cellent reproductions from E. Borough Johnson's Sketch Book are especially charming and worthy of notice. The Studio is entirely devoted to the state of modern art, both fine and applied, and the careful and artistic illustrations in every department do much to give the reader an intelligent appreciation of what is being done in the various departments of Art. This is a matter of no small importance to those whose interest in these matters can only be satisfied through the medium of paper and ink.

L. S.

W

The Liberal
Unionist

CURRENT EVENTS.

MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S CAREER.

HEN Mr. Gladstone astonished the people of Great Britain in 1886 by announcing his measure of Home Rule for Ireland as the first and foremost thing on the Liberal programme, it was well known that the bulk of Revolt. the Liberal party doubted and disapproved. Even in Scotland, where the name of Gladstone operated like a talisman on the middle and working classes, there was no enthusiasm for the measure. In the higher places of the party there were evident signs of consternation and dismay. Amongst the local leaders throughout the country the recusants were many and amongst the most eminent in point of intellect and influence. But on the whole the working men, the basis of the Liberal party, were inert on the subject, and not inclined to desert their famous leader on a question which did not seem to affect them directly. The power, too, of the party organisation, of the caucus, was great, especially over the average member of Parliament and the small local politician whose position and power depend much more on the resources of the party than on his own. And the party organisation was tied to the great name of Mr. Gladstone. So the Liberal associations after a moment of doubt and hesitation grew consenting, and even, as the battle went on, out wardly fervent on behalf of Home Rule. The associations were successful in keeping the bulk of the party together, and after a little time in whipping in many of the recusants, the most notable case being that of Sir George Trevelyan, who had his reward when the turn of the Liberal party came, in the secretaryship for Scotland, but sank irretrievably in public estimation, and finally abandoned the sphere of politics.

The position of the Liberal Unionist member seemed indeed a precarious one. As a rule he could be elected only by the

help of Conservative votes and by reason of an excitement on the subject of Home Rule, which he knew could hardly be maintained at its full heat till another election. He might win for once, but what was to become of him in after years without the backing of either of the two great party organisations, with no patronage to bestow, and small prospect of influence whichever party was in power. You cannot found a party on a negation. It may safely be said that below the exultation which every Liberal Unionist member expressed over his victory at the polls of 1886, there lay a feeling of discouragement and doubt of the future. Nobody comprehended how it could continue to exist as a party, and the Liberal organs freely prophesied its speedy extinction after the excitement of the time had passed; they reminded its leaders that the British public has the historic reputation of disliking 'caves,' coalitions, and all deviations from the grand party lines, and warned them that they were making a foolish sacrifice of their reputation and prospects.

To lead this forlorn hope, to guide this small party wisely amongst the strong currents and intrigues of party politics, to justify its delicate and ambiguous position in the constant conflict of Copservative and Liberal principles, to keep the Conservative policy on a path in which it was possible for men of professed Liberal opinions to work, to control Conservatives without irritating them, to oppose Liberal statesmen while generally maintaining Liberal principles, and through all this to keep its line of action clear, consistent and intelligible in the eyes of the British public, this was a work which could not have been done except by leaders for whose character and ability their Conservative allies and the country in general had a profound respect.

Yet this is the work which Mr. Chamberlain has performed during all these years with consummate skill and success. In the early stage of the contest the Duke of Devonshire, then Lord Hartington, stood also conspicuously in the front. The calm and candid judgment of that head of the great house of Cavendish is still a power in the country, of a less public and popular kind than Mr. Chamberlain's, but hardly less weighty. No men had such splendid prospects in connection with the Liberal party to sacrifice as these two had. Under Mr. Gladstone always, they were the chiefs of the two great sections of the Liberal party, the Moderates and the Radicals. Had they remained in it, Lord Roseberry would not have won his place so easily, and there would have been no question of Sir William Harcourt or Mr. Campbell-Bannerman for the headship of the party. There could hardly be a clearer case of the sacrifice of great prospects. to a sense of duty, or at least of the choice for conscience sake of a hard and almost impracticable road instead of an easy and beaten one. No doubt it is some deep sense of this that has

kept Mr. Chamberlain right with the nation in spite of an obvious change in his political tone, and one grave mistake at least in his management of colonial affairs. Nothing but the respect which the nation generally felt for his conduct at a great crisis could have enabled him to maintain himself for so many years in a delicate and ambiguous position, and not only to maintain himself, but markedly to increase his power and reputation. Dear as he was to the Radical heart in his early days, I doubt if he would ever as a Radical leader have touched the imagination of the English people as he did by the pluck and patriotism he showed in the Home Rule contest. At the head of a numerically insignificant party, his personality and influence are dominant things to-day in the government of the Empire.

No doubt in accounting for the stability of this alliance between a powerful Conservative party and the small body of Liberal Unionists, something must be credited to the good sense and the magnanimity of the Conservative leaders. Indulgence in small jealousies or rivalries, a narrow view of what their claims and rights were, would have been fatal. But unless he possessed in some eminent degree the respect of the country at large, Mr. Chamberlain in a Conservative ministry would only have been an embarrassment and a source of weakness to that party. Without that public respect, without the certainty that the occasion was highly honourable to both sides, any coalition between the Marquis of Salisbury and Mr. Chamberlain would have fallen as that of Lord North and Fox fell, amidst the jeers and contempt of all parties. For Fox and North were not more opposed by their principles, not more separated from each other by their political history, their past utterances and the sharpness of their personal conflict, than the leader of the Conservatives and the leader of the Liberal Unionists were. But it was in vain that the Radical newspapers imitated the moral indignation of Pitt and "forbade the banns" in this "unholy alliance." The English people discerned that, strange as the alliance was, it was founded on honour and probity; they made it victorious at the polls of 1886 and, again, at those of 1895; they are supporting it to this day. The different fate of the two coalitions is an admirable lesson given by the English nation to its political leaders.

Conservatism.

Yet the career of Mr. Chamberlain, like that of most eminent men, seems to owe something to fortune as well The New as to great abilities, The stars in their courses have proved not unfriendly to him. The generosity of Conservatives, the sympathy of the country for his position, his own skill as a tactician, all these would not have availed to maintain Mr. Chamberlain in his equivocal position unless something in

the nature of a fundamental change in the political atmosphere had taken place, something that made it possible for men of Liberal tendencies to work harmoniously and honestly with men of Conservative tendencies. Two things have made this possible. The first is the rise of the new Conservatism, of which Mr. Balfour perhaps, rather than the Marquis of Salisbury, is the exponent. This type of Conservative sees clearly that a wise conservatism will never oppose itself blindly and impulsively to reform and reconstruction, but that on the contrary the only possible life for conservatism lies in its being ready to assist in every readjustment of the constitution or laws which is really needed to accommodate them to the growth of democratic forces. To distinguish such required adjustment from mere aspirations of the advanced Radicals which are not shared by the people generally has now become its task. And in this task the Liberal Unionist party, representing as it always did the moderate section of the Liberals, can very heartily co-operate. The alliance is natural and workable, and Mr. Chamberlain becomes in the new aspect of politics an educative influence in the councils of the Conservative party, and not a mere element of opposition and difference to which sacrifice must be grudgingly made.

The Policy of

But of recent years another new and even stronger bond of union has arisen between the Liberal Unionist and the Conservative. The policy of Imperialism, as it is Imperialism. called, has furnished the alliance of Liberal Unionists and Conservatives with a clear and assured ground for common action. At bottom the Imperialistic instinct is the instinct of a nation to make provision for the expansion of its race. Other instincts, it is true, both higher and lower, may cooperate with this. The The instinct, strong in every great nation, to extend its type of civilisation, the moral ideals and discipline which it represents over barbarous and rude communities where nothing valuable to humanity is displaced; to put order instead of disorder-what Kipling has called "taking up the white man's burden," this has its due place in the great movement of Imperial expansion. The instinct to rule, to administer and discipline, the instinct of the old Roman, is but a cruder and at its best unconscious form of this. Lower forms of the instinct are not less active, the desire of the trader to open up new sources of traffic, of the artisan to possess new fields of industry, better chances in life, the greed of the capitalist to secure and control new markets; a variety of commercial interests, in short, legitimate and illegitimate, good, bad and indifferent, combine to swell this movement. No other movement of our times has been so universal and contagious

amongst the nations that feel themselves capable of pursuing it; for no other movement appeals with equal power alike to the instincts of the statesman, the aristocrat, the financier, the trader and the artisan. Amongst these, no doubt, the instinct of the statesman is the fundamental and commanding one. A modern democratic empire like that of Great Britain requires to secure a wide field for its expansion, for the energies and ever growing aspirations of its democracy, which would otherwise become restless and a menace to social stability at home. doubt at times this seems to be nothing else than a movement in which the British statesman and soldier are engaged in securing new and tempting fields of exploitation for the capitalist; sometimes, I suppose, it is nothing else, and in other cases it may be difficult to separate this from the wider aims of Imperialism. For the statesman must often put forward the lower instinct to serve the higher cause.

No

The policy of Imperialism thus comes to be a bond of union between many classes who were previously more apt to find difference and opposition than identity in their interests. It is an instinct which has equal sway, as we see, over aristocracies and democracies, over Russia and Germany, over France and the United States. Adopted by the Conservative party as its special policy, it has given that party fresh vitality and a touch with the new democratic masses which of late it has rarely possessed, except when the British lion was in a rampant mood and the big drum beating defiance to Russia or some other traditional foe to British interests. Indeed to the angry Radical, Imperialism seems to be nothing but Jingoism under another name. Well, we do admit some affinity, perhaps even such a connection as exists between a disreputable parent and a well conducted son. For Imperialism is Jingoism reduced to reason, proceeding on a strict basis of economical facts and necessities, aware of the nature of its mission, and therefore able to see what is not included therein.

It is by a curious but still natural process of transformation that Mr. Chamberlain, nursed in the school of Cobden and the Manchester politicians, has become the chief exponent of Imperialism. The change is one which is very general in the class of great manufacturers to which he primarily belongs; and the germ of Imperialism was already evident in his strong opposition to Home Rule. No doubt, had he remained in the Liberal party, a larger share of his energies would have been given to social reforms; but as an ally of the Conservative party he has found a safer and perhaps a more important field of action in colonial affairs.