So, in this philosophical frame of mind, I could watch the manœuvres connected with that measure with the greatest interest and complete impartiality. I remember speculating (in the case of the Lords throwing out the Bill) whether that long list, of I forget exactly how many scores of Peers, all to be at once created, that was supposed to be in Lord Morley’s pocket, ever really existed, or was only a gigantic bluff! My knowledge of politics was, and is, much too limited to enable me to form an opinion even now, but though knowing nothing of politics, I had played poker a good deal, and from that point of view I always believed the list to be a bluff, and a very successful one!
I have named these pages “Looking Back,” for the sufficient reason that, having permanently joined the ranks of the “fogies,” at my time of life it is pleasanter to look back than try to gaze into the future.
That life is beginning to be different, and is going to be increasingly so in this country, is a simple platitude, and whether the changes are going to be for the better or the worse, I know not. If the new order of things makes for the greater happiness of the greater number, then I suppose there is nothing more to be said, and “everything is for the best in the best of worlds.” The drawbacks seem, to my limited vision, to be that life will be apt to become terribly drab and level. The bricklayer having been long since limited as to the number of bricks he may lay, before long, Mr. Sargent may be limited by his Union to a fixed number of brush strokes, and that curious species of tyranny might be extended to every Art and Craft in the kingdom. Worst of all, with increasing Government control, we shall be apt to lose our liberty, which has already diminished perceptibly during the last few years. Liberty seems to me to be the most precious of all possessions, and the only one that is really worthy of a League to protect it. During the war it was inevitable that all sorts of control had to be exercised, but now that war conditions no longer exist, we do not seem to have the fetters struck off our wrists as rapidly as could be wished. It is difficult to understand some of the anomalies of Government control; for instance, why should dancing-halls be allowed to be kept open until two in the morning, whilst the inmates of respectable old-fashioned clubs are hounded into the street at 12 or 12.30, according to the day of the week? I am all for freedom, and am entirely in favour of the dancing-places being open all night if the proprietors prefer it, always supposing that ordinary clubs are allowed to live under their own rules. Personally, the much-criticised existing liquor control seems to me to be not only tyrannical, but ridiculous. I was brought up to believe that Magee was one of the ablest of our Churchmen of his own, or of any other time. He it was, who, in a great speech delivered in the House of Lords used the words, “I should say that it would be better that England should be free, than that England should be compulsorily sober,” and I entirely agree with him.
History teaches us that democracies in all times have been opposed to liberty, and it is the possible loss of freedom in the future that seems to me to be the coming danger to our beloved country. I am, in my humble way, as ardent a lover of liberty as was the poet Heine himself, so it is no comfort to feel that though this England of ours will surely survive the succeeding Governments, that will have charge of its destinies, each of which, according to Monsieur Anatole France, must automatically be worse than the last, its prosperity will avail us nothing, should we lose our most precious heritage, namely—our liberty.
THE END
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] The Commander Edward Dawson here alluded to is, I am sorry to say, one of the many of those who have joined the Majority since these pages were commenced.