HC Deb 17 July 1882 vol 272 cc722-4
MR. JOHN BRIGHT

I should be content not to offer any observations to the House on this, to me, new and peculiar occasion; but I suppose that hon. Gentlemen are wishful to know, perhaps, more than they do know about the reasons why I am not now in my accustomed seat upon the Treasury Bench. But, to tell the truth, I have no explanation to make—there seems nothing to explain, and I have nothing to defend. The simple fact is that I could not agree with my late Colleagues in the Government in their policy with regard to the Egyptian Question. It has been said—some public writers have said it, and some have said it in conversation—Why have I not sooner left the Government; why have I postponed it to this time from last Tuesday or Wednesday? I may answer that by saying that my profound regard for my right hon. Friend at the head of the Government, and my regard also for those who now sit with him, was such that I think I was permitted to remain with them until the very last moment, when I found it no longer possible to retain my Office in the Cabinet. The fact is, that there was a disagreement, to a large extent, founded on principle; and now I may say that if I had remained in Office, it must have been under these circumstances—either that I must have submitted silently to many measures which I myself altogether condemned, or I must have remained in Office in a state of constant conflict with my Colleagues. Therefore, it was better for them, and better for me—the House, I am sure, will unanimously agree to that—that I should have asked my right hon. Friend to permit me to retire, and to place my resignation in the hands of the Queen. The House knows—many Members, at any rate, who have had an opportunity of observing any of the facts of my political life know—that for 40 years at least I have endeavoured, from time to time, to teach my countrymen an opinion and doctrine which I hold—namely, that the moral law is intended not only for individual life, but for the life and practice of States in their dealings with one another. I think that in the present case there has been a manifest violation both of International Law and of the moral law, and therefore it is impossible for me to give my support to it. I cannot repudiate what I have preached and taught during the period of a rather long political life. I cannot turn my back upon myself and deny all that I have taught to many thousands of others during the 40 years that I have been permitted at public meetings and in this House to address my countrymen. Only one word more. I asked my calm judgment and my conscience what was the path I ought to take. They pointed it out to me, as I think, with an unerring finger, and I am humbly endeavouring to follow it.

COLONEL MAKINS

I wish to put a Question to the right hon. Gentleman. ["Order!"]

MR. SPEAKER

If the hon. and gallant Member wishes to put a Question in reference to any Bill or Motion which is before the House, he is in Order. Otherwise, he is not in Order.

COLONEL MAKINS

I wished to put a Question to the right hon. Gentleman in reference to the statement which he has just made.

MR. GLADSTONE

Mr. Speaker, it is only by the indulgence of the House that I rise to say a single word, which my own feelings tell me—and I think the feelings of others in answer to mine—it would be culpable on my part to omit. This is not an occasion for arguing the question of the differences that have unhappily arisen between my right hon. Friend and those who were, and rejoiced to be, his Colleagues. But I venture to assure him that I agree with him in thinking that the moral law is as applicable to the conduct of nations as of individuals, and that the difference between us, most painful to him and most painful to us, is a difference as to the particular application in this particular case of the Divine law. Agreeing with him in the principle, we disagree in the application. It is to us, as it is to him, an occasion of the profoundest pain. But he carries with him the unbroken esteem—and upon every other question the unbroken confidence—of his Colleagues, and their best and warmest wishes that happiness and fame may follow him into the independent position into which he has found it necessary to retire.