The material of these speeches is therefore of great importance to the future of democracy in this country. Let me say a word as to their authorship. To a friendly critic they appear to present not only rare and highly trained qualities of statement and persuasion4, but a unity5 and sincerity6 of thought which give them a place above mere7 party dialectics. Mr. Churchill's distinguished8 service to Liberalism has not been long in point of years, but it opened with the first speeches he ever delivered in the House of Commons. No competent observers of political activities, and of the characters and temperaments9 which direct them, can have doubted from the first moment of Mr. Churchill's appearance on the stage where his moral and intellectual sympathies lay and whither they would lead him. It is a true and, indeed, an obvious comment on his career to say that he began where his father left off—as a Democrat10 and a Free Trader, and that on these inherited instincts and tendencies he has built what both his friends and his enemies expected [xv]him to build. Mr. Churchill came to Liberalism from the same fold as Gladstone, and for the same reason—that it presented the one field of work open to a political talent of a high stamp, and to a wide and eager outlook on the future of our social order. Liberalism and Mr. Churchill have both had good reason to congratulate themselves on that choice, and the party which failed to draw him into a disastrous11 and reactionary12 change of view has no reason to resent it. Before he became a Liberal Mr. Churchill had taken the broad views of the South African problem that his father's later opinions commended to him, and he was properly chosen to expound13 to the House of Commons the plan of self-government that embodied14 them.
If, therefore, the political groundwork of these speeches is sound Liberal principle, their meaning and purpose, taken in connection with the Budget, and the industrial reforms for which it provides, signify a notable advance into places where the thinkers, the pioneers, the men in the advanced trenches15, are accustomed to dwell. Let us acknowledge, with a sense of pleasure and relief, that this is new territory. New, that is to say, for this country; not new [xvi]to the best organisations of industrial society that we know of. New as a clearly seen vision and a connected plan of British, statesmanship; not new as actual experiment in legislation, and as theory held by progressive thinkers of many schools, including some of the fathers of modern Liberal doctrine17, and most of our economists18. What is there in these pages repugnant to writers of the type of John Mill, Jevons, and Marshall? How much of them would even be repelled19 by Cobden? In the main they preach a gospel—that of national "efficiency"—common to all reformers, and accepted by Bismarck, the modern archetype of "Empire-makers," as necessary to the consolidation20 of the great German nation. An average Australian or Canadian statesman would read them through with almost complete approval of every passage, save only their defence of Free Trade. Nay21 more; the apology for property which they put forward—that it must be "associated in the minds of the mass of the people with ideas of justice and reason"—is that on which the friends of true conservatism build when they think of the evils of modern civilisation22 and the great and continuous efforts necessary to repair them. Who does [xvii]not conclude, with Mr. Churchill, that "a more scientific, a more elaborate, a more comprehensive social organisation16" is indispensable to our country if it is to continue its march to greatness? Back or forward we must go.
Mr. Churchill, indeed, has thought it wise to raise the specific point at which, in the process of seeking a finer use and adaptation of the human material which forms society, the progressive and reforming statesman parts company with the dogmatic Socialist23. There is no need to labour a distinction which arises from the nature and the activities of the two forces. British Liberalism is both a mental habit and a method of politics. Through both these characteristics it is bound to criticise24 a State so long as in any degree it rests on the principles of "Penguin25 Island"—"respect for the rich and contempt for the poor," and to modify or repeal26 the rights of property where they clearly conflict with human rights. But its idealism and its practical responsibilities forbid it to accept the elimination27 of private enterprise and the assumption by the State of all the instruments of production and distribution. Socialism has great power of emotional and [xviii]even religious appeal, of which it would be wise for Liberalism to take account, and it is, on the whole, a beneficent force in society. But as pure dogma it fits the spirit of man no more exactly than the Shorter Catechism. As Mr. Churchill well says, both the collectivist and the individualist principles have deep roots in human life, and the statesman can ignore neither.
In the main, therefore, these speeches, with all their fresh brilliancy of colouring and treatment, hold up the good old banner of social progress, which we erect28 against reactionist and revolutionist alike. The "old Liberal" will find the case for Free Trade, for peace, for representative government, stated as powerfully and convincingly as he could wish. Their actual newness consists in the fact that not only do they open up to Liberalism what it always wants—a wide domain29 of congenial thought and energy, but they offer it two propositions which it can reject only at its peril30. The first is that there can and must be a deep, sharp abridgment31 of the sphere of industrial life which has been marked out as hopeless, or as an inevitable32 part of the social system.
Here the new Liberalism parts with laissez-faire, and those who defend it. It assumes [xix]that the State must take in hand the problems of industrial insecurity and unemployment, and must solve them. The issue is vital. Protection has already made its bid. It will assure the workman what is in his mind more than cheap food—namely, secure wages; it affects to give him all his life, or nearly all his life, a market for his labour so wide and so steady that the fear of forced idleness will almost be banished33 from it. The promise is false. Protection by itself has in no country annulled34 or seriously qualified35 unemployment. But the need to which it appeals is absolutely real; for the modern State it is a problem of the Sphinx, neither to be shirked nor wrongly answered. And the alternative remedy offered in these pages has already, as their author abundantly shows, succeeded even in the very partial forms in which it has been applied36. The labour market can be steadied and equalised over a great industrial field. Part of its surplus can be provided for. What Mr. Churchill calls "diseased industries" can be cut off from the main body, or restored to some measure of health. The State can set up a minimum standard of health and wage, below which it will not allow its citizens to sink; it can [xx]step in and dispense37 employment and restorative force under strictly38 specified39 conditions, to a small body of more or less "sick" workers; it can supply security for a far greater, less dependent, and more efficient mass of labourers, in recurring40 crises of accident, sickness, invalidity, and unemployment, and can do so with every hope of enlisting41 in its service voluntary forces and individual virtues42 of great value.
This is not a problem of "relief," it is a method of humanity, and its aim is not merely to increase the mechanical force of the State, but to raise the average of character, of morale43, in its citizens. Nor do these speeches represent only a batch44 of platform promises. The great scheme of social betterment preached in these pages is already embodied in half a dozen Acts of Parliament, with corresponding organisations in the Board of Trade and elsewhere; and if the Budget passes, the crown can be put upon them next year or the year after by measures of insurance against invalidity and unemployment.
Mr. Churchill's second proposition is the correlative of the first. How shall this imposing45 fabric46 of industrial security be reared and made safe? The answer is, by [xxi]modifying, without vitally changing, the basis of taxation47. The workman cannot be asked to pay for everything, as under Protection he must pay. In any case, he must pay for something. But if he is asked for too much, the sources of physical efficiency are drained, and the main purpose of the new Liberalism—the ideal of an educated, hopeful, and vigorous people—is destroyed. Now Liberalism, in ceasing to rely on indirect taxation as its main source of revenue, has opened up for contribution not merely the superfluities of society, the "accumulations of profit," as Mr. Churchill calls them, but those special forms of wealth which are "social" in origin, which depend on some monopoly of material agents, on means not of helping48 the community but of hindering it, not of enriching its powers and resources, but of depleting49 them for private advantage. In other words, the State in future will increasingly ask the taxpayer50 not only "What have you got?" but "How did you get it?" No one contends that such an analysis can be perfect; but, on the other hand, can a community desirous of realising what Goethe calls "practical Christianity," ignore it? And if in this process it enters the sphere of morals, as [xxii]Ruskin long ago urged it to do, as well as the path of economic justice, is the step a wrong one? Has it not already been taken not only in this Budget, but in its predecessor51, in which the Prime Minister made the memorable52 distinction between earned and unearned income? Those who answer these questions in the Liberal sense will find in these speeches a body of vigorous and persuasive53 reasoning on their side.
It is therefore the main purpose of these speeches to show that Liberalism has a message of the utmost consequence to our times. They link it afresh with the movement of life, which when it overtakes parties condemns54 and destroys them. They give it an immediate55 mission and an outlook on the wider moral domain, which belongs to no single generation. This double character is vital to a Party which must not desert the larger ways in which the spirit of man walks, while it quits at its peril the work of practical, everyday service to existing society.
A word as to the literary quality of these addresses, widely varied56 as they are in subject. The summit of a man's powers—his full capacity of reason, comparison, expression—are not usually reached at so [xxiii]early a point in his career as that which Mr. Churchill has attained57. But in directness and clearness of thought, in the power to build up a political theory, and present it as an impressive and convincing argument, in the force of rhetoric58 and the power of sympathy, readers of these addresses will find few examples of modern English speech-making to compare with them. They revive the almost forgotten art of oratory59, and they connect it with ideas born of our age, and springing from its conscience and its practical needs, and, above all, essential to its happiness.
H.W. Massingham.
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1
ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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compulsory
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| n.强制的，必修的；规定的，义务的 | |
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prospers
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| v.成功，兴旺( prosper的第三人称单数 ) | |
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persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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unity
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| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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temperaments
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| 性格( temperament的名词复数 )； （人或动物的）气质； 易冲动； （性情）暴躁 | |
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democrat
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| n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员 | |
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disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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reactionary
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| n.反动者，反动主义者；adj.反动的，反动主义的，反对改革的 | |
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expound
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| v.详述；解释；阐述 | |
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embodied
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| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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trenches
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| 深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕 | |
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organisation
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| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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economists
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| n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 ) | |
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repelled
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| v.击退( repel的过去式和过去分词 )；使厌恶；排斥；推开 | |
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consolidation
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| n.合并,巩固 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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socialist
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| n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的 | |
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criticise
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| v.批评，评论；非难 | |
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penguin
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| n.企鹅 | |
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repeal
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| n.废止，撤消；v.废止，撤消 | |
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elimination
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| n.排除，消除，消灭 | |
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erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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abridgment
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| n.删节，节本 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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annulled
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| v.宣告无效( annul的过去式和过去分词 )；取消；使消失；抹去 | |
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qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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dispense
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| vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施 | |
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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specified
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| adj.特定的 | |
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recurring
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| adj.往复的，再次发生的 | |
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enlisting
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| v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的现在分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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morale
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| n.道德准则，士气，斗志 | |
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batch
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| n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量 | |
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imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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taxation
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| n.征税，税收，税金 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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depleting
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| 使大大的减少，使空虚( deplete的现在分词 )； 耗尽，使枯竭 | |
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taxpayer
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| n.纳税人 | |
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predecessor
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| n.前辈，前任 | |
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memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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54
condemns
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| v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的第三人称单数 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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58
rhetoric
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| n.修辞学，浮夸之言语 | |
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oratory
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| n.演讲术；词藻华丽的言辞 | |
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