SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT AT CAMBRIDGE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 148, 25 June 1898, Page 4 (Supplement)

SIR WILLIAM HARCOURT AT CAMBRIDGE.

Sir Wm. Dai-court, who is as witty in Opposition as he is weak in Ofiice, waxed very sarcastic at the dinner given last, Sat unlay by the SO Club and the Cambridge University Liberal Club over the Salisbury fiasco in the far East. When Lord' Salisbury, he said, returned from the south of i'rancc ree.ipcrated, lie remarked that during his absence there had been some Chinese, crackers with detonations. The detonations were mostly amongst, his own supporters, and were due. not so much to tlio Chinese crackers as io the fizzling out of the i?rilish damp squib. Fi/./.ling out was the tfroat feature of the Salisbury policy. It was all very well to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb, but if you had to go out like a lamb ifVas better not. to come in like a lion. You would ultimately get more credit in your capacity as a lamb if you had notbegun the Operation by roaring and lashing your tail. Lord Salisbury reminded him of a character in Dickens, Avho, when his innumerable, ardent proposals to a young lady Avere refused, always assured her it. Avas of no consequence. Lord Salisbury first of all set his fact, against territorial aggressions in China, when Qther nations grabbed, it Avas of no consequence, and he grabbed too. Then he negotiated a loan; when Russia objected, again it was of no consequence, and he dropped it. Then he stipulated thai- Ta-lien-wan should be an open port, and. objected to Russia occupying Port Arthur and dominating Peking. When Russia seized both T_-tieivwan and Port Arthur, it Avas oiice more of no consequence, ami he commiserated Avith Russia in its occupation of such useless places. The British people did not want to go to war, but they did not like being- snubbed all round the world,

In his statement of the record of the Liberal party, Sir William was less happy. He asked what was tho trade and commerce of England before free trade was established by the Liberal party, and continued, Trade is made, not by occupying deserts peopled by savages, but by those principles of freedom of commerce which have been the great work of the Liberal pai;fy.' One might as well say that a mercantile business is made, not, by sending commercial travellers, but by the great principles of political economy. The whole of the colonial history of the Uritish I .in pi re is onV long record of Iradc arising from the occupation of deserts peopletl by savages. What A\-ere India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, when w<_ first took them, but deserts peopled by savages'? and where would England's commerce be to-day if England had rested content with the inculcation of the. glorious principles of Cobden Avithin her tiny island, and had not sent forth her poincers. her explorers, her John Company, her Chartered Companies, and her stout-hearted colonists to occupy deserts peopled by savages? Referring to Lord Salisbury's statement—'We shall not be jealous if desolation and sterility are removed by the aggrandisement of a rival in regions where our arms cannot reach' —Sir William, although he regarded it as of the greatest consequence, did not object to it.

There seems to be a notion prevalent amongst a large class nt the present time that England has bitten off more than she can chew, and should regard, not with complacency, but with a

sense of resignation to the inevitable, the spectacle of other nations partitioning amongst themselves the territory of the Side Men, Avhose case the international doctors consider hopeless... Experience has shoAvn us only too clearly that the door of territory which is added to the dominion of aiiother nation is slammed in our face. From the beginning otUJhe century tlie cry has been the same, 'England cannot govern all the territory she has now;' and yet she has gone on colouring the map read and spreading the reign of peace and order and freedom for all nationalities Avithin her territories at an unexampled pace. I do not believe in ihe. doctrine advocated by f so,many of our politicians nowadays, that it is time to consolidate our Empire and leave the rest of the world for other nations. It Avill be time enough to cease, to add to our Empire Avhen another PoAver despoils us of what Aye already possess. 'Keep sill yon have, ancl try for all you can,' should be the watchword of every Cabinet, whether Liberal or Conservative.