MONUMENT TO SIR HENRY CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN. (Hansard, 18 May 1908)

§ THE PRIME MINISTER AND FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY (Mr. ASQUITH,) Fifeshire, E.
Three weeks ago this House paid to the memory of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman the special tribute of affection and reverence which was due from us to one who was not only the head of His Majesty's Government, but the Leader and father of the House of Commons. To-day I am confident that, by adopting with unanimity the Resolution which has just been read from the Chair, the House, on behalf of the whole nation, will express its desire that the eminent services to the State of our late Prime Minister should be commemorated by a monument to be set up at the public expense in Westminster Abbey. This form of recognition, which, I need not say, goes a long way back in our history, though for a time it fell into abeyance, has now been followed for 1673 many years past in the case of men who have held the highest office under the Crown. It was adopted in regard to Sir Robert Peel, Lord Palmerston, Lord Beaconsfield, Mr. Gladstone, and Lord Salisbury. We propose to-day, with, I believe, the heartfelt concurrence of the whole people, to add the name of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman to that illustrious roll. The mere mention of the names I have just enumerated, calling up, as each of them does, to our minds the personality and the achievements of the great man by whom it was borne, can hardly fail to cause us to reflect from what an amplitude of resources and with what an infinite diversity of gifts this country of ours is served. We are under no temptation upon occasions like this to enter into comparisons or contrasts between this man and that. We do not attempt, we ought not to attempt, to anticipate the judgment of posterity, and to weigh, in any nicely-adjusted balance, the relative quota of their several contributions to the common stock of counsel and policy. We forget for the moment even the controversies in which they took part, the strife and the tumult in which so much of their days and nights were spent, the ebb and flow of their party and political fortunes. We remember only, in gratitude and with honour, that each of them in his turn gave all that ho had to the public service, and did what in him lay, in his day and generation, to leave his country greater and happier than he found it. That is their title, the best and the only title, to perpetual commemoration within the walls of the Abbey which is consecrated to our immortal dead, and it is a title which was worthily won for himself by the leader whom we have lost.
Motion made, and Question proposed, "That a humble Address be presented to His Majesty praying that His Majesty will give directions that a monument be erected in the collegiate church of St. Peter, Westminster, to the memory of the late Right Hon. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, with an inscription expressive of the high sense entertained by this House of the eminent services rendered by him to the country in Parliament and in great offices of State, and to assure His Majesty that this House will make good 1674 the expenses attending the same."—(Mr. Asquith.)

§ MR. BALFOUR (City of London)
It is impossible for me to add anything to, the substance of what has fallen from the right hon. Gentleman, and still more impossible for me to improve upon the form in which the substance of his remarks was couched. The Resolution which has been put from the Chair is, I take it, the natural, fitting, and appropriate corollary of what passed in this House when I, unhappily, was absent only a few weeks ago; and as every Member of this House and every party in this House was unanimous in expressing its high appreciation of the character and public services of the late Prime Minister, so, I am convinced, there will not be less unanimity in voting public money for a permanent memorial of his fame. The right hon. Gentleman has proposed, in the first place, that Parliament should provide money for a public memorial, and, in the second place, that that public memorial should be placed in Westminster Abbey. To both propositions I give my hearty assent, and, I may say, that of my friends. As regards the second proposition, I should hope, while we are all unanimous and anxious to see the statue of the late Prime Minister added to the illustrious band of statesmen, that this may be the last occasion on which the House will vote public money for a monument in Westminster Abbey. But that is a topic, as we are all agreed that a memorial of the late Prime Minister should be placed there, on which I only make a personal observation—though I feel very strongly about it—parenthetically and in passing. The practice to which the right hon. Gentleman referred has indeed not been a universal practice. It has had exceptions even in the period to which he more particularly referred, for I think I am right in saving that no public money was voted for the statue of Lord John Russell. Before the time of Lord Palmerston's death, some of the most illustrious of our Prime Ministers had no statue, or no statue contributed at the public cost in that great Abbey. But I think it is well that the late Prime Minister should have among his predecessors an honoured place. We all 1675 feel that in him we have lost a man of high character and great attainments. We may say of him, that for forty years he was an honoured Member of this House, he led the Opposition, he led the House of Commons, and he died practically in office. I believe that these four statements cannot be made of any single one of his predecessors in the long roll of British Prime Ministers. For these reasons, if for no other, I cordially second the proposal made by the Prime Minister, and I rejoice to think that a permanent memorial of the late honoured statesman would be there in that great city, reminding us all how transitory are the controversies which divide politicians, and how permanent is the gratitude which the country owes to those who have done it service.

§ MR. JOHN REDMOND (Waterford)
I feel profoundly that not a single word is necessary by way of addition to the eloquent panegyrics pronounced by both right hon. Gentlemen on the honourable career and the great and lovable qualities of the late Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. Yet I daresay the House will recognise that it is fitting that the voice of Ireland should be heard upon this occasion, associating her directly with this project to do honour to his memory. My words will be few and they will be very simple. In the past, as a rule, the Irish Nationalist Party has held aloof from all ceremonial proceedings in which this House as a whole took part. That was due to the fact that we are not willingly here, that though we are in this House we are not really of it, hat we have not come here to merge ourselves in this Assembly or to acquiesce in its proceedings, but, rather, that we have come here to protest against a system of which it is the symbol and the instrument. We have felt, therefore, that on the whole, upon these occasions, it was more proper for us to abstain from associating either ourselves or our country with proceedings of this kind, in which the British Parliament was engaged in honouring British statesmen. But we made an exception on the death of Mr. Gladstone, and we make an exception to-day in the case of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. The name of the late Prime Minister will not go down in history as 1676 associated with any very great achievement for Ireland. But it was not his fault. He did his best for Ireland, and everyone of us believes that in him Ireland had an honest and true friend, a friend of her material advancement and a friend of her national freedom. This statue which is about to be voted will be erected at the expense of the people of all these countries, the rich and the poor alike, the people of England, of Scotland, of Ireland and of Wales. Of these countries Ireland is the poorest; of their peoples, the Irish are the most sorely oppressed by the, weight of taxation, but there is no Irishman so poor as to begrudge his mite towards honouring, the memory of this kindly, brave, and consistent friend of our country. This British Parliament does well in honouring the memory of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. For my part I may be allowed to say that I will always look back with intense pleasure to the fact that it has been my lot on this occasion, on behalf of all of my colleagues, and in the name of my country, to lay this little wreath of shamrocks upon his grave.

§ SIR ALFRED THOMAS (Glamorganshire, E.)
said: It is most fitting that a monument be erected to the memory of one whose name is enrolled among the great and good of our nation. It will serve to point to what sublime height can be reached through the power and inspiration of character. The sculptor who will be entrusted with this work is to be envied, for he will find ready fashioned a model of his subject enshrined in the heart of every man who knew him. May it ever be the good fortune of our country to be served by men so disinterested, so unselfish, and of whom posterity may say, as can be so truly said of him: "All his ends were his country's, his God's, and truth's."