The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 1, 1908. HOST OF THE PRINCE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12145, 1 September 1908, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 1, 1908. HOST OF THE PRINCE.

When General Gordon was within a few years of his death at Khartoum, he -threw v outin a letter to a friend, how one of the most.influential of our notables, a suggestion which bore; good frttifc.} Why should not a group of half a dozen of our young statesmen dedicato theiniselx<?s to/ the study of the •problems of the Empire with which they would .have to deal when the'r elders had passed away? Instead of wasting their strength in dining and wining in the season, and seeking to I recover it by shooting stags in Scotland in the recess, why should they not; j each undertake the serious study of one or other of the great questions which confront Britain and her sons be-; yond-the.seas? During the season they would'study the question from the centre, during the recess they would study it iriithe Colonies,on the high seas, and in fojpign capitals. Then when their time*£ame ihey would.apjproachithe^so-, ,lutioK; 6ft th^1 problems of the Empire with"ia knowledge and an experience which^ would stand them in good stead. The above, .'"question and answer are given by Mr W. T. Stead, in the. "London Paily Chronicle," and he then goes oh to say the conception of a Consecrated Six, Companions of the Empire, fascinated the imagination of several of those to whom it was made known, and In one way or another proved a potent.spurlo intelligent efforts in the cause of England. Among those po whom the idea appealed with power was the young Nortfi Country Member, Mr Albert Grey, now known , throughout the world aa; Eari Grey, Governor-Genr eral of • the :T)6ininion of Canada. Albert <3rey was just the kind of man in whom General Gordon's suggestion would;"-find ready response. He,was a generous idealist, full of high ambitions and unselfish enthusiasms, His was the nature of a knight errant who pined after -perilous quests ,a man with a bright mind in a sound body, by heredity of the governing class, an heir to an earldom, |he.bearer of a name whic*h for a century/had ever been famous iii the annals of English statesmanship. Among- the "fine flower of the British youthV^ew1 promised better to adorn arid enrich the counsels of the Sovereign than Albert Grey. His maturity has justified t£e expectations aroused in the early days of-his ardent youth. He is still young, a youthful grandfather, but his eye is still as bright: and hia Heart as stout^ as when he first entered .^the, -Howe : K pS > Commons.; years, have mollowed his judgment without weaken-' ing the enthusiastic impulse of hia. youtlt;; ifte ilfiiow; as eveiv faithful to ;| all grojEtt. causes, unable now, as. ever, i to 'bo.misl^;'by;.'th^''exbe:ss'of'lby^y to ■ ; friend,- but. ever responding with joyful alacrity: to all tliat iiriakes for the uplifting ; of. the race>- ■ When> I first - met him face tgj^face, - more than thirty . years ago, he,was full of ardour for the cause -of:^theChurch :jfceforni Ilnipn. A band 6^ keen spirits, revolting against Mio" injustice of confining the-emolui ;JhientsXand'vh& prestige of ihe Establishment to -half the nation whichf by the. Accident ,ot birth, happened to belong'■-t^one ;'df other of 'the "jangling sects, Ritualists,';-Evangelicals, or Rationalists, who called themselves Anglicans, while others, born outside the Establishment, are treated as Nonconformists,; had conceived the bright idea of inaugurating a new Reformation by ■J^he simple process of abolishing all the--ological tests within the Church. In rjOfie sixteenth century the nation decidT.^d to make jettison of much of the > dogma and ritual of the mediaeval Church in order to readjust the Church to the broadened intelligence and sanei reason of the nation. In the nineteenth, dnother step should be taken in the sanie dire<Jtion. . A new Reformation should still further broaden the basis of the Church. Instead of being a quasi-sacerdotal organisation for the teaching of more or less incredible dogmas, why not convert it at one stroke iiito a great -Stationa! society for doing good; and allow all the residents in every , parish to use their parish

church and their parochial revenues for •whatever form of social service or of religious worship commended itself to their judgment? The repsal of tho Act of Uniformity, the complete disappearance of all theological tests, would nationalise the Church under this sys-tem-^in one parish Mr Bradlaugh be called to officiate, in the next Mr Spurgcoii, in a third General Booth. It was a brilliant conception, the logical ultimate of the ideals of Stanley and Arnold and Albert Grey was full of the hopo that it might be adopted as an alternative to Disestablishment. That hope was disappointed. The cause of Disestablishment receded into the background Evangelicals and Broad Churchmen ceased their protests against sacerdotalism, and the Church Reform Union vanished like a ghost at cock-crow. Undismayed by disappointment, Albert Grey threw himself with characteristic fervour into the cause of social reform. ' Me became one of the most ardent and weariless advocates of co-operation, copartnership and every development of voluntary Socialism. Like all social reformers he was brought up short by the difficulties created by the intemperance of the people. But unlike most reformers, he recognised the hopeless--1 ness of combating the drunkenness by a mere policy of restriction. As he had I bpgun by advocating a reform which would have made the Church the Church of the people, he went on logically enough to advocate that the public-house should be the people's common hostel, an institution for social intercourse, refreshment and recreation that should be approached in the interest of sobriety and civilisation with tho authority and resources of the whole community. As a first step to the nationalising of the public-house he started the Public House Trust Com- j pany. which under Lord Lytton is still doing good work by showing in nearly every county in England what can be done when the public-house is run in the public interest and not for the profit-of a trade. In the promotion of popular education, in the development of a sense of beauty among the people, in the cultivation of music, and in the culture of the imagination. Albert Grey was ever ready to help. Nor was ho backward in the grimmer combat with criminal vice and the frontal and flank attacks^which were made agaihsy all that corrupts, enslaves and brutalises the people. Earl Grey, the Nestor of Whig statesmen, had long retired from public life before his death summoned Albert Grey to the House of Lords. As a peer he was as democratic as ever, but Home Rule severed him for a time from the party to which every Grey hereditarily belongs. His imagination was stimulated, his conscience was roused by the great revival of patriotism which took its rise in the early eighties. The British people, who, as Seeley said, had founded their Empire in absence of mind, from reading his book of the expansion of England ,how vast.was the orb of their Imperial, destiny. .. ~on. some, alaa it may be the majority, this discovery was as the drinking of heady wine. Forgetting the responsibilities and realising only the splendours of Empire, they degenerated into Jingoes, - and "made/ Imperialism for a, time almost *sy'n-6iiyrnous .with; crime. Lord Grey •waii; ajti hmperiaiist^of » saner sort. He realised the responsibilities and shouldered',ihe duties ~6f-Empire. But even he lost, his 'biiajiiße for. a time under the glamour Rhodes,., whose whole-heart-,ed faith..in^England and love of his country made Lorid^' Grey an erithusi--asti&\discj^fe;^;Frpm 1896 to 1906 the sun! ">o| - Britain'^' suffered a blood red eclipse;; during ; ; which Lord Grey in Rhodesia manfully did his. best to make sUch amends" as were possible for the disastrous follyf of W? the conspiracy in which Mr Rhodes and Mr Chamberlain had plotted ifogetiier to overturn Presideint Eriigerv'' When; the South African

War #asi.PYet, Lbfd; Grey was appointed' Governor-^e^eraf of Canada in sue-

cessionito hvi-rbrother-in-law, Lord Minto; The ■ ppst! J was congenial. In' the keen arid" bracing" Canadian atmosphere .the. Liberal ingtjncts and youthful ferfour- of the G ; r,ey^ ; of Northumberland reyiveci. He has' thrown himself with equal assiduity to the development of the, great whea£, lands of the NqrthWest and the .cultivation of the musical and .dramatic- faculty of the Canadian people. :Ai>man without "side," genial, energetic 1, with the eye of a poet, the head/of a. statesman, and the heart of a North Countryman, he has won the confidence of- all • and excited the animosity of none.