall be dealt with. It is impossible for this or any other Government to say definitely and decisively what is the treatment which will have to be meted out to this obstructive body of directors 7 until we have had an opportunity of meeting the share- holders of the United Kingdom, who shall tell us what their opinion is upon this question. Gentlemen, Lord Salisbury objects, and objects in lan- guage of which it is very difficult to approve, to being regarded as the chairman of this board of directors. When Lord Rosebery, the other night, in the speech that he made, spoke of him as being the person who had the House of Lords at his beck and call well, Lord Salisbury disowned the soft impeachment in language which was the very reverse of polite. How comes it that Lord Salisbury is disowning the influence which he is popularly supposed to bear in connection with the House of Lords ? Gentlemen, there is only one answer to that question, and that is this : That any man who is put in that position of responsibility feels that that is a position which is absolutely and entirely indefensible. (Hear, hear.) I do not know, I am sure, as to how long 'we are supposed to carry out the policy of grinning and bearing it. We have heard a phrase used frequently lately with regard to the relative positions of the country and the House of Lords, which has come to be known as the "filling of the cup." (Laughter.) Gentlemen, I do not think that the real author of that phrase has had it sufficiently distinctly pointed out to the country that he is entitled to such credit as attaches to its first use. It was Mr. Chamberlain, in 1884, who first made use of those memorable words. In speaking in 1884 of the House of Lords, he reviewed their legislative action from Runnymede to the date at which he spoke (laughter) and during all those 650 years he protested that he could not point to one useful action upon their part. Then he went on in a burst of poetic ecstasy to explain that the cup was nearly full. (Laughter.) Well, gentlemen, it has been filling apace since ; it is a bumper now. (Renewed laughter.) But what use has Mr. Chamberlain made of this swiftly filling cup of which he spoke ? So far as I have been able to understand that right honourable gentleman's political action, the only use that he can make of that cup is to hold it up, and 8 to pledge long life and prosperity to the House of Lords, coupled with the name of Lord Salisbury, with three times three and musical honours if you please. (Laughter.) Gentlemen, we have watched the filling of that cup. During the last Parliament we have had as bitter an experience of the indignities which are offered to the House of Commons as any House of Commons has since it has differed from the House of Lords. Gentlemen, we are reproached that we spend our time now in threatening the House of Lords, and we are told and we are taunted with this that threatened men live long, and that our threats will be matters of no avail so far as that institution is concerned. But let me remind you, if indeed it is necessary to remind you upon this point, that the threats which have been directed against the House of Lords in past time are not threats which have come solely from the Liberal Party as it is now constituted. Mr. Chamberlain in 1884 was reproaching it with its obstinacy, with its arrogance, and with its arbitrary conduct ; Mr. Goschen was telling it that it was a High Tory Committee ; and, to come to smaller men, Mr. Jesse Collings was saying that he should vote for the total abolition of its legislative power. Gentlemen, those are the threats of the past, and I for one do not wonder that the House of Lords has gained courage from the conduct of those men. What has become of those threats? Mr. Chamberlain, who from Runnymede, to 1884 could find nought that was good in the House of Lords, from 1884 to 1894 has found nought but what is good in it. Mr. Goschen, I suppose, no longer considers it to be a reproach, to taunt it with being part and parcel of a High Tory Committee ; because I suppose it is, in his opinion, the highest object of a politician's ambition to be a member of such an association. (Laughter.) Mr. Jesse Collings well, may I be excused from seeking to enquire as to what Mr. Jesse Collings' view upon this or any other matter may be. (Laughter.) Let it pass. Gentlemen, what has been the result of this that these threats uttered by those men, threats which of course have shown that the men who uttered them were mere wind- bags, have given courage to that assembly and I do not blame them for it and they are now, to use a familiar phrase, carrying the war into the enemy's camp. This Party, to which we belong, which has, no doubt, through the mouths of those men who were taken to be the ex- ponents of Liberal principles and the champions of Liberal views, threatened the House of Lords, and this House of Lords, surviving those threats, finding those men are cheek by jowl with themselves, has taken to what ? why, to threatening the House of Commons. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, in 1892, before the general election was fought, Lord Salisbury told the country : " If we are beaten at the polling booths, you may rely," said he to his Tory supporters, " upon the working power of the Constitution." That was threatening the electorate with the House of Lords. The Duke of Devonshire announced to another audience that if the Home Rule Bill, which he had never seen, was passed by the House of Commons, it would be inevitably thrown out by the House of Lords. Coming again to smaller men, Colonel Saunderson illustrating the old adage that men who are less discreet sometimes rush in where persons of maturer judgment fear to tread (laughter) Colonel Saunderson announced to the House of Commons, on the occasion of the second reading of the Evicted Tenants' Bill, and almost in the initiation of the debate, that if that Bill passed the House of Commons it could not become law because it would be rejected by the House of Lords. Gentlemen, the war, as I say, has been carried into our camp. It is not now merely a question of threatening the House of Lords, the House of Lords is threatening the House of Commons. (Hear, hear.) And I understand this is to be a question, aye, and before long, I hope, a burning question in this country. Gentlemen, to my mind it has smouldered long enough ; it may become a question upon which we may appeal to the electorate in this country, and then those shall see who talk of apathy, then those shall see who talk of indifference, as to whether the people of this country need any stirring in this matter of preventing 10 once and for all this interference on the part of the Lords with the work that is done by the representatives of the people. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, of course I know not, I have not the slightest knowledge as to when this appeal may be made, but this I do venture to predict, that when- ever that appeal is made to the country at large, that Party will obtain the overwhelming voice of the country which pledges itself without hesitation to maintain for the House of Commons, not in name only, but in deed, the power of legislating for the people in accordance with the wishes of the people expressed at the polling booths of this country. (Loud cheers.) MR. T. LOUGH, M.P. : Mr. Robson, I have been asked to propose a vote of thanks to Mr. Lockwood this evening for two reasons : the first is that I understand I am the only one who takes a prominent part in the function of this evening, and, indeed, one of the very few members of the " Eighty " Club who is not a lawyer. Therefore, it was thought appropriate that I, as one who follows a compara- tively honest calling, should move this vote. On that point let me observe that I am thinking of reconsidering my position, and getting called to the Bar ; for I have come to the conclusion that there is no other way in which a politician can make any progress. The second reason, Sir, that I have been picked out, is because I am the dullest member of the " Eighty " Club, and it was thought desirable that I should form a sort of foil to the eloquence and humour of Mr. Lockwood. In this or any other capacity I am glad to be of any slight service to him. I remember on one occasion during my very brief Parliamentary experience, that I acted as a sort of second bottle-holder to him, in a great encounter he had in the House of Commons. It had been announced for some two or three weeks that Colonel Saunderson, to whom an effective reference was made to-night, was going to deliver a great speech ; and the Whips looked round to see who was the best man they could get on the Liberal side to meet this doughty champion, Eor some reason, II which I could never understand, they picked out Mr. Lockwood ; but no one can over explain the ways of the Whip. However, on the appointed day Mr. Lockwood came up to the scratch. He was a little late in arriving, and he carried a large bundle of notes with him, looking therefore a little depressed. Colonel Saunderson had no notes, nor reasons, nor facts, nor logic, nor anything else which helps men, according to accepted standards, to make a good speech ; but yet he gave just the sort of thing the House of Commons likes when the Irish Question is before it. I noticed then that Mr. Lockwood adapted himself admirably to the situation, put his notes into his pocket, and replied in the same style, and it was one of the best speeches we had on the Irish Question in the last Session. When he sat down I said, Did you not use your notes ? No, he replied, I am going to keep them for the third reading. That is a hint I give to the members of the " Eighty" Club when they get into the House of Commons; they ought to have their notes in their pocket, but not to use them unless they are just suited to the occasion, and sometimes they may serve for the third reading. If those are the two reasons why the Secretary called upon me, I wish to explain to you, Mr. Chairman, that I got up for a third and a different reason. I want to call the attention of the Club to another, and a very charming characteristic, of Mr. Lockwood's. I have noticed that since he became a member of the Government, several lucrative and other appointments under the Crown have fallen vacant in various parts of the country. From this we have evidence of his activity and his willingness to work in many different spheres. That is an example which I heartily commend to all members of the " Eighty " Club. I venture to do so particularly from the London stand- point, as I am permitted to do by the Committee to-night. The members of the Club will be aware that all our local institutions in London, which are very big things in them- selves, though not as great as the Imperial Parliament, are now in little less than a state of revolution. We are getting 12 a new School Board elected ; and a week or two afterwards new Vestries for all the different parts of the Metropolis ; and a few days after that new District Councils. I have no doubt that Mr. Lockwood was a member of such local bodies in his districts ; and I want to ask, with your permission, Mr. Chairman, the members of the "Eighty" Club to come forward in whatever district they may happen to live, as candidates either for the Vestry or for the District Council. The Tories are setting us a splendid example in this way. They have a Duke on the School Board and on the County Council. I do not know whether we have got any Dukes in the " Eighty " Club, but it is the natural place to look for them ; and I would be very glad if these remarks of mine would lead to one or two coming forward on the Liberal side. (Laughter.) For the Vestry, the Tories in Westminster are running two Lords we must have many Lords in the " Eighty" Club and two Members of Parliament ; but no Lord and no Member of Parliament has yet come forward on the Liberal side. Surely, Mr. Chairman, it is reasonable and natural to look to the " Eighty " Club to fill up this vacancy, and to supply us with a set of candidates that will at least match those on the Tory side. I can imagine that there may be one objection taken by members. They may say, " These Vestries contain from 80 to 120 members ; we cannot waste our time on an assembly where there are so many men to do the work." If they take that objection, I would point out to them that in the District Councils they have got a very limited body dealing with very important interests. None of them in the Metropolitan area contain more than 30 members ; most of them only contain 18 or 19 ; and I think it would be a most useful sphere in which the members of the " Eighty " Club, if I may press the point so far, may learn how, afterwards, to be of service in the House of Commons. I apologise for the length of time I have taken in moving this vote of thanks ; but I venture to point out particularly this aspect in Mr. Lock- wood's character his readiness to fill every post where his services were useful to the public. (Laughter.) I impress that on those who are present, and ask them to follow his example. For all the pleasure he has given the Liberal Party, Mr. Robson, and particularly for his eloquent speech to-night, I desire to move that we tender him the best thanks of the " Eighty " Club. (Loud cheers.) The CHAIRMAN : I believe I can reassure Mr. Lough to this effect, that it has been decided by the Committee to issue a circular asking the members of the "Eighty " Club to act in the sense and in the direction indicated by Mr. Lough. He said a great many of us belong to the legal profession, and I can certainly say that if the members of the Club respond to his appeal and become members of the Boards of Guardians, they may in the present state of litigation render very effective use to other members of the profession who may require their assistance. I have now to call upon Mr. Lynden Bell to second the vote proposed by Mr. Lough. Mr. LYNDEN BELL : Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, I have been entrusted with the honourable task of seconding this vote of thanks to Mr. Lockwood. It would of course be the language of mere platitude to say that I do so with much pleasure, and that I feel that no words of mine, or indeed of anyone, are required to commend it to your approval, and to secure for it at a meeting of the members of the " Eighty " Club, a particularly cordial and hearty acceptance. We are always indebted, in varying degrees, no doubt, to those distinguished politicians who on occasions like this, honour us with their presence, and enthuse us, more or less, with their speeches, but I am sure that Mr. Lockwood, no matter what speech he had made, or might have made to-night, would be certain of receiving at the hands of the '' Eighty " Club a particularly warm welcome and a particularly hearty reception on his appearance among us. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Lockwood has the fortunate capacity of eliciting popularity from those who know him well and those who know him but little, and from those even who only know him through the newspapers. (Hear, hear.) I am glad it has fallen to the lot of a member of his own profession to second this vote of thanks this evening, as it enables me, speaking on behalf of the Junior Bar, to say how thoroughly pleased the Bar generally has been at his well-merited promotion, and how thoroughly they recognise his deserts and his merits for the high position that he has now attained. (Hear, hear.) The Junior Bar is critical hypercritical, perhaps in regard to its leaders, and in propor- tion as it has little to do itself, its opportunity for observation and for criticism is great. (Laughter.) But with all the criticism, and all the observations that one has heard in the Temple during the last week or two on this subject, one has heard nothing but a general recognition of Mr. Lockwood's merits for his new position, and there has been, what I am sure he will be still more pleased to know, a feeling of personal gratification that so good a fellow, that so popular a man, has been elected to be one of the leaders of the Bar. (Cheers.) But Mr. Lockwood, I recognise, is here to-night not as a member of the Bar, though this, being the first public occasion on which he has appeared since his promotion, it naturally has been referred to. Mr. Lockwood is here to-night, I recognise, not as a lawyer but as a politician (hear, hear) and as a politician I think that he plays a most useful and a most important part. I think that we of the Radical Party, like other excellent persons, are sometimes slightly misunderstood, and that among our opponents there is a not unprevalent idea that the Radical Party is to a great extent composed of cross-grained, soured, dissatisfied people, who bear ill- will to their more fortunate neighbours, and who desire to pull everything down and to upset everything around them. Now Mr. Lockwood is essentially not one of those persons; he is a well-known public personage, and his personality, I think, may do something to convince our opponents that this idea as to Radicals is utterly misplaced. We have heard from Mr. Lockwood to-night a bright and cheerful speech, notwithstanding the fact that we meet under what it would be hypocrisy to disguise are somewhat depressing circumstances. The election in Scotland has, of course, been a disappointment to all of us, but notwithstanding that, Mr. Lockwood has shown no de- pression, but has given us an exhilarating and earnest speech as to our work in the future. Mr. Lockwood is essentially an optimist, and I think that the fact that Radicalism has to a great extent for its motive force optimism, is a fact which sometimes is overlooked. We are ardent reformers, not because we are angry with those around us, or dissatisfied, or envious, but because we believe and we are hopeful as to the good effects of the remedies which we suggest. (Hear, hear.) We may be wrong, we may be over-sanguine, but we are the sanguine party. (Hear, hear.) We are the people who have hope, and in proportion as we have hope, I think we will be able to work with energy and with success. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Lockwood has done as much work as others in the way of attendance in Parliament and speeches on public platforms, but in seconding this vote of thanks this evening, I have desired to point out what to me does seem a special sphere in which he may do good work, namely, as being a living contra- diction to this absurd notion as to the character and motives of the Radical Party, and as a fine specimen of the genial Radical. (Laughter and cheers.) Gentlemen, I have great pleasure in seconding this vote of thanks. I am sorry that I have detained you with these observations in regard toit, for I fully recognised when I began that whether I said anything or whether I said nothing, the motion would be sure to receive your most cordial acceptance. (Loud cheers.) The vote of thanks was carried with acclamation. The SOLICITOR-GENERAL: Mr. Robson and Gentlemen, I had no idea until 1 heard the two very interesting speeches to which I have just very attentively listened, that I was in any sense so interesting a personage as I appear to be (laughter) according to the views of the proposer and seconder of this very complimentary resolution. Mr. Lough has spoken of me as a possible candidate for every municipal honour ; he has held out a most brilliant future, 16 not altogether connected with the Vestry. (Laughter.) Well, I will say, as they do in the drama, perhaps a time will come, and it may be that I may be able, and it certainly shall be my earnest endeavour to do so, to realise the kind expectations of my friend in that department. (Laughter.) Very kind, very generous words have been spoken by the seconder of this resolution with regard to my position in connection with the Bar. Gentlemen, I say without any affectation that I have been deeply touched by the kind feeling which my professional brethren have extended in what has been to me certainly a very pleasant period of my life. But my kind friend, the seconder, has also suggested a possible future for me. He has depicted me as the genial Radical of the Party. He has evidently thought of what will be the best means of exhibiting me in that capacity of the genial Radical to the country at large. (Laughter.) Mr. Robson, I have never thought of appearing at Madame Tussaud's, but perhaps I may yet do good to my country by consenting that my effigy shall be exhibited, not in the Chamber of Horrors, but in some adjacent room in that admirable institution, where, in the innocent clothes which I am in the habit of wearing, I may be exhibited at 6d. a head for I believe the moderate charge of 3d. is only in force on Saturdays (laughter) and exhibited as an exemplification of that doctrine which has been so well preached to you to-night, that it is not necessary that a member of the Liberal Party should always be doleful and miserable. (Cheers.) EIGHTY" CLUB. AND THE HOUSE OF LORDS SPEECHES BY RIGHT HON. EARL OF KIMBERLEY, K.G. (SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS), MR. T. E. ELLIS, M.P., MR. J. A. STRAHAN, AND MR. AUGUSTINE BIRRELL, Q.C., M.P., AT THE WESTMINSTER PALACE HOTEL, On Thursday^ December 6th, 1894. Rr. HON. ARNOLD MORLEY, M.P. (POSTMASTER-GENERAL) IN THE CHAIR. Secretary, J. A. B. BRUCE, 2 Middle Temple Lane, E.G. EIGHTY DINNER on THURSDA Y, DECEMBER 6, 1894 AT WESTMINSTER PALACE HOTEL, TO THE Right Hon. EARL OF KIMBERLEY, K.Q. (SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS). RIGHT HON. ARNOLD MORLEY, M.P., IN THE CHAIR. (POSTMASTER GENERAL.) Members. *Right Hon. ARNOLD MORLEY, M.P. (in the chair). Anderson, C. A. Arbuthnot, F. F. tArmitstead, G. *Battersea, Lord Bertram, Julius Bevan, S. J. *Birrell, A. Q.c., M.P. tBrassev, Lord, K.C.B. Brough, J. R. Bruce, J. A. B. B. (Secretary) Butler, 'Slade *Clarke, General Sir A. Clarke, Edgar Clay, C. Clay, W. G. tCohen, Arthur, Q.c. Cook, E. T. Cozens-Hardy, W. H. Cundell, Dr. G. R. *David, A. J. (Cambridge) *De Lisle, Bernard *Duncan, J. A. (Kirkcudbright) *Ellis, T. E., M.P. ~*Furness, C., M.P. *Glaclstone, Right Hon. H. J.. M.P. *Gower, G. Leveson, M.P. fGreenwood, G. G. Hancock, Charles Harris, G. M. Guests. RT. HON. EARL OF KIMBERLEY, K.G. ( Guest of the evening. ) Acly, F. E. Atkin, E. Axtens, W. R. Balstrode, Canon Boffin, Rev. T. Cattarns, R. Challis, C. E. Clayden, P. W. Emery, . Everett, Col. W., C.M.G. Gladstone, H. Harris, H. Ford Harris-Brown, H. Heimsworth, V. E. G. Howse, T. F. Leonard, A. J. Lynet, H. J. B. Maiden, H. Morten, E. Rose, H. Shipley, C. L. Smith, B. A. Spence, W. M. Members. Hart, H. L. Hawksley, B. F. *Hoare, Hugh, M.p. Hoyle, G. H. Hudson, R. A. Hutchinson, C. C. James, Gwyllym James, C. R. Jones, Chester Jupe, J. Kemp, John *Latham, A. M. (Knutsford) Lawrence, A. H. *Leese, ]. F., Q.C., M.P. Lewis, G. J. G. *Lough, T., M.P. *Lush, A. H. (Totnes). Mason, D. M. Mathew, T. Mayhew, M. Mond, A. *Morley, Charles (Brecknock) Morris, T. E. Paine, Wyatt *Paul, H. W., M.P. *Pearson, Sir W. D., Bart. (Col- chester) Radford, G. H. tRoskill, J. tRoutledge, Alderman E. Rucker, F. G. Ryan, G. H. Safford, F. *Samuel, H. L. (South Oxford) *Serena. A. \Shoobridge, L. K. II. (N.W. Staffordshire) Slack, J. Bamford *Soames, A. W. (Ipswich) Spicer, E. S. *Stevenson, F. S. , M.P. Strahan, Dr. S. A. K. Strahan, J. A. Tomlinson, R.-E. *Walker, H. de R. (Suffolk) Waller, G. E. *\\'alton, J. Lawson, Q.C., M.P. Waterfield, N. Yates, W. B., L.c.c. * Young, A. Guests. Stone, F. Thilthorpe, J. A. Thompson, W. Woodrow, F. J. and 5 other guests, names not sent in. The Times. Daily News. Press Association. Central News. Westminster Gazette. Exchange Telegraph Co. Daily Graphic. J. Moore & Sons. About 1 20 were present at the Dinner, and about 20 ladies came in afterwards to hear the speeches : in all about 140. Mr. T. E. ELLIS, M.P. (chief Liberal Whip) proposed ; Mr. J. A. STRAHAN seconded ; and Mr. AUGUSTINE BIRRELL, Q.C., M.P., supported the vote of thanks to LORD KlMBERLEY, K.G. *" Signifies candidate for Parliament at present time or last General Election. t Signifies candidate for Parliament previous to last General Election. LIBERAL PROGRAMME AND THE HOUSE OF LORDS. SPEECH BY EARL OF KIMBERLEY, K.G. At the Eighty Club dinner to Lord Kimberley, held at the Westminster Palace Hotel, on Thursday, December 6th, 1894, there were present Rt. Hon. Arnold Morley, M.P. (Postmaster-General), in the chair, Rt. Hon. Earl Kimberley, K.G. (Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs), Guest of the Evening, Lord Brassey, Lord Battersea, Rt. Hon. Herbert Gladstone, M.P. , G. Leveson Gower, M.P., Augustine Birrell, Q.C., M.P., T. E. Ellis, M.P., T. Lough, M.P., J. F. Leese, Q.C., M.P., F. S. Stevenson, M.P., Arthur Cohen, Q.C., G. Armitstead, C. Furness, M.P., J. Lawson Walton, Q.C., M.P., Sir W. D. Pearson, Bart. (Colchester), H. Hoare, M.P., Charles Morley (Brecknock), Neville Waterfield, Professor J. A Strahan, Canon Bulstrode, Colonel Everett, C.M.G., C. E. Chain's, Gwyllm James, E. T. Cook, P. W. Clayden, W. M. Spence, T. F. Howse, S. J. Bevan, B. F. Hawksley, C. R. James, A. J. David (Cambridge), H. L. Samuel (S. Oxfordshire), J. A. Duncan (Kirkcudbright), A. W. Soames (Ipswich), L. K. Shoobridge (N.W. Staffordshire), Alderman Routledge, R. A. Hudson, H. de R. Walker, Rev. T. Boffin, J. A. B. Bruce (Secretary). About 120 were present at the dinner. The CHAIRMAN, (Right Hon. ARNOLD MORLEY, M.P.), who was received with loud cheers, said: My Lords and Gentlemen, We have gathered here together this evening upon an occasion of considerable interest, when the public mind is largely occupied with an announcement recently made by the Prime Minister, which will, in all probability, affect the course of political events for some time to come. I think it is very satisfactory to learn, as I have learnt from Mr. Bruce, our active and energetic Secretary (applause) that the Eighty Club is larger in point of numbers, more effective as a political organization, and capable of doing- better work in support of the principles and the policy which we as Liberals believe in, than has ever been the case since the formation of the Club in 1880. (Hear, hear.) I am glad of that fact for two reasons. In the first place, we are entering upon a controversy which, as I say, is likely to be prolonged, and a G LIUERAL PROGRAMME & THE HOUSE OF LORDS. controversy in which our opponents, realising, as they doubtless do, that they are defending their central fortress and citadel of monopoly and privilege, will fight with the stubbornness and energy born of despair. We shall have to meet a strong combination of forces ; they will enrol under their banners the possessors of monopoly and of property, the unrestricted enjoyment of which is contrary to the public good ; and they will be supported by all those who place (and I am afraid they are numerous both in public and private life) personal and class interests before the national welfare. But if I am glad that the Eighty Club is strong and capable of doing good service because of the character of the controversy, I am glad it is in the condition I have described because of the description of the issue which is p'aced before the country. If we are to fight this battle successfully, it is essential that the facts of the case should be thoroughly understood and studied by the people of the country, that they should thoroughly understand the history of the House of Lords, and its past action, not merely in this past Session, or in this Parliament, but in this century. (Hear, hear.) Although literature may do much in educating the electorate (and I have seen already published pamphlets and leaflets containing quotations from speeches by Mr. Bright and other eminent men in 1884, and in previous periods with regard to the House of Lords), I venture to think this controversy will not be settled, and the public mind will not be made up on this question by quotations from speeches or the opinions of individuals, however distinguished, but that it will be necessary to convince the people that the system under which we are living with regard to the House of Lords is one which is intolerable and ought not to continued. (Hear, hear.) There are men in public life whose speeches of to-day form a complete and able refutation of all the propositions which their speeches of ten years ago were intended to promote (laughter and cheers) ; and therefore if the electorate are to form their con- clusions from the speeches of certain public men, I feel that they would be in great difficulty in coming to any conclusion on the subject. We have got to show the electorate, we have got to show the voters in the country, what were the facts and what were the circumstances which justified Mr. Bright, and Mr. Chamberlain too, in 1884, in denouncing the constitution and action of the House of Lords as intolerable. I can imagine no organization better adapted for that purpose, and for missionary work of that kind, than the Eighty Club, composed of men able and willing to give their RIGHT HON. ARNOLD MORI.F.Y, M.P. services in work of this description. The question is a large one, but the material is ample. I venture to think as we go on the case we place before the country is unanswerable, whether we look at it from the abstract point of view of the anomalies that are inseparably connected with the present position and constitution of the House of Lords, or from the practical standpoint of the intolerable delay and hindrance which the House of Lords places in the way of carrying out the declared will of the country. We have to show that in 1884 the case was a strong one, but that the events which have taken place since have made the case still stronger. I trust the Eighty Club will realise the magnitude of the question, the importance of the issue which is forced upon us, and will individually and collectively, in the words of Lord Rosebery, not only take off their coat but their waistcoat if necessary, and do everything in their power to secure a triumphant result when the time of battle comes. (Cheers.) My duty to-night is very simple. I understand that toasts are excluded by the rules of the Eighty Club, and that my duty, as one of the original members of the Club and as Chairman on this occasion, is to introduce the guest of the evening, my colleague, the Earl of Kimberley. (Loud cheers.) I do not propose to go in detail through the various public positions in which the Earl of Kimberley has acted ; I think it is perhaps enough to refer to his present position as Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and to say that we believe that we recognise, and I believe the people of the country recognise that with him as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, while the interests and honour of the country are safe, the influence of Great Britain will be used for securing, as far as can be, a settlement of international questions on a peaceful basis. Lord Kimberley's connection with the Foreign Office does not date from yesterday, or even from the period when he accepted the seals of the Foreign Office ; it dates back more than 40 years, before the period of the Crimean war, when he acted as Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs under Lord John Russell, then Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and afterwards, as he reminds me, under Lord Clarendon. Since that time he has occupied with distinction and credit to himself, if not most, at any rate many of the great offices of State. (Cheers.) I ask you to give a cordial and hearty welcome to Lord Kimberley on this occasion, and in doing so, I would ask you specially to remember that the success which I have mentioned, and which has attended the performance of his public duties in those offices, has been, in 8 LIBERAL PROGRAMME & THE HOUSE OF LORDS. spite of great natural disadvantages by which I mean in the first place that he is a member of the House of Lords (laughter and hear, hear) and secondly, that by the accident of birth he has been prevented from spending a portion, at all events, of his public career in the more vigorous and bracing atmosphere of the House of Commons. I ask you, therefore, to give a hearty reception to Lord Kimberley. (Loud cheers.) The EARL OF KIMBERLEY, who, on rising, was received with loud cheers, said : Mr. Morley, my Lords and Gentlemen, I felt it to be a very great honour to be asked to come this evening to a banquet given by the Eighty Club. I feel it so especially, because, as my friend has reminded you, I have unfortunately, by accident of birth, never had that opportunity of being really a fighting member of the Party in the sense that I know all those I see around me are ; and, without saying anything disparaging of the House to which I have so long belonged, I may say perhaps as the matter has been alluded to that one of the bitterest moments of my life was when, as a young man, I found myself absolutely debarred by that accident from appearing in that great theatre of politics in this country the House of Commons. My right honourable friend has alluded to the many offices, the duties of which I have performed, and he has alluded to them in a manner which I am not sufficiently vain to believe I have deserved. But this I will say, that of the many offices I have filled, none has brought with it the heavy responsibilities and cares which the office I now fill has done (Hear, hear) on account, if I may venture to say so, of the incessant and almost overwhelming work which it involves, but still more because no man can hold that office without feeling deeply the magnitude of the interests which are committed to his care, and how unequal he is adequately to perform the duties which his country has cast upon him. Gentlemen, this is not an opportunity when I should think it right to make a speech generally on foreign policy, but there is one subject which at the present moment 1 could not possibly pass over in silence. I mean the accounts which have reached this country of the terrible atrocities that have taken place (cheers) that are said to have taken place in the district of Sassoun, in Asia Minor. I need scarcely assure you, gentlemen, that the feeling of horror which I am certain was excited in the mind of everyone who read those accounts, has been fully and RIGHT HON. EARL OF KiMBF.kLEV, JC.G. entirely shared by Her Majesty's Government. (Cheers.) I think from the moment that we received those reports of these occurrences we have had the whole matter under our most serious consideration. It was obvious that the first step which had to be taken was to ascertain clearly what was the truth of these facts. The matter has been more than once before the Cabinet, and ever since we received those reports we have been engaged in an active correspondence with a view to obtain and secure a searching and impartial inquiry. (Cheers.) I am precluded by my position from giving you the details of that correspondence, nor can I tell you what may be the further steps that may have to be taken if the result of the inquiry should confirm the accounts we have received. I trust, for my part, it may be found (I trust in the name of humanity it may be found) that these reports are largely exaggerated; but, gentlemen, this I can assure you, that Her Majesty's Government are most deeply sensible of the gravity of this matter, and that we shall not fail to perform our duty to the country. (Loud cheers.) Now, gentlemen, I turn to matters which I undertook to say a few words to you upon, and pardon me if I say again I am under this disadvantage, that, with the engrossing work I have to perform, I have not the time that I should wish to give to the considera- tion of other questions. But I will say a word on what I think is a burning question of the moment the programme and prospects of the Party, and in connection with it the question of the House of Lords. (Cheers.) Of course I am not going to weary you with repetitions of the advantages and so forth of particular measures which we have upon our programme. I think it better to take a rather wider view of the matter. We are constantly told by our opponents that this programme of ours is made up of a number of measures which are only concocted for the purpose of catching votes. I propose to give you some reasons why these measures which we propose may be fairly advocated as being in strict accordance with the principles and policy of the Liberal Party as a whole. They are not measures taken up merely for the convenience of the moment, although of course they have to be discussed with reference to the possibilities of carrying them, and the influence of these measures on elections, and a thousand matters of detail which must not be overlooked. But the real point of importance is this, that we advocate these measures both as a Government and as a Party, we have adopted these measures because we are convinced that they are measures neces- sary for the welfare of the country. (Hear, hear.) 10 LIBERAL PROGRAMME THE HOUSE OF LORDS. Let me more particularly allude to one or two of them. You will not be surprised when I first mention the question of Home Rule. (Hear, hear.) Our opponents are fond of saying, " Oh, that question is shelved, it is dead." I trust they will find they are entirely mistaken I am sure they will find they are entirely mistaken. Is it to be supposed that when we have staked the whole of our prospects as a Party when we, who have had the honour of being members of a Government, have staked the whole of our personal prospects, whatever they may be worth, on this one measure, when the last general election was fought mainly on that measure is it to be supposed that the men who had the honour of leading a great Party in this country are so debased that they would so utterly turn their backs upon all their professions, and stultify and shelve the whole policy that they have advocated, as to abandon Home Rule, the one measure which they have put in the forefront, by which they said they would stand or fall ? No, I am as fully persuaded as I was before, that the measure of Home Rule, which was adopted upon the advice of our great leader whom we have lost (hear, hear) and was advocated by him with a perseverance and elo- quence never surpassed, and probably never equalled (hear, hear) I say, after that, I am certain that that measure will occupy in the future, as it has occupied in the past, the most prominent position in the programme of the Liberal Party. Speaking of Home Rule makes me think of other Irish ques- tions. I will not deny with regard to other Irish questions that I have in my mind the fair and just demands of that large body of Irish Members who have given us the most unstinted, the most cordial, and most complete support, as a Party. We are grateful for that support, and we are not likely to overlook their wishes. But we are told every day in speeches by our opponents, it is only to catch their votes for measures which we may bring in. I deny that. I say the measures we bring in are brought in not only, although no doubt to a considerable extent, and rightly, because they are measures desired by the great majority of those who represent the Irish people, but we advocate them also because we believe that they are measures likely to promote the progress, the peace, and prosperity of Ireland. There is the measure which we failed to pass for the usual reason I am afraid, connected with the House to which I belong the Evicted Tenants Bill. I saw a description, I think, in a speech made yesterday or the day before, by the distinguished leader of the Conservative Party in the RIGHT HON. EARL OF KIMBERLEY, K.G. 11 House of Commons, Mr. Balfour. This is the way he describes our bringing forward that measure ; he says we shrank from letting loose the imprisoned dynamiters ; then we tossed the Evicted Tenants Bill as a sop to our Irish supporters. I will tell you why we brought in, and why we should persevere with that Bill. In the first place we have the advice of a most distinguished member of our Cabinet and our Party, a man who has done as much for the good government of Ireland as any man I mean Mr. John Morley. (Cheers.) The deliberate opinion of Mr. Morley is, that a measure for the relief of this remnant of evicted tenants is necessary for the peace and welfare of Ireland. For us as responsible Ministers, and as colleagues of Mr. Morley, that alone is a very strong argument. But take the thing itself; is it not perfectly clear that no measure would have a more healing effect in Ireland than to get rid of the last fragment of that sad agitation which took place a few years ago, and of all the sad events con- nected with it. Even our opponents went some little way in that direction, and we propose to go the whole length in applying the necessary remedy. There is another matter which I think will be likely to occupy our serious attention, that is, further amendments of the Land Acts of Ireland. Nothing that the Liberal Party has done, nothing that has been done by our great leader, Mr. Gladstone, reflects more honour upon them than the passing of those Land Acts. I had the honour of a considerable share in the preparation and the carrying through the House of Lords of those Acts, and I do not believe in the present century more beneficent and just measures as regards Ireland were ever passed than those Acts, or which produced more successful results. But in matters of such complication and difficulty there are defects, and there are remedies which should be supplied, and there is a strong feeling in Ireland, not merely confined to our immediate supporters, that those remedies ought to be, without delay, supplied, so as to make the Land Acts thoroughly efficient for the purposes for which they were passed. I know what will be said when we make those proposals. They will be met by the cry which is made in so admirable and such pleasing language even by a distinguished man, for whom I have in many respects the highest regard, the leader of the Conservative Party (Lord Salisbury). He says, " Oh, what we shall have to do with the measures proposed by the Liberal Party is to say, ' Stop thief.' " I have heard the same kind of thing many times before not once but many times from 12 LIBERAL PROGRAMME & THE HOUSE OF LORDS. the lips of the noble marquis. I have heard the Land Acts spoken of, as what ? as robbery. Now you have the measure of the difference between the Conservative and the Liberal party. Those Acts which have done justice between landlord and tenant are called robbery. I trust we shall never be deterred by any accusations of that kind from dealing adequately, justly, and wisely in the interests, not of one, but of all classes, with measures of that description. (Cheers.) Now I will leave Ireland. Let us look at the measures which we have proposed, and with which we shall persevere in England and Wales. I take first of all, because I think it is one of the most important measures, the Disestablishment of the Church in Wales. (Cheers.) That, I suppose, in the eyes of our opponents, is merely a craftily-contrived device to keep the votes of the members for Wales. Well, I say again, that it would be a most unworthy and miserable policy if we took up a measure of that kind simply because we could get so many votes. We have regard to the opinions, and feelings, and wishes of the Welsh people, as we have regard to the wishes of the Irish people, as evidenced by the members that they send under our constitution to represent them in the House of Commons, but I say we advocate the measure because it is in strict accordance with Liberal principles. When we find the Established Church in Wales is in the position in which that Church now is, we say it is necessary for the welfare of Wales, in justice to the Welsh people, that that measure should pass, and as far as it is in our power to pass it, you may rely upon it that no effort will be spared by the Government to do so. (Cheers.) There is another matter. I do not think our measure for deal- ing with the Temperance Question is altogether alien to the principles of the Liberal Party. Is it alien to our principles to extend the power of communities throughout the country to deal with a matter so closely bound up with their welfare as what is called the Drink Question? I say it is in accord with our principles, and is called for by the evils which we seek to correct. I cannot go through the whole series of our measures, but I have mentioned some of the most prominent, and they will, I am sure, commend themselves most heartily to you. (Cheers.) Again, I say we have the right to assert that these are measures strictly in accordance with the principles which have always been reverenced and upheld by the Liberal Party, and having adopted those measures and put our hands to the plough, I trust we shall not turn our back until we have carried them into law. (Cheers.) RIGHT HON EARL OF KIMBERLEY, K.G. 13 Now, there are friends of ours who are not dissatisfied with our programme because it is not a Liberal one, or one which they would not support ; but there are some friends who, at times, get a little weary or tired of it, because they say it is always the same programme. Gentlemen, that is not business. In a country like this when, after all, there are strong differences between us, when to carry anything through you must fight hard for it, you must not weary in the race, but obstinately persevere, and you will win. That is what the Liberal Party always has done in the past, and what it always will do. If you do not win now, you will win later ; you will fight till you do win you will not tire. I am certain that that is the spirit which animates the Liberal Party. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, it animated us after our defeat in 1886, when we were broken and half destroyed by the secession of a portion of our Party. Was it supposed or believed by any one that in the space of six years, even with all the advantages of our leader, we should so rally ourselves together and the country, and that we should again be able to overmaster the Conservative Party in the House of Commons, and again be in the possession of power? (Cheers.) I say, let that be a lesson for all time to the Liberal Party ; let them never despair when they find themselves for the moment beaten, but let them make still stronger exertions until they win. Not that I am disposed to despair; but there is occasionally a certain weariness that naturally comes over men when they do not see the results which they had hoped for. They wish for larger results, but in order to get larger results you must make larger exertions. (Cheers.) I see gentlemen around me who, by influence and speeches in the country, can do much to secure that result. There is a stirring feeling abroad in the country which has been shown in connection with the Parish Councils Bill, which it was my privilege to introduce into the House of Lords a Bill due to one of my colleagues, Mr. Fowler, the advantages of which can never be over-estimated. There is a stirring going on throughout the country, and it is certain to con- duce to the advantage of the Liberal Party. In my own part of the world, I remember that nothing could be more dead than politics were. I have seen the dry bones stirred I have seen the labourers taking an active interest in politics, and I say I rejoice to see it. I care not whether they always vote Liberal ; but I do care whether they take an active and intelligent interest in their country, for you can never govern a country well unless all classes take an immediate and direct interest in it. That is a 1* LIBERAL PROGRAMME & THE HOUSE OF LORDS. principle of safety not of danger. Safety consists in this, that every man should have his share in the government, and every man feel an interest, and every man make his voice heard with those who govern the country, whether they be Members of Parliament or Members of the Government. The first thing is to know what the people want, and the next thing is to see that they get it. (Cheers). Well, gentlemen, I have said what I have to say about the programme of the Liberal Party, but there is another matter which, I must admit, has not quite such a cheering side. That consists of our dependence on the House of Lords. (Hear, hear.) That is a subject which has been very fully considered lately. My noble friend, the Prime Minister, has analysed very closely and very acutely various methods by which the House of Lords can be dealt with, and has pointed out in the most forcible language, the difficulties with which we have to contend. We have also heard a good deal from not quite such a friendly quarter; one hears of nothing else but of the insuperable difficulties which exist in dealing with the House of Lords. Well, I do not think that anything in politics is insuperable. (Hear, hear.) There are a great many things which are very difficult, no doubt, and in politics, as in most human affairs, there is nothing hardly to which some objection may not be urged, but the real point is to find that which is most suitable to the occasion, a thing which can be done, and then to get it done. There are various things we are told may be done with the House of Lords. I suppose that it does not require great acuteness to see the possibilities of the case. You may abolish the House of Lords that is one simple proposition ; you may reform the House of Lords, that is another proposition ; and you may take steps to prevent the House of Lords, if it continues to exist, from doing the mischief which it now does. What our opponents say is, " Look at the Liberal Party ; they are not agreed amongst themselves ; there are some that say the House of Lords must be immediately abolished ; others of them say ' Oh no, preserve the House of Lords, and take some measures by which we can clip its wings.' " I ask you, gentlemen, did you ever know any great political question dealt with in this country more especially when it is dealt with by the Liberal Party, which consists of men who are apt to exercise their own thoughts upon all matters without there being great differences of opinion? Do you think it possible to have a healthy discussion of the matter in the country without those differences of opinion ? I do not. But it RIGHT HON. EARL OF KIMBERLEY, K.G. does not follow that we shall not, when the time comes for action, arrive at unanimity as to what we shall do. (Cheers.) There are two-Chamber men ; there are one-Chamber men ; and there are people who are for diminishing the power of the Veto, or for getting rid of the Veto, and a variety of other propositions. Well, it is the duty of the Government of the day, of your leaders, to propose to you a definite course of action. That we shall be prepared to do. (Loud cheers.) I know perfectly well, if anybody does me the honour to take notice of what I say, we shall be told to-morrow, " He does not know what he is going to do, and the consequence is he does not say." That is a very common and ingenious trap ; it is a very obvious dilemma ; " He does not know what he is going to do, and that is the reason why he does not say." Although that is a very simple proposition, I beg humbly to say that does not apply to Cabinet Ministers, because nothing is more certain than this, that it is our plain duty not to announce precisely the form which our measure is intended to take until the moment has arrived when we take some action in Parliament upon it. That is the moment when we shall make our decision. I will make to you one confession, which is this, as to my own personal opinions. Personally I confess I do not see my way to the im- mediate abolition of the House of Lords. I will give you my reason it is a very simple one. 1 cannot conceal from you that my opinion is, that it would not be possible safely to govern this great Empire by one single House without any check whatever upon it. (Cheers.) I do not think it would be a safe thing to trust to a vote which may be passed by a very small number upon some very great matter, because I think it would be liable afterwards to be reversed, and you would not get the complete, full, and matured opinion of the country. More than that I will not say. As to the particular mode in which we should deal with the question, my mouth is closed, but this I wish distinctly for my own part to say, that I shall not be satisfied (which is of very little consequence, no doubt) the Party will not be satisfied, and rightly they will not be, unless such measures are taken as will effectually secure that the will of the House of Commons, the elected Members of the people, shall prevail. (Loud cheers.) It is not sufficient, to my mind, to say that, even under present circumstances, ultimately the will of the House of Commons and of the people does prevail. That is in one sense true, because it 16 LIBERAL PROGRAMME & THE HOUSE OF LORDS. is quite impossible for the House of Lords, constituted as it is, to resist the loudly-expressed determination of the whole of the people upon a given question ; but is it tolerable that about every question which comes up of consequence in this country, years, it may be, should be taken to overcome an opposition which yields simply to a pressure which they dare not longer resist ? Just think for a moment what the position is. I am a member of a House where there are probably at the present moment not forty members of the Liberal Party strictly so-called. I beg your pardon, I had forgotten that there are gentlemen who go by the name of Liberal-Unionists, and I had also forgotten this I think it is in a speech I read of a distinguished Conservative, I do not remember exactly who it was at this moment, a very distinguished man who spoke of us quite lately as " the Liberal Party or a fragment of the Liberal Party." 'Well, we are a very large frag- ment (hear, hear) a fragment sufficient to have carried the elec- tions on the last occasion, and I do not think that the fragment which does remain of our old friends will very long remain a frag- ment at all, for I am convinced they will disappear into the bosom of the Tory Party, to which I am afraid they already practically belong. The fragment, then, in the House of Lords, which is indeed a fragment, is forty. Can a position be con- ceived more intolerable ? Would anybody in their senses create a constitution or endure a constitution where you have one powerful body in the State freely elected of the people, and which may certainly be said to be, to say the least, fairly divided between the two parties in the State, and where you have another House, which, except upon finance, is supposed to have, as regards the passing of law, equal power, in which there are only 40 out of some 500 members who belong to one of the great parties of the State ? The mere statement of the fact shows that a remedy must be applied. As I said before, it may be extremely difficult; I think it is very difficult ; but at the same time that is a situation, say what our opponents may, which cannot continue in this country. You cannot have a Constitution which is worked upon those principles, and we have, therefore, arrived at a point where this has become not a fancy of the Liberal Party, not a contrivance for passing particular measures which we advocate, but a neces- sity for the proper government of this country, and for the proper working of the Constitution. That is the change we advocate. It is called a "revolution." That is a word. "Revolution" may mean many things. I suppose the Reform MR. T. E. ELLIS, M.P. 17 Bill of 1832 was a revolution. I am not sure that the famous " leap in the dark " of the Conservatives that enfranchised all the householders as voters in this country I am not sure that that which dismayed even so strong a Liberal as Mr. Bright, was not a revolution. This kind of revolution you have in this country. My notion of a revolution, in the sense which our opponents wish to attach to it, is something carried by force ; but our revolutions are peaceful revolutions, and it is such a peaceful revolution as that which, with yourselves, we are determined to carry through. It is no passing fancy of the day, but a measure which is demanded by the necessities of the situation, by the voice of a great Party in this country, and I believe before long it will be by the voice of the majority of the country. It is a measure which, whatever may be the resistance made by Conservative opponents, before long must take its place amongst the great reforms in the system of government under which we live. (Loud cheers.) Gentlemen, I thank you for the reception which you have given me, and for the patience with which you have listened to me. THE CHAIRMAN : Gentlemen, We have an important member of the Government present, I mean the chief Whip of the Liberal Party. Mr. Ellis has a very difficult and delicate task to perform, he has a good record in the past Session of Parliament, and we believe he has a good record in the future to fulfil. (Cheers.) I call upon Mr. Thomas Ellis to move a resolution. MR. T. E. ELLIS, M.P. : Mr. Morley, my Lords and gentle- men, I rise to propose a very hearty vote of thanks to the Earl of Kimberley for his presence and his speech to-night. After the disappearance from active political service of the greatest political figure of this century, Lord Kimberley is, I think, now the oldest statesman, and one of the most versatile administrators, in the Liberal Party. (Hear, hear.) He has not only presided for con- siderable periods during the last half century over the great offices of India, the Colonies, and of Foreign Affairs, but he has from time to time taken a part in the administration, and the defence of the administration, of Home affairs. I can remember very well, and I am sure you remember well, his defence as President of the Council, of what were alleged to be the crimes of the Vice-President of the Council. (Laughter and cheers.) It has been Lord Kimberley's sad lot to defend the consuming zeal and passion of Mr. Acland for hat-pegs, and ventilators, and free 18 LIBERAL PROGRAMME & THE HOUSE OF LORDS. places and porches, and other requirements, which have struck terror into the hearts of the country clergy. (Renewed laughter.) He has also, while administering the affairs of India, piloted through the House of Lords, with skill and with splendid spirit, the Parish Councils Act ; and I am sure many thousands of labourers to-night are largely indebted to Lord Kimberley for the success and spirit with which he met the opposition the very varied and powerful opposition of Lord Salisbury and the Bishops in the House of Lords. But I think the crowning glory of Lord Kimberley is that having lived for fifty years in the enervating atmosphere of the House of Lords, he remains a sturdy Liberal and a robust Home Ruler. (Cheers.) Lord Kimberley has himself referred to the fact that he has served now for forty years in the public service, and I think I might venture here in the Eighty Club to point the moral of Lord Kimberley's success in long and active public service. I think it is this, that he was harnessed to public work early. I think he was appointed Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs at the age of twenty-six, and I have no doubt that Lord Kimberley's long and distinguished service in all these great and responsible offices is due very largely to the fact that he received this early apprenticeship in statemanship. I do not suppose any reasonable person would ask a man to become an apprentice to carpentering at fifty years of age. I do not suppose that in any of the crafts of this city success is secured if a man only starts at fifty or sixty ; but if his apprenticeship is begun early, there is a very fair chance of success. For my own part I think we can hardly expect distinguished and successful ad- ministrators any more than successful carpenters if they only start at fifty or sixty years of age. And I would venture to appeal to you members of the Eighty Club to put yourselves in harness early if you desire to be statesmen and administrators. I give this advice perhaps from rather interested motives and reasons, for I find the energetic Secretary of the Club has pro- vided us not only with a feast but with a skeleton at the feast in the shape of a foot-note to the card which is before us. I find a distinguished list of members and guests, and then at the end a little note which says, " Asterisk signifies candidate for Parliament at present time or last General Election," and since I entered into this room and examined this card, I tried some mental arithmetic, and I find that out of 120 who have sat down to this dinner to- night there is an asterisk opposite I think only about 34. There MR. T. E. ELLIS, M.P. 19 is an asterisk opposite 10 who are Members of Parliament, oppo- site 1 6 who fought at the last election, and opposite only 8 who have signified their intention to fight at the next election. Now if the Liberal Party is to fight this great, or rather these great issues, which have been laid before you to-night, and to fight them with success, we must have a larger number than 8 out of 120 of the fighting members of the Eighty Club standing as candidates in the various constituencies of this country. (Hear, hear.) Lord Kimberley referred to the fact that the House of Com- mons is the great theatre of politics ; that is quite true ; it is often more than a theatre (laughter), but we are anxious to have more players, and there is a very fair chance for admirable re- hearsals in various county and borough constituencies all over England. (Hear, hear. 1 ) Now I think that the players whom we desire must be for various reasons young players. First of all, it is only young men who can really face the very arduous work of fighting the constituencies under modern conditions and circumstances ; and secondly, it is becoming more clear year by year that it is only young men who can stand the severe strain of life in the House of Commons. In the very responsible work which has been allotted to me, I find that one of the difficulties of the situation is that so many of the older Members of the House of Commons are retiring, and it seems to me that a special duty and responsibility devolves upon the Eighty Club to supply the places of those who are falling out of the ranks of the fighters. I venture to hope that a larger proportion of the members of the Eighty Club will not only dine from time to time and hear inspiriting speeches on the situation, but will undertake the more difficult, the more arduous and responsible work of bearing the Liberal standard in the constituencies of this country. (Cheers.) Now, as Christmas approaches, I venture to tell the members here present that there is a very attractive assortment of constituencies suitable to the Christmas season on view at 42, Parliament Street, and I am sure the exhibitors will be extremely glad to show this admirable assortment. (Laughter and cheers.) Apologising for making this appeal to you as members of the Eighty Club, I desire you most heartily to accord a vote of thanks to Lord Kimberley, not only for his presence and speech to-night, but for the splendid example which he gives us of fifty years of consistent Liberalism and distinguished public service. (Cheers.) 20 LIBERAL PROGRAMME & THE HOUSE OF LORDS. THE CHAIRMAN: Gentlemen, I will call upon Mr. J. A. .Strahan to second the resolution. MR. J. A. STRAHAN : Mr. Chairman, my Lords and gentlemen, I believe that on occasions like this the seconder is understood to represent more especially the younger members of the Eighty Club. In that capacity it gives me very great pleasure indeed to second the vote of thanks that has been so admirably proposed .by Mr. Ellis. At the same time, Sir, I must confess that privately I have a certain misgiving in doing so. No doubt the noble speaker to-night is a statesman who has done great service to his Party and to his country, but that is just the reason of my mis- giving. He and noblemen like him are what I may call the salt of the House of Lords, that has long preserved it from political putrefaction. (Hear, hear.) They are the small band of righteous men which has prevented it from being obliterated years ago as completely obliterated as were the Cities of the Plain. I do not wish to detain the meeting many minutes, but I think I must refer to one subject mentioned by the last speaker, and that is the part which Lord Kimberley took in passing that great Bill, which I may call the Emancipation Bill of the Agricultural Labourer, the Parish Councils Bill. (Cheers.) It is true that Mr. Fowler was the originator of that Bill, but Mr. Fowler's duties were carried on in a friendly assembly. The duties which Lord Kim- berley discharged were discharged in an assembly which would have been very glad to have found any excuse whatever to have re- jected that Bill altogether (hear, hear) and therefore I think if the credit is to be divided between those two Cabinet Ministers, the man who occupied the post of danger is entitled to the bulk of the honour. (Cheers.) Mr. Chairman, I am glad to say it is not my business to-night to criticize in any way the speech which we have listened to with so much interest. All that I have to do is to ask you in the name of the younger members of the Eighty Club to convey to him our thanks for that address. I think we will all agree that that address displays three qualities, .and three excellent qualities sobriety of judgment, Liberalism, .and determination. Those are the three qualities that Lord Kimberley has displayed throughout his long official career ; they are the qualities he has displayed in the government of Ireland, in the government of India, and in the government of the Colonies. And they are the qualities he is now displaying in the carrying on of the foreign affairs of this country. (Hear, MR. AUGUSTINE BIRRELL, Q.C. M.P. 21" hear.) I have much pleasure indeed in seconding the vote of thanks to Lord Kimberley for his very admirable address. THE CHAIRMAN : Mr. Birrell will support the resolution. MR. AUGUSTINE BIRRELL, Q.C., M.P. : Mr. Morley, I can- not help thinking that on this occasion there has been some slight departure from our usual custom at these, our sumptuous- banquets. So far as my recollection goes, it has usually been the practice to entrust the task of proposing and seconding the vote- of thanks to the guest of the evening to younger members of the Club, fresh from the Universities, those true homes of lofty eloquence and unqualified opinions (cheers and laughter) ; but to-night the vote of thanks to our distinguished guest has been proposed by the Senior Whip of the Liberal Party ; and, gentle- men he has spoken to us almost in a paternal capacity, and although not himself far advanced in the vale of life, is no doubt in respect of the terrible secrets of which he is the depository, and. the important matters in which he arbitrates as old, if not as the hills, at any rate as the Chiltern Hundreds, of which he is the Keeper. (Laughter.) The task of supporting this resolution or vote is usually entrusted to some scarred and aged veteran, who- rises and receives the respect of his audience as he addresses to- them a few words, weighty because of his ripe experience, and measured because of his post-prandial difficulty of articulation. (Renewed laughter). Gentlemen, we have all of us listened, I am sure, with admiration, to the speech of our visitor. (Hear, hear.) I agree with the last speaker ; I never felt so well disposed to the House of Lords as I did when Lord Kimberley sat down. Noticing the ripeness of his wisdom and the indomitable courage- which pervaded every line of his speech, I felt, indeed, that: adversity was a good school. I felt sometimes that I could almost wish we had in our own House a little of the spirit and courage which invariably animates Lord Kimberley. As I listened to the speech and thought of the assembly in which he sits, and of the perpetual minority in which he is, there came into my head the lines of a distinguished poet recently snatched from us, with whose family Lord Kimberley (I speak as a democrat) has art honourable alliance Matthew Arnold's lines on Marcus Aurelius which begin : " Even in a palace, life may be well led." (Cheers.) Lord Kimberley's life in the House of Lords has been well and nobly 22 LIBERAL PROGRAMME & THE HOUSE OF LORDS. led, and we all of us rejoice when we have an opportunity of following such a leader to bestow on him the fullest measure of our confidence. Our purposes to-night, however, are simply con- fined to passing, as we shall do with enthusiasm, a vote of thanks to him for appearing here to-day and for the speech which he has made, which vote of thanks has been proposed and seconded, and which I have humbly attempted to support. (Cheers.) The CHAIRMAN put the vote of thanks to the meeting, and it was carried with acclamation. THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY, in reply, said : My Lords and gentlemen, I wish not merely to return to you, as would always be done, my thanks for the way in which you have received the vote which has been proposed and carried I wish to do more. I wish to cordially assure you that if there is a reward for exertions, humble as they may be, in public life, it is such approval as you have been pleased to bestow upon me. I can only say one thing for myself. It has always been my earnest desire to act up to the very old and admirable maxim, " Endeavour to do your duty in the station to which you are called." That seems to me to be the one sentiment which ought to inspire every man, and which, if every man is inspired by it, makes the life and strength of the nation. Gentlerren, I cannot express to you more my feelings on this occasion. My services, such as they are, as long as I live, will always be, you may be sure, at the disposal of the Liberal Party. (Cheers.) The proceedings then terminated. THE HOUSE OF LORDS. "AN ANOMALY AND A DANGER: BY THOMAS ALFRED SPALDING, LLB., Barrisler-at-Lt, there- fore, be no alliance with foes even if they are willing to pay toll and ransom for the preservation of their threatened stronghold. A third and more serious danger lies in the possibility of indi- vidual and irresponsible action by sections of the advocates of reform. Historians have noted, concerning the Scotch Clans, that although they were unequalled lor purposes of sudden attack, and for snatching, by their desperate valour, a victory over dis- ciplined forces, they were incapable of sustaining a prolonged campaign. The reason was that, while the Clansmen rendered implicit and devoted adherence to their chiefs, the chiefs declined to subject themselves to the guidance of a general. Hence their victories were sterile of result, and sometimes proved as disastrous as defeat. Let us therefore look upon would-be chic is of clans with suspicion. The policy, if policy it can be called, of wresting a transient advantage at the cost of placing the only Government which is favourable to reform in the apparent position of opposing it, can only be attributed to intentional treachery, or to a density of perception of proximate results which can hardly be contemplated without alarm. We must have no more such Pyrrhic victories. The House of Lords. And lastly, may I be permitted to suggest that another danger consists in the statement of the case against the House of Lords in terms so ambiguous as to be susceptible of misconstruction ? The enemy is never wearied of declaring that the opponents of the hereditary chamber are shallow and ignorant persons who pervert fact to serve their revolutionary purposes. The case against the House of Lords is so strong that it is mere foolishness to make statements which give even a colourable support to such a contention. An example of this form of indiscretion may be cited. In a pamphlet entitled, " Fifty Years of the House of Lords," originally published in 1880, and recently reprinted, it is stated that the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland " still exists, owing to the intervention of the House of Lords. In 1850 the Bill for its abolition was carried through the House of Commons by 295 to 70 votes, but it was extinguished in the House of Lords owing to the opposition of the Duke of Wellington." This is hardly a luminous method of stating that the bill in question, after passing the second reading in the House of Commons, was abandoned by the Government, apparently on account of the opposition of the Irish members ; and that consequently it never came before the House of Lords. The statement diverges from the facts so considerably that an opponent could hardly be censured severely if he denounced it as a downright falsification of them. Nothing creates so much prejudice in the mind of the average Englishman against a political cause as sucn a denunciation founded upon apparent justice. We must avoid the folly of placing weapons in the hands of the enemy. THE ANOMALY. It is sometimes asserted that the separate existence of the House of Lords is due to mere accident. The facts that the old Baronage, the Bishops, and the representative members who formed the germ of the House of Commons, originally met in one chamber ; that the Scotch Parliament was to the last a single assembly of Peers and Bishops and of elected Commissioners and Burgesses ; and that on the Continent there was a tendency to develop indepen- dent action in more than two " estates," are all appealed to in support of the contention that our bicameral system was the result of chance. The question is unimportant because its solution will throw no 'The House of Lords. light upon the present difficulty. But if the argument had any value it would be dangerous to use it, since all the evidence upon which it is based might be urged with equal if not greater cogency to prove that the House of Commons was the " accident " and not the House of Lords The House of Lords was the outcome of a most elaborate and essentially practical system of Govern- ment ; the House of Commons was an offshot of the Great Council which sprang up and developed independent functions to meet the needs of an altering stage of civilisation. To regard either the offspring or the parent as the result of " accident " is to urge a palpably insufficient excuse for avoiding the labour which is involved in an examination of the underlying causes which co-operate in the evolution of legislatures. It is not possible, within the allotted space, to describe in detail the processes by which the House of Lords has been gradually degraded from the position of an active and useful branch of a mediaeval system of government to the anomaly in a modern constitution which it now presents. I have endeavoured to indi- cate the nature of those processes in another and longer essay, to which I must beg to refer the reader who desires further infor- mation upon the subject. THE THREE HISTORICAL PERIODS. The history of the House of Lords is divisible into three well- defined periods. The first, which terminates with the Wars of the Roses, during which that House was a vital and predominating factor in the constitution, resisting the encroachments of the Crown in the interests of the community ; when in fact, it was a machine not ill-adapted to the needs of the times. The second, which commenced with the accession of the Tudors and continued until the passing of the Reform Acts of 1832, was a period during which the peers acquired more of the characteristics of a dominant caste, and during which their influence was exerted rather for the purpose of acquisition of power than for the benefit of the nation. They were rarely antagonistic to the Commonsexcept upon questions of privilege. Upon questions of constructive legislation they were usually in accord with the Lower House, partly because that House was elected to a great extent by persons whose interests were not at variance with those of the peers, partly also because the Lords influenced the nomination of members of Parliament The House of Lords. for many of the close Boroughs ; an influence which was during the latter portion of the period greatly extended. The Govern- ment was, until 1832, oligarchical; the nation had no effective voice in the direction of its affairs, and the House of Lords was supreme, not so much by virtue of its own inherent powers as by the control which it exercised over the nominally elected House. With the third period the era of democratic government opened The Reform Acts of 1832 conferred the franchise upon the middle classes, and 1867 and 1885 mark the steps by which that franchise has been rapidly extended to other sections of the community. The centre of power at once shifted from the House of Lords to the House of Commons. From that time the House of Lords has been merely a machine for hampering and retarding the House of Commons whenever the nation, through its representatives, has expressed a desire for progressive legislation. THE FIRST PERIOD The chief points worthy of notice are the following: During the whole of this period the Lords spiritual were in a large majority, and consequently the Great Council, and subsequently the House of Lords, were composed mainly of life members. But even among the minority, the Lofds temporal, heredity was by no means the essence of their title to share in the government of the country. That title was based upon the performance of State services. The old Baron by tenure was responsible for the good government of his fief. The duties of national defence, of replenishing the Exchequer, of the maintenance of order, and to some extent of the administration of justice, were cast upon his shoulders. Hence it came about that, since the performance of these public duties followed the devolution of the territories with regard to which they had been imposed, the right to a summons to the king's council descended with those territories, and tended to become hereditary. But it was the descent of the duties which regulated the right to the summons, and if by chance the per- formance of those duties devolved upon a stranger in blood, it was he, and not the lineal descendant of the original grantee, who was called to the council. Heredity was the incident, not the essence, of the right. An organism which serves some useful purpose exhibits a capacity for moulding itself to meet changing circumstances and The House of Lords. altered needs, just as, conversely, an organism which has become a superfluity and an anomaly manifests no such power of self-adaptation. The former fact was illustrated during the period now under discussion by two remarkable developments. The progress of civilisation and the growing complexity of the questions which came under the cognisance of the legislature made it desirable to secure the assistance of persons who were not necessarily bound to the performance of feudal duties. The fiction of tenure was maintained, but writs were issued to others than the barons by tenure. Such a summons originally did not even confer a right to sit in the House for life ; it extended only to the Parliament for which it was issued. The records show that many persons were summoned once only; others were frequently. It was only by a comparatively modern decision that such a writ, coupled with proof that the person summoned actually took his seat in Parliament, has been construed to have conferred a hereditary peerage. The second development shows a tendency to put a check upon the absolute prerogative of the Crown to create peers. 1 he most modern method of creation by patent dates from 1382. At that time it was looked upon as an arbitrary act; and many later patents contain a recital that the grants were made " by consent of the Lords in the presence of the three estates of Parliament." The same or a similar statement is sometimes entered in the Parliamentary roll. This implied assent of Parliament is inte- resting as the germ of a possible change which might have taken place had it not been for the long anarchy of the civil wars. It is no long step from assent to consent, and consequently to veto. The stages of development of the lay element in the House of Lords down to the time of the Wars of the Roses were, therefore, as- follows : ( i ) The Baron by tenure, who was the great State official, and who sat by virtue of the performance of onerous public duties ; (2) The Baron by writ, whose advice was sought for special reasons, and upon whom there was no intention of conferring a hereditary right to legislate ; and (3) the Baron by patent, whose title, with rare exceptions, was hereditary, but the selection of whom was hedged about by an ill-defined but possibly effective check in the tacit assent of Parliament. What the ultimate result of such forces might have been had they been allowed to operate undisturbed by civil commotion it is not The House of Lords. 1 1 possible to determine ; but it can hardly be doubted that they point towards the evolution of a far more democratically constituted chamber than that which was subsequently de- veloped. THE SECOND PERIOD. When order was gradually restored after the prolonged chaos of civil war, the House of Lords emerged shorn of much of its power and its independence. The authority of the older Barons had been crippled during the long struggle ; many were under attainder ; and the influence of the Crown was correspondingly augmented.* A large number of the representatives of the older baronage were indeed " restored " in blood by the clemency of the first Tudor, being re-created peers by patent. Thenceforth, that method of creating peers, which had originally been looked upon as a doubtful innovation, was solely adopted. The tendency to create life peers, and to submit the selection of peers to a modified form of popular control, vanished. All grants of titles were from this time purely hereditary, and were conferred by the irresponsible action of the Crown. This destruction of the forces which made for elasticity and expansion was speedily followed by a political event which entirely revolutionised the Upper Chamber in two respects. By the dissolution of the monasteries the Abbots and Priors lost their seats, and the spiritual life Lords of Parliament were reduced from a majority to a minority of twenty- five. The lay hereditary element thus became the preponderating influence in the House. That was a change of no mean importance, but the power of the lay peers was further augmented. A new territorial aristocracy was created by grants of the confiscated church lands to individuals who were peers or founders of families which soon entered the peerage. These grants were made at the sole will of the Crown, and the recipients of the king's honours and bounties were con- * Mr. Clements R. Markham, C.B., has courteously pointed out to me that the statement which I have made elsewhere to the effect that the old Baronage was " practically annihilated" by the Wars of the Roses is inaccurate. As a matter of fact only one peerage was destroyed. Mr. Markham is of opinion that the subsequent Tudor attainders of the representatives of the older Baronage had more to do with the sapping of the independence of the peers than had the \Yars of the Roses. I have taken account of this criticism in the text. It does not invalidate the conclusion arrived at. The House of Lords. sequently his creatures and humble servitors. They lacked the independence of the older barons. They formed a class which could not be expected to champion a popular cause against the hand which had called them into being. They were constant, as Hallam has said, " only in the rapacious acquisition of estates and honours from whatever source, and in adherence to the present power." At this period, therefore, the House of Lords assumed its final form a Chamber in which the hereditary element largely pre- dominates, leavened by a small and ever-decreasing percentage of spiritual life Lords. The subsequent changes which will have to be noticed did not vitally affect it either in its constitution or its functions. Except in mere growth in the number of the lay hereditary members, and in the admission of the representative peers of Scotland and Ireland, the House of Lords is now a very similar body to the second Chamber which existed when Elizabeth succeeded to the throne. The remainder of this period must, therefore, be treated very briefly. The exclusion of the Bishops by an Act of the Long Parliament, and the interregnum between 1649 and 1660, when the House of Lords was abolished by a resolution of the Rump, must be passed over in silence. Interesting as that period is to the student of the question of reconstruction, it did not in any way affect the course of subsequent history. The restored House of Lords was identical with that which had been abolished. I have endeavoured to sketch the salient features of this period in the book to which reference has already been made. It will be convenient here to depart from the subdivision of time which has been adopted in order to complete the story of the Lords Spiritual. The Bishops were restored to their privileges by statute in 1661. They remained at their original number until the commencement of the movement for the increase of Bishoprics in the early part of this century. The Act which created the Diocese of Manchester provided that the number of Lords Spiritual in Parliament should not be increased, that the two Archbishops, and the Bishops of London, Durham and Win- chester, should always receive writs ; and that upon the occurrence of a vacancy among the other Lords Spiritual, the summons should be issued to the Bishop who had not previously been en- titled to sit. Similar provisions have been included in subse- quent Acts creating new Bishoprics. A more recent Act enables The House of Lords. 13 a Bishop to resign his Bishopric, and by so doing he vacates his seat in the House of Lords. Hence, it will be seen that the Bishops are the only class of Members of the House of Lords who fulfil the conditions which some reformers desire to see applied to all. They sit for life : they succeed to their seats by a definite order of rotation, and they have the power to divest themselves of their legislative functions. The Stuart period was a period of wholesale new creations. At the death of Elizabeth, the lay hereditary peers numbered 59. When James II. fled to France, they numbered 153 ; and this, notwithstanding the extinction of 99 peerages in the interval. Concerning the qualifications for many of these peerages, the less said the better. Purchase, Court sycophancy, and still less reputable services were the keys which unlocked the door of the Gilded Chamber. It is not worth while to lift the curtain which veils the scandals of those times, unless it be to warn those who hold a too tenacious belief in hereditary virtue and hereditary patriotism, that neither strain could confidently be predicted from such a stock as Charles II. From the deposition of James II. to the accession of George III. there was a comparative lull in the rush of new creations. In 1760 the number of hereditary peerages had only increased to 174. Bat during that period the peerage had been to some extent denationalised. William III. promoted Dutchmen, and George I. added an element from Germany. The favours which William showered upon his fellow-countrymen the Bentincks, the Auverquerques, and the Keppels contributed not a little to . his unpopularity in England. This introduction of a foreign element into the peerage, together with the action of the Tories in 1712, when they forced the terms of the Peace of Utrecht through House of Lords by the creation of a batch of twelve peers, probably provoked the abortive attempt of that House to limit the number of its members by the Peerage Bill of 1719. That Bill was rejected in the House of Commons by a large majority, chiefly in consequence of the opposition of Walpole. In the meantime another change had been effected which had an influence, though not an important one, upon the House of Lords. The Act of Union amalgamated the legislatures of Eng- land and Scotland. It was impossible to incorporate the whole of the numerous body of Scotch peers in the Second Chamber of the Parliament of Great Britain. It was therefore enacted that 14 The House of Lords. those peers should be represented in the House of Lords by sixteen members elected by them to serve for the duration of each Parliament. By this enactment the representative element was first introduced into the Upper Chamber. That the peers viewed the innovation with distrust is evident, for the Peerage Bill of 1719 contained clauses for the substitution of twenty-five here- ditary peers for the sixteen elected peers. The provisions of the Act of Union in this respect are still maintained, in spite of the evident injustice which they inflict upon the Scotch minority peers, who obtain no representation in the House of Lords, and can neither be elected to nor vote for Members of the House of Commons. In 1869 Earl Grey proposed to remedy one injustice by a measure which would have given representatition to the minority by a system of cumulative voting ; but this, like every attempt at self-reform by the House of Lords, came to nothing. With the accession of George III. a second period of pro- fuse creations opened. Ever since the Revolution the House of Commons had been slowly, and with difficulty, emancipating itself from the illicit influence of the Crown which was exercised by means of places and pensions. But the House of Lords, as a means of corrupt control over the representatives of the people, remained, and was used unsparingly. The nomination of the Members for a vast majority of the Boroughs was in the hands of local magnates ; and peerages, and promises of peerages, were cheap and easy methods of swaying these patrons to return supporters of the Government. Lord North and the younger Pitt were the greatest offenders in this respect. During the first 'five years of Pitt's administration forty-eight peerages were con- ferred : a profusion which, as he blandly admitted to the Duke of Rutland, was not " quite creditable." A large number of these ' new peers were boroughmongers. For instance, Sir James Lowther, Pitt's earliest patron, whom he subsequently created Earl of Lonsdale, controlled no less than six seats. By such means the House of Lords achieved an almost overwhelming influence in the House of Commons. In 1816 Dr. Oldfield asserted that no less than 471 Members, out of a House number- ing 658, were returned by 267 persons, 144 of whom were peers. At the beginning of the present century, therefore, the representa- tion of the country was practically in the hands of the House o Lords and of its political sympathisers. It is no wonder, there- fore, that the fight for reform was so long and so stubborn, and The House of Lords. 15 that the House of Lords should have made a desperate stand tor the maintenance of their political domination. It was when this domination was nearly at its height that a second elective element was introduced. The Irish Act of Union, which was passed without consulting the constituencies of either country, provided for a representation of the Irish peers analogous, but not altogether similar, to that which had been conferred upon the peerage of Scotland. These peers were to be represented by twenty-eight of their number, who were to be elected for life. The system of election gave over the whole of the representation to the political majority. But the Irish peers received a boon which was not conferred upon their Scotch brethren. They were permitted to sit in the House of Commons for any constituency in Great Britain, provided that for the time being they abdicated their elective and representative rights as Irish peers. This inno- vation was introduced for the benefit of certain Members of the House of Commons of Great Britain who had been rewarded for political services with Irish peerages. It was by virtue of this privilege that Lord Palmerston sat in the House of Commons. Although the permission has been advantageous to the Irish peers, more especially to those of the political minority, it is doubtful whether it has been a benefit to Ireland. Her wealthier sons have never needed any inducement to shake her dust from off their feet. For many of them the conditions of political activity are that they should Anglicise themselves, that they should view political questions from a British standpoint, and that they should make themselves the mouthpiece of British interests. This view of the question has not been altogether ignored by politicians. The abortive Reform Bill of 1860 provided that Irish peers might sit for Irish constituencies. But no such clause was introduced into any subsequent Bill. At the close of the second period, then, we find that the House of Lords has undergone three changes. It consists of an over- whelming majority of hereditary Members. It has been re- inforced by two elected contingents, nominally representing the peerages of two sister countries, but who. on account of the methods of election, actually represent only the political majority. It has acquired an indirect influence in determining the composi- tion of the House of Commons. In view of the last fact it can hardly be denied that during the latter part of this period political power centred actually, although not theoretically, in the Second Chamber. 1 6 The House of Lords. THE THIRD PERIOD. I have endeavoured elsewhere to tell the story of the great Reform victory, and to show that the opposition of the House of Lords was due solely to a selfish desire to preserve the class privileges and the political predominance of the peerage. When that victory was won, the centre of power shifted from the Lords to the Commons. The former retained only the shadow of their old political predominance, and even that remnant has vanished in consequence of the subsequent broadening of the popular basis upon which the House of Commons is founded. The Commons, as representing the nation, and not as formerly, the Lords, are now the sole source of political authority. By their will the Executive is called into being, by the continuance of their confidence it exercises its functions, and when that confidence is withdrawn it ceases to exist. This is undoubtedly the modern constitutional practice, although in theory the Executive is the creature of the Crown. In 1784 George III. wrote to Pitt, " If the only two .remaining privileges of the Crown be infringed that of negativing bills passed by both Houses of Parliament, and that of naming Ministers to be employed I cannot but feel . . . that I can be no longer of any use to this country." It is the chief glory of the present Sovereign that she has been able to harmonise the prerogative of the Crown with the growing demands for popular control ; that she has been content to leave the real power of selecting Ministers with those who enjoy the confidence of the House of Commons. In every administrative act and adminis- tration constitutes by far the greater portion of the functions of government the executive derives its power exclusively from the representatives of the people, and is responsible to them alone for the manner in which that power is exercised. In all the manifold and complicated questions which relate to taxation, the nation is, through its representatives, equally omnipotent. In these two important branches of government the Lords are almost as powerless as if they were non-existent. They may indeed debate the acts and the financial measures of the administration, but their approbation or censure entails no political consequences beyond the respect which their arguments may happen to inspire. They may pass votes of censure to their hearts' content, but such votes in no wise affect the existence or control the conduct of the administration. They have no responsibility in these branches of The House of Lords. 17 government, and consequently they possess no power to regulate them. These branches are controlled by the House of Commons alone. But when we turn to the third function of government the passing of laws, other than laws relating to taxation that is, the expression in binding form of the changes which the responsible body deems necessary for the well-being of the community, we are face to face with altogether different conditions. We find the hitherto impotent assembly armed with vast powers. They can reject, thwart, maim, and mutilate those measures of which the popular House, which is omnipotent in other respects, has declared essential for the weal of the State. And the exercise of these tremendous powers is limited by nothing save the wisdom and prudence of those who possess them. The House of Lords, having no voice in, and no responsibility for, the administration of affairs, is empowered to veto the measures which those with whom the responsibility actually rests, deem requisite. Now if it were possible to present the case to a man of average intelligence, whose judgment was untrammelled by any knowledge of antecedent history, and to ask him to decide how, in order to ensure the smooth working of such a constitution, a second chamber, powerless in two important branches of government, but possessing in theory, and therefore in possible practice, co- ordinate jurisdiction in the third, should be composed, it is not difficult to anticipate his answer. He would say, "The men con- stituting such a senate have an extremely difficult and delicate task to perform ; a task which requires a various knowledge, a judicial attitude of mind, and an amount of tact and forbearance which are rarely to be met with. To be permanently successful their decisions must, in the vast majority of cases, recommend themselves ultimately to the judgment of those with whom the real power lies. If you are going to confer upon some 570 individuals powers which may possibly be exercised co-ordinately with a body which is chosen by the majority of some six million electors, you are in effect giving to one man a five-thousand-man political value. You are fortunate as a nation if you possess so many citizens of such intrinsic merit. And, possessing them, you are still more fortunate if you have invented the means of discovering them. But if you do not discover them, if you confer these powers upon men who are not endowed with the essential qualities for the work, you do so at peril of constant political friction and commotion." 18 The House of Lords. After obtaining such a judgment the interlocutor would find it somewhat embarrassing to have to confess that, so far from having adopted any special measures for the discovery of capable men, we have, for historical reasons, which have long since lost their force, left the selection in the main to the chance of descent, and that when it has become necessary to add to the number of families entitled to provide us with legislators, we have honoured the possession of wealth, the performance of naval, military, or other official services, anything almost, rather than actual and conspicuous legislative capacity. The further con- fession that these hereditary legislators were drawn almost ex- clusively from the landed and capitalist classes would still more astonish our mentor; and he would not be surprised to hear that the most influential member of such a Senate had naively confessed that there were "a vast number of social questions, deeply inte- resting to the people of this country, especially having reference to the health and moral condition of the people " which could not be closely investigated, because the power to do so was wanting. The House of Lords must always be a House of average ability, and, as it is at present composed, it contains the average ability of only one or two classes. As the late Walter Bagehot truly said, " it would be a standing miracle if such a Chamber possessed a knowledge of its age superior to other men of the age." The House of Lords has, therefore, become an anomaly, not only on account of its constitution, but also, and far more, on account of its claim to exercise functions which, by the shifting of the centre of political power and authority to a House of Com- mons emancipated from its control, it is incapable of exercising beneficially. But in this latter respect it is not an anomaly merely, it is a danger; and the character of that danger it is now necessary to illustrate. THE DANGER. I. THE DAXGKU ARISING FROM OSSIFICATION-. It has already been said that one symptom of an organisation having become superfluous and anomalous is to be found in its incapacity to adapt itself to altered circumstances and needs. The House of Lords is no exception to the rule, and the first danger to be noted therefore is its inability to bring itself into harmony The House of Lords. 19 with modern requirements. If the centre of political power has during the present century been shifted from the House of Lords to the House of Commons, it must be evident that some recon- sideration of the constitution of the Upper House is essential. The House of Commons has shown itself extremely sensitive to the necessity for adapting itself to altered circumstances. The Crown has also recognised that in a changed constitution its powers and functions must inevitably undergo revision, and it has revised them with prudence and foresight. To what extent have the Lords shown any corresponding flexibility ? The reforms which the Lords have effected. To consider this question effectively we must consider not only what the Lords have refused to do, but what they have actually done, in the direction of self-reform. The latter contains almost as conclusive evidence of incapacity as the other. The actual concessions which have been made to the spirit of progress may be summed up in a single sentence. The Lords have consented to a limitation of the number of Bishops sitting in the. Upper House ; to the appointment of a small number of life law lords for the purpose of administering the judicial functions of their House; to the practical abolition of their absurd right to vote by proxy, and to the suspension of members during bankruptcy. Such are the insignificant changes in constitution and procedure which the House of Lords has considered sufficient to bring itself into line with the vast political and social upheaval which has taken place since 1830. The reforms which the Lords have refused, (a) THE WENSLEYDALE PEERAGE. And a consideration of what they have refused to do, is equally damning. In 1856 a chance was offered them of self-reform which, had it been accepted, would in all probability have stifled the outcry against them for many a long day. In that year the Government advised the Queen to issue a patent creating Sir James Parke Baron Wensleydale for the term of his natural life. There was no doubt that the prerogative to create life peers had been long in abeyance; but on the other hand it was equally clear that in ancient times life peers had been created. The House of Lords was immediately in a flutter of anxiety and indignation upon a question of privi- 20 The House of Lords. lege. Lord Lyndhurst, the chief opponent of the proposal, declared that the question was, not whether the creation of life peers was a reasonable concession to common sense and ex- pediency, but " whether the ancient hereditary character of this House is to continue." The question was referred to the Com- mittee of Privileges, which, after considerable investigation of precedents, reported that " neither the said letters patent, nor the said letters patent with the usual writ of summons issued in pursuance thereof, can entitle the grantee therein named to sit and vote in Parliament." Some of the more moderate peers, led by Earl Grey, endea- voured unavailingly to modify the rigour of this decision, which was ultimately adopted by the House. It is to be noted that the prerogative of the Crown to create life peers was never denied : the right which was refused to such a peer was the right to sit and vote in the House of Lords. In this respect the action of the Lords was unconstitutional. In their anxiety to preserve their " ancient hereditary character," they usurped the legislative functions which reside in the Crown, Lords, and Commons com- bined. A Royal prerogative may be allowed to fall into desuetude, but it can only be destroyed by legislative enactment. The case was admirably stated by The Times, in the following words : " Little right as the House of Lords may intrinsically have to erect itself into a Court for trying and limiting the powers of the Sovereign, their .powers of obstruction and annoyance are so great that we do not doubt that they may virtually usurp a right which they cannot be shown legally to possess." (b} EARL RUSSELL'S BILL OF 1869. After they had thus refused to accept life members by an act of the prerogative, they were offered in 1869 the chance of ad- mitting them by an Act of deliberate legislation originating in their own House. In that year Earl Russell brought in a Bill for this purpose. It was a very diminutive proposal, which John Bright stigmatised as " a childish tinkering of legislation." But the House of Lords is so frail or worn-out an instrument, that it is apparently unable to bear the process of " tinkering." Earl Russell proposed to limit the number of life Peers to twenty-eight, and not more than four of these were to be created in one year. These life members were to be selected from certain classes of persons, The House of Lords. 21 of which it is sufficient to say that they were, for the most part, already fairly represented in the Upper House. As a means of importing fresh blood into that assembly, therefore, the Bill, if it had been accepted, would have proved a failure. At first, the Bill was favourably received. It passed the second reading in a rather thin House, and was referred to a Committee. But in the mean- time news of what was taking place had reached the ears of the habitual absentees. They hurried up to London, and wrathfully rejected the Bill upon the third reading by a decisive majority, in spite of the fact that Earl Russell, in his desire to obtain some legislation upon the subject, had considerably limited the scope of his meagre proposals. The Bill is chiefly remarkable because it drew from Lord Salisbury a condemnation of the House of Lords, which should never be forgotten. " We belong," he said, " too much to one class, and the consequence is that, with respect to a large number of questions, we are all of one mind. Now that is a fact which appears to me to be injurious to the House as a political assembly in two ways. The House of Lords, though not an elective, is strictly a representative assembly, and it does, in fact, represent very large classes in the country But if you wish this representation to be effective, you must take care that it is sufficiently wide. . . . We want, if possible, more representations of divers views, more antagonism. There are a vast number of social questions, deeply interesting to the people of this country, especially having refer- ence to the health and moral condition of the people, upon which many members of your Lordships' House are capable of throwing great light, and yet these subjects are not closely investigated here, because the fighting power is wanting, and the debates can- not be sustained." (c) LORD ROSEBERY'S FIRST PROPOSAL (1884). In 1884, Lord Rosebery came knocking at the door, warning the Lords that the constitutional changes of late years demanded that their Lordships should set their House in order. Earl Rus- sell had voiced the experience of the past, and had addressed himself to deaf ears : Lord Rosebery came as the prophet of the future, and he found his audience equally inattentive. Yet even Lord Rosebery at first spoke with a still small voice. He merely called attention to some of the anomalies which the constitution of the 22 The House of Lords. House disclosed, and to the fact that large classes of persons were not represented in that House. It is needless to say that his categories were more extended than those of Lord Russell. He even went so far as to suggest that labour should have its spokes- men in the second Chamber. He made no definite proposal for reform : he contented himself with moving " that a Select Com- mittee be appointed to consider the best means of promoting the efficiency of the House." But the noble Lords did not think the subject worthy even of consideration, and they rejected the motion. (d} LORD ROSEBERY'S SECOND PROPOSAL (1888). Four years later, in 1888, Lord Rosebery renewed the attack. In the interval he had witnessed the Lords' unreasoning resistance to the Franchise Bill, and had come to the conclusion that the House of Lords represented " rather the passions of a Party or a class than the deliberate reasoning of a Senate." His proposals were therefore more definite and more drastic. He deliberately attacked " the indiscriminate and untempered heredity " of the House. He proposed that the hereditary peers should be repre- sented by a certain number of Members elected by them upon some principle of minority voting. The vacancies thus created were to be filled by representatives elected by County Councils, the larger municipalities, and possibly the House of Commons. To these were to be added a certain number of official peers, and the Agents General of the Colonies. Peers refusing a writ of summons to the Upper House were to be eligible for the Lower. But, as before, Lord Rosebery moved to refer the question to a Select Committee, and, as before, the House declined his invita- tion. Immediately afterwards, Lord Dunraven hurriedly brought in a Bill containing a small instalment of reform, somewhat upon the lines of Lord Rosebery's suggestions, which Lord Salisbury opposed, at the same time undertaking to bring in a Government Bill to deal with the subject. (e) LORD SALISBURY'S BILL (1888). In pursuance of this promise, Lord Salisbury brought forward two Bills, one for the creation of a certain number of Life Peers, and the other for the exclusion of those undesirable Members who pass under the title of (< Black Sheep." It is only necessary to The House of Lords. 23 say, concerning the former Bill, that it was open to all the objec- tions which have been urged against the proposal of Lord Russell. Lord Rosebery was compelled to declare that, " looking at the proposals of the Bill, one begins to feel that the subject is hope- less, and that it is hardly worth while proceeding with a reform of that character." Lord Salisbury was presumably of the same opinion, for whilst the second reading was being debated in the House of Lords, the two Bills were abandoned by Mr. Smith in the House of Commons, and Lord Salisbury in the next Session declined to bring them forward again. (/) LORD CARNARVON'S BILL (1889). Lord Carnarvon thereupon re-introduced the Discontinuance of Writs Bill, only to find himself opposed by Lord Salisbury. Lord Salisbury, in 1889, was of opinion that the Bill which he had promoted in 1888 was " eminently an occasion for the previous question ; " so that form of extinction was applied to it by 73 votes to 14. With this fiasco the record of the futile attempts of the House of Lords to reform its own constitution very aptly closes. Reform always has been, and probably always will be, for that House, " eminently an occasion for the previous question." History affords no other example of such abject incapacity, and it is the more remarkable because many of the chief actors in it have admitted the necessity, if not the urgency, of the question from the standpoint of self-preservation. Can it be denied that in a growing organism, a member which shows such a tendency to ossification must needs be a great and increasing danger ? II. THE DANGER ARISING FROM THE ARROGATION OF POWER. But this is only one, and, perhaps, the less important side of the question. It must be evident that, when the centre of power shifted from the House of Lords to the House of Commons, some revision, not only of the constitution, but also of the functions of the Upper House, was inevitable if the smooth working of the Constitution was to be maintained. And the peers pretend that such a change actually took place. They assert that since 1832 they have so modified their action that they are now merely a Chamber for checking rash and hasty legislation, and for ascertain- ing that any particular measure reflects in fact the matured will of 24 The House of Lords. the nation. Such a proposition, ostensibly an abdication, is, in reality, an arrogation of power. Previous to 1832 the Lords "ascertained the will of the nation" by the simple but effectual method of choosing its representatives. The persistent re-enact- ment by the House of Commons, Session after Session, of measures which the House of Lords had rejected, was unknown. In the great majority of cases the Commons, when the Lords had rejected a Bill, submitted to the decision of their real constituents. These prolonged struggles over proposed legislation, which are evidence of what Mr. Gladstone has described as " differences of fundamental tendency," are a new and dangerous feature in the Constitution. III. THE DANGER ARISING FROM WANT OF CONSISTENCY IN THE EXERCISE OF POWER. But assuming, for the purposes of argument, that this new claim of the House of Lords represents the proper functions of a Second Chamber in our modern Constitution, there should be, by this time, some rules, deducible from the practice of that House, which indicate the manner in which those functions are exercised. The politician ought to be able to gather, from pre- cedent, with some near approach to accuracy, at what stage of any given proposal the Lords will pronounce that it is no longer rash and ill-considered, and that the matured opinion of the nation has been ascertained. But an examination of the precedents leaves the question in a state of bewildering chaos. Let us consider a few of them. i. THE DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER BILL. The " Deceased Wife's Sister " Bill was first sent up to the House of Lords by the House of Commons in 1850, and since then has been before the House of Lords on fourteen occasions ; eleven times when the Bill had been sent up from the House of Commons, and three times when it had been originated in the House of Lords. On each occasion it has been either rejected or dropped in the latter House. That measure has not yet become law, and it must therefore be assumed that in certain circumstances a forty-four years' discussion coupled with twelve demands of the House of Commons, is not sufficient to convince The House of Lords. 25 the Lords that proposed legislation has been maturely and suffi- ciently considered. 2. THE JEWS' DISABILITIES BILL. But that Bill may perhaps be deemed of trivial importance ; let us turn therefore to a proposal of greater magnitude. The Jews' Disabilities Bill was first accepted by the House of Commons in 1833. It has been rejected by the Lords, directly or by mutila- tion, seven times. On the last occasion, in 1858, they rejected a clause in an Oaths Bill which would have enabled Jews to sit and vote in Parliament. The House of Commons re-inserted the clause ; the Lords again rejected it on May 3ist, and solemnly prepared their reasons for doing so. But on July i4th the Lords passed and sent down to the Commons a Bill which effected the object of the clause by other methods. It would appear, there- fore, that a discussion for twenty-five years, during which period no less than six dissolutions of Parliament had taken place, was not sufficient to convince the peers that the mind of the" nation was made up upon this subject ; but that during the six weeks which elapsed between the second rejection of the clause in the Oaths Bill and the third reading of their own Bill upon the subject, conviction had been suddenly brought home to them. 3. THE IRISH CORPORATIONS REFORM BILL. But lest it should be urged that neither of these Bills was of first-class importance, and that therefore it was difficult to guage the feelings of the electorate upon them, either by dissolution or any other means, let us consider the fate of a more momentous measure. One of the most striking features of the policy of the earlier reformed Parliaments was a desire to make the union with Ireland a reality and not a sham, by the grant of reforms similar to those which were considered beneficial for England and Scot- land. Against this policy the Lords resolutely set their faces. The history of their opposition is written large in the Parliamentary records of the period between 1833 and 1840. As part of this generous policy the Irish Corporations Bill was passed by the Commons in 1836. It was an endeavour to confer upon Ireland as full a measure of municipal self-government as that which had been already granted to England and Scotland. This Bill the 26 The House of Lords. Lords destroyed by mutilation. They metamorphosed it into a Bill lor the creation of a cast-iron system of bureaucratic govern- ment, in which localities were to be excluded from exercising any influence, and which was to be worked from Dublin Ca.stle as a centre. Such a travesty of their measure the Commons were unable to accept, and they refused to consider it further. In the following year there was a dissolution. It can hardly be con- tended that a measure of such prime importance was absolutely overlooked by the constituencies when the general election took place. Lord Melbourne's Government obtained a majority, and the Irish Corporations Bill was at once re-introduced. On this occasion the Lords defeated it by postponement. It was dropped in 1838 in consequence of the Lords' mutilations, and again in 1839 ; and it ultimately passed in a modified form in 1840. It has recently become the fashion for our opponents to say that the Lords will submit without a murmur to the verdict of a general election. " Give us an appeal to the constituencies," they argue, " and if they are with you, the Lords will withdraw their opposition to your measures." But the claim is manifestly unreasonable. The House of Lords has never possessed the power to force a general election, and it must surely be evident that it would be unjust that a chamber which has no responsibility for the admini- stration of Government should possess it. Besides, in such a case, the House of Lords stands to the House of Commons in the, position which is colloquially expressed by the phrase, " heads I win, tails you lose." If the appeal is successful, the Government s overturned ; if it fails, the Lords are in no way penalized. A general election costs nearly a million of money, and about half this expenditure falls upon the members of the House of Commons. In any case the Commons are mulcted in costs, while the Lords sue in forma pauperis. If the Lords could be compelled to pay the expenses of a general election which they had provoked, but in which they had been unsuccessful, they might perhaps be trusted with such a power with less danger. Hut it may be said that this is putting the case upon very low and sordid grounds. The more conclusive answer therefore is that a general election has not, in the past, produced the result which is claimed for it. In none of the cases cited has a general election, or even a succession of general elections, induced a con- viction in the minds of the peers that the opinion of the nation has matured upon the subject at issue. AVe are bound therefore The House of Lords. 27 to conclude that the result of an appeal to the people produces just so much, or so little, impression upon the House of Lords as its members choose to receive from it. In such circumstances the clamour for an appeal to the constituencies is evidently a mere subterfuge. 4. THE ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL. So far as the precedents have hitherto been considered, they point to the conclusion that the process of convincing the House of Lords that proposed legislation is not rash and hasty, and that the mind of the nation is made up in favour of it, is dilatory if not interminable. But such an opinion can only be formed after consideration of part of the evidence. The House of Lords'has been able on occasions to make up its mind upon these questions with a rapidity that is really astounding. The sudden volte-face on the question of Jews' disabilities in 1858 is a case in point, and it is by no means the sole one. When Lord John Russell introduced the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill in 1851, the object of which was to prevent Roman Catholic Bishops from assuming territorial titles in the United Kingdom, the motive power behind him was a sudden and transient gust of popular opinion. Prejudice had been excited, and the Bill was eventually swept through the House, of Commons by large majorities. But the country had certainly never had any oppor- tunity to express a matured and deliberate opinion upon the merits of the Bill, by contested elections or otherwise. That this measure was " rash and ill-considered " is proved by the fact that from the moment it became law it also became a dead letter. The very circumstance in which the second chamber is supposed to operate for the benefit of the nation had arisen. Moreover, it was a measure of no immediate urgency, and one which was sure to be looked upon as an injury and an insult by a respectable law-abiding minority. Nevertheless, the House of Lords passed the Bill without a single amendment. A few excited meetings and a violent fifth of November anti-popery demonstration pro- duced in this case the conviction which a quarter of a century of discussion and six dissolutions hardly succeeded in effecting in the case of the Jews' Disabilities Bill. Under certain conditions, therefore, the maturity of the nation's opinion may be sufficiently evidenced by a display of guys and pyrotechnics. 28 The House of Lords. 5. THE REFORM BILL OF 1867. Again, in 1866 a Liberal Government was defeated upon the question of Parliamentary Reform by a coalition between the Conservative Party and a section of the Whigs. A Conservative Government came into office, and m the following year a far more radical measure of Reform was produced and passed through the House of Commons. No dissolution had intervened. It would be thought that a House which had been so scrupulous about Irish Corporation reform would have found in this uncertainty of opinion on the part of the people's representatives some pre- sumptive evidence of an uncertainty and immaturity of opinion in the .people themselves. But this was by no means the case; the Lords accepted the measure. It must be evident then, that in performing the functions to which they pretend, the Lords are guided by no semblance of rule or method. In one case they are convinced of the maturity of national sentiment by evidence which only indicates a transient ebullition of popular passion ; in another the average life of a generation may be absorbed, and the constitutional methods of testing public opinion may be exhausted without producing any such conviction. Their pretended guide for conduct is therefore ostensible merely ; the real secret of it must be sought elsewhere. But it can hardly be denied that a body concerning whose actions so little can be predicated, whose performances are so erratic, must be a source of danger to the State. It professes to be the safety valve of the Constitution ; but it is a safety valve which responds to no regular and predetermined pressure. At one moment the slightest ebullition of steam sets it in motion ; at another it remains inactive when the pressure is at bursting point. Such a machine is a constitutional peril. IV. THE DANGER ARISING FROM PARTY BIAS. If we seek deeper into the precedents of the last sixty years to discover the real as opposed to the ostensible rule which guides the action of the Lords, another source of danger is disclosed. The House of Lords is like an intermittent volcano. Since 1832 it has exhibited six well-defined periods of activity, separated from one another by five periods of quiescence. This intermittence is The House of Lords. 29 illustrated by the following table, in which the periods of rest are indicated by italics.* Periods Principal rejections Average and mutilations per year 1. 1833-41 20 2'3 2. 1842-43 I -2 3. 1846-54 II I'2 4. i $55-5 7 o -o 5. 1858-60 5 i - 6 6. 1861-64 ' 7- 1865-73 13 1.5 8. 1874-79 z -15 9. 1880-85 I0 I- 5 10. 1887-^2 2 -J 11. 1893-94 4 4'of These figures bring out some interesting facts. During the periods of eruption the activity has been practically uniform except in the first and the last cases. The average of yearly rejections and mutilations with those exceptions only varies between i'2 and i'6. But in the first period the activity was above normal, and during the last it was nearly double that of the first. The cause of the special activity during the seven years subsequent to the passing of the Reform Acts is evident. It was the outcome of resentment for defeat and a desire to resist and impede the operation of the new forces which had been called into political activity. But it was altogether a new development in constitutional practice. The violent and totally unprecedented eruption of last Session is due to a similar cause, namely, the determination to oppose and, if possible, defeat measures which are the inevitable outcome of the last extension of the Franchise. In the "Retro- spect and Forecast " I ventured to hint a belief that the nation was upon the eve of a struggle with the Upper House which would be more severe than any which had taken place since the passing of the Reform Acts. Some of the critics in the Tory Press, * The facts upon which this table is based will be found in the Appendix to "The House of Lords: a Retrospect and a Forecast," p. 264. t The Parish Councils Bill is not included as a " mutilation." 30 The House of Lords. whose fairness and courtesy I cannot too warmly acknowledge, professed to doubt the accuracy of the forecast. They seem to have considered me to be a lineal descendant of Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah. I now appeal from dubious prophecy to in- contestible fact. If a House of Commons in its first Session is not to be deemed to represent, with a fair approach to accuracy, the will of the majority of the nation upon questions definitely submitted for the decision of the nation, it is difficult to conceive circumstances in which any representative body can be held to achieve the purpose for which it is devised. Yet the ratio of opposition of the House of Lords to the proposals of the House of Commons has risen from a normal of i'6 to the extraordinary figure of 4 per annum. It would take several years of compara- tive quiescence to reduce this figure to the average of a period of normal eruption ; but such quiescence is evidently not to be ex- pected. Hitherto the Lords have dealt with measures only when they have actually come up to them from the House of Commons. Now, through their leaders, they announce their intention to reject proposed legislation, not only before it has been considered by the House of Commons, but even before the Bill has left the draughtsman's hands. The Duke of Devonshire has had the political indecency to adopt this course with regard to the Regis- tration Bill, which has been announced for the present Session. These are only some of many indications of an intention on the part of the Lords to insist upon a right to interfere with and to obstruct legislation to an extent for which no historical parallel can be found. Constitutionally, they would be within their right if they rejected every Bill, which was not a Money Bill, sent up to them by the House of Commons. But the condition upon which such a constitutional privilege could be tolerated is, that it should be exercised with the extremest prudence and moderation to adopt Lord Russell's words, in sympathy with the people at large, and in concurrence with the enlightened state of the pre- vailing wish. The fact that the House of Lords is exercising its functions to an extent for which no precedent can be found, is evidence of a threatened danger. The next fact which the figures bring out is that the activity of the House of Lords roughly corresponds with periods of Liberal Government, and more accurately with periods of Liberal majori- ties in the House of Commons : the quiescence of the House of Lords corresponds roughly with periods of Conservative Govern- The House of Lords. 31 ment, and more accurately with periods of Conservative majorities. And the apparent exceptions are as instructive as the rule. During two periods of quiescence, the fourth and the sixth, Lord Palmer- ston was Premier, and the Government was Liberal in name. But Lord Palmerston was an unavowed Conservative, and under the .glamour of his influence the Liberal Party was paralysed. Legislation of a character to arouse the opposition of the House of Lords was either not introduced, or was defeated in the House of Commons, and the Lords, therefore, went to sleep. On the other hand, during two periods of activity, Conservative Govern- ments were in office, either for the whole or for part of the time. Period number five was the second administration of Lord Derby ; and the first two years of period number seven were covered by Lord Derby's third Government and the first Premiership of Mr. Disraeli. But during both these periods the Conservatives, al- though they were in office, were not in power. They were in a minority in the House of Commons, and therefore the substan- tive legislation proposed was mainly of a Liberal tendency, and the House of Lords was kept in as active a state of opposition as if the Liberals had been in office. These facts are instructive. It is frequently said that the House of Lords is a standing com- mittee of the Tory Party, and it is urged in reply that in these t\\o 'periods of Conservative Government, the Lords were in activity. But they only prove the consistent action of the standing Com- mittee. Not only does the House of Lords enforce the will of the Conservatives during periods of Liberal predominance, Inu it also protects them from the enforced adoption of Liberal mea- sures whenever they happen to hold office without commanding a majority in the House of Commons. These facts prove the truth of Lord Roseberv's assertion, that according to our present constitution we have, at one time, a second Chamber of vast activity, and at another, no s<. Chamber at all. When Conserva:i\e sentiments are in the ascvn- dant, the House of Lords hibernates. It takes for granted that measures proposed by a Conservative Government, supported \<\ a Conservative majority, express he matured opinion of the. nation ; but when a Liberal Government is in a like position, the reverse presumption prevails. No other theory will explain the acceptance by the Lords of such measures as the Repeal of the. Corn Laws, the Reform Act of 1867, and the Free Education Act of 1891. Had they been proposed by a Liberal Government, 32 The House of Lords. they would, undoubtedly, have met with a determined resistance. The Lords, therefore, are not, as they pretend, a body for ascer- taining the matured will of the nation ; but . they exist solely for the purpose of comforting and supporting the Conservative Party. Consequently, they must at all times lack the confidence of a large portion of the people, and upon occasions of a majority of them. In this respect they constitute a grave and increasing danger to the State. Lord Salisbury has recently started a new theory to account for the action of the Lords. He has said that the phenomenon of the Lords " being all on one side " is " co-existent with the period at which Mr. Gladstone has been the leader of the Liberal Party." Mr. Gladstone has always been Lord Salisbury's Ahriman. Lord Salisbury can no more keep him out of his political fulminations than Mr. Dick could exclude King Charles's head from his memorial. But this particular statement is one of those amazing utterances which have earned for the speaker, in com- pany with Captain Boycott, the honour of having conferred a new elasticity of expression upon the English language. The figures which are given above prove that, excluding last session, the period of the Lords' greatest activity on behalf of Toryism was long anterior to Mr. Gladstone's accession to power, and that during his first two premierships, when his personal influence was most in the ascendant, the opposition of the House of Lords to Liberal measures was not greatly increased. The action of the Lords is not due to opposition to the proposals of an individual but to those of a Party. V. THE DANGER ARISING FROM INCAPACITY FOR THE TASK OF INTELLIGENT REVISION. But the case for the House of Lords is sometimes stated in a slightly different manner. Less stress is laid upon its utility as a method of protecting the people against the folly of their elected representatives and the futility of their own aspirations, and more upon the advantage which it confers as a court of revision and suggestion. It is contended that amidst the clash and turmoil of the House of Commons many points of importance may escape the attention of members which may be detected and dealt with by a non-elected deliberative Chamber, to the great advantage of sound legislation. I have endeavoured to prove elsewhere that The House of Lords. 33 there is no very urgent need for such a revising Chamber. The nation is constitutionally slow in the adoption of new measures They are advocated for a long period by impotent but enthusiastic minorities before they enter the region of practical politics. Then they are discussed and re-discussed upon motions which lead to no legislative result ; they are referred to special committees and royal commissions, and laboriously considered before they crystallise into the form of a bill, which has to pass through the most complicated processes of investigation ever devised by the ingenuity of man. Such is the natural history of most legislative proposals before they reach the threshold of the House of Lords. It is surely evident that in a great number of cases the necessity for further revision is reduced to a minimum. But even if the need for such revision were admitted, the con stitution of the House of Lords is such as to prevent that revision from being adequately performed. The qualifications for the effective discharge of such duties must needs be a minute and special knowledge upon a large number of subjects of vast range and complexity. But the methods by which the House of Lords is composed practically exclude all specialists, except in one or two subjects. We have already considered Lord Salisbury's con- fession that " a vast number of social questions . . . having refer- ence to the health and moral condition of the people," cannot be adequately discussed in the Upper House. The same speaker on a subsequent occasion told his fellow-legislators that they were fully equal to the task of discussing questions relating to the Church, Law, and the Land, but that, in dealing with " finance, mercantile matters, engineering matters, and a number of other departments of thought and activity, they were not sufficiently well manned." The idea of entrusting the task of legislative revision to a body so confessedly incapable of undertaking it, is, by the reliance which it places upon an incompetent institution, a source of danger to the State. SUMMARY. To sum up, then, the House of Lords is a danger because, in altered circumstances, it has proved itself incapable of adapting itself to altered requirements ; because, when the centre of power shifted to the House of Commons, instead of following the example of the Crown, and exercising with greater forbearance and discretion the powers entrusted to it by the Constitution, it 34 The House of Lords. has put them into operation with increased persistence and deter- mination ; because, while pretending to act as a check upon rash and ill-considered legislation, it has allowed itself to degenerate into the tool of a Party ; because, while professing to be the means of ascertaining the real and matured will of the nation, it has ignored the Constitutional expression of that will when it ran counter to its own prejudices ; and because, as a Chamber for revising legislation and harmonising inconsistencies, it is mani- festly, and by the confession of its most devoted champion, incompetent for the purpose. THE REMEDY.* It is not possible, within the limits of a pamphlet, to deal with this part of the subject in any detail. But an attack upon an institution which is not followed by any definite constructive . proposals is liable to be met with a very manifest retort. It is futile to expose an evil if the assailant is not prepared to suggest a remedy. It is necessary, therefore, to conclude with a few observations of a general character which may tend to clear the ground for a full and fair discussion of the nature of the Constitu- tional changes which are inevitable. At present there seems to be considerable confusion of thought upon the subject ; or rather, perhaps, confusion of expression consequent upon the use of ill-defined terms. The epigram concerning "mending or ending " is perhaps largely responsible for this condition of the discussion. A superficial perusal of much that is written upon the subject, and casual conversation with those who interest themselves in it, would lead to the conclusion that an overwhelming number of reformers are in favour of "ending" the House of Lords. But when the exact meaning which is attached to the word is scrutinised more minutely, it will be found that it is used to indicate three distinct proposals, namely : 1. The abolition of the second chamber. 2. The abolition of hereditary succession to seats in the second Chamber. 3. The abolition of the veto of the second Chamber upon proposed legislation. * The writer desires it to he distinctly understood that the statements con- tained in this section are statements of personal opinion only, and must in no way lie taken as embodying the views of the Eighty Club. The House of Lords. 35 Now it must surely be evident that the advocates of the second and third propositions cannot he classed as " enders " without introducing into the discussion a confusion which it is desirable to avoid. The terms " ending" and '* abolition " must be confined to the proposal to do away entirely with -the second Chamber as a factor in the constitution. The abolition of the hereditary suc- cession and the abolition of the right to reject legislation are two " mending " proposals, either or both of which may be adopted. When these distinctions have been recognised it will be found that the out-and-out abolitionists are not very numerous at the present moment. Whether they will increase in number as the discussion proceeds depends very greatly upon the attitude of the House of Lords. Abolition offers attraction, no doubt, to people labouring under a sense of political irritation ; it seems so much easier to kill than to cure. For this very reason caution is neces- sary. There are three important questions which every man should carefully sift and consider before he adopts the policy of abolition. These questions can only be hinted at here ; they would each require a pamphlet for exhaustive examination. i. In the event of the abolition of the Upper Chamber, what would be the future relations between the Crown and Parlia- ment? At present the second Chamber makes it possible and easy for the Crown to maintain an absolute political neutrality. If it were abolished, the only hope of a minority in the country would be in the resuscitation of the dormant prerogative of veto which resides in the Crown. If the majority in the country in favour of the legislation which excited opposition were a smail one, the clamour of the minority for the exercise of that prerogative, if not irresistible, would at any rate place the Crpwn in an anomalous position. It would, in spite of itself, come to be looked upon as the possible leader of a Party rather than as the neutral head of the executive. The uncompromising abolitionist will, perhaps, retort that, in that case, the Crown must go the way of the House of Lords ; but that course would in no way remedy the evil. The danger would affect any chief of the executive. Our constitution is in this respect more democratic than that of any other country. If, therefore, the policy of abolicion may reasonably be suspected of tending to endow the chief of the executive with powers analogous to those exercised by the President of the United States, it must be viewed with alarm. 36 The House of Lords. 2. In the event of the abolition of the House of Lords, what would be the future relations between the United Kingdom and the Colonies ? Without pretending to have investigated the question with the minuteness which it deserves, I may say that all that I have read and heard about Colonial opinion tends to convince me that the Colonies look rather to the House of Lords than to the House of Commons for representation of their views and interests. It is not, perhaps, over-stating the case to say that colonists distrust the colonial policy of the House of Commons. The distrust is unreasonable, but if it exists it must be taken into consideration as a factor in the case. The colonists are at any rate sure of a certain number of ex-governors general in the House of Lords who are acquainted with their affairs, and who can act as their spokes- men. They are certain of no such representation in the Com- mons. To abolish the second Chamber, and to exercise all the functions of government through a locally-elected Parliament of the United Kingdom, would certainly tend to weaken one of the links in the slender chain which binds the colonies to the Mother Country. To the abolitionist who is also a Little Englander this consideration will cause no alarm. But to the abolitionist who is a Federalist it will give pause. He will reflect upon the alternative possibility of a reformed second Chamber which might be made the basis for a strengthening of the idea of federation. 3. In the event of the abolition of the House of Lords, what will be the future relations between the two political parties in the State ? This is a question which deserves the earnest attention of the "practical" politician. Down to the present time one of the best features of our constitutional system has been, that measures of practical reform, once achieved, have been acquiesced in and respected by political opponents when they have acceded to office, however strenuously those opponents may have resisted them whilst they were in progress. This advantage has been to some extent due to the fact that the measures in question have passed the ordeal of the House of Lords. But if the winnowing process which is effected by a second chamber be entirely done away with, will that traditionary respect be maintained in the future ? It is a question which concerns the Liberal Party alone. Let us suppose the case that a Liberal Government acting through a single House of Parliament and the Crown, has been in office for The House of Lords. 37 a considerable period, and has effected several reforms which have been strenuously opposed by the Conservatives. They then go to the country, and after a general election they find themselves in a minority. Now what, in that case, is the mandate of the nation to the new Government ? The Conservative party rarely go to the constituencies with any definite policy of constructive legislation. Their programme is nearly always one of negative criticism. They declare that this measure of a Liberal Govern- ment has been a failure, that that measure has worked injustice, and that another has proved to be a fraud. Clearly the nation which by its votes has endorsed that programme may be deemed to have given a mandate for the mod fication or repeal of the measures criticised, and the new Government will be justified in in at once applying the pruning knife and the spade. Such a policy the Conservatives have hitherto been prevented from pur- suing by the fact that the legislation has received the stamp of currency from a body which has never been infatuated with a desire for change. They would be as effectually estopped by the existence of a second Chamber which by its composition com- manded the respect and confidence of the nation. Such a Chambermaytherefore be necessary as a preventive against reaction If these considerations should, after mature discussion, prove to have any weight, they will probably dispose of the arguments for the abolition of the second chamber. The question will then become one of the nature of the reform which should be adopted. And at this point it divides into two quite separate and distinct propositions. The constitution of the House of Lords is the anomaly ; its powers are the danger. The anomaly may be re- moved without obviating the danger ; the danger may be guarded against without interfering with the anomaly, or both may be dealt with at the same time. The first, as I have pointed out, will probably be the policy of the Conservative Party. Professor Goldwin Smith, in an article in the Nineteentii Century for March, entitled, "The Impending Revolution," laments that the "national and anti-revolutionary " Party has not already-effected a reform in the constitution of the House of Lords. The fe;ir is that, with another lease of power, the Conservative Party wil in some way endeavour to remove the anomaly without in any way limiting the danger. An attack upon the latter is the prime object of the Liberal. If this is successful, the reform of the anomaly is a secondary but not unimportant consideration. 38 The House of Lords. The general trend of opinion seems to be in favour of the abolition of the veto, although many reformers are not averse from leaving the second Chamber a sessional or suspensory veto. A suspension for a year could not entail any very disastrous con- sequences ; it would re-assure the timid, and if by chance the House of Commons had fallen into error, it would afford a method of escape from it. The House of Commons is so sensi- tive to the movements of popular opinion upon questions of legislation in actual progress, that it might be trusted not to return to the second Chamber a suspended Bill to which the sentiment of the nation was opposed. But the restriction deals only with a very small portion of the difficulty. The House of Lords rejected the Irish Corporations Bill by mutilation as effectually as it re- jected the Jews' Disabilities Bill by a direct vote. Before the present agitation commenced, 1 endeavoured to state as clearly as I could a method of dealing with the whole question of the powers of the second Chamber. I may, perhaps, be allowed to quote the passage. " The quorum for general debate, for initiating legislation, and for revision should be raised " (from three) " to one hundred. For the special purpose of rejecting a Bill sent up from the House of Commons, the quorum should be raised to 150, and the rejec- tion, to be carried, should be supported by a majority of two- thirds of those present and voting. After a Commons' Bill has been rejected, the Lords should be bound to draw up their rea- sons for the rejection and to enter them in the journals of the House. The publication of these reasons would set concisely before the public the question at issue between the two Houses, and would enable the popular judgment to be formed accurately and with rapidity The Upper Chamber should be allowed to reject a Bill for any given purpose twice, and not oftener, and only once if the rejection is followed by a dissolution. If it were returned a third time, its powers should be confined to amend- ment. The Upper House, having accepted the principle of a Bill and amended it, should not be competent to reject it after- wards on the ground that the Commons had disagreed with those amendments. On questions of detail, the will of the Commons should prevail." I am not sure that the double veto, to be carried by a two- thirds majority, would not be as effectual a limitation as a single veto to be carried by a bare majority, especially in a Chamber reasonably and impartially constituted; but the object of every The House of Lords. 39 moderate man would certainly be secured by the latter proposal, coupled with distinct enactment that in all disagreements upon amendments the will of the House of Commons should prevail that is to say, when the Lords' amendments have been dealt with in the Commons, the Lords should have no power to re-insert or re-instate those which had been rejected or amended. If such rules had been in operation since 1832, the legislation which has been actually passed would have stood much the same as it stands at present, and a vast amount of time which has been wasted in dealing with rejected and mutilated measures might have been devoted to other pressing subjects. For the House of Lords almost invariably succumbs to the will of the House of Commons in the long run. It is because the Lords, in deciding when they shall surrender, are guided by no definite and ascertainable rule except the influence of Party considerations, that it has become necessary to lay down some fixed Constitutional maxims upon the subject. And if that end were effectually accomplished the House of Lords might be left an unreformecl anomaly, without being at the same time a serious danger. The only remaining question is whether it could not be so reconstructed as to serve a useful purpose in the State. The proposed limitations would reduce it to the position of a court of suggestion and revision. But, by the confession of its ablest defender, it is incompetent for these functions. Reconstituted, so that it should consist of men of tried ability, knowledge, and experience in the various branches of "social questions," and the "other departments of thought and activity," which make up the sum of the subjects upon which modern legislation is demanded, it might be converted into a valuable adjunct to the House of Commons. In my book on the House of Lords I have endeavoured to shadow forth such a scheme of reconstruction. It would be impertinent for me to imagine that it is better than many other schemes which have been suggested. My only hope is that it may be found no worse. In the consideration of so vast and complicated a problem, the only chance of solution lies in the free discussion of it in all its various aspects. From this point of view, even proposals which are ultimately rejected, are not without their uses. They serve to close impracticable bye-ways upon the line of march towards the desired destination. Even if so humble a service as this can be rendered to the cause of Constitutional progress, the energy of the labourer has not been expended in vain. 40 The House of Lords. APPENDIX. Most of our knowledge of the early history of the House of Lords is derived from the five reports of the Lords' Committees touching the dignity of a Peer of the Realm, 1819-1829, but these reports are voluminous, ill- digested, and they lack a complete index. Reference may be made to Hallam's " Middle Ages " and "Constitutional History," and to Stubbs' "History of England," for the earlier history, and for the later portion to May's " History of England." Molesworth's " History of England" must be used with great caution, especially with regard to passages purporting to be quotations, which are often extremely incorrect. Walpole's "History of England from 1815" should be referred to in preference. The History of the Scotch Union is told by Lecky in the " History of England in the Eighteenth Century," and at greater length in Burton's " History of Scotland." The former book tells the story of the Irish Union with elaborate detail. A defence of the methods adopted to carry the Union will be found in " The History of the Irish Union," by J. Dunbar Ingram. A list of all peerages created down to 1806 will be found in Vol, I. of Beatson's "Political Index." As a general Book of Reference " The History of the English Parliament," by G. Barnett Smith, is useful. The title is misleading, for the story is carried down to 1885. A most interesting criticism of the House of Lords will be found in "The English Constitution," by Walter Bagehot. For the story of the abortive attempts of the Lords to reform themselves, "Hansard" should be consulted. These debates are a mine of useful and curious information, and are pre-eminently " quoteabie. " I have endeavoured to summarise them in the " House of Lords, a Retrospect and a Forecast." Schemes of Reform will be found in Lord Rosebery's speech in 1888 (Han- sard, vol. 323, c. 1548), " Self Government," by W. S. Lilly (Fortnightly Review, December, 1893) ; " How to Save the House of Lords," by Alfred Russell Wallace (Contemporary Revieiv, January, 1894); "The House of Lords : Abolish its Veto," by J. Wemyss Reid (Nineteenth Century, April, 1894), and in " The Baronage and the Senate," by W. P. Macpherson. This book contains, in its earlier portions, an elaborate defence of the House of Lords from the Conservative standpoint. A concise summary of the legislative performances of the House of Lords since 1832 may be found in a pamphlet called " The House of Lords, who they are, and what they have done," by Harold Spender, published by the Liberal Publication Department, 42, Parliament Street, S.W. , price 6d. UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 000130453 4