nothing to do with their conduct of these matters. . . . If the people of Great Britain
manage to keep at the head of the great Imperial offices of State, men who will command
the confidence of the Dominions, and who pursue steadfastly a . . . successful policy, and
if the people of the Dominions are tolerant and far-sighted enough to accept such a policy
as their own, the present arrangement may last. Does history give us any reason for
expecting that the domestic party system will produce so great a combination of good
fortune and good management?” (
In the introduction to
himself in a similar vein.
5. Marquess of Crewe,
6. See John, Viscount Morley,
7. The fact that a small “secret” group controlled the nominations for Chancellor
of Oxford was widely recognized in Britain, but not frequently mentioned publicly.
In May 1925 the Earl of Birkenhead wrote a letter to
this usurpation by a nonofficial group and was answered in
which stated that, when the group was formed after the interruption of the First
World War, he had been invited to join it but had never acknowledged the
invitation! Milner’s nomination was made by a group that met in New College,
under the chairmanship of H. A. L. Fisher, on 5 May 1925. There were was about
thirty present, including Fisher, Lord Astor, Lord Ernle, Steel-Maitland, Pember,
Wilkinson, Brand, Lucas, M. G. Glazebrook, Sir Herbert Warren (classmate and
friend of Milner’s), Archbishop Davidson, Cyril Bailey, etc. The same group,
according to Lord Halifax’s biographer, nominated Lord Halifax to the
Chancellorship in 1933.
8. The editors were assisted in the work of producing the two volumes by Margaret
Toynbee. The influence of the Milner Group can be discerned in the list of
acknowledgments in the preface to Weaver’s volume. Among eighteen names listed may
be found those of Cyril Bailey (Fellow of Balliol, 1902-1939, and member of the
Ministry of Munitions, 1915-1918); C. R. M. F. Cruttwell (member of All Souls and the
Round Table Group, Principal of Hertford College since 1930); Geoffrey Dawson, H. A.
L. Fisher; and Ernest Swinton (Fellow of All Souls, 1925-1939). Apparently these
persons decided what names should be included in the
Chapter 6
1. The Milner Group's control over these lectures appears as much from the list of
presiding officers as from the list of lecturers, thus:
President Speaker Title
A. D. Steel-Maitland Michael Sadler The Universities and the War
Lord Bryce Charles Lucas The Empire and Democracy
Lord Milner A. L. Smith The People and the Duties of Empire
Lord Selborne H. A. L. Fisher Imperial Administration
Earl St. Aldwyn Philip Kerr The Commonwealth and the Empire
Lord Sumner G. R. Parkin The Duty of the Empire in the World
2. Buckle came to
recommended by Sir William Anson, according to the official
was apparently selected to be the future editor from the beginning, since he was given a
specially created position as "confidential assistant" to the editor, at a salary "decidedly
higher than an Oxford graduate with a good degree could reasonably hope to gain in a
few years in any of the regular professions." See
London, 1935), II, 529. Buckle may have been the link between Lord Salisbury and
which devotes a full volume of 862 pages to the period of Buckle's editorship, does not