INTRODUCTORY. A MAN with what Lord Granville calls a 6 cross-bench' mind is of no use to either political party; but the fact that he forms his own ideas of public policy, morality, and honour, is no reason why he should not be able to see as far through a brick wall as those who take their political opinions at second hand from their leaders. The cross-bench' mind may be a nuisance, but I really think it is more respectable than the purely party mind. We comfort ourselves with the idea that we are much better off than any of our neighbours, because our governing class is composed of men of fortune and position perfectly independent of salaries and patronage; in a position to consult their will, and not their necessities. But what is the use of having the richest Cabinet that was ever brought together, if these same rich men divest themselves entirely of their political consciences, and vote black is white and white is black exactly as their leaders desire them? Cicero's wish, that 'every man should have written on his brow what he really thought of the affairs of the State,' can never be realised; but at the same time it is rather startling, not to say shocking, to contrast our friends' and neighbours' private expressions on political questions with their public votes ! The number of those who take to politics as a profession, as others take to the law, the Church, the army, physic, or trade, and who scramble and fight for the plums of office, is very small: about fifty on one side and fifty on the other play at the tug of war,' and try to pull each other over the line and take the prize. There is a good deal of 'business' in politics-and, as in all other professions, 'business' pays better than anything. Probably the most successful instance of pure professional business in our political annals was the Midlothian campaign. The invective, the solemn appeals to humanity and justice the assumption of noble motives, the insinuation of base ones-the suggestions, the suppressions, the exaggerations, the perversions, the denunciations—the passion, the poses, the general dramatic effect-combined to make it a great success. Those who got office by it naturally speak of it as one of the grandest triumphs of speech ever achieved. To those who merely look on, and have since tested it by results, it bears a comical resemblance to the chop and tomato sauce' oratory of the immortal Buzfuz! I mistrust entirely the assumption of superior motives. When a man claims to have greater humanity, or a higher sense of right or wrong, than his neighbours, I simply don't believe him. A man who parades his motives may generally be written down a rogue. I believe we are all impelled by much the same motives, and I believe these influences have regard chiefly to No. 1. In politics especially motives are always suspect. There is no more honour in politics than there is in gallantry. The duty of dishing your opponent is far more imperative than that of serving your country. England is the land of Prigs, of Pecksniffs, of Uriah Heeps, of Pharisees of all kinds: there has always been a more impudent parade of motives in England than in all the rest of the world besides; but under the recent dispensation the increase of this pestilent sham has become quite shocking; the growth of superior persons' is actually portentous! Every transparent party dodge is now made a peg on which to hang superior motives, and no earnest statesman dare eat his political fig without invoking the name of the Prophet. Whilst these letters were in the course of publication, a discussion was raised in a local newspaper as to whether the writer was a Liberal or a Conservative. As the writer has never solicited the vote and interest of any free and enlightened constituency, and never intends to do so, the question has no practical importance. But no honest man likes to sail under false colours, and if the public care to know the political faith of one who belongs to 'no party,' they are welcome to it, and whether they find it Liberal or Conservative, wise or foolish, practicable or impracticable, does not much signify. I believe that Gladstoneism is the national enemy: That it is inconsistent with patriotism, with pride of race, with empire. I believe it is opposed to every single quality of the English race that has contributed to make them famous. I believe it has already poisoned the very life-springs of the national character, and, if persisted in, will bring the British Empire to rapid and complete ruin. I believe the scuttle out of the Transvaal was the most disgraceful incident in the Imperial history of England. I believe that if that disgraceful act had not familiarised the nation with dishonour, the desertion of Sinkat and Tokar, of Berber, Khartoum, and finally of Gordon himself, would have been impossible. I believe the Boer Treaty was the first public step in the decadence of England. I believe that since the days of Charles II. no such disgraceful treaty as that of Kilmainham has ever been. negotiated by a British Minister. I think the practice of buying the votes of faddists' of all kinds, and of the revolutionary party generally, with Imperial interests and with the interests of the community, is by far the most widely ruinous and the most unprincipled system of bribery that has ever been adopted by any government in the world. I believe Gladstoneism has made the Repeal of the Irish Union inevitable: That it has ruined Egypt: That it has unsettled India: That it has fanned class antipathies to a heat never before seen in this country: That it has everywhere brought the honour of England into contempt: |