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XVI.

RUNNING WITH THE HARE AND HUNTING WITH THE HOUnds.

'WHAT does he mean by it?' was the first remark of Prince Talleyrand, when he heard of the illness of some rival diplomatist. What does he mean by it?' is the remark one everywhere hears at Mr. Gladstone's prolonged stay at Cannes. Does he mean the House of Lords? Does he mean absolute retirement? Has he suddenly discovered, for the fourth or fifth time, that at his age the future has stronger claims on his thoughts than the present? Are his colleagues afraid of more of his irresponsible utterances ? Is he shirking the disagreeable office of washing the Bradlaugh dirty linen in Parliament ? Evidently there is something kept back from the country -Toutes verités ne sont pas bonnes à dire.' There is some truth that it is not considered politic to publish. What is it? If Mr. Gladstone is really ill, why do his friends persistently assure us that he is wonderfully well ' -'in excellent spirits'? Why does one special correspondent call attention to his 'elastic step'? Why does Mrs. Gladstone assure another special that the sleeplessness is getting on very well '? If he is not really ill, why, in the language of the United Service, does he not return to his duty'? Lord Hartington told the House of Commons that this was no 'enforced absence,' that at any moment Mr. Gladstone could return if he would. Is there a single instance in our parliamentary history of the Prime Minister omitting to meet Parliament at the opening of the session except through enforced absence'? Would any previous Parliament have tolerated any other excuse for such an omission from any former Prime Minister? What, then, is the truth? There must be some unusual cause for the prolonged absence of Mr.

Gladstone, and for the complacent manner with which his party regard it.

Perhaps the solution is not very difficult to find. The Liberal party have in Mr. Gladstone the most experienced, the most astute, the most successful, and undeniably the most unscrupulous leader they have ever had; he has led them to victory, he would leave them to defeat; they know it is a question of life or death. Under no circumstances, therefore, will they part with him if they can help it. As regards Mr. Gladstone himself, he is apparently only following out his old policy that has served him with more or less success all through his political career, viz., running with the hare and hunting with the hounds.' He is as ever courting the applause of all sorts and conditions of men.' He knows that if he personally proposes legislation that will admit a professed atheist to Parliament he will shock his pious supporters; and that if he refuses to do so he will irritate his free-thinking supporters; so, as usual, he has hit upon a middle course. He will do neither; he will neither propose nor oppose. He will keep away, and, like Helen of Troy, attempt a double triumph.

'Her eyes she disciplined exactly right,

Both when to wink and when to show the white.'

To Mr. Morley and the pietists of England and Scotland, 'showing the white,' Mr. Gladstone says, 'I grieve, my pious friends, to say that the interests of our party render it impossible any longer for the Government to delay bringing in an Affirmation Bill that will give Mr. Bradlaugh a seat in Parliament. You know how distressing this is to me, how I abhor Bradlaugh and all his works. Nothing will induce me to give my personal support to such a measure. "Faithful to the end," I will remain away under the excuse of small health.' And the pietists in their turn, showing the white, exclaim, 'Happy England, felix prole virum,' that is governed by so pious a statesman.

RUNNING WITH HARE AND HUNTING WITH HOUNDS. 85

To Messrs. Labouchere, Dilke, and the advanced thinkers of the party, Mr. Gladstone, on the other hand (with a wink), exclaims, ‘I rejoice, my irrepressible young friends, to tell you that the hour has struck that proclaims the downfall of the last stronghold of Toryism and intolerance in England. It is a great comfort to me, in my old age, that this great event should be the work of my Government; it is one of the greatest disappointments of my political life that I cannot myself lay the axe to the root of this detested upas tree, and be with you, when the victorious champion of free-thought takes his well-earned seat. It is only the paramount interests of our party that keep me away, but although absent in the flesh

'My soul, happy friends, will be with you that night,
Shall join in your revels, your sports, and your wiles,
And return to me beaming all o'er with your smiles!
Too blest, if it tells me that 'mid the gay cheer
True Radicals murmured, "I wish he were here!"

And advanced thinkers exclaim, Happy England, felix prole virum.' You will go far with such a leader.

XVII.
DEBASEMENT.

THE proposed debasement of the half-sovereign into a 9s. token is a subject generally discussed, and, except by a few very robust party men, who would debase St. Paul's or Westminster Abbey if the Prime Minister proposed it, generally dismissed as puerile nonsense; the inspiration of restlessness that cannot leave well alone is a reminder to the public that the financiers of 1884 are not ordinary men! But there is nothing new in it. It is only the extension of a policy that has proved successful elsewhere. It is only doing with the currency what we have already done with the army and navy, and, as many think, are preparing to do with the Empire. By debasing the army

we are assured we have added to its strength; by debasing the currency we are assured we shall add to our wealth. Of course, we know we shall not do anything of the kind, that it is only self-illusion, but still we seem to like the idea. The fact is that under our present official dispensation a system of tokens' of changeable value is indispensable; we could not get on without it; but these tokens are of no use if they are not elastic. A coin is a token of value, a soldier is a token of height, and breadth, and strength, of endurance, of discipline, &c., an ironclad (say a ram) is a token of speed, of power, &c. We take a token worth 98. and we say it represents 10s., and we know it does not. It is only a case of self-illusion. We take a lad seventeen years of age, ill-nourished, five feet three inches in height, weighing 120lb., and we pile on him arms and accoutrements weighing 60lb., and say this is a token' representing a British soldier! But we know it is not, it is only another case of self-illusion. We take an ironclad that, owing to defective boilers, can only maintain a speed of nine knots, and we say, 'This is a token of a ram that can steam 15 knots an hour;' but we know it is not only self-illusion again. Of course, we are the greatest nation that ever existed; the most enlightened, the most liberal, the most humane, the most moral, the most sensible, &c., but somehow or another I am afraid that there is more sham-perhaps selfillusion sounds better-amongst us just now than in any other nation in the world. This is the price we pay for the luxury of indulging in superfine professions, of assuming superior motives, of pretending to be better than our neighbour—better than we really are ourselves. It is the bitter fruit of the gospel of cant,' or, as Mr. Gibson wittily puts it, the policy of cant and recant.' The humanity that caused the bombardment of Alexandria and the slaughter of Egyptians and Arabs is sham. piety that closes all places of amusement and instruction on Sunday is a sham. The civilisation that encourages

The

the dissemination of disease, that sacrifices the health and happiness of pauper children to school fees, is sham. The morality that denounces gambling at Monaco, and tolerates gambling twenty times worse on every racecourse in the kingdom is sham. The crusade against the liquor traffic is sham. The liberality that is profuse with your neighbour's goods, and rights, and interests, and greedy of your own, is sham. In fact, so many things are shams it is lost time to enumerate them. It would almost appear from a recent debate that the latest offspring of political morality, 'electoral purity,' is sham also. But, to return to our token.'

'Pigwiggen gladly would commend

A "token to Queen Mab to send.'

How is Mr. Childers's 'token' to be commended to King Mob? Of course, every coin is a token of a certain value, but no token that is in active circulation can long retain its original value; it is only a question of work. The more work it does the quicker it depreciates, and the quicker it depreciates, fairly, of course, the more completely it fulfils the purpose for which it was issued. Turning money over quickly means making money quickly, but it also means depreciating coin quickly. To withdraw a coin from circulation and replace it with one of a different value because it has depreciated quickly is absurd. It is, on the contrary, the strongest possible argument for increasing the number of the particular coin that has proved so useful. Nothing pays so well as the depreciation of current coin. It is proof positive that all the time the coin is at work, turning over and fructifying, and multiplying the wealth of the country. The fair depreciation of a coin represents a direct gain to the country, in the same way that the freshness of a coin that had been hid away in a stocking represents a direct loss to the country. The depreciation is the exact measure of the profit the coin has been to the country. The profit made by a coin in the course of its depreciation by fair