K 



Review of Kevieics, MlSjOH. 



The New House of Qommons. 



273 



four had found a seat or not was a matter of com- of Mr. Balfour, could lead the Opposition with 

 'parative indifference. He is not likely to be very credit and with some fair chance of success, and he, 

 constant in his attendance. The atmosphere of the unfortunately, is not in the House. Lord Hugh 

 new House will be distasteful. He has no genius Cecil, and Lord Hugh Cecil alone, possesses those 

 for intrigue and as the leader of a handful of dis- gifts of earnestness, sincerity, eloquence, industry, 

 pirited followers he would be out of his element .and ability which the Opposition requires in its 

 Mr. Chamberlain and his son Austen, It may be leader in the present desperate crisis. He is the in- 

 presumed, will be the most conspicuous figures on dispensable man. 



the Front Opposition Bench— when they axe there. 

 But Mr. Chamberlain will be there but seldom. He 

 was conspicuous by his absence from the late House 

 from the moment he left office. It is the fashion 

 to speak of Mr. Chamberlain as a first-class fighting 

 man. He is, no doubt, ready with his fists when he 

 is, or thinks he is, on the winning .side. But no one 

 ever was a worse fighter for a lost cause. The taunt, 

 "Thou ever strong upon the stronger side," could 

 not be applied more aptly to any politician in Par- 

 liament than to the Hero of Birmingham, who has 

 hitherto always discovered good reasons for going 

 over to the majority when he found himself in 

 danger of being left on the losing side. This time, 

 whether it is that advancing years have robbed him 

 of. the suppleness of his nimbler youth, or whether 

 it is because his record left him no possible way of 

 retreat, he has stuck to his guns too long to be able 

 to execute any of the masterly manoeuvres which in 

 the past have enabled him to go over bag and bag- 

 gage to the other side. He is nothing like such a 

 good fighting man-at-arms when he is in a really tight 

 place as Mr. Balfour. Like all men who have always 

 shouted with the biggest crowd, he resents and 

 cowers under the hostility of a strong majority. This 

 being so, it is probable that he will seldom put in 

 an appearance at Westminster; the atmosphere of 

 Birmingham is more congenial. As for Mr. Austen, 

 no one knows what he can do in Opposition. He 

 is a hot-house plant reared in the forcing-house of 

 Highbury. As for the other Birmingham members, 

 they are mere cyphers. 



It is difficult to conceive a House of Commons 

 without an Opposition, and it is not less difficult to 

 conceive an Opposition without other leaders, when 



IV.— THE LIBERAL GROUP. 



In the Liberal Party proper the chief change that 

 will be noticeable will be in the largely increased 

 number of Nonconformists who will sit behind the 

 Prime Minister. They represent worthily the sober, 

 serious, earnest. God-fearing part of the nation. 

 They are men who, like Cromwell's Ironsides, will 

 put a conscience to their work. According to a very 

 carefully-compiled statement in the Christian World, 

 there are over 176 Free Churchmen in the House, 

 more than all the Unionists put together, including 

 73 who captured Tory seats. With the exception 

 of Mr. Perks they are devoted to the cause of peace. 

 They form the largest group among the Minis- 

 terialists. They are made up of representatives of 

 the following denominations: — 66 Congregational- 

 ists, 26 Wesleyans, 19 Methodists (other than Wes- 

 leyan), 19 Baptists, 6 Presbyterians (excluding 

 Scotch members), 6 Friends and 11 Unitarians. 

 Most of these men enter Parliament for the first 

 time. Many of them have undertaken the responsi- 

 bilities of public life with great reluctance, under 

 the pressure of the same appeal to conscience as 

 that which brings men and women to the inquiry 

 room at a Revival meeting. They are for the most 

 part without any personal ambitions. Few of them 

 have any desire for a political career. They felt 

 the call to serve their country in this crisis of her 

 destiny, and they volunteered as men rush into the 

 ranks when the invader is across the frontier. Their 

 instincts are not revolutionary — far from it. Mr. 

 Spurgeon always used to say that the Nonconfor- 

 mists would be the most Conservative section of the 

 nation if they were not goaded into the Liberal ranks 



Parliament is opened, than Mr. Arnold- Forster and by the arrogance :uid injustice of the Established 



Mr. Long, who founrl refuge in Dublin — of all Church. There are many Socialists who. look as- 



places in the world. Even with Mr. Akers-Douglas kanco at the Nonconformists. They arc middle-class 



thrown in, Mr. Arnold-Forster, the minority member pien, they say, whose sympathies are more with the 



for Croydon, will hardly be able to make much of a employer than with the employed. There are fewer 



fight. Mr. Wyndham, it is true, remains. He is a "advanced" Collcctivists among them than among 



gallant and gay sabreur who, but for the break in 

 his career, might have aspired to the leadership. 

 But he is too light a weight for the present situa- 

 tion. The only two able fighting men on the Front 

 Bench are both lawyers — Sir Edward Carson and 

 Sir Edward Clarke Neither of them has had any 

 experience in leading the House. Their supremacy 

 at the Bar would help them in debate, but leader- 

 ship is not in them. 



There is only one Unionist who, in the absence 



the younger Anglicans. They are as a rule Indi- 

 vidualists, and more inclined to believe in the im- 

 ])ortance of character than of Socialistic machinery. 

 Their recent experience of the loss of liberty and of 

 their household goods in the campaign of passive 

 resistance has sharpened their suspicion of authority 

 and quickened their ancient sympathy with rebel- 

 lion which had of late been dying out. Their most 

 conspicuous leaders are to be found not in Parlia- 

 ment, but in the pulpit and on the Press — with the 



