HL Deb 11 June 1912 vol 12 cc5-9
THE LORD PRIVY SEAL AND SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (THE MARQUESS OF CREWE)

Your Lordships will have seen in the public Press some account of the regrettable circumstances which have deprived the Government of the services of their Lord Chancellor—circumstances, I am certain, regretted by no one more deeply than by my noble and learned friend who has taken his place on the Woolsack. Lord Loreburn's doctors had warned him that it was impossible for him to continue the heavy labours and anxieties inseparable from the office of Lord Chancellor without grave risk to his health, and they advised that he ought to resign immediately and take a thorough rest for a time from all business. Lord Loreburn has asked me to say that he resigns the Great Seal on that ground, and on that ground alone, and he specially begged me to convey to the House his most deep gratitude for the uniform kindness which he has received at its hands for more than six and a-half years. Lord Loreburn was in some doubt as to whether he ought not to show his respect for your Lordships' House by coming here himself and saying a word of farewell; but I ventured to assure him that the House would deeply regret if he was to run any risk of the kind, having been warned, as he has, against all exertion, because we should be sure that in saying anything of the kind, Lord Loreburn's feelings would have been most deeply involved. I am sure, my Lords, although we on this side of the House are in a small minority of your total number, that I am right in saying that regret at the absence of Lord. Loreburn's familiar figure and at its cause is by no means confined to noble Lords who sit on this side. I think, my Lords, that even those who had traced with great admiration the career of my noble and learned friend in another place would hardly have ventured to foretell how soon and how completely on coming here as Lord Chancellor he would win both the confidence and the regard of this House as a whole. We all knew that Lord Loreburn was a thoroughly good Party man. We all knew that he held his political principles with something approaching to religious fervour. We knew, too, his deep capacity for moral indignation at anything which he considered mean or wrong. Perhaps his possession of those very qualities might conceivably have created doubt in the minds of some whether on being suddenly cast into the middle of a critical Assembly such as this, with all its ancient traditions, Lord Loreburn would hold, as I venture to think he did, an equal balance between both sides, without, of course, ever in any degree hiding the strength of his own views on debatable subjects. It might have been doubted, I think, whether he would have been entirely able, as I may claim Lord Loreburn was, to estimate the meaning and strength of the position which his opponents might take up on any particular question. I believe my noble and learned friend succeeded entirely in winning not merely the respect but in a great measure the affection of the House as a whole. We all regarded him, I think, in the words of the familiar quotation, as justissimus unus Qui fuit in Teucris, et servantissimus æqui, because I am confident that the recollection of Lord Loreburn's Lord Chancellorship will be that of a thoroughly just and fair-minded man. I am perfectly certain, too, my Lords, that the whole House will trust that during his retirement from political activity, which we hope may be only temporary, he will find some work to do which may be of interest to himself and which we may be certain will be fruitful and serviceable to his fellow-countrymen.

THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE

My Lords, the reception which has been given on both sides to the remarks of the noble Marquess must have proved to him how completely we are at one with him in his estimate of the loss which this House has sustained by Lord Loreburn's retirement. The programme of this evening's proceedings promised to be a somewhat uneventful one, but it has brought us face to face with one of those personal changes which count for so much in our political life and which affect us so closely. We were all of us aware that Lord Loreburn was suffering from the heavy strain of the numerous official duties which he had to perform, but I do not think that any of us quite realised how much that strain had told upon him. He leaves office amidst the universal regret of all who have had to do with him, and we cordially join with the noble Marquess in the hope that the relief which he will obtain from official work will bring about a restoration of his health and enable him to take a not infrequent part in our proceedings. But the Woolsack will know him no more. It is for others to speak of the public services which he has rendered as a Minister, as a Judge, as the head of the legal profession. We think of him rather as we knew him in the capacity of Speaker of this House. It is no exaggeration to say that from the date when he came to us as a stranger, having, perhaps, one would have thought, not very much in common with most of us, he at once established a hold which he never lost upon the respect and, if I may borrow the expression of the noble Marquess, upon the affection of your Lordships' House. It was often our business on these Benches to differ from Lord Loreburn. Our standpoint was often quite another standpoint than his, but I can remember no occasion upon which Lord Loreburn did not meet us courteously and considerately, and upon which he did not show a desire to understand and to give due weight to our arguments, or on which he did not leave upon those who listened to him an impression of the complete sincerity of his convictions. The noble Marquess spoke of Lord Lore-burn's occasional fervour. We always felt that it was not a simulated or histrionic fervour, but that it represented genuine and sincere emotion, which he felt very deeply indeed. May I be permitted to add that I think the noble Marquess was amply justified in advising Lord Loreburn to abstain from imposing upon himself the ordeal—for it would have been an ordeal to him—of coming here to take leave of the House under such painful circumstances. One word more with regard to Lord Loreburn. Those of your Lordships who have the honour of holding the position of Lord Lieutenant of a county have every reason to look back with gratitude to the assistance which Lord Loreburn gave us in the important and difficult matter of the appointment of Justices of the Peace, and we shall always remember with admiration the determined manlier in which he set his face against the attempt to connect appointments to the local Benches with Party politics. If Lord Loreburn had done nothing else, I think for that alone he deserves the gratitude of this House. We can all of us wish for nothing better than that Lord Loreburn should carry with him into his retirement as kindly a recollection of this House as that which we shall preserve of him during the years of his official connection with us.

Before I sit down may I be allowed to offer to the noble Viscount, Lord Haldane, our congratulations upon his accession to an office which must, I think, have seemed to him the natural goal of his aspirations. The noble Marquess ventured upon a Latin expression. May I follow suit and say that there never was a happier illustration of the saying Cedant arma togœ. We all appreciated the untiring energy which the noble Viscount showed while he was in charge of one of the most onerous, and I am almost tempted to add one of the most thankless, portfolios in the Government, and we may be permitted to wish for him that the work which he did as Secretary of State for War—and unquestionably he did much hard and holiest work—may last, and that in that respect he may be more fortunate than some of those who preceded him. And perhaps most of all may we congratulate the noble Viscount upon his success, if I may use a military simile, in entrenching himself in a position where he will no longer be exposed to the constant sharp-shooting which he experienced so frequently from the Benches on this side of the House—attacks to which he never failed to respond with an amount of dexterity and resourcefulness which elicited our genuine admiration. We feel confident that as Speaker of this House the noble Viscount will in no respect fall behind the example set him by his illustrious predecessor.

THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT HALDANE)

My Lords, it would not be natural were I not to desire to acid something to what has been said by the two noble Marquesses, but my words shall he very few. I have had the privilege, the infinite privilege, of intimate friendship with Lord Loreburn, and no man realises more than I do or has better ground for knowing the strong moral character of Lord Loreburn and the combination of qualities which have made him the personality he is. I only wish to say that the feeling which is uppermost, with me just now is a sense of the difficulty of following adequately in his footsteps.