ReviewsReviews Keeping the faith Duncan Brack and Tony Little (eds): Great Liberal Speeches (Politico’s Publishing, 2001; pp492) Reviewed by Conrad Russell

his is a book to be proud of. Among the inspired selections is the This is not just praise of the speech by Earl Grey in  against the T editorial team, who wear their blockade of Norway. This provides the scholarship with the deceptive light- answer to the question Nancy Seear Cobden, for it is so utterly different ness of a Grimond speech. It is a once shot into my ear in the middle of from the image Friedmanites have tribute to a party which, from century a boring committee meeting: ‘Why fastened on him. For Cobden, free to century, through good times and were we so much in favour of the competition was an assault on mo- bad, has kept a faith worth keeping. nation state in the nineteenth century, nopoly, and therefore an assault on In the first section of the book, the and so much against it now?’ It is the privilege. He casually dismissed his editors have had the good fortune simple application of the Lockeian opponents as ‘the Dukes and Earls’. It is which favours not only the brave, but doctrine of government by consent. In hard to believe that this man, alive those who understand the issues with terms of persuasive skills, rather than today, would be champion of the which they deal. This book was com- sheer rhetorical brilliance, this is one of Enrons and Monsantos of this world. plete in proof before September th. the best speeches in the collection. For He would surely regard them as the When it was written, the Anti-Terror- the twentieth century realisation that enemies, not the allies, of the free ism Bill was not yet even a bristle in government by consent is more market. For him, and for his allies, free ’s beard. Yet the whole of complex than just a matter of national- competition was equal competition the first section, dealing with the ism, one may look at Sir Archibald within the law. Buying Senators, for reaction against provoked Sinclair’s speech in the Munich debate example, was not free competition. If by the , takes us of . That speech is conspicuous for the WTO is to continue its resistance straight into the territory we have been its combination of personal courtesy to protection, we must aim at getting it debating since September th. and devastating evidence. If I had been to do so in a more Cobdenite spirit. on the suspension at the government dispatch box, I The task is difficult, but surely not of , on the would rather have faced twenty of impossible. Six Acts, down to Macaulay on the Lloyd George than one of Sinclair: it Pride of place, hardly surprisingly, Great Reform Bill, state the traditions was so impossible to ascribe anything goes to Gladstone, for three speeches Liberal belief that we do not deal with he said to malice. so different in style that it is hard to the threat of terror by random repres- The collection is particularly valu- realise they were delivered by the same sion, which maximises the number of able for its refutation of the mythical man. His speech on Irish Home Rule, our enemies, but by more legal, and Friedmanite interpretation our Labour in content one which makes a modern more selective, methods which separate and Conservative opponents agree in Liberal feel inside his mind, is a style our natural enemies from our potential trying to fix on us. Macaulay, in one of which could have been delivered by allies. To those of us who have been many expressions of belief in state at his most pugnacious. It through recent debates, we might be support for education, warns against ‘a puts the reader in stitches, yet the inside Charles James Fox’s mind: we disposition to apply to political ques- treatment of Chamberlain, in particu- know where he will go next. Yet, tions and moral questions principles lar, confirms all ’ doubts of contrary to the belief fostered by our which are sound only when applied to his political judgement. opponents that we are dwarfs standing commercial questions’. Opponents of Among the surprises, Palmerston’s on the shoulders of giants, Charles state education have applied the ‘Don Pacifico’ speech, which I had Kennedy, and their principle of free competition to a case always thought of at second hand as Home Affairs team have done it better to which the principle is not applicable. rather illiberal, now makes me hope than Fox, who was no minnow in the Any critic of Liberalism should read that a copy is on its way to Harare at Liberal aquarium. and re-read the speech by Richard this moment. For criticism of Labour,

40 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 34/35 Spring/Summer 2002 Churchill and Asquith has pride of the growing bulk of business Parliament which became the key to Gladstonian place, and Asquith’s exposition of how cannot handle is one we are not yet on decision making: ‘first … to amass to run a Liberal Party in a three-party top of. His most serious warning is that information, then to weigh the system is impeccable. the economy is becoming so compli- probabilities, and finally, once a deci- Perhaps not surprisingly, the most cated that the laws of supply and demand sion was taken, to pursue the policy challenging speech is by Keynes to the no longer work effectively. When we with undeviating commitment’. Liberal Summer School in . His have come to terms with these funda- Gladstone prided himself in his forecast of the key questions is one we mental insights, casually tossed off, we ability to spot that the time was ripe to are only just catching up with seventy- may be ready to get started. tackle an issue but did not always seven years later. His prediction that prepare his colleagues for the conclu- questions of contraception, marriage law Conrad Russell is Professor of History at sions at which he had arrived or the and the relations of the sexes will King’s College, London, Liberal Democrat forceful purpose with which he then become politically central is only just spokesman on work and pensions in the pursued them. Although this laid beginning to come true, as is his similar , and Honorary President of Gladstone open to charges of Jesuitical warning about drugs. His question about the Liberal Democrat History Group. casuistry and to inconsistency, it was the foundation of his moral strength of character which in turn was the basis of his popularity with the working and non-conformist classes, a popularity Restorative Conservativism reinforced by his politicisation of the Exchequer in the s, particularly Eugenio Biagini: Gladstone (Macmillan Press, 2000) when he accomplished the abolition of the paper tax – a ‘tax on knowledge’ – Reviewed by Tony Little despite the opposition of his prime minister and the House of Lords. Gladstone’s tax policy eased the creation ith a political career that necessary space for the incidental and of a mass media of popular newspapers. spanned more than sixty personal. This is not the book in which Gladstone quickly demonstrated Wyears, William Ewart to explore the complexity of his ministerial competence under Peel but Gladstone is the dominant figure in dealings with Peel or Palmerston or in his rise to pre-eminence in parliament Victorian politics, initially taking office which all the Home Rule intrigues of was more a tribute to his eloquence even before Victoria came to the  are disentangled. than to his man-management skills. throne and only leaving the premier- The limitations of space also force Biagini argues that this same oratorical ship in . In many ways, he defined Biagini to focus closely on the forces skill saw him supremely well placed to the nature of Victorian Liberalism, which unified Gladstone’s approach take advantage of and to channel the based on free trade, fiscal rectitude and and on his major achievements, whose enthusiasm of the enlarged electorate the incorporation into active political scale few politicians can hope to which emerged from the  and life of ever-wider groups of the approach – reform of taxation, tariffs,  reform acts and which formed population, in a career which, despite army, church, education and the all his intentions, became progressively electoral system. One cannot hope to more radical as it unfolded. understand this statesman without It is no surprise that he has been the recognising the lifelong influence subject of a multitude of biographies. exercised over him by Burke and But following Colin Matthew, Richard Butler. From Burke he gained a Shannon and Roy Jenkins, who have ‘method of historic assessment and his all produced different modern biogra- sensitivity for tradition and the possi- phies, is there room for more? Biagini’s bility of change through organic volume looks very much as if it is growth’ – which reinforced aimed at the undergraduate market. Gladstone’s Platonic notions of the The great advantage it has over its perfectibility of society, producing a competitors is its length,  pages form of ‘utopian conservatism’ which including the index, but this is a the of the time were unwilling succinct rather than a skimpy tome. to acknowledge. It was to Edmund The other difference is Biagini’s Burke that he turned for the intellec- adoption of a thematic rather than tual and historic backing for his ideas purely chronological approach, which for Home Rule. From Bishop Butler engages with Gladstone on an intellec- he drew the means to reconcile tual level, sparing only the minimum uncertainty with moral obligation

Journal of Liberal Democrat History 34/35 Spring/Summer 2002 41