THE RESIGNATION OF MR. BALFOUR.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 13, 23 December 1911, Page 7

THE RESIGNATION OF MR. BALFOUR.

Thirty-eight years in parLiaAJENT. a long aot "Closely-packed' / PAGE OP '.HIS LIF£. Further particulars .have been receive! by tho latest .English, jiapers regardin; 2Ur. Ballour's resiynafciiva of tho Leador ship of tho "Unionist -party. Tho an nouncement was. nnuls at a ~ specially summoned meeting oi ?&o Executive Com mittei) of the City of .London ' Conserva tivo Association. Mr. Balfour said:— Air. Chairman,—You jiava stated, ] think, quite rightly, thafa I cannot havf a more fitting audience to whom I shoulc make tho announcement that I propost to mako immediately than those who re present my constituency, those who gav< me a seat at a moment when the fortune: of tho party wero at their lowest, anc who onubled mo, to the best of. mi ability, to do my work for tho parh since 1906. It is to them first, therefore and. through them to my many frienda ii ail parts oi tho country that I desire tc say-that after vory long and serioui thought X have come to the conclusion for reasons which I shall givo you in a moment, that the timo has arrived wJiei °l' l t , res *S Q > not nay seat—(cheers) —which I hope. y.ou will allow mo a; long L as you thini I can servo.'you it l- m 7 l e£ >dorship of tho partj w i "' ici' have, boen so long connected and to. whoso fortunes I still hope to do good service. Twanty Years of Leadership.' I do not suppose that anybody who roaily knows. 9w. will grudge.mo some, poriad- of -repose' or .. will, think ~I am making .an, unreasonable, retjuusfc in asking-, not that' X should be " released from, public., service,, but that . I should : be released from the continuous and unceasing strain which" inevitably, falls ■ on a. leader of a party at any period of our history, but, falls upon him 'with -increasing severity as.Jho.claims, of democracy and of our popular form of government grow - and multiply. I have beon noarlv thirty-eight years in Parliament., I havo. been, if you count tha leadership' of - tho Opposition, as surely you ought to. count it,- as .being : equivalent to-office—and it is., indeed equivalent as far as its leaders are concerned to bc-office-rl have" been in offico in that broo.d seisd- of the word for a quarter of a century, and a quarter of a century continuously. .1 first joined the Cabinet . Salisbury's Cabinet—in. November, ISS7, in a position, at that time ifas onaj of feme adpiinutrativo difficulty, 'as Secretary for Scotland.' Almost immediately afterwards—within a'fow> I oecame Irish'' Sfecretary-riiot an "easy office;- and when' through the lamented death of my friond ltr. "Wv H. Smith. I. betfanio leader; of the House of Commons I bejan a course of leadership, of the party in the Hobse which hay lasted twenty JJ? r s- Of those • twenty years of leadership of tho party in tho House ten were spent in 'leadership qf tho whole House. I was leader of tho Honso for ten consecutive years—a longer period of consecutive leadership than that of any Minister: in the country since tho death of \Villiam Pitt. Qf those twenty-five years since 1 first joined the Cabinet seventeen were passed, not-merely in. offico in tho broad sense in which I .hhvo used tho term, but' actually iii office, in, the servioe of the Crown. ~ Kow let me add "this as a sort, of, indication of tho way . time has' gone :on. Men luvo.been removed from the sceno, of. their political activities, and I do not believa that at this moment there ai'o more than foiir or tivo people—members of tho Unionist party in tho - House Of- Commons--who- have-ever worked.with any-other leader- Mr/Chapliti. Jlr. Walter. Lonz. Mr.- Wortley'.'-and Mr. Wyndliam,'l think, by -ono or two months—there raay : bo' another, I am not sure, but I do not think there are more than fiva-who havo known what .it is'to havo another-leader .at" thaparty in; the' House of Commons. ■'- •; The work- of-a leader njas- always '-been strenuous,, but,.as.l-think I said just no.w, it is,-an .increasing work. ..It-.is'an - increasing work..for.;twa..or threo .dUferent reasons. It is an increasing work because under the peculiar arrangements that commend themselves tcs his Majesty's present advisers tho House of Coinmous is ex-pected-to. sit'ten. or'eleven months in every: year, and that throws an additional strain, not merely upon tho 'Ministers themselves and tho officers of the House and upon the public departments, but necessarily and inevitably upon him, whoever ho may be, who is for the time being responsible for the policy of the Opposition. That is one cause of the growing labours of the-leader of a party. The other is that the demands for oxtra-Partia-mentary work grow each year continuously. In spite of. thoso peculiarly fortunate circumstances-in which I am placed tho broad fact remains—and ' it "is, believe me, one of' the dangers' in the. future democracy—that tho demand ■ made on legislators and administrators for - work which is neither legislation nor administration has become-so heavy .that both Administration and 'legislation are likely to suffer. You-will more and more find, it difficult to get at ;,the same time men of adequate* leisure and adequate posi-' tion prepared to undergo the great toils which inevitably attach now to political life, and wo are probably nearer than we have ever been Defove to entrusting our affairs to those who for quito worthy but on the whole less satisfactory Reasons are. prepared to be politicians and nothing but politicians, to work tho political machine as professional politicians—not professional-in a bad or greedy sense but as professional politicians. You will find it more and mora difficult: to obtain from those who are best able, to give it the best kiud of.public.service.in tho .House of Commons.and. elsewhere. ..(Hear, hear.) I do not wish f.o trespass these. considerations. -I have ' no. right to go beyond my own personal case. I pin sure that however much you may share..the Tegret that I. of course, on bringing to a conclusion so .long and' so closely racked a page in my lifo as that which has b«n occupied in leadership, even you will feel. and not grudga me tha desiro I have for some diminution in. the political burden which has so long rested on my shoulders. I ought to have my health spared for many years,'and to have, many .years of active life before me*. As to that no man can say. Let me make this single observation. I desire to leave the position of. heavy responsibility which I hold—l desire to leave it before I can he suspected of suffering from tho most insidious of all diseases, tho disease', which comos upon, those who, without losing their, health. or their' in-, t.ellect,' nevertheless get petTifipd in the old course they have pursued, whose authority grows because they have been long in tho public service—or great men of science or eminent men of business, whatever it may be—but who cannot deal with the" new problems which in this changing world are perpetually arising with all the freshness and elasticity ■which is really desirable in thoso who have got to conduct great concerns. The Best Time to Resign. '' The-reason that to-day is the best time is that if I were to put it off till next session I should bo . told with some justice, "You havo chosen a .moment when the.party is faoo to face with great controversies, with Homo Eule, disestablishment, and universal suffrage," and Heaven knows what—tho pro»rammo-of tho Government increases daily as their capacity to carry it through by legitimate means diminishes. (Hear, hear.) ]: should be told that, there could not lie a worse opportunity for resigning with such a contest immediately before us.- Nevertheless, n change of leadership must always produce somo disturban'/e, howover slight, nnd it. would bo wroDg of mo to mako (inch a change at any crisis when the great causes that we have nt heart wero really bciug fought for in tho House of Commons. Tho only other argument against this moment is that,' in the view of certain people at least, there is a certain feeling of unrest in tho party. Gentlemen, believe me—and my.experience is a long one—l do not Dolievo at this moment that thore is anything exceptional in the state of the party. (Cheers.) If you choose to look at tho position of tho Conservative party, let us say two years beforo Mr. Disraeli's great triumph in 1874, if you choose to look at tho position of the Radical party two or three years beforo Mr. Gladstone's great triumph in 1870, if yon choose to look at the position of the Conservative party— I don't wish to go down the whole stream of time—it was not Unionist then when there wore all these tegrettablo difficulties connected with tho- National Union,-

which some hero may remember, first i 1853, if you .look at the condition of tl Radical party as it was a year or so befoi the great triumph of 188G, if you look i the-difficulties of tho Radical party wit the Liberal Imperialists and all the divisions and oppositions of policy with whic they were affected in tho early years < this century before their unexampled tr umpb in 1006, you will, I think, agri with ma that at this moment, as compare (vith other parties long out of office whic have suffered defeats at the poll, we ai not in the bad condition that some ove: critical advisers would have you believe On the Upward Grade. Let no one take a dark view of our foi ; tunes. On the contrary, I believe—it i quo of my reasons for choosing this mc I'nent—that we have beforo us a prospec i a f growing influence in the country, tha w-a are on the upward grade. And i v.-, ill tell you why I think so. This Gov er.ament have lived on electoral bribe , foi' six years. ' They have been fioatini hopelessly down the revolutionary stream wlis ich they have not controlled or guide< in yany way, snatching now one electora advantage and now another. They hav attm :ked the Crown and the Second Chamber, ■ber, • they havo-bound tho represontativi Chaii iber hand and foot, and having fin ished their bribes they are now lapsini into ihe .old Radical practice of destroy ing tjß.e Church, passing what they con 1 oeive i l o be judicious Reform Bills fron ii gorr.VTOanderins point of view, and gen erally oomporting themselves as th< Radical party in difficulties always does I don't believe the country will stant that sort of thing. I beliove I see sigpi •, within my vision—or my powers of visioi have gone entirely astray—of a steadily, growing distrust amongst tho bettei classes of ■ the population—{hear, hear)and I fir pily believe that my suaressoi will have, the inestimable advantage ir the early; c':lay,s of his office of finding thai there is a mass of public opinior behind us, -and. that the great causes w< ; represent are causes growing in favouj . with the gr eat masses of our fellow-coun- ■ trymen. I don't' know that I have any. -thing more, to add. I thank vou for youi patience., A ' severance like that which 1 winounce to-day must cause pain to all of - us, but it; -would be, I think, a much greater pain, at .all events as far as 1 am concerned, if I felt I was abandoning . political' life, and leaving for ever the icompanicmship, fellowship, and ooun. sels. of those with Whom through all these decades I have worked in perfect harmoaiy and friendship. But it is not so, gentlemen, l I hope still to have, years of activity which I cap devote not merely to the constituency I represent,, but to the whole couiitry and the whole party— to all w'}io represent the Unionist cause in Euglarid, Scotland, and Ireland. Those services, indeeil, will not bo given under the same arduous conditions .as hitherto. They will.not. jmposo the same strain upon my growing' years, but I. hope- they .will not,. be> without some small'value, and. at. all events, this I can. say—that while men f»r6w old and men pass, and those who'hivvo given their services must fee! that the timo of their services comes to an end, yet 'behind all those individual considerations there are great and permanent causes', which don't decay with human wealnwis or perish with 'human life, and to fhcvse great causes I shall be as devoted as 'your member as I havo done as leader pf tho party, and wo may feel ourselves in tho future, as in the past,' brothers ' ongased in the furtherance of one gniat cause. (Cheers.)