PREMIER OR PRIME MINISTER.

Free Lance, Volume XVI, Issue 871, 16 March 1917, Page 8

PREMIER OR PRIME MINISTER.

How the Terms Originated. ' T T the late Ml - Seddon, we ' believe, that we owe the 'introduction : into this country, of the term' Prime Minister. That was when "King Diek'Vcame,-back.from the last of his trips-to the Old Country. The accession to the Chief Citizenship of Great Britain of the once (by the Tories)' s™. " despised v "pettifogging , little l Welsh attorney" has set English journalists- delving into ancient history to settle this much-discussed point whe- :'■ ther 'Premier" or "Prime Minister 5 * is the justly preferable term. It isPointed put that the title of Premier (under the form of Premier MinisterV hrst_ appeared in 1686, and was applied : - . to Lord Sunderland. As a matter of tact, the word takes us back to-the. golden age of Greece, for, describing the dominant influence of Pericles on Athenian politics, Thucydides says that what was nominally a democracy became in reality rule by a Premier" (aetually "A foremost-man"). As for the term Prime Minister, it appears to have been first used in England in the eighteenth century, %vhen it was bestowed .with insulting, reference on\Vaipole.who, as did his successor, Lord .North, indignantly disowned it Pre- • mier or Prime Minister, the title matters little so-long as its owner is the right" man m the right place And' that is what Lloyd George certainly seems to be proving. '.'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"" -Premier Bill or Prime Minister Massey —what does it matter so lono- as he directs our political destinies with intelligence and true patriotism?