THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 1950, 4 April 1889, Page 21

THE WEEK.

" Nunquam aliud natura, aliud «&pientla dixit." — Juvknal. Geod nature and good teaso must eTer join."— Popk, A notable figure has disappeared from the sphere of English politics, Vohn and, indeed, from the world's Bright. arena, in the person of Mr John Bright. For 40 years "back — and very eventful years some of them have been — Mr Bright's name has been, in the truest Bense of the term, a household word in England. In this century he has been what Burke was in the last — a solitary figure, a man endowed with gifts of a rate order which, throughout a long life, he invariably used for what he believed, to be the public good. It may be said of him that he was the greatest orator and the most conscientious statesman of his time. His claim to be the foremost of our later orators has probably never been seriously questioned. Dr Johnson once said — though the dictum is i not now generally accepted — that the man "who would wish to be able to write the English, language to perfection must give his days and his nights to Addison. Mr Thorold Rogers Bays, with perhaps more truth, that nothing which can be found in English literature will aid. the man who aspires to the great faculty of public speaking so much as a careful and reiterated perusal of Bright's speeches. No speaker, he says, will " teach with greater exactness the noblest and rarest of the social arts, the art of clear and persuasive exposition." Clearness and persuasiveness with great loftiness of thought and diction were the special characteiistics of Mr Bright's style. People admire the speeches of Mr Gladstone, but they neither listen to nor read them with the pleasure that is evoked by those of Mr Bright. The greatest admirer of Mr Gladstone will in candid moments admit that he was prosy ; the greatest opponent of Mr Bright will never be found saying anything of the kind. And if Mr Bright's position as an orator was unquestioned,;so. 'throughout his whole life was his conscientiousness. His tombstone nright^fittingly bear an inscription similar to

that which may be seen on the far-away grave of Sir.. Henry Lawrence—" Here lies a man ,whQ tried to do hie dutyi" Mri Bright's ! adherence to his convictions .sometimes left •him .deep in public" diSfavoiir, biit he adhered to. them all the same. And, indeed, the best proof of his conscientiousness is the influence he wielded as an orator. Even if we had it not ■ upon the authority of one of the greatest of critics,, every -. day experience teache3 us that permanent sway over the hearts and minds of men -rests always on a foundation of earnestness, and f reeaom f rbm self-interest and dissimulation of every kind; Eafhe'sfcneßs is, alter' allj thd abiding | qUalityi Mr" Gladstone at his prosiest is always more powerful than Sir William'Harcourtor Lord Randolph Churchill at their best. Of the two latter, the mind tires of the wit of the one and the flippancy of the other. Mr Bright combined earnestness of purpose with ingenious thought and graceful diction. And throughout his whole career he was forever on the side of peace> of free 1 dom, and of univetsaL toleration. It is ho Wonder that then of all political 'Creeds are Combining to do honour tb . . the great name, \y,orn so pure of blame, In praise and in diaptaise the same. Mr Bright also resembles Burke in bo far as, practically, he never was Genius in office. In Mr Gladstone's and Ministry of '68 he was with offlee. much difficulty induced to

take the Board of Trade, and in that of '80 the Duchy of Lancaster. If we take the date of 1843, when Mr Bright first entered Parliament, and read over the hundreds) of names of Cabinet Ministers that appear down to the present time, the thought that most forcibly strikes us is how mediocrity in English politics comes to the front while geniusis so often left in the backgiound. in Lord Malmesbury's memoir's occurs the following entry 1 . — February Ist, 1866. Parliament met to-day. Mr Denison was chasen Speaker without opposition. Lord Russell wants to have Bright in the Cabinet, but the other Ministers refu3e to admit him. Of course they refused to admit him. He was too^great for them. He had upset the corn laws (for which even the Liberals of the day had a sneaking affection) ; he was in favour of free trade in land ; he was the uncompromising advocate of Parliamentary reform} he denounced wars, and thought that national greatness^was to be achieved by cultivation of the arts of peace. Sir - Henry Taylor says (and no man Was ever in a better position to judge) that the arts of rising in politics have commonly some mikture of baseness in them. A politicians he says, must insist muCh Upon his claims, because " patrons are apt to lose the sense of pleasure in doing that which is presented to them in the light of a duty." Mr Bright had no baseness in him, and he never preferred any claims. The late Mr Bagehot, another acute observer, said that the great leaders of politics must be men of common ideas and uncommon abilities. Mr Bright's ideas were as uncommon as his abilities. And yet because the great orator was above office and cared nothing at all for it, we are asked to believe that he was a " failure as a statesman.'* Someone has properly pointed out that the very first quality of statesmanship is prescience. If that be true, then Mr Bright must stand in the front rank of statesmen. There is scarcely An ob^ebt for which he has strenuously foUght that hrs not been ultimately carried out with general concurrence. He denounced the Crimean War when the war was very popular, and he lost his election over it, bat no one defends the war now. During the American War he consistently took the part of the North when English feeling ran almost entirely in favour of the Confederated And in 1863 he denounced the launching of the Alabama as a breach of international law, and clearly pointed out what the consequences would be. If John Bright was no statesman, he has still done so much for the world as to make one feel that we could do without ottr statesmen if we only had a few mote like him.

It is very seldom that we in the colonies are startled by the occurs^oa rence at our door t s °* a disasDUastor. ter of such magnitude as has .just been reported from Samoa-. These islands have contrived to impress the world with a notion of their importance which is strangely at variance with their actual position — geographical, political, or historical. If, however, interest in the islands was very largely spurious before, the late calamity gives a very real and mournful interest to the placet It has proved the grave under the saddest circumstances of 150 brave feilows who were no more wanted at Apia than they were at the North Pole, and the disaster and loss of life might have been much greater and touched us more nearly but for the fact that the.English ! navy, about which we hear so great an | outcry, is composed of vessels that are fitted for the work they have to do, whether that work may chance to be a battle with the elements or with the enemy. In the face of such a calamity there is little disposition to inquire which nationality was the aggressor in all the Samoan troubles. The predominant feeling is one of sympathy with the poor fellows who have lost their lives, and those who may be left behind to mourn the loss. But there is a soul of goodness in things evil, and it is -just possible that it may not be altogether wanting in this unhappy business. The trouble which the combined fleets of Germany and Aajerica could not settle may be dissolved by the destruction of the fleets themselves. It is difficult to believe that either Germany or America will take the trouble or saddle themselves with the cost of fitting out new armaments for the sole object of establishing precedence in a remote island in the Pacific not worth a halfpenny to either of them. Germany has already received a very decisive check from the United States, and the unhappy incident from which both nations have suffered so much should enable the Conference at Berlin to proceed on different and much more peaceable lines than those which in the first heat of the controversy seemed possible. The United States, will have a, good opportunity for giving prominence to the Monroe doctrine again, which, truth to tell, has been

allowed just a little to drop out of sight of late. As for Prince Bismarck, he has just rgfcentlt 3*sert§cl, -and with-,every sigh.iof f Srvoiir, s th'at ke te not himself a "colonies man." In projecting a colonising scheme a few years back, he declares he was not inciting, but merely following the impulse of the nation. He now perceives: that colonies are- troublesome things, and that - every nation has not; the English 'genius for colonisation. > He probably would give a good round sum to be permitted to retire in peace alike from Eaat Africa, from New Guinea* and from Samoa. If he is wise he will leave aifairs ia the latter island to settle themselves, and cast upon the willing shoulders of England the task of protecting European interests. Here it may just be mentioned that poor Prince Bismarck, at the very iho Cures or skte. time of life when he most needs repose and peace of mind, has been " catching it " if om a variety of different Quarters', and has indubitably" been losing his temper over the process. He had beisn credited; and , perhaps rightly; With, making Germany the first power in Europe; dnd he( has. certainly built up-fcfr hraujelf ..a unique «&&■ colossal 'reputation. In the height of it all, however, the Emperor Frederick died, when some evil disposed person published his diary, which revealed to the astonished world that the Emperor Frederick himself was the real author of German unity, and that Bismarck, who had previously got all the credit of it, was really antagonistic to the scheme. Then the great Chancellor lost his temper, looked out for someone upon whom to wreak his vengeance, and in endeavouring to make Professor Geffcken the victim got severely snubbed by the German nation. Following Closely Upon that} the Morier incident got him* and especially his son (and supposed heir to the chancellorship), into .bad bdpUr with all Europe. Whenever Napoleon's name was mentioned in after years to Wellington the great duke used to confine himself to the remark, "He was not a gentleman." Probably the same remark has been more often applied to Count Herbert Bismarck within the last few months than it ever was to Napoleon throughout his life. Next came the unmistakable snub from America in regard to Samoari aifairs. Lastly there issues from the " Contemporary Review fi the article" upon the ''flismarck Dynasty," which has created so much noise. Never was the lash applied with more masterly band. It completely exposes the rule of il blood and iron"; reveals the secret motives of the Chancellor, his cdriduot to the Emperor and 1 Empress Frederick" i the' treatment accorded to Professor GejScken in prison j the ,real features of, tile Morier case ; and generally a view of Bismarckian rule, •at which the Chancellor, for the very life of him, cannot but writhe. Referring to Keats, Byron said that — 'Tie strange the mind, that very fiery parfciole, Should let itself be Buuffed out by an article. It was not true of Keats as a matter of fact* whose death was in no way connected with the strictures of the Edinburgh Review* It would be strange indeed if the Wdrcls were to tuf"h out true of the most masculine in- t dividuality the century has seen ! Just before this article was written, Bismarck was effusively cultivating the good graces of England, whioh lie declares, and truly, has been in touch with Germany for 150 years. Count Herbert was at the same moment doing the same thing with America. No doubt trouble and misfortune have the same chastening effect upon the great as upcm the humble. Governor dnsiow will very soon now be in- „*. . _„ stalled in office, when we ca su r ee B t«s. shall be able to judge what manner of man he is, undistracted by foolish and exuberant cablegrams about the simplest thing he did, and the most meaningless thing he said. Among things which were not meaningless, he some time ago remarked that he was nervous about taking up the Government after such a man as Sir William Jervois. It happens that he has since met Sir William on the way, and Lord Onslow has in all pf obability been surprised tb find our ex-Governor a very plain, unassuming, chatty sort of man, with no great signs of individuality, and no very new and, striking ideas. A brother of Curran's once declared that the great orator's forensic success was mainly due to the fact that when he got hold of a jury he " first of all butthered them up and then slithered them down." With the people" or 1 New Zealand Sir Wm-. Jervols' poptiW ity largely rested on the same principle of action-. He was successful with New Zealand Governments because he simply left them alone,— and a very wise principle it is, too. Lord Onslow may not be able to do the "butthering " or the " slithering," for these are gifts ; but he can let the colony work out its own destiny, in which case he may probably have a large measure of success. When Warren Hastings was made first Governor-general of India and i the celebrated author of " Junius " a member [ of his Council, the latter declared that it was I not genius or "parts " that were wanted for governing, but common sense. The dictum is even truer now than it was then.