"THE OLD GANG"

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 72, 26 March 1931, Page 24

"THE OLD GANG"

PLACE IN POLITICS WHES FEELING PETRIFIES CLAIMS OF YOUT.|jl "Who first coined the phrase "Tli Old Gang" Ido not know. But il (■quivnlent is as old as Purty, -\vhic "is very old, writes J. B. Firth, in tb "Daily Telegraph." Aleibindes *.as as familiar with tb Attic as Clodius with the ltomau syi oimn; both would have found in Lor JSumJolpli Churchill, who minted th jthrnso anew for British circulation, congenial .spirit. Bred in the- same kennel, they m, their old grey foxes on the Siimosueni Obviously "the iirst and last qualit, of the Old Gang is ago tuid l.aggaf' .survival. It grej'-bcards must chea 1 he waiting sky, at least—this is the fu jjument of restless youth—they migh nurso thrir fa.iling strength in quie i.nd retired piaces, in retreats, clul eh a it.?, aml (he like. • But they ar .Mipcrnuniernries in oflice, where, great i-si; offence ot! all. they block promotion That is why "the feet of the younj men" shuffle at the door, impatient ti be called in, on what stark errant fSii'ipfui'c has said. AGS NO BAR. TJovercnd age, indeed, is no neces saiy disqualification for office, for i way—e.g., Gladstone. Palmcrston, anc many another —be more vigorous thai youth. But "Very Reverends" shoult not venture on other than eeclesiustica ladders. The times are not. made foi Patriarchs in office even on so soft ;■ roueli as a Woolsack once adorned b\ Lyndhurst and by Halsbury. A Cabinet Li no .Sauhed.-iu with precedence given to length or snowiness of beard It is the disabilities of age, however, which are the fatal objection. Old men in office creep to tardy decisions, often too late. .Lord Haltlane, 'who sat in nia;jy Cabinets, complained that the adjournment for lunch always summarily ended the day's business. Age must eat by the clock. Its extremities arc cold. There is a settled chill, not* to mention bile, cirenm praeconlin. The good old gentlemanly vice is, was, and ever more w'll be Avarice. Should t'.gc, momentarily forgetting itself, warm to a quick and generous impulse, it is too:often brought up with a jcr* Tiy a twinge from some arthritic joint or hardening artery. Above all, iige "petrifies the feeling.''' Yoronoff may work his wonders on a single gland. But a score of Yorcmoffs would hardly suffice to reraedy the "grisly troop" of ailments in the ageing politician enfeebled not so much by the cares of ofiico as by the scrummage to get I here. Disraeli swore by race and youth. NOT TOO OLD. , Yet, by way of exception, Mr. Gladstone, tough at seventy, was not- too old even at eighty, judging by the dreadful mess which his elder lieutenants, eager to see his exit, made of tilings when lie had gone. More than a dozen years before that eventful day Disraeli 'confided to the secret ear of (lie Fourth .Party that he woisld never have quitted the Coml'nons had ho not been sure that his great rival was on the point of retiring too, and that he lamented his peerage as an error, since no one was left in the- Commons to stand up to the Old Man in single combat. After the Conservative debede- in 3SSO only an. Old Gang remained. Mr. Churchill has described how the veti-ran fromleur, sensing what superb insolence lay in Blenheim's younger koii, sent for Lord JJandolph and his associates, Gorst and Wolff, when they liß.fl determined on their policy of calculated indiscipline towards Northcote's Leadership and said: "I fully appreciate your feel.ings, but you must stick to jS'ortheote. Ho represents the ■respectability of'the. party. Yet I ■wholly sympathise with you. because I never was respectable myself." • He offered to give advice sub rosa on the way that the baiting should be conducted, but as he died very soon I after Lord Jtnndolph was left to play i his cards alone. I "SOUND,. SOLID." ! lioiv he played his hand is well] Jiiiown. [sir Stafford Xorthcotc, the j leader of the Old Gang, was ."a sound,! so]id. genial man" —the adjectives are Lord Oxford's—well practised and com-1 potent in nil Parliamentary liturgy,! with immense Parliamentary knowledge, and for all ordinary occasions an adequate address. 'Lord Brycc hasj sketched him: ! "He sat on the front bench-with his hat set so low on his brow that it hid all the upper part of his face, while Hie lower part was covered by a thick yellowish-brown board, perfectly motionless, rarely taking a note, and to all appearance the most indifferent figure in the House. The only sign of feeling which he gave waa to be found in his habit, of thrusting each of his hands up the opposite sleeve of his coat, when Mr. Gladstone, the only assailant whom he needed to fear, burst on him in a hailstorm of declamation." There is a widespread notion that "The Goat," as .Lord Randolph brutally ."end vulgarly described Korthcoto, was a wholly inefficient Leader of Opposition. Nothing could be farther from the truth. But he was not a pugnacious leader, ' and he made the •mistake- of assuming, as Brycc pointed out, Uiat "everyone else was a gentleman like himself, permeated by the old traditions of the House of Commons," | and hopeful that the new obstruction! was only a. passing phase. There he! was wrong. i NOT . HIS COUKSE. Had it been left to Northeotc, the Tory Opposition would not li;ito hung en and worried the Government, making the most of Ministerial bad management and ill-luck which offered, them chances in. quick succession. Lord Randolph, merciless in his sarcasms, both in 'public and in private, completely undermined Xorthcotc'a posilion, and the vendetta ended at length ia the tragedy of the victim's death at flic feet of Lord Salisbury, who had just dismissed him from the Foreign Office without the courtesy of a warning word. . The nation was deeply shocked. Lord Salisbury was moved to say, "Politics aro a cursed profession," and the incident, is worth recalling as a salutary, corrective for those who remember only the lively sport which the Fourth Party made in flouting, deriding, and finally destroying in the Leader of the Old Gang one of the most respected figures in the Parliamentary life of the time. Nevertheless,- the dilemma stands. Goats can only fight effectively with goats, and Mr. Gladstone ' was a lion. What is to be done when the Old Gang ■will n,ot retire gracefully" We have not yet advanced to the swift Transatlantic methods of "taking for a ride" or "bumping off"; the only alternative in present use is unsparing invective and the tactics of the gadfly, with poison in the sting. A GPwEAT PORCE. Lord Randolph's invective lacked the ( exquisite patina of Disraeli's murderous attacks on T'ecl. But while he lasted —and his hour was short —with what unflagging spirits he thrust at the Old. Man whom-Kortbcole treated, with such deference, while ■with, almost t

equal zest lie turned his mocking sarcasm upon the mediocrities, as he deemed them, -who in the catalogue passed for Conservative leaders. He peppered with nicknames the iSclatcr-Booths and the Milner-Gibsous; ho poked unhallowed fun at the blameless Sir Pichanl Cross, and greatly to the Queen's annoj'anc-e procured Jiis removal to the Upper House; he laughed at the "vineries and pineries" of the stately suburban villa of Mr. AY. 11. Smith, which he contrasted with his own "humble root'" i* Couuaught square. He made respectable Conservatives wince; he drove Mr. Chaplin to profanity;' Lord Salisbury likened him most feclingh' to a carbuncle on the neck. But ho. did what .''none but he thought of doing or could have done — he rallied the new-born Tory Democracy of the North and with, the aid of Providence and the Pendulum brought down to earth what had .begun life as the strongest Government of modern times. ''••■■ Handling the bones, from London's slaughter houses and butchers' shops forms quite a big industry. Those which are not suitable for handles for knives, etc., are boiled to extract the fat, the bones themselves later being crushed for bone manure. Prehistoric relics, appearing to be the remains of a wooden precursor of StoneheiiKO. have bceu discovered at Avebury, Wiltshire.