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LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL
LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL
BY WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL, M.P. AUTHOR OF ‘THE STORY OF THE MALAKAND FIELD FORCE, 1897’ ‘THE RIVER WAR,’ ‘LONDON TO LADYSMITH VIA PRETORIA,’ ETC. IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 1906 All rights reserved Copyright, 1906, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1906. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. TO CHARLES RICHARD JOHN SPENCER-CHURCHILL DUKE O
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Deed of Trust Regulating the Papers of the late Lord Randolph Churchill.
Deed of Trust Regulating the Papers of the late Lord Randolph Churchill.
I, The Right Honourable Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill , P.C., M.P., of 50 Grosvenor Square in the County of London by these Presents send Greeting Whereas I am possessed of various Political and State Documents Correspondence and Papers which are now contained in Tin boxes deposited in my name at the Westminster Branch of the London and Westminster Bank Limited and in Tin boxes and Drawers at No. 50 Grosvenor Square aforesaid Now I by These Presents do assign transfer and make over from and a
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AUTHOR’S PREFACE
AUTHOR’S PREFACE
I N the spring of 1893 Lord Randolph Churchill, feeling that he had slender expectations of long life, placed all his papers, private and official, under a trust-deed which consigned them at his death to the charge of two of his most intimate political friends, Viscount Curzon (now Earl Howe) and Mr. Ernest Beckett (now Lord Grimthorpe). As he made a practice of preserving almost every letter he received, the number of documents was sufficient to fill eleven considerable tin boxes. Subject to th
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CHAPTER I EARLY YEARS
CHAPTER I EARLY YEARS
T HE cumulative labours of Vanbrugh and ‘Capability’ Brown have succeeded at Blenheim in setting an Italian palace in an English park without apparent incongruity. The combination of these different ideas, each singly attractive, produces a remarkable effect. The palace is severe in its symmetry and completeness. Nothing has been added to the original plan; nothing has been taken away. The approaches are formal; the wings are balanced; four equal towers maintain its corners; and the fantastic or
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CHAPTER II MEMBER FOR WOODSTOCK
CHAPTER II MEMBER FOR WOODSTOCK
A PROFOUND tranquillity brooded over the early years of the Parliament of 1874. Mr. Gladstone was in retirement. A young Irishman, Charles Stewart Parnell, had been beaten at the General Election in his Dublin candidature and did not enter the House of Commons or make a nervous maiden speech till the spring of 1875. Mr. Chamberlain, a new though already formidable English politician, had, as a Radical, vainly attacked Mr. Roebuck, the Liberal member for Sheffield, and was not returned as a repre
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CHAPTER III THE FOURTH PARTY
CHAPTER III THE FOURTH PARTY
G REAT expectations were entertained of the Parliament of 1880 by the Liberal members who assembled at Westminster after the election. Indeed, the position of their party was one of immense strength and advantage. The Government enjoyed the support of a majority in the House of Commons who outnumbered the Conservatives and the Irish combined by more than 50 votes and amounted for practical purposes to between 100 and 130. In the House of Lords they could count upon the wealth and talents of the
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CHAPTER IV IRELAND UNDER STORM
CHAPTER IV IRELAND UNDER STORM
The arrest of Mr. Parnell may be regarded as a single exception. As the months slipped by the prisoner at Kilmainham began to grow uneasy. He had regular and perfect information of the state of the country. He found the control of the agitation passing from his hands into those of unknown and desperate people. Captain Moonlight was exercising and delegating his sovereignty. New associations, secret and deadly in their purposes, were sprouting. Parnell required his liberty, and he resolved to tre
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CHAPTER V ELIJAH’S MANTLE
CHAPTER V ELIJAH’S MANTLE
‘Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment.’— Job. xxxii. 9. F OR nearly three eventful years Mr. Gladstone’s Administration had held power. In the country the popularity and prestige of the great Minister were still immense. His authority was as unquestioned by the rank and file of his party as on the morrow of the Midlothian triumph. He was still ‘the people’s William’ to the crowd. But in Parliament and in the Cabinet difficulties had arisen which scarcely any oth
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CHAPTER VI TORY DEMOCRACY
CHAPTER VI TORY DEMOCRACY
I cannot but feel that we have nearly realised what was some years ago apparently only a dream, the dream of Tory Democracy. You remember with what scoffs and scornings and with what sneers and ridicule the phrase ‘Tory Democracy’ was received when I first made use of it in the House of Commons in the year 1882. Nothing was too bad, nothing was too taunting, nothing was too absurd to apply to the idea or to those who dared to sustain such an idea in public. You in Birmingham were the first publi
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CHAPTER VII THE PARTY MACHINE
CHAPTER VII THE PARTY MACHINE
‘There is rarely any rising, but by a commixture of good and evil arts.’— Bacon. I N the spring of 1883 Lord Randolph Churchill had invited Lord Salisbury to come forward and head the Tory Democratic movement. In the autumn he determined to persevere alone. The enterprise which he had matured during his retirement at Blenheim was perhaps the most daring on which he ever embarked. It has been stated that he cherished no smaller design than the ‘wholesale capture of the Conservative party organisa
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CHAPTER VIII THE REFORM BILL
CHAPTER VIII THE REFORM BILL
The contest in Birmingham is not a contest, such as is carried on in other constituencies in England, between party and party. It is a contest between popular self-government and a corrupt oligarchy; between electoral freedom and Russian despotism; between open dealing and Venetian espionage; between individual security and public order and all the resources and ingenuity of terror and intimidation. The whole of the governing power of the borough of Birmingham is almost absolutely in the hands o
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CHAPTER IX THE FALL OF THE GOVERNMENT
CHAPTER IX THE FALL OF THE GOVERNMENT
‘Of this, however, I am well persuaded, that it is better to be impetuous than cautious. For Fortune is a woman who to be kept under must be beaten and roughly handled; and we see that she suffers herself to be more readily mastered by those who treat her so, than by those who are more timid in their approaches. And always, like a woman, she favours the young, because they are less scrupulous and fiercer, and command her with greater audacity.’— Machiavelli : The Prince , chapter XXV. T HIS acco
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CHAPTER X THE ‘MINISTRY OF CARETAKERS’
CHAPTER X THE ‘MINISTRY OF CARETAKERS’
‘This is no man of system, then; he is only a man of instincts and insights. A man, nevertheless, who will glare fiercely on any object; and see through it, and conquer it; for he has intellect, he has will, force beyond other men. A man not with logic-spectacles ; but with an eye !’— Carlyle on Mirabeau, French Revolution , bk. iv. ch. iv. T HE first trials of a Prime Minister are often the most severe. The most formidable obstacles lie at the beginning. Once these have been surmounted, the pat
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CHAPTER XI AT THE INDIA OFFICE
CHAPTER XI AT THE INDIA OFFICE
ἁρχἡ ἁνδρα δεἱξει ‘Great command proves the man.’ T HE reader, having persevered so long amid the intrigues of party and the warfare of Parliament, may now be glad to escape for a while into the calm atmosphere of a public department. The India Office rejoices in a character and constitution of its own. The cost of its maintenance and the salaries of its officials, from the Secretary of State downwards, are defrayed by India and do not appear upon the votes of the House of Commons. The opportuni
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APPENDICES I THREE ELECTION ADDRESSES 1874. To the Electors of Woodstock.
APPENDICES I THREE ELECTION ADDRESSES 1874. To the Electors of Woodstock.
I GLADLY avail myself of the opportunity afforded me by the retirement of your late member, Mr. Barnett, to offer myself as your representative in the coming Parliament. The politics I profess are strictly in accordance with those of the great leaders of the Conservative party which the Borough of Woodstock has now so long supported. Many questions of great political importance which formerly divided the Conservative from the Liberal party have passed for the present out of the field of conflict
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II
II
FURTHER CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO THE NATIONAL UNION OF CONSERVATIVE ASSOCIATIONS 1884. The Marquess of Salisbury to Lord Randolph Churchill. Private. Hatfield: April 1, 1884. My Lord,—I had the honour of receiving a letter from you, dated the 19th ult., in which, on behalf of the Organisation Committee of the National Union, you requested that Sir Stafford Northcote and myself would give our early consideration to a report and other documents which you enclosed. We had already expressed our di
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III REFORM BILL, 1884
III REFORM BILL, 1884
Lord Randolph Churchill to H. H. Wainwright, Esq., M.P. 2 Connaught Place, W.: June 9, 1884. My dear Mr. Wainwright,—You tell me in your letter of the 30th ult. that you find some difficulty in understanding my recent action in the House of Commons with respect to the Reform Bill. The position of the Conservative party on the question of Parliamentary Reform ever since 1887 has been very ill-defined. The action taken at that time by Mr. Disraeli and his colleagues made it impossible for the Cons
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IV LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL’S LETTERS FROM INDIA
IV LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL’S LETTERS FROM INDIA
To his Wife. S.S. Rohilla : December 13, 1884. We had a very enjoyable day yesterday at Malta; the steamer dropped anchor at 9.30, and greatly to my surprise the Governor, Sir Lintorn Simmons, whom I did not know, sent his barge and an aide-de-camp to fetch me off and take me to the Palace. I had a long interview with the Governor, who was most polite and agreeable. He was very gloomy about Wolseley’s expedition and generally about the Army, Navy, fortifications, &c.; and as he is consid
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CHAPTER XII THE TWENTY-SIXTH OF JANUARY
CHAPTER XII THE TWENTY-SIXTH OF JANUARY
Lord Randolph Churchill to Lord Salisbury. India Office: January 14, 1886. Mr. Buckle has just been to see me, full of an idea of his own which struck me as good, and which I persuaded him not to spoil by bringing it out in to-morrow’s Times . He wishes the Queen’s Speech of 1833 to be imitated, when, after the agitation of O’Connell, the Government declared in the Speech their intention of maintaining the Union. I send you the paragraph and also the paragraphs from the Speech of 1834, which see
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CHAPTER XIII HOME RULE
CHAPTER XIII HOME RULE
‘Vote it as you please. There is a company of poor men that will spend all their blood before they see it settled so.’— Carlyle , Cromwell . O N the last day in January Mr. Gladstone undertook to form his Administration. Its complexion was indicated by the first of the new appointments: for Mr. Morley became Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant. This was followed, without delay, on the one hand by the statement that Lord Spencer had acquiesced in the new Irish policy and would be Lord Presiden
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CHAPTER XIV LEADER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
CHAPTER XIV LEADER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
‘Solos imperantium Vespasianus mutatus in melius.’— Tacitus. ‘It is an assured sign of a worthy and generous spirit whom honour amends.’— Bacon. T HE General Election of 1886 surpassed, in the importance of the issue, in the confusion of parties and the sincerity of the combatants, any election since the first Reform Bill. Partisanship had grown rancorous during the eventful course of the controversy; rancour was fanned into passion by the excitement of decision; and to all was added the extra a
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CHAPTER XV THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER
CHAPTER XV THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER
‘Those who live to the future most always appear selfish to those who live to the present.’— Emerson. A T the Treasury the appointment of the new Chancellor of the Exchequer had been received with no little apprehension. Every great department has an atmosphere and identity of its own. No politician, however popular in the country or influential in Parliament, can afford to be indifferent to the opinion formed of him by the Civil Servants through whom and by whom he works. Concealed from the pub
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CHAPTER XVI RESIGNATION
CHAPTER XVI RESIGNATION
O N the morning of December 23 all who took an interest in politics—and in those days these were a very great number—were startled to read in the Times newspaper that Lord Randolph Churchill had resigned the offices of Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons and had retired altogether from the Government. As the news was telegraphed abroad, it became everywhere the chief subject of rumour and discussion, and Cabinet Ministers—dispersed on their holidays—hurried back to Lon
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CHAPTER XVII THE TURN OF THE TIDE
CHAPTER XVII THE TURN OF THE TIDE
You have a perfect right to hold the views you expressed to me in my room. I differed then and now from you, but it may turn out that you are right and that I am wrong, and I shall accept a demonstration of that fact without the very slightest personal annoyance. But, however that may be, all that has happened is an incident in the career of a young politician of quite a temporary character, and, unless my life is cut short as Northcote’s has been, I look forward with confidence to a future—and
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CHAPTER XVIII ECONOMY
CHAPTER XVIII ECONOMY
T HE position of a Minister who has withdrawn from a Cabinet is always difficult and peculiar. If for the sake of some principle which he considers vital he is prepared openly to attempt to wreck the Government and inflict upon the party a defeat at the polls, and if the issue is one which must soon be decided, the course, however painful, is plain. He has only to drive steadfastly on through the storm, like Lord Salisbury in 1867 or Lord Hartington in 1886, careless of consequences so long as h
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CHAPTER XIX THE NATIONAL PARTY
CHAPTER XIX THE NATIONAL PARTY
‘Love as if you should hereafter hate; and hate as if you should hereafter love.’— Bias (quoted by Aristotle). ‘A LL the politics of the moment,’ said Lord Salisbury on March 5, 1887, to the members of the National Conservative Club, ‘are summarised in the word "Ireland."’ The fierce struggle in the English constituencies was over. The Home Rulers had been totally defeated. Mr. Gladstone had been driven from office. A Conservative Government, strong in its own resources of discipline and class,
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CHAPTER XX CROSS CURRENTS
CHAPTER XX CROSS CURRENTS
‘Surely there is no better way to stop the rising of sects and schisms than to reform abuses; to compound the smaller differences; to proceed mildly, and not with sanguinary persecutions; and rather to take off the principal authors, by winning and advancing them, than to enrage by violence and bitterness.’— Bacon. S IXTEEN months had passed, after Lord Randolph Churchill resigned, before he became involved in a serious and open difference with the Conservative Government. That he was separated
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CHAPTER XXI THE PARNELL COMMISSION
CHAPTER XXI THE PARNELL COMMISSION
I T is no part of my task to examine the proceedings of the Special Commission, nor to supply a narrative of that long-drawn and embittered controversy known as ‘Parnellism and Crime.’ Those are matters of history, and even such allusion to their course and character as might have been required for the coherency of this story seems unnecessary in view of an account recently given to the world by Mr. Morley, [68] combining the vivid and picturesque character which only an eye-witness can command,
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CHAPTER XXII OPPOSITION ONCE MORE
CHAPTER XXII OPPOSITION ONCE MORE
T HE variations of English politics are continual, and at times so swift that those who influence them and are in turn influenced by them are hardly conscious of the pace they are travelling. As the general situation alters, the relations of its principal characters insensibly change. The doubtful or indifferent acquaintance of one year is the trusted comrade of the next. Combinations impossible in January are inevitable in June. Mortal offences are forgotten, if they are not forgiven; and as th
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APPENDICES V TWO ELECTION ADDRESSES
APPENDICES V TWO ELECTION ADDRESSES
1886. To the Electors of South Paddington. Gentlemen,—A ‘people’s dissolution’ has come upon us. Such is the title given by Mr. Gladstone to the most wanton political convulsion which has, in our time, afflicted our country. The caprice of an individual is elevated to the dignity of an act of the people by the boundless egoism of the Prime Minister. The United Kingdom is to be disunited for the purpose of securing in office, if only for a little while, by the aid of a disloyal faction subsisting
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VI PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE
VI PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE
Lord Randolph Churchill’s Letter to Mr. Speaker and his Correspondence with Mr. Gladstone in 1886. Lord Randolph Churchill to the Speaker. Treasury Chambers, Whitehall, S.W.: Nov. 30, 1886. Dear Mr. Speaker,—I venture to submit to you for your information and consideration, the result of the deliberations of the Committee of the Cabinet on the question of Parliamentary Procedure. It would be of the greatest possible advantage to me if I could have the honour of an interview with you, in order to
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VII POLITICAL LETTERS OF LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL
VII POLITICAL LETTERS OF LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL
1884-1893. Freedom of Contract. Mr. Moore Bayley to Lord Randolph Churchill. 57 Colmore Row, Birmingham: March 22, 1884. My Lord,—I am a Conservative and an elector of the borough of Birmingham, and as such hope at no distant period to render your lordship, as a Conservative candidate for this borough, whatever political service lies in my power. But before committing myself further in the compact that arose when you were accepted as such Conservative candidate I should like to know, as would a
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VIII MR. JENNINGS’ ACCOUNT OF HIS QUARREL WITH LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL
VIII MR. JENNINGS’ ACCOUNT OF HIS QUARREL WITH LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL
March, 1890. Mr. Jennings’ Memorandum. On Friday, the 7th of March, I called upon Lord Randolph Churchill, to tell him my opinions with regard to the Resolution proposed by the Government on the Report of the Special Commission. I told him I thought some express reference should be made in the Resolution to the emphatic acquittal of Mr. Parnell and his colleagues on what I called the ‘murder charges,’ and gave him my reasons. With these reasons he seemed to be much impressed, and after talking t
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IX LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL’S MEMORANDUM ON ARMY AND NAVY ADMINISTRATION
IX LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL’S MEMORANDUM ON ARMY AND NAVY ADMINISTRATION
Included in the Report of Lord Hartington’s Commission, March 21, 1890. The Royal Commission desires, I apprehend, to recommend to her Majesty’s Ministers a system of government and management for the Army and the Navy which shall appear to secure the maximum of efficiency which can be reasonably expected from normal expenditure on those services. By the consent of all, under present arrangements, this maximum has not been attained. The present system of administration of the services may be sai
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