FAITH IN ENGLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2308, 26 May 1898, Page 46

FAITH IN ENGLAND.

Mr Stead* proceeds to describe Lord Salfe j bary as Eevolutionist (in science, of course*! f Enthusiast, Reformer, and Disciple m Richard Cobden. J Lord Salisbury's enthusiasm for EoglaaH v (writes Mr Stead) is very deep and very genuine. Bab it is strictly national. It §aeludes not a scintilla, of enthusiasm for Ireland, for instance, or for any other sectloa of the English-speaking race. He is cevfcaflnly in no sense the friend of every other eoaatry save his own. He is John Bull through and through, who is very glad he was not born a Russian or Prussian. In spite of all temptations he remains an Englishman. England is his country. His ancestors f rota all time have toiled and fought and died' in the , service of England, . IJa^ieJd-HoßseJs full of memories and associations of England's sovereigns and England's heroen. He be- j Have* in England, and is ruthless in his j sarcasms at the expense of those who go fearing all their days that anises ..they gain \ :this or that vantage point w@ §&»11 be beaten "in the world's markets. He 6as faith in j England, faith ia Englishmen, faith in her Empire, and these things are all sources of his strength. It has been the vjee of this virtue that be has never seemed to care paruoalftrij for mx other OQUotrj,

AS SOCIAL REFORMER.

Lord Salisbury (Mr Stead reminds ns) was^ the first English statesman of Cabinet rank to take up tbe question of the housing of the poor. " This I gratefully remember, because the parliamentary history of that movement dates from the day when I gutted ' The Bitter Cry of Outcast London ' in the Pall Mall Gazette, and personally appealed to all our political and religious leaders to take the matter in hand. Lord Salisbury responded with promptitude, and his action in the press and in Parliament seenred the appointment of a royal commiseion."

THE PREMIER'S VIEWS OF FOREIGN POLICY.

When he was quite a youth Lord Salisbury thus formulated his ideal of the foreign policy which Britain ought to pursue : —

In our foreign policy what we have to do is simply to perform our own part with honour, to abstain from a meddling diplomacy, to uphold England's honour steadily and fearlessly, and always to be prone to let action go along with words than to let it lag behind them.

It must be admitted that Lord Salisbury has not lived up to this Sensible ideal ; it must be noted that the incomplete realisation of one's ideal is an incident common to all men.

A &EEAT TRUSTEE.

Mr Stead summarises in one epithet the distinctive characteristic of Lord Salisbury as Foreign Minister — he is first, last, and always a great Trustee : —

Thoae who conceive of him as a dishonest schemer devoured by insatiable ambition, an adventurer like Lojrd Beaconsfield, should not" forget filr Gladstone's emphatic testimony to. the contrary. He said :

" I don't; believe th&fe Salisbury is afc all governed by political ambition. I believe him to be perfectly honest, and I can never think of him unkindly duce the day I firet sawhim, a bright boy in red petticoats, playiDg with his mother."

The defects of hie policy, its apparent selfishness 1 , and its excessive caution are due almost entirely to his constant sense of his trusteeship. As he pointed out in a well-known passage — in trustees selfishness is a virtue. He was replying at the Mansion House in 1896 to those who upbraided the Concerted Powers for selfishness in refusing fco take naval or military measures agaiast tbe Turks. He said :

"If they are acting on selfish principles in l'ei'usiug to enter upon a comse vhich may end in a European war, they are pursuing a selfishness which is much to be piaised, and which ought to be imitated by all. The seifishne&s it, in truth, only the selfishness of trustees. They are the Irustess for the vast populations with whose interests they are charged, and they would be dsepiy culpable if those intsreets were negkeied."

If occasionally he may seem to be tbe partisan, be always recalls in time the responsibilities of his stewardship. The sense of responsibility grows with years. Nowadays it is not only in the cane of comcaeralal wars that he would make tbe frank avowal :

" I am not in the least prepared, for the sake of punishiug ofcber nations, to inflict any danger or serious wound nuou ourselves."

Thai; is the Trustee all over. Hence I conclude ttiis most inadequate sketch of the Prime Minister by quoting the passage which, more than any otter, expresses his inmost conviction a<s to the poaifcion ■which He occupies and tLe duf;y which if) lays upon his adajiniMxafcion : " We are Trustees for tha British Empirs. We bave received that trust with all it* strength, all its glory, all ifcs traditions ; and the one thing we have to take caie of is that we pass them on untarnished to our successors."

THE PEBKCH CEISIS OF XO-DA.T.

" I have tbe best of reasons for believing," says Mr Stead, " that the current rumours have a very solid bssis in fact, and that, however unanimous the Cabinet may be for the moment, there is, has been, and will be the greatest possible divergence, if not of opioioc, then of tendency and temperament, between Mr Chamberlain and Lord Salisbury, and this divergence may at any moment precipitate a crisis on the question of the Niger.* Mr Stead says the common object of both M. Hanotaux and Lord Salisbury is to keep the Niger qnestion open till the new French Chamber is elected. Then M. Hanotaux believes it will be possible to devise an arrangement satisfactory to both parties. Hence Lord Salisbury slows down i Pushful Joe,' and the lattex's partisans fill the air v/ith talk of what; the Pushful One would have done if only he had been Prime Minister. Lord Salisbury hesitates • because he realises, as few can realise, the far-reach-ing consequences of' a brescb of the peace which has prevailed between England and France for 80 years. He at least win nofe go to war with a light heart. But it will be an evil day for France if she imagines that this exceeding great reluctance to draw tbe sword, even in defence of British territory, is due to weakness or to fear. Patience has its bounds, and long-suffering is not, even in Lord Salisbury's case, quite everlasting."