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Page 9
He had studied for many years the Balkan problem. He knew that as
Austria weakened, Germany would more and more feel the menace of Russia.
He saw, over and over again, the diplomacy of the Germans thrusting
Austria forward to a paramount position in the Balkans, and with his own
eyes he saw the Germans in Bulgaria and Turkey fastening their hold upon
those important countries. If Russia weakened, Germany would be master
of the world. A strong Russia might alarm Germany and precipitate a
conflict, but it was the world's chief fortress against Prussian
domination.
For the sake of Russia he worked for Russia, loving her people and yet
seeing the dangers of the Russian character; hoping that a
self-respecting Russia might save mankind from the horrors of war and,
if war came, the worse horrors of a German world-conquest. This work of
his, which helped so materially to save the world, was done with clean
hands. It was never the work of a war-monger. No foreigner ever
exercised so great an influence in Russia, and this influence had its
power in his moral nature. I had this from M. Sazonoff himself.
Such a man as Lord Carnock could not make any headway in English
political life. It is worth our while to reflect that the intelligence
of such men is lost to us in our home government. They have no taste for
the platform, the very spirit of the political game is repellent to
them, and they recoil from the self-assertion which appears to be
necessary to political advancement in the House of Commons. No doubt the
intelligence of men like Mr. J.H. Thomas or Mr. William Brace, certainly
of Mr. Clynes, is sufficient for the crudest of our home needs,
sufficient for the daily bread of our political life; but who can doubt
that English politics would be lifted into a higher and altogether purer
region if men like Lord Carnock were at the head of things, to provide
for the spirit of man as well as for his stomach?
More and more, I think, gentlemen will stand aloof from politics--I
mean, gentlemen who have received in their blood and in their training
those notions of graciousness, sweetness, and nobleness which flow from
centuries of piety and learning. Only here and there will such a man
accept the odious conditions of our public life, inspired by a sense of
duty, and prepared to endure the intolerable ugliness and dishonesty of
politics for the sake of a cause which moves him with all the force of a
great affection. But on the whole it is probable that the political
fortunes of this great and beautiful country are committed for many
years to hands which are not merely over-rough for so precious a charge,
but not near clean enough for the sacredness of the English cause.
Only by indirect action, only by a much more faithful energy on the part
of Aristocracy and the Church, and a far nobler realization of its
responsibilities by the Press, can the ancient spirit of England make
itself felt in the sordid lists of Westminster. Till then he who crows
loudest will rule the roost.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Croker writes from Paris of a visit to St. Cloud, where he found
Bl�cher and his staff in possession: "The great hall was a common
guard-house, in which the Prussians were drinking, spitting, smoking,
and sleeping in all directions." Denon complained greatly of the
Prussians and said he was "malheureux to have to do with a b�te f�roce,
un animal ind�crottable, le Prince Bl�cher."
LORD FISHER
BARON FISHER, ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET (JOHN ARBUTHNOT FISHER)
Born, 1841; entered Navy, 1854; took part in 1860 in the Capture of
Canton and the Peiho Forts; Crimean War, 1855; China War, 1859-60;
Egyptian War and Bombardment of Alexandria, 1882; Lord of the
Admiralty, 1892-97; Commander-in-Chief, North American Station,
1897-99; Mediterranean Station, 1899-02; Commander-in-Chief,
1903-1904; 1st Sea Lord, 1904-10; 1914-15; died, 1920.
[Illustration: BARON FISHER]
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