 section 15 of the world's famous orations volume 5 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Gary B Clayton the world's famous orations volume 5 on the death of Queen Victoria by Sir Wilfred Laurier footnote from a speech delivered to the Canadian Parliament on February 8th 1901 in the footnote we have met under the shadow of a death which has caused more universal mourning than has ever been recorded in the pages of history in these words there is no exaggeration they are the literal truth there is mourning in the United Kingdom in the colonies and in the many islands and continents which formed a great empire over which extend the sovereignty of Queen Victoria there is mourning deep sincere heartfelt in the mansions of the great and of the rich and in the cottages of the poor and lowly for to all her subjects whether high or low whether rich or poor the Queen and her long reign had become an object of almost sacred veneration there is sincere and unaffected regret in all of the nations of Europe for all the nations of Europe had learned to appreciate to admire and to envy the many qualities of Queen Victoria those many public and domestic virtues which were the pride of her subjects there is genuine grief in the neighboring nation of seventy five million inhabitants the kinsmen of her own people by whom at all times and under all circumstances her name was held in high reverence and where in the darkest days of the Civil War when the relations of the two countries were strained almost to the point of snapping the poet Whittier well expressed a feeling of his countrymen when he exclaimed we bowed the heart if not the name to England's Queen God bless her there is wailing and lamentation among the savage and barbarian peoples of her vast Empire in the wigwams of our own Indian tribes in the huts of the colored races of Africa and of India to whom she was at all times the great mother the living impersonation of majesty and benevolence I and there is mourning also genuine and unaffected in the farmhouses of South Africa which have been lately and still are devastated by war for it is a fact that above the clang of arms above the many angers and gendered by the war the name of Queen Victoria was always held in high respect even by those who are fighting her troops as a symbol of justice and perhaps her kind hand was much relied upon when the supreme hour of reconciliation should come undoubtedly we may find in history instances where death has caused perhaps more passionate outbursts of grief but it is impossible to find instances where death has caused so universal so sincere so heartfelt an expression of sorrow in the presence of these many evidences of grief which come not only from her own dominions but from all parts of the globe in the presence of so many tokens of admiration where it is not possible to find a single discordant note in the presence of the immeasurable void caused by the death of Queen Victoria it is not too much to say that the grave has just closed upon one of the great characters of history what is greatness we are accustomed to call great those exceptional beings upon whom heaven has bestowed some of its choices gifts which astonish and dazzle the world by the splendor of faculties phenomenally developed even when these faculties are much marred by defects and weaknesses which make them nougatory of the good but this is not in my estimation at least the highest conception of greatness the equipoise of a well-balanced mind the equilibrium of faculties well and evenly ordered the luminous insight of a calm judgment our gifts upon which are as rarely found in one human being as the possession of the more dazzling though less solid qualities and when these high qualities are found in a ruler of men combined with purity of soul kindness of heart generosity of disposition elevation of purpose and devotion to duty this is what seems to me to be the highest conception of greatness greatness which will be abundantly productive of happiness and glory to the people under such a sovereign if I mistake not such was the character of Queen Victoria and such were the results of her rule it has been our privilege to live under her rule and it must be admitted that her reign was of the grandest in history rivaling in length and more than rivaling in glory the long reign of Louis XIV and more than the reign of Louis XIV likely to project its luster into future ages if we cast our glance back over the 64 years into which was encompassed the reign of Queen Victoria we stand astonished however familiar we may be with the facts at the development of civilization which has taken place during that period we stand astonished at the advance of culture of wealth of legislation of education of literature of the arts and sciences of locomotion by land and by sea and of almost every department of human activity the age of Queen Victoria must be held to be on a par with the most famous within the memory of man of course of many facts and occurrences which have contributed to make the reign of Queen Victoria what it was to give it the splendor which has created such an impression upon her own country and which has shed such a luminous trail all over the world many took place apart and away from her influence many events took place in relation to which the most partial panegeros would no doubt have to say that they were simply the happy circumstance of the time in which she lived science for instance might have obtained the same degree of development under another monarch it is also possible that literature might have flourished under another monarch but i believe that the contention can be advanced and advanced truly that the literature of the victorian age to a large extent reflected the influence of the queen to the eternal glory of the literature of the reign of Queen Victoria be it said that it was pure and absolutely free from the grossness which disgraced it in former ages and which still unhappily is the shame of the literature of other countries happy indeed is the country whose literature is of such a character that it can be the intellectual food of the family circle that it can be placed by the mother in the hands of her daughter with abundant assurance that while the mind is improved the heart is not polluted such as the literature of the victorian age for this blessing in my judgment no small credit is due to the example and influence of our departed queen it is a fact well known in history that in england as in other countries the influence of the sovereign was always reflected upon the literature of the reign in former ages when the court was impure the literature of the nation was impure but in the age of queen victoria where the life of the court was pure the literature of the age was pure also if it be true that there is a real connection between the high moral standard of the court of the sovereign and the literature of the age then i can say without hesitation that queen victoria has conferred not only upon her own people but upon mankind at large a gift for which we can never have sufficient appreciation queen victoria was the first of all sovereigns who was absolutely impersonal impersonal politically i mean whether the question at issue was the abolition of the corn laws or the war in the Crimea or the extension of the suffrage or the disestablishment of the irish church or home rule in ireland the queen never gave any information of what her views were upon any of these great political issues her subjects never knew what were her personal views though views she had because she was a woman of strong intellect and we know that she followed public events with great eagerness we can presume indeed we know that whenever a new policy was presented to her by her prime minister she discussed that policy with him and sometimes approved or sometimes perhaps dissented but that is not all the most remarkable event in the reign of queen victoria an event which took place in silence and unobserved the most remarkable event in the reign of the late queen was the marvelous progress and colonial development development which based upon local autonomy ended in colonial expansion what has been the cause of that marvelous change the cause is primarily the personality of queen victoria of course the visible and chief cause of all is the bold policy inaugurated many years ago of introducing parliamentary constitutional government and allowing the colonies to govern themselves but sir it is manifest that self-government could never have been truly effective in canada had it not been that there was a wise sovereign graining in england who had herself given the fullest measure of constitutional government to her own people if the people of england had not been ruled by a wise queen if they had not themselves possessed parliamentary government in the truest sense of the term if the british parliament had been as it had been under former kings and open contention with a sovereign then it is quite manifest that canada could not have enjoyed the development of constitutional government which she enjoys today it is quite manifest that if the people of england had not possessed constitutional government in the fullest degree at home they could not have given it to the colonies and thus the action of the queen in giving constitutional government to england has strengthened the throne not only in england but in the colonies as well at the close of the civil war when the union of the united states had been confirmed when slavery had been abolished when revolution had been put down the civilized world was shocked to hear of the foul assassination of the wise and good man who had carried his country through that ordeal then the good heart and sound judgment of the queen were again manifested she sent a letter to the widow of the martyred president not as the queen of great britain to the widow of the president of the united states but she sent a letter of sympathy from a widow to a widow herself being then in the first years of her own bereavement that action on her part made a very deep impression upon the minds of the american people it touched not only the heart of the widowed wife but the heart of the widowed nation it stirred the souls of strong men it caused tears to course down the cheeks of veterans who had courted death during the previous four years on a thousand battlefields i do not say that it brought about reconciliation but it made reconciliation possible it was the first rift in the clouds and today in the time of england's mourning the american people flocked to their churches pouring their blessings upon the memory of britain's queen i do not hope i do not believe it possible that the two countries which were severed in the 18th century can ever be again united politically but perhaps it is not too much to hope that the friendship thus inaugurated by the hand of the queen may continue to grow until the two nations are united again not by legal bounds but by ties of affection as strong perhaps as of sanctioned by all the majesty of the laws of the two countries and of such an event were ever to take place the credit of it would be due to the wise and noble woman who thus would have proved herself to be one of the greatest of statesmen simply by following the instincts of her heart sir in a life in which there is so much to be admired perhaps the one thing most to be admired is that naturalness that simplicity and the character of the queen which showed itself in such actions as i have just described from the first day of her reign to the last she conquered and kept the affections of her people simply because under all circumstances and on all occasions whether important or trivial she did the one thing that ought to be done and did it in the way most natural and simple she is now no more no more nay i boldly say she lives lives in the hearts of her subjects lives in the pages of history and as the ages revolve as her pure profile stands more marked against the horizon of time the verdict of posterity will ratify the judgment of those who were her subjects she a noble mankind she exalted royalty the world is better for her life sir the queen is no more let us with one heart say long live the king end of section 15 recording by gary b clayton section 16 of the world's famous orations volume 5 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by jeffrey wilson aims iowa the world's famous orations volume 5 trade and the empire by herbert henry asquith earl of oxford and asquith asquith born in 1852 secretary of state for the home department 1892 to 95 ecclesiastical commission 1892 to 95 chancellor of the x-checker 1906 trade and the empire footnote from a speech at cinderford october 8th 1903 by kind permission of mr asquith and mr's methuyn and company end of footnote a little less than six months ago the then colonial secretary startled the world by the announcement that the british empire was in danger that its unity could only be preserved by preferential tariffs and preferential tariffs involving attacks upon the necessary food of the people of the united kingdom these opinions the speaker has during the present week further developed and defended and with them it will be my duty in a few minutes to come to close quarters it is all very well to use this vague rhetorical language about negotiation and standing up to the foreigner and not taking his insults lying down i want to know from mr chamberlin upon what he is going to retaliate here we come to the very crux and indeed the very heart of the whole matter you cannot retaliate effectively in this country upon protected countries without imposing attacks upon food or raw material i give you one or two figures which have been put in very striking form by mr sydney buxton he takes russia and the united states the two most protected countries in the world suppose you want to retaliate upon russia out of our total imports from russia amounting to 25 millions 23 millions or 11 12ths consist of foodstuffs and raw materials so that we cannot retaliate upon russia without at the same time injuring either our working classes or our manufacturers or both what is the case of the united states out of 127 millions of imports from the united states in 1902 108 millions or five sixths were also foodstuffs or raw materials the moment you begin to translate these vague platform phrases into practice you find that they cannot be carried out as a policy without doing to you here in great britain as great and probably more harm than the persons against whom that policy is used mr chamberlin says he has two objects in view the first is to maintain and increase the prosperity of the united kingdom and the second is to cement the unity of the empire we all agree as to these two objects to which i will venture to add not by way of qualification but simply by way of supplement that the one end must not be sought and cannot be attained at the expense of the other in the long run depend upon it you will not promote the unity of the empire by anything that arrests or impairs the material strength of the united kingdom mr chamberlin says and says truly that the colonies ought not to be treated as an appendage to great britain i agree and neither ought great britain to be treated as an appendage to the colonies after all we must put in a word now and again for poor little england after all this united kingdom still remains the greatest asset of the british empire with its 42 millions of people with its traditions of free government with its indomitable enterprise with its well-tried commercial and maritime prowess anyone who strikes a blow at the root of the prosperity of the united kingdom is doing the worst service which can be done to the empire to which we are all proud to belong mr chamberlin is haunted by two specters the first is the approaching decay of british trade and the other is the possible breakup of the british empire i will endeavor to illustrate my own precepts and discuss this matter without heat and by argument let us see if the specters are real let us be perfectly sure about the disease before we resort to remedies which are admittedly heroic and may be desperate first of all i ask your attention to this mr chamberlin said at glasgoe the other night and no more astounding declaration has been made by any public man within my memory that in the united kingdom trade has been practically stagnant for 30 years that is the basis on which he proceeds let me ask my fellow countrymen to see what has been our condition during this era of stagnant trade during that period the amount assessed to the income tax has doubled the interest upon our foreign investments has more than doubled the deposits in our savings banks have multiplied two and three fold the bankers checks cleared taking the annual average have risen in amount from five thousand three hundred millions to over eight thousand million sterling and last but not least the wages of the working classes have risen measured not merely in terms of money though there has been a considerable rise in our money wages but much more measured in their real terms in the terms of that which money can buy as the board of trade has told us 100 shillings buys as much as 140 shillings 20 years ago talk about germany the protectionist paradise i hope you will compare from the material the blue books place at your disposal the wages the standard of living and the hours of labor of the german workmen and your own well all that has been going on this enormous accumulation of wealth this steady rise in the savings of all classes of the country all that has been going on through a period of stagnant trade the truth is mr chamberlain entirely ignores the whole of our home trade as do most of the new protectionists and that is at the bottom of not a few of their fallacies it is difficult to say exactly what the bulk of our home trade is but the board of trade have computed that as the wages paid in the export trade are something like 130 millions and as the total wage bill of the country is between 700 and 750 millions the export trade does not employ more than one fifth or one sixth of the whole labor of the country i say then my first point is you cannot judge of the industrial condition and progress of the country by looking only at its foreign trade you are leaving out of sight by far the most important factor in making up the account indeed even a slackening in your export trade may be a proof and consequence of the activity of your trade at home it was so in certain industries in the year 1900 and the reason why in those times exports did not increase at the same ratio as before had little or nothing to do with hostile tariffs it was because our manufacturers and those they employed were so busy meeting the demand of the home market that they had not the time the machinery or the appliances to satisfy the demands from abroad that is not all mr chamberlain begins by ignoring the home trade if you take the foreign trade or to use a better expression trade carried on overseas it is a perfectly absurd criterion to measure its extent or profitableness by looking as mr chamberlain does to exports alone it would be just as reasonable to determine a man's wealth by the amount of the man's expenditure without looking to his income as to compare the profitableness of the foreign trade of a country by looking only at the exports why if you look at what mr chamberlain says as between 1872 and 1900 there has only been a paltry rise of between 20 and 30 millions in exports but if you look at the whole foreign trade and exports and imports together you find a very different state of things take the three decennial periods from 1873 to 1882 the overseas trade averaged 662 millions from 1883 to 1892 the average was 696 millions from 1893 to 1902 the average was 771 millions in other words if you take our trade as a whole the annual average is considerably over 100 millions in 30 years but that does not complete the account of the matter if you want to look at exports alone even then you must not confine your attention to goods that are exported because in order to pay for our imports we do a great deal more than send to foreign countries our goods we perform services for them and in particular we do services in performing the carrying trade of the world imagine a man coming before the public with the responsibility of a great statesman and telling them that trade is in a stagnant condition when he has not even taken the trouble to bring into account the amount that we are earning every year by our shipping throughout the length and breadth of the world i will just give you one figure with regard to that the board of trade estimate of the annual earnings of our shipping comes to 90 millions a year a figure mr chamberlain has left altogether out of the account although it is strictly relevant to and strictly comparable with and belongs to the same class as the exports of our goods now is that a growing or a diminishing quantity i will compare the figures of the united kingdom under free trade with the figures of the united states under protection in 1870 just about the time that mr chamberlain has taken for his comparisons our tonnage of overseas shipping was five million seven hundred thousand in 1902 it was ten million tons in other words it has increased very nearly 100 percent now in 1870 the overseas shipping tonnage of the united states was one million five hundred thousand in 1902 this had fallen to eight hundred eighty thousand tons or a diminution of between 40 and 50 percent if it is true as mr chamberlain has told us that we are sending less manufactured goods into the united states you must not forget that at the same time we are performing for the united states not gratuitously great as is our affection for the united states not gratuitously but for value received the service of carrying their goods as well as ours all over the world while their shipping has declined owing to the excessive cost of shipbuilding which protection brings about our shipping under free trade has most continuously and most prosperously increased my last criticism upon this part of mr chamberlain's case is this that he has committed an absolutely unpardonable error unpardonable in a man who has acquainted himself with the abc of the subject in taking the year 1872 as the starting year for his comparisons if you had taken 1870 two years before or if you had taken 1876 four years after instead of finding only a growth of 20 to 30 millions you would have found a growth of over 80 millions in exports and what is still more striking if you had taken the exports of 1900 at the prices of 1872 you would have found that they amounted to 425 millions or an increase of 170 millions instead of mr chamberlain's 30 millions to sum up what i have been saying about this i have pointed out that this allegation that during the last 30 years british trade has been in a stagnant condition involves at least four distinct fallacies let us enumerate them once more in the first place it entirely ignores the home trade which is a much more important factor than the foreign trade in the second place it makes exports alone the criterion of the volume of our trade in the third place it places among exports exported goods alone and takes no notice of the services that we render to other countries finally even taking exported goods as the criterion a year is deliberately selected which is no fair test of the matter at all then what becomes of the case which is the foundation of mr chamberlain's contention that british trade has been in a stagnant condition during the last 30 years then i come to the other assumption which is that unless we are prepared to establish a preferential tariff we must look for a breakup of the empire that is a pure assumption that we are asked to accept and act upon without a shadow of proof or even a scintilla of evidence for my part i believe it to be i use very plain language about it i believe it to be a colony on the colonies and a slur upon the empire now it is part of mr chamberlain's case under this head that our trade with our own colonies is growing faster than our trade with the rest of the world that is a very disputable proposition but assuming for the purpose of the argument that it is true we are all agreed in wishing that process to continue if natural causes are already at work bringing it into operation so much the better but anxious as we are to do all that is prudent and practicable to develop our trade with the colonies we free traders do not believe at least i do not believe it is in any way desirable that we should have what is called a self-contained empire between which and the rest of the world there are none of those commercial relations which are so fruitful of peace and amity and goodwill but quite apart from that let me deal with this allegation that unless something is done and that something means taxing the food of the people of this country unless something is done the colonies will break away from us no one has a higher and keener desire than i have to maintain and develop those friendly relations which of late years have so happily come into existence between the colonies and ourselves but let me point out that the colonies have absolutely no grievance of any kind against us we give them free admission through our open door into the largest and best market in the whole world on the other hand they have at home complete fiscal autonomy for my part i believe if they had not had it the empire would not have kept together so long they have complete fiscal autonomy and in the exercise of that freedom the large majority of them have erected protective tariffs not only against foreign nations but also against the mother country i do not complain of that for a moment if you give your colonies freedom as you were right to do you must allow them to exercise it in accordance with local sentiments and local opinion end of section 16 recording by jeffrey wilson aims iowa section 17 of the world's famous orations volume five this is a lever box recording all lever box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit lever box dot org the world's famous orations volume five his address at pittsburgh by john lord moorley moorley his address at pittsburgh 1904 footnote delivered on founders day at the carnagee institute pittsburgh pennsylvania november 3 1904 by kind permission of the new york times abridged and the footnote born in 1838 graduated from oxford in 1859 became editor of the fortnightly review in 1867 of the palm all gazette in 1880 elected parliament in 1883 chief secretary for ireland in 1886 and again in 1892 secretary for india in 1906 what is so hard as a just estimate of the events of our time it is only now a century and a half later that we really perceive that a writer has something to say for himself when he calls wolf's exploit at quebec the turning point in modern history and today it is hard to imagine any rational standard that would not make the american revolution an insurrection of 13 little colonies with a population of three million scattered in a distant wilderness among savages a mightier event in many of its aspects than the volcanic convulsion in france again the upbuilding of your great west on this continent is reckoned by some the most important world movement of the last hundred years but is it more important than the amazing and posing and perhaps disquieting apparition of japan one authority insists that when russia descended into the far east and pushed her frontier on the pacific to the 43rd degree of latitude that was one of the most far-reaching facts of modern history though it almost escaped the eyes of europe all her perceptions then monopolized by affairs in the levante who can say many courses of the sun were needed before men could take the full historic measures of luther calvin knocks the measure of loyola the council of trend and all the counter reformation the center of gravity is forever shifting the political axis of the world perpetually changing but we are now far enough off to discern how stupendous a thing was done when after two cycles of bitter war one foreign the other civil an intestine pit in washington within a span of less than a score of years planted the foundations of the american republic what forb stockade at for pit has grown to be you know better than i the huge triumphs of pittsburgh in material production iron steel coke glass and all the rest of it can only be told in colossal figures that are almost as hard to realize in our minds as the figures of astronomical distance or geologic time it is not quite clear that all the founders of the commonwealth would have surveyed the wonderful scene with the same exaltation as their descendants some of them would have denied that these great centers of industrial democracy either in the old world or in the new always stand for progress jefferson said i view great cities as pestilential to the morals the health and the liberties of man i consider the class of artificers he went on as the pandas of vice and the instrument by which the liberties of a country are generally overthrown in england they reckon 70 percent of our population as dwellers in towns with you i read that only 25 percent of the population live in groups so large as 4 000 persons if jefferson was right our outlook would be dark let us hope that he was wrong and in fact toward the end of his time qualified his early view franklin at any rate would i feel sure have reveled in at all that great man a name in the forefront among the practical intelligences of human history once told a friend that when he dwelt upon the rapid progress that mankind was making in politics morals and the arts of living and when he considered that each one improvement always begets another he felt assured that the future progress of the race was likely to be quicker than it had ever been he was never weary to foretelling inventions yet to come and he wished he could revisit the earth at the end of a century to see how mankind was getting on with all my heart i share his wish of all the men who have built up great states i do believe there is not one who's a lackity of sound sense and single-eyed benefits of aim could be more safely trusted than franklin to draw light from the clouds and pierce the economic and political confusions of our time we can imagine the amazement and complacency of that shrewd benign mind if he could watch all the giant marvels of your mills and furnaces and all the apparatus devised by the wondrous inventive faculties of man if he could have foreseen that his experiments with the kite in his garden at philadelphia his tubes his laden jars would end in the electric appliances of today the largest electric plant in all the world on the side of fort duquesne if he could have heard of five billion of passengers carried in the united states by electric motor power in a year if he could have realized all the rest of the magician's tale of our time still more he would have been astounded and elated could he have foreseen beyond all advances in material production the unbroken strength of that political structure which he had so grand to share in rearing into this very region where we are this afternoon swept wave after wave of immigration english from virginia flowed over the border bringing english traits literature habits of mind scott's or scott o irish originally from ulster flowed in from central pennsylvania catholics from southern island new hosts from southern and east central europe this is not the fourth of july but people of every school would agree that it is no exuberance of rhetoric it is only sober truth to say that the persevering absorption an incorporation of all the ceaseless torrent of heterogeneous elements into one united stable industrious and pacific state is an achievement that neither the roman empire nor the roman church neither the Byzantine empire nor russian not charles the great nor charles the fifth nor napoleon ever rivaled or approached we are usually apt to excuse the slower rate of liberal progress in our old world by contrasting the obstructed barriers of prejudice survival solosism anachronism convention institution also obstinately rooted even when the branches seem bare and broken in an old world with the open and disengaged ground of the new yet in fact your difficulties were at least as formidable as those of the older civilizations into whose fruitful heritage you have entered unique was the necessity of this gigantic task of incorporation the assimilation of people of diverse face and race a second difficulty was more formidable still how to erect and work a powerful and wealthy state on such a system as to combine the centralized concert of a federal system with local independence and to unite collective energy with the encouragement of individual freedom this last difficulty that you have so successfully up to now surmounted at the present hour confronts the mother country and deeply perplexes her statesmen liberty and union have been called the twin ideas of america so too they are the twin ideals of all responsible men in great britain although responsible men differ among themselves as to the safest path on which to travel toward the common goal and though the dividing ocean in other ways so much our friend interposes for our case of an island state or rather for a group of island states obstacles from which a continental state like yours is happily altogether free nobody believes that no difficulties remain some of them are obvious but the common sense the mixture of patience and determination that has conquered risks and mischiefs in the past may be trusted with the future strange and devious are the paths of history broad and shining channels get mysteriously silted up how many a time what seemed a glorious high road proves no more than a mule track or a mere cul-de-sac think of canning's flashing boast when he insisted on the recognition of the spanish republics in south america that he had called a new world into existence to redress the balance of the old this is one of the sayings of which sort many another might be found that make the fortune of a rhetorician yet stand ill the wear and tear of time and circumstance the new world that canning called into existence has so far turned out a scene of singular disenchantment though not without glimpses on occasion of that heroism and courage and even wisdom that are attributes of man almost at the worst the tale has been too much a tale of anarchy and disaster still leaving a host of perplexities for statesmen both in america and europe it has left also to students of a philosophic turn of mind one of the most interesting of all the problems to be found in the whole field of social ecclesiastical religious and racial movement why is it that we do not find in the south as we find in the north of this hemisphere a powerful federation a great spanish american people stretching from the real grand to caporn to answer that question would be to shed a flood of light upon many deep historic forces in the old world of which after all these movements of the new are but a prolongation and more manifest extension what mere imposing phenomenon does history present to us than the rise of spanish power to the pinnacle of greatness and glory in the sixteenth century the mohammedans after centuries of fierce and stubborn war driven back the whole peninsula brought under a single rule with a single creed enormous acquisitions from the netherlands of naples sicily the canaries france humbled england menaced settlements made in asia and northern africa spain and america become possessed of a vast continent of more than one archipelago of splendid islands yet before a century was over the sovereign majesty of spain underwent a huge declension the territory under her sway was contracted the fabulous wealth of the minds of the new world had been wasted agriculture and industry were ruined her commerce passed into the hands of her rivals let me digress one further moment we have a very sensible habit in the island once i come when our country misses fire to say as little as we can and sink the thing in patriotic oblivion it is rather startling to recall that less than a century ago england twice sent a military force to seize what is now argentina pride of race and hostile creed vehemently resisting proved too much for us the two expeditions ended in failure and nothing remains for the historian of today but to wonder what a difference it might have made to the temperate region of south of america if the fortune of war had gone the other way if the region of the plata had become british and large british immigration had followed do not think me guilty of the heinous crime of forgetting the Monroe doctrine that momentous declaration was not made for a good many years after our general white lock was repulsed at bonus aries though mr. Sumner and other people have always held that it was canning who really first started the Monroe doctrine when he invited the united states to join him against european intervention in south american affairs the day is at hand we are told when four-fifths of the human race will trace their pedigree to english forefathers as four-fifths of the white people in the united states trace their pedigree today by the end of this century they say such nations as France and Germany assuming that they will stand apart from fresh consolidations will only be able to claim the same relative position in the political world as holland and switzerland these musings of the moon do not take us far the important thing as we all know is not the exact fraction of the human race that will speak english the important thing is that those who speak english whether in old lands or new shall strive in lofty generous and never-ceasing emulation with peoples of other tongues and other stock for the political social and intellectual primacy among mankind in this noble stripe for the service of our race we need never fear that claimants for the prize will be too large a multitude as an able scholar of your own has said jefferson was here using the old vernacular of english aspirations after a free manly and well-ordered political life a vernacular rich and stately tradition and noble phrase to be found in a score of a thousand of champions in many camps in Buchanan Milton Hooker Locke Jeremy Taylor Roger Williams and many another humbler but not less strenuous pioneer and confessor of freedom ah do not fail to count up and count up often what a different world it would have been for that island in the distant northern sea these were the tributary fountains that as time went on swelled into the broad confluence of modern time what was new in 1776 was the transformation of thought into actual polity what is progress it is best to be slow in the complex arts of politics in their widest sense and not to hurry to define if you want a platitude there is nothing for supplying it like a definition or shall we say that most definitions hang between platitude and paradox there are said though i've never counted to be ten thousand definitions of religion there must be about as many of poetry there can hardly be fewer of liberty or even of happiness i am not bold enough to try a definition i will not try to gauge how far the advance of moral forces has kept pace with that extension of material forces in the world of which this continent conspicuous before all others bear such astounding evidence this of course is the question of questions because as an illustrious english writer to whom by the way i owe my friendship with your founder many long years ago as matthew arnold said in america here it is moral ideas that at bottom decide the standing or falling of states and nations without opening this vast discussion at large many a sign of progress is beyond mistake the practice of associated action one of the master keys of progress is a new force in a hundred fields and with a measurable diversity of forms there is less acquiescence in triumphant wrong toleration in religion has been called the best fruit of the last four centuries and in spite of a few bigoted survivals even our united kingdom and some savage outbreaks of hatred half religious half racial on the continent of europe this glorious gain of time may now be taken as secured perhaps of all the contributions of america to human civilization this is the greatest the reign of force is not yet over and at intervals it has its triumphant hours but reason justice humanity fight with success their long and steady battle for a wider sway of all the points of social advance in my country at least during the last generation none is more marked than the change in the position of women in respect of rights of property of education of access to new callings as for the improvement of material well-being and its diffusion among those who labor is a prime factor in its creation we might grow sated with the jubilant monotony of its figures if we did not take good care to remember in the excellent words of the president of harvard that those gains like the prosperous working of your institutions and the principles by which they are sustained are in essence moral contributions being principles of reason enterprise courage faith and justice over passion selfishness inertness timidity and distrust it is the moral impulses that matter where they are safe all is safe when this and the like is said nobody supposes that the last word has been spoken as to the condition of the people either in america or europe republicanism is not itself a panacea for economic difficulties or self it can neither stifle nor appease the accents of social discontent so long as it has no rude and surveyed envy this discontent itself is a token of progress what cries the skeptic what has become of all the hopes of the time when france stood upon the top of golden hours do not let us fear the challenge much has come of them and over the old hopes time has brought a stratum of new liberalism is sometimes suspected of being cold to these new hopes and you may often hear it said that liberalism is already superseded by socialism that a change is passing over party names in europe is plain but you may be sure that no change in name will extinguish these principles of society which are rooted in the nature of things and are accredited by their success twice america has saved liberalism in great britain the war for independence in the 18th century was the defeat of usurping power no less in england than here the war for union in the 19th century gave the decisive impulse to a critical extension of suffrage and an era of popular reform in the mother country any miscarriage of democracy here reacts against progress in great britain if you seek the real meaning of most modern disparagement of popular or parliamentary government it is no more than this that no politics will suffice of themselves to make a nation's soul what could be more true who says it will but we may depend upon it that the soul will be best kept alive in a nation where there is the highest proportion of those who in the phrase of an old worthy of the 17th century think of it as part of man's religion to see to it that his country be well-governed democracy they tell us is afflicted by mediocrity and by sterility but has not democracy in my country as in yours shown before now that it well knows how to choose rulers neither mediocre nor sterile men more than the equals in unselfishness in rectitude in clear sight in force of any absolutist statesmen that ever in times pass bore the scepter if i live a few months or maybe even a few weeks longer i hope to have seen something of three elections one in canada one in the united kingdom and the other here with us in respect of leadership and apart from height of social prestige the personage corresponding to the president is as you know the prime minister our general election this time owing to personal accident of the passing hour may not determine quite exactly who shall be the prime minister but it will determine the party from which the prime minister shall be taken on normal occasions our election of a prime minister is as direct and personal as yours and in choosing a member of parliament people were really for a whole generation choosing whether disraeli or gladstone or salisbury should be head of the government the one central difference between your system and ours is that the american president is in for a fixed time whereas the british prime minister depends upon the support of the house of commons if he loses that his power may not endure a 12 month if on the other hand he keeps it he may hold office for a dozen years there are not many more interesting or important questions in political discussion than the question whether our cabinet government or your presidential system of government is the better this is not the place to argue it between 1868 and now a period of 36 years we have had eight ministries this would give an average life of four and a half years of these eight governments five lasted over five years broadly speaking then our executive governments have lasted about the length of your fixed term as for ministers swept away by august of passion i can only recall the overthrow of lord palmerston in 1858 for being thought to subservient to france for my own part i have always thought by its free play its comparative fluidity its rabbit flexibility of adaptation our cabinet system has most to say for itself whether democracy will make for peace we all have yet to see so far democracy has done little in europe to protect us against the turbid whirlpools of a military age when the evils of rival states antagonistic races territorial claims and all the other formulae of international conflict are felt to be unbearable and the curse becomes too great to be any longer born a school of teachers will perhaps arise to pick up again the threat of the best writers and wisest rulers on the eve of the revolution movement in this region of human things has not all been progressive if we survey the european courts from the end of the seven years war down to the french revolution we note the market growth of a distinctly international and pacific spirit at no era in the world's history can we find so many european statesmen after peace and the good government of which peace is the best ally that sentiment came to violent end when napoleon arose to scourge the world end of section 17 section 18 of the world's famous orations volume five this is a liber vox recording all liber vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liber vox.org the world's famous orations volume five on the policy of the liberal party sir henry cambell bannerman 1905 born in 1836 elected to parliament in 1868 financial secretary to the war office 1871 1874 and 1880 through 1882 secretary to the admiralty 1882 to 84 chief secretary for ireland 1884 to 1885 secretary of state for war 1886 and 1892 through 1895 liberal leader in the house of commons 1899 to 1905 prime minister 1906 footnote from a speech at the albert hall london december 21 1905 by kind permission of sir henry cambell bannerman and the london times end of footnote we are met tonight as liberals in a position which we have not occupied for 10 years the unionist government has gone it has executed what we may call a moonlight flitting it has run away not even in the broad day of the session not even in the twilight of october but in the murky midnight of december they have gone they had long ago lost as they well knew the confidence of the country they still boasted in a feeble and uncertain way of holding the confidence of the house of commons but last of all and worst of all they lost confidence in themselves and they are gone we were told told emphatically and abundantly that the method of their going would be a masterpiece of tactical skill tactics tactics ladies and gentlemen the country is tired of their tactics it would have been better for them if they had less of tactics and more of reality but they have lived for some years on nothing but tactics and now they have died of their tactics two characteristics are outstanding above all others in the late administration first of all their infinite cleverness which is not always clever and secondly an inexhaustible fund of self-approbation over this last quality they were possessed of so much that they have even now some of it left for their obituary notices for you will observe that each of them is going about giving himself and his colleagues the most marvelous testimony they even carry self-esteem so far that they convinced themselves that they were the only people in this kingdom who could form a government and that if anyone else tried the effort any cabinet which could be got together would be at once distasteful to the country and destitute of strength and unity you see here in what the wonderful tactics consist that was the design that lurked in the december resignation and it has come to not for a government has been formed amid the respect of our opponents which i gratefully acknowledge and amid the confidence and satisfaction of our friends what lesson then are we to draw for let us always be taught by the conduct of our enemies what lesson are we to draw from their discomforture surely it is to avoid those evil practices of boastfulness and over cleverness which have brought them to ruin if one had any doubt and for my part i protest i never had any as to the wisdom of our taking office i think it would be dispelled by certain reassuring circumstances in the first place there has been no shutter through the chancelories of europe such as mr balfour kindly anticipated sir edward gray tells me that the foreign ambassadors come to see him just as if nothing had happened again consuls instead of tumbling down as they ought to have done have actually risen in the third place mr broderick who ought to know all about these matters cannot be laboring under any misapprehension as to the effectiveness of the military defense of the empire because this is what he said the other day the army required a judicious review of past efforts rather than fresh schemes and he believed that a period of rest from doubts as to their prospects would be of great advantage to officers and men the doubts of which he speaks let me add can only have come from the operations of himself and of his colleagues and last of all we have the late prime minister who his stratagem having completely succeeded and the trap being full yet continues as confident after his resignation as he was before it that the general election will leave his friends in a woeful minority what has been going on in quite recent days in india there has been an unbroken rule a wise rule which we assuredly shall not be the first to violate to keep questions of the internal administration of india outside the area of party politics so far as the questions of the day are concerned i expect that it will not be your friend and my friend mr john morally in whom the doings of the late government will find their most eloquent and energetic and unsparing critic no it will be one of the most distinguished and powerful members of their own party i mean lord corzon one of the problems arising from the system of military administration in india has raised an angry controversy in which a prime minister a secretary of state a viceroy and a commander-in-chief have taken their part and which has been marked by a vehemence of altercation and recrimination that would be unedifying anywhere but is more than unedifying where the stage of such a scene is the great dominion of india talk of imperialism i know nothing i can imagine nothing less than a sense of our imperial responsibility than the spectacle of this controversy so rashly raised so tactlessly handled so recklessly published you may be sure that it will be our aim to restore that spirit of caution and vigorous common sense which has been the basis of british rule in india and you may also be assured that we shall make ourselves party to no steps that involve any invasion of the sacred principle for it is a principle recognized by each party throughout the realm of the king the sacred principle of the subordination of the military to the civil authority now mr chairman i turn to the colonies it is surely unnecessary for us to make public protestations of our affection for the colonies and our desire to bring them closer and closer to ourselves i would say this that the relations between the colonies and the mother country have never been settled on the lines of party politics but if it were that that they had been so fixed and were to be so conducted surely the democratic and progressive instincts and institutions of those great communities would find more affinity among us than among our opponents but i have heard with relief and pleasure from lord elgin that he finds no trace of that tendency to disruption of which we were told but a few months ago there is no sign of tension or friction everything is smooth save the one ruffled spot south africa ladies and gentlemen in south africa the difficulties and complications are as you know great i have no general statement to make to you for we have not had time adequately to examine them but one conclusion his majesty's government has arrived at and it is this to stop forthwith as far as it is practicable to do it forthwith the recruitment and embarkation of koolies in china and their importation into south africa and instructions have been given to that effect a few weeks ago at portsmouth i referred to our present relations with foreign powers and i especially hailed with approval and pleasure the agreement with the french government into which lord lands down wisely entered and i expressed then the admiration and regard which my countrymen of all ranks and parties entertained for the great french nation i am glad to say that my sentiment expressed in opposition is more than confirmed in office and i wish emphatically to reaffirm my adhesion to the policy of the entente courgette even more important than any actual amicable instrument is the real friendship developed between the two peoples and one of the objects of our policy will be to maintain that spirit of friendship unimpaired on the occasion to which i referred i alluded very briefly to the great trial through which russia is now passing all that i will say now as i said then is this that we have nothing but good feelings toward that great people in the case of germany also i see no cause whatever of estrangement in any of the interests of either people and we welcome the unofficial demonstrations of friendship which have lately been passing between the two countries with other european powers our relations are most friendly and when we pass beyond the bounds of europe we have on the one hand japan our relations with which nation are sufficiently known to the world by the recent treaty and on the other hand we have the united states of america with the government and people of which country we are bound by the closest ties of race tradition and fellowship ladies and gentlemen this is a most pleasing outlook which i trust will not be marred by any events that can occur as to our general policy toward our neighbors our general foreign policy it will remain the same in government as it was in opposition it will be opposed to aggression and to adventure it will be animated by a desire to be on the best terms with all nationalities and to cooperate with them in the common work of civilization i believe by the way that in the execution of this policy we have a notable ally in our present fiscal system a great guarantee of peace and a preventive against the possibility of commercial and tariff wars we liberals let us not forget it are the heirs of a great and inspiring tradition that tradition was founded in days when public opinion was opposed to any attempt to regulate differences by an appeal to the reason and conscience of mankind mr gladstone defied the public opinion of his day he took a stand on higher ground and by referring alabama dispute to arbitration he established a precedent of priceless value to mankind how proud and how pleased we ought to be to have among us and in the circle of the cabinet a veteran statesman who took part in that great undertaking and who remains now as he was then one of the truest of patriots and the staunchest and soundest of politicians i rejoice that since that time the principle of arbitration has made great strides and that today it is no longer counted weakness for any of the great powers of the world to submit those issues which once would have been referred to the arbitrament of self assertion and of passion to a higher tribunal ah but ladies and gentlemen it is vain it is vain to seek peace if you do not also ensue it i hold that the growth of armaments is a great danger to the peace of the world a policy of huge armaments keeps alive and stimulates and feeds the belief that forces the best if not the only solution of international differences it is a policy that tends to inflame old sores and create new ones i submit to you that as the principle of peaceful arbitration gains ground it becomes one of the highest tasks of a statesman to adjust those armaments to the newer and happier condition of things what nobler role could this great country assume than at the fitting moment to place itself at the head of a league of peace through whose instrumentality this great work could be effected i now pass to the question of economy and finance a very natural transition and i think you may look with confidence to the action that will be taken by my friend the chancellor of the exchequer but where are we to begin we want two things we want relief from the pressure of excessive taxation and at the same time we want money to meet our own domestic needs at home which have been too long starved and neglected owing to the demands of the taxpayer for military purposes abroad how are these desirable things to be secured if in the time of peace our armaments are maintained on a war footing remember that we are spending at this moment i think twice as much on the army and navy as we spent 10 years ago there may be and i believe there are fresh sources of taxation to be tapped we may derive something from the land something from licenses and some irksome inequalities of taxation may be relieved but even so with an increasing military expenditure how can we do the work of reform that remains to be done at home and at the same time bring relief to the taxpayers do not let us mind if in their folly they call us little englanders i at least am patriot enough not to desire to see the weakening of my country by such a waste of money as we have had for the last 10 years what has it brought us this waste of money for 10 years shall i recite some links in the dismal and ugly chain dear money lower credit less enterprise in business and manufacturers a reduced home demand therefore reduced output to meet it therefore reductions in wages increase of pauperism non-employment the fact is sir you cannot pile up debt and taxation as they have been piled up without feeling the strain in every fiber of society we are going to have a good deal said for the next few weeks about free trade let me add another thing did you ever hear a fiscal reformer pleading for economy or crying out for lighter taxes and fewer of them no sir if peace and retrenchment were the order of the day otello's occupation would be gone expenditure calls for taxes and taxes are the plaything of the tariff reformer militarism extravagance protection are weeds which grow in the same field and if you want to clear the field for honest cultivation you must root them all out for my own part i do not believe that we should have been confronted by the specter of protection if it had not been for the south african war well ladies and gentlemen so much for peace so much for economy two cardinal liberal principles and here is another self-government and popular control we believe in that principle not only on the grounds of justice and on the grounds of effective administration but on this other ground that it exercises a wholesome influence on the character of the people who enjoy the privilege but now this is the foundation of our educational policy that the people of this district to control and manage the schools it is the foundation of our licensing policy but if i seek for illustrations why did i not take the greatest the most conspicuous of all a crowning instance what other than this is the foundation of our irish policy that those domestic affairs which concern the irish people only and not ourselves should as and when opportunity offers be placed in their hands down to last spring we had reason to believe that even the late government and their party had come round to see the wisdom of such a policy they had already endowed the people of ireland with the command of county government they had pledged 112 million pounds of british credit for the tenants of ireland and lastly their viceroy had been authorized to declare that ireland was henceforth to be governed according to irish ideals they have started back from that position but oh ladies and gentlemen give them time they cannot escape from the logic of their own acts and they will return to that which is the path of justice and wisdom and also of safety when i come to the policy of constructive social reform i am principally conscious that i must make a reiteration of things which i have been saying up and down the country for the last three or four years but i can promise you this that it will always be the same story we desire to develop our undeveloped estates in this country to colonize our own country to give the farmer greater freedom and greater security in the exercise of his business to secure a home and a career for the laborer now in many cases cut off from the soil we wish to make the land less of a pleasure ground for the rich and more of a treasure house for the nation now why cannot mr. chamberlain drop his project of taxing corn and cheese and so forth and come back to his old love of three acres and a cow this question including these great problems cannot be neglected because after all the health and stamina of the nation are bound up with the maintenance of a large class of the workers on the soil the town population redundant the country population decimated it is a subversion of healthy national life now in passing let me mention one thing which the government have resolved to do few things we think are more capable of benefiting both the towns and the country districts than a development if that can be given to our system of canal communication and promoting the use of waterways which will facilitate transit which will open markets which will bring town and country together we have therefore resolved to ask the king to appoint a royal commission to inquire into the whole of that question because we believe that great benefit to the nation may come from it now i know that on the great question in regard to which we are to give our verdict in the course of a few weeks your minds are made up and therefore i will not enter even for a moment on arguments connected with it i rejoice to think that since the free trade controversy was first raised there has been no sign of faltering or wavering on our side and that liberalism has been true to its historic mission and the great struggle which will shortly be upon us i do not think it is too much to say that all that we liberals hold dear is at stake because if once you open the door to protection what hope is there for those great objects of reform and economy upon which our hearts are set depend upon it that in fighting for our open ports and for the cheap food and material upon which the welfare of the people and the prosperity of our commerce depend we are fighting against those powers privileges injustices and monopolies which are unalterably opposed to the triumph of democratic principles be confident therefore but i would ask you not to be overconfident against you is a strong coalition of interests and powers against you is a wealthy and a great party divided indeed as we have been amused to observe and to watch its little developments divided in the details of fiscal strategy but united in its determination to undermine and overthrow the citadel of free trade let us then be worthy of our fathers who went before us and one for us this great privilege of freedom and let us beware lest through any fault of ours through slackness or indifference or overconfidence on our part so great and vital a national interest is imperiled end of section 18 section 19 of the world's famous orations volume five this is a liberovox recording all liberovox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liberovox.org recording by larry wilson the world's famous orations volume five here's the duma is dead long lived the duma speech 1906 by henry cambell bannerman footnote delivered in the french language in the royal gallery of the house of lords london at the opening of the inter-parliamentary conference july 23rd 1906 from macabre in english kindly furnished by sir henry for this work the majority of you have not come here and i think you will wish this to be understood as the accredited delegates of your respective parliaments this gathering is unofficial but you are here if i read the times are right in the fullest sense of the accredited representatives of your fellow countrymen and women and in this capacity you are entitled to express with an authority attention to no other assembly in the world the conscience the reason and sentiments of a large and not the least influential portion of the human race in addressing you i feel i am not so much speaking to the representatives of diverse states of europe and america as to the exponents of principles and hopes that are common to us all and without which our life on earth would be a life without horizon or prospect with the purpose of your mission let me say it once his majesty's government desire reservedly to associate themselves it is their hope that your deliberations will do much to promote a closer understanding between the nations you have indeed done much since the new century began to give shape and substance to the growing the insistent desire that war may be banished from the earth all of us i suppose can remember a time when such a gathering as this would have evoked the derision of those who call themselves practical men you would have been called dreamers and your plans for substituting equitable arrangement for the license and ferocity of war would have been denounced as dangerous quicksetry gentlemen let us be charitable in our judgment of those misguided men and those dark ages we are all creatures of habit and by habituating the world to the idea that peaceful arbitrement can adjust such differences as diplomacy has failed to solve you have opened men's eyes you have cleared their minds gentlemen it must be a cause of delight and encouragement to you to feel that a great step has been taken toward the realization of an ideal i believe that there are now an existence at present 38 arbitration agreements between the different powers these instruments have all been framed since october 19 three thanks to lord lands down great britain has entered into agreements with ten powers by virtue of which all legal questions arising between the two contracting powers and all questions relating to the interpretation of treaties which diplomacy has failed to settle are to be referred to the permanent court of arbitration established at the Hague not withstanding the proviso which debars of reference to arbitration of matters affecting the vital interests the independence or the honor of the two contracting states we may claim that the conclusion of these agreements is a solid and i think it is not too much to say a splendid achievement in these proceedings i may be permitted to repeat that great britain has borne a leading part for we owe to the government of the late lord salisbury and to our delegates at the first Hague congress the initiation of the permanent tribunal of arbitration gentlemen i fervently trust that before long the principle of arbitration may win such confidence as to justify its extension to a wider field of international differences we have already seen how questions arousing passion and excitement have attained a solution not necessarily by means of arbitration in the strict sense of the word but by referring them to such a tribunal as that which reported on the north sea incident and i would ask you whether it may not be worthwhile carefully to consider before the next congress meets at the Hague the various forms in which differences might be submitted with a view to opening the doors as wide as possible to every means which might in any degree contribute or moderate or compose such differences but gentlemen there is a dark side to the shield we have to admit that notwithstanding all the efforts in which governments and peoples have participated no corresponding change has been brought in the aspect of the world's armaments such change as there has been is for the worse judging by the budgets of the great naval and military powers we might be living in a world where resort to force was the only known method of settling our differences and the words arbitration and conciliation were devoid of meaning on the one hand we find the recent opinion of Europe declaring itself more and more strongly for peace and on the other hand preparations for war which in their extent and effectiveness suggests that a lust for blood is the actuating principle of modern society it is this sinister paradox which baffles the will and lowers the self-respect of the western world and when we ask ourselves as we are bound to do whether the object of these preparations is attained we encounter another paradox the other day i observed that lord lands down in discussing the growth of armaments made use of a striking phrase he said the moment may come when the people of this country will prefer to eat their daily bread in fear rather than starve in security but gentlemen can any of us say that as a result of such overwhelming sacrifices of money of men of ideals and of civil dignity the sense of security has indeed been attained is it not evident that a process of simulations and progressive arming defeats its own purpose scare answers to scare and force begets force until at length it comes to be seen that we are racing one against another after a phantom security which continually vanishes as we approach if we hold with the late mr hay that war is the most futile and ferocious of human follies what are we to say of the surpassing futility of expending the strength and substance of nations on preparations for war possessing no finality amenable to no alliances that statesmanship can devise and forever consuming the reserves on which a state must ultimately rely when the time of trial comes if come it must i mean the well-being and vitality of its people do not imagine that i wish to discourage you by contrasting the hard facts of the situation with the aspirations which we all share that is the last thing that i have in mind i am not despondent about the future in the first place it is only a few short years since peace was a wanderer on the face of the earth liable at any moment to be trampled upon and despitefully used and if wars and preparations for wars have not ceased since she found a rest for the soul of her foot at the hage remember that time is needed for the growth of confidence in the new order of things and that allowance must be made for the momentum of the past which thrusts the old regime forward upon the new remember too that the people are on your side i know it is said that democracy is as prone to war as any other form of government but democracy as we know it is a late comer on the world stage where it has barely had time to become conscious of its characteristic powers still less to exert them effectively in its external relations the bonds of mutual understanding and esteem are strengthening between the peoples and the time is approaching when nothing can hold back from them the knowledge that it is they who are the victims of war and militarism that war in its tawdry triumphs scatters the fruits of their labor breaks down the paths of progress and turns the fire of constructive energy into a destroying force in this connection i cannot refrain from saying for myself and i am sure for everyone in this great and historic assembly how glad we are to welcome among us today the representatives of the youngest of parliaments the russian duma we deeply appreciate the circumstances of their appearance in our midst it is i venture to think a good augury for your movement and for the future of europe that the first official act of the russian parliament in regard to affairs outside the russian empire has been to authorize its delegates to come here to westminster and to join hands with us in the assertion of those great principles of peace and goodwill which were so incalculably advanced by the head of the russian state the author and convener of the first head congress i make no comment on the news which has reached us this morning this is neither the place nor the moment for that we have not a sufficient acquaintance with the facts to be in a position to justify or criticize but this at least we can say we who base our confidence in our hopes on the parliamentary system new institutions have often a disturbed if not a storm of youth the duma will revive in one form or another we can say with all sincerity the duma is dead long live the duma the time is approaching to which we are all looking forward with intense interest and anxious hope when the delegates of your various nationalities find themselves once again at the hage there to renew their labors in the cause of peace i can only end as i began by wishing success to your deliberations may they pave the way to far-reaching and beneficent action tell your governments when you return home that the members of the british parliament whom i see before me are never tired of telling me that example is better than precept that actions speak louder than words and urge them in the name of humanity to go into the hage congress as we ourselves hope to go pledged to diminish charges in respect of armaments and treat them to go there with a belief in the good disposition of nations to one another such as animates you the members of a score of parliaments and may it be your great reward when you next assemble a year hence to know that as a result of your labors the light of peace burns with a steadier and a more radiant flame into section 19 section 20 of the world's famous orations volume five this is a leper fox recording all leper fox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit leperfox.org the world's famous orations volume five lord robert reid law burn on the policy of the english liberals 1906 footnote from a speech at the national liberal club london on july 11 1906 by kind permission of lord law burn and london tribune this was originally a newspaper report of an impromptu speech printed in the third person it has been altered here to the first person end of footnote the parliament which has returned in january is more remarkable for intellectual power for sincerity of purpose and for a fixed determination to achieve its ends than any parliament in this country for many long years we have been told that this house of commons was going to have a short if not a merry life and that it would be replaced soon by something very much preferable i have no such idea i believe that this house of commons represents a feeling and a force in this country which has been retarded already for almost 20 years the forces held back from 1885 have now re-asserted themselves and the spirit of progress will be lasting and durable therefore all those who are disposed to be critics of the present house of commons might well consider whether if they turned out the 670 evil spirits there now they might not have 670 still more evil spirits in their places the present parliament is i believe more intent upon what is called social reform than any other class of subjects and quite rightly i am not going to dwell upon those topics i agree with the most advanced upon nearly all in fact upon all those subjects whether of land or liquor or housing reform we all know perfectly well what are the necessities of our country and where the shoe pinches but i wish to suggest to those who hold reforming views that they must not confine themselves simply to one of those questions or even to all of those questions put together they must remember that this country is part of a very great empire with dangerous foreign relations and unless we can come to a sound view with regard to what is called imperialism and in regard to foreign relations we shall have to whistle for social reform for that reason i am glad so much attention has of late been concentrated upon his majesty's dominions across the sea i do not in the least agree with the point of view which has been so pushed by the late government and which i believed has resulted in immense trouble and immense loss but it is most important for us to see clearly and to make up our minds in regard to those questions for ourselves we are charged with being indifferent to the british empire some other critics and particularly mr chamberlain appear to take pleasure in showing how unjust and how unfriendly liberals are to their colonial fellow countrymen nothing of the kind i desire and believe we all desire unfaindedly and without reserve to maintain in their present happy relations the ties that subsisted between us and our colonial kindred we heartily wish and mean that those relations shall subsist forever and we are not content to contemplate any other future but we think it not wise to forbear from facing facts we have to look at things as they are and not as we wish them to be there are certain things we ought to remember in connection with them one is that since the end of the napoleonic wars 90 years ago almost all the wars and expeditions this country has engaged in have been due either to india or to the other colonies and dependencies of the crown almost with one exception save for the indian wars the cost of all those wars has fallen almost exclusively upon the people of the united kingdom there were small countries and young countries and required the protection of the mother country but it is a fact that ought to be remembered that our dangers of collision with other countries arose by reason of their colonial possessions we have to bear in mind that whereas we were fortunately living in an island in our dependencies and colonies we are coterminous with every great power in the world with the united states in america with germany france italy russia china persia and turkey elsewhere and practically with japan where a short interval of sea does not really separate us about 150 years ago at the commencement of the seven years war when washington then a major serving his majesty king george the second encountered a force of french and redskins in virginia and fired upon them it was said that a shot fired in the backwoods of virginia had set all europe in a blaze so it was in britain now by the reason of the immensity of her frontier and the contiguity of every great power in the world a rash thing done here a hasty thing done elsewhere might bring about a conflagration always be generous to the man on the spot yes but let them not allow a proconsul to shape the policy of this country there is another point by reason of those vast possessions of which it is idle and foolish to boast but the full responsibility of which we ought to feel we are always confronted with the native question and i venture to think that in the near future the native question will be a more serious one even than it has been in the past what does it mean to understand it requires an effort of the imagination which people accustomed to the long traditions of civilization can hardly realize it means that people who are in a state of complete savagery and barbarism plunged in ignorance and superstition backward and physical and every other development are suddenly confronted with the blaze of an ancient civilization in its most hostile and most dangerous form they were required at once to submit and expected instantly to appreciate the advantages to themselves arising from their submission one could not so suddenly quell the primal passions and instincts of mankind i should like to give an illustration about seven years ago i was concerned as one of the council for great britain before the international tribunal which decided the venezuelan boundary and i recall perfectly one thing which made a deep impression upon my mind and which gave me more pride in the british flag a silent pride i hope then could be derived from some of the more uproarious meetings the point was what at a particular place was the boundary line between great britain and another country proof was given of a tradition handed down from father to son among a people so perfectly savage that their whereabouts their very dwelling was unknown a nomad wandering people of the woods this was the tradition the line where the british territory begins is along this river and when the question was asked why it was remembered the reply was that father had told son from generation to generation if you pass that river you are safe we must also look to foreign relations we are called cosmopolitan by our critics the friends of every country but our own that is not so we are the friends of our own country first and foremost but there is no nationalism worth having which does not cast its eye beyond the border of its own nationality we wish our country to be friendly with other countries in the interest of our own why should we not be friendly i am not aware of any cause which separates us in enmity from any country in the world i know many reasons why we should cultivate their friendship swift in one of his memorable pieces was pleading against the abolition of christianity after giving a variety of reasons he ended by saying that if christianity were abolished the funds would fall at least a quarter percent swift reserved that argument to the last on the ground that his intelligent hearers would probably consider it to be the best and most cogent i will offer you a physical reason to show what quarreling means between 1898 and 1905 british consuls had fallen about 20 percent and russians about 30 percent germany which had been much more moderate in that way had fallen about 10 percent but the funds of spain and italy which had both rather foresworn militarism had each risen 15 percent i present that as an argument in the spirit of dean swift there are hopeful signs for the future in the first place our brethren in the colonies are undoubtedly relying more and more on their own resources canada had taken over the garrison natal is conducting at her own expense a war which i greatly deplore and which i hope will soon be ended i have no doubt that our colonial brethren are just and will act justly and fairly toward them in the last few years there have been increased proofs of international cooperation we all recollect the noble efforts of president roosevelt to end the russo-japanese war and the signal success with which they were attended we recall the european conference at el gisiris where a difficult and perhaps dangerous question was solved by agreement in a spirit which could not have been looked for 20 years ago we have established most friendly relations with the united states and also with france i do not know why we should stop with france and the united states and why we should not also go forward to russia and to germany lastly we have the hag conference there was one seven years ago and there will soon be another held i am sure you all hope that it may lead to an increased recourse to arbitration and a diminution in the armaments of nations the factor which should interest us most and over which we have the best means of control is the spirit and temper of our own people i believe that has undergone a great change for the better reverting to the time honored policy of this country and i trust that however keen in the work of social reform the new parliament may be it will never lose sight of these colonial and foreign questions but we must remember that it will have to make a choice if you will have a warlike and aggressive policy you cannot by any possibility have effective social reform end of section 20 end of the world's famous orations volume five great britain three edited by william jennings bryan and francis wading halsey