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dangerous moment.
It
was a foretaste of the greater
CrISIS
at the end
of 1916, which ended his long reign and installed Lloyd George as his
successor at the head of a Coalition Government in fact dominated by
the Conservatives. The Liberal hegemony was over. Not many years
later, free trade was abandoned and sterling devalued for the first time.
It was the beginning of the end.
In retrospect the Edwardian age, over which Asquith presided
with some firmness and considerable dignity, appears as the close of the
century of British predominance established in 1815. The French chal–
lenge had been beaten off. Until the next contestant appeared, England
was safe, and all concerned could afford to "muddle through." By the
opening decade of the new century it was becoming clear that the
German challenge was going to be formidable. The Tories reacted in
predictable fashion: find allies and prepare for war (preventive if
necessary). Most Liberals hoped that the whole thing would blow over.
Why should Britain and Germany fight? They were each other's best
customers! This was to underrate the ambitions of the Germans, and to
overestimate Britain's dwindling prestige as an unbeatable world power.
Churchill, then officially a Liberal, was not taken in. In 1908 he sent
Asquith a memorandum advocating drastic internal reforms. Britain, he
urged, should follow the example of Germany. "She is organized not
only -for war but for peace. We are organized for nothing except party
politics.... I say thrust a big slice of Bismarckianism over the whole
underside of our industrial system, and await the consequences, whatever
they may be, with a good conscience." That was also the advice of the
Webbs, who were convinced that war with Germany was coming and
that it would necessitate economic planning and authoritarianism in
government. In the last Liberal Cabinet before 1914, this attitude was
represented by Haldane, Churchill and Lloyd George-the latter still
regarded as a Radical. Asquith preferred, in his favorite phrase, to wait
and see. What he lived to see was the end of his world.
George Lichtheim
