A.D. 1890.] THE PARNELL COMMISSION. 325 whose duty it is to lead, not to follow, whose duty it is to have a definite view on questions of the highest importance to the people at large, whose duty it is to instruct the people-I say it is a new doctrine, and a very evil one, that a politician being placed in the post of leader, abdicates that position, and follows where he ought to guide. I say that in old times in the House of Commons, if a man could not stay a movement which he believed to be wrong, he did not place himself at the head of it and lead on to the attainment of the object of which he disapproved. He stepped on one side. He said: "I will have nothing whatever to do with it. I cannot interfere with you. I cannot prevent the attainment, of this, which I believe to be wrong, but I will at all events leave it to you or others to take that course which you think right." A course of that kind would have an enormous influence over the masses of the people, who have right instincts, and who desire to be taught and led; who, instead of being led by statesmen, are led nowadays by demagogues, or by persons who, as I said just now, give away liberally the property of others without sacrificing their own. On November 19 Smith was at the opposite end of the kingdom addressing a meeting at Exeter, and another at Truro on the 21st. On the 25th he spoke at Plymouth, after which he returned to Greenlands to get a few weeks of well-earned repose before facing the labours of another year. CHAPTER XXIII. 1890. The prospect before Ministers at the opening of 1890 was dark and lowering. The Parnell Commission had not yet reported; but inasmuch as their proceedings had, from the first, worn the appearance of a State trial, in which the Irish members were arraigned at the instance of the Government, the exposure of Pigott's villany, and the enforced abandonment of that part of the charge which depended on the genuineness of letters alleged to have been written by Parnell, had told with tremendous effect against the Unionist party. A statement went the round of the papers to the effect that, as a consequence of the collapse of the case of the forged letters, Smith intended to resign his office. To a correspondent who wrote to ask the truth about this story, he replied through his secretary that he would have no peace if he were to contradict all the silly statements about him. Parliament having met on February 11, Sir William Harcourt, before the debate on the Queen's Speech was begun, raised the question of privilege, of which, he maintained, a breach had been committed against the House by the Times' in the matter of the charges against the Irish members, and the diminished majority by which his motion was rejected-58-testified to the loss of prestige incurred by the Government as a consequence of their supposed connection with the case. The Report of the Parnell Commission was made on February 13, and their judgment, though exonerating the Irish members from some of the charges made against them in the Times,' certainly brought home to them others involving heinous complicity with guilt; yet it was hailed by the Irish press and by Gladstonian speakers in Great Britain as rapturously as if it had been a complete acquittal. It speaks well for the lofty reputation of the English Bench that amid the storm of angry controversy and recrimination which broke out immediately on the delivery of judgment, not a word was heard impugning the integrity of the Commission. Even the 'Daily News,' leading organ of the Opposition, frankly admitted that one result of the inquiry had been "to vindicate the absolute impartiality of the Special Commissioners." On March 4, Smith, in conformity with a notice he had A.D. 1890.] DEBATE ON THE REPORT. 327 given on the publication of the Report of the Commission, rose to move that "this House adopts the Report, and thanks the Commissioners for their just and impartial conduct in the matters referred to them, and orders that the said Report be entered on the journals of this House." In support of this resolution he spoke at much greater length than it was his custom to do, and in a tone of gravity and studied moderation. Referring to an amendment of which Mr Gladstone had given notice, he said : Sir, I think few will deny that these are grave charges, and cannot permit a "clean bill" to be given to the respondents. The amendment of the right hon. gentleman would practically be a condonation of crime.. I have no doubt I shall be asked why the Government intend to proceed no further than the resolution I move to enter the judges' report on the journals of the House. My answer is, because it was no part of our intention at any time to constitute a Commission for the purpose of obtaining evidence to inflict punishment. The primary object was to obtain the truth whether the charges were true or false, and the bill specially provided that all who gave witness of the truth would receive indemnity for so doing. . . . I ask the House to adopt the report without colour, without adding a word by way of preface. I ask the House, in the second place, to give its thanks to the judges, who have so ably and laboriously discharged their duties. The conclusion of Smith's speech was a forcible piece of invective: Are all the experiences of past generations to be set at naught? Is the mandate of an illegal association alone to determine whether legal obligations shall or shall not be discharged, which have not only been the result of contract, but have received the approval of the State itself? Sir, this prospect, afforded by the alliance of a great party with doctrines which can only be regarded as anarchical, is one which must make a man pause and hesitate. If political necessities compel them to imperil the very existence of society, it may become a question whether even the maintenance of party government in this country, which has in the past done so much to advance and develop our parliamentary institutions, may not be regarded in these latter days as a curse rather than a blessing. If, only a few years ago, I or any of my hon. friends had ventured to prophesy that the Liberal party would be found ranging itself on the side of those whose language they denounced-whose acts they alleged to be, and believed to be, criminal-no words of condemnation would have been too strong in the mouths of our political opponents in denouncing us for such anticipation. Alas! it has come to pass; and I can only hope and believe that the people of this country, and even the people of Ireland, will come to realise how dangerous to the best interests of the State are the temptations to which the right hon. gentleman and his friends have succumbed. .. I hope the House will not be carried away by party passions. I entreat the House to consider the grave interests which are at stake, to vindicate the reputation of this House as supporting peace, prosperity, and good order in all parts of her Majesty's dominions, and to maintain those principles without which all our prosperity will certainly pass away. On March 11 the debate, which had oscillated between passages of great warmth and periods of depressing languor, was fanned into conflagration by a speech from Lord Randolph Churchill, who bitterly inveighed against his former colleagues, and reproached them with what he held to be the abortive and ominous result of the Special Commission. All this, of course, won him loud plaudits from the Opposition. It was perfectly consistent with the opinion he had expressed all along, from the first moment the Commission had been proposed, and no one could question his right to state his view of the case, however unfavourable might be the effect on the prospects of his own party. But the immediate result of his speech had not been foreseen. Lord Randolph had no more faithful follower, through evil report and good report, in sunshine and in shower, than the late Mr Louis Jennings, then member for Stockport. He was one of a small knot of friends who, as was said, had followed the noble lord into the desert, and held an independent attitude in supporting the Government. This gentleman now rose to express the embarrassment in which he was placed by Lord Randolph's speech. "It is said that I derive my opinions from my noble friend; but occasionally and at intervals I am capable of forming opinions of my own, and such an interval has occurred now." He went on to dissociate himself from any attempt to "stab his A.D. 1890.] INCREASING WEAKNESS. 329 party in the back,” and declared his loyalty to the Government in this most difficult question. The majority of the Government in the division which followed was 62. Their position, both in Parliament and in the country, as by-elections continued to show, bore testimony to the damaging effect of the Special Commission. upon their reputation. Anxiety now began to tell its tale upon Smith's health. It was he who, as leader of the House, had to bear the brunt of defending the course taken by Government in appointing the Commission, and he felt acutely the imputations made as to the motives of that policy. He was suffering at the time from persistent attacks of eczema, and began to despair of being able to continue at his post. He spent the Whitsuntide holidays cruising along the south coast in his yacht, and on May 31 addressed the following letter to his chief: MY DEAR SALISBURY,-I am afraid I may not be fit for my work when I get home. The Doctor here does not give me much hope, but I have asked Sir William Jenner to see me on my way through Southampton on Monday, if he is in those parts. If I am not fit, I should not like to stay on while another man has all the labour and the responsibility. It would not be fair to him, to you, or to my other colleagues. It may be only a matter of a few days, but taking one week with another, I have gone back steadily so far as the eczema is concerned, and the recent attacks have been so severe that they have deprived me of the power to do any work; but I shall see you on Tuesday at the Cabinet under any circumstances.-Yours very truly, W. H. SMITH. But he could not be spared yet, and had to struggle on. In vain his colleagues begged him to let them lighten his labours to leave the House betimes in the evenings, and suffer a deputy to conduct the business. He would not consent- -so long as he remained leader de jure—to be anything less than leader de facto. The torment of eczema, outward sign of deeper-seated evil, increased as the summer |