Читать книгу Life of Sir Henry Parkes - Charles E. Lyne - Страница 14

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Before the first session of the Parliament of 1856 had closed, between six and seven months, in fact, after the session had opened, Mr. Parkes wrote a letter to the Speaker resigning his seat. The worry and anxiety attending his duties in the office of the Empire were now interfering greatly with his legislative duties, and, to his mind, an incomplete service in Parliament was inconsistent with a proper sense of public duty.

"A year ago," he wrote, to his constituents, "when the business of the late Legislative Council was about to close, I addressed a letter to you, informing you that it was not my intention to offer myself as a candidate for your representation in the new Parliament. In taking that step I was chiefly influenced by the conviction that my other engagements would not allow me to attend to the business of the Legislature so as to satisfy my sense of public duty, and that you had a right to expect from your representative a course of devoted service to the country unhampered by the pressure of his personal affairs. The strong expressions of feeling in my favour, and considerations urged upon me of a purely political nature, induced me subsequently to forego my purpose; and on the day of election I was returned to the Legislative Assembly as one of your members. Highly as I deemed the distinction thus conferred upon me, I could not even in the hour of triumph conceal from myself the difficulties that would surround a proper discharge of the duties I had undertaken, though I hoped they would not be greater than my power to overcome them. Since then, however, the circumstances which presented to my mind the desirability of my retirement have grown of greater rather than of diminished force; and after the experience of another year, and an anxious reexamination of the reasons for and against the course I first proposed to pursue, I have come to the conclusion it is clearly my duty to return into your hands the trust you have twice confided to my keeping."

"Leaving the Legislature," the letter proceeded "it may be well that I should say, to save my conduct hereafter from misconstruction, that it is my purpose also, for some years to come, to disconnect myself entirely from public life. But while I live I shall not forget that I have been honoured by receiving your confidence; and neither time nor circumstance shall render the links that have united us in higher relations, of less binding effect on my ability to serve you as a private citizen. In return for the first distinction I have enjoyed, I have contributed little to the advancement of your interests; but at least I have not weakened the position of your representative by seeking to build up power to myself. Henceforth, I hope it will be my happiness to see others serve you who shall prove themselves worthy of the service."

The excellent tone of this letter at once attracted attention, and there was an almost unanimous expression of admiration and regret. People recognised in the man a sterling honesty,—a sense of duty of the highest kind; and this, coupled with the ability which he was known to possess, led them to regard his retirement from the Legislature as something like a public calamity.

Mr. J. H. Plunkett, a bitter opponent of Mr. Parkes during the election of 1856, and up to the time of the latter's retirement from the Assembly not on speaking terms with him, "was happy," he said in a public speech, "to bear testimony to the services Mr. Parkes had rendered. It would be difficult indeed for them to find a member so able, useful, and assiduous as he had been; one who would throw, as Mr. Parkes had done, his whole heart and soul into the business of the country, or who would bring with him into the Legislature so much might and influence of character."

"I confess", wrote Sir Charles Cowper, in allusion to the resignation, and a letter he had received from Mr. Parkes on the subject at the time the letter announcing the resignation was written to the Speaker,—"I confess I read it with feelings of emotion, and I soon after went home with a heavy heart. The step which you have taken will deprive the Assembly of one of its most useful members, but I have hopes that good may come out of evil. I feel assured that many who have been the foremost in maligning you hitherto will deeply regret your absence from Parliament; they will now give you credit for motives, which, under feelings of party spirit, they have refused to acknowledge were guiding your actions."

"I trust your means of influencing the public mind," he also wrote, "will be increased rather than diminished, by your retirement. You wield (alluding to the Empire) a powerful engine, and by having more time to devote to this all but omnipotent instrument, I indulge the expectation that your usefulness will be felt, and acknowledged by the generous support of that public whom you have served so faithfully."

Dr. Lang regarded the resignation as a public calamity. "In common with all the right-minded portion of our community," he said, "I regret exceedingly your retirement from Parliament. We have so few men of the right stamp that to lose even one, and especially one of your weight and influence in the Legislature, is a public calamity. But I was not surprised at your procedure, from the overwhelming nature of your private avocations, as the head of so extensive an establishment."

Charles Gavan Duffy, at that time a member of the Victorian Parliament, told Mr. Parkes that the retirement could not and must not be more than temporary. "More than ever," he declared, with remarkable foresight, "I see no one else in New South Wales to hope anything from for posterity."

In the Assembly there was a general feeling of regret, even among Mr. Parkes' political opponents; and by the party with whom he had been associated the step was regarded with much concern. By some it was described as an "utter smashing of the Opposition;" and Mr. Cowper and his followers waited with no little disquiet for further developments. "Much will depend upon your successor," he said, in his letter to Mr. Parkes, "and I wait with no little anxiety the announcement of his name. The malignity with which those are assailed who adhere faithfully to the cause of good government, is likely to deter many from venturing into public life. It often disheartens even me, and I doubt whether, if I were to begin a new career, I should face all the obloquy and calumny which I have been subjected to in acting up to my own sense of duty."

But the estimate in which Mr. Parkes had been held in Parliament was best expressed in a letter from the Speaker of the Assembly, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Daniel Cooper. "I cannot", he wrote, "allow you to relinquish your seat in the Legislative Assembly, as one of the representatives of the City of Sydney, without briefly expressing to you the high opinion I entertain of your conduct as a member of the House, since I have had the honour to occupy the Speaker's Chair. Your industry, zeal for the public weal, manly independence, fairness, candour, and temper in debate, and unvarying respect for the Chair and forms of the House, have been on all occasions most exemplary; and it affords me additional pleasure to be able to add that I have frequently heard members of all shades of political opinion give expression to a no less flattering estimate of your Parliamentary career."

Equally complimentary were the references to the retirement in the press. "His untiring industry, unceasing watchfulness, and manly independence as a representative", said one journal, "will make his loss deeply felt, and his like hard to be found. At this stage of our affairs his retirement must be deplored, but he may rest assured that the memory of his past services will be cherished by the people with reverence and gratitude." "Beyond all doubt," said another, "he has been one of the most valuable members in the House, and we believe one of the most thoroughly honest and single-hearted. Few men, indeed, in it give promise of higher usefulness and greater eminence than he has done; for to our mind his is one of the improving spirits, and he will be a better statesman five years hence than he is now." In a lengthy notice of the subject, a third journal declared that "the country owes more to Mr. Parkes than many will be inclined to acknowledge." "He has", it went on to say, "the great merit of having been the first to organise here a consistent political party. Before his entrance into public life our politicians were remarkable for anything but their consistency, voting merely as their inclinations or interests led them, without any regard to principles. . . . We know of no one in the House whose opinions on all subjects were delivered with greater earnestness or commanded more respect and attention from all parties. . . . His industry and perseverance are above all praise. He is an example of what may be done by a man of talent and energy, relying solely upon his own exertions. Mr. Parkes has, perhaps, had less assistance from others in his career though, life, than most men, yet he occupies a position in this rapidly advancing country second to none. It is to his honour that he has attained his position without sacrificing his independence or cringing to any class or person."

Another paper, similarly pronounced in its praise, said, that "short as had been Mr. Parkes' career in the Legislature it had stamped him as a consistent, honest, straightforward man, with a strict regard to political principle. But", the article continued, "Mr. Parkes is not merely an honest and consistent man—he is endowed by nature with a force of character and general ability which placed him among the foremost men in the House. There was a sincerity of purpose and earnestness of conviction, aided by intellectual power of no mean order, which would make themselves felt and respected in any deliberative assembly in the British Empire. Even his bitterest political opponents have faith in his integrity, and the attention with which he was invariably listened to, both in the Legislature and out of it, affords the strongest proof of the estimation in which his parts and character are held by all classes. . . .Men of Mr. Parkes' stamp can be ill spared by the country, and whatever the circumstances which have rendered his withdrawal from public life inevitable, we hope that the day is not far distant when he will again be enabled to take his place among the legislators of his adopted country."

Many other such notices of the retirement appeared, all breathing a feeling of deep regret at the step which Mr. Parkes had found it necessary to take, and of high appreciation of the public services he had performed. But the actual words of only one other need be quoted. The paper was the Freeman's Journal, and it said, "Much as we are opposed to, and hard as we have often hit, Mr. Parkes, we regret his resignation extremely. He was the 'noblest Roman of them all' on the Opposition benches."

One outcome of this almost universal expression of regret and goodwill was a strongly supported proposal to raise and present to Mr. Parkes a great public testimonial. On all sides it was admitted that, if ever circumstances justified such a proceeding, they did in his case, and the desire was to so arrange that the testimonial, whatever might be its form, should come from the people of the colony generally,—"some form of testimonial," it was remarked at the time, "in which the people can all take part, in which thousands can have a share, and which Mr. Parkes' children can one day point to with honourable pride."

A preliminary meeting was held at the Royal Hotel, George-street, for the purpose of forming a committee, and making other arrangements preparatory to the calling of a public meeting. Complimentary speeches were made, and resolutions in accordance with the object of the meeting were passed. Very quickly matters were so complete that ultimate success was certain. But before the public meeting could be held, a letter was received by the committee from Mr. Parkes declining the testimonial, and therefore putting an end to the movement. The letter was addressed to the hon. secretary of the committee, and was as follows:

"SYDNEY, January 21st, 1857.

"MY DEAR SIR,

"Until I saw the report of the meeting held yesterday, at the Royal Hotel, I did not know who were interesting themselves on my behalf in getting up this proposed testimonial, and I did not see my way to interfere in the business. I think it is right, however, that I should now communicate to you, in order that you may explain to the committee that has been appointed, my feelings on the subject.

In the first place, I think the public should be slow to stamp the services of any man with a special mark of their approval, for honours of this kind can only retain their value by reason of the just claims of the persons on whom they are bestowed. Entertaining this opinion, I cannot persuade myself that I have any merits to entitle me to a distinction so altogether personal. If I have been fortunate enough to effect any amount of good in the share I have taken in public life, I would rather have it entirely lost sight of than over-estimated by my fellow-citizens. In either case the good could not in reality be made greater or less; but it would be more grateful to one's self-respect to rest upon something that remained for ever unacknowledged than to feel conscious of having accepted a distinction undeserved. On the broadest ground that can be assumed, I think my friends would best consult the public interest and my individual reputation by abandoning their intention in regard to me.

In the second place, even if I could believe that my claims to public consideration were greater than my warmest friends can possibly make them out to be, I have a kind of horror of testimonials. My sense of justice, I am bound to say, is against them. Merit, wherever it exists, will work out its own most fitting reward. If men cannot achieve something to stand as a memorial of their own lives, it is best that they should pass away without any attempt of friendly hands to magnify their littleness. I am quite content to submit myself to that inexorable trier of men's actions, Time; and to take my chance of being swept away.

Moreover, I desire above all things, just now, to be allowed to work in quiet. The duties that lie nearest to me require this for their performance. I am gratefully sensible of the kindness of my friends, which I shall ever remember; but that kindness will manifest itself in the form most desired by yielding to the wishes expressed in this letter.

I am, my dear Sir,

"Yours very truly,

"HENRY PARKES."

"MR. C. G. REID, Secretary to Committee

appointed at the Royal Hotel."

This letter stopped the testimonial, but it raised the writer higher than ever in public esteem. Such a true sense of duty, such an unselfish estimate of the value of important services, was new in a community where personal advantage had, in most instances, been the principal object in public life. The letter was read with admiration, and though no one denied the justness of the sentiments it expressed, it seemed to many to be of that character which should assist in pushing forward the movement that had been commenced rather than in bringing it to a termination.

Dr. Woolley, Principal of the University of Sydney, writing to Mr. Parkes at the time, said it was only natural there should be a wish on the part of the people to express their sense of his past public services, and their earnest and cordial anticipations of a long future, which should secure him in the hearts of all generations of Australians "monumentum ære perennius." "I cannot help adding," Dr. Woolley wrote, "that I am delighted, and not surprised, at the manly and generous sentiments contained in your letter to Mr. Reid: they come like the fresh breeze from a free mountain side. It does one good to think that we have some real men amongst us. God grant, my dear sir, that you may be spared to take that part in the development of the moral and material interests of this country, which I know you desire, and which, I am confident, will make your name as familiar to our children as that of Hampden and Cromwell."

It is not one of the least remarkable features in Sir Henry Parkes' career that, at this early period, when he had done comparatively little in the public interest, the promise of future great services was universally recognised.

In a spirit similar to that in which Dr. Woolley penned his letter, a large number of prominent men attended another meeting at the Royal Hotel to determine whether, in deference to the wish of Mr. Parkes, the proposed testimonial should be abandoned, or whether, notwithstanding that wish, the movement should be allowed to proceed. Eventually it was abandoned, but not at this meeting, nor until a determined effort had been made to push it forward regardless of Mr. Parkes' objections.

At the instance of Mr. John Robertson the meeting resolved,—

"That while this meeting desires to express its unfeigned sense of admiration of the noble and patriotic motives by which Mr. Parkes has been actuated in writing the letter just read, and in sensitively shrinking from any acknowledgment of his public services, it is of opinion that those services have been such as to demand the public recognition which it was determined at the preliminary meeting of Mr. Parkes' friends should be given to them."

The speeches on the occasion could not have been more eulogistic. In fact, read today in the light of a comparison of what the subject of the eulogy had up to that time done, with the public services he afterwards rendered, they seem little short of extravagant. But they were evidently the honest sentiments of the speakers. Mr. Richard Jones, Mr. Charles Cowper, Mr. John Robertson, and Mr. William Forster, joined in these complimentary utterances. The peculiarities of public life brought about, in after years, a change in the relations between at least two of these well-known men and Mr. Parkes, but at this time there was scarcely any limit to their admiration. In common 'with the people generally, there seemed to be no compliment too great to pay the man whom everybody was disposed to honour.

His services in the Legislature had been of a kind in which all his efforts had been directed towards the public good, and no vestige of self-interest appeared. He had been regular in attendance, fairly active in debate, watchful in voting, and industrious in instituting inquiries into several subjects important to the public welfare. He had not accomplished much, if what he had done were judged by actual record, but he had been conscientious, painstaking, and self-sacrificing, and these were qualities which met with public approval, for they were wanted in a Legislature where the principles of self-government had just come into operation.

On the Press his services had been longer than his services in Parliament, and undoubtedly they had been important. His work on the Empire had given a prominence to public questions which, before, was not imparted to them; and by a system of independent and able criticism, he had never lost an opportunity of safeguarding and promoting the public interest. Added to this was the fact that he had improved the tone and stimulated the enterprise of the Press of the colony generally. In this way he had done great public good, and the people were grateful.

The result of the resolution to proceed with the movement for raising the testimonial was a public meeting in the Lyceum Theatre, York-street. Mr. Charles Cowper presided, and the principal speakers were Mr. W. B. Dalley, Mr. Richard Jones, Dr. Woolley, Mr. John Robertson, Mr. John Campbell, and Mr. W. C. Windeyer (now His Honor, Sir William Windeyer). The same feeling was apparent as at the previous meetings. Everyone was eager to praise the proposed recipient of the testimonial, and determined to make the testimonial one worthy of acceptance. It had been arranged that the following resolutions should be submitted to the meeting:-

1. That this meeting is unanimously of opinion that the public services of Henry Parkes, Esq., in the patriotic efforts which he has made for many years past to advance civil liberty, social progress, and good government, demand the sincere and grateful acknowledgment of every Australian colonist.

2. That upon Mr. Parkes' retirement, probably for a long period, from public life, this meeting desires that a suitable and permanent memorial should be established of the high estimation of his public virtues by his fellow-colonists, and that a subscription be opened for the purpose of raising funds for the purchase of an estate, to be vested in trustees for the benefit of Mr. Parkes' family.

3. That the earnest co-operation of the Australian colonists, in promoting the objects of this meeting, be solicited, and that gentlemen favourable thereto be invited to aid in forming local committees, and in soliciting subscriptions in aid of the proposed testimonial."

These resolutions would have been carried, and the movement pressed on with every prospect of success; but the proceedings were again checked by a protest from Mr. Parkes. The chairman of the meeting, Mr. Cowper, was obliged to announce, on taking the chair, that though it had been hoped after what had taken place at the meetings at the Royal Hotel, that Mr. Parkes would have consented to waive his objections to what was being done, it was found not only that he had not done so, but that he had stated to most of his friends his objections with greater force than before, and in a manner that almost compelled them to defer to his wishes.

The proceedings, therefore, came to an end. Mr. Dalley expressed his deep regret that the intended "great public distinction" had been declined, but consoled himself with the reflection that "at all events when the curtain fell between him (Mr. Parkes) and the public—that curtain which for a time concealed him from them as a public man—it was rung down with the universal applause of the country." Mr. Richard Jones, while agreeing with the course taken by Mr. Parkes in declining the testimonial, said "it would be difficult indeed for them to make an adequate return for the many and important services which he had rendered to the community." Dr. Woolley spoke of the glorious career which would one day unite Mr. Parkes' name "with those of the guardians of liberty in America and elsewhere." Mr. Robertson declared that in "every hamlet, village, and town" in the country the most popular man was Mr. Parkes; and Mr. W. C. Windeyer, this occasion being his first appearance in public, urged that, as the proposal for a testimonial was to be abandoned, they should at least present an address, signed by all, "to bear testimony to the love, admiration, and respect which they felt towards Henry Parkes." A resolution was adopted,

"That an address be presented to Henry Parkes, Esq., late representative of the city, on his retirement from Parliament, expressing the feelings of the citizens of Sydney and the colonists at large in reference to his eminent public services";

and the meeting terminated.