§ On entering the House, at half-past two o'clock, Mr. A. J. Balfour was received with loud cheers from both sides.
§ SIR H. CAMPBELL- BANNERMAN (Stirling Burghs)The period in this process of asking Questions has arrived when we become aware of the presence in the House of the First Lord of the Treasury. Perhaps I may be allowed to be guilty of the irregularity of interrupting the course of Questions by offering to him on my own part, and on that of those who act with me in politics, and I am sure on the part of a far more wide circle, including Members in every part of the House—our warm congratulations on the honour which he has received by being invited to form an Administration—and wishing him success and prosperity, not only in the formation, but in the conduct of that Administration.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI can assure the House that it is not easy for me to express in adequate terms my sense of its kindness on this occasion. The right hon. Gentleman, in the words he has spoken, has really moved me more than I can well say; and the manner in which his most kind observations have been received, not only among my own friends and supporters, but among Gentlemen on the other side — with whom I am so often brought into what I hope is never unfriendly collision— I can assure them I feel most deeply. In fact, I am quite incapable of saying anything more.
At a subsequent stage,
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURsaid: By leave of the House I think I ought to say one word, though it will only be one word, about the distinguished statesman whose services the country has lost by the new arrangement which has been entered into. It would be improper, and, indeed, impossible, for me to express my personal feelings on the subject, nor would it be any more proper, though it would be easier, to express the loss which Gentlemen on this side of the House, and the Party to which I belong, feel on the subject. But it is the glory of British statesmanship that we have never regarded our Party Leaders, because they are Party Leaders, as otherwise than representative of the country of which they are statesmen. And when I remember that Lord Salisbury has been, I think, four times Foreign Secretary, and three times Prime Minister, and that probably there has not been a man in our generation whose name has carried more weight outside this country, and who has done greater services to the State within this country, I think it will be felt that I can hardly allow the occasion to pass without expressing my deep feelings of the immense public loss which this country has sustained in his retirement from the public service.
§ SIR H. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANI can assure the right hon. Gentleman that the feeling which he has expressed is not confined to his side of the House, nor to any particular Party in this country. The great and distinguished 129 statesman who has now, it appears, retired from the foremost position in the Empire under the Crown, carries with him the respect and the gratitude of his fellow-countrymen, irrespective of their political opinions. I cannot say that Lord Salisbury has ever shown any partiality towards the Party with which I am connected—but though he has often been a strenuous antagonist, and has sometimes thrown a good deal of that cold water which he is capable of throwing upon the ardent aspirations of the Liberal Party, yet I can at least say this, that in his dealings with foreign affairs and with international questions, he has, again and again, earned our applause and approval and confidence. It is a subject of deep regret to us, quite as much as to the right hon. Gentleman, if Lord Salisbury no longer takes part in the councils of the Empire.