partition was out of the question; that Turkey was not only to be maintained, but to be permitted to enter into the community of European nations; that France was the cordial friend of England, as you wished Russia also to be-do you believe that we should be at this moment discussing this question, or even in the possession of this painful 'secret and confidential' correspondence? No, sir, the war has been produced by one man. It has been produced by that individual who occupies the most eminent post in this country. And certain I am that as time elapses, and not ere long, that will be the general conviction of all England." abolished, and the revenues of the wealthier colleges, which were now not applied to the object of learning or teaching, should be devoted to that purpose. To remove these grievances, Lord John Russell brought in his bill of University Reform, which was at first favourably received. It proposed to change the hebdomadal board into a council, and to alter considerably the constitution of its staff. The preference given by testators to founders' kin and to certain counties was to be done away with, and fellowships were to be held only for one year, unless the holder was engaged in the university in tuition or discipline. A commission was to be appointed to deal with the revenues of colleges, so as to increase the funds for the promotion of education. The question of tests was also to be considered. We now for a moment turn from the minarets of Constantinople to the spires of Oxford. Early in March Lord John Russell had introduced a measure "to make further provision for the good government Such were the chief objects of this and extension of the University of Oxford measure, which led to an animated disand the colleges therein." Of late years the cussion (April 27, 1854) when the bill question of university reform had been at- came into committee. Various members tracting considerable attention among those addressed the House, some insisting that interested in the education of the youth of as an ancient corporation the freedom of the country. It was complained that the action of the university ought not to be University of Oxford did not at present fulfil interfered with, whilst others, on the conthe purposes for which it was established, trary, maintained that the reforms when and that some alteration both as to its carried out would help to create a class government and to its system of tuition of learned tutors, would cause the lecwas absolutely necessary. Then the griev- tures of professors to be well attended, ances were catalogued and commented upon. and would be very instrumental in the The heads of houses, it was said, were promotion of learning and religion. Mr. elected for other purposes than to conduct Disraeli spoke with his usual sound the details of education, and therefore common sense upon the meditated alterawere not specially qualified to undertake tions, at the same time evincing that strong the superintendence of the studies of the dislike which always characterized him of young men intrusted to their care. Again, anything that interfered with the freedom it was proposed that the advantages of the of the English people. He objected to the college tutorial system and the professorial bill, not because it attempted to reform and system should be united, so that the student, reconstruct an ancient institution of the in addition to the college tuition, might country, but because it struck a fatal blow enjoy the opportunity of acquiring a know- at the independence and self-government ledge of modern science and literature of the university. If the measure became and of modern languages, which would be law it was not the province of the House very beneficial to him in after life. The of Commons to deal with the details disrestrictions as to scholarships and fellow-cussed by Lord John Russell-those might ships, it was suggested, ought also to be safely be left to the consideration of the merical. . . . We are a nation of action, and you may depend upon it that, however you may increase the rewards of professors new controlling body of the university. | suppose that you can produce a class of "Then," said Mr. Disraeli, "if the university men like the German professors is chiever effects changes-if it deals with the question of increased accommodation for students if it deals with the question which system of education should be most-though you may give them £2000 instead encouraged by the university-if it deals even with the appropriation of college property-it will be from its own action, with entire independence, with entire freedom, with entire self-government, which, in my opinion, it is of the utmost importance for us to encourage in those great seats of learning whose fortunes are now under our consideration." of £200-ambition in England will look to public life: men will look to the House of Commons, and not to professors' chairs in the universities. I believe, therefore, that this is another great point in which you will not find any material change effected by what you contemplate with regard to this resolution-this great revival of the professorial system. You will not be able, Still, even if the bill passed, Mr. Disraeli however you think you may, to lay your doubted whether it would accomplish that hand upon twenty-five or thirty professors great change in the system of Oxford which suddenly, capable of effecting a great influhad been so much talked of. One of its ence on the youth of England. You cannot objects was to establish a class of distin- get these men all at once; it will be slowly, guished professors; but a professor was by degrees, with great difficulty, by fosternot a man that could suddenly be created, ing and cultivating your resources, that you even if parliament increased his income will be able to produce one of these great to a considerable extent. A comparison professors-a man able to influence the had been instituted between the professorial public opinion of the university. Whether, system in English universities and that then, you look to the great change which in the universities of Germany. Yet, be- you propose with respect to these private tween the two systems it was impossible halls, which is, in fact, a revolution of the to establish a comparison. What sphere," collegiate system; or whether you look to asked Mr. Disraeli, "is there for the the great alteration you contemplate by the genius, the intellect, the talent, and the revival of the professorial instead of the energy of Germany, but in the professorial | tutorial system-on both points you will chair? Give Germany a House of Com- meet, I think, with disappointment." mons, and do you think that she would Mr. Disraeli further objected to that then produce those men of profound eru-morbid desire on the part of the legisdition, of commanding eloquence-men lature to effect changes in the instituwho can bury themselves in speculative tions of the country. He specified the abstractions, and produce those results of erudition which we are told shake the world? The fact is, that in Germany, with a gifted population double the extent of ours, there is no avenue for any man by which he can make the world conscious of his powers, except by the chair of the professor. In this country you may increase the salaries as much as you please, but to * Germany has now a House of Commons, and among its chairs in her universities. legislature, because he did not see that most prominent members are the men who formerly filled supported by the people. "The plea is," answered Mr. Disraeli, and to the coalition war. As all naval and in his reply we see the soundness and judi- military preparations were being actively cious toleration upon which his Conservatism carried out, it became necessary for the was based, "that there are anomalies and chancellor of the exchequer to make imperfections that ought to be removed; demands upon the House of Commons, so the fallacy is, that in removing these ano- that the Treasury should be supplied with malies and imperfections, we never calculate the resources necessary for the present and we never consider that much greater emergency. Though Mr. Disraeli had given injury is done to a country like the present in his adhesion to the warlike policy of by outraging the principle of prescription, the cabinet, still he did not feel bound to upon which our institutions depend, than vote for every additional tax that ministers by removing a few anomalies and im- imposed. Consequently there was more than perfections." England was ruled by tra- one smart passage of arms during this sesditionary influences. Without traditionary sion between the leader of the Opposition influences they might have a stronger and Mr. Gladstone, whose "sanctimonious government, but they would have a weaker rhetoric" was freely indulged in at this people. "And, sir," continued Mr. Dis- period. Mr. Disraeli warmly objected to raeli, "among these traditionary influences the increased malt tax, since it pressed not the influence of the universities of the only with great severity upon the land, but country has not been the least considerable. was, in his opinion, a most cruel return for Its direct action has been great; its indirect the patriotism displayed by the cultivators action has been greater. If I were asked, of the soil. "Though I am willing," he 'Would you have Oxford with its self- said (May 15, 1854), "to give credit to government, freedom, and independence, every class in the country for being ready but yet with its anomalies and imperfec- at this moment to do their duty to their tions, or would you have the university sovereign, yet I ask, without fear of confree from those anomalies and imperfections tradiction, is it not the fact, from the nature and under the control of the government?' of circumstances, from the character of the I would say, 'Give me Oxford free and constitution, and from other causes, that independent, with its anomalies and imper- you have been obliged particularly to appeal fections.' Accord authority to the univer- to the patriotism, to the resources, to the sities if they wished it, by which they might exertions, and to the energy of the landed increase their powers and possess an en- interest of the country? We heard a good larged sphere of action; but place the deal of declamation some time back against universities under the control of the state, the territorial constitution of the country. and one of those influences which in the I ask any gentleman in what country could aggregate formed one of the elements by you have found those means of defence which they governed the country would be which you have found in England under destroyed." In spite, however, of the op- the influence and by the immediate aid position it encountered, the bill, though of the territorial classes of this country? with many of its most obnoxious clauses Having raised and armed such a militia, I suppressed in committee, was entered upon want to know in what country of Europe, the statute-book towards the end of the excepting England, you could have found session.* leaders to whom to intrust such a force. You are at every moment, during which elected by resident graduates; and steps were taken, which have not yet been completed, to apply in the most beneficial directions, for the promotion of popular education of the highest class, the revenues of the universities and colleges. To return, after this brief interruption, By this Act, conjointly with the University Tests Act of 1871, the universities and colleges, with all the offices belonging to them, excepting a very few, were thrown open to all persons, irrespective of religious belief; the governnent of the universities was transferred to a new body you are advancing in this struggle, more | charmingly self-satisfied, and even had and more obliged to appeal-this is a the audacity to sneer at Mr. Pitt for necessity from which you cannot escape-shortsightedness-Mr. Gladstone, who conto the classes connected with the land, and verted stocks and could not foresee the which are at this moment the surest source results-Mr. Gladstone, who had one budget of safety and security to England. Whether it be the recruit whom you induced to quit his home, or the cultivator of the soil, whose industry you are obliged to disturb, or the proprietor of the soil-these are the classes to whose exertions, sacrifices, and energy you appeal for organizing the country? Yet you have so managed your finances that the only odious tax which you have put forward is a tax which more or less, and in my opinion in a great degree, does press upon the industry of the soil, which does interfere with the employment of the capital of the cultivators of the soil, and embarrasses, prevents, and restricts the industry on whose resources you mainly rely." Such an imposition, he declared, was as churlish as it was impolitic. Nor was the leader of the Opposition less sparing of his barbed strictures when dealing with Mr. Gladstone's request to be empowered to issue £2,000,000 of exchequer bonds. Mr. Disraeli considered that demand as the result of the financial errors of the chancellor of the exchequer during the last year. Mr. Gladstone's administration of the national money, he asserted, had been one tissue of mistakes. First, he had dealt incautiously with the exchequer bills; then there had been the unhappy scheme of conversion which bound the country to a stipulated rate for forty years, coupled with the attempt to reduce the national debt on the eve of war; thirdly, he had proposed a peace budget on the eve of war-a peace budget promising repeal of taxes, and securing the assent to the re-enactment of the income tax on the pledge that it should terminate at a fixed time; and then there was the reduction of interest which had forced him to pay for £3,000,000 of exchequer bills. Yet, with war staring him in the face, and with an empty exchequer to cheer him on, Mr. Gladstone was in March and another in May, actually sneered at Mr. Pitt as shortsighted! "But if the right hon. gentleman will allow me," said Mr. Disraeli in his most caustic manner, "I trust without offending either himself or his friends, I would presume to give him a piece of advice: I would give over these unworthy sneers levelled at the reputation of a great minister. I would, if I were the right honourable gentleman, confine myself in future to self-glorification, an art of which I admit that the right honourable gentleman is a great master. Let him dilate upon the astuteness with which he effects the conversion of South Sea annuities; let him dwell upon the intrepid courage with which, to show his spite against the party he has quitted, he can double the malt tax; but let him cease from these reflections upon the memory of a statesman who, I can assure him, is still dear to the people of England. Let him remember that Mr. Pitt, whatever may have been his failings, held with a steady hand the helm, when every country but Great Britain was submerged in the storm; and when he taunts Mr. Pitt with courting bankers and money-lenders, he might also remember that that minister owed to a grateful country an eleemosynary tomb." So vigilant and incisive a critic upon the financial blunders and the tortuous foreign policy of the government, as Mr. Disraeli had now established himself, was not likely to escape abuse when his own shortcomings came up for discussion. It was believed that an opportunity now offered to taunt the leader of the Opposition with inconsistency as to his conduct upon a subject which he had always maintained was specially dear to him. To the malice of his enemies outside the walls of St. Stephen, it was not the custom of Mr. Disraeli to pay the slightest attention. Venomous and mendacious articles as to said there was no objection; but the other oaths of supremacy and abjuration were not in the same category. They had been framed to meet certain dangers which existed no longer, and were now unnecessary. Lord John then read his own oath,* which removed the specific declarations required from all papists, and at the same time did away with those words which had been so fatal to the admission of the Jews, "on the true faith of a Christian." When the bill came on for second reading (May 25, 1854) it met with strong opposition. It was, it was said, an insidious attack upon the established church; it omitted all recognition of the supremacy of the queen; it would weaken the Protestant religion; nay, it would destroy the Christian character of the House of Commons. The measure, cried the Opposition, was an underhand contrivance to favour the Roman Catholics, and to allow the Jews to sneak into parliament. his works and speeches were constantly inserted in newspapers and magazines; he never replied to them, he never condescended to contradict them, it is doubtful whether he even troubled himself to read them. Itinerant orators and lecturers, on the spiteful stump, ranted and brayed against him and his policy; yet their asinine echoes, when they even reached his ears, made not the faintest impression upon his mind. He knew so well what it all signified. Statesmen can seldom judge human nature kindly when they so frequently have to observe it either vindictive or suppliant, according as promise or refusal attends upon its importunities. Mr. Disraeli knew that he had but to grant a pension from the civil list, or to nominate to some inspectorship, or to fill up a vacant living, and he could buy the silence of some of his bitterest foes; by such bribery the men who then abused him to the lowest depths of disparagement would have changed their note and extolled him to the skies as the possessor of every tombstone virtue. Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? asks Job. Such abuse and such adulation were rightly considered by Mr. Disraeli as beneath notice and beneath contempt. Of his reputation in parliament Mr. Disraeli, however, was keenly sensitive. He owed everything to the House of Commons; the House of Commons was, as he said, the jury of his life, and he never permitted any charge against himself to be brought before its members without at once rising to meet it. The accusation he had now to encounter was on the occasion of the parliamentary oaths bill. Early in February Lord John Russell had mtroduced a measure respecting parliamentary oaths. He begged the House to consider generally the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration, and the oath taken by papists, with a view to substituting an oath of a simpler and more intelligible kind. As to the oath of allegiance, he VOL. I. Mr. Disraeli made a guarded and weighty speech on the occasion. In the bill before them they had, he said, to consider three issues which were in themselves of a different nature. By the omission of certain words at the end of one oath a Jew might be admitted into parliament; by the alteration of another oath the views of the Romanising Protestants were to be advanced; whilst by the change and reconstruction of a third oath the objects of the Roman Catholics them This was the oath:-"I, A. B., do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and will defend her to the utmost of my power against all conspiracies and attempts whatever which shall be made against her person, crown, or dignity; and I will do iny utmost endeavour to disclose and make known to Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, all treasons or traitorous I do faithfully promise to maintain, support, and defend, to conspiracies which may be formed against her or them; and the utmost of my power, the succession of the crown, which succession by an act intituled 'An act for the further limitation of the crown, and better securing the rights and liberties of the subject,' is and stands limited to the Princess Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and the heirs of her body being Protestants, hereby utterly renouncing and abjuring any obedience or allegiance unto any other person claiming or pretending a right to the crown of this realm; and I do declare that no foreign prince, prelate, person, state, or potentate, hath or ought to have any temporal or civil jurisdiction, power, superiority or pre-eminence directly or indirectly within this realm. So help me God.” 37 |