THE UNIONIST LEADER IN THE LORDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2913, 12 January 1910, Page 83

THE UNIONIST LEADER IN THE LORDS.

SKETCH OF LORD LANSDOWNE. jj To Lord Lansdowne is committed to-day | a solemn duty and privilege. As Leader $ in the House of Lords he is called upon | to assert the right of the nation to be , | master of its fate. No man has stronger n claim to this privilege of responsibility, I | for none has served his country more faith- j | fully or inspired his countrymen with more ; I contidence. The man whom Gladstone 'j and Salisbury and Granville and J-owett \\ chose tor the highest offices of State, and j § who during forty years of public life |j has given so many proofs of capacity and' j [] pledges of devotion to the interests of the ) 1 country, is entitled to this privilege. ;| Lord Lansdowne is not one of these men j I who believe that their debt to their country was paid by their ancestors. Yet none had greater temptation to live on the <\ past. Heir to great possessions and rank, '] he might have been content to enjoy the | beauties and treasures of historic Bowocd f and of Lansdowne House, to indulge his I taste for art and his love of hunting and f shooting, and to play the part of a grand j I seigneur. But Lord Lansdowne realised | { in youth that service not less than name j ; and wealth is hereditary, and the sense of \ duty rather than temperament and inclination urged him to follow in the steps of - the Kerryaf.and the Granvilles, who have bequeathed' to him a long and brilliant \ record of public service. 8 —" Courage and Safeness." — '"

Nature and training have endowed Lord Lansdowne with the qualities of a statesman. Though he has never striven to dazzle the multitude, his unvarying prudence, sound judgment, clear apprehension, and honesty of purpose have com-

pelled its confidence. Brought up in the Whig faith, and enlisted in its service at an early age, he has allowed experience to correct his prepossessions. Cautious in disposition, his changes of opinion have been slow and deliberate: they have broken "bo promise, served no private end." He has betrayed no man and no cause ; yet when he has obtained enlightenment on a great truth he lias embraced it without counting the sacrifice. " Courage and safeness," according to Lord Roberts, were the distinguishing qualities of Lord Landsdowne as Governor-General of India, and safeness and courage have been the qualities of his official life in Canada, at the War Office, at the Foreign Office, and in the House of Lords. But those who know Lord Lansdowne only from his record of public service know only half the man. The spare, alert figure, well groomed and debonair—a contrast with the late Lord Salisbury, whose devotion and qualities he shares—the well bred air and the courteous reserve of speech and manner —these outward manifestations of race and character are familiar to the public. But beneath the polished and silent exterior are qualities of hear' as well as of mind that have attached to him with bonds stronger than steel the affection of kindred and of friends. Like his great predecessor at the Foreign Office he lias also the saving grace of humour, without which, as Lord Salisbury was wont to declare, the life of a public official would be intolerable. Under this benign influence, as under the pressure of great motives, vanishes all coldness of manner, and Lord Lansdowne becomes in private the gay and brilliant companion and in public the earnest apostle. —A Great Career.— Of Lord Lanodowne's services at home and abroad history must be the judge. Contemporaries can only record his achievements. That he was a great administrator India and Canada testify. Despite differences of opinion, which Mr Gladstone was not always ready to overlook, Lord Lansdowne was appointed Go-vernor-general of Canada in 1883, and justified this confidence bv his wisdom in dealing with the Louis Riel rebellion and in removing the Fisheries question from the list of diplomatic disputes with the United States. If Lord Lansdowne was no " evanescent eidolon" in the Dominion, neither was he "a fleeting shadow" iru India. No Viceroy was ever more popular, and few did more to promote the welfare and security of the Empire. He established our relations with Afghanistan, strengthened our frontiers, regulated the employment of children, restricted childmarriages, and saved India from bankruptcy by closing the mints for the free coinage of silver and giving to the rupee an approach to a standard value. Ten years of exile were rewarded with the office of Secretary for War—a reward that brought many trials and tribulations and threatened at one moment to destroy: the reputation of this successful Governor. The veil has not yet been drawn aside that covers the period of the Boer war, but enough has now been revealed to show that Lord Lansdowne did not merit all the condemnation of those early days of alarm. If he turned a deaf ear to the warnings of Lord Wolseley, it was because the Government wished to avoid even the appearance of seeking a conflict with the Transvaal. To have resigned office at that moment would have been to

precipitate a quarrel, not in South Africa alone", but on the Continent. When thedie was cast Lord Lansdowne showed that he could be resolute. The removal of the ordnance factories from the control of the Finance Department to that of the Inspec-tor-General of Ordnance was wrung from the Defence Committee of the Cabinet in spite of opposition. The grant of £11,500,000 for the automatic replacement of stores and ammunition was wrested from the Chancellor of the Exchequer — whose strong- personality dominated members of the" Government —after a stormy scene. The service that- Lord Lansdowne rendered to his country in those days has yet to be recorded. —At the Foreign Office. — That Lord Salisbury knew and approved was manifest when Lord Lansdowne succeeded to the Foreign Office. No department of the State demands from its chief so many qualities of judgment, tact, and knowledge of-men and affairs. You may make a Chancellor., of the Exchequer, _or even a Prime Minister, but a Foreign Minister is born —not made. Lord Lansdowne can claim this distinction. As Lord Granville said of him when Jowett suggested that he should b«come his assistant at the Foreign Office: "Lord Lansdowne has all tire qualities—tact that never fails, memory that never slips, temper that no man can ruffle, capacity for secreting international precedents that none can rival." A fine and receptive mind in perpetual exercise, a manner at once courteous and reserved, and a wide and intimate acquaintance with foreign, countries were not the sole qualifications of Lord Lansdowne for this important post. He went to the Foreign Office with a policy, and that policy is written in the treaty with Japan and the entente cordiale , with France. These instruments which [ bear his name have changed the political aspect of Asia and of Europe. They have > secured the peace of the world by setting ■ limits to ambition and bv removing traditional barriere. If Lord Lansdowne had 1 no other claim than this he would be en- | titled to our confidence in his sincerity and judement. Forty years of service, 'in J action faithful and in honour clear." more than justify the faith with which his i countrymen accept him to-dav as the j champion of their inalienable right to pro- ' nounce judgment en the revolutionary : financial proposals of Mr Lloyd-George.