Mr Balfour's Poodle (37 page)

¹
1847–1925. Alexander John Forbes-Leith. Scottish landowner, created 1st Lord Leith of Fyvie, 1905.

¹
The political honours in the Coronation List, as is the custom, stretched beyond party, and Asquith proposed that Smith should be elevated to the Privy Council. Balfour protested, ostensibly on the ground that he regarded Coronation honours as a reward for past services, and wished the decoration to go to Hayes Fisher. He informed Smith of his views, in a flattering letter which was obviously intended to suggest that the latter should decline Asquith's offer. To this invitation Smith firmly declined to respond, and in due course the honour was bestowed. The question then arose as to whether the recipient should sit on the Front Opposition Bench. Balfour refrained from offering a direct invitation. ‘By the way,' he wrote, ‘are you proposing to sit on our bench?' And Smith stayed where he was. Later, when Bonar Law assumed the leadership, a pressing invitation was extended and Smith quickly responded.
(See
Birkenhead,
op. cit.,
vol. I, pp. 213–16.)

¹
As soon as his speech was concluded he returned to Crewe House and took no part in the division at the end of the debate; but he was present again for the decisive vote two nights later.

¹
‘Why should we shrink from the creation of 400 or 500 Peers?' the Home Secretary had asked in a much-to-be quoted sentence.

¹
1854–1925. 4th Lord. Married to Mrs. Asquith's sister.

¹
…but this I do feel compelled to say, that if we are to be forced, to my keen personal regret into giving advice which would have the effect of the creation of Peers we cannot pretend that the number to be so created could necessarily be limited by any newspaper list, of which there have been so many seen of late; nor would it necessarily have any reference whatever to any division lists of your Lordships' House which may be seen when the question of the Amendments once more comes before this House. All such lists will have become, if the lamentable necessity arises, altogether irrelevant, and all the various combinations of noble Lords opposite of which we read in our morning newspapers must be assumed to be at an end, because they have reference to an entirely different state of things.'
(Parliamentary Debates, Lords.
Fifth Series, vol. IX, col. 842.)

¹
Arthur Oliver Vivian Russell. Succeeded in 1884 to the peerage conferred upon Lord Odo Russell, H.M. Ambassador in Berlin in 1881.

¹
When he rose to speak an incident uncommon in the practice of the House of Lords occurred. Lord Heneage, a Unionist ‘hedger', rose also. Hansard records that ‘As neither noble Lord gave way to the other, there were loud cries of “St. Levan” and “Heneage”, but both still continued standing. Halsbury, careful of the interests of his followers, thereupon moved ‘That Lord St. Levan be heard'. The Lord Chancellor put the question and there being louder shouts of ‘Content' than of ‘Not content' it was deemed to be carried. Heneage spoke next. Peers normally arrange amongst themselves the order in which they desire to speak, so that only one rises at a time.

¹
Lord Newton (
op. cit.,
p. 429) says that Rosebery concluded this speech by saying that he would never enter the precincts of the House again. In fact the threat was made, not on this occasion, but at a much earlier stage in the proceedings on the bill; and, in any event, Rosebery was back on the day following the final division, inserting a ‘solemn protest' in the book which is kept in the Lords (but rarely used) for this purpose.

¹
Three of these, the Bishops of Hereford, Birmingham, and Chester, supported the bill upon its merits.

¹
This was due to no lack of determination to record what votes were available. Sir Almeric Fitzroy informs us that ‘two noble lords', one on either side, were very drunk and voted in that state. One was so bad that for a long time he was kept under supervision in a committee-room, and Lord Ilkeston, who graduated in medicine, was summoned to see him. On his appearance, however, the patient shouted, ‘Take the—away; he wants to get two guineas out of me!' He was allowed to go into the division lobby. (
Memoirs,
II, pp. 460–1.)

¹
1864–1932. Editor of the
National Review.

¹
The following were in the former category: 1938; no. 2 of 1939; nos. 1 and 2 of 1940; 1941; 1943; 1944; 1945; no. 1 of 1946; nos. 1 and 2 of 1948; 1950. The remainder (no. 1 of 1939; 1942; no. 2 of 1946; 1947; 1949; 1951; and 1952) were not certified. I am indebted for this information to Mr. E. A. Fellowes, Clerk-Assistant to the House of Commons.

¹
1864–1922. Chief of Imperial General Staff, 1918–22. Field-Marshal, 1919. Baronet, 1919. Assassinated in London by Irish terrorists.

²
The former Secretary of State was J. E. B. Seely. He foolishly gave undertakings to the resigning officers suggesting that they would not be used to enforce the Home Rule Bill. This position could not possibly be accepted by the Government (even Grey wrote: ‘I am inwardly boiling with indignation at this stupid prejudiced attempt to dictate policy to us and break us, for that is what it is really; and if it goes on I shall be for taking the hottest election, upon who is to govern the country, that ever has been in our time.' Trevelyan,
Grey of Fallodon,
p. 195.)

¹
The lines upon which the ‘reformers' were working are, however, indicated by some remarks of Haldane, recorded by Esher, in September, 1912. The Lord Chancellor, Grey, and ‘a strong section of the Cabinet' wanted an Upper House of 160, a hundred of them to be directly elected by five large constituencies, operating under a system of proportional representation, twenty members to be selected by each of the two principal parties in the Commons, and the remaining twenty to be selected, preferably from Dominion and Colonial statesmen, by the two parties acting together. There was some doubt as to whether the powers of the new House should be those which the House of Lords had enjoyed before, or after, the Parliament Act. (Esher,
op. cit.,
vol. III, p. III.)

¹
1867–1937. Unionist member for Manchester, South, 1900–6, and Taunton, 1909–12. Succeeded his father as 2nd Viscount Peel, 1912. Secretary of State for India, 1922–24 and 1928–29. First Commissioner of Works, 1924–28. Lord Privy Seal, 1931. Created 1st Earl of Peel, 1929.

²
1856–1928. Unionist member for Kingston-on-Thames, 1906–18. Solicitor-General, 1915–16. Home Secretary, 1916–19. Created 1st Viscount, 1918. Lord Chancellor, 1922–24 and 1924–28. Defeated Asquith for Chancellorship of Oxford University, 1925.

³
b. 1877. 6th Earl. Succeeded his father, 1914. Chief Government Whip in the House of Lords, 1922–25. Governor-General of South Africa, 1931–37. Lord Chamberlain, 1938–52.

The primary purpose of this book is not to draw parallels or to prove a thesis. It is merely to describe a short period of parliamentary history which is sufficiently near to be within the memory of many, although not of the author, but sufficiently far away for many of its political habits and subjects of controversy to be unfamiliar and worth recalling.

The author is particularly indebted to Mr. P. M. Williams, Fellow of Nuffield College, and Mr. Anthony Elliott, both of whom read the manuscript, and made suggestions upon it, and to Mr. Michael Alison, who gave much help in compiling the reference and biographical footnotes.

R. H. J.

London, October, 1953

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First published by Heinemann 1954
Second edition published by William Collins 1968
This paperback edition first published in 1989

ISBN 9781448202874

Copyright © Roy Jenkins 1954, 1968