Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament/Henry Richard
X.
HENRY RICHARD.
"And evermore beside him on his way
The unseen Christ shall move."
IN the House of Commons are to be found a good many members who profess the Christian religion,—at all events in public; but, excepting Mr. Henry Richard, there are very few, so far as I know, who make the smallest pretence of literally squaring their politics by the precepts of the New Testament. The politics of Rome and of Canterbury—of the Papal and Anglican priesthoods—are, of course, well represented at St. Stephen's; but their relation to Christianity proper is so remote, or indeed antagonistic, as to merit no recognition in this connection. They are merely ecclesiastical intrigues, and in no true sense Christian or even religious in their aim or tendency. But Mr. Richard's position is different. He is distinctly a Christian politician, and herein lies his strength or weakness as a legislator. The estimable "Apostle of Peace" is, wonderful to relate, a gospel Radical, and it is by that difficult standard that it will be necessary in some measure to try him. He believes that Christianity supplies the politician, as it does the individual, with a true, or rather the true, conduct-chart; and his pamphlet, "On the Application of Christianity to Politics," leaves us in no doubt as to his canons of biblical interpretation.
"I have no hope," he tells us, "for the future of this world that is not connected with Christianity." When "every thought shall have been brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ," then only will Mr. Richard feel satisfied that we are politically on the right rail. There are not two moralities, he maintains,—a private and a public, a personal and a political. Mr. Richard's method with the Jingoes is the shortest of any. Is it not written, "Thou shalt not kill"? Therefore is the occupation of the soldier forever cursed, cursing alike conqueror and conquered. According to this exegesis, such gallant Christians as Sir Henry Havelock and Capt. Hedley Vicars of pious memory were little better than public cut-throats or licensed murderers. So be it. Mr. Richard will shrink from none of the consequences of his understanding of Holy Writ. The commandment is absolute. "Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." "Resist not evil." "See that none render evil for evil unto any man, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men." "If ye do well and suffer for it, and ye take it patiently, this is acceptable unto God."
These are hard words for flesh and blood to apply literally; but Mr. Richard, in his "Defensive War," makes it plain that he will, no more than Hosea Biglow, admit of any dodging:—
"If ye take a sword and dror it,
And go stick a feller through,
Guv'ment ain't to answer for it:
God will send the bill to you."
How wonderful is Mr. Richard in his exegesis! How wonderful are the majority of Christians in theirs! How marvellously malleable are the memorials of the Christian faith themselves! Humanly speaking, one would say some of them must be at fault, but which, I am pleased to think, it is not my province to determine. Infidel Radicals are, in these days of general apostasy as thick as blackberries. It is refreshing occasionally—for the sake of variety, if for nothing else—to encounter one who is thoroughly orthodox. "The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner." Nor am I unmindful of the warning, "And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder." Suffice it for my purpose to postulate that Mr. Richard is as good a Radical as he is a Christian, and that with him the terms are in a great measure convertible. May Heaven multiply this particular school of Christians! for never were they more sorely needed than at present.
"Keep thou the childlike heart
That shall His kingdom be;
The soul pure-eyed that wisdom-led
E'en now His blessed face shall see."
Henry Richard, M.P., was born at the little town of Tregaron, Cardiganshire, in 1812. The locality is peculiarly Welsh in all its aspects; and the "member for Wales" is, as is befitting, of pure Welsh descent, his mother's maiden name having been Williams. His father and grandfather were both ministers of the Calvinistic Methodist persuasion, the latter for the long space of sixty years. In one of his addresses to his constituents at Merthyr, Mr. Richard told them, with manifest pride, "that he had come of a good stock, who had served Wales well in days gone by." And so it was. His father, the Rev. Ebenezer Richard of Tregaron, was no ordinary man. Welshmen, even more than Scotsmen, appear to benefit by the kind of instruction which is conveyed in "sermons;" and Richard, senior, was a powerful preacher, the memory of whose pulpit oratory is still cherished in South Wales. Nor was he prominent only in spiritual things. For many years he was general secretary to his denomination: and, along with the Rev. Thomas Charles of Bala, he conferred on the principality what was at the time an inestimable boon; viz., a thoroughly comprehensive system of Sunday-school education, which had regard to the wants of adults as well as of juveniles.
His home at Tregaron was the rallying-point of much of the religious and philanthropic activity of South Wales. The chief actors concerned believed, and not without reason, that they were engaged in a work no less momentous than the regeneration of the principality; and their earnestness, as might have been expected, made an indelible impression on the open mind of young Richard, whose earliest memories are of fervent "revivals," "seasons of refreshing," &c.
From the doctrines imbibed in his childhood he has never appreciably departed; yet the tenacity with which he sticks to his creed is not to be confounded with bigotry. In the sphere of civil action there is not in all England a more enlightened advocate of the broadest freedom. His human sympathies are as generous and keen as they were fifty years ago. In his case there has been none of that—
"Hardening of the heart that brings
Irreverence for the dreams of youth,"
such as, I am bound to say, it has been mine to observe in but too many victims of early Calvinistic training.
But it must not be supposed that his education was altogether of a religious complexion. At an early age he was sent to Llangeltho Grammar School, and subsequently, when eighteen, he became a student of the Highbury Independent College, London, the Calvinistic Methodists having then no theological school of their own. At both places the instruction was sound so far as it went; and Richard, as was to be expected from a youth of his conscientious disposition, did not fail fully to avail himself of his opportunities. At the close of his theological curriculum he joined the Independent Communion, and became minister of Marlborough Chapel, Old Kent Road. The congregation was moribund; but the Rev. Henry Richard was equal to the occasion. In a short time the attendance greatly increased, a considerable debt was paid off, schools were built, and a literary institute was established.
It was not long, however, before Mr. Richard found a wider field for his talent, and perhaps a truer vocation. In 1843 occurred in Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire what were known as the "Rebecca Riots." The Welsh roads were then encumbered with turnpike-gates to an unendurable extent; and some of the younger men among the tenant farmers, despairing of relief by more legitimate means, had recourse to nocturnal acts of demolition. The principality was overwhelmed with obloquy in consequence; and but for the courageous stand taken by Mr. Richard, who publicly explained the origin and narrow limits of the disturbances, there is no saying to what foolish acts of repression the Government of the day might not have been induced by the panic-stricken magistracy to have recourse. But the matter did not end with the Rebecca Riots. In 1846 a government commission was sent into Wales to inquire into the state of education in the principality. The commissioners' report duly appeared in three formidable volumes, formidable alike for their contents and size. The Welsh were deliberately described as the most debased, ignorant, lewd, and vicious people under the sun. The misrepresentation, it cannot be doubted, was most vile. Something like a wail of anguish broke from the heart of the ancient Cymric race. The commissioners had apparently listened to nothing but the calumnies poured into their ears by territorial justices of the peace and Anglican parsons with empty churches.
Again Mr. Richard came forward as the champion of his slandered countrymen; and in a masterly lecture, which he delivered in Crosby Hall in the spring of 1848, he vindicated the character of the Welsh people, and succeeded in a great measure in rolling back the rising tide of English prejudice and calumny. Further, in 1866, Mr. Richard contributed to "The Morning Star" an exhaustive series of letters on the "Social and Political Condition of Wales," the value of which Mr. Gladstone thus handsomely acknowledged in the speech which he delivered as president of the national Eisteddfod, held at Mold in 1873: "I will frankly own to you that I have shared at a former time, and before I had acquainted myself with the subject, the prejudices which obtain to some extent with respect to Wales; and I am come here to tell you how and why I changed my opinion. It is only fair that I should say that a countryman of yours—a most excellent Welshman, Mr. Richard, M.P.—did a great deal to open my eyes to the true state of the facts by a series of letters which, some years ago, he addressed to a morning journal, and subsequently published in a small volume, which I recommend to all persons who may be interested in the subject."
Not without reason has Mr. Richard been dubbed "member for Wales." He incarnates all the best characteristics of his race. If he is trusted as a good Welshman, he is none the less so as a stanch Nonconformist. Welshmen are born Dissenters, and it is natural that they should follow Mr. Richard in such matters; but it is a higher compliment to him to say that the confidence of his countrymen is heartily indorsed by the whole body of English and Scottish Nonconformists. There is not a better representative Nonconformist in Parliament than the member for Merthyr. His opposition to the obnoxious clauses of the Education Act of 1870 was as hearty as that of the most pronounced "Secularist" in the House, and went a long way to prove that Christianity' properly understood and applied to politics means something far other than priestcraft and obscurantism. The member for Merthyr spoke with all the more authority, that for years he had been one of the most active promoters of popular education in Wales. He was one of the first members of the Congregational Board of Education; and, when that body ultimately showed too strong a partiality for denominational interests, he joined the Voluntary School Association, founded on a broader and more unsectarian basis; and during the whole subsequent period of its useful existence he was its honorary secretary, travelling, speaking, and writing on its behalf, and taking an active part in the establishment and control of its normal schools.
It is, however, neither as Welshman, Nonconformist, nor educationist that Mr. Richard's name is destined to go down with honor to remote posterity. It is as the strenuous advocate of peace that he will be entitled to lasting remembrance. In 1848 he was appointed secretary, of the Peace Society; and in 1851 he finally abandoned the ministry in order to devote himself soul and body to the good cause. He felt that it was not enough to denounce the blood-guiltiness of war. Wars are but barbarous methods of settling international disputes. Let us urge on "sovereigns and statesmen," he reasoned, "a better way,—one at least not a disgrace to civilization and Christianity. Let us boldly bring forward in the legislature a resolution in favor of arbitration as a substitute for the sword." In 1848 Mr. Cobden was appealed to, and assented to become the standard-bearer of the Peace Society; and to his intense gratification the resolution which he moved the following session was supported by no fewer than seventy-nine votes.
On the continent, likewise, the work went bravely forward. From 1848 to 1852 International Peace Congresses, promoted by Mr. Richard and Mr. Elihu Burritt, were held at Brussels, Paris, Frankfort, London, Manchester, and Edinburgh. The Paris Congress was presided over by Victor Hugo, while the London Conference was attended by Garrison, Phillips, Lucretia Mott, and other distinguished Americans. Bright, Lamartine, Arago, Humboldt, Liebig, Suringar, Coquerel, Brewster, Cormentin, Girardin, Beckwith, Garnier, and many other illustrious persons, were among the foremost advocates of the movement. But "Messieurs les Assassins" were not prepared to let slip their bloody pastime so easily. Louis Napoleon perpetrated his execrable coup d'état, and the war-spirit was again evoked with fourfold violence. The Crimean war followed, and the exertions of Mr. Richard and the Peace Society were perfectly paralyzed. The press ridiculed them: they became a byword.
At the close of the war in 1856, when the plenipotentiaries were sitting in congress at Paris, negotiating terms of peace, it occurred to Mr. Richard and his friends that an effort ought to be made to get the principle of arbitration recognized in the treaty. Lord Palmerston was seen by an influential deputation, but held out no hope. Still Mr. Richard persevered. No one, however, could be induced to accompany- him to Paris. At last he addressed himself to the guileless Quaker, Joseph Sturge. "Thou art right," was the instant reply; "and, if no one will go with thee, I will." They started accordingly, along with Mr. Hindley, the member for Ashton, and their faith was rewarded. Lord Clarendon earnestly pleaded their cause with the plenipotentiaries, who unanimously declared in favor of recourse being had to the good offices of some friendly power before any appeal should be made to the arbitrament of the sword.
This formal sanction given to the principle of international arbitration has not been wholly inoperative. In the settlement of the Alabama claims, England and America set a memorable example of moderation and good sense to the entire family of nations,—an example, alas! which has since then been but too seldom imitated. For why? Something more must be done to restrain the illimitable horrors of war than to provide a feeble substitute for multitudinous homicide after the causes have come to a head. The causes must themselves be eliminated. Could arbitration ever restrain a Napoleonic coup d'état, or influence for a moment such dynastic exigencies and ambitions as brought France and Germany into their last tenible death-grapple? The French and German peoples had no quarrel with each other. The quarrel was entirely one between their rulers, supported by the governing oligarchy of the two countries. In the same way the English people have had no cause of discontent with the poor Afghans or Zulus.
War is wholly the work—the infamous work—of "sovereigns and statesmen." Sovereigns must have wars. However peaceful their professions, they have a direct and overwhelming interest in the maintenance of division and discord among nations. Were it not for wars, the occupation of kings would be gone, and the credit of the kingly form of government would sink to zero. In other words, Europe must become a federated, self-governing republic, before the world can hope to attain to a permanent peace. Until the people are sovereign, until the "United States of Europe" have been established, "the ogre of war," as Bastiat has well said, "will cost as much for his digestion as for his meals." Till democracy has in every state put down all her enemies under her feet, there cannot, in the nature of things, be any genuine disarmament.
Let Mr. Richard ponder this matter, and prepare to deal less gently than he has been in the habit of doing with the causes of war,—with the aforesaid sovereigns and statesmen. Does he want a text to warrant him in seeking to rid the world of these illustrious vultures? Here is one that ought to suit him: "Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you; but whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister. And whosoever shall be the chiefest shall be the servant of all."
They who exercise lordship over us tell us of patriotism. What is patriotism? I have seen some of the votaries of the patriotic goddess at their devotions. I witnessed the loathsome exploits of the Hyde Park Jingoes, and I saw the Cannon-street Hotel sacked by the unconvicted thieves of the Stock Exchange. I have had enough of patriotism for a lifetime. I agree with Dr. Johnson that "patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel." There is but one fatherland,—the world; and one body of countrymen,—the human race. I know of but one patriotism, that of the ancient Roman,—"Ubi bona ibi patria." Instead of a blessing, it is often a misfortune, to have been born in a particular locality or country.
"In what land the sun doth visit,
We are brisk whate'er betide;
To give space for wandering is it
That the world was made so wide."
Mr. Richard first entered Parliament for Merthyr in 1868 under the most honorable circumstances. Nearly the whole of the available suffrages were recorded for him, the Hon. Mr. Bruce (now Lord Aberdare) and Mr. Fothergill dividing the second votes between them. The Welsh landlords never received so sharp a lesson. They retaliated by evicting some two hundred of Mr. Richard's supporters. He shortly impeached the transgressors in one of the boldest speeches that had been heard at St. Stephen's for a very long time, and his fearless exposure of the delinquents had not a little to do with the passing of the Ballot Act.
In 1873 occurred perhaps the greatest triumph of his life. He proposed an address to her Majesty, praying that she would instruct the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs "to enter into communication with foreign powers with a view to the establishment of a general and permanent system of international arbitration." Mr. Gladstone opposed the motion; but the Government was beaten by a majority of ten in a house of nearly two hundred members. Addresses of congratulation poured in on Mr. Richard from all parts of the world,—one from Italy being headed by Gen. Garibaldi. Charles Sumner wrote from the Senate House at Washington, "It marks an epoch in a great cause. This speech alone, with the signal result, will make your life historic."
In the following September he visited nearly all the capitals and many of the chief cities of the continent. Everywhere he was received with open arms, and hailed as a sort of "saviour of society." More eloquent testimony to the unbearableness of the military yoke, beneath which the nations of the continent are groaning, could not have been. His progress was converted by the grateful multitudes into something like a triumph in honor of the herald of that better time which shall be—
"When the war-drums throb no longer.
And the battle-flags are furled,
In the Parliament of Man,
The Federation of the World."