Rosebery - Statesman in Turmoil - Leo McKinstry

This book is worth reading if only for the following passages - they echo so powerfully from over a century ago and sum up Britain's continuing dilemma in foreign policy. They contrast Gladstone - Liberal leader in the 1880s, described as a Little Englander, but Internationalist, with Rosebery Liberal Prime Minister a decade later, and an Imperialist. Gladstone commenting on Afghanistan said 'there is no duty so sacred and incumbent upon any government in its foreign policy as that careful and strict regard to public law,' and 'remember that the rights of those savages, as we call them, and the sanctity of life among the hill tribes and the happiness of their humble homes amid the winter snows... are sacred in the eyes of Almighty God as are your own'. Rosebery writing to Queen Victoria about French aggression in Siam wrote 'The behaviour of France to Siam has it appears been base, cruel and treacherous. Perhaps nothing so cynically vile is on record. But it is not our affair. We cannot afford to be the Knight Errant of the World, careering about to redress grievances and help the weak. If the French cut the throats of half Siam in cold blood we should not be justified in going to war with her.' Which side would we be on in the twenty first century?
Of course shortly after Gladstone's pious declaration he ordered the bombardment of Alexandria in retaliation for the massacre of Europeans by rebel Egyptians. In yet another parallel with modern life the newspapers believed that both Gladstone and Rosebery were fervently in favour of the action because both had large holdings of Egyptian government bonds - worthless if the rebels had succeeded.
Rosebery also invented the term 'Commonwealth' to describe the successor organisation to the Empire of colonies - but it was only intended for the Dominions (i.e. white Anglo-Saxon settler communities in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Canada).
Fabulously wealthy (and adding further to his fortune by marrying Hannah, heiress to the Mentmore and the Rothschild millions), he became known as the coronet socialist for his espousal of the causes of the poor and needy. But what a man of paradoxes - seemingly anti-Semitic he married into one of the most orthodox of Jewish families - having two marriage ceremonies to cater for both religions. He was amazingly ambitious, but made a career of refusing office. A voracious and eclectic reader he gave up his degree at Oxford in order to own and run race horses.