The Star. FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1879.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3356, 10 January 1879, Page 2

The Star. FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1879.

"Imperialism" is the Bounding designation which has been bestowed upon the present policy of England. A title given, like many others, more oat of mockery, derißion, and fear, by the opponents of Lord Beaconsfield, than through admiration or respect. Appropriate, however, or otherwise, there has been no disposition manifested to object to the descriptive word, and it has consequently been accepted. Besides maintaining the relationship of Great Britain to her colonies, and placing her power aB one of the great nations of the earth in a definite form before other governments and peoples, the Imperial policy of the Mother Country affords the opportunity of deducing some important lessons of a valuable character, one of which has reference to the oonsistent political attitude assumed towards each other by the leading public men and the great families of the nation. The many different issues raised from time to time during the progress of the Russo-Turkish struggle in the Bast, afforded public men on both the Parliamentary sides an opportunity of changing front, building up new views, or establishing new parties. Yet, as a matter of fact, there mayjbe said to have been no change. The Parliamentary contests have been many ; they have been characterised by largeness of view, clearness of reasoning, and a brilliant eloquence in every way worthy of the greatest deliberative Assembly the world has yet seen. Nevertheless, a perusal of the division lists will show that public men in the Mother Country do not change their politics with every wind that blows ; that they are actuated by other influences than personal pique and inflated vanity, and that the principles of party government are understood and acted upon, bo that a Government which came from the country with a majority, is enabled to hold office and carry on the business of the State with some degree of security and confidence, until, in the natural course of time, it has to go to the country again. The Whigs may lose their ancient name and be known as Liberals ; the Torieß change into Conservatives ; but family politics are Btill carried forward as an inheritance, and the two great parties of the country, the Yellows and the Blues, face eaoh other just the same as in bygone yeara. The Parliamentary battle ground may move from electoral reform to abolition of the Corn Laws and back again to electoral reform, or it may go into foreign policy, but the great chiefs and, with few exceptions, all public men are still to be found identified with the party to which they belong. How different all this is from the wretched caricature of party government yre find in the Colonies.

In England, the position of the great bulk of public men in the political firmament is fixed by many influences. To a considerable extent the tendency to take a bold or a timid view of public questions is in the blood. To a considerable extent also association, or identification with the interests, of the great family houses through long years operates. Their politioal sympathies are aroused, and their method of looking at public questions is shaped, from conversation with the class with whom they are most frequently brought into contact. In the public schools and the Universities — incorporated as the latter are in the representation of the country — the poll* tical bias previously given is deepened, so that, when the time comes for entering public life they are found in the ranks of the party of their fathers. With perhaps a trifle leas force these observations apply jußt as much to the sons of merchants and traders, as to the Boions of the proudest of the nobility. The representation in England has always been in the hands of the wealthy, who, whether manufacturers or shipowners, etill claim connection with the influential families, and association with one or other of the political parties. What do we find as a result ? That party ties once assumed, politioal principles once declared, are very rarely abandoned. A publio man is not permitted in England to jump from the^ Liberal ranks to-day, leap back again to the Conservatives to-morrow, and to keep generally on the move, playing all sorts of ridiculous political antics, such as we find being perpetrated constantly amongst us. A Liberal " rat," or a Conservative " rat" is a very scarce object in the mother country. It is true that there are very striking cases — such for instance as that of Mr Roebuck:, — who after twenty-nine years of Liberalism has gone over wholly to Imperialism and Lord Beaconsfield — but it is just such remarkable exceptions that prove the rule. In January, 1874, Mr Gladstone dissolved the House of Commons. The returns of the elections which followed were disastrous to the liberal cause giving the present Premier a large majority, and that majority he still retains. Notwithstanding all the vast issues ; all the exciting debates ; and all the opportunities afforded to the captious querulous small -minded to desert, it will be found that as a whole they have faithfully followed the good or evil fortune of their party.

In thiß Colony we have the epectacle of men claiming to hold political principles, and to be representatives of the people who, as a matter of fact, represent nothing but themselves. Stuffed j with an egregious vanity and an overwhelming sense of their own personal importance they are ever on the move. " One foot on the sea, one foot on the shore, to one thing constant never." Like straws floating on the surface of the political stream and blown about by the idle wind they are serviceable only as showing its direction, but they own no sympathy with the current which flows deeply onward beneath them. We have seen, quite recently, public men returned to Parliament as] Liberals to support the Liberal Govern-] ment of Sir George Grey, and from/ the very moment they have taken their? seats they have spoken and, voted inj opposition. One who has just spoken has professed that he was anxious tq have given the Grey Government i

generous support, but he could not d< so. The public may be sure that th< fault was his own. An irrepresaiblj

individuality that will assert itself ani claim to roam at will from side to eidfl

and all over and round about the wor]

of politics, was at the bottom of his constant movement. It matters little what the coarse of the Government had been, his attitude and motion would have been the same. Were all men

like those to whom we hare referred, itc would be impossible for constitutional government to be carried on. They are at once the pests and bores of the political arena. Their course is dictated by personal feeling ; it is quite impossible for them, in the consideration of any public question, to sink themselves; they own no allegiance to any chief, or if they do to-day, they are ready to tear him to pieces tomorrow for some fancied slight. These public men, who find it impossible to follow any chief, or t© adhere consistently to any party, aspire to lead. It is this vain desire to shine that is at the bottom of all their conduct. They come early before their constituents to put a gloss upon their past career, in the hope to mould public opinion, and they are full of ingenious excuses for their gross betrayal of the party they were elected to support. Their tale is plausible, and it is put with a candid frankness ; but through it all the stubborn first personal pronoun is painfully prominent. We have no intention of following such " representatives " through the more recent portion of their career, for we are glad to notice that they have not quite deceived the public. They have been coldly received, and simple votes of thanks only have been extended to them. We are sure that their "ratting" proclivities will not go unnoticed either by their constituents or by the public ; and as for the Opposition who have weakly accepted and taken them, for purely party purposes, to their political bosom, no doubt they are quite conscious of the general unreliability of such political weeds, and are sensible that when their time comes to hold office — as no doubt it will some day — they are sure to have the same kind of treatment impartially meted out to them.