THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1901.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11712, 23 July 1901, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1901.

The recent speech of Lord Rose-, bery at the City Liberal Club may rightly be regarded as one of the most noteworthy of modern political utterances, and was yesterday discussed with keen interest from end to end of the Empire. Its importance is the more appreciable when we remember the peculiar sympathy which has always existed between Lord .Rosebery and the Liberal "man in the street." To this almost telepathetic sympathy is due much of the Rosebery reputation, for who can doubt the ability of the politician— to say statesman—who gives eloquent voice to an opinion which has been gathering strength and \ weight in one's own mind 1 The enthusiastic reception with which his Liberal audience received the impassioned declaration that Liberalism should "purge itself from all anti-national elements" shows that the rank and file of the party begin to realise the unhappy plight in which their recognised leaders have landed them and that a large number of them approve this flinging down of the gauntlet by the Liberal peer who has so long enunciated Imperialist principles. As we observed yesterday, the formation of a new party is a matter of time, but that the material exists cannot be doubted. Lord Rosebery has the social and political standing, the education, the training, to make. him. a desirable rallying point. The colonial world will watch with keen interest and hearty approval any campaign j he may undertake having '-for its purpose the elimination of Imperialism from British party politics and the mutual : acceptance of its principles by both the great British parties. * Our countrymen at Home do not always understand the profound interest of colonials in the politics of the United Kingdom, but this is only because they do not always remember that 'our: external affairs are completely in the hands of the House of Commons they elect and the Cabinet they uphold. The Pacific colonies ,of Britain have la larger population than Ireland, I with decidedly greater wealth and [ infinitely greater prospects. Yet i under the present political conditions Ireland can cast over a hundred votes in a House of Commons division, which may throw out a Government alive to its colonial responsibilities and seat in its place a Government to whom these responsibilties are irksome and hateful, while the Pacific colonies, with Canada, with South Africa, can only look anxiously on. As the slow progression of Imperial organisation rectifies our political weaknesses and adjusts our unwritten constitution to changing conditions, all such discrepancies will be removed, but meanwhile British politics deeply concern us and our every colonial influence, our every colonial exhortation, is perforce given to support the only British party which can at present be relied upon to uphold unfalteringly that Imperial unity in which we believe. Similarly, in Britain itself, many thousands, even hundreds of thousands,' 1 possibly millions, feel themselves bound by their sense of national duty to support the Salisbury Administration through thick and thin. This cannot be satisfactory to any man, at Home or in the colonies. Conservative or Unionist, who places country above party and national security above partisan triumph. Every true Imperialist .will rejoice when the day comes, as come it must, when the historic Chamber at Westminster can again divide fearlessly on questions of internal politics, the whole world knowing that even although ; a Government may be shattered the incoming Cabinet will be as devotedly national as the one it supersedes. « Lord Rosebery declares that the schism in the 'Liberal party is traceable " far less to Irish than to Imperial affairs." This has been long perceived throughout the colonies, which have one and all suffered severely from the Little En?lander reluctance to realise the duty of Empire. For though the "murder of General Gordon" was the shameful episode that brought home to many a British heart the meaning of amiImperialism, this was only the climax of long-continued duty-shirk-ing. It was little more than a lucky accident shall we not rather call it a providential dispensation—that New Zealand fell into our hands.; la deliberate opposition to colonial representation, the best part of the Pacific Islands, from New Guinea eastward, have been allowed to become sources of future foreign complications. This South African war is due to the - same dislike of the

Little England party to the "costly burden" of colonies.. The Conservative party won to power with the aid of the Unionists, and amid many weaknesses has turned the direction of Britain's foreign and colonial policy. ' The response has been strong enough to render hopeless the return to power of any Liberal Government which owes anything to the support of unpatriotic elements/ But Lord , Bosebery sees that many members of the Opposition only need a strong leader to break away from the Harcourt combination, that behind the Government sit many members who have little but Imperialism in common with it. Whether he will be able to draw them together into a strong Imperialist Opposition and to win for this the seats now held by-avowed Pro-Boers is another matter. But such an effort is worthy of all commendation and will be watched , approvingly by every colonial, regardless of party preferences.