A 
 A 
 
 
 
 
 SOUT 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 3D 
 
 3 
 
 
 5 
 2 
 
 
 >- 
 
 = — 
 
 8 
 9 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 jRARY FAi 
 
 GILITY 
 
 xlt 
 
 arty 
 
 BY 
 
 Sir Frederick Young, K.C.m.g,
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 %-t 
 
 \
 
 ^rf 
 
 EXIT PARTY. 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE EISE AND FALL OF "PABTY" 
 
 AS THE EULING FACTOK IN THE FOEMATION OF 
 
 THE GOVEENMENTS OF GEEAT BEITAIN. 
 
 BY 
 
 Sir FEEDERICK YOUNG, K.C.M.G 
 
 " The names of party I detest, 
 Badges of slavery at best." 
 
 Pope. 
 
 LONDON: 
 CHAPMAN & HALL, Limited, 
 
 II, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. 
 
 1900.
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, Limited, 
 
 STAMFORD STKEET AND CHARING CROSS.
 
 
 I i ' 
 
 6 e 
 
 zc 
 
 § TO 
 
 —i 
 
 THE ET. HON. THE EAEL OF EOSEBEEY, K.G. 
 
 FROM A HIGH APPRECIATION OF HIS LORDSHIP'S 
 
 COMMANDING TALENTS ; 
 
 AND A CONVICTION OF THE PROSPECT OF HIS ONE DAY BECOMING 
 
 THE LEADER OF A 
 
 GOVERNMENT OF THE BEST AND WISEST MEN 
 
 (irrespective of POLITICAL PARTY), 
 
 O'' FOR CONTROLLING THE FUTURE DESTINIES OF THE BRITISH 
 
 ■^ EMPIRE, UNDER A FORM OF " LIBERAL IMPERIALISM," 
 
 CO 
 
 ^ 'gl^ts "^olumc is Pebictttcb 
 
 Q BY HIS WARM ADMIRER, AND FAITHFUL FRIEND, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 
 ;:J83592
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 " Let's take the instant by the forward top, 
 For we are old, and on our quick'st decrees 
 Th' inaudible and noiseless foot of time 
 Steals ere we can effect them." 
 
 —Airs Well that ends Well, Act v. 
 
 This is not a history of England, nor even a 
 history of the British Parliament. My object is 
 to give a cursory view, and rapid resume, of 
 some of the prominent features by which, since 
 its foundation, centuries ago, the English Par- 
 liament proved its claim, in principle, to be 
 regarded as a vivid representative of the people's 
 rights against the unceasing attempts on the 
 part of successive sovereigns to encroach on those 
 rights by the assertion, whenever and wherever 
 they could, of their arbitrary claim to unrestricted 
 prerogative. 
 
 I wish it also to be clearly understood that 
 the thesis of this Essay is not an attempt to 
 prove the " Extinction of Party," as an element 
 in the parliamentary representation of national
 
 vi Preface. 
 
 life. Men are so constituted, that, in a free 
 country, from hereditary and social associations, 
 and educational causes, there will always be wide 
 differences in their mode of regarding political 
 problems, individually and collectively. It is a 
 healthy sign of national vitality when the Par- 
 ments which bring to light their conflicting 
 sentiments and opinions, are fairly ventilated 
 and sifted through the agency of party in such 
 representative assemblies. My theme is not, 
 however, to show any such death of fair and 
 honest party spirit in its true form. My point 
 is, that the " fall " I am about to describe is in 
 the " old order of things," which placed the 
 formation of the Cabinets, which constituted the 
 successive Governments of the country, abso- 
 lutely in the sole hands of the dominant political 
 party for the time being, be it either Whig or 
 Tory, Liberal or Conservative, as the unalterable 
 factor of such selection. That this phase of 
 strictly party rule is passing away, that the 
 future will more and more develope a higher, 
 better, and wiser standard in the choice of the 
 chief representatives of the governing class. 
 That the men who have won by their talents, 
 their fitness, and their patriotism, the confidence 
 of the majority of the nation, will be constantly 
 induced to come from either of the ranks of tlic
 
 Preface. vii 
 
 party to which they belong, to sit together in 
 the same Cabinet, as is actually the case at the 
 present time, to administer the Government, and 
 make the country's laws. 
 
 One other point I most emphatically urge. 
 It is a growing habit of party politicians of the 
 present day to look more and more, to receive 
 their inspiration of the course they should follow 
 in their parliamentary career, from the views of 
 the voter whose suffrages they w^oo. They cease 
 to have independent opinions of their own. They 
 are servile slaves of perhaps an ignorant and 
 prejudiced electorate, who ought to be taught 
 rather than to teach. Surely it is the duty of 
 those who aspire to be " leaders " to " lead," not 
 to "follow"! They have no business to claim 
 to occupy the posts of the former, if they are in 
 reality but the mean and contemptible myrmi- 
 dons of the latter ! I protest heartily against 
 this most cowardly, and corrupt, and debasing 
 system. Would that it could be replaced by one 
 more courageous, more honest, and more true, 
 which in the long run would, I am convinced, 
 meet with the success it merited, even among 
 the narrow-minded electorate, who eventually 
 put faith in the attributes they discover in a 
 true and honest man rather than the sham 
 politician, who flatters and cajoles them in order
 
 viii Preface. 
 
 to catch their votes, by pandering to their pre- 
 judices and their pride ! 
 
 In this Essay, the authorities I have con- 
 sulted are ' Macaulay's History of England,' 
 ' Hume's History of England,' ' Founders of the 
 Empire,' by Philip Gibbs, ' History of the English 
 Parliament,' by G. Barnett Smith, Lord Rose- 
 bery's ' Life of Pitt,' and ' The United Kingdom : 
 a Political History,' by Goldwin Smith. I desire 
 also to acknowledge the great assistance I have 
 received from Mr. '"James P. Boose, the Librarian 
 of the Royal Colonial Listitute. 
 
 FREDERICK YOUNG. 
 
 May, 1900.
 
 EBB ATA. 
 
 Page 29, line 4. After " Wentworth " insert "afterwards Earl of 
 Strafford." 
 42 ,, 14. Fo>- " Selborne " read " Shelburne." 
 66 ,, 20. yl/ier " distinctly " iwseri " all others." 
 
 68 ,, 11. i^or "eternal" reacZ " external." 
 
 69 ,, 7. Omit "too." 
 
 76 Index. For " Selborne" read " Shelburne." 
 76 ,, I)isc?-< " Wentworth, Sir Thomas, 29."
 
 viii Preface. 
 
 to catch their votes, by pandering to their pre- 
 judices and their pride ! 
 
 In this Essay, the authorities I have con- 
 sulted are ' Macaulay's History of England,' 
 * Hume's History of England,' ' Founders of the 
 Empire,' by Philip Gibbs, ' History of the English 
 Parliament,' by G. Barnett Smith, Lord Rose- 
 bery's ' Life of Pitt,' and ' The United Kingdom : 
 a Political History,' by Goldwin Smith. I desire
 
 EXIT PAETY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 " Meantime, but ask 
 What you would have reformed that is not well, 
 And well shall you perceive how willingly 
 I will both hear and grant you your requests." 
 
 — King John, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 
 As a necessary antecedent to any treatise on the 
 rise and fall of Government by Party in Great 
 Britain, it is essential, first, to give some de- 
 scription of her Parliaments. From them the 
 machinery of party Government has sprung. 
 
 The subject is a grand one, and must be at- 
 tractive to every student of our national history. 
 There is a fascination in the pursuit of an in- 
 vestigation, tracing the germs of the gradual 
 development of the freedom of a people from 
 the trammels and tyranny of an oligarchical 
 regime. The natural condition of unlimited 
 power, placed in the hands of human beings, if 
 
 B
 
 2 Exit Party. 
 
 uncontrolled, unchecked, and unrestrained, is to 
 abuse it. This truth applies equally to uncivilised 
 and civilised communities, to the chiefs of tribes 
 of savages and barbarians, to the monarchs and 
 kings of the most enlightened nations upon 
 earth ! 
 
 If we pass away from a glance at the peoples 
 of ancient times, especially the Greeks and 
 Romans, who have left indelible marks on the 
 pages of history of the necessity of an unceasing 
 struggle being maintained against the inevitable 
 encroachments on the liberties of the mass of the 
 people by the oligarchy under which they were 
 governed, we shall find that there is no country 
 in the modern world which has shown such an 
 unceasing desire to obtain and preserve individual 
 liberty as Great Britain has done. The long 
 centuries of her history, as a nation, proclaim 
 the persistent and indomitable efforts continually 
 made on behalf of this great and glorious object, 
 in the midst of unparalleled difficulties and 
 obstacles created by the comparatively few 
 who had already acquired the possession of 
 supreme power, and become the ruling faction 
 through the help of their ardent adherents and 
 staunch supporters. 
 
 Every age produces pioneers of national 
 thought. Endowed by nature with a genius,
 
 Exit Party. 3 
 
 placing them on a higlier plane, above the 
 common herd, they unconsciously become the 
 originators of popular ideas, and leaders of men, 
 as occasion prompts, in the council or the camp.* 
 By what subtle process their thoughts and teach- 
 ings permeate the minds of the masses, it may 
 not, perhaps, be always easy to trace ; but the 
 fact remains, that they have been the means of 
 indoctrinating the denser brains of their ignorant 
 and uninstructed countrymen, with their own 
 lofty conceptions of liberty and freedom. Next 
 to professing and then promulgating their ideas 
 to others, the process goes forward and evolves 
 the creation of some mechanism for putting them 
 into practice. This necessitates the consideration 
 of some scheme, such as the invention of parlia- 
 ments, to be the exponents of the popular voice 
 in opposing the tyranny of arbitrary power. The 
 question of placing some control on the irrespon- 
 sible will of the chief of the state by some safe- 
 guards, has been portrayed in the earliest pages 
 of English history. The annals of Runnemede 
 furnish an apt illustration of the germ of the 
 
 * " God made all men equal, is a high-sounding phrase. 
 On the contrary, there is nothing so certain, but it is not a 
 scientific fact, as the natural inequality of Man. Those 
 who outlive hardships owe their existence to some supe- 
 riority, to qualities not only of body but of mind." — The 
 Marttjrdom of 31 an. 
 
 B 2
 
 4 Exit Party. 
 
 determination to win for tlie governed, protec- 
 tion from the despotism of tlie King. 
 
 The famous Mama Carta was sio-ned and 
 
 O O 
 
 sealed, and became the law of the land on June 
 15th, 1215. This " palladium " of British liberty, 
 the keynote of the ideas which have permeated 
 the minds of Britons from that period down to 
 our own times, in the direction of the develop- 
 ment of personal freedom, and rights, and in- 
 dividual security from oppression and injustice, 
 was the conception of, and originated in, the 
 masterful brain of one conspicuous man. It was 
 Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 who, receiving his inspiration from the copy of 
 the Charter of Henry I. , w^hich he is said to have 
 discovered in an old monastery, drew up this 
 remarkable Charter to protect the liberties of his 
 countrymen from the tyranny and rapacity of a 
 deceitful and cruel king. To his courage and 
 patriotism King John was forced reluctantly to 
 yield, and to make good by promises all those 
 things, which this Charter of such wonderful and 
 elaborate provisions contains, for guaranteeing 
 the liberties of his subjects. 
 
 The student of history is astonished at the 
 scope and comprehensiveness of this grand docu- 
 ment, originally consisting of a preamble and 
 sixty-three clauses, for the people's protection.
 
 Exit Party. 5 
 
 according to tlie prevalent ideas of that age, 
 which (in spite of the necessity, long subse- 
 quently, of being compelled to be buttressed and 
 'fortified by the noted " Bill of Rights," rendered 
 indispensable by the constant endeavour on the 
 part of succeeding monarchs to over-ride it), 
 remains, to our own day, the proud monument 
 of the English nation's most cherished principles 
 of freedom and liberty ! Imperfect as it was in 
 some of its provisions, which were narrow and 
 unsatisfactory, it was, nevertheless, the germ 
 from which all subsequent developments have 
 grown. 
 
 " The spirit and purport of the Great Charter 
 is partly a declaration of rights, and partly a 
 treaty between crown and people. Its cardinal 
 principles recognise that representation is a con- 
 dition precedent to taxation ; and that the law 
 is the same for all. ' The principle of Habeas 
 Corpus,' the greatest safeguard of our personal 
 liberty, thus found the clearest exposition and 
 recognition in Magna Carta. One of its most 
 important principles is contained in Article 12, 
 which provides no ' scutage,' or aid shall be 
 imposed, except by the Common Council of 
 the Kingdom, save for redeeming the King's 
 person, etc." * 
 * 'History of the English Parliament.' G. Barnett Smith.
 
 6 Exit Party. 
 
 Here we have the principle, distinctly estab- 
 lished, of the national purse being under the 
 control of the Council, or parliament of the 
 kingdom, and thus continually checking the 
 arbitrary attempts, sometimes successful, but 
 never long submitted to, on the part of some of 
 our subsequent rulers. History gives us the 
 clue to the development of a principle, once 
 formulated and acquiesced in. The most im- 
 portant schemes for National Government are 
 the ultimate results of a germ, first, and subse- 
 quently the assumption of a concrete and more 
 perfect form, evolved in the process of time. 
 In this connection, we have an appropriate illus- 
 tration in the domain of art. The block of 
 marble (although we trace not the slightest 
 resemblance), as rough hewn from the quarry, 
 is the identical material of the polished statue, 
 as it issues from the sculptor's studio, a beautiful 
 work of art, chiselled by the hand, guided by the 
 conception of his brain. We ought not to leave 
 this part of our subject without doing honour to 
 the great Englishman, whose persistent and 
 patriotic efforts, spread over long years, cul- 
 minated in the forced capitulation of a treacher- 
 ous and dissembling wicked king, to the justly 
 offended and deeply incensed Barons of his 
 kingdom, at Kunncmede, when he signed and
 
 Exit Party. 7 
 
 sealed this celebrated document, the priceless 
 provisions of which were subsequently to be 
 infringed, and constantly attempted to be broken, 
 not only by himself, but by many a succeeding 
 ruler of the land. 
 
 Stephen Langton was born in 1151. When 
 a young man he went to the University of Paris, 
 became a doctor in the faculties of arts and theo- 
 logy, and acquired a reputation for learning and 
 holiness, which gained him a prebend in the 
 Cathedral Church of Paris, and another in that of 
 York. Whilst resident in Paris he became ac- 
 quainted with an Italian of noble family named 
 Lothair, who afterwards was the head of the Chris- 
 tian Church, under the title of Pope Innocent 
 III. ; and made Langton a Cardinal. He was sub- 
 sequently chosen to be Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 In this capacity he became the leading spokes- 
 man of the great Council of barons and clergy 
 summoned by the king in the year 1213, to 
 discuss the affairs of the kingdom. This Council 
 met first at St. Albans, and afterwards at St. 
 Paul's Cathedral, and its deliberations formed 
 the nucleus of the proceedings which led to the 
 gathering at Runnemede in 1215, when "Magna 
 Carta " was signed. 
 
 Langton was a man of " light and leading " 
 in the age in which he lived. Other typical
 
 8 Exit Party. 
 
 examples of tlie same class, I shall have occasion 
 to mention from time to time, as we proceed to 
 pass through the pages of England's political 
 history, during the subsequent centuries which 
 have marked the development of her Parlia- 
 ments, and the origin and growth of Party 
 Government. It is recorded of him, that he 
 was the author of the division of the Bible into 
 chapters, but his name is principally remem- 
 bered in connection with the conspicuous part 
 he took, and the active share he had, in obtain- 
 ing the " Magna Carta " for the people, as a 
 brave and patriotic Englishman. 

 
 Exit Party. 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 
 " The evil that men do lives after them ; 
 The good is oft interred with their boaes." 
 
 — Julius Giesar, Act iii. 
 
 In the preceding chapter I have traced the 
 origin of our national liberties, to the creation 
 of " Magna Carta," wrung from a despotic king 
 by the genius, and the persistent energy of a 
 grand and patriotic man, I shall now proceed 
 to review the beginnings of our Parliaments. If 
 the name of Stephen Langton is indelibly 
 enshrined in the pages of English history, in 
 connection with this glorious Charter, equally 
 so, is Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, with 
 the moulding of our political institutions into 
 the representative form which we term " Parlia- 
 ment." The cradle of such institutions is found 
 in the Anglo-Saxon days, when the shires 
 formed the kingdom, and the National Council 
 was the " Witenagemot," or the assembly of wise 
 men. It carries us back to distant ages of our 
 history. The subsequent successor of this Council
 
 10 ' Exit Party. 
 
 of " National " wisdom, in the course of time, 
 developed into what was termed a Parliament. 
 It must not, however, be supposed that this 
 development was rapid or sudden. Like every 
 progress of permanent change of every kind in 
 the world, it was gradual and slow. It was 
 again a man of " light and leading," Simon de 
 Montfort, who crystallised into lasting form the 
 elements of a representative Council of the 
 British nation. 
 
 " The first general application of the word 
 Parliament to a national assembly occurs under 
 the date of March 18th, 1246. On the day 
 mentioned, a most general Parliament of the 
 whole nobility (magnates) of the kingdom as- 
 sembled in London, according to the King's 
 summons. The prelates, bishops, abbots, priors, 
 earls, and barons were present." 
 
 From this time, when this nucleus of a 
 national assembly was convened. Parliaments 
 followed in quick succession. Here we see the 
 invaluable use, which was conferred on the 
 representatives of the people by the rights 
 guaranteed to them under the provision of 
 Magna Carta, which prevented the sovereign 
 levying taxation at his own will, without their 
 consent. The reign of Henry III. is an epitome 
 of the constant eftbrt of subsequent monarchs,
 
 Exit Party. ii 
 
 under the *' Plantagenet," the " Tudor," and 
 the " Stuart " dynasties, to obtain funds for 
 carrying on their warlike and other ambitious 
 projects. These were continually resisted, and 
 occasionally granted by the Parliaments. But 
 the pages of our English history teem with 
 examples of the constant conflict between the 
 sovereign and the people's representatives on 
 this vital question ; as well as others affecting 
 the rights and liberties of their subjects. It 
 must always be remembered that the monarchs 
 under the dynasties mentioned were thoroughly 
 imbued with despotic ideas and views. Their 
 notions of the kingly rule and functions was 
 that their power was absolute. Hence their 
 continual and often bitter struggles to pre- 
 serve it. 
 
 The memory of Simon de Montfort is in- 
 delibly enshrined in the pages of our Parlia- 
 mentary history as the brave and illustrious 
 individual to whom, more than to any other man, 
 we owe the inception of Parliament on the basis 
 of its subsequent development. His career was 
 as romantic as it was brilliant. Born in France, 
 he became thoroughly an Englishman at heart. 
 The best years of his life were devoted to 
 defending the English people from the tyranny 
 of the kins;. No wonder at their devotion to
 
 12 Exit Party. 
 
 him, and his popularity among them. His death 
 in fighting for their cause won for him the 
 martyr's saintly name ! "It was in order to 
 obtain the title and estates of the earldom of 
 Leicester, that Simon de Montfort left his native 
 country and settled among the people, of whom 
 he afterwards became the champion." 
 
 Brave, handsome, and with a strong will 
 and most attractive manner, he soon impressed 
 a weak king, who gave his consent to his marriage 
 with his sister, the Princess Eleanor. This shows 
 the influence he had at first with Henry HI. 
 As a natural consequence he excited the jealousy 
 and hatred of the barons, who envied him as the 
 favourite of the king. But the regal favour 
 did not last. His famous quarrel with Henry is 
 as dramatic as it was inevitable. His proud and 
 haughty temper, and the mean spirit of a weak 
 and passionate king, rendered it impossible that 
 two such men should work lono^ too;ether in 
 harmony. But the master mind is ever destined 
 to rule. Simon de Montfort was to be the real 
 head of the country. The plan of reform for the 
 grievances of the barons was appointed by the 
 king, under the leadership of the Earl of Leicester. 
 In the month of June, 1258, they assembled 
 at Oxford, with all their retainers fully armed. 
 The king saw that he was completely in their
 
 Exit Party. 13 
 
 power, and gave liis consent to their proposals, 
 which have become famous under the name of 
 the " Provisions of Oxford." 
 
 We are so accustomed, in our own days, to 
 recognise the supreme influence which Parliament 
 possesses, that we are apt to forget the long 
 centuries of struggle and effort which were made 
 before it acquired its paramount power. It "was 
 Simon de Montfort who has the honour of having 
 formed the first real Parliament. He did not 
 invent a new scheme, but he was the first to see 
 that all classes must be represented in a complete 
 Parliament. Never before his time had the 
 towns sent members to the Council, although 
 four times before had " knights of the shire " 
 been summoned to it. 
 
 The long and splendid life's work of this 
 noble and distinguished man, which was passed 
 in a continual warfare and contention on behalf 
 of popular rights and freedom, and which excited 
 the constant enmity of a feeble king and of 
 the jealous barons, terminated at the battle of 
 Evesham on the 4th of Aug;ust, 1265. Touchinof 
 and tragic was his end. In the midst of a furious 
 onslaught from Prince Edward's troops he rushed 
 with fury upon his enemy. At length, after 
 fighting like a lion, his horse was killed under 
 him. As he lay on the ground a foot soldier,
 
 14 Exit Party. 
 
 lifting up his coat of mail, pierced him in the 
 back. With the words on his lips, "Dieu 
 merci," thus he died, a martyr to the cause — 
 for he loved " the right and hated wrong." Like 
 many another patriot's good deeds, the work he 
 did durins: his life lived after his death. When 
 the prince, who had defeated him at Evesham, 
 became Edward I. he took Simon de Montfort 
 in many ways as his example and pattern. 
 Especially was this the case in his capacity of 
 " the great legislator," governing the kingdom 
 with the advice and consent of a great council, 
 similar to that first Parliament, which was 
 formed by the valiant and chivalrous Earl of 
 Leicester. After the long and unsatisfactory 
 reign of Henry IIL, which terminated by his 
 death on the 16th November, 1272, "the survey 
 of the early Councils and Parliaments of the 
 kingdom closes. It sufficiently indicates the 
 nature of those assemblies which preceded the 
 first comprehensive and national Parliament." 
 
 " It was in the reign of his son, the wise and 
 sagacious Edward I., that the representation of 
 the Commons of England first assumed, under 
 him, a regular and definite shape, while there 
 was further secured the formal and momentous 
 declaration that the right or privilege of levying 
 taxes was vested in the Parliament." Hence-
 
 Exit Party. 15 
 
 forward, if the power of the sword was vested in 
 the Prince, the power of the purse belonged to 
 the Nation. < 
 
 The earliest Parliament, which may truly be 
 called historical, assembled at Westminster on 
 the 27th of November, 1295. It was at this 
 date that the representation of the Commons 
 first assumed a regular and definite shape, while 
 there w^as further secured the formal and mo- 
 mentous declaration, that the right or privilege 
 of levying taxes was vested in the Parliament. 
 The fabric of the representative Constitution 
 was at last completed. The Great Council of 
 the past became the Parliament of the future. 
 
 In the eloquent language of Macaulay we 
 read that " in no country has the enmity of race 
 been carried further than in England. In no 
 country has that enmity been more completely 
 efi"aced." 
 
 It was during the thirteenth century, that, 
 sterile and obscure, as is that portion of our 
 annals, it is there that we must look for the 
 origin of our freedom, our prosperity, and our 
 glory. There it is that the great English people 
 was formed. There it was that first appeared 
 with distinctness that Constitution, which has 
 through all changes preserved its identity, of 
 which all other free constitutions in the world
 
 1 6 Exit Party. 
 
 are copies. Then it was that the House of 
 Commons, the archetype of all the representa- 
 tive assemblies, which now meet either in the 
 old or new world, held its first sittings. " The 
 change, great as it is, which the polity of Great 
 Britain has undergone during the last six cen- 
 turies, has been the efiect of gradual develop- 
 ment, not of demolition and reconstruction. The 
 present Constitution is, to the constitution under 
 which she flourished five hundred years ago, 
 what the tree is to the sapling, the man is to 
 the boy."* The constitution of the House of 
 Commons tended greatly to promote the salutary 
 intercourse of classes. The knight of the shire 
 was the connecting link between the baron and 
 the shopkeeper. On the same bench on which 
 sat the goldsmiths, the drapers and grocers, who 
 had been returned to Parliament by the com- 
 mercial towns, sat also members who in any 
 other country would be called noblemen, here- 
 ditary lords of manors, entitled to hold courts 
 and to bear coat armour, and be able to trace 
 back an honourable descent through many 
 generations. 
 
 Deep, indeed, is the debt which is owing, 
 and strong should be the gratitude of posterity 
 towards the master mind, which could conceive 
 * Macaulay's ' History of England.'
 
 Exit Party. 17 
 
 and crystallise into workable form the concrete 
 assembly of Lords and Commons, which has 
 ever since been established in this realm. Ours 
 has, emphatically, been the " Mother of Parlia- 
 ments," the model of free assemblies, throughout 
 the civilised world. It is fitting that the 
 grandeur of the character of Edward I., the 
 great legislator, should be adequately appre- 
 ciated, and duly honoured, and remembered by 
 us all. Born during a period of our history 
 when all the traditions surroundino; the thrones 
 of all previous monarchs instilled into them the 
 principle of the " Divine right of kings," which 
 they did not hesitate constantly to enforce 
 by the exercise of arbitrary power, Edward I. 
 (after a brief exercise, himself, of this in- 
 expedient privilege), was astute enough to 
 emancipate himself in a surprising manner from 
 it, and to look for help and guidance from the 
 representatives of the nation, whom he had 
 moulded into form, given the germs of the past 
 council, creations for the purpose of influencing 
 and advising the sovereign. Valiant and head- 
 strong by nature, and of an impulsive and 
 passionate temperament, his bravery on the 
 battle-field was only equalled by his wisdom 
 in the council chamber. This astute monarch 
 (considering the age in which he lived) was 
 

 
 1 8 Exit Party. 
 
 sympathetic for the people. His inclination 
 ever induced him to be drawn towards enlarging 
 their freedom, and extending their liberties, at 
 least as far as he could succeed in blending this 
 sentiment with the maintenance of- his own 
 prerogative of paramountcy of which, like his 
 predecessors, he was jealous, as their supreme 
 ruler and their king.
 
 Exit Party. 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 " All the world's a stage, 
 And all the men and women merely players. 
 They have their exits and their entrances, 
 And one man in his time plays many parts, 
 His acts being seven ages." 
 
 — As You Like It, Act ii. 
 
 I HAVE rapidly sketched the embryo of the 
 English Parliamentary system, under the reigns 
 of Kings John and Henry HI., and of its subse- 
 quent growth and development into a concrete 
 and prototype form (the model for all future 
 popular representative assemblies throughout the 
 world), by the genius of the great legislator 
 Edward I. The leading characteristic of all 
 preceding monarchs to King John, and of all 
 of those who filled the throne more or less 
 despotically, as well as with more or less scin- 
 tillations of wisdom and good sense, or more 
 frequently, with selfishness and folly, was the 
 inherent deeply-rooted idea of their own power 
 and importance to the State. Hence their 
 constant aim and the keynote of their policy 
 
 c 2
 
 20 Exit Party. 
 
 was to endeavour to rule as absolute monarclis. 
 This idea prevailed, througli long centuries, with 
 the kings and queens of the Plantagenet, the 
 Tudor, and the Stuart dynasties. So imbued 
 were their minds with the thought, that their 
 constant efforts were directed to maintain this 
 principle — " per fas aut nefas," by hypocrisy 
 and deception, frequently by the exercise of 
 arbitrary power, always, whenever an oppor- 
 tunity was afforded them of indulging in it. 
 Obviously the establishment of the Parliamen- 
 tary system was calculated to restrain and 
 control, more or less efficiently, under the in- 
 valuable provisions of Magna Carta, the powers 
 of the Crown. Incessant, therefore, were the 
 struggles on the one hand to uphold, on the 
 other to diminish these privileges and power. 
 The efforts of the combatants were unceasing. 
 The warfare continued for centuries, but it will 
 be observed with a constant increase of the 
 power of the ruled, and of the diminution of 
 the power of the ruler. Steadily — bit by bit — 
 very slowly, and well-nigh, sometimes, almost 
 imperceptibly, this power of the former advanced ; 
 but, in the course of long periods of time, it 
 always did so, until, in our own day, we find 
 it paramount ; and recognised by our revered 
 and beloved Sovereign (such a splendid contrast
 
 Exit Party. 21 
 
 to so many of her predecessors on the throne) as 
 irresistible. 
 
 In all the reigns of the dynasties I have 
 mentioned, the ministers who governed the 
 realm were chosen by the king. They were, 
 of course, men who possessed qualities which 
 placed them beyond the common people. They 
 might be, and frequently were, of scandalous 
 lives and immoral careers, but they usually were 
 men of commanding talents and ability. These 
 attributes and their willingness to become the 
 devoted servants and generally unscrupulous 
 creatures, always attracted the kings, and they 
 became, therefore, their willing tools to further 
 their behests and were chosen by them ac- 
 cordingly to fulfil their wishes and will. 
 
 Let me illustrate this description by the 
 citation of a few notable names. In scanning 
 the pages of English History we see the 
 prominent figure portrayed of the able and 
 unscrupulous Gascon, Piers Gaveston, desig- 
 nated as the corrupter of the Prince of Wales, 
 who afterwards became the prime favourite of 
 the weak and feeble King Edward IL, in- 
 fluencing all his actions and disgusting the 
 people to such an extent as procured an order 
 for his banishment for ever from the kingdom. 
 Well it had been for him if this sentence had
 
 22 Exit Party. 
 
 been perpetual and had not subsequently been 
 revoked. It would have saved him from the 
 fate which at last overtook him of being 
 treacherously executed at a spot called Blacklow 
 Hill, near Guy's Cliff, by the Earl of Warwick, 
 surnamed " the terrible," and " the black dog of 
 the wood," on account of his cruel character and 
 ferocious disposition. 
 
 As it was with the earlier, so with the later 
 Plan ta genets, as with the Tudor, so with the 
 Stuart dynasties, the inveterate and irrepressible 
 desire on the part of the monarchs was to rule 
 despotically. They fought unceasingly for the 
 prerogatives of the Crown, whilst their Parlia- 
 ments were . continuously contending for the 
 rights of the people. It was a long, and some- 
 times fierce and bitter antagonism. But al- 
 though in the end Parliament succeeded, after 
 centuries of struggle, in " winning all along the 
 line," in the beginning, the victory, transient as 
 it was, seemed to be with the kings. 
 
 The last of the Plantagenets, the cruel 
 murderer and tyrant, Eichard III., after a brief 
 reign, perished miserably on the fatal field 
 of Bosworth, a just retribution for his villainies 
 and his crimes. In the person of his successor, 
 Henry VII., a new dynasty, the Tudor, com- 
 menced. He was a wise and accomplished
 
 Exit Party. 23 
 
 monarch, but imbued with the same spirit as 
 his predecessors of endeavouring to rule without 
 the control of Parliament. There was no change 
 in his case in the personal policy of the previous 
 monarchs of taking every means possible to 
 maintain the powers of their prerogative. Par- 
 liaments continued more or less contending, and 
 controlling or controlled. Under his successor, 
 the powerful and self-willed Henry VII I., this 
 struggle was more conspicuous than ever. To 
 Henry VII. we are indebted for that beautiful 
 addition to Westminster Abbey which is called 
 after his name. 
 
 " Henry VII. and Henry VIIL were largely 
 dependent on the Houses of Parliament, which 
 both these sovereigns used as the instruments of 
 their will." One of the most conspicuous figures 
 during the latter's reign was that powerful pre- 
 late Cardinal Wolsey. Born in the preceding 
 reign, this able and remarkable man was found 
 by Henry VIIL ready for his service when he 
 came to the throne, and he made him one of his 
 Council. He soon became his Almoner, and we 
 are told that he " would disburden the King of 
 so weighty a charge and troublesome business, 
 putting the King in comfort, that he shall not 
 need to spare any time of his pleasure for any 
 business that should necessarily happen in the
 
 24 Exit Party. 
 
 Council as long as he being there, and having 
 the King's authority and commandment, doubted 
 not to see all things sufficiently furnished and 
 perfected." To a young and voluptuous and 
 pleasure-loving sovereign, what an attractive 
 programme was here put before him, to save 
 him trouble from the weighty cares of State, 
 which, nevertheless he had no idea of ruling over 
 but as an absolute monarch, supremely jealous 
 of his prerogatives and his power. 
 
 The fall of "Wolsey, the most influential man 
 of his time, was as sudden as had been his rise. 
 Through the jealousy of his numerous enemies, 
 who could not endure to see him in such 
 close contact with his royal master, the mind 
 of the latter was poisoned against him, and 
 without warning, apparently in the zenith of 
 his power, he was indicted on charges, first 
 against the Church, for which he was par- 
 doned, and subsequently for high treason, just 
 as he was about to be installed at York as 
 Archbishop. He was committed to the custody 
 of the Earl of Northumberland, and was taken 
 by slow degrees towards London. After some 
 days' riding he became ill on reaching the Abbey 
 at Leicester. Here he is said on his arrival to 
 have made use of the memorable words, " Father 
 Abbot, I am come hither to leave my bones
 
 Exit Party. 25 
 
 among you"; adding in a few days to Master 
 Kingston, the Constable of tlie Tower, " Had I 
 but served my God as faithfully as I have served 
 my King, He would not have given me over in 
 my grey hairs." Here he died on the 15th of 
 November, 1530, aged 59. 
 
 Passing over the short reigns of the feeble 
 Edward VI. and of his bigoted, and consequent 
 cruel, sister Mary, who suffered herself to be 
 guided by unscrupulous and ferocious advisers, 
 and at whose premature death one of the worst 
 reigns in English history came to a close, a 
 glorious age succeeded by the accession of Queen 
 Elizabeth to the throne. This masterful daughter 
 of a masterful father soon showed the stern use 
 she intended to make of her prerogatives. She 
 liked as little as any of her predecessors (after 
 the example of her father) the bold and resolute 
 attitude of the Commons, and showed a courageous 
 spirit in dealing with her Parliaments, of which 
 she summoned ten in a period of forty-five years. 
 It was her fortunate fate to ascend the throne at 
 a period of English history when there was a 
 galaxy of great men. In camp and senate, and 
 in literature, such luminaries shed a lustre on 
 her throne. " Great statesmen, of whom Sir 
 William Cecil, Sir Nicholas Bacon, and Walsing- 
 ham were the chief, guided the affairs of England
 
 26 Exit Party. 
 
 generally with wisdom and discretion ; men of 
 adventure, like Drake, Raleigh, and Frobisher, 
 made England celebrated as well as feared, to 
 remote parts of the earth, while Shakespeare, 
 Spenser, and other brilliant names shed a glory 
 on her literature which will never fade away." * 
 Amongst the ablest of Elizabeth's advisers in 
 high affairs of State was Sir Francis Walsing- 
 ham, whose frankness is said to have often stirred 
 the Queen to abusive wrath. In 1573 he was 
 appointed to the responsible office of Secretary 
 of State, jointly with Sir Thomas Smith, and 
 shared with Cecil, afterwards Lord Burghley, 
 most of the administrative responsibilities of 
 Government. He was an enthusiastic supporter 
 of the contemporary movement for the country's 
 colonial expansion, and was the patron of all the 
 chief writers on the exploration of the New 
 World. 
 
 The traditional view of Elizabeth is the stern, 
 coarse, foul-mouthed coquette. One of her 
 speeches to Walsingham has the true ring — 
 "Yes, you are womanish. There is the less 
 excuse for your folly. It is a queen's fate to 
 be thwarted by servants, disdainful of a woman's 
 intelligence. I am glad to have some loyal 
 without superfluous wit. God's wounds — I am 
 * ' History of the English Parliament.' G. Barnett Smith.
 
 Exit Party. 27 
 
 tired of the insolent opposition of knaves I 
 plucked from the gutter. My royal father 
 would have garnished the bridge with the heads 
 of his ministers if he had met disobedience." 
 The defeat of the celebrated Spanish Armada by 
 her redoubtable sea captain Drake, and his co- 
 adjutors, was the greatest glory of her reign. 
 The execution of her misguided, erring and un- 
 fortunate cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, was its 
 greatest blot, and crime. By the irony of fate, 
 the mortal dust of these two queens — the slayer 
 and the slain — lies commingled within the sacred 
 precincts of our glorious " Valhalla," the visible 
 monumental epitome and shrine of eight hundred 
 years of England's history, Westminster Abbey !
 
 28 Exit Party. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " For forms of Government let fools contest ; 
 Whate'er is best administer'd is best." 
 
 — Pope. 
 
 The death of Elizabeth brought the Tudor 
 dynasty to a close. The advent of the Stuarts 
 made no difference in the views of the monarch 
 as far as prerogative was concerned. The in- 
 grafted principle of the belief of the Stuarts was 
 the " Divine Right of Kings," and each occupant 
 of the throne under that dynasty steadily ad- 
 hered to the advocacy of that principle. Hence 
 we find that the cold and somewhat saturnine 
 James I., throughout his reign, was in constant 
 contention with his Parliaments on this subject. 
 He endeavoured to control them, while they 
 were in reality controlling him. 
 
 Under the reign of his successor, Charles I., 
 these contentions gradually assumed a more 
 acute form, which was destined to terminate in a 
 terrible crisis. Virtuous and amiable as he was 
 in private life, his character as a King was con-
 
 Exit Party. 29 
 
 temptible. Deceitful, mean, and treaclierous, lie 
 constantly pursued a tortuous and disingenuous 
 public policy. One of his most intimate and 
 confidential advisers was Sir Thomas Wentwortli 
 Strafford, who, although in his early career 
 siding with the people became one of his strong- 
 est adherents and partisans. It is one of the 
 sad incidents connected with the reio;n of 
 Charles I. that, after having pledged himself to 
 the Earl of Strafford to protect him from the 
 consequences of his treason, and arbitrary mode 
 of government, when he was found guilty, he 
 signed the warrant for his execution, in contra- 
 vention of the solemn pledge he had given to 
 protect him ! Strafford perished on the scaffold, 
 which was afterwards to be the fate of the 
 Kino; himself! 
 
 At this period the second great Charter of 
 English liberties, known as " the Petition of 
 Right," after many delays and much equivoca- 
 tion on the part of the King, received the royal 
 assent. Its demands were based upon Magna 
 Carta and on Statutes passed in the reigns of 
 Edward I. and Edward III. It Contained eleven 
 clauses. The first stipulated that no tax should 
 be levied without the consent of Parliament ; 
 the second dealt with the arbitrary imprisonment 
 of subjects ; the third demanded that no free-
 
 30 Exit Party. 
 
 man suffer penalties in purse or person but by 
 lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of 
 the land ; the fourth referred to an Act passed 
 under Edward III. in confirmation of the free- 
 dom declared in the Great Charter ; the fifth 
 recited violations of clause 3 in the imprisonment 
 of subjects by the King's sole command ; the 
 sixth denounced the billeting of soldiers in the 
 houses of the people ; the seventh dealt with the 
 use of martial law ; the eighth referred to the fact 
 of subjects being punished under martial law ; 
 the ninth pointed out that under martial law 
 grievous offenders had escaped punishment by 
 favour of the King's officers and ministers of 
 justice ; the tenth prayed the King to stay all 
 the above illegal proceedings ; and the eleventh 
 called upon the King, for the honour of his 
 majesty and the prosperity of the kingdom, and 
 for the comfort and safety of the people, to ob- 
 serve these rights and liberties according to the 
 laws and statutes of the realm, and to command 
 his officers and ministers to act upon such laws 
 and statutes. 
 
 The long struggle carried out for years 
 between the King and his parliaments, during 
 which the names of men like Pym and Hampden, 
 of imperishable renown, are conspicuous, as fight- 
 ing for the liberties of the people, culminated in
 
 Exit Party. 31 
 
 one of the saddest episodes of English history — 
 the long civil war — in which at last the King 
 was utterly defeated, brought to trial for treason, 
 found guilty and executed. 
 
 " Whatever quickens intellect generally will 
 help to make politics intellectual and to render 
 political struggles less conflicts of force and more 
 of thought. John Pym's guiding principle was 
 that the best form of government was that which 
 doth actuate and dispose every part and member 
 of the state to the common good." * 
 
 This period of English history marks the 
 origin of the two great dividing parties of the 
 State, under the names of Roundheads and 
 Cavaliers, the party of the people and the party 
 of the king. They constituted the germs of the 
 corporate existence of the two great parties 
 which have ever since alternatively governed 
 the country. They were subsequently called 
 Tories and Whigs, retaining that appellation 
 until far into the annals of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, when again, by new names, they flourished 
 and contended for ascendency and power by 
 party shibboleths, down to the present day. In 
 themselves the names have little meaning, Tory 
 being a designation of Irish banditti. Whig 
 that of wild fanatics in the west of Scotland ; 
 * ' The United Kincrdom.' Goldwin Smith.
 
 32 Exit Party. 
 
 and perhaps they were not on that account less 
 adapted for the service of party, since a man 
 may change his mind about a name. The Tory 
 however was the friend of government by pre- 
 rogative and of church privilege. The Whig was 
 the friend of constitutional liberty and tolera- 
 tion ; in effect the Tory was the supporter of 
 monarchical, the Whig of Parliamentary su- 
 premacy. In later times when the question 
 between royal and parliamentary government 
 had been finally settled, and the dynastic 
 question connected with it was no more, the 
 Tory party became that of political and ecclesi- 
 astical reaction, the Whig party that of general 
 progress, till the Tory was softened into the 
 Conservative, while the Whig blossomed into 
 the Liberal.* 
 
 Every great crisis in the history of nations 
 brings to the front some name or names of con- 
 spicuous renown. The civil war of the seven- 
 teenth century, among others, brought out the 
 great name of Cromwell as a leader of men. 
 This extraordinary man, son of a Huntingdon 
 brewer, by various steps was elevated to the 
 highest position in the State, and became under 
 the Commonwealth the Lord Protector of the 
 Realm. But, as history shows us, his power 
 * 'The United Kino:dom.' Goldwin Smith.
 
 Exit Party. 33 
 
 and influence, great as it was, was the " one- 
 man " power, and did not continue longer than 
 his life. The " Instrument" of the Constitution, 
 launched under the Protectorate, had it taken 
 effect would have been national — party at least 
 could hardly have reigned. Again, a resuscita- 
 tion of the Stuart family took place by the 
 restoration of Charles II. to the throne. This 
 careless and voluptuous monarch cared much 
 more for the gratification of his own pleasures 
 than for the benefit of the State. But still he 
 entertained the same ideas of the royal pre- 
 rogatives as his predecessors had done, and con- 
 sequently, as far as his easy-going nature would 
 allow, was at issue with his Parliaments from 
 time to time. So it was with his successor, 
 James II., who tried his utmost to rule as an 
 absolute monarch. He, too, had to succumb to 
 the spirit of the time, and lost his throne in the 
 struggle. 
 
 Then a new epoch arrived, and the great 
 revolution of 1688 opened a fresh vista in 
 the annals of our history. Ever since then 
 the sovereign has been guided by advisers who 
 possessed the confidence of the representatives 
 of the nation. While the monarch is not 
 deprived of the power of naming his ministers, 
 yet they will not remain in oflice in opposition
 
 34 Exit Party. 
 
 to the sense of the House of Commons. In 
 spite of all its defects and imperfections, the 
 institution of Parliament, as founded by that 
 great and wise ruler King Edward L, over- 
 loaded and incrustated by the inevitable accre- 
 tions of extraneous and corrupt materials, 
 adhering to its time-worn machinery (being 
 only human), after more than four centuries 
 of existence, still shone as the great safeguard 
 and lodestar of the rights and liberties of 
 the people. But the time for reform was 
 approaching. Under William III., and his 
 consort Mary ; and the last of the Stuarts, her 
 sister Anne, the rights and privileges, as well 
 as the freedom of the people, were immensely 
 advanced. The first part of the reign of 
 William III. was a period of distraction in the 
 King's councils, and confusion in Parliament 
 attendant on the final transition from the old 
 system of the Privy Council, which included 
 men of difi'erent principles and was not con- 
 nected with a party in Parliament, to that of 
 the Cabinet formed of men united in principle 
 into an organised party in Parliament as its 
 base. William at first refused to recognise 
 party, and made up his Government of Whigs 
 and Tories combined. The consequence was 
 discord and jarring in every department. The
 
 Exit Party. 35 
 
 King was taught by the shrewd and unscrupulous 
 Eobert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, that to give 
 unity and efficiency to his Government he must 
 call to his councils men of one party alone. A 
 Whig ministry, accordingly, was formed, and 
 the Whig party in Parliament was organised as 
 its base under a junto of powerful leaders.* 
 An altogether new regime commenced in the 
 eighteenth century. 
 
 In Parliament, under the Georgian era, the 
 divisions of party became conspicuously accentu- 
 ated. The two great parties of Whig and Tory 
 alternatively ruled. For the most part, under 
 the reigns of George I. and George II., the 
 Tories flourished as the ascendant party, and the 
 Cabinet or Party system was at this period 
 adopted. The Cabinet, though a body unknown 
 to the law, as it remains to this day, finally 
 superseded the old constitutional Privy Council, 
 the authority of which, and its responsibility for 
 the acts of the Crown, the framers of the Act of 
 Settlement had in vain sought to revive by an 
 article which was presently repealed. The re- 
 sponsibility of ministers for the acts of the King, 
 another essential part of the system, was be- 
 coming well established. To the completion of 
 the system there was still lacking the joint and 
 *' The United Kingdom.' Goldwin Smith. 
 
 D 2
 
 36 Exit Party. 
 
 several responsibility of the Cabinet Ministers 
 wbich was not yet fully established.* 
 
 Certain conspicuous names come before us, 
 both Tory and Whig, in their turn, as those 
 who, by the force of their genius and abilities, 
 became the leaders, and consequently acquired 
 the royal confidence. Such were Ministers like 
 Bolingbroke, Harley, Sir Robert Walpole, and 
 many others of lesser note, who, choosing their 
 adherents in Parliament to assist them in their 
 respective Governments too often, by the exer- 
 cise of the most scandalous and unjustifiable 
 corruption and bribery, resorted to this method 
 of maintaining themselves in power. 
 
 It is impossible to conceive anything of 
 greater scandal than the depths to which party, 
 degenerated into faction, dragged the political 
 machine, during the last days of Queen Anne, 
 and during the reign of the two first Georges. 
 There was shameless bribery and treating at 
 elections. The wealthy were great buyers of 
 seats in Parliament, and the propagators of 
 political corruption. Seats in Parliament were 
 bought and sold without disguise. It was a 
 terrible illustration of the way in which the 
 theory of the constitutional representation of 
 the people could be prostituted to serve the ends 
 * ' The United Kingdom.' Goldwin Smith.
 
 Exit Party. 37 
 
 of unscrupulous politicians whose only object 
 was to attain place and power. 
 
 Bolingbroke, Ormonde and Harley, the Tory 
 chiefs, were impeached. The two first fled from 
 the country, but Harley braved the storm, not 
 being so seriously compromised. The Tory 
 policy was reversed. The Treaty of Utrecht — 
 that famous treaty which so seriously com- 
 promised, ijiter alia, and injured the interests of 
 our oldest colony, Newfoundland — in giving to 
 our neighbours across the Channel, the French 
 shore, which has been the cause of bitter con- 
 troversy and international difficulty since the 
 year 1713, which could not be repealed, was 
 condemned. 
 
 Sir Eobert Walpole, the other prominent 
 Minister referred to, was the son of a Norfolk 
 squire having a good estate in that county. 
 He had the tastes and habits of his class. But 
 he possessed something beyond the ideas of his 
 sporting friends. His financial skill and know- 
 ledge of trade gained for him the confidence and 
 political support of commercial men. A great 
 financial crisis brought him to the front. It was 
 the great South Sea Bubble which was a grasp- 
 ing desire, like so many in subsequent ages of 
 growing suddenly rich without labour. With 
 Townshend he had just rejoined the ministry, 
 
 i %i t i'^
 
 38 Exit Party. 
 
 and decided that he should be the head of the 
 State. The general voice called for him. By 
 bold and sagacious measures he stayed panic, 
 restored public credit, revived commerce, and 
 made himself master of the State for twenty 
 years, Walpole was the first Prime Minister, 
 properly so-called. The Prime Minister ap- 
 pointed or dismissed his colleagues in the name 
 of the king. His government rested avowedly 
 on a party which accepted his guidance and was 
 bound to support his measures. There does not 
 appear to be any proof that this great Minister 
 of the early Georges was personally corrupt. 
 That he was ambitious there can be no doubt. 
 That in order to maintain his position, he did 
 not hesitate to bribe others so as to secure their 
 support. He bribed the press. He bribed 
 ambition with peerages, and vanity with the 
 new order of knighthood — the Bath — our public 
 men with money. He evidently had a very low 
 idea of the tone of political morality of his day. 
 He thought all men had their price. The name 
 of patriotism he held in scorn and contempt. 
 " Patriots," he is said to have exclaimed, " I 
 can make any number of them in a moment. 
 It is but refusing an unreasonable or insolent 
 demand and up starts a patriot." 
 
 Walpole's motto was " Let Rest," a good one
 
 Exit Party. 39 
 
 in politics as an occasional antidote to ceaseless 
 political activity and unsuccessful movement. 
 In later times, Lord Russell's finality ideas, witli 
 wliich, on a celebrated occasion, his name was 
 identified, seemed to partake more of the senti- 
 ment than Gladstone's spirit of unrest which 
 made him perpetually bent on destroying, under 
 the specious and fascinating name of Reform, 
 the ancient landmarks of the constitution ap- 
 parently because they were old without dis- 
 criminating sufficiently whether they were based 
 on good or bad foundations ; and by no means 
 always substituting new plans and principles 
 of national improvement to take their place. 
 Gladstone's favourite recreation of cutting down 
 trees (we do not hear much of his having a tree 
 planted like many landed proprietors) is an apt 
 illustration of his tastes and the prevailing 
 attributes of his political career. 
 
 After going through the customary phases 
 of great power and eventually crushing defeat 
 this eminent statesman became a fallen Minister. 
 His king, however, stood by his faithful servant. 
 After being threatened with impeachment, the 
 virulent faction which opposed him, which 
 simmered down into a committee of inquiry, 
 which after sitting long and doing its worst 
 to incriminate him, ended in nothing. Wal-
 
 40 Exit Party. 
 
 pole's only punishment was his translation as 
 Earl of Orford from the scene of his power to 
 the House of Lords. 
 
 At this period of parliamentary degradation, 
 one great and conspicuous figure stands pro- 
 minently above them all, as a brilliant patriot 
 and politician, William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. 
 In spite of his ambitious attributes, he will ever 
 be regarded as one of the grandest and noblest 
 among the statesmen of his time. 
 
 Pitt's government was one of personal as- 
 cendency, supported by the favour of the Crown, 
 not of party leadership. He never appealed to 
 party sentiment, never held counsel with a party. 
 At a crisis of peril he was willing to take his 
 rivals into his governments, and was prevented 
 only by the personal prejudice of the King. It 
 may safely be said that the theory of govern- 
 ment by two parties representing opposite sets 
 of principles and alternately rising to power, did 
 not present itself to his mind. Pitt was twice 
 Prime Minister, and held high office for thirty- 
 three years. Under the nominal leadership of 
 the Duke of Devonshire, Pitt became Secretary 
 of State and the real leader of the government. 
 Through the mediation of the Earl of Chesterfield 
 a coalition was effected between the Duke of 
 Newcastle and Pitt, the former furnishing the
 
 Exit Party. 41 
 
 majority and the latter the capacity. Pitt took 
 the governnient absolutely to himself and left 
 the patronage to the Duke. For four years Pitt 
 was dictator and boasted that he alone could save 
 the country. War was his panacea ! He planned 
 the expeditions and raised loans for war expenses 
 with a profusion which appalled more timid 
 financiers. His chief ambition was to humble 
 France, strip her of her colonies and destroy her 
 commerce, thereby making British commerce 
 flourish. In his work entitled ' The British 
 Empire,' Professor Goldwin Smith states that 
 " his policy was the very opposite of that of 
 Walpole. Of economy and finance he was quite 
 ignorant and regardless. He was a strange 
 compound of littleness and greatness. His 
 egotism was intense. His arrogance was un- 
 bounded. He never allowed his under-secretaries 
 to sit down in his presence. Yet to the King, 
 who was a mere boy, his language was almost 
 abject. He was always lofty, even in his letters 
 always theatrical. Genius might and did dwell 
 with such infirmities. It is hard to believe that 
 wisdom or the clearest sense of duty could." 
 
 The long reign of George III. marks another 
 stage in the political atmosphere of the eighteenth 
 century. Shrewd and astute as this king was in 
 political matters, but with the old leaven of the
 
 42 Exit Party. 
 
 power of the king's prerogative strong within 
 him, he endeavoured to choose his ministers by 
 manoeuvring and blending, as far as he could, 
 parties, professedly in opposition into some de- 
 gree of union. "As for his ministers themselves, 
 we are told, he regarded them as mere inter- 
 preters of a warfare waged on behalf of autocracy. 
 As long as they served him blindly he lavished 
 caresses on them, from the moment they showed 
 independence he discarded them as old coats, 
 and old coats which had become repulsive to 
 him." * Of this kind of composition was one of 
 the celebrated Coalition Ministries of his reign, 
 under Lord Selborne, but this became a complete 
 failure. It was probably the origin, in the 
 following century, of a pretentious dictum of 
 Disraeli's, when he once ostentatiously declared, 
 " That England does not love coalitions." This 
 prediction was certainly not a true one, nor by 
 any means destined to be fulfilled in our own 
 day. Two other most remarkable political 
 figures appear on the stage, in the foremost rank 
 of statesmen of the eighteenth century. Both 
 of them had immense influence in guiding the 
 destinies of the nation during the last half of it. 
 The two imperishable names I refer to, are 
 Charles James Fox, a star of the first magnitude 
 * Lord Roscbery's ' Life of Pitt.'
 
 Exit Party. 43 
 
 in the political arena, and William Pitt, happily 
 designated the heaven-born minister, the son of 
 the celebrated Earl of Chatham. These two men 
 were the most celebrated political figures of their 
 time. Pitt held the reins of government for 
 the long period of seventeen years at one time, 
 representing on the part of the king the dominant 
 Tory Party; while Fox, as the Whig Repre- 
 sentative of the people, competed with him, 
 mostly unsuccessfully, for the leadership of the 
 Government of the day. 
 
 I have now completed a rapid sketch of the 
 relations of Parliament, and Monarch, for up- 
 wards of four hundred years, since the days of 
 Edward I. Multitudes of Parliaments had been 
 summoned by the various sovereigns, ruling Eng- 
 land, during their time. Thus there had been 
 all sorts of Parliaments, variously designated 
 as " Long Parliaments," " Short Parliaments," 
 ''Paralytic Parliaments," "Pride's purge," "Bare- 
 bones," " Little Parliaments," " Convention Par- 
 liaments," and " Cavalier Parliaments." With 
 all human institutions of lengthened existence, 
 defects in their working are found, and a necessity 
 for improvements in their construction becomes 
 apparent. A vast change for the better in the 
 condition of the people during that long period 
 was no doubt to be seen ; but the rust and
 
 44 Exit Party. 
 
 incrustations of time demanded alteration in the 
 constitution of the Government, by which they 
 were ruled. 
 
 Pitt, in spite of all his leanings towards auto- 
 cracy, with his clear, prescient eye, saw that 
 Parliament required to be reformed, in order 
 to get rid of the corruption which had gathered 
 round the institution in process of time. On 
 the 7th May, 1782, he brought forward a pro- 
 posal for its reform. This he lost ; but un- 
 daunted by his failure, he, in the following year, 
 on the anniversary of his previous motion, again 
 repeated it. His motion on that occasion was 
 defeated by 293 to 149. Thus we see that his 
 hopes and desires were finally frustrated. The 
 subsequent years of his great parliamentary 
 ascendency and government were wholly ab- 
 sorbed by the exigencies imposed upon him by 
 the great French war ; and he died without 
 having been able to accomplish the object he 
 had in view. At his death he was succeeded 
 for a short time by Fox, who however, shortly 
 after followed him to the grave. 
 
 One of Fox's notable sayings, destined to 
 make its mark among a free people and never 
 to be forgotten, to which I have always been an 
 ardent adherent, was, " that representation is 
 the sovereign remedy for every evil." At his
 
 Exit Party. 45 
 
 death he was in turn succeeded by Lord Adding- 
 ton, Perceval, Castlereagh, Lord Goderich, sur- 
 named " Prosperity Robinson," Canning, and the 
 Duke of Wellington. These successive ministers 
 represented the nation during the latter years of 
 George IIL and George IV. In the last days of 
 the latter king, the spirit of the age was changed. 
 The first symptom of this was the carrying of 
 the great measure of Catholic Emancipation in 
 1829 in the teeth of all the opposition of the 
 Tory Party, headed by the Duke of Wellington, 
 at that time Prime Minister. His sincere and 
 honest opposition to the measure wrung from 
 his lips the despairing inquiry in the House of 
 Lords during its discussion, " But, my lords, if 
 this measure passes, how is the King's Govern- 
 ment to be carried on ? " Wellington's Govern- 
 ment fell, and the Whigs under Lord Grey 
 succeeded him. And now came *' the hour and 
 the man." The dream and desire of the Tory 
 Minister, Pitt, in the eighteenth century for 
 reform, became an accomplished fact under the 
 Whig Minister, Grey, in the nineteenth. The 
 great Reform Bill brought forward by this 
 Minister, after exciting virulent opposition on 
 the part of the Tory Party, during which the 
 House of Lords once threw out the Bill, became 
 the law of the land in 1832.
 
 46 Exit Party. 
 
 It could hardly be supposed that a great 
 Revolutionary Measure such as this was, could 
 be passed without considerable agitation through- 
 out the country ; and riots took place in many 
 places, and much disturbance of the public 
 peace ; but after a while the nation calmed 
 down, and the new order- of things at length 
 peacefully succeeded the old.
 
 Exit Party. 47 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 "The parting of the ways." — Anon. 
 
 One of the numerous new boroughs created by 
 this great Reform Act of "1832" was that of 
 Tynemouth, in the county of Northumberland. 
 The shipowners of that town were an important 
 and influential body, and were desirous of having 
 their interests specially represented in the new 
 Parliament. In this connection I proceed to 
 relate a passage of personal family history. I 
 introduce it into my essay for the purpose of 
 giving me the opportunity of chronicling an 
 anecdote which has a direct and important 
 bearing on my subject. My father, Mr. George 
 Frederick Young, who had long been known for 
 the active interest he took in shipping questions, 
 was chosen as the first representative of the 
 new borough. In order to show that he soon 
 acquired some standing and influence in Parlia- 
 ment previously to my giving the anecdote I
 
 48 Exit Party. 
 
 am about to record, I may mention that, on 
 5th June, 1834, he undertook to move the repeal 
 of the Act 4 George 4, c. 1*1 , commonly called 
 " The Reciprocity of Duties " Act. The terms of 
 his motion were, — 
 
 " That leave be given to bring in a Bill to 
 repeal the Act 4 George 4, c. 77, commonly called 
 the Reciprocity of Duties Act, with a view of 
 restoring to Parliament its constitutional control 
 over all treaties with foreign Powers, involving 
 the commercial interests of the British com- 
 munity." 
 
 His speech was an able and eloquent one, of 
 two hours and a half duration. In consequence 
 of the opposition of the Government, represented 
 by Mr. Powlett Thompson, the President of the 
 Board of Trade (and who was subsequently 
 created Lord Sydenham, Governor-General of 
 Canada), his motion was lost. The House divided 
 on this motion with the following result, viz.. 
 Ayes 52, Noes 117 ; majority against 65. From 
 a seat under the gallery of the House of Commons 
 I had the opportunity of hearing both these 
 speeches. After making every allowance for 
 filial prejudice on my part, I must own I came 
 away with the idea that the Act in question was 
 far more ably and convincingly attacked by 
 my father, the mover of its repeal, than defended
 
 Exit Party. 49 
 
 by its supporter, Mr. Powlett Tliompson, on be- 
 half of his Government.* 
 
 I will now relate the remarkable incident I 
 have alluded to in connection with my father's 
 Parliamentary career. It has a most important 
 bearing on the subject of my present essay. 
 
 In the world's history it often happens that 
 the ideas propounded by a person in advance of 
 the prevalent thoughts of his time are ignored 
 and disregarded. By a new generation these 
 same ideas are accepted and adopted. He has 
 been a pioneer, and has insensibly created and 
 given voice to the subsequent ideas of the 
 
 * In the autumn of this year a memorable event took 
 place. On the IGth of October, 1834, the famous fire took 
 place which burned the Houses of Parliament. Fortunately 
 " Westminster Hall," the ancient and noble structure built 
 by the Red King, alone miraculously escaped. From the 
 bridge at Westminster, and afterwards from the Speaker's 
 garden, I witnessed that celebrated conflagration. When I 
 left, at two o'clock the next morning, there was nothing to 
 be seen but a huge mass of smouldering timber and totter- 
 ing walls and melancholy ruin. Of course, from the fact 
 of such an important historic building being consumed, a 
 tremendous sensation was created throughout the country 
 by its destruction. It was necessary to lose no time, there- 
 fore, in erecting new Houses for the accommodation of 
 Parliament, and, in two years afterwards, the present hand- 
 some pile of buildings, erected from the designs of Sir 
 Charles Barry, although not completely finished, were occu- 
 pied by Parliament on the site of the ancient edifice. 
 
 E
 
 50 Exit Party. 
 
 public, and led it in the direction lie was the 
 first to point out. This has been so in the 
 case of the following interesting and important 
 incident, which happened while my father was 
 in Parliament in connection with the formation 
 of an " Independent Party " in the House of 
 Commons in the year 1835. The chosen 
 motto was " Measures, not Men." No doubt 
 this party failed in its object at the time, but 
 it is curious to observe that, propounded as 
 it was in 1835, the principle was more than 
 partially recognised in 1895 by the formation 
 of the Unionist Government, which has led to 
 the admission into the same Cabinet of Members 
 of the Radical and Conservative parties for 
 carrying on the business and administration of 
 the country. There is little doubt that this 
 " open door " in politics will lead to a still 
 further development in the future of a plan 
 which has already been found to work so 
 smoothly and successfully, and has placed in 
 power one of the strongest Governments of 
 Great Britain during the reign of Queen 
 Victoria. 
 
 Endowed as he was with an ardent tempera- 
 ment, and a most energetic spirit, my father 
 conceived the notion I have described of forming 
 " an independent party " in Parliament, With
 
 Exit Party. 51 
 
 this view he drew up a manifesto setting forth 
 his ideas, which he circulated anonymously 
 among certain members of the House of Com- 
 mons, and, in conjunction with a country mem- 
 ber, Sir Oswald Moseley, who sympathised with 
 him, he succeeded in forming a party of some 
 " 50 " members of the House of Commons of 
 similar views with his own. For a brief period 
 this party had no small influence in connection 
 with many of the measures that were brought 
 forward in Parliament at that day. They ob- 
 tained, among others, the adhesion, in the first 
 instance, of Lord Stanley, afterwards Earl of 
 Derby (the Rupert of debate) ; but this somewhat 
 erratic nobleman ceasing after a time to take an 
 active and sympathetic part in its proceedings, 
 it gradually became disorganised, and ultimately 
 fell to pieces. This actual formation, however, 
 by a private member, of an Independent party 
 in Parliament, is a striking proof that an idea 
 which is premature may perhaps long afterwards 
 bear fruit, and be adopted at a subsequent period 
 of history. 
 
 At this time Schillibeer invented and brought 
 out in London the novel conveyance termed an 
 omnibus. A coloured caricature representing 
 the new vehicle was published in imitation of 
 the celebrated H, B.'s caricatures of political 
 
 E 2
 
 52 Exit Party. 
 
 celebrities. This represented an omnibus, on 
 the box of which appeared Lord Stanley as the 
 driver. It was filled with Members of Parlia- 
 ment, and the conductor was my father. The 
 title given to it was Derby Dilly.* 
 
 The significant incident of the formation of 
 the Independent party, in 1835, has been fully 
 described by that amusing, but cynical raconteur, 
 " Greville," in his 'Memoirs,' vol, iii., pp. 319, 
 320. It is not altogether correct in all its facts, 
 but, on the whole, it is a substantially true and 
 interesting account of a remarkable event in the 
 annals of the Parliamentary history of the time. 
 Greville writes as follows : " February 20th 
 (1835). The King went down to Parliament in 
 the midst of a vast crowd, and was neither well 
 nor ill received — nobody takes his hat oft', but 
 there was some cheering. The speech disap- 
 pointed me. It was rather bald, and so thought 
 some of the Moderate men. In the morning 
 there was a meeting at the King's Head, Palace 
 Yard, to which Moderate men were invited by 
 an anonymous circular (G. F. Y.'s). Thirty- 
 
 * " H. B." also had a similar cartoon, published in 
 March, 1835, entitled "The New Empire," commonly- 
 called " The Derby Dilly." This consisted of a mail coach, 
 of which Lord Stanley was the driver, and my father was 
 the guard.
 
 Exit Party. 
 
 )0 
 
 tliree were present ; Sir Oswald Moseley in the 
 chair. Graham came to it, and said Lord Stanley 
 would have come also, but that he had invited a 
 few of his friends to meet at his house with an 
 object similar to that which had brought the 
 present meeting together, and that if it was 
 agreeable to any of these gentlemen to meet his 
 friends that afternoon, he should be glad to see 
 them. They all went, and there were present 
 forty -live or fifty, of whom eight had voted for 
 Abercrombie. He made them a speech, stating 
 it was evident the Government must fall, if they 
 were to be repeatedly defeated ; and his views 
 of the necessity of obstructing violent measures, 
 directed against them, was something to this 
 effect. The result was an agreement to meet 
 again this day, and last night a few more names 
 were added to their list. This may, therefore, 
 be considered the Stanley party ; and the best 
 thing that can happen will be that this party 
 should grow numerous. Many men do not like 
 the composition of the Government, and yet 
 wish to support it without being identified with 
 it, as the majority of those who attend the 
 meetings are disposed to support Peel. Stanley, 
 securing them as his adherents, and placing him- 
 self at their head, must, in fact, subscribe to 
 their opinions and disposition ; and as men are
 
 54 Exit Party. 
 
 more inclined to join a numerous than a scanty 
 sect, fresh adherents may repair to that standard. 
 Eventually he will join the Government, and 
 the best chance of weathering the storm will be 
 through the moderate Liberal party." 
 
 " This meeting (which will probably have 
 important results, as it was the foundation of 
 that which afterwards met at Stanley's, and 
 the formation of this party will turn the balance 
 on the Conservative side), originated in the 
 most insignificant causes. Sir Oswald Moseley, 
 an ordinary person, and a Mr. Young, talking 
 the thing over, suggested to one another to 
 try and get together Moderate men, and they 
 framed and sent out a parcel of notes addressed 
 to those, who, they thought, came under that 
 description, bearing no signature, and giving no 
 indication of the quarter from which they 
 emanated. When the tliirty-three people, who 
 came, were assembled, they found themselves 
 for the most part strangers to each other, and 
 each asking who such and such a one was. 
 When Graham invited any one who chose to 
 go on to Lord Stanley's, Moseley rather wanted 
 to decline in order to go on with his own 
 meeting, and play an important part ; but 
 nobody would hear of this, so he was obliged 
 to go with the rest to Stanley's house."
 
 Exit Party. 55 
 
 A curious sequel of tliis remarkable incident 
 I have described took place in 1867, long after 
 my father had left Parliament. During the 
 passage of the second Reform Bill through the 
 House of Commons, in that year, it became 
 necessary to make provision for seating some 
 additional members who were to represent the 
 new constituencies created under it. In dis- 
 cussing the measure Mr. Gladstone said that this 
 necessary arrangement could be accomplished by 
 doing away with the " Cross benches," which 
 had till then formed a part of the structure of 
 the House, as there was no longer any use for 
 them. That the last occupant of those benches 
 was Mr. George Frederick Young, a gentleman 
 who had " crotchety notions of the subject of 
 trade." It is, perhaps, almost needless to add 
 that my father was a great " Protectionist," a 
 principle with which Gladstone had no sympathy 
 whatever. 
 
 I have now gone through the long centuries 
 of the installation of our parliamentary institu- 
 tions, and their connection with our monarchs 
 since the time of Edward I. At length I come 
 to the Victorian age, a period fraught with 
 the most marvellous developments of the history 
 of the British people, both at home and beyond 
 the seas, in every department and walk of life.
 
 56 Exit Party. 
 
 Some of us who, as I did, saw the Queen 
 and her beloved Consort, " Albert the Good," 
 as they drove in their carriage by road from 
 London to Windsor on the afternoon of their 
 marriage day, February 10th, 1840, might 
 perhaps have indulged in a passing day-dream of 
 what was to be the future destiny of that Eoyal 
 pair ; the august heads of the great and mighty 
 British Empire. By the inscrutable decrees of 
 Providence the Prince was cut off in the prime 
 of his manhood, and in the midst of his wise 
 counsels and intellectual activity for the good 
 of the people, to the irreparable grief of the 
 Queen, and profound sorrow of the nation. But 
 Her Most Gracious Majesty has, thank God, 
 been preserved to us to the present hour, if it 
 could be imagined possible, winning more and 
 more the veneration, the admiration, and the 
 love of the many millions of her people at home 
 and beyond the seas by her wonderful wisdom 
 and supreme tact as a ruler, no less than by her 
 charming and beautiful womanly sympathy 
 prompting her constant and wonderful personal 
 activity in her unceasing desire for the pro- 
 motion of the w^elfare of her subjects, through- 
 out the length and breadth of her world-wide 
 dominions. With regard to her Parliaments, 
 unlike so many of her predecessors, her relations
 
 Exit Party. 57 
 
 have been of tlie utmost and most uninterrupted 
 harmony from the first moment she ascended 
 the throne. In the present day, Parliament is 
 supreme ; and in the midst of the fiercest 
 contentions between opposite political parties 
 the Queen has never by one hair's breadth 
 shown the slightest feeling of partisanship for 
 one or the other party. She has invariably 
 chosen her Ministers from the dominant party 
 for the time being, and not a shadow of prefer- 
 ence has been indicated either towards one or 
 the other. Party spirit has been rampant, and 
 faction fast and furious from time to time. 
 Liberal and Tory Governments have constantly 
 contended for supremacy, but the Liberals have 
 dominated for the largest part of the reign. 
 The Liberals have guided the policy of the 
 nation rather than the Conservatives. The 
 Queen's successive Ministers comprise the names 
 of Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Lord John 
 Pussell, the Earl of Aberdeen, Lord Palmerston, 
 Earl Derby, Disraeli, Gladstone, the Earl of 
 Posebery, and the Marquess of Salisbury. 
 
 As Pitt and Fox were the two great and 
 conspicuous parliamentary gladiators of the 
 eighteenth century, so Disraeli and Gladstone 
 were the same during the nineteenth. Their 
 efforts to obtain the supremacy in Parliament
 
 58 Exit Party. 
 
 were incessant. The weapons of their intel- 
 lectual warfare comprised the cut and thrust, 
 the onslaught and parry of many a hard-fought 
 fight. Gladstone had the one advantage which 
 nature gave him of being the younger man of 
 the two, and when in the course of time Disraeli 
 left the House of Commons for the House of 
 Lords as Earl Beaconsfield, and subsequently 
 died, Gladstone was left supreme. His mar- 
 vellous gifts, and power of influencing the 
 people, long won for him the confidence of the 
 majority of the nation, and this he maintained 
 unimpaired, until at length, in an evil moment, 
 attracted by the fascinations of Home Rule for 
 Ireland, to one of his imaginative temperament, 
 he identified himself so completely with that un- 
 toward cause that, although he still maintained 
 his personal supremacy, and was even able to 
 establish the new name of '' Gladstonian " for 
 the ultra-Liberal party, the ultimate consequence 
 was, the total disruption of that party, which 
 became shivered to atoms even before his own 
 death. Although for a time his personal in- 
 fluence was so great that he was able more than 
 once in his life to become the head of what was 
 called a Gladstonian or Eadical Party, with his 
 death the very name perished, and the fall of 
 party as the ruling element of the formation
 
 Exit Party. 59 
 
 of the government of the country became com- 
 plete. 
 
 One of the strongest arguments that I 
 could adduce in favour of my contention on 
 this subject is the fact that no less than three 
 of Gladstone's Cabinet Ministers, viz., Mr. 
 G. J. Goschen, the Duke of Devonshire, and 
 Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, are now prominent 
 members of the Unionist Ministry, forming one 
 of the strono;est Governments we remember in 
 our time. They prove my title to ' Exit Party.' 
 
 And here I pause ! I have traced the rise, 
 I have shown the fall of party as the ruling 
 factor in the formation by party of the various 
 Cabinets which have constituted the successive 
 Governments of Great Britain. 
 
 I shall finish my essay by placing on record 
 a few thoughts and reflections as a prophetic 
 vision and shadow of the future.
 
 6o Exit Party. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SOCIALISM, OR LIBERAL IMPERIALISM. 
 
 " Yet I venture to think — I may be wrong — in ten years, 
 perhaps — you will remember my prophecy — I believe the 
 party of Liberal Imperialism is destined to control the 
 destinies of this country," — Lord Roseiery's speech at Bath, 
 29th October, 1899. 
 
 The archives of the twentieth century will attest 
 if the men of light and leading will rise for the 
 construction and maintenance of the Government 
 of the British Empire in a spirit and on a wave 
 of patriotism above party, to direct and guide 
 the people with wisdom and true statesmanship, 
 in order to promote the well being of " the 
 greatest happiness to the greatest number " ; 
 or whether the dark and baneful shadow of 
 Socialism will become ascendant to submerge 
 the nation in a cataclysm of confusion and 
 anarchical revolution and ruin. 
 
 It seems, unhappily, to be the case that the 
 poisonous and pernicious doctrine of Socialism is
 
 Exit Party. 6i 
 
 spreading among the masses of the people. The 
 attractions of these irrational doctrines, which 
 seem to comprise the levelling of all classes, the 
 abrogation of the rights of property, and the 
 upsetting of all the machinery by which civilised 
 society has hitherto been held together, have 
 unfortunately fascinated many educated people, 
 who have consequently induced the ignorant 
 to imbibe these miserable principles. I might 
 cite among others the late accomplished artist 
 and poet, high art decorator and designer, 
 "William Morris, who, having imbibed an attitude 
 towards the current politics of his day of 
 irritation and contempt, arrived at the extra- 
 ordinary conclusion that Toryism was a system 
 of common robbery, but it was better than 
 Whiggism, which was a compound of petty 
 larceny and popular instruction of receiving 
 stolen goods. So runs a well known passage 
 in 'Romany Rye,' and Morris regarded politics 
 in much the same way and had much in common 
 with Bottom in the novel. 
 
 Morris and his party, yielding to the dan- 
 gerous and fallacious fascination of the idea, that, 
 as God created all men, all men have a claim 
 to equality, and the like equal claim to a division 
 of the wealth acquired during long ages by every 
 civilised community, have endeavoured to instil
 
 62 Exit Party. 
 
 these tenets into the minds of the masses of the 
 people, uneducated and ignorant as they are of 
 the laws of political economy, and of the princi- 
 ples which must, in the long run, guide the 
 destinies of every nation removed from savagery 
 and barbarism. This leads them to carry on an 
 unceasing war between capital and labour, two 
 out of the three elements of national wealth, 
 which ought to work under conditions of perfect 
 harmony in every well ordered community. They 
 encourage a violent antagonism between what 
 have been erroneously and most unfortunately 
 designated the " classes " and the " masses," 
 obviously oblivious, that in a country like our 
 own, in this democratic age, there are no such 
 lines of demarcation, where every man is free, 
 and where he and his family may be found 
 closely associated with either or both. All these 
 pestilent and untrue doctrines tend to rouse the 
 evil passions of S^he partially educated, or wholly 
 uneducated masses, who, in their unrestrained 
 and ungovernable wrath against the order of 
 things, as they partially and imperfectly see 
 them, tempt them to foster a mad desire to 
 destroy and uproot the foundations and land- 
 marks of a civilisation which has hitherto pre- 
 vailed ; and without the power or capacity to 
 build up and reconstruct a workable system to
 
 Exit Party. 63 
 
 succeed it, would only, if they had their way, 
 land the nation in the throes of a catastrophe, 
 more disastrous than any revolution v/e have 
 ever experienced. This is the outcome of the 
 mischievous principle of Socialism, driven home 
 to its logical conclusion. It may not perhaps 
 be foreseen by some of its educated supporters, 
 enamoured of an enthusiastic and feather-headed 
 sympathy for the unequal lot of the majority of 
 the working classes. But its truth ought not 
 to be ignored. The ultimate evil would prevail 
 in spite of all denials and protestations to the 
 contrary. It is probably possible, that the 
 pendulum of Socialism may oscillate between 
 active propagandism and passive inactivity, 
 according to the fluctuating conditions of Trade ; 
 on the one hand during times of general employ- 
 ment among the working classes ; or on the 
 other, in seasons of commercial depression and 
 stagnation. Either the former or latter may 
 predominate, according to these manifold con- 
 ditions. But the pernicious principle is there, 
 as an active or dormant organism, liable at any 
 exciting opportunity to spring into life, if 
 slumbering before. Already having the thought 
 and the will, its votaries design, as far as they 
 have the power, to compass the destruction of 
 the existing order, which for ages has constituted
 
 64 Exit Party. 
 
 the basis, and built up the fabric of civilised 
 Society. 
 
 The following is the manifesto which Morris 
 drew up 1st May, 1893, for English Socialists : 
 " By a brief review of the facts it is shown, that 
 some constructive theory is absolutely known of 
 them. There are only three ; and two of the 
 three must be rejected. The feudal or Tory 
 theory, which is incompatible with modern con- 
 ditions and the fact of democracy ; and the 
 Manchester or Whig theory, which has com- 
 pletely broken down in practice ; and the third 
 is Socialism." 
 
 It is deplorable that the enunciation of such 
 pestilent principles as those of Socialism should 
 be supported by men of education and culture. 
 It appears to be the bounden duty of all who 
 desire to counteract the spread of such pro- 
 foundly dangerous doctrines being spread among 
 the uneducated classes that they should do all 
 in their power to counteract them. 
 
 It seems to me that there is one way in 
 which sanguine hopes might be entertained of 
 this being effected. It is by the earnest desire 
 of all wise and thoughtful men to identify them- 
 selves with any hopeful means of counteracting 
 such doctrines. It is a notable and fortunate 
 feature of the order of Society, as it is consti-
 
 Exit Party. 65 
 
 tuted in England at the present day, that there 
 is a large and increasing number of men and 
 women, who, being placed by Providence in the 
 higher and wealthier grades in the social scale, 
 and who are animated by a feeling of Christian 
 philanthropy, nobly devote themselves, with 
 splendid self-sacrifice, to the amelioration of the 
 condition of the other classes who are not so 
 fortunately endowed as themselves. By sym- 
 pathy and by material aid, and by earnestly 
 working among them in their midst, they 
 become conspicuous apostles in demonstrating 
 the desire of all classes to share, as far as is 
 compatible with the existing order of things, 
 the benefits and advantages, and prosperity, 
 which social progress, and ages of civilisation 
 have so largely bestowed upon the British 
 nation. There is one signal mode, in my opinion, 
 of successfully attempting to oppose the spread 
 of Socialism in our midst. It is this, by identi- 
 fying ourselves with the idea, already promul- 
 gated by Lord Rosebery, of turning the thoughts 
 of the people at large to embrace the theory of 
 " Liberal Imperialism," and in other words, by 
 myself interpreted, to be a system of Imperial 
 Federation. It is a theory of wide application 
 for the benefit and for the promotion of the 
 well-being of all sections of Society. It aims 
 
 F
 
 66 Exit Party. 
 
 at the attainment of the "political advantage 
 and enfranchisement of all. And now in 
 reference to the word " Imperialism," which has 
 been hitherto so frequently wrongly interpreted 
 in this direction, I here record a protest. 
 It is not according to the popular idea a 
 name to describe the despotism of an autocrat. 
 In this connection it simply means, in the widest 
 sense, the automatic expansion of the principles 
 of an empire's government. In this form I 
 earnestly look forward to the foundation of a 
 system of a " Liberal Imperialism " which will 
 establish the principle of the representation in 
 fair proportions in a supreme Senate of England 
 and her Colonies. Such a Senate would be 
 supreme for the control of all subjects within 
 definite lines of an Imperial character, as ques- 
 tions of national defence, and national expendi- 
 ture for such Imperial purposes, and others of .ajj^^^ 
 like nature; leaving clearly and distinctly- to 
 local parliaments which would have the uncon- 
 trolled rule and guidance of their own local 
 affairs, in all parts of the Empire, both in 
 England and her Colonies. Imperial federation 
 means a constitutional system, not in the slightest 
 degree of a subjugation of the independence of 
 the Colonies to the control of the Mother Country. 
 On the contrary, it clearly and distinctly involves
 
 Exit Party. 67 
 
 the condition that the Colonies themselves, with- 
 out the slightest interference with their present 
 perfect independence, are invited to take their 
 adequate part and share with the Mother Country 
 in its future concrete constitution and govern- 
 ment. In a brief but expressive phrase it means 
 the government " of the Empire by the Empire 
 for the Empire." 
 
 I am aware that the question has been raised 
 by some writers as to whether government by 
 party is compatible with Democracy ; and that 
 in a democratic age it might be best to revert 
 to the original plan of parliamentary institutions 
 of havinoj deles:ates from the various consti- 
 tuencies from which the administrative depart- 
 ments of the Government itself should be chosen 
 by Parliament itself. This would of course be 
 a radical change in the formation of Govern- 
 ments. There would be no necessity for a Prime 
 Minister nominated by the Sovereign, who would 
 choose his colleagues to form a Cabinet, and the 
 Government, as a whole, standing or falling 
 according to the support or otherwise of the 
 majority of Parliament. I am afraid, however, 
 that this plan would not be found to work more 
 beneficially to the nation than the present 
 system. I have in this essay of ' Exit Party ' 
 shown the rise and downfall of " Party " as an
 
 68 Exit Party. 
 
 essential ingredient in the formation of the 
 Cabinet. But, as in a play, the performers make 
 their exit at the end of a scene, the curtain rises 
 on the next, and they reappear, so I indulge 
 the idea that, after the downfall I have described, 
 it may be possible to reconstruct, on improved 
 lines, the principle of Cabinet responsibility. 
 
 That powerful writer, Goldwin Smith, in his 
 recently published book, ' The United Kingdom : 
 a Political History,' says, " A community, living 
 under a constitution imposed by eternal authority, 
 and without the powers of peace or war, can 
 hardly be said yet to have attained the status 
 of a nation." But my own contention is that 
 Imperial Federation is to remedy all that in the 
 relations which, under such a constitution, would 
 prevail between the Mother Country, Canada, 
 and the other self-o-overninsj Colosies. 
 
 And again he says, speaking of Australian 
 federation, " Australian federation, so called, is 
 like that of Canada, not a federation proper, but 
 a nation with a federal structure. It seems to 
 postulate Cabinet, and therefore party Govern- 
 ment. But how are Australian parties to be 
 found ? How is the Cabinet to be evolved ? 
 The machinery has to be constructed with care, 
 and, doubtless, with skill." Precisely so, I agree 
 with almost every word of Goldwin Smith's
 
 Exit Party. 69 
 
 philosophical and most important pronounce- 
 ment. It is true he adds, " But where is the 
 motor ? " Doubtless, I say, that will come too, 
 given the political wisdom and the will among 
 the wisest constitutional leaders of the nation, 
 and, sooner or later, the motor will appear. 
 
 And this motor will come -fee©^ with Imperial 
 Federation. Under it the Colonies would bear 
 their part in conjunction with Great Britain in 
 guiding the policy and directing the destinies 
 of the whole British Empire. The war in which 
 we are at present engaged in South Africa will, 
 when it is concluded by our ultimate triumph, 
 afford the most promising opportunity for the 
 development of this new phase of our political 
 constitution, of our national life. 
 
 The magnificent way in which the Colonies 
 have come forward to aid the Mother Country 
 in the prosecution of the war will compel the 
 necessity for evolving it. " Who pays the piper 
 must command the tune." As the Colonies have 
 already, and will yet participate largely in the 
 immense sacrifice of men and money which this 
 war has involved, it is inevitable that they must 
 be consulted in the future Imperial policy of the 
 nation. And this must be by the propounding 
 of some scheme of National Imperial Federation. 
 
 To solve satisfactorily a problem of such vast
 
 yo Exit Party. 
 
 and stupendous importance will demand the 
 powers of the highest intellects, and require 
 the greatest skill of the most astute and fore- 
 most statesmen of our time. If they possess the 
 wisdom, and have the genius to accomplish this 
 national work on a thoroughly sound founda- 
 tion, they will succeed in inaugurating Imperial 
 Federation as the grandest and most felicitous 
 expansion of our political constitution for the 
 future rule and government of the United British 
 Empire.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 "The Government is no longer at this crisis a party- 
 organisation, but is the executive of the band represeuting 
 the interests and the honour of the whole people." — Extract 
 from Mr. Chamberlain'' s speech at Leicester on Novemher 2dth, 
 1899, on the war in South Africa. 
 
 Daily Mail, January ISth, 1900. 
 
 " A new era is dawning. The British Empire marches 
 forward shoulder to shoulder. Sea and land will, as before, 
 separate us, but never again will it be divided by jealousy, 
 . neglect, or party faction." 
 
 Morning Post, January 13th, 1900. 
 
 " We appeal to the nation, and we repeat the appeal, to 
 rise above party distinctions. What Englishmen are now 
 asking for is a patriotic Government of able men without 
 any label of party." 
 
 Saturday Review, March 2ith, 1900. 
 
 " So far as sentiment goes the federation of the Empire 
 is complete, but something more than sentiment is required. 
 Imperial Federation has been on the lips of statesmen for a 
 quarter of a century ; it has passed through stages of doubt 
 and ridicule, but it has moved irresistibly if slowly. If the
 
 72 Exit Party. 
 
 unity of the British Empire is not cemented within the 
 walls of the Presidency at Pretoria as surely as the unity of 
 the German Empire was cemented in the Palace of Versailles, 
 the fault will not lie with the Colonies. Federation is the 
 biggest problem which the British race has ever had to face, 
 but it is no longer complicated by uncertainties as to the 
 wishes of the Colonies. They do not shirk the dangers 
 devolving on them as units of the Empire ; and they make 
 little attempt to disguise their feeling, that the time has 
 arrived when that fact should be recognised in some 
 tangible form. If the unique character of the problem to 
 be faced oppresses the constitutional mind, the unique 
 character of the Empire should inspire courage. Imperial 
 Federation, whether it becomes a concrete fact as it must 
 become immediately or in the near future, will be the best 
 monument to Colonial devotion in the present crisis."
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abeedeen, Earl of, 57 
 Act of Settlement, 35 
 Addington, Lord, 45 
 Australian Federation, 68 
 
 Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 25 
 Barebones Parliament, 43 
 Barons, Grievances of the, 12 
 Bath, Order of the, 38 
 Beaconsfield, Earl of, 57 
 Bill of Rights, 5 
 Blacklow Hill, 22 
 Bolingbroke, Viscount, 36 
 Bosworth, Field of, 22 
 Buitish liberty. Palladium of, 4 
 Burghley, Lord, 26 
 
 Cabinet Ministers, Respon- 
 sibility of, 36 
 
 Cabinet system, 35 
 
 Canada and federation, 68 
 
 Canning, George, 45 
 
 Canterbury, Archbishop of, 
 4,7 
 
 Castlereagh, Viscount, 45 
 
 Catholic emancipation, 45 
 
 Cavalier Parliaments, 43 
 
 Cavaliers, Origin of, 31 
 
 Cecil, Sir William, 25 
 
 Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. Joseph, 
 
 59 
 Charles I., 28 
 Charles II., 33 
 Chatham, Earl of, 40 
 Chesterfield, Earl of, 40 
 Coalition Ministries, 42 
 Colonial expansion, 26 
 Colonies and Imperial Federa- 
 tion, 69 
 Colonies and the war in South 
 
 Africa, 69 
 Commons of England, Repre- 
 sentation first assumed, 14 
 Conservative Party, 32, 57 
 Control of Parliament, 23 
 Convention Parliaments, 43 
 Council of Barons and Clergy, 7 
 Council of National Wisdom, 
 
 10 
 Council of the British Nation, 
 
 10 
 Cromwell, Oliver, and the 
 
 Commonwealth, 32 
 Crown, Prerogative of the, 22 
 
 Democracy, 64, 67 
 Derby Dilly, The, 52 
 Derby, Earl of, 51, 57
 
 74 
 
 Index. 
 
 Devonshire, Duke of, 40, 59 
 Disraeli, Benjamin, 57 
 Divine Right of Kings, 17, 28 
 Drake, Sir Francis, 26 
 
 Early Councils and Parlia- 
 ments, 14 
 Edward I., 14, 17, 19 
 Edward II., 21 
 Edward VI., 25 
 Eleanor, Princess, 12 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 25, 26, 28 
 England's Political History, 8 
 English Parliamentary system, 
 
 19 
 Enmity of Race, 15 
 Evesham, Battle of, 13 
 Exit Party, Title of, 59 
 
 Formation of Governments, 
 
 67 
 Fox, Charles James, 42, 44, 57 
 Frobisher, Sir Martin, 26 
 
 Gaveston, Piers, 21 
 
 George I., 35 
 
 George II., 35 
 
 George III., 41 
 
 Georgian Era, Parliament 
 under the, 35 
 
 Gladstone, W. E., 39, 55, 57 
 
 Gladstonian Party, Establish- 
 ment of, 58 
 
 Goderich, Lord, 45 
 
 Goschen, G. J., 59 
 
 Government by Party, 1, 40, 
 67 
 
 Greville's Memoirs, 52 
 Grey, Lord, 45 
 
 H. B.'s Caricatures of Poli- 
 tical Celebrities, 51 
 
 Habeas Corpus, Principle of, 5 
 
 Hampden, John, 30 
 
 Harley, Robert (Earl of Ox- 
 ford), 36 
 
 Henry I., 4 
 
 Henry III., 10, 12, 14, 19 
 
 Henry VIL, 22 
 
 Henry VIII., 23 
 
 Home Rule for Ireland, 58 
 
 House of Commons, First 
 Sittings, 16 
 
 Houses of Parliament, Fire 
 at, 49 
 
 Imperial Federation, 65, 
 66, 68-70 
 
 Imperialism, 65, 66 
 
 Independent Party, Forma- 
 tion of, 50-52 
 
 Innocent III., Pope, 7 
 
 Instrument of the Constitu- 
 tion, 33 
 
 James I., 28 
 James II., 33 
 John, King, 4, 19 
 
 Knights of the Shire, 13, 16 
 
 Langton, Stephen, 4, 7, 9 
 Leicester, Earl of, 9, 12, 14 
 Liberal Imperialism, 60, 65
 
 Index. 
 
 75 
 
 Liberal Party, 32, 57 
 Little Parliaments, 43 
 Long Parliaments, 43 
 Lords and Commons, Assem- 
 bly of, 17 
 Lothair, Cardinal, 7 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, 15 
 
 Magna Carta, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 
 10,20 
 
 Martyrdom of Man, 3 
 
 Mary Queen of Scots, Execu- 
 tion of, 27 
 
 " Measures, not Men," 50 
 
 Melbourne, Lord, 57 
 
 Ministers chosen by the King? 
 21 
 
 Montfort, Simon de, 9-14 
 
 Morris, William, and Social- 
 ism, 61 
 
 Moseley, Sir Oswald, 51, 54 
 
 Mother of Parliaments, 17 
 
 National Council, 9 
 National Government, 6 
 National Imperial Federation, 
 
 69 
 National Liberties, 9 
 National Parliament, 14 
 Newcastle, Duke of, 40 
 Newfoundland and Treaty of 
 
 Utrecht, 37 
 Northumberland, Earl of, 24 
 
 Open-Door in Politics, 50 
 Orford, Earl of (Robert Wal- 
 pole), 36, 37 
 
 Origin of Party Government, 8 
 Oxford, Barons assemble at, 
 
 12 
 Oxford, Earl of (Robert Har- 
 
 ley), 36 
 Oxford, Provisions of , 13 
 
 Palmerston, Lord, 57 
 
 Paralytic Parliaments, 43 
 
 Parliamentary System, Es- 
 tablishment of, 20 
 
 Parliaments, Invention of, 3, 
 9, 10 
 
 Parliaments, Mother of, 17 
 
 Parliaments, Names of, 43 
 
 Party Government, Origin 
 and Growth of, 8, 10, 13, 
 15, 59 
 
 Party System, 85 
 
 Patriotism above Party, 60 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, 57 
 
 Perceval, Spencer, 45 
 
 Personal Freedom, Develop- 
 ment of, 4 
 
 Petition of Rights, 29 
 
 Pioneers of National thought, 
 2 
 
 Pitt, William (Earl of Chat- 
 ham), 40 
 
 Pitt, William, 43, 44, 57 
 
 Plantagenet Dynasty, 11, 20, 
 22 
 
 Pope Innocent III., 7 
 
 Pride's Purge, 43 
 
 Prime Minister, Office of, 38 
 
 Privilege of Levying Taxes, 
 14
 
 76 
 
 Index. 
 
 Privy Council, System of the,' 
 
 34, 35 
 Pym, John, 30, 31 
 
 Radical Party, 58 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 26 
 Reciprocity of Duties Act, 48 
 Reform Bill of 1832 . . 45, 47 
 Relations of Parliament and 
 
 Monarch, 48 
 Revolution of 1688... 33 
 Richard TIL, 22 
 Rights of the People, 22 
 Rise and Downfall of Party, 67 
 Rosebery, Earl of, 42, 57, 65' 
 Roundheads, Origin of, 31 
 .Runuemede, Annals of, &c., 
 
 3, 6, 7 
 Russell, Lord John, 39, 57 
 
 Salisbury, Marquis of, 57 
 Schillibeer's Omnibus, 51 
 Second Reform Bill, 54 
 Selborne, Lord, 42 
 Senate of England and her 
 
 Colonies, 66 
 Short Parliaments, 43 
 Smith, Goldwin, 31, 35, 41, 68 
 Smith, G. Barnett, 5, 26 
 Smith, Sir Thomas, 26 
 Socialism, Doctrine of, 60 
 South Sea Bubble, 37 
 Spanish Armada, Defeat of 
 
 the, 27 
 Spencer, Robert, 35 
 
 Stanley, Lord, 51 
 Strafford, Sir T. W., 29 
 Stuart Dynasty, 11, 20, 22 
 Sunderland, Earl of, 35 
 Sydenham, Lord, 48 
 
 Taxes, Privilege of Levy- 
 ing, 14 
 Thompson, Powlett, 48, 49 
 Tory Party, 31, 34, 35, 43 
 Tudor Dynasty, 11, 20, 22, 28 
 
 Unionist Government, For- 
 mation OF, 50 
 
 Unionist Ministry, 59 
 
 United British Empire, Rule 
 and Government of, 70 
 
 Utrecht, Treaty of, 37 
 
 Victoria, Queen, 20, 50, 56 
 Victorian Age, 55 
 
 Walpole, Sir Robert (Earl 
 
 OF Orford), 36, 37 
 Walsingham, Sir Francis, 25 
 Warwick, Earl of, 22 
 Wellington, Duke of, 45 
 Whigs and Whig Party, 31, 
 
 34,35 
 WiUiam III., 34 
 Witenagemot, 9 
 Wolsey, Cardinal, 23, 24 
 
 Young, George Frederick, 
 47-55 
 
 LONDON : FEINTED BT WILLIAM CLOWES AKD SONS, LIMITED, STAMFOKD STEEET 
 AND CHARING CEOSS.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.
 
 JN1117 .YBbe 
 
 y 
 
 III iiiiiiii 
 L 009 621 337 6 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 AA 001 352 894
 
 'f^-i{'::^f': 
 
 |||i§|:^:::;;||||i?!|