THE PREMIERSHIP. T HE fact that the Premier has been obliged
to leave England for his health may well suggest the question whether the double burden which Lord Salisbury is called on to bear is not really too great for his, or indeed for any human, shoulders. An ordinary Cabinet Minister is never anything but a hard-worked man. Even in the lesser Departments there is always plenty of work to do, while the holders of the more important offices have not only to get through their own work, but to help their colleagues on Cabinet Committees. But it is admitted on all hands that no other Cabinet Minister has anything like the work of the Foreign Secretary. His office is quite apart for work, worry, and responsibility. To begin with, he has to deal with a hundred totally different subjects simultaneously, and subjects which in no sense work together. Settling a problem connected with Siam does not help him to solve one in which Germany or Russia is involved. Next, the Foreign Minister cannot delegate his work. He must give his individual attention to all the important matters that arise in his office. That is, in dealing with a foreign Power he must decide himself, and not merely accept somebody else's opinion. Again, he cannot put things off, for the days of dawdling are over in the Foreign Office. Within reasonable limits he must settle the questions put before him by our Ambassadors and Ministers or by foreign diplomats with prompti- tude. Then, too, the Foreign Minister is not master of his own time. He is constantly open to the incursions of the foreign Ambassadors, who at any moment may descend upon him and demand an audience,—an audience, too, which cannot be easily cut short. Unfortunately, too, the management of our foreign affairs by no means exhausts the functions of our Foreign Office. The Department has had the government of a considerable Empire tacked on to its other duties. Not only does it in the last resort administer Egypt, but it rules in Zanzibar, governs and builds railways in British East Africa, controls the Niger Company and the British Borneo Company, and has a host of other protectorates and spheres of influence under its management. No wonder, then, that the wheels of the Foreign Office never stop grinding, and that the Foreign Secretary is always up to his eyes in work.
But by the irony of fate the Foreign Minister has been the person selected to hold at the same time the office of Prime Minister. On the man who has already so much personal work to get through we have imposed the extra duty of superintending all his colleagues, of presiding at every Cabinet Council, of selecting the men for all the great appointments, and of doing all the other duties of a Prime Minister. It is as if we were to select the man who has the hardest job in a gang of workmen and were to tell him to be " foreman " as well,—to use his spade and pick as hard as ever, but at the same time to keep an eye on every one else in the gang, and to alter or vary their employment at his discretion. Such a plan would be thought preposterous in ordinary life. There it is a rule that whoever is put to supervise others drops the tools himself, and gives his whole time and energy up to the work of direction and management. So if possible it ought to be in the case of the Premiership. The Premier should by right be the foreman of the gang—a man with time and opportunity to overlook all his col- leagues' work, to give a piece of advice here, to lend a helping hand there, to impose a veto on a wrong notion in one place, or to suggest the application of the true principle in another. It is for this reason that the Prime Minister has as a rule held only the office of First Lord of the Treasury, or at most that of Chancellor of the Exchequer, in addi- tion. But the First Lord of the Treasury—his duties as Leader of the House of Commons apart—is the holder of a Departmental sinecure. He has very little to do but to appoint to Crown livings and to do other acts of patronage. Even when the Premier is Chancellor of the Exchequer as well, he is only departmentally busy for the three months preceding the Budget. Hence as a rule the English Prime Minister has been a real foreman, and has been able to have a free mind for keeping his team together. The true attitude of a Premier towards his Cabinet is that of Sir Robert Peel. It is said that Sir Robert Peel had a private interview with every one of his colleagues every day during Session. Hence he was able to feel daily the pulse of the Administration. He knew exactly how things were going in every Department, and nothing affecting the interests of the Government could be suddenly sprung upon him. Without interfering with his colleagues in a way which they could resent, be was able to keep them in line. When he saw that two great problems were, as it were, being ripened together, and t hat if nothing were done they would mature at the same moment, to the inconvenience of every one, he was able to get one or the other delayed. That is indeed the secret of Premiership, as of foremanship. The able Premier, like the able foreman, should be always looking ahead and saying to himself and his men,—' We mustn't have two big things on at once or else we shall be tumbling over each other and generally in horrid diffi- culties. We can't do more than one thing at a time, and therefore we must consider who ought to slow down or work in a different direction.' We do not, of course, suggest that the Premier should treat his fellow-Ministers as if they were clerks and not colleagues; but unquestionably he ought to know everything of moment that is going on in every Department. If he has this knowledge he has all the power he can possibly want. But how can he have this knowledge if he is up to his eyes in the work of his own Department ? A Cabinet, then, in which the Prime Minister holds a great working office is bound to be some- what of a go-as-you-please Cabinet.
Though we feel so strongly that the Premier should not in theory have a heavy Department on his hands, we frankly admit that we do not see how in the present case it would have been possible to avoid the difficulty. Nobody but Lord Salisbury could have been Prime Minister. The present Unionist Cabinet was a difficult Cabinet to make as it was, but the task would have been ten times harder if Lord Salisbury had refused the Premiership. But it was equally essential that Lord Salisbury should be Foreign Minister. It would literally have been flying in the face of Providence not to have used his keen and great intellect, his vast experience of affairs, and his marvellous power of diplomatic bargaining in an office where those qualities would be invaluable. People here do not realise sufficiently what is Lord Salisbury's position on the Continent. He is there regarded as the last of the great statesmen who ruled Europe at the time of the Berlin Conference. He is the one great and striking figure among the little, or at any rate the new and untried, men who now control the Chancelleries of Europe. They are all jealous of each other, but they are all willing to admit that Lord Salisbury ranks above them by his great and long experience. Look at the effect of the compliment he paid M. Hanotaux. No one has doubted that M. Hanotaux was quite sincere in his gratitude, and no one, again, has thought it strange that M. Hanotaux should be so pleased. Again, most of the foreign statesmen have that very sincere respect for Lord Salisbury which arises in men's minds when they have been thoroughly worsted in a fair encounter. Lord Salisbury has never swaggered or called attention to his diplomatic victories ; indeed, he has some- times been content to label them as defeats, but in. reality they have been numerous. Lord Salisbury, then, could not possibly be spared from the Foreign Office, and was also absolutely obliged to be Premier. There was no help for it, but that he should hold both offices. But the realising of this hard fact cannot blind us to the very great inconveniences of the plan. Though we may know it to be a necessary, we cannot call it a good, arrangement. Fortunately, however, the present Cabinet is pervaded by a spirit which greatly mitigates the evils of which we have spoken. The Cabinet is a singularly homogeneous one. It is not, like the Cabinet it succeeded, torn by fierce hatreds and bitter jealousies. Lord Salis- bury's colleagues are singularly loyal to him and to each other. Hence, though the foreman is too busy digging to give much direction, the gang manages to get on pretty well, and to avoid injuring or impeding one another.
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