MR. BALFOITR.
WE are heartily glad that Mr. Balfour should be the - successor of Lord Salisbury in the Premiership. Few men have contrived to attain to supreme power in the State with such universal goodwill. It is hardly too much to say, indeed, that no British statesman ever became Prime Minister with such complete acquiescence among both friends and foes. One hardly cares to mention the absurd attempts to represent Mr. Chamberlain as anxious to claim the Premiership as his due,—so utterly opposed are they to the facts and to Mr. Chamberlain's true, and not caricature, character. Mr. Chamberlain is a good fighter, and though he is not vindictive, he is undoubtedly while the combat lasts a good hater. But to his friends he is the most loyal of men, and none but the hopelessly prejudiced ever imagined it possible that he would try to deprive Mr. Balfour of the succession to the Premiership. Mr. Chamberlain is in all the relations of life a high- minded, honourable man ; and the expressions he used in welcoming Mr. Balfour as his leader were stamped by the utmost sincerity. Mr. Chamberlain is a keen man, an eager man, and an impulsive man ; but the satirists who represent him as a jealous intriguer and supplanter of his friends entirely miss the mark.
Whether Mr. Balfour will succeed as a Premier only time can show. He has, at any rate, some very great qualities which should command success, and which mark him out as a leader of men, and as the fitting person to wield the tremendous power and authority that belong to a, British Prime Minister. In the first place, he possesses the serenity of mind which should go with supreme authority, and should belong to those who say the final word on great issues. He does not perhaps expect very much from men, but he is never perturbed or thrown off his balance by individual failures. There is a certain danger, no doubt, in the want of anything approaching the saeva indignatio which belongs to his character, but this entire absence of irascibility is also a great source of strength. He is not swayed by prejudice. Again, Mr. Balfour, as his whole career and all his public utterances show, is singularly devoid of suspicion. Bacon in a famous passage bids men beware of suspicion, and points out how it clouds the mind." Few men have their minds less clouded by suspicion than Mr. Balfour. In truth this refusal to entertain suspicion is to some extent a defect. Suspicion is sometimes but too well justified, and it is not always the highest wisdom to assume virtues till vices become apparent. Yet if we take the widest outlook, and especially in the case of men at the very summit of public life, the complete absence of suspicion, even if it some- times leads to mistakes, is to be preferred to the opposite extreme. In the head of the State no quality is more beneficial than calmness and trustfulness of heart and brain. Such serenity and unsuspiciousness are the best security of justice, and in rulers all men desire and esteem justice. A great deal of Mr. Balfour's remarkable hold on the country is derived from the fact that the people know him to be above all things a just man. This belief made him respected even in Ireland, and in England caused the unique spectacle witnessed on Monday. The Opposition leaders and rank-and-file were alike genuinely pleased when Mr. Balfour had become Prime Minister. They knew that, quarrel with him as they might about details, and detest as they might his opinions and his acts, they would always have in him a, straightforward political enemy, and one who would never attribute to them unjust or unworthy motives. But the possession of such a hold on the nation as a whole and on his antagonists gives an immense reserve of strength to a Prime Minister. He has, as it were, insured himself against times of stress and peril. We may be certain, that is, that if at a time of national crisis Mr. Balfour found it necessary to make an appeal to his opponents to abandon party strife for a time and to act with him, that appeal would obtain a better hearing than it would in the case of any other living statesman.
We have pointed out what we believe to be certain qualities of incomparable value in a Prime Minister, but we have no intention of flattering Mr. Balfour. His personal characteristicslay him open to many considerable dangers. To begin with, he is too apt to take unnecessary burdens on himself, and to make himself responsible for blunders which he has not committed. Such conduct always calls up a sense of admiration, and up to a certain point it is wise as well as generous. A statesman, however, must think of himself as an instrument of government as well as a man, and it is his business not to let that instrument be injured or depreciated in the public mind. A man who has become Prime Minister must not, for the sake of sheltering a subordinate or a colleague, allow his own character for efficiency and good sense to suffer. Mr. Balfour's defect is, in a word, to sacrifice himself too readily. While himself a subordinate, or at any rate a Minister without the chief power, this generosity and impulsiveness might not greatly matter ; but now Mr. Balfour cannot afford to bear the blame for other men's blunders. A Prime Minister who does not show a certain hardness of temperament, and who strives too much to save men from the results, of their own mistakes, is sure to encounter grave difficulties. Administrators, civil and military, must take the consequences of their failures, and cannot be allowed to distribute the loss among their colleagues. In a word, a Prime Minister must not allow his feeling of loyalty to his friends to retain men in high office who are for one reason or another not fitted for such positions. Needless to say, a Prime Minister cannot always be shedding his colleagues, or always forcing them to adopt his views on matters of policy ; but unless he can make his will felt unmistakably in the Cabinet and in every department of the Administration, his Government will not long receive the confidence of the nation. This need for the guiding hand in a Cabinet has often been dwelt upon in our columns. A Prime Minister should, in our view, directly associate himself with the work and projects of every office. He need not interfere in details, but he should know all that is going on, and should be, in fact, a co-operator in the work of every one of his colleagues. Only by such means is the Prime Minister able to harmonise the work of his Government. Lord Rosebery has told us that the modern Prime Minister would find it physically impossible to see every one of his Ministers separately every day, after the manner of Sir Robert Peel. But even admitting this, he should be able to obtain direct knowledge of all that is going on in all the great Departments of State. Mr. Balfour may, we fear, be inclined to shrink from this duty, not out of laziness, but out of consideration for his colleagues ; but if he does, he will make a capital error in his handling of the Administration. In any case, to do this it is necessary that the Cabinet should not be too large. A Prime Minister who can control a Cabinet of a dozeit members might find one of twenty entirely beyond the sphere of his personal influence. We trust, therefore, that Mr. Balfour will find it possible to reduce the present Cabinet in size. There are at least five members of the existing Cabinet who might appro- priately follow Lord Salisbury in his tacit declaration that the time has come to introduce new blood into the Cabinet and to make room for new men.
We have dwelt upon the dangers before Mr. Balfour, but it must not be supposed that we hold that the defects in his character in any way outbalance the good qualities. On the contrary, we hold that Mr. Balfour enters upon his Premiership with the best possible chances of success. He knows his own mind, he believes in and relies on the good sense as well as high spirit of the British people, and though he is in no sort of way unfair to the Opposition, he is, in the best sense, a good party man. If Mr. Balfour will only insist on his right to lead the Unionist party—i.e., will refrain from waiting for indica- tions of the desire of the party—he is sure to be amply repaid for his boldness. He must remember that the people of this country, though they will not be driven, sincerely desire to be led, and always lavish their gratitude on a true leader. Ministers are far too apt to wait on public opinion, and to try to obtain from it an indica- tion of the policy they ought to pursue. In truth, the Prime Minister can to a great extent create the public opinion he feels obliged to obey. If he will speak plainly to the people, and tell them where and how he wants their support, he is almost certain to obtain it. Mr. Balfour has won the confidence of the country, and if he is wise he will base his action on that fact. His view, that is, if clearly expressed, will prove to be the greatest of the forces that make up public opinion. The country is most anxious for direct guidance on a hundred points, and if Mr. Balfour makes it his business to form and lead public opinion, he may easily become the strongest Prime Minister of modern times.
Previous page
