TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11751, 27 November 1903, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

I' One hardly expects perI Peeps fectly unbiassed sketches of j at political incidents and poliParliament. ticians from Mr H. W. Lucy, the veteran House of Commons correspondent, whose personal views are not at all in sympathy with tlw present Government. But in his latest book, "Peeps at Parliament," one may look for bright and interesting gossip with full assurance of finding it. The book deals with the period from 1893 to 1895, a period during which Peel resigned the Speakership, and Mr Gladstone bade good-bye to the House which he had entered sixty years before. There is a good deal of Gladstone in the book. Mr Morley tells us that the great man had little or no wnse of humour, and there was one time when the comicalities of the caricaturists "got on his nerves." He grew, in fact, so tirod of seeing himself depicted as wearing collars of abnormal height, that one of tho family at last dropped a word of hi* irritation to a member of "Punch's" staff. He mentioned Mr Gladstone's appreciation of tiie journal, in connection with which "ho knew no occasion upon which he was not able to join in the genial merriment of the public"—but hadn't there been enough about the fabulous cellars? In the nest issue Harry Furnka pourtrayeil the burial of the big collars. But they were too useful to "stay buried, and before long they were exhumed and used with all the old effect. Mr Chamberlain figures prominently in Mr Lucy's pages. The author gives fresh currency to tne theory which he evidently regards as correct, that Mr Chamberlain's opposition to ilr Gladstone arose from the fact thai tha

latter did not make him Secretary for Ireland. Whatever tenth there may be in the theory w, however, somewhat discounted by the fine eulogy of Mr Gladstone that Mr Chamberlain delivered three years later. "Sometime* I think," he said, "that great men are like mountains, and that we do not appreciate their magnitude wliile w* are still close to them. You hnve to go to » distsmoe to see which peak it » that towers above its fellows; and it may be that we *haa. have to put between us and Mr Gladatooe a apace of time before we shall know how much greater he has been than any of hi* competitor* for fame and power." That is not tiie language of an aggrieved man. Among the incidents upon which, Lucy throws new light is the resignation by Lord Randolph Churchill of his office as Chancellor of tha Exchequer. By doing so he believed he had placed Lord Salisbury in such a difficulty that ti»e i'rinia Minister would have to take him back ©a his own terow. But he had not reckoned all the possibilities, and he learned what he had omitted in unexpected fashion. He met a great lady. \v]m asked hint huw things were going on.

"I «aid I thought they were doing niceiy," taid Lord Randolph"Churchill, in telling tiie story to Mr Lucy. "Hevtington had refused to join them, and whom else can they have? .'Have you thought of Mr ttoselienV she said, in a voice and manner that indicated she knew more than the aimple inquiry conveyed. It all flashed on mo in a moment. I saw the game was lost. I had forgotten Gosehen." incidentally we get an explanation why "Randy," who was reaiiy a fairly tall man, was co invariably depicted as a midget. He was the leader of the famous Fourth Party, consisting, we believe, of himself and two or three others, and the caricaturirts, watching his fights with Mr Gladstone, drew tiie two combatants in the relative sizes of Jack the Giant-killer and tho Giant, This metaphorical indication -ef the strength of the following each possessed wan take© too literally, and to the day of his death the British public Tefused to credit "Randy*' with anything like average stature.

The New Zealand ParliaTiie ment is not the only Psychological colonial Legislature in Moment. wliich what is known ns "legislation by exhaustion" occurs, nor is Mr Seddon tiie only Minister who defends tiie methods producing that result. The New South Wales Legislative Assembly has lately afforded as gross an example of the effect of this policy as ever our own House of Heprewentatives did; in fact, m a riydney paper remark*, the Assembly "seldom does nny real business unless and until it is physically incapable of doing business —or, rather, any but publio business." The same paper published a picture of the Assembly at an early hour in the morning, the majority of the few members present being shown sleeping at full length on tne benches. Mr O'Kullivan, the Treasurer, was in charge of the business before the Houte, and lie practically admits the assertion made by tho paper that Ministers wait until the members are dog-tired and three-parts asleep, before pushing through important measure* and the Estimates. "It wasn't his business," he eaid in the Home the other day, "to run round and wake up members to oppose his estimates. His dart was to get them through. He just waited for the 'psychological moment' —and there you are." Mr O'Sullivan, it appears, ia tho greatest exponent of this policy in the New ifouth Wales Government ; he can wait and wait for weeks on end uotil the moment arrives when the Assembly would do almost anything, because it is too tired to oppose it, or because most of the members are fast asleep. Last year be kept eoine eighteen motions on tbe Order Paper all through the session. They referred -important public works to the Committeo for investigation, and would probably have provoked keen discussion. Mr O'Suliivan did not want them discussed, so he waited until early one morning towards Mi* end of the session, when in on exhausted House "eighteen of them went through in just the time that it took.the Chairman to read and put them to the House." The Efctimatea gave as littlo trouble, for at 4 o'clock one morning, after a long sitting, Estimates covering no less than £1,042,000 in salaries and public works were paseed in just.three minutes. At one sitting in December, 1901, wliieh lasted for close on thirty-one hours, the Government passed through additional and loan estimates amounting altogether to three jnillions, and the same thing happened last year, except that the sitting extended over thirty-three hours. Tliese were "master-strokes of Ministerial strategy" as it is understood in Australia and New Zealand.

Although the man who Bookselling reads most is not always in the one who knows most, Great Britain, bookselling statistics, at any rate in these days of cheap mid plentiful literature, must furnish a fairly accurate basis for comparing the relative mental activity of various centres, so long as those centres aro more or leas similar as regards population and prosperity. Mr David J. Rice recently dee.lt with the "Geography of Bookselling" in the British Isles in a magazine article, which purports to tell a

"plain tale of literary tastes" throughout the kingdom, excluding London, where, naturally, every description of book is in demand. The love of reading with which the Scot is credited is shown to be no exaggeration. Edinburgh is described as tho best bookselling centre in the kingdom, holding pretty nearly the record for the sale of works treating of the Restoration period, while theology, of course, always receives steady support. Fiction is not so popular us elsewhere, but travel, biography and history ore much sought after. Glasgow is also a good bookselling centre, and, in Mr Rice's opinion, would in all probability show tho largest individual sale of Morley's " Life of Gladstone." A new venture in Glasgow is a fresh edition of Hakluyt's "Voyages," and the whole edition was subscribed for previous to publication. Although there is only a limited sale in Manchester for the moro expensive editions, a very large trade is done in cheap editions of scientific and technical works and political economy, and in a bookselling s«ue the Lancashire city is a "good market. "In Manchester," sayn Mr Rice, "the reward book get* great support; encyclopedias and sets of books do well, and a good edition of a standard work at once commands a ready sale." A local bookseller teld Mr Rice that he had quite got rid of the idea tliat any money was to be made out of the business, but he remarked that he enjoyed the handling of books, "knowing that bookselling, like virtue, is ita own reward." A comparison of the two University cities shove that Oxford tak<« precedence generally, although, naturally, more scientific works are sold in Cambridge. Birmingham is said to be an alert in bookselling aa it ia

in" other'matter*. In Liverpool books of all «>ort* *ell very readily, whilst Newcastle, "although in B»me measure the home of cheap literature in recent timee," is not very strong as a book-buying centre. Leeds has a particular weakness for sporting literature and theology. Dublin has been recently described as the worst town for iv size from tho point of view of the bookseller, "but that statement," comments Mr Rioe, •' does not eeem to be true or anything like true.*