LORD SALISBURY AS A JOURNALIST

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 5134, 28 November 1903, Page 13

LORD SALISBURY AS A JOURNALIST

Claudius Clear, in tho “British Weekly,” exhumes, some of Lord Salisbury’s newspaper articles contributed to tno “Saturday Review” and other journals. Hero aro examples of some of his portraits sketched in vitriol; — MR GLADSTONE. “We aro vc-iy lar trom believing him insincere; but tho tortuous track along which ills convictions have driven him has been almost as damag.ng as actual d.shouetey to his lame, ourely lor -Hr Gladstone alone must have been devised the Eastern fable, in which, after the fairies have vied in showering their promises and gilts on tfie ialant princess's head, one ugly old witch who lias been forgotten m tho invitations comes forward and fixes on her one curse, by winch all tiio Other favours sliall be marred. There must have been an Oriental Gladstone in tho country whore this allegory was imagined. High character, eloquence that no rival can approach, great financial skill, enormous capacity for work, have all been bestowed ou him, and bestowed in vain. Seme malign influence strangely brooding over him forbids lam to term any ucliiuto or consistent creed. Swayed now by passion, now by crotchet, he disgusts, by ids violent use.llatiors, each political section in turn; and lias become the standing tdfficoity of political leaders, who do no>c like to have a man with so much eloquence for their cncni'V or a mau with so many enemies for their friend.” Lox-d I’almorston is handled with little mercy, though lie is preferred to Lord John Russell. Was not Palmerston’s success mainly due to ills immense physical strength and sound health? LORD PALMERS’!ON.

“He is us much superior to Lord John Rinsscll as a woman wiio lias only had ono lover is bettor tiiun a social evil. Ho is not habitually lalso; ins policy is marked rather by coldness than by intrigue; he lias given way to o’qte one deception ; but that is a deception which has lasted through ills whole life, and has vitiated iiis whole career. His training was Tory, his convictions are Conservative ; but Liberal.sm is tho winning game, and lie lias no taste for forlorn hopes. The result is a half-hearteducss of conduct and a dc'ubleness of language that has ruined a reputation which might otherwise have been uiiblem-shod, has made him many bitter enemies, and left him few earnest friends. His disqualifications for being a Liberal aro only two; they are, that he can’t endure Reform, and that ho abominates Dissent. But a man who wishes to lead a paa-ly of which Reformers and Dissenters are the principal qnpports must needs occasionally present a tub, or at least a bucket, to each of these formidable whales. The gallant troops behind him are quite prepared to uso their bayonets for the purpose of quickening his pace whenever it becomes too scandalously slow; and so ho marches on a good deal more a prisoner than a loader. Biut yet the old Conservatism within him straggles desperately. Ho does not advance a single step without exhausting every pretext of delay that can be extracted from d.sturbances abroad or calamit.es at home. Tho inevitable Reform is but ere him, the ranks of scowling and menacing Reformel's aro behind him; but ho moves on to Ms doom with about as much agility and readiness as a prisoner walking tho plank [upon a pirates ship. His Radical supporters have actually to draw blood before they cun goad him an inch along the fatal path. Whether he will ever bo driven to take tho final leap is now doubtful.”

Lord John Russoll is the “Artful Dodger”:— 1 LORD JOHN BUSSELL.

“Has not his political life been a succession of ardiul dodges, in winch cunning has been made to do the work of statesmanship? Ho divided with Lord Palmerston flio credit of being the only existing statesman of any, considerable standing wiio has never advocated a falling cause. Since ho first floated to power on tho cry of Reform, ho has never lost an hour’s credit by adhering to a conviction, whoa.its popularity was slipping away. Like the dew whom Sir Culling Eardley’s society bapt.ses in tho north of Loudon ouqp a year, he has subsisted on opportune conversions. 'And if, as will sometimes happen to the wariest pilot, .he has occasionally overrated the strength or tho duration of a current, ho has never failed to retrace his course with admirable promptitude and sang fold.” Disraeli is discussed at great length, and with acrid and biting sarcasm. “There is no escape on earth for man from taxes or toothaoue, or the statesmanship of Air Disraeli”; DISRAELI. “Loss of character is on evil which has been strangely underrated by tho Conservative leaders over since Mr Disraeli lias been admitted to their councils. Ho is eminently aJive to tho power of public opinion; in fact, there are very tew subjects on which ho wqald not prefer it to his own convictions. Bub to the value of a public character he is wholly blind; aud it is a blindness chat lias haunted him and hindered him through his whole career. Ever since he appeared as an important personage on the political stage he ha* been perfectly incapable of estimating tho secondary consequences of a party move, if he staooeeds in striking nis blow tor the moment, ho is perfectly indifferent to the possibility of a rebound. A little laxity of statement, a slight tergiversation, a pledge or two thaio need never be fulfilled, may be a!! that is -wanting to induce a score of Radicals to vote until him, and.pub his opponents in a minority, if such is the case, he never scruples to eat the required dirt, and when the division is won lie prunes himself on Ills dexterity, it is an adroitness that lias been, utterly fatal to- himself and to his party.- Men do not see principles paltered with, convictions loudly professed in opposition and surrendered in office, without drawing their conclusions With respect to the a c to is in such scenes. No amount of experience seems adequate to convince him that what ho gams' in votes by such manoeuvres he loses in character, and that while the votes are only gained for one night, ’’the character is gone for ever. And character means votes in the long run. . . The country is quite as favourable to the policy of Sir R. Peel, and quite as hostile to democratic change, as it was fifteen years ago; and yet Sir Robert Peel had a majority of forty. The real cause of the difference between the two epochs is, that the thanking and influential men admired Sir Robert Peel and have a perfect abhorrence of Mr Disraeli. He has more and more, as years have gone on, disgusted the class from which members of Parliament, especially clever members of Parliament, are drawn. The constant desertion in the Conservative ranks.,' and the difficulty with which they are recruited, is the best proof bow poor a substitute the most dexterous legerdemain is for a frank and manly policy. In tho late division, no less than thirty men, counting sixty on a division voted as Liberals, who either mere at one time themselves

Co nso rva tiv es, or are the sons of those who have boon. And in the late election, the difficulty of the Conservatives was notoriously neither money nor seats, but candidates. Many seals, both in counties and boroughs. were lost to them from the sheer xmpossib.lity of’find, ing presentable men to contest them. It is not easy to recruit soldiers for a service in which the campaigns, after many muddy marches, invariably end in the hoisting of the enemy’s colours.”