and appealed to the electors, but he did not take this course. Probably he doubted the verdict of the country. There is no doubt that the prolonged debates brought out the almost insuperable difficulties of setting up a subordinate Parliament in Ireland, while retaining the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament. Two alternative difficulties had to be faced: either the Irish members (reduced to eighty under the scheme) were free to vote on all questions, or were restricted to Imperial questions. Mr. Gladstone had formerly held that it passed the wit of man to discriminate between Imperial and other questions, and when attempts were made to do it they all failed. The American Constitution provided a Supreme Court to settle any disputes that might arise between the rights of the separate States and the Central Government, but we had no such court in the United Kingdom, nor was it likely that Parliament would create one. It was too great a power to entrust to the Speaker or to any committee of Parliament. Further, it would produce the hopeless impasse that two different majorities might co-exist in Parliament at the same time, a British majority (probably Conservative) when dealing with British questions such as Disestablishment, Education, etc., and a majority of the whole House, including Irish members (probably Liberal), when dealing with Imperial questions; so that a government might be unseated one week and reinstated the next, causing a continual see-saw. I have seen no answer given to this difficulty, nor can I see any, unless we adopt the Federal system of the United States or Canada, with a central Government and Parliament, and subordinate local Parliaments for the various parts of the United Kingdom: Obviously the nation is not prepared for so drastic a remedy. The Bill passed, with full power to the Irish members while at St. Stephen's to vote on all questions, so that they had double powers as compared with Scotch, English and Welsh representa tives, and this was brought out so strongly, and by none more than that stalwart Radical, Dr. Wallace, of Edinburgh, that the Home Rule feeling steadily declined from that time forward. It is now evident that if delegation of local powers is to be brought about (and I am strongly in favour of this, at least as regards administration), it must be by explicitly assigning specified powers to local bodies, perhaps unions of County Councils. By this process of devolution a great mass of work now thrown on Parliament or government departments may most advantageously be relegated to provincial councils. My dear friend, W. P. Lockhart, died this autumn at Ballater, near Balmoral, where he had gone in poor health. He never really recovered from his first stroke. A man of immense muscular power and great frame, and apparently iron constitution, he was cut down at the age of fifty-eight by some obscure brain complaint, probably induced by a blow from a cricket ball in early youth. He had a great desire to see me, and I went to Ballater in August and spent two or three days with my best friend, but he was too feeble for much intercourse. His great frame showed no sign of emaciation, but the brain power was nearly gone. He died a few days after I left, and was buried in Toxteth Cemetery in the next grave to my wife's. For no man had I a deeper respect. He was a survival of the Scotch Covenanters or English Puritans, touched by the wider culture of the nineteenth century; but had he lived in the seventeenth he might have been a Cromwell or a Richard Cameron. I never knew a man who was better acquainted with the Bible, or had greater power as a preacher. For over thirty years he must have preached three or four times a week on the average, while conducting his business in the daytime. Yet he never showed signs of fatigue, but he may well have exhausted his reserve of strength unknown to himself. He played a part in the life of Liverpool quite unique. He took a keen interest in public affairs, and till Gladstone's Home Rule policy caused him to join the Liberal Unionists he was a strong Radical. It was very much owing to his advice that I was induced to enter Parliament, and it was equally so with my friend, W. S. Caine, who was also deeply attached to Lockhart.' Shortly before this there also passed away another of my old friends, John Patterson, very similar in character to Lockhart; and soon after my dear friend and companion in many travels, the Rev. Dr. Lundie, one of the best citizens of Liverpool, and one of our best workers in temperance and social reform; also my venerable friend, Christopher Bushell. Such losses were irreparable. Were it not for the hope of immortality one could hardly endure them, but Sin-blighted though we are, we, too, The reasoning sons of men, From one oblivious winter call'd, And in eternal sunshine lose Our three score years and ten. 1 See Appendix (XIII.) for an estimate I gave of Mr. Lockhart's life and character, included in his biography. I paired at the beginning of September and went down to Orchill, but Parliament sat till far into the month, and was adjourned to an autumn session-more truly a winter session-in order to pass the Parish Councils Bill, introduced and ably carried by Sir Henry Fowler. I returned to Liverpool for the second half of October with Gordon. We found it oppressively sad. The blank at the fireside was ever before us. My son now went into business, giving up Oxford, and made up his mind to a commercial career. So for several Sessions I did not take a house in London, but went back and forward to Liverpool, spending the week-ends there. The House met on November 2, and we had a long and dreary winter session, lasting into February, and only rising for a few days at Christmas, and then for some weeks in January and February, when a reconstruction of the Ministry took place by Mr. Gladstone's retirement. At last even his powerful frame showed signs of decay. His sight and hearing began to fail, and he decided to resign, and Lord Rosebery took his place as Prime Minister. A meeting of the Party was held at the Foreign Office, where Lord Rosebery addressed us, and was followed by Sir Wm. Harcourt, who took the place of Leader in the House of Commons. I should mention that much friction occurred between the Lords and Commons in regard to the Parish Councils Bill. It was mutilated by the Upper House, so that the Government declined to pass it, and several conferences took place before the Lords withdrew or modified their amendments. It was the last public work of Mr. Gladstone. His last speech (on March 1) was an appeal to the Upper Chamber, couched in tones of grave warning. His retirement came so suddenly that no opportunity was given to say farewell to that House which he had adorned for sixty years. Many of us regretted this. It would have been a great historical occasion. He was then eighty-four. No Premier had ever held office before at such an age! This winter was marked by great depression of trade, and by much sickness and influenza. Several of my friends were ill, and Gordon's companion was taken very ill at Edinburgh. We went for a short run to Cannes when the House was not sitting. The old Session closed on March 5: the new one opened on March 12. Session of 1894 CHAPTER XXXV Keswick Conference - Drummond's "Ascent of Man" THE Government of Lord Rosebery had a troubled time. It was in office rather than in power. In several divisions it had so narrow a majority in the Commons that its life was precarious. The Upper House hampered it in every possible way. The Liberal Party there had fallen to an insignificant minority. Sir William Harcourt's great Budget was the chief event of the Session. He carried through with wonderful skill and pertinacity a vast change in the death duties, based upon the principal of graduation of duty according to the amount of the estate, which added several millions to the revenue of the country; and he also practically equalized taxation upon real and personal property, which had hitherto been unduly favourable to land. It was his principal achievement, and it has greatly aided future financial arrangements when the strain of war came on the nation. This long, complicated and hard-fought bill was carried through without-so far as I remember the Closure being once applied. Mr. Asquith also introduced this Session the Welsh Disestablishment Bill in a very able speech. The only Parliamentary work of importance I accomplished this Session was to move a resolution on the Indian Budget, which was accepted in part by Sir Henry Fowler, the Secretary for India. It read as follows:- That, in the opinion of this House, a full and independent Parliamentary inquiry should take place into the condition and wants of the Indian people, and their ability to bear their existing financial burdens; the nature of the Revenue system and the possibility of reductions in the expenditure; also the financial relations between India and the United Kingdom, and generally the system of Government in India. I spoke at some length and was seconded by Dadabhai Naoroji, the sole native of India who then sat in Parliament. He spoke for two hours. The debate went on into next day, and at the close Sir Henry Fowler agreed to appoint a Royal Commission to inquire into the apportionment of charges between the British and Indian Exchequers. After sitting for some years it reported in favour of taking over about £250,000 a year from India, and placing it on the British Exchequer, which has since been done. But the inquiry did not embrace the far more important question of the poverty of India and the need of reduced taxation. This is a question of enormous and urgent importance, and will come to the front some day. Let us hope that we shall not wait till some catastrophe force it upon us, as South Africa has been forced upon our attention by a terrible war. Among interesting events that happened this year out of Parliament I may mention that I witnessed the Jubilee of General Booth at the Crystal Palace. A great body of the Salvation Army were present. Some 80,000 people were in the grounds-not all Salvationists, but the serried ranks that marched before the "General" seemed like the regiments of a great army. From many parts of the world representatives of "the Army the Army" were present. It was enough to turn the head of any ordinary mortal, but the old "General" and his gifted family can carry the honour meekly. One may doubt, however, whether a succession of leaders will be equally sagacious, and whether this great force may not at some time be used by an ambitious governor for self-aggrandizement. I also attended for the first time this year the "Keswick Convention," in July. A first visit to this wonderful gathering is always deeply interesting. One sees there a population of intensely earnest men and women, overflowing the town of Keswick and its beautiful surroundings, some thousands in number, and occupied exclusively with "things pertaining to the Kingdom of God." Two huge tents and several smaller ones were filled from morning to evening with a succession of eager assemblies who followed the addresses with rapt attention. The speakers were of all Protestant denominations. Church and dissent embrace one another: Quakers, Baptists and Plymouth Brethren mingle with Churchmen, Presbyterians and Methodists. No one can discern in the language of the platform any flavour of sect or party. The substantial unity of all true Christians is demonstrated most impressively. It is also shown what a deep and all-embracing religion is that of Jesus |