Chapter I: Front Matter

LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL

VOL I.

_1883._]

LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL

BY

WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL, M.P.

AUTHOR OF

‘THE STORY OF THE MALAKAND FIELD FORCE, 1897’ ‘THE RIVER WAR,’ ‘LONDON TO LADYSMITH VIA PRETORIA,’ ETC.

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. I

New York

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 1906

_All rights reserved_

COPYRIGHT, 1906, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1906.

Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

TO

CHARLES RICHARD JOHN SPENCER-CHURCHILL

DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH

THIS BOOK

IN ALL FAITHFUL FRIENDSHIP

IS INSCRIBED

_Deed of Trust Regulating the Papers of the late Lord Randolph Churchill._

I, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE RANDOLPH HENRY SPENCER-CHURCHILL, P.C., M.P., of 50 Grosvenor Square in the County of London by these Presents send Greeting WHEREAS I am possessed of various Political and State Documents Correspondence and Papers which are now contained in Tin boxes deposited in my name at the Westminster Branch of the London and Westminster Bank Limited and in Tin boxes and Drawers at No. 50 Grosvenor Square aforesaid NOW I BY THESE PRESENTS DO assign transfer and make over from and after the date of my decease the above mentioned political and State documents correspondence and papers unto George Richard Penn Viscount Curzon M.P., of 23 Upper Brook Street in the said County of London and Ernest William Beckett M.P., of 138 Piccadilly in the said County of London UPON TRUST that they the said George Richard Penn Viscount Curzon and Ernest William Beckett shall from and after the date of my decease deal with and use the said Political and State documents correspondence and papers for any purpose which they in their absolute discretion may think well PROVIDED that no such Political or State documents correspondence or paper relating either to the Department of the India Office or the Department of the Foreign Office shall be printed published or used in any way either directly or indirectly without the written consent of Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for either of the said Departments for the time being AND I HEREBY DECLARE that these presents are executed by me in triplicate one Copy whereof is deposited with the Right Honourable the Earl of Rosebery K.G., P.C., Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the second Copy is deposited at the Western Branch of the Bank of England, Burlington Gardens in the name of my Solicitor Mr. Theodore Lumley and the third Copy is retained by me

AS WITNESS my hand and seal this eighth day of March One thousand eight hundred and ninety-three.

Signed Sealed and Delivered }
by the above named Randolph}
Henry Spencer-Churchill in } RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL.
the presence of }

THEODORE LUMLEY,
Solicitor,

37 Conduit Street, Bond Street, W.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE

In the spring of 1893 Lord Randolph Churchill, feeling that he had slender expectations of long life, placed all his papers, private and official, under a trust-deed which consigned them at his death to the charge of two of his most intimate political friends, Viscount Curzon (now Earl Howe) and Mr. Ernest Beckett (now Lord Grimthorpe). As he made a practice of preserving almost every letter he received, the number of documents was sufficient to fill eleven considerable tin boxes. Subject to the conditions prescribed in the trust-deed in regard to matters affecting the India Office or the Foreign Office--which have, of course, been strictly observed--these papers were placed in my hands by my father’s literary executors in July 1902, for the purpose of my writing a full account of his life and work. I am deeply sensible of the confidence implied and of the honour conveyed in that commission, and during the three and a half years which have passed since I accepted it, I have diligently laboured--in spite of some political distractions--to discharge it to the best of my ability.

Sir Michael Hicks-Beach (having consulted with the late Lord Salisbury) and Lord Rosebery have expressed the opinion that the story of Lord Randolph Churchill’s life may now be fully told without impropriety towards individuals or the public. Indeed, it is high time to do so. Lord Randolph’s part in national affairs is not to be measured by long years of office. No great legislation stands in his name upon the statute book. He was a Chancellor of the Exchequer without a Budget, a Leader of the House of Commons but for a single session, a victor without the spoils. No tangible or enduring records--unless it be the Burma province--exist of his labours, and the great and decisive force which he exerted upon the history of the Conservative and Unionist party might be imperfectly realised by a later generation, unless it were explained, asserted, and confirmed by the evidence of those who came in contact or collision with his imperious and vivifying personality.

For a thing so commonly attempted, political biography is difficult. The style and ideas of the writer must throughout be subordinated to the necessity of embracing in the text those documentary proofs upon which the story depends. Letters, memoranda, and extracts from speeches, which inevitably and rightly interrupt the sequence of his narrative, must be pieced together upon some consistent and harmonious plan. It is not by the soft touches of a picture, but in hard mosaic or tessellated pavement, that a man’s life and fortunes must be presented in all their reality and romance. I have thought it my duty, so far as possible, to assemble once and for all the whole body of historical evidence required for the understanding of Lord Randolph Churchill’s career. Scarcely anything of material consequence has been omitted, and such omissions as have been necessary are made for others’ sakes and not his own. Scarcely any statement of importance lacks documentary proof. There is nothing more to tell. Wherever practicable I have endeavoured to employ his own words in the narration; and the public is now in a position to pronounce a complete, if not a final, judgment.

I have been fortunate in the abundance of the materials supplied me. In addition to Lord Randolph Churchill’s tin boxes with their ample stores, there was at hand an invaluable series of scrap-books, containing every conceivable newspaper comment and cartoon, collected by his sister, Lady Wimborne, and covering the whole period of his active political life. But most of all I am indebted to those many friends, irrespective of political party, who either by allowing their letters to be printed, or by reading the proof-sheets, have enabled me to compile what may, without presumption, be called an authoritative account. I accept, of course, in the fullest sense, exclusive responsibility for whatever is written here; but to Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, first of all, my grateful acknowledgments are due, for not only has he with the greatest care and pains thoroughly revised the whole book, but furnished me, besides, with extensive memoranda in respect of those chapters with the events of which he was specially concerned.

The biographer of an English statesman is often able to conduct his hero prosperously through the recognised educational experiences, and to instal him at an early age in some small office, whence his promotion in due course is assured. It is otherwise with the life of Lord Randolph Churchill. No smooth path of patronage was opened to him. No glittering wheels of royal favour aided and accelerated his journey. Whatever power he acquired was grudgingly conceded and hastily snatched away. Like Disraeli, he had to fight every mile in all his marches. And this account will, I think, be found to explain in almost mechanical detail the steps and the forces by which he rose to the exercise of great personal authority, as well as the converse process by which he declined.

I have naturally been led to deal more fully with his public career than with his private life. With the exception of the first two chapters and the last, this story lies in a period of only ten years--from 1880 to 1890, and not less than half of its compass is concerned with the succession of fierce political crises which disturbed the years 1885 and 1886. The epoch is brief; but so crowded is it with incident and accident, so full of insights and sidelights upon the workings of party and constitutional machinery in modern times, that it deserves the closest examination. And I hope it may be attributed to the author’s failings, and not to the actions and character of Lord Randolph Churchill, if the reader is not attracted by an authentic drama of the House of Commons.

WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL.

BLENHEIM PALACE, WOODSTOCK: _November 1, 1905_.

CONTENTS

OF

THE FIRST VOLUME

CHAPTER I

1849-1874

EARLY YEARS

.....PAGE

Blenheim--Woodstock--Birth and parentage--Childhood--Cheam--Eton--The family borough--Merton--The Blenheim harriers--Life at Oxford--Cowes 1873--Miss Jerome--The Woodstock election--Marriage.....1

CHAPTER II

1874-1880

MEMBER FOR WOODSTOCK

The Parliament of 1874--A maiden speech--A social quarrel--Ireland--At the Little Lodge--FitzGibbon and Howth--The Historical Society--Irish politics--Butt and Parnell--The beginnings of obstruction--An unguarded speech--Irish education--The Eastern question--Correspondence with Sir Charles Dilke--The County Government Bill--The Irish Famine Fund--Ministerial embarrassments--Lord Beaconsfield’s letter to the Duke of Marlborough--The General Election of 1880--Mr. Gladstone’s triumph.....58

CHAPTER III

1880-1883

THE FOURTH PARTY

Position of parties--Tory depression--Bradlaugh--The origin of the Fourth Party--The four friends--The Employers’ Liability Bill--Fourth Party tactics--Differences with leaders--Sir Stafford Northcote--Activities of the Fourth Party--The Fourth Party and Lord Beaconsfield--Lord Salisbury at Woodstock--Correspondence with Wolff--Joyous days.....119

CHAPTER IV

1881-1882

IRELAND UNDER STORM PAGE Outbreak of the storm--The Parnell movement--Irish speeches--The Compensation for Disturbance Bill--The winter of 1880--The Land League--The revolt of the Boers--Coercion--Mr. Forster’s misfortunes--The Kilmainham Treaty--The Closure--Lord Beaconsfield gone.....172

CHAPTER V

1883

ELIJAH’S MANTLE

The war in Egypt--The Conservative leaders--Minor tactics in the House of Commons--Correspondence with Sir Stafford Northcote--The Beaconsfield statue--Lord Randolph’s letter to the Times--Party displeasure--Elijah’s mantle--The Affirmation Bill--The Primrose League--An Ishmaelite at bay--His father’s death--An interlude.....224

CHAPTER VI

1882-1885

TORY DEMOCRACY

A period of crisis--Conditions in the House of Commons--Conservative paralysis--The new champion--Power and popularity of Lord Randolph Churchill--The Tory Democrat--A ‘Trilogy’ at Edinburgh--The Blackpool speech--The Birmingham candidature--‘Peace, Retrenchment and Reform’--Tory democracy and Fair Trade--Tory democracy and the Constitution--The Church of England--The main achievement.....268

CHAPTER VII

1883-1884

THE PARTY MACHINE

A daring enterprise--The Fourth Party: final phase--The National Union and the Central Committee--The conference at Birmingham--The proceedings of the new council--Dispute with Lord Salisbury--Lord Randolph elected chairman--The ‘charter’ letter--‘Notice to quit’--A declaration of war--Close fighting--Lord Randolph resigns--Satisfaction in the House of Commons--Dismay in the Conservative party--Intervention of the provincial leaders--Lord Randolph reinstated--Progress of the conflict.....302

CHAPTER VIII

1884

THE REFORM BILL

Embarrassments of the Ministry--‘Too late!’--The advent of the Reform Bill--Divisions in the Conservative party--Lord Randolph and reform--The ‘mud cabin’ argument--Power of Lord Randolph Churchill in the House of Commons--The second vote of censure--The Reform Bill in the Lords--Conflict between the two Houses--The conference of the National Union at Sheffield--Lord Randolph’s victory--Agreement with Lord Salisbury--The autumn campaign--Aston riots--The Aston debate--Correspondence with Chamberlain--Differences with Gorst--An Indian voyage.....332

CHAPTER IX

1885

THE FALL OF THE GOVERNMENT

1885-1785: a comparison--Increasing weakness and perplexities of the Ministry--Lord Randolph returns--His authority over the Conservative party--Penjdeh and the Vote of Credit--Correspondence with Lord Salisbury--Lord Randolph’s attacks upon Mr. Gladstone and Lord Granville--The Crimes Act--A mortal blow--Strange constitutional situation--Relations with the Irish party--Defeat of the Government--A threefold crisis--Formation of Lord Salisbury’s First Administration--Lord Randolph refuses to join--The _Interregnum_--Lord Randolph’s own account of these transactions--Appeals of various kinds--At the Inns of Court--A Parliamentary incident--Sir Stafford retires--Euthanasia of the Fourth party--_Moriturus te saluto_.....375

CHAPTER X

1885

THE ‘MINISTRY OF CARETAKERS’

Lord Salisbury’s difficulties--The last of the Woodstock elections--The new ministry--A truce at Westminster--A legislative feat--‘Maamtrasna’ and its consequences--Lord Carnarvon’s opinions--The ‘empty house’ meeting--The Prime Minister’s reticence--The Conservative Cabinet and Home Rule--The election campaign--General confusion--The ‘unauthorised programme’--Parnell’s demand--The lines of battle--Lord Randolph’s exertions and activities--A visit to Dublin--‘Come over and help us’--Dispute with Lord Hartington--The ‘boa-constrictor’ speech--The contest in Birmingham--Popularity of the Conservative Government--The poll--Victories of Tory Democracy in the boroughs--The loss of the counties--The Birmingham Election--‘Low water-mark’.....423