THE VANCOUVER MAIL

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 56, 8 March 1899, Page 5

THE VANCOUVER MAIL

HARCOURT THE REAL LEADER.

CAMPB ELL-BANNERMAN CAN NEVER BE PREMIER.

CHURCH ISSUE IN POLITICS.

LONDON, February 4

I Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman entertained his Liberal colleagues last night, and the political situation, was . discussed in detail, as it would have I been if he had been the titular leader and his colleagues had been dining l with him on the eve of Parliament-. Precedent, .will be closely followed at. the Liberal meeting at the Reform Club for the election of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman as Opposit ion leader in the Commons. All the conditions of the famous meeting in the same library when Lord Havtington was chosen will bo scrupulously reproduced. Sir William Harcourt will not be present, since he has started suddenly off for the Riviera with Latly flnrcourt. The only detail not known with precision is the part which Mr Morley will take in the opening scenes. Nobody is authorised to say whether he will stay away, from the Liberal meeting at the Reform Club, and from the first meeting of Parliament, but he is known to be deep in literary work, and it is assumed that he will be seldom in his place during the session. LEADER AD INTERIM ONLY. The Liberal whips, in re-enacting the scene of Lord Hartington's election, apparently do not concern themselves with the main moral of that political episode. He was chosen leader, but had never become Prime Minister, since Mr Gladstone resumed his functions as soon as the party returned to power. That precedent is likely to be followed in the near future. Sir Henry Campbell-Banner-man will serve the purpose of leading the Liberals in the Commons during the transition period, but the real question of party leadership will remain unsettled "with the claims of Lord Rosebery and Sir William Harcourt as closely balanced as ever. HARCOURT OX CHURCH CRISIS. Sir William's letter in to-day's 'Times' on the church crisis has' a, fairly jubilant ring, and every paragraph indicates that he is conscious of his advantages of position and has no idea of effacing himiself from politics. indeed, he cannot do this, since he has become the real leader of what is known as the Protestant party in the Church of England, and will have a powerful following on both sides of the House whenever the real burning question in English politics comes up, and a,U keen observers agree that it cannot be kept down. Sir William Harcourt has been much cleverer than his opponets have been willing to admit in devoting his leisure for months to the discussion of matters of religious politics. They began by mocking him as a disturber of religious peace, and in imitation of the bad manners of the sensational Kensit, but they no longer laugh at him. The great Pi-otestant meeting in Albert Hall has convinced them- that the _disestablishment movement has receiven a tremendous impulse; thai religious questions are bound to come up in Parliament, and that, Sir William will b e the real leader of Protesant England in the debates, which may upset the Unionist Government, well intrenched as it is now in the strongholds of political power. BALFOUR'S APPEAL ILL-TIMED. Mr Balfour's tolerant mind is not suited for the controversies which are now^ waged with passionate intensity. His appeal to the sense of justice and reasonableness of the English people in the question of university education in Ireland is now regarded on all sides as ill-timed, and his references to tlie conflict now in progress in the English Church,'and his prediction that the Liberal party will take up disestablishment as the question on which it will have the best chance of carrying the country, have imparted great impetus to the religious agitation. Mr Balfour is at his best when he discusses with sweet reasonableness a comprehensive question like AngloSaxon unity, but h ( > is at his worst as a practical politician when he takes up questions of religions polities. He loathes intolerant discussion, talks in dreamy generalities, and delivers himself into the hands of a practiced controversialist like Sir William Harcourt. HAROURT'S REMARKABLE LETTER. If anyone, has laboured under the delusion that the latter has retired from public life to-day's remarkable letter, will open. his eyes. It is in Sir William's most effective debating and knockdown style. Mr Balfour is mercilessly chaffed. Canon Gore is terribly punished for denying that the English Church Union had anything to do with the Holborn Town Hall Protest, and declaring that 200 clergymen would rebel against Episcopal authority. Thefeßishop of Lincoln is flayed for attending services conspicuous for illegal practices, and the Bishops as a b&dy' are arraigned for deliberately shieCding lawbreakers inside the church and preventing by their veto the prosecution of notorious offenders. This vigorous and outspoken letter is a direct challenge to the Bishops and the Government to take up a question which they are unprepared to settle. By his cleverness in raising the religious question and heading the movement, against th e Bishops the exChancellor lias enormously increasect his political influence. Lord Rosebery cannot, lead the Liberals back, to power with Imperialistic policies which do not differ from those with which the Unionists are identified. Sir William Harcourt. has the Nonconformists solidly with him, and he represents a large body "of churchmen of both parties, who insist, that obedience to the law is the price that must be paid for the Established Church, and that if this primary obligation be repudiated disestablishment must come. DULNESS IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS. Apart from, the religious controversy, which has settled upon London like'a thick yellow fog, and put everybody out of temper, there is unparalleled duluess in foreign and domestic affairs. The Macedonian cloud is no bigger than it was a week ago, and the French situation is as confused as ever. The decision of the Australian Premiers in favour of federation has been hailed as a good omen for the future of the Empire, and Lord Tennyson's appointment as Governor of South Australia has been described as an indirect tribute to literature.

The financial situation both here and in Berlin has rapidly improved. The bank rate has fallen here, and will undoubtedly be reduced on Monday in Berlin, where tixe months of stringency have passed without the ; failure of a single, banking' house. A portion of European indebtedness; to America has been liquidated with-1 in ten days by the transfer of seeuri-j ties in Xew York, and the ratification of the peace treaty will be followed by i a remittance of £4,000,000 sterling by' London or Paris for Spain, and this i will tend to equalise balances. QUEEN GREAT-GREAT-GRAND-MOTHER. The likelihood of Her Majesty becoming a great-great-grandmotiter is causing no little sensation. She has already thirty-two great-grandchil-j dreri, but if ail goes, well she will in May put another record to her wonderful career, when the confinement of Princess lleinrieh XXX., of Reuss, is expected. For a. sovereign to have great-great-grandchidren is unparalleled in history. In connection with the investiture ceremony held by the Queen the other day. a gentleman who was the recipient of one of the honours narrates his experience with a curious mixture of pathos and humour. All went well while he was in the presence of the I Queen. He received his title courteously, and kindly Her Majesty fixed on the ribbon and badge. As dignified as he could, he retreated to the door, but had hardly got outside when, to his surprise, he was seized by two officials, who stripped him of his jewels, hurriedly stowed them away in a case and bade him deposit them with his great coat, and so with others as well. At luncheon no one bore any trace of the honours they had journeyed to Osborne to receive. POULETT PEERAGE FIGHT. The Poulett peerage fight has not lost any of its interest. On the contrary; "only the other day a search of the documents at Somerset House revealed the fact, that the late Earl's first wife had three sons, all of whom were registered in the name of the late Earl. The fact was also revealed that the Earl lived li\e years with the claimant's mother after marriage, which kills the story that he desiirted her six months after marriage. The sensation which has been created by the claims of the organ grinder nobleman to the Poulett. title and estates, ami the extraordinary popularity into which he has sprung, chiefly among the masses, seem to have infected others, for now three more claimants to other estates have appeared this week. DISPUTES LORD STAFFORD'S TITLE. One is an Islington builder, who has intimated his intention of trying to oust Lord Stafford from his title and estates. The man. whose name is Stafford, has been digging among the old records of the. British Museum, antl says he has evidence to show that he is the direct male descendent of Hervey, of Stafford, who was created baron' in 1103, but that in 1640 the barony was unlawfully obtained, through Charles 1., by one William Howard, from whom the present baron I claims to have descended, but that the Islington builder challenges on the ground of the male side of the Howard family becoming extinct in 1702 and the female side in 1807. He has a letter frbm Lord Redesdale, who says if he can prove his descent in the manner he says, he will establish his right to the baronetcy. Another sensational case which is expected before the law Courts soon is the claim by a coal miner named Samuel to the rich Samuel Gibbon estates in the vale of Glamorgan, Wales, but more interesting than that is another romance which reads like a page from an old-fashioned novel. A PAGE FROM A ROMANCE. .One Daycott Wharton seeks to lay claim to the long extinct dukedom of ! Wharton. Philip Whai-ton, first and last Duke, was a historical character and a clever and witty profligate. He had only one son, to whom he took a strange dislike, because he was unlike his ancestors in feature. Him he therefore changed for another child, who died, and the dukedom died also. The claimant, Wharton, now avers that he has sufficient documentary evidence to prove that he is the lineal descendent. of the real son, who lived and died in ignorance of his birth. This makes the fifth claim to peerages and rich heritages wjthin a fortnight.