MONUMENT TO LORD SALISBURY. (Hansard, 17 May 1904)

§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (The Marquess of LANSDOWNE)

My Lords, I do not think that the Motion which I have placed upon the Paper can come as a surprise to any of your Lordships. I think, indeed, your Lordships would have been astonished if His Majesty's Government had not taken some such step as that which we are taking this evening. Your Lordships will recollect when at the beginning of this 6 session we met here for the transaction of business our first thoughts were of the great loss which this House and the country at large had sustained by the death of the late Lord Salisbury. On both sides of the House feelings of regret and respect for his memory were expressed; and upon this occasion I do not think I am wrong in anticipating that, without any reference to Party considerations, your Lordships' House will be unanimous in desiring that this mark of respect should be shown to Lord Salisbury's memory; for, although he was a great Party leader, we have a right to think of him, now that he is no longer here, not so much as a Party leader, but as a great servant of the State, a great public man who gave his unrivalled gilts and abilities ungrudgingly to the service of his country. It has always been the custom of Parliament upon occasions of this kind to look at the matter from this standpoint.

When Lord Salisbury's illustrious colleague, the late Lord Beaconsfield, was taken from us it was Mr. Gladstone who moved in the House of Commons a Resolution similar to that which I have to move this evening; and when in time Mr. Gladstone himself disappeared from the scene of which he had been so bright an ornament for so many years, it was Mr. Balfour, the present Conservative Prime Minister, who moved the Resolution in favour of the erection of a monument to his memory. Therefore, my Lords, in view of the unanimity which I believe prevails in your Lordships' House, I shall not attempt a lengthened panegyric of Lord Salisbury; for, indeed, it would be impossible within the compass of such a statement as I have a right to make this evening to deal adequately with a career so long and with services so splendid as those which he rendered. Lord Salisbury was no less than fifty years in Parliament. Of these fifty years twenty were spent as a Minister of the Crown. During thirteen of them he was Prime Minister and Leader of this House, and during eleven of those years he bore the double burden of the Premiership and the office of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, a double burden which I venture to think no mortal shoulders could bear for long with impunity. It is no exaggeration to say 7 that you will find that during the history of that long life there was no single chapter that was idle or unprofitable.

In public life Lord Salisbury was conspicuous and distinguished among his peers. He was a great debater, a with full authority. Those of us who great master of language, but he never had that high honour will not readily condescended to the arts of the demagogue, forget the privilege which we enjoyed of He never was content with a mere forensic being his colleagues. Of Lord Salisbury's triumph, but he compelled the attention other attainments I will only say this, of those who listened to him, not by that if the world of politics had not studied effects or by elaborate ornaments claimed him, he would have been, beyond of style, but by the spontaneous expression of a powerful and original intellect, I am tempted to add that you will find that same style, with all its force and all its merits, in the despatches which he has left behind him, and even in those official minutes which, as his successor, it has often been my good fortune to read. He was a Leader of this House who commanded the universal respect of your Lordships. He had a keen appreciation of the constitutional position of the House of Lords, and a keen respect for its great traditions; and he never took part even in those of our debates which might have seemed the least interesting without adding to them something of his own which rendered his contributions to our discussions memorable and instructive. As a Minister I suppose Lord Salisbury will best be remembered owing to his successful conduct of our foreign affairs during a lengthened period. He was a wise and prescient director of our foreign policy, and if I had to single out any one particular quality by which he was distinguished I should say that that which most impressed those who were associated with him was his calmness and self-restraint even in circumstances of the greatest difficulty. We can all of us re collect occasions, some of them of comparatively recent occurrence, when peace and war trembled in the balance, when a single false step or a single careless word might have involved this country in a dangerous catastrophe, and when if that catastrophe was avoided it was certainly due to the prudence and wisdom with which Lord Salisbury discharged the duties which belonged to his high office If at the present moment we stand high amongst the Powers, if our word is respected, if our goodwill is desired, it is surely because Lord Salisbury laid deep and strong the foundation of that inter- 8 national reputation of which he was a faithful and jealous guardian.

Of Lord Salisbury's wisdom in counsel only those who had the high honour o f serving with and under him can speak with full authority. Those of us who had that high honour will not readily forget the privilege which we enjoyed of being his colleagues. Of Lord Salisbury's other attainments I will only say this, that if the world of politics had not claimed him, he would have been, beyond all question, a conspicuous figure in the world of literature or science. But, my Lords, beyond all things his life, public and private, was characterised by splendid qualities of devotion to duty, of independence of judgment, of absolute unselfishness, of incapability of any sordid aims or unworthy methods, and by the loftiest patriotism. The value of such a public man cannot be measured merely by his achievements either in diplomacy or in legislation. Such a man leaves his mark upon the public life of his country, by his example and by the manner in which his conduct serves to raise the standard of public life. Surely we may say of Lord Salisbury that his example and his manner of conducting the public affairs of this country have left their mark upon the nation. The nation, I believe, recognises Lord Salisbury as one worthy of the highest honour which it could pay him, it desires that his memory should be commemorated by the erection of a suitable monument to him; and it is, therefore, I believe, with the entire approval of our fellow-countrymen at large that I venture to move on behalf of His Majesty's Government the Resolution standing in my name.

Moved, "That an 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's, Westminster, to the memory of the late Right Hon. the Marquess of Salisbury, with an inscription expressive of the high sense entertained by the House of his rare and splendid gifts, and of his devoted labours in Parliament and in great offices of State."—(The Marquess of Lansdowne.)

§ *EARL SPENCER

My Lords, I rise to second the Resolution which has been submitted to your Lordships by the noble 9 Marquess the Leader of the House, Here, where the memory of the great statesman to whom the Resolution refers is so fresh, and where he had such a commanding influence for a long period of his life, very little need be said in favour of the Resolution. The noble Marquess has spoken in feeling, eloquent, and appropriate terms of the late Lord Salisbury. He stood in a very different position towards Lord Salisbury from that which I occupied. Lord Lansdowne was a colleague of Lord Salisbury in the government and the Cabinet, and, there fore, he could speak with the greatest possible authority as to the influence, power and skill with which Lord Salisbury fulfilled all of his many high duties. I never had that high privilege. I had only once for a short time an official connection with Lord Salisbury, and that was as a member of a Commission nearly forty years ago. But it is right that not only those who shared Lord Salisbury's views in politics but those who were opposed to him politically should speak on an occasion of this sort. In this country we do not raise monuments to statesmen as Party politicians. We believe the man to whom we propose to do this honour has done great services to his country and is honoured by the nation at large. It is, therefore, I think, appropriate that one of those who has been all his life in opposition to the noble Lord should rise and make a few observations as to this Resolution. It is not always that we give monuments at public expense to our Prime Ministers. During the last century, I think, we had as many as twenty Prime Ministers, and of these only six received public monuments at the public expense. Some of those were in office as Prime Minister a very long period. Mr. Pitt's tenure of office was the longest, though most of his career, of course belongs to the eighteenth century Then there was Lord Liverpool, and next to him in this respect comes Lord Salisbury, who ended his career in the twentieth century. Mr. Perceval lost his life while he was in office, and was only Prime Minister for a very short time.

As to the impression Lord Salisbury, made on the people and on those who opposed him, I entirely endorse what the noble Marquess said. He had tran- 10 scendent ability, an ability which, if he had not been born in the sphere of politics, would have given him preeminence in both science and literature, In his political career I have often noticed the charm and adornment which his literary pursuits gave to all his great orations. Besides that, Lord Salisbury was a man of great political courage; he had the courage to propose and to support measures which he thought ripe for the country, and he had another quality which was somewhat remarkable. Holding high and lofty ideals on many matters, he not infrequently showed almost a singular disregard of what I may call the commonplaces of life, which sometimes led him to say things which startled both friends and adversaries alike. There was one quality of his to which I will venture to refer which, I think, is of the utmost importance in a great statesman he always observed astern loyalty to what was done in Parliament. When he was certain that Parliament was carrying out the determined wishes of the people of this country, even if he had opposed them, and was still in opposition—if he felt that the country had resolutely settled on a particular policy, Lord Salisbury did not try to upset it, even when he had the greatest power with his numerous supporters in this House and the other. I have said that it is necessary that the support of this monument should be national. On three occasions when Leader of a great Party he obtained great majorities when appealing to the country and this goes far to establish his claim to a national memorial. I feel that we ought to render honour to a man who has added honour to the long roll of Prime Ministers whom we have known in this country. We are bound to give this public tribute to what he has done for the nation with energy and devotion throughout his long and distinguished career. I beg to second the Resolution.