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Evening Star, Issue 11661, 21 January 1902, Page 4

N'kw Zkala.vders may well smile at the inept bumptiousness -which is Offended being displayed by those not Dignity. very remarkable geniuses, the Premiers of the Australian States, in connection with the invitations to the King's coronation. His Majesty's Advisers, with an accurate appreciation of present-day colonial conditions, have specially invited Mr Seddon us a royal guest—thus ranging our Premier with Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Mr Barton—while Messrs See and Co. are the recipients of what may be styled conditional invitations. The King will be glad to see them, and they are promised the treatment due to "distinguished personages" ; but their expenses will not be paid by the British taxpayer, and they must not expect a great fuss to be made over their presence in London. It is evident that the State Premiers do not half like the distinction thus drawn between themselves and the famous Premier of this Colony, but our own opinion is that they ought to be more than satisfied with the unexpected, not to say unmerited, designation of "distinguished personages." We are afraid that these aggrieved Premiers have not yet learned to appreciate two unquestionable facts. First, Federation has had the inevitable effect of diminishing the political importance of the separate Australian States and reducing the calibre of their representative politicians. Messrs See, Peacock, and Co. only hold their present positions because Federal politics have claimed the active services of their betters. The prestige of Australia is now practically indivisable, and the Federal Premier is the proper representative of the entire nation at such a function as the coronation. Secondly, the State Premiers must digest the fact that their personal relationship to Mr Seddon is as that of the Lilliputians to Gulliver, He is a great man; they (without offence be it said) are, in comparison, little men. Without going so far as to say that Mr Seddon is a more remarkable man and a more representative Australasian than Mr Barton, we yet hazard the conjecture that he will be regarded as the more interesting figure during the London festivities, while it is beyond question that his splendid readiness in the matter of the contingents, and the capital adequacy of bis imperial utterances, will cause the Home Government to pay him special honor as the most welcome visitor from this part of the world. With all his faults, and despite grievous deficiencies in taste and manner, Mr Seddon has made good his title to kinship with the breed of political giants; and the race of pigmies only make themselves ridiculous when they lay claim to equal honors.