MEN WHO MAKE PUBLIC OPINION.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 4806, 8 November 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

MEN WHO MAKE PUBLIC OPINION.

THE MARQUIS OP SALISBURY. When Lord Salisbury determined that he could no longer boar tho burden of the Premiership, after a record innings, the announcement of his disappearance from public life must have reminded many people of “Punch’s” famous Bismarck cartoon, “Dropping the Pilot.” .Before Lord Salisbury resigned, it was felt that when the fateful hour should arrive he would leave a gap which none could fill. That ho has loft .a gap is quite certain. To what extent it has been filled only a crisis can show. Tho one happy thing about Lord Salisbury’s retirement was the absence of all those intrigues which were anticipated as its inevitable accompaniment. Mr Chamberlain no longer appears to bo the only possible Premier after Lord Salisbury. The Colonial Secretary has many excellent qualities, but he is not hedged round by the tradition, tho hereditary attributes, the long diplomatic experience which • gave Lord Salisbury such a hold on Briton and foreigner alike. Tho statesman who founds a house, as Mr Chamberlain has done; is of necessity, even in a democratically-governed country, not the force that a statesman'who is the successor of a long line of inoro or less well-known public men must be. The Cecils made their start with Queen Elizabeth; tho Chamberlains with Queen Victoria.

Remembrance of . this circumstance made the coming together of Lord Salisbury and Mr. Chamberlain as the leading personages of the'Ministry, which will figure in history as one of the greatest, all things considered, of modern times, of-.peculiar interest. Those of us whose memories go back to the early eighties will not have forgotten the political excitements generated by the personal and party differences of Lord Salisbury and Mr. Chamberlain. Sharp as their criticisms of each other were, eager, as they seemed to bo at one time to lead their followers to battle in a physical, as well as a party sense, their ■ ultimate union in the interests of the Empire may be taken as the gauge of their patriotism. In those days it was assumed that Mr .Chamberlain was a Jack Cade, with a programme of spoliation, and ■ that Lord Salisbury was the haughty aristocrat concerned only for the privileges of his order. How absurd the whole thing seems in tho light of the history which the two men united to make! There will bo few worthier pages in British history than those which are filled with their joint work. Mr Chamberlain showed -himself Lord > Salisbury’s rival in the staunchness of Ids Imperialism; Lord Salisbury, was as progressive as Mr Chamberlain ever desired to be. When we study the two men, there is little more remarkable in their working together for the common good than there was in Lord Salisbury’s working with Mr Disraeli. Mr Chamberlain never said much harsher things of Lord Salisbury than Disraeli did, and Lord Salisbury has probably trusted him rather more than he trusted Lord Beaconsfleld at certain times. With both it was Salisbury’s faris to assist in directing his country through a crisis to peace with honour.

Lord Salisbury was as nearly a selfmade man as any aristocrat could be. He knew what it was to struggle to keep a family going in the days when neither the Premiership nor the Marquisato seemed likely to come his way. His life has been relieved by one great hobby—chemistry, and his devotion to his, home has been characteristically English. The stories told of his ’peculiarities are many. There is the story of his giving up an experiment with a piece of wire in order to-take office, and of his asking for that piece of wire years after when his Government was turned out. As a working journalist he is said to have borrowed sixpence, and to have paid it back twenty years later, when the man who lent it him, and whom he did not see again in the interval, called on him bn a matter of business. Lord Salisbury’s apology for keeping it so long must have been a revelation to the lender. The best anecdote perhaps is that concerning a ' certain energetic journalist just appointed to an important editorship, who invited Lord Salisbury to- tell him what line he should adopt in his paper in regard to national affairs. “I should have no politics” was Lord .Salisbury’s blandly crushing observation. Such anecdotes are characteristic of the man. He never forgets and he was never to be drawn, unless to be. drawn was to serve some special end. He was no flyer of kites. ■

’ Lord Salisbury’s self-reliant, imperturbable, cynical attitude to . things in general gave a false* impression to the merely superficial observer. That he did much to lead public opinion in what he conceived to be the right path is unquestioned; that he was often in conflict with public’ opinion is the general view. As a matter' of fact, be was nearly always anxious to gauge public dpinion in the hope that he might be able to direct it wisely. No man accepted’more loyally the declared view of the nation. In a country like England, to flout public opinion is. merely to render one’s self notorious, and to proclaim one’s self unpractical. As an export in chemistry Lord Salisbury knew that it was necessary to work with the material 'Nature supplies. It is as futile to oppose a blank negative to public opinion as to seek to give expression to every gust of popular feeling is unworthy. Not to. accept: public opinion when properly and only expressed is'to refuse in a. Constitutional country to be a party to Constitutional Government. That was not Lord Salisbury’s way; and in his retirement, bo will have no occasion to look' back with regret.