TOPICS OF THE DAY.
MR. GOSCHEN'S POSITION.
mR. GOSCHEN is a bold man, and like all bold men vtho succeed, tenacious of what he once decides upon. It is obvious enough, from his remarkable speech at Ripon on Wednesday, that he still insists on that separateness of posi- tion from the present Government, and even from the Liberal Party, which he asserted for himself when he refused to agree to the extension of household suffrage to the counties, and pointed out the danger that, especially in relation to the Poor- law, such an extension might place it in the power of the poor to decide for themselves the terms on which poverty should be relieved. Yet in spite of the objection which Mr. Goschen persists in to the policy of the party at large, he has evidently no intention of going into a siding, or evading under the plea of even the highest administrative duties the only career which fits a man for Parliamentary pre-eminence and political power. He is not unwilling that it should be known how great a value is set upon his political aid by the Government, and he is glad to have it known that, tempted or not, nothing will induce him to change a political career for even the highest administrative career. "Mr. Gladstone made me some bril- liant offers of service abroad in particular, which might well gratify the ambition of any man in any country ; but apart altogether from decisive family reasons, I did not wish to inter- rupt my Parliamentary career, and I therefore decided to decline those offers, and to assist my party in my non-official but very friendly way, in the House of Commons. But then came the offer of the special and temporary mission [to Constanti- nople] to which I have alluded, and which was urged upon me by arguments which I could not resist." And, no doubt, Mr. Goschen knew that, though it would take him altogether out of the regular political sphere to accept the Viceroyalty of India, it would only lend him distinction in the true politi- cal sphere to have been absent for a year, and a year in which Irish troubles were being hotly discussed, as her Majesty's Plenipotentiary at the Porte, and to have become widely known as the man to whose judgment, knowledge, and firmness of purpose such a mission could be entrusted. It is not a little advantage even to a British states- man to be recognised all over the world as a strong and re- spected diplomatist, who can hold his own as successfully against intrigue and manceuvre as he can against party odds. Nor ran Mr. Goschen be accused of passing too lightly over this advantage which he has gained. If his very able speech lacks tact at all, it is, perhaps, in the rather undue stress with which he enlarges on the mutual confidence and happy symposia of the six Ambassadors :—" We were constantly together socially ; we were fast friends ; some of us played lawn tennis together ; some of us rode together ; we all dined together. Indeed, the more critical the moment, the more assiduously we dined; and our small Ambassadorial dinners at the height of a crisis,—dinners at which joking was not forbidden, diplomatic reserve was laid aside, and the intense excitement of the situation was eased off by a familiar and intimate exchange of ideas,—will be among the most pleasant recollections of my mission." To our ear, there is just an excess of pressure on that key, just an excess of care that the public should not miss the exceptional position of a states- man who has also filled the position of a confidential diplomatist in a edge of great importance. For it is, after all, to his own exceptional position,—and we think Mr. Goschen, with his views, was quite right in insisting on it,—that the speech came round again with even more significance before he concluded. He is the friend of the Government, the arnicus curiae, gener- ously treated by them, and generously disposed to aid them in return, but though determined not to embarrass them in a home crisis of great difficulty, nay, resolved to lend them all the aid he conscientiously can, to extricate themselves from it with credit and success, still unable, as a candid man, to conceal that theirs is a policy which he profoundly distrusts himself, and for which he congratulates himself that he has no responsi- bility. Whether that portion of his speech relating to Tunis is intended to suggest that in one aspect even of foreign policy, Mr. Goschen disapproves the attitude of the Government, and that his return from his mission was hastened by that disapproval, we shall probably soon know, for he promises us a speech on this subject in the House of Commons. But there can be no manner of doubt that in relation to the Irish policy of the Government, no less than its policy of franchise reform, Mr. Cioaohen izr@scived to draw a strong line of de-
marcation between his own position and that of Mr. Gladstone, and to make it clear to the Liberal Party in general that he stands as the representative of a different shade of statesman- ship, more distrustful of democracy, more jealous of English prestige abroad, more high-handed towards Ireland.
On the find " note " of Mr. Goschen's Liberalism he insisted sufficiently, when speaking on the County Franchise Bill in the last Parliament ; but he says enough now to show that his atti- tude is quite unchanged. On the second, he naturally lays very slight emphasis, just after returning from a mission where he has wielded the whole diplomatic influence of the present Govern- ment; but there was a word or two about the grief he should have felt if he had found the influence of England diminished; and a word or two about Tunis, which appear to intimate distinctly that here, too, he would fain be understood as dis- criminating his position from that of the Government. On the third note of his political creed he is eloquent enough, and even goes out of his way to pass an animated panegyric on those Whig malcontents with the Irish legislation of last year and this, who have been termed " weak-kneed " Liberals :—
" I trust these sacrifices will bear fruit, and that the Land Bill; when it becomes an Act—and it will become an Act—may indeed pacify and satisfy that which I do not call our sister-country, but tt, part of our common country. That legislation, I trust, will not have disorganised the spirit of the Liberal Party. As I have said, there is much that is new in it, much that will never, as I believe, be applied' to England. We do not wish to have in England Courts of Law to decide the relations between business men. We do not wish in England to see the State interfering at every turn with our business and occupations. These are new ideas, which have had to be followed out and followed up in order to meet an exceptional crisis, but which I believe would sap the prosperity of the country, if they were trans- ferred to English legislation. Also, we cannot forget, and statesmeir mast not forget, that the Land Bill has been in a measure due to suc- cessful agitation. It is a dangerous thing in the history of a country when agitation is successful, and it will require the courage of states- men to see that such a precedent is not repeated. The Liberal Party will have to buckle.to and work on the old lines, forgetting this ex- ceptional legislation. But there may be some strong currents, in whichs it requires strength to stand firm and upright. I have heard it said, that men are weak-kneed, who have not allowed themselves to be carried away by the stream which was hurrying away their fellows._ Now, I call those strong knees when a man is able to stand upright in a current without being carried away by it. Some of you may, perhaps, have waded through one of your hillside torrents. The beds of the torrent is solid rock, firm set ; but as you stand there, the. boulders seem to dance under your feet. The staff on which you lean seems crooked and distorted, and yon hear the rushing waters as' they pass you. Well, what do you want at such a time ? Collected nerves and strong knees. I should not be worthy of a sturdy and self-reliant constituency like this, if I could not keep a firm footing on the boulders of Liberal principles, though those boulders appear to dance under my feet and the current to rush over them ; and backed by your confidence, I trust I shall never fail or stagger in the path oi duty. However else I may fail, I hope it may never be said of me that I have failed in strength of knee."
That is the speech of a statesman who had very carefully weighed his words, and intended those words to be understood as showing that his neutrality in regard to the Irish legislation of the day is not altogether benevolent, even though his personal admira- tion for the men who are advocating this policy is so keen, and his sense of the difficulty of the situation so great, that he does not choose to embarrass either the men or the prospect by any decided opposition of his own.
Now, on this attitude of Mr. Goschen in relation to the Irish policy of the Government, we have one or two remarks to make. The first is this, that so far from its being "a dan- gerous thing in the history of a country when agitation is successful," the history of all great Liberal changes in Eng- land, even more than in Ireland, is the history of successful agitation. Was there no agitation, and no violence in that agitation, before the great Reform Bill ? And what would Mr. Goschen have said it a Liberal even of his own Whig school, like Lord John Russell, had solemnly stood aside, and warned the country of the danger of the precedent they were creating by allowing that agitation to triumph? The next remark we have to make is that true Liberalism does not maintain that the same cut-and-dried institutions, or systems of agriculture, suit equally all forms of national life. It sees that the agricultural condition of Ireland, far from being in any way analogous to the agricultural condition of England, is so utterly different, that we ought long ago to have given, as we are now giving, our attention to the legislation of other countries, like Denmark for instance, on these subjects, and taking that for our model, instead of holding so stiffly by the misleading suggestions of English precedents. Does not Mr. Goschen virtually hint that we ought to have insisted on governing a country, the
whole genius of which is absolutely different from that of
England, on the same principles on which we govern England,—which would have really been misgoverning it, and that solely for the sake of keeping up the homogeneity of our system ? Could we have furnished a more legitimate and pressing argument for Irish Home-rule than such a policy would have given to the Irish agitators ? Liberalism, to our mind, is not the creed which insists that the same political economy suits equally all parts of the world,—or Indian statesmen would have had to give up the name of Liberals, —but the creed which adapts legislation and government to the condition of the people to be governed, so as to develope in them the largest amount of true liberty compatible with the conditions of their outward and inward life. And if that be true Liberalism, it seems to us that Mr. Gladstone's Government is much more Liberal than any to which at present Mr. Goschen is pre- pared to adhere. If Mr. Goschen means that only because Ireland needs a Court to decide on the principles of a "fair rent," and will be greatly benefited by the aid of the State in helping the tenant-farmers to buy their holdings when the landlord is willing to sell them, it would be folly to trans- plant the same arrangements to England, where they are not needed, we heartily agree with him ; and so, we believe, do her Majesty's Government. But evidently he means much more than this. He means to give the weight of his influence to those who have resisted this exceptional legisla- tion, because they preferred to mould Irish life and society, if they could, into an English shape. He means to give the weight of his influence to those who cry out that Ireland should not be rewarded by success for her violence and wrong,—as if Liberals had ever believed that violence and wrong due to the stern repression of a national genius, could be put down without removing the chronic irritation which caused it. Mr. Goschen is a very able man. But so far as he separates himself,—and he does rather ostentatiously separate himself,—from his Party and the Government which he has just so admirably served, so far he is deviating from true Liberalism, and declining on Conservative prejudices. Weak- kneed he may not be. But there is nothing absolutely praiseworthy in strength of knee,—and if it be used to break the force of a current of just opinion, strength of knee is energy in the wrong place.
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