THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 1895. LORD ROSEBERY.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVII, Issue 2546, 26 June 1895, Page 2

THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.)

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 1895. LORD ROSEBERY.

With which are incorporated the Wellington Independent, established 18*5, and the New Zealander.

Is it the end of his career, or is it Only the end of the first stage ? AVe must leave the question to bo answered by time. For the present Lord Kosobery appears to many to bo 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 boon down ; " whereupon the Doctor retorted, "Why don’t you say so then?” It is obviously impossible for any man to say that ho has been Premier, unless ho has really attained to the Premiership. Lord Rosebery once found no difficulty in saying that ho would bo Prime Minister of England, but for the fulfilment of his expressed determination bo required a fact. Therein ho differed from the hero of the coalmino story. But did ho have any more idea of the value of the Prime Ministership of Great Britain than the wouldbo explorer of mines had of the value of a descent to the bottom of a coal shaft ? At present, of course, it is quite certain that Lord Kosebory has done nothing more than touch the Prime Ministership. It is at the same time apparent that he had an opportunity for a groat service to the groat cause to which he is pledged. His friends will no doubt urge that the difficulties of the position wore insuperable. They wero undoubtedly great. It was not so much that Lord Kosobery 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 nob the inability of every man to bond the bow of Ulysses. It is that in the situation in which Lord Rosebery found himself no shot from any bow, not oven from the bow of Ulysses, would have had any effect. And indeed it must be admitted that oven 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 field. When the Lords precipitated the issue arisen, expectation was rife. A shout went up in chorus from the Libera] ranks, a shout of battle, the reassuring sign given to a chief of their confidence in his readiness for the occasion, of their desire to be led at once to battlo, 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 send them in their strength to the assault, the Liberals hoard only the sound of the 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 timehonourod leader, acclaimed his younger successor and determined to wait pationtlj for a sign of his leadership. But they have waited without any greater result than they obtained from his predecessor. Therefore there is something in the plea of the extreme difficulty of the situation. The essence of that difficulty lay in the 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,” because rats always desert a sinking ship. Above all things, the man in power was ip 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 £aot, 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 ; originality, vigour and daring ; a man having these qualities, which always win their way through the worst difficulties, would have put heart into bis 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 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 bo 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, wo shall presently have signs in plenty of the rallying forces at work. 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 lot us not forget that Lord Kosobery in the beginning coupled with the Prime Ministership two other objects of ambition. Those he in time attained, and one of them, the winning of the Derby, he repeated. Wo have no right to accuse such a man of want of tenacity or purpose. On the contrary, ho has some claim to suspension of judgment in the face of unexampled difficulties.