CURRENT TOPICS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1217, 28 June 1895, Page 28

CURRENT TOPICS.

' THE PREMIER. We cordially congratulate the Premier on his fiftieth birthday, which he celebrated on Saturday. It is pleasant to be at home on such an occasion, and it is also pleasant to receive, as Mr Seddon did, congratulatory telegrams from all parts of the Colony, from personal friends, political supporters, and well-wishers warmly wishing many happy returns. All these good opinions he has fairly earned during the half-century, of the record of which he has every, reason to be proud. Thirty-four years ago he left his native town in old Lancashire to push his fortune, and since that day he has pushed it with energy, tenacity, strength and ability. In his steady climb from the lowest to the highest rung of the ladder he has faced every position cheerfully, and mastered it with a power that never flagged and never swerved aside, but grasped with might and main. Whatever his hand found to do that he did with all his might. Through the rough and tumble of the minixig days he held his own as became a man. Entering local public life in Westland some twenty years ago he very soon went to the front, and remained in the front. Sixteen years ago he entered the House of Representatives and at once distinguished himself by his marked ability, shrewdness, industry, mastery of detail and strength of purpose. When he attained Ministerial rank four years ago he rapidly mastered his work. The Premiership soon followed, and all men have recognised his sagacity, knowledge, shrewdness, readiness and governing power. It is a grand record of the success of sheer force of character, and great ability uniaide"d by anything but mother wit. As he worthily fills the highest position his fellow-colonists have it in their"" power to offer, it may well be said of him, as Mr Besant has lately said of Captain . Cook, whose rise in life was on somewhat similar lines, that at every promotion that- came to him he filled the new position with completeness. We congratulate Mr Seddcn on being so hale and hearty on his< fiftieth birthday, and we cordially join in the hope of his many friends and supporters that he may long hold the position for which he is so well fitted,;and which he. has so fairly won by his talents. > LORD ROSEBERY. Is it the end of his career, or is it only the end of the first stage ? We must leave the question to be answered by time. For the present Lordßosebery appears to many to be in the position of the man whose ambition has been satisfied by touching the Premiership, not because the Premiership is the means to an end, but because it is the highest position in the country. " Why do you want to go down a coalmine ?" once asked Dr Johnson of a friend; who replied, " Because I want to say that I have been down ; "whereupon the Doctor retorted, "Why don't you say so then ?" It is obviously impossible for any man to say that he has been Premier, unless he has really attained to the Premiership. Lord Rosebery once found no difficulty in saying that he would be Prime Minister of England, but for the fulfilment of his expressed determination he required a fact. Therein he differed from the hero of the coalmine story. But did he have any more idea of the value of the Prime Ministership of Great Britain than the wouldbe explorer of mines bad > jp&*fche value of a descent to the hottohi'of "a coal shaft ? At present, of ' 'ac-UTse* it is quite certain that Loxd Rosebery has done nothing more than touch the Prime Ministership. It is at the same time apparent that he had an opportunity for a great service to the great cause to which he is pledged. His friends will no doubt urge that the difficulties of the position were insuperable. They were undoubtedly great. It was not so much that Lord Rosebery came after the greatest Prime Minister of the century, and one of the greatest in the British annals. But the plea of Lord Rosebery"s friends is not the inability of every man to bend the bow of Ulysses. It is that in the situation in which Lord Rosebery found himself no shot from any bow, not even from the bow of Ulysses, would have had any eifect. And indeed it must be admitted that even the bow of Ulysses had , done nothing between the event which , called upon it to intervene—viz., the last "• of the contemptuous rejections by the < House of Lords—and the departure of its \ < owner from, the .fieJLcL.. When the Lords j ] precipitated the issue ..arisen, expectation j « was rife. A shout went.up.in chorus from j ; the Liberal ranks, a shout of battle, there- I ] assuring sign given to a chief of their con- 3 fidence in his readiness for the occasion, of their desire to bo led at once to battle, and of their promise to fight till victory or death. But the mighty weapon was silent. Instead of the great clang they were ! "* waiting for to in their 3 strength to the assault, the Liberals heard » only the-soundof resignation of their ' illustrious chief. They accepted the ring of that utterance as genuine, disregarding ' the jeers of the enemy who hinted that the ' opportunism of the resigning statesman ' was a greater factor in the business than the cataract in his eyes. The Liberals, ' having grieved over the loss of their timehonoured leader, acclaimed his younger ! successor and determined to wait patiently ; for a sign of his leadership. But they 3 have waited without any greater result J than they obtained from his predecessor. J Therefore there is something in the plea of the extreme difficulty of the situation. The essence of that difficulty lay in the j fact that, after a six years' struggle with adversity, the Liberal Party came back to : power with a feeble working - majority, and ' in that crippled condition was called upon to face a constitutional conflict, during which it was further enfeebled by Irish \ dissensions, the defections of the Independent Labour men,.. and of others of the sort who are'known; as "rats/' be-

cause rats always desert a sinking ship. Above all things, the man in power was in the wrong place. It certainly was not an occasion for any commander, still less for a new one, to win victories. But the plea, though founded on fact, is, nevertheless, a confession that the man was unequal to the occasion. Here was a career for the talents. A man possessing the talents of sagacity, foresight, diligence ; power of organisation, power of persuasion, power of negotiation j originality, vigour and daring ; a man having these qualities, which always win their way through the worst difficulties, would have put heart into his forces, given them cohesion, and led them to the attack. He might have failed, for it is not in mortals to do more than deserve success. But this one not only failed, but apparently failed even to make any attempt. That is, of course, a matter of the history which for the moment is secret. It may be many years before the world knows whether Lord Rosebery really wrestled with his difficulties, and how he did it. For the present the story of broken health, the evident consequence of I mental over-exertion, appeals to us all to suspend judgment. It may be that the resignation is only a step backward to help a spring forward in force. Lord Rosebery may be only gaining ' time, and the greatest commanders have sometimes to do that. If the resignation is really a strategic movement, not the sign of a decisive disaster, we shall presently have signs in plenty of the rallying forces at w r ork. If no such signs ever become evident, then the world will be right to assume that Lord Rosebery's Prime Ministership is a record of lost opportunity and of the discovery of overrated capacity. It is too soon at present to decide. In the interim let us not forget that Lord Rosebery in the beginning coupled with the Prime Ministership two other objects of ambition. These he in time attained, and one of them, the winning of the Derby, he repeated. We have no right to accuse such a man of want of tenacity or purpose. On the contrary, he has some claim to suspension of judgment in the face of unexampled difficulties.

THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. It is' not easy to believe that twenty members make, a sufficient attendance at the opening of PaHiatnent. The Lower House had more than two-thirds, of its strength present, while the Upper had not one-half. This argues a certain want of zeal on the part of the Council, amounting to carelessness of the public interest. When the Governor attends in person to open Parliament, and reads the Speech from the Throne, there ought not to be so many empty benches to hear him. The Council has high functions to perform, functions which the whole country respects. But if the country is to go on respecting 1 them, the members of the Council must show by a better attendance that they respect them too, otherwise a certain query will be inevitable.