NEW BLOOD AT DOWNING STREET.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 129, 30 May 1908, Page 11

NEW BLOOD AT DOWNING STREET.

The promotion of Lord Crewe to the Secretaryship of the Colonies, vice Lord Elgin, who finds no place in Mr. Asquith's first Cabinet, has occasioned no surprise in political circles here, and on nil hands it seems to be agreed that the appointment is an excellent one. No member of Sir Henry Campbell-Banner-man's Government has done better than lie in either House. The powers he displayed in his conduct of Mr. Birrell's Education Bill through the House of Lords astonished most men. His ability as a speaker is only equalled by his uniform tact and his unfailing courtesy. Lord Rosebery, his father-in-law, well dtescribed one of the characteristics of his oratory when he likened it to " the airy grace of a butterfly," and at the same time drew attention to the difficulties of the position he has occasionally occupied sis spokesman of a Liberal Government in a Conservative House, when he added, " but a butterfly with a pin through it." Whether Lord Crewe's administrative powers equal his skill in dc bate, time will show.

Lord Crowe shares with his father, Monckton Milnes, the first Lord .Houghton, the rare distinction of being both a poet andt a politician. But, while the father was best known as a man of letX.1,,, m the son the author is overshadowed by the political leader. Lord Crewe's rise as a politician has not been so rapid. Mr.' Gladstone recognised his abilities by appointing him, in 1892, to the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland. He was rewarded for his services with an earldom. But so little were his Parliamentary gifts appreciated that when he became Lord President of the Council in Sir Henry Campbell-Bahnerman's Government, the appointment was hotly resented by some of the Radical and! Labour members. They denounced the office as a sinecure, and an attempt was made in the House of Commons early in 1906 to strike Lord Crewe's salary off the Estimates. Not long afterwards he was able to show how foolish and ill-informed had been his detractol* by the skill -with which, almost single-nanded, he defended Mr. BirreU's Education Bill during the long contest in the Lords against the attacks of some of the ablest debaters of the day. Lord Crewe has since been a frequent speaker both in Parliament and on the public platform, showing often a lively sense of humour and a gift of repartee which loses little of its effect, even though his delivery is somewhat slow and hesitating. There is about many of his utterances the pleasing literary flavour that might be expected of the author of "Stray Verees'- , and the personal friend of Teanyeon «nd Browning. lotiQww^enrtiiifa.-wto.^.ea

daughter of Sir Frederick Graham, and a granddaughter of the twelfth Duke of Somerset, died in 1887. In 1899 he married Lady Margaret Primrose, youngest daughter of Lord Rosebery. He is in his titty-first year. Lord Crewe's henchman, and Mr. Winston ChurchiH'i successor in the UnderSecretaryship, is a very young politician. When Colonel Seely was first elected to Parliament he was captaining a troop c. Imperial Yeomanry in South Africa. This was in May, 1900, on Sir Richard Websiers elevation to the peerage. The constituency that elected him in his absence was the Isle of Wight, of which he was a well-known resident. One of his claims to popularity was that he was a member of the Brooke, lifeboat crew. As such he received a gold medal from the French Government in 1891 for taking part in the rescue of a shipwrecked French,crew. When he cr.me home froiri the-war AvitS the rank of major and the D.5.0., he lound himself out of harmony with the Unionist party on one point after another. He finally broke with it on tho fiscal question, and crossed the floor o* the House at about the same time as Mi. Winston Churchill. He resigned his seat for the Isle of Wight, but, standing again, was re-elected unopposed, it being understood at the time that he would seek a constituency elsewhere at the General Klection. He found one in the Abereromby Division of Liverpool, where he defeated l the former Unionist member by 199 votes. In the present Parliament he has been insistent in' his demand for the cutting down of the Army, and (this should gain him some sympathy in the Colonies) has also shown the strongest objection to the retention of the Chinese coolies in South Africa. He long ago convinced the House of the sincerity of the political convictions that brought about his change of side. Some of his friends think him at times a little too outspoken [and fearless in hi 3 utterances, especially when they are unfavourable to his leader. Colonel Seely is the youngest son of Sir Charles Seely, formerly member for Nottingham, and' is not yet forty. He went to Harrow and Trinity College, ; Cambridge, and has been called to the Bar. Mrs. Seely, who was largely instruj mental in securing the election of her husband for the Isle of Wight (luring his absence at the front, is a daughter of i Colonel the Hon. H. G. L. Crichton.