266 



The Review of Reviews, 



March 20, 1906: 



cumstances alter cases, and they also necessitate a 

 change in vocabularies. 



John Bums is by temperament and by experi- 

 ence suspicious of the pun-ey-ors of nostrums, 

 socialistic or otherwise. To quote his own phrase: 

 — "The pushful philanthropist, the economical ama- 

 teur, the industrial quack, the purveyor of social 

 nostrums and charitable schemes would have a stem 

 critic in him. What was more, he would not trouble 

 his mind with the over-consideration or dispropor- 

 tionate attention to pauperising palliatives that were 

 illusory or extravagant." Whoever else goes rainbow 

 chasing, John of Battersea stays at home. 



Mr. Burns was first elected M.P. for Battersea 

 in 1892. He has held the seat continuously ever 

 since, although at every election he has had to face 

 a contest. But one of the good features of British 

 constituencies is their fidelity. Cases axe not rare 

 in which members once elected are continuously re- 

 elected until their death. The present Premier was 

 first returned for his present seat in 1868, and he 

 has held it ever since. Charles Villiers sat for Wol- 

 verhampton for nearly, if not quite, half a century. 

 And John Burns will probably sit for Battersea as 

 long as he sits in the House of Commons. He has 

 in Parliament acted steadily with the Liberal Party. 

 He has been Chairman of the Labour Party in the 

 House, but he has never been leader of the Inde- 

 pendent Labour Party whose chief is >lr. Keir 

 Hardie, and whose ideal is the creation of a Labour 

 group absolutely indepemdent of both the g:rteat 

 Parties in the State. Possibly if the present Pre- 

 mier had not offered Mr. Bums Cabinet rank he 

 might have leaned more strongly towards the Inde- 

 pendents. But as he told us when office was offered 

 him, " he had to choose whether for the next ten 

 years he should indulge perhaps in the futility of 

 faction, perhaps in the impotency of intrigue, or 

 whether he should accept an office which in their day 

 and generation he could make fruitful of good works." 

 He did not hesitate long in coming to a decision. 

 His refusal would have been a heavy blow at the 

 cause which he has championed all his life, and a 

 sore discouragement for the Liberal Party which has 

 loyally supported him in all his strivings after a 

 fairer and brighter social ideal. 



Upon the three great issues before the country at 

 this election John Bums is heart and soul with the 

 Liberal Party. He is passionately opposed to the 

 policy of Militarism. He has a splendid record as 

 an opponent of the de\'astating wars waged by the 

 Jingoes in Africa and Asia. During the delirium 

 w^hich attacked the British public from 1899 to 1902, 

 John Burns kept his head, and not only kept his 

 head, but set himself so manfully to oppose the fool 

 frenzy of the hour that Jingo mobs smashed his win- 

 dows, and nothing but the repute which he enjoyed 

 as being a handy man with his fists saved him from 

 personal violence at the hands of his constituents. 

 He was a pro-Boer of the pro-Boers, and he gloried 



in the name. He has now seen the wheel come round 

 full circle, and ■' the hooting mob of yesterday " ad- 

 mit with crestfallen mien that they had been befool- 

 ed into the perpetration of a colossal crime and a 

 suicidal blunder. Nor does John Bums forget " to 

 rub it in." 



Mr. Balfour declared that the nation must de- 

 cide at the elections whether it was in favour of 

 Home Rule for Ireland or of Fiscal Reform for 

 Great Britain — or, in other words, Home Rule or 

 Protection. Many official Liberals and all Free 

 Trade L'nionists protest against the assertion that 

 every vote given against protection is a vote given 

 for Home Rule. John Burns does not object. 

 Every vote for John Burns is a vote for Home Rule 

 for Ireland and a vote against a Protective Tariff. 

 He told me immediately after accepting office that 

 nothing lay so near his heart as the state of Ireland. 

 " The Irish nation," he exclaimed with much feel- 

 ing, " is dying before our eyes. In the last twenty 

 years the population has diminished by one-seventh, 

 and all her industries are languishing. It was the 

 hope of being able to do something for Ireland that 

 spurred me on as much as anything else to accept 

 office." Mr. Bums has been in Ireland. He is a 

 great friend of Michael Davitt's. Possibly, if he 

 and Michael Davitt were shut up in a room together, 

 with coTie blancJie to settle the Irish question. Ire- 

 land would no longer block the wav. But that is 

 past praying for at present. 



Upon Protection Mr. Burns is as hard a.s a flint. 

 He is a Free Trader through and through. He be- 

 gan his studies in political economy when as a 

 voung engineer on the West Coast of Africa he had 

 the rare good luck to find a copy of Adam Smith s 

 " Wealth of Nations " imbedded in the sand of an 

 African river. He has kept up his studies ever 

 since. When Mr. Chamberlain saw the ghastly 

 failure of his warlike policy in South Africa he 

 attempted to divert attention from that supreme 

 blunder by repudiating the convictions of a lifetime, 

 and parading the countr\- as the passionate pilgrim 

 of Protecrion. Against Mr. Chamberlain e\-ery man 

 of any standing in the country entered the lists. Mr. 

 Chamberlain has behind him a rabble of mercenary 

 interests, but not a single statesman or politician 

 who would be listened to for a moment by anybody 

 if Mr. Chamberlain w^ere to be translated to another 

 world. Every man who has ever held high office, 

 and also has had any experience in the administra- 

 tion of the Empire at home or abroad, with a few 

 inconsiderable exceptions, took up arms against the 

 suicidal Protectionists. Among those who rendered 

 yeoman's service in the Free Trade Campaign, John 

 Burns stands in the front rank — Mr. Asquith, Mr. 

 Winston Churchill, Mr. John Bums. These three 

 bore the heat and burden of the day. Now they 

 are reaping the reward of their labours. I would 

 be afraid to say how many enormous meetings John 

 Bums has addressed in all parts of the country-. 



