A Short History of English Liberalism Part 15

Travels in the Peruvian Amazon Region and an account of the Atrocities committed upon the Indians therein.

BY W. E. HARDENBURG, C.E.

Edited and with an Introduction by

C. REGINALD ENOCK, F.R.G.S.

_With a Map and many Ill.u.s.trations_.

Second Impression. Cloth, 10S. 6D. net.

_The Globe_ says:

"This tale of Mr. Hardenburg's is no fancy sketch. It is true; it bears the impress of truth on every line, and it is confirmed by independent testimony at almost every point. So awful an indictment has never before been framed against men claiming to have even the rudiments of civilization, and even the atrocities laid to the charge of the most cold-blooded tyrants of the Congo pale before the horrors to which Mr.

Hardenburg and Consul Cas.e.m.e.nt speak."

_The Daily Chronicle_ says:

"The author gives us one of the most terrible pages in the history of trade.... Included in the book is a summary of Sir Roger Cas.e.m.e.nt's report on the atrocities which Mr. Hardenburg brought to light. The whole forms a volume of such horror that to read it is pain."

_The Daily News_ says:

"Those who read this book will not merely be moved to compa.s.sion for the wretched Indians, but thrilled with the story it tells of heroism on the part of two splendid young Americans--the author and his colleague, Mr. Perkins."

T. FISHER UNWIN, 1 Adelphi Terrace, London

Notes

[1] T. H. Green, _Works_, iii. 367.

[2] L. T. Hobhouse, _Liberalism_, 122.

[3] L. T. Hobhouse, _Liberalism_, 126, 127, 133.

[4] L. T. Hobhouse, _Democracy and Reaction_ (2nd edition), 166.

[5] Bulwer's _Life of Palmerston_, i. 278. Palmerston's list of "Liberals"

of June, 1828, includes 11 Peers and 37 Commoners.

[6] _Representative Government_, chap. xvi.

[7] J. A. Hobson, _Imperialism_ (1905 edition), 319.

[8] Morley's _Life of Cobden_ (popular edition), 529. The reference is to Russia's a.s.sistance of Austria against the Hungarians.

[9] _Daily News_, 16th February, 1912.

[10] There are few modern expressions of a general theory of Tory politics.

_The Letters of an Englishman_ (Constable, 1911, 1912) are almost pure Toryism. Lord Hugh Cecil's _Conservatism_ is tinged with Liberal ideas on Free Trade and Foreign Affairs. Mr. Pierse Loftus's _Conservative Party and the Future_ is essentially Tory, but is rather suggestion for the future than an expression of the present mind of Toryism. Mr. J. M. Kennedy's _Tory Democracy_ is the philosophy of Nietzsche masquerading in political dress, and bears no relation to practical politics, past, present, or future. Mr. Price Collier's _England and the English_ is the Toryism of an American who has enjoyed the hospitality of the leisured cla.s.s, and has read the _Times_ with some diligence. The cheap reprint is introduced by a characteristic eulogy from the pen of Lord Rosebery, who seems to have spent the last twenty-five years, if not in a castle in Spain, at least in an eighteenth-century n.o.bleman's country house. Neither he nor Mr. Collier seems to have any knowledge of the industrial North. The _Standard_ has now opened its columns to a discussion of the principles and proposals of Toryism, but I have not yet (December, 1912) detected much system in what has been published. Various periodicals express various shades of Toryism, from the purity of Mr. W. S. Lilly, through the individualism of Mr. A.

Baumann, to the Protectionist-Social Reform School of "Curio."

[11] But most of the Tory Suffragists stop at a narrow property franchise.

[12] Mr. Lewis Harcourt at the Albert Hall, 28th February, 1911.

[13] T. H. Green, _Works_, iii. cxii.

[14] T. H. Green, _Political Obligation_, -- 122.

[15] _Hansard_, III. cxxiv. 602.

[16] _Letters to a Friend on Votes for Women._

[17] _Speeches reprinted from the Times_, 47.

[18] _National Review_, May, 1912, 420.

[19] _Observer_, leading article, 15th September, 1912.

[20] At the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, 13th November, 1896.

[21] _Morning Post_, leading article, 22nd August, 1912. The most startling feature of this pa.s.sage is its a.s.sumption that patriotism can be bought, and, indeed, cannot be made secure except by being bought. If it be true that patriotism follows the cash, we are bound to the Argentine Republic and the United States by as close ties as to Canada, and if the present flow of British capital continues, our hearts will soon warm towards Russia. For the Liberal view of Empire, half a century old, see Gladstone's speech (1855), quoted in Morley's _Life of Gladstone_, i. 363.

[22] See, for example, leading articles in the _Morning Post_, 18th July, 1912, and _Daily Telegraph_, 12th July, 1912.

[23] Morley's _Burke_ (English Men of Letters), 136.

[24] Cole shot a black man because he suspected him of stealing sheep.

Lewis shot another because his daughter said he had insulted her. Both acts were done in cold blood, and with the approval of local whites. There was no suggestion in either case that the law was inadequate or could not have been enforced.

[25] _Morning Post_, leading article, 14th May, 1912.

[26] The grossest modern example of Tory Imperialism is Mr. Bonar Law's proposal, while claiming the right to close English markets to foreign manufacturers, to keep those of India, whether Indians like it or not, open to English manufacturers. It is matched by his proposal that it should be left to the Dominions to say whether or not our own food supplies should be free or taxed.

[27] The _Times_ recently spoke of "insolence" when a meeting of East Lancas.h.i.+re manufacturers and Members of Parliament criticized Sir Edward Grey's policy in Persia. We may be wrong in the North. But we shall always think for ourselves. The same journal has made a vicious attack upon the Supreme Court of India, because it interferes with the arbitrary acts of executive officers.

[28] Moray's _Life of Cobden_, ii. 361. The _Review of Reviews_ furnished another example of this vicious reaction when it urged (October, 1912) that England must not put pressure upon Turkey to reform its government of Macedonia, because such action would impair our authority over the Moslem of India. In other words, because of our Empire, we must connive at murder, rape, and every form of brigandage.

[29] _Parliamentary History_, xxv. 472.