Sidney James Mark Low

“ I remember the vulnerable and scattered character of the empire, the universality of our commerce, the peaceful tendencies of our democratic electorate, and the hard times, the pressure of competition, and the high taxation now imposed ; and with these factors vividly before me I decline to be a party to encouraging the military and militant circle of the war office and admiralty to join in the high and desperate stakes which other nations seem to be forced to risk. ”

“ We have regiments of various sorts ; but if by an army you mean a perfect fighting machine, fully equipped in all its parts, and ready to take the field at the shortest notice, then we have not got an army or anything approaching it ; and yet we spend over fifteen millions on it annually. You now have to consider whether it is worth while going on spending such an enormous sum of money for a thing which you do not possess.' With these strong views on economy he had a deep distrust of an adventurous foreign policy. ”

“ A wise foreign policy will extricate England from continental struggles, and keep her outside German, Russian, French, or Austrian disputes. I have for some time observed a tendency in the government attitude to pursue a different line of action, which I have not been able to modify or check. This tendency is certain to be accentuated if large estimates are presented to and voted by parliament. The possession of a very sharp sword offers a temptation which becomes irresistible to demonstrate the efficiency of the weapon in a practical manner. ”

“ For some time past he had been closely interested in the politics of Birmingham. The conservatives of the midland capital early appreciated his abilities. Their toryism was always of an advanced and decidedly democratic character, and the local leaders of the party, eager to shake off the radical predominance, which at that time was unbroken, made advances to him. In 1883, the year of John Bright's jubilee, when radicalism was supposed to have reached its zenith in Birmingham, Lord Randolph took part in the conference of the National Union of Conservative Associations held in that city. ”

“ At Manchester on 3 March he advocated a coalition among those who were opposed to home rule, and suggested that 'unionists' should be the general name adopted by 'the party of the union,' while their opponents should be known as 'separatists.' He added that if the dissentient liberals should be able to form a ministry of their own the conservatives would support them, and that if their leaders were willing to enter a coalition cabinet those conservatives 'with whom the whigs did not wish to serve ' would cheerfully stand aside. ”

“ He declared his confidence that the nation 'would award the palm, and the honour, and the victory to those who, conscious of the immeasurable responsibilities attaching to an hereditary house, have dauntlessly defended, against an arbitrary minister, the ancient liberties of our race.' He also insisted on the unity of the opposition. ”

“ Trust the people and they will trust you.' Briefly, it may be said that while the democratic toryism claimed to differ from radicalism in its jealous regard for the throne, the church, the House of Lords, and the constitution, it asserted at least an equal interest in political and social reform. ”

“ After the rejection of Gladstone's bill by the House of Commons he used even stronger language, both in his platform speeches and his address to the electors of South Paddington, with regard to the scheme and its author. 'The caprice of an individual,' he said, 'was elevated to the dignity of an act of the people by the boundless egoism of the prime minister;' and he declared that an attempt was being made to destroy the constitution merely 'to gratify the ambition of an old man in a hurry.' He was re-elected for South Paddington on 2 July by 2,576 votes to 769. ”

“ The mission of Britain, as a great 'world-power,' and the mistress of a vast empire beyond the seas, does not seem to have appealed keenly to his imagination. But his belief in the old liberal axiom of 'peace, retrenchment, and reform' was quite sincere, and he had a vivid conception of the dangers which would arise if they were disregarded. He defended his views in detail in the House of Commons on 31 Jan., and in a speech to his constituents on 2 April. ”

“ Goschen, and other unionist liberals. But in the conservative camp proper there was no leader, except Lord Salisbury, who could now be compared with him in influence and reputation, and perhaps not one who surpassed him in popularity with the rank and file of the party in the constituencies. His personality had fascinated the masses, who admired his courage, his ready wit, and the brilliant audacity with which he dealt his blows at the loftiest crests, whether those of friends or adversaries. ”

“ He declared that the refusal of Gladstone's government to renew Lord Beaconsfield's Peace Preservation Act would inevitably lead to a new era of coercion. He prophesied that this coercion would be a failure, and that in the result the union would be in jeopardy. In this speech, as in his Woodstock election address, he struck the note which, through some occasional variations due to the temporary exigencies of party tactics, may be said to have dominated his opinions on Irish politics. He cannot fairly be charged with any wavering on the central question of the union. ”

“ In a series of speeches, delivered chiefly to large audiences in the great towns of the north and the midlands, he endeavoured to show that toryism, so far from being the political creed of an exclusive class, was in essentials as truly 'democratic' as that of the radicals, if not indeed more so. ”

“ A constitution congenitally delicate, with a high-strung nervous system, had been severely tried by the strain to which it had been exposed for years. His political work had been performed with fiery energy ; and his activity in the House of Commons and on the platform was often supplemented by long spells of exhausting labour over blue-books and official publications. ”

“ The work was executed by Traill after a thorough study of the materials placed at his disposal, and it is an adequate indeed the only adequate account of the great Arctic explorer. Between 1893 and 1897 he acted as editor of an elaborate compilation in six volumes, called 'Social England,' which was intended to be an historical account of the social, industrial, and political development of the nation. But he is at his best as a satirist of intellectual foibles, or a speculator, half playful and half melancholy, on the problems of life. ”

“ But, while asserting that no compromise with home rule could be admitted, he also contended that in the administration of Ireland conciliation should be pushed to its furthest limits, that coercion by itself could never remedy the evils of the country, and that a large measure of local self-government should be accorded to the Irish people. ”

“ Randolph Churchill's private character exhibited some of the contradictions of his public career. His personality, which fascinated men in masses, and attracted those whom he admitted to his intimacy, was often found repellent by casual acquaintances and by his political associates. The insolence of bearing, which excited so much resentment, particularly when displayed towards dignified and elderly colleagues, was sometimes said to be deliberately studied ”

“ The literary studies were more successful than the political ; for Traill was a fine and penetrating critic rather than a trained historian. But everything he wrote was couched in the same admirable style easy, fluent, dignified, and correct which never seems to have deteriorated under the constant strain of daily journalism. ”

“ In his election address at Birmingham in 1885 he urged that it should be part of the policy of the tory party so 'to utilise the powers of the House of Commons as either to effect financial retrenchment and departmental reform or else to make sure that the present expenditure of the people's money is justifiable and thrifty.' In a speech at Blackpool on 24 Jan. 1884 he denounced the extravagance of both parties, and advocated a searching inquiry into the administration of the army, which he condemned as wasteful and inefficient. ”

“ The 'Dartford programme,' vigorously defended and reasserted three weeks later in a speech at Bradford, included local government reform in Great Britain and Ireland, bills for providing agricultural labourers with allotments and small holdings, the sale of glebe lands, and legislation on railway rates, tithes, land transfer, and Irish land purchase. 'Politics,' said its author, ' is not a science of the past. ”

“ In the session of 1889 he threatened the first lord of the admiralty with relentless opposition, and 'a long and heavy fight' over his estimates. But by the time the committee stage was reached the champion of economy had gone to Norway, and the votes were got through with exceptional ease. Lord Randolph was much occupied in other ways during these years. He spent a good deal of the time, which in the first half of the decade he had devoted to politics, in sport, travel, and social recreations. He had always been interested in racing ”

“ Earlier in the day he had sent a reply to Lord Salisbury, which, however, did not reach the prime minister till the following morning, and by that time the resignation of the chancellor of the exchequer had been made known to the world. In this communication he abandoned the curt brevity of his former note and endeavoured to vindicate his action on general principles. 'The great question of public expenditure,' he wrote, 'is not so technical or departmental as might be supposed by a superficial critic. Foreign policy and free expenditure upon armaments act and react upon one another. ... ”

“ An overpowering ambition, fed by the consciousness of great abilities, and hampered by an unstable nervous system, would go far to explain both his qualities and his defects. His lack of culture was often exaggerated. ”

“ With a few exceptions these pieces are in the humorous or satirical vein and deal with topics of the day ; but one, called 'The Ant's Nest,' is deeply serious, and deserves to take rank among the finest philosophical and reflective poems of the last twenty years of the nineteenth century. Traill's remarkable gift of parody, in prose as well as in metre, was exhibited by an anonymous pamphlet, published in 1876, called ' The Israelitish Question and the Comments of the Canaan Journals thereon,' in which the style of the leading London newspapers was cleverly burlesqued. ”

“ On 28 April, on the motion for going into committee, he made a strong attack on the liberal 'gerrymandered,' whom he charged with an intention to manipulate the new constituencies in their own party interests. On 1 May Mr. Chaplin's amendment, intended to prevent the extension of the bill to Ireland, openly revealed the divisions among the conservatives. Mr. Gorst, as Lord Randolph Churchill's lieutenant, repudiated the amendment, which was withdrawn, after an admission from Lord George Hamilton that the opposition was not united on the subject. ”

“ If such an investigation were held, 'we should find,' he said, 'that we spend annually from sixteen to eighteen millions on our army. Germany, Austria, and France do not spend more ; but we should find that while these powers have great armies we have no armies at all. ”

“ It was as a determined opponent of repeal that Lord Randolph fiercely attacked the so-called 'Kilmainham Treaty' and the alliance between Gladstonians and Parnellites in 1883 and 1884. Speaking at Blackpool on 24 Jan. 1884, he said : 'Mr. Gladstone has a weakness for effecting his objects by acts of parliament ; the Irish a slight preference for more rapid and violent action. ”

“ While in residence at Oxford in 1868 he published a letter protesting against some attacks which had been made upon his father's conduct as a local landowner in connection with the parliamentary election at Woodstock. Leaving the university in 1870 he did not immediately turn his attention to politics. ”

“ He took a first class in classical moderations in 1863, but after passing moderations he took up the study of natural science, with a view to the medical profession, and obtained a second class in the final schools in that subject in 1865. ”