The Life of a PrimE Minister

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXV, Issue 9729, 4 January 1908, Page 3 (Supplement)

The Life of a PrimE Minister

(By Harold Spender in. the London Daily Chronicle.)

The suddeni and'' startling illnwsi of the | Prime Slinietcr has brought prominently I befoie the public the terrible burden of ! labor, "Atlantean, immense," that re-t.s I upon the Prime Minister of the British ! Empire. Of course, there are two ways , of taking the post. There is what may ] roughly be called the eighteenth century i way—that of a good chairman to the Cabinet —a First Minister rather than a j Prime 'Minister. Such a way has found j favor not in remote times with such Pre- ; miers as Lord Salisbury, who, as long as ! he could 1 control the Foreign Office, was ; content to let heads of- Departments go j their own way. But Sir- : H'enrV: Camp- ; bell-Bannerman is trying ~to be Prime | Slinister in deed as well as word—to consult and insmre all the members of his J Cabinet —to lead his party in the country | and in the Houoe of Commons —tp con- j trol policy as well as administrations. There are two Prime Ministers whn j have tried' to'-'io 'the same thing before, j with the- same strenuous 1 'earnestness, the j same imsparirig'sacrifice of'self. One was j Sir Sobert Pee-V ar.d' the 'other wis Mr j Gladstone. Both "have 1 loft on record va- | rious accounts of their experience:, and j such accounts make very interesting read- ; ing at the same time. " Sir Robert Peel : came gradually to the conclusion that the | thing could not be done. A year before j his 'downfall (in August 1845) he wrote : , I "It is impossible for me.not to feel that i I the duties arc incompatible ar.d above all ! i human strength—at least, above mine, j ' The worst of it is that the really important duties to the country—tlrcsc out lof the House of Commons,—are apt to jbe neglected'. I never mean to solve the 'difficulty in one wav, namely, by going ito the House of Lord-,. But it must be ! solved! in one wav or another. The failj tire of the mind is t>:e usual way, as we I know irom s:id! experience." i —The Case of Sir Robert Peel.— | We all know bow Peel solved it—not Iby the short shrift of Liverpool and I Castloreagh, but b-.- utterly refusing to I return to office after his fall down, to his I death four years later. There is, m Mr Klortey's "Gladstone," a record of a pro- 1 i foundlv interesting interview between Peel i and Gladstone ten days after Peel s defeat. Gladstone was trying to persuade I Peel to return to the field of battle; but Peel spoke of his past work with a eort of horror: ' - have told 1 the Queen that ; I part from her with the deepest sentiments of gratitude andi attachment : but that there' is one thing she must, not ask m e—and that is to place myr.elf in the same position." Then he dwelt ore the amazing complication of duties—the correspondence with the Queen —"all requiring to be in my own hand, and to be carefully done"—the •whole correspondence, with peers and members of Parliament, the sitting sovem or eight hours a. dtiy to listen in the House of' Commons, Mr Gladstone pulled Peel up. "But then you have been Minister in a. EeiiES which no other man has been it since Mr Pitt's* time." To which Peel replied-: "'But Mr Pitt got up every day at- 11 o'clock, and drank two bottles ot port wine every day." A touch of levity which Gladstone promptly encountered; by aptly remarking: "And died of old age . at forty-six." —And of Mr Gladstone.— A deeply-interesting conversation between two men, both of them destined to face the same great, but awfuil, experience. Nearly forty years later, on the eve of ai downfall 1 winch seemed as crushing as the revenge of the Protectionists an-ainst Peel in 1846, Mr Gladstone himself was thinking of retirement. He wrote to the 'Queen on the eve of the 1674 defeat, expressing a. strong opinion against "spending old age under the strain of that perpetual contention which js inseparable from this present position." Mr Gladstone was then 64. In the following year, after that defeat, he retired', rcemingly for good and all, and- gave as the reason the fact- that he was older than Sir Robert Peel at his death in 18S0. —Lord P.osebery's Opinion.— ■We have yet a later opinion. In a charming little volume on Sir Robert Peel, written in 1899, Lord' Bosebery, for two turbulent years Prime Minister of this country, comes very near to giving his own opinion that tlie task of Premiership had become overpowering. * - e Prinie Minister," he 6a.ys, "has to deal with the Sovereign, with the Cabinet, -vyitb. Parliament, and l with public opinion l , all of them potent factors in, their various kinds- and degrees. To the popular eye, however, heed'lessi of these restrictions, he represents universal power; he.is spoken of as if he hadi only to lay down his views and policy, and to adhere to them. That is very far from, the case.' Slinister.has only .the influence with* the Cabinet which, is given him .'by; his person&rarguments, his ■personal qualities, andl his personal weight. But this is-'not all. ' All his colleagues he-must convince, some he . may have'to--humor, some even, to cajole : - a.-,'harassing,' laborious, and' ungracious task." r :'■',' .■ '.' . *. ■ i

- A terrible picture of cheerless, laborious power to commend' to those who, in happy obscurity,' have'the spirit.»of'envy and ambition. "I-> would, rather ■ bo a pobt fisherman," said Banton,- as he was treading the way to the scaffold. It is, at any rate, the calmer road. Since Poel'o day the art of organisation hos been, carried! a great otep forward,

and mechanical invent inn 11.11 come to the help of power. There arc dtleh things as tyoewriteiN and telephones ; and arc said to be occasionally used now even in (Jovcriiiueiit oilices. A' l'rime Minister, probably now writ at a smaller proportion, of luttein with his hand: and the now machinery has to same extent dispensed with the neeessliity of all those worrying little letters about engagements and appointments which took up co much of the time of our forefathers. Hut, on the other hand, the number of letters lias increased l with the extent of Umpire; an.l the present Prime Minister write.;, nearlv all personal ]i-ttu,i with his own lia.n-.11. —Mr Gladi-tone's "Sv.stem."

Sir Edward (Hamilton, 'twice Mr Gladstone's secretary, has given " s '" '"* charming ".Monograph," a very interesting* picture of Mr Gladstone's way of dealing with his correspondence: "By lengthened' experience he had reduced devolution to a highly perfected system. Between himself and l his private secretaries there were no secrets. It was, he held, eesential that they should see every, thing and' know everything: otherwise their usefulness might bo materially impaired." They opened all his letters, paying iva heedi to the most urgent pleas tor privacy. The letters war* then folded and docketed. The docket was headed with the full date, under which came the name of the conespondeut, and' their various marks to show the contents of the letter. A cross in the left-hand' corner signified that the letter was short and could' lie read. If the letter was long, it was briefly summarised, and perhaps a reply miggested. Mr Gladstone would then either write a reply himself; give the gist of tne reply, affixing the address and signature ; or leave the letter to bq answered* by lifi* secretary. He disposed' of hi? impottant correspondence day by day, keeping the "rubbish" for cursory perusal, but always sending some acknowledgment of everything. In some such way every great public laborer gets* through the governing ol the world nowadays. Do not let us cant — there aie great prizes, both in fame and affection. The work itself is to fine natures its own stimulating reward. Hut there is some danger that the exacting world', as the pace grows faster, may wear off its very best spirits with the mere weight cf day labor. By that wastage the -worldl would! suffer most. Mercv, therefore —mercy to our rulers—some clemency in our exacting demands! That must'be the cry of all those who wish that the personal Governments of flic world may still remain possible.