LORD SALISBURY.
TORD SALISBURY has attained a position in the- world of European politics which it is hardly too much to call pre-eminent. It is no exaggeration to say that his power and influence is greater than that of any living statesman. A word from him could let loose war upon Europe, and every move on his part is watched with closest and keenest anxiety. Not only is the final decision which he may take in regard to Turkey of vast im- portance. Were the Turkish question to pass away for the moment his position would still be one of immense strength. Europe is divided into two hostile camps,—those of France and Russia and of the Triple Alliance. As it is, the forces are more or less even ; but England, by throwing her sword into either scale, can turn the balance.. In spite, therefore, of the growling and grumbling against England, her favour is eagerly sought for by the Powers. At the present moment—the Turkish question put apart —the alliance which could secure the co-operation of England would win the game. Hence the efforts of Germany to bring us into the Triple Alliance, and the smiles and encouragements of France at the time when it looked as if we should have a rupture with Germany. No doubt there is a great deal of hatred of England, but there is also a very general longing among the Powers to get her aid and support.
But though external circumstances have thus given England what may be called a " pivot " position in Europe, Lord Salisbury's pre-eminence does not come merely from that fact. It rests still more on his position in English public life and on his own personal character. In the first place, Lord Salisbury is Prime Minister as well as Foreign Secretary. Hence he can act with far greater r. cdoni, confidence, and swiftness than he could if every important step had to be referred to the head of the Ministry. No doubt Lord Salisbury has to consider his Cabinet, but the control exercised by a Cabinet is far less efficient than that exercised by a Prime Minister. As a rule, the Cabinet leaves the conduct of foreign affairs to the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary. They practi- cally settle between them what is to be done short of peace and war. But when the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary are one and the same person, the Foreign Secre- tary becomes a dictator in foreign policy, subject only to a theoretical but imperfect veto by the Cabinet in regard to great changes of policy. If Lord Salisbury's position is an unusually powerful one because he combines the offices of Pa ime Minister and Foreign Secretary, it is still more powerful because he at the present moment coin- blues a mandate from his own party with a mandate from the Opposition. Lord Salisbury, as regards foreign policy, has the whole nation at his back. He speaks with the voice of all England as no Foreign Minister has spoken since the time of Canning. Indeed we are by no means sure that he does not hold a stronger position than Canning. There were a certain number of men who opposed and distrusted Canning's foreign policy, and were by no means prepared to give him a free hand. We are at a loss to find any such persons just now. As far as we can diagnose the situation, Lord Salisbury has been given a blank cheque by the nation, and may act as he pleases. We have, then, a Prime Minister who is not only his own Foreign Secretary, but has the whole country at his back. Such a position is absolutely unique. But this is not all. Lord Salisbury has a position in the European world greater than that of any other Foreign Minister or Chan- e4lor by reason of his long acquaintance with the politics f the world. Of all the great statesmen who came together at Berlin in 1878 Lord Salisbury is the only elle who still retains power. Prince Bismarck is in political exile. The representatives of Russia, of France, of Austria, and of Italy have passed away. Lord Salisbury alone was a party to the inner workings of the Conference. It would be difficult to exaggerate 4he influence given by so vast an experience of the politics f Europe. No Continental statesman can inform Lord Salisbury as to what has always been the policy of his State, for Lord S tlisburv knows the facts better than he aloes. To this large knowledge and unparalleled ex- erience is added a remarkable habit of not making small • mistakes and petty slips. Lord Salisbury may have made rrors of judgment, but he never blunders or does things which he meant not to do. For example, such a slip as hat made by Lord Rosebery over the Congo Agreement .,-ould never have been made by him. But a man who 1-nows everything, and can never be caught out in a piece f gratuitous blundering, is a very formidable person,—a -rson whose aims are very difficult to withstand. None • f the Foreign Ministers of the Continent ever feel with Llrd Salisbury that if they only wait a little and lie low t hey will see him flounder into a quicksand. He is indeed cautious of quicksands to a fault, and there is no more chance of his stepping on to ground too weak to carry him than there is of an Exmoor pony plunging into a bog. Add to this that Lord Salis- bury is a man of very unusual and exceptional brain-power. His intellect is undoubtedly of the first class,—an instrument for thought which can bear com- parison with any now at work in the political world. He has what Pope so finely called "the comprehensive head." He can weigh all interests, see a fact in all its relations, and does not mistake the part for the whole or forget the fact in its accidents. Wherever else he may f til, it is not in the region of thought. Lord Salisbury thus thoroughly deserves to bold the position he has attained in the counsels of Europe. The confidence and trust of his own party and of the country as a whole, his great experience and his knowledge, and lastly the calibre of his intellectual gifts, secure it to him in the most legitimate way possible.
But though we fully acknowledge Lord Salisbury's right to be called the greatest of living and acting European statesmen, we do not mean to suggest that be is without faults or limitations, or that he is in any sense a heaven-born politician in whose character can be found no drawbacks. His past record shows that, though not without a certain kind of courage and strength, he is too much inclined to shirk responsibility,— too apt to think that the great aim of a statesman is never to do big things or sudden things. If we under- stand him rightly, Lord Salisbury's governing idea is never to take a short cut. He is not, of course, one of those men who refuse ever to look ahead, and disdain to take long views. He looks as far ahead as any man, but when he has looked ahead and seen his goal he declines to reach it except by appearing to keep on on the old course. If he discovers that it will be ultimately necessary to reach a place on his right hand, he does not give the order to turn at a sharp angle. Instead, he apparently keeps along the old path, and is content to give a slight inclina- tion which will in time bring him to the desired point. Rather than leave the old path and go straight for his object, he circles round and round, confident that by gradually narrowing the circle he will in time get to the place he wants to reach. In short, his rule of political seamanship is never to take a sharp curve. No doubt this fixed policy of avoiding all short cuts has many and great merits, it enables you, for instance, to change your goal again if on closer examination you find that it was not really the place you desired to get to. There are, however, times when the anti-short-cut policy is neither the best nor the safest, and when a sudden turn of the helm is absolutely necessary. We are not quite confident that Lord Salisbury realises this, and fear that he is too deeply wedded to the gradual curve. He looks upon himself, that is, too much as if he were merely a trustee, and ought to obey the trustee's motto of letting things alone till the very last moment. But all men of business know that if you are too rigidly bound by this rule you do not succeed, and that therefore when trustees work a business they never improve and often ruin it. A great nation, like a great business, wants to be managed by a man who is willing on occasion to take responsibility and run risks. We will not say that Lord Salisbury is never willing to run risks, but unless we are mistaken his chief weakness as a statesman lies in that direction. But, after all, that fault is a great deal better than its opposite. Nothing is worse than the statesman who positively likes running risks, and delights in seeing how close he can sail to the rocks of war.
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