Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/287

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FREDERICK AUGUSTUS MAXSE.
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Tenure Reform Association, Maxse did yeoman's service. He lectured on the subject in various towns, and always with effect. At the great public meeting held in Exeter Hall in March, 1873, presided over by the late John Stuart Mill, Admiral Maxse moved the first resolution, and anticipated in his speech much that is now being forced on public attention by the agricultural distress which has set in with such severity. The association was perhaps before its time somewhat; but its attitude was prophetic. Maxse's best known pamphlet, which has had a deservedly large circulation, is entitled "The Causes of Social Revolt," being the substance of a lecture delivered in London, Portsmouth, Bradford, Nottingham, and other towns. It will repay careful perusal.

It is not often that Admiral Maxse has concerned himself about foreign affairs; but his letters to "The Morning Post" on "the German yoke" in Alsace-Lorraine were most valuable contributions towards the proper understanding of a nefarious "imperial" proceeding, which, it is safe to prophesy, will yet cause much blood and many tears to be shed. The bravest of the brave and a Crimean hero, he has been throughout our "spirited foreign policy" a steady anti-Jingo and a foe to militarism. Indeed, wherever the admiral has erred, it has been on the side of a frankness rare in English public life. With his aristocratic and professional connections he might years ago have entered Parliament either as a nominee of the Whigs or the Tories. Instead of that, "he humbly joined him to the weaker side" with the usual result. His choice of sides is an eloquent and spontaneous testimony to the grievances endured by the English people at the hands