LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL IN THE TOWER HAMLETS.
T01WRA.NDOLPH CHURCHILL has never displayed I the cleverness, the impudence, and the utter want of political mind, which distinguish him among politicians, more distinctly than in his speech of Wednesday in the Tower Hamlets. His qualities and his defects all come out in his very first sentences. It was clever to allude to his absence from the Derby as proof that the Tory Party, which, in his view, is embodied in his own person, had become "a serious and earnest political party " ; it was impudent to declare that while Tories were serious, Radicals were amusing themselves, the Radicals having for years resisted adjournment on account of the Derby Day ; and it was foolish to fancy that by that gibe he injured the cause of his opponents. They are accused by the popular voice, not of pleasure-hunting, but of over-earnestness ; not of dissipation, but of faddy morality ; not of neglecting work, but of wanting everybody to do too much. If the people really believed that Radicals could sympathise with the passion for amusement, a great barrier to their dominance would be gone ; for they would be seen to be in all things human, and not to be striving to elevate a people reluctant to be elevated. Lord Randolph mistakes the people be addresses, and the mistake runs through his speech. It will please neither the Liberals, who will find their leader accused of having a policy "which, for all I know, is purposely directed to band over British commerce and British manufacture almost entirely to the foreigner ;" nor the Conservatives, who will find that their coming leader or would-be leader, whichever he is, endorses in England the whole Liberal programme, and while abusing Mr. Gladstone at every turn in his speech, accepts at his hands the most distinctive feature in his personal policy. If there is one idea of internal reform which Mr. Gladstone has pressed in season and out of season, it is the necessity of Parliament devolving part of its duties and powers upon Committees and County Councils. He has almost wearied us with his praise of devolution, and has stretched his authority over the House of Commons in order to constitute Grand Committees ; yet Lord Randolph Churchill, while denouncing his procedure as dictated solely by party spirit, declares that improvement must be sought mainly through devolution of power to Committees and representative county bodies. He denounces his adversary's weapons, and snatches them from his hand because they are the only weapons of any use.
The whole speech is in the same strain. Lord Randolph declares, in language which suggests that he has diligently studied advertisements of the lower class of tradesmen, that the only party for the people to trust is the Tory Party. "We are the party who passed the Reform Act of 1867. We are the party who have taken a large and honourable share in the passing of the Reform Act of 1884, and in the Redistribution Act of 1885. We are the party who have obtained for the Tower Hamlets seven representatives. We are the real peace party, the real reform party, the real retrenchment party. Our opponents are nothing more than shams, impostors, and humbugs We are'a united party. We are united individually, collectively, and politically. We are separated by no personal jealousies. We are separated by no difference of political opinion." He had himself but a moment before admitted that he had had sharp collisions with his leaders ; but his eagerness to bid highest made him forget that, as well as fall into the absurd bull that all Tories are " individually " united, —all as unanimous, in fact, as Jonah in the whale. 'We can govern,' he says, in fact, and we only ; and when we govern, we shall in internal politics, at all events, do,'— what ? Exactly what the Liberals are trying to do, and will do, if the Tories do not prevent them. Lord Randolph has felt, it appears, Mr. Bartley's sarcasm that the party has no policy to propose, and endeavours to make its policy distinct. The Tories would, he declares, if they ruled, maintain the Union between Britain and Ireland, assist in the material development of the latter island, and give her a great system of State-aided education. They would order an inquiry into the causes of "the unparalleled depression in trade ; they would effect a vigorous retrenchment in every department; they would make the House of Commons sit earlier and rise earlier, and devolve its powers on Committees and County Councils ; and they would order a comprehensive inquiry into the whole Government of India, round which many abuses have accreted. There is not one of these promises, except the one of an inquiry into the "unparalleled depression" in trade—which, as Mr. Giffen has shown, does not exist—which is not also made by the Liberals, and which, if the Tories would allow them, they would not carry out, Lord Randolph, in truth, slangs his enemies, not for what they have done, but because it is they who have done it, and while offering the same articles, protests that he is a better manufacturer, and, moreover, will undersell all rivals. There shall be resistance to Russia, and strong government in Egypt, and Liberal help to Ireland ; but it shall all be done, and well done, "on the cheap." "Here is furniture of Bond-Street excellence, but we sell at the prices of Tottenham Court Road. Let intending couples, therefore, deal solely at our shop." He hardly, indeed, cares to drape his meaning in decorous formulas, but says almost aloud that Codlin is the same as Short, and that the only but sufficient reason for preferring Codlin to Short is that he himself is Codlin. We hardly remember anything so vulgar in political oratory, and can only wonder what old Conservatives think of it. Are they so anxious for retrenchment, for grants to Ireland, for the rejection of the Purchase Bill—which Lord Randolph incidentally denounced as a plan to buy land for Irish tenants with the money of British taxpayers—for great Committees, for local councils with large powers of legislation ? If they are, why do they not vote for them when those things are proposed, instead of insisting that more money shall be spent on the Army and Navy, that Ireland shall not be bribed, that Irish landlords shall be compensated, that great Committees are great absurdities, and that estated gentlemen can govern the counties better than any kind of representative bodies ? Lord Randolph Churchill tries to represent the Tories, and does it by offering to abandon every idea they have got, and every interest they defend, if only the electors may be so induced to place the Tories in power.
We do not deny the cleverness with which Lord Randolph Churchill works out some of his political antitheses. He has a case against the recent policy pursued in Egypt, a case which we have never denied ; but he wins his argument at the price of the sacrifice of all morality. We would govern strongly in Egypt, and so would he ; but we would do it because we do not believe Egyptian independence possible, and he would do it, though he does believe it possible, and would never have gone there at all. It is easy to contrast the Crimes Act with the grant of wide suffrage to Ireland, and ask which is the truer policy ; but then his party, like ours, assented to both, and are at this moment contending for both, and are equally, therefore, on the horns of an imaginary dilemma. For it is purely imaginary. Disorder in a country is very often a proof, not that it should not be represented, but that its representation is totally inadequate. The Bill of 1832 was passed while England was seething with sedition, and a revolution appeared immediately at hand, and the Reform of 1867 immediately followed the most serious rioting seen of late years in London. No Government puts down disorder with so savagely prompt a hand as the American, because no Government is so certain that it does represent the people. It is useless, however, to go on with the list. The plain truth of the matter is that Lord Randolph Churchill wants power, and that, like an American professional politician, he will say anything and promise anything, if only by saying and promising he could persuade the people to place themselves in his hands. He is not a serious statesman at all, and the disposition to praise him merely because he will fight is only a proof of what all men know—that Tories hate Mr. Gladstone. Irishmen elect Mr. Biggar because even he is good enough to express their hatred of England ; and Tories are promoting Lord Randolph Churchill for exactly the same reason. If Ireland were separate Mr. Biggar would be forgotten, and if Tories came into power they would in six months either shed Lord Randolph Churchill, or so coerce him that he would be in all essentials a different politician.
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