TWENTY REBELS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2565, 13 May 1903, Page 65

TWENTY REBELS.

This is the kind of situation which always lends itself to revolt, and it explains the curious fact that 20 Ministerialists voted against the Government the other day. I would like to warn readers who are not politicians and don't understand the House of Commons not to regard this fact as overborne and obliterated by the huge majority the Government afterwards got in the division lobbies. In the House of Commons, even one or two votes given against a party by those of the party itself are always regarded as a most serious thing, and when it comes to 20, it reaches to the dimensions of a portent. Besides, the Ministerial majority would have been down to 40 if the Irish members had voted with t'' Opposition ; at the moment they are, perhaps, the greatest bulwark of the Ministry against their own followers. Surely there has rarely been a greater whirligig of politics than when, the other day, Mr Wyndham received an enthusiastic welcome from the men who tvere impii.soried by him a few weeks ago ! It recalk the wise baying of an old politician — in politics you should always treat your fri-end as if he might be your enemy, and your enemy as if he were one day to be your friend. Winston's best speech. Coming back to young Churchill, I am told — for inHuenza has kept me away from the House for a week — that his speech the other day was the most successful he has yet delivered. I regard him as far abler and better equipped than his father. Poor Lord Randolph owed all his success to natural gifts ; none to training and cultivation. 1 suppose the story is an invention that one night when he heard Irving in "Hamlet" he asked somebody what was the end of the story ; but undoubtedly he was appallingly ignorant. Now, young Winston is well read ; he has seen a great deal of the world ; he has had a training in many respects as good as it could have been for a young politician. He has also a gift to which his father could make no pretensions : he can write admirably. This power of writing lends a good deal of point to his speech ; it teaches him the art of putting things dramatically — and that is one of the best points in oratory. For instance, the best thing said in tlie debate on the military proposals of Mr Brodrick was Winston's picture of how small a thing can make all the difference in warfare. At 3pion Kop — that name of dreadful omen — the troops who lost 1100 men in killed and wounded might have all 1 een in a secure instead of an exposed position if they had only had a good map ; and they might have been rescued and a defeat made a victory if only there had bjen a few penn'orths of 'oil to "signal to Sir Charles Warren to come up from the plains where he was wandering below. This was a wonderfully biting little bit of realism that told on the House a great deal. MR BECKETT. Mr Ernest Beckett, another of the younger bloods who are in the ;ombinaion against the Government on their army projjosals, is a man who ouxdit to be in the

Ministry, He has everything in his favour — considerable ability, industry, ambition, huge- wealth, and the world-wide experience of the globe-trotter. One of the' most curious and characteristic things I have seen in our topsy-turvy House of Commons had Mr Beckett as its central figure. It was at the jime when everybody was concerned about China, and the then very tierce, though hidden conflict between the Powers of Europe for John Chinaman's trade. Mr Beckett did just- the right thing for a legislator who had leisure and time — he took a trip cut to China, and he came back with knowledge gained on the spot. The afternoon at last came when China was under debate, and Mr Becke't was ready there with his speech containing the results of his experiences. He got up a dozen times ; a dozen times ha. failed to catch tha Speaker's eye ; and yet he was practically the only man who had anything to say. It looked as if this little speech which -it had taken many thousands of miles of travel and many months of time to prepare, would remain undelivered, for the debate was to last only three or four hours, and there ■were speakers who could have kept it going for a week. At last Mr Beckett did get his chance, and in 20 minutes he delivered a most excellent little speech ; but what a narrow shave ! THE SOBKOWS OF TIIE YOrNO MEMBERS. These are the-things that break the heart and the spirit of men in the House of Commons. • It seems a very simple thing, I daresay, to anybody outside the House of Commons to make a speech ; or at least to get the opportunity for doing so. As a matter of fact, even a very clever man who is young to the House finds it ■■s hard to "place" a good play. I have known a member rise 22 times in a debate, and yet not get the chance of delivering a j speech. The member of whom I speak is Mr Henry Cust ; and everybody -who knows him knows that he is one of the very cleverest of the younger men of the House. But what was the good of all his cleverness when he got no opportunity of showing it? Human nature is not, as a rule, very | tenacious, nor very self-confident ; and thus it happens very often that a young member having d ;ns his best to get a hearing, and havi: ."ailed, .turns on his heel in disgust, l, irregular in his attendance ; and in a . : e-»v years' time has relapsed into the ranks of the silent members, and :nds in disappointment and in obscurity. The sufferings of the young Ministerialist are worst of all ; and especially if his party happen to have a big nnajority. The one thing a Governmental Whip wants you not to do is to talk ; whenever, therefore, a supporter of tne Government gets up to speak in the House, he has to overcome not only his own natural tim'dity and dread of the House, but he has also to meet the frowns of his >fh"cial leaders as one who is stopping the progress of the Ministerial 1 machine, and thus playing into the hands of an obstructive and unprincipled Opposition. Even this does not exhaust the list of the- obstacles which the young Ministerialist has to fa-ce before he stands up. One cf the many pleasant and unfounded superstitions of the House of Commons is that a member's rising is welcomed by all those he addresses if only he can speak pleasantly and inoffensively. flic fallacy arises from the other fallacy which divides the House of Commons rigidly into two classes — those who are speaking and those who are hearing. Hearing! Yes, a large number of members — sometimes the great majority — are hearing ; but they ire hearing only with the one purpose and hope — namely, that they are catching the last words of the man who is standing between them and their chance. THE STRONG RIVALRIES OF THE HOUSE. I don't want to write in the language of sensation with regard to the House of Commons ; but, really, sometimes the underlying passions there reveal their ferocities on the surface. If you wanted proof of that, you ought to go into the House on one of those nights of a big debate, when there is a great competition among speakers. There is almost a wolf-like glare in theeyes of the members who have not yet spoken. There they sit, bent over the manuscripts which sometimes lie shamelessly on their kn-ees ; there is an unnatural brill iancy in their eyes ; they look with something between a scare and a scowl at the Speaker and at the member who is addressing the House ; and they are stretched out to the. extreme end of the benches, so that when the proper moment comes they may be able to jump to their feet and have the better chance of :atching the Speaker's eye. When, therefore, the young Ministerialist rises to speak, he has. in addition to the tremors of his own nerves and the frowns of his Whip, to face ;he jealousies and ambitions and the desire for speaking of his friends •iround. He knows very well that many of them are cursing his infernal impudence for getting up \t all ; and, if he be a sensitive man, he is sure to feel all this penetrating through his epidermis and weakening his purpose. And thus it is that sensitive men so often fail in the House ; a due degree of "brass" is accordingly a most necessary part of the Parliamentarian's equipment. ANOTHER FOURTH TARTY. Such, then, is tht material which any young Ministerialist who wants to form a new parly has to work upon. It is not certain whether Mr Winston Churchill will have the courage to attempt to bring the revolt beyond the state which it has at present reached : doubtless he is already thinking of the time when he also will be a member of a Government ; and when he will have to count on the loyalty and friendship of supporters to make his task possible. But he has a great :hance for making himself powerful and unpleasant if he likes to embrace it. His fatb?r. in his position, would certainly have done so ; indeed, Lord Randolph was very unpleasant to the Government of Lord Beaeonsfield even while his own father was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and so a member of that Government. But, then, Lord Randolph cared for neither God nor man : -was one of ,

those lawless creatures who jump into aT modern society and its approved convene tions, canons, and laws, with the primow dial passions, and appetites, and strong purpose of a mediaeval warrior. His son; has been brought up on more ordered lines»i But the House of Commons has evidently! some interesting problems of a personal character to face in the coming session.; The Irish Laud Bill may snow undei every-, thing, but unless it do, Winston Churchill may yet found a new -Fourth Party, and profoundly modify the whole future of 3 great party, and', perhaps, even of tl»« ■great State.— T. P.. in M.A.P.