Henry Campbell-Bannerman Quotes

I rise to move, "That, in order to give effect to the will of the people as expressed by their elected representatives, it is necessary that the power of the other House to alter or reject Bills passed by this House should be so restricted by law as to secure that within the limits of a single Parliament the final decision of the Commons shall prevail."

I hold that protection is not only bad economy, but that it is an agency at once immoral and oppressive, based as it is and must be on the exploitation of the community in the interest of favoured trades and financial groups. I hold it to be a corrupting system, because honesty and purity of administration must be driven to the wall if once the principle of taxes for revenue be departed from in favour of the other principle, which I conceive to be of the essence of protection—that, namely, of taxes for private beneficiaries.

I have never uttered a pro-Boer word: I have been anti-Joe but never pro-Kruger.

Now, what is the position of us Liberals with regard to the government of Ireland? ... We have a constitutional demand to which you and I as Democrats cannot refuse to listen. We have a desire for self government which you and I as Liberals must see to be the basis of good order and prosperity. We have a recognition of the patriotic feeling of nationality of which we and those who have gone before us have been the champions again and again, and we see the supremacy of the Imperial power and Parliament fully maintained. Why, gentlemen, how then can we, as long as we use the name of Liberal—how can we abandon, as they invite us to do, our Irish policy? We will remain true to the Irish people as long as the Irish people are true to themselves.

I have said that in my opinion at the present time, as to the main fabric of our Army system, the truest courage and the best reforming wisdom lies in leaving well alone.

As to war itself, a direct preparation for actual hostilities, I must only repeat here what I have said elsewhere, that from the beginning of this story to the end of it I can see nothing whatever which furnishes a case for armed intervention... [A] war in South Africa—a war with one of the independent States in South Africa—would be one of the direst calamities that could occur.

The evils attending the traffic in offices had been well known in past times; Parliament, in its wisdom, had raised barriers against them; and the present House was asked to pull these barriers down, and to renounce the principle which hitherto had governed the public service of England, Naval, Military, and Civil—the principle that men entered the service not that the poor man might make gain, nor that the rich man might indulge his fancy, but in order that rich and poor alike might do their duty.

Mr. Gladstone has shown us in many cases how his high authority, his knowledge of affairs, his firm grasp of principles, his marvellous mastery of details can subdue difficulties and guide us out of a labyrinth from which it might seem hopeless to seek an issue. Let us rejoice that his bodily force is not yet seriously abated, and let us hope that in the coming Parliament to which he himself has summoned the fresh energy of the newly enfranchised electors, he may add yet this signal service to those he has already rendered to his country.

I hold that the growth of armaments is a great danger to the peace of the world. A policy of huge armaments keeps alive and stimulates and feeds the belief that force is the best, if not the only, solution of international differences. It is a policy that tends to inflame old sores and to create new sores. And I submit to you that as the principles of peaceful arbitration gains ground it becomes one of the highest tasks of a statesman to adjust those armaments to the newer and happier condition of things. (Cheers.) What nobler role could this great country assume than at the fitting moment to place itself at the head of a league of peace, through whose instrumentality this great work could be effected? (Cheers.)

The proper way to lead the Boers into harmony with us and restore contentment and prosperity to the whole community was to leave them alone as far as possible—to leave them with their old form of government, with their own ways, with their own machinery of government—in order that the burgher, when he went about his daily life, should discern as little as possible the difference between that which happened to him as a British subject and that which happened to him when he was the subject of an independent State.

I am well aware—no one is better aware—that I am poorly equipped for the duties of that position in comparison with some distinguished men who have gone before me; but there is one thing in which I will yield to none of them—namely, in my devotion to the Liberal party and my faithful adherence to Liberal principles.

The United Presbyterian Church was a purely voluntary association; and with regard to the Free Church, there was some doubt as to what was the real cause of the Disruption of 1843. In his opinion, the Free Church went out on the higher ground of spiritual independence, and that patronage was only the overt occasion of the Disruption.

Liberal politics meant the politics of common-sense.

[T]he concentration of human beings in towns...is contrary to nature, and...this abnormal existence is bound to issue in suffering, deterioration, and gradual destruction to the mass of the population...countless thousands of our fellow-men, and still a larger number of children...are starved of air and space and sunshine. ... This view of city life, which is gradually coming home to the heart and understanding and the conscience of our people, is so terrible that it cannot be put away. What is all our wealth and learning and the fine flower of our civilisation and our Constitution and our political theories – what are all these but dust and ashes, if the men and women, on whose labour the whole social fabric is maintained, are doomed to live and die in darkness and misery in the recesses of our great cities? We may undertake expeditions on behalf of oppressed tribes and races, we may conduct foreign missions, we may sympathise with the cause of unfortunate nationalities; but it is our own people, surely, who have the first claim upon us. ... [T]he air must be purified...the sunshine must be allowed to stream in, the water and the food must be kept pure and unadulterated, the streets light and clean. ... [T]he measure of your success in bringing these things to pass will be the measure of the arresting of the terrible powers of race degeneration which is going on in the countless sunless streets.

For ten years they [the Conservative Party] have been supported by an immense majority in the House of Commons. ... The period over which we are looking back presents itself to me, I confess, as a well-nigh unbroken expanse of mismanagement; of legislation conducted for the benefit of privileged classes and powerful interests; of wars and adventures abroad hastily embarked upon and recklessly pursued. The legacy which they have bequeathed to their successors...is in the main a legacy of embarrassment, an accumulation of public mischief appalling in its extent and ramifications.