Mr Rhodes' Methods.

Hastings Standard, Issue 30, 1 June 1896, Page 4

Mr Rhodes' Methods.

The Spectator, in a thoughtful and able article commenting on the methods of Mr Rhodes as defended by his friends, his methods being to bay up opposition without regard to the ethical affairs of men, says : " Depend upon it, those who v-ill do the Empire the best service, and will add most to its greatness and its size, will be those who insist that, as far as possible, the principle of buying out opposition shall be banished from political affairs. No doubt men will always be liable to the temptation to take the short cut to power and influence, and no dobut also it will prove impossible in the future as in the past, to get rid entirely of the money element in polities. We are not fanatical optimist-, and know well enough that human nature remains human nature. What we want to insist on, however, is the absolute need for the nation to fight against the theory that these things are sure to be, and that therefore they may be winked at and tolerated as long as the end is a good one. Once admit that, and the money element will invade our public life, as it has invaded that of America and of France. The case is like that of the housewife who says that dirt exists, and that it is useless to combat it. Once take that line, anil the house will become uninhabitable from the accumulations of dust and tilth. The only plan is to keep up a constant fight with the enemy, and to fight him at every point. We are not, as our readers know, mealy-mouthed negrophiles, and we believe that the destiny of the English nice is to hold th" best parts of the earth, and to govern the inferior races. As long as we can we will resist any tendency which must deprive the race of the power to carry out its high mission. But if once we admit that " the money element " may be safely tolerated in our political life, of a surety our strength will depart. Men may be rash, cruel, brutal, bloodthirsty, indifferent to all the finer feelings in the competition for empire, and still no great harm may be done. Rough, unhewn stones serve as well for foundations as the neatest • faced ' granite: but if ever we get to think that men may buy and be bought in political life without harm, we are, as a nation, undone. ' y, ,t r»rruMpi. That was Tacitus' description of Roman decay. If the same can ever be said of the British Empire, our fate will bo that of the realm of the Cassars."