Chapter VIII: The Fall Of Lord Beaconsfield. (1880)

In causa facili cuivis licet esse disertum,
Et minimae vires frangere quassa valent;
Subruere est arces et stantia moenia virtus.

—Ov. _Trist._, iii. XI. 21.

In an easy case any man can plead, and against shattered walls the
puniest strength prevails; ’tis the overthrow of standing towers
and frowning ramparts that tests manhood.

I

At last one day (March 8) when Mr. Gladstone was “writing a little on Homer,” he heard the fated news that the dissolution was announced. Lord Beaconsfield published the famous letter to the lord lieutenant of Ireland, and in deep accents and sonorous sentences endeavoured to make home rule the issue of the election. Shrewd politicians, with time to reflect, found it not easy to divine why the government had chosen the particular moment. It might be, as some supposed, that they thought the opposition had lately got into bad odour with the country by coquetting with home rulers, as shown by the elections at Liverpool and Southwark. But, in fact, little importance was to be attached to these two defeats of the opposition, for Liverpool had always been conservative, and Southwark was thoroughly disorganised by liberal divisions. “The general opinion seems to be,” says Speaker Brand (Mar. 15), “that the opposition may gain slightly at the general election, but not to an extent to break down altogether the conservative majority.”

In what was in effect his election address, Lord Beaconsfield warned the country that a danger, in its ultimate results scarcely less disastrous than pestilence and famine, distracted Ireland. A portion of its population was endeavouring to sever the constitutional tie that united it to Great Britain in that bond which was favourable to the power and prosperity of both. “It is to be hoped,” he went on, “that all men of light and leading will resist this destructive doctrine. The strength of this action depends on the unity of feeling which should pervade the United Kingdom and its widespread dependencies. The first duty of an English minister should be to consolidate that co-operation which renders irresistible the community educated, as our own, in an equal love of liberty and law. And yet there are some who challenge the expediency of the imperial character of this realm. Having attempted and failed to enfeeble our colonies by their policy of decomposition, they may perhaps now recognise in the disintegration of the United Kingdom, a mode which will not only accomplish, but precipitate their purpose.... Rarely in this century has there been an occasion more critical. The power of England and the peace of Europe will largely depend upon the verdict of the country.... Peace rests on the presence, not to say the ascendency of England in the councils of Europe. Even at this moment the doubt supposed to be inseparable from popular elections, if it does not diminish, certainly arrests her influence, and is a main reason for not delaying an appeal to the national voice.”

To this manifesto Mr. Gladstone, with his usual long pains in the drafting of such pieces, prepared his counterblast. He went with direct force to what Lord Beaconsfield had striven to make the centre of his appeal:—

In the electioneering address which the prime minister has issued,
an attempt is made to work upon your fears by dark allusions to
the repeal of the union and the abandonment of the colonies.
Gentlemen, those who endangered the union with Ireland were the
party that maintained there an alien church, an unjust land law,
and franchises inferior to our own; and the true supporters of the
union are those who firmly uphold the supreme authority of
parliament, but exercise that authority to bind the three nations
by the indissoluble tie of liberal and equal laws. As to the
colonies, liberal administrations set free their trade with all
the world, gave them popular and responsible government, undertook
to defend Canada with the whole strength of the empire, and
organised the great scheme for uniting the several settlements of
British North America into one dominion, to which, when we quitted
office in 1866, it only remained for our successors to ask the
ready assent of parliament. It is by these measures that the
colonies have been bound in affection to the empire, and the
authors of them can afford to smile at baseless insinuations.
Gentlemen, the true purpose of these terrifying insinuations is to
hide from view the acts of the ministry, and their effect upon the
character and condition, of the country.

To those ministerial misdeeds he proceeded to draw the attention of the electors, though he declared with threescore years and ten upon his head, how irksome he felt the task. “At home,” he said, “the ministers have neglected legislation, aggravated the public distress by continual shocks to confidence which is the life of enterprise, augmented the public expenditure and taxation for purposes not merely unnecessary but mischievous, and plunged the finances, which were handed over to them in a state of singular prosperity, into a series of deficits unexampled in modern times.” After shooting this heavy bolt he looked abroad. “Abroad they have strained, if they have not endangered, the prerogative by gross misuse, and have weakened the empire by needless wars, unprofitable extensions, and unwise engagements, and have dishonoured it in the eyes of Europe by filching the island of Cyprus from the Porte under a treaty clause distinctly concluded in violation of the treaty of Paris, which formed part of the international law of Christendom.” As to the domestic legislation of the future, it was in the election address of the prime minister a perfect blank. It was true that in default of reform in this kingdom, the nation was promised the advantages of “presence, not to say ascendency,” in the councils of Europe.

There is indeed, he said, an ascendency in European councils to
which Great Britain might reasonably aspire, by steadily
sustaining the character of a Power no less just than strong;
attached to liberty and law, jealous of peace, and therefore
opposed to intrigue and aggrandizement, from whatever quarter they
may come; jealous of honour, and therefore averse to the
clandestine engagements which have marked our two latest years. To
attain a moral and envied ascendency such as this, is indeed a
noble object for any minister or any empire.

II

Mr. Gladstone wrote to Lord Acton on March 14:—

On Tuesday I am to set out for Midlothian and my _last_ general
election. My general elections have been 1832, 1835, 1837, 1841,
1847, 1852, 1857, 1859, 1865, 1874, and now 1880—what a list! I
believe that among the official men of this century I am now
beaten only by Lord Palmerston in the length of my career in the
House of Commons. A clear answer from the nation, a clear answer
in the right sense, and a decisive accession of the liberal party
to power without me, this is what I hope and pray. I think that
the experts and the party generally are pretty sanguine. None
doubt that the government are to lose; a few doubt whether they
will be weaker than liberals and home rulers; very many whether
weaker than liberals alone. All agree that Scotland will do its
duty.

On the morning of the 16th, Mr. Gladstone started. Hundreds of people grew to thousands long before his train left King’s Cross, and all the way to Edinburgh he found the same vivid interest and acclamation on the east coast that had greeted him in November on the west. At Grantham the mayor and a crowd estimated by nimble statisticians at two thousand, awaited him at the station; at York the lord mayor and six thousand; at Newcastle-on-Tyne too many thousands to count. The little addresses made at these stopping-places were described as a sort of table of contents of the more elaborate speeches to be delivered in Midlothian itself. As he crossed the Tweed the fervour did not cool, and when at last he reached Edinburgh, he encountered a scene almost as wonderful as that which had met him four months before.

Again he was the guest at Dalmeny, and again he renewed his prodigious exertions amid a vehemence of admiration and delight that became more intense as the days passed. Here is an entry or two from the diary:—

Travelled forty miles and delivered three speeches of forty-five
or fifty minutes each, at Juniper Green, Colinton, and Mid Calder.
Enthusiasm unabated.... Corrected and despatched proofs of
_Religion, Achaian and Semitic_. _Mar. 21, Palm Sunday._—Drove to
Edinburgh cathedral; service 11-1-½. Free St. George’s in the
afternoon. Walked out seven miles with Lord Rosebery. 22.—To
Edinburgh (after working as usual on my papers) at 1.15. Short
complimentary address at liberal club. Then to George Street and
on to the city election committee; short speech. Then by train to
Gilmerton; spoke forty-five or fifty minutes; next after tea to
Loanhead, and after more tea, spoke again for some time on Russian
aggrandizement. Everywhere the greatest enthusiasm. Mr. C[owan]
gave me interesting details about Magyar and Bohemian students.
Back to Dalmeny at 7.20.

And so day after day did panting time toil after him in vain. Many of us have known long spells of hard electioneering—but not in one’s seventy-first year, with every single word as it fell into print on the morrow watched with the lynx eyes of party scrutiny, and all loaded with the heaviest personal responsibility.

(M196) On March 24 the parliament was dissolved. On March 30 the first elections took place, and the first pollings on the day following. From the early returns it was pretty evident that the liberals would have a majority. On the first day they made a net gain of fifteen seats in sixty-nine constituencies. By the end of the fourth day a total net gain of fifty seats was recorded. The ministerial majority was already gone. The county elections brought new surprises, and by the end of the second week the liberal gains were reckoned at ninety-nine.

Mr. Gladstone’s fortnight of discourse ended on the 2nd of April. “So,” he records, “ends the second series of the speeches in which I have hammered with all my poor might at the fabric of the present tory power. _April 3._—Cut down a Spanish chestnut in Dalmeny Park by order. The day was quiet, but my papers and letters and the incoming news made it busy. It seemed as if the arm of the Lord had bared itself for work that He has made His own. 4.—A lull in election news, but the reflections on what has passed are overpowering.” Here are his closing words, and they are not without historic import:—

The great trial, gentlemen, proceeds. You have great forces
arrayed against you. I say “You”; if you will permit me to
identify myself with you, I will say, We have great forces arrayed
against us, and apparently we cannot make our appeal to the
aristocracy, excepting that which must never be forgotten, the
distinguished and enlightened minority of that body of able,
energetic, patriotic, liberal-minded men, whose feelings are with
those of the people, and who decorate and dignify their rank by
their strong sympathy with the entire community. With that
exception, in all the classes of which I speak, I am sorry to say
we cannot reckon upon what is called the landed interest, we
cannot reckon upon the clergy of the established church either in
England or in Scotland, subject again and always in each case to
the most noble exceptions—exceptions, I trust, likely to enlarge
and multiply from day to day. On none of these can we place our
trust. We cannot reckon on the wealth of the country, nor upon the
rank of the country, nor upon the influence which rank and wealth
usually bring. In the main these powers are against us, for
wherever there is a close corporation, wherever there is a spirit
of organised monopoly, wherever there is a narrow and sectional
interest apart from that of the country, and desiring to be set up
above the interest of the public, there, gentlemen, we, the
liberal party, have no friendship and no tolerance to expect.
Above all these, and behind all these, there is something greater
than these—there is the nation itself. This great trial is now
proceeding before the nation. The nation is a power hard to rouse,
but when roused, harder still and more hopeless to resist.... I
figure to myself those who have constituted the majority of the
late House of Commons as the persons arraigned, and the
constituencies of the country as those who are called together in
the solemn order of the constitution to hear the evidence, and to
pronounce the verdict. That evidence has been pretty largely
given. That verdict we await. We have none of the forms of a
judicial trial. There are no peers in Westminster Hall, there are
no judges on the woolsack; but if we concentrate our minds upon
the truth of the case as apart from its mere exterior, it is a
grander and a more august spectacle than was ever exhibited either
in Westminster Hall or in the House of Lords. For a nation, called
to undertake a great and responsible duty,—a duty which is to
tell, as we are informed from high authority, on the peace of
Europe and on the destinies of England,—has found its interests
mismanaged, its honour tarnished, and its strength burdened and
weakened by needless, mischievous, unauthorised, and unprofitable
engagements, and it has resolved that this state of things shall
cease, and that right and justice shall be done.(362)

(M197) Mr. Gladstone was already member for Leeds. So far back as the March of 1878 Sir James Kitson had written to ask him to become a candidate for the great city of the West Siding, but Mr. Gladstone declined the proposal. Then a deputation came to him in Harley Street, and he made them a speech on the Eastern question, but avoided any reference to the subject which they had come to handle. The stout Yorkshiremen were not to be baffled, and Mr. Gladstone, nominated without action of his own, was now returned by the unprecedented vote of 24,622.(363) He was right in calling the Leeds election “one of the most conspicuous and imposing victories ever won for the liberal cause.”(364) Still public interest was concentrated upon Midlothian, and the might with which he prevailed over men’s minds there, was admitted by his foes to be the most impressive tribute ever paid to political man and his vast powers as orator and popular leader. In Midlothian the crusade had been opened, and in Midlothian its triumph was sealed.

The poll was declared in Edinburgh soon after seven on the evening of April 5, and a few minutes later the result, amid every demonstration of extravagant delight from the triumphant multitude as they rushed away from the courthouse, was made known to Mr. Gladstone at a house in George Street taken by Lord Rosebery for the occasion. A couple of candles were brought from the dining-table and held on each side of him, so that his face might be seen, as from the balcony he spoke a few words of thanks.(365) “Drove into Edinburgh about four,” Mr. Gladstone records. “At 7.20 Mr. Reid brought the figures of the poll—Gladstone, 1579; Dalkeith, 1368; quite satisfactory. Soon after, 15,000 people being gathered in George Street, I spoke very shortly from the windows, and Rosebery followed, excellently well. Home about 10. Wonderful and nothing less has been the disposing guiding hand of God in all this matter.” The majority was not of great dimensions, but it was adequate and sufficient, and the victory was celebrated half through the night with bonfires, illuminations, fireworks, and all the other fashions of signifying public joy, throughout Scotland and the north of England. The astrologers, meteorologists, and prognosticators of Pall Mall and Fleet Street felt that this time at least they had not rightly plumbed the depths of the democratic seas.

Lord Beaconsfield was staying alone at that time in the historic halls of Hatfield, their master being then abroad. There, hour by hour and day after day, news of the long train of disasters reached him. From one in confidential relations with him, and who saw much of him at this moment, I have heard that the fallen minister, who had counted on a very different result, now faced the ruin of his government, the end of his career, and the overwhelming triumph of his antagonist, with an unclouded serenity and a greatness of mind, worthy of a man who had known high fortunes and filled to the full the measure of his gifts and his ambitions.

III

(M198) Some writers complained that the language of Midlothian was as solemn as if the verdict of the country were about to settle the issues of the battle of Armageddon. It was not exactly the battle of Armageddon, but the election of 1880 was, at any rate, one of the most remarkable in party history. For one thing, activity was unprecedented, and Mr. Gladstone’s fiery spirit seemed to have spread over the country. A list prepared by the liberal whips, and preserved by Mr. Gladstone, describes the new parliament as composed of 347 liberals, 240 conservatives, and 65 nationalists. Looking at the divisions of the three kingdoms, we find England and Wales contributing 282 liberals against 207 tories; Scotland 52 liberals against 8 tories; and Ireland, 13 liberals against 25 tories. The Irish nationalists were of two shades: 35 followers of Mr. Parnell, 26 moderate home rulers who followed Mr. Shaw, and 4 dubious. In England and Wales therefore the liberal majority was 75, and in Scotland it was 44. Turning to electoral aspects with special social significance, we note that of the county constituencies 63 sent liberal members as against 124 tories. In the metropolis, as a whole, the government gained one seat and lost four, with the result that London was represented in the new parliament by 8 tories and 14 liberals. One victory of real importance was won by the government, for they beat the liberal by two to one in the City of London, the heart and centre of many of those powerful influences that Mr. Gladstone had described in his last speech in the Midlothian election as determined foes from whom the liberal party had no tolerance to expect. “The tory party,” Mr. Gladstone noted, “has never had a majority on any one of its own four dissolutions—1852, 1859, 1868, 1880.”

_Mr. Gladstone to Lord Rosebery._

_Hawarden, April 10, 1880._—... I should like to write about these
marvellous events, but how can I? The romance of politics which
befel my old age in Scotland, has spread over the whole land. You
remember perhaps my series of fractions, comparing daily the net
gains with the gross returns. The first day began with 1/13 or
thereabouts. It had got to 1/10 or 1/9 when we left you. It is now
1/6. How idle to talk about the caprice of household suffrage; the
counties have given quite as remarkable results as the boroughs. I
was stunned at the end of the first night; and I am still out of
breath from the endeavour to keep up with the rapidity of events.
I suppose the conservative Scotch will fill the first class
compartment, or nearly so, but no more. Wales, I beg you to
observe, has not (as I think) been behind Scotland in her
achievements. Most of the wretched percentage of compensation on
“tory gains” on the general list is wretched in quality as well as
quantity, and consists of the _district_ places. To scarcely one
of these gains can they point with any keen satisfaction. As to
Midlothian the moral effect, before and after, has I think
surpassed all our hopes. The feeling until it was over (since
which there has justly been a centring of thought on E.
Lancashire) was so fastened on it, that it was almost like one of
the occasions of old when the issue of battle was referred to
single combat. The great merit of it I apprehend lay in the
original conception, which I take to have been yours, and to
overshadow even your operations towards the direct production of
the result. But one thing it cannot overshadow in my mind: the
sense of the inexpressible aid and comfort derived day by day from
your considerate ever-watchful care and tact. [_Latin not to be
identified._] Let me apply these same words (calling on you for a
translation if needful) to Lady Rosebery. I should feel profoundly
ashamed of the burdens we brought you, had I not seen how truly
they were borne in the spirit, which alone makes all burdens
light. It is a very pleasant subject of reflection to me that the
riveting effect of companionship in a struggle like this, does not
pass away with the struggle itself but abides.

Our stratagem for a quiet exit was on the whole successful. At
Carlisle there was perfect quiet. At most of the few places where
the train stopped there were a score or two of people and no more.
At Hawarden, arriving between 9 and 10 A.M., we cheated the
triumphal preparations; but made amends by carrying them over to
Herbert the following day. We now become eager for the East
Worcestershire election and are sanguine about my son’s return. At
Warrington we got over the three hours wonderfully, and succeeded
in sleeping, though not exactly μαλθακῶς κατακείμενος through a
succession of the most violent and unearthly noises, banging,
crashing, roaring, squealing, that a railway station traversed by
innumerable goods’ trains can supply..... I will not trouble you
with, more words of thanks, I feel them so poor and idle.

Two days later Mr. Gladstone wrote to the Duke of Argyll:—

_April 12, 1880._—All our heads are still in a whirl from the
great events of the last fortnight, which have given joy, I am
convinced, to the large majority of the civilised world. The
downfall of Beaconsfieldism is like the vanishing of some vast
magnificent castle in an Italian romance. It is too big, however,
to be all taken in at once. Meantime, while I inwardly rejoice, I
am against all outward signs, beyond such as are purely local, of
exultation, for they are not chivalrous, and they would tend to
barbarise political warfare. We may be well content to thank God
in silence. But the outlook is tremendous! The gradual unravelling
of the tangled knots of the foreign and Indian policy will indeed
be a task for skilled and strong hands, if they can be found; and
these can hardly be found such as the case requires.