Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/99

 These positions, however, which the member for Hackney defends with so much gallantry and so little regard for his own popularity, are, generally speaking, virtues in excess, and cannot for a moment be permitted to weigh with any rational mind in judging of his career as a legislator.

Who can ever forget the evening when the blind member was the only representative of the people who saw his way into the lobby where Sir Charles Dilke and Mr. P. A. Taylor were tellers against the dowry to the Princess Louise? What Londoner can ever be too grateful to him for preserving from imminent alienation the ancient rights of the people in Epping Forest? If he had been member for Hackney at the time he was fighting so doggedly against the threatened enclosures, there might have been some suspicion that it was done merely to gratify his constituents. As it was, not even that pardonable kind of self-interest can be laid to his charge. It will likewise be long remembered by the skilled artisans of London with what courage and devotion he acted as chairman of the late Mr. George Odger's committee in Southwark, when that republican artisan statesman was so near obtaining a well-merited seat in the legislature of his country.

In theory Mr. Fawcett is himself a republican; but his practice, alas! has not always squared with his principle. But it is as the "member for India" that Mr. Fawcett's name will be handed down to posterity. He has the largest constituency of any man in the world; and his responsibilities have become as real as if they were imposed by law. He is the true Minister for India, whoever may fill the office. It is not to Lord Hartington, but to Henry Fawcett, that millions of Indians look for