374 



The Review of Reviews'. 



April !Q, 1906. 



not make it hard for us to maintain this benevolent 

 attitude." 



"Are there anv signs of this?" 



"Well." said Mr. Redmond, " judge for yourself. 

 The Crimes Act is a measure which nearly every 

 member of the Cabinet has condenmed. Have they 

 repealed it? No such thing. They have suspended 

 its operation. But that is not what we had a right 

 to expect." 



" Why this failure of the courage of their 

 opinions?" 



" Want of moral courage on the part of the col- 

 lective Ministers. And that does not stand alone," 



"You are referring to Sir Horace Plunkett?" 



" No, I am not. He only remains in office pending 

 the reconstruction. That is all right." 



" Then is it about Education ?" 



" No, nothing has been done about that yet." 



" Then is it anything done administratively about 

 the Land Art \n Ireland ?" 



"No; Mr. Bryce has done very well. He knows 

 more about Macedonia than Ireland, but he has torn 



up and ripped to pieces all the stupid handiwork of 

 Mr. Long and Mr. Wyndham. No, that is all right. 

 They have begun well, and will, I hope, do better 

 still. What I complained of was that they have 

 refused to recognise that in order that the Land 

 Purchase Act should really settle the land question 

 it is absolutely necessary that there should be an 

 amending Bill providing for compulsion in certain 

 cases. We do not say that that Bill should he forced 

 through, but it ought to be introduced and read a 

 second time as an earnest of their resolution." 



" I see your point. You have not lost time in 

 rubbing it in." 



" Well," said Mr. Redmond, " Mr. Balfour has 

 often told me that I had made the same speech 

 thirty times. But I never had such an audience as I 

 had on the opening day." 



With this we parted. A few hours afterwards 

 the ringing cheers with which the whole Nationalist 

 party welcomed the courageous Home Rule speech 

 of Mr. Bryce showed that Mr. Redmonds expecta- 

 tions had. so far, been more than fulfilled. 



LXXVIII— THE LABOUR PARTY: MR. KEIR HARDIE, M.P. 



b 



No man deserved better to be installed as leader 

 of the ne\vi\ -constituted Labour Party than Mr. 

 Keir Hardio. He is a son of the mine who has 

 borne the yoke in his youth. Step by step from the 

 lowest depths of ignorance and poverty Mr. Keir 

 Hardie has won his way up, until now he stands 

 recognised as the leader of one of the strongest and 

 most hopeful parties in the country. He is no novice 

 in Parliamentary warfare. He has sat in two Par- 

 liaments, and has fought many contested elections. 

 The Independent Labour Party is largely his crea- 

 tion. Like the leaders of both the other parties, 

 he is a Scot. It is odd that of the four parties in 

 the House, three are led by Scotchmen and one by 

 an Irishman. Mr. Keir Hardie was elected leader by 

 the casting vote of the Chairman. He did not de- 

 sire the post. At one time he formally withdrew 

 from the contest. He is more of an idealist and a 

 seer than a Parliamentary captain. But in com- 

 bination with Mr. Macdonald. the secretary — an- 

 other Scotchman, bv the way — the Labour Party 

 will not lack for skilful guidance. 



'• The Labour Party," said Mr. Keir Hardie, as 

 we walked along the Embankment from Mowbrav 

 House to the Houses of Parliament. " the Labour 

 members, using the term in its widest sense, num- 

 ber fifty-tno. They are divided into two groups. 

 The members elected under the auspices of the 

 Labour Representation Committee, or the L.R.C., 

 have adopted the title of the Labour Party, and now 

 r number thirty. The second group comprises the 

 older Labour members like Mr. Burt and Mr. 

 Broadhurst, and those union officials whose unions 



are not yet affiliated to the Labour Party. Ther*! 

 are twenty-four of them." 



" What prospect is there of your gathering both 

 groups under your standard?" 



■■ The force of gravitation, operating at first more 

 in the country and in the trades unions than in the 

 House, will inevitably draw almost all of them into 

 our orbit. At present we have hardly found our feet. 

 Nor has the battle been joined on any issue that 

 divides us from the Liberal Labour men. But in 

 the trades unions which pay them the feeling in 

 favour of our way of thinking is rapidly growing, 

 and that of itself means that we shall all one dav 

 be united under one flag." 



" Are you not too cast-iron in your organisation ?''' 



'• There is no cast iron in our organisation, but I 

 hope there is a good deal of chilled steel in our- 

 determination. We have enough discipline, I hope,, 

 to enable us to act as a unit upon any great issue 

 to which the party is committed, but there is a wide- 

 and, I think, a ver\- wise latitude allowed to anv and 

 every member to go as you please on matters in 

 which they feel strongly. We put no strain upon, 

 the consciences of our members." 



" Then you are not a Labour Parnell ruling with 

 a rod of iron ?" 



" Nothing could be further from my ideas. In the 

 present more or less formative period nothing could 

 be more fatal than an attempt to enforce rigid uni- 

 formit\- on all our members. Diversity in unitv, 

 liberty with discipline — that is our ideal." 



'■ ^^"hat will be vour attitude with regard to the ■ 

 Ministn-?" 



