Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901; Statesmen -- Great Britain -- Biography
professing a political creed differing in its main characteristics from
that which had been proclaimed and carried on by Gladstone. Rosebery
renounced Home Rule for Ireland, and refused to act on Gladstone's
principles with regard to the protection of Christians in the East
against the alternating tyranny and neglect of the Ottoman Government.
Never within my recollection had any leader of a Liberal party in
the House of Commons come into a position of such difficulty and
disheartenment as that which Campbell-Bannerman had now to maintain. It
has often been the lot of the Liberal party to come into the House
of Commons with diminished numbers, and have to carry on as best
it could be done the battle against a Conservative Government of
overwhelming numerical strength. But the peculiar trouble which beset
Campbell-Bannerman was that he could not count upon the allegiance of
all his nominal followers. He knew that so long as he showed himself
determined to maintain the policy of Gladstone he could reckon without
fear on the support of such men as Harcourt and John Morley and Bryce.
But there were able men among those who occupied the front bench of
Opposition on whom he could not always count, men who were publicly
displaying themselves as the political associates or followers of Lord
Rosebery. Campbell-Bannerman went boldly and steadfastly on, never
faltering in the least. He upheld the time-honored creed of genuine
Liberalism, "never doubted clouds would break," and by his words and his
bearing inspired with fresh courage many a true Liberal whose faith was
not faltering, but whose hopes were sinking low. He proved himself quite
equal to the incessant work put upon him by his new position as leader
of the Liberal party in the House of Commons. He developed a capacity
for debate which only those who knew him well had ever before believed
him to possess. During all the wild excitement of Jingoism which
followed the movements of the war against the two South African
Republics, he never yielded to the temptation which overcame so many
other Liberals, the temptation to evade a passing unpopularity by
suppressing for the time his opinions on the policy of the war. He must
have been sorely tried again and again by the sayings and doings of some
who still professed to be members of the Liberal party in Parliament. A
new Liberal League was actually formed under the inspiration of Lord
Rosebery, and its object apparently was to create a new school of
Liberalism which should have nothing to do with the traditions of the
party and with the doctrines of men like Gladstone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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